There's something to be said about having a group of solid players with you traveling to tournaments and fighting along side you for that elusive spot for the pro tour. Matt, Mickey, Jody, and I flew out Friday with hopes of finishing in the top ten and thus qualifying everyone left on our team. Speaking of that, while it might have worked in theory, the team as we know is now dissolved. David left to join his old crew from his Magic days taking the Atlanta crew with him. The Seattle guys never bought into the whole team concept and the working together to find that one deck that we all could play successfully. Their reasoning was that we probably got more out of it than them, Jason and Chris being so good at the game and all. And they were probably right. We actually had a lot of miscommunication, something I might be able to clear up if we try to salvage the team. I think Chris, Andrew, and Jason might still be up for some bi-coastal play testing. I think I might have a small crush on Chris and you guys already know how I feel about Andrew, so let?s hope we can work things out. I am Dave, ?the gay man?s advocate.? And I am not even gay?how weird.

Mickey and I enjoyed our flight up at the expense of Jody and Matt. Having never flown before, they of course benefited from our experience as we guided them through the security procedures and prepared them the night before for the cavity searches. I am pretty sure that was the highlight of their trip and they were sorely disappointed when upon arrival at the airport, they found out that on this day, none of the searches were to be given out. Matt, who was clearly saddened by this was only cheered up when I reminded him that if he kept up his streak of top eight finishes he would not have to worry about winning because top ten was in. Finishing 8th, 2nd, and 2nd and not qualifying has got to be a solid kick in the balls. Mickey, Matt, and I have seven top ten finishes and four top fours with nothing to show for it but some silly cards with grey backs.

Our team was split three ways on what deck to play. If we were all qualified, everyone was going to play Wild Vomit. Can you imagine the chaos that 12 qualified players could wreak playing in a land of no Flame Traps. We doubted that any would show up and only Stu held the Sentinel banner high but he has been on the road for a week with no real updates, so the deck was certainly under the radar. But the deck just loses horribly sometimes. So we settle with NBH, BBH, and some versions of FFaboom. Our group from Alabama chose to run BBH and FFaboom, two of each.

BBH is perhaps the most powerful deck of all the decks we tested. It put Jason and Eric in the top eight at Philly and with the addition of Relocation, something Mickey and I had to campaign for early on, it has no bad match-ups. Dubbed the "East LA" deck because "if you ain't got no green card, you no play," it certainly has performed well for us. Matt made the finals of two pcqs with it and Mickey piloted it to top 4 in his 2nd pcq. It's only weakness is NBH blitz and even that isn't a bad one. It just doesn't have the numbers against that it does against the rest of the field. That's the beauty of how balanced this game is. There is no truly dominating deck. Matt and Mickey decided to play it finishing 3-5, 5-3 respectively. Jody and I chose FF finishing 5-3 and 6-2.

What is a major convention report without some observations from the convention itself? I know there wasn't a proper segue there, but whatever. These things were witnessed at Origins this year:
Continue ...
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ULTIMATE FIGHTERS

Continuing the fine tradition of too much person and not enough clothes, we witnessed what was perhaps the largest thong known to man. I am in no means an in-shape guy. I do not have a sexy body. So I have enough self-respect not to burden you with seeing me parade around in say, a Speedo. But some people insist on wearing the most incredible things. This one 350 lb woman who we will henceforth refer to "big freakin' guy" takes my reward for best dressed this year. Big freakin' guy decided to attire herself all in black, with a huge open window in the front, showing her breasts plainly, even going so far as to share some nipplage. Having been ensnared with that, we move down south below the waist where big freakin' guy decided she needed a shear, see-through skirt, sporting the biggest thong I have seen in my 32 years of life. And she didn't even have a decent tan. Big white, pasty moons of cellulite!

Moving on to companies with really cool products but no real clue on how to deal with their playing community, Wizkids once again decided that it would be in your best interest to make you wait in line for three hours for a ticket to allow you to wait in line again for three hours to spend $75 for Galactus. There has got to be a better way. There were seriously people camping out all night just the to get the world devourer. I applaud them for their effort but am appalled that they even have to go through that. I doubt very seriously if I would ever stand in line for anything that long.

I actually learned that I know the rules better than any judge short of Alex Charsky this weekend. At my last two pcqs, the judges made the incorrect ruling that the chain clears all the way through on two passes and that you cannot respond to each thing clearing off the chain. I argued and argued that this was not true, that you could in fact respond every step of the way. And then I watch the final match last night and watched as both players played the chain correctly, responding to things clearing off the chain and I was vindicated. Learn the stupid rules you silly judges!!!

Speaking of nothing I am talking about, do you find it strange that a card named Solo requires you to reveal a Spider friends card when you play him.

