Hi everybody,
I know there is another thread about this but here is the West Coast Regional Report from my point of view.
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Months before this tournament: I was introduced to this game by my friend Ron and have been playing non-stop since. I love this game and have since introduced it to all of my friends. Unfortunately, Ron could not make the tournament so it looked like I would be driving there all alone. I tried to convince a couple of people but no one really committed. Finally, I convinced my friend Kent to come, he just had one condition: he wanted to use a deck that was novel and unusual. I immediately thought of the unitless deck I found under the deck building board (posted by f7eleven). I wanted to make my own from scratch but the initial idea came from f7eleven. If you are interested in it, you can read about the deck under the deck construction threads (posted as "Unitless Repeater deck - 1st Place West Coast Regionals").
Since it was a completely new deck to us, we ended up playtesting it all night Friday. This left me little time to finish building my deck. I usually play either Dwarves or Chaos so I wanted to play one of them in the tournament. I really wanted to play Dwarves but I really like running 3x Master Runes of Valaya (which he was using all 3 of our copies in his deck). He offered to play the Orc/Skaven deck we built to test our decks against but I knew he wanted to play something different so I decided to go with Chaos.
Now I am a bit of a tinkerer so I didn't finish the deck until after the engine stopped at Game Kastle. I played a few practice draws with the deck but never really got to play a full game with it. Don't get me wrong though, I have played roughly 100 games with chaos, just not with these specific cards. So here is the deck I came up with:
Units: 23
3 Fledgling Chaos Spawn
3 Festering Nurglings
3 Savage Gors
3 Lobber Crew
3 Savage Marauders
2 Chosen of Tzeentch
2 Bloodsworn
2 Maledictor of Tzeentch
2 Bloodthirster
Tactics: 14
2 Seduced by Darkness
3 Innovation
3 Brutal Offering
2 Blood for the Blood God
2 Pillage
2 Flames of Tzeentch
Support: 14
2 Cloud of Flies
3 Warpstone Excavation
3 Contested Village
3 Daemonsword
3 Chaos/Orc Alliance
Quest: 3
3 Wolves of the North
You can read a more in depth discussion under deck building forum (post name "Chaos Utility aka Screw Skaven - 2nd Place West Coast Regionals")
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This is my first tournament so I was a little nervous. Kent seemed a bit more at home and went up to people right away. I followed suit and found out that everyone was really nice. We all shared our concerns about how Skaven are dominating the game. We also introduced our online names and I finally got to match a face to the posts. All in all, I am really glad I went (and that was before the tournament even started).
Here is the breakdown:
Total Players: 10
Deck Types:
1 Pure High Elf
1 Order: Unitless Bolt Thrower
1 Destruction: Chaos Heavy Anti-Skaven (aka Screw Skaven deck)
2 Dark Elf/Skaven
1 Dark Elf (some skaven? not sure)
2 Mono Orc
1 Chaos/Skaven
1 Order Deck Type No Name
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Before I recap what happened during my games I would just like to point out that not all of this may be 100% accurate. I did not take notes during my games so some details may not be correct. The outcomes and matches are legit, but the strategies may not be matched to the correct game (or even opponent). That being said, here is what happened:
Round 1: Honestly, at this point I was so nervous about the tournament that I cannot recall this match too well. I remember I was paired against an orc board and I lost the coin-toss up so he went first. I was a little scared about this match-up because I expected him to have an Orc/Skaven rush deck. Fortunately for me, he didn't. It turns out that my opponent was just as nervous as I was. I wish I had talked to him more because he seemed like a really nice guy. Unfortunately, his deck was not well streamlined as it had about 60+ cards. I thought that it was a little odd his deck was bigger than mine.
Anyways, once the game began we both started making mistakes . He made subpar sacraficing of his lobber crews while I consistantly forgot to attack with my unit on Wolves of the North quest (literally, 3 times in a row). I finally got my bearings and pulled out a victory in the first game.
The second game I realized that not everyone shares my view about going first being a clear advantage because my opponent decided to go second. So I started off strong but kept making mistakes. Not as many as the first game but enough to show clear n00b status. My opponent ended up making more mistakes than I but he did manage to play Ugrok which gave me a bit of trouble. I managed to take him down before it got too bad and pulled out a victory.
