The man, the myth, the legend. Omar Chavez is and has always been a phenomenal UFS player, and we all suspected it was only a matter of time until he won a Singles title. Having already started with Team Worlds last year and following it up with 2nd Place in SCC Teams, 4th in SCC Singles, MWCC Team Champion, MWCC Singles Top 8, CanNats Singles Top 4, and now Nationals Champion for 2008, keeping the title in-house for New York. The best part about Omar is he is hilariously funny and one of the greatest all-around guys I know and a close friend of mine and most others in the UFS community. It was an honor and naturally a pleasure to talk about his win and success in general in this loose, casual interview. Enjoy!

Vik: Alright tough guy, Name, Age?
Omar: Voldomar, 50ish
Vik: Humor me.
Omar: (*points to white hairs*) not joking; some say my name is Omar Chavez, and I'm currently 28 earth years old. I have no idea where they get this information.
Vik: Fair enough. So, let's talk about your UFS evolution from Team Worlds last year to now.
Omar: UFS evolution from grub worm to... bigger grub worm?
Vik: Yes. I mean, you upped your game in Singles comps, from SCC onward; anything in particular there?
Omar: Okay. Good place to start. Well, for the SCC, I was... let's say I was incredibly irritated by the people bashing Olexkias card. So, I put together the deck that:
1) Made it to the finals of the team event
2) Had the chance to upset GCC winning YS deck in the top 4 of Singles
3) Made Scuba go on a I-Hate-Evil rant for months
Mission accomplished?
Vik: Yes. So, before MWCC we had a phone conversation about Voldomar 1.0. What testing did you do prior to that event?
Omar: I do no such thing as testing.
Vik: Not even with James (Hata) or Fred (Ehrhardt)?
Omar: Nope. I build, and play.
Vik: Ah.
Omar: They test against me.
Vik: LOL
Omar: Mostly James though. For MWCC, I built it... the night before. Kinda hard to test that.
Vik: Okay, so you were confident going in to the event though, and your team wrecked face.
Omar: Sure why not? I'm a grub worm, but a smart grub worm. Team JOO BASTARD!
Vik: Then in Singles...?
Omar: Oh man don't remind me. One of the perils of not sleeping is forgetfulness. I didn't put the BRTs back into my deck for Singles, so I lost some defenses and some extra mill power.
Vik: Again, I am involved in this debauchery.
Omar: Yeah, helping you tweak your Yoshi build at 3 AM didn't help me remember to fix my own deck.
Vik: Oh blame it on the Indian, I see your game here sir. Even without that, you did excellent.
Omar: Yeah, I lost to Yonhair (Jon Herr) in Top 8, which was ok because he then went on to win the whole thing.
Vik: So then we have CanNats. Last moment, you go.
Omar: OMG where is Voldo going?!
Vik: Tweaks to the deck from MWCC to CanNats?
Omar: Slight changes. BRT was definitely in the deck. The deck stayed mostly the same. Only thing that changed were a few sideboard options, I think.
Vik: Such as?
Omar: Took out Dodge Steps, and had A Year's Difference. Also had False Pretenses in there as well.
Vik: What were the changes made to combat? Anything specific?
Omar: AYD is a hot lump of cards that are drawn and responded to, but in an ideal situation, the diff/cc and resource spread wasn't what I liked so it was cut out after CanNats. FP is great against attack spam decks and laughs at Geri loops.
Vik: So you actually do consider the meta some.
Omar: Wanna know the real reason FP made the deck?
Vik: ?
Omar: It had All/Evil and was 2/5. Itcould have read "e commit: om nom nom nom" and I would have played it.
Vik: And, to clear up a misconception, you are running 4 symbols, correct?
Omar: Yes. I cheat.
Vik: Was chaining an issue ever?
Omar: Yes, in CanNats, the deck seems to have a problem when i faced Bitme (Paul Bittner) in Top 4, and I got stuck NEEDing to Hesitate on turns when I also needed to build or Revitalize. A couple of minor tweaks and adding of Hualin's Shop, then removing it a week before US Nats and tweaking a bit more - and I ended up with the monster that took the US Nats Title - keeping it in NY.
Vik: Indeed. Those NYC'ers are good I hear.
Omar: Yeah. Unreal those guys. But, the improvements made the chains irrelevant
Vik: What did you improve with?
Omar: 2x Red Cyclone instead of 2x Hualin's.
Vik: More redux to live longer?
Omar: I used the E once all weekend.
Vik: Nice.
Omar: It was more useful at a +1H block and something to commit for Vast Resources.
Vik: So at Nats, in Teams, you were crushinating. Nothing gave you trouble?
Omar: Yeah, I lost 2 games all weekend. Once in Teams, last round. and once in Round 6 of Singles - which was a mixed blessing as it made me avoid the Swiss Chump Curse.
Vik: Any memorable games, close calls, etc?
Omar: YES, holy crap. Against Thanh, of Team Misdirection, I think in round 4...? vLoLdo vs. Hackuma. Time is called on GAME 1 during my turn, he has about 32 cards in his discard and 4 in the deck, so I have to make him cycle multiple times on this turn, and Contemplations have already been used. As you can imagine, the staging area is huge on my side, and I have a Hesitation in hand, but both of our decks are very close to the same amount remaining, so a misplayed Hesitation will cause a draw - which is what I was hoping to avoid, so I counted and recounted his deck and discard pile numerous times as I Vasted and responded with Voldo, and NOT responded with Voldo to get the most out of the mill+draw.
