2nd Grandmaster Battle : RootRanger 8 - 9 Physsion (Grats Physsion!)

[Zawadx]

GM battle results will be posted here. Please do not post until both Root and Physs have reserved a post.

Players, please update your original posts here after each update. Good luck!

[RootRanger]

Chaotic Pawn: Cremation Denial

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Righteous Pawn: Jonnington Vengeance

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Lawful Pawn: Grabbow

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Evil Pawn: Phoenixbolt

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Game 1: Loss - Grabbow vs Bloodwall. I had a great start, but it was no match for his Bloodsuckers and Bone Wall. He poisoned my Minor Phoenixes, only adding to the Bone Wall, as he chipped away at my health. Eventually I broke down his Bone Wall, but by then he had done enough damage with Bloodsucker and Vampire Dagger to finish me off.
Game 2: Loss - Phoenixbolt vs Devtal. As before, this was an unfavorable matchup for me. I had a good enough quanta start to be able to play all my cards, but I didn't have nearly enough damage to contest his Fractal Minor Vampires. Towards the end, he was healing for more than I was damaging him with my two Phoenixes.

At this point, I was somewhat worried. Physsion had outpredicted me twice. If I wasn't careful, or lucky, he would make it a 4-0. I had only two decks to his four, and he probably expected one of them to be Jonnington, my signature deck. My only hope lied in my Cremation Denial deck - which could catch him off guard, especially if he was trying to counter Jonnington. And so, I hoped for the best.

Game 3: Win- Cremation Denial vs SoPa Dolls. Excellent! He had expected me to play Jonnington, but I'd chosen a completely opposite deck. His slow defenses were no match for my legion of Phoenixes, not to mention the Discord tearing apart at his quanta.

Much better! I've taken his main counter to Jonnington away from him, and my key deck has performed wonderfully. But what to play next? His Devtal could likely win against Jonnington, but his Bloodwall would probably beat my Cremation Denial. If I'm going to lose this, I'm going out with Jonnington. Until then, Cremation Denial it is!

Game 4: Win - Cremation Denial vs Devtal. Fortunately I made the right choice here. My deck was much faster, and my denial was much more potent. All I needed was an early Discord and a Phoenix, which the RNG Gods happily gave.

And now, we are 2-2. His Bloodwall can probably beat my Cremation Denial, but my Jonnington can probably beat his Bloodwall. And what of the final deck? Not sure. But I'd taken out his two best counters to Jonnington - or so I thought, so what better time to play it? I could even take this match 4-2.

Game 5: Loss - Jonnington Vengenace vs Devquake. I've named this deck Jonnington Vengeance because it packs an extra bite to it, much more than with your usual Jonnington. This deck packs 4 Fahrenheits out of just 37 cards, 6 of which are Sundials. It's a deck that can outrush your rush. But Physsion took the win with a surprise showing from Devquake, which completely shut down my quanta before I even came close to playing Sanctuary.

The hopes of winning 4-2 were dashed, in fact it looked like he would defeat me 4-2. At the very least, I could probably devise some sort of Knight deck to counter both his Bloodwall and Devquake. Until then, let's hope for the best with Cremation Denial.

Game 6: Win - Cremation Denial vs Bloodwall.
Game 7: Win - Cremation Denial vs Devquake

Well then, I take the match! Wonderful. That's the fun with Cremation Denial - it's prone to losing to decks it should beat, but it can also beat decks it shouldn't. How fortunate of me to have the latter.

RootRanger 4 - 3 Physsion

Great games, Physsion, and I hope the viewers of the stream enjoyed the match. The next stage of the match will be played some time later. Maybe we'll have a countdown this time, to get even more watching the stream.

[Physsion]

Chaotic Pawn: Bloodwall

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Game 1 vs. Grabbow: I really wasn't sure what to build for my Chaotic Pawn deck - didn't really like my mark-powered Entropy, Air or Death decks against many of Root's options. I decided on a rushy Parawall to hope to catch an immo rush from Root, which - luckily - is close to what I faced in game 1. My browser crashed part-way through the game, but Root lost to my AI, and showed awesome sportsmanship in granting me the win.

