I am currently flying bumpily over Amarillo, TX and I thought I would take a moment to introduce myself. My name is Ian Estrin; I am the Marketing Program Manager and tallest employee at Upper Deck Entertainment. I believe that the latter quality is why I was sent out on this tour. My bosses are hoping that I will induce the “let the Wookie win” mentality in my opponents and not give out any Varimathrases.

My job at Upper Deck is to oversee all conventions, Darkmoon Faires, and National Championship events that we put on. That means I am in charge of everything from shipping, booking venues, travel, event schedule creation, prizes, scenic element production, and finally running the show once the event kicks off. If you don’t recognize me, just look for the tall guy with a beard running around with parts of his hair on fire. I’m easy to spot that way.

My first stop as a Legionnaire was at the cavernously huge THE Next Level Games (TNLG) owned by my good friend Donnie Noland. Donnie has one of the largest and most immaculate gaming stores I have ever been in, and I knew that the tournament was going to be fun with Donnie acting as TO and Head Judge and David Spears and Mike Sewell (of Vs. System fame) participating in the event.

We came away from the evening with some amazingly great stories. A father and daughter participated in the event and got paired against each other Round 3. The daughter at one point had Warlord Kalithresh with four Naga tokens in play. At the start of her turn, she sacrificed all four and turn Kalithresh sideways. Dad was sad when he realized he was taking 25 from one dude. Possibly my favorite moment in WoW TCG history occurred when Dave Spears won a game by Death Shocking Zandar Shadesprocket (who had been in play since turn 1) for 16. I believe that dealing 16 damage for 2 resources is, what the pros call, an “optimal play.”

As for me, my deck basically built itself as I only really had one choice of class to play and my Alliance allies were strictly better than my Horde. Here’s what I sleeved up.

 
Kintara Wintermoon

Allies – 18

Quigley Slipshade
Jav Stonewall
Marksman Glous
Aldana
Tarwila Gladespring
Syluri
2 Anchorite Viluaa
2 Jezbella of Karabor
Caretaker Mooncrier
2 Myriam Starcaller
Anchorite Onkoth
2 Breen Toestubber
Weeble
Darynus

Abilities – 5

2 Melt Face
Mental Anguish
Chasten
Heartening Arrival

Quests – 7

Gurok the Usurper
2 Toxic Horrors
Survey the Land
Retribution of the Light
Information Gathering
Orders From Lady Vashj

I had quite a few doubles in my packs, and I’m never sad to see double Myriam, Melt Face and Toestubber, as they are all complete houses in Sealed play. I had some good Inspire synergy going on and I was pretty hopeful that if I could make it to the later turns, I would have enough gas to win out. My major area of concern was my complete lack of ability and equipment destruction, as Syluri is situational at best, but I just hoped that I wouldn’t run into anything that could completely wreck my face. That’s what all good players do right? 

Round 1 – Rich Riddle - Kassandra Flameheart

Rich was the unlucky father who got his head caved in by Kalithresh later in the evening, and he was a very friendly guy who was still fairly new to the WoW TCG. I lost the die roll and things began.

Rich led out with Captain Swash to which I promptly followed up with a quest and said go. Swash was joined by Jurpak and his board was getting fuller than I would have liked. I played Marksman Glous and Rich traded both of his guys for Glous, then dropping another Swash with Tarn Darkwalker. The board remained small for a while and I put Breen Toestubber into play, which rendered Rich’s board useless. Rich rolled his eyes a little when Breen came out and made an even bigger eye roll when Myriam Starcaller followed on the next turn. A few turns later another Myriam joined the fracas and Rich was burned out on the next turn.

Rich told me later that most of his deck was 1 ATK guys, and Toestubber completely foiled any of his attacking plans. I was off to a 1-0 start, which put a smile on the Legionnaire’s face.

1-0, 2 damage on my hero.

Round 2 – Mike Sewell - Ixamos the Corrupted

I have seen Mike at events for the last few years and know that he is quite the outstanding player. He works at TNLG and I knew that I was going to be in for a well fought match with someone who is a much better card flopper than me. I won this die roll.

