It's not me, it's you

Sometimes things just don't work out. Maybe you've grown apart, got bored with each other, or like in this instance, one of you changed so drastically so as to make things unworkable between you. It's always a sad time, but sometimes you just have to let go.

Today I went out to a local tournament - The Chimera Invitational Qualifier. There's a final in April and the winner of each qualifier gains an invite, and the door prize is also an invite. "Other Shiny Things" were also promised, but they failed to materialise...

The turnout wasn't great, with only four people, though it is exam time over here and while our playgroup is populous, it's not quite so competitive. It was time to get the serious decks out and play to win - introducing Shaii ver. 2.

Shaii, Strategist Supreme

2 Kel'thuzad

4 Planned Assault
4 Quickdraw
4 Snipe
4 Bombard
3 Freezing Arrow
4 Explosive Trap
4 Explosive Shot

4 Dundee
3 Pappy Ironbane

4 Trapper's Rifle
4 Girdle of the Blasted Reaches

3 Eye of the Storm
4 The Boon of Remulos
4 The Boon of Alexstrasza
3 Call to Arms: Arathi Basin
3 Concerted Efforts

A version of the previously-covered Hunter Trapper Dickhead deck, this had suffered some severe casualties in the switch to Worldbreaker Core: Feign Death is irreplaceable, armour is simply not a replacement for Survival Instincts and Freezing Arrow is like an Ice Trap that doesn't kill stuff. The Boon of Remulos fit in just fine in place of Forces of Jaedenar, at least. I'd done my best to maintain a similar style of operation to the original deck, and it still tested out favourably, albeit with limited exposure to 'real' decks, which I expected to face today.

Round 1, vs Alex Toaster playing DMF-Winning Zaritha Ancestral Awakening Tirion Stall thingy


Alex had originally intended on playing some horrifying Goblin Lost Isles deck but it contained a few crafted cards which are pretty tough to get over here; instead he plumped for a slightly tweaked Zaritha build. I was pretty confident going in to this one, a slow deck whose win condition can be sniped repeatedly? Ok then!

My opening hand was something along the lines of 2x Kel'thuzad, 2x Eye of the Storm, 2x other quests, 1x Explosive Shot. I eventually shipped it back. This turned out to be a bad idea, as Alex ended up with no quests; as a result neither of us played a card for four or five turns.

I continually kept on top of his threats and sustained very little damage; about fifteen turns in Tirion finally hit the board and made life a little bit more difficult. Both King Varian Wrynns were in Alex's graveyard and now he finally had a way to fish them out for free - not good for my life total! I had two Call to Arms: Arathi Basin waiting to be completed, but there was one pesky card that I needed to have in hand before I could safely completel that quest. It hadn't shown up yet, but as soon as I untapped and drew it, would all but win me the game.

Eventually I got smacked in the face having drawn through almost all of my deck and could hang on for no longer. I flipped the top card of my deck - Kel'thuzad.

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Round 2, vs Morgan Bartlett playing yet another version of Grennan


Morgan is the newest member of our group, and I find myself apologising a lot when I kill his stuff. His deck also terrifies me as the hero remains the same each week, but I never have any idea what's in it!

I drew the nuts, having ten cards in hand on turn 4 including two Pappy and both Kel'thuzad. This didn't stop Morgan racing into an early lead with Himuul Longstrider and an Icy Scale Chestguard bringing pain early on.

Kel'thuzad arrived on turn 11 before I realised I'd just auto-piloted it out - after watching Morgan empty his hand of allies and shuffling his graveyard into his deck, I should have known better. I ended up with a solitary Sarn Earthtrembler, which he killed in short time after Thunderstorming my board of Sarn, Pappy, Dundee and Kel'thuzad wielding Trapper's Rifle.

Luckily Dundee lived on and hitting for 10 per turn alongside Kel'thuzad and his rifle meant that after a couple of turns on an empty board, I bullied my way through to win and didn't feel like I'd deserved it in the slightest.

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Round 3, vs Julian Harse playing Ashnarr/Gift of the Earthmother Druid

I was feeling pretty good about this matchup having previously taken a version of the same deck out with little trouble - Unfortunately I drew poorly, made poor decisions and generally played like a bit of a moron. It was during this game that it started to dawn on me that perhaps the deck just isn't meant to be in its current state, in Core at least - after getting slapped around the face by Adam Eternum for the umpteenth time I remembered why Survival Instincts was so good, as being put on a 28-turn clock is infinitely preferable to the five-or-six turn clock he puts you on without it.

I was constantly wishing for the old cards back, lamenting the fact that Quickdraw is only really any good at killing Dethvir and that if I could just have a lie down then everything would eventually get better.

After Hibernating a couple of his allies to avoid them being killed by Explosive Shot, Julian eventually drew a bad play out of me that cost me the game - with an Ashnaar in play and about a billion resources he attacked with his hero. I Exploded his Ashnaar, only for him to produce a new one, along with a Gift of the Earthmother, by which point I was already out of resources. I had a Bombard in hand and should probably have waited to see how things panned out. As it stood I was out of 'destroy target irritating man' effects, my Pappy and Dundee were both feeling a bit sleepy, and I died soon after.

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I finished third, won one pack of Worldbreaker and contained inside was a Venerable Mass of McGowan. This pretty much sums up my day.

This particular deck has had its day I think - it will no doubt resurface next time I play Classic as the deck is still ludicrously strong with the right cards... but since the March of the Legion cards rotated out of Core, it is a pale imitation of its former self.

Julian bought a couple of packs after the tournament and I took great delight in humping him at two-pack twice in a row. JUSTICE