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Pox Doombringer (FW) x2
Upgrades: 11 speed, 11 damage, 50 hp - 99 Nora

Abomination x2
Upgrades: 9 speed, 51 hp, Vulnerability: Electricity, Berserker 3 - 73 Nora

Executioner x2
Upgrades: 11 speed, 54 hp, Exertion 3 - 81 Nora

Blood Fiend x2
Upgrades: 47 hp, Blood Frenzy 1 - 44 Nora

Demon Lich x2
Upgrades: 9 speed, 44 hp, Swarm: Deep Elf Skeleton - 84 Nora

Nefari Dragon x2
Upgrades: 9 speed, 52 hp, Flamestrike 3, Vulnerability: Frost - 71 Nora

Scorched Dwarf x2
Upgrades: 24 hp, Nora Miner 2, Mason 2 - 29 Nora

Nefari Messenger
Upgrades: 48 hp - 72 Nora

Eternal Lich
Upgrades: 11 speed, 44 hp, Dark Favor 1 - 94 Nora

Sacrifice x2
Retribution x2
Fireblast x2
Price of Victory x2
Mobilization x2
Essence Drain x2
Sacrificial Dagger x2

This deck relies on AP generation and making attacks cheaper through spells or at the costs of a unit’s own hitpoints. All of the Forsaken Wastes champions can sacrifice their HP to gain extra attacks or AP except the Eternal Lich. This, coupled with Drive, Price of Victory, Ally: FW and Mobilization means that you can cover lots of ground and attack twice as often. This is especially powerful because most everything will hit in the mid-teens for damage. To compensate for the lowering HP, Sacrifice, Retribution and the Sacrificial Dagger give you ways to turn your low HP units into resources. Sacrificial Daggers on the range 6 Doombringers are especially deadly.

Aside from the main combo runes, the rest are mostly support. The Demon Liches are good recipients of the AP boosts by letting them get finishing blows, and provide global AP on drop. The Messenger is a Drive engine, which makes Sacrificial Daggers much more deadly. The Dwarves obviously provide nora as well as Mason, and considering how harsh you can be on your own shrine, you’ll probably need it. The Nefari Dragons and the Eternal Lich simply provide some additional solid ranged support. Finally, the Fireblasts and Essence Drains allow you to translate double attacks from your champions into kills, especially in the case of Essence Drain. An Executioner with essence drain support can move 6 spaces and kill a 60 hp champion in one round.

It’s the second day of Fan Faire and if things go anything like yesterday, it will certainly be an adventure. I’ve slept only a little so far and while I’ve seen plenty of these shows, I’ve never experienced it from this perspective. My day starts bright and early so I can get a jump on things.

6:25 AM - I head down for an early breakfast knowing it’s quite possible I’ll miss lunch.

6:35 AM - 6 extremely loud lawyers from Washington D.C. are eating at a nearby table. They have apparently been up all night gambling so this explains what I smell.

6:50 AM - One lawyer goes for broke and drops $2 on Keno. I shake my head, close my nose, and finish my food.

7:25 AM - Only a few members of the community team are in the ballroom. The EverQuest II Community Manager is setting up for her tournament.

8:15 AM - The tournament PC’s are all patched and ready to go. I have the list of entrants which are in groups of six (that I designate as waves) and scheduled to show up every 30 minutes.

8:50 AM - Time for the community team huddle. We take a quick moment to make sure everyone knows where they are supposed to be and on the proper medications.

9:00 AM - The doors open and a groups of people start to meander in. Some of the more exciting panels are keeping the crowd here manageable. The first wave of Tournament groups show up. One is missing two people.

9:05 AM - In the interest of getting things going I grab two people from the 9:30 group because they have no clue who else is in their group.

9:10 AM - The two missing group members show up. I cry on the inside.

9:30 AM - The Game Room is now completely full and I have people waiting to use machines. Wave 2 of the tournament has now shown up.

9:40 AM - Wave 2 sits down and an entire group hasn’t shown up. A group from Wave 5 desperately wants to move people out of their group to let a friend in.

9:45 AM - After plenty of debate I allow them to move two people.

10:10 AM - We’re a few minutes behind and groups are coming up to check in. I tell them to come back in a few minutes.

10:12 AM - One group comes back and I define “a few minutes” as 10 or more.

