FloozyBoozy
03-24-2007, 03:58 PM
Well, now that my midterms are out of the way I thought this would be a good time to try and resume my trio of tournament reports and write my account of NY Comicon. My roommate Craig Edwards and I both flew up a day or two prior from sunny Tampa, Florida into the twenty degree New York weather. I was just getting over the flu, and since my idea of a cold snap after living in Florida for so long was when it was 70 degrees instead of 80, it was pretty rough to actually see snow on the ground. One of Craig’s Versus teammates, Eric Hunter, lived in Long Island at the college there so we ended up staying with him and just taking the train in to New York proper each day for the convention. Eric had never played Spoils, but is a skilled Versus pro and took to it quickly. We all played in a number of events, and while this report will be from my perspective, they’ll be in it too. Also, as a disclaimer my memory for limited games is terrible. They tend to blend together in my head, except for unusual game events, so my description of my limited games may be lacking. Constructed is easier to remember.
Friday:
Friday was a bit of a warm up; a Sealed deck tourney where all players going 4-0 received I pods. As there were not that many people, only one player could make 4-0. I opened up my sealed pool excitedly, hoping to get a good idea of the competition and how I’d do in tomorrow’s 5K…sadly, my pool was lacking. I had a number of cheap, efficient creatures which was a plus. However, I didn’t have a single piece of removal, nor a covert creature, nor any large, game-changing bombs. If my initial creatures were trumped, I had no way to remove a larger creature or to really push damage through.
Round 1, I don’t remember
Sadly, I played so many games this weekend that I can’t remember the first. I won it without too much difficulty, but I’m not sure why.
1-0
Round 2, Jason Osion
I had seen a few posts on the forums where people had spoken of Jason as a very skilled player. He played this game well, but was not able to stop the rush of small creatures. Again, most of the details of this game escape me, sorry. He seemed a little surprised by the loss, and asked to play again. He trounced me in the second game, as I think he played an Arena Quarter Finalist that I had absolutely no answers for.
2-0
Round 3 and 4
To make a short report shorter…I lost in the third round to a much stronger deck. I believe I was crushed by Rudo Mangod and another bomb, but after the loss I was out of the running. I played the fourth round anyways, but lost again to a stronger deck. My final standings were a poor 2/2. Not a good start to the weekend. Eric and Craig managed to go 3-1, and each received 1Gig flash drives for it.
Saturday:
This was the big event, I was excited but after my performance the day prior a little nervous as well. I waited to see my pool…and received a nearly identical bunch of cards. It even had the same rares, a Lugubrious Node, Invent, Humiliating Torture Apparatus, Land Shark and Lugubrian Octopod; the day prior I’d received four of the five, switching only the Invent for a Gigamajig. It was a little stronger then the day prior though, I had one piece of removal in Braumian Jewelry, a bounce spell in Quotidian Assassination and a covert Ominous Oozling. I also had a large Rogue character, a Dock Sentinel I believe. Again, I had few answers if my opponent played something too strong to stop with my weenie creatures. The strength of the pool was in its cheap and efficient creatures, so I built to take some advantage of that and hoped for good games.
Round 1, Unsure of name
The early part of this game was a creature battle, though I had more creatures. I was at 17 life when I assumed control of the board, killing all his creatures in combat except for an unblockable Face in the Crowd. He attacked me to 13, laying a small blocker. On my turn I swung in with 5 or 6 characters, taking him to 2 life. He didn’t have many resources, was well out of range of Downsizing, and I felt comfortable. He attacked me to 9 life and passed. I now had 8 creatures, well out of the range of any removal he could play with 6 resources. I attacked with the first of my creatures, he Limited Liability'ed to fog the turn. He untapped, attacked with Face in the Crowd to get me to 5, and played Bask Bile from hand to finish me off. Fog/Burned out…not a good start. With a round one loss I needed to go undefeated in the rest of the rounds to make top 8. Not something I felt comfortable relying on with a deck like the one I had.
0-1
Round 2, Arzakon, King of Open Beta on the forums, though I can’t recall his real name.
He sat down and offered to concede, as he had also lost his first round and thought he had a poor deck and poor shot to top 8. He wanted to play in the tournament for a Playstation 3 that was starting at the end of this round. I shrugged and told him I may drop to play in that tourney too, I wanted to play a little to see if my deck was any good. We both came out a little slow. He managed to do a little damage to me on the turns I didn’t have blockers from attacking him, but his creatures were inferior to mine in combat. He had a Swarm of Gnats and three 1/1’s. My hand was good; I had a Remember to return the Quotidian Assassination in my bin, and an Ominous Oozling. I tapped out to play Oozling, hoping to finish him in two turns. He untapped, attacked with his four creatures and played Strength in Numbers…doing 21 damage with me at 18. Lol, another great game, though arguably I should not have tapped out. Not laying another attacker would have extended the game at least 4 turns however, so I’m not sure if it was an error. He offered to concede to me if I’d give him $25 of the larger prize money. Due to the 30 person tourney and payout to top 32, we were guaranteed at least $50. Top 16 got $100, even if you didn’t make top 8. His offer was for $25 of the extra $50 for top 16. I turned it down however, as I didn’t like my odds and was hoping for a fresh tourney and a Playstation 3. This was the end of the 5K for me. Craig did well, ending up placing 3rd I believe. Eric had a winning record but did not top 8.
