 With the Lakeland AoP behind me, and the GCC less than a week away, I finally turned my attention on the block 2 format. My teammates for day 1 were going to be Alex Costa, and my friend Steve Jones playing Dimitri and Promo Adon respectively. That plan, however was based on the fact that up until the AoP, I was simply going to run a block 2 update of Evil Astaroth for the GCC. "I'm switching decks," I told Alex over the phone. "I'm not playing Astaroth."
"What?!"
"Don't worry, I'll bring Astaroth along, but I'm building something else." The real question, would be: exactly what was that something else going to be? To be perfectly honest, I needed inspiration. I'd been playing that Astaroth deck for many months only to end up completely estranged with it. I looked to the top 8 of the Lakeland AoP for help, as well as some previous experience with a block 2 Necro deck I had played for GCC testing earlier.
Team Tampa was absolutely banking on discard being counted as dead. We hadn't heard anything about it on the forums, no one had made a top finish with a dedicated discard deck for months now, and that was exactly where I wanted to be for the GCC. As you'll find out later, Tampa wasn't the only who noticed the decline of maindeck discard hate. I knew I absolutely wanted to play Roam the World in block 2. That card is probably the best card in the game right now, and I wanted to be all over it. Initially, I tried it with Good, only to find there were no attacks I could run in-symbol. Void and Death suffered from similar problems... Unless your character card is Ryu, and you play Seichu Nidan Tsuki. I took this idea from the match I watched between Tristan and Alex in the top 8 of the Lakeland AoP. A Seichu in the the Ryu player's hands turns the rest of your hand into attacks. Toss in Killing Bites to take care of your opponent's hand, and randomly work up to 8th Bill shenanigans. It sounded like a suitable offense, and that was exactly what my decks had been lacking for months now. So I decided I would play block 2 Void. My teammate Alex wasn't too happy to hear about it. He had the same doubts about Void I had, after all, we test together, but we had a new problem-Steve Jones decided he wasn't coming to the GCC afterall, leaving us short one teammate. Fortunately, Tristan as of yet didn't have a team, so we ended up signing him on board Team Super Heroes in Training. That left me with this deck: :::Ryu:::
4 Killing Bite
4 Moonsault Slayer
3 Seichu Nidan Tsuki
3 8th Bill of Punishment
2 Ryu's Shoryuken Extra 16 Attacks 4 Vast Resources
4 Rat Chaser
4 Roam the World
4 Spiritual Center
4 Awakening
4 Constant Training
4 Mortal Strike
4 False Pretenses
3 Sealed Away
3 Born to Hunt
3 Tendon Strength 41 Foundations 4 Final Countdown
3 Chinese Sword Style 7 Actions 4 Red Gi 4 Assets 68+1 Cards Main 4 Pull of the Tides
2 Seal of Cessation
2 Infiltrating 8 Cards Sideboard
At the time, I was really proud of my Final Countdown tech, as most of the time, I would be playing it either after a Killing Bite, with my opponent with no cards in hand, or after a Moonsault Slayer, when I knew exactly what was in my opponent's hands. The meant I could destroy any foundation (I was particularly worried about Oral Dead and Pieces of Eight), or I could put the extra now-unique Red Gis in my hand to work destroying other assets. It was either Final Countdown or Blades of Fury for the job, and Final Countdown won out based on speed, but in hindsight, I think Blades of Fury would have been a better choice, as I think I only played Final Countdown 5 times the whole night (4 times successfully, 1 wiff). Moving on, looking at all the Void foundations spread out was actually quite impressive. I was starting to believe this deck had what it needed to beat anyone. Momentum control with Mortal Strike, Damage Redux with Awakening and Tendon Strength, Damage Pump protection with Spiritual Center. I always ended turns with a full hand thanks to Vast Resources and Rat Chaser. I even got to splash All for False Pretenses and Born to Hunt, which works well with Ryu's ability (a momentum ability that is immune to both Mortal Strike and Absurd Strength, since it doesn't use the combat phase). I was ready. The Gulf Coast Championship Day 1 It rains in Louisiana. A lot. Driving in at night with pouring rain was an experience to