Leading up to the event I was torn on what to play. To the point that I didn’t even want to book. I was debating refunding my ticket the entire time. And then after Saturday it was too late, so I booked my flight and room. I was most comfortable on Ruby Amethyst but I felt like it was getting crept out of the game. It seemed like there was a triangle between Ruby Sapphire, Sapphire Steel, and Emerald Steel. I certainly wasn’t going to play the Diablo deck because I felt like everyone was looking to counter it, and I also didn’t have many games on it. I also didn’t have a lot of time to put in reps with it as well as the other decks I was considering. It was by far my least favorite deck, so I learned the game plan so I could plan accordingly myself.
I tested Ruby Sapphire and I kept getting ruined by Floodborn Aladdin and Find Em’ and Flatten ‘Em. So I figured items were also being hard targeted at the time. That knowledge led me back to my favorite deck, Ruby Amethyst. No, I didn’t have item removal available, but I had a lot of different options on how I wanted to interact with the game. Additionally, I felt like the hate on Locations had subsided with the release of Ursula’s Return, so Jim Hawkins felt like a REALLY relevant swing. I love Queen’s Castle but I have so much trouble wanting to play it bare in a format that’s so fast. I want to be getting the extra draw pretty quickly while also still using my creatures already in play to interact. Jim Hawkins was a perfect answer to that.
The game plan was simple but I didn’t have much time to test, so it was certainly not perfect. The plan was to play out early Flynn and Sisu to keep lore going, and as those cards forced my opponent to expend resources to remove them, I could drop Jim into Castle to continue the pressure as well as keep me churning through the deck after discarding cards via Bucky if that was my scenario. Against Ruby Sapphire, it’s a big commitment to play a Brawl on Flynn if I play a Sisu on 3 ahead of it because you don’t develop board and Sisu gets to continue questing. I added Lumiere as well to avoid the brawl and make them have to have Ice Block in play to get Brawl off, and double Ice Block to get 3-cost Sisu off. RLS Legacy was for decks without ways to interact with Evasive. When I worked out ratios and the amount of draw in the deck, statistics told me I really needed to play 6 locations but I didn’t want to play a second RLS so I stuck with 5 total Locations. I don’t regret that at all, and I didn’t run into much issue with the ratios as I didn’t completely mind inking Jim and hard casting Queen’s Castle if I absolutely had to make that choice. It didn’t come up a lot, though.
Lastly there was the realization that Isabella Madrigal was a REALLY interesting card as it was evasive, quested for 4 if it quests alone, and allows me to continue to apply pressure with a solo quester while using everything else on the board to interact with what my opponent was doing. The early part of the game was built in a way that requires my opponent to expend resources or have a board battle, and one of the issues I found with the standard version of the deck was that if I made it to the mid game and did NOT gain a lot of lore, the fact that Sisu was the only thing that quests for 2 was an issue. Having Jim and Isabella that could provide decent lore swings felt really strong and Isabella being Evasive was just icing on the cake in terms of her utility. When I was in board battles where resources were being traded, she truly cleaned up games.
Decklist Link: https://dreamborn.ink/decks/OtzurJBzo6ZRwdKyxdHr
Round & Game Breakdown
Round 1
Dice Roll: L
Opps Colors: Emerald/Steel(Bucky Discard)
Game 1: My opponent won the roll and decided to go first game 1. He did the usual Diablo stuff and I went down pretty fast with no answers. 0-1
Game 2: I went first and got a Flynn setup early and had removal for all of the things he had to do.
1-1
Round 2
Dice Roll: W
Opp: Emerald/Steel(Bucky Discard)
Game 1: I win the roll and defer going first until Game 2. I get an early set up and have a bit of removal but there’s a point where Pegasus is keeping Diablo at bay from exerting and my opp has played no song. He ends up playing an Ursula and to avoid my hand getting busted by Sudden Chill/Ursula, I decided to use my Brawl on the Ursula. Diablo was the better choice as he ended up drawing a ton of cards and getting way ahead. 0-1
Game 2: I go first and get off to a quick start before getting AOE’d in the mid game for all of my smaller stuff. My hand size was low so he was able to run away with the game after that.
0-2
Round 3
Dice Roll: L
Opp: Amber/Steel Songs
Game 1: My opponent wins and decides to go first Game 1. She gets off to a good start with some Ariel/Cinderella singing. I eventually get to Be Prepared a pretty full board and play a Jim Hawkins into RLS Legacy to keep up with the lore gain. 1-0
Game 2: I get 1-drop into Flynn into Sisu into a quick Jim Hawkins/Queen’s Castle. I go way too fast for the songs to keep up and I put enough mid-size things up that it can’t be cleared.
2-0
After this round we go to lunch at which point I have to go back to the hotel to change rooms because the room I was in got slated for construction on Saturday? So I left, went back to the room, moved my things, and then got some food quickly before going back to the venue. I bring my food to the table with me and suffer the entire next round because I didn’t get a chance to eat it but it smells INCREDIBLE.
