They Reminisce Over You

Introduction

Welcome back, my netdeckers. It’s ya boy, The Donger, and today, we’re back with another tournament report. I took Victor to a top 16 finish at Calling Memphis, and I’m going to share my secrets all the way from the prep, to the details of the deck, and everything in between. So without further ado, smash that subscribe (to AGE Premium) button, and let’s dive right into it.

Deck Selection

I was quite set on Victor early on, in fact I had it on my mind for Montreal…

Screenshot-ception

It was clear from ProQuest season stats that Kayo and Verdance were on their way out and these were two decks that preyed on Victor. Victor’s Talishar stats never wavered and hung on to a solid ~58% over the past month. At Calling Toulouse, we saw Dash I/O pick up another victory with Victor showing up in top 4 and in the fall out, we saw Kayo leaving from ProQuest points. In the following week at Calling Brisbane, we saw two Victors in the top 8 immediately showing that a guardian meta was approaching. We then saw Verdance LL that same weekend from ProQuests. 

In general, Callings are very open metas. Compared to your local game store that may be filled with multiple Teklovossens making armories go until 12 in the morning, you may not have the same luxury of easily targeting your cohorts as you do in local Road to Nationals or ProQuest events. With that in mind, Victor’s fantastic stats across the board offers a very safe Calling pick, similar to Verdance of the previous season. You will get many free wins from the GEM lottery alone. This is an important concept to keep in mind when aiming for success at a large event and may be a shift in mentality on how to approach competing for some people.

This Calling was actually my first time playing Victor in paper and the only testing I did was against Prism, Gravy, and a couple games of Rhinar. I primarily focused on my illusionist matchup, as guardians tend to be quite unfavored against them. Not knowing the matchup can instantly snowball into defeat. Our resident illusionist enjoyer, Austin Somers, was kind enough to show me all six of his angels on board simultaneously and send six Conqueror of the High Seas back to back against me in our testing games. Needless to say, testing did not go well, but the best way to learn is to lose. Not everyone at the Calling is going to be the same level as your testing partners (for better or worse), so I had hoped that I learned enough from my games against Austin to carry me in the Calling. For the rest of the matchups, I relied on my understanding from games I’ve played on Kayo.

Decklist

I based my initial list from Filippo Barbani’s top 4 Toulouse list. Some of the differences in choices were initially due to card availability ironically, but they ended up being pretty solid.

Starting with the equipment suite, I did not choose to play Ironfist Revelation, as I had not played guardian much since Oldhim was around in Tales of Aria. I picked up Gauntlets of Ironwill when I was purchasing Japanese Heavy Hitter cards for Kayo, so I had that on hand. Victor doesn't play as many crush cards as Valda and his main win condition isn’t just sending Boulder Drops or Spinal Crushes, so I didn’t value Ironfist as highly as the other Victor pilots. Instead, I preferred having a stronger defensive option into my generally “favored” aggro matchups to add some additional percentages there and not get potentially cheesed.

Shield Beater was purely a vibes card. I had not tested it at all, but it seemed solid in theory. Other guardians like Valda and Jarl were picking it up, so why shouldn’t I? And I get to keep my shield slot? I only wanted it against the guardian matchup anyway, and furthermore, I wasn’t unhappy to play Miller's Grindstone in the rest of the matchups. Five damage is not too different from six when blocking, but it’s definitely more than four, it’s hard to explain… 67.

Rampart of the Ram’s Head is my strategy to fatigue Gravy. It works best when they lead with blue Tipple or blue Swell, as they need to close the chain for the blue to hit the graveyard in order to turn on Gravy’s ability to play allies from the graveyard. It’s difficult to fatigue Gravy, but I preferred having a plan into this matchup than to take the autoloss at face value. There are some other applications for the shield as well, such as Vynnset and Dash I/O.

Tectonic Plating was a card that I wanted to play, but the space did not allow for it. Tectonic along with Basalt Boots are solid buffers into aggro, but since Victor was generally favored in those matchups anyway, I didn’t include these options. In cases like these, you are ultimately choosing which decks you want to lose to. Flexors ended up being fantastic for me all weekend with Tunic, so I don’t regret my choices.