remember. Apparently Louisiana doesn't believe in reflective lane markings. Or highway lighting for that matter. The drive in was really more of a guessing game as to where the lane really was, and trying to stay there, while navigating strange roadways. Oh, and take my word for it, if you're in Louisiana don't stop at any Shells that double at truck stops, not even if you really have to pee. Actually don't stop especially if you really have to pee. Just hold it until you get to the hotel. So. We arrive at Gamers Haven at around 10 in the morning, and we're the first team on the scene. One of the store owners, Jeff sees us shivering on the sidewalk and lets us in, and the teams start to pour in by the minute. I actually got to meet several of them and would like to take this time to give a nod to: Team Biscuit from Memphis, Tenessee
Team Austin from Austin, Texas
Team Leeroy Bidoof from Mandeville, Louisiana
Team Jack's Friends from New York Special sympathies to Jack's Friends, who had several complications with their flight and even lost their luggage and had to do without them for most of the trip. After the friendly mingling and a bit of trading, we had to register our decks, something about the GCC I really liked, as it makes my job as a writer much easier. As I wrote my own list down I was already looking forward to perusing the lists for interesting decks to write about. As it turns out, I have plenty of decks to write about for about a month or so, stay tuned. Once the registration was complete, we were ready to play. My team consisted of my Ryu Void deck, Alex Costa and an updated version of his Sankuro built off of Evil and Fire, and Tristan Del Valle playing an impressive Promo Alex deck built off of All. Looking across at our team from the other side of the table, the first thing many noticed was the fact that our team was composed of monsters. I was the smallest in the group at 27 vitality! Round 1 vs Team Jack-5 Team Jack-5 actually had a pair of women in it, which is a first for me in UFS tournaments. I've actually never competed with women before and I was very curious to test them out and see what they had. They won the dice roll and revealed Rare Gen, Rare Yoshitora and Promo Lien. Their captain paired his Yoshitora against our Promo Alex, and I already knew we had that match won, as Tristan's could simply form up rather before his opponent could ever commit him. Next up when we got to choose pairings, I paired myself up against the Lien piloted by my first ever female opponent. I chose the matchup because I ran Chinese Sword Style main, and was already working out scenarios where I played a Seichu, and used CSS to pitch her hand. Also, I could just turn Lien off with Roam the World if I needed to. We start off game 1 and play foundations back and forth as I try to get a grasp on my opponent's strategy. Finally, I draw the Seichu and the CSS and go for it, tossing an 8th Bill at the end for good measure. It 100% connects. Game 2 I side out my Shoryukens for Infiltratings, as I noticed she was playing Chaos with Oral Dead and Pieces of Eight, the two most harmful foundations to my deck in the format. Her opening play, much to my chagrin was a Pieces of Eight and two Oral Deads. This girl knew her stuff. I didn't want to let on how harmful her opening was to my offense, but then she played another Pieces and another Oral Dead next turn! "Come on, Infiltrating!" I called as I rubbed the top of my deck. It was a disaster. She landed two Whereabouts Unknown and proceeded to deliver one very large unblockable Moonbeam Slicer straight to the dome. I didn't even have to reset the life totals or anything for game 3. Unfortunately, there was no game 3, as Alex and Tristan soon finished their games in our favor and we moved on to the next round. Round 2 vs Team Rick James Team Rick James actually confused us almost as much as we confused everyone else this day with our team. You see, no one really knows what Battle Box Ryu does, or Sankuro either for that matter, and everyone paired up against our Promo Alex ended up scratching their heads and Tristan's reloading DDT shenanigans. However, the match against Rick James reveals a Mr. Karate, a John Talbain, and a Blue Promo Cody. We were pretty sure that the Mr. Karate was no where near Streeter Beater quality, as that deck was still a well-kept