Format Library Championship 41: Top 16 Decks

The 41st Format Library Championship has come to a close: 205 players, a new champion, a new best for a committed rogue player, and the rumblings of Chaos Turbo’s comeback.

As with the previous FLC, FLC 41 was an asynchronous Swiss event with each round played over 2-3 days. This opens the event up to many people of many timezones who wouldn’t otherwise be able to play, though some do abstain from the tournament structure. Nonetheless, the event boasted 205 attendees making for 6 offered invites and loads of strong competition.

Returning from the top 4 of the last FLC, our FLC 41 champion is Ludipableone, or just Ludi for short. Ludi loaded the same extremely-solid Warrior list as last FLC. The only two changes were second Kinetic Solider over second Berserk Gorilla, and second Book of Moon over third Sakuretsu armor. While those changes seem small, who would have ever thought that it would be correct not to play 3 Saku in such a Warrior-heavy meta? That kind of change shows a level of consideration and testing that really shows how Ludi excels. Ludi himself told me he’s tired of playing Warriors, so have fun picking up some jank and congratulations on becoming the newest FLC champion!

Our runner up was Alephya2 playing Angel Chaos Return. Aleph has been on a Chaos Warrior Return deck along with his brother for quite a while, so this was a stark change from what we’ve seen the rest of the year (though not compared to his past). Congratulations on the second place and the invite!

Overall, our top 16 had 5 (count em, FIVE) Chaos Turbo decks. This is the first time in a while that Turbo has had more representation than Chaos Control, let alone more success. This seems to coincide with Turbo sides dropping Goat/Meta for more traditional Warrior hate like Zombyra and Sakuretsu armor. Is this a coincidence? Was Turbo siding Goat/Meta a collective delusion that hurt the deck's performance and players finally figured that out? Who’s to say!

The spiciest turbo deck of this event was Soldierpenguin21's, running 3 Phoenix Wing Wind Blast and 2 Mask of Darkness. Combined with Tsukuyomi, these two cards give turbo an alternate win con in draw-locking the opponent:

As we've seen throughout this season, top cut also had a ton of Warriors and Chaos Control, 4 of each to be exact. There was also one Warrior Turbo deck in top 16.

​The spiciest techs of the event were without a doubt Krebz and Pax. Krebz sided a Trunade and two Big Bang Shot to go with his Asura Priest and potentially OTK players with Scapegoats. Pax, meanwhile, ran 2 THUNDER NYAN NYAN (yes, really) in his Chaos Control against Warrior. I have not a clue what made this the right choice, but a huge pat on the back is an order nonetheless.

The biggest story of this event by far was Apoptosis (pronounced “ah-puh-toe-sis”) making top 16 with Clown Control. This is not only Apop’s (pronounced “ay-pop”) best Goat Format finish, but the best finish for Clown Control in Goat Format history. Like many Goat Format rogue decks, Stumbling was clearly a card Konami wanted to give a lot of options that ended up being nothing more than deck building traps. Apop has truly condensed the concept down to its best features (Stumbling and Clown) and found the best “good cards” to facilitate this strategy. Where Stumbling really shines is the sideboard, which features multiple effect monsters that are a total pain to play around… if they can be in face up defense mode. Stumbling decks are the only good home for Banisher of Light, the best home for Protector of Sanctuary, and the second best home for Jowgen the Spiritualist (besides Last Turn). More than anything, this top is a testament to how a dedicated player can make any deck shine. I wonder who else might pick up the Clown now that it’s proven itself a little more…

Notably absent were any unfair decks, which continue to absolutely flounder in the face of Warriors. In theory, Panda Burn should be quite well positioned to make use of Mask of Restrict and punish the predictable field. In practice, however, the author is quite far from the Queen she used to be. With Ludi pivoting decks, maybe we’ll see some more great spice in our next event. And we have a 3v3 coming up! The 3v3 championships certainly have a way of making things interesting.