“Good Game” as a term has always carried a positive connotation, as quite literally it means “good game”, a thanks oftentimes used after a game in order to both be polite and convey that you had fun during the game. The term popped up in the mid 1990s with the rise of multiplayer gaming, and grew popular in first-person-shooters, such as Marathon and Doom, and has since spread throughout every gaming sphere.
Of course, as time passes and slang evolves, as well as the usage of slang, it has shifted away from truly meaning “good game”, and has mostly been shifted into a solely catchphrase people echo at the end of games. Of course it is to be polite, but oftentimes people who say “good game” don’t truly mean it, and moreso feel obligated to say it regardless of if they had fun or the game was actually good.
Everyone has done it, which isn’t a bad thing, but I believe players should be cognizant of their usage of the term. I am not saying to stop using it, but to give it a bit of thought. “Good game” is the initial phrase, but oftentimes little more thought goes on behind it. Why was it a good game? Was it a solid back and forth that was highly engaging for both players? Did someone “do the thing” and accomplish what they wanted too? Or did you simply have fun? The further thought is often glossed over when you can just use the simple catch-all term of “good game”, though I think that continuing that train of thought should occur more often.
With the MHA National Championships occurring recently, as well as taking place in a gaming convention with a variety of other games present, the number of “good games” over the weekend were enormous. Fortunately I was able to attend the event, and I had a few goals in mind. Obviously I wanted to place well, and of course I wanted to spend a fun weekend with all my friends. But as many people forget we are playing a game, and the point of games is to have fun. So my second highest priority was to have a good time. My highest priority of the weekend? To thank the community in one of the most roundabout ways possible. I wanted every “good game” this weekend to be genuine. I wanted to have a reason as to why I enjoyed every game, whether I won or lost, and to genuinely help improve other players’ tournament experience.
If you saw me throughout the weekend, I tried to always keep a smile in my pocket, and take as much genuine joy out of every interaction as possible. To everyone who came up and said hi, or people telling me they enjoyed my work, thank you. Every positive interaction is the reason I play games, and I truly appreciate everyone who talked to me throughout the weekend. You were a large part of the reason I had such a wonderful time, and I can’t wait to meet up in the future, or meet new faces as well!
Moving past the sentimental stuff, let’s get on with the article. This will be a full deck analysis, tournament breakdown plus war story, my nationals experience, as well as a retrospective on the nationals and competitive season. This will be a doozy of a read, so I suggest breaking it up into parts, or dedicate a solid chunk of time to it. So with enough out of the way, let me get onto the analysis of the deck I ran this weekend, Fistbump Mimic!
The Concept
I was in there, in the trenches, sitting on uvsultra for an exorbitant amount of time, trying to figure out what I should play for nationals. I had made a “short list” of characters, however whenever I make a “short list” of decks I want to play for an event, it inevitably ends up as a very long list. Not only do I have a list of characters, but I build decks for all of them in order to judge how much potential they have. There are 31 decks in the folder, with the following list of characters:
All Might I, Asui, Ball Might, Hojo, Kirishima I, Midnight, Mirio, Ochaco I, Overhaul, Shigaraki I, Tokoyami I, Tokoyami II, and of course Mimic.
This is the opposite of a short list. I had explored characters, and iterated vastly on several of them, such as Shigaraki I on evil having four decks, as well as four variations of Mirio under good. I also had two iterations of many of the characters as well. For those of you that know me, it should shock you that I have so many meta decks on this list. As a person, I derive great joy from playing special snowflake decks, and will always try to show up with one of them for events. Due to the stakes of this event being so high, I was going to break the brewers code in order to play what was most powerful. Of course my decks had a Pippa Flare™, with my Overhaul focus being on the evil symbol to where that was in top contention for what I was going to bring. I explored many variations of Mirio, including a full stun lineup to power through even large boards, as well as pure card advantage through only running attacks that plus'ed me.
Of course while I would run a meta character, I was still holding out hope that a more unique option presented itself to me. Most of my testing has been on Fire and Evil decks, as I think that the repeated breaker effects of Twisty Surroundings and Barrier Shield is one of the best defensive options in this meta. Initial characters were Hojo, Overhaul and Tokoyami I, though none of them felt quite right. Then as I was reviewing my options again, I rediscovered Shigaraki I (I don’t know how I forgot he exists). Shigaraki I is a character I enjoy vastly and have had success with in the past, and is weird enough that it would be notable to top with. So I went into the lab and started brewing, and that is when one thing became clear to me.
Evil has four Flash attacks.
Notably this is just behind Air with the most at five, tied with All, Good, and Void at four. This is enough to run a near full Flash lineup under the symbol. As a mechanic I love Flash, the ability to bypass most enemy defensive tactics and it is always something I keep in mind for any deck with a capacity to run them. Shigaraki I has two responses, making his enhance step less valuable than other characters, and this means Flash gains incredible value in him. Especially as a character who needs to hit the rival for his payoff, being able to open up your opponent by nullifying their interaction is a perfect match.