Floridian secret at the time. We assumed the Cody was Evil Cody, and didn't know what to think about the Talbain, but he picked me as his opponent, which meant it was up to Alex and Tristan, as I didn't think I was going to be able to do anything to that pooch, as I wasn't carrying any rolled up newspapers. Talbain turned out to be everything I expected. His only attacks were Dragon Cannon and Ryu's Shoryuken Extra, a.k.a haymakers, but I didn't catch onto that fast enough and lose a heartbreaking first game. The second game took the rest of the time allotted for the match, and saw me earn a loss for our team, as even though I played a Killing Bite into Double Seichu into 8th Bill, the mutt still survived with 9 life! Alex rolled up his Mr. Karate matchup, but Tristan's match with Promo Cody also went to time as a draw. So our second match of the day ended as a draw. Round 3 vs Team Drew_Rob Ahhh, our first encounter with the ATL crew... It was a match to remember, that's for sure. We had talked about Alex's role on our team, being that he was playing the oddball Sankuro deck and all, but it turns out that Sankuro has a 1-hit K.O. draw against Promo Adon. That and Sankuro's difficulty altering abilities, plus his high vitality pretty much guaranteed that Alex would always be paired against Promo Adon. It looked good on paper. So, Team Drew Rob loses the flip and reveals to us Dimitri, Promo Adon, and Super Rare Ibuki. We paired Alex's Sankuro versus their Adon, and fate intervened to pair me up against Super Rare Ibuki and her crunchy 20 vitality. I was already making my game plan for her. I went undefeated against Ibuki's that weekend and I can surely tell you that my secret is this: Ibuki will do ANYTHING to try to hit you with a Kasumi Suzaku. Don't fall for it. Game 1, my opponent wins the roll and leads off with the typical assortment of water foundations, namely Shotokan and a pair of Shinobi Traditions, which means I'm in for Water combo shenanigans. I set up my defenses with a Roam the World and a False Pretenses, which little did I know at the time, almost completely nullified my opponent's deck. Next turn, he tosses out a Killer Vortex, which I let hit, even though I was holding a high block (remember what I said earlier), only for him to draw cards off his Shotokan, and throw some more weenies at me, like Kunai, and Clones, which I let hit, foundation, foundation, bam! There it is, Kasumi Suzaku, the deck's only real threat. Fully blocked. My opponent passes his turn with two cards in hand. I Roam his Shotokans, Killing Bite his hand away, and Seichu for game 1. Game 2 was much the same story, only this time I set up with two False Pretenses, completely nullifying all of his attacks except Clones and Kasumi Suzaku. The same story happens again- Killer Vortex, Kunai, Kunai, Clones, foundation, Suzaku. Fully blocked. He passes with three cards in hand and no way of drawing out of it. I Killing Bite two cards, he lets it hit, and then I fully Moonsault his last card away leaving him at 5 life. At that point an 8th Bill only costs nine. I'll gladly tap out if it puts my opponent at 0. I look over at Alex only to see him nicely singed from a particularly wise Adon player. After sideboards, Alex sides into Pull of the Tides. The Adon player formed up with Challenge the Master and Taking the Bait x2. Played a Widow Maker, responded only twice with Adon, then took a peek at Alex's hand to check for Pull of the Tides before running wild on the purple-haired beast. An impressive play, to say the least. Alex loses 2-1, meaning it's up to Tristan in the corner to pull off a win against the tankish Dimitri. As time approaches, we bite our nails, but Tristan pulls it out in excellent fashion. His Alex built off of All just had too many ways to draw into attacks, and Dimitri's defenses couldn't stop them all. We win this one 2-1. Final Round vs Team Freaking Unbelievable Colored Kids "What took you so long?" says Harold Ellis as our teams approach each other at table 1 for the final round. The full day's drive up was so worth it when both Tampa teams were sitting at the top in the end. We didn't even bother shuffling our decks, if this match took place, it would be in the finals of the entire event. Instead, we pulled up chairs and started sharing information. "What have you seen?" I asked.
