There are certainly combos, however, that work in all types of decks, competitive included. One such combo deck is the popular Research Investment OTK deck, which has certainly been discussed both in articles and on the forums. The Research Investment deck, however, is definitely one of those combos that falls into the realms of “complicated” or “requires a lot of cards.”

Today I want to focus on the simplest form of combos; the two card combos. These aren’t the types of combos you win games with the moment they go off (well, some are), but they are the kind of combos that help you win games if you can execute them at the right time or a couple times over the course of a game.

Before I begin, I must make it known that these aren’t all of the two card combos found in The Spoils. I’m only going to touch on the popular ones as well as some of my personal favorites, so if you think there are any I missed, or just want to discuss more two card combos, be sure to post them in the forums!

Micromajig Shipping Container + Schproingmajig
This is arguably the most powerful combo in this article because of how much damage it deals. With just these two cards, the combo player can deal a whopping sixteen unblockable damage with the Schproingmajig. That is just over sixty percent of the Tournament Faction’s starting influence lost in one attack. I don’t know about you but I usually find it hard to deal with losing sixteen influence at once, assuming of course I haven’t already lost because of it.

Gilded Yurt + Dwarvish Grimalkin
Gilded Yurt is one of those cards that combos with a lot of cards, but I’ve chosen Dwarvish Grimalkin due to his popularity and ease of execution. With these two cards you have the potential to block one or more opposing characters with no downside, then draw a MINIMUM of one card at the start of your next turn when you get the Grimalkin back. Even if you only have five Greed threshold (which isn’t too hard) you are gaining extra cards each turn with the Grimalkin + Yurt combo, and you don’t even have to block with the Grimalkin if you don’t want to.

700160x 31f + Dethmurderbludgeon, the Craghammer
This combo is deadly because one piece of it searches for the other. It is even more deadly because you don’t actually need to be running any Rage threshold to put the Craghammer into play, the 31f does it for you! This turn one play creates a 3/3/3 character that will do damage to a faction regardless of whether it is blocked or not. Also, as a bonus, if the 31f is killed, the Craghammer comes back to your hand to either be played later or as a face down resource.

The Deranger + Quotidian Disappearance
This one definitely falls under the category of “first turn combos” as it is generally not possible to pull off after turn one, or at least it is harder to do. The idea is, on your first turn, play and use The Deranger to pick and choose two cards from your opponent’s hand to discard. After it resolves and moves to your opponent’s control, play Quotidian Disappearance to get The Deranger back to your hand. If you do it on your first turn of the game you will have six cards in your hand while your opponent has seven, but the two he lost were ones you chose. After he lays a resource on his turn (which he probably will do) you’ll have even hand sizes, which is definitely a good thing.

Heist Planner + Master Scavenger
This one is as simple as they come. Use the Heist Planner to pick three cards you never want to deal with and throw them into the discard pile. Then, with Master Scavenger, make sure you REALLY never have to deal with those cards by removing them from the game. As an added bonus, Master Scavenger will become a 2/2/3 for the turn, which could help in battle situations. This combo is extremely effective against decks that run Recur, Dark Awakening, Montgomery Blatherscythe, and/or Wanton Wizard.

Arcane Research + Manifest
This is probably the most popular combo to come out of the addition of Seed Two: Gloamspike’s Revenge. Obviously you can pair Arcane Research with Manifest, Burly Assailment, Accidental Invention, or Hidden Ruins, but I like using Manifest as it means I do not have to run a two trade deck if I don’t want to. While you may be sacrificing your first turn to the combo, you are gaining enough resources to hopefully balance out the loss of a turn.

1337! + Contriving Engineer
Extremely popular during the Part Two era and still viable, 1337! + Contriving Engineer is one of those combos that won’t go away until the cards are rotated out or, for some reason, banned. This combo is extremely effective as the only downside is that you have one less card in your hand than you started with. In return you gain an Elitism resource, a 2/1/3 character, and a little more variety in your hand due to the card drawn via 1337!. If that isn’t a combo that screams “positive value” then I don’t know what is.

Voidal Poisoning + Runic Circuitry
Okay, maybe this combo screams “positive value” louder than the previous one. Although it requires two trades and three Obsession threshold to fire, Voidal Poisoning + Runic Circuitry can be a game shifting combo. At a cost of four (three if you have the Circuitry out already) you gain the effects of Voidal Poisoning with three tokens to play with (which amounts to four different ways to use it) AND you remove all of the tokens from Runic Circuitry. You now effectively have three additional resources to work with until the Circuitry is blown up, and that is on top of the benefits gained from the Voidal Poisoning.

