So...who won Origins?

[Koz]

I'm curious as to the results of the tournament at Origins.  I'm assuming that Origins will have been the biggest official tournament to date and should give us a better picture of the current environment than we've had so far.  Based on the other thread about Origins it seems like a good number of people competed so we should have a good sample of what people are playing.

I'm curious to see if, as some people have stated, that aggro-beat-down is the be-all-end-all of the game, or if control builds won the day (i.e. Priestess or Wizard). 

I'm bummed that I couldn't attend, I really wanted to try my Priestess control vs a larger field, but hopefully I can make Gen Con. 

[ringkichard]

According to piousflea's comment, at least 2/3 of the Tournament of Champions builds ran large numbers of Hands of Bimshalla plus Temple of Light, and the undefeated winning build (Steve Walters priestess) used 6x Hand and 3x Temple.

[ringkichard]

I don't know if this meta shift is a response to piousflea's own success at bashcon with agro Warlock, or if it's a genuine move toward power.

It seems like new players might progress through the meta like this:
1. Control vs. Control, both playing sim city.
2. Agro vs. Control, one player decides to go for the throat.
3. Agro vs. Agro, everyone learns the tricks to agro.
4. Control vs. Agro, new control decks develop to defeat the middle skill agro decks.
5. Control vs. Control?

[Koz]

Oh, didn't see that post, but I wasn't looking in places like that for Origins updates.  Thanks for the heads up.

So Priestess control won eh?  I'd be interested in hearing some statistics about the trournament, such as breakdown of the mages played, as well as specifics regarding the winning build (actual cards and strategy employed) and the match ups that the winner faced. 

Looking at that thread you linked too, Temples were the flavor of the day apparently.  I'm not surprised, Hands are crazy good, and when you back them with the ToL you have a powerful engine.  I've been saying that since last year. 

I'd like to hear how many aggro-beat-down builds the winner faced and how the specifics of the matches went.  I know how my matches go against those builds, but I have not played in a large tournament. 

[Koz]

I don't know if this meta shift is a response to piousflea's own success at bashcon with agro Warlock, or if it's a genuine move toward power.

It seems like new players might progress through the meta like this:
1. Control vs. Control, both playing sim city.
2. Agro vs. Control, one player decides to go for the throat.
3. Agro vs. Agro, everyone learns the tricks to agro.
4. Control vs. Agro, new control decks develop to defeat the middle skill agro decks.
5. Control vs. Control?

That seems like a logical progression.  I think some people were having trouble adjusting to the aggro-beat-down builds at first, but the tools to deal with them were there.  This game is pretty balanced, so now it will be interesting to see how the aggro-beat-down builds deal with these control builds.

What was the final match?  Was it control vs control?  Or was there an aggro build in the finals?

[Hellkite]

My Priestess won Origins.  I did have 6 Hands and 3 Temple of Lights and I also ran the Temple of Asyra.  The first 3 turns normally went like the following.

Turn 1:

Drop Temple of Asyra and Mana Necklace and move closer to opponent

Turn 2:

Drop Hand and Temple of light attack with hand for 3 dice and move closer to opponent

Turn 3:

Drop Hand and Hand and attack with 5 dice with Temple of Light.  Move closer if I need to, add armor, heal or maybe only drop 1 hand and attack for 5 dice with priestess as well... 

On turn 3 I also try to drop my first cleric out of the spawn point if I can, but this depends on what the opponent is doing and if I decided to drop 2 hands.

From Turn 4 on it is very aggressive, while at the same time slowly pumping out creatures from the spawnpoint.  I use the Hands to pump melee in the Priestess and attack with the Temple of Light.

I do not usually go after the Mage right away though.  Since I have the spawn point also doing some of the work for me I will take out their creatures to limit their actions while I start to pump out some creatures of my own.  The Priestess also ran a good amount of meta cards and some hurl boulders and battle fury's to help finish.

[Koz]

My Priestess won Origins.  I did have 6 Hands and 3 Temple of Lights and I also ran the Temple of Asyra.  The first 3 turns normally went like the following.

Turn 1:

Drop Temple of Asyra and Mana Necklace and move closer to opponent

Turn 2:

Drop Hand and Temple of light attack with hand for 3 dice and move closer to opponent

Turn 3:

Drop Hand and Hand and attack with 5 dice with Temple of Light.  Move closer if I need to, add armor, heal or maybe only drop 1 hand and attack for 5 dice with priestess as well... 

On turn 3 I also try to drop my first cleric out of the spawn point if I can, but this depends on what the opponent is doing and if I decided to drop 2 hands.

