I’ll mulligan. Looking at my new hand, I thought to myself this is how it ends; my run for the title is over. I wondered how to dig myself out of this hole; I crafted a game plan and went for it…
That is how my Worlds experience came to an end, but every end has a beginning.
For me, the beginning started at NACC. I had just come off a disappointing performance and a run of bad luck, finding Dalton in the 0-1 bracket, and then sure enough Markoff in the 0-2 bracket. Both of them were playing Vorna with Silvermoon; a card we as a team had decided wasn’t popular enough to warrant Skumm.
After the announcement that Worlds would be Block with the four rings I was excited and frustrated. Excited because at the time I thought the rings would be legal, and I was absolutely in love with Renewal of Life. I was frustrated because I needed to improve my mental game immensely.
For those of you who are friends with me on Facebook, you probably have realized by now that I love quotes. Words are powerful, words inspire, and words can drive you. Generally, I try and put up a quote a week or every other week. When I found this quote, it was like my eyes were opened.
A champion is afraid of losing. Everyone else is afraid of winning.
At first it was just another quote to me, something to inspire me in my personal life. Then I really thought about it more, and more, finally posting it to Facebook. It brought up some discussion in relation to TCGs, how true it was. So many good players are living in fear of the Brad Watsons and Matt Markoffs of the world. I’m sure they have many stories of how good players have made terrible plays against them from being “star struck”.
I wondered if that had happened to me before. After all, I have only been playing TCG’s competitively for about four years, and each year I look back and realize how much I’ve improved since the prior year. It really is humbling to look back at my first year of playing TCG’s and to see how far I’ve come just by surrounding myself with good players. Thinking back, I can honestly say I was afraid of winning until recently. “What will I do in the feature match?” “Watson is just too good, I can’t beat him.” “Top 16 is perfectly fine.” All of these things have gone through my head before, and slowly, but surely I am learning to conquer my own mind. My mind is public enemy number one.
After being a huge fan of the UFC for a few years, I decided to try out MMA myself. MMA requires the utmost mental toughness of any sport I can think of. You are one on one against a man whose goal is to submit you or knock you out, one slip up and it is over. Playing card games, while not as violent, are really not that different from a mental perspective. Just you and an opponent, one on one. The reason I bring this up is because at Worlds, I decided to try something. Between rounds I made sure that I pictured myself with the trophy, it was my tournament to win; and while I didn’t get there, I noticed a drastic decrease in mistakes. Those who I talk to regularly probably thought I was a little distant, but in my head I was doing this in between each round mentally: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTIxIbzOdwM.
My whole reason for bringing this up is because until recently my mind was controlling me, even better said, limiting me. Being prepared mentally can make all the difference. You can beat Brad Watson, You can beat Matt Markoff, and now you CAN beat Billy P.
I am getting ahead of myself a little bit, but I just wanted to point out my thinking leading up to the tournament before I talked about my actual preparation. Like I mentioned, I was excited to play with Renewal of Life. I thought it was a very powerful card that could be exploited because of the lack of counterspells and good equipment removal. I spent the first week after NACC testing an arena version that aimed to kill in one turn with Dethvir as protection if you didn’t. The engine was based around Gladiator Boum and the typical arena guys. The deck was pretty good and I was excited to continue to tune it with the team and Neil. Then the hammer hit: no rings were going to be legal. I was certainly disappointed, but I can’t say I was surprised coming from UDE.
Back to the drawing boards. My main playtest partner John Tatta had been playing a Searing Light solo deck. If you didn’t have an answer to Searing Light, I found out quickly that the games would be over fast. The card had to be answered, but once it was the deck just didn’t do a lot. At one point, Scouring the Desert was even in the deck as a way to reshuffle destroyed Searing Lights, but it just wasn’t enough.
Even though that deck was a disaster we learned something very important: Searing Light was the best ability in block, we just had to find a way to exploit it. After a few brainstorming sessions we decided to add some allies to the deck to diversify its threat base. The first version was terrible, but we saw the potential the deck had. After shoring up the ally base, and changing around a few abilities the deck began to perform pretty well.