Game 6 vs. DBH Immobow At this point, Root's only remaining deck was the DBHbow, which I thought this would have a pretty good chance against - I was at 6 at one point in the game, where I think a Bone Wall would have won the game for me, but sadly the two I had in my hand were the unupped versions.


Evil Pawn: Devtal

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Game 2 vs. Phoenixbolt: I drew 4 Devourers very early and played them very aggressively, taking a gamble in assuming Root wouldn't draw 4 Bolts at the same pace, but this play didn't work out for me. I was still able to get a Vamptal out, and managed to secure the win.

Game 4 vs. DBH Immobow: again, expected Jonnington here. Absolutely no chance in this matchup.


Righteous Pawn: SoPa Dolls

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Game 3 vs. DBH Immobow expected Jonnington here. 1 pend-draw meant my control was too slow, Discord delayed me for too long, and a well-timed Black Hole sealed the win for Root.


Lawful Pawn: Devquake

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Game 5 vs. Jonnington Firestall: finally, made the right call - very difficult matchup for Root, all my Devourers and Earthquakes came as needed.

Game 7 vs. DBH Immobow: virtually impossible matchup, but it was my last deck. Devourers and Earthquakes were all dead cards, my only hope was an absolutely useless draw from Root.


Great games! Very enjoyable match so far. Looking forward to Phase 2.

[Solaris]

Some close matches, this Phase 1! Looking forward to the progression of this

[RootRanger]

Knight: Air Domin

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Bishop: Golem Dragon Rush

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Rook: Jonnington

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Queen: Grabbow

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Game 1: Win - Cremation Denial (Chaotic Pawn) vs SoPa Dolls (Knight). I'd expected him to engineer some sort of hard counter (say, Ghostmare with 6 Rewinds) to my Cremation Denial deck, since he knew it was coming up first based on the rules. But if I expected what he was bringing, I could build my other decks to defeat it. Physsion chose a more versatile, but riskier option, and the risk did not pay off when I had a high-damage, high-denial start. So far, so good!
Game 2: Loss - Cremation Denial (Chaotic Pawn) vs Bloodwall Supreme (Rook). Now this was a counter! Not even my denial could save me here. His Parasite kept my Phoenix from only dealing damage half the time, and his Vampire Dagger kept him healthy. When the Bone Wall came down, it was a certain loss for me.
Game 3: Win - Air Domin (Knight) vs Devtal (Queen). I brought in the Air Deck because I was not yet ready to reveal my Queen, and I didn't like the odds for my Jonnington against his Queen. Fortunately, I ran into a favorable match up. My deck was sufficiently fast to take him out before he had the chance to set up a field of Vampires.
Game 4: Loss - Jonnington (Rook) vs Bloodwall Supreme (Rook). I had expected this matchup, and I expected to win it too! But I severely underestimated the stallbreaking power of Physsion's deck. He quickly played a Grey Nymph with Voodoo Dolls to stack 8 poison on me before I had the chance to kill his Nymph, which was enough to nullify my 2 Sanctuaries. But by then, it was too late - Malignant Cells! I hadn't put Fire Shield in this deck, because really I expected to kill everything with Fire Bolts, but 23 Malignant cells is a few too many for me to kill.

I was somewhat worried, at this point. I hadn't expected his Bloodwall deck to resurface (I was expecting Siphonary from his Knight). Furthermore, this one seemed even stronger than the last! Would I have to resort to my Bishop to defeat it? Would that even be enough to stop it's warpath?

Game 5: Win - Grabbow (Queen) vs Bloodwall Supreme (Rook). I had a great start, while he only had 1 pendulum (which I destroyed.) Had the RNG gone the other way...
Game 6: Loss - Grabbow (Queen) vs Mono (Bishop). His Bishop turns my Novas to Relics, and the match is hopeless. Fortunately, my Bishop is still alive. But maybe I can save it for his King...
Game 7: Win - Air Domin (Knight) vs Mono (Bishop). High-damage start, with a Rage Elixir for his Gargoyle. He has no Shield or Weapon, which is pretty crippling. I finish the game with a Rage Elixir on my own Dragon, plus Sky Blitz with my 3 Dragonflies to kill him from 48 health.

