Hi everyone,

This past weekend was the North American Nationals, the last chance competitors had to qualify for the 2025 World Championships. Like many others, I really wanted to qualify for worlds; to compete at the highest level with the best players in the game would be a dream come true. Unfortunately, some mental lapses both in day 1 and 2 meant that I fell short of qualifying, but I still want to write this retrospective and get into the habit of writing tournament reports; I grew up on Channel Fireball articles from Reid Duke, Luis Scott-Vargas, Brian-Braun Duin, Andrea Mengucci, and many other Magic: the Gathering pros, and I’d like to provide similar content to the Grand Archive community! So grab a drink and read on (it's a long one)!

The Lead Up: OCE Nationals (and why I’ll never play Wind Luxem again)

As I said, I *really* wanted to qualify for worlds, so with my winnings from Ascent Utrecht I decided to book the (very long) trip to Auckland, New Zealand to play in the Oceania Nationals. Looking at the format and talking with my teammates, I had come to a few meta conclusions:

• Fractals was one of the best decks, but the mirror was too coin-flippy to reliably convert to top 8 (a near-must for qualifying for worlds at OCE, with only 4 direct slots and 8 Gauntlet slots)

• Fire Aggro would be very popular, especially Fire Lorraine w/ the release of Clarent, Reimagined

• Shenju decks (Seiryuu and Genbu) were dark horses on the rise, and would likely show up in full force

2 weeks out from the event, I decided to lock in Wind Luxem, a rogue deck that the SoCal guys have been playing for months, and is now excellently positioned in the meta (as proven by EMP’s, Auli’s, and Sebastian’s performances at Ascent Seattle, SEA Nationals, and EU Nationals). Unfortunately, there was one major problem with the deck: the deck has play into almost anything, but doesn’t fully dominate any matchup. Therefore, the wind luxem pilot has to play near-perfectly the entire event in order to succeed. Still, I decided that this was the deck to play for the event, and grinded out about 75 games over the week and a half before my flight. I’m not gonna lie, this was the event I felt the least prepared for out of any event (I felt better about playing Wind Uniques at Santa Clara LOL). I only won about half of my games in testing, but I didn’t have any comfort decks to pivot to for the event that were better positioned, so now that I’d made my bed it was time to lie in it. I’d been working on refining my exact list with Shawn (Lifdrasyl) from TM32, and the TCG boys gave some insight as well after I landed (they had an open couch at their Airbnb and were gracious enough to let me stay with them). 

Now, I’d be lying if I said that Nationals was the only reason I booked the trip; just 2 hours south of Auckland is the Hobbitton Movie Set, the iconic location from the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies! Friday morning I met up with TM32 (Shawn, Christian, and Bailey) and 11 other tourists from around the world to hop on a tour bus down to the set (shoutout to Cheeky Kiwi Travel for a smooth experience)! We got some fun tourist info about the history of Auckland, though I don’t remember much of it as I was dozing the whole drive (the time change was brutal y’all). But the sights and scenery were absolutely stunning; miles of rolling green hills, dense forests, and so many sheep! Then the Hobbiton tour itself was absolutely incredible, and made the trip worthwhile all on its own. Our guide was a Tolkien Scholar, someone who’s gotten a PhD in literature focusing on studying Tolkien’s works, and he shared so many fun facts and stories about the Lore of the Rings (pun intended), the filmmaking process, behind the scenes secrets, and more (one of my favorite ones was about how the set team made miniature “plum trees” out of apple and pear trees, all so that in the background of 1 shot, a little hobbit girl can reach up and pluck a plum like in the books (and the shot didn’t even make it into the final cut!)). Hobbiton itself blew my away as well, and pictures simply don’t do it justice:

(Behold my poor photography skills!)

At the end of the tour, you even get to tour through a real Hobbit Hole! Scaled up slightly to make it more enjoyable for travelers, the amount of detail in the home was absolutely stunning! The home we went through was for an herbalist, and there were tons of little vials and pouches showing the family business throughout! My favorite room was the living room, with its little couch, chairs, and wood-burning fireplace (complete with real wood!) 

Anyways, back to Grand Archive! After all the testing on Thursday, and some additional discussion Friday, we settled on a final list. We fit the Nullifying Lantern into main by cutting the Poisoned Dagger, and settled on a 6:5 split of anti-Fractal cards (Scatter Essence and Stifling Trap) and Defensive Allies for aggro (Aesan Protector, Swift Recruit, Zhang Jiao):

Shawn and I ended up with just 2 minor differences in our lists (I added a second Scout the Land in the main to boost the wind:non-wind ratio, and therefore could afford to side a 3rd Gleaming Cut instead of the 3rd Siroco Operative). Zhang Jiao was a last minute inclusion that I’d been thinking about a lot over the past few days, but didn’t have much time to thoroughly test. Still, the idea of looping a Heal 4 ally into aggro, or an influence rip vs level 3 decks, was too tempting to pass up, so we committed to a 1 of. Amusingly, Apex Player’s Guild thought along the same lines, liking the idea of it but didn’t have time to test it, and they settled on 2 in the side. 

OCE Nats

Come to the day of the event, and it went….. horribly. I barely scraped a win round 1 vs wind allies (one of my best matchups) despite drawing 0 Veiling Breeze and 0 Ensnaring Fumes games 2 or 3; I got a cheeky slice kill game 1, so my opponent was playing a bit reserved by always holding up an interceptor, rather than pushing for lethal, giving me the time I needed to stabilize. Starting round 2 everything went downhill. I paired into Zetdevix, an excellent player from Singapore and member of Apex Player’s Guild, on, surprisingly, the mirror match, which neither of us had practiced at all. Game 1 I got too greedy and played into a Reclaim that denied my Sadi trigger, opening myself up for lethal on his turn. Game 2 he drew Windmill Reclaim and I did not.

Round 3 began my personal hell, which anyone who’s asked me about the event has heard already; I played vs 5 fire aggro in a row, I lost most of the die rolls, I drew 0 Windmill Engineer or Veiling Breeze in *any* of the games, and I only drew Sadi a couple of times. My opponents, on the other hand, opened with either: Arthur + Red Hare, Arthur + Clumsy Apprentice, or Xiao Qiao + Red Hare *every game*. Every. Game. Sometimes, Wind Luxem just draws the wrong half of the deck, and that whole day was one of those times. Anyways, that’s why I’ve now sworn off playing that deck ever again LOL. Fortunately, the event went much better for my fellow countrymen: Shawn, Duckhats, and TCG Terry all made Gauntlet, while Caban and Bailey took down the event, earning 2 of the 4 worlds slots! 

