Allright so today I have the pleasure of interviewing the self proclaimed"the king of scrubs" Shaneth Duckworth one of my long time UFS friends and his recent ECC experience.

Scuba: What character did you choose to play for the ECC and why?

Shaneth: I chose to play Akuma 6, the starter deck version from the Domination set.

I originally planned to play Chester Mill, but with the recent banning of Happy Holidays, I scrapped the idea for fear of not enough turns tocompletely mill out. That day I planned to play my extremely jank Fire Cody deck for the ECC. I have had that deck for AGES and it has donevery well in my hands within the past year.Both of my top 8 AOP appearances have been with that deck, so I felt really comfortable with it. Also what a story it would be if Fire Cody won the ECC for a 2nd time.

The Saturday before the ECC I played it in a tournament we ran. Aftergetting totally raped by Micky D's Dan deck (which he ended up playingfor ECC), I realized that it was time for a change. I finally tore apart the Cody deck, which I've had for over a year now and attempt to buildsomething else. Because Happy Holidays got banned, I decided to play aggro, which is my favorite play style. I'm honestly not a very good control player.

Looking through my character options, I was really heavyset on playing Rare Yang from the Domination set. I have always wanted to play that guy becausehe has a devastating built-in speed pump along with the ability tocancel what aggro hates most: Damage reduction. Rejection and the Injury Assets hurt aggro the most, and Yang could just spring past those obstacles. When building the main core of the deck, I realized that with my lineup, Manifest could only trigger off of a grand total of 5 cards.With the Meta nowadays, Fire needs all the control it needs, and no waywould I take out one of Fire's only control pieces.

After sadly ditching Yang, I looked for options again. Promo Alex was an obvious choice because of his mad crazy card draw and huge vitality, butagain I scrapped him because his symbols didn't work well with Manifest.AGAIN looking for options,I was feeling desperate enough to run PromoKarin (which was just released about a month ago) because of many factors, but the most important was that her symbols are perfect. You can Manifest off of pretty much anything and most importantly both ofFire's initial set-up attacks (either Chain Throw or Widow Maker). Also,28 vitality is incredibly hard to take down gradually and even harder toone-shot. I eventually scrapped Karin because of the 6HS. Aggro cannotfunction as fast with an average hand size, unless that character or a large portion of the deck has draw capabilities.

So looking for options for the last time, I decided to settle on Starter Akuma from Domination. He boasts a 7HS, which an aggro player willalways respect. His CC Haxx is still flavor despite all of the anti-Haxxcards floating around and his First E is something I have always liked.Most importantly, he has Fire/Evil,which means that I can Manifest offof the initial Chain Throw and my actions as well (Absurd and Kung-Fu).The Void symbol came in handy more than I thought it would, mainlybecause I could drop many different foundations on my opponent's End Phase with Vast Resources and trigger Manifest off it. Also,in-betweenrounds at the tournament, Andrew Olexa comes up to me and mentions that No Memories has a Void Character response, which I honestly never even paid attention to.

So it was set, I decided to play pure solid Fire Akuma 6 for the ECC.

Scuba: How was it playing in New York with arguably one of the best metas inthe United States with the first Worlds Team Champions, 2007 NationalChampion, 2008National Champion and the 2007 ECC champion? (James Hata,Omar Chavez, Fred Ehrhart)

Shaneth:New York is the state capital of UFS. It holds many premiereplayers/superstars and the overall best player in the world in my opinion, James Hata. I honestly did not even expect to make top 8because New York is such a competitive Meta and the fact that I decidedto play such a jank deck. Being in New York this past Saturday wasactually my first time ever in New York, so it was a new experience formyself.

Playing against the best of the best on the East Coast was definitely one of thebest times I've had. I played a total of three people of the New York Meta and did not win any full matches against any of them. In round 5 ofSwiss, I played against Magnus Carrera and his Order Yoshimitsu deck,which I drew 1-1 to. In round 6 of Swiss, I played against James Hataand his Evil Ibuki deck, who I lost 1-2 to.In top 8, I played againstJihan Crichlow (aka Goo) and his Evil Miser deck,who I lost 0-1 to. Inmy eyes, it shows that players New York are truly the best.

Shaneth:Of course. With each ban/errata that is officially issued, deck conceptsand ideas change. If you ran those cards in your decks,you have to take them out. If you didn't run those cards in your decks, you don't have to worry about them. If you packed tech cards just for them, you now have more space to work with. Players must adapt to whatever is thrown at them.