Architectural Restitution + Theocratic State of Marduun
This is a fun combo that was popular in Seed-only tournaments. As long as you have a Theocratic State of Marduun in your discard pile (which shouldn’t be hard for Banker decks), you can pay four to, hopefully, severely damage or even wipe out an entire attacking party. The added bonus is that the Theocratic State of Marduun will likely be destroyed, meaning it can sit there waiting for another Architectural Restitution to pop up and launch the combo again.

Unflinching Bowman + Fiscal Intercessor
These are probably my favorite two cards to draft or open in Seed Limited events. If you manage to have both of these characters on the table, which is a bit expensive at a total cost of eight, you effectively have a way to ping your opponent’s board on a one resource for one damage basis. This can easily change the shape of a Limited game if you have enough resources, and it is certainly viable in Constructed. At the very worst you will probably pick off one or two characters before your opponent destroys either of these guys to end the combo, but at least they are focusing on these cards instead of you or other possible threat cards.

Inadequate Wand + Wanton Wizard
Similar to Gilded Yurt, I could have paired many cards with Inadequate Wand, but I chose Wanton Wizard as I like staying within one trade and, to be perfectly honest, it is my personal favorite choice. Assuming you don’t have a Wanton Wizard in play already, the combo costs five to play the Wizard (and retrieve a tactic as a resource if you have one in your discard pile), bounce the Wizard to hand, and search your for a tactic that costs three or less. After all this is done you have increased your handsize and resources by one and can do it all again next turn. The added bonus is that, after you use the tactic you searched for, you can make it a resource via the re-played Wanton Wizard. Double added bonus if the tactic has Flip Up.

Gideon, the Ultimate Warrior + Adriel, Defender of Marduun
This isn’t a combo in your traditional sense, but honestly, these two cards together are arguably more powerful than all the combos listed above. Dropping both of these on your first turn creates a serious problem for your opponent, especially if their solution to the problem isn’t destroying either of the characters. If both characters manage to attack through on your second turn, they are breaking through for either six or seven damage depending on how you attack. Add in the fact that Gideon cannot die while attacking and that Adriel cannot die while defending and these two cards create what is arguably the best first turn in The Spoils right now.

As I said above, if you think I missed or forgot some important (or fun!) two card combos, then be sure to comment on this articles in the forums. I’m positive there are many more two card combos out there that I’ve forgotten, or just don’t know about, and I’d love to see what you guys can come up with and/or have fun playing.

If you are interested in judging Gen-Con this year but don’t really know what to expect, or just want some tips, this is the article for you.

The first thing you should expect, and look forward to, is working alongside the deliciously hilarious and fun Director of North American Operations, Will Clark. I worked closely with Will at all three events mentioned above and can say without a doubt that he made those events run extremely smooth and with a lot of fun. Will is a great guy and, if you’ve never met him, working with him at a big event like this is one of the best ways to get a large dose of not-as-big-as-he-use-to-be Will.

With that said though, keep in mind that, if you volunteer to judge, Will may be one of the only people you work with directly. The three events I worked during my time as Judge of Great Justice had a slew of volunteers to work the booth but no judge volunteers. This is likely because many judges would rather be playing than judging, which is something I can understand at an event as big and fun as Gen-Con.

If you are stuck with the unfortunate circumstance that is a small team of judges, do not fret. It may seem that you are out of your league judging a major convention when you are accustomed to only working your local gaming store, but this is not the case.

Hopefully, though, this won’t be the case this year as I’m predicting a lot more people volunteering to judge than prior years. The game is definitely on its upswing and I think a lot of people will want to take part in making that swing a success.

The only real differences I’ve found between working a local event versus working a big convention is time. At your local store you may only have to be present/active for one or two events a weekend. At an event like Gen-Con, The Spoils will likely have 10-12 events that you will be overseeing. Don’t get scared, just make sure you find time to rest when you can.

Also, remember that you are doing the exact same thing you do at home only at a convention with a slightly larger scale. Sure, there may be a thousand people in the CCG hall where you will be working, but you only have to worry about the 10-30 people playing Spoils events at the time. Just be sure to ignore the noise of the hall and focus on your task at hand, which is making The Spoils’ events fun and exciting for everyone.

If you are worried about how often you may be asked to make a ruling, don’t be. I was shocked to see how few times I was called for a ruling during my first Gen-Con. I attribute this to two key facts:

1) Most of the people playing Spoils at a major event are experienced players who know the rules well.

2) Most players are using decks that are well known, therefore it is less likely for “weird” game situations to arise like they do at your local store when players are trying new things.

This does not mean you won’t get called for rulings, though, so make sure you are brushed up on the rules and have a copy of the latest Comprehensive Rules Reference on you. I’ve found that most questions I get are usually easy ones to answer as they come from new players trying out The Spoils for the first time, so be sure to explain your rulings to the players in case they are new to the game.

