Minis Tournament Reports & Fan Articles

Wednesday Weekly Warband - Durotar Realms Write Up

899327 — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:16:39 GMT

This week, the second part of "Looking like a Champion" is up to finish out mrw01's (Pojo) view of Durotar Realms and how he took home 1st place with Daelas!

Enjoy!

http://www.critshappen.com/2009/11/wednesday-weekly-warband-looking-like.html

Silverpine Top 8

1214330 — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:45:51 GMT

To be really lazy I'm just going to copy my post from zapped :p

Top 8 -

Kid I don't remember the name of ((Jaina Zoo: Ryno, Jaina, Kaustron)) vs Mike Chomyk (MrChom) ((Cairne, Haruka, Jil'an))

Me((Murloc, Murloc, DeathWatcher)) vs Guy who 4-0'd (Asufar?) ((Vashj, Wavecaller, Skeletal Priest))

Jack(Lyter)((Enraged Fire Spirit, Storm Rager, Razfarri Nexus Stalker)) vs Kid I don't remember name of's dad I don't remember name of ((Vashj, Crushridge Ogre, Wavecaller))

Karl((Parvink, Elanna Starbreeze, Timmo)) vs Nick Ball((Bolvarr, Irana, Graccus))

Semi's We're -

Me vs Kid
Jack vs Nick Ball

Finals
Kid vs Jack

Kid won.

Teldrassil Realms Report

2412136 — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:20:10 GMT

So, not having local tournaments and only having a few other friends that play this game, I don't get to play it alot. Every 2 or 3 weeks we'll get together and play a few games but that's about the extent of the playing I get to do. The only tournament I've been to at this point was Nashville Realms back in May. I finished 13th out of 18 for Day 2. Not horrible, but out of Top 8 and not as good of a showing as I'd have liked. So I set out to improve upon my placing this time and I'm happy to say that I did.

Leading up to the event, I looked at several different armies. Amalars looked fun and after playtesting them some, they had alot of raw killing power. Ice Block was pretty good and if you did everything right you could lock your way onto the hill. I wasn't sure I liked either of those. I had just done a trade for 3 Morts so I was pretty high on getting to use them. I practiced them a few times but something was missing. After looking everything over I realized the answer was Death Coil and Pitzog. Death Coil is obvious for moving someone off the hill. Pitzog seemed vital in alot of matches to make Morts up to 10 health and also to occupy the hill so no one else could get up to it. After some playtesting, I liked it, but I wasn't sold on it yet. The problem I saw was with Ice Block. I knew that I could win that matchup with Morts, but I wasn't 100% certain I could win the matchup and didn't have a solid answer to it. Triple Harukas then became the answer I was looking for. I playtested it against Triple Iranas and if Haruka packed Earth Shocks and Purges, you wrecked them. Maybe a bit too specialized ABC list for the field, but my concern was going up against Triple Amalar and being able to get through his armor to bring him down before he killed my Harukas. In short, I had no idea what I was going to play when I left.

We left Southern Kentucky about 9:00 am or so on Saturday. We got to the Holiday Inn at a little after 11:00 and found the convention room where the event was being held. We got a room later on that was right down the hall on the first floor so we were pretty close for everything. We had a total of 12 people for Day 1 with one guy who was in the TCG main event buying into the last qualifier to get in. So we had a total of 13 for Day 2.

We started Day 1 at Noon on Saturday with Sealed. Instead of doing 1 Core and 1 Spoils, we ended up with 2 Spoils because they didn't receive enough Core to run the event with it. We opened our boosters, wrote down what was in them, and then passed them back to the T.O. He then randomely passed the boosters back out. My first boosters had a Kael'thas, Daxin, Elizabetha that I would have loved to have played. The boosters I got had Vigor, Aluna, Marlowe, Hulok, Harnum, and Chancelor Velora. Vigor and Aluna were auto includes. I then decided to go with Marlowe for the Pitzog hill trick. That also would put a Vigor in Bear Form up to 11 health. I would learn that that trick only worked as long as Marlowe didn't die, which he was always the first one to die.

Round 1 I got paired with Bin Chin. Bin and I talked some before the event and he had driven up from Georgia. He was running Sethekk Talon Lord, Elanna Starbreeze, and Ixamos the Redeemed. Not a bad game, but the combination of Aluna and Vigor proved to be a bit too much. Especially when a Bear Formed Vigor takes the hill and you have to kill him to get him off. 1-0

Round 2 I got paired with Jimmy. Jimmy was running Vindicator Kaustron, Elanna Starbreeze, and Raazani Nexus Stalker. I started off Tick 1 by shooting the Stalker and bringing it down to 2 health. Tick 2 it jumped to the VP. I move Vigor to finish it off and he Ice Blocked it. I thought I was screwed as I had no answer to Ice Block. He took an early lead but the Ice Block came off at Tick 10 before he could ready it again. I was able to finish it off with Vigor and then take the hill to take control of the game. 2-0

Round 3 I got paired with my buddy Tony who was running Jaina, Vindicator Kaustron, and Marlowe. Had we played it out, I'm not sure I could have won. He had a better army than I did. He was on a roll after a few good games, had qualified with his 2-0 and conceded to me. 3-0

So after making it in on Sealed, it was time to narrow down what I wanted to play. I was looking at either Morts or Triple Harukas. My buddy Jason didn't qualify during Sealed so he wanted to run Triple Iranas. I didn't have enough Counterspells or I would have probably ended up running that as well. I opted to play Morts. I wanted to get some use out of them and if they bombed then I knew I could switch to something else for Day 2. My ABCs were:

Death Coil

Curse of Agony x 2

Corruption x 2

Summon Pitzog

Summon Jhuroon x 3

I wasn't sold on having 3 Jhuroons but I couldn't figure out what else to replace it with so I left it in there. I can only think of 1 game during the weekend that I should have subbed it in.

Round 1 I got paired with Jimmy again. Jimmy didn't make it in during Sealed so I conceded the game but we played most of it out. He was running Aluna, Wilton, Wilton. It was close when we called the game, 4-4 but I could have gotten at least 1 more Wilton to pull ahead and get the game as they were both close to death. 0-1

Round 2 I got paired with Woody who was running Arugal, Bleakheart, and Sethekk Talon Lord. This was pretty much all Morts. He had some points from the hill, but failed to kill any Morts. Morts won it at the end with a final kill on the Talon Lord I think. 1-1

Round 3 I got paired with my buddy Tony again. Tony was running Amalar, Amalar, Thrall. He decided he'd rather not play Morts so he conceded. 2-1

After that they ran the last qualifier with the 3 people who weren't qualified buying in. We had a players meeting after that and discussed how to do Day 2 with the amount of people we had. Options were to run 1 round of playoff tonight to get the Top 8 and then only the Top 8 come back in the morning, running 2 rounds of swiss and then a cut to the top 8, running 3 rounds of swiss and then a cut to top 4, or running 5 rounds of swiss with final standings being where you placed. After some discussion the decision was made to run 5 rounds of swiss as it gave everyone the best chance.

Jason, Tony, and I playtested alot that night. Jason was set on Triple Iranas and I was pretty sure I wanted to do Morts as I felt good about them after the Constructed Qualifier. Tony was thinking Triple Amalar but he wasn't sure on the third Amalar as he had no answer for Ice Blocks. We playtested Illiana but she wasn't the answer he was looking for. After a few games, he settled on Champion Shadowsun. We watched the UFC PPV and then got some sleep. We got up around 8:00 or so the next morning, got a few playtest games in at the last minute and then went over to the event room about 10:30. Everyone showed up and we got started around 11:00.

