PCQ Cinci
01.15.06
Hostel is a terrible movie. Period. OK, onto the tourney report. First off, here's what I played:

Locations:

4x Optitron
4x USS Argus
4x Tamaran

Plot Twists:

2x Foiled
4x Teen Titans Go!
3x Finishing Move
3x Betrayal
3x Press the Attack
3x Savage Beatdown

Characters:

1x Roy Harper, Speedy
2x Dawn Granger
4x Time Drale (2)
2x Hank Hall
4x Beast Boy
3x Roy Harper, Arsenal
4x Terra
3x Red Star
4x Garth
1x CAssie Sandsmark
2x Koriand'r, Starfire

The tournament was held at ACME games in cincinnati. I got there pretty early and listed two decks, the other being my GLock deck, and didn't know which one to play. By the time the player meetings started, I had one of my guys from Wexford Hills pick a list at random and I ended up with the Titans build. I lent my GLock deck to Chase (he switched out 6 cards, but otherwise it was the same). Since I was already qualified for Atlanta, I went in just to run blocks for the rest of the people from our group, which comprised 10 of the 25 or so that turned out. Not too shabby for our crew.

Round 1, I get paired up against some kid who told me that it was his first VS tourney and that he was already Q'd for several Yu-Gi-Oh things. He played a Titans mirror that my deck couldn't really handle with so many dead cards. He hit his drops long before I got started, and used Finishing Move on turns 2 and 3 to make sure I didn't hit Terra on 4. Sucks. 0-1

Round 2 I get paired against Scotty-too-hottie. I scoop to him since he need the points. We play a fun game, him playing Squadron. My Betrayals are useless because he never drops any Thunderbolts, but I manage to pull out the win with a boosted Tim Drake late in the game. 0-2

I get a bye. A BYE!!!! 1-2

Round 4 I'm paired at the last table against Nick something (I think). He said the last time he played was way back at the December 11 PCQ. He's playing Titans and picked evens, so on my initiative on 5, I go nuts with Garth and TTGo. I turn a 20 point life difference into a win. 2-2

Round 5 was against Mark Deboard from my Wexford Crew. He's already Q'd, so we play without either one of us having to run blocks. He's playing GLock, but makes a few costly mistakes. I have 5 characters in my resource row on turn 6, but on turn 7 (he misses his 6 and 7 and has to underdrop) I draw into the Betrayal I've been looking for. I get another one with Argus next turn and go nuts. 3-2

Round 6 was against a guy something Dice (I think). He was playing straight Arkham, but never really got off the board. The game went to turn 8 I think, and stunning Two-Face outside of combat got me the win. He hit all his drops but didn't have any plot twist support. 4-2

Round 7 against Chase playing my deck. I get paired up to him, who was 6-0. I get the Betrayals out early, go nuts with Beast Boy and Drake with TTGo, and he ends up scooping on turn 5. 5-2

5-2 gets me into 5th place, even with my crappy tiebreakers.

Top 8 was:
GLock, JLA/JLI curve, Anti-matter, Squadron, Titans, Titans, Big Brotherhood, and another JLA/JLI deck (I'm not toally sure of the last one)

Quarterfinals

I get paired against Nick (I think). He's playing Big Brotherhood. The games always start out with Kelex or Toad on two. yay. First game he gets Total Anarchy going, which forces me to play Red Star on 4 instead of the optimal Terra (which is too good in this matchup). His initiative on turn 7, he plays 7-drop Magneto in the support row behins Mystique. I look at him, and then activate Koriand'r to stun him. He never got an Avalon up and running, so his pumps were lacking all game. I think he scooped almost immediately. 2nd game started out with his Toad and my Tim Drake. He flips Total Anarchy to go for the KO but I Foiled. He later gets Avalon up and running, but doesn't get Lost City up until turn 7 or 8. That, and Insignificant Threat is useless against a powered-up Red Star with Tim Drake on the board.

Semifinals

Chase again. First game I wreck again, with the best draw all day. Betrayal works wonders, but Foiled is useless because he knows I run it. He never flips up Rain of Acorns. Game two I make mistakes which cost me the game as he's able to get to turn 8 and drop Mogo. Game three I don't draw one TTGo or one Betrayal. And 2 System Failures on a +10/+10 Beast Boy are not fun. Blegh.

Good stuff. Some changes I'll probably make to the deck:

Switch up the plot twists to account for so many locations. I don't think there's one deck today that didn't run locations. I'll probably try to mix-and-match the Foiled/Ka-Booms up to 4 total in the deck. Seems good. Betrayal is good some times, especially against GLock. Probably the best weapon Titans has against it as far as plot twists are concerned. Heroic Sacrifice would have been great, but I need to find room; the character count seems high (especially in Game 5, but it never really was a problem). I'm thinking of Breaking Story to effectively make the deck 56 cards, just to get to the PTAs and TTGo's that much quicker. Ended up with an EA PTA, a shirt (Large!!!), and 12 packs. Chase still owes me dinner.

I would have liked to see DIG, but only one guy was playing it today. Terra likes DIG.

Props:
Wexford Crew: 4 of the top 8. 5 if you count Chase using my deck.
Stewey-Stewey-Stewey: for going 3-4 with his totally original unaffiliated deck
Keebler: for going 4-3 (only losing to our own team with blocks) with X-Statix
Charles: for making Top 8 with his own creation
ACME crew: for making it quick

I played that unaffiliated deck and beat it and then realized that he was from our store and needed points!!! Sorry once again for not remembering you stewart!!!! My bad really.

decklists are up at www.professional-events.com

That 3-4 record, although not bad, could have been better. There were 2 games, I repeat 2 games, where the first drop I hit was turn 4. One game was against the Big Brotherhood deck and the second was against an Avengers Reservist deck. In both games I regained board control towards the later turns, but I had dropped too fast too early for it to make a difference.

Anyway, good job Wexner on a great performance yesterday. And a big thumbs up for Keebler, for giving me the most difficult and interesting game of the day with his X-statix deck.

Stew