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First of all, congratulations on finishing 2nd place at the Denver, CO Vault Tour! That's awesome! And although I'm sure it is a little bitter sweet, you must be pleased with how your deck performed considering it went 3-0 in the final match, since you won the first game with it, and then your opponent piloted your deck in the final 2 games. How do you feel?
Thank you, you said it right it's very bitter sweet. I feel great that I have a good deck and that I piloted it well all weekend, but looking back I wish i'd have just opened on my deck at 1 chain or went ahead and just bid the 2nd chain.
The format for the Vault Tour was Archon Survival, which meant every player brought 3 decks, and they played one until it lost, and then moved onto the next one. There were 131 players, with only 45 making it to Day 2 in single-game matches. In Day 2 it was single game elimination until the finals, which were Adaptive, which means that you play with your deck, then with your opponent's, and then if the same deck won both games, you bid for who gets it (which is what happened). What were your thoughts about the meta going into this tournament? Were you surprised at some of the decks you faced? How would you define the meta in Keyforge, currently?
So going into the event I was a little concerned that I would have to concede a possible game or 2 if I started out well, as my goal was to get Bombfoot, the Aeronaut of the Pike into day 2 and it was my 3rd deck. As a competitive minded individual I don't ever wanna concede a game and didn't like that the format leads to just giving away games. I think playing survival until 1 person is standing is left with less then 3 losses is the best way to do it but the game is still young and everyone is learning what works and doesn't.
First of all, congratulations on finishing 2nd place at the Denver, CO Vault Tour! That's awesome! And although I'm sure it is a little bitter sweet, you must be pleased with how your deck performed considering it went 3-0 in the final match, since you won the first game with it, and then your opponent piloted your deck in the final 2 games. How do you feel?
Thank you, you said it right it's very bitter sweet. I feel great that I have a good deck and that I piloted it well all weekend, but looking back I wish i'd have just opened on my deck at 1 chain or went ahead and just bid the 2nd chain.
The format for the Vault Tour was Archon Survival, which meant every player brought 3 decks, and they played one until it lost, and then moved onto the next one. There were 131 players, with only 45 making it to Day 2 in single-game matches. In Day 2 it was single game elimination until the finals, which were Adaptive, which means that you play with your deck, then with your opponent's, and then if the same deck won both games, you bid for who gets it (which is what happened). What were your thoughts about the meta going into this tournament? Were you surprised at some of the decks you faced? How would you define the meta in Keyforge, currently?
So going into the event I was a little concerned that I would have to concede a possible game or 2 if I started out well, as my goal was to get Bombfoot, the Aeronaut of the Pike into day 2 and it was my 3rd deck. As a competitive minded individual I don't ever wanna concede a game and didn't like that the format leads to just giving away games. I think playing survival until 1 person is standing is left with less then 3 losses is the best way to do it but the game is still young and everyone is learning what works and doesn't.
As far as a meta game goes I was anticipating around 5%-10% OTK (One Turn Kill) or LANS (Library Access, Nepenthe Seed) variants, about 30% rush and 30% control amber decks. Then I expected the rest of the field to be fairly random as that's what the game promotes with the uniqueness of the decks. I never faced OTK all weekend, so that was a bit surprising, but there was a lot of hate out there for that strategy in particular, which probably helped counter it. One of my reapout.com teammates, Jean Claude, got beat in the top 4 with his OTK, which is a really solid deck even when not comboing.
Speaking to the current state of the meta game, I'd say it's fairly open. If you like a deck and have played it a lot, you give yourself an advantage in this game. Find the strategy that you like and learn it inside out.
What 3 decks did you bring? What deck(s) got you to Day 2? Did you feel that your finals deck was your strongest? If you had your druthers, would you have picked a different deck out of your original 3 to play in Day 2?
Teacher Ascari was the deck I chose to start with. Its quick amber with no real cares for the board state. I started 3-1. My deck out preformed my expectations. I was hoping for a 1-1 or 2-1 start from this deck.
