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Michael Pittman
"Learning to Love the Bomb" - Part 2
Michael Pittman
May17, 2007
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In Part 1, I discussed the design history of “The Shotgun” – the Thor/Nega-Bomb deck four of the seven Canberran players played at PC – Sydney.

The deck I registered was …

Characters (24)
4 x Lockjaw, Inhuman's Best Friend
1 x Rick Jones
4 x San
1 x Quicksilver, Inhuman By Marriage
4 x Tonaja
1 x Kang, Kang Cobra
4 x Thor, Odinson
1 x Dewoz
1 x Firestar, Hellion
1 x Mr Fantastic, Illuminati
1 x Scarecrow, Fearmonger
1 x Maximus the Mad

Plot Twists (26)
4 x Enemy of My Enemy
4 x Flying Kick
4 x Meltdown
4 x Mob Mentality
4 x No Man Escapes the Manhunters
3 x Nega Bomb
3 x Walk Through Walls

Locations (7)
4 x The Great Refuge
3 x Attilan

Equipment (3)
3 x Mjolnir

Scott Ward (the deck’s original designer) and Pete McCook’s deck had one less Tonaja for one copy of Gorilla Grodd.

Round 1 – Tim Riveria (Press Chess)

Tim is a softly spoken but very pleasant US player. I believe he is from Las Vegas and he was playing the reportedly Tim Batow designed Checkmate/Kree deck.

I got evens (something that happened every round except one, when I played Tim’s team mate, who might have known a thing or two about the shenanigans I planned to play on turn four). Neither of us had recruits on turn one, but we played Black Thorn and San on turn two. Attacks brought the score to 47 to 48.

On turn three Tim played a visible Ahmed. I flipped a Meltdown to gain two endurance, flipped something else and flipped The Great Refuge to search for Tonaja. Ahmed searched for a location and attacks brought the score to 44-all.

On turn four I recruited Thor and Tim put together a small Press chain ending in Christopher Smith <> Peacemaker. His recruits included Lieutenant Kona Lor, so I had to flip Attilan and activate to put Attilan on top of my deck before replacing it. My attacks brought him to 15 (including a Nega-Bomb reveal), with his return attacks bringing me to 27 through Hala.

On turn five I hid Thor with Dewoz and hoped he wasn’t running Satellite HQ or Funeral for a Friend. He attacked me down to -8, but Thor + Nega-Bomb + pumps was enough to overcome a hefty Infamous Seven to bring him to -9 … a one point win.

Tim told me he had more than one power up he could have played on turn four to save endurance but decided against playing them. Bad times.


Round 2 – Michi Imazu (Good Guys)

Michi is a good spirited New Zealander (born in Japan … I think that’s correct), playing one of the decks the Kiwis made world famous.

Good Guys is a terrible match up for “The Shotgun”, as they have the DEF pumping abilities to potentially stop breakthrough, as well as Wally West on turn five to screw over Thor out of combat.

I missed my turn one and two recruits, but thankfully all Michi did for those turns was recruit a Mr Mxyzptlk and attack twice. I didn’t even know I was facing Good Guys until turn three. Luckily I had Kang ready to go, though. His Nth Metal’ed Shayera Thal only attacked for five, with Mxyz getting in for another one. Score was 42 to 50, as I passed on my attack.

Turn four saw me recruit Thor and him Katar Hol <> Hawkman, Eternal Hero, with an Nth Metal. Thor’s breakthrough trigger put the score in my favour that turn.

Turn five was crucial. Michi played Wally West <> The Flash and I think I recruited Firestar. I then played Walk Through Walls on Thor, to which Michi responded by activating Wally targeting Thor … but I had the second WTW to trump him. It was a total mise, but it ensured that I could “shotgun” again. Due to my slow-ish start and Michi powering up defensively, though, I didn’t bring him to zero on that turn, so we went to turn six. The score was something like 17 to 3.