Then we hit a wall. The other popular decks, Ryno and Gyro, began transforming to account for a changing metagame. Suddenly, a matchup that was favorable was moving towards a coin flip, and in the case of a skilled Gyro player, even worse. Talismans became popular and continued to decrease our percentages. Finally, Emek had enough. Collateral damage stemming from the newly found Velindra deck was too much. The deck was shelved.
For the next few weeks our mega-team (TEC and Team Seattle) tested just about every hero in block. Some heroes were immediately discarded while others showed some signs of life. As our vision of the metagame for Worlds began to shape up we had lists of different tiers of decks. At one point I was putting Goblin Rocket Launcher in just about every deck that could play it. My favorite version of the deck was a solo warlock that finished with Felshroud and Cremate + Wand. I also tried many different versions of control mage, all of which seemed so close to being dominant, but could never quite turn the corner.
A week before Worlds I was pretty much set on playing Velindra. The deck was unexciting, had a terribly random mirror-match, and to boot very boring to play. Most of TEC and Seattle were also set on Velindra with a couple still testing different versions of Gyro. As metagames evolve, certain cards that were good, and subsequently bad, become good again.
A week before Worlds, I called up Scott Landis to talk with him about the metagame. We were both pretty disappointed so far with our deck progress. We worried we might have missed something, but had to trust our testing thus far. It was this point that we began discussing Emek again. Mage was super popular, and that was a good matchup for Emek, especially the Velindra version. Emek was able to put the Velindra player into such poor positions. Splinter Mind for Dethvir (if they were crazy enough to play him), Disperse Magic, Searing Light, and United Front were all problem cards for Velindra.
One thing that did worry us about our choice was Conjured Cinnamon Rolls. If the mage player bothered to test against Emek, they would quickly find out how good that card is against it. It only makes sense right? With so little card advantage in priest, the ability to 2/3/4 for 1 with Rolls was too much to handle. As any burn player can attest, healing is your worst nightmare. Luckily for us, most mage players didn’t make it that far in preparation or didn’t expect Emek.
I arrived in Austin on Wednesday where I met up with John (we arrived the same time, but took different flights) and the Seattle crew. At this point, all members of TEC except Chris (Jedion) had decided to play Emek. He was on board with Team Seattle and Velindra. Wednesday was spent discussing sideboard options and doing a draft.
I knew in the sideboard I wanted 4x Munkin Blackfist and 2x Horrify. The last four slots could be filled with Gavels, Johnny Rotten, the 4th Disperse Magic, the 4th Splinter Mind, or a variety of other cards. In fact, at one point my sideboard had thirty plus cards in it. Our final list wanted to be good game 1 against mage decks, and then board against Gyro/Ryno/Pidge for games 2 and 3. We ended up running:
Hero: Emek the Equalizer
Allies
4 Dark Archon Farrum
4 Nathaniel Voran
4 Sivandra Darklust
4 Dethvir the Malignant
2 Skumm Bag'go
Abilities
3 United Front
4 Power Word: Courage
3 Creeping Shadow
3 Disperse Magic
4 Searing Light
4 Shadow Word: Anguish
2 A Taste of Divinity
3 Splinter Mind
Equipment
2 Dryad's Wrist Bindings
Locations
3 Undercity
Quests
4 The Last Barov
4 Rise and Be Recognized
2 Call to Arms: Arathi Basin
1 Proving Grounds
Side Deck
2 Horrify
2 Merciless Gladiator's Gavel
4 Munkin Blackfist
1 Disperse Magic
1 Splinter Mind
I was pretty happy with the final list, but will explain a few card choices. As a player I prefer consistency to power, meaning that I like 4x. Searing Light allows you to play some niche cards that normally wouldn’t make main decks. The two Tastes act as Anguish 5-6 while performing double duty against hardiness. Proving Grounds as a 1 of may look strange in a vacuum, but it acts as another option on turn 2. Power Word: Courage was in and out of the list at least a dozen times. The card is either a 9/10 or a 2/10, but a necessary evil in the deck. Pushing your allies out of Engulfing Blaze range is really good. It also keeps Dimzer from trading with Dethvir, your MVP ally. Skumm was a 3 of in the list until the night before when the rest of the team decided to cut him. I had played with him enough to know that he was good enough to be a four of; no way would I cut him completely. DOW block is defined by card advantage and the ability to deny cards for just one resource was incredible, even if it was attached to a 1/1 body. There were also games where he turned down a soon to be active Eye of the Storm to effectively deal 6-7 to your opponent. The final card I want to talk about is Creeping Shadows. This might be the most unique choice of our list and one I credit to John. We talked about it with the solo list, but never got around to testing it in here. It was just the reach the deck needed against Alliance decks once the board was stabilized. Not to mention the interaction with Gavel...
