One more win and I would have a real shot at making top 8. Maybe I could even afford to lose the last round and I would still make it, even though that seemed unlikely as I lost in round 2 already...

I was now up on table 55 (50 was the first table). This was where the real fun was had and I was quite the exception with only [Sorrow's End] (+ [Gilblin Deathscrounger]). I now had to face Erik Kaleta, who is quite a confident player from Poland. His deck featured [Sorrow's End] AND [Ozumat]. Fun times...

He won the die roll and I never had much of a chance to win the first game. Well, I did, sort of, before [Ozumat] came down. The second game, I'm trying to rush him, but I fail to apply enough pressure. He can decimate my guys and I'm left with only a [Murloc Coastrunner]. Then again, he only had 4 health remaining. His field was impressive with two Ghouls and several high drops and I was certain to lose the game in the following turn if I couldn't draw something from the top. I figured my only solution would be [Bottled Cunning], but my deck surprised me when I drew into [Moro Wildmesa]. "YU-GI-OH!", I commented on the draw and Erik facepalmed himself for not playing [Sorrow's End] and trading my one drop, but going for [Death's Duo] instead.

Now I had "all the momentum" (at least that's what Michael Cole would say), while Erik felt quite beaten up about his mistake. He was on the play in the last game, however, which would mean that this would be another tough one.

I had a great start and could heal some damage, however, he still got me up on 16 damage. I had the field control, though, and he was left with nothing. He was up on 12 damage already and I had roughly 15 on the field. That was if [Sorrow's End] would only attack for 3, though.

Still, he decided against picking my guys apart with his [Ozumat] and instead he attacked me directly. My top card, which was revealed by [Sorrow's End], was [Rescue the Earthspeaker!]. Together with [Seeds of Their Demise], that meant I would have four shots at finding a three cost or higher card on the top of my deck. If I would have been Erik, I would certainly not have taken the gamble. To make a long story short: I found a four drop after striking and that meant I could kill his hero before [Ozumat] could swing the game in his favor!

Lessons learned: If you don't have to gamble, you shouldn't (at least in my opinion). Play it safe, it pays out most of the times!

Oh, and get rid of [Murloc Coastrunner] while you can instead of playing cards that don't have an effect on the game as they don't provide you with a protector!

Manuel Scharner was my last opponent for the day. He's a player from Austria and a friend of Lukas. I felt bad about having to face him before the match even started.

He also played [Rohashu, Zealot of the Sun], so I again expected [Grand Crusader]. I really couldn't complain about my dice rolling skills on that day as I got to go first for yet another time.

This proved crucial as I could make sure he wouldn't have a field and it wouldn't pay out to play [Grant Crusader] without a single threat the first game.

The second game, I received the beating of a lifetime, but that was more or less expected.

All depended on the last game. I mulliganned if I remember correctly to find even more early drops and it payed out. I traded his field in the early turns, followed it up with [Sorrow's End] and this was a winning combo that he had no answer for. 8 – 1! I made it to the Top 8!

Lesson learned: Winning die rolls is good!

Top 8 Draft

I thought about picking [Nespirah] for a long time in my first booster. There were also 2 playable Horde Empower allies: [Jaron, Herald of the Hunt] and [Parexia, Herold of the Shadows]. I eventually picked the Rare and still went Horde. I ended up with 3 copies of [Anastina, Herald of the Fel] and a really nice curve:

4 one drops,

4 two drops,

4 three drops,

4 four drops,

4 five drops.

This meant I could just go aggro and even though I was missing a huge bomb, I could just overwhelm opponents with the raw power of my allies that were mostly on curve. This is a concept that often works in Throne of the Tides limited, so I totally recommend giving it a try: Just pick good bodies and use cheap quests to refill your hand ([Rescue the Earthspeaker!], [Waking the Beast] and [Setting an Example]). This will often be enough for a 2 – 1 deck. If you are lucky enough to open a bomb, you'll almost certainly end up 3 – 0.

Erik had his rematch in the Top 8 and he announced that he was going to crush me. I wasn't so sure. I won the die roll and gave him a beating the first game where I curved out turns 1 – 4.

In the second game, I underdropped twice, but thanks to [Anastina, Herald of the Fel], I could make up for this disadvantage easily and completely wipe Erik's board. There isn't much more to say about this game, but if you feel like reading the Feature Match, head over to the official site!

Next up was Duncan and this was the funniest match I'd been playing all weekend. The first game, he simply overwhelmed me. He had a number of very playable drops, like two [Jex'ali]. Still, I managed to equal the score as I set up the "combo" of [Naz'jar Sorceress] and [Krezza the Explosive] in this game. I could easily stop his allies from attacking and make favorabel trades as Krezza dealt them those crucial 2 points of damage so my lower drops could trade with higher costed allies.

It was only fitting that [Naz'jar Sorceress] dealt the final point of damage as Duncan didn't feel like losing to the fish.

The last game, Duncan had quite the start. Still, I managed to gain field advantage at some point. That was before he put down [Gobbler] who threatened to deal with pretty much everything I had on the board. I played a second [Anastina, Herald of the Fel] and sent a second one into it together with [Akasi, Herald of Nature]. I was holding onto another [Akasi, Herald of Nature], [Nespirah], and [Face of Fear] in this turn and I already had five resources in play, which was enough to play all my cards, save [Nespirah].

It would have been possible to play [Face of Fear] and simply go for more damage, but I decided Duncan couldn't have that much more, so I sent in my guys, placed [Face of Fear] as another resource and passed the turn.

It would have been infitely smarter to simply place [Nespirah] as a resource and rely on [Face of Fear] and [Akasi, Herald of Nature] to make sure I could continue to apply pressure. I also had [Rescue the Earthspeaker] in my resource row which was still useful thanks to [Nespirah] in my hand.

Basically, I shipped my 7th turn without performing any useful action and on turn 8, [Nespirah] came down. Meanwhile, Duncan's [Thug the Hurler] got rid of my last [Anastina, Herald of the Fel] and he had the board control back. With the following attacks, I would be on 27 damage and Duncan also had a way to deal the final point of damage before [Nespirah] could even start to threaten him.

I'm pretty positive that I could have simply overwhelmed Duncan with [Face of Fear] and [Akasi, Herald of Nature] if I wouldn't have wasted them, placing them face-down in my resource row. I would have also been able to draw into another card with [Rescue the Earthspeeker], which would have been my third [Anastina, Herald of the Fel]. All of that would have been infinite times better than passing your seventh turn without performing any actions and putting your money on [Nespirah], which provides your opponent with a million outs to win the game ([Hellisa] was one of them).

Lesson learned: Tempo can trump huge allies that make you waste a complete turn! Do not put all your money on one high drop when you can apply lots of pressure on your opponent instead!

I could continue to tell you about the mistakes I made in the iPod draft, but I guess this wall of text is already more than most of you will be willing to deal with in a day. I still hope this was somewhat entertaining and I was able to pass on some neat advice here and there while I made myself look like a fool.

- Oliver Gehrmann (soulwarrior@soulwarrior.net)