|
Had it really been a year already? NACC was rolling around and it was time to get ready. To prepare for the event, we decided to hold a draft camp again. Draft camp is collection of some of the best players getting together to practice draft and core for one week before NACC. The list of players included: Brad Watson, Ben Isgur, Stuart Wright, Andrew Burke, Tim Corzine, Dan Clark, Matt Walsh, Tim Batow, Michael Barnes, John Hall, Dane Young, Niles Rowland, Brian Gates, Kirk Buckendorf, Eric Buckendorf, Robert Swarowski, Phillip Martin, David Huddler, Charles Morrison, and myself.
I created a schedule of things we should do while we had everyone in town. The weekend was kicked off with two BBQs, one at Kirk’s house and one at my house.
The night of Kirk’s BBQ, we whipped out one of the best party games that you have never heard of, Telestrations. This game is a mixture of Telephone and Pictionary.
The game is simple. Each person is given a word, and they must draw that word. You flip the page and pass it to the person to your left. That person looks back one page at the drawing and takes a guess at what the picture is. Then that person flips the page and passes it to the next person. The third person then draws what the previous person guessed. You continue the passing and drawing/guessing rotation until you get your own book back.
This lead to some pretty hilarious pictures. One example is given below. The word that started out was chicken. Somehow this got twisted into chicken breast, which then turned into huge chicken breasts.
This also lead to some of the players getting new nicknames. Back in Orlando, I gave Dan Clark the name of Bus Driver Dan, for no good reason other than it was funny. This lead to everyone getting nicknames. Some of the names are too vulgar to write about, but I was known as Horse F***er Tim. I have no idea how this came about (the word was Circus), but fun times were had.
Both BBQs had plenty of people and there were tons of side bets going on. An example would be where the losers of the draft would have to pay for the winner’s Buffet dinner. A ton of food was consumed as well as drafts with about ten pounds of food per person and ten drafts on each of those days. Rob wrote about some of the stories, but I still have one.
One night we went to go get a buffet dinner, but when we got into line they told us that there was not going to be enough time for us to eat before they closed. Too bad that we had already stood in line for over thirty minutes. With our dinner plans completely wrecked we headed down to the old stand by BJ’s. It did not take long to sit our group of twenty-four. We ate our food, conversed, and left full.
Fast forward to the next day, when someone realized they had left their credit card at the restaurant. We head back down to BJ’s and luckily the card was still there. We went back to the house and the person whose card it was decided to verify if the card had been used since he last saw it. It was a good thing that he did as there was a little under a thousand dollars of new furniture on there from Overstock.com. We talked about ways to get revenge from the waiter, but in the end the person decided it was just best to call his credit card company to get this resolved. The lesson here kids is don’t leave your credit card anywhere in Las Vegas, we are shady as hell.
For every event I always plan to write a tournament report to relay the fun times I had. This event was a little more difficult. I had fun, but the deck I played leads to a very boring tournament report. I played the now most hated deck to ever grace the World of Warcraft TCG, The Bunny deck.
A couple days before NACC 2011, Tim Batow and crew offered to let me and Niles have their deck list. We go back with TAWC from the versus days and we thought it would be neat to play a deck that has never been seen before. Once I saw the deck, I knew I wanted to play it. I loved playing combo decks back when I played Magic: The Gathering, and trying it in this game appealed to me even more. Michael Barnes taught us the tracking system, and I practiced it enough that I could complete the combo just under ten minutes.
The list I played below is:
Master Hero: 1
1 [Alexstrasza, The Life Binder]
Allies: 15
4 [Dreadsteed]
4 [Swift Hawkstrider]
2 [Wooly White Rhino]
4 [Krazal the Eggregator]
1 [Tol'zin]
Abilities: 4
4 [Unending Breath]
Quests: 40
4 [A Hero's Burden]
2 [A Question of Gluttony]
3 [A Rare Bean]
4 [Capture a Mine]
4 [Dr. Boom!]
