xuro beat me 2-1 and then 2-1.
Game 1 I hoped he'd go with an air deck, and he did not. Easy victory for him:
58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58r 58r 58r 58r 58r 58r 593 593 593 593 595 595 595 595 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa
Game 2 I hoped he'd go with an earth deck, and he did. xuru used the wrong mark but conceded when he saw the matchup:
5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oi 5oi 5oi 5oi 5oi 5ol 5ol 5ol 5ol 5ol 5ol 5on 5oo 5oo 5oo 5oo 5oo 5pu 5pu 5pu 5pu 5pu 5pu
Game 3 I believe xuru researched and thus knew every card in the only fire deck I've used for this event. He built a great counter, and beat me with it (??? are unupped fire pends):
5f0 5f0 5f0 5f1 5f1 5f1 5f1 5f1 5f1 5f6 5f6 5f9 5f9 5f9 5f9 5f9 5f9 5fb 5fb 5fb 5fb 5fb 5fc 5fc 5fc 5fc 5fc 5fc 5gi 5gi
Since it was double elim, we had to play another best of 3. I thought xuru would see that whoever won this best of 3, almost regardless of upped cards used, would win the event. I thought he might try grabbys, so I went with air. He didn't but I got what I needed from draws to win:
5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oi 5oi 5oi 5oi 5oi 5ol 5oo 5oo 5oo 5oo 5oo 5pu 5pu 5pu 5pu 5pu 5pu 7n5 7n5 7n5 7n5 7n5 7n7
I have a good many upped fire cards, so I decided to save them for the third game, reasoning that he's forced to use his best deck now to stay in it. I settled on earth and he again chose a great counter:
58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 590 590 590 591 591 591 591 591 77g 77g 77g 77h 77j 77j 77j
Well I'd prepared an almost completely upped mono-fire deck for the Trials. I did some math and thought I could get away with 20 or so upped cards in the deck. So I switched out the brimstone eaters for ash eaters, in the back of my mind wondering why I bothered using upped immo fodder in a Trials deck to begin with...
5f0 5f1 5f1 5f1 5f1 5f1 5f2 5f2 5f6 5f6 7dg 7dg 7dg 7dg 7dq 7dq 7dq 7dq 7dq 7dq 7ds 7ds 7ds 7ds 7ds 7ds 7f2 7f2 7f2 7f2
Half way through the game I realized there were no immos in this deck. That's a pretty important detail to get right. Lol.
Congrats to xuru, who was only in the loser's bracket to begin with because he had to forfeit due to a scheduling conflict. He's a tremendous competitor and absolutely deserves this victory.