Editor: Webmaster. Tuesday 3rd May 2005.
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Editor: Webmaster. Tuesday 3rd May 2005.
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See Like's "report" for any non-tournament related incidents. He certainly had out his diary a lot, I think he is in love with it. Coming into the event, my testing had consisted largely of playing World of Warcraft a lot. I did however know fairly early that I was going to playing one of three decks: mono weenie Syndicate, mono MK-KO, X-Statix (maybe with MK). The problem with what little inbred testing I did was that the MK-KO deck we were playing with (made primarily by Like and Uly) didn't have a copy of Dr. Strange. This absence made X-Statix without Psychoville's a fair match up. I also did okay in the games I played with is against Syndicate, so X-Statix was seeming okay. A few comments by Ssteven along the lines that I seemed competent with the deck, coupled with the fact that it's really the only deck that doesn't "just beat" in the MMA format that I came across settled me upon it a few days before the tournament. I thought it was special, I was wrong. I didn't really have any expectations; but I certainly didn't DESERVE to make day 2, or at least not compared to the other 3 guys who came (Like, Ssteven, Vanwolfgang) who unlike me hadn't done the majority of their playtesting running around Stratholme possessed by the Baroness. However I had the impression that if somehow I did make it to day 2, things would be okay. The list I played was: 4 Gravesite 1. No answer to Dr. Strange = bad bad bad. Do anything, play 2 Psychovilles, anything at all, but boy it sucks to be playing a deck that aims to make it to the late game and CANNOT WIN the late game... 2. The 8-drop distribution is probably quite arbitrary really. I basically wanted to be able to randomly draw 1, then Weapon on 9 if it went that far. 3. Gravesite isn't worth it. It's good, but the question is always do I flip this sucker first turn and then risk them laughing and playing 2nd turn Jack Russel Werewolf By Night. I think the answer is its just better to take it out and put in something else (Sharon Ginsberg for the win!) 4. If I were to run a similar list, I'd remove Gravesites, remove a Weapon, put in some Psychovilles, make it 3 La Nuit and 4 U-Go-Girl 4s and add a Mind Over Matter, even though I never lacked one...might as well take redundancy. 5. I'm sure everyone knows this, but no Spin Doctoring is...really bad. There comes a point where, if you're randomly not drawing S.Ds you probably have to change completely the way you're playing that particular game and win by more conventional means. 6. Go In Swinging technology could be the goods, although it seems a little situational (you're meant to use it on you're team attack with Anarchist 5) Anyway, all that is from rather limited experience with the deck so it's probably lies, damned lies and statistics (that is a quote from a famous person, probably Michael Jackson or someone) Now onto my games with "teh deck" Round 1....FIGHT So I take my seat, fairly nervous and 3 minutes later I still have an empty seat across from me...DJOGS WINS...FATALITY 1-0 GO TEAM ME Round 2 My opponent "Alex" (according to my notes) is playing Spider Friends-MK. I get a first turn Gravesite, 2nd turn Gravesite and I certainly saw the other 2 Gravesites throughout the game although I didn't bother playing them. On turn 7 its his initiative with his whole board (drops 3,4,5,6,7) against my Zeitgeist (still has counter) and Anarchist 7. I decide its a good idea to go all in and get rid of Anarchist to Zeitgeist his Ezekiel, completely forgetting about Nice Try! for some ungodly reason. Oddly enough, my Zeitgeist is countered and I take about 40 that turn. If I had had a Spin Doctoring I would have been fine but there you go, no Spin Doctoring = good games sir. 1-1 aww berb Round 3 This round was against a nice guy from Germany called Patrick. He was playing a bad version of MK (an early Blade 2 with Titanium Sword made me happy) and boy his "Bring the Pain" on his Daredevil 5 sure "Brought the Pain"....ON HIS FAEC !!!11 I basically drew the relevant pieces and the game didn't get to a point where he could Dr. Strange for the win, if he was playing any. Patrick still made Day 2, suggesting to me the power of the beats decks. 