12/01/2023 Daimonji (CC) 2-1

 

Second last armoury before the start of the Pro-Quest on Saturday.

Decklist remained the same as the last one, still feels good about it so no changes were made.

Round 1 Arakni, Huntsman

Equipment used: <Crown of Providence>, <Courage of Bladehold>, <Braveforge Bracers> and <Refraction Bolters>

Opponent was the one who borrowed my <Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn> deck last week, he’s on Arakni this week. I’m not sure whether he’s played a lot in the past week or is he just naturally a very good TCG player, his piloting of his deck doesn’t look like a new player at all. He was very proficient in making all the right plays and up keeping with all of his triggers.

The game started out with him having a life lead up to 12ish because I was blocking minimally. Opponent is letting all of my naked <Dawnblade> swing go through and I didn’t draw my <Run Through> until about turn 8, but once I was able to swing a second time and land a counter, the game was more or less over.

I didn’t draw any of my key “Majestic” cards in the early to mid game, but <Steelblade Supremacy> came together with <Spoils of War>, <Glistening Steelblade> came together with <Twinning Blade> which allowed me to either swing for 3 times or go for big damage turns and I managed to finish the game without going to fatigue or letting my opponent banishing too many of my cards.

________________________________________________________________

Round 2 Azalea, Ace in the Hole

Equipment used: <Crown of Providence>, <Fyendal’s Spring Tunic>, <Braveforge Bracers> and <Refraction Bolters>

Opponent is the Champion of the recent Battle Hardened Singapore, so pressure is really on me.

I’m not going through the entire game sequence but rather will note down several key decisions that costed me the game.

1. I won the die roll and chose to go first, but my starting hand was 4 red, I tried to maximise my damage but not much I could do.
2. I was way to aggressive with my life total, blocking minimally on attacks without on-hit effect in trying to establish a tempo lead but opponent blocked very well and I didn’t manage to maintain my <Dawnblade> counters.
3. I spent my equipment way too early. This decision was made because I had <Steelblade Supremacy>, <Singing Steelblade>, <Glint the Quicksilver> and a blue in hand while my arsenal was <Out for Blood>, but my turn got shut down by double D react from opponent.
4. I was pitching my blue <Steelblade Shunt> instead of putting them in the arsenal, thus I lost a lot of tempo from opponent’s “Dominated” <Red in the Ledger>, this compounded by the fact that I used my equipment block way too early caused me the game.

Towards the end game, opponent punted a little bit by drawing his <Nock the Deathwhistle> searched <Headshot> with the <Death Dealer> ability thus missing the 6 “Dominate” damage and ending his turn abruptly, but this didn’t really matter because I was way too behind on tempo and life.

Opponent finished me off with a blind flip from <Azalea, Ace in the Hole> which was buffed by <Take Aim>.

Always good to play against strong opponent who is experienced in the game, a lot of learning points which allows me room for improvement.

One little funny thing the that happened, me and my opponent were both using the same dice set, whenever I present a <Dawnblade> swing and represent the damage coming with my dice, opponent would think it's his dice and put it aside, then I'd put the dice in place again. This happened for like 4 times and we shared a laughter. :P

________________________________________________________________

Round 3 Iyslander, Stormbind

Equipment used: <Nullrune Hood>, <Fyendal’s Spring Tunic>, <Braveforge Bracers> and <Refraction Bolters>

Opponent is a very dedicated <Iyslander, Stormbind> player, he’s not on the typical “Bulls-lander” deck, but a rather arcane heavy version of the ice mage.

The game went exactly like JL said in his guide, <Dorinthea Ironsong> need to try and land a counter and snowball from there. Opponent was disrupting my attacks with things like <Channel Lake Frigid> and <Hypothermia> which I saw 2 of each. And I was not able to land a counter on my <Dawnblade> while taking significant damage from his <Aether Icevein>, <Ice Bolt> and <Waning Moon>.

The critical turn came when opponent drew a quad red hand and my hand was <Steelblade Supremacy>, <Glint the Quicksilver> and 2 blues, while my arsenal was <Puncture>. Opponent tried to block my first swing and I went over it, on second swing opponent had no good blocks and giving me a counter.

On the follow up turn, I was able to go over opponent’s second block using equipment with a <Puncture> and landing a second counter.

The game ending turn, I saw a x=3 <Ice Eternal> from opponent in response to my first <Dawnblade> swing with “Go Again”, but I was able to pay for the “Frost Bite” and play a <Twinning Blade> and swing aa second time for the win.

It’s not easy to win against <Iyslander, Stormbind>, it is really important to draw well and land a counter early in the game. If I am able to force block from opponent and cause him to have no arsenal, the game becomes very easy.

One key take away: <Hypothermia> can be played during the resolution step after damage calculation to stop my <Dawnblade> from getting “Go Again”

_______________________________________________________________

Losing to <Azalea, Ace in the Hole> is very humbling experience, block more!!!

Onwards, Dorinthea!!!