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juniglee · 5 years ago

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Burwood, NSW Locals Report - 2/6/2019

Hi all once again,

I haven’t been writing much recently, as I haven’t really been wowed by any deck I’ve been trying recently. I have been actively avoiding playing stuff like Mono Water, Earth/Wind and the likes - just anything that seems meta really - in favour of trying out other decks with relatively uncommon colour combinations (e.g. Ice/Wind, Lightning/Wind), or just having a different playstyle compared to the tempo playstyle I am so used to (e.g. mill).

In general, the reason I don’t feel I’m too wowed by most decks I’m trying is basically Veritas. I know there’s quite a lot of complaints about him by the online community, and in all regards, I regard Veritas as generally a fair card. The reason why I don’t feel wowed trying decks without Veritas is because Veritas is just way too efficient of a removal, and is otherwise too generic. For example, I like cards like Rain, Light Yuna, Nidhogg, Yuri, etc., but at the moment, Veritas’ instant value kinda makes me not want to give up my Light/Dark slot for non-Veritas. Mayhaps this is more of a game design issue.

In NSW, one of the stores with the largest FF communities is probably none other than Burwood. We gather here pretty much every Sunday, but the first Sundays of every month are a little bit special - there’s a little more prize support than the usual locals (e.g. the top 8 players get foil promos instead of top 1 as with most locals), so in general, I expect most people generally tend to try a bit harder on this day. Sort of like a little regionals, I’d say!

On this day, I topped the monthly locals with this deck: https://ffdecks.com/deck/5160654155546624. Full credits goes to a good friend of mine, Vincent Chong, for coming up with the deck - he himself was orignally inspired by this list: https://ffdecks.com/deck/6577016233000960.

I have been playing this deck for about 3 weekends straight, so I think I have some decent practice with it. Without further ado, here’s the deck breakdown:

Rikku (1-089H) - it isn’t really a mill deck without this Rikku, is it? 3-of, no questions. If you get a hand with this on Turn 1, in general it’s a straight keeper.

Yuna (1-176H) - one of the best anti-meta cards right now. Also forms a good package with Paine (1-199S) and Rikku (1-089H) as above. She’s incredibly important, for your removal, while packing a lot, is still relatively limited. You generally want to drop her whenever you are able to. If you have nothing to bounce with her entry effect, you can always bounce your own Zidane/Paine/Thief so that you can re-play again. As an aside, since this deck only has 8 Water cards, I would generally suggest not pitching any of them unless you have to, until Yuna is on the field.

Paine (2-063R) - actually more important than Paine (1-199S) in this deck. This card is literally what helps keep the deck consistent. You almost always search this off Shinra (6-048C) if you can, if you haven’t gotten your Rikku/Yuna backups out. This Paine also means you can essentially survive off the 14 backups (not counting Rikku (2-071R) as you’ll never play her) that this deck plays, as she generally translates to backup search, regardless of being played from hand, or triggered as an EX Burst.

Shinra (6-048C) - if you don’t open with Rikku (1-089H), but you open with this guy, still a keeper hand. If you do not need to search for either Paines, you can always use this to search for Rikku (1-201S)!

Rikku (1-090R), Rikku (1-201S), Rikku (2-071R) - basically special fodder. You’ll almost never play them in favour of Rikku (1-089H). All of them can be searched by Paine (2-063R), but Rikku (1-201S) also has the added benefit of being searchable by Shinra as above. In hindsight, I’d probably cut the other Rikkus to put in more Rikku (1-201S) or Rikku (6-062R), as it would increase the number of cards that you can get via Shinra if needed.

Paine (1-199S) - less important than Paine (2--063R), but she’s generally what you want to see once your board is set up anyway. 7k body is somewhat relevant for blocking, and she makes a good Miounne/Yuna target on your end. As an aside, for the mill game, on 5 backups, you can mill your opponent by 1, then paying with the remaining 3 to play Paine, to re-activate Rikku and any other Wind backup, so you can mill again.

