Here's the gameplay video from my matches.
I got 3rd place in the Lootrush #3 Tournament. You can check out the gameplay from my matches and see the decks I used. I also talk some of my thoughts on the games I played.
Tournament Format
The tournament was a one-day event hosted on Gustakes for 64 players with a $300 prize pool. It consisted of Best of 1 for the first two rounds, then Best of 3 for the remainder, and followed a Conquest format where players had to win with different gods.
There was a ban list that mostly comprised expensive cards that are the boogeyman of the current meta, such as Magic Missile Launcher and Blade of Whiteplain, as well as other cards like Avatar of Light who didn't want to get left out.
Not allowed: Avatar of Deception, Avatar of War, Blade of Whiteplain, Demogorgon, Highborn Knight, Jason, Medea's Muse, Magic Missile Launcher, Martyr of Whiteplain, Pyramid Warden, Thaeriel, The Fallen, Apocalypse Now, Avatar of Death, Avatar of Light, Avatar of Magic, Avatar of Nature
Decks
I played a couple of different decks for this tournament, some of which you might have seen before in my previous post about the Agoradex tournament. I made a few changes to the decks during the tournament depending on what I thought the opponent would play.
Hidden Rush Deception (HRD)
This is the standard HRD list I copied from Clutch and have been playing for a while now, except for a few substitutes. I ran it since I'm experienced with it, and it has a good matchup against a range of decks.
I swapped Pyramid Warden, Blade of Whiteplain, and Avatar of Deception for Lethal Prowler, Phase Crawler, and Inconspicuous Carriage. Lethal Prowler deals burst damage, being able to hit the face alongside another creature the turn it is played. Phase Crawler is an early hidden creature. I saw a decklist on gudecks that ran Carriage in HRD. It was different from what is usually run, but it doesn't seem half bad as a Pyramid Warden substitute. 5 HP lives through most removal, frontline plays around Shaped Blast, and frontline helps against other aggro decks. Arms Dealer would have probably worked too as a hidden threat.
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Dralamar Magic
This is hpain's Dralamar list, swapping out Blade of Whiteplain for Unexpected Gift for healing against aggressive decks. It does well against control and isn't terrible against aggro.
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Schoolteachers Magic
The standard Teachers Combo magic. It is a fast combo deck able to OTK on turn 5 if things go well.
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Aggro Light
This is a typical Aggro Light deck with extra ward creatures to counter control decks. You go wide with sticky cheap creatures and use buffs to make good trades and keep board control. The deck has no reliable removal, so if you fall behind you have little chance to comeback.
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Aggro War
The standard Aggro War that you see on ladder. The deck didn't lose much on the banlist. Aggro War has a lot of strong tools: sticky protected creatures to get board, blitz cards to make good trades and control the board, and Slayer is a guaranteed clock as a finisher.
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Rounds
R1 - No Show
My opponent didn't show up for the first round.
R2 - HallYall - 0:00
Funny I play HallYall again in the 2nd round of a tournament. Will he get revenge for the Agoradex tournament?
I'm not sure what he will play this time, so I queue up my practiced HRD. He is playing Aggro War, and I go second. I'm used to this on ladder, I just need to be one step ahead of him in the face race. Two 1-drops on turn 1 for both of us means this is going to be a quick game one way or another. His Woodcutter Imp speeds up the clock for both of us. We're both under half health at turn 4, but a slow turn for him turns the tables. I clear his board, and he can't stop me from killing him next turn. Looks like he will have to find his revenge another day.
R3 - igo89 - 6:14
I scouted them up on gudecks and put them on Control Magic. Dralamar can handle that easily. They can't stop the combo from coming, and Aether Staticbug zaps them to death.
I don't think they will change decks, so I queue an Aggro Light list with extra ward. My turn 1 play isn't optimal; playing Devoted Follower instead of Olympian Guard would have been better since they would have pinged the ward off from Follower, and on the following turn, I could have played Guard with a Humble Benefactor to buff its health. I go wide and chip in face damage as my opponent tries to clear my board every turn. Reflection Elementalist is great in this matchup as a bunch of stats with ward. The Militant Theist I held in hand combos with the Thaeric Extortionist to transform the Stormstress. My opponent is getting low on health, and I'm also getting low on cards, but I'm able to deal with their frontline and finish them.
