Minnesota Mega-Weekend Coverage

The Minneapolis crew DOMINATED the event, with each of them going 3-1.  In fact, the three Minneapolis players combined had more wins than all five St. Cloud players combined (well, the four St. Cloud players and me).  Yikes!  After four rounds, the top two seeds (Martie and Paul) played it out for the championship, with the win – and the sweet playmat – going to Paul Madden.

Here’s a player-by-player analysis of the event:

Martin Lieser
X-Statix

Martie (on the right) always plays some variant of X-Statix.  At last year’s Gen Con it was his BYOT team of choice, though it was decked out with Fartifacts.  Obviously the Fartifacts weren’t legal in the Origins Block, so we had to tweak the deck.  Here’s what we came up with:

4x Phat, William Reilly
4x Orphan, Guy Smith
4x Spider-Man, Zombie
2x U-Go-Girl, Tragic Teleporter
4x Battering Ram, Short-Lived Strongman
4x Zeitgeist, Axel Cluney
3x Anarchist, Man of the People
2x Doop, Ultimate Weapon
1x Imperiex, The Beginning and the End

4x X-Statix Cafe
4x X-Statix HQ

4x Spin Doctoring
4x Dead Weight
4x Acrobatic Dodge
4x Call in a Favor
3x Star of the Show
3x Pleasant Distraction
2x Flame Trap

There are a couple of changes to the standard build.  The first is the inclusion of Spider-Man, Zombie.  He works pretty well with X-Statix.  Normally all your effects turn off when you control more than one character; but since the Zombie leaves play every Combat Phase, that’s not an issue.  It’s also perfect that he’s a four drop because he can get out of the way of your Orphan 3 drop, who grows with the turns.  Zombie can be used turns 4, 5, and 6 before Anarchist blows him up to make way for a turn 9 Imperiex.

You’ll also notice the deck is HEAVY on the defensive pumps.  We were worried that people would show up with TNB decks and wreak havoc.  We also needed a way to compensate for the unfettered damage this deck takes on turn one and two.

After the tournament we realized that if the Pleasant Distractions had been Have a Blasts, this deck probably would have taken the title (instead of second).  Have a Blast would have been brutal in this Block because Fat Bat, New School, Common Enemy, and Big Brotherhood all rely HEAVILY on their rows.  And it would have been very good against TNB (had it shown up).  Pleasant Distraction used to be killer in X-Statix, but now seems redundant with the Zombie in the mix.

Paul Madden
Common Enemy

Paul and Martie (left and right) love the Common Enemy Vs. X-Statix stall-a-thon, so we assembled Paul a Common Enemy build to play.  It was very traditional.  Here’s the list:

4x Boris, Personal Servant of Doom
3x Human Torch, Johnny Storm
3x She-Thing, Sharon Ventura
3x She-Hulk, Jennifer Walters
2x Mr. Fantastic, Flexible Thinker
4x Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius
1x Invisible Woman, Sue Storm
2x Thing, Heavy Hitter
1x Robot Destroyer, Army
2x Dr. Doom, Victor Von Doom
1x Hulk, New Fantastic Four
1x Sub-Mariner, Ally of Doom
1x Thing, The Ever-Lovin’ Blue-Eyed Thing
1x Silver Surfer, Norrin Radd

4x Doomstadt
4x Common Enemy
4x Signal Flare
4x Reign of Terror
4x Mystical Paralysis
4x It’s Clobberin’ Time
3x Faces of Doom
2x Flame Trap
2x Flying Kick

I think the only “change” to the deck was the inclusion of Flexible Thinker as the backup three drop (over Thing).  This build was very successful at the tournament, going 3-1 and taking the top spot.  Over and over throughout the event I kept hearing shouts like, “#$%^ Reign of Terror, seriously!”

Eric Madden
Fat Bat

Eric (on the left) is our Wunderkind Vs. player that comes up with the weirdest, yet most effectual designs ever.  He loves decks that make you think.  It was for this reason that I forced him to play one of my old favorite decks: “Fat Bat”.  He wanted Teen Titans, but we only had enough for one copy, and Rob (on the right) had already “dibbsed” that one!

