Pod 2 has finished. Thanks to everyone who watched! Here’s our VOD:
Watch Keyforge Tournament of Champions Pod 2 from tabletoproyale on www.twitch.tv
Here are the 4 decks:
Ladanian, Asylum Physicist
The Two-Faced Attorney
M. W. Queenhill of the Narrow Mirage
Dr. E. Dezrus
Game Reports
Game 1 – Ladanian vs Two-Face
Ladanian spent the first few turns developing a board with some strong Dis cards like Ember Imp, Tocsin, The Lash of Broken Dreams and Dominator Bauble but these were matched by an even stronger board of Shadows Cards. Deipno Spymaster and Umbra worked for multiple turns in a row, while some Brobnar Giants appeared to wreck up the place. Ladanian struggled to find one of the two copies of Ammonia Clouds that the deck had to clear out the pack of thieves. It did eventually find the clouds, but only after being robbed blind.
Winner: Two-Face
3 Keys to 0
Game 2 – Queenhill vs Dr. ED
Dr. ED started the game off with The Terror, and claimed two aember before Queenhill took the first turn. Queenhill responded with Harlan Mindlock, taking The Terror, and playing a pair of Doc Booktons. One of those Booktons underwent an Experimental Therapy, setting up a powerful reap and draw engine. Queenhill expanded the board position with some resilient Sanctum creatures. ED was able to pick off a few creatures, but was falling behind on board presence.
ED did manage to pick up the first key with a Key Charge, but Queenhill started the next turn by forging a key. ED delivered a large turn, with the combination of Library Access and Wild Wormhole, playing and drawing a lot of cards. The turn didn’t affect the board by enough, and so Queenhill was able to capitulate with a large turn, ending with 10 aember. ED swung back, generating 10 aember of its own and playing a Murmook to tax Queenhill.
Queenhill forged a second key, and managed to threaten the third key. ED responded by forging it’s second key, and played a Charette to keep Queenhill from winning. ED couldn’t threaten back, and so Queenhill generate FIFTEEN aember to set up Super-Check. Ed had one last hope to win the game… activating a Wild Wormhole. It hit a card that didn’t help, and so ED tried another Wormhole and hit… Hysteria and through all of the creatures back into each player’s hand. While hilarious, it didn’t actually stop Queenhill from winning.
Winner: Queenhill
3 Keys to 2
Game 3 – Ladanian vs Queenhill
Facing Elimination, Ladanian was going to have to put on quite the performance to save itself from extinction. Ladanian opened with Tocsin, who promised to cause a lot of pain if not answered swiftly. Queenhill, in fact, dealt with the Tocsin while opening with an impressive five sanctum cards. Ladanian struggled to find a board position over the next few turns, and managed to get things a little more under control with an Ammonia Clouds. Neither deck generated much aember for several turns while trying to establish a board position.
Unfortunately, Ladanian soon found itself with a turn that was essentially discarding three Martian cards with no effect. This put it very far behind, and Queenhill jumped up to 9 aember. A second lackluster turn in a row from Ladanian, essentially put the game too far out of reach. Not even a second Ammonia Clouds could keep Queenhill from forging the third Key.
Winner: Queenhill
3 Keys to 0
Game 4 – Dr. ED vs Two-Face
ED started the game with The Terror again, keeping Two-Face’s Ghostly Hand away from the aember jar. A few more Dis Demons jumped into the fray for ED, who managed to control the board for a few turns and threaten to make a key. Two-face responded with a Bait and Switch, which swung the aember balance hard in the Face’s direction. A Phosphorous Stars stunned all of the demons.
ED was granted Library Access and decided that the best use of his time was to open three Wild Wormholes. ED proceeded to burn through around half of the deck and set up and incredibly impressive board and generate 6 aember. Two-face’s Zorg issued a Champion’s Challenge to clear the board, but was still too groggy from being summoned to fight the remaining creature. A few Brobnar giants jumped into the fray looking to pick off anyone left alive. With Charette’s Death, Two-face was no threatening to forge a key.
ED forged a key at the start of the next turn and then followed that up with a Dust Pixie giving it enough to Key Charge and forge the second key immediately. Two-face forged its first key and began to slowly take over the board. A Sneklifter took ED’s pocket universe, and a Skeleton Key chipped away at the aember ED needed to win. Two-face quickly forged his second key after that due to the large board presence it possessed.
ED used Vigor and a Dust Pixie to put Two-face into check. Two-face’s Shadows cards produced a Nerve Blast to keep ED from winning. The Skeleton Key once again locked away more aember, but Two-face was one aember away from check. ED followed up by going to 7 aember. This time, Two-face was short on answers.
