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November 2020 Alpha Trion Open TOp 8: full constructed
Decklists and Breakdown here: teletraan1.net/tournaments/3/alpha-trion-open-november
Steffon Pickney
Name - Steffon
Your Starting Character lineup – Chromedome w/ Kreb, Fangry w/ Clobber and Nightracer
What drove you to play this deck? - Only aggro deck I like, blue still sucks right now, besides maybe 2 decks.
What was your Favorite Play of the event? - First turn attacking Fangry w the Clobber head and following up with using Swap Heads to allow Chromedome to also attack with Clobber is powerful. Along with Turbo Boosters on Chrome if you can get mutliple attacks out of Clobber including his own when he deploys, it’s a wrap for the opponent.
Who was your favorite Opponent of the event? - Tim beat me 6-0 in a week. He’s the new best! And he’s about to win this tournament. Of the decks left Sky Shadow gets trashed by the new Jet, and Dinos aint beating it. Break out player.
This was the final Constructed event before ATP-2 release, what did you like about the ATP1 metagame through 3 full constructed events seeing it played? - Jazz stopped players from playing the brainless “load my deck with Orange/Black cards and get the best of both worlds on attack” and forced them to play actual pierce cards. Still not enough though, But it’s a start.
Which card in ATP-2 are you most looking forward to playing games with? - Heavily eyeing of the potential impact of Take By Surprise and Catch off Guard. Jetfire’s strat is the most insane of all of Atp 1 strats, so it needs a check. Kinda. Go Red! Purple sucks.
Name - Nicholas
Your Starting Character lineup – Metroplex
What drove you to play this deck? - After my top 8 finish with Metroplex in October Titan One event I learned alot about the deck and some card inclusions. While the deck functioned the same in principle, the changes that I made made the deck more consistent in getting KO’s with my little bots.
What was your Favorite Play of the event? – Nothing stands out for me about this event, the deck did exactly what I needed to do, worked really well throughout the event until the top 8 where I started missing triggers on Metroplex, I guess that's the price to pay when playing a variance deck.
Who was your favorite Opponent of the event? - This would have to be Dan, we played in back to back rounds, myself winning 2-0 and then in top 8 where it mattered, he beat me 2-0. It was really interesting to see the little adjustments he made from last round in swiss and our top 8 match. Great games and great chats.
This was the final Constructed event before ATP-2 release, what did you like about the ATP1 metagame through 3 full constructed events seeing it played? - I really enjoyed seeing old Wave 1 decks getting a new light and having some new players like Jazz and Darkmount in the format. Speaking of new players, Jetfire’s stratagem “I Believe in Destiny” seems a tad over powered and I find myself not enjoying games against it and watching it.
Which card in ATP-2 are you most looking forward to playing games with?- I am honestly just excited to have new battle cards in the format. Its gotten to the point for me where I feel like I know exactly what each deck is playing to an extent. The new battle cards open up deck building options.
Name - Clone (Spencer)
Your Starting Character lineup – Grimlock (w1), Sludge (w1), Swoop (w1)
What drove you to play this deck? - I’ve been playing Dinobots since day 1, they’re my lucky deck and I love the Bold Beatdown strategy they provide.
What was your Favorite Play of the event? – Being lucky enough to always have an “I Still Function!” at the ready to cheat in a free hit or bait out an End Hostilities.
Who was your favorite Opponent of the event? - yequari.. I had wonderful fun playing with him and having light hearted conversations and friendly chit chat with him throughout the duel. :)
This was the final Constructed event before ATP-2 release, what did you like about the ATP1 metagame through 3 full constructed events seeing it played? -
I adored how natural and smooth the ATP-1 cards felt. Overall it is exactly what I was looking for in a game without any kind of set rotation. My Older Decks still felt “good” as things like stratagems breathed new life into the cards, I absolutely approve of this, as when the inevitable “Power Creep” happens, it will never be noticeable as older cards will (hopefully) continue to be given support in the form of stratagems to help boost their power in an ever growing metagame! It has gotten me extremely excited and eager to watch this game continue to flourish and grow! :D
Which card in ATP-2 are you most looking forward to playing games with? -
Menasor! He was and always has been my favorite combiner in the game. I’m so excited to try him out again.
