Hi amigos, today I have the opportunity to interview one of the players that have topped with teams for the Bushiroad Spring Fest 2023 this season! He is Maxime Jallon! Let’s dive into it!
Interview
<Team Rulebook France And Germany>
Teammate 1’s name: Anthony How Chen
Teammate 2’s name: Aurelien Candelier
Teammate 3’s name: Maxime Jallon
<Team Rulebook Italy>
Teammate 1’s name: Anthony How Chen
Teammate 2’s name: Yoann B
Teammate 3’s name: Maxime Jallon
Jaime: First off, congratulations to Maxime Jallon and his teams for achieving:
- 1st Place in V and Top 8 Premium at Rouen, France
- 4th place in V in BSF Solo Tournament in Germany.
- 4th place in Premium and 1st place in V in BSF Milan, Italy.
Today I wanted to do an interview with you amigo about your overall experience and even get to know you a little bit for the readers. Sounds good y’all?
MJ: Yeah sounds good!
Jaime: Tell us a little about yourself. Where are you from? Are you from any specific Vanguard teams/communities? Any other events that you and/or team have done well? Etc.
MJ: Hi I’m Maxime a casual player from Paris, France. I play in Team Rulebook and am a member of the Epita/Parkage Community in Paris.
I have topped 8 times in 2022/2023 and finished in X-3 at Worlds in the V format with mostly OTT, OTT 2 (a.k.a. Genesis), and Gear Chronicle.
My season of BSF is going relatively well with 1 Bubble and 5 tops across 6 tournaments.
Jaime: Awesome feats! During your preparation, what are some things that you mainly focused on? Certain matchups, deck builds, strategies, etc.
MJ: I don’t prepare a lot for V since the format doesn’t change much except that Steam Maiden is a lot weaker now. Which means I can just reuse knowledge from the prior format.
For Premium, it’s different but mostly the same as the world’s format. It is still a ride-down format so to win you either have a deck that can ride down, a deck that can OTK on first stride, or a deck that can come back from a deficit. Personally, I love a deck that can come back so I choose to play OTT and Genesis who both fit that role.
Jaime: Awesome, let’s dive into your deck lists. With these builds, what were your Winning Images for most of your games? Like did you have a setup, game state, or strategy that you focused on?
V Premium Deck Code: https://decklog-en.bushiroad.com/view/CC95
For Battle Sister, I know I play a tempo deck which means my deck becomes weaker and weaker as the deck progresses, and losing tempo means losing the game. For that reason, I tried multiple things. In Rouen I went for a BS + 3 Ame No Murakumo + 2 Amaterasu package to give myself and high roll as well as a way to stack defensively to have a 3rd turn going second against Accel Decks, but due to that, I could sometimes miss ride which was too hard to come back from which is why I cut Ame No to 2 in Milan and Amaterasu completely and went for a more aggressive list.
Premium Deck Code: https://decklog-en.bushiroad.com/view/C3J7
For Regalia I like the control side of the deck. Since you’re drive checking a lot with high power. I just want to floodgate with Honoly on gauge and recycle all my heal through dreaming dragon until I win the game. It’s a bit slower than normal Regalia but it’s way harder to kill once it’s rolling.
Premium OTT Deck Code: https://decklog-en.bushiroad.com/view/D6V5
For OTT, I just created a deck that can play around sanctitude and with multiple options, so I went with a toolbox deck that let me adapt on the fly to everything.
Jaime: Great, can you elaborate more on why you came to those choices/ratios for your lists? Feel free to break it down by Grades or groups of cards, whichever makes more sense for your decks.
MJ: I already went over the change for Battle Sister so I won’t repeat that but I have a few thoughts I can share on deckbuilding:
- If you need a card before turn 3 to win you must play it at 4.
- If you have no way to search for a card you must play it at more than one.
- Even if you have a way of searching for a card, if you need it to win play it at more than one so you can adapt if you damage-check it.
- If you need a card to win but only one time, don’t play it at 4. Put it down at 3.
- Your decklist must have a game plan for every deck present in the metagame.
- You must take the curves of your deck in account when deckbuilding which means how will my early-mid and late game will change due to adding this card. If you add a late deck card to ensure you win later it might make your early so bad that you won’t ever arrive to this state.
Jaime: Awesome, great higher-level deck-building processes. During your games, which decks/clans did you face? How were your personal records?
MJ: In Germany V I went X-1 in round X-2 in top losing to Spikes and Glendios.
