After an incredible Season 2 of Organized Play, the second Exodus TCG World Championship took place on July 19th and 20th in the Central Valley in California, USA. 11 of the best players from around the world came together to compete for the title of World Champion. The event was filmed in the studio, where the best moments could be captured on camera. Feature matches will be uploaded to the official YouTube channel, but in the meantime, let's take a closer look at the biggest Exodus event of the year!

 

 

The production was bigger and better than ever this year. From a technical standpoint, we couldn't be happier with how things turned out. Although the tournament itself was understandably high-pressure for many of the competitors, there were so many highlights; from insane turnarounds to situations where the next top card decided the winner, it was absolutely a Worlds to remember!

We're so proud of each and every player who earned their 2019 invitation. The competition was extremely fun to watch with all of the diversity in deck choices. All cards up to and including (Set 4) Converging Chasms, including Promos and LE sketch cards, were legal for tournament play. Feature matches, along with player interviews, some side matches, the prize ceremonies & more are now undergoing the editing process so that you can catch all of the action!

                                                                                                                                             Head Judge Andrew C.

— Alex P.
— Anthony L.
— Anthony S.
— Caleb D.
— Edward B.
— Izabellah B.
— Sean P.
— Tom H.
— Victor M.
— Zachary C.
— Zachary M.

Deck Lists from Day 1:

The final round on Day 1 was Round 3, and it was where two of Season 2's most outspoken competitive players went head to head; Victor M. recalls this Feature Match being one of his toughest, if not the toughest, match that he played, which just so happened to be against Anthony S.

Victor's control-heavy Shardfolk paced themselves, carefully triggering Abilities and freezing important cards while setting up for big swings. On the other side of the table, Anthony's Symmetry deck did its best to keep the opponent at bay while it cycled through as fast as possible, relying on draw power and direct burn damage.

Both players' decks were extremely well put together, no easy feat considering the ever-expanding open card pool in a rotationless format. But what's even more thrilling was watching these two competitive giants battle in the feature match — In the end, Victor's Shardfolk beat Anthony's All Symmetry deck and made for an epic conclusion to Day 1!

 

 

Day 2:

The studio opened late Saturday morning to allow competitors a good night's rest before the single elimination rounds began early afternoon. We could tell that many of the players in Top 8 felt much more relaxed going into Day 2, which made for a thrilling journey to the finish line to see who would be crowned the next Exodus World Champion!

Staying true to the rules from the first World Championship in 2018, this year's Worlds allowed players to edit or modify their deck list going into Day 2. They could bring an entirely new deck if they wanted to, and as you'll soon see from player interviews, some of them definitely considered doing so! In the end, however, only 4 of the Top 8 players changed up their deck lists at all between Days 1 & 2.

 

Deck Lists from Day 2:

What else was new this year at Worlds?
MC Steve was our announcer and Alecks Horchata served as the live commentator, whose commentary you'll get to hear when the matches are uploaded to YouTube. Big thanks and shout out to these guys for doing a phenomenal job and for helping to make the World Championship a huge success!

The first round of Day 2 of Worlds was the Quarterfinals, where we saw Victor's control-heavy Shardfolk Beatdown deck go up against Sean's Mass Freeze deck which utilized the Abyssal Ridge Harmony Rare. Despite having the advantage of being the only player running the HR, Sean's opponent also happened to be running Shardfolk. Victor won the match, securing himself a placement in Top 4.

Beyond the Feature Match table, one Angel Beatdown deck (Tom's) was defeated and knocked out by the end of the Quarterfinals, leaving one remaining (Edward's). Tom's Angel Beat build was eliminated by Alex P.'s Direct Damage deck. The other Angel Beatdown player (Ed) won his match against Bellah's Shardfolk.

Both Anthonys faced off in All-Symmetry against Treeforge Reveal...and Anthony S. won, taking out the last pure reveal player.

 

After a heated first round of Top 8 on Day 2 of Worlds 2019, only 4 players were left standing--each one guaranteed Finalist, Semi-Finalist and Runner-Up titles, along with all the prizes and glory to boot. But things were just getting started, and the toughest battles were still ahead!

The Semifinals wrought some of the most insane matches we've seen all season; Alex P. VS Edward B. at the Feature Match table (Burning Forest VS Angel Beatdown) and Victor M. VS Anthony S. dueling out on the main floor (Shardfolk Reversal VS All Symmetry).

Alex's Burning Forest tried to keep Ed's Angel Beatdown deck at bay, while pumping up Mistrai Driftwood with as much energy as possible. Alex's goal was to use the Driftwoods to sneak in direct damage whenever possible. At the end of the day, however, Ed & his Angel Beatdown countered hard enough to win in the Semifinals, securing Angel Beat a spot in the Finals.

As the timer continued its countdown around the 15-minute mark, Victor & Anthony (Shardfolk VS Symmetry) had just wrapped up their 2nd game in the Semifinals and quickly prepared for their third and final game with the scores hovering at an even 1-1.
Their tie-breaker game was so intense, the rest of the players gathered around the big screen in the lobby to spectate, where gasps and cheers ensued with each passing turn as it looked like both players were just 1 card away from achieving their own game-winning combo. To each player's credit and immense skill, they both played perfectly, neither making any mistakes, until the timer hit zero. At this point, Head Judge Andrew instructed players to continue to play at a normal pace for the next 3 turns, at which point a winner would be decided using the Secondary Method should neither player's Life Points hit 0.

