2021 Online Circuit - A Year in Review

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We started off the year with an announcement that we would be linking all of 2021’s online Warlord events through a point system and a leaderboard. Players earned points by playing and especially winning, and we tracked and arranged them onto a table displayed on the home page of this site. Below is a brief recap of the year’s online events.

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A Stroll Down Memory Lane

To pay homage to Warlord’s 20th Anniversary, we decided to take a tour through its various eras by playing one event for each of its original formats in chronological order. January was Saga Format (Saga of the Storm through Southern Kingdoms), February was Campaign Edition (Southern Kingdoms through Eye of the Storm), March was Epic Edition (Epic Edition through Light & Shadow), and the conclusion was May’s 4th Edition event (4th Edition through Ancient of Lore).

Attendance was pretty good for an online event for a 2001 CCG some ten years past its last publication. We hovered at around 40-50 players each month. Prizes weren’t spectacular, but they existed and the events were free. Games were played over Untap.in, a browser-based card gaming website, and using Discord to coordinate games with voice channels so that both players could keep track of what was going on. These first events were won by the following Discord users:

• Saga Edition Winner - Temperance

• Campaign Edition Winner - Karura

• Epic Edition Winner - Sissilol

• 4th Edition Winner - Karura

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A Trip to Power Town

Seeing the opportunity for an excuse to play Open, we followed up Epic Edition with an Open event in May. We decided to put a twist on it to give it a truly Open feel and allowed each participant to include one Medusan Lord card in their deck - action, item, or character. This turned out a bit less interesting than anticipated as most players gravitated toward Slaughter and Wretched Servant decks, but there was still plenty of diversity even among those lists.

Following Open, we held three Ancients events in a row. Regular Ancients in June, Ancients Turncoat in July, and the 2021 Online World Championship in August which was also the Ancients Format. Turncoat is where you change your Warlord’s faction and it was a hit. We missed a deck during our initial pruning and banning overview so the Top 8 heavily featured that list, but the event was a blast regardless.

The 2021 World Championship touted increased prize support and clout which brought with it an uptick in competition. We saw a lot of players go back to competitive Warlord’s roots with King Xod or choose a relatively safe competitive option in Adarymy - something we don’t normally see in regularly scheduled Ancients events. In the end, one of the many King Xods prevailed and we crowned a champion.

• Open + ML Item Winner - Flonzy

• Ancients Winner - Grabriel Marcie | CR

• Ancients Turncoat Winner - SlyfoX

• 2021 Worlds Winner - WOD

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Custom Content

To decompress from August’s competition we channeled our inner Carter with Ancients Highlander, a simple and fun format where you play with a single copy of each card in your deck. Deck registration for this is always a nightmare and good luck getting us to publish decklists for Highlander! We used hindsight from 2020’s Highlander event to ban all the search Warlords since they violate the spirit of the format and a case can be made for that also being too powerful.

For October we wanted something Halloween themed, but community suggestions and our own ideas involving deckbuilding restrictions or interaction with things like Undead, Lycanthrope, and Monster traits all fell a bit flat. So we decided some custom content was the way to go and looked to a card type created to hold Queen-Mother Nyssara’s spillover text - the Battlefield card type. Yep, it’s just Kraken Cave.. that’s the only officially published Battlefield in the game’s history. But to get the event in the Halloween mood we came up with a handful of unofficial Spooky Battlefields with powerful abilities created to be used alongside 4th Edition.

We decided to test out mulligans and side decks with “Quality of Life” Ancients for November, and we ended 2021 with a return to the year’s most popular format in Ancients Turncoat. The takeaway regarding mulligans and side decks was that the verdict is still out on them. Mulligans changed the texture of the format significantly. Mulligans made Ancients not only a first turn format, but pushed it in the direction of being a first action format as well. Side decks were harder to evaluate since the meta was difficult for players to predict and we made them pretty small at only five cards. Turncoat round two was a success with our having banned Sal’azar since the previous event.

• Ancients Highlander Winner - Karura

• 4E Spooky Battlefields Winner - ChrisVac

• Quality of Life Ancients Winner - Celtic5732

• Turncoat Part II Winner - Karura

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2021 Online Circuit Prizes

And now it is February 2022 and we have an entire year’s worth of events in the rearview. 2021 Online events included a stroll through Warlord’s history, the release of officially published new cards, and an event featuring community created cards. We had cash prizes, playmats, copious alternate formats, loads of video content, and a dash of fun, drama, and competition. The year is over, and it was a blast.

