Hey all! It’s Michael Feng. I just came back from attending the World Premiere for Part the Mistveil and Calling Tokyo that took place this past weekend, Friday May 17th through Sunday May 19th! I wanted to share my experiences as a FABTCG player and visitor to Japan! Read through or scroll to the bottom for my Q&A section.
Thursday Night in Tokyo
I live in New Jersey and I flew on Delta Airlines to Tokyo, with a layover in Chicago. I departed early Wednesday morning on May 15th, and landed… Thursday afternoon around 4pm!
(Found at the Chicago airport. This is what Fai needed in the expansion slot for this set, right?)
For those that plan to visit Japan, you do have to fill out a form if you are coming from the USA. This can be filled out before you fly or once you have landed. It’s convenient to fill out the digital form, but there were some confusing questions for me if I remember correctly. There’s also a paper form if you’d prefer!
(The wifi wasn’t too great for me at Haneda Airport, so filling out the Japan Web form earlier is probably optimal.)
I took the Tokyo Metro from Haneda Airport to Shin-Okubo station. I found the metro quite easy to navigate! Much easier than the NYC Metro for reference.
(Google Maps worked so well for me in Tokyo!)
I found out quite quickly that the Shin-Okubo area is the “Korea Town / K-Town” of Japan! Fellow teammate Roger Bodee and I scoured the area and struggled honestly at first to even find a Japanese cuisine restaurant. We ended up settling for Ramen - I was so hungry, I forgot to take a picture…
(Shin-Okubo area is the “Korea Town / K-Town” of Japan!)
After dinner, we stopped by 7-Eleven, a convenience store, to pick up some drinks, snacks, and use their ATM to withdraw cash. Note that I hadn’t needed cash until then. I was told this is one of the better ways to get cash without having too much of a fee, and I have a Chase account that pays back any ATM withdrawal fees! I love Asian convenience stores and I’m used to eating at them all the time from spending time in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Korea earlier this year. The only picture I have is funny enough bottles of Soju. I was shocked how affordable they were at 298 JPY (roughly $1.90 USD) as in the states each bottle is often $8 USD!
(If I didn’t have a Premiere and Calling to attend, I’d probably have grabbed a Peach Soju and a Yogurt Soju. 😋)
I was also told that you really should have cash in Japan and that many places are cash only… I took this to heart and tried to pay cash at the 7-Eleven (that accepts all major credit cards.) I inserted a 10,000 JPY bill to pay for ~400 JPY of drinks. Result? I broke the cash machine 😅.
(It took this Nepalese employee almost 20 minutes to fix the cash machine… lesson learned, paying credit card next time at this 7-Eleven! (Not all of them had cash machines.)
I slept early in preparation for the World Premiere the next day. Unfortunately, this is when I discovered I had a serious case of jet lag! I woke up around 2am and just could not fall back asleep… and I was starving, again. I wandered around our area in Shin-Okubo and found some restaurants that were open 24/7 but they had multiple drunk guests loitering around and made me feel uncomfortable, especially because I couldn’t speak Japanese. After wandering for almost an hour, I found one of these 24/7 “Order at the Kiosk” restaurants. It was a godsend!
(This egg yolk was so beautiful!)
I returned back to the apartment at 4:30am and managed to get an hour or two of sleep before waking up again… yet again hungry! This time I settled for convenience store sushi and some other drinks and snacks.
(Had to use Google Lens to make sure it was Melon Soda 🙂)
(I LOVE sushi.)
Friday - the World Premiere of Part the Mistveil!
After a grueling late evening/early morning, I finally made it to the venue! The venue was beautiful and opened at 8am.
(I brought a suitcase to the venue on Friday as I wanted to buy a bunch of playmats and store them 🤣 - most people thought I had just arrived in Japan!)
There was such an air of excitement for the new set and the release of FAB in Japan. Vendors were vending, artists were signing cards and selling proofs, the Prize Wall had new tokens - Zen State and Fang Strike, and there was even an awesome learn to play booth/area!
