Post by clique84 on Sept 1, 2014 20:50:40 GMT -5
Sorry for the delay in my report, but I have had a whole lot of real life going on lately.
I’ll start out by saying how awesome it was to see everyone there. I enjoyed seeing everyone there, and had fun the whole weekend with all of the players there.
Type One: I went with an old-school Kronos build, with Extra Shot + Pressed Advantage to get 3 attacks that must be defended separately plus an additional special, usually a Weep for the World or Pestilence. Did okay, made it to the finals of the “winning impaired” bracket where I lost to Brad. He was running a solid “I have all the good cards” Methos build.
Two Headed Giant: I ran Coltec / New Connor Headhunter. I know, headhunting in 2HG is difficult, but I succeeded in getting both headshots in every game I won. The combo was Swords to Snakes (via Dark Quickening) and Connor’s Master Attack. Exerting for the attack from hand guaranteed that if they had no way to block while disarmed, it was an auto-headshot. I made it to top of the “winning impaired” bracket, and needed to draw a sensing evil against Scott to have a chance. I didn’t, Scott stomped me.
Lean and Mean: I played the combo deck that I would play in Type 2 Constrcuted. I ultimately lost to Nigel (at least I made him exhaust first and took him to time…). More later on the card featured in the Lean and Mean winning deck, and Nigel you are welcome for setting your sights on that card.
Type Two Constructed: First, the deck:
Darius
Darius +1/MCBC
Darius Allowance (5 Teacher of Many)
Darius Shuffle in 3 Masters
Amergan (English Longsword and Parrying Blade)
Reshuffle
The Prize (new hand)
Wisdom of the Ancients (Draw 6)
+3 Attribute Check (to go first)
9 Crystals
Attacks: 9
UL, UC, UR, Thrust, LL, LR
Dirty Trick: Choke (Anthony Gallen) x3
Defenses: 6
6 Evade (Consone, because dammit the 3 E cards are prettier)
Specials: 9
Protector of the Stone (Rebecca) x3
Challenge (Silas) x2
Head Shot (Situation) x2
Master Theif (Zachary Blaine) x2
Edges: 19
Master’s Wisdom (Darius) x2
Unexpected Flourish (ELS) x3
Lean and Mean (1 Focus, 1 Promo/ “fat”, 4 Draw) x6
Divine Intervention x4
Concentration x2
Aggression
Weapon Stash
Special / Edges: 2
Versus (one of each) x2
As soon as it was discovered that you can play nine crystals, I immediately thought of Rebecca’s Protector of the Stone: Drawing nine cards and playing another special card seems like a good idea. And because Darius can break a cardinal rule in the game by using a Signature card from another Immortal, it seemed like using Darius to use Master Thief from Zachary Blaine would be strong. But how to keep my opponent from drawing up? The ELS edge Unexpected Flourish to make Gallen’s Choke unblockable and undodgeable. Choke is if successful, your opponent can’t draw cards during his draw discard phase.
So the combo goes like this: Use +3 to go first, and draw draw draw! Play DT: Choke with Unexpected Flourish, then Master Thief and discard cards equal to the number of cards in your opponent’s hand. Next turn, another Dirty Trick + Flourish, and play the Head Shot situation. Then, third turn, it’s Upper Attack with Silas’ Challenge so your opponent can’t exert during his defense phase, and discard Head Shot situation.
The deck worked each time, against each opponent. Funny note, Nigel got an upper Prime Block in an exertion, so I had to re-discard his hand and start over. Still got him though!
So that was the deck. Of course, there are ways to counter it, such as Selective Memory, Kamir, or “Classic” Connor. But that is a tournament for you: match-ups matter.
Major props to Steve and Dallis, for running the events and making the rulings. Nigel for constructing the cube. Drafting the cube was probably the most fun I had playing Highlander all weekend. To everyone who came and played, it was awesome seeing some of you again, and great to meet some of you for the first time. Also, the Championship Hilts for each event were very well done, and a fun bonus prize.
As has been stated elsewhere, there are a few concerns with the state of the game. One of which is the use of basically a joke card to create an NPE deck. Highlander: The Video Game, and all of the cards from the “developer’s prize kit” should be banned from tournament play. They were not designed to be used within the card pool. The fact that they are hard to get or limited in quantity only makes matters worse. Not throwing a tantrum, not trying to be negative, but I will not play in any Lean and Mean tournaments where the developer’s prize kit cards are allowed. Any Lean and Mean events I run in the future will not allow those cards. It’s not fair, and again, should not even be an issue since they were never intended for use in tournament play. (Other methods of curtailing the card were discussed, such as removing cumulative, or adding the diamond / can only have one in play, or others. I feel that is trying to fix cards that are not intended for use in the environment anyway).
The other issue is that, again as others have mentioned, many winning decks are abusing the ability to draw many cards, and play many specials, in order to get to key “combo cards”. It has been mentioned that this is getting addressed, so I will delay any further judgment until after those cards are released.
