Weekly Tournament - August 5th - Tripendency - Unupgraded

[shockcannon]

shockcannon: 2
TheonlyrealBeef: 1

[Submachine]

Submachine 2 - 1 ARTHANASIOS

Ggs!

[deuce22]

deuce22 2-1 wyand

[Submachine]

Submachine 2 - 1 shockcannon

He had bad hand in game 3.

[Wyand]

Wyand 2
Submachine 1

ggs!

[deuce22]

deuce 2-1 wyand

[Wyand]

Well, I write my post later, need to clear my head a bit, always a bridesmaid, never a bride, lady luck may kiss my toes.

[Submachine]

We can post decks now, right?

Spoiler for Decks:

Gases Nymphs

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5f6 5f6 5f6 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5i7 5i7 5ib 5ib 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5on 5on 5p0 5p0 5p0 5p0 8pr

The first idea that came to my mind when I sketched the quanta balance of the tournament. One element will heavily receive quanta while the others are mainly there for support. And what better choice for a quanta sink than Blue Nymphs? "Gaseous" in the title is intentionally incorrect. :P

I don't take trio tournaments seriously, so I thought I'd use this deck and maybe two others and see how far I get. The other decks were the following:

Stallbreaker

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5f6 5f6 5f6 5fb 5fb 5fb 5fb 5fb 5fb 5ii 5ii 5ii 5ii 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 61q 61r 621 621 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 8po

I built this deck to have something against reflective shields. After our duel with ARTH, I noticed that I only packed two Quintessences, so I didn't use this deck afterwards.

BB Rush Thing?

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58o 58o 595 595 595 595 595 595 59c 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5i9 5ie 5ie 5ie 5ie 5ie 5ie 5oc 5ol 5pu 5pu 5pu 5pu 5pu 5pu 8pp

And this is the last deck I built pre-tournament. It didn't have PC, so I didn't plan to use it at all, but in the end I used it twice and won both of those games.

Now come the decks I built during tournament.

A Fifth Nymph!

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5fb 5fb 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5p0 5p0 5p0 5p0 5p0 61q 61q 621 621 621 621 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 8pr

Something I put together after our duel with deuce. I should have changed the Rage Potions to Deflagrations, but eh. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ It won twice, so it's all good.

The "other decks" I built were just minor modifications of the above decks. For example, replacing 2-4 cards with something else.

Spoiler for About Balance:

The basic premise is that you have one main element and two support elements, which are mainly powered by Pendulums only. For the support elements, you initially draw X Pendulums (Pillars are less likely). As an example, 4 Pendulums of two elements are most likely drawn in a 1-3 or a 0-4 ratio, which makes one of your elements starve. You can also draw more non-quanta cards for your starving element than what you have quanta for.

The following table shows how your initial Pendulum draws affect how fast you can play a support card that costs 4 quanta:

Starting Pendulums	Turns to Play 4-Cost Support Card
4	2 (if this happens, then your other support element probably starves)
3	4 (another scenario where your other support element probably starves)
2	4 (optimal)
1	8

The above theory reflected during my minimal testing and during the tournament too. So the basic premise came with a higher chance of bad draws than usually.

This was among the first things I noticed, and probably that's why I didn't take prepping seriously.

Spoiler for And about card balance:

Blue Nymphs were such obvious go-to cards that most people either used it or packed reflective shields, even the speedbuilders. I think banning it would have erased 50% of seen decks and replaced them with more diverse, colorful decks.

For what I had, I came pretty far and almost ended in 2nd place.

Decks I would like to see are of ARTHANASIOS, deuce22, and Wyand.

[Wyand]

Another interesting and exciting tournament. Another useless 5000 electrums.


2-1 against TheonlyrealBeef

1-0 Vader Sader Special

Spoiler for Hidden:

TorB played a Farty Nymph deck, but luckily didn't draw early fire pend. So my crusaders marched through the stinkies.

