Just a bit under a month since the last Local Qualifier that I attended, and this time I had...drastically less practice, as unlike July, I didn't have nearly 3 full weeks that I could grind locals like a madman.
I wound up playing my Dragoons today, as while that wasn't the list I wanted to use, it was the deck I was most well-practiced with. All of the cards I'd needed to order for the list I had actually wanted to play had failed to arrive in time for me to get any practice with that list in the few locals I could attend, so I opted to instead stick with the list I knew well enough from all of my practice in July, improved as it was by the addition of the new Freya and new backup Dragoon that came from Gunslinger.
I digress. It was a total of 27 players, with 5 rounds of Swiss before cutting to a Top 8. I went 3-2, just like I did at the previous LQ, but I had markedly better tiebreakers this go around, getting me into the Top 8! I was super stoked about that.
I was immediately knocked out in my Top 8 game, which was a little bit of a bummer, but even making Top 8 was already leagues better than I thought I would accomplish.
Round 1 vs Refia - Loss
First game of the day and it was not a great start for me. I had a decently aggressive start, including seeing Alus, but made the error of knocking them to damage 4, which activated so many of their triggers. They were able to fairly quickly turn the game around, and Refia's ability to tuck my Forwards meant that they were very able to get rid of my few blockers.
Not an auspicious start, but I was able to turn things around over the next few rounds.
Round 2 vs Cat VI - Win
This was an absolute blowout. They dropped a Locke, new Freya devoured him, and when they dropped The Demon to take out Freya and Kain, I used her Special to take the Demon down with them.
When I dropped a second copy of Freya, that was where they scooped, having nothing to protect them from my board.
Round 3 vs Earth/Water - Win
I unironically don't know exactly what archetype this deck was aside from being an Earth/Water list. The only backup that they saw was knocked to damage, meaning that they had nearly no resources to work with.
Once again, new Freya was an absolute house, taking out a "lightning rod" Auron and Ra-la, and when they managed to drop a Cecil to prevent ability damage followed by another Ra-la, it took me a few minutes, but I was able to get rid of the Cecil with the 5-drop power loss Dragoon.
Freya took Ra-la out once more, and that was where they scooped.
Round 4 vs Earth/Water Chark - Win
The first game I never saw any copies of Alus, which slowed my game down dramatically. This game had me sweating bullets as I had to be cautious not to overextend, but I was able to punch through enough damage that when I got to my second-to-last turn, dropping LB Sephiroth spelled the end of the game. They were at 6 damage, Sephiroth had destroyed their second copy of Chaos, and when they had nothing to remove the fabled War Hero, that was where they scooped up their cards as the attack trigger would remove any blockers they could have dropped.
Round 5 vs Dragoons - Loss
They saw their Alus early.
I did not. This gave them the immediate resource advantage as they were effectively drawing an additional card a turn that I was not.
The true kicker was my making a drastic misplay on my last turn of the game. I finally drew my Alus, and tunnel vision kicked in, prompting me to play the Prince. Had I been thinking things through more thoroughly, I would have skipped out on Alus and just gone for a higher mass of Dragoons so that I could wipe their field with my Cherry Blossom Freya and hopefully scrape back a win.
However, the resources I dumped into Alus left me unable to take their board out.
This was where we cut to the Top 8. As I said above, I barely made it - finishing Swiss in 8th place - and we took a break for the judge to deck check. They were unamused about having to deck check not one, not two, but three Dragoon lists, as myself and both other Dragoons players at the LQ today had made top cut.
Top 8 Game vs Knights - Loss
We had over an hour for our Top 8 games, playing Best of 3 rounds.
The Knights ran me over, twice, in less than 15 minutes. Total.
There was, plainly speaking, nothing I could do against them. Both games, they got turn 1 Gawain into Ramza/Curilla. In game 1, they dropped Ramza/Curilla into play on turn 2. In game 2, since I went first and they had an extra card in hand, they were able to drop the duo on turn 1. Both times, Curilla hit Charlotte and another Knight to fill their board.
I couldn't even pretend to build up a board state in time to deal with the pressure put on me by that play in either game.
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