Hello everyone! Last Sunday, I decided at the last minute to play the RCQ Sealed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle at the Face à Face store. Although I'd already qualified for the next RC in Gatineau in May, I had a free day and I'm always excited to compete with a new set. Unfortunately, that didn't seem to be the case for many people, as there were only 16 of us, which contrasts sharply with the recent Lorwyn Eclipsed sealed events and their forty or so players.
TMNT is the brand new Universe Beyond set. Despite all the bad press Universe Beyond sets have received in recent years, I think they're still enjoyable to play with their new mechanics that try to represent each new universe. For TMNT, I like the new integration of Ninjutsu with Sneak, which can be used on both creatures and spells, as well as the new Mutagen tokens. The set is relatively small, a bit like the Spider-Man set last fall. This means cards can appear more frequently in a limited format, which accentuates the synergies between different archetypes.
My sealed deck pool offered me two deck options: white-black or blue-red. The white-black Sneak option, while using good rares in Super Shredder and Shark Shredder, lacked interaction options and sneak cards (only 5, and sadly not the best ones). The blue-red Artifact option, on the other hand, made more use of the excellent mythic Technodrome, as well as my 3 Buzz Bots armed with Improvised Arsenal. So I opted for the deck where the synergy seemed more prominent, in addition to having a more tempo-oriented deck, which suits my strategy better.
In round 1, I faced a young player on black-green Disappear. Despite the larger creatures typical of green and the life gain from black, my flying robots were able to quietly whittle down his life total, and my big 7/5 turtle (Slash, Reptile Rampager) was able to stealthily finish off my opponent by emerging from his lair (Turtle Lair). Ironically, we each had a copy of The Ooze in our decks and both had it in play at the same time in the first game, so it was a duel to see who would activate it first.
In round 2, I lost two very close games against a sneaky black-white deck. Some white rares are very strong in this format, and my opponent seemed to have them all. I fought hard, but he outplayed me.
In round 3, I faced the father of the young player from round 1. I want to mention that I really enjoy seeing this father/son duo in tournaments, as I would love to do the same with my own children in the future. Hats off to them. I remember him playing a green-blue deck, but I'm not sure and I didn't write it down. I do know, however, that I won in two games after some good combat exchanges.
With only 16 players and 4 rounds total, a 2-1 score after 3 rounds guaranteed me a top 8 finish with an intentional draw in the final round. This gave me the opportunity to draft in the top 8.
Initially, I wanted to go white-black sneak by choosing Prehistoric Pet in the first pack, but black didn't seem open afterward. In fact, only red seemed open. So I went heavily into red while trying to keep myself open to playing white-red or blue-red. In the second pack, I continued to prioritize red until I saw that white was more open than blue. So I ended up with a very aggressive white-red deck, trying, once again, to play with creatures that have evasion (Prehistoric Pet, April O'Neil, Wingnut, and Turtle Lair) and equipment (Quintessential Latana and 2x Improvised Arsenal). In retrospect, if I had gone blue earlier in the draft, I could have had a really strong blue-red deck, given the cards I opened in my second and third packs for that combination, but I'm still happy with the final product.
I won the quarterfinal against Hugo with a blue-green deck very quickly. I had very fast starts, and he had very little defense in the early turns. So I managed to kill him before he could play his big cards.
In the semifinal, I faced Steve in the white-red aggro mirror. We were almost opposite each other on the draft table, so it's not too strange that we ended up with the same color combination. Our decks obviously operated on very similar lines, and we quickly found ourselves in situations where our creatures could barely attack. Evasion and my equipment tipped the scales in my favor.
In the final, I faced David with a blue-red-green midrange deck. Although I managed to get him low on health in the first game, he stabilized and then killed me with his big creatures. The second game allowed me to show him the two Improvised Arsenals I had picked before him and quickly finish him off. The third game was similar to the first, and I lost. His deck was very well built, with good defense in the early turns, followed by some very strong late-game cards.
All in all, I'm satisfied with my tournament. My decks were relatively well-constructed with the cards I was lucky enough to open, and I navigated my games as best I could. Plus, the results were there. I can hardly ask for more. Okay, I could have asked for one more win, but hey, you can't have them all. Thanks to Cartes Léo for the support in this tournament and I'll see you next week for my return to the Legacy format.