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Results from the Vs Tournament, Day of the Hero, held at The Style and Winch on 29.10.07 Format was Golden Age, We had 10 entrants Brendan Whiting 4-0 (0) Common Enemy David Moakes 3-1 (+4) Hellfire Club Curve Graham Beadle 3-1 (0) Hellboy Lone Wolf James Warrener 2-2 (+4) IG Burn Tommy Gibson 2-2 (+2) Spiderfriends Cameron Macgregor 2-2 (0, +6, 20) Shadowpact Curve Jack Rutter 2-2 (0, +6, 10) XNRG Ben Waghorn 1-3 (+4) Curve Sentinels Rob Mills 1-3 (+2) Synister Syndicate/Spiderfriends Round 1Ben Waghorn bt Andrew Palmer David Moakes bt Graham Beadle Brendan Whiting bt Tommy Gibson James Warrener bt Jack Rutter Cameron Macgregor bt Rob Mills Round 2Brendan Whiting bt Ben Waghorn David Moakes bt James Warrener Jack Rutter bt Cameron Macgregor Tommy Gibson bt Andrew Palmer Graham Beadle bt Rob Mills *A.Palmer dropped* Round 3Brendan Whiting bt David Moakes James Warrener bt Tommy Gibson Graham Beadle bt Jack Rutter Cameron Macgregor bt Ben Waghorn Rob Mills = bye win Round 4Brendan Whiting bt Cameron Macgregor Graham Beadle bt James Warrener David Moakes bt Ben Waghorn Jack Rutter bt Rob Mills Tommy Gibson = bye win
To be honest I feel a little lame posting this after the great MAA review that Wiiman has just put up but I'll post it anyway.
We have just secured our first ever premiere Vs event here in Maidstone, something I'm rather stoked about. Now that considering that we have been only running events for three months I think this is pretty goddamn good. However considering we are averaging 12+ to all our monthly events it wouldn't be too hard to beat the turn out for the London Elite Series which managed just 5 entrants. Yep thats right, the capital of good ol' UK managed just 5 people, and one of them travelled down from Dundee in Scotland!
The only thing I'm not happy about is the format, Silver Age, which I absolutely hate. I'm a big fan of Golden and also would like to see DC Golden and Marvel Golden events but to be quite honest if I never had to take part in a SA or MA tourney I'd be happy.
Anyways on to what I was looking to discuss. A couple of the guys who have pre-regged from outsid eof our local playgroup were asking as to whether they could expect to see much QuickFate down our way, to which I replied no as there is everyone is playing a load of old jank where we are. For example, here are the known decks of the guys locally.
Cameron Macgregor: Shadowpact Curve
Cameron is having to modify his build a little for this tournament as we have only been playing GA events up till now. He is hampered in this endeavour by the fact that although happy to play Marvel cards, he is a comic purist and wont combine Marvel and DC in the same deck, with this applying to Plot Twists as well.
James Warrener: Injustice Gang Burn
Over recent weeks James has been cleaning most players clocks with this incredibly consistent build. With few changes required to meet SA deck requirements (he loses Pleasant Distraction from the build) this could be a serious contender, if not the favourite to place highest out of the Maidstone players.
David Moakes: Punisher Guns Blazing or CHK/JSA or Hellfire
Dave has three decks built up at the moment that would require very little work to make the transition from GA to SA. He has, however yet to really have settled with any particular deck and may yet sit down with me and knock something new up before the event.
Jack Rutter: XNRG or Good Guys
Jack recently won a tournament using his Goodguys deck but has been tinkering around with an X-men build based on the Blog entry by T-Man over recent weeks. Likely to play one of the two and also likely to finish well up in the placings if he continues to emulate his success at Yugioh whilst playing Vs.
Rob Mills: ?
All of the decks played by Rob to date have been old classics of Golden Age modified with a few recent cards (X-Stall, Spidey Evade, MSM Sinister Syndicate/MOR X-men. Not sure what Silver Age cards he has at his disposal so I can't hazard a guess as to what he'll be playing. Playing something new and unfamiliar may hinder his chances.
Vince Newman: Brotherhood Reservist
Vince ran this at our last monthly event, borrowing a few cards to round out the deck. With the purchase of a box of MXM the deck should now be completed and we can expect a decent finish from him.
Brendan Whiting: ?
