The first Player Appreciation Open of Docide Underworlds is now in the books, and players are looking for the results as they prepare for the first round of the Manifold Promotional League or as they prepare for their weekly games across the country. Congratulations to Steven Boston who defeated Adam Hockemeyer in this first Mirror Match that we have had in a PAO elimination round.
Both of these players piloted 3-color Rend, a Red Yellow and Blue deck featuring the Yellow dice of Jeremiah Thayn and Crucio Alvarez alongside the consistency of Samira Sinclair to put immediate pressure on their opponent’s hand. Many of us spent the first season learning that spending gems on drawing cards was not worth doing, but now it is looking like there is a boogeyman on board ready to punish players who only have just enough cards.
Champion – Steven Boston – 3-color Rend
Finalist – Adam Hockemeyer – 3-color Rend
Semifinalist – Aaron Wallace – 4-color Barge
Semifinalist – Kyler Zimmerman – Red Blue Sacrifice
1-2 – LL Hubbard – Red Yellow Servos
1-2 – Issa Shaw – Blue Yellow ‘6-gem’
1-2 – Brad McArtor – Red Blue Mechanical Delve
0-3 – Austin Halverson – Green Yellow Eidolons
Color Representation
Among the 8 decks played, colors were represented 20 times. The top 4 included 3 decks of 3 colors or more, whereas every deck who did not make it the top table was exactly 2 colors.
Red was represented in 5 out of 8 decks, and in every deck in the top 4.
Yellow was represented in 6 out of 8 decks, and in 3 of the top 4.
Green was represented in 2 our of 8 decks, and in 1 of the top 4.
Blue was represented in 6 out of 8 decks, and in every deck in the top 4.
Support Ubiquity
The only card to appear as a 3-of in every deck containing its color was Ignus Fatuus. This is largely true because there were only 2 green decks in the event, so you didn’t have a large volume of possible dissenters. GY Eidolons and 4-color barge were both green decks with a structure focus. Aaron Wallace is a known Rumble of the Grotto hater, but otherwise most of Austin’s selections were looking for Eidolon synergies while Aaron was looking for raw structure stats.
Energy Retracer appeared as a 3-of in 5 of the 6 yellow decks, but was absent in the Eidolons decklist which went 0-3.
Radar Servo appeared as a 3-of in 4 of the 5 red decks, but was absent in the 4 color structure deck.
Change the Tide was present in all 6 Blue decks, but was a 1-of in the Red Blue Mechanical Delve deck, and a 2-of in Blue Yellow ‘6-gem’
Takeaways
A larger card pool has reduced the amount of support card ubiquity, which is to be expected. Cards like Docide Thug and Radar Servo which used to be omnipresent in decks in their color now find some archetypes which push players toward more “archetype specific” decisions and away from “generic quality” decisions.
3-color Rend looked very good in this tournament, only losing a game to itself (Adam and Steven intentionally drew during the 3rd round of Swiss pairings). As the Archoria and Soliliquy groups in the Promotional League get ready to play, it will be curious to see if this hot new deck keeps popping up. I would expect to play it at least once if you plan on winning the PAO at Terracrux Games on September 26th.
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