With Wednesday over, Thursday was spent preparing for Limited. I have a pretty simple Limited strategy: draft good removal over everything and allies with good stats after that. I don’t value highly any ally with poor stats and a good ability. For example, I think most players drastically overvalue Tinker Bixy Blue because of her power. Sure if she gets active she is good, but under those circumstances aren’t you already winning? Not to mention if you are behind... good luck.
I really like priest as a class in limited. They have the biggest tempo card in Shadow Word: Anguish in the format, along with a built-in bomb flip that turns mediocre cards like PW: Renew and Slashdance into all-stars. The practice draft started pretty well: first pick Johnny Rotten, second pick Johnny Rotten and so on. During pack two I was able to pick up triple Cuffs of Devastation, something that I still can’t reasonably explain. Pack three had the final piece of my deck in Wand of Prismatic Focus. Needless to say I went 2-0; we didn’t finish the draft because we were heading to get some shaves. Yes, I said shaves.
For those who have never had a straight-shave done, I’ll tell you now, it’s an experience. Until about a month ago, I never even realized people still did this. Scott told me it was like a man’s facial, and since he was paying, I couldn’t turn it down. Turns out he was right, not that I know what a facial is like or anything. Basically we set around for a few hours while two of us were getting shaves at a time, and those who weren’t had access to unlimited alcohol. It was definitely a good time, and I recommend it for anyone who hasn’t done it.
Back to the tournament, Thursday night we decided to take a cab out to County Line restaurant. This place was supposedly the crème of the crop for BBQ in Austin. While I thought the place was good, if that was the best BBQ Texas has to offer, I have to say the BBQ was overhyped. It wasn’t that it was bad; it was just not what I had imagined. Maybe I built it up too big in my head beforehand. As we were leaving Legrow (Legrow didn’t go for shaves) asked John if he had gotten a shave, which I found funny because, if you know John, well you’ll understand... Italians.
The ride back to civilization was just as interesting. We had five, so Scott and I rode together while John, Steve, and Legrow waited on another cab. The cab drivers in Texas are different, way different than any other city I’ve seen. White guys, a lot of them. Our driver happened to be a grizzly looking man who said he used to work in the oil fields. He assumed we were in town for the game, and had no problem telling us all the good bars (mainly topless) in town. When we told him where we were from, he mentioned, “Yeah, things are slower down here ever since GW is out of office”. At this point I noticed him look in the rear-view mirror to see our reaction. I tried to stay composed for fear of ending up in a ditch somewhere. Good times.
As Friday morning came, I felt a sort of nervous excitement. I knew I had prepared more for this event than any other. Finally, I knew what it meant to “really” test for an event. I knew what cards were in decks, and what to expect. My mind and I were finally on the same side.
Over the day I played against:
Rogue - Gyro - W
Rogue - Gyro - W
Mage - Spellweaver Jihan - W
Warlock - Ryno - W
Mage - Loralla - W
Mage - Loralla - W
Warlock - Pidge - L
Mage - Velindra - L
I don’t have any notes on my rounds so I won’t break each one down. I was excited to lock up day two so quickly (I was a “day two virgin” as my teammates say), but disappointed to start 6-0 and then end 6-2. The match round 7 against Phillip Martin was probably one of the most interesting. Weldon we had found to be a non-factor against our deck, but hadn’t tested much against Pidge with Weldon. I think by the time we were testing Pidge versions we had already discounted Weldon’s value in Block and didn’t run more than two. The flip gives the Pidge player the ability to Eye your hand and clear the way for Weldon. Our match went to time, but I couldn’t find enough damage.