I only played one piece of arcane barrier because Verdance has ascended to Living Legend status and I wanted to play a midrange game against Oscilio, similar to how Dennis Zhang played in the finals of Calling Brisbane. I think if you wanted to fatigue Oscilio, additional pieces of Nullrune are appropriate, but I also didn’t expect to see many Oscilio at Memphis.

Pec Perfect is actually a card that my teammates were very high on since release as well as my friend Shawn Adams, who loaned me several of the key cards I was missing. Originally, I had three copies of Pec Perfect along with two copies of red Disable, but Shawn said he only had two Pec Perfects, so I decided to swap my numbers and remove the Disables that I hated for…

Three copies of Righteous Cleansing. In the same vein, Righteous Cleansing is good for the same reason Pec Perfect is good. Leading up to Memphis, the community consensus was that we lived in a fatigue meta and Remembrance would dictate our lives and deck building. These two attacks are quite good in the slower matchups because Victor is going to win most of the clashes in Classic Constructed with Kayo gone. Righteous is also quite decent into “combo” matchups such as Oscilio and Vynnset. It's a disruption piece that may not affect their current hand, but works well in decreasing their overall damage output in the macro plan. Pec Perfect will also mill out Huntsman and even other guardians, too. As a small edge case, 10 power from Righteous helps with clashes and is a yellow that can help against Library of Solana in the Prism matchup. This never came up in testing, but Austin did have Library turn two or three every game.

The third Trounce due to Kayo's departure and Staunch Response over Fate Foreseen for the guardian mirror. We can just play the maximum copies of our best value block cards in most non-guardian matchups. Trounce was mostly fine over the weekend, but I did lose several initial clashes, that lead to dicey positions. Still, the Gold gained from winning a Trounce is usually so powerful that I was willing to take the risk. Other than that, Staunch Response is a standard guardian mirror card, and I felt comfortable playing them into the assassin heroes, so it didn’t feel like I missed Fate.

Two Midas Touch and one Remembrance. Originally, I had two Remembrance and one Midas Touch, but I was trying to find room for additional cards and I found that the second Remembrance just wasn't coming up for me. I cut the second Remembrance for the second Midas Touch instead, in order to improve my chances at seeing it early for Prism, but this also covered my Gravy Bones matchup when I need to be bailed out of a multi-ally turn. You'll see later in the tournament report that one Remembrance is all Victor really needs since he just has so much damage.

Lastly, two copies of Ripple Away over two copies of Rouse the Ancients because Rouse felt like the worst card in my deck every time I drew it in testing. The two-block that is frequently a miss for clash felt horrendous. Instead, I opted for Ripple Away, which not only blocked for three, but is also incredibly powerful in the current meta against Vynnset and has some application in the mirror against the first Visit.

Now that the boring stuff is out of the way, we can move onto the actual tournament itself.

The Travel

For this trip, I roomed with teammates Alexander Vore and Evan Bridges. The travel this time was delightfully boring, but I did sit between a family of four yelling over me as I was on the edge of one side of the seats. Alex and Evan had landed Thursday night and were already farming side events on Friday. Evan ended up getting second at the Friday Gold Foil SAGE event with Kayo, while Alex was practicing Kano for the Showdown. My flight landed rather late, at around 8:30 at night and I met up with them at Charlie Vergos’ Rendezvous, a BBQ restaurant in the heart of downtown Memphis, but also a mere five minute walk from our Airbnb. We finished our dinner and went back as Alex offered to give me some test games on Oscilio. I was easily 0-3 against him, but I figured out my plan for how I wanted to approach the matchup, and I was ready to head to bed. Evan joked that I was ducking him still, as I refused to play any games against Teklovossen - we all know how those games would end.

Brisket and ribs from Rendezvouz

Day 1 of the Calling

The meta looked mostly favorable for me, as I was pleasantly surprised that Victor wasn’t the most represented deck, but pretty close to tied. I had spoken with Shawn on how to approach the mirror, but I had no practice. Other than that, the high amount of Valda was spooky, but we prayed to dodge as every other deck was weak to our Golden Son.