"Nothing we can't handle," answers Aulden from the second team.
"And Venture?" Team Venture was my primary concern the entire time.
"They already lost to someone, we never got to face them," answers Efrain. Somehow, both teams managed to avoid Venture completely, so the only way we would get any real information on them would be to walk over to their match and scout them out. Which we did. Only, we couldn't be sure what we were looking at. Team Venture featured a Promo Alex, a Promo Ukyo and a Super Rare Ibuki. I'm not going to get into the apparent controversy concerning Venture's Ibuki versus that of our own, but suffice to say that most of Tampa feels that the Rare Ibuki is superior to the Super Rare, and that the only symbol she should be played off of is Evil. I heard that Venture's Ibuki was playing Water/Evil, but it doesn't matter, I was focused exclusively on the Promo Alex, and the Promo Ukyo. The Ukyo deck was a water deck, meaning certain things could be inferred about it, such as Stamp Combo. I watched as Brian Garber, it's pilot, Kunai/Walked a couple of times, using Ukyo's discard ability to disarm his opponents. In my head I was already going over matchups with the deck, and I honestly couldn't see my own deck losing to Garber's. If we were to face each other, I would want that matchup. The Promo Alex, however, was another story altogether. "Our decks are really solid," I told Alex before the event. "We can beat anyone else with solid decks based on our playskill. What I'm really afraid of is genius decks." Ladies and gentlemen, Team Venture's Promo Alex was a stroke of genius. There wasn't a single deck that scared me more in the entire tournament than that monster. As a treat, I do have the decklist, and will present it to you shortly, but first I'd like to talk about how we reacted before we knew the entire list. We watched in several instances, as Mack Rice, the deck's pilot formed with Challenge the Master, played a Red Gi and several foundations only to drop 8th Bill in the 8th slot and pump that sucker to hell with Unpredictable, of all things. How does unblockable 22 sound? In one instance, he enhanced with Fight for the Future, to discard a card from his card pool only to follow up his 8th Bill with another 8th Bill, this time for 12 unblockable. Can your deck handle that? Because if it could, then there was the usual Fire nonsense. Challenge the Master into Chain Throw +Absurd Strength. The deck attacked from all angles. As we went out to lunch and celebrated our pre-top 8 domination, all I had on my mind was Team Venture. If we were to beat them, we had to go around their Promo Alex. We would have to beat their Ibuki and their Ukyo, because one of us was going to lose to that Alex, it was that simple. The Gulf Coast Championship's Team Top 8 The top 8 was delayed by several hours, as 3 teams were disqualified from the top 8 for illegal deck configurations. Team Wandering Masters was the first to go, because they had 9 Pull of the Tides between 3 decks. Misdirection was next with Universal Fighter being present in multiple decks, and then Team Rick James was disqualified as it had less than the registered amount of The Way of the Mightiest in its Promo Cody deck. By the time all the deck inspections were completed most of the teams had gone home, leaving the top 8 with only 7 teams, except that the last place finishers in the swiss, Team Rat Pack was still around, and because of so many crazy coincidences, they were bumped into the top 8! Talk about a lucky break! Top 8 Round 1 vs Jack's Friends I don't remember the exact team configuration that Jack's Friends had. All I remember is that they were sporting Super Rare Ibuki at a crunchy 20 life, and by that point of the day, that was like a giant homing beacon for my deck. Anyone with 21 or less life dies to my deck off of a misplay, and that was all I needed to know. Game 1, he throws out his Killer Vortexes and Kunais (another Water build!) and I refuse to block anything that isn't coming at me for 10 damage. When the Suzakus come, they get fully blocked. My opponent makes the mistake of passing with two cards in hand, and make him pay for it with a Killing Bite into Seichu- induced game loss. Game 2, he throws 3 damage attacks and more 3 damage attacks, and still more 3 damage attacks. I'm not blocking those, and eventually they kill me- but I still won't block them. I wouldn't have played this game any differently at all. Game 3, an unsuccessful Kasumi Suzaku attempt on my life sees him pass with two cards in hand. His life follows shortly afterwards. Tristan won his match, and Alex won his as well. We're looking good in the top 8. Top 8 Round 2 vs Team Venture We talked about it and talked about it until there was nothing left to say. If the finals were going to be between two Tampa teams, someone needed to take down Team Venture. We were one win away from completely cleaning the place up and insuring that top prizes went exclusively home to Tampa. "See you in the finals," I said to Harold as we bumped knuckles at the pairings sheet.
