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This article is actually the first in a 3-part series, starting with AoP Lakeland, leading right into the GCC. January has been a pretty busy month for UFS players. When we got word that the Greater Tampa area was approved for its own AoP, there was almost riots in the streets. Our AoP, however, would be right before the GCC, the first major block 2 event, and a team event at that. The Lakeland/Tampa AoP would be Block 1, and my last chance to redeem myself at a block 1 event after a lackluster performance at the last AoP I attended in Orlando. Still, that left me and the rest of my guys with 3 formats to prepare for, not a light undertaking by any means. With these goals in mind, I set out to ensure the most solid performance of my young UFS career.
10:00 PM 3 weeks until the AoP
Somewhere in Tampa... My cell phone rings, displaying some 239 number I didn't recognize. "Hello?"
"Hello, CJ?"
"Yes?"
"This is Chris Kovaz, Scubadude."
"Oh, hey, what's up?"
"Are you ready for the AoP?" At the time I was shuffling up my near-finished version of the Astaroth deck I was 100% sure to be playing in the AoP. "No."
"Well, do you know what's going to be out there?"
"Uh, yeah...not really..." My wall actually had a corkboard with a Promo Morrigan tacked on to it and a bulls-eye painted in red over top of it. As soon as I got off the phone with Scuba I threw a dart at it-and missed, which I interpreted as a sure sign that I needed more training. Honestly my team was more interested in Block 2 practice, because they felt comfortable with "Old Block 1." I knew I would be playing Evil, because it's hard to control and has many control elements of its own. I wanted Astaroth for his built-in protection from damage pump and multiples, ie: from aggro, plus his incredibly explosive aggro potential + life gaining potential. His two abilities do so much, and I can use that kind of versatility. 9:00 PM 1 Week until the AoP
Somewhere in Tampa Scuba calls again...
"Man, we did awesome in New York, CJ. Our team had my Morrigan, Super Rare Dhalsim and CC Hax Cervantes."
I quickly broke out a notepad and jotted down: Morrigan, Dhalsim, CC Hax Cervantes. "So, do you know what you're playing yet?"
"Uh, not really. Perhaps, it's too soon to tell."
"But the AoP is this Sunday!"
"Yeah... I know, I should probably get on that..." I was as ready as I was going to be. My decklist was set, all I needed was to perfect my playstyle. Astaroth's commit cost is expensive, and I needed to be sure that I was using it correctly, or I was going to lose. My teammate had wizened up to my antics weeks earlier and were resorting to all kinds of tactics to bait me out, such as enhancing a Chain Throw with 2x Way of the Mightiest to get me to use Astaroth's enhance to gain life, only to throw another Chain Throw out with 2x Absurd Strength attached. Good players would use this tactic at the AoP, it would be best if I adjusted now. The Lakeland AoP The Lakeland AoP actually took place in Orlando, which is a short hop outside of Tampa. The venue was the Colisseum of Comics, and the event was run by none other that Edward Uvanni, or E.T. as my playgroup affectionately refers to him. I essentially packed the same deck I played at the last AoP I attended in Orlando, as I felt I had bungled that one terribly, but the deck was top-notch. Right before the tournament, however, I was getting the notion that my offense was too slow. Had I heeded those warnings, I might be reporting back with a top 8 under my belt. ::Astaroth:: 4 Chain Throw
4 Bludgeoning Crush
4 Killing Bite 12 Attacks 4 Absurd Strength
4 Chinese Sword Style 8 Actions 4 Higher Caliber
4 Pieces of Eight
4 Brethren of the Coast
4 Made not Born
4 Impetuous
4 Born to Hunt
4 Shinobi Tradition
4 The Way of the Mightiest
4 Constant Training
4 False Pretenses
4 Lost Memories 44 Foundations 3 Armored Defense
3 Tendon Strength
