Editor: Anthony Macali. Monday 26th September 2005.
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Editor: Anthony Macali. Monday 26th September 2005.
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Team Sealed:
A Winner's Perspective The team sealed kicked off on Friday night around six o’clock with eighteen teams each of three people. The three people were each from the same state and were playing for their states honour as well as some boxes including MK **yawn**. When we received our 16 packs we were given an hour to make three decks. Amongst our packs we vied for one proven Faces of Evil deck which would be our strongest, one Kang deck and one curve Avengers. We didn’t think there would be enough key cards to make a solid Kang deck but we got lucky netting two Kang 4 drop 10/10’s, a Spheres of Solitude, a Psyche Globe and even Kang, The Conqueror. I was also quite happy to get three Kang, Rama Tut’s and two Growing Man’s which could be a brutal combination. The Avengers deck was by far the worst our of the three but we went for two strong decks rather than three moderate ones. After we finished deck building there was plenty of time to walk around, chat to people from different states and get some pizza that had been ordered in, kudos to Card Heaven for that. The Faces of Evil which was our best was piloted to perfection by Migga who got a 5-0 record that night. My Kang deck went 4-1 losing only to Van Der Werk’s crazy Avengers build complete with Monica Rambeau and Captain America, Super Soldier. Growing Man proved to be very helpful reaching as high as 15/14 thanks to all the concealed Kang characters. The Avengers had a more shaky performance with Bonus getting a 3-2 result. The lack of good plot twists that were divided amongst the first two decks left the last deck defenceless against the more powerful decks being used. Our team ‘Bonus Round’ went 4-1 for the night losing only to ‘One, Two, Three, Four’ who we replayed in the grand final.
We had no pre-made plans going into the draft except not to draft Kang which needs so many key cards that it would be all too easy to counter-draft, I personaly have only drafted once or twice in my life and not to great effect. However this set up had Migga starting by opening a pack and placing all cards face up on the table. After a minute of review he had 5 seconds to choose a card before it went to me with 5 seconds and so on until it reached Michael who picked his card and rebounded back to him before travelling in a reverse circle. We generaly took the best picks straight away such as powerful low drops, attacks pumps or team-ups. We generaly thought that all the best decks were weenie ones so all low drops or cards like Hawkeye (4) were taken straight away. There was no talking allowed but we could make any gestures we wanted indicating what to leave and recommendations of what to take. Migga and Michael had also agreed that Migga would draft for Michael to showing him what to take, so that we wouldn’t accidently take what each other needed. I also sometimes refused to show Migga what I was going to take while it was still their pick for fear they would take it just to screw me. These gestures also included ‘the finger’ to the opposition whenever they took something we wanted or ‘the finger’ whenever we took something they wanted. There was a lot of ‘finger’. After a couple of packs I showe Migga my cards and highlighted the numbers under my 3 and 4 drops indicating I needed more, he also picked up a plot twist and pointed at the writing ‘plot twist’ along the side to recommend I get some more of those to. He also showed me his lack of 1 and 2 drops which I then left alone where possible, which wasn’t a lot of the time as Paul went after me and he was drafting a weenie build like me. Migga picked up a handy Faces of Evil and started to get more thunderbolts to make the team-up more viable as he already had plenty of Masters of Evil. A second Faces of Evil was icing on the cake for his deck which also had Yellowjacket, Melissa Gold ~ Screaming Mimi and Avengers Assemble. There was much rude gesturing at Michael after he took Beetle, Armorsmith when he panicked and ran out of time to choose a card, which was EXACTLY what Migga needed. I also stuffed up when I missed out on Combat Manouvers taking Supreme Sanction instead, I was in such a hurry I didn’t even see the pump. Michael and Scott were both drafting Squadron and while Scott got some gems like Blue Eagle, Michael also took key cards such as multiple Hibernaculum’s. As a result they both had sub-par decks. Paul got plenty of strong weenies as well as some more crucial cards such as Heinrich Zemo ~ Baron Zemo that I missed out on. I wasn’t really paying attention to Minga as he was the furthest from me and my attention span was at an all time low after drafting solid for what felt like hours, when you can’t talk it just seems to drag out. All in all though after some late picks such as Speed Demon and Beetle Mach 2 and 4, I felt my deck was fairly strong. A Pym Laboratories I drafted early on didn’t get used as I didn’t have enough reservists and some of my seven 2 drops, which I was so proud of, had to be cut. In the end I used….. 1 Thunder Jet Yes I am aware the six spot is non-existent, I didn’t want or need any with all my small guys I could swarm with. I was mainly Avengers with a splash of Thunderbolts but I thought my curve looked pretty solid. I found out that the people we were playing had been switched around so I sat down against Minga Wong and his reservist deck. Game on… I lost the dice roll and was forced to take evens. VIC WINS!
Thanks to the Sydney team who were great sports and made the whole experience so fun. All the teams in this event made the tournament fun as we could play without the pressure of a serious tournament. In a way we were all winners for doing so well and having a great time, unfortunately in a more specific way Victoria was the winner and everyone else sucks until they can knock us off our throne. Incidentally this will be my last report as Paul declared me banned from VSParadise after we won. Oh and also… HAHA EAT IT ADELAIDE!! YOU SUCK THE MOST OUT OF EVERYONE!! Anthony Murrey
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