Gencon '19 Vault Tour Top 16 Report W/ 67 SAS Rated Deck

I'm finally home after a very fun, and very long, Keyforge-filled Gencon 2019. First of all, congratulations to the eventual Vault Tour Sealed winner, Devin Chiriboga from Team Reapout! Awesome job! Now, I wanted to reflect on my Vault Tour experience, just like I did for Origins. My top 16 finish in this, as well as going 4-2 in the following Archon format VT, was enough to catapult me into #21 on the Vault Tour Leaderboard. That means...something hopefully, lol. We don't know the exact details yet. Go Team Fuzzy Gruens! And even though I only managed to make it to the top 16 (out of an original 250 I believe?) in day 2 of the Sealed event, I did it with a deck that I'm pretty sure is the overall worst rated deck to ever get that far. I'm not saying this to brag (okay, maybe a little, lol), but I wanted to show people that just because you have a poorly rated deck, does not mean it cannot win, or that you shouldn't bother trying to play in a competitive environment, especially when that environment is Sealed Keyforge. First of all, let me show you the screenshot of my day 2, top 16 VT deck, from the Rankey App, which nicely showcases its own rating system, as well as the popular SAS and AERC scores:

Just look at that hot mess, lol. You are reading that correctly, that is a 9.9 out of 100 for Rankey. That is a 67 SAS, which is normally reserved for the bargain bin, with most competitive decks, even in a sealed tournament, at least in the mid-70s, with winners in the 80-90s typically. Then you have an AERC rating of 41, where most competitive decks are in the 50s-60s. So you can see that on paper (or in this case on-app), this deck is well below what is considered to be a competitive score. To give you another way of looking at it, here are the SAS scores of the decks that made it to the top 8 of the event (As of this writing, only 7 have been entered into the Keyforge Vault):

#1: Maxima, Hunter of the Eloquent Strand 80
#2: Beaker Harker 79
#3 Hon T. Roogquimp, the Fourth 86
#4 The Mister of Burnminster 82
#5 The Ruffian that Antagonizes The Chosen 81
#6 Peacock, the Moneylender of Darklande 83
#7 Charbos, the Racer of Deer 90

Yeesh. But before we delve deeper into this deck, let's start at the beginning of the tournament.

This would be my second Vault Tour, and second attempt at the Sealed event. I felt a lot of pressure to do well, considering my very lucky success at getting Top 4 at Origins. As usual though, I try to go into it not expecting much. After all, there is a lot of luck in regards to what decks you get, what matchups you get, and then during play what draws you get. Representing Pittsburgh, PA, from my local store Mr. Nice Guy Games, and our loosely organized team name of Team Fuzzy Gruens, I wanted to try and at least win as much as I lost. Just like last time, there were a few things I look for in a deck when preparing for Sealed:

1. Look for Shadows and Dis  - These two are still the best Houses in AoA in my opinion. I believe I listed Dis at the top at Origins, but after playing at many local sealed events, I have been convinced that Shadows is once again on top, with Dis close behind. That Amber stealing and control, mixed with plenty of other really solid creatures, artifacts, and actions...These Houses can do it all.
2. Amber Control/Generation -  No matter what Houses you get, a main thing to look for is Amber generation and Amber control. That has consistently been the line between good Keyforge decks and bad ones, at least in my experience. It also is the most logical and easy way to win. If you can generate more Amber than your opponent, you will probably win. If you can control the Amber your opponent has, they cannot win. And you can achieve both with steal, so look for that.
3. Creature Count - A solid way of generating Amber in AoA is with a ton of creatures. There are so many little combos that creatures can pull off, as well as the obvious thing that if you have a ton of creatures on the board, that means you can probably Reap with them for a ton of Amber. Also, board wipes are few and far between in this set, so a large board can be hard to deal with. This is probably the best counter to Shadows that AoA has. Their steal may not mean as much if you can get a board with 6+ creatures on it, constantly Reaping. Also, you can control your opponent's creatures better when you have more. But with Sealed AoA especially, I have found that you can win plenty of games by just flooding the board with creatures, and trying to rush to the win before your opponent can gain control of the board.
4. Board Wipes - With creature count being very important, it becomes paramount to have an out in case your opponent floods the board. Enter the board wipe. AoA doesn't have a lot of good choices, with the most consistent being Brobnar having Coward's End, and Dis having Key to Dis and Unlocked Gateway. But I am always looking to see what I can use to clear the board if I have to.
5. Raw Amber - A good way of generating tons of Amber, and a way to consistently outrace your opponent, is to simply gain free Amber when you play your cards. When you have less than 10, you better have a decent creature count, but with greater than 15, you can start to maybe sacrifice that creature count in favor of racing with actions.

That being said, I did not feel confident upon seeing my 3 decks, lol:

Sov Grillaek Pagano

Ok, so the House combination isn't awful, but I am definitely concerned about Amber control. 14 creatures is on the low side, although 17 raw Amber is nice. I am not seeing any great board wipes with Piranha Monkeys taking the lead. Dharna is a nice combo to go with the Monkeys, and Mimicry can do some shenanigans (although I prefer that card in an Archon deck). The 3 Song of Springs and Soldiers to Flowers feel pretty lame considering there are only 3 Untamed creatures, especially when one of them is a Grovekeeper (who is better if he stays out a while). We do have a key cheat in Key Charge though, so that's good. The Sanctum in this deck is severely lacking in creatures as well. One Stood Against Many is a great card, but with only Sir Marrows as a feasible target in the whole deck, I am left underwhelmed. There are some good cards in here, but it's missing the creatures it needs, as well as Amber control that I fear is desperately needed. The Logos is ok, and it even sports a decent amount of creatures, but I don't like the 3 Titan Librarians. Without decent card draw, TL can be risky since you don't archive a card until AFTER you refill your hand, which means with multiples you are starting off with fewer cards. I could attempt with this deck and try to just win with that raw Amber, but without Amber control, consistent board wipes, or a large amount of creatures, I'm pretty positive I would be steamrolled by most other decks. I later checked the rankings of this deck and it was 71 SAS/47.5 AERC/29 Rankey, which was ranked my best by far, which is pretty sad, lol.