Converting to Fractals:

After the event, I was chatting with Terry and Caban (Isaac was still recovering from his horrible bout of food poisoning) and they convinced me that Fractals was, simply put, the only deck worth playing in this format. It doesn’t matter if the mirror is a coin flip when every other matchup is favored due to how high the ceiling is with Fractals. So, Monday morning in the airport, I sent the following message to my teammates:

We got to the airport early, since TCG’s flight left an hour before mine, and all of the Cali guys were on the same flight as either of us. We had a good time chatting about the format and the Gauntlet before most of them left for the flight, leaving just Shawn and myself with some way too sweet boba. With an hour and a half till our flight, I picked Shawn’s brain about anything and everything relating to Fractals (much as I’d done with Caban and Terry over the weekend), from card choices, deck theory, matchups, and even hypothetical glimpses. So by the time we took off, I felt that I had the best crash course on the best deck in the format, and I was ready to start grinding some games as soon as I landed…

… I was then very sleepy when I landed and didn’t play a game for the next 24 hours. But hey, 22 hours of travel will really take it out of ya.

So, starting on the Tuesday 1.5 weeks before NA nats, I started grinding Fractals. CC was working with 2 of our close friends to help prepare for the event, ModestMewtwo and Xero, and for the next week and a half, from 5pm to 11pm every night, we played GA truly nonstop. Bless TableTop Simulator. At the start of this, Modest and I were the only ones planning on playing Fractals. Burner, Pickle, Rex, and Xero were convinced that playing Astra or Serene Luxem was the play, that the Fractal matchup wasn’t that bad (spoiler, it is that bad). 

Ver and Crown were planning on playing fire aggro (likely Lorraine), and Killydis was hard brewing some water Crux lists. What was great about this for me was that they all wanted to test into Fractals, and I needed to practice vs literally everything. The more practice I got with Fractals, the more I was winning, and by the next Wednesday, I’d topped off a 3 day streak where I’d only dropped 3 games and not a single match. While Killy had refined water crux a ton, it still wasn’t quite there yet, and the rest of the team had come to the same conclusion I had: Fractals is the only deck worth playing this format. Seriously, the deck is busted. It’s the strongest combo deck in the game (aside from Toronto Vani-Gale) with the best counterspell in the game. A 2-cost hard negate that can be activated from memory, truly, WTF. Thursday we all traveled to St Louis, and Friday was just non-stop testing the mirror (and a bit vs fire suzaku). Anyways, this was the list we’d come to:

It’s very similar to TCG’s OCE list, which makes sense, that was the starting point. After OCE Caban was convinced it was the perfect list, except for going down to 3 Unstable Fractal and up to 3 Fractal of Intrusion. So that’s what we started with, and TBH felt no need to change anything until the day before. But after playing the mirror a ton, we’d come to 2 conclusions:

1. Water Bauble was totally unnecessary

2. We really wanted Gildas

Simplest first, Water Bauble is completely unnecessary. Is it good? Yes. You go first, you drop 3 Fractals, then you grab Bauble, play your Zhang Jiao, and still can draw the extra card that turn. It can also be held to draw a key card you glimpse with a Dissonant Fractal. BUT…. that’s not *that* big of a deal in a deck with so much on demand draw anyways, thanks to Frostsworn Paladin, Lost in Thought, and Zhang Jiao. I really wanted Song of Frosts in the sideboard, since it’s an all-star card across a variety of random matchups and I felt that it was likely to come up throughout the event (it did, thanks me!). So that was a pretty easy substitution. 

Gildas in the main was the tricky one. The list was already super tight, and there wasn’t really anything we felt we could afford to cut. 16 float is needed for the Rain mill engine (which is *incredible*, always always imbue your rains), 22 fractals felt like it was the minimum, can’t cut the interaction, so…. How do we fit them? After a lot of thinking, Picklesword suggested trimming 1 Fractal and the 1 Turbo Charge for the 2 Gildas. The Fractal represented a 2.75% decrease in the odds of opening 2+, which we felt was acceptable, and Turbo is sided out a lot of the time anyways. I countered with the idea, “Would you rather play 60 w/ no Turbo, or 61 w/ Turbo?” and we immediately decided that 61 w/ Turbo was better. Is 61 ideal? No, but the *only* cuttable card was Turbo, and we’d rather have 61 w/ Turbo, so Turbo stayed. Now, why did we want Gildas so badly? Simply, she’s an absolute house. You can win games in the mirror on low Fractal count simply off the back of Gildas. She is equivalent to another Refracting Missiles in the deck in terms of damage output, clears their Paladins, and demands an answer. If unchecked, she will win the game on her own, so they have to burn a kill spell on her, which means 1 less kill spell going to your face. We also expected all of the major NA teams on Fractals, and so day 2 would be very Fractal heavy, and we really wanted the extra mainboard edge. We were right, there were a lot of Fractals in Day 2 and Gildas felt like an MVP the entire event. This list felt absolutely perfect for me, and I wouldn’t change a single card.

The Event Itself:

Round 1 vs Netto (Modern TableTop) - Water Zander Tempo

Game 1: 

I lost the die roll (a trend for this event), and Netto started off with a Spirit of Water. Initially I felt a bit of dread, a Fractal mirror r1 vs a comp player and I’d lost the die roll, but a quick Lurking Assailant pass changed my tune immediately. While I hadn’t tested the Water Tempo matchup at all, I knew that in theory it would play very similarly to the Wind Ally matchup, but with a few key differences. I had to respect bursts from DG + Scepter of Lumina, Slice and Dice, and Poisoned Dagger. They have more protection for their allies. BUT, their allies are generally lower statted, so their damage output outside of their bursts is lower. 

I drew my 8 and had, to put it simply, the perfect hand for the matchup. 2 Frostsworn Paladins, 2 fractals, a Fast Cure, a Refracting Missiles, and some other stuff. Play 2 fractals, pass, and then a Refracting to kill his Lurking when he taps down for Backup Charger. He plays another ally and chips, I establish a Paladin, he Snow Fairies, I play another Paladin, etc. The game grinds out for a good 30 mins due to the Snow Fairy (I didn’t draw another removal spell for a while), but I was able to keep my other alive via a Glimmering Refusal and a cheeky Quicksilver Grail into Wand of Frost, catching him by surprise.

