Monday!

Last Sunday, one of our local stores held a random punks tournament. As I couldn’t play, I gave a list to one of my friends Kevin “kamikaze” Huynh.

Kevin didn’t end up writing a report, but since I’m sticky like a bun here’s what his game on Sunday looked like:

Bonus Free Report!

Round 1: Morlocks – No Alley means Bane, Ubu and Merlyn sweep up the field.

Round 2: Syndicate – Kevin eats the field then eats a Sand Trap he could’ve played around.

Round 3: Mirror – Ra’s on four, and Merlyn on five.

Round 4: Checkmate/Titans – Kevin misplays this one and * gasp * doesn’t Merlyn an opposing Ahmed.

Round 5: Checkmate/Hellfire – Miss Ahmed.

So I figure he should’ve won four of those games if he had more experience and the last one… eh, c’est la vie. This made me pretty confident in my build.

Anyhow, I was set to play a similar nay, identical build to Kevin’s at our next local punks which was a week from then. I really liked the way the deck looked but I decided to seek some higher powers.

If you're looking to win, who better to message then... a Pro Circuit Champion?

The PM

And the sexier half:

So scribbled on my notepad in front of laptop was:

Add: ToC, Jacob Lee
Cut: Dodge, Sasha

It seemed lie a pretty simple exchange.

Anyways, I didn’t really get a chance to play test the changes – foreshadowing – but it seemed reasonable on paper.

I debated telling Kevin about these changes. On the other hand though, I really wanted to see which configuration was better.

To be honest, I was personally tempted to ignore Adam and just go with my own build as Traitor to the Cause seemed like such an... I don't know...ugly card?

(I really feel that Acrobatic Dodge is very underrated and it's almost bombtacular in Random Punks There's very much a reason why it's reprinted as a rare.

It really requires a lot of patience in my opinion - you can't just throw it out and test your opponent like you could with Knightmare Scenario - because, as Adam said, you can get involved in these one-sided stuns

If you just sit and wait though, eventually your opponent will over extend or you can draw two, either of which will win you the game.)

[tangent]

By the way for all you people out there who are hating on Adam, or just the pros in general... please... don't.

I realize this sounds 'barntacular', and it likely is. All I can say is that P-Dizzle took time to breakdown his deck for me, give me tech, for no good reason other then I asked him too.

Really, isn't that what a good ambassador for the game should be like?

[/barngent]

The week before the tournament was pretty hectic for me. I’m taking intersession classes which means classes that squeeze one semester worth of education into three weeks. It's a lot of very drab schooling which really forces me to prioritize my free time.

In short, it really cuts down on me doing much of anything.

Anyhow, time goes by and on Monday morning I decide to start assembling cards, so I start hectically firing PMs and IMs to people asking to borrow cards.

If you have read my previous reports, this should be no surprise to you, it’s a common occurrence.

If not, well here’s a primer on 'Cheapie-B':

First collection: Destroy by parents

Second Collection: Destroyed by parents – yeah, they’re 2 for 2.

Third Collection: Stolen.

At the very end, all I had left was my nearly EA’d New School deck which EA Dooms, Rides, Bat Signals and Boris… which my parents also destroyed.

Yeah, rough times.

The Tournament

Anyhow, I leave for the tournament at 6:00, and get there around 6:20 which is about 10 minutes left. I have barely enough time to get all the cards I need – much thanks to Michael “dizzbuster_7” Gilmore. He happened to have a Checkmate/VU/LoA deck kthat had all the cards I needed – stuff like Talia, Soul World and Slaughter Swamp.

By the way, the list I played:

The Deck...

...is very simple and bland, but it's very good. The plan should be pretty obvious: You play curve beaters, hide Merlyn and slowly whittle your opponent with the Archer.

The deck seems to have very great game against most archetypes. Never did I feel like there was a game I couldn’t win.

Mikados and visible a Ahmed helps wear down aggressive decks.

A timely Meltdown can crush equipment decks.

Ra’s al Ghul is just a complete trump in the mirror - yes rly.

Merlyn is a rolling in curve decks.

The Traitor to the Causes… were absolute gold. Seriously, Adams comparison to Finishing Move is dead on.