Magnusson of Warringey

This feels very similar to the above deck in terms of House combination, but I do tend to like Brobnar more than Sanctum in AoA, so let's see what we got. 7 raw Amber is pretty low, but 20 creatures is very decent. This has a number of ways of clearing the board, including my AoA favorite, Coward's End, the garbage Save the Pack (which is almost always bad unless you have other cards to combo with it), Bouncing Deathquark (which is awesome with a high creature count), and Standardized Testing. This also sports Mimicry, Tremor (which I love), and a couple of Regrowths to help with all of those creatures. Rustgnawer can be used against artifacts, and it also has 2 King of the Crags, which sounds pretty ridiculous against opposing Brobnar decks. The Curator with no artifacts makes me think the algorithm for that card is a little off. All in all, this is sounding like an ok deck. The biggest red flag though is Amber control. I think I am seeing 0 Amber control of any kind? That is not good at all. If my opponent is any good at all, they will quickly see based off my House combination that only Brobnar has the ability to control Amber. But alas, this deck doesn't even have that, and so I have absolutely nothing to slow my opponent down. In my experience, unless I draw all creatures, and my opponent doesn't, as well as them not having steal, I will lose most games. This rated at 67 SAS/45.5 AERC/15 Rankey.

Chancellor Oglestar Browning

Ok my last choice. Did I really not get a single option with Shadows or Dis?! My two favorite Houses (and the 2 best in my opinion), and I get nothing. I am thinking I will not last long in this Vault Tour. 9 raw Amber isn't the worst choice I have, but it isn't great. 22 creatures is very nice though. The first thing I see is a very decent Mars component. 9 creatures in Mars, including 2 Fixfingers and a Dominator for protection. I love the Proliferator, and if the Harvesters can get going or stay alive, they can give tons of Amber. The Resonator is amazing for Amber control, and Hypnotic Command can both control Amber and help generate Amber for me. The Amber Conduction Unit can also help in slowing down opponent's reaping. The Sanctum side is also not bad in terms of board control. 2 Lions and an Abond can help everyone. The Bordans can control Amber in a pinch if they can survive. I also really like Haedroth's Wall, as it will always help someone on the board. On the Untamed side I see a Key Charge and a Chota, which I always like to see for closing out matches. A Fuzzy Gruen is a welcome sight, especially since our team from Pittsburgh has been called the Fuzzy Gruens. In terms of board wipes I am only seeing Save the Pack with no help from cards like They're Everywhere. That will be an issue. I have no stealing, so I will have to depend on my creatures for Amber generation. Also without stealing, I don't have a ton of Amber control. Well, I have very little on-play Amber control, which is what is needed. I think I only have the Resonator and Hypnotic Command as on-play Amber control in case I do not have a board set up? Yeesh.

Ok, so I don't really like my choices. I am missing some of the best stuff I feel like most competitive decks have (no Shadows or Dis). Also, I feel like I am severely lacking in on-play Amber control and Amber generation. I have some consistent board wiping in Magnusson, but that completely lacks Amber control, which I feel is a death sentence. Sov has some raw Amber, but without creatures or crazy tricks, I'm afraid I will lose to anyone with a board. Also, all this Sanctum and no Aubade and the Grim?! That guy is a common and probably the best Sanctum card in the set. I suppose I have to go with the Chancellor. Right now I am feeling a little let down. This is a Vault Tour, and a sealed event, and I feel like my only real chance at succeeding (since I never favor myself in Archon due to not having great decks). But without Shadows or Dis, I really don't feel like I have a chance.

I was also a little sour at the way we began the tournament. We started out by being given 3 unopened decks, a slip of paper, and a baggie. We were told to leave the registration table, write down the archons on the slip of paper, and then return with it all in the baggie. These baggies would then be distributed at the start of the tournament at random. But what was stopping someone from opening their packs, seeing a really good deck, or at least one that could fetch a lot of money like a double Timetraveller, and then keeping it for themselves and replacing it with a crappy unscanned deck (like from the deck vending machine that was right there?)? Nothing was stopping them. There was nothing there to prevent it. I hope people wouldn't do that, but honestly the integrity of the tournament was completely brought into question with this decision. I told some of the upper-ups about this after the tournament, and they agreed with me. So hopefully this won't happen again, but nonetheless it was in the back of my mind.

Despite me not expecting to do well at the tournament, I was going to approach it like I always do: with the attempt to just go out, try my best, and to have fun. I knew I would get at least 30 shards for participating, and with such a large number of creatures in my deck, I figured I could maybe get a few wins against opponents that couldn't deal with them. I was going to use the AOAOAOA (Age Old Age of Ascension Organized Approach - bit of a stretch) I had no expectations of making day 2 (dramatic foreshadowing), but I wanted to at least try and get an even record. So I sleeved my deck, and was set to go.

 

My first match was against a young man from Brazil. He said English was not his primary language, and he apologized in advance for any barriers, but honestly he spoke quite well, and I don't think we had any issues understanding each other. In fact, I understood him better than a lot of Pittsburgh natives, or Yinzers, as they are called (for fun, look up a Pittsburghese accent). But anyway, I started out strong in Mars, and got my Invasion Portal out. Little did I know how important that card would be in my games. Pretty much every turn I stayed with Mars. I don't typically like to do that, since there is no cycle that way, but with Invasion Portal, there kind of was. And besides, if your opponent cannot address the 6+ creatures out there, you will just keep reaping for the win. Also, with my deck, I would just be playing more creatures in other houses, so it's not like I am missing some great action cards or anything. I forged my keys fairly quickly, and when my opponent threatened, I managed to pull out the Resonator. He eventually did forge a key at 10 cost, and threatened to forge a second, but by that time I easily had enough to forge my third. The only delay was that my opponent had Shadows, and so he would steal from me and slow me down, but I felt pretty dominant the whole time. 1-0

I really need to take better notes for my games, because the next two games were a blur. I know I won my second game very quickly, with me just flooding the board with creatures and controlling enough with the few cards I had. I believe I did forge my third key using either Chota or Key Charge, but it was mainly Mars, with a little support with Sanctum, that won that game. My third game was against a guy who had just learned about the game a few months prior, but who had never played in a tournament before. His deck had Brobnar in it, which scared me. Luckily though, I did what I always did and flooded the board. It got dicey a few times with those big Brobnar creatures, especially with him having a Drummernaut out there, but I managed to use my Sanctum to good effect. I believe Lord Golgotha with Smite and Shield of Justice helped clear out the board to give me the advantage at one point (A Lion might have also been present). After the game, I found out that his Grump Buggy and Burn the Stockpile were at the bottom of his deck. That would have made a big difference. I definitely would have been slowed down. And although I can get some decent sized creatures out there to slow him down too, it might have been the deciding factor in his favor. Luckily for me, the draws were on my side. 3-0.

