Good morning, good evening, good afternoon, and good night, wherever you are, fellow pilots. We're back from the Peoria, IL Gundam Regional. 420 players and 9 rounds. With BP Tempo still positioned as the best deck in the format, what could I possibly bring to this event?

For the uninitiated, my playgroup and local scene both know I was super excited about League Militaire and surprised about my sudden shift into a completely different deck. I could talk about that deck and would love to show my list I would bring to a tier 2 event. But the instant I saw that Full Frontal got a second Link Unit, I was sold in a heartbeat. Not many people know, but I love simplistic and basic fundamentals in card games. So the closer we reach "Shivan Dragon" or "Bolshack Dragon" levels of "creatures," the more it was made for me. Sinanju is my favorite unit in the game, and Full Frontal just exists. So, here I am, with total confidence in a deck with 4 Full Frontal, 4 Sinanju, and 4 Neo Zeong. How did I do, and why this deck? Everyone should know I only sleeve up decks in any game if I'm confident they can contend with the best-of-the-best decks and players with a +50% win rate. More importantly, how does this deck do against the field?

Red Wing. "So, you've built Red Wing for Show and Tell today, Matt?" Yes. I got joked for my BW Jupitris deck being Blue Wing. Essentially, trade Heero and his links for 1 Pilot and 2 playsets of link units. GD03 was Scirocco with Messala/The-O. Now it's Full Frontal with Sinanju/Neo Zeong. As much as I give Wing players a rough time. That deck's general approach to the game is what makes it so evergreen. From still rocking zowort in GD02/3 and playing 3/4 Striker Pack to pay their respects in blokcer attrition or aggo deck. Wing is one of the top decks since forever, but it does lose to any White Midrange variant Mirror Match.

R1: RW Nyaan

We rolled the dice and he took second from me. It was either Legaue Militaire or the White Midrange. We begin the game with a famialir game state, he deploys Lfrith, and I match. After trying to change the pace of the game. I play my Red Base and Sinanju to reveal my seond color. He follows up with a more blockers. I pair a Kira to Sinanju and Attack his ex Base to deal 2 damage. End of turn he plays Close Combat to deal 2 dmage to my Sinanju. Then plays GFreD and Battle of Aces to deal with my 5 HP Sinanju. Best I could do was try not to lose to his 4/5 Red unit and his army of blcokers to my army of blockers. Unaware to him I had more than just Sinanju on the way, but also had to play around his commands too.

The game quickly went in my opponents favor after dropping multiple linked Justice gundams. Which were chump blocked by my baby blockers. Which slowly added up to 4 or 3 HP remaining for either my unlinked Rick Dias or Aile/Perfect Strike to deal with. Or, what eventually did happen, my Linked Neo Zeong to slowly chip away his bigger units or finish off his babies to reduce agency in his turn. In Midrange decks, the goal is to control agency with Blockers to fundamentally stay alive. While giving my opponents no agency on their turn unless they can open the gamestate. Which is why in Midrange mirrors we don’t start attacking or if we do it’s a simple nickel-and-dime with a win condition. Otherwise you threaten giving your opponent an opening to win the turn and potentially the game. After linking Neo Zeong the game quickly became a game of “Defend the castle” until I knew they were out of cards. My Sinanju paired with a Kira was dealt with by a Close Combat and a Battle of Aces the following turn. So protecting my path to victory was essential. Which lead me to prolong the game until 10 minutes remaining in round, within that time my blockers tanked hits or Lightning Bolt’d my opponent every time they were deployed. With the game ending when the second Neo Zeong swiftly packing it up. Dealing 6 to any unit he top decks to finish it off.

1-0

R2: RW Nyaan

I can keep these more brief after explaining how midrange works and how my thought process works. That being said, this game was very brief. I lost the die roll and my opponent opted to play first. My hand was decent and prepped for either BG or BP Tempo. Only to see him pass on L2 with no units deployed. Signaling in my head this was either RW with commands or Wing with Bird Mode. Fortunately my opening hand had Aile and Sword Strike opening with double Sinanju following on my early draws. The moment my opponent saw an Rock Dias from me, it was met with an Lfrith. Time otters the waters on my opponents familiarity with the midrange mirror. I attack his shields…and he blocks. Not knowing our second colors him blocking gave everything away including his tech slots and his color. Which gave me the intuition to play aggressive with my Sword Strike to bounce any damaged 2AP blockers he slammed down. As he tried catching up turn by turn being poked with my blockers. His Silver Bullet was met with a Kira Aile Strike. His follow up play of silver bullet was met with blocking my Lfrith and being bounced by sword strike. With the -2 AP being back breaking without any other unit in play. As high maneuver Sinanju ends the game quickly on turn 7. Worth using the EX Resource. If you have the opportunity to win, you take it. Turn 7 is early for midrange mirror and if I’m up in board presence or card advantage it’s a telling sign you’re going to win.

