Hello everyone. This is Riku, a Keyforge player in Vietnam. I always write this blog in Vietnamese, but this is a special occasion. I hope this story will reach out to more and more Keyforge players so bear with my English, as it’s not my first language.
INTRODUCTION
3 weeks ago, I made one trip to the US with my wife, Bamboo, also a fellow Keyforge player. We planned to have the trip as our honeymoon (kind of) and to attend the biggest Keyforge event in the world: Keyforge Cebleration (or KFC for short). We had a great time, we did a commitment ceremony with many friends being witness and somehow, we both won championships. Bamboo becomes the archon world champion and I become the open archon champion. That is arguably the best weekend of our life, and such a thing you can only hear in a fairy tale.
I have shared that story many times in many forms, but only as a sentimental side of the story. Now I want to share more about my playing experience over there, as a competitive player. So this blog will be about all my games at KFC and also my side of how Bamboo won the Archon World Championship.
This year is my peak Keyforge performance by far, from the start of 2024, this is my list of accomplishments:
+ KFPL 5 – Champion
+ ABR 10 – Champion
+ NKFL 22 – Champion
+ NKFL 23 – 4th
+ ABR 11 – Runner-up
+ NKFL 24 – Runner-up
+ Ho Chi Minh Store Championship – 1st place
+ Kagi 11 – Top 16
+ Vietnam Unofficial National Qualifier – 1st place
+ KFC Open Archon Championship – Champion
There is only one last big event until the end of year and it will be Vietnam Unofficial National Final. Outside of my own league (which is KTL), almost all events I have played this year result in either champion or runner-up. Last year’s loss in Shanghai Vault Tour really did push me a lot as a player. If you don’t know, I went 2-2 playing Leftculum in last year Shanghai Vault Tour, that was my first OP event ever.
This year I organized Vietnam Vault Tour, the biggest OP event ever in Vietnam. But due to the lack of manpower, I didn’t have the chance to play there myself. I was sad. Watching everyone play when I myself couldn’t felt really sad. Which made me decide that I have to go to KFC this year. Because of the pure desire of playing in a big event. All routes lead to one and that’s how I and Bamboo went to the US.
But we didn’t qualify. There were only 2 chances for both of us, which was Vietnam VT and the Last Chance Qualifier at KFC. As you know, I didn’t play in Vietnam VT and Bamboo went 2-2. So now we only have the chance in LCQ. To be honest, we didn’t believe in our chance as sealed, especially GR, could be very swingy. I have never had a good sealed experience. I always pull duds my whole life. So I had to prepare mentally for Open Archon instead. Little did I know, Bamboo pulled very good pods for the LCQ. One of her decks is strong enough to play Archon alone, so it would be no surprise she did well with it. She went 4-1 in LCQ and got 10th. Luckily, there was an archon available when it was her turn and we got what we were really looking for. I think that’s fate, because it would result in the best outcome for both of us since we wouldn’t have to play against each other. Who know what could happen.
PREPARATION
We brought along a few competitive decks, but only 3 of them are really on the world level, maybe 2. The first one is obviously Nghi, Bamboo’s deck. We all know Nghi, or at least now we do. Lainusu has spammed it for a long time though he was not as successful with it as Bamboo and I are. Nghi is the kind of deck that by just taking a look at it, you don’t actually think it’s strong. Even now, some people still doubt its strength for winning worlds. It’s alright. Both Bamboo and Nghi have proven their ability.
Both Bamboo and Nghi are kind of special. Bamboo is a type of player that need time to learn something new but once she does, she does it very very well. She is easily be good at one thing and not many things at the same time. So she plays Nghi really well. It’s opposite from me, I learn many things at the same time but not really excel in one aspect. This result in a lot of argument between us, but it’s another story to tell. For that, it also affect how I would coach her before and during the event. Instead of telling her all the details, I would just tell her what the opponent’s game plan was and what her game plan would be in the matchup. It’s one of our advantage over the world. I have always considered myself not as a good player, but a good tactician and I do excellent in any formats that let me have time to prepare. I have played almost all the best decks in the world, many times each, especially decks that won Vault Tour or so. Except for the 2 ToC decks that Easy Gallina and Magic Duck played, I know full well how the other decks in top 8. So I had Bamboo mentally prepare for it. It’s also easier that Nghi gameplan is straightforward as well.