R4 - Jumpstart - 21:10
I played against Jumpstart and lost to them in a previous Lootrush tournament. That time I played HRD against OTL death and lost.
I played Teachers, expecting OTL Death and its HRD, not great. I go second, don't find Lost in the Depths early, and I can't assemble the combo before dying.
They might try to counter my HRD with Nature, so I queued up Teachers again. Control Nature has no pressure, so I just need to assemble the combo before they can play Winter's Bounty and go up to 40hp, or assemble 4 Teachers, 2 twins, and 2 removal spells to combo for 40+ damage.
Expecting Control Nature again, I played Aggro Light to go wide against them. However, they played Deception, which they had already won with, so that was a free win for me. Sorry how that went, I've done the same thing in tournaments.
R5 Semifinals - hetfield - 32:00
They had only played Control Deception and Zombie Death on gudecks, so leading off with Aggro War looked good.
They opened with Control Deception. They went first and prevented me from getting on board. Removal, strength reduction, and trades prevented me from keeping any creatures on board. I fumbled on turn 5 by not playing the Shieldmaiden from the sanctum and having a creature to play Another Round next turn, which left me with no way to clear the Guild Enforcer. Back-to-back Witherfingers sealed the deal for them.
Expecting Zombies, I played Aggro Light with Skeletal Hoplites. I went first with double Hoplite. They couldn't stick anything against me, and I whittled them down turn by turn.
I was unsure whether they would play zombies again or try to queue something else, expecting me to counter them. So, I played Aggro War again, being decent against most things. They did play Zombies again. I should have kept the Warmonger Smith in the mull and maybe mull away the Trial Spirit instead to find Blitz and make sure I had board control early. Blight Bomb cleared my Valka's Captain, and Skeletal Hoplite guaranteed they would have Frenzy on their turn. I should have gone face with Oddi to discount a creature and get more guys on board. I couldn't do anything to clear the Cursed Obelisk, and it single-handedly ended the game for me. Some sloppy plays got me this game.
R6 3rd Place Match - Caliguae - 55:50
Well, I still had the 3rd place match to play for. I played HRD for a quick game. Caliguae played Aggro War. I went first and opened well with Shadow of Lethenon, Dark Knives, and Switch Duelist. They couldn't do anything to outrace my clock, and it was a quick GG from our opponent.
For the second game, I played the not-so-reliable Aggro War for another quick game against Teachers(?). A Cardshark from them on turn 2 was weird; they looked desperate, and it might not be Teachers. I slammed guys every turn and smashed their face. They played two Warp Engineers and no Clones, which was strange. It might be Stormfield OTK, so I cleared 1 Warp Engineer but wasn't sure if they could combo me from here. They couldn't win before dying, so they conceded.
▶️ 3Speak
That HRD list peaked my interest. @x-rain put me on to Lethal Prowler and the Phase Crawlers. Carriage is definitely an interesting choice! I may give it a spin - I also need to try out arms dealer.
I'll have to watch the game play vids tomorrow morning. Looking forward to learning a few things!
Good to have frontlines in HRD deck... I have no PWs so... suffering. Both Guild Enforcer and Carriage sometimes fail because of Blades which are more common in Mythic. I am stuck in Ethereal Diamond so I am trying this and that - currently, trying a deck with 2 Carriages.
Besides, I bought 2 Hall of Mirrors because it's a very interesting card that has no use in current Meta so the price is only 3.5$. One day, things might change.
🙂
@meltysquid the cats rule. 😃 Love them.
a good friend of aggro Deception in the enemy camp. 😀
Felid Assasin is interesting since, if you have 2 Duelists + 2 Felids in your deck, you can often drop two 3-strength creatures on turn 1.
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I like how "Thaeric Extortionist" gets rid of "Cursed Obelisks".
Two "Witherfingers" in a row, that nether creature is very annoying.👍👍👍
This I think is the exact reason why I was able to win against schoolteacher in CASUAL last week, or just because the player is not familiar with the deck. But I do lose with schoolteacher on the same week.