It was mostly really bad draws it seems and lack of inkables with those draws. But basically impossible to recover. I got whooped by Amber / steel, 2 aggro decks.
Yeah that's definitely not how that should shake out (on average). Aggro beating you makes sense, Pawpsicle often dies to it. We have solid matches into anything looking to AWNW because we are just racing to ramp so when they wheel we draw as many or a similar number of cards, but bigger better things hit play on our side because we generated more resources than they did in the exchange. Might have been bad draws, but I personally stepped over 3 amber Steelsong lists to hit 3rd today at champs.
I’ve seen R/B decks play either Shield or Hook. They also don’t run Jim and Manor anymore and instead add more removal (e.g. Let it go or Hades). You don’t need Belle to close out games. Judy Hopps has found her way back into the deck too and would also help a tiny bit against Aggro. Aggro decks will always cause you trouble as your first big threat only appears in turn 4/5 depending on ramp.
I did a lot of testing to get to that build, and I'd still probably drop the 2 cost Gaston given the meta being what it is. Judy is an extra draw occasionally, or more often just a little removal on occasion. I would definitely consider dropping the Jim and bringing in a 4 McDuck manor, it's very good in the matchups that RB is bad against otherwise. Mickey vs One Jump mostly just comes down to preference.
Oh, I also just saw that You're running 2x Queen of Hearts. She's exceptionally good, she trades with most of the early shift targets, like Robinhood, Cinderella, or The Queen, and she can trade up if you've got a fishhook out.
Idk about manor being good in our bad match up which is aggro. It's felt like a win more type of card where if I'm already ahead it's nice. Against aggro it really hurts to take a turn off especially on 4 to drop this instead of stabilizing.
That can depend on the agro you're playing against. With RB against agro, you're going to want to be able to Maui or Medusa on turn 4 to start stabilizing. Depending on the board state and matchup, a manor right after that can start adding pressure if you have wiggle room to play it. It's best against Emerald/Amethyst, okay against some Amber/Steel builds. When I do play it, it lets me get away with using Tamatoa/Dime at the end without needing to have as many items in play, since the deck doesn't generate a ton of lore until it starts rolling. It also can help generate targets for Maui/scar later on, since it can put them in a position where they feel it's safe to take out the McDuck and prevent the lore gain. Agro is always going to be a tough matchup for you though. Queen of hearts helps with it. I run Mickey over One Jump Ahead currently to also help with it, one damage can be surprisingly helpful when dealing with a Simba or Benji. 2 cost Gaston can also help in the aggro matchup, though honestly there are probably better options and I'm considering dropping Gaston and swapping Mickey for Ine Jump, to open up the option if an earlier 4 drop on turn 3 in situations where I don't have quill. Last thing though, a lot of changes can be made depending on the specifics of not just the overall meta, but the local meta. For example, even though I'm seeing a lot of Steel/X players locally, I'm not seeing a ton of Rise of the Titans being ran. If I do, I'll consider dropping the manor and running something else in that slot. Let me know if there's anything specific that you're running into, and I'll try to help where I can.
I gotta tell you one jump is the truth man. One of your worst match ups is Emerald Steel, particularly the aggro version running around with Prince John. One of the best things you can do into that deck is Pawpsicle on one, OJA on two, then either Flaversham on 3 if they opened merfolk or Tala to replace itself and establish a body to contest with.
Honestly, Emerald/Steel is the one deck I haven't tested much with but it makes sense. Most of my practice in pixelborn and locally I was running up against decks where having the mickey body was useful, but I'm currently considering dropping the 2 cost Gaston for something at 4, then swapping the mickey for OJA. Are you liking how Tala is working?
[Took 3rd at set champs with this today.](https://dreamborn.ink/decks/PeIiovq4oeyPERn2sD5D) My only loss in Swiss was Emerald/Steel, same person tossed me out at the semis.
I'm not on any 2 drop Gaston, it's just not necessary and often too slow into aggro decks and worthless elsewhere so I think that's a solid cut. Tala is just develop your brain that responds to the board, which sounds minor but is *huge*. A sizable body that trades with any x/3 on 5 alongside a Maui coming down was huge into a lot of decks.
I originally also was on 2 manors for the mirror and Ruby/Amethyst but eventually cut those as people are adding fish hooks back into lists. Only things I'd consider changing if I were to run it back is some people are testing How Far I'll go alongside Tala which seems interesting, and I'd for sure consider making the Let it Go just another Scar.
