#── .✦ matchup record ; entry 018

[levandright]

Hiii i never do this kind of thing but event seemed fun and silly so why not for enha!

In terms of appearance and persona I'm blonde and quite short and I really like soft girly feminine things so I enjoy a lot of pastels and doing dewy cute makeup, I also fidget quite a lot.

For zodiac I'm a leo!

As for hobbies I don't nail myself to a few specific things and I have ADHD so I pick up new interests a lot. But some of the things I always go back to or never really quit are makeup, fashion/clothes, sometimes art, and video games (I esp like cozy and simulation games like Stardew Valley but I play all genres), and I'm currently learning a language.

As for personality I'm usually kind of shy and awkward at first and I'm really not great at small talk; once I know you, or I understand what's ok to joke abt and behave like within our friendship, or you're someone who can make conversations comfortable and interesting I can be the loudest person there and sometimes can't STOP talking and laughing. I'm also kind of physically hyperactive and always fidget or move bc I always have the urge to (literally at night when everyone is asleep I leave my room and put in earbuds and just pace and dance for hours). I sometimes have a hard time expressing my love for ppl through words which I've been working on and starting to do more :(, but instead I really love paying for things or giving gifts to express it instead and get a rush of dopamine when someone likes a gift I gave them.

I don't have any specific favorite tropes but I do like fake dating or friends to lovers or something else, overall I just really like when men are sweet and act like they actually like the person they want and love seeing good husbands and bfs in media and Irl :3

And my favorite seasons are honestly fall and winter but spring have a special place in my heart too.

That was a LOT I'm sorry I spoke so much and dk when to stop once I start something sometimes but hopefully it's helpful 😭😭

FINDING YOUR MATCH...

MATCH FOUND! your match is... SIM JAEYUN

JAKE jokingly compete with you over silly things like who’s better at cozy games or who’s more stylish. if you ever get frustrated at a game, he’d step in, laughing: “okay, okay, let the pro handle this.” and then immediately fail on purpose just to make you laugh.

JAKE 100% watch cute romance dramas or movies with you, fangirling over sweet relationships and pointing out, “that’s totally us.”

JAKE often tease you about your favorite tropes like friends-to-lovers or fake dating, saying, “i think we skipped the ‘friends’ part and went straight to me being your soulmate.”

JAKE adores how much thought you put into giving gifts. he’d treat your gifts like treasure, keeping them close to him or using them often just so you know how much they mean to him. on the flip side, he’d also spoil you with little surprises—a playlist of songs that remind him of you, your favorite snacks, or a cute necklace he noticed you admiring. he’d love to see your face light up every time he gets it right.

JAKE keeps mental notes of the small details about you, surprising you with things like your favorite winter treat or a new game you mentioned wanting to try.

JAKE is your partner in crime for trying new things. whether it’s learning something new together or diving headfirst into one of your ideas, he’d make the experience fun and memorable.

your custom playlist ☁

☁ lev notes : currently dreading my exams so this might be my only posts for the upcoming 5 days gang

☁ curious about other matches?

[yehosera]

UK Nationals 2 Fire/Ice

This article will look at the deck I played for UK Nationals 2 and give a rundown of what happened during the day.

Nationals 2

UK Nationals 2 was a 52 man event taking place at Dark Sphere in London, with the top 2 winning a slot each at Euroes. The structure was 6 rounds of swiss, then a top 8 cut. Swiss was best of 1 and top 8 was best of 3. Luckily for me, my 3rd place finish was good enough to get a spot at Euroes due to the 2nd place finisher being unable to take part.

Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/178597038

3rd place match

Game 1 -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ueke3tGApGQ

Game 2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPsr1MTom7s&t=2s

Fire/Ice Cid Raines & co.

http://ffdecks.com/deck/5083178385539072

--Generated By FF Decks (www.ffdecks.com)--

Deck Name: UK Nationals #2 3rd place

Created by: yehosera

Forwards (24):

2 Zidane (3-154)

1 Vivi (3-149)

3 Vivi (3-017)

1 Firion (1-021)

3 Tifa (1-189)

1 Tifa (2-011)

2 Cid Raines (1-192)

3 Kuja (3-030)

2 Rinoa (2-047)

1 Serah (1-195)

3 Genesis (3-033)

2 Vayne (2-026)

Summons (9):

3 Belias, the Gigas (2-019)

3 Bahamut (1-018)

3 Zalera, the Death Seraph (3-037)

Backups (17):

3 Red Mage (1-003)

2 Selphie (2-009)

3 Zangan (1-188)

3 Jihl Nabaat (1-193)

2 Mog (XIII-2) (1-196)

1 Summoner (1-053)

3 Devout (1-048)

Swiss

Round 1 - Wind/Water. This game was vs Pre Temp who went onto win the whole thing. The game was fairly simple, but Pre should have won. He made a big mistake in the last turn, his hand consisted of Brother, Y’shtola, 2x Valefor, his field had 3 backups, 2 of which were wind and one had the name Yuna. He made the mistake of playing brother while there were 0 targets in the deck. Instead if he had played Y’shtola and both Valefor while pinging in between the Valefors using the spare mana, he could have cleared my 5 forward board and easily won from there.

