Straw Hat's Deck Profile

Since some were asking, here is my deck.

Having the Tom of Your Life

The deck

Grade 0: 17

Godhawk ichibiyoshi-1

Lozenge magus-4

Psychic bird-4

Oracle guardian nike-4

Victory maker-2

Dream eater-1

Miracle kid-1

Grade 1: 15

Battle Sister Chocolat-4

Crescent moon -4

Battle Sister cocoa-3

Circle magus-2

oracle Guardian gemini-2

grade 2: 12

Half moon-4

Silent Tom-3

Red eye-3

Battle Sister Mocha-2

Grade 3:6
Full moon-4

CEO-2

Now, one thing that jumps out , as my friend Stills says, is my screwed up ratios.

Which, even for me is a bit odd. 

Now, I am a huge advocate of the idea "If you need it max it to make the highest chance of getting it" except Vanguard is interesting in that it thins you down to make your chances of getting cards substantially easier. Even more so with a deck like mine. I found through testing I could get away with 2-ofs and 3-ofs and have it work much more consistently than 4-ofs. It was a weird thing that I found. 

The first big change for this was my Grade 3, between it all I found I would hit my grade 3 consistently with 6, even if I got stuck on a 9k Full Moon.

I also increased the grade 1 line up because consistently that was my most important ride, if I got grade one I could set up the next grades easy, I could set up most anything.

The Mind Games

The reason is because I base this deck off of a few major ideas, revolving around mind games:
-Provide consistency through utility

-Lie with your playstyle

-Put your opponent on the tilt through previously mentioned utility

-Let your words ring true, but your actions speak differently

-Let your appearance win games alone

Now, I will admit, this all sounds kinda like a crazy guy trying too hard to be deep, but I will try to explain best I can, since according to Stills I play completely opposite of how I should.

The first thing that I think set me up for an advantage is that I set myself to seem a lot more serious than I should have, I was really nicely dressed, I had a button up shirt, I had dress pants, and then Straw hat, a Core drill, and a necklace with a D20, I packed light, but I looked in control, prepared, and confident, I appeared completely and utterly confident, and that is a powerful thing. 

Now my first point is easy to understand, Cocoa for example provided me with amazing details and options, Circle let me know how to play with the knowledge of the top card, and Gemini provided a boost for Tom, and Chocolat is the key ass saver (and best art ever, just saying). 

Now the next three all go hand in hand. Mind games is what the deck is truly all about, deception and perfection are wonderful traits.To play this deck you have to create illusions, you have to firmly lie to yourself and your opponent through what you play. You must make them think one card is the key monster, your boss unit, then drop out a unit that should be a support as a boss.

For example, Silent Tom (Which, if my deck name doesn't make it obvious, is my favorite unit) is one of the most devastating units in the deck (and arguably the game) , yet over half the time his best use is bait and confusion. Through my plays I make it so that my opponent fears Tom as a game ender, I establish firmly that he will destroy them, I make them focus and fear Tom completely and lead them to go after him, and when they do, when they waste time on him, I let him die happily , and drop out anything else to take his place. Sometimes I will play Tom, making the focus be on him, every trigger going towards him, yet the Red Eye on my field is actually the game changer of my side, the one setting up every condition, setting up my victory, the simple little utility creature is actually the most fearful card on my field, yet it never seems that way until the game finishes from it. 

The deck plays a long mind game, this strategy can instantly put an opponent on the tilt, your opponent will doubt themselves the instant the unit you let the unit you made seem so important die so easily, and it starts to force your opponent to doubt what they are doing, they begin to think differently, you force them to abruptly change. Then after you convince them of the changed tempo you abruptly reestablish the old order, and make it so that the original order comes back.

Stills described it rather well after a night of playtesting, " If he calls Tom, dont kill it because it is probably bait. But then when you think it is bait, you need to kill it because it is really his Game ender, except at that point it is secretly bait" 

Every single part of every play is careful subterfuge, you have to convince your opponent one thing, while doing another. All while you read your opponent and learn how they act, you have to control the games tempo, and more than that, dictate it in a way that throws off the opponent. The most efficient way to do this is by radically altering your game play. 

For example, my natural state is playing the long game, I will drop cards intermittently, but usually conserve resources, make small pushes, but overall just take small shots while racking up advantage. I make that the set tempo, I establish it as a fact to my opponent that I am defensive and will make small exchanges. I focus on the vanguard exclusively. Then out of nowhere I will go and change to full columns and wild attacks, take out rearguard, go incredibly offensive, establish an urgency in my opponent, and suddenly switch back to my original style. I force my opponent to reevaluate everything I do consistently, keeping it so there is almost no way to read me.

