Hi SE players,
yesterday was the big day: the first official SE tournament!
http://www.shadowera.com/showthread....ll=1#post31990

It was a very fun event, well organized by Unfan and well supported by Kyle.
I usually don't wake up early on Saturday mornings, but this time I set my alarm clock, I did not want to miss this for any reason!
Fiend (Friend soon) set up a chat room for us and I was delighted by the possibility to choose Zangief as my avatar, I felt it was the lucky one

The tournament had 4 rounds of swiss, and the top 4 would proceed to semi-finals and final.

For this event I choose my Majiya deck, I thought it was the most reliable deck around and I had a lot of success with it.
It has weak points and bad match ups, but I thought that I never made my list public, so probably the meta did not have enough Majiya hate yet. It seemed viable. And she is sexy too!

Hero: Majiya

Allies
3 Deathbone
4 Infernal Gargoyle
4 Medusil
4 Fire Snake

Abilities
4 Fireball
4 Lightning Strike
2 Supernova
2 Research
2 Shriek of Vengeance

FIRST MATCH: LyingDragon (lost 1-2)
My first match was against LyingDragon.

First game I went first, and I won a very close match. I was impressed, his Jericho deck was a beast, I did not expect it.
He also played very well.

Second game he went first and I had a bad feeling, now that he knows how my burn strategy works he can try to adjust his playing. And indeed, he did. This was a very close match too, but he won. The good thing was that by playing him this second time I was able to understand better how his deck works and its synergies.

Third game... damn, this was so close. I though I had it until the last turn, when an unexpected King's Pride (he never played that before) gave him the final blow one turn earlier than I expected, ruining my plan.

Starting with a loss is BAD, I was confused. I know I am able to run my deck with a 11-2 ratio, what is going on here? I was determined to make it up, Dragon... I want revenge!


SECOND MATCH: Youanthe (won 2-0)
The second match was against Youanthe.
I remembered playing against him before, and I was not surprised to see his Majiya.
This was a good news, I was sure that my Majiya is better than all the other Majiya decks around, and most important, it is even more deadly in a mirror match.
He played well and 1 game was very close (I think he would win that one if he went first), but I was able to recover from my previous match loss.


THIRD MATCH: Deadmoon (won 2-0)
The third match was against Deadmoon, I used my past experience from the the first match againsst LyingDragon and it paid me back with a victory. Everything went well in this game, I was excited... Maybe I can make it to the top4!


FOURTH MATCH: Sorter (won 2-0)
Fourth match was against Gwen, I was sure that I would meet her so I was prepared. I also knew that it would be a close match, the starting hand is very very important: I cannot afford a bad start against a solid Gwen deck.
First match was challenging, but at the end I was able to push the burn through.
Second match I went first and I had exactly the perfect hand I wanted, so I was very happy. Unfortunately Sorter closed his browser, saying it was a misclick. And that counted as a loss, so that was it.


At this point I was 3-1 and I knew that not all the 3-1 were going to make it to the top4. But I knew that Youanthe and Deadmoon did not drop (thanks guys!), and they did well, so I had hope! And I only lost to LyingDragon, that played last match on table1.
At that point Unfan announced the top4:
cheehoG (4-0)
LyingDragon (3-1)
Pjoe0221 (3-1)
.... and me

So it seemed I was going to play against cheehoG , he had an impressive 4-0 so I was curious to see what deck he was playing. Maybe Elementalis?

SEMI FINAL: cheehoG (won 2-0)
Surprise... he was playing Majiya!
I was very very very happy to see this, because, as I already said, I am totally confident that my deck will do well in the mirror match. And it did! Both the game were close ones, and he played well but somehow his mana curve is higher than mine, and in the Majiya mirror this won't be forgiven.


FINAL: LyingDragon (won 2-0 +1 draw)
The other semifinal got all the people attention, they were impressed about LyingDragon deck.
When it was announced that he made it to the final I smiled, I had that feeling from the beginning, and I wanted my second chance so badly!

Game 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZvKvwgWbuM

He went first, and I had a very bad starting hand. Damn, I hate when this happens on a final game.
I got a hard beating at the beginning, and it was only on turn 8 that I got the board control back. Well, it was too late. At that point I used most of my spells (only few cards left on the deck) and he was able to reset board control with a Tidal Wave. Before that, I realized I was not going to win this one, so I put all my effort to bring down his Jericho health to 5. And when I had only 1 card in the deck, and 2 health on Majiya... it was the time to play a Supernova and call it a draw.
At this point I was worried, I managed to avoid the loss, but he was in a better position for all the game. Bad sign.


Game 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpKTIaxe1Pw

He went first again... but this time I had a decent starting hand. This game was awesome, board control moved back and forward many times and it was very difficult to manage all my spells in the right way to build enough damage pressure on his hero while keeping the board situation manageable. This was a very close match and I was totally excited when my Research gave me the right card to close and win the match (damn, I knew exactly the cards still inside my deck, and I was expecting a damage spell!). Revenge was not just a dream anymore

Game 3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKLRy6zmtzM

This time I went first, and I also had the perfect starting hand. This match was close, but I think he was under pressure at this point, and a couple of well placed Shrieks made me able to close the game in less than 6 minutes. When he got a solid board control back it was too late, and a couple of burning spells did the rest.


Well, I was delighted because of the comeback after the bad loss in the first Swiss match, and at the end... my deck went exactly 11-2 as planned
LyingDragon was a very tough opponent and I am sure that our paths will cross again.

Until then... I am the Tournament Champion

Thanks to everyone for making this day special and plenty of fun!