Prologue

In the weeks leading up to Calling Montreal, the AGE Pro Team were focused on Silver Age for Calling San Diego. Luckily, Valentine’s Day fell on the same weekend as the Calling, so I had a pretty good excuse not to go even though the event was quite close to me geographically. I spent a good amount of time brewing in the SAGE format, but overlooked Kayo, assuming that the Majestics from Classic Constructed carried a good amount of weight and that consistency alone wasn’t enough to push through the fatigue decks. Before I move on to my report, I would like to congratulate three teammates, Evan Bridges, Alex Vore, and Jonah Overholt, for making top 8 of the Calling in SD. With San Diego in the books, it was just me and Alex from the team who were headed to Montreal (and then Jonah decided to join us after his top 8 finish).

We realistically only spent a little over a week preparing for Calling Montreal since it was all SAGE prior. For most of the week after San Diego, I tried to build a strong Fai deck. He was my hero of choice back in Uprising and I have a soft spot for him in my heart. Although Marionette, Verdance, and Oscilio were obvious top contenders of the format, I felt like Fai should have a good matchup into Verdance and Oscilio with Marionette being slightly unfavored. I ran a few games into Jonah’s Kayo and quickly realized that Bloodrush Bellow was just Art of the Phoenix: War without having to include worse cards in my deck, and also that Scowling Flesh Bag was incredibly difficult to play through as an aggro-combo deck. I was also losing to Alex’s Oscilio, unsurprisingly. I spent some time dabbling with various decks such as Oscilio and Prism, two incredibly powerful and unfair decks. Ultimately, I felt like the learning curve for these two decks was too high for the upcoming tournament.

The Deck

With only a few days left, I decided to return to Kayo. I updated my list from January that I used to take down Kingslayer’s Road to Nationals event, which had a few tech slots that I was able to remove. I simply added three Weakest Links into the deck and swapped Energetic Impact for Bear Hug, a marginal upgrade from PEN since I didn’t really feel too strongly about blocking with two cards to get a Vigor token.

Wednesday (2/25/26) - The Work

I spent an entire afternoon playing against Alex’s Oscilio, going slightly positive at 10-8. I also played a couple of games against Anthony’s Marionette since Jonah said the Kayo-Marionette matchup was actually slightly favored. I immediately got turn zero Kiss of Death with Tarantula Toxin scammed again (this happened at the January AGE LA Open) which made Marionette continue to feel like a slightly unfavorable matchup. I also decided to test a little bit of Verdance and was able to steal a game against Prism with the help of the new Elemental Strike plus Colors of Aria combo by playing the tempo game. I started to believe that Verdance may be better into a brand new, open meta as she punished decks like Marlynn, Vynnset, and Valda that I suspected would show up to target the aggro players looking to take Fai or Boltyn into the first CC tournament of PEN.

Thursday (2/26/26) - Indecision

Thursday night, Alex and Jonah are packing for the trip in voicechat and Jonah has pivoted over to Verdance. I decided to start packing my cards finally and put together Marionette, Oscilio, Prism, Verdance, and Kayo (of course). This was also when I remembered that I still do not own Swing Big since I downgraded my deck to be Japanese nonfoil. Jonah was trying to talk me into joining him on Verdance.

Friday (2/27/26) - Travel

On Friday, I finished packing for the trip and narrowed down that I was not going to bring Prism or Marionette. There was no need to bring so many decks just for a Calling and it’s too heavy to lug around during travel and at the venue. I kept Oscilio because I wanted to goldfish it when I had the chance to and if I had scrubbed out, maybe I could practice Oscilio in a side event. I left for the airport and checked in for my flight in person since I was having trouble doing it online. The attendant gave me an upgraded seat since all of the other seats were taken, lucky day.

I landed in Calgary at around 11 PM and had to check-in again after some slight trouble with Customs. I was supposed to meet up with Alex since we were on the same red-eye to Montreal and jam a couple of games since our layover was a little over an hour, but Alex’s flight got delayed. I went upstairs to find an attendant to check-in, since I didn’t have a ticket, but the airport was dead silent. I found the Westjet counter and ran up to the ground staff. They helped me with my ticket, but not before printer troubles plagued us for a good twenty minutes. I looked at my ticket, 11A, a pretty decent seat. The ground staff then said she’d upgrade my seat for my trouble, amazing. I was upgraded to… 9A, sure.

