God Save the VGCS Tournament Winner's Report (Seat A)

Round 1 Brave (W)

Round 2 Victor (W)

Round 3 Victor (W)

Round 4 Messiah (L)

Round 5 Dominate (W)



Top 8

Quarter Finals Great Nature (W)

Semi Finals Dominate (W)

Finals Victor (W)



So the Birmingham VGCS was held this Sunday by Yellowcard Vanguard and Different Fight at Geek Retreat Birmingham. Gotta say it was an extremely fun event and I definitely look forward to doing more of them in the future.



The format was Bo1, 5 rounds of Swiss followed by a cut to Top 8 bracket of single elimination Bo1. Not the most ideal format but with the time restraints I appreciate why it was chosen.



We chose the team name Apocrypha after the team myself (Darkness), David (ZTB) and Cid will be entering Cardiff Nationals with however Cid was unable to attend this event so we picked up Sagar (Dominate) for this event.



Round 1

We end up on the standing table for this game (there weren't enough chairs for the tables so two unlucky teams would have to stand to play) and I see my opponent brandish Fides sleeves out of his deckbox - is this it? Is this the time where the decision to change my deck bites me in the ass? He flips up his starter and confirms my worst fears, he's running my old deck. He opens really strong with two Septgals calling a full board but I play it safe and wipe his board with attacks and Scharhrot's end phase skill, giving him first stride but only with 2 open CB. He ends his first Fides turn with me on four damage but I'm fine with that. I follow the game plan and stride Balaam, don't do much and pass my turn and... He fails to stride. His hand was all 0s and 1s. He loses.



I knew David had lost, he had to G-assist against Deletors, I hear him declare "no guard" on 5 damage and cry a little. It’s all on Sagar to win. His opponent no guards his Rinne on four damage, we just need one crit. First check, nothing. Second check, crit. Third check, nothing. We win (2-1).



Round 2 was against Victor and honestly wholly forgettable. I remember the player I played against made some awkward plays, and was left with one CB on his Winning Champ turn which means he didn't even hit the GB3 to retire Deranged Singular - I win off of that. Another team win in the bag (2-1).



Round 3 was the match I was scared of. Against Mohammed Abumahlula's team which was full of good players. I get matched against Nic Ngo's Victor deck but he bricks his opening hand. He pushes me to 5 but its all fine as I win on second stride. Sagar lost to Dominic's ZTB putting it all on David to win his rematch against Mo. David has a 14 card hand in the middle of his Heritage turn (having an extra turn is totally fair and balanced) and I know he has won. Team win number 3 (2-1), one more to be guaranteed top 8.



Round 4 was against Miles' team. Another pretty scary team. Unfortunately I brick against Kaelen's Messiah. I miss grade 2, whiff a G-assist and damage 2 Gastilles. I could have made it back into the game but at that point Sagar and David had lost so there wasn't much point. I play it out and lose, first team loss. (0-3)



Round 5 was fine. Played against Dominate which I have been playtesting with Sagar for the past month or so. I know the MU and win. David loses to Gyze/Nociel but Sagar pulls a win for the team. Team win number 4 (2-1), we're guaranteed top 8.



In between the Swiss rounds we went to get some food and I uttered probably the most stupid, but also wisest thing I've ever said. "it doesn't matter about our records, who we play or who we come up against. Three wins and we win this - that's all there is".



Coming into top 8, quarterfinals against 5th seed. David plays against 2016 Nationals Champion Ellis Reeves and wins. Sagar plays against Gredora and wins. It doesn't matter what I do at this point, I'm on 5 damage against Great Nature but with a 12 card hand I'm pretty confident. I defend against his Balaurl turn and retaliate with Bledermaus to win the game. We sweep the quarters. (3-0)



Semifinals were against the French team, the Mahuteaux Family. This team scared me to my core. They were running the same decks as us, just with mirrored seating (so I played against Dominate and Sagar played against Dark Irregulars). And every single player on the team was in the top 20 at Nationals last year. Despite the MU knowledge, I was shaking since the game began. I miss my G2 ride and a whiff with the G-assist gets me punished accordingly. I'm on 4 damage and the game has barely started. I look down the table to see if either of the games look favourable but... They're really even - I need to win. I ride Scharhrot, giving up first stride because I have a Heal trigger in hand, I try to reduce some of his pressure on me by swinging to rears but I know his gameplan. Next turn he strips two cards from my hand, forces them to attack me and I have to pray that I get a damage trigger to not die. The first damage I take is a crit, +5k to the VG and not death. Winnable. He ends his turn with 3 damage and ~8 cards in hand. Stride Balaam. I have two cards in hand and very few options. Thankfully the cat comes in clutch to get me two Gastilles to hand. I use them to filter my deck and gain +10k and the Grade 0 guard restrict and now it's do or die. I need to hit either two crits or two heals on my Balaam quad drive to be in with a chance of winning. The Gastilles swing and whiff. That's fine. Balaam swings, 35k no G1s to guard and he declares no guard. First check, crit. Second check, nothing. Third check, crit. Fourth check, stand. He takes his three damage, first check draw trigger, second check, heal but it doesn't go off, third check normal unit and I win. For the first time I was the first to finish so I look down the table to see how the games are going. David's is incredibly close as is Sagar's. Sagar's opponent is forced to make a misplay and run out of cards in his deck by using Monochrome of Nightmareland with only one card in deck, losing him the game - we made it to the finals. I run to the other side of the room and congratulate Sagar, the result of David's game is irrelevant but pride is on the line. We cheer as he deals the sixth damage to his opponent and we 3-0 one of the scariest teams there.



Finals. Rematch against Mo's team. Once again I'm playing against Victor, but this time I have a good G2 game going. Unfortunately I don't have G3. I G-assist and whiff. He rides to G3 and swings face, I'm on 5 damage. I look down the table to see if anyone else is having better luck than I am. Sagar's already lost, David's game could go either way - I need to win. I hit this G-assist and make it back into the game off of a double heal with Balaam after a nice amount of Monochrome of Nightmareland filtering. After a back and forth, I aim to seal it on the second stride Bledermaus. David has won at this point so it's all on my shoulders. I need to hit crit, stand, stand on my first drive check to be in with a chance of busting through his hand and life (he's only on 3 damage). And that's exactly what I check. He's now on 5 but he has enough in hand to guard through the three attacks I'll be sending his way - I need to hit a stand off of Bledermaus' single drive check. Thankfully my deck is 100% triggers and also 70% stands. The single check reveals a stand, standing the Baleful and sending two big attacks his way with no feasible way to guard it. He checks his damage as it reveals a crit and we shake hands. That's the tournament won. (2-1)



Throughout the day I dropped one game. Mostly because my deck is stupidly strong but also thanks to the resident DI expert at Fanboy, Andrew Hesford. Without whom I would have no idea what I'm doing with this deck and its build. Also, a huge thanks to everyone at Fanboy Three, from my own teammates David and Cid to players like Krzysztof, Andrew Hesford and Andrew Lam for basically teaching me how to play competitively and giving me tonnes of matchup advice and experience with different matchups. Obviously big thanks to Sagar and David for winning their games when we needed it but that goes without saying.



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