The night before my Continentals trip had arrived, and I still hadn't decided on a deck to play. Everything in our testing had a weakness and I found myself in, as Bryan Lyons so eloquently put it, “analysis paralysis”.

Since there was no end-all be-all deck, it was fast coming down to a metagame call. I expected to see a lot of Mage, Red Paladin of the aggro and control variety with splashes of Desecrator, Mythen, and Kil'zin, Priest and Boomkin.

I had actually decided that Red Paladin control was the best deck in the format, but I wasn't experienced enough with it across a lot of matchups, so I had to pass on it this time around.

Outside of Pally control, the other decks I felt were best against this field and had the most experience testing were Warrior Strikeout, Holy Paladin Aggro, and Blood Elf Priest Control.

I really liked both the Warrior and Paladin Aggro decks. They were both great against Mage and could pull it out against slower decks by punishing bad draws. But I had found one very important difference between the two that put me on Warrior- the way an aggro deck typically loses to control is by getting its back broken. That is, your opponent establishes control of the board and you either run out of gas, or out of ways to deal with their board.

If you've ever played a rush deck, you more than likely know what it feels like to have your back broken. You're sitting there with no quests up on turn 7 or 8, no cards in hand, and you're topdecking cards that don't do anything. You might have one or two outs, but with each successive turn the game becomes farther and farther out of reach. It's a slow and painful death.

Make no mistake. Both Warrior and Paladin aggro decks will get their backs broken by a control deck in the course of a large tournament, but the difference is that, in my testing, Warrior would very often still win from this point whereas Paladin would almost never.

With the aggro deck of choice being Warrior, the only other consideration was Priest. Boy, my Priest list was fun to play. And, while it tended to crush control decks pretty well, it cried at the sight of weapons in an aggressive deck. The meta was just too new to attempt to dodge aggro all day, and a lot of decks were running Twig, Quantum Blade, or dual daggers. Sadly, I had to shove Priest aside as well.

Once I had decided on Warrior (which was Thursday in my hotel room before the event), it was time to tune it up.

The list I ran can be found in the Continentals coverage top 8 constructed decklists for day 1 , but I'll post it here as well and then talk about some of the card choices:

Deck: Bo’jo’s Lucky Strike

Hero: Warmaster Bo’jo

Allies: 21
4 Bloodsoul
4 Offender Gora
4 Rak Skyfury
4 Marksman Glous
3 Vexmaster Nar'jo
2 Broan Charges-the-Fight

Abilities: 16
3 Bloodrage
2 Puncture
3 Intensify Rage
4 Mortal Strike
4 Heroic Strike

Equipment: 11
4 Twig of the World Tree
4 Vindicator's Brand
3 Perdition's Blade

Quests: 13
3 Dr. Boom
4 One Draenei's Junk...
3 Finkle Einhorn, At Your Service
3 Tabard of the Illidari

Side Deck
3 Lucky Strike Axe
3 Pummel
1 Bloodrage
3 Vindicator Kentho

The deck started out as a classic Heroic Strike, Mortal Strike aggressive ally build but had a few notable inclusions.

The whole goal of the deck is to put as much damage on the opposing hero by turn 5 as you can and then finish them off with damage from your hero with weapons, Heroic Strike and Mortal Strike.

In this strategy, every single point you can get on their hero early counts, and every card in the deck is in service either to getting damage on their hero or stopping them from preventing your hero from dealing damage.

The most important card choice to discuss is the hero. Why Bo'jo over Gorebelly? Because the flip is just amazing. Gorebelly's flip synergizes with one card in the deck — Twig of the World Tree. Bo'jo's flip is always good, you can wait until the attack is legal to do it, and it has an incredible synergy with Rak Skyfury. It was easy to give up saving a resource to strike with Twig in some cases to gain the raw power of Bo'jo's flip.

