Mighty Oaks from Little Acorns Grow, pt1 (UK Nationals Tourney Report)

MIGHTY OAKS FROM LITTLE ACORNS GROW

 

The above title pretty much sums up the UK Nationals. It started off as a casual statement along the lines of, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to have a National Championship like they have on the MtG scene’, then it was thirty or so people, a venue and a handful of prizes provided by myself, Steve Garrett and Jason Howlett (trophy, playmat and EA bundle respectively). Finally with only a couple of days to go before the tourney we had a hatful of great surprises.

1)      Registration reached 49 people

2)      UDE Europe came up trumps with 25 T-Shirts, 16 Playmats, Hulk Trophies and more EA’s

3)      UDE’s Ben Seck informs us that the top 8 finishers will all receive invites to the World Championships

 

Here is an account of the event from the perspective of the guys and gals of Team Demon.

 

We headed up on the train from Maidstone to Euston, leaving early to ensure that we were amongst the first to arrive. There had been no team decisions with regards decks, each of the players had made a personal choice and then spent 2-3 weeks playing in our weekly events, fine tuning and tweaking.

Deck choices were as follows:

·         Graham Beadle – GLEE ‘Jack of all Lanterns, Master of None’

·         Amy Chizlett – Inhumans/Heralds

·         David Moakes – Secret Society ‘Grodd Control’

·         Ben Waghorn – JLA/JLI ‘Good Guys’

·         Jack Rutter – ‘Big Brotherhood’

·         Nathan Greenwood – JLA Curve

·         Holly Humphrey – Hellboy Lone Visible

·         Tommy Gibson – Hellboy Lone Visible

·         Vince Newman – Squadron ‘Chicken Supreme’

I’ve posted the reasons for my choice of deck in my Blog, although I failed to mention my growth of a ‘facial construct’ to improve personal affinity with my deck.

 

Tube closures meant that we were delayed a little on the underground and it turns out that Russell Square station was nearer to our new venue than where we actually got off, at Euston, but we did encounter the Loughborough guys en route as we traipsed past the original venue, The County Hotel.

Ten Strong they were the largest team of players at the event, with their numbers including some Realms regulars (Lord of Limbo and Bungo Underhill). All decked out in House of Heroes yellow T-Shirts they were fairly easy to pick out from the crowd.

 

After arriving at the venue, The Royal National Hotel, we set up shop, laid out the prizes, awaiting the arrival of the TO, Jason Howlett. This time proved handy as I got the chance to meet up with some familiar faces and put faces to a number of names previously encountered only by means of the internet. We eventually kicked off the tournament at around 12.30, with eight rounds of swiss and a top 8 to look forward to.

 

The final number of entrants was 47. A number of players who had pre-registered were unable to make it, however, a few of those places were taken by players who hadn’t. The biggest disappointment was the lack of turnout from the top players from the hay day of Vs System in the UK, so there was no Ian Vincent, Tim Willoughby, Simon O’Keefe, Duncan Tang, Karl Bown or Thomas Reeves. This was a shame, as although the attendance was better than originally anticipated, their no show took a little of the prestige away from the event.

 

Round 1 vs Nick Garver (Secret Society Grodd Control)
My first round opponent Nick, was one of the ten players from the House of Heroes in Loughborough. The proprietor of that establishment informs me that he is affectionately known as the hobbit as he used to turn up at the shop without shoes, a habit he has since been steered away from. Nick was playing a SS build, similar to the one I had won with at the London City Champs, the decklist is listed below:

1 x Doomsday – Engine of Destruction

1 x Gorilla Grodd – Psionic Simian

1 x Mr Freeze – Cold Blooded

1 x Deathstroke the Terminator – Killing Machine

3 x Black Manta – Underworld Marauder

1 x Sinestro – Yellow Lantern

4 x Gorilla Grodd – Grodd Awfall

4 x Poison Ivy – Intoxicating

2 x Dr. Psycho – Demented Dwarf

1 x Charaxes – Moth Monster

1 x Deadshot – Floyd Lawton

4 x Dr Sivana – Mad Scientist

3 x Cheetah – Barbara Minerva

1 x The Riddler – Riddle me This

1 x Chemo – Toxic

1 x Dr Polaris – Polar Opposite

–

4 x Path of Destruction

4 x Straight to the Grave

4 x Master Plan

4 x Forced Conscription

4 x Unnatural Selection

3 x Coup d’etat

3 x Monkey See Monkey Do

–

2 x Gorilla City

1 x Hidden HQ

1 x Remote Facility

 

Nick informed me that he had only received the deck that morning from team mate Dave ‘Bungo Underhill’ Pyrah. This would account for his slow play as he seemed unsure with regards some of the decision making, he also needs some tips on keeping his relevant board areas (resource, support, attack rows and KO’d pile) more clearly defined.