One interesting thing that happened this game is that early on, Netto made a comment that there weren’t any good Fractal players in his area to test against, which I did my best to leverage throughout the match. Netto is a good technical player, with a background in (I’m assuming) MtG. But by telling me that he was unfamiliar with the matchup on a competitive level, he put himself at a disadvantage. When you don’t know exactly what to play around, you tend to play more cautiously. Water Zander has a lot of powerful reactions in Incapacitate and Frostbind, which are clearly powerful vs Fractals, so he played to hold these up almost the entire game. This is good, but it also meant that he never tried to force a lethal, because if I had the Glimmering he just loses. I recognized this was how he was playing the matchup, and combined with his comment, it let me play a bit greedier without worrying about getting punished. Let me explain:

As I said above, the main things I have to watch out for in this matchup are his high burst turns. However, his burst lines require him to tap out, which means that if I stop them, he will just die to me on the next turn. Netto, being a good player, also knows this, so he won’t tap out as long as he respects me. So, I made him respect me. The entire game I represented the potential to cast Glimmering Refusal, either through cards in hand or Diao Chan’s glimmer counters. But because I’m not trying to blow him out with Glimmering, just make him scared of it and play around it, I need to give him breadcrumbs to indicate that I had a Glimmering. Questions about cards in hand when he activates a key card, starting to use Diao Chan when he activates a powerful card, then changing your mind, etc. Of course, you can’t oversell the bluff, or else he’ll catch on, so it’s all a balancing act. Because that was it, a bluff. I drew 1 Glimmering the entire game and I used it early to save my Paladin, because without the Paladin I would start to fall behind. But that’s where I said I could play greedier, I was confident I could bluff the Glimmering later in the game. Rather than playing safe and holding the Glimmering for 3-4 turns (which you absolutely need to do in some games) I was confident that I could use it now, save the Paladin, maintain board control, and gain a lot of early game advantage. Same thing with the Grailed Wand of Frost, rather than saving it for his Slice and Dice, I burned it early to keep my Paladin alive. In the late game, I absolutely would have died to a Slice. But if I let the Paladin die in the early game, I probably would have lost just to board (remember, I was on 2-4 fractals for most of the game, and had to use my burn spells on his allies). So my best route to win the game was to fight hard to keep my Paladins alive, and then hard sell the Glimmering Refusal bluff in the late game. The strategy paid off, Netto had the Slice and Dice but was playing safe to not get blown out (late game I did have the fractals to threaten lethal), which let me win the game.

Sideboard:

In:

+1 Art of War

+1 Viridian Protective Trinket

+2 Song of Frost

+2 Chill to the Bone

(there’s an argument for +3 Song +1 Chill, but I think 2/2 is better)

Out:

-1 Quicksilver Grail

-1 Wind Resonance Bauble

-1 Turbo Charge

-1 Fractal of Intrusion

-1 Captivating Opulence

-1 Lost in Thought

Game 2: 

This game was far less exciting. I think I opened with double Fractal pass. T2 I grabbed an Art of War, and T3 I wanted to tap out (I think to play a Fast Cure + Paladin), so I played a Viridian Trinket to shut off Frostbind. T4 level up, and here I made a pretty big misplay. Netto was hands down (I wasn’t able to threaten lethal iirc), so I went for a Fractal of Intrusion play. He showed me: Slice and Dice, Halocline Scout, Halocline Scout, and some other allies. He was on 0 prep and I had 2x Glimmering Refusal, so I wasn’t worried about the Slice any time soon. The Haloclines were the big threat, so I took one, and knew I would just negate the other. His turn, he goes “Halocline Scout”, and for SOME REASON I just instinctively said “Resolves”. He paused and just looked at me as he slowly said “....target Diao Chan…?”. I paused, staring at the Glimmering in my hand. Remetic was sitting next to me, and he stopped playing to just look over at me confused as well. 

 “....huh. Welp. This is awkward.”

Anyways, he then was able to clear my Paladin, and I lost a few turns later. Remember folks, when you have a plan to negate a card, it’s usually good to actually play the negate.

Game 3: 

At this point, there were about 12 minutes on the clock, and neither of us wanted a round 1 draw, so we both played fast. No time for the jokes and friendly banter, just quick decisions and slamming cards down. I had a T2 Art of War, which was kinda funny with his T1 Lunete. His hand was gas, and I had to do everything I could to stay alive. The game was super back and forth, and we hit overtime on his turn. Then my turn, and back to his. I had to draw into any damage spell to win, I grabbed a Scepter of Fascination, banished from memory, drew a card, recollected, drew for turn…. Refracting Missile into the Burst Asunder from my hand, and I won the game on the last turn of OT. Phew, what a close one, and one of my favorite matches from the event. Netto was a very fun opponent and we had some good games. 

Set: 2-1

Record: 1-0

Round 2 vs 1wisp - Fire Zander (FiZa)

I met 1wisp back at Ascent Seattle, where he was playing Genbu and I was on Fire Diao Midrange. Now we got to run it back, but with flipped elements this time.

Game 1: He won the die roll, and had a pretty standard fire aggro start (I think it was Xiao Qiao pass?). I had double fractal pass. He went Water Resonance Bauble and played some dorks. I played a Fast Cure to heal back to 0, then T2 level up into Diao Chan and play another fractal. T3 he Quicksilver Grail’s a card, taps out to play some dorks (including a Red Hare) and swings face. I do some math on my notepad before taking all the damage, then Shimmering Refraction him for 3. My turn, Grail for Scepter of Fascination, then recollect, Refracting Missiles for 4, pop Grail for Scepter to draw a card, then play Burst Asunder for 8 for exact lethal. 