(Sample Menu of Artist offerings, this one is from romiy)
(The prize wall featuring the two new tokens on the right!)
(Girafull, the main vendor and TO, with their main promotion - JPY boxes that can be picked up at US events, and that come with Mini Snaps per box purchased!)
(Venue picture on Friday, as judges were laying out Chi Playmats, players were passing time playing friendly CC games.)
(Ran into fellow Pro Tour: Baltimore Top 8 player, and Pro Tour: Los Angeles Finalist, Maximilian Klein!)
(The gorgeous learn to play area! Was filled with new players throughout the weekend!)
Part the Mistveil WORLD Premiere!
During registration, all players had the option of receiving their 8 packs in ENGLISH or JAPANESE for the WORLD Premiere, The Calling, and also all sealed side events. I was so happy that we also were provided these little booklets that had the English and Japanese text for all the cards.
My World Premiere experience was awesome. I know the stream is down now, but I was asked to open my sealed pool on the stream, and boy was it an experience.
(Dando from the future, LSS actually posted this entire segment on their youtube channel due to how informative and awesome it was. You can watch that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXb4lY5abPQ)
It was my *first* time ever building a sealed pool with the format, and while I opened a bomb mythic - Chase the Tail - I decided that I’d still end up playing Enigma as I *thought* (likely incorrectly) that I didn’t have enough Combo cards to play Zen. I am of course, biased, as Illusionist is my favorite class, and I don’t regret at all my decision to play Enigma for all 4 rounds of the Premiere (and 8 more rounds of sealed that day, and spoilers… all 8 rounds of Swiss at the Calling and all 9 rounds of day 2 draft!). I had one draw which ended up being on stream. I could totally have avoided the draw if I had played more strategically, and it was a good lesson for me.
The World Premiere sold out at 800 registrants, and I was at table 390 for round 1 which looked like the last table, so roughly 780 players showed up at least for deck registration (and to collect the cool Enigma promo, which was only given out during Round 1)! Because of the large number of players, rounds did go over time quite a lot (first few rounds didn’t formally end until 20+ minutes after time was called!) This was a nice blessing though, as it let me sign up for two more sealed events and do some merchandise shopping! I managed to get one of each of the playmats on the Merch Booth Menu, as well as some Enigma sleeves, and a cool T-Shirt (the Calling Tokyo Night Sky Navy one!) There also was (not pictured) an awesome Bento Box lunch service everyday in the afternoon with super reasonable prices; I took advantage of the lunch service everyday.
I was exhausted by the end of Friday, having played 12 rounds of sealed with Enigma, who quickly became my favorite hero of the set, and probably my favorite hero to play in any limited format ever! Sadly, almost nothing was open by the time we left the venue, so it was convenience store food again. Brodie arrived by this time. He is a picky eater, but we were pleasantly surprised that he could eat the “Fami-Chiki” aka the hot fried chicken that’s available at all convenience stores!
(I enjoyed eating these too, but the spicy and cheesy flavors.
Brodie only liked the original.)
Saturday - the Calling Tokyo
I don’t have pictures for you as I was focused on the Calling. Sadly I had woken up around 2am again and got tired pretty early into the event, but still had a strong showing! Here are some of my rounds and my notes:
Round1 vs Yokota (横田) Zen - Win!
Yokota’s first two words to me (which he had to repeat because I didn’t understand at first) were “I’m beginner.” My sealed pool was quite strong and I was able to win comfortably. He was a respectful opponent, and I noticed his sleeves weren’t opaque a bit late into the game. Make sure to check your sleeves! A more rules focused opponent could have potentially called a judge, but I used my discretion and waited until the game was over to let him know. Yokota was understanding and told me he’d for sure replace the sleeves right away!
Round 2 vs Shinya (シンヤ) & Round 3 vs Kazuma (一馬) - both Wins!