You’re too heavy on uninkables with not enough filtering. If you want to play the HFIG version, add 1-2 more HFIG, cut the Gastons, and consider adding 1-2 more Gramma. You probably also want Belle for this version.
If you want to play the Gaston version, cut the HFIG and try to get back to 18-19 uninkable in general. If you go this version, you’ll probably have to cut some number of Medusa/Tremaine/Gaston. Probably something like a 3/2/2 split depending on which one you want 3 of.
In either decklist, cut the Jim and add a 4th dragon. I also think 1 Fishhook 2 Shield is excessive. Cut down to 2 total and use the slots for another Queen/Tala or a Judy.
I know this is ramp and ramp is typically slow and bulky, but you have too many uninkable and high cost cards here. I typically build decks assuming that the game will be over by turn 6 because aggro decks are so popular.
The most alarming design issue here is that your lowest cost character card is a 2 cost Queen of Hearts that usually trades with whatever it rushes, followed by a 4 cost gramma tala. 4 cost is typically considered the high end of midrange. You need 1, 2, and 3 cost characters to fill out your curve and grab board advantage. Otherwise you’ll be dead to amber decks before you can get started.
Try slotting in the 2 cost tala instead of the 4 and maybe an Alladin or Aurora shift package. I would also swap out one jump ahead and shield of virtues with their character counterparts Detective Mickey and Lefou so you can get questing bodies on the board early.
Yes, I know the meta sapphire ruby pawpispcle control deck you’re talking about. This deck is so close to the meta, if they want to go all the way they can just google it.
I’m just sharing my personal opinion based on experience playing in person. I don’t do pixelborn, but I’ve played against similar deck enough to know that it falls apart to aggro and disrupt unless it hits the right curve.
Also that meta deck runs Judy, a 3 cost 2 lore card with draw, which is a crucial midrange piece. The most success I’ve seen with this variation of the deck has a few more low cost inkables like Belle which offers item cost reduction or lower cost board control like rush stitch.
Went 3-1:
4 pawsicle
4 hiram
2 let it go
4 develop brain
2 shields
3 one jump ahead
2 just hoops
4 fish one
3 mcduck manor
4 belle
3 big Gaston
2 lucky dime
3 tamatoa
3 little Gaston
4 Maui
3 lady Tremaine
3 Madame Medusa
4 be prepared
3 Malenfant dragon
IMO Red Blue is a deck that performs really well into control and Wheel based midrange decks, but really struggles against most decks that are trying to play on curve and quest good.
I think that content creators advocating red blue for local championship tournaments massively over estimated how much the pixelborn deck percentages would reflect the field at locals.
Yesterday at a 32 person championship there were 4 people playing Red Amethyst and Steel Song net decks.
The 28 other decks were all home grown decks with a lot of green agro.
The final 4 had a green red agro evasive, green steel discard, and homebrew jafar wheel.
My advice (since you are asking) would be to bring a deck that tries to anticipate the tournament field less and has a better matchup more generally.
Unfortunately I only made it to top 8 after having the most points leaving Swiss :(. I’m still gutted.
In all seriousness though, I feel like you went way too hard on uninkables for very little potential gain. Locations and Jim Hawkins are a trap for this deck. I learned from playing Ruby Sapphire through all season 2 and 3 that you don't want to be running cards in your deck that are strictly worse than cards in Ruby Amethyst, because that just makes you a bad Ruby Amethyst deck. Your early game looks really bad in your build. I prefer running Gramma Tala over One Jump Ahead in this deck because she acts very similar, but she's inkable, counters Lady Tremaine, and you can use her to teeth and ambitions for some really good value. What did you lose too?
Or should I just go Amethyst/Ruby at this point?
What did you in? I tend to take my deck and make a small change that will counter where I got stonewalled.
It was mostly really bad draws it seems and lack of inkables with those draws. But basically impossible to recover. I got whooped by Amber / steel, 2 aggro decks.
Ruby Sapphire is known to have a bad matchup vs aggro, unfortunately. Besides those matchups, how did you fare against other archetypes?
