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.
Showing posts with label GenCon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GenCon. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Gen Con 2010 Ritual of the Unnameable
Sunday's only event was a Ritual of the Unnameable. I had two RotU decks made before GenCon, a BAD Architect deck and a BAT Monarch deck. I got an idea for an Ascended OMG deck, but did not have time to pull it together before the event. I ended up playing the BAT deck, which I have fun playing.
Nine people showed up for the tournament, so there were four rounds of 3 3-player games scheduled. My first game was against Red and his CDCA deck and someone else's Monarch BAD deck (I think. It's amazing how much I forget in two weeks.) I was able to win this game with the Thunder Bird in Butterfly Armor leading the winning attack against Red's Devil Mountain.
In the next round, I faced Josh's Monkeys In Black deck, and I think another BAD deck. If memory serves (which I would not bet on at this point), Josh won this game.
The third round I faced Willow's PMS Jammer deck and Daniel's CAD Architect deck. Willow won the game, but I had one of my favorite in game moments here. On Daniel's turn, he played an Abomination Serum on my Butterfly Knight. In response, I played Bear vs. Fox to start a Faceoff with Dr. Klaus Herrbruck. Daniel tried to save the good Dr. with a Cellular Reinvigoration, which I Brain Fired onto the Butterfly Knight. The Knight won the Faceoff and played Daniel's Arcanovirus to smoke Willow's Professional Killer. I love being able to mess with other peoples plans in unexpected ways. It is one of the best parts of the game. Later in the game, Daniel attack me to the right. I told him was going to use everything to stop him and leave the board open for Willow. He continued with the attack. I stopped him. Willow won. (Willow, I have one of your Safety Third cards from this event.)
After this Willow left thinking the tournament was only three rounds. So for the final round, I ended up in a four player game with Braz, playing a DIE Lotus deck; Joey, playing a PIS Monarch deck, and Red again. I'll give Braz credit for playing the most interesting deck in the tournament. I started fast, but could not maintain the momentum. Red cleared the board with an Arcanovirus, and I couldn't come back. We went to time. It was a fun game, but I don't remember who won. Josh, I believe, won the tournament.
I apologize for the inaccuracies that I am sure are this report. By this time all events were blurring together along with who I was playing and what decks were being played. Any corrections people have are more than welcome.
Blood And Thunder
Foundation (12)
Thunder Gladiator x5
Thunder Knight x7
Characters (14)
Thunder Squire x4
Thunder Captain
Butterfly Knight x4
Bonebreaker Jun x2
Thunder Bird x2
Avenging Darkness
Events (15)
Blood and Thunder x5
Bear vs. Fox x2
Tiger vs. Crane
Brain Fire x3
Blood Lust x3
Avenging Thunder
States (3)
Thunder Sword
Butterfly Armor
Bandolier of Throwing Knives
Edges (2)
The Book of Wrath
Blanket of Darkness
Sites (2)
Thunder Pagoda vPAP
The Thunder Dome
FSS (13)
Birdhouse Cafe
Bird Sanctuary
Blessed Orchard
Ancient Stone Arch
Temple of the Angry Spirits
Temple of the Monkey King
The Blue Moon Club
Thousand Sword Mountain
Turtle Island x2
Turtle Beach x2
The Pinnacles
A simple straight forward attack deck. Build an army and attack using Blood and Thunder to pump it up and avoid a lot of redirection / damage reduction denial. In this tournament, I avoided redirection from Devil's Mountain, and damage reduction from Diamond Beach and Puzzle Garden. About half the games I have won with this deck have been with the Thunder Bird with Butterfly Armor. I really like that this deck lends itself to the out of faction Faceoff events.
Nine people showed up for the tournament, so there were four rounds of 3 3-player games scheduled. My first game was against Red and his CDCA deck and someone else's Monarch BAD deck (I think. It's amazing how much I forget in two weeks.) I was able to win this game with the Thunder Bird in Butterfly Armor leading the winning attack against Red's Devil Mountain.
In the next round, I faced Josh's Monkeys In Black deck, and I think another BAD deck. If memory serves (which I would not bet on at this point), Josh won this game.
The third round I faced Willow's PMS Jammer deck and Daniel's CAD Architect deck. Willow won the game, but I had one of my favorite in game moments here. On Daniel's turn, he played an Abomination Serum on my Butterfly Knight. In response, I played Bear vs. Fox to start a Faceoff with Dr. Klaus Herrbruck. Daniel tried to save the good Dr. with a Cellular Reinvigoration, which I Brain Fired onto the Butterfly Knight. The Knight won the Faceoff and played Daniel's Arcanovirus to smoke Willow's Professional Killer. I love being able to mess with other peoples plans in unexpected ways. It is one of the best parts of the game. Later in the game, Daniel attack me to the right. I told him was going to use everything to stop him and leave the board open for Willow. He continued with the attack. I stopped him. Willow won. (Willow, I have one of your Safety Third cards from this event.)
After this Willow left thinking the tournament was only three rounds. So for the final round, I ended up in a four player game with Braz, playing a DIE Lotus deck; Joey, playing a PIS Monarch deck, and Red again. I'll give Braz credit for playing the most interesting deck in the tournament. I started fast, but could not maintain the momentum. Red cleared the board with an Arcanovirus, and I couldn't come back. We went to time. It was a fun game, but I don't remember who won. Josh, I believe, won the tournament.
I apologize for the inaccuracies that I am sure are this report. By this time all events were blurring together along with who I was playing and what decks were being played. Any corrections people have are more than welcome.
Blood And Thunder
Foundation (12)
Thunder Gladiator x5
Thunder Knight x7
Characters (14)
Thunder Squire x4
Thunder Captain
Butterfly Knight x4
Bonebreaker Jun x2
Thunder Bird x2
Avenging Darkness
Events (15)
Blood and Thunder x5
Bear vs. Fox x2
Tiger vs. Crane
Brain Fire x3
Blood Lust x3
Avenging Thunder
States (3)
Thunder Sword
Butterfly Armor
Bandolier of Throwing Knives
Edges (2)
The Book of Wrath
Blanket of Darkness
Sites (2)
Thunder Pagoda vPAP
The Thunder Dome
FSS (13)
Birdhouse Cafe
Bird Sanctuary
Blessed Orchard
Ancient Stone Arch
Temple of the Angry Spirits
Temple of the Monkey King
The Blue Moon Club
Thousand Sword Mountain
Turtle Island x2
Turtle Beach x2
The Pinnacles
A simple straight forward attack deck. Build an army and attack using Blood and Thunder to pump it up and avoid a lot of redirection / damage reduction denial. In this tournament, I avoided redirection from Devil's Mountain, and damage reduction from Diamond Beach and Puzzle Garden. About half the games I have won with this deck have been with the Thunder Bird with Butterfly Armor. I really like that this deck lends itself to the out of faction Faceoff events.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Gen Con 2010 Comrades in Arms
Saturday night was the Comrades in Arms tournament. To me this was a fun, relaxed event. I am interested in the deck designs and designator choices. I choose an old standby Monkey deck. I wanted to try Beast but the card pool is too small (Alpha Beast, Beta Beast, Gamma Beast, Paradox Beast, Jigsaw Beast, Roar of the Beast, and Tomb of the Beast) with some marginal cards. Nine people showed up for the tournament, which had four rounds. So everyone played everyone once.