Games: 2-0
Rounds: 1-0
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I knew I needed to get my act together because my next opponent would not be nervous like my last. So I took a quick walk, settled down, and took my seat for the next game. They handed us our new match-up sheets so.....
Round 2: Again, another orc board AND he won the coin-toss so he went first. This guy was much better than the first. In our first game, my opponent got off to what I thought was a fairly good start. So I let him build up his battlefield a little then wiped it with Brutal Offering.
Then the game then took an interesting twist because I went a little overboard on card drawing. My opponent was good so he noticed this and immediately asked how many cards I had left (it turned out to be 15). Since I was drawing 8 per turn, he figured he only had to survive 2 more rounds so he switched to playing defensively. I remember him saying if I lost by decking myself it would be the first time he has ever seen someone lose to an orc deck in that way. I thought to myself, "Well if I'm going to lose, I might as well make it memorable."
Lucky for me, I played Flames of Tzeentch to kill my 5 power quest zone unit and decrease my draw. That bought me the time I needed to build up a decent attack force and win. After the game he told me that it was the worst starting hand he had all day. I quickly became worried again.
The second game he went first again, this time with a much faster hand. On turn 2, he played Urguck then Innovated once to gain enough resources to play Followers of Mork. He put the 2 indirect damage on Urguck and spent them to repeat this process twice more for a total of 4 units in his quest and kingdom. Meanwhile, I have 2 damage on each section of my capital...UGH! I had Maledictor of Tzeentch with Daemonsword attached on my Wolves of the North quest so I chipped away at these guys using Maledictor's forced ability. I also attacked his battlefield while there were no defenders and built up my quest and kingdom zones. After a couple of turns, he had my battlefield burning and my kingdom at 2 or 3 damage shy of burning as well.
Then they called time! Most other matches weren't over but we were the only ones on our second game. If I lost to him here there would be no chance to pull off a win and the tie would knock both of us out of the running for first place. We all got a 5 min time extension but I knew the pressure was on.
Now, I can't remember if I did this combo here or in another game (but this is my story so I'm gonna say the combo fits here).....
On my turn, I forced a damage on Maledictor to kill a unit in my opponent's kingdom zone. Then I went through my kingdom and quest phases and attacked with my Deamonsword carrying Maledictor (using Wolves of the North). Since he only had 1 more hp until he died, I decided to attack my opponent's kingdom zone. My opponent only had a 1 power 2 hp unit there and so he defended with it. Maledictor was already doomed, so between assigning and applying damage steps I used Brutal offering to sac him which cleared the battlefield. After this, victory was mine!
Games: 4-0
Rounds: 2-0
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Round 3: This time I was paired against the only other Chaos at the tournament. He went the other route and used skaven with a splash of Dark Elf (at least the tactic Chillwind). His deck worked amazingly and I really want to get his decklist (hint, hint if you are reading this!). Again, I lost the coin toss so my opponent went first. I remember thinking he started kind of slow but that could be because I just finished 4 games against orcs. I don't remember much else of this match except that I sniped a couple of his key units and ended up winning it.
The second game was definately much more memorable than the first. He started by playing a scout camp, then a chittering horde. Then, he ended up playing his other 2 chittering hordes within the next 3 rounds. After that it was and uphill battle. I managed to give him a run for his money by putting out Bloodthirster. He actually had 8 skaven cards on the board, 9 would have killed my bloodthirster leaving me no chance to win. It turns out it didnt matter anyways so he killed me off giving me my first loss of the day.
Our third and final game allowed me to go first so I felt I had the upper hand. He decided to pull a risky move by rushing with clan molder's elite on turn 1 (along with putting a contested village and warpstone excavation down). He then did 2 damage. On turn 2, he played Fellblade which corrupted his unit, but then played chillwind which corrupted one of my units and then uncorrupted his. Then he attacked my zone again for a total damage of 6 on it.
Now, I had only one option here, somehow get rid of that unit or die to it. Lucky for me, I was running the overpowered Lobber Crews. So I played one then sacraficed it to make him sacrafice his only unit. After that I had my kingdom and quest zones set up nicely so I eventually won (went over on time though but stayed within the 5 minute extension).