We have played Nghi for a long time. It’s very aggressive and can pressure opponent very early with the Geistoid loop. A lot of people think that it can be vulnerable to purge, scaling or artifact control. But Nghi can actually bypass all that. The problem with answer decks is that they need the right answer at the right time, and they can’t do everything at the same time. For example, you can use purge some of Nghi combo piece by calling Dis, but then you wouldn’t be able to stop its aember gain. Or you can use scaling to balance the game a little bit, but mostly you will be out of tools to stop Nghi the next time and the Ecto also help it getting back the lead. We have found out that the best answer for Nghi is actually being aggressive and would win before it. There is other options but I believe none of these will be viable as they will lose to other decks in the meta.
I couldn’t watch any of Bamboo’s games at KFC due to me also having to play Open Archon. So I couldn’t tell you much. But I believe she took full advantage of opponent not being accustomed to Nghi and running the loop before they were able to react.
Come back to the deck choice. We have decided that whoever qualify for worlds would play Nghi, especially if it was Bamboo. So I had a few options. I could play Open with the 2 decks I prepared, or I don’t play at all so I can coach her fully before every match. But at Sealed day, we realised that the main event was isolated so I should play Open. My 1st choice after Nghi was Leftculum. Leftculum is the deck that I was more famous with, I used it to win KFPL 5 after a 12-0 undefeated streak. It has tools like Dysania and can be quite relevant against the GR meta but it requires time to start combo and mostly being passive, which as I said above, not a good choice in the current meta. Sometimes I can just lose due to not drawing into the right cards in first 5-6 turns. Despite how much I love Leftculum, being passive isn’t my playstyle. Which is why I lean toward my 2nd choice: Vi.
Vi is one AS that I opened recently and it’s good. It takes advantage of the tempo game with a lot of house enhances while disrupting opponent at the same time with tools like multiple Talent Scout or Sentry. I love tempo decks, my first deck is a tempo deck and I love it a lot. I think I haven’t had this much fun playing a Keyforge deck for a long time. Vi also has a good amount of anti GR tools in its arsenal, which is perfect in this meta as well. So between Leftculum and Vi, I went for Vi.
To be honest, as I was playing Open, I was less worried about my event than Bamboo. Which together with how I want to enjoy every single moment at KFC with everyone, I was pretty much at the best mentality. I played clean and at a good pace.
FIRST ROUND – ATLANTIS1982 1-0
My first opponent was Atlantis1982. He is a nice, kind and friendly person. Though sometimes he speaks fast and kind of quiet so I had trouble understanding. I should consider taking a serious English lesson if I plan to come back to KFC in the future (My English is mostly self-taught). He came and talked to me right in the first morning at KFC. I know who he is but I didn’t hear clearly his name at the time. He met a few times during the next few days and we were paired up in the first round. He brought a ToC Alpha-Gamma deck which is Eydis “Collector” Quenttail.
It’s not a bad deck, but definitely not something you want to bring in during this meta. With the introduction of AS, archive hate became very common so despite Alpha-Gamma deck potential, a PKE or Empyrean Charge could wreck the deck. Vi has Empyrean Charge and a very reliable one at that. Not to say his deck doesn’t have anywhere close creature control to fight back against Vi’s board. That wasn’t a close game.
SECOND ROUND – VHORLON 2-0
My second opponent was Erik, or Vhorlon from team Baywitch. I’m in good friendship with Juliejuly and also an acquaintance of Kastravir. Juliejuly has been my ABR captain for the last 2 seasons and she is nice. A pity that she wasn’t there. So I have full respect toward team Baywitch. Vhorlon seems very kind as well. I feel bad that I played a Vietnamese deck with no print-out decklist so he had to check my deck using Mastervault, which doesn’t seem like an easy option for him. He played Herder Milica Panfauzhee, a very solid GR deck. I took a look at the deck and realise how strong it could be with all the Dimo shenanigan. However as long as I’m ahead in key and aember, I should be fine. Also that deck, again, doesn’t have enough creature control to deal with Vi. The best option it could use is Winds of Death, and that will go right into Empyrean Charge. I slowly grind the game down to make sure there was no aember burst that can swing the game back to him.
It was irony that at this time, Bamboo just started her first round and it was against Dorian11, last year champion. Geir Tsong is among the worst matchups for Nghi and I didn’t actually know what happened but the game was long and at the end, Dorian was angry, stood up after throwing cards into the table and walked away. I think he made a mistake that cost him the game and the fact that Bamboo didn’t know Dorian is last year’s champion let her play carefree and did her best. I didn’t tell Bamboo any excess information, just enough for her to win matchups.
