With day two of the Gulf Coast Championships just a few hours away, I was all alone with half a deck. Everyone else had gone to bed, satisfied with what they had for the day to come.  Despite the fact that everyone in our group was satisfied with their Team top 8 and talked about simply enjoying themselves for day 2, they were playing with power I couldn't match. Something needed to be done.  This was it, that last leg of the trip of the particular UFS triathalon the Florida players had been subjected to in January. There was no way I was going to choke now. This is the final part of the UFS epic. This is how it all went down.

Return of the Streeter Beater

I had my heart set on playing Mr. Karate for the singles event of the GCC. I chose to build the deck off of All just like the original, but unlike the original, my update had its own series of problems... 

Mr. Karate

4 Flying Cross Chop
4 Ax Volcano
4 Long Reach
4 Slash Elbow 

16 Attacks

4 Military Rank
4 Mortal Strike
4 Rat Chaser
4 Vast Resources
4 Sealed Away
4 Born to Hunt
4 Fortune and Glory
4 False Pretenses
4 The Curse Broken 

36+4 Foundations

4 Consumed
4 Dodge Step
4 Super Freak Lunge 

12 Actions

68+1 Cards Maindeck

4 Seal of Cessation
4 Pull of the Tides 

8 cards Sideboard

This was the build I had as we first walked into our hotel room for the night. The build was notoriously lacking Yoga Mastery and Defender of the Empire from the original Streeter Beater build. I playtested with my teammate Aulden for most of the night, and didn't win a single game against his Evil Cody deck. My stupid Streeter Beater update randomly lost hard to any number of False Pretenses. To make it worse, I had no form of pushing damage through, like Streeter did with Overhand Throw. On top of all that, no one in our playgroup even owned Heisheng Jian. There was no way I could create the same dynamic attack patterns as the original without that asset.

Fortunately for me, our team wasn't alone in our hotel room. Team Wandering Masters tagged along to get in some playtesting (and because they hadn't booked a hotel room), and they had the Heisheng Jians I so desperately needed.

In they went.

Except, I still randomly lost to False Pretenses. There had to be something I could do, short of adding in 8^th Bill of Punishment (which doesn't match two symbols with Mr. Karate). As everyone else found a spot in the room and went to sleep, I remained in the light by the bathroom on the floor with my deck spread out in front of me. There had to be something I could do...

As I looked through my collection, I ran across the remains of the Ryu deck I played hardly a few hours ago to our team top 8. In it I found the answer to all my problems:

Roam the World.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again- I think Roam is the best card in the format. The card's text really says "get out of jail free." I can scarcely imagine anything set 8 can throw at us that can get me to say something else is better than this wonderful piece of cardboard. Mr. Karate has Death, so maybe it's time I built the deck off of it.

The only problem was that Death really had no attacks I could use with Mr. Karate, so I would have to splash the symbol, and when you're talking about splashing Death, there's really only one card you need to make sure it goes over flawlessly:

Buddhist Devotion.

Now, I needed to know what was going to come out for these lovely cards. I figured Born to Hunt was really unnecessary, with Mr. Karate's own attack recursion plus the inclusion of Military Rank, quite possibly one of the best recursion cards ever printed. I didn't recall using Sealed Away even once during day 1, so those were out (which eventually turned out to be a big mistake!). There was no way I was going to need 4 Consumed, so 2 of those were out, and I only had 3 Hiesheng Jian, so I had room for three more Death cards. I had several options for this last slot, but I really wanted some form of enhance control, some way of keeping my opponent in check, so there were only two options: Pieces of Eight and Control the Present. I went with 4 Control the Present to make short work of my opponent's attacks, as well as the possibility of using CTP to dodge False Pretenses, and other harmful foundations. 

Last but not least, I added in 2 Rigorous Training, specifically to hate all the Death Seals I had encountered the night before. My deck, now transformed, looked a lot better. 

Mr. Karate 

4 Slash Elbow
4 Long Reach
4 Flying Cross Chop
3 Heisheng Jian 

15 Attacks

4 Roam the World
4 Control the Present
4 Buddhist Devotion
4 Military Rank
4 Vast Resources
4 Rat Chaser
4 False Pretenses
4 Mortal Strike
4 The Curse Broken
3 Fortune and Glory
2 Rigorous Training 

41 Foundations

4 Super Freak Lunge
4 Dodge Step
2 Consumed 

10 Actions

66 + 1 Cards Maindeck

3 Pull of the Tides
3 Martial Arts Champion
2 Seal of Cessation 

8 Cards Sideboard

Once again, I was ready.