RootRanger 8 - 6 Physsion
My Knight and Bishop survive to face Physsion's king.

At this point, I'm in quite good position, because my Bishop has not yet been used. If my Knight loses to his King, my Bishop can then force him to turn a card of my choice into Relics. But with a 6-card sideboard for his King, maybe he'll find some way around that...

[Physsion]

Knight: SoPa Squids

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Game 1 vs. Cremation Denial: I knew my Rook deck could beat this, but I didn't want to reveal it right away, so I opened with a slightly riskier option into a known matchup. I'd considered building a harder counter to the Cremation Denial deck, but decided on SoPa Dolls because of its strength against Jonnington and low-CC rushes. My testing showed this matchup was very favourable for me, but Root got a turn 2 Discord, and early Quicksand and Black Hole. I didn't get the chance to play a single Darkness card - the only card I could play was a single Octopus.


Rook: Parawall

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Game 2 vs. Cremation Denial: Another very early Quicksand had me quanta starved, but my Vampire Dagger kept me alive while my Parasites stalled his Phoenixes. Finally got my first Bone Wall out with him at ~30HP, and he conceded.

Game 4 vs. Jonnington Firestall: I didn't think I could win this matchup, but it ended up being a very fun game. I used my Grey Nymph to Afla two of my Dolls, which stacked poison damage on Root's health and eventually flooded my field with Malignant Cells, doing constant damage. Had him on 7HP for three turns in a row during a Sundial chain before he used Miracle, and then a Rain of Fire wiped my field and sent my Bone Wall to 50 something. I kept at it, applying pressure with more Grey Nymphs and Malignant Cells, eventually Stealing a Fahrenheit to put Root at 2HP. Expecting another Miracle straight away, I was surprised to see only another Rain of Fire, and took the win with a 77x strong Bone Wall.

Game 5 vs. Grabbow: Very favourable matchup for me - this deck is great against Grabbows and other rushes - but I started the game with 1 pendulum (which Root Exploded) and only ever drew two more. I got one Bone Wall up, but I had no chance at stalling with no quanta.


Queen: Devtal

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Game 3 vs. Air Domin: When I saw the 30-card Fire mark, I thought this might be Phoenixbolt, which I actually expected Root to bring as his Queen deck. I chose to bring Devtal as my Queen because it performs well against both Phoenixbolt and Firestall - the upgraded Pests survive Fire Bolts at <10 quanta, which I figured would give me an even stronger advantage, and a better chance of early lockdown. Unfortunately, Root came very well prepared for it with his Knight deck. I made the mistake of playing a Minor Vampire the turn before I could Fractal it, which got instantly killed with a Rage Elixir (was expecting SoBs and Explosions, not CC) - my lack of healing allowed Root's Sky Dragon to make short work of me.


Bishop: Mono Rush

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Game 6 vs. Grabbow: Used my Bishop power to turn every copy of Nova in Root's deck into a Relic, stunting his damage and preventing him from playing a large number of the cards in his deck. Even with this handicap, another 1-pend draw from me initially put Root ahead in the damage race. Thankfully, I was able to draw enough quanta and get Dusk up, and allow my Gargoyles to get the much-needed kill.

Game 7 vs. Air Domin: A third 1-pend draw in a row crushed my hopes of scoring a win here. Really gutted to lose it like this.


Great games, as always, Root - very well played. I don't think I have much chance at all going into the third phase, but I hope I can put up a good fight regardless - I'll be happy if I manage to kill your Bishop and take this to King vs. King.

[Afdarenty]

I approve of the Knight, Root. Good luck to both in the final.

[rob77dp]

<3 Phys' Rook. <3

[ddevans96]

<3 Phys' Knight. <3

[Timdood3]

Physsion hasn't used any cards, I think that's why he's losing.

But he's still an owl and therefore....Go Physsion!

[Zawadx]

Glad to see the amazing level of play going on here. Give it your best both of you, and good luck!

[RootRanger]

Lost with Knight, Lost with Bishop, 0-3 with King. Congrats Physs.

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