Hindsight is A Bitch

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

Hero: Majiya

Allies: 10

4. Brutalis

4. Infernal Gargoyle

2. Plasma Behemoth

Abilities: 22

4. Fireball

4. Lightning Strike

3. Research

4. Supernova

4. Rain Delay

3. Shriek of Vengeance

Armor: 4

4. Snow Sapphire

Weapons: 4

4. Voice of Winter

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.

Shadow Era Card of the Day – U.S. Nationals Week: Majiya

This is it. The day where I break down a card that has just as many haters as she does admirers. Controversy surrounds her to this day. They want her nerfed to Hell and back. Could the reason be that she’s broken, or simply because she’s powerful AND lacks a penis (well, she’s a Mage, so she could probably grow one for…purposes)? Now, let’s show the lady for those at home not in the know.

Behold, the Hero who is occupying 5 out of 10 spots in the finals. I am one of those. She’s been given the nickname “Maj the Vag” by her detractors, such is the plight of any woman who is beautiful, smart AND powerful. Her ability is a simple one, drawing a card for 2 Shadow Energy. This simple ability has made a lot of people cry foul. While the drawing itself is not in of itself an issue for players who don’t like her it’s what she can draw into that freaks people out. Combining her ability with that of Research and she can draw 2 cards every other turn.

While some might go “two cards, big deal” we must also take into account that this gives more viability to another tactic a good deal of people hate because unlike Allies you can’t just swing at it to render it a non-issue. Burn. Currently, there is no armor in the game you can slap onto your Hero to reduce the damage of effects. You can rain down Fireball, after Fireball after Fireball. Following up with the likes of Lightning Strike and polish it off with a Supernova or two and you got yourself a nice recipe for Rage Cake.

Because of the fact that she draws cards and can burn, you got a bunch of people saying she’s over powered. I honestly don’t think so.  Sure, you can burn away the opponent but only a fool wouldn’t pack in Allies in such a deck (besides, we need more burn cards before you could think to go PURE burn and win). Supernova puts her over the top but you can defuse this by wearing down her Life to the point where it will hurt the opponent more than help them since it hurts both players. But it’s not seen that way since players seem to hate ANYTHING that cannot be dealt with in the conventional way.

She has also earned the name “Noob Tube” since it seems to them that even a rookie can beat an experienced player with it. If that held ANY truth to it I would not have lost my first two matches using her, so there is a bit of a learning curb. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I don’t want to flip through a large manual to know how to use something (in a GAME of all things) properly. Makes it highly unattractive and elitist which I hate. So what if you get beat by a new player with Maj? Doesn’t mean she’s busted. For all you know that person might have been experienced in other games like this before hand so it probably became second nature, or perhaps your deck just wasn’t built to take her head on…oh, wait, you’re perfect and elite so there must be something horribly wrong with the card, right? It can’t be that you just flat out suck, right? You want horribly broken gameplay, senseless nerf and buffs which create a great divide and uber elites getting the better of people and no one willing to address the REAL problems of the game? Go play Alteil. I got away from it for that very reason, but I’ll tear that apart another time.

Overall, I feel that she is not the standard of how broken cards are judge, but how ALL Heroes should be. She wasn’t the first female who was under consideration. Before I found this game it was the card I covered first this week, Eldawen Frostmire used to rock from what I heard and now we get this sad excuse of an effect. And wonder of wonders, she doesn’t have a penis. The developers might be thinking “SHE’S STRONG AND NOT A MAN! MUST BE NERFED TO PROTECT MANLYNESS!!” Sandra Trueblade  used to kill a resource when she entered play…now, she can only kill a resource if the opponent has more than you…and you know what? Yep, lacks a penis. Rather than making others better, people seem to side on making the game retarded. Want me to play Heroes like Boris Skullcrusher, Zhanna Mist (though not having a penis, she might not get better), Victor Heartstrike and Banebow? MAKE THEM NOT SUCK, DON’T CRIPPLE MORE HEROES! PUMP MORE CARDS INTO THE GAME! But what do I know, I only want the game to grow and for the players and developers to stop being scared of anything that has a vagina.

Will I have what it takes to win and go to the big show? Tomorrow, we’ll find out. As for those who still hate Majiya and can’t see the issue lies with the rest of the cards and also in the tournament, I can only wish that Maj takes you out, HARD! But seriously, good luck to everyone playing tomorrow. Now excuse me, I’m going to les out with Maj and make babies with her.