Early variations ran all four of the flash attacks, Final Exam Gut Shot, Chainsaw Nomu, Dignified Display, and Haymaker, in varying ratios. Haymaker was the stand out performer, requiring the enemy to try and swing into you again, burning resources, lest they discard a card, an incredibly potent offensive trick for this character. It also doubled as a way to over-the-top players, with the ability to jam it late into a turn for a game-ending swing. Dignified Display was also great, allowing it to clear itself once blocked while also giving us a resource when blocking. Echo also furthered how dangerous this card is, being a huge enabler for strings composed solely of Flash attacks. The other two however, were very mediocre. Final Exam Gut Shot was slow and textless, while Chainsaw Nomu was rarely 4-difficulty due to my debuild effect on face. While these flaws existed I still needed to run them in order for a dedicated Flash lineup, however I decreased their counts and added several Evil staples such as Tongue Whip, Chronostasis Trigger, and Vile Seizing.
For the foundations, I latched onto three notable ones. Hero Killer was an incredible option, being able to snipe rival offensive and defensive tricks, while also acting as an Overhaul counter, sniping the card he builds from hand to prevent their shenanigans. The next was Advice For Winners, one of the best consistency boosters in the game. Being able to recheck an attack allows utility on both offense and defense, especially as a character that can’t usually turbo out their stage. Lastly was Endless Loathing, allowing smoother builds after a string of attacks while conforming to the Flash gameplan due to the Form speed on the effect. It also provided a source of Deadlock, something that was one of my requirements for the event.
While the testing was doing well, some big problems emerged. This character gets payoff from hitting the rival, which can be difficult when the attack lineup was predictable, meaning you regularly had to play several attacks to finally hit. Additionally, after the first move the rest did printed damage, making it difficult to close out games if your opponent is middling to high health. Another large issue was that the Evil symbol lacks any reliable card draw, leaving the options at Seasoned Brawler, Monstrous Ferocity, and Excited For Blood. Seasoned Brawler was very inconsistent and limited due to being single-use, Monstrous Ferocity was solid, though it comes at a high deckbuilding cost due to being a 2-difficulty unique foundation, that is again single-use. Excited For Blood was the only repeatable source, which also relied on touching the enemy, meaning that being blocked out felt truly horrid for this deck.
This had disappointed me, as I was beginning to scratch another deck off of the list. I wanted to preserve the Flash lineup if possible, given that was the coolest part of the deck. I began scrolling the Evil characters, and my eyes settled on a character I often overlooked.
The Premise
The synergy was both obvious, yet incredibly complex. Mimic is able to give damage to Flash attacks by committing foundations to pass checks, which I also realized combo’d with Haymaker, given it gets damage for any card committed to pass the check. This meant that Haymaker on a 6 was at least a 4-Mid-8 Flash attack, with the ability to scale up to a 4-Mid-10 if I checked poorly. It made the attack lineup both uninteractive as well as threatening, something that only another top character can do, Jiro. Mimic is also naturally at a foundation deficit due to his reliance on Assets, which meant Chainsaw Nomu would always be a 4-difficulty attack, making strings much smoother. This also combined with Mimic’s signature attack, Trigger Transformation, meaning the rival would eventually run out of Mids to block with, letting me slam into them with super powered Haymakers and Transformations.
The synergies don’t just stop there. Twisty Surroundings, one of the key cards I had included back in Shigaraki, also found an excellent home in the deck as an Asset in the Asset character. Hero Killer became an amazing piece to keep the rival board slim while not being as much of a downside as Trigger is an incredible boon to passing checks. Endless Loathing lets me build out smoother when building both after a string or a series of Assets, meaning I could always build in the best foundation in my hand. Advice For Winners however outshone both of these options. It allowed me to not only boost our consistency in a deck that is content with building three, but also dig for Assets when checking, giving further consistency to Mimic’s top response.
Not only did these synergies propel the deck, but Mimic also provided everything I was needing in Shigaraki, with the ability to play more cards a turn, it made strings of Flash attacks threatening, and it patched up the card draw deficit by letting me tutor an attack whenever I checked an asset, which equals roughly once a turn. The latter proved an even bigger strength with Evil’s access to Chronostasis Trigger and Haymaker, providing a Breaker: 2 block and a Breaker: 1 block that forced the rival to aggress further, compromising their board state. I also want to shoutout the best combo of the deck, with Barrier Shield into Haymaker granting a Breaker: 3 block while also often requiring the rival to discard a card as they didn’t want to play a move into that level of check hacking. Of course they could always discard a card then continue swinging, however that would be met with further resistance by Twisty Surroundings and the prior mentioned Chronostasis Trigger. This meant the deck's defense was both potent and most importantly reliable, something that Shigaraki couldn’t compare too.
