Vault Tour 2024 continued in Rochester, New York. For three action-packed days, Rochester’s massive local game store, Millennium Games, welcomed 70 brave players to reap Æmber, forge keys, and compete for the ultimate KeyForge title: Vault Warrior.

Three tournaments were completed across the weekend in each of KeyForge’s competitive formats: Sealed, Archon, and Alliance. Champions who did not already hold the Vault Warrior title attained it and were awarded an invite to the KeyForge 2024 World Championship in November in addition to all their other prizes.

Across all three main tournaments held over the weekend, we narrowed down to the Top 8 of each and crowned three tournament champions. Several players managed to snag top spots for different formats, as was the case with Vault Tour Roseville. Many keys were forge in the fires of competition, and we must pay respects to the honor and glory won by those who preserved.

Sealed

Sealed continues to grow as a major competitive format in the 2024 season. 61 players joined the event, making it the largest single event of the Vault Tour 2024 Rochester weekend.

Players were expected to compete using 1-3 sealed decks of KeyForge: Grim Reminders and constructed using the Alliance deck mechanics.

Sealed allows players to swap house pods from their three decks between rounds. Because of this, we do not have a detailed breakdown of the houses used, pod selections, or top cards of this tournament.

Sealed Results

Below are the Top 8 competitors for Sealed at Vault Tour 2024 Rochester.

Champion: SJess* using The Pristine Cheat; Ogrecan, the Fisher of Reptiles; and U. Public, Typhonstunnel’s Scaley Ears

Runner-Up: Drazkor using Zemknell, the Dashing Asylum Aristocrat; Lenna, Agrarian Prairie Lion; and Grace S. Fidcrush, the Younger

Top 4: TheLV14 using O’Splosion, Wimovy’s Criminal; Marduk, Cavalier of the Lousy Solan; and Odemluck, the Fisher of Necromancy

Top 4: JTRussell using Rupert G. Endospace, the Elder; The Centurion that Strains Deathrays; and Philippa, Pub Time Warden

Top 8: JDG using K. Gomez, Ward of the Strong Oubliette; Eewhanvil of the Servant’s Barracks; and Protector Helvia Tripticoil

Top 8: Metalxoa using Airy Stella of the Grounds; Wornwhooz, the Rustler of the Abyss; and Whirlwind the Abruptly Fashionable

Top 8: Nobe72 using Neuville the Quietly Fortunate; “Pied Piper” Xiaomei, Flat Scum; and Massive “Concrete” Steinun

Top 8: Lazarith using Hayfield the Heartlessly Gracious; Fonzi, the Minister of The Brig; and The Sen. of Amudasolan

* – This person received an invite to the KeyForge 2024 World Championship for this format, and the coveted title of Vault Warrior!

Archon

55 participants registered on Saturday for the Archon tournament. KeyForge: Grim Reminders had a spooktacular number of decks at 33. It wasn’t a complete blowout, however, as a respectable 11 KeyForge: Winds of Exchange decks entered the field. KeyForge: Mass Mutation was the highest of the single-digit representations at four decks.

House representation was a roller-ghoster, with seven houses seeing double-digit representation but Geistoid reaping the top spot (which it also possessed at Vault Tour 2024 Roseville). The demons of Dis were nearly banished, only fielding four decks total. Top 10 houses were:

1. Geistoid (28 decks)
2. Mars (25 decks)
3. Untamed (23 decks)
4. Ekwidon (20 decks)
5. Unfathomable (17 decks)
6. Brobnar (13 decks)
7. Star Alliance (10 decks)
8. Logos (8 decks)
9. Sanctum (6 decks)
10. Saurian (6 decks)

The top 10 cards that appeared most frequently in Archon decks were:

1. In Here Somewhere… (29 total)
2. Junk Restoration (28 total)
3. Ironyx Rebel (23 total)
4. Winds of Death (23 total)
5. Belligerent Guard (21 total)
6. Be Our Geist (16 total)
7. Hallowed Eve Festival (16 total)
8. Braindart (15 total)
9. Legerdemain (15 total)
10. Witch of the Eye (15 total)

Alliance

Alliance ran simultaneously with Archon on Saturday. It saw 10 participants forge alliances, which meant it was one of the smaller tournaments seen at a Vault Tour. Because of this, Ghost Galaxy decided to “run out” the 2LO rounds without a Top Cut. Players played until they had two losses, and this continued until only two players remained. Those players then played a Best-of-Three final match.

KeyForge: Grim Reminders was a favorite, fielding four decks, but KeyForge: Call of the Archons made up the bulk of the rest of the decks at three. KeyForge: Age of Ascension, KeyForge: Mass Mutation, and KeyForge: Winds of Exchange made up the rest at one deck each.

Martians continue to, paradoxically, be good allies as Mars was represented in seven of the decks. Untamed wasn’t wildly far behind at 5 decks. 10 houses managed to be represented among the 10 decks, and the full breakdown is:

1. Mars (7 decks)
2. Untamed (5 decks)
3. Geistoid (4 decks)
4. Logos (4 decks)
5. Star Alliance (3 decks)
6. Brobnar (2 decks)
7. Dis (2 decks)
8. Ekwidon (1 deck)
9. Shadows (1 deck)
10. Unfathomable (1 deck)

The top 10 cards that appeared most frequently in Alliance decks were:

1. Key Abduction (9 total)
2. Battle Fleet (7 total)
3. Haunted House (7 total)
4. Winds of Death (7 total)
5. Nepenthe Seed (6 total)
6. Hallowed Eve Festival (5 total)
7. In Here Somewhere… (5 total)
8. Ironyx Rebel (5 total)
9. Labwork (5 total)
10. Target Yynxzdyl (5 total)

Ghost Galaxy recommends checking out our host, Millennium Games, if you’re ever in the Rochester, New York area. Travis, the owner, has built a one-of-a-kind large format store with a truly eye-popping number of games, a huge event space, and some of the most knowledgeable staff around. Community building is why games like KeyForge should be played at a friendly local store, and Millennium Games is a prime example of how to give community organizers all the tools to do that work. We cannot express how great it was to work with them, from start to finish. Thank you so much, Millennium Games!