Carrying the Torch at Worlds - A tournament report by Michael Barnes

It is a pleasure to present to you Michael Barnes' tournament report from Worlds 2010. I absolutely loved seeing Mike and his friends playing a Torch of Holy Fire deck and was quietly rooting them on from the back of the coverage area, and would like to congratulate Mr. Barnes on his top 16 finish this year! This report is presented courtesy of Cake Draft Masters, a WoW TCG site managed by Tim Rivera. The new design for CDM will be posted soon, and Run Good Club will act as a portal to this and every new article added to Tim's website!

Hello all! For those of you who don't know me, my name is Michael Barnes (AKA BigSpooky). I used to be fairly well known back in the days of Vs. System. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to translate my success in that game over to WoW as of yet. My claim to fame in this game is acting as a barnacle (hence my last name) to other well-known players; such as Tim Rivera, Niles Rowland, and (most notably) Tim Batow.

I'm a PhD student at Oklahoma State University. While I probably should be studying, I decided that I'd rather share my Worlds tournament experience with you all. I hope that you enjoy it.

Prior to Worlds, I had been testing with my buddy John Hall (a fellow Tim Batow barnacle). We had been working on a Timmo Shadestep ramp deck based on Stuart Wright's EUCC Top 8 deck. I felt that the metagame would be heavily solo Warrior and blue allies, and I thought that Timmo had some great answers. The one thing that I didn't like about the deck is that it was very definitely a control deck; and it could take quite a while to reach its win condition.

About a week before Worlds, Tim Batow (who had previously been preoccupied winning tons of money at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas) sent me and John a deck idea based on Holy allies combined with Torch of Holy Fire. In their testing, Tim and John found that the deck had an unbelievable win percentage against Black Ice (primarily due to the ridiculous trades that you could make thanks to Aurius and Zosimuus). The match-up against solo Warrior was also pretty decent thanks to the Hammer of Justice effects and unpreventable damage. However, the thing that sold the deck for me was that it was an aggro deck; meaning that my matches would generally be shorter and there would be less opportunities for me to make mistakes.

After some testing, this is the list that we finally settled on:

Auryna the Lightsworn

Allies (33)

4 Lady Bancroft

4 Xavar the Resourceful

4 Instructor Giralo

2 Vindicator Kaldel

3 Xanata the Lightsworn

2 Flint Shadowmore

3 Spectral Kitten

3 Aurius

4 Champion Zosimuus

4 Myriam Starcaller

Abilities (6)

2 Hammer of Justice

4 Lesson of the Divine

Equipment (8)

2 Amani Mask of Death

4 Torch of Holy Fire

2 Vindicator's Brand

Quests (13)

4 Concerted Efforts

1 Corki's Ransom

4 Report to Goldshire

4 Under the Shadow

Side Deck (10)

1 Aurius

3 Blessing of Salvation

2 Hammer of Justice

3 Sacred Purification

1 Vindicator's Brand

1 Corki's Ransom

Four of us (including Charles Chappell) planned on playing this deck for Worlds. However, Charles and John weren't able to get qualified, so it just ended up being me and Tim representing. After starting out 2-0, Tim just missed out on the Day 2 cut at 4-4. Of course, he did make it to the finals of the Welcome back event, so it wasn't all bad. As for me, here's a summary of how I did on Day 1:

Round 1: Hans Hoh (Pagatha Soulbinder)

Last time I played Hans was in the Vs System Pro Circuit New York Top 8 back in 2005. In that match, I had a deck that was about a 90/10 favorite against his; and he still managed to win a game against me. I know that Hans is a better player than I am, so I wasn't too confident about this match-up.

Game 1 I completely screw up by rowing a copy of Amani Mask of Death AFTER he plays Signet of Manifested Pain. If I hold onto the Mask and play it after he plays Nathanos, then I think turn four would have been a complete blowout. Game 2 went much better, with me putting enough pressure on Hans to force a scoop on turn six. Of course, with the play in game 3, Hans pretty much does the same thing to me. His Ebonweave Cloak to turn off pretty much all of my deck's tricks is just the icing on the cake.