Day 2 of the Gulf Coast Championship - the singles event

We woke up a little later than we wanted to the next morning, and found another group of UFS players was staying at the same hotel with us. We had a pretty good time chatting about day 1, and how much fun the trip was only to realize the singles event was scheduled to start in 45 minutes! There was no time for any more chatting, we had to go.

We managed to arrive right during the deck registration, and with a full house of 60+ entrants, seats were scarce. Fortunately for me, I managed to wiggle my way in with Team Austin from the night before, and we casually exchanged friendly remarks as we finalized our deck lists. Everyone that had survived the night before seemed to be really tired, and many had the attitude of simply playing for fun on this second day. I must admit, I wanted to say the same, but something in me just wouldn't quit. I simply can't keep myself from scouting the field and making plans against the strongest competitors. I had the slight advantage of a deck no one would understand until it was breaking through their defenses for their vitality. I had a really strong lock with Fortune and Glory, my secret weapon, and the card that would be the backbone of this Streeter Beater update.

I even played a friendly match with a wandering Talbain, only to realize that my deck had the same problems against tanks that my Ryu deck had just a day earlier. It was valuable information going into round 1.

Round 1 vs Brian Harris and Super Rare :.: Ivy:.:

Harold had spent all night finalizing an Ivy burn deck that had me a bit confused. I knew for certain that if I wanted to take down that burn deck, I needed to hit it hard and fast. Fortunately, for me, hard and fast just happens to be part of Mr. Karate's job description. Brian just happened to be one of the guys I was chatting with back at the hotel, so we knew this game would be a very friendly one, which is nice when you're in foreign territory.

Game 1 goes to me very early, as Brian plays a Kunai, which I made him auto-pass with a Super Freak Lunge, in order for me to dig out my Fortune and Glory very early. The beautiful thing about Kunai is, that your opponent has plans for that card outside of attacking. This was the first instance, but certainly not the last of a Super Freak Lunge going through completely unpunished, because they Kunai enhanced and flipped it out of their card pool. The next turn, Brian is at 5 handsize for the rest of the game, while Hiesheng and Military Rank have me playing something like 5 attacks a turn until Brian succumbs to the onslaught.

Game 2, Brian manages an early form with Ivy for +6, and I eat a very large, very unblockable Go Shoryuken with Absurd Strengths and Irresistable Forces attached.

Ouch.

Game 3 I manage to set up FnG very early again, and Brian dumps most of his hand in an attempt to kill me. Fortunately, he had to overextend because two Control the Presents were keeping his Irresistable Forces in his hand. He still manages to do what can only be referred to as a gross amount of damage (my life total drops from 20 to 3), but the next turn, I return the favor kindly, only I finish the job because he only has one card in hand.

I win this one 2-1

Round 2 vs Harold Ellis and Super Rare :.:Ivy:.:

Obviously, Harold has successfully burned someone to death multiple times in order for him to be sitting before me at this point. We were seated somewhere around table 18, which meant I still had a ways to go before making it to the top. I had heard that our entire team was doing quite well, as all of us had won our matches so far, but me playing Harold meant that one of our guys had to lose. Going into the match I was simply planning on beating Harold while he attempted to draw into his combo, and thus beat him before he ever got a chance to set up, but his win over the Talbain I couldn't beat had me worried a bit.

Game 1 goes exactly as planned. I draw into a plethora of attacks thanks to multiple Heishang Jians and level the poor Ivy before she had any semblance of the combo on hand.

Game 2, however, proved to be trickier. Harold plays a Kunai, which I Super Freaked, only to have him leave it sitting on the table.

"You're eating this 6 now!" says Harold.
"Aw... Are you serious?"
"Quite. Take 6, sir."