Brendan is much in the same boat as Rob. His decks to date have all been from pre-Silver Age sets (Doom Control, Chicken Supreme and Arkham Control). The format has got him real worried as he has virtually no card pool to work from. I expect him to be purchasing a bit from me over the next couple of weeks in preparation for the event. Like Rob, an unfamiliar deck may hinder his chances.
Holly Humphrey: BPRD Hellboy Lone Wolf
Holly is still struggling to come to grasps with the game. She more than makes up for this in enthusiasm though. Her only outing with this deck previously saw her make a hatful of mistakes on the way to a 1-2 record. With two weeks to practise though, who knows. I would expect her to finish in the bottom half.
Jordan Newman: Something from MXM
Jordan will be running something that his dad Vince knocks up from the cards acquired in his recent MXM box purchase. Jordan hasn't fared too well in his two Vs events so far, but write hiim off at your peril. Many adults have done so when facing him at Yugi, only to have there arses handed to them in a sling. Despite his young age a regular top 8 Yugi competitor with 3 tournament wins to his name (We normally get around 28 to our Yugi events)
Andrew Palmer: Heralds Curve
This is the deck that we have seen Andy piloting for quite a while but he does have probably the largest pool of SA legal cards to work with amongst the local players, due to the purchase of 6-7 booster boxes worth of SA legit cards. Therefore he might yet surprise us, but then again he might decide on sticking to what he knows best, especially considering his GD Invitational win last week. Predicted top half finish.
Gareth Roberts: Good Guys
Not sure whether Gareth will make it to the event, as our normal tournaments are on a Monday night, whereas this is on a Sunday. This will be Gareths 2nd event with his first coming up this Monday, so it remains to be seen how he will get on.
Harry Streeter: ?
I can't praise this lad enough. Despite never really faring that well in either Yugi or Vs events Harry turns up week after week, always upbeat. I always feel really good for him when he does secure a top half finish, so i wish him every fortune in the Elite Series tournament. However the likelihood is a bottom half finish, which will still leave him smiling away. Probably playing a deck built forhim by Vince, again MXM most likely.
Sue Rutter: ?
Jacks Mum. At present Sue has a FF Equip Golden Age deck built up. If she does attend the Elite Series I'm guessing she'll probably be running whichever deck Jack doesn't use out of GoodGuys, Morlock Evade or XNRG. Still coming to terms with the game so prediction= bottom half finish.
Nathan Greenwood: ?
Not sure as to whether Nathan will be in attendance with the event being on a Sunday, but he will probably need to borrow a deck from either myself of Jack if he does.
Ben Waghorn: JLA Curve
Bens two previous tournaments, both GA, saw him running Sentinels to a good finish and Goodguys to a not so good finish. I reckon on him finishing somewhere in the middle order.
Me (Graham Beadle): Something DC and Wacky or Marvel with Cable
To be honest it is unlikely that I'll get to play as I'll probably have to judge. My wife is the TO but cant judge because of looking after our kids. The guys I had lined up to judge are playing WOW in a Nationals Qualifier so I'm kindof ruled out. If I do somehow wrangle it so I can play I'll be running something weird and wonderful from the DC sets or a Cable, Domino Abuse Burn deck, loosely based around the one posted by Rian Fiike.
So thats a quick synopsis of our local meta. Hopefully we'll see a number of players from outside of our group, but hopefully no quickfate.
Its been a while since I posted up anything other than tournament results so I thought I'd share the ups and downs of my performance at the recent Grinning Demon Invitational, where I posted a 2-1 record.
