First up is Chris Kovaz, or Scubadude, as many of you know him. This compilation of write-ups was his idea initially, and without him, it would not have been possible. Chris has been on a bit of a run lately, as he also garnered a top 8 finish in Orlando, as well as the (cursed) title of Swiss Champion. Without further ado:

Chris Kovaz, a.k.a. Scubadude

"My thoughts: I decided to play my triple symbol Morrigan deck after my experience at the Orlando AOP. I played void tool box at Orlando did very well Swiss champion and got 2nd only losing to my rival Chris Barber. I felt I couldn't play void in the current meta [Why, with that result is beyond me -ceejay]. I built a triple symbol morrigan deck with fire for the majority with control and agro dark empire Friends and rivals red gi and using death for start over rigours training and lost memories. Main decking asset hate in the name of grim stride was also a great thing against Tira decks, red gi, heinjang, and of course SOC. Then using the good symbol for cards like reversal and chief hold and mark of the beast for multiple hate. After testing the deck with Vik for the last couple of weeks I felt really good and decided to run it.

"We had a total of 25 people which was half of what we expected to our dismay plans fell through and a lot of people couldn't make it. But we had a few people from Tampa who made it out and was great gaming with them. The first round I played against a tira deck based off evil was net decked of who I played in the top 4 in Orlando so I knew exactly how to deal with it morrigans enhance with reversal was too much and I went 2-0.

"Next I played against chain throw Vega and took him for a surprise game 1 I surprised him with reversal after playing a lethal buffalo head butt and wasn't able to make the block. Game 2 he was able to push too much damage through with absurd strength. Game 3 was very close but I was able to pull it out red gi his blocks and 2 absurd strength FTW.
"Game 3 I played against Hugo I knew in my head how this match would fair I lose game 1 of course. Game 2 side boarding comes in I board into Elena and also martial arts champion. I go second drop Mac on his turn then lost memories and 2 more Macs the next turn shut down the FnG lock. After that I play mark of the beast for over 20 damage after a bunch of chain throws the turn before. After that he goes first I once again play MAC on his turn and he scoops.

Game 4 she nicks review

"Game 5 I played against rare Yun Seong and Bird of Prey, which I ended up losing game three with a looping Don's Right Hand Man with Bird of Prey.

Top 8
See nicks review

Match 1 see nicks review

Match 2 ask Tristan

"Over all it was awesome loved playing against the different decks even the different ones from our group if anything can be said I hate SOC it cost me the AOP....

"John Barber was the Swiss champ. I got 3^rd."

I still remember Jon Barber from our run-in at the Orlando AoP. While his decklist hasn't changed much, his finish sure did. Jon racked up a top 8 finish with the monster that is Rare Yun-Seong. I'm sure the deck needs no introduction, but I would like to point out the interesting design aspects. For example, the deck only features 12 attacks, all of which are highly synergistic with a momentum strategy. You'll also notice he runs 20 (!) actions, all of which push that momentum strategy right through the roof. This deck is much more focused than the version I faced in Orlando, as the Envy, and Trade Your Passion are noticeably absent. Instead, he runs Don's Right Hand Man, which if you've never played against is absolutely vicious. The deck is much more aggressive and much less defensive, a gambit which paid of handsomely.

Jon Barber's deck list

"Yun-Seong isn't just for newbs."

Rare Yun Seong

12 Attacks
4 Bird of Prey
4 Criminal Uppercut
4 Circling Wing

4 Split Cards
4 Soul Power

20 Actions (!)
4 One Armed Maneuvers
4 Start Over
4 Hesitation
4 Power Up
4 Hop

22 Foundations
4 Whereabouts Unknown
4 Whimsy
4 Brethren of the Coast
4 Defender of the Empire
2 Higher Caliber
4 Don's Right Hand Man

4 Characters
4 Super Rare Yun Seong

I managed to get a hold of Jon to ask him a few questions:

CJ- The last time I played you, you had Envy, and Trade Your Passion, what made you take those out?

Jon- Envy is back in...and TYPFG was taken out because it doesn't ready stuff nor does it deal with momentum or drawing.

CJ- I noticed the deck seemed a lot more streamlined in terms of all-out aggro. Do you run into problems with control or are you simply too fast?

Jon - Well not really...start over and Seal of Cessation pull me through those tough times. 

CJ - There's a lot of talk that Yun-Seong is a "noob" choice as far as playing a deck goes. What would you say to those players? 

Jon - Well, I would say to them to try it out for themselves because it isn't the easiest deck to play....There's so many answers and obstacles for this deck that it is very strenuous to play...example...character being committed (screws me), Yoga Mastery (slows me down), Mortal Strike (Start over FTW), Absurd Strength (Seal of Cessation has my back)

CJ - How consistent is your deck with only 12 Attacks? Do you run into problems drawing them?

