Lars Grams’ Deck Tech Series – “WGP 2023 Recap”

Intro

Hi again everyone,

The WGP 2023 took place roughly two weeks ago, and it was a blast of an event. In this article, I will present you the deck my friends and I decided to bring, talk about the matchups I faced and conclude with some thoughts about this year’s worlds in general.

Have fun reading!

Floodgate Eins Tinker Turbo aka FETT

My friends (Sascha, JPK, Dennis) and I decided to bring Eins (NWE-090) for worlds and represented 4 out of the 6 total Eins (NWE-090) players. We luckily got all the cards we needed last minute to play the same deck. In the end, we managed to get two top8 spots (me crying in 10th place again). So you most likely saw the decklist already in the Worlds top8 decklists. But I will also put it here again and go into detail about why we decided to bring Eins, and how the deck developed over the last weeks (and the last hours) before the World Championship.

Decklist

		Eins
Ruler: Eins (NWE-090)	Magic Stone Deck: (10) 2x Light Moon Fragment (NWE-103) 4x Magic Stone of Moon Shade (MPR-100) 1x Secret Stone of the Cat Moon (TUS-103) 3x Water Moon Fragment (NWE-105)
Resonators: (32 of 40) 3x Dark Alice, Rabbit Princess (DBV-009) 2x Exorcist Mage at the Academy (EDL-003) 4x Flute, Captive Dragonoid Child // Group of Comets (EDL-004) 2x Pier, the Godspeed Archer (AO3-014) 1x Raymond, Member of the Twelve Sacred Knights (NWE-009) 2x Rumsfeld, Member of the Twelve Sacred Knights (CMB-010) 3x Tinker Bell, Spirit of the Light Trails (CMB-014) 3x Ray Aznable, Reunion’s Navigator (CMB-039) 4x Brad, Amnesiac Immortal (CMB-041) 2x Oborozuki, Vampire Astrologer (GRV-059) 2x Faurecia, the Virtuous Vampire (AO3-067) 4x Reconnaissance Gears (TUS-098)	Chants: (5 of 40) 2x Falling Into the Cracks of Time (GRL-029) 3x Light of Raze and Revive (AO1-059) Additions: (3 of 40) 3x Gearsification Facility of Solaris (NWE-092)	Side Deck: (15) 2x Bird of Solari (NWE-002) 2x Dragon of Solari (NWE-014) 1x Rogue Spectator (GRL-021) 2x Shark of Solari (NWE-032) 2x Great Dimension Library (CMB-045) 1x Bat of Solari (NWE-049) 1x Gearsification Facility of Solaris (NWE-092) 1x Outer Space (NWE-094) 3x Rain of Comets (NWE-096)

How the deck emerged Part 1: Beating Falchion

After JPK won the US GP with Falchion, Solitary Scientist (NWE-066), Falchion looked like the end boss to beat for Worlds. We then also quickly found that Asuka, Gravekeeper of Tsukuyomi (NWE-058) is a potential candidate again thanks to the ban of Angelic Battle Barrier (NWE-001), since she is still able to perform her infinite combo with her contract Night of the Legendary Vampire (NWE-072) // End of Night (NWE-072J). Refer to JPK’s article for more info on that deck.

I started testing with JPK and the way that works is that I try to throw a lot of decks against his builds, until my deck beats his. Then the process repeats, but now he throws the decks against my build.

I heard about the Reconnaissance Gears (TUS-098) + Tinker Bell, Spirit of the Light Trails (CMB-014) combo, which is literally a one-Will, two-card combo to wipe your opponents’ whole field at instant speed without casting a single card, since as Eins (NWE-090) we can put Reconnaissance Gears (TUS-098) into the field for free, and Tinker Bell, Spirit of the Light Trails (CMB-014) also cheats herself into the field for just one Will. If we also put a one-cost resonator into the field this turn, she also draws us two cards.

Besides that combo also the ability to have Eins (NWE-090) ‘become a library’ aka revealing Great Dimension Library (CMB-045) for his ability, since the addition is also a Gears, was a big advantage. That way, we could utilize Brad, Amnesiac Immortal (CMB-041) with the Solaris addition Gearsification Facility of Solaris (NWE-092) to literally draw two cards each turn, because we could recover Eins (NWE-090) with the Solaris addition and then use his ability he got from Great Dimension Library (CMB-045) to draw a card and remove Brad, Amnesiac Immortal (CMB-041) from hand, which adds itself to hand at the end of turn.