Round 1 I got paired with Steve. Steve was running Nathressa, Beren, and Timmo. This wasn't a bad game for Steve, but he wasn't able to kill any of the Morts. I was able to get through his 1 and 2 resist pretty easily and on Tick 15 I was at 16 points with 3 Morts attacking Timmo. It took all 3 attacks to do it, but I managed to kill Timmo for the win. 1-0

Round 2 I got paired with Woody. Woody was running Parvink, Filet, and Ruby. All Gnomes. Like the previous game, I didn't lose a Mort. I had 2 Morts that should have died. The dice were horrible to Woody in this match though, and I had some really hot dice at the end that pulled out the win for me. 2-0

Round 3 I got paired with Audis (Johnny Draco). He was running Crushridge, Boulderfist, and Dagg'um. All Ogres. My dice were horrible at the start of it. It took me 5 attacks from Morts and I think 2 attacks from Jhuroons to kill Dagg'um. That rough start was too much to overcome and despite me trying to rally, it just wasn't in the cards for me to pull it out. 2-1

Round 4 I got paired with Brian Wilson. He was running Haruka, Morova, and Morganis. He managed to kill one Mort, but I got some lucky dice and got some luck on his defensive rolls that let me get some damage in on Morova and Haruka so that Corruptions could kill them. I moved a Mort over to the VP to get the last 2 points I needed for the win. 3-1

So I wasn't sure how it'd work out. Looking at the 3-1s, I had played Johnny Draco and Woody and the only other one was my buddy Jason running Triple Iranas. You had Bin Chin at 4-0 and I knew I'd either get paired up or get paired against Jason. I got paired up against Bin for the Mort mirror match.

Round 5 it was Morts vs Morts. We were running similar action bar cards and I think this is where I made a mistake. After thinking about it today and reflecting on the game, I should have subbed out Pitzog for that 3rd Jhuroon. That probably would have done enough damage early on to have let me pull out the win. Outside of possibly switching that out, it was a great game between us. It went to time so we went to the Overtime ticks after that. I then managed to get a kill to tie us at 4. Bin had beat me to the hill with a full health Mortimer so he had 4 VP points to my 0. The kill tied us and sent it to Double Overtime. I knew I had 1 chance to win it because at the end of the next tick he'd get the last VP he needed to win. I had a shot at a 5 health Mortimer. If I kill it, I win, if I don't, Bin wins. I roll and get 4 successes and the crit for 5 damage. I need him to miss all 3 rolls. He rolls and misses 2 but blocks 1 point of damage to put him at 1 health. That's game. It was by far the closest WOW Minis game I've ever played. As it turns out the winner of this game was the winner of the tournament as well as had I been 4-1 I think my tiebreakers would have put me into 1st.

After all was said and done I came in at 3rd. Bin was 1st and Johnny Draco was 2nd. Brian Wilson rounded out the Top 4. My goal was to hopefully place 3rd or 4th and get the PS3 as I'd been wanting one for awhile. First would have been nice too as we had Thrall as the first shot mini and it looked SWEET! But I got what I mainly wanted and that's the Spectral Tiger and PS3. I'd been thinking about getting out of the game as there's nothing going on locally with it. Heroclix is back and we've been having good showings for it lately so I'm switching back over to that. Before I got out, I wanted to get a Tiger as it would then easily cover what I'd spent on the game. I've done that and can now leave on a good note. I'll probably put my stuff up on Ebay or sell it to a few online stores later on this week.

I want to thank everyone that I played over the weekend for some good games. I want to thank Acme Games for hosting it and also the Holiday Inn for being a great place to hold it. Great times and I'll be seeing some of you guys for the Spring Realms.

mulgore realms

1316808 — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:45:44 GMT

1st - poszgay - x3 Irana
2nd - justin #1 (me) - vashj, wavecaller, crushridge
3rd - justin #2 - vashj, x2 wavecaller
4th - trent - jaina, jezebella, savin
5th-8th - team grundahl (jeff, jeremy, bob) and katie - mostly things with amalars, aluna/haruka, X

team grundahl, which i believe infected katie, seemed to all have a warrior who would heroic leap to the vp on tick 1. seems good, until the vashj teams unload and kill him on tick 2. jeff did manage to nail me in swiss off a keen revenge from wilton thorn when vashj decided to epic fail her roll. my swiss fite with bob was close, vashj botched her roll to kill aluna at some point, swinging it in bobs favor, who was sittin pretty until amalar jacked up his sulfuras swing and someone else failed miserably on another attack roll. allowing me to just back off and win on time.

day 1 quals had between 4 and 7 people in them. Q'ing 2 or 3 people each. day 1 had oodles of matches conceded.
day 2 was 8 people, did the swiss to determine standings. i was unable to procure 3 iranas, so i knew my odds of beating trip iranas depends on miracle dice from vashj to cause 3 double irana kills. SO i aimed for 2nd place. knowing he would be seeded 1st, i needed to be in the opposing bracket, so placing 3rd-6th. came out 3-1 putting me in 4th. took down katie, trent wanted the ps3 prize (3rd or 4th), so he conceded. i had beaten him in swiss prior anyways, so logical move on his part.

poszgay and justin #2 had a bloody semi-finals fite. vashj was gettin super hot rolls and smashin iranas, but poszgay still pulled the win out while #2 was at 24 points, needing 29 to win. my vashj version has probably a somewhat lower chance to win against iranas as i would be missing a counterspell and FS or poly, thus i conceded as well.

seemed that everyone was content in their practically guaranteed chicken loots.

Wetlands Realms top 8

2983185 — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:26:31 GMT

Well, first of all: I want to thank our German friends to come over and play on our Realms. It was a really fun experience to have you there and see you guys play your teams!

Now, I am horrible with names so I could make a few mistakes, please dont sue me for those :-P

1) Marcus (Wilton Thorn x3)
2) Jeffrey (Elizabetha x2 + Haruka)
3) Hans (Trip Irana)
4) Christoff (Kael'Thas, EFS x2)
5) Maurice (Velen Wall)
6) Wilbert (myself!) (Dralor, Parvink, Vi'gor)
7) Joske (Murloc, Murloc, Death watcher)
8) Allard (Graccus, Irana, Bolvar)

Thank you all for a great day, despite the low attendance, in part from bad luck with people making TCG Top 8 and broken down cars.

Oh.. and the Spare Ribs on the way back were wonderful :-)

A bit of a personal report to add as well: DPV seemed to have a good chance against the low honor hill rush teams because of it's melee killing power and Breakthrough/Distract, but had a bad matchup vs KT, Warlocks and Irana..

Seems this still isn't the tournament where my favorite warband would shine :-)

Howjling Fjords Realm Final

1740136 — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:53:46 GMT

1. Lady's and Gentleman Jaina, Namrah, Savin (Me)
2. Murlocks with only one iceblock (My brother)
3. Enraged Firespirit, Stormrager, Harvest Golem
4. I am not sure, but maybe HTAmalar

Thx Crits Happen for team. I tested quite a lot and when I first saw this team on crit happen It was immidiatly success on meta what I waited on our realm (random weak teams, murlocks and amalars). Jaina team have weakness agains warlocks, but I didnt really believed anyone have 3 mortimers and I also added Mass Dispell to Namrah..

We had 8 players and we played 4 rounds swiss and top 2.
First round I played agains my brother. Murlocks looked better on Meta and my brother win a game which mean I should win all other 3 matchess. (Our coal was win travel voucher and PS3).

Second round I played agains Haruka, Thangal and Amalar. Not easiest match, but I should win this game anyway. Game began awfull and I almost get my Epic killed becouse my mistakes. I get my team back to business thx for Namrahs great heal ability and then it was easy just nuke everything while Savin take ticks with wisdom.

Third rounds I played agains team who havent answer for IB.

