[6th Trials] [Light Finals] Zblader 1 vs. mesaprotector 5

[Cheesy111]

I'd like to make myself believe
That planet earth turns slowly
It's hard to say that I'd rather stay
Awake when I'm asleep
Because my dreams are bursting at the seams

See you at the final battle, my good Zblader. And may the RNG smile on both of us.

'cause I'd get a thousand hugs/from ten thousand lightning bugs~

[ddevans96]

As they tried to teach me how to dance~

[ZephyrPhantom]

ZB 1 - 5 Mesa

Spoiler for Round 1 - LOSS:

Mesa used Vanadium Warden, Stone Skin, Miracle. Lack of Blessings, used 3 Sancs.
Considered loss after AI playout - I wasn't able to gain enough damage to offset his massive healing and he bottomdecked a Miracle that pretty much screwed my chances.

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5l8 5l8 5l8 5l8 5l8 5ll 5ll 5ll 5lm 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5og 5og 7k5 7k5 7k5 7n5 7n5 7n5 7n5 7n8 7n8 7n8 7n8 8pr

Freedom - First Duet of Blades

Spoiler for Round 2 - LOSS:

Mesa used a Rol/Hope/Fractal/Sader/Archangel Deck
Lost
Mesa had a crappy hand but my Shields took a while to show up (I probably should've gone 2 unupped, 1 upped instead of vice versa.) Lost due to a last-minute Fractal that was made possible by early Hope blocking my discord.

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4vc 4vg 4vl 4vn 4vn 4vo 4vo 5l8 5l8 5l8 5ll 5ll 5ll 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 6ts 6u0 6u0 6u5 6u5 6u5 6u7 6u7 7jp 7jp 7jp 7k5 7k5 7k5 8pj

Oddity - Strange Sense of Fairness

Spoiler for Round 3 - LOSS:

Mesa played Poision rush.
Lost
Flooded with quanta, kept drawing pillars and pends. Took WAY too long to get the damage sources I needed while Mesa had poison by turn 1. Low point of the matches, IMHO.

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5l8 5l8 5l8 5l8 5l8 5l8 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5rk 5ru 5ru 5ru 5ru 7ju 7ju 7ju 7ju 7ju 7ju 7k1 7q4 7q4 7q4 7q4 8ps

Also, suprise! This wasn't Dunescorps at all - I wasn't willing to trust the RNG on a card combo due to Mesa's  halve on Dunescorp. In hindsight, I should've used Precognition or Sundial in this deck, despite intending it to be a fast beatdown deck.
Gamble - Flip of the Ghostly Coin

Spoiler for Round 4 - WIN:

Win
Mesa used Sanc Rage Firestall with Explosion Reflect and Miracle
Got lucky, thought I derped with a Seraph play. He ended up one quanta short of Miracle.

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5fb 5fb 5fb 5fb 5fe 5fe 5fe 5fe 5l8 5l8 5l8 5l8 5l8 5l8 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 7dm 7dm 7dm 7ju 7ju 7ju 7ju 7ju 7ju 8po

Rage - Screech of the Ancient Phoenix

Spoiler for Round 4 - LOSS:

Loss
Mesa used Earth Miracle Warden Sanc.
Utter prediction fail. I hoped he'd use something with creatures and got slapped with a mostly creatureless earth stall instead, and I instead got a repeat of Round 1.
In hindsight, I regret not banning Miracle or at least not having the brains to respond with a Sky Blitz deck after seeing him favor stalls.

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5l8 5l8 5l8 5l8 5l8 5ll 5ll 5ll 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5og 5og 5on 5on 7k5 7k5 7k5 7k6 7k6 7k6 7n5 7n5 7n5 7n5 7n8 7n8 7n8 7n8 8pr

Restricted Freedom - The Dying Hero's Hope

Spoiler for Round 5 - Loss:

Loss
Mesa used Monolight Rush

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5fb 5fb 5fb 5fb 5fe 5fe 5fe 5fe 5l8 5l8 5l8 5l8 5l8 5l8 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 7dm 7dm 7dm 7ju 7ju 7ju 7ju 7ju 7ju 8po

Quick and painless. The win basically came down to 1 turn and 1 point of HP that simply wasn't there.
Conclusion - Death of the Ancient Phoenix

Not banning Miracle was probably the biggest mistake I made and it cost me a few matches.

Good games, mesa. I thank Vangelios for indirectly making this match possible, as well as Laxadarap, n00b, and vagman for being great opponents this trials, and especially you for a great final battle.

[mesaprotector]

Thanks to my overuse of a certain card, I'm wondering whether this should have been called Miracles: The Match.