"Do it," he told me, and I had every intention to do so. "We need to secure the worst matchup," Tristan says as we enter our team huddle.
"That would be me versus that Ukyo deck," I chimed in.
"Are you sure about that?" says Alex.
"I guarantee it," I answered.
"So then what?" Tristan asked.
"Our only chance is to take down that Ibuki. Whoever faces her needs to shut her down." As we sit at the table versus the National Champions all light-hearted jokes leave the play area. Venture reveals their characters, which were no surprise to us, as they puzzled over our characters, Ryu, Sankuro, and Alex. What an unlikely combination. "I know what that does," says Garber as he looks at Sankuro, "and I know what that does."
He points at Promo Alex. No one knows what my deck does. That's fine by me. We roll off and win, which means right off the bat, I'll be playing Brian Garber and his Ukyo, Tristan will be playing the Ibuki, leaving Alex as the sacrifice to Promo Alex. The tension was a bit high, I suppose. In hindsight, I would have liked to have had more of a conversation with him, as I'm much newer to UFS than Unified Shoe. I win the match roll and go first, dropping a Red Gi, and a couple foundations. Brian plays four cards, leaving him at three cards in hand. I play Killing Bite, nab two cards, Red Gi the last one, and Seichu for exactly 21 damage. Garber plays first the second game and flips a Stamp for a TYPFG. No foundations for his first turn. I lead off with a fully multipled Seichu. He blocks 6 of it and takes 12. He then gets a chance to set up, and I do the same, activating Ryu for his free momentum, and dropping a Red Gi before passing. Garber throws a Kunai Walk combo at me twice, and when he forms with Ukyo, I Rat Chaser for 12 cards. After another attack, which I fully block, he passes it back to me with 3 cards in hand and 9 life. Killing Bite + Red Gi + Moonsault Slayer takes game 2. The whole thing lasted less than 10 minutes. "Guys, I won my match 2-0" I announce with the confidence that I had built on our chances. All we had to do was beat that Ibuki.