Fourth rounds I played agains elemental team. I cant but together this equation but I think his team was really good, he was good miniature player but He hadnt played many games before. Again start was bad His elementals break my team and I lost immidiatly Savin and Epic was on 3 health. Again Namrahs heals save some ticks for me and pet hurted elementals. Sad I got 2 opponents characters just to 1 health. I was sure I had losted this game, but then Savin cameback and I was rdy to start this teams awesome DPS. Couple ticks later I was full health and all opponents killed.

Final was Me agains My brothers Murlocks.
It was my turn to win and actually this team Can't lose Murlocks.

Teldrassil Realms

1069235 — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:17:14 GMT

Well I figured I would get this started up. I wish I had taken notes so hopefully Jerry will fill in the holes for me.

1st. Bin Chin- Trip Morts
2nd. Audis Turner (Me :D)-Crushridge Ogre, Dagg'um, and Boulderfist Warrior
3rd. Jerry Cook- Trip Morts
4th. *I can't remember name*- I think this was trip Irana
5th.?
6th.?
7th.?
8th. Steve (sorry forgot your last name but thx for telling me and Matt about the hotel down the road)-Beren, Timmo, and Nathressa

I was really wanting to run Fishsticks but the more I play tested the Ogres I fell in love with them. And to top it off the figure Bin walked away with was Mudda F'ing Thrall, gratz man.

Tanaris Realms top 4

2678688 — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:47:23 GMT

We only had 9 people qualify for day 2 at this realms so our organizer had us play 5 rounds of swiss and then broke into top 4. Sorry about not remembering your last name Matt so help me out with a post.

1. Corle Huffman - Vaj, Crushridge, Wavecaller
2. Matt - Trip Zomm
3. Corey Ivy - Trip Mort
4. Jason Bodenhoefer (me) - Kael and 2 Talon lords

I had a great time and was honored to play with some of the top people out there. Even though it was small attendance i got to play with some major players and it felt good.

Winterspring Day 2 Results

1754046 — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 23:22:10 GMT

Greetings,

Just got back from the Winterspring RC and figured I would post the results since the coverage has not been flooding the main site.

Results from Day 2, 9 people in the second day:

1)Michael Allen - Triple Irana
ABCs: Iceblockx3, Flamestrikex3, Polymorphx3

2)Ming Zhang - Triple Irana
ABCs: Iceblockx3, Flamestrikex3, Polymorphx3

3)Francois Jacques - Sidian Morningblade/Wilton Thorne/Magistrix Enaria
ABCs: Signet of Eternal Life, Flash of Light, breakthrough, Heroic Leap, polymorph, Arcane Blast, flamestrike, hammer of Justice, Foreman's Reinforced Helmet.

4) Jocelyn Beausoleil - Vashj/Crushridge/Wavecaller
ABCs: Crimson Hawk, Soulseeker, Purgex2, Healing Wave, Wrath of Air totem, Arcane Flux, Polymorph, and Flamestrike.

5) Marc - Kael'thas, Enraged Fire Spirit, Storm Rager
ABCs: Kael'thas' Flame Strike, Flame Strikex2, Elemental Charge, Chain Lightining, Wrath of Air Totem, Polymorph, Air Drop, and Mana Potion.

6) Kyle (also neglecting the last name, from Syracuse). Mortimerx3.
ABCs: Corruptionx3, Curse of Agonyx2, Jhuroonx3, Piztog

7) Eric Ma - Kael'thas, Enraged Fire Spirit, Deathwhisperer
ABCs: Bulwark, Avoidance, Signet of Eternal Life, Elemental Charge, Kael'thas' Flame strike, Flamestrikex2, Polymorph, Counterspell)

8) Jean-Philippe Thériault - Sidian Morningblade/Wilton Thorne/Magistrix Enaria
ABCs: Signet of Eternal Life, Flash of Light, breakthrough, Heroic Leap, polymorph, Arcane Blast, flamestrike, hammer of Justice, Foreman's Reinforced Helmet.

9) Julie VanDusky-Allen - Triple Irana
ABCs: Iceblockx3, Flamestrikex3, Polymorphx3

If you have more information, let me know and I will update it as appropriate. In case people are keeping tabs, the first shot figure I received was the Tidehunter.

Eastern Plaguelands Top8

2513750 — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:17:16 GMT

1. Oskar (Cairne, Haruka, Shadowsun)
2. David (Dralor, Vigor, Jaina)
3. Przemo (Jaina, Savin, Jezbella)
4. Marecki (Haruka, Thangal, Shadowsun)
5. Sławek (Irana x3)
6. Martin (Dralor, Vigor, Jaina)
7. [???]
8. Josif (Bolvar, Savin, Gracuus)

:)

Durotar Day 2

899327 — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 04:27:39 GMT

Congrats to mrw01 for winning the Durotar Relams! Finals were Double Elizabetha and Daleas Firewing vs Jaina Zoo with Elannas. mrw01 was able to win 2-0 in the finals with the Warlocks and Mage in a very close match up. congratulations and thank you to all who helped make the weekend an awesome one!

PS - mrw01 got a Elendril First Shot... was pretty sweet looking!

Azshara Realm Championship

1350297 — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 23:16:11 GMT

Congrats to all who played today. Top 4 was Scott Watson(Trip Irana) Vs. Andrew Trebing(Velen Wall) and Ben Isgur(Arugal/Bleakheart/EFS) Vs. Patrick Peak(Double Kaustron Zoo). Finals was Ben Isgur Vs. Scott Watson with Ben Isgur Taking the Finals and becoming the New Azshara Minis Realm Champion. Congratulations to Russell Bregman, Michael Ayars, Larry Cheng, and James Wirsing for making top 8. Hope everyone had fun.

Realms: French top8

2649126 — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 18:49:58 GMT

1 Pierre Malherbaud (Elizabeth Cairnwillow, Haruka, Thangal)

2 Vincent Carry (MortimerX3)

3 Nicolas Deleris (MortimerX3)

4 Tony Gallon (Elizabeth Cairnwillow, Haruka, Thangal)

5 Xavier Prein (Lady Vashj, Elemental fireX2)

6 Eric Sanloup (Elizabeth Cairnwillow, Haruka, Thangal)

7 Thibault Flamini (Air Elemental, Fire Elemental X2)

8 Alex Egal (Elendril, don't remember).

Durotar Realms - Day 1

899327 — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 04:36:56 GMT

http://www.critshappen.com/2009/11/durotar-realms-day-1.html

Good times today with about 15 or so-ish people... hope to get more up soon... Double Enaria and Wilton took the day with a tick 7 win over Vashj... insane JJ, insane!

Wednesday Weekly Warband

899327 — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:51:49 GMT

Figured I would start letting folks know that my weekly articles are up here as well in case some new peeps didn't know about my blog... this week's warband is small in size, but packs a punch!

http://www.critshappen.com/2009/11/wednesday-weekly-warband_11.html

Enjoy!

One Man's Junk: Part Six, Celenias Firemane

1205778 — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 03:50:20 GMT

After some ponderous pondering I decided to go with Celenias this week. I felt like he/she/it would really stretch my imaginative potential. As you may have noticed I have been trying to pick out characters with some kind of unique feature that I feel sets them apart, and then build to maximize them. So here is my analysis of the situation: raw statwise, Celenias fits in with the average for ranged characters at that honor cost. but he doesn't come with any of the nifty little secondary abilities that make the other characters interesting. The 1.5 dice to tick ratio is average as well, although being at the lower end of the spectrum for dice rolled per attack his attacks will often be inneffectual. We come now to one of the three things that make Firemane a potential candidate for One Man's Junk: the crit. Adding +1 attack counters can make a peashooter into a cannon, with enough time. Unfortunatley for our little friend, these magical little counters disappear after ticks 5 and 10. This means that even if he crits every attack, the most dice he will ever roll in a single attack is 5. Good while this is good, it can only happen once per 10 ticks, and only with back to back crits starting on the first tick after the removal trigger. And with only 3 dice to get things rolling, you can see that our chances are a little bleak. Let's try to fix that.

