Intro
I played in the Battle for the Light Americas/APAC region tournament and got 2nd place. It is Gods Unchained largest tournament so far and my biggest win ever. It was a 2-day tournament that happened over the weekend. Day 1 was 6 rounds of Swiss and the top 8 move on to day 2, which was a double elimination.
Tournament Format
Deck Restriction
For the tournament, it was an open decklist Conquest format, so players' decks are public, can't be changed after the tournament starts, and players had to bring 3 decks of different gods. If you win a game, you can't play that deck again in that round. At the start of each round, players chose one god to ban from their opponent's decks. A player must win a best-of-three with two different gods. So if you chose Nature, Deception, and Magic as your decks, and your opponent banned Deception, you had to win with both Nature and Magic.
Swiss Qualifiers
The format for the first half of the tournament was 6 rounds of Swiss where you play against people with similar scores e.g. in round 4 if you've won 2 rounds and lost 1 for a score of 2-1 you will face another person with a similar score. The top 8 players with the best scores move on to the finals.
Double Elimination Finals
The finals were a Double Elimination. In double-elimination, there are two sets of brackets, the winners' and losers' brackets. If you lose once, you drop to the losers' bracket for another chance. If you lose again, you are knocked out of the tournament. The semi-finals and grand finals were best-of-five. All top 8 players had to submit an additional deck.
Decks
Opponents can ban their worst matchup, so it’s best to bring 3 similar decks. If you brought 2 aggro decks and a control deck against someone with 3 aggro decks, they can ban their worst matchup against the control deck. Also, since you have to win with all of your decks, if 1 of your decks is weak against aggro, it doesn’t matter if you win with your other decks because your opponent can take all of their wins from your weak deck. Another thing, you should be good with all 3 decks. If you only have 1 good deck, it’s going to get banned all the time and you’re going to have a tough time winning with your weaker decks.
Since you can ban decks and you must win with all decks, you can play decks that have polarized matchups. For example, Hidden Rush Deception is a quick deck that can outrace anything but has a terrible matchup against nature, so you can ban nature or wait until your opponent has already won with nature to avoid the matchup.
I brought 3 aggro decks because I’m used to playing aggro and it was going to be a long tournament, so I wanted my matches to be short. I don’t play other gods often, so I copied decklists for other gods from some of the best players.
Here are the decks that made it into the top 8. For the fourth deck, players brought Board Wipe Death, 2 Control Deception, Control Magic, Regen Nature, Control Nature, Aggro War, and Control War. Here is a link to the decklists from the top 8. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fOUDK93BXuFfEu_kwIbRWPEqTXE4Kx6Fsblt24HwHJ0/edit#gid=0.
| God | Archetype | Number |
|---|---|---|
| Death | ||
| Rockdrake | 2 | |
| Deception | ||
| Aggro | 2 | |
| Control | 2 | |
| Light | ||
| Aggro | 4 | |
| Control | 3 | |
| Magic | ||
| Card Draw | 4 | |
| Control | 2 | |
| Coronet | 1 | |
| War | ||
| Aggro | 1 | |
| Control | 3 |
My Aggro Deception
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This is my Aggro Deception that I have been playing DP2E and WR with for a while. It’s more suited for ladder than tournaments since it’s built towards handling the aggro I expect on the ladder and not as much as the heavy control decks you find in tournaments. But I stuck with the familiar and locked it in.
It’s a kind of weird guild aggro/hidden rush deck. It’s not a hyper-aggressive aggro deck but it can take the value game against other aggro decks. There’s a handful of guild creatures that draw cards so you don’t run out of cards. Lethargy Mage is handy for weakening creatures to trade. Selfless Guildmate is a good buff creature with all the other guild creatures.
It was my worst deck going 6-4 in total across the tournament. The deck did well in Swiss. Almost no one ran nature in the tournament, which helped. All of my losses with the deck were from Hpain and his control decks. Going full Hidden Rush would probably have been better for the tournament in hindsight. This less aggressive deck doesn’t do as well against control. I would have subbed in Blade of Whiteplain for Frumentarii Instigator if I tried them out in the deck before I submitted the decks.