Jon- Only against mill and when I get too greedy with momentum...and also when I play against Morgan and she RFG's all my attacks.

CJ - How hard is it to beat Absurd Strength or Mortal Strike?

Jon - I do have some answers, but sometimes it is hard to cope with them, Mortal Strike is very annoying and getting opposed by it first turn slows me down in an extreme way...Absurd Strength, I don't really mind...I'm able to recover from it alot more than mortal strike.

CJ - Thanks a lot for your time, Jon.

We move on to Scubadude's tri symbol Morrigan creation. I look at scuba's deck and wonder just how often he draws bad hands with a tri-symbol deck. One thing is for certain, this deck is not for everyone. Its power is proven; this deck definitely has a better long game than just about any I've seen. You definitely don't want to get into turns 8-12 with Morrigan, and realize you have no attacks left in your deck. His defense against multiples is sufficient, and Seal of Cessation, and Chief Hold are some of the best answers available to the Hammer. It should also be noted that his game plan against Hugo is absolutely brilliant.

Chris Kovaz a.k.a. scuba dude's deck list

"Tri-symbol Morrigan? Brilliant!"

Morrigan promo

8 Attacks
4 Mark of the Beast
4 Chain Throw

15 Actions
4 Absurd Strength
4 Chief Hold
3 Reversal
4 Start Over

8 Assets
4 Red Gi
4 Seal of Cessation

25 Foundations
4 Defender of the Empire
4 Dark Hado
4 Friends and Rivals
4 Idyllic Kamui Kotan
4 Lost Lemories
3 Grim Stride
2 Trade your Passion for Glory

6 Split Cards
2 Rigorous Training
4 Clones

1 Character
Promo Elena

Sideboard
4 Penny Arcade
3 Martial Arts Champion
1 Grim Stride


Nick Sneider's report

"Here we go again my 2nd AoP of the season and possibly last. I entered the arena with none other than Promo Xianghua. She hit the Top 8 at Orlando and after making some very large but rather helpful changes I wanted to see what she could do. So here are the results from the viewpoint of Life Toolbox.

Round 1 vs. Akuma

"Game 1-Akuma wins the dice roll and goes first, he checks a 1 on a Lost Memories. While I found that amusing I was somehow unable to draw attacks this game to capitalize on the "time walk". I ended up on my kill turn with /all/ 3 of my Ninjitsu in hand. My foundation base was not enough to stop an onslaught of multiples because False Pretenses hates multiples. I felt really nervous after this game, what a way to start a tournament.

Game 2- I foundation spam and beat him up slowly with Witch Hunt, Widow Maker and eventually Concealed Shallow Swipe. Game 3- Kubi Ori loop for the win, it helps they come for 4 damage with Xianghua.

1-0

Round 2 vs. Matt Khols/Tira

"Game 1- I like playing against the MK character because he has eighteen vitality, it also didn't help that I absolutely drew the nuts in my opening hand. My first foundations were Armored Defense, False Pretenses, False Pretenses. On the second turn I played another False Pretenses. With 3 of those and Armored Defense online and active I took my time making my checks so I wouldn't have to over commit.

"Game 2- He sideboards into Fire Tira and I got kinda nervous because I had no idea what he was upto. My opponent is a awesome player so I didn't know what to expect. Evidently he SBs into 8th Bill of Punishment (taking out Fireballs) so he can use the form on Vast Resources, get extra cards and use Tira to play foundations then follow up with 8th bill. On his kill turn he has failed to see a 8th bill so had a nice rather large cardpool leaving himself at 15. I attacked his empty hand (he didn't have DotE out either) with Concealed Shallow Swipe.

2-0

Round 3 vs Hanzo/Ukyo

"Game 1- Eight hand size Hanzo who recurs attacks from momentum... fun. The game was really close, it came down to him being at low life levels and myself with the inability to get Armored Defense online so I died.

"Game 2- He sideboards into Ukyo which in my opinion is why I won this match. I have played countless matches against Ukyo in every form against several of my friends. After the first few initial turns of foundation spamming I kept at least an average of four cards in hand so I wouldn't fall prey to the Ukyo Enhance and discard. This worked out quite well since False Pretenses again bought me the time to set up and finally kill him once I removed the high blocks from his hand. It was close though because I led off with two attacks then Concealed Shallow Swipe to finish the job. It came for like 25 damage on it's own.

"Game 3- He gets to go first but it was much of the same strategy in use. I got an Armored Defense out and a few False Pretenses. He got me down to 3 Vitality simply attacking once a turn and passing so I would not gain any from FP. I pulled a few neat combat tricks by blocking an attack for half, taking 2, chief holding the damage and then reacting with Armored Defense to go up more. Eventually I killed him with a few attacks and Concealed Shallow Swipe .

