A new year of organised play begins with a bang, crowning two new Battle Hardened Champions, and kicking off the third season of ProQuest events, granting your opportunity to compete at Pro Tour: Baltimore in April. Come together in the flesh and blood through the common language of playing great games and join us in Baltimore for a fantastic weekend of competition, socialising and fun!
For all the latest information on the metagame, look to Parker Brown's first article on Friday, crunching the data to give you some key insights for the months to come. We're entering an exciting new realm of possibilities for Classic Constructed, with the release of the Outsiders on the horizon to shake up the metagame once again. Who will you play this season of ProQuest?
A brand new year of premier organised play began with two Battle Hardened events, including the start of the 2023 Battle Hardened circuit with SCGCON. Battle Hardened New Jersey kicked off with 135 players, including some newer additions to the field and more established competitive players.
Newcomer to the game, Jeffrey White, took to battle against Michael Jaszczur, a Canadian player who made Top 8 at Battle Hardened: Columbus in 2022. Congratulations to Jeffrey White for a spectacular entrance onto the competitive scene, and for becoming one of the first Battle Hardened champions of 2023!
Top 8
1st: Jeffrey White - Oldhim, Grandfather of Eternity
2nd: Michael Jaszczur - Oldhim, Grandfather of Eternity
3rd-4th: Trenton McBride - Iyslander, Stormbind
3rd-4th: Noah Beygelman - Iyslander, Stormbind
5th-8th: Blake Godenzi - Briar, Warden of Thorns
5th-8th: Michael Feng - Oldhim, Grandfather of Eternity
5th-8th: Connor Rooney - Bravo, Showstopper
5th-8th: Dmitry Sorokin - Bravo, Showstopper
Games Haven Hobby - Singapore
- Stream Link
- Winning Decklist - Bryan Kong (Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire)
"This is a rare sight in Singapore. FAB players being on time. Then again, it is the first Proquest of the season in Singapore, held at Paya Lebar Game Haven. This was where I learnt to play Flesh and Blood. This was where I opened my first tunic. This is a gathering of heroes.
The pairings for the first round are out. There is an air of nervous excitement. As they hand in their deck lists and get acquainted with one another, let’s look at the Colosseum of Champions that are here today.
Here with us is the SG BH champion, Denny Sunarjo who is now on Azalea. Berlynn Yeam, who was the finalist for the BH, is still on Bravo. Gordon Koh, our national champion, is also here, along with Chu Heng.
Chu Heng has been called the best player in SG by Hayden Dale himself and has his own blog. Check it out at Chuubslilypad.substack.com if you are looking for insights into competitive play.
The class specialists have turned up to fight as well. Chungsi and Fee Sensei are Ranger specialists while Bryan Kong is known locally as the Gun God. Betrayer Lau, as we all know, is a Rhinar main.
Just like in SG BH, the meta is extremely diverse. Even niche heroes like Levia and Azalea are represented. Arakni and Katsu are missing. Outsiders will definitely bring them more support!
And… we have our winner. Local Gun God, Bryan Kong! If you’re interested in checking out how the day went down, here’s the link to the live stream: Once again, congratulations to Bryan for a Dashing performance!
We would also like to thank our hardworking judges, one of whom did not even know that the sleeves were a part of the judge's compensation! That just shows that they did it out of their love for the game.
Last but not least, we would like to thank all players who joined us today. We hope you had fun and look forward to hosting you for future events. All the best for the ProQuests ahead and remember to have fun!
- Written by BeefTheNoob"
Next Level Espresso - United States
- Winning Decklist - Steven Caraher (Fai, Rising Rebellion)
"In a small college town in the middle of Michigan 31 Heroes faced off hoping to win the coveted invite and a golden piece of armor. A surprising number of heroes, 15 total coming from WTR (6) and Arcane Rising (9). However Uprising saw the most with 12 (6 Fai, 4 Iyslander, 2 Dromia). Wizards dueled and warriors clashed but in the end the Azaleas and Kanos couldn’t break through to the top 8 (Fai 2, Dash 2, Dori, Oldhim, Bravo, Iyslander). In the top 4 the Fai’s battle for a shot at the coveted prize. While Dash and Bravo sought the right to take on the fiery ninja. In the end Fai was too much for Dash and rose up for the win. Congratulations Steven!"
Metagame TCG Club - Thailand
- Winning Decklist - Thanthawat Chujitngamsuwong (Iyslander, Stormbind)
"The event saw 33 participants in total, however 6 of which were a group of brand new players. So new that they didn't even have any Legendary equipment cards. So we decided to have them played in the side event instead.
With 27 official players, our ProQuest Season 3 started off at noon. We saw a wide array of heroes (14 heroes in total, sorry Katsu, Arakni and Kano. We'll miss you guys) but only Fai, Iyslander, Oldhim, Dorinthea and Boltyn made it to the top. The ultimate winner of this tournament was Thanthawat Chujitngamsuwong (aka Vespa) who piloted his Iyslander to the best and beat Phumin Kidlerrlam (aka Joe)'s Fai with ease.