0-1

Round 2: Billy Postlethwait (Pidge Filthfinder)

You gotta love it when you lose round one and find yourself facing off against the reigning World Champ! While I played much better in this match, I still made quite a few mistakes. One notable mistake was attacking Billy's Gromble with my Myriam instead of activating her. I soon learned that Myriam is a big key in winning the Warlock matchup; as they can't answer her with their removal cards (this will be relevant later). However, Billy took the match in two relatively quick games.

0-2

About this time I started making plans for playing in the Welcome Back event on Saturday. I was not at all confident about rallying from 0-2 to get to the 5-3 record needed to draft on Saturday.

Round 3: Chris Schottie (Durzion, Champion of A'dal)

At 0-2 in most tournaments, it's pretty standard to run into the players wielding less conventional decks. This round was no exception; as Chris was piloting a Holy Priest discard/Searing Light hybrid. Game 1 was a complete blowout; as I wasn't able to find a quest in my opening seven or my mulligan and Chris emptied my hand and Voidfire Wand locked me on turn five. Games 2 and 3, though, went much better for me; as I flooded the board both games to put Chris on very low health. He tried to stabilize in both games with Ossus the Ancient, but he couldn't answer Myriam Starcaller.

1-2

Round 4: Zach Textor (Pidge Filthfinder)

Having seen Zach talking with Jeremy Blair, I assumed that Zach was playing the same Pidge build that all of the Florida players were running. However, Zach told me that he added a few of his own tricks to the deck to make it unique. Unfortunately for Zach, this was a match where Myriam was there for me. In game 1, he ripped a copy of Myriam from my hand on four with Eye of Kilrogg, only for me to draw two copies back-to-back. In game 2, I drew ALL FOUR copies of Myriam! To add insult to injury, I was able to protect my win condition with Blessing of Salvation on his Eye of Kilrogg.

2-2

Round 5: Daniel Betancourt (Spellweaver Jihan)

I had never met Daniel before, but I knew that he 9-1 NACCs with a Mage control deck; and is considered to be somewhat of a Constructed specialist. I also had never played the Slow Mage matchup before, but I figured that Myriam would be a key to victory. Game 1 was no contest; as Daniel answered pretty much everything that I played and drew a ton of cards with Mana Sapphire. Game 2 started out similarly; with Daniel answering my early game threats with THREE copies of Mikael. At one point, I was trying to play through Blizzard, Conjured Cinnamon Roll, and Blade of Wizardry. However, I was able to get rid of the Blizzard and Blade and start piling on damage. Unfortunately, Daniel couldn't find any of his draw abilities. Even after healing for 12 with the Cinnamon Roll, I was able to finish him off with my mass of allies. Unfortunately for Daniel, after the war of attrition in game 2, there was only about 10 minutes left for game 3. I was able to quickly build up to near fatal damage; and he didn't have enough resources in play for even multiples of Cinnamon Roll to make a difference.

3-2

So after a horrible start, I moved back into contention with a 3-0 run. If I could 2-1 the remaining rounds, I would be drafting after all.

Round 6: Jim Kandziolka (Bloody Mary)

I had caught a few glimpses of the TBG Bloody Mary Death Wish deck. I had a suspicion that there was an aggro version of the deck that incorporated the red allies that could be really good. However, it took greater minds than mine to make it come together. Game 1 was a beating; as Jim dropped the Bracers and Broderick on turn 1, Death Wish on turn 2, and destroyed me the rest of the way. Game 2 saw Bloody Mary quite exhausted from a slew of Hammer effects; and I was able to amass a huge board backed by Torch of Holy Fire. Game 3, however, my Hammer effects decided to stay buried; and it was Jim who amassed the army of massive allies. Sitting on 22 damage and facing down Death Wish and Double Dethvir, I scooped. While I hated losing, I had to admit that the TBG Death Wish deck was really cool!

3-3

Round 7: Scott Landis (Spellweaver Jihan)

Despite having never played him, I have a lot of respect for Scott. I really like his limited articles; and I've heard the other members of TEC speak very highly of him. I figured that Scott's deck would be a variant of the Jihan/Marundal build he played at NACCs (Scott later told me that Marundal was in the side deck). Of course, I had learned a lot from my earlier match with Daniel, and I planned on using Torch and Myriam as my win conditions. Sure enough, I was able to force Scott to answer my other threats with interrupts; leaving me free to deal damage with Torch and Myriam. Scott, on the other hand, wasn't able to effectively draw into his Spell Suppressions and Roaring Blazes; and the match was over in two quick games.

