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State Championships…Yeah…Bout’ that…
This was basically how I felt about the whole thing. Don’t get me wrong, more medium to large-scale tournaments is the best thing for the game in my opinion. I love seeing new tournaments added to the schedule and even with college starting up again, I make an effort to attend all the big tournaments I can. Even if the prize support isn’t the greatest (*hint* State Championships), I want to go to every big tournament because of the competition value. When you tell most tournament players there’s a big tournament coming up they’re jazzed, except when first place prize is a single foil card. This prizing led our squad of players to test for almost no time whatsoever except the amount of time I spent teaching new players the game.
Those new players included two friends of mine from school, Kyle Pournaghdi and Spencer Hibdon, and were great to test with because they came from other card games. In essence they helped me write articles, testing the format for all you lovely folks, and I helped them by getting them into the game. It took them about two weeks before the testing was reliable, but I determined quickly the format revolved around insane speed, unreliable control decks, and then decks that clearly didn’t do anything. The aggro decks weren’t my style, they didn’t reward good gameplay, and they basically “goldfished,” many games. In essence, these decks flipped their hands face up, and asked you if you could stop them, which I find terrible as most of my aggro decks back in the day played cards like [Brok Bloodcaller] and [Doshura Risestrader]! Despite my distaste for the aggressive decks, the control decks could draw all answers and no draw, and lose to better cards, or even worse, draw nothing but four and higher cost cards and concede on turn three!
If that doesn’t explain to you how I feeltabout my deck choice, nothing will, because I lost most my games this weekend in that fashion. I played one of these, “unreliable control decks,” mainly because I wanted to draw cards (what can I say, I’m greedy!), and I felt I had one of the most consistent copies. I spent most of the time in my articles, and most of the time in my testing tinkering with decks that were or had significant game versus [Etched Dragonbone Girdle] decks. I felt that these were the best decks in the format because even the most consistent of all the aggro decks, [Aspect of the Wild] Alliance Hunter, had issues in drawing too many pets, too many aspects, or too many Stash cards and losing their [Charmed Ancient Bone Bow] to a single [Obsidian Drudge], but in retrospect, I wish I could have joined the Hunters!
I think the biggest piece of technology I played was [Shalug’doom, the Axe of Unmaking]. It was a card that when it was previewed was cool because it cost zero to play, but really I was pretty bummed out at the wasted epic slot. My Paladin control deck needed some way to beat aggro, as I eventually tuned it to beat both my Warlock [Summoning Portal] deck, and other [Etched Dragonbone Girdle] decks. Enough searches on wowtcgdb.com led me to this “trash epic.” Both Spencer and Kyle laughed at the idea of destroying their own cards, but I explained to them why we playtest. I wasn’t willing to assume that R&D would create a format and have no way for control strategies to interact positively with aggro strategies in anyway. Therefore, I was willing to test every card in the format until I found a way to make Paladin beat [Gerwixicks] and his fiery army.
As the story goes, we started with just one of the axe. Soon I determined it was more than just okay, or good against aggro, and we upped it to two because it combo'd well with [Bronze Drake] and [Bronze Warden]. Two copies of the axe was fine, but it had problems that I became reliant on it to beat the [Akumo of Thunder Bluff] + [Dagax the Butcher] combo. As soon as I tested it against the other versions of the control decks and realized it shifted the matches from slightly favorable to favorable all together, I was sold, adding a third [Shalug’doom, the Axe of Unmaking]. The card is the sole reason I won most my matches, and I almost wish I had played a fourth. So anyone, myself included, who talked down on this card for being some “trash epic”, shame on you! This will be one of the best cards for Worlds in Rotterdam’s Core format. I could even see it making splashes in Classic Constructed as well since it’s so powerful against aggro, and in token making strategies it can quickly take down opposing control decks.