Actualization
With the premise solidly in place it was time to build the deck. Mimic is an… interesting character to say the least, and balancing what I needed to run with what I wanted to run was a nightmare, with me leaving out a bevy of offensive staples like Surging Crystal Darts as well as any extra copies of Tongue Whip and Vile Seizing. This was further complicated when I got to all of the tech options available, as Mimic could find them reliably. This meant that options such as: Hardened Claw Crusher, Tetra-Terror Onslaught, Decaying Palm Slam, Compression Sphere, Gargantuan Bellow, Electromagnetic Stomp, Net Gun Surprise, and Wire Arrow had to be cut. Compression Sphere found its way into my sideboard however, given the utility of on-demand momentum hate is incredibly important in this format (it also ended up being the card I sided into the most over the course of the event).
Figuring out the Assets was easier, with the only big changes being the removal of Kota due to having too many high-difficulty assets. I also was running Training Weights over Fancy Feast, which I quickly switched as I often couldn’t access the power of Training Weights, so I swapped it for the lower-difficulty Asset.
The foundations were a challenge. I was dedicated enough to Flash attacks that foundations with enhance abilities had minimal place in my deck. This excluded: Looking For A Challenge, Confession, Up In Flames, League Invitation, Quick To Act, Floating Around My Babies, and Apathetic, while House of Cards and City-Wide Crisis had less overt anti-synergy, with the former only having the momentum hate tied to enhances which I often wasn't doing, while the latter lost value when the rival doesn’t have chances to add cards to hand due to the Flash lineup. Space was also incredibly tight in the list meaning I couldn’t run much speed reduction, which isn’t an issue if the rival only plays an attack or two, but this deck heavily struggles with blocking long strings. Granted it is very difficult to string into this deck, but the weakness still remains. Mimic is also mixed into Stun as while he can still pass checks with Assets, he can only commit one per check, limiting him against high-speed attacks. He is resistant in a sense that you can only stun half of his board, but it is still something to be aware of. The top decks often run Back Alley Haymaker which is something I am aware of, but hope I can simply weather.
I had the first form of the deck with all forms of unique foundations that I had to eventually cut, but I wasn’t solid on the full foundation base. Monstrous Ferocity was redundant as I was no longer struggling with holding enough cards to block with, while Seasoned Brawler was too inconsistent and low impact. Sticky Balls also felt too cloggy with the density of high difficulty assets and foundations I was running. My block zones were also pitiful, as Evil has few good low blocks that can easily be run.
I went back into the lab and found a unique option in Serum Bullets, a card generally not what players would consider “good”, when in this deck it are perfect. Serum Bullets is an odd choice, but makes sense when in context. It offers a Breaker-like effect in forcing your rival to commit a foundation on block, fitting with the thematic of stopping the rival from stringing. It also packs offensive utility by being a card you can jam before Haymaker to bump its difficulty while committing the rival’s board.
The sideboard I settled on pretty quickly, with Compression Sphere being a wonderful anti-momentum piece, while Invincible Clasp was primarily to add inventability for fragile decks that can turtle well, so primarily 7 hand size matchups. Hero Killer wasn’t generally powerful enough to include as a 4x in the main, so I had to settle for 2x in the main and 2x in the side. Gas Cloud is another strange addition, but it provided additional deadlock while serving as soft stun-hate, allowing me to chip down the rival.
Playstyle
If you intend on playing the deck, be aware that the lines are very complex and turns can be played a variety of ways. Some big tips are to always play Haymaker on a 6 and above, Tongue Whip should always be played early to act as pseudo speed, and you should rarely actually attack Chronostasis Trigger. Serum Bullets can be woven into strings to commit the rival, while also bumping progressive difficulty for Haymaker strings. Endless Loathing also works on the next foundation you play, so flipping it before a string will let you build out even if you would commit during the string. This deck is also incredibly all-in, and is probably the most effective deck to all-in with due to the ridiculous numbers you can get your attacks to, so don’t be afraid to string long if you think you can kill! You have plenty of consistency due to the ratios of the deck being less attack skewed, while also packing effects like Advice For Winners and Trigger to make checking well very consistent. This deck is also somewhat resistant to checking poorly, due to Haymaker becoming ridiculously large and threatening as well as Advice For Winners insulating you further.
Matchup-wise this deck is favored into most of the popular decks. 7 handers need to reliably hold mid blocks while also passing them, putting incredible pressure on them since they can often be one shot. Overhaul gets shut down significantly due to being unable to block from stage most attacks, while also denying him a build on your turn. Mirio no longer gets to zero out a move, and Eraserhead I can’t loop endless mid blocks against you due to needing an enhance step. This trend continues for the rest of the cast as very few decks are prepared to deal with a Flash heavy lineup. Most players have replaced Specialist Of Sound with Nice Try!, removing their interaction for the matchup, leaving them with almost no ways to lower the speed of the moves.
