That said, I think I have settled on a deck types that seem to suit me- mainly decks that let me adjust my game on the fly. I look at a card game as an improvisational jazz session. One musician or player starts first and usually they dictate the way the song will be played. The opposing player then joins in with his unique notes back and forth until the song is complete. The person who dictates the tempo will almost always win the game. At DMF Seattle, the judges kept track of the wins of who went first, and I believe 90% of the time the person who goes first wins. Shocking, I know. So perhaps all Wow amounts to is one question. ‘Do you feel lucky?’

‘Well do you, Punk?’”

Personally I never feel lucky; the element of luck tends to drive me nuts. My last three DMFs I literally did not win a die roll until the top 8 where I promptly lost each game.

So how do you explain this anomaly in a game where going first is so important? It’s possible that I play better at a disadvantage. Perhaps my opponents are over confident. Likely it just comes down to preparation. I think you can minimize randomness if you are prepared for the worst case scenarios.

I have to say I have put hundreds of hours testing the recent format with every tier one or near tier deck. But, sometimes you just get a random match up and have to play it by ear.
My recent trip to Seattle was definitely random; in 8 Rounds I only faced one deck I expected to see.

I got into Seattle just in time to sign up for the iPod Draft Friday night. It’s true no man can have too man iPods but, with Andy Hoang, Kim Caton and David Bodimer in the draft I figured I would scrub out early and make a few last minute touches to my deck. Fortunately or unfortunately, I some how managed to pull out some tough matches against some amazing decks and went home with a new iPod Touch at about 3am.

I woke up from a sound sleep to realize that my Constructed deck was missing. I am incredibly paranoid about my decks but I guess, not paranoid enough. Fortunately I knew the fabulous Glenn Jones and his buddy Chris had most of the cards I needed for the Ressa the Leper Queen Deck I had rolling around my head. With minutes to go I was about 6 cards short of my ideal build but I managed to make do with some Duct Tape and random commons. Contrary to popular belief, this was not the sealed deck I had the night before.

Hero: Ressa, the Leper Queen

Allies:
1 Caretaker Heartwing
2 “Chipper” Ironbane
1 Narthadus
1 Niyore of the Watch
4 Marksman Glous
4 “Lowdown” Luppo Shadefizzle
3 Myriam Starcaller
2 Leeroy Jenkins
2 Quigley Slipshade
4 Zandar Shadesprocket

Abilities:
1 Vanish
3 Pick Pocket
4 Purloin
3 Gut Shot
3 Jackknife

Equipment:
1 Mass of McGowan
4 Whispering Blade of Slaying
4 Perdition’s Blade

Quests:
2 Kodo Roundup
3 Corki’s Ransom
4 One Draenei’s Junk
1 The Ultimate Bloodsport
2 The Sigil of Krasus
1 Finkle Einhorn, At Your Service!
1 Orders from Lady Vashj

Sidedeck:
2 Burn Away
3 Dismantle
1 Razak Ironsides
2 Kick
2 Escape Artist

In my first round of DMF Seattle, I was paired against a deck that was, in theory, one of Ressa's worst match ups and one of the few decks I had not tested a single game against: Morn Salts-the-Land. Thanks to the master Jeremy Blair, I had seen this deck before.

It’s an underrated deck, but I just felt like it lacked draw power as essentially a Horde midrange deck. After losing the die roll, my mulliganed hand was all quests and one Purloin. Rather than cursing the gods, I tried to adjust my game plan. The good news is I would probably not draw too many more quests this game. The bad news is that since I had no early game or late game, I would have to try to get back into things midgame. By turn four, all I had done is complete a quest and played a Purloin to snag my deck’s bane, Death Trap. On turn four, I played a Whispering Blade and Jack Knife on King Khan and another guy. That ape is such a beating and really underrated. Although I had taken about 15 points of damage by turn five, the board was clear and I had regained the tempo with more cards in hand plus a permanent on the board. In theory, if I stick to the game plan I should win this game, and I did.