Zidane (3-056H) - one of the strong cards that everyone complains about. You’ll need him to be able to pick out cards like Hecatoncheir (1-117R) or copies of Celes/Edward, that may otherwise disrupt your game plan. Also a good Miounne/Yuna target if needed.

Thief (4-059C) - if you have nothing to do, and can spare 1 CP, just drop this guy. Excellent Famfrit tech, and you can also bounce with Miounne to draw a card, AND make your opponent mill 1. Some pretty good value! Valefor (1-062L) and Yuna also bounces this guy to make your opponent mill 1 as well.

Veritas of the Dark (8-136L) - I don’t think much needs to be said about this guy, and what he brings to the table. Very potent with Yuna (1-176H) on the field, and unless your opponent also plays the same Yuna, you are likely to out-value your opponent’s Veritas. If you’ve got too many cards, you can always play Miounne on him to bounce him back to your hand and draw a card, so you can re-play again later.

Sherlotta (8-053H) - the general game plan for the early game, is to try and set up 2 CP backups as quickly as possible. Sherlotta can eventually become Water CP if needed to play Yuna or any of your Water summons in a pinch if needed. You can also sac Sherlotta to play Asura to re-activate your backups so that you can play more backups, or mill more, etc.

White Mage (6-047C) - a really good tech card. Since Yuna doesn’t cover cards used to pay for cost, White Mage can really disrupt your opponent’s Gladiator/Devout/Miner/Tama/Ajido-Marujido/etc’s plan. In the mid and late game, you should almost always be sitting on CP anyway to be able to crack White Mage for value when needed.

Miounne (5-067R) - another really good card that doesn’t need much introduction. You have many good targets you can bounce (e.g. either Paines, Zidane, Thief, White Mage, and Veritas) and re-play again for value.

Asura (2-049H) - this card has many uses. You can activate a dull/frozen Forward to block and prevent a point of damage if required, but you’ll generally use it more either for the backup line re-activate, or to take a copy of any of your 2 CP Rikku cards from the break zone to Mug again.

Valefor (1-198S) - one of the best value cards in a YRP engine. Mill 1, play this to re-activate backups and deal 3k to a board, and then follow up with either more mill, or Diabolos. The chain possibility is quite endless with this card.

Valefor (1-062L) - this card has been something of an unsung hero for me. Resets the board state, preventing a whole turn of damage. Exceptionally potent for this deck if played on a board of Vikings, or if you control a Thief or two, as it speeds up your game plan as well.

Leviathan (1-178R) - I find I almost never cast this card. It’s mainly used for CP to pay for Yuna, or otherwise often triggered as an EX Burst. As an aside, you can always bounce your own cards with this card, as described for Miounne above, to re-play again.

Alexander (8-046R) - somewhat feels like one of the weaker removal summons in the deck. Being able to hit the likes of Fat Chocobo, Miner, Star Sibyl, Snow, etc. is really nice however. I don’t often play this card, but if you have spare CP to use, this is not a bad card to play when you can.

Diabolos (5-062L) - remove Forwards, mill more, combat tricks. This card does a lot, and gains a lot of value when you have a full backup line.

Chaos, Walker of the Wheel (3-071H) - Yuna H + Chaos Walker combo, always run this card if you run Yuna H. One of the best value Forward removals.

Famfrit, the Darkening Cloud (3-123R) - same for Chaos. One of the best value removals in this deck. Helps you get around cards like Delita and Ardyn.

Madeen (8-133H) - a one-of, for when you manage to somehow be able to get a board wipe for value. Gives you some additional board control, but oftentimes it can be hard to cast for 6. You play this over Ark, as being the mill aggressor, you don’t actually want to be drawing cards for removing a lot of Forwards, plus it has an additional 1000 power cap higher than Ark. Be wary of Leviathan (6-125R) however, as it has the potential to reduce your Madeen to an expensive nothing. Killing your own Thief or Veritas with this card can also lead to additional value.