So I took 6. I made a serious mistake this game by opening up with a weak opening volley. I only dealt 8 damage to Harold with my opening suite, which left him in the ideal situation to combo out. If you don't know which combo I speak of, I'll walk you through it right now:

Ivy forms up, preferably dumping a character card into her card pool, giving all control checks +6 and increasing any vitality gain on her part by 6. Next Harold plays Look into Dreams, which reveals a 5 in my hand on a foundation but the control value gets +6. Harold gains 11+6 putting him 9 points over maximum, I take 9. His next card is a Valkyrie Turn, which he enchances for -6 to gain 6+6 vitality, I take 12, and his next card is a Valkyrie Turn, leaving me at a nice -11 vitality. He can easily do this at full vitality with enough Valkyrie Turns, provided he sets up properly, and as an extra nasty surprise, Harold plays the action side of Asylum to make his life gain something dumb like (6+6)x2 which equates to 24 points of burn damage in case you didn't feel like doing the math.

Anyway, we shuffle up for game 3, and my opening attack leaves Harold at a much more favorable 14 vitality. He combos out again at +6 returning himself to full vitality and dealing a nice wholesome 21 damage to me in the process, leaving me at 7 with him at full health. The deck is monstrous...

But I'm not dead, and my checks get +6. Harold has 3 cards in hand, and I just happened to draw a Heisheng with two Military Ranks on my side of the table. Hiesheng nets me another Heisheng and Military Ranks net me two Long Reaches. The second Heisheng gets me a third Long Reach, and it isn't long before Harold falls under the weight of Long Reaches for 9.

I win again 2-1.

Round 3 vs  Robert Myers and Super Rare Ibuki

Robert Myers just happened to be the same ATL player that I beat yesterday with Ryu. Before the match started, he told me how I gave him his hardest matchup the night before, and how he had changed his deck specifically to try and change the outcome of this match. I never like to boast to my opponents before or after our matches, but I hardly consider it boasting when I speak the truth. Water Ibuki just doesn't have it.

Game 1 sees me fall in short order to a slew of Killer Vortices and Clones, but I refuse to block any of those, in favor of waiting for the Kasumi Suzaku.

Game 2, I Super Freak his Kunai for FnG and it sticks. His newly acquired 5 handsize makes it very difficult for him to play Kasumi Suzaku without leaving him completely open, which he does anyway, only for it to get Superfreaked so I can grab a Rat Chaser and fully block it. He falls shortly afterwards in 3 attacks.

Game 3 I drew 2 False Pretenses in my opening hand, which essentially nullifies every attack in his deck except Clones and Kasumi Suzaku, a card I'm never getting hit with anyways, and when I draw into FnG it proves to be too much. My opponent passed two turns without playing a single card in order to keep enough cards in hand to defend himself from me, but Heisheng sees me outdraw his 5 handsize and sneak in some Long Reaches over the top.

2-1

Round 4 vs Ben Shoemaker from Team ATL and Promo Ukyo

I'm pretty sure Ben cheated during our match. I didn't know it yet, but this guy had Medium Tank back up all over his side of the field before we even started the match. Stupid fog of war...

For those of you who need an explanation, a medium tank is a unit in the Advanced Wars series that pretty much does it all. Apparently Team Atlanta mass produces the suckers and uses them to win at UFS and life in general.

My team had been clashing with ATL crew all day long all over the event. This match between Ben and I, however, was the highest ranked ATL-Tampa matchup of the entire night. Sitting firmly at table 2, heads were turning from all directions to get a look at the undefeated Mr. Karate deck. It felt really good to play a character no one expected, and I smiled almost exactly the same way Streeter smiled when he knew he was going to top 8 with Mr. Karate. It was all good, except that seated at Table 1, right next to me, was Nathan Eiskant from Team Venture, piloting Promo Alex. At this point, he was a shoe-in for the top, but this meant that at some point in this night I might have to face the deck I had touted all day yesterday as unstoppable. It was right then that I realized leaving out the Sealed Aways was a giant mistake. There was nothing else I could do against the deck's 8^th Bill shenanigans.

Back to the match at hand...

I offer Ben a draw, so we can move on to dinner phase, but he refuses, and his logic was quite sound. There was another Ukyo at the top table and he needed to play in order to keep himself from being diversified out. On top of that, the tournament was short a round or two, considering the number of players attending. Every player in the top 8 needed to have at least 4 wins, and everyone at the top table needed that last win to insure their spot.

So we played...