Nackarub’s Coronet Magic
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It’s a normal Coronet Magic deck I copied from Nackarub. Funny, I beat him with it too. I played this deck because it’s a fast combo deck that can take wins against any deck if you’re fast enough, especially since you can ban faster decks like Hidden Rush Deception. You can read how the deck works here in my guide. Tldr, find Lost in the Depths ASAP so you can get to Coronet and slam 9-drops. It got banned the most, which speaks to its power and why Coronet got nerfed to 5 mana. I was the only player in the top 8 who brought Coronet, most of the others brought Card Draw Magic.
Clutch’s Aggro Light
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The deck is a typical Aggro Light deck I copied from Clutch. You can read some of my thoughts on the Aggro Light deck in this post on Blade of Whiteplain. Aggro Light was popular in the top cut, being run by 4 out of the top 8. It’s a solid aggro deck, which is why so many people brought it.
Hpain’s Regen Nature
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The top 8 needed to submit an additional deck for the Bo5 matches in the semi-finals and grand finals. I copied Hpain’s Regen Nature deck and swapped Dionysus Bull for Blade of Whiteplain. I saw a lot of Card Draw Magic and Aggro Light, so I thought nature should be good against them. Funny, I only faced Hpain in Bo5 so I had to play his deck against him and I took my only win against him with it. The deck aims to stick a few creatures and then go big with the board buffs. Nature was the least popular god in the tournament, likewise on the ladder since it’s the weakest god in the meta currently.
Record
I was undefeated in Swiss, going 12-0 across the 6 rounds.
Swiss
| Deck | Win | Loss | Ban |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aggro Deception | 5 | 0 | 1 |
| Coronet Magic | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Aggro Light | 4 | 0 | 2 |
Top Cut
| Deck | Win | Loss | Ban |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aggro Deception | 1 | 4 | 2 |
| Coronet Magic | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| Aggro Light | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| Regen Nature | 1 | 0 | 0 |
My Coronet deck got banned the most since you can’t play around it. I usually banned the most aggressive decks from my opponent. I wasn't too familiar with all of the matchups my decks had so I'm not sure if I made the best bans. The player on the left side of the matchup in Swiss had to pick their ban first which is unusual. The other player has a big advantage knowing what decks they are going to play before picking a ban. In the finals, the bans were simultaneous.
Rounds
Swiss R1 - Spencer
Spencer banned my light. I think I banned their Coronet Magic, leaving Aggro Light and Rockdrake Death. All of my decks are favored or have close matchups against them.
My deception deck does well against Aggro Light if it doesn’t brick. Orfeo and Armor Lurker are a good start to slow down Aggro Light. I decide to use Umber Arrow to get their Felid Janissary into my void to get back from Pyramid Warden for more board presence. You could argue to save it for later. Chaining of the Gods bugs out on my screen. After, I deal with their board as I continue hitting face and I get them low enough where a Sneaky Bruiser can finish up.
Coronet Magic against Aggro Light, I just need to find LITD quickly. I find it pretty late on turn 4. I’m getting pretty low but I get off Coronet on turn 6 and stabilize with frontlines. It’s clean up from there.
Swiss R2 - mark1o1
Mark banned my Light. I banned their Aggro War, leaving Control Deception, and Amazon Nature. Their war is favored against my magic and light.
Aggro deception against Amazon nature could go either way depending on draws. I go first, which lets me keep their board clear. We’re both trading creatures fighting for the board. They go wide and I umber their Vibrant Fruit, which lets me clear their entire board and my opponent is out of cards in hand. After a few more turns of clearing their board, they concede.
Amazons aren’t super aggressive but I can lose to a bad draw with Coronet. I get LITD on turn 1 and the game is pretty much over. I fumble a bit, leaving my Warp Engineer alive and jamming up my board, but I’m not punished.
Swiss R3 - envoy08
Envoy banned my magic, and I banned their Control nature, leaving Control War and Aggro Light. Control nature is great against my deception and is favored against aggro light.
