BEYBLADE SPOOKTACULAR - 10/28/2018
Toronto, Ontario, Canada - Burst Format
1st: Kei
Archer Hercules (Level Chip) 0 Xtend Plus
Archer Hercules (Level Chip) 0 Eternal
Hell Salamander (Level Chip) 0 Xtend Plus (Deck Format Finals Only)
Hell Salamander (Level Chip) 0 Lift Bearing (Deck Format Finals Only)
Winning Valkyrie 7 Dagger Xtreme Dash (Deck Format Finals Only)
2nd: @[OldSchool™]
Archer Hercules 0 Xtend Plus
3rd: @[Justin TC]
Archer Hercules 0 Eternal
Archer Hercules 0 Xtend Plus (Deck Format Finals Only)
Archer Hercules 5 Lift Bearing (Deck Format Finals Only)
Revive Phoenix 10 Revolve (Deck Format Finals Only)
Hell Salamander 5 Bump Bearing (Deck Format Finals Only)
This was one of the most satisfying wins in recent memory for me. We had 41 players today despite the cold weather, which was impressive. It was also my first WBO tournament since
BACK TO BEYSCHOOL on September 1st before I left for a month and a half long trip to Japan, of which I just returned from last week. I had never missed a Toronto tournament throughout our history over the past ten years, and as a result of the trip had to miss two tournaments ... so this was a comeback of sorts for me! And let's just say my experience at tournaments in Japan was humbling as it always is (report coming soon, hopefully), so winning this event was meaningful on a many different levels for me.
As expected, Xtend Plus was the big new player on the block today. A week after release in Japan, it had found its place among the mix of Bearing, Eternal, Revolve, Atomic, Ωcta and so forth, so I knew what to expect going into this event. There's still some questions I have about how it interacts with particular Drivers, but nevertheless it did well. It shut down Eternal combinations left and right and was able to stand up to Bearing combinations, albeit inconsistently. Revolve can give it some trouble, but that may be down to launch strength. Need to test more.
My usage of Lift (and Justin TC, who I let borrow it) is also worth noting. Up until now, almost everyone has been using Bump with Bearing. The only other person on a Winning Combination list that has used Lift with Bearing is Ardmore Bladers very recently. In Japan, literally everyone uses Lift with Bearing now because it allows it to stay upright slightly longer than other Frames usually.
The MVP of the day however was Winning Valkyrie 7 Dagger Xtreme Dash. It came into play during my last two matches against Justin TC and OldSchool™ and helped me to win 5-3 against Justin and 5-4 against OldSchool™ for first place (a 0-4 comeback!). Throughout the finals, the top three players other than myself were all basically running aH, hS, rP, Xt+, Br, Et and a bit of R in one combination or another. No Attack whatsoever.
There's been a lot of rhetoric over the past several months about the impotency of Attack. I mean, we even have events
like the one in London this weekend where they tried a custom ruleset with aH, rP, and hS banned (haven't heard how that went), which I feel is worth trying, but too extreme of a move to implement. It's something I contributed to myself earlier in the summer, but the release of Xtreme' and Hunter' really have changed things. As did my observations in Japan, which I will talk about in my upcoming report.
The ultimate result of this is that I was able to pretty consistently beat both OldSchool™ and Justin TC's aH Xt+ combos with wV.7D.X'. And I had a left-spin attacker in my deck too against OldSchool™, but didn't have a chance to use it against hS ... however that match-up is even easier than aH. The aH Et match-up might be slightly harder, but since returning from Japan I don't find it to be anywhere near as insurmountable as it used to feel with Attack types. And regardless, we will be seeing less Et now with Xt+ running around.
There is a skill cap to the usage of Attack types which is part of the reason why you see so few of them even in Deck Format, but looking at things objectively I feel that the game is in a good spot right now. Most recent winning combinations lists feature at least one Xtreme' combination, which I think is respectable considering the skill cap and availability of the part.
(Oct. 28, 2018 11:10 PM)The Supreme One Wrote: Day of the Dead (Hades)
Just to confirm: were all of those combos used in the first stage? None were Deck Format only?