Gen Con 2013

So after the warm ups we had the week before Gen Con, I decided that it was worth going to Gen Con this year even if it was for a very limited time.  My work schedule prevented me from taking Thursday off, and I had committed to babysitting my niece on Saturday.  My only time for the con was to drive down Friday morning, play in the World Championship in the evening, and drive back on Saturday morning.

I didn't have time to seriously tune or build a new deck for the tournament.  I decided to play the deck that got me through the Wisconsin State Championship a year ago: "Piece a the Action".  It can be played around to limit its ability to generate crazy power and is vulnerable to Discerning Fire, but I have fun playing it.  I did remove the Spin Doctor and the Plains of Ash and put in a Cry of the Forgotten Ancestor and Medicinal Flower Garden.

The tournament ended up being 3 qualifying rounds of 4-player games.  There were 20 players participating.  After the random seating for the first round, subsequent rounds were seated by Swiss format without substitutions to limit rematches.

Round 1:
Christian Green - Dragon Nomad Army
Josh K - Dragon Hitters
Ethan - Architect
Me - Ascended "Piece of the Action"

Ended in a time out tie between Josh and me.  Had the game lasted a few more minutes, I think I could have won this one.  Because we were within the last 10 minutes to play, I used The Golden Spike on Ethan's turn to get a Feng Shui back into play for the game points.  Time was called during my turn before I was able to launch an attack for the win.  If time were not an object, I would have been able to wait for my turn and then attack for the 4th site and use the Golden Spike to turn it into a winning attack.

Round 2:
John Merrill - Monarchs Fire deck
Josh K - Dragon Hitters
Ryan - Jammer / Syndicate Tech State deck
Me- Ascended "Piece of the Action"

Time was called as I launched my attack for the win using The She-Wolf, The Unspoken Name, and a Corrupt Bookie.  Fortunately I was able to use Jan Zvireci on John and pull out his Discerning Fire before the attack.  This saved my Pledged characters and I was able to use it to take out his Fire cards.  The attack had to go at John because he was the only one with only Feng Shui Sites.  There was an Endless Corridor in play that would make any other attack worthless.  No one had any denial left in hand.  After interceptors, the Unspoken Name was able to turn to heal and take the site for the win.

I'll give John bonus points for this game.  As far as I could tell, he was using a Modern deck.


Round 3:
John Wengler - ReAscended Arch / Asc, who had already clinched a spot in the finals.
Christian Green - Dragon Nomad Army
Chris Turner - Asc/Lotus "Terrible"
Me- Ascended "Piece of the Action"

Christian got out a Nomad Army early which I took with a Shadowy Mentor.  John followed with Anubis, which Chris Mentored on his turn.  John foiled it by sacrificing Anubis to Evacuation: 2066.  Christian had out a Big Bruiser and attacked my unrevealed City Square for the win.  The Bruiser was stopped with a Kinoshita House.  Christian played a Calvary Regiment and unturned the Bruiser and gave him Independence.  The Bruiser attacked with the Calvary Regiment.  The Regiment was stopped somehow.  I blocked the Bruiser who already had two damage with a Black Helicopter Squad to get his damage down to 5 which would not take the site.  Christian played Just a Scratch to heal the Bruiser.  I had to redirect the damage to another of my FSS to foil the attack.  My site was smoked.  Christian played a second Calvary Regiment to unturn the Bruiser again.  This time there was no denial and my City Square was taken for the win. 

The way it turned out, if I had let the first attack get through instead of smoking the FSS with redirected damage, I would have had 2 more Game Points in the tournament.  This would have put me in a tie with Josh to get into the final.  I don't know the tie break rules in that case.  I would have hoped that since I won one of my games with Josh and tied the other game with him, I would have gotten into the final.  Moot point anyway.

Congratulations to Christian on the win in the finals.

After Action Report for August 11

So we got a group together at Epic Quest Games in Hartland to get some trials in before Gen Con.  It was Willow, Tim, Chris, and me.  I delayed publishing this so as to not give away any secret tech before the convention.  We played two four player games and one three player game that Tim sat out.

Game 1:
Willow - Dragon Hitters w/ Unturning
Tim - Lotus Exploding Demons
Jim - Jammer
Chris - Asc/Lotus "Terrible"

I won this game taking four sites on the final turn.  I played King Kung and took Willow's Hanging Gardens and LaGrange Four with one attack.  LaGrange Four then used the sites to attack with the big monkey two more times taking the remaining two sites needed for victory.

Game 2:
Willow - Modern Monarch
Tim - Lotus Exploding Demons
Jim- Dragon/Monarch Discard
Chris - Asc/Lotus "Terrible"

I started well.  I was killing off opponents foundation characters and damaging sites with my foundations backed with Eagle Mountain and Nightclub.  I got up to having Silver Jet out.  Chris put a Shadowy Mentor on him.  Tim got out White Ninja.  Chris then put a Shadowy Mentor on her and won the game.