2-1 looking fine Round 4 I was playing Bulk Lao, who I gather is a Realmworks guy? I dunno, but he was also a nice dude and further chats with him were had throughout the two days. Basically he saw what I was playing and set up from the start for his turn 8 initiatve with Dr. Strange boost and Spiderman 6 lockdown. I took a lot on that turn. 2-2 sighs Round 5 Playing someone called Jesse, who throughout the game had quite a game face on, never cracking a smile. But once it was over it was all good. I got Dr. Stranged again...someone remind me why I'm taking odd initiative again? Furthermore, this was one of the game that I went turn 1 Gravesite and he goes Mephisto thanks you for the dudes in my bin! 2-3 long day ahead Round 6 This was against a guy called Sidney from Portugal, one of the two people from that country there I believe. He was playing some messy Midnight Sons based deck which sported cards from what seemed to be every possible affiliation except Sinister Syndicate. I think he ended up flipping Sons naming Underworld, Crime Lords, X-Men or something similarly strange. My Gravesite sure gave him some life after he Sons'd for Underworld sigh. We get to turn 8 on his initiative (he got Varnae on 7) and I sigh, thinking I'm about to rack up another loss to Dr. Strange boost. But fortunately he doesn't have a Wild Ride or something and makes a Prof. X. I do the same and we lose our hands. It goes to turn 9 and he is forced to mill his Dr. Strange by my Gravesite haha I wins with a topdecked man of size 6 or more (he drops nothing). In this game he was always on lower life than me, I was just always afraid I'd lose it again on 8. 3-3 i can do it Round 7 Against an Italian (I'm pretty sure) called Thomas playing straight Spider-Clones. I get bashed late game by his double Spider Tracers, shutting down all my Dead Weights, Spin Doctorings and Mind Over Matters. Meanwhile he had out some ludicrous number of Spidermen 8s and 7s that team attacked me to death. 3-4 remind me again why i came all this way to play this game Round 8 This round was against an American called Justin playing an MK deck that seemed very similar to the Australians. Unfortunately it had a Dr. Strange in it, and I lost to Dr. Strange boost/Spiderman 6 lockdown. Again. 3-5 i have to 4-0 from here? damn it, i could be in Stratholme right now, getting possessed by the Baroness Round 9 This was against Nicholas, a gamer from the Your Move Games group, who were (all, presumably) playing Underworld-MK. He didn't really draw the cards he needed and I drew enough life gain and damage prevention Spin Doctorings that his boosted Dr. Strange on 8 just couldn't kill me...but I certainly could when I hit him back with my large men. 4-5 oh why torment me like this, why not just let me lose that game in peace Round 10 Against David from Italy, who seemed a little upset when I called a judge over about his sleeves (some of them I could see through, others I couldn't, but the judge didn't have a problem with them). He was playing MK-Crimelords and got off to a flier hitting Elektra 3, Bullseye 4 and other beaters. I took early damage fast. He flipped up an Untouchables on turn 5 and I was like "Eh let me read that" only to find out that it hurts me a fair deal because it shuts down Spin Doctoring and Dead Weight. He also thought it shuts down X-Statix HQ but after about 10 minutes of rulings (the first judge agreed with him, I had to appeal to Alex to get it right) he found out that X-Statix HQ never targets the KOed character. This was crucial because it meant he chose the absolutely wrong guy on my team with his Untouchables. Then again, I chose the wrong guy on his team too... In any case, on turn 6 he drops Luke Cage and when we choose Untouchables, he chooses his own character to turn off my Zeitgeist on that particular character. This turns out to be a crucial mistake as it lets me burn the Spin Doctoring that had been wasting away in my row the whole game. With it, I am able to stun his whole team (the non-concealed ones at least), but sadly its still about even on life because of his early beats. Nothing much happens on turn 7 except time ends, so we have just turn 8. His turn 8 play is quite impressive, he boosts Elektra 5 (!!!) and plays some random 2 drop. I break his heart by playing Ghost Rider and putting him in front of my Anarchist 7. Now his Untouchables works for me; he chooses my Anarchist (correct) I choose his Luke Cage 6 (he also has out a Dr. Strange from turn 7). Now he's sitting there with 2 guys who are BOTH smaller than my crew but only one can be buffed by his plot twists. I axe his Elektra 5, concealed Daredevil 5 and random 2 drop with Ghost Rider who then gets stunned by Strange. But he can't punch through my Anarchist with his unbuffable Luke Cage. I win with him on 0 and me on 1. If he had power upped Luke Cage twice to hit my Anarchist I'd have cried. So lucky that I randomly had the Ghost Rider in hand or else Elektra 5 would have taken me to school. 