Normally I would start off my tournament reports with talking about how I found my deck and go into great detail of what I tested, but I'm going to change it up a little this time. Sean Batt, of the A Question of Gluttony Podcast invited to have me on and discuss my World Championships testing and deck choice. Therefore if you want to hear my stories of Amsterdam, my first experience across The Pond, I'm going to get you to support and listen to Sean's awesome podcasts!

To understand my interpretation of what the World Championships would look like, you will still need some background knowledge. I spent the majority of my time testing Classic Constructed. I chose to test Classic mainly because I figured it would be similar to MTG's day three of Worlds where no one tests the older formats. Therefore, I could get a big edge on everyone who plays an updated Mage, Warlock, or Overkill Rogue deck by playing something that beats those three decks.

For Core I didn't have a deck up until the Tuesday preceding the event. I originally tried to get into a group with the RIW squad, but I didn't push the issue hard enough to get hold of anyone. This left me out to dry unless Charles McArthur was able to get me on his team with the likes of Andy Farrill, Robert Victory, and Phil Cape just to name a few. As it ended up, I got left out to dry as their team added Jim Fleckenstein over my dad and I, so I was left to fend for myself in this violently fast format. Thankfully, Steve Lynn of the RIW team got in touch with me on Facebook, and once he heard I was working alone he and Dan immediately picked me up. We spent an hour or two on the phone exchanging information and decks, and they ended up just handing me their Core Constructed deck that RIW, Vegas, and Brad Watson had worked on.

In exchange I offered my Classic Constructed deck for giving me a Core deck, but it seemed most the guys already had a deck to play. Also, none of the members were willing to play [Ringleader Kuma], an “all-in” aggro deck against the other best players in the world. Once we landed in Amsterdam, and took a train to Rotterdam, we met up in our hotel to work out the kinks in our Core Death Knight deck. In the end, no one agreed on the last few slots, and changed one slot literally five minutes before decklists were collected. My version of our Ghoulmaster deck looked like this:

Hero: [Ghoulmaster Kalisa]

Allies: 32

4 [Bronze Warden]

2 [Bronze Drake]

4 [Obsidian Drudge]

4 [Sava'gin the Reckless]

4 [Fungus Face McGuillicutty]

1 [Obsidian Drakonid]

3 [Gargoyle]

4 [Mazu'kon]

4 [Cairne, Earthmother's Chosen]

2 [Al'Akir the Windlord]

Abilities: 14

4 [Frozen Core]

4 [Chains of Ice]

4 [Death Strike]

2 [Withering Decay]

Equipment: 10

3 [Shalug'doom, the Axe of Unmaking]

4 [Etched Dragonbone Girdle]

3 [Bottled Death]

Locations: 4

4 [Twilight Citadel]

This deck is truly awesome and I wouldn't change a card after the event. In talking to the RIW guys (Dan Clark, Jason Newill, and Steve Lynn) they expected more than 30% [Grand Crusader]. I originally didn't have a good aggro [Grand Crusader] deck, so my testing against the deck was slightly flawed. Before talking to the team I was going to play Paladin Control (the worst matchup for this deck, but possibly the worst choice for the tournament) with [Twilight's Hammer]s and [Corrupted Egg Shell]s. Other than [Grand Crusader] we expected [Devout Aurastone Hammer] decks in Shaman with the [Blazing Elemental Totem] and [Erunak Stonespeaker], and Hunter Aggro mostly in Alliance because it had a solid matchup against [Grand Crusader] because of [Faenis the Tranquil].

Other than those three decks, we expected the format to be a bunch of random decks that people probably shouldn't play because they cannot compete with Grand Crusader or the deck can beat itself. In these categories I include Warlock decks (which I spent a ton of time trying to make good), Monster Mage (which couldn't compete with card draw of the plate classes and needed one more solid late game threats to win the game), and Token Druid, which could just beat itself by not drawing a [Verdant Boon] or a token producer.

Enough talking about the pre tournament stuff, if you want to hear more about it again please listen to Sean's A Question of Gluttony Podcast, I'll also get some stories on there about the trip.

Round 1: Jonathan Bodrug [Olivia Demascas] Lost the roll.

