Wow...it's been a long time since I've ever written one of these! O_O
Eh, skip to the chase
Intro
It's a 5 hour drive from San Antonio to Dallas, but that actually wasn't a problem. Getting lost for almost 2 hours while in Dallas itself? Yeah, big problem, not to mention burning a lot of gas, making plenty of turn arounds, and let's not forget making an abrupt 70 MPH turn and almost hitting like 5 cars in the process. Hooray for Dallas and its unclear roads that have no signs or warnings!
So we finally arrive at Brian's (Nubian God) place where I meet MegaGeese, ScubaDude, and some others. We finally get acquainted after years of UFS banter and of course, my notorious history amongst the forums.
So we get up and head to the card shop.
Well, I had brought 2 friends, both newbies, and both confused as Hell. I also had no deck built. That's right, I drove 5 hours to a regional with nothing built, and no idea who or what to build.
First I was gonna use Good *Mignon* with my friends using Fire :::Akuma::: and Order/Water ***Seong Mi-Na***. Then I decided to not even play, and just help the two. Then Brian offers his Astrid deck to my friend Lin, and so she accepts Astrid, I use Seong Mi-Na, and my friend Jay uses Akuma.
Before I begin, let me give you an understanding on how this Seong Mi-Na was built. First off, I built the deck in about 5 minutes by simply saying, "Ooh, this card looks like it'd be good in Seong Mi-Na." Secondly, I'm running the most jank Mi-Na ever. 2 Lord of the Makai, ZERO Blood Runs True, ZERO Aquakinesis, and 2 Felines. Yup. It was a deck made completely from scraps...
FIGHT!
Round 1: vs Ron (Chae)
I love making jokes about Chae because of how utterly useless she is, and so when I found out I was against a Chae at a regionals, I got scared, thinking, "Wait...does Chae have access to some crazy combo I wasn't made aware of?" I also questioned if his deck was perhapas a Neo Deadly Rave + Treasured Gift deck.
I'm not even kidding: his only attacks were Tiger Fury. That's it. So, yeah, I felt really at ease; just save them Rejections =). Well, as it turned out, his deck is nothing but PURE aggro, with his only technical cards being stuff like Journey of Repentance, Torn Hero, Bitter Rivals, and Amy's, all of which my heavy Order/Water bulky Mi-Na can wade through with ease. And so I abuse her control + Shadow Blade to get him tapped, Feline Spike for game 1.
Next game, well, shame on me. He manages to get a Tiger Fury for 21 speed high, 35 damage, and I'm caught with my tail between my legs and not a Rejection or Gorgeous Team in sight, so he gets that one.
Game three was perhaps every UFS player's nightmare. I draw into the kill hand, Tag Along, 2 Mega Spike, Defender and Makai. I hastily play Defender and Makai and pass. After 2 games, I've learned he literally has nothing to stop my loop.
As he is playing his turn...
TIME!
...
...NOOOOOOOOOO!
So he just plays out a turn and passes, leading to a...
Draw 0-1-0
Round 2: vs Chris (Mai)
Wow...never seen a Mai quite like this. It's a Mai running only finishers! That's right, this deck only ran big people attacks: Feline, Darkness Blade, and Enkidu the Valiant. Well...unfortunately for him all those 1 checks really did bite him in the ass repeatedly, and while his hybrid of Evil/Water got pretty lame at times, his desire to play only big attacks was a foolish one, as my Battle Prowesses just laughed at each and everything he tried. Game 1 was hilarity.
He's at full health. I have Makai, Defender, and a boatload of ready foundations, and 2 Shadow Blades in hand. I proceded to, yes, Defender Loop my Shadow Blades repeatedly until I used Seong Mi-Na Form on Defender, returning both Blades to hand, and just finish him quickly with Feline Spike.
Well, that concluded game 1, and with only a few minutes on the clock, we attempted to play a game 2, but he admitted it's unlikely he could kill within such a small time frame, an so in the end, I
Won 1-1-0
Round 3: vs Jeremy (Victor)
I don't think I've ever been so angry at a card in my life. I never saw his kill, because his deck was one of those "I hide behind a wall of redux until I can kill with 1 attack" decks. I'm assuming he Reanimated Mentally Unstable, but uh, with a 6 handsize, your Mega Spike means nothing to my high vitality Seong Mi-Na.
First round, not gonna lie, he got Defender Loopded. Honestly, I felt bad, because if I'm playing Defender Loop, it must mean you have nothing to stop me, and I'm sure of it.
Well, we get to round 2. He managed to show me the ways of annoyingsauce: Reanimated + Amy's Assistance. Holy crap, I never thought I'd see a more annoying combo. I litereally, yes, had to play Shadow Blade, not 1, but FIVE TIMES!