I was running my Shadow of the BlackHand deck which I discussed in a previous Blog entry. The decklist I ran on Tuesday was as follows
1 G'Nort, Green Lantern of G'Newt
2 Salakk, Green Lantern of Slyggia
1 Olapet, Green Lantern of Southern Goldstar
1 Sonar, Dastardly Discord
1 Henry King*Brainwave, Psionic Manipulator
2 Madame Xanadu, Cartomancer
1 Arisia, Green Lantern of Graxos IV
4 Kyle Rayner, Last Green Lantern
2 Black Hand, Dark-Hearted Villain
1 Blue Devil, Dan Cassidy
1 Tomar Tu, Green Lantern of Xudar
1 Zatanna, Magical Manipulator
1 Hal Jordan, Green Lantern of Earth
2 Malvolio, Lord of the Green Flame
1 Ch'P, Green Lantern of H'Leven
2 Katma Tui, Green Lantern of Korugar
1 Nightmaster, Slayer
1 Sinestro, Green Lantern of Korugar
1 Zatanna, Showstopper
1 Dr.Fate, Hector Hall
1 Ganthet, Last Guardian
1 Captain Marvel, Champion of Magic
2 Birthing Chamber
3 Willworld
1 Sector 2814
4 Cover Fire
3 Enemy of my Enemy
3 The Ring has Chosen
2 Rain of Acorns
1 Helping Hand
1 No Evil Shall Escape our Sight
2 Hard Travelling Heroes
2 Stepping Between Worlds
1 Conjuration
1 Transmutation
1 Magical Lobotomy
1 Magical Conduit
2 Catchers Mitt
1 Chopping Block
1 Light Armor
My first game was against Brendan, much to his chagrin as I seeme to be meeting him in the first round all the time recently, with him on the losing end each time as of yet. I knew the matchup wuld be tough this week as the Hatter/Ivy combo is deadly against this deck, forcing me into playing the deck in a more curve orientated fashion, where I can easily walk into a Nasty Surprise/Kidnapping fiasco.
Entering the combat phase in turn 3, Brendan had Ivy, Hatter and a stolen Blackhand. I had Salakk, Gnort and Olapet and the initiative, with the score at 48me-46him.
This is where Brendan made his first mistake. I swung Olapet into Ivy, fully expecting him to KO Blackhand, he didn't. He then swung Blackhand into Salakk forcing both to stun. Turn 4 saw Joker recruited opposite me whilst all I could muster was a catchers mitt. The bells of Doom were tolling atthis point until Brendan had nothing for turn 5 other than to steal Blackhand and KO him. I dropped Katma who was most definitely my MVP of the evening Life gain thus began in earnest. Freeze was the opposing drop on 6 with me having no option other than to ring has chosen for a Ch'P. I desperately wanted to search out a Sinestro, but lack of willpower prevented it. I once again gained a bit of END with Katma, then had Joker swing into Katma with two mega blasts and an Arkham Asylum pump. This is when i realised I couldn't cancel a megablast with the Conclave as I didn't have a Shadowpact character. He then played kidnapping on Kat. How I love that card, except when it is played against me. Next turn saw me recruit Nightmaster and use his ResPoint ability. Bren dropped a Scarecrow and stole Gnort. I piled Ch'P into a reinforced Hatter and NightMaster into Ivy. Bren then hit Ch'P with Scarecrow and Freeze at Nightmaster. Upon succesfully stunning Nightmaster, Bren attempted to use Finishng Move which I negated with The Conclave, thus keeping alive the one character who met my next drops Loyalty requirements, Captain Marvel, whereupon I paid 25 for the win.
I won this game only because of a forgotton Ko with Ivy on turn 3 so I was counting my blessings whilst Brendan was left rueing the mistake.
Game 2 saw me up against Andy with his Heralds Curve deck. I had played a friendly against this deck earlier in the day and things weren't close so I went into the game fairly confident. Early truns leftt me feeling pretty much the same way, even if I hadn't drawn as well as our earlier encounter. With a couple of characters on the board to his none in turns 1 and 2 I felt like the edge was already with me, that was until I had no drop on turn 4. Suddenly he was gaining board presence that I couldn't deal with. Malvolio, Katma and Catchers Mitt were doing their best to lessen the hurt, and they fared pretty well. On turn 7 though it all went wrong. He halved my END with Galactus which wasn't too big a concern as I was going to regain some with Ganthet anyway. I also had a Ring has Chosen in hand which I then played with the intention of busting out my Cpt.Marvel for a turn 8 win. It was upon playing this that Andy kindly reminded me of the fact that I would have to discard a card after searching one out. I knew this but in my eagerness with victory in the bag I had played the card from hand with no other cards in my hand. Realising I couldn't afford to chuck Cpt.M in the graveyard I selected a Sonar and was then left with relying on topdeck either my 1 copy of Cpt.M or another Ring. I flipped the cards straight out to the board, neither of which were the card required. Game 2 had seen me snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Game 3 saw me back in the win column. My opponent, David, was running a MK deck focusing on the new Punisher cards and equipment. I pushed ahead in the early turns, and then with the initiative on turn 4 really took control. With his Punisher, double equipped I team attacked with all my characters on the board except for Malvolio, who was equipped with Chopping Block. The dangerous 4-drop was no more and despite David attacking back with his concealed Ghosty, I now had the upperhand with Malvolio and two other characters. I once again made a couple of play errors over the next few turns, forgetting to use Malvolios effect on one turn and putting the cards back in the wrong order on another. My END however was pretty constant around the 45 mark with Katma proving to be the MVP once again. Turn 8 came around (I'd not seen a Conjuration all day) and Cpt.Marvel once again saw play and victory was secured.
