Fanboy 3 PQ: London Breakdown

Written by ArtofCod
27th October 2024

There was a 44 player turnout for the CC Proquest at Fanboy 3 in Manchester.

Round 1

This round saw me face off against one of my friends from my local LGS, who had also made the 2 hour travel to attend. I sat down facing off against an Enigma, from testing I know this can be a tough match up but not completely unwinnable. The game starts strong in the first 3 turns with me putting on a lot of pressure and trying to push damage through. My opponent sees 3 or 4 turns of all red card hands, which isn't great on Enigma, however once the blues turn up my deck stalls, and I see nothing to set up my combo, and lose momentum, finally ending in a loss.

Round 2

I sit opposite someone completely new, playing a hero I have only played against a few turns. He also completely disregards the fact I am a Wizard player, and chooses no Arcane Barrier. However Boltyn was a tough match up as he pushes some very wide turns and the combo pieces came far too late to be devastating ending in another loss. 0-2 after the first two rounds was not a great start to the day.

Round 3

I have now made my way down towards the bottom tables, and The pressure of trying to push for a Top 8 spot is off, I am now just playing more for fun. My opponent presents her Hero, the mighty Levia. Understanding how brutes play is an advantage into this matchup, I also know how devastating they can be, but I feel confident into the match and know that Verdance plays very well into Brutes, having won multiple matchups into brutes previously during testing. The game started off well gaining life, forcing blocks, and decomposing, I manage to get up to 7 in Banish and have my combo all set up with three healing potions, a Rampant Growth// Life in arsenal, two blues a yellow, and a Forked Lightning ready for action to potentially deal 52 arcane damage in my next turn as the opponent announces, I will use my Savage sash, and then announces a Bloodrush Bellows and with both of our life totals dwindling, I hope I can live through the turn to take the win, but unfortunately I had to block with the yellow, meaning my potential 52 arcane was reduced to me throwing 21 arcane instead, which my opponent declared no arcane prevention too, and we played out another 2 or 3 turns until the game came to a very close finish with my opponent managing to secure the win with a wide turn. 0-3.

Round 4

I felt a bit of a rush after that close game, and pushed on into round 4 sitting opposite a Zen player I knew I had a good chance in this match up since the banning of Bonds. The game started very well with us both pushing damage through and I managed to find a bunch of my pieces to set up the combo, I had the healing potions set up, I had the rampant growth//life and all I needed was some form of Wizard spell, but it didn't turn up, 5 turns of me blocking, and then drawing up and passing the turn back saw me taking small chip damage after managing to keep the life totals looking fairly level, and I ended up taking the loss after not being able to fire off the combo.

Round 5

I anxiously checked Gem to see my pairings and saw that someone had dropped giving me a Bye. I sat for the next 45 minutes contemplating what had happened in the first 4 rounds. However, This meant my record was now 1-4. A win, but I wish it had been a real win against an opponent.

Round 6

The final round, time for me to prove that my deck is good enough to compete in the current Meta, My opponent presented Nuu. I looked and thought to myself, this is my time, I can have my hero ability online really quick, and hopefully assemble the combo and take the win. Opponent announce they are running Arcane Barrier 1, and we begin. The opponent attacks with a blue stealth card for 1 on Turn 0 so I full block with 4 earth cards knowing they will be banished at the end of combat, meaning my Hero ability is already halfway set up and my equipment is now viable and usable. I draw up and play a sigil of solace gaining 3 life, then pitch a blue into a Harvest Season and play a command and conquer. The opponent takes the 6 damage and I draw up into another 4 card earth hand. I think to myself excellent, this should be my ability online. Opponent again fires another stealth attack at me as I once again full block with my entire hand, and activating my heroes ability. I explain to the opponent what the hero does, and he looks worried. The game progresses with us both dealing damage to each other and slowly chipping away at each others life totals before I manage to get my healing potions all set up and a rampant growth//life into arsenal. My opponent has a bit of an off turn as I send in a big attack which the opponent blocks with two cards from hand, and then allows me to draw up. I draw into three blues and a yellow, two of which are zero cost spells, at this point the opponent is on 34 life, and I allowed myself to take damage and drop down to 2, knowing I had the combo ready to go, and the opponent had presented no disruption. I fired off 33 arcane damage leaving my opponent on 1 life, and I drew my cards, my life total now up at 11 while my opponent is on 1. I then send in a destructive aethertide for 1 arcane, pumped up to 2 with my Metacarpus node, the opponent then raises his fist for the fist bump. The deck finally paid off and we got that win.

Conclusion

Overall I felt pretty good with most of the games. The deck is very capable however some games it just felt like it didn't want to play ball, but that is the random nature of card games. Onward to the next one. I will be playing the deck another few times before the next PQ next week so lets see how it fares. I will also be tweaking the deck to see if I can make it more consistent.