We are 1/5th of the way through Round 1 of the Tournament of Champions
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Here are the Deck Lists:
Sov Wornvector Parmesan
Solphant Godfrey, the Feral and Delicate
X. DuMorn, Starlake’s Deceptive King
L. P. Yuzbek of the Earthy Glacier
Game Results
Game 1 – Parmesan vs Godfrey
One Sentence Summary: Despite Godfrey jumping to an early lead, Parmesan strangled Godfrey with the help of some torturous demons.
Card of the Match: Control the Weak
This card can skip your opponent’s turn when timed correctly. It can also be used defensively to make sure that your opponent can’t stop you from forging a key.
Notable Event: Back to back Control the Weak essentially skipped two turns, right before Godfrey could try to get away with the game.
Winner: Parmesan
3 Keys to 1
Game 2 – DuMorn vs Yuzbek
OSS: There was a lot of back and forth in this game, and a few key tempo cards bought the necessary time for DuMorn to win.
COTM: Old Bruno
He was played early in the match, but Old Bruno is essentially a better Charette. He stopped a key from forging earlier in the match, and that loss of tempo carried throughout the rest of the game.
NE: Control the Weak was played against DuMorn, naming Logos. This was the worst possible result, and DuMorn was able to get check because of it.
Winner: DuMorn
3 Keys to 2
Game 3 – Parmesan vs DuMorn
OSS: Parmesan sent wave after wave of Martians, Demons and Knights until DuMorn hit his preset kill limit.
COTM: Psychic Network
This brutal Martian card is the reason to kill every small, green man that steps in front of an Ancient bear. This card stole three aember, which is basically one of the best results that you could hope for from Bait and Switch.
NE: A double Battlefleet turn from Parmesan power several turns in a row, and proved to be too much advantage to overcome. A Neutron Shark needed to hit multiple times in a row to even up the game, but did not.
Winner: Parmesan
3 Keys to 1
Game 4 – Godfrey vs Yuzbek
OSS: Godfrey made the best use of the cards in hand, and found a way to win despite having lots of creatures destroyed.
COTM: Whispering Reliquary
This is a subtle card. It can provide a way to keep your opponent from using their artifacts, or it can be used on your artifacts to get the aember play bonus again.
NE: Godfrey closed out the game by using two Whispering Reliquaries to bounce and replay the Sigil of Brotherhood to get enough aember to forge a key past a Murmook.
Winner: Godfrey
3 Keys to 2
Game 5 – Parmesan vs Yuzbek
OSS: Yuzbek almost capitalized against a few weak turns from Parmesan, but Parmesan was able to seal the deal.
COTM: Uxlyx the Zookeeper
This card is oppressive if left unchecked. He gains aember while removing opposing creatures, which is about as much as you can ask from a single card.
NE: A big turn from Yuzbek involved slamming Annihilation Ritual right before Gateway to Dis removed a large portion of Parmesan’s creatures from the game. This was almost enough to swing the game back around for Yuzbek.
Winner: Parmesan
3 Keys to 2
Game 6 – Godfrey vs DuMorn
OSS: A close game decided by a big gamble.
COTM: Total Recall
This card swings for the fences. This card can provide a huge amount of aember on a full board, but will set you up to be blown out by a lot of different cards.
NE: Godfrey played a Total Recall to generate 6 aember for an 11 aember total pool.
Winner: Godfrey
3 Keys to 2
Final Results:
Sov Wornvector Parmesan – *Advancing*
3 Wins – 0 Losses
The triple Control the Weak in this deck is just pure agony to play against. There were multiple times tonight where Parmesan was playing Keyforge while the opponent was not playing the game. Epic Quest is not great in this deck, since the archive is heavily used by the Martian side to abduct problem creatures. Battle Fleet has a massive upside, and can create turns that completely wreck. The Martians in this deck are all high priority targets and if they are left alive will dominate a game. The Dis creatures are similarly problematic since Ember Imp and Succubus demand immediate answers or they strangle your opponent’s resources.
Solphant Godfrey, the Feral and Delicate – *Advancing*
2 Wins – 1 Loss
This deck seems to be a solid mid-tier deck. It is a little light on creatures, but the creatures here are very good. The Banner of Battle from Brobnar makes this deck’s large creatures even larger. Protect the Weak is particularly good on a Troll, and the extra taunt helps protect the dainty Martians. The deck has a goofy combo with the 2 copies of Whispering Reliquary and Sigil of Brotherhood. Each of those cards are useful on their own, but can combine to generate some extra aember throughout the course of a game.
X. DuMorn, Starlake’s Deceptive King – *Eliminated*
1 Win – 2 Losses
This deck feels like it is missing one or two cards to be really good. The Untamed Creatures in this deck underwhelm, but at least provide Full Moon with plenty of value. Mimicry is the best action your opponent has played so far. The deck has the potential to steal vast amounts of your opponents aember, between the Batdrones and some of the Shadows cards. However, this deck did not battle for the board very well. Neutron Shark never quite kills as many things as you need it to, and the vast majority of the deck dies to Ammonia Clouds.
L. P. Yuzbek of the Earthy Glacier – *Relegated to WotW*
0 Wins – 3 Losses
This deck has a lot of anti-synergy in the cards present. It will bury itself in chains, but doesn’t have a way to draw out of that. Only the Untamed portion of this deck has a sizable portion of creatures, but they are prone to getting themselves killed. Fear was discarded often, since it was in a hand with Gateway to Dis quite often. But, the deck isn’t all bad. It can generate a decent amount of aember, and packs multiple ways to wipe the board. This deck probably has some good match-ups out there, just not in this pod.
Known Errors: There was a spirited debate on how Neutron Shark works, and we arrived at the correct decision eventually. If Neutron Shark kills itself, the effect does not continue after it’s death.
Meta Info: Justin benefited from playing the best deck for the night twice, while Nathan had to play the worst deck twice. Justin has taken a lead in the series, 16 to 14. Playing first (14 wins) has slipped behind going second (16 wins).
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