During the game I pretty much hit the god draw, setting up an early chopblock lock, facilitated by Nick missing his 2-drop whilst I went Salakk (T1), Kyle (L.Armor + Chop Block on Salakk T2), Boosted Olapet + Gnort (T4). Although the game was always close on END the game was never really close in reality. Nick was a likeable opponent with a somewhat quirky playing style, although he made no obvious mistakes in our match. He then proceeded to win his next 5 games after this defeat, going to 5-1 before losing his last 2 to finish 5-3.      1-0

Round 2 vs Steve ‘Kamiza’ Garrett (Marvel Knight ‘Punisher Guns Blazing’)

Bit of a grudge match this. I’d done the double over Steve at the London City champs, beating his Super Troopers with my aforementioned Grodd deck, in both the swiss and the Final. On this particular day we had two very different decks going head to head, my Lanterns against his Frank Castle led Marvel Knights.

The game swung hugely in Steve’s favour when he used a Finishing Move on Olapet. After this point he dropped Frank, who, with his two weapons, always causes headaches. Dropping Ghost Rider on turn 6 meant he could then amass enough burn for the win, despite me having Sinestro. Also, a second Helping Hand at my disposal at this point (turn 6) seriously could have changed things, but just having the one meant game to Steve.  1-1

Steve’s deck is listed below:

4 Punisher, Suicide Run
4 Daredevil, Fearless Survivor
4 Marvel Boy, noh-Varr
2 Morbius, Biochemical Bloodsucker
1 Cloak, Shadow Master
4 Punisher, Guns Blazing
1 Wolverine, Covert Predator
1 Captain America, Loyal Patriot
1 Moon Knight, Knight of Khonshu
2 Vengeance, Spirit of Vengeance
1 Hulk, Savage Hulk
1 Ghost Rider, Spirit of Vengeance
1 Punisher, Angel of Death4 Wild Ride
4 Mobilize
4 Savage Beatdown
4 Devastating Blow
4 Finishing Move
2 Bring the Pain

4 Desert Eagle
4 Katana
3 M60s

 

Round 3 vs Helen Cope (Fantastic 4 ‘Family of Four’)
I had seen during the first round that Helen was playing a Family of Four build which, in testing, had been almost an auto lose for my deck. Unfortunately for Helen today was one of those days when the gaming gods were either looking favourably on me or dumping on her from a great height. Missed drops, underdrops combined with me hitting the perfect drop on every turn, including the Light Armor and Chopping Block, meant that Helen never saw more than two characters, and she only saw that for one turn in the whole game. Nigh on a walkover, but with no real satisfaction in the victory.            2-1

Helens Deck:
4 x Invisible Woman – Walking on air

4 x Human Torch – Matchstick

4 x Mr Fantastic – String Bean

1 x Invisible Woman – First Lady of the Fantastic Four

4 x Thing – Idol O’ Millions

2 x Human Torch – Nova Blast

2 x Mr Fantastic – Critical Thinker

1 x Invivible Woman – Sight Unseen

3 x Thing – Heavy Hitter

1 x Human Torch – Flame On!

1 x Invisible Woman – Shield of the Four

1 x Thing – Ever Lovin’ Blue Eye’d Thing

1 x Silver Surfer – Norrin Radd

–

4 x Savage Beatdown

4 x Family of Four

4 x It’s Clobberin’ Time

3 x Force Field Projection

4 x Mobilize

4 x Signal Flare

1 x Torch And Thing

1 x Reed and Sue

1 x Only Human

–

4 x Four Freedoms Plaza

 

By now we’d got over the disappointment of there being no bar on site at the venue. We’d found a pub next door to the event and as my deck tended to win or lose quickly was able to nip off for a pint of Abbot between each round…yum!

 

Will continue the report in part 2 which I’ll post on Friday. Tomorrow = Another QQ Article from Gary.