I don’t have notes on these games, but I think they were both Enigma mirrors. I ended up winning, often through the power of having some attack actions to pressure!
Round 4 vs Ryosuke Urase (Zen) - Loss
Ryosuke’s deck was on fire! He attacked me with Qi Unleashed three times. I think Qi Unleashed is one of the most powerful cards in Zen, and it is the most efficient chain ender available to him in the format. I took a close loss here, bringing Ryosuke to 1 before he kept enough cards to knock me out.
Round 5 vs Miyaji (Nuu) - Win
Miyaji’s deck was strong, but I stuck an early Spectral Shield with counters and kept it around. Some people call this “protect the king” but I prefer “protect the princess.” I ended the game at 13 health!
Round 6 vs Eric Lerer (Nuu) - Win
Eric, a fellow North American and Team Stroopwafel member, was an incredibly strong opponent. His Pick to Pieces were backbreaking, and we had a super close game. I was at 1 when I was able to pressure him enough with late game Enigma activations and overran him with weaponized Spectral Shields!
Round 7 vs Gordon Koh (Nuu) - Win
Oh man, Gordon had just beat me the day before in an Enigma mirror and I was so ready to battle it again! Gordon is a two-time Singapore National Champion and someone who has graciously allowed me to stay at his house for the Calling Singapore. This time he presented Nuu. I took early tempo with strong plays like red Waxing Specter, eventually grinded him out. Sorry Gordon! I hope you’ll let me crash at your place again!
Round 8 vs Takahito (Nuu) - Win
By this time I felt firmly ‘favored’ into most Nuu matchups, as long as I didn’t get “Picked to Pieces” every turn. That’s exactly what I felt Takahito was planning on doing! But I managed to get there as every time I was picked to pieces, I was able to reassemble some shields to pressure him. It’s rough when you’re facing down Ward weapons - you have to tank the damage and try to keep a 4-5 card hand to pressure Enigma down to destroy them, but sometimes your hands just aren’t aggressive enough, and sometimes by doing this you’re actually playing into Enigma’s strategy! Enigma has a few cards that care about *not* having any ward and have additional effects, with Spectral Manifestations being the primary powerhouse (and a card I didn’t have in red for my entire Calling run, haha!)
I ended Day 1 at 7-1! I do think I was lucky to not have to play against many of the powerful Zen opponents - both X-0 and most of the X-1 players were on Zen! Zen might just be the best hero in Sealed, but I was so happy to have been able to play Enigma. I heard a lot of bad beat stories or “high roll” stories about players with majestics, but I didn’t have any Majestics in my Enigma deck and I felt fine!
Sunday - the Calling Tokyo Day 2!
Sunday is when things got serious. I didn’t sleep well again, felt so nervous! Not only had I not drafted before, we also drafted using Japanese language cards, which I could not read! I woke up at 2:30am this time, and I spent a few hours studying the set using the new cards.fabtcg.com tool! It was awesome. I just switched the card language to Japanese and quizzed myself on every card. I felt reasonably competent, but still felt so nervous!
(Here’s a direct URL to this page: https://cards.fabtcg.com/products/part-the-mistveil-ja/)
My first draft felt like a complete disaster to me. I didn’t get equipment (only ended up with one Skybody Kekoi) and I only had two powerful non-embarassing red cards - Spectral Manifestations and Blanch. I was incredibly sad, but I understood that since it was the first time I had ever drafted, it would make sense that I wouldn’t be that good at it. I also should have read that I was in a Nuu seat, but my blinders were on. The player to my immediate right was also on Enigma. I thought that I needed to go 5 -1 overall to make the Top 8, so I just resigned myself to playing as best as I could and expecting to use the draft games and Draft #2 as a learning experience.
I immediately lost to Yoshiki in Round 9 who had a powerful Zen deck. Then, in Round 10, my deck did everything that it could possibly do. I played a red Spectral Manifestation early, then I attacked with red Blanch the next turn. Then the following two turns I played Preserve Traditions to recycle both of the threats, and in the second cycle played BOTH in the SAME turn to close the game!