I don't play any equips like BPRD Signal Device or Cloak/Tower because they really seem unnecessary. The only match-up where you can get king killed directly - the mirror - is the only match-up where you can't afford to play your Merlyn - due to Ra's al Ghul.

In retrospect, I would likely play Alan Scott over Elimination Protocol. I never ever played the Elimination Protocol, and he’s rarely better then Merlyn. Alan Scott seems significantly more potent in the match-ups where you can't get Merlyn to work or where he's too slow.

I would also go two Annihilation Protocols and one Bane - it's not very hard to search Bane out, and the additional Protocol would help with loyalty.

I'd probably try to toggle in the third Meltdown too.

So anyhow, I get to GoB… and we have a whopping 22 people. Wow, that’s amazing. I get my deck sleeved together and get ready for the first round.

The Tournament

Round 1 – Mike Gilmore – MK/FF/Squad Equip Beats.

Mike is the jank-master and playing against him is always scary. His card choices are always very clever and often fly in the face of conventional wisdom which mean you will often lose to some card or combination that has likely not occured to you.

I win the roll and take evens.

Mike’s first play of the game is Dagger which trades with my Connie.

He doesn’t have two, but I have senor Hassim, and break Connie to get Ahmed.

On turn three he breaks Dagger to get Midnight Sons, and plays Black Panther to search out a High-Tech Flare Gun. I play Ahmed and I start assembling the combo.

On turn four I have Merlyn and my resource row is beautiful golden green.

Mike on the other hand, has a Punisher, Jury and transfer the Flare Gun.

I Meltdown the equipment and Merlyn his Black Panther, this is pretty game breaking. As without the Meltdown he would have won on the next turn with Punisher.

His turn five is a Mr. Fantastic with a Framistat.

I match him with Bane. He can’t really dent my board, and I take Punisher with Merlyn.

On turn six I play Sensei. Mike has Lobster Johnson along Ape X searching out a BPRD Signal Device. He moves it around with Mr. Fantastic to nullify all my trickery.

I am - disappointingly- forced to attack, but am able to win the game on turn seven with Sasha.

1-0.

So the first round of the tournament starts off pretty well. It sucks having to play Mike who is just the awesome.

Round 2 – John – TNB

I played John at the City Championships. He was Brotherhood reservist and I was Checkmate/BPRD. The tables haven’t changed too much with us still playing the respective teams.

He wins the roll and takes evens.

This game is a scare for me because I do not see Ahmed or anyway to get him. I do have his loyalty so I am fairly certain I will see him.

I have a turn two Talia who is met with a double Megablasted Pyro. Barnacle then proceeds to step over my nuts.

Turn three comes and… no Ahmed. I ship the turn to John, but I take it back.

I flip up the first card in my resource row which is a Meltdown and replace into…

…

…

…

…

…

…

Brother I Satellite!

Yes! So I am able to get Ahmed online!

John on the other hand leads his turn three with Dr. Doom fetching a copy of the new Brotherhood. He has a Planet X in the row which adds insult to injury as I suck up a lot of damage.

On turn four he plays Barnacle and replays Dr. Doom fetching another TNB. Merlyn loses his counter which is pretty disheartening but not the end of the world.

To be honest, I can’t really remember too many details about this game as I was really on edge. I do remember turn five being crucial as I am able to chopping block his Dr. Doom.

This lets me slow play to turn seven where I am able to play Sasha, then Mikado a few one-drops for the win.

Since we finish early, we play another game.

In this game, John leads with a few curve drops and an Ilsa Huapstein. He soon has four TNB, but not enough pressure and I am able to hide Merlyn and start sniping for the win.

I also made a bunch of operational errors that could be construed as cheating, all I can say in my defense is that I was really on edge in this game, and I hope you’ll believe me when I say I didn’t mean to cheat.

I had a big Traitor to the Cause play that should’ve worked but didn’t... and I guess in my moment of “Ah hah, I’m so smart!” I neglected to pay more attention to the board.

Yeah~

2-0

Round Three: Timon play Spider-Friends/Marvel Defenders.

Timon top 8’d the last Random Punks with the exact same deck.

Unfortunately for Timon, I win the roll and I curve out from one. Timon follows pretty strong with a curve of Night-Thrasher, Nighthawk, and Spider-Man... but I pretty much just hide Merlyn and just keep sniping his board.