Aggro deception against Control War isn’t going to be a cakewalk. I have to rush them down before they can stabilize. My opener isn’t great. Master Tactician is a pain, protected in general is a pain for the deck to deal with outside of Makeshift Shiv. Maybe saccing Orfeo to pop protected and eatting the Tactician with Armor Lurker was better, but I wanted to push damage. I end up killing it anyway with Shiv and a ping since my hand is bricked. Guild Enforcer and a beefed-up Leviathan Hunter put on a lot of pressure. I decide to trade the GE with Sneaky Bruiser since I can’t hide the GE to get around it while also hiding Sneaky Bruiser to protect it. We’re at similar health and board but I’m up in cards. Patient Pickpocket copies a Tenderizer. This is something I can easily die to, but I never give them the chance to play it. I can’t slam the Tenderizer since he runs Ironborne Disruptor. Bruiser gets big and smacks them, forcing out a Sole Survivor from them. Maybe I should have used Stoneskin earlier to stop Orcish from hitting my face, but being so low they tempo out the Ironborne Disruptor to kill me. This lets me play Tenderizer, kill Disruptor, and threaten lethal. They kill my Armor Lurker but can’t stop the hammer.
Aggro Light going to be rough against Control War. I just hope I can stick a board and buff it before Carnage Sweep can come. I’m stuck with a bunch of reactive cards in hand and use the GP twice early, not the start I was looking for. They have a slow start which lets me go wide, wearing them down and getting favor. My board gets cleared by Savage Strike and Carnage Sweep. A big swing using Blade to destroy Guild Enforcer. My opponent is getting low on life and cards as I continue playing creatures to put on pressure and they can’t keep up.
Swiss R4 - AuraQQ
Aura banned magic, and I banned their Hidden Rush Deception, leaving Coronet Magic and Aggro Light. Hidden rush is too fast against my decks. I can take the gamble playing against Coronet.
I go first with deception against aggro light. A double Pyramid Warden opening is good. Aura levies a PW, but I clear the Acolyte and play Marcella. They won’t be able to stick a creature against my deadly skulkers. From there, my lead on board stops them from getting a foothold in the game and they concede.
I go first in the mirror, a good start. I play PW, and on the next turn buff it with Felid Janissary to keep it out of levy range. On turn 3, I play Militant Theist over Thaeric Extortionist since I have two in hand and the 2/3 body trades better than two 1/1s, perhaps Extortionist here is better. Turn 4, I play Sern to order HBK and kill the Acolyte, a questionable play. Sern doesn’t need to be played here. I don’t need the draw, heal, or order. Looking back, trading with Theist and PW and developing my own HBK would have been better. Leaving the HBK up punishes me with a buff from spear and theist trading my PW. Canonize and my spear buff let me trade the big HBK. I clear their board and run them out of cards then they concede.
Swiss R5 - sambam
Sam bans my deception, and I ban his Control War, leaving Control Light and Control Deception. Aggro Light has the worst matchup against control war.
Aggro Light against Control Deception isn’t good for me. Armor Lurker is a pain to deal with and I have to watch out for strength reduction, Umber Arrow, and Rapture Dance. I play Axewoman to save the pip for Lysander’s Spear. I think my best chance at winning is getting out an early spear and hoping he doesn’t draw Counterfeit. Looks like my hopes were right. He has no answer for the spear as I play guys and keep buffing with the spear. On turn 6, I use Radiant Dawn to deal more damage. Sam is far away from 7 mana and Demogorgon. Turn 7, I buff Vicar to push in damage, forgetting that PW has order and Jason can pop protected, letting Rapture Dance wipe my board. Luckily for me, they can’t clear my board the following turn and I can finish them.
Coronet against Control Light shouldn’t be too hard. I just need to find lethal before dying of fatigue while watching out for Censure, Lips are Sealed, and Divine Judgement. I play LITD on turn 4. Turn 6, Coronet delves AoM first, which gives me lethal immediately with Ancient Text in hand.
Swiss R6 - themudman
Mudman banned my magic, and I banned Control War, leaving Control Light and Card Draw Magic. Control war is strong against aggro light.
Playing against CDM is a little tricky as aggro deception. You have to stop them from getting a lot of value from cards like Pallas’ Wand or Rune Moth otherwise you’ll get run out of cards quickly or you can try to rush them down before. Something to watch out for a discounted empowered Unbound Flames wiping your board early. They only have Unbound Flames as their only board wipe usually. We trade creatures and removal, trying to get the lead on board. Lethargy Mage neuters his board, but Tracking Bolt and GP wipe the board. Neither of us has gotten a lead. Blade comes down, but I take care of it without too much effort. Pickpocket copies Unbound Flames, which he later discounts with Warp Engineer. I’m having trouble sticking anything on board and the game is slipping away from me as it gets better for mudman the longer this goes. A buffed Pyramid Warden puts him low and survives the Unbound Flames to get into another hit. The second Unbound clears my board, but I still have lethal with the copied Unbound and Shiv.