4-3

This was it - win or go home (figuratively speaking).

Round 8: Chris Reilkoff (Zorak'tul)

I silently groaned at seeing this pairing. I am a HUGE fan of Jedion's Zorak'tul deck; and I knew that Boots of Utter Darkness and Enveloping Shadows would be very difficult for me to deal with. Fortunately for me, Chris had a marginal draw in game 1; and he wasn't able to get the Boots into play to slow me down. Game 2 started off similarly. However, when Chris dropped the Boots around turn 8, my offense completely ground to a halt. I was able to get him up to 24 damage, but his Swift Raptor did its job and started healing Chris. While I had relatively little damage on my hero; and it would have taken Chris a while to deal fatal damage to me, I scooped to avoid having to rely on winning in time. However, there was only about 10 minutes left in the round going into Game 3. True to form, I put Chris to around 21 damage before he slowed me down with his Boots. While Chris had a decent board in game 3, I had a much better board than I'd had in game 2; and a Blessing of Salvation in hand to shut down Purloin, Junkboxes Needed, and Kel'Thuzad. It would have been a close game, but time ended up deciding the match after all.

5-3

So, after an 0-2 start, I managed to squeak into the draft with a 5-3 record. My little buddy Skyler Thomas also made it to Saturday with his Death Knight deck; while Tim Batow and Nick Teng finished at 4-4, but still in the money.

Afterwards, me, John, Charles, Skyler, and Nick all went to Buca de Beppo and ordered way too much food. After that, we headed back to the hotel and got some rest.

While my performance in draft at big WoW events has traditionally been marginal, I have improved quite a bit in the past few months; thanks in large part to working with draft gurus Tim Rivera and Niles Rowland. While I didn’t believe that I would be able to secure the 6-0 I’d need to make the Top 8, I hoped that I could post a good showing. Here’s a summary of my Day 2 performance:

DRAFT 1 – Based on advice from Tim Rivera, I generally try to draft quests very early; foregoing them only if there is a “better” card in the pack, or if the quests available are really bad. In my first pack, the only quest available was Culling the Damned; which I consider to be quite bad. So, I grudgingly first-picked a Thag “Big Bounty” Cragshot and hoped for more options in the next few cards. In the next two picks, there were decent quests available, but 4-drop spiders (Azjol-anak Broodguard) in each pack. Despite my quest deficiency, I happily took the spiders. I ended the first pack without any quests or class commitments, but with a fairly solid ally base. The first pick in pack 2 gave me a Tuskarr Kite. I followed that up with a third 4-drop spider, Sacrifices Must Be Made (one of the better quests, IMHO), and Pure Evil (not good, but playable). I also saw several Druid and Death Knight cards, so I took a couple of copies of Natural Repossession; as well as a couple of copies of Suffocating Grip. I didn’t see Nature’s Focus wheel, though, so I moved into Death Knight. Pack three gave me more solid allies and some very good Death Knight abilities. However, the quests were all quite bad. In the end, I only had two quests and the kite to rely on for drawing. Aside from that shortcoming, I felt the deck was fairly solid. Since I wasn’t playing Corpse Explosion, I decided to go with Krog the Deathfist to give me an answer to equipment cards.

Round 9: Dan Payne (Zorak’tul)