Game 1 I lose the roll, and set up some foundations going second. This Karate deck is nothing like my Ryu deck that packed maindeck Chinese Sword Styles and Tendon Strength. Once Ukyo started making me pitch cards, my only hope would be to find a Dodge Step, but that was a card that I couldn't use Superfreak to grab, unlike CSS (of which I should have played at least 1 in order to Superfreak for it). On turn 3, Ben starts attacking me, which I use to Superfreak for a Fortune and Glory, which Ben realizes he wants nothing to do with. So he starts to attack, using Ibis Minuet to clear his card pool and eventually he makes me pitch my hand, right down to the FnG I was saving for next turn. Smelling blood, he uses Ukyo form to draw 6 cards while I had no Rat Chaser out, and draws a pair of Genkotsu Stamps for the win.

I have to admit, this match hammered home my 5 card handsize more than any other. All of my other opponents allowed me to draw out of my handsize and beat them down while they were locked down at 5. Ben never let me resolve a single FnG. The second I fished one out, he would go full-out attack to get me to pitch it.

Game 2 I managed to set up for a couple turns, and used the set up time to drive Ukyo's 21 vitality right into the ground. That was his weakness, much like mine was a small starting handsize. I managed to pin Ben down at 1 card in hand with a Martial Arts Champion and a Seal of Cessation on my side of the Board. When I started throwing Long Reaches, he tried to use Shotokan to draw out of his predicament, and both times I negated the effect, and this won me game 2.

Game 3 however, didn't last long at all. At this point, Ben was fully aware that the long game favored me over him. He knew he had to beat me quickly before I set up with False Pretenses and Control the Present. Unfortunately for me, that's exactly what he did. He chose to go first and played out 4 foundations. On my first turn I, played out 3 foundations, leaving me with 2 cards in hand. Ben takes his second turn, and starts attacking. My last cards fall quickly to Ukyo's hand destruction. My only hope now was for bad checks on his side of the field. That wasn't going to happen. In a very suicidal rampage, Ben kills me with Concealed Shallow Swipe after a barrage of smaller attacks.

He hands me my first loss of the night, 1-2.

Ben's a pretty cool guy. It wasn't long after our match before the guy was completely tanked, and I don't mean in the Advanced Wars way.

"I used to play Sagat," says a less than sober Ben. "Tiger Uppercut, Penetrating Lunge, One-Armed Maneuvers, Die in a fire type [stuff]. Those were the days..."

At this point, Ben had every Tampa player listening avidly, and even Team Wandering Masters came over to sit in.

"That's why I drink this Guinness..." he continued, "...They have a 300-year lease on... something or other... What were we talking about?"

"Sagat," someone answers.

"Yeah! That was before the errata. Back when One-Armed Maneuvers meant your [butt], and it didn't even matter if you fully blocked my 300 damage Tiger Uppercut, because you were taking 600 from the 4 Penetrating Lunges in my hand."

"Wouldn't 1 Lunge be enough to kill them?"

"It doesn't matter! I need some medium tank back up!"

"Medium Tank!" the support would chime in from the other side of the room. This team had it all figured out. They came to have fun, they came to clean house, they came to get drunk, and that's exactly what happened.

Round 5 vs Aulden Lloyd and Promo ...Cody...

This absolutely sucked. You see Aulden and I are teammates. At this point both of us were 3-1, both of us needed to win to get into the top 8, and both of us had to do it by beating a teammate. Aulden is the player I play UFS with the absolute most. It was awesome to see him and I playing at the same level, contending for championships together. I was prepared to scoop to him to let him into the top 8 so I could sit in on matches in order to report on them, but Aulden wasn't about to let that happen.

"We're playing," he said.

And that was that. We shuffled up while I tried to figure out exactly how I was going to pull this miracle off. Aulden had beaten me every single game in testing before I put the Death foundations into the deck, and then he beat me again afterwards.

"At least you can put up a fight now," he smiled and we rolled off.

Immediately one table above us, however, was another Promo Cody fighting Promo Chester, also competing for a top 8 spot. This affected Aulden gravely. Even if he won our match, if this second Cody player also won, he would be diversified out.

"What are you guys doing?" says Alex Costa, as he walks over to our table after his match.

The truth was we were both watching the Chester - Cody match very carefully. When Cody Infiltrated Chester, we knew it was all over, as Cody came over the top with a Seichu for the match.

"I guess I concede," said Aulden. "Good luck in the top 8, CJ."

