Weekly Tournament - July 27th - Limited Resources - Unupgraded

[BeefSupreme]

-snip-

Just so you know (for future reference), the tournament rotation is in GMT, so make sure to look at the timer because 8AM in GMT could be something compleeettteelllyyy different for you or me.

[Blacksmith]

Well even if I lost first round I lost vs the winner. Here are my 3 best decks.

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52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52o 52o 52o 52o 52o 52o 52q 52q 52r 52r 52r 534 542 542 542 542 542 61q 61q 61q 61q 61q 622 8pu

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5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5ia 5ia 5ib 5ib 5ib 5ib 5ib 5ic 5ic 5ic 5ic 5ig 5ig 5ig 5ig 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 8pm

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592 592 592 592 592 592 593 593 595 595 595 595 595 595 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5ol 5oo 5oo 5oo 5oo 5oo 5oo 5pu 5pu 5pu 5pu 5pu 5pu 5pu 5pu 8pm

[Shantu]

My decks:

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Mono death

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4sk 4sk 4sk 4sk 4sk 4sk 52g 52g 52g 52g 52o 52o 52o 52o 52o 52o 52q 52q 52t 52t 52t 52t 52t 52t 534 534 534 542 542 542 8pk

Nothing to say here.

Ghostmare

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5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rk 5rk 5rk 5rk 5rk 5rk 5ru 5ru 5ru 5ru 5ru 5ru 5ur 5v1 5v1 5v1 5v1 5v1 8pt

I don't like it but it worked. Didn't use it much.

earthstall

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58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58s 58s 58s 58s 594 594 594 594 594 594 596 596 596 596 596 596 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5lm 5lm 5lm 5lm 5lm 5lm 8pq

Titanium shield was extremely useful against small, cheap creatures while Wardens could deal with other stuff, like abilities. Sanctuaries negate poison.

Mono water

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5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i8 5i8 5i8 5i8 5ib 5ib 5ib 5ie 5ie 5ie 5ig 5ig 5ig 5ig 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 8pp

Growing offense and good defense combines to a very versatile and powerful deck.

Devtosis

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5c9 5c9 5c9 5c9 5c9 5um 5um 5um 5um 5um 5um 5uq 5uq 5ur 5ur 5ut 5ut 5ut 5v1 5v1 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 8pn

Saw the idea at Jen-I and I really liked it. Worked alright even if the build is most likely suboptimal.

[dragonsdemesne]

All the decks I built.  I got eliminated in the first round (I got a one pillar draw in two games vs perfect devtal draws, and got a perfect devquake draw vs monoaether in the game I won) so I didn't get to use most of them.  There were an awful lot of viable strategies today, and it would have been a fun one, if I'd gotten further :p  I did a lot of mark/pillar/pend/pillar/pend splits, just because I was expecting earthquake/trident THAT much :p

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nymph tears (maybe use dry spell due to grav shield?)

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5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5ig 5ig 5ig 5ig 5ig 5ig 5io 5io 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 8pp

This one seemed the most obvious to me right off.  Low quanta cost, yet effective.  The only problem would have been devtal and earthquake; which would have been an instant loss for this deck.  And I was expecting devourer and earthquake in pretty much every game...

devtal (only 3 fractals though)

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4st 4su 5uk 5um 5um 5um 5um 5um 5um 5up 5up 5uq 5ur 5ut 5ut 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 61o 622 622 622 63a 8pu

Not much to say on this one.  Megron used this against me twice, except with drain lifes and another vamp instead of steals/nightfall.

psiontal (again, only 3 fractals)

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4su 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61p 61q 61q 61q 622 622 622 625 625 625 625 625 625 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 8pu

Pretty much the same problem as nymph tear rush; bends over to denial.  Should've been pretty good were it not facing denial, though.  I thought about doing -1 psion -3 lightning +1 fractal +2 pillar, but whatever.

the real neptune (with nymphs instead of SoP, more earthquake, and spread out quanta base for enemy eq)