So before I get into the round-by-round let’s take a look at my (awful) deck:
Hero: [Amah the Sun’s Grace]
Allies: 29
4 [Bronze Drake]
3 [Bronze Warden]
3 [Emerald Soldier]
4 [Sava'gin the Reckless]
4 [Bronze Guardian]
3 [Obsidian Drudge]
2 [Obsidian Drakonid]
3 [Kwee Q. Peddlefeet]
3 [Sinestra]
Abilities: 11
4 [Inquisition]
4 [Holy Shock]
3 [Holy Wrath]
Equipment: 10
3 [Shalug'doom, the Axe of Unmaking]
4 [Etched Dragonbone Girdle]
3 [Scimitar of the Sirocco]
Locations: 4
4 [Twilight Citadel]
Quests: 6
4 [Challenge to the Black Flight]
2 [Blackout]
First off I want to say that despite my complaining about the deck, it truly is pretty awesome. The only games I lost with this deck, the deck didn’t cooperate (literally did nothing or drew no card draw), and one game I mulliganed a mediocre but keepable hand into a poor one leading to a loss in the quarter finals. The hero flip is surprisingly awesome too! I joked with many of my opponents by saying, “Winning this matchup on 29 damage because of my hero flip,” leading them to read my awful hero flip. Turns out it was the truth because I won two matches because of the flip, which is pretty hilarious because none of the opponents believed me!
Outside the [Shalug’doom, the Axe of Unmaking] tech, I swear people had never played against [Kwee Q. Peddlefeet]. [Kwee Q. Peddlefeet] is alright at best on his own, but in combination with [Scimitar of the Sirocco], little cupid here becomes a beast! I won at least two matches because opponents forgot about him, or couldn’t play around him, and I stole their best ally, which is a pretty sweet bargain for four resources.
I did play one card untested based on the shear number of comments about it on the forums, [Blackout]. I played with it a few times going into the tournament, but I was never happy with it. In this deck however I felt that it didn’t have the power to stabilize from a person completing quests and eliminating one of my finishers, therefore I needed to flip their resources in order to prevent card drawing. This way I ensured my opponents less cards and therefore fewer threats to kill [Sinestra]. I was happy with [Blackout], but not for these reasons! Turns out, I completed three [Blackout]s, and two of them were to turn my resources face-down against aggro decks to gain back some health with the help of an [Emerald Soldier] or two.
One card that a few people asked me about frequently was [Sava'gin the Reckless]. I have to admit, he’s the worst card in the deck, but serves an important purpose. Two damage is very relevant against the [Akumo of thunder Bluff] deck, as killing their first or second turn threat could win the game because it costs them so much long-term damage. Secondly, against the other control decks he was a finisher in disguise. What is [Saria of Stormwind] or [Victor Balthus] going to do to him? Sure they could use [Varandas Silverleaf] on him, otherwise he deals a ton of damage or takes a removal spell to the face that otherwise would have killed [Sinestra] or [Kwee Q. Peddlefeet].
Enough about the card choices, let’s check out some matches!
Round 1: Alex Haro [Victor Balthus] [Summoning Portal] control - lost the roll
Awesome! A matchup I tested a ton, and was prepared to beat. I left Warlock control because after writing the article I then spent every resource to beat it, and boy did I beat it up. I was actually able to get every deck in my gauntlet to be favorable (55-45 or better in some cases) versus the Warlock deck. I still like the deck, but it was missing something key around turns 4-6 in card draw/discard or removal. I couldn’t figure out what exactly the problem was, but the infinite quests in the deck weren’t helping either.
The matchup went as planed. I stalled his initial beatdown from [Sardok] with [Inquisition], and continually played (and replayed when he destroyed) [Scimitar of the Sirocco]. Eventually I found a [Etched Dragonbone Girdle], and Alex had to gamble with his [Al’Akir the Windlord] he searched up off of [Summoning Portal]. I was able to get Alex to exhaust the elemental to an [Emerald Solider], and stole it with Kwee! A second Kwee later made an appearance to steal [Jhuunash] as we entered extra time, which lead me to attack for a large amount of damage which got me a round one victory with the help of my three card hand of [Holy Shock], [Holy Shock], and you guessed it, [Holy Shock]!
1-0!
Round two: Nathan [Akumo of Thunder Bluff] - lost the roll
Great, I’m going second, my hand is terrible, and my opponent said he built the deck as soon as he heard about the format (which usually leads to all-in aggressive builds with some unorthodox choices for the late game). My hand of all three cost cards found a [Shalug’doom, the Axe of Unmaking], and despite missing two [Sava'gin the Reckless], I was in the game. Nathan’s deck began to fizzle, and when he missed [The Essence of Emnity] I had the time to flip my hero over!