The general game plan is: set up Rikku, Yuna and a 3rd backup as soon as possible. At 3 backups, you have a lot of options that you can play, as a lot of your removal are odd costed. Shinra into Paine will give you the consistency you need if you don’t open with Rikku. If you open with Rikku, use Paine to search for Yuna instead.

Also remember: points of damage counts as milling too! If you see an opportunity to attack, take that point of damage. There will be some decks where you can’t just sit back and mill them out - if you have to go aggressively at your opponent, Yuna H and removal will see your small bodies through. I’ve won a few games 7-1 and 7-2 because my opponent couldn’t setup, and I was largely dealing damage with O2 Paine, Thief, Zidane, and even Veritas.

Here’s a write up for the rounds I played today:

Round 1 (Bye) - yeah, we had 15 players, so 4 rounds of swiss today. I actually got a bye. Nothing much to write about here, I went for a coffee run for some of my friends.

Round 2 (Ice/Water) - this is an interesting deck that I’d also like to try out someday. The deck generally uses 4 cost or above cards, and Agrias L from O7. The only Agrias target in that deck is basically either Garland (IX) or searcher Laguna from O6, who is used to search O1 4CP Squall. Otherwise, the deck only has about 9 backups, and has about 17 - 18 summons, and uses Forward Minwu from O6 as well. I expected the matchup to be quite rough,as this deck generally requires some turns to set up the backup line, and my opponent was already running at me with 3 to 4 Forwards, including a Garland (IX) which messed up my CP management. I only managed to stabilize due to a string of EX bursts - I casted Famfrit on my opponent’s turn when they attacked, then they attacked into another Famfrit. Once I was able to keep his board down, I had no problem eventually stabilizing and milling him out. The deck also doesn’t play backups to be able to play its 4+ costed cards, so destroying the backup Snow with Alexander eventually sealed the game for me, as my opponent could not keep up with the cost of the cards in the deck. I won this game 4 - 4, milling out my opponent.

Round 3 (Wind/Water) - this round saw me play against my friend Junshi who was on Wind/Water Yurilinka. He went first, and played a backup, then disrupted my Shinra into Paine combo by playing Zidane and tossing Paine out of my hand. Though I had Yuna, I elected not to play the Yuna, but to use her as Water CP to play Famfrit instead as bouncing Zidane is a very, very bad idea. I only got my own Rikku out about 4 turns after he did, and I was saved from taking too much damage by a timely Valefor EX Burst, dealing with his Leila Viking board. Eventually, he figured that playing more Leila Viking would lead to himself milling out against me, so we were in a mill battle for a while, but I eventually managed to come through as my deck would be milling him faster than he milled me. I won this game 1 - 5.

Round 4 (Mono Earth) - this was also against another close friend, Vincent Ma, who basically got my feet off the ground in this game. If anything he’s like a mentor to me, and taught me most of what I know about this game. He was on a Mono Earth list that was played in Japan, utilizing about 17 Forwards and 16 Summons, and lots of Undead Princess recursion. I stabilized relatively early against him, and managed to keep his backups to 2. The reason being you want him to use 1 more card from hand to play his odd casted cards like Cecil and Ardyn. The early White Mage also dissuaded him from playing 4-086H, and the White Mage removed 1 Undead Princess, which he was not willing to bring back from the Break Zone by sacrificing his only 2 backups. I managed to get the Yuna H out, and just kept exiling his Forwards. Given his deck had low Forward count as well, my removal eventually saw me through, and this round I managed to deal more damage than I took. With any Earth-based matchup, always be wary of Hecatoncheir (1-117R). I had one of my Yunas taken out by a Hecatoncheir, but managed to have one more in hand when it did get broken. I won this game 5 - 3.

General Thoughts:

This deck is most definitely quite fun to play. Maybe the same won’t be said for the opponent, since this kind of deck largely prioritizes removing Forwards, and some might say it doesn’t really feel fun playing against this kind of deck (all my Forwards are being exiled anyway, why am I even playing this game!?), but mill control was a play style I’ve always wanted to try for a while, ever since I lost to a mill deck in my State Championships a couple of months ago.

