For Gold & Glory: The Northern Paladins 2019 Heroes of Legend Tournament

A Summons to Adventure

When I heard the call, I knew I had to respond. Angus MacKenzie was seeking brave mages to assist him in his struggle against Sol’Kanar the Swamp King, and I saw this as an opportunity. Not only could I potentially defeat the rogue Force of Nature and gain the accolades of Karakas, I might find the time to challenge other mages in sorcerous battle. I admit that duelling against others was the true draw of the day, but the good of liberating the forests of Khone was nonetheless attractive.

My weapon for the day.

To both ends, I assembled a selection of red and black magic—a new development for me! I have long been wary of the destructive and corrupting magics so opposed to my preferred green and white, but I wished to expand my repertoire. Surely, flexibility and practice with these magics could only make me a better mage overall. From the mountains, I gathered a tribe of Sedge Trolls and procured a nest of Rukh Eggs. From the swamps, I summoned Hypnotic Specters and Guardian Beasts. I assembled a set of Nevinyrral’s Disks in my artificier’s workshop, and rounded out my spellbook with lightning, fire, and the usual dark magic.

Of course I knew that I'd have to break a few eggs, so I needed tokens to represent my omelets...er, Rukhs. If you'd like to make your own, here's a makeplayingcards.com-compatible file.

Before responding to MacKenzie’s call, I met with my oftentimes-rival/sometimes-ally, the Dread Lady Shade. She, too, had heard his call, and we decided that our chances of facing Sol’Kanar would be better if we pooled our resources. In exchange for her Badlands ley lines, I lent her a ley line to the Underground Sea and a pair of Icy Manipulators. This seemed familiar to me for good reason: she had rebuilt her Polluted Sea spellbook, the one that she used to mercilessly beat me with in our youth. With grim determination, I pledged that should I have a chance to duel against her this day, the results would be different.

My brave companion, with signatures from each of my opponents. But really, two exclamation marks? Could you have signed less gloatingly, Megan?

The Tournament

(For the official report and all decklists, go to http://northernpaladins.com/2019/11/08/northern-paladins-2019-heroes-of-legends-tournament-summary/.)

Upon arriving in Karakas, I found MacKenzie had found a companion for myself and each of my fellow mages to assist us in our battles against the Swamp King. My partner in this quest turned out to be Kasimir the Lone Wolf. Sadly, his blue and white alignment clashed with my chosen spellbook, and we could not fully assist each other in our fight. But his love for his canine companion speaks well for him, and I look forward to introducing him to my Wolf(hounds) of the Hunt in our future endeavors.

Joshua's 5-color Skittles.

My first rival of the day was Joshua, a new and welcome face in the crowd of Paladins and a practitioner of all five colors of magic. I leapt to an early lead in our first battle as he struggled to contain a flood of ley lines, and my Hypnotic Specters and Rukhs made short work of him. Though I felt confident with this early victory, I suffered from Joshua's fate in our next contest and fell to his Serra Angel, unable to defend myself. Our third and decisive fight was our only one where both of us had a chance to display our true skills, unhindered by our mana or lack thereof. I summoned a Sedge Troll for the early attack, and soon summoned a Rukh Egg to join him—but Joshua beat the egg with a Sword-wrought Plowshares before I could hatch it. Though I still had my troll, Joshua set out methodically destroying my defenses: my Nevinyrral's Disk fell to his Disenchantment, my Troll to a Blue Elemental Blast when I foolishly committed all of my ley lines to other ends and could not regenerate him. I managed to hold on for a while more by using more Disks to protect me from his Triskelions, but could not find another threat to bring him low. In the end, he defeated me with an Angel and a Triskelion. (0-1)

Dana's Angels 'n' Bunnies.

