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Viva Las Vegas
Phillip Martin
10/22/2009 
I learned two things while staying in Las Vegas this month.1)Casino buffets are maybe the best part of Nevada. 2)Early preparation with the game's best players goes a long way in top 8ing major events…who knew? After DMF Boston, Tim Rivera came to me, suggesting I make a pilgrimage to Las Vegas for Draft Camp. What's Draft Camp you ask? Only the best 6 days of unsanctioned gaming of the year! The plan was to get several of the best players available in one room for a week to break the format for Worlds and get as many people paid as possible. For reference, the Las Vegas roster included: Phillip Martin Tim Corzine Tim Rivera Dane Young Robert Swarowski Niles Rowland Christian Keeth Sean Pottenger Pat Eshghy Brad Watson This group collectively has nearly 10 DMF 1st place finishes, multiples Nationals and Worlds top 8s and even a Magic Grand Prix 1st place (but I'm getting ahead of myself). As with any major event, this tale begins with early preparation and groundwork. After DMF Boston I joined an online team message board with close to a dozen other players. Dating back to the North American Continental Championship to present, our message board has been active with daily discussion and new threads popping up from every member. We officially took our first look at the block format on July 27th (3 weeks before the NACC tournament and 7 weeks before Worlds). Brian Lyons made a post on our team forum asking, “Do we care about block format”? Jim Fleckenstien responded, suggesting he wanted to make a run at player of the year. Therefore he would need to play block in the Realm Qualifiers to help rack up points. It was also noted that Realm Champs could be block format as well as potentially Darkmoon Faire Austin. Wanting to take a Blind stab at the untested block format, I threw together this early Gyro list before we flew to Indianapolis for Nationals. Hero: Gyro of the Ring Allies: (19) 4 Weldon Barov 4 Adam Eternum 4 Gromble the Apt 3 Dimzer the Prestidigitator 4 Mikael the Blunt Equipment: (3) 3 Blackout Truncheon Abilities: (24) 4 Slash and Dash 4 Slay the Feeble 3 Surge of Adrenaline 4 Deadliness 3 Carnage 3 Kidney Shot 3 Thud! Quest: (14) 4 Eye of the Storm 4 A Question of Gluttony 2 Rise and Be Recognized 4 Darkness Calling I hadn't tested this list at all, but initially it seemed pretty interesting. My thought process was you get to use Dimzer, Adam and Weldon, and then can back that up with weapons and some decent removal. This was, of course, before the eventual announcement was given that Worlds would in fact be block. After returning from the NACC, our online team forum was bursting at the seams with activity; each member contributing several unique deck concepts and working over time to give feedback on others. Over the next month we collectively built and tested 50+ decks and logged weeks of play testing and debate. As September approached four decks clearly separated themselves from the pact: Alliance Mage Horde Mage Gyro Ryno Tim Corzine found early success with Alliance Mage in a Realm Qualifier and seemed pretty content on running it, making the decision nearly a month before worlds. Niles and Rob also made a decision early, deciding to run the undead mage rush. I on the other hand, was at odds, trying to break the format with something unique. There was no denying that the Mage, Warlock and Rouge decks were the most powerful. This also meant they were the most obvious. Everyone preparing for Austin had these four decks in their gauntlet and was going to make sure they knew the match ups inside and out. Knowing this, I wanted to find a deck that was off the radar but just as consistent as anything else. After collaborating with teammates and spending dozens of hours play testing, I finally came up with this list three weeks before flying from Oregon to Las Vegas. Hero: Cerripha Sunstreak Equipment: (5) 3 Gladiator's Regalia 2 Nethershard Abilities: (39) 4 Arcane Intuition 3 Mystic Denial 4 The Taste of Arcana 4 The Seal of Danzalar 4 Conjured Cinnamon Roll 4 Ice Barbs 4 Roaring Blaze 4 Spell Suppression 4 Mana Ruby 4 Blizzard Quest: (16) 4 A Question of Gluttony 4 Silvermoon City 4 Call to Arms: Arathi Basin 4 A Rare Bean Essentially this is a basic control mage deck using The Seal of Danzalar as its win condition. Early on in our play testing, this deck was shredding everything we put in front of it. At one point there were 5 of us who were ready to sleeve up this deck to play in Austin. We really liked Silvermoon City to help battle the Alliance Mage which was sure to be popular. Roaring Blaze is a great answer for Dimzer and Ice Barbs helped beat Warlock and in particular, tuned down the efficiency of opposing Mana Rubys. Arcane Intuition and Mana Ruby make a nice combo and it allowed us to quickly win with Seal of Danzalar through turns 7-10. Gladiator's Regalia seemed to be the nuts against the entire field so I was hell bent on playing a deck that included it. About two weeks out from officially leaving to Vegas, I turned up the heat and started to test 3-6 hours every day both live and over MWS. The more I tested the mage deck, the more I started to lose. It turned out that once people knew what was in the deck and how it played, it was pretty