The battle between Trump and Gnimsh was long, intense and with plenty of nice curve-balls in both decks. In the end the Polish TCG veteran came out on top and sets up the Upper Bracket Final of him and StrifeCro - the Ace match for the first and second season of ESGN Fight Night.
Gnimsh was expected to be in this round, Trump was more of an upset. Obviously people knew he had improved a lot since the Fight Night tapings, but not a whole lot of people in the community thought of him as an equal caliber player to ek0p. He proved the doubters wrong with a clean and clear 4-0 sweep to start the tournament , but now he has to descend to the Lower Bracket after losing to Gnimsh.
It wasn't that one-sided either though, with Trump even jumping to the early lead with his Druid deck in the mirror matchup. As many matches between this class it was the usual standoff with both players developing a board and having a stellar presence throughout. How the "card draw" can effect the game was on perfect display here with Trump having two [card]Ancient Watcher[/card] out for almost the entire game, but not drawing into his activating cards like [card]Sunfury Protector[/card],[card]Defender of Argus[/card] or [card]Keeper of the Grove[/card]. Because of that fact the was in some trouble midway through, until he finally got his hand on the Sunfury, followed up by the Argus - building up his modern version of the Great Wall. Gnimsh tried everything to break through but couldn't quite turn the situation around and had to give the first match away.
His answer to the Druid was the [card]Windfury[/card] Shaman deck, without the lord himself [card]Al'Akir the Windlord[/card], but with two [card]Argent Commander[/card], Windfury and [card]Rockbiter Weapon[/card] to "build your own Al'Akir. He didn't need that explosive finisher overall though, as he was behind for most of the game, until [card]Unbound Elemental[/card] and [card]Feral Spirit[/card] came out. The comeback class Shaman struck once again, similar to the comeback Savjz and Artosis mounted on the first day of the tournament.
The playing field was levelled and so Trump went for the "tempo Rogue" from his decks. The underappreciated class was only showcased once throughout this tournament so far, in the popular Miracle version. Trump threw this curve-ball in here, which actually caught the Polish veteran off guard in the first match. Cards like [card]King Mukla[/card] or a [card]Cold Blood[/card]ed [card]Cairne Bloodhoof[/card] caused a lot of friction and all the efforts of building up a taunt wall were shattered by [card]Deadly Poison[/card] and [card]Blade Flurry[/card]. Trump had pushed the series back in his favor once more, this time using one of the "low popularity" decks.
The response of Gnimsh was aggro! Typical to the preferences of the Polish player he brought out his version of the Zoo Warlock featuring the odd [card]Amani Berserker[/card]. History repeated itself, as Gnimsh tore through every single remaining deck of Trump, just like he had done the day before with Artosis. The overwhelming board presence, all the low drops and buffs in the deck and a grain of RNG luck were way too much to handle for Trump, who did not utilize a Mage deck throughout the entire series. First the Rogue fell, then the Warrior got overran and in the end Thrall couldn't bring the elements to turn against the stacked board - not drawing a single [card]Lightning Storm[/card].
So Gnimsh moves on to face his old nemesis StrifeCro again. Both have meet plenty of times during the ESGN Fight Night episodes, ultimately being the respective Ace players for each team in the first two seasons. The game is going to be a toss up with momentum on the Polish side coming off a 3-0 victory in the last meeting. For Trump the battle through the Lower Bracket begins in which he is awaiting either Korean legend Lucifer or his own captain monk for an elimination showcase.
