Easy as A, B, C...



So, with 5V5 and the insanity that ensues coming up soon, I wanted to take a poll of the peeps reading here and see what you think is the most powerful card for 5V5 when it comes to Action Bar Cards... Your finalists, and reasons why are listed below... please feel free to give us your thoughts on if you would have added anything or removed anything... you'r top 5 (since it's 5V5 of course) are... in no particular order...

1.) Flamestrike:

It's obvious why this one is in the top 5.  With all the powerful mages like Irana, Jaina, Morganis, Enraged Fire Spirit, and the Murloc, this baby opens up the damage and comes out of the flood gate with power to behold.  With all the "adjacency" tricks people will more than likely try (see Namrah, Thangal, Morova, etc) this will be a valuable way of pushing through damage from the get go!


2.) Ice Block:


Yet another mage card (I see a trend) here, and why not?  This card has already seen it's power taken to the top 8 of DMFs and other major competitions.  Ensuring that from 6 through 0 your mini is safe, sound, and more than likely (barring that nasty Purge), will live to blast another day, this ABC brings everything you need to ensure victory, if played right.


3.) Fog of War:



Perhaps you are fearing hunters, or the elusive Uber-Zoo people have chatted about.  Maybe you think Vashj is going to make a strong going, or, perhaps you are concerned with all those mages coming your way using the above two cards.  If so, then Fog of War is your best friend.  Especially if you can utilize it with a goblin Shredder to keep reloading your Ozzy Osbourne Fog Machine.


4.) Fear:


Shifting gears to those nasty Warlocks, while many people may think Jhuroon and Corruption are awesome, in this tight knit battle set up, Fear could prove to be a Warlock's best friend.  If you are getting overpowered after an untimely death or two, this will help level the field for a tick or two.  If you are ahead, you can easily control the board and whomever you don't want to deal with.


5.) Sulfuras, Hand of Ragnaros



I still remember 40 man Fridays, with running all nighters to get to Rag and praying this would drop for my Paladin.  Alas, it never did.  Now though, I own 3, at least in this game.  With the potential protectors, Gracci, Berserking Tauren, and other hammer wielding folks, Hand seems like a solid way to ensure you get damage on the board for taking a beating.  And with the threat of Uber-Zoos, hunters, or pets in general, that doesn't suck smacking them back a few times for free.  (ok, maybe not free if you take damage, but you get me.)

So what is your favorite?  Why would you choose it?  Vote below and leave us your comments!  However it works out, good luck to you in your playtesting for Realms!


Which ABC is the most powerful in 5V5
Flamestrike
Ice Block
Fog of War
Fear
Sulfuras, Hand of Ragnaros
Other (Comments below)






  
pollcode.com free polls

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Posted by Steelwing on Tuesday, March 9, 2010
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Wednesday Weekly Warband


Unfortunately, I don't have much time today, but I do have thoughts...

Today I'd like to talk about Honor.  More specifically, Honor and 5V5.  If you don't watch out, 5V5 can get big, REALLY quick.  Sometimes BIG (pardon the pun) isn't so bad.  Sometimes it's uncontrollable though.

Some of the common themes I keep hearing are Namrah, Velen, Jaina, and even some Thrall.  ALL of these a have good options they bring to a tight knit team, but all are relatively expensive, Namrah being the most affordable for positives she brings to the game.

Still, sitting down for a 60 minute marathon with a 20 to 25 honor 5 man team, could easily out race a team with say 40 to 45 honor no problem.  Especially if you end up running a bunch of cheap but effective characters.  Something like Magistrix Enaria, Blindlight Murloc, Marlowe Christophers come to mind for cheap and effective options here.

Additionally, pieces in the 5 and 6 honor realm, next to the right mini, look awesome.  All of a sudden, Omedus next to Thrall may survive longer and kill more!  Grumphreys next to Jaina, boom headshot!  Even something like  Bleakheart and Arugal can make a solid showing in this format if run right.

I think overall, the biggest thing for 5V5, will be value for honor.  Namrah, potentially, can heal 5 damage in one attack.  That's a BIG swing.  Varimathras, while not as efficient, can do the same sort of thing however you are now at 10 for one mini and have to fit 4 more in, whereas with Namrah, you have as solid an attack, and less honor with all the benefits.

Someone like Marlowe Christopher, next to said Namrah is like, um, yeah, rOcking!  Fel Armor, plus Namrah's heal is like casting flash of light on him and like rolling 50% every time guaranteed.  Plus, those two minis both pack firepower, and are barely over the cost of a Varimathras.

Horde has it's values too.  Magistrix Enaria is 4 honor, can bring polymorph, counterspell, arcane flux, and most importantly to a mage in this format, flamestrike.  All for 4 measly honor.  Throw her next to Illiana Sunshield and you have a cannon with padding for barely more than one legendary.