From Turn 4 on it is very aggressive, while at the same time slowly pumping out creatures from the spawnpoint.  I use the Hands to pump melee in the Priestess and attack with the Temple of Light.

I do not usually go after the Mage right away though.  Since I have the spawn point also doing some of the work for me I will take out their creatures to limit their actions while I start to pump out some creatures of my own.  The Priestess also ran a good amount of meta cards and some hurl boulders and battle fury's to help finish.

Thank you for the info, that's very interesting stuff.  Can you give us a breakdown of how many matches you played and what kinds of mages/builds you faced?  What did you play against in the finals?

Also, is it possible for you to post your build?

[Hellkite]

The finals on Sunday was four rounds and I went undefeated.  First round I played against Alec who played the Warlord who got 3rd place.  2nd round I played against John who played a Beast Master (he got 2nd at Bashcon).  3rd Round I played against Dave (Pious Flea), he played his Warlock and got 2nd.  In the Final round I played my friend Tim McCurry who brought his ForceMaster that also ran 6 Hands and 2 Temple of Lights.  I will post more on the build I brought later.   

[Arlemus]

The build seems pretty cheesy, I just don't see it working vs. people dropping big creature threats to guard/attack.  I also imagine that intercept shuts this build down completely now, along with blocks and reverse attacks.

[Hellkite]

The build seems pretty cheesy, I just don't see it working vs. people dropping big creature threats to guard/attack.  I also imagine that intercept shuts this build down completely now.

I would agree this build is pretty cheesy, however it works just fine against big creatures.  The ToL drops them fast and dazes/stuns them at the same time.  I have seen alot of big creatures not even get off an attack before they are dropped. 

[The Dude]

Again, Tol Is easily played around if you play correctly, it's more of a defensive than offensive card when played against better players, or tighter builds. Sweet beats though, congrats man.

[Arlemus]

The build seems pretty cheesy, I just don't see it working vs. people dropping big creature threats to guard/attack.  I also imagine that intercept shuts this build down completely now.

I would agree this build is pretty cheesy, however it works just fine against big creatures.  The ToL drops them fast and dazes/stuns them at the same time.  I have seen alot of big creatures not even get off an attack before they are dropped. 

I don't really see a 5 dice attack dropping Thorg/Adramelech fast, especially with damage/attack mitigation on them.  Any chance at a battle report (video even)?

[Wiz-Pig]

I would wager that the nearly 60% chance of daze each round with another 16% chance of stun were worth was worth as much as the actual damage in terms of shutting down those big creatures. All told that ends up being about a 46% chance of not being able to make an attack each round, and that's assuming that there aren't any other daze or stun effects being thrown around. 

[piousflea]

At the end of Round 3, I had a dark pact slayer and a flaming hellion in the zone adjacent to Temple of Light. ToL attacked the same round it entered play and rolled 7 critical damage + a stun on my Dark Pact.

Fourth round, pillar of light dazed my hellion, it rolled and failed to attack. Dark pact was still stunned. My warlock summoned an imp and put on some armor. Priestess meleed for 6 dice and left my Darkpact with 1 HP. At this point, I hadn't been able to get a single attack off.

Fifth round, priestess finished off Darkpact with a 4 dice melee (1 hand for damage, 2 for armor). Temple of light rolled and stunned my flaming hellion and did a lot of damage. Flaming imp and warlock each got a melee off.

Sixth round, priestess finished off Hellion with a 6 dice melee and Temple one-shot imp.

So I lost 31 mana worth of creatures and got a single attack off. It was pretty disgusting.

[Arlemus]

At the end of Round 3, I had a dark pact slayer and a flaming hellion in the zone adjacent to Temple of Light. ToL attacked the same round it entered play and rolled 7 critical damage + a stun on my Dark Pact.

Fourth round, pillar of light dazed my hellion, it rolled and failed to attack. Dark pact was still stunned. My warlock summoned an imp and put on some armor. Priestess meleed for 6 dice and left my Darkpact with 1 HP. At this point, I hadn't been able to get a single attack off.

Fifth round, priestess finished off Darkpact with a 4 dice melee (1 hand for damage, 2 for armor). Temple of light rolled and stunned my flaming hellion and did a lot of damage. Flaming imp and warlock each got a melee off.

Sixth round, priestess finished off Hellion with a 6 dice melee and Temple one-shot imp.

So I lost 31 mana worth of creatures and got a single attack off. It was pretty disgusting.

Holy crap, 7 crit dice on a 5 dice attack?? Strong luck, not to mention landing the 16% chance on stun.

Anyway, thanks for the report.  My original opinion of the build still stands, probably reinforced at this point.