It is not without its weaknesses however. Aggressive decks that can deal 7 damage in the space of 4 turns (e.g. Ark Angel HM Haste decks), or decks that limit the hand size (e.g. Scale Toad, discard heavy strategy) can shut this deck down in as early as Turn 2 or Turn 3. Another problem card to deal with is Garland (IX) - a Turn 2 Garland essentially screws your curve over, and you are then forced to over-pay to remove the Garland, which removes cards from your hand, which then makes you vulnerable to Scale Toad shaping the game for your opponent. A friend of mine, Mithril, was on an Ice/Water deck for this day that featured discards and summon cancels (lots of Celes and Edward), which I would not have been keen to face, so I was somewhat lucky to have dodged that bullet.

Here’s a quick photo of what I got today!

A deck box, a set of Vincent sleeves, a foil Bartz Promo, and five packs of my choice - I went with Opys 6, and got a non-foil Maria and a foil Garland!

I hope everyone enjoyed reading this, and please give it a try if you’d like, and let me know if you have ideas to improve the deck!

Until next time!

#fftcg

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juniglee · 6 years ago

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NSW State Championships #1 Report - Games Corner

On the Saturday of the Easter weekend, I participated in the first State Championships for the state of NSW - this one was held in Games Corner, in Parramatta (one of my regular local shops, please check them out!)

On this day, I decided to run with an Ice/Fire FFVI based deck. This deck came 2nd overall in the state championships, and the deck link is: https://ffdecks.com/deck/6246083793518592

First things first - I have been testing this deck after an initial build about 2 weeks ago. It’s a deck I’ve been wanting to try, as it was garnering a lot of talk within the fanbase of the game, and it seemed to be doing quite well in various regions as well. However, I’ll always classify Sydney as a weird region full of various deck ideas (spoiler: this State Champs was won by a quad-colour mill deck, nothing you’ll see elsewhere I promise!), so in general it is very hard to tech for only a few specific decks, as there’s just way too many kind of decks to consider.

Earth/Wind in general is a really powerful and popular combination in a number of large regions, but for instance, they were pretty much non-existent on the day of the state champs. Meanwhile, I noticed the most popular decks were largely Mono Water Veritas. Ice/Fire seemed like it would be a really bad pick if the meta was heavily Earth/Wind, but it does well against Water, so in that sense, I feel I dodged a bullet there.

Before we get into the matches, I’ll explain the cards I picked for the deck, and then the deck’s gameplan itself. Also, shoutouts to my friends for helping me with the deck build - Robert Meadows (he also operates a blog of his own, please give him some love: http://fftcgcrystarium.com/), Nathan Cross, and Elijah Teo.

Edgar (8-005C), Gestahlian Empire Cid (4-026H), Setzer (8-036C) and Locke (4-048L) - these eleven cards form essentially the backbone of this deck. In general, your gameplan is to get either Setzer or Edgar, then Gestahlian Empire Cid plus another 2 CP backup (Setzer/Edgar also qualify as a 2 CP backup in the sense). Gestahlian Empire Cid is almost always used to search for Locke, as playing Locke off 3 backups, at least 2 of which should be these Category VI backups, is essentially forcing a discard that is very unlikely to fizzle, compared to the FFVI decks from Opus 4. Edgar’s secondary value is generally to provide Fire CP, as the deck will largely be playing more Ice backups than Fire, and also to provide Locke with a +1000 power pump if required. I am of the opinion that Edgar and Gestahlian Cid are required at 3, both are cards you want to see early so that you can get about to your gameplan right away. If Mono Lightning’s highroll is Cid Previa into Louisoix, this deck’s highroll is being able to play Setzer/Edgar, and have Gestahlian Cid and at least one more other 2 CP backup in hand for a T2 3 backup turn. Setzer at 2 is fine, because even if you see him early, his playability is dependent on you having an FFVI Forward in hand, of which there are only 8 in the deck.