Meanwhile on the gang-green side, you have Daggum Ty'gor, who at 5 seems average, until you realize, WAIT, I can distract someone into a flamestrike from my murloc?!  Awesomeness!  Yes, for 9 honor, you can add a Blindlight Murloc and a Daggum Ty'gor to your team, allowing you to distract  opponents into your flamestrikes and laugh while doing it.

Everything has value if you combine it with the right pieces.  So while some people may be banging away at 5 x 8 honor minis, what's your thoughts on some value chain options?  Who of the weenies would you add to make an impact immediately to your teams?  Let us know!

On the side, I want to take a moment and thank everyone who reads, has read, and continues to read my stuff here.  I lost someone very special to me this week and I want to make sure everyone out there who enjoys my ideas and meanderings, knows that you mean something to me and I'm thankful for all the friendships I've made through this wonderful game.  Keep critting and I'll keep writing, licenses be damned!


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Posted by Steelwing on Wednesday, March 3, 2010
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Wednesday Weekly Warband

Put your doom and gloom away boys and girls and step right up to the 5V5 bar.  We're open 24 hours, have the hottest entertainment, and offer one hell of a white russian.

Realms is coming up, whether you believe it or not, and it's a 5V5 marathon beatdown.  If you haven't tried it out yet, please do.  This isn't the subject you pick up the night before the test.  It's a marathon of things happening in game to keep up with and a ton of action hitting the board all at once.

So far, I've seen the following teams thrown around for ideas:

HTXXX:
Haruka, Thangal, X, X, and X, with XXX being any combinations of Morganis, Daxin, Morova and the likes.

Super Zoo:
You think Zoo is hard to keep up with?  Try this:
Jaina, Kaustron, Elenrdil, Elanna Starbreeze, and Ryno the Short.  it's Pets out the wazoo!


Big V and the heavy hitters:
Varimathras and almost any good combination of Horde allies, to deal and heal a ton of damage, and using Varimathras to eliminate those pesky pets that can mount up in this larger format

It Came from the Deep:
Lady Vashj, Crushridge Ogre, Bloodscale Wavecaller, Rethilgore, and Frostmane Troll (and/or Blindlight Murloc).
It's good, but one polymorph on Vashj and it's over.

So while all these are good, fun, and devistating, I want to talk about an idea I had an did some testing over the last few days with:




















Holy Drakefist Batman, 41 Honor!?!  Yes Robin, 41 Honor.  It's faster than you would imagine though, and does the job.

Tinker and Nathressa start the fun with quick, repeatable damage.  Add in Savin's protection, and Phad's healing or dealing mentality, and this team starts wracking up the damage faaaaast.  This all leads to fluxing Velen on tick 6, and then starting the crit fireworks with his crit.

This can be an extremely fragile team if you don't watch your protection, or if you let Savin or Velen get poly'd, hence the counterspell.  More often than not, you may be using Counterspell in your main action bar with Tinker, but, having the option to ready it again with attacks, is mighty, might, fine.

I piloted Velen, Tinker, and Savin in several Battlegrounds and even in DMF Indy to good success, but tossing in Phadalus with a Wrath of Air totem just seem somewhat redonkulous.  I've tossed aroudn the idea of trading out Nathressa for Jezbella, however then we have little to no melee other than Phad's one attack, which scares me.  Surprisingly, having only Nathressa dishing out melee, and using Phad's only when needed, is quite effective, given the healing this team can do.

What's some things you've experimented with in 5V5 testing and what do you think will do well this time around!?  Keep your heads up kids, I have a good feeling, in a few short weeks, we will be very happy with Minis.  Until then, keep the fires burning, these 5V5s go a looooong time!

Oh, and click our new "Discuss" button to hit the discussion on the forums as well if you like...

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Posted by Steelwing on Wednesday, February 24, 2010
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New Crits Happen Shirt Available!

Tell it like it is, or at least like it was over the weekend at DMF Houston with the newest Crits Happen Shirt... someone getting on your case?  Flash them the back and then roll your crits!

Get it here today while it's hot:  Crits Happen - Your Mom's a 'Lock Shirt



FRONT:



BACK:



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Posted by Steelwing on Tuesday, February 23, 2010
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DMF Houston - We have NO Problem...

DMF Houston is in the books... head on over to the forums to see the write up we have provided, or clicky on demonic trio below...

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Posted by Steelwing on Monday, February 22, 2010
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zOMG we have forums!

Clicky clicky as the BElf 'Lock said to the Tauren Warrior...

You will notice in our main menu bar on top, we now have FORUMS!

