The physics teacher at my highschool runs a mageknight club every wednesday. It started last week and I already knew he was the best player in Indiana, buit he said he won nationals over the summer so he is now the best mageknight player in the US. I don't know his first name but his last name is Castle. pretty sweet.

LeRoy Castle won the US national championship so i assume it's the same guy. however, it doesn't mean he's the best player in the US. luck has to big of a role in the game to really know for sure who the best is. also, someone better then him might have not been able to attend or got toatal junk for the sealed booster and wasn't able to make it to the finals because of it. it's pretty cool that your physics teacher is the national champ.

Yeah I guess your right. He said he got factory sets of minions, sinister,unlimited, and I think some other stuff for winning so that's pretty cool.

That's so cool that your teacher plays it.

No other real comment, I just think it's very cool.

wish some of my teachers played MK, thats would be great!

If you want the truth I will give it to you as I was there. But first I will say I have nothing against the man. he seemed very cool and I got no problems with him. But I call tham as I see them so here goes. he ran a KI charger which is a chariot if you didn't know. And it gives a huge advantage to any player in a 50 minute game. I have never agreed with WK's letting MDF's into construted play. I've always felt it was a way for players of lesser skill to compensate for lack of playing skill. Alot of players including myself would never play one because our pride would never allow it. So yes he is the national champ but to be honest it was done in the cheapest way possible. I know at least 30 players who I feel would mop the floor with him everyday of the week. But thats just my opinion take it for what it's worth.

A couple of my own disclaimers first: I was not there. I couldn't make it to Origins. I also don't want to say anything against him and I won't comment of esthetics or "cheese". I do want to say that I also think it's great that your physics teacher has brought MK into your school environment. I played Chess in high school (every day!) and we had a pretty active chess group. IMHO, it's less important what game ends up being active than that there is some mental game with an active group of players.

Now, on to commentary on Nationals. A lot has to do with timing and "guessing" the metagame (what you will face). It's not all a complete guess, but you sure don't know either. Mr. Castle must have played well, but he also had to be pretty lucky. If his opponents had been playing armies that corresponded very closely to what tended to be seen in the qualifying tournaments, I don't think he would have had a lot of chance to win. In the NQs, more than 1/2 of the armies, and approximately 1/2 of the winners were playing armies based around the Amazon Draconum. She is a chariot killer.

Again, I don't want to say anything disparaging against Mr. Castle because I am sure that he had to play well to win. I do have to agree with Python, though, that I don't like to see a chariot playing in a 200 point tournament. Perhaps a little history might be enlightening. A year ago, when chariot armies won the championship tournaments in both the US and Canada, there was a lot of worry and discussion about how chariots were overpowered in the 200 point format. In their usual fashion, WizKids "weakened" chariots, not by adjusting the rules, but by releasing counter figures -- the OST (Orcish Stone Thrower) and the Amazon Draconum -- that could be expected to kill chariots. The result was that chariots tended not to be seen all that much in the intervening year because of the prevalence of OSTs and ADs.

My impressions (and remember that I was not there) were that a lot of the players at Origins (Nationals) prepared rather well to take on Amazon Draconum armies. Rightly or wrongly, hardly anyone expected a chariot because everybody expected that a chariot would fall quickly to all the expected Amazon Dracs.

Mr. Castle was, IMHO, lucky in that he (probably) did not happen to face any of the Amazon Drac armies in the first couple of rounds. The other players, who were expecting AD armies and had prepared to take them out, eliminated all the AD armies right away, but then they had to face the chariot. The sorts of armies that one wants against Amazon Dracs are quite different from the sorts one wants against chariots. (Ram, shakeoff, a number of small threats for the AD. A single or a couple of large threats for the chariot.)

Mr. Castle timed his entry well. I assume that he (correctly) figured that most everybody would be concentrating on the AD armies and that this could leave an opportunity for a chariot. He used the same chariot army that had been used to win the Austrian championship shortly before. His "guess" turned out very well for him, as he did not get killed off by the Amazon Dracs.