The uninteractivity of Flash moves is the biggest selling point of the attack lineup as it removes counterplay and is able to mitigate many of the big tech cards currently. Barrier Shield is unusable against most of our attacks, while Learning The Standards can be played around with by simply playing an asset or foundation and bumping the progressive difficulty for Haymaker to become larger. Clog effects like Run Away!, and … So Manly also adds progressive to our Haymakers, making them suboptimal defensive solutions. Cheerleader, one of the best tech pieces of the format, also is ineffective against our Flash moves.
When figuring out lines, just be creative with the deck! Checking an asset one card to the next can vastly change your gameplan for the turn, so recognizing what to grab from discard when is highly important. Recognizing what is valuable in the moment and in the future is a very important skill with this deck, and you often have to change plans on the fly as you progress through your turns. It is an incredibly fun and rewarding deck to pilot, and I highly recommend trying it out!
As always, if you have any questions on the deck or wanna chat theory, feel free to hit me up on discord! With Jetburn on the horizon, everyone will be in full playtest mode even if we don’t have any major events for the next few months. With the deck out of the way, let me move onto…
My Nationals Experience + Warstory
I will be briefly covering my experience this weekend, so if you want to skip straight to the tournament warstory, feel free! I want to preserve the memories I made this weekend, and this is part of that. If it isn’t your speed, no worries, totally get that.
The story starts on Thursday October 19th, with me arriving at the airport to board my flight. It was basic, however I had downloaded several of the recent League of Legends worlds games to watch on the flight, and finally I arrived in Dallas at roughly 4:00 PM local. I had a friend who was local who told me about the rail line from the Dallas Fort Worth airport all the way to the convention center, and after wandering around the airport (it had negative signage and was a concrete jungle), I finally found my way to the station and settled down in the train. A while later I had arrived, and walked a mile down the road to the hotel, right across the street from the convention center.
Unfortunately when I arrived, I found out you needed a keycard to enter the building, which I lacked as I hadn’t checked in. Thankfully a group of homies were hanging in the lobby and let me in, where I promptly checked in, headed up to my room, settled down, then went back to the lobby to hang around for a bit. Eventually the crowd dispersed and I went back upstairs to room number 420 where I would be staying for the weekend. Eventually I caught wind of a large portion of my friends were chilling at a nearby bar, The Library, so I walked a few blocks down to hang with them for several hours. Finally I made my way back to my room, and took a long nap to prepare me for the following day.
I woke up around 7:00 AM on Friday, and took the morning slow. I grabbed breakfast in the hotel lobby (it was pretty bad), and went back upstairs to chill for a while, given the convention didn’t open until noon. Finally as the time came I made my way across the street and met up with some friends before we flooded into the convention hall. As anyone who attended the event knows, immediately you were bombarded with popcorn-smell, a tantalizing snack that was available throughout the day, though I never partook (I should have though). I got all settled and played a few games, met up with even more friends, and waited around until the Retro event started.
I won’t go fully in-depth about the retro event, but I ended up playing Nick Ragan’s Remiliss deck, as I had gotten to busy to ask for him to build something for me, but that was fine given my enjoyment of the deck. In my first round I was against a very cool Celinka deck that used Ailurophobia combined with Manas & Ayus to make gigantic attacks, and I had to take a 11-speed 29-damage Moon Ritual Dance that burned me for 3 additional damage for a grand total of 32 damage. Thankfully I was at full health and survived at 1, followed by a backswing the following turn, but that was a hell of an introduction to the format.
Round two I was matched against a Kuwabara under Water, using Sword Get Longer and Spirit Sword Thrust as the offensive core, while using Precise Blow as a defensive trick, combined with Rose Whip Lash to mount offense on the rivals turn. However, with two defensive 5 hand-size characters, neither of us was able to make a dent in the other, leading us to tying in game 1 in overtime.
From there I went almost straight into the next match where I played against Stone Man running every life-gain card on symbol, as well as throws to slowly whittle down the opponent. Given he hard countered my character, game 1 was a slow agonizing death. I was able to hit him with a 12-damage Ace Maneuver, however every other move was hitting for a pitiful 1 to 3 damage. After game 1 I was offered the chance to sideboard, and while I could have shoved three Bang! and two additional Nouveau Soleil, I said that it wasn’t worth me playing another game, and I promptly scooped it up and dropped.
Retro was certainly an experience, and I may keep a retro deck for fun, however I am not sure I would be able to recommend the format competitively. It follows the balance structure of DotA 2, where everything is balanced around everything being broken. It can be a ridiculously cheesy format due to this, and can’t in good faith recommend it. I believe that there could be a place for retro where it is played closer to a kitchen-table level, where you play fun cards and silly combos, however taking it competitively sounds like a nightmare.
Since I was done with retro, I met up again with my primary friend group this weekend. They had thankfully gotten their nationals invites through the last chance qualifiers, and were competing in more to prepare for the event and get more promos. I should have taken this route, however I was blinded by the funny format and was unable to participate in any. Upon them finishing up, we ended up going to an In ‘n Out (my order is a double-double with double onion plus a fry), before heading back to the hotel to nap before the big day.
