I played him yesterday on Pixelborn! One of the most intense matches I think I've ever had. I was scared of every move I made. I can't imagine what it'd be like in person!
I loved the decklist since I saw it in meta reports. I made some SLIGHT changes that I'm actually happy with and started to see it perform really well in Pixel high ranked: -Tamatoa -Lucky Dime -2 Grandma Tala +2 McDucks +2 Agrabah +2 Nick Wild +2 2 cost 3 rush Stitch Reasoning: Against Steelsong-> on turn 2 if they shift queen and quest because it's an empty board, Stitch absolutely CRUSHES them by insta-GG the queen. Same for Ariel. Stitch and a Maui Hook can swing for 6 into an opposing Hiram in the mirror match as well. Having more McDucks and even Agrabah I've found makes a tremendous difference if you're facing another slow deck and you put out a McDuck instead of Hiram after you ramped turn 2. If you Pawpsicle -> One Jump -> Hiram then on turn 5 you can Nick -> grab your pawpsicle back -> play it -> Hiram Quest to extend the combo even further in bad situations. Nick has saved me a LOT with pawpsicle recycling.
@@-ArcticEden- I've done a lot more testing and realized it's weaker against steelsong because Agrabah gets one shot by Zeus. The rest of the plan is good though
@@-ArcticEden- captain Eric. I figured when you play him you are ALWAYS killing something on your opponents field, so it's good as it positively trades with Medusa/Tremaine/Swords/Storm Rage on
Thank you for the video and this build is the most streamlined out of most. Would you make any changes or are you happy with the current list? How is your matchup against Ruby Amethyst and what do you focus on the most in that matchup?
This is the deck I’m leaning towards for set championships. I’m curious what your approach is to very fast aggro decks like ultra aggro Amber/amethyst. Even when going first and a solid start, I still seem to struggle again those kinds of decks. When I mulligan for more early bodies, I lack the draw to keep up and get to hire inks. When I focus ramp for removal like Be Prepared, I’m already losing like 12-15 to 0 by the time I get it online and then lose to a goat or some other uninteractable lore gain. I know at least one deck like this that I might face (my 7 yr old son who’s aggressive as hell lol!).
I played something similar at a tourney. Yeah aggro just sucks since there’s not too many ways to deal with it, I ran into more aggro decks than I was expecting which hurt my attempts to top cut.
That can definitely happen and it can make this deck a rough choice in local metagames where aggro tends to be more abundant. This really feels like a serious competitive tournament type deck where aggro is usually less common.
Great video and congrats on the top 8!!! Do you have any tips for going against aggro with this deck? Im thinking about bringing it to my set championships, but there is a good bit of aggro and emerald amythest 😅
Get lucky! Seriously if you know the local meta is aggro this deck isn't going to perform amazingly well. If you want to play it anyway, then mulligan aggressively for the queen and hope for the best.
This pretty much, amethyst/emerald does a nasty number to this deck. If you can’t get the queen out or ink fast enough and hit Maui or be prepared it sucks.
I have and I wasn't a big fan of scar. He mostly just feels like a bad Maui to me. If he had one more point of strength so he could take out queen's castle on his own that would help a lot. Your six drops can come down on turn 4 with fishbone which is a huge bonus to playing more copies of those and less 7 drops.
Congratulations on the top 8. Ill be doing championship with this decklist with minor changes .. -1 Gaston to add +1 Scar. Any thought ? Should i keep 4 gaston and cut somewhere else?
Great video! How come you didn’t decide to challenge the queen’s castle and just be prepared @ 21:36? You have all the card advantage at that point and that way they’d gain 2 less lore.
If my opponent had 5 more lore or something that might make some sense, but at this stage of the game I see an opportunity to take back the tempo and start closing the game more quickly which I think is a little better than preventing 2 lore when my opponent has so little. With that said, I actually think the position is basically unbeatable and the play I made there didn't really matter. That's what I would call garbage time and you should be more focused on just ending the game quickly and not wasting too much mental energy especially if this were a tournament. I honestly think my opponent could stack the top 5 cards of their deck there and they would still lose.
the pawp, OJA, hiram line seems so clearly to be among the best lines these sapphire decks can make. im getting a lot of people arguing against me saying this only works in sapphire ruby but that sapphire steel wouldnt want this. I cant understand how that makes any sense when its clearly such a strong line. do you have any insight on this reasoning from the sapphire steel players?
I'm not a super competitive player, so others might have better insight. But my thought would be that falling behind in board presence is much easier to manage with ruby bc of all the removal plus Be Prep. In Saph/Steel, keeping some semblance of pace can be crucial. No reset button there! So having a ramp character such as Mickey or a strong 2 drop like Smee is more valuable.
So I actually agree with you and in the past I have advocated for one jump ahead in blue steel as well. It would seem most blue steel players disagree with that. To some extent it makes sense to play mickey in blue steel because 5 ink is a much more important breakpoint for them. 4 matters a lot more in Ruby Sapphire so that is the main reason why they can get away with playing mickey. I firmly believe that most blue steel players simply haven't tried playing one jump ahead and have dismissed without critical thought or trying. I'm in the minority though for sure.