Round 2 - Wind/Water. The guy was fairly new to the game.

Round 3 - Wind/Water. A more experienced player. However, this matchup was clearly not something he had practiced. My opening was T1 - Backup, T2 Kuja + Zidane + Backup. His opening was far too slow to handle this and as a result he took 7 damage fairly quickly despite having an oracle.

Round 4 - Mono Fire. I got deconstructed 7-0. A series of mistakes starting from the mulligan phase of the game lead to my defeat. However, my opponent played well, took his time and didn’t make any obvious mistakes to seal the deal. During the mulligan phase, I saw a hand that had Kuja and Red Mage in it. I kept this hand because, against all of the Wind/Water I had played vs prior to this game, that hand had the potential to go the distance. The next mistake I made was, once I had confirmation I was playing against Mono-Fire, I still played the Kuja onto the board without a copy of Belias, the Gigas in hand. This meant I finished with 4 cards in hand, leaving the Kuja vulnerable to both Vivi and Black Waltz 2. At the time, I had an additional Red Mage in hand I could’ve played to be safe vs both of those cards. Finally, after Emperor Xande hit the field, I once again played directly into Vivi, by playing a Vayne and finishing with 4 cards in hand allowing for Vivi to flat kill the Vayne.

Round 5 - Mono Fire. I opened more reasonably, didn’t make as many mistakes.

Round 6 - Wind/Water. Again I opened aggressively and played Bahamut once my opponent started trying to climb onto the board.

My record at the end of swiss was 5-1, guaranteeing top 8.

Top 8

Round 1 - Ice/Lightning Manakins. A friend of mine was playing the deck. He opened very aggressively both games, however, due to Cid Raines and Vivi in game 1 and Bahamut in game 2 the early pressure was shut down.

Round 2 - Wind/Water. Played vs Pre, once again he played solidly, but this time did not make any crucial mistakes. Taking it 2-0 over me easily.

Round 3 - Mono Earth. Both times he opened with Yang/Ursula and both times Vivi + Cid / Bahamut shut it down.

The deck

Forwards

Each forward has a specific purpose relative to the deck’s overall plan of snowballing a board in the early game and closing the game out during the mid game.

Cid Raines is the first card worth talking about, as without him, the deck does not function too well. His effect allows for the player to put themselves a step forward by developing a forward and put their opponent two steps behind, by removing a forward and by forcing a discard.

Firion exists within the deck mostly for the purpose of synergising with Cid Raines. He also allows for smaller forwards, like Cid and Vivi, to trade up into bigger forwards via the battle phase while developing an 8,000 power body.

Vivi exists to do similar things to Firion, however, it is not uncommon for both Vivis to be able to destroy a forward on their own without assistance. Vivi is exceptional vs aggressive decks where the forwards are smaller. Most aggressive decks rely upon certain forwards (Snow for example) dealing a lot of damage early on, Vivi’s ability to shut down any early aggression upon entry and threaten Firaga if left unchecked makes Vivi a must have against any aggressive deck. Another benefit Firaga has is that every Steiner deck plays a lot of 7,000 power forwards. This means it is possible to blow those decks out of the water with Firaga if a second Vivi is drawn before their anthem card is. Starter Vivi has some niche interactions due to the number of forwards in the deck it kills. Vivi can kill Rinoa to dull an entire board, or can kill a Tifa to allow for the Tifa to be revived via Devout for additional points of damage.

Tifa’s waterkick is the perfect ability to use in tandem with Cid Raines. Not only dulling the target for Cid, but also dealing 6,000 damage. With Zangan on the field Tifa gains haste making her a strong target for Devout at any point in the game. In addition, haste makes her invaluable against Lightning decks (as she’ll be dull and as such Al-Cid will not be able to prey upon her). The haste aspect Zangan gives Tifa makes any racing situation dangerous for your opponent and can essentially gain you life as the game goes on. Situations whereby the opponent is dead to a topdeck’d Tifa means that the number of attacks that can be made a turn are reduced in order to play around her potentially being on the top of the deck. The legendary Tifa is played over the 2 drop Tifa, both are viable for the deck as a 4th Tifa name is needed, however, Tifa L can steal games against slower decks and decks that have limited removal options, such as Earth or Water based decks.

Serah is a bit of a weak link, not doing much of anything. She’s mostly in the deck as an additional Mog XIII-2 target. Her slot used to be Fang’s, however, into an empty board Serah is the better card due to her on entry ability and Fang not having one. Essentially, as the first forward played generally dies soon after being played, Serah is worth less overall than Fang and does something on entry making her death not as meaningful.

