Q&A with Vault Tour Winner Rachael Trimble!

Rachael Trimble, the recent Eindhoven Vault Tour Winner, graciously agreed to conduct a Q&A session with me for this blog, for which I am eternally grateful. I hope you share my excitement, interest, and thanks for her time in sharing with the great Keyforge community. Let's get started!

First of all, congratulations on your victory! The first Vault Tour winner for Keyforge! That is an amazing accomplishment, having to compete alongside 50+ people to make it to day 2, and then to win it all in what I am sure was a very competitive environment. We, the people, were wondering if we could pick your brain (and learn all your secrets and weaknesses), and see what led you to this high mark. Thanks for sharing with me and the world!

So, how long have you been playing Keyforge, and what about the game first got you interested, and what has kept you interested so far? 

I have been playing KeyForge since release, I was lucky enough to actually be able to attend the pre release event which took place in London. The big thing for me about the game which got me interested is the uniqueness of it, I love that I don’t have to build a deck alongside every deck being unique meaning every game is unique. For me this keeps the game fresh constantly as I never know what might happen in my next game.

The Vault Tour event you played and won was in Eindhoven, Netherlands, and the format was Archon, which was that every player brought a single deck they owned, and had to win in single matches, with 6-0 and 5-1 players making it to day 2. What made you choose your deck? (You can find Raechel's deck here: The Captain of Barrackslaunch) 

 

I don’t own a lot of decks, maybe around 12 at moment. Out of all these decks there is 2 that I liked, one of which was the TT (Timetraveller) and the other having 4 heavy mars taunt alongside Ether Spider and lots of little annoying creatures like Shaffles and Ember Imp etc. So for me it had to be one of these 2 decks. The heavy taunt Mars deck mainly focuses on delaying your opponent enough to try and let you get ahead. There isn’t a lot of amber on the cards so it mainly comes down to the creatures. The weakness of this deck is that if you have ways to take down my taunt either by a creature with poison or board wipes etc then it can struggle to keep up in amber. The other deck I liked was the double Timetraveller. This deck has several loses in OP events, it has no board wipes, and if someone can get out 4+ creatures of 1 house and just reap for 4-6 amber per turn then I can sometimes struggle to keep up as it ends up a race. I had tested them both online against people and in events. I took more of a liking to the double Timetraveller as it has a lot of raw amber on the cards (17) before I take into account any amber I steal from Bait and Switch, Relentless Whispers etc and with Help From Future Self shuffling my discard back into my deck it means those raw amber cards stick around. So I choose this deck and just hoped I could race my way to 3 keys in each match before my opponents. 

As a follow up to the previous question: Even though you won the tournament, what would you change in your deck if you could? 

The main thing I would change would be a board wipe. I think apart from Tunk all my creatures are 4 power and under so they die off pretty easily. This means the opponent can normally control the board and I don’t really have many ways to stop them, especially if it’s Sanctum creatures as most of them have shields so my 2 damage cards don’t get me far. If I was able to have a board wipe card it would allow me to hopefully not let my opponent get too many creatures down.

There has been a lot of talk regarding deck ratings in Keyforge, which I feel is very natural considering our competitive nature. But I was wondering, what are your thoughts regarding them? Do you value them? Which ones are your favorite? Or, what do you look for in a competitive deck? 

When it comes to deck rating I have never actually looked up any ratings for my decks. I have a friend who does and sometimes he tells me what rating my deck has got but for me personally I like to just play the deck myself and get a feel for how good it is. I do understand peoples need for wanting to rate decks, I have heard the SAS system and AERC is decent. However alongside that, my opponent in the final had a mid 70s SAS rating deck which would mean some would look at that and say it’s not tournament worthy, but in reality it competed against people’s best deck and managed only 1 loss all the way to the final so I would take any deck rating with a pinch of salt. I personally for now won’t bother with them as I don’t want a score pushing me away from a deck especially considering what I just mentioned about a mid 70s deck competing in the final of a vault tour.