4 [For Great Honor]
3 [Mystery Goo]
4 [The Fel and the Furious]
4 [Tirion's Gambit]
4 [Uncatalogued Species]
4 [Under the Shadow]
This deck was very good in the metagame that we predicted for NACC 2011. Testing revealed that the following decks should be a large majority of the metagame (I put these in order for what we expected): [Vorix Zorbuzz], [Emek the Equalizer], [Jeremiah Karvok], [Triton the Sacreligious] / [Zin’zul], Zombie-Go, [Spellweaver Jihan], [Boarguts the Impaler]. From this list we expected [Vorix Zorbuzz] and [Emek the Equalizer] to be most heavily played. So when testing we always tested our decks against those two decks first.
There has been some debate about playing this deck. People have said that I should have not have played this deck because it takes away my ability to outplay people. This is a very valid argument. There is definitely no room to outplay people with this deck. For me there was too much going for this deck to not play it. I liked the surprise factor. People would not know how to effectively play against it. I knew that this would not last forever, with the number of high profile players playing the deck, but it would at least last for the beginning rounds of the tournament. The second reason I liked the deck was that it has about an 80% win rate against non-mage decks. Shaman can be rough too, but it all depends on how many [Wind Shear]s they have and if they play [Chain Purge] on top of it.
Friday
Round 1: Ashley Allgood playing [Souldrinker Bogmara]
Ashley put me close to fatal on turn 4, but close was not enough to get the job done before the combo happened.
1-0
Round 2: Enver Ahmeti playing [Emerson Zantides]
Enver exhausted his 4 resources for Dethvir, I combo’d out during his end step.
2-0
Round 3: Kyle McGinty playing [Tilly Fiddleflight]
This matchup seemed even better for me than [Emek the Equalizer] since his deck would probably need six to seven turns to kill me. I mulliganed looking for [Unending Breath], but I missed. I completed all three [Mystery Goo]s this game and [A Rare Bean], but even after looking at all those cards, I still did not find the [Unending Breath]. I died on Kyle’s turn eight.
2-1
Round 4: Ryan Wilt playing [Vorix Zorbuzz]
I combo’d on turn six, and I won. There was an opportunity to try to go off earlier, but I wanted to kill Ryan in one turn.
3-1
Round 5: Phillip Martin playing [Arturius Hathrow]
I missed the [Unending Breath], I lost.
3-2
Round 6: Andrew Stephens playing [Emek the Equalizer]
I combo’d, I won before Andrew could kill me.
4-2
Round 7: Kim Caton playing [Velindra Sepulchre]
Too many counterspells, I lost pretty easily though it took forever.
4-3
Round 8: William Muehlbrad playing [Kinivus the Focused]
I won the roll and resolved [Unending Breath] before William could [Wind Shear].
5-3
Round 9: Andy Hoang playing [Vorix Zorbuzz]
I lost on turn six after not drawing into [Unending Breath].
5-4
Round 10: Lauric Tan playing [Boarguts, the Impaler]
Lauric was able to get an Amani Mask on turn two to slow me down. Too bad it takes the Deathwish deck a long time to win unless they get a really aggressive draw. I combo’d out on turn 5 and flipped for the win.
6-4
Round 11: Alex Gratton playing [Katianna the Shrouded]
This round was similiar to my match against every other Priest deck. They could not kill me fast enough. I combo’d on turn four and I won.
7-4
My finish was good enough to put me in 55th place. Overall it was a rather unexciting finish, but besides the Mage matchup, all of my loses were due to not drawing the [Unending Breath]. I ran below average on drawing the ability, but that is the risk of playing the deck and I knew that going in. I would have to go 6-0 to make Top 8.
After the day was over I walked around to see where my friends finished up. I find Dan Clark, and I look down at his feet, and they are bleeding. I ask him, “Why the F***” are your feet bleeding?” He left his shoes over at Kirk’s house, and was wearing the only other foot accessory he brought with him the Flip Flops of Death. Dan and his crew were going out to dinner that night, and I could see that Dan was in pain. Being the awesome person that I am, I offered to trade him shoes since I was going home anyways. Dan was reluctant at first, but took me up on the offer, after I explained I was heading straight home. I can tell you now, I wish I did not switch shoes with him. These flip flops were the most uncomfortable pieces of crap I have ever worn. If given the option I would walk barefoot outside during the summer heat here in Las Vegas rather than wear those again. As soon as I got home I instantly threw the Flip Flops of Death into the trash can. Sorry about not asking you first Dan, but it had to be done.
