Tall Dorinthea Skirmish Report IV
That’s right guys, it’s time for yet another tall Dorinthea tournament report! If you want to get a detailed overview of the deck, check out the first of these reports. If you want to check out how I’ve done in other tournaments, here are links to the second report and to the third. This time I brought my deck to the Final Turn Gaming Skirmish event. This event was a bit smaller than some of the others, running at twenty-seven players, but was still a blast! Same deck as last time, no changes as yet… let’s see how I did!
Round One: non-OTK Viserai
This opponent was using a Viserai deck that was not specialized for one turn kill but rather had a mix of things that build up Runechants and ways to attack normally. He was using the Crown of Dichotomy instead of an Arcanite Skullcap, which proved to my advantage. This turned into an odd aggressive game — I managed to get him down to four life to my eleven and score a Dawnblade counter with Rout, but he attacked with ten Runechants plus a buffed Reaping Blade for five, healing one as well thanks to pitching Heart of Fyendal!
It was now eleven to five and fifteen damage was heading my way. I looked at my hand and decided I would lose a grindy game and needed to make the next turn go big, so I decided to block minimally, pitching to block three Runechants and then blocking with just my Bracers to go down to one life. On the next turn I pitched blue and swung Dawnblade for four — he overblocked me to seven but I played Out for Blood (red) and Ironsong Response (red) to hit him for three even through the overblock, then cracked Bolters and used my last resource to swing again for five (four plus the Reprise from Out for Blood) — he had one card left in hand and one point of armor remaining, but the card only blocked for two so I got in for the last two damage and the win! Close call… I might well have lost this one if he had had a Skullcap equipped instead of the Crown!
Victory! (1-0)
Round Two: Ira
I found myself playing against Shingo, a UK player I’ve encountered at several other online events (including in the top cut of both UK online leagues). He made me go first and commented on how last time that had gone badly for him thanks to Ironsong Determination. History repeated itself as I led off with Sharpen Steel into Ironsong Determination! While he was able to stop it with a red Flic Flac, Breaking Scales, and his Mask I was quite happy to get a Mask break on turn one!
As the game continued, I was able to just take hits and come in with heavy aggression. The key moment came when I attacked him with a Dawnblade that had a +1 counter and him at six life. I had already used Refraction Bolters so he opted not to block. I played a red Out for Blood or Stroke of Foresight (forget which) to threaten lethal and he healed out of range with a Sigil of Solace… only for me to play another red +3 attack reaction to get to lethal and the game!
It later turned out that he had blocked lightly this turn in the hopes of ending the game with an Enlightened Strike -> Crane Dance -> Heron’s Flight combination — this would have been quite scary if he got to land it, but thankfully it wasn’t to be!
Victory! (2-0)
Round Three: Aggro Ira
This opponent was also playing Ira, but with a much more aggressive deck than some — he was running not just the red but also at least one yellow Razor Reflex, as well as cards like Nimblism and Push the Point. In prematch chat I learned that he had beaten Dante, a strong Ira player, so I was a bit worried. However this game I was able to get into a very aggressive mode and then never really let up the pressure — while he did have some strong turns even while lower on cards, I was able to just weather the damage and keep up my own pressure, ultimately closing out the game with Ironsong Determination.
Victory! (3-0)
Round Four: Kano
Kano can be a tough opponent, but this game went pretty well for me — my opponent took a bunch of damage early to make a big Kano play but then made an error in resolving it, letting me block all but one damage for that turn. Later on he used his Eye to try and get a big combo on my turn but didn’t see aggressive stuff and went into a very defensive mode, but I was able to push through with an attack reaction and Refraction Bolters to win the game.
Victory! (4-0)
Round Five: Katsu
This round was against a Katsu deck rather than Ira, but he had gone undefeated thus far at least. It seemed that both of us had fairly aggressive builds, but in a war between two aggressive decks Dorinthea tends to win. The huge amount of armor I have available really helps in these aggressive matchups, especially when it comes time to block those Kodachi swings and disrupt the Mask of Momentum! My opponent took some damage to maintain aggression and eventually took me down to 3 life with a Heron’s Flight combo, but I was able to build up two Dawnblade counters and then come in with a big attack turn for the win.