So I figured I would soon be up against some really good decks, and this next one was no joke. I was playing Sydnie Steele, whom I met at Origins, who also made it to Day 2 of that sealed event. She was very friendly and bubbly, and also very good at Keyforge. I knew this would be a tough match, but at least I knew my opponent would be very nice either way. Our game was super close. She jumped into the lead early on, but I managed to scrape back, even when she wiped the board. I just kept on trying to flood the board and cause her to waste time to kill my creatures. Eventually we both had 2 keys and were in that Keyforge game state of constantly taking each other out of check. It could have gone both ways, but I eventually won out. Sydnie did not draw very well in the game. We played another friendly game, where she jumped ahead 2 keys to none very quickly, but I managed to get real lucky with my Resonator and Hypnotic Command I believe. Sydnie was gracious as always. I felt a little bad, as I felt that her deck was better than mine, but perhaps she just kept having some bad draws. 4-0

 

My friend, Pritika Dasgupta, a fellow Fuzzy Gruen, was also doing very well in the tournament. She and I were both 4-0. We both kept hoping we would not be matched up together but we knew it was a possibility. Unfortunately, we had to play each other. Luckily, we knew that we at least wouldn't eliminate each other from making Day 2, although we would be making it harder for the other. On another plus side, was that whoever won was guaranteed to get to day 2. I believe she ran Shadows/Logos/Mars. She started out extremely fast, generating 6 amber on her second turn. I think I had to use Maruck the Marked with a Smite just to capture an amber to slow her down. We kept going back and forth. I believe she forged first, then I tied it, then she got her second before I got mine, but I could be wrong on that timing. It was by far the closest match I had so far in the tournament. I don't recall whether it was a Key Charge, or just massive amounts of Amber that won me the game, but I knew that if it went on for another turn, she would have won. As gracious in victory as in defeat, Pritika was a great sport. She gave me my win to guarantee my entry into day 2. I really hoped that I didn't screw her over but she ended up losing her last match as well, leaving her at 4-2. I believe she was 4-2 at Origins as well. Solid turnout both times. Team Fuzzy Gruens is represented well. :) 5-0

 

Well, I could relax a little bit in my last match, knowing that I was guaranteed to make it Day 2. I knew I still wanted to win, because I wanted a first round bye if possible, but I wasn't going to kill myself trying to play. I was asked again to play on stream (I was also asked in the 3rd round, but declined), and this time I accepted. And thus started the curse, lol. I was playing Nathan Starwalte on the livestream (around the 1:10:00 mark). It was an embarrassing game, lol. I'm not sure if I just misplayed, or it was a horrible match. It was probably a wonderful mixture, lol. Well, I know one combo that spelled doom for me: Key to Dis and Lifeward. What a great combo, and so good against my deck, lol. And then he got the combo again after using it. Maybe my misplay was not shuffling his deck enough, lol. His deck was definitely better than mine though. I should have discarded Save the Pack way earlier than I did, that was a dead card for too long. I always misplay that dumb card. But anyway, I finished the day at 5-1, ranked #10 going into Day 2.

I got there early to make sure I wasn't late (Day 1 starting 2 1/2 hours late thanks to computer glitches. yay). I managed to notice Josh Massey and Alex Watkins sneakily playing a friendly game with some new decks from the next expansion, Worlds Collide. I took as many pictures as I could and shared them to Facebook that evening. Side note: I can't wait for it, everything looks awesome. Another article spoiling the new cards will be coming hopefully soon. But back to the Vault Tour, I found out I was not ranked high enough to get a first round bye. I was matched up against Erich Taylor of Team SAS. Erich informed me of his curse of making it to Day 2 and then losing in his first match, a curse I would have been happy to oblige, although I doubted winning with my deck still. He had Mars/Sanctum/Shadows. I was really scared about the Sanctum and Shadows because if he had big and strong Sanctum creatures I would have trouble, and Shadows could steal everything I had with me not being able to reciprocate. I started out flooding the board like I usually want to do, but Erich played Scowly Caper on me.

 

This was a great play by him, and it was something that would hound me almost the whole game. I have no direct removal, so unless he destroys it himself, or he plays something with Hazardous, that Scowly Caper will just keep killing my line. I think I probably played my best game of the tournament this game though. I had a lot of decisions to make. I knew I had to keep playing creatures each turn, in order to stay ahead of Scowly Caper's removal, or else I would never be able to play anything. There were times I played a Lion next to him, and with the help of Haedroth's Wall, I was swinging in with 6-power with skirmish creature every turn, to help clear my opponent's board. At one point Erich did have someone with hazardous out, but Scowly was actually too powerful to be killed by it, lol. I rapidly played some more cards to try and stay ahead of Scowly, but then Erich played Mars Needs Amber and Phloxem Spike on me after making sure everyone was wounded.

 

It was quite a dramatic turn around, and although Erich wasn't sure of the play, I think it was the right call at the time. He almost came back, but I managed to flood the board once again with Mars creatures and managed to gain enough Amber to stay away from his stealing Shadows. Rob's Gaming Table streamed the game. Check it out, here, because it was a pretty exciting game. 6-1.

I made it to the Top 16! Nobody was more surprised than I. I was riding this high when they asked if I wanted to be on stream and I unfortunately said yes. Being on Livestream (we start around the 1:17:00 mark) puts undo stress on me, plus there is the curse, lol. But actually, it would not have mattered anyway, because both my opponent and his deck were much better than myself and mine. Jason Scarrow from Team Reapout had Shadows/Dis/Sanctum, which was probably my worst kind of matchup. He was able to flood the board just as well, if not more, than I. He had some really strong creatures which included Aubade the Grim, 3 copies of Abond the Armosmith, and Charette. He also had 3 Exhumes and 3 Miasmas, lol. It was a crazy deck.

 

He just kept playing so many strong creatures, and I was just trying to stay alive and stop him from forging keys. I could not even trade with his. I made him wipe the board when I finally got ahead, and managed to grow another big board, but he just kept racing. At the end I needed Invasion Portal to get my Resonator to stop him, but I didn't draw it. I don't think it would have mattered though, as he just would have destroyed it and reaped the next turn. His deck was considerably better than mine I'd say. I don't think I would beat his deck even 1/10 of the time. But oh well. Thus ended my run. I ended the tournament at 6-2 in 13th place. It was enough to earn me a ton of shards, as well as push my silly deck to power 5, which is hilarious. The earned VT shards also pushed me to #21 on the VT leaderboard, which is pretty cool. I wonder how I would do if I ever got a Sealed deck with a SAS rating above 80 (my Origins top 4 was 76 SAS)? I'd probably lose faster or something, lol.