Team 1: Drood Luv, 15 Honor
Morova of the Sands
-Moonkin Form
-Mana Potion
Celenias Firemane x2
-Hunters Mark
-Call Old Bones x2
-Misdirection x2
-Arcane Shot x2

The second and third important things about Celenias is that he is cheap, and has access to hunter ABC's. For this next team we are going to flood the board with 6 figures for a mere 12 honor.

Team 2: Discount Zoo Tickets, 12 Honor
Celenias Firemane x3
-Call Bloodclaw x3
-Call Fury x3
-Serpent Sting x2
-Hunters Mark

So, as usual, I saved the funnest for last.

Team 3: Debufferiness, 17 Honor
Morova of the Sands
-Moonkin Form
-Moonfire
-Entangling Roots
Magistrix Kiala
-Incinerate
-Curse of Weakness
-Curse of Agony
Celenias Firemane
-Hunters Mark
-Serpent Sting
-Viper Sting

Dot 'em up and unload Incinerate on them! Celenias is not the star of the show here, but in theory he works really well because he can double debuff a single mini on the same turn, or two separate minis, also on the same turn, all from a range of four. That, and his low honor cost, making this team cheaper than trip Morts (not that I am saying that this could hang with Morts). But 17 Honor is pocket change these days. Lets just put it this way, this team can burst it down even the toughest epic in the first couple of ticks in the game. Celenias puts Hunters Mark and Serpent Sting on it, generating rrs, Morova Moonfires, followed by a starburst Wrath, Kiala Curses with Weakness, and then Incinerates for 8 attack power. All on the same tick. Viola, one BBQed epic just got you half of your VPs. Odds are pretty good that Kiala will crit and ready incinerate. Of course, that is only if you want to burn all your debuffs on a single target. Dang, I just thought of what this would do to Wall plus Graccus. A two fer one deal, right there. I hope you enjoyed this installment, next week will feature Rexxar.

BlackBloc (Jez/Savin/Jain) vs Wulfgar5150 (Trip Amalar) Match Results

899327 — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 03:15:25 GMT

Match Results are up of the first Vassal Battle of the Boards

http://www.critshappen.com/2009/10/wednesday-weekly-warband-special.html

Enjoy!

One Man's Junk; Part Eight, Frost Nova

1205778 — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 03:44:38 GMT

Yep, you read the title right. No Yanna this time. Sorry to disappoint. I needed a change of pace, and honestly I have been a little swamped lately. So I am falling back on an old idea that I originally proposed in the strategy forums. How many of you have ever looked at Frost Nova and thought, "Cool! I wanna break this wide open!" Umm, I just might be the only one I guess. Lets have a look and see what we can figure out about Frost Nova. There are only a few ABCs that are designed to gain advantage through net ticks. Polymorph, Gouge, Frost Nova and Summon Santuria do the job straight up, while others like Mocking Blow and Thunder Clap may or may not actually net extra ticks above the invested cost. Out of these, Gouge and Frost Nova are the most similiar. Both are instants that provide a net increase of one tick. However, the similiarity ends there. Frost Nova has a strict advantage over Gouge for the following reasons; it can affect more than one enemy character, and because it doesn't target it can be used with Polymorph. On the flip side, your Frost Nova comes with a rather fragile Mage attached to it. Unlike the Rogue/Gouge set which wants to be up close and personal, Mages seek to shoot stuff from as far away as possible. Mages are the squishiest of the classes, generally having less health and resist than equivalent clothie counterparts. In fact, aside from epics and two monsters, mages have 6 or less health, the majority having only 5 health. So it is bad news if your mage is close enough to use Frost Nova. Unless you use one of the following:

Team 1: Tick Tock, 12 Honor
Magistrix Enaria x3
-Frost Nova x 3
-Arcane Flux x2
-Polymorph x2
-Ice Block x2

Ice Block is a little counter intuitive to the Frost Nova strat, but these little guys don't cost much and against the right team IB can let you finish what you started. Polymorph of course works wonderfully with Frost Nova. The only downside is not being able to nuke them while they are sheeped. The crit and the Nova, if lucky, can really push the tick advantage your way.

Team 2: Supernova, 24 Honor
Razaani Nexus Stalker x3
-Frost Nova x3
-Arcane Flux x2
-Polymorph x2
-Flamestrike x2

The Nexus stalker has to get up close and personal as it is, and the stats are much beefier than most mages. In addition to that, Astral Traveler lets you really set up your Frost Novas for maximum effect.

For the next team there was some discussion here. http://entertainment.upperdeck.com/WOW/COMMUNITY/forums/thread/1787647.aspx
Tinker potentially gets to ready Frost Nova every tick using Flux and Wisdom. The most likely scenario is using a second Tinker to ensure the lockout and supply Polymorph. However,I would propose that Dizdemona could be a viable third mini instead. Dizzy is less fragile and can self heal with crits. Bringing along Santuria to help with the lockout, and either Hellfire or Curse of Agony for locked out enemy characters.

Team 3: Frost Lock, 24 Honor
Tinker
-Arcane Flux
-Frost Nova
-Polymorph
Dizdemona
-Summon Santoria
-Curse of Agony
-Hellfire
Savin
-Bulwark of Azzinoth
-Blessing of Protection
-Flash of Light

That Polymorph is for stuff that has "can't be ticked up" text on it, just in case your BG has someone that likes ogres or something. Polymorph cannot tick them up, but they lose their abilities until their next turn, so Frost Nova will still actually work on them if you can get to them before their next turn.

I hope you enjoyed this weeks installment. If there is an ABC that you would like to see broken wide open, let me know. No clue what I am doing next week. Tune in anyway, lol.

One Man's Junk: Part Nine, Yanna Dai'shalan/Lacerate

1205778 — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 05:11:56 GMT

Welcome to this week’s edition of One Man’s Junk. We will be doing something new this time. Analysts have informed me that a new gimmick or hook is necessary every issue in order to retain readers. Apparently, in an era of near instant gratification, attention spans have deteriorated to the point of near non-existence. Good writing just isn’t enough anymore, although it could be argued, quite successfully I might add, that I am not a good writer. But I digress. Allow me to introduce our first Double Feature, featuring Yanna Dai’shalan and Lacerate! I have been working on the Yanna problem for quite awhile now, and in the process have found a new spot in my heart for Lacerate. How did we get from A to B? Well, it began something like this.

As usual, I was doing a basic breakdown of the potential feature mini. Four honor characters all come with a couple of things in common. Really low stats and horrible dice to tick ratios. Yanna is no exception to the rule, however she has two things going for her. Number one, she is Balance specced. That means access to Moonkin Form. This makes Yanna a cheap support character for your favorite beatdown mini. The problem is that her 4 tick 5 dice attack means she is gonna sit out a lot of the match, either because she is ticked up, or because you don’t dare tick her up in case you need her to be able to move around and be a portable Boots of the Crimson Hawk for your more powerful characters. The second thing going for Yanna is that she is a druid. Druids, simply by virtue of being what class they are, are able to set aside garbagy main attacks with a single ABC. Sure, Yanna is Balance, ergo Boomkin, but, in the minis version, there is no inherent disadvantage for her to use a different form entirely. Bear Form and Cat Form really bend the rules for what is permissible for a low honor character. There are only 3 minis of that caliber that have a standard attack of two ticks for 4 dice, and they pay for that damage boost with their stats. Cat Form gets Yanna all that, with an increase in stats. Let’s not forget the bonus from stealth, not to mention an awesome crit. Then you have Bear Form. This is where you really get your money’s worth, as far as I am concerned. Check this out: you can have a four honor character with 2 armor, 2 resist, 7 health, and a 3 tick 5 dice attack, with damage +1 on crits, that has a debuff that potentially rivals Curse of Agony. Sounds like a steal? Oh yeah, let’s throw Taunt in just for kicks and giggles. Coincidentally enough, Yanna’s Nature’s Grasp works beautifully with the whole idea of Bear Form.