I woke up and made breakfast plans with a friend, given they were staying at the Omni hotel a block down, which contained some very nice restaurants. We sat down and discussed our plans for the day as well as talking matchups over some delicious food. I ordered the eggs benedict, given I regret every time I don’t and it was delicious. I also shared a fruit plate with my friend, which had some delicious strawberries and pineapple. For anyone who plays in tournaments, you should always have a solid breakfast on game day to keep your mind fueled for the upcoming event.
With breakfast done we jaywalked across the street to the venue where I chilled, met up with more friends, before sitting down for our round 1 matchups. While the event was supposed to start at 10:00 AM, they handed out participation prizing to everyone, including the promos, packs, and playmats. This delayed the start of the event until 10:30, and from there we finally started gaming.
The day went by in a blur, a repetition of rounds, finishing games, checking in on how all the homies were doing, the next pairings going up with the website crashing, and repeat. I eventually snagged some brisket nachos from concessions, and while not great they hit the spot. The biggest issue is that it got old really fast, though it wasn’t too bad. Eventually I heard rumors that the venue closed at 9:00 PM, and given the pace of the event meant that several rounds had to be played the following day, followed by immediate top cut. By the end of day 1 I wasn’t in contention for tops (spoiler warning), so I was just playing for fun, however many of my friends and team members were close to making it, so it made the upcoming rounds incredibly suspenseful.
With day 1 completed, I went out with the UnFunStuff gang to grab some dinner, where I had some chicken-fried bacon on a burger, which was certainly an experience. It was a ton of fun just hanging out with people, and even though I am an introvert, it was very nice to be surrounded by a bunch of people with shared interests. After dinner we all dispersed to our hotels and had a deserved rest for day 2.
Day 2 started a little worse, as I was stuck having hotel lobby breakfast again before heading to the venue. Given that we needed to start the event as-soon-as-possible to fit both two rounds of swiss as well as top 32 cut, the event still didn’t start quite on time (from what I remember). I took my games easy, not worrying about doing well or playing correctly. I was simply having fun, and any wins I collected were a nice bonus. With round 9 finishing and top 32 going up, I cheered on all my friends who made it, while consoling the others who had barely missed out.
I was going to play in teams, however I was simply too tired and worn out too. I played a few games before deciding I needed to rest, and went back to my hotel room to take a much-needed nap. Eventually I woke up, made some plans, and went to have dinner with a friend for my final night in Dallas. I had some wonderful tomato bisque (my favorite soup), followed by the best bread pudding I have ever had. It had chocolate covered nuts, was fresh out the oven, and topped with vanilla ice cream, and a great way to cap off my weekend.
I made my way back to the room and went to sleep early, given that I had to wake up at 4:00 AM to catch a train to arrive comfortably for my flight. It was relatively uneventful as I caught up on more league games, however as we reached the destination an announcement came over the intercom, saying that we couldn’t land at the intended airport as the plane was “too heavy”, so we had to detour to another airport. After communicating with my ride I deplaned, chilled, and eventually was picked up and taken home where I promptly collapsed in bed, having one of the best weekends of my life.
Tournament War Story
With the story of my weekend, let me move onto how I actually did at the event. I had a disappointing run, but let me get onto my matches!
Round 1 - Nejire under Life
After waiting for an exorbitant amount of time for the first round to start, I was matched against a life Nejire. It was a fairly standard deck with a generic life attack package consisting of Back Alley Haymaker, Rejuvenating Smash, Tongue Whip, Zero Gravity Lift, and so on. Game 1 I went first and managed to play infinite defense, chipping my rival down as I could. Nothing super notable happened this game, though it was taking a long time due to my rivals inexperience on the deck, which I cannot fault them for. Eventually I managed to sculpt a kill string and take game 1 after a grueling 40 minutes.
Game 2 was closer, with them finding all of their Zero Gravity Lifts and managing to chip me down to 13 health, but time was called before we could finish, leaving me with a 1-0 win in round 1. I could have went for a kill string as my hand consisted of double Tongue Whip, Chainsaw Nomu, Haymaker, as well as a Chronostasis Trigger, and if I checked an asset I could have grabbed another move as well, however I didn’t end up risking it as I knew I would win in overtime if I didn’t die. This meant I started the event 1-0, a promising start to the day.
Round 2 - Kirishima II under Earth
Round 2 I was paired against an interesting matchup in Kirishima II, who was running a generic Earth package. This opponent went on to be on stream in one of the later rounds, so if you want more info on their deck they you can watch their games. Game 1 I lost the die roll and went second, and it was again a long drawn out game, with me taking poke and managing to return back a few times. Toward the late game I had a perfect hand sculpted for a kill, with two Tongue Whips, Chainsaw Nomu, several Haymakers and a huge Trigger Transformation. Unfortunately my hand was only attacks, and my rival had a Learning The Standards built, so I managed to play a singular Tongue Whip before having my turn stopped. On the following turn my rival built two more Learning The Standards, meaning I had to dig for non-attacks in order to play out my turn. As I drew my hand I found a single Cooperation Offer, so I knew I had to dig more. I lead with a Tongue Whip, got Learning The Standards’d, then played the Cooperation Offer into Haymaker, popping both of my built Triggers in order to try and find another non-attack. Unfortunately I ran too hot, and drew into further attacks, with my turn ending after the second attack. From there I had been chipped to low and only died to a Hardened Chop from my rival, which then ended up having, leaving me 0-1 in the set.