First round was Braz and John Wengler. Braz was playing his Paradox deck from Origins, and John was playing a Darkness deck, which he had played earlier in the World Championship. At one point, John attacked me to the right to try to get a vulnerable site. Braz then Discerning Fired and had I wide open board. John and I couldn't muster a defense. Braz won.
Second round, I played John Monnett and Josh Kronengold. John had a gun deck, and Josh had a Pawn deck, which I think was the most unique designator in the event. I came out hard and fast and was able to overwhelm them. When Josh got his Stand Together in play, it became more difficult, but I still pulled it off. Two Buffalo Soldiers helped keep the Monkey horde safe in this game.
Third round, I played Tim Lindon and Jeremy Dale. Tim's deck I think was a Rebel deck and Jeremy had a Student Deck. Again, the Monkey horde was able to overwhelm the opposition and claim victory. I am foggy on the specifics of the the game, however.
Final round, I faced off against Red and Daniel. It turned out that Red was the only other player with two wins going into this round. So in a way, this game was a true final unless Daniel won. Red was playing a Fire deck, and Daniel had a Secret Deck. This was a long game with lots of sites (mostly mine) being burned. In the end, time was called just after I played Potlatch to get enough power to launch an attack against Daniel. When the points were tabulated, Red came in first for the tournament, Josh sneaked into second, and I was third by a single game point. If I hadn't played Potlatch, I would have been second. Oh well, it was still a fun tournament.
Deck Eunuch Monkeys
Foundation (11)
Big Macaque Attack x5
Marmojet x5
Rebel Without a Cause
Characters (12)
Brass Monkey x2
Funkey Monkey x2
Furious George vPAP
Gorilla Fighter x2
Buffalo Soldier x2
Orango Tank
Wild Gorillas
Monkey Pirates
Events (18)
"There's Always One More" x4
Close Call
The Ape is Loose! x2
Who's the Monkey Now? x3
IKTV Special Report
Scrounging x5
Potlatch x2
State (1)
Single Action Devolver
Edges (2)
Mo' Monkeys, Mo' Problems
Payback Time
Sites (3)
Ape City
Bomb Factory
Genocide Lounge
FSS (13)
Eagle Mountain x4
Monkey House x3
Proving Ground x5
Whirlpool of Blood
This deck is simple play monkeys and attack. Use Proving Grounds to pump out the two cost Monkeys. Generate power through Monkey House, Scrounging, and non-FSS sites. Recycle Monkeys with There's Always One More. Worst case is you get a Marmojet or a Buffalo Soldier, either of which will help the Macaques. For the CiA tournament I subbed in 2 extra Who's the Monkey Now? for Close Calls. Discerning Fires can wreak this deck by taking out monkeys or Proving Grounds.
First round was Braz and John Wengler. Braz was playing his Paradox deck from Origins, and John was playing a Darkness deck, which he had played earlier in the World Championship. At one point, John attacked me to the right to try to get a vulnerable site. Braz then Discerning Fired and had I wide open board. John and I couldn't muster a defense. Braz won.
Second round, I played John Monnett and Josh Kronengold. John had a gun deck, and Josh had a Pawn deck, which I think was the most unique designator in the event. I came out hard and fast and was able to overwhelm them. When Josh got his Stand Together in play, it became more difficult, but I still pulled it off. Two Buffalo Soldiers helped keep the Monkey horde safe in this game.
Third round, I played Tim Lindon and Jeremy Dale. Tim's deck I think was a Rebel deck and Jeremy had a Student Deck. Again, the Monkey horde was able to overwhelm the opposition and claim victory. I am foggy on the specifics of the the game, however.
Final round, I faced off against Red and Daniel. It turned out that Red was the only other player with two wins going into this round. So in a way, this game was a true final unless Daniel won. Red was playing a Fire deck, and Daniel had a Secret Deck. This was a long game with lots of sites (mostly mine) being burned. In the end, time was called just after I played Potlatch to get enough power to launch an attack against Daniel. When the points were tabulated, Red came in first for the tournament, Josh sneaked into second, and I was third by a single game point. If I hadn't played Potlatch, I would have been second. Oh well, it was still a fun tournament.
Deck Eunuch Monkeys
Foundation (11)
Big Macaque Attack x5
Marmojet x5
Rebel Without a Cause
Characters (12)
Brass Monkey x2
Funkey Monkey x2
Furious George vPAP
Gorilla Fighter x2
Buffalo Soldier x2
Orango Tank
Wild Gorillas
Monkey Pirates
Events (18)
"There's Always One More" x4
Close Call
The Ape is Loose! x2
Who's the Monkey Now? x3
IKTV Special Report
Scrounging x5
Potlatch x2
State (1)
Single Action Devolver
Edges (2)
Mo' Monkeys, Mo' Problems
Payback Time
Sites (3)
Ape City
Bomb Factory
Genocide Lounge
FSS (13)
Eagle Mountain x4
Monkey House x3
Proving Ground x5
Whirlpool of Blood
This deck is simple play monkeys and attack. Use Proving Grounds to pump out the two cost Monkeys. Generate power through Monkey House, Scrounging, and non-FSS sites. Recycle Monkeys with There's Always One More. Worst case is you get a Marmojet or a Buffalo Soldier, either of which will help the Macaques. For the CiA tournament I subbed in 2 extra Who's the Monkey Now? for Close Calls. Discerning Fires can wreak this deck by taking out monkeys or Proving Grounds.
Gen Con 2010 World Championship
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.
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.
Gen Con 2010 New Heroes
Friday night was New Heroes. I was here to defend my victory from last year. I fell into the alluring trap of trying to play a Syndicate deck as they look like they have even footing with all the other factions in this format. I, however, think the Ascended with all of the additional power generation available and Shadowy Mentor are the faction to beat. Mars Program Executive looks to be the key to ramp up the power with the Syndicate at this point.
Games were three-player games (Daniel is particularly fond of 3-player for conventions as fewer games go to time). My first round was against two other Syndicate decks. John Merrill ended building an unassailable fortress of Great Walls backed by The Steam Laundry Company. From here he was able to fight to victory.