Victory! (5-0, made top cut)
With that I was undefeated and the top seed for the event, giving me that sweet sweet “choose who goes first” advantage for the top cut. Let’s see how it did for me!
Top Eight: OTK Viserai
This was the true OTK Viserai experience — a game where I slowly ground my opponent down while he built up Runechants to a huge amount! By the end he had over 20 Runechants but I had accumulated 2 Dawnblade counters and was able to push through for the win despite some mild errors on my part in the last turn. I got a little lucky in that his first Chains of Eminence on Warrior’s Valor missed and his second one hit only a card in arsenal, allowing me to keep up the attack with my cards in hand and maintain my +1 counter. This is kind of an odd matchup because a lot of the OTK stuff is 2-blocks but the deck also runs a lot of defense reactions, which means that the “defense strength” of any given hand against Warrior can be highly variable.
Victory! (6-0, made semifinals)
Top Four: Ira
Once again I find myself facing off against Dante in the cut! This game was quite unusual. At first it looked like it was settling into the standard pattern of Dorinthea attacking aggressively while Ira defended and whittled down the life total with Kodachi swings. MIdway through, there was a crucial moment when Dante attacked with a red Drone of Brutality to end his turn while we both had six life remaining, with his armor depleted and me still having one block left on Arcanite Skullcap and one on Braveforge Bracers. I had a counter on Dawnblade and my hand was (IIRC) red Sharpen Steel, red Warrior’s Valor, and two blue Ironsong Responses. I had to decide whether to block and if so how much. I thought at this point that if I lost tempo I would likely be in trouble, but if I maintained it I would have the advantage. I knew Dante knew that I had used both of my red Ironsong Responses earlier, so I figured he would not expect a defense reaction AND enough energy for a second attack.
I decided to block with just my Braveforge Bracers in order to allow me to do the “full hand”, figuring he might well assume I had a Sigil of Solace in hand. I came in for ten go again on hit, and as predicted he blocked for exact ten with two cards from hand plus a defense reaction. I came in for the +1 with my Ironsong Response… only for him to have drawn another defense reaction with which to stop it! At this point I knew I was in big trouble — I’d thought I would score the hit, come in for another four damage, and force him to either block with both his remaining cards, block with one card and give me a second +1 counter (at which point I could block his first Kodachi with my Skullcap, block the second one with a swing, and then go aggressive on him with three cards and a strength five Dawnblade), or go to one life (and give me a second counter), at which point I could potentially end the game with Steelblade Shunt (neither of which I’d played). Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be!
At this point I knew I was in trouble, but I had a Sigil of Solace soon to mitigate some of his pressure. At this point I figured I had a decent chance of a fatigue win, as I had been on the offense all game with him defending. I asked him how many cards he had left in deck… only to find he actually had several cards more than me! At this point I knew I was really in trouble and ended up getting eventually killed by Kodachi pressure.
After the game I talked to Dante and he said he was also shocked to learn that he had more cards than me remaining when I asked! Neither of us are really sure what happened there — I think maybe it was because I had played some of the small attack reactions early on? Nevertheless, this was a memorable game for those two big moments, even if they were both unpleasant surprises for me!
Defeat! (6-1, 3rd place)
Overall another solid showing for Dorinthea — I’ve now taken this to four Skirmishes and “made the podium” at all four. I did play a smaller Skirmish prep event yesterday as well, which I don’t have a separate report for — I won my one Ira matchup there, so with that plus this event’s two wins and a loss I now stand (I believe) at sixteen to three against Ira in recent games!
As usual, this was a lot of fun — shoutout to my opponents, to Final Turn Gaming for hosting (I believe the TO was simultaneously hosting this, another online event, and some things going on in store as well!), and to LSS for making such a fun game!