Now what was that debuff nonsense I was talking about again? Ah, Lacerate. On the surface Lacerate is merely a glass-half-empty version of Corruption; half the cost, half the damage, a fraction of the range, and Recharge. Ok, now lets look at it with the glass-half-full perspective. It stacks, up to five times. This is the only debuff to date that does that. So with Recharge, the damage steps up like Curse of Agony. The differences between them actually makes them play very differently though. Lacerate is a lot harder to clear with debuff removal. A single Cleanse or Dispell will clear off Curse of Agony. If you have built up a bunch of Lacerates on a single target, each instance of it needs a separate removal, with the exception of Mass Dispell, but who actually uses priests besides me? Lacerate is slower, with each application costing a tick, and only having a range of 1. The other crazy thing about Lacerate stacking is that more than one character can place the debuff on a single enemy. Which leads to this:

Team 1: Bear with me, 12 Honor
Yanna Dai’shalan x3
-Bear Form x3
-Lacerate x3
-Moonkin Form
-Starfire
-Tranquility

Applying lacerate six times in 10 ticks = win, maybe. This is kind of like the old MC setup that everyone was talking about back when Spoils first came out. This has a little more staying power, especially if you opt to use Tranquility to get some heals in. Anything you can get 5 Lacerates on in the first round of the game is going to go down fast, even epics. Sprinkle in a couple of VPs from spots and now your cooking! Speaking of MC:

Team 2: Cauterized Wounds, 12 Honor
Yanna Dai’shalan x2
-Bear Form x2
-Lacerate x2
Marlowe Christophers
-Corruption
-Curse of Agony
-Incinerate
-Piztog
-Hellfire

With all those pretty Lacerates DOTting up everyone I thought it would be fun to give Incinerate a spin. Beef it up with Corruption or Curse of Agony. Or beef up your minis with Piztog. Hellfire pushes through that little bit of extra damage to get the job done.

For this last one I actually posted something similar in the Strategy Forum already. It is possible for a single Morova to apply Lacerate 4 times in 10 ticks. I suppose you could go triple Bear Morova, but I think that the following would be a lot more fun.

Team 3: Moooo, 22 Honor
Morova of the Sands x2
Thangal
-Bear Form x2
-Lacerate x2
-Moonkin Form
-Mana Potion
-Tranquility
-Mark of the Wild
-Cat Form

Thangal and one Morova go Bear. Rerolls for everyone and crits on 9’s. With all those extra cards you can mix it up for each matchup. Maybe double Morova Bear, with Thangal pulling healing and buffing duty. Thanks for reading. Gonna figure out something for next week where we tackle the second most maligned class in the game, rogues. (Wall of Text gains [Crit]: Reader’s brain explodes.)

One Man's Junk: Part Seven, Rexxar

1205778 — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 04:19:35 GMT

Greeting fearless readers! After numerous requests (two actually), I am featuring my first epic. One Man's Junk was Legendary with Chen Stormstout, but never before has this column been EPIC! (Small aside here, the article itself is not actually epic, just the featured mini). Fine print and disclaimers aside, lets move on, taking large epic strides.

First, an indepth analysis of Rexxar. 10 health, good. 3 armor, good. 1 resist, bad. That is going to be a problem. Twin Axes, three ticks for a four dice melee attack, crit heals one from Rexxar and one from Misha. Not cool. Oh wait, missed this; Make this attack twice. May choose a different target. Now we're talking! This deserves some serious thought. Eight dice for three ticks is the most ridiculous standard attack to date.The downside of dividing the attack is that you effectively double the defenders armor. Four dice attacks can really pose a problem when trying to force damage through. To get a feel for how good or bad Twin Axes is, lets compare it to similiar effects present in the game.

Anyone that thinks Ripped to Shreds is good, raise your hand (unless you are at work or school while reading this; that could be embarassing). Seems pretty good to me. Too bad you only get to use it once every ten ticks. How about critting with Vindicator Hoodon, Illiana Sunshield, or a druid in Cat Form? I get excited everytime that happens for me. What if that happened everytime you attacked, without needing to crit, and the second attack could target a different defender, and on top of that crits healed you? I think you get the picture. While splitting the attack does double the defense dice rolled, it also doubles the effects of buffs like Mark of the Wild and Blessing of Might, along with allowing Rexxar to crit twice on the same tick.

Moving on, Champion of the Horde. Holy. Freaking. Cow. I had to reread that the first time I saw it. Rexxar just has to kill stuff, kind of the point of the game, and he gets bigger. I would like to point out here that every +1 attack counter is secretly a +2 attack counter, thanks to the double attack. (A quick aside here for those that my not be in the know. Champion of the Horde was errata'ed to specify non-pet enemy characters. That means no whacking totems for counters). With two or three counters on him even high armor characters will not be able to withstand the onslaught. The only trick is getting Rexxar to do the actual killing himself. Depending on the build, I think I might have to call this one gravy. Unless you can find a way to keep Rexxar on the board for the entire game, the counters will not build up enough to be game breaking.

On to ABC's. Some epics see play at least partially because they have an amazing action bar card. Highlord Bolvar Fordragon with Bolvar's Retribution would be an example of that. Rexxar is the same. Misha, or as I like to refer to her, Triple Axe, is the best pet per tick in the game with great stats and the highest power pet attack in the game, all at the bargian price of one tick. Now Rexxar is swinging 13 dice per three ticks. With the first ABC in place now we run into a snag. Twin Axes is a melee attack, which is a bit odd considering he is a hunter. There are melee hunters in the MMO (rofl), so I guess its OK, except that Arcane Shot, Multishot and Hunters Mark only work with ranged attacks. The stings cramp Rexxars style, he needs every tick available for Twin Axes, and Distracting Shot would only be useful against Wall teams. Nightmare Blade is in the same boat, although the reroll is nice. That pretty much leaves Boots of the Crimson Hawk and Misdirection. Hopefully some traps or something comes out with Souls, 'cause that is a hard box to think outside of.

I see Rexxar builds going two ways. Zoo style, with hardcore pets, or an endurance build so Rexxar keeps building up those counters.

Team 1; Menagerie, 22-24 Honor
Rexxar
-Call Misha
-Misdirection
-Nightmare Blade
Mortimer the Malign x2
-Summon Jhuroon x2
-Corruption x2
-Curse of Agony x2

All the pets and dots will really help soften targets up for Rexxar. Jhuroon isn't a bad candidate for Misdirection either. I saw on the forums someone using Elizabetha Cairnewillow and Expendible as a dump for Misdirection, which probably works pretty well as long as the lock is near Rexxar. My preference would be simply using the pets and keeping the locks a safer distance away.

Right after Spoils came out there was a flurry of discussion on a thread started by Siggie about how to make a viable Rexxar team that keeps him on the board. See here http://entertainment.upperdeck.com/wow/community/forums/thread/1743491.aspx . You may notice that there are a lot of preconceptions voiced that have since become obsolete. Like 24 Honor being really high. Lets revisit the concepts lurking here and see if we can look at them with a more seasoned perspective. What the thread boils down to is essentially this; tank, healer, Rexxar. Wilton Thorne is the best Horde warrior tank, having an extra resist to go along with his protector. There is also access to Sunder Armor. Illiana has protector, and an On Card Heal. She also brings Blessings for some serious buffing. Hulok is a good dedicated healer, having an OCH that has a better tick ratio than Illiana, and has access to something that was completely overlooked back then. Tranquility. Silk Bandage can be really good in the right band. Vashj teams have been successfully taking advantage of it with Rethilgore. Tranquility is Silk Bandage on steroids. Hulok, with his evenly split defensive stats, is also a little hardier than most dedicated healers. Naturally I elected not to go with any of these viable choices.