2 Infiltrating 8 Cards Sideboard At first glance everything fits the top-tier profile, except maybe Bludgeoning Crush, which is arguably still a top-notch attack. The problem I encountered all night long at the AoP was that I simply wasn't drawing into attacks, and because of that I ended up with too many draws, despite an impeccable defense. It turns out actually, that this particular event tended to favor the old saying, " the best defense is a good offense," as you might see in my coverage that follows. Round 1 vs Kirk Kirkpatrick and Promo Chun-Li As I wait for my opponent to show up I shuffle up my deck, and prepare myself mentally for the day to come. I have to do well, regardless of who I have to beat to get to the top 8. This is MY tournament, I tell myself. I came here to win. So my opponent sits down and reveals none other than :::Chun-Li::: as his starting character. For a moment I have an internal "Are you serious?" moment, and then instantly get flashbacks to my last AoP and my crushing defeat at the hands of R. Mika. It wasn't going to happen again. Whatever happened, I was not going to underestimate my opponent. He wins the roll and leads off... With a foundation he can't legally play, because it doesn't share any symbols. Before anything can happen, however, E.T. marches into the room and tells everyone to stop playing. Apparently pairings were posted, but Chris Barber was somehow left out, and the tournament needed to start again. There would be a re-pairing and everything. CURSES!!! "This is the kind of stuff that messes up your whole day," says Tristan as he edges up to me. "I was having a really good game..." I was as well, but I told him, "Don't worry about it, everyone is affected equally by this change..." Round 1 again vs Chris Kovaz a.k.a. Scubadude and Promo Morrigan And then the pairings are posted and I have to fight scubadude. Yay for restarts. Chris and I are seated at table 12, at the end, far from everyone I'm familiar with. As we sit across from each other, I could almost hear a gong in the background as we took out our stuff. I look down at Astaroth and have another internal moment. "This is it, buddy. This is culmination of our destiny. If we win this match, we win the tournament today. Simple as that." Kovaz wins the roll and off we go after exchanging friendly assurances. The game goes long, we jockey back and forth with Yogas, and Impetuous, and Red Gi's, and the last turn saw us both barely into double digit vitality. I throw a Chain Throw out for the win, but I flip a 2, which makes me commit my entire staging area, except for the Higher Caliber I wanted to hold back for his Yoga Mastery. I play Absurd Strength, it resolves. We pass enhances and I walk right into a nasty Reversal. I hadn't counted on him playing the Stun 2 of my own attack, thus forcing me to commit my Higher Caliber, an error I attribute to not having enough practice against Reversal. His Yoga negates my Astaroth enhance to eat his reversal and I of course fail to block it for the game loss. Ouch. I side in my Infiltratings and Armored Defenses for the second game and we begin with 25 minutes left in the round. I doubted we could finish on time, but I had to go for it. At least for a draw. I get set up with Armored Defense, and plenty of Enhance negation, at which point Chris plays his first Start Over. Ouch again. I didn't count on those at all, and he gets set up with a near-perfect defense. Fortunately for me, however, is the fact that Chris' offense is very lacking. He throws Mark of the Beasts at me but I block them fully each time. It buys me the time to set up 2 foundations, bait his Seal of Cessation and then Infiltrate his board. Chris was not happy then. For the first time in the match, I had a decided advantage, and he is so slow to rebuild that it seems the game is mine. I only draw two attacks, which connect in a big way for the next 7 turns... Chris is at 9, and I have him on a plate for 7 turns, and I couldn't finish him. Time is called, and I scoop up.  .
