Windy City Throw-Down, Sunday

My final post from the site of Pastimes itself, I have to say, I've learned a few things.

1) Tourney-play isn't for me. Sealed is one thing, and I love it. Same for draft. But when it comes to constructed, I build great, fun Hobby League decks. They can't do very much against the Grodd/Deadshot deck, or a Random/Human Torch/Punisher deck. I don't build the hyper-consistent monstrosities that takes down those and other giants.

2) Don't check the drop box just 'cuz you're dropping the slip off.

3) DCL draft is a blast.

4) Vs has some of the greatest players. Even when I was getting hosed by Fantastic Four or IG Hidden, I was having fun just goofing around with my opponent. They put up with me being really bizarre, and most of them seemed to get something of a kick out of my deck, so with a few exceptions, I had fun every round.

5) Omnipotence is the best card in Modern Age, hands down. I beat Fantastic Four and IG Hidden because of it, and I got completely thrashed by another deck because they had it.

So, ultimately, I played 18 rounds of Vs. this weekend. I won 6 of them, which means...well, I had a God-atrocious record. 3 - 6 in Super Crossover, 3 - 6 in Constructed Modern. I got about 8 hours of sleep total all damn weekend, which is going to hurt tomorrow, as I have an early class followed by work all day. I bought a bunch of cards, opened a few packs, pulled nothing really interesting. Play errors cost me multiple games - enormous play errors for which there is no excuse. Still, I met cool people and played the game. I also had a couple pieces of a Chicago-style inside-out-upside-down-what-the-bloody-hell pizza - a pizza that cost, by the by, 35 dollars, when all's said and done.

I suppose I'll post my constructed deck for you all, so you can see the materials that lost me 6 games out of 9. It wasn't a bad deck, honestly - I had a decent game against Family of Four, a decent game against IG Hidden, and those were the two most populous decks by quite a bit. Ultimately, however, it fell short - consistency issues combined with power issues killed me as surely as anything else.

Mean Green Machine (60 cards)
Characters
2
1x John Walker <> U.S. Agent, Loose Cannon
2x Beast, New Defender
4x Tania Belinskya <> Red Guardian, Cold Warrior
4x The Chief, Niles Caulder

3
1x Kyle Richmond <> Nighthawk, Heart of the Team
2x Hellcat, Patsy Walker
2x Mento, Steve Dayton
3x Hawkeye, Loud Mouth

4
3x Negative Man, Larry Trainor
2x Samantha Parrington <> Valkyrie, Chooser of the Slain

5
2x Robotman, Cliff Steele

6
2x Beast Boy, Freak of Nature

7
2x Hulk, Strongest One There Is

Locations
3x Dayton Manor

Plot Twists
4x Secret Defenders, Team-Up
4x Misfits
4x Defenders Defend!
3x Call of the Wild
3x SKREEEEEE!
2x Savage Beatdown
2x Omnipotence
2x One Man Rampage
2x Mobilize
1x The "B" Team

Things I would change

Take out SKREEEEEE!. It's not a big help against Hidden IG. I pretty much only used it to try and take out Invisible Woman, and I got Force Field Projection-ed every damn time.

Replace Hellcat with 2 more Nighthawk. Not hitting team-ups was a problem, and Hellcat was never particularly helpful.

Take out the two Savage Beatdown and replace them with 1 more Call of the Wild and 1 more Omnipotence.

Replace The "B" Team with an additional One Man Rampage.

Those are the changes that spring to mind from this experience. The deck uses Beast Boy for multiple swings - if it's against IG Hidden, I get as many counters on him as I can and then double-swing using Parrington to ready. Generally, I would hit for 30-40 on turn 6 against them. The lowest I hit for was 20, with no pumps or counters, and Prometheus on the board. If it was against any other decks, I would proceed to feed their drops into Beast Boy using One Man Rampage to ready him. Beast Boy generally gets between 20/20 and 24/24 on a decent hand, and Secret Defenders makes it tough to get the stunback on him.

So, that's it for now. I hope you enjoyed yourselves this weekend; I did.

Super Crossover Sealed, round 6

Well...okay, I maybe screwed myself just a smidge. At the end of round 3, I was 1 -2, not doing well, but not doing terribly either. I went into my next round all full of pep, sure that I could pull off yet another win - I was, of course, wrong. That did not dissuade me much, but it was a pretty brutal loss nonetheless, as I fumbled a crucial play to drop myself for the turn: I forgot that he had Tamaran flipped up and I had nothing to pump past it. Yup. I have no excuse for myself, here. I deserved to lose that.

Okay, go to next round. I sit down just a smidge more disheartened. 1 - 3 is a bad record, and my deck was...well, nothing special might be overestimating things. Blessedly, a turn 5 blowout, where I wiped his board on HIS initiative, gave me the game pretty handily after losing a great deal of endurance to burn and dropping substantially smaller characters than he was. 2 - 3. Not a great record, but not my worst. When I went to drop my slip off, however, I noticed that it said on there something about dropping. Now, great innocent that I am, I saw that, and said to myself, "Ah, I'm supposed to check that to let them know that I was the one who dropped off the slip."