13x GCPD Officer, Army
4x Alfred Pennyworth, Faithful Friend
1x Commissioner Gordon, Lieutenant Gordon
1x Harvey Bullock, GCPD Detective
1x Spoiler, Stephanie Brown
1x Ant Man, Scott Lang
4x Invisible Woman, The Invisible Girl
4x Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards
1x Barbara Gordon <> Oracle, Information Network
2x Batman, The Dark Knight

2x Utility Belt
2x Catcher’s Mitt

4x Bat-Signal
4x Fizzle
4x Cosmic Radiation
4x A Child Named Valeria
2x World’s Finest
2x Marvel Team-Up
2x Press the Attack
1x Blind Sided
1x Team Tactics

The only change from the “classic” build is the addition of Catcher’s Mitts over Crowd Controls, and the addition of Commissioner Gordon from the starter  (not sure what we cut for that!).

The play of the day came against the very deck that Eric wanted to play with: Teen Titans.  Titans flipped up Argus to dig for a Terra on turn four.  Success!  However, Fat Bat soon had two Utility Belts on table: one to stop Argus’ effect; the other to stop Terra’s.  With Argus preventing Titan’s draw, and Terra unable to replace it, Teen Titans could never draw again from turn four onward!

Rob Bartell
Teen Titans

Rob’s love for Titans knows no bounds.  He’s always willing to play a game of Vs. against you (as long as you’re willing to lose to Titans!).  We left Rob’s build largely the same as he always plays it, with the exception that his Betrayals came out for Have a Blasts as a meta choice:

4x Dawn Granger<> Dove, Agent of Order
1x Roy Harper <> Speedy, Mercurial Marksman
1x Pantha, Subject X-24
4x Tim Drake <> Robin, Young Detective
2x Hank Hall <> Hawk, Agent of Chaos
4x Roy Harper <> Arsenal, Sharpshooter
2x Beastboy, Garfield Logan
4x Terra, Tara Markov
1x Red Star, Leonid Kovar
4x Garth <> Tempest, Atlantean Sorcerer
1x Connor Kent <> Superboy, Tactile Telekinetic
1x Koriand’r <> Starfire, Alien Princess

3x USS Argus
3x Optitron
3x Tamaran
2x Titans Tower

4x Finishing Move
4x Teen Titan’s Go!
3x Press the Attack
3x Savage Beatdown
3x Have a Blast
3x Heroic Sacrifice

Adam Loius
New School

4x Dagger, Child of Light
4x Micro-Chip, Linus Leiberman
4x Alfred Pennyworth, Faithful Friend
1x Boris, Personal Servant of Dr. Doom
3x Robot Sentry, Army
1x Shimmer, Selinda Flinders
1x Lacuna, Media Darling
4x Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius
1x Cloak, Child of Darkness
1x Glorious Godfrey, Persuader
2x Dr. Light, Arthur Light
1x Spider-Man, The Spectacular Spider-Man
1x Psimon, Dr. Simon Jones
1x Silver Surfer, Norrin Radd

1x Power Compressor

4x Bat-Signal
4x Wild Ride
4x Mystical Paralysis
4x Reign of Terror
4x Midnight Sons
4x Marvel Team-Up
1x Millennium
2x Entangle
2x Press the Attack
1x Fizzle

This is the deck everyone was worried about because of it’s ability to tap your board all game and get out of combat stuns to finish you off.  Luckily for everyone else, it had one terrible draw, and one very surprising mismatch against Team Superman!

Scott Thompson
Phantom Phone Booth

So we have this friend - Jose (the guy frowning in the picture as I play his deck behind him!), who rarely plays Vs. because he’s out of practice.  But he promised he’d play if we built him a deck for the tournament.  His favorite character is Superman (as evident by his hoodie), and it just so happens that there is a “Jose” two drop on that team, so we built him the classic “Phantom Phone Booth” deck that was famous for having a great matchup against Sentinels (but little else).  Problem was, Jose slept through his alarm (and subsequent phone calls), so I chose to pilot his deck for him to bring the tournament count to an even number (I had originally intended not to play - only to run the event).  I could have played TNB or Sentinels, both of which were assembled (for two other players that had a little too much fun at a previous night’s bachelor party!), but Phantom Phone Booth was the first deck I ever assembled, so I thought it would be more fun than a Tier 1 deck.  Here’s the list:

4x Gangbuster, Jose Delgado
4x Superman, Red
2x Linda Danvers <> Supergirl, Matrix
4x Superman, Clark Kent
2x Alpha Centurion, Marcus Aeluis
3x Superman, Blue
3x Cir-El <> Supergirl, Daughter of Tomorrow
2x Kara Zor-El <> Supergirl, Last Daughter of Krypton
1x Superman, Kal-El
2x Eradicator, Soul of Krypton
1x Superman, False Son
2x Superman, Man of Steel

4x Cadmus Labs
4x Phantom Zone

4x Acrobatic Dodge
4x Cover Fire
4x Savage Beatdown
4x Man of Tomorrow
4x Super Speed
2x Flying High

Flying High was really the only card that was different from the original build, and I never got to play it once.  I also never drew a single copy of Super Speed the entire tournament (what are the odds?!).  Super Speed is pretty crucial for board control, so the fact that I never drew one is pretty indicative of my record (1-3); though one of my losses was by like 2 endurance!