 

The only other points I would add is that I managed to win with my deck by not only having some luck on the day but also playing my deck a lot and knowing what it can do. Sometimes I had to kill my own creatures to get that steal affect from Relentless Whispers, knowing what cards are left to play or little triggers in your deck can go a long way. I have The Sting in my deck and it helps when paired with Key Abduction. Don’t focus on scores and things and just focus on playing a deck and seeing what it can do. No deck is going to win every game so don’t be afraid of losing as non of us want a deck to win every game. We want decks to have a weakness so everyone has a chance.

People have made several comments as to the dominance of the Shadows House when it comes to competitive Keyforge. Shadows was also by far the most represented in the top decks. Why do you think this is? Do you think this is an anomaly, or will this be the norm in competitive Keyforge, at least until the second set is released? 

I think it’s fair to say Shadows is one of the best houses. With so many amber control cards within it, it helps you control your opponents amber which is always needed. In other houses you do get some amber control cards but Shadows has a larger amount which means more chance of seeing a few amber control in decks. For example in the final my opponents deck had no steal or capture in his Untamed, his Logos had 2 creatures which capture 1 when played and 2 creatures which steal one after a fight. All his other steal was in Shadows, so for me I knew if I kept gaining amber he would have to always pick Shadows to disrupt it and if he didn’t it meant he was only going to steal or capture maybe 1-2 amber. I mean I do think every house has some cool amber control cards, I love Screechbomb and Burn the Stockpile in Brobnar. Going forward if they don’t give other houses more amber control then people will default to Shadows houses in order to get that bit more amber control. If you don’t have amber control in your deck then it does mean you might need a fast gaining amber deck and just race for the win. In saying that the winner of the sealed Seattle Vault Tour had no Shadows in his deck and although it was sealed each player was given 3 decks which means there was hundreds of decks opened and his non-Shadows deck went on to win.

Despite Shadows being very popular, do you think there was a good representation of the other houses, at least in Day 1? What was the meta as far as you could tell? Were there any surprises? (I, for example, was surprised at all the Mars, as well as the lack of automatic key forging in most of the top decks) 

In my first 4 games I played Sanctum which for me is normally my weakness due to shields and not being able to control them. I played a mix of decks though including Horsemen and Timetraveller. I didn’t notice much of a meta day 1 as each time I played someone new it was a very different deck compared to the last. Even going forward into day 2, although Sanctum and Brobnar wasn’t hugely represented. I don’t think there was a common trend of cards in decks if you take away the Shadows. I mean you might have a great Shadows house but one house doesn’t win you the game. I was glad to see Mars doing so well considering some of the hate it had got. I personally like Mars and think there are some cool combos you can do with them. I was kind of surprised I didn’t come across any Dust Pixie with Key Charge and Nature's Call etc as out of turn forging. I thought would be a game changer but I don’t recall any opponent forging a key out of turn.

What are your thoughts as to the complaints that Keyforge may become pay-to-win, with the richest people having the "best" decks, and therefore having a significant advantage over the average player? 

I think in all games there is going to be an aspect of paying for good decks or cards and possibly having an advantage. I mean at the start, people where pulling Horsemen decks and then going online to sell them. The online market is filled with decks. When it comes to pay to win though I do think it’s hard to ever know if the deck you buy will actually go on to win anything good. I mean people might have not liked my desk due to it having Mars and no board wipes. People may have avoided the deck Rene had, who I played in the final due to its SAS rating. People do have the opportunity to go on Facebook, eBay, online retailers etc and view a vast amount of decks but asking someone to then choose one that’s going to take down a vault tour is a hard choice. I mean with every deck being unique how do you know the next deck you open it’s going to be that winning vault tour deck? Since every deck is unique and decks themselves aren’t hugely expensive I do think people will always continue to buy sealed and hope for a good deck. I mean my deck was purchased from my local gaming store and not online.

