I used my Straywood swarm master book again. Started off really well in my first few matches.
My first match was against Arthur’s Forcemaster Swarm book. He opened with a battleforge and crystal I believe. Minds eye came out and an enchantment on my mage he had equipped some forcemaster gear early on. I had my standard harmonize Lair opening. Round two Wychwood fairee, and pet falcon. I managed to get a lions savagery and divine might on my pet falcon. He popped the enchantment on me for with a bomb. Arthur spawned two more minds eyes. Took down one and he popped his fourth. So I just ignored them after that. Started swarming with falcons, asps, Got out marked for death, and a rust. Started to work on his armor and he popped the force shield. I dispelled that next turn. He started popping force golems, and a force scarab and all of our creatures converged. He was running low on life and had to start guarding. I managed to keep the pressure up and using my asps to get rid of his guards to knock him with my pet and other falcons. He misplayed a few times forgetting his deflect a couple of times sealing the game for me fairly early. He did not play his best and I took advantage of a sleepy Arthur who had to work late the prior day. It was still a solid win and helped me build my momentum for the next game.
My second match I went up against Daves priestess. he opened with Artemiss dawnsbreaker eye. With malekais basilica. Which was super scary for my falcons. He almost one shotted a couple of falcons. I had many dead creatures at the end. Same opening since my creatures were being focused I had jeweled scarab out which did make it out last game but this paid off more since my creatures were being targeted. I killed Artemis very early because it posed a big threat. I also had to avoid a pillar of righteous flames. He pumped up his mage with the dawnbreakers ring and a hawkeye too hitting his holy spells for crazy dice. Fortunately, I pushed him out of zone and tanglevined him he popped temple of light as well which was zapping my birds out of the sky. Negating the healing he could do at the end. He managed to pop a few heals raising his life a little during the match. Swarm was too much and killing Artemis and avoiding the pillar managed to save me the game. Fortunately with a well timed dissolve to his equipment and a poison blood I was able to swarm him and take him down.
My third match was against Zot. My memory is fuzzy on this one we played two more times after the tournament so the matches kind of blurred together in my brain. That said all matches with him were very tough and fun to play. Ehren and hand of bim shalla came out for him turn one. I did my standard opening this time with ring of beast instead of the wychwood fairie round 2. since i faced a paladin i wanted to press early. got a pet falcon out and another one the following round. I summoned a bitterwood fox and took down a ballista rather early. i think it only got off one shot. he was going heavy equipment with a spike buckler and a radiant breastplate he also equipped the defence ring. I had to hit Ehren a few times to keep him from healing all the way up. I ignored him for the most part and focused on the mage tho to not deter my main objective. This helped keep up the damage I wanted on his mage. However with a well timed seeking dispel Zot dispelled a rust. The spiked buckler and the ring did alot of work dodging more than half the time. He used ehren to block he also got out a Izimballa as well to help defend and take down some creatures. He also brought out renewing springs and used it to pretty good use. I used a few acid balls to try and corrode him. Renewing spring popped them off rather easily. Some of the rolls for healing were in my favor tho because the rolls did not go well. Fortunately I had the numbers for the remainder of the game. He took out a bunch of falcons, hounds, and asps. I summoned Slavorg for five mana with all the dead animals. I summoned a corrosive orchid after i dissolved his tempered faulds and a radiant breastplate. he was able to spawn a radiant breastplate and eventually a third. I was caught off guard without armor on he popped a wall of thorns and Pushed me through. he did it next round for a total of about 20 damage. A few more blows with each of us I was able to lock down a poison blood and a nullify in the last couple of rounds. So he could not heal. Match went to time with me barely squeaking out the win. Very entertaining match. Lots of back and forth. I made a few mistakes and Zot played very well and pressed super hard at the end.
my last match of the tournament was against Ryan’s Joktari cevere fellella book. first match between both our main books so there was alot of concerns from both sides how this match was going to go down. he played fellella and harmonized her. cevere and enchantments were layered on himself and cevere. i got a pet falcon out early and started summoning asps i figured i should get out weaks on cevere early to mitigate the damage. unfortunately none stuck. i got one on his mage. he pressed early with his pumped up cevere i split my attacks trying to get damage on both mage and cevere. cevere was dodging stuff like crazy and i failed to pop my falcon precision during the match which would of decimated cevere. i laid on the damage to his mage tho in one round dealing 20+ damage. i tried to use surging waves to keep cevere dazed but both times the dazes did not work. cevere almost died in the final round. cevere did some work ripping my mage apart. i even had tangle root on him and was still hitting hard. i pushed his mage through a wall of thorns he had rhino hide and negated most of the damage. he hurled two rocks for some crazy damage and a couple of hurl boulders for the win during the last two rounds. very impressed with the match and i know i had answers just did not execute them well. fun quick match, lots of damage went down from both sides. that said i'm looking forward to a rematch.