My epic support minis of choice have been Alleyah Dawnborn and Thangal. Blessing of Sacrifice helps distribute the damage so Tranquility can heal multiple targets. Gift of the Wild reduces damage through defensive rerolls and greatly enhances Tranquility, minimizing the failed heals. Wrath fills the same niche, whenever it crits. If they focus on Alleyah, so much the better for Rexxar. If I was to play Rexxar, this would be what I would bring:

Team 2; Train Rex, 26-30 Honor
Rexxar
-Call Misha
-Boots of the Crimson Hawk
-Nightmare Blade
Thangal
-Tranquility
-Mark of the Wild
-Cat Form
Alleyah Dawnborn
-Sulfuras, Hand of Ragnaros
-Flash of Light
-Cleanse

Thanks for reading folks. You may have noticed the number of teams diminishing as the column has progressed. I am not sure if that is a good thing or not. Apparently my creativity is not limitless. Do you like having more teams, most of which will be zany and worthless? Or would you prefer fewer that may have been better thought out, and that may still be insane? Let me know and stay tuned next week when we return to the Alliance for some drood luvin with Yanna Dia'shalan.

French National result

2649126 — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 19:33:51 GMT

1/4 Final

Sandy Thevenon (Jaina Zoo) win against Xavier Prein (Vashj, Rethilgore, Elemental Fire)

Guillaume Matignon (Jaina, Vigor, Savin) win against Sylvie ? (Velen Wall)

Pierre Malherbaud (MortimerX3) win against Tony ? (Velen Wall)

Nicolas ? (Velen Wall) win against Vincent Carry (Vashj, Rethilgore, Bloodscale Wavecaller)

1/2 Final

Sandy Thevenon win against Guillaume Matignon

Nicolas ? win against Pierre Malherbaud

Final

Sandy Thevenon win against Nicolas ?

Southeast Asia Continental Championship (Minis) Coverage

1240151 — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 17:54:28 GMT

Coverage for WoW Minis SEACC 2009 is up, all articles can be found HERE. Party lists, player profiles and more will follow.

Syphonhail's GenCon Report

1754046 — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 11:43:28 GMT

Preamble: I initially started to write this report Thursday afternoon prior to departing for Gencon. Consequently, some of the report is written in present tense as I was writing it as it happened. I initially had saw my friend Harrison Fisk’s TCG report he had done for Boston and after Lankybrit’s day by day report starting up on the TCG forums on Wednesday, I decided to strike a middle ground by capturing in the moment decisions/thoughts/random events while also giving a snapshot of matchups as time went on.   Thus, when I started, I imagined it to be more in the vein of Harry’s mid-range reporting and only the swiss rounds would get some analysis (due to not breaking into the top 8) so other low key players could see it, perhaps enjoy it, and maybe provide their own reports as we are lacking them on the minis forums. I, naturally, did not envision that I would be making it deep into the tournament as my national success has been nil prior to this.

Some of the reports are reconstructed from my game notes on the 12-hour drive back from Indianapolis and may make some errors or missed some important things (or I might have screennames wrong).< So, if I do make errors, please correct them or add what I missed in our matches together.

Syphonhail’s Gencon Report.

After we both topped 8 in Connecticut for Realm Champs, my fiancée (Julie) and I have been toying with the idea of more national competition. The first stop was Boston, but her summer job presented a barrier and I ended up going without her and our party of 4 dwindled to 3. After lots of schedule re-arrangement and finally getting everything worked out, we decided to depart Friday and play Saturday and Sunday for gencon. If all goes well, we will not have to spend anything but travel money.After our internal online and offline testing, our final Team List came down to this:

Lady Vashj
Crushridge Ogre
Wavecaller

ABCs:

Soulseeker
Boots of the Crimson Hawk
Chain Healx2
Healing Wave
Polymorph
Ice block
Flamestrike

The ninth card had some contention through various play testing. Julie opted for stoneclaw totem to give us a better edge in the Cairne matchups since Breakthrough can’t teleport totems. I went with counterspell for a few reasons. First, if I make it to day two, most people are going to know ice block is on the list and side in their hate against it (if they have it) or play around it. As such, it becomes a great substitute to ice block when I need it. Second, some matchups are going to have Ice block hate from the start and I can either CS it or use it on another spell so the wavecaller can sit in the middle longer.

The double chain heal is to provide a better response to Velen. Against Velen, we are using Soulseeker/Chain Heal on Vashj as critting can become more of a curse with the Hand of Ragnaros in play (forces vashj to take another point of damage when we may not want her to) and critting with SS doesn’t hurt nearly as much as we are trading a kill for a damage. The mage is running polymorph/Ice block against Velen and the Ogre is stuck with his two heals.

Our Mortimer matchup seems solid and our only real concern will be Mortimers/Kael’thas teams. Ideally, I am hoping that Kael’thas does not appear or faces enough bad matchups that we do not have to worry about him.

Thursday 8/13

We pack up and clean up the house. Make sure the bunnies are well fed until we have a coworker stop by and feed them.

Friday

The plan is to wake up and depart by 7am. We live about 11 hours from Indianapolis, so driving 5.5 hours a piece should be fun!

I won’t bore you with the details of our road trip, but one discussion/change of significance came out of the drive. After some debate in the 12 hour car drive to Indianapolis, we dropped both of our alternative cards to pick up purge. I began to lean this way after I did one or two matches offline on Vassal and realized that counterspell became hard to fit in for the matchups I wanted it. The need for purge seemed more acute as Gencon updates started reporting the arrival of an Irana iceblock team. Consequently, if needed, we could put it on Vashj and still have a few heals open (while not ticking vashj up) or just throw it on the Ogre.

We arrive in Indianapolis around 7pm and get to sit in traffic for about an hour as the Colts’ game clogs downtown. We end up going to Gencon that night to try and pick up our badges (we had made arrangements with UDE ahead of time to make sure we were able to pick them up late) and that ended becoming a struggle as phones were not being answered and the Gencon staff didn’t necessarily trust us with our stories of Free, after hours, access. Eventually this all gets resolved as I had the email on my phone to verify our story. We head back, get our badges, and try to scope out some play of minis, but the minis action is dwindling by this point. Ian Stickland offers up some of the spicier events from the last day or so and we depart from Gencon.

Saturday

Wake up on time, head to the tournament and we are pleased that we decided to get our badges yesterday instead of Saturday morning – doing the latter would have likely made us miss the tournament. Julie, the only woman in the tournament, gets a first round bye.

Round One: David Ignacio

Ahh, the first match is accompanied by the smell of Fresh vinyl. All participants received a vinyl copy of the Continental’s map which is a great boost to start the day.    David brought Savin, Velen, Tinker to the board for a high-dps variant that was more Savin-speed bump than Savin-wall by opting out of Graccus’ high stats and Blessing of Sacrifice and allowing for a more vulnerable character to be exposed at times. However, in a tight map as this, the exposure is drastically reduced and may not be a vulnerability.

The threat by this team is its extraordinarily high DPS that has both efficiency (tick versus output wise, the definition of dps), but is also quick (a slow attacking team can have the same DPS, but have punctuated hits) and thereby offers the ability to remove your characters from play in between your attacks. Tinker+Velen brings 16 Dice to the table every 2 ticks and every crit means an additional point of damage.

