Thanks for the update David. Congratulations on another strong finish.

We're the four of you the only players in the finals today? If there were others do you remember what they played?

Has there been anymore information released on the Gencon tournaments? If so could someone point me in the right direction. The last post I saw was Shadow's where he said the top 3 mages from the first night were 2x Earth Wizard and Beastmaster of Johktari. I assumed he meant there were 3 pods and those mages each won one.

What I'd like to see is a list of each pod and the order the mages finished and their record. That doesn't seem too hard to put together, but really any additional information is welcome.

Personally I hope that the control builds evolve to the point time is rarely an issue and it wouldn't matter what tie breaker was used. I think this might happen but I seem to be in the minority.

Strayed way off topic so better throw this out again......good luck to all you Gencon players! I feel better now, more on topic.

@reddawn  I can tell you think that the tie breaker won't be a factor because games will hardly ever go to time. If this is the case I would agree with you. I was wondering if you agree that in the current environment it favors the Warlock?

I would say that the Wizard got the biggest boost of the original mages from the FvW set. That is because of his access to the earth school. The only reason Sectarus isn't auto include is because of the LoH (warlock exclusive). I would say those are the 2nd and 3rd best weapons after Galvitar.

I would say Drain Soul is an auto include. The spell is ridiculously good. It totally negates the drawback of making a demon your Bloodreaper and sticks an unhealable life loss of six on the opposing mage. The Wizard's Tower is the only spell for a non featured mage from CoK that can match its quality.

The official tie breaker system would appear ( at least to me) to favor the Warlock above all other mages. In my opinion he is the most efficient damage dealer when you factor his personal ability to deal damage (good weapons and his Battle Skill), the creatures he has in school access to, in school access to fire spells, and in school access to curses (which is, of course his bread and butter). When you add all that up, no other mage should be able to deal more total damage, which is what the tie breaker counts.

I think things have worked out pretty good for the Warlock since the core set released.

An earth wizard would be nice. Not my prediction but I'd like to see it.

I disagree that there is not enough time for control builds win, with one caveat, control vs control matchups, but then both players are in the same boat. I know a lot of players have claimed to have problems finishing games in ninety minutes let alone sixty. I believe these folks were truthful and not exaggerating, I just don't believe it has to be this way. I think that given MW age the tournament scene is still evolving and that tournament spellbook building is in its infancy. I think all spellbook types will get refined over time as a true meta developes, but none more so than control builds, they are always lagging behind in the beginning. My Wizard statement revolves around the question, is this the tournament that control builds take a huge leap forward? I predict that day isn't too far off, it happened in MtG with a deck known simply as "the deck" and it should happen in MW too.

In my mind the strength of the Warlock at the moment is his completeness relative to the other mages. He just has more options that are more economical. He can do it all the best or second best. He is the best damage dealer. His in school access to vampirism makes him second only to the Priestess in healing (some might argue he is better since he can attack and heal with the same action). He starts the game with the most life and because of his exclussive access to Drain Life he beats the Priestess at her own game of life gain, how crazy is that? He is the only mage with in school access to curses which is the one advantage he is suppose to have. I would say his personal mobility is his greatest weakness, but really only the Beastmaster and Wizard do it better, and he has great in school flyers. The Warlock is definitely the best equipped to deal with a tournament field. Now ask yourself how much better will he get compared to the rest of the field when the Druid vs Necromancer comes out? Think of how many in school goodies he is going to get compared to the other mages.

I guess I forgot about the Priest. I think there could be a good aggressive Priest build out there waiting to be revealed. That could happen at Gencon.

I'm not bitter about the errata, it was actually neutral or helpful to my preferred build, but I was extremely disappointed by them since I never saw the necessity. I was actually over my disappointment until Gencon got closer. I would have really enjoyed seeing what the field consisted of prior to the errata. Well that's more than enough about the errata, it's already done, nothing to do about it now.