All Monkeys are French, pt2

Game 3:
Nathan Greenwood (Future Pro) playing Masters of Evil Swarm
First up this game feature needs me to say a little something about Nathan. Nathan is, to the best of my knowledge only 13 years of age yet is one of the top Yugioh! players within the county of Kent, and current leader of the Maidstone Yugioh! player of the year race. However, Nathans biggest problem when it comes to Vs. is himself. I genuinely thinks he expects to translate the same sort of success into this game straight away. Despite only having played in three tournaments to date using decks that cost under £10 ($21) he has placed mid table in each of the events he has played in, no small feat. He also has a good grasp of the rules although not as of yet all the nuances of timing, formation and the like.  What he doesn’t have though is any confdence. He was bemoaning his deck, playing ability and drawing as early as turn 2 and by turn 3 was concvinced that defeat was already secured. This is a real shame because he could become a really decent player with just a little belief. It didn’t help that he missed drops whereas I curved perfectly. The game wasn’t close at any point despte the scores finishing -7 to 11.
2-1

Game 4:
Ben Waghorn (No Problem) playing JLA/JLI Good Guys
This was a matchup that I wasn’t looking forward to, not because my deck would particularly struggle in it but because my personal record against Good Guys was about 1-6! However my fears were unfounded as curved perfectly again, whereas Ben went nothing, Maxwell, nothing, nothing, Batman (on which I played Coup D’Etat), another 5 drop (again Coup D’Etat). Final Scores -16 to 38 (9 of which was me reusing Black Manta)
3-1

My tiebreaks at this point were dependant on a game between James Warrener and David Moakes. If David won I would bag 2nd place if James won Amy (also 3-1) would secure 2nd. Fortunately for me David’s X-Men were able to fight their way past James’ X-Men. Jack won the tournament going 4-0

What did I learn from the day.

1) The deck isn’t as bad as I thought against off curve
2) I need to ask Dan Abnett to make Nova a bit shittier in the comics so future cards aren’t as good. Dan (Warhammer novels, Sinister Dexter, Superman Confidential, Nova, Annihilation Conquest, soon to be on The Authority) is a regular in our shop.
3) I love stealing characters, making them ‘My Monkeys’
4) The deck will do just fine in Silver Age, though I’ll run 3 copies of Anarchy in that.
5) Some games even initiaive may be a better call, playing the Monkey see earlier. I’ve been taking odds up till now whenever possible.
6) This will be my deck for the upcoming Silver Age City Champs in London (16th February)

After the main event five of us played in a side event with three of us changing deck. I went 2-1 with one of my wins coming via the bye. Piloting An old school My Beloved deck I should have won my first match, ‘forgetting’ to play Tower of Babel allowing my opponent, David, now running IG Handfill, to hit me up for a lot with 2 All Too Easy’s. Amy won the event, going 3-0 with her Avengers Reservist, David (2-1) was second, with me in third (2-1).

All Monkeys are French, pt1

Tournament Report
Grinning Demon Monthly
Golden Age Constructed
Style and Winch, 28th January 2007

I’d been playing around with Grodd in a non biblical sense since the release of DCL so after giving the deck its first run out in the weekly event the previous Tuesday, with great success (5-0), I plumped on running it in the slightly more prestigious Grinning Demon Monthly.

In testing on MWS the deck had shown three key weaknesses, off curve decks were problematic if you didn’t hit either Anarchy or a couple of Unnatural Selections, low drop hidden characters were the bane of the decks existence with regards to good use of Monkey SeeMonkey Do and as for stall…just ugly, unless they missed low drops.

ALL MONKEYS ARE FRENCH
1 Cheetah, Barbara Minerva
1 Dr.Polaris, Polar Opposite
2 Manhunter Clone, Clone of Paul Kirk
3 Charaxes, Moth Monster
2 Deadshot, Floyd Lawton
2 Dr.Psycho, Demented Dwarf
3 Poison Ivy, Intoxicating
4 Gorilla Grodd, Grodd Awful
1 Sinestro, Yellow Lantern
1 Poison Ivy, Kiss of Death
1 Black Manta, Underwater Marauder
1 Scarecrow, Fearmonger
1 Darkseid, Destroyer of Life
1 Mr.Freeze, Cold Blooded
1 Deathstroke the Termonator, Killing Machine
1 Mark Desmond<>Blockbuster, Mindless Brute
1 Psycho Pirate, Roger Hayden

3 Slaughter Swamp
3 Gorilla City

2 Coup D’Etat
1 Flying Kick
3 Forced Conscription
2 Master Plan
2 Meltdown
3 Mobilize
2 Monkey See, Monkey Do
1 No Man escapes the Manhunters
2 Savage Beatdown
3 Sorcerors Treasure
4 Straight to the Grave
1 Total Anarchy
3 Unnatural Selection

The deck was not as I would have liked it as a few cards I had ordered online hadn’t turned up.

I would have run one of the 1 drop Chemo over a Manhunter Clone, four Monkey See, taking out two of the utility slots (No Man, Meltdown) and lose the Anarchy for another Unnatural Selection. My SA version of the deck runs three copies of Anarchy, which is fine, whereas one copy just aint worth it.