The hero flip bought me enough health over five turns to get right back into the game when Nathan’s [Sinestra] and first [Dagax the Butcher] fell to the mighty power of [Shalug’doom, the Axe of Unmaking]! [Emerald Soldier] took me back down to 16 damage from 20 with the help of [Blackout] on my [Challenge to the Black Flight], which was exactly enough to survive Nathan’s drawn [Ancestral Recovery] for two [Dagax the Butcher]s as I had been beating down with my dorky dragonkin tokens I made off of [Twilight Citadel] and a [Sinestra] of my own. Told ya the flip was sweet!
2-0!
Round three: Dan Lujan [Saria of Stormwind] - lost the roll
The mirror is pretty good being on the Horde side because Alliance generally plays four [Varandas Silverleaf] that are pretty bad in this matchup. Generally this matchup comes down to controlling the Girdle, and setting up [Scimitar of the Sirocco] and [Kwee Q. Peddlefeet] or bluffing the latter half.
We both mulliganed into disastrous hands, but going second (which I actually prefer in this matchup because drawing an extra card seems more relevant than the tempo heading to the crucial turn two) helped me to draw [Etched Dragonbone Girdle]! I then casually ripped [Twilight Citadel] and [Bronze Guardian] off the top of the deck in back to back turns eventually forcing Dan’s hand to become aggressive. On turn nine be baited a Kwee with [Council of Three Hammers]. I took ten in total to strike off the Ferocity and protector tokens, and stole the Mend ally. Dan used [Holy Wrath], and with three cards in hand passed and [Holy Shocked] me to 17 when I struck with [Scimitar of the Sirocco]. Unfortunately for Dan, he only had one more [Holy Wrath], and next turn I remade my ferocious army and flashed double [Holy Shock] off twelve resources, which was enough to earn a handshake for 3-0!
3-0!
Round four: Charles McArthur [Jaral of Gilneas] - on the play
Well here was the moment of truth. I didn’t test this matchup much after retuning the deck, but it felt like a coin flip. He needs Aspect to beat my good hands. But many of my average hands destroy his average hands because of card drawing plus protectors. He does have the advantage of having eight allies I want to [Inquisition] ([King Genn Greymane] and [Boomer]), and I only have access to 4 [Inquisition]s.
None of all that matters as we both mulligan, Charles has a mediocre draw while mine is probably the worst ever. Both of my [Sava’gin the Reckless] effects miss again, and my hand of [Sinestra]s and [Holy Wrath]s doesn’t beat his average play a couple of allies all in the early turns.
3-1!
Round Five: Adrian Gallardo [Jaral of Gilneas] - On the Play
A chance at Redemption! Adrian and I both kept and we were off to the races. I kept an interesting hand on the play that was particularly weak to a [Boomer], but I had answers for the bow and aspect. The game stalled out to a point where I cleared all of Adrian’s threats with a [Holy Wrath] and 26 damage on my hero. I then played an [Emerald Soldier] and a second [Twilight Citadel] turning one of them face down to gain two health. On Adrian’s next turn a [Lorium Argos] + [Bella Wilder] turn brought me up to 29 damage due to [Aspect of the Wild]!
Thankfully with the help of my awesome tokens, and the [Etched Dragonbone Girdle] sitting in my hand all game, I cleared his board and left him with an [Entrenched] and five face-down resources. I added [Sinestra] to the beat down squad, and flipped for safety the turn after that with [Holy Shock] resources readied. Adrian found his ally to draw two cards in the form of [Boomer] two turns later, but thanks to the awesome hero flip of [Amah the Sun’s Grace] I stabilized at a precarious 29 damage, able to seal the game with my [Holy Shock] to [Lightning Bolt] Adrian’s hero!
4-1!
Round Six: Thomas Beese [Akumo of Thunder Bluff] - on the play
Beese, as our friends all call him, has been busy with school/cross country because he’s a teacher so we handed him the easiest deck in the format to play. Unfortunately he didn’t have the changes to the deck that my dad and I made to his version the night prior!
Despite that, Tom crushed me all game long. He had a quick start with double [Gerwixicks] and I didn’t put up much of a fight. Tom just rolled over me as my deck, and dice (used to randomly choose who [Sava’gin the Reckless] would deal damage to, obviously Tom’s hero) decided to crap out on me.