5-5 the dream has to end soon come on get it over with Round 11 This was against a jovial guy named Carl who may be coming to Australia in November. I think also he is part of Realmworks but I think (although his deck fizzled so hard I couldn't really tell) that he was playing MK-SF like the rest of the crew. He had gone 5-0 and then 0-5 to get to here. He then proceeded to miss essentially all his drops, including a stellar turn 7 recruit step of "Pass" and for once the X-Statix board severely outnumbered the opponents board. I have written down that I won by attacking Anarchist FIVE to his face on turn seven. 6-5 lol Round 12 This game was against a young guy (maybe 16? iono) called Tarik and he was also playing a bad MK deck. Furthermore, he did some wack plays...he threw a CaP at a La Nuit who had been re-inforced and then Slukked (and then wanted to take it back, but playing for day 2 I can be a cruel cruel man). When he played his Daredevil 3 I dared to hope for Day 2. Then on turn 7 when he chomped his Daredevil five with DAREDEVIL SEVEN, well, let the good times roll I say. 7-5 mise of the century. I have to say that 3-5 was absolutely the pits. The knowledge that you flat out have to win four straight is so emotionally draining and the feeling doesn't stop until your 12th round opponent is on 0. Well in my case it stopped when he played Daredevil 7 but I'm sure my point is clear. Having said that, the feeling of coming from that abysmal position to day 2 is pretty elating and my stomach was on cloud nine. But maybe that was just because it's impossible to get vegan food in Amsterdam. I hope I never have to see the word Kaas (cheese) again. Unless maybe it's on a sign saying KAAS IS NOW BANNED. FROM LIFE. SIGNED PRESIDENT CHUCK NORRIS. Sad that Vanwolfgang didn't make it. The MK-KO-Concealed deck is absolutely a day 2 deck. Glad the other two guys did. Especially Ssteven coming through about SIX Sinister Syndicate matches to go 10-2 or something similarly obscene. Anyway, onto the draft day. I hadn't drafted much MK but I had drafted a lot of Superman, so I was glad it was 6 rounds of MOS draft and only 3 of MK. I knew I wanted to play either Underworld or X-Statix in the MK draft because they (at least in Sydney) seem to be the lesser drafted teams. Somehow I ended up with an MK-CL deck that contained such luminaries as 2 Face the Master, 2 Blown to Pieces, 1 Geraci Family Estate, 1 Uprising, 1 Rough House, 1 Punisher's Armoury, 1 Bring the Pain (although only 4 MK characters). It also starred a Big Bully as card number 30 (insert in joke here). For the whole draft day I was hoping to go 6-3. This would certainly put me in money, and probably get me a reasonable amount. I figured 2-1ing each draft pod was a reasonable expectation because I can draft okay, and I can play limited pretty well. MK draft decks need a lot more synergy to be good (compared to MoS at least), which places a lot more emphasis on draft skill than play skill. This hurts me considerably so I was glad we were having 2 MoS and 1 MK draft.
Round 1 This was against Antia, one of the few women in the tournament, from Italy. I lose to the most bizarre situations ever (although maybe that's just a Sydney perspective). I get hit by Falling Stars early on and just think "Huh". On turn 8 its her init and she has out Anarchist 7, Orphan 7, U-Go-Girl 6. I have Bullseye 7, Typhoid Mary, The Russian, Hannibal King and boosted Elektra 5 both concealed. She hits the Russian with U-Go-Girl, eh, whatever, I Blown to Pieces and take some. She hits Typhoid Mary with Orphan. I reinforce with Bullseye and Face the Nasty Surprise. With the KO trigger on the stack I go, good times, activate Hannibal King targeting your Orphan so she took 12 off that attack and I took 6. I was very ahead on life at this point, I was on 15 she was on -3. Of course she Overexposes my Hannibal King, which for some reason I thought she might. But im thinking, meh, Elektra 5 is gonna get her beats on and she won't be stunned back good times! Then she uses her 2nd Mind Over Matter to pump up Anarchist and sigh and prepare to take and extra 3. Then she flips X-Statix Cafe and I sigh and pack it in because all of a sudden Elektra can't hit Anarchist back. I end up on -6, her on -3. Did I do this wrong? Should I have made a more conservative reinforcement based play rather than Hannibal/boost Elektra (I had to play Hannibal to satisfy the double loyalty). Tell me what I did wrong here. 7-6 sigh here we go again Round 2 This was against a guy called Kyle Montgomery who was talking just before the draft began like he was going to 3-0 the pod or something. But...he wasn't very good at draft. For all I know he's the best Curve Sentinels or Titans player in his area but his limited play was not so flash. It got to a point on turn 6 where he had to use Spiderman 6 to lock me down or else he flat out lost. Once he had done this, and thus basically conceded his initiative, I knew I was going to win. It was still fairly close in terms of life though. 