Round 4 vs Morrigan

"Game 1- This is by far my worst matchup in the entire tournament (which included FnG Hugo). Morrigan is a beast that I don't think Life can handle. This particular Morrigan deck runs off all three of her symbols. Defender of the Empire, Lost Memories, Start Over, Chief Holds, Reversals and Red Gi's are all devastating with Seal of Cessation as additional insurance. I am never able to get TYPFG or Whimsy to stick, they get blown up with Lost Memories or a Start Over. Therefore I am never able to push damage through so I think I took her down to 23 before I died.

"Game 2- I Sideboarded in to Yun, thinking of him as my best option. Yun at the very least negates Morrigan but with the other control pieces and my new 6 handsize I am still unable to push enough damage through to kill her. I think I got her to 10.

3-1

Round 5 vs Ibuki

"Game 1- Oh how one must appreciate Irony. I love irony personally and am very familiar with how fierce UR Ibuki is. This particular deck kills via the infinite Kubi Ori loop and Kasumi Suzaku naturally. Armored Defense kept him from doing dumb things with Shotokan and Kubi Ori until I was prepared to Kubi Ori him myself. That's what I loved about playing against this deck, he has awful high blocks. His Kubi comes for 2, mine come for 4. It took 6 of them to kill him because he tried to block but he died due to my Kubi Ori loop and Xianghua because she is much with the awesome ;p

Game 2- Okay arrrrrrrg ow that Suzaku hurts and stings, I died a terrible death.

"Game 3- We're both very fast decks and here I am getting really nervous again. I just got smashed by Morrigan and might be risking at T8 birth if I don't win this. My opening hand had three or four foundations and a Kubi Ori so I had a game plan. I had to go for it for all the marbles and it worked. Turn 2 kill via Kubi Ori loop. I love Xianghua and Kubi, yes it's cheap but this was the most amusing win of the tournament considering this particular opponent came in 2nd overall.

4-1

"After the swiss there was really no rest for the weary. A few players were packing Martial Arts Champion so the Hugo deck did not T8, nor did several decks that we expected to see in the top of the standings. Yun Seong piloted by a buddy of mine was the swiss champion with a record of 4-0-1. So here was our T8

Life Xianghua (again woot!)
Morrigan off all 3 symbols
Evil Tira (I think)
Death Nightmare
Water Ibuki
Evil Vega
Air Yun Seong
Fire/Evil Sankuro


"Anywho this is where my luck took a turn for the worst. I was pared up against Morrigan again first round of the T8. I absolutely cannot beat that deck, he beat me 2-0 in the same exact manner as described above. So yet again I come up short, if it's not the big man Hugo it's Morrigan ;p Oh well hopefully someone somewhere will realize Life Toolbox can consistently T8 and take Xiang for a spin. It shows she has potential, though I wish I could have avoided playing Morrigan twice in the same tournament. You need a little luck to avoid the bad matchups but who doesn't?

"Anywho ironically enough all four of the highest ranked players after swiss were knocked out in the first round of T8. Tira, Xianghua, Yun Seong and Sankuro.

Ibuki vs Vega. Ibuki wins
Morrigan vs Nightmare. Nightmare wins (Terrible Discovery)
Ibuki vs Nightmare. Nightmare wins

So Death has taken 2 AoPs in Florida with two different characters. No hammer anywhere to be seen in the top 2 still." [Vega's deck had ‘em -ceejay]

It seems Florida's best kept secret is the ability of its players to consistently and effectively deal with problem cards like Absurd Strength, Whereabouts Unknown, Kubi Ori, and Hugo. It should be noted that Ruler of Southtown is nowhere on the radar. I know Orlando featured at least one, but it didn't make the cut. Anyway, many lessons can be learned from the designers down here. Next up is Nick Sneider's decklist, which admittedly, has a serious problem with Morrigan and damage reduction in general. I think the finest point he makes in his write up is that of the Rock-Paper-Scissors nature of our current metagame. In order to succeed you need to have a certain amount of skill, and a little bit of luck. As it turns out, luck was not on Nick's side, as he had to face his worst matchup twice, but his skill was definitely up to par, and for that he earned his second top 8 in as many attempts. It is interesting to note, however, what may be the rise of a new problem card for many decks: False Pretenses. Here we have Nick's weapon of choice. It's pretty straight forward actually. The deck has enough defensive foundations to hold out against pretty much anything, while chipping away at your vitality with throws, until the Kubi lock comes out. Chief Hold and Idyllic Kamui Kotan are fantastic defense against high damage, difficult-to-block attacks, while Trade Your Passions does its usual nonsense. Beautiful Friendship for defense against multiples. Infiltrating solve problems with opposing control decks out of the ‘board. The lack of Kasumi Gaki and Shinobi Tradition is actually quite noticeable. The results, however, cannot be argued with.

Xianghua by Nick Sneider a.k.a. TigerPawz

"Life Toolbox FTW. What? I'm serious!"

