Ima-Mon: Hello everyone! This is Ima-Mon4812XJR, also known as T-Imagawa, or just Ima-Mon. Today, I'll be interviewing Mya-Mon369EX, aka Mya-Mon, who won the GWENT World Masters Season 5. Without further ado, congratulations on your victory, Mya-Mon! You finally did it. Could you tell us how you feel?
Mya-Mon: I'm very happy. I feel both an incredible sense of accomplishment for seizing the last chance to win the official tournament and a sense of relief.
Ima-Mon: I imagine there was a lot of pressure, but you did a splendid job. Now, in this tournament, you pretty much dominated the group stage and quickly advanced to the finals (*1). I'd like to hear more about your thought process and approach in making this possible. First, about your deck selection. As usual, you adopted your own unique decks (*2) in this tournament; was there any specific intention behind it?
(*1) Mya-Mon's tournament record. He achieved an overwhelming result with 15 wins, 4 losses, and 2 draws in 5 matches.
(*2) Mya-Mon's deck list. He compiled original decks that were not previously seen at tournaments.
Mya-Mon: There wasn't a particular intention, but I had to be careful because I’m also a streamer, so decks that I show on my streams could be compromised before the tournament. It means other players might use them or develop countermeasures, so I used completely different decks during my streams to avoid revealing my hand early. I believe my opponents weren’t able to take enough countermeasures against me because I used a unique set of decks.
Ima-Mon: Indeed, there were players who brought in the deck that you used in your streams. You were well prepared on that front. In this tournament, many players brought in an ST deck with Dennis Cranmer (*3). You chose not to ban this deck, Mya-Mon. How did you decide on your ban choice?
(*3) A combo of Armorer's Workshop & Dennis Cranmer, which is still used in various meta decks. It can generate a powerful mechanism of defense through armor and its conversion to boost at a low cost. Many decks introduce this combo to the game using Simlas Finn aep Dabairr.
Mya-Mon: I chose the ban that was most convenient for me. There are three factors to achieving a high win rate in card games: luck, playing, and deck construction. The most important thing in BO5 format is deck matchup. Simply put, it's a rock-paper-scissors game using decks A, B, and C. Understanding all the potential patterns and choosing a ban that works in your benefit can make a difference in the game. So it was very important to understand deck matchup accurately. It’s a very challenging aspect of GWENT, and I think there are only a few players, even among top players, who can execute it perfectly. I think the reason I was able to win this time was because I put a lot of emphasis on this in my scrim (*4).
(*4) Scrim is a term used in esports, referring to practice matches.
Ima-Mon: It’s amazing you can use rock-paper-scissors as a metaphor for top players facing off against each other! You mentioned that “understanding of deck matchup is challenging”, but what specific challenges are there?
Mya-Mon: It's easy when it comes to decks that obviously counter mine at a glance. But there are many difficult matchups where you can't tell at a glance which deck will win. This judgment is derived from your own playing skills and experience, and if you treat each deck incorrectly, a deck that should be advantageous can become disadvantageous. So a kind of proficiency in the game is required, and differences of opinion occur even among top players. You can assume your opponent has a different perspective if, for example, there’s a deck you’re expecting to be banned but your opponent chooses a different one. There were cases like that in this tournament as well. In addition to that, there is also a rock-paper-scissors element in deck selection, so I was always working on reverse-calculating the opponent's thoughts.
Ima-Mon: So when you think about deck matchup, you take not only the decks themselves, but also other factors, such as match progression or the player's thoughts and habits. There are so many strategic elements even before each match begins! Now, could you tell us about the actual matches? Which game was the most impressive in this tournament?
Mya-Mon: The most impressive match for me was the first game of the group stage against Cat_Burger. He brought a deck that was very advantageous to mine (*5) so that he was the most challenging one to play against. I thought that if I was capable of beating him, winning the tournament was within my grasp.
The result was 3-0, and objectively, it looks like I won by a landslide, but I was able to read my opponent and perfectly counter his plans in terms of ban selection and turn order. There was only a small margin of error, and I had almost no chance of winning if everything didn’t align perfectly. If I had read one thing wrong, I probably would have lost. As a matter of fact, I’ve never won against him in a scrim.
(*5) Cat_Burger's deck list. In addition to a variety of control cards, it also includes Korathi Heatwave and Poison for Tall Punish. It looks like a challenging matchup at first glance against NR, which focuses on Engine deployment, and SK, NG, where power tends to concentrate on single units.
Ima-Mon: So the first battle was actually the biggest hurdle for you to win the championship. Personally, I believe what was crucial was that you managed to break through the opponent’s Arachas deck using your Ursine Ritual deck, as it was the only deck capable of countering. Did you predict that the opponent would bring his Arachas deck as the first move?
Mya-Mon: Yes. This Arachas deck is hardly ever encountered in the usual pro ranks. However, there were a few players who brought it into the tournament, and this deck was specialized for the player going first. I knew that among my decks, only the Ursine Ritual deck could counter it. However, I also considered that the opponent might read my thinking and use the Imposter deck first as it counters my Ursine Ritual deck, but the risk of missing was too large. Since it was generally a very superior matchup for the opponent, I expected him to play straight without resorting to any tricks, which led me to play the Ursine Ritual deck first. Or perhaps, we both read each other's intentions even further and it resulted in me playing the Ursine Ritual deck and him playing the Arachas deck in the end. I never know.
Ima-Mon: The very final match in this tournament was a full set of rounds including a draw, so it was a fierce battle. Up until the final match, your strategy and reading led to overwhelming victories; how about the final match? Was it a more even battle?
Mya-Mon: Yes. I think that only SaNvAnTeR had almost the same thinking as I did. In the playoffs, he was the only player whose ban selection was entirely the same as mine, thus it makes sense that we competed very closely. However, there was a part where I was slightly ahead of SaNvAnTeR's thinking. That was in the final match between us.
I really didn’t want him to keep his Siege Master (*6) until the final round, because he could counter my Master of Puppets (*7) in the final round using the Siege Master's cooldown ability. However, he used up every Siege Master in round 1 so it was a big factor contributing to my victory.
(*6) Siege Master. Can speed up the cooldown of ally units by one turn. Normally used to speed up the cooldown of Machine units and such.
(*7) Master of Puppets. Has a cooldown of 2, so the opponent cannot use it on the next turn after it is used. Therefore, if it is used on the last turn, it will not be countered unless its cooldown is reduced.
Ima-Mon: Wow, GWENT is indeed quite a deep and strategic game. Once again, congratulations on your victory! This concludes the interview. Thank you for your time!
Mya-Mon
I've been playing GWENT since day 1 of Beta.
Mya-Mon TLG（@neko349） / X
Streaming GWENT on Twitch
Ima-Mon4812XJR
I enjoy building decks around cards that aren't often seen. My decks include 4-10Muta, Sigi pile, NG Machine... etc. Here are my YouTube and Twitch channels:
