Melbourne Pro Tour Invitational: There and back again with Connor Archer
Written by Connor Archer and Liam Bosecke
   
  
The most anticipated event for players all across the globe of the ever growing TCG, Flesh and Blood, is known as The Calling.
  
It was announced by Legend Story Studio's at the end of April to be held on the 4th of June. Massive excitement built up in the community all around Australia as this would be the first time a large majority of the player base would have the opportunity to attend such a prestigious event in their own country; the first of it's kind outside of New Zealand.
   


The Calling: Melbourne Poster
   

Unfortunately, the event would be inevitably postponed for a month. This left many players unable to attend or completely disenchanted with the idea of travelling interstate, not wanting to risk quarantine and having other life commitments. 
One week before the rescheduled event was meant to commence, LSS announced that the event will be 'indefinitely postponed'. 
There was one silver lining to come out of this however.
   
Midian Gaming would be host to a replacement event instead. A one day pro invitational tour, with an open invite to anyone wanting to attend.
   
One Adelaide player wasn't deterred by this news and was dead set on attending the event: Connor Archer, currently 2nd on the 90 day XP chart for Australia, takes us on his journey to Melbourne from Adelaide as he road trips to Melbourne to attend the Calling that never was.
   

Connor Archer
      

Day 1: Road Trip

With my wagon packed and kitted out to be my home for the next few days, I set off early Friday morning into the first rays of sunshine. It was about a 7 and a half hour drive to the caravan park. I'd be staying at Rockbank, so I wanted to get on the road as early as possible.
   
My friends from our LGS Dragons Lair lent me some CD's which made the drive a whole lot more enjoyable. I'd originally planned to fly over but in the wake of recent lockdowns and with a looming threat of having to isolate upon my return if I found myself in the wrong place at the wrong time, I decided to try and avoid the city all together. Instead, I had the opportunity to admire the rolling hills, barren plains and peculiar coloured lakes along the way.
  
Ever since my obsession with Flesh and Blood began earlier this year, I relished the opportunity to travel interstate with friends and play in a grand scale tournament. Despite the setbacks I knew the Pro Tour invitational event would deliver on an exciting event worth traveling for and it certainly did. 
   
   

Pre-tournament Study
   


Cosy sleeping conditions
   

Day 2: The Tournament 

 

After a surprisingly comfortable sleep and a warm shower I set off to the event. In total their were 69 players (don't say it), 3 judges and the man himself, organizer Andy Palermo. I had some friendly chats with a few players about their preferred heroes and their experience in sealed formats and after some announcements we were all handed our packs. The tension started to build as we all laid out our packs speculating on what we would pull based on the weight and temperature.

   

   
Let the pack cracking begin!
   
After rapidly organizing my pulls into piles and thematically banishing my Runeblade cards to the edge of the table, where they would remain, I was left with a few options to ponder. My first instinct was to attack the meta and play Levia, as I have been using her exclusively over the last few weeks and feel very comfortable now with her play style. My pulls were decent, but including generics, I found I was missing her combo enabling Hooves of the Shadow Beast. On top of that I only had 9 cards with 6 power or higher, which wasn't quite enough to convince me it was a good idea, even though I was expecting to see a lot of prism players and Levia does love to pop some heralds.
  
Next, I had a quick look at my warrior cards and nothing stood out to me from that pile. After getting an amazing pool of cards in one of the Adelaide skirmish events, I just barely scraped in with a top 8 spot in a 30 player event. So I was not going to take the chance on Boltyn this time, which lead me finally to Prism.
   

Ever since my obsession with Flesh and Blood began earlier this year, I relished the opportunity to travel interstate with friends and play in a grand scale tournament.

   
Prism is without doubt seen as the safest most consistent option and I was very happy with my spread of cards for her. I had buffs in the form of Seek enlightenment and glisten. The one majestic I pulled being Celestial Cataclysm meant I would at the very least have a third 6+ power card for mirrors and at most a free 7 power attack with go again. Blinding beams which could either save my heralds or shut down a huge Boltyn turn, a couple of heralds of tenacity and triumph to end games and to top it off 3 powerful auras. the cost of 4 is a killer but with Iris they would be useful as as both debuffs to my opponents and a weapon on my turn, plus Ode to wrath gets annoying very quickly and gives my illusionist stuff go again, say less. Two things I was worried about was my lack of Dream weavers and blue pitch. But this format is all about working with what you have, I was confident I had enough yellow to at least power my heralds and I'd have to see about the rest. With that decided I did some test hands, swapped in and out a few generics and it was time for the first round.
   