If you read my journal, you know that I had the opportunity to convert to butt-crackism over the weekend. It?s a little known religion that I am sure has a following because their god was present at the convention. Measuring in at around 27 inches, I have to believe that it in fact had some kind of super natural powers for there were many people standing around it mesmerized by it?s presence. It had an actual human being attached to it and evidently one of the laws of butt-crackism is that the but crack host is not allowed to wear a belt, and must wear pants about four sizes too big so the butt crack can always be seen.
If it seems like I am making fun of people, then you are an incredibly observant reader. I just want people to have respect for one another and least make an effort to not freak me out too much. And besides, who wants to read about normal guys like myself hanging out at conventions not making a spectacle of themselves.

Not all our adventures took place at the convention. We leave late Friday night and hail what we believe to be is a cab. We all pile in and I tell the supposed cab driver our destination. He has this dazed look on his face and asks me what road it was on. I am like, man I am from Alabama, you are the cab driver, I have no idea. We start driving around and I decide after about two minutes that we are lost so I call the hotel for directions. After telling him which way to go, he misses the 670E entrance ramp three times and we start going into an area of town that we probably shouldn't be in. I look up at the dash and realize that mysteriously, this "cab driver" has no credentials displayed. Great. We are about to get raped and killed and probably not in that order. I am like, hey there is 670E, get on it. We finally get on the street that will take us to the interstate and he pulls forward and does have the presence of mind to stop at a red light which coincidently is the light that keeps us from getting hit by people exiting the interstate. Imagine my surprise that the only think that kept us from dying is Mickey screaming at the cabby as he tried to make a left turn onto the exit ramp into oncoming traffic. But, we make it safely to the excellent hotel and were able to put that harrowing experience behind us. Or so I believed. I was awaken in the middle of the night by a call from the front desk. The cab driver had gotten another fare and of course got lost so he wanted to know if I could give him directions to some stupid street I never heard of since I had gotten him to our hotel before. Let me remind you that I have been to Columbus one time before.

But enough of this, let?s talk about some Marvel. As you know, I finished 29th going 6-2. Had I not lost round one I would have probably qualified because the invites dropped down to about 20th or so. And Marvel tournaments are set up to punish those of us that lose early.

As they should be.

Here is the deck I played:

4-She-Thing
4-She-Hulk
4-Thing/5
4-Invisible Woman/4
2-Wolverine
4-Mr. Fanatastic/5
1-Ghost Rider
3-Hulk
1-Torch/6
2-Thing/7
1-Invisible Woman/8
4-Clobberin? Time
3-Kaboom!
3-Savage Beatdown
3-Fantasticar
1-Personal Forcefield
3-Nasty Surprise
2-Tech Upgrade
3-Acrobatic Dodge
4-Overload
4-Signal Flare

Yes, there are only four two drops. I have been playing a lot of BBH and have become comfortable with missing two drops occasionally so I decided to beef up drops 4-8 and add in a fourth Overload. It worked well for me so I don?t have much to complain about. This is what I faced as best as I can remember:

1-Xmen/FF
2-FF beats
3-Sentinels
4-New Brotherhood
5-BBH
6-Sentinels
7-BBH
8-BBH


The losses came to the Xmen/FF deck, a deck that I can never beat no matter what, and to my teammate Jason playing NBH. The first loss was especially bad because I came within one endurance point from winning after my opponent drew all four Heroes United and three Children of the Atoms in twenty nine or so cards Game three. I had to get two breakthrough damage in to win and I had just stunned his Invisible Woman to do so. But on my final attack for the win, he flips up his third COTA and recovers Invisible Woman. How sad. But, he shouldn?t get all the credit for the win. I am pretty sure that if I had moved a car to another character the turn before, I would have won. He just attacked a bit differently than I expected and made me KO someone I didn?t think I would have to. I honestly think this combination of teams is the best out there if you get your Heroes United. But I never do, so I am forced to suffer and just play FF.

The 2nd loss came to Jason Dawson, piloting the NBH deck. I am at a loss as to how I lost this one. I win the first game easily because his draws were perhaps the worst ever in any match of VS. Game two I mistakenly think I have everything in hand and he uses his crafty skills to arrange his guys in the best possible way and somehow survives my huge attack around turn seven. Let me make that clear. I am playing NBH and it?s turn seven and I am sending guys like Hulk and Frank Sinatra in against Phantazia and Destiny and I lose. I think if I do not go for the win this turn, I win next even if he does have initiative. But I had freakin? 16/16 Thing out. How do I lose there? Jason then rubs salt into my wound by losing the next round and further reducing my tie brakes. I bet he lost on purpose. I urge him to do better and he finishes 26th with a 6-2 record.