The Mantle that Digs up the Imp was my 2nd deck, and I picked this deck because it's very solid. It has a great game plan vs OTK, and going into the event there was a lot of talk about SAS and other teams putting their best deck in the 2nd slot so I wanted a deck that had enough artifact hate to make them win a fair Library Access turn and not a double broken one that wins the game on the spot. The deck won its 1 clean up game to get me to the 4-1 on the day, which was my goal, so I conceded round 6 to get to my 3rd deck which I've considered my best deck for months. I have won both the Tuesday and Friday online events with the deck and have well over 500 reps with just this one deck that I have owned it since November.
Bombfoot, the Aeronaut of the Pike was my 3rd deck, and I knew going into the event that it was my best deck and my main goal was to just make day 2 with Bombfoot, and I liked my odds from there. So no, I'd have picked Bombfoot 100 times outta 100 times even without hindsight.
You got to play the founder of the SAS rating system for Keyforge. Your finals deck has a lovely 99 SAS rating itself. How much power do you give to these various rating systems. Are there ones you prefer? Ones that you use? How influential are they when it comes to picking a deck you want to play in a competitive environment?
Yeah that's definitely an honor to play someone who has inspired and influenced the Keyforge community as much as he has. As for my deck being a 99 SAS, I have owned it since November, which I believe predates SAS, but the ADHD scores were a thing at the time and I was just picking up decks that had an excellent A, C and E scores and consistency over .2 as with my early testing that's what was performing the best. The Teacher Ascari deck I also picked up early when SAS was starting, but I didn't quite understand how it was being ranked and I already had a bead on what traits I was looking for with the other rating system. So now, I rate those 2 decks and one is a 64 and one is a 99. Obviously, the 99 plays way better, but the 64 got its fair share of wins too.
What 3 decks did you bring? What deck(s) got you to Day 2? Did you feel that your finals deck was your strongest? If you had your druthers, would you have picked a different deck out of your original 3 to play in Day 2?
Teacher Ascari was the deck I chose to start with. Its quick amber with no real cares for the board state. I started 3-1. My deck out preformed my expectations. I was hoping for a 1-1 or 2-1 start from this deck.
The Mantle that Digs up the Imp was my 2nd deck, and I picked this deck because it's very solid. It has a great game plan vs OTK, and going into the event there was a lot of talk about SAS and other teams putting their best deck in the 2nd slot so I wanted a deck that had enough artifact hate to make them win a fair Library Access turn and not a double broken one that wins the game on the spot. The deck won its 1 clean up game to get me to the 4-1 on the day, which was my goal, so I conceded round 6 to get to my 3rd deck which I've considered my best deck for months. I have won both the Tuesday and Friday online events with the deck and have well over 500 reps with just this one deck that I have owned it since November.
Bombfoot, the Aeronaut of the Pike was my 3rd deck, and I knew going into the event that it was my best deck and my main goal was to just make day 2 with Bombfoot, and I liked my odds from there. So no, I'd have picked Bombfoot 100 times outta 100 times even without hindsight.
You got to play the founder of the SAS rating system for Keyforge. Your finals deck has a lovely 99 SAS rating itself. How much power do you give to these various rating systems. Are there ones you prefer? Ones that you use? How influential are they when it comes to picking a deck you want to play in a competitive environment?
Yeah that's definitely an honor to play someone who has inspired and influenced the Keyforge community as much as he has. As for my deck being a 99 SAS, I have owned it since November, which I believe predates SAS, but the ADHD scores were a thing at the time and I was just picking up decks that had an excellent A, C and E scores and consistency over .2 as with my early testing that's what was performing the best. The Teacher Ascari deck I also picked up early when SAS was starting, but I didn't quite understand how it was being ranked and I already had a bead on what traits I was looking for with the other rating system. So now, I rate those 2 decks and one is a 64 and one is a 99. Obviously, the 99 plays way better, but the 64 got its fair share of wins too.
