Recap: S.E.A Throne Kuala Lumpur
A small FAB getaway to kick off the new year!
Ringing in 2024
What better way to start the new year than to go on a short FAB vacation? The SEA Throne, hosted by Invictus Forge was a great weekend filled with amazing company!
A meta without Ice
Flesh and Blood’s power level has been toned down since Dynasty. After Iyslander hit Living Legend, the Classic Constructed format became free from the reign of Elemental Heroes.
Having played Iyslander in the previous meta, her rotation meant I needed to play a new deck. I settled on Fai, as I felt that it had the most even matchup spread, even if some games required a bit of luck to win. I eventually settled on more or less the same list played by Sander Neeft that won Battle Hardened Hannover. Fen Fei also helped iron out some of the deck’s ratios, fixing the consistency problems with my list.
Fai was a deck that had good math and was relatively easy to pilot. As a new meta was about to arrive with the release of Heavy Hitters, I also didn’t want to play a hero that was too complex. Being a Warmonger’s Diplomacy deck also meant that Fai had a decent shot into Azalea, which was probably the deck to beat going into this event.
Day 1 - Friday
I opted to fly budget to KL, as taking a coach meant being at the mercy of the traffic in Malaysia. Denny, Mohan, Lek Siong and Joshua were also on the same flight as me. After a short 50 mins in the air, we landed in Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) and took a Grab to the Mines Beach Resort, our accommodation for the weekend.
To be fair, KL is landlocked, so any mentions of a “Beach” would have been nothing short of a man-made one.
After the Singaporean contingent staying at the resort were present, we set off to Jalan Alor night market for dinner.
While looking for the “明记” (Meng Kee) restaurant recommended by Yin Zhi, a local player who frequents KL, we got pulled into another restaurant in between 明记, that shared a very similar sounding name; “林记” (Lim Kee). By the time we realised it was a different restaurant entirely, it was too late. I guess I’ll try the actual one next time! On a side note, at least dinner was decent and not too pricey.
After the meal, the group went to the Pavilion mall to shop around, Denny was looking for Beyblades at Toys R’ Us and inadvertently roped Shirui into buying one himself. Then, we booked a cab and returned back to the resort. We saw a night market very close to the resort on the way back and Moe and Avinash went to take a look. I headed back to my room for an early rest.
Day 2 - Saturday, SEA Throne Day 1
The event was at the APAC University, a 5 minutes drive away from the place we were staying at. To be fair, I had expected air conditioning at the event venue, but it is what it is. At least the ventilation was sufficient. Round 1 began shortly after the player’s meeting was conducted and decklists were collected.
R1 - Katsu (Tiger)
As we revealed our equipment, the first thing I noticed was that my opponent was playing Pouncing Paws, so I knew this Katsu was on the Crouching Tiger combo. He won the die roll and chose to go first, doing the usual double kodachi opener into a Stab Wound. I blocked one kodachi and defended Stab Wound for 2. Unfortunately, he had the Ancestral Empowerment so he chipped me by 3 life on turn 0. Going second, I knew I had tempo and he semi-blocked my early turns, trying to find his combo cards. On turn 3, I had a huge Spreading Flames turn and pushed 30 damage, expanding the Mask of the Pouncing Lynx to find Salt the Wound for 10. My opponent took all the damage down to 3 life, and he returned with an even bigger turn. He had apparently assembled the combo and proceeded to play a triple Tiger Swipe with Salt the Wound tutored from the Pouncing Lynx. With an Art of War in hand, I couldn’t block his go-off turn well and he essentially OTK’d me from 33 life. (0-1)
R2 - Azalea
I won the die roll, chose to go second. Unfortunately, my opponent had the turn 0 Red in the Ledger with dominate and a +3 buff, chipping 5 life from the get go. Luckily, I had an Enlightened Strike to follow up, but the tempo was still on Azalea’s side. He had some really powerful turns, attacking for 14 with Red in the Ledger, which I blocked 11 and played a Warmonger’s Diplomacy. Unfortunately, my opponent had the Ravenous Rabble + Estrike to follow up, so he was able to still deal 11 through the Warmonger’s turn, which more or less sealed the deal on this game. I couldn’t take back tempo since that turn, and lost to a dominated Boltn’ Shot for 6. (0-2)
R3 - Uzuri
Two losses to start the day wasn’t ideal, but I decided to play on since I had nothing else planned for the day. Plus, they were close games that were lost mostly in part to better draws from the opponent.