Game 3:
Willow - Dragon Hitters w/Unturning
Jim - Ascended "Piece of the Action"
Chris - Asc/Lotus "Terrible"

I won this game with a Shadowy Mentor on Willow's Bei Tairong.  Bei seized Willow's LaGrange Four which was exposed using my Endless Corridor.  I then played Claws who took two sites using the LaGrange Four.

Piece a the Action

Here is the deck I built for Plattecon 2012 Who's the Big Cheese Now!?!

Piece a the Action

Foundation

Student of the Bear x3
Black Helicopter Squad x5
The Pledged x4

Characters

Corrupt Bookie x 5
Gunslinger x5
Jan Zvireci
Shinobu Yashida
Adrienne Hart
The Unspoken Name
Rainmaker Floyd
“Monkey” Chang
The She-Wolf
Claws
The Eastern King

Events

Bite of the Jellyfish x2
Mole Network x4
Operation Killdeer x4
The Golden Spike
Faked Death

State

Shadowy Mentor

Edge
Spin Doctoring

Sites

Opium Den
Family Estate x4
Battle Arena x2

FSS

Plain of Ash
City Hospital x2
Sacred Heart Hospital
Jade Palace of the Dragon King
Endless Corridor
The Iron Palace
Turtle Beach
City Square
Kinoshita House of Pancakes
Festival Circle
Martyr’s Tomb

This deck came from trying to use Red Wedding Ascended cards.  For a long time none of the cards spoke to me for a good deck concept.  The ReAscended looked too unreliable for resources.  Rebecca Dupress has a decent ability, but being Unique would limit possibilities.  I would also need to multifaction to get the best states.  Lodge Machinations was tempting, but I wasn’t ready to give up Pledged cards yet.  The Broken Wheel Brigade was intriguing.  If combined with Wisdom of the Owl, can you build a deck that will recycle enough cards to get reliable punch through with the Brigades?  I was not up to that challenge yet.  The Corrupt Bookie looked like an unreliable card that I had to play marginal events to get any mileage out of it.  Then I saw the Gunslinger.  Here are two Pledged characters that can generate 3 power a turn if I have one of each in play.  From that I made this deck.

So I have two Pledged characters that are going to generate a lot of power through Faceoffs.  Obviously, I need Family Estates.  Next I wanted cards to make the Gunslingers have Faceoffs every turn.  So I added healing effects and damage reduction: City Hospital, Sacred Hearts Hospital, Jade Palace, Opium Den, and Battle Arenas.  Since my combo is character driven I wanted a couple ways to recycle it: Faked Death, Martyr’s Tomb, and Spin Doctor combined with Plain of Ash.  I threw in a bunch of non-Lodge hitters for spending the power.  Finally, looking at the large number of non-FSS, it looked like a large site structure could be maintained.  This let me include the Golden Spike.

Future changes to the deck may include adding Lotus to allow for the Death Ring.  Throwing Black Helicopter Squads into the Death Ring and betting against them sounds very profitable.

Any comments or suggested improvements would be appreciated.

None Shall Pass

Here is the deck I played while visiting the Phoenix Proving Ground.

I wents 2 for 2 winning a four-player game and a three-player game.

None Shall Pass

Foundation:
Wah-Shan Clan Warriors x5
Mountain Hermit x3
Kunlun Clan Assault x5
Black Helicopter Squad
Coyote Clan Scavangers x3

Characters:
Wudang Monk
Monsoon
Ghost Wind
Li Mao
Red Bat x2
Gold Lion
Wu Man Kai
Jade Willow
Queen of the Ice Pagoda (old)
Hunger of the Jackel

Events:
Unexpected Rescue x4
Monkey Fools the Tiger x2
Wing of the Crane x2
Violet Meditation x3
Operation Killdeer x2
Beneficient Tao x2

States:
Occult Kung Fu x2
Living Legend
Fortune of the Turtle x2

Edge:
Balanced Harmonies

Site:
Mountain Monastary

FSS:
Martyr's Tomb
Bamboo Forest
Puzzle Garden x4
Grizzly Pass
Floating Restaurant
Fox Pass
Devil's Mountain
Cave Network x2
The Steam Laundry Company
Wudang Mountain

The site structure is very defensive and is backed up with extra defensive events - U Rescue, Ben Tao, Monkey Fools the Tiger.  This allows the deck to focus on trying to get out winning attacks while the opponents beat their heads against the site structure. 

Some of the synergies included are: Unturn hitters with the Mountain Hermits.  Use Occult Kung Fu to add their unturning to a hitter. Use Occult Kung Fu to give a hitter ambush against non-foundation cards.  Reload Ghost Wind and Red Bat once their 0-cost play conditions are fulfilled.