You can probably predict what happened from there, no? Yes, friends, I am an enormous idiot. The judge was nice enough to let me back in the tournament, but only if I took a game loss this round. So, I am completely out of the running for the top 16 - and prizes. While I never seriously thought I had a chance to win a prize, there was still that secret hope within that told me I could do it. The voice was, apparently, quite seriously wrong. It generally is. But I keep on listening to it. Isn't the definition of insanity repeating the same activity over and over and expecting a different outcome every time? Perhaps. Call me crazy, but I'm thinking, somewhere, maybe I have a chance* in the Modern Age tournament tomorrow night. A rundown on the Athens-tachi's decks for the Modern Age tournament will come sometime soon.

Silver Age tourney update!
Checkmate/VU vs. Checkmate/Heralds for the Silver Age finals, with each player having one victory.**

Further update: Checkmate wins the finals! (I don't actually think the game is over yet - but I already know that whoever loses, Checkmate wins).

Thanks for checking in, and I hope you all have a great weekend.

*I would like to clarify this statement by saying that I in no way have a chance at winning. Breaking even or winning a cool door prize would be enough for me.

**I would like to further clarify that I am an idiot, those were not the finals, and I am going to pray that I don't lose the rest of my rounds.

Super Crossover Sealed, round 3

Man, another close match. -9 to -10, my win. Big Blue Boyscout, Caped Crusader, and Brunhilde on the board, and Batman dealt 22 damage before Big Blue swung for the win.

In round three, my opponent and I were running neck in neck up 'til turn 6, when I underdropped three 2-drops with a Fastball Special in my row to take care of his six. Had it worked, I could've wiped the board that turn, but a rogue Trial by Jury blew me out, then Spider-Man exhausted my 4-drop Spider-Man, and I was left with only Brunhilde on attack - who got stunned back by Titans Tower when attacking into Raven.

So, 1-2 for me. I'm doing just about as poorly as I had thought I would, but I gotta admit, stalling to 8 - when it works - is completely awesome. Sadly, it almost never works in such an aggressive format. Ah, well. I'm still having fun. I'll fill you in again later.

-Silver Age tourny just ended.

1 Tim Rivera
2 Vince Blasko
3 Patrick Yapjoco
4 Todd Carlson
5 Robert Rietze
6 Michael Barnes
7 Chris Park
8 Niles Rowland

They be the top 8. More on this later.

Windy City Throwdown 2

So, we stayed up late drafting DC Legends and generally dicking around. The draft was fun, I went 2-1 with a rare-heavy JLA/Titans/LoA deck that had Riddler on 1, Batman on 3, Barry Allen on 4, and Starfire on 7, and was, in fact, fairly brutal.

Then we woke up today, the Athens-tachi, and went to Denny's for breakfast. After that, we got back and began constructing decks for the Galactus Raids that would be going on at random times throughout the weekend. None of us were in the Silver Age tournament, so we decided to wait for the Modern Age deckbuilding until tonight.

Out Galactus decks are going to be Modern Age, and we built up MK-Hidden, X-Men swarm, and DIG, which should be crazy. I'll post results on our Epic Struggle a little later.

For now, a little on the Silver Age tourny thus far.

First off, ending Round Five, there are still 75 people playing in this tourny alone, let alone who's getting in on the Supercrossover Sealed. Todd Carlson, Tim Rivera, and Charles Griffith are heading the field with 5 wins each, but a number of players are hovering at four wins. A few names I recognize sitting pretty at 4-1: Squire Kershner, Abacu Miranda, Niles Rowland, and Patrick Yapjoco. I'll try and get more info on some of the winning decks, and some of the interesting ones, when I can, but my own event, the Super Crossover Sealed, begins...right about now.

The place is fairly packed, but it looks like everyone is enjoying themselves a lot. In other words, things in the Windy City are rockin' right now. Wish you all could be here.

Waiting (or, I Hate Oblivion)

So, I've been digging through older cards and stranger deck ideas, things that I always enjoyed playing but never took the time to tweak because they weren't really legal in any formats I played. After all, I'm always looking for interesting decks to take to the Megaweekend. Sadly, most of them still aren't - I thought, briefly, about taking my MMK Swan Dive deck to the BYOS tournament, but looking at the schedule, I will very probably be getting my ass kicked in the Modern Age tournament, instead - I promised my girlfriend I would try and win her a Wii. I will try. I will also fail. My Barbara Gordon Legends deck isn't legal in any age but Golden now, sadly.

