Perfect Spheres Showdown Championship - First Place - Midrange Leonidas

The deck is heavily built to survive against the Abyss matchup with cards like bellringer, Urd, and Aurelia. The deck performs decently to well against every matchup other than Haven. The strongest aspect of the deck is having versatile threats that pressure your opponent into inefficient choices having to play around cards like Urd, Aurelia, and Leonidas. These tools help you gain advantage throughout the game while maintaining hand economy through bellringer draws and in-archetype searches. During the tournament, I went 6-0 having resolved Leonidas only 1 time and having my resolve prompty executed. Despite this, the board presence and storm damage was enough in every match I played. I also got lucky and avoided playing against havencraft.

Matchup Breakdown:
Forestcraft - Your biggest threats in this matchup are archer and crystalia lily. Generally Amelia, Aurelia, and Alexander will carry this matchup for you as they deal efficiently with the forest board. Your goal is to aggro them down before they get to lethal range with rose queen. You want to go first in this matchup as it provides you with easier board presence and tempo.
Swordcraft (mirror) - This matchup is heavily based on mid-game tempo swings. You always want to go second in the mirror as it gives you earlier access to power evolves like floral fencer and Leonidas. 
Runecraft - Very free matchup as earthrite cannot avoid playing into Aurelia and generally trades poorly into your board. The only big threat is ancient alchemist but just make sure you get to swordsman/urd early to deal with her. The spell based rune variants struggle to deal with sword as they have no removal for Leonidas. Be careful of later turns against d-shift so you don't get otk'd. You generally always want to go first against runecraft to establish pressure as early as possible.
Dragoncraft - Pretty straightforward matchup, it's 50-50, choose first if you win dice roll. You want to aggro down your opponent while trying to maintain wards so you don't eat Forte storms to the face. Searching Urd mid-game off maid leader might be a good idea to play around Shenlong. The biggest threats to you are dragon warrior, Shenlong, and Forte. 
Abysscraft - Very scary matchup, try to go first and play to take as little face damage as possible. You will outscale your opponent if you're able to stabilize board. Don't be afraid to search and play Aurelias without the 3+ follower proc if needed. Prioritize mulling for bellringer as she helps stabilize early. Urd and Alexander are your best ways for dealing with soul dealer. 
Havencraft - Terrible matchup as you'll never be able to proc Leonidas' resolve against haven. Try to go first and aggro them down. Be mindful of overcommiting into Themis and Jeanne. 

Notable Inclusions:
Bellringer angel - Mandatory survival card for the abyss matchup. Sometimes you will suicide her for card draw. She also gives you a turn 2 play if you don't open Latham. Sometimes you will want to leave her standing if your opponent doesn't have followers on board or storm damage to avoid being a rush target.
Swordsman - Helps deal with annoying vertical followers like forestcraft's archer, runecraft's ancient alchemist, dragoncraft's Shenlong, abysscraft's mini soul devil and soul dealer. He also helps you trade your Leonidas in certain situations.
Gunner maid Seria - Optional to fill in your curve at 2 cost as Aurelia is one of your most frequent searches anyways. You can also consider playing pompous princess to help give you a curve out option but I find her to be underwhelming.
Luminous knight - Optional combo piece that fills your turn 2 if you draw her early. The idea is she pairs with Albert once you have Leonidas' resolve to give your Albert +2 attack so he pushes 16 damage instead of 12.
Avant blader - Definite 1 of as you don't have space for 2 evolved copies. The second copy is a dead 4/4 for 4 mana that does nothing. You can search it when you need it in matches where you're trying to aggro down your opponent. 
Urd - Optional at 1 or 2 copies as she's searchable through maid leader. This card helps you deal with cards you'd otherwise lose to like swordcraft's frontguard general, runecraft's ancient alchemist and runic guardian, dragoncraft's Shenlong, abysscraft's soul dealer, and any havencraft card. You can also Urd evolve to banish a heavenly aegis in your opponent's EX area if they put it there with enstatued seraph. 
Aurelia - Singlehandedly wins the earthrite matchup as well as help you pressure forestcraft, dragoncraft, and the swordcraft mirror. Aurelia's aura is really strong against spell based decks while being able to clear vertical followers herself with asail. This card outperforms Otohime by miles and is one of your most important search targets alongside floral fencer and Leonidas. 
Dark Angel Olivia - Optional 0-2 of as she's quite slow but could be strong in certain game states. The evolve point can be valuable going first and the heal 3 can be very effective against direct damage decks like forestcraft, d-shift rune, discard dragon, and aggro abysscraft. 


Notable Exclusions:
Ninja trainee - Decent card but doesn't help enough against the aggro matchups. It's better to play bellringer for options and consistency.
Unbridled fury - Conditionally good card if you're able to build a wide board using floral fencer. It's too slow against aggro and doesn't help against control. 
Veteran lancer - 2/3 statline trades terribly into abysscraft followers. 
3rd Gemstaff commander - Card is too slow and the deck already has a lot of searchers.
Execution - Card is decent into abysscraft's soul dealer but doesn't perform well in other matchups. As swordcraft, you want your plays to develop your board while answering your problems and sadly, execution doesn't get you there. 
Sea Queen Otohime - Card is way too slow going first and the stats of the wards aren't good enough now that we don't have royal banner. Otohime also trades terribly into Cerberus which is the main matchup you'd want her in. 
Tsubaki - Optional card to play at 1 but 5 attack for 6 isn't very good and the card is slow. 
Frontguard general - Card is too slow and loses to Urd.