Road to Nationals Coverage: Week Three

Chane, Bound by Shadow is the name on everyone’s lips right now and is no doubt the current metagame leader in this Road to Nationals season. The Flock of the Feather Walkers tech, first unleashed on the world by Matt Rogers at the Shuffle N Cut Road to Nationals, seems to be very popular around the globe, making appearances in many of the Chane lists seen out there. Despite being the talk of the town, Chane’s dominance may not be as dire as some say. Bravo, Showstopper and Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire have shown up in force, seemingly multiplying week by week, shutting down Chane’s aggressive game plan with their defensive strategies and hitting back hard when the opportunities arise.

Bravo and Dash have collected a good number of first place finishes over the past week. This is much accredited to their great matchups against decks slow off the mark, ability to keep their life totals high while applying pressure each turn from their weapons and their overall flexibility.

Katsu has been wandering around near the top tables again this week, which seems to be one of the constants seen in the season so far. While super defensive strategies are still very much in fashion, aggressive Surging Strike combo line builds might have slightly edged out the popularity vote this week. With aggro Katsu having a great matchup against Chane, applying pressure from the first turn, it’s no surprise to see Katsu collecting victories. 

Many will be pleased that Rhinar is seeing success and can now claim a first place finish this season!  Rhinar excels at disrupting the opponent’s plans and messing with combat math. The intimidate mechanic can be a real headache for decks that like to set up, allowing Rhinar to have turns of massive burst damage, often against a defenseless opponent.

With a vibrant, diverse metagame where even pillars of the Classic Constructed format have matchups to fear, the extended art Fyendal’s Spring Tunics could potentially be claimed by any of the 12 heroes! Kano has had great success this week and Prism is out in force! Ser Boltyn has had strong showings in top 4s and is truly starting to take flight. Almost all of the heroes are well represented in the Road to Nationals meta, although Viserai, Azalea and Levia are slightly lagging behind. Surprisingly, Dorinthea’s momentum has cooled down a bit, but as all the pieces of this metagame puzzle continue to move around, her popularity, power and perfect position in the format could spike at any moment.

Akiba Underground - United States

"On Sunday we ran our 24 player RtN event. As is expected, the metagame seems to be shifting towards Chane, along with a healthy dose of Bravo. Players were scattered almost evenly across nearly all other heroes, so Chane and Bravo clearly stand out as favored builds for the metagame.

Of these decks the top 8 qualifiers included 4 Chanes, 3 Bravos and the sole Dorinthea player. In the semi-finals both matches were a Bravo vs. Chane matchup where firing off Eclipse and getting Ursur allowed the Chane players to eke out wins."

Top 4:

1. Joe Colon - Chane, Bound by Shadow
2. Cody Williams
3. Soo Park
4. Timothy Grant

Friends & Foes Amsterdam - Netherlands

"What an event it was. 15th of August was the time for The Netherlands to finally start it’s Road to Nationals season. We started off in Amsterdam with a total of 30 players coming from all over the country. 

Swiss rounds saw 10 different heroes fighting for that desired top 4 spot and for that gorgeous gorgeous Tunic! Everyone was expecting Chane to just stampede over the lists and destroy the world so it could start anew in the image of Demonastery. But it was Prism bringing the light and dominating the tournament with her presence.

But in the end only 5 different heroes entered the top 8 cut. With Rhinar intimidating all other heroes in submission. Our Road to Nationals champion Erik Baalhuis won all 8 of his matches! But all other players did not go under without a good strong fight. Our runner up Joppe Kuijvenhoven gave one hell of a strong fight by swinging his Raydn with Boltyn into Rhinar's face multiple times. But in the end 3 Barraging Beatdowns followed by one Massacre really felt like a Massacre."

"Bradley Wayburne and Didier Deurloo both fought to the bitter end to get on that table 1 spot. Both slicing their shiny blades into each battle. Bradley took big swings with his Raydn making people run in fear. While Didier was so quick with his Kodachi’s and kick was so quick that people were already laying down on the ground bleeding before they knew what hit them.

Unfortunately Jimmy Nguyen’s Dash was just one pistol shot away from the top 4. If only he could have reloaded one more time for that deadly finishing headshot.

And their light may have been bright and their aura’s strong. But Jim Roovers, Ian Zhang and René Heijnen’s Prisms were so close. But luckily they left with some shining Cold Foil Hero so that their Prism can be accompanied by some extra shining light.

We want to thank all 30 players who came and created an awesome tournament. We could not have done it without them."

