Gameplay on Day 2 - Atlanta Keyforge Vault Tour

I forgot to mention that before returning to the hotel, I discovered that Ted’s Montana Grill was just a little to the side of the shortest route back. When I was living in Atlanta, there were many news stories about Ted Turner’s attempt to produce bison meat, and so I was intrigued that the enterprise had lasted for over a decade. I got the Ted’s filet and enjoyed my victory meal thoroughly. The meat had a slightly sweeter and fuller taste than the steak I’m accustomed to. Don’t know a better way to describe it but I will try to visit that restaurant again the next time that I visit Atlanta.

After that luxurious dinner, I got back to the hotel just after 8PM (20:00 Eastern). I called home to update the wife and talk for a while, finally getting to bed just after 10PM local time. Knowing the distance and travel time to the Omni, I set Sunday’s alarm for 0800, giving myself extra time for sleep.

Unlike the day before, I was able to force myself to sleep until the alarm sounded. Breakfast was again at Waffle House, and I arrived before ten o’clock. I watched as table #1 was converted for streaming Keyforge with playmats and wires and webcams and mechanical arms all over the place. When the pairings went up, I was paired with Bobby and his Logos/Untamed deck at table #2. However, one of the players at #1 expressed a preference to not be filmed playing that first game, so Bobby and I were swapped over so our game could be streamed live.

Or at least that was the intention. Turns out that the internet traffic through the hotel was not allowing a reliable connection. (I experienced this later trying to scan in some decks acquired in the afternoon.) So the game did not stream live, and I've been told that only about half was recorded locally. Nonetheless, I was proud of my play for the most part and never felt that I was presenting myself poorly to either posterity or the potential audience.

To cut to the end, I lost that game and, with Day 2 being Single Elimination, was then out of the event. I only have myself to blame, as I had the best chance to beat Bobby’s LANS deck. The initial cut put the Nepenthe Seed as his bottom card, and I was ahead two keys to one after we each went through our decks once. However, I was overconfident in that I would easily forge that last key, and squandered the opportunity to shut him down with Control the Weak. Bobby admitted that if I had chosen any House other than Untamed, he probably would have lost. As it was, with the Nepenthe Seed in play, he was able to bring out a Dust Pixie and Flaxia at least twice on the same turn, gaining massive amounts of Aember in the process. I could not capture or steal his Aember quickly enough, so he forged his last two keys in rapid succession and secured the victory.

However, that gave me the opportunity to sit back and relax for the rest of the event. As the tournament unfolded, I got to see Grant, who had beaten me on Saturday, fall victim to Bobby’s deck as well. Bobby would make it to the final but lost to Kav in two games. (I’ve included a bracket showing Sunday’s pairings.)

With the main event complete, I found myself drawn into another unusual tournament format. It was a variation on Triad where you pull two sealed decks instead of three. Your opponent each round can only look at the Archon Identity card and the three Houses therein. Each player is not allowed to see the actual contents of their opponent's deck. Based only on the Houses, you bench one of your opponent's decks. Your opponent will play with the remaining deck, and they decide similarly for you.

So for this modified Triad, the two Archons I received were a Brobnar/Shadows/Untamed called Nofinch Jones-Rodriguez,Weasel and a less intimidating Brobnar/Logos/Sanctum Archon with the demure moniker of Miss Barcell Whisperia.

With the metagame firmly in mind, my opponent in all four games decided that I would not have access to Shadows and instead play Miss Barcell Whisperia.

And four times in a row, my opponents discovered that my Sanctum deck held the Four Horsemen.

Now I have to humbly admit that I only won half the time. I have never owned nor played a Horsemen deck before that afternoon, and they are not the most intuitive creatures to manipulate. It helped greatly that this deck also had a Grey Monk to counter Pestilence’s damage. However, two of the decks generated Aember through card play or creatures as they came into play, so my control of the Battleline didn’t affect the outcome of those games. With the Horsemen taking up four Sanctum card slots, there wasn’t much capture available to counter Aember generation. I still enjoyed playing the games (I finally own a Horsemen Archon!) and had a blast as the event wrapped up. Somewhat victorious and feeling great, I returned home on a late evening flight.

(Briefly, original plane was struck and dented by a baggage cart while we were already on board, so we had to deplane and travel from Atlanta gate A15 to gate B2 and board a different, undented plane. I reached home nearly two hours after the original scheduled arrival time. And that last stretch of walking through the airport, combined with a weekend’s worth of walking through downtown Atlanta and Momocon and being wedged into Basic Economy on three different Delta planes has left me sore for the better part of this week.)

So overall my adventure to the 2019 Atlanta Vault Tour was exciting and rewarding. I enjoyed playing Keyforge on such a grand scale and eagerly look forward to the next opportunity.

See you at the next Vault.
Steev