THIRD ROUND – DRAZKOR 3-0
After lunch break, we came back for round 3. And it was against Drazkor!!! Drazkor is one of the best guys I have ever known in the community. He was my first ABR captain and basically the person who introduced me to the online community. He helped me a lot during my beginning year and I still see him as a great person and a great player. He played Professor Thundrou, the Spirited Deuce, an aember skies deck with Blue Aemberdrake. It is bursty with decent speed and can be very threatening with the drake combo. And Vi didn’t have much tempo early game in that match, which is kind of rare for it. The game was going back and forth for a while. I know the potential of Blue Aemberdrake so I was trying my best keep it out of the board by using Hoist Operations to get it back to his archive. He made a mistake that played his Drumble, let me use Suspenmander to stop him from playing action for a turn, cost him a game he might have won. That was probably the closest to a loss someone could give me during the 2 Open Archon Days. But I didn’t lose.
FOURTH ROUND – ORION 4-0
I played Orion next. He is a great friend, I don’t really remember how we first talked online. Maybe it was when I jumped into his stream while he did commentary on something relating to my game or my league or so. He is always kind and willing to help any member of the community in need. It was his birthday also though I didn’t know that until much later that day. He also played an AS deck which is Orbibet Herres-Cursor, Crocag. It’s a solid AS deck with high amount of capture and tools to synergy with it, also an annoying Mars board. Not really something Vi was brought in to fight, but not a bad matchup either. I just need to carefully play around Kaboom! and avoid him establishing a board right after. He did play very well in the early stage of the match but with how disruptive Vi can be, it slowed down his deck a lot. He took a blunder by playing IHS but not archiving either Energy Vampirism nor Kaboom!, which could have pressured me a lot more because I would have to chain myself with Arise for quite some time. Without any more board wipe, I started the grinding game. I think he was nervous and mistakenly played Backup Plan while Empyrean Charge hadn’t been seen yet.
Orion and Drazkor then went and played the last round against each other, what an outcome!!! And it was Drazkor that went ahead. Sorry Orion.
Bamboo also finished her 2nd match against a Taiwanese player playing a Prospector deck.
FIFTH ROUND – CPTN.CRISPY 5-0
My last 2LO opponent is Cptn.Crispy, who played Extravagantly Prideful Cinnador, the deck that top 4 Roseville and Runner-up in Las Vegas Vault Tour. It’s a tricky matchup because of the Mars Ro6 that can both gaining aember outside of my control and destroy my board at the same time. He has 2 IHS but not WoD so it can be tricky for my Empyrean Charge, I wouldn’t want to play it early, but not late as well. He was fully aware of that and had played perfectly around it. He always kept at least 1 IHS in hand to try to bait me into using Empyrean, which I didn’t. Despite I was also chaining myself by keeping Cauterize Vitality for his Island and also Empyrean, I know that if we both playing the mind game, Vi would have come out better because his deck really need the Mars Ro6 and for that he need to run through his deck fast. The game was going back and forth for a long time, that was a tough game but in the end, he got his combo piece too late. He decided not to do the Ro6 yet, also let my Quantum Mouse live, which was important because I then had enough aember gain to Empyrean Charge the last key, winning the game.
I then went and watched Bamboo’s 3rd game against Kokujin87 at the streaming table. I don’t know what happened but Kokujin87 signaled me that Bamboo got the game, I think it was the last turn as well. I suppose Bamboo got into Nghi loop too soon and there was no way for Kokujin87 to stop her.
So with us both going 5-0 and 3-0 respectively, we made top cut and were done with the day. It was great, I think we both did very well.
QUARTER FINAL – DISTHIS
Sunday came and my top 8 opponent is Disthis / Ryan from team ABR. We have played many times before and he bought me beer!! Any person who bought me a beer will always be a great one! He was the only player who had to play 7 games to reach top cut and alot of these matches were down to the last line, it was rough for him. We played a casual game a day before Open Archon Day and we both used the decks that we also used in the Open, which didn’t end up well for him. We both realise my deck is a hard counter and it took him harder of course. Someone from ABR said he did practice a few games a night before and it didn’t become better. His deck is “Magus” Konul, Bush Chieftain, it’s a wodka deck with 2 Target. The deck is strong and gameplan is clear, but the key point of the deck is Winds of Death and that will just play into my Empyrean Charge so he had to be creative and win in other conditions. For me the most dangerous card in the matchup is Cursed Tomb because it would stop my Arise so my plan is to field the board carefully. Vi got a great start and I did exactly what I wanted to. I even Talent Scout into one of his Target which by keeping it on my board is much better than in the discard. At one point, he was forced to purge his own Target and lower the chance of the wodka later. But my board kept getting out of his control and the game slowly but surely went into my favour. It was a good game, just not a good matchup for him.