Top 4:

1. Erik Baalhuis - Rhinar, Reckless Rampage
2. Joppe Kuijvenhoven - Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn
3. Bradley Wayburne - Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn
4. Didier Deurloo - Katsu, the Wanderer

Vault Games - Australia

35 players gathered for Vault Games' Road to Nationals event, with a wide spread of heroes across the board.

Top 4:

1. Thorne Jones - Chane, Bound by Shadow
2. Zachary Cauchi - Prism, Sculptor of Arc Light
3. Scott Mackenzie - Chane, Bound by Shadow
4. Lai Lewis - Chane, Bound by Shadow

Mana Merchant - NE, United States

The team at Mana Merchant welcomed 42 players for their Road to Nationals event, with a number of mechanologists joining the battlefield to try their skills against a league of runeblades, warriors and ninjas.

Top 4:

1. Shane Martin - Chane, Bound by Shadow
2. Dagan White - Katsu, the Wanderer
3. Jeremy Stockfleth - Bravo, Showstopper
4. Kelly Hoesing - Bravo, Showstopper

Kitchen Table Games - FL, United States

We had a great 47 player turnout. 2nd place was one of our local weekly players, and he was playing the most popular choice, Chane.  He lost to a player playing a Dash deck with which he beat 6 Chane players in 9 rounds.

Here is a bit of a story from Jacob Downing, the local who came in second: 

Jacob Downing: "I want to say first, a big “thank you” to the crew at KTG. They did a great job at organizing this event. And shout out to my team at Team Kitchen Fable who had my back and cheered me on all the way to 2nd place! Couldn’t have done it without them!! I had a blast playing all the players even if I was extremely nervous from round 1, which was versus Matt Heffelfinger who came from hosting another amazing event 2 weekends back at Cloak & Blaster to make a showing on his Viserai deck.

Every player made me fight hard for my spot in the finals, but a special shout out to the two Bravo players, Jasiel Diez in the semi-finals and the one and only Bronson! They were two of the best games I’ve experienced yet. I had to summon Ursur in both games to get that edge, overcome fatigue, and squeak out the win. Both of them were very kind and such amazing players. My respect to Chris Ray taking out all of us Chane players throughout the day and taking home that extended art Tunic, it was well deserved."

Top 4:

1. Chris Ray - Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire
2. Jacob Downing - Chane, Bound by Shadow
3. Alex Keeler - Chane, Bound by Shadow
4. Jasiel Diez - Bravo, Showstopper

The Blue Post - TN, United States

The Blue Post hosted their 33-player event in Carter County, Tennessee, welcoming a wide range of heroes to the field.

The youngest player at this event, Silas Benton, made his way into the Top 8 with his Prism deck, taking his place in the final rounds of the day at just 8 years old. While he didn't make it into the semi-finals at this event, we look forward to seeing his success at future events!

You can check out The Blue Post's video wrap up via their YouTube channel.

Top 4:

1. Tyler Brotton - Katsu, the Wanderer
2. Robert Bryant - Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire
3. Matthew W - Dorinthea Ironsong
4. Christopher Bischoff - Dorinthea Ironsong

The Local Game Store - OK, United States

"58 players showed up to do battle at the Road to Nationals for The Local Game Store. We had a very pleasant 6 rounds of swiss, with many players staying until the very end. Team Covenant's Zach Bunn was in attendance, pictured with store owner and TO Andrew Lucio, along with his brother Tim Bunn and the Oklahoma scene in full force! Drayton Ganz led the Oklahoma locals into the top 8 and was able to secure his invite before hosting his own Road to Nationals at Edmund Unplugged.

The Local Game Store local scene was well represented in the top 8 with Kyle Waple, Kye Huynh, Remington Morris, and Jeromy Tsai. Other Dallas natives, Kent Summerour and Joel Grizzelle, ended up taking the entire event with Dash and Chane respectively. The top 8 matches were very close contests that could have gone either way for each competitor, but in the end only 1 can be named champion and Kent Summerour traversed a grizzly battlefield to come out on top."

Top 4:

1. Kent Summerour - Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire
2. Joel Grizzelle - Chane, Bound by Shadow
3. Drayton Ganz - Katsu, the Wanderer
4. Remington Morris - Chane, Bound by Shadow

Yoda's Data - Germany

20 players gathered for Yoda's Data's Road to Nationals event, who also hosted a Monarch first edition draft for those players who didn't make it into the top cut.

Top 4:

1. Nico Thometzki - Chane, Bound by Shadow
2. Paul Rosorius - Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn
3. David Rosenberg - Dorinthea Ironsong
4. Kevin Zanker - Bravo, Showstopper

Brood en Spelen - Belgium

40 players gathered for Brood en Spelen's fiftieth Flesh and Blood event, fighting for their place in the top cut, and an invitation to the Belgian National Championship.

