...and now, for the Darkmoon Faire Columbus Dream Machine tournament report! First, the decklist from last time!

Andy Hoang

Hero: Remba, Abbess of Ash

Allies: 20
1 Caretaker Mooncrier
1 Miner Stonedeep
1 Routeen
1 Weeble
1 Zandar Shadesprocket
1 Darynus
1 Vindicator Kaldel
1 Antikron the Unyielding
1 Breen Toestubber
1 Horace Shadowfall
1 Llyras Keeneye
1 Miner Steelwhiskers
2 Myriam Starcaller
1 Narthadus
1 Razak Ironsides
1 Stella Forgebane
1 Anchorite Onkoth
2 Vindicator Agran

Abilities: 3
1 Absorb Magic
1 Infusion of Fortitude
1 Melt Face

Equipment: 1
1 Devil-Stitched Leggings

Quests: 6
1 Against the Legion
1 The Spirit Polluted
1 Wanted: Durn the Hungerer
1 Marks of Kil'jaeden
1 Meeting with the Master
1 Sunfury Briefings

Round 1 — Michael Curtin (0-2 drop)
Arktos — won die roll

When Michael placed Arktos on the table, I tried to recall what the MotL feral talent card was. I asked a judge, and he didn’t know. He asked another judge, and he too didn’t know. I asked Jeremy Blair who sat not too far from me, and he didn’t know. How come no one knew? Then I realized why no one knew... it was a bad card (Feral Instincts). I sighed with relief. Game 1, I won on turn five when I hit my curve with a Kaldel on turn three, Myriam on turn four, and Sunfury Briefings on turn five. Game two was longer but I was in complete control. After the match, Michael told me he ran Arktos because of 1 Swipe he had in his deck. He also told me he was new to WoW and Limited, and I bid him good luck.

Games: 2-0
Die roll: 1-0

Round 2 — Jason Rippe (1-1 drop)
Fallenstar — lost die roll

Jason is MaskedAmoeba. It’s always nice to put faces to the forum names. Game one, he played Atani of the Watch on turn one (an unplayable card) and Tarwila turn two. I played Routeen, Zandar and Antikron, then Mooncrier. With the lack of pressure on his side of the board, I took him up to 15 damage by turn six. With Tarwila on the board, he Deafening Shout’d my board on turn six and my jaws dropped. Luckily, the next card I drew was Narthadus. Game two, he had Tarwila on turn two again, followed by a turn three and four Myriam. There’s really not much I could have done about that. Game three ended on turn six when I played Anchorite Onkoth with a Myriam on the board. Myriam battles ftw!

Games: 4-1
Die roll: 1-1

Round 3 — Andrew Hendricks (4-4, 48th place)
Fallingstar — won die roll

When I saw his hero, I knew he had Piercing Howl because there was no other reason to be playing the loyal hero with an inferior flip. Game one, I mulligan’d into a hand with a five drop as my cheapest ally. I lucked out and drew into a Miner Steelwhiskers, but a lack of turn one and turn three plays really hurt. His Bloodskull Destroyer went to town on my allies, and I had to drop Narthadus for his elusiveness to play around his weapon. I made 1 misplay this game; I attacked Narthadus (with 5 damage) into his hero when he had Whispering Blade out and 1 resource open. Whoops! He had me at 22 damage when I played Razak Ironsides, clearing his Stella, Caretaker Heartwing, and Zandar and I thought I had finally stabilized the board. He then played Breen Toestubber and a 1-cost protector. Unable to take out Breen and with no protectors, I took fatal damage the next turn. Game two, I drew into my nutty hand again with a turn two Kaldel, turn four Myriam, and a game-ending turn five Onkoth. Game three was a close game that I should have lost, but my opponent punted the game. He was on the play with a turn three Jezbella, and my hand was so weak that I played a Devil-Stitched as my turn four play, which he Smashed. He took me to 15 damage by turn six and then played Givon, giving him a complete lock on the board. Lacking protectors, and with him having lethal on the board, and I knew I lost the game at that point. I proceeded to empty my hand, playing Breen Toestubber and another ally to give my opponent an opportunity to misplay. Indeed he did. Rather than to try to race, which if he did he would have been able to deal lethal in two turns (Breen gave me 1 more turn), he played conservatively and cleared out my allies. He realized his mistake as he made it, but nevertheless that gave me the opportunity to turn the game around. I played Razak the next turn, cleared his board, and then took the win. He never drew his Piercing Howl.