As I mentioned in my last Blarg post, it is extremely important for you to be personable. Not only are you representing Arcane Tinmen and The Spoils when you judge an event at a convention, but being personable will also help you have fun. I’ve met dozens of people over the course of the past two years that I know and speak to only at these events. Being friendly with your players helps alleviate your desire to play as you will be able to take part in their victories and defeats and essentially become part of the tournament yourself.

One other suggestion that I have for you all, that I consider very important, is to take some time to get away from the gaming hall. Find one of the other judges or volunteers to cover for you while you go out to grab a bite to eat or check out a particular booth in the Dealer Room. These few minutes away from the tables will give you some time to collect yourself and enjoy the convention as much as everyone else is.

Last, and certainly not least, is to remember to have fun! It may seem scary volunteering for your first major event but I promise that, after day one, you’ll be having a great time. Spoils players are the nicest and most fun group of people around and their good attitude will certainly rub off on you. Plus, you never want judging to feel like it is work as events like these should be vacations for all of us, players and judges alike.

If you think I left anything out or have other questions about what it is like to judge a big event, leave a question in the comments section and I will be sure to get back to you. I may not be judging events this year but I can still help make sure the judges who decided to go will be as prepared as possible, so ask away!

My current plan is to combine these success stories and craft one of my own. At the moment, I’m thinking of creating a Kickstarter project to fund the self-publishing of the memoir. I currently don’t have the spare cash to throw at the necessary expenses involved in self-publishing, but I do feel this is a good time in my career to get this book and my name out there. As such, Kickstarter seems to be the way to go.

I would be using Kickstarter to fund the artwork, formatting, and actual printing of the book. I’m thinking this project will cost around $1,500 but I’m having trouble determining the reward tiers that I would have on Kickstarter. My current plan is as follows:

Tier One ($1+): The backer’s name in the acknowledgments of the book.

Tier Two ($5+): An ePub/PDF version of the book. Also includes the Tier One reward.

Tier Three ($15+): A physical copy of the book. Also includes both the Tier One and Tier Two rewards.

Tier Four ($25+): A physical copy of the book signed by me. Also includes the Tier One and Tier Two rewards.

This structure seems pretty solid but I’m looking for input. Are there any other rewards do you think I could give away? Do you think the tier amounts are fair? Should I add another reward? Keep in mind that I don’t have many details lined up about the project yet (such as artist or printer) and that this is all just currently brainstorming.

Seed: Children of the Lingamorph
Seed caused the most interesting shift in the metagame because it created another format. At the time, Tenacious Games was promoting a lot of “Seed Only” events, meaning most of the competitive tournaments did not allow the use of First Edition cards. While this upset some players, it did provide a fascinating new format.

When it comes to the Seed-only format, three decks stood out amongst the rest. Due to the limited number of cards in the format (220) and the power of the Warlord trade, Arcanist/Warlord, Banker/Warlord, and Gearsmith/Warlord were really the only viable constructed decks.

These decks all operated on the premise that playing Gideon and Adriel usually amounted to victory. In the Seed-only environment this was usually true, the only thing that mattered was how you went about locking up that victory.

For Gearsmith/Warlord the idea was peppers. Both H07 P3pp3r and P3pp3r 0f 1n54n17y provided ways to attack multiple times in a turn with one Gideon. If you could find a way to clear the opponent’s blockers, possibly with a well timed Noble Sacrifice, this could mean a one turn kill. Just a Gideon attacking twice due to H07 P3pp3r can deal twelve damage on his own without breaking a sweat. This doesn’t factor in any other attackers or gear you may have, so you can imagine the power this deck demonstrated.

Arcanist/Warlord focused just as hard on Gideon and Adriel but went more for the slow burn than the fast kill. Manipulating some of the great control cards provided to Arcanist decks, such as Wanton Wizard, Evanesce, and Encumber, the Arcanist/Warlord wanted to keep the pressure on while controlling board state and using the same tactics over and over via Wanton Wizard. One Noble Sacrifice is certainly annoying and game changing, now imagine four Noble Sacrifices all being used with the same copy of the card. This type of tactic re-use was so strong it is still being used by many decks today.

Rounding out the Seed only Metagame was a Seed-only version of the popular Montgomery Blatherscythe deck. While certainly not as strong as it’s “open” counterpart, Monty decks were still relevant in Seed-only as Monty was probably the best way to keep Gideon and Adriel on the board. Players operating this deck didn’t have to worry about their pressure disappearing if Gideon and/or Adriel died, meaning they could maintain an aggressive play-style even when their board was empty. Add in the fact that Banker had some of the best Seed-only kill cards and you have an extremely competitive deck.

