GOC and GK RWC Double Store Champ Weekend and Training
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Anyway, all joking aside, hi friends! I thought I was pretty much done for the season after my last blog post. My mental state was/is super fragile, things weren't going my way in-game, and lots of bad things kept happening in life, so I was prepared to just take a break. I spent the weekend of the SoCal Regional relaxing at home with my wife and watching the Omnidex intently for the results. By the end of it, Steven, Christian, Jeremy, and Eustace took home invites. Special shoutout to Eustace for getting his first top/prize card. Eustace has been 2nd place and bubbling so many times that I thought he needed an exorcism to get rid of his curse. He's too good of a player not to make it, so I'm super happy and so insanely proud of him.
Most of the NorCal squad was in the mix with pretty much everyone going positive. All things considered, it was a strong showing, but notables who didn't top included: Justin, Kevin, and Michael, three of my closest friends in the community. I'm not really sure why, but it made me really upset and angry to find out they didn't make it, even more than if I scrubbed out myself. I talked to a few friends about it and told them this:
"I found some motivation. I don't want to let this stand."
Steven, the Slime God himself, messaged me and asked if I wanted to do some training with him. I think it took me all of two seconds to say yes. This year has been pretty rough in the sense that anytime I found the motivation and resolve to do something, something bad always happened almost immediately to knock me down and make me rethink my choices. So something did happen the day before I was supposed to start training and I really considered flaking. I think part of me was just afraid of committing and failing, so I wanted to use the bad event as an excuse to take the easy and comfortable way out. You don't have to feel bad about the result if you never tried in the first place. Deep down, I felt like if I flaked out, I probably wouldn't get another chance though. You can only slap away someone's hand so many times when they offer before they stop bothering to invite you. After some reassurance from my wife, I resolved to take the opportunity presented to me to work hard, try my best, and see what comes as a result of it.
"You give me 8 hours of your time, I'll guarantee you at least a Regional top." -Steven
It's a bold proclamation, but that time investment is miniscule to me relative to the prize. The first day of training, I played against Christian for about 2 hours straight. I had pretty much only played Slimes two times prior to this. One time was when I was still reading the cards and the other I happened to 3-0 that locals. So, I considered myself an above-average Slime player at that point in time, but nowhere near a true competitive level. I found myself faced with a lot of decision paralysis because I think I was too concerned about not making the most optimal play. I ended up going 2-8 against Christian and I believe it was just because of high-rolling on my part and bricking on his. They gave me a lot of tips on how to approach certain matchups and what Material Deck cards I should use in what situations.
"I think you were getting it by the end; just try to be more flexible and don't always play for matchup-dependent plays, play for game-state dependent plays." -Steven
"You were doing better near the end; just pretend it's Wind Allies, but all the Allies are on steroids." -Christian
I think it's amusing everyone tells me decks are like Wind Allies, but I got the point of the advice they were trying to give me: Play confidently. I had to figure out for myself, why could I not play confidently? Why was it so different in ALC? It was because in ALC, I knew exactly what I wanted to do or what I had to do in every situation. Confidence comes from comfort. Comfort comes from absolute trust in your knowledge. I needed to get to the point where I knew what I wanted to do with the Slime deck.
Christian said Slimes is like an Allies deck on steroids. I get the sentiment, but I sort of agree with Chess Club's assessment of the deck. The deck is like Tron from MTG. For people who don't know what that means, Tron is a deck that plays 3 Lands that generate 7 Mana total. So by turn 4, you are dropping insanely strong Creatures like 10/10's or 7/7's with insane effects. Sound familiar? Slimes ideally like to Level 1 to 2 into a DG and then they start dropping Advanced Element Slimes and kill you within a couple of turns. It's not difficult to DG and drop the Advanced Slimes on people. So I identified the pain point and my issue as getting to that point first.
Slimes gets a bad rep as a low skill floor deck that anybody can play and get results with. This is true, but as with any deck, there's always levels and there is a reason the same players always win in GA. Lots of players complain, "Damn, I got sacked. He got 2-3 Storm Slimes." The deck runs 4x Blissful Calling, 4x Gather Slimes and 3-4x Gaia's Songbird, they're going to find something. The correct sequencing can guarantee you're facing a deadly combination of Advanced Slimes.
So how did I go about training by myself for this part? I took my deck out and fired up TTS. I goldfished over the span of 2 days and I must have done over 1000 test hands playing the turns out until I did Slime's power turn on Level 3. I basically tried every combination until my brain processed and developed a trained eye and muscle memory into finding the best lines to make it to 3 efficiently and to have the best power play.