Game 1: 500 HP Deckout vs. SniperSaders (Win)

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58s 58s 594 594 594 594 594 594 596 596 596 596 596 596 5lm 5lm 5lm 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 77c 77c 7jo 7jo 7jo 7jo 7k2 7k2 7k2 7k2 7k2 7k2 7la 7la 7la 7la 7la 7la 8pm

The game was close early on as Zblader shot down all of my Wardens, and then quickly drew two upped Crusaders, which, along with an Eagle's Eye, were forcing me to use my healing earlier than I would have liked. Then, desync. On Zblader's side, my AI narrowly won thanks to topdecking a Miracle, while it wasn't close on my side. Zblader gave me the win. 1-0


Game 2: RoL-Hope vs. Clumsy Crusaders (Win)

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5lk 5lk 5lk 5lk 61u 61u 622 622 622 622 622 7jp 7jp 7jp 7jp 7jp 7jp 7jq 7ju 7la 7la 7la 808 808 808 808 80e 81q 81q 81q 8pu

This wasn't the best matchup for either of our decks, but it wasn't the worst. Both of us had awful draws (Zblader took forever to draw a Discord, while I had a zero-pillar draw). Eventually, despite Discord and Zblader's BE'd RoLs destroying my quanta, I managed a Fractal. Before I could manage another, Zblader had to leave, so we replayed. Again, a zero-pillar draw, but unlike last time I managed to recover and fractal RoL a couple of times. It looked like he would deck me out with upped Diss Shield, but thanks to a Fractal of his Crusaders and a late dragon Fractal, I won with two cards left. 2-0

Game 3: Heart of Poison (modded) vs... Time/Light rush? Dune Scorp? (Win)

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5l8 5l8 5l8 5l8 5l8 5l8 5l8 5l8 5lm 5lm 5lm 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 718 718 718 718 718 718 71a 71a 71a 7ju 7ju 7ju 7k2 7k2 7k2 7k2 7k5 7k5 7k5 8pk

I'm not completely sure what Zblader was playing here, since his draw was apparently awful. I had an average draw, which proved to be enough. 3-0

Game 4: Firestall vs. Raging Angels (Loss)

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5f4 5f4 5f4 5f4 5f4 5f4 5f6 5f6 5f6 5f7 5fb 5fb 5lm 5lm 5lm 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 7dn 7dn 7dr 7jo 7jo 7jo 7k0 7k0 7k2 7k2 7k2 7k2 7k2 7k2 7la 7la 7la 7la 7la 8po

10 creatures vs. a deck with 9 CC cards. Well, this was theoretically an even matchup, but except for one lucky win against Zblader's AI I didn't come very close. I was forced to use two CC cards on one Angel early, which led to problems mid-game. I wound up one  short of a Miracle, although I don't think I would have won anyway. 3-1

Game 5: 500 HP Deckout vs. SniperSaders (Win)

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58s 58s 594 594 594 594 594 594 596 596 596 596 596 596 5lm 5lm 5lm 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 77c 77c 7jo 7jo 7jo 7jo 7k2 7k2 7k2 7k2 7k2 7k2 7la 7la 7la 7la 7la 7la 8pm

A rematch of Game 1. My Miracles hid for much of the match, both early-game and late when I knew just one more would win it for me. I was a bit too antsy, playing Stone Skins early on the off-chance Zblader had damage he was holding back (admittedly, his deck did have a few more cards than in game 1). In the end, though, it wasn't close. 4-1

Game 6: Mono-Light vs. Raging Angels (Win)

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Somehow I thought this would be a nice symbolic way to end the match, so I decided to give simple mono-light a chance. First time in I had a ridiculously rushy draw - never drew a Miracle, won in six turns against Zblader's AI - but Zblader's computer crashed, so he didn't get to finish the match and we replayed. Much stallier draw this time with three Miracles and a Dragon in my opening hand. After Zblader double-RP'd the first creature I got out (an Archangel) I wound up playing two Miracles, and winning by a few inches. 5-1

Good games Zblader, I'm sorry this trials wasn't as enjoyable as it should have been. You are an excellent CO and I do hope you'll stay around longer. :3

[Absol]

Z y u no win.
Grats mesa. Z will beat you next Trial, so enjoy your title!

[Rutarete]

Z y u no win.
Grats mesa. Z will beat you next Trial, so enjoy your title!

^.

Congrats Mesa!

[Jenkar]

Congratz mesa

[nilsieboy]

Grats mesa!

[TheAccuso]

Z y u no win.
Grats mesa. Z will beat you next Trial, so enjoy your title!

Pffff, next year i'll be the light master!