Yet Another Tall Dorinthea Report!

Today I took the same Dorinthea build I was using in several previous tournaments in the past week to another Skirmish event, this one hosted by the Cloak and Blaster gaming pub. I have been to other events hosted by the Cloak and Blaster before, but this was a 62-player Skirmish — much larger than the Armory events I’d played with them earlier!

Same build as last time — check out my first report if you want the details of the build and strategy. Short version is that it’s a Dorinthea deck optimized to play against Ira by going tall instead of wide and trying to push through those defense reactions!

On to the games!

Round One: Pistol Dash

This round my opponent had technical issues and almost had to concede, but managed to get things fixed just in time. This deck seemed to be a control Dash with defense reactions and pistol items. However, I was able to push through damage with my attack reactions and win the game — critically, I had two attacks early on which my opponent didn’t overblock and I managed to get in there with red Overpower for major damage. While I did get whittled down to 7 by all the pistol shots I still had a fair chunk of armor at the end.

Overall, I’m not sure this style of pistol Dash deck exerts enough threat to stave off aggro decks in the Blitz format, though it is quite strong in Classic Constructed and against slower builds (I myself had worked on a pistol Dash as one of my earlier attempts to fight Ira!).

Victory! (1-0)

Round Two: Tall Dorinthea

This time I was against Rob, a member of the Tolarian Dropouts team and actually the player who had originally inspired this build! This mirror got off to an interesting start, with both of us using equipment early to get big hits but then having to defend a bit more. In midgame, Rob repeatedly dumped his whole hand to block, giving me a fatigue advantage but getting the counter off my Dawnblade and then protecting himself even from strong offensive hands. I was at one point reduced to 1 life but managed to heal out of Shunt range, which was good because Rob later hit me with both his Shunts — I got Rob to 1 life but he healed to 2 with Heart of Fyendal before I drew a Shunt of my own.

Unfortunately, we wound up going to time and this one was a draw. I think I likely could have taken it if the game continued because he was fatiguing out after the multiple full block hands while I had significantly more cards in deck, but I don’t know for sure — we were 2 life to 1 life at the end so one mistaken block could have been the end of either of us!

Draw! (1-0-1)


Round Three: OTK Viserai

This opponent was playing a Viserai deck that was trying to build up lots of Runechants and then make some big play, but he never got to actually make the big play — I think the game ended with him on something like 11-13 Runechants. While his build did feature defense reactions it was somewhat hampered on the defense by also featuring several two-block cards such as Sloggism, which meant I was able to use my various offense tricks to get two Dawnblade counters and then come in with a really tall Ironsong Determination turn for the win.

Victory! (2-0-1)

Round Four: Kano

This was a very quick game! He threw out a Voltic Bolt for six on his first turn, and I blocked three with Arcane Barrier and then came back with a big Ironsong Determination turn, popping my Bolters for the second swing and getting a Dawnblade counter but taking some damage from him zapping me on my turn. On his turn he drew up, and going into my turn two with 12 life to 6 and an aggressive hand, I knew it was likely going to be one of those turns where either I got him or he got me 0 — ultimately it was I who got him!

Victory! (3-0-1)

Round Five: Ira

My first Ira opponent of the event! This was a bit of an odd game — I started off strong (with an Ironsong Determination to push some damage through on turn 1 going first, as well as break my opponent’s Mask!) but made two major errors.

First, I pitched a blue Out for Blood instead of a blue Ironsong Response while making a Steelblade Supremacy attack, allowing my opponent to block all 5 using only a reaction from arsenal and his Breaking Scales. If I had pitched the blue Ironsong Response instead I could have played my Out for Blood to sneak in for +1 damage, allowing a potential draw and second swing, but instead I was left in the lurch! As a result of this I took more hits than I’d hoped in the midgame.

Next, I made a serious mistake by miscalculating a big attack turn and using Courage of Bladehold unnecessarily, which ultimately left me stuck with a card in hand that I hadn’t used and could have pitched to keep my Courage available for the future. After those mistakes I was quite worried that I wasn’t going to be able to come back. On the next turn I managed to get two tokens on Dawnblade but my armor was destroyed and my opponent had a big hand — however, he had dropped to one life and I drew into the Steelblade Shunt, allowing me to close out the game. Ultimately perhaps not one that I “should have won” but it worked out in the end!