I had to miss a night of training because of a commitment I had made prior, but it was nice to relax with some friends because I did not realize how grueling the upcoming weekend would be.
Saturday- Training + Games of Concord
I hung out with Steven and Michael prior to the event and we just grinded the mirror for 4-5 hours. I think I surprised Steven a bit by taking a game off him on our very first set because I wasn't totally awful and was able to build up a good advantage. I learned to use a lot of the different Regalia in the Material Deck that I had never used before and learned why Eustace had told me Slimes is a super versatile deck. Before, I would basically only be using Grail with Covenant under because that's what I would see when I played Tristan against Slimes, but I learned all the tricks associated with using Stonescale, Scepter, Horn, etc. I think Verdant Scepter has to be one of my favorite cards to play with now.
Games of Concord Store Championship
We took maybe an hour to just clear our heads and go around the area to Dutch Bros and another card shop before heading the Games of Concord. We walked in and who else but Jeremy, the Skysama, ranked #2 in the world himself, was just sitting there, happy as can be. Sevon and Brian also arrived and it ended up being 9 total players. I'm always a bit amused to think my local area has 4 Demigod-level players in Shawn, Christian, Steven, and Jeremy just skulking around at all times. Nothing is ever "free," but you'll get a lot stronger along the way.
Round 1 - Brian: Wind Umbra Tristan (Inspiring Call Build)
Game one I have a disaster start. I open Blissful Calling and whiff. He has a bunch of influence and prep counters and the Sadi to eat up my Slimes and generate himself Agility 3 value. I'm pretty sure I'm sunk already, but I play on and I actually put him in a situation where I showed a Storm Slime I searched and he has to kill me next turn. He ends up being off by 3 damage and I show him 2 Storm Slimes.
Game two is a bit more of a typical game. He has a bit of a weaker start and just sits on Shadowdancer for a while. I've been beating him down with a 7/7 Ethereal and he only had 2 prep counters left. I play very conservatively and hold Resolute, 2 Hymn of Gaia's Grace, and a Covenant under the Grail. I stop his first push with the Hymn. Next turn he attempts to do it again, I stop him with the Covenant, I stop him with the 2nd Hymn. I show him a Storm Slime for 12, he attempts to Safeguard, I fast speed another, he Stifles it, I Slime Eruption it, draw 2 and a 3rd is on top. The Safeguard and Veiling end up not being enough after the third Storm. Too bad he didn't have Corhazi Outlook.
Result: 2-0, 1-0 record
Round 2 - Steven: Norm Silvie Slime
It sucks to get matched into your teacher while you're still learning, but it's a wall you eventually have to conquer someday. We both have decent starts, but I end up establishing a Slime King pretty early, which represents a huge advantage. He ends up racing me and all-ins me representing a kill next turn. The onus is on me to deal all 25 damage in one turn. I believe I was one card off from doing so, but I end up not being able to close this one out.
Game two he has an ideal start and I look at a hand full of Advanced elements. I take a bit of a risk and end up just faltering. I think I could have played out of it, but my mistake was that I used Back-up Charger to get an extra draw rather than using it as a tool to put down enough cards to banish to level to 3. There was a possibility of being able to fight back since I had so many Advanced Slimes to work with. I was pretty satisfied to realize my mistakes, at least.
Steven identified that my early to mid game sequencing is quite good, but I need to work on the late game and finding-the-lethal puzzles. He did acknowledge that it can be quite difficult though, so advised to just try to think about way to keep digging through my own deck and converting cards on field into more cards in hand.
Result: 0-2, 1-1 record
Round 3 - Jonathan: Fire Silvie Slime
I'm a bit worried here as I heard Fire Slimes is heavily favored against Norm Slimes. He Increasing Danger's me and I enjoy free cards, so I happily take it. He gets to a point where he plays Stalwart and a Fire Slime which is a problem I can't let remain. So, I find a way to clear both in a single turn. I'm also able to keep my Allies on board, so I get to hold an advantage by getting card(s) from Silvie 2 and using less cards with Floating Memory. He eventually concedes, realizing my Storm Slime in-hand was game.
Game two he ends up Increasing Danger'ing me twice turn one. He doesn't find much again and ends up tapping out many times throughout the game to cycle cards with Creative Shock, Cremation Ritual, etc. He also spends a turn doing the final two Increasing Dangers. I love free cards, call me Peter Increasing Dang-er. (sorry). He builds a board and I end up cleaning it up with my Birds and Bears. I go for the Storm Slime and he attempts to Beastbond Boots, but I inform him that he does not control any Animals or Beasts. He does a bit of a facepalm and concedes.