Jonathan was an awesome guy. We had a really exciting game that we were able to joke the entire time, and had a great conversation about the French distribution problems, and about his site BorrowTCG. The game however started out all business. Jonathan kept quickly and I mulliganed. He played [Corin Stallnorth], into [Devout Aurastone Hammer], Stash [Devout Aurastone Hammer], into [Dulvar, Hand of the Light]! I didn't have too much to fight his opening [Corin Stallnorth] but I was able to hold back my [Cairne, Earthmother's Chosen] to combo with my [Obsidian Drudge] and [Shalug'doom, the Axe of Unmaking], killing his pumped [Devout Aurastone Hammer], and striking back on Dulvar for two.

When he did nothing on turn four I knew my opening 4 [Death Strike] hand was going to give me a shot, unless he had [King Genn Greymane] and [Al'Akir the Windlord]. Therefore, I promptly used [Death Strike]s to kill his Dulvar and fight through his [Power Word: Barrier] at the beginning of his turn. The game from that point forward was pretty routine. I played and traded [Gargoyle] for his Corin and [King Genn Greymane], and [Chains of Ice]d a second Dulvar before using my own [Al'Akir the Windlord] to pull out the win.

1-0; 0-1 on rolls.

Round 2: Dan Clark 58 card mirror [Ghoulmaster Kalisa] lost the roll.

Lovely. I get to play the best player in the world and he made my deck. The game strategy was to find [Etched Dragonbone Girdle], and keep Dan off of his own Girdle. The matchup started off with Dan playing no Girdle, signaling he had multiple high cost allies. My game plan quickly turned to building up a board, and trying to find any [Chains of Ice] and [Death Strike]s I could to hold off Dan's offense, and heal my hero. The rest of the game wasn't very interesting as I never found a [Death Strike], and when I had fatal set up in my hand to Shalug'doom my own [Mazu'kon] after it attacked, Dan used the Girdle he found to win the game. He drew and played the card he was holding, [Bronze Drake], sacrificed it to draw 2 cards, finding his third [Mazu'kon] and second [Shalug'doom, the Axe of Unmaking].

1-1; 0-2 on rolls.

Round 3: Abel Kellen [Lady Sira'kess] won the roll!

I knew coming into the tournament a Monster Mage deck was possible, but I couldn't find a deck that worked as well as I wanted it too. [Monstrous Frostbolt Volley] is an awesome card, but there are not enough solid monster allies to make up for not playing Horde allies. I was also quite sure Abel was playing an aggressive version of the deck to flip his hero because of the Yu-Gi-Oh deckbox. I used to be one of them, and I know we like to get our beatdowns on.

The game was pretty uneventful. I had the [Twilight Citadel] plus [Etched Dragonbone Girdle] combo online which is impossible for him to beat. On his turn three he played three Murlocs to flip his hero and I naturally had the [Withering Decay] for the blowout. It took me until turn 16 to win the game because I couldn't find any of the [Gargoyle] or six cost or higher allies, so I was fearful of [Commander Ulthok], but apparently Abel wasn't playing any, and got clogged with all one health Murlocs in hand.

2-1; 1-2 on rolls.

Round 4: Andrew Lam [Rosashu, Zealot of the Sun] won the roll!

Finally a deck I expected to play! I believe Andrew and I have played before, and just the way he presents himself you can determine he's a very solid player. I had to give him credit for playing [Grand Crusader] because I lose if I keep a very slow hand to beat the control Paladin and he's in fact Grand Crusading it up.

Turns out Andrew is on the beatdown plan, and I'm able to force him to play [Grand Crusader] with zero allies in play, with the help of [Frozen Core] and [Sava'gin the Reckless]. I follow it up with a ["Fungus Face" McGillicutty] and Andrew has two [Lordann the Bloodreaver]s with only three points of damage on his hero. I was confused, but instantly traded my Mcgillicutty for his pumped up Lordann and his [Grand Crusader], and followed it up with a [Twilight Citadel] activation and [Etched Dragonbone Girdle].

That's when Andrew presents his true plan, a second [Trade Prince Gallywix] into [Telor Sunsurge], [Twilight Citadel] for his resource, and his last card, [Grand Crusader]. Just wonderful! I use a [Gargoyle] to eliminate his [Lordann the Bloodreaver] and a [Bronze Drake] to draw two more cards. Fearing another way to destroy his [Grand Crusader], Andrew just flipped on my [Gargoyle] and bashed me to 12 rather than making two Twilight Dragonkin tokens. I then ran my [Mazu'kon] into his [Trade Prince Gallywix], and felt like I had the board under control until Andrew played another ally and activated [Twilight Citadel].