8-6 please let me 2-1 this pod Round 3 He began curving out with X-Statix from turn 1 and it got to a point where I had to use a LOT of blue on turn 4 or else his Saint Anna would destroy me on his defense next turn. So, I used a lot and after I had gone Blown to Pieces, Uprising, Face the Master he said in frustration/disgust "If you want to use all your plot twists now and lose that's fine" or something similar. He found out on turn 8 though that I didn't use all my plot twists (I had my second Face and second Blown to Pieces) and nor did I lose! I drew like every good blue/green in my deck this game it was ludicrous. Probably helped by the fact that he drew a Dagger on turn 8 and he had to make a "TBS attack" (attacking with your power equal to their def) so that he could attack with Dagger to get us to even life. Sadly his attack fell down because of my second Face with Geraci. 9-6 well, on target i guess, but i feel this one should have been my 3-0 of the day with my card quality
MOS Drafts I like Darkseid's Elite. I like Armagetto. Heck, I like Slig so much that my WoW character is called Sligapls. And he may as well not even have any game text! I certainly want to "Trok and Gole all night, and Godfrey every day". I prefer Darkseid's Elite and a touch of New Gods. My first deck went according to plan with double Armagetto, double Heat Vision and a nice curve starring 3 Shaligos and my alltime favourite Glorious Godfrey. This guy is nuts with the ghetto. I actually usually try to get 1 Lightray 1 Kalibak and some Big Bardas in some of my 6-drop slots. Seems to work out about right for me. The deck I end up with for the first pod is about even on Darkseid's and New Gods with New Gods at 4, 6 and 7 and the rest basically D.E. Round 4 Bart from Holland had never drafted MOS before. I played both of my Heat Visions and flipped up both of my Armagettos AND curved out from 2. It was quite a rumbling. 10-6 maybe this one can be my 3-0 pod! Round 5 Versus Sammy Gilly. I'm sure I've heard his name before, should I have? On turn 4, my initiative, I had to choose between Izaya or Fastmak with double powerup. I choose Fastmak because no one expects the double power up. He had out a Mongal in front of a Silver Banshee (Silver Banshee was his off-curve 4th turn play) and I suppose some people would hit the Banshee first and then the Mongal for maximum breakthrough. But I figured the only way I'm losing this game now is if he has a Heat Vision, so I play it safe and hit Mongal. He Heat Visions and I double power up. A few minutes later (admittedly after playing a 4 drop on turn 5) he picks his jaw up and leaves me to my Fastmak paradise. BEEN SPEEEEENDING MOST OUR LIVES, LIVING IN A FASTMAK PAAAAAAAAAARADISE. Speaking of which, Fastmak owes me USD125 ! 11-6 right about now "I'm just happy to be here!" Round 6 Versus Alessandro. Well this was a feature match that you can find covered at the Metagame PC Amsterdam coverage. This was the 2-0 match from this draft pod and we were both playing Darkseid's Elite. On turn 5 I played Glorious Godfrey and it would have been game set match right there except I didn't have another DE character so I couldn't lock anyone down. This made it very close and it got to turn seven on his initiative. He controlled Kalibak and Big Barda (no counter) against my Orion (no counter) and Lightray. He sent Kalibak into Lightray and the only way I could get the stunback was by Female Furiesing away my Orion and thus taking Barda to the face. Prior to this attack Alessandro had been taking long enough (and I know it was a tight situation, but you still have to play apace) that I had called over a judge. Now suddenly I had to calculate whether I should stun Kalibak or if i should keep Orion around to soak up some damage. I didn't quite calculated it as thoroughly as I would have liked because I felt bad about taking a while after calling a judge on my opponent, but I was pretty sure I should go for the Kalibak stun. Couple that with the fact that I have good anecdotal evidence that suggests a stunned Kalibak = lose, I went for it. I was in a situation where if he could give his Barda +6 attack to my face he would win, but fortunately he couldn't (although he did try to suggest his Barda still had a counter by mistake!). Very lucky he hadn't drawn his Armaghetto, whereas I had