My wins were unspectacular except for the last three matches. Round six is against Wild Vomit with ECU Science Labs over Cover Fire. I lose game one to the overwhelming swarm that is Wild Sentinels and Mark IVs. Game two and three saw me change up my strategy against him a bit. I Kaboom-ed every location he flipped up keeping him to three or four resources while Signal Flaring for my back-up two through four drops. I played cars out and just tried to match him as best I could. A few Acrobatic Dodges and timely Overloads saw me stunning his side in consecutive turns. Going down to one Sentinel is bad times for the evil robot players.

I played against a guy in round seven that honestly played BBH better than anyone I have ever been up against. He knew when to flip locations, new when to pump, knew when it was time to try to take over the game. It was masterful. How I managed that win, I am not sure. Having a timely Kaboom makes this match-up doable. I group up with my teammates and make some comment about how well round seven guy played and Jason informs that I should try playing Chris with it. That of course leads me to my 8th round opponent.

Chris Price and I smile at each other and are sadden by the fact that we as teammates have to play. He made the last minute decision to play BBH and we hoped that a win here would possibly place us high enough that one of us would get a trickle down invite. He was about five spots ahead of me and probably had a better shot. We discussed it a bit and decided that we were probably too far down and it wouldn?t matter anyway. I may get in trouble for telling you this, but if I thought for one minute that a win for Chris would assure him a spot, I would have extended my hand, conceded the game, and gone to worship butt crack god or stare at thong girl some more. But we play like good little non-collusive players and have a decent match. I think I have the advantage because I don?t lose this match-up and I am pretty sure he thinks he has the advantage because he is probably a better player.

And of course I drop game one. It happens at turn seven with me on initiative, with Thing, Hulk, five drop Mr. F and I think Invisible Woman/4. I am sure there are at least two cars in play also. I attack Magneto and he flips Lost City to try and make him 19/19. I let that go on the chain and flip up Kaboom.

Yeah for me!!!

Nope. He activates Avalon Space Station that I am pretty sure he was covering up with his big hairy paws. He brings back Magneto and some other dork and power-ups again and then passes. I have no choice but to do the same.

That cheating bastard!

No, seriously I completely spaced out and forgot it was there. I wonder if I called a judge over if they would let me take that back because I clearly intended to stun Magneto and would never have attacked if I had known that Avalon Space Station was active. I mean, they let people go back and play resources and that is a mistake similar to this one. Both are simple mental errors.

So, Thing stuns and of course I scoop with me ahead on life by twenty or so. I win game two and time is called. We have four turns to play. It goes like this:

I have initiative and play a resource and pass. He does the same. Turn two sees Toad come out and no one on my side. Not good. He attacks, taking me down to 47. I play Thing on three and he adds Mystique on his side. I attack into Mystique and he tosses one to pump, tying to stun Thing. I flip up Nasty Surprise and then Overload Mystique, readying Thing. We are both at 47. I attack Toad, which returns to hand, taking only 3. 47-44. Turn four gives him the initiative and I close my eyes and wait for a feral growl. Instead big fat Blob plops onto the table. I answer with Invisible Woman and leave both my dorks up front. He sends Mystique into Invisible Woman and flips up Savage Beatdown, trying to stun for the win. Overload wins me the match. Happy times for me. But sad times too, because I had to take out a teammate.

All my other opponents were pleasant. My 3rd round Sentinel opponent was especially funny. We were talking about nothing in particular and I notice Stubarnes walking to his table. I greet him like he?s my friend (he is) and wish him luck. He returns the encouragement and wanders off to find his next victim.

?OMG, you know Stu? He is the coolest ever, ? come a voice from across the table.
?Yep, he is really cool. Even cooler than that En-Kur guy, ? I reply.
?Yeah, I don?t like that guy En-Kur, ? he says and I reply , ?me either man.? And then I smash him for being mean to me even though he didn?t know who I was and for being an evil robot lover.

Fear me.

So I finish 6-2 and just in time to go jump in a DC sealed deck. A sealed deck tournament that I had no business being in. I could barely keep my eyes open, much less concentrate on playing anymore Marvel. I went 0-1 drop and then just slept awhile on some chairs waiting for the rest of the guys to finish up. Matt finished 8th and won some extra packs. I think Jody was 9th and Mickey close behind. We ended getting back to the hotel at around 6:30 in the morning. We fall into bed and sleep through the Xmen tournament.
Overall, it was a positive experience. Although none of us qualified from Bama, we had a hell of a time. Between the four of us, we traded for 147 of the 165 cards in DC Origins. I have had VS. players in my store oohing and awing over the cards all day. I finally got all them scanned and sent out to Typhon. He picked up a good number himself, so hopefully between the two of us, we?ll have all the pictures for you to see. Here are the top five cards that should treat as ?Savage Beatdown? status:

1- Fizzle
2- Superman (although not as playable as the rest, he?s still Superman!)
3- Have a Blast
4- Garth @ Tempest
5- Lady Shiva

While I doubt any one of them will see $30 except maybe Fizzle, all will see heavy play. And check out the artwork of Ariel Olivetti. Amazing, amazing stuff.
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Teen black

Ummm the rest of us care because.....