Even when I check top card with Cocoa or CEO, I make it more than it is. I set it up so I convince them it is a trigger, I let it be known there is one so they change their guarding for it. Then sometimes I leave a card that is not one on top to mess with them. The effect on how someone plays when they over or underguard because of a trigger and you reveal Chocolat or Tom is overwhelmingly powerful. To that end I also use Circle Magus, not only to let me know if I should attack with Full Moon or use her skill, but to convince my opponent of the top card. A well place sigh, or smile, or anything of the sort with a look at the top can completely change how your opponent acts.

If any of you play poker, a common thing is a "tell" which lets people know if you have a good hand or bad, I use the idea of it to establish tells, and then I let my "tell" happen when it is a lie, so my opponent thinks they have caught me off guard, and find the tables suddenly turned.

The MVPs

Now, the deck itself plays rather straight forward (well, as much as any Full Moon build can) , however there are three units that shined above all else.

Battle Sister Cocoa is the card, that as hard as it is to say, won me the most games. She did too much, and was probably consistently the biggest game changer. Early game cocoa rides (if I missed Crescent moon) allowed me to set up draw triggers for Damage checks, or on my turn they helped me set up turn 1/2 Criticals multiple times. They let me know exactly what units to place and when to max out their efficiency, based on drive checks I would get. they let me know whether I should play more defense, or go offensive. Multiple late game cocoas let me sift through those last 5-8 cards to make it so I could hit the 1-3 triggers I usually had left, or to force my way down to the stacks double trigger. Every time I scryed a card with her and left it on top my opponent instantly would play different, and that change would always put the game in  my favor. The 6k of cocoa hurt bad, but aside from Tom, every other unit she would normally back would hit at least 15k with her. And in the end she made the perfect vanguard booster. 

Silent Tom was the second best, and obviously my favorite. Honestly, I would argue Tom is a perfect card design and the best card in the game. This card has the power of its name going for it, it is widely known, widely feared. Which this deck plays right off of, it changes the game even if it is not game changing. People, even good players, start to target it instantly even if they dont need to. This card is perfect, its effect can either end the game (I cant count the amount of games in my life I have held a tom, dropped it as a final turn card, and won from it) , it forces your opponent to use G0 on the vanguard, and perfect guards on your rear guard. Your opponent has to play to get rid of him, but it can be just as bad to play against Tom, he is terrifying beyond all measure. He is also the most difficult to play. This guy is so good he makes me break one of my own rules (Dont put a card in deck specifically because of another) and put gemini in just to let Tom hit 16. He is especially good against decks that blow up rear guards with effects, because they always target Tom instead of boosters, I could go on and on about why Tom is so amazing, in every way he fits the decks playstyle, artistically he is amazing and fits the themes, he looks brilliant, and he is built in such a way to balance him out, yet still be great.  If I chose an Avatar, it is definitely him, and he is by far my favorite unit and deserved to have the deck named after him. 

Battle Sister Mocha, this one surprised me how much effect she had. Going to the hotel I knew I was lacking in single unit column power, but I couldnt figure out what to use, wiseman never cut it, and 3 seemed the best for both Tom and Red eye. Mocha ended up perfect, she hit those pesky 11k vanguards solo, she could handle most rear guard with ease, and most importantly she had the wonderful side effect of instilling fear in my opponents that I did not expect. She made them act like I drop Tom, and would almost always attack her, even if it was a situation that they would leave a 10k vanilla around, they viciously attacked mocha, and would not stop. She put people on a tilt and made them change how they play, and it worked wonderfully.  Despite the fact that she did nothing special, and she has no stories of game winning like Tom, she ended up just adding a perfect amount of pressure, giving me some extra confidence, and putting in for the right amount of mind games to solidly turn the tides of many games, and help me out all day.

Closing notes

Now, I know I didnt exactly go into too much depth, but the card choices itself are pretty obvious, it is more how I played them that truly affected the game. Due to the raw draw adn cycling power of the deck I was able to forgo maxxing out cards and still consistently have them. I rarely suffered any consistency issues, only messed up my ride 2 or 3 times, and fixed it withing turns (Check out the Tournament report for details) , I think I missed only a single ride, and over all I had maybe two times I had to play desperate and make bad, weak, non-magic columns.

The deck is really hard to play, you have to keep track of everything, but it is really damn fun, and I am glad I played it through the tournament.

For now, that is all I have, and since I know I left a lot out, if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Straw Hat, signing off!