4 Characters
Promo Mai +0 mid
Promo Yun +0 mid
Rare Ibuki +0 mid
Promo Nakoruru +0 mid

4 Actions
4x Chief Hold 4/4

18 Attacks (counting Ninjitsu)
4x Witch Hunt +1 High 5/3
4x Widow Maker +2 Mid 4/3
3x Concealed Shallow Swipe
4x Kubi Ori +1 Mid 4/3

37 Foundations
4x False Pretenses 2/5
4x Friends and Rivals +2 Mid 2/5
4x Won't Settle for Second Best +1 High 1/5
4x Idyllic Kamui Kotan 2/6
4x Battle Disk System 2/6
3x Whimsy +3 High 3/5
3x Ninjitsu 1/3
4x Trade Your Passion for Glory +2 Mid 3/4
3x Armored Defense +2 Low 3/5
4x Beautiful Friendship +2 Low 2/5

Sideboard
3x Seal of Cessasion 3/3
1x Whimsy
4x Infiltrating 6/3

Next up is a very good friend of mine, and the first of the Tampa players. His write up was posted on the forums shortly after the AoP, but is reprinted here with minor editing to create as complete a picture as a possible of what it's like to Top 8 and the tools that are required to do so. Alex is one of the players that helped me get to where I am today. Notable for his off-the-wall decklists and ideas, I had to replace my keyboard when I read that he got a top 8 with Sankuro, as I spit my Pepsi out all over my desk. Here I thought he was going to play something serious... Oh, well... I should warn you, he's flamboyant.

Alex Costa a.k.a. Quoteit64

 "Morning rolls around and we're facing a 2 hour drive ahead of us.  After stopping at a seven eleven for breakfast, not the best place mind you, we head out towards spellbinders anxious being that 2 out of 3 of us missed the Orlando AoP.  Despite being lost for 30 minutes we make it ahead of schedule.  My teammate Aulden brought Mr. Karate, my brother brought Evil Vega, and myself, Sankuro.

"Before the tournament even begins Aulden, Tristen aka Heavens Knight, my brother, and me call it that one of us will play each other first round despite around 20 or so people in the tourney, a local curse we have mind you.

Round 1 Sankuro vs. Mr. Karate

Game 1- I'm sure you all saw this coming, me and Aulden paired up first round what a hoot.  Low hand size, high vitality, control, this ends up being a bad matchup for Karate.

Game 2- Same as above but surprisingly he took me down to 1 health.  This goes to show you what this masked monster can do.

1-0

Round 2 Sankuro vs Yun Seoung (rare)

"Game 1- You would think that this would be an easy match having absurd strength and all, but haha not quite.  An early absurd strength takes out 5 momentum and the daze tokens dropping checks and upping difficulty is enough for Sankuro's purple slippers to take him out.

"Game 2- This is where things go down hill.  No absurd strengths in hand, turn two bird of prey and criminal uppercut.  Oh yea, thats plenty of enough damage.

"Game 3- Probably the most poker worthy game of the night.  Couple of turns into he's got one card in hand.  I hit him for chain throw that he blocked that dropped him to 2.  My last card in hand mark of the beast.  Do I play it risk it being blocked and get destroyed next turn, or do I hold it hoping to block criminal uppercut?  After plenty of involuntary (but friendly) feedback from spectators I hold it.  I pay for my mistake with two bird of preys in the face and lose.  He only had a high block so the mark of the beast would have been enough for the win.  This guy is known for having extremely good luck, but this had nothing to luck.  I was outplayed and I tip my hat to him.

1-1

Round 3 Sankuro vs. Mr. Karate yet again

"Game 1- The only two characters hit by diversity where Mr. Karate and Tira.  What are the odds I fight both Mr. Karates?  Just like the first game tonight, vanity, chain throw, glass slippers, and The Unbeatable=too many daze tokens for overhand throw to pass.

"Game 2- He sides into seth.  Seth has better defensive capabilities then Karate but its a gamble on if your opponent matches symbols.  With almost all my deck matching two symbols (Way of the mightiest, absurd strength, unbeatable, irresistble force, chain throw, dark hado, and many more this didnt look to promising for him.  Again the Dazed Token control proves its worth.

2-1

Round 4 Sankuro vs Matt Kohls

"Game 1- This is what I'm talking about, I've never played against Matt Kohls before so this was definitely exciting.  An early vanity crashes the looping of Zeus and Fireball, control check and difficulty wise.  This buys me enough time for Chain Throws and Slippers, mix some absurd strength and I.Force and 18 life isnt hard to take down.

"Game 2- Wow I get blown away this time.  I get killed turn two by Zeus and Fire Ball looping with him checking 6's the whole way.  After I lost we counted, he flipped 9 6's in two turns, pretty crafty.

"Game 3- This game goes to the wire.  About turn four he forces out a zeus, fire ball, zeus, clones with less then five life left, barely leaving me alive.  I show him chain throw and its scoop phase.