I don't remember the other rounds well. John Wengler was playing Ascended. Daniel was playing Hand. Greg Zimmerman was playing Ascended/Jammers. A few people were playing Monarchs or Monarch / Lotus. Overall though Syndicate was the most popular faction. Purists and Dragons were absent from the tournament as best as I can recall. I believe John Merrill went on to win the event, but I'm not sure.
My Syndicate Deck:
Foundation (13)
Mars Colonist x5
Triad Punks x5
Street Racers x3
Characters (19)
Mars Program Executive x4
Street Doc
Rei Okamoto
Tattooed Man x2
Nihilist x2
Song, the Little Dragon
Akamatsu Mitsusuke
Devendra Chalal
Hiroshi Kata
Xu Mei, the Dragon
Salaryman
Zero-G Sumo
Jessica Ng
Hirake Kazuko
Events (11)
Data Theft
Reprogramming x5
Smoke and Mirrors
The Price of Progress
Catching Bullets
Inconvenient Debt
Data Mining
States (4)
Synchronic Beam Emitter
Hyper Alloy Blade
The Hegemeister
Platinum Upgrade
Edge (1)
Corporate Warfare
Sites (2)
Cybermod Parlor
The Wireless
FSS (13)
LaGrange Four
Moon Base
Hydroponic Garden
Rainforest Ruins
Mah-Jongg Parlor
Ancient Stone Arch
Martyr's Tomb
The Iron Palace
University Library
Endless Corridor
Bamboo Forest x3
The deck really needs a 5th Mars Program Exec. and another Martyr's Tomb. If you can continually recycle the execs, the power can keep on flowing. I also really like the Reprogramming in this format because almost every character has some special ability that is worth canceling. The best cancel I had in the tournament was Shao the Killer, which allowed my winning attack through. Platinum Upgrades also paid the bills in this tournament. Some people were questioning if this state is overpowered. For me it often made a Mars Exec into an impromptu hitter. Cost 5 for 6 fighting with toughness 3 is not over the curve. (But I suppose if you discount the Exec by the 3 power he paid back, it was cost 2 for 6F with Toughness 3. I think this points more to the power of the Exec than the Upgrade.)
Games were three-player games (Daniel is particularly fond of 3-player for conventions as fewer games go to time). My first round was against two other Syndicate decks. John Merrill ended building an unassailable fortress of Great Walls backed by The Steam Laundry Company. From here he was able to fight to victory.
I don't remember the other rounds well. John Wengler was playing Ascended. Daniel was playing Hand. Greg Zimmerman was playing Ascended/Jammers. A few people were playing Monarchs or Monarch / Lotus. Overall though Syndicate was the most popular faction. Purists and Dragons were absent from the tournament as best as I can recall. I believe John Merrill went on to win the event, but I'm not sure.
My Syndicate Deck:
Foundation (13)
Mars Colonist x5
Triad Punks x5
Street Racers x3
Characters (19)
Mars Program Executive x4
Street Doc
Rei Okamoto
Tattooed Man x2
Nihilist x2
Song, the Little Dragon
Akamatsu Mitsusuke
Devendra Chalal
Hiroshi Kata
Xu Mei, the Dragon
Salaryman
Zero-G Sumo
Jessica Ng
Hirake Kazuko
Events (11)
Data Theft
Reprogramming x5
Smoke and Mirrors
The Price of Progress
Catching Bullets
Inconvenient Debt
Data Mining
States (4)
Synchronic Beam Emitter
Hyper Alloy Blade
The Hegemeister
Platinum Upgrade
Edge (1)
Corporate Warfare
Sites (2)
Cybermod Parlor
The Wireless
FSS (13)
LaGrange Four
Moon Base
Hydroponic Garden
Rainforest Ruins
Mah-Jongg Parlor
Ancient Stone Arch
Martyr's Tomb
The Iron Palace
University Library
Endless Corridor
Bamboo Forest x3
The deck really needs a 5th Mars Program Exec. and another Martyr's Tomb. If you can continually recycle the execs, the power can keep on flowing. I also really like the Reprogramming in this format because almost every character has some special ability that is worth canceling. The best cancel I had in the tournament was Shao the Killer, which allowed my winning attack through. Platinum Upgrades also paid the bills in this tournament. Some people were questioning if this state is overpowered. For me it often made a Mars Exec into an impromptu hitter. Cost 5 for 6 fighting with toughness 3 is not over the curve. (But I suppose if you discount the Exec by the 3 power he paid back, it was cost 2 for 6F with Toughness 3. I think this points more to the power of the Exec than the Upgrade.)
Gen Con 2010 Draft
Friday morning was the draft event. Eighteen players showed up to draft from Six Guns & Shurikens, Critical Shift, and Empire of Evil. Seven boosters were drafted with two foundation pods and one Feng Shui pod being provided after the draft. The structure of the draft was somewhat disappointing. We drafted in groups of three, which meant you were sure to get stuck with lots of cards out of the main factions you were drafting. You would also see a much smaller card pool from which to draft. I would have preferred to draft in groups of six. The second problem was that the tournament rounds were setup as two separate groups of nine players. So the nine players of group A never played against the nine players of group B. It gave the feeling that even though we could not play all other players, you could not control your destiny. At least there were enough players within each group so that you never played against the same opponent more than once. A more personal annoyance was that the first round of games was with the same three people with whom you drafted. You pretty much knew what you were in for the first round. In draft I expect a greater element of surprise.
I drafted Jammer / Hand and when I was done found that I had good amount of Architect as well.
Draft Deck:
Foundation (11):
Kamikaze Cosmonauts
Suicide Squad
Edge Warrior x2
Mad Scientist x2 (I am fuzzy on this foundation, It's listed to be in Pods but I don't remember)
Rebel without a Cause
Dump Warrior x2
Willow Warriors
Celestials
Characters (10):
Dr. Quentin Higginsbotham
Tunnel King
Turing Machine
Potemkin's Brigade
Andy Di
Monkey Pirates
Cyborg Mermaid
Johnny Amok
Jayne Insane
Shihong
Events (9):
Isothermal Zodiac x2
Out of the Barrel x3
Ape Shall Kill Ape
Auspicious Thermite
The Willow Bends... x2
States (7):
Fingertip Razors
Buzzsaw Arm
Explosive Motorcycle
Steam-Powered Tricycle
Single-Action Devolver
Shurikens
Simple Paper Fan
Sites (2):
Hot Zone
Mountain Monastery
FSS(10):
Ancient Stone Arch
University Library
Forgotten Temple
Moon Base
Mirrored Lake
Arctic Fortress
Endless Corridor
Grove of Willows
Family Home
Blessed Orchard
I only won one of the four round I played in. The first round Josh Shadowy Mentored my Turing Machine (which I should have seen coming). After that he was able to push ahead to win. The second round, I got SEVEN power from an attack on my Grove of Willows. Some how, I squandered that advantage, and failed to win. The third round Shihong attacked as time was called an just took the last site needed for the win. I am drawing a complete blank on the fourth and final round.