Side note: I also played in the Archon tournament. I managed to go 4-2, which was just shy of making it to day 2. My highlights were a loss to Kyle Coons who went 9-1 and finished in 3rd in the tournament, as well as giving Colby Gerrish his only loss of Day 1 (he went on finish 7-2 in 8th place). My teammates Pritika Dasgupta and Bill McIntyre also went 4-2, so it was a really great showing for Team Fuzzy Gruens! As a team, we have 2 Day 2 appearances (top 4 at Origins Sealed, and top 16 at Gencon Sealed), and between our members I think we have a collective record of 49-23 at the Vault Tours at Origins and Gencon (7 team members), which I think is amazing!

Going back to this Sealed VT, that is how I got a 67 SAS/41 AERC/9 Rankey deck to the top 16 at a Vault Tour. I still don't think my deck is good. It has way too many flaws for it to be competitive, especially in Archon. But this tournament goes to show there is something to be said for a high creature count. I don't think our current ranking metrics really account for that very well yet. I suppose in an Archon format, most decks run some board wipes, so it really hurts high creature decks. But still. With a high creature count, you can in theory win every game, just because of how the reaping mechanics work. I definitely got some good draws and good matchups that really helped me advance, but I think I probably miscalculated how good having all those creatures really was. So yeah, don't give up, and don't think you can't compete just because you don't have an amazing deck. I still love Sealed the most for Keyforge, and I can't wait to see what the new set brings. If you made it this far, thanks so much for reading, I hope it was entertaining, and as always, happy gaming!

Keyforge New Houses? Rampant Speculation!!!

Thanks to a spoiled new deck box design with accompanying house stickers, we have been teased at the possibility of new Keyforge Houses. When the game first came out, we were told that we would be getting new houses at some point, but we did not know when. Now, with this news, we may be getting them sooner than expected. My guess is we'll get the announcement at Gencon in August. But until then, let's speculate! Here are some of my thoughts/wishes/guesses as to what we might get.

Screenshot from Wossy Plays video, here

First, let's loosely look at the Houses we currently have and their color scheme, theme, and mechanics:

Brobnar - Orange background, Yellow foreground - Big creatures with giants and goblins. Bombastic. Lots of power. Amber generation is done by fighting.

Logos - Silver/White/Gray background, blue foreground - Small creatures. Robots and scientists. Card draw and archiving.

Shadows - White/Silver/Gray background, Black foreground (possibly a little purple or dark blue in those "eyes") - Very small creatures. Stealing and Elusive.

Sanctum - Blue background, Yellow foreground (or vice versa) - Solid creatures with armor. Big board states using armor and capturing amber. Spirit Knights.

Mars - Green background, Purple foreground - Martians with UFOs and laser beams. Relies on in-house synergies for everything and can do a little bit of everything including stunning, direct damage, amber generation, amber control, card draw, etc.

Dis - Black background, Pink foreground - Demons and insect like look. Disruption of all kinds whether through hand size and card discard, board manipulation, key cost, etc. Inflicts pain on themselves for benefit. Antithesis of Sanctum in theme.

Untamed - Green background, Orange foreground (or vice versa) - Lots of creature synergies and great amber generation. Naturalistic tree hugging with ferocious beasts.

So, with that in mind, let's look at the possible color schemes, themes, and mechanics of possible new Houses.

Color Schemes

Right now, we can easily identify each of the new Houses based on their color scheme in their logo. Now some of the colors have been duplicated, but I think this is a good place to start when thinking of something new.

1. Using pink/purple in the background - Dis has pink as their little dots, currently, and Mars has purple in the eyes, but I think we could get a house that uses pink or purple as a primary background color. I think that would serve as a very eye-catching new house.

2. Using Red anywhere - Some how, they have not used red yet, which I find crazy.

3. Using Brown/Tan anywhere - Probably not as eye catching, but it is a color they haven't used yet.

4. Using metallic colors - I am thinking this is for much later, but they could go the Pokemon route and start using metallic colors for houses.

Themes

1. Military - I am thinking just like Sanctum vs Dis, we could have Martian vs. Military. Classically, I am thinking 50s US or USSR military, leaning towards the US since we seem to be more obsessed with UFOs and aliens. They could also go a little more sci-fi and make it like Halo UNSC, Gears of War Cogs, Star Trek, etc. I'm not saying to actually use an existing IP, I'm just thinking general theme. Could definitely use the red/brown/tan unused color scheme.

2. Eldritch - They could jump on the Cthulhu bandwagon, which I am always for. Eldrazi/ Lovecraftian cosmic entities.

3. Horror - They could also go the horror route with ghosts, skeletons, zombies, necromancy, vampires, werewolves, possessed trees, etc.

4. High Fantasy - We have steampunk giants/goblins, and sneaky cyberpunk elves and some forest elves already. But we could get more fantasy stuff. Dwarves and dragons and wizards and witches. Orcs and ogres. Any other alliterative options? More like a pure magic faction, rather than magic + technology.

5. Coyboys/Pirates/Samurai - These are other common gaming tropes that a lot of games use, and avenues that could be used for Keyforge.

Mechanics

With Age of Ascension, we got a couple of new keywords, and I'm sure we could expect maybe a couple more with this set as well. I hope they are limited, or at least, flow easily into the rules like AoA did for the most part.

1. Maybe a house that uses more purging? This is a fun mechanic that has only been used sparingly by a few houses, but maybe we could get a house that really specializes in it. And not only purging opponent's cards. The house could purge its own stuff, manipulate the purge pile, and use it as a kind of resource. I think direct purging could be an interesting strategy for players to have. You can get rid of specific power cards from your opponent, or get rid of cards in your own deck to make it easier to draw your best cards.

2. New win condition? - We have key cheats, but perhaps they could explore alternate win conditions. This is a tricky road, since it could easily be broken, but it's a design space most card games go to at some point.

3. More tokens and token manipulation - We could have power/armor -1 tokens. We could have a faction that manipulates those negative ones, perhaps the magic or horror house? They could also have more cards that use tokens, similar to what they did in AoA with cards like Wretched Doll.

4. A vehicle/ship/mount mechanic - We could get upgrades that function like vehicles. Like you put a creature in it as a pilot. Maybe they are upgrades that just go into play in the battlefield like a creature, but do nothing unless they are piloted (but can still be damaged maybe?). Or maybe they are just upgrades and require a creature in play first. They could boost stats, give special abilities, protect creatures, etc. You could have an AI artifact that makes it so all your vehicles can work without pilots as the AI controls them or something. This could also be a good mechanic for the military house I mentioned above. But, what I also like about this is that every existing house could get these kinds of upgrades and it would make sense. Horses for Sanctum, UFOs for Mars, flying cards for Shadows, etc.