Vindicator's Brand was there primarily for ongoings that prevented your hero from attacking like Cyclone, Insect Swarm, and Typhoon, but it was also great for breaking annoying equipment or draw engine abilities. Not to mention it's a 3 ATK weapon that can launch a pretty mean strikeout! Vindicator's Brand is one of the best multi-purpose cards in the deck and was an easy 4-of.

Intensify Rage is the card I've gotten the most questions about. Why play a card that eventually kills your own allies? When your only goal is to deal as much damage as possible before turn 5, you don't care if you have allies around on turn 8. You can play it once the attack is legal to make sure your damage gets through. Then, you leave your opponent with a nasty dilemma of using that Cyclone or Hammer on your hero or the big 6/5 ally that's going to crush in for 2 more turns. And let's not even talk about when you also have Kentho on the board to protect such an ally. Intensify Rage also lets any of your allies kill a 5-health protector.

Once I made the decision to put Rage in, Broan was an immediate addition as well. Getting an extra attack out of any ally with Intensify Rage is almost impossible for an opponent to recover from. Tricks like these allow you to pull ahead of Kil'zin and other aggro mirrors when you're on the draw and they can get you closer to strikeout range against control decks.

Perdition's Blade is still good, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. It makes Offender Gora players cry and still takes out any 3-health unprotected ally on turn 3. And sometimes you just need a piece of metal to fuel your combo and Perdition's Blade will more than suffice in a pinch.

Bloodrage keeps the gas flowing against control decks and you absolutely want 4 between main and side.

For the quests, I have 10 quests that synergize with Glous because between 4 Glous and 3 Finkle, I can very often count on having a Glous on the board.

The most notable exclusion from this list was Intercept. In the end, I decided that it was too much of an answer card where I wanted more problem cards. I thought I was already good enough against Serpent Form, so Intercept would only really be good against solo decks and decks protector heavy builds. I'll admit it was a risky call, but I didn't expect to see too many of those and it worked out this time around.

In the side I have Vindicator Kentho to protect my weapons, Bloodrages, and rageified allies. For those of you who don't know, there's a neat trick you can play with Kentho in the graveyard and Finkle on your turn. You propose an attack with your hero, they respond with Cyclone or Hammer or something else to stop your attack, and you respond by completing Finkle targeting Kentho and then immediately sacrifice him to interrupt the effect. You won't catch many all-star players with this, but if your opponent isn't paying attention to what's in your graveyard (or didn't see you destroyed a resourced Kentho to Twig's strike cost for example), it's easy to get hit by this.

Lucky Strike Axe was an obvious side-deck inclusion because a lot of times, you just don't need those PBlades or you have other dead cards and when you're on the draw, 4 for a 4/0 weapon is awesome.

The final side deck card choice was between Pummel and Beserker Rage. This was a meta call. The deck as it is has a near auto-loss to a good red Boomkin player, but I decided that I'd rather keep my other matchups as strong as possible and just accept that I've got a terrible Boomkin match. I hoped there wouldn't be many and, although I did get lucky in dodging them the whole tournament, I was a little surprised at how many Boomkin decks were played at the event. I would definitely not recommend playing this list with Boomkin in your field.

So without further ado, here are the match reports:

Round 1 vs. Tim Bowling playing Eriun Moonglow

When I saw a balance Druid across from me, my heart sunk a little. Insect Swarm is terrible for me, but I didn't expect to see any healing so I thought worst case I could get some early damage on him, turtle up for a bit, and then combo out as druids don't run any instant disruption other than Cyclone.

Game 1 I learned that he was an alliance Boomkin hybrid, and while I have to give props for trying to make the archetype work in blue, I think currently red is just too strong to give up.

I had 12 damage on him and he stabilized with Wimbly Tinkerton and Typhoon. I had Heroic, Mortal, Mortal in my hand and, in the worst case, I just needed to do 3 more damage to him to ensure I could combo out with any weapon. I had about 6 resources and played Offender Gora & attacked his hero. He thought for a minute and let it through. Why waste your protector on an innocent little 2/1 guy when you're only at 12 damage when the ally will just die for free on your next turn, right? Intensify Rage. Thank you very much; we're done. Now I just have to wait for a weapon.

