Saturday was the Final Brawl World Championship. I felt woefully under prepared for this event. Leading up to Gen Con, most of my decks had been greatly modified to try out Empire of Evil cards, and none of them were well tuned. I was working on Lotus recycling deck ideas (Hopping Vampire with or without Mysterious Return, or Unholy Legionaries with Dragon Throne) but nothing seemed like a solid build. I finally decided to go back to an old standby - Yakuza Enforcers and Final Brawls with a few updates. Again, the deck is not well tuned, but the basic concept is simple and simple to play.
First round was against Robert Stetler and Greg Zimmerman. I got off to a good start and wrapped this up quickly. Robert was quite upset when he found out that Sword of the Master cancelled the fighting bonuses his Twelve Thousand Skulls put on Feng Kan. Then when is cancelled the Escalation bonus, it added insult to injury. I ended up with a 10-Fighting Hacker going for the win.
Second round was against Willow and Braz. Willow was playing her Ballad of Jade Willow deck. I warned Braz not to burn any of her sites or a free Jade Willow would come flying out of her hand. We were able to make her pay full price for Jade Willow, but we couldn't quite put stop Jade Willow from dominating the rest of the game. Willow won the round.
The third and fourth round games I was able to win to lock a seat in the final. The other finalists were Julian Leighton playing Eating Brains in the Service of the Lotus deck, Tim Lindon playing a Morse Code Poet deck, and Mike Lansinski playing a Monarch deck.
I got a quick burn with two Redeemed Gunmen taking Mike's front row turned site. I burned for victory, which was a mistake. I really should have burned for power, which I needed over the next couple turns. Julian build up a formidable army of undead and vampires. He was taking Tim's battleground sites to fund his army. Tim played a long site structure of big FSS (The Great Wall), Hall of Portals, and battleground sites. In front, he had up to three Morse Code Poets. Mike was having a hard time getting started. I don't think he ever quite got back from my taking his site.
During one of Tim's attacks, which I believe was an early attempt for the win, Julian asked for help stopping it. I foolishly mentioned that I had Final Brawls available. Julian then Tortured Memories the Poet to stop the attack. I believe Julian then spent part of the rest of the game trying to draw out the Brawls. Because most of his characters were four fighting or lower, the Brawls potentially could devastate his position. On his last turn he attacked me to the right. I had seized his Death Ring earlier and he claimed he was coming back for it. No one intercepted. At the last minute, he revealed and turned an Endless Corridor to switch my back row unrevealed FSS with the Death Ring which now made this a winning attack. I still sat on the Brawls. He hit for 7 and left the Disco with 1 body left. Tim when next. He took my damaged Disco and then launched the winning attack. When I tried to Brawl (twice), he had two Delay the Inevitables to save his attackers and win the game.
Looking back I made several mistakes that I remember (I'm sure there are more that I don't)
1) Burning for victory rather than power when I took the early site. This would have funded at least one hitter and given me some sustainable forward momentum.
2) Revealing that I had Final Brawls in my hand. Unfortunately between when I spoke up and the final turn of the game, I did not draw any additional ones or Equal-Opportunity Butt-Kicking.
3) Not playing the Brawls earlier. There were a couple opportunities (When Julian started a Face-Off with Lin when I played her, when Julian played Sword of the Master on a Hopping Vampire before attacking the Death Ring, when Julian attacked the Death Ring) that could have been more advantageous.
Ah well, live and learn.
Deck - Last Man Standing (57):
Foundation (11)
Brave Villagers x5
Redeemed Gunman x3
Hacker x3
Characters (10)
Yakuza Enforcer x5
Lin
Marisol
Big Bruiser x2
The Spirit of Kongxiangsi
Events (20)
Final Brawl x5
Equal Opportunity Butt-Kicking x4
Escalation x3
Dirk Wiseley's Gambit x3
Never Surrender
Ashes of the Fallen
Is That All You Got x2
Kiii-YAAAH!
State (1)
Sword of the Master
Edge (2)
Pony Express x2
FSS (13)
Sacred Heart Hospital x2
Whirlpool of Blood
Temple of the Angry Spirits
Festival Circle x2
LaGrange Four
Gambling House
Disco
Ancient Stone Arch
Cave Network x3
A somewhat updated version of an old deck. The basic core is play Yakuza Enforcers and Brawl/Kick-Butt as much as possible to keep other characters off the board. One new combo that I like in particular is Escalation with Sword of the Master. My character's fighting is doubled until the end of the attack and you get nothing.
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