Duke Larg (1-057R) - 3 of these, instead of 2 from most lists I’ve seen, because he gets your Locke out of the 7000 range, which is the danger range when dealing with Ice and/or Lightning (Glasya Labolas and Ramuh both deal 7000 damage each). Combined with Edgar, your Locke becomes a 9000 Forward - suddenly he’s able to force cards like Kam’lanaut into trades, and this is generally what happens because your opponent would rather lose the Forward than to lose a card in hand.

Phoenix (5-019L) - one of the most, if not the most, important Summons in this deck. Combined with the 2 FFVI backups strategy as outlined above, you can recur Locke to remove a Forward for 8000 damage, and force them to discard a card.

Genesis (3-033L) - commonly considered Locke’s partner-in-crime, he disables a blocker, and then threatens to force a discard if the opponent chooses to take a damage. Like Locke, attack with him liberally to force trades if required.

Belias, the Gigas (2-019R), Goblin (4-012C) - in hindsight, this looks like a weird spread: why would I be playing 2 Belias and 1 Goblin when I can be playing 3 copies of Belias instead? The answer mainly lies in the fact that Goblin costs 1 CP less, and thus there are some rare occasions you can drop a Genesis on someone, then use Goblin to haste him off the 1 last Fire CP, then have him swing and discard a card, without requiring pitching a card for it. Y’shtola was also somewhat a worry for me, so Goblin can kind of get around Y’shtola trying to stop Belias for a kill. In general, these cards are used to haste either Genesis or Locke, and make your opponent take a damage and discard when they are least prepared for it.

Glasya Labolas (5-032H) - this is pretty much the best Ice Summon in the game. It gives you a lot of control, and generally ends up pushing your opponent into some sort of really bad advantage when played right.

Dark Fina (8-042L) - 2 copies of this card in the deck. When you’re at the ideal 3 backups range, at 5 damage, she just suddenly makes your deck come alive - searching a Phoenix, then casting it for free to kill something and make Locke come back again, and force an opponent to discard is too much value for me to pass up. Dark Fina has saved me in quite a few games where I end up taking 5 damage or more. The more unappreciated aspect of Dark Fina is that she is cost 7 and is 9000 base power, so it makes it harder for cards like Edea or Yotsuyu to get through her.

Kuja (6-027L) - originally I only had 1 copy of this guy, but I upped to 2 because I found that being able to have at least 1 of him in the Break Zone is very, very handy for this deck, as it allows you to replay Gestahlian Empire Cid, Setzer, or The Emperor again. Besides that, he’s a really useful EX Burst to have around, is also a really big Forward, and can be played entirely off Backups if required as well in the mid-game.

Lasswell (8-043H) - if you’re playing Ice/Fire, then you play this guy. Sustainable Dull/Freeze means the opponent needs to think about having multiple blockers for the team. Lasswell is also really great for shutting down cards like Veritas of the Dark, so that your opponent is unable to block with or play another copy of Veritas of the Dark without removing it themselves. Y’shtola and Aerith both turn Lasswell into 2 Ice CP however.

The Emperor (7-134S) - the linearity of Ice/Fire is that your removal is largely going to be from damage. This card provides EX Burst, the ability to disable an attacker/blocker, and direct break in a deck that really needs some way to deal with Y’shtola and Aerith.

Sabin (8-019C), Duncan (8-014L) - both are generally almost never played. However, both are also usable by Gestahlian Empire Cid and Setzer to fix CP (for Gestahlian Empire Cid, you get to search for them to fix your Fire CP to play Edgar, and for Setzer, they can be used along with another Ice card to be able to play Setzer for value). Duncan also has the additional merit of being a Zidane removal card.

Cid Raines (1-192S), Irvine (2-001H) - both of them are more Zidane removal tech. Cid Raines is also just really good for randomly making an opponent discard if they play a small forward, or when combined with either Glasya Labolas or Celes.

Lyse (8-139S), Vivi (3-017L) - both of these, in conjunction with the other 3 or less CP Forwards in the deck, form alternative targets for Phoenix when required. Lyse makes your Forwards a lot bigger, especially at 5 damage or above taken, which synergizes well with Dark Fina as outlined above.

