Even though I'm writing a massive article for my blog, I thought I'd at least post the build that I used for the tournament. For more on the process of this deck, check out my previous thread with the early builds and revisions. Moving on:

Starting Character - 1x 6/6 James Hata, Air/Death/Fire, 6HS 28V
Abilities - E Commit one foundation: Change the zone of this attack to any other zone.
R: After you commit a foundation, your attack gets +1 speed and +1 damage.

Assets (5):

3x 2/5 Gianzende Nova and Frischer Himmel +2M (aka the HYMEN BUSTAH!)
2x 2/5 Path Of The Master +2M

Attacks (18):

4x 5/3 Knight Breaker +0H, 3H5
4x 5/3 Hammer Of The Gods +2H, 3M4
4x 4/3 Midnight Launcher, 3H7
3x 4/3 Neutron Bomb +2M, 3M4
3x 3/3 Pommel Smash, 2H1

Foundations (37):

4x 3/5 Enraged Golem
3x 3/5 The Ultimate Team +2L
4x 2/5 For The Money +3M
4x 2/5 Financial Troubles
4x 2/5 Stand-Off +3M
3x 2/5 In Search Of Plunder +3M
3x 2/5 Best Friends +3H
1x 2/5 Paid To Protect +3M
4x 1/5 Brooding +3H
3x 1/5 From The Hawk, Alertness +3M
4x 0/5 Hope For One's People +3H

Total: 60 + 1 cards

Sideboard:

4x 2/4 Martial Arts Champion
3x 2/5 Paid To Protect +3M
1x 3/3 Pommel Smash

The final build was arrived at when we were able to complete our slots of The Ultimate Team and Paid To Protect. Yes, I ran just one main. This is because: I wanted use of all four copies if needed, I didn't ever have use for the 3rd Path Of The Master, and I didn't want to cut my numbers on anything else as they were perfect, so I just swapped one POTM out for one PTP. It worked out well, as when it was in play most opponents assumed I ran 4 and got cautious which allowed me to build and smash at will. Also, against Drew Maffei's retarded Earth King deck in the Semifinals it saved my ass in one game, as I dropped a 7 damage Close Throw to ZERO with it's E and revealed a hand of 5 attacks.

The deck abuses Hata's R repeatedly. The easiest and most powerful triggers other than his E are Enraged Golem, Stand-Off, Ultimate Team, and In Search Of Plunder. Best Friends is a dirty dirty card, especially with Hammer, and it has TWO triggers even for non-stun attacks which is neat (and useful, an extra +2/+2 is sometimes the difference). Financial Troubles/For The Money are both EXTREMELY powerful cheatyface cards, and FTM is even better for Hata as I can force a check then use it for some other commit trigger later. TYPFG....I mean HFOP is great but I used it's ability exactly zero times all day, I just never needed it. But it's a good backup when I'm in desperation and lets me deal with opposing PTPs very well. From The Hawk's ability is fairly useful, it has amazing synergy with Financial Troubles as people will often discard down to one card and forget that FTH has an actual ability, oops. So I can see their block and murder them by changing zones or jacking speed to ridiculous levels. Both HFOP and FTH are excellent for early commit triggers and can be used later as well.

Hilde's Asset is another source of pain, more speed pumps and drawing cards? Yes please. POTM was okay for me throughout the day but honestly, I never needed it in the deck and in fact have now cut them entirely for 2 more PTP maindeck. I really don't need it for the damage pump, and while the random draw off KB's E is alright, It's not critical to anything.

The attack base is pretty self-evident, but again it's all about synergy. I rarely care about pulling off KB combo, if I have to I will but usually a couple of attacks pumped to high heaven will do it instead. It's a nice extra though, and of course KB is an amazing card (that block is pretty handy too, especially with Hata as it becomes a +0 of any zone I want). Neutron Bomb is sick, and the combo happens frequent. Launcher is obvious, it's 7 base and gets much bigger. Pommel Smash is the toolbox, either for controlling critical cards, abusing the stun effect with Best Friends, setting up a Neutron Bomb or simply as a lethal attack - yes, like Astrid, I can make Pommels lethal very frequently.

