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.
Most KeyForge players are still unable to play in person due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so online tournaments are the best place to experience competitive play. While there is much we miss about playing in person, playing online and participating in the community digitally is the best way to keep enjoying KeyForge until it’s safe to do so in person.
The team at The Crucible Online (TCO, the unofficial and only way to play KeyForge online) recently integrated their fan-made platform with Challonge, a website that manages tournaments. This allows tournament organizers to general game links for each pairing, so that players just click button in Challonge and are immediately entered into their game, forgoing the need for players to coordinate game creation themselves. After an initial test run tournament, they decided to run a larger tournament on Saturday June 27. The format was Archon Solo, Best-of-one, only Worlds Collide decks were allowed, with six rounds and no top cut. I had the privilege of commentating the matches alongside Stuart, a.k.a. Cryogen, who leads TCO’s development.
Without further ado, I present my top three moments from this wonderful event!
1. Sporting Conduct Shown by Everyone
If Cryogen and I were commentating a match that finished early, we would head over to another match in progress. Thus, we saw a lot of match-ends, and I was pleasantly surprised at the sheer volume of good-hearted chats that took place after matches. The vast majority of players partook in more than the standard “gg” after a match; the person who won often said they were sure they were about to lose, or the person who lost mentioned with a good nature the moment they knew victory was out of their reach.
It’s often been said that KeyForge has a fantastic community, and it’s true. Even when all we’re seeing is online handles and chat boxes, many people are keeping up their attitudes and valuing the person across the screen from them.
2. Filipe Gonçalves’s Legionary Wins the Match
If you don’t recognize the name in the title of this section, then you might recognize the handle Jfilipeg. The “Portuguese Fury” is a mainstay of online KeyForge tournaments, and his skill at the game may only be outpaced by just how dang nice the guy is.
We got the chance to commentate one of Filipe’s matches, and he played an early Tricerian Legionary followed by and Imperial Scutum. Normally, a creature doesn’t last an entire KeyForge match, and in the early game your opponent doesn’t have enough aember for a Tribute to be worth it. Cryo and I noted that it seemed like a great target for a Tribute, maybe later in the match – but that creature lasted the entire match, never once meaningfully addressed by his opponent, and the Tribute on that Legionary is exactly what won Filipe the game. It’s a lesson in playing to your outs and also a lesson in identifying threats in your opponent’s board state!
3. Lady Aurore Makes a Statement about Saurians, by Winning
Lady Aurore (who’s no stranger to my tournament recaps) has been tactfully vocal about her dislike of the Saurian Republic, one of the new houses introduced in Worlds Collide. When she signed up for this tournament that only allowed Worlds Collide decks, she stuck to her principles and didn’t run Saurian (though given the dislike, I’m sure she didn’t feel tempted to run them). Instead, she ran a deck called Aquoxyl, the Monk Hacker. By the end of the fourth round, only a single key had been forged against Aurore. She went on to win the tournament, decisively. She brought a Hacker to a Dino fight, and won.
Be sure to check out her deck linked above. It has Orb of Wonder and Lateral Shift, which made for game moments that were really fun to watch such as the most brutal Player One, Turn One play I have ever seen in KeyForge. Aurore’s matches were wonderful fun to commentate, and brilliantly exciting to watch.