The final round was against Luke Chen playing Velindra. This matchup is the reason we played Emek. Generally, it is quite favorably for Emek because of the reasons I listed above. Game 1 I had an opportunity to break a Mana Ruby on turn 6, but couldn’t find it after a draw step and completing Rise and Be Recognized. Game two was much of the same, I had four draws to hit an ability and wasn’t able to do so. Scott summed up Emek best by saying, “It is very powerful, but at times inconsistent.” The standings for Day One were in, I was in 13th place and would need a 5-1 record to make Top 8.
Going into Day Two, I felt very confident. I thought I had enough knowledge of the format to be versatile with my picks, but again my preference was Horde priest.
Here are my two decks:
Pod 2 Day 2 Draft 1
Hero: Spiritualist Sunshroud
2x Michael Garrett, Bat Handler
1x Darbun Steppeheart
1x El Pollo Grande
2x Sanva
1x Elder Narando
1x Charkov
1x Cromarius Blackfist
1x Jack Coor
1x Gladiator Boum
1x Zi'mo
1x Grugthar Sharpblade
1x Nea Sunmark
1x Kino the Cold
1x Samuel Harrison
1x Naliss the Silencer
1x Wand of Prismatic Focus
1x Cuffs of Devastation
1x Towers and Bunkers
1x Revenge is Tasty
1x Legendary Heroes
2x Ring of Trials
1x Call to Arms: Alterac Valley
1x The Eye of Command
1x Silvermoon City
2x Power Word: Restore
1x Shadow Word: Anguish
Pod 1 Day 2 Draft 2
Hero: Brahu Starsear
1x Grismare
1x Mojo Masher Shakko
1x Edward "Hack" Robinson
1x Zari'zari
3x Gladiator Dorn
1x Sivandra Darklust
1x Zi'mo
1x Cromarius Blackfist
1x Nathaniel Voran
1x Rensarth Shadowsun
1x Nea Sunmark
1x Thomas "Slash" Robinson
1x Gladiator Emek
1x Lifemender Dorn
1x Dark Archon Farrum
1x No Man's Land
1x Celestial Shard
1x Reforestation
2x Hibernate
1x Blessing of the Heavens
1x Tanglevine
1x Oshu'gun Crystal Powder
1x Hellfire Citadel
1x The Ring of Blood: Skra'gath
1x Uncatalogued Species
1x The Circle of Blood
1x The Eye of Command
Now, I ask you, which of these are 3-0 decks? The answer? Both. I learned something very important in playing both of these decks: Limited is all about relativity. If I had to play my second deck against the first, the first would probably win 80%+ of the games. As I draft I like to watch others faces at the tables to pick up on reactions. Needless to say, during my second draft EVERYONE looked miserable. The card pool was just shallow and weak. After the second draft I went over to Billy to see if he was in equally as bad a shape. He was. This made us both feel better because we were sitting a few seats apart and realized it wasn’t our decks that were weak, it was the card pool.
My first deck was just insane. I had never played with Naliss in Limited until then, and let me tell you she is better than Weldon in limited bar none. Scott at one point actually listed off about 10 cards that were better than Weldon, and how he is a trap card luring players into a false security. In my opinion, Ring of Trials is the best location in the block. It gets around Shadowmeld and allows you to do things that just aren’t fair. I am not sure what other people took over them, but if I remember right I got them around 4-5th pick. Silvermoon was in the deck as a late game play with Naliss out, but never really worked out how I would have liked. The El Pollo Grande was actually a hate draft of sorts (that guy is so bad for my flip), and turned out to be even better than I thought. On more than one occasion my opponent attacked the token instead of bashing me in fear of some pump effect which I didn’t have. Did I mention I went 3-0?
The second deck had me worried. It didn’t have any bombs outside of Celestial Shard which I got pretty late in the pack. A deck with five one drops has to be bad right? Turns out, not with Circle of Blood. The Grismare should have been Hex Doctor which I boarded in everytime. For some reason I had a dream of burning my opponent out with Grismare for the last few points. It was exactly that: a dream. Nothing really interesting happened during this pod, just play and make dudes, lots of them. My favorite play during this draft was during the first match against Phillip Martin, where I was able to Tanglevine his Grugthar Sharpblade and ruin any plans of ferocity creatures. Next round was against Jeremy Tiano who had Mikael, Twin Spire Ruins, and 2x Carnage. On paper it was a nightmare matchup, but I was able to stay ahead thanks to the power of Circle of Blood. With Day Three locked up I got a rematch against Luke Chen. We were both in, so the match was rather laid back and enjoyable. I squeaked out the win in three close games.
