Gators Gone Wild
An all-VSRealms final four at the Gainesville PCQ
There were some strange things happening at the University of Florida this weekend.

1. We woke Sunday morning to six screaming Ospreys playing outside our hotel window. We watched them frolic from our balcony for an hour.
2. In the Top 8, there were four VSRealmers; gator7870, ironicmonkey, VS_Master, and Whateley25. All four won and advanced to the second round of the finals. Then in the final, Whateley25 squeaked out the win by defeating VS_Master. Congratulations to all.
3. There was an Xavier’s Dream deck in the Top 8. Yes, you read that right. Let me explain.



Alexander Burns and John Rich designed an Xavier’s Dream deck that Alec drove all the way to Top 8. They are both regular VSRealms lurkers, and this article should be the push they need to become members. Remember, everyone, it is free to join. Come on in, the water's fine. Alec and John are currently UF locals, but on the decklist Alec wrote “Athens, Georgia” as a goof. I therefore annoint this deck the…

ATHENS DREAM

4 Xavier’s Dream
4 Children of the Atom
4 Mutant Nation
3 Relocation
4 Avalon Space Station
4 Cerebro
4 Dazzler
4 Puppet Master
2 Nightcrawler, Kurt Warner
3 Banshee
3 Woverine, Logan
4 Rogue, Power Absorbtion
2 Jean Grey, Marvel Girl
3 Scarlet Witch
3 Magneto, Eric Lensherr
3 Storm, Weather Witch
2 Professor Xavier, World’s Most Powerful Telepath
4 Jean Grey, Phoenix Force


First of all, I give endless props to anyone who shows up at a PCQ with the best art in the set: the Phoenix Force Jean Grey. Next, I am speechless when I realize that the card is actually key to the basic strategy of the deck. There are no stunned characters in play if they are all back in hand. The deck also keys on Power Absorbtion Rogue to double all its control tricks. Two Dazzlers? Two Puppet masters? Two Phoenix Force!

Many screamed in the beginning, me in particular, that there was no way to get to turn 8 in this game. I don't know anyone who thought that Xavier's Dream had any place in a PCQ. That has all been proven wrong. Alec actually faced some Doom control on his way to Top 8, but the Athens Dream is the control to end all controls. See, control in VS. is all about exhausting opposing characters so they cannot attack. Take a look at this deck and you can see how effectively that can be done. Add in the best card recursion that I have seen, and you have a big mad bucket of fun. Sure, it failed to advance… but it made history.

I will give the full Top 8 decklist report in the Pro Circuit section and a full vacation log in my journal. Gainesville, by far, was the best PCQ ever.

Dreaming on,

Stu

:) Aw, Stu, you put me on the front page. Now I feel special. Anyways, I agree with you. This was the best PCQ so far. I'm one of the locals here, and we were really expecting about 40 people for constructed which, by the way, is not even close to the approximately 25 people that entered. It was they're loss, though, because it was a blast. I hope to see you in Clermont.

Oh yeah, are those pictures from the first or second time me and VS_Master played. I'm just curious if it looks like I'm about to win or about to lose.:p

well, looks like you guys had a blast, I'm glad you did well with a deck that was built more for fun instead of the run of the mill brotherhood or fanstic four decks running rampent. I tossed a spider-man deck together for a friend outta extra commons, and a starter deck, and now he absolutely loves the game. You guys need to just sit and make a thread on nothing but different deck designs that slays the norm. congrats on getting as far as you did.

monkey, that pic is from the finals, the game you wiped out his four-pack. I will tell that story here in a bit. Indeed, I will be in Clermont, praying to reverse the karma and get all five brotherhood match-ups this time... since my Hard Candy deck got Doom, Doom, FF, FF, Doom. Ouch.

I had pics of everyone, but we don't want the front page to take all night to load. gator7870 vs. Whateley25 was the other match in the Final Four.

More soon.