Game 2 started with another 20 minutes on the clock, meaning I had to be the aggressor in the matchup in order to at least force a tie. My rival knew this and played defensively, barely poking into me, though it was also due to a lack of finding attacks. Eventually I managed to assemble “the hand”, and went Tongue Whip into Haymaker, into Haymaker, into Haymaker, into Trigger Transformation. Unfortunately it was very expensive, meaning I had to check a 5 on the last attack, which I didn’t leaving the rival at 9 health and committed out with none in hand as I lost in overtime. It was unfortunate, but at least I knew I could win if luck was slightly in my favor, so the loss wasn’t too difficult for me as I went into round 3 at 1-1.
Round 3 - Amajiki under Chaos
This round I was matched against a friend who I had done testing with, and it was bittersweet, as matchups with friends usually are. It was a blast just being able to play and have fun, but it sucks knowing we have to fight for our lives even this early into the event, as a second loss means you have to completely win out. Game 1 my deck crapped out on me, leaving me with two buildable cards turn 1 and 2, leading me to get choked out of the game from an early point, eventually falling to a huge Indiscriminate Shock 1,300,000 Volts.
Game 2 was another very slow early game for me, reminiscent of the previous game as I got poked down through a combination of Zero Gravity Lifts, Electric Jolts, and off-zone attacks. Eventually I constructed a hand and killed with a Chainsaw Nomu into triple Haymaker line. My opponent did misplay at one point, missing a lethal line, though we take those anyway.
With the match on the line, we went into game 3, and my deck never let me construct the perfect hand. Eventually I went into deadlock given the rivals lack of threats, as the only major deadlock they ran was Ice Storm. The turn after I went into deadlock my rival went Ice Storm into Ice Storm, followed by a massive Indiscriminate Shock which I Eri’d, leaving me at 1 health. I could still block an attack however, but my opponent showed me an Electric Jolt for exact lethal. I was disappointed to already be 1-2 this early into the event, though this match was again rough in terms of my deck not cooperating with me.
Round 4 - Amajiki under Chaos
Moving into the next round and I am faced with the same deck, though a slightly different variation, this one focused more on board committal and over-the-topping with a huge Death Arms Wallop. Game 1 starts with me going first, and finding 3 Trigger in the first two turns of the game. From there we exchange pokes, whittling each other down, with the game coming down to me canceling the damage enhance of Indiscriminate Shock to not die, followed by a backswing on the following turn with several Flash moves.
Game 2 I went second, and again was blessed by building multiple Trigger on my first turn. However my opponent played excellent defense while applying pressure so I could never find “the hand”, and eventually got blown out by a Death Arms Wallopn that got pumped by Vast Hybrid Chimera Kraken’s momentum enhance four times due to my rivals once-per-game. It was incredibly sick watching a deck pop off like that, and I had to keep in mind the burst potential going forward.
I continued rolling hot in game 3 by again finding multiple Trigger in the early turns, and poked down my rival while playing good defense. Eventually I went into my kill turn and had the full Flash lineup, going Dignified Display, echoing it, followed by a Chainsaw Nomu and finally a huge Haymaker. My rival only had half blocks, meaning I chipped them down throughout the turn and eventually killed them. This left me at 2-2-0, meaning I had to continue winning out to secure day 2, and I was hopefully I could do it
Round 5 - Jiro under Air
Moving into the next round and I am paired against one of the titans of the format in Jiro. They are under the Air symbol as well, meaning I couldn’t rely on blocking a single huge attack line the good version. Game 1 I ended up winning the die roll and go first, poking down my rival over the course of several turns while they sculpted. They eventually go into their offense turn and I play as good defense as I can, and it comes down to the wire. If my rival has a single additional attack they end up killing me as I am unable to block, but they don’t have it, and pass over to me while I have 7 health. From there I had the full lineup of Flash attacks and slung all of my moves, killing my rival as their board was committed from their offensive turn.
Game 2 was very similar, with me poking down the rival while they assembled the hand. When it was finally their offensive turn they went all in, and due to them not having a bomb in their discard, ended up stacking two 6-checks with a Specialized Sound Waves. I played defense as best I could, and was rewarded with living at a single health, and then my following turn I backswung them again as they had committed out their whole board for their offensive turn, as I swung into them and killed them with a huge Trigger Transformation. From here I was 3-2-0, and was continuing to hold on hope for making day 2.