The open format, however, saw more viable decks than just these. The decks listed above were extremely prevalent with the addition of First Edition cards and remained in the competitive scene once the trend of Seed-only events ended. That didn’t stop other powerful decks from emerging, however.

One such deck was the revival of mono-Rogue steal decks. With the addition of Headhunting, Hustler’s Comeuppance, Pant Swipe, and Palm Glom, a deck that was formerly considered low-tier jumped back up the ranks. Similar to recent Ass decks, this build could survive by never playing any characters of its own, with the notable exception being Martial Artist. The entire idea was to steal steal steal, and this deck did it wonderfully.

Strength In Numbers returned stronger than ever with the addition of Seed One. Adding in the new powerhouse cards of Gideon and Adriel only helped the already fast and already powerful deck. Now it had characters that didn’t die under certain conditions, meaning the deck could attack with even less fear than it previously did. Of all of the decks throughout all of the metagames, Strength In Numbers is probably the one that will survive well into future metagames.

Capitalizing on the strength of the Warlord trade, mono-Warlord decks emerged all over with one thought in mind: beat the opponent into submission. Manipulating the ridiculous curve afforded to mono-Warlord decks (first turn Gideon+Adriel, second turn Deadly Striker, third turn Dragon Archer), mono-Rage was all about dropping cards and turning them sideways. This deck was effectively the precursor to the popular Rage Sligh decks that exist today, although it was a bit slower than the Seed Two counterpart.

Rounding out the Seed One metagame was an interesting Gearsmith/Banker build that manipulated 313373 M3ch4n1c to create a never-ending army of One-Legged Hopping Pogo-Bears. The Pogo-Bear is one of those cards that is powerful on its own and annoying to get rid of, barring straight item removal. Having that card keep coming back from the grave is even more annoying. The M3ch4n1c was essentially a 3 cost way of putting the Pogo-Bear back into play whenever he was needed. Add in some Banker revival (Postmortem Debenture) for the M3ch4n1c and you have Pogo-Bears that never go away. Simple and effective.

Unless something has slipped my mind, that about wraps up my history lesson. Of course, there is more history to be made, and I look forward to coming back to this article series in the future. Maybe later this year, after Shade of the Devoured Emperor has sunk in, I’ll take the time to revisit the Seed Two: Gloamspike’s Revenge era and all of the nasty decks that came out of it.

Until then, though, keep coming up with new ideas to change The Spoils metagame so I have more to write about!

First Edition: Part Two
The arrival of Part Two was eagerly awaited as it promised to shake up the constructed metagame and promote interesting new deck types. I can say for certain that Part Two delivered on this promise and can probably be viewed as the most diverse time in the history of constructed Spoils.

First Edition: Part Two saw the invention of so many deck types that many of them still exist today. Some are certainly not as viable as others, but this does not mean that some of these decks won’t see a revival with the addition of later sets.

To talk about Part Two without taking about Purple Haze first would probably be a crime. Purple Haze was arguably the most popular deck during Part Two and easily saw the most competitive play. Designed and tweaked by some of the top Spoils players of the time, Derek Halpern, Will Morgan, and Conrad Jackson, Purple Haze was an Arcanist/Gearsmith control deck that epitomized intelligent play.

While each of these players (and many others) made slight variations to the deck, the basic idea remained consistent throughout all of the builds. Haze would manipulate Luteoderm Prototypes and Quotidian Ejectors for card search while building up resource advantage via the Voidal Poisoning/Runic Circuitry combo. When the time was right, Purple Haze would strike with a devastating Degenerate Molestation to eliminate the opponent’s hand and secure control of the board.

This deck was so popular that the $13k event at Gen-Con 2007 saw dozens of this deck in the field. The only downside of the deck was its popularity, so by this time many players had started incorporating some Haze-Hate into their decks. This didn’t stop the top players from reigning supreme with it, however, and it is likely to be remembered forever as Part Two’s most consistent deck.

The other prominent deck from the Part Two era, and another top competitor at the Gen-Con 2007 $13k event, was the Banker/Warlord Writ-Bile deck. As many of you know, the Writ-Bile deck is focused on eliminating its own deck via Selective Gluttony so that it can have an extremely minimal deck size. This allows the Writ-Bile player to use Writ of Reclamation over and over again to retrieve Bask Biles and fire them one at a time until the opponent’s influence is gone.

If this seems too slow for you then consider that this deck also ran a few copies of Gold Summit to rack up influence while it was milling itself. This bought the Writ-Bile player plenty of turns to establish resources and acquire the combo for a smooth victory.

