Very insightful! I’d love to listen to your thoughts on the mono water and mono earth lists you had in mind near the top of your video. We only ended up with a little bit of exposure to a single mono water list and a single mono earth list on stream.
I did not mention this in the video, but I would consider playing Larsa now over Aria, as I didn't take much damage this event and Edea/Cid are a bit more important since the mirror exists now
You mentioned that Glaciela/Lenna were a sort-of filler that met the "3-cost and water" criteria and could be replaced. Did you have any specific thoughts on replacing one or both of those cards with O16 Tidus?
Great listen - interesting to hear your thoughts on the format. We definitely came to some similar conclusions about the format but in very different ways. Maybe it's that I don't favor playing aggro decks but my mentality in this event was that Aggro and Refia were going to dominate. I was under no assumptions that Aggro would be dead or that anyone would even think that. In fact, it's why I favored Retainer Storm over Mono-Wind - Retainers (and to a lesser extent Shinryu) are the only thing that give cast focused decks a fighting chance against a fast aggressive deck like this one. I mentioned it at the event but I had a pure Ice/Lightning brew of GigaWoL at one point that I was happy with in almost every way... except for the fact it couldn't search WoL. I think there are solutions but that deck has won games without even resolving WoL. Sometimes, Axis would just be an 8 CP WoL. I definitely agree - one of the best (and most obnoxious things) about this deck is that sometimes it just wants to win. I've literally gone Giga hitting Axis and Greg BE and milled light WoL for game after my opponent hit me with a MD. I also don't know that I agree on playing fewer backups. Much like how you'd develop forwards via Leo, I usually have found that the best GigaWoL hit is a single forward that draws a card and a backup that draws a card. On the next turn, you can play a third backup while still pressuring the opponent and keeping a massive hand for the push once they exhaust themselves trying to deal with a 9k and a beefy forward you barely paid for in the first place. Might just be a playstyle difference but 3 and 4 backups feel amazing in the deck, and I find that it actually top decks extremely well on 3 backups, just due to the density of extremely strong cards. I'll be honest, this deck scares me, in part because I think it kind of counters itself. The Cid Randell and Remedi situate themselves very well as mirror breakers. I'm amazed that the deck almost played through it in the mirror. (As an aside, small ruling but I'd be amazed if you couldn't overload the Ixion - you only need a single lightning card in hand to overload it so unless you didn't have the CP or only had a single backup, it's very hard to not overload it). Even in the situation where you get Amaterasu'd, the opponent is only trading even and a deck capable of playing this aggressive is more than happy to punch you in the face with a 9k while it reloads the hand and finds the resources to push for lethal. Congrats again - hopefully I get a chance to see you in Orlando top cut. :D
Hey! New player to the game here :), thanks for the deck tech! I was just wondering if you still think this deck is excellent for the meta as OP 22 has evolved, I only saw one version of this in the t16 of the Florida Materia cup. (I know this deck might be quite challenging for a new player :), I don't mind taking the time to learn, I just want to make sure that my time will be worth it in the end if I commit to learning to pilot this haha)
Congrats on your win! Definitely got a new sub once I saw the livestream of the finals :)
Yo,! Bringing out old school Chapin stuff, my man!
Very insightful! I’d love to listen to your thoughts on the mono water and mono earth lists you had in mind near the top of your video. We only ended up with a little bit of exposure to a single mono water list and a single mono earth list on stream.
Thanks for the upload! really good listen/watch and to understand the deck and your choices!
I did not mention this in the video, but I would consider playing Larsa now over Aria, as I didn't take much damage this event and Edea/Cid are a bit more important since the mirror exists now
You mentioned that Glaciela/Lenna were a sort-of filler that met the "3-cost and water" criteria and could be replaced.
Did you have any specific thoughts on replacing one or both of those cards with O16 Tidus?
Great listen - interesting to hear your thoughts on the format. We definitely came to some similar conclusions about the format but in very different ways. Maybe it's that I don't favor playing aggro decks but my mentality in this event was that Aggro and Refia were going to dominate. I was under no assumptions that Aggro would be dead or that anyone would even think that. In fact, it's why I favored Retainer Storm over Mono-Wind - Retainers (and to a lesser extent Shinryu) are the only thing that give cast focused decks a fighting chance against a fast aggressive deck like this one.
I mentioned it at the event but I had a pure Ice/Lightning brew of GigaWoL at one point that I was happy with in almost every way... except for the fact it couldn't search WoL. I think there are solutions but that deck has won games without even resolving WoL. Sometimes, Axis would just be an 8 CP WoL. I definitely agree - one of the best (and most obnoxious things) about this deck is that sometimes it just wants to win. I've literally gone Giga hitting Axis and Greg BE and milled light WoL for game after my opponent hit me with a MD.
I also don't know that I agree on playing fewer backups. Much like how you'd develop forwards via Leo, I usually have found that the best GigaWoL hit is a single forward that draws a card and a backup that draws a card. On the next turn, you can play a third backup while still pressuring the opponent and keeping a massive hand for the push once they exhaust themselves trying to deal with a 9k and a beefy forward you barely paid for in the first place. Might just be a playstyle difference but 3 and 4 backups feel amazing in the deck, and I find that it actually top decks extremely well on 3 backups, just due to the density of extremely strong cards.
I'll be honest, this deck scares me, in part because I think it kind of counters itself. The Cid Randell and Remedi situate themselves very well as mirror breakers. I'm amazed that the deck almost played through it in the mirror. (As an aside, small ruling but I'd be amazed if you couldn't overload the Ixion - you only need a single lightning card in hand to overload it so unless you didn't have the CP or only had a single backup, it's very hard to not overload it). Even in the situation where you get Amaterasu'd, the opponent is only trading even and a deck capable of playing this aggressive is more than happy to punch you in the face with a 9k while it reloads the hand and finds the resources to push for lethal.
Congrats again - hopefully I get a chance to see you in Orlando top cut. :D
Oh and PREACH on not calling Lightning Cat 8 Dredge. They work completely differently. :)
Good call on the Ixion
Hey! New player to the game here :), thanks for the deck tech! I was just wondering if you still think this deck is excellent for the meta as OP 22 has evolved, I only saw one version of this in the t16 of the Florida Materia cup. (I know this deck might be quite challenging for a new player :), I don't mind taking the time to learn, I just want to make sure that my time will be worth it in the end if I commit to learning to pilot this haha)
good hair cut