Game 1:
David Moakes (The Bear) playing X-Babies

David has been playing around with either X-Babies or various Hellfire team-up decks for quite a while now, so I didn’t particularly relish playing him first up as either of those deck types would be guaranteed to cause me difficulty. As it turns out he was running the following X-Babies build.

X-Babies
 2 Multiple Man<>Jamie Madrox, Army
6 Multiple Man, Army
1 Jubilee, Mallrat
1 Shadowcat, Phaseshifter
3 Blink, Exile
1 Lockheed, Saurian Sidekick
1 Bishop, Lucas Bishop
1 Cannonball, Blast Field
2 Cyclops, Slim
2 Dazzler, Rock Star
1 Longshot, Hero of Mojoworld
1 Jean Grey, Teen Telepath
1 Forge, Inventor Extraordinaire
1 Gambit, Swamp Rat
1 Sunfire, Rising Sun
1 Banshee, Sean CAssidy
1 Xorn, Shen Xorn
2 Nightcrawler, Man of the Cloth
2 Cable, Nathan Summers

3 Birthing Chamber
3 Xavier’s Institute for Higher Learning 2 Ego Gem
2 Blackbird Blue

1 X-Men Assemble
2 Poker Night
2 Bodyslide
2 Angel of Mercy
4 Ultimate Sacrifice
4 Fastball Special
4 Bamf!

Now although this isn’t necessarily how I’d build a Golden Age X-Babies deck, the build has proven fairly solid in previous events. I was relieved that David was in the same boat as me with 3 X-Men Assemble’s still in transit from the States.

I won the toss and took odds and over the first three turns we recruited Manhunter Clone, Deadshot and Ivy for me (with Ivy fetching a Dr.Polaris from the KO’d pile), Blink, Bishop, Gambit and Blackbird Blue for David. During the combat of round 3 I exhausted Gambit by KOing Polaris, ran Ivy into Bishop without stunning back and team Deadshot and Manhunter Clone into Blink, as she now had counters from the X-Men Assemble. Blink stunned Deadshot back and I evaded Clone after the attack. All was going well up till this point as I now outnumbered a swarm deck.
Turn 4 saw David laying just a Nightcrawler and Multiple Man, whereas I laid Grodd and for a reason as of yet undetermined played Meltdown in my build phase rather than waiting for attack declarations. However the combat phase went well, Ivy fetched a Dr.P then David played Bamf! attacking Blink and Nightcrawler into Grodd. I responded by evading with the clone and KOing Ivy with Grodds effect, putting 10+ cards in the ko’d pile allowing me to activate Deadshots ability on Nightcrawler, Blink thus bounced off Grodd harmlessly, allowing him to retaliate with an attack into Multiple Man which was reinforced by Gambit. Turn 5 saw me popping Charaxes and Dr.Psycho onto the board, even though I had Black Manta in hand, the reasoning being I could dispose of the annoying Blink and have the fuek to Coup D’Etat any 2-drop that Dave recruited. The plan worked perfectly with David getting out a Sunfire but not his Dazzler. After a birthing chamber activation and equipping Sunfire with an Ego Gem David passed for my attacks, Dr.Psycho activated to deal with the now sizeable Blink, Grodd stunned Sunfire whilst Polaris Flying Kicked into Gambit and Manhunter Clone Savage beatdowned into Multiple Man. Lots of damage dealt, yet I felt downhearted upon seeing Ultimate Sacrifice in the recovery phase.
Turn 6 and with David recruiting Cyclops, Cable and an ego gem his board presence was beginning to look ominous. I underdropped a Black Manta getting a Forced Conscription back from the ko’d pile.  All of Daves attacks were either reinforced orr team attacks so although he took down Charaxes and Black Manta he took stuns back and lost a Multiple Man to Psycho, who was in turn taken down by Gambits effect.
Turn 7 was avey one sided affair with Mark Desmond coming into play with a Longshot and Multiple Man the only opposing recruits. With a flying kick back from the ko’d pile I was able to disrupt his formation and pile on the breakthrough. Game over -2 to 22, inflicting 29 damage in the turn compared to the loss of 1 for myself.
1-0

Game 2:
Jack Rutter (Giabntkiller) playing Defenders Backup
Rather than break down the game with another blow by blow I’m going to bulletpoint this match.

1) This was a rematch of a very close fought game in a tournament the previous Tuesday, which I won.
2) We both missed our 1 drop, Jack then curved through to 8, whereas I underdropped on 2 then curved till 8
3) Nova plus the order hurts when you have Grodd and Manta on the field, especially when your Monkey See nets you a goddamn Beast.
4) Turns 2 through 6 were all Jack.
5) With Psycho Pirate ready to recruit from the ko’d pile on 8, turn 7 saw my only chance. I had a unnatural selection in the ko’d pile that i could retrieve with Manta so I needed to take down Hulk with Blockbuster. I attacked, he responded with Defenders defend, i flying kicked, he defender defends, i ko cheetah, he defender defends. I’m forced to retrieve a savage just to get the stun. With no means of koing hulk, turn 8 is a loss for me if he can get another 7 drop or the 8 drop Dr.Strange.
6) He has Dr.Strange
7) Giantkiller lives up to his name, he was the first person to beat me in a monthly Maidstone event and then becomes the first player from the Maidstone playgroup to beat me in a monthly event for 4 months.
1-1