Over the next couple of turns I drew more combo pieces than I needed which I resourced as he played another Wimbly and two Brodiens and started smacking me around. Did I mention that having 30 health really comes in handy sometimes? It's like having an extra turn. I finally drew Vindicator's Brand and combo'd him out the turn before he killed me.

When I did, he stared at the board for a minute and said, “Wow. I totally thought I had you.”

Game 2 was worse for him because his Typhoon was met with Pummel and he couldn't even stop my hero from smashing in.

Match Record: 1-0

Round 2 vs. Philip Martin playing Fallenstar

Philip was one of the Oregon guys who brought the aggressive version of Fallenstar to DMF Seattle. Although the deck was a little hit and miss across their whole team, one of their members did manage to take second place with it.

This was an updated version of their deck with HFI cards, and I had a pretty good idea what to expect. In game 1, he made an interesting play where he dropped a weapon and didn't have the resources to strike with it. This immediately telegraphed Pummel to me, so I held my abilities back opting to play allies and complete quests instead. We were both at 23 damage but three intercepts at key times ended up winning the game for him.

Game 2, I was on the play and had a pretty good draw. Intercept was only a nuisance as I was able to kill him with 19 on my hero.

Game 3 was very close. I was at 18 damage, he was at 22. It was his turn and he had Twig, Giralo, and Glous on the board. (9 damage on board). I just had Lucky strike axe out and a Mortal Strike and an ally in hand. I had just been Intercepted last turn and so my weapon was ready. After a lot of thought, he attacks with Glous. I take 3, I'm at 21 damage. Then he debates for a while and completes a Junk, not netting anything useful (I think it was an ally). He finally attacks with Giralo. At this point I have to make a tough decision. Do I strike back or save it for his hero? If I strike back and kill Giralo and he plays another, I'm in trouble. But the fact that he quested and then debated so long before choosing to attack with Giralo made me think maybe he didn't have another. So I struck back with the axe, killing Giralo. Then he swings in with Twig, quests, and passes the turn with me at 27 damage and dead next turn. Honestly, I think the correct play here was to not attack with Giralo and play it safe by gaining a protector next turn, but then again he didn't know what was in my hand. My topdeck was a Heroic Strike which more than sealed the deal even had he held Giralo back, but it sure was close either way!

Match Record: 2-0

Round 3 vs. Del Elder playing Warmaster Bo'jo

A Bo'jo mirror match! This matchup was interesting as he was playing a more controlling version of Bo'jo with midrange allies and dual wield weapons.

Game 1 he got me to 15 and his draw must have been pretty bad as he never really could get my allies or Vindicator's Brand off the board.

Game 2 he had a better draw. Not fearing much after game 1, I extended a bunch of allies onto the board and was smacked in the face by a turn 6 Sweeping Strikes (3 damage to everything) threatening to wipe my board. In response, I played Intensify Rage on Bloodsoul which kept him alive for one more turn. I felt a little bad about ripping Broan Charges-the-Fight off the top for a total of 12 damage between the two allies, but that happens sometimes and it won me the match.

Match Record: 3-0

Round 4 vs. Vincent Norwood playing Valterus

My first paladin control matchup of the tournament. Against Holy Paladin control I was about 50-50, largely dependent on draws. Without potential Holy Shocks I actually liked my chances in this matchup.

Game 1 I had a pretty good draw and was ticking him up into the 20's and I decide to go for the combo finish. I guess I should have known something was up as he didn't seem troubled in the least. What does he play? Hammer on my Hero and then Lay on Hands. In the main! Ugh. Without any more combo pieces in my hand, my back was broken and that was game.

Game 2 I was able to get there. I was holding back combo pieces just in case, but I never actually needed them as he didn't play Lay on Hands.