And that was that. Although I knew Aulden could put up a much better fight than I could, circumstances out of our control saw me advance while he watched from the sidelines. So, after 2 days and 12 rounds, the top 8 of singles looked like this:

Promo Alex
Rare Astaroth
Promo Ukyo
Promo Mr. Karate
Promo Athena
Promo Yun-Seong
Super Rare Voldo
Promo Cody

We had a quite interesting and varied top 8, but I honestly look at this list and can't help but imagine how many in this group would not have made it if Armored Defense were more popular that day. Every single deck in the top 8, excepting only the Promo Cody and possibly the Astaroth drew their strength from being able to draw cards unhindered. I know full well if someone made me fight fair and shut off my Military Ranks or Super Freaks, I would not have made it this far. My initial impressions of block 2 seem to indicate that if you're not drawing out of your handsize, you're not winning. I'll definitely have to analyze that more carefully down the road to be sure.

Round 1 of the Gulf Coast Championship singles top 8 vs Nathan Eiskant and Promo Alex

Ah... a Venture player. I knew I would face him first round, as I was the 8^th seed, and he was the 1^st, and even though I knew I was going to lose horribly I knew I had the chance of avenging my loss to his team earlier because his deck didn't have many defenses against mine, and I limited his draw to only 2 cards, meaning it would be harder for him to 8^th Bill me.

Game 1, I win the roll and drop Fortune and Glory first turn, dropping him to 5 handsize (7 with his draw, but it's better than 8). Unfortunately for me, Alex fights his way out of my lock pretty well with his form, and he also plays Fight for the Future. I managed to drop a pair of Control the Presents down, meaning I now had methods to control his 8^th Bill, limiting it only to 22 damage, if that's any relief. I think I made a huge error this match by using his Fight for the Futures to draw into attacks, which also helped him draw into his 8^th Bill combos, but I was hoping to beat him on pure speed. The first game, I manage to drop him to 7 before he goes off with his fatal 8^th Bill combo.

Game 2, I side into my Death Seals to try and control his Challenge the Master turns, and make him really have to work for his 8^th Bills. It works out quite well, as I manage to dodge two Challenge the Masters that would have surely left me defeated, and he couldn't check the way he needed for the full combo without the check bonus. I manage to drop him to 15, before he manages to combo out anyways without the Challenge the Master and I lose the match 2-0.

I really have to hand it to Team Venture. That Alex deck was top notch, and even though we had a night to prepare to fight it again, we failed to do so, and my loss to them (twice) is my own fault, but I can also blame them a little bit for making such a monstrous deck. Congratulations, guys. I definitely think a rivalry has been created, even if not under the best conditions, but I know for sure that I'm going to want a piece of Team Venture at the SCC.

I took a break after my loss to Nathan. Mr. Karate is a really hard deck to play. People tend to block when fully when I attack them, something I haven't had to deal with since set 6... I was exhausted, so I decided to sit around with guys and all the new friends I had made as the top 4 set into motion.

Apparently there was another controversy involving Tristan, as he faced off against Nathan Eiskant in the top 4. Controversy is no stranger to Tristan, it seems, as he's a much more aggressive player than people are used to dealing with. The story this time is time is that Nathan was playing too slow for Tristan's taste, and Tristan started dogging him to hurry up, as there were 20 minutes left in the round, and Tristan would lose for being at lower vitality, since his deck doesn't actually attack. I don't know how I manage to miss all these controversies...
So, Tristan hounded Nathan to play faster and play faster, and the result was a very pissed off Nathan and Tristan cursing at each other, and the frequent intervention of the T.O. to get them to play nice. The result of the match, however, ended in Tristan's favor, as he managed to mill out Promo Alex in those 20 minutes. Tristan's a very psychological player, he will get in your head if you let him, and throw off your game internally. Now, as I didn't watch the game, I can't say anything about whether or not this tactic worked against Nathan, but I can surely tell you that getting upset doesn't help your UFS game any. If I were to give you tips against playing people like Tristan, it would include bringing your i-pod and some headphones and turning up the volume on your turn.

Tristan's win, however, meant that the finals were set as a Mill vs. Mill matchup. How exciting...

