I’m at table 2 to start the day, and honestly, I’m feeling pretty lousy. I’d been thinking about that if I made Day 2 at 8-2, I would be looking for Top 8. Well, there I was, and man, I wish I hadn’t said that to everyone. I had a gloomy outlook for the day because I was thinking “Now that I’ve said it, I’m going to scrub out.” Nothing to be done about jinxing myself now—it was time to just draft and play some cards.
I opened my first pack and didn’t find what I was looking for: something ridiculous that I could commit to. The best cards in the pack were Hawkeye, Leader by Example; Iron Man, Tony Stark; and the 2-drop Melissa Gold ◊ Songbird. I ended up taking the Hawkeye, which was probably a mistake. His text and stats seem so good, but I’ve never had a chance to test them out. I almost took Tom Thumb so that I could try to force Squadron Supreme and possibly try out the equipment deck that Prosak was so enamored with. If I had, my deck would’ve been insane, as the Squadron cards were underdrafted. My next picks were Amenhotep followed by Heinrich Zemo ◊ Baron Zemo—I figured he’s good by himself and I would leave myself open to Faces of Evil if I got the cards for that. Beetle, Armorsmith came to me seventh, I believe, so I snagged him and started looking for the low-drop characters to fill out the curve. Of course I didn’t get a Faces, but the real problem was that I didn’t get any team-ups. I passed a ton of them in the first two packs, and to be quite honest, all I really needed was any generic team-up. Of course, pack 3 contained none from any opens. I was pretty furious, but my characters were insane, and I had two copies of Heinrich Zemo. The plan: draw lots of dudes and Heinrich Zemo for the win. It got me to 2-1. I lost to Neil Reeves because he had Wonder Man; I’m pretty sure that’s the only card he could’ve had to beat me. He only got my 1-drop with Wonder Man, but it was enough that I couldn’t team attack for the stun, which allowed him to keep both of his guys for the next turn (his initiative).
At this point, I was up to tenth place, which put me back at table 2. Phimus was there with me. This time, I went with my favorite archetype, mostly because Squadron seemed to be underdrafted at most of the tables from what I was hearing. Phimus had the most absurd Squadron deck I’d ever seen in his last draft, so I figured it was my time to give it a go. I started taking Avengers and Squadron cards in an attempt to force my favorite team combination. I like it because the team-up makes your guys reservists, and a majority of them are reservists anyway. I started to get worried because after two packs, my deck was pretty atrocious. Somehow, it paid off, because I got some gifts in pack 3, including a fifth pick Black Panther. I went 2-1, with my loss coming at the hands of Hans Hoh.
I looked to see where I was seated for the third draft pod and discovered I was finally at Table 1. I was slightly intimidated for the first time, because there was only one guy at the table that nobody had heard of—yours truly. Before things got going, all the others were chatting at each other, and then Dave Spears looked at me and said, “I don’t recognize you. Who are you? Are you good? Well, you must be decent, you’re at Table 1.” I just shrugged rather than saying what I wanted to say: “Actually, I’m pretty awful.” Oddly enough, after that, I was pretty relaxed. It was at that time that I just told myself to draft a deck and try not to 0-3, because that would be embarrassing.
First pick I saw Hawkeye, Clinton Barton and slammed it. I believe next was Carol Danvers ◊ Warbird, followed by Eldritch Power. From the get-go, I was into my favorite deck, and I was pumped. Things started slowing down, however, and I was worried because either Neil or Dean was cutting me off. It was fine, though, because in the next two packs I was just getting gifts. Supply Line came to me eleventh in pack 2 along with a late Airskimmer and other goodies. Pack 3 made me a little antsy because I thought I was going to get cut off again, but evidently, there was plenty to go around. I think Dean and I were the only drafters in Squad, and he couldn’t snatch all of it, so I was fine feeding off the leftovers. The end result: I had the best deck out of the three pods so far. Finally, I was excited to play.
Round 14 was my first feature match ever in a big event against Eugene Harvey. I didn’t know Eugene, but I’d heard that he didn’t really talk a lot and that he tended to play slowly. I didn’t want to rely on hearsay, though, and commented on how I though it was slightly warmer in the Feature Match area and that I wish I’d packed more than t-shirts to wear because I’d been freezing so far inside the Convention Center. I’d also seen him shivering during some of his matches and thought it would be a nice icebreaker. Sure enough, he told me that you learn after going to so many events to pack warmer clothes just for the site. Immediately, I felt better and was thankful for his genial attitude.
This game was pretty tough, mostly because I didn’t draw any of my Squadron guys. As a result, I sat with Panacea Potion and Supply Line in my hand the entire game. I finally played a Squadron character on turn 7: Arcanna. This wasn’t the greatest, because Eugene underdropped, but she was still a really huge body that he had to deal with. On turn 8, I played another 7, while Eugene, who was drawing off the top of his deck with no cards in hand, was forced to play off-curve again. I was able to live to turn 9, when he scooped because I had more guys to play.