Games: 6-1
Rounds: 3-0
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The next round was for first and second place winners. I made it to the final table and wondered who my opponent would be. To my great suprise, it was Kent (my friend that I had to convince to come). It turns out he had the exact same record as I did going into this match (Games: 6-1, Rounds: 3-0). He ended up playing against High Elves, then Dark Elves, and finally Empire. This final table was the weirdest match of the day. After all, this is the guy I just played 15 games against the night before. We kept on joking about how we had to play tournament style (so no "go-backs" and things of that nature). Our usual games are more casual so if you meant to play a development but realized it at the end of your battlefield phase, we let you play it anyways.
Round 4: The first game was a huge gear change for me. I remembered exacly what was in his deck but had to adjust my play from anti-unit to developing all of those (now useless) spells every turn. He was in a much better position since he played his deck exacly the same as every other game. I remember drawing alot at first, but when he played flames of the phoenix I quickly realized I should have been playing more supports on my kingdom.
Things kept going down but then came back up with flames again. I ended up drawing bloodthirster but then made a huge mistake. He played Reap What's Sown for 7 cards. I had bloodthirster in hand, but no innovation or good support cards to play. So I decided to throw away my hand in hopes of drawing my other bloodthirster and an innovation. Alas no bloodthirster. It turns out if I had just kept my hand I would have drawn an innovation and might have won it.
Score: 0-1
Our second game I decided to change things up. I chose to go second (I know it is not usually the correct choice but I had a theory). I think there are 2 ways I can beat his deck with mine. Either, I start out strong early and hit him strong out of the gate or I draw until I get Bloodthirster then hit him hard with that. I decided to go for Bloodthirster so I needed to draw as many cards as I could. I thought that placing my units in quest and support cards in capital was the best strategy.
It turned out to be a pretty good idea. I drew Bloodthirster and ended up playing it but was it in time? Kent almost had everything set up with his Bolt Thrower by the time my bloodthirster came out. I burned one zone and was sure to burn the other. I also had enough of a resource engine to be able to play Bloodthirster if he used his third flames of the phoenix on his turn. So he did the math and decided the only way for him to win was to draw innovation. He counted his remaining cards (I think it was something like 7) then drew to have only 1 remaining. Low and behold, no innovation! That's right, it turns out that was the his BOTTOM CARD. We both laughed at this and I took a win by Kent decking himself.
Score: 1-1
The third and final game had me at the edge of my seat. I hit the ground running, again playing units into my quest zone and support cards into my kingdom. I had a pretty good start too and just hoped I would draw the bloodthirster in time. I felt pretty good until he played a bomb card which literally made me facepalm myself, Judgement of Verena.
Now I knew it was in his deck, hell it was my idea put it there! However, in that moment I completely forgot to prepare for it and this cost me dearly. I developed my kingdom zone in preparation for innovation but left my quest zone wide open and the units I played there were wiped. After that, I had to build up a draw again which left my kingdom something to be desired. He subsequently played 2 Flames of the Phoenix and things looked grim. Then everything and I finally drew my Bloodthirster. I had innovation, bloodthirster, and a 2 cost unit which would allow me to have enough power to burn one of his zones. This got me so excited that I made another huge mistake.
When playing my units, I showed all three of my actions right away, not allowing him time to respond. He asked how I was paying for Bloodthirster and immediately I knew what was going to happen next. He played High Elf's Disdain to cancel my Innovation, leaving me without enough money to play Bloodthirster. Facepalm #2.... After that Kent played his Bolt Thrower and the game was his.
Score: 1-2
Final Count:
Games: 7-3
Rounds: 3-1
Place: 2nd
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As it stands, the unitless Bolt Thrower deck is a viable deck, but it will lose to an orc/skaven rush. We tested this after the tournament and the Bolt Thrower lost the first 2 games very quickly to Orc/Skaven. So I doubt it would have done well had the pairing been differently. HOWEVER, if I had played Kent in the first round I would have lost to him and been out of the running for placing at that point. My deck was designed to beat skaven. His deck was designed to beat the decks that beat skaven. He meta'd the meta and won it all for it. Therefore, I respectfully disagree with FiendishDevil's opinion that this deck should never have won. While Kent might not have known all his opponent's cards, he played his own deck really well and I think he earned the win.
I also really wish I could have played more games with everyone in the tournament. You guys were all great and I hope to see some of you soon at the end of the month.
Well it's almost 3am here so I'm gonna get some sleep.