Celes (4-038L) - she’s just really good for stopping summons, or being a really big beatstick. Also another Cat VI character if you need to enable Locke via a Forward (aggressive play off a Setzer/Edgar into Celes + Locke Turn 2) instead.

Vayne (2-026L) - one of as a tech choice against decks running lots of 5+ CP Forwards (e.g. Earth/Wind’s Forward line of Kam’lanaut, Cecil, Fina, Veritas of the Dark). Required Celes above to prevent a Diabolos blowout re-activating their guys.

Cloud (8-006L) - more Zidane removal, and is otherwise a big body. The mill 10 effect is generally only used once a game if ever - if you have to use more than once, you were probably not going to win the game anyway. Another component of the damage comeback mechanic, as at 4 damage, he kills a 7000 power Forward, and at 5 damage, he kills an 8000 power Forward, both of which are probably the most relevant power points right now.

As for the deck itself, you kind of just want to run at your opponent with Locke. Cards like Cloud, Duncan, Vivi, Cid Raines all help you to control their board to a degree as well. You may notice there’s quite a few burn cards in the deck, this is because I was somewhat expecting a larger number of aggro players in general.

Now onto the games itself, starting with the swiss rounds:

Round 1 (Mono Water) - the first match of the day was a relatively easy one. The opponent dropped a Turn 1 Zidane on me, but had no way to haste it, so I dropped a backup, then overpaid for Glasya Labolas on the next turn when he declared attack. He then threw 3 cards from his hand to play Lenna to revive Zidane. I didn’t have any backups to play after, so I dropped a Lyse to prevent him attacking and passed. Then, the opponent attacked with Lenna, so I took that damage, then played Famfrit, sending Lenna to the Break Zone to get rid of my Lyse so his Zidane could swing, but I overpaid for another Glasya Labolas. At this point, we both drew 2 and passed for 2 turns each as we didn’t have any cards to play from hand. After those turns, I started to build my board, got the Locke down, and started pressuring with the discards. The opponent tried to put Vikings to stop Locke, but I would play Duncan to remove 1, then Cloud the next turn after to stop his Vikings. Eventually he just took too much damage, and didn’t have enough of a board to really mount a comeback. I won this game 7-1.

Round 2 (Fire/Water) - this is the crazy 6 Rain aggro deck that’s been making the rounds recently over here. Opponent opened with a Turn 1 Zidane, but didn’t Haste him, so I dropped a Backup and passed. They attacked with Zidane the next turn for 1 point of damage, then played Leila and Viking, and a Backup, so on my next turn I dropped a Cid Raines on the Zidane, forcing 1 discard. However, instead of playing the Gestahlian Empire Cid in my hand, I opted to pass. This ended up being the correct decision, because the opponent then played Light Rain onto the field, and then Hasted him with his first Special. When the Rain attacked, I had that 1 Backup floated - just nice enough to be able to use Glasya Labolas to kill the Rain before his auto ability of pumping his board by 2000 Power and reducing mine by 2000 resolved. Since my Cid Raines was now smaller than the Leila and the Viking, I opted to take the damage from those two instead. Then I played a Cloud to burn the Leila. The opponent played Ark Angel HM, and used Belias on him to Haste the Ark Angel and attack with a 10k Ark Angel, so I used Cid Raines to block the Ark Angel. On my next turn, I played the Irvine to get rid of the Ark Angel. From that point, the opponent needed to spend a turn or two refreshing their hand so the aggression had stopped, but by this point I’ve been building my board as well, to the point where I managed to get the Locke down and eventually overwhelm him. I won this game 7-3.

