Hi Cardfighters,
Yesterday I took Freezeray Messiahs to my locals and I think the tournament was very telling and I'd like to share my thoughts on the deck with you along with a tournament recap.
Round 1 vs. OG Nouvelle
The game started out pretty awkwardly. I wasn't really able to draw many units so I had a lot of trouble pressuring my opponent. After a couple of turns I finally drew enough to push him hard but he hit 2 damage triggers which stopped my multi attack combos. Next turn I atttempted to multi-attack again but his hand has been stockpiling up the whole time I couldn't draw rear-guards. He goes to 5 damage and easily blocks the rest of my attacks. He breakrides Nouvelle over Dauntless and uses Limitbreak to wipe my field (ouch, maybe I should have been a bit more conservative.) This leaves me with nothing but triggers and a PG in hand, which I had to use to block the second swing of nouvelle. After that I am unable to draw into enough grade 1s or higher to stop nouvelle. :(
0-1
Round 2 vs. Murakumo (Yasuie)
This game started out fine. I had a decent hand but he called units to rush me which is something Freezeray can have a hard time dealing with. But I live through it and ride Freezeray. I don't have much of a board but I call a column to help drop his hand. He gets the jump and strides Homura Raider (I Strode second) He had 4 copies of a unit out so I wouldn't be able to derp him out of it with only one Freezeray Lock. He attacks with vanguard first understanding this but unfortunately doesn't think twice about giving crit to vanguard. That let me lock two units and block homura raider (oops!) Limit break combined with a trigger brought me up to 18k defense so I didn't even have to block his last attack. I sealed the game pretty quickly from there switching into Alter Ego and drawing into the combo pieces.
1-1
Round 3 vs. G-Pale Moon
I was excited about this match because Freezeray shines once again. Most Link Jokers would have trouble with this because their units go back but Freezeray gets to "Freeze" them in place and keep them on the field to get locked later. Things go exactly as planned and I get a lock down on his field, with the help of him not knowing what Freezeray did the first time. Switching into Alter Ego to draw up and combo off.
2-1
Round 4 vs. Angel Feather (Gavrail/Nociel)
This was going to be my revenge match from last week. (I played a different deck but soo many Refros just ruined my day) Unfortunately my opponent G-assisted and hit the Nociel Grade 3. Which was great for me since Gavrail would probably ruin my day as a multi-attack focus deck. This man manages to heal 3 times going into the first stride. Then raphaels me later it was a pretty long and hard fought battle. But I managed to keep him on lock down long enough with Big Crunch so that I could whittle down his hand. The game ended up going into time and he was at 5 damage while I was at 3 so I blocked his attacks on his turn (Turn 0) and made a massive combo play on mine with 5 attacks demolishing his hand. His last turn he wasn't able to do much and I had 3 perfect guards so since he was still at 5 and I was at 3 that was a game ender. Things probably would have been different if he was on Gavrail though.
3-1
Round 5 vs. Chaos/Messiah
When he flipped his starter I thought yes! just what I have been waiting for! I start off with a lot of grade 3s in hand so thats no good. My opponent's first drive check is a crit, and then when he grade locks himself another crit. I chose to grade lock with him (in retrospect this was a bad idea since my hand was full of 3s and I should have been looking to draw into more shield even if he gets the first stride since I couldn't block his attacks either way.) Anyway I got a crit of my own which pushed him to 4. Then he rode grade 3 locking down a few of my units but I had to no guard and risk a crit which put me at 5. I tried to push back the next turn but he had the perfect guard and my lack of shield forced me to take a crit from his amnesty the next turn.
3-2
I wasn't able to make the top 8 cut from there T^T but I felt that I did learn a lot about the Freezeray/Messiah deck. First, its not that consistent, while I was able to ride Freezeray first in all my games sometimes I was missing combo pieces in fact 2 of my loses were due to pretty poor hands. Round 1 since I couldn't be aggressive and Round 5 when I had no defense. Second, The deck is mostly a gimmick had my Murakumo opponent known better than placing his critical onto the vanguard it would have been a different story. Had my Angel Feather opponent not G-assisted or gotten to the better grade 3 for the match up things would have also been different. I also should note that I am by no means a master of the deck and I could have played better in round 5.
My overall thoughts are that it is an extremely fun deck (combos are very satisfying) but due to its inconsistencies and being gimmicky (I felt that a few of my wins were due to my opponent's not understanding how to play against freezeray well.) I probably won't be taking it to the regionals team tournament, though I may test with it a bit more since it forces people to play awkwardly just to get around its skills and is able to mess with a lot of other deck's tricks.
Have you played Freezeray/Messiah? What are your thoughts on it?
Thanks for reading,
Christopher Gardner
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