Hail to Our U.S. National Champions
Gen Con 2023 was an amazing show where more than 70,000 gamers gathered in the Indianapolis Convention Center and Lucas Oil Stadium to enjoy four days of gaming. Excitement poured into the Ghost Galaxy booth where we taught nearly 200 people how to get started in KeyForge making for a busy weekend. Our sister company Gamezenter also sold a huge amount of KeyForge decks and related products across all four days of the show.
Gen Con 2023 beamed with excitement for another reason, as it held the KeyForge U.S. National Championships at our event space in Lucas Oil Stadium. Friday’s Archon tournament saw 66 players test their skills while Saturday’s Alliance tournament featured 39 players. The top eight players from each tournament faced-off in the finals held on Sunday to be crowned the U.S. National Champion.
The recently released Winds of Exchange set had the largest presence in the Archon tournament with 24 decks. It also showcased a diverse mixture of token creatures—14 in total—with Prospector and Warrior being the two most popular.
The top 11 cards that appeared most frequently in Archon decks were:
- EDAI “Edie” 4×4 (27 total)
- Infurnace (19 total)
- Wild Wormhole (19 total)
- Kelpminder (18 total)
- Befuddle (17 total)
- Eyegor (17 total)
- Red Alert (14 total)
- Twin Bolt Emission (14 total)
- Infomorph (13 total)
- Phalanx Strike (13 total)
- Q-Mechs (13 total)
There were 348 cards that appeared only once across all decks in the Archon tournament.
The Alliance tournament saw a lot of variety from across most of the KeyForge sets, including multiple Winds of Exchange decks, two of which made it to top 8. While every Alliance deck was checked for legality during registration, the deck data wasn’t always recorded due to an ongoing bug with the Master Vault. Our software development team is actively working to resolve that issue. But, we still have some interesting data to share about the Alliance tournament.
The top 10 cards* that appeared most frequently in Alliance decks were:
- Infurnace (15 total)
- Daughter (11 total)
- EDAI “Edie” 4×4 (9 total)
- Eyegor (8 total)
- Sloppy Labwork (8 total)
- Lethologica (8 total
- Control the Weak (7 total))
- Infomorph (7 total)
- Mark of Dis (7 total)
- Membership Drive (7 total)
There were 286 cards* that appeared only once across all of the Alliance decks.
*According to the available Alliance data.
Archon Results
Champion: Nova playing Jacques “Aombre”, lord de la station from Worlds Collide
Runner-Up: VermontGamer playing Pyschorubios Gaard-Viville, Thrall from Winds of Exchange
Top 4: SecondAct playing SecondAct who Lionizes Helium from Winds of Exchange
Top 4: Big Z playing “Pink Jacket” Tadeusz, City Dreamchaser from Mass Mutation
Top 8: Zander4DaWin playing Donovan of Jereztread Haunt from Call of the Archons
Top 8: Ewokjr playing “ควัน” เจโธรว์ พระแห่งประตูเมือง from Mass Mutation
Top 8: DRSheep playing Adm. Inslang, the Pink Fraud from Call of the Archons
Top 8: benthemonkey playing The Ooze that Trains All Three Houses from Winds of Exchange
Alliance Results
Champion: Aveightr with an alliance of Logos, Mars, and Untamed from Age of Ascension
Runner-Up: JayPower with an alliance of Star Alliance, Logos, and Dis from Mass Mutation
Top 4: Jaylas21 with an alliance of Logos, Star Alliance, and Dis from Mass Mutation
Top 4: SydnieSteele with an alliance of Untamed, Mars, and Logos from Age of Ascension
Top 8: Gamjuvenfuzzygruens with an alliance of Untamed, Mars, and Logos from Call of the Archons
Top 8: UnarmedGoat with an alliance of Logos and Dis, plus Untamed from Call of the Archons
Top 8: Adkiene with an alliance of Brobnar, Mars, and Star Alliance from Winds of Exchange using Berserker as the token creature
Top 8: Milkstrong with an alliance of Sanctum, Mars, and Brobnar from Winds of Exchange using Berserker as the token creature
Archon Top 4 (left to right): Big Z, VermontGamer, Nova, SecondAct
Alliance Top 4 (left to right): Jaylas21, JayPower, Aveightr, SydnieSteele
We’d like to extend a heart-felt thank you to everyone who played in our Gen Con 2023 events, and a special congratulations to our Top 8 finalists and our new U.S. National Champions! The champion and runner-up in each tournament will each receive an invitation to compete in the KeyForge World Championships held this November at our KeyForge Celebration event in Roseville, MN.
The Competition Continues with Vault Tours
There are still lots of exciting opportunities to compete in KeyForge Vault Tours this year. Visit the links below to learn more information about each of the upcoming events.
Roseville, MN USA is August 18-20
Seattle, WA USA is August 25-27
Dallas, TX USA is September 15-17
Shanghai, China is September 15-17