Round 3 (Fire/Water) - yet another person playing the same deck. This time I was moved to the top table after two wins, where I remained for the day (my games were all streamed from this point on). I opted to keep a hand of Phoenix, Lasswell, Celes, Vivi and Duncan - most people would probably call this crazy, but I kept the hand because it had 2, if not 3, options to deal with a T1 Zidane. Since I went first, I had to drop a Lasswell as I had no play after drawing into a Glasya Labolas. The opponent dropped a Marche on me having no other play, attempted to Haste the March with Red Mage, then didn’t attack when they realized Lasswell was an 8000 Power Forward to Marche’s 5000. I then played a backup and passed. He then managed to get a Zidane on field, and I burned it with Duncan the next turn, then I tried to poke with Lasswell. They played Leila and Viking, and I played another 2 CP backup and poked with Lasswell again. The opponent then dropped Rain, gave him Haste with Belias, then attacked, so I took that point of damage. On my next turn, I used the Glasya Labolas on Rain and o remove a card, then poked again with Lasswell. My opponent then dropped a Volker on me, disabling Duncan from blocking, and Hasted Volker, so I took 4 points of damage (Volker, Marche, Leila, Viking). As mentioned earlier above, being at 5 damage triggers this deck’s comeback mechanic, and it so happened that I had a Dark Fina in hand. So on my turn, I played Dark Fina, to search for and play Phoenix on the Volker, reviving Cid Raines to kill his Viking (due to rules processing, the opponent will draw a card from Viking’s ability, then be forced to discard it due to Cid Raines’ auto resolving after), and what joy it was when I saw he discarded a Light Rain. Once I had the board under control, he couldn’t put another blocker, I used Glasya to disable a blocker and remove a card from hand, and swung for game. I won this game 7-5.

Round 4 (Ice/Water) - I was playing an Ice/Fire FFVI deck, and my opponent was playing an Ice/Water FFVI deck. However, I also knew his Locke trigger was more inconsistent as he would have to rely on 1 Forward for the discard effect, since he was running Forward Setzer in his deck. His general strategy is to play Locke then crack Devout to bring back Strago to bounce some Forward and make me discard. The highlight of this game was mainly my opponent having a 3CP Celes on the field, then playing Locke, then cracking Devout to bring back Strago to bounce one of my Forwards. I responded by playing Phoenix to kill Celes to bring back my own Locke - this ended up with me not having to discard a card from my hand, and the opponent discarding 1 card from their hand instead. I eventually had this game under control as though we had similar Forwards on the field, mine were +1000 Power bigger because I had Duke Larg and they did not, so I eventually pushed for enough damage where I could force them to trade. My opponent did 4 damage to me, then managed to drop a Setzer to try and stop me from attacking, but I had The Emperor in hand, so I used that to prevent Setzer from blocking to seal the game. I won this game 7-4.

Round 5 (Mono Water Veritas) - unlike Game 1, the opponent was a lot more established (Adam Harris, who eventually went on to make Top 4), and the deck was a lot more consistent. The game was generally a long slog, and I kept trading Forwards with Adam’s field. Eventually his hand was exhausted, and his deck was almost exhausted. I just kept playing the stall game and kept his Veritas on lockdown with a double Kuja play off 5 backups. I eventually won this game by decking out Adam, but he decided to just scoop near the end so that I could report the win as 7-4.

Round 6 (Mono Lightning) - this was against Adam’s brother, Colin, who is well known in Sydney as a huge Mono Lightning enthusiast. He opened with the Cid Previa into Louisoix highroll, and I could not get more than 1 backup on the field. When I dropped a Forward, it got removed by Veritas of the Dark. I dropped a Locke, and it got removed by Edea. I dropped a Celes and it got removed by Al-Cid + Onion Knight. I tried to drop a Cloud at 2 points of damage to stem the bleeding, but he used Death on my Cloud (there was no reason to bring back Cloud at this point, as he was unable to kill anything). Then he dropped an Illua on me, and swung for 5 damage, so I went from 2 damage to 7 damage. I lost this game 2-7.

The swiss ended with me at the top of the table.

