Wild Wild Weiss Post Weiss Grand Prix Interview: Chad pilots Sneaker Bunko to third place as best player from Calgary

A week or so back, Calgary had its fourth Weiss Grand Prix event. For the first time, we had four invitation slots to WGP nationals to award. Shout out to Sentry Box Cards for hosting a fantastic tournament as always! We were able to catch up with the top placing player from Calgary, third place Chad who piloted Sneaker Bunko, for a brief interview. Let’s see what he’s got to say:

Tim: How does it feel being the top placing player from Calgary?

Chad: Odd. However, I was very happy with the result and I’m excited to play at Nationals co-representing Calgary.

T: Why did you choose Sneaker Bunko?

C: So, I had a choice between Darling in the Franxx and Sneaker Bunko. While Darling is a good deck, I play it because it’s fun rather than for its quality. The Sneaker deck has standby and it has more power throughout the game.

The other reason I chose the deck was I built it myself and the first build of this deck had the restriction: minimum 1 of every Problem Children card (from the series “Problem Children Are Coming From Another World, Aren’t They?”). Therefore, it was less about Sneaker as a whole and more about the Problem Children cards and what would be needed to support them.

T: So, what does this deck do? Walk us through a typical game?

C: The deck is basically 4 parts: A crazy plus-ing early game, level one tech cards, standby targets, and a weird level 3 combo. The first part means the only time I run out of cards is when I’m worried about my life total. At level 1 and 2 I use standby to get counter cards based on my opponent or I get sticky standby targets that have the ability “[(1)] At the start of the Encore Step, if you have no other Rested Characters in your Front Row, you may pay cost. If so, Rest this.”. (Sks/W62-023 and Sle/W62-021)

Using these I hopefully stabilize at level 3 and can use my climax combo with Smi/W62-010 with an ability that reads “[A] This ability activates up to twice per turn. When Damage dealt by this is not Cancelled, deal 1 Damage to your Opponent.” (Damage Cancel can occur)”. This card either does nothing or does 4-5 damage with no cost. Either way I always enjoy the first time I get to explain this card’s effect.

I got this tip from an Edmonton visitor early this year: “Choose/buy decks you want to play”. What he meant is if you have a favorite series or see a cool card/ card interaction then play those decks. I sold two decks I wasn’t having fun with and I bought into decks I am having fun with including this SB/PC deck. Never looked back.

T: What in particular do you like about the way this build plays? How does it suit your play style in particular?

C: My style is getting big power cards out there and trying to hold and I’ve always wanted to play a Standby deck after seeing them in action. I always saw standby as the way to get big cards out fast and as a unique deck building experience. The more I get exposed to the decks the more I want to build them and the more I want to play them. I’m not sure if I prefer it over merge though but both fit my play style.

T: Which card do you think is this deck’s MVP?

C: Smi/W62-016: Izayoi, Problem Child. It is the most powerful card in the deck. As in the most power my deck can generate is 11000 without back-row or backups. Also, the negative effect has never come up in any game I have played. The icing on the cake is it’s my favorite character from the show.

T: Is this deck prepared for the mirror match?

C: No. It has level one reversers that can help but the match would be mostly down to cancels.

T: What does it match up well against? Any particularly hard match ups?

C: It matches well against decks with less than 10000 power center stage characters. It struggles against deck that contain characters/walls that have over 11000 power.

T: Any techs that you would consider?

C: I think I have all the tech cards I need. Also, if I take out any more Problem Children cards, I might as well re-look at the whole deck to optimize it. Currently I’m opposed to this.

T: What moments do you find most intense?

C: Playing the shot climax to activate my level 3 combo.

T: You mentioned to me earlier that you broke the Heart of the Cards Website when you submitted their interview and deck list. How?

C: I was just about to start the decklist after finishing the personal information and other responses. However, in my haste to get it done I deleted the decklist submission information and refreshing to get it back was a bad idea. Therefore instead of writing 3xSmi/W62-009 I wrote 3:Smi/W62-009. This broke the program that converts the written decklist to the one you see on the website and it got flagged for review.

T: How many modes of transportation do you think you’ll need to get to Rochester?

C: Two. Plane to Toronto and car to Rochester.

T: Any tips for new players looking to get into competitive Weiss?

C: I got this tip from an Edmonton visitor early this year: “Choose/buy decks you want to play”. What he meant is if you have a favorite series or see a cool card/ card interaction then play those decks. I sold two decks I wasn’t having fun with and I bought into decks I am having fun with including this SB/PC deck. Never looked back.

Other than that practice and ask for help. We have some amazing people here and they want you to get better.

T: Any closing remarks?

C: Just wanted to say thanks to the Calgary community. I’m lucky to have met all of you.

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Shoutout to Wild Wild Weiss for quality content.

There you have it! Playing cards and sets you like are a viable path to victory in Weiss. We’ll be rooting for the two Calgary players headed to Rochester this November for WGP Nationals, Chad and Jon! Here’s hoping they can go far!

If you want to catch Chad, Jon, and the rest of us playing, we stream our weekly tournaments with commentary at our Twitch Channel every Wednesday and Friday! Friday broadcasts start at 6:30PM MST (8:30PM EST)