Pro Quest Canterbury - Preparations

As hinted earlier in the week, I'm returning to the ice ages of my FaB days (it wasn't that long ago, but the pun was irresistible). I will be bringing Oldhim to the Pro Quest event in Canterbury.

Oldhim is the hero I have invested in the most. I have all the equipments. I've already put in the reps since I started playing Flesh and Blood. Ever since I decided to switch to Oldhim for my ProQuest event, I've also playtested and understand the majority of my matchups in the current meta. I definitely feel more confident playing Oldhim compared to other heroes. I also have the most fun playing Oldhim (so far). It felt right to take Oldhim to my only Pro Quest.

I did receive some solid advice to just swap out my hero for Bravo, Star of the Show. I could still play control guardian, the same way Oldhim would, only having to adjust the build slightly. I agree that this would immediately increase my chances against some of the more difficult matchups. However, I still just want to make the personal choice to represent Oldhim.

Let's have a look at what my gameplan is, and what cards I am sideboarding to support them!

The Gameplan

For the majority of matchups, the plan is definitely classic fatigue. Block out, pitch stack, and threaten frostbite with Winter's Wail.

However, for some matchups, my gameplan needs to change. Namely, for the stronger heroes in the meta; Viserai, Starvo and Prism. In fact, I have had to change my original build quite a bit just to cater for these heroes in the current meta. I will discuss the cards I have included in order to have a better chance againts these matchups below, as they are the ones that deviate from the standard control Guardian that Oldhim is.

Viserai Matchup

I think Viserai is favoured for the Oldhim matchup, about 60/40 towards Viserai. Viserai would try to go for the OTK (One-turn-kill) against my Oldhim. If Oldhim cannot output enough damage when OTK pops, he's dead. The problem is, Oldhim was not made to race for damage. My only hope is to play both aggressively and disruptively, so that Viserai cannot build up enough runechants as I try to output damage. For this reason, I'm putting in a couple Frost Fangs, and running 6 Pummels (red and yellow). Hopefully, the discards are enough to slow down the buildup of runechants.

Pummel is also a really great card to play on other relatively low-cost Attack Cctions, such as Command and Conquer and Endless Winter, very easy to pull off for guardians by pitching only 2 blues. Command and Conquer is especially good because Defence Reactions can't be played on it's chain link, so pummeling could potentially take out 3 cards from hand and the arsenal.

I'm also running some surprise Exposed to the Elements, to kill off the Bloodsheathe Skelata, so that it cannot combo off Sonata Arcanix. If I can could pull that off, that'll be great, but it's more a situational bonus and not the main gameplan.

I have had some successes against Viserai with this list, but it is not consistent.

Bravo, Start of the Show Matchup

Starvo is meant to be a slightly more favourable matchup for Oldhim. This might be true against a Starvo that is just running control gameplan, pitch-stacking the 3 elements and swinging Winter's Wail. However, I don't think this is the case for players who have really explored Starvo. I know 2 of the players at the event who could be running Starvo, both builds I have seen are very different. One was running Earthlore Bounty, whilst the other was a potion Starvo.

My originally plan against Starvo was to essentially beat them at their own game, being the superior control Guardian. Ice React to prevent them from putting a card in Arsenal. Disrupt them with Pummels. Keep Oldhim's life total high with my various defence reactions. Also, if possible, sniping down their Crown of Seeds, with Exposed to the Elements. If I manage to do at least some of these, I should reach second cycle a bit earlier then them and be able take tempo.

I did play against the Earthlore Bounty Starvo and it didn't seem too bad for my Oldhim build. From my limited experience, I will therefore continue with the original plan. Let's hope it works out.

Prism matchup

Prism is an even more difficult matchup for Oldhim than Viserai. I have come close a few times, but have never been able to defeat a Prism in a match. I personally think Prism right now has no scary matchup. I am expecting a lot of Prism players at the event, as the UK seem to be quite Prism-heavy. I will probably cut my losses, accept that I'm unlikely to win my Prism matches and tech the deck accordingly.

The plan against Prism at the moment is just too race damage. Again, not the easiest thing for Oldhim to do. I have included cards such as Zealous Belting and Rouse the Ancients.

These 2 cards works really well with Guardian because Guardian Attack Action cards have high attack value. Blue pitches that have at least 8 attack value are especially good, as they help trigger the effect on both cards, and can still help pitch for the follow up attack.

Despite the higher damage output, its still a very unfavourable matchup. So, I'm relunctant to try and include any more cards specifically for Prism. Luckily, these 2 cards also work well into a Viserai matchup. So, I'm okay to leave them in. I might still change out Zealous Belting, depending on how much I losses I'm feeling like cutting.

Old hero, new tricks

I have put in even more reps with Oldhim and found out some neat things that I didn't know before.

Sledge of Anvilheim does not have the 'Once per turn' restriction. I can actually swing in twice if I have the Action Points. I was running Time Skippers for a bit to do this. But, I found that most of the time, I don't actually swing Sledge twice. Will probably take it out, but neat to know.

Exposed to the Elements have a very niche interaction if Oldhim is defending. If the opponent only has one card in hand, I can play Exposed with Ice fusion, hold priority and Ice React. This pushes their card out of their hand, and they can't pay for the Expose Ice Fused. A useful trick that I'll probably use.

I have also learnt to pitch stack better for Oldhim as well. For every red pitched, pitch 2-3 blues right after it. This is so that I don't end up with a full-red hand. This also may mean that I want to keep a card in arsenal for a while, just to order it better for the mid/late-game. I realised I wasn't doing this before, just pitch-stacking for fusion cards and not considering the mid/late-game plays.

Ready for battle

I think I have done the most I can to prepare my Oldhim deck for the ProQuest event. I will be having fun playing Flesh and Blood either way and that is definitely what is most important. Will report back with how I did after the event!