It took me a while to find this shop, because apparently they just moved 2 weeks ago. Eventually I found the location and after fighting with an automatic door for about 20 sec, I turned to the guy standing outside and asked him if there is some sort of the trick to open this automatic door. He replied with, “Yeah, you gotta wait until the shop opens.” Oh, apparently the tournament starts at 10, which is exactly when the shop opens. Lucky for me and employee inside the shop saw me and let me in early. It’s always a bit awkward to come into the shop, because they aren’t quite sure if I am “that guy from Upper Deck that’s supposed to be playing WoW today.” After some more awkward introductions I meet Robert, who owns the store. He was actively managing the remaining unpacking process. There was a wall of boxes in the back and one of the employees was trying to clear out some of them to set up tables for the tournament. The shop itself was very nice, with a wide selection of board games, toy collectables and TCGs.
The volunteer for this event was Daniel Janick – my round 2 opponent at Misty Mountain Games. While we were waiting for the tournament, Dan takes the time to explain how to play the game to a new player who just bought a starter. The new player then immediately signed up for the sealed tournament. Fearing that this player may have too steep of a learning curve, I offered to take a look at the player’s deck and gave him some general suggestions, such as the general number of quests and allies to run.
When pairings were posted, I found out that I was playing Mark Danley – the new player that I had just helped to build his sealed deck. Like I mentioned earlier, this is his first time playing WoW TCG so I tried to get his background. Apparently he’s played a number of TCGs in the past. He also mentioned that he was looking forward to GenCon and that it will be his first time going there since GenCon moved from Milwaukee to Indianapolis.
Mark won the die roll and starting from turn 2, I was on the defensive and struggling to gain tempo. I never really caught up, in part due to a timely Shred from him. We ended up going to time and at the end of his final turn he had a few allies out with Anchorite Jaliah. He thought about his play for a second and then started suiciding his little guys into an ally on my side with a large health, healing two damage from his hero every time his allies died. When I took my turn, the best I could do was tie damage on each of our heroes, so we went to sudden death, where Mark was able to deal me damage on his next turn. I lost to the Anchorite Jaliah that was added to Mark’s deck based on my recommendations.
Since we were the last match, I had just enough time to jog down some final notes about the match before I met my next opponent. Mike Jacobs was the next hopeful to try to take an EA Varimathras. We traded allies and removal and on five, I found myself with no cards in hand.
Having no cards in hand is usually bad except for when you have a face up Orders From Lady Vashj. I picked up two cards – a 5-drop and a Groundshaker Earnheart, which promptly got discarded thanks to a Mental Anguish. This card basically read: “Destroy a 5-drop and a 6-drop.” I was definitely mentally anguished over having to discard two allies that would have probably gone all the way. We played on and I managed to drop a Bloodblade, which I hoped would secure my win, since Mike was short on answers. To seal Mike’s fate, the following turn I played Improper Burial netting 3 cards for two resources. Mike put up a good fight, but he did not walk away with a Varimathras.
The final match for the event was against Frank Pivonka III. Frank is an avid World of Warcraft TCG fan. He already bought 9 boxes of Servants of the Betrayer, and he was also undefeated so far that day‑very much looking towards getting an EA Varimathras.
As usual I lost the die roll (yes, that’s seven in a row) and was immediately behind in tempo. I managed to catch up by playing two copies of Hulok Trailblazer and placing a quest allowing me to use one of the Huloks to trade up. I further pressed the advantage by using The Root of All Evil to turn his draw quest face down. The nickname in the office for The Root of All Evil is the “Scumbag Quest.” It originated when members of R&D began playing it back when it didn’t have a name. Apparently it’s quite despicable to disrupt your opponent’s strategies. Unphased, Frank played a Demonblood Eviscerator and swung with it, all on the same turn. Unphased, I played Banish to the Nether number one, knowing that Frank’s deck also sports a Saurfang the Younger. Sure enough, Saurfang the Younger made its way onto the table during Frank’s turn and I promptly removed it with Banish to the Nether number two. Without his two bombs Frank eventually succumbed to my allies.
I stayed a while longer at the shop visiting with employees and the players and finishing up my lunch (courtesy of Robert, the store owner, who was gracious enough to go get lunch for us). Finally after a purchase of a copy of Carcassonne I was off to the next stop.