Saturday
The weeks of drafting and the draft camp would hopefully pay off. I sat down to with a plan. For me there are only four classes that I will draft. They are Druid, Hunter, Warlock and Priest. My overall favorite is Alliance Warlock (it's very weak to weapons and it can take a little while to win), but Alliance Druid is probably the strongest deck. If I am Hunter, I want to be Horde because the flip works so well with [Donotello]. [Donotello] with [Baxxel Geartooth] is just nutty.
When drafting Druid and Hunter you have to take cards from Worldbreaker in those classes a lot higher. The advantage of drafting the other two classes is that you can focus on Quest and Allies only mostly during the Worldbreaker pack. If I am Warlock, the only cards I want are [Fel Blaze], [Jhuunash], and [Sardock]. If you are Priest you only want [Divine Fury], [Seeping Shadows], [Dark Extortion], and the Power Word. The allies are so much better Worldbreaker and that is why I like these two classes. The last three classes that are at least playable are Death Knight, Paladin and Mage. I think Death Knight is miserable, but if you can get the removal cards in pack one and you can play [Aric Stonejack], then it is at least playable. Paladin and Mage are both playable due to the large amount of removal in War of the Elements, but they are still not tier one.
Hero: [Grizlik Sparkhex]
Allies
2 [Azure Drake]
1 [Burom Bladeseer]
1 [Emerald Soldier]
1 [Azure Emissary]
2 [Maazhum]
1 [Azure Enforcer]
1 [Ruby Emissary]
1 [Valytha Colton]
1 [Emerald Acidspewer]
1 [Neboz Tombwex]
1 [Vala Carville]
1 [Kark Baneblood]
1 [Soridormi]
Abilities
3 [Dread Touch]
2 [Fel Blaze]
2 [Fel Covenant]
1 [Fel Flame]
Equipment
1 [Lordbane Scepter]
1 [Robe of the Waking Nightmare]
Quests
1 [Breaking the Bonds]
1 [Dragon, Unchained]
1 [Entrenched]
1 [Mystery Goo]
1 [What's Haunting Witch Hill?]
Sidedeck:
1 [Path of Frost]
1 [Faerie Fire]
1 [Arcane Shot]
1 [Invigorate]
1 [Chain Heal]
3 [Power Word: Endurance]
1 [Dread Touch]
1 [Seed of Corruption]
1 [Rocket Barrage]
1 [Brimi Tinkerblade]
1 [Gorz Blazefist]
1 [Kizzli Grinderstub]
1 [Ruon Wildhoof]
2 [Yoza'tsu]
1 [Bronze Warden]
1 [Discerning Eye of the Beast]
1 [Grim Campfire]
1 [Landor's Hitching Post]
2 [Lightning in a Bottle]
1 [Locked Away]
I know reading about limited games can be boring, so I wanted to give only quick overviews of the matches and talk more about the drafts, choices in deck building, and some strategies I had.
Even though I was not Alliance, I loved this deck. I passed a [Venerable Mass of McGowan] in favor of [Robe of the Waking Nightmare]. I was then passed a [Fel Blaze] fourth pick, and I moved into my favorite class, which was rewarded with a seventh pick [Fel Blaze]. I was able to wheel a lot of the Warlock abilities, my allies were strong since I was picking them up early, and I opened a bomb in [Soradami] third pack.
I had so much removal that two had to sit in the sidedeck. I decided to play [Kark Baneblood] main deck because of passing a couple of [Lightningflash]es and the [Venerable Mass of McGowan]. If I had to make one change, it would be to take out the [Lordbane Scepter]. I liked the interaction of it with all my removal and the [Fel Flame], but the fourth [Dread Touch] would have been better.