In play, Jade Willow was the unstoppable beating stick for both games. 

Possible changes would be strip out the Ascended to make it more reliable.  Either that or add in a Bite of the Jellyfish just to keep the opposition wondering.  The site structure might be better off trading the current defensive sites for Great Walls.  The a Golden Spike might be in order.

Plattecon Final Brawl Deck 2010

This deck was designed for the Wisconsin state championship. I, however, did not get a chance to play it. It is designed for four-player and favors a long game. Some of features of the deck are Occult Kung Fu and Martyr’s Tomb. The Occult Kung Fu could copy the Mountain Hermit on to a Master and allow it to be unturned using a Wah-Shan Clan Warrior, Wudang Mountain, or the Mountain Monastery. It could also copy the Coyote Clan Scavengers on to a hitter to get Ambush against non-foundation characters, which should be all you need. The Martyr’s Tomb would be used to reload a hitter before playing Unexpected Rescue. It would also reload Red Bat once an opponent got to 8 Events in their smoked pile. Free Red Bat every turn does not suck. This deck really needs some tuning as each combo seems too unlikely to come up.


Foundations (13)
Wah-Shan Clan Warriors x5
Mountain Hermit x3
Black Helicopter Squad
Coyote Clan Scavengers x3
Queen of the Ice Pagoda (old)

Characters (10)
Wudang Monk
Monsoon
Ghost Wind
Li Mao
Red Bat x2
Gold Lion
Wu Man Kai
Jade Willow
Hunger of the Jackal

Events (20)
Kunlun Clan Assault x5
Unexpected Rescue x4
Monkey Fools the Tiger x2
Wing of the Crane x2
Violet Meditation x3
Beneficent Tao x2
Operation Killdeer x2

States (5)
Occult Kung Fu x2
Living Legend
Fortune of the Turtle x2

Edges (1)
Balanced Harmonies

Sites (1)
Mountain Monastery

FSS(14)
Wudang Mountain
Martyr’s Tomb
Bamboo Forest
Puzzle Garden x4
Grizzly Pass
Ancient Stone Arch
Fox Pass
Devil’s Mountain
Cave Network x2
Temple of the Angry Spirits

One of the person goals of this deck was to try to beat Willow with her card: Jade Willow.

Ascended Empire of Evil Sampler Deck

This deck uses all Ascended cards from Empire of Evil except for Horus, the ReAscended hitter who needs more of a specialty deck. The two points that were emphasized were adding a wider variety of events to help the Tentacles of the Squid and having lots of discard effects to get the most out of the Wisdom of the Owl. Both paid off. I had to discard a large portion of my deck to get to my hitters. If the deck had not been designed for additional discards, I never would have gotten to them. The game winning attack was with a Tentacle doing 10 damage, which was enough to prevent healing and redirection tricks from preventing him from taking the site.

Foundation (13)
Whelps x3
The Pledged x5
Student of the Bear x4
Liquidators

Characters (12)
Wisdom of the Owl x2
Tentacles of the Squid x2
G-Man
The Petrified Man
Hunger of the Jackal x2
Adrienne Hart
Juan “El Tigre” Velasquez
Natraj Thalnasser
The She-Wolf

Events (15)
Red Tape Assault x2
Murder by Night
Operation Killdeer x5
Spy Network
Cover Operations
Bite of the Jellyfish
Mole Network
Realpolitik
Cry of the Forgotten Ancestor
“Throw Me the Idol”

States (4)
Embrace of the Snake x2
Compromised Security x2

Edges (3)
Delaying Tactics x2
Paper Trail

Sites (4)
Family Estate x3
The Bazaar

FSS(13)
Palace of Virtual Light
Boot Hill
Perpetual Motion Machine
Coral Reef x2
Dragon Graveyard x2
Tangram Alley
Ominous Swamp
Mobius Garden
Monkey House
Field of Tentacles

After the fact, I realized that Murder by Night does not combo with the Tentacles since it becomes Toast It.

Casual Play Report

After a long hiatus due to a little family accident, I was able to get together with Willow and Tim for a few games.

Game 1:
Willow played her willing deck from Plattecon featuring Jade Willow.
Tim played his standard detonating Destroyer deck.
I played a 7 Masters / Ascended deck that I was going to take to Plattecon.  I'll post the deck later.

Willow got out the White Ninja but wasn't able to muster enough fighting to take a site.  Tim Tortured Memories the Ninja and burned Willow's front row site for power.  This let Willow drop Jade Willow for free.  I dropped the Queen of the Ice Pagoda (old) and attacked the Ninja.  We exchanged Monkey Fools the Tiger and both characters were smoked.  Jade Willow then got Fortune of the Turtle and went on a rampage.  Shortly after that Willow won the game. 