I can’t remember what my recruits were, but it wasn’t particularly impressive. Michi played Steel, returned an Nth Metal and then played an Nth Metal on Wally West. He activated Wally targeting Kang, which resolved. In combat I played Meltdown on Wally’s equipment and then attacked into him with Thor. Michi had no choice but to reinforce with Steel. This took him to -2 and allowed me to pass for the win, which was fortunate because I’m pretty sure I couldn’t get through his minimum of 13 DEF Steel.

Michi showed me his row at the end and it was full of useless Bwa Ha Ha Ha Ha! and Kooey Kooey Kooey cards because he missed the early JLI guys. I felt like I had ripped a Get Out of Jail Free card this round.


Round 3 – Thomas Scheer (Quick Fate)

When Thomas, a friendly German player, led off turn one with Ted Kord <> Blue Beetle, I immediately jumped to the conclusion that he was playing Good Guys and let out an internal moan. Crap. When he searched out a Fate Artifact, though, I realised I was playing either Quick Fate or Fate Squad. I recruited Lockjaw. My attack brought the score to 49 to 48.

Turn two I recruited San and Thomas recruited Quicksilver, confirming what I was up against. I knew it was all about surviving turn three and, hopefully, even surviving turn four. He played two artifacts on Quicksilver as well as playing Air Strike to replace a face-down Soul World. He then terraformed a second Soul World from his hand into his row, flipped it and used it to return a copy of Lockjaw from his KO’d Pile. I attacked Quicksilver with San and a pump to ensure that the Air Strike was wasted. I thought Thomas’ play on this turn was odd, but I guess at worst it drew him a card. The score was 47 to 42.

On turn three he played Human Torch, Sparky and I recruited Tonaja. He used Soul World and then went to town with pumping and readying shenanigans, shaving 25 endurance off me. I passed on my return attacks and the score was 22 to 38.

I recruited Thor, while Thomas played Dewoz and hid Quicksilver. I hadn’t drawn a Meltdown by this stage, so I knew I was in for a rough time. I attacked and “shotgunned” and brought him down to -2. My biggest error was playing two power ups offensively. I was unsure of how much gas he had and wanted to give myself the biggest buffer possible, but it came back to haunt me. Thomas attacked Thor with Quicksilver including one Royal Guard, bringing the speedster’s DEF to 9 … only one more than Thor’s ATK. The Thor power up and the Tonaja power up (I had an Enemy in hand, but only Quicksilver with it) I had played earlier denied me the ability to stun back, which would have saved the second swing with Quicksilver. I was surprised when he attacked with it in the first place. Dewoz could stun Thor naturally and after playing a Helm, I knew Thomas must have ripped into at least one pump even if I did have a defensive power up. Still it all worked out in his favour, as the score finished on -10 to -2.

Thomas also revealed that he had forgotten to play Mikado and Mosha on Lockjaw when I was attacking with the Inhuman hound. That would have been a three-point turn around too (which would have meant that my offensive power ups would have been required to get him to zero anyway). In the end Thomas should have won the game and it was only probable play errors that even gave me a whiff of hope.

My record progressed to 2-1, but I didn’t feel too bad about it.


Round 4 – Masami Ibamoto (Skrulls)

Masami was one of the Japanese players and was another pleasure to play against. Once again I had evens.

I missed Lockjaw, but Masami did not, taking the score to 48 to 50.

I played San on turn two and my opponent played the Franklin Richards he had searched out the turn before. I played No Man Escapes the Manhunters on Franklin in an attempt to deny him a surge counter. I proposed an attack with San. Masami thought long and hard at this point and I wondered if he was going to play an Extended Family to move Franklin back into the hidden area. Instead he played a NMEtM of his own and moved his Lockjaw in front of Franklin in an attempt to negate the attack. I had a Flying Kick, though. Lockjaw attacked back taking the score to 46 to 43.