Round 1: Jarl Vetreiði

The first test for Shield Beater. I traded damage early to try to play a midrange value game. My thought was that applying consistent pressure and building up Mights from Visit the Goldmane Estate would naturally win the game for me. On the fourth or fifth turn, my opponent took damage to send a natty Elemental Strike banishing Colors of Aria. He followed this up with three back to back Oaken Old fused in the top thirty or so cards in the deck. I blocked where I could, but quickly fell behind in the life race. Eventually, consistent Shield Beatings and Visit value brought me back. My opponent brought in Sledge of Anvilheim, but did not commit towards the Sledge plan as he saw his “combo” pieces early. I wonder if it would have been better if he was on Shield Beater himself, so that he could have three more life and slight disruption with Stalagmite on my Enlightened Strike turns.

W (1-0)

Guess what Tournament Pack foil I opened? Yellow Wild Ride, woo!

Round 2: Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn

My opponent was friendly and began the match by chatting about how the Victor matchup was quite unfavored for him. We joke about how the Oscilio matchup can be tough and he mentions that he beat an Oscilio in round 1. This is a matchup where Gauntlets of Ironwill can really shine as Boltyn cards need a pump to get go again. There was a turn where he took some damage to send a Bolt of Courage. I could have blocked with Gauntlets, but it wasn’t a clean block, so I decided to see how he would react next in order to gain go again. He played Beacon from the arsenal to search Lumina Ascension and continued his turn as he had Spirit of Eirina on board already. Had I used Gauntlets here, he would have had to Beacon for 2, which would eat up two soul. As a guardian, Boltyn can only overwhelm you if they have acquired a large amount of soul, so it might have been a better play for me to block with Gauntlets there. In the end, I simply blocked out the Raydn swings where I could to deny additional soul and had control for the rest of the game. After the match, Alex walks up behind me and goes “This was the guy that cooked my ass in round 1!”

W (2-0)

Round 3: Arakni, Huntsman

My opponent played all three Hunter or Hunted? very early on taking out my Debilitates, the third Test of Iron Grip, as well as a third card that ended up being insignificant. He also paired that with Gravekeeping to really keep me off of recycling Visits. I don’t think this actually ended up mattering too much, as I found a Remembrance and used it in response to the second Gravekeeping, which put back two Visits anyway. Since Huntsman deals low damage, you’re free to deal hit back hard. Pec Perfect was excellent here as it milled his Remembrance, since there was no way he was eating nine damage for free.

W (3-0)

Round 4: Teklovossen, Esteemed Magnate

Earlier in the day, Evan and I joked about how we would play each other in a feature match, and I would just throw horrendously for fun, but it turns out Evan had just come off of a feature match win where he stole Boltyn’s wife. Too bad. AGE Pro Team 2-1 vs Boltyn this weekend thus far. This matchup isn’t unwinnable and Victor might be the best guardian against Teklo, but at the end of the day, guardians normally still get farmed. Evan had a slow start, but had Ripple Away for my first Visit, which slowed me down. The game was pretty slow as he turned his swag on until I finally found a turn where I had set up 7 Mights from Visit, drew into Golden Son, and Pummel in arsenal, but Evan transformed into Mechropotent and gave me the business. I scooped it up and we hurried off to the concession stand to grab some food.

L (3-1)

Round 5: Prism, Awakener of Sol

I practiced this matchup extensively with Austin, so I felt quite relieved to face probably the only matchup I was familiar with after accepting my near auto-loss of the tournament. Karma was not kind to me, as my opponent won the dice roll and went first. He played Genesis into Shimmers. That’s interesting, I didn’t expect Shimmers from Prism. I swung with Miller’s into Genesis and my opponent played Merciful Retribution in response, followed by Haze Bending on the following turn. I looked down… Iris of Reality. Haha, you got me.

L (3-2)

Round 6: Jarl Vetreiði

This felt like a fairly straight-forward match as my opponent was not on an Earth build. I just used Shield Beater on Tunic cooldown and swung with attacks otherwise. This forced the Jarl player to trade damage and the game never reached a fatigue state. I played Visit the Goldmane Estate where it was convenient and closed the game out normally. This was another matchup where my opponent tried to play Gravekeeping into me, but I don’t think it actually mattered that much. This gave me some confidence back as I felt like I was about to spiral out of the tournament for a second there.

