Chaos & Confetti

It’s no secret that my wife and I have gone all in on Disney and Ravensburger’s TCG Lorcana.  We love both the collecting and playing aspects of the game.  Locally, we’ve found a lot of success in our respective store leagues, but all that often feels like a prelude to the set championships.

For the uninitiated, set championships happen every three months, with each league participating store hosting their own store championship.  These tournaments can get quite competitive and can often draw in players from both near and far.  Seriously, we’ve had people come not only from other towns but other states to some of our store championships.  

Players compete for the pride of victory, but also fabulous prizes. Stores usually chip in booster packs/boxes for prizing, but Ravensburger provides what everyone is really seeking.  The top eight competitors of each tournament get enchanted promo cards that can only be obtained from these championships (or bought second hand for a high price).  The top two players get player mats, with the champion’s mat actually saying champion.  This set’s prizes feature Scar from The Lion King.  

We are lucky enough to have eight participating stores in our local area, with each claiming a different Saturday or Sunday over the course of a month.  Last round of championships, we both became store champs.  It was an accomplishment we never expected.  We doubt we can quite do it again, but that doesn’t mean we won’t try.      

Here is how the first week of set championships went for us.

CHAOS’ EXPERIENCE:

Picking a Deck:

Picking a deck for set championships is always one of the most fun and most stressful parts of the experience.  It’s a strange combination of bringing a deck you believe you play well, a deck you have practice playing, a deck that might surprise a few people, and a deck that will play well into the local meta.

In previous set championships, I’ve found success with different versions of Ruby Amethyst (RA), a high draw/control style deck.  During the last round of championships (Shimmering Skies), I did really well my RA locations build that felt different from what anyone else was playing locally.  Drop a lot of locations, clear the board, profit!  Sadly, I had to retire my hopes of locations because the current meta feels too capable of dealing with them.

I bounced between a few different ideas leading up to championships.  I tried an Emerald Amber deck that revolved around Rockstar Stitch and dumping a lot of small characters onto the field.  I attempted several versions of a ruby emerald deck that benefited from attacking others while punishing them for attacking me back. Lately, I’ve been toying around with a sapphire emerald ramp and discard deck.

Throughout all of this though, I also kept practicing different versions of Ruby Amethyst both at my local leagues and online.  It felt like the overly safe and predictable choice, but I decided to play a more traditional build of RA, including Big Sisu. It’s a comfort deck to me, but it’s also one that remains reliable and consistent. I told myself that worse case scenario, I could pivot to something more offbeat and surprising during later championships at other stores.

One Eyed Jacques’ Tournament:

It’s tough to predict what the local meta will be, so I told myself that I would try my best but I could also use this outing for information gathering. With 24 entrants, the tournament would involve 5 rounds of the 2 game format, with a top 8 cut that would be handled in a single elimination best-of-3 format.

Round one saw me face a Ruby Amethyst deck that dipped its toe into locations, running two libraries. My deck hated me that round drawing all my uninkables in clumps and delivering none of my answers in a timely manner.  Even my draw cards hid from me. Sadly, I loss both games.  Not an uplifting start to the day.

Round two, I hit another Ruby Amethyst deck, this time featuring cards like Maui Half-Shark and Dragon Fire.  This time, my deck performed a bit better and during the starts allowed me to not only hang in the game, but pull out the wins both times.  With a 2-0 win, I felt back in contention, but barely.

Round three: I took on an amethyst steel deck. This was a deck focused on questing aggressively and gaining sudden lore through cards like Merline Goat and White Rose. During game one, my opponent reached 19 lore.  My removal held her at bay while I inched forward, but suddenly, I found myself across the field from a slew of characters.  I prayed to draw my own goat which would push me to 20 lore alongside my other questers.  Instead, I top decked Big Sisu, who with it’s shift both cleared my opponent’s board of small characters and gave me the extra one lore to win. The second game had me going first and was a lot more one sided.  With two 2-0s, my hope started to rise.