Unfortunately for David, the crits where not with him during round one. Within the first 5 or 6 ticks, an arcane fluxed tinker rolled about 25-30 dice and failed to crit every single time. The lack of sufficient rolls was impacted more severely by the ABC choices for this match. As stated earlier, I was hoping that any shaman/mage team facing our Vashj variant would not be packing purge/spellsteal in the early stages of the tournament. If we ran the murloc mage instead of the wavecaller, Triple Iranas, or triple murlocs, the choice of purge/spellsteal is obvious against our team; however, a self-sufficient Wavecaller does not always bring the threat of ice block. For example, Ayers’ Vashj team ran the wavecaller, but did not use a space for ice block, so it would be a gamble to bring either spell regardless.

By the end of the match, David was regretting the bad gamble and later revealed that he had purge and spellsteal on the sideboard and clearly wished he had some hint that I was playing ice block, as his matchup would have been much more favorable to his party. The final score was 29 to 18.

1-0

Round Two: Drew Cottongim

Drew’s a great guy from Texas who I ended up talking with and trading progress updates between us for the rest of the tournament. He packed the Jaina Zoo with Ryno variant. From my and Julie’s testing, we thought we could gain an advantage against zoo if they didn’t pack spellsteal/counterspell or if we played the flamestrike aggressively enough from the beginning . Drew saw the flamestrike threat and positioned properly so that Ryno/Jhuroon and Jaina were the most likely targets and their resist would carried them through the attack. Unfortunately, the Kaustron’s Old Bones did not become active until much later in the match and this lead Jaina to be slaughtered by Vashj on two occasions. Also, his Old Bones remained available to protect Jaina from one of the Flamestrikes but he opted not to, when I asked him about this later on, he, like many players, did not realized that if your protector is not a defender in an AE attack, it is able to protect one of the defenders.

I did allow some mistakes in my play during this match. An obstinate Kaustron was refusing to die despite multiple Vashj attacks, and this lead me to leaving her exposed for an extended period of time. However, he could not finish her off and I was able to end the game at 30-8. If I recall correctly, I think Drew ended up playing our Vashj variant in the DMF – I am not sure how he did, but I think the map is far less favorable to this team than the continentals map.

2-0

Round Three: Corey Ivy (Dclown)

This “feature match was my first of a few that were in the feature match area, but I don’t think the game coverage extended beyond the one or two onlookers around the barricade. After round 2, I had stated that I wanted to play Mortimers early on so I could evaluate my long term chances in the tournament, and I was “blessed” with the opportunity this round. The game was not overly spectacular, but one of the defining moments of the game came early when a Jhuroon was taunted by a fully dotted wavecaller and allowed the ice block to go off, removing all of the dots. This made the game much more favorable to me and allowed me to pull off a tight victory end the end.

I did make a mistake early in the game by allowing Vashj to get dotted prior to tick 5 and forcing me to play more aggressively, this mistake was not repeated in future Mortimer matchups as I hid vashj until after tick 5 (allowing the mage to act again and getting more damage in by all of the characters).

3-0

Round Four: Nathan Westlake (Coraythan)

This was my first Velen-wall matchup and I opted for the Soulseeker/Chain Heal on vashj fearing the Hand of Ragnaros. After the dice are rolled, I expose Soulseeker and notice no equipment from Nathan and thought he perhaps had a trick up his sleeve (apparently he had gone equipmentless during a previous match). He moves first, deploys Graccus and the game proceeds until about tick 3 when I toss out my first flamestrike, distribute damage, and Nathan announces my wavecaller receives a point of damage. After inquiring about the source, he realizes the problem and I see his ploy was actually an error.    Nathan, understandably, plays with the less enthusiasm as two pivotal ABCs are no longer playable and it quickly becomes a lopsided fight. I feel guilty for not actively informing him of his need to flip equipment up before he started his first turn, but feel the wave of Karma coming in pretty quickly.

4-0

Round Five: Matt Whaite (FantomKoala)

My second Mortimer matchup, after the close call in Round 3, I figure that I have the knowledge to carry this match through victory. Matt wins the die roll, deploys a Mortimer. I deploy my wavecaller as normal. He grabs a second Mortimer, begins to play it and summon a Mortimer and I quickly realize that I forgot to flip up my equipment. I confirm with Matt that it is too late to expose the equipment, and we proceed playing. I end up losing the match 18-23, one VP from having a win despite the two dead ABCs on Vashj.

Matt is a great guy to play against. I had the opportunity to play against him once or twice on Vassal, but this was our first live competition and the match was a relatively enjoyable experience despite my obvious error. He is a very solid player while also maintaining a very friendly attitude both on and off the map and I wouldn’t dread facing him in future tournaments. The match is over in about 21ish minutes, and we chat for a bit as he expresses empathy and guilt for my equipment mistake. His play style was a more aggressive Mortimer matchup than I had seen previously seen and probably made the match closer than it should have been at the end, but it also ended the match sooner than normal.

4-1

Round Six: Norvic Santos (becsquared)

After losing to Matt based on a silly mistake, I begin to sweat my final round as it is the likely final cut point for finals. I figured one or two 4-2s would make it into the top 8 and that my breaks were decent, but I did not want to default to chance for obvious reasons. Norvic piloted double Kiala and an Aluna. I was told Vashj had a great matchup against the team, but the unknown of not testing against this team made me nervous about my chances. To begin with, I opened up on his characters with full force from the middle and ignored Kiala’s and Aluna’s pet hoping to kill of their masters before they had a chance to be effectual. This strategy was paying off as I dominated the game 23-4; I controlled the VP and was dispatching his characters as they spawned. All of my characters had received some damage, but nothing overly significant. It was nearing a VP tick when I calculated that if I could bring down his low health (6 I believe) Kiala with Vashj, then I immediately win the game with 2 added VPS from controlling the center. The risk was putting Vashj on a hill and exposing her to an onslaught from his pieces. I opted for a quick win and failed miserably at rolling. The game came roaring back as Norvic racks up 16 (of his needed 19) points and I sit at 27. He cleverly fears my ogre away for my last shot of getting Two VPs from the middle and he surrounds the middle with his three characters. Having one Kiala at low health, but hidden and a second exposed but at full health, I am forced to throw all of my dice at the full health Kiala. The wave caller and the Ogre both get magic attacks in and brings Kiala down to about four health. Vashj respawns and runs up to the wavecaller, only needing to crit to win the game, otherwise I lose. I roll my 5 dice and no crit. I immediately begin to curse my luck and poor strategic choice earlier in the game as I pick up the final die to seal either person’s fate and I score a 9. My 20% last chance pays off and Norivc laments that last roll.

The biggest mistake here was to take the easy shot with Vashj and risk the game. If I had played more cautiously, I would have guaranteed victory at a slower rate while risking nothing. Obviously, the risk was not worth it as the only thing the alternative would cost me was time.

A 5-1 was a solid record and guaranteed my presence in the top 8. Julie ended up 18th with her 4-2 record, just shy two spots of a prize upgrade (and only one 4-2 made it into the top 8). After scouring the exhibition floor and finally getting pairings for Sunday (as well as a full decklist of the top 8 and Ming informing me that his money will be on Tony), we were able to retreat to our hotel, do a bit of swimming/chilling in the spa, and then study the GIB matchup. From my testing (online with Vassal, no one else was on though), I figured my matchup was largely in my favor due to Tony not having a direct answer to ice block and, from what I can tell, being forced to rely on his two AEs, equipment, and maybe Bolvar’s ret to remove the Wavecaller.

