Deck

Rajah Nethqui Terentius (a.k.a. Rajah)

After 2 years of taking Dama to the big tournaments, I felt I needed a different deck to face Grim Reminders. I bought Rajah from Joelker at the start of the year, after some testing. The deck won games, but I also enjoyed playing it. I felt I could always win games with the tools it has: 3 different cards of artifact control, Mimicry, key cheat, and up to 6 amber stolen/capture turns.

Round 1 - Loss (0-1)

Daphne Wilson, Prodigio de Knockyard

(Eduardo Arrondo)

I started the tournament by meeting Eduardo, the most active Spanish player on Twitter. It felt like a decent matchup against Rajah, but 3 Control the Weaks scares any player. And my deck tends to be quite choreographed late game. 

The first CTW wasn't very effective, but my opponent raced ahead with the first two keys before I forged any. I was able to control the board, and eventually had most of my untamed archived, but was missing one Haunting Witch.

But another CTW stalled me, while they raced ahead to the third key. I couldn't stop it and burst for my second and third key at the same time. So I lost.

Round 2 - Win (1-1)

M. O. Fontaine, Nómada de la Amatista

This seems like a hard deck to read. It wasn't clear to me how the matchup would play out. It looked fast, once it had all the artifacts in play. 

I started playing Eqwidon turns, and they started with Geistoid and the Island of Misfit Toys. Their deck never seems to become haunted, and I use the Incarnation Pod to delay it. After some turns, I was able to steal with Uncommon Currency, because they never had more than 2 Geistoids cards in discard to use it. 

After that, I was able to quickly do all my setup with a Geistoid + Island turn, making sure I could end the game next turn. The Beanstalk came late, and no Cauldron was played.

Round 3 - Win (2-1)

Virreina “Gula” Song

(martins dtae)

A fast Heart of the Forest deck, with plenty artifact control. 

During the game, it never had much board presence. It archived a lot, but had to pull the archive often too, to try to answer my board and my amber gain. They had a small Neutron Shark turn too. 

Even without my archiving setup, I was ahead in board, amber, and keys. I purged the Heart as soon as it was played. And with little amber control on their side, my third key went through.

Round 4 - Win (3-1)

Just like last year, I got a free game win. This time it was a player that dropped the event.

Round 5 - Win (4-1)

Nehemiah el Titán de la Campiña

(bf_yiya from Beerforge)

The deck didn't look too strong, but it had made it this far, so I knew it had tricks. Snag’s Mirror didn't show up. Most of the board control came early, meaning nothing was left for my big untamed turn after Winds of Death. The Logos did provide tons of speed in 2 big turns. 

Two Infurnaces + Mimic Gel were played but critically, they didn't purge any key pieces (which don't have amber pips). Maybe the game could have ended differently if I lost the Haunting Witches and Spookey Charge. Therefore, I ended the game with Spookey Charge and plenty of amber.

TOP 8 Play-In - Loss (4-2)

Alfar „Das Ass“, Seelsorger der Kirche

(Lorenzo from Hamburg Atlanteans)

I finished the Swiss Rounds 4-1, but there were too many 4-1 players for the TOP 8. Two play-in games were necessary. My Strength of Schedule was the worst of all 4-1 players (losing the first game never helps). So I played against the strongest 4-1 not already qualified, who was Lorenzo. 

I knew it would be a tough game, but I never stood a chance against the amazing draw Lorenzo had. 

I started well with a strong Uncommon Currency + Shopping Spree first turns. I discarded a good chunk of Eqwidon and stole the Lash of Broken Dreams, even with an Ember Imp on the board. I drew the answer to Ember Imp next turn, plus a hand full of Geistoid. 

But Lorenzo had a huge Library Access turn 2, including Wild Wormhole to Control the Weak for Eqwidon, which was a dead next turn for me. He finished the turn with around 8 amber, forged, and did a strong Dis turn next, reaping and killing a dust imp, for a 7 amber check. 

I played a 7 card Geistoid turn, killing the Ember Imp, but not finding Winds of Death (wouldn't matter), and missing the Hallowed Eve Festival completely, letting him forge for 6. Then he did a 6-card Untamed turn with Full Moon, 2 Hunting Witches, Dust Pixie, and Nature's Call. That sealed the game, too much amber for me to handle.