Modern BYOS Tourney Report

This past Sunday’s Modern Age Bring Your Own Set was an example of mistakes completely sinking me on multiple occasions. I decided to build a solo Marvel Defenders deck, as I liked their defensive capabilities (through Hellcat, Defenders Defend and Against All Odds), as well as the inclusion of plot twists like Big Leagues. I built another deck for the day which I gave to Bryan, which was your standard IG Hidden aggro deck. We had two others show up, one with his own solo Defenders build, and the other packing Outsiders/Gotham Knights.

Round 1: Solo Defenders mirror (Los)

So this round my deck decided to be very uncooperative. I whiffed on one (no big deal), hit Tania on two and Hawkeye on three (Hawkeye wasn’t exactly what I was looking for), whiffed on four (underdropping into Hellcat), whiffed on five (underdropping into, you know, nothing), whiffed on six (dropping Wong and US Agent), hit Hulk on seven and 5 drop Dr. Strange on eight. Los was using Iceman to keep Tania locked down, as well as the combination of US Agent and Brunhilde to keep his endurance high due to constant reinforcement. He ended up getting the better of me in late game thanks to Quasar giving him better backups than my board.

0-1

Round 2: Outsiders/Gotham Knights (Los’ Mom)

Another example of a long game thanks to the Outsiders swarm leading to easy reinforcement. Multiple swings with characters allowed me to stop board presence which generally neutralized Dr. Light. I ended up winning on seven thanks to a triple swinging 23 ATK Hulk. The first two attacks were reinforced, but a full on brunt against Dr. Light was enough to take her down.

1-1

Round 3: IG Hidden (Bryan)

Here’s where the idiocy comes in. So when I built this version of the deck, I realized that losing Beatdown, Flying Kick, Big Leagues and Hunte Castle slowed down the deck way too much. That combined with the loss of Mobilize led to the inclusion of a playset of Criminal Mastermind. So turn five comes around, and he’s got two Masterminds flipped in his row. And I forgot to draw the cards. I didn’t realize this until late in the combat phase that turn. We couldn’t really rewind things due to Secret Files shuffling both of our decks. Now, it’s impossible to know if I would have drawn into Dr. Strange or a way to get him. But if I could have, I had game. I had a Tania in hand to sub over US Agent, as well as Rabbit Fire, Big Leagues and The Order in the row. Had I gotten Dr. Strange, I would have been able to deal 60 endurance direct through double swings by Dr. Strange and Hawkeye. But since I forgot, I lost the game a turn later. Thems the breaks.

1-2

Round 4: Solo Defenders mirror REMATCH (Los)

I hit my curve this time, but the combination of reinforcement and invulnerability from Brunhilde stalled me out. Same story as the first game, really.

So it wasn't a very successful day. But at the same time, oddly enough, it sorta was. A deck I built won the tournament, and without the mistake I made against that selfsame deck, I could have easily finished 3-1 instead of 1-3 and won the damned thing. I did realize that my deck relied a little too much on the turn 5 Dr. Strange combo face crushing for the win, with successive turns as an afterthought (sort of an "Ah, I guess I'll throw in a couple Sub Mariners and Hulks just in case it goes past 5. But I'll be good"). I had the defense down, but I probably should have taken the opportunity to use Ego Gem to draw through the deck a little faster, but these are all things you learn as you go. Not by best tournament, and the first time in a while I was sub .500 in a costructed tournament, but I'll get back in the saddle in time for Punks.

Heralds Bounce Punks deck for the win?

Et tu, Scarlett?

I remember the confusion when I first heard about it. Wait, Scarlett Johannson is going to put out an album of Tom Waits covers? Seems a little odd. Seems a little random. Then she goes and picks a bunch of very obscure songs, like Falling Down and Green Grass and Town With No Cheer, with the most well known song being I Don't Wanna Grow Up. Seems a little odd. Seems a little random. It came out today. I've now heard it...

It sucks.

I get it. She's trying to be Nico. It's cute. She can't pull it off, but she tries. Here's the thing. Tom Waits is often dismissed by a lot of folks due to his voice, which can at times be an unholy union between Bob Dylan and Louis Armstrong and can at other times be simply unholy (any time he beat boxes on Real Gone legitimately sounds like the devil has taken over your stereo). But there's another side to him. Despite the gruff voice and the often bizarre instrumental choices, Tom Waits can make extremely emotionally affecting songs and albums. From the early work with "Invitation to the Blues" and "Blue Valentines" to "Who Are You?" and "Make it Rain" from more recent years, Tom's been very capable of resonating with his ridiculously rabid fan base. As such, we have a tendency to react pretty fucking negatively when other artists try to mess with his songs. Rod Stewart cannot pull off the emotional complexity of "Tom Traubert's Blues," especially when he decides to be a bastard and cut the verse with the stabbing in it. The only one who came close was Springsteen, and that was mostly because Waits managed to out-Springsteen Springsteen when he wrote "Jersey Girl." So we're pretty protective of our boy Tom.

