Monday, August 16, 2010

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.

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

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.

Friday, May 28, 2010

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.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

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.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

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.

Friday, February 5, 2010

Plattecon Prize Support




















Here are all the cool prizes Inner Kingdom Games provided for Plattecon.  Actually, there are two uncut sheets from Empire of Evil that aren't shown.  Very generous.  I think I'm going to have to work seriously on my decks this year so I can get the plaque to hang on my wall.  Barring that, I would like an uncut sheet or a mouse pad with Ting Ting.