Aggro Light is favored against CDM. I have a ton of sticky protected and ward creatures for them to spend removal on. I go wide early with Vespers and Vicar. On turn 3, I double-trade my Vespers into Shadow Scryer to stop Tracking Bolt from wiping everything, might have been better to ignore Scryer and go face. Getting rid of Scryer doesn’t do much here. We trade creatures for removal and I’m getting low on cards. A top deck spear gives me hope, mudman doesn’t have any relic removal, and the spear represents a ton of gas, but I have no creatures in hand. On turn 6, I should have played Canonize on Bright Mage here instead of playing spear. Canonize gets stuck in my hand while the spear does nothing immediately. Summon Acolyte and spear keep me in the game as we continue trading cards. Eventually, mudman runs out of cards and I finish him.
Top 8 Winners’ Bracket R1 - Whitte
17:30-45:40
Whitte banned my Deception, and I banned his Hidden Rush Deception, leaving Aggro Light and Card Draw Magic. His deception was too fast for any of my decks to beat. Coronet Magic and Aggro Light are favored or are even against his other decks.
Going 2nd in the Aggro Light mirror isn’t a great start. We’re both fighting for board control, the only thing that matters in this matchup. He has a weak turn 3 using the god power and I slam HBK. He is forced into a bad position, unable to handle my HBK, opting to set up Lysander’s Spear. I trade and use Bright Mage. Looking back, maybe using Wrong Path here to clear his board would be better. Spear lets Whitte eat my HBK, but a Sern topdeck puts me ahead. I clear his board. Then a Wrong Path on his HBK sets him too far back, and he concedes.
Coronet Magic going 1st against Aggro Light looks good. I spend my turns digging for LITD and I find it a little late on turn 4. Whitte puts me down to 9hp and I am facing lethal on board so I need multiple frontlines to play around Wrong Path and Sern. My first 9-drop options are Remnis, Valka, and Polyhymnia. Remnis can get run over and the 9-drop is hit-or-miss. Maybe it’s worth gambling from behind. I take the safe pick, Poly. My next 9-drops are AoM and another Poly. He wrong paths my AoM and my Poly setting back my clock. I need to kill him quickly before he finds Sern or I die of fatigue. I play the Wind-up Roller from the sanctum to have lethal on board, a questionable play. It speeds up my fatigue and draws him another card. He plays Pyramid Warden and Radiant Dawn. This puts him out of lethal range before I die of fatigue. I could have played Safeguard to buy another turn, but I can’t kill him before fatigue gets me, especially since he healed.
I forgot to stream the 3rd game. Nothing interesting happened though. I drew LITD early and rolled him.
Top 8 Winners’ Bracket R2 - themudman
Mudman is back for revenge. He bans my deception, and I ban his Control War again.
Nothing interesting in the first couple of turns. Mudman doesn’t do much letting me go wide and I chip in with my guys. Eucos in Eclipse hurts a lot, wiping most of my board. I don’t play PW early since he can destroy it and get back HBK. Blade comes down and I don’t have a good answer to it, so I decide to ignore it. The second Blade comes down killing PW and bringing back HBK. I Wrong Path the HBK and ignore both the Blades. The second eclipse wipes most of my board but weakens his Blade so I can use my Blade on it. Demogorgon comes down to try to kill my Blade but misses. Sern orders the Demo to stall it and try to find an answer. Archpriest of Parthene and Inquistor Informant order my board. I go wide to try and set up lethal with Radiant Dawn. But Lysander’s Mercy clears the board and I’m out of cards and out of the game.
I go first with Aggro Light against CDM. A good hand and a slow start from mudman lets me go wide and get in a lot of early face damage. In hindsight, on turn 4, I play a wasteful Sern. The order, heal, and draw accomplishes nothing. Playing PW and Wind-up Roller instead would have put more stats on the board and saved Sern. Mudman has a tough time dealing with the board and is getting low on health. A Canonize and HBK shut down any hope mudman has.
Coronet Magic against Card Draw Magic is good for me. CDM isn’t super aggressive, giving me time to find LITD. I have to be careful getting low early since CDM has a ton of reach. I find LITD on turn 4 and get off Coronet on turn 5. I get AoM and with Rune of Fire clear most of mudman’s board putting him dead next turn. He has to deal 10 damage to me with 5 mana but comes up short with Ancient Text and Wyrmbreath, leaving me at 3hp. AoM finishes the job.