Round 4
Dice Roll: L
Opp: Ruby/Amethyst Bounce
Game 1: My opponent chooses to go first game 1. We go back and forth a LOT this game. I put some creatures behind an RLS Legacy though Jim Hawkins and get a decent amount of lore in before clearing up the end of the game with Isabella.
Game 2: I get Flynn up into Sisu and he plays a Sisu back, but I keep my hand size lower than his so that my Sisu continues to reign supreme. Lumiere comes down shortly after to make sure that I stay ahead on power on the board. I hold Rabbit as the only card in my hand to keep my Sisu down. I figured once Flynn was out of commission, I would start my draw engine with Rabbit. I was really far ahead and we weren’t closed to Be Prepared range yet. I gain 12 lore via Flynn before he gets removed and I Jim into a Castle and he doesn’t have the answers to recover from the super quick start.
2-0
Round 5
Dice Roll: L
Opp: Sapphire/Steel Items
Game 1: I get a decent start but my opponent is ramping CRAZY. I remove Hiram before it gets out of hand, and he eventually has upwards of 18 ink. He gets off A Whole New World and Lucky Dime comes down and I get quickly dispatched from there with no item removal. 0-1
Game 2: I get a early Flynn down and it pretty much solos the game as he draws a ton of ramp early and can’t establish a board at all. He plays a Hiram and I Medusa it and clean up the game from there before anything gets going with all of his Mana.
1-1
Round 6
Dice Roll: W
Opp: Sapphire/Steel Items
Game 1: This is familiar. He ramps a lot and runs away with the game via Lucky Dime pretty quickly.
Game 2: I miss on removal and Hiram commits crimes against me. I get up to 13 lore before I get tempo’d out of the game by his overwhelming mana. Not really a lot of agency in this matchup. I aggressively looked for the quick start and the hope is that I can find removal as the game presses on and I missed here.
0-2
At this point I’m just playing for the 30 points needed to get 20 tickets because I don’t have the ability to top here unless I 2-0 out. Even then, it was shaky because I had 2 losses.
Round 7
Dice Roll: L
Opp: Sapphire/Steel Items
Game 1: Who would have guessed? Another Sapphire Steel! I go first game 1 and get down an early Flynn with Lumiere and it gets me ahead way before he can get anything going. The Locations and Isabella clean up the rest of the work quickly before he starts interacting: 1-0
Game 2: I start slow and I’m questing for 1-2 lore at a time while he’s ramping. By the time I get to 10 lore, he’s way ahead in mana and cleans up the game within a few turns with his big cards.
1-1
Round 8
Dice Roll: W
Opp: Green Blue Bucky/Items/Ward
Game 1: I had this idea for a home brew because I figured giving cards like Diablo and Ursula Ward and Resist via the blue cards would be interesting. I ended up not having the time or space to create and test such a thing so I let it go, but I was excited to see it come to life for someone else. I end up getting the 2-0 win in this match.
Round 9
Dice Roll: L
Opp: Sapphire Steel Items
Game 1: Flynn into Sisu into Rabbit into Jim Hawkins does WORK here and he’s not able to answer while trying to ramp. I end the game in about 6 turns. 1-0
Game 2: There’s a bit more back and forth with this game but due to an awkward hand, I hard cast an RLS Legacy on 4 and then spend some turns moving things there. I end up winning the game through my things being Evasive and questing away while gaining location lore. He never gets the chance to fully get going as I have answers for everything and by the time Tamatoa comes down, I’ve established an Isabella at Queen’s Castle and I’m questing for 6 a turn.
2-0
My final record was 4-2-3. An additional win would have gotten me there. A few moments of reflection on the list I played and some of the misplays I made. The Brawl on Ursula instead of the Diablo would have likely turned a loss into a draw. The other 0-2 I took there wasn’t very much agency, I just felt bad not having a way to interact with the items. He played his deck very well and conservatively which is correct in this matchup. He didn’t put things in danger that didn’t need to be exerted. I think I was always taking that L.
I had some hindsight doubt that if I had played Ruby/Sapphire or Sapphire/Steel, I could have done better but really, I think that I like the call I made. I was comfortable on my deck much more than I would have been on either of the Item-Based decks. I was also terrified of Find ‘Em and Flatten ‘Em and I played 7 Steel decks in 9 rounds and I saw that card get inked in a LOT of them.
I went on Sunday and used my tickets to get my Rapunzel promo and I feel great about the weekend! I’m glad I got to play the deck I love once more before it gets completely crept out of the game.
Itachi is a long-time card game player and competitor with a history in Yugioh and Hearthstone before Disney Lorcana. Check out his twitter page to follow more from him. https://twitter.com/Itachi_HS
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