I'm back from the stop at Pro Circuit New York and saw lots of old friends, great players and plenty of good tech. I also did some judging and saw lots of things I'd like to share with the group. . . and don't worry, I'll also have some card tech as well.

New York is a great town. If it weren't for the incredibly high cost of living and the proclivity for snowing, it'd be in my top three places to live. Unfortunately I can't buy a house there for under a million dollars and I can't eat at a diner without spending over $20 for a burger and some fries.

"Don't forget the wait staff that ignores you most of the time and then gets pissed off if you don't leave them at least a twenty percent tip."

Lots of things happened during PCNY. I went up to PCNY not as a player, but as a Judge.

"Going 0-4 then bombing out in the seventh round at PCLA got it through your thick head that you suck as a player, eh?"

Going 0-4 at PCLA made me realise that I didn't have the time to devote to being a serious professional player right now and, until I do have that kind of time, I shouldn't make use of any courtesy invitations. Besides, when I'm ready to be a pro player, I'll be able to win PCQs or top 8 in 10ks on my own and won't need a courtesy invite. Besides, when I judge I know I'm going home with prizes. When I play, there's a lot more doubt. There's only 1 guy who went home with an EA Savage Beatdown. I went home with an EA Alfred, EA Sabretooth, EA Marvel Team-Up, EA GCPD Officer, EA. . .

"Yeah, yeah. You got lots of swag. You don't need to rub it in. But
you had to stand on your feet all day for four days and the players get to
sit down all the time. And you didn't get a chance to get one of those nice
massages. Kinda sucks to be you."

Things weren't that bad. One of the real downsides of judging is having to curb my urge to say whatever smartass comment came to mind. When I'm in person it's not like I can use the conceit that someone else is talking by putting my words in italics.

"Dude, don't break the fourth wall! Anyway, since you're not in person now, I'll be happy to make the comments you were too much of a wimp to make."

So, the first thing that comes to mind was judging the PC. I was called over by a player who pointed out his opponent had moved some of his guys around on the field and then tried to recruit another guy. He was claiming that his opponent had moved into the formation phase even though he was obviously just moving some cards around so he could recruit to a more logical place. The guy said "Look, we're playing for a lot of money. I'm not trying to be a dick, but if my opponent makes a mistake I'm going to call him on it."

"You may not be trying, but you're doing a damned good job of it. If you call me over again, I don't care how well known you are, I'll slap your ass with an Major procedural Penalty for being so ugly."

The next came from a player whose opponent played Signal Flare and he discarded his Fantastic Four character before actually searching for his card. The player was trying to say that his opponent chose not to search his deck for a card after playing his search card. When I pointed out that the intent of a search card is obvious and he should not try to trip up his opponent by intentionally misinterpreting what his opponent is doing, he said "I'm just trying to make sure he knows how to play the card correctly in the future."

"And you need me to come over and explain this rule to him because you're to much of a putz to form the words? Didn't you hear what Scott Elliot said before we started? Don't be a dick. As much as I'd like to hand out an Unsportsmanlike Conduct Penalty, you aren't worth it. Sit down, shut up and watch your opponent go searching for his next drop."

Next up was when En-Kur and I were walking to Midtown Comics in Times Square. While we were walking we passed by Lance Armstrong who was posing for some publicity photos.

"Hey, Lance, that Tour de France thing's nice, but why don't you try some real competition. I've got a Curve Sentinels build here. I'm sure I can convince the UDE guys to whip up a quick courtesy invite for ya."

During the sealed portion of the 10k there was more than one instance of a player registering a deck with some really good cards in it and saying "Can I just play these cards?"

"Sure, you can. You have to drop out of this tournament to do it, but I'm sure you can play in a future tournament with those exact cards."

"Hey, how about you tell the one about the coverage guy who didn't know the cards?"

Because there are lots of reporter guys that I like and I don't want to talk about the aberration for fear it will give the impression that there are a lot of reporter guys who don't know what the cards are without having to pick each one up as it's being played and look at it.

"You could always let them know who it was."

I find it's better not to piss off the fourth estate. They tend to get tetchy about that sort of thing.

"So, you're not gonna go into that? It's a great story."

Nope.

"Fine. If that's your decision, I'm going to stop providing you the outlet for your smart ass comments and force you on to showing your so-called tech."