Do you favor Archon or Sealed events for Keyforge? 

I like both, sealed gives everyone a fair chance at winning but archon lets you test your best deck against other good decks so I think they both have a good side to them depending on what you are looking for. I do like to enter a sealed event at least once a month though alongside other events such as survival and adaptive. It’s nice to have a mix.

What is your favorite House? 

 

I would say Mars due to their combos like Blypyp with Key Abduction, John Smyth with Invasion Portal. I mean most of the Mars creatures are annoying which also makes them fun to play.
What is your favorite card? 

That’s a hard one, I have yet to know all the cards but I did take a liking to John Smyth for a while. However, since learning more cards and also playing with them I think I will have to say Time Traveller as you play the creature, get an amber and draw 2 cards. 3 great things from 1 card is just amazing.

What do you think is the most powerful card in Keyforge, or the card that affects the meta the most? 

 

I did think it would be out of turn forging and I thought Key Charge or Chota Hazri would be in the mix of top decks at the vault tour but that wasn’t the case and those I thought would have been powerful. I still think they are powerful in terms of gaining and forging. But then on the other hand, things such as Too Much to Protect or Bait and Switch, and other cards which control your opponent when they get a lot of amber, are also powerful as you need to be able to stop them or slow them down if they were to gain 8+ amber.

What is the most competitive House, and what is your ideal House combination in a new deck? 

 

I think Untamed as it has a lot of amber gain potential, you have Full Moon, Dust Pixie, Hunting Witch, Nature's Call, Nepenthe Seed, Witch of the Eye, Regrowth and so many other good cards which can gain you a lot of amber. I mean playing down a Hunting Witch and say 2-3 other creatures and then using maybe Witch of the Eye or Nepenthe Seed to get back your Nature's Call to then pick up 3 untamed creatures and playing them again for more amber is pretty cool.

What is your favorite combo or interaction in the game? 

 

I like to ready cards so using John Smyth with an Invasion Portal or Blypyp and Squawker or Soft Landing to be able to bring creatures in ready. I normally find this is an easier combo to pull off rather than holding out for that big Untamed turn with Hunting Witch or Full Moon.

What would be your best tip for new players? 

Play as many games as possible. I think the more you play the more you learn. I learn the cards by seeing them in play and I also get to see how other people play certain cards which could give me ideas for myself. The game is still fresh and there is still new things to find.

Have you pimped out your Keyforge accessories with custom keys, markers, etc? Or do you use starter set tokens? 

I use custom tokens and keys. There is such a wide market out there filled with custom tokens and keys. I mean why use wooden ones from the starter when I can have nice fancy ones. I think the starter set ones are great for starting out but once you get an urge for bling it’s hard to resist. Although now I am trying out some of my vault tour keys and playmats. 

What are you most excited about the new set (Ascension) coming out in a few months? 

I haven’t looked at all the cards but I do like how they are carrying over some but not all cards as this will keep both sets fresh. I did see a card called Flex which allows you to exhaust a ready Brobnar creature and gain amber equal to half its power. There is a new Brobnar creature with 11 power, so this could be a nice combo.
FFG has mentioned that there will be new Houses in the game eventually, any preferences to a new House theme? 

I think maybe a house which could interact with things, maybe do something if you forged a certain color key, or an artifact that lets you play a card from discard if a creature is destroyed, or maybe if one of your creatures die you can choose and destroy an opponent's creature. I like things that maybe trigger off other things to happen. Maybe make them a robot house due to an automatic affect going off once you trigger something.

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer some questions! Happy gaming and any parting words?

Thank you to everyone for your support. I hope to see you at some more vault tours. The community is amazing and it’s such a unique game, let’s just enjoy it. 

I hope you all enjoyed this fun Q&A, I know I did. Make sure to check out Rachael's Game Store for all your gaming needs :)