I think I do have to point out, in his behalf, that in order to get to the point where he could use the chariot at all, he first had to survive the Sealed Booster rounds; where he did not have the opportunity to use the chariot, or anything else that he could have prepared in advance. I don't begrudge him his title. He had to earn it, but I can't deny that it took both considerable luck and a bit of "abuse" of the rules. (I don't consider the term "abuse" to be all that derogatory here. Everyone is always looking for ways to make things work out in their favor.) Incidentally, WizKids has, since Origins, revised the chariot rules to weaken it relative to the rest of the field. We all hope that the revision turns out well for a balancing effect.

I do feel that he deserves congratulations and that you are quite lucky to have him for a mentor in your school MK club.

DragonVenom

Oh, boo hoo, sounds like a couple players didn't bring the right army. Guess what, a player's army needs to be ready for anything.

I've always felt whining about the other guy's army was a way for players of lesser skill to compensate for lack of playing skill.

I think it's clear that lots of players didn't bring the right army. And yes, a player needs to be ready for anything. Unfortunately, it's very difficult to be ready for "anything" so most people try to be more ready for what they can reasonably expect. It is possible to be ready for a chariot, even under the old rules, but it isn't easy, especially if you expect to see a lot of Amazon Dracs and maybe a few OSTs.

A lot of the game is preparation. You prepare for what you expect. I do think LeRoy Castle got a good heaping portion of luck in not running into the AmDrac armies that were still a fair proportion of the participants. An AmDrac eats up a chariot for breakfast. I don't think it was unreasonable not to expect a chariot to make it very far. Unfortunately ;) a lot of people got lulled to sleep by that piece of "popular wisdom" and that is unwise. You need a plan to handle the bad matchups and you need to prepare for them regardless. But at the end of the day, it is still true that the Drac is a very bad matchup for the chariot and the chariot is a bad matchup for most armies that are good against the AmDrac.

Personally, I wouldn't want to run down anybody's skills. I suspect that LeRoy Castle got a couple of good breaks, but I also think he took something that surprised people and that he was able to use that element of surprise to win the tourney. I applaud him for that.

DragonVenom

Ok I have to say that you must not have been at Nationals from this comment so let me explain a few things.

So far the people that chimed in did not play in Nationals. Python was there and one of his friends ( boomstick007) was in the finaly 8.

Luck has alot to do with Nationals among other factors. Everyone was ready for a AD, including Leroy, and they got owned by just about everyone. Leroy was running a KI chariot army that won another countries nationals. It had chromozar and some LI to protect the front of the chariot.

Sealed: The first portion of Nationals was sealed and whiel skill can over come some things there is still a good amount of luck invovled. Life was extremely hard in selaed if one did not pull a bounder, shield golem, and or a healer. So if one did poorly and a little below average in sealed it was an extreme up field battle.

Rules: People play different in different areas and there were a lot of rules that were in correct. Titans do take shakeoff though on the of players playing an OST did not believe it. Terrain must be 2in away from the side and any other piece of terrain and can not be placed inside a starting area. Many people had this rule wrong. A captor may be magicly healed. The ability ot mark ranges of an opponets figure to move yours was question also with a ruling handed down which can not be found anywhere.

Luck:Bshugg has his first match in the top 8 until he rolled something along the lines of 4 1s in a row. A few of those on pushes that were either failed breaks or crit misses.