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55q 55q 55q 576 576 576 576 576 576 5ll 5ll 5ll 5ll 5ll 5ll 5uo 5uo 5up 5up 5ur 5ur 5ur 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 8pq

1-1 Lava Golem/Darkness

Spoiler for Hidden:

TorB's next choice was a firestallish deck with lightning flavor. So 4 of my golems died without growing.
1 of the Gargoyles also joined them.  The other 2 golems got hidden at the bottom of the deck. Until
I got bored and eventually lost my concentration. Kinda felt that it is a matter of time and I'll lose.
So I stupidly threw away my Steals on TorB's pends. After that he played out his Fahrenheit. Stupid me
stayed in this stupor and forgot to play out my Dusk. Had 2 Dusks, while TorB only 1 Deflag. Eh.
I'm not saying I would win, but *maybe*. Nvm, final game.

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5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5fa 5fa 5fa 5fa 5fa 5fa 5uo 5uo 5up 5up 5up 5ur 5ur 5uv 5uv 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 8po

2-1 Frozen Catatitans

Spoiler for Hidden:

I was a bit relieved when TorB stated the with his draw he doesn't have much chance against my deck of choice.
But things went quite bad, since the first half of my deck contained only one Titan. So I got stuck, and knew that
I won't have enough dmg, his creatures will eventually eat up my hp. But luckily got another Titan, and won the
game in the nick of time. Btw, he played a voodoo doll deck with some extra Auburn Nymphs if I recall correctly.

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55s 55s 55s 55s 55s 55s 561 561 561 5i7 5i7 5i7 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5oi 5oi 5oi 5oi 5oi 5oi 5pu 5pu 5pu 5pu 5pu 5pu 5pu 8pl

Well done.

1-2 against Deuce22

Well if Deuce says that I had bad draws in game 1 & 3 then...

0-1 Rustler, Dragons, PU

Spoiler for Hidden:

Had quite a good draw, but we got dc'd... So he was able to beat the stupid AI who kept PUing his blue nymphs
instead of my dragons. We had to replay, since I also beat his AI. My usual tourney luck dictated that I should
have a bad hand in the replay. And indeed...

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5bt 5bt 5bt 5bt 5bt 5bt 5bv 5bv 5bv 5bv 5bv 5bv 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 61r 61r 61r 61r 8pu

1-1 Lava Golem/Fire Eater

Spoiler for Hidden:

Everything went well. Got my deflag in hand, so I could evaporate his Eternity once he played it out.  After that everything was easy-peasy.

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55t 55t 55u 55u 55u 55u 55u 55u 576 576 576 576 576 576 576 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5f6 5f6 5fa 5fa 5fa 5fa 5fa 5fa 8po

1-2 Vader Sader Special ver 2

Spoiler for Hidden:

It isn't easy to play this deck without vagger... Had 3 of them, all of them conveniently tucked away
in the deepest reaches of my deck. Didn't draw a single one in this game. And water is liquid apparently.

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5c7 5c7 5c7 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5ll 5ll 5ll 5ll 5ll 5ll 5uo 5uo 5up 5up 5ur 5ur 5ur 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 8pq

2-1 against Submachine

1-0 Carbo Activatus

Spoiler for Hidden:

I lovingly named this deck Carbo Activatus, since it is a substance which solves flatulence problems.
I speedbuilt it while waiting to Submachine, and I couldn't wipe the smirk off my face while playing it out.
Sorry about trolling but seeing that both TorB and Deuce favored it... I thought you'll try to use this megaweapon
against me as well. Originally I considered using an ug-deck, but alas, I have only one Blue Nymph! So I've built a Steam Machine/ug
deck instead of that, but didn't use it in this tourney.  Submachine claimed that with a better draw he would have been able to win.
Maybe, we will test it out.

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5f6 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5uo 5uo 5up 5up 5up 5up 5ur 5ur 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 61q 61q 61q 61r 61r 61r 8pu

1-1 Lava Golem/Fire Eater

Spoiler for Hidden:

First he played inflating Nymphs and now he played inflating fishies. After seeing the water
mark I knew that I'll be in a treat CC-wise. Being poisoned and constantly BB'd is really a treat!
I would say I had an average draw, would have needed a very very good draw to win.