Then, I faced a hyper-aggro amber amethyst deck.  My deck is weak to aggro, so seeing it two rounds in a row sucked. I especially felt anxious because the player I sat across from this round is one whose deck I’ve struggled against before.  Game one, she stomped me.  Game two, my Flynn-Frenemy racked up lore while my removal and rush destroyed the smaller characters.  It may have only been a 1-1 round, but against hard aggro, it felt like a win.

Then of course, I hit a third aggressive questing deck, this time in the form of amber steel.  I knew I needed at least a 1-1 to have a chance of bubbling into the top cut.  Game one didn’t go my way, and while I put up a good fight, I could not manage the more aggressive deck while building my own lore total.  Game two felt like a foregone conclusion, until I finally established enough of a board presence and a large enough hand to have answers to my opponent’s plays.  I really owe a lot to being able to Mim Fox bounce my Merlin Rabbit multiple times for draw, and being able to play and replay Big Sisu as one sided removal. With my one win, I eeked into the top cut as the 8th seed.

In the top eight, I immediately sat across from the guy who 0-2ed me round one.  This time fate shone on me, and I 2-0ed him despite him getting to go first game one.  This time, my deck didn’t undermine me, but more importantly, I had a better idea of what was in his deck.  I understood he had locations, but not enough to warp my strategy around, something I tried to do round one by holding on to Mauis.  The games were still hard fought, but I felt pretty in control during both of them

The final four set me up against an amber steel Steel Song deck: quest aggressively while also using songs to maintain control and draw.  This one also featured a shifted Simba to protect its questers.  Boo another aggressive deck!  Game one, I got crushed.  Game two, I won with ease.  Game three… I had my perfect starting hand to counter my opponent.  Then, they bricked hard, starting with three Whole New Worlds in hand.  With no ink and no answers to my deck, they quickly fell behind.  By the time they could start recovering, they were too far behind. It wasn’t the win I would have asked for, but a win is a win. I’ve been on the wrong side of bad hands and draws enough to know they just happen and they are part of any tcg.

In the finals, I faced off against my same opponent from round five of swiss.  For some quick history, this is an opponent I’ve faced in top cuts in previous set championships, including the finals before.  Last time I beat him for a store championship.  Could I do it again? (Spoiler: No, but they were great games).  Game one, I couldn’t quite slow down the aggro well enough.  Game two, I made some unusual plays that focused more on getting bodies on the board vs drawing.  This paid off as I pulled out the win.  Game three was a battle.  My opponent did everything he could to sneak out any lore.  I stabilized with a good board state and a healthy hand of cards. He did everything he could to find ways to win while also slowing down my march towards victory.  Meanwhile, I was quickly burning through my answer, hoping to close out the game before he could get anything to stick.  Finally, my opponent sat at 19 lore, and I inched forward.  I just need to quest out two more times. Sadly, he dropped two characters when I could only find a way to banish one.  His Pluto seized victory while I could only get to 16, one turn away from my own win. 

Results:

Swiss Rounds: 

• 2 wins (2-0)
• 2 draws (1-1)
• 1 Loss (0-2)

Swiss Rounds Results: 8th Place with 20 points

Top Cut:

• Top 8 Win (2-1)
• Top 4 Win (2-1)
• Finals Loss (1-2)

Reflection:

My first attempt at an Azurite Sea set championship went so much better than I thought it would. I love playing these tournaments but they are stressful in the best way possible.  Despite playing a proven deck that I had plenty of practice with, I felt like an underdog fighting to stay in the whole tournament, due to low starting points and hitting a lot of aggressive questing decks (my weakness).  

Turns out my local meta is very steel and aggro heavy right now, at least competitively that first weekend.  

I’m proud of how I played and even if I didn’t quite claim the top prize, I did get some cool prizes (promo, mat, a booster box).  My goal for each set championship is to earn at least one promo card.  Mission accomplished!  Now, I need to decide how many more set champs I’ll play in this set.  There is always an itch for the fun of competition.  I also need to mull over what deck I may want to run (stick to tried and true or switch it up?).  No matter what though, it’ll be a bit less stressful since I have my promo and mat already locked in.    

CONFETTI’S EXPERIENCE:

Picking a Deck:

Despite being a die-hard Blurple (amethyst sapphire) player, Confetti decided to build an Amethyst Steel fairy deck at the start of the current set.  She found decent success with the deck, making small adjustments along the way to deal with the local and evolving meta.  

