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Tournament Reports

Azeroth Upon Us
WOW TCG Release Celebration Report

Date/Time: SATURDAY, OCTOBER 28  / 7pm
Venue: PASTIMES - Niles, IL

At the stroke of 6pm, fifty-plus World of Warcraft fans bravely elbowed their way past the weekly Magic crowd, seeking fame, fortune, and/or a scratch-off loot card. 

Some players had camped the demo tables all day, waiting for registration to start and their shot at the extended art Parvink promo.  Others players, who hadn’t pre-purchased their booster boxes online, quickly snatched up the starter decks and grabbed some table space for pick up games.

I was one of the later.  In fact, I was just glad to get in the door, pay my twenty-five bucks and receive my 6 boosters for the sealed event.  I wasn't planning to buy any additional cards just yet, but when I saw the SWEET case for the starter decks, I had to do it.  I picked up a Horde Shaman starter for myself and the the Human Paladin for my son who was also along for the big party.

As you can imagine, people could hardly sit still waiting for those boosters to be passed around and deck construction to begin.  We each received 6 boosters from which to create a 30-card deck.  We were allowed to trade heroes at our table, but no other cards.

Everyone spread our cards into categories; equipment, heroes, abilities, quests, and allies and tried to gauge which hero they were going to lead into victory.  I went with the Night Elf Hunter (Elendril), having pulled the six abilities for that class.   (It was also a bit of a parallel to my first character in the MMO – exploring the rules and realms of Azeroth almost 2 years ago).

Other players at my table constructed decks based on the Dwarven Warrior (Warrax), the Troll Hunter, and the Human Paladin.  These seemed to be the most prevalent.   In fact, a lot of people seemed to play the dwarf warrior due to the variety of gear options with the sealed pulls.  I did not see any warlock, rogue, or priest decks but am pretty sure there was at least one of each somewhere in the room. Everyone also got a pack of free deck protectors (colored or picture-backs).  This was a nice surprise.  The Landro Longshot gems and gem bags were not given out (but may have been with the prizes).

Then the games began.

We played 6 rounds of single matches, 30 minutes each.  My record was 3:3 (sadly, one of those wins was a bye).  I came in 19 out of 48 players.  Players 1 thru 8 were awarded prizes in the form of boosters.

The first game was definitely a learning game - learning my cards, that is.  Then I had the bye.  After that it really felt like the games came down to luck of the draw.

There were very few rules questions – surprising, considering it was the first time many of us had ever played.  Rules questions I heard were mainly focused on the timing of responses in ‘the chain’.  There were people who obviously knew the rules, but no one in particular appeared to be 'the guy to beat'.

Lessons learned, observations, and thoughts;

• In a 30-card format, do not waste extra cards and dilute your deck.  The games rarely goes more than 12 or 13 rounds.  Draw, draw draw.  Get those good cards in your hand asap.
• Seriously consider a mulligan if you get no quests and no 1-cost allies in your starting hand.
• 75% of the games seemed very close and went between 8 and 12 rounds.  The rest were obvious by round 4 and won in about 7 turns, usually because one side or the other had the edge in number of allies and equipment.
• Conversations with other players tell me that a Shadow Priest deck is strong (with the right card combos), but just about every hero is viable.
• Regarding the hunter; there is only ONE bow in the set - and one gun which is an epic card.  I definitely could have used one in my hunter deck.  (2 boxes of boosters later I still only own one, despite the fact that is green).
• I only saw one person with a scratch-off card, and it was the tabard.  From what I heard there were about 3 pulled (out of 48 people playing in the tournament x 6 packs each).
• It seemed like most people pulled at least one epic and one or two blues (of the 6 packs).  I got Chromie and Invulnerable Shield, neither of which really came into play all night.
• I was also happy to pull 2 daggers and the Devilsaur Leggings.  It seemed like most people had only 2 pieces of equipment in their pulls.
• Deck distribution was pretty balanced; 9 quests, 9 allies, 9 abilities, 3 equipment (all numbers +/- 1).  I'm sure we'll see some variants where allies or abilities are higher, but several people who only put in 7 or 8 of one card type in were hurting.
• Almost everyone was using paper/pencil to keep track of health.  I brought dice.  The room was about 50/50 in terms of people who started with a record of max hit points and subtracted vs. people who started with 0 and totaled damage upwards to max.
• There were several people who said they didn't want their UDE Point cards, but they wanted to trade them for rare cards (so obviously everyone knows you can sell the points on eBay).
• I saw some interesting combos, but nothing I can name off the top of my head - mainly because all of the cards were brand new to me and I'm on a bit of overload :)   Cards that seemed to come up a lot in conversation; Taz’dingo, Ravenous Bite, Battle Shout.
• And yes… “Leeeeroy Jenkins” rang out through the room several times.

Unfortunately, I am not sure which hero/deck won the tournament.  I never played the winner, and when they gave away the prizes I was trading cards and forgot to ask.  I know that the Horde hunter came in 2nd or 3rd. 

Overall, it was a GREAT experience.  Very well run and organized.  Registration was quick, games were very sportsmanlike.

          - Broadcloak of Terenas