Removed From Game: Anson Quach

Hello everyone and welcome to our fourth 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
Removed From Game: Milo Mosquera

Trial #5 - Belias was held at Galaxy Games with a 20-player turnout!  This was our first tournament following the release of Opus VIII and the players were itching to try out the new cards in a new meta!  Anson Quach from San Francisco ran a Fire/Ice deck that went 3-2 in Swiss, landing him in the 5th seed of our Top 8 Cut.  Three best-of-3 rounds later (including a Final Match against Dragoons!) he achieved victory and catapulted himself into 2nd place in our Season Standings!  We've also got a tournament report here if you'd like to check out how it all went down!  Here's our conversation with him about his deck and the Opus VIII meta.

Anson's Tournament-Winning Deck, image courtesy of ffdecks.com

Hello Anson and congratulations on being the winner of Trial #5!  We can't wait to pick your brain about the exciting Fire/Ice deck that you took to victory and how it all came together.  You've spent a lot of this season playing several variations of the Warriors of Light deck, what made you switch it up this time?

I'm a brewer at heart, I've played the Warriors of Light a lot in the past because I didn't have enough cards to build other decks that I liked, but I've finally built my collection up enough to do this.  When I saw Cloud and Dark Fina spoiled from Opus 8, I knew I wanted to play those cards.
     

      

What is the overall strategy of the deck?  What does your field look like when things are ideal for you?

The overall strategy of the deck was to pressure my opponent's hand enough to make them play inefficiently and start overextending, making my opponent play aggressively.  I then control the board enough to take about 5 damage and ideally start to abuse Dark Fina to turn the corner quickly when my opponent is really low on resources.  Ideally my field will have Scale Toad to annoy my opponent, 4/5 backups, 5 damage, and a good amount of targets in my break zone to choose from when I play Dark Fina to search and cast Phoenix.  I probably will have a Cloud on the field as well, since it's one of the cards I rely on to help me stabilize the board.

Your deck featured a staggering amount of Opus VIII cards (22/50 to be exact!), so let's talk about how some of them played out over the course of the day.  As far as forwards, you used Veritas, Garland (IX), Imperio, Amarant, Dark Fina, Cloud, and Lasswell.  Which ones stood out as superstars and did any of them disappoint you?  

Each one of the opus 8 forwards filled a specific purpose in the deck.  However, Cloud was the super star for me in the top 8 matches especially against aggro, usually killing 3 forwards himself after purposefully taking alot of damage.  Lasswell helps me become the aggressor when I decide to and Dark Fina always felt good whenever I get to play her.  Imperio and Veritas was used as part of a defensive Ice/Dark package, allowing me to get a free block with Imperio and getting either: Kam to build backups, Veritas if my opponent played one good quality forwards, and Sin if my opponent was going really wide.  Amarant was there as a catch all for monsters and its versatility.  Garland (IX) is really good but probably felt the least impactful in this deck.

"Bud....."

The non-Forward cards you used from Opus VIII were Shiva (8-032), Scale Toad, Yotsuyu, and Black Mage (8-007).  Was Scale Toad a big difference maker in your games or did your opponents have an answer for it?  Your only target for Black Mage was Phoenix L, how often did you use the ability to retrieve it?  Any other standouts?

I felt Scale Toad was devastating whenever I get it super early, and it even did really well in the mid game.  Most players did not have a direct answer for Scale Toad and were forced to play differently.  3 copies of Black Mage was too many and I only used it maybe twice.  I actually never used Yotsuyu, so I'll be looking for a replacement.  Shiva is really good, won me a few games.


The list includes Ysayle, Mog (XIII-2), Meeth, and Devout.  What are your high priority targets to search for (or retrieve) when you're playing those?

Ysayle usually gets Dark Fina or an early Imperio.  Mog (XIII-2) has only two targets either Serah or Cid Raines, both being important when I'm trying to be the aggressor.  Devout usually gets either of Lasswell or Rinoa, but would not be upset if I had to get Time Mage.  Meeth is super flexible, helps fill the break zone with 3 drops for Phoenix targets.


Having played the deck in a competitive environment, are there any matchups that give you a harder time than others?  How do you adjust your strategy against those type of decks?

Aggro feels uncomfortable, but the deck has the tools to beat it.  I'd say the grindy decks are harder to deal with.  I typically have to find the discard package of my deck first.

Get used to seeing a lot of this guy.

What adjustments would you make to the deck after how it performed for you?  Do you think you'll continue to refine this deck or are there other decks you're itching to build?

Add a better way of dealing with Veritas to the deck.  I originally had answers to Veritas but made last minute changes to remove that package.  The deck feels pretty good, It's only going to see small tweaks.  I'm more interested in brewing another deck, possibly Wind/X.

Thanks again for taking the time to share your thoughts with us, and best of luck through the end of this season and the upcoming Championship! 

That's the look of a man on the Fire/Ice train.