I can’t remember which character Masami played on turn three, but I think it was Crystal. I had a dilemma. I had Tonaja in hand, as well as an Enemy of My Enemy, but at this stage no Thor or a character to reveal for him. With all of the Mjolnir, Thors and various search I was running, I was confident that I could rip something that would allow me to play Thor on the next turn if I kept Tonaja in my hand. This led me to pass on my recruit. He bashed me and then I did my best to bash him back. I’m not sure exactly what the score was at the end of the turn.

I ripped a Mjolnir and a character that I could pitch to Enemy on turn four. Good and bad. I recruited the Odinson. Masami then searched out and recruited Hawkeye, which threw me for a bit of a loop. I wasn’t really mentally prepared for that. Worse still, he formed up with Hawkeye in front of Lockjaw and Franklin Richards in the support row beside him. I needed two ATK pumps to be able to stun Franklin, as neither of my two drops could naturally stun him and the first character was going to attract Hawkeye’s arrows. I didn’t have them, which meant I had no way to do breakthrough this turn. Not playing Tonaja the previous turn really hurt in the end. The score ended up 34 to 37 or something similar.

I was in a bit of a tizz over all that, especially as Skrulls was normally an excellent match up for my deck. I can’t remember what the recruits were for turn five, but I did manage to pull the combo that turn. Sadly, though, it wasn’t enough, as the score was -4 to 8.

Bugger. I suddenly had visions that I’d scrub out for the rest of the day.


Round 5 – Ross Schaffer (Skrulls)

Playing against a team mate always sucks, but at least it wasn’t a mirror match. I was worried that knowing the deck would allow Ross to spoil my plans, but I luckily won the die roll and was able to secure evens.

I didn’t take many notes for this match, but it pretty much progressed as planned for both players. I “shotgunned” on turn four and he gained a tonne of endurance back thanks to Human Torch’s cosmic ability. Ross played Ronan on turn five. I put Firestar into my resource row and then recruited her without replacing. I KO’d her for the burn when Ross stunned her, but could not hide Thor for the combo. I used Attilan to put Scarecrow on the top of my deck at the end of the turn. Scarecrow stole Ronan’s counter on turn six and I combo’ed out again, putting Ross deep into the negatives, around -24. Ross was neither able to attack for enough damage or gain back enough endurance.

I progressed to 3-2, with a friend’s blood on my hands.


Round 6 – Randall Hughes (Concealed Faces)

Randall was late getting to the table, but not too late, and was eating a tasty looking fruit salad. I love all of Randall’s idiosyncratic behaviours.

Randall gave me evens and played a Surveillance Pawn. I figured I was playing against Concealed Faces (even though I guess it could have been another deck) on the basis that I knew a number of other Sydney players were running it too. I missed Lockjaw, which filled me with dread, as I knew I’d likely need that six to eight endurance loss that he would contribute over the match.

I hit San on turn two and Randall boosted Yellowjacket to find Beetle and then recruited a second Surveillance Pawn. I lost a good chunk of endurance and attacked back for just two.

On turn three, Randall recruited Beetle, who searched for Terry Sloane <> Mr Terrific (whom he didn’t play), and then played Dallas Riordan, Mayoral Aide. I played Tonaja. Randall flipped Faces of Evil and played Vanessa Fisk’s effect from hand. Once again, I lost a lot and he lost about six.

I recruit Thor on four, while Randall played Shadow Thief, fetching an Anti-Green Lantern, and Mr Terrific. I thought long and hard before playing No Man Escapes the Manhunters on Shadow Thief. I made my attacks, played a flurry of pumps and “shotgunned”. Randall played two power ups on Shadow Thief to save endurance, but I still brought him to exactly zero. I prayed that he didn’t have another Faces or pump, as he only had enough on the board to bring me to 1.

I stole another game by just one endurance, taking me to 4-2. I was feeling confident again.