When I was scouring Miles Agag deck doc off the Facebook buy/sell/trade group, I found The Mantle that Digs up the Imp. By then I'd gotten familiar with both rating systems, and the main thing I take away from the SAS is AERC scores, and I mentioned this on the stream yesterday when I sat down during one of the rounds to chat Keyforge. I prefer decks with a 2 on the R score, but beware not all 2s are created the same, so make sure the artifact control is not Customs Office. Because while it slows the opponents down, we want things more like Nexus, Remote Access, Poltergeist or obviously Snudge as he's an all-star. In a Vault Tour setting I am definitely interested in how my decks rate out and where the power of those decks lie, when I chainbound I'm a lot less constrained and I'll bring just about any deck that I'm having fun playing, but to me both sites have their merits and are good for the game, and those of us that are obsessed with numbers and statistics like myself enjoy them a lot.
All of us fans were very glad to see a non-LANS combo deck, or a double Timetraveler deck, not win in a Vault Tour. And although your deck on paper seems very good in terms of the rating systems, while glancing at it, it does not seem to have anything extraordinary in it. There aren't outside key forging capabilities, no huge combos, no heavy creature control nor number of creatures. Why do you think the deck performed so well?
Few reasons: #1 the worst card in the deck is Full Moon, and when I say this to people their eyes get wide with all kinds of question marks in them. But between it and Bait and Switch, I discard those 2 cards the most. Sure, sometimes Full Moon comboed with my Hunting Witch can get me 3 to 7 amber on a turn, it doesn't happen often. So with that said, the deck just has very little fat and just about every card or creature does something meaningful at almost every point in the game.
All of us fans were very glad to see a non-LANS combo deck, or a double Timetraveler deck, not win in a Vault Tour. And although your deck on paper seems very good in terms of the rating systems, while glancing at it, it does not seem to have anything extraordinary in it. There aren't outside key forging capabilities, no huge combos, no heavy creature control nor number of creatures. Why do you think the deck performed so well?
Few reasons: #1 the worst card in the deck is Full Moon, and when I say this to people their eyes get wide with all kinds of question marks in them. But between it and Bait and Switch, I discard those 2 cards the most. Sure, sometimes Full Moon comboed with my Hunting Witch can get me 3 to 7 amber on a turn, it doesn't happen often. So with that said, the deck just has very little fat and just about every card or creature does something meaningful at almost every point in the game.
#2 I'd say that it's because it's well-rounded: It doesn't focus on 1 particular thing, it has enough artifact control to deal with OTK, it has enough amber production to put pressure on your opponent early, enough steal in the late game to make them not want to over commit and can either control the board or stick a strong board presences with something like Succubus or Shaffles next to a Shadow Self.
Lastly, #3 Control the Weak is one of my favorite cards in the game to play with at high levels of play, because most of the time your opponent will play at a higher level on average, so it's a bit easier to get a read. In my top 8 match on turn 1 on the play, I played Control the Weak, named Logos, my opponent had no Logos, so next turn I played Succubus, Shooler and Control the Weak on logos again. My next turn was reap, reap, Mind Barb, Lifeward. It was really unfair.
There was a lot of talk about teams in this Vault Tour, with several members of various teams advancing far into the tournament, including yourself. What does a team mean/look like in Keyforge, what kinds of advantages do they give, and can you talk about your team and what that means to you?
Yeah with Vault Tour Denver we are now seeing this teams thing develop, I believe the top 8 had 3 teams represented. reapout.com had 3 top 8, SAS had 2 top 8, and Bouncing Deathquark had 1 so 6 of the top 8 competitors were team guys, and all 4 of the top 4 were on teams. I think there is some advantage to being on a team (ie moral support between rounds, strategic convos before/after events, and sometimes between rounds, and mostly being able to network hotels, flights, rental cars and other expensive associated with traveling across the country with people we have built relationships with).
My personal team is reapout.com, and while we haven't fully launched our site yet, we hope to soon, as the game could use some content on a weekly or possibly daily basis.
