HIGH POINT TOURNAMENT REPORT -- Saturday, December 14 Daddy Jim's Comics -- High Point, NC Hi, all. It's been a while since I did one of these, so bear with me. I had heard that there would be a series of qualifiers at Daddy Jim's Comics in High Point, NC (about 1.5-2 hrs from me) for a sword tournament some time in January or February. After checking with Ernest Small, I decided to make the drive up in my faithful '72 Chevy (affectionately named Deathtrap). I got there a bit early, checked up to make sure something really *was* happening, then grabbed a bite to eat. Coming back, I signed in and paid my $5 to enter. Winner gets a Quickening and qualifies for the sword tourney, as well as first choice of the two The Prize and PG Darius. The players who signed up were: James Bailey (Daddy Jim himself) Jeff Barnes (me), trying out Connor "Complete Denial" James Kight, with a Khan Desert warrior deck Tim Krzywicki, playing Richie cheese James Peele, with a Kurgan Master's Maneuver deck Mitch Reinhardt, playing Xavier ultra-cheese Ernest Small, with a Connor mini-tower Travis Tooley, playing Richie cheese No Katana. Hmpf. My deck was built with the General in mind. First, my deck. I'd gotten a Connor Honor Bound/Master's Block/Master's Lunge deck from Ben Durbin a while back, but I didn't like the fact that it tended to die horribly against Katana. I made some modifications to it, hoping to produce a continuous stream of Renee Delaneys and about 12 points in damage per pass. This was the semi-final version: PREGAME Connor Macleod persona Kurgan Quickening (+1 damage) Luther Quickening (free Power Blocks) 3 TCGs (Ben, Sam, and Billy) THE DECK (44 cards) 15 Basic Attacks & Blocks 2 Connor Slash (1 of each) 2 Master's Lunge 2 Master's Block 3 Master's Dodge 6 Renee Delaney 1 Wargames West 1 Head Shot 1 NEXUS 6 Lean & Mean 5 Patience THE CONCEPT This deck is designed to (1) not allow my opponent to play specials for as long as possible and (2) do 8 points unblockable and undodgeable damage per pass plus whatever I may get from lucky attacks. It plays the disruption game well (in some test draws, I went up to 18 straight turns of continuous Renees), but tends to be a bit light on offense, depending heavily on the 8 + Endurance burn + lucky attacks. Since it has no way to get rid of Specials in play, TCGs are forced to serve as my Police, stopping Safe Havens, Deserts, Verona Italy, and Ped-Hidden. When I build a deck, I tend to sit down and think about which decks it will have trouble with and what I can do to help it. This deck hates Disarm and the Ped-Hidden/Safe Haven decks, but I figured I could handle them. I remember thinking that it would also have trouble with an Avery Hoskins/Desert deck (like my version of Chip's "Tower of Power" I'm building for the next Single Card Strategies), but who would be crazy enough to play one of those? If I'd stopped to think, I'd have remembered the last time my mind sounded that way: GenCon qualifiers, where I removed my Illusory Terrains right before the tourney -- and ran into 3 straight Mountain Cave decks followed by a Catwalk deck... Anyway... THE TOURNAMENT First round, I played Tim. As I said, he was playing Richie cheese, with a pre-game Darius for an extra Watcher: Treatment. One thing I noticed: apparently, no one plays Kate much around here, because everyone packed healing. Have to do my best on that, I suppose. =) He wins the toss and opens with a Challenge/Shooting Blade. Sigh. I go to 11. Eventually, though, my Renees slow down his cheese (that happens when you play 6 straight turns of them). I use the Master's Block / Master's Lunge for 4 points Sedarius damage (without a Sedarius, even =). He decides to let a LLA through, taking him to 8, then Stalks me. I go to 9, but play a LRA. He exerts and gets nothing. My Renees run out momentarily, and he puts out a SE Quality Blade, but a Slash followed by another Block/Lunge seal the game for me. Whew. Meanwhile, Mitch beats Travis, Ernest beats James B., and James K. beats James P. =) I face Mitch in the next round. When I say Xavier cheese, I mean _cheese_ (no Poison Gas, though). 5 PG Darii for Kirk Matunas, Watcher: Treatment, Alliance, Stalk, and Careful Planning. Ick. And to top it off, I get a crummy draw. Renees last for a while, but my Master's Blocks stay in the bottom few cards of my Endurance. He opens with a Stalk plus an Alliance, and things go downhill from there. My Renees run out, and he gets off a Careful Planning/Angry Mob, followed by a CP/Watcher: Hunter (!) and an Alliance, leaving me at 4. I do manage to get a Block to go with my Lunge, and then get a Slash through, but he Stalks me, then uses a CP/Mob to finish me off. To the losers' bracket I go. James Kight advances over Ernest in the other winners' bracket game, while James P. takes out James B. and Travis beats Tim in the losers' bracket. Which means I'm facing Travis, who's also playing Richie cheese. Yeah, I know, poetic justice... Anyway, I win the roll and manage to get early control despite another Stalk hitting me . Two Block/Lunge combos get him down to the manageable level (i.e., fewer defenses in his hand) of 7. However, Renee runs out again (sigh) and he uses 2 Treatments to go back up to 11. Yep, next time, I'm leaving Renee at home and bringing Kate. =) We both take Endurance burn, leaving me at 8 and him at 6. I get two attacks through, and that's game. I try a Head Shot, and he rips a TCG. Good thing, too; he exerts anyway and finds... nothing. Like my usual exertion for a defense. =) I have to rip a TCG in this game, but I don't recall what on (Kirk Matunas?). Simultaneously, Ernest beats James P., while in the winners' bracket James Kight beats Mitch. Because of the weird TCG bracket system, I get a bye the next turn. I root for Ernest to beat Mitch (I don't like that Xavier deck one bit =), and he does. Which means it's Connor vs. Connor. He wins the roll, but I finally get the god draw. He plays a Master's Advice and attacks. I Renee and play a Block/Lunge. Another Block/Lunge follows to take him down further, followed by a lucky MRA getting through. A Block/Lunge and another attack serve to ice it. A Head Shot attempt fails. Rats. Which means I get to play James Kight. James is the only one of the group I'd played before, with the prototyped Honor Bound version of this deck. Great... once you play this deck once or twice, you should know how to beat it. ANyway, remember how I said *no one* would play with Deserts? Well, his Khan deck is the nemesis for this one. It exists only to run you through your deck. Deserts, Dirty Tricks, baseballs... you know the drill. This is *not* what I want to see. On the other hand, he has 2 PG Darii, a gold foil, and a Quickening besides his persona; he had to rip his only TCG earlier. He wins the roll and Divines my Kurgan Quickening on the first turn. I get an early Block/Lunge in the midst of a hail of Renees. I rip a TCG on... something (can't recall what), then have to use the last one on a Safe Haven (yeah, right, like *that*'s going down). Note to self: *stop* playing with Quickenings; my nerves can't take it when I rip my last TCG... I then get 2 luck attacks through, followed by a Slash. Even a Thrust comes through, and eventually he goes through his Endurance, leaving him at 2. An UCA takes him to zero... but he avoids my Head Shot. I know I'm in trouble with no TCGs, so I *really* needed that Head Shot. Sigh. Turns out I'm right. The next game is brutal. I manage to hold up the Renees for a while, but he gets me with a Pistol for one. I get a lucky attack through eventually, then play a NEXUS -- which he Polices. The next turn, he uses an Amnesia on it. Sigh. Wargames West comes down for me (and stays around, though he Focuses it at will). I make a Block-less lunge and get it through, though my Kurgan Q is gone by then. =( Then he plonks down a Desert, and I know the game is over barring a miracle. I exert through my endurance twice more, and my Head Shot is blocked (though I do get another Lunge through). Fortunately, he doesn't get his Head Shot, so I live to fight another day. I did get the card I wanted, though (The Prize: Exertion). One thing I've decided: I play cheese when I want to win, and I play denial when I want to feel good about myself after the tourney. =) All in all, I had a good time and got to meet some of the local players face-to-face at last. They seem nice enough people, though that may be a facade for them all being homocidal maniacs. We'll see, I suppose. =) Oh, well. That's all for now. Join me next time in my quest for Quickenings and a slot in the sword tournament... Best, -jdb