Sunday: Outrounds

I had set my alarm for about 7:00am to get to our 8:30 start time promptly. Our hotel was about 30 minutes away (a 12 mile drive down Meridian street). Somehow, for the first time since I owned it, I failed at the iPhone and didn’t set my alarm properly. I woke up at 7:45 and made the drive in about 20 minutes and walked quickly from where I left the car with Julie to the Upper Deck area. Nothing like a little sweat and panic to start the day. As I walked in, I saw Pozsgay walking quickly as well, fumbling for his badge, so I walked up behind him and tried to convince him that I had the authority to remove him from Gencon for not wearing a badge. He smirked and seemed satisfied that there were four of the top 8 were late to the 8:30 arrival.

Thankfully, I showered the night before and didn’t pursue some sort of biological warfare that I hear happens in some competitive card games.

Quaterfinals

I meet Tony (Maxlongstreet on the forums) a bit before our rounds and he seems to be a great guy in addition to a stellar player – like most Minis players in the game, I think we have a better crowd than several other games out there. My initial surprise is the distribution of equipment, for some reason I had put both the bulwark and the hammer on Graccus not thinking he would split up the damage with Bolvar. This would have been a bit more useful information if I had done some better scouting during Day 1 and just glanced at one of the other Bolvar players.

The match had a few swings in it. I initially dominated the board and have a healthy lead of 20-0 despite some obvious play errors that left Vashj open and taking attacks from the hammer of Ragnaros (Sheeped seacreatures do not have taunt), after ressing, Tony makes a stellar comeback as my defenses fall apart and the game becomes a dead heat. Half of the game is spent with Vashj running around, at one health, afraid of dying and being unable to attack due to Savin’s auto damage from Ragnaros. A few better rolls for Tony in the later part of the game could have been the difference between the win and the loss. As such, GIB turned out to be a worse matchup than I had initially believed and I now think my optimism was misguided.

A few things from BIG might have made the difference. Bad die rolls not withstanding, his second card on Graccus was a flash of light that did not see any play. This is partly due to the nature of Vashj hitting characters hard and fast (kind of like Brannigan’s law/love) – the few times Tony can heal, he will be using Bolvar’s retribution. Thus, by subbing in Avenger’s shield, he has an easy way to deal with the ice blocking wavecaller with 2 AEs and a non-attacking damage spell that the Wavecaller cannot block through.    This vashj variant likes to group in the middle and hug VPs, and the threat of multiple AEs would either punish the team with damage or force it to sacrifice VPs by spreading out. Additionally, I think I was able to block twice by random swings that probably should have been avoided – it did take the mage out of commission and had utility, though a dead mage is probably superior to an ice blocked one.

Tony, as with several players in the Championship, was a very good player and the match was much closer than I had expected, especially after my initial lead – this is a good reason not to despair over being crushed early on a match as I have seen many games decided in the late game and not who scored VPs first.

Semifinals

I won’t repeat my praises of Matt as a player here, but I will say that he probably undersold his chances. He publically did not desire to hit this version of Vashj and had an extreme dislike for my healing Ogre as a response to his mad dotting. This match played out a bit different than our previous one as I actually revealed my equipment. I started off with a few great dice rolls from my mage, but was later punished by the other side of luck by having a stretch of non-crits by Vashj. Matt made a few choices that he immediately regretted after each one and began to count his errors – this included a Jhuroon jumping down, attacking and then realizing that the sea creature had taunt. Ice block immediately popped and began to remove dots. Despite this, this was my first game of the tournament that went to overtime and was to end on tick 23. Ticks 21-23 were a rollercoaster where every action seemed to promise victory to either side if we received X amount of hits by an attack. After each of hopes being crushed by a failed attack here or there, Matt missed an attack on Vashj by opting to take out the ogre instead, and allowed me to win by VPs during the End of Match Procedures.

Finals

This set of matches has actual text coverage and the final results of match 3 are currently being debated on the forums as a catalyst for rules change. I did quip early on that the match was going to be decided by rules penalties as both of us were racking them up. I was one infraction away on the “announce-tick-action” guideline. So, without rehashing match 3 as much as I could, I can say that Michael Ayers is a very skilled opponent and I think he had the better war band for the mirror match by having a high dps output versus my relatively ineffectual healing. In another competitive event, I had lost a high level round to a small technicality to an opponent (who is now in the WoW community and reflected upon this when he heard what happened), and I know the pain of losing to something that seems relatively trivial in a significant round. As such, I had and still have empathy for Ayers, knowing that this is not only a bad way to win a match, but also a horrible way to lose one.    As a class act, he publically did not blame the judges, me, or anyone else but himself and lamented his ill-fated reroll. I do look forward to playing against him again and hope it ends under better circumstances.

Match one started with a mistake that Michael Pozsgay openly pointed out to me later on. I had played the wavecaller with polymorph and flamestrike, but instead of feigning the iceblock for the first part of the match, I opened with both moves early on and removed all mystery of what my wavecaller packed. Not playing the soulseeker was also an ABC mistake as the boots were not enough to take down vashj and the purge could have been easily left on the Ogre in place of Chain Heal. Chain heal is not an effectual spell when most of the characters are getting 2-shotted. Match one had me on the ropes as I trailed by 20 to 4 at one point in the match, but was able to recover enough VPs to win the first match with a few good rolls and positioning plays.

The second match lead to some configuration differences on both sides and my chances for victory required one-shotting a worgen with Vashj and Michael failing his final shot on my Ogre – neither point materialized.

After Matter

I would like to thank the judging and organizing staff of NACC. My interactions with Simon both here, online, and at Boston have been great and he is a good head judge to have in our community. I was finally able to meet Siggie in person after several online interactions, and I hope he continues to judge the event whenever possible. This is probably not in my interest as he catches all of my mistakes and is very strict on enforcement, but predictability of enforcement is desirable trait to have in a judge.

In the Final Match, Will Brinkman and I chatted about Poker for a significant period of time that made me recall Sklansky’s 1970 work The Theory of Poker. In it, he articulates the fundamental theorem of poker, a game theoretic concept placed into plain language:

Every time you play a hand differently from the way you would have played it if you could see all your opponents' cards, they gain; and every time you play your hand the same way you would have played it if you could see all their cards, they lose. Conversely, every time opponents play their hands differently from the way they would have if they could see all your cards, you gain; and every time they play their hands the same way they would have played if they could see all your cards, you lose.

In several of my matchups, it seemed like the result came down to making less mistakes than my opponents did. The dice may or may not punish a tactical error, but not making it in the first place is a more desirable route. Thus, in the long run, I need to tighten both my strategic game, plug the leaks, and make sure my formal style of play is consistent with the rules.

One Man's Junk: Part 6, ???

1205778 — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 03:10:29 GMT

Fear not intrepid readers! I have not abandoned you. After an awesome vacation, during which I did virtually nothing related to wow minis, it was pointed out that I have done nothing with the Horde faction to date. So now I will be doing a reassessment of what I am going to write on, so bear with me please. My primary difficulty is in deciding what to write on, since the Horde rocks! No bad minis in sight... OK, maybe not quite true. But the mantra of this column is essentially that there are no bad minis, just bad matchups. Got a horde mini you want to see featured? Let me know.

Gencon

1448151 — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 18:09:10 GMT

is amazing too, but is really tiring

it was my first gencon, or i would say WoWcon, coz i didn't have the chance to do something else than play wow. it was like playing wow for 16 hours a day, sleeping for 3 hours, and eat when i have the chance. thanks to 5 hour energy drink.

it was fun to play against all of you guys again, tcg or minis.

thanks to all the judge, and their warnings, i will have to admit i played carefully after all those warnings

thanks to all the people who signed my map, while looking at it, i did not see ben isgur's signature, ben i will bring it again at worlds, if you dont mind i would love you to sign it for me, thanks for the dice you lend me when i was playing the cards.

see guys at worlds