For this pod, we had some underpowered decks that would probably have been slaughtered in other pods. As always, there were some good games and some games that weren’t as close. 

Watch Keyforge Tournament of Champions Pod 9 from tabletoproyale on www.twitch.tv

Here are the Deck Lists:
I. Wozzie, the Burg Tidebreaker
Provost Skatvex Byrne
K. Goss, Everboard’s Bald Savant
Dagmar, Harbor Squire

Game Results

Game 1 – Wozzie vs Skatvex

One Sentence Summary: Despite the final score, Skatvex was mostly outclassed in this game.

Card of the Match: Phosphorous Stars
This card helped Wozzie close out the game. It locked down the board at a key time to keep Skatvex from climbing back in.

Notable Event: Miasma bought valuable time late in the game and then Phosphorous Stars sealed it far, far away.

Winner: Wozzie
3 Keys to 2

Game 2 – Goss vs Dagmar

OSS: Goss found an incremental advantage and pressed it for maximum gain.

COTM: Grabber Jammer
This card taxed Dagmar enough throughout the game. Without it, this game would have been extremely close. I’ve highlighted this card before, but it can’t be understated how clutch it is.

NE: There were quite a few turns that were extremely swing-y in the middle of the game. It’s probable that the Total Recall played in the middle of the game was a play mistake, but Dagmar needed a boost of aember to try to win.

Winner: Goss
3 Keys to 1

Game 3 – Wozzie vs Goss

OSS: The early game went in Wozzie’s direction, but Goss had too much gas.

COTM: Virtuous Works
To win the game, you have to forge keys. To forge keys, you need aember. This card generates aember. This is an understatement.

NE: A Battle Fleet set up several powerful turns for Goss. This forced Wozzie to be on the defensive and gave Goss a lot of momentum. Wozzie still almost won if it hadn’t been for Grabber Jammer.

Winner: Goss
3 Keys to 2

Game 4 – Skatvex vs Dagmar

OSS: Skatvex drew and played cards, but could hardly call what it did “playing Keyforge.”

COTM: Charette
This is another in a series of cards that stop your opponent from winning. This stopped Skatvex from scoring keys early and kept the game far out of reach.

NE: Drumble tried to play hero, but he really wants some friends to protect him.

Winner: Dagmar
3 Keys to 1

Game 5 – Wozzie vs Dagmar

OSS: Dagmar dug his own grave, and Wozzie filled it with the bodies of his own creatures.

COTM: Soul Snatcher
This card won the game… for the opponent. This card has been featured in a lot of our decks and it seems better suited for some decks than others. Truly a difficult card to judge, and can look way worse two turns after it has been played.

NE: Dagmar played a Soul Snatcher, and the game degenerated from there. The game pulled a 180 after it was played.

Winner: Wozzie
3 Keys to 2

Game 6 – Skatvex vs Goss

OSS: Skatvex never felt as if it was going to completely lose this game, due to the “hate” cards landing.

COTM: Dextre
Dextre kept Skatvex from forging multiple times throughout the game. This card is bad in some situations, and incredible in others. This was a good game for the cyborg.

NE: Drumble once again tried to win an unwinnable game, but needed some help from friends. Drumble was bolted to death, and dying with him, Skatvex’s chance at winning.

Winner: Goss
3 Keys to 1

Final Results

K. Goss, Everboard’s Bald Savant – *Advancing*
This deck benefited from playing in a weak pod, but it had the ability to generate an unfair amount of aember out of nowhere. The opponent has to play around multiple Cleansing Waves or be completely blown out. The Mars in this deck performs quite well and Battle Fleet is just a great card. The primary strength of this deck was its ability to generate a lot of extra cards. The deck was quite efficient at cycling, so even though it was light on creatures, it was able to draw to them very quickly. Even though it didn’t happen during this stream,  Quixo and Brain Stem Antenna did a lot of damage on an earlier stream. The deck also has just enough aember control to make the opponent work to forge keys. 

I. Wozzie, the Burg Tidebreaker – *Advancing*
This deck has a brutally controlling Shadows portion that can buy a lot of time to swing close games. The Mars in this deck is a bit of a mess, but does include a lot of individually powerful cards with the potential to cause a lot of havoc if they get to work together. The Brobnar is good at killing creatures of all sizes and will often reward you with aember for doing so. This deck has all the pieces it needs to stay competitive, even if the deck is not that efficient. 

Dagmar, Harbor Squire – *Eliminated*
This deck was a perennial under-performer before we started this project, and lived up to our tempered expectations with its performance here. This deck is a few cards away from being great, since it could potentially generate a lot of aember with Soul Catcher and the multiple boards clears that is has. If this deck had Dust Imp or Battle Fleet, all of the math would change. Alas, this is Keyforge and such speculation is almost pointless. The Sanctum portion of this deck is pretty solid, and does a decent job of establishing a board. The Mothership Supports in Mars look particularly bad with only four total Mars creatures. Double Motherguns have some value, especially if combined with Total Recall. Grabber Jammer doesn’t really like to be recalled, but is at least a good creature. The Dis doesn’t quite do enough, but Fear does combo nicely with Lifeward. In summary, Dagmar is a middle to low tier deck that finished about where it should have.

Provost Skatvex Byrne – *Relegated to WOTW*
This deck is a mess. It has a lot of conditional cards that are dead in a lot of situations. Even when these cards hit, it isn’t enough to win the game. This deck also likes to shackle itself with a lot of chains, and it doesn’t have a good way to get that card advantage back. The Untamed portion of this deck is just a mess. The Dis side is good at murdering creatures and preventing you from drawing cards. The Brobnar portion is missing ways to get your creatures to fight immediately. This is potentially the worst deck played on the stream so far and I’m excited to see if it can take the crown for Worst of the Worst.

Known Errors: Its easy to forget to draw extra cards with Mother. Phosphorous Stars stuns all non-Mars creatures, including your own. Justin did get an aember from reaping with a creature that should have been stunned from his own Titan Mechanic.

Meta Info: Justin and Nathan are tied at 27 wins each. Though first and second split tonight, first is behind in the total score at 25 wins to second’s 29 wins.