Oct 7th Misty Mountain Constructed

[webtroll]

Last night saw two different General Katana decks, a Duncan mill deck, and a Mako control deck. This was the introduction of one of the three decks I will be playing until someone takes its head.

Thomas - General Katana Cheese
Van - General Katana Attack
Josh - Duncan Mill
Joe - Mako Under the Color of Authority

Round One (round robin)

Josh and Duncan Mill

I knew I had to get a fast start on him, or I would be exerting through my control cards. He was playing the Connor Quickening and Avery Hoskins to make me exert 8 cards every time while he did 0.

I managed to remove the first Avery, and a bad draw led him to no answers for Under the Color of Authority or many of my attacks. He ripped to avoid the final unblockable head shot - losing the game, but keeping his Quickening.

As a side note though, after the fact he revealed that he forgot the second part of Duncan's ability. He had an empathy card in his hand, so could have blocked the head shot.

1-0, 0 heads taken

Round Two

Thomas and Katana Cheese

This was the deck I was most afraid of with this Mako build. He would be able to exert away my big control card. And he did.

Granted he had to try a couple of times, as he seemed to pull up those reasoning gems at the worst times. Although with his Reno, he was able to pull off a double James Horton.

So it was a race to the end of the endurance.

With him at around a 14 ability and me at 10, I was able to pull off an unblockable head shot thanks to Master's Dodge. I was fairly sure I had seen all of his back aways filter through, and I knew he had more than 5 cards in his endurance.

Without an Alertness: Block or a generic dodge in his hand it ended.

(As a side note, it was a bit more of a shootout in the second game we played for giggles while waiting for Josh and Van, and yes... he did beat me that time.)

2-0, 1 head taken

Round Three

Van and Katana Taunt

Again, I knew that my plot would not likely stay out long. But what I had not considered was that Van had not put any Alertness cards in the deck. This meant that an unblockable/undodgable thrust came his way, and it was followed shortly by a head shot of the same flavor.

Van will be a lot more deadly to face next time with the Alertness in his deck.

3-0, 2 heads taken

Summary

As promised, I am posting the deck that I was using for this event so that the guys will have an idea of what to expect from it in the future. To be fair though, I am posting the version of it after I modified it from playing it last night. There were a couple holes I shored up and one I created.

highlandertcg.proboards81.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=pp&thread=1791

[swisherfan]

Katana can be brutal, but toolbox is such an important factor that it cannot be ignored. Great report!!!

-Chris

[braxus]

It was a fun night, as always.

Apparently I have to work on my nerves of steel, since I always tend to lose the tournament match against Joe (webtroll) and then win the friendly match we play afterwards.

Joe summed up his game against me pretty well. My Katana vs. Duncan game was open until the end. Duncan made me go through my endurance twice. Thanks to Charlie de Salvo he also avoided three damage from cheese cards twice. And on top of that he would regain one ability per two turns on average because of Tessa. But in the end the cheese and some successful attacks - among them a power blow promo thrust played in conjunction with "Taunt" - brought him down.

The clone war Katana vs. Katana had the better ending for me. Van hit me almost every turn with a stab from his kris, but the direct damage brought him down faster.

[5thhorsemen]

I don't know that the Duncan deck has been my "best deck" but it has been my longest work in progess. Until last night, it was certainly the best deck I've never played in a constructed event.

Round 1 - vs. Mako
The blaine quickening makes Mako who usually runs light on specials anyway even more deadly. Couple that with a first turn of Mako taking away Avery and very few defenses on my part. I made the play error and it almost cost me a quickening but I don't think it would have changed the outcome I would just have one more rip card today.

0-1

Round 2- vs. Taunt Katana
I again come out the gates fast with Avery and a power blow on the first turn. The game plays in my favorand ends with with a Master's headshot and a reduced extertion for the defense.

1-1, 1 head taken

Round 3 - vs. Katana Cheese

Probably the most fun and competitive of my matchs easily could have gone either way even after taking the promo thrust. It ended with Thomas getting all his cheese at the right time. Head is saved by an increased extertion for defense on the very last card.

1-2, 1 head taken.