W (4-2)

Round 7: Rhinar, Reckless Rampage

Ironically, one of the few matchups I had practiced prior to the event. Jonah is our resident Rhinar expert, and he wanted some Meataxe Rhinar testing. After extensive testing (two games), I had concluded that the matchup was rather hopeless, but their deck wasn’t as consistent as Kayo of course.

My opponent played a very fun Rhinar build and dealt a good amount of damage throughout the game. He rolled Scabskin frequently, but never rolled a one. He did roll a six one time, but he only needed two action points that turn. Overall, I think he just got unlucky on some discards and I was able to steal the game for day two. I think there was a key turn where he played Sand-Sketched Plan and I discarded the 33.3% (repeating of course) non-Beast Within card and his turn then did not convert. Boulder Drop was quite poor in this game as he was able to put a Beast Within on top of his deck and played Wild Ride to draw-discard it for value.

W (5-2)

After a turbulent day one, I narrowly escaped with a 5-2 record. Evan, on the other hand, got quite favorable pairings and was 6-1 with plenty of guardians to hunt down on the following day. Alex was also quite fortunate, as he qualified for the Showdown, so he didn’t have to donate more amps to charity. We departed the venue for dinner, but found that there was an hour wait for the Kooky Canuck. With the whole crew being quite hungry, we overruled Evan and went back to Rendezvous.

Round 2, pork shoulder and ribs, nachos devoured

Post dinner, Alex was done coping on Kano and spent the rest of the night with Evan learning how to draw Wild Ride and two blues in each hand. He also read Beaten Trackers and Bear Hug.

Day 2 of the Calling

I mentioned in my previous article that your mindset for playing in a multi-day tournament should change depending on what position you start from. You should reassess your goal you set at the beginning of the tournament throughout and see if your expectation is still realistic. While it is entirely possible to aim to play to win every single tournament, slowly increasing your expectation will yield better results in your journey to improve and also help prevent burnout.

In Montreal, I started the Calling at 6-1, so I had a bit of room for error and was in an excellent position to play for the top 8. In Memphis, I started out the day at 5-2, so I would likely need a record of 5-0 to secure top 8 as a record of 4-1, may bubble me even if I had lost the last round since I took my day 1 losses in rounds 4 and 5. Thus, my goal for day 2 was simply to secure as many wins as possible and aim for cash. I hoped for a 4-1 to get top 16, or a 3-2 finish to get top 32.

Round 8: Ira, Scarlet Revenger

Ira is a tricky deck in today’s meta as she has several different types of equipment load out. I decided to play it safe and just bring in Balance of Justice, although I had the idea that Crown of Dominion would be great to speed up Gold generation for Visit spam if they were on fatigue. She flipped over Iris of the Blossom, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Balance is still effective, but I was able to block more liberally, since it's easy to predict whether or not a Whirling Mist Blossom was coming my way.

The early stages of the game involved Ira blocking frequently. She played multiple defense reactions and even blocked with Fiddler’s Green. I was a bit uncomfortable in this matchup, as I had never played against adult Ira yet, so I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. In the later stage, my opponent sighed and played a late Gravekeeping against me, which didn’t matter too much as I had found Remembrance and parked it in my arsenal early on. At one point I swung with a Pec Perfect and she blocked with her helmet, then milled a Fiddler’s Green by winning the clash for negative value.

The game nearly came down to fatigue, but I had plenty of damage to close out the game. My opponent found her Remembrance extremely late to shuffle back three Command and Conquers as she knew I had Golden Son coming up while she was only 4 life. I simply pitched my entire hand and swung with Macho Grande from the arsenal and closed out the game. This played around any blue reactions she had left. Again, Gauntlet provided some solid value to keep me from losing to a random Ancestral or Legacy of Ikaru.