Other popular decks to rise from Part Two were Strength in Numbers builds, Hole Punch (a Banker/Warlord combination of Deck Murder and Banker Beatdown), Schproingmajig OTK builds, Voidal Poisoning Banker decks, Gearsmith rush, Horsemajigs, and Martial Artist/Tri-Pole Magnet decks. Since I don’t want to leave these decks out to dry, I’ll give each a quick rundown as they were generally much easier to play than Purple Haze.

The Martial Artist/Tri-Pole Magnet deck was especially popular due to its ease of play and lack of required “big” rares. All you really needed for the deck was Martial Artist, Thief Doyen, Tri-Pole Magnet, and Luteoderm Goliath. The rest of the deck was really up to the player as the combo built itself and did not require a lot of work to get going.

Strength in Numbers was another deck that didn’t require a lot of effort to pilot and also worked without big rares. The premise was simple: amass an army of small characters with varying speeds, attack as a huge party, play Strength in Numbers. The varying speeds usually meant that your 4-speed characters are wiping out the blocking party, leaving your 3 and 2-speed characters to punch through to the faction for victory. SiN builds were quick, easy, and merciless, and did not provide a lot of opportunities for your opponent to defend if executed properly.

Schproingmajig OTK was another build that attempted the quick and efficient kill. Working off the two card combo of Schproingmajig and Micromajig Shipping Container, OTK players would attack with the Schproingmajig for a whopping sixteen unblockable damage if only a Shipping Container is used. Each additional character adds two damage to the total, meaning the OTK player could easily take the game with one turn if the opponent is not ready to handle the Schproingmajig.

As you’ve probably already noticed, Gearsmith was extremely popular during Part Two. While the above decks used Gearsmith as part of multi-trade decks, Gearsmith rush and Horsemajig decks usually ran as entirely Gearsmith builds. Both decks focused on the same idea that Gearsmith had some of the best rush in the game. While the decks choose different characters, the idea was to use Gearsmith’s resource acceleration (via Contriving Engineer and/or Senior Research Assistant) to flood the board with characters and, hopefully, overwhelm the opponent. Popular characters included all the Horsemajigs, the nodes, 633fy 31f, 7001b0x 31f, and the Guardforce characters.

Carrying over from ideas from Part One, Hole Punch was a deck designed to mesh the ideas of Banker Beatdown with Deck Murder. The premise of the deck lies in the name, mainly to punch a hole in the opponent’s defenses to break through for damage each turn. This deck didn’t go for the one-turn-kill or the swarm, but instead focused on getting consistent damage through. This was accomplished through the numerous kill cards afforded to the Banker/Warlord builds, using them to kill off one or two-man blocking parties when they were formed. It wasn’t the fastest or classiest deck out there, but it got the job done.

Rounding out the Part Two constructed scene was an innovative Voidal Poisoning deck that manipulated all of those Banker characters that enter play with tokens on them. These characters would be incredibly weak due to the tokens then morph into powerhouse characters once the Poisoning player finally played the VP. With all of those tokens the VP player would likely be able to wipe the opponent’s board via damage, then have a considerable army to attack and defend with. It was a very deceptive deck if you were facing it for the first time and really demonstrated the flexibility of Voidal Poisoning.

Lastly, before I move on to Seed, I should mention the Emergency Obfuscation deck. The card was banned due to this particular deck and will go down in history as the first Spoils card to ever be banned from Constructed.

I have to be perfectly honest and say that I cannot recall the exact combo as I never played against it or saw it in person. What I recall from discussions and player stories, though, was a complex combo sequence involving Misappropriation Machine, Emergency Obfuscation, and Quotidian Ejector to create a game state in which one player was effectively playing both decks. This allowed the E.O. player to completely set up his board while controlling his opponent’s, leaving his opponent with nothing to do to stop the assault once the E.O. combo was finished.

The card was later banned due to this combo. Similar to the Meat of the Mountain banning, Emergency Obfuscation was given the axe not because of how powerful or how broken it was but instead because it created an un-fun and non-interactive experience for one of the players involved. The player base at the time agreed that a situation like this was not good for the game and Josh Lytle soon made it official that E.O. was banned from Constructed play.

Since Open Beta released in 2006, The Spoils has undergone numerous metagame changes, as any good collectible card game does. There have been shifts from aggro to control decks, mono-trade to triple-trade, and even legal to illegal.

While some of you reading this may have experienced these decks first hand, there are many new Spoils players popping up all over the globe that were not around for the early sets. This article is meant to educate the new players about how constructed Spoils has transformed since its inception in 2006. Consider it a history lesson!