Zidane much like Serah exists to be thrown into dangerous situations with the expectation that the genome will die. However, Zidane comes with the added bonus of having a reduced cost if a fellow category IX forward is on the field. This allows for big tempo swings to take place in any turn Kuja + Zidane are played onto an even board or when Vivi cleans up a forward, putting twice the forward pressure onto the board.

Rinoa has some fancy lines of text, but all that really matters is the dulling all forwards line. This lets the card attack and if blocked, Cid will be able to finish off the forward. Rinoa also sets up many checkmate positions whereby the opponent will be on 6 damage with forwards of equal or greater power, and thus it will be impossible for them to avoid all of their forwards being dulled. In addition, Rinoa sets up Zalera, the Dark Seraph making the card harder to play around. Lastly, in a situation whereby the gamestate has become very complex, she tends to be the deck’s last hope at dealing points of damage.

Vayne stops the opponent playing 5 cost or higher forwards.

Kuja goes onto the board first and starts dealing damage. Provided the opponent plays 1 forward at a time, this card will always connect and as such it demands answers or for two forwards to be played in the same turn. Due to how much of a removal magnet this card is, 3 of them is required. Kuja lets the player start to snowball a simple board state very quickly, applying a lot of pressure and causing a lot of problems with his auto abilities. The downside is how frail the card is, Kuja requires support from Red Mage, Selphie and Belias, the Gigas in order to attack every turn if two or more forwards are present. It cannot be stressed enough just how devastating this card sticking around for a turn is.

Finally, Genesis. A prime devout target, an even primer Belias, the Gigas target. Much like Kuja, Genesis is on a need to kill status. This card cannot be allowed to connect, if Genesis is able to start dealing damage and costing the opponent cards from hand, the game will be very easy. Genesis keeps problem cards like Warrior of Light at bay for two of the players battle phases. Finally, any game that Kuja sticks a turn and is followed up by Genesis, the pressure that is applied over the next two turns will be game ending.

Summons

Belias, the Gigas has too many fantastic lines of text not to be included. Giving Genesis haste is very problematic. Playing the card from hand, can allow your forwards to avoid being killed by enemy Legend Vivis. As most of the forwards in the deck are 7,000 power, being able to buff them up to 8,000 is fantastic. The first strike aspect means the forwards are never trading, always killing and lastly it has EX burst written in the top right hand corner.

Bahamut is the ultimate snowball card. Any even gamestate is blown apart by Bahamut. The card also serves as a check to any player that opens badly and tries to beat you up with large forwards. Yang Ursula, Exdeath Capricious most notably in this tournament.

Zalera, the Dark Seraph is in the deck to help with the abysmal Water matchups the deck has, as all Steiner decks are very weak to the card. The card also happens to beat most aggressive decks, due to the decks wanting to play a lot of low costed forwards and in general low numbers are prime numbers.

Backups

Sephie protects your forwards and lets them trade up into bigger forwards, incentivising the opponent to let smaller forwards hit them or kill off their more valuable forwards.

Red Mage is basically satan once the opponent has hit 5-6 damage. Forcing the opponent to perpetually be on the defensive due to Red Mage essentially removing a forward from their side of the field.

Zangan says add Tifa and give Tifa haste. That was all the convincing I needed. Also has a nice symbol in the top right.

Jihl Nabaat has a similar symbol. The card is very weak at the start of the game, so initially only 2 were played. However, as time went on, I just accepted some games she’ll be in the opening hand and I’ll just have to accept that I’m paying 2 mana for an evoker. The upside is that anytime the opponent starts to get aggressive, Jihl can shut it down and open a window for the player to try and win the game or put the opponent into a position whereby they have to play defensively.

Mog XIII-2 has the text add one copy of Cid Raines to your hand. Thus making this card a worthy inclusion.

Summoner is there to add to the number of 3 drop backups in the deck. Due to fire having none worth playing outside of Black Waltz 2, at least 3, preferably more are required to have a smooth curve of backups during the early game.

Devout is another powerhouse of a card. Setting up big swing plays and allowing the breakzone to be treated as a toolbox for cards like Vayne, Genesis, Firion depending on what the situation needs.

Final Thoughts

I was exceptionally lucky to make Euroes. I was not expecting anywhere near as much Wind/Water as there was, it seems to have been the case that only 1 Wind/Water made top 8 because I kept being paired into them. There aren’t many changes I would make to the deck. There are however a pile of cards that could’ve made the cut. Those are:

Shiva 3-032 - Is functionally the same as Bahamut during turns you’re going for lethal.

Lann - Very strong vs Mono Earth and Wind/Water, but didn’t make the cut as there was no room. Would’ve helped a lot during the day though.

Emperor Xande - As a permanent Cid Raines activator, a big dude that’s likely to deal damage every turn and a nonsense catcher like Bahamut.

Black Waltz 2 - 3 drop backup that sets up Cid Raines.

Snow - Any board that gets both Snow and Kuja onto it seems very strong

Argath - Another forward that lets me be 1st onto the board with no real downsides

TL;DR Cid Raines got me a spot at Euroes