Azusual

20/11/2022

Final Fantasy TCG Event Write-Up!

Event: San Diego Reraise 2022 (FFTCG Reraise Event)
Where: Tabletop Tavern; Chula Vista, CA
When: Sat 11/12/22 & Sun 11/13/22
Deck: Mono Wind FFIV
https://ffdecks.com/deck/5181863120338944
Place: Day 1: 7 Round Swiss, placed 11th; Day 2: Top 16 Cut Semifinalist)
https://ffdecks.com/tournament/san-diego-tabletop-tavern-reraise-2022/4804381632364544
Spoils: Reraise Vaan Playmat 2022, Final Fantasy VII Blind Box Polygon Figure x2, Reraise Entry Swag Bag (FA Amaterasu Reraise Promo included)

I’ve been a big fan of Ninjas ever since they got their support boost/archetype making in Opus 11 Edge, along with Maina and new cards of the Eblan Four. What drew my attention back to this deck was noticing that Amethyst saw success in running Ninjas in the competitive scene. I gave Wind/Lightning Ninjas a run with my testing buddy Ronald which provided some fruitful results; especially with the latest support from Opus 16 (Cecil, Ceodore, Rosa) and Opus 17 (Cid Pollendina, Yugiri, Onion Knight).

I contemplated on what kind of support I should be giving my Ninjas and FFIV forwards to help them stay on the board. In my testing, the 5cp Wind Cecil didn’t quite give enough protection and wanting to run 3cp Wind Y’shtola proved to be too much to invest in without having FFIV/Ninja synergy. Ron told me to give the new 3cp Light Cecil a try as it helped promote an aggressive playstyle which I had the deck lean towards. He also recommended me to try out the hand trap Fina as a different, potentially more efficient way to handle auto-abilities (from forwards). As much as I would like to say running Fina in a Ninja deck was an original idea, I found one deck list online that included both Fina and Edge from username ‘kurosawa’. If that is indeed Kurosawa from Japan, I humbly thank him for his ideas and his creative ways. Running Fina meant that leaning towards a Mono Wind FF4/Ninja build was the way to go and it was off to the races for San Diego Reraise!

Day 1:
Round 1: Jason [The Heart of SoCal SD but lives in NorCal] (Kingsglaive) - Nyx is such a threat but I was able to maintain a wide board. Went to time. Conceded to me as I had a better board state in the end. (WIN 1-0)

Round 2: Ben [NorCal BAE] (Fire/Water Crystals) - He had an aggressive opening but couldn’t develop a color fixing backup line. I was able to secure victory after stabilizing. (WIN 2-0)

Round 3: Issac [SoCal, new player met!] (T1 Neo Exdeath, he had Twins?!) - I play 1 back T1 and he slaps a NED on me. T3 I try to break it with Ceodore but he responds with a Titan to make it unbreakable. GG EZ’d (LOSS 2-1)

Round 4: Jamie [SoCal, friend since HS] (Ice/Lightning FFXIII with a splash of water) - Opus 17 Serah was a big player for his deck so I made sure to keep it shut down. I was able to play a better resource game than him while keeping an aggressive board. (WIN 3-1)

Round 5: David [SoCal, Warrior for The Light] (Mono Fire Ninjas) - Fina shined for me twice here was I was able to prevent removal for my Ninjas. He wasn’t able to draw into Tenzen in this game which locked him out of an aggressive advance. It was still a close battle which saw me winning. (WIN 4-1)

Round 6: Emmanuel [Arizona native putting all CA card players to shame] (Soirees) - He out valued me at every turn and had better answers for me than I did for him. (LOSS 4-2)

Round 7: Jose [SoCal, fellow BTH brethren] (Mono Ice) - The win-and-in game I didn’t want to see! I play tested against Jose the night before and was favored in our matchup due to my sources of activating forwards and backups if he went to dull and freeze them. It was no different here but he really had me work for my victory here. It was a great finish! (WIN 5-2)

‘The Behemoth’ himself was placed 11th at the end of Swiss and was going onto Day 2!
https://ffdecks.com/card/azul/4-098

Day 2, Top 16:
First Round: David (Mono Fire Samurais) - Unfortunately I don’t remember anything remarkable from our games here. Samurais doing Samurai things and Ninjas doing Ninja things at one game each. I took game three after recovering from a Susano board wipe. WIN (2-1)

Quarterfinals: Xavier [SoCal, he is Captain Basch Fon Ronsenburn of Dalmasca!] (Soirees) - Our match was featured on the Tabletop Tavern Stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Am7uwga-gVM
We had an amazing set of games considering what had happened. In the 3rd game, I kept Shinju off his board and broke his color fixing backups. (WIN 2-1)

Semifinals: Chris Neal [SoCal, World Class FFTCG player, we like to see each other in the Semi-Finals of events] (AVALANCHE) - Brynhildr kept my Edge off the board, never surviving more than one turn. His board always went wider than mine and once he had the AVALANCHE crew out there, my ninjas never had a chance to sneak back in. (LOSS 0-2)

Chris Neal would then go on to become the winner of the San Diego Reraise 2022 event, beating Matt Okimoto in the finals. Congratulations to them both!