With Eins (NWE-090) being our permanent library, all our cards were removed from the game, which enabled some more strong combos. Namely discard combos that used Brad, Amnesiac Immortal (CMB-041) as discard to gain advantage with cards like Dark Alice, Rabbit Princess (DBV-009), or to clear opponent resonators with Faurecia, the Virtuous Vampire (AO3-067), which also profits from Brad, Amnesiac Immortal (CMB-041) being a Wind/Darkness card in hand, to buff one of our resonators and debuff one of our opponents. Faurecia, the Virtuous Vampire (AO3-067) finally was the card that, besides the Tinker Bell, Spirit of the Light Trails (CMB-014) board wipe, turned the Falchion, Solitary Scientist (NWE-066) matchup into Eins (NWE-090) favor, since Faurecia, the Virtuous Vampire (AO3-067) is really hard to deal with once she resolves, thanks to her Barrier. She also was able to break boards which were protected by Neverend, Fairy Tale Dragon (MSW-043), which was barely possible with Tinker Bell, Spirit of the Light Trails (CMB-014) and Reconnaissance Gears (TUS-098) alone. Another nice gimmick was the ability to turn Faurecia, the Virtuous Vampire (AO3-067) into a Gears with the help of Gearsification Facility of Solaris (NWE-092), which could help to close the game with a swiftness Faurecia, the Virtuous Vampire (AO3-067), or get rid annoying resonators like Ray Aznable, Reunion’s Navigator (CMB-039).

How the deck emerged Part 2: Beating Asuka

So after we managed to make Eins (NWE-090) Falchion, Solitary Scientist (NWE-066), proof, JPK got the next end boss to beat… which was Asuka, Gravekeeper of Tsukuyomi (NWE-058) combo. That was a real problematic deck for Eins (NWE-090), because Tinker Bell, Spirit of the Light Trails (CMB-014) wiping the board had no effect, since Asuka, Gravekeeper of Tsukuyomi (NWE-058) just kept rebuilding the board until she was able to combo at some point. The first answer that we found was Ray Aznable, Reunion’s Navigator (CMB-039), which shuts the deck down on its own if we manage to stick him. Also, his discard ability was able to prevent literally one enter ability of End of Night (NWE-072J).

We upgraded the Ray Aznable, Reunion’s Navigator (CMB-039) package with Light of Raze and Revive (AO1-059), since due to Great Dimension Library (CMB-045) or Eins (NWE-090) ability to be a library, we could remove Ray Aznable, Reunion’s Navigator (CMB-039) with his discard ability, or just banish him with the library draw effect. All that was also possible at quickcast speed, so if we could then resolve Light of Raze and Revive (AO1-059), Asuka, Gravekeeper of Tsukuyomi (NWE-058) was pretty much screwed …unless of course people decided to side Hellfire of the Demonic World (GRL-018).

Because Ray Aznable, Reunion’s Navigator (CMB-039) + Light of Raze and Revive (AO1-059) still wasn’t enough to beat Asuka, Gravekeeper of Tsukuyomi (NWE-058) reliably, we explored more options, and decided to bring Exorcist Mage at the Academy (EDL-003) to the party. Since that one was easy fodder for Child of the Darkness Moon (NWE-051) though, we also put Flute, Captive Dragonoid Child // Group of Comets (EDL-004) into the deck, to have the potential to give Exorcist Mage at the Academy (EDL-003) a +100/+100 counter and therefore Barrier. Flute, Captive Dragonoid Child // Group of Comets (EDL-004) also helped to have more Will available, which was quite handy, since we were sitting on a full hand most of the time, and playing a Flute, Captive Dragonoid Child // Group of Comets (EDL-004) helped us to not have to discard for handsize in the early turns. Exorcist Mage at the Academy (EDL-003) had the nice side effect to also help vs any Dexia’s Advice (TUS-026) combo decks. The card could also backfire though, because it also turned off our Light of Raze and Revive (AO1-059) / Reconnaissance Gears (TUS-098) / Tinker Bell, Spirit of the Light Trails (CMB-014). But cards like Dark Alice, Rabbit Princess (DBV-009) or turning it into a Gears and send it on a suicide mission with precision from Shark of Solari (NWE-032) was still an emergency option if our opponent managed to build a board and we needed to perform a wipe with Tinker Bell, Spirit of the Light Trails (CMB-014). Exorcist Mage at the Academy (EDL-003) + Flute, Captive Dragonoid Child // Group of Comets (EDL-004) was still a two-card combo we need to draw versus Asuka, Gravekeeper of Tsukuyomi (NWE-058), which did not happen frequently enough.