The last thing to note is that when going second, I like to side deck in the [Seed of Corruption]. I am a huge fan of this card, but I think the best time to use it is when it will create an instant two for one. With the allies getting smaller with War of the Elements, it is quite easy to have this be a reality on turn two.
Round 12: Sean Lingren playing [Jaenel]
No real highlight to talk about for his deck.
Sean was passing to me, but it seemed that his deck was rather weak overall. There were no bombs to be seen, and this matchup ended with me holding back allies in my hand in case he had [Holy Wrath].
8-4
Round 13: James McCoy playing [Vanira Raventhorne]
HIghlights : 3 [Xeris] and multiple removal spells.
When I first started playing World of Warcraft exclusively, James had just come off of his second place finish at NACC 2008. I knew this meant that James was a decent player, and I would have to make sure not to fall into any of his pit traps.
I sat to the right of James in the draft. I knew exactly what I passed him and was slightly surprised when he pulled out a Druid hero instead of Shaman hero ([Venerable Mass of McGowan]). The first game was a game of attrition until I played [Soradami]. Once she hit the board, I was an unstoppable force with no immovable object in my way.
The second game was more lopsided in my favor. [Robe of Waking Nightmares] came down on turn two, and from that point on all of my allies were larger than they should be for their cost. This lead to my allies being able to kill two allies each and me burying him underneath that card advantage.
9-4
Round 14: Nian Perion playing [Braxxel Geartooth]
I have never meet or heard of Nian before, but quickly found out he plays with friends of mine in California. His deck was really strong. I was two seats to the right of Nian in the draft, so I knew that his deck had all the [Lightningflash]es that I passed. Nian’s deck featured 2 [Lightning Flash], [Tesla], good Horde allies, and [Ragnos].
Knowing all this information before the game let me play more effectively against him. I knew to keep resources available for [Fel Covenant] to stop [Ragnaros the Firelord] the turn he came into play. I was glad that I started the [Kark Baneblood] as he answered an early [Stakethrower], which gave me enough tempo to pull out the first game. Second game, Nian crushed me. Every turn his ally was better than mine, then once I thought I was able to play a good ally to gain board control, he played a weapon that completely wrecked that plan.
The third game was much better. A second turn [Robe of Waking Nightmare] buffed my allies enough to make plays complicated for Nian. One turn Nian forgot about the pump from the Robe, and ended up sacrificing an ally instead of trading one. This little window was all I needed to get my [Soradami] into play, upon which she easily took control of the board.
10-4
Hero: [Victor Baltus]
Allies
1 [Bronze Drake]
1 [Grimdron]
2 [Jeniva Prescott]
1 [Bronze Guardian]
1 [Cadric Talworth]
1 [Maazhum]
1 [Patricia Potter]
1 [Xeris]
1 [Axar]
1 [Andrew Ulric]
1 [Azure Enforcer]
1 [Dominic Kandor]
1 [Emerald Emissary]
1 [Ruby Emissary]
1 [Ruby Skyrazor]
1 [Shadowseer Calista]
1 [Nightstalker Austen]
1 [Soridormi]
Abilities
3 [Dread Touch]
Equipment
1 [God-Grinding Grips]
1 [Robe of the Waking Nightmare]
Quests
2 [Aessina's Miracle]
1 [Cleansing Witch Hill]
1 [End of the Supply Line]
1 [Forged of Shadow and Flame]
1 [The Essence of Enmity]
Sidedeck:
1 [Track Dragonkin]
1 [Censure]
2 [Flash of Light]
1 [Expel]
1 [Aggressive Exploitation]
1 [Infiltrate]
1 [Sap]
1 [Lightning Bolt]
1 [Crushing Strike]
1 [Dauntless Defender]
1 [Defender's Vigil]
1 [Merciless Strikes]
2 [Peerless Guard]
2 [The Firelord's Gift]
1 [Aresha Thorncaller]
1 [Nessera Gildenrose]
1 [Vincent Brayden]
1 [Zerzu]
1 [Prized Beastmaster's Mantle]
1 [Mystery Goo]
1 [Putting the Pieces Together]
I started the draft with [Prized Beastmaster’s Mantle] first pick, and took [Robe of the Waking Nightmare] second pick. Pack two, I opened [Soradami] again (yes this game is very easy), and I was all smiles with a 3-0 performance running through my head. Hunter and Shaman were no where to be found, so when the Warlock removal came late in the second pack I moved into it again. In the third pack, I decided to gamble and passed removal spells pick one and two in favor of allies, but they did not end up coming back.
