One of the misfortunes of doing event coverage instead of playing in the tournament is...well, my inability to write a true tournament report, in all of my drunken hazy glory at 1:23 am.
That being said, I will try my best to whip one up.
Thursday:
I typed deck-lists from the Heats for day 1 and did some features.
Friday:
I covered some feature matches, typed some deck-lists, and did some features.
Saturday:
I covered some feature matches, wrote some draft reports, and did some features.
Sunday:
I covered some feature matches, wrote a feature, and died on my laptop.
Hmm...that wasn't very interesting. I guess, perhaps, I could look at the featured classes from the weekend and give a breakdown on what you may not have seen during the coverage.
One of the advantages of doing event coverage is that, unlike when you are playing and are relying on word-of-mouth or friends to scout for you to figure out what people are playing, you are looking at the metagame shape itself throughout the day and seeing which decks succeeded and which decks failed.
There were a few regrets I had from Friday in that we managed to miss a couple of the interesting Warrior decks that were being played by various teams. Sure, we got to cover a few things related to them (such as my premature feature on Saurfang). You may have seen a few of these decks in the tournament feature matches, or perhaps the live steam from GGslive, but we got so wrapped up in the goings-on around the Wabash ballroom that some decks managed to evade a deck-recon feature. I wish to bring to you some of these tech choices, and to touch on them the best that I can without the deck-lists in front of me. (After all, I'm back in San Diego, and don't have access to all 166 of the lists like I did at Indy!)
One of those regrettably missed archetypes was the Horde Arms Warrior, Kungen the Thunderer Strike-out.
A number of players chose to pilot this archetype, with some posting successful finishes and others...not faring quite as well. This was one of the inherent problems some teams found in testing the deck, as sometimes you just don't draw a weapon in which to win the game with. Mages could also just keep a weapon from hitting play, which also neutered the deck's game plan. However, the explosiveness of this deck could not be denied.
The general goal of Strike-Out Warrior hasn't changed much. You still want to use a combination of Rak Skyfury allies, Heroic Strikes, and Mortal Strikes to “strike” your opponent out of the game in one turn. The big innovations for the current deck? The first starts out in play: it's your hero's flip power.
Kungen the Thunderer was a flip that I knew would make me want to heavily consider Strike-Out Warrior back when I was talking to players at NACC in Vegas this year. What exactly does the flip do? It removes your opponent's power to interact with you on your crucial turn once the flip power resolves. Does your opponent have a Fizzle for that lethal Mortal Strike? Too bad. They can't exhaust resources the turn you flip. What about Death Wish? They can't exhaust their armors to defend against your big turn. Even Weldon Barov and his protector tokens or Nathanos Blightcaller's army of blighthounds can stop your hero from rushing their hero out of the game, as they can't exhaust their allies to protect. The flip completely stops your opponent from doing anything about your assault.
There were, of course, flaws to this strategy. One of those I detailed above: it's dependent on you landing a weapon in play, and then not losing it to instant speed removal during your big turn in response to your flip power. The second flaw (and a big deterrent for a few people I talked to who considered this deck) was Arcane Mages that were 'in the know' about how stupid this deck can be if allowed to draw its pieces. Their near-unbeatable tech card if used on the Warrior's big turn? Invisibility. An Invisibility in response to Kungen's flip can shut down any chance you have of beating the Arcane Mage, and tools such as Slow, while beatable with Vindicator's Brand, also caused problems. This is one of the reasons for the high variance on good players who chose to go with this for Worlds this year. Worlds was actually really close in seeing a Strike-Out Warrior in Sunday's play, but unfortunately tie-breakers ultimately defeated Matt Spreadbury's shot at unleashing some big turns on his opponents for the $50,000 first prize, leaving him in 9th place for the weekend.
The other big thing that came out of the Warrior decks this weekend, and specifically for the Arms Warrior, was the two-card Horde combo I hinted at in my feature on Thursday morning: Saurfang the Younger, Kor'kron Warlord and Kor'kron Vanguard. One of the reasons I initially liked the Alliance Arms Warrior, Esonea, over Horde when testing against Daniel Betancourt was because the Warrior allies you could run to trigger your flip power didn't suck. If I went Alliance, I could get access to awesome allies like Burly Berta (I could even use her Death Rattle for my big turn!!!), Adam Eternum, and Weldon Barov! However, it was not even close in power level: the Horde Warrior flip was just better for what you wanted it against, even if Esonea's flip was cool with dual-wielding. Sure, the Horde Warrior could run Klannoc McCloud, or even Wysko, but most of the Horde Warrior allies were unexciting...until Daniel discovered that Saurfang the Younger was a Warrior.
Let me emphasize how important Saurfang is on multiple levels to the Warrior deck. He not only let you use your hero's flip power, but he was a decent ally on his own. He made Kor'kron Vanguard a powerhouse location that put your hero to good use, and on turn seven and beyond, top-decking Saurfang with Kor'kron Vanguard already in play would result in a whopping 10 point swing. You would just play Saurfang, get a Kor'kron Vanguard out of your deck, activate your in-play Vanguard on Saurfang or your hero, and then play the location you just searched, turning your old one down. You could then activate your new Kor'kron Vanguard, gaining two instances of assault 3 for the turn and netting you a 4/4 ferocity ally. I definitely lost to top-decked Saurfang a few times when testing Horde Warlock against this deck, and it quickly made me appreciate its power.
The other Warrior deck, and one I particularly liked from the event, was essentially Arm Warrior...with a hero that could use Death Wish (in this case: Bloody Mary). Instead of relying on a strategy that required a weapon in play and a Warrior in hand, it utilized the Death Wish/Greaves of Ancient Evil combo with a Keys to the Armory package and the Saurfang/Kor'kron Vanguard package. Instead of striking somone out with Mortal Strikes, it could use Death Wish and Greaves with Brodericks and Kor'kron Vanguard to double up on all of the instances of the assault keyword! This deck was piloted by Michael Dalton and many other New Jersey area players at Gen-Con. Again, we were really close to seeing a Warrior and Saurfang deck in Sunday play, but tie breakers left Michael Dalton in the top 16 instead. It was a very unique take on the Warrior strategy, and one I loved to see...especially given the lack of Brittilize in the Slow Mage decks from Brad Watson and Stuart Wright! With the buzz about Arms Warrior going around the tournament hall on Thursday, Death Wish/Saurfang seemed like the perfect metagame call for those looking to bum-rush their opponents out with their hero.
The innovations with the Warrrior class, and the use of the overlooked Wrathgate gems in Saurfang and Kor'kron Vanguard, was only one of the really cool things that was floating around the main event at Gen-Con. Check back Monday for a look at the Rogue class at Worlds, including a look back at Team East Coast's Zorak'tul deck, what went wrong with their deck of choice, as well as the strengths and synergies of the RIW Hobbies Gyro of the Ring deck!
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