Round two was against one of my colleagues from Idaho playing another deck I had not expected to see. Ironically it was a basically a faster version of the Ozzati deck I had managed to Top 8 with at the last DMF. With tight play I got edged out after rowing my second Escape Artist game three. I probably should have kept both my Escape Artists even though it might have meant sacrificing either tempo or a resource drop. Plus, he wisely played Fizzle on all my hand removal so I never got to see what my fate was until it was too late. Only being able to find one Niyore of the Watch before the rounds really hurt as he often seals the deal against burn decks.

At this point I knew that I had to some how win out to make Top 8 with a loss this early. A daunting task to say the least.

There is never an upside to being in the loser’s bracket, but my next two opponents were relatively inexperienced and both were playing net decks so at least I knew what I was getting into. After a couple more match wins, my pile of cards were starting to get that magic hum I like to feel from a deck. Music to my ears. All my matches went quickly, which is great for scouting. There was little rhyme or reason to any of the decks at the top tables. About half of the decks were Traitor Warrior and Traitor Druid. Based on the stats from past events, I had expected this event to have about 65% alliance and that seemed to be pretty close. I’d say probably 70% of the top decks were using Traitor Heroes.

Round Four however was against a very unexpected deck using the Blood Elf Frost Mage
Vor’na the Disciplined. Fortunately for me, my Mage obsession came in handy. Another shout out to a our own Jack Fejer for featuring the DMF Lyon deck here.

I quickly figured out that this was basically Guillaume’s Blood Elf Mage, identical in every way except that it uses Ice Block and Solanian's Belongings as a soft lock. The games basically came down to some key timing regarding ‘Chipper’ Ironebane and Iceblock. Without Chipper and Miriam Starcaller, I probably lose. Strange that I had tested both Guillaume’s Deck and Frostmage. See, it pay to read Star City, boys and girls!

Round 6 was against Armando Bulnes.
Armando is one of the good guys in WoW and yes, I am jealous of his name. I imagine him testing his decks in a Zorro mask and cape. He was playing the controversial but always dangerous Ripped Through the Portal deck. Again, featured here on Star City WoW.

I was a bit worried as in testing. I honestly thought that this was a good match up for me, but I was afraid I was probably playing the deck wrong as sometimes happens. Armando claimed that this was not the best match up for him, but he did seem very confident. Game one went pretty close to my plan which was to Purloin the Ripped Through The Portal and keep early pressure on. Dread Infernal plopped down to take out my precious “Lowdown” Luppo Shadefizzles with nothing more than a Sneeze. I waited for Armando to play Cannibalize before playing Gut Shot in response and then went to work with some weapons finishing the job. Game two, I saw no Purloins and I got to play with Lokhlar the Icelord on turn five. His hand had seemed so good this game that I rationalized he did not have a Cannibalize to top it all off. I dropped a bunch of dudes with two Gut Shots in hand. Lokholar the Icelord cleared the way once again, and I burned him out with my expired dudes. Sadly, my math was off by two points. Doh. I felt like an idiot and conceded. Armando seemed a bit mad. Not sure if it was because I can’t do math or because I almost killed him in spite of the Icelord. Game three, I got off to a quick start but had no discard. Fortunately, Armando was having problems of his own with quests. Apparently drawing quests are pretty important in the Ripped deck. I held onto my Gut Shot waiting for Dread Infernal to clear off my Luppos. When Dread Infernal did knock on the door to play on turn five, my Luppo’s got to go in for the easy kill on turn 6. It was kind of a disappointing ending to an epic match.

It was the final round of the day, and a spectral Kitty on the line. I found myself finally facing a deck I had been anticipating seeing: Mythen of the Fang. My deck at home was an all-star in the match up, but I knew Ressa really needed to win the die roll to have a fighting chance. At least that is what I thought as I lost the die roll once again. The good news is that because there is no Rak Skyfury in the deck, you have a few extra turns to live. The bad news is that you have no room for error as it’s more consistent. He Dr. Boomed twice, hitting 2 Myriam Starcaller and put 8 damage on himself. Unfortunately, he managed to stay just out of Gut Shot range and burned me out with multiple Wraths.