Top 8 Winners’ Bracket R3 - Hpain
The semi-finals were best-of-5 with 1 ban. Hpain brought Control Deception, Control War, Control Magic, and Board Wipe Death. He banned my magic, and I banned his Control War. Control War is good against my aggro light and decent against coronet.
Aggro Deception against BWD shouldn't too hard if I draw well and they don't have Siren of the Grave. I’m unable to stick a board and get milled a bunch. On turn 6, I’m finally able to use my buffs and attack. I hold Armor Lurker to play around Apocalypse Now or Neferu but get hit by Bifurcating Curse. One Demogorgon comes down, which I have to use Stoneskin Poison to stall, then I’m hit by the second Demogorgon. Apoc Now wipes the board and I’m out of cards.
I run back deception against control magic. I just have to draw well and rush them down. My opener isn’t great and I’m having trouble getting on board again. I pip out Marcella and she eats a Blizzard Bolt. Lethargy Mage neuters the skulkers but Unannounced Arrivals comes out and I trade my Mage so it doesn't get pinged off instead. A Switch Duelist and Sneaky Bruiser get Hpain down to 13. Blade kills my Duelist and Shaped Blast clears my board the turn after. I have no follow-up and scoop to the Demo. I could have played this cleaner, but I don’t think I had any chance.
Control Deception is Hpain’s last deck. Aggro deception is favored, shouldn’t be too hard to get a win. I apply pressure early with some creatures but Hpain has removal to deal with all of them. Turn 6, I’m out of creatures and stuck with a brick hand. Rapture Dance wipes my 1 creature, then Demo 1 and 2 wipe my others. I don’t know if I could have won any of these games if I made different plays looking back. My plays weren’t always the best but I don’t think perfect play could have changed anything.
Top 8 Losers’ Bracket R4 - Nackarub
4:06:55 for Nackarub’s hand
After losing to Hpain, I’m in the loser’s bracket against Nackarub and will be eliminated from the tournament if I lose. At least I will place in 3rd. Nackarub bans light and I ban his Control Light. My aggro deception and coronet magic are favored against the other decks.
Rockdrake Death is a pain to play against. They spend the early game drawing and getting low on health to set up their Deathwish Thanetars and Possessed Acolytes so they can OTK with Over the Line. I need to rush them down before they can draw their sleep and combo cards. I open with Pyramid Warden, Dark Knives, and a dream. A buffed PW can deal tons of damage if they don’t have removal. Nack plays Ragnarok for my lone PW. His hand must be bricked or he is very scared of me buffing it a ton. The next turn, he uses Neferu’s Sacrifice to draw a card and leaves my PW up, he doesn’t have any removal for PW. He is down to 9hp on turn 4 but I can die just as easily from OTL. Nack needs to kill me or find sleep every turn. Siren of the Grave dies and sleeps my board, but Nack forgets to attack with Rockdrake. I play Armor Lurker and Lethargy Mage, weakening his board a bit. Siren #2 and Sulphuric Rain stalls another turn, but Nack still is facing lethal. Turn 6, I would be dead to attack and OTL if Nack didn’t forget to attack with Rockdrake earlier. He doesn’t have lethal as is, so he needs to find sleep. He needs to dig for Half Life or Canopic Hoarder. Nack makes a critical error playing Vrock to draw, meaning he doesn’t have the mana to play a sleep card. He should have traded the Thanetar first for the free draw and have the mana for Canopic, then if he didn’t draw sleep, used Fleshbind on Rockdrake to draw two more cards to look for Half Life.
Coronet should be easy against Card Draw Magic. I have LITD in the opener but I need time to draw the combo pieces. I'm facing a wide board with two Oni Spellswords but I'm not low on health. On turn 5, I play 3 9-drops and Nack can't get past them. AoM finishes Nackarub.
Top 8 Grand Finals - Hpain again
4:40:30
Well, we already saw how this went last time. I’m going to have to get very lucky to win 3 games against the wall of control. Hpain banned magic, and I banned Control War again.