With the impending shift of WOW Minis to someone, anyone, new, we wanted to offer folks a place to keep forum posting alive and well.  I by NO means can guarantee to be an ace moderator, so use them at your own risk, but I will do my best to ensure it's a solid community of fans and players for all to enjoy!

~ Steelwing

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Posted by Steelwing on Thursday, February 18, 2010
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The Re-Spawn Factor

I apologize for the lack of a warband this week.  It's been a challenging week and time has been shorter than usual.  I'm curious though, instead of talking about parties exactly, to talk about strategy today.  This weekend is the Dark Moon Faire: Houston.  I've had a good chance to playtest a little, and the ability to re-spawn on the VP is, if nothing else, interesting.

I have always favored magic attacks in my party, simply because they do more damage and can do it from range usually.  Most melee can only roll 7 or more dice by either being Epix like these guys:


or by swinging one of these around people's heads:



The problem I have run into with re-spawning on the victory point is that your melee get one good attack in, tick up for 3 or 4, and then get wasted by one big or two mid size magic attacks.  Having a protector seems key, but just pushing and pushing and constantly re-spawning on the VP doesn't seem to gain advantage unless you have the right combination of protection and healing to make it work.

I think the keys to this weekend will be knowing when to re-spawn on the VP and when to play set up.

What has everyone else seen happening in their playtesting?  Don't have to give away your secrets, but would be interesting to hear what you have seen in terms of if the VP re-spawn mechanic can give advantages, or if it's just "an option".

Whatever your team this weekend, good luck to all.  I look forward to seeing you all there!

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Posted by Steelwing on
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HMMM....

Well, at least we know more... what this means for the future of the two games, minis and tcg, who knows, but it sounds like it will continue... somehow, somewhere...

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=23214151183&sid=1


http://www.wow.com/2010/02/12/upper-deck-and-wow-tcg-parting-ways/


http://www.wow.com/2010/02/12/blizzard-wow-tcg-will-come-back-better-than-ever/

Dark Moon Faire Houston is still on though!  See you there!

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Posted by Steelwing on Friday, February 12, 2010
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Wednesday Weekly Warband - "It ain't a party until..."


So as many of you know, I was selected to Judge at the Dark Moon Faire: Houston.  While I'm very excited about it, I was also a bit concerned, as I hadn't really judged anything major since Worlds, having missed DMF: Vegas for my Daughter's Birthday.  I know, sheesh, where are my priorities right?

So as I was brushing up again (no, I'm not like Siggie and don't have a copy of the OCR and CR next to the toilet paper) on the rules and obscure rulings, I got to thinking about something.  The Players.  So this week, I'm not so much going to give you a party to play or  party to think about, but more, give you some experiences I have had, and let you ponder things when it comes to interacting with your opponent across the board.

If you have ever played against me, I would hope you would call me casually nice, or, as Crash Davis would say, "When you speak of me, speak kindly."  I like the competition of games but I don't get hell bent on calling judges over for every minor infraction, with the malice that my opponent must certainly have been attempting to bend the rules to their favor.  Rather in fact, if I have a fault, it's that I'm overly casual.  

More-so, I tend to be overly casual when I'm playing someone I know.  This is a terrible trap to fall into.  Whenever we go to gaming events, most of us go with someone we know.  Some of us are grouped up as teams, and some are just casual friends going for the thrill and fun.  we usually don't want to see our pals slapping down their buttocks across from us, and as a result, we don't want to nickel and dime them with rules.

I for one, enjoy taking a moment or two before the game, and introducing myself if it's someone I don't know,  and actually letting them know a few things.  No, not like, "Hi I'm Ben Stoll and I'm about to roll you" (*For the record, I've never heard Ben say that, but I think it would be funny if he did).  Actually, I just usually introduce myself, and let them know I'm not overly anal, and if they need to grab anything on my side of the board, other than me, it's ok, as long as we agree on where it's coming from, and, please be nice enough to ask.  I don't expect a written form, but I don't expect them to pick up Velen and toss him over their shoulder either.

I usually let my opponent see the character cards I'm playing with as even though we almost all have them memorized since we only have two sets *COUGH*, it's still nice to let them see them in case someone I'm playing hasn't crossed their sights recently.

I have seen so many people sit down, slam down their character cards, never let their opponent see them, and inevitably something comes up in the game where the one player wishes he or she had reviewed them.  While this is the player's responsibility to review their opponent's cards, I never like to make them feel like they can't.  

Some other things I've noticed (and players like Ben, Matt, and "The Mikes" Allen, Ayers, and Pozsgay are good at this) is constantly confirming things in matches.  One player picks up dice, it's good to say, "You're attacking with X" right?  Or some line that fits the situation, but ensures whatever action is about to happen, happens correctly.  Going into Nationals and Worlds, so many people were concerned over the dice throwing rules, some people did seem to be deliberately trying to take advantage of some people, which is never a good idea.  