She still practiced blurple, but she believed she may have found a new main deck.

As time passed, she became a bit less confident with her fairy deck.  It still picked up a lot of wins, but not as consistently as before.  Doubt crept in.  Should she go back to blurple, keep modifying her fairies, try a different deck entirely?  How she hated not having an unstoppable, wins every game deck!  (Also, curse you ruby sapphire decks!).

Like last set, Confetti poured in hours of practice in person and online with her two main decks.  She tested the waters with a few other deck types, but nothing felt quite as right as her big two.  

Up until the day, up until she finally packed her bag and left for the game store, Confetti bounced back and forth between her decks.  The deciding factor finally came down to blurple being put together, and the fairies needing a few cards to be reassembled.  

Off she went, questioning her decision and wondering if she should even compete at all without a sure fire deck.  

Beyond Cards’ Tournament:

The Beyond Cards’ set championship consisted of 23 players facing off in five rounds of two-game-format swiss with an 8 person top cut for single elimination best-of-three.

Confetti ended up facing a gauntlet of some of the Richmond area’s toughest players. If we had to hand pick the best players in the tournament that weren’t Confetti beforehand, there is a good chance we would have picked the five she met in swiss. Melee paired her up and down to wherever it could find the toughest match for her.

During swiss, she faced off against three different variations of amber steel, a ruby amethyst deck, and an amethyst steel deck.  Four of her rounds resulted in 1-1 ties, with her pulling off a 2-0 against one of the amber steels.  

On the surface, a bunch of 1-1s might not seem impressive but her quality of opponents made every win mean so much more.

Confetti’s swiss score got her into the top cut, placing her at 7th seed.

Her first round was against the ruby amethyst deck she saw in round one.  Their best of three series went well over an hour (thank goodness for untimed top cuts).  They were hard fought games with each player jockeying for control and perfect counters.  In the end, Confetti’s opponent conceded game three, seeing no path to victory.

In the top four, Confetti re-faced her third round opponent, one of the three amber steel decks, this one being a more traditional steelsong deck.  Sadly, Confetti couldn’t quite pull off the win and she fell victim to the aggressive song deck.  

Confetti’s run ended in the top four, earning her a promo card and half a box of boosters.

Results:

Swiss Rounds:

• 1 wins (2-0)
• 4 draws (1-1)
• 0 Loss (0-2)

Swiss Round Results: 7th Place with 19 points

Top Cut:

• Top 8 Win (2-1)
• Top 4 Win (2-1)
• Finals Loss (1-2)

Reflection:

I’m really proud of how well I did at Beyond Cards. It’s hard going into Set Championships without feeling confident in your deck  – there were parts of me that thought I should switch and play some variant of amber steel (which I’ve played on and off since set 2). Blurple is very much my comfort deck and it gave me confidence that I would at least enjoy the games, since blurple can get a little silly. I also won several games with goat bounce goat, which always brings me joy. 

I am however a little sad not to be playing amethyst steel fairies. That deck is one I made fully on my own, with no input from Chaos, and it did very well in league and online. It still does well, but it’s not as consistent a blurple which is why I ultimately decided against it. Since I was able to make the top 8 cut and then the top 4, I’m debating trying it in one of the upcoming weekends and just seeing what happens. It would be nice to win a mat on my own this set again, but I already won the card – which was my big goal. I think winning with fairies would be a big personal victory, just like doing well with blurple felt last set.

If someone could figure out why melee hates me though, that would be great!

WRAP UP:

Overall, we had a pretty successful weekend of competitive Lorcana.  Together we earned two Scar promo cards, a playmat, and about a box and a half of booster packs. It would have been nice to brag about being champions, but we’re pleased with our performances. We definitely pour a lot of time and energy into this game, so it’s nice to feel like it pays off when we come off as good players.  

Technically, we both achieved our goals for the set championships, so we’ll see what comes next.  We don’t need to play in anymore this round, but it’s hard not to want to play in more.  They are just so fun, both from a competitive and a community standpoint.  If we do decide to play more, hopefully we’ll see more wins in our future.