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4sm 58o 58u 58u 58u 58u 58u 58u 593 593 593 594 596 596 596 596 596 596 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5i4 5i4 5i4 5ia 5ib 5ib 5ib 5ib 5ib 5ic 5ic 5io 5io 5jm 5jm 5jm 8pp

Based on one of my BL decks, I thought this one might be fairly resistant to earthquake due to the quanta base, and its own earthquakes should hopefully stop devtal in its tracks.

flying glories with light nymphs

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4sq 5l8 5l8 5l8 5l8 5l8 5l8 5l8 5l8 5l8 5l8 5l8 5l8 5l8 5ld 5lh 5lh 5lh 5lh 5lh 5lh 5ls 5ls 5og 5og 5oi 5oi 5oi 5oi 5oi 8pr

I figured there might be a lot of cheap CC in the form of squids, lightnings, firebolts, and so on, so this seemed a solid counter to that.  Unfortunately, again bends over to denial.

forest spirit/squid control

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5bs 5c1 5c1 5c1 5c1 5c1 5c1 5c5 5c6 5c6 5c6 5de 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i8 5i8 5i8 5i8 5i8 5i8 5ib 5ib 5ib 5ib 5ib 5ib 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 8pn

I don't usually like playing life in tourneys, but this duo is one of the decks I really like life in.

pandebonium

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4sj 4sk 4vp 4vp 4vp 4vp 4vp 4vp 52g 52g 52g 52g 52n 52n 52o 52o 52o 52o 52o 52o 52q 52q 52q 52r 52r 52r 542 542 542 542 61p 8pj

Another one that seemed obvious due to the low casting cost requirement.  Not sure how it would have done vs devtal; it would depend how fast it was.  A pande could've wrecked it, but would it have ever been able to play a pande?  I don't know.

lavaquake

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4sm 4so 593 593 593 593 593 593 5f0 5f0 5f0 5fa 5fa 5fa 5fa 5fa 5fa 5fb 5fb 5fb 5fb 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 8pm

This one looked fun, but I probably wouldn't have actually used it.

monofire burn

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4so 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f4 5f4 5f4 5f4 5f4 5f4 5f5 5f5 5f7 5f7 5f7 5f7 5fk 5fk 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 8po

Another one that seemed pretty obvious to me.  Again, suffers to devs or EQ, though.

eternal pharaoh

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4ss 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5ro 5ro 5ro 5ro 5rs 5rs 5rs 5rs 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 8ps

I figured nobody would ever expect this... :p  Pharaohs would be hard to kill with most of the CC I was expecting, but failure to draw a pharaoh and eternity early would doom the deck.  Lots of quanta should hopefully have meant it could have survived a bit of early EQ or whatever.

bonebolt

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4sk 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52o 52o 52o 52o 52o 52o 52q 52q 52q 52r 52r 52r 52r 542 542 542 61q 61q 61q 61q 61q 61q 626 8pu

Everyone knows this one :p  Not sure if I'd have done this or pande.

blessed dunes

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4sq 4ss 5lf 5lf 5lf 5lf 5lf 5lf 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rk 5rk 5ro 5ro 5rp 5rp 5rp 5rp 5rp 5rt 5rt 5rt 5rt 5rt 5rt 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 8pq

This deck tends to troll me a lot; I always get stuck with either a hand full of dunes or all blessings. 

raging dolls

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4so 4st 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5fb 5fb 5fb 5fb 5fb 5fb 5fk 5fk 5fk 5gi 5gi 5ur 5v0 5v0 5v0 5v0 5v0 5v0 5v1 8pt

Another silly deck I like bringing out once in awhile.  It's actually not as bad as it looks :p  Usually I play it with all 4 of my red nymphs, but that wasn't an option in today's rules.

the silly parasite dolls

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4st 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5um 5um 5um 5um 5um 5um 5un 5un 5un 5un 5un 5up 5up 5uq 5uq 5ur 5v0 5v0 5v0 5v0 5v0 5v1 5v1 606 606 606 8pk

I'd probably have used this in a bronze match, but otherwise wasn't going to play this.

