The Last Dance (2nd@Manila)

Will make this one as quick as I can; ESL Phase 3 deck submission is in 16 hours and I have no idea what to play aaaaaaaa

Flew to Manila for the weekend to play profwacko's District - everyone was very nice and it was great to catch up with wacko and learn more thearete lore, so that was great

I ended up cooking this Asa the night before the event and just took the 45 card mulch I've been grinding the past couple of months with, swapping the 3rd Price for the 3rd Lago on the king's recommendation. Anyway, short tournament report follows:

Diet: (strictly) water and oat biscuits. Lunch is a misplay, friendos!

R1: W vs RPC BTL

R2: W vs Seb (Smartware Distributor is a connection, holy shit)

R3: W vs Barf Thule (I really flew all this way just to play vs IonFox corps, huh)

R4: W vs Esa (Amani bouncing Bankhar is sick tempo)

R5: L vs Loup (truly Andre is the most evil man in Jakarta)

R6: ID vs Andre

Semis: W vs Loup (avenging SG Nats personally)

Finals: L vs Salvo PD (tfw you lose 7-6 with 3 Nightmare Archive in score area...)

Amani is actually not as much of a meme as it looks; it defends my historically underdefended centrals (kinda), and plays into the way I like to play Asa, trading steals for tempo and board position. 2 is definitely too many though

Not gonna be able to make either of the remaining online Districts, so that's me done for the RWR season. (Shame really, I would have liked to continue my sicko tour and play some Bladderwort Asa for laughs.) This past year of metas has been much better for me than I think anyone would have anticipated, so despite the overall misgivings about balance etc, overall I think I'll still remember 2024 fondly. Of course the multitude of amazing people I got to meet in my travels and over Jnet didn't hurt as well!

I picked up Asa as an ID for the first time in late May 2024 - at that time I couldn't have predicted that the season to come would cement the player-ID association so strongly for everyone. Nevertheless, I will miss the ID dearly when it rotates, and I'm glad that this District season has given me the opportunity to take it out for a spin one last time. Here's hoping that Elevation releases with some kind of tempo HB ID that can recapture some of that same magic!

Just 43 days to go - stay strong and don't resort to playing toxic NBN cards out of faction like I did (or do, actually; this one kinda cooks tbh). See y'all in Elevation scoops season

SHAABR friendos

Jai out