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.