Sideboard:

In: +2 Song of Frost

+2 Chill to the Bone

Out: -1 Turbo Charge

-1 Fractal of Intrusion

-1 Captivating Opulence

-1 Lost in Thought

Game 2: 

He draws 7 and passes, and here’s where some lack of practice gets to me. I’ve played vs FiZa a lot, but a good 70% of those games were in Fractured Crown and Alchemical Revolution. The deck has had some notable upgrades since then (Red Hare, Incap, Vermilion Decree), and I know the T2 lines in theory. However, I haven’t actually been T2’d be the deck before, and just thought “wow, his hand had no openers!” I got a little greedy, played triple Fractal and passed back to him. He Quicksilver Grails a card, then in recollection imbues a Vermilion Decree, dealing 3 and drawing a card. Imbues another decree, dealing 3 and drawing a card. Recollects, plays Clumsy, dealing 2. Plays Blazing Bowman, dealing 4. Then pop Grails for Impact Hammer, and Blazing Throws it for exact lethal (as I stare at the Fracturize in my hand that I had no window of opportunity to play). Whoops (I had a Fast Cure that I’d put to memory).

Game 3:

While I opened with only 1 Dissonant Fractal, I did have a Fast Cure, Zhang Jiao, and glimpsed into 2 other Fast Cures. Perfect. Healed his turn 1 damage, leveled to Diao 1, played a Fractal, T3 Grailed a Wand of Frost and started grinding the game out a bit. Back to back Gildas’s gave me a lot of chip damage, the WoF meant that he couldn't effectively Rending Flames me, and so he was only able to put me to 17. Next turn, Burst Asunder for game.

Set: 2-1

Record: 2-0

Round 3: Atka - Wind Vanitas

Game 1: I won the die roll (finally!) and went quad Fractal pass. He then played Spirit of Serene Wind, and so I assumed he was on Astra. But for fun, I joked “Yoooo, imagine if he’s on Vanitas.” He laughed, said “That’d be crazy,” thought for a bit, then played a Shimmercloak Assassin. I was dumbfounded and just stared at it for a good 10 seconds while Atka did his best to keep a straight face, it was amazing. Cat was out of the bag t1, and I had no idea how this matchup would play out. A while back in the CC discord, we’d mused about Razorgale’s potential right now, and figured that while it might have a good Fractal matchup, it probably loses to everything else. Though sitting across from my 2-0 opponent on very clearly Vanitas: that wasn’t exactly helping my confidence. My turn, I thought on my materialization for a decent bit. He had 3 in hand, which meant he could play either Diablerie or a Veiling Breeze, but not both. I had the cards in my hand to T2 kill, and I was pretty tempted to greed for it, since next turn he could rush level up to 25 health due to Serene. I reasoned that I could play Grail to bait him and go for the lethal, since if he Veiling’s in response, I just grab whatever, if he doesn’t I get Nullifying Mirror and win. On the flip side, if he Diablerie’s, he can’t play Veiling. So I played Grail, and as I was setting it down I had a slow-mo movie internal dialogue moment, as I realized that (obviously), he can just…. tuck Safeguard Amulet with the Grail. Whoops. He has the Diablerie and puts a mysterious card that I have no idea what it is (it’s Safeguard Amule) under the Grail. In my defense, I wasn’t got by Diablerie, I intentionally played into it,I just got got by being dumb. Big Difference. The correct play was absolutely to just slam Null Mirror, if he has Veiling he has to go -1 to play it, and then -1 again next turn to level up (since a raw Safeguard just loses to Fracturize), and I run away with the game. And if he doesn’t have Veiling, I just win. But no, instead we have a real game (which is… totally fair, the T2 kill is pretty dumb). The game ends up being pretty grindy, his deck had a lot of allies in Shimmercloak Assassin, Dream Fairy, Maiden of Glimmer’s Dusk, and Windmill Engineer, and so I was worried I was just gonna lose to allies I couldn’t clear (I also assumed he’d be on Aesan, though he wasn’t). I grabbed Null Mirror T3 to shut off his imbue cards (most importantly Dominating Strike) and late game Veilings. His fairy hit a Paladin, and I had to burn a Shimmer to clear it so I could replay Paladin and just leave it awake to stall off the Shimmercloak. Fortunately, I was able to keep the Paladin alive long enough to stabilize the game, and ultimately win the game the hard way (ie, no Burst Kills).

Sideboard:

In: 

+2 Song of Frost 

+2 Chill to the Bone

Out:

-1 Turbo Charge (he has phantasia hate, so I need to be able to Fracturize the Powercell)

-1 Captivating Opulence

-2 Lost in Thought (phantasia hate means less Rain mills)

(You might be sensing a theme in how we side vs ally decks that have tall attacks).

While there is an argument to bringing in Jianyu to shut off Razorgale, I wasn’t sure exactly how much phantasia hate he was packing, and didn’t want to risk him having 6-8 post board and just being able to easily blow it up. Spoilers, Day 2 I played him again, saw he was on only 3 Scatter Essence, and brought in 1 Jianyu instead of a 2nd Song of Frost.

Game 2: This game was kinda close, he was able to break my Nullifying Mirror with his Unstable Mustang, unlocking his Dominating Strikes. I didn’t have a good way to level up, but he was tapped down, so I grabbed a Quicksilver Grail and debated between Safeguard Amulet and Wand of Frost. I still wasn’t sure of his list, and I figured he might be running Tempest Downfalls for lethal bursts. I was gonna be able to hold up a Paladin, so I figured Safeguard was the safest pick all around, so I tucked that under. I played a Burst Asunder to force out a Veiling Breeze, and was set up to kill on my next turn. Awake Paladin and pass with 6 dmg taken. On his turn, he drops 2x Maiden of Glimmering Dusk, pinging me for 2 from Razorgale Calling and uses them to clear my Paladin. Dominating Strike, ping for 1, coming in for 5, threatening to put me to 14. He commented “Then level to 3 to kill?” I knew it was game, but I still wanted to make him go through the motions (maybe he’d forget to attack with his Mustang after I safeguard the Razorgale ping? LOL). So I told him to banish 3, then said “I’ll Safeguard the Ping”, banished my Grail, and flipped over…. Wand of Frost. HUH? We both just stared at the Wand for a few seconds, both realizing the same thing. I put the “wrong” card under Grail, but it was the card that would have saved me from dying had I popped it on the Dom Strike attack. But he’d already banished the cards for lvl 3, so it was too late. 