10:30 AM - 2:00 PM My time in the Game Room has blended into a montage of walking circles around the PC’s and ushering people into the tournament. The EverQuest II Community Manager gives me a granola bar and a little of Niami’s famous trail mix. It’s the best thing I’ve ever eaten.

2:15 PM - I go to the restroom and remove my shoes. My feet have started swelling so I blame whoever makes Airwalks.

3:00 PM - The Game Room has slackened a bit so I’m able to move back and forth between it and the PoxNora display. Hawkfain and PoxVega are talking with prospective players. I shuffle a few old media contacts over their way. Poxvega has not screamed “POXVEGA!” all day so my fingers are crossed.

3:30 PM - During a lull HawkFain sits down to try out Kung Fu Hustle. He’s brutalized by the game, but to add insult to injury, one of their developers comes over and makes playing look easy.

4:15 PM - I sit down for the first time in 8 hours, and 5 minutes later I can’t feel my legs.

4:20 PM - One of the community team tells me to stop sitting cross legged.

5:30 PM - We’re pushing in the last groups for the tournament. There have been a total of 23 which translates into 138 players and only 18 are getting prizes. Some of these guys are taking things pretty seriously so I want to help and offer advice.

5:35 PM - One guy snarls at me that “More DoTs!” is not being helpful. Apparently he’s a Paladin or something.

6:25 PM - We wrap up the tournament a bit late, clean things up and head for the Community Address. I already have an idea of what they are announcing, but haven’t seen the specifics so I’m a little excited.

7:05 PM - 1500 people pack into a large ballroom and the presentation begins. Free Realms is adding more to Go Karts and putting in soccer.

7:25 PM - One of the speakers goes up on stage in a banana suit.

7:26 PM - I start texting to find out who he lost a bet to.

7:30 PM - 8:30 PM - Exhaustion is setting in. I know they announced the next EverQuest and EverQuest II expansion but the rest is hazy. What I also thought was pretty cool was every attendee was getting a free copy. PoxNora gets some face time and the video looks amazing.

9:00 PM - ???? - I make a few notes in my organizer and eventually drift off to sleep. Once again no idea what time my roommate came in.

Lonx Hurler x2
Upgrades: 9 speed, 49 hp, Lay Trap - Frost 2 - 69 Nora

Lonx Striker x2
Upgrades: 9 speed, 48 hp, Vulnerability: Fire - 66 Nora

Lonx Recruiter x2
Upgrades: 9 speed, 50 hp, Vulnerability: Fire - 74 Nora

Lonx Adept x2
Upgrades: 9 speed, 50 hp, Vulnerability: Fire - 82 Nora

Yeti Shaman x2
Upgrades: 9 speed, 46 hp, Majestic 2, Vulnerability: Fire - 75 Nora

Nora Beast x2
Upgrades: 66 hp - 47 Nora

Tracker Gnark
Upgrades: 11 speed, 55 hp, Leap 3, Vulnerability: Fire - 99 Nora

Glacial Titan
Upgrades: 12 speed, 69 hp, Arctic Camouflage - 117 Nora

Lonx Ambusher
Upgrades: 51 hp, Assault, Vulnerability: Fire - 75 Nora

Yeti Berserker
Upgrades: 9 speed, 55 hp, Leap 3, Berserker 3, Multiattack 1 - 86 Nora

Crystal Pheonix
Upgrades:28 hp, Divine Favor 3, Vulnerability: Fire - 55 Nora

Gale Force x2
Ice Storm x2
Deep Freeze x2
Call of the Tundra x2
Conjure Ice Block
Cleansing Storm
Flag of Unification
Ice Shard
Provincial Marker

The rule for this deck is only wild champions and no Jakei, angels or elven ancestors. This restricts our options quite a bit, but there are still a good number of champions - the biggest penalty is the lack of long range units. Elders and angels are usually the long range slots but to compensate here we’re running with a good number of midrange units and using all of the available damage spells. The deck shines in close quarters, naturally, with the Glacial Titan, Berserker, Gnark and even the Hurlers and Recruiters giving melee options. Whe first 3 are being able to cover a lot of ground as well, between 13 speed and/or leap.

