Vault Tour Richmond: Tournament Report by Zach Armstrong

This post originally appeared on the KeyForge blog Cosmic Crucible where Zach was a guest author. We’ve posted it here to the Call of Discovery blog for archival purposes.

Going back to my home state of Virginia to attend a Vault Tour with my teammate Asher Knopp was more fun than hitting a Martian Generosity with a Murkens. Asher made Top 8 at the US Grand Championships in Arlington, and we were rooting for our various friends across KeyForge too.

The format for the main event was sealed, best-of-one matches, get three decks pick one. We’ll look at the side events after the main event report.

Main Event – Day 1

Opening the decks, I noticed quickly I didn’t have anything with impressive board control through actions or creatures, nor the more famous combo-enablers from this set like Martian Generosity or Heart of the Forest. Counting the basic stats myself came to the following:

In looking for consistency, Oleo presented the best board presence (for reaping) and the best aember control options in addition to Longfused Mines for assisting with smaller-than-average bodies. As far as power moves / combos go, Oleo was also the best-equipped with Nepenthe Seed, Glimmer, Dharna, Key Charge, Proliferator, Hypnobeam, and Hypnotic Command. The other two decks didn’t have powerful ingredients to counter their lower aember control and smaller boards, though Toxia Octidean’s 2x Helper Bot, Glimmer, 2x Nature’s Call, and great Dis lineup was tempting. I select Oleo with confidence, and we were ready to begin.

Round 1 vs. Sean – W (1-0)

Sean had a bevy of creature destruction actions which he used effectively while I tried to establish a board. We kept each other off of any powerful combos, but I managed to do so with more aember gain and took the win, without a lot of extra room.

Round 2 vs. Tate – L (1-1)

Tate managed to both deploy his board and answer each of my threats effectively. I was crawling back and threatening some combos, but after he locked in his second with me at one key six aember, he reaped up to 2 aember and used Shatter Storm to set me far behind. We discussed afterwards and agreed that it was roughly neck-and-neck until the Shatter Storm, where he sealed the victory. If I wanted to make day 2, I would need to win everything going forward and hope that I didn’t get matched up with a Vault Tour winner with lots of KeyForge name recognition.

Round 3 vs. Rachael Trimble – L (1-2)

Someone who wasn’t considering my need for easy opponents knocked Rachael Trimble to 1-1 and she and I faced off, with the loser of the match being knocked out day 2. When she dropped a Grump Buggy and a crowd of Brobnar and Untamed with Panpaca, Anga, I knew this would be tough with my small creatures and my big steal/burst plays dependent upon my board. My 3x Rustgnawers were hungry for the Buggy, and though I recurred them they were answered by her every time I got them back out. With the help of Hypnobeam and Longfused Mines I managed to clear a board of creatures much larger than mine, but wasn’t able to get my break.

While being knocked out of of the top cut was sad, my personal goal of 3-3 was still in sight, and the generous aembershard rewards for Vault Tour games made it worth fighting on – not to mention my want to finish out the day and enjoy my games, no matter my W/L.

Round 4 vs. Daniel – W (2-2)

Daniel’s creatures were smaller than mine and I was able to control the board and use my reap-hate creatures to good effect, while benefiting from Hypnotic Command multiple times. Hypnobeam let me borrow his Stimrager for most of the match, which was a huge help. A solid win.

Round 5 vs. Paul – L (2-3)

This game was neck-and-neck until a point. He threatened his first key at 7 aember, I played Ronnie and held Miasma until the next turn, in an attempt to find my second Ronnie. However, he found his Binate Rupture after I forged and gained a net 6 aember off the the rupture and rode that to victory, as my 2nd Ronnie and Hypnotic Command were unable to pull him down from that lead.

Round 6 vs. Clint – W (3-3)

Clint was a lovely and talkative opponent, though he came into this match feeling pretty down about his deck. His Brobnar line would have been very effective keeping my board down, but I pushed through, pulled off my few tricks, and took the win to reach my goal of 3-3.

Main Event Thoughts

I was happy to make 3-3 for the third time in a high-tier KeyForge event, receiving the nickname “Mr. Consistency” from friends at the tournament. There was a short dubbing ceremony where a water bottle was used to bestow upon me my new title.

Looking back on my performance to gleam what I can learn from it, I wonder if I didn’t set up for big Dharna turns as much as I should have. Between Throwing Darts and Mothergun, I had options to set up for the 2x Dharnas but the downside was that my only large bodies were Zorgs, and maybe the Rustgnawers; damaging the other creatures threatened to have them removed more easily by my opponent. However, I think I may have needed to risk it to threaten a big aember play besides Hypnotic Command. Most of Oleo stops boards reaping and slows down the opponent’s board, but I needed to lean harder into my own aember-gaining options. I feel good about my uses of Hypnotic Command, and had a lot of options to recur it which I took advantage of. Blowing up the aember-laden creature was difficult, with only ping damage available to me – no direct destruction cards (with a Mothergun > many Mars cards).

With a goal of having fun and improving at the game, I would call the day a total success. I certainly have dreams of making a top cut some day (perhaps in Archon, all my top-level play has been Sealed), but I’ll only get there building on each lesson I learn before then.

Side Events

I played Archon Survival Duo on Friday night, and Team Archon on Saturday night. Both events were fun, and my only loss came to the deck that is literally the winningest deck on The Crucible Online – Olivier, Imalocastle’s Commando.

During Archon Duo I played my control deck The Ranee of Bombagom to success, giving my opponents bad matchups against protect Ember Imps and Control the Weak. I went 3-1 with a loss to the aforementioned Olivier, against whom I made a questionable Control the Weak call that played into the deck’s threat.

I intended to play Ranee during Team Archon, but I didn’t have her with me on Saturday so my friend Jason allowed me to borrow The Thespian that Repairs Transportation and gave me a one-minute tutorial on how to play the deck. I managed to go 4-0 myself, with our team going 3-1, and was very thankful for Jason’s lesson on how to play 2x Brain Stem Antennae with Witch of the Eye and Battle Fleet / Key Abduction.

Shout-Outs & Outro

• Shout out to Yeti Gaming, who have been running Vault Tours for a few months now. They run top-tier events, have wonderful staff, and overall created an easy, enjoyable, efficient, and professional atmosphere at the event. I will be writing a strongly-worded email to FFG about how great Yeti is.
• Shout out to my practice partner, Asher Knopp, making his second Top 8 appearance here at Vault Tour Richmond. Thanks for the hours of practice on TCO, in person, and Keyforge discussion over the phone.
• Shout out to the team Archons of Atlanta, whom I carpooled with to and from the event. Attendees included Alex Carroll (runner-up at this VT), Logan Garies (Top 8 at this VT), and Trevor May (GenCon VT winner), all of whom are skilled KeyForge players who care about building a good community.
• Shout out to Tabletop Royale for streaming the games, and for both members Justin and Nathan making top cut. Nathan went on to win the event – major congrats to him!
  • Find their videos of the games from the event here.
  • I had the privilege to commentate the first streamed game of the top cut alongside Erich Taylor. You can find that here.
  • Thanks to Erich Taylor (JusticeBlinded) and Grant Titus (Stronglink) for commentating alongside the TTR guys.
• Shout-out to Jason, Jared, and George from Pennsylvania whom Asher and I spent much of our extra time at the event with. KeyForge is made great by it’s people and it’s exciting to find friends in the hobby.