Game 3 I really liked my chances because he never once saw Pummel in game 2 and I knew all it would take is one unexpected counter on a Lay on Hands to pull it out. Sure enough I have one in hand as he's getting into the 10-20 range and things are looking really good. Then I complete a One Dranei's Junk and what should flip over but another Pummel. You know the cat's out of the bag when your opponent says, “Can I see that?” followed by “Ooooooooh.” Sure enough, as a result, he kept multiple Lay on Hands as well as other protection that he told me he wouldn't have kept had he not seen the Pummel. I wasn't able to force the Lay without spending combo pieces, and he was able to gain control and take the game. So close, but no cookie for me that time.

Vincent was a super nice guy and I like to give props to anyone who can play Red Paladin Control well. It's probably the hardest deck in the format to pilot optimally and Vincent had obviously done a great job up until and including our match.

Match Record: 3-1

Round 5 vs. Brian Lindberg playing Anchorite Kalinna

Brian had a deck that had been featured by Jeremy Blair for taking second place in a local regionals. Sure enough his build was an updated version of his Alliance Priest deck running Faces from the Past.

Game 1 I mulliganed into a terrible hand and he hit a pretty nutty draw, beating me down with allies.

Brian was a really cool player and probably the most entertaining part of this match was in the middle of game 2 when Brian noticed that the player sitting directly to my left was also playing an Anchorite Kalinna build. At one point during the second game, Brian leaned over the table and said to the other player, “Hey man. I'm curious, where did you get your deck idea from?” The other player responded with, “This? Oh, I totally netdecked it off the article on the wow website.” Brian smirked and said, “That's my deck, you know.” and the guy sort of gave a “whatever” type of response. As Brian sank back into his seat shaking his head, I turned to the other player and said, “Come on, the least you can do is give some props if you're going to completely rape the man's decklist!” We both laughed and continued our game where a Pummel'd Divine Spirit was enough of a tempo loss for me to take it home.

Game 3 was pretty close, but I was able to combo him out one turn before he brought the whole team back with Faces from the Past.

Match Record: 4-1

Round 6 vs. Bryan Lyons playing Kil'zin of the Bloodscalp

In competitive circles, you get a lot of cocky and arrogant players at the top. I'm not sure why good players tend to be such jerks, but it never ceases to amaze me how many good players in the WoW TCG community seem to have class-A attitudes and personalities. Bryan Lyons is one such class-A player. He's a guy who sits down at the table with a smile on his face, plays his cards, plays them well, and looks genuinely happy to be playing the game. Even in the face of three extremely tense games, I had a great time playing and chatting with Bryan .

Each of our games felt like watching two gladiators cleaving each other with giant two-handed weapons. Game one I was on the draw and he got me to 29 damage and then I killed him after he missed on two One Dranei's Junk attempts to find another point of burn. Game two on the draw again I got him to 18 damage and then he killed me when I had the win in hand next turn. Game 3 I was on the play where he got me to 21 damage and then I killed him facing fatal damage on the next turn. In aggro on aggro matchups like this, the only way to win on the draw is either to get better cards than your opponent or to steal tempo. Intensify Rage helped me steal just enough tempo to take game 1, but other than that, neither of us made any notable play mistakes, and it just came down to the cards.

Match Record: 5-1

Round 7 vs. Brian Durkin playing Desecrator Stormclaw (feature match)

Although this was a feature match, it wasn't covered on the website. Evidently feature matches have become a coin-flip between being covered on the website and just getting to sit in a more comfortable chair at a big table with a camera over the cards so players can follow along with the action by looking up at the TV screens. Comfy chair? Big table? I'll be on tay-vay? Sign me up!

Game 1 saw my allies versus his twig and no serpent form. My damage total went 1, 2, 6, 10, 14, 18, 22, 26, and then I killed him.

Game 2 Brian took a mulligan and by the look on his face- combined with a missed turn 1 play and no weapons- he was far behind to come back. I finished this game with only 12 damage on my hero.

