Results from Portland?

So tell me all about the Portland tournament guys!! I heard it was a lot of fun!

It was a rather standard tournament, as far as WoW block RQ’s go. I got all excited at first because the initial turnout was about 19 people, but it turns out that 6 of them had illegal decks (they didn’t know it was block) so we ended starting out with a meager 13. First and second were Dan Hanson (Mid-range Lionar aggro) and Seth (Rip and Flip), yes, the game for the coveted bear lady was actually played out. Kevin Lambert (Rip and Flip) bubbled out again with a 3rd place finish; he lost to Dan 0-2 in the top4 due to two very unlucky draws. Kevin literally drew no fatties at all and couldn’t do anything meaningful while being beat down by an onslaught of Goras and Quantum Blades. I believe Seth played Jason Martinez (I think that’s his name) who was piloting a Mythen control at the other end of the top4 table but I didn’t watch that match.

I ended up with 6th overall, piloting the Solo-ish Blaize control deck. I won my 1st and 3rd rounds, lost to Lambert on the 2nd, and got blown away by a Kil’zin on round 4. As per Lambert’s advice, I’m going to chuck the deck and play something completely different for the remaining RQ’s. I suppose I could write a tourney report but I don’t think many people would be interested in reading a 2-2 finish.

Also, who’s planning on going to Vancouver next week? Once again I’m looking for a ride.

Mordo wrote:I suppose I could write a tourney report but I don’t think many people would be interested in reading a 2-2 finish.

Hey, I always support writing. As long as you have something interesting to say / a lesson learned, go ahead.

I played this deck:

4 Tyrenius Scatheblade
4 Marksman Glous
4 Brok Bloodcaller
4 Tattula the Reclaimer
4 Doshura Risestrider
4 Ras'fari Bloodfrenzy
4 Vindicator's Brand
4 Quantum Blade
4 Sudden Death
4 Puncture
4 Pummel
4 Minions of the Shadow Council
4 The Root of All Evil
4 Tabards of the Illidari
3 Orders from Lady Vashj
1 An Improper Burial

SB:
4 Offender Gora
2 Ambassador Jerrikar
3 Smash
1 Orders form Lady Vashj

I sideboarded out the Broks a lot and would consider replacing them in the main with something more generally useful and putting 3 in the board over the Jerrikars and a Smash.

Marksman Glous might not actually be worth it in block, I've gone back and forth a lot. If you cut Glous you could play Vindicator Kentho (good against a variety of things, including the flip from Rip and Flip) and play a better quest than Tabards of the Illidari (I'm thinking 3 Meeting with the Master hand and the 4th Orders off hand). That said, when you get Glous + Tabards it's awesome, it's just so inconsistent that it might not be worth it.

Main deck Pummel was a last minute change based on advice from Peter Sundholm. It was awesome.

Report

Round 1 vs. Horde Frost mage

This guy was a pretty casual player it seemed, and it oddly almost cost me the match.

Game 1: I get a solid aggressive draw. He plays Brain Lock followed by a Voidfire Wand which I puncture.

Game 2: I don't remember exactly how I sideboard but I bring in the Smashes. He never plays a Voidfire Wand and I draw 3 Smashes. My hand is quest light and he Brain Locks me a couple times. I make the mistake of overextending by a card and he plays The Bringer of Death. I play a Ras'fari and he plays a Shadowstaff and that's game.

Game 3: My draw is reasonable but I play to control the game and don't realize how much time is in the round. Time is called when I have 13 cards left in my deck (due to Quantum Blade) and a Minions and other quests available. With 5 more turns or so I would easily win as he's out of gas, but instead I have to play aggressive as he's healed to 0 with Blood Knight Kyria and I'm at 16 or so damage. I can only win if he makes a mistake, so I attack with my Quantum blade going to 3 cards left and Ras'fari taking him to 9 damage, holding Smash. If he plays Voidfire Wand I can Smash it and swing for the win. He taps out to Deep Sea Salvage Smoke and Croak, draw it and stop Ras'fari. I use Tabards and draw my last card on my turn, attack with Quantum Blade paying 5 then play Brok to kill him. If he'd just used his hero flip (allies can't atack this turn) I would have lost.

Turns out he only owned one Voidfire Wand for my Smashes to kill, if I'd left in the Sudden Death I shaved to play Smash I would have won that game easily turns before by killing a Ras’fari (I'd sided down to just one Smash left in my deck after seeing no Wands game one).

That was close.