The next round yielded another feature match for me, this time against Dave Spears. From what I gathered, his deck wasn’t very good, though it seemed fine against me, mostly due to the fact that he had Wasp in the hidden area so I couldn’t lock it down with Haywire and followed up with Natasha Romanoff ◊ Black Widow, Super Spy, so he got to keep both of his guys. My deck loved me in this match, though, and I drew the absolute nuts. On turn 4, I played Hawkeye and attacked his two visible characters. He didn’t swing back with Wasp, and on turn 5, he recruited Charcoal to my Nighthawk. He ran Baltag into my Hawkeye, which I activated to stun Wasp. Charcoal flew over to hit my Captain America, Steve Rogers, who I had used to reinforce the last attack. I had my team-up and the Eldritch Power for the mutual stun. I did some quick math and found out that I couldn’t quite kill him, but I was able to put him at 3 and Potion my Hawkeye. I drew my next two cards, put a resource down, and discarded to get Skymax back from my KO’d pile. Dave extended his hand and congratulated me on making Top 8. At this point, I wasn’t sure I was in because I didn’t even pay attention to the standings, but I was pretty happy and thanked him.
At this point, I was ready for the last round to start up. I didn’t bother to check
standings, but I was pretty sure I was in. The last round pairings went up, and I was paired against Michael Dalton. We sat down at our table, rolled the die, and started playing. This one wasn’t even close. I can’t remember ever getting beaten as badly as I did in that match. I’ll tell you this much: I scooped on turn 6 after he played Mystic Summons for his 6-drop. He had his 4, 5, 6, and two concealed 1-drops while I had . . . drum roll, please . . . Rick Jones.
Fine, I’ll tell you how it went down. On turn 4, he had the initiative; a team-up for Masters of Evil and Thunderbolts; and Hawkeye, Melissa Gold ◊ Screaming Mimi, Yellowjacket (hidden), Dallas Riordan, Mayoral Aide (hidden), and Nathan Garrett ◊ Black Knight, brought back courtesy of Hard Sound Construct. He attacked and stunned my 3- and 4-drops. He then exhausted his Yellowjacket to Stolen Power my 4-drop and then played Hero’s Demise from the grip. OK, I just got wrecked, but at least I would have the initiative next turn, right? I played Scarlet Witch, Mistress of Chaos, who was holding the fort with Rick Jones. Care to take a guess what his 5-drop was? He recruited Paul Ebersol ◊ Techno, Man of Metal, getting back Hero’s Demise. And that was the beating that I received on the last round of Day 2. What a way to go out.
If you’ve ever been in position to possibly get ninth at a cut to Top 8, you know what I was going through. Not only that, but this time it was for the PC. It’s funny how things you say come back to haunt you. I distinctly remember saying, “If I get ninth at the PC, I’ll be like, ‘Man! That sucks!’ and then do a happy dance because I just pulled like seven G’s.” Well, I can tell you that that was not at all the case as I waited for about half an hour for the standings to be announced with my guts churning. I mean, I was pretty sure I was in, since I was third going into that round and I had just lost the first seed, but there’s always that doubt in the back of your mind that gnaws away at you. Maybe it was compounded by the fact that I tend to get X+1 place when the cut is to Top X.
Finally, they start announcing the seeds. I hear, “Fourth place . . . Karl Horn,” and a handful of people go nuts while the rest of the crowd is like, “Who is that?” Whew, Top 8—I got in. I’m playing on Day 3. So now what? Let’s go eat! My roomies and I decided that Buca sounded pretty good, so we made our way over there for dinner on me. I did my best to consume all the food we ordered, but in the end, I came up short. We just got way too much for the four of us to even stand a chance.
After dinner we headed back to the hotel and . . . went drinking? Playtested matchups? Memorized decklists? No, absolutely not—I was exhausted, and I crashed. Adam, Phimus, and Heath went back down to the site and were nice enough to test a little for me. It was at this time that one of the bystanders watching the testing asked, “There’s a 7-drop Thing in the deck?”
Top 8
I woke up the next morning, and Adam informed me of the Thing situation. We headed down to the tournament site and went about the process of trying to get my physical decklist. The judges were having some problems finding it, so I went in search of a Marvel Team-Up just in case I had listed my deck as it was on the website. I made my way over to the vendor’s booth pick up the card.
