Lorcana Champion Ed Chiu walks us through the North American Continental Championship

When Edmund Chiu showed up at the Disneyland Hotel last Friday for the Disney Lorcana North American Continental Championship, he didn't even intend to play the deck he ended up winning. Chiu is a skilled ruby/amethyst player known for winning Fort Worth's Disney Lorcana Challenge (DLC) last July. But when he was preparing for NACC, he spent most of his time practicing ruby.

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The Disney Lorcana North American Continental Championships took place at the Disneyland Hotel for an unforgettable weekend.

“Honestly, I've been playing Ruby/Sapphire for about the last month,” Chiu tells me just minutes after winning the championship. “It was advertised as the best deck of the format, so I wanted to see what it was all about. At the end of the day, I decided I felt more comfortable with Ruby/Amethyst.”

Lorcana NACC Champion Deck Ed Chiu

Chiu has played many Ruby/Amethyst decks during his competitive career, but never quite like this one. Archetypes like Madame Medusa, Boss. Elsa, the fifth soul; and Genie, Wish Fulfilled are conspicuously missing from his winning list. After finishing the competition in Friday's Last Chance Qualifier event, Chiu decided to make some big changes to the regular build.

I looked around the LCQs on Friday and saw a lot of people playing The Library. [A Gift For Belle]And I saw many rubies/sapphire, he says. I think my prediction was that over 30% of the field would be ruby/sapphire, so I took a lot of cards that I thought weren't good in that matchup, for example Genie. [Wish Fulfilled]Maui [Hero To All]And Elsa [The Fifth Spirit]”Many people thought the deck construction was weird, but at the end of the day, what matters is how your cards stack up against your opponents' cards,” Chiu says.

Chiu had never played The Library in Ruby/Amethyst before this tournament. “It wasn't too hard to pull off,” he says. “The patterns in the game definitely did some “It's kind of a learning curve that I've had during the tournament.”

By ditching Genie, Maui, Elsa, and Madame Medusa, and adding a full set of Lady Tremaine, Imperial Queen, and Library, Chiu transformed his signature deck into Sapphire/Sapphire Hunter. And while his prediction was correct, with Ruby/Sapphire taking up nearly 30% of the field (32% with 40 decks registered), Chiu only faced one of them in the first seven rounds of the Swiss day.

“I ran through the gauntlet,” he explains. “I faced Emerald/Steel, I faced Sapphire/Steel, and finally I got to play Ruby/Sphyre. I was like, 'Yeah!' “This one's down, I can take this one.” Chiu also beat another Ruby/Amethyst player 2-0 in a mirror match. His biggest concerns during Day 1 were Amber/Steel and Emerald/Amethyst, and indeed, he lost a 0-2 matchup against Curt Spacey, who played an Amber Mine/Steel Dwarf deck.

37-Lorcana DIggy Hole Deck (1)

He also matched up with Seattle DLC winner Luke 'vVonderland' Goodwin playing Emerald/Steel. I was very lucky to make him 2-0. “I think he had some bad hands in that match, I'd say I'm not a fan of that match.” His last game of the day was against another Emerald/Steel player, DLC Las Vegas winner Female Seed. They split the two games 1-1.

Chiu finished the first day with a record of four 2-0, one 0-2 and two 1-1 splits, cementing fifth place in the Top 16.

Top 16 to win

At the start of day two, there were only four matches between Chiu and the NA Champions Cup. His first game was against content creator and Labyrinth TCG team member Ryan 'R_M_B' Beaupre, who was playing Amethyst/Sapphire. Chiu says being in the game really helped him in this matchup, as Amethyst/Sapphire works well against other Amethyst decks. Chiu won the match 2-1.

In the quarterfinals, Choi faced another LAB team member, Ruby/Sapphire standout Pierre-Marc 's4iler' Duguay. Chiu's plan to target Ruby/Sapphire players has finally paid off. “I had him 2-0 in about 15 minutes,” he says. “No hit him, that's just the way the match goes.”

Chiu's semi-final match was the return match against Sid. “It was probably one of the hardest games of my life,” he admits. It got the best of me when we first met in March at a major tournament. “Since then, I had to take my revenge.” Chiu laughs and explains that it's a friendly competition. The two have become friends from being in the DLCs and discuss and strategize about the game together. “It was really nice to be able to play with one of the best and showcase my skills.” Chiu won 2-1 and advanced to the championship final.

Chiu's final match was against second seed Scott Markson, who was piloting Ruby/Sapphire – a dream scenario for Chiu. “I was licking my bites at that point,” he says. Markson's higher player was in the game, but Chiu was able to take the first game decisively by maintaining the bigger hand and controlling the board.

Back in the game, Markson was able to strike out Chiu in Game 2, tying the game at 1-1. “He could get under my feet and go out, and I just wasn't able to respond.” Chiu explains that although Ruby/Sapphire is traditionally a control deck, he made his own version of Ruby/Amethyst to control outside of it. You can build a big hand and take your opponent's cards a turn until they run out of cards, then you just do whatever you need to do to get to the finish line.

In the game for the first time, Chiu led the entire game and eventually won by playing a Merlin, Goat and removing it with Be Prepared for an instant two-laure gain. The game returned to Markson for the fourth match and Chiu was just one win away from the North American championship.

Game 4 was nail-biting and an incredible display of skill from both players. Markson aggressively pushed his story total to 17 while Chiu was sitting on just 6, leading onlookers to believe he was going to upset the series once again and force a fifth and final round. Instead, Chiu, with 11 cards in hand, was able to keep Markson's side of the board empty while quickly closing the gap with three copies of The Library in play. Chiu's Friday night meta call ended up being the difference in the final championship match.

“My game plan was good when he got to 17,” explains Chiu, “that's the last bit of knowledge he'll have for the rest of the game.” He does answer me.”

Disney Lorcana NACC winner Ed Chiu

Here on the biggest competitive stage in Disney Lorcana, with his opponent just three words away from forcing a Game 5, Chiu looked calm, cool and collected. “Honestly, I wasn't really nervous,” she says. “Sometimes you get the ones that are just hanging by a thread, but you know you've made it at the end of the day.”

Through expert deck building and masterful piloting, Chiu became the first North American continental champion and will compete for the world title in Orlando later this year. Despite facing the best all weekend, Chiu succeeded by preparing for the competition he expected to face. In the end, it paid off tremendously.

Lorcana cover

Disney Lorcana

Lorcana is a trading card game developed by Disney and published by Ravensburger that features iconic characters, settings, and more from the studio's long history. As an Illumineer, you must build your deck and help protect Lorcana.

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