In Round 11, I got an early aggressive start against Ryutaro in the Enigma mirror and was able to close the game with a red Nimbilism into red Nimble Strike into Blanche turn! I really did not expect red Nimbilism/Nimble Strike to work, though it’s my favorite combo to play in WTR draft, and my deck surprised me in how explosive it could be. Since I ended 2-1 in Draft #1, I was 9-2 overall, and I was ecstatic to still be alive and still in contention for Top 8!
Draft #2 - this time I felt armed with knowledge and had cards I wanted to take. I drafted what I felt was an incredibly strong deck, and my first game on stream for Round 12 against Chanon Puttaree felt like it showcased what a powerful Enigma deck can do, despite the incredibly powerful first turn Chanon had against me. Chanon was able to make auras on my turn at instant speed despite me going first, and got to start his first real turn with “2 go again.”
In Rd 13, I paired against Ming-Han on Zen. Due to my games on Friday, I had a good enough strategy for Zen, and that combined with strong draws plus what I felt like was a strong draft deck, I was able to dispatch Ming-Han - at 19 life! This win put me at 11-2 and locked me into top 8 and I was so excited!
In Rd 14, I paired against Alex Dobler also on Zen, which was a pair down for me. Alex was incredibly respectful. I chose not to concede because I really valued being able to have the ability to choose go first go second, and I ended up defeating Alex in a close game. I apologized a bunch, and Alex was incredibly understanding. Thank you Alex!
Standings are announced and I find out that not only did Brodie make top 8, but so did Pete Ward! Brodie, Pete, and I had been meeting up and discussing throughout the weekend how strong we felt Enigma was… it felt so validating that we all made the top 8! The excitement is also bittersweet as I notice I’m 3rd seed and Brodie is 6th, which in any normal CC Top 8 for FABTCG would mean we play each other in the quarterfinals…
Top 8 Draft
I didn’t know this was a thing, but for the Top 8 Draft, we were each asked to pick a card numbered 1 through 8 - this was our new draft seating! I ended up getting matched against Ryosuke Urase who was 1st seed and my only loss in Day 1. I was nervous and sad I beat Alex to have “higher seed” advantage, but didn’t get to choose 1st/2nd in Quarterfinals, but I was also so happy not to have to play against Brodie!
(You can find a better picture of this in the Live blog; enjoy the handwritten authenticity! https://fabtcg.com/articles/calling-tokyo-live-blog/)
I believe my draft went well for me, but there are some picks I wish I could have changed. Primarily one of the transcend cards (I ended up with 6) I wish I drafted a Evasive Leap instead. I thought Evasive Leap was primarily an Enigma card, and I felt pretty early into the draft that I was likely one of the 2 Enigma drafters. My first round against Ryosuke is on stream, and it was A NAIL BITER. I truly thought I had lost when Ryosuke was able to attack with Pick to Pieces and clear my ward 5 board, and then when he gained 2 life off the Bonds of Memory. I had checked my Graveyard and my Banish zone and my hand and I only had ONE more copy of Vengeful Apparition, but he was able to find it off the top! In the second, a timely “Drop in the Ocean” plus “Preserve Tradition” gave me the late game edge, and I was able to swarm Ryosuke with Enigma activation Spectral Shields to close the game. Feel free to go watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/live/lD7tXfcoYR4?si=7P2YIqDpUoMImtGO&t=29340
(Yes, I was so stressed I had a bloody nose! Excuse the tissue!)
My semifinal was against Pete Ward (wow, what an opt last name!) in an Enigma mirror. I’ve discovered Enigma mirrors often can be one player taking an early ward advantage and then never losing tempo. That happened here - I ended the game at 20 health, never having taken a point of damage. Sorry Pete! There could only be one Enigma player in the finals!