For context, Exodus uses what we call the 'Secondary Method' to help determine a definite winner in the case of games going into overtime. When Life Points are equal after Turn 0, 1, 2, and 3 from when time is called:

Secondary Method Used to Determine Winner (In Sequential Order):

1. Player with the highest number of Energy cards on the field.
2. Player with the highest number of Creatures on the field.
3. Player with the highest number of cards in hand.
   
   

There came a point in game 3 when Victor starts his turn by Unsummoning his own Harpoon Halberdier. He re-summons it on a new pile, hoping to get its Icy Impale Ability off again. But Anthony responds with a Treeforge Complex, revealing an Existence of Unknown Origins off the top of Victor's deck, dealing him 2 direct damage.

Halberdier's on-summon Ability is still on the Stack, but Anthony responds with yet another Treeforge Complex, revealing the Existence and dealing yet another 2 damage directly. Anthony continues responding with a Glimpse of the Sanctuary--and Victor responds with a Leech in an attempt to wipe out Anthony's blank energy piles. Glimpse goes through, followed up by a Traverse the Treetops on Anthony's part, drawing him the last card in his Main Deck. From there, Anthony plays Reevaluate, Deck Recycling for 2 cards. Anthony draws Traverse the Treetops and Thoughtstream's Edge off the Deck Recycle, and so he continues his draw cycle by playing the Traverse. From this, he draws Reevaluate and plays it--discarding the Thoughtstream's Edge to draw 1 final card....netting him the last Treeforge Complex needed to win Game 3 in the Semifinals!

In short, Anthony's All Symmetry deck won during his opponent's turn, all in response to a summon Ability! The crowd went absolutely wild during the final play, and this moment was regarded as one of the most memorable of Worlds 2019!

Victor and Alex played each other in the Finals to determine 3rd and 4th Place spots, respectively. Victor and his Shardfolk emerged victorious, leaving only Ed and Anthony battling for the crown.

Angel Beatdown was met with All-Symmetry at the Feature Match table in the final round. Ed's Angel Beat got off to a decent start and even played a Turn 1 Vortex. Alana the Star Formation came out on a 9-energy pile at one point, buffing itself to 10. Unfortunately for Ed, his Alana was met with two active Chains in play, and without immediate access to 2 Crystal Coves and no Release, the All-Sym deck wrapped up game 1 via Treeforge Complex.

In game 2 of the Finals, Anthony goes first, drops energy into play and then hits his opponent with a Vortex on Turn 1. Ed doesn't find any creatures in his opening hand, let alone the Ephemra he was hoping to see. Ed does, however, respond to the T1 Vortex with a Vortex of his own. A massive stack ensues following this chains of events, eventually leading Anthony into playing his first Treeforge Complex--revealing Ephemra and not dealing any damage! Ed saves multiple turns worth of energy and cards in-hand, drawing and passing against All-Symmetry's aggressive draw cycle. Anthony again attempts to hit Ed with a Treeforge Complex, this time revealing a Cascil the Unvanishing Paladin--denied damage yet again! 

Anthony streams a steady wall of defense in the form of the Chains symmetry card, cycling through and through in an attempt to hit the opponent with Treeforge Complex a total of 5 times. Each time Complex reveals a symmetry off the opponent's deck, it deals 2 damage directly, hence 5 x 2 successful hits = 10 dmg.
Angel Beatdown builds and builds, suspecting it will need to swing in for 10 damage in a single turn once the wall of Chains goes down. A major goal for ABD in this scenario was to deter the opponent with Vortexes whilst searching for Coves in order to create an opening. It came down to the wire, and Ed swings in for 6 damage with 2 Alanas on board. But shortly thereafter, Anthony performs enough combos to dig for his final 2 Treeforge Complexes, and successfully gets those off to win the match 2-0.

Playing an All Symmetry deck--your 2019 World Champion is crowned--Anthony S. from the East Coast, USA!

 

Prizing:

Everyone who made it into Top 8 automatically received an exclusive Exodus TCG Binder commemorating Worlds 2019! But with much more at stake such as Artist-Signed Card Trophies & the Design-Your-Dream-Card prize, Get-Written-Into-the-Lore prize, and the Get-A-Drifter-Illustrated-In-Your-Likeness (AKA become a card) prize, players brought their A-game to Day 2!

All players were awarded with a certificate noting their accomplishment at the end of Day 1. Each player also went home with a gift package, which included a limited edition playmat from Worlds 2019!

Additional added Prize Support this year included a sealed booster case to 1st Place, a half-case to 2nd Place, and 1/4 case of product each to 3rd and 4th Place--totaling $1,000 in cards! Top 4 also each received an Uncut Sheet from a currently released set of their choice, and starting with the 1st Place Champion, each winner got to choose their desired Designer Prize.

Anthony S. chose to get a Drifter illustrated in his likeness & be made into a future card, Edward B. picked the design his own dream card prize, and Victor received the prize that allows him to write himself into the game's storyline! As an added surprise bonus, we announced the very next day on the official Winner's podcast that from now on, the 1st Place World Champion will also receive an auto-invitation to the next year's World Championship Tournament!

 All of our Top 4 Champions also took home a valuable card trophy containing Secret Rares exclusively autographed by the Artist(s). The 2019 World Championship was an absolute blast and we hope everyone had as much fun as we did! Thank you to everyone for showing your support and being part of this unforgettable experience!

Full gameplay of the matches, exclusive player interviews & more will be released on the official Exodus TCG YouTube channel by the end of the year, so stay tuned for those!

— Exodus TCG Organized Play Team

Existence Games