These are Casey Wyzlic words, but he's hit the nail on the head so I'm just gonna repeat them here:
"We are a small team of like minded people from many backgrounds. Our Ethos is to have fun, help each other out, and to promote the game we love so much. All of us play this game as a hobby and are here for the friendships, competition, and camaraderie that it brings. I'd like to say that I am a very good judge of character and am proud to call everyone on the team a friend.
With that being said, the members have talked me into making Reapout much bigger than I intended. We have streamers, writers, and competitive people who want to bring us and the community closer together. In the coming weeks we intend to launch a fan site that will include videos, articles, and a place to talk about Keyforge. We hope to have you all there.
Being on a team is just about working together, backing each other up, and making each other better. We had 4 people in the top 16 and had to take one of us out as we got matched up against each other. The game was played and fought well. I think at that point we were all amazed at how far we had come. Top 8 pitted us against 3 worthy foes and we went down to 2 members in the top 4. What a day! All of us actually played the decks we came with after going back and forth on who would play what, which i think has something to say about us.
Team SAS is a great group of people who are also like minded. We look forward to challenging each other, working together, and bringing all of us together as one. I've always said from the beginning that there is no competition in Keyforge between the players and stores because the decks are the ones doing the talking. Anyone can pull the double time traveler-horseman-OTK at your local sealed tournament with 4 entries (which we did).
Team Reapout is closed at the moment with three open invites for Jay Schelke, Rachael Trimble, and J Brian Andersen. Anyone I've personally met is invited to hit me up also. Future people will be decided on personal interactions with team members or long standing community members..... But from anyone that have met any of us at the Vaut Tours, I am postitive there is nothing negative to say. We look forward to meeting new people at the coming tours. Open your vaults and REAPOUT!"
What got you started in Keyforge? What attracted you to it in the first place, and what has kept you interested?
So I have played Magic the Gathering going on 20 years. I have played some on the Pro Tour and done fine at Grand Prix, but never really had the time to commit to professional MTG, as it requires you to be completely meta game efficient day in and day out since people can change their deck lists at a large event. Literally 3 to 5 cards can make a huge difference in how your deck functions the day of an event in the meta.
There was a lot of talk about teams in this Vault Tour, with several members of various teams advancing far into the tournament, including yourself. What does a team mean/look like in Keyforge, what kinds of advantages do they give, and can you talk about your team and what that means to you?
Yeah with Vault Tour Denver we are now seeing this teams thing develop, I believe the top 8 had 3 teams represented. reapout.com had 3 top 8, SAS had 2 top 8, and Bouncing Deathquark had 1 so 6 of the top 8 competitors were team guys, and all 4 of the top 4 were on teams. I think there is some advantage to being on a team (ie moral support between rounds, strategic convos before/after events, and sometimes between rounds, and mostly being able to network hotels, flights, rental cars and other expensive associated with traveling across the country with people we have built relationships with).
My personal team is reapout.com, and while we haven't fully launched our site yet, we hope to soon, as the game could use some content on a weekly or possibly daily basis.
These are Casey Wyzlic words, but he's hit the nail on the head so I'm just gonna repeat them here:
"We are a small team of like minded people from many backgrounds. Our Ethos is to have fun, help each other out, and to promote the game we love so much. All of us play this game as a hobby and are here for the friendships, competition, and camaraderie that it brings. I'd like to say that I am a very good judge of character and am proud to call everyone on the team a friend.
With that being said, the members have talked me into making Reapout much bigger than I intended. We have streamers, writers, and competitive people who want to bring us and the community closer together. In the coming weeks we intend to launch a fan site that will include videos, articles, and a place to talk about Keyforge. We hope to have you all there.
Being on a team is just about working together, backing each other up, and making each other better. We had 4 people in the top 16 and had to take one of us out as we got matched up against each other. The game was played and fought well. I think at that point we were all amazed at how far we had come. Top 8 pitted us against 3 worthy foes and we went down to 2 members in the top 4. What a day! All of us actually played the decks we came with after going back and forth on who would play what, which i think has something to say about us.
