Apprentice Play

This year the Warlock continued to dominate the apprentice play with nine kills out of 26 games. His overall win/loss score also topped the field in 2016 with a 10 - 6 record. The Priestess dropped in performance with a low of only three kills and an overall win/loss score of 3 - 7.

We had three players (Bradford McCandless, James Newsome, and David Wolfe) go undefeated in Round 1 with both Brad and Jim earning a perfect three kills in as many matches. Brad earned top seed for the second year in a row by facing a tougher schedule than Jim. The top eight players were rounded out when Kasper Munck dropped out of Saturday’s match due to his return trip to Denmark. This allowed Nicholas Chepaitis to qualify and join the field for Saturday’s single elimination play.

Quarterfinals and Semifinal Play

The final match pitted two undefeated Warlock players against each other. Neither had lost a match in the earlier rounds when playing the Warlock. In fact, in the apprentice Round 1 it was Nick’s Warlock kill against Jack’s Wizard that led to him qualifying for Round 2. This turned out to be sweet revenge for Nick as he didn’t advance in 2015 after Jack defeated him in his last match of Round 1 that year.
WBC 2016 would prove to be Nick’s year as he shifted his opening strategy in the final match and did not summon a Blood Reaper as he had done in earlier victories. This gave him an early health advantage of four points after Jack dropped four life when he summoned his Dark Pact Slayer and enchanted him with Cheetah Speed. Jack continued with his winning strategy from earlier matches which brought the battle to Nick who remained near his starting zone for most of the match.

An early facedown enchantment by Nick on his own mage paid dividends when he revealed the Reverse Magic spell and took control of Jack’s facedown Ghoul Rot curse. This remained as a potential threat on Jack’s Warlock for the remainder of the battle. Nick followed up with a Magebane curse that he revealed on Jack’s Warlock which was never dispelled.

Both mages relied on constant attacking with fireball spells and ‘buddy’ creatures which brought the game to conclusion in a quick 45 minutes. Nick cast two carefully timed Sleep spells on Jack’s demon that kept his attack tempo at a higher pace than Jack was able to match. Ultimately Nick won the damage race and Jack’s cursed Warlock slumped to the ground – dead.

Thanks to …

1. The new and returning players who travelled to Seven Springs Resort to battle in the Arena this year. We had 11 newcomers and eight veterans competing in Round 1.
2. Arcane Wonders for donating such an amazing array of additional prizes for players to win.
3. Convention Director Don Greenwood for assistance in navigating me through the WBC Gamemaster application. I hope his retirement as WBC Convention Director allows him to play more of the games he enjoys.

Link to enhanced report
https://www.dropbox.com/s/cl698ih6up2aqpz/WBC%202016%20-%20Mage%20Wars%20Tournament%20Report.pdf?dl=0