3-1

Round 5 Sankuro vs Hugo

"Ok before I explain this one during our planning we of course talked about this goliath.  With my low hand size starting and DOtE only giving me 3 anyway I believed I had no chance of killing this monster.  Absurd strength and I.Force and way of the mightiest do me no good here.  The only thing I could do was side into martial arts champions and hope for the best.

"Game 1- This game goes exactly how I planned it to go.  I put my tail between my legs and get rolled like cookie dough.  I believe I only got him to 32 but false pretenses, man, that card is awesome.

"Game 2- Haha sideboard time baby.  Five card opening hand nails me MA champ.  This stalls it long enough for purple slippers and chain throw recurring it to drop him down.

"Game 3- This game goes all the way.  No MA champ until around turn four but he already planned for that by searching for 3 ring vets turn two.  I did get to respond two of them which stalled it long enough for me to chip him down to around the twenties, going around false pretenses by playing one attack, dark hado'ing to get around awakening, it hitting, then me passing, cant have him gaining life.  This entire time I'm dark empiring for my infiltrating, which I only have one in the deck.  I finally get it, of course its one of the last 3 cards in the deck, then I hear the most magical words I could have possibly hears, "3 minutes left."  With me higher in vitality I knew Hugo couldn't do enough damage in that short amount of time.  I play lost memories then infiltrating then pass.  He searches for two F&G and another foundation.  He responds F&G I lost memories it he responds the other.  I go for a slippers with no foundations out and fail.  He searches for three more foundations and passes.  My turn comes up and time is called.  I win by time.  By far the hardest game I played all day, but leaving me able to say real men wear purple, not pink."

4-1

[I'm going to cut in at this point to talk about a very important issue. It seems every place has a different version of what happens when time is called during a match. When I first started playing at Armada Games, the method in practice was to go to Sudden Death in the event of a stalemate, the first person to deal damage to his opponent wins. Here we see Alex winning because he dealt more damage than his opponent when time was called. At worlds, this match would have been called a draw. I'm firmly in the camp of calling this match a draw, because neither player defeated the other. To say that the winner is the player that has dealt the most damage is just wrong. ANYTHING could have happened had the match had no time limit. Alex was definitely on the ropes, freshly out of gas when time was called according to his write up, he had just as much a chance of losing as he did of winning that game. We NEED a standard across the board. A match that goes to time with a even game count should be a draw, and the players should each be awarded 1 point, then sent to the next round. I don't think Alex would have missed out on the top 8 with a 3-1-1 count, but the story could have been much different for the Hugo player. -ceejay]

"I end up placing third in swiss with Heavens Knight placing 5th or 6th and my brother placing 8th.  I couldn't believe it, we got three of our people in top 8.  My win over Hugo knocks him out of top 8, letting us all breathe a major sigh of relief.

"Here's the top 8:

Life Xianghua
Morrigan tri symbol
Evil Tira ippachi style
Death Nightmare
Water Ibuki
Evil Vega
Air Yun Seong
Fire/Evil Sankuro

"Now here's a funny story.  I didn't get the day off of work and I was expected to be back to close the store.  The tourney lasted longer then expected and I'm freaking out.  I actually consider dropping out of top 8 so we can make it back in time.  I call my job and one of my managers said she would stay until I got there, giving me enough time to finish this up.  Major props to scubadude for doing what he could to speed things up for me.

Round 6 Sankuro vs Nightmare

"Game 1- Being that it still was a two hour drive back and it was already 8:30 didn't make this easy, I was still in a major time constraint.  Game ends early with timmy crashing on my awesome purple locks.

"Game 2- Turn two kill.  Purple slippers, absurd strength 13, I.Force 16 unblockable, way of the mightiest 20, way of the mightiest 24, my lost memories waiting to blow up his yoga.

"Game 3- 100% misplay costs me the game here.  I have unbeatable out taking splash founts and drop kicks to the face.  For each hit he's getting daze tokens.  "When he goes to play timmy Ill respond and make him fail it," im thinking this while holding one card in hand, glass slippers which he saw through friends and rivals.  He plays timmy I respond making it cost 12.  He responds with nightmare dropping seven damage to make it pass.  I actually forgot he had that effect.  Yea I get knocked out of t8 by one of my people, which was all good because he makes top four as well as my brother.

"Now that I'm done I watch my brother finish out his game with Ibuki, getting kubi locked game 3 knocking him out of t4.  With no time left for chit chat we say our goodbyes and rush out the door, leaving Tristen at one loss against scuba, us all assuming him to get crushed.  We find out later he wins the whole thing, irony rocks!

"Major props go to Vik for holding the AoP, scubadude for going out of his way to speed the tourney up just so I could get to my job on time.  Btw I made it at 11:02 right on time, yun seoung dude for bluffing me out of a win, and Tampa crew for 3 Top 8's, 2 Top 4's, and the winner overall, and last but not least my leftover taquito from that morning that I left in the car, which still tasted just as good.  Hope to see you guys again at Southern Championship.  Now this is my first tourney report and its one in the morning so have mercy on my spelling and grammar.  Thanks for reading."