To win Nationals on has to have a well formed army, draw good matchups and have a luck. In Leroy's case he got them all. He did not get those thing at Worlds though while players like Wkura who did not do well in Nationals due to poor sealed and worse luck did well at Worlds.

yeah he said he got beat pretty bad at nationals

So vpc you just assumed I played nats and lost. So I must be crying about that. Well you couldn't be more wrong. I only watched nationals. And the comments I made were not meant to rag on Mr. Castle. Like I said he seemed to be a cool guy. Would have loved to have had a teacher like him when i was in school. but the fact is if you run a MDF in a construted tourny, wether you win or not it's cheap. It's as cheap as you can get. I know alot of the top players in the world today. Not just from MKrealms but from face to face interaction. I count many of them as friends. And wether any come forward or not I know most if not all of them would never run a MDF in a tourny. Most would win with it but the hit your pride as a player would take is to much. Sometimes it better not to win and have the respect of your peers.

you know what, I don't knock a chariot player - any decent OST army or AM Drac army should've taken him out, plus, he must have done very well in sealed booster. Even with some luck, and some "cheese" you can't beat top player after top player...I believe that in contructed especially, skill wins out. Of course, given 2 great players, the one with the better/cheesier will win. but there are lots of pieces that are strong against a Chariot or OST, so I'm not buying the "luck" or "cheese" argument as to why he won...

Well if your not buy it then how about when terrain placement in the last game the runner up placed his terrain for his OST just a littel off. He had been doing it correctly the the rest of the tournie and then you just all os a sudden make s samll mistake liek that? That is a littel luck. What about Bshugg's loss? If rolling something like 4 1s in a row when any of the rolls wound have sealed the game for you is not luck?

Any idea how hard it is to hit a 19-20 def in sealed? Unless you luckout with a unique your going to have a tough time. Wkura had his 19 def figure hit by things with 9 attacks in everyone of his sealed games...thats luck.

Witht he booster we used Uprising (has one unique healer), Minions ( Alcolytes with stealth and healing, CPs as healers and LI) and unlimited ( mending priestess, leech medic, a few healing uniques) The people that did well in sealed had a bounder, LI and either a 2nd bounder of charger. So if you did not get a CP and an Uprising bounder then it was going to be a very hard uphill battle and thats if you pulled a healer.

Now if you knew what Mr. Castle was palying then you would understand why ADs and OSTs where not going ot be too effective. He had enough LI that an AD was not going to have a chance at him. The AD would have to set up within striking range of the Chariot. Since his passenger had MB he cold also use blocking terrian against the OSTs. Nothing against him at all but the army was an exact copy of another country's National winner. His passenger had something like a 12 attack 4 dam or something like that. You hit an OST with a side for 4 and the passenger for 4 and it is not looking so hot.

MDFs: If there was not an issue with MDF then they would not have changed the rule. The thing is with an MDF in a 50 timed game one can prevent the lose of the MDF if they want. They can stay on the outside, swoop in at the end and kill a small piece in the final 5-10 minutes. Your not going to kill the chariot in that time.

One also has to look at the "draw" one gets during the tournie. 2 years ago ina field of a ton of chariots Gummy made it all the way through 5 swiss rounds plus 4 rounds of single elim without facing a chariot. The comment of beating the best players might not be entirely true. Depending on other's luck and the draw one could pull weaker opponents fairly late in the tournie. There were people that did much better in Worlds then they did in Nationals due to the way it was set up.

No one is saying he is a bad player but to say luck and playing a MDF in 200pt 50 minute match were not factors or very big factors is kidding themselves. People came into Nationals expecting to see ADs so most armies were built to beat ADs. The thing was very few people at the upper tables ran ADs and those that did did not stay there long. It woudl be really interesting to see how many people in the top 32 or so played an AD. I can recall a little over half of the top 32 armies and none had ADs. I think Dunalready was the only person playing an OST. Not many people are going to run an OST in an AD heavey enviroment. IF more ADs had been at the top of the draw then there might have been a difference. I am fairly sure that neither of them had to face an AD.

One cannot truly say that they are the "best" player by just winning nationals or worlds. This is for a variety of reasons, one of them being the large part of chance (the dice) in the game. That's one thing I both love and don't like about Mage Knight, the roll of chance. There's always a chance to turn it around, always a chance to hit (12), always a chance to miss (2). Is it possible for my imp to kill your Gilgarsh 1on1? Yes, however highly improbable. It's also possible, and somewhat more probable, for a not-so-good player to coast through tournaments while highly skilled ones lose due to the roll of the dice.