He puts me in a bit of a jam with Moon Knight on turn 5 with a bunch of Secret Defenders sitting in his resource row... but I am able to use Target Acquired and various pumps to keep Moon Knight from crushing me.

Sensei is very kind to me on six letting me snipe his six and seven drop in consecutive.

I slow roll and take it.

3-0

So here I start getting excited about winning the mat. At this moment there are three 3-1s. Me, Angelo Trinh and Glen Viernes playing Morlocks and BrianEugenioPuppetMastersStall.dec

Morlocks from what I understood, was a VERY easy match-up. Basically, it wasn’t a real game unless they drew the Alley.

I wasn’t too sure of what the match-up is like if they do draw the Alley though.

BrianEugenioCheckmatePuppetMasterStall.dec though... I had no idea. I saw Brian play it at the last CC and wow, it was a beating. I wasn’t sure I could beat it, so I ended up spending some time talking out a game plan with the Alameda crew – Angelo, Kurt, Kevin and of course, your favorite Dwarf and mine… Miguel.

Round 4-0


Round 4 – Glen – BrianEugenioCheckmatePuppetMasterStall.dec

Since Glen was playing a location deck, the idea was that Ra’s al Ghul would be the breaker here.

The next half was how do I win, as he was also an off-curve deck. Obviously, Merlyn on his Ahmed would be great, but if he didn’t play Ahmed… could I race him?

I win the roll and take evens.

No Ahmed, before and after mulligan.

Draw, no Ahmed.

Turn 1 pass.

Draw, no Ahmed.

Turn 2, I have Hassim, while Glen has Silver Surfer. We trade, he activates and searches out Press the Attack.

Draw, no Ahmed, next card… Ahmed, yes!

Josh, a local player who is nearby watching pats my back and says “Congratulations, you don’t have to concede.”

On turn three, Glen and I match Ahmeds, which I find a bit weird.

On turn four, I play Ra’s al Ghul instead or Merlyn figuring it’s better to stifle his development now as opposed to giving him two turns worth of Ahmed usage.

Ra’s al Ghul gives him a lot of trouble – I later learned he wasn’t nearly as familiar with my deck as I was with his, and he had no idea I had Ra’s.

Anyhow, on turn five I play Merlyn and… that’s it.

Pretty anti-climatic.

So yeah, I’m 4-0 and Angelo Trinh is 4-0 too.

We both decide not to play so I flip a card and ask him to pick evens or odds for the win.

He picks odds and it’s a Brother I Satellite so I win.

Ha!

5-0

During this time I get to watch Kevin play John which is again a Checkmate/LoA versus TNB. Both guys are very cool, but I'm rooting for Kevin here.

Kevin per tradition - see game five of the above report - misses Ahmed on three, but he puts out a fight with Assasin Initiate on three, and Ahmed on four.

This plan seems to be a fairly decent strat, as John has a few small guys early out that can be KO'd, but John has all four of his TNBs and Kevin ends with no safe attacks.

5 rounds cuts to a top four which looks like:

Brian Eugenio: IG/SS
Angelo Trinh: Morlocks
John Lewis: TNBr
Me: Check/LoA


Top Four – Brian– IG/SS

I was actually pretty nervous about this match-up as Brian is really good and he had Floronic Man who is a pretty good answer to Merlyn.

Despite that... this match-up was surprisingly casual and relaxed. Just really mellow.

Brian wins the roll and takes evens.

I am able to start this game by curving out with Connie and Talia.

I crack Connie to fetch Ahmed on three, where after Brian’s first play of the game is Lex Luthor, Nefarious Philanthropist.

On turn four, he has a… booster Copperhead... while I have Merlyn.

Merlyn takes down Copperhead with his ability to which Brian responds with a Mysterious Benefactor searching out Aquaman, King of the Seven Seas.

On turn five, Brian recruits Floronic Man. At this moment I have a resource row of four locations including a pair of Safehouses, a Soul World and a Mountain Stronghold. F-Man takes out my Soul World.

For my five, I have Bane.

I think about it for awhile, and then decide to team attack Floronic Man with Bane and Talia.

Brian responds with a pair of Superhero Showdowns.