I drafted Jammer / Hand and when I was done found that I had good amount of Architect as well.
Draft Deck:
Foundation (11):
Kamikaze Cosmonauts
Suicide Squad
Edge Warrior x2
Mad Scientist x2 (I am fuzzy on this foundation, It's listed to be in Pods but I don't remember)
Rebel without a Cause
Dump Warrior x2
Willow Warriors
Celestials
Characters (10):
Dr. Quentin Higginsbotham
Tunnel King
Turing Machine
Potemkin's Brigade
Andy Di
Monkey Pirates
Cyborg Mermaid
Johnny Amok
Jayne Insane
Shihong
Events (9):
Isothermal Zodiac x2
Out of the Barrel x3
Ape Shall Kill Ape
Auspicious Thermite
The Willow Bends... x2
States (7):
Fingertip Razors
Buzzsaw Arm
Explosive Motorcycle
Steam-Powered Tricycle
Single-Action Devolver
Shurikens
Simple Paper Fan
Sites (2):
Hot Zone
Mountain Monastery
FSS(10):
Ancient Stone Arch
University Library
Forgotten Temple
Moon Base
Mirrored Lake
Arctic Fortress
Endless Corridor
Grove of Willows
Family Home
Blessed Orchard
I only won one of the four round I played in. The first round Josh Shadowy Mentored my Turing Machine (which I should have seen coming). After that he was able to push ahead to win. The second round, I got SEVEN power from an attack on my Grove of Willows. Some how, I squandered that advantage, and failed to win. The third round Shihong attacked as time was called an just took the last site needed for the win. I am drawing a complete blank on the fourth and final round.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Gen Con 2010 Invitational
This year I was invited to the exclusive invitational event at Gen Con. I was selected for ranking in the top 10 for most points scored in the Secret War Society for the previous year. All of these point had been earned the previous year at Gen Con.
I wasn't given much notice for this. The final list was published the week of Gen Con. I had not been keeping track of the points year to date, so I did not know if I would make it. I had thought about harassing Daniel about getting an invite for winning New Heroes at last year's Gen Con, but I didn't want to pressure him into extending an 'unearned' invite.
As an aside I think the method for earning an invitation should be somewhat different. Anyone who won a world championship or won the invitational should get a lifetime invite. I find it hard to believe someone like Jan Malina (among other previous champions) would not be considered a worthy opponent at this type of event.
Back to the topic at hand. I did not have time to try to develop a new deck with which I would be comfortable. I decided to update my Lotus Stealth deck that I played in the world championship last year. As it turned out, I could have made a brand new deck and not done any worse. I lost all my games and ended as the Gimp. Well it was an honor to just be invited and throwdown with the best of the best. I'd like to take this time to thank my coaches, my parents, and my creator.
Willow won the tournament for the second year in a row. Her deck was a Monarch fire deck with maybe a Dragon splash.
Here is the deck list (notice that the Stealth was removed):
Knife (As in I took a Knife to a Gun fight)
Foundation (13)
Sinister Priest x5
Wailing Apparition x5
Shamanistic Punk x2
Petal's Attendant
Characters (13)
Eater of Fortune
Reverend Adam Wither x2
Destroyer
Xin Ji Yang (F7)
Madam Yen
Infernal Army
Midnight
Gao Zhang
Cloaca
The Alabaster King
Sheriff Agathon
Evil Twin
Events (15)
Flying Sleeves x3
Evil Whispers x2
Die!!! x2
Verminous Rain
Poisoned
Pocket Demon
Tortured Memories x3
Discerning Fire
Infernal Pact
States (5)
Tommy Gun
Amulet of the Turtle x2
Mark of Evil
Lunar Sword
Edges (3)
Insidious Plan
Throne of Skulls
Twelve Thousand Skulls
Sites (2)
Death Ring
The Library of Souls
FSS (14)
Disco
Gambling House
Rainforest Ruins
City Park
Hydroponic Garden
Golden Mile
Fox Pass
Hot Spring
Ancient Stone Arch
Mobius Garden
Temple of the Angry Spirits
LaGrange Four
Coral Reef
The Alabaster Palace
I wasn't given much notice for this. The final list was published the week of Gen Con. I had not been keeping track of the points year to date, so I did not know if I would make it. I had thought about harassing Daniel about getting an invite for winning New Heroes at last year's Gen Con, but I didn't want to pressure him into extending an 'unearned' invite.
As an aside I think the method for earning an invitation should be somewhat different. Anyone who won a world championship or won the invitational should get a lifetime invite. I find it hard to believe someone like Jan Malina (among other previous champions) would not be considered a worthy opponent at this type of event.
Back to the topic at hand. I did not have time to try to develop a new deck with which I would be comfortable. I decided to update my Lotus Stealth deck that I played in the world championship last year. As it turned out, I could have made a brand new deck and not done any worse. I lost all my games and ended as the Gimp. Well it was an honor to just be invited and throwdown with the best of the best. I'd like to take this time to thank my coaches, my parents, and my creator.
Willow won the tournament for the second year in a row. Her deck was a Monarch fire deck with maybe a Dragon splash.
Here is the deck list (notice that the Stealth was removed):
Knife (As in I took a Knife to a Gun fight)
Foundation (13)
Sinister Priest x5
Wailing Apparition x5
Shamanistic Punk x2
Petal's Attendant
Characters (13)
Eater of Fortune
Reverend Adam Wither x2
Destroyer
Xin Ji Yang (F7)
Madam Yen
Infernal Army
Midnight
Gao Zhang
Cloaca
The Alabaster King
Sheriff Agathon
Evil Twin
Events (15)
Flying Sleeves x3
Evil Whispers x2
Die!!! x2
Verminous Rain
Poisoned
Pocket Demon
Tortured Memories x3
Discerning Fire
Infernal Pact
States (5)
Tommy Gun
Amulet of the Turtle x2
Mark of Evil
Lunar Sword
Edges (3)
Insidious Plan
Throne of Skulls
Twelve Thousand Skulls
Sites (2)
Death Ring
The Library of Souls
FSS (14)
Disco
Gambling House
Rainforest Ruins
City Park
Hydroponic Garden
Golden Mile
Fox Pass
Hot Spring
Ancient Stone Arch
Mobius Garden
Temple of the Angry Spirits
LaGrange Four
Coral Reef
The Alabaster Palace
Gen Con 2010 Dueling
This year I was again playing The Politician with a few minor updates. My main concerns going into this event were two-fold. One, I still felt that a Project Apocalypse deck and a 7 Masters deck with it's event protection (Li Mao) and ubiquitous healing would be difficult. I had really thought that a good control Ascended deck would be the way to go, but I didn't have time to put one together. The main tools I was looking at for Ascended were Lodge Machinations for Project Apocalypse and discard and Shadowy Mentor to deal with the 7 Masters.