The Gulf Coast Championship Finals

Tristan Del Valle vs Steve Kline

We discussed this matchup as soon as Tristan finished his match with Nathan, and there was nothing we could tell him, but the fact that it looked really bad for Tristan. The unknown was whether or not the Yun-Seong actually ran any attacks in his deck. If the answer was no, then the match would go to whoever drew the first Contemplation. If Steve was doing what we were doing now with his group, and they had decent intel, then he would know that he could win his first game guaranteed with Contemplation, and could actually do something really dumb, like play Contemplation first turn, form with Yun-Seong to drop it in his staging area, and win the game. That was the worst-case scenario for Tristan. If nothing else, this game would be extremely technical, but I honestly didn't think Tristan could win it, the odds being so stacked against him.

As it turns out, Steve really didn't have much knowledge about Tristan's deck, while our team was only unsure of his attack line up, or if he even had one. Still, the first game goes exactly as expected, Steve draws into Contemplation, and the second he turns it sideways, Tristan scoops up his deck.

For game two, Tristan sides in 8 split attacks, including Infiltrating, his trump card against Steve. The game goes pretty long, almost 20 turns. Steve manages to land two Contemplations on his side of the field, which is really more like 4 Contemplations thanks to the Yun-Seong form. Tristan bleeds out over half his deck, the but the last card Contemplation adds to his hand is Infiltrating, causing Steve to slump a bit in his seat. Unfortunately, what follows is perhaps the greatest misplay I have ever seen Tristan make. To be honest, I didn't catch it either until it was too late. Tristan plays a foundation, intent on dumping his foundations on the table before going for the Infiltrating. Steve responds with Daily Routine, discarding a Ryu's Shoryuken, meaning Tristan can no longer play non-attack cards with a control of three. Tristan's Infiltrating is now stuck in his hand! That was the final straw.

The next turn, Steve Contemplates Tristan's deck, and even though Tristan managed to hit Steve with two Lure the Enemy, it wasn't enough to get the job done. Steve finishes Tristan off that same turn with 4 Contemplations to take every card in Tristan's deck.

Steve wins 2-0.

And so, the Mill archetype has what can only be the first of its major tournament victories. While I don't feel Mill will ever be a particularly popular archetype, it should nonetheless be part of your preparations for future tournaments, as "just attacking" isn't actually going to cut it against these decks, and Perfect is actually unplayable garbage. My advice would be to attack their forms. Instant Success over Oral Dead to cut down their Contemplations, and for the love of everything that's good, people, start using Armored Defense. Splash it if you have to. That said, this tournament was a lot of fun, and I really have to thank Gravelord for running it.

Deck Spotlight: Promo Chester Turbo Mill by Cory Hill (Deluc, Georgia)

I have a very special treat for you today. This is a very creative mill deck, created by Cory Hill, who just missed the top 8 at the GCC.

.Chester.

4 Vast Resources
4 Roam the World
4 Evil Shunned
4 Rat Chaser
4 Shotokan Training
4 Full Power
4 Constant Training
4 Merciless
4 Grieving for the Master
4 Dragonfly
4 Blind Stance
4 Awakening 

48 Foundations

4 Tsuji Goe
4 Happy Holidays 

8 Actions

4 Seal of Cessation

4 Assets

60 + 1 cards total main deck
 

By round three of the singles event, rumors and legends of this deck were being whispered throughout the room. It was actually quite hilarious when my teammate Harold walked up to me with the deck in his hands.

"See if you can figure this out," he says to me. Apparently, members of our team were puzzled over the way the deck actually worked, as there wasn't a single attack in the deck, or the usual compliment of Mill foundations, such as Contemplation.

The key to the deck is Vast Resources and Tsuji Goe. I was actually a bit faster on the uptake, as I didn't need to read Tsuji Goe but, I couldn't be sure that all the deck did was make you draw your deck with Vast Resources. The deck actually works by spamming Vast Resources and any number of foundations. After that, Vast Resources is used to make you draw as many as 30 cards in one turn. After that, Chester takes over, pitching his hand to make his opponent add the remaining bits of his deck to his momentum! Keep in mind that Chester can form multiple times, so after his opponent cycles, he can do it again to add the whatever's left to his opponent's momentum. 

This is quite possibly the most original take on Mill I have ever seen, and I actually quite enjoyed seeing players decks picked up wholesale and dropped underneath their character card. 

Now, the deck has its weaknesses. Anyone that knows what to look for can stop this deck flat in its tracks. Cory had the advantage of surprise on his side, but I still think the deck can see play with some modifications to protect its weak spots. For example, the deck loses hard to Instant Success, as do many other Mill decks, I would imagine, and of course, there's the glaring weakness to an opponent packing Infiltrating. Take care of those, however, and there's little left to stop you. 