Although I had gifted one victory to an opponent, my 2-1 record was probably as it should have been as I should have lost comfortably to Bren.
I learnt a number of things about the deck. It nees the 1 drop Mary Marvel with Substitute. It needs more search, probably at the expense of a couple of character cards. I also learnt that I need to be a little less eager. In the friendly environment of our weekly Grinning Demon Invitational, it is no real big deal as I'm not that fussed about W/L records but mistakes like I made last night would not go unpunished in a more serious testing ground, like our upcomng Elite Series.
Results from the Yugioh Tournament held at The Style and Winch on the 22nd October 2007
There were 26 competitors
Stephen Norman 5-0
Jordan Newman 4-1 (+5)
Gareth Roberts 4-1 (+3)
Jack Rutter 4-1 (+1)
Darren Kirk 4-1 (0)
Richard Smith 4-1 (-3)
Nathan Greenwood 3-2 (+5, +9)
Amy Chizlett 3-2 (+5, +2)
Tommy Gibson 3-2 (+4)
Vince Newman 3-2 (+1)
Liam Johnson 3-2 (-1, +15)
Daniel Marchant 3-2 (-1, +8)
Wayne Hepworth 3-2 (-1, +2)
Rhys Bradley 2-3 (+9)
Danielle Tinham 2-3 (+7)
Matthew Boakes 2-3 (+5)
Rob Mills 2-3 (+3)
Ben Waghorn 2-3 (+1)
David Moakes 2-3 (-1)
Craig Tinham 2-3 (-5)
Morgan Harlin 2-3 (-8)
Cameron Beadle 2-3 (-9)
Kieran Tinham 1-4 (+4)
James Warrener 1-4 (+1)
Elliot Grant 1-4 (-1)
George Turner 1-4 (-3)
Results for the Vs tournament, Grinning Demon Invitational, held at my house on Tuesday 23rd October 2007
There were 6 entrants, format was Golden Age Constructed.
Andrew Palmer 3-0 (-1) Heralds Curve
Graham Pool 2-1 (-1) Shadow of the Blackhand
James Warrener 2-1 (-5) IG Burn
Brendan Whiting 1-2 (+5) Arkham Control
Rob Mills 1-2 (+1) Sinister Syndicate/Spiderfriends
David Moakes 0-3 (+1) Punisher Two Guns Blazing
Round 1
James Warrener bt David Moakes
Andrew Palmer bt Rob Mills
Graham Pool bt Brendan Whiting
Round 2
Andrew Palmer bt Graham Pool
Brendan Whiting bt James Warrener
Rob Mills bt David Moakes
Round 3
Andrew Palmer bt Brendan Whiting
James Warrenrr bt Rob Mills
Graham Pool bt David Moakes
Deck Indecision
The format for tomorrow nights tournament at my house is Golden Age constructed. I'm at a complete loss. After months of versus inactivity, the fact that I now have a weekly tournament should make me happy and it does. However, what it has also done is make give me headaches. The reason for this is because I try and present the new players with a different deck every week so as to broaden their Vs experience, however as two players have emerged as the guys who are picking things up the quickest, James Warrener and Jack Rutter, I find a competitive streak emerging in me that has laid dormant for quite a while. Thus I will be running my fairly casual Shadow of the BlackHand deck tomorrow, but after that it'll have to be a take no prisoners policy.
Things go from strength to strength
Six Months ago, # Maidstone Vs Players = 1
Four Months ago, # of Maidstone Vs players = 2
Two Months ago, # of Maidstone Vs players = 10
One Month ago, # of Maidstone Vs players = 13
Expected numbers for next Mondays tournament = 16-18
I've got to say that this makes me somewhat proud. A game which is all but dead in the UK bar a couple of pockets of resistance this is quite something. The weekly events at my house now draw 8+ every week.