4-2
They never make it easy.
Round Seven: Brian Wasowski [Baxxel Geartooth] - On the Play
Thankfully, Brian was the Horde version of the [Aspect of the Wild] decks. Better yet, I drew basically the nuts in my opener without a [Shalug’doom, the Axe of Unmaking]. However, my deck decided to make up for the pitiful performance of last round, and redeemed itself with a copy of the best card in my deck ready for action on turn three!
From that point on Brian didn’t have a chance. I turned into the beatdown deck at around turn five, and he couldn’t keep up with my card draw, board advantage, or shear power of my cards!
5-2 and 4th seed!
Top 8/Quarterfinals: Scott Burkhart [Akumo of Thunderbluff] - on the draw
I was delighted to see my dad in the top eight. He tested very little for this event, and he did pretty well, which I doubt is a recipe for success, but it’s hard to argue with results. It just sucks we had to play in the Top 8. The winner of us would likely play Charles McArthur who dominated the event thus far.
Game one: He came out fast with his usual [Rosalyne von Erantor] into [Gerwixicks] game plan. Unfortunately for my dad, I started hitting [Sava’gin the Reckless] Stash effects! I hit all three this game on turns three, four, and five, and had an [Emerald Soldier] in play. Despite that, he still put up an insane fight with [Dagax the Butcher]s and [Blazing Elemental Totem].
Game two: “I drew the nuts,” is what my dad said to me. I obviously drew the worst hand ever (best to get it out of the way now, right?). The game ended around turn four with him having six allies in play. I’ll let you figure out how many non-quest cards I played. The number is less than one.
Game three: My dad again claimed to have drawn a pretty spicy number, which sucked for him as I had the epic turn 1 insanity! [Bronze Drake] Assault 1 to my hero and I killed off his Onnekra. [Bronze Warden] healing three of the four damage from [Onnekra Bloodfang], Then sacrificed both of them to a 2 ATK [Shalug'doom, the Axe of Unmaking]! “I think I drew the nuts,” was my response, and the game was routine from there despite still reaching 19 damage at one point from an army of [Dagax the Butcher]s.
It is important to note in this matchup to never swing with your [Shalug’Doom, the Axe of Unmaking] after turn four. Always use it to strike back at a [Dagax the Butcher] because it prevents the use of their hero flip + [Dagax the Butcher] for a ten point swing in one turn.
Top 4: Charles McArthur rematch [Jaral of Gilneas] - on the draw
Game one: Not particularly close. I mulligan a hand I could have kept because it had both Obsidian dragons. Problem was I didn’t have an [Inquisition]/[Holy Shock] and therefore was very weak to [Boomer]. Sadly, Charles completely wrecks me without [Boomer], but instead with [Charmed Ancient Bone bow] + three Stash effects. Wish I would have known about those [Jerrak Krandle]s.
Game two: Also not particularly exciting. I mulligan into a hand of all answers, and shut down all of his offense to bring us to a dead board, both top decking after I trade [Sinestra] and two tokens for [King Genn Greymane]. Problem is he has all these great threats while my cards are specific answers. Therefore, he was able to find some mediocre allies such as a [Bella Wilder] without Ferocity, which led to a second, and he completely crushed me.
Result: 4th place 6-3
Overall, the deck was pretty solid, I cannot deny that. [Sava'gin the Reckless] underperformed, and my “tech” to beat Warlock ([Kwee Q. Peddlefeet] and [Scimitar of the Sirocco] were the worst cards in many matchups. The problem is that those cards to beat the Warlock also beat the other [Etched Dragonbone Girdle] decks. I still believe that if I had gone to Philadelphia for the Darkmoon Faire that this would be a fair choice, but not one I would lean towards. The deck is powerful, but not enough so that you shouldn’t just be playing 3/3s for two and a giant [King Genn Greymane].
One deck that I never got around to testing out was an aggressive Horde Mage deck. For whatever reason [Glaciate] seemed like an awesome card to me against the control decks, you can lock down their best ally, save yours, and [Arcane Barrage] was great to swing a race back into your favor. Not sure if such a deck exists or if it would be good enough, but it could be an idea worth looking into for the future with Throne of the Tides added to the decks with the new Core format!
-Corey Burkhart
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