The tournament report was fine (barely) as it was, Was it really important to the community as a whole to know that your team has decided to no longer be a team? Seems like the front page should be something that is newsworthy to all and not a place to indulge whatever strikes your fancy.

Ya, it almost reminds me of an article from another site that I won't metion here. :)

Eh, I thought it was a very interesting read. It's nice to hear things from alot of different perspectives, and I enjoyed the offbeat tangents which really had nothing to do with VS as well. Serious informative articles are great, but there is definitely a place for lighthearted, personal point-of-view articles as well, in my opinion. :)

I though it was worthy of the front page for those of you that are beginning the process of starting a team. There are good ways, and bad ways to build and run a team. Some teams do well, and some don't. I believe that those of you that are going to try and play on the Pro Circuit competitively really need to get into a team, or form a solid playtest group ASAP. You'll get a lot more testing done that.

En-Kur-

Thanks for the update. I loved hearing about the butt-crack and the giant thong. If only the thong had been of the Supergirl kind!! Were there at least some low-class porn stars there to equal out the balance? Honestly, I could hear about the decks played at Origins anywhere, and I'd much rather read about the humorous incidents that makes Realmers personal. I'm still pretty disappointed about not being able to go to Origins, especially when I read about super thongs and that special kind of crack. I wish I could have been there to cheer everyone on.

I agree with ehatcher, is always nice to hear from another perspective. Is like been there for a moment...and was cool.


Thanks to En-kur :)

I get that part of it. Form team, get ahead. However, I just don't see how this article discusses say the pros and cons of forming a team locally vs. the internet. What to do once you form a team. Strategy for the team once you get into a tournament, etc, etc. I read it as a lament that his particular team was disbanding, a few paragraphs about bagging on someone that doesn't realize see-thru garmets and tight clothing are privileges and not rights and a farily routine tourney report. Sure its nice to see things from a different perspective but front page worthy? More like a slow news day after teh DC Origins stuff which was posted all weekend.

Yup, you got me.. That's what is was. :) We won't really have any updates until tomorrow.. then we've got stu's report later this week. Voting also starts for Golden Ticket #1 on Wednesday ... as well as the start of a couple new contests!!! :)

Oh boy!!!!

Contests!!!!

I never win.......


I LOVE VSREALMS!!! *winks*

I think En-Kur was ask by the staff of VSRealms to do some review of his own to be post and that is what he did.

Don't complain so much and enjoy the adventure.

The best part was when they where lost in the cap. (by the way the 'so call" cap had his own adventure that night)
I'm trying to remember the scene and I can't stop laughing.

By the way I'm the one that never get anything free. So imagine a COntest!!!
I prefer to rely on my Deck and my Skill instead.

Sid

Yes David! It was a good game! The better man won ;)

I have to say one thing. What a long weekend. I dont think I have missed that much sleep in ages. All in all, as usual... Tons of lessons learned.

Hats off to Russ "Cabotin" going on and taking 4th. Eric "TostitoBandito" top 8'in 2nd 10k in a row, and Jason "Nemsin" Dawson taking 2nd in the X-men #1 competition. Bill, you rock! Loved testing with you, Chedy, and Ray the night before. Andrew "Liquidflame" Yip, get a mic! See you guys at Comic Con and Gen-Con.

For now i'll prep for Seattle PCQs :)

I am not sure what else you could want from an article. All of the following in this article:

1- Fun community observations
2- Solid deck tech
3- A few insights on match-ups
4- DC Origins money cards

Granted, had I qualified I doubt you would have posted. And I understand that. I know I sometimes don't want to take the time to read articles written by people that almost made it. Hopefully there was a tiny little bit in there that enriched your life.

Dave
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Roor Bongs

It saddened me to read that you and Max were not going to make it to Origins. I hope everything is going well after your recent loss. Some of the work relationships we form are probably stronger than the family ones so that can hit hard.

There were no porn stars that I know of, but I was stuck mostly in the gaming area. I actually only got to spend about 20 minutes in the exhibitor's hall because they closed an hour eralier than I expected. Stupid VS. game!

Dave
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Gay Latino