Game 3: We had about 8 minutes on the clock, and I was feeling a little tilted. After wasting so much time in game 1 to my mental lapse, then having another mental lapse in game 2, and there was not much time for game 3. Taking an early draw would be really bad, so I decided I’d play as greedy as I reasonably could to try to end the game quickly. I grab a T2 Null Mirror to set up a T4 lethal, and am able to Fracturize his Safeguard Amulet. T4 I’m at 0 dmg taken, an awake Frostsworn Paladin, and he only has 1 Razorgale. I go for the kill, activating a Refracting Missiles, with both a Burst Asunder and Glimmering Refusal in hand (but the cards to only play 1 of the two). He plays double Fairy Whisperers, dealing 2. He then plays a Veiling, I Null Mirror, and he plays another Veiling Breeze. Now I have a choice, I can negate it to force his lineage release, and I have guaranteed lethal next turn. Or, I can pass, holding my Glimmer, but uncertain if I can kill next turn. We’re about to hit OT, so I go for the lethal line. I negate the Glimmer, chip him up, and pass turn. His turn, he plays a Razorgale, pinging 1. Plays a Maiden of Glimmering Dusk, pinging 2. Plays a Maiden, pinging 2. Kills Frostsworn Paladin. Levels up to Vanitas 3, pinging 2. Swings for 4 (since Razorgale was a Spell activation for Vanitas 2) for exact lethal. Damn.

Set: 1-2

Record: 2-1

Looking back, I still think it was correct to go for lethal. The only way I lose is if he has that exact combination of cards, and it’s a non-obvious line in a deck that I wasn’t familiar playing against. I took a risk that I thought was pretty safe and got punished. Still, after what happened in games 2 and 3, it definitely felt bad. But now was the lunch break, which is a great time for a mental reset.

Round 4: ChromatiK - Wind Seiryuu

When I sat down at my seat, I was absolutely floored when I saw who else was at my table. Looking down the line, I saw:

Right then, the X-1 bracket felt like the real X-0 bracket with how stacked it was. 

Game 1: The Seiryuu matchup is interesting, since it’s primarily a full-on race to kill them before they can Arcane Blast you for lethal. Fractals does have some key interaction points with Glimmering Refusal on their DG and Beseeched Fatestones to delay Seiryuu, and Fractal of Intrusion can be a key card in delaying their lvl up to 3. The early game details of these games have blended together a bit, but the early game was roughly: play fractals, he blew up 1-2, I played some more fractals, he got a Seiryuu, I blocked some damage with a Paladin and Wand of Frost. Now comes, Spot the Lethal Line! I needed to do 20 dmg to win, but only had 3x Burst Asunder and 6 fractals. I top deck a Dissonant Fractal, play it, then Burst Asunder Guo Jia. I decline to sacrifice any fractals, then play another Burst Asunder for another 2, then play the 3rd Burst Asunder, sacrificing my 7 fractals and dealing the exact 20 damage needed for game.

Sideboard:

-1 Captivating Opulence

-1 Fast Cure

-1 Lost in Thought

-2 Gildas, Chronicler of Aesa (in hindsight, I’d rather keep these in and side out 2 more Fast Cure. It’s hard to resolve in the matchup, your Rains get blown up so you aren’t milling much, and Gildas is relevant for dmg race + clearing Panda/Aesan/Buffed dudes)

+3 Song of Frost

+2 Jianyu, Fate’s Premonition

Game 2: This game played out similarly to the previous one, but I played a Jianyu, naming Arcane Blast. I haven’t seen a Glimmering Refusal, and he’s chipped me a decent bit, but I’m not too worried since I can’t be blasted. In his recollection, he plays a Seiryuu’s Command. Recollect and draw, play Harness Lightning, empowering 4 and banishing it. Then he swings with Seiryuu, empowers for 5 3x times, bringing him to lvl 22, and activating his Arcane Blast for game. Brutal. Awesome, but brutal.

Game 3: Again, the details of this set blended together, but this is a good time to mention that Chromatik was one of the nicest opponents I had the pleasure of playing all weekend. We were joking around the whole set and just having a good time playing a game we both love, and it really helped me shake off the frustration I had from my previous round. Thanks man!

This game was pretty similar to Game 1, where my back’s against the wall and I’m gonna die on the next turn. I just need to find 1 more damage spell for game, so I end step Refracting Missile Guo Jia, go to my turn and convert it to a Scepter to draw a…. Fractal. Draw for turn and… I hit the Refracting Missiles for game! 

Set: 2-1

Record: 3-1

Round 5: Quarax (Apex Player’s Guild) - Wind Luxem

It makes sense to fly around the world to NA Nats for one reason, and one reason only:

Having a burning passion for the wonderful place that is St. Louis :)

Jokes aside, I was a little nervous for this match, but I was also feeling pretty confident. Quarax is a phenomenal player, but this isn’t Nico format anymore and the matchup slightly favors me, so I just needed to focus on playing carefully. I was pretty excited to finally be able to get to play a match with Quarax; we’d paired round 11 at Ascent Utrecht, but it made more sense for us to ID that round and the one after so we could both lock top 8. 

Unfortunately for me though, this matchup is absolutely miserable to play on the Wind Luxem side, which while I’m very familiar with from my OCE testing, meant that I’d barely had any practice on the matchup as the Fractals player. The way the matchup normally goes is: Wind Lux player focuses on building influence w/ Reclaims and Ensnaring Fumes while denying Zhang Jiao for as long as possible through phantasia destruction, Stifling Trap, and Blinding Orb. Wind Lux can also get some early gotcha kills through DG + Slice and Dice lines, so Fractals has to Quicksilver Grail their Wand of Frost pretty early (but grabbing it too early can make them lose tempo). Onto the games, which were actually very fun as we joked around the whole match:

Game 1: This game went pretty textbook; Quarax drew 2x Scatter and a Purifier in the first few turns, and I aggressively materialized draw regalia to even out the influence loss. As soon as the Purifier hit the field, I had to focus on killing it to ensure he couldn’t bounce it to keep on destroying my fractals. I Grailed my WoF onT4-5 (delayed it since I’d taken 0 chip), and we went into the long game. I believe he resolved an Ensnaring for +1-2, and was able to get to lvl 3 w/ around 9 influence. A few turns later he was at the magic 13, and went for the double LWA lethal w/ Incap in hand. It’s around turn 8 now, and you’d think I’d have seen a counterspell by now, but….. NOPE. Honestly it was pretty rough; I was about halfway through my deck and 0 glimmers. Still, I would’ve needed 2 to not die. Ah well, happens, gg go next. As grindy as the game was, it only took us around 25 minutes, so we still had enough time as long as we played quickly to finish the full set.