0-2 Drop
I quickly signed up for the next tourney, hoping to do better. My pool from this one was totally different. It was strong. I had a Quotidian Assassination, 3 Raging Basks, a fair share of removal and some decent creatures. There were two Hidden Snipers, a Flaming Barduse and a Nalpiform Protuberance I can remember about, and maybe some others as well. I had Strength in Numbers as a finisher. I was stoked, a PS3 was a pretty awesome prize to win and the tourney was small. It was 4 rounds, cutting to a top four I believe. However since this report is so long, I had to split it up. The next part in in Tale of Three Tourneys Part 4.
Conrad Jackson
Friday:
Friday was a bit of a warm up; a Sealed deck tourney where all players going 4-0 received I pods. As there were not that many people, only one player could make 4-0. I opened up my sealed pool excitedly, hoping to get a good idea of the competition and how I’d do in tomorrow’s 5K…sadly, my pool was lacking. I had a number of cheap, efficient creatures which was a plus. However, I didn’t have a single piece of removal, nor a covert creature, nor any large, game-changing bombs. If my initial creatures were trumped, I had no way to remove a larger creature or to really push damage through.
Round 1, I don’t remember
Sadly, I played so many games this weekend that I can’t remember the first. I won it without too much difficulty, but I’m not sure why.
1-0
Round 2, Jason Osion
I had seen a few posts on the forums where people had spoken of Jason as a very skilled player. He played this game well, but was not able to stop the rush of small creatures. Again, most of the details of this game escape me, sorry. He seemed a little surprised by the loss, and asked to play again. He trounced me in the second game, as I think he played an Arena Quarter Finalist that I had absolutely no answers for.
2-0
Round 3 and 4
To make a short report shorter…I lost in the third round to a much stronger deck. I believe I was crushed by Rudo Mangod and another bomb, but after the loss I was out of the running. I played the fourth round anyways, but lost again to a stronger deck. My final standings were a poor 2/2. Not a good start to the weekend. Eric and Craig managed to go 3-1, and each received 1Gig flash drives for it.
Saturday:
This was the big event, I was excited but after my performance the day prior a little nervous as well. I waited to see my pool…and received a nearly identical bunch of cards. It even had the same rares, a Lugubrious Node, Invent, Humiliating Torture Apparatus, Land Shark and Lugubrian Octopod; the day prior I’d received four of the five, switching only the Invent for a Gigamajig. It was a little stronger then the day prior though, I had one piece of removal in Braumian Jewelry, a bounce spell in Quotidian Assassination and a covert Ominous Oozling. I also had a large Rogue character, a Dock Sentinel I believe. Again, I had few answers if my opponent played something too strong to stop with my weenie creatures. The strength of the pool was in its cheap and efficient creatures, so I built to take some advantage of that and hoped for good games.
Round 1, Unsure of name
The early part of this game was a creature battle, though I had more creatures. I was at 17 life when I assumed control of the board, killing all his creatures in combat except for an unblockable Face in the Crowd. He attacked me to 13, laying a small blocker. On my turn I swung in with 5 or 6 characters, taking him to 2 life. He didn’t have many resources, was well out of range of Downsizing, and I felt comfortable. He attacked me to 9 life and passed. I now had 8 creatures, well out of the range of any removal he could play with 6 resources. I attacked with the first of my creatures, he Limited Liability'ed to fog the turn. He untapped, attacked with Face in the Crowd to get me to 5, and played Bask Bile from hand to finish me off. Fog/Burned out…not a good start. With a round one loss I needed to go undefeated in the rest of the rounds to make top 8. Not something I felt comfortable relying on with a deck like the one I had.
0-1
Round 2, Arzakon, King of Open Beta on the forums, though I can’t recall his real name.
He sat down and offered to concede, as he had also lost his first round and thought he had a poor deck and poor shot to top 8. He wanted to play in the tournament for a Playstation 3 that was starting at the end of this round. I shrugged and told him I may drop to play in that tourney too, I wanted to play a little to see if my deck was any good. We both came out a little slow. He managed to do a little damage to me on the turns I didn’t have blockers from attacking him, but his creatures were inferior to mine in combat. He had a Swarm of Gnats and three 1/1’s. My hand was good; I had a Remember to return the Quotidian Assassination in my bin, and an Ominous Oozling. I tapped out to play Oozling, hoping to finish him in two turns. He untapped, attacked with his four creatures and played Strength in Numbers…doing 21 damage with me at 18. Lol, another great game, though arguably I should not have tapped out. Not laying another attacker would have extended the game at least 4 turns however, so I’m not sure if it was an error. He offered to concede to me if I’d give him $25 of the larger prize money. Due to the 30 person tourney and payout to top 32, we were guaranteed at least $50. Top 16 got $100, even if you didn’t make top 8. His offer was for $25 of the extra $50 for top 16. I turned it down however, as I didn’t like my odds and was hoping for a fresh tourney and a Playstation 3. This was the end of the 5K for me. Craig did well, ending up placing 3rd I believe. Eric had a winning record but did not top 8.
0-2 Drop
I quickly signed up for the next tourney, hoping to do better. My pool from this one was totally different. It was strong. I had a Quotidian Assassination, 3 Raging Basks, a fair share of removal and some decent creatures. There were two Hidden Snipers, a Flaming Barduse and a Nalpiform Protuberance I can remember about, and maybe some others as well. I had Strength in Numbers as a finisher. I was stoked, a PS3 was a pretty awesome prize to win and the tourney was small. It was 4 rounds, cutting to a top four I believe. However since this report is so long, I had to split it up. The next part in in Tale of Three Tourneys Part 4.
Conrad Jackson