To reward (or punish) those who stuck with it and managed to somehow secure Top 6 on the 2021 Leaderboard, we had them be Overlords in 2022 Online Strategic. But to properly reward the Top 8, we have decided to give away the following:

Points Leader: Karura - Uncut 20th Anniversary Sheet (Pictured)

Points Runner Up: Flonzy - Sealed 10th Anniversary Open/Ancients Reprint Set (10AORS)

Top 8: See Table Below - Limited Wish Playmat (Pictured)

A word on our 2021 Circuit Champion and Runner Up’s yearlong battle:

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There is one name that really book ended the year with wins in Campaign Edition, 4th Edition, Highlander, and Turncoat. Marco ‘Karura’ Wellman has had an amazing year with not only four wins, but Top 8 placement in three other events and consistently good showings outside of those. While Karura initially snuck into the top of the Leaderboard (Rogue aficionado that he is), it later became clear that he was going to hold that first place spot as he finished with 275 points.

Congratulations to our 2021 Online Circuit Point Leader, Marco ‘Karura’ Wellman!

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The runner up may only have one event win from May’s Open + ML Item event, but Florian ‘Flonzy’ Hüpper boasts five additional Top 8 finishes and plenty of consistent placements outside of those. Despite his love and dedication to Mercenaries, a faction often thought to be among the worst in terms of power, Flonzy made a great showing all year long with his deck choices and play skill cementing his second placement with 241 points.

Congratulations to our 2021 Online Circuit Point Runner Up, Florian ‘Flonzy’ Hüpper!

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Farewell 2021

In the end, 2021 was probably the best year for Warlord since it went out of active publication. It was an anniversary year to remember full of ups and downs, 20’s and 1’s, and all hundred of you who participated in the 2021 Online Circuit helped make it a year to remember. Thank you!

1	Karura	275
2	Flonzy	241
3	ChrisVac	228
4	SlyfoX	220
5	Muktidata	203
6	Temperance	201
6	Westley	201
8	Slugman	198
9	Iceman	187
10	WOD	185
11	Sisilol	178
12	Graccustheold	176
13	Celtics5732	170
14	Kamacausey	169
15	Yotakafish	163
16	The.Thing333	160
17	Burnout	153
18	Brikta	148
19	Rollo	147
20	Midge	135
21	DarthSoul	134
21	Innocentwrath	134
21	Sangington	134
24	Scapeg	128
25	Worldfall	120
26	RayneBlythewood	118
27	Darkwavekane	116
28	Dragonbane86	107
29	Hector Cervantes	102
30	Forgedcake	100
31	Jackalofmourn	99
31	Oeagle	99
33	Jamesfahey-warlord	95
34	Bubble	94
35	Alantisprime	93
35	TheDukeOG	93
37	Dudemullet	79
38	CaptainToni	76
39	Godinho	72
39	Raclesis	72
41	Jeffrey	59
42	Eric	49
43	Blazing-Ragnarok	47
44	Chosen-of-bear	43
44	Yorshv	43
46	JellySlather	42
47	Gherlo	39
48	Mjbaird	38
49	Kynarin	37
50	Icefall206	36
50	MaruChan Pollo	36
52	Zkwyz	35
53	CR|Gabriel	33
54	elvernthehero	31
55	Meih	30
56	Phandrix	30
56	TableTop-Tournaments	30
56	Xenomorph40	30
59	AshGaidin	29
60	Kara_Belisarda	28
60	Wyvvyrn	28
62	Chuda_Plissken	26
62	Lesluna	26
62	Lionheart	26
62	Uriel	26
66	Carvincustom	25
66	FelipeRabi	25
68	BG	23
68	Julianthe2nd	23
70	Decimusbelmot	21
71	QTP	19
71	Rbd	19
73	Alternate-Dimensions	18
73	Kedric	18
73	Rawt	18
76	Kedric	15
76	Pedrosmurf	15
78	CoachDan	14
78	Graham	14
78	Luiskeeper	14
78	nulled	14
78	Roguepanda	14
78	Trinm03	14
78	Valiantbd	14
78	Warlordcard-gamer	14
86	Jerva5483	13
87	Diacritic	12
87	Hydra_lord	12
87	Kaimi	12
87	Kurudras	12
87	Previatti	12
87	Wolfmike	12
93	Stnkfist	11
93	Z-Wad	11
95	AphrÒdite	10
95	Athenial	10
95	LMA	10
98	LadyPhoenix	9
98	peglegjoe03	9
98	TripleG2	9

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