Day 2
...At the very last minute I decided on Elizabetha, Elizabetha, Firewing.
I was pretty familiar with the team after our playtesting experiences and we had assumed that half of the field would be playing casters, which meant that Amalar was out for good. My only other instinct was to run Zoo, but I was quite aware of the problems it would run into against a solid Wall team. The only ‘bad’ matchup for F.E.E. was Morts, but I knew I could blink the hill and force them to run two Death Coils (because of my Counterspell) to get me off of it.
F.E.E. seemed like a very safe choice after it dawned on me to drop Ice Block. Once I realized Firewing would be a utility character rather than a one-trick pony, I made my decision. To make my decision final, I unsleeved all my other teams and packed them away. I didn’t want to be stuck second guessing myself.
F.E.E.
ABCs
Waking up at 6am was never on my agenda. I figured that we would leave the hotel around 9:00am or so, but by the time I actually crashed the night before (12am) I hadn’t the foresight that I’d be awoken so early. I tried to fall back asleep, but it was pretty much useless. My brain was still completely wrecked from the mental warfare over what team to run the night before.
After a quick breakfast and some entertaining youtube videos, we checked out of the hotel and were on our way. I called Bin Chen in Kentucky and learned he’d be running Morts, and we had a nice long conversation about how F.E.E. matches up. We talked about piztog quite a bit and I almost went back and dropped a Corruption for the tiny pet, but decided that I would probably be casting Death Coils and Jhuroons all day long anyway. Derek St Pierre ran Morts x3 on Day 1 and we were convinced going into Day 2 that it would not make an appearance.
Match 1
My first game was against a player that I didn’t know. I was slightly glad at first, because I figured he wouldn’t be running Jaina/Savin/Namrah and since half the field would be running it, I was relieved I didn’t have to try to beat it right off the bat.
Unfortunately, he flipped over double Enraged Fire Spirit and Prince Kael.
I say unfortunately, because (for those who don’t know) this is the match up that cost me on Day 1 of Worlds. Chad Lathrop (wulfgar) and I had playtested our Worlds team against the EFS’s several times and knew we had a stronger team for the map. I was 2-1 at Worlds Day 1 and needed a win to make it into Day 2. Sitting at 20vps, and only needing 28vps, Prince Kael was left with only two health. I had moved Kayleitha in with Sprint and rolled five dice against his zero defense. And I completely whiffed. Several tics later I had the opportunity again, this time with no Sprint for a 4-dice attack. And only hit one. Seeing the repeat matchup first for Realms certainly sucked, and I thought I was either being punished for something, or had a chance to undo the horrible happenings of before.
I summoned my Jhuroons early and he responded with Flame Strike. I had purposely moved Firewing into Counterspell range early, completely forgetting that with Elemental Charge the attack couldn’t be negated. After that, he moved the EFS’s in range to attack the Jhuroons. He quickly got rid of the pets, protecting Prince Kael in the process. One of my Elizabetha’s was left with only 1 health, but healed up a bit after a Death Coil’d EFS was moved off the hill. An Elizabetha moved into range of Prince Kael, weakened him, and let Firewing come up to finish him off. My opponent put Kael into an Ice Block, which I barely remembered to Counterspell.
I had already killed two EFS’s and after Kael died I was up to 16vps, just seven away from what I needed. My opponent was at a close 11vp, but needed more than I did (26vp). Thanks to some solid attacks from Elizabetha, I ended up with the win. My mistake at trying to Counterspell the Flame Strike was actually huge, as it allowed me to still have the Counterspell ready when Kael tried to freeze himself. My opponent told me later that he brought a third Flame Strike to our match rather than a Counterspell, which would have made a difference, though we weren’t sure how much as Kael would have been ticked up eight tics, thus leaving my opponent with two EFS’s that had a hard time getting close to my Elizabetha’s.
Match 2 – Scott Morris
For the third time in less than 30hrs, Scott Morris (Steelwing!) and I were matched. He revealed his Jaina/Namrah/Savin team and I dropped F.E.E. on the table. He seemed a bit surprised (as were most of my opponents) at the Firewing choice. In my theory building the night before, I structured out moving Firewing into range to Poly Savin, and then Blinking across the board to nuke Jaina (as Savin loses the Bulwark ability and thus, protector). I wasn’t sure, going into my first match against the team, whether or not Counterspell would be a bigger card than Blink. I left the Corruptions behind, as I did in the prior match, but only because I knew if Savin was tic’d up too high, I could Death Coil him into a bad spot and force Jaina/Namrah to rally somewhere more unproductive.
Early game, Scott moved Savin up adjacent to the cover on my side and ticked him to tic3. I knew the Savin/Namrah/Jaina team well, and dropped a quick Poly on Savin to keep him from abusing my figures with the casters. The Poly kept off protector, which allowed Elizabetha and Firewing to follow up the move with solid attacks. My Jhuroons swarmed the two casters and tried getting in attacks where I could.
