So the kits got delayed but we still held our tourney just for fun. I decided to play since it was unsanctioned and I wanted to flop some spandex.

Setup
We've been "testing" a bit for this format since it was announced. Not really anything big but it's interesting to have an Enemy-less format although Ahk-med and his Satellites are pretty much the same thing. I had 2 choices, Brotherhood... or Brotherhood.

I won't hide the fact that I like to play fast/aggro/burn decks. I don't have the patience to play past turn 5 or 6 because by then I forget what I'm doing. Ask anyone who plays me... I can draw a card, set it and forget it within a span of 8 seconds.

I wanted play Lost City because +9/+9 both ways is broken but in the end... that's still a turn 6 or higher win and I couldn't find any Lost City cards.

So I went with TNBR with a twist... I added the burn tech from old school TNB. It's the standard TNBR build but I use Sovereign. No more Amelias and all the other 2-drops were doo-doo so in went Pyro from Origins. I had 4x Meltdowns because all week I was testing against equip decks but I wanted to fit in Surprise Attack and I couldn't find Meltdowns (I think Gellerman clipped them all... along with my Shadow Creatures and Level 12 Intelligences). I also could only find 2 Barnacles, so that left me with 6 open slots. So in went the burn, 3x Surprise Attack and 3x Die for Darkseid.

There were 11 players for this event:

Round 1: TNBR Mirror against Joe N.
Joe comes from a group of players from North LA. I see them at all the Sneaks but they rarely come out for PCQs. It was nice to see them at my store even though it took them hours to get there.

He got odds... bad times for me. We both are hitting our drops and at least 1 or 2 TNBs, but... I Yugi-ed into 3 of my burn cards, 2 Dies and 1 Surprise... that extra 13 damage was the kicker. It also helped that I Planet X'ed into my 3rd TNB on turn 4.

I think Joe was looking for burn cards after the tourney... heh.

1-0 for the monkey

Round 2: Common Enemy (!) against Luis
Luis started going to PCQs just last season. He actually arrived late and was a 2nd round add-in and got paired up against me.

The thing about Random Punks is that unless you know who your playing... the decks are pretty much... random. I miss turn 1 and he hits Invisible Woman-1 from Origins... great. Turn 2, I still have no TNB so Luis doesn't pop Alba's counter. Turn 3, he gets Doom-3, searches for a Faces of Doom and I start to worry because he borrowed some Fartifacts from me before the round started. I force him to take Alba's clothes off with my 1 TNB and now I feel better because that invisible shield is gone... but he plays Poker Night on my next attack. He also Faces for Doom-4 so I'm worried. Luckily, he KO's Doom-3 so he can play Doom-4 Cloaked but now I can't play my burn/pumps from hand. I play Cortez but I have no idea what Twists he has so I flip up 3. He attacks with Doom on my Senyaka, I flip up TNB, but he has Micro-Sized... ugh. I'm able to swing with Cortez and we go to 5. I row a 1-cost for Poker Night, drop Scanner, adjust my deck, Air Strike from the row to slap his Alaris-5, then stun Doom-4 and use burn from my hand to win.

Gorilla: 2-0

Round 3: Checkboy against JoeBoo
Joe is Team EdgeWorld. He and Patrick are the last die-hards of VS and come to the store every week even when we are the only guys there. He has built like 5 different decks for this format so I had no idea what he's playing... I just hope it's not his Check-City deck because when we tested earlier... I got WWWWWReeccKKKED*!

Turns out it's his concoction of Hellboy and Ahk-med with Equips. I don't remember much from this matchup other than he got really bad draws and I was able to push enough damage for the win on 5. We played again after and he DOMinaTED** me. I guess 1-game matches are good... heh.

Ape is 3-0

Round 4: Morlocks against Dustin (who?)
Dustin was a VS player. He used to be Team EdgeWorld. He retired. But now he's back. With a Vengeance. Or at least with more hair.

Joe gave him Morlocks to play. They must be good because he's 3-0 with them. In testing, TNBR has a favorable matchup because they need to evade to keep board for their effects which just helps. Not today. I don't hit TNB, I miss my 1 and my 5 and even though I guessed the threshold cost correctly for Last Stand (2... which incidently turns off his Shrapnel also) -- I just couldn't get my attack high enough to hit Callisto on 6. This was the one time where Pyro both helped and hurt me. He was my only 2-drop so I rowed him to turn off Shrapnel and Last Stand, but on 6, I couldn't use Call Down the Lightning because he wasn't Reservist... doh.

I'm at 3-1 going into the final round

Round 5: EQ against Patrick
We all know who this fool is. We've also tested this matchup and it was favorable for me when I was running Meltdowns... don't know anymore... but maybe I can "Surprise" him so he can "Die".

Not gonna go into too much detail since Patrick might post his own TR but all I can say is that because of bad draws and previous testing, I was able to make some plays that squeaked me out a victory in this one. Had he done one thing differently, I probably lost this match.

