Normally, today would have been a Pokémon day for me. However, the Final Fantasy TCG, months ago, announced the schedule for Local Qualifiers, and today was one that was about a two-hour drive away for me.
Naturally, I sought to attend. The Final Fantasy TCG is a ton of fun, I want to play it more frequently, and there was a chance I could have won the event and gotten some sweet prizing.
(Spoiler Alert: I did not win the event, and in fact I scrubbed out hard.)
The downside was that at my local card shop, we had a Prerelease Event for the next Pokémon TCG set, Destined Rivals, alongside Double Header Cups + Challenges for both VGC and Go. The Double Headers had been planned some time ago, around the time I had made the decision to attend today's LQ, while the Destined Rivals Prerelease was significantly more recent due to Pokémon dropping the release date for the set somewhat unexpectedly (or at least, unexpectedly to me).
But I digress! I hauled myself out of bed exceptionally early this morning, piled myself and my FFTCG supplies into my car - including my Scions Deck, which I played in today's event - and drove two hours to, first, get some breakfast with other local players, and then to the shop for the LQ.
It was 5 rounds of Best of 1 Swiss, followed by a cut to Top 8. I went 1-4, getting walloped severely. While I don't have specific notes, I do know roughly where each game went wrong for me:
Round 1 vs Knights:
Simply put, Knights outvalue my Scions handily. I put up the best fight that I could, but had neither the necessary removal to deal with their board, nor sufficiently-large Forwards to win combat trades.
Round 2 vs Water/Lightning Crystals ft. Light Yuna:
Another value engine deck that honestly is less of a Crystal deck (despite running some number of Crystal payoffs) and more of a Water/Lightning Yuna deck. They flooded the board with inexpensive Forwards that kept refilling their hand so that they weren't even drastically far behind on resources, and then adding in to the mix Yuna's ability to dull or freeze my field or otherwise prevent me from utilizing my removal in any meaningful capacity, and there was precious little I could do.
Round 3 vs Fire/Water Monsters:
My deck has precious few ways to handle Monsters, and with Fire came my opponent's ability to utilize Clive and Ifrit. Taken together, and once again there wasn't a ton I could really do to handle what was being thrown at me.
Round 4 vs Black Mages:
The one game that I won today, my Scions were able to build a board presence that ultimately overcame the extensive removal abilities that the Black Mages have access to. I also realized on the fly a nice bit of strategy I was able to make use of for the final point of damage. When I swung in with Thancred, my opponent used Black Waltz 1 to discard one of the other Black Waltzes, dealing a tremendous 11k damage to Thancred. However, when he was sent to the Break Zone, I was able to use his auto-ability to then bring an Irvine from my Break Zone back into play. Devouring two characters from their Break Zone, Irvine picked up Haste and went in for the final point.
Round 5 vs Flan/Monster Control:
Remember what I said just above, under the heading for Round 3, how my deck has a difficult time coping with Monsters? Combine that with a 1-drop Mira forward who can make Monsters unbreakable even if they do become Forwards (which I typically have a much easier time removing) and a 2-drop Zombie that can recur the Mira after she's used for her effect, and you get a recipe for a game that was almost as frustrating as it was fun to play, as I was wracking my brain to figure out the solution to the puzzle that was being set before me.
Ultimately, though, I wasn't able to cinch it, and solidified my 1-4 position. Out of 24 participants at the event, I came in 21st. I'm genuinely happy with my performance, however, and had a tremendous time playing.
I do, unfortunately, need to face the fact that my Scions deck is still a solid (and, more importantly, really fun) deck, it is however not a good deck for the game's current meta, based on how only one of today's match-ups really felt particularly favorable to me. Knights outvalue me, doing what I want to do, but better. Yuna Swarms can lock me out of playing entirely by taxing my removal and keeping my board tapped down. Then against Monsters, I simply don't have any reasonable outs for dealing with Monsters in Mono-Lightning. Are there other decks in the meta that I might have better odds against? Sure, that's a possibility. I did well against the Black Mages, for instance. But it doesn't feel terribly much like my list is likely to have a good time in the game's current environment.
I'll have to see what I can do about that. Maybe I invest in shifting to a "proper" Water/Lightning Scions list. Maybe I pick up a different list entirely - I do have a set of Yunas myself, and can put together something with her and Vikings, though my not (currently) owning a copy of LB Tidus does inherently hinder any Water deck I try to build. Regardless, I have a couple of weeks until the next major competitive event that I will be aiming to attend, so I can work on my plan, even if my work schedule might prevent me from fully testing whatever I come up with.
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