Limited Advice: Gen Con 2008

It was one crazy weekend. If you got lost in the whirlwind that was Gen Con Indianapolis or didnt have a chance to make the trip out, let me break it down for you.World of Warcraft Miniatures Game—The game was so popular that when a friend of mine tried to get a demo at noon on Saturday, the sign-up sheet was already full. Players love their World of Warcraft TCG characters in 3-D! If you havent already done so, you should try out thedownloadable demo at WoWMinis.com. Youll find that the games basic play is incredibly simple, yet the games strategy element is satisfyingly complex and the games customizable element—the Action Bar card—even makes mirror matches unique. If the convention circuit is any indication of the games popularity, you should preorder your World of Warcraft Miniatures boosters. Remember Heroes of Azeroth selling out within days of release? You dont want to experience that heartbreak again, do you?Feature Match Area—As you can tell from the coverage, the World of Warcraft TCG feature match area received a huge upgrade for this years big event. Giant LCD TVs allowed spectators to watch the whole game without having to crane their necks over the folks in front of them.North American. Continentals—If you play Warlock every time, it has to pay off sometime, right? All kidding aside, watching Matt play was quite a treat. I think he, as did David Bodimer, visited the Priest trainer and trained in Mind Control.What I most enjoyed about the event was the fun that everyone had playing the World of Warcraft TCG—even in the most competitive events. Cards like Lady Katrana Prestor are good enough to win a spot in competitive decks, yet theyre so fun that you feel like a winner whether you win or lose to the Onyxias Lair Raid Deck.Darkmoon Faire—Jimmy Choi hit the ground running, going undefeated in the tournament with Kilzin of the Bloodscalp. While the Shamans success is no surprise, its now anybodys game as the metagame is completely defined. Who knew that healing would be so good in a format? Is it time for a deck to truly heal face and beat the burn decks? Finally, if you want to hear the story of the greatest comeback ever, check out his finals match—Crackling Purge for the win.Side Events—The beauty of the Darkmoon Faire design is that players dont have to play in the main event to have a great time. Spectral Safari, UDE Bounty Tournament, World of Warcraft Miniatures Sneak Peeks, LAN events, and infinite other side events ran all night. If you wanted to keep things more casual, you could easily join in a game of Big Stack with some of the big names in the World of Warcraft TCG. Prizes ranged from booster packs to uncut sheets, so there were plenty of great items to win outside the main event.I didnt think any event could top U.S. Nationals last year, but adding another continent to the mix doubled the fun. To all the Montreal players, come October in Paris, Ill be relying on you. I hope to see you all there!Now for something completely different . . . There was still a little time left in the Burning Crusade Block in Booster Draft, so I was able to talk to a lot of the pros at the event and compare notes.Third Times the CharmThe one thing we all agreed on is that Hunt for Illidan is the most important pack in the draft. Its not an altogether unfamiliar phenomenon—Fires of Outland was the most important set in the last block. There were also players last year, like German Stefan Urban, who liked the underdrafted classes. Urban embraced the Priest, while there were plenty of players out there who wanted to draft Shaman and Rogue based on pack 3.Dirty TricksBefore Hunt for Illidan was released, the World of Warcraft TCG was all about Sacrificial Poison. The uncommon ability completely dominated any game when it hit the table, and making the ability stick wasnt too difficult with Diversion and Obfuscate. Now, the class has a little more depth. If you end up with a couple of On the Brinks or a dagger in March of the Legion, Feint and Sap allow you to control combat. Perhaps the best bonus to drafting the Rogue class is that so few people are familiar with the classs combat tricks. When comparing the way Americans and Europeans draft—which is a topic Ill cover in an upcoming article—Feint is insanely good on this side of the Atlantic, as players typically battle to get the first 2-for-1 in an attempt to dominate the board.Mighty WarriorBefore I got the set list, I could only assume that losing a pack of Puncture would make Warrior worse. Dont worry, its still insane. I dont think there has been a time when Warrior has ever been bad. How can 30 health ever be wrong? I was astonished as David Bodimer tabled Finishing Shout in his last draft pod to make Top 8. He should be happy that winner Matt Markoff wasnt sitting at that table—the man hate drafted the Warrior ability in a different pod third pick without blinking.Pinprick always at least 2-1s—John TattaIm a little too conservative to draft the Imp Lord, but Tatta knows how to make it work. He drafted the Demon hero in the WoWTCGScrub draft on Thursday. As Pinpricks worst matchup, Mage, is already taken care of since you have all the fire-based damage abilities in your own deck, its not bad when it comes together. Just hope that no one else plans to draft Mage or Pinprick, or else youll split those fire cards and end up with only fifteen playable cards. Some decks will sign the match slip as soon as you sit down, but most classes have a way to beat you. That auto-scoop factor is a big advantage, but plenty of classes have ways to beat it, including some hero flip powers. Buyer beware!I think this Booster Draft format is a milestone in the World of Warcraft TCG, because every class has the potential to be good in a Booster Draft, even without uncommons or rares. I think a player can realistically go into a draft with the idea of drafting any class. Classes with early-game strong abilities usually end up a quality quest or two short of perfect, and classes with strong abilities in the last two sets typically have better overall quality—albeit in smaller card pools—as drafters end up drafting the class uncontested.If you didnt catch the coverage of the North American Continental Championship or Darkmoon Faire Indianapolis, hit the links. Congratulations to not only Jimmy Choi and Matt Markoff, but also to all the players who won last weekend. Players who made the Top 64 walked away with at least an iPod Touch, if not a Playstation 3, Loot cards, or a trip to Paris. How many games let you win trips that take them around the world? Not many! I hope you all enjoyed the coverage of the event and the little nuggets of Booster Draft knowledge. Take care until next week!