4-2-1 Singles Worlds 2018 - Good (and 2 All cards) Sakura

[dutpotd]

Character
1 ·Sakura·

Foundation
4 Alpha Male
4 A Long Journey
4 One Man Wolf Pack
4 Call of the Dragon Queen
4 An Evening With Gren
4 Overly Dramatic
4 No Surprises

3 Agile Warrior
3 Police Connections
3 Emergency Rations

2 Armor Expert
2 Up in Smoke

1 Way of a True Warrior
1 Fallen Master
1 Dauntless Hero
1 United States Champion
1 Adopted by a Sensei
1 Youthful Enthusiasm
1 Breaking Bread
1 Like Watching a Nightmare
1 Unpredictable Movement
1 Refusing to Let Go
1 Useless Futility
1 High School Crush
1 Focused and Patient
1 Tactical Advantage
1 Cool and Focused
1 Jiang Shi
1 Darkstalkers
1 Pity for a Traitor
1 The 12th Pharaoh
1 Mushroom Experimentation

Asset
1 Cossack Citadel

Attack
4 Shouoken
4 Wood Man's Leaf Shield
3 Leaf Shield
1 Relentless Pursuit
1 Cossack Buster
1 Big Cyclone
1 Rolling Attack

Action
4 Race Against Time
4 Gateway Shuffle
1 Throw It Down!
1 Dodge!

Side
1 Terry**
3 Throw it Down!
4 Missile Launcher

-

This deck beat Yamato Man, Hsien-Ko, Vicious, and Lord Raptor. It lost to Spike 1 and Faye. It tied against Jet. Arriving at its 4-2-1 record.

Please see an eventual tournament report for details but ask decklist questions here as desired.

[Quarzark]

That's the good stuff right there. When I was building a RAT/RFS mill deck, I didn't even know about Call of the Dragon Queen so I'm gonna have to keep that in mind, even though Khadath can't play it.

A quick question though, I'm just curious at your choice of Sakura over other possible options. Wood Man seems the obvious choice though you lose out on All chain, and when I saw Call of the Dragon Queen, my first thought was Cut Man since Water/Good mix well and it opens up options like Fulfilled in Battle and Celestial Being. I'm asking since I'm totally going to re-open my mill decklists and steal some of the tech in here xD

[dutpotd]

It's a good question, and there are two answers.

The first is I originally was even harder on the mill/rfg and started with 1-2 copies of Rhythmic Fighting Style as the All off-symbol. After some thought I left that behind and went towards Mushroom Experimentation as an additional way to draw 2/mill2 and get use out of the character no matter what OR make use of the large number of 6 checks in the deck. Ultimately, I landed on increasing the hs, which was essential for getting further ahead and went to 12th Pharaoh.

The second reason is I felt Throw it Down and Shouoken were the keys to defending against the bull in the meta. And they were, they ended turns sneakily and turned off tech offensively. Sakura made best use of Shouoken and I wanted a character with the All symbol so I could turn on dime into Missile Launcher and turn 2 going first Throw down missiles for ridiculous efficacy.

Ultimately, I needed the All symbol for tech and the ability to have a strong relevant side option that turned how I played the clock or game on its head.