Top 4:

1. Steven de Canck - Chane, Bound by Shadow
2. Nam Khoa Nguyen - Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn
3. Glenn Van Roey - Katsu, the Wanderer
4. Kevin Faut - Prism, Sculptor of Arc Light

CUBE - Poland

A wide spread of heroes entered the battle at CUBE's 35-player event, with both seasoned veterans and newer players joining the fight for the top cut.

Top 4:

1. Mateusz Sass - Bravo, Showstopper
2. Jacek Draczyński - Chane, Bound by Shadow
3. Piotr Krzempek - Prism, Sculptor of Arc Light
4. Grzegorz Kowalski - Katsu, the Wanderer

Gamers Haven - OH, United States

Gamers Haven hosted 51 players for their Road to Nationals tournament in Ohio, the first so far to host one of every adult hero in Flesh and Blood. Two Azalea's and a Kano joined the fray at this event, with the resident wizard blazing a path into the top cut.

Top 4:

1. Maximillian Zart - Bravo, Showstopper
2. Ciro Gambone - Prism, Sculptor of Arc Light
3. Alex Becker - Dorinthea Ironsong
4. Brandon Ritchie - Kano, Dracai of Aether

The Lotus Lookout - IL, United States

47 players gathered for the Road to Nationals event hosted by the Lotus Lookout, in the heart of St. Clair County, Illinois. Two determined mechanologists forged a path to the final rounds of the day, among them one Dash who fought for her place in the top cut; just one of several mechanologists this week to take their place at Nationals.

Top 4:

1. Evelio Valdespino - Chane, Bound by Shadow
2. Chase Keaten - Chane, Bound by Shadow
3. Tee Thebeau - Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire
4. Benjamin Kehe - Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn

NC Games - IL, United States

"NC Games had a capacity crowd given the City of Chicago restrictions put back in place just recently. 24 (maximum set by local ordinance under new protocols which were unfortunate due to the resurgence) players saw Derek, Kevin, Mark, Adam make top 4 (in order of finish) the winner was a Katsu V Chane matchup with the Ninja getting the Victory.

Good times were had by all, with safety measures in place to offer a reasonable degree of protection and protocol following."

Top 4:

1. Derek Watring - Katsu, the Wanderer
2. Kevin Langland - Chane, Bound by Shadow
3. Mark Johnson - Chane, Bound by Shadow
4. Adam Cook - Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn

Card Merchant Nelson - New Zealand

"We enjoyed a fun filled weekend with many old and new local players and 20+ players travelling from out of town. Friday night was a BIG Armory event in our store, much fun was had, prizes won and Shiyana showing up in the hero selections! Saturday we ran a warm up event with Classic Constructed, the winner - Kieran Carnegie - Receiving a box of CRU First Edition!

Sunday was the big day! We had 43 players in attendance (Few cancellations last minute) at the Nelson Contract Bridge Club. Riley Congdon did an amazing job judging, everyone was really happy and his competence was on display!"

"Well done to Dirk Crasto for winning the whole thing, in a Chane mirror final against Liam Spronken."

Top 4:

1. Dirk Crasto - Chane, Bound by Shadow
2. Liam Spronken - Chane, Bound by Shadow
3. Hayden Brown - Dorinthea Ironsong
4. Simon Austin-Wallace - Katsu, the Wanderer

Game King - MA, United States

16 players gathered in Bristol County for Game King's Road to Nationals event. The top 8 featured three runeblades, two illusionists, a warrior, a guardian and a ninja, with the final round of the day pitting Shadow against Light, in the form of Chris Barone's Chane battling James Silver's Prism. However, the Light reigned supreme, and the illusionist claimed her place at the top of the final standings.

Top 4:

1. James Silver - Prism, Sculptor of Arc Light
2. Chris Barone - Chane, Bound by Shadow
3. Ektor Angelomatis - Dorinthea Ironsong
4. Derek Anderson - Chane, Bound by Shadow

Olympus Games - AZ, United States

"Our event was smashing. We were happy to see 26 competitors for the event and whittle it down to the top 8, and it was crazy to see the stand alone Bravo to take down the sea of Chanes, and Prisms. Arizona showed out and we were happy to see our competitive players come out for the event."

Top 4:

1. Devan Baltus - Bravo, Showstopper
2. Emmanuel Onate - Prism, Sculptor of Arc Light
3. Matthew Vore - Prism, Sculptor of Arc Light
4. Andrew Wallace - Chane, Bound by Shadow