I made my way through security and got to the gate. By this point, it was nearly time to board, so I asked the attendant about Alex’s flight. She mentioned that his flight had just landed and that he would likely make the flight in time. No time to test whether or not Verdance was comfortable to play into Oscilio, unfortunately. I board and look for my succulent upgraded seat.

The only window seat on the flight without a window

I watched Alex walk by me and waited for him to message the group chat. He mentioned that the gate attendant told him he couldn’t fill up his water bottle because he was the last one to board. We waited a little longer as several others boarded, then we waited some more since the plane’s wings were icy with snow. We departed about thirty minutes later. I closed my eyes and tried to get some sleep on the flight.

I had three fears leading up to the tournament: Vynnset, Marlynn, and Huntsman. Vynnset and Marlynn were decks that had good matchups into the aggro decks that I thought would be popular in Montreal. I thought that Fai was not good from testing, but would still be popular, and as a result, Kayo would take splash damage. Even with a surge in Talishar winrate, Huntsman and Valda (also a bad matchup) were likely going to be less popular.

Leaked DMs before the tournament

Saturday (2/28/26) - Day 1 Swiss

I woke up from the flight and decided to just play Kayo. I didn’t get to test Verdance with Alex and wasn’t sure if the AB5 fatigue tech for Oscilio was real. My philosophy for choosing decks in an open metagame involves playing a proactive deck. Your deck needs to be powerful or have some way to win very easily. For longer tournaments, that is something that is often easily overlooked. Sometimes, Kayo can just draw multiple Bloodrushes and win without much effort. Being able to have a bathroom break between rounds or time to mentally reset is important as tournaments are a marathon. Verdance is good if you believe you’re in the better half of the players in the room. You would be taking a slightly unfavorable matchup into popular decks like Fai and Dash I/O where you would need to outplay in order to win. In the end, I felt like it was better to just try to dodge Vynnset, Marlynn, and Huntsman, so I locked in Kayo with the plan to ascend him to Living Legend status.

For those who don’t normally attend larger events like Callings and Pro Tours, when you’re on the ground floor, you usually have no clue what is going on at the tournament other than the rounds you’ve played. I think I didn’t see this metagame graphic until round 3 or so, and it is interesting to see in retrospect how wide it truly was. With that, let’s actually get into the tournament report.

Round 1: Marlynn, Treasure Hunter

Lucky me, I should’ve just played Verdance. Some small trades happened, but I spanked Marlynn’s pirate booty for a couple of cycles. There was a crucial turn where she played Three of a Kind, drew three reds, and was only able to fire a King Kraken Harpoon for 13 damage without activating Hammerhead. I tanked heavily, looked at my 6 armor and my hand of Bloodrush, Tear Limb from Limb, two reds and sighed. No way to block 13 without giving up three cards. Marlynn on the other side didn’t seem too pleased with her turn. I anguished and settled on letting the King Kraken hit. She then asked me to show an attack action. Oh? I had completely forgotten how Go Fish worked, since I was used to getting Cannoned every turn in testing. I showed an attack action and proceeded to Bloodrush and take over the game. Very unlucky for her, I definitely stole this game, but it’s always better to be lucky than good. We joked postgame and they called that I would open a yellow Shred from my Tournament Pack. I did.

W (1-0)

Round 2: Dash I/O

DIO can be a scary matchup for Kayo as we play face up. We do not play defense reactions generally, so it is basically all instinct on what you can afford not to block in the race. She won the die roll and was able to secure the first turn. Luckily for me, DIO simply arsenaled and passed. I opened with a disruptive attack, maybe Strongest Survive. She used most of her armor early and her first turn was Boom Grenade off the top (cranked), Boom Grenade (uncranked), into attacks. I blocked where it was profitable to do so. She didn’t play any Cerebellum Processors or Spark of Geniuses, so I was able to quickly dispatch her when I drew my Bloodrushes. It’s possible to side out the non-blocking cards in this matchup in favor of cards that can block like Buckwild yellow. This gives you the option to pivot into a mid-game fatigue strategy, but you can also just accept your fate and attack with your cards.

W (2-0)

Since we landed at 7 am, I was fairly hungry by Round 1. I took this chance to try Tim Horton’s for the first time and perhaps Montreal was not the place for me to do so. In between rounds, I went downstairs to Tim Horton’s to grab breakfast. The cashier mostly spoke French and all I could cobble together was croissant aux oeufs. The line started to get long behind me and I think she asked if I wanted cheese, then simply gave me an item on the menu (which made sense). 