easy to beat. In particular the deck had major issues beating other rush decks with consistency. Knowing the majority of the field was going to be aggressive, I made the decision to scrap the deck 3 days before leaving Oregon for Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada: October 2 - 7 Finding myself traveling without a deck gave me quite a bit of concern. Luckily, I had a week to sit down and hammer out a list with several top players while enjoying the desert heat in Nevada. Tim C, Niles and Rob all had their deck figured out early, which left 7 of us scrambling to come up with a deck to play. Brad spent most of his time testing Orc Rouge variants, Pat and Sean tested Warlock control, Tim Rivera and I tested Pidge predominately. After a few days of this, I decided I'd move all in on Pidge and just figure out how to make it work and stop testing other decks entirely. Eventually Tim Rivera, Brad, Dane and Pat decided to follow suit. The week in Vegas went by pretty quick but here are the highlights:
As you can see we spent a lot of time eating. What can I say; we're a bunch of gluttons I guess (that's just a nice way of saying we're fatties). That aside, we did manage to find some time to finalize a list before leaving Vegas, this is what we came up with: Hero: Pidge Filthfinder Equipment: (9) 4 Cuffs of Devastation 2 Battle Mage's Baton 3 Talisman of the Alliance Allies: (27) 4 Gromble the Apt 4 Magnus Longbarrel 4 Mikeal the Blunt 4 Adam Eternium 4 Dimzer the Prestidigitator 3 Weldon Barov 2 Pappy Ironbane 2 Hesriana Abilities: (10) 2 Dominate 4 Drain Will 4 Victimize Quests: (14) 4 Rise and Be Recognized 4 A Question of Gluttony 2 Proving Grounds 4 Eye of the Storm I'd like to say the flight to Austin went off with out a hitch but it was nearly disastrous for some. Niles decided to forget his ID at home, making Pat and Dane almost miss their shared flight as they had to go back to get it. Crisis averted! Austin, Texas: October 7 - 12 I have to say, Austin was really underwhelming. I kind of expected something more grandiose, especially after going to France for last years Worlds. After dropping off our luggage, we descended onto the convention center without much delay. Nothing too exciting was happening so some of us decided to go back to our hotel room and get in a draft while unwinding form the days travel. Jim Fleck, Mike Stigal, Brian Lyons, Tim C, Christian and I proceeded to hammer out a casual six man draft. I ended up going 2-1 even though I had to use 2 blank cards since I didn't draft enough playables. Opening a 1st pick Weldon Barov certainly went a long way in shoring up my deck… Later that night, New Jersey's Michael Acharya called me up and we ended up going out to dinner at a local Tex-Mex restaurant. We talked about his recent trip to India and the impending tournament happening in the morning. We exchanged deck list and to little surprise, I found he was running Loraala. After looking at my deck, Acharya ironically advised me not to play Pidge, trying to explain how Ryno was better and I should just run Mage. This reminded me of the day before the Boston DMF, he had suggested I not run Mythen and instead pilot Black Ice. The irony is I went undefeated through swiss at both events after his friendly cautions. As the night winded down, everyone tried to fine tune their decks and get in last minute testing. While I was out eating, Tim R, Tim C and Dane had been testing the Loraala and Pidge match up, getting awful results for our Warlock. It ended up where they were On the Brink of switching from Pidge to the Mage deck around midnight. I was too tired to give it much thought but I decided I should add a few cards to help the match up since there seemed to be more alliance Mage then I originally planed for. After getting some advice from Jim Fleck, I decided Woodsie would help fight the early on goings from the Mage deck and would be more proactive then Battle Mage's Baton. After throwing together a mostly untested sideboard, I finally came up with this list found (here). Reflecting on how I arrived at the list that would carry me to an undefeated start, I'm surprised how unorthodox the method in making it became. Early on in testing I waivered from every hero you can think of, leaving no stone unturned. I put in a lot of test time on Ryno but eventually dismissed it in favor of the Cerripha Sunstreakcontrol deck with Seal of Danzalar. Later I found that to be unreliable and in Vegas I decided to just move all in on the most consistent deck we had at the time, which just happened to be Pidge. At the very last minute, I shoehorned Woodsie into the deck, untested, strictly off the Fear that the deck was not prepared well enough for potentially 8 consecutive pairings against alliance Mage. Sometimes everything just falls into place and it certainly did with this deck. Join me next week as I walk you through 11 rounds of undefeated splendor and discuss the strategies I used to propel me into the top 8 on Sunday. You must first be a member of our forums to discuss this card. (FREE Service) Already a member of TCGplayer.com? Then simply LOGIN and come back to this page! If not registered with TCGplayer.com then Become a Forum Member to enter decks, rate and discuss articles, and more!
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