Top Cut Set 1 (Wind/Water Chocobos) - there isn’t much to say about the 3 games here, besides the fact that it’s Chocobos, so it tends to be quite aggressive. In game 1, I was matching my opponent damage for damage, but got hit for a 6th point of damage via Adelle. I managed to remove the Adelle, but knew that I had to end the game soon before I ended up seeing a 2nd Adelle if there even was another. I traded a Locke into a Ranger, and Genesis was able to control the rest of the game, as my opponent’s hand was exhausted. In game 2, I managed to play Cid Raines for value and forced an opponent to discard. The opponent had an O6 Zidane on the field, and attacked with him against my 6000 power Cid Raines (plus Duke Larg), my hand revealed itself to be Belias and a Goblin, which I then used Belias to pump Cid Raines by +1000 power and giving him First Strike, which allowed me to kill the Zidane by blocking. The opponent had Adelle on the field but did not have CP to pay for making her unblockable. Then I attacked with my 3 Forwards, as I knew that even if something were to attack, I would be safe at 4 damage taken, and 3 backups up, and a Glasya Labolas in hand. I won both games to take this set 2 - 0.

Top Cut Set 2 (Mono Lightning) - my top 4 set games were against Colin Harris, who had smashed me in swiss earlier. Just like in swiss, he smashed me in game 1 as well. In game 2, it looked like he was about to smash me again, but I managed to use Cloud’s mill effect to replay him and burn something else for 9000 Power. I then managed to play Dark Fina to eventually overwhelm his board and started coming back from there, to take game 2. In game 3, Colin had a really bad opening hand of Veritas, Edea, and 3 Ramuhs, and didn’t draw into anything playable, so he opened with a Veritas on an empty board. I took 2 turns to set up my board. At some point I managed to get off both Locke and Genesis and kept his hand under control, the only backup he could play after 2 turns was O1 Hero Lulu. He eventually removed my Locke when I had 3 Forwards, and he was at 5 damage, with his Veritas up. However in my hand I had a Meeth and a Celes, so I played the Meeth, tossing Celes to search for Vayne, which sealed the game.

Top Cut Set 3 (Quad-Colour Mill) - as the name implies, the deck is really spicy, and I had no idea how to play against this deck. I played against it a week or two ago in a locals, but I could not find a list to actually try playing it or practise against. The deck’s general idea is to have both O1 Hero Rikku and O1 Hero Yuna - Rikku allows you to mill your opponent, and Yuna exiles Forwards. The reason why Yuna is really important is because half the deck is removal. I managed to win game 1 by constantly aggressing with Locke, and forcing hand discards, and even won by using a Locke special to get around the blocker. But from game 2 onwards, Yuna dropped as early as Turn 3 or Turn 4, and I basically knew it was over. Any Forward I played got removed by either Chaos, Walker of the Wheel, Cactuar, O6 Hero Odin, O6 Ramuh, Cecil, Veritas, Famfrit, or just EX Burst in general. The deck also capitalizes on the fact that a lot of commonly played decks are often using searchers to thin the deck and get the game plan going, so it punishes them by removing their Forwards (the average CP for Forwards in any standard deck is probably something like 3 or 4 CP, unless you’re playing a largely 2 CP Forwards deck), so at some point, the opponent just runs out of steam and can only put down 1 or 2 Forwards per turn, and eventually just 1), and then milling them by 1 when they don’t play any Forwards. I lost both game 2 and game 3, and that was the end of the state championships.

Overall, it was a really fun, but tiring day - that finals being 3 very grindy games basically turned my brain into mush. I am just glad I didn’t end up regretting taking Ice/Fire as my deck of choice for this tournament, and I’m also even happier I’ve managed to secure my nationals invite for this year this early on. There will be two more state championships in NSW later in the year, but I am unlikely to take part as the entry fee is a little too massive for my liking ($40 which includes a Yuna/Lenne playmat, but it’s something I don’t really need more than 1 of).

I hope everyone had fun reading my experience. My friend and the judge of the state champs, Jaesn, has the video recaps available on his newly established YouTube channel (link is https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQw4Bm_r71qop1LSv6v80Jw), please support him as well!

Until next time!

#fftcg

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