Round 2 vs. Moe Mount and Promo Adon
I actually play against Promo Adon a lot, actually. The fire version, anyway, that's why when Moe brought out his Earth version, I was a bit shaken and unsure of what to do. I actually win the roll and go first. I play out 2 foundations and pass the turn. Moe opens up with Chain Throw + Absurd Strength x 2. Of course, I fail the block, flipping a Bludgeoning Crush, and begin the second turn of the game at a nice, hearty 12 vitality. My defenses get a chance to set up as he plays foundations his second turn, and I stave off any number of his attacks, taking 1 here, 2 there, while not drawing any attacks of my own. I hit Moe once, lowering him to 17 Vitality, before his onslaught bled me to death 1 and 2 points at a time. Game 2, I go first and the game starts out much the same way. I play 2 foundations, failing a third. And Moe opens with his signature, Chain Throw + 2 Absurd Strengths. OF COURSE, I fail the block. Yay for 12 vitality. The ending is exactly the same as well. I lose this game 1 and 2 points at a time after an insane opening. Round 3 vs. Kirk Kirkpatrick (for real this time) I felt an odd sense of irony after having practiced so hard for so long only to fail so miserably. When I read the pairings for this round, I knew I still had a chance to make it into the top 8 with a 3-2 finish, but it was a long shot, and not very likely. I read Promo Chun-Li, again, just to be sure what she did, before deciding that he would never, ever get to use that ability on me. Have fun with Universal Fighter, pal. Yes, I was miffed. I came here to prove myself, and ended up lining the bottom of the barrel. I rolled over Kirkpatrick with little remorse, determined to get my spot in the top 8. Round 4 vs. Promo Tira I apologize for forgetting to take your name, Tira player, the match was truly exciting, so you can write me and I'll edit you in. The two of us were in the same boat, facing elimination, our backs to the wall. We shuffled up and started. Game 1 passed so quickly it barely registered. I caught him with a Killing Bite for the last cards in his hand and hit him with a Chain Throw so big the table cracked. Game 2 lasted 30 minutes. I set up, he played Infiltrating. He set up, I played Infiltrating. He played Infiltrating again. So I Infiltrated his Infiltrating, and he Infiltrates me again. And then he does it once more for good measure, for a total of 7 Infiltratings, and no attacks on my part. He chips me to death. Game 3 went to time, but I have to tell you it wasn't looking good for me. I was rushing to try and eke out a win on time, and playing out my hand in order to draw into attacks to crush the little Promo Tira, but I kept drawing none, and he drew all of his. Time was called with me at 3 and Tira at 20. Oh well. There was no round 5 for me. I was paired up against my friend Brandon Bravo, and the two of us decided it would be best if we called it a draw and went out for some food, as there was no break, because the tournament started later to accommodate the Cape Coral players. Leaving me with the underwhelming final standing of 1-2-2. My miseries, however, were quickly drowned out by the success of my teammates. 5 Tampa players made the top 8 cut: Josh Kell with Promo K', Alex Costa with Jean Claude Van Damme, Harold Ellis with Rare Ibuki, and Aulden Lloyd with Promo Alex. I was quickly smiling again as I rejoiced, particularly with Aulden, who is the one I practice with the most. The Top 8 So the top 8 looked like this: Promo Morrigan
Promo Nakoruru
Promo Alex
Battle Box .:::Ryu:::.
Rare Ibuki
Super Rare Jean Claude Van Damme
Promo K'
Promo Mr. Karate An interesting group to be sure. Promo Alex is continuing to demonstrate why he is the best promo to come along in a while, as old mainstay Nakoruru gets in her last shot in a block 1 tourney as the standard format. For those of you wondering, I will keep you in suspense no longer. I present to you, Jean Claude Van Damme, and the man behind the nonsense, Alex Costa. SR Guile by Alex Costa
 4 Moonbeam Slicer
4 Double Somersault Kick
4 Burning Knuckle 12 Attacks 4 The Ruler of Southtown
4 Order and Law
4 The Curse Broken
4 Whereabouts Unknown
4 Megalomania
4 Rat Chaser
4 Military Rank
4 Fight for the Future
3 Cursed Blood
3 Buddhist Devotion
3 Won't Settle for Second Best 41 Foundations 4 Dog Tags
2 Seal of Cessation 6 Assets 3 You Will Not Escape
2 Dark Heart
2 Start Over