Writer’s Note: Since there is a lot of ground to cover, I’m going to break up this history lesson into two parts. This, obviously, is part one.

Open Beta
The Spoils had arrived! Bursting on to the scenes with their innovative Open Beta program, The Spoils sent boxes of product around the globe to introduce stores and players to this exciting new game. Not wanting to give away the farm, though, Open Beta was an incomplete set (200 cards of what would later be 220) featuring unfinished sketch artwork and cards that were subject to change.

This did not stop a competitive scene from sprouting up, however. Even with Open Beta as their only “release,” Tenacious Games launched their STE Program during the Open Beta phase, holding numerous tournaments with exciting prizes. This caused both casual and tournament players alike to start building the first constructed metagame.

While many interesting decks were created during the Open Beta period, one deck shone bright above all of the rest. Dan Sotelo’s (strmtrpr81 on the forums) innovative Research Investment deck dominated the tournament scene up until the release of First Edition: Part One, losing only to unfortunate circumstances such as threshold problems.

If you all think that the current Research Investment OTK deck is a problem then Dan’s Open Beta version is the stuff of nightmares. Before First Edition: Part One, Research Investment was a much more powerful card and could be abused far more than it can be right now. If you don’t believe me, see the picture in this article showing its original threshold and text.

Dan’s deck capitalized on how overpowered this card was with a simple combo. He would use Research Investment, All Nighter, and Invent to build up his resources, similarly to how the current OTK deck functions. Then, at the end of his opponent’s turn, he would launch a gigantic Micromajig Avalanche, providing himself with as many Micromajigs as he could afford.

Depending on the situation, Dan would then start his turn with either a Tactician’s Vacation or Degenerate Molestation to make sure his opponent had no counters to what was coming. Once that was resolved, he would finish his opponent by buffing his Micromajigs with a Dragon’s Anthem and punching through for victory.

While I cannot say this for sure, this deck was so powerful that it is likely the reason Research Investment was changed between Open Beta and First Edition: Part One. As you all know, Research Investment is still powerful, but is nothing compared to what it could do during the early days of The Spoils.

First Edition: Part One
With Dan’s deck de-clawed and the addition of twenty new cards, Part One changed everything Spoils players knew about the constructed scene. Some decks carried over and remained viable, such as Voidal Poisoning token decks and Banker Beatdown, but none of them could hold a candle to what eventually emerged.

Appropriately titled “Deck Murder,” a Warlord/Rogue/Banker hybrid emerged that began to dominate the competitive events. The idea was simple: take all of the power house cards from the three “aggressive” trades and throw them into one deck. While many would think that threshold would be a problem for a deck like this, somehow it worked.

Abusing characters like Mau Tough, Menacing Mauler, and Pluck, Deck Murder would simply slam face first into any adversary. It can probably be considered one of the earliest versions of a Spoils rush deck, although it rushed in with big beefy characters rather than an onslaught of smaller ones. Couple this with the best kill cards from the three trades that have them and you have a scary combination.

While Deck Murder will probably be remembered as the most prominent and effective deck of the Part One era, there were a handful of other decks that showed competitive promise. As I mentioned before, Voidal Poisoning token decks existed right after the release of Part One, be it with a mono-Arcanist build or an Arcanist/Rogue hybrid.

Banker Beatdown, a mono-Banker deck, was also very popular as it was simple and fun to play. It functioned on playing the bigger characters afforded to Banker at the time and making up for their influence “costs” through the many Banker means of gaining influence. The general idea is that the Banker characters were more resource efficient if the influence loss could be managed, and in many cases this was absolutely true.

Be sure to check back next week as I’ll wrap up the history of constructed Spoils!

Due to being extremely busy making sure Gen-Con 2012 goes off without a hitch, Will was unable to get a Blarg to me this week and asked me to fill in. I guess April is the month of Terence as you guys have gotten doses of me three weeks in a row.

While Will usually writes about the Organized Play program as a whole and the big picture, I am unable to do that as I have never been a part of that process. I was able to cheat a little when I filled in for Ken as I was once part of the design team and have some experience in that area, but I have no knowledge at all about how to be the Director of Organized Play.

I do, however, have experience being the Tournament Organizer for a local gaming store.

During my tenure as Assistant Manager of Grasshopper’s Comics (go Team Hopper!), I was in charge of planning weekly/monthly events for the various games played at our store. This meant that, aside from my duties with other games, I was in charge of planning Spoils events and making sure we had a set schedule that our players were aware of and interested in.

In essence, as a Tournament Organizer, I was a smaller and more localized version of a Director of Organized Play. The same can be said for Tournament Organizers all over the globe, and I’m sure there are plenty of them out there who do a much better job than I did.

