Tom'S Epic Gaming

Post Origins Epic Schedule

Origins 2016 is over, and I have a lot more to say about Epic now. I participated in all 4 tournaments:

Thursday (sealed) top 4
Friday (constructed: Sage Untargetable Tempo) 10th place
Saturday (sealed) top 4
Sunday (constructed: Combative Humans) 2nd place

The 9 unique constructed deck lists from the top 8 and top 4 on Friday/Sunday can also be found at Epic Foundry. Combative Humans was the only new deck in the Sunday top 4, hence 9 unique decks instead of 12. Lessons Leaned is Derek Arnold’s modified list for his deck.

My overall record for sealed (not including the Intentional Draw) was 6-1-2. I am significantly more confident in my sealed ability than my constructed ability. Due to this, I am going to be going over my sealed experiences first.

Epic Sealed Articles

I am going to be writing at least 3 articles on sealed, and these are, most likely, going to be written in this order:

Saturday Sealed Pool (deck explanation and analysis of play, top 4)

2. Overall Sealed Analysis (my deck building and sealed play general thoughts)

3. Thursday Sealed Pool (deck explanation and analysis of play, I took this list in an unexpected direction, top 4)

Epic Constructed Articles

I have significantly less experience playing in constructed tournaments, so I am less confident in my constructed abilities as a whole. My overall record was 5-2-1 I think (only 3 or 4 games on Sunday). I am going to start by going over my decks. Then I will discuss my thoughts on the meta in general. I will also thoroughly analyze Derek Arnold’s Lessons Learned deck that won the Friday event.

The order of these might change.

Combative Humans (My Sunday Constructed deck 2nd place)

2. Untargetable Sage Tempo (Friday Constructed deck 10th place)

3. Overall Thoughts on the Meta

4. Derek Arnold’s incredible 4-color Lessons Learned deck (Derek Arnold qualified with this deck on Friday. I watched his last two matches, and it was fascinating. This deck completely subverted a few of my ideas about how to play Epic. I am really looking forward to analyzing this deck. Derek Arnold also has his own blog, Epic Insights. I am very much looking forward to reading what he has to say about this deck.)

(Derek Arnold’s Lessons Learned rework pictured below.)

Epic Puzzle: Turn 1 Drinker

Foreword

I recently posted an absurd Epic recycling scenario in my Epic Recycle Interactions article. This then led to a reader posting another crazy scenario which was awesome. So, based on vjjft’s recommendation, I am going to be posting more puzzle challenges on the blog going forward. Depending on participation, I might put up a Sea Hydra play mat as a reward.

The Challenge

On the first turn of a 2-player standard game, you must put Drinker of Blood into play. Assuming your opponent plays nothing:

What is the max amount of damage you can do in one turn?
What is the max amount of health you can gain in one turn?
What is the biggest health difference that can be achieved in one turn?

Since this is the first turn of the game, you start with 5 cards in hand and neither player has any cards in their discard piles. It is unlikely that all 3 questions will have the same solution.

Comment below with just the numbers you reached. I’ll wait to say my numbers until Saturday night, 6/25/16. In one week, on 6/30/16, everyone should post their comment with their answers.

Click here for a non-optimal answer.

Winners

Greylag (2 winning solutions), Ydnad (1 winning solution)

– Ydnad’s 71 damage submitted on June 29, 6:18pm was the first submission of the highest damage, result confirmed

– Greylag’s 43(45) health submitted on June 30, 5:01pm(July 1, 11:56am) was the highest health gain, result confirmed

– Greylag’s 98 difference submitted on June 30, 4:55pm was the greatest difference, result confirmed (you forgot to attack with the second pegasus in the difference calculation you posted, hence 98 not 94)

– No solution was posted for Josiah Fiscus’s 77 damage solution, but it was posted on June 27, 1:18pm

– Vjjft’s solutions involved a misuse of Faithful Pegasus, but even deducting that damage, the damage solution was only 6 below the winning solution

The next puzzle will be posted on Monday 7/18. The plan is to post it at 7pm CDT, but I am open to a time adjustment. There will be a few changes to the format that I will discuss at that time. Overall winner of that puzzle will receive the Sea Hydra play mat. (article updated with this information)

Update Derek Best Answers

My spam filter caught Derek’s answers, and I didn’t see them until today. They were submitted after the deadline (not including the spam delay) so Greylag and Ydnad are still technically the winners, but…

– Derek’s 83 damage submitted on July 1, 6:05pm was the highest damage submitted, result confirmed

– Derek’s 55 health submitted on July 1, 6:05pm was the highest health gain submitted, result confirmed

– Derke’s 119 difference submitted on July 1, 6:05pm was the greatest difference submitted, result confirmed

New Dawn put Derek over the edge without actually breaking any of the puzzle rules. I will have to specifically mention whether or not I’ll allow that in the next puzzle if applicable. (I probably will allow it.)

Origins Sunday 6/19/16 After

Well, I made it past top 4 today. Not only that, but I did it with my favorite deck Combative Humans (modified slightly). In the end Hampus Eriksson claimed the last Origins qualifier after 2 great games.

Even though I didn’t qualify at Origins, it was still an excellent time. There were a lot of great people and a lot of great games of Epic. I learned a lot from the 4 qualifiers, and I have a bunch of new Epic articles I plan on writing (in addition to the ones I planned before Origins). In addition, I finally bought my Gen Con badge and signed up for the Thursday Limited Qualifier.

Overall, the Epic Qualifiers were an excellent experience with an excellent game and excellent players.

Ben Wienburg pictured below.

Hampus Eriksson pictured below.

Congratulations Hampus Eriksson on qualifying for Worlds. It was a pleasure playing against you in the finals. Especially since I can now say I’ve dropped double Markus, Watch Captain with loyalty to a Psionic Assault (and still lost).