7 Actions The goal of the deck is simple, establish Ruler of Southtown for any given number, and it can really be any number, as Guile doesn't care if you're flipping 0's or 6's. In fact Alex, prefers to set up RoS for 6, as it allows him to play any number of cards he wants with little to no cost to him. Far from bringing the game to a crawl as many RoS decks do, Guile only allows his opponents to play 1 card per turn, a lock he uses to quickly lay his opponents low. The lock should be well known to anyone who has been following tournament UFS metas. Alex's personal touches include Burning Knuckle, which under optimal conditions burns opponents for 6 under RoS, and Double Somersault Kick, which is a valuable utility piece for grabbing anything from Seal of Cessation to extra Ruler of Southtowns should the situation require it. Finally Dark Heart + Order and Law = Lols @ your opponent. I was determined to watch Alex play his first match in the top 8, and what a match it was! My notes were filled with exclamation points, and if I were announcing this, or narrating the match, I'm sure I would have been yelling. It was nothing short of thrilling. Game 1, Alex wins the roll and leads off with Dog Tags. He's quick to establish Ruler of Southtown for 6 tokens. Tristan throws the first punch with a Jumping Shotei, which Alex block with a Burning Knuckle, burning Tristan for 6 thanks to Ruler of Southtown before reversing with Double Somersault Kick, multiplied one time. He uses the Guile E: to grab a Seal of Cessation to protect himself from Tristan's Ring Veterans, as well as another Ruler of Southtown. On his turn, Alex forms up with the ruler, plays out his whole hand of foundations, and ends with a Start Over so dramatic that I almost fell backwards out of my chair. Gone are all of Tristan's Ring Veterans, as well as his Yogas and, well, pretty much a copy of every foundation in his deck. To top it all off, Ruler of Southown is still in effect for 6. Tristen will only be able to play one card a turn for the rest of the game! Tristan looks at his hand, shrugs, and plays Seichu Nidan Tsuki, fully multiplied while Alex has no hand! Talk about drama! Alex responds with Guile to make that Tristan's only card, and uses his Dog Tags to reduce his damage taken to 12. Alex draws a new hand and passes. Tristan plays ANOTHER fully multiplied Seichu on his turn, this time, it's for fatal, which means Alex cannot respond with Guile, or he loses the game. Instead, Alex blocks with Burning Knuckle, burning Tristan for 6 again, and then Alex responds with a fully multiplied double somersault kick of his own! Tristan has no foundations, and no hope of blocking! Alex wins the game with fatal damage still waiting to resolve on Tristan's side of the board! Game 2, Tristan leads off with Ring Veteran and two Lost Memories. A nice answer to Ruler of Southtown if there ever was one. Tristan throws the first punch again, with a Ryu's Shoryuken Extra, against Alex's last card. Alex fully blocks, which prompts Tristan to play a Seichu fully multiplied, making Alex take the full 18. 8 turns go by, no Ruler of Southtown lock anywhere to be seen. Meanwhile, Tristan is chipping away at Alex with almost no consequence, as Alex has yet to mount an offense in the second game. The final turn of the game, Tristan throws out yet another Seichu, mulitplies it fully, meeting a Burning Knuckle from Alex into another Double Somersault Kick. Alex responds with Megalomania x 3 to fully commit Tristan's board, before blocking the rest of the multiples. Alex is at 3, and Tristan is fully committed and still has the Breaker 1 in effect against him. Tristan plays a Jumping Shotei at 6 difficultly, FLIPS A 6!! And rides it to victory!! It all came down to the last game. Alex leads off with Whereabouts Unknown, and 2 Ruler of Southtowns. When Alex tries to set RoS for 0 Tristan responds with Lost Memories to negate it. Alex plays out an Order and Law and passes the turn. When he activates Order and Law on Tristan's turn, Alex responds with Dark Heart to keep Tristan from getting ANY cards and proceeds to grab 3 Moonbeam Slicers and a Double Somersault Kick. There is a big WOW here in my notes... Tristan responds with Vast Resources and Ratchasers on his turn to draw massive cards of his own. He lays down Ring Veteran to lock up Alex's Ruler of Southtown before he can form up with it. The game continues locked up in Tristan's favor as he plays a Seichu, which Alex activates Order and Law again, and Dark Hearts AGAIN! For more Moonbeam Slicers, as his last set was blocked. Alex takes some damage from the Seichu, as Tristan continues to spam foundations right into an 8th Bill of Punishment!! Fortunately for Alex, he Dog Tags it to zero. Right around turn 16 Alex finally manages to set up RoS lock with enough SoCs being looped through Miltitary Rank to ensure that the lock will continue. Time is called on Tristan's turn, with Alex at 28, and Tristan at 24. Tristan had already played a Vast Resources, to which Alex responded with You Will Not Escape. With the game on the line, Tristan plays a Bo Rush, with Ruler set to 6. Alex is holding a Burning Knuckle and a Double Somersault Kick. Alex does NOT block the original Bo Rush with Burning Knuckle in order to fully block it, and prevent Tristan from drawing any cards, but he does reverse with Double Somersault, multiple 2. Tristan negates the multiple with Constant Training, which Alex overlooked, and fully blocks the lone DSK. Alex proceeds to fully block all the multiples, except the last one. Tristan asks if he would like to block it, Alex says no, because he would still win by 1, to which Tristan responds with Merciless x 2 for the game!! What a match! With that exciting match down in my notes, and a round of single elimination past us, the top 4 left us with: Ryu vs Morrigan