In the time while I was gone, my list was found. Prosak had lingered behind to look at it in my absence, and upon figuring out that it was different from the actual deck I was playing, he informed Paul Ross of the mix-up. Paul told him that because it was the Top 8, they could not retroactively give me a game loss. Because I was not checked on Day 1 (where I would have received a loss), I would not be penalized, but I would have to play the deck as it was on paper. Prosak then relayed the bad news to me, and I made the change. Bad times—that was my favorite addition to the deck, but I would not be able to play it. The deck was still fine; I would just have to remember that I didn’t have Thing to bail me out.
I started off my day with my quarterfinal match against Hans. The first thing he asks is if I want to negotiate any kind of split. To be honest, I was taken aback and replied that I hadn’t really even thought about it. I guess that’s something one should consider at that point, but all I was thinking was that I would be walking away with at least $7,500, probably more, so splitting didn’t really interest me.
He won the die-roll and chose the odd initiatives, which was a bad beat for me because I wanted those, especially since I wanted to play Psimon on turn 7 before he could recruit and I didn’t have Thing anymore to make him pick up everybody except for Golden Archer and Albert Gaines ◊ Nuke. Nothing could be done about it, so I drew my cards and we started up the match.
The game was a close one. He missed his drop on turn 1, but afterwards, his deck did what it wanted to—beat down fast and hard. However, I was able to keep myself alive, search for the Power Compressor, and stall the rest game out until Psimon hit play. Once that happened, it was just a matter of time.
On to game 2. I had a less than stellar draw where I was unable to tutor up a Robot Sentry to halt his Shape, so he unloaded on me on turn 2. I think I took 17 points of endurance loss. On turn 3, still no Sentry, and I was at about 14 already. Turn 4 came around, and I played Doom. His recruit was Archer from the resource row, replacing it with the last card from his hand. I responded, making sure to say “in response to the recruit effect,” by returning Alfred to my hand to get Reign and Reigning his Shape. He let this resolve.
About a minute later, after some staring at the board, I saw something that I couldn’t believe I was witnessing. Looking over at the judge, I knew that he’d seen it, too. He went over to the other side of the table, looked at what was in Hans’s hand, and then looked at the face-down card. He then went over to consult with the other judges.
Hans’s explanation was that he thought the replacement was part of the chain and that he could put Shape down instead of his Answer the Call. After much consulting, the judge came back and issued the penalty of DQ without prize. Hans appealed, and after more deliberation, Paul Ross upheld the decision. I made sure it was alright to pick up my deck, collect my things, and storm off.
I wasn’t looking forward to my semifinal match against Dalton. I hadn’t tested the matchup at all and didn’t want to play against another deck that had Doom in it. Not only that, but I wasn’t really sure how to proceed with the match. I had to go with the “curve after turn 4” option, because 7-drop Thing just houses me. He’s going to own me anyway, but I can at least lessen the pain if I curve out. Basically, the plan is to live long enough to boost Dr. Light.
If you want the specifics about the match, you can find them in the PC: LA coverage. Game 1 went pretty much as according to plan until Dr. Doom, Victor Von Doom hit the table. I wasn’t teamed-up with Fearsome Five at this point, and I wouldn’t be unless I could get the 6-drop stunned . . . and I was worried about Diabolic Genius. Fortunately for me, he left Doom unprotected on turn 8, and I was able to team attack with Dr. Light and Psimon and flip my team-up. A boosted Dr. Light on turn 9 got the scoop.
Game 2 was pretty rough, as I missed on turn 1 and had no Marvel Knights to play in the first three turns, which meant I could not hit Glorious Godfrey because I had no way to flip my Midnight Sons. Predictably, Dalton wrecked me with Flame Trap, which was basically the game at that point unless he missed horribly on the next few turns.
Game 3 did not go so well for him, as he had Boris as his only play through the first three turns. Once again, my deck went off like clockwork all the way through turn 8, when we had Silver Surfer wars. My board position was perfect, so he scooped.
Oh my god! Finals of the PC! Please don’t let it be another Common Enemy deck—that was not a fun match. I already had a pounding headache from the last one.
After a brief respite from gaming, I find out that Sohnle was the winner of the other semifinal and that I didn’t have to slog my way through another CE matchup. While this sounded good and all, the fact of the matter was that I was now faced with yet another deck that I hadn’t tested against at all. Obviously, my Doom and Reigns were excellent against him, but I wasn’t really sure what to do afterward or what initiative I wanted to have. I went in with the plan of taking the odds so that Psimon would just lock the game on turn 7.
Dean won the die roll and chose evens. Woot! I didn’t even have to win to get the initiative I wanted. On games 1 and 2, I got excellent draws and was able to stall the games for Psimon and the win.
