So I attended the realm qualifier this Saturday.  There weren’t a whole lot of people there (only 12), but it didn’t look to be an easy day with not only the usual Cheatyface guys showing up, but also some of the guys from Indiana including Mark Slack.

So while preparing for this tournament I saw Glenn Jones’s Tankman warrior deck over on starcity, and I instantly fell in love.  I love me some control, and thinking I would see a lot of Kil’zin made this guy even more tempting.  Not having any alchemist stones I knew I would have to do some modifying to the deck, and modify I did.  I kept the spirit of the deck the same, but I threw it into Traitor Warrior, mostly in order to have the flip, as well as sudden death.  Sudden death is such a great card, I love it so much.  I was planning on playing lionar up until the night before the tournament when Jeff asked me what I was going to do against the mirror match.  Knowing how deadly Scrapper Ironbane was I made the switch to alliance in order to have that guy in my side deck.

Here is what I played:

Wait … today is Sunday.

Spore came out didn’t it?

hmm.

(time passes)

MORE LATER – OMG SPORE IS THE BESTEST GAME EVAR!  FUCK THIS ARTICLE SHIT, I CAN JUST WRITE IT AT WORK!

The Next Day

Ok, sorry about the delay.  Man spore is a blast.  Thank God Jeff is writing tomorrow’s article, I know what I am doing tonight.  Creating more abominations in that game.  Ok, back to the report.

The deck I played was Fallenstar.  I was expecting more warrior control at the tourney mostly because it has such a favorable match up against some of the more talked about decks in the format.  Against myriam control it just keeps the damage minimal as you plow through their guys, and we all know what it does against Kil’zin rush.  I figured Sudden Death gave me a good out against decks that would clear the board and drop a game ending guy, as well as any deck playing Talian or Scrapper as their answer to equipment.  The only real problems I could run into were the band and bringer.  Hopefully Wreck and Gear Upgrade could keep those threats at bay.

Here is the list I played

Abilities

• 3 – Gear Upgrade
• 3 – Puncture
• 4 – Wreck
• 4 – Sudden Death
• 4 – Pummel

Equipment

• 3 – Felsteel Reaper
• 3 – Demonblood Evis
• 4 – Vindicator’s Brand
• 3 – Lightwarden’s Band
• 3 – Netherweave Bandages
• 3 – Doomplate Chestguards
• 3 – Doomplate Shoulders
• 3 – MANOS! The Hands of Fate
• 2 – Borak’s Belt of Bravery
• 4 – Doomplate Warhelm

Quests

• 3 – The Sigil of Krasus
• 3 – The Cipher of Damnation
• 3 – The Fel and the Furious
• 2 – Orders from Lady Vashj
• 2 – A Final Blow

Sidedeck

• 3 – Smash
• 3 – Scrapper Ironbane
• 2 – Deafening Shout
• 1 – Lucky Strike Axe
• 1 – Exarch Onaala

Rd 1 – Craig – Red Pally Control

Red Holy Pally was one of the decks I was testing heavily to play, although my version was a rush deck that just couldn’t go as fast as Kil’zin.  Craig was running a control version of the deck that had entirely too much unpreventable damage for my tastes.  Game one I had to fight through 3 Exarch Onala’s (the last coming through from a Zalreth), and end up wailing on his hero with a giant reaper.  That game I drew all 4 of my Sudden Deaths within the first 4 turns of the game, but of course I drew no Quests for those turns either.  I was one turn away from dying that game because of the Exarch chaining that massive damage on me.  Game two I was able to get my armor out early and stave off early damage.  I was lucky enough to have the answers for his big guys when they came out and smash face with reaper again at the end.

1-0 (2-0) – MVP: Sudden Death, and a ripped Cipher of Damnation which poped me another quest and a puncture that saved me the game.

Rd 2 – Adam – Mythen of the Fang

Adam had a nice Mythen control deck which relied on myriam with protectors for the win.  Game one I got a slow start, and kept the myriam damage at bay.  He got me up to 25 damage until I was able to completely stabalize with armor and push through his protectors with my big ass reaper.  Game two he allowed me to go first in order to negate the extra armor from MANOS.  Again he got out his Myriam, as well as her sister Myriam 2.  Luckily I was able to stabalize and drop the sided in Exarch Onalla to heal me up and time was called.  Unable to kill me by the end of the turn I took the match.

