PWCQ90 Coverage

PWCQ 90 had 77 participants competing for two invites to the Goat Format World Championship and a playmat. The event consisted of seven Swiss rounds, after which the top 8 players duked it out in a single-elimination bracket for the title. Rounds were played in a multiday format, with each round held for 2-3 days so more players could participate regardless of their time zone. TOPCUT BREAKDOWN:3 WARRIOR 2 CHAOS TURBO1 PANDA BURN1 CHAOS RETURN 1 CHAOS RECRUITER

Congratulations are in order to Bobby Bodega for winning the entire event and securing his Worlds invite! After his 3rd place finish at PWCQ 87, where the invite slipped through his fingers, Bobby decided to bring his trusted Warrior deck once again and conquered the Goat scene. There are some changes in this winning list compared to his last one. Bobby elected to remove draw power in copies of Upstart Goblin and Jar of Greed, for better topdecking options and versatile answers like Book of Moon, Smashing Ground, and a second copy of Sakuretsu Armor. The addition of the second Ninja Grandmaster Sasuke was noticeable and may have been his answer to the high representation of Gravekeeper’s Spy and Spirit Reaper in Warrior mirrors postside, as well as Chaos Return’s current side pattern. Notable side deck inclusions were D.D. Assailant, King Tiger Wanghu, Compulsory Evacuation Device, Needle Ceiling, and Magic Drain. As we can see, the side deck didn't have many aggressive monsters this time around and was instead packed with counters to control strategies. These changes were probably a significant factor in his winning performance, complemented by his veteran warrior skills.

In 2nd place we have Oracle, who had an amazing performance and went on to secure his Worlds invite as well. He showed up with an old, but still reliable, Chaos Turbo deck and showed how playing a consistent and versatile deck can still be enough nowadays, combined with the high-roll potential of Card Destruction. Oracle has been a dedicated Chaos Turbo enjoyer and was constantly working on figuring out Chaos Turbo's place in the current metagame where almost every other deck has an answer ready for you. There weren't that many notable inclusions in the side deck besides Kuriboh and Spirit Reaper, which were there to counter combo OTK decks and let him survive those key turns when they commit most of their resources.

Rounding out our TOP 4, we have Nessapouliata and Bubblebeam who had great showings. Bubblebeam brought a Warrior list built around the mirror match with triple Sakuretsu Armor and triple Dust Tornado, while leaving out Trap Dustshoots entirely for this event. The list had an intriguing aspect of almost smokescreening into a flip-heavy deck post-side, trying to capitalize on the lack of set monster removal from the opponent.

After a great showing at PWCQ89, where Nessapouliata finished Top 4 as well, he tried to conquer this event with style, bringing Panda Burn with a 1-card change to his side from his PWCQ89 list. That change was to remove the second Cipher Soldier from the side and add a copy of Mystic Wok. I personally found the inclusion of Xing Zhen Hu very interesting for said strategy and am looking forward to seeing what deck can do with further development. These consecutive tops by Nessa are showing us how burn is still a solid contender in today's metagame, and if players aren’t careful and respectful of it, they are quickly going to get burned.

Lastly but certainly not least, we have our participants who finished in Top 8 with respectable records and very good showings.

Kerem for this event decided to show up with a Chaos Turbo deck, which substituted the second Dekoichi, the Battlechanted Locomotive for the third Magician of Faith, which we can usually see in more standard lists. The side deck is where things get interesting, and we can see potential usage of the so-called “Queen’s Gambit” strategy, which revolves around removing almost all flips in the Warrior matchup for inclusion of big beaters who, in combination with Solemn Judgments, allow a player to capitalize on Warrior opponents having more dead cards in their deck and not being ready for their strategy which isn’t very popular.

Jharris88 brought a standard Warrior list with some techs in the side deck. A second Xing Zhen Hu and fourth battle trap in the form of Widespread Ruin were clearly aimed at a warrior-heavy field so he could capitalize more consistently post-side in said matchup. The lack of Morphing Jar and Gravekeeper’s Spy in the side is interesting to see because most lists nowadays default to those cards as answers for Chaos Turbo and Chaos Control matchups. Perhaps jharris had the idea that, with the recent trend of Warrior players running many flip monsters in their side decks, he could go against the current and capitalize on a regular beater lineup that usually gets the job done in Game one.

After a very good showing at recent FLC 41, finishing Top 16 with a Chaos Warrior deck, Lefter decided to bring a Chaos Return deck to this event and finished Top 8. The list looks very similar to Alephya’s list from FLC 41, with notable things in the main deck like one Chaos Sorcerer, one Zaborg, the Thunder Monarch, and only one copy of Return from the Different Dimension, where we would usually see two copies of those until now. The addition of three Jar of Greed also probably compensates for the lack of consistency the usual ratio can have. His touch on the deck can also be seen in the side deck, where he decided to deviate from Alephya’s side and included cards like the second Roulette Barrel, second Chaos Sorcerer, and a copy of Cipher Soldier. We will most likely continue to see more of this Chaos Return version develop over time because of the noticeable results it has produced. Lefter has proved with his recent performances that picking the right deck and having sound technical play can allow you to consistently perform at these events.

The title of spiciest list of this TOPCUT must go to Kit.Kit decided to show up to this event with a deck from the past which we haven't seen much of in the last couple of years. That deck is Chaos Recruiter with some interesting main deck changes adjusted to the current metagame and an even more annoying monster lineup to face than in past versions. I don't think it would've been a stretch to say this deck is a warrior player's nightmare with cards like Royal Decree and Zombyra the Dark in the main deck combined with five recruiters! The deck also features a small warrior engine in the form of Exiled Force, Ninja Grandmaster Sasuke, and D.D. Warrior Lady combined with Reinforcement of the Army in the main deck and many more warriors in the side deck. Kit noticeably doesn't include the Scapegoat plus Metamorphosis package, which we would normally expect to be in it. One Upstart Goblin in the main deck is also a wild thing to me, and I can only imagine how puzzled opponents must have been facing against this creation, especially post-side once these recruiters and Reinforcement of the Army got a much larger pool of potential cards to grab. The side deck is just full of one-ofs, and I am sure Kit was really enjoying himself watching his opponents getting lost and frustrated facing this deck. It is a really promising deck that I hope we see more of in the near future with more minds working on it.

Conclusion:In this event, Warrior decks continued to perform and secured three top spots, while Chaos Turbo took second place with two players piloting it in top cut. Panda Burn, Chaos Return, and Chaos Recruiter showed up with one representative of each in the top cut of the tournament.

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