Jaime Tachiyama sat down at the feature match table and started to shuffle up his deck. Halfway through, he reached down to pet his guide dog Trevor, who was sitting around looking a little bored. Trevor would likely have to be sitting around waiting for his master for a while longer, as Jaime went into the round at 6-2, meaning he would be drafting the next day.
Jaime is a pretty impressive player. Being blind, he has to have Braille sleeves for his cards in order to be able to tell what he has drawn each turn, but beyond that he plays just the same as everyone else. If you have ever tried to recall a formation after looking away for a beat, you can easily imagine what a memory it must take to go through entire games without being able to take in what is going on at a glance.
Jaime won the die roll, and elected to take the even initiative. Both players were happy with their opening four and the game was afoot.
Chris led off with Ape X, who fetched Cloak of Nabu, which the Ape put on before beating into Tachiyama’s empty board. For turn 2, after a little thought, Jaime went with Kelex, discarding Flamethrower and Dr. Fate, Hector Hall in order to find Dr. Fate’s Tower. Both players were looking to put together a set of Fate artifacts, and it looked like Jilot had the early advantage, as he flipped a Dr. Fate’s Tower of his own to find Amulet of Nabu, which went on his 1-drop along with Helm of Nabu. Chris then played Melissa Gold ◊ Songbird, Sonic Carapace and passed with her in the back.
With Ape X a 5 ATK/ 5 DEF monster in front, Tachiyama had no reasonable attacks, and had to pass, taking quite the beating and going down to 39. With the initiative on turn 3, Chris had Joystick and Shape, while Jaime flipped up his Fate’s Tower to get an Amulet of Nabu. He then played a visible Black Panther, King of Wakanda to complete his set, drawing 3 and discarding 3, before using his tower to turn his 3-drop into an 8/8. The battle was well and truly on.
Chris tried to beat in on Kelex from the back row with a powered-up Joystick, but was thwarted by Mikado and Mosha from Jaime. Next, he went in with Melissa Gold, and this time the mutual stun stuck. To take down Black Panther, Chris had to go for a team attack with his Shape and Ape X (with all the toys). Panacea Potion from Jilot saved his Shape, meaning that Chris would only lose Joystick for the turn, while Tachiyama had just his 4-drop with all the artifacts.
Chained to the draw, Chris used Answer the Call to find Golden Archer. Tachiyama played Fatality, Flawless Victory and passed. Chris played his Golden Archer, and equipped a new Amulet of Nabu, KO’ing the old one, in order to empty his hand. Fate’s Tower worked on each side of the board to move equipment over to 4-drops, and it was Jaime’s attack step.
Black Panther took down Ape X without consequence, then Fatality handily took care of Shape, making the board look very favorable for Jaime, while the endurance totals (now 34-31 to Jilot were pretty close.
Golden Archer beat in on Black Panther, scoring the KO and taking Jaime to 21, and it was on to turn 5.
At the start of the build phase, Jaime used Enemy of My Enemy to fetch John Henry Irons ◊ Steel, Steel-Drivin’ Man, then flipped it back down thanks to the Melissa Gold that remained in play for Jilot. Chris recruited Lady Lark, Linda Lewis from the resource row, placed her behind Golden Archer, and passed. For Tachiyama, Steel was his 5- drop, who gained a Flamethrower from the KO’d pile. Even with a fully ‘fated up’ Golden Archer, such a large 5-drop must have been a concern for Jilot. Both of Jaime’s characters sat back in the support row, and it was up to Chris to attack.
Both Lady Lark and Golden Archer attacked into Steel, who promptly burned Chris for 5 endurance and then KO’d the Flamethrower to power-up. He stunned Lady Lark (and KO’d thanks to Fatality), then got to crack back with Fatality into Melissa Gold. The endurance was 17 to 16 in Jilot’s favor, but suddenly Tachiyama’s board appeared massively superior.
On turn 6, when Dr. Fate, Hector Hall came out to play, and put on his full set of clothes, things looked very bleak for Jilot. Chris did a little math to work out if he had a shot, and finally had to scoop it up.
Jaime Tachiyama wins!
Following the match, I sat down to have a quick chat with Jaime about the one thing that I had been pondering throughout the match – how is drafting going to work? Jaime’s first response was to talk about how he was concerned about how over-drafted Morlocks might become; then with a smile he relented and explained that he would be sitting back from the table slightly with a judge reading him what cards are in the pack. From there he would make his picks, and, with some help from a judge, build his deck using a collection of pre-punched The X-Men cards in sleeves. From there, the game will continue as normal.
Given how important having a good memory for what everyone else has been passed is in draft, Jaime’s impressive memory seems likely to be his biggest asset at the tables tomorrow – where he is in position to do very well.