5. Token creatures - A lot of card games use token creatures. It would be preferable to get actual cards to use as tokens (and it would be great as alternate art prize support), but anything could be used in a pinch. These could be zombies/skeletons for the horror house, cultists for the eldritch, generic troops for military, or they could be used in existing houses like goblins for Brobnar, drones for Logos, etc. These generic creatures could be used in swarm decks, or creature generation, or Dis sacrifice fodder, or whatever. There are a lot of mechanics that can spawn off of this.

Tokens from Epic: The Card Game

6. Creature/Action/Upgrade/Artifact... fall mechanic - Similar to Landfall in Magic the Gathering, we could get cards whose abilities go off when a certain card enters play. Maybe a creature that has Artifactfall (insert better name here), where "this creature captures 1 amber when an artifact is played", or something like that. There is a lot of room for design space here.

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So that's all I got. I am very curious as to what you think will be added? Are there themes you'd like to see? Mechanics? Are these new houses going to be added to the list in an expansion or will they replace houses and the game will go in a rotation each expansion? Do you like my speculation? Let me know in the comments, and as always, thanks for reading and happy gaming!

Origins 2019 Keyforge Vault Tour Top 4 Finish

Alrighty, Origins is officially over. A new Keyforge Vault Tour champion has emerged (Congratulations Ben Wallace!), and I am safely at home with my loving family. I wanted to take the time to reflect a little on my Keyforge experience, as well as my thoughts and analysis about my deck. I managed to finish in the top 4 on Day 2, out of an original of 185 participants. My final record with my deck was 8-2, and my finish helped me win a total of 255 Aembershards over the course of the 2 days, and making me tied for 38th out of 1,221 in terms of Vault Tour participants (I think that is how it works). All in all I am extremely proud and thankful of how far I got. I doubt I could repeat this feat if given 100 more times, so I will relish this while I can.

Origin's Vault Tour this year was a Sealed format, which meant that we were each given 3 decks, then 15 minutes to pick one of those decks, and that deck is what we would use for the entirety of the tournament. Day 1 would consist of 6 rounds, with only 5-1 records making it to Day 2. Day 2 would be single elimination rounds until the final, which would be the Adaptive format. Adaptive meant that you would play the first game normally, then in the second game you would switch decks with your opponent, and then the final would consist of bidding chains for which deck you want. Day 1 was split into two groups: a and b, because of the expected high numbers and limited room. Day 1a (which was my day), had 89 players, while Day 1b had 96, which gave us our total of 185.

I was very excited for this event. Firstly, because it was my first Vault Tour. Secondly, because it was still early with the game's first expansion, and I had spent a decent amount of time posting spoilers and analyzing the new cards. And thirdly, because Sealed is my favorite format for Keyforge. I haven't had the best luck opening top tier decks, so Sealed helps level the playing field a bit. Plus, I really like the idea of having card analysis being a skill on the fly, with a lot of it being about how well you can figure out if a deck is good or not, and then having the skill to carry you into winning. I also really like how the games are always surprising since you can't view your opponent's decklist before the game (unlike in the bring-your-own-deck Archon format).

Before I get into my decks and analysis, I also wanted to comment on this new set (Age of Ascension): I have really been loving Sealed in this set, even more than the first set (Call of the Archons). I think this new set is more balanced between the Houses in general. I think the set allows for decks to be more consistently evenly matched (ie making for closer games). I think each deck has way more little combos, rather than just big swingy cards, or massive game-ending combos from the first set. I also think that this set helps create really interesting board situations and tough choices, and moreso than the first set. And although I would currently say that the top tier decks in the new set are no match for the first set, I will concede that it is still early, and that we may just need to find those top tier decks still.

So anyway, onto the tournament itself. I went into this tournament with a couple of strategies and thoughts:
1. I thought Dis was consistently the strongest House in AoA, and I was going to pay special attention to any decks that had that.
2. Amber manipulation is extremely important in AoA, maybe even moreso than the first set, because it is found in fewer numbers. Shadows were still my top pick for that.
3. Board wipes are extremely important in AoA, because there seem to be way more creatures in the decks than the first set, and the creatures have a lot more crazy interactions and ways to win than in the first set, on average.
4. Raw Amber is still very important. AoA has probably a lower raw Amber count than CotA, so that makes higher raw Amber counts much more potent in AoA vs AoA matches.

With that in mind, let's look at the decks I was given:

Force the Stacatto - I like the House combination, so far so good. Immediately I get extremely sad as I see 3 Aember Imps in Dis. I hate that card. It will screw you over just as much as your opponent, and now having 3 of them taking up space in my beloved Dis is making me nervous. The rest of the House is pretty decent, including some of my favorite Dis cards in Exhume, Charette, Dust Imp, and Shooler. But then there is a Tolas, another card I hate for the same reason as Aember Imp: It hurts you and your opponent. Also, no Lash of Broken Dreams, which is a huge Dis card. But let's see the rest of the deck. Sanctum only has 4 creatures, that really hurts. It has some good cards, but it is missing Doorstep to Heaven, Aubade the Grim, Gatekeeper, or any number of other Amber control, or even Amber generating cards. I am not impressed. Shadows is looking much better. Miasma is always solid, and this has 2! Sucker Punch had me intrigued, and Dusk Chronicles and Furtive Investors gave me some good Amber generation, with Brend giving some good control, if I could ever kill him. 18 Raw Amber I count, with it being higher in the game due to generation cards. That is some serious Amber generation that could allow me to just outrush other decks. I don't really like the Amber control, and no board wipes is a huge red flag to me. Only 15 creatures also feels a little low, especially with that number including 3 Aember Imps. But that Amber generation still has me intrigued.

Dee, the Unfortunately Undulating - Great name, lol. I'm not liking this House Combination as much, but it does at least have Dis. This Dis is looking pretty solid. Still no Lash, but I love Binding Irons, and Tezmal can cause some serious hurt. The 3 Tentacus seems quite good, although that is a lot more reliant on my opponent having artifacts to use. But it's still a solid House that could work. Only 3 Sanctum creatures?! Man, take away my above average creature count for AoA decks thought. At least it has some decent cards that allow me to use other House cards on my Sanctum turn like Golden Aura, and Healing Blast could give me some good Amber generation, but probably only if I heal opponent's creatures. The 3 creatures it does have are very good, so that is something to think about. Untamed has a board wipe with Save the Pack, so that is huge. Plus, it has complimentary cards that allow me to wound multiple choice creatures before playing it like They're Everywhere and Piranha Monkeys. Dharna could be good, Fanghouse gives some good board control, and Glimmer and Regrowth both allow me get stuff I need. 12 raw Amber doesn't seem that bad in AoA, and I have a decent amount of generators. I have decent board control as well, which is important. I really don't like the Amber control though, and I feel that is very important in this set.