Game two, I Pick Pocket naming Form of the Serpent and two Forms are dumped in the graveyard to my delight. I took a lot of damage using my weapons to keep the board clean, but eventually I gained control and my dudes are free to roam in for the kill.

The final game was back and forth. I got lucky and hit two forms again with Pick Pocket and I tried to contain my glee. Through out the game I was very close to death trying to keep the board clear and my guys alive. Tainted Earth did not help matters since I was also trying to a bit of drawing to gain the tempo back once my opponent was in top deck mode. Leeroy Jenkins hit the board to try to finish me off, but I was saving my Gut Shot for something and this seemed like a good something. I played ‘Chipper’ and completed Corki’s Ransom taking three rather than ‘Chipper’ the Tainted Earth in Play. Next turn I attack with ‘Chipper’ and Luppo to take him to 18 damage. I agonized over whether or not to leave three open for the possible Twig of the World tree. If I attacked for one, I would have enough to deal the needed 9 next turn, but a Twig plus a Wrath would put me at exactly 27. My opponent patiently waited for me to decide and I finally just decided to play it safe. Fortunately I made the right call when he dropped a Twig on his turn that I could ‘Chipper’. On my turn I swung with a Whispering Blade and a Luppo to put him to 22 and played a Gut Shot to close the game out. There was a bit of controversy from my opponent’s friend who claimed I should have two less allies in my graveyard from an earlier Gut Shot. I could not figure out what he was talking about, plus I was kind of annoyed that a spectator was intervening when a judge had been watching the match. We quickly figured out that I had played the Gut Shot on Leeroy Jenkins. Really it was a moot point since I had kick in hand for the needed two, but a good point on taking very careful notes each turn.

I went home and tested the match up against Matt Markof’s Pagatha deck, and it was really pretty even in spite of Matt’s proclamation of it being an easy match up for him.

For once I was well rested Sunday morning since the top 8 started at ten. It turned out to be a lot of fun to play against Matt, a fellow advocate of the underdog casters. He vowed to not be obnoxious and I gave him my thanks. Our first game played out pretty much as I had predicted, and it really did come down to top decking in the end. I have to say getting killed with a Shadowbolt is pretty funny. Matt admitted that the match up was much harder than he expected. Sadly game two continued my curse of scrubbing out in DMF top 8s. My only quests were three Corki’s ransom. I may never play with three Corki’s again as there is nothing worse than looking at a handful of nothing but dead Corki’s. I still stayed in the game, but at one point he had something like all four Xantana the Lightsworn in play, plus a Sarmoth and Nyiore of the Watch. I think I lose. Always sad to end a great weekend on a low note, but I was happy for Matt since he had the same Top 8 luck as me previously. You can see more in depth coverage here.

Win or lose, getting to play against the best and most creative minds in the game makes all the work worth it. That said, loot is a great touch, and I am really grateful UDE is starting to make it more worthwhile to travel to events. I really hope that UDE will hold more events on the West Coast, as I think that West Coast players are just as good as East Coast players; we just have less opportunities to show it. Vegas anyone?

Hopefully I gave some insight into some known archetypes and adapting to unknown ones. I know that in theory there is a new format, but after testing the cards I really do not feel like the archetypes are going to change very much. The Traitor heroes will still be incredibly powerful and old control decks like Palladian will be a bit more consistent Mage and Shaman got better but enough to take them to the top is still in question. Until next time true believers...

Special Thanks to
Glenn Jones and Minion Chris (who incidentally let me take something back in the top 8 of the Ipod Draft when I did not know the text on a proxied Card.)

Krupal Dessi for letting me stay with him.

William Brinkman for awesome coverage and making me seem far better than I am

David Bodimer and Kim Caton for moral support through out and strategies on decks

My local players at the Black Rose for top level competition every time I go and spanking my Paladin deck in the top 8 of our last Regional so I did not play it in Seattle.