It was a great pcq with some great competition, no matter how many people were there. I feel confident that any of the top 4, probably top 10 could play with anyone. Karma was just there for a gator. You would have thought that a gator in Gainesville would have been a shoo-in for the finals, but I couldn't keep up my end of the bargain. Next time.

The Crew from Miami will be at Clermont. Bring on the dream.

Why was Gainesville the best yet? Let me count the ways:

Jeff Williams and Unity Entertainment run a perfect show.

The Reitz Union was an ideal location. I wish the Pro Circuit could stop there, but they are committed to conventions.

I drove Turnpike all the way and got to take the Mini Cooper for a triple digit run in the dark.

The Ospreys. I live on a lake where they fish every morning, and I still can't believe there were that many of them in one place. They were playing tag. Honestly.

The fun we had. Torch and gator7870 got to exact revenge on the Candy Corn, VSRealms absolutely owned the hall, and I got to laugh with fake and rabidflamingo late into the night.

It was Gainesville. The Swamp (stadium) was just out our hotel window. Many happy Hurricane memories.

Speaking of the hotel, the students running the place let Nina and I check out at 11:00 pm instead of noon. Unreal.

VS_Master taught me how to keep composure after all falls down. It went like this: ironicmonkey was banging away with big brother, but the Master had a FF four-pack on the board... all with bathtubs. The monkey had 7-drop Magneto and 6-drop Mystique. Hulk swings for twenty-something. ironic blows Genosha and pulls two Magneto and a Mystique. Lost City and Avalon. I blinked, and the four-pack was gone. I almost cried. That was the first game of the match, and somehow VS_Master pulled himself together and won the next two games. Guts of steel.

What more can you ask?

I asked Alec about the Dream:

Stupid me: "How do you make sure Jean Grey gets KO'ed before turn eight?"

Him: "You discard it."

Stupid me: "Oh... yeah."

John also had an insane frying-pan-to-the-head Common Enemy burn deck. Watch for that one at a PCQ near you.

That Dream deck is so ingenius its scary. Makes you slap yourself around for not trying it out first. Oh well, now i know.

Sounds like a great tourney. I myself have yet to play in one. Dont think i have any tourney quality decks, most of mine are just built for fun with friends. Out of curiousity, how many total x-men decks have any of you seen reach the final four in tourneys. X-men/bh or anything with the mutie defenders?

Yeah, that game was pretty silly. It was turn 7, and he had initiative. We both had 4 characters out. I think we both had 4, 5, 6, and 7 drops. He had either 4 Fantasticars or 3 Fantasticars and a Forcefield. I forget which. Either way, I wasn't very thrilled at the situation. I did pull two Magnetos and a Mystique with a Genosha, and I forget if this was the game where I used a second Genosha as well. Those plus the boosts I had in my hand plus one or two dodges kept all four of my characters alive. Then I attacked with the aid of Avalon plus boosts and stunned all four of his characters, and with the Master of Magnetism out he couldn't even save one so he just scooped and we went the next game.

He had the last laugh, though, because he won and advanced to the finals exacting revenge for me beating him in swiss. What looked like was gonna be a great comeback story for me turned out to be an even greater comeback story for him. I'm sure we'll get to play again, although, neither of us wants to sit across from the other in a tournament anymore.

that decklist looks pretty good. i've been working on mine for the past month and have made a few different character choices. the thing that is so cool about the dream is that it fits in a lot of decks. my playgroup and i have found about 4 different ways of getting off the dream win. that card can be pretty scary. who knows, maybe if this deck becomes popular people will start playing with foiled's again.

nah, probably not.

billy z.

When is the tourney in clermont? Me and my friend were gonna go to this one but lsot track of time and didn't realize to the day of when the tourney was again.

Hey Bobby, great job getting into the Top 4! It's a bummer you had to lose to rob but then again I couldn't root for either of you because you guys helped me build half of my borrowed deck. I hope I get to go to Clermont and play you. A true match! :-) ~Jake

This is Clermont... see you there.

http://www.unityentertainment.net/ga...f_06_12_04.htm