I then play Target Acquired for five, but Brian has a pair of Acrobatic Dodges to render that moot.

: (

I pass on attacks and F-Man takes down Bane.

On turn six, I have Sensei and Brian has Gorilla Grodd.

I'm not sure about the specifics... but somehow, I manage to Merlyn his F-Man and able to Traitor to the Cause Bane for a timely KO.

Yeah, sorry about that...

6-0


Finals – Angelo Trinh – Morlocks

Remember how I said the match-up was easy if they didn’t have the Alley?

Apparently, it’s really bad if they do.

I win the roll and take evens.

I start the game with Connie Web, which is met by Electric Eve.

Turn two for me is a Mountain Stronghold searching out Talia which Angelo matches with Black Cat.

On turn three, Angelo doesn't have a play on three while I crack Connie for Ahmed. An Ego-Gem on Black Cat finds him Healer during the combat phase.

: )

Angelo also flips up the Alley.

:''''''''''''(

(Smilies are as always, dependent on which side you are on.)

On four, Angelo plays Storm, evades Black Cat and plays out Tommy.

"Gotta get those three guys!" he says.

I have Merlyn.

Talia does a bunch of 'mini-swings' into his board forcing the little guys to evade. I then team attack Ahmed and Talia into Storm but eat a Last Stand.

Yikes!

Angelo deliberates for a bit... then exhausts Storm for Mutant Massacre. This however, is negated by a timely Traitor to the Cause.

What. A. Card.

On turn five, he has Marrow while I have 'the Bane'.

He swings Electric Eve into my Talia with a power-up to which I Mikado.

He tries again with Tommy and Retribution but I Swamp back Mikado.

Unfortunately, Mikado is not very good against evasion.

Finally, he decides to swings Storm down into Talia which is met with a Target Acquired for 5.

Marrow swings down into Bane and I don't have another Target Acquired.

I have Merlyn and Ahmed in play, but I decide to pass on attacks.

On turn six, I have Sensei and he has Callisto.

"Sensei into Callisto?"

He responds by evading Black Cat, Tommy, and Electric Eve and plays Last Stand.

I am able to break this, using Ahmed to go get a Brother Eye and playing a huge Target Acquired.

After my five seconds of joy though, I am unable to get through Marrow, who, in tandem with the Alley put me out of my misery.

6-1

This match-up felt like trying to fight water… Literally: I’d keep attacking, he’d keep evading and wow, just..nothing I could really do that felt like it was relevant or lasting.

Merlyn just sat there looking really pretty, and in retrospect...I think I might have over-valued his cosmic counter and likely should have used him more aggressively but I didn’t.

Maybe I should have actually played Ra's al Ghul and then Merlyn next turn to handle the Alley?

Possibly~

Anyhow, kudos to Angelo who played really well and deserved it! Angelo won the first box tournament at Collector's Corner and has generally been at the top of the swiss in all the local events so it feels very... appropriate?

If you have to lose a game, it should at least be to a worthwhile opponent.

He's also a really swell and enthusiastic guy and I hope him - and his crew - come out to more of the Bay Area tournaments now that's it's summer.

I apologize if this report isn’t as awesome or as good as I usually try to do. I have a presentation tomorrow for class, and I really wanted to put this up before I forgot all the details of it.

I’ll likely add more to it tomorrow, and I hope others that show up will put in their experience at the event - there were a lot of cool decks.

Speaking of which the metagame was something like:

4x Checkmate/LoA
2x Morlocks
1x Equip Beats
1x TNBr
1x BrianEugenioCheckmatePuppetMasterStall.dec
1x Injustice Gang/Secret Society
1x Checkmate/Hellfire
1x Checkmate/X-Men
1x Checkmate/New School
1x OMAC Robot - no Ahmed : (
1x Spider-Friends/Defenders
1x X-Men/Avengers Team Attack
1x Syndicate Rush
1x Spider-Friends Curve
1x Heralds Curve

Anyhow… the tournament was a lot of fun, and I am now the proud owner of a Mobilize! Sweet! I'm looking forward to Alter Egos, but more so to the Saturday 1K which is going to be a legit constructed event.

Hopefully, the report for that one will be at least somewhat positive... I'm not certain whether I will judge or play - depends on what Curtis needs - but if I do play... what deck should I take?

