With Pro Tour London fast approaching, there were two Battle Hardeneds at different locations across the world. While the coverage for Dublin was a little harder to find, we have a lot of insight into what's going on in Battle Hardened Jakarta.
Everything you need to know about what took place in Battle Hardened Jakarta is for you right here, let's take a look!
Meta Breakdown
Despite it being a smaller field than most other Battle Hardened events in other regions, the overall metagame for Jakarta was incredibly varied.
It's no surprise that ast001-aurora-shooting-star-armory-deck-aurora-shooting-star-precon was the most represented deck in the room, because she's the most represented in every room. The players in Indonesia are vert involved in making some unique deck choices.
The surprising decks to see such high representation are the Arakni's. hnt261-mv-arakni-5lp3d-7hru-7h3-cr4x-the-hunted-booster has started to see a lot of increased play thanks to it's undefeated finished at the streamed Pro Quest + in Milwaukee. It's shown to have a level of disruption to handle Aurora and aggression to handle Enigma. As players gear up to the Pro Tour and the following Pro Quest Season, "Slippy" is starting to truly tick up in meta share.
hnt001-arakni-marionette-the-hunted-booster has not really converted very well into a lot of metagames, which is why we're surprised to see it here. The random nature of which forms the puppet master can flip into may put off some competitive players, but the consistency of the disruption and the modality gives players a great deal of options.
Of the hero's in the "other" section, we saw a spread of heroes. Some were expected and some were not. ros013-verdance-thorn-of-the-rose-rosetta-booster is a hero that has seen some decent conversion in some places better than others.
It's not a surprise to see mst046-zen-tamer-of-purpose-part-the-mistveil-booster/ make an appearance in an event like this, but there being only one Zen (who did not make Top 8, spoiler alert), is highly surprising. Due to this underwhelming performance, and the confirmation that he did not win in Dublin, means he is likely a live hero for Pro Tour London.
A hero that genuinely no one has seen at a top table in a very long time made some wonderful moves during round 3 live stream is ksu001-katsu-the-wanderer-katsu-the-wanderer-hero-deck-precon. The original ninja may have been power crept by Zen, but in the hands of a master player like Aziz Riphat, we can expect the first Ninja to have been everyone's favourite underdog in Battle Hardened Jakarta.
Top 8 Breakdown
After 6 rounds of swiss, the Top 8 was as eclectic as the rest of the field. The right collection of the metagame titans and the absolute odd ball heroes all made it to the single elimination bracket.
The selection of 3 Aurora and 1 Enigma is no surprise to anyone who's been following this recent metagame. The more unlikely heroes make the story of this Battle Hardened more interesting.
Adzuf Surya's Verdance was particularly effective during the livestream's 4th round. It's clear how he navigated his game against the other dtd001-prism-awakener-of-sol-dusk-till-dawn-booster in the field that he knows the hero deeply well and was able to bring it to the Top 8 for substantial prize money.
The Cinderella story of the game has got to be Aziz Riphat's Katsu deck. Despite falling to the Enigma who made it all the way to the final, he ended up finishing up Second Seed. This is one of my personal reasons for loving Flesh and Blood. If you know a hero well and play it to the best of your ability, you can take a very fringe deck to a very strong finish.
Final
The illusionist mirror was the final game in Battle Hardened Jakarta, Ezequiel Emeraldo's Enigma vs Hans Kristian's Prism. Despite the initial life deficit, there were numerous turns where the Enigma had nearly stabilised on 1 life, while the Prism was able to pressure with multiple Go Again attacks, and creating a presence with Angels.
It's always unfortunate as the Enigma player to play a "small" mst031-manifestation-of-miragai-3-part-the-mistveil-booster just to attack into a dtd005-figment-of-erudition-2-suraya-archangel-of-erudition-dusk-till-dawn-booster. That is always the correct play, but when you're that far behind, the tempo lost is so tragic.
That initial life pressure that Prism was able to present and a late game Dominate attack in mon004-herald-of-erudition-2-monarch-booster was able to score another 25 Living Legend points for the Light Illusionist.
Takeaway
Battle Hardened Jakarta has been a truly memorable watch and set of games to commentate. The field of rising stars in the Flesh and Blood pro scene have shown us that while the metagame is well established given the card pool. At the same time, if you love a deck, and know it well, you can truly put up some remarkable results.
Players will need to go into Pro Tour London with Prism as a deck to watch, Aurora and Enigma as the decks to beat, but be prepared to have to respect fringe picks like Katsu!
Whenever there's a big event in the world of FaBTCG, you can expect live, up to date commments on that event. Let us know in the comments below what content you want to see us cover right here on DotGG Media.
