TBZ Circuit Opus VI Event 1
Hey guys! I’m back with another tournament report. After
playing Sealed at AX, I grew to love this game even more, so I was excited to
go to an actual competition other than Friday night locals. I had asked my
buddy Max if he was interested in going since it was being held at Galaxy Games
which is about an hour or so drive for both of us. Luckily, he was!
For those of you that don’t know Max, I met him when I first
started playing Magic and he basically always destroys me when we play.
However, he was really nice and always helped me improve after we played and he
was probably the biggest reason why I continued with Magic. In turn, it seems
like I got him hooked on FFTCG which is great for me since I now have a great
friend, practice partner, and rival with whom to practice and share ideas.
When I returned from AX, Max and I got to talking about what
we should bring to the tournament. I was on an Earth/Wind hybrid with the Dark
package and he was on a variant of Lightning/Wind. He came to me saying he was
very concerned about the Earth/Wind matchup since he lost to me the week prior
and he always seemed to lose to our resident Earth/Wind expert as well. I told
him it was a great deck and it had a reasonable Ice matchup because of
Kam’lanaut 5-148H and Star Sibyl EX 5-091H is nutty, so why not roll with it?
We spent some time tuning it and decided to run big, bad Nidhogg 6-130L along
with Ajido-Marujido 6-064H for free cast or recycling Diabolos 5-062L or
Zodiark, Keeper of Precepts 3-147L.
Testing the deck actually went pretty poorly. I spent hours
goldfishing the deck and the opening hands were bricks much more often than
not. It really only felt good if you opened Semih Lafihna 5-059R into Star
Sibyl 5-091H and go from there. Sadly,
the hand was very unlikely and I must have just run hot the few times I did
play and win with the deck. I love Dark cards and how the deck runs when it’s
working, but I knew I would have a bad time with such an inconsistent deck even
if the power level was high.
I decided to switch over to the tried and true Midrange Ice
because it was very consistent and still did very powerful things. There are
also many different ways to play the deck and I believe that it can take you as
far as your own skill level can go. You just need to know when to be the Aggro,
Control or Discard deck. (Changes to the deck after the tournament. 20 backups
is too much. -2 Time Mage3-034C, -1 Arcanist 5-028C. +1 Serah 1-195S, +1
Genesis3-033L, +1 Orphan 5-029L). Max also ended up switching decks, but he
will probably write his own article or report, so I will let him take the
credit he deserves.
Max, his girlfriend, and I all carpooled together to Galaxy
Games. We ended up getting their pretty early because the traffic was
exaggerated to us. No problem, we went to have a delicious lunch at Chick-fil-A
and just hung out until we were able to enter the store. Around 30 people
showed up and honestly, I felt a little intimidated because I wasn’t sure if I
could beat all of them. There was no real reason for me to feel that way
because my playgroup is probably the most skilled in the area so by training
with them I should be able to handle anybody.
Round 1 vs Eddy (Mono Earth)
I got matched up with Eddy the first round. It’s funny
because I just played against Eddy the night before and he’s also a friend so
it helped to take the nerves off me. He had a very slow start of just
developing his backups so I went very aggressive in attacking his hand and
getting him to 5 points of damage early on. However, the game completely turned
when he got a Wol 5-075L and Maat 6-078R onto the board. Maat 6-078R is
insanely hard for Ice to deal with. Eddy was very smart in not getting baited
by my Mateus, the Corrupt 5-044C. I made a huge misplay by attacking into him
thinking I could use it, but he cancelled it with his Doga 5-087R. I usually
always ask for cards in hand, but I looked at the table and he wasn’t holding
anything and nothing was on his playmat, so I went for it. However, he had the
card laying on his deckbox to pay the cost. Eddy was nice enough to let me take
it back, but I ended up just repeating the play. I was able to Emina 6-023R his
dull Wol 5-075L and stop it from giving Brave to his Maat 6-078R. He attacked
with it and when it was dull, I used my Orphan 5-029L to freeze it. However, he
flooded his board with lots of other forwards including big hasters Yda 5-158S
and Y’shtola 6-038H with brave. The writing was on the wall and I implored him
to go faster so we wouldn’t get a double loss.
(0-1)
So, we started out just the same as we did in the other TBZ
event. I played someone very nice and ended up letting my guard down a little
and got slapped after my aggressive push failed. I don’t think my game plan was
necessarily wrong since Earth has a much better late game, but I know that I
made quite a few misplays. Losing early is really bad for your tiebreaks
because I would need Eddy to keep winning, but at the end of the day, I just
needed to keep winning and I’d be golden.
Round 2 vs Jason (Earth/Wind)
My next opponent was on Earth/Wind and plays a turn 2 Delita
3-088L. I had the Vayne 2-026L in hand and windmill slammed it. I was able to
keep developing backs and continued to freeze and discard all his things. He
went all in and got punished in the worst way because I had the perfect
counter. Orphan 5-029L eventually closed the game.
(1-1)
I talked with Jason after and he is a really cool guy. He
told me that his playgroup is made up of older, married guys with kids, jobs
and families, but they always try to make it out to these events. He said that
he played Chess before, but this is his first TCG. The GF and I think it’s
really awesome when people have hobbies like this and don’t let their
obligations in life hold them back. So, I really respect people like Jason and
“Almost there” Peter for making the time to play, be really great at the game,
and being great for the community as well.
Round 3 vs Blue (Mono Wind)
Blue is one of my closest friends in FFTCG and my mentor. He
teaches a really great class on how to become better at the game and have a
competitive mindset and I attend twice a week usually. (I might write articles
about this at another time).