Scott is a very solid player and did his best to fight with only two pieces instead of three.
Once Savin was back in, he made a great hill recovery and fetched some vps to make it a closer match. However, after a Jaina death I was up on the scoreboard and it was only a little longer before I grabbed the remaining points needed for the win. We had an odd ruling come up over what happens when a Jhuroon crits while adjacent to a character with Taunt, and Scott tipped his hand that he was running Ice Block when he asked for a ruling on ‘target’. He hadn’t revealed his second card with Jaina, but his inquiry was enough to let me know not to attack her unless I was prepared with a Counterspell. (And for those wondering, a Jhuroon must attack an adjacent character and not the Taunt character if he manages to crit – and it does not ‘target’)
Match 3 – David Ignacio (Durotar Defending Realms Champ)
I was slightly relieved earlier that morning when I had glanced over and saw David was running a Jaina/Namrah variant. I hadn’t expected him to, and since I knew the match up pretty well, I was feeling confident. However, his version included Elanna Starbreeze. That scared me, honestly, because she has four-range and each of my units only brought 1armor to the table. I again left the Corruptions behind and brought the same ABCs for my Warlocks, but brought Blink and Counterspell with Firewing.
The game took an ugly turn for David early when it took him several attacks to finish off a Jhuroon with his pets and hunter, forcing him to use up tics (and attacks) to kill something that probably should have died sooner. I still managed to get the hill, where I stayed for some time before being removed. David brought Master Tactician as his second hunter card, and dealt some heavy blows early with guaranteed crits.
After a few kills on my part, I was at 19vps and knew I just needed one kill to wrap up the game. Elanna was slightly weakened from an early attack and I made a late-game reveal with Blink to hop across the board with Firewing for the nuke attack. The roll was enough, and I moved on to 3-0.
David is a very solid player and has had great success at every major mini’s tournament he’s been to. This marked only the second or third time that I’ve ever defeated him.
Match 4 – Chad Lathrop (Wulfgar)
How sweet it is for both myself and my playtest partner to go 3-0 and be the only two undefeated players going into our last match outside of the Top 8. Especially when you consider that we consistently get paired up right off the bat each week at our local battlegrounds. Obviously, we were both very happy to face one another here.
I once again left the Corruptions behind and brought the same ABCs for my Warlocks, but dropped Blink against the Triple Irana team for a Counterspell and Polymorph.
Things started off greatly in my favor as Chad nuked my pets with his basic attacks while having to use all three of the Irana’s to finish off both of my Jhuroons. This left each of his Irana’s ticked up to turn 5, and me with all of my characters still left to act. I quickly Poly’d one of his Irana’s to take her out of the equation and then Death Coil’d a hilltopping Irana to move myself in position.
However, late game and with no pets to aid my Elizabetha’s abilities, the Irana team laid it on thick with attacks and wore out my team quickly. What looked like an early advantage for me quickly turned into a late game win for Chad, putting him at 4-0 and myself at 3-1. We both made Top 8.
Top 8 – Game One – Derek St Pierre
I believe Derek and I were both pretty confident with our teams for the day. Derek’s only loss was to Chad, where they mirror matched their Triple Irana teams. The biggest difference was that Derek was packing Ice Block x3 (maybe x2?) while Chad left them out completely.
I made my same choices against Derek as I did Chad, and Derek started out with a much more aggressive style than Chad had. This worked out okay though, as I positioned myself to Counterspell his first Ice Block with a meatshield, and then moved myself onto the hill. The setup was very similar to my game with Chad, but because of the Ice Blocks, Derek was tic’d up way higher than Chad had been.
After I claimed the hill very early and all of his characters were tic’d up, Derek conceded the match and we called it a game.
Our matchup is interesting, and I certainly couldn’t have won it without bringing both Death Coils and a Counterspell. Placing one of my figures behind another figure to block enemy line of sight (meatshielding) was crucial to the win, denying him a counter to my Death Coil/Counterspell.
Derek is a great player and it was great getting to know him over the course of the weekend. After the match we realized we had played one another the night before Worlds in a very fun/crazy match via Vassal. It was great to meet in person.
Game Two – David Ignacio
David and I had played this match once before reaching the Top 8 and there wasn’t much for a rematch. Deciding that his team wouldn’t hold up to the team I was running, David conceded and we called it a game before even officially starting. Again, David is a fantastic player and getting 4th place on Sunday was just another notch in his amazing victory belt with Minis.