The Eternal of Colocorner - All red backs, eh? I hope that is a good sign. I see Shadows, which I like, but no Dis. Logos can still be decent though, and maybe it's a Timetraveller x2 deck! ....And it isn't... Oh well. But let's take a look at the rest. 1-2 Punch and a Tremor I really like. Bingle BangBang can be good if he survives. Brammo with 2 Drummernauts is great for hitting the board, although no Ganger Chieftain, so no on that combo. Coward's End is the best board wipe in the set, so that has me happy. Blood Money is good for a little Amber generation, and 2 Screechbombs are amazing for Amber control. Although I would maybe prefer some beefier Brobnar guys, this really doesn't sound too bad. Oh boy, this Logos is looking good. A Legacy Effervescent Principle?! That alone might be worth playing the deck. Nobody would expect it. Cutthroat Research can give some control, and Helper Bot and Screechbombs can help to make sure I can play it to get my opponent out of key range. 3 Hexpions sounds like a lot of archiving, and a lot of fun. The Z.Y.X. guys are extremely good, especially in conjunction with each other and Hexpions. Crazy Killing Machine is also great because that gives me access to artifact destruction, which is always rare, and if I have to hit myself, I can always go for the Hexpions. This feels like a really good Logos component. And we get to what I assume would be the best with Shadows. Furtive Investors for generation and catching up, Life for a Life with Bad Penny and all those Hexpions for some great board control with little drawback. Swindle is a game saving card in itself. Bulleteye is always awesome if he can stick around, and 2x Routine Job for more Amber manipulation. This deck is looking great. 7 Raw Amber?! Oh Nooo!! That doesn't sound good at all. However, I have an absurd amount of Amber control and stealing, and I have a feeling those Hexpions will give me some monstrous turn setups. But that raw Amber, when compared to the other decks, is a little scary. 18 creatures is fine with me, especially with 3 being Hexpions. But I'm not 100% sold on my first look through anything.

Ok, so it was decision time. I had plenty of time to think this through. I went through each of the decks several times as I just wasn't sure. Force had insane Amber generation, but several of my most hated Dis cards, and no big board wipes, both of which were huge turn-offs. Dee had the board control, and okay Amber generation, but the Amber control wasn't great, and it just didn't have a lot of those good interactions that I love in Keyforge. I really liked what I saw in Eternal, even though the Amber generation was awful. I ended up choosing The Eternal of Colocorner because of that Amber control. That Effervescent Principle is so good, especially since it is a Legacy, and so not expected. I also loved all of the little combos I could do in Logos and Brobnar. I knew I would have to be very careful of my Coward's End, since it was my only big board wipe, but I figured I had enough creatures and decent direct damage stuff to survive. I was really fearing outside key forging decks though, because my generation was dependent on my opponent gaining Amber. If they just used Key Abduction or Redacted, I would be in trouble. I sleeved my deck, checked it in, and I was ready to go.

I came into this tournament along with several local friends. We all played locally against each other quite a lot in Sealed tournaments, and we all seemed to do well, with each of us winning events from time to time. We talked strategy and even have our own Facebook group. I wanted us to be a team, but we never formalized it. I wanted to call us the Fuzzy Gruens, but that never caught on, despite me also making a very good fruity alcohol drink called the Fuzzy "Fizzy" Gruen. We should have all just worn Mr. Nice Guy Games shirts, since that was the amazing local gaming store in which we typically played (as well as its owner being one of the best players), but that was never finalized either (Sorry, Ron, maybe next time?). Shout out to Mr. Nice Guy Games though because they are awesome. Easily the biggest game store I have ever seen or heard of, and full of very nice and fun people. I love our local community. Anyway, there were 4 of us competing on Day 1a, and 4 of us on Day 1b I believe? So we were hopeful that we wouldn't have to play each other and eliminate one another.

I was hoping that I would do well enough to make it to Day 2, but having to be 5-1 leaves room for very few mistakes, and the randomness of Sealed, as well as the number of players, makes for some very tough competition. My background in competitive gaming is that I usually do pretty well, but never well enough to win it all, with a few exceptions. I was also intimidated by a number of other teams that were there. I heard Reapout was there, but I unfortunately never found anyone or just completely missed them. I was definitely sad to miss out on meeting them. Maybe sometime at Gencon? There was also a very large team from Indianapolis called The Key Chargers. I sat and chatted with several members before the tournament, and ended up really enjoying every interaction I had with them. They were awesome. If I didn't already have a local group, I would have totally asked to join their team, especially after the tournament, as they were all very supportive and nice. Back to the tournament, I was hoping to at least break even with my wins/losses, have a fun time, and hopefully be a good sport throughout all of it.

I should have written down the names of everyone I played, but I unfortunately didn't. My first opponent was a lovely lady who first turn played a Timetraveler. I managed to eventually wipe the board and kept the board low on creatures for most of the game. It was a pretty quick game, but close if I remember correctly. I ended up generating a bunch of Amber on my last turn, in hopes she didn't have a Doorstep to Heaven in Sanctum, and luckily she didn't. 1-0

 

I don't remember very much from my second game, but I think it was against Regan Retzloff? I believe things got rolling with my Hexpions and I regularly had tons of cards grabbed from my archives. The Z.Y.X. guys really kept putting stuff in archives and then allowed me to play them that turn or the next. The Researcher was especially nice in allowing me to play Effervescent Principle, and then immediately get it back into my archives once I played him. I think maybe a Swindle finished the game for me? 2-0

I was feeling really good, but as usual, I am knocked down to size. I played against the awesome veteran, Jay Schelke. He was the guy, who at a previous Vault Tour, voluntarily called a judge over because an opponent's card was left in is deck, and he was kicked out of tournament for doing so. He was very courteous, nice, and great at the game. I thanked him for his service and he crushed me, lol. It was by far the biggest beating I would receive in the tournament. His deck was just too fast for me. I managed to wipe the board, but he just flooded it again and played action cards that added amber. I managed to draw all of my delaying stuff but I just couldn't keep up. 2-1

Now, I was just one game away from being eliminated from Day 2. At this point I was figuring I was not going to make it, but I wanted to try and finish with more wins than losses. My next opponent, I believe, was a Key Charger young member named Foss Williams. I believe I got a very wide Logos board, and kept playing Hexpions (I think I probably played that card 9+ times in the game). I kept choosing Logos and reaping for several amber, and drawing tons of cards from my archives. It worked very well in my favor, and I managed to pull off the win. I was glad to hear my opponent managed to get one more win later one, as he needed the shards to get something from the prize table. 3-1