So we decided to put some more answers into the deck. Namely Falling Into the Cracks of Time (GRL-029) and Rumsfeld, Member of the Twelve Sacred Knights (CMB-010). Rumsfeld also had the advantage to be a huge 800/800 with self protection versus Asuka, Gravekeeper of Tsukuyomi (NWE-058). Unfortunately, he also turned off Eins (NWE-090) abilities, but we figured, that the card hurt Asuka, Gravekeeper of Tsukuyomi (NWE-058) way more than us. Since Rumsfeld, Member of the Twelve Sacred Knights (CMB-010) also gave himself Barrier and Eternal, he was vulnerable to Hellfire of the Demonic World (GRL-018) just like Ray Aznable, Reunion’s Navigator (CMB-039), and Exorcist Mage at the Academy (EDL-003) + Flute, Captive Dragonoid Child // Group of Comets (EDL-004). The deck could still protect him, by turning him into a Gears, which gave him a +100/+100 buff most likely, because at turn two there was most likely a Shark of Solari (NWE-032) or Dragon of Solari (NWE-014) revealed. After the +100/+100 buff a revealed Reconnaissance Gears (TUS-098) could buff him for another +200/+200, so he could survive the 1000 damage and then give himself Barrier + Eternal again after Hellfire of the Demonic World (GRL-018) resolved. These changes made us pretty confident in the matchup, and the build was pretty much ready for world… or so we thought.

How the deck emerged Part 3: Fever Dreams 10 hours before the event

The evening before the event while we were managing final ratios and JPK, having wild fever dreams, suggested to cut off all free cards to not play into Child of the Wind Moon (NWE-033) We discussed the pros and cons and decided to cut all our free cards from the deck without further testing, which at that point were 4 Conflict of Memory and Soul (CMB-042) as counters and 2 Spirits of the Crimson Moon (CMB-011) for early Cocoon removal and another free two-drop for Tinker Bell, Spirit of the Light Trails (CMB-014). We also decided to add back Pier, the Godspeed Archer (AO3-014) again, which made Faurecia, the Virtuous Vampire (AO3-067) cheaper and also destroyed early Cocoons. Another argument was that we could give him Precision when turning him to a Gears, to destroy turn one Aspiring Diva (CMB-028) or Flute, Captive Dragonoid Child // Group of Comets (EDL-004) (in the mirror). The last deck edits then were some changes to the stone base to more blue/red to be able to play the relevant cards like Ray Aznable, Reunion’s Navigator (CMB-039) / Light of Raze and Revive (AO1-059) early, in case our Gearsification Facility of Solaris (NWE-092) was destroyed or our trigger was negated and therefore our Will fixing ability was gone.

Matchups

In the following, I try to give you a quick summary of what my matchups were throughout the event. I did not take any notes, but I will try to remember as much as I could.

Round 1 vs. Falchion: Draw 0-0-1

The first game was against Falchion, Solitary Scientist (NWE-066). My opponent revealed Child of the Light Moon (NWE-003) and Child of the Darkness Moon (NWE-051) and I immediately wanted my free counters back. In game one Faurecia, the Virtuous Vampire (AO3-067) carried the win home. I still didn’t know the win condition, I just saw a contract game one, so I boarded 2 Rain of Comets (NWE-096) for an Exorcist Mage at the Academy (EDL-003) and a Falling Into the Cracks of Time (GRL-029). I then got run over by Mikey, Jack of All Trades (NWE-027) copying Magic Stone Research Institute (MSW-087) and The Witch of the Fallen Kingdom (ADW-072) into Pumpkin Witch (CMF-088) train. I could prevent the first round of attacks by hard casting Rain of Comets (NWE-096), but my opponent had another The Witch of the Fallen Kingdom (ADW-072) into a second Pumpkin Witch (CMF-088 and I did not have my addition to recover the ruler for the 2nd Rain of Comets (NWE-096) I had in hand. If I didn’t reveal the Bat of Solari (NWE-049) with the Eins (NWE-090) trigger, I would’ve been able to use Reconnaissance Gears (TUS-098) to reveal Bat of Solari (NWE-049) and then cast the 2nd Rain of Comets (NWE-096) with Mastery.

Round 2 vs. Asuka: Loss 0-1-1

Asuka, Gravekeeper of Tsukuyomi (NWE-058) was the deck to beat for round 2. My opponent was on Child of the Wind Moon (NWE-033) and I was happy to have nothing in my deck that played into it. Game one went quickly, since I managed to get a Ray Aznable, Reunion’s Navigator (CMB-039) on board with Light of Raze and Revive (AO1-059) and my opponent had no out.

In game 2/3 he sided Hellfire of the Demonic World (GRL-018) and got it to break my board to win the match. I think at one point I could have protected Rumsfeld, Member of the Twelve Sacred Knights (CMB-010) with a Reconnaissance Gears (TUS-098) +200/+200 buff, but wasted it beforehand.

Round 3 vs. Hyde: Win 1-1-1

My opponent started with a game loss due to an illegal deck. He played without the contracts but it was still quite a long game. He managed to clear my Faurecia, the Virtuous Vampire (AO3-067) with A Flashing Smile (GRL-001), but I managed to establish another board, which he could not handle.