How much resource blowing required in TNB?
Foiled, Kaboom and Genosha. What are the optimum numbers of each?
Slow progress on VsTV
We now have everyone lined up for their respective roles in creating our hour long Vs program to go out on YouTube. We've nabbed a couple of media students from the local college to help out with filming and editing. Just down to Cam and me to pull our fingers out with regards desired content.
Bad Calls R Us
I was dealt a humbling defeat in last weeks GD Invitational. Despite hitting the desired drops my deck, normally mega-consistent crapped out due to an exceptionally bad call by me. In my second match facing what I knew to be an IG Burn deck I won the toss and then opted to take odd initiatives. Taking into account I was running Doom/AI this was one of the worst calls ever made. Things started well with me stealing and KOing his IQ. I had hit Ivy and Hatter whilst he had recruited Lex. I sat smug in the knowledge that I could Reign his Lex on the next turn, completely forgetting his 4-drop Joker. Running through the game after my defeat I realised that with the cards at my and my opponents disposal, a simple call of evens could have made all the difference.
This article is not in homage to a prostitutes come on line, nor is it a revival of Dean Sohnle's Fantastic Fun decks. Its basically me going on a rant on my recent lack of inspiration with regards creative deckbuilding.
I've tried to do a number of things over the last couple of weeks, all of which have crashed and burned in early testing.
My first experiment was an attempt to make a deck based around the Gotham Central characters from Worlds finest. This came about because I recently re-read the excellent series of comics by Greg Rucka and Ed Brubaker. However try as I might the deck always slipped back into being a fairly formulaic Gotham build. I really couldn't get the flavour of a Gotham Central deck. So the idea was scrapped.
The recent Sinestro Corps series of comics then sent me on a Emerald Enemies/Anti-Matter whirl, but everything I came up with was hackneyed old-hat and just a case of slightly tweaked versions of decks I ran in the past.
Although I really like the new Marvel Legends set, I really wanted to stick with DC as everyone in our local playgroup seems to run Marvel stuff apart from me, Cameron and James, so being a comic shop owner I wanted to keep some degree of parity between DC and the House of Ideas.
In the end I finally found inspiration in making a modified version of Keith Watabayashis Bats and Supes deck, a deck type I'd never tried before. Will post a list soon.
Results from the Yugioh Tournament held at the Style and Winch on 15th October 2007
There were 27 competitors
David Moakes 5-0
Liam Johnson 4-1 (+3)
Kyle Greenslade 4-1 (+1, +20)
Nathan Greenwood 4-1 (+1, +2)
Luke Leonard 4-1 (-2)
Rhys Bradley 3-2 (+3)
Ben Waghorn 3-2 (+2)
Stephon Norman 3-2 (+1)
Richard Smith 3-2 (-2)
Tommy Gibson 3-2 (-3, +18)
Rob Mills 3-2 (-3, +7)
Cameron Beadle 3-2 (-5)
Daniel Marchant 2-3 (+9)
Jordan Newman 2-3 (+7, +1)
Vince Newman 2-3 (+7, -8)
Matthew Boakes 2-3 (+4)
Ayrton Fagg 2-3 (+2)
Kieran Tinham 2-3 (+1)
James Warrener 2-3 (0, -6)
Wayne Hepworth 2-3 (0, -7)
Harry Streeter 2-3 (-3, -3)
Elliot Grant 2-3 (-3, -16)
Amy Chizlett 2-3 (-8)
Thomas Kirby 1-4 (+3, -2)
Craig Tinham 1-4 (+3, -3)
Morgan Harlin 1-4 (-3)
Danielle Tinham 1-4 (-6)
Results of the Vs tournament, Grinning Demon Invitational held at my house on Tuesday 16th October 2007
There were 9 competitors, format was Golden Age constructed
James Warrener 3-0 (+3) IG Burn
Jack Rutter 2-1 (+3) XNRG
Graham Beadle 2-1 (+1) Reign of Arkham
Andrew Palmer 2-1 (-1, +5) Heralds Curve
David Moakes 2-1 (-1, +4) Hellfire Concealed
Sue Rutter 1-2 (+2, +2) F4 Equip
Brendan Whiting 1-2 (+2, +0) AI Control
Cameron Macgregor 1-2 (-1) Shadowpact Curve