As I mentioned earlier, it's fairly difficult for me to understand exactly how Alex managed to top 8 with (at least what I consider) a second-rate 5-Hander. For starters, he had 32 life, not a small number. On top of that, he definitely cheated his handsize with Dark/Empire. So what we are really looking at is a 11-12 handsize 32 Vitality monster that hacks your control and difficulty values while swinging in for mucho damage. Coupled with some Red Gi control and Friends and Rivals cheatery, this deck is not to be taken lightly. Unfortunately, come rotation, this deck suffers the tremendous impact of losing Defender of the Empire. Unless Alex can scheme up another efficient method for cheating his handsize, Sankuro's 15 minutes may be up.

Sankuro by Alex Costa

"Are you man enough to fight my purple slippers?"

16 Attacks
4x Glass Slippers
4x Chain Throw
4x Mark of the Beast
4x Clones

8 Actions
4x Absurd Strength
3x Irresistable Force
1x Infiltrating (sucks I only own one -Alex)

4 Assets
2x Unbeatable
2x Red Gi

31 Foundations
4x Idyllic
4x Vanity
3x Way of the Mightiest
4x Friends and Rivals
4x Grim Stride
4x Lost memories
4x Dark Hado
4x Defender of the Empire

Super Rare Vega by Efrain Costa

Here is another top 8 entry from another of my good friends, the elder Costa brother. A stalwart Evil player from the very beginning his character of choice is none other than the reigning World Champion, Vega. One of the original momentum cheaters, SR Vega is particularly nasty because he cheats on his own momentum while depriving his opponents of their own. Vega's enhance is particularly nasty when coupled with Gyulkus for +6 damage. Ever eaten a Kunai for 9? Just so we're on the same page that attack still costs Vega only 3. The aggro potential only starts there, however. His foundation base reveals the standard Evil arsenal, with Way of the Mightiest and Unrequited Love, not to mention the Absurd Strengths. That Buffalo Headbutt is going to hit you, and HARD. The deck also has another controlling side to it, with a full compliment of Lost Memories, and Breathren of the Coast to protect Vega's attacks from reduction. Vega's momentum gain also makes him a shoe-in for Power of the Edge. Rounding out the corners is Unkown Force and Megalomania, as a sort of catch-all answer to everything. What's most interesting to me, however, is Efrain's sideboard. Notice Leona and Yoshitora. Between the two of those characters, Efrain can switch in to nullify his most problematic matchups, regardless of who they are. Morrigan can't RFG your attacks if Yoshitora commits her as his first enhance.

SR Vega

"Read ‘em and weep"

16 Attacks
Chain Throw x4
Kunai x4
Kubi Ori x4
Buffalo Headbutt x4

Actions
Power Of The Edge x2
Absurd Strength x4

Assets
Vega's Mask x2

Foundation
Shinobi Tradition x4
Lost Memories x4
Gyulkus x4
Won't Settle For Second Best x4
Unrequited Love x3
Unkown Force x4
Megalomania x4
Bretheren Of The Coast x4
Full Power x4
The Way Of The Mightiest x3
Constant Training x4

Sideboard
Promo Leona x1
Rare Yoshitora x1
Chinese Sword Style x2
Pure Of Heart x2
Power Of The Edge x2

As Efrain didn't provide a write up, I interviewed him as well:

CJ - I see Vega's Mask, but the Infiltratings are gone. How useful was the mask during the AoP?

Efrain -.The reason I didn't have the infiltrating was because Alex was running it, even without infiltrating it wasn't hard to get Vega's mask to find its mark when I played it. The effectiveness of the mask was literally one or the other no in-between whatsoever. Either I flipped it and was at an extreme disadvantage against my opponent thus usually leading up to a loss or I was able to play it and my opponent was struggling to hit Vega with their kill cards.

CJ - As a fellow Evil player, this deck seems to be less controlling than I would prefer. What's the view like from the other side of the coin, and how does Evil aggro compare to, say, Air aggro, or Fire aggro?

Efrain -You are correct another reason I was losing some of my matches was because I was letting my opponent get away with their abilities. My Vega deck now has way more control in it than this one. As comparing it with air decks and fire decks based on aggro I would say that I was trying to mimic the same style with this deck. First turn foundations and second turn you would see throws for about 18 damage then a kunai followed by a buffalo head butt for the kill with unrequited love.  As you can see it was a conventional aggro deck with very little defense. Well to tell the truth after the AOP, all I could think about other than our crew sweeping up the place was how I would just sit and be defenseless against character abilities and E's. Sometimes just lost memories and POTE won't cut it so I had to take Vega to a more controlling side if I wanted see turn 5 or 6 at a healthy state so I added control the present and pieces of eight.

