First - a note. I typed this up Sunday night while my internet connection at home is on the fritz and was unaware of the drama unfolding Sunday night and Monday. Still - this is the event at JetPack Comics up in New Hampshire, the Saturday night before the one in Salem, MA that caused the big brewhaha... I've kept everything as I wrote it.

Tournament report follows.....

First – The decklist. I tried to stay true to the spirit of the event. I wasn’t 100% sure I was going to make it and due to a busy week at work, I ended up outing a deck together at 11pm Friday night, with some tweaks coming after a handful of games Saturday morning.

“G-cups”
12 Random Punks - Army
4 Professor Ivo - Anthony Ivo
1 Lockup – Lyle Bolton
1 Queen of Fables – Wickedest Witch
2 Guy Gardner – Warrior
1 Dr. Doom – Richards Rival
4 Mojo – Ruler of Mojoworld
2 Felix Faust – Infernal Dealmaker
3 Kanjar Ro – Kylaq defense minister
1 Light Brigade – Construct
4 Mega Blast
4 Flying Kick
3 Resistance is Useless
2 Vicarious Living
2 Cover Fire
2 Advance Recon
2 Lost in Translation
2 Ego Gem – Infinity Gem
4 Mojoverse
2 Mosaic World
2 Birthing Chamber
2 Layer of the Mastermind

In retrospect, I’d have built the deck quite differently, trying for the win with Mojo on 5 rather than wanting evens and hitting him on 4. but enough hindsight – onward punks!

We had 12 show up.

First Game – Jeremy (sheye on VSreamls) playing Thunderbolts/Checkmate team tactics
Jeremy is a good player and one of the members of Team Chairshot – The fine folks who created fiddler on the roof, getting both he and Gone but not Forgotten banned.
I win the roll and take evens ( as I did all night, until realizing that the winning strategy was to take odds and try to win on five…more on this later). He drops an Ape X fetching a fate artifact, I drop a punk, turn 2 I recruit Ivo, fetching myself a Mojo and he drops Songbird with 2/3 of the fate suite on her making her a 9/5 or something stupid. Punks swings into her with a flying kick and Ivo swings down on the monkey. Jeremy misses his turn 3 play but completes his Fate Suite on Songbird, and I forget for the first time to flip down the flying kick in my row, and I hit my Doom, fetching lost in translation and putting it on top of my deck for the imminent Mojo on 4. He swings into doom with the big bird and I whimper and pass to recovery. Turn 4 I forget AGAIN to turn down Flying Kick, I bring out Mojo (G-cups baby…) as 11/7 4 drop. He brings out Ahmed and a Surveillance Pawn. I flip Mojoverse and activate to remove dooms affiliation and Mojo swings as a 16 with a power-up to the face after doom takes down songbird. Ahmed bashes Ivo and he teams up His two teams.
Going into turn 5 he has a fated up songbird, Ahmed and the pawn against my punk, Doom and Mojo. Totals are 28 to 22 and I have a slight lead. On his init his Brother I gets Speed Demon and I recruit Light brigade. Ahmed and Pawn both activate to their abilities, Songbird makes a safe swing into my punk (who I reinforce with doom via Mosaic World) He drops a Kick and a blast on Speed Demon, readies him with his ability, plays team tactics on him, making it a 26 ATK swinging at Mojo, and Demon cant stun. He flashes a Press the Attack and another Team Tactics and I extend my hand.
I’m off to an 0-1 start.

Second Game – Alex (OrangeSodaMan on VSRealms) playing Checkmate/LoA – Alex is also a good player and we throw down matching City Champs playmates. It’s on.
My notes are pretty empty here. I win the roll and again take the incorrect even initiative.
He misses on 1, I recruit a punk and swing for 2. On 2, Ivo and Sarge steel show up. The middle of the match is a blur but on turn 5 he Merlyn’s Mojo and bane one-ways my Kanjar Ro, KOing him at the start of the Recovery phase. I lived til 6 but my depleted board of nothing more than a 3 drop makes the fact that it’s my initiative a moot point once he drops Sensei…0-2 and getting desperate…

With only 12 players I was pretty sure I could still make top 8 if I won out…still, I just wanted to win a single game at this point.

Third Game – Heath (HeathD420 on VSRealms) playing a very cool Gotham Knights/Marvel Defenders Build. Heath was 1-1 here and I got paired up. When I first walked into the store Heath looked up from his game a said hi, and I must’ve looked at him a bit strange because he then says “you don’t recognize me, do you…” As soon as he opened his mouth I knew who it was, but I hadn’t seen him in about a year and Heath lost about 70 pounds (50 pounds of fat and 20 pounds of hair…) It was good to see the second member of Team Chairshot, whom I had beaten in our last game at 10K Boston on a crucial misplay by him. This was a frustrating match for both of us. His deck had am implosion of Epic Proportions and on turn 4 all he could manage was an ApeX, and by the time I was swinging for the win on turn 6 his visible board consisted of 2 Exhauseted GCPD Officers (quickly dispatched by 2 of my punks), and then swung a Team attack of 49 direct to his dome bringing the Endurance totals to 45 to -35. Like I said – Total deck implosion. And I’, 1-2 and a win away from making the top 8.

Fourth Game – Al (a Jetpack Comics employee) playing Darkseid’s Elite/Inhumans
I hadn’t met all before tonight, though he was wearing a Green Lantern VS. Shirt, I don’t think he’d been playing all that long. Still, He was a competent player with a solid deck. I again took evens and He misses on 1 while I again hit a Random Punk (4 for 4 so far and each time I dropped one on one a smile came across my opponents faces). Ivo showed up on 2 getting me a Mojo for later, while Al recruited a San and went hunting for a green card. On three, Al began to try to gan some card advantage by bringing out Dark Firestorm while all I could muster was another Random Punk. Turn 4 saw Mojo swing for 19 into his newly recruited Darkseid. Turn 5 brought Al another 4 drop darkseid Ainchient Chair to make him non unique) and a Lockjaw. While I brought out Felix Faust. Darkseid stunned felix, fetching 2 punks from the KO Pile, and I brickwalled his next swing at my mojo with a cover fire. Only swing back with him on my attck for 25 bringing Al to -5. phew. 2-2 and 7 out of 12.

QuarterFinals – Mike (Aceswolf on VSRealms) playing Checkmate/LoA
Mike finished the Swiss at 3-1 having lost only his last match against the other 3-0. He’s done a lot for the game in his neck of the woods, and brought 3 other people with him to this tournament, showing just how willing he is to “Spread the Vs Love.” I lost the die roll for the first time all night and ended up with odds. Otherwise this game wouldn’t have been as close as it was. Punks hits on 1 making me a perfect 5/5 on the night (well, there are 12 of them in the deck…) and he hits connie web and Mikado’s my punks and hits me for 1. On 2 Hassim and Ivo(fetching Guy) show up, He uses Hassim to pump Connie and Attack Ivo, which I evade and make Mike swear. Mike console himself by smacking around my random punks. Turn 3 ships Connie back to mike’s deck and Ahmed shows up. I play Guy Gardner. I’m slowly gaining some endurance advantage here as Ahmed gets the teamup and I’m bashing with Guy into Hassim and the rest of my board to his face. Turn 4 brings a Merlyn and a Jacob Lee (free with location exhaust) on his side of the board and ships Merlyn to his hidden area with Rook Control. I drop Ivo (to get my Mojo on) and 2 Punks. Merlyn KO’s Guy and Ahmed swings into my Ivo. Turn 5 brings out Mojo on my side while Mike recruits Ra’s Al Ghul and I lose my Mojoverse, Layer of the mastermind and Birthing Chamber and he rook contols Ra’s and Ahmed. I can only bring him down to 11 after Mojo’s attak and he brick walls my punk attack with 2 Safehouses and a knightmare scenario and Merlyn’s my Mojo as soon as I pass combat to him. Turn 6 sees Sensei on his side and Kanjar Ro, who is Merlyn food faster than you can say “Kanjar Ro? What does he do again?” Mike bashes me to -3 endurance while he stays at his 11...

So I’m out but still want to play, and Jeremy from Rd 1 and I play a rematch. I take odds this time and when he passes combat to me during turn 6, I’m down -18 to 0 with a ready Guy Gardner, Ivo and 2 random punks with a face up mojoverse against his stunned visible board.Guy swings for 7 to his face and with an Advance Recon I bring the totals to -4 to 0, the swing direct for 9 FTW, avenging my first loss on the day.

Mike Loses in the Semis on a mental error (for a guy going on 30 hours awake he was doing ok…) and He and I replay and I am able to win on 5 this time Avenging the last loss. Alex, unfortunately had left after losing in the Quarters so the rematch will have to wait…

It was my first tournament at Jetpack Comics in Rochester, NH and I had a great time. We had 4 people I had never seen before there and Mike brought 2 of them.

PROPS
Aceswolf – For Spreading the Vs love and bringing 2 new people to a tournament. Knock out those mental errors and you’ll be hoisting a playmate soon
TauronNox – Our Esteemed Judge for the evening
Jetpack Comics – For staying open late just for the tournament. See you in July for the Alter Ego Event!
UDE – For upping the prize support when the Time Trappers went over like a lead balloon.
Heath – For building a cool deck that crapped the bed on him in our match.
To Random Punks – Because every day, from Boston to Phoenix, punks like these debase the foundation of American values.

SLOPS
Hate to say it but UDE – What happened to the ALT ART Finishing moves? Deliver what you promise guys.
To Me – for winning Die Rolls and Picking the wrong init every time I had the chance…dummy.
To Ahmed Samsarra – For being in EVERY DAMN DECK. Ahmed – I hate you. (Preemptivly let me say I am NOT calling for a banning or anything here folks…)

-Shamilton777

Oh Scott, you say the sweetest things!

Seriously, this is a great write up and you get MAD props from me for playing Random Punks during Random Punks! And as always, it was great to sit down and hang out with you for a bit.

We might not sanction the Alter Ego event, so I may be able to play instead of hang around and watch everyone else have all the fun. w00t!

Wait - so you mean my rating won't drop when I 0-X it? AWESOME!

Exactly! Same goes for me, cuz I'm running Wild Pack/Inhumans!

if i would have had life gain in my deck and it didn't crap out against you, i would've 4-0'd. but i didn't have the space in the deck to put in the meltdowns or wayne manors. but oh well, bring the deck again to the next event and we'll have a rematch.

and watch out for my alter ego deck. i'll be playing something that no one will expect. at least from me anyway.........

Nice report!

Have you thought about Black Mask?

Thanks! - When I built this I tried my best not to think...

ok - honestly, I read him and didn't see the point the way I was planning to play the deck. If I were to play this again I'd plan a bit differently, and had I built it earlier than the night before the event and played more than just 4-5 games with it I'd have realized how I should have built/played it.

Still, I will say this was one of the more fun events I've been to in quite a while - If for nothing more than to see the looks on peoples faces when I drop a punk on 1...

In retrospect I'm thinking of the full 4 Vicarious livings, the full four Felix Fausts and aiming to get mojo into play on 5 with odd initiative. Ivo is a good way to get a punk or 2 into the KO pile (with the added benefit of making sure I hit mojo) and Black Mask would cetainly fit that theme as well. I'd likely focus in on that if/when I tweak this deck. I'd also like a way to more reliably hit my locations without running Ahmed, so I'm kind of left with san or the BPRD chick...which gives me a ton of 2 drops...

So long answer short - thought about him, didn't run him, but should have.

Nice deck...good report.

chao