Four boosters of War of the Elements, two boosters of Worldbreaker. I only really started getting into playing limited around the time of Scourgewar/Wrathgate, and due to the shortages of Scourgewar product, the majority of sealed I played last block was 6x Wrathgate.
Those days are very much gone now, so I was pretty excited to crack open a real release celebration-style sealed pool. Let's start with the Worldbreaker. Pack one... Steal Steel. "Yeah!" I exclaim, and flaunt my shit rare to the other six attendees.
 |
| NO |
Pack two... Steal Steel. "No!"
The War of the Elements packs weren't much better and after much deliberation I went Rogue - and didn't play the Steal Steels. All this while Julian, who was sat next to me, opens a Warmace of Menethil, followed by a Bloodied Arcanite Reaper, followed by a Savage Raptor, followed by a Wild Hammer...
Edwin Blademark
Nathar Wilderson
Arvos Jadestone
Varandas Silverleaf
Koeus
2 Nessera Gildenrose
Andrew Ulric
Brimi Tinkerblade
Wazix Blonktop
"Zooti" Fizzlefury
2 Shadowseer Calista
2 Erama (Boobie Lady)
Bayner Cogbertson
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| STILL NO |
Bronze Drake
2 Bronze Guardian
Azure Emissary
Emerald Acidspewer
Bronze Skyrazor
Bound Inferno
2 Sap
Aggressive Exploitation
Daze
Bully
Challenge to the Black Flight
Counting Out Time
Entrenched
End of the Supply Line
Elemental Energy
Round 1: vs Guy from Shrewsbury (which is in Wales, honest) playing Paladin
I'm not Jetlagged! However, I forget that my hero's flip gives my allies Stealth and that the Crown of Chelonian Freedom, which I'd read the previous turn and gone 'oh god that's good' prevents damage to non-Horde, non-Alliance allies.
So I run my ally into the neutral guy with Protector. It wasn't even close. As we were de-side-decking for the second round, Guy shows me the Crusher of Bonds he's sided in, just so I could Steal Steel it. Such a gent.
Number of times Steal Steel included in deck: 0 [0-1]
Round 2: vs Liam from Stoke playing Blue Hunter
During the first round there was a bit of commotion from Liam's table, largely due to the Ragnaros he'd pulled. Something to watch out for then. Game 1 was pretty straightforward - I played a Daze on turn 3 and put his Prized Beastmaster's Mantle in the bin, then dropped Boobie Lady, then won.
The second game saw me take almost complete control after a fast start from Liam - seeing him run out of cards while I dropped several five and six-drops, slowly advancing towards a victory, and Sapping an Emerald Lifewarden to enable me to continue to make favourable trades.
His final turn of that game involved him playing Ruby Enforcer, then Bronze Drakonid to ready the Emerald Lifewarden, who swung for exactly fatal. Gutted.
Luckily Game 3 saw me curve out and win in a few minutes flat, in an entirely uninteresting manner.
Number of times Steal Steel included in deck: 0 [1-1]
Round 3: vs Morgan playing Red Warlock
Morgan has a habit of building super-aggressive limited decks, so with my "err I have about 30 cards" deck I wasn't looking forward to this one. Luckily, Sardok, which had given Julian so much trouble in his previous game due to all his amazing weapon cards dealing melee damage, was no trouble whatsoever for the mighty Arvos Jadestone. Following this strong start things started to go downhill as whenever I wanted to play a Shadowseer Calista, Morgan had usually just played a Maazhum, rendering the tempo boost somewhat redundant.
The big turning point came where I was one turn away from winning the first game, and just needed some way to deal with Morgan's board of guys for a turn. I did the maths - I had enough guys to clear his board, bar one 5/4 man. I attempt to Sap it, and he destroys a Windlord's Gift to deny me.
Number of times Steal Steel included in deck: 0 [1-2]
That left me in a rather disappointing fifth place of seven, so hoped to redeem myself in the Noblegarden event running straight afterwards. I don't have an exact list right now, but wanted to run a deck that contained a load of new cards I'd got my hands on - some Feral Spirit tokens, and some crafted cards - Leggings of the Tireless Sentry and String of Beaded Bubbles. I ended up putting together a version of the Spark Shaman decks that have been doing well recently - not a complete netdeck but heavily inspired by.
Round 1: vs Bye
I really needed a piss anyway. [1-0]
R2: vs Amy, playing Phylactery/Ymirheim deck
This is the deck I (unsuccessfully) played against at Realms. Having an idea of what it did in advance was pretty helpful!
I went first, dropped an early Truncheon to take care of Sardok, and Terina Calin on turn 3 to deal with the Phylactery. Her turn 4 Ymirheim Chosen Warrior was thwarted by an Elekk, Resource and swing with the weapon.
The cycle of Ymirheim Chosen Warriors and me having to find inventive ways to kill them continued for a while until I'd killed about six of them. By this point Amy decided I'd spoiled her fun and just hardcast King Varian instead, for -3/-3 to my board (Hero/Ally/Quest).
I completed The Overseer's Shadow before he hit the board to make the most of my Totem, and drew the remaining bits of the combo I needed. Lucky for me, Great Elekk has four health, so I made the decision to combo out while I still could - burning for 24, to cries of "how much?!" from Amy. I took a full 9 to the face from King Varian the following turn but another Spark or a String of Beaded Bubbles sealed the deal the following turn. [2-0]
Round 3: vs Morgan, playing Hunter Aggro/Control
 |
| It's really good |
Having lent Morgan a load of Snipes and Bombards for this deck, I knew roughly what it did and what to look out for!
He tapped out for the first few turns, playing Nature dudes and an Aspect of the Wild, piling on the damage; I drop a Truncheon and a Kite while he is tapped out before on my fifth turn he leaves two open.
I have a full hand of cards and basically need to try and offer up something that's good enough for the Snipe he's [probably] holding, so that I can play the Voice of Reason uncontested, as I'm without Wind Shear. He bites on a Signet of Manifested Pain, a couple of turns later I land a Leggings of the Tireless Sentry and left unchecked it wrecks Morgan's guys for long enough to let me Spark out for more than enough. [3-0]
R4: vs Julian, playing Stuart Wright Gyro
"Oh, you've won this" Julian tells me as he mulligans in to a bunch of shit. He follows that up for a few turns by rowing and passing before he runs into a streak of discard, stripping all the good stuff out of my hand before dropping Dimzer to start refilling his.
Turns out I have a bit of trouble with Dimzer when I'm without Elekk. Luckily I make a Kite stick and am able to keep my hand topped up enough to drop a Voice of Reason at exactly the right moment - Julian follows that up with a double-Dimzer and Adam attack which takes me to 27. I ready, heal 10, and eventually Spark him to death after he turns into Kel'thuzad and interrupts the first Spark with a Shuriken of Negation.
With Julian's board exhausted, I quested, dropped a Wavestorm Totem to bait out the Shuriken again, and it did the trick - a lose-lose situation. Interrupt the totem and die; don't interrupt it and die in the very near future.
This made up for double Steal Steel-gate earlier! I win a Bunny Egg Mat! It is BEST.
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