Name - Azyrine (Tim)
Your Starting Character lineup – Jetfire / Jazz / Fangry / Parsec
What drove you to play this deck? - It was the same deck that won last event for a Titan One meta and I wanted to see how it would fare for full constructed.
What was your Favorite Play of the event? – Too many fun plays that I can’t pinpoint a particular favourite, but any time I get to use Jetfire to bring back a Superior Jetpack to swing with him and move it to someone else for extra value is always great. Oh, and having Fangry with Energon Axe and Superior Jetpack, topped off with a Bigger They Are and flipping one of my rare orange pips to have a 10 pierce 10 is extremely satisfying.
Who was your favorite Opponent of the event? - I would say Steffon is my favourite this time round because he gave me the closest matches where I was dependent on swinging on the dot to kill his bots off. He always plays at a really high level and pushes me to perform above and beyond against him. It’s funny that I used to joke with him that we always took part in the same events and we never met each other, and we ended up playing against each other in 3 events in a week.
This was the final Constructed event before ATP-2 release, what did you like about the ATP1 metagame through 3 full constructed events seeing it played? - I enjoyed seeing Metroplex across from me, and having a wider variety of decks in the field as opposed to having just Perceptor, Sky Shadow, Horri-bull, Fangry and Quake in various iterations of each other. (Yes I’m guilty of still using Fangry, don’t look at me like that!)
Which card in ATP-2 are you most looking forward to playing games with? - I’m interested in the new combiner packages - Stunticons and Aerialbots. I’ve enjoyed Stunticons in wave 2 but they were getting beaten up left, right and center that I had to sideline them as a whole, with the occasional appearance by Dead End and Motormaster in other builds. Aerialbots has always been a Team PTSD favourite deck, with one of our members piloting a heavy blue/black variant to multiple good tournament finishes, only losing to his own bad luck with draws and flips. Definitely hoping to try out some builds in mind, if time permits with my schedule looking busy the next 3 months.
Name - Ozzy
Your Starting Character lineup – Metroplex, Autobot City
What drove you to play this deck? - I have always loved the Metroplex deck. I find it to be one of the true mid-range (MtG term) decks in this game. It can go wide when needed to, stay tall, play a slower tempo control game, or go full on aggro.
What was your Favorite Play of the event? – I discovered this really early on after wave 5 released, and I did it a couple of times during the event. If you attack with Metroplex with enough to KO and Trigger against a character with a Titan-Master head, the opponents whole team ends up tapped except the Titan-Master. The opponent then has a turn with the Titan-Master only, we then untap, and the turn comes back to me. I then get to attack whoever I want again, and if it involves a Titan-Master, the sequence may repeat itself. It’s one of my favourite things to do with Metroplex, and being full-constructed is usually the only way it’s possible.
Who was your favorite Opponent of the event? - The games against Clone were great. I had not faced Dinobots since they got the 2 new Stratagems, and as I thought when they were first spoiled, they really messed up the Metroplex match up. Being denied that extra 3 or so direct damage to everyone let every Dinobot swing at least one more time in every game. I eventually came out 2-1, but it was one of the most challenging matches I have faced with Metroplex in a long time.
This was the final Constructed event before ATP-2 release, what did you like about the ATP1 metagame through 3 full constructed events seeing it played? - I liked seeing characters from wave 1 again. I loved the fact that Metroplex was competitive (he’s always been my favourite) and I also have a soft spot for Jazz. Seeing Dinobots again was good too. I believe the Jetfire Stratagem makes for games that have no interaction, which is something I enjoy about this game. I think that Stratagem is a problem.