2-0

R3: PW Midrange-Minerva

Won my first die roll and opted to take second. Something we both want as midrange players. The game starts out very odd. I mulligan and blind very fair” hand but the wrong draws can end me quickly. Not knowing what he’s playing. His turn 2 play spelled doom for me. He started with overflowing affection pitching Sword Impulse. Only to play a Minerva base and pitch a blocker. I played an Lfrith and he played another OA and his expensive Lfrith. The game was heavily in his favor. His trash was set up and he played two overflowing pitching two assured impulses. For those who know me I’m very delighted that BP players dropped fatal strike. But seeing Minerva have the very card on a body that I feared for so long makes me worried. Off of digging for 5 on turn 3. The game was favoring very early. Or so I thought. I drew into double Aile strike link and should’ve punished the early base. But was playing around his Aile or Kira links. The first time I was cautions with double blockers for back up. The second time I had to catch up with his impulse into sword impulse fork trash. Most of their turns were recycling the two, eventually three sword impulses. The value off of them and me running out of blockers FAST meant I had no agency the moment my base was gone. With silver bullet and other 4 AP blockers halting both of us from making the first move in gear of being out board broken. A linked destiny did the worst case scenario against me, deploying MORE sword impulses gundams. With no blockers we’ve reached a simplified game state. In my testing, this is how the game ends. The race to playing and protecting my red units or them recycling the engine that is the Minerva engine. Otherwise known as, SWORD IMPULSE GUNDAM. We’ve reached the conclusion of the game where my second Neo Zeong and piloted full frontal could theoretically keep me alive and win over time with my last shield keeping me in the game. Until my top deck would decide the game. We talked for a while about my draws and we both looked at my trash debating the how unlikely it would be a draw a dud “a base or pilot”. We spent more time going over my trash and thinking of my top decks. We both agreed the 3rd, or 4th Neo Zeong, or either of my Justice Gundams OR ANY BLOCKER could’ve kept me alive and break his board forcing me to commit to attacking him and putting them on turn 0 to win or lose next turn. I drew for turn and laughed. We both smiled and looked at my board.

“I pass”

After attacking his units and hoping my single Rick dias would keep me alive. He played his second Graceful Demeanor and drew into a linked Impulse Gundam; hypothetically could’ve gotten his 6th Sword a impulse trigger, not that it mattered. We both lameneted me drawing my 4th Kira. 6/9 my pilots. Costing me the game when my deck so build to winning grind games especially top deck wars. Not today sadly. We talked about how we should’ve been aggressive with my early blockers knowing my time with them was limited. I was cautious against his potential linked threats only to be told his hand was nothing menacing. After I could’ve broken 5 of his shields and hold onto Sinanju link; to potentially threaten lethal if I had another body left on his turn0, he had no pilots and drew into multiple Kira when the game would’ve been over by then. With my very small testing unit Minerva my biggest issue with me being the pilot is you either okay more white or purple leaning into favored midrange or Aggro games. My opponents future loses we’re all Aggro MUs. Second guessing myself to a potential win doesn’t happen often. I typically respect average hands and statistics. Especially when they blind kept their hand. I played my best and my judgement to play it safe cost me the game.

2-1

R4: CB (PR)

I don’t have much to say. This deck; both color combinations, can best ever described by what my opponent said.

“This deck lives and dies by on-curve Kyrious”

I still think Green Red is vastly superior with the help of Lockon and more names for Kryrious. I have some familiarity with the deck thanks to running into it at a store championship. I just had to read all the purple cards to be sure I wasn’t tripping. But the moment I saw vanilla units and blocker virtue I had a feeling things were “unusual”. I asked my opponent if they were a local to the Midwest and their response told me everything I needed to know. Eventually my mix of blockers and non-blockers did their thing. I don’t have much to say. Had to read every purple card and the red cards I was familiar with through cube drafting, GD4 drafting, or my one other CB match up a month prior.