 

Things were coming down to the wire. I needed two more wins, and I knew I'd be matched up with a good opponent. I think I played Tom Allen maybe, but we had one of the most exciting and close endings I had in the tournament. I feel like I really controlled the beginning of the game. I controlled the board, or I controlled the amber, and slowly built my own. I think I forged my first key pretty easily, and controlled some more to get back up to 6+ amber. Then my opponent played Binate Rupture and Interdimensional Graft on me. I forge my key, but my opponent got like 12 amber. I had already played my Effervescent Principle, and I was far from reshuffling my deck. My opponent forged his first key, and then his second. And now the game got tight. We had many turns where both of us had 6+ amber, but we would always get each other back down. I believe he played a Redacted, but I managed to get rid of it with my Crazy Killing Machine. I generated a bunch of amber on a turn and thought I got him, but then he played Wild Wormhole and top decked a Gatekeeper! I couldn't believe it. It was very exciting, but boy was I annoyed at the time, lol. We kept going back and forth, and I think it might have been the combination of a Screechbomb, along with a Swindle, that managed to put me far enough away to get the win, but it was an exciting game. Kudos to my opponent for sticking with all the control in the beginning in order to set up a massive comeback. 4-1

 

I ended up being matched up with yet another young Key Charger named Eli Nichols. I ended up winning the match, but he wanted to play the rest of the game to see if his combos would go off. We played for fun while the round ended. He showed incredible sportsmanship and kindness during play, and I enjoyed our conversations during and after the game. His dad was also playing in the tournament, and I made sure to congratulate him on raising such a fine young man.

I was now 5-1, which was good enough to qualify for Day 2.

Somehow, I also managed to have quite a good strength of schedule, and was the #2 seed for Day 1a. Now I got to relax on Saturday, watch my friends compete in Day 1b, and go and check out the Epic Championship stuff as well.

So these were the standings going into Day 2 after day 1b played. As you can see, I was the 5th seed, right behind CorayThan, the owner/creator of SAS. None of my friends qualified for day 2, but 3 of them went 4-2 I believe, and others went 3-3, so I think we had a really good showing overall. We were told that on Day 2, they wanted to narrow the pool of 22 Day 2 players to the top 16, so that meant that the top 10 got a first round bye. I was very happy about that. Free shards! Plus, I didn't expect to make it very far in Day 2 so anything beyond this point was a gift. Then, we got paired up for the top 16 and I saw that I was going to play Eli Nichols again, but this time, it was for elimination. 6-1

He knew about all my tricks, so I felt like I was at a bit of a disadvantage. Honestly, I was going to be fine if I lost here. It would have been perfect justice. His deck was very fast, and I knew my deck would have trouble with that. I was going to try my best, but I would be fine either way. Our game was very good. Eli started out very strong, controlled the board and my amber. I think he might have extended a little too far when he dropped tons of Sanctum creatures out while already having a strong Logos presence, but hand filtering is good too. I Coward's Ended his board and really reset everything for me. I started getting my Hexpions out and was helping clear the board, while setting up good turns with archiving. I believe I forged my key first, and it was several turns before he finally caught up. I believe I got my second key, and then he got his right after. So it came down to the wire. I played Routine Job twice to get him out of check, as well as Effervescent Principle at least 2 times with the help from the Z.Y.X. Researcher. I finally forged enough amber to get into check again, but this time Eli just didn't have the control to stop me. He conceded. After shuffling his deck a little bit, he said he remembered that he had a Routine Job in his hand, which would have stopped me from forging, and gotten him to check, but people around him said he didn't have anything else, and I would have played Swindle the next turn for the win. So hopefully that misplay would not have mattered on his part, but that goes to show to make sure you check everything before you concede. 7-1

I felt awful after this match. I was a wreck. I was going to try my best, I was going to make him earn it, but I thought he was going to beat me from the start. Eli took it well. He was a good sport about it. But that's rough. I hope he turns out ok. He played amazingly and showed great character. Some of the other members of The Key Chargers approached me and congratulated me and comforted me. They said not to worry about it and that Eli was a good kid and that even in losing this close was probably good for him. I still felt horrible but I was very thankful for their kind words. Since their team is from Indianapolis, they will get a good shot for revenge at me either way, so I wish them well.

 

Things were now getting very serious. I did some breathing exercises to calm myself down for the top 8. My next opponent was Colby Bernardo I believe? I was told he had a 3x Key Abduction deck, and was the person who took down CorayThan. So again, I kind of went into this game thinking it was probably over, lol. My deck relies on my opponent gaining some amber, and then me being able to steal it. I can't do a lot against a Key Abduction. My only hope was to keep his board clear, and hope he couldn't archive a ton for an easy Key Abduction. Early on in the game he drew a Lash of Broken Dreams, which is a card I always dread to play against, but also probably my favorite Dis card of all time. He slowed me down with that for many turns until I managed to get rid of it with my Crazy Killing Machine. He was forced to play 2 Key Abductions for the amber early on as well, which was great news for me, as that hopefully meant he wouldn't have them when he needed them. I think our match was recorded, so hopefully that can come out and correct my memory, but I believe we both forged our couple keys to keep the game close. He then brought out his weapon that really helped him beat CorayThan: Collector Worm. Oh, this horrible thing. I think he attacked and archived 6 of my creatures this way? Luckily, he couldn't get rid of my Hexpions that way, but still. I lost several Brobnar guys as well as several Logos guys to that dumb thing.

 

I made a couple of misplays as well, like attacking into his Storm Crawler with my Hexpion, thinking it would kill it, but the Crawler only deals 1 damage in a fight. I also neglected to use my Screechbomb before using my Crazy Killing Machine, and lost it. We were reaching the end of the match. I knew it was probably getting close to time, as we were the only match still going, and I had about 100 people all around me looking at our every move. I was trying to concentrate and not get concerned with that, but man, that is stressful, lol. Everyone watching your every move, judging it. Crazy stuff. We were in a bit of a stalemate for several turns. I kept getting into check, but in doing so I would stun any of my guys that reaped, thanks to Storm Crawler. And then on his turn, he used Mindwarper to capture my own amber, and then attack me with Collector Worm and get the amber and archive my creature. I was getting really worried about him drawing his final Key Abduction and beating me, but he wasn't drawing cards. I knew that he must not have any kind of amber control in his hand, and that he was forced to keep activating Mars to keep me from forging. So on my final turn I finally managed to draw my Helper Bot. I reaped for some amber to get me to check, played the Helper Bot, which allowed me to play the Tremor I had in my hand, and I stunned his Mars creatures. He did not have an answer for that, and I won. It was very close. I hope it was entertaining for those that watched. I probably made a ton of other mistakes, but it felt good to win. I now was moving up to the final 4. 8-1

I made it to the final 4. This was way further than I ever expected to get. I was set up to play Aaron Glance, and I heard his deck was insane. He was the #1 seed of the tournament. He had not been beaten yet. His deck was very fast and it had an incredible Logos component. This was going to be tough. Since we basically went to time in the last match, I did not get a break between this match and the next.