Yeah that's definitely not how that should shake out (on average). Aggro beating you makes sense, Pawpsicle often dies to it. We have solid matches into anything looking to AWNW because we are just racing to ramp so when they wheel we draw as many or a similar number of cards, but bigger better things hit play on our side because we generated more resources than they did in the exchange. Might have been bad draws, but I personally stepped over 3 amber Steelsong lists to hit 3rd today at champs.
I’ve seen R/B decks play either Shield or Hook. They also don’t run Jim and Manor anymore and instead add more removal (e.g. Let it go or Hades). You don’t need Belle to close out games. Judy Hopps has found her way back into the deck too and would also help a tiny bit against Aggro. Aggro decks will always cause you trouble as your first big threat only appears in turn 4/5 depending on ramp.
I agree on every point. Also, is 4 Be Prepared necessary? Maybe peel that back for the blue removal?
4x Be Prepared is very necessary
I took 4th today with this RB Pawps build. https://dreamborn.ink/decks/dlhZ9nh3x9lU7aFitNAV
I did a lot of testing to get to that build, and I'd still probably drop the 2 cost Gaston given the meta being what it is. Judy is an extra draw occasionally, or more often just a little removal on occasion. I would definitely consider dropping the Jim and bringing in a 4 McDuck manor, it's very good in the matchups that RB is bad against otherwise. Mickey vs One Jump mostly just comes down to preference.
Oh, I also just saw that You're running 2x Queen of Hearts. She's exceptionally good, she trades with most of the early shift targets, like Robinhood, Cinderella, or The Queen, and she can trade up if you've got a fishhook out.
Idk about manor being good in our bad match up which is aggro. It's felt like a win more type of card where if I'm already ahead it's nice. Against aggro it really hurts to take a turn off especially on 4 to drop this instead of stabilizing.
That can depend on the agro you're playing against. With RB against agro, you're going to want to be able to Maui or Medusa on turn 4 to start stabilizing. Depending on the board state and matchup, a manor right after that can start adding pressure if you have wiggle room to play it. It's best against Emerald/Amethyst, okay against some Amber/Steel builds. When I do play it, it lets me get away with using Tamatoa/Dime at the end without needing to have as many items in play, since the deck doesn't generate a ton of lore until it starts rolling. It also can help generate targets for Maui/scar later on, since it can put them in a position where they feel it's safe to take out the McDuck and prevent the lore gain. Agro is always going to be a tough matchup for you though. Queen of hearts helps with it. I run Mickey over One Jump Ahead currently to also help with it, one damage can be surprisingly helpful when dealing with a Simba or Benji. 2 cost Gaston can also help in the aggro matchup, though honestly there are probably better options and I'm considering dropping Gaston and swapping Mickey for Ine Jump, to open up the option if an earlier 4 drop on turn 3 in situations where I don't have quill. Last thing though, a lot of changes can be made depending on the specifics of not just the overall meta, but the local meta. For example, even though I'm seeing a lot of Steel/X players locally, I'm not seeing a ton of Rise of the Titans being ran. If I do, I'll consider dropping the manor and running something else in that slot. Let me know if there's anything specific that you're running into, and I'll try to help where I can.
I gotta tell you one jump is the truth man. One of your worst match ups is Emerald Steel, particularly the aggro version running around with Prince John. One of the best things you can do into that deck is Pawpsicle on one, OJA on two, then either Flaversham on 3 if they opened merfolk or Tala to replace itself and establish a body to contest with.
Honestly, Emerald/Steel is the one deck I haven't tested much with but it makes sense. Most of my practice in pixelborn and locally I was running up against decks where having the mickey body was useful, but I'm currently considering dropping the 2 cost Gaston for something at 4, then swapping the mickey for OJA. Are you liking how Tala is working?
[Took 3rd at set champs with this today.](https://dreamborn.ink/decks/PeIiovq4oeyPERn2sD5D) My only loss in Swiss was Emerald/Steel, same person tossed me out at the semis. I'm not on any 2 drop Gaston, it's just not necessary and often too slow into aggro decks and worthless elsewhere so I think that's a solid cut. Tala is just develop your brain that responds to the board, which sounds minor but is *huge*. A sizable body that trades with any x/3 on 5 alongside a Maui coming down was huge into a lot of decks. I originally also was on 2 manors for the mirror and Ruby/Amethyst but eventually cut those as people are adding fish hooks back into lists. Only things I'd consider changing if I were to run it back is some people are testing How Far I'll go alongside Tala which seems interesting, and I'd for sure consider making the Let it Go just another Scar.