Special thanks to Combat Chain Thailand for their hospitality, avenue and the community."
Invaders Board Game Station - Indonesia
- Winning Decklist - Zul Kifli (Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn)
"23 players battled on Saturday for the Pro Tour Invitation and the gold foil card. We've got a pretty diverse meta with Fai and Iyslander being the most hero played with 3 players each. 8 different heroes go into the Top 8 (Fai, Dromai, Rhinar, Bravo, Iyslander, Oldhim, Boltyn, Lexi) but it was Ser Boltyn who ultimately penetrates Isenloft's defense to claim the victory!"
Seventh Dimension - United Kingdom
- Winning Decklist - Dylan Thompson (Fai, Rising Rebellion)
"This event nearly did not take place as one of the top 4 players is the only judge in Northern Ireland. His wife is heavily pregnant and he could not commit to being here the whole time judging. Fortunately, Ian gave up his chance to play to be the judge for the event. He volunteered at the last moment to travel all the way from Dublin to Belfast just to make sure it ran. A truly selfless act made sure that the tournament ran for the others and I couldn't commend him enough.
Otherwise it was just very nice to see lots of familiar faces again down playing this great game. Everything went very smoothly and everyone had a great time."
Greentree Sports Cards - United States
- Winning Decklist - Charles Dunn (Oldhim, Grandfather of Eternity)
"On the beautiful, snowy day of January 14th, Greentree Sports Cards in Pittsburgh, PA saw 50 players in attendance for our first ever ProQuest. It was an incredible day of competition and fun. We had players from 5 different states in attendance competing for the coveted Pro Tour Invitation from LSS. 13 different heroes were showcased, with Dorinthea taking the award of most represented. We were blessed to have the help of Keith Bartram from Realm Games as our Head Judge as well as a local player, Graham Molsick as our Floor Judge. Both did an incredible job of maintaining the pace of a long day. We also had a food truck available for players! The event went off without any issues or surprises. We are humbled by the love and support from this local community here in Pittsburgh and we cannot wait to partner with LSS for more events in the near future.
The day concluded with a victory from Charles Dunn(Oldhim,5-0-1) and runner up Tyler Kerch (Dash,4-2).
Pat Eshghy (Oldhim) and Devin Rattenni (Dromai) went an impressive 5-1 on the day as well finishing Top 4."
MinMaxGames - United States
"This event was heavily supported by the talents of DmArmada and Flake on commentary. They provided consistent entertainment and professional commentary that you would come to expect from Calling level events. Fan favorite Levi Rauch on Azalea led a massive following as he progressed all the way to top 4 attempting to be the first player to earn LL points for his favorite hero. He came very close but ended up barely losing to second place player Arjun Garg on Dash. Many Azalea fans tuned into the stream just to follow his progression throughout the event. The top 8 was extremely diverse with 8 completely unique heroes. Many of the players in top 8 were piloting decks that have become synonymous with them as players ie Sam Dando on Briar, Jeremy Stowe on Viserai, Levi Rauch on Azalea, Brandon Ejupi on Bravo, and Ryan Wegner on Dorinthea. It was a great showcase of the meta and what you can accomplish as a player when you put in the time to really learn your hero. "
Bricks Play - Singapore
"Bricksplay's Pro Quest 3 saw 34 players vying for a Pro Tour: Baltimore invitation & Gold Cold Foil. The lion's share of the metagame were Dash who showed up 8 out of 34 players, nearly a quarter of the total. Despite the large showing of the Mechanologist, only Bryan "Gengar" Kong's Dash made the top 8. Isylander was the second most played Hero, putting both Kaiser Tan & Mark Tay into the top 8.
Fai's recent decline put him in the third most showing Hero tied with Dorinthea. However it was not a good day for the Ninja as none of the Fais made the top 8. It was a good day for Dorinthea, as she had good matchups against the Wizards thanks to her new sword Jubeel, Spellbane. Dorinthea put Gordon into the top 8 and even won him the entire event!
In an interview with Gordon, he mentioned that Jubeel, Spellbane was entirely responsible for his choice of Dorinthea. Aside from preying on the arcane users, Gordon also believes Dorinthea can break Oldhim, another popular Hero in the current metagame.
"Jubeel, Spellbane enables Dorinthea to fatigue Iyslander out. I've fatigued out 5 Iyslanders over this weekend. Dorinthea is a 50-50 flip against the other aggressive decks(Fai/Briar) but have great matchups against both Iyslander and Oldhim."
Once again, Gordon displayed a clear understanding of the metagame and his choice of Dorinthea rewarded him with another flawless victory!
Bricksplay congratulates Gordon Koh once again, taking down both Bricksplay's Pro Quest Season 1 and now Season 3!
All the best in Pro Tour: Baltimore Gordon!"