Sideboard I used not at all the entire day, which has never happened before, but in my matchups I never needed it. Still MAC is amazing, killing everything from opposing FT/Hymen Busters to Ivy's R, etc. and the extra Pommel was for things like Rasho while the extra PTPs were against opposing speed decks like Hilde and such. Glad that I had the sideboard I did, but still sideboards have become less relevant.

I could talk more about the deck in great detail but I'll save that for another day, any comments are appreciated as always.

Thanks for the deck list. It is really fun to see these decks posted, as we are able to look into some of the deck building strategy's of those with tournament experience.

I know from personal experience that just looking at deck lists and building a similar deck is infinitely easier than actually making it perform, especially in a high stress situation. Deck lists (and explanations), as well as tourney reports by those in attendance can really only help those that didn't get down there, or are still working up to that point. Events like the SAS, and the interaction it has had with the population at large can only benefit the game.

-Tinman

Quick question:

VikramS said:

Did you mean that you DRed it down to 1? Or were there other cards in action. I ask only because the thing stopping me from trying to run more Paid to Protects is the Minimum 1, which still lets the trigger on damage done effects happen (Ivy, Nightmare support, Nina stuff). Just wondering how, if at all, you got around that.

I liked where it was before, and I like where it ended up, tho it was rather ballsy hiding the 3 paid to protects in side(I think I personally would of had it reversed, 3 in main, 1 in side) Everything else about the deck I really like. I'm glad you gave FTM another shot after it getting bumped from the original, and congrats on one of the first big wins in the new block.

In all honesty, some of the builds people used for their sas decks I found um, odd? But your Hata is much like the decks we have in our meta now and its success doesn't suprise me even a little.

Gratz again!

failed2k said:

Not to steer the topic off course but how?

And Vik your's and Drew's deck were the only ones that consistantly gave me trouble. Congrads on yer win and the scaryness of the deck ) Oh and congrads to Jay for building it ;o)

Somehow i dont find it odd that the designer of the game made his character card so powerful. Getting hit by 27 dmg/16 speed HotG is never fun. Had an awesome time playing against this deck and Vik i hope to see you at worlds my friend.

B-Rad said:

Just not really in the direction our decks locally have traveled in some cases I think is the best way to put it. Strange card choices, either beause of not owning cards or just playstyle preferences, and come out looking very little like our decks off the same chars/symbols locally.

Also the lack of certain chars (Rashotp being the main culprit, Hilde to a lesser extent) also blew me away.

And I blew up the forums *sigh* I hate the quote button

The reason why I used the phrase "Odd to me" is to make clear that the deck choices were STRANGE to me. At no point did I say our decks were superior or the best a deck can get.

Some of the SAS decks were weird to me, I have a tremendous amount of respect for everyone from the atlanta playgroup and have seen first hand the ability of some of the florida players. Vik's build of fire hata is similar to some of the decks we have in our meta, many of the other posted SAS decklists arent at all, exactly the point I was making in the original post and the only point I was making in the original post.

To Tinman: Yes, I meant 1, sorry.

To Jeremy - thanks, and I get what you were saying, no worries on that front. I appreciate the compliments and agree with you on PTP, it was so useful that now the build doesn't even run Path and runs 3x PTP main instead. I just didn't want to do that right before the tourney since I literally got them for use RIGHT before we had to turn in decklists so that was my tradeoff. Not necessarily ballsy lol, just hedged my bets and it worked well for the day.

To Alex and Brad, can't wait to play you both again, excellent players with excellent decks, and come Worlds I WILL be there.

ITS MY DECK!!!! lol (inside joke)

Yes, I put this in the other thread but I must mention, the deck was created by J., all I did was tweak it to my style. Awesome deck and it lured me back so major props sir.

So be honest, how many times did Knight Breaker combo that day?

:-p

a lot actually, i would say at least once per match

guitalex2008 said:

A LOT! It's so easy in fire and its not like youre going to pitch breaker in review simply for the +0H. Still the best kill condition in the format imho.

Fire has WAY too much card draw.

I'll give you the combo and the destruction, but if I wanted a +0 block I'd pack Cleave. It can block low attacks. lol

I asked that question because I teased Vik about Cleave being better than Knight Breaker before the event lol

And I as told you on AIM, you are horribly terribly wrong there, lol.