Another Tall Dorinthea Tourney Report
Yesterday, I played in a Skirmish event with my tall Dorinthea deck and ultimately wrote a deck breakdown and tournament report article. Today I played another Skirmish event and figured I would do another report! I’m going to omit the deck breakdown this time because it hasn’t changed since my last event — if you want' to check that out, here’s the link to my previous article which goes into more detail.
The short version is that I was playing a Dorinthea deck that was designed to have an advantage against Ira, have at least a decent matchup against Kano, and be aggressive enough to do some major damage to other decks as well. On to the games!
Game One: Ira
The day starts off with another Ira match! This player was much more aggressive than some of my Ira opponents have been, equipping a Heartened Cross Strap instead of Fyendal’s Spring Tunic. Early on he chose to let me get some Dawnblade hits in order to follow up with a huge turn, using his Snapdragon Scalers and Heartened Cross Strap to attack with Enlightened Strike for 7 as well as Command and Conquer on the same turn.
I was able to use my armor plus a single card to stop the C&C and keep some pressure of my own, but he blocked out my Dawnblade attack despite some buffs. However, on the next turn he came at me with Kodachi into C&C 7 but I had Sigil in Arsenal and was able to heal and take the hit, then use Ironsong Determination to fuel a turn that got through his defenses for another Dawnblade counter. While he got me to one life on his next turn I was able to use my Courage of Bladehold to swing Dawnblade for 4, score the hit with Ironsong Response (Red), and then use Refraction Bolters to come in for a second swing which I buffed up for the kill with red Overpower!
Victory! (1-0)
Game Two: Ira
This opponent didn’t have a Mask of Momentum, which gave me a bit of an edge. However, I’m not sure how much it mattered, since Mask almost never fires against me (I think it let me tank the second Kodachi hit once when I otherwise would have equipment blocked?) and I forgot this at first anyway! Ultimately this time I was able to get multiple attacks through that would hit for only one damage after all the defense stuff — but since I was building up counters I was quite fine with this! My opponent was able to stay alive for a while but was stuck in “defense mode” and slowly getting whittled down, and I eventually drew into a crazy hand (Sharpen Steel + red Warrior’s Valor + Ironsong Determination + three counters on Dawnblade for strength 13 dominate go again on hit!) to close out the game.
(Note: This player ended up making the semifinals, and while she ultimately lost to Kassai in that round I was impressed by the run despite not having a Mask! She had apparently been playing since early on in the game’s life.)
Victory! (2-0)
Game Three: Ira
Once again I find myself facing off against Ira! This build was very unlike “standard” Ira though, with my opponent equipping Mask of Momentum, Goliath Gauntlet, Heartened Cross Strap, and Snapdragon Scalers! On turn one I played a Sigil of Solace and put a card in Arsenal, but this proved to be much worse than I thought as my opponent proceeded to play a turn that included two copies of Scar for a Scar, which had Go Again thanks to my Sigil — ouch!
I think a key moment in this game was when I played a Warrior’s Valor (red) and came in for 6 damage. My opponent took the hit. I swung again for 3 and my opponent took the hit! At this point I was pretty concerned. He ended up throwing out a giant turn with something like Kodachi, Kodachi, Estrike 7 + Go Again from Snapdragon Scalers, Goliath Gauntlet -> Heartened Cross Strap -> C&C 8! I had facetanked the Estrike and was at 9 life to his 11 at this point… luckily for me I still had enough equipment block left to block for 5 with my armor plus one from hand, avoid getting my arsenal destroyed, and then keep aggressive pressure on to win the game.
Victory! (3-0)
Game Four: Bravo
Finally a non-Ira opponent, but one that I’m worried about thanks to those big defense reactions. I had an awkward opening hand but decided to use Ironsong Determination much earlier than I would early in order to pressure his armor — as predicted I didn’t get the counter but did manage to make him block a bunch. A key moment was later in the game when he had a Crippling Crush ready to go in Arsenal but didn’t draw enough energy to make the big play he was hoping for. I was ultimately able to get two counters on Dawnblade and preserve them by the “skin of my teeth”, barely getting through his defenses on two different turns to hit for one and keep my counters. The big attack reactions were crucial this game to keep my offense up and ultimately I was able to push through a buffed Staunch Response twice (!), the last time for the win.
Victory! (4-0)
Game Five: Viserai
This time I was up against a Viserai deck which was also undefeated! My opponent mentioned having defeated three Warriors already, which gave me pause — normally I think Warrior has a strong matchup into Viserai. However it soon became apparent that he was running a more aggressive deck than the “OTK” Viserai builds that I’ve seen before, using various Go Again cards like Mauvrion Skies and Rune Flash. He had some big plays and I took a lot of damage but managed to get a counter on Dawnblade and then put the pressure on, ultimately prevailing with 1 life remaining (though I also had a red Sigil in arsenal).
Victory! (5-0, made top cut)
Since I was the top seed, I knew I’d be able to pick my preference of first or second against my opponents — a minor edge but one that could definitely end up being to my advantage. Time to proceed to the cut!
Top Eight: Ira
Once again I found myself facing off against Dante, the player who I’d encountered both in Swiss and the finals at the previous event! This time I made a major error early on in the event, playing an Ironsong Determination in a situation where I should have saved it for a turn where I had a Go Again effect. However, I got lucky by drawing the second Ironsong Determination on the very next turn! This game had me keeping a +1 counter for some time, and while Dante eventually knocked my counter off and was able to defend efficiently against me for some time, my aggression was too much and ultimately I was able to get him to one life and end the game with a Steelblade Shunt!
Victory! (6-0, made top 4)
Semifinals: Rhinar
This was one of my opponents from yesterday, who was playing an aggressive build with the Mandible Claws. This time I started off stronger, getting a counter quickly, but took a fair chunk of damage early on as well. He managed to stop a big attack of mine by using Reckless Swing, putting me at 2 life. The game then turned into an odd “race”, with my opponent blocking very heavily in the hopes of drawing a Reckless Swing while I hoped to draw one of my Sigils before he could do it, even playing an attack reaction for no real effect to try and get through the deck faster! Unfortunately, he ended up winning the race and playing his second Reckless Swing for the kill.
Defeat! (6-1, knocked out in top 4)
Overall, this was another fun event — shoutout to Gamer’s Haven Ohio and Adam the TO for putting on a great tournament! While I wasn’t able to win this time, it was a lot of fun and my combined record against Iras for the three events is now ten wins to one loss! Feel free to check out my other tournament report if you haven’t already and/or want more information on the deck — these Skirmish events were a lot of fun and I definitely recommend playing in some if you get the opportunity!