I wasn’t sure if Uzuri was on a tempo or fatigue list, so I just played the usual 60 into the matchup. Turns out, he was on a tempo list, so that meant more 2 blocks which was good news. He made some powerful 1 card plays, like playing Codex of Frailty to play Deathtouch off a 1 card hand with tunic resource, but it wasn’t enough to beat having two Art of War turns. (1-2)
R4 - Bravo
On round 4 I paired a fairly new opponent, and he was rather inexperienced with CC format as he came from Commoner. He put up a good fight despite lacking key cards like Command and Conquer in his deck. However, I had a pop off turn with Art of War and Spreading Flames, and closed the game out after seizing the tempo. (2-2)
R5 - Azalea
Opponent chose to go second after winning the die roll, so I tried to chip in as much damage as possible on turn 0. Damage was traded, and when I eventually played Warmonger’s Diplomacy, Azalea’s tempo grinded to a halt. Unlike in Round 2, there was no Ravenous Rabble E-strike follow up and I was given a free turn. The game was won more or less off the Warmonger’s Diplomacy turn, which gave a tempo lead. (3-2)
R6 - Azalea
The last round of swiss for Day 1 was yet another Azalea matchup. This one was the closest games I’ve played. I also remembered a turn where my opponent chose “peace” on my Warmonger’s Diplomacy turn as he drew 0 arrows. Despite all that, the game went down to the wire and I even had to block his dominated Red in the Ledger with Mask as my hand was two Ronin Renegades, a Spreading Flame, a blue Lava Vein Loyalty and another Ronin Renegade in arsenal. The endgame was down to breakpoints and I was lucky enough to draw into two hands with a 0 for 3 draconic starter and a blue, essentially demanding a 3 card block for two consecutive turns. Eventually, I was able to keep a 3 card hand and played out a 4 chain link turn to close out the game. (4-2)
Despite not making the Top 32 cut, I was satisfied with my performance for the day as I didn’t make any huge misplays that would have ended up mattering. With the metagame thick with Bravo and Azalea, I also felt like ninjas like Fai or Katsu was a decent choice into this event.
Kano was also surprisingly a good pick for this event as well, with Bryan, Eugene and Chung Si piloting the Dracai of Aether to Day 2.
After the event, we headed back to place our bags in our hotel room and went for dinner at this place that had really good roast pork and shrimp bee hoon.
Mohan, Shirui, Alexander and Ping How went Go-Karting after dinner while Denny, Kelvin, Avinash and I decided to go back to the resort. After a short walk around the night market near the resort, I went back to my room to write my decklist for the Living Legend PTI event on Day 2.
Day 3 - Sunday, SEA Throne Day 2
For the Top 32 competitors, Day 2 was 3 more rounds of CC before the cut to Top 8. For me and the other players in the LL PTI event, it was 5 rounds before the cut to Top 8.
Chane was my go-to for this event. I had plenty of experience with the deck and played it since ProTour#1. With a the help of Kai Yang, I made some tweaks to the list before this event.
R1 - Lexi
My opponent was quite new to the Living Legend format, so in terms of matchup experience, I had the upper hand. He wasn’t able to string together any threatening turns, and since I let his Endless Arrows hit multiple times, he couldn’t really make full use of drawing a fresh 4 cards every turn. Eventually we went down to single digit life totals and the arcane damage from Rosetta Thorn and Invert Existence ended the game. (1-0)
R2 - Lexi
Most players in this event brought Lexi, so it was really no surprise I ran into another one in Round 2. My opponent chose to go first after winning the die roll, and had the Arctic Incarceration start. Fortunately, I ran 25 blues into the matchup, so I had more than enough resources to keep tempo from slipping away. My opponent had a rather weak Three of a Kind turn, and every time he played a red Arctic Incarceration, I always had 2 blues in hand to play out my blood debt cards. Husk is key in this matchup and I used it to take tempo and closed the game out with the split 2 and 2 damage from Rosetta. (2-0)
R3 - Prism
Playing against Daniel Ooi, I knew he was on a fatigue plan so I boarded in the full 72 and played to huge shackle turns. With Seeds back in the format, it was very easy to push damage on small turns while also being able to play Eclipse for those big turns. The combination of attacks and Ursur closed the game out. (3-0)
R4 - Lexi
By Round 4, only Gordon and I were the only undefeated players as the event had only 18 players. His Lexi was more disruptive as it had additional ice fuse arrows like Chilling Icevein and Frost Lock. His early turns was very explosive, playing back to back Rain Razor turns. He also knew to keep above 2 life, as the combination of arcane damage from Rosetta Thorn and Invert Existence would be game over. After being forced to block with 3 cards, my shackles hit 2 Bounding Demigons and no Seeds. Without a non-attack action to play out the Bounding Demigons, I took blood debt damage enough to kill me. (3-1)
R5 - Chane
I wasn’t expecting my opponent to play Duskblade with Stubby Hammerers. As such, when he went first, I played Vexing Quillhand, hoping to mitigate some of the chip damage from Rosetta Thorn. He hit more cards with his shackles, and had a really huge turn with Art of War and Stubbies, pushing about 30 damage. I couldn’t find breathing room as his Duskblade gained more counters, and my shackles continued to miss those crucial blood debt cards. (3-2)
The top 8 was pretty locked, and as the 5th seed, my opponent happened to be the same guy I played in Round 5.