Rob Mills 0-3 (0) AI Exhaust
Round 1 Results:
James Warrener bt Andrew Palmer
Graham Beadle bt Brendan Whiting
David Moakes bt Cameron Macgregor
Jack Rutter bt Sue Rutter
Rob Mills - Game Loss (late)
Round 2 Results
James Warrener bt Graham Beadle
Cameron Macgregor bt Rob Mills
Jack Rutter bt David Moakes
Andrew Palmer bt Brendan Whiting
Sue Rutter - Bye Win
Round 3 Results
James Warrener bt Jack Rutter
Graham Beadle bt Cameron Macgregor
David Moakes bt Sue Rutter
Andrew Palmer bt Rob Mills
Brendan Whiting - Bye Win
Results From the Yugioh Tournament Held at The Style and Winch on 8th October 2007
There were 27 competitors
Richard Smith 5-0
Gareth Roberts 4-1 (+7, +19)
Cameron Beadle 4-1 (+7, +12)
James Warrener 4-1 (+5)
Stephon Norman 4-1 (+3)
Jordan Newman 4-1 (-1)
Rhys Bradley 3-2 (+12)
Kyle Greenslade 3-2 (+7)
Rob Mills 3-2 (+4)
Liam Johnson 3-2 (+3, +14)
Harry Streeter 3-2 (+3, +8)
Darrel McGuirk 3-2 (+2)
Wayne Hepworth 3-2 (+1)
Ayrton Fagg 3-2 (-2)
Daniel Marchant 2-3 (+3)
Thomas Kirby 2-3 (+2)
Sam Mavin 2-3 (0)
Kieran Tinham 2-3 (-1, +15)
Ben Waghorn 2-3 (-1, +8)
Craig Plackett 2-3 (-1, -2)
Tommy Gibson 2-3 (-3)
Danielle Tinham 1-4 (-1)
Craig Tinham 1-4 (-2, +3)
Matthew Boakes 1-4 (-2, -7)
Amy Chizlett 1-4 (-4, -5)
George Turner 1-4 (-4, -15)
Bradley Broadfoot 1-4 (-9)
Results from the VS tournament, Grinning Demon Invitational, held at my house on Tuesday 9th October 2007
Format was Marvel Knights Draft, Manual Pairing
FINAL STANDINGS
Graham Beadle 3-0 (-2)
James Warrener 3-0 (-3)
Rob Mills 1-2 (+6)
Cameron Macgregor 1-2 (+5)
Andrew Palmer 1-2 (+2)
Crazy way the standings are calculated as Robs, Andrews and 1 of my wins came by byes due to us having an odd number of players basically meant that I won the tournament despite only 'winning' 2 games compared to James with 3
The pairings had to be made this way, rather than the usual swiss format, as Rob had to leave at 10pm
Round 1
James Warrener bt Rob Mills
Cameron Macgregor bt Andrew Palmer
Graham Beadle = Bye Win
Round 2
Graham Beadle bt Rob Mills
James Warrener bt Cameron Macgregor
Andrew Palmer = Bye Win
Round 3
Graham Beadle bt Cameron Macgregor
James Warrener bt Andrew Palmer
Rob Mills = Bye win
I've always loved the concept of alternate win conditions. This is one of the reasons I've fallen in love with the game of L5R. The fact that you can win an enlightenment or honour victory at the same time that your opponent is smashing your provinces into dust appeals to my sense of gamesmanship.
The same applies within the game of Vs, Whether it be by Rigged Elections, or Secret Six Victorious, there is something cool about winning by means different from the norm. Last night my friend Cameron came over looking to test his Shadowpact deck. As I had recently dismantled all my decks so as to catalogue my collection I quickly slung together a GLEE deck with spare cards I had lying around unfiled. The end result was a deck that played agressively through the early turns with G'Nort, Kyle, Light Armour and Chop Block, then slowed up laying more characters including Black Hand, Rain of Acorns and Catchers Mitt. The deck was nothing original but I was looking to bag a win using the 7-drop Sinestro's ability just because I had never won by this method.
As it turned out the deck played out fairly well. It had been a while since the debacle that was DC Modern season featuring GLEE, GLEE and more GLEE so the deck no longer felt stale. After bagging a few wins I began to see the potential of Cameron's Shadowpact characters within the deck. The stall and life gain of GLEE mixed in with the ability to 'buy' resource points possessed by the 'Pact looked to have real potential. We also realised that there was an alternate win condition in the form of Cpt. Marvel just dying to be abused. We stopped playing around 2am, after much discussion upon the merging of the two decks.