I was sitting two seats left of Dan in the draft, and I noticed that the rare/epic was missing from the pack he opened. Considering that was one of the packs with a 4-drop spider, I figured that he had to have opened a bomb like Enveloping Shadows. As it turns out, his bomb was slightly better: Kel’Thuzad. Dan managed to stall me out to turn ten and blew me away when he took four characters. In game 2, though, I was able to attach Icy Torment and Frost Fever on Dan’s hero on turns 1 and 2, respectively. With that kind of start, Dan wasn’t able to last until turn ten. Game 3 was a nail biter. While I didn’t have the same explosive start, I was still able to get Icy Torment and Frost Fever on Dan’s hero. I was able to take Dan to 24 damage before he dropped KT. However, because I rowed the only ally I had in hand and I had no allies in play, Dan was only able to get two allies from KT’s effect. I drew into Thag and put some damage on Dan’s 5-drop and finished off his protector with Word of Blight. On the following turn, Icy Torment and Frost Fever ticked KT up to 28 damage. With a successful attack from Thag, KT would go to 32 and die the following turn to the bleed damage. However, when I declared the attack, Dan revealed the last card in his hand – Sinister Set-Up. While I had at least one turn left, I was dead on board the following turn.

5-4

Round 10: Skyler Thomas (Souldrinker Bogmara)

Skyler is a former Durotar Realm Champion and my protégé of sorts. While he’s a good drafter, he’s been having trouble with this block lately. My recent work on learning the ins and outs of Scourgewar block drafting paid off in this match. Skyler had some good cards; like Jek’kresh and Touch of Unlife. However, I had answers for all of his cards; putting Dark Command on Jek’kresh and flipping to destroy Touch of Unlife. My big drops dominated the board; and the match was over in two short games.

6-4

Round 11: Andy Hoang (Emerson Zantides)

Andy was sitting to my right, so was passing me the aforementioned 4-drop spiders. Based on a discussion that we had at DMF Houston, I suspected that he had picked quests over the spiders. This would be the opportunity to test if the spiders were the right pick. While I lacked early drops in both games, I was able to get out Tuskarr Kite both times. I followed that up with a spider on four in both games. While he had the Dark Penance for my spider in game 1, I had another spider on the following turn. Both games, he was forced into 2-for-1 trades. I then followed up with Ginza Darktusk; who exhausted for a ghoul token from Lesson of the Grave. Dark Command gave me a way to shut down Andy’s smaller drops; and my big drops combined with the card advantage generated by Tuskarr Kite gave me two straight wins.

7-4

So I was officially out of the running for Top 8, but still had a shot at a decent finish. As it happened, my second draft ended up being a bigger adventure than I could have ever anticipated.

DRAFT 2 – My first pick was pretty solid with Defiling the Defilers. I think that I followed this up with Death’s Gaze, so I’d already matched my quest count from the first draft. My third pick was interesting. While there were several playables, I decided to take Trophy Gatherer and force Hunter. My choice was proven correct as I windmill slammed a Fang fourth pick. I was able to get another quest fairly late (Tales of Destruction I think). Unfortunately, I made a bad faction choice here. I recall passing several Horde allies in my early packs. Somewhere around pick five or six, I was handed a pack with three Alliance allies and one Horde ally. I took that as a signal that Alliance was open. After selecting some decent Alliance guys, the blue allies simply dried up. Unfortunately, I didn’t pick up on it early enough; and ended up on the bad end of a 5-3 faction split. Still, my first pick in pack 2 was enough to make up for my poor choice. I was thrilled when I saw Buzz peeking back at me. For posterity, I looked through the other cards, and I saw the bomb of all Scourgewar bombs staring back at me – Kel’Thuzad! Not only had I opened the best possible card in Scourgewar draft, but I was already in a class that could play him. While I was sad to see Buzz go, I was able to pick up two more copies of Trophy Gatherer (one of which wheeled the table!) I was light on quests after pack 2, but I vowed to pick quests highly in pack 3. I was able to pick up four more quests in Wrathgate to support my late game strategy. I also saw a Mothra. However, in the same pack was another bomb – Explosive Shot! In shock, I briefly considered whether I should take the pet over the ability. Then I mentally slapped myself and placed the bomb on my pile. I was also able to snag a late Banzai to add another quality pet to my collection

So, armed with two solid bombs, three Trophy Gatherers, Fang, Banzai, and seven quests, I marched into the arena to do battle.

Round 12: Timm Trepanier (Souldrinker Bogmara)

I was a bit wary about this matchup; as Lesson of the Nether could literally rip my win condition from my grasp. Of course, Timm did manage to snag my Kel’Thuzad with Lesson of the Nether both games AND remove every copy of Trophy Gatherer that I played with Offering to the Nether. However, Timm didn’t really have any answers to my ally suite. In both games, by the time he removed my KT from the game, I already had a board that could deal lethal damage.

