I just wanted to keep a record of one of the Summoner's Cups I attended so I'm posting here.
Facebook Event LinkFebruary 16, 2020 - Sunday
32 Players
Top Prizing:
I'm super glad that me and several friends went out of our way to attend the FFTCG Summoner's Cup at Ender's Game. The event ran pretty smoothly, other than a late start, which affected several groups driving far to get home that night. Other than that, JT did a really great job in hosting the event. It's always great to see the people from the community again. It's been a while since I've attended a semi-big event since I can't attend Meta Potion tournaments anymore due to scheduling. But I do very much miss that feeling of welcomeness, hangouts, and TCG hype from the day. 😊
Much thanks to Richard Alexander for driving 4+ hours each way that day. 😮 The guys were jealous of me "fast-forward time traveling" as I slept through the car ride. 😏 It was expected from all of us though. That was my sleep for the night as they picked me up from work earlier before heading off to the tournament. 🙄 For a funsies event for me to socialize in, I was pretty tired to. I took micro-naps in between all of the Swiss rounds and even while waiting for our dinner that night. 🙄
I felt that the trip would be worth it if at least one of us in the car made Top Cut. Thankfully, Arvin Bernardo did at 7th place. I can't believe the dude got another trophy. 😯 He also won a bunch of Opus X packs, Caetuna Foil and nonfoil promos, and a Lunafreya Play Arts Kai figure.
I surprisingly made the Top 16 cut right at 16th place, which were given extra prizing with the Cactuar promo. 😍 I was super stoked. Now I just need one more for a playset. 😊 I was really surprised too with my jank Earth/Wind deck with 18 one-ofs in the deck. I wanted to try out some cards and couldn't decide what to keep in it. 🤷 Btw, I am not creating a nuisance archetype! 😑 Or so someone says... 😒 I just like to try out combat tricks over entry-effect cards since it's rarely done. I'm glad that I won that promo though. I was the only one in the car that didn't win a raffle prize. 🙄
Swiss Matchups
Round 1 Loss - Wind Water
It was super unfortunate that I had to go up against Richard first game. It's always tough losing the first game in a tournament, which I easily predicted. Water wind was always a bad matchup for me and this game was no different. As I haven't been playing much lately, I forgot what cards do and what to anticipate, even from decks that are clear-cut obvious and/or meta decks.
Round 2 Win - Serah Moogle Rainbow Deck
My opponent played Opus V Serah turn one. Must've been a tough hand to do that. I knew that I couldn't let him set up and get value off of Serah attacking and getting free resources, so on my first turn, I uncharacteristically played Opus X Black Tortoise l'Cie Gilgamesh. It's a very expensive first turn, but I knew that he'd have a hard time dealing with my forward. After that, I just tried setting up while Gilgamesh was on both offense and defense and restricted my opponent. A few turns in, he finally draws an "answer" and hardcasts Veritas. We were both pretty sure that our own Forwards would succeed in that interaction, so we had to call the judge and he even called in a second opinion. Black Tortoise l'Cie Gilgamesh is one of the few anti-water cards I have in my deck because Famfrit has scarred me for life. 😓 It's mainly in my deck to replace Guy for my ice matchups, but luckily, it's also an anti-Famfrit/Veritas card. With my opponent's little resources and board presence, I just powered through his Forwards and went for game.
Round 3 Win - WoFF
Even though I haven't been playing much lately, I have the most practice going against WoFF thanks to Arvin. 😑 I always lose too, so this was going to be a difficult match. I knew that I have to prioritize on keeping my resources to remove Reynn from game, which I was pretty successful with in removing two of them. Having only Opus III Delita on board stalled my opponent from attacking for several turns and it helped me to draw into my answers I needed to deal with the Reynn pings. After Delita went under, I played Opus IV Shantotto and did many shenanigans. I think I did two or three board wipes with her, once with her Special too. 😏 She was a nice last minute addition thanks to Arvin's advice.
Round 4 Loss - Rainbow Control Deck??
Yeah, mega loss to this one. I had a late start with my backups and I couldn't get the ones I needed for this matchup. The Sephiroth entry and Specials discards were seriously too much for me to deal with. Multiple Veritas happened with Luminous Puma. Three Veritas entry and exits is so overkill. I thought it was funny that even though I was in top-deck defense mode after the discards, he couldn't finish the game quickly and I still had a chance. I was setup with 4 backups, so anything I drew, I could at least just pay with my backups. I always drew the right thing that he couldn't overcome. I think one of the critical turning points for the game was when I misplayed a Veritas/Cid (FFBE) interaction. I foresaw his Star Sibyl incoming next turn, so I played my Cid. He Star Sibyl'd in a Veritas, not realizing Cid's auto-ability trigger. I forgot that Verita's exit effect goes off first, so I could've chosen Cid as my character to remove. Unfortunately, I suck at this game and don't remember things, so I removed a backup and still lost Cid. It was c a point because I was off that one last CP on my next turn to stabilize. 😑
Round 5 Win - Ice/Wind
My opponent definitely misplayed here with his Opus 7 Snow and Opus 6 Paul vs my Opus 3 Delita. I knew that having Delita would put him way behind if he were too attack with Snow's mandatory trigger. What he did instead was hardcasts an Opus 8 Rare Shiva on Delita. Not only did he take a point of damage, but he also still swung with Paul and didn't realize that Snow gets broken from the mandatory trigger. He exbursted and searched for an Opus X Starter Vaan, so I knew to play Cid (FFBE). The only thing he could do was hardcast Reks, which still couldn't get his desired trigger effects even when it left the field. The match soon became really lopsided as I had the right counters for his deck at the right time.
Top 8 Decklists on FFDecksTop 8
I wanted to hang with everyone else at the burger joint next door for dinner while Top cut played, but the Meta Potion guys were craving Indian food. 🙄 At least it was really yummy food. 😋 It was unfortunate that the only two SoCal players, Arvin and David "White Mage" in Top 8 had to try to knock each other out first round. It was a bittersweet dinner as we realized either one of our groups were driving home after the first round. 😢
By the time we got back from dinner, the Semi-Finals had just started. Geez, it was gonna be a long night. We watched the stream for the top cut while playing some games ourselves. I definitely like hearing what others think on the plays for streams as Richard and Kelly Thatcher were discussing the matches. I've been out of the loop for the game for a while and forgot how a lot of decks operate so I learned several things when they explained the best plays and whatnot, especially for the Wind Water matchup in the finals.
Top 2 - Congrats to Arvin and Ronald!
Photo Credits to JT Parnell, Danica Joy Ruiz, and Nicki Neal