3-1

R5: Wing

I list the die roll and my opponent was a little green. Both figuratively and literally. He was nervous being his first regional and more intense younger side of things. He pulled out his deck and resources rather unconventionally. Seeing his playmat, deck box, sleeves, and an Lfrith while he shuffled it was obvious what he was on. Most “Melvins” and “Vorthoses” play their deck and match. The sleeves were a clear sign it was wing. The turn 1 Heero resource spoke volumes. I mulliganed into a more greedier hand. Drawing only blockers and double Aile strike links. I wasn’t going to repeat my mistake round 3. Losing the die roll in the midrange mirror is detrimental. So playing behind was brutal. My gameplan was to hole my double Aile link was good enough to win. Sadly…I ran into not 1, not 2, but all 3 (one in shields) of my opponents Graceful Demeanor. After seeing GD for the 4th time within 5 rounds and seeing the supposed* Aggro killer be used to deal with blockers was cruel irony. Especially when a graceful for game was used on me round 3. The game took a considerable turn for the worse around turn 7 when I would drop my third Aile strike and pair full frontal to it. Only to die to the combo that is Wing-Heero-Peacemillion. The healing 2 and being an odd number of HP makes wing hard to get over for me; with my white units, but something far worse happened to me. As I spoke to my opponent after playing my second Red base and playing my second Red Pilot to my 4th Aile strike.

“I’m missing my second color” I joked.

“Oh yeah! You are” replied my opponent

Then came wing zero. At this point of the game. All my white units are small stated blockers that are L5 or lower. So two wing zero triggers “wraths” my board. Things we’re looking really bad. Then came the 2nd wing zero….

And the 3rd…we traded my Justice and “Haste” Fatum token (paired with my second Full Frontal) to the first linked wing zero to deal 10 damage to it.

Then he dropped the 4th and final wing zero. My draw for turn was another base. We joked about how not even wing zero can break over a 6HP base. Since my opponent was fairly new to Gundam and never seen that base before. So I’ve seen 3 red pilots, 2 red bases, and both Justice Gundams before I saw any red unit. NONE were in shields. It was an absolute nightmare. We joked about the quadrupole Aile strike and the quadruple wing zero. But 3 graceful demeanor to break my board every time was too much. 4/5 rounds all had me pitted against graceful demeanors to single handed halt everything I was doing and fall behind. The “Aggro killer” ladies and gentlemen. This is very on-brand to everyone fair. Across 5 regionals I die early to obtuse card choices and I heavily discourages me and have to grind my way out of X-2 brackets.

All Range Attack, Lafyer, Deathscythe, Graceful Demeanor, and BIG ZAM. Makes me discouraged to play white decks in the game.

3-2 time to play it out for 3-4 more rounds.

R6: BP Tempo

Lost the die roll and my opponent opted to play first. I assume all the “going first” bad midrange players have thinned out by Round 6. So this is an Aggro opponent. My opening hand is a disaster. My mullligan isn’t much better, but we opens potentially double Sword Strike. It’s going to have to be enough. I drew kira for turn. But I’m missing a blocker. Turn 2 he dropped two dudes. Luckily I drew a Rick Dias. He proceeded to drop a Hyakuren and 1 drop. So clear sign there may not be Jabooro. But the game plan is simple. Since we drew a second Kira. We’re playing BW tempo now. It’s our only path to victory. The game quickly played out as expected. He saw 0 blockers and turned side ways. All but for one unit. His RX-78. Never moved. For some reason, Bx Tempo players won’t attack with paired RX of it could cost them the anthem effect. Which is so backwards to me. Double Sword Strike and a burning ex for a blocker later and we removed 5 units in play. He played a second show of resolve and some familiar faces. Passing on a 6/5 repair 2 unit. Only for sealed strike and a linked sinaju to 3:1 on my following turn. Bursting two pilots. An Amuro and Mikazuki. Fearing the Turn 7 double link. Only to have my fears be calmed at the site of the third show of resolve into more dorks. Sinanju and 2 sword strikes led me to victory the following turn. We are still on it! Confused and bewildered that I won with one single blocker. I don’t judge or question a victory. 2/3 more rounds left!

