Nationals Is Coming!

Early August marks the first official US Lightseekers National Tournament! As if that wasn’t exciting enough, Playfusion recently revealed that Nationals will be played within the unexplored realm know as *Dun-Dun-Dun* the advanced constructed format.

What in the world is advanced constructed format?

Well, I sure am glad you asked! The advanced constructed format is a version of the Lightseekers TCG in which each player brings three preconstructed decks to the table. There are absolutely no side decks involved and each deck must be of a different order based solely on the hero.

No need to fear fellow abusers of Crystalcore!  You’re free to go about your (incredibly annoying) business of using items such as Crystalcore or any others in all, some, or none of your decks.

Advanced constructed also brings the concept of banning one of your opponent’s decks.

Before the start of each round, each player will have the option to ban one of the opponent's heroes. However, once a top cut has been established the higher seeded player gets to choose which of the two seekers will call the first ban.

This idea of banning a deck is huge. From the moment of the bans, the player secretly chooses which of their two remaining decks they will be playing. Additionally, a player must win with each of his or her decks to be proclaimed the winner of the round.

I guess we won’t be seeing a ton of Mythics after all…

Not so fast!

The ruling regarding Mythic heroes states that the order of the hero is determined by whichever elements make up the majority. For example, Captain Blacktail is only a storm hero for the sake of picking your three heroes in advanced constructed. This is because the majority of his elements are made up of Storm, Lightning and Air (Storm) vs Lunar (Astral). Users of Captain Blacktail in advanced constructed are obviously still allowed to use lunar cards without any sort of item attachment as well.

This same concept holds true for all mythical heroes in conjunction with the format.

Why change the format?

Upon trying to put myself in the heads of the organizers of such a big event, I theorize that the Lightseekers team wanted to add as much space for complex, strategy-based processing as possible. For the record, I do believe that basic constructed involves a significant deal of brain power and strategizing to be successful from both deck building and gameplay perspectives.

This is also a way for those who earned their spot over the long season to really show what they can do. Not anyone can just walk up at GenCon, win the last chance qualifier and then take home a title the next day. They would have to then go home and make two more decks!

Advanced constructed rewards those who have invested so much into Lightseekers to prove they can win with more than just one really good meta deck.

The champ is going to have to prove they are the best player by displaying their mastery of multiple orders.

This is why think that advanced constructed will be an entirely new type of beast for Lightseekers tournament players. Sure advanced constructed doesn’t have side decks, which can no doubt spice up the game. But it does have three full decks and the incredibly important decision to be made as to which deck to ban.

Who would you ban?

 

In Part 2 of this three-part blog series, Preparing for Nationals, I will be discussing theories and strategies regarding picking your three deck lineup efficiently.

Be sure to follow @delivery_crab to stay up to date with everything Lightseekers.

Until next time, I’m DanTheMan and you’re watching the Disney channel…I mean reading the Delivery Crab Blog!

 

Dan Amon (DanTheMan) is a 17 year old Lightseekers enthusiast from Pennington, NJ. He is fortunate to have a thriving Lightseekers community very close to home thanks to his LGS, Family Fun Hobbies, and is proud to take full advantage of everything the community has to offer. Dan placed in the top four at the championship constructed tournament at PAX Unplugged and is looking to stream the digital version of Lightseekers on Twitch upon its release.