First of all I would like to thank Popcorn gaming for organizing the event, UDE for providing the game and the judges and players for making the event a success. :). Having 25 players meant that it was a 7R cut to top 8 tournament! Pretty long tournament at that.

Initial Pack opened:

Rethilgore – 5 Honor
Lycanthropy
Quick Reflexes

Blindlight Murloc – 4 Honor
Ice Barrier
Mana Potion

Chen Stormsnout – 10 Honor
Care for a Pint?
Scroll of Strength

Honestly, the pack that was passed to me was quite disappointing as Chen was not very playable in the limited format, especially in a 2v2 format with a Legendary Status. As of such, I had to pick the other 2 minis and I switched the Quick Reflexes for a Scroll of Strength as it would be able to help me finish off my opponents better. Having not played a 2v2 low honor team before, I would have to get adapted quickly for the tournament’s sake.

Final Party played:
Rethilgore – 5 Honor
Lycanthropy
Scroll of Strength

Blindlight Murloc – 4 Honor
Ice Barrier
Mana Potion

Game PLAN
The game plan for this Group is pretty simple. With an Honor of 9VP, it would probably be one of the lowest in the tournament. The initial plan is to hide behind terrain cover, only popping out at the last part for tick 5 in order to get 2 VPs. After which from Tick 6-10 it would be to take out one of the opponent’s allies before going for VP locations in the upcoming ticks or to kill off the same target when it respawns.
Also, throughout the whole tournament, I realized that it would be wise to attack with Rethilgore on turn 4 as it would bring you to tick 6, thus giving you the Nocturnal status for 3 turns instead of 2 if you had attacked on Tick 5. That was why on tick 5 I would rather move into a better position for attack or VP unless I had to finish off a target.

R1 - William, High Priestess Tyrande Whisperwind + Lorlai Risingmoon, 16 Honor

This game was a close one as Tyrande could have killed me on tick 2 with Searing Arrows as he could ignore line of sight. Also, being Arcane damage against my Murloc’s 1 resistance, I had to bring up my Ice Barrier early in the game to prevent damage. Good thing he didn’t crit against my cute Murloc as I had to bring up an Ice Barrier in order to enhance my survival against the other attack. After which basically I held to my game plan and stalled till tick 5 to gain two VP before waiting for night to fall. However, his Lorlai managed to pull off a holy nova and dealt damage to both my allies, killing the Murloc while healing both Tyrande and herself. That dealt quite a blow to me as I felt I was abit too greedy for VPs at the start of the game instead of opting to attack from afar. On hindsight, I felt that not knowing Lorlai’s cards probably cost me that game.
The game started to take a swing from Tick 6-10 as he tried run his priest away from Rethilgore who could, at this point, outrun anyone on the field. Rethilgore finished off Lorlai, bringing me close to 6VP and thus I managed to win on a VP count early next game by finishing off the newly respawned Lorlai.

1-0

R2 - Jin Yong, Bog Elemental + Goblin Shredder, 12 Honor

This match was pretty easy for me as he had a weak target against melee and a weak target against magic. I followed my game plan and killed the bog elemental with a magic attack twice before hunting down the Goblin Shredder. Ice Barrier came in handy against the Bog Elemental’s attack. It kept my mage alive, thus allowing it to do another attack on the Bog Elemental.

2-0

R3 - Kelvin, Savin Lightguard + Victoria Jaton, 12 Honor

Kelvin had a good pack, as the two targets were quite sturdy against melee attacks. My hope against him was to kill of Victoria with my Murloc. However, things did not go well for me as my magic attacks did not go well and thus the game went to him easily.

2-1

R4 - Thio Cher Kuan, Phadalus + Moonshadow, 12 Honor

A quick look at this team obviously paints a target on Moonshadow as she is the weaker one. However, the presence of Earth Shock would make my positioning abit tougher as Phadalus could also unleash a heavy bolt of lightning against the murloc, potentially killing it with 1 shot. The game dragged on till tick 15 and I won my moving into a VP zone to gain the final VP as he was 1 VP short of winning.

3-1

R5 – Orange, Morganis Blackvein + Haruka Skycaller, 14 Honor

Orange is a well known player in the local WoW Minis community as he has consistently good results in the weekly hobby league runs. Also having a good team didn’t make it any easier for me. His morganis could run fast and haruka also had an Earthshock waiting for me. Thankfully, Rethilgore and Murloc were buffed from tick 6 onwards and killed both Morganis and Haruka (lucky rolls!) thus ending the game quickly.

4-1

R6 W- Leck Koon, Savin + Moonshadow, 13 Honor

He was hungry. Really hungry. So he decided to go eat.

5-1

R7 L- Jonathan Koe, Amon w/ Hukkrit + Dizdemona, 14 Honor

Jonathan is a really good strategy player and has won many tournaments tracing back to VS TCG days and he performs consistently well in the WoW Card Game too. Hence it wasn’t a surprise meeting him at the top table. Opening two warlocks, though weak to melee, but being able to ‘dot’ my guys and running around with a Hukkrit to Taunt also made it very difficult for me. I managed to stack up nearly fatal damage on both of his guys, but a double Corruption he did cleared my board on Tick 10 while I only managed to clear one. He was only one who went for Rethilgore as the first target instead of Blindlight Murloc. While going for my final VP, he Death coiled my Worgen at the final moment to gain his last 2 VP instead.

5-2

Quarterfinals – Kelvin, Victoria + Savin

Having met him in the Swiss rounds, it was much easier for me to win this time as all I had to do was to move around and take out Victoria early on. But instead of waiting for Victoria to respawn again, I decided to beat both guys hard into Savin, it was a slower method but definitely better as his Victoria would have to make a bigger round before actually going back into the fray.

Semifinals – Orange, Morganis + Haruka

I got off quite lucky in the Swiss rounds, but it turns out his luck was pretty bad this time round as well. His Morganis barely managed to damage Rethilgore and the Worgen just went in for the kill after that. I went for Morganis after he respawned again and repeated the scenario, Blindlight Murloc finished the job and the win was in my hands for VP.

Finals - Leck Koon, Savin + Moonshadow

This game took shorter than expected as Moonshadow was left open away from Savin, by the time Savin was beside her, even Blessing of Protection could not hold up against Rethilgore’s swift attacks. The monster team took out the Druid before going for the VP point win. Playing against Kelvin certainly helped as I knew how to strategize against Savin. His stats are basically Haruka’s stats just that he holds a much bigger hammer. I had to avoid him and make sure that I only damage one ally at any one time or else his crit would be more dangerous.

Others members of Top 8
Jonathan Koe – Amon Darkheart + Dizdemona
Thio Cher Kuan – Phadalus + Moonshadow
Christopher Sibert – Graccus + Elendril
Tay Gan Wei – Harvest Golem + Frostmane Troll