One challenging aspect about limited is that, like Chess, you need to plan a couple turns ahead. Deciding whether your allies should trade, attack the hero, etc. and how that decision would change your options for the next few turns is tough. In Constructed, these decisions are easier. If you have a Shadowfury in your opening hand and you’re playing against rush, you already know what your turn five play would most likely be. This is one reason why I find limited to be so fun, and I was overjoyed to have squeaked out this win.

Games: 6-2
Die roll: 2-1

Round 4 — Jonathan Ruland (6-2, 10th place)
Remba, Abbess of Ash — won die roll

Oh boy, it’s a mirror match. As I stared at his hero, I wondered how this would pan out. Did I want to be the first to flip? Should I flip? Or should my Infusion of Fortitude land on my own ally? Game one, I played Breen on turn five, and he spent turn five flipping on my Breen. My turn six play was a flip to take her back... What a productive turn for both of us! Things stalled out for a bit as his turn six Weeble was matched by my turn seven Weeble. Turn eight, Jon decided to bust out his bomb card and played Spiritual Domination on my dead Breen. I suppose he would have loved to resurrect my Weeble, but she was still in play. I was still ahead on board position, and with an active Devil-Stitched and a super-sized Llyras he could not kill, I was able to finish the game. Game two, he played his other bomb: Demonfang Ritual Helm. Throughout the whole game, we were neck to neck as we both curved out and melted each other’s faces. But, my end game was superior and when I played Miner Stonedeep that he could not get rid of, it was over. He decked out with 5 damage on him versus 9 on me. He revealed to me an Infusion that he rowed.

Games: 8-2
Die roll: 3-1

Round 5 — Josh Demaster (4-4, 44th place)
Fallenstar — won die roll

This match finished quckly. Game one, I hit my curve again with a turn four Mryiam, turn five Onkoth, and turn six Darynus. What a ridiculous combo! I started to feel that my deck was completely broken and unfair, but it was OK because I was the pilot, heh. Game two, Josh showed me dual Axe of the Legion, which ended up doing more harm than good as it took two turns for them to come online, and all the while my little army bashed his face. I didn’t even need to destroy them; instead I brute forced it.

Games: 10-2
Die roll: 4-1

Round 6 — Matt Markoff (7-1, 2nd place)
Runetusk — won die roll

With only a handful of us remained undefeated, I knew it would be an uphill battle from here. But this game wasn’t one of them. I completely rolled over Markoff. Game one, he had no answer to Myriam. Game two, he was able to stall to late game, but then my late-game bombs came out to play. I did make another misplay this game. I used Devil-Stitched on his Ezra Phoenix which had 4 damage... but his health was 8! Solemnly, Markoff admitted that my misplay made no difference at all. His deck had no bombs that I saw. He told me his deck was really solid, but it paled in comparison to mine.

Games: 12-2
Die roll: 5-1

Round 7 — Jim Fleckenstein (6-2, 8th place)
Lionar the Blood Cursed — won die roll

This was the hardest match I faced that day. Game one was a breeze as I hit both Myriams on turn four and five. I was so in control of this game that I nonchalantly rowed Razak Ironsides the next turn. A noteworthy play was that I played Infusion of Fortitude on his Anchorite Fareena, realizing that her power could foil my attempt to take control of other allies. Game two was intense. Turn two, Jim played Vindicator Kaldel, who proceeded to give me a beating as my only means of slowing the bleeding was Miner Steelwhiskers, which fell to Lionar’s flip. Turn four, Jim played Wysco, followed by a turn five Wysco number two and Gurzuk. My Myriam was forced to trade with his allies, and I flipped to take control of his Bulvai of the Watch in an attempt to stabilize the board. With my hero flipped, Jim saw an opening to play the biggest ally I had seen yet: Ezra Phoenix. Unable to destroy him effectively, we proceeded to game three. This was another tight game. Realizing that Jim either lacked big drops in his deck or that he rowed them to play around my flip, I used my flip to take control of his 3-drop Vindicator Agran early to foil his aggressive strategy. It proved to the right play as Jim revealed to me after the game that he did row his big drops. With a 7 health protector in play, my Myriam was able to shift the tempo to me. A turn 9 Razak dealt 4 damage to his hero as he readied for the finishing blow, and with that I was locked into top 8. Kudos to Jim for a sweat-inducing match.