2-0 (3-0) – MVP: Lightwarden’s Band for allowing me to ready armor to negate the myriams on both his turn and mine, and Doomplate Shoulders for taking all those Natural Orders and protecting my weapons.

Rd 3 – Jeff – Kil’zin Jank

Of course Jeff gets paired up to play me (of course with only 12 players it’s not like it was all that rare).  I get my first deckcheck to start this game, hooray!  After we get our decks back with no problems we go into our games.  Knowing Jeff’s deck I knew I needed to hold on to wrecks to stop his bands, as well as pummels to stop the Gifts from the Past.  As especially in game one they were his only chance to win.  Jeff’s deck was a very creative port from Matt’s Cont’s deck into a red block version of the deck, I bet if be didn’t build it that morning it could have done better.  Game one was kind of rediculous.  I guess all the shuffling I did after the deckcheck didn’t randomize things too much.  I ended up drawing all 4 of my wrecks to counter Jeff drawing into 3 of his bands/Gifts.  I get the armor out and end up smashing through with reaper.  Game two I wasn’t able to draw into my wrecks and he was able to play and use at least 4 bands.  It was close, but in the end he took game 2.  Since he is not going to be in town for the Champ’s in November, and the round was ending soon (except for our extension from the deckcheck), he scooped the last game to me.  Thanks Jeff!

3-0 (4-1) – MVP: Drawing 4 wrecks game 1, as well as the lightwarden’s band to keep them active for his turn.  Pummel’s in game one for his Gifts.

Rd 4 – Brad – Joren the Martyr

Well, here we go.  The final round has me matched up against Brad, who once again is at the undefeated table.  I vow to stop his quest for Realm Conquerer with a spectacular upset.  Game one was pretty crazy.  We basically went the first 6 turns laying a quest and saying go.  I was able to drop down some armor, and in a surprising turn of events quests.  Brad wasn’t counting on me making that table so he didn’t have time to perform his usual no quest voodoo on me.  I fight my way through 3! Bringer’s this game (no wrecks this game at all), but lucky for me he doesn’t draw into any of his discard or healing the entire game.  Very late in the game I have a Demonblood and a Bandages out.  He gets me in a voidfire lock because of the bringers killing all my armor for the third time.  I contemplate using the bandage, until I realize that all he would need would be a tatulla to complete the lock.  With the lock on me I continue to hammer into him while he searches for his healing or the 4th bringer to finish me off.  Luckily he doesn’t find it and I am able to deal exactly 28 damage for the win in game one.  Of course, one game does not win the match and I realize I have to get that lucky one more.  This does not happen.  Games two and three were pretty much identical to each other.  He was able to get early shadow word agonies on me (drawing the pummel the next turn btw), as well as double mental anguishes to clear my hand.  Bringer/Voidfires soon followed and I ended the tournament with my first match loss.

3-1 (5-3) – MVP: Demonblood Evicerator for pushing through the last damage in game one.

Top 4

The top 4 for this tournament was

Brad Watson – Joren

Matt Spreadbury – Fallenstar Tankman (what?!?!?!)

Me

Mark Slack – Hunter deck that I completely failed at checking out.

Because I wouldn’t be able to make many more qualifiers (if any) until the Championships Matt gave me the win in the match in order to secure my Q for the champs (thanks Matt!).  Because of my daughter’s baptism the next day I had to get out of there as quickly as possible, so I scooped to Brad in the finals.  I decided it was worth it to punish him with the Bearlady EA.

All in all the deck performed great.  I got my Q and learned a whole lot about how to improve the deck.  I also loved using my hero’s flip on myself so I would have more damage than my opponent to complete The Fel and the Furious.  That drew more than one questioning from opponents.

Thats all for now.  Back to work so I can get out of here to play Spore!

I now show you BoB – the Abomination