@@bannibalharcaMy opinion is that the difference is the presence of AWNW. Getting to 4 faster to draw is great but long term you want a quill on board or a body on board in the form of Mickey to quest. Cogsworth + Mickey isn’t worth it to most people to deal with. Dealing 4 damage to a card on board with no text and questing for 1 is tedious. Also, Blue/Steel has excellent one drops as well. Especially in the match against Amber/Steel. Skip dropping hook turn 1 to avoid giving a card draw to Let the storm rage on. Smee on 2, quill into hook on 3. Allows Smee to attack or quest and forces Let the Storm rage on while Smee is on board and Cogsworth/Big Tink are coming. Just my 2 cents. Btw, love your videos and as a former Red/Blue player, I’d love to see more games against Emerald/Am. I loved the deck but could never work out the matchup.
I do not see how this deck can survive Amber/Amethyst control. They can win by turn 5, and this deck would just get a board built up by then. Guess I still have to try it to see.
I'm not sure I'm playing this deck correctly, or my RNG drawing is just terribad, or shit mulligan, but this deck is SLOW for me. Opponent is on Lore 10 while I'm still at 0 with nothing on board... But damn does it have the potential to come back HARD! If opponent has lands, that's what screws me over, because I'm trying to catch up with lore but I also need to get rid of their land... Actually didn't watch his first game until I finished typing but that's how most of my games go :P
It's a bad matchup, but you mulligan aggressively for the queen and ramp as quickly as you can to maui. If you play perfectly it's definitely winnable, but every deck has bad matchups and you just have to try to win those when you get a chance and accept that you can't beat everything all the time.
Been waiting for a very extensive breakdown of this deck as I learn it for set champs. Thank you so much, and grats on top 8!
Congrats and I have been trying many variations of this deck. So far I'm liking the consistency of this build.
Always happy when top players share their decks directly and talk through their thought process!
I'd probably faint if I had to play you IRL.
I played him yesterday on Pixelborn! One of the most intense matches I think I've ever had. I was scared of every move I made. I can't imagine what it'd be like in person!
I was humbled by you a couple nights ago with this deck. Also played a Ruby Mufasa deck.
Congrats dude! You killed it
I loved the decklist since I saw it in meta reports. I made some SLIGHT changes that I'm actually happy with and started to see it perform really well in Pixel high ranked:
-Tamatoa
-Lucky Dime
-2 Grandma Tala
+2 McDucks
+2 Agrabah
+2 Nick Wild
+2 2 cost 3 rush Stitch
Reasoning:
Against Steelsong-> on turn 2 if they shift queen and quest because it's an empty board, Stitch absolutely CRUSHES them by insta-GG the queen. Same for Ariel. Stitch and a Maui Hook can swing for 6 into an opposing Hiram in the mirror match as well.
Having more McDucks and even Agrabah I've found makes a tremendous difference if you're facing another slow deck and you put out a McDuck instead of Hiram after you ramped turn 2.
If you Pawpsicle -> One Jump -> Hiram then on turn 5 you can Nick -> grab your pawpsicle back -> play it -> Hiram Quest to extend the combo even further in bad situations. Nick has saved me a LOT with pawpsicle recycling.
Gonna give that a go. Thanks for your ideas. I really like the deck and want to make it more consistent.
@@-ArcticEden- I've done a lot more testing and realized it's weaker against steelsong because Agrabah gets one shot by Zeus. The rest of the plan is good though
@@Luckycosmos ye makes sense. What have you put in for it?
@@-ArcticEden- captain Eric. I figured when you play him you are ALWAYS killing something on your opponents field, so it's good as it positively trades with Medusa/Tremaine/Swords/Storm Rage on
Thank you for the video and this build is the most streamlined out of most. Would you make any changes or are you happy with the current list? How is your matchup against Ruby Amethyst and what do you focus on the most in that matchup?
This is the deck I’m leaning towards for set championships. I’m curious what your approach is to very fast aggro decks like ultra aggro Amber/amethyst. Even when going first and a solid start, I still seem to struggle again those kinds of decks. When I mulligan for more early bodies, I lack the draw to keep up and get to hire inks. When I focus ramp for removal like Be Prepared, I’m already losing like 12-15 to 0 by the time I get it online and then lose to a goat or some other uninteractable lore gain. I know at least one deck like this that I might face (my 7 yr old son who’s aggressive as hell lol!).
The aggro matchups are tough. Queen of hearts or gramma tala on turn 3 are your best bets. You might just need a little luck to win though.
I played something similar at a tourney. Yeah aggro just sucks since there’s not too many ways to deal with it, I ran into more aggro decks than I was expecting which hurt my attempts to top cut.
That can definitely happen and it can make this deck a rough choice in local metagames where aggro tends to be more abundant. This really feels like a serious competitive tournament type deck where aggro is usually less common.