But Scarlett can't pull it off. Her Nico-esque delivery would work for songs that were, you know, designed to be sung by Nico, but it doesn't work for Tom. She squeezes all the emotion out of everything. It just comes out like a monotone. You can't take the emotion you hear in Waits' voice out of a song like "Who Are You?" It doesn't work. The skeptic in me really believes that the indie cred Scarlett built up on Ghost World is pretty much diminished, so she made a surgical strike by putting out an album of obscure Tom Waits songs. I hope I'm wrong, and I hope she legitimately likes Tom Waits, but at the same time, why would someone who legitimately likes Tom Waits completely butcher his songs over and over again? Doesn't make sense.

There is one good thing here. The musical background supplied by the guitarist from TV on the Radio (there's that indie cred!) is pretty good stuff. It's quite ethereal, and evokes a strong sense of a dream state. But it also overpowers Scarlett on numerous occasions, making it nearly impossible to hear her intonation (which, to be honest, isn't exactly a bad thing often times...). To be frank, the entire album's a mess. If you're even a basic fan of Tom Waits, skip it. If you're like me, and your ring tone is the chorus from "Tom Traubert's Blues," definitely skip it. If you're not a fan, check it out, but listen to the originals to hear what it's supposed to sound like.

I will be getting back to the VS talk soon, mostly based around thoughts about the cosmicky goodness currently going on in previews this week, as well as my terrible, terrible mistakes at the Bring Your Own Set this past Sunday.

The Wonders of Modern Medicine

Two years ago, Jon Lester was diagnosed with lymphoma. Tonight, he threw a no hitter. Ain't life grand?

Musical Seasons

One of the things I love to death about music is the way that just listening to a song can be such a memorable experience that it transports you to where you were when it first really struck you. You can see everything playing out in your mind's eye. This can, of course, be for good or ill. Just as much as that one uproarious song can take you back to an awesome concert experience or a night out with friends, the depressing stuff can just as easily take you back to a failed relationship or a death in the family. It's powerful stuff. When I was studying Philosophy at Boston University as an undergrad, I immediately became enamored with Friedrich Nietzsche, mostly because of what he said about music in The Birth of Tragedy. He talked about how music is the most immediate art form. If you're reading a book or a poem or looking at a painting or sculpture, you can always simply close your eyes and it all goes away. You can't do that with music. You can't close your ears. Sure, things like earplugs exist, but music is persistent, and at the right volume can penetrate even the staunchest of earplugs. And this is why I love music. It's inescapable.

I wanted to throw something out here, which I was reminded of when I put my iPod on shuffle the other day at work. A certain song came on, and it immediately made me think of Winter. Not just the moment that the song first affected me in the winter months, but the actual notion of Winter itself. As an idea. A thing in itself. I started to think about how there are definitely songs or albums I own that immediately evoke the various seasons of the year. And I thought I would share them with everyone.


Fall: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Murder Ballads
Specifically the song "Lovely Creature." There's a detachment to this song. It features a constant, almost galloping series of snare drum rolls backed up by a walking bass line and otherworldly choir. Every now and then, a sharp intrusion by Blixa Bargeld's electric guitar punctures the trancelike rhythm section. This song has always made me think of those chilly fall nights in late October that signal the coming of Halloween. And this isn't even a case of hearing it for the first time in the fall. I bought that album in the summer. A sample lyric: "Oh through the night, through the night/The wind lashed and it whipped me/When I got home, my creature was no longer with me"


Winter: The Knife - Silent Shout
Specifically the title track, "Silent Shout." My brother bought me this album for Christmas two years ago, and I can't help but notice how much of a quintessential winter record this really is. I mean, coming from a duo of Swedish techno artists, you're not surprised that they can make music that chills, but I can't really explain more strongly how much I think of ice when I hear the title track. I just get a picture in my mind of a camera tracking over a large, blank, chilly frozen meadow. It's a song and an album that gets a lot of play for me during the winter months, especially when it snows. Sample lyric: "In a dream I lost my teeth again/Calling me woman and half man/Yes, in a dream all my teeth fell out/A cracked smile and a silent shout"


