Physsion 9 - 8 RootRangerThese were amazing games, Root - I'm thrilled to have had the opportunity to play against such an incredible opponent. This ruleset was a lot of fun, you've showed terrific sportsmanship throughout the whole event, and I'm looking forward to playing with you again in the future.
King Bloodwall
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534 534 534 534 71b 71b 71b 71b 7t7 7t7 7t7 7t7 7t7 7t7 7tb 7tb 7tb 7tc 7tc 7tc 7tc 7tc 7tc 7tg 7tg 7tg 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 8pkI had a really hard time deciding on a deck here - Root having his Bishop alive made things very difficult. I needed something that could beat a very powerful Air/Fire domin, outpace a mono Fire rush with one of its key cards missing entirely, and still stand a chance against his King - including the possibility of a fully upgraded Jonnington Firestall with a 6-card sideboard.
My initial thoughts were a mono Darkness with 6 Siphons, and a mix of Gargoyles and Obsidian Dragons - I figured this would still be able to outpace the mono Fire with either Dragons, Gargoyles or Siphons missing. However, it didn't perform well in testing vs. Root's Knight (couldn't outpace the fast quanta generation of Damselflies and massive burst damage of Sky Dragons + Rage Elixirs) and Mirror Shield in Jonnington would have shut me down entirely.
I tried an Air duo of my own, experimenting with Damselflies and Shards of Freedom, but wasn't confident with that against Root's Knight either. I figured Devquake would also be a decent option against the Bishop and against Jonnington, but again, the speedy Knight proved too fast for my denial.
Getting worried that I wouldn't have any options that could beat the Domin and the Rush and also stand a chance against Jonnington, I turned to Parawall. I'd beaten Jonnington in the Rook vs. Rook match of Phase 2, so knew the stallbreaking power of Parawall made it viable here - testing showed that it also functioned well against the Knight, was capable of outrushing the Bishop with no Bone Walls, and also had enough damage to beat it with no Bloodsuckers. My initial 36 card build included Steals and Eclipses, but it didn't take long to realize that a fully upgraded Firestall would prove too much, even for my beloved Suckers...
I tried a stall-focused version of Parawall, adding 6 Siphons and bulking it up to 43 cards with extra Bone Walls and pendulums. The Siphons gave me another win condition along with the Grey Nymph + Voodoo Doll combo, and with the added benefit of potentially decking him out, this larger version tested really well against Jonnington. Even facing Mirror Shield, I had the option of 75-quanta Siphoning my own Voodoo Dolls, dealing a total of 48 unblockable spell damage. However... I ran into a new problem. The extra size made it too inconsistent against the Bishop. There was no use bringing something to beat Root's King if I couldn't beat both his Pieces!
I tried slimming it back down to 36, but if I wanted to keep the Siphons, I'd have to scrap my Steals and Eclipses, and even then I'd be running tight on quanta. I think I managed to find a sweet spot at 38 - still consistent enough to beat both of Root's Pieces, while maintaining the core cards needed to break the most powerful of stalls, and enough quanta to do it. It was at this point I realized the true strength of this deck, and felt a surge of hope that I might actually be able to win this.
King vs. PiecesGame 1 vs. Air Domin (Knight)-3 Voodoo Doll, -2 Grey Nymph, -1 Siphon LifeOpened into Phase 3 with a coin-toss win and a good draw - 3 pendulums, a first-turn Vampire Dagger, a Bloodsucker, a Siphon and a Grey Nymph. No Bone Walls worried me, but I hoped I would draw into them quickly. Root had a fast start, but not enough CC in his hand to stop my Bloodsuckers from killing his Damselflies and poisoning his Dragons. I eventually drew into Bone Wall, and put it down a few turns before winning with damage from my Grey Nymphs.
Game 2 vs. Mono Rush (Bishop)-4 Bone Wall, -2 Grey NymphRoot removed my Bone Walls using his Bishop ability, meaning I had to focus on killing Golems quickly and doing as much damage as possible with Vampire Dagger, Bloodsuckers and Voodoo Dolls. Another coin-toss win with 3 pendulums, two Bloodsuckers and two Siphons in hand put me ahead, but a huge quanta start from Root still had me worried, even with such a strong draw on my end. We disconnected early in this game, but both played the game out against our opponent's AI, resulting in a win for me on both sides.
King vs. KingPhew... the final match. At this point, I was happy - I'd said earlier that no matter which way the result went, I'd be very pleased with myself if I made it to a King vs. King battle with Root. He'd already faced my deck in two games, but his King was still a complete mystery to me. Only he knew how things would go from here!
Game 1Sideboard not used.I chose to bring my full deck here, to scope out Root's King - I'd sideboard some cards out in game 2 and beyond depending on what I ended up facing. 30 card Earth mark had me instantly worried I was going up against Earthquakes here - I knew denial was a possibility for Root, but building a quanta split into this deck reduced its effectiveness against his other possible options. Playing as cautiously as possible against them, I chose to hold my third pendulum to see if he'd quake a stack of two. Uh oh... turn 1 disconnect. We chose to play vs. AI, but before I could take my third turn, I saw an error I've never experienced before:
Click to expand.
...what?! I get an instant loss screen on my end, but Root continues playing against the AI, and loses to my deck. Again, he shows terrific sportsmanship, and grants me the win. 1-0.
Game 2Sideboard not used.After the instant-disconnect-loss from the previous game, I forgot to sideboard anything out of my deck, and loaded into this match with the full 38-card deck again. A pretty good start gave me a turn 1 Vampire Dagger (which was quickly Exploded) but I had enough CC by way of Bloodsuckers and Siphons to shut down Root's offence. Shard of Patience surprised me, but my Grey Nymphs were dealing too much damage for him to keep up with. 2-0.
Game 3-3 Voodoo DollDolls weren't needed in this matchup, so I decided to take them out - couldn't decide whether I wanted to remove anything else, so just ran a 35 card version. A huge Shrieker appeared, with Chaos Powers and Unstoppable buffing it to 15|13 the turn it evolved - made a slight misplay by choosing not to over-poison the Shrieker, allowing Root to give it one more turn of life with a second Unstoppable... unfortunately for Root, it wasn't quite enough, and I had a Siphon waiting for the 16|1 it left on the field. Root conceded from here, having no way of getting through my 8-strong Bone Wall, granting me the win. 3-0.