I’m getting flashbacks to the semi-finals, first match aggro deception against BWD death again. At least I drew better this time. I didn’t think he would queue BWD first again. I put some early pressure on but Hpain has a Siren, then another, and then my PW brings back Siren. Then a Canopic sleeps me, and Half Life brings back a Siren. The second Canopic shows up, and all the while I’ve been getting milled. I’ve been slept for more than of half this game and I’m out of cards by the end. I don’t think I could have done much, I got hammered by sleep and couldn’t attack.
Control Magic against Aggro Light is favored for me. I have to spread out my protected and ward so my creatures don’t get board wiped all at once. Trying to keep my creatures out of removal range and save protected or ward is hard to manage after 5 matches. Which creature should I buff, should I trade in to keep my protected, should I go wide or play conservatively? I think I played turn 1 wrong. I’m not sure what the best move is, but letting him ping off my 1/1 isn’t great. Instead, I could have held the Humble Benefactor for later. Maybe Axewoman and hold the pip so Hpain either uses a removal spell or does nothing. I’m able to go wide and put pressure on getting Hpain down to 8hp. HBK from Unannounced Arrival stops my momentum. Lambasting Wand puts Hpain on the ropes, but two Safeguard Incantations keep him from dying. Demogorgon puts a stop to my board, then an Unbound Flames cleans up and Demo’s leech snuffs out my hopes. Cleaner play this match could have gotten me the damage I was missing.
It’s 2-0 for Hpain. Is this going to be another clean sweep? I’m using Hpain’s Regen Nature deck against his Control Deception. This should be good for me. Deception doesn’t have a lot of hard removal and my board wide buffs can make any creature I stick threatening. Clutch says I should keep Wildfire in the mulligan as it’s my wincon. I find this questionable since I need creatures to use the Wildfire on and I’m likely to draw a buff by turn 5. I play Marsh Walker turn 1 holding the pip to smooth out my curve. Using the GP early is too slow, so I opt to pip out the Forrestheart Dryad. Bound by Her Will takes my Marsh Walker, which is a pain. Dagan and Dryad chip the Marsh Walker and get buffed. Hpain commits a Hunting Trap, Marsh Walker, and GP to get rid of my Dagan. Turn 4, I go wide with wild creatures to set up Wildfire the following turn and another Wildfire the turn after that. Turn 7, I use Warrior of Paradise to buff a guy and clear the board with Faeflame Blade. My board is threatening lethal and is outside of Rapture Dance, so Hpain concedes.
2-1 for Hpain, he has Control Deception left, while I have Aggro Deception and Aggro Light. I queue Aggro Light since I’ve already lost 4 times with Aggro Deception. It’s doesn’t a difference anyway since I have to win with both. My opener isn’t great, Vicar, 2 Axewoman, and Sern, a bunch of reactive cards that will not do much against control. Armor Lurker is a pain to deal with. It’s going to eat two of my guys for sure. Blade of Whiteplain is my draw and I’m stuck with a couple of not great options on turn 2, pip and GP to throw an Acolyte into the Armor Lurker and conserve an Axewoman, play 1 Axewoman as bait, play 2 Axewoman so I don’t float mana but lose to Umber Arrow. 1 Axewoman seems the best as I need the pip to fix my curve. Lurker eats my Axewoman as expected, and Blade Borrower neuters my Vicar. I use my other Axewoman and Thaeric Extortionist to clear the board. It’s not terrible, but not great either. I haven’t been able to establish a strong board, and the game is only going to get worse for me the longer this goes on. HBK off the top is a good start to getting ahead. Hpain copies a Blade of Whiteplain from Patient Pickpocket. Blade on Inconspicuous Carriage is a big swing for me, but Hpain has all the answers with Hunting Trap for Blade and a Blade Borrower echo to shrink my HBK. I Canonize my HBK to play around Bound by Her Will. Hpain puts up a PW and Cardshark to slow me down, I counter with Wrong Path and Ranger Firstbow. Hpain trades his entire board in and an Umber Arrow to clear my HBK and I’m stuck with a useless Vicar against 7 mana next turn. I go wide to set up Radiant Dawn. The copied Blade eats one of my creatures. I go wide and use Radiant Dawn with Militant Theist to trade PW then get back HBK. Demogorgon comes down, but my ward blocks sleep for most of my creatures, also leaving me exposed to Rapture Dance. I use Rune of Sight to find something useful. Felid Janissary lets me kill the Demo with Bright Mage. Rapture Dance comes down, and it’s lights out for me. Blade is the final nail in the coffin. Hpain had all the right answers for me. I don’t think anything different could have saved me. I wasn’t close to lethal at all.