Origins Sunday 6/19/16 Before

Today is the last day of Origins. I’m competing in the final Origins Constructed Qualifier today, and I am looking forward to see how/if the meta shifts after the first tournament. I am also looking forward to playing this deck. Good luck to everyone participating today.

Origins Saturday 6/18/16 After

Knocked out in the top 4, again, but the games were great. I also think I played and drafted well, so I’m not too frustrated with the loss. This also means that I get to play in the constructed tournament tomorrow, and I am looking forward to that. I need as much practice in the format as possible.

Below is the decklist I mulliganed into. I’ll post my chosen cards after Origins and explain why I picked what. I do not have the decklist I started with unfortunately. This list was excellent for me though. I went 3-0-2 (3 wins, 2 draws, no IDs) so I didn’t lose a match with it. If I wouldn’t have rushed I might have won my first draw, but I learned a valuable lesson about playing your final turn carefully since the time limit no longer matters.

Auggie pictured below. A lot of passing priority while holding gold in this game, but it was fascinating. Dark Knight was surprisingly strong in this scenario, sort of like a 0-cost Juggernaut. Juggernaut is incredible.

John Tatian strikes a well-earned victory pose after qualifying for Worlds, pictured below.

While I am looking forward to another day of Epic, it unfortunately means I won’t have much chance to cover the rest of Origins. Good luck to everyone who is competing tomorrow.

Origins Saturday 6/18/16

Today is the last Origins Epic Limited format qualifier (more will be at Gen Con and elsewhere). This is my better format, and I only dropped matches to the eventual winner, who is no longer eligible to play in qualifier events. So, we’ll see what happens today (I did have multiple close 2-1 matches yesterday though). Good luck to everyone competing today.

(As a heads up, I did go to Marquette, but I was not in ROTC.)

Origins 6/17/16 After

Another excellent day at Origins. I only placed 10th in the constructed Epic tournament (3-2-0), but seeing what everyone brought was fascinating. I brought an untargetable Sage Tempo deck designed to counter/outpace blitzing, airborne Wild fliers + burn; I’ll be posting, analyzing, and updating it after Origins.

Other decks that were played were discard/burn, life gain/burn, at least one Human Token Swarm type deck, Dinosaurs, and control decks. Derek Arnold’s 4-color control deck was outstanding, and it further evolved my understanding of the game. I am going to analyze it in much greater detail after Origins, but it appears to be a difficult deck to play well, the games go long, and it ended with multiple draws in the swiss rounds. All of the top 8 decklists can be found at the Facebook page or on WWG’s Deck Foundry.

My note keeping failed me again, last name Randolph pictured below. I will hopefully update tomorrow.

Hayden Brass pictured below.

Ryan Aker pictured below.

Jared Wood pictured below.

Brad Minnigh pictured below

Kyle Coons pictured below.

Top 8 from left to right Gabe Costa-Gioni, Cory Henderson, Nathaniel Mansfield, Chris Weidinger, Hayden Brass, Auggie, Kyle Coons, and Derek Arnold. *Names Updated*

Derek Arnold winner of the Epic constructed tournament and Worlds Qualifier pictured below. He brought an excellent deck and played it excellently.

Tomorrow is the final Origins limited Epic tournament. Good luck to everyone participating.

Special shout-out to Cory Henderson for taking multiple pictures for me today and yesterday.

Origins 6/17/16 Before

Heading out to compete in the constructed Epic format. I have less competitive constructed experience so just hoping to make it to top 8.

Origins 6/16/16 Photos

First day of Origins was pretty great. Met multiple people who read this blog, introduced some new people to it, and played a lot of Epic. A lot of great people at the event, and I took pictures with a few.

For the tournament, I made it to top 8 with the below list of cards. I am not posting what I chose yet because I want to let people see what they would have picked in the same situation. (Mulligan to 56 is an acceptable answer too.) My record was 3-1-1 (the draw was an ID, Intentional Draw to assure top 8 and give us some time to get some food).

John Tatian (Pictured Below)

Tim Stanoch (Pictured Below)

Max Jacob (Pictured below) The rivalry begins.

Corey Henderson (Pictured Below)

Rich Shay (Pictured Below)

The 2 finalists for the 6/16/16 tournament. Will update tomorrow with the winner. (I was knocked out in the top 4.)

Tomorrow is the first constructed qualifier. It will be very interesting to see what decks are run. I didn’t get a hold of the other limited pools and decks (and I forgot to record the dark draft decks), but I’ll see what I can do about getting the constructed decks on here. At the very least, I can give a run down of the decks I come up against.

For everyone at the Epic event today, thanks for the games. I look forward to playing against at least some of you in the next few days.

Origins 6/16/16

Planning on heading out around 3am tomorrow, so I won’t have time to post this in the morning. Planning on wearing my Lindsey Stirling shirt and will look pretty much like this tomorrow.

I would be happy to meet any readers or potential readers so feel free to come on up. I might not be able to talk much if we are nearing the end of an Epic round I’m still finishing, but aside from that, happy to talk at length about Epic, other board game topics, or largely whatever.

There is a good chance that you will more likely see me from behind at a table, so I included that photo too.

Vicarious Origins

I would be thrilled if I could get pictures of a bunch of people (with their permission) and put them up on the blog after each day. Feel free to give me a line or two to associate with each picture.

With regard to the tournaments, I will post my decklist and try to get a picture and decklist from each opponent as well (after the match, with their permission).

For everyone that is going to compete in the tournaments, good luck, and I look forward to potentially playing against you. (Also I forgot Avenging Angel Control, so I have 5 decks I might play in constructed.)