K' vs Mr. Karate I decided I would sit down to watch K' vs Mr. Karate, as K' somehow managed to blaze right through Nakoruru and smoke a cigarette like he had a bye for the first round of top 8. On top of that, whispers and rumors of an insane Mr. Karate deck had been reaching my ears for the last 3 or 4 rounds. "It's an actual Mr. Karate deck," said Efrain to me somewhere in the middle rounds of the tournament. "It's not just ‘Overhand Throw, Overhand Throw, done, your turn.' It's an actual deck, and it's ridiculous." So, I was determined to watch this match between these two most unlikely competitors. The pilots of the deck were Josh Kell, with Promo K', and Kristian Streeter, henceforth known as "Mr. Ridiculous," with his trademark Mr. Karate deck also known as "the Streeter Beater." Game 1, Kris wins the roll and leads off with a foundation. Josh responds with Hop for two momentum. Kris flips a 3 for his next foundation, which K' drives right down to 0 for end of turn. Josh spams foundations, including Whereabouts Unknown, and passes the turn. Streeter starts his second turn with an All FoP, only to run into a You Will Not Escape from Josh. Streeter goes for a Flying Cross Chop, flips 3, and K' runs it into the ground, AGAIN. The opening turns didn't look so bright for the eventual champion at all. Josh spams foundations again in his next turn, including a second Whereabouts, and a Seal of Cessation, before passing his turn. Kris finally gets some breathing room with K' at no momentum and gets a chance to set up with 2 attacks, in which K' manages a whereabouts activation, which hit, and 4 foundations, one of which is the ever impressive Defender of the Empire another of which is Mortal Strike. Josh realizes that this match is quickly slipping from his grasp and decides to go for the kill. Streeter responds with Mortal Strike at the beginning of Josh's turn, which Josh has no choice but to negate with the Seal, prompting Streeter to commit Josh's Soul Power with his Curse Broken. Josh slumps and thinks for a moment, and plays Tsunami Sabre, powerful'ed up to 33 Damage, leaving one momentum for K' to try and make Streeter wiff the block. Unfortunately for Kell, luck was not on his side, as Streeter goes for the block and flips a Yoga Mastery, leaving the Sabre fully blocked. Streeter takes his next turn and plays 3 attacks for 8+ damage, catching K' without any blocks for the win. Game 2, Josh leads off with a Seal of Cessation, and 3 foundations, including Whereabouts. Kristian plays some foundations, and promptly loses the game as Josh readies his character and drops a Tsunami Saber for 29 the NEXT TURN. Oh well, at least it was easy on my notes. Game 3 starts out in the usual manner, except that K's first turn was 3 Seal of Cessations, and NO foundations. Surprising to say the least. Streeter quickly sets himself up in the position to abuse Defender, while Josh Hops his way into 4 momentum. The game drags on a bit for about 10 more turns, with no Whereabouts, no Soul Power, and certainly not a single Sentient Appliance from K'. Eventually Josh sticks an Unorthodox Style, which he uses to fish out a Whereabouts, with Soul Power next in line. Streeter sees the opportunity with a couple of Curse Brokens on his side of the board and baits Josh into using one of his Seals on a You Will Not Escape, causing Streeter to lock down the rest of K's Seals and a foundation on his board. The next turn, Mr. Ridiculous earns his name with a Dark/Empire-fueled attack chain that would make Hugo crumble. Streeter wins this one 2-1. And so we move on to the finals, or so we would, but apparently there seemed to be some controversy at the end of the Morrigan vs Ryu game. Kovaz was apparently mischaining his cards, and Tristan was calling for a penalty. Level 3 Judge Tagrineth happened to be on hand, as well as the event coordinator E.T., but both of them seemed to be baffled at this turn of events. "There really is no penalty for this kind of thing," says E.T. "All we have are the Tournament Rules and they don't cover this at all."