As a T.O. it was my job to make sure that Grasshopper’s was running events that the players wanted to take part in while keeping the game fresh and interesting. Every game suffers from a bit of “release lag” when it has been a while between new cards, so it is up to Organizers to keep the game alive during these gaps. The same can be said about Will, only he operates on the global level, a task that seems extremely daunting and challenging to me.

For me and my local store, the key to keeping games alive was diversity. Players tend to get bored of games faster if they keep doing the same thing over and over again. This is why I would always make sure that our Spoils schedule had a nice variety of constructed, sealed, and draft tournaments. These would usually be on a set rotation so that players could plan accordingly for the evens they wanted to participate in.

Another difficulty arises, however, when this rotation causes stagnation. Some players, but not all, will even come to get bored of the variety. If you’re lucky and have a player base where this isn’t a problem then kudos to you.

If you do have this problem, or just want to spice up your rotation a bit, I suggest adding even MORE variety to your variety. Sure, switching between constructed/draft/sealed is fun, but how about morphing those three formats? Maybe you can try common/uncommon only constructed, a weird draft format (two packs 2nd Edition and one pack Seed 2, for example), or even a new sealed format (a competition pack and a random pre-con deck).

While these formats may not be provided at other venues (and therefore have no “competitive” scene if that is what drives your players), they are the kind of formats that are extremely fun and can lead to wild and exciting tournaments that will revitalize interest and, hopefully, keep your players coming back.

For instance, myself and the rest of Team Hopper once held a draft in which all three packs of the draft were First Edition: Part Two. First Edition was expertly designed so that the draft format was two Part One packs and one Part Two, so a format of all three Part Two led to a very strange, but fun, experience.

At the end of the day, no matter how competitive your group may be, gaming and The Spoils really are all about having fun. As Director of Organized Play, Will is definitely working towards making sure The Spoils is a fun and exciting experience for all, and I’m positive his next Blarg entry will feature some exciting news regarding the future of OP.

For now, though, try out some of my tips for spicing up your local Organized Play scene, if you need them, and be sure to report back here and let me know how they worked out for you.

And remember, Have Fun and Play Spoils!

The Deck
Tournament Faction
Greed x2 (starting)
Deception x13

Characters (26)
Erotic Assassin x4
Master Scavenger x4
Sudden Osprey x3
Ceremonious Groomer x4
Property Condemner x2
The Billionaire x3
Fired Hand x2
Martial Artist x4

Tactics (24)
Extravagant Contusion x4
Peculate x3
Burly Assailment x4
Hidden Ruins x2
Drygulch x4
Scrag x4
Miraculous Regeneration x3

Items (6)
Hollow Moose x2
Rusty Pickaxe x4

Locations (4)
Vast Mastabatorium x4

The Combo
It doesn’t take a genius to see the combo that lies within this deck and I’m sure most of you will have figured it out just by reading the list. For those who haven’t figured it out yet, it is The Billionaire spending all of his easily earned money at the Vast Mastabatorium.

All you have to do to initiate this combo is have a Vast Mastabatorium under your opponent’s control and then play The Billionaire. This can easily be accomplished by using the Mastabatorium yourself at the end of your opponent’s turn to lose one influence and draw a card. Then, on your turn, you can play The Billionaire to activate the opponent’s (your) Mastabatorium five times so that they draw five cards and lose five influence.

Now you are probably wondering why I would want my opponent to draw five cards. The simple answer is that I don’t. I never want my opponent drawing cards, unless of course them drawing cards means I win the game. If The Billionaire is already in play on my turn (which is certainly possible due to Burly Assailment), I am effectively paying five for my opponent to lose five influence. This could be the nail in the coffin, but it could also be a bomb combo if my opponent has more than one Mastabatorium under his control. Two Mastabatoriums means I can essentially pay 10/deal 10, which in the late game could mean victory against almost any deck.

The Other Way to Play It
The nice aspect of this combo deck, though, is that it does not rely solely on the combo to win. I have played plenty of games with this deck in which I have won without ever seeing a Vast Mastabatorium or The Billionaire in my hand. This is because the deck has a strong aggressive presence with cards such as Erotic Assassin and Martial Artist.

Couple these characters with the handful of kill cards found in the deck (Extravagant Contusion, Drygulch, Scrag) and you can have a very steady assault. You won’t be flooding the board with characters or doing massive damage each turn, but you could be consistently breaking through for 3-5 influence a turn. It doesn’t seem like much, but after a few turns of that the opponent will be in Mastabatorium range.