The bannings worked both ways for me. With Happy Holidays gone, aggro got a huge push back into competitive play, which makes me happy because aggrois my favorite play style.Also, it saves a Kung-Fu Training, which can be used for the necessary speed pump aggro loves and also makes it less of a control war when trying to negate Happy Holidays. With Concealed Shallow Swipe gone, that meant that I couldn't play a boss attack, so Ihad to find another solid attack to replace it with.That also meant that I didn't have to worry about one-shot Concealed decks anymore,which gave a little bit of relief.

Scuba: Was the Meta like you expected or did anything surprise you?

Shaneth:Honestly, the ECC was more of an episode of "Shaneth Reads the Meta."Set 9 was not legal for Nationals, so I didn't know what to expect atthe ECC. I really had no insight on the new cards because the only newcards I knew of were the ones I pulled from the Sealed side event in Nationals. A player in my area (Philly Cheese) played a combo using BBHood or/and/or Outsider to abuse Injury Assets, and that was really theonly combo using new cards that I was expecting to see. My Akuma deck ran Zero new cards. I remember Jeremy Ray asking what was the newest addition to my deck, and I told him that I cut out Empire's Ruin for Blinding Rage. Overall, I would be surprised with anything that involved new cards because of my lack of knowledge of the new sets.

There were indeed some neat little tricks that I found people enjoyed, likesome Juni card where if it deals damage then your opponent's foundations don't ready during the ready step. Craig Roberts (Juni player who I played in Swiss) and Jeff Downs(top 8 Donovan) both played that card with the intention of looping it with The Hero of Southtown. I found that combo very neat.

When I was playing against Magnus in Swiss, he played some foundation whereyou choose a committed foundation in your staging area and your attackgets +X damage where X is the difficulty of that committed foundation.He never used it against me, but he did play Daily Routine, which boasts a 5 difficulty and works extremely well with that foundation.

Without A Care and Nakaruru is pretty nifty as well. Dani Carpenter played that combo, but never got it out on me in the 2nd round of Swiss we played in.

And of course, that ridiculous Ibuki4 character that Hata used to win the ECC, undefeated.

I did however know that I had to prepare for Olcadan's Mentoring, which was the reason why I decided to add Blinding Rage to the main deck. I also knew that Higher Caliber and Addes Syndicate still remained in theformat, so I had to make sure that most of what I did was notresponse-based.

Scuba:Afterthe bannings of Happy Holidays and Concealed Swallow Swipe and even Ibuki** do you think the Meta has balanced itself out?

Shaneth:I usually don't enjoy talking about the Meta because I really dislikehow many people argue so passionately about it, but I feel like I have to this time.

There has been a small power shift, but the Meta is far from being completely balanced out.Aggro is little bit more playable because Happy Holidays is gone, but control still remains the dominant style as long as power cards such as Higher Caliber and Addes Syndicate are still in the pool. All of the most recent big tournament winners since set 8 dropped have all packed Addes Syndicate, pretty much proving that the card is so ridiculously overpowered and game-breaking that you need it to win the most competitive events.

Scuba: Is there any experiences during the ECC that stood out for you?

Shaneth:Making top 8 with a jank Fire deck is definitely something to be proud of. Also, the ECC was another episode of "Shaneth Has To Deal With Mad Diversity." Akuma was the most popular character at the ECC, and making top 8 while cutting through diversity was extremely reminiscent ofWorlds last year where I cut through the 15 Yun-Seong's to make top 16.Both decks are/were jank, and I find it extremely unbelievable that I can take a jank deck and beat out diversity when the other players playing the same character as me are building them at more of a competitive state.

Apparentlymy style is to build a really jank deck and rely on player skill to takeit to the top.It has worked in the past and the present, so I hope itworks in the future.

Asfar as non-UFS related experiences, the whip-battle between myself andHolyDragonCloud was epic enough that it made the entire trip. Omar hasthe entire thing on video,and I hope he uploads it soon for everybodyto see.

Scuba: I know you have been into the competitive play for a long time Shaneth. Was playing at kings a good experience and did you meet any players whohave never been to a big event before?

Shaneth:It's funny, because you say I have been into competitive play for a long time, which is true, but my actions don't show it.If I was truly playing competitively, I would be jumping on the band wagon playing Evil cheese or whatever is solely dominate at the time. I would also probably be trading out the ass or spending $75 for an Addes Syndicate.