Victory! (4-0-1)


Round Six: Tall Dorinthea

Another Dorinthea mirror! This one also went quite long, but this time I was the one forced into the defensive position — my opponent kept barely sneaking in to get his counter. Eventually I managed to get an Energy Potion out during this process, and one of my overblocks stopped him and I was able to take the initiative. In the end we went to time but I pulled the Ironsong Determination that I needed to close out the game in the last overtime opportunity I was going to have to attack!

Victory! (5-0-1, made top cut)


Top Eight: Ira

An Ira matchup for the top eight! I hadn’t played as much against Ira in the Swiss so I was kind of excited to see an Ira opponent in the top cut. My opponent had the higher seed and chose to go second. I had to choose between playing an Energy Potion and trying to sneak in there with a red Overpower, and opted to go for the more conservative play with the Potion. My opponent came out with a big attack turn, putting one Kodachi into Enlightened Strike for eight, then using Snapdragons to follow up with a Flying Kick for seven! I blocked the Flying Kick with one card and two pieces of equipment to deny Mask and then came out with aggression of my own. Ultimately this ended up being a good strategy for me — I was able to put the pressure on, get a counter or two, and hang onto it for much of the game, keeping my opponent on the defensive.

Interestingly, Copper tokens ended up being quite important here! I ended up using them twice after drawing hands with lots of blue and not a lot of threat, allowing me to keep up the threats and pressure in order to close out the game.

Victory! (6-0-1, made semis)

Top Four: Ira

Once again I found myself playing an experienced Ira opponent — I believe he was the #1 seed after Swiss, having gone undefeated in the initial phases! This game went very long, which is not a good sign for me — there was an extended period in midgame where I was ahead on tempo but considerably behind on life, slowly getting whittled down by Kodachi hits. At one point I had a Dawnblade counter and was able to play an Ironsong Determination and swing for five damage with Dominate — since my opponent had I believe already used his armor at this point and did not have a card in arsenal, I figured I would score a guaranteed two hits and a second Dawnblade counter — unfortunately, my opponent took me by surprise with a yellow Unmovable from hand, blocking exactly the damage that he needed in order to prevent me from getting that second attack! It seems that he had seen my earlier tournament reports and decided to make a small change to his deck in order to “counterpick” this style of tall Warrior — well done by him!

However, both of us started getting very close to fatigue. I thought that would likely be my end thanks to his Drone of Brutality, but I had pitched some of my stronger cards early in awkward situations and this ended up paying off big time! Towards the end, he threw up a big block against my Warrior’s Valor + Dawnblade token — I was almost out of attack reactions but still had a red Overpower and was able to break through the defense and take a second swing and a second Dawnblade counter. On the next turn, he only had a three-card hand thanks to fatigue and while he was able to stop my Dawnblade, he had to block with his whole hand to do it. With only his 1x Drone remaining, he was no longer able to stop me and conceded the game.

Victory! (7-0-1, made finals)

Finals: Ira

After running the Ira gauntlet in the top cut thus far, I learned that it would be yet another Ira opponent in the finals! This time I was again playing Dante, the player who I had lost to in Swiss but defeated in the final at the CompetEsport tournament. I knew he was an experienced and strong player, so this game was not going to be an easy match by any means! This one had an interesting start — I drew a dream hand for my turn two but it was light on energy, and on my opponent’s turn I slightly misplayed my armor blocks, using Skullcap instead of Courage of Bladehold to block his second Kodachi hit. This meant I couldn’t use Courage to enable a big turn without wasting its block, which is often crucial in an Ira game! Ultimately, I decided to do a smaller initial turn and try to draw out some of his defense reactions, as I suspected he had one in arsenal.

This turn succeeded in getting a reaction from hand as well as the one from arsenal, leaving me in a position to do my huge turn on my turn three. I played Ironsong Determination, Steelblade Supremacy, and Spoils of War to swing in for strength 8 with dominate and go again + draw on hit. My hope was that Dante would not have a defense reaction in arsenal and would be forced to get hit, allowing me to swing again and likely either get a Dawnblade counter or force him to block with his equipment. Unfortunately, while I’d successfully drawn out the defense reaction he had set up in Arsenal earlier, he had managed to immediately replace it with another of his four-block defense reactions, allowing him to stop the big turn with just the reaction, a card from hand, and his Breaking Scales — not the result I was hoping for!