The croissant was so sad, I was honestly too embarrassed to even take a photo of it. I’ll try again some other time, preferably in English.

Round 3: Arakni, Marionette

I played Flesh Bag in this matchup and it ended up just being a 2-block. I lost the dice roll and was put on the play. I secured tempo early and held it the entire game. I also drew Bloodrush Bellow and kept them on defense before I closed it out. A rather strong Kayo game while their deck did not cooperate as much. To me, this was how I felt when playtesting Marionette myself. The deck has many moving parts: attacks, non-attacks, reactions of both kinds, and even instants. All of these have to line up and your plays are so dependent on whether or not your opponent allows you to get a free mark here or there. In testing, Anthony would joke about how he just enjoyed watching his opponent squirm while playing the Marionette side, but I was the one squirming as Marionette.

W (3-0)

Round 4: Arakni, Marionette

I played Flesh Bag in this matchup and it was mostly just a 2-block again. I think I went second in this game and had tempo early once again. It then converted into a life lead where I was able to no-block a Kiss of Death with double Tarantula Toxin. Normally, that would be a risky play, but similar to Dorinthea, if you do not have to block Marionette, you do not play into their strategy.

W (4-0)

Round 5: Arakni, Marionette

I finally swapped to Crown of Providence in this matchup and it was decent at cycling for a better card, but ironically, I still lost. I think Crown is still correct, but I played Flesh Bag in the earlier rounds because my teammates were very high on it in this matchup. I got scammed for around 10 damage in the early game and played from behind. Eventually, I drew into back-to-back Bloodrush turns which helped me claw back into the game. I may have over-respected Tarantula Toxin on a Kiss of Death turn right after, but I felt like I did not need to lose the game on the spot at that moment if they had it. The turn after, I clashed and saw a Tarantula Toxin on top of their deck, which put me in a tough situation for the rest of the game because I eventually missed a turn and could not deal enough damage to force them to fully block.

L (4-1)

Round 6: Prism, Awakener of Sol

Unfortunately for my opponent, this was not much of a game, as I was able to do the Kayo thing and I did not get scammed by auras. I refuse to lose to Illusionists at tier 3-4 events.

W (5-1)

Round 7: Verdance, Thorn of the Rose

Verdance won the dice roll, so she opened with Light Up the Leaves + Waning Moon for 6 + 2 arcane damage (lucky), which I was able to prevent 4 of with Skullhorn, and cycled some cards. I think this was a fairly straight forward Kayo game versus Verdance. She used two to three defense reactions within the first turn, and subsequently sent Command and Conquer for a couple of cycles. At one point, I checked her discard and it was one Light up the Leaves, three defense reactions, and three Command and Conquers, no where close to getting online. Eventually, she had to take some damage in order to send a Cadaverous Tilling and an Elemental Strike, which banished three Earth cards total. I then juiced her with a Bloodrush turn followed by a wide Reckless Stampede turn because they saved their blocks for the last chain link. On the final turn, I sent Bloodrush and she had to blocked with Barkskin for 2 with no Embodiment of Earth token and Ligma Vitae for 1. Truly, a low roll game for her, but remember, Kayo gamers, Earth is free.

W (6-1)

I’m actually quite familiar with ending day 1 at x-1 now. It’s a great feeling to know you are in a solid position to play for top 8, but day 2 is usually much harder. Something I learned from Teamfight Tactics is that don't need to play to top 8 or to win the entire tournament in order to improve. You play your early game and if you are healthy and in a good economic state, then you have the option to take some risks and play to win the lobby. I find it equally true in longer TCG tournaments, treating day 1 as the early game. This means that if you escaped day 1 at x-2, your mindset for day 2 should just be trying to win as many games as possible to cash, but not necessarily taking as many risky plays to spike the tournament. If you are out of contention for day 2 early, it’s best to save your mental and reset for the Showdown.

Sunday (2/29) - Swiss the Second and Top 8

Round 8: Arakni, Marionette

Unfortunately, I will not be protecting the anonymity of my victims from Team Armory. #LIVEEVIL

Jacob Clements began the game with a Hunter's Klaive swing. I looked at my hand which contained cards that all had block value (shocker). I hesitated to block with my Vigorous Smashup from hand as I learned from playing a couple games against Anthony that Marionette’s play patterns changes entirely based on what the opponent does. Therefore, if they knew what the top card of their deck was, it would heavily influence the lines they are able to take, potentially opening up new options. With that in mind, I did not want to get blown out if he went wide, but I also did not want to get marked for free either, so I greedily solo blocked with the Smashup and clashed. Scar Tissue vs Bare Fangs; I created a Vigor token and kept Bare Fangs on top while Jacob deliberated on whether to commit further. Ultimately, he flicked his other Klaive and transformed into Redback with an arsenal. I drew the Bare Fangs and simply sent a go again attack into Bare Fangs and he blocked with a card. 