The field was only six players. The event was supposed to be a full round robin with each player playing each other twice with each person getting to go first once. No time limits were set because dueling is supposed to be fast enough to not require them. This did not quite work out, but the final standings were not affected.
The first deck I played against was Project Apocalypse run by David Kempe. Shit! I lost both games. I don't think it was so much because my deck can't beat it as my strategy to beat it. I was focusing on taking down the PA site. If I had tried to go into a fast attack mode and play sites quickly, I could have won through conventional victory conditions before PA would have timed out. I was saving my resources to try to take down PA and lost site of how to win the game. Next year.
Second match was against John Merrill and his deck that tied for first at Origins. It was a Hand deck with Sword Saints and Spear of Destiny that did not stand up. He had at least one bad draw also.
Third match was against Julian Leighton. He was playing a slightly updated SWAHT deck, which he had won the Gen Con dueling event with a few years ago. First game, he won as he was able to field threats faster than I could remove them. The second game his first two sites in play were Whirlpools of Blood. I was able to take advantage of their low bodies and win the second game.
Fourth match was against Jeremy Dale, who was playing a Big Red Button deck. I beat him in our first game. Unfortunately, he had to leave for a miniatures painting contest, and we did not get to play the second game. When he played Greg Zimmerman in the previous round, he got off a janky combo that was amusing. Jeremy had no cards in play. He played a Desire Manipulator on Greg's Battlechimp. He then played a Newest Model on the Manipulator. This netted him 2 power per turn along with 1 counter on his We Have the Technology each turn while his Supercomputer was filling his hand. Finally, he had enough power and cards to bust out with a Big Red Button and destroy everything Greg had in play.
Due to time constraints, I did not get to play Greg. The final standings were Julian in first and me in second. I had the distinction of being the only player to beat Julian even one game. So I had that going for me.
Deck: The Politician v 1.1
Foundation (15)
Test Subjects x5
Combat Engineer x5
Arcanomoth x5
Characters (11)
Napalm Belcher x5
Rocket Team x3
Dr. Curtis Boatman vPAP
Gnarled Annihilator
Commander Corliss
Denial (22)
Imprison x4
Nanovirus
Nerve Gas x3
Artillery Strike x2
Aerial Bombardment x2
Wave Disruptor
War of Attrition x2
Overzealous Assassins
Orbital Laser Strike x3
Smart Missile x3
Support (10)
MegaTank
Rise of the NeoBuro x2
Evil Brain in the Jar
Reinvigoration Process x2
Dangerous Experiment x4
FSS (15)
Creche of the New Flesh x2
Mirrored Lake
Dragon Graveyard x3
Mah-Jongg Parlor
Monkey House
Moon Base x3
Temple of Celestial Mercy
Temple of the Angry Spirits
Waterfall Sanctuary
Ancient Stone Arch
Strategy is to build resources to get the Napalm Belchers out and blow away opponents cards. Always keep one power on hand to get rid of any big threat that comes out. Never attack unrevealed sites. Once your ahead in power and fighting, just deny anything that hits the board and maintain your advantage.
The field was only six players. The event was supposed to be a full round robin with each player playing each other twice with each person getting to go first once. No time limits were set because dueling is supposed to be fast enough to not require them. This did not quite work out, but the final standings were not affected.
The first deck I played against was Project Apocalypse run by David Kempe. Shit! I lost both games. I don't think it was so much because my deck can't beat it as my strategy to beat it. I was focusing on taking down the PA site. If I had tried to go into a fast attack mode and play sites quickly, I could have won through conventional victory conditions before PA would have timed out. I was saving my resources to try to take down PA and lost site of how to win the game. Next year.
Second match was against John Merrill and his deck that tied for first at Origins. It was a Hand deck with Sword Saints and Spear of Destiny that did not stand up. He had at least one bad draw also.
Third match was against Julian Leighton. He was playing a slightly updated SWAHT deck, which he had won the Gen Con dueling event with a few years ago. First game, he won as he was able to field threats faster than I could remove them. The second game his first two sites in play were Whirlpools of Blood. I was able to take advantage of their low bodies and win the second game.
Fourth match was against Jeremy Dale, who was playing a Big Red Button deck. I beat him in our first game. Unfortunately, he had to leave for a miniatures painting contest, and we did not get to play the second game. When he played Greg Zimmerman in the previous round, he got off a janky combo that was amusing. Jeremy had no cards in play. He played a Desire Manipulator on Greg's Battlechimp. He then played a Newest Model on the Manipulator. This netted him 2 power per turn along with 1 counter on his We Have the Technology each turn while his Supercomputer was filling his hand. Finally, he had enough power and cards to bust out with a Big Red Button and destroy everything Greg had in play.
Due to time constraints, I did not get to play Greg. The final standings were Julian in first and me in second. I had the distinction of being the only player to beat Julian even one game. So I had that going for me.
Deck: The Politician v 1.1
Foundation (15)
Test Subjects x5
Combat Engineer x5
Arcanomoth x5
Characters (11)
Napalm Belcher x5
Rocket Team x3
Dr. Curtis Boatman vPAP
Gnarled Annihilator
Commander Corliss
Denial (22)
Imprison x4
Nanovirus
Nerve Gas x3
Artillery Strike x2
Aerial Bombardment x2
Wave Disruptor
War of Attrition x2
Overzealous Assassins
Orbital Laser Strike x3
Smart Missile x3
Support (10)
MegaTank
Rise of the NeoBuro x2
Evil Brain in the Jar
Reinvigoration Process x2
Dangerous Experiment x4
FSS (15)
Creche of the New Flesh x2
Mirrored Lake
Dragon Graveyard x3
Mah-Jongg Parlor
Monkey House
Moon Base x3
Temple of Celestial Mercy
Temple of the Angry Spirits
Waterfall Sanctuary
Ancient Stone Arch
Strategy is to build resources to get the Napalm Belchers out and blow away opponents cards. Always keep one power on hand to get rid of any big threat that comes out. Never attack unrevealed sites. Once your ahead in power and fighting, just deny anything that hits the board and maintain your advantage.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Gen Con 2009
Gen Con 2009
End of June
I turn forty, and for a present my wife gives me a 4-Day badge to Gen Con. Awesome! Now I scramble for a place to stay, a ride, and what events I want to participate in. I send out some e-mails and find that Tony, an old college friend, still lives in the northern burbs of Indianapolis and is welcoming people to crash at his place for the con. Sweet I now have a room, and it's free. Driving, however, doesn't work out with anyone so I'll be doing this alone. I can handle this. It's only 6 hours by avoiding Chicago. Must remember to pack some music. For events, I sign up for the draft, the Final Brawl, and Faction Wars. I buy generic tickets to cover the other events if I decide to play in them. I want to play in the New Heroes if I can make it to the con on time. I'm ambivalent about dueling, and I don't want to be able to play in Comrades in Arms, as with any luck, I'll be in the Final Brawl finals at that time.