For game 3, Sohnle took the odds since the evens didn’t exactly work out for him the first two. My draw this game was sub-par, but I still should have won. Remember me saying I never read cards? True to form, I didn’t read Personal Force Field, and it cost me the game because I didn’t think I could use Dr. Light to stun Mr. Fantastic, Stretch. I’m sure everybody who is reading this knows what it does, but I’ll go ahead and explain it anyway. It gives the equipped character +3 DEF and reinforcement, and says that that character cannot be the target of plot twists. Well, I thought it couldn’t be targeted, period. Hee haw! I should probably start reading cards, eh?
After losing the game, I decided to take a break. I had been gaming for quite a while now, and I just needed a little time to regain my composure.
A few minutes later, I sat back down at the table and chose the odd initiatives again. My draw was insane. I hit Alfred and was unsure what to tutor for because I had almost everything I could possibly need. Sounds great so far, right? It’s about this time that I learned that I did want the even initiative in this matchup. Like I said, everything was looking amazing, and I got my ideal draw . . . so what went wrong? Turn 6 is what happened—he just went off with Stretch and Thing, Ben Grimm. He was able to throw his equipment at my 1-drops, which just wrecked me. I was able to use them in response, but I really wanted them on the table to power my Dr. Light. He drew lots of Flamethrowers, and I could do nothing to stop the burn.
Well, that was certainly an eye opener. As far as I could see, aside from a horrible draw on my part, that was pretty much the only way he was going to beat me, so I vowed that I wouldn’t let that happen. This time, I switched it up and took the even initiatives so that I could stun Stretch with Dr. Light.
I presented my deck and looked at the top four cards. Here they are: two copies of Alfred, Robot Sentry, and Power Compressor. Dear lord, what do I do? I once again have turn 1 Alfred but no plot twists, and even if I do draw one, I might not be able to use him until turn 3. But if I draw a team-up, I should be fine, as both the Sentry and Compressor are amazing against him. I agonize over the decision for a while and decide that I can’t keep it. $40,000 is on the line and I don’t want to lose because I kept a hand that could have been nuts. I mulligan into another great draw and things go exactly as planned. Turn 6 comes around and I hurriedly tutor up Dr. Light and use him immediately to stop any Stretch nonsense. I also have two Press the Attacks to stun more of his guys and counter any attempted equipment.
Turn 7 was his initiative, so I was still a little nervous, but I still had Dr. Light to stop any potential burn from equipment. He drew into his one Dr. Light, Master of Holograms and recruited it. He then spent another resource point to attempt to put a Flamethrower on it. I responded by exhausting my Doom and discarding a card to Entangle to exhaust his Dr. Light. The reason I did this rather than going for the immediate stun is because he had a copy of Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards in his KO’d pile with Invisible Woman, The Invisible Girl already in play, and I was afraid that if I tried to stun with my Dr. Light, he would simply activate his in turn to bring back Reed and flip a A Child Named Valeria to prevent the stun. By using Entangle first, I could respond to his Dr. Light activation with my own, ensuring the stun. Surviving this turn was the game, as I was able to recruit Psimon on my initiative next turn to keep him from playing any more characters.
Needless to say, I was ecstatic when I won, but I still can’t believe it really happened. I’ve actually started reading Vs. System websites and looking at my picture almost every day, and every day I’m shocked to see that it’s still there. If you made it through this whole report, I’m both honored and disbelieving. This thing is like 8000+ words! Sorry about that—stuff just kept coming. The last thing I will do is a props section. Not sure if people still do that, but in my day that was the norm, and I’m sticking to it.
PROPS
- Neil Reeves, for cheering me up after the quarterfinals.
- Phimus Pan, for being there and making me look forward to the trip even more than I already was. Way to go with those Ahabs! Oh, and you owe me Betrayals, suckah! Here’s to more good times in Atlanta (raises his cup).
- Adam Prosak, for testing with me even though he already had his deck ready. Also, for being back in Cincy (you should stay after you graduate!) and being a gamer extraordinaire. I definitely enjoy gaming more since you’ve been back and I’m better at it because of you. By the way, we knew Prosak way before he had his Vs. success and were his friends before there was such a thing as “barns.” Oh, and thanks for believing in me more than I believed in myself. The day might come where I don’t think of myself as a “hee haw,” but I wouldn’t count on it.
- Heath Scheiman, for the iPod suggestion and the amazing hotel room across from the tourney site.
- Prakash Madhav, for letting me borrow cards (yeah, I still don’t have the complete deck) and going out to a celebratory dinner after I won.
- Ken Hagen, for being another person to have confidence in me even though I can’t muster it in myself. You’ve always told me that I could and should be doing this and I appreciate it. You really need to find that new job so you can game with us more often. Wish you could’ve been there.
- Jason Hager, Matt Oldaker, and Anthony Justice, for rooting me on in the Top 8. OK, maybe you were cheering for the deck, but most of the people I knew had left, and it was still good to have some support. Thanks for the deck, too. I’m glad I could take it down with New School.
Done . . . no, really . . . peace out.