[11th Trial of Air] Afdarenty 5 - 3 Hyroen

[Afdarenty]

Without a doubt, this was the hardest Final Battle I've had to play in. Very well fought, Hyro. Your bans and deck choices left me well outside my comfort zone - this series easily could have gone the other way.

It took me about three games to completely abandon the strategy I had coming into this match. These games didn't play out at all as I had expected.


Game 1 (Loss) vs Charger Rush

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5oi 5oi 744 744 74c 74c 74c 74c 74c 74c 74h 74h 74h 74h 75m 75m 75m 7n0 7n0 7n0 7n2 7n2 7n2 7n2 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 8pl

Hyro had a decent start, with some fast Chargers. My draw was good too, with two Titans, two FW and a Trebuchet in my opening hand. Two Black Holes in the mid game sealed it for Hyro - it effectively slowed me down by two turns, as I drew few Gravity Towers this game. It was enough for Hyro to win by one turn.


Game 2 (Win) vs Flying Arsenic

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6u2 6u2 6u2 6u2 6u2 6u2 7ms 7ms 7ms 7ms 7ms 7ms 7ms 7ms 7ms 7ms 7ms 7ms 7ms 7ms 7mu 7mu 7mu 7mu 7mu 7mu 7n0 7n0 7n5 7n5 8pj

I had a decent draw, with several Wyrms, Chaos Powers, and an early Fog. A one Pend start for Hyro meant he was a little slow. I was worried about SoSac this game so deliberately held back damage, but a lack of a Shield for Hyro and not enough CC to remove my first Wyrm meant I was still able to win quite comfortably.


Game 3 (Loss) vs SoW Wyrms

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718 718 718 718 718 718 71b 71b 71b 71b 7ms 7ms 7ms 7ms 7n5 7n5 7n5 7n7 7n7 7n7 7n7 7n7 7n7 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 8pk

An impossible match up for me - decks like mine are why SoW Wyrms is strong.


Game 4 (Win) vs Dim Psions

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7ms 7ms 7ms 7ms 7ms 7ms 7ms 7ms 7ms 7ms 7ms 7ms 7mu 7mu 7mv 7mv 7mv 7n0 7n0 7n2 7n9 7oe 7oe 7oe 7t9 7t9 7t9 7tb 7tb 7th 8pt

I had a decently quick start, with an early Wyrm plus Dagger. No Steals in my starting hand was scary, but I ended up drawing all three in the top half. Two Steals were enough in the end, thanks to the lone Blitz.


Game 5 (Win) vs SoG UG Queens

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7f2 7f2 7f2 7gk 7gk 7gk 7h0 7h0 7h0 7h0 7h0 7h0 7i6 7i6 7i6 7n0 7n0 7n0 7n4 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 8pp

Many desyncs here. We had a couple of games where we both comfortably beat the opponents AI. In the third game Hyroen drew neither FFQs nor EE.

This deck was a beauty from him - I'm not sure that any of the decks I played would have been particularly good at beating it, with the possible exception of CP Wyrms.


Game 6 (Loss) vs SoW Reflect

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7jo 7jo 7jo 7k1 7k1 7k1 7k1 7k1 7k1 7k2 7k2 7k2 7la 7la 7la 7n2 7n2 7n2 7n2 7n2 7n7 7n7 7n7 7n7 7n7 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 8pq

Sometimes your opponent plays SoW Reflect against your deck that only plays immaterial creatures. This was a funny one.


Game 7 (Win) vs Charger Rush

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5oi 5oi 744 744 74c 74c 74c 74c 74c 74c 74h 74h 74h 74h 75m 75m 75m 7n0 7n0 7n0 7n2 7n2 7n2 7n2 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 8pl

The exact same decks as Game 1 - this time we both had poor draws. I drew more Gravity Towers this game, which meant Black Hole was far less threatening. Titans isn't too worried about slow starts -  it can recover well thanks to huge burst damage, which is exactly what happened this game.


Game 8 (Win) vs Flying Arsenic

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7ms 7ms 7ms 7ms 7ms 7ms 7ms 7ms 7ms 7ms 7ms 7ms 7mu 7mu 7mv 7mv 7mv 7n0 7n0 7n2 7n9 7oe 7oe 7oe 7t9 7t9 7t9 7tb 7tb 7th 8pt

A poor draw for me, with only one Tower to start. I did have an early Fog and Dagger, though. Hyro played 4 Deadly Poison very early on, which had me worried, as well as two Flying Arsenics. Once again, I had a Wyrm early and drew the FW and second Dagger too, so could just about keep up. In the end, the healing from the Daggers was too much for the Poison damage to overcome.

I was fortunate here that Hyroen didn't draw any Air pendulums - an early Shockwave here could have completely flipped this game around.

[Hyroen]

Bittersweet loss. Always a good thing to lose to an amazing player because it means that we have an amazing Master of Air. Having said that, though I lost, I'd like to thank all those who believed in me and will continue to try to ensure that the element of Air is one way or another one to watch out for.


Game 1 (Win) vs Catatitans

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5og 5og 5pu 5pu 5pu 744 744 744 745 745 745 745 745 745 74f 74f 74f 74f 74f 74o 7mv 7mv 7n5 7n5 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 8pl

Partly because I wanted to take advantage of the shutdown power of Black Holes but also because I knew that Novas were available to Afda on odd games I took this one for a spin. Proved to be surprisingly effective with a double BH mid-game mainly because I wanted to drop the quanta to 0 so that if there were any FWs as opposed to AWs they would be shut down. Knowing that is a perfect use for FWs in this deck I took a gamble and it proved to be just enough to win by 1 turn. Great start.

