The following is the breakdown of the Top 4 teams and their match-ups. The opening three turns were specifically recorded because this meta is so fast.

Prior to the tournament, Craig Richards, Mike Plumb, and I tested extensively attempting to break the SR Yuan-Ti/Cosmic Cube builds. We devised several strategies, and our results color my analysis of the tournament. My team only made top 8 due to a misplay against Junior and can be found in our Top 8 team lists from this event. Otherwise, the second half of my team was devised by Mike Plumb specifically to stop t3 YT builds. However, we found that YT fit nicely onto such a team as a win condition, and so I found myself bringing the spikeiest of spikey teams. Top 8 teams

We had 20 players, with players traveling from up to 8 hours away. Four of the 20 teams had the SR Yuan-Ti/Cosmic Cube combo—three rush variants and one control variant. However, many players had the common or uncommon with Cosmic Cube as well.

1st Place Team, piloted by Junior Shrake. 6-1-1.

Junior's team was a bolt-ring control build. Our testing had shown that shriek + dwiz was strong control against SR Yuan-Ti teams, especially when paired with backup removal options (in Junior's case, Magic Missile). Those three cards, combined with the necessary Chalkboard global, allowed him to have a strong T2 and T3 opening against all of the T3/T4 kill builds present in Detroit (it should be noted that Fixit can be T3/T4 as well). If he found himself the control, he would pivot here to Lantern Ring and/or Boom Boom and/or Common Yuan-Ti (any of which works great with Cosmic Cube) to incrementally bring his opponent to 0 life. Speedy Delivery and Magic Missile globals mean he had something to do with his bolts after attacking with Lantern Ring, which would also trigger Boom Boom. All in all, this build was a welcome sight in this meta.



2nd Place Team, piloted by Keith McGee, Jr. 6-1-1

Keith ran a villain control team with Nobby for the wincon. As mentioned before, our testing showed how powerful the Shriek+Dwarf Wizard subteam was against Yuan-Ti. However, Keith took a chance and did not run Chalkboard in his build, choosing instead to hope misrolls and going first often enough would work out. Obviously, it was a good decision for him, reaching second place. Scarlet Witch and Blob provide excellent backup control options and increase the versatility of his team—another good call since there were only four SR Yuan-ti teams at the event. Cold Gun is a strong recovery option if Keith lost the blanking sub-game. Madame Masque fundamentally changes the blanking sub-game, and Collector wraps up the team nicely — allowing him to change shriek/dwiz targets on demand and to field Nobby for one fist each turn.

3rd Place Team, piloted by Daniel Gingerich 5-1-1

Daniel ran a classic SR Yuan-Ti build. For the uninitiated, the basic play is to buy cube or YT turn 1 (or both going second), buy the other turn 2 (or another cube, going second), and then HXG and res. Ideally, YT on character face, two cubes, and four energy is game (since YT's attune will also trigger on buying action dice). There are a few other combinations of rolls that will result in 20+ damage on Turn 3. Parallax and Merlyn are there for reliability, kryptonite and shriek to strengthen the midgame. Daniel piloted the team expertly, but missed his rolls in his top 4 game against Junior.

4th Place Team, piloted by Ben Meek (grundalow) 4-2-1

Ben ran a classic Guy Gardner team with great skill. He used Blackbird global to slow down other aggro/rush teams to give him time to start massing guy gardners. The fantastic thing about Guy in this meta is the undeniable pressure he starts to apply as the game progresses—a strong pilot uses Guy himself to control the board, as he forces the opponent to save blockers or energy every turn. Magic Missile functions similarly on this team as on Junior's against Yuan-Ti and Shriek.

Top 4 Match-Ups

Daniel vs. Junior

Game 1

I believe Daniel won the roll off and chose to go second to maximize the energy available for his team (although this allows Junior to theoretically get both Shriek and Dwiz out). Junior chalkboarded his common YT right off the bat to start locking down Daniel's win condition. Daniel was unfazed and opened with a standard cube and YT purchase. Junior missed YT, and proceeded to chalkboard shriek, HXG, and resurrect to maximize his churn and ramp. Daniel bought his own shriek in retaliation and resurrected - pulling a perilous 7 dice into his bag. Junior landed his shriek on turn 3, fielded two sidekicks to thin his bag, chalkboarded cube and resurrected. Daniel missed his draw and chose to chalkboard a cube and buy kryptonite. Having missed his t3 draw, Daniel needed to recover control of the game at this point, but Junior's team was built specifically take advantage of YT missing their t3. The game was relatively short and Junior eventually pulled out the win.