Result 2-0, 2-1 record
We're able to end the tournament here because a winner is able to be decided. Steven ends up winning his 3rd Windmill of the season--congrats to him! Michael, Steven, Jeremy, Sevon, and I all go to sushi for a nice celebration dinner before retiring for the night.
I didn't get home until around 1:30am because it's always just a good time to hang with the boys and yap in the parking lot after a day of GA. I also don't get to talk to Steven or Sevon often so it's cool to hang out with them and learn about the Sacramento area scene. I end up tuning my deck and staying up for Epic Seven reset to get my daily gacha summon dopamine, and finally fall asleep at 3am.
Game Kastle Redwood City Store Championship
I wake up, do my chores, and get ready to go. I feel pretty tired from the day before, but I bring a milk tea and a Vietnamese coffee to help me get through the day. I had planned to come to this Store Championship regardless of whether I was playing or not because I knew a lot of my friends would be there, so it was going to be a good time.
Round 1- Pomeranian: Mirror
Game one, I have a great start with 3x Forest Cake. We have a pretty similar path to 3 after that, but my Ethereal is much bigger so it is able to eat hers and eventually just keep hitting for 8 each turn until the Storm Slime finishes the game.
Game two, she has a bit of an unfortunate banish and loses a Storm early. We have similar starts again, but she makes a great play of summoning a Slime and Bear and DGs into Silvie 2 and gets two cards. I get pretty lucky that my Ethereal is the same stats as hers so I'm able to take hers out on my crackback turn. I am able to hide a Limitless behind a Lustrous for multiple turns and eventually find two Storms to close it out.
Result: 2-0, 1-0 record
Round 2- Weilun: Merlin
Any time I play Weilun has been and will always be a Bye.
Just kidding.
It's always nice to play against a good friend because I know it will be a fair and chill game. We both make some jokes before the game about stacking decks. He decides he better shuffle my deck after already cutting. I jokingly ask the judge am I allowed to shuffle and present again to cut. The judge tells me it is actually allowed, but we just start our game. I told Weilun before that if we combined his luck with my skill, we could be the World Champ for sure. After his shuffle, he gives me the most custom, hand-picked, dream, literal nuts, royal flush hand that you can get with Slimes in GA. Long story short, he levels into Merlin 2, and come my turn, he is dead. Big Ethereal, Gaia's Blessing Active, Big Storm Slime, GG.
Game two, is a bit closer, but not by much. I actually get a card off of Gloamspire Black Market. I go to my first banish and it is the card that was given to me from it: Dungeon Guide. That would have put me over the top, but I still have a pretty great hand similar to game one. I all-in him while he is Lorraine 1 and put him at 19 damage. He is forced to turbo into Merlin 2 then DGs into 3. He spends some time sequencing, but realizes he is one card short and needed to rely on finding the third Fireball, which we saw he would have found after the match. He knew about one Storm Slime I revealed, but I showed him 2 more and he realized he was giga-dead. Skill diff, BG no re.
Jk, I love Weilun <3, please always shuffle my deck for me.
Result: 2-0, 2-0 record
Round 3- Fome: Water Mordred
Game one, I make a bonehead play and let my Baby Grey get Cerulean Decree'd to limit test if trading a slime for a counterspell is worth it. I forget that he gets a card back if he imbues so I basically throw the game there because I'm trying to fight against a deck that holds 2 counters up at all times. Fome finds two buffed Frostsworn Paladins and beats me down pretty quickly, so it's a relief that I throw the game that he highrolls anyways. I start to feel a bit of pressure here and decide to open up my Vietnamese coffee and start drinking.
Game two, he doesn't seem to have a good hand and I think I have a pretty standard Slime start. I am able to beat him down with Ethereal and finish him off with Storm.
Game three, it goes pretty standard, but I find the actual nutty card against this deck: Lustrous Slime. Then I feel like Kaiba and play a second. Then I feel even more like Kaiba and play my third to complete the wall. There's no real way for Water to break such huge walls, so I bide my time until I can find the kill turn. He makes some good plays to fight my final Storm turn and taxes me to put my hand down, but I Hymn to cheat in my Limitless to push the final 3 damage.
Result 2-1, 3-0 record
Round 4- Daniel: Fire Zander Aggro
Game one, he does his Fire Zander stuff, but I think I have the Dungeon Guide and am able to just kill him with a big Ethereal and Storm Slime on the crackback.
Game two, I have a decent hand and think I can take it, but he ends up having the nuts and kills me on turn 2.