Ugh- i only have 2 maleficent- what can i use in her place- Love ur videos - great video !
Great video! By the way, are you allowed to use multi-language decks in live tournaments?
This I don't actually know the answer to. In other games you can.
Great video and congrats on the top 8!!! Do you have any tips for going against aggro with this deck? Im thinking about bringing it to my set championships, but there is a good bit of aggro and emerald amythest 😅
Get lucky! Seriously if you know the local meta is aggro this deck isn't going to perform amazingly well. If you want to play it anyway, then mulligan aggressively for the queen and hope for the best.
@@bannibalharca hahaha 😆 great point! Thanks so much for the reply!
This pretty much, amethyst/emerald does a nasty number to this deck. If you can’t get the queen out or ink fast enough and hit Maui or be prepared it sucks.
Hey, thanks for the vid & congrats!
Have you ever tried Scar vicious cheater instead of lady tremaine?
I have and I wasn't a big fan of scar. He mostly just feels like a bad Maui to me. If he had one more point of strength so he could take out queen's castle on his own that would help a lot. Your six drops can come down on turn 4 with fishbone which is a huge bonus to playing more copies of those and less 7 drops.
Congratulations on the top 8. Ill be doing championship with this decklist with minor changes .. -1 Gaston to add +1 Scar. Any thought ? Should i keep 4 gaston and cut somewhere else?
Great video! How come you didn’t decide to challenge the queen’s castle and just be prepared @ 21:36? You have all the card advantage at that point and that way they’d gain 2 less lore.
Because his board state is way better. They might be gaining 2 lore but he’s gaining 6.
If my opponent had 5 more lore or something that might make some sense, but at this stage of the game I see an opportunity to take back the tempo and start closing the game more quickly which I think is a little better than preventing 2 lore when my opponent has so little. With that said, I actually think the position is basically unbeatable and the play I made there didn't really matter. That's what I would call garbage time and you should be more focused on just ending the game quickly and not wasting too much mental energy especially if this were a tournament. I honestly think my opponent could stack the top 5 cards of their deck there and they would still lose.
the pawp, OJA, hiram line seems so clearly to be among the best lines these sapphire decks can make. im getting a lot of people arguing against me saying this only works in sapphire ruby but that sapphire steel wouldnt want this. I cant understand how that makes any sense when its clearly such a strong line.
do you have any insight on this reasoning from the sapphire steel players?
I'm not a super competitive player, so others might have better insight. But my thought would be that falling behind in board presence is much easier to manage with ruby bc of all the removal plus Be Prep. In Saph/Steel, keeping some semblance of pace can be crucial. No reset button there! So having a ramp character such as Mickey or a strong 2 drop like Smee is more valuable.
So I actually agree with you and in the past I have advocated for one jump ahead in blue steel as well. It would seem most blue steel players disagree with that. To some extent it makes sense to play mickey in blue steel because 5 ink is a much more important breakpoint for them. 4 matters a lot more in Ruby Sapphire so that is the main reason why they can get away with playing mickey. I firmly believe that most blue steel players simply haven't tried playing one jump ahead and have dismissed without critical thought or trying. I'm in the minority though for sure.
@@bannibalharcaMy opinion is that the difference is the presence of AWNW. Getting to 4 faster to draw is great but long term you want a quill on board or a body on board in the form of Mickey to quest. Cogsworth + Mickey isn’t worth it to most people to deal with. Dealing 4 damage to a card on board with no text and questing for 1 is tedious.
Also, Blue/Steel has excellent one drops as well. Especially in the match against Amber/Steel. Skip dropping hook turn 1 to avoid giving a card draw to Let the storm rage on. Smee on 2, quill into hook on 3. Allows Smee to attack or quest and forces Let the Storm rage on while Smee is on board and Cogsworth/Big Tink are coming. Just my 2 cents.
Btw, love your videos and as a former Red/Blue player, I’d love to see more games against Emerald/Am. I loved the deck but could never work out the matchup.
I do not see how this deck can survive Amber/Amethyst control. They can win by turn 5, and this deck would just get a board built up by then. Guess I still have to try it to see.
I'm not sure I'm playing this deck correctly, or my RNG drawing is just terribad, or shit mulligan, but this deck is SLOW for me. Opponent is on Lore 10 while I'm still at 0 with nothing on board... But damn does it have the potential to come back HARD! If opponent has lands, that's what screws me over, because I'm trying to catch up with lore but I also need to get rid of their land...
Actually didn't watch his first game until I finished typing but that's how most of my games go :P
I seem to be always trying to catch up too
How do you beat aggro? I have learned that waiting for cards to tap doesnt cut it and a good aggro deck wins by turn 5
It's a bad matchup, but you mulligan aggressively for the queen and ramp as quickly as you can to maui. If you play perfectly it's definitely winnable, but every deck has bad matchups and you just have to try to win those when you get a chance and accept that you can't beat everything all the time.