On Jacob’s turn, he led with Cut from the same Cloth, Savor Bloodshed, Kiss of Death for 11, 1 life loss and a card draw on-hit. Since I knew he had Scar Tissue, this was a face-up play of 15 points of damage plus draw. I look at my hand of roughly 18 value on offense and simply take the full damage and get a mark reapplied by Scar Tissue. He draws and hesitates, I assumed it was some blue since he didn’t seem to want to arsenal it. Back to my turn, I sent Wild Ride into Claw into Bare Fangs once again, but this time I discarded Bloodrush Bellow, unlucky. Jacob took the easy block where he could.

The turn after, I drew a hand of Buckwild red, Strongest Survive red, Beast Within and Vigorous Smashup blue. Jacob led with Orb Weaver Spinneret into Persuasive Prognosis for 5 as I was still marked. I took the opportunity to block with Savage Sash and Smashup to potentially get lucky and find a blue on top, even if Jacob committed. I blocked, clashed, and flipped over an Unexpected Backhand for extra value and got a Vigor for my troubles. Jacob revealed his arsenal in the reaction step, a Night's Embrace to pump Prognosis up to 6. I took 1 damage, was no longer marked, and banished the blue Backhand off of the top of my deck, then revealed my hand of red, red, yellow. He gained 1 life from the initial banishment, but was unable to strip an additional card from my hand. I believe Jacob also swung with Chelicera with Tunic in order to maximize the Night's Embrace. The Vigor importantly allowed me to convert my hand with Strongest Survive by pitching Beast Within, and allowed for an arsenal. Jacob blocked 6, then showed me a Leave no Witnesses for the on-hit effect of Strongest Survive. This turn cycle was an interesting showcase of how Kayo is able to play around Marionette’s disruptions.

Jacob later had a small turn with Codex of Inertia which put a Bear Hug blue into my arsenal and he followed it with Meet Madness. My hand had Bloodrush and Reckless Stampede with Jacob already at 2 life. I wasn’t sure if Stampede was guaranteed to be lethal. In testing, I was able to use Shelter from the Storm to nullify 3 Stampede pings on a turn as Verdance, but was put in such a losing position anyway even if I had managed to survive. I simply blocked with Crown of Providence to cycle the Bear Hug and absorbed the Meet Madness on-hit. He missed the 33% chance to strip a card from my hand, as it banished a random blue off the top of my deck. I sent Bloodrush and asked him to choose how he wanted to die. He blind discarded the Stampede, so this 97-year-old diner served Coke the old fashioned way.

W (7-1)

Round 9: Kayo, Armed and Dangerous

My fellow Brute brother lost the dice roll and I put him on the play. I believe he simply arsenaled on the first turn and passed, so I started the game with massive tempo. I think he blocked a little and fired back with a Send Packing which banished my yellow Wild Ride from the arsenal. I drew an awkward hand of 4 reds in hand and made the questionable play of blocking with a card from hand along with Savage Sash and Beaten Trackers to get Wild Ride back to hand from banish. On my turn, I blew up Sash to Savage Feast for free to high roll a blue. I missed, but discarded a 3 cost red and simply broke Trackers to send another Swing Big and arsenal. I think I also banished Bloodrush in this game as well, but the game quickly devolved into a situation where he had to Flesh Bag me because I sent the first Bloodrush of the game for a decent chunk of damage. On my turn, I hit the 50-50 Flesh Bag on his Bloodrush turn and he was stranded with a red Buckwild off the top from Wild Ride with only 1 pitch floating after he broke Sash. If he was able to send the Show of Strength that was intimidated, I would have had to block with a couple more cards in hand and may not have been able to close out the game. Post game, we giggled like school girls and shared our love for TLFL.