"Burn the card," says Tag, "Place it into your discard pile and continue the turn."
Many in attendance began to vilify Tristan for calling for a penalty. It seems like he was looking for a game loss from the judges, something that would have drastically changed the outcome of the match.
"This is the semi-finals," Tristan said, "He should know how his cards chain... I can't believe they're letting him get away with this."
"I think if it happens again," Tag says, "we'll have to force your turn to end, but there's no way we can justify a game loss or a DQ." If I may, I'd like to comment on just how sloppy this whole situation was. Apparently, Kovaz mischained not once, but twice during that final game. Tristan went along just fine with "burning the card" during the first incident, but on the second he wanted some kind of penalty imposed. I believe he had every right to ask for a penalty as this was the semi-finals, and a lot was at stake. Add to this that Kovaz's deck is well-known for being a multi-symbol deck, and HE of all people should know his resource interactions. However, I also have to agree with Tag and E.T. that there is no precedent for this sort of thing, and any move they make to penalize Kovaz could have led to serious controversy if it cost him the match. There was really nothing anyone could officially do, which made it a particularly nasty situation. I think Tag and E.T. did the best they could to rule the game fairly, but it left Tristan sore as the match came to a close on a bad note. Tristan walked away from the table without shaking Scuba's hand, even though we tried to talk him out of it. If any of you STG guys are reading this, I would hope you guys take this situation to heart and make a move to end scenes like these that could pop up in the future. It feels like crap telling both players "I know what you're saying, but there's nothing we can do." After the commotion settled, the finals was to take place between top 8 mainstay Chris Kovaz and his friend Kristian Streeter. Before they sat down, I managed to get in a few words with Kristian who was nothing but smiles heading into the big event. CJ - Why Mr. Karate?
Streeter - I was bored. I just made it last night before coming here.
CJ - Wow. I see it did pretty well for you. What do you think makes it so effective?
Streeter - Definitely the free damage pump. That thing beats face.
CJ - Do you have any particularly bad matchups?
Streeter - My friend's Promo Gill Mill deck. I have no answers for it whatsoever.
CJ- Would you play this deck again?
Streeter- Definitely, except with more answers for control.
CJ - What do you think of your matchup against Kovaz's Morrigan?
Streeter - I played him last night and beat him 6-2. I can take him.
CJ - Sounds excellent. I just have one more question: Can I call you Mr. Ridiculous, and your deck the Streeter Beater?
Streeter- (laughs) Sure. Awesome. So the final two sit across from each other. "Do you want to split prize and go home?" Kovaz offers Streeter.
"No. Let's go." The confidence in this kid was blowing the lid off the building. Streeter was definitely earning my respect by the minute. That said, Morrigan wins the roll and leads off with Defender of the Empire. Next turn Chris manages to dump two attacks into a handless Streeter, leaving the score 29-19 in Kovaz's favor. Streeter plays his first attack, an Overhand Throw for 9 damage at Morrigan, which meets up with the business end of a Reversal. Streeter is hurting for sure. Next turn, Scuba plays a Start Over and ends the turn with Defender and Lost Memories on his side of the board. Mr. Ridiculous recovers with a Defender of his own, a Vast Resources and a Heisheng Jiang (pronounced Shing Zhang, in case you were wondering). Kovaz slumps. All the Lost Memories in the world are useless against that amazing asset. Streeter seizes the initiative and attacks with a second Overhand Throw and meets up with yet another Reversal. "It burns like the dickens!" announced Streeter. Streeter draws more attacks and runs into a Chief Hold, and another, and then a third. Morrigan's defenses were holding up quite well. In the end, Kovaz draws Chain Throw+Absurd Strength, and has enough Red Gi's out to nullify Streeter's entire hand to net him game 1. In between games we see some serious sideboard action. I would bet everything I own that Chris was siding in his Happy Holidays, but I had no idea what Streeter had up his sleeve. As it turns out, it was pretty good. Streeter leads of with 3 foundations, and passes to Chris, who plays Red Gi only to run right into a You will not Escape. "Ooooooo..."
