Written by Liam Bosecke
Unfortunately, Dragon's Lair St Marys' store manager Phil Wessels came down with covid on the morning of the skirmish. However, not wanting to disappoint the eager players, Phil managed to organize the event to be held at an alternative venue, Tabletop Warfare Prospect.
Special thanks to both Wayne Fisher and Phil Wessels for allowing this event to continue to happen.
Dragon's Lair St Mary's
The games growth is evident with the amount of new and old faces alike who made the journey down today to test their deck building prowess and playing ability. I spoke to one player, New Zealand native Adam Torr, about his out of left field choice of hero; Valda.
"People don't really play her (Valda), guardian is still in a Good place and I just wanted to have some fun. All major heroes draw cards and Valda counters that"
It's fair to state that Oldhim is the "blitz boogeyman" as one player states. I personally, couldn't have agreed more as I came into this event playing Benji, which loses all of it's steam when coming up against crown of seeds (and any guardian equipment for that matter), since it won't be possible for me to pull off a one turn kill.
Skirmish Commences
We saw a very diverse spread of heroes at today's skirmish. Many players also opted to change their decks or heroes at the very last minute, planning to counter the diverse meta we see here in Adelaide. Currently, the heroes Oldhim, viscerai, Kano and Iyslander are consistently winning local armoury events. Oldhim is definitely the deck to beat, but Kassai is also a scary hero to come up against with its devastating combo after it builds up its copper tokens
The Main Event
Round 1
I chose to play Benji for this tournament because it is what I have been practicing for the last few months. For the first round, I won against Rhinar on the first turn with a huge 20 damage turn and they were unfortunate enough to not have any defense. I managed to draw a Spring Tidings on the first turn so I decided to keep it in my hand for when I drew back up. My opponent got me down to 9 health after a devastating intimate turn but it was no match for unblockable chip damage.
An intense Game
Round 2
I lost my second game against Bravo, who was able to slow the game down and prevent me from doing any significant damage. I played a careful game and substituted Pouncing Lynx for Mask of Momentum, but Bravo put on too much pressure for me to be able to gain any traction throughout the game.
Round 3
For the third match up, I managed to get through against one ranger specialist, Martin Hodge, playing Lexi. I patiently blocked until I drew into a spring tidings and then took all the damage and even 3 frost bite tokens. But once I had my turn, I pitched three to play a hundred winds, it hit and then activated all of my equipment it deal a total of 20 damage.
Skirmish Season 4
Round 4
I played another Lexi for the fourth round, this time against another ranger specialist, Zac Gable, who blocked my "go big" turn very effectively and managed to stay alive with 8 life, but at the cost of all his armour. I managed to pull off the win with the remaining turns through chip damage.
Round 5
The fifth round I went up against Viserai and I popped off on turn 0 but it was very in effective as he blocked all of the spring tidings leaving him on 16 health. I missed a crucial breaking scales trigger which would have won me the game once I had him down to 1 life. But he managed to get plenty of damage through on the final turn with an effective sonata which drew him 4 cards
Benji, The Piercing Wind
Top 8
| Alex Forndran | Bravo |
| Joe Barbaro | Oldhim |
| Nicholas clayton | Kassai |
| Connor Archer | Iyslander |
| Liam Bosecke | Benji |
| Ryan taylor | Oldhim |
| Adam Torr | Valda |
| Alex Mcdonald | Viserai |
Top 8 Round 1
I lost against Alex Forndran who played Bravo. With the amount of armour that Bravo packs, I couldn't get past his immovable barrier which he created for himself; playing a well balanced game. The two Oldhims got paired up against each other in a lucky turn of events for the other top 8 players. I wish I had a remembrance in my deck for this match up since both of my spring tidings were gone very quickly.
Top 8 Round 2
A close game was had by Connor Archer and Alex Forndran, but Connor managed to pressure in the arcane damage at the end for the win. Ryan taylor was left on one with Nick Clayton playing a very aggressive Kassai. Ryan managed to squeezer out the victory to move onto the next round.
Final Round
Top 8 Final Round
A slow and steady back and forth went between these two heroes. Connor was pitch stacking throughout the game if he had nothing he could do by pitching to Crucible of Aetherweive, setting up for large Stir the Aetherwind turns later on. Ryan mainly activated Heart of Ice to limit Connors ability to combo on his turn, and swung with sledge for 6 consistently throughout the whole game. The game in general was a slog and Connor was very close to decking out even after bringing back key pieces with Remembrance. In the end, Connor went for the kill with his last hand but Ryan played a Sigil of Solace to survive it on 1.
Skirmish winner Ryan Taylor