Match Record: 6-1

Round 8 vs. Brad Watson playing Aleyah Dawnborn

When we sat down at the table and I flipped over my hero, Brad said, “So you're the Bo'jo deck I've been hearing about.” I didn't know people were talking about my deck, but I only saw one other mirror and didn't know of anyone else at the top tables playing Bo'jo, so I said “I guess so.”

When I won the roll and came out with a Turn 1 One Dranei's Junk into Bloodsoul, Brad groaned and said, “I thought you were running a solo deck.” Evidently there had been another player running a Bo'jo solo deck and Brad thought it was me. He said “I shouldn't have kept this hand against you...” and it showed as I pushed through on turn 7 or so with only 6 damage on my hero.

Game 2 went very long as I had a hard time getting damage through. A Niyore on the board after a hammer-lock as well as Aegis of the Vindicator proved a little too difficult for me to handle without catching a Puncture.

Game 3 we had about 10 minutes left and the notable turns went something like this: I have Twig on the board. He plays Niyore. I puncture it. He plays Niyore number 2; I eventually kill it. He hammers me on my turn and plays Niyore number 3. I don't do anything useful. Then he plays Niyore number 4. I play Heroic Strike, Rak number 1 (kill the third Niyore), Rak number 2 (kill the fourth Niyore), Rak number 3 (hit him for 7), Rak number 4 (hit him for 7). One more turn or so was enough to finish it off.

Match Record: 7-1

Round 9 vs. Gavin Price playing Aleyah Dawnborn

Already well into a lock for day 2, the time finally came to face off against my teammate and friend, Gavin. I wasn't surprised at all to see Red Paladin control at the top tables, as I still feel it's the best deck in the format if you know how to pilot it. Gavin comes from a Magic: The Gathering background and has a very analytical play style. He rarely misses anything on the board and any play mistakes from him are very tactical in nature and are rarely ever obvious blunders. I knew I would have to draw and play well to win.

I knew Gavin ran Blood Knight Kyria in the main and that was something I had to be mindful of. I had him at 21 damage when Kyria came out and between my Mortal Striking in response to his flurry of healing abilities (and some other damage mixed in), he was able to heal down to 12 damage. An Intensify Rage on Bloodsoul caught him off guard and a subsequent Broan forced the Hammer which cleared the path for my hero. When I announced my attack with twig, he was at 24 damage and had one resource up. I had Mortal Strike in hand, but after a long debate, I chose to save it and flip my hero instead for the final points. He looked so calm that I was sure he had something in hand to stop me, but it turns out he didn't and we were on to game 2.

Game 2 went to time where he got an early Kyria to heal off most of the damage I had dealt. He stabilized and had me at 28 damage but couldn't finish me off in the last turn of end of time procedures. One more turn and we would have gone to a sudden death game 3 where I probably would have had the advantage.

One of the tough things about playing Red Paladin control is that it's easy to get into analysis paralysis because you usually have so many options available to you. Do you Solanians back Redemption and play it? Do you hard cast an ally from your hand? Or do you pass the turn and leave resources open for Blessing of Freedom, Holy Shock, or Solanians into Arcane Torrent? Not only do you need to be able to make the correct plays, but you need to be able to make them quickly lest you find yourself in a sudden death game 3 at somewhat of a disadvantage.

Final Match Record: 8-1 — 4 th Place .

I finished the day with an 8-1 record putting me in 4 th place overall. I felt pretty good about my chances of getting top-8 although little did I know I would end up missing it by a single game anywhere in the second draft pod. Phil Cape and I really should have shared a drink that night.

Even though I just missed top-8, I still had a fantastic time at the event and, having already won the flight + hotel to worlds by taking 1 st at the Ashenvale Realm Championships, I'm looking forward to a fun time in Paris ! Thanks for taking the time to read this report.

-Kevin Lambert
Member of Team Seattle
GPFault on the forums
Not to be confused with Kevin Lambert from Arizona , though he's a really cool guy too!