And ah yes, the finals. I can’t say I played perfectly in the finals. In fact, I made at least one relatively significant misplay in EVERY game I played the ENTIRE weekend!! I learned so much, and this game was another great learning experience. Friends, I invite you to watch the finals game and if possible, comment on this article about what my mistakes were! Keep in mind that it is open decklist, and as the game progresses, I do start making decisions based off what I think is in Oh Oh’s hand.
(Here’s the match URL! Go give it a look! https://www.youtube.com/live/lD7tXfcoYR4?si=wHS2EgJLfQZ4Jlvq&t=34800 )
I have to say that Oh Oh’s deck was incredibly powerful for a Zen deck, instead of relying on traditional Combo payoffs, it had a lot of powerful attacks and chain enders such as the 0 for 4 Emissary of Tides. I do think powerful Zen decks need a combination of Go Again to extend turns, but also powerful chain enders! Oh Oh piloted incredibly well and I am so happy for his win. The rest of Sunday was kind of a blur for me as I tried to process the day, but I did get some cards signed for a fellow American!
(Artists for 5 of the Transcend common cards were there! Here are their signatures on their respective cards :)
Monday - a short day in Tokyo
My return flight via Hawaiian Airlines was at 8:15pm, so I was able to spend the day finally enjoying Tokyo. I was able to grab an early lunch at Freshness Burger which was founded the year I was born, so I thought that was fun. Everyone at the burger joint was eating alone and they all looked like employees on lunch break!
But, my real mission on Monday was to take my Calling earnings and invest in the source of most of my FABTCG motivation and strength - my wife. Due to how the JPY has been quite weak against the USD, I was basically able to buy these high end jewelry pieces on “sale.”
(Van Cleef & Arpels Mother of Pearl Earrings - I saved $700-800 buying them in Japan, which in girl math means I made money, right? Right?)
I’m sure there are other lovers reading this, so you know what I mean… when it comes to our significant others, there doesn’t seem to be a price that is too high. Leslie loves this brand and after visiting other stores and discovering that her most wanted piece - the Vintage Alhambra 5 Motif Bracelet - wasn’t available, I was able to settle and buy the earrings shown above. Leslie and I celebrate our 5-year anniversary this Saturday. She is my rock. The person who has to listen to all of my bad beat stories (so you all don’t have to.) You all should love her too!
I depart Tokyo and after many hours, make it back to New Jersey on Tuesday morning. Here’s a picture of me celebrating in my favorite way - with Pizza!
(Papa John’s XL Supreme Pizza does wonders to the soul)
The Q&A Section
Preface: I posted on X asking for questions you all had about my time at Tokyo. I’ve picked a few to respond to! Thanks for everyone’s inputs and comments!
This is my favorite question so I’ll answer it first. I did 0 practice drafts. I did 0 practice sealed events except for the 3 events on Friday at the World Premiere. I also did 0 theory discussions with teammates. I literally read every hero’s “Chi” activation ability and decided Enigma’s “rocked my socks” off and all I wanted to do was activate it! It’s like being able to use Prism’s hero ability WITHOUT needing ANY soul! How awesome is that?
By the time I drafted with Japanese cards, I had played 12 games of Sealed on Friday, 8 games of Sealed on Saturday, and had studied the blue booklet and the set multiple times! I felt incredibly comfortable drafting and just looking at pictures. Actually, the only time I felt a little held back was during deck registration, but by looking at the Set Numbers religiously, I felt like I was able to conquer that portion… only making one mistake in 3 drafts, hah!
I honestly always have been able to quickly recognize picture with cards… and still struggle remembering the names of cards. Waxing Specter? Waning Vengeance? Or is it the other way around? I just know one has a wolf and costs 2, and the other has a bigger wolf and just costs 1 haha!
Overall, I feel like Zen and Enigma might be stronger than Nuu in sealed. I just want to note though, a lot of “power” or “high roll” stories were from strong class Majestics such as Manifestations of Miragai and Chase the Tail, and also powerful Generics like red Blanch. When in doubt, I liked leaning on Enigma because you are guaranteed 8 Transcend cards and her hero ability is so so powerful!