I set up some game times with Willow and the other Madison gamers to try some deck concepts. Willow is upset because just a couple days earlier she had shown me her deck lists for the two decks most likely to be played at the con. I tell her it was part of my master plan to beat her. MWAH-HA-HA-HA!!!
July and Early August
We get together and play some games. I decide on an Ascended/Purist deck for New Heroes. I had been thinking Hand, but I couldn't get past that the biggest Hand characters had only 6 Fighting. For the Final Brawl, I am waffling between a Manchu deck and a Hopping Vampire deck. Both have done well in three-player, but I question their ability to push through to win four-player games. Willow recommends the vampires. In the end I decide to build something complete new that has been rattling around in the back of my mind for awhile - Lotus Stealth. For CiA and Faction Wars, I will just play a deck from what I have available.
Dueling is a format that I rarely play, and when I do, it is not with a deck that is specifically for dueling. Willow and I ended up playing some duels at our last play test meeting. I was running a Swarm of Teeth / Donner Lake deck against her Punchy Hand deck that she was going to play in the Final Brawl. This one game inspired me to make an Architect dueling deck for Gen Con. I'm set for decks.
Thursday, August 13
I get up at 3:50am so I can get on the road before 4:30. With a six hour drive, 30 minutes for stops, and an hour time zone change, this should get me to Indianapolis with an hour to spare before the New Heroes event. Surprisingly, everything goes to plan and I'm walking up to the convention center right at noon. I panic briefly when I see the line of people wrapped half way around the block for registration. I'm told it's about a 2-hour line. Fortunately, it's for the poor souls who didn't preregister. I whip out my badge and walk quickly up to the booth for a badge holder and a bag of swag, and two minutes latter, I'm headed for the exhibitor hall.
After wandering around a bit, I head to the CCG area, where I would spend most of the next three and half days. Here I meet Daniel Griego, Braz King, Peter "Red" Trudell, and others whom I have only known through e-mails and the discussion groups. I pull out my New Heroes deck "Same at the Old Boss", and people comment on the Revised (3rd) edition Magic box it's stored in. I'm expecting to see Jammers, Syndicate, Lotus, and Monarchs and am not disappointed. The only surprise was one Dragon deck. When the dust settles five rounds later, I've won my first Gen Con constructed Shadowfist event! I tried taking some notes as to the game play, but looking at them now, they are nearly worthless.
After that, I played some Who Wants Some Games with various people while the invitational tournament was played. Congratulations to Willow who won by defeating some of the best Shadowfist players in the world. I left the convention hall around midnight. Ninety minutes and much cursing later, I finally found my way to Tony's house for the night. Damn Mapquest! Future trips only took thirty minutes like they were supposed to.
Friday August 14
After a few hours sleep, I rode back to the con with Jason, a friend from college, and one of his friends. Jason was going early for a 12-hour Civilization event, so I had some time to kill before the Whirlpool of Blood. I went to the Rio Grande room and demoed Dominion. Seemed like a fun game, with a lot of replay value, but it went so fast I did not get a good grasp on strategy.
I show up for Whirlpool ready to have some fun. There are 16(?) players. We draft in groups of 4. The card stock is one booster each of CS, SSG, TFT, 7M, DF, N2, TW, and FP. As soon as I see the card pool I decide to go mono Lotus if possible. I remember a sick mono Lotus deck Jan Malina drafted at my first Gen Con playing Shadowfist. Most of it came from Throne Wars, and I hope to have similar luck. I don't get close to Jan's deck, but I'm not disappointed. My hitters include: Kong Jun She, Evil Twin, Bloody Herd, Huichen Kan, and Reverend Adam Wither. It's a little light, but with a Twelve Thousand Skulls, and a Demon Tank, I think I can build a hitter. I also throw in a Plasma Trooper and a Rebel Consumer for extra beef. It turned out that the support characters: Purist Sorcerer and Yuen Sheng were key to winning. Yuen Sheng stopped the denial to allow my winning attacks to get through, and Purist Sorcerer grabbed control of a Plasma Trooper to get the Fighting needed. I win my first two rounds. At some point in here, Braz has started to call me The Beast, because of the smackdown I've been handing out. The third round, I play against Willow for the first time at the con. The third player has not played in a long time and it shows. I take the first site and am feeling overconfident. I seize it thinking the game will be over soon. Either I will win, or Willow will and I'll have enough points to win the event. Turns out I was wrong. Willow ends up winning the game and knocks me down far enough that I come in second to David Kempe for the tournament by 1 game point. Stupid me!
A quick dinner break, then it's time for dueling. I have no expectations going into this other than to try to learn more about dueling. I have my Architect denial deck. There are eight players. Everyone will play everyone else and the top four will go into a single elimination final. Surprisingly, I win my first 4 games, including beating Daniel Griego's Origins winning dueling deck. Then I meet the stiff competition and drop the last three games. It turns out that I get the number four seed to the finals. The other three finalists are all the players who defeated me in the round robin. I am tired (dueling is mentally exhausting for me) and sitting down to face the number one seed: Cavebear. We had just played in the round robin, and he had beaten me soundly with a Buffalo Soldier / Outlaw Bikers / Battle-matic deck. I feel like conceding before the game starts, but that would not be good form. Surprisingly all the luck is flowing my way, and I win! Holy Crap! I'm in the final!
James Deto's Seven Masters deck beat Kempe's Project Apocalypse deck in the other half of the semi-finals. So James and I square off. His deck preys on opponents making impulsive attacks. My deck only attacks when necessary. Unfortunately, he also has a lot of healing effects, and once Li Mao hits the board with immunity to Architect events, I'm in trouble. I am reduced to playing site destruction and trying to hold him off until he decks. It works for a while, but not nearly long enough. James wins the title. Congratulations. Second place is far better than I expected.
So I leave the con with my friends and get back out to the 'burbs in time for the midnight brat cookout Tony is putting on. I see Homey and Aber are there with some other people. We stay up past 2:00 eating, drinking, and reminiscing. At that point, I go to bed. Tony, Jason, Kevin, and John stay up to play a new game "Word on the Street".