Games: 14-3
Die roll: 6-1

Round 8 — Brad Watson (7-1, 6th place)
Forang Deathrattle — lost die roll

This was my first match with Brad Watson ever, so I wanted to make sure I would take the first win. Game one, his turn two Mojo Doctor Zin’tar wrecked my board, including the Antikron I played on turn one. My turn four Myriam was easily taken care of by his Bulvai and a swing from his Essence Gatherer. A turn six Vexmaster plus Bulvai number two dished out further embarrassment to my board, and I had to play Razak on turn seven to clear the board. Brad passed his turn, and I knew he had an answer to Razak. For some reason, I could not think what that could be, and I attacked with Razak. Doshura reminded me what a horrible play that was, and with my Miner Stonedeep already resourced, my deck had no more win conditions. Game two, I hit my curve with a turn five Myriam and a turn six Darnysus, followed by Brad scooping. Game three was tight, but little by little I took the upper hand, to which Brad responded with a turn 11 Invoke the Nether. I answered his bomb with my bomb: Miner Stonedeep. With only about seven cards left in his deck and no quick way of removing Miner quickly, Brad extended his hand.

Games: 16-4
Die roll: 6-2

Top 8 Draft

I took extra caution reviewing Brad’s packs as he sat to my right. My first pack, I opened up a bunch of solid alliance allies and The Darkeater, which I took quickly. Brad then passed me a pack that had playable allies in both factions, so I could not tell if he was sending me any signals. The next few packs were similar, and I accepted the possibility that Watson could be Alliance, and I would have to pick allies higher than usual to force into Alliance and make use of my bomb first pick. Then Brad passed me Hemet’s Elekk Gun, and I gladly snatched up my first class-based card that also happened to be a bomb. Next pack, Skyfire Hawk-Bow solidified my class choice of Hunter. Now, let’s hope some Scraps would come my way! I begged for a Thrill of the Hunt. Neither came. After seeing a Fungus Face wheel the table near the end of the first pack, I knew I was in trouble. Alliance was overdrafted, and I had to pick allies even higher. King Khan was a no show. I recall one pack where I had to decide on Snake Trap, Improper Burial, and Retainer Athan. I really needed quests, but I decided to stick to my plan of high picking allies, took Athan, and hoped Snake Trap would wheel. It did not (darn you Markoff!!!). I suppose that was the right choice, as Athan won me at least one game and propelled me to the finals. In the end, I ended up with a deck that had a good early game, but a weak late game and a weak quest lineup. That meant I had to really rely on my early game and Chaigon’s flip to steal tempo and maintain card advantage.

Andy Hoang

Hero: Chaigon Steelsight

Allies: 20
1 Alhas
1 Blademistress Lyss
1 Caretaker Devonar
1 Caretaker Heartwing
1 The Darkeater
1 Ingrid Shadowstorm
1 Routeen
1 Sharial
1 Tracker Pardo
1 Zandar Shadesprocket
2 Arcanist Tian
1 Retainer Kedryn
2 Bogspike
1 Miner Steelwhiskers
1 Myriam Starcaller
1 Arcanist Dayvana
1 Retainer Athan
1 Retainer Cara

Abilities: 2
1 Bloody Welcome
1 Serpent Sting

Equipment: 2
1 Hemet's Elekk Gun
1 Skyfire Hawk-Bow

Quests: 6
1 Forge Camp: Annihilated
1 The Root of All Evil
2 Survey the Land
1 Leader of the Darkcrest
1 Orders from Lady Vashj

Right now it stings a little too much to talk about my top 8 matches, but you can check them out, written by Star City's own Will Brinkman and Glenn Jones, here at UDE.com.

Aftermath

Columbus was extremely fun. It was nice to take a break from Constructed and not worry about playtesting matchups and brainstorming decks. Special shout-out to Jimmy aka Bunklore for registering my broken Remba deck, Kelly for reminding me Saturday night that an Aldor quest could not go in a Scryer deck, and Damien for hooking me up with a ride. Slops go out to Skybus for shutting down and almost making me miss Columbus and a much needed boost to my abysmal limited rating. See ya in Seattle!