Day Two standings were posted. I was thrilled to be the number one seed, and happy to see old teammates Billy and Tim make it in. Bad beats to Wafo-Tapa on the standings redo. Looking over the bracket I felt like I had a chance, a good chance to win it all. Many people came up and congratulated me, but at that point only one thing was on my mind - Fogo De Chao (and of course, winning was somewhere in there).
My first visit to Fogo didn’t disappoint. It was nice to sit down with friends present and past and have a good meal. I jokingly told Billy, I would see him in the finals to get my rematch back. We played in the finals of a 10K a few years back where he took gold. The rest of the evening was spent attempting to change my flight. I think it is kind of ridiculous how UDE handled the top 8. I booked my flight to leave a 4:05 PM on Sunday, more than enough time to play out the Top 8 if I made it in. However, nowhere did I see it mentioned prior that you would have to be present for an award ceremony at 4:00 PM if you made Top 8. Before you say, well you made a lot of money, that doesn’t mean it isn’t bad business to do what UDE did. It cost me $700 to change my flight because first class was the only thing available. While it did make for a good story, which I will mention, how hard would it have been for UDE to let people know this before they booked their flights? Seriously UDE, communication is the key to business.
So while I had planned on getting in some test games before the Top 8, that never came to fruition because of the airline debacle. How can an airline wonder why they are bankrupt? So inefficient...
Sunday morning was here. I was confident, ready to play. Game 1 was pretty close, but came down to me assuming the control role against a deck I shouldn’t. He played perfectly and at one point he had one card in hand, Mana Ruby I assumed, so I flipped hoping he wouldn’t use his hero to Concerted Efforts. He did, I had to hope for a miss. Wub’s, Blizzard, and X, well not only not a miss, but options. If he took the blizzard and discarded it, I knew his hand was Mana Ruby. Sure enough that is just what he did and the seven cards were enough to put me away.
I’ll mulligan. Looking at my new hand, I thought to myself this is how it ends; my run for the title is over. I wondered how to dig myself out of this hole; I crafted a game plan and went for it...
My opener again was weak. No allies, two quests, Gavel, and abilities. My plan was to Searing Light on two; if he had a Taste it was over. Then on turn 3 deal 3, turn 4 complete Rise and Be Recognized, turn 5 Gavel, turn 6 24 him. I knew that once he didn’t taste on 2 I had a good chance. He only played two Spell Suppression after board, so if Gavel landed it should work. I thought my turn 5 over, it was the only play as I was facing potential fatal on board. Gavel? I play questioning whether he drew it, as he goes to exhaust resources I knew it was over. My heart sunk, that was the end. Fifth Place.
Now for my first class flying story, and some thanks. Hope everyone enjoyed this report, I will try to write as often as possible, but it is hard. This piece alone has about eight hours into it. Anyone who writes on a regular basis deserves some praise...
A champion is afraid of losing. Everyone else is afraid of winning.
Are you a champion or everyone else?
STORY:
I was lucky enough to end up on the same flight as John, we drove to the airport together so it worked out well. The first leg of the flight was to Houston, so the first class experience was minimal. I wasn’t sure if my last leg (Houston to Pittsburgh) was first class, but luckily for me, it was. I hadn’t flown first class for awhile, maybe ten years ago. So the experience was certainly new to me. I ended up in the last row of first class while John was in the first row of coach. Nice, we could talk if need be and would both be off the plane rather quickly. As we were in flight I enjoyed hot-towels (yes, really), unlimited wine, and a full-course meal, all within the view of John and the other coach fliers. This is quite cruel of the airline to do; I am drinking red wine, John water. I have a hot-towel, he has his shirt. I get a full meal, he gets peanuts. Every new perk I get I look back at John, his mouth salivating. So while UDE did mess up my flight, the experience was certainly rewarding, for me anyway. Although not worth $700…
Thanks to:
Teammates - John, Scott, Steve, Brian, Chris, Kim, Legrow
Friends/testing partners/theory talkers - Pat, Neil, Jeremy, Billy, Justin, MWS randoms
Anyone who I might have missed…
. See you in Philly in a few weeks.