Ahh, the tech. Sure. I've been working on a Gotham Curve deck for a while and got really excited about it when I saw AzBats at the GL Sneak Preview. I've also been playing around with a League of Assassins deck abusing lots of locations and nastiness with their locations. When I saw some of the cards from the new starter I thought "Gee, what can we make out of this?" Here's the results of my cogitations. . .

Characters
4x Alfred Pennyworth
2x Commissioner Gordon, Lieutenant Gordon
2x Spoiler, Stephanie Brown
4x Bronze Tiger
1x Tim Drake <> Robin, Protoge
1x Ubu, Ra's al Ghul's Bodyguard
2x Ra's al Ghul, Eternal Nemesis
1x Dick Grayson <> Nightwing, High-Flying Acrobat
1x Merlyn
1x Bane, Ubu
1x Batman, Caped Crusader
1x Catwoman, Cat Burglar
1x Lady Shiva, Destroyer
1x Dick Grayson <> Nightwing, Defender of Bludhaven
1x Batman, Shadow of the Bat
1x Dr. Ebenezer Darrk
2x Ra's al Ghul, The Demon

Plot Twists
4x Fizzle
4x Bat-Signal
4x Tower of Babel
4x My Beloved
4x The Demon's Head
4x Savage Beatdown

Locations
1x Metropolis
2x Lazarus Pit
1x Pit of Madness
1x Flying Fortress
4x Mountain Stronghold
1x Batcomputer
1x Gotham City
1x Latverian Embassy


You mulligan for a team up and some low drops (Alfred in particular). The deck is light on characters and heavy on searching with Bat-Signal,
Mountain Strongholds and Gotham City. You kind of want odds so you can swing with 4 drop Ra's al Ghul on your opponent's five drop with Flying Fortress, Batcomputer and/or Savage Beatdown to KO them outright (Nimrod can have his counter, I'll just do some breakthrough and KO him without needing to stun him). The typical tricks are here with Tower of Babel, Fizzle and The Demons Head to search out your "1 of" Locations (including Metropolis for the team up).

It's kinda janky and not as powerful as the mono team decks you could make from it, it ain't bad and has the right balance of hate and beatdown.

"It still loses to GL/EE KO. Sweeping Up is a stupid card. Stupid
good."

Well, it's a good thing other folks don't know about that yet. Anyway, that's it for me. I'll see y'all next week when I'll be talking about something not related to the Big Apple.

This is way better than that #### above you on the front page. I laugh my ass off all the time when I read your stuff. Nice banner too! Keep up the good work and know that for those that know, you sir are the best of the best for content on realms.

About calling a judge over- I agree that it's pretty silly to argue that someone playing Signal Flare was choosing not to search for a character. But I can understand why a player would want to call a judge over for something silly like that. If your opponent is making a lot of mistakes, even silly ones, calling a judge over will at least establish to the judge that your opponent is not good at following the rules. Then, when your opponent makes a major mistake, you have a stronger case than your word versus his.

It's similar to when an opponent stalls. If you call a judge over after it's obvious your opponent is stalling, it's too late. Plus, the judge won't know for sure how long your opponent is taking. Sometimes you have to risk calling the judge prematurely, just to make sure.

But yeah, anyone who seriously tries to argue that someone discarding before searching on Signal Flare shouldn't get to search for a character is violating the most important rule of all: DBAD.

DBAD? Am I missing something? Apparently I am.

Anyway, I was just wondering why there's no Avalon in this particular build. I've found Avalon to be invaluable in my mono-LoA build, and it seems to me like it would be prety powerful here as well.

Don't Be A Dick.

Good addition. Now I just have to figure out how to make some room for it ;-)

aha, I get it now

Give him the Unsporting Penalty. I'm just sayin'....

Hey Dylan - nice wrap-up =)

I was thrilled to be workng with you on the $10K - I know how us metagame guys can be a pain in the ass with our high demands and stuff ;)

I don't *think* you're referring to me in terms of reading the cards, but if you did catch me one of the few times I had to look carefully at a card, it's becuase there were times, due to the angle I was sitting, that I couldn't actualy see what the card was - and no, I haven't memorized all of the images to a perfect degree;)

Anyhow, the $10K was a lot of fun - I'd never handled an entire event on my own before, and Day 1 of the $10K was certainly a learning experience for me. Thanks for being patient - since I know, as head judge, you had a LOT on your plate -lol-

Just a thought, "In Evil Star's Evil Clutches", it saved my but against a Common Enemy deck, well almost. i couldn't play PTs from my hand, which is what i like to do in my mono LoA deck, so i just swichted a face down locations like 3 times to get things i needed in my row.