drawn one of my two. 12-6 let the good times roll! The second draft went not so well. I ended up with a large amount of New Gods characters and a few Revenge Squad early drops and a few Darkseid's Elite scattered throughout for a second pack Armaghetto. I also have a Royal Decree so it wasn't a ridiculous mise, although it was still a bit. I had a mere 3 DE dudes, but, meh, it's better to play it and hope than to play some crap guys or something that will almost always go face down anyway. I believe I had 4 Metrons in this deck, so ridiculous. No chance of stunning that man with a solo attack... Round 7 This game was against Ian from somewhere in the UK (I'm no good with accents). Anyway, the fact with this game was that he made mistakes and I didn't. Well I probably did but they were minor enough to not be noticed. Whereas he made two very noticeable mistakes. The one that I remember was attacking with Cir-El before attacking with an Alpha Centurion which he thought still had a cosmic counter or something. Which is even more excellent because Cir-El's power depends on whether he HAS a cosmic counter! Anyway, a bunch of little things like this and me not dropping off curve meant I won this game and it was fair enough really. 13-6 .... *shrug* Round 8 This game was against Andrea Satin (Santin? sorry, couldn't be bothered researching the right surname! He played ssteven in constructed though and didn't have a power up for his WILD PACK when ssteven had a power up for his MOON KNIGHT). In any case, this game was basically won on the third turn. I had out Mercy arears of Big Bear and he has Big Bear and Desaad up front. He sends his Big Bear into mine, I Royal Decree and KO Mercy. His Big Bear falls down then mine bashes Desaad and was later used to bash well up the curve and then after THAT just to sit in front of an important character. After turn three our plot twists basically negated each other (he Up Up and Aways, I Stopped Cold. I Up UP and Away, he Stopped Colds, etc). Random team up for the win! 14-6 damn jogs . Round 9 Alex Shvartsman was to be my final opponent, and I couldn't have asked for a nicer one. At this stage I knew I was well into the money (or at least compared to my 104th placing out of 110 coming into day two) and so I was a bit like eh whatever. It was a fun game. I lost when I missed my drop and had to do the most useless team attack ever. And then on turn 8 he made a random Superman 8, which he was only playing because he didn't have another good blue and it powers-up 2 or 3 points on his curve. Oh well, what can you do. 14-7 i can deal. I only missed 2 important drops in all 9 rounds of draft (that six drop, and I missed my 3 against Alessandro. But so did he, he just made Shaligo which I had already made a turn earlier so I WINS!!111). I'm convinced that my curve distribution is the one for me. All in all I was pretty freaking happy at the end of day two. Luke and I had both gone 14-7 which would place us somewhere in the mid-20s, and we had to wait to see if ssteven made Top 8. And he did...so FREE DINNER FOR US! The next day we went to Rotterdam after seeing TBS in the morning before his flight back. It was good to see everyone's favourite Garrick Wang clone again. The job seems to be treating him well which is good. Good for my prospects of ever getting paid back what he owes me that is. The next next day ssteven left early on and we were at a bit of a loss of what to do. So we had the EAT FEST 2005. We had some toast at the hostel (I also had some soy pretend chicken fillets I had bought the night before and not eaten). Then we went to Beans and Bagels and had some Bagel-y products (NB Beans and Bagels rules). Then we went to get some fries from the random fries shop. Then we went to Wagamamas to use the last of our lunch vouchers. Then we went to this random pancake shop where I basically got some tinned fruit thrown together with some non-tinned Strawberries (being vegan for the lose in noobsterdam). Then we watched Cursed, and it was so bad that we actually should have eaten the film. Then we went and got MORE FRIES from the same shop. Then we could finally go and catch a plane. However at the Malaysia stop over Like and I had about 5 cans of pineapple juice each and Vanwolfgang and Like ate ALL of the chicken wings between them. And THEN we got on the plane and kept eating. I also watched Blade Trinity and Elektra and they almost made me throw all the nearby MK decks out the airlock. Let me tell you we ALL made day two of EAT FEST. Aaaand then I got home and played World of Warcraft kthxbye. What is there left to say except (drum count in) ONE TWO THREE FOUR (expletive deleted) NOOBSTERDAM. |