Toolbox Cards
This deck doesn’t have much in the way of traditional toolbox cards, but the ones it does have provide the deck with quite a bit of support. Master Scavenger is there to decimate any deck that relies on discard pile recursion, particularly Arcanist and Dark Awakening builds. Miraculous Regeneration keeps your fighters around after death while building resource advantage. Property Condemner is the obvious answer to locations and, while there is no direct answer to items, Peculate can be a fun way to steal their item hate and/or turn their items against them.

Combat Tricks
Similar to the Toolbox Cards, the Combat Tricks found in this deck aren’t your usual flavor. Sudden Osprey, while popular amongst Team Hopper players, isn’t always a first choice for “combat trick” cards. Fired Hand, however, is a very popular combat choice and is in this deck primarily for his reveal ability. I won’t say that you can’t play him as a character, but in my build of this deck he is really there to be a facedown resource. Lastly you have Burly Assailment, which allows you to throw a character in to play at Tactic speed. This can be a very powerful combat trick when you are on defense, allowing you to spring a Martial Artist or Fired Hand out of nowhere if the situation calls for it.

Flexibility
This deck has a lot of flexibility in that its Tactics can be used in a variety of ways. Burly Assailment and Hidden Ruins speak for themselves, allowing you to stash late game plays away while continuing to build your resources. They also lets you hide cards from discard decks, which is a powerful tool when going up against particular Arcanist builds.

The deck thrives most, though, in its ability to shift gears. While it does have the possibility to be a strong aggressive deck, I have noticed that it fears a late game aggressive battle in which it will be outmatched. If this is the case, this deck has the ability to switch to the combo portion of the deck, hoping to win the game via the Mastabatorium/Billionaire win condition.

The Rush
I can’t talk about this deck without warning players about its downside. One problem I have encountered with the deck, and probably the primary reason why I haven’t made it my main tournament deck, is that it has difficulties with the rush. Seeing as how Rage Sligh is extremely popular right now, this deck simply does not perform as well as I would like. If you can manage to hold off the rush via a slew of kill cards or strong defensive play then this deck has a chance to win, but for the most part is generally just outmatched by rush decks. I’m never one go give up, though, so I will likely revisit this deck once Seed 3: Fall of Marmothoa is released.

Conclusion
This deck, while a bit wacky, is a lot of fun to play and promotes a great deal of thinking. This definitely isn’t a deck for those who prefer straight beatdowns but is instead geared more towards those who like a medium length game with some control elements involved. I definitely advise trying this deck out and tweaking it to your hearts desire. Be sure to let me know what you think of it on the forums, good or bad, and maybe we can all discuss some ways in which we can make the deck better than it already is.

After a long Day One (I was on thirty two hours of no sleep due to having to drive to Baltimore when I had planned on sleeping in the car) I came away with a less than stellar tournament finish, some cards I needed for my collection, and the feeling that all of the judges hated me.

How could they hate someone as awesome as me?

Naturally, it turns out they didn’t hate me and I was just being paranoid. Maybe it was because I hadn’t slept in over a day. Maybe it was because I was part of a random deck check in round three. Maybe it was because there always seemed to be a judge standing over my shoulder watching my games. Maybe it was a combination of the bunch. Whatever it was, I kept getting the feeling that the judges were out to get me.

Over the course of the weekend, particularly during the big Team Sealed Event on Saturday, I began chatting with judges about various topics. All of the judges I had the chance to talk to were nice and knowledgeable people who were just like me. We even shared judging stories and discussed how judging big events basically means that you don’t eat for two days.

With my paranoid fear removed I had a lot more fun at the event and I can say with certainty that my trip to DMF Baltimore was a success. I had an absolute blast, my team did well (but Hans’ team did better, congratulations again!), and I learned a lot about the current meta.

But what if I had never chatted up the judges? It is possible that my irrational paranoia would have continued and may have put a damper on my event as a whole. Without the paranoia, though, I was able to laugh off the second random check I had to go through on Day Two and make jokes about how I was waiting for another deck check on Day Three.

So how should those WoW judges, or any judge for that matter, alleviate that paranoia? The answer is simple: they should be personable. Players understand that judges are there to run the events and enforce the rules, but players often forget that judges are real people and usually players as well. They are not simply rules robots that are programmed to ruin tournament.

This is why, at every tournament I judge, I try to interact with my players whenever possible. I’ll ask them what deck they’re playing, where they’re from, how long they’ve been playing the game, etc. These types of questions create a nice channel between the players and the judges that makes the event feel much more sociable and smooth.

Next time you are judging an event, try to keep this idea in mind. You will benefit from being personable as you will have more people to talk to/interact with, and your players will have a better experience because they won’t be fearing the almighty judge robots. Remember, though, not to overstep your boundaries as a judge and always remain professional and within the rules.

In short, just have fun being a judge!