Yesterday was the first of hopefully many celebration tournaments at Hidden Gem Cafe in Poole to celebrate the victor of the latest Achrometer story event. The event was a Swiss tournament in Canvas format with one change – you can only win with Achrom, if you win with Chroma it counts as a loss. This lead to some interesting decks but I chose to bring Achrom Breach Pixies, my personal favourite deck which I’m hoping will only get better with the next Spirata release, before we take a look at that we’ll quickly mention the other decks at the event
- Baron – Asa Actions
- Rhi – Splat Faries (My favourite deck of the day)
- Mike – Spiral Pixies
- Frijj – Curse Issadora
- Aardvark – Curse Hissano
- Taey! – Secret/Curse Issadora
- Hidden Store(Hen) – Trolls
I do have to make special mention to Rhi’s splat faries deck, I didn’t get to play against it but it was really fun to watch their opponents as they kept splatting their cards forcing them to gain shards and eventually a chroma “win”. You can see their deck in Canvas-Forum on the official Achroma Discord (https://discord.gg/achroma) and I can’t wait how the deck changes and works for the next Achrom Tournament.
Right now into the deck tech
Before we start, if you plan to build this deck two changes were made especially for this tournament so outside of an Achrom Event I would cut the two Giant Prisms and swap them for +1 Morag and +1 Advance Scouting Party. For this event I thought the prisms would be really strong however I didn’t actually see them when needed, anyway onto each card and it’s job.
Achrom Breach – This card is crazy strong when every permanent card in your deck has an Achrom shard. It’s always going to be hitting card and gaining you cards in the process. However against those pesky Salum decks be wary of Claim and/or Tempest, it’s best saved for a kill shot against Salum. We don’t have ways of finding this and have to natural draw it but the rest of deck is so synergised that’s fine.
Throne Room – Being able to turn off the resolve of an entire colour is very strong just be careful what you choose as don’t forget it can disable your Shard Caches, Full Palettes etc however usually it’s a worthwhile trade. It’s also steal 2 and draw a card.
Sorrono – 4 strength is as good as it gets with pixies so it’s your best body while also getting 2 steal and removing something from their board. Also gives you a way around protection.
Cintimani Stone – Do I need to say anything?
Peorth – See Cintimani Stone
Imp – Who doesn’t love Imp? 1 cost for 1 drain and a card. This card is rarely not a 2 of in every deck.
Ravaged Elite – 2 drain for 2 shards (as long as you have something else) and it hopefully sticks around
Morag – A slightly upgraded Elite with a steal instead of drain, while we aren’t super happy about the extra cost it’s still a great pixie
Carmella Traitorous – A great action, again always a two of in any deck.
Full Palette – Any good Achrom deck needs some gain and it rarely get’s better than a net +4
HAIM Shard Cache – Plays two roles, it’s a really strong way to remove 3 shards from your opponent at an effective cost of 2 and also high trade value. Also a great target for Cintimani.
Factory Production Line – You’ll notice there’s only one object, play this get Cintimani Stone for free, that’s Steal 2 and play another card from your dregs for free for 3 cost? Show me any other card that get’s that much.
Giant Prism – The idea for this card was to erase all my opponents stuff and gain some shards, however it didn’t work out in this event but at worst it’s still 5 trade cost.
Snuff Out – Just an extra drain 2 for when you need it, I can’t wait for Spirata Autumn because that’s just going to be strict upgrade for this deck.
Soaking Stone – A nice cheap early location that you can afford to drop on turn 1 if you going first too.
Fall of Fluttery Promo – Steal 2 and not terrible trade value for when you need it. As soon as we have it swap for 1 of these for the second spirata promo location
Castle Gates – More often then not this ends up being traded however don’t underestimate how good this can for returning a Soronno or Carmella when needed
Achrom Factory – If you can drop a few pixies this can quickly add on a lot of extra drain.
Overall the strategy for this deck is hit hard, hit fast and win by turn 2/3 at the latest. Don’t be afraid to be low on cards in hand, you want to play 3 things and then trade to make sure you stay alive. Make sure you plan your turns and count exactly how many shards you need to play what you need and how much more drain/steal to kill your opponent. The only variable factor will be what Peorth hits, as you know that FPL can only hit Cintimani Stone you can plan this for an explosive turn. Trading a card just to play it with the stone is a very valid strategy giving you 4 cards for this turn instead of 3.
The Tournament
We had 7 players for the Tournament and then Hen playing for the Store, not a bad turnout for the first one but I hope to see more of you at the next one regardless of who wins. It’s only £5 for Entry, everyone gets a promo card, the winner took home a Pixie collectors edition, 2nd and 3rd got some store credit and everyone not in top cut gets to play another game for some free cake (and I can tell you Hidden Gem do some amazing cakes)
Round 1
Round 1 and I’ve got the store game. Hen is playing Trolls and I know he can get a lot out quickly. I’m going first and just trade pass, Hen finds and plays Gunnar but leaves himself low enough I can take him out with Achrom Breach on my turn. Game two is over just as quickly
Round 2
Round 2 is against Baron’s Asa Deck. This deck does scare me I know how quickly it can get a lot of steal out with actions. Game 1 and Asa comes down immediately but fortunately I have Soronno to remove it and then enough the following turn for the kill. Game 2 and Asa comes down again with a Cauldron and I can’t keep up, Asa takes me down. Game 3 and fortunately we have a first start, taking them very low before they can do much and it goes to the pixies. A very solid deck for Baron and I’m expecting him to win his next game and meet again in Top Cut
Round 3
Round 3 and we’ve got Taey and his Issadora Secret/Curse Deck. I wasn’t sure what to expect here but I’m going first so I just trade and pass. Taey go straight for a secret and an Issadora. I’m worried but fortunately the leave themselves low enough that I’m able to get the kill shot before they set up. Game 2 and they double secret me but again I have enough to be able to kill them before they can set up – onto top cut.
Standings
At the end of the swiss rounds here are the standings, now onto top cut for the top 4 players while the other 3 battle it out in a multiplayer game for cake.
Semi-Finals
Semi-Finals are here and we’re against Mike and his Spiral Deck. A very close game 1 where Mike get’s me down to 1 shard but can’t quite finish me off before I return with a kill shot. Game 2 is over quickly as I have a crazy hand allowing me to play Sorrono into Peorth playing a Castle Gates and then Cintimani Stone to replay Peorth into Snuff Out for a total of 15 drain/steal for the game. I do have to say Mike did very well for his first tournament and first Achrom deck which he built earlier that day! I look forward to playing against him more at future tournaments.
In the other game Taey takes the match in a close 2-1 vs Baron.
Finals
It’s a rematch of round 3 vs Taey as but he doesn’t seem to really get his deck off the ground in game 1 so I take a fairly quick victory. Game 2 and I just trade turn 1, Taey plays down a few secrets and passes the turn. I retaliate by using Cintimani stone to snuff out twice and take the victory.
It the battle for 3rd Mike takes it over Baron
Prizes
For 1st Place I got myself a Fallen Stone Pixies Collectors Edition.
2nd and 3rd Mike and Taey each got £10 store credit.
We also had some bonus prizes –
Voted as Favourite Deck of the event was Rhi with their Splat Deck. Voted as Best Deck was Baron with Asa Actions, they both got a free Dungeon Hire
Finally the winner of Cake Battle was Frijj netting themselves a free cake of their choice
Overall it was a great event with some awesome prizes and really fun twist on the normal Canvas format. I look forward to more of these in the future and some other exciting and weird formats. Thanks to Hidden Gem for hosting and for some of the photos you see in this article.
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