Last weekend I played in the PlayToEarn League #4 and finished 2nd. It was a 2-day tournament held over the weekend, casted by 
The format for the PlayToEarn tournament was anything goes for deck building. Round 1 and 2 were Best of 1s, Round 3 through 6 were Best of 3s, and the Finals were Best of 5, and you must win with different gods. The tournament seeding was random.
BO1 was done to cut down the number of matches to get the rounds done in time so the tournament could finish on the weekend. BO1 is high variance with a lot of players getting knocked out early from bad luck going second or getting a bad hand. Best of 3s is the standard format for tournaments where players get to show off their decks while not being too long. BO5 requires 3 different gods to win so this shows off the player’s skill with multiple decks. Deck queue also picks a big factor in BO5 with players trying to predict what their opponent is going to play to get a matchup advantage.
Mortal Judgement was released the week earlier, so the meta is fresh but the weekend ranked was underway, so you can see what the top-performing decks on the ladder are. I picked strong meta decks that I was used to and had most of the cards for. They were all aggro decks since I’m used to playing aggro and didn’t have any of the genesis control cards like Demogorgon. I also didn’t have the cards for Dralamar Combo Magic or Anubian Death and I haven’t played them much before, so they were off the table.
I was expecting a similar meta to what the ladder was mainly Aggro Light, Anubian Death, Hidden Rush Deception, and some Aggro Nature. Dralamar Combo Magic is a hard deck to play, so I didn’t expect many people to be playing it. Based on what I saw on the ladder I played decks that could play decently against the meta. I didn’t face anyone playing Deception during the tournament despite seeing a few on the ladder.
The decks are a bit out of date now since the balance patch came out and nerfed a bunch of cards except Anubian Death 😢.
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Hidden Rush was what I played for the weekend and you can read about it here @meltysquid/1st-mortal-judgement-weekend-ranked-hidden-rush-deception-1925. It did well during the weekend so I could expect the same during the tournament. It has a good matchup against Light and can contend with Anubian Death so it’s a good pick. Although I have to scout what the opponent plays before to see if they will counter it with Nature.
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Aggro Nature was another deck I’ve seen around the ladder and decided to play. The deck counters Hidden Rush well with its removal ignoring hidden. It also matches up well against Light since it has a lot of blitz cards to keep Light’s board clear. Druid of the Cycle helps somewhat against Anubians being able to obliterate their Priestess of Takhat or Raving Necromancer from their void but Anubians still have a ton of other guys to bring back from the void and the statline is lacklustre in other matchups.
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I didn’t play this deck much during the tournament. I made it halfway through the tournament based on the weekend ranked top 10 at the time. It was mostly made to run against control decks like Magic or War. I haven’t played any Light after MJ dropped, so I looked at the top decks, bought the missing cards on TT and cobbled something together.
Nothing notable here. I go second as Hidden Deception against Aggro Light. Blade Borrower shows why it got nerfed here, 2 mana to summon a guy and effectively kill an early creature is a huge tempo swing. After I take back the initiative using my Blade Borrowers, I keep my opponent’s board clear and chip away at their life until they’re dead.
Nothing notable here either. I go first in the Aggro Nature mirror. My opponent has a weak start and never gets a chance to establish a board then it’s a quick concede.
The first of the BO3. My first Anubian Death opponent. I go first with Hidden Rush while my opponent has a slow start. They can’t get a foot in the game and I finish them before they can play Land of the Dead.
In game 2 I play Aggro Nature going second. My opponent has some plays early but has a tough time against all my beefy creatures. 6 mana happens and down comes Land of the Dead, it lags and I have no clue what’s happening. My turn comes around and I assess the board. Archer and Wildfire wipe most of his board but the animations are taking a while and unfortunately, I can’t get in every attack. After that, I beat down the wall of Anubians and finish off my opponent.
Not sure what they are going to play, I queue up my all-rounder deck Aggro Nature. Going second against Light can go downhill quickly but I have a reactive hand that puts the brakes on their game plan. My blitz cards slow them down then a timely Wildfire swings the game. From there it is just clean up.
Seeing Light in the first match makes me think that they might play it again so I queue Hidden Deception (and only have two decks ready at the time). I go first which gives me good odds to win but an unexpected Eucos in Eclipse sets me back a bit. We both play creature and jockey for board control, I play Guild Enforcer and my opponent is forced to use Radiant Dawn and trade their board into my Enforcer. After that is a bit more back and forth then I get down a Shadow of Lethenon and buff it up and it is lights out for my opponent.
clecle06 aka clementdanieli is the first opponent whose name I recognize from the leaderboards. He is number 1 on infinitemana’s Power Ranking (winrate over the previous 12-weekend ranks) and played in the top 8 of infinitemana’s main even tournament.