Sideboard:

-1 Turbo Charge

-1 Captivating Opulence

-1 Lost in Thought

-1 Fast Cure

+2 Song of Frost

+2 Jianyu, Fate’s Premonition

Game 2: I opened with triple Fractal pass, he blew one up and played a windmill, I played 2 more fractals, he blew one up, and T3 I played a Zhang Jiao. He didn’t have the stifle, and I was back in the game. On his turn, he goes for a Sadi kill on my ZJ, I Refracting it, and while he pays the 2 to bounce it back to hand, it denies the agility trigger and leaves him with no interaction up for my turn. I Grail WoF, balance a Gildas, hit for 4, pop Grail to draw, play Shimmer, then play Burst for game.

Game 3: In contrast to game 1, I saw plenty of Glimmering Refusals this game, and so I used them a bit more aggressively. Most players will hold them for a Slice and Dice, Incap, Veiling, etc, but I was in a pretty good position and used them to fight for advantage and board control. I negated a turn 2 reclaim on a Purifier to deny the influence and Fractal hate, a Sadi the next turn, and an Aesan a couple turns after that, and I materialized a Nullifying Mirror pretty early in this matchup to deny his ability to cycle with Windmills. All together, this let me get a lot of chip with my allies and let me focus on just advancing my own game plan, since he wasn’t able to establish any kind of threat, and it kept his influence relatively low. When he finally leveled up to 3, I was able to find a window for lethal.

Set: 2-1

Record: 4-1

Round 6: Guruthos (True Champion Gaming) - Fractals

Die roll matchup, here we go!

…I lost the die roll (again). Womp womp

Game 1: He has the dream start of imbued Rain, Insight, and Dissonant Fractal (and he also had a Zhang Jiao). His sequencing was very important though; most players would glimpse with their insight, and then play their Dissonant Fractal. However, Guruthos knew this was a Fractal mirror, and knows that the absolute best way that the going 2nd player can take early tempo is to Intrusion the 1st turn player’s ZJ. So Guruthos plays the Rain first, taps it to play Insight, DOESN’T use the on enter, and rests it to play the Dissonant, leaving 1 in hand. I drew my opening 8, and Guruthos was rewarded for playing safe, since I did have the dream going 2nd hand of Rain, Dissonant, Intrusion + Lost in Thought (I do believe that this start is better than double fractal + Glimmer, since 1. You don’t have to burn a counterspell early, and 2. can play triple fractal yourself). There’s no point in bluffing the Glimmer that I didn’t have, so I still tapped out for triple Fractal and I did decide to fire off the Lost in Thought to trade for one of his cards. His Rain had imbued double Refracting, and I was perfectly happy to let him the “free” float by taking the Refracting, but his third card down was a Shimmering Refraction, so I happily took that instead (yea, his opener was stacked). He plays safe, Grail’s Safeguard and plays his Zhang Jiao, probably played another Fractal, and then passed back to me. The game grinds on for a while, I end up trading 2 ZJ for 2 of his Glimmerings, and somehow manage to draw into another and a Turbo Charge while he didn’t see any more of his +1s, which was enough for me to take the game.

Sideboard:

-1 Wind Resonance Bauble

-2 Fast Cure

+1 Viridian Protective Trinket

+1 Jianyu, Fate’s Premonition

+1 Captivating Opulence

Game 2: This game was more even, we drew similarly but him being on the play was enough for him to have a huge advantage. Pretty behind, I had only 1 real play to stay in the game, which was to play Jianyu and name Burst Asunder. Still, his influence was pretty crazy, and he was able to pay the extra 10 to activate his Burst for Lethal while still holding up a Glimmering Refusal. Nothing really to comment on here gameplay wise, so I’ll take a second to talk about our sideboard. I mentioned above that we came to the conclusion that Water Resonance Bauble is totally unnecessary for the mirror, which is something no other team has done. I’ll unashamedly take full credit for this one, and I still stand by it. First off, Water Bauble is certainly a good card in the mirror. The main draw (pun intended) of it is to play it t2 after having played triple fractal t1, pop it, and still be able to play your ZJ. You can also play it, then play a Dissonant Fractal, stack a card you want to play that turn, and immediately draw it with Bauble. Those are all good things, and I would happily make use of them if I had water Bauble in the list. However, they have a truly marginal impact on the mirror match. Grabbing a Backup Charger and just popping it after you play ZJ is still a very strong early play, arguably even stronger because of the earlier access to your powercell. Grabbing and playing a card off of Dissonant doesn’t matter that much, but you can still do it anyways with Frostsworn Paladin or Lost in Thought if you have to. You’re also not starved for draw regalia at all in the mirror, since you have Backup, Tanggu, Scepter, and Wand. The 3 slots that the Water Bauble takes up in the sideboard is simply not worth it for the minimal impact it has in the mirror. 

Game 3: I get to go first now, yippee! I’m pretty sure I only had a 1-2 Fractal opener, but I was able to dig out of it pretty quickly with T2 Backup Charger into a Dissonant Fractal. The game then went on pretty similar to game 2, but in my favor. I mean, it’s the Fractal mirror, it’s legitimately “whoever goes first wins 80% of the time.” One interesting thing here was that at the table next to us was Isaac from True Champion Gaming, also in a Fractal mirror. And during our game 3, I saw him activate a Coronation Ceremony to blow out his opponent. So I knew that I had to play around the card, since there was a 99.9% chance Guruthos was on the exact same sideboard plan, but he ended up random milling it midway through the game. While I didn’t know they were only on 1, it was a card I still had in mind when I went for lethal a few turns later.

Set: 2-1

Record: 5-1

Round 7: Leoblade (Maindeck) - Fractals

Just 2 rounds to go, and all I need is 1 draw to lock day 2, so I’m feeling really good at this point. 

