Removed From Game: Milo Mosquera

Hello everyone and welcome to our third installment of Removed From Game, where we sit down with the winners of our circuit events from Trials of the Zodiac Braves and talk about their decks, the tournament, and the current meta!  If you haven't read the previous articles in this series, you can also check those out below:

Removed From Game: Brian Ng
Removed From Game: Jeff Migliore

January's tournament was Trial #3 - Adrammelech and saw us return to Galaxy Games in Dublin, CA.  We're used to having great turnout at Galaxy Games but thanks to a visiting crew from Sacramento we reached a new season-high of 26 players for this tournament!  Many outside-the-meta decks made an appearance, including some that found their way to the Top 8 (Dawn Warriors!).  You can read the full write-up of Trial #3 here.  The winner of Trial #3 was our Warrior of Light from Season 2, Milo Mosquera, whose Mono Water Fusoya deck brought him to victory!

Image courtesy of FFDecks.com

Hello Milo, congratulations on claiming victory at Trial #3 and thanks for taking the time to talk with us!  You've been playing some form or another of Mono Water Fusoya for a very long time, going back to the SoCal Crystal Cup last June at least.  What is it that you enjoy about this particular deck type?

Thanks.  I really enjoy Fusoya decks because it matches my patient playstyle.  Having loved Ephemeral Summoner and Famfrit ever since I saw them, having a deck that could abuse them both clicked with me instantly.

We've had Opus VI and Opus VII be released since the 2018 SoCal Crystal Cup, are there any particular shifts in the meta over the last 6+ months that changed how you approach playing this deck compared to then?

I didn’t play Fusoya during Opus VI because it didn’t have its place in our local meta.  It got stomped by Turbo Discard and struggled against Scions (which was a hefty majority of our meta at the time).  However, following the bans, the release of Opus VII, and the game slowing down, Fusoya is situated pretty well in our current meta.

The cards your deck has incorporated from Opus VI and VII are the Leila package, Halicarnassus, and Opus VII Leviathan.  How has their inclusion impacted your lines of play in the deck and in the case of Halicarnassus and Leviathan are there particular situations you aim to use them in?

Halicarnassus feels great to play. It shuts down problematic forwards that have annoying effects or are hard to kill like Dadaluma and Vanille. While I don’t use its second effect that often, it is still a great card.

Opus 7 Leviathan has been pretty okay.  I like putting it on top with Ephemeral Summoner which usually stops my opponent from attacking because the value is so great. The restriction of 4 or less is often times irrelevant because of how few five-drops are ran in decks and my deck has other answers for those five-drops. It is my worst summon but I am perfectly fine running it.

At Trial #3 you went 5-0 in Swiss as well as winning 3 Best-of-3 matches.  Did you lose any games in those Best-of-3 matches?  What style of deck or strategies do you find to be the biggest challenge against Mono Water Fusoya?

I only lost one game the entire event, which was against Brian Ng running the NorCal Special (an aggressive Mono Earth EX Burst deck).  That deck is definitely my worst matchup and I only won due to good draws on my part and bad draws on his. With such a skilled player piloting the deck, I was extremely lucky to have come out of that match as the victor.

While certain small aggro decks are a poor matchup, I still think they are beatable. Since a majority of their forwards are 7k or below, I can deal with them pretty easily. The game plan is to halt their aggression around 5-6 points of damage and build a wall of forwards to stop the last points of damage.

Another strategy that is also a big hindrance is milling me out.  With my deck drawing so many cards and “milling” myself with Fusoya, I am often ending the game with very few cards left.  And, obviously, shutting down Fusoya also hits my deck hard.  Removing it with archer or Hecatoncheir or negating it’s effect with Jihl Nabaat or Aerith really kills my board control.  Rikku also affects my tempo since they can mill the top card of my deck at crucial times, making me unable to rely on Ephemeral Summoner combos.

Two of the decks you faced in the Top Cuts were the aggressive Mono Earth EX deck you mentioned and an equally aggressive Fire/Ice deck.  Does the high number of EX Bursts in your deck (and ability to place them via cards like Ephemeral Summoner) make a big difference in giving you the room to set up and take some of the pressure off?

With EX Burst luck and Ephemeral slowing down my opponents, I feel okay versus Fire/Ice aggro. EX Earth is way worse.  Since all their forwards are huge I can’t get immediate Fusoya value.  The deck also kills my forwards off of their EX Bursts so often times I'm hurting.  Even though I managed to beat Brian Ng, I was crushed by Peter Dang at Trial #2.  It’s my worst matchup by far.

Icy

Hot

Were they any particular interactions that were amusing or funny or lucky (maybe unlucky!) for you throughout the day?

A lucky interaction I had during the tournament was during the first game of the finals.  Nghia and I were tied at six damage and I was all tapped out while he had no forwards.  With a Famfrit in hand I passed the turn feeling comfortable.  On his turn he played a Shelke into a Fritt, followed by a Belias targeting the Fritt.  After staring at the board for awhile, I knew my Famfrit was useless, or so I thought. I cast Famfrit, choosing a Viking while he chose his non-hasted forward. Thankfully, I had gotten the top-deck of all top-decks and drew a Leviathan to keep me alive, win that game and eventually the entire tournament. I didn’t realize how lucky I had gotten until I realized I had drawn the only copy of a card that could’ve have saved me from a 20+ card deck.

Walk us through your ideal start to a match; what cards do you want in your opening hand?  At what point do you start putting pressure on your opponent?

My ideal opening hand is having Yuna, Wakka, Fusoya and Ephemeral Summoner.  I always want to have backups out before I start putting any pressure.  I then begin to pressure with Leila/Viking or a Lenna/Knight combo to see how they respond.  Depending on how they respond I can easily gauge if I am able to start putting on more pressure without fear of a backswing.

Thanks again for sharing your insight with us, and congratulations on your hard-earned victory.  Best of luck in the second half of Season 5!

Fun Fact:  Milo is a minor and we frequently tease him about this.