Game three, I open Dungeon Guide and Lustrous x2. I have a big smile. I'm able to get to that point and he makes the read to get in as much damage as possible early. It ends up being the correct play as the game progressively gets worse for him as I materialize Lantern, Tariff Ring, and Covenant onto one of my Lustrous. I'm eventually able to blast him with a massive Storm Slime for 12.
Result: 2-1, 4-0 record
Michael takes care of business for me and defeats Jo, making me the only undefeated left in the tournament. Usually they would just give it to the lone undefeated here and end it, or there would have just been a playoff if there were two undefeateds, but unfortunately, they make us play out the final round and risk me losing my streak.
Round 5 - Michael: Mirror
Michael and I tested against each other for hours and I believe we are at a close enough skill level where luck of the draw tends to decide the games between us. It ended up swinging my way this time.
I do want to give a special shoutout to Michael. He's been my testing partner throughout this past week so I acknowledge his dedication, his hard work, and his desire to win. He was in the mix for almost every SC he attended this season, so I think it's just a matter of time. I think he's been the strongest player in my local scene this season and believe he has the most 3-0s. I think he had the most to lose with the Outlook ban because his Tristan was one of the best, so to come back and play two different decks at the levels he does within 2 weeks is super impressive to me. I'm truly happy and honored to have become close enough to be friends and training partners with him this season. I think it's really cool how we essentially went 1 and 2 at this event and met in the "kinda finals." It shows that the hard work and time we put in was worth it.
Result: 2-0, 5-0 record -- CHAMPION
So, people following my blog, you're probably wondering how it feels for me, right? After getting 2nd place so many times, after struggling so much, it must feel incredible, surely? Honestly, it feels a bit lackluster. I think this time the journey was more important than the destination. I trained so hard to get to the point where I felt comfortable with the situations I was in with the deck that maybe it felt like a given. Maybe it's because my mentality was mostly to go positive and improve, so winning was just a bonus. Maybe it's because the victory is not my own; I owe a lot to Steven, Michael, Christian, Justin, and Shawn for all either helping me practice, managing my mental health, or giving me gameplan advice. Not long ago, I honestly thought I would pop off or really thought I might start to cry. It has been a tough couple of months and this was the payoff, but I just felt so regular. My wife thought maybe it just hasn't hit me yet or I am just too exhausted from the long weekend, but it's been a day now and I don't feel much different. But, it is definitely awesome to win and join the list of Store Champions. Christian acknowledged that he thinks winning a SC in NorCal is a much greater achievement than topping a Regionals because going perfect and getting 1st is much harder with the concentration of talent in our area. So, no matter what happens at Regionals, I'll hold my head high and say: mission accomplished.
It's so nice that I got a bouquet flowers for my victory. Also my ex-best-friend-turned-rival Eva brought her friend from Japan to come celebrate my win. Christian, my new best friend and his girlfriend Joen rushed all the way from Monterey just to also bask in the glory. The downtown Redwood City Mexican community also threw a fair once they heard I won, it was great. :^)
All jokes aside, I have to give thanks to this community. I got so many DMs on Discord congratulating me and people at the event telling me it was a long time coming or well-deserved. I still don't feel worthy and know there's still a long way for me to go, but I do appreciate everyone for their kindness. I actually was planning to stop doing this blog because I felt like it had run its course. I almost felt like there was nothing left I could really teach people or that people didn't really want to read stuff like this. It was also getting pretty melodramatic in an emo way. However, I got so many messages and comments like:
"Can't wait for the victory blog post"
"when blog"
"Love going back and reading the posts over and over, I learn so much"
I love writing the blog, so it makes me happy that people actually dig it. I actually never considered myself good at the game, but I did want to be good enough to the point where I could teach people who are new to TCGs on some fundamentals. I am very much interested in player development so I enjoy helping people improve. A few people have also reached out to me to confide that they have also been unhappy with the game so I'm glad that even if my past couple of posts were bleak, maybe it opened up the avenue to have a discussion at least. My friends helped me get back up on my feet, so I hope I can be there to do the same for others. I'm also in a position where I can probably go to many of the premier events, so I hope it is also interesting to get my perspective on the Ascents I attend.
Happy belated birthday to Cheri! So nice of her to change her birthdate to the day of my victory. I hope she had a wonderful birthday because she deserves it for all that she does for the community and just for being a great person.
I'm sorry that there's not much in-depth tips or theory in this post. I'm still learning the deck and promise to give more in my after-Regionals post. I'll teach you guys all the Slime tricks I've learned! Until next time!
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