My deck ended up a lot weaker than the first deck, but that was to be expected this late in the tournament.
Round 15: Randy Williams playing [Vanira Raventhorne]
All Nature and Arcane allies, and [Earth and Moon]. Randy’s deck was pretty spicy with all the Nature and Arcane allies. All three games I was able to take out an ally with [Bronze Drake], which was nice card advantage. The first game was a slugfest with but [Soradami] was able to lock up the board. The second game I was completely destroyed by an [Azure Magus], [Earth and Moon] and [Bound Vortex]. The third game was exactly like the first, but I started with [Soradami] in hand. I knew that if I could land her on an empty board on turn seven, that I would win. That is exactly what happened.
11-4
Round 16: Toby Williams playing [Huntsman Gorwal]
Highlights:
Highlights: Hunter weapons, [Elmira Moonsurge], [Tesla].
This match-up was was won with my allies that healed damage from my hero. The first game I won handily when I played the [Robe of Waking Nightmare] and my allies easily out-shined his. The second game I was one foot in the grave, ending up at 25 damage when I played [Soradami]. From that point on, all my allies started jumping in the way of his army. I clawed my way back into the game when both [Jeniva Prescott] showed up. [Soradami] for the win.
12-4
Round 17: John Hall playing [Victor Baltus]
{Insert Picture 17}
Highlights: [Sardok] and ???
I knew that I would need a lot to fall my way if I went 6-0 for me to squeeze into 8th place after looking at the standings. I push this thought out of my mind, because those things I could not control, but winning this last was.
John was the other Warlock player at the table. John’s deck did not come to play this round. My allies were all better as he missed out his curve in multiple slots. I was a little worried one game about an early [Sardok] followed by his flip, but after that flashiness, he literally did nothing for two turns. I was not complaining as this put me into a shot at Top 8, but it would have been more interesting to play better games.
13-4
Once the standings were up, I took a peek to see how everyone finished. Tim Batow finished in 5th place, Ben Isgur in 7th, Brad Watson in 9th, myself in 10th, Dane Young in 19th, John Hall in 21st, Andrew Berke in 23rd, Dan Clark in 27th, Michael Barnes in 63rd, and Matt Spreadbury in 64th. Not a bad showing at all.
From the players in who did not make day two of NACC 2011, Phillip Martin, Niles Rowland, and Brian Gates all made Top 8 of the Darkmoon Faire.
With all my hard work done for the day, I went home and relaxed with my wife Lori and Ryker for the night.
Sunday
I got down just in time to see Tim Batow take down the tournament but a little too late to see Niles lose in the finals of the DMF. One day Niles will win a tournament. The weekend was over, but there is always another tournament to look forward too.
Props
Tim Batow and TAWC - Congrats on winning it all. You made a deck that was great for the expected Metagame and three people finished in the Top 16 with your deck.
The New Jersey crew - You guys made a great deck, that will be the most played deck in the future. Unlike the Bunny deck, your deck will stand the test of time instead of being a one hit wonder.
Jason Newill and RIW hobbies - Jason also deserves a congratulations for his win. There is a new wrecking crew in town. The last two limited Darkmoon Faires were won by players from RIW. I think this domination trend will continue and I look forward to seeing what they come up with for the upcoming Darkmoon Faires.
Draft Camp participants - I was glad you all able to make it and I look forward to another draft camp next year.
Slops
Judges who told their competitor friends about a judges meeting held about the bunny deck. It was awesome to walk into a room to find out the deck had been leaked by the judges to the general population. No wait that was miserable.
Random waiter who commits credit card fraud.
Flip flops of Death - You know what you did.
Thanks for reading,
-Tim Rivera
|