Team SAS is a great group of people who are also like minded. We look forward to challenging each other, working together, and bringing all of us together as one. I've always said from the beginning that there is no competition in Keyforge between the players and stores because the decks are the ones doing the talking. Anyone can pull the double time traveler-horseman-OTK at your local sealed tournament with 4 entries (which we did).
Team Reapout is closed at the moment with three open invites for Jay Schelke, Rachael Trimble, and J Brian Andersen. Anyone I've personally met is invited to hit me up also. Future people will be decided on personal interactions with team members or long standing community members..... But from anyone that have met any of us at the Vaut Tours, I am postitive there is nothing negative to say. We look forward to meeting new people at the coming tours. Open your vaults and REAPOUT!"
What got you started in Keyforge? What attracted you to it in the first place, and what has kept you interested?
So I have played Magic the Gathering going on 20 years. I have played some on the Pro Tour and done fine at Grand Prix, but never really had the time to commit to professional MTG, as it requires you to be completely meta game efficient day in and day out since people can change their deck lists at a large event. Literally 3 to 5 cards can make a huge difference in how your deck functions the day of an event in the meta.
I found this game in late October/ early November, when a bunch of people were casually playing at the local gaming store I play at, and I inquired about it and did some research after hearing that no 2 decks were ever the same. My mathematical mind got to thinking; how is this even possible, and I searched the web all night for as much information as I could til like 3 AM, lol (as most of us do when we become obsessed with something). So I bought my first deck and took it to the shop the next week. I had bought an opened one off someone on Ebay as it had Witch of the Wilds and at the time I was looking for cards that broke the rules of the game.
So me and my buddy sit down for our first game, both with long-time MTG backgrounds, and our first game takes at least an hour, probably closer to 2 hours. Not because we were playing slow, but because neither of us understood reaping could be better then fighting, and we both just took turns with our Brobnar decks clearing the board. We shuffled our decks back at least 3 times each before the game finished. I lost, as my opponent had been playing since launch, so he knew a bit more then me, but this was enough to fuel my fire for Keyforge. Ever since then I have just been captivated by the people who play the game, their kindness, and the game itself for multiple reasons: uniqueness of decks, easy cheap entry, and that while the meta game can shift, my deck will never rotate.
How many decks do you own?
I have a sealed box and 2 loose decks that I'm saving for nostalgia opens in 5 to 10 years, 4 decks that I consider reversals, and 13 decks that i would consider for Archon events. I have sold off the rest as I personally like to keep my collection tight and easily manageable.
What is your process when it comes to choosing a competitive deck?
Play it ALOT!!! Know what your deck does inside and out, when it turns the corner, and when it's right to discard cards. Know when to mulligan. The more you play with your deck, the better you're gonna be with it. I have well over 150 games in with each of the 3 decks I brought, but with Bombfoot and Teacher I have well over 300. I haven't played Mantle as much as I haven't owned it as long.
What is your favorite House? What is your favorite House Combination in a deck?
Aww man, this is hard for me as I just love the whole game. Even trying to pick 5 of the 7 play mats for my winnings at the prize wall was hard, lol. But if I have to choose then Shadows is my favorite. I looove the flavor text on Too Much to Protect "not taking it would be the real crime".
My favorite House Combination is Shadows, Dis, and then any of the other 5.
What is your favorite card?
Tough call. There's a lot of cards at the top of my list, but I'm gonna say Mack the Knife if I gotta pick just 1.
How many decks do you own?
I have a sealed box and 2 loose decks that I'm saving for nostalgia opens in 5 to 10 years, 4 decks that I consider reversals, and 13 decks that i would consider for Archon events. I have sold off the rest as I personally like to keep my collection tight and easily manageable.
What is your process when it comes to choosing a competitive deck?
Play it ALOT!!! Know what your deck does inside and out, when it turns the corner, and when it's right to discard cards. Know when to mulligan. The more you play with your deck, the better you're gonna be with it. I have well over 150 games in with each of the 3 decks I brought, but with Bombfoot and Teacher I have well over 300. I haven't played Mantle as much as I haven't owned it as long.
What is your favorite House? What is your favorite House Combination in a deck?