1-0


Game 2 (Loss) vs CP Wyrms

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5oi 5oi 5oi 5oi 5oi 5on 5on 5on 5on 5oo 5oo 5oo 718 718 718 718 718 718 71a 71a 71a 71a 71a 71a 71u 71u 71u 71u 71u 71u 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 8pk

Didn't want Afda to suspect SoSac but he inevitably did and as such, held back damage. Despite a DC and his AI derping, his clever playstyle in the early portion of the match sealed this one for me. Great start: gone. And yes, Wings are super unpredictable in an Air final. lol

1-1


Game 3 (Win) vs Bonebolt

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5lg 5lg 5ok 5ok 5op 6rb 7ms 7ms 7ms 7mu 7mu 7mu 7mu 7mu 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 80h 80h 80h 816 816 816 816 816 816 8pu

A solid opening start meant I had this one in the bag, almost. I too feared SoSacs, however looking at the deck size (~30) I was fairly confident that it wouldn't pack any, so I took the chance and blasted through, wisely of course.

2-1


Game 4 (Loss) vs Dark Domin

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5op 5pu 5pu 5pu 5pu 622 7n5 7n5 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 80d 80d 80d 80d 80d 80d 80l 80l 816 816 816 816 816 816 8pu

Decided to play with a deck that tried (and failed) to work around the PC ban restriction: overload with Permanents. Called it my Psion SemiOTK, though it never truly got to show what it was capable of. I'm pretty sure that against other decks it would've been just fine. What I love about upgraded Psions is that they get you to work a bit harder to get rid of them which is almost necessary in this matchup. But either way, we were back to being tied.

2-2


Game 5 (Loss) vs Nymph Rush

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5cq 5cq 5cq 5cq 5cq 5cq 6rb 7ak 7ak 7ms 7ms 7ms 7n3 7n3 7n3 7n5 7n5 7n6 7n6 7n6 7n6 7n6 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 8pn

Of course, the game where things started going downhill. Although we were neck and neck until this point, a series of timeouts lead to both of us worrying about ending up with a bad hand. Ultimately, I drew the short straw. Despite this, I was still quite proud of this deck. So here we go.

2-3


Game 6 (Win) vs Flying Glories

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5lg 5lg 5ok 5ok 5op 6rb 7ms 7ms 7ms 7mu 7mu 7mu 7mu 7mu 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 80h 80h 80h 816 816 816 816 816 816 8pu

Truly my star deck. Oh and Morning Glories you say? Yes please. Though I did fear a Reflective Shield even conservative play would've had this one in the bag for me. Mainly because I could severely limit Afda's offense. Mindgated. Would this mean better luck in the last 2 or 3 matches?

3-3


Game 7 (Loss) vs Catatitans

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5og 5og 5pu 5pu 5pu 744 744 744 745 745 745 745 745 745 74f 74f 74f 74f 74f 74o 7mv 7mv 7n5 7n5 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 8pl

So the answer to that previous question is no. No, full stop. Flat out no. Feeling confident with my Gravity Domin, oh and look at that! An odd numbered game. Oh? And a repeat of match 1 to boot! Would this be a good sign? The answer to that question would also be no. This time Afda got just a bit faster, putting me on the defense, against Titans. You get the picture.

3-4


Game 8 (Loss) vs Dark Domin

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5on 5on 5on 5pu 5pu 710 710 710 718 718 718 718 718 718 71a 71a 71a 71a 71a 71a 7n0 7n0 7n2 7n2 7n2 7n2 7n2 7oe 7oe 7oe 8pk

I knew I was at a bit of a disadvantage on even games. Though only a slight bit. Nullifying PC on odd games allowed me to pick my decks a bit more strategically and so I planned on bringing a deck that wouldn't worry about PC all that much. Knowing to not leave Permanents up for grabs I focused on whittling down with Deadly Poisons, however an early Vampire Dagger, with its healing and what not halved my main damage, which was a problem. Nonetheless and unsurprisingly, a lack of left me gasping and resulted in my . Had I been able to play 1 Air Pendulum I would've SWd and negated the VD healing. Welp.

3-5


Great games, great wins and great losses against a great player. Always a pleasure to face you Afda. And rest assured, it won't be the last.

~

[JonathanCrazyJ]

This match sounds absolutely thrilling... SoW Reflect facing flying glories? wow.

Hyroen could quite easily have won with identical matchups, but take nothing away from Afda, worthy master, well done!

[Zawadx]

TrO approved. Congrats Afda on another maastership. And amazing decks Hyro. That SoW Wyrms/Reflect was brilliant, and I also loved how you optimized the other decks  (especially the BH deck and the SoG).

[trashduke]

Grats Afda!  Ggs and decks Hyro.

[dark ripper]

Good job afda! Great to see you defend. Hyro put up a good fight as well, props to him too.

[Hyroen]

There is no growth without humility and though I feel like I'm in the most awkward position to be doing this, I would ask that you review how we did and on how I can improve as an avid Air Player.

Thank you, Afdarenty.