Highlights 

Such a big event is nothing if not absolutely packed with amazing stories both in and out of the game. These are some of those stories both that I heard and experienced myself.

The Ninja Infiltrating

I have no idea who either of these players were, but there story is nonetheless legend at this point. This occurred during day two. The situation occurred where Player A had 3 Seal of Cessations on his side of the board and a decided foundation advantage. Player B had a Ninjitsu on his side of the board, which he formed up with, to make forms un-negatable for the rest of the turn. Player A carefully looked over his opponent's staging area before allowing the form to resolve. I assume you already know what happens next, but I'll tell you anyway: Player B follows up with Infiltrating, and Player A has no choice but to scoop all his shiny Death Seals into his discard pile along with everything else in his staging area! Outrageous!

THE Orbital Blaze 

Round 1 of the team top 8 day one, sees Team Venture's Promo Alex paired up against a Pyron player. With time rapidly approaching in the deciding game, the Alex player unleashes his ridiculous 8^th Bill only to have Pyron survive at 7, with Alex almost completely committed out. Time is called on the Pyron player's turn. With nothing to lose, the Pyron player forms up with 3 different Darkstalkers to give his next check +9, and then he plays Orbital Blaze. He flips another Orbital Blaze for the check, but it checks for 10 thanks to Darkstalkers, and two committed foundations sees it pass. 

"Uh, that's a really fast attack," says the Alex player. 

Rest assured the Alex player took 12 and all foundations were destroyed. Now, we all knew that Alex desperately needed his foundations for the 8^th Bill trick, but he could still win with Chain Throw + any number of Absurd Strengths. Pyron played out some foundations, and passed the turn, and thus the game, but I think the game would have been very interesting to watch if it had gone for a couple more turns. 

Dragonforce

I consider myself an excellent Guitar Hero player, but these guys in Louisiana are quite serious about their GH skills. I showed up to the big screen at the back of the venue to hand people losses in Pro Battle only to be sent home sorely defeated by players who have mastered Through the Fire and Flames. I must say it was excellent meeting other UFS players who also happen to be Guitar Heroes. 

Louisiana Drinking Laws

"I love this state," exclaims a lightly toasted light tank by the name of Ivy as she hangs out on the sidewalk with the rest of the ATL crew with a brew and a smile. Did you know Louisiana allows drinking in public places? I certainly didn't, but let me tell you a medium tank by the name of Ben Shoemaker figured that out in a hurry. 

"Wasn't One-Armed Manuevers Errata'd by the time Penetrating Lunge came out?" Harold whispers to me as Ben continues his Sagat tirade.
"Shhh..." I whispered back, "the last thing we need is for him to get belligerent before the top 8." 

The Wandering Masters

"You see this shirt?" says Tracey Tishon of Wandering Masters. "This logo is what people see. You walk in the room with your team's shirt on, that's all they see. They see you're organized, they see you mean business. We walk into events and everyone sees us trading and cleaning up the competition, and they start talking about us, saying ‘we need to get these [dudes] outta here.' That's what you want to have." 

Conclusion

The Gulf Coast Championships gave those who attended a solid glimpse of what the new format holds in store for UFS players around the world. My initial impressions are that Void and Death are far from dead, and it pleases me to say that. They're different, and they're missing their usual attack lineup, but finding a new one shouldn't be too hard at all. The ride home was plagued by small concerns with a deflated tire, and the fact that none of us really slept the night of the singles event. We were soon perked up, however, as we shared our individual stories and experiences at the event and looked forward to seeing all of our new-found friends again, right here in our back yard,  at the South Coast Championships.

"We need a better team name," says Alex to me on the way home.
"Why, Team Tampa is quite elegant. It tells people where we're from, it has a sweet consonance." Of course I liked it, I coined it.
"Yeah, but it's too generic. We have dudes up north running around with names like Team Foxhound. You have to admit that's seriously cooler than ours."
"I guess. That name is pretty cool..." The car was silent for about two minutes. "How about Team Southtown? You know we all love the Fatal Fury characters." 

"I love it!" says Efrain when I come out of the bathroom after stopping for gas. "Team Southtown is awesome! Our shirts are going to be so cool!"

And that's that.

See you next time, everyone.