Closing:
So my opponents in Round 1, 4, and 7 during swiss (Jason, Jamie, and Jose); the four of us actually had dinner together the night, shooting the breeze and catching up. Only our FFTCG gods knew that I’d have to go through all three of them at the tournament!

All of my card choices were able to shine throughout all the games I had in the tournament. Ironically (unironically), Zidane and Bismarck only saw play twice throughout my games since I opted to go for FFIV and Ninja plays. I was very happy with the performance of the deck and more glad that it got some more exposure to the FFTCG player base.

Thank you to Tabletop Tavern and their staff for hosting the San Diego Reraise event! Big thanks to David Nunes (White Mage) and Ynez for judging and taking care of the players. I’m always glad to see the people that I know and meeting new players when traveling to the big events. Like everyone else, I’m eager to see how OP for 2023 is going to play out. If the stars align just right, you’ll see me travel across the States for FFTCG events just like in 2019.

14/10/2022

Season 7 of Pokemon Unite begins! Just passed the 3,000 games milestone.

21/08/2022

It's been another hot minute! I'll be streaming an unboxing of Rebellion's Call from the Final Fantasy TCG over on Twitch in about 2 hours. Hope to see you there!

www.twitch.tv/azusual
Starting at 1030am PST

18/07/2022

The 1800 rating was within reach this season and I got it! Although I'd say I'd never want to try it again unless it casually comes falls into my lap. Never again am I grinding for that silly sticker!

Pokemon Unite one year anniversary coming up this week!

15/07/2022

So close to 1800. I can taste it!

03/07/2022

Final Fantasy TCG Event Write-Up!

Event: Campfire Bash! (FFTCG Reunion Event)
Where: Ender’s Games; Clovis, CA
When: Saturday 6/25/22
Deck: Soiree Archetype with 34 EX Bursts
https://ffdecks.com/deck/5197688791367680
Place: 2nd Place (5 Round Swiss with Top 8 Cut)
https://ffdecks.com/tournament/campfire-bash/626615
Spoils: Winter Reunion Playmat 2022 and $125 Ender’s Games Store Credit

I rode the Soiree bandwagon once Emissaries of Light (Opus 16) was released. I played against my friend Kevin the weekend before the tournament. He was on Daniel Ramirez’s Fire/Ice deck that won the Haven Reraise. I lost three sets straight to him so I had to rethink my approach to Soirees. Dallas Reraise had just finished and I saw that Matt Okimoto took it down with Soirees that had a focus on Water and Summons. Using that as a base, I made a decision to run more EX Bursts as the Ender’s Games meta likes to lean towards running aggro. Playtesting the night before the event proved to be fruitful so we were off to the races!

(Disclaimer: Recalling specific details proved difficult after deciding to do the write-up one week after the event.)

Round 1: David Faught (Ice/Lightning Aggro)
Took damage early on due to Hasters and Dull/Freezing but EX Bursts kept me in the game and eventually started to out value after the initial aggression. WIN 1-0

Round 2: Gregory Cole (Soiree)
The Warrior of Light himself! We reminisced about the glory days of the 2019 FFTCG Season and the Fire Crystal Cup. It was a relatively even match with constant back and forth. I think I was able to sneak a win here by ripping/(searching?) a Merald for a win. WIN 2-0

Round 3: Kevin Kraft (Fire/Ice Aggro)
Encountered my friend here! I believe this was the game where he only generated one crystal and used it with a Sol on his opening turn. No cheap bahamuts nor future Sols to flood the board with. Stabilized after initial aggression. WIN 3-0

Round 4: Anson Quach (Earth/Ice Control)
So when I arrived at Ender’s Games for the tournament, I was greeted by an old FFTCG friend Peter Wong. I had immediately thought “Oh s**t, that means Anson and Shine are likely to be here too!” At Dallas Reraise, both of them would Top 8 with an Ice/Earth Discard control deck that Soirees have a very hard time with. Their crew is from Northern California so it shouldn’t have been a question that they’d attend. Big misplay on my part and neglected to test against their deck. Anyway, Anson was able to develop his control board and played two Arcanist backups. There was no way I was getting through. GG. LOSE 3-1

Round 5: Shine Low (Earth/Ice Control)
Considering how badly the game with Anson went, I was expecting similar results from Shine. However it seemed like luck was on my side as he wasn’t able to set up his key cards during the game. I was able to bounce an Arcanist with a water Fusoya auto which allowed me to attack through and win in the later turns. WIN 4-1

Placed 4th in Swiss and made it to the Top 8 cut!