Round 2 vs. non-traitor Kil'zin

His deck is very unfocussed. He was playing Bloodsoul and Storm Shock along with healing cards and Roger Mortis. The games were pretty uneventful and I don’t remember the details. I win 2-0.

Round 3 vs. Kevin Lambert with Rip and Flip (the beginning of the epic Rip and Flip series!)

I'm not 100% sure what I'm doing here. I know I want Pummel but am unaware (or not thinking about, at least) of Retainer Marcus so I don't know I have to protect it.

Game 1: I have a reasonable but not blazing fast draw. I make a mistake and flip Tabards on my turn 8 drawing Pummel. He plays Marcus into the combo and I lose. If I had waited on the Tabards I would have drawn Pummel for the win. I think I face downed or wasted a Sudden Death at some point this game also. Woops.

Game 2: I mulligan into a hand with 1 quest. I have to face down 2 Pummels to keep pressure on (otherwise he will assemble Voltron eventually, even around Pummel). I leave my Vindicator's brand untapped on turn 7 with one card in hand to try and buy a turn with my not Pummel card because I know he has the combo, he discarded an extra Rip earlier and has already removed the 50/50 guy. He's at 10 so I could draw a Ras'fari or Brok to win if I get another turn. He goes for it.

Round 4 vs. Desecrator

Game 1: I win pretty easily. He makes a mistake or two making it easier but this is a favorable matchup unless...

Game 2: He assembles the Wastewalker Combo and Hammer of the Narru and I can't find removal for the life of me. In come the Smashes.

Game 3: He plays some one cost Ability that stops me from countering (Is this worth it when I have only 4 cards it affects? Seems iffy but it is good against Tattula too I suppose). I play Vindicator's Brand on turn 3 and he digs with Information Gathering. I have a Pummel so I decide to play a second Vindicator's Brand after attacking to kill the ability (this also turns on any Tattulas I draw in the future and uses my resources I would have wasted). He plays Form of the Serpent on turn 4 and I tap Brand to Pummel it. We trade cards for a while but I'm chipping away and eventually win pretty handily.

Top 4 vs. Kevin Lambert with Rip and Flip again

Game 1: My draw is OK but I have Pummel and maybe Sudden Death. Fortunately for me Kevin never draws a fatty so I kill him.

Game 2: I come out super quick with 2 drop, then 2 drop + Gora, then a 4 drop (weapon? guy? don’t remember) and kill him before turn 7.

Finals vs. Seth with Rip and Flip

Game 1: I get an OK draw and beat him down to where he’ll die the next (my turn 8 I believe). When he plays Marcus he sees Sudden Death and Pummel so he loses.

Game 2: I get a fairly aggressive draw. He plays Marcus before turn 7 and sees Sudden Death and Pummel. He flips to kill a 2 drop with Marcus (otherwise he'd die if I have anything with Ferocity) and starts Ripping guys that I've removed with Quantum Blade. Fortunately this isn't as good as just playing the guys and swinging with Quantum Blade so I win.

Yay, I’m qualified! I wonder what’s good in standard constructed? Time to find out.

Haplo wrote:Yay, I’m qualified! I wonder what’s good in standard constructed? Time to find out.

Conveniently, I have great interest in testing this format (See also: Worlds).

But congrats on the qualification &c.

[quote="Haplo"
Round 2 vs. non-traitor Kil'zin

His deck is very unfocussed. He was playing Bloodsoul and Storm Shock along with healing cards and Roger Mortis. The games were pretty uneventful and I don’t remember the details. I win 2-0.
[/quote]

It played out a bit slow against your deck, but it worked well against the two mage decks I faced during the day... without having the full cardlist in front of me, the basic concept of my non-traitor Kil'zin deck was:

Gora
Bloodsoul
Mojo Doctor Zin'tar
Blood Knight K
Roger Mortis
Totem of Wrath
... and all the normal burn spells that Kilzin can pack.

What I failed to draw during our games was Vexmaster and Stonetusk, my 2 drops, that allow me to buy some time setting up to get Roger to fire off, dealing 3 damage for each 1 damage delivered to another ally.

The healing, from Blood Knight, is to allow me to dump damage on an ally via Roger, play an ability, then clean the damage from said ally.

Like I said, it was slow against you, but did great in the 2 games I had against mages.. the deck still needs a bit of tweaking, but the core concept seems to be workable. I just need a better draw/stall mechanic to hold on for a bit.

Marksman Glous might not actually be worth it in block, I've gone back and forth a lot. If you cut Glous you could play Vindicator Kentho (good against a variety of things, including the flip from Rip and Flip) and play a better quest than Tabards of the Illidari (I'm thinking 3 Meeting with the Master hand and the 4th Orders off hand). That said, when you get Glous + Tabards it's awesome, it's just so inconsistent that it might not be worth it.

The problem is you either need a bunch of quests that work with Glous (and/or super cheap instants to use off the resources), or don't run him. Of course Tabards was inconsistent - you should have had far more quests that work with him if you want to run him.

I sideboarded out the Broks a lot and would consider replacing them in the main with something more generally useful and putting 3 in the board over the Jerrikars and a Smash.

Brok's pretty generically useful. You just happened to run into Rip & Flip a lot.

Wade8813 wrote:The problem is you either need a bunch of quests that work with Glous (and/or super cheap instants to use off the resources), or don't run him. Of course Tabards was inconsistent - you should have had far more quests that work with him if you want to run him.

Yes, that's why I said it... The main problem with running more quests that work with Glous is that there isn't many good quests that work with him in block while in constructed there is a lot of quests that work with him.

Brok's pretty generically useful. You just happened to run into Rip & Flip a lot.

I disagree, Brok is good against decks with a bunch of small allies he can kill and fine against a deck with a lot of medium sized allies you can kill. He's not good against solo or Rip and Flip. So I would say he's situationaly useful, while Ras'fari and my 3/2's for 2 are generically useful. Yes Brok is good vs. a lot of decks, but he doesn't seem to be that good in the northwest metagame with its lack of Myriams and Bloodsouls to run Brok into.

Haplo wrote:
Yes, that's why I said it... The main problem with running more quests that work with Glous is that there isn't many good quests that work with him in block while in constructed there is a lot of quests that work with him.

Glous is probably just as good in Block as Standard (what ARE we supposed to call that format?). Although for the most part, he belongs in Aggro decks, not Midrange or Control decks.

Brok's pretty generically useful. You just happened to run into Rip & Flip a lot.
[qoute] I disagree, Brok is good against decks with a bunch of small allies he can kill and fine against a deck with a lot of medium sized allies you can kill. He's not good against solo or Rip and Flip. So I would say he's situationaly useful, while Ras'fari and my 3/2's for 2 are generically useful. Yes Brok is good vs. a lot of decks, but he doesn't seem to be that good in the northwest metagame with its lack of Myriams and Bloodsouls to run Brok into.

[/quote] I'm just guessing, but the NW metagame often fluctuates. Also, it seems like your view on the metagame might be slightly off because you happened to play against Rip & Flip so much. But I could be wrong.

Although really, I'd expect Rip and Flip to play some early allies, to stop aggro decks. And that would give Brok targets.

Cornelius wrote:[quote="Haplo"
Like I said, it was slow against you, but did great in the 2 games I had against mages.. the deck still needs a bit of tweaking, but the core concept seems to be workable. I just need a better draw/stall mechanic to hold on for a bit.

This is what I was saying about being unfocussed though, Bloodsoul and Stormshock seemed awful in this deck. If you're going to go for Roger Mortis combos it seems like you should run cards that stall and protect Roger Mortis and your totem in these slots.

Haplo wrote:This is what I was saying about being unfocussed though, Bloodsoul and Stormshock seemed awful in this deck. If you're going to go for Roger Mortis combos it seems like you should run cards that stall and protect Roger Mortis and your totem in these slots.

That's a good argument if you want to treat it as a devoted combo deck. I assume it's intended more to be an agro deck with combo finisher like the old omedus deck which had morlug/faesha/shadow weaving so that it could kill the other guy even post-stabalization.

LwoodY2K wrote:

Haplo wrote:This is what I was saying about being unfocussed though, Bloodsoul and Stormshock seemed awful in this deck. If you're going to go for Roger Mortis combos it seems like you should run cards that stall and protect Roger Mortis and your totem in these slots.

That's a good argument if you want to treat it as a devoted combo deck. I assume it's intended more to be an agro deck with combo finisher like the old omedus deck which had morlug/faesha/shadow weaving so that it could kill the other guy even post-stabalization.

That was the intent. Early Aggro + Burn early with a combo out if stuff got to that stall point.
Again, that worked well against Mage decks which tended to go for Stall as well... What I lacked was a solid answer to rush of my own, which is pretty typical with any of the Kil'zin decks.. If my aggro can be negated via control, and I have to resort to defending, its pretty much a done game.