I should also mention that I was up until 4AM the night before the tournament assembling 10 decks for this tournament (everyone in my playgroup shares a collection); then drove an hour away to work for four hours; drove an hour back to St. Cloud; and played in the tournament on no sleep.  This is another reason I chose a “fun” deck over a competitive one.

This deck’s one win was a pretty slick one.  Superman took down New School by constantly Phantom Zoning every character out of his KO’d pile (which totally neutered his Dr. Light end game).  Also, instead of curving, I put out Superman Blue on turns 5, 6, and 7; then boosted Cir-El on 8 and 9 to get three out of combat stuns each turn with my Blues!  Hilarious!

Joel Younkin
MKKO

4x Orb, Drake Shannon
2x Mikado and Mosha, Angels of Destruction
4x Iron Fist, Danny Rand
3x Werewolf by Night, Jack Russel
4x Elektra, Elektra Natchios
3x Skinner, Psychotic Shredder
4x Luke Cage, Street Enforcer
2x Yelena Belova <> Black Widow, Enemy Agent
2x Daredevil, Matt Murdock
2x Mephisto, Soulstealer
2x Natasha Romanoff <> Black Widow, KGB Killer

4x Weapon of Choice
4x Sucker Punch
4x Crushing Blow
4x Crime and Punishment
4x Cosmic Conflict
4x Swan Dive
4x Quick Kill

Joel went 1-3 with this deck, but that wasn’t entirely his fault.  Joel never plays Vs., but wanted to play cards with us, so we built him a simple combat deck.  Problem was, we never bothered to explain some of the finer points of the deck  For instance, I never mentioned until his final match how crucial Orb was to this build.  Joel was just using Orb as a +1 attack pump for the first three games because we told him it was an aggressive “attack deck”.  At the start of game four, when Joel faced me, I realized the error and explained to him that Orb not only turned extra characters into +4 attack pumps; but he also filled the grave (along with Skinner and Werewolf) with characters for a massive Mephisto swing.  Needless to say he won game four (and a few “for fun” games after that).

I should also mention that the Weapon of Choices were supposed to be Wild Rides; and even though everyone there was fine with proxies, Joel – ever the purist – played them as Weapon of Choices anyway; that being the case, one of his Natasha’s should have been a Dracula so that he could actually search on turn six.

Eric Tessier
Big Brotherhood

Eric went for a risky build of Big Brotherhood.  He went waaay top-heavy with his curve.  I think he thought the inclusion of Total Anarchy and Insignificant Threat could make up for having only 4x three drops and 4x four drops.  Pretty sure if he had to do this over, he’d run more threes and fours; especially because missing on turn three or four weakened the ability of Origin Story (A truly genius addition to the deck!).

4x Mystique, Raven Darkholme
4x Sabretooth, Feral Rage
4x Magneto, Eric Lensherr
4x Magneto, Ultimates
4x Mystique, Shape-Changing Assassin
4x Sabretooth, Victor Creed
4x Magneto, Master of Magnetism

4x Lost City
4x Avalon Space Station

4x Total Anarchy
4x Mega-Blast
4x Flying Kick
4x Insignificant Threat
4x Finishing Move
4x Origin Story

While watching Eric’s match against Joel, I saw Joel swing up the curve into Sabretooth (4) with a pump.  Eric powered-up to make Joel waste another pump.  Joel did, only to be met with an Insignificant Threat.  Brutal.

Final Standings:

The 3-1 guys:
Paul Madden
Martin Lieser
Eric Madden

The 2-2 guys:
Robert Bartell
Adam Louis

The 1-3 guys:
Eric Tessier
Joel Younkin
Scott Thompson

At least no one got skunked!  Thanks for reading guys and I hope everyone’s finding the Mega-Weekend closest to them!  If not, better check out this link to find the one nearest you:

http://s11.zetaboards.com/vssystem/topic/7362528/1/?x=10