Last season I climbed to champion twice (V, V(b)) and both runs involved several different decks played to various degrees of success. This season looked completely different; I played one deck for the season finishing with a solid 52-13 record. I expect this pattern to continue into the future. The season after release will involve experimentation and refinement, so I'll be playing more decks with some middling results. The next season will involve piloting one of the stronger decks from the previous season, adjusted for the meta, hopefully to much stronger results.
PG Necro, I Choose You
PG Necro was one of my favourite decks from last season, but changes to Racer in Shadow, Immolation Cloak(Lantern Colossus), and Biting Blade(Sword Saint) left me needing to rethink my decklist. The deck could no longer reliably recover from falling behind early, which required the deck becoming even more mid-range oriented. There was also the issue of Racer in Shadow gaining Ephemeral, making the Handler-Vixen package a lot less interesting. One card managed to solve both these issues: Thriving Shade. It has a big early body to stonewall aggro and pressure control and it gives Vixen another solid target.
A Rocky Start
The start to my season was underwhelming, at least by my standards. Some of this was to be expected as I was refining a deck and adjusting my playstyle, but I also wasn't playing great. It is important to keep all these factors in mind when evaluating your results. You don't want to sell yourself, or your deck, short. There is also a lot of subtle learning that happens when you start playing a new deck. You may feel like you are playing perfectly reasonable at the time, but chances are, if you look back after 50 games you'll realize you made a lot of small mistakes. Brawl or Casual is a great way to accelerate the initial learning phase without costing yourself too many RP.
The Streak
I think the hallmark of any good deck is the ability to have a win a streak without being prone to losing streaks. Some decks are volatile and matchup dependent and will just as easy string five wins as five losses. But when you are playing a good deck and you run a bit hot the wins start to pile up. Whether it is true or not, it always feels like there is a something that kicks off a streak. It could be a tight game, a match against a skilled player, a slick lethal, or maybe just that finishing touch to the deck. Psychologically, there probably is a trigger for success. I believe confidence and a positive mindset have a much bigger influence on results than people realize. What kicked off my run? I can't say for sure, but somehow Jin-Sook had been dropped from my list. Fixing that error led me into a 12-game win streak before a long-planned break.
Interlude
I've always been first and foremost an RPG player, specifically the heavily story-driven games. So when Cyberpunk 2077 dropped in early December, I dove in headfirst and hid from the internet. I wanted an unspoiled experience. (It is now in my top-3 alongside BG2 and The Witcher 3.) Between a couple solid weeks of playing Cyberpunk and the holiday season I took about a three week break from Mythgard. I find these breaks to be a double-edged sword. They allow me to approach the game mentally rejuvenated and refreshed and to examine cards, decks, and lines of play without the biases that I have accumulated. But on the flip side, I am often very rusty, which leads to slow and rushed play, or otherwise stupid mistakes. So, I was ready to play again, and hopped back onto ladder...
The Season Continues
...four days later. I have performance anxiety, and while not severe, it does affect when and how I play. There is always a hesitation and a moment of psyching myself up before clicking "Join Queue" or "Start Streaming". Thankfully, this tends to fade quickly once the competition starts. But the higher the stakes, the tougher it is for me to start that first match. I was returning from a long hiatus, sitting on a 12-game win streak, and playing a grindy, mentally taxing deck, so it took a while to clear all the hurdles in my head. Often the biggest barriers we face are the ones we put up ourselves. What if I make a stupid mistake? What if I lose my streak? What will everyone think? It's just a game; it doesn't matter.
And wow, did I punt a turn in my first game back. I had a sick play were I could use Koxinga to move Junkyard Valhalla under another minion leaving me in an excellent position. I added a Born in Cruelty to my hand. I knew the exact play I wanted to make, but clicked on the wrong icon because I hadn't played in so long. Valhalla brought back my opponent's Jin-Sook, which caused some real havoc for me. I managed to recover (correctly moving Valhalla the following turn) and went on to narrowly win the game. Despite some sub-optimal play I managed to stretch the streak to 17 games before finally taking a loss. The subsequent games were also underwhelming and I lost a few games quite close together.
Getting Runed
One loss to Rune really stood out to me. It was an excellent game loaded with stylish and subtle plays on both sides. I had a slow start, twice hard to discard Ramen to Disk because I couldn't find a Born Again, but also had at least one pro-level top-deck. Through everything that had happened in the long match I found myself with a window of opportunity, but I missed it. It was a brain cramp caused by fatigued and rust. Now, even if I had made to correct play, there was no guarantee that I would have won. And as it played out, I still had the chance to top-deck the win, but I missed. Which suited me just fine, because in this case, the more deserving player won.
Fire Fighting
For some reason in my return to ladder I was facing a disproportionate number of Fires of Creation decks. These matchups can be difficult if the FoC decks can find a way to generate either a mana or card advantage and short of a well-timed Koxinga, PG Necro does not have many ways to pressure artifacts. One advantage I believe deckbuilder's have is the ability to quickly and correctly adjust their decks to the meta. Adding Pillage might have been the obvious approach, but it would have been overkill in the matchups I needed help and a completely dead card in most other matches. As it turns out, the Troikasect I added was used to great effect in three of my last six matches, and twice against non FoC decks! I finished my climb 6-0 with the following version:
name: GP Necro
coverart: Hopeless Necromantic
path: disk of circadia
power: smite
2 born-again
2 detained
3 k-nine handler
2 raid the tombs
1 troikasekt
1 bela, witch queen
4 hopeless necromantic
1 traitorous murmur
1 chort stag
1 iku-turso
4 racer in shadow
2 simuzen
2 sword saint
3 hotel barkeep
1 nine-tailed vixen
3 thriving shade
1 jin-sook, dollmaster
1 merciless koxinga
2 spirit away
2 lantern colossus
1 perfect grade
Looking Ahead
The next expansion, "The Winter War" has been officially announced, and while no release date has been set, spoiler season has begun. I should have a card to spoil next week. You can also expect a Deck Tech on PG Necro before season's end and some more articles post-release to help you dive into the new set.