Discouraged by the close loss, I next encountered Dana and I hoped that I could put up a better fight than our last meeting where he pulverized me with red and green magic in record time. This time, he had brought a black and white deck featuring the feared lagomorphic Ebon Praetor and a host of Angels. I summoned my hosts in our first match and beat down his defenses early, but made a critical error in consulting my Demonic Tutor for another Sedge Troll instead of a Fireball when I could have defeated him with such. Instead, he lived long enough to summon the Praetor, and I fell to its fearsome buck teeth before I could find the Lightning needed to finish him off. In our second fight, he held me at bay with a Greater Realm of Preservation despite my large force of Trolls, Rukhs, and Guardian Beasts—I could not find a Disk to open the way through the Realm. And like Joshua did earlier, Dana picked away at my defenses until I could no longer defend myself from his Factories and Angel. (0-2)

Joe's Earth Elemental Aggro.

Hoping to pull myself together, I found myself challenged again by Joe. As he did in our previous encounters, he continued to show an affinity for red magic—though he supplemented it with white this time. It was this white magic that led to my demise in our first battle, as he called forth a Preacher to convert my horde Guardian Beasts and Trolls to his cause. Once I was defenseless, his Earth Elementals and Angels made short work of me. I started our second contest forcefully with a Dark Ritual-driven Hypnotic Specter, but Joe beat its Swords to Plowshares before it could harm him. Likewise, he leveraged his Strip Mines and Disenchants to destroy my lands and Moxen, then cast Manabarbs and Karma to keep me from recovering. My salvation came too late, as I discovered a Nevinyrral's Disk only after becoming too injured to cast it due to his Manabarbs. Without it to blast away his punishing enchantments, Karma soon bit me. (0-3)

Exhausted by my repeated failures to defeat my opponents, I sat out the next round of battles as the odd mage out, but was awarded a victory for the bye. (1-3)

Adam's Monoblack Land Destruction.

Member of the Horde-turned-Paladin Adam soon challenged me, and I once again took up my spellbook against his of black magic and land destruction. Our first contest was yet another defeat: I could not manage to summon enough creatures to defend against his forces. But it was his three Racks that defeated me—I had safely stayed out of their reach, but a sudden Mind Twist on his part cast me onto them to catastrophic results. I clawed my way back to victory in our second fight with two early Specters, and he was unable to resist their dementia-inducing power. And in our third battle, my strategies finally worked as my Guardian Beasts, Nevinyrrals' Disks, and Rukh Eggs cooperated to unleash a flock of Rukhs upon him. (2-3)

Megan's Polluted Sea, upgraded but still-recognizable from our battles of years past.

And so, as the day drew to a close, I found myself commiserating with the Dread Lady Shade at our poorer-than-expected showings. Self-deprecatingly, she wondered about which “loser” she would duel in her last battle. As it so happens, that “loser” turned out to be me—but I was determined to finally lay waste to her Polluted Sea and show her the error of her ways. However, it was not to be. In our first contest, Lady Shade leapt into the fight Serendib Efreeti first, and I could not keep up before the wicked genies sealed my fate. Though I vowed that I would put up a better fight in our rematch, our next battle was much the same; her Efreeti were joined by her Sengir Vampires, and I could do naught but suffer yet another merciless beating at her hands. (2-4)

Noooooo! Of course, she'll never let me live this down.

Though disappointed by my poor showing, I happily joined my fellow mages in celebrating the defeat of Sol'kanar (at the hands of Workshop-wielder Jordan). In these festivities, I was recognized as Legendarily Destructive for my use of Nevinyrral's Disk. But more importantly, my weekly research and commentary on the spells that we cast had been noticed by the Paladins, and they rewarded me with the key to summoning the great Palladia-Mors for my Paladin Spirit.

I'm honored that my dumb blog puts me in the same league as John and Adam (who organized this tournament) and Michael (who sees that our charitable contributions go to those in need). They're truly the ones with Paladin Spirit!

And finally, though my luck was severely lacking throughout the day's battles, it came through in the end as I won a beautiful representation of our spiritual founder, the archetypal Northern Paladin himself. It shall hang with pride on my wall and (hopefully) inspire me to victory in the future!