I've Officially Returned to the Competitive Scene (In This Case: Lorcana)

Yes, indeedily do, I have begun competing in Lorcana events. Last time I competed in a tournament was March of last year where I got 2nd at a $2k event (which you can read about here if you want).

I played in four Set Championships and one local this past month. I played Amber Steel the whole set. Here is the final version of my deck list: https://dreamborn.ink/decks/y4rEwNip6Lq6GdahwAl9 I'd continue to tweak it if I had more tournaments, but I feel really good about that form.

Quick Report of Each Set Champs and Lessons I Learned:

Set Champs 1: 

Summary:

        I, uh, didn't have 8 of the best cards in my deck at the tournament as they hadn't arrived in the mail. Still did surprisingly well for having my hand tied behind my back. When 3-2. Got 11th missing the Top 8 cut.

Lessons:

        In my round one, I was fully taken up by tournament jitters and was playing much much faster than was required, which caused me to make some severe misplays. It was pretty frustrating. But I learned the lesson to calm myself down and take deep breaths. And just because my opponent is playing at a fast clip doesn't mean I need to. Slow down, think through the play, execute.

        Also having a good deck is important lolol.

MVP:

        Bambi did SO much work for me and instantly became a staple in my deck moving forward. She wasn't in my first iteration of the deck and was only put in because I was missing so many other cards, and she killed it.

LVP:

        Eilonwy was never meant to be in the deck either and boy oh boy did she never see the light of day again. She died to various instances of ping damage and was just a waste of a card over and over again. I'm pretty sure it would've been better for me to ink her in every game than play her (except maybe one).

Set Champs 2:

Summary:

        I did so well! I got 2nd and it was awesome and it was a blast. In the five rounds of Swiss, I won my first four rounds and lost my fifth to Izzy getting me the 2nd Seed going into the Top 8 cut. I won two rounds in top cut to make it into the finals where I ultimately lost to Izzy again. 

        One of the players I beat in Swiss and again in Top 8 was Prince, a player who had just recently won a 128-Player CCQ to qualify for Nationals. Awesome win to get (and I beat him 2-0 both times!).

        I do feel like I was getting lucky throughout the day with some huge top decks (ex. topdecking item removal literally both times Prince played down a key item). But I also feel like I was playing extremely smart and sharp the whole day. I was thinking through lines clearly, thinking about my opponent's outs etc. I feel great about how I preformed.

Lessons:

        I got to talk to Izzy about our games, and he brought up was how he looked at my hand a couple turns ago and how that helped him. I had completely forgotten about it. It's important to remember what tricks you have up your sleeve vs. what tricks your opponent already knows.

MVP:

        Prince Charming single-handedly won me 3-4 games against Yurple. Benja also came in clutch in key moments.

Set Champs 3:

Summary:

        18 people dropped from the tournament. The day before 30 people had signed up. Turned into a 12-person bracket. Was rather disappointing.

        Round 1, I fought Izzy again. I managed to take a game this time, but still lost.

        Round 2, I fought against a Aggro Amber/Emerald deck. They had some unfortunate draws and petered out both games. I won 2-0.

        Round 3, I fought Mouse House. Game 1, I was ahead and then threw the game away. Was really unfortunate. More on this in my lessons.

        Round 4, I fought Crystal who was playing Yurple. I won 2-0. In one game, I made a poor mistake that luckily didn't get punished hard enough to make a difference.

        Still managed to squeak into 8th place to get a Promo. I had the same tiebreakers as Derek who was in 9th; we're not sure exactly how it was determined I should be above him.

Lessons:

        Don't get comfortable. Think about your opponent's outs. You're winning, but what options do they have to turn the game around? What are their win-cons? Play around them. When you're ahead, it's still important to take a deep breath and think.

LVP:

        Benja did so well the previous week, I over-teched into him by adding another copy. He ended up being useless the entire day and was a big liability. 

Set Champs 4:

Summary:

        Fun competitive tournament, but didn't quite make the cut.

        Lost Round 1 to Wakeen who was playing Mouse House. Man, I don't like fighting that deck. 1-2.

        Won Round 2 to a player playing an off meta Sapphire/Amber deck. 2-0.

        Won Round 3 to a player playing Mouse House. He made some critical misplays; there was nothing I could do if he had just quested, but alas: I won 2-0. Still don't like fighting Mouse House.

        Lost Round 4 to Ruben who was playing Yurple. First Yurple I've lost any games to -- I was 8-0 in games against Yurple before I lost 2-0 to Ruben. We had a great conversation about our games after. More on that in Lessons.

        Won Round 4 to an off-meta Purple Steel deck. 2-0.

Lessons:

        Don't get tunnel vision. Sure, if Meilin gets you Strength of a Raging Fire, you're in a good spot, but what if she doesn't? What other options do you have available to you? If she gets you Thunderbolt instead, would that change how you play?

        If they have it, they have it, so sometimes, you just have to make a play. If he has a Gaston, you probably just lose on the spot no matter what you do. So just play like he doesn't -- do what you can do to stop his good lines that you do have control over (in this case, stopping the Luisa shift).