Round 6 - Midoriya 3 under Order
Faced with the uncommon Deku 3, one of the decks I had brought with me to the event (albeit under a different symbol), and I won the die roll meaning I got to go first in the set. Unfortunately my deck did not want to cooperate with me in the slighted, granting me few playable assets and foundations in the early turns while my rival found every single maindecked Deku in the span of the first four turns of the game. Eventually my deck switched gears and went from drawing all offense early game into only assets and foundations in the mid game, leading me to get choked out of the game from a resource deficit early and a lack of offense late.
With me being a single loss from elimination, I had to play immaculately going forward, as well as having luck on my side. The early game went slightly better for me, while my rival continued to find their additional characters. Eventually I assembled “the hand”, and played one of the craziest attack strings I have ever played. I lead with a Dignified Display, which ended up being blocked. From there I went Tongue Whip to stuff an additional card, followed by Haymaker into Haymaker, and finally finishing off with a Trigger Transformation into another Trigger Transformation. Unfortunately I needed to check a 5 on the last Trigger Transformation in order to kill my rival, and I checked a 3 and left my rival at 3 health. From there I got backswung as my rival gave every move +3 damage and I was dead to a litany of huge punch moves.
This left my run dead at 3-3-0, and while disappointed, I had had some atrocious luck in several rounds and played the best I could, so I wasn’t too broken up about everything. From here I was cruising at the lower tables with the singular goal of having fun and meeting people. With one round left in the day before having to pack up and come back the next, the mood in the room was mixed. Tension was high for the players fighting for tops, while the rest of the room was both tired and debating showing up the following day generally, which I know many people skipped out on. With that, we headed into the last round of the day!
Round 7 - Amajiki under Chaos
Full stop, this was the most fun set I had played the entire weekend. My opponent was an absolute blast to play with, and given we were out of contention we just sat down and had fun, which is the goal of any game. I can’t wait to meet this person at future events, and if you’re reading this, this match was one easily the most fun of the weekend.
Going into Game 1, I ended up going second. With this being the third Amajiki I’ve fought today, I was getting a ton of experience in the matchup. My rival was running the neat tech in Expanding Capacity, allowing them to launch absolutely massive moves. I ended up winning with one of the cuter lines up the day, as my rival had committed a decent chunk of their board the turn prior. I had used Hero Killer to nullify the foundations my rival built, further compromising their board position. Going into my turn I lead with Serum Bullets to commit one of the few remaining foundations my rival had left. From there I went Haymaker into Trigger Transformation, smashing my rival with huge moves leading to a win.
Game 2 was a fairly basic game, with me landing a few pokes here and there, while also getting poked down here and there. Eventually I couldn’t manage an offense, and my rival slung the biggest Ice Storm I had ever seen, pumped up with Chimera Krakens for speed, and using Powerful to make it large enough to kill me from 14 health.
With Game 3 deciding the outcome of the match, unfortunately my memory fails me given the incredibly long day I had had, and was too enraptured by the match to take many notes. I ended up playing excellent defense, and eventually wrapped up with a string of double Chainsaw Nomu followed by a huge Haymaker to seal the deal, leaving me at 4-3-0.
Round 8 - Mirio under Good
Up bright and early the next day, and my first match was the match was against one of the rulers of the meta, Mirio. I ended up going second in Game 1, but this was offset by finding 3 Trigger in the first two turns of the game. Unfortunately I drew poorly and could never find enough offensive pieces to play aggressively, and died a slow painful death from half blocking all of the off-zone moves.
Remember when I played the sickest offensive turn ever in round 6? Well I ended up beating that with an even crazier offensive turn this time. Game 2 started out fairly normally, with me taking a bit of poke, but eventually I found “the hand”, and played Chainsaw Nomu, into Haymaker, into Haymaker, into Haymaker, followed by a Tongue Whip and then to cap it off a a gigantic Trigger Transformation to seal the game. Unfortunately like last time, I checked a 3 on the Trigger Transformation and failed to kill my rival due to not being able to pass it. Fully committed out, my rival blew me out on the backswing. While a bit peeved at my sick kill string not working out (again), I was still pretty hyped over opening the day with a sick kill string.
Round 9 - Rappa under Fire
Heading into the final round of the day and I was against Rappa, one of the kings of insane turns. Unfortunately, my rival ran hot, and this was the least interactive match of the day. Game 1 I ended up going first, building a Twisty Surroundings, Fancy Feast, and two Hero Killers turn 1. My rival ended up building four, which became 3 as I Hero Killer’d a Latent Skill. I built more on my turn, thinking I was safe considering I had a Twisty Surroundings and my rival only had 3 foundations. Oh how I was wrong. My rival lead with a Blue Flame Palm Strike, checking a 3. I Twisty’d, meaning to pass the check my rival had to commit two of their foundations and blowing up their last, leaving them with no ready foundations. Of course I should be safe from this position, I thought. My rival then played a Bullet Punches, which I blocked, followed by Echo’ing it to shove the Palm Strike into momentum. This was followed up by another Bullet Punches, which got multiplied by both Rappa response as well as another Echo activation. All the while my rival checked 5s, and the occasional 3 which was buffered by Rappa’s other response. This left me dead with minimal interaction.