"Yeah, CJ, he got me, shut up," says Kovaz.
Laughs were had by all. I happened to be sitting right next to Scuba, and saw that his hand was nothing but green cards. Streeter lands a couple of attacks, and then plays some foundations, meanwhile Kovaz got to remove 2 of Streeter's YWNE from the game with the Morrigan E. Kovaz leads of his second turn with a Penny Arcade, only to get nailed by ANOTHER YWNE!! I "oooo'd" silently the second time. Streeter's sideboard against Kovaz was a stroke of brilliance and a Godsend in this game. Morrigan takes 2 more attacks, before Kovaz goes to play his first foundation of the match, a Yoga Mastery, and flips a Reversal! This match was not meant to be won by Kovaz at all. The next few turns are academic for Streeter. Slash Elbow for 9. Hiesheng Jiang for 7. Game. Streeter put himself in the perfect position to abuse Kovaz's bad luck, and abuse it he did. Going into game 3, I noticed a nervous sweat beading up on Kovaz's forehead. Going into game 3, anything could happen. However, as much as I would like to give you an awesome conclusion to this epic match, the game went to time, and was decided on a technicality. Kovaz had to block Streeter's attacks, or he would lose for taking more damage, but Streeter had activated False Pretenses twice, which meant if Kovaz blocked, Streeter would gain 4 life each time. Streeter attacked 3 times, and Kovaz had to block, leaving Streeter at full health, with Morrigan at 20, when time was called. Kristian Streeter, the underdog of the match, pulled off what is quite possibly one of the biggest upsets thus far in this game! Congratulations to both players, you guys are both awesome, but today was definitely Streeter's day. On top of a complete set of Assets of Power, he also won a box of Higher Caliber to boot! Way to go, Streeter! Deck Spotlight - The Streeter Beater Because there was so much action in the last two weeks, it has left me a bit shorthanded. I'm just one guy trying to analyze a mountain of decks and data in order to present them to you, the reader, in an attempt to bring the UFS metagame to a national level here in the United States. So, in order to make up for my handicap, I decided I would cover at least one deck in each segment of the UFS Epic for each part. Here is the Street Beater, featuring Mr. Karate in all its glory. The Street Beater by Kristian Streeter
.Mr Karate. Overhand Throw x 4
Flying Cross Chop x 4
Slash Elbow x 4
Heisheng Jian x 4 16 Attacks Mortal Strike x 4
Leave at Dawn x 4
False Pretenses x 4
Contemplation of Existence x 4
E.S.P. x 4
Headstrong x 4
Evil Shunned x 4
The Curse Broken x 4
Yoga Mastery x 3
Vast Resources x 3
Defender of the Empire x 3
Dark Hado x 3 44 Foundations .Demuth.
...Alex... 2 Characters 4 You will not Escape
4 Impetuous 8 Cards sideboard I listed Heisheng Jian as an attack because more often than not it was coming at Streeter's opponents as a 2 low for 7, which is actually ridiculous, considering that that's just one of the many attacks being played that turn. Overhand Throw and Flying Cross Chop with their built-in damage pump just go insane with Mr. Karate's ability. You'll also notice Dark/Empire hanging out in the list, because you're going to want to block a Flying Cross Chop coming at you for 10+ which is more than likely going to have you staving off more attacks before the turn is over. One of the more ingenious tactics is the inclusion of Contemplation of Existence, which gives both characters +1 handsize, which really hurts the opponent because it also gives Mr. Karate +1 damage and + 1 cards in hand to throw at you. This deck seriously beats face. I knew from the second I saw it that I would have to try it out, and that I did at the GCC singles event. But that, is another story. To be continued...
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