I see he plays Anubian Death for the weekend. The deck doesn’t have a counter, tech cards help somewhat in the matchup. I opt to play Aggro Nature to try to mitigate the revive cards with Druid of the Cycle. clecle is playing the control version of Anubian Death with Demogorgons and Apoc now so I gotta apply pressure quickly before 7 mana. I go first and start jamming out guys to get in for damage. My opponent is taking it slow and chipping away at my offensive. Druid of the Cycle obliterates a few of their Anubians slowing down the Land of the Dead they could have. My board is getting big and my opponent is running low on life. Demogorgon comes down and buys them a turn. Unfortunately, Demo doesn’t kill one of my guys and my board is too full for Silkspite to summon a spider to kill Demo so I use a Rampaging Leviathan I generated to do 5 damage and kill the Demo with my relic. They don’t have Land of the Dead and can’t deal with my board so I put them 6 feet under.
There isn’t anything else really good here so I queue Hidden Deception and hope to rush them down. I go first and play out some creatures one of which is Shadow of Lethenon which will be hard for them to deal with but they have Ragnarok to clear them, at least I got in some damage and that’s the first of their AOE. I play a couple of hidden creatures and buff them to get in tons of damage. They don’t have any removal and the dead stay dead.
Ryhan is a name I haven’t seen around a lot so I don’t know what to expect. Their match against fakemews was streamed so I could see what they’ve played, Control Magic, Aggro Nature, and Control War.
Unsure what’s the play, I queue Nature which should be good against anything. Going against Control Magic won’t be easy since my nature deck doesn’t have much removal for big frontlines aside from Pack Succession. It goes back and forth, I play guys they play removal. My board gets wiped Shaped Blast leaving Dagan behind. I play Barksworn Hunter and the echo to get in tons of damage. I’m getting close to lethal and they’re desperately removing my board. The last stand frontline from them and I run it over with their last life.
I was expecting more control so I queue Aggro Light. I go first but my hand isn’t that hot drawing into Prayer of the Desperate and Asterius. They clear my board with their relics and sticky creatures. I can’t get a foothold after that and I get trampled over.
I forgot to record the 3rd match. I was playing Aggro Light against Control War. I went first and curved out.
Final boss [8M] Fastexe, [8M] is my kryptonite. I don’t think I’ve ever taken a round off of them in a tournament. I have faced Fastexe before in the CUJO Bowl tournament and lost to them. They are one of the best GU players, being #10 in the power rankings and a close 2nd in all-time earnings.
Looking at what they’ve played on gudecks and in previous tournament matches, I see a lot of decks under their belt: Amazon Nature, Hidden Deception, Aggro or Control Light, Aggro or Control Anubian Death, Combo or Control Magic. They could play anything against me. This wide range of decks is trouble to plan for.
Not sure what to play, I queue Hidden Rush my best deck. I go first against Control Anubian Death. My hand isn’t so great and they are contesting my board well. I’m running low on playable cards while The Hollow is giving me junk. We both are getting low on health by 7 mana. They play back-to-back Land of the Dead and I am 1 point short of lethal.
Hidden Deception was pretty close to winning, so I decided to stick with it. I see Light, which is a good matchup, but Lysander’s Honor puts it as Control Light something unusually and I haven’t faced at all. I have a junk hand and can’t put any pressure on the board. Meanwhile, Fastexe is building up a big hand of removal. I’m running low on cards while Fastexe isn’t getting low on life, it’s not looking good. I slowly get ground out of my life. My internet had some issues this match disconnected me during it, not sure if it was because of me streaming or my router getting hiccups.
Okay, 3rd time is the charm for Hidden Rush, Fastexe won’t think I would play it 3 times in a row, right? They queue Magic, this could be Control or Combo, I see Clear Mind so I’m leaning towards the combo. Turn 1 Shadow Scryer makes me think Control instead. An early Lightning Talisman stops my early aggression, then Shaped Blast wipes my board, and finally, back-to-back Demogorgons put me to sleep. It’s a quick match and a 3-0 sweep for Fastexe.
Control Light and Control Magic were unexpected decks that I haven’t faced before on the ladder or the tournament. Good counters to my Hidden Rush deck. All 3 decks I faced and lost to were Control decks. Dralamar Combo Magic would have been good to have practiced with but I also didn’t pin Fastexe as a heavy control player either.
Overall, I had a good experience playing in the tournament. I played well getting to the finals. No major misplays this time I think unlike YOTG#3 where I missed lethal in the finals. My bracket was on the easier side, with no recognizable names until the quarter-finals. I was pretty lucky going first 5/5 times in the quarter and semi-finals but it ran out against Fastexe. Getting swept by Fastexe shows I need to play with a large variety of decks to be prepared for anything. This 2nd place finish netted me 4 leaderboard points for the P2E Final tournament putting me at 8th place currently for the final 16 players. The PlayToEarn League #4 is my second top in a tournament so far and I aim for more.