CJ - That's what I like to hear. So, How useful were Yoshitora and Leona out of the sideboard?

Efrain - As you can see both my side deck characters are targeted against character abilities. Yoshitora found his prey real quick with Morrigan and worked like clockwork whenever I sided into him. While Leona sat in the side deck collecting dust because I never ran into a character with an ability that was not an E yet very annoying or dangerous (Rock).

CJ - When do you side into the other two Power of the Edges? Wouldn't it seem more fitting to run them main?

Efrain - I have been running POTE literally since it came out and I seem to have the worst luck with that card. In my personal opinion I'm not fond of that card because of the high cost and semi useless block, but again just like Vega's mask I can't deny the power of that card. So to avoid my horrible luck with the card I only put 2 in the deck and no lie I would draw into them very easily. Having 3 of these suckers in your hand by turn 2 is not fun at all. I believe after every match I found my self adding those POTE's into the deck while exchanging out the Vega's masks. Twelve had chief hold, Morrigan had reversal, Tira had buffalo head butt, Yun-seong had bird of prey and Ibuki had kubi ori. Hmmm now that I think about it maybe I should main deck four...

CJ - Okay, last question: You KNEW Alex was going to play Sankuro and you LET him. Now look what happened!

Efrain - Yeah, I know, but I had the utmost confidence in him getting far with the deck because Alex is probably the only person I know in our play group that can take a deck he wants to play, build it right before the tourney and get decent placing without any practice. Before the AOP it just hit him that he wanted to play a fire character with control, which he should of ran Cody but Alex needs his originality sometimes, and when he saw Sankuro it all "clicked" for him. So he found I had already made a deck list and he tweaked it and piloted it at the AOP. He has done this many times before so now I just let it roll even if the idea seems like it would fail.

Well, you can't argue with a top 8 finish. Thanks for your time Efrain, it's good to see you were you belong-at the top.

Finally, we come to the deck that won the whole thing: Promo Nightmare designed by Tristen del Valle. At first glance you'll notice there's an awful lot of attacks in the deck. I am only used to running 16, and as time goes on I find that number dwindling, Tristen however, chose to run 21, and if you look carefully, it makes a lot of sense. Shoulder Rush, Earth Divide, and Tiamat's Rampage all have special requirements based on the number of attacks in your card pool, by running more attacks, the chances of meeting those requirements are increased, decreasing the amount of time those attacks will be dead in his hand. Another notable characteristic of the deck is the sheer amount of damage output. Incase you didn't notice, Earth Divide has a printed damage of 14. Tiamat's has 12. Shoulder Rush is at 7. All of these will be played at the end of a combo. Normally, their difficulty would be an issue, but take a look at Nightmare's first ability. If he flips a 5 for a Tiamat's, he can take 3 damage off to have it succeed, and then proceed to powerful it up like nothing ever happened. Even without the powerful, it's a 3 mid for 9! Same goes for Earth Divide. If he flips a 5 on that, he can still make it a 4 high for 9! Ridiculous... If you play against this deck, I would advise you to keep an awful lot of blocks in your hand. Even that, however, may not be enough. Perhaps you noticed the Spin Knuckle. His foundations may seem a bit messy, due to the high amount of 1 and 2-ofs, but he definitely has a playset of everything vital, and it seems like the extra foundations exist to smooth over his control values. No need to flip 2s if you can help it. Finally, take a peek at his assets. Both are very aggressive. Soul Edge negates the Hammer and opposing Yogas, while Legendary Blade makes his already ridiculous attacks just a bit more ridiculous. He wants to stack SR Nightmare as a sort of catch-all safety net, but honestly, he performs just as well without it. A scary deck to be sure.

Promo Nightmare

"Souls...."

7 Characters  
4x *Nightmare*   (Primary Stacker) 
3x **Nightmare**   (Secondary Stacker)

4x Drop Kick 4/3 +2H 
4x Spin Knuckle 3/3 +2M  
4x Shoulder Rush 4/3   
2x Tri- Slash 5/3 +3M  
2x Hell Slayer 4/2 +2H  
2x Splash Fount 4/3  
2x Tiama Rampage 6/3  
1x Earth Divide 7/2 +5H  
  
45 Foundations

4x Unkown Force 1/5 +3M
4x Megalomania 1/5 
4x Lost Memories 2/4 +4M
4x Grim Stride 2/5
2x Merchant Message 2/4 +4L
1x Barbaric 2/5 
4x Preparation 2/5 +4M
2x Fortun Teller 2/4  
4x Yoga Mastery 4/6
4x Friends/Riva 2/5 +2M
2x Soul Power 1/4  
1x Terrible Discovery 3/4  
4x Glimpse of F 3/4 +2L
2x The Devil of Daybreak 2/5 +2L
2x The Art of Self Defense 2/4 +4M
1x Higher Caliber 2/5 +1M

2 Assets
1x Soul Edge 5/2 +2M 
1x Legendary Blade 3/4 +4L

I actually got the chance to interview Tristen as well about his tourney winning deck:

CJ- What inspired you to come up with this deck? Why Promo Nightmare?