Saturday, August 15
I head down to the con alone, as everyone else is still asleep. This is the big day, the World Championship Final Brawl. I've been psyching myself up for this for a long time. I feel that since Willow was able to make it to the finals the last two years (and win it once), I should have a chance to make it to the finals if I play well. I'm playing my new Lotus Stealth deck. First round against James Deto and Daniel Griego starts OK. I get lots of magic resources and Reverend Adam Wither comes out with a Lunar Sword. Daniel convinces James that Wither has to go at all costs. James commits everything to the cause and looses all of his characters because of it. This leaves an open board for Daniel, who plays the Ivory Goddess, and takes a site of mine for the win. I worry that the Reverend might be problematic. If he continues to draw this much hate, I'm in trouble. The second round was very fast. All characters were turned, Reverend Wither was on the board again. He attacked an unrevealed site, which was an Eagle Mountain. I played my fourth site, LaGrange Four, and attacked again for the win. Third round, I played Willow and Chris Tucker. I jumped to a quick lead and was able to win even though Willow almost failed my final attack by convincing me to attack Chris rather than her. I have no recollection now of the fourth round, but I did not win. This left me in fifth place and just missing the finals. Oh well.
Now I'll play in the Comrades in Arms. I decide to play a fun deck for this. I'm burned out being ultracompetitive. I pull out my 100 Demons deck. It is a CiA & 100 Names deck. I think I end up with one win and one time out win, but it is fun anyway. The most memorable event during the tournament is the fire alarm half way through. The whole building has to be evacuated for about a half hour. It turns out one of the pizza ovens had caught on fire. After the event, I find Homey, drive him to his hotel, and go back to Tony's.. Its an early night and I'm in bed by 1:00.
Sunday, August 16
Last day of the con and all I have on the schedule is Faction Wars. I pack up my stuff and head to the con. I still have to pick my deck for this event. I consider my ReAscended deck, my Manchu deck, or even the Lotus Stealth deck I played in the Final Brawl. When I get there, there will be 10 players for this. My Manchu deck works well in three-player and does not usually take a lot of effort to run, so I'll go with this. First round, I end up in the four-player game. It goes to time. Stupid Jammer site destruction. I miss being able to play a FSS on my turn by about 10 seconds, which would have tied me for the lead. Oh well. Second round, I end up in the four-player game again. This again goes to time, but this time, I do tie for the win. I am really hating Jammers at this point. The third round I am finally in a three player game, but it is with Red and James. Red is playing a Jammer deck that destroys its own sites, and James is playing his 7 Masters dueling deck. Here are two decks that are really hard to effectively attack, and I have my hyperaggressive Manchu deck. I get a suboptimum start and decide I have to throw everything out there if I want a chance. If I fail, at least this game will not go to time. I fail. I also stop Red from taking my LaGrange Four because it looks like he could go for the win if he seizes it and attacks again. His second attack was likely to fail because James had denial in his hand, so I should have let him take. James then plays a site and superleaps Li Mao at LaGrange Four and takes it for the win. Sorry, Red. At this point, I'm burned out and am facing the 6 hour drive home. I check with Daniel. There is no way I can place in this event with one round left. So I ask if it would be OK to bow out. He approves. I say my goodbyes, hit the dealer room quickly, and then drive off into the sunset on the way home to Wisconsin. And if I never see another Cyborg Mermaid driving a Steam-Powered Tricycle, it will be too soon.
Decklists to follow.
The Beast
End of June
I turn forty, and for a present my wife gives me a 4-Day badge to Gen Con. Awesome! Now I scramble for a place to stay, a ride, and what events I want to participate in. I send out some e-mails and find that Tony, an old college friend, still lives in the northern burbs of Indianapolis and is welcoming people to crash at his place for the con. Sweet I now have a room, and it's free. Driving, however, doesn't work out with anyone so I'll be doing this alone. I can handle this. It's only 6 hours by avoiding Chicago. Must remember to pack some music. For events, I sign up for the draft, the Final Brawl, and Faction Wars. I buy generic tickets to cover the other events if I decide to play in them. I want to play in the New Heroes if I can make it to the con on time. I'm ambivalent about dueling, and I don't want to be able to play in Comrades in Arms, as with any luck, I'll be in the Final Brawl finals at that time.
I set up some game times with Willow and the other Madison gamers to try some deck concepts. Willow is upset because just a couple days earlier she had shown me her deck lists for the two decks most likely to be played at the con. I tell her it was part of my master plan to beat her. MWAH-HA-HA-HA!!!
July and Early August
We get together and play some games. I decide on an Ascended/Purist deck for New Heroes. I had been thinking Hand, but I couldn't get past that the biggest Hand characters had only 6 Fighting. For the Final Brawl, I am waffling between a Manchu deck and a Hopping Vampire deck. Both have done well in three-player, but I question their ability to push through to win four-player games. Willow recommends the vampires. In the end I decide to build something complete new that has been rattling around in the back of my mind for awhile - Lotus Stealth. For CiA and Faction Wars, I will just play a deck from what I have available.
Dueling is a format that I rarely play, and when I do, it is not with a deck that is specifically for dueling. Willow and I ended up playing some duels at our last play test meeting. I was running a Swarm of Teeth / Donner Lake deck against her Punchy Hand deck that she was going to play in the Final Brawl. This one game inspired me to make an Architect dueling deck for Gen Con. I'm set for decks.
Thursday, August 13
I get up at 3:50am so I can get on the road before 4:30. With a six hour drive, 30 minutes for stops, and an hour time zone change, this should get me to Indianapolis with an hour to spare before the New Heroes event. Surprisingly, everything goes to plan and I'm walking up to the convention center right at noon. I panic briefly when I see the line of people wrapped half way around the block for registration. I'm told it's about a 2-hour line. Fortunately, it's for the poor souls who didn't preregister. I whip out my badge and walk quickly up to the booth for a badge holder and a bag of swag, and two minutes latter, I'm headed for the exhibitor hall.
After wandering around a bit, I head to the CCG area, where I would spend most of the next three and half days. Here I meet Daniel Griego, Braz King, Peter "Red" Trudell, and others whom I have only known through e-mails and the discussion groups. I pull out my New Heroes deck "Same at the Old Boss", and people comment on the Revised (3rd) edition Magic box it's stored in. I'm expecting to see Jammers, Syndicate, Lotus, and Monarchs and am not disappointed. The only surprise was one Dragon deck. When the dust settles five rounds later, I've won my first Gen Con constructed Shadowfist event! I tried taking some notes as to the game play, but looking at them now, they are nearly worthless.
After that, I played some Who Wants Some Games with various people while the invitational tournament was played. Congratulations to Willow who won by defeating some of the best Shadowfist players in the world. I left the convention hall around midnight. Ninety minutes and much cursing later, I finally found my way to Tony's house for the night. Damn Mapquest! Future trips only took thirty minutes like they were supposed to.