Aww man, this is hard for me as I just love the whole game. Even trying to pick 5 of the 7 play mats for my winnings at the prize wall was hard, lol. But if I have to choose then Shadows is my favorite. I looove the flavor text on Too Much to Protect "not taking it would be the real crime".
My favorite House Combination is Shadows, Dis, and then any of the other 5.
What is your favorite card?
Tough call. There's a lot of cards at the top of my list, but I'm gonna say Mack the Knife if I gotta pick just 1.
What is the most powerful card in the game?
The most powerful single card in the game in the hands of the right people is Control the Weak. If you watch the finals rerun you can see my opponent use it effectively against me. (watch it here 5:21:20)
What is your favorite card combo or interaction in the game?
Lash of Broken Dreams/Too Much to Protect.
The most powerful single card in the game in the hands of the right people is Control the Weak. If you watch the finals rerun you can see my opponent use it effectively against me. (watch it here 5:21:20)
What is your favorite card combo or interaction in the game?
Lash of Broken Dreams/Too Much to Protect.
What is your best tip for players who want to play competitively?
Practice. Practice a lot. Get games in where you can. It's very important to know your game plan and what your deck's strengths and weaknesses are.
The new set, Age of Ascension, comes out in roughly 1 month (see the spoiled cards so far here), what are your thoughts about it so far? Do you like the new keywords? Any patterns or major meta changes you predict?
I'm really digging what's been spoiled so far: the art, flavor, complexity, and competitiveness look like they should be on par with everything we love from Call of the Archons. Alpha/Omega are great as they allow you to push a single card a bit more then you could without those (I'm looking at you Library Access :)). There are not enough cards for me really to anywhere close-to-accurate predict upcoming meta shifts, but I do believe it will have some impact on it.
What is your favorite card from the new set so far?
Binding Irons is my favorite so far. Succubus rarely sticks around to reap and succubus is one of the top cards from Call of the Archons.
Practice. Practice a lot. Get games in where you can. It's very important to know your game plan and what your deck's strengths and weaknesses are.
The new set, Age of Ascension, comes out in roughly 1 month (see the spoiled cards so far here), what are your thoughts about it so far? Do you like the new keywords? Any patterns or major meta changes you predict?
I'm really digging what's been spoiled so far: the art, flavor, complexity, and competitiveness look like they should be on par with everything we love from Call of the Archons. Alpha/Omega are great as they allow you to push a single card a bit more then you could without those (I'm looking at you Library Access :)). There are not enough cards for me really to anywhere close-to-accurate predict upcoming meta shifts, but I do believe it will have some impact on it.
What is your favorite card from the new set so far?
Binding Irons is my favorite so far. Succubus rarely sticks around to reap and succubus is one of the top cards from Call of the Archons.
What is next for you?
I most likely won't be in Atlanta or Columbus as my lady and I have our first child due in just under 4 weeks, but I'm hoping to make Indy (Gencon). I'll definitely be continuing to play Keyforge and writing articles and doing content for reapout.com when we have it fully functional, and I'll definitely be at large events going forward in 2020.
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Well, congrats to the baby-on-the-way! I'm sure that won't affect your Keyforge hobby at all ;). I can't really recommend you naming the child Snudge or Hebe the Huge, but whatever you come up will be fine substitutes I'm sure. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to fans, and helping to keep up content for this awesome game. I hope you readers enjoyed this as well. And as always, happy gaming!
I most likely won't be in Atlanta or Columbus as my lady and I have our first child due in just under 4 weeks, but I'm hoping to make Indy (Gencon). I'll definitely be continuing to play Keyforge and writing articles and doing content for reapout.com when we have it fully functional, and I'll definitely be at large events going forward in 2020.
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Well, congrats to the baby-on-the-way! I'm sure that won't affect your Keyforge hobby at all ;). I can't really recommend you naming the child Snudge or Hebe the Huge, but whatever you come up will be fine substitutes I'm sure. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to fans, and helping to keep up content for this awesome game. I hope you readers enjoyed this as well. And as always, happy gaming!
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