In continuing the tradition set forth by fellow Legionnaire Paul Ross, my opponent led out with a perfect 1, 2, 3 curve of Arcanist Lyronia, Bloodskull Destroyer and Waldo the Decoy. I was sad at the end of every one of those turns. I hit Tarwila Gladespring on turn 2 and was able to use Kintara’s flip and Melt Face on turn 4. Mike thankfully put Lyronia in his hand so I was able to get Waldo off the board early. I followed up with Toestubber, Jezbella and Glous while Mike was only able to replay his Lyronia on turn 4 and leave resources open to swing the Destroyer. Lucky for me, he couldn’t make any big plays to combat my rapidly growing board. Anchorite Onkoth and Weeble came down for me and the game ended right at time. Mike could never get any field advantage going once I cleared his board, and while he was able to pick off a good portion of my board with the Destroyer, it wasn’t enough to stem the onslaught.

2-0, 2 damage on my hero.

Round 3 – Russell Crichton - Marlowe Christophers

Russell is a TCG veteran and who picked up WoW on the recommendation of some of his card flopping buddies and was great guy to play against. I won this die roll as well.

I had a strong opening hand which featured Quigley Slipshade, Jav Stonewall, Melt Face and a few quests. I led out with Quigley and Russell followed with a Bakaar. Quigley got in there on the attack and I laid Jav Stonewall, leaving one resource open to save Quigley from any possible Soul Inversion tricks the Warlock might have had. Bakaar and Jav traded, and Russell dropped Vindicator Trytan who was promptly killed by a Melt Face on the next turn. Rysa the Earthcaller came down for Russ on his next turn and was quickly returned to his hand by Kintara’s flip. I wanted to keep the board clear and make sure that my fatties were going to come down to a non-threatening field.

My turns 5 and 6 were scarily similar for Russ, as each one brought a Breen Toestubber into my party. This made Russ a sad panda. Russ brought Antikron the Unyielding, Durae Crystalshield and Rysa back down and then used Marlowe’s power to off one of the Toestubbers. His Antikron then proceeded to soak up Toestubber’s attack for a few turns and save his Hero 3 damage each time, but Breen was preventing his Protectors from doing any damage back to the attacking allies. This pattern continued for a while until I played Darynus and fatal damage to Marlowe came in the next couple of turns.

3-0, 2 damage on my hero.

Round 4 – James Barnett - Sharpshooter Nally

I had watched James dismantle Dave Spears in the previous round on the back of double Myriam Starcaller and Wraithtide Longbow. I was not super happy with chances knowing that I didn’t have any reliable equipment removal, and losing the die roll did not improve my outlook.

To make it a perfect 4-for-4 in the “opponent maximizing their resource usage early game”, James went Jav Stonewall, Syluri and Ordkeeper Versa for his first three plays. My turns were just as eventful with Quigley and Syluri being my first two drops, with my third turn being spent using Chasten on the Ordkeeper. I don’t liek paying additional resources for my allies, thank you very much. James continued to apply pressure by playing Alhas and Quigley Slipshade on turn 4, making my turn 4 Tarwila Gladespring seem much less exciting by comparison.

James’s turn 5 mirrored my turn 4 by playing Tarwila, whereas my turn 5 was Weeble. Getting a 4/4 and drawing 2 cards for 5 resources always makes me happy. Turn 6 was a crucial turn with James playing a second Quigley and then passing to me with one card in hand. I used Kintara’s flip and he put a Quigley back in his hand. I then played Mental Anguish discarding Quigley and Run to Ground. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the ability go to the graveyard, as I would have been destroyed had that come into play. I asked James why he didn’t play the ability and said he knew I would kill his Quigley’s as he would have no resources open after playing the ability, greatly reducing the effectiveness of Run to Ground.

We both played Breen Toestubber on our next turns and proceeded to stare at each other as the -1 ATK greatly impacted our ability to make efficient attacks. James added Vindicator Khorin to his team and I produced an Anchorite Onkoth on my side. I was able to clear his board of everyone except Toestubber and then drop Marksman Glous, Anchorite Viluaa and Jav Stonewall, following it up with Myriam Starcaller on my next turn. Faced with this gigantic board and an Inspiring Myriam, James scooped it up.

James never drew into his equipment and after seeing the monstrosity of deck that he had, I was very lucky to come out of this game with a win.

4-0, 12 damage on my hero.

So, through reasonably good plays on my part and a large amount of luck, I was able to escape Nashville not having given out any Varimathrasi. Every person who came out to the event was an absolute pleasure to sit down and chat with, and I’m looking forward to seeing some of these faces on the rest of my tour here.

To cap the evening off, my Round 3 opponent Russ was opening a few packs of Servants of the Betrayer as we were closing up the stores and cracked a Rocket Loot. That’s how I like to have my events end.