Conclusion
It was pretty fun and exhausting staying up until 4 am for the Swiss portion. The top cut was nerve-wracking. Hpain’s control lineup smashed me twice. I think I high rolled a lot in the tournament with going first and with Coronet. I can do a lot to improve my tournament play, more practice playing other decks, figuring out what the best/worst matchups are, how my matchup coverage is with my deck lineup, what deck to ban, and how to queue decks to get the best matchup. This win places me in the top 10 of all-time earners for tournaments.
Grats on second place! The tournament was very tough was hard for me to get higher rank with only budget card but I got 23rd in the second region!
You mean second chronologically? Americas?
23rd with budget decks is very impressive. Would you mind sharing your deck codes?
The deck I used in the tournament?
The 4? decks you selected for the tournament, yes.
Perhaps you could even make a post about them and explain why you chose those decks and any important cards you included. I would definitely read that. Cheers.
They were deception, magic and light deck. The deception one I posted about in one of my posts (its mighty uncle's), the magic is regular card draw so its a bit expensive, as for light it is budget and really good I might try it and post about it soon!
Congratulations on the great result! 🥂
I've watched your Deception matches. Got some ideas for my deck on this WR (again in Mythic after grinding this time).
For example, Lethargy Mage amazingly comes well with Lady Marcella. Also, Lethargy Mage can chill those Nature bastards 😄 and it survives Wildfire. So I decided to try playing 2 of them instead of 2 Beguiling Blades.
I'll try playing 2 Umber Arrows since Nature is a bad matchup for my aggro Deception deck, and, at the same time, I encountered many powerful aggro Light decks recently. Although, Umber Arrow can be a dead card. But ... it can win a match as well. Still, not sure since I can have 2 Phase Crawlers instead which are more helpful against Magic decks.
I'll try 1 Nightleaf Trapper which is new for me.
I chose only 1 Makeshift Shiv in the hope that all my card draw options will bring it to me when I need it although this choice was hard - too many Mages has 2 Safeguard Incantation. 2 Umber Arrows can partly compensate this loss.
All these moves to make my deck stronger against aggro archetypes in the hope that big hidden creatures will do their job against Magic anyway.
Trying Contract Broker - its Skulker hits hidden creatures (including ones wounded by Deception god power) so, at last, I can stop a cat that was always deadly for my decks when it was buffed with Dark Knives. It also makes 2 creatures on turn 1 so it's harder for Canopy Barrage to hit the right target. (Like, Switch Duelist + Contract Broker + Contract Broker's Rogue Skulker on turn 1 can save Switch Duelist from Canopy Barrage.) And it breaks protected...
No frontlines :( But I have no PWs.
Lethargy Mage is great against go wide aggro decks like Light and sometimes Nature. Hits Switch Duelist hard too. It's kind of bad against control being understatted.
Umber is great when you can get the 2 for 1. It ends up dead more than I like.
Trapper is a holdover from when Zombies and Anubians were popular. Not sure how worth it is to run now. 1m 2/2 guild isn't the worst.
I didn't like Contract Broker, the 1/1 usually died to something with more than 1hp.
Ok, 1 MJ leggy has been taken 😅 10/18
It would be cool is someone would write or publish a video about deck building for tournaments. I'm not a very competitive person and I just don't have the inclination to get in the weeds of archetype choices and card selection for tournaments, but I wouldn't mind having a few simple rules to follow when it comes to converting meta decks on ladder to a tournament setting.
And congrats on your success!
Amazing finish and write-up! Congrats!!!
Congratulation on making second. Well fought. Next time it will be #1 for sure =)
Nice one, grats!
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An incredibly impressive performance AND post! I will have to come back and study the gameplay footage - particularly the deception deck as I have all but the PWs and could try it out.
This week, my strategy against the WR field is to just go with anubians. So tired of the constant board clears, so I picked a deck that doesn't care about them. 😄
Anyway, VERY impressive!
Congratulations! 2nd Place is no easy feat.
Same here, I am still stuck on decks that I am familiar with and still learning to use other decks.
Congratulations on getting second place, and thanks for sharing your battles, have a nice day.👍👍👍
Wow amazing, it's good to see more Esports tournaments like this.