While annoyed due to the lack of interaction, I had another game to come back from the deficit. I didn’t find any early interaction, though I had two Barrier Shields to ward off any potential offense. Going into their turn 2, my rival again opened with a Blue Flame Palm Strike, followed by a Bullet Punches that got Barrier Shield blocked, which my rival Echoed. This was followed by a Hardened Barrage, and finally another Bullet Punches, which again got multiplied by Rappa response and Echo, leaving me dead on turn 2 again with no way to defend against the onslaught.
With that, my tournament run concluded at a disappointing 4-5-0. As with the summation of the previous day, sometimes there isn’t anything you can do, between bad luck and the rivals rolling hot. I was too torn up over everything, knowing I had played the best I could, but it was still unfortunate that I didn’t end up positive.
The Nationals Season Retrospective
With the competitive season coming to a close as we enter the off-season, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the three national championships we had, as well as my experience at mine. I feel like the metagame is healthy from a diversity perspective, however the top performing decks are performing at a level the tier 2 and below decks can hardly compete at. With the recent banlist not hitting anything, this trend will continue into the following format. I won’t give my full thoughts on the banlist here, but to say it is disappointing is a bit of an understatement.
In terms of the actual event, it isn’t an exaggeration for me to say it was the most poorly run major event I have ever attended. Granted I have been blessed with Pokemon, the titan of huge events, but disregarding that this event had an uncountable number of issues. From the LCQ invites being scalped by players who already had them, to generally poor time management, and lack of consistent communication from the event staff, it was a disaster all around. I am not faulting the actual TOs for this, but the lack of supporting staff. As several people have pointed out, there were over twice as many people running the stream compared to the actual tournament, leaving the TOs swamped with handling too many things with too few people. The fact that UGN kept crashing every round lead to a miserable tournament experience as a player, which I was able to overlook given that it was more of a social gathering for me.
Of course I don’t want to end on a negative note, and there were positives around the event as well, with one of the leading ones being the diversity prizes, making players want to register more out-there characters for additional promos. The support of side events was also nice, including the retro event even though the format is severely broken by design. Additionally, while not about the event itself, it was awesome seeing so many of my friends make deep runs in the event, such as David Tombs getting top 4 with my teammate Phil Birch, as well as my other teammates Jose Norono and Daniel Nelson making top 16 and securing their worlds invite.
Overall my summary of the weekend was a poor event which was carried by hanging out with a bunch of friends for the weekend. I hope that future large-scale events have more staff to assist running the event, as well as the UGN app having improved backend to handle the mass of people attempting to use it with every round. Clearer communication would also be appreciated, though that should be an easy enough fix going forward (hopefully).
What’s Next?
As we enter the off season, there are actually several events to keep an eye on in the coming months. There are two webcam events being hosted by UVS in early December and January, with the highest placing players being granted a travel voucher for the HLC. There are also several community-lead events taking place, such as the Winter Clash hosted by David Tombs and Tamren Cardwell. Tamren Cardwell is also looking to host competitive tournaments every month leading up to the HLC as well, so be on the lookout for those!
With all of this talk about community run events, this leads me into my big announcement. For many people who know me, I am an avid game designer, and have made many fan designs in the past, and with my current gripes of the format, I figured I would do something special. I am currently working on a set of 20(!) characters, an expansive backpage, and will be hosting a large event for this format after the HLC for this format. Details will come out as I complete the set and get closer to organizing everything, but this format will be designed with the intent of reducing the potency of blowout turns, as well as adding many more interactive mechanics on defense. The goal is to have a fun and highly interactive format, and I cannot wait to share more with everyone in the coming months!
With that, I wanted to leave off with a thanks to many of the people who made nationals one of the best weekends I have had in my life. I of course need to shoutout my team UnFunStuff and all of the amazing people on it, as well as everyone I met and interacted with over the weekend. I truly believe that the UVS community is one of the best there is, and I am so incredibly thankful to be a part of it.
With the format entering a new era, look forward to tons of content exploring Jetburn and all of my whacky brews with the new set! I already published an article going over several of them here, and expect more of that type of content moving forward! Apologies that this article took so long to come out, not only was it a gigantic undertaking, but I have been dealing with a ton of stuff personally, and I am looking to continue releasing new content at a (hopefully) consistent pace going forward! As always, thanks for all of the support, and hope everyone has a happy holiday season coming up!
Do you have any articles you’d like to see? Any topics you wish were discussed more? Any questions, comments, or feedback on this article? Well let me know down below, or shoot me a message on discord! And if you enjoyed the article, feel free to follow me on twitter or leave a tip at my Ko-fi.
Have any card game needs? Well visit UnFunStuff to stock up on any TCG supplies or cards, as well as to preorder the next set, Jetburn, releasing November 17th!
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