We have had three sizable preseason tournaments, but the game has finally launched and Manifold TCG has now concluded its first Cash Prize tournament of Season 1. There were 11 participants in this event, which is a small enough number that we can mention each player and archetype. The decklists for each player can be found here.
Alex Peele – Sylvestra and Starlet in Yellow / Green Bully
Ambrose Ingram – Chryssy, Nina, and Yuseth in Blue / Yellow Proselytizer
Austin Halvorson – Ramorand, Alric, and Karrsey in Monoblue Sacrifice
Eileen Lee – Lucca Alson and Rylo Octain in Red / Blue Attachment Aggro
Greg Larson – Ramorand and DADO-14 in Red / Blue Sacrifice
Justice Ferguson – Eurus in Mono Blue Sacrifice.
LL Hubbard – Eurus in Mono Blue Sacrifice
Lucinda Ottum – Sylvestra and Athena in Red / Yellow Structures
Nick Mutchler – Chryssy, 11C-All, Nina Tullus in Red / Blue / Yellow Flagship Attachments
Pete Irving – Lucca and Barica in Blue / Green Attachments
Steven Boston – Starlet Sylvestra in Yellow / Green Bully
The top four consisted of Alex Peele, Eileen Lee, Nick Mutchler, and Steven Boston, with Eileen winning the grand prize. (Congratulations Eileen!)
Eileen Lee
Color Supremacy
In the whole field of 11 players:
4 players included red
5 players included yellow
3 players included green
8 players included blue including a whopping 3 mono blue decks.
But in the top 4:
2 Players included Red, including the player who ended up winning the tournament.
3 Players included Yellow
2 Players included Green
2 Players included Blue
Compared to the previous PAO in the preseason, which had:
5 Red Players
5 Yellow Players
4 Green Players
3 Blue Players
This tournament not only represented a greater skew than we have seen before, we also see Blue jumping from the least played color (though, just barely) to the most played color. That did not result in an excellent top 4 conversion rate though.
67% of green players qualified.
60% of yellow players qualified
50% of red players qualified.
25% of blue players qualified.
That’s a little unscientific of a number, because decks are multiple colors. Hopefully after a few of these essays I come up with a better methodology.
Support Saturation
Since there were 8 blue, 4 red, 5 yellow, and 3 green players, the maximum number of support cards in each color are
Blue – 24
Red – 12
Yellow – 15
Green – 9
It’s no surprise, then, that 5 of the top 6 support cards played were blue, with
Excommunicatus – 20
Change the Tide – 18
Augur’s Auspice, Federation Battlemage, and Protection of Belief – 15
But then we get Docide Thug with 15 copies. That means every yellow deck played 3 copies of Docide Thug.
The top played cards in each color beyond blue are
Yellow
Docide Thug – 15
Enthusiastic Harmonist – 10
Continued Training, Energy Retracer – 9
Red
Chain Plasma Rifle, Overcharge, Radar Servo – 6
Ambush, Declaration of War, Fragmentation Grenade – 5
Green
Witchfire – 9 (Maximum possible)
Wasteland Stalwart, Wasteland Requiem, Diplomatic Meeting, Engulf in Stone
Examine the Specimens, Relic Seeker – 6
Support Conversion to Top 4
The most played cards in the top 4 by color are
Red
Chain Plasma Rifle, Overcharge – 6
Ambush – 5
Yellow
Docide Thug, Continued Training – 9
Energy Retracer, Enthusiastic Harmonist – 6
Green
Witchfire, Wasteland Stalwart, Wasteland Requiem – 6
Engulf in Stone – 5
Blue
Excommunicatus – 6
Change the Tide, Blessing of the Cloth – 5
This means in the top 4, Every Red deck played 3 Chain Plasma Rifle and Overcharge,
every Yellow deck played 3 Continued Training and Docide Thug,
every Green deck played 3 Witchfire, Wasteland Stalwart, and Wasteland Requiem, and
every Blue deck played 3 Excommunicatus.
A whopping 25 support cards had a 100% conversion rate to the top 4. This means every player that had any copies of these cards in their deck made it to the top 4. Largely, these are cards that saw a relatively few number of copies played. Smoke Bomb was only in Nick’s deck, for example, so given that he made the cut, Smoke Bomb has a 100% conversion.
By color, the cards with 100% conversion rate are
Red – Chain Plasma Rifle, Overcharge, Ambush, Search and Destroy
Spotter’s Scope, Battle Ready, Follow the Trail, Concussive Blast, and Melt Down.
Yellow – Continued Training, Too Cute to Die, Magnite Studios, Sleight of Hand, Disrupt Communication, Animus Golem, Lifecrafter’s Art, Back Alley Deal, Heirloom Cittern, Smoke Bomb, Back Alley Conjurer, Black Market Profiteer, Operahouse Critic, and Angel of Music.
Green – Wasteland Stalwart and Wasteland Requiem.
Blue – None.
The Blue cards with the highest conversion rate were:
Blessing of the Cloth – 67%
Templar Armaments – 50%
Sever the Ties and Templar Squire – 33%
This is mostly a consequence of blue making up such a large portion of the field.
Conclusions
Aggressive Red cards performed at a very high level.
Yellow / Green Bully has sufficient answers for a diverse metagame.
Be prepared to play against blue sacrifice decks.
Steven Boston is still very good at this game (but CAN be beaten).
Thanks for reading. I know this is a tight turn around to leverage this information for the Discordia PAO in Bremerton on the 24th, but maybe it can help you out before Paradox Trading Post’s event on the 31st.
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