This is where the game got interesting a couple of turns later. I decided to run my [Mazu'kon] into his new [Telor Sunsurge], and run the token into him. I determined that I could race him as my hand was [Mazu'kon], [Mazu'kon], [Shalug'doom, the Axe of Unmaking], and [Death Strike]. Andrew was on 13 damage while I was on 19, so if this plan failed and his last card in hand was an instant like [Censure] I was just dead. However, in my testing I determined cards like [Hammer of Justice], [Hammer of the Zealot], and [Censure] weren't good enough cards to play. I concluded if I resource [Mazu'kon] play the second, attack with the Shaman, and follow that up with sacrificing my board to my one cost weapon I could kill Andrew unless he had exactly [Twisted Light], a card worth playing. Even if Andrew had Twisted Light, I had a backup plan, [Death Strike], which I could use to kill his [Onnekra Bloodfang] and survive even if his draw was another [Twisted Light].

Andrew did have the first [Twisted Light], and failed to draw the [Bottled Light] to make two protectors to defeat my [Mazu'kon] token and six ATK Shalug'doom, bricking off hitting another [Twilight Citadel]! My teammates Steve Lynn and Jason Newill were behind me because our game took most of the time and got to witness my play, and while both thought I was crazy, once I explained my thought process thought the play was both good, but “ballsy” as I easily could have used my [Mazu'kon]s to just slow the game down. I thought about that, but I was fearful of Andrew drawing a [Dagax the Butcher] and making a token, which leaves me with no outs to win the game.

3-1; 2-2 on rolls!

Round 5: Jose Marin [Rosashu, Zealot of the Sun] Control lost the roll.

Jose was a very quiet opponent, and when I sat down I figured that might mean he'd be playing control Paladin because he was so quiet. I still knew that trusting just the way Jose introduced himself wasn't enough to classify what deck he was playing just because he could have dodged playing all the [Grand Crusader] decks in the tournament to this point.

This match really didn't happen. I drew 3 [Etched Dragonbone Girdle]s, and never killed Jose's who obviously had the 3 [Obsidian Drudge] and [Etched Dragonbone Girdle] hand. Once I lost my first Girdle I knew I had to try and beatdown, but never found a Cairne, [Gargoyle], [Mazu'kon], or an [Al'akir the Windlord] until turn 9. By that point Jose had seven cards in hand and had attacked me with his [Ozumat]. The following turn I attacked with my team, hoping that Jose somehow didn't have [Holy Shock] for my last four points of health (as I failed to draw a protector], but he showed me two and took the win.

3-2; 2-3 on rolls.

Round 6: Stefan Urban [Rosashu, Zealot of the Sun] Aggro, lost the roll.

I remember a day when I played against people and didn't know their names. That usually signaled an opponent was either new to the game or not as good of a player, but now I get to play Stefan Urban. He gave away in his talking to his teammate before the game that he was [Grand Crusader], and I knew I would need to mulligan aggressively to win this one.

Stefan started off strong with [Onnekra Bloodfang] and a Stashed [Sava'gin the Reckless], but my [Bronze Warden] was an awesome follow up. The entire game was decided on turn two when Stefan resourced facedown, and his [Faceless Sapper] revealed a [Bottled Light]. Missing this attack ended up costing him 8 points of damage, and when his turn three was only a [Dagax the Butcher] I knew I needed to fight back and quickly. I flipped my hero and ran out one of my [Bronze Warden]s, healing to 10 taken. Stefan showed he was all in on the [Dagax the Butcher] plan raising him from the grave with [Bottled Light]. I followed up with running out [Obsidian Drakonid] and was prepared to win the game if I could draw a [Mazu'kon] to [Shalug'doom, the Axe of Unmaking] on turn six. Stefan pushed me up to 20 and I cracked back attacking him to 22 with my team except for the [Bronze Warden]. With [Sava'gin the Reckless] and [Shalug'doom, the Axe of Unmaking] in my hand, I looked at my card, [Gargoyle] off the top meant I had drawn exactly fatal and Stefan flashed a second bottle and a third [Dagax the Butcher] stuck in his hand because lack of resources.

4-2; 2-4 on rolls!

I barely made it through the Core portion of the event with a winning record, which I figured would be the hard part, but was I wrong.

(Stay tuned tomorrow for the second part of Corey's report!)

-Corey Burkhart