Bamboo had her first game with Mikefuni playing Bandola. Among the top 8, I think Bandola is the worst matchup for Nghi. It’s interesting though. Lainusu has played this matchup before with June piloting Bandola and they both agree that Bandola is the better deck. However I and Bamboo have completely different results in our testing. But Bandola will always have the potential to just combo out of nowhere and if it does, Nghi can’t do anything. Nghi should have better control of the outcome in all the other matchups. I have heard that Mikefuni made a mistake by putting Bamboo’s Well of Memory into the bottom of her deck, resulting in her getting it back easier and that’s how she won. Good for her!!
SEMI FINAL – DRAZKOR AGAIN!!!!
I went into final to rematch again Drazkor, who only dropped one game until now and it’s against me. This time it was very different. Althought Drazkor was able to forge the blue key in 2nd turn, Vi got into gear very early with everything came to me in the right order. I always feel bad winning against Drazkor, especially when I won because I was lucky.
Bamboo also won her semi final. Her opponent was Magic Duck from team Reapout. His deck was among the decks that I have no information on. But I had a chance to take a look at his deck, which is Citizen X. Xenovault. It’s a Steppe Wolf token ToC deck with a lot of high burst potential together with tools to slow down the game at the same time. But his deck doesn’t have anything to change Nghi’s gameplan, so I told Bamboo to just play like she always does. Which exactly was what happened. Nghi should have more aember gain than Citizen, and due to the nature of token concept, it’s not as consistent as Nghi and even if it has tools to bounce back cards into his hand, it still takes one more turn to use it (because the bounce mostly are from Untamed). It would be hard for Magic Duck to both run his aember control and not play creatures as well. And so we both went into the final!!!
FINAL – LORDJUDO
Bamboo’s final opponent is the famous Flaminghobo and he played Y. Hayes, the Isle Carpenter, the deck that he won Las Vegas with. It’s also a wodka deck but has a lot of tools to support the main game plan as well as being flexible if necessary. It’s similar to another famous deck in Vietnam belongs to NHCuong but while Hayes has more late game potential, it lacks tools to get haunted faster and need time to get into gear. So I told Bamboo to do exactly like she should play against NHCuong. A lot of people believe Spontaneous Awakening will be a key card in this matchup, but I disagree. The lack of haunted speed will result in Hobo needing to have an answer at the right time or would be slower in gameplan. And even so Nghi would only need to Well only one. Unlike some decks like Secondact’s Plimpton, Hayes doesn’t take as much advantage by playing opponent Well of Memory. If Hayes has just a single Boo!, I think the matchup could have been very different. Congratulations for my wife, Bamboo, becoming the Archon World Champion. The first Asian and also the first woman ever to win the title!!!
On my part, I played Lordjudo in the final. He is a great player and a great person as well. It’s my honor to have known him. He played the famous Ass deck that Donkeyforge, another Dutch player, pulled in German Vault Tour. It is a scary deck, but it’s a wodka deck. Vi is a bane to all wodka deck, especially when Ass only has one board wipe and it is Winds of Death. Both games were not going great for him. I believe he tried to be careful around my tools, resulting in a slow game pace which actually helped Vi better. I am not sure if there could be anything that changes the outcome, but Vi is probably the worst matchup ever his deck could ask for. And I played very carefully to not make any mistake, not letting him room to breathe as well.
I think contributing to this win is how Ghost Galaxy released 2 new sets only about 1 month before worlds. Not only was there a lot of information to digest, there is also a fact that Vietnam and the US are among the first two countries that have access to the set retail earlier than other countries. Although we don’t have ToC, I have experimented with AS very early. So that’s my advantage. And the time is too short for the meta to change. If worlds happens 2 months later, the result would be completely different.
FINAL WORDS
It was almost the same meta in the main event but I think the deck power is still tougher over there. In Open, people bring more decks from new sets into and that was more wild, especially with the much higher number of participants. I believe I was able to adapt faster and got a lot of matchups I wanted. I was surprised when I first came to the US and everyone told me AS isn’t as strong and ToC will be the next meta. But the board control lockdown from AS is real. We have those in Vietnam together with Vi and they dominate the scene. Bringing mass archive and/or lack of creature control would be a downfall against AS. I think against ToC, the lack of C is still fine if you can combo and keycheat every turn, so in general, the low C is a common thing in all my opponent decks.
And so that’s how I became Open Archon Champion and together with my wife, bringing back home both greatest Archon Trophies. It was a great time and we enjoyed it so much. My plan for this KFC originally was just a one time thing because it’s not an easy trip for both of us. But now that we both got invitations for the next world and Bamboo is the defending champion, I feel like we should come back next year. It will be greater I think. But it’s not certain yet. So we will see.
Congrats, Riku, and thanks for sharing your stories!