After things wrapped with David and I, I left the room as I couldn’t bring myself to watch Chad play his match against Nick DeWitt. Nick is fairly new to Minis, from my understanding, but not new to gaming in the slightest. Nick was running the Worlds Zoo team, with a slight variation. I didn’t want to apply any unneeded pressure to Chad, so I stayed out of the room completely while friends fed me details of the game. From the beginning, it didn’t sound good for Chad. He had two early Flame Strikes that didn’t roll more than 2-3 hits and he chose not to go after Nick’s pets. Chad had actually beat Nick outside of the Top 8, but Nick adopted to the team well and defeated Chad in a slightly one-sided match.
Finals – Game One
Nick and I headed into our matches almost immediately after he finished playing Chad. I was very familiar with Nick’s team from Worlds (Jaina/Elanna/Elanna), and had seen that he was running the Battlecast Pants with Jaina to help her Ice Block. Unfortunately for Nick, he wasn’t very familiar with my team at all, and I believe it was this that gave me a slight edge in the match.
Again Corruptions were left behind, with Firewing bringing Counterspell and Blink. I had thought about leaving Blink behind, but with his hunters having four range, I decided I would probably need to hop the board at some point.
I moved my Elizabethas into position early, calling my Jhuroons and positioning both Elizabethas to be able to take the hill if needed. Firewing hung back until his Blink would be useful.
After sacrificing my first Jhuroon with Elizabetha, Nick asked to reread her character card as he had misunderstood what it said. I think this caused a slight problem for Nick, as he wasn’t sure how to deal with Elizabetha. I scored a few points on the hill and successfully killed off both of his Bloodclaws, leaving only the Elannas, Jaina and the Greater Water Elemental to take pot shots. After Jaina had been weakened early, it was a game deciding Blink/Counterspell that took Jaina off the board for seven tics (she still had to tic up five for the countered Ice Block, plus two after dying). This left both of the hunters to find for themselves while I was able to score a few points with the hill.
The game went on until Jaina came back in, but I was already close enough to finish out the game and score the 23vps I needed for the win.
At the start of our match there had been some confusion. We were told that we had 75mins to play. During the game we asked if it was best 2 outta 3, were told yes, and we both assumed they meant 75mins to play each of the three matches. Once the first game was over, we were informed that we only had 39mins left to finish. Confused and shocked, we asked what would happen if Nick won the second match with no time left on the clock. We were told it would go into ‘sudden death’, where we would start our third match and whoever scored damage first would win. This meant that Firewing and his Blink ABC put me at a huge advantage, as I could cover seven spaces on the board (move two, teleport two, and then range of three).
We quickly started our third game after some ABC choices were made. Nick had me at a disadvantage, as he could run the Battlecast Pants and negate my ability to play Counterspell against Jaina’s Ice Block. However, I still HAD to run Counterspell just in case he decided not to run the Pants.
The game started, and sure enough Jaina showed up in a dress and pants. Quite sexy, yet equaling frustrating.
I made all the same moves as the first game, but decided for an early Blink attack with Firewing to try to force an early Ice Block. I couldn’t counter it if he played it, but at least Jaina would be out of the game for several tics. Worst case scenario would be that Firewing would get some early damage in on her.
Nick allowed the attack, and Firewing stung Jaina for a disgusting perfect roll, ten hits out of ten with a crit for +1 damage. Jaina rolled perfect in defense, but was left with only one health. It was just a matter of getting in range with Death Coil, but was perfect for me as well as it forced Nick to carefully decide where to place Jaina.
He eventually moved her onto the hill, as I had one card face down on one of the Elizabethas and one Death Coil already tapped. Unfortunately for Nick, the facedown card was a Death Coil, which sent Jaina out of the game for two tics, and put me into the lead.
After several mini attacks later, including my Elizabetha getting Distracting Shot’d off of the hill (I forgot to Counterspell it!) it all came down to dice rolls. Nick needed one kill to win, as did I. Firewing was in range, so Nick attacked first and rolled three hit outta four with Jaina. After my perfect save, Firewing was left with 4 health. Elizabetha moved onto the hill and Death Coil’d a weakened Elanna, pushing her away from a hill so she couldn’t climb ontop for the reroll while adjacent to Jaina.
Firewing had to survive two attacks from each of his Elannas. And he did. With only one health left. Firewing then responded by Blinking the hill that Elanna was Death Coiled away from, and smacked a weakened Elanna with ten dice and a reroll. After the hits were counted, Nick and I shook hands and called it a day.
I had a very fun trip down to Katy and I was very happy with how much fun everything was. It was great to meet all the players and I had a blast making my way through the tough field and into the top spot.
Firewing was easily my MVP of the day, coming through with a Blink attack and a Counterspell every time I needed him to. He is a fantastic piece when being used as a utility. And his 10 dice attack doesn’t hurt either!
Thanks for taking the time reading this massively wordy article and hope you enjoyed it!
Pojo