…I lost the die roll (again). Womp womp (again)

Game 1: I knew that Maindeck and TCG tested for the event together, so I figured Leoblade was on the same list as Guruthos. I saw pretty quickly though that they weren’t when his Fractal of Rain milled a Jianyu, leading to me doing some mental gymnastics trying to figure out how the heck they fit Jianyu in main (Leoblade mentioned after that it was partially to spite Maindeck Taylor (Boeboe) by playing 61 cards main. Absolute chad move right there). Anyways, Fractal stuff happened, we both played some Zhangs, negated them with Glimmers, he played an Opulence, I had to pop my Grail when he leveled up, he blew it up a turn later, then had lethal the following turn.

Sideboard:

-1 Wind Resonance Bauble

-2 Fast Cure

+1 Viridian Protective Trinket

+1 Jianyu, Fate’s Premonition

+1 Captivating Opulence

Game 2: I opened 1 fractal, he opened 3. I didn’t get to 3 fractals till turn 3, and the game was over pretty quickly. Womp womp.

Set: 0-2

Record: 5-2

Round 8: ThiccOppai (True Cactus Gaming) - Fire Zander (FiZa)

I’d been debating whether or not I wanted to ID my round 8 or not, since the primary goal of Nats is to qualify for Worlds; winning round 8 and starting day 2 at 6-2 is a pretty strong advantage, since you’d then only need to go 3-0-1 (instead of 4-0) to make top 8, or 1-1-2 to make Gauntlet (instead of 2-1-1). However, you do take a big risk, since if you lose round 8 you’re out. Basically, it’s manipulating when you take a win vs a draw, and the correct answer is probably to do it based on what your round 8 opponent is playing. I was leaning towards ID’ing, just to have the guaranteed day 2; the Sword of Seeking promo was selling for a good $450, and while Worlds is the goal (I flew to OCE for their nats after all), if I miss I’d rather miss with a nice paycheck (had to help make back that OCE trip after all). 

Round 8 pairings went up, I saw it was Vinh, and any doubt about ID’ing vs playing went out of my mind. We’re good friends, we met at Ascent Houston in the Fire Merlin mirror, and neither of us would feel good about knocking the other out of day 2. He was standing nearby, so I walked up to him and just said “....ID?” Showed him the pairings, and he very happily agreed. We joked around a bit, signed the match slip, and then picked a couple matches to watch. 

ID

Record: 5-2-1

Day 2

Of everyone in Chess Club, only Burner and myself made Day 2, both at 5-2-1. As I mentioned before, most of the team swapped on to Fractals pretty late, so just lack of practice hit us pretty hard this event. Burner and I would both need to go 3-1 to make Gauntlet, or 4-0 for worlds.

Round 9 - Quarax (Apex Player’s Guild) - Wind Luxem - Rematch

Starting off the day with a rematch vs Quarax is certainly intimidating for all the same reasons I was nervous day 1, but I beat him once and I can do it again, especially now knowing exactly what tech pieces he is running.

Game 1: I win the die roll, play triple Fractal and pass. His list was on only 4 phantasia hate cards main, so my hope is that he doesn’t open with one and I can fire off my Zhang Jiao on turn 2 when it’s least likely he has a stifle. Quarax and I have been bantering for a bit, so he does a bit of a meme-y slow roll of looking through his opening 8 1 card at a time like it’s a pack opening. Unfortunately for me, the 8th card is a Scatter Essence that he slams down, plays a Windmill Engineer, and passes back to me. I grab a Backup Charger even though I can’t activate it in my recollection, because I want to have the powercell ready for whenever I see a Fracturize. I pass back, he pokes me for another 1 with the Windmill, plays an Aesan, hits me for 3, and passes back. I think for a second here, I have a Gildas in hand that I can use to clear the Aesan, I just need to find the right way to balance it. I end up cracking my Charger in his end step, and then grabbing a Wind Bauble to keep digging through my deck. I clear his Aesan and pass, and he levels to 1, Dungeon Guides to 2, and plays a Slice and Dice for game. Ugh, frustrating. The Bauble wasn’t necessary to balance Gildas, and I wasn’t thinking about how I’d already taken 5. This was just an experience based misplay, there aren’t normally Slice kill lines when they’re currently on spirit, so I thought I had another turn before I had to Grail Wand of Frost. Not a good start to the day, but this was a very fast game so we had plenty of time for 2 more.

Game 2: My opener isn’t great, I only have 2 fractals. He purifier’s one of them, and I know that I need to draw fractals for the next 3-4 cards. I Charger, hit a Fractal, and draw into another. Perfect, I play double Fractal to bring myself up to 3 and pass back. T3 I think I resolved a Zhang Jiao, and was able to clear his purifier to prevent any looping. I made sure to Grail Wand of Frost at an appropriate time, and am working on keeping my Fractal count moderately high while he keeps destroying them. Quarax’s influence isn’t great this game, so I’m definitely feeling the game turn in my favor. Then comes a key turn, I’m playing a Paladin to clear an Aesan, and decide to make good use of action economy and also play a Fractal that turn. I pass with 2 in hand, Song of Frost and Glimmering Refusal, and an awake Fractal. And Quarax plays… Blinding Orb. Sigh, another misplay. The Fractal was greedy, I was already at 4, and I wasn’t thinking about playing around blorb. In my testing with Wind Lux, blorb was used to deny Zhang Jiaos 90% of the time. He pops it, I put my hand down. I have an awake Paladin (left up to clear Sadi), he has 2 1/1s and a Sadi. I’m at 4 dmg taken. He attacks the Paladin with the 1/1s, then with Sadi. I retaliate, he bounces Sadi, replays Sadi. He grabs a Mercenary’s Blade, then activates a Slice and Dice at face, threatening 10 dmg (I’m still on Spirit). I think a lot here, since I can either Wand this, or Wand the Sadi attack. I end up making a misplay (that ultimately didn’t matter) and I pop Grail for Wand, then use it on the slice just to save maximum HP. I have 5 in memory, including Shimmering and a Burst Asunder, which is lethal next turn. Unfortunately, the Wand banishes the Shimmering as cost. He clears Sadi with the Paladin for agility, then passes to me. What I was supposed to do to maximize my chances to win was eat the 10 from Slice, and Wand the Sadi attack to not die / prevent agility, so that if I don’t hit the Shimmer/Burst, I can guarantee kill. But this was just too much of a tempo loss, and I ended up losing a turn or two later. 