W (8-1)

Round 10: Fai, Rising Rebellion

My opponent won the dice roll and decided to limit test. He chose to go first and played out a small hand with a second Phoenix Flame as I blocked out efficiently and he set up an arsenal. I sent a red Strongest Survive to keep him on the back foot. On his Tunic turn, he started with Rise from the Ashes into Ignite, a telegraphed play that he was likely going to use Art of the Phoenix: War. Now, I have personally tested Fai and this matchup rather extensively (3 games played) and it is a miserable matchup for Fai. Kayo simply plays Art of War without spoiling his deck with bad cards like additional Phoenix Flames and Rise from the Ashes (don’t change my mind, but I know it is a necessary evil if you want to play this deck). I simply utilized 6 block in armor as I brought in Scabskin Leathers for this matchup. He activated AoPW as anticipated and played Inflame for 3 (due to Tiger Stripe Shuko) to pick up a Phoenix Flame. Now, Inflame is another below-rate card that is only good when buffed with Spreading Flames or AoPW. From here, I no longer wanted to commit to blocking as I had a Bloodrush in hand and was likely able to put him near lethal range. I let the Inflame hit, he popped Lynx for Fire that Burns Within and continued his turn. I waited for him to send a couple more attacks before attempting the Flesh Bag and survived at high single-digit health. I then sent him to the Shadow Realm with Bloodrush into a Strongest Survive for 10 or something. 

W (9-1)

At this point, I was one of the three x-1s and was locked for top 8 with two rounds left. (I’m looking at you, random guy from Purple Discord who said Kayo “snuck” into the top 8.)

Round 11: Dorinthea Ironsong

I rolled snake eyes, so my opponent put me on the play. I think I was able to leak 3 damage turn 1. He then started his turn with Steelblade Supremacy into Dawnblade for 5. My hand was 2 reds, a blue, and a Fearless Confrontation. Steelblade Supremacy is one of Dorinthea’s many Majestics and is comparable to Bloodrush. I blocked with Flesh Bag, Sash, and Beaten Trackers for 5 to play around Reprise, the Intimidate trigger banished a card and he followed with a Beat of the Ironsong in the reaction step choosing +1 power on Dawnblade. I discarded Fearless Confrontation for its hidden mode to reduce Dawnblade's power back down to 5 and was able to end his turn. Cinema. I sent a Swing Big and arsenaled my Bare Fangs. The turns were not too eventful as I let Dorinthea gather some counters (since blocking is very unprofitable), until I was able to Bloodrush and put lethal damage on board. He happened to draw into Sink Below in order to keep 2-3 cards total and blocked out my Swing Big for 10 and survived at 1 life. He swung Danwblade for 5 go again from the Quicken token with Refraction Bolters still up. I decided to take this turn to reset the Dawnblade counters since I was up around 12 life, by blocking 3 cards, but the card he had arsenaled initially was Singing Steelblade (searching Twinning Blade, never lucky, man) and he was able to present lethal on me instead. In retrospect, I may have had opportunities to send Bare Fangs over Swing Big to not give up a Quicken, but I don’t really recall now. GG.

L (9-2)

Round 12: Vynnset, Iron Maiden

There were only a few players I had not played near the top tables at this point, so I knew I had a good chance to pair into Vynnset. Jonah had briefly mentioned to me in passing that I should try to fatigue Vynnset, but I had to sell it in a way where I traded a little damage early on, so she would then block a little to set up. Since I was already locked, I was only playing for seating and a potential better bracket in the top cut. With that in mind, I won the dice roll and played first, seeing if I could blow her up and then pivot into a fatigue plan mid-game. This game was overall, fairly unlucky. I had another classic, Wild Ride into Claw into Bare Fangs, mill Bloodrush off the top. By the time I drew my second Bloodrush, Vynnset sent Widespread my cheeks Annihilation, I took it like a Mark of the Black Widow, then got hit with a Cull. Since I had Bare Fangs in my arsenal, I banished the Bloodrush and broke Sash on my turn in order to play Wild Ride into Gauntlets of Tyrannical Rex plus Bare Fangs to put her sub 10. She drew a mediocre hand with no attacks, so she fully blocked a turn. With the breathing space I got, I drew 4 blues for 10 damage. Absolute Kino. The result of this game actually led me to believe that Kayo could easily race Vynnset if his Bloodrush turns lined up with a turn where Vynnset didn’t have Cull to disrupt. Something like a 4-card Bloodrush, set up an arsenal into 5-card Bloodrush is certainly a viable way to take the game.

