2025-05-18 Vibes Championship of the Americas (0-4)

Introduction

After scrubbing out of RC Hartford [link], I signed up to play in Vibes Championship of the Americas at Hartford. For $20 entry, plus buying starter kit ($30 for two starter decks), it's pretty good value since playmat + promo are included as entry

 

What is Vibes? 

Vibes is a Lorcana-esque Trading Card Game (TCG). The art is based on an NFT art series called Pudgy Penguins. Also the game is "Web3" which means it has crypto connotations & stuff.

Gameplay characteristics

Parentheses will be used to describe the approximate Magic equivalent. 

• Cards can be played face-down as rods (lands), which can be flopped (tapped) to produce fish (generic mana).
• Penguins have colors. Fish can be used to summon any color of penguin, but color determines what actions (spells) the penguins can flop pudge for (convoke)
• Cycles (turns) involve players drawing, playing penguins (main phase), opponent does the same, then an action phase (priority round) which can be repeated if additional actions happen.
• The end of turn involves a vibe check, where players determine which penguin has the most vibe (power)
• Winning the vibe check awards you with Baron Fishpockets (idk, initiative?). The winner then puts the top card of their library in as a flopped rod, and the loser draws a card. Then the next cycle starts and if the player with Baron Fishpockets has 15+ cards out, they win.
• Also Baron Fishpockets determines who gets to take the first moves per cycle. 

Gameplay

• Establishing early board presence is important to take actions (convoke spells), as well as accelerating on rods.
• Both players draw on each turn, and both players "receive" a card when the vibe check happens. This means that there's a lot of resource parity, which gives repeated removal an edge.
• Starter decks feature pretty basic mechanics, of course. But even with just one set released there's already a massive gap in card power level. Imaging the difference between a 2/2 1G with vigilance vs Bunkus (Hogaak) or Bizmo (Thassa's Oracle).
• There are also rareish trap lands that can be revealed as actions.
• Since the game is won after a player wins the vibe check and has fifteen permanents at the start of their turn, players close in on 15 permanents at approximately the same time.
• This leads to a couple of showdown turns where many things happen.
• Unlike Magic, if the source of an action (ability) is removed in response, the act is countered
• The game is run as best-of-1 since parity is pretty core to the game. There aren't enormous benefits to going first, while cards that can flop opposing penguins are better on the reactive side.

Round Summary

I lost four rounds. I'll chalk it up to a combination of not understanding tempo priority of Baron Fishpockets, valuation of cards-as-rods vs their front faces, not buying upgrades, and plain old-fashioned bad luck.

2025-05-17 RC Hartford with Jeskai Control (2-4)

Introduction

Skipped RC Minneapolis despite dual-queueing, wasn't feeling it. Hartford is driveable so hopped in a car and away we went.

Decklist

• Casey Miller took down RC Minneapolis with the deck, so surely it's good right?
• The theory was that Jeskai Control had a good matchup spread, especially against public enemy #1 UR Prowess. I tweaked the SB a bit - Obstinate Baloths out since Pixie is virtually absent from the meta, add some Ghost Vacuums for various matchups - Omniscience, Jeskai Oculus, Stormchaser's buyback, delirium, etc.
• I practiced the deck for a few dozen matches on Arena, felt okay. Took it out to a paper event just to test casting the spells and physical manipulation of cards. Printed out tokens for Three Steps Ahead & Shiko copies.

Swiss

• R1 Adam Bruce on UW Omniscience (1-0)
  G1 I hold two removal spells. He reanimates Omniscience, casts a second one. I try to remove the first, he bounces it and gets to stick two Omnis. I concede early for time since I have nothing left & he's still at 20.
  G2 we durdle around. I crunch his life total down, removing creatures. I have a Ghost Vacuum on board. He hits 10 mana and double Omnis, but has no gas left and dies.
  G3 he misses land 4 and I have answers gg
• R2 Ryan Condon on UR Prowess LL (1-1)
  Both games I'm able to stabilize, getting to 21 life in G1 and 17 life from 1 in G2. But then by recurring Stock Ups opp is able to sculpt his hand enough to one-shot me, since this build of Jeskai isn't really able to deal with that.
• R3 Daniel Deckman on Jeskai Control LD (1-2)
  He looks familiar. We actually played at MagicCon Vegas 2023!
  G1 goes long, my understanding was I could play for a mill victory since we both have more removal than threats but then I find a clump of a bajillion lands while he churns through his deck enthusiastically and is able to bash me with a Shiko before I can find another Get Lost.
  G2 draw
• R4 Adam Broeking on Jeskai Oculus WLW (2-2)
  Game 1 I stabilize at 5 then turn the corner by bashing with Marang River Regent, then next turn copy it with Three Steps Ahead and bash again. He puts up a bunch of blockers iirc Siren + two Oculus, top deck my second Three Steps Ahead ggg
  Game 2 draw poorly, first hand is 4 lands + high curve cards, second hand has a couple cheaper interactions but then draws into the same as the first
  Game 3 idk, took it down.
• R5 Adam Snook on UR Prowess LL (2-3)
  G1 I get slow rolled into a turn 5 one shot from 19
  G2 my notes don't show much but I die who cares about the details
• R6 Michael Belfatto on UR Prowess WLL (2-4)
  idk, he knows the matchup better than I
  Temporary Lockdown is absolutely needed to stabilize, but given about ten turns UR will find their Into the Floodmaws to sweep them away. G2 he briefly miscalculates lethal with bouncing Temporary Lockdown on an Authority of the Consuls + Stormchaser's Talent but I still die a few turns later.
• R7 Quinn Tonole on Mono R LL
  My drop didn't register I guess. Didn't actually play this one.

Is UR the best deck? and public discourse

There were some RC commentators who expressed the opinions that UR is powerful but not ban-worthy, people are too ban-thirsty, but most importantly grinders are too lazy to solve for the problem that is UR in the metagame. This is pretty nonsensical. There are several thousands of very experienced players trying to solve the format, but it keeps rotating because new busted cards come out and obsolete the old ones. Standard is now in this weird ebb and flow of power creep, where a card like Nowhere to Run will define a meta, obsoleting X/3s, putting people back on X/4s, only to be pushed out by repeated creature value. Sure, we shouldn't kneejerk ban everything. But the problem isn't that grinders are lazy, it's that Standard is a tough freaking format now where everything is powerful but simultaneously not good enough. Might write up a post on how to fix Standard later, idk

I chose my deck based on flawed premises

1. The top decks are approximately the same power level.
2. Jeskai has a solid matchup into UR, and resolving Temporary Lockdown mostly wins the game.
3. I acquired enough practice with Jeskai from playing it on Arena and briefly in paper.

Conclusions & Takeaways

• I didn't do quality prep for the tournament, therefore I wasn't so practiced & in tune with my deck that I was able to zone in on the key decisions for my matchups.
• Coping that I didn't get the sweaty UR practice that I needed.