catatitans

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55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55p 55p 55s 55s 55s 55s 55s 55s 561 561 561 563 563 5oi 5oi 5oi 5oi 5oi 5oi 8pr

This one looked competitive as well, but it's another deck that I have atrocious luck with, particularly as it requires a three card combo.  I -always- miss drawing something :p  Still, it's good to build decks like that just to see what your opponent has to work with if they choose it.

devquake 1-0

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4sm 4st 593 593 593 593 593 593 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5um 5um 5um 5um 5um 5um 5uq 5ur 5ur 5us 5us 5us 5us 5us 5us 5uv 5v1 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 8pm

-round 1 game 2 vs megron WIN vs unknown aether with lobo

Devquake seemed like it would be one of the strongest decks today.  Megron had either a 2 or 3 quanta start, and I demolished it.  All he ever got out all game was a lobo, so I don't really know what he was playing.  I got a lot of devs early (I think 4 in the first dozen cards) so that helped a lot.  I didn't even have to play earthquakes for awhile, so I waited until he had stacks of 2 and 3, because devs could take care of it until then.

the giant quakestall

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4sm 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 593 593 593 593 593 593 594 594 594 594 594 594 595 595 595 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5i7 5i7 5i7 5i7 5i7 5i7 5ia 5ia 5ia 5ia 5ia 5ia 5ic 5ic 5ic 5ic 8pp

I figured nobody would expect a huge stall like this :p

adrenastaves

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5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5c5 5c5 5c5 5c5 5c5 5c5 5c7 5c7 5c7 5c7 5c7 5c7 5cg 5og 5og 5og 5oi 5oi 5oi 5oi 5oi 5oi 8pr

-round 1 game 3 vs megron LOSS to devtal (one pillar draw)

This one seemed pretty good as well.  Unfortunately, I had a one pillar draw against devtal, so you can imagine what happened.  Megron did make a mistake in fractalling his vampire instead of his devourer with his fractals, letting me end up getting out three adrenastaffs, and I thought I was going to deck him out :p  However, he had a couple drain lifes in the bottom of his deck, and he wiped out 2 of my staffs, and ended up killing me when he had about 3-4 cards left in deck.

poisoned wings 0-1

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4sk 4sr 52g 52h 52h 52o 52o 52o 52o 52o 52o 52q 52q 52q 52q 542 542 542 542 542 542 542 542 542 5oc 5oi 5oi 5oo 5oo 5oo 5oo 5oo 5oo 5pu 8pr

-round 1 game 1 vs megron LOSS to devtal (1 pend no arse draw vs 5 devs in top 10 cards)

Wings seemed a solid counter to the meta, given that dragons weren't practical.  However, I went against devtal, which means a) most of darkness flies, and b) I got a 1 pend draw.  I never saw an arsenic in the top half of my deck, and he had 5 devourers by turn 5.  I lost with 3-4 wings and both flying weapons in hand at the end.

ghostmare

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4ss 4st 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rk 5rk 5rk 5rk 5rk 5rk 5ru 5ru 5ru 5ru 5ru 5ru 5t2 5t2 5v1 5v1 5v1 5v1 5v1 5v1 8pt

Another one that seemed fairly obvious, but it bends over to denial, so I don't know if I'd have tried it.

lycanthrope's surprise

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4sj 4st 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vh 4vh 4vh 4vh 4vh 4vh 4vn 4vn 4vn 4vo 4vo 50u 50u 5um 5um 5um 5um 5um 5um 8pt

One of the more creative ones I came up with today.  It had a few cards I'm pretty sure nobody would expect, like antimatter and butterfly effect.  It would have been interesting to see how it did.