Round 4 vs. Eins: Win 2-1-1

Mirror match time vs Dennis who played the same deck. He started off strong with Pier, the Godspeed Archer (AO3-014) + Brad, Amnesiac Immortal (CMB-041), preventing me from getting an advantage while generating it himself. I played Flute, Captive Dragonoid Child // Group of Comets (EDL-004) and used Tinker Bell, Spirit of the Light Trails (CMB-014) + Reconnaissance Gears (TUS-098) to wipe his board before he recovered and managed to find a new Gearsification Facility of Solaris (NWE-092) later to regain card advantage. A second Tinker Bell from my side sealed the first game then.

Game 2 I was the one starting off with Pier, the Godspeed Archer (AO3-014). He also made the mistake to play an unprotected Flute, Captive Dragonoid Child // Group of Comets (EDL-004) on his turn, which I then could kill, after I turned Pier, the Godspeed Archer (AO3-014) into a Gears with Precision. I then could establish a board with Faurecia, the Virtuous Vampire (AO3-067), and protect it against Tinker Bell, Spirit of the Light Trails (CMB-014) thanks to Ray Aznable, Reunion’s Navigator (CMB-039), and Raymond, Member of the Twelve Sacred Knights (NWE-009) in my hand.

Sorry Dennis for knocking you out of potential tops 🙁!

Round 5 and 6: Win + Draw 3-1-2

I don’t remember the deck I won against anymore. The draw was versus Asuka, Gravekeeper of Tsukuyomi (NWE-058) Combo though.

I won game 1 versus Asuka, Gravekeeper of Tsukuyomi (NWE-058) which was already pretty close. My opponent thought he could kill me on 15 Life with a hard cast Geryon (TST-084), but I still had Reconnaissance Gears (TUS-098) to gain life and Tinker Bell, Spirit of the Light Trails (CMB-014) to wipe the board. So I managed to survive that turn and won the turn after.

The second game I started with Pier, the Godspeed Archer (AO3-014), destroyed his Eternal, Artificial Archipelago (NWE-064) addition and did NOT attack… This in the end cost me the game, because my opponent failed to combo-kill me in one turn and I was 100 damage short of winning the next turn. We were in timeout after that and he managed to find his combo this time to win the second game and turn this match into a draw.

Round 7 vs. Ki Lua: Win 4-1-2

Last round and my first game versus a Ki Lua, Fossil Girl of Melted Ice (TUS-070) deck this day… the matchup, we totally did not prepare for 😁.

Game 1 all my additions were destroyed quickly, which slowed me down pretty much. I managed to establish a Ray Aznable, Reunion’s Navigator (CMB-039) though, which carried me to game one because he couldn’t get rid of it.

Game 2, Ray Aznable, Reunion’s Navigator (CMB-039) again was the game-winner, to help me resolve the 1000 life gain of Bird of Solari (NWE-002). This was enough to survive that turn and win the next turn a few minutes before time was called.

Final Results

As mentioned in the beginning, the deck performed really well, and my friends and I managed to get three (!!!) Top 10 spots with it.

We totally didn’t test for the Ki Lua, Fossil Girl of Melted Ice (TUS-070) matchup, which was the most represented deck, because no one of us touched that deck during testing. Looking back, a third Bird of Solari (NWE-002) and some The Witch of Quenched Fire (ADW-028) in the sideboard would’ve improved that matchup quite a bit.

Ending Words

Worlds 2023 was a blast of an event. I am very thankful, to be part of such a nice community. The Organisation was well executed, the location was the same as last Worlds 2019, but the playing area saw a huge upgrade. Also, the feature-match setup was really great, including face cams. Jeremy did a great job again this year commenting on all the featured games. In round 5 of the day 1 stream, you can also see JPK playing our Eins (NWE-090) deck vs the previous World Champion Ryan Miles.

Finally, I want to mention the ABC-format, which was surprisingly more fun, than I initially thought.

So after all the competetiveness, most people grabbed their pre-constructed decks, they got for participation (which were really well built btw), and played till 1 AM or later… it was a ton of fun.

Thanks again Derrick, Dennis, and Maxim for the games we played until 3 AM in the hotel lobby. Oh and if you play with four people, try to not have 3 control decks in that group… Ryan Miles can tell you about an exciting 4 hour neverending ABC-game.

Thanks to Dennis van der Meijden for putting up and maintaining fowlibrary. Thanks to JPK, Sascha, and Dennis Nastase for the great testing sessions. Thanks to Karl and Heiko for lending me all the cards. And finally thanks everyone for all the great matches and the awesome time together.

See you again next year in Japan!

Cheerz
Lars