Game 2:
I played a Darkness Deck,
Willow played a Syndicate Deck
Tim played a Dragon Deck

Willow got a fairly fast start using a Bird Sanctuary to good effect to get an early Song, the Little Dragon.  I could not get a second Monarch resource to save my life.  By the time Tim was able to play a Big Bruiser, Willow had Hirake Kazuko in play, which would make the Big Bruiser a big mistake.  Again, Willow was able to win this game in short order.

Game 3:
I played a Jammer Deck,
Willow played an Architect Tank Deck,
Tim played an Ascended Tentacles of the Squid Deck.

On Tim's first turn, he played a Gangster and attacked Willow's undefended Feng Shui Site.  I played Out of the Barrel to drop a free Cocktail Waiters.  I joined the attack with the Waiters and Just Another Consumer.  I thought putting 5 damage on the site would soften it nicely for me to take it next turn.  Nope, it was a Maze of Stairs!  Tim got a burn for power on his first turn.  Fortunately, for Willow and me, he could not get a second resource right away.  I was able to get some more cheap characters and burn Tim's front row site and was lucky that Tim did not have a Bite when I burned it for power.  After that I was able to roll to a quick win.

Game 4:
Tim played Willow's championship Punchy Hand deck
Willow played her Monarch/Dragon deck
I played an Ascended Wisdom of the Owl / Discard deck

I was able to play a Wisdom of the Owl on my first turn.  Willow and Tim attacked it repeatedly, but were foiled with multiple Operation Killdeers.  I used a Coral Reef, Coil of the Snake, and the Palace of Virtual Light to cycle through my deck to get to some big characters.  Finally I got Adrianne Hart and went for the win.  I was decimated with the denial that came out.  Willow came on strong with the Queen of the Ice Pagoda (new) with an Ice Sword.  She took some of my sites over then next few turns, but stalled at victory conditions.  Tim had two damaged sites in his front row, and Willow's front row site was also damaged.  I was able to superleap "El Tigre" over the Queen to take Willow's site.  I then played a site to put me at victory.  I then dropped Liquidators and Tentacles of the Squid who were up to 10 damage at this point.  They were able to take a site from Tim for the win. 

Overall a fun night after not playing for 3 months.

Manchu Invasion

The last deck I played at Gen Con for the Faction Wars deck was a Manchu speed deck. I have had a fair bit of success with this deck in the past, but it is something of a one trick pony - speed.

Foundation (11)
Manchu Soldier x11

Characters (10)
Bad Colonel
Military Commandant x2
Manchu Officer x5
General Senggelinqin x2

Power Gen (7)
Moonlight Raid x3
Mole Network x2

Events (8)
Cry of the Forgotten Ancestorx2
Operation Killdeer x5

States (7)
Pump-Action Shotgun x3
Tommy Gun
Sword of the Master
Shadowy Mentor

Edge (1)
Everything Falls Apart

Sites (2)
Manchu Garrison x2

FSS (11)
City Park
Dragon Graveyard
Festival Circle x2
Hot Springs
Identity Chop Shop x2
LaGrange Four
Temple of the Angry Spirits
Whirlpool of Blood x2

Moonlight Raid and Manchu Officer is crazy good. As I wrote this deck up I see that I've drifted a bit from the original build. It needs 5 Moonlight Raids and about 2 Faked Deaths. I would also change the Tommy Gun back into a Shotgun.

Same as the Old Boss

Here is my winning deck list for the Gen Con New Heroes tournament:

Foundation: (14)
Black Helicopter Squad x5
Coyote Clan Scavangers x5
Symphonic Disciples x4

Ramp / Utility: (4)
Corrupt Land Agent
Hit Squad
Gunslinger
Reassension Spy

Hitters: (9)
Probability Soldiers x 3
The Insidious Dr. Fermat
Frenzy of the Shark x3
Texas Jack Cody x2

Power Generation: (7)
Moonlight Raid x4
Bull Market x2
Yippie-Yi-Yo-Kiii-YAAAH!

Other Events: (4)
Lateral Reincarnation x2
Echo Distortion
Nothing Happens

States: (10)
Shurikens x2
Improvised Weapons x2
Feral Regression
Soul of the Wolf x2
Shadowy Mentor x2
Whispers in the Dark

Edges: (2)
Gunboat Diplomacy x2

FSS: (13)
Arctic Fortress
Forgotten Temple
Hydroponic Garden
LaGrange Four
Mah-Jongg Parlor x 2
Moon Base x3
Rainforest Ruins
The Iron Palace
University Library x2

In the New Heroes format, Ascended has the best additional power generation with Bull Market, Corrupt Land Agent, Gunslinger, and Moonlight Raid. I thought this would be the best route to victory - generate a lot of power, play hitters fast, and use stealth to get through to the target. I tried to combo Probability Soldiers with the Moonlight Raid to get multiple power per turn. So for I've maxed out at 3 in one turn.