W (6-2)

Round 9: Vynnset, Iron Maiden

Finally, my first opponent where I get to test the Rampart of the Ram’s Head tech. Shawn had originally told me to play Rampart for Gravy, but Vynnset is another deck where we can play the shield. When Vynnset plays a Shadow action, she can use her ability to make the first Runechant unpreventable. In that case, Rampart lines up nicely when she swings with three Runechants, and you can use the third resource from a blue for Rampart. Rampart also lines up very well against Flail of Agony, and can be of some free value when Vynnset closes the chain to generate Runechants from Deathly Wail for multiple attacks.

Japanese Rampart is OP because it starts at 1

I won the dice roll, so I opted to go first to prevent Vynnset from setting up. I arsenaled and passed and she played out double yellow Malefic Incantation. I looked at my Ripple Away and swung Miller’s and passed, IPing three cards. She played a third yellow Malefic and began to attack. I immediately discarded my Ripple Away, prevented three Runechants from being generated, and blocked the attack. On the following turn, I was blessed with another Ripple Away and dealt terrible psychic damage to my Vynnset opponent. The game went into a lull state where I blocked efficiently where I could as she tried to set up for bigger turns. I tried to extract maximum Tunic value via arcane barrier and Rampart.

Eventually, with Vynnset at around ~10 life, I decided to trade life aggressively as I felt like I needed to close out the game before she set up too wide of a turn for me to block out. This played slightly into her gameplan and in retrospect, I may have put myself at risk of losing. I ended up cracking all of my gold on the following turn and dug to my third Golden Son to close out the game. Sometimes lucky. The matchup definitely feels reasonable and really puts the onus on the Vynnset player to figure out how to beat fatigue while they are simultaneously being milled out of their options. Cards like Pec Perfect are hard to block, because Face Purgatory is just fine against guardians and would likely mean three additional cards milled on top of that.

W (7-2)

Round 10: Valda, Seismic Impact

This match was a comedy of misfortune for me. Valda is generally favored in this matchup because her dominate ability makes it difficult to convert your hands. She won the dice roll and sent me first. I played my first Visit on turn one and generated a gold to get the ball rolling and passed priority. She plays a Seismic Eruption before I set up my arsenal. On turn two she sends a blue Disable with the Surges. I blocked with a couple of cards only to be met with a Pummel, not much to do there since Victor’s block cards generate so much value that he does not have room for much defense reactions. My opponent saw two more Pummels before I finally saw mine, but by that point, I was stuck with a triple red hand with Staunch Response in the arsenal. I pitched my blue and two reds and used a resource from my Tunic in order to pay for my Staunch from arsenal to cover up a Pummel.

A small reprieve was that she did not find Ley Line of the Old Ones early and pitched it as the match was nearly over by the time she saw it. My opponent then said I was the first person to figure out the Promising Terrain lock where she made 2 Seismic Surge tokens with Tectonic Plating. Then she set up an arsenal and passed. On my turn,  I set up a Visit then used my Remembrance and passed without attacking. Had I attacked, she would have blocked with Civic Peak to generate 2 more Seismic Surge tokens on my turn which would turn on Valda’s dominate ability. I later had a turn where I foolishly wanted to attack with my Golden Son from arsenal with Mights I made from Visit after getting disrupted, so I pitched my blue to crack some Gold. Yellow, yellow, red. I passed the turn and had no hope from there. I think this matchup is actually quite winnable. If I wanted to target this deck more, I would find a way to fit in an extra Staunch Response.

L (7-3)

Round 11: Prism, Awakener of Sol

The Prism matchup is actually quite easy for Victor if you know their gameplan. The general gameplan for the Prism player with Luminaris, Angel’s Glow and Vestige of Sol is to draw Arc Light Sentinel and then set up Figment of Erudition either with Halo, or playing out Merciful Retribution as you try to pop a herald with phantasm. As such, they will attack you with Suraya, draw two cards, then play out ALS, so that they can continue to set up additional angels and auras in order to overwhelm your lack of action points. Generating a large amount of soul for Prism is no longer an issue with the new Solforge Gauntlets, so expect them to execute this game plan consistently.