Winner: Dr. ED
3 Keys to 2
Game 5 – Ladanian vs Dr. ED
Ladanian was left trying to avoid being put into the Worst of the Worst bracket, and was desperately trying to forge a key. Ladanian assembled a respectable board, but did not generate a lot of aember doing so. ED used a combination of Pit Demon and The Terror to burst up to 6 aember. Ladanian continued to expand it’s board presence while ED forged it’s first key. A mass Hysteria disrupted Ladanian’s plans of setting up, and Ladanian was never quite able to recover. A turn of Full Moon, two Dust Pixies and a Key Charge sealed the game.
Winner: ED
3 Keys to 0
Game 6 – Queenhill vs Two-face
Could Queenhill sweep the pod? Can Two-Face make the cut? Queenhill started the game with the dreaded combination of Champion Anaphiel and Bulwark. Two-Face deployed several large Brobnar creatures. After the dust settled, the giants and knights had all but eliminated each other. The board remained relatively controlled over the next few turns. At one point, the only creatures on the board were the Bad Penny sisters. The sisters were outclassed when twin Zorgs showed up.
Queenhill forged the first key the turn before Two-face did. Two-face followed up forging the key by jumping up to 5 aember on the back of a Ghostly Hand and some work from a Seeker Needle. Queenhill brought a lot of Sanctum and Logos creatures into the fray who were met be just a handful of Martians. Two-face did manage to generate enough aember to threaten again, which Queenhill could not stop. Two-face immediately threatened again on the back of its Shadow cards again, and Queenhill used Sequis to stop the check. Unfortunately, Two-face just accumulated a pile of Aember on the following turn to threaten again.
Winner: Two-face
3 Keys to 1
Final Results
The Two-Faced Attorney – *Advancing*
2 Wins – 1 Loss
When this deck is playing the Shadows portion, it is typically winning by a landslide. The Mars part really wants to combo, and so there will be draws where it will feel clunky. The Brobnar part of the deck is well-adapted to keeping the opponent’s creatures off the table. There is a lot of aember disruption in this deck, and it is good at keeping the opponent on the back foot.
Queenhill – *Advancing*
2 Wins – 1 Loss
This deck is very good at securing the board through it’s Sanctum creatures. The Experimental Therapies are at their best on the Logos creatures in this deck, and can generate a lot of advantage if left unchecked. The deck’s loss in this bracket could be attributed to the fact that both Bad Pennies were drawn and kept clogging up the hand when they died. One of the skill testing things would be deciding when to discard them. The deck is not short on removal, as both the Logos and Shadows sides have multiple ways to deal with small creatures. A solid deck with a lot of answers.
Dr. E. Dezrus – *Advancing*
2 Wins – 1 Loss
The Doctor is in! This deck is weird, but it can win games. It contains a lot of powerful cards and can burn through it’s deck extremely quickly when Library Access and Wild Wormholes are combined. The Untamed section’s Key Charge put games out of reach while the Vigor’s generated a lot of aember. The big downside is that there is only one board wipe in the deck. Dr.’s creatures are not particularly great at fighting, and it found itself really wanting to clear boards that it got behind on. The deck has a crazy amount of aember that it can generate by just playing cards, and three copies of The Terror often means that this deck likes going first to take advantage of the opponent having no aember.
Ladanian – *Relegated to WOTW*
0 Wins – 3 Losses
One can’t help but feel that this deck was outclassed in every match-up tonight. We were initially bullish on this deck because of it’s performance in our pre-streaming playtesting. In those games it was capable of generating a prison-like board. However, it never came close to delivering that type of performance in these games, nor was it able to forge a key. One of the major weaknesses in this deck was it’s lack of aember on cards that are played. It relies heavily on its creatures to generate aember, and tonight proved that some decks just won’t give you time to do that.
If you only watch one game: Game 4 Dr ED vs Two-Face
Known Errors: This is a big one, Key Hammer gives your opponent the 6 aember even if you don’t destroy a key with it. Also remember to draw extra cards if your opponent has played Howling Pit. Staunch Knight was also hamstrung by his controller multiple times tonight, so remember that he wants to stay on the flank.
Meta Info: Tonight’s games evened the score between Nathan and Justin, who are sitting at six wins each. The First and Second player is also tied at 6-6. We’re going to start tracking mulligan data as well, so while incomplete, we’ll have some of that information in the coming weeks.
Tabletop Royale 