Further, looking at the schedule, it seems like I'm going to do the Supercrossover Sealed - it's cheaper than the other tournament, and it looks like a helluva lot of fun. Playing in a Silver Age tournament, I'm hampered by the fact that

A) I love jank, and build really fun jank, but I do not build tourny-level superjank. I have the heart, but not the mind.

B) I don't collect playsets. I mean, yeah, I have a playset of almost every Shadowpact card, largely foiled...but that was an extreme exception. I have 2 Mobilize from the Random Punks tourny (thanks, UDE!), no Enemy, no Signal Flare, etc...I have no money-ish rares, really.

C) The only decks I've ever successfully piloted in a tournament environment are Avengers/Other Team team-attack decks. Avengers/Legionnaires was my most successful, but I also played Avengers/X-Statix well, and if MVL hadn't knocked MAV out of format, I would've loved to try Avengers/X-Men.

This is hardly set in stone. I'm still thinking about Silver Age, especially with my Heralds/Legionnaires life-gain deck. It actually plays pretty well against at least one of the big decks - Hidden IG. On the other hand, however, it can't touch Endgame decks. Generally, if a deck wins my trying to push through damage, the H/L deck has a good game. But it doesn't work against many combo decks.

As to doing Modern Age over BYOS - believe me, that makes me a little bit sad. I might have to forego my attempts to win a Wii, as BYOS is one of my single favorite formats. Then again, there's that Random Punks thing for 6$...I may just try and sneak into one of those.

Anyway, my plans for the Windy City Vs Extravaganza are as follows: Supercrossover Sealed, Modern Age, Random Punks, Galactus.

Eating will make this trip painfully expensive. Thankfully, I should have a job starting next week...but not enough of one, that's for damn sure.

So, I hope to see any/all of you at the Megaweekend! I hope to hear about some spoiled Runaways/Young Avengers cards at the Megaweekend! I hope that the Megaweekend is an enormous success, and we'll have many years to follow, so I could attend more than one. I'll be updating each night, so come here for some reports!

I realize this post was...pretty random. Something more normal to come, perhaps tomorrow or Saturday. See you al

New Computer!

So, armed with a new computer, I say this: you can now expect a return to regular updates! I know, it's glorious, you're thrilled, you love me, yadda yadda. I'm pretty excited myself, both at the shiny new piece of laptop sitting right here in front of me AND at the prospect of jabbering on about VS with you a little.

Here, in this brief update, are a few things I'm thinking about taking to the Megaweekend.

First off, Heralds/Legionnaires Lifegain. It's a fun silver-age deck that won't go winning...errr...anything, but would be pretty hilariously awesome.

Shadowpact - a default choice for any BYOS. I'm terrible at playing it, but if nothing else presents itself, it's the choice.
Alternatively, I could struggle desperately to build a Crime Lords deck. If I hate myself, I will. Hmmmm...what other teams do I really like that I could do as BYOS? Any suggestions for BYOS teams you'd like to see?

ww.bb.com, my Wonder Woman/Beast Boy dual-legend deck is a possibility for Modern Age, or Silver, or Build a Legend, or BYOS (it is mono-set, I think).

Undercover, my IG/BoP deck, could be a fun possibility for Modern or Silver.

Legendary, my Invisible Woman legends deck is a possibility for a BYOS, Build a Legend, or Modern, or Silver Age deck.

So, what do you want to face off against in the Windy City?

Untitled? Perhaps.

I must open, my friends, with an apology - it is finals week here at the prestigious Ohio University, and I am swamped with meaningless papers. Sadly, since I am paying them for the privilege of turning these papers in (because I'm an idiot), these must be completed before I can spend much time on the far preferable Vs. and Comic Book related Shenanigans in which I engage.

However, all is not lost! I have some brief news, a report on the Birds of Prey/Injustice Gang deck I built. I also have this news, exciting in the highest degree: I'm going to Megaweekend Chicago! Later this week, I'm going to compile a list of potential decks for me to take to the Megaweekend, so that you know exactly how to kick the shit out of me, should we meet in a tournament. Enjoy!

Meanwhile, thoughts on the BoP/IG deck, after having taken it to the local hobby league.

1) More pumps - I could kill by 6 about 50% of the time. The rest of the time, I would just build a bigger and bigger board that just couldn't do much. I could still win, sometimes, on 7 or even 8...but, still. I'd rather not risk taking it that late.

2) More variety in character - I would often run out of unique characters pretty quickly, forcing myself to underdrop and wasting resource points. Maybe it was just bad luck shuffles, but it was still a definite problem.

3) One More 4 - Hitting Jemm or Vixen on 4 ended up being pretty crucial to my survival, most of the time. I'd add another Jemm, to wall and/or smash on turns 4 and 5. He's a beast.

That's all for now, sadly. I have to get back to examining what Shakespeare has to teach the modern reader about Elizabethan sexuality and gender norms. You can tell that college is teaching me many valuable life skills.

Enjoy your day.