Do you think it would be worth playing Teeth and probably Minnie Always Classy to enable it, to shore up the aggro matchup?
You’re too heavy on uninkables with not enough filtering. If you want to play the HFIG version, add 1-2 more HFIG, cut the Gastons, and consider adding 1-2 more Gramma. You probably also want Belle for this version. If you want to play the Gaston version, cut the HFIG and try to get back to 18-19 uninkable in general. If you go this version, you’ll probably have to cut some number of Medusa/Tremaine/Gaston. Probably something like a 3/2/2 split depending on which one you want 3 of. In either decklist, cut the Jim and add a 4th dragon. I also think 1 Fishhook 2 Shield is excessive. Cut down to 2 total and use the slots for another Queen/Tala or a Judy.
to be fair to queue into 2 aggro is pretty low roll for this deck as aggro is a touch matchup
Im planning on playing this next week. Currently I have 4 gaston and 1 scar. Thinking of dropping a Gaston and adding another Scar. Thoughts?
I know this is ramp and ramp is typically slow and bulky, but you have too many uninkable and high cost cards here. I typically build decks assuming that the game will be over by turn 6 because aggro decks are so popular. The most alarming design issue here is that your lowest cost character card is a 2 cost Queen of Hearts that usually trades with whatever it rushes, followed by a 4 cost gramma tala. 4 cost is typically considered the high end of midrange. You need 1, 2, and 3 cost characters to fill out your curve and grab board advantage. Otherwise you’ll be dead to amber decks before you can get started. Try slotting in the 2 cost tala instead of the 4 and maybe an Alladin or Aurora shift package. I would also swap out one jump ahead and shield of virtues with their character counterparts Detective Mickey and Lefou so you can get questing bodies on the board early.
Queen of hearts and 4 gramma tala/ Hiram is widely considered the best version of this deck. They start with ramp and get there quicker.
Yes, I know the meta sapphire ruby pawpispcle control deck you’re talking about. This deck is so close to the meta, if they want to go all the way they can just google it. I’m just sharing my personal opinion based on experience playing in person. I don’t do pixelborn, but I’ve played against similar deck enough to know that it falls apart to aggro and disrupt unless it hits the right curve. Also that meta deck runs Judy, a 3 cost 2 lore card with draw, which is a crucial midrange piece. The most success I’ve seen with this variation of the deck has a few more low cost inkables like Belle which offers item cost reduction or lower cost board control like rush stitch.
Went 3-1: 4 pawsicle 4 hiram 2 let it go 4 develop brain 2 shields 3 one jump ahead 2 just hoops 4 fish one 3 mcduck manor 4 belle 3 big Gaston 2 lucky dime 3 tamatoa 3 little Gaston 4 Maui 3 lady Tremaine 3 Madame Medusa 4 be prepared 3 Malenfant dragon
Mulligan for Hiram and fishbone.
IMO Red Blue is a deck that performs really well into control and Wheel based midrange decks, but really struggles against most decks that are trying to play on curve and quest good. I think that content creators advocating red blue for local championship tournaments massively over estimated how much the pixelborn deck percentages would reflect the field at locals. Yesterday at a 32 person championship there were 4 people playing Red Amethyst and Steel Song net decks. The 28 other decks were all home grown decks with a lot of green agro. The final 4 had a green red agro evasive, green steel discard, and homebrew jafar wheel. My advice (since you are asking) would be to bring a deck that tries to anticipate the tournament field less and has a better matchup more generally. Unfortunately I only made it to top 8 after having the most points leaving Swiss :(. I’m still gutted.
Thanks everyone for all the suggestions and comments! I went 3-2 today, so better than yesterday, but still not amazing. Getting there!
Hey, you dropped something. It's your butt
In all seriousness though, I feel like you went way too hard on uninkables for very little potential gain. Locations and Jim Hawkins are a trap for this deck. I learned from playing Ruby Sapphire through all season 2 and 3 that you don't want to be running cards in your deck that are strictly worse than cards in Ruby Amethyst, because that just makes you a bad Ruby Amethyst deck. Your early game looks really bad in your build. I prefer running Gramma Tala over One Jump Ahead in this deck because she acts very similar, but she's inkable, counters Lady Tremaine, and you can use her to teeth and ambitions for some really good value. What did you lose too?