This game then settled into kind of a similar pattern from the previous game — my opponent was far ahead on life but behind on tempo, yet whittling me down with his Kodachi attacks as I tried to keep the pressure on. This time, though, I didn’t score a breakthrough as I had in the previous game. I also had a very awkward turn where he played a C&C for 7 and I only had one card in hand that could actually block it, having drawn two Potions and a Shunt in the same hand — I ended up deciding to eat 7 and do a play that could either threaten a Dawnblade counter or get an Energy Potion out depending on how he played it. I ended up with the Potion and was feeling decently good about the situation, but it wasn’t immediately enough for me to score a breakthrough.

Dante eventually decided to defend more lightly in order to do a very aggressive turn of his own. I pushed through his remaining armor blocks with an attack reaction powered by the Energy Potion and got a counter on Dawnblade, thinking this would be the opportunity I needed to get more firmly into the driver’s seat — I still had Courage and Bolters as well as an Ironsong Determination in hand, so even if I had to block with several cards I was thinking I’d still be able to throw out a very threatening turn, potentially even scoring a second Dawnblade counter!

However, Dante was able to use his Snapdragon Scalers and Breaking Scales to get me down to one life and then play a Flying Kick, forcing me to block with my remaining cards and Courage of Bladehold’s last point of armor. If I had still had the Courage I would have been able to threaten an explosive turn even without cards in hand and get him defending more, but as it was I had to just let my Dawnblade counter slip away! The Kodachi pressure then kept me firmly on the defense until I drew a red Sigil and was able to heal up and then attack — but Dante had an aggressive enough hand that he could just let me get the counter on Dawnblade and then attack with another hand that made me block with all four of my cards! At that point I had used both my Sigils and my equipment, so didn’t really have a way to threaten more now that I was stuck in “defense mode”. This meant that while the game wasn’t actually over it was pretty clear which way it was going to go, and I extended the virtual handshake of concession.

Defeat! (7-1-1, second place)

While I certainly would have liked to take the final, I still had a lot of fun at this event — another strong one in the Skirmish series. There were some problems in terms of length and several people were dropping towards the end after things took longer than expected, but ultimately it was still a lot of fun. Shoutout to Cloak and Blaster for putting on another cool event — I’ve really been enjoying these!

Final Thoughts (for now…)

My record against Ira across the four recent tournaments I’ve played in now stands at thirteen wins to two losses. That’s very strong in my view and vindicates this build as an Ira counter (I was something like 50-50 in the matchup with Kassai beforehand) — but if we see Ira players modifying their decks to serve better against Warrior (as I believe both my semifinals and finals opponents had done), we could easily see this sort of thing become less effective! At the same time, though, those changes to the Ira deck might create weaknesses for her in other matchups that will allow other classes to jump into the mix, or in fact might not be enough and could lead to people switching characters!

I’m told that in the UK, anti-Ira Dorinthea builds are now prevalent to the point where Dorinthea is considered the “deck to beat” in Blitz for some! (I can’t take credit for that — I believe that the UK Blitz meta had been headed in that direction for some time prior to this weekend’s Skirmishes and I have not played much in recent UK Blitz events.)

All things considered, I think that the Blitz meta is still relatively “open” and interesting, with room for refinement and new builds from various classes and heroes. Yes, Ira is very strong — but she’s not invincible, and there’s still work to be done on “both sides” of that equation, from both people building to counter Ira and Ira players working to evade those counters — not to mention “third parties” with their own reactions to shifts in the meta!

I know this has been a rather aggressive pace of posting (three tournament reports in three days, and one was a double feature!) but I like doing these reports and hope that they will be valuable to those who may not have had a chance to attend one of these events and see things for themselves. I definitely recommend the Skirmish events to other players — and if you’re having trouble finding one, feel free to check out my spreadsheet with info on US Skirmishes! I try to keep it up to date for roughly the next month of events, but if you see any problems or missing information feel free to suggest it and I’ll update!

Until next time, may you keep being able to block that second Kodachi hit!