Communication is key to me, in having a good, clean, and friendly competitive match.  Just because you are slugging it out for big time prizes, doesn't mean you can't be honorable, communicative, and friendly about it.  You never know, the person you beat, or who beats you, may very well become your team mate soon!

So what thoughts do you, the community have?  How do you play?  Cards to the chest?  Doors wide open? Ping Pong Balls to the Wall?  Let us know some of the things you see, you do, or would like to see done, to make competitive matches even more fun than they normally are. 

Oh, and if you REALLY want a team to discuss this week... here ya go... chit chat away:  DMF team of the week - 






It's explosive fun, and something that you should try out.  I call it the Roller Coaster of Love.  As long as you pack a heal card with Morova, it's geeeeeeeeee-orgeous!

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Posted by Steelwing on Wednesday, February 10, 2010
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Wednesday Weekly Warband




5V5.  If you haven’t played with this yet, it can be a mental beatdown.  Some players have a hard enough time keeping track of 6+ minis on the board, depending on pets involved in the game.  Throw in 4 more minimum, and make it 10+ and it can be a wild ride.  I recently played a game at a local Battleground and this was the set up:

Me:
Illiana Sunshield
Cairne Bloodhoof
Morganis Blackvein
Thangal
Harkua Skycaller

My Opponent:
Daelas Firewing (With a Soulseeker)
Warchief Thrall (With a Soulseeker)
Ta’Zo
Conqueror Aluna (With Master Tactician)
Daxin Firesworn (With a Soulseeker)

At the end of tick 2, with Master Tact and both of us missing triggers left and right, I literally called it and said, “man, this is not fun at all”.

It was my first 5V5 match in person and it was mentally exhausting and it only lasted like 15 minutes.  I had played 5V5 online before and it was nowhere near as stressful to keeping up with things at a tournament pace.  Now, with Realms around the corner, I wanted to take a look at two different teams.  One idea is to take a good 3v3 team and add the optional characters people splash in for effectiveness.  The other, is something completely different and unexpected.

First, let’s look at one of the most popular 3V3 teams…





As expected, this was a big team in the tournament scene last year everywhere you looked.  We all know the benefits.  Now, let’s splash a bit and add in:

This brings us up 10 more honor to 39 total (assuming the Boots of the Crimson Hawk and the Soulseeker are always included).  This seems high, but when you think Velen Wall was 31 with 3 minis, this isn’t that bad in a 5V5 environment.  
So what do we get for this splash?  Well, we get to bring Wrath of Air Totem and more Shaman healing cards with the Troll.  We get Lycanthropy with Rethilgore, and we get more potency out of Vashj.  She STILL lacks the protection of a green Paladin or solid Warrior, but this could easily be a 5V5 team seen, as many mid tier players crutch to Vashj, and in the format, the obvious choice seems to add those two minis that are mostly played along with her in other tournaments.
Surely there are other options with Vashj, and there should be.  While this team is good, it is soley centered on the Medusa-like Mollusc.  If she's Poly'd or killed, it could be game over man.

So now, what is something new we can do with 5V5?
Well, I am concerned with focusing the 5V5 around one mini, while I think it's good, unless you have counters galore, you risk losing that main link in your chain and everything falling apart.  So let's look at something interesting:



38 honor of monster love!  First, if you haven't played against any combination of PEX, shame on you and your BG.  My first big tournament team consisted of Prince K, EFs, and EFS.  It was then modified with some help to Prince K, EFS, and Razaani Nexus Stalker, and either combination is brutal.  If you don't believe me, as my Shaggy friend from Lousianna, he has piloted it to some good success as well.

Now, the Bleakheart is there to tick up some folks and help with DPS.  Shadowburn, potentially Santuria, and a host of other corruptable Warlock cards makes him a valueable asset.  Curse of Weakness goes quite well with Shock Barrier!  

The Talon lord meanwhile also has some tricks up his sleeve.  Warriors are slowly coming into their own.  As people start to see the power of Heroic Leap and Mocking blow, they are slowly realizing that Warriors are more finesse and timing pieces, who work well in combination with others.  In this instance, Taunt is on the table, and tick up crits (because they happen!), as well as the bevy of bust'em up Warrior cards that you have to use.

So what's your playtests been like?  Seen anything you like/dislike about 5V5?  Is it something that could have legs post Realms or is it a one time scenario to bide our time until whatever god above brings us Souls?  Let us know, but be prepared if you haven't played.  It's a mindcrime of a format that will test the best combinatoin thinking cranium out there!


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Posted by Steelwing on Wednesday, February 3, 2010
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