The GF and I have a running joke that I am a “bounty hunter”
and I need to win against each player in our playgroup in a tournament setting
because they are really strong players. Blue was one of the last ones and one
of the biggest fish to fry. He had told me he was going to be playing a
not-so-good fun deck so I was interested in seeing what he had. He had a very
slow opening where he had to pitch for a Shinra 6-048C on turn one. It feels
really bad when that’s your only play turn 1 after a mulligan. I sniffed out that
his hand was poor, so I went on the aggressive route and went after his hand as
well. He was eventually able to develop his backup line and get some big
threats out, but I had quite the board. He tried to swing the game back in his
favor with some big Diabolos 5-062L plays, but I was able to get a clutch
Edward 5-031H cancel. Twice. So I was able to get 3 turns of perfect draws in a
row; sometimes you just sack people like that.
(2-1)
We played a few more rounds after and he ended up crushing
me, so his deck had a pretty favorable Wind matchup. The next round was called
and my opponent would be Nghia. Everyone knew he was on Turbo Discard Ice. Blue
advised me to try going first and to try to turbo discard him and race him.
 |
| "What are you gonna do, stab me?" - man who was stabbed (by Squall) |
Round 4 vs Nghia (Turbo Discard Ice)
Nghia is all around a fantastic guy, deckbuilder and player.
I always enjoy talking to him and he helps me understand things about Turbo
Discard and matchups. I helped him practice the deck a bit before the SoCal
Crystal Cup and I went 0-10 against it with my Midrange Ice, so I knew the
matchup was bad. There are usually two ways to beat that deck. You either have
to be able to race them like Blue suggested, or you need to be able to
stabilize and crush their weak monsters. I actually had a decent hand to try
and race him and we were even on damage up to the 3rd point. He had
a first turn Squall 6-033H that did most of the damage to me. I fought back and
landed a crucial Shiva 3-032R that would put me ahead in the race. Sadly, he
hit a live Cid Aulstyne EX 3-036H off his damage because I had no cards in hand
after casting a Genesis 3-033L on his third forward. He then hardcasted another
Cid Aulstyne EX 3-036H and that was game. I slowrolled him a bit into thinking
I had another Shiva 3-032R or summon, but I extended my hand instead. We had a
good laugh about the slowroll and Brian looking from the side also laughed and
said Nghia deserved it for playing Discard.
(2-2)
All in all, the game took probably less than 5 minutes. I
could blame the loss on luck, but there were a few decision points where I
could have decided to build up backups instead of racing. Trying to race walked
me into a Genesis 3-033L so I might have needed to switch gameplans there. We
played a few more games which I also got destroyed in and then chatted, but
still had lots of time left in the round. I knew 2 losses, especially a loss at
the beginning, really hurt my chances. Nghia and I both knew that whoever lost
here would probably not make Top 8.
Round 5 vs Russell (Earth/Wind/Dark)
So it’s the last round and I know I just have to win out to
have any chance of Top 8 or to just get more points to make championships at
the end of the season. I sit down and my opponent plays a Semih Lafihna 5-059R
turn one. I know exactly what he is up to and when he played Star Sibyl EX
5-091H, I immediately countered with Celes 4-038L to freeze it for a turn. He
ends up hardcasting the Kam’lanaut 5-148H anyways so I could expect another
high impact forward to be cheesed out next turn. Eald’narche 5-147L ended up
being that forward and I didn’t feel like going to Paradise, so I locked both
of those forwards down with Vayne 2-026L. I turned the corner and my aggression
combined with discard put him on the ropes. He tried to flood the board with
one last hope to survive the turn, but I played out an Orphan 5-029L, cracked
my Devout 1-048C, got Rinoa 6-041L and used Orphan 5-029L again, dulling and
freezing 4 forwards. I played in such a way that I had multiple outs this game,
so I was very satisfied with the way this one ended.
I ended up missing top 8 at 10th place. The loss
in the beginning was probably the killer. I pretty much ended up being in the
same spot as the first TBZ circuit, but I won games in better fashion and with
better knowledge, so I consider that improvement and a win in my book. Max
ended up in the Top 8 with his very cool deck, but fell in the first playoff
series 1-2. I went to trade for a bit, then we ended up leaving and Max and his
girlfriend bought me Cold Stone ice cream. Nothing like ice cream from Mom and Dad
after a tournament!
I ended up meeting up with my own girlfriend (who died a
little inside when she couldn’t come to TBZ due to work) and her friends for
dinner and drinks, but I was exhausted so I wasn’t very talkative. I collapsed
that night (my dog may have thought I died), and then ended up going again to
FFTCG class the next day. 4 straight days of FFTCG: tiring, but awesome. I’m
looking forward to trying out new brews, continuing to improve, and the next
tournaments!
Props:
-The GF as always, for being supportive
-Max and his girlfriend for driving, hanging, out, buying me
ice cream, and just being awesome people
-Everyone who I played, traded, or talked with for being
cool
-Jared for running the tournament by himself and without a
computer (the real MVP)
-Chick-fil-A--enough said
-Improving (thanks to Blue)
-Max’s deck, going 8-0 over locals and this tournament in
Swiss, and placing 5th overall
-Vayne 2-026L
Flops:
-Being tired
-Not finishing all the trades I wanted to do
-Forgetting to buy the FFXIV starter deck at Galaxy
-Not enough A/C at Galaxy
Thanks for reading!
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