I won the dice roll and decided to go first. I was greeted by Midas Touch which promptly went into the arsenal. Prism was actually quite happy, because she opened with Blessing of Bellona into the Great Library of Solana and began her soul train. Prism proceeded to send multiple hands of heralds as she just was not seeing her auras and I was able to pop heralds efficiently and swing Miller’s multiple times. Miller’s Grindstone milled two Lumina Lance, which are key tech cards for Prism to beat guardians. Eventually, she set up both the Suraya - ALS combo with the help of the Library and had Figment of Rebirth on board. This is problematic, because the plan from Victor is to flip over the Midas Touch and hammer the Arc Light Sentinel. With Avalon though, she can recycle Suraya when she draws a second ALS, and then I’d be under an even tougher lock.

Fortunately, my opponent did not draw the right combination of cards to immediately set up another lock, and I was able to arsenal an Enlightened Strike to later on clear Avalon and an aura. In between those turns, I discarded Righteous Cleansing and Golden Son to destroy the Library, which felt very rewarding. My opponent knew the writing was on the wall and eventually succumbed to my Enlightened Strike and Miller’s Grindstone beats.

W (8-3)

As a side note, Library does not really matter in this matchup if you have the Midas Touch in arsenal ready for the combo turn. As long as you are not under too much threat and consistently draw your poppers, this matchup is quite academic. I would still destroy the Library if the opportunity arises, but don’t do so at the cost of letting heralds connect. Clash of Bravado is a card  that greatly improves this matchup, as it can clear away an ALS to break the lock or Passing Mirage and trigger phantasm. In general, it is important to be disciplined with your blocks. You will likely block with a 7+ power popper to play around Herald of Triumph, but know that you are able to block the regular heralds with just a 6 power attack if they have no other cards in hand to Halo. Parable is a trick that they can deploy to get you, but it requires many resources. Consider blocking with a card on an angel attack even if it isn’t a block card in order to conserve life, since they only attack with three attacks at most without Ode to Wrath. Make sure you block on the Suraya turn, because they will ALS you - don’t waste cards. It is important to also block arcane damage from Merciful Retribution as damage can stack up quickly. Make sure to use cards efficiently and most importantly, be mindful that an ALS can come at any point to ruin your plan.

Round 12: Katsu, the Wanderer

I saw a Katsu around me in the later rounds and was incredibly relieved to see that my last round opponent was the Katsu player. My opponent was on Wind Cutter Katsu, which meant I tried to block the second Kodachi attack early game in order to prevent him from setting up Shurikens for free . This is another matchup where Gauntlets of Ironwill really shines as it stops Shurikens and small pumps like Ancestral Empowerment and Tigrine Reflex. Katsu is a skill check deck and Katsu is generally looking to punish a Victor player’s greed or misblock. In this matchup, I never blocked the first Kodachi swing and then considered what to do after seeing his next play. Since Katsu plays Mask of the Pouncing Lynx, the weapon attacks are generally harmless.

My opponent won the dice roll and I was put to play first. I simply set up an arsenaled and passed. My opponent attacked me and I blocked with Test of Iron Grip when he only had one card in hand to deny him of his arsenal. This let me reclaim tempo, because Katsu is back on a four card hand and I sent a disruptive Boulder Drop as a followup. He then took a turn off to set up a Shuriken in between turns. A few turns later, I clashed and it revealed my Command and Conquer. My opponent saw this and simply played out all of his cards the following turn, refusing to arsenal by sending the last Head Jab my way. I eventually sent the Command and Conquer from my arsenal for raw damage when I drew my second Command and Conquer. He saw this as an opportunity to do a small turn and arsenaled, but I punished the following turn with the second Command and Conquer. We trade several turns where I leak the first Kodachi and block 3 on his 4s.

The disruption continued until Katsu felt forced to combo off. He broke Heartened Cross Strap to play a yellow Surging Strike. I blocked with Gauntlets of Ironwill finally and activated Quickdodge Flexors, which also played around the onboard Shuriken. His followup was a yellow Descendent Gustwave, which I blocked with Test of Strength. He responded with Ancestral Empowerment, which was promptly covered by Quickdodge Flexors. The remainder of the turn was Kodachi for 1, Kodachi for 1, and a 0 for 2 blue which was met with the Quickdodge Flexors twice due to my Tunic resource. My opponent conceded after this, as his combo turn was completely stifled and I still had a three card hand after winning the clash.