Truth is, I do things my way.

Because I refuse to play cheese ball cards like Higher Caliber and don't owncertain cards like Addes Syndicate, I can't play very competitively atall, so I am forced to build something that isn't very good and can't really stand up to the best the meta has to abuse.

I would like to call myself "King of the Jank" but I'm not sure if everybody would allow it.

Anyways,playing at King's Games was definitely a great experience. Everybody who I played against was really polite and I had a blast playing against allof him or her. As far as players who I met that haven't been to a big event before, the Ukyo player who I played in the first round said that it was his first time ever traveling to a big event. I would definitely travel up again for another event.

Scuba:After meeting the various top players and you yourself developing into one over the last year, do you ever get star struck players who want you to sign their Yun Seong's or do they ever give you any other type of special treatment?

Shaneth: Hahahaha! I wish I could consider myself a top player. All my top appearances feel like they never should have happened.

Well,I do remember at Nationals last month, n3w_sk00l or someone whose name I noticed was familiar asked me if I would sign his R Yun-Seong. I was kind of surprised because I'm not used to that kind of stuff, but give the man what he wants, right? It's also a tad scary when someone asks you to sign something, but that's may because I'm not used to it.

Otherwise, people treat me like any other normal player, and that's how I want to be treated as.

Scuba: What was your most memorable moment of the ECC and whom do you think was the most outspoken player there?

Shaneth:My most memorable moment is the whip-battle with HolyDragonCloud. You HAVE to see the video once Omar uploads it on the Internet.

The most outspoken player? Probably Noel, aka Tycho champ. He kept talking trash to me saying I wasn't going to make it into top 8. Also, in round4 when he intentionally drew to Hata, I was paired up against Adrian Bautista's Talim deck that eventually made 2nd place. When I was starting the match, he said something like"Yeah guys, Adrian is going to beat your boy Shaneth!" I eventually proved him wrong, which made me really happy.

Also,after top 8 was called, I remember him saying to me "Come on Shaneth, we need to play a game and see who's Akuma is better." I declined, mainly because nothing forced me to play against him and I was so burnt out on cards at the moment that I would not play another game of UFS unless I really had to.

Otherwise, he's a very chill dude.

Scuba:Alright, to wrap up Shaneth overall how did you enjoy the event and did you make any new UFS friends that you haven't met on the boards or in person before?

Shaneth:Overall, the East Coast Championship was totally worth my $60. I never had a dull moment there. Everybody was extremely cool to chill with. The tournament was very well organized. I have a grand total of zero complaints.

I know a lot of people on the boards, but who ever I meet in person becomes a penguin pal forever.

One group that I really enjoyed was the group from Canada, which consistedof Hatman, Target X,and Lazy Lantern. It's always great to meet people from another country and even greater to hang out with them.

Scuba: Alright once again I want to thank you for your time and insight on the ECC unfortunately Vik and myself were not able to attend. Is there anything else you would like to share to our listeners about the game or any experiences while you were there?

Shaneth:   Play for fun.

I've wanted to share this with the community for some time now.

Whenever you play to win, you always do badly. When you play for fun, you end up topping and even winning. It's been proven. Let me go into details.

Worlds2006 - Matt Kohls wasn't even planning on going until Josh Morris convinced him. He took his jank Tira deck not even expecting to win andpulled out the first world victory.

Worlds2007 -Andrew Olexa's Vega deck did terrible during Teams. He planned onplaying his All Nagase for the singles event when at the last minute hedecided to run the Vega that did so poorly in teams. He ended up winningwith his favorite character.

Nationals2008 -Omar Chavez plays this Voldo character that he loves so much.Along with the friendly prankster and big red lumberjack he is, he endedup winning Nationals.

Iremember talking to Matt Kohls sometime last year over AIM. I asked "Do you guys always play the cheesiest decks out there?" and he replied with"We play to win!"

Maybe that's why OOFS House has gotten quite a bit of 2nd place finishes.

OOFS House - 2ndplace Team Worlds 07, 2nd place Team Nats 08, Jon Herr 2nd place Singles Nats 08

It's a good theory 

Thanks everyone who attended the ECC special congrats to Omar for once again running a great event and congrats to James for the first Champion to retain a title.

Thanks,
Scubadude