Spring: The Dresden Dolls - Yes, Virginia
Specifically the song "Backstabber". I always think about those days in March and April where the temperature finally breaks and gets up into that high 50's to mid 60's range. That's my wheelhouse right there. And when it's that temperature and a bright, sunny day, there's nothing nicer than taking a drive with all the windows down. That's made even better if the Dolls are blasting their percussion heavy, bouncy music through the stereo. Their second album is a lot lighter than their first, and it definitely shows. Great spring record for those days where you step outside and just become invigorated. Sample lyric: "You always struck me as the type to take it lightly/But now you're going to have to shut your mouth or fight me"


Summer: Firewater - The Man on the Burning Tightrope
Specifically the song "Dark Days Indeed." I don't think it's possible for me to write a post about music and not bring up Firewater in some fashion. Even still, "Dark Days" is arguably of my college years. The album came out in the summer, and while we didn't adopt it as the anthem of our quad Sophomore year until a different season, it was always a fixture when I would make trips up to Boston over the summers to relax with the crew, have some drinks and dance and sing like idiots to "Dark Days." It's the ultimate drinking song. A chorus that demands sing alongs, great lyrics throughout, a ripping sax solo right in the middle. It's all good. I think for the rest of my life, I'm always going to think about those summer trips whenever "Dark Days" comes up. It's such a defining moment for my social life. And that'll never change. Sample lyric: "We don't know who put this cup/Of life into our hands/But when we go our bones will bake/Upon the burning sands/Cause we walk but once among the living/So no regrets and no forgiving/Hard to dance when you're down upon your knees/And these are Dark Days Indeed"

That felt good. I should write about music more often. But we'll be getting back to VS in the next few days with some new thoughts about my Red Skull preview card from last week in light of Acts of Vengeance, as well as a hopeful tournament report on Bring Your Own Set Modern.

Crazy Month

I am officially entering a very exciting span of weeks chock full of travel and concerts and card playing and all sorts of things. Not really going to have much weekend time until, oh I don't know, July, but that's probably for the best. Here's what we're looking at.

Sunday, May 18th - Bring Your Own Set Modern event at Great Traditions

Sunday, May 25th - Firewater live at the North Star Bar in Philly

Friday, May 30th to Sunday, June 1st - Wizard World Philly at the Philly Convention Center (complete with plans to meet up with a certain Clifford Parmiter for some VS goodness)

Saturday, June 7th - Ring of Honor at the National Guard Armory in (technically) Philly.

Saturday, June 14th to Sunday, June 15th - Megaweekend New York

Friday, June 20th to Sunday, June 22nd - NEARfest in Bethlehem, PA

Friday, June 27th to Sunday, June 29th - VS World Champs (sure, I'm most likely not going, but it's still a possibility, so I'm keeping it on the schedule)

Gonna be busy. And there's this "Marvel Universe Set Release" thing I keep hearing about.

Crazy go nuts.

The Greatest T-Shirt Ever?

I found out about this little gem on the Comic Geek Speak forums, and immediately bought one.


R Stevens, you are one magnificent bastard.

Linky

Best DCBS Box ever?

SERIOUSLY looking forward to Friday's box of comicky goodness. Let's take a peek at the shipping list, shall we? Super Awesome books are in caps and bolded.

NOVA #13 (The Galactus Arc begins!!!!)
Punisher War Journal #19
X-Factor: The Quick and the Dead (This should be interesting. Haven't read any Quicksilver since Son of M)
Angel: After the Fall #7
Avengers/Invaders #1 (Should be tons of fun)
Franklin Richards: Not So Secret Invasion (Time to find out if these books are as good as I've heard)
Invincible Iron Man #1 (Hoping for the best)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer #14 (Goddard's arc has been awesome so far)
Secret Invasion #2 (Yep, already have it)
Mighty Avengers #13 (Nick Fury!)
CASANOVA #14 (Absolute top of the stack. If the internet is to be believed, this is one of the best comic books to come out in a very, very long time. I LOVE CASANOVA)
Captain Britain and MI:13 #1 (British Skrulls!)
Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four #1 (Fantastic Skrulls!)
THE TWELVE #5 (It's still great. JSA, eat you heart out. Yeah! I said it!)
Green Lantern Corps #24 (MongulThanos continues his quest)
Sky Doll #1 (Super interested to see how this turns out. Loved the preview in the Soleil sampler)
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #1 (YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!)
Serenity: Better Days #3
Booster Gold #9

19 books? Two completely awesome (or so I assume) cosmic books? One of which has FUCKING GALACTUS in it? And the finale of the current Casanova arc, which has been absolutely mindblowing and amazing and deep and funny and all of the great things that make Casanova Casanova? Good, good, good times.

Plus, we've got the Modern Bring Your Own Set on Sunday. Dr. Strange will be my strength as I pilot my solo Defenders build into the fields of battle. Tournament Report will follow (if anyone else bothers to show up, of course).