Sideboard:

-1 Turbo Charge

-1 Captivating Opulence

-1 Lost in Thought

-1 Fast Cure

+2 Song of Frost

+2 Jianyu, Fate’s Premonition

Set: 0-2

Record: 5-3-1

Man, this set felt really bad. I threw both games hard when I definitely could’ve won both, and I knew it. I just hadn’t tested this matchup enough on the Fractals side, and that lack of experience was enough for Quarax to take the set. My chances for top 8 were gone, but I could still win out and make Gauntlet.

Round 10: WildShiba - Fractals

A mirror match, and he was on 3x mainboard Gildas, but no Opulence main. Our lists were super similar, so I knew this set would come down to RNG

Game 1: I won the die roll, which is already 80% of the matchup. This helped my mental a bit, but I knew I still had to play tight. Unfortunately, I make another dumb mistake, and game 1 goes from solidly in my favor to an absolute grind (I put a Shimmering down to memory when I played my Gildas, keeping other interaction in my hand. However, his best way to clear Gildas is with a Paladin, which I would absolutely shoot there. He hits the Paladin, clears the Gildas, and I have to shoot the Paladin on my turn anyways). I still manage to take the game, but it takes a good 35 minutes.

Sideboard:

-1 Wind Resonance Bauble

-2 Fast Cure

+1 Viridian Protective Trinket

+1 Jianyu, Fate’s Premonition

+1 Captivating Opulence

Game 2: He has a triple Fractal start, and I have the Intrusion + Lost in Thought start to rip his Zhang Jiao. Not bad, but I don’t see any ZJ myself, and as the game grinds on Shiba is able to retake the advantage and close it out. Nothing crazy to comment on here, we’ve got about 8 minutes on the clock.

Game 3: I get to go first, and I know I need to play fast in order to avoid a draw here. Still, being on the play is 80% of the battle, so I draw my opening 7 and….. Have 1 Fractal. I’m gonna be perfectly honest here, I felt my stomach drop. There’s nothing I wanted more than to make worlds, and starting off day 2 with dumb misplays and then bad RNG was devastating. We play out the game, and it looks like I might be able to claw back into it with some decent draws. Shiba played 2 Rains unimbued, so I knew he was norm heavy. A turn later, I play a Jianyu, intending to name Shimmer (the most likely cause of the norm brick), but he is heads up and plays one from his hand in response to activation. On his turn, he pre-recs a Refracting Missiles, then draws into another Refracting for game. And that’s when it really set in for me that I wouldn’t be playing in worlds. I slowly packed up my stuff, wished Shiba good luck, and left to go check in with Burner

Set: 1-2

Record: 5-4-1

Unfortunately, Burner is now in a rough spot as well; he drew r9, and lost the mirror to Guruthos r10. Still, we estimate that if he takes 2 wins, there’s still a chance that he makes Gauntlet. I’m on pure copium that I might be able to as well if enough of the already Gauntlet - qualified players remake Gauntlet, but its a pipe dream.

R11: Atka - Wind Vanitas (rematch)

I lost to Atka in day 1 due to my Quicksilver Grail mishap, and I wasn’t gonna let that happen again, especially after misplaying so much today already.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t in the best headspace and didn’t write down any notes on this match. I remember it was close, but nothing truly remarkable happened. Both games I was able to set up defenses while pressuring with Paladins and Gildas to be able to close it out the turn before he could kill me, and I took the set 2-0.

Set: 2-0

Record: 6-4-1

R12: DeathatWar - Fire Lorraine

Game 1: I don’t have notes on the match either, but I think I remember it pretty accurately. I won the die roll and passed with double Fractal. He plays a Xiao Qiao and Red Hare, pokes me for 4, and I Fast Cure off the damage, Grail a Wand of Frost, and play a Paladin, eat the Fast Cure, and clear the Red Hare. I have a Refracting for his turn to defend Paladin, and on my turn grab a Lantern and Fracturize it after recollecting. This is pretty much the dream vs FiLo, but it ends up being a really, really grindy game that takes a good 35-40 mins.

Sideboard:

In: +2 Song of Frost +2 Chill to the Bone

Out: -1 Turbo Charge

-1 Fractal of Intrusion

-1 Burst Asunder

-1 Lost in Thought

Game 2: He plays triple Clumsy. I play some fractals, and he plays an Arthur that I can’t interact with. Swings for 8, 1 with a sword, and a Blazing Throw puts me to 13. I grab a lantern, ZJ heal to 9 and clear a clumsy, then play a removal spell on the Arthur. He pokes for 2, and then Rending with another sword puts me to exactly 15. Rip.

Game 3: Not much time on the clock again, and I open with a single Fractal hand. This is usually pretty good for the matchup, but it meant that I can’t high roll win the game quickly. We trade back and forth for a bit before time runs out, and the game doesn’t look decidedly in either person’s favor for either of us to want to concede. 

Set: 1-1

Record: 6-4-2

Standings

Looking at the final standings, 7-4-1 wouldn’t have made Gauntlet, so there’s absolutely no hard feelings either way about a round 12 draw. We were both pretty sure we were out, and did our best to have fun with the match, which it was. DeathatWar is a really nice guy and great judge, and this match definitely helped me wind down a bit and get back into just enjoying the event. 

Burner was able to take his round 11, and round 12 paired into Terry, who conceded the match in the hopes Burner could make Gauntlet. Unfortunately, 3 of the tables at 7-3-1 took ID’s to try to make Gauntlet, diluting the 7-3-2 pool to 10 people, and only 5 of them made it into the Gauntlet. The event was over, and we all whiffed. :/

All around, this was a fun event. I think our Fractals list was excellent, and I generally had a great time in my matches. I played against a lot of fun and talented players, and ultimately I didn’t make worlds due to my own inexperience and misplays. That feels better than if it was all bad RNG, since it means I can focus on improving so I don’t make the same mistakes next year. Playing in the World Championships is still my dream, and I’ll be doing everything I can to prepare next time. 

For this year’s worlds, I wish the best of luck to all my friends who did qualify. I feel very lucky to know all these wonderful players, and I’ll be cheering y’all on in Anaheim! I’ll be playing in the 3v3 with 2 great friends, Rex and Remetic, and with any luck, we’ll be able to bring home a set of Hanabi’s. I think it’d be fun to vlog the event, it’s something I’ve wanted to do at just about every major I’ve been to and always end up feeling too awkward recording in public to record much, so we’ll see how it goes this time. But I promise I’ll at least try :)