Quarterfinals: Shine Low (Earth/Ice Control)
The first two games were a grind with me trying to win games quickly before Shine developed his control board. He played a slower game for Game 1 and 2. We took about 33 mins for the first game and timed out by the end of the 2nd game. He took Game 1 but I was able to clench Game 2 nearing a deck out situation. The start of Game 3 has me open with an Amber and Shinju. I played Amber to search Merald and then played Shinju. Shine plays a backup? and passes. Turn 2 I play Merald with Haste and attack for 1 damage. Turn 3 he wasn’t able to deal 1 point of damage to me so that ended the match. I never like these situations since it changes the win condition and tends to favor more aggressive plays, especially when nothing on the board has developed yet.

Game 1 - LOSE
Game 2 - WIN
Game 3 - WIN (Turns; Damage at 1-0 by Turn 3)

Semifinals: Kevin Kraft (Fire/Ice Aggro)
Game 1 I lose in about 8 mins. Kevin overcommits the board with five forwards on his third turn but I was not able to answer all of them. This game also marked my worst EX Burst outcomes as only 1 out of 6 appeared in my damage zone. Game 2 I flipped a Shantotto on Damage 1 where I believe gave Kevin a false sense of security. After taking a second point of damage, he ended up overcommitting the board again with four forwards. On my turn, I was able to play Larsa and retrieve my Shantotto from the Damage Zone and had enough CP to play it, clearing the board of all the forwards! Took some time to stabilize afterwards but was able to recover and win Game 2. I was able to claim victory in Game 3 as he whiffed on an early Selh-teus play and EX Burst would swing the advantage in my favor.

Game 1 - LOSE
Game 2 - WIN
Game 3 - WIN

Finals: Anson Quach (Earth/Ice Control)
Unfortunately this is where my big bad Meta deck overcomes Anti-Meta bully story comes to an end! My strategy going in was to try and deal the seven points of damage before Anson had a chance to set up his control board. Wasn’t able to get there for both games but was able to hold out a long time in Game 2 (I would’ve decked out otherwise). I needed the answers to Monsters and the Arcanists, but my deck did not have them. I was saving any removal I had for when Byblos became a forward but he was painstakingly patient and waited until all of my options were out of the picture.

Game 1 - LOSE
Game 2 - LOSE

Campfire Bash ends with Anson as your winner and myself getting second place. It was another great day of cards with familiar faces and competitive spirits! Another trophy mat to add to the collection and spent some of my credit to buy an Anniversary box and entrance fee for the local tournament for the following day. Choosing to lean towards an EX Burst strategy proved to be a great choice but neglecting to see the Ice/Earth Control deck making an appearance would be my ultimate downfall. Big thank you to Ender’s Games and James Smith for facilitating a Reunion level event!

Glad to see and experience these higher level events once again. I’m hoping for good news of a return to OP later this year. But until then, back into the cave I go!

30/06/2022

Fall Guys became Free to Play last week so here we are falling again with the squad! Here's a juicy glizzy squad win to start us off!

https://youtu.be/owdax47ytDg

22/06/2022

1600 in Masters! Goal is to hit 1800 before the season ends in about four weeks. I'm doing it!

04/06/2022

Penta-KO clip. Cinderace is still my guy!

02/06/2022

The Icy Bois combo! With a large soda.

29/05/2022

Reached the 1400 Masters threshold! Now for the arduous climb to 1800. 🙃

19/05/2022

My 10 minutes of fame! It's always fun to see yourself/character on stream of a content creator you watch. Lucky (unlucky?) SoloQ spot.

14/05/2022

Got my squad that will take me to the top! Here's the video of my Master's Promotion on Season 4 of Pokemon Unite. Had the we**am on to commemorate my return to making videos!

12/05/2022

It's been too long since I last posted! So here's a pic of me getting Master Rank again for Pokemon Unite Season 4!

16/02/2022

RPGs are my jam. I'm in on the Lost Ark craze as well!
Catch me on Mari, US West Coast server.

12/02/2022

I made it to the big leagues! Here's a video of my Platinum V promotion match. Gladiator Beasts vs Shiranui Zombies. Messy game overall but we got there!

09/02/2022

Season 3 Ranked for Pokemon Unite has begun! All the Masters have to climb their way back to the top after a rank reset. Here is my match that promoted me back to Ultra class!

Season 3 of Ranked Pokemon Unite is upon us! All the Masters have to climb there way back from Veteran class. Here is my match that promoted me to Ultra Clas...

07/02/2022

Blackwings was a hot archtype back when I returned to playing Yu-Gi-Oh! for a bit back in 2009. I gravitated towards gladiator beasts and had many a match against these dark avians.

A short and close back and forth ranked match between my Gladiator Beast vs Blackwings on Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel