1r0n w!LL
01-22-2007, 10:28 AM
We had 15 people for the draft. Apparently almost the entire gaming community of Deerfield WI plays The Spoils and they decided to show.
The draft went okay for me, but not the way I wanted. My opening pack was a tough one. There was a bunch of warlord removal: Shriever, Target Practice, and Bask Bile I think. There was Pervasive Bodyguard which is good, but not great. I decided to send a signal to the left that I was not playing Warlord so I took the Bodyguard. Charlie on my right passed me a Pluck. I proceded to draft an almost mono-Banker deck with trip-Union Leaders and other fat, but with poor removal. It was not that I had no removal (Abductress, Poaching, Ambuscade, Carnival King, Pettifogger) just none of it was targeted. I had a late Napiform from the first pack and was open to picking up some more. Early in pack 3, I let a Downsizing go I don't recall for what, but there were 3-4 quality picks in the pack. Late in the third pack I could have snaped up a Forget and splash the Napiform and the Forget. I probably should have gone for 3 trade.
I went into the draft determined to draft removal, but apparently not determined enough. I also saw 2 Runic Cannons in pack 2 or 3. Also somewhere in the middle I saw Subversion Matrix. According to Steve I my left, I also passed a fair number of early Jaque's Trap which I don't doubt, but I don't remember. Trap is a solid card, but my early picks which with the exception of Pluck were all Banker fatties were fine; and in play with bigger fatter dudes I never found myself needing a trap. In fact I found myself facing down ambuscade and other defensive cards. I did not need traps; I just needed some spot removal.
Round 1 - Charlie from my right
Charlie was playing Warlord - Gearsmith. We did a lot of staring at each other while I drew cards and he put random tokens on his Runic Cannon. We almost went to time and at the end I was beating down with a couple fat Union Leaders
me 1-0
Round 2 - Steve
Steve came out with turn 1 Warrior Prodigy + Oversoon Lightfoot. Fortunately I had Blanching Butcher. Steve proceded to break his men against my butcher. I played a Union Leader or two and concealed goon and it was over quick.
me 2-0
Round 3 - Brian Kowal
BK is on the play with turn 1 Bulldozer. Bk turn 2 Dragon Quarters. I played a turn 2 Mafia Lawyer. Brian plays turn 3 Rabid Sarume for the beatdown and to pump quarters. I play Resurrection Technician for a blocker. He attacks with bulldozer and Sarume as a team. I chump with Technician. Next turn he attacks again. I let him assign the damage to my faction and Shocking Reappearance my Technician back into play to nail the Sarume. I have the next couple of turns a bit jumbled. I play Union Leader and attack with Mafia Lawyer holding back Tech and Leader for defense. He use Dragon Quarters and Target Practice to kill my tech. Taps down my Leader and swings with double Dragon Juice bringing me to one. I played Pervasive Bodyguard and did some more conservative beating down. This went on for a turn or two. It was clear that BK was digging for a way to kill me. I knew he had at least a Siege Machine. His life total was getting in my range and I felt I needed to go for it. I was looking for the kill. I drew and found Pluck with 7 resources available. I may have been able to kill him without it, but Pluck for Sarume killing Bulldozer made it easy. I had enough guys to do about 5+ over his life total and bulldozer was his only dude.
I flipped the next card off the top of his library and it was Bask Bile.
me 3-0
Round 4 - David Heinenmann
We were the only 2 undefeated so David was feeling good since I was Q'ed. He was pretty much a lock for the Q. I was concerned about the matchup because he was playing Rogue-Aracanist with heavy removal. Even though I was concerned, I had no idea how bad the matchup was for me.
We both draw a bunch and play a bunch of resources. He is not playing close attention and I get ahead. At one point, he let me slip ahead 10 - 7 in resources but it did not matter(he acknowledged later that he did not notice how far ahead I had gotten and would not have let me had he noticed). He played Heist Planner for Pluck, Shocking Reappearance, Ressurection Technician. I had 3 more Ressurection Techs in my hand, but he had no characters in his discard. I could have picked it up, but I decided to not squander a tech because he had forget and other discard in his deck. Next turn he Catastrophics picking up Pluck. I was pretty sure I was screwed, but had I seen his hand I would have known the game was totally over. He beatdown pretty quickly as I fought the hopeless battle of keeping guys out of my discard. We looked at his deck afterward. He had something on the order of 12 removal. It was really sick. He only had one Cat Betrayal and one Heist Planner, so if we played a lot he was unlike to dominate me in the same way, but I would guess that he had the matchup 75%+ of the time.
me 3-1
Round 5 - Tim Boland
I beat Tim the week prior and he was not too happy to play me. My memory of this game is a bit fuzzy. He played first turn Bulldozer. He had other beats and couple of Flaming Barduse. My life total was in the midteens and I started to get worried about Strength in Numbers. I killed his Bulldozer with Executive Poaching to try to minimize his SiN potential. I stayed on defense for a couple of turns and built up fat beatdown with at least one Union Leader and he started chumping. I had some weak early pluck action picking up his weenies. At some point he killed pluck and the weenies with Shriever Attack; there was nothing on his side either. At the end of the game I had Union Leader, Face in the Crowd, and Ressurection Technician. He tried to stop the beating with Necromorph Bureaucrat and I had to explain to him that if I attacked with everything first thing on my turn there was no oppurtunity to deplete my guys.
me 4-1
I got second. David won at 4-1-1. His opponent wanted to draw into better prizes; I thought it was a little odd. I think he was 3-1. If he'd won, he would have been on tie breaks with David for the win. He was one of the kids from Deerfield. I guess the chances of him winning were small and even if he won, since David had me as a tie break.
The good news is that I got Pluck in the draft, so now I have 4 Plucks. And in my prizes, I got my 4th Heist Planner.
My next report will be the WCC coming up on Saturday 1/27.
The draft went okay for me, but not the way I wanted. My opening pack was a tough one. There was a bunch of warlord removal: Shriever, Target Practice, and Bask Bile I think. There was Pervasive Bodyguard which is good, but not great. I decided to send a signal to the left that I was not playing Warlord so I took the Bodyguard. Charlie on my right passed me a Pluck. I proceded to draft an almost mono-Banker deck with trip-Union Leaders and other fat, but with poor removal. It was not that I had no removal (Abductress, Poaching, Ambuscade, Carnival King, Pettifogger) just none of it was targeted. I had a late Napiform from the first pack and was open to picking up some more. Early in pack 3, I let a Downsizing go I don't recall for what, but there were 3-4 quality picks in the pack. Late in the third pack I could have snaped up a Forget and splash the Napiform and the Forget. I probably should have gone for 3 trade.
I went into the draft determined to draft removal, but apparently not determined enough. I also saw 2 Runic Cannons in pack 2 or 3. Also somewhere in the middle I saw Subversion Matrix. According to Steve I my left, I also passed a fair number of early Jaque's Trap which I don't doubt, but I don't remember. Trap is a solid card, but my early picks which with the exception of Pluck were all Banker fatties were fine; and in play with bigger fatter dudes I never found myself needing a trap. In fact I found myself facing down ambuscade and other defensive cards. I did not need traps; I just needed some spot removal.
Round 1 - Charlie from my right
Charlie was playing Warlord - Gearsmith. We did a lot of staring at each other while I drew cards and he put random tokens on his Runic Cannon. We almost went to time and at the end I was beating down with a couple fat Union Leaders
me 1-0
Round 2 - Steve
Steve came out with turn 1 Warrior Prodigy + Oversoon Lightfoot. Fortunately I had Blanching Butcher. Steve proceded to break his men against my butcher. I played a Union Leader or two and concealed goon and it was over quick.
me 2-0
Round 3 - Brian Kowal
BK is on the play with turn 1 Bulldozer. Bk turn 2 Dragon Quarters. I played a turn 2 Mafia Lawyer. Brian plays turn 3 Rabid Sarume for the beatdown and to pump quarters. I play Resurrection Technician for a blocker. He attacks with bulldozer and Sarume as a team. I chump with Technician. Next turn he attacks again. I let him assign the damage to my faction and Shocking Reappearance my Technician back into play to nail the Sarume. I have the next couple of turns a bit jumbled. I play Union Leader and attack with Mafia Lawyer holding back Tech and Leader for defense. He use Dragon Quarters and Target Practice to kill my tech. Taps down my Leader and swings with double Dragon Juice bringing me to one. I played Pervasive Bodyguard and did some more conservative beating down. This went on for a turn or two. It was clear that BK was digging for a way to kill me. I knew he had at least a Siege Machine. His life total was getting in my range and I felt I needed to go for it. I was looking for the kill. I drew and found Pluck with 7 resources available. I may have been able to kill him without it, but Pluck for Sarume killing Bulldozer made it easy. I had enough guys to do about 5+ over his life total and bulldozer was his only dude.
I flipped the next card off the top of his library and it was Bask Bile.
me 3-0
Round 4 - David Heinenmann
We were the only 2 undefeated so David was feeling good since I was Q'ed. He was pretty much a lock for the Q. I was concerned about the matchup because he was playing Rogue-Aracanist with heavy removal. Even though I was concerned, I had no idea how bad the matchup was for me.
We both draw a bunch and play a bunch of resources. He is not playing close attention and I get ahead. At one point, he let me slip ahead 10 - 7 in resources but it did not matter(he acknowledged later that he did not notice how far ahead I had gotten and would not have let me had he noticed). He played Heist Planner for Pluck, Shocking Reappearance, Ressurection Technician. I had 3 more Ressurection Techs in my hand, but he had no characters in his discard. I could have picked it up, but I decided to not squander a tech because he had forget and other discard in his deck. Next turn he Catastrophics picking up Pluck. I was pretty sure I was screwed, but had I seen his hand I would have known the game was totally over. He beatdown pretty quickly as I fought the hopeless battle of keeping guys out of my discard. We looked at his deck afterward. He had something on the order of 12 removal. It was really sick. He only had one Cat Betrayal and one Heist Planner, so if we played a lot he was unlike to dominate me in the same way, but I would guess that he had the matchup 75%+ of the time.
me 3-1
Round 5 - Tim Boland
I beat Tim the week prior and he was not too happy to play me. My memory of this game is a bit fuzzy. He played first turn Bulldozer. He had other beats and couple of Flaming Barduse. My life total was in the midteens and I started to get worried about Strength in Numbers. I killed his Bulldozer with Executive Poaching to try to minimize his SiN potential. I stayed on defense for a couple of turns and built up fat beatdown with at least one Union Leader and he started chumping. I had some weak early pluck action picking up his weenies. At some point he killed pluck and the weenies with Shriever Attack; there was nothing on his side either. At the end of the game I had Union Leader, Face in the Crowd, and Ressurection Technician. He tried to stop the beating with Necromorph Bureaucrat and I had to explain to him that if I attacked with everything first thing on my turn there was no oppurtunity to deplete my guys.
me 4-1
I got second. David won at 4-1-1. His opponent wanted to draw into better prizes; I thought it was a little odd. I think he was 3-1. If he'd won, he would have been on tie breaks with David for the win. He was one of the kids from Deerfield. I guess the chances of him winning were small and even if he won, since David had me as a tie break.
The good news is that I got Pluck in the draft, so now I have 4 Plucks. And in my prizes, I got my 4th Heist Planner.
My next report will be the WCC coming up on Saturday 1/27.