In this video I’m chopping it up with Mickey, who pulled up to the Newtype Challenge running the 1st place Blue/Purple list—the same “Vegas” deck that’s been going crazy. I had him show the heat (yes, the Freedom and that Kira) and then we ran through the full deck list. It’s basically copy-and-paste from the winning build, with a key last-second change: he cut Christina and the NT-1 baby form because it felt too slow, and just committed to the faster, more consistent core. We also talked matchups from his run: two Blue/Red spell control, a mirror match, Blue/White blockers, and a drafted Red/White. The mirror came down to tempo—whoever sees pilots, bases, and keeps pace usually takes it—though Mickey straight-up said he top-decked a little better and got there. His toughest match was Blue/Red removal (Improved Technique, Close Combat, and all that) where his early game got cooked, but the turning point was surviving into NT-1 and then finding double Corska Base to out-tempo and draw back in. Bottom line: no immediate changes—this deck is hot right now if you’re trying to win Newtype matches, even if you’ll still soft brick sometimes because that’s just the game.