I LOVED this restriction. Prior to this, during draft I felt like you were doubly punished for not drafting the right seat and spending too many picks being open. In sealed, I feel like it really really allows you to play the best 30 cards and gives you so much space to sideboard in and out - for example, maybe don’t play your awesome blue Mystic cards against Nuu? In both formats, I felt like without a 30-card restriction, there was always an arms race where players were incentivized to fatten their deck to prevent fatigue or to have fatigue as an inevitable win condition. Knowing that instead my opponent at max has 30 cards minimizes that tension, and also coincidentally makes cards that banish off the top from Nuu have an alternate benefit besides trying to banish blues or cards that trigger the stealth attack’s benefits.
Hah! I’m glad you caught it before the stream was taken down. I just want to mention it was my FIRST time ever opening packs and I hope it was somewhat helpful, at least just to listen to what was going on in my brain. Now for your question… I wish I could answer this well. I’m biased; I basically just want to play Enigma because her hero ability is awesome. I think most “good” Enigma pools are likely “good” Nuu and “good” Zen pools to be completely honest. You don’t need many powerful Illusionist or Assassin or Ninja cards, I often found a lot of my power came from my Generic and Mystic cards!
I think the dual language event was part of the celebration of FAB entering Japan. I expect future non “game enters country for first time” events to default to English. I felt like I was able to adjust and honestly it wasn’t too hard! Just match the pictures! :D
Heh, most of the time nowadays I prefer Ham, Pineapple, and extra Cheese! I used to love Pepperoni but I realized it does make pizzas tend to be extra greasy and oddly sweet. I’ll probably eat any pizza though! I do prefer toppings… for what it’s worth, unlike a certain Bordie Sporlok who prefers the most plain jane pizzas in the world…
I honestly didn’t have too many thoughts! I just felt like Enigma would be awesome b/c her hero ability felt the most consistent and had the highest floor. I still feel like Enigma’s hero ability is “da best!” I think Waxing Specter ended up being my favorite card of the weekend, and I felt like Preserve Tradition overperformed in Zen!
Hmmm, I didn’t find any unique card combinations or strategies that felt “this is so Japan” and “this is not what North Americans do.” I did feel like most of the Enigma players on Day 1 were not from Japan though! I have always felt like the Americas and Europe have had more illusionist representation, as someone who has traveled to Calling Singapore in 2022 and played Prism there… and on the flip side, Asia has typically had more Ninja representation in the meta, likely because Katsu and now Zen are both Asian characters that MANY players can relate to!
My answer for both of these is that for me, the World Premiere and the Calling Tokyo are events that I voluntarily go to because I love the game. It’s a privilege for me to participate. I don’t mind that because it is in Japan the TO or LSS or whomever decided to have Day 2 drafts in Japanese language only - a decision HAD to be made (think about it logistically!). To be even more frank, I love that people are able to express themselves on social media and give feedback, and the feedback is often very valid, but I think sometimes that feedback comes across without empathy, without understanding how these decisions are made, without feeling the time and passion that the decision makers put into making these decisions.
I did want to share something that wasn’t a question from my thread. This has been my ethos playing in so many FABTCG events across the world; it’s now been almost 2 years of traveling the world, and the only way I can find doing it sustainably is by managing my expectations and finding joy in the process!
Lastly, I want to thank MinMax Games for supporting Brodie and I throughout our journey. They financially support each of our trips and for me, and for me, they have been the difference maker for the attendance of many events over the last year. If your local game store does not have the cards or product you need, I welcome you to visit https://www.minmaxgamesfab.com/ for FABTCG stuff or https://www.minmaxgames.com/ for all products. Supporting them is basically supporting me!
With love, empathy, and may you feel the warmth and protection of many spectral shields,
-Michael