[dawn to dusk]

ill show my decks that got me number 8, as well as some i wouldve used, had i gotten further

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Acceleration

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55q 55q 55q 562 562 562 562 562 562 58q 58q 58q 58q 58q 58q 58v 58v 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 8pl

a fairly fast deck, i didnt get to use it much but if you get an early golem out and the opponent doesnt have CC, 1 golem does 70 damage in 6 turns iirc

lava golems

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58u 58u 58u 58u 592 592 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f4 5f4 5f4 5f6 5f6 5f6 5f7 5fa 5fa 5fa 5fa 5fa 5fa 8pm

i got to use this deck and it had a pretty high win rate, it lost to beef in sub-tourney though...

pegasus

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5l8 5l8 5l8 5l8 5l8 5l8 5l8 5l8 5l8 5l8 5lb 5lb 5lb 5lb 5lb 5lb 5lf 5lf 5lf 5lf 5lf 5lf 5od 5od 5od 5od 5od 5od 5ol 5ol 8pr

a simple pegasus deck that i didnt get to use...

Pdials

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52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52h 52h 52o 52o 52o 52o 52o 52o 52q 52r 52r 52r 5rp 5rp 5rp 5rp 5rp 5rp 5rr 5rr 8ps

a simple, yet effective. without much poison though, the matches seem to go on forever

mono death

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52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52i 52i 52o 52o 52o 52o 52o 52o 52q 52r 52r 52r 52t 52t 52t 52t 52t 52t 542 542 542 542 542 542 8pk

probably my most used deck this tourney, very effective and fast

turquoise shield

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58q 58q 58q 58q 58q 58q 58s 58s 58s 592 592 592 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 61q 61q 61q 61u 61u 61u 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 8pm

a fun deck that i made one time for arena when i got EA from oracle. strategy is to lobo any useful abilities while taking a lot less damage from creatures. it got 5-6 in arena which i was pleasantly surprised of since i was lvl 21 when i made it of course 6 dragons would be too much so i switched them to golems.

[Dragoon]

I think most of the go-to OP decks were still (mostly) usable in this format. For rushes, there were Mono-Death and AdrenaFrogs. For stalls, there were the Immortal and Fire Stall. For quanta/hand manipulation there were Devtal and Ghostmare. For alternative damage there was Catatitan. Plus there were a few other common decks like 6-Dims stalls and NT spam.

Yes there are still a wide range of powerful decks available. The skill is to identify all of them, analyze the best in the meta, and of course predict what your opponent knows and what would they use.

Sure, I wasn't saying that the rules were bad, just that they weren't as restrictive as it appears on the surface.


Here were my decks:

Death Rush

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52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52h 52h 52l 52o 52o 52o 52o 52o 52o 52q 52q 52q 52t 52t 52t 52t 52t 52t 542 542 542 542 542 542 8pk

Although this is slightly slower than Adrenafrogs, it doesn't completely fail in the face of Titanium and Dim Shields. You can replace the Dragons and Skull with 3 Bone Walls for a stronger defense.

Catatitan

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55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55s 55s 55s 55s 55s 55s 561 561 561 561 5oi 5oi 5oi 5oi 5oi 5oi 8pr

Pretty standard. Works great against Dims and a lot of stalls. Fails against Ghostmare and Devtal.

Devtal

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5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5um 5um 5um 5um 5um 5ur 5ut 5ut 5ut 606 606 606 606 606 61o 61o 61o 622 622 622 622 63a 63a 63a 8pu

A little less reliable than the usual build with only 4 Fractals. You can replace 1 Fractal with Steals, Dusks, and/or DLs if you need more utility. This works great against EQs and decks that rely on the Mark for a second quanta, but it's usually too slow to get going versus the fast rushes.

The Immortal

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58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58s 58s 58s 58s 592 592 592 594 594 594 594 594 594 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5lm 5lm 5lm 5lm 5lm 5lm 8pq

Pretty standard Earth-Light stall. It completely crushes Adrenafrogs and Devtal. PAs help against Steals and EQs/Tridents.

NQ Spam

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5f6 5f6 5f6 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5ig 5ig 5ig 5ig 5ig 5ig 5io 8po

This was my stall-breaker. Deflags keep it from failing completely against Dim/Wing stalls.

Mono Earth

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58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 591 591 591 591 591 593 593 593 593 593 596 596 596 596 596 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 8pm

This was probably my weakest deck. I probably should've used some BBs in case someone dropped a Warden/Squid first. That's how I lost my semi-final match against RootRanger.

Thanks again Vineroz for running the tourney!