To be honest I was a bit disappointed today when I started this Blog to find that three players had posted decks along this combination of teams already, obviously with the same plan in mind, to use conjuration to bust out an 'early' Captain Marvel, then use his ability to win the game. I did think however that none of the builds really used Shadowpact to its full potential, leaning more on the tried and tested methods used within a standard GLock build.
So here we go with what made it into my deck.
First choice was a no brainer, a dude who pretty much acts as my mulligan condition for getting off to a good start in the match, Kyle Rayner. His ability to search out combat pump equip (Light Armour), KO Tech (Chooping Block), Reinforcement Assistance (Catchers Mitt), Team Up (No Evil Shall Escape our Sight) and Defence Support CArds (Helping Hand) is what makes him one of the best 2-drops in the game. The next choices were comparitively straightforward, I wanted Catchers Mitts, Light Armours and Chopping Blocks as they are all 'fetchable' targets for the 2-drop of choice. The deck however needs Black Hand to be successful so search cards are required. I'm fortunate enough to own a set of Enemy of my Enemys, but in the end I decided to plump for only three of them and three The Ring has Chosen. My reasoning behind this is simple. If unsuccessful at pulling Kyle even after Mulliganing, Salakk plus Ring = Turn 2 Kyle. Other no-brainers for the deck include a couple of Rain of Acorns, 4 Cover Fire and a bit of recovery tech in the form of Lanterns in Love. At this point I've shied away from mentioning the Shadowpact characters and teamstamped cards that have crept into the predominantly DGL build. I like the fact that a number of the Shadowpact characters have Willpower allowing them to a) provide life gain from Black Hand and Sectors Ability but also b) be searchable with The Ring. Secondly they provide a couple of 'tech' cards for matchups locally. I'm expecting to see plenty of Good Guys locally so Magical Lobotomy is great, as is Transmutation in a number of other matcups in the local meta. Both of these cards as well as Conjuration and Stepping Between Worlds are fetchable by Madame Xanadu. With regards the Shadowpact characters, the Zatanna 6-drop is great, I also like the 2-drop Blue Devil as a splash card.
By this stage we had thrown a number of cards into and back out of the melting pot and some kind of fusion was beginning to take place. A preliminary deck list looks as follows.
1 G'Nort, Green Lantern of G'Newt
2 Salakk, Green Lantern of Slyggia
1 Olapet, Green Lantern of Southern Goldstar
1 Sonar, Dastardly Discord
1 Henry King*Brainwave, Psionic Manipulator
2 Madame Xanadu, Cartomancer
1 Arisia, Green Lantern of Graxos IV
4 Kyle Rayner, Last Green Lantern
2 Black Hand, Dark-Hearted Villain
1 Blue Devil, Dan Cassidy
1 Tomar Tu, Green Lantern of Xudar
1 Zatanna, Magical Manipulator
1 Hal Jordan, Green Lantern of Earth
2 Malvolio, Lord of the Green Flame
1 Ch'P, Green Lantern of H'Leven
2 Katma Tui, Green Lantern of Korugar
1 Nightmaster, Slayer
1 Sinestro, Green Lantern of Korugar
1 Zatanna, Showstopper
1 Dr.Fate, Hector Hall
1 Ganthet, Last Guardian
1 Captain Marvel, Champion of Magic
2 Birthing Chamber
3 Willworld
1 Sector 2814
4 Cover Fire
3 Enemy of my Enemy
3 The Ring has Chosen
2 Rain of Acorns
1 Helping Hand
1 No Evil Shall Escape our Sight
2 Hard Travelling Heroes
2 Stepping Between Worlds
1 Conjuration
1 Transmutation
1 Magical Lobotomy
1 Magical Conduit
2 Catchers Mitt
1 Chopping Block
1 Light Armor
At this pre-testing stage I have a number of concerns for the deck.
a) With so many 1-ofs will the deck lack consistency
b) It can gain life but can it stall enough to survive the fast paced decks of today
c) Will Blue-Devils lack of range figure as important
d) less search, more equipment?
e) I'd like to squeeze in Lanterns in Love or equivalent recovery card, but what to drop?
If you have any comments regarding my concerns feel free to post them
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