Pod 4 was unlike a lot of the other pods that we have run. We encountered our very first hard control deck, and we also got to play with some decks with wacky combos. One of the decks that had the worst performance was one of the more fun decks to play. This batch of games really show off the depths of experience that you can have while playing KeyForge.
Watch Keyforge Tournament of Champions POD 4! from tabletoproyale on www.twitch.tv
Here are the four decks for tonight:
Harlephis Jhe-Moreton, Footman
Thor, Caves God-Queen
The Imaginative Auditor
The Naturalist who Camouflages Breakfast
Game Reports
Game 1 – Harlephis vs Thor
One Sentence Summary: Thor stole a pile of aember from Harlephis, and ran away with the game.
Card of the Match: The Sting
A really interesting card, that can generate a lot of aember. There aren’t many cards that have a chance to give you six or more aember. Tricky to use, but extremely powerful. Combos with Key Charge.
Notable Event: A brutal double Cooperative Hunting turn put the game out of reach.
Winner: Thor
3 Keys to 1
Game 2 – Auditor vs Naturalist
OSS: The longest game played on stream up to this point featured a lot of chains, a lot of cards drawn and lots of aember destroyed.
COTM: Mother
This card generates a lot of advantage over the course of a game if it is left unchecked.
NE: At 45 minutes, this game was chock full of events. One lucky event for Auditor: played 2 Library Access in a single turn by reshuffling and hitting it on a draw from the fresh deck.
Winner: Naturalist
3 Keys to 1
Game 3 – Harlephis vs Auditor
OSS: Despite pulling ahead early in the game, Auditor was just a turn short from beating Harlephis.
COTM: Epic Quest.
This card didn’t win the game, but it is a ton of fun.
NE: The Martians almost took over the board, but a Gateway to Dis stopped their invasion plans.
Winner: Harlephis
3 Keys to 2
Game 4 – Thor vs Naturalist
OSS: Naturalist dismantled Thor’s plans on every single occasion.
COTM: Effervescent Principle.
When timed correctly, this card absolutely demolishes. Lash of Broken Dreams and Effervescent Principle work well together.
NE: Naturalist destroyed around fifteen aember through various means.
Winner: Naturalist
3 Keys to 0
Game 5 – Harlephis vs Naturalist
OSS: Naturalist did to Harlephis what it did to Thor.
COTM: Lash of Broken Dreams
This card just wins games. It stopped Harlephis from forging multiple turns in a row, demolishing all hope of trying to win the game.
NE: There was a funny turn were Pawn Sacrifice was almost played by Harlephis to wipe out all of his own creatures to gain a single aember.
Winner: Naturalist
3 Keys to 0
Game 6 – Thor vs Auditor
OSS: After trading keys back and forth, some thieves stole the game for Thor.
COTM: Umbra
Lots of cards played lots of roles in this game, but this is an unsung hero. Umbra did a lot of damage and stole a lot of aember towards the end of the game. There were lots of other threats on the board, and so Umbra was able to avoid a lot of scrutiny and did a lot of disruption.
NE: Auditor completed the Epic Quest again, but still lost the game.
Winner: Thor
3 Keys to 2
Final Results:
The Naturalist who Camouflages Breakfast – *Advancing*
3 Wins – 0 Losses
The performance of this deck was one of the most dominant that we’ve seen. The aember control and board control present in this deck is simply brutal. This deck worked like a classic MTG control deck. Clear any board your opponent had an advantage on, stop their win conditions and draw extra cards. This deck is pure oppression. The fact that it spent most of the night with chains didn’t stop it. The only downside of this deck is the amount of time that it takes to win a game. It doesn’t generate aember very quickly, and so it takes a long time to close out a game.
Thor, Caves God-Queen – *Advancing*
2 Wins – 1 Loss
This was an exciting deck, and it had the potential for big plays. The combination of The Sting, Chota Hazri and Key Charge can make it difficult to stop this deck from forging keys through aember disruption. The Shadows portion offers just enough disruption to make sure that opponents don’t run away with the game. The Sanctum portion is just filled to the brim with creatures, and that works hand in hand with the Untamed Portion. Thor does a good job of controlling the board, and does a good job of forging keys.
Harlephis Jhe-Moreton, Footman – *Eliminated*
1 Win – 2 Losses
Harlephis is deck that is fighting against itself. It is missing a few intangible elements to make it consistent and a contender. The Mars portion probably has too many Martians, and not enough helper actions, like Squawker and Soft Landing. The Shadows portion of this deck is underwhelming compared to others that we’ve played on stream. Carlo Phantom looks particularly bad in this deck, since there is ONE! artifact. The Sanctum portion does a solid job of fighting for the board, and Mantle of the Zealot is a great card. This deck’s performance could be attributed to draws. The deck was never able to assemble any of the crazy possibilities like Bulleteye with Mantle of the Zealot or Skeleton Key and Yxili Marauder.
The Imaginative Auditor – *Relegated to WotW*
0 Wins – 3 Losses
This deck was a blast to play, even though it lost all of its games. It did come really close to winning two of the games it played, and seemed to be able to complete Epic Quest reliably. There is some powerful synergy in this deck, and there could be a game where the Auditor pulls off a back to back turn of Knowledge is Power with a bunch of knights archived and follows that up by completing Epic Quest. This deck could probably perform better with more experience.
If you only watch one game: Game 3 – Harlephis vs Auditor
If you only watch one more: Game 6 – Thor vs Auditor
Known Errors: CHAINS CHAINS CHAINS.
There were a lot of chains thrown around this session, and there were a couple of times that players drew extra cards. This got particularly tricky with the amount of Mothers that were played. We’re trying to make sure that we keep better track of our chains.
Several cards tonight made a differentiation between flank and non-flank creatures. Booby Trap initially targets a non-flank. Positron targets a flank. These weren’t necessarily played wrong on stream, but they are worth remembering.
One question that was brought up during play was about upgrades. Could you play an upgrade when there are no creatures in play to get the aember bonus? The rules state that if an upgrade cannot attach to a card in play, it can’t come into play.
Meta Info: This night brought things back to perfectly balanced, as all things should be. Both Nathan and going first managed to even the scores.
Justin: 12 Wins
Nathan: 12 Wins
Going First: 12 Wins
Going Second: 12 Wins
Tabletop Royale 
you are probably better at keeping track of chains by now, but I track chains by putting tokens *on top of my deck* so they are impossible to miss when drawing as I have to physically pick up the tokens to draw
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