Interview: Modgnik and Cappuccino

Introductions

Modgnik: Hey I’m Modgnik is a 32 year old Graphic Designer and Entrepreneur from Finland. I'm married with two kids aged nine and eleven.

Modgnik has won two Faeria Monthly Cups along with an ESL Cup. He is known for his fierce competitive play but also inventing weird and wonderful decks. Modgnik has reached a Monthly Cup final with a Day of the Dragon deck!

Cappuccino: Hey readers! I'm Cappuccino and something not many know is that I gained my passion for cards games from playing Yu-Gi-Oh growing up, I spent a lot of time playing with friends and going to tournaments being held by the local shop. It really got me hooked on collecting all the strongest cards, my favorite of all being Blackwings and Gladiator.

Cappuccino won the September Monthly Cup alongside two ESL Cups. He is known for his strong ladder play and has been the number one God Rank player for many weeks at a time. Cappuccino has helped shaped the meta-game many times with his creative deck building and outside the box thinking.

Why did you become a competitive Faeria player?

Modgnik: It wasn’t something I planned really. Sort of just happened since I liked playing the game and started participating in the tournaments. While winning monthly cups is sweet, I actually prefer playing the ladder to tournaments since it’s more about just enjoying the game instead of the sole focus being on winning.

Cappuccino: I guess somewhat leading into this next question - I eventually moved and didn't have a local store to visit competitions and switched to Massive Multiplayer Online Gaming and other stuff like League of Legends and Heroes of the Storm. That was until popular card games became an online sensation and I rode HearthStone until finding Faeria which I very quickly became obsessed with the gameplay.

You’re a renowned deck builder within the community. What is your favourite type of deck to build?

Modgnik: In general, anything that makes the opponent go ‘what just happened?’. Most of my creations are some sort of combo decks, either lots of small synergies that add up or full blown all in on one thing. Usually these decks end up being blue/yellow. I’ve never been much for the style of play where you just play efficient cards and go for the value game, which is why I tend to shy away from red and green.

Cappuccino: My favourite type of deck to build, hmm, I think I've had the most fun with Neutral decks (mostly midrange style).

Is there any advice you could give for deck building? What process do you go through when testing a new deck idea?

Modgnik: My deck building process is different depending on if I’m trying to refine a known archetype or brewing something new. When tuning an existing list, a lot of thought goes into each card and it’s a meticulous process considering all the different options, trying them out and reiterating until I feel satisfied.

When making something new I usually have a vague idea of what I want to do, either some interaction I want to try or maybe I saw someone playing a certain thing and want to expand on it. So I throw a bunch of cards in a deck and take it to ladder. After a few games you can usually tell if it’s worth to keep working on it and I’ll start refining things. Sometimes after a few cycles it turns into a decent deck, other times it gets scrapped or put on the just for fun pile.

As for advice, I want to say to just try everything and make a lot of decks. I have made a lot of successful decks, still most of the decks I make are somewhere between bad and terrible, those are just not the ones people will see.

Cappuccino: This is rather difficult and something that eventually grows with you, but I always consider 'how can my opponent deal with this' and 'how can I deal with x card in the meta'. After that I put in the cards that have the hardest trades for the opponent or most reliable for me to snowball. I've been playing since pre-season and very competitively for long hours and have slowly learned instinctively how trades will end up.

My advice would be to have a card or theme in mind and really build off that. Make a notepad, write down your starting hand and what you played against and why you won/lost. Here's an example of what I did when I was testing out my mid-range red deck that I brought into the monthly a few seasons back.

This data was gathered before the September Monthly Cup which Cappuccino would go on to win with his Mid-Range Red deck.

These were the two lists I used during the testing.

I started off with Cartographers but eventually moved over to Fire Elementals when I realised it was better.

Nobody was playing Mid-Range Red at the time and I was working to pioneer it. HeliosAFlame and Sweety (Cappuccino’s team-mates) decided to jump on board and test privately with me to improve it more. That is when Sweety suggested adding Syland Horsemaster and Helios told me to cut Volcanic Colossus because it was inconsistent.

Which players should we keep an eye on in competitive Faeria?

Modgnik: I have been a bit out of the loop this past month so it’s hard for me to name any up-and-comers. The one that comes to mind other than already well established names is xyz.

Cappuccino: Well, Xyz for sure is a standout player, add on to that all the previous monthly cup finalists.

What advice would you have for an aspiring competitive player?

Modgnik: Play a lot, and then play some more. My success, while assisted by having a strong foundation in other card games, has come from thousands of hours playing and watching the game.

Cappuccino: Always ask yourself these questions in every game.

• How can I lose this match up? (especially if you are ahead)
• Can I and if I pressure him will he just flop dead?
• Always keep in mind vs rush that if they have prayers they will trigger them eventually, so make sure to focus on value collecting over blocking unless good reason.

Where can readers watch you?

Modgnik: I sporadically stream on twitch.tv/modgnik_

Cappuccino: You can find me streaming at twitch.tv/itscappuccino