Post by: willng3 on June 25, 2016, 04:47:37 am
My goal here was to coerce dawn into using more straightforward strategies while removing most of the faster and more devastating methods that he could use to slow down my own deck's speed. Drew an Eagle's Eye a couple of turns later than I would have liked and I unfortunately didn't draw a Wings either to calm my nerves but I was able to snipe his Mitosis'd Frog before it could start generating too many problems and my 2 Frogs that I drew at the start managed to chip away at his HP to the point that I was able to win in the nick of time.
Game 2:
With no PC aside from Butterfly Effect and SoFo available to dawn I figured this would be a safe pick. Was feeling pretty confident after seeing his :fire mark and the size of his deck and knew that even though I wouldn't need my starting Lobo as much this game, I would still be in a good position for a damage race. Was a bit wary of what dawn was hiding in his hand especially since he had only played a couple of Pends up to this point. Afterwards I realized that some of this space was comprised of Shards of Bravery. One Dragon Bolted, played another the next turn. From there it was just a matter of letting my Dragons chip away at his HP as I remembered mid-match that I hadn't banned Heals for dawn during even-numbered games.
Game 3:
PUgons (Lightning variant)
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Went back to an anti-rush tactic while compensating for the possibility that Chargers and SoFo might be used to try and counter another attempt at using Dims from myself. Drew only 1 T-bolt in my starting hand which I used to take down his Charger but fortunately I drew a second on the turn that he played his first SoFo. Dims held his Frogs at bay while I continued gathering quanta for Dragon spam and continued to pray that he didn't have a Gravity Shield ready to be played. Though I didn't have enough quanta ready to chain Dims again on my second to last turn, I knew at that point that he didn't have enough damage ready to close the HP gap between us in his favor.
Game 4:
Switched to Frogtal over PUgons just because 1) it's Frogtal and 2) I felt more comfortable using it versus non-Sanc based stalls thanks to Silence. Had a nice starting hand with the exception of the fact that I didn't have a Fractal in my opening hand. But since I'd seen this deck once already I figured there was no harm in just stocking up on quanta until I could drop a Silence on him for a two turn kill.
Game 5:
So I'm not really sure why, but this is honestly one of my most favorite decks that I've created for Trials. It seems so simple but it just works so well; Gravity Force is actually quite good at countering opposing rushes (especially ones that rely on Mitosis and Adrenaline!) and some decks that rely on fat creatures like Dragons for damage.
...Anyways, I had a marvelous starting hand of 2 Gravity Forces which from his :water mark I knew would more than likely be needed for countering Squids. Dropped one on the first Squid that he played and let his Forest Spirit grow so that I could deal with any other threats that he played. Played my second Gravity Force on his spawned Nymph Queen. Drew some more critters and didn't draw another Gravity Force until literally the exact turn that he spawned a Life Nymph on his side, which I promptly removed. Continued with this pattern and drew a 4th Gravity Force on literally the exact turn that he played his next Squid. With my amazingly timed topdecks there wasn't anything dawn could do to stop my creatures from out-damaging him. Permafrost was one of the cards that I was most afraid of during these games and so I was very happy to not see one here.
GGs dawn! As a side note: I'm pretty happy that I didn't have to resort to stealing ITR's beautiful Jade Crusaders deck from his own Trials games :P
Unused Decks, for whoever is curious:
Some of these I built before bans had been made and therefore didn't get used because the ban situations made them unrealistic choices. Dims also being available to me obviously made some of my more defensive decks unnecessary.
Mono Life w/ Heals, Frogs & Dragons
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Post by: dawn to dusk on June 25, 2016, 05:02:27 am
Game 1: 5ttl. If it was more, MAYBE I could have stalled it out, but didn't get the nymph out in time.
Game 2: Stallbreaker > Stall
Game 3: Dims, and lightning was painful. Only drew 1 charger in the game.
Game 4: Was almost close. I might have been able to pull it off if there were no silence. But that was beyond my control.
Game 5: 2 GP's early, then 2 topdecks, one for NT and one for Squid, to destroy any chance I had at winning.
Game 2: Stallbreaker > Stall
Game 3: Dims, and lightning was painful. Only drew 1 charger in the game.
Game 4: Was almost close. I might have been able to pull it off if there were no silence. But that was beyond my control.
Game 5: 2 GP's early, then 2 topdecks, one for NT and one for Squid, to destroy any chance I had at winning.
I might have used it if I was ahead. It was too swingy to use otherwise. Hence why it went unused. Creative deck of the Trials for me (following NTStaves and Fractalstaves)
Didn't see a good enough opportunity to use it. Strange deck, which lied somewhere between being a rush and a break. I would have used it to counter a potential stall but that never turned up.
Too easily countered, chose not to use it in case of one of these counters. Which would have been evident from all decks will used other than the last one.
GGs, and congrats for your 4th mastership
Post by: Higurashi on June 25, 2016, 07:59:06 am
Post by: Blacksmith on June 25, 2016, 12:38:33 pm
And dawn to dusk I'm sure you can come back next trials with a lot more experience and make the next final more equal.