Dreamblade 1K Write up, part 1

Ok, first off this isn't going to be like the wizards reports of things where they explain each move play by play. Because frankly I don't remember things that well. What it will be about however is exactly how much Battlestar Galactica I watched (1.5 episodes), the frequency of Heartsblood Temples in the room , winning warbands and the success of our local players.

We had a great turnout for the event with 21 people competing overall, a huge turnout for both Edinburgh and for 1K's in the UK in general. And yes in all probability we probably had more female entrants than any other UK event with four women taking part. We also had a lot of people travelling up for the event, helped by Sheffields 1K the day before. The two Steve's made it up from Cardiff, Paulus flew in from Sweeden and three guys stopped by on their way from Paris to the states where they're currently competing in some of the 10K tournaments (and doing rather well you could say, what with Nicholas winning the GenCon SoCal 10K).

We ran 6 swiss rounds and then the top four played off for prize money. With a $500 first prize at stake the finale was easily the most tense game. But more on that later.

Final listings:
1st: George Dickson
2nd: Benoit Fronza
3rd: Benjamin Sanders
4th: Emma Logan
The rest will follow in another article (because I don't have them on me right now).

The top four's warbands are listed below so you can see how they do it and see if you agree.

George Dicksons Warband
Cannibal Pariah x2
Zombie Enforcer
Bloodthirsty Redcap
Boneclan Hunter
Scarab Warcharm x2
Heartsblood Temple x2
Infernal Gothic
Fleshless Reaper x2
Thunder Sultan
Vodoo Manipulator
Dreadmorph Ogre
Crypt Worm

George stuck to pieces from the original set because he knew them best. Considering that Baxar's War had been out for two weeks it seems like a very sensible option to me. And you can't argue with the results really can you?

Benoit Fronza's Warband
Spellbound Scissors x3
Honour Guard x3
All Seeing Mage x2
Sir Glorious
Jack in the Box
Mirrorman
Whirlwind Dervish
Slaughter Boots
Cyclopean Sprite
Angel of Sunrise
Pearlthorn Castle

Benoit was playing a Janus band which we haven't seen a lot of before. This lineage is going to be expanded in Chrysotic Plague so expect it to make a lot more appearances in winning warbands.

Ben Sanders' Warband
Cannibal Pariah x3
Zungar Blademaster
Runetagged Brawler
Arch of Triumph
Honour Guard
Knight of Tomorrow x2
Soul Serpent
Lady of the Fang
Hawk Eyed Investigator
Zombie Enforcer
Thunder Sultan
Loyal Scragglemaw
Crypt Worm

The most impressive thing about Ben's warband (excluding the excellent way he plays it of course)is that it's made up entirely of commons and uncommons. Yeah Ben's pretty damn good at making Warbands, probably helped by his many years making fantastic Magic decks

Emma Logan's Warband
Spellbound Scissors x2
Clawclan Scout x2
Jack in the Box
Relentless Eviscerator
Skinless
Knight of Tomorrow
Nevret Screamtrooper
Kitsune
Whirlwind Dervish
Brighthammer Avenger
Raging Vanguard
Noble Dragon
Arch of Triumph

Emma's band was half Blooduct which has been showing up at some of the top tournaments in the states and is being pushed by The Dreaming Dragons, a semi-professional Dreamblade team. Not a bad call there.

This makes the most popular models in the top 4 a choice between the ultra cheap Cannibal Pariah's and the also ultra cheap and reusable Spellbound Scissors with five of each being used by our top 4. Only the Honour Guard came anywhere near that frequency with four of them being used.

However I'm willing to bet that if we looked at all the warbands used we'd see an abundance of Heartsblood Temples in use. In fact I care so I'm going to check. Right, 14 of them in total. That's rather a lot don't you think? Definitely a favourite piece up here.

Photo's and more listings to follow so keep an eye on the website for them.

Cheers guys
Lucy