Which card in ATP-2 are you most looking forward to playing games with? - All the commons in Junkion. The Barricade and Arcee Stratagems look good, and I played both of them in the last Junkion event. I also have tried to make Lord Megatron work since he was released. I don’t know if making him take up 13 stars with a powerful Stratagem is going to help or not, but keen to try.
Name - Clayton
Your Starting Character lineup – DInobots!!! Grimlock, Sludge, and Swoop with ATP-1 Strats
What drove you to play this deck? - Well having played Dinobots a lot during the wave 2 meta. I was missing the big guys. So I really needed to try out the new Strats But I haven’t been very inspired for deck building. So I borrowed Richard Wyatt’s Dinobot list and made a few adjustment.
What was your Favorite Play of the event? – Whenever I was able to use Grimlocks trample ability. It didn’t happen as often as I had hoped.
Who was your favorite Opponent of the event? - Clonekiller, facing off against an Orange Dinobot deck was interesting. Also it is the only one sticking out in my head cause it was the most recent.
This was the final Constructed event before ATP-2 release, what did you like about the ATP1 metagame through 3 full constructed events seeing it played? - I didn’t play with the ATP-1 cards much. But it was neat to see some of the old characters get some play again.
Which card in ATP-2 are you most looking forward to playing games with? - Aerialbots, liked the combiners mechanic looking forward to see just how good combiners can be again.
Name - Dan
Your Starting Character lineup – Darkmount, Skyshadow
What drove you to play this deck? - i really enjoyed watching the Deck from the sidelines in the Titan One event, and wanted to test its power in a Full constructed Meta.
What was your Favorite Play of the event? – i'm going to have to go with a Top decked Callus Leadership in Round 3 to Repair my Darkmount by 5, then Ko my Skyshaodw piece to Bolt my opps Jazz and KO it, then follow up with my Sky Shadow KOing his no longer protected Crankcase. ( Sorry Zarb!)
Who was your favorite Opponent of the event? - have to go with the new Dad in Town!! Nicholas and I had to play in back to back rounds where he beat me up 2-0 in round 5 and I redeemed myself in top 8 getting the best of him 2-0. Congrats again on becoming a father! Best wishes with the baby girl!.
This was the final Constructed event before ATP-2 release, what did you like about the ATP1 metagame through 3 full constructed events seeing it played? - i was only able to play in 2 of the 4 events that saw the sets, but i played two polar opposite decks and found success with multiple stratagems. And the same can be said by several players. ATP-1 succeeded in so many ways for this Tournament series, creating Deck Diversity and Real choice in deck construction. I couldn't be happier with the final outcome, and very much look forward to seeing how ATP 2 continues the goal.
Which card in ATP-2 are you most looking forward to playing games with? -
HUFFER!!!!!!
Name - Scott
Your Starting Character lineup – Dinobots (Grimlock, Swoop, Sludge) with We Fix! And Rampage Stratagems
What drove you to play this deck? - I wanted to see if we had made Dinobots competitive enough to be a force in full constructed against Titan Master decks.
What was your Favorite Play of the event? – I had a situation where I innocuously flipped Swoop to bot mode on turn three, seemingly for no good reason. The reason was he had a character with one HP remaining, and I had a full HP Grimlock and Swoop remaining, so unless he was somehow able to take out BOTH characters in one turn, and highly unlikely on Grimlock, he was damned if he did, damned if he did not.
Who was your favorite Opponent of the event? - all my opponents were great to play against, no match really stands out for me sorry (deck was pretty boring, that’s on me, not them lol)
This was the final Constructed event before ATP-2 release, what did you like about the ATP1 metagame through 3 full constructed events seeing it played? - I really liked seeing old characters see more play. I stopped short of saying “the play they deserved” because they did not actually deserve it until they were buffed to playability. It was great to see a varied metagame in this format as a result of just ELEVEN cards, pretty amazing.
Which card in ATP-2 are you most looking forward to playing games with? - the Stunticon cards. I really like the combiner mechanic and they seem the most fun from a card drawing and playing perspective. I think there are multiple avenues to build them with and I look forward to tackling that puzzle.
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