Ladies and Gentleman it turns out I didn’t have what it takes to be a major player after all. After finding out I barely qualified for fighting in the second round I had to fight an additional fight beforehand to see if I could even play in the real round two. Though I managed to win against Ed the Man (board handle Killtrend) backed by Gravebone but I lost to a Majiya deck in the next fight. Do I think Majiya is busted because of this? No, but I do believe my deck building and card choices leave a lot to be desired. Some people on the Shadow Era forum were interested in what I had used to make it as far as I did. Now, I’ll show them and you, readers. After I show this list I’ll break it down my analysis into three parts. The logic behind my choices, why it got me as far as it did and most importantly, why it failed.
Deck Name: Ice Queen
Allies: 10
4. Brutalis
Abilities: 22
4. Fireball
3. Research
4. Supernova
4. Rain Delay
Armor: 4
Weapons: 4
The Logic: I wanted to try to burn out the opponent as quickly as possible while minimizing weaknesses from enemy Allies rushing down to make my life Hell. I chose Snow Sapphire to deal with Allies that have already entered play, while Voice of Winter would slap the brakes on anything which enters play (even if it means my Allies get frozen too). Brutails was a suggestion I took along with not inserting Fire Snake (I wish I hadn’t listen to that, but more on that later) on the grounds that Brutails had more HP and since I wasn’t going to be attacking mostly with units, it seemed like a good idea especially since once I got Voice of Winter in play my Allies couldn’t rush my opponent down immediately.
Futher reinforcing my paranoia would be Rain Delay. You know, rain out the battle, fling in a spell or two, or drop the small amount of allies or buy myself time to equip Voice of Winder or Snow Sapphire before my opponent pours his/her Allies down my throat. Shriek of Vengeance would be for those odd cases which might come up.
Why it worked in the qualifying round: The competition I faced was fairly to very Ally dependent to gain board control which played right into Voice of Winter and Snow Sapphire nicely. With those in play, and combining them with Majiya’s draw power, I had a fairly easy climb since it seemed like I read the response of the Metagame correctly. HOWEVER…
Why it failed when it was time for the main event: …the one thing my deck couldn’t cope with well was a mirror match. In the qualifying round I was beaten 2-0 by another Majiya deck. While I had addressed one issue, it turned out that it couldn’t fight another Majiya deck well. They were more concerned about just getting their damage off ASAP while I tried to deal the damage while slowing the opponent’s progression through my Life.
What kind of person doesn’t build their deck to take a mirror match into account? Apparently me. What made things worse (besides losing once to someone running a LOGAN deck in the qualifier) is that when it came to that matchup the deck could not pull off both tactics at once VS. Majiya. I found myself loaded up with 5 and 6 cost cards and more situations than I care to remember when I had to place Supernova into the Resource area.
Overall, I feel I just got flat out lucky. Had I faced more than one Majiya in the qualifying round I would have been stopped dead cold. My success in making it passed the one extra game I had to play was attributed mainly due to the way the game seems to give an advantage to the first player, but that’s another time.
This deck will vanish into obscurity outside of this post. I just made it to the second round, I didn’t come in second or win so it probably won’t be made high profile. I so wanted to win. Use the money to get a better router, the rest to my mom, and get my sister that iPad (if I made it to worlds). I could have been Champ…but I’m a chump. Maybe next time…maybe next time.
And here I am trying to break 164 rating. From where I stand, what you accomplished is impressive. Don't beat yourself up too much.
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