Round 7 – Chris Kwan (Checkmate/VU)

This game was an unreported feature match so I have no notes to refer back to. I had a hard enough time working out the electronic score pad.

The critical play in the game came on turn four. I knew that hiding Thor on five was not likely to work, as Chris would likely have access to Satellite HQ or Sewer System. I knew he’d also be running DEF boosting effects that would get stronger over time. It was therefore very important to get the combo off on turn four at a bear minimum.

Chris had Talia and Bizarro in play visible, with Ahmed hidden, while I had more or less the full curve of Lockjaw, San, Tonaja (all hidden) and Thor. Bizarro and Talia with adjacent to each other in the support row, ready to reinforce each other. I attacked with a surged up Tonaja into Bizarro. Chris had one Checkmate Safe House in his row and Ahmed was ready, so I knew that I needed a pump regardless. He searched out the second Safe House and I played a Flying Kick. Chris then played a Knightmare Scenario for +1/+1 and a Superhero Showdown! I didn’t see that coming – although I know realise that I should have teamed attacked anyway, just to be safe – and my attack was bricked. No Nega-Bomb shenanigans for turn four.

I hid Thor on turn five with Dewoz, while Chris recruited the five-drop Talia. The predictable Satellite HQ shut down Thor for that turn too.

Turn six my hand turned on me and I was not able to recruit my Maximus the Mad and achieve a face up row. I ended up recruiting Quicksilver and a hidden weenie. Chris recruited Terrax and brought in a Sarge Steel via Talia. His formation was perfect and I was thoroughly shut down. Scoopsville.


Round 8 – Brian Gates (Press Chess)

Facing Tim Riveria’s Las Vegas-based team mate needing one more win from the last two rounds was not ideal. Brian was very cool and a joy to play against … the DEF boosting machine that was that team’s deck, though, was a different story.

I fancy that Brian may have been aware of what my deck was aiming to do, as he didn’t think twice about taking even initiatives when he won the die roll.

This is another game where I can’t remember too much of what happened from one turn to the next, as I was just concentrating on trying to secure the necessary fifth win. The one thing that was burned into my memory though, was the double Infamous Seven plus multiple Checkmate Safe House activations to give a Captain At-Lass more than +16 DEF. I would have needed to draw two thirds of my deck to draw into enough pumps to get through that.

Cold sweats as I moved to 4-4 and needed to win the last match to secure a Day 2 berth.


Round 9 – Nathan Fenwick (Legion of Skrulls)

I was quite nervous going into the last round of Day 1. I really wanted to make Day 2 (duh … who didn’t), so I was praying for evens and for a good match up.

Nathan is from New Zealand and playfully enquired if I wanted to concede. He is a cool dude and had a great custom-made playmat that he bought blank and had a talented friend draw a picture of the Juggernaut on. Nice.

Personally, I had stopped playing with my Thor mat in the last two rounds, just in case word about the deck had reached my opponents and I telegraphed what I was playing. Thankfully Nathan seemed unaware of my scheming ways and gave me evens.

Turn one he played Triad and discarded a Lockjaw to search out two more copies. Immediately I thought I might be playing against a Skrull/Legion deck, as my team mates had played against a couple in previous rounds. This immediately helped calm my nerves, as I had Lockjaw in hand, the means to hit my early curve and Thor, as well as a couple of pumps. It was one of the best draws I’d had all day and I knew I had a good chance of winning on turn four in this match up.

There’s not much more to report in this match, as it pretty much went to plan with few surprises. I was able to reduce Nathan to -1 during the combat phase of turn four, while I was still on a relatively healthy 30+ endurance.

I was sorry to crush the young guy’s dreams, but I was stoked to know that I’d be playing in Day 2 and that I’d achieved that with a jank-tastic deck.

In the next part, I’ll report on my three Day 2 drafts and the associated matches, as well as give the usual wrap up.

Till then …

*BAMF*

Michael Pittman
AKA Ike E Bear

 

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