8-4

Round 13: Brian Lindberg (Krunkle Deadspark)

Given that Erondra Frostmoon has one of the better flips in Scourgewar block, I wondered if Brian was playing Krunkle because he had Hysteria. Sure enough, the amazing ability came out to play in game 1. However, I was able to use Trophy Gatherer and Explosive Shot effectively enough that Hysteria never became an issue. Brian put substantially more pressure on me in game 2. However, I was able to stabilize on turn eight; and, once I dropped KT on ten, the game was pretty much over.

9-4

On a side note, I wanted to apologize to Brian for my comments after the match. I was talking to some other people regarding my opinions about the decks that I had seen so far; and I blurted out that Brian’s deck “wasn’t very good” without realizing that Brian was standing right there. In my defense, my comment wasn’t a personal slight on Brian or his drafting ability. However, it was still kind of a mean spirited thing to say, and I am sorry. Obviously, since he finished the draft pod at 2-1, his deck was fairly good. 

Round 14: Dan Clark (Erondra Frostmoon)

Prior to the final round, I hear murmurs about the various bombs that had been opened at our table. James McCoy, who had drafted on the back of a Corpse Explosion, lost to Dan Clark’s Army of the Dead in the previous round.

[For those of you keeping track at home: Kel’Thuzad, Explosive Shot, Army of the Dead, Corpse Explosion, and Hysteria were all at my table. I also know that Timm had a copy of both Nathanos Blightcaller and Aranthgar the Wrathgate; and I heard that Flint Shadowmore and Death Wish were also at the table (though I can’t confirm those cards). Talk about a pod full of bombs!]

Anyway, I knew Dan back from Vs. System. He was a better Vs. System player than I was; and he’s a better WoW player than I am. Basically, he’s just a better card player than I am. That said, I had been very lucky against Dan in the past; and I was hoping that my lucky streak would continue. In game 1, though, Dan completely blew me away with Stalwart Defense backed by Skaala of the Somber Watch to make my Trophy Gatherer useless. Game 2 went much better, though, as I was able to control Dan’s board with Trophy Gatherer while my allies went to work. I eventually brought out Kel’Thuzad to swipe four of Dan’s guys, but Dan had the Army of the Dead on the following turn to neutralize my big steal. However, Kel’Thuzad’s 3 ATK combined with Explosive Shot to take out an annoying Skaala won the game for me. Game 3 played out similar to Game 2. Dan tried to play an early Skaala to shut down Trophy Gatherer, but I had the Raptor Strike to take out the annoying Death Knight. Once I dropped my Master Hero, Dan conceded the match.

10-4

So there you have it. My 10-4 finish was good enough for 15^th place and $3,500. If I hadn’t started off 0-2, then I might have had a legitimate shot at the Top 8. However, I also wouldn’t have been playing the same opponents or drafting the same cards.

As far as Constructed, I think the Torch of Holy Fire deck is a solid choice in the Classic Constructed metagame. In retrospect, there are definitely some changes I would make to the deck. It might work better in Druid or Shaman. While you lose Auryna’s amazing flip, you gain access to cards that are more relevant in the current metagame. However, I love the quest base. Unless you completely whiff on quests, you can usually rely on having cheap ways to maintain your hand size.

For Draft, I’m deliriously happy about going 5-1 in a field of very good players. While this block is a little more bomb heavy than I’d like, I think that solid drafting can still win games. Of course, cracking an uber bomb is still pretty good!

Thanks for reading – I hope you enjoyed my report.

Michael Barnes, despite his protests saying otherwise, is a well-established figure in the came gaming world. With multiple money finishes in the Vs System Trading Card Game, including a semi-finals finish at Pro Circuit New York in 2005, he quickly established himself as one of the big players from Team Alternate Win Condition, alongside other recognizable faces like Tim Batow, Jeremy Blair, Shane Wiggans, and John Hall. Michael has made solid money finishes at other Vs System and WoW events, with his latest being a top 16 at the 2010 WoW TCG World Championship.