Hi! I'm Tobboo and this is a report of my latest Eternal Tournament Series Weekly win.
Sometimes it can take a long time to win something, and take it from a "grinder" like myself. If you hang in there and try to improve with each thing you do, you will eventually get there. I had to go back and check the last time I won a ETS Weekly and it was actually March 18, 2017. So if you haven't won one yet, keep playing and keep improving!
So how do you win a weekly?
Well first of all, play a deck you are familiar with. Know what your deck wants to do and how to do it. I would say its also needed to know how to punish most meta decks, what they are weak to and where they are strong.
Deck Selection
The week before I played Grenadins. It did well in the matches I expected and only lost to two Feln control decks (of all things) but I still felt like the main weakness of the deck was a bit too weak to Flying!
So this week I decided to play something that definitely wasn't weak to flying. With all the aggro and midrange decks out there, I wanted to at least play Rizahn. Going into the Rakano faction, there are some really good cards that you have to play in a deck like this.
Bulletshaper / Priviledge of Rank combo was a must have to accelerate your fatties. Of course, staple removal like Torch, Vanquish and Harsh Rule vs all the aggro decks out there are a given as well. The fatties I decided on were Amilli, Rizahn and Icaria. These are three very good fliers that can win games on their own.
From that point the deck basically built itself, but I believe there are many ways to tune the deck ever better.
Heres how the deck turned out
The deck can do some busted things like Amilli turn 3 or Icaria turn 5. If any of those plays go unchecked for a turn or 2, the game has basically already been won. However, the deck can also play the long game with early removal into Harsh Rule and then play some big fliers.
Results
In this section I will take you through each player and deck I played in each round and give you my thoughts on them.
Round 1 vs Kangbreath - Argenport Mid - 2-1
This should in theory by an easy matchup with more and better fliers. You have Torch for their early units and Vanquish for the big ones. That's basically how the games went. Lost a game where Auric Interrogator with a weapon took over the game, but won the other games just flying over.
Round 2 vs ThePlatypusKing - Grenadins - 2-0
As I said earlier, this is a deck I had played the week before and I know it is very weak to flying. The way they win is to put enough pressure on you early and build up either a wide board or a big Scraptank. Sure they could have the occasional Madness/Combust blowouts, but be aware of when you are weak to that play and try to play around it when needed.
Round 3 vs DrPringles - Nightfall Berserk - 2-1
Might I just say that this looks like a really fun deck. Props to IlyaK for the innovation. The game I lost here was due to a Gift of Battle on Rindra that came back twice from the void with charge and Rapid Shot on it! BOOM! The other games weren't so busted and my army of fliers were unbreakable. It really helps when your units have huge amounts of health. Lifesteal is also really really good here which will be looked into later.
Round 4 vs lllserblll - Kennadins 2-0
If you want to see this match in its fullest, you can check it out on the ETS Twitch (game starts at 03:02:13).
Kennadins is a much harder matchup then FS Grenadins and I think that if lllserblll didn't get power screwed, it could have been a really good game. Unfortunately, it was just a stomp here.
Round 5 vs robotdinosaur - Praxis Tokens 2-0
Tokens need to be VERY fast vs you. They can't beat you in quality and they can't normally stop your assault in the air.
This is another one of those matchups where lifesteal is huge! Some early Whirling Duo damage combined with Torch was enough to clear a way for the big finishers. Even if they get off to a fast start with lots of units backed up by Xenan Obelisk, you still have Harsh Rule as early as turn 3 if really needed. So I think this matchup is very favourable all in all.
Round 6 vs lv13david - Xenan Killers 0-2
At this point, the team discord was already feeling it, and the only question was: Which teammate would go 6-0?
Xenan Killers proved to be too strong for me, and the quality of units is probably the best way to stop Rakano Valkyries.
They have Varas Choice to get your threats out of your hand or just silence them when they are out. The infamous Darude (Sandstorm Titan) stops everything you do and Predatory Carnosaur matches up very well vs Icaria. To top it all off, they all come back due to Dark Return. Yeah, this was not something I wanted to face off against in the top 8.
However, lv13david won the swiss with 6-0 so congratulations to him! I came in 2nd, so we wouldn't be facing each other until earliest the final. And if we both got there, at least the team would win, so that was ok =)
Quarterfinals vs I_Am_Monstrum+1871
Another streamed game if you want to watch it here ETS Twitch (game starts at 05:11:30).
Three games that all went the way I wanted them to. Lifesteal units, Torches and Harsh Rules to stop early aggression and finish in the air. I have already covered this matchup earlier, and although this was a slightly different build, the matchup is still the same. One thing to note here was that this token list played Ixtun Merchant, which I can understand, but the token list I had played in the swiss had Auralian Merchant and a Sandstorm Scarf in the market. This is a card I cannot remove with this build, which makes it much harder to win, which you will find out later if you stick around.
Semifinals vs DrPringles
On the stream again ETS Twitch (game starts at 06:06:00).
Game 1 here was probably the worst I have ever drawn. Turns out, power only gets you that far...
It also turns out that karma is a thing and the last game was as much a non-game as the first one was. The three middle games were really good games though, and if anyone of us had drawn a bit better, my tournament report might have ended here.
Finals vs robotdinosaur
ETS Twitch Game starts at 06:52:22
Game 1 is one of those explosive games that I talked about earlier. You basically need Harsh Rule to even stand a chance. I had a good start, but it was just not enough.
Game 2 is a real fun one. I suggest you watch it! Spoiler alert, it features Sandstorm Scarf.
I won't spoil any more games since if you are really interested in how they went down, the link is right there.
Final Words
I'd like to give a big shoutout to my team. All the interesting ideas that come out of the combined minds of team Eternal Titans are awesome! Thanks to everyone that has read this report and thanks once again to all the cheers I got from the stream and in whispers after the win!