Generally Lonx Adepts will be your best support tool in this deck as they give good midrange damage and also provide your only pseudo long range in their Frost Aura granting ability. Strikers will be your “ranged damage”, as they are cheap and hit decently hard. The Ambusher serves as an anti-range tool - a sudden engagement behind lines with assault can be brutal. Recruiters aid here too because of assault, though their primary purpose is to pump out the cats. Gnark or the Titan are your tools for breaking stalemates and turning games in your favor - the titan is not always a favorite, but his offense is still huge even at melee. Just be cautious with him around FW or other factions with dangerous spot removal.

Your support options are mostly self-explanatory, with a few odder choices. The Flag of Unification is a big help in a shorter ranged deck like this with evasive and charge - optimally you’ll put it on a snowcat, but a Yeti Shaman also makes a good target. Cleansing Storm is not always included these days, but is still a good surprise and being tied down can easily be deadly to something like Gnark or the Titan, so it is a decent investment. The Ice Shard, finally, makes a slot not for frost damage champions, instead mostly to protect you from opposing fire without access to the Extinguisher and with so much Vulnerability.

FanFaire is over and it was an amazing event this year. For me however it was quite a bit different than any other I’ve ever attended. In the past I’ve been there as media and walking around covering events. Of course I made a lot of assumptions about how things were organized and set up but I ad admittedly was wrong about much of what goes on behind the scenes. What I’m going to do today is give you an inside look at exactly what we do and what the PoxNora team. Welcome to Fan Faire

8:15 AM - Arrive at airport and wander over to Hawkfain. PoxVega arrives and we both notice we are basically one of the last people to board. HawkFain was “responsible” and checked in earlier but boards with us. We board the plane in separate rows but fortunately there was a middle seat for most of us. PoxVega sits next to a very loud woman who insists it is her birthday and wants a drink.

10:25 AM - We’ve left the plane and I’m the only one who checked a bag so we start following PoxVega to baggage claim. After grabbing my stuff we queue up (see I like Europeans) in a long line for cabs. You see Las Vegas is kind of like a 100 degree theme park. PoxVega spends the next 10 minutes scaring HawkFain about cab drivers.

11:00 AM - We arrive at Bally’s and toss our bags to a bellhop. Having no idea where to go we head for the nearest ballroom by the longest possible route we could find in the casino. After ascending two levels and almost wandering into some type of medical convention, we make our way to the actual area SOE is setting up in.

11:40 AM - We aren’t on the setup crew (that’s right SOE employees do a lot of the manual labor) because we have to run the late night gaming, but these guys have already been working diligently. A team has been stuffing swag bags for hours and a small team has set up almost 90 gaming PC’s with networking for players. It’s time to grab lunch.

12:15 AM - We wander through the Paris hotel for roughly 15 minutes before PoxVega points out a buffet we should go to. Being indecisive we decide to move on and walk to the end of the hotel where we find a quaint restaurant with $50 hamburgers. PoxVega tells us I told you so and we make our way back. Buffet wasn’t bad and had fancy schmancy French desserts. They even had snails and goose poop.

3:30 PM - We make our way over to see if we can check in. HawkFain grabs a passing bellhop to find out our luggage was on it’s way up to the room of someone else. I check in and we make our way over to the large room which contains a dozen different displays of different games. PoxVega and HawkFain man the PoxNora display while I take my post at the gameroom.

4:00 PM - 8:00 PM - The gameroom didn’t necessarily need me there so I made my way back over to the PoxNora display and started grabbing by passers to show them the wonders of the game. We showed quite a few people including media what PoxNora was all about.

8:30 PM - With only 90 minutes before late night gaming we make our way to a restaraunt for some hamburgers. Our waitress isn’t bad looking and PoxVega orders his hamburger with “Abuhhhh” on it.

10:00 PM - We are ready for late night gaming. HawkFain and PoxVega hang around for a while to answer questions but most people are trying things out or playing other Trading Card Games.  HawkFain spends a few minutes playing Kung Fu Hustle and is shown up pretty quickly by another SOE employee.  We finally shut everything down around 1AM and I make my way to the room. After jotting a few notes in my organizer I laid down about 2 AM.

2:00 AM - 6:00 AM - My roommate came in at some point. I was that tired.

So this was Day 1 of Fan Faire and now you have an idea of what we do at these events.

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