Win to Junior .

Game 2

Daniel again chose to go second. Junior opened with chalkboarding his common YT again. Daniel also repeated his T1 purchase - YT and cube. Junior missed YT on turn 2, so he fielded two sidekicks, and bought boom boom and cube. Daniel, seeing his chance, bought a second cube, HXG'd and res'd. Turn 3, Junior chalkboards a shriek and resurrects. The critical turn for Daniel, he missed YT despite parallaxing twice. Deciding to cut his losses, he parallaxes again to increase his energy pool, buys shriek, resurrects, and buys cube. Unfortunately for Daniel, since he missed his T3, Junior was able to recover and win the game a short time later.



Win to Junior .

Keith vs. Ben

Game 1

Keith won the roll off and elected to go first. He opened with shriek. Ben responded with guy gardner and using blackbird global to turn off villainous pact. Keith fielded a sidekick and bought an early nobby to begin threatening Ben. Ben used his taunt on Keith's sidekick to keep his blockers down. On Ben's turn, he bought miri and used VP global to refill his bag. Keith bought a cold gun, fielded a sidekick, and used VP global again, having missed his roll. Ben again taunted Keith's sidekick, bought another miri, VP global, and then used blackbird on VP to start making the ramp/churn one-sided. In stark contrast to Daniel and Junior's games, this game lasted 40 minutes and was a brilliant display of tactical dice masters. Note how even in the first three turns, Ben was thinking ahead to how Keith might want to play, and Keith responded similarly. At one point, Ben hit the roll he was looking for, then offered his hand to Keith and said "good game." Keith appeared dubious, to which Ben responded, "want to play it out?" As the combat phase progressed, it became clear that Keith was more familiar with the nuances of passing priority than Ben (and, honestly, more familiar than I am or any other player I know - I first noticed Keith at Nats/Worlds when he was doing something similar). Keith survived the turn with 2 life remaining (if I recall correctly) and proceeded to hit his Nobby rolls for the game.

Win to Keith .

Game 2 - 20 minutes left

Game two opened very similarly—a shriek from Keith, a miri and blackbirding VP from Ben. Keith learned his lesson on turn 2, however. He fielded two sidekicks and used blackbird global on itself. Ben was left to buy a guy and field a sidekick. Keith started using Ben's strategy against him and taunted the sidekick into one of his own sidekicks for ramp. On T3, Keith fields another sk and buys madame masque to stop miri. Ben taunts one of Keith's sidekicks through, then on his turn, Fields a guy and a sidekick, attacks with guy but blinks him back to maintain pressure, and uses blackbird global on itself again. The rest of the second game played out similar to the first: seriously, if you get a chance to watch either of these two players, I highly recommend it. After a long slog, the win went to Keith.

Win to Keith .

Championship Game: Keith vs. Junior

In stark contrast to Keith and Ben's game, the finals took a whopping 10 minutes.

Game 1, Junior opens with chalkboarding YT. Keith chalkboards shriek. Junior misses YT, buys shriek and cube, and uses VP. Keith misses shriek, buys dwiz, and uses VP. Junior lands shriek and names Keith's dwiz, fields a sidekick, and buys lantern ring. Keith pings Junior's sidekick, but proceeds to miss his dwiz and chalkboards shriek in an attempt to delay Junior's lantern ring. After this point, Keith is never able to establish strong control over Junior and eventually loses to ridiculous amounts of ring+cube damage.

In game 2, Keith opens with shriek. Junior opens with lantern ring for early pressure (he's still one of the few lantern ring players I know that grabs ring this early in a game, and it fundamentally changes the tempo of the match). Keith buys scarlet witch again and VPs, but doesn't notice the slight misplay here - against Junior's team, it doesn't matter if Cube comes up double bolts or action face; it'll be two more ring damage regardless. Junior fields a sk, buys his YT, and VPs. Keith shrieks Junior's shriek, fields scarlet witch, and buys a cold gun. Junior misses Ring, VPs and chalkboards a dwiz. After this, Keith manages to hold blanks of much of Junior's field, but they are all still cheap bolt characters that deal lantern ring damage. This game also only lasts 5 minutes.

The tournament goes to Junior .



Thanks to Eternal Games and John for TOing this great event. It was definitely worth the drive for a couple of bums from Missouri and we'll definitely have to come back sometime!