"Carlos, I won game 1," says Alex. What?! I mouthed it, because I couldn't believe it. Sankuro took down Promo Alex? "It's over guys," says Mack Rice, as he shuffles up for game 2 against Alex, "We're done." That's what I wanted to hear. And then Tristan loses his match to Ibuki 2-0. Venture won the match we needed to win. From there, it was all downhill for us. No one expected Sankuro to pull out a game win even, but he did, and now it was all up to him. There was plenty of time on the clock, and Mark went on to show Alex just how much better his deck was, with his crazy Unpredictable 8th Bill. Twice. So the ride was over for Team Super Heroes in Training, leaving the finals match as a clash between the remaining Tampa Team and Team Venture. Gulf Coast Championships Final Match Team Freaking Unbelievable Colored Kids vs Team Venture Things went bad for the second Tampa team almost immediately. Team Venture won the dice roll, and paired Promo Alex vs Promo Morrigan, a match I knew was unwinnable for Harold, its pilot. Harold's Morrigan deck worked by removing his opponent's attacks from their deck, and locking them up until they milled themselves out. Against that Alex that killed with one attack, Harold had little he could do. Once again, it came down to taking out the Ibuki and the Ukyo, a task that is easier said than done. Efrain decided that he would play his Ibuki, designed by Harold against Team Venture's Ibuki, which is where a certain amount of animosity between the two teams started. Efrain knew Harold's Ibuki was the optimal build for an Ibuki, but Nathan Eiskant also had a thing for his deck, and the rest is like an old Kung Fu movie where two characters are arguing about their style of choice. "Block and die," I hear Efrain shout at Nathan as he attaches an Absurd Strength to his Chain Throw for the 2-0 match win. I've never heard him like that before, Efrain is usually more reserved than I am. Unfortunately, as the matchup between Morrigan and Alex was unwinnable for the Morrigan, it all came down to Aulden and his Promo Cody to pull out a championship for his team. As I look over at Aulden's game, however, there's a Hell Slayer with two Absurd Strengths attached coming across at Garber. He scoops. But, that was only game 1. For the next two games, Garber was able to pick away at Cody, almost at his leisure, as Aulden couldn't draw any attacks to form any kind of offense whatsoever. Aulden's defenses were set in, but they weren't enough to keep Ukyo's onslaught at bay forever, and thus the deciding game ended in Team Venture's favor, making them the undisputed Gulf Coast Champions. While there's nothing bad at all about finishing second and third in the year's biggest tournament to date, there's always something that burns when you see another team walk away with the prizes that could have been yours. I, personally, have nothing but congratulations for Team Venture, but it's easy to see where the tension was created amongst my younger teammates. Still, it wasn't long before we were all smiling and yelling, and riding towards the hotel with confidence in the knowledge that from this day forth, players would know that Tampa has some of the best players in the world, and our teams are nothing to take lightly. Many of us had plans to change decks for day 2, and our group had picked up new friends as Team Wandering Masters came to our hotel for a night of deck testing and construction. With the team event over and done with, our attention turned inward, as we each secretly yearned for individual gratification that could only be earned by mowing through a field of opponents one at a time.  Deck Spotlight: Team Venture's Unpredictable Promo Alex
This list gets better every time I look at it. On the immediate surface, we have Promo Alex, a character known for his aggro potential. This deck tricks the opponent into thinking he's up against a traditional Fire throw deck, but that couldn't be farther from the truth. This deck intends to 8th Bill you almost every game. With Promo Alex's card drawing, and Challenge the Master, that shouldn't be hard at all. If I were to attack the deck, I would say that it's weakness is its defense, as it can't really stop anything it's opponent want to do, save for the scant protection afforded by maindeck Seal of Cessations, which I would guess are really in there to protect the 8th Bill combo above all else. Happy Holidays is there so that the pilot can pick and choose when he's going to go off with 8th Bill, without the pressure off opponents trying to hack away at his vitality as well as the bonus of knowing your opponent can't spring any surprises during your combo turn. This deck was an absolute monster in action, and it would be cool to see it in action again later on down the road. ...Alex... 4 8th Bill of Punishment
4 Chain Throw
4 Clones
2 Hyper Bomb 10 + 4 Attacks 4 Fight for the Future
4 Vast Resources
4 The Way of the Mightiest
4 Empire's Ruin
3 Unpredictable
3 Dark Hado
3 Pirate from Ryukyu 25 + 4 Foundations 4 Absurd Strength
4 Challenge the Master
2 Happy Holidays 10 Actions 4 Seal of Cessation
4 Fantasy Shop, Comics and Games
3 Red Gi 11 Assets 64+1 Cards main 4 Grim Stride
3 Consumed
1 ..Morrigan.. 8 Cards sideboard Conclusion? Day two and several deck changes lay in our immediate future. The night before the singles event was particularly hard on me, as I was the last one to choose a deck. Special challenges were in store for me, as I hadn't expected to choose a deck that sucked as much as it did before we busted out the tool box. There was no time to make a new deck, only time to tweak the most we could out of it. To be continued... |