In France in V, I went X-2 in swiss rounds then perfect in top. Losing to Nightmare Doll and Revenger due to miss riding Amaterasu. I also faced decks like Altmile, DOTR, Revenger, and Ange in the finals.
In Premium, I lost to Kagero’s OT, to Gredora’s OT, and to Katrina (strong aggro in the early game). I won against Antoine’s DI (the 1st place DI), Hanzo, and Eugene. In top 8 I faced Katrina again and I miscounted one column badly which made me lose this game. Bad tourney from me which is one of the reasons why I switch from Regalia to OTT for Milan.
In Milan V I won against Harri, Luard, Thavas, and Revenger. But lost against Luard in swiss. In top 8, I won two times against Luard and lost in the finals against Vanquisher. So X-2 overall.
In Premium, I went undefeated in swiss winning against Thavas, DI, Bermuda Triangle, and Katrina. I lost against Nightmare Dolls in top 4 and misplayed the game in the match for the 3rd.
Jaime: Was there a game you would like to highlight? Like your toughest matchup, best game, break or deal moments, etc.
MJ: Too many games were interesting. I feel like playing against Luard as Battle Sister is tough because it’s an uphill matchup. Most of the time take I take risks to make up the difference. I won almost all my games because my attacks were 5k over what my opponent could guard. So yeah those were close.
Jaime: During your games, what is something that you appreciated about your decks from the preparation you’ve done? The strategy of it, consistency, power, plays, etc.
MJ: I really like how sturdy my Premium Regalia feel regardless of my result with it. You always have a lot of options during your darkest time so it’s cool to pilot.
Battle Sister is really comfortable to play with. You don’t have many options so it’s all about micromanagement and optimizing what you can do.
OTT Toolbox is the funniest deck I ever played since Tsukuyomi. You always have “one billion” options to choose from which makes it very entertaining to play.
Jaime: After the tournament, did y’all take some time to reflect? Anything that you learned from your experiences?
MJ: Yes I did:
- Partying before the tournament will often cost you the first round.
- Don’t overthink things, look at them from your opponent’s perspective. Sometimes hand traps are not worth playing around.
- Linh is the best Head Judge in the world.
- Never forget about the OT when you’re ahead. You don’t need to when you’re behind because the OT will make you lose anyway.
Jaime: Awesome! Would you like to do any shout-outs to people that you know and/or have helped you along your journeys?
MJ: Shoutout to the member of my team Rulebook and to all the players I often go to the events with like Louis, Théo, Pierre, Steve, Yacine, Samir, Antoine, Romain, Hassan, Nico, Clément, etc.
Jaime: That’s all great stuff! I’m sure your friends are happy and excited for your accomplishment! Just one more question and we’ll be done amigo.
While preparing for your decks, did you use/see any social media to help you solidify your build? Such as blogs, YouTube videos/channels, Facebook, Reddit, etc.
It depends on your level but the most important is knowing the format and the deck and for that just check out all the topping decks at vg-paradox. For the rest, keep playing the game and try to understand why you could win the game every time you lost.
It’s either a deckbuilding problem, misreading the game state, or not knowing the matchup. Trigger losses in V are marginal, in Premium it’s the same outside of the Over trigger and most of the time the OT just creates a weird game state you have to adapt to.
Jaime: Awesome! Thank you for sharing that as well, very much appreciated. Thanks again for joining me in this interview! I wish you the best and hope to see more from y’all in the metagame! Till next time amigos!
Key Takeaways
Don’t Overthink It
Maxime had mentioned, “Don’t overthink things, look at them from your opponent’s perspective. Sometimes hand traps are not worth playing around.“
We sometimes overthink to the point where we make subpar plays when it’s not worth it. Always slow down to assess your and your opponent’s perspectives. Sometimes the game state can be unique where the best play is the normal play you would do normally.
Keep In Mind Game Changers
Maxime had mentioned, “Never forget about the OT when you’re ahead. You don’t need to when you’re behind because the OT will make you lose anyway.“
There are game changers that can happen in games even when you’re currently ahead. OTs and other luck factors can change things up in your opponent’s favor. So do your best to keep that advantage and adapt if game changers do happen.
The second statement can also be interpreted where if you’re behind, just focus on getting ahead. Then you can worry about game changers issues.
Commander Jaime’s Social Media/Links/Etc:
Rogue of the Seven Seas 