L (9-3)

Top Cut

A second top 8 for the Dong this season, I'd like to take this moment to thank all of my teammates on the AGE Pro Team for both the testing and support throughout the season. It has truly been a fun time playing on a team. We took some photos and got ready to enter the prison for our top 8 matches.

Top 8: Oscilio, Constella Intelligence

Michael Hamilton was the higher seed, so he chose to go first. Alex concluded that this matchup was slightly favorable for whoever went first in testing. Michael stared at my decklist and immediately remarked that I had several hate pieces for him. Weakest Link is in here just for you, buddy.

Turn one, Michael started with Sigil of Conductivity with a Comet Storm for 6 damage out the gates, with a Gone in a Flash for his arsenal. So lucky. Since I was unable to cycle my hand, I sent Bare Fangs, broke Trackers into Weakest Link to steal a cycle and re-establish a life lead. I was immediately punished by drawing back up into red Savage Feast (hate this card, but that’s why the deck name included Savage Feast edition). Michael then presents yellow Blast to Oblivion into Aether Spindle. I blocked with armor to stop a potential Channel Lightning Valley. On my turn, I played Wild Ride and discarded Beast Within, which promptly banished Bloodrush Bellow and I got an irrelevant card. The Beast Within discard may have been a later turn cycle, but I somehow then only had 2 resources floating, so I decided to Gauntlet + Savage Feast to send 7 as opposed to pitching Savage Feast to play Buckwild as I also got an arsenal. I drew Smashing Ground (hate this card) for my arsenal. Drawing the second card of the turn from Savage Feast actually turned on his Balance of Justice, but fortunately for me, his hand was actually terrible and he simply blocked with two cards.

He then presented a small turn into Mind Warp, which caused me to draw triple reds. It’s very important to be as disruptive as possible in this matchup, so I activated Savage Sash and played Strongest Survive for 8 (with Might), which forced 2 blocks and revealed a red Blast to Oblivion. On his turn, Michael played the red Blast into an instant, bounced the Sigil of Conductivity back into his hand, then sent Gone in a Flash into Sigil and bounced Gone again. I chose not to block with my Gauntlets hoping that he would arsenal. He deliberated and arsenaled the Gone. On my turn, I sent a go again attack into Gauntlets plus Smashing Ground (can’t hate on this card anymore) and for the first time in all of my games, it actually did something. Michael was forced to block with a couple of cards. At this point, life totals were very close, I believe it was 12 to 8. He sent Gone and I immediately pushed up the Flesh Bag, which bought a critical turn I needed to keep him off of a hand that could combo. With only two cards in hand, he chose to play an instant and not bounce Gone and then arsenaled the last card. Of course, this was also the turn I drew into Bloodrush, along with Beast Within. I slammed the Bloodrush and paused - Michael reluctantly said it resolved (Wobble shouldn't be in this matchup!). I did indeed discard the Beast Within for a blue which ultimately overwhelmed him with Claw, Wild Ride, and Strongest Survive for 10.

W - On to Semis

This was a really interesting game since it felt like we both low rolled, but I eventually drew into Bloodrush and Michael never saw a Sigil of Brilliance.

Top 4: Vynnset, Iron Maiden

I rematched with June, she had the higher seed so she was able to go first this time. I fully intended to fatigue her from the beginning. Naib helped me out with my configuration and strategy against Vynnset while we were waiting to be streamed. I think I sold my aggro plan quite well, seeing as she swapped over to Grasp of the Arknight over Vexing Quillhand in our top 4 match. This game was streamed, so please go check it out. Overall, there were a couple of places that I think I could have done better. The first was choosing not to arsenal the Wild Ride on my first turn. Since I knew I was fatiguing, I potentially should have arsenaled the Wild Ride and simply swung Claw for 4 instead. It is only 2 points of damage lost, but I would’ve been able to set up for a wider Bloodrush. Ultimately, I didn’t want to have to risk losing a valuable arsenal to Widespread Destruction, so I only arsenaled when it was free. Ultimately, this decision did mean that my first Bloodrush turn was not ideal. The second was choosing to keep my Bloodrush on top after the first clash. I think there was no reason for me to waste my Providence to draw the Bloodrush there as some have mentioned, but I definitely forgot I had already taken damage and Widespread Ruin would banish my first Bloodrush. Bottoming it would’ve been the most correct play there. Lastly, I think I could have risked it on my Bloodrush turn by playing Tear Limb from Limb first. I had sided out four Wild Rides, so I knew I had less starters. TLFL to me was always just blue Wild Ride, so me not playing it as a blue Wild Ride there because I was afraid of missing on blues for Bloodrush was likely incorrect.

L - Wave goodbye with a Gold Foil in hand

Also, I know a lot of backseaters were curious as to why I didn’t block the last Flail. June had a Machinations of Dominion coming up in her next hand even if I had not randomly died due to 2 TLFL in my hand. If she had any attack in arsenal, she could have easily blocked a claw with a card, played Machinations, and double pitched to attack if necessary which was guaranteed lethal via overpower.

Deck Changes for the Future

I played the Shamanic Shinbones last minute because it was a funny new card and I didn't want to be 0% into Vynnset. In retrospect, because it was only for Vynnset, it probably should’ve been a Nullrune Hood. Scabs or Trackers are fine, though I believe Scabs are likely better to fatigue with and I don’t mind rolling. Other than that, red Savage Feast can be two more yellow Bare Fangs and the three Weakest Links can be any disruption you want to play: Command and Conquer, Erase Face, Send Packing, Amnesia, or even Humble, but I wouldn’t change the ratios of the deck.

Here is the sideboard pattern and you can adjust. Generally, I don’t play Savage Feast in matchups if I don’t have to, since I hate the card. Buckwild yellow is also a serviceable replacement for Wild Ride yellow in matchups like Cindra where you may want to block a little.

Your opponent wants to race you package:
2 red Savage Feast (higher ceiling for racing)

1 Bare Fangs yellow

3 red Strongest Survive

3 Vigorous Smashup yellow/Weakest Link (whichever one is better if you have to)

Your opponent wants to block you package:

3x Buckwild yellow

3x Reckless Stampede

2x Savage Feast

1x Bare Fangs yellow

2x Tear Limb from Limb (can take out blues for this to stay at 60)

Props and Slops

I bid you adieu with this classic tourney report tradition:

Props:

• All of my opponents were great, GGs!
• GEM gods pairing me into good matchups
• Rinsing Team Armory
• Meet Madness
• Alex making top 16

Slops:

• Forgetting my playmat day 2, so I had to buy a sexy Balance of Justice playmat to use for the day
• Not realizing I had already taken damage from from Widespread Ruin, so not bottoming my Bloodrush off of clash was doing a lil’ bit of trolling
• Discarding Bloodrush a few times
• No, Scowling Flesh Bag does not exist in Japanese, bro, please stop reminding me
• Adaptive Plating GF
• Tarantula Toxin
• Jonah scrubbing
• Jonah missing his flight ☠️

Bonus:

A quick review of YUL airport’s Aspire Lounge. If you frequently travel for leisure or work, it’s pretty nice to get access to airport lounges to make traveling less stressful. Since I took an Uber with Alex to the airport rather early, I was actually able to take full advantage of the lounge. The Aspire Lounge in the domestic Terminal A is an Amex partner, so the appropriate card is required for entry. The lounge itself was a bit smaller than the typical American Centurion lounges in JFK, SLC, or SEA, but it was an extremely pleasant stay. The ambience was quiet with the footsteps of staff walking and luggage rolling. I enjoyed an Italian lager with pita chips and spinach dip while starting on this article. Before I left, I grabbed another beer and tried their fancy hot dog that was complimentary for Amex holders. One of my best lounge experiences.

Food: 5/5

Drinks: 4/5

Atmosphere: 5/5
Restroom: 1/5 (there was none, you simply had to use the restroom outside, but it wasn't bad)

YYZ - Plaza Premium Lounge (Terminal A)
Yeah, this place was ass. Amex Lounge, but similar to a typical small Delta lounge in decor. It was filled to the brim when I got here and the food was not good, unsurprisingly.

Food: 2/5

Drinks: 3/5 

Atmosphere: 1/5

Restroom: 2/5 (Something you’d find at an LGS)

Best of luck to those competing this weekend in Calling Toulouse and Pro Quests around the world for one last Wild Ride and perhaps the last chance to etch your name onto the Kayo Roll of Honor. I would have never expected to be a Brute enjoyer when I first started playing Flesh and Blood during Crucible of War, but Kayo’s gameplay is explosive, powerful, and most of all, fun. Mandible Claw will be sorely missed. I’ll see you guys at Calling Memphis, but I may need to start practicing with a different hero. I have also included a sideboard guide below with notes and working buttons for the matchups I felt comfortable with. Thanks for reading!

Fabrary Decklist