Vik: You managed to mill him out in the end?
Omar: That last turn took about 15 minutes of careful calculations between his deck compared to mine. It got down to us both having one card remaining, and him having 9 in discard, and myself with 10. I use Vast once here, and it's gonna be a draw, and a waste of all that time. So... I look at my staging area hard once more and pick up a SoC to read the wording exactly. I pay the cost for Vast and pop 1 SoC. Pay the cost for Vast, pop another. I then pay the cost for Vast a final time and win with 2 cards remaning.
Vik: Oh very clever.
Omar: The jockeying for control in that battle was unreal.
Vik: You filled up the pile just enough.
Omar: Yup.
Vik: Crafty Colombians. Okay, now the part where I use your own words against you.
Omar: Oh no, what now?
Vik: You said on a recent post, and I quote, that you "liberally abused: Happy Holidays, Revitalize, Military Rank, Blood Runs True (screw the hack, it set off Voldo's response, giggity giggity), Olcadan's Mentoring, Addes Syndicate, Broken Leg and Bleeding Internally. The deck was fueled by hatred and innovation, with a few suggestions by my son. I would not be sad in the least if the entire deck was banned.
Omar: VERY TRUE.
Vik: So let's get into your thoughts on specific cards. First up, HH. Needs to go, or no?
Omar: Ban. Next?
Vik: BRT.
Omar: Why? BRT? not so much. I'd say watch. at worst "playable only on your opponent's turn".
Vik: Or Unique?
Omar: No, leads to the same issue.
Vik: How about the two most egregious offenders, Revitalize and Military Rank?
Omar: Both dumb. Revit had too much going for it, like Red Lotus.
Vik: And the block...aargh.
Omar: Part of the too much.
Vik: I've always thought MiliRank was too good. It's the kind of card that makes anything with a block that much scarier.
Omar: I think it helps against handstripping, but then again it allows the abuse of overextending, and getting multiple uses of cards that probably shouldn't be used multiple times a turn, or in consecutive turns ------>HH.
Vik: Would your deck be feasible without MiliRank and Revit?
Omar: The deck would be a lot different, and not quite nearly as efficient.
Vik: Okay, how about another card we've talked about, Olcadan's Mentoring?
Omar: Mixed feelings there.
Vik: Elaborate.
Omar: I hate that it's a 0/6 instead of a 3/4, or at least a 3/6 like the other 'shops'. The diff/cc is what gets me.
Vik: What are the positives to it then? Meaning, why the mixed feelings?
Omar: The same as the negatives, giving the player a defensive offensive. Mixed because I don't think it's as much a problem as the others, and there's plenty of hate, punishing hate in the form of GLR, for example. There's no hate for HH.
Vik: Fair enough. Finally, we get to Addes Syndicate and the Injury assets.
Omar: WOOHOO. Addes should have been Unique. Otherwise, i don't have a real problem. The assets...there's almost no downside to running them.
Vik: Okay, a few more questions and we're done. First of all, any thoughts as to your character card?
Omar: Yes. 5HS. Or 6, but I like the idea of 5. And a gigantic vitality.
Vik: What abilities?
Omar: I have a few vague ideas, but the one thing I can't stand is continuous abilities, so expect me to push something that kills them.
Vik: You've said that you don't plan for the meta and also, that this isn't generally a good idea for others. So what is your advice on achieving victory, then? For all your adoring fans?
Omar: I don't think it is. I mean, a lot of people say "read the meta" right? I say "screw it." the math of 1 vs many is not in my favor, right? Play what you want to play; Don't let doubt become a factor. EVER. The D-word will kill any chance you have at fun, and at success last year at Nats is a perfect example. I had the omgmattkolesfireball deck in my bag. I also had a Void Dhalsim that I built to be able to stop it. The games were about 50/50, and I let doubt creep in and went with control over aggro. I ended up 3-0-3 because of the longer games and was kicking myself from April all the way until August when I used the Fireball deck to win team worlds.
Vik: Live and learn, eh? Alright last question.
Omar: Already?!
Vik: Well, what else would you like to cover? I'm a deviously leading questioner.
Omar: Boo. That is a failure of a last question.
Vik: No stupid, this is the last question: Is it true that you are in fact the spawn of Satan and exist solely to torment others, specifically Asians?
Omar: Don't forget Indians, and others of questionable descent.
Vik: QUESTIONABLE? I knew it you bastard.
Omar: Oh man, and Puerto Ricans, don't get me started. ALEXIS, I'm TALKING TO YOU.
Vik: That should read extremely well. Nice job.

VikramS said:

This is another reason why I missed Vik. He would always interview ppl, and they were always good reads.