Tristen- I always liked Nightmare as a character even though I don't play Soul Caliber. Promo seems to be the most viable one and since I can always stack (which I love). I added the powerful SR version and the annoying Rare one. I always the stack SR version on turn 2 if it's in my hand.

CJ- There's an awful lot of cards you have 1 and 2-of, why is that?

Tristen- It's my own balancing system. Some foundations are no better with multiple copies out, like Terrible Discovery and Barbaric. Also if the stats are sub-par like The Art of Self Defense, Soul Power, Fortune Teller and Merchant's Message, I limit them to 2 or 3 copies. Even though most people will disagree like saying: "You have to run 4 Soul Power and 4 Fortune Teller," Death has a lack of good blocks for me to be pushing too many non-blocking foundations.

As far as attacks, it's the same principle, for example: Hell Slayer has some awesome stats except for the 2CC, which I HATE!! 2CC, so only 2 copies. Splash Fount, great stats with Stun:2 but no block and that is a big issue for me, so only 2 copies. Earth Divide, HIGH printed damage with an awesome R: easy to push through with Nightmare R: You'd be surprise how many times I hit people with a turn 2 ED after they have no blocks. Nobody sees it coming.

CJ- Sounds scary. Did you have any problems flipping those 2s, or does Nightmare handle that problem well?

Tristen- I probably rebuilt this deck like 10 times just because of the 2CCs. I tried to play 2 symbols mixing into evil for the top tier evil foundations like Shinobi Tradition, Float like a Butterfly, Gyulkus and the rest. That didn't worked out. I failed like 6 attempts at this deck. I wanted to make it top tier, Hard-core, dedicated board control. So when I was about to dump the whole idea I came with this last build which proved to work. Every time I added a 2CC I would add 2 or 3 foundations to balance it out. I'm always scared of flipping the first CC with this deck.

CJ- So, what would you say is your toughest matchup?

Tristen- I would say Promo Morrigan. I lost the first game against her BAD. I was trying to play control, but he had more control than me on the board. I thought that was the end for me but in game 2 he side decks Yoga Mastery, and Lost Memories and some death stuff. I'm like "He is gonna mix fire with death here and mixing symbols is never good due to hang clogging, but to each his own" Game 2 he got hand clogged like 3 foundations on turn 3. He attempted to Start Over like 3 times, all negated by SR Nightmare. Game 3 he got clogged again and I had Terrible Discovery on the field early just like in game 2. He lost slowly being controlled till the end.

CJ- I guess that's the match Scuba told me to ask you about... Moving on, I have one more question: is there any advice you can give to others preparing for their AoPs now?

Tristen- I believe it's all about consistency. To take out of the game as much randomness as you can. Don't rely on cute gimmick combos that come out 1 out of 10 times. When players lose due to flipping a bad critical CC, they all go like "I flipped a 2 that's bad luck I would have had u next time" if I got a dollar for every time I heard that... Nobody's forcing you to play that 2CC you flipped, now deal with it. It's all about balance.

"Florida's finest, look for them at the Gulf Coast Championship."

Parting Thoughts

Even as I type these words I get the feeling that some of the tech in this article is obsolete. Set 7 has been introduced since Cape Coral, and with it a slew of new problems to consider and solve. What place does Milling have on the tournament scene? Can control handle it now? How about when rotation occurs? My answer is no to the last two questions. Set 7 has struck another blow to the control archetype, and even the hybrid aggro/control archetype because of the lack of answers to milling. Control is an archetype that thrives on defense, and more specifically, answers to threats. However, in typical STG fashion we probably won't be receiving any solid answers to Mill until the next set is released along with a new set of problems with no apparent solutions. Many are quick to point out that the card Perfect "shuts" milling down completely, but honestly, who wants to play a 6/2 Action with an additional cost of 4 momentum, and such a narrow list of applicable situations? Others point to an aggro onslaught as the way to solve the matter. Perhaps we have a new Rock-Paper-Scissors on our hands that looks something like this: Aggro<Control<Mill<Aggro, etc. Whatever it may be, I know I'm not the only one shifting uncomfortably as Mill rears its ugly head. With the Round 3 AoPs coming up, many of our decks may be obsolete. I played what is sure to be the first of many Mill decks this weekend, and my initial conclusions are that Mill makes the long game unattainable/unwinnable. Is Mill the new control? Are we to expect such happy matchups as Mill vs Mill? All the frownies in the world couldn't express how I feel about this. One thing is certain: you need to be asking yourselves these questions if you intend to survive Round 3 of the AoPs. Good hunting, everyone.

-Ceejaybee

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