4-2

R7: BG

It finally happened. This is one to break me.

4-3. But that’s not the problem. The issue was my opponent. My opponent did well. Exceptionally well. I drew all red cards in my mulligan. After he won the die roll.

On T2 L3 I played Rick Dias. My rock under this storm of crazy unbelievable hands and mulligans. But that’s not where the real nightmare happened. My round 7 opponent had zero idea what their cards did. They didn’t know that Char gave plus one attack on attack. Or that Rick Dom had breach. I followed up with one of my losses had to play against this player and reached out to them. They also lost to him and mentioned what I mentioned too. On top of them forgetting that Corsica base makes a token. To make matters worse. His shields were unbeatable.

1 Amuro

1 char

BOTH Corsica bases in shields.

All spread out evenly with last shield Corsica.

It wasn’t meant to be. I should be grateful for playing the greatest OYW player on the planet. I immediately bought his master asks and spreadsheet. Don’t be surprised if I play a different deck for the Kissimmee regional.

4-3. If the down pair losses we are aiming for 5-3.

R8: PW Midrange-Minerva

So, this was a buddy of the friend group I was with. We talked about our bad hands and how unlucky our day has been. No good luck just downer luck.

So anyway we both brick and brick on the mulligan. It wasn’t until neither of us drop Zaku Zaku. It clear to tell we are playing a midrange mirror. But on different ends of the spectrum. He plays Lfrith. I play Aile strike. He plays flat. I play a linked Sinanju. He plays silver bullet. I play a second linked Sinanju and deal 4 to any 4 HP blocker he plays. We go silent until he manifests a Linked Justice. I top deck my Justice when I already have my one Athrun in hand. When I ran out of cards when my hand consisted of 1 of each of my pilots and nothing else. 2 Sinanju and top deck Justice.

5-3. Not a respectable result. It was my same results as Baton Rogue. Except instead of bad Match Ups it was just unfortunate luck on my side. Luckily the down pair didn’t lose. We’re going to a 9th and final round.

R9: Wing

I lost the die roll into another Melvin/Vorthos. Luckily my opening hand was very stacked into this match up. Double blocker, OA, and double NZeong. Accord 4 Store Championships, 3 NTCs and local games. Wing has been a cakewalk the instant I see any red unit. My “Red Wing Zero” doesn’t hit my units. The game played out as normal. He had to burn the coin turn 5 for Wing, Heero link, and Peacemillion. All to remove a mini boss and open up the gamestate with a 7/7 beach 5 unit. A fair trade. But was met with my Sinanju link to take out the base and race his now 5 HP wing with a horde of blockers to chump wing and my 6HP base. His variant was odd he was in fact on Wufei. The units and pilot. Plural. Baby Shenlong, Shenlong R, and Alton. But the second the 2nd and 3rd NZeong dropped. After, he hit full frontal in shields. The game ended rather swiftly. Who needs Full Frontal when all my units are Neo Zeon and aptly named “Neo Zeong”. This is on average how most wing games go. Their wing zeros can’t beat-for-beat my Neo Zeongs and full frontal. On top of random chump blockers being able to trade with their damaged stuff too. Including silver bullet.

6-3

All things considered. It was a good event. Out of my playgroup of 8 players, (4 BP, 2 BG, 1 BW and 1 RW) 7 Tempo 1 Midrange) 1 of us made top 64 and 1 top 32. One BP made 6-3 at 80th. I gave him my Machu since he was a Clan player. I also won outdoor and indoor mini golf. Although, the outdoor mini golf was mostly playing in someone’s place and winning on their behalf. I also got to experience the Costco Hotdog and the Char Glizzy. A bit beatdown by a undesirable result. I know I can do better and would prefer a more decisive top placement than a barely bubbling into top 64. 80% track record for regionals is still a positive consistent record. Since all my tops have been top 64s with very poor tiebreakers. But I can’t complain when 2/3 of my losses were to very poor luck on my end. Compared to other events where my opponents have had miracle turns that I couldn’t beat with any combination of hands. That being said we’re running it back in Florida with the same 50! We bubbled Florida at 39th with a 7-2 record. Back in the same colors and Sinanju once more! See everyone there