Friday August 14
After a few hours sleep, I rode back to the con with Jason, a friend from college, and one of his friends. Jason was going early for a 12-hour Civilization event, so I had some time to kill before the Whirlpool of Blood. I went to the Rio Grande room and demoed Dominion. Seemed like a fun game, with a lot of replay value, but it went so fast I did not get a good grasp on strategy.
I show up for Whirlpool ready to have some fun. There are 16(?) players. We draft in groups of 4. The card stock is one booster each of CS, SSG, TFT, 7M, DF, N2, TW, and FP. As soon as I see the card pool I decide to go mono Lotus if possible. I remember a sick mono Lotus deck Jan Malina drafted at my first Gen Con playing Shadowfist. Most of it came from Throne Wars, and I hope to have similar luck. I don't get close to Jan's deck, but I'm not disappointed. My hitters include: Kong Jun She, Evil Twin, Bloody Herd, Huichen Kan, and Reverend Adam Wither. It's a little light, but with a Twelve Thousand Skulls, and a Demon Tank, I think I can build a hitter. I also throw in a Plasma Trooper and a Rebel Consumer for extra beef. It turned out that the support characters: Purist Sorcerer and Yuen Sheng were key to winning. Yuen Sheng stopped the denial to allow my winning attacks to get through, and Purist Sorcerer grabbed control of a Plasma Trooper to get the Fighting needed. I win my first two rounds. At some point in here, Braz has started to call me The Beast, because of the smackdown I've been handing out. The third round, I play against Willow for the first time at the con. The third player has not played in a long time and it shows. I take the first site and am feeling overconfident. I seize it thinking the game will be over soon. Either I will win, or Willow will and I'll have enough points to win the event. Turns out I was wrong. Willow ends up winning the game and knocks me down far enough that I come in second to David Kempe for the tournament by 1 game point. Stupid me!
A quick dinner break, then it's time for dueling. I have no expectations going into this other than to try to learn more about dueling. I have my Architect denial deck. There are eight players. Everyone will play everyone else and the top four will go into a single elimination final. Surprisingly, I win my first 4 games, including beating Daniel Griego's Origins winning dueling deck. Then I meet the stiff competition and drop the last three games. It turns out that I get the number four seed to the finals. The other three finalists are all the players who defeated me in the round robin. I am tired (dueling is mentally exhausting for me) and sitting down to face the number one seed: Cavebear. We had just played in the round robin, and he had beaten me soundly with a Buffalo Soldier / Outlaw Bikers / Battle-matic deck. I feel like conceding before the game starts, but that would not be good form. Surprisingly all the luck is flowing my way, and I win! Holy Crap! I'm in the final!
James Deto's Seven Masters deck beat Kempe's Project Apocalypse deck in the other half of the semi-finals. So James and I square off. His deck preys on opponents making impulsive attacks. My deck only attacks when necessary. Unfortunately, he also has a lot of healing effects, and once Li Mao hits the board with immunity to Architect events, I'm in trouble. I am reduced to playing site destruction and trying to hold him off until he decks. It works for a while, but not nearly long enough. James wins the title. Congratulations. Second place is far better than I expected.
So I leave the con with my friends and get back out to the 'burbs in time for the midnight brat cookout Tony is putting on. I see Homey and Aber are there with some other people. We stay up past 2:00 eating, drinking, and reminiscing. At that point, I go to bed. Tony, Jason, Kevin, and John stay up to play a new game "Word on the Street".
Saturday, August 15
I head down to the con alone, as everyone else is still asleep. This is the big day, the World Championship Final Brawl. I've been psyching myself up for this for a long time. I feel that since Willow was able to make it to the finals the last two years (and win it once), I should have a chance to make it to the finals if I play well. I'm playing my new Lotus Stealth deck. First round against James Deto and Daniel Griego starts OK. I get lots of magic resources and Reverend Adam Wither comes out with a Lunar Sword. Daniel convinces James that Wither has to go at all costs. James commits everything to the cause and looses all of his characters because of it. This leaves an open board for Daniel, who plays the Ivory Goddess, and takes a site of mine for the win. I worry that the Reverend might be problematic. If he continues to draw this much hate, I'm in trouble. The second round was very fast. All characters were turned, Reverend Wither was on the board again. He attacked an unrevealed site, which was an Eagle Mountain. I played my fourth site, LaGrange Four, and attacked again for the win. Third round, I played Willow and Chris Tucker. I jumped to a quick lead and was able to win even though Willow almost failed my final attack by convincing me to attack Chris rather than her. I have no recollection now of the fourth round, but I did not win. This left me in fifth place and just missing the finals. Oh well.
Now I'll play in the Comrades in Arms. I decide to play a fun deck for this. I'm burned out being ultracompetitive. I pull out my 100 Demons deck. It is a CiA & 100 Names deck. I think I end up with one win and one time out win, but it is fun anyway. The most memorable event during the tournament is the fire alarm half way through. The whole building has to be evacuated for about a half hour. It turns out one of the pizza ovens had caught on fire. After the event, I find Homey, drive him to his hotel, and go back to Tony's.. Its an early night and I'm in bed by 1:00.
Sunday, August 16
Last day of the con and all I have on the schedule is Faction Wars. I pack up my stuff and head to the con. I still have to pick my deck for this event. I consider my ReAscended deck, my Manchu deck, or even the Lotus Stealth deck I played in the Final Brawl. When I get there, there will be 10 players for this. My Manchu deck works well in three-player and does not usually take a lot of effort to run, so I'll go with this. First round, I end up in the four-player game. It goes to time. Stupid Jammer site destruction. I miss being able to play a FSS on my turn by about 10 seconds, which would have tied me for the lead. Oh well. Second round, I end up in the four-player game again. This again goes to time, but this time, I do tie for the win. I am really hating Jammers at this point. The third round I am finally in a three player game, but it is with Red and James. Red is playing a Jammer deck that destroys its own sites, and James is playing his 7 Masters dueling deck. Here are two decks that are really hard to effectively attack, and I have my hyperaggressive Manchu deck. I get a suboptimum start and decide I have to throw everything out there if I want a chance. If I fail, at least this game will not go to time. I fail. I also stop Red from taking my LaGrange Four because it looks like he could go for the win if he seizes it and attacks again. His second attack was likely to fail because James had denial in his hand, so I should have let him take. James then plays a site and superleaps Li Mao at LaGrange Four and takes it for the win. Sorry, Red. At this point, I'm burned out and am facing the 6 hour drive home. I check with Daniel. There is no way I can place in this event with one round left. So I ask if it would be OK to bow out. He approves. I say my goodbyes, hit the dealer room quickly, and then drive off into the sunset on the way home to Wisconsin. And if I never see another Cyborg Mermaid driving a Steam-Powered Tricycle, it will be too soon.
Decklists to follow.
The Beast
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