Quarterfinals - Chane (again!)
Knowing his gameplan (and decklist) I switched it up and played Grasp of the Arknight. This time however, I managed to play a Runic Reclamation while going second, forcing my opponent to give up tempo, or use Carrion Husk very early. He opted for the latter, which ultimately did not pay off as I hit more blood debt cards off my shackles. The tempo from my shackles proved too much, and while his Duskblade was gaining counters at an alarming rate, I managed to win the damage race. (W)
Semifinals - Lexi
The semis was again another repeat of swiss. I was against Gordon’s Lexi. He opted to go second for tempo. My hand was really good, with two Belittles and a yellow Bounding to go with them. However, he managed to stop my Rosetta Thorn attack with a well timed Blizzard, so only 2 damage got through. I also got very lucky with turns 1 to 3, hitting 1 blood debt card every turn. I even had an Art of War turn which drew me into a Command and Conquer which I played in conjunction with Shadow Puppetry, turning it into an 8 power attack with go again. Three of a Kind was played on the following turn to try to stabilize the game state, but it turned out to only be a 2 arrow turn, so I was able to keep most of my hand and kept the pressure on until the end of the game. (W)
Finals - Prism
It was the TTCS ProQuest Finals all over again. Prism vs Chane, Light vs Shadow. My early shackles were far from ideal, but one turn, Daniel decided to take damage to attack with a Herald of Judgement, which I blocked with Carrion Husk. He did it a second time after I used Husk, this time forcing 2 cards and an equipment block to stop the Herald’s on hit, but by then the life totals were 26 to 15. One last turn with 7 shackles brought me to the blood debt pitch stack where I unloaded everything and played Eclipse, bringing him down to 1 life. I got lucky that game since the Arclight Sentinels in Daniel’s deck were apparently taking a vacation at the bottom of his deck after working overtime in the Semis, but I guess that’s how the cookie crumbles. (W)
And that’s my first event win of the year! With the recent changes to the Living Legend format, I think it is definitely in a slightly better place, with different aggressive strategies becoming more viable.
As for the finals of the main event, Bryan took Fen Fei down from 40 life to 0. Wildfire into double Aether Flares followed by a Blazing Aether, from two blind Kano activations is an incredible feat and an even greater stroke of luck. Congratulations to Bryan for taking down the event with Kano!
After the event, I took a cab down to the Pavillion Mall to meet up with Denny, Shirui and Kelvin for dinner and shopping before heading back to the hotel.
Day 4 - Monday
It was a free and easy day with my flight in the evening, I had the entire day to do tourist stuff. First, we had lunch at a Bak Kut Teh restaurant. Then, we visited the Aquarium at Kuala Lumpur City Center. And yes, for some reason they also had an exhibit for Meerkats, which was weird to find in an aquarium but hey, meerkats are cute.
After the aquarium visit, there was still some time to burn, so Denny, Shirui and I visited another mall. We found a Chagee and chilled there until it was time to leave. Shirui was taking a coach back to Singapore, while both Denny and I were flying back so we said our goodbyes after taking our luggage from a luggage drop off area.
Closing Thoughts
This KL trip was a change of pace in terms of the people I usually travel with for Flesh and Blood events. It was a great experience and I definitely look forward to hanging out with them more often.
Preparation for this event was definitely better than the last to events I’ve been two, and I think playing FAB events after a short break really helped my mental. All in all, it was a great start to my year in FAB and I hope Heavy Hitters will provide a diverse and exciting meta for the upcoming competitive season!
If you made it this far, thank you! If you enjoyed reading this, you can show your support by donating to my Ko-fi! Until then, see you in the Deathmatch Arena!