Peace,

TDB

traitor! :)

Great report, love the Traitor tech.

Personally I wouldn't play a Deep Green variant without Coast City*. If you win the coin toss it's often better to leave Merlyn visisble and protect him with your five drop (this gets even better with Traitor).

The Alley is a beating, I seriously considered running it in San Fran for the mirror and rush decks splashing Fatality.

Making the OMAC four drop always feels like you've just scooped, Alan is risky but I'd go that way too.

I'm glad people are still having fun with the deck.

DTee

*Tom never understood this. He was in love with Rook Control.

Pfft. Even your leftovers are gravy. You are becoming the best reporter in the game...
I wish we knew what you looked like.

Outstanding work, much appreciated.

Great write-up, Paul.

Morlocks is actually a very bad matchup for the Checkmate/League deck. The Alley pretty much neutralizes Merlyn. In addition, Leech can give Ahmed absolute fits. I played the same matchup this weekend. Admittedly, having my opponent (kyrie from the Realms) bounce Marrow with a Shrapnel Blast on five was disheartening. Still, the burn from The Alley took its toll, and I was able to stun enough of his board and lean on last stand to take the match.

I like the Ra's Al Ghul tech. His Loyalty is a major pain, but he completely shuts down a lot of decks if you can keep him from becoming stunned.

Keep up the good work!

"One big ugly mofo."

Oh wait... that's what Paul said when he saw me.

I think Paul should get these reports on the front page.

Grrr... The Alley....

If only that was the single stumbling block to defeating Morlocks around here... everyone is running Yancy Street as well.

Great report, TDB. Keep up the good work!

I may be missing something, but aren't there only 59 cards listed?

I count only 30 characters. Who's the last one?

Thanks for all the kind words guys.

Dr. Strange: Just did the math and checked my deck. I have 30 characters, and a Lazarus Pit apparently.

Ah, good.

I was scared there for a moment. I wanted to play this deck so badly after reading the report. Great job!

Also, do you think this is a good idea to play where the metagame is:
-1 morlock deck
-1 AGL
-A bunch of Avenger decks
-1 Mexican Hardware store deck
- Beatdown/syn/Future foes

If you like the deck you should play it, don't worry about stuff like metagaming. You should first and foremost be trying to have some fun!

Here are some tips though according to what you posted:

Morlocks: According to Kevin, the plan in this match-up is Ra's al Ghul on four and the five drop OMAC. Your plan is to chop aggressively to prevent them from using Shrapnel Blast or Last Stand.

I really wish I knew this earlier for the finals... I guess this is why we playtest?

AGL: Play Ahmed visible and hope you draw a bunch of Mikados. Shoot their AGLs, rebuy, repeat. Merlyn is surprisingly 'not-bad' in this match-up as he is a permanent answer to both Chomin and Xallarap.

Avengers: Because of Wonderman, you only get to Merlyn them twice in this match-up, so you need to make it count.

Barring Wonderman though, Avengers is pretty much just a curve deck, and curve decks are pretty favorable.

Traitor to the Cause is especially devastating on turn five, as She-Hulk has such low defense that it's extremely unlikely that she won't be stunned prior to the recovery phase. All you have to do at that point, is to stun a hidden guy and get Bane standing up.

Call Down the Lightning is negated by the extremely flexible Target Acquired.

Honestly, with Traitor to the Cause, I really don't think it's unreasonable to expect to KO their three, four and five drop before turn six.

If they have evens and they have Carol Danvers it can be kinda tricky. At this point, you'd need some type of Jacob Lee trickery to get out of it. This scenario is literally plan C for them - wrong initiative, wrong drop - so I wouldn't worry too much about it.

Mexican Hardware Store: I don't have any experience with any type of equipment beats deck. All I can say is max out your Meltdowns - maybe even play Zincos instead - if you fear it greatly.

As for the rest of what you posted... really, curve decks are fairly easy to handle. Even if they do have No Man's you can just re-buy Huntress. Rush decks aren't too bad either. Location decks are a breeze.

The deck's raw power is incredible and will just win you a lot of games.

I would also recommend you PM DTee for more comprehensive information as he has had just 'a little bit' of success with this archetype.