Saturday, May 24, 2008

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?


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