Conclusion

So I finish 4-1 for 2nd place. I let my prizing pass down to the other players and we all talk about different things we would do with our decks. Was Pyro a good call? I think so, it hurts my row but I can always Air Strike him out and his extra burn on off init helps. Might try some other off-team Reservist at that spot but we'll see. Anne-Marie was the MVP. I know that Spoor is a better pump/replacement engine but I probably played her in all 5 of my games (even Sovereign'ing for her when possible). If you can figure out your opponent's decks by turn 4, she can win you games just by the PT denial. And the burn... you shouldn't leave home without it. I don't know which one is better but Surprise for 5 early hurts. Die is a guaranteed 4 and it's good for decks that swing hard with attack-duration-only pumps (like Avengers) since you can just Die your defender and then their next attack is puny. I think if I ran a burn-less TNBR, I would have lost at least 1 or 2 of my matches (definitely the mirror).

RP is a very interesing format and once UDE gets the kits shipped out, it will be fun to see what rears its head at these tournaments.

*Patch-ism
**Another Patch-ism

sounds fun, any idea when product will be shipped?

Nice report and nice finish, Erick! I really hope they get those kits out by Friday! I'm actually going to visit a friend in Costa Mesa early so I don't have to wade through two hours of traffic... and because I don't get out to see my friend often enough! Love the patchisms! They are so... Patch!

I talked to our rep last night and he said dont plan any tournaments for it this weekend

I hope its just the Gama trade show messing them up

Are you running RemRam? If so, run Destiny 2. You should have 13 other mental cards in the deck to pitch for awesomeness. BTW, this was going to be my deck for RP, but I doubt I can make a tournament now:

4 Kleinstock
4 Rem-Ram
4 Barnacle
4 Chrome
4 Destiny
4 Senyaka
4 Joanna Cargill
4 Anne-Marie
4 Spoor
2 Scanner
4 Planet X
4 The New Brotherhood
4 Air Strike
4 Call Down The Lightning
3 Flying Kick
3 Die for Darkseid!

Glad the event was a success!

No Destiny... I wanted burn over pumps since the deck is full of pumps as it is.

I think this was my list

4 Kleinstock-1
4 RemRam-1
2 Barnacle-1
4 Chrome-2
4 Pyro-2 (Origins)
4 Senyaka-3
3 Joanna-3
3 Anne-Marie-4
3 Spoor-4
2 Scanner-5
1 Submariner-5
34 Characters

4 TNB
4 Planet-X
4 Air Strike
4 Call Down the Lightning
4 Sovereign Superior
3 Surprise Attack
3 Die For Darkseid
26 Plot Twists

I'd probably drop 1 Sovereign for another burn card.

Burn rules!

What about the 2-drop Destiny from the starter? I've always wanted to play her in something...

Basically, you can put any 2-drop Bhood you want in the Amelia slot... just whatever suits you. It's been suggested to put in an off-team 2-drop Reservist since you have Planet-X to team up but I prefer Bhood because early TNBs is better.

Dane Witman would be the only one I would consider. Kona Lor is just too much breakthrough.

Destiny from the starter is a 2/2 with a very limited ability--Ishmael Gregor would be a much better choice with those stats. For a back-up 2 drop, I would prefer somthing that has some utility, rather than just being a body to throw ATK pumps on during your attack phase.

Yeah... but if you're not running Sovereign, I find that utility at the 2-slot is too little too late.

Isn't TNB all about throwing ATK pumps on something during your attack? What makes it really good is it's always on... not just while attacking like the wannabe Faces of Evil.

I meant that the character will have text relevant to the game outside of the turn that you should play it and have initiative. There are worse 2 drops for TNB than Destiny from the starter, but I think they are called Unus and...well, just Unus. Destiny is undersized, she has to swing across or use a combat pump to swing up, even w/TNB running. Since TNB runs so many characters, you will likely draw into a character than won't help your combat that turn, possibly leaving you open to getting brickwalled on another attack.

I'm not saying she's terrible, I'm just saying I prefer the Mental 2 drop. I'll be playing it at hobby league today and will report back.

Any word on if the kits shipped?

We feel like the Wretched of the Earth down at Game Empire, with Games Workshop isotope mailing list chatter starring as the European colonial powers.

No kits yets... instead of tying UDE down to a ship date... I'm just trying to get them to tell me if they are NOT shipping this week so I can reschedule events.

UPDATE:

Sorry... no kits this week... try again next week.

The deck was OK, but I had a hard time hitting TNB all night (outside the 1 game I had 3 in the row on turn 4). Rowing a non-reservist is DEATH for TNB decks. I think 3 Sovereign Superior is the right call. Destiny was quite good, Barnacle was hard to use, and Rem-Ram flipped 2 TNBs in 3 of my 8 games. Little bastich.