Thanks for reading, and looking forward to seeing you all again sometime,
Bill Vick
2014 Type Two World Champion
I’ll start out by saying how awesome it was to see everyone there. I enjoyed seeing everyone there, and had fun the whole weekend with all of the players there.
Type One: I went with an old-school Kronos build, with Extra Shot + Pressed Advantage to get 3 attacks that must be defended separately plus an additional special, usually a Weep for the World or Pestilence. Did okay, made it to the finals of the “winning impaired” bracket where I lost to Brad. He was running a solid “I have all the good cards” Methos build.
Two Headed Giant: I ran Coltec / New Connor Headhunter. I know, headhunting in 2HG is difficult, but I succeeded in getting both headshots in every game I won. The combo was Swords to Snakes (via Dark Quickening) and Connor’s Master Attack. Exerting for the attack from hand guaranteed that if they had no way to block while disarmed, it was an auto-headshot. I made it to top of the “winning impaired” bracket, and needed to draw a sensing evil against Scott to have a chance. I didn’t, Scott stomped me.
Lean and Mean: I played the combo deck that I would play in Type 2 Constrcuted. I ultimately lost to Nigel (at least I made him exhaust first and took him to time…). More later on the card featured in the Lean and Mean winning deck, and Nigel you are welcome for setting your sights on that card.
Type Two Constructed: First, the deck:
Darius
Darius +1/MCBC
Darius Allowance (5 Teacher of Many)
Darius Shuffle in 3 Masters
Amergan (English Longsword and Parrying Blade)
Reshuffle
The Prize (new hand)
Wisdom of the Ancients (Draw 6)
+3 Attribute Check (to go first)
9 Crystals
Attacks: 9
UL, UC, UR, Thrust, LL, LR
Dirty Trick: Choke (Anthony Gallen) x3
Defenses: 6
6 Evade (Consone, because dammit the 3 E cards are prettier)
Specials: 9
Protector of the Stone (Rebecca) x3
Challenge (Silas) x2
Head Shot (Situation) x2
Master Theif (Zachary Blaine) x2
Edges: 19
Master’s Wisdom (Darius) x2
Unexpected Flourish (ELS) x3
Lean and Mean (1 Focus, 1 Promo/ “fat”, 4 Draw) x6
Divine Intervention x4
Concentration x2
Aggression
Weapon Stash
Special / Edges: 2
Versus (one of each) x2
As soon as it was discovered that you can play nine crystals, I immediately thought of Rebecca’s Protector of the Stone: Drawing nine cards and playing another special card seems like a good idea. And because Darius can break a cardinal rule in the game by using a Signature card from another Immortal, it seemed like using Darius to use Master Thief from Zachary Blaine would be strong. But how to keep my opponent from drawing up? The ELS edge Unexpected Flourish to make Gallen’s Choke unblockable and undodgeable. Choke is if successful, your opponent can’t draw cards during his draw discard phase.
So the combo goes like this: Use +3 to go first, and draw draw draw! Play DT: Choke with Unexpected Flourish, then Master Thief and discard cards equal to the number of cards in your opponent’s hand. Next turn, another Dirty Trick + Flourish, and play the Head Shot situation. Then, third turn, it’s Upper Attack with Silas’ Challenge so your opponent can’t exert during his defense phase, and discard Head Shot situation.
The deck worked each time, against each opponent. Funny note, Nigel got an upper Prime Block in an exertion, so I had to re-discard his hand and start over. Still got him though!
So that was the deck. Of course, there are ways to counter it, such as Selective Memory, Kamir, or “Classic” Connor. But that is a tournament for you: match-ups matter.
Major props to Steve and Dallis, for running the events and making the rulings. Nigel for constructing the cube. Drafting the cube was probably the most fun I had playing Highlander all weekend. To everyone who came and played, it was awesome seeing some of you again, and great to meet some of you for the first time. Also, the Championship Hilts for each event were very well done, and a fun bonus prize.
As has been stated elsewhere, there are a few concerns with the state of the game. One of which is the use of basically a joke card to create an NPE deck. Highlander: The Video Game, and all of the cards from the “developer’s prize kit” should be banned from tournament play. They were not designed to be used within the card pool. The fact that they are hard to get or limited in quantity only makes matters worse. Not throwing a tantrum, not trying to be negative, but I will not play in any Lean and Mean tournaments where the developer’s prize kit cards are allowed. Any Lean and Mean events I run in the future will not allow those cards. It’s not fair, and again, should not even be an issue since they were never intended for use in tournament play. (Other methods of curtailing the card were discussed, such as removing cumulative, or adding the diamond / can only have one in play, or others. I feel that is trying to fix cards that are not intended for use in the environment anyway).
The other issue is that, again as others have mentioned, many winning decks are abusing the ability to draw many cards, and play many specials, in order to get to key “combo cards”. It has been mentioned that this is getting addressed, so I will delay any further judgment until after those cards are released.
Thanks for reading, and looking forward to seeing you all again sometime,
Bill Vick
2014 Type Two World Champion
. You are 1 stand up guy. 