2-1 Sadist Deck

Spoiler for Hidden:

Haha, I started to write this phrase in Hungarian... So... I thought the he will go back to his Farty deck, so
I employed this funny deck. At least I hoped that he will play creatures. If he plays creatures everything is well...
And luckily he played Farties, so the pretty blue chili-lover girlie got quinted/SoW'd instantly. And there went a Reflection Shield as well.
Sorry for the 2nd trolling!

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5f6 5f6 5f7 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5lg 5lg 5lg 5lg 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 621 621 621 621 621 62m 62m 62m 62m 62m 62m 8pu

1-2 against Deuce22

Dèja Vu. And no, not the creature. The result...

0-1 Sadist Deck

Spoiler for Hidden:

I must say that Deuce absolutely correctly anticipated that I'll go anti-ug. So we were just waited and waited
and waited to something happen. Then happened. A few cards before my deckout he played a Black Dragon and
fractalled it plus I got a few Drain Lifes into my face. Before that he softened me with the 2-card darkness stall: Dusk+Vagger. RIP.

1-1 Sadist Deck - Less Passive Version

Spoiler for Hidden:

I figured that he may think that I'll forget this deck and he'll play ug's again. So I reinforced the deck with 2 psions - in case of
he isn't choosing ug deck. And yep, he didn't choose ug, played a purple nymph stall. It wasn't obvious since we watched
again each other doing nothing except playing pillars/pends. I had to throw away quite a few Quints and Refl. Shields,
and had to wait a lot (only 8 cards left) get the Psion. 28|4 is nice. After that he played the quinted Purple Nymphs,
but it was only cosmetic.

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5f6 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5lg 5lg 5lg 5lg 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 621 621 621 621 621 625 625 62m 62m 62m 62m 62m 62m 8pu

1-2 Lava Golem/Darkness

Spoiler for Hidden:

Pondered a lot what to play. I had time since Deuce went 'missing' (having a lunch). Ultimately I waited for him for 15 mins,
and kinda felt bad about being a good guy again and not an "a rule is a rule!" not-to-gentlemen-like-player. Nah, I wanted
to win by playing, not by using a rule! (And we kinda discussed it after the match, so no harm done.) But Lady Luck turned me
down again. Obviously Deuce had a 4-leaf clover salad for lunch. I had 15 pends in my deck and draw only 1!!!!! Had only
4 pends til the half of my deck. Very, very frustrating. He played a firestallish deck, maybe even used a Miracle (the only one in his deck) -
I'm not sure about this, the memories of the last game are really hazy. Should have played Frozen Catatitans... which I didn't chose since
that deck contains only 13 pends for 31 cards and I feared about my luck. Well, thank you! This deck: 15 pends for 30 cards. Luck... You... are... no... LADY!

I hope that someone reads my rantings. I enjoy writing them.

[shockcannon]

If we could have a no-nymph tournament sometime in the near future that would be nice. I get people worked hard for them and it should give an advantage, but after facing nymphs in around 70% of my games the past couple tournaments, it's kind of annoying to have to play anti-nymph decks every game when I have so many other cool decks I want to try. I don't think I would consider them game-breaking to the point where you have to ban them, but I don't want them dominating the meta every week there isn't a super restricting ruleset like "speedbuilding out of 49 given cards."

[Manuel]

banning all nymphs by default is like banning shards by default years ago, in most case u ban 11 cards for nothing rather than ban a single one

also it was really broken in an unupped tournament where not only u are forced to play a trio, u are also forced to play splitted pends? blue nymph is hard to fuel even in monoair with fire mark, u had every cc unbanned except reverse time

[ARTHANASIOS]

My decks:

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58s 58s 58s 592 594 594 594 594 594 594 5c2 5c4 5c5 5cq 5cq 5cq 5cq 5cq 5cq 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5lc 5lg 5li 5m6 5m6 5m6 5m6 5m6 5m6 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 8pm

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5c5 5c5 5c5 5c5 5c5 5c5 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5ll 5ll 5ll 5ll 5ll 5ll 5oi 5oi 5oi 5oi 5ol 5ol 5pu 5pu 5pu 5pu 5pu 5pu 8pq

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5c9 5c9 5c9 5c9 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5f2 5f2 5f2 5f2 5f2 5f2 5f6 5f6 5f6 5f6 5se 5se 5se 5se 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 8po