After an incredible Calling last weekend in Dallas Fort-Worth, Flesh and Blood fanatics were back at it again this weekend in Cincinnati for more Tales of Aria sealed and draft! 549 players started off in the event in pursuit of their share of the USD$10,000 main event prize pool, a Pro Tour Invitation, the Gold Cold Foil Fyendal's Spring Tunic and the right to be called The Calling champion!
As usual the ChannelFireball commentary team (a.k.a The Boys in Blue) was...on fire! (THE) Tannon Grace made his return to the booth, this time joined by two well know personalities but new faces to the casting team, the man who many say has the best hair in the game and who also happens to be rank #6 on the 90 day XP US leaderboard, Rob Cygul, and another whose character and skillset couldn't be further away from his on screen moniker of @GarbageAndy, the infinitely articulate Andy Joseph!
The Calling Cincinnati saw eight rounds of sealed deck action today where players opened six Tales packs and built a deck from the pool fate had given them. Much like last weekend, Briar led the pack with 273 players choosing to play as the Elemental Runeblade. Oldhim's popularity seemed to have picked up as 140 players decided it was "hammer time" and Lexi saw 114 players wield the essences of Ice and Lightning. An extra sealed deck round had been added to the event and all players with six wins at the end of the sealed rounds would draft a new deck from Tales of Aria, followed by three rounds of draft games to close out the day.
Andrew Yauger and Tariq Patel were the two undefeated players after eight rounds of sealed, both playing Briar. Tariq displayed his sealed deck dominance once again after being undefeated in sealed rounds last weekend and finishing a heartbreaking 9th a The Calling Dallas Fort-Worth.
Before you knew it round 9 had arrived, we had our top 67, all players with 6 wins or more and it was time to draft! Viewers were in for a treat as coverage followed each and every draft pick of Roger Bodee in seat one of pod two who had a 7-1 record and was chilling in 13th place. Exhibiting excellent execution of how to stay open, Roger effortlessly hovered between Runeblade and Guardian early on, picking up a few Sigil of Sufferings and started many a conversation on the topic of passing a Tear Asunder! Roger was passed an Oaken Old in pack three as well as a few other key pieces to the Oldhim puzzle, forming what looked like a gorgeous Guardian deck.
It was incredible to see the Oldhim's specialization Oaken Old be put to good use in round 9 where we saw it double-fused against Rylie Groff's Lexi, however it was not quite enough as after a long, hard fought battle, the match ended in a draw. The talk-of-the-town-Tear Asunder popped up over the next few rounds in the hands of John Blevins, being the key card for some brutal round 9 and 10 victories.
With another Tales of Aria draft tomorrow morning followed by three more draft rounds before the top 8, Andrew Yauger, Tariq Patel and Michael Hamilton lead the pack as the only three players on 10 wins. Classic Constructed makes an appearance Sunday also, in the form of the ProQuest, where the winner will pick up a Pro Tour Invitation and a Gold Cold Foil Arcanite Skullcap.
Stay glued to the coverage from ChannelFireball at twitch.tv/channelfireball from 9.30am ET and don't miss a second of the Tales of Aria limited format action at The Calling: Cincinnati!
