Letters From Across the Pond: A Top 8 Origins Report
It’s been a few days since Origins wrapped up, and I still can’t believe how great of an event it was. Thirty-three players showed up to test their mettle in a six-round grind to the top eight.
These players came from all experience levels, ranging from brand new to those that had been there from the beginning. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but after hours of practice, I felt confident and ready for the challenge.
Practice and Preparation
Going into the week of Origins, I had been testing a Dolo deck that leaned toward aggression. After a few hours of testing I began to notice that pushing through any sort of meaningful healing was problematic, and so I sought out answers.
Unfortunately, I found that leaning even harder into aggro didn’t remedy the situation. I reached out to one of the UK Dolo gurus, Jaegernoon.
I asked him about what he had been doing with the Mighty one lately. He kindly shipped me this list and we chatted about the card choices, matchups, and the format in general.
The Deck
Hero
Dolo the Mighty
Combos
Lava Shedding
Stream of Tantos
Wrath of the Mountain
Crushing Blow
Magma Blast
Actions
3 Mountain Fort
3 Crystal Bat
3 Flame Bat
3 Colossi Ritual Site
3 Draga Scorcher
1 Flynamo
2 Rickety Mine
3 Crystal Maze
3 Rock Rager
3 Magma Spitter
3 Crystal Leech
I had seen Hugh’s version of this list going around and was partially intrigued. I was initially off-put by the whole thing because it didn't seem to have much focus, at least in the traditional card game sense.
What I would soon realize was that Lightseekers is not a traditional card game. Action economy and survivability are two facets of the game that you should be prioritizing.
Anyways, after I received the list from Jaeger I decided to just run some reps and see how she played out.
It tested incredibly well!
When it came time to shine many of the card choices I had been low on previously overperformed. Rickety Mine was the most obvious case. That card is incredible!
Sideboard
2 Kreebal Monk – These were here strictly for Sicario, but going forward I will be bringing them in against other matchups. I’ll talk more about this later.
1 Weapon Master – This card is all around good for keeping greedy decks in check, especially those with only one Blacksmith.
1 Umbron Brute – I really wish I had decided to go with two of these to bring in against decks that prioritized combo damage.
2 Flamechained Warrior – The warriors come out to play against Treanu, but I didn’t end up seeing any Treanu. They still ended up being fine against Time Chamber shenanigans.
1 Kreebal Jester – I'm pretty sure this card is outdated technology. No one plays into it anymore.
1 Kreebal Potion Master – Good versus healing decks. I probably play two of these in the future.
1 Unruly Mob – This is a great way to keep hyper aggro decks from running you over. It’s also another I might like to have two of, but there’s only nine sideboard slots.
Keep in mind that Nationals is Advanced format, so sideboards aren't relevant there. These musings don't mean anything until after Gen Con.
The Event
My biggest regret from Origins was not my two losses in Swiss nor my eventual loss in the top eight (Sorry for the spoilers).
It was accidentally naming my deck Big G, the name of the Granite deck I had been playing.
Jokes aside, I played a lot of tight rounds of Lightseekers, and had a blast against all of my opponents. Here's a quick recap.
Round One
My first round was against a brand new player on a modified Tech starter. He was able to generate a bunch of healing, but just wasn’t able to assemble lethal damage in either game.
1-0
Round Two
Round Two was probably my favorite match of the day. I was up against my good friend and local, the Chicago savage LoneGlitch.
He was playing an optimized version of the Ancient deck that took down our Regional just a few weeks back. You might remember it from my last article.
The match had a lot of back and forth life swings. We also had some timely Crystal Leeches, some of which were outside the realm of good statistical probability. I ended up taking a very close game three.
2-0
Round Three
I don’t remember much about this match, and I mean that with no disrespect to my opponent. He was on Impex the Insane, but I was able to handle both games before he really had a chance to show me how his deck worked. Sorry, friend.
3-0
Round Four
After a short lunch break, I sat down against my first Cassini of the day. I'm pretty sure Cassini is slightly favored, but I don't think the matchup is unwinnable. It turns out he was playing the Time Chamber variant of Cassini, which is a bit more of a combo deck. I smashed the first game before he was able to get online. In games two and three, he employed the help of Kreebal Monk and slowly whittled me away with his combo. The deck seemed super interesting and handed me my first loss of the day.
3-1
Round Five
Still reeling from a close loss, I sat down against a local Ohio player playing a Sunhunter Tuktu deck. I had heard that she had been doing well in the UK, and also that it was pretty fragile to weak draws on occasion. I think my opponent had been plagued by a few of these, because I scored a quick 2-0 in this one.
4-1
Round Six
This was the final round, and I knew that I was a lock for top eight with a win. It got a little muddier with a loss, but I had some pretty decent tiebreakers. When I saw my opponent's hero, my stomach sank. Granite is near unbeatable for Dolo. You just have to push hard and hope they stumble. My opponent did not, and I lost two close games.
4-2
The Reveal
I sat around in suspense, waiting to see if I made the cut. My tiebreakers were good, but two out of the four 4-2s were not making it to the second day of play. I ended up as the fifth seed, so with a sigh of relief we were headed into the top 8.
Top 8
Day two of Origins Lightseekers Top 8 had a very diverse group. There were three Dolo, two Cassini, one Granite, one Sicario, and one Brother Scaldrun. My matchup was a mirror match versus another Dolo, and I was pretty certain my deck was tuned well for the mirror.
Top 8 – Round One
After the first game, I was sitting pretty with a win off the back of a Magma Blast. I was feeling pretty confident in my deck configuration versus his.
This would all be shattered in games two and three.
In both games, he employed a strategy using Kreebal Monk(which we talked about earlier in the article) in which he gained an advantage on board and hand and dropped the monk, leaving me on the back foot for a fair percentage of both games. I just didn't rip my leeches in time. Great games to Ryborg, and I can’t can’t wait to see him at Nationals.
Overall, Origins was an amazing experience. I met great players, great staff, and played some solid Lightseekers games. I'm happy with how I performed, but I'm hungry for that Nationals title. Thanks for reading. I'll see you all at Gen Con.
As always, you can find me on social media if you have questions or comments:
Twitter- @goldcos
Facebook-Josh Cosentino
Discord- Goldcos#9029