W (9-3)

As we finished up the last game, I entered my results and waited for the round to finish. We were at table 11, so I was unsure as to whether or not I would be in the top 16 or bubble out at 17th to 19th. I met up with Evan as he told me that he fell to a Prism in the final round, but he believes he’s still locked. As the final standings were posted and the top 8 was called, I was thrilled to hear that Evan made the top 8 with Teklo, and I came in at 15th! I found Alex in between his Showdown rounds and saw that he was already 6-0, locked for top 8 of the Showdown. Even a wizard player can play Kayo, it really makes you think. 😏

Evan is immune to my eyes closed no jutsu

The run ended with me being just a win shy of making top 8. It’s interesting to see that the same x-3 record from Montreal yielded slightly different results this time. It just goes to show that GEM pairings can make all the difference as the 9-3 record extended from 7th all the way to 19th this time. Still, I was quite happy with my play over the weekend, especially given that this was my first time taking Victor out for a tournament. I think my Valda game was the only game where I had a reasonable chance at flipping the matchup. Talishar data is never really that far off, I think.

Closing out, I would still recommend Victor for our current pre-Omens meta. Even with the release of Omens, it’s likely that Victor is still a very strong choice depending on how prevalent or dominant Zyggy and new Oscilio end up being. Looking ahead at Yokohama, Victor is likely going to be well represented.

Also, I had the amazing opportunity to meet Travis (OniT), the owner of FaBFoundry, in person right before we left for the airport. I recall back in 2021, I had purchased some of my first FAB cards from FaBFoundry and Travis would handwrite notes on the packing slip. I was digging through my closet and even found the kind message he left when I purchased a cold foil Fyendal’s Spring Tunic. It’s fantastic to see FaBFoundry grow and I wanted to give a huge shoutout to the team for a well-run event. I was initially skeptical of side event vouchers being digital, but the team behind it really thought of everything, and the convenience of it all was superb!

AGE Pro Team Suffering from Success

Alex blocking what he could knowing he was going to get Pummeled

Evan asking me to pick his Gold Foil for him, opening his second Kabuto and exclaiming, “He does NOT have the god hands!”

Winner Winner, Chicken Dinner

We ended up at the airport a little early in order to make it through the TSA and to get some dinner before our flights. No lounges this time in the Memphis airport, but Evan was ecstatic about the prospects of Chili’s. Now I’m not the biggest Chili’s guy, but as I’m flipping the menu back and forth, I’m thinking, “Where the hell are the entrées?” I picked a local draft and ordered the chicken tenders after ruminating on whether the salad or burger were safe options. I watched as everyone around the table ordered the same tendies with their condiment of choice. When the lady next to us got her food, it was chicken tenders. I looked over at the table next to the lady and it was also chicken tenders. Legendary. Thanks, Evan.

We denied Evan of Kooky Canuck, so we were forced to get airport Chili’s

Props

• Evan top 8 with Teklovossen 🤖
• Me top 16 as the highest seed Victor 🔨🏠
• Alex for top 8 in the Showdown as Kayo 💀
• Ripple Away
• Righteous Cleansing being the okay-est card in guardian history
• FabFoundry for a fantastic event

Slops

• Iris of Reality
• Teklovossen, the Mechropotent
• Airport Chili’s (sorry, Evan)

World Tour Update

Maybe as a bit of posterity for myself and others peeking in from the future, here’s a couple of World Tour points leaderboard screenshots as I’m seemingly documenting my season. For now, I don’t think I’m actually trying to compete in the Player of the Year race. The point system skews heavily towards those who are able to attend a large number of events, but that may change when the tier 4 points get introduced. 

I do intend to stay competitive and get my tier 4 invites through points. In the heyday of competitive Magic, it was often referred to as being on the gravy train and I think I’m currently in a good spot.

Post Calling Montreal

Post Calling Memphis

Sideboard Guide

Here is a Fabrary link with additional sideboard notes of some common matchups

Until next time, next stop, Yokohama!