The game started out pretty fast. He dropped several creatures I had to deal with (like Timetraveler), as well as yet another Lash of Broken Dreams. I managed to clear away everything with Coward's End, and my Crazy Killing Machine took care of the Lash, although I believe I lost my CKM in the process. I believe he forged first, and then a couple of turns later I did. I was not drawing very well. I was constantly stuck in a 2/2/1 House spread hand, and I wasn't drawing my Hexpions. After I cleared his board, he did not play very much for several turns, and I believe if I had been able to play a good board then, I might have had a much better chance at winning. He kept getting me out of check as well, so that slowed me down. I kept accumulating chains from my Coward's End, as well as my Effervescent Principle. He also had 2 Binding Irons I believed, which also really slowed me down. I had Bad Penny in my hand and on the board throughout the game. I really should have discarded her when I had the chance, as she kept clogging my hand and was easy fodder for Aaron. He kept on generating very high amounts of amber, and I had to use every amber control I could to keep him down. I let him forge a key so that I could get into check for my own. I managed to get to 2 keys and the game continued to be very exciting. I believe he tried some Archimedes and Professor Sutterkin shenanigans on me, but I was able to directly kill them as soon as they came up. I could have been in big trouble if I did not have the tools to deal with them.

 

He dropped a very big Dis board, including some Aember Imps, Charettes, and some Shoolers that also previously kept me out of check. I did not really mess with his board though, as that Aember Imp kept causing him to stun all of his guys as well when reaping. I started to pull ahead, and thought maybe I could squeak out a win, but he had 2 Miasmas. Those crushed me. 2 turns of having the win, but not being able to forge. I believe in the end he managed to get his amber to 11, which was just too far for my Swindle to handle, and I couldn't do anything, and my run was over. It was an awesome game. Aaron really played well. His deck was very good. I think I played well too, though. I think I really gave him a run for his money. I think he even managed to say that my matchup was one of the toughest he had all tournament, so that feels good. I might not typically beat his deck with mine, but there were many things that could have happened in our game that could have given me the win. So I feel like I really stood a decent chance. I was just probably outplayed, lol. Oh well. 8-2. Eliminated.

Aaron went on to the finals, where he lost to Ben Wallace in 3 games. Although I have not seen the stream, I have heard that Aaron bid 10 chains on that final game so that he could play with his deck, and that it might have just been too much for even that deck to handle. Above is the final standings. I managed to technically be in 4th place, due to seeding, but I feel fine about that. I did not originally think that highly of my deck, and I think most people agree that it went further than it should, but it did me well. I have heard that they will invite people to Worlds depending on how many shards they earn at these things. And I also heard they might invite other top players in the Vault Tour. So who knows, maybe in some crazy fortuitous circumstances I could end up at Worlds some day? One can dream.

 

 

The MVPs for my deck were easily Hexpion, Effervescent Principle, Crazy Killing Machine, and Coward's End. Those Hexpions were huge. I remember really liking the card, but having 3 in a deck is insane. They just keep staying around. These guys are the only reason I would want a Soul Snatcher in my or my opponent's decks. In fact, I will need to see if I can find a Soul Snatcher and Hexpion x3 deck anywhere (also Key Abduction). They can do so much. They were great targets for my Life for a Life and they could suicide attack enemies and clear the board, all the while just going back to my archives and giving me more cards to put in there. Not to mention they would go right back onto the board. They helped me set up monstrous turns, they synergized well with many cards in my deck, and they were constantly a thorn for my opponents. Coward's End was huge for me because it was my only big board wipe. Without this card, I would not have lasted in most of my games. It is the best board wipe in the set by far. My Crazy Killing Machine was also amazing. That helped me get rid of so many problematic cards. I got rid of Charettes with my captured amber, I got rid of Redacted and Lash of Broken Dreams, I got rid of Archimedes and my own Hexpions. It just did everything and was always a big key to winning in most of my games. And of course I have to give it up for my Legacy card, Effervescent Principle. It may not have been as big of a surprise later on, when everyone heard that I had it, but it was still a very big card for me. It got my opponent's out of check so many times. I also would play my Researchers right after playing it, just so I could get it back and use it again.

My deck was a ton of fun to play. I had so many decisions to make every turn. I could just activate Logos every turn because of all the fun stuff I could do in that House. My Shadows was great in generating amber, and it was very decent in controlling amber with Swindle and Routine Job. Even Brobnar got in the action with control with those 2 Screechbombs. Brobnar was pretty good at controlling the board, and that Tremor won me the game in my final 8 match. It may not be a competitive Archon deck, but boy do I like it. I shall cherish it forever.

My experience at Origins was a lot of fun. I didn't even talk about my time with White Wizards and their game, Epic, and all of those awesome guys that play it (check out that game if you haven't, it's amazing). But just in terms of the Vault Tour, it was worth it. Obviously it helps to make it to the final 4, but I really enjoyed almost everything about it. I got to meet tons of really nice people, and probably made friends I will keep for at least as long as I'm playing Keyforge. I think the Judges and the people running the tournament did a great job. I know people are talking a lot about the ruling on Archimedes. It was well explained to me and it seems like they have the ruling correct, even though I don't personally like it and I think it goes against what was intended. But I do think they got the ruling correct, and that is important. Everyone was great and supportive and very courteous. There were a ton of people playing and it seemed like everyone was having a pretty good time. I highly recommend giving a Vault Tour a try. Just enter and try it. Maybe you will get a ridiculous deck. Maybe you won't, and you will lose every game. You will get at least 30 Ambershards, and I guarantee you could make some new friends too.

I really wish I could have put a face to more people in the community, because I am sure I missed lots, but maybe next time at Gencon. In the meantime, I can't wait to read more from other players, watch some streams, and interact with our great community. I am still riding my high. So let me know your thoughts. See any mistakes? I'm sure I made many. I'd love to hear from anyone that happened to see any of my games and give me some tips/criticisms if possible. Thank you to anyone that made it this far. I hope you enjoyed reading this novella, and until next time, happy gaming!