Prism deck build
   

Taylors Lakes Hotel

Match Analysis

As many of you will know, in a big tournament the first round is crucial, and I somehow managed to draw the 70th player and give myself the easy win for the first round. while I was happy I was starting with a big advantage. I was also a little worried I would be going into the next round with less experience with my deck, so I opted to fill the time with even more testing.  
1/0
For my second round, it was a Prism mirror and he allowed me to take the play. The game was evenly matched at every turn in the end I was at 1 life with him at 2 and I unfortunately drew all my auras in the same hand meaning I couldn't defend his final attack. Lesson learned I should have taken out the Parables of Humanity in the mirror 
1/1
Undeterred, my next opponent was Laura Car, someone I recognized from a Skirmish back in Adelaide a few months ago. She was playing Chane, so my strategy was to win via deck out, I took out my auras so I had more to block with and gave her the first turn. after getting extremely unlucky on her banishes a few turns in a row I managed a 10 power attack to steal the remaining cards from her hand and take the game. We talked a little while after that about her teams plans to return to Adelaide for Road to Nationals next month. So hopefully we can have a rematch in constructed format. 
 2/1
My next opponent was quite new to the game, but very experienced in card games as a whole. It was another prism mirror so I used what I had learned but unfortunately couldn't come out on top. After a few turns having him on the back foot, he finally retaliated with a red Phantasmify on a red Wartune Herald coming in for 12 with the insurance of dream weavers. To top it off he followed that huge attack with a red Prismatic Shield and due to some smart early pitching he had plenty of blue to mow down my remaining life total. Great humble player and lovely guy.
2/2
As luck would have it my next opponent was my last opponents partner and she was even newer to the game than he was. Against her Chane deck I chose early on to try and race damage as I wasn't sure if I could get a newer player to deck out before time in round since I thought we might be playing a bit slower. This was a big mistake on my part, as despite being new she hit every banish early on and skillfully took me down to 1 life. I waited a few turns for that one Seeds of Agony she needed to kill me but luckily enough for me she reached the end of the deck without finding one. 
3/2
My next opponent was playing Boltyn and my strategy was to hit hard with my heralds and keep cards out of his hand. the likelihood of 6 power generics is lower in this matchup because none of the warrior or light cards besides one majestic reach that number and the deck relies on light synergy. At all times I tried to hold onto a blinding beam and not block. Unless it was safe to do so without giving away a go again. he hit me with a scary spill blood turn and only a few turns later was aiming for a full hand, 3 in soul  V of the vanguard turn which I chose to use my blinding beam on, reducing its power below its base and cutting off the avenue to go again.
4/2
For the 7th and final round, I was paired with none other than Kuan Li. Someone I recognized from the 90 day leader board. He and I have been trading between second and third position for the past few weeks and I thought it was a perfectly fitting end to my Tournament experience in Melbourne. I had a great start getting Ode to Wrath out and putting pressure on with heralds he was having trouble popping. I passed and drew into a game winning set up on the condition he drew one more hand with no 6 power generics to shut me down. I chose to take the risk and a turn of damage in order to end the game there. My first attack came from Ode to wrath, 4 damage which became 5 on impact, then a blue pitch for a red Wartune Herald for 7/8 with the follow up being a yellow Herald of Tenacity from arsenal hitting for 5/6 with Dominate. Unfortunately for me, Kuan Li had finally found his 6 power blocker to break my illusion and stop my go again. from there he created a shield of his own, popped my Aura and took the reigns winning his 5th game of the day. 
4/3
   
   
 
I couldn't not stop at Robe on the way back for celebratory ice cream!
   
I had such a positive experience at the event and getting to meet new people, play games and learn more about the game I enjoy was well worth the long drive. Especially in times like these where their is a lot of uncertainty and event planning and travel is much more difficult its great to see an event like this come together and I'm grateful to have been a part of it. I'm really hoping that Australia does get to have its own Calling event in the next few months and when its announced I'll be making travel arrangements straight away.
   
My hope is that next time I'll be bringing more players over with me!
   
   
      
Follow Connor Archer here: 
@Angsty_archer
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