Tournament Report WCQ St. Pölten

Card Club Good Games hosted the WCQ in St. Pölten and it was one of my rare chances to qualify for European Nationals.

We decided to go there as a Team. 4 of our Teammembers participated in the tourney. Unfortunately the WCQ only attracted 25 players overall. I didn't play any larger tournament lately so I was quite excited to go there and see how I will do since it's also one of those rare occasions where one qualifies for something. Usually we only have locals in Austria.

I decided to run Spellbooks for the tournament. Reason being I usually like to play slower control decks and I didn'z manage to finish my shaddoll deck. We played 5 Rounds of Swiss format and no Tops.

Round 1 vs. Dark Simorgh

He was a rather unexperienced player. Game 1 was over quickly thanks to double Priestess.

Game 2 he drew into Anti Spell Fragrance slowing me down early. A Priestess took care of the Trap one Turn before he drew into Dark Simorgh.

Round 2 vs. Teammate (Monarchs)

Nico was playing my Monarch Deck. We thought the deck was quite a good pick since it does not have any particularly bad Match-Ups. He won the die roll and started with Swap Frog and ended his turn with 2 Treeborn and 1 Ronin in his Graveyard. A pretty good setup for Monarchs. My hand wasn't too bad either establishing a Fate lock. I kept on removing his Frogs although he didn't draw into Monarchs anyway.

Game 2 turned into a grind game quickly. He couldn't find any tributes while I was stuck with 3 Priestess in hand (2 of which I drew of Reckless Greed) and the third was returned to my hand with Swap Frog. A crucial mistake (or rather carelessness) made him draw the Match. He tributed for LADD and attacked. I had a Fiendish Chain set so it didn't matter. All I had to do was to draw into a third spellbook card in order to drop 3 Priestess. I had two draws thanks to my aktive Tower but I didn't get lucky. He managed to draw in time.

Round 3 vs. Chain Burn

Game 1 I managed to win quickly because he aktivated Reckless Greed without a real follow up. The two turns that he lost enabled me to dish out enough damage. The second Game was his due to Ojama Trio and Just Desserts. That's too much damage. He lost Game 3 due to a crucial mistake after picking Cardcar D of a Pot of Duality. He forgot to summon it. The one turn made all the difference, because I drew into Chain Disappearance.

Round 4 vs. Fire Kings

I thought he was playing Shaddolls and was quite surprised to see a Bear hit the field. I outplayed hier Quick Spell (can't remember the name right know) and forgot to attack this turn. Lucky me it didn't matter. I won Game 1. Game 2 was his due to me bricking with 2 Justice, Master and Eternity, He won quickly due to Onslaught. We lost a lot of time due to an argument at the table besides us. Game 3 went into time and he won, because his deck is simply better in dishing out damage quickly.

I was 2:1:1 now and wanted to qualify so badly.

Round 5 vs. Satellarknights

To me it was some sort of "on the bubble" match since I won't be able to qualify at Nats. He started with Deneb and 3 sets. I had a decent hand summoning Justice and attacking over Deneb searching Priestess and a Spellbook in the end phase. The game turned as I summoned Priestess and popped a Moraltach, which I didn't expect to see in Satellarknights at all. I revieved Priestess with Life and he tried to call him back. I banished the Call with Fate but did not have any real follow up to protect me from the Exciton Knight. Needless to say I lost Game 1. Game 2 I pushed quick with 2 Priestess for Game against his two backrow which I read as Moraltach. In Game 3 I won due to Blue Boy beatdown. We went into time and he couldn't muster any monsters. I guess I was lucky this time wining in time.

I ended up 4th and hope I qualified. The deck was alright even though I didn't play any Shaddolls or Burning Abyss.