FIVE
TIMES!
To get through his Reanimated stupidity, only to hit him with a Plasma for like, 10.
Well, I couldn't kill him this game, but when time was called, I had already sealed game 1.
Win 2-1-0
Round 4: vs Ken (Kyo)
Remember Red Lotus-Calibur Ibuki? Yeah, Red Lotus Kyo is the closest this block has to that. When 1 Red Lotus can counter 3 Programs AND 2 Chinese, you know you're in for trouble.
Our match took til time, and spoiler alert, nobody won. But man...talk about craziness.
I play Feline Spike. He has no hand, is at 20, and took the first copy, going to 12. I anxiously await the game to be over, but he uses his Lord of the Makai E Commits to add blocks to his hand, and Bitter Rivals to help him fully block my remaining 2 copies! ><
After facing his Kyo, I learned a few things:
1) Fast Food Lover + Tira's Contract = lol
2) Kyo + Red Lotus = gay. Seriously, 1 Red Lotus shouldn't be able to stop 3 Programs and 2 Chinese all by itself.
Coolest part of the match: He plays Chester's Backing, and then Ryu's Shin Shoryuken, which is an illegal play...except he had stacked Promo Kyo, giving him the All resource, making it legal. Wow...way to abuse a stacker lol.
Draw 2-2-0
So, with a record like that, I'm preeeeeetty sure I'm in the top
And voila! 5th place means top 8 for me. Although there's craziness.
I'm not the only Seong Mi-Na. In fact, the other Seong Mi-Na player has 2 wins and 2 draws TOO! So, the judge looks at our "strength of schedules", and after looking them through determines I'm in 5th and he's in 6th, Diversifying him out. Like I said, crazy.
TOP 8 (in no particular order)
Ibuki
Gill
Donovan
Chun-Li
Zi Mei
Seong Mi-Na
Kyo
Hilde
Quarterfinals: vs MegaGeese (Donovan)
I had no intent of winning. I mean, I'm mostly surprised my garbage-pail half-ass Mi-Na is even in top 8. What's more, I KNEW MegaGeese was running Donovan, and I already knew what to expect.
Game 1 is the UFS moment we've all had. If there ever was a fast player, it's Mega Geese. That guy throws down cards like darts, and taps himself out like a mad man. Each and every turn I said repeatedly, "draw attacks and it's game over." What he continually did was tap out, and leave approximately 3 foundations or so ready, perfect for using a Shadow Blade to tap him out and bait a block, then Feline for game.
But not 1 turn later
not 2 turns later
no
6 turns later
I draw attacks. Oh, and by 6 turn, I mean I already died. 5 turns passed with 0 attacks. 0. Yep...great luck for ya.
Game 2 was MegaGeese putting on some white gloves, a tuxedo, and briskly handing my ass to me on a silver platter. The 2nd game went as such
Geese: I use Ira Spinta. I'll send your only 2 foundations to your momentum
Me: I'll add X-foundation.
Geese: I'll E commit on Lord of the Makai to get it back when it deals damage.
This went on the entire game until he Spike'd me. Seriously. Every turn I'm trying to build, and just uses IraSpinta and Tenacious. Over. And over again.
All in all, good stuff. Jay's girlfriend Lin won the "best sportsmanship award" which was great because she's a beginner and she got 2 starters (Ivy and Ragnar) and a promo pack containing a playset of foil Red Lotus, and almost every single champion (she got Matt Kohls, Wes Victory, James Hata, Olexa, and Scott Mence). We also got a crapton of Seal of Cessations between the 3 of us, and I got a Life counter and playset of foil Come Through in the Clinch.
Pros + shout-outs:
-First regional and topped it.
-I made a deck together in like 5 minutes out of just scraps yet did really well
-Tons of promo support, always a goodie
-Awesome time at TGIFridays
-It seems as if ScubaDude and MegaGeese took a liking to me
-Met tons of cool people (Scuba, Geese, Bryan, Shelby, Jacob, Ken, Chris, etc)
-Special thanks to Scuba and Geese for giving me all of your Set 12 commons and uncommons. It helps tremendously!
Lows:
-Every opponent I played was nothing more than a wall. A stallfest. Seriously. Game 1 only ran Tiger Fury, game 2 only ran finishers backed by an Evil wall, game 3 Reanimated Amy's, game 4 had an untouchable staging area, and game 5 was Order madness.
-I got 6th. The guy that got 5th took the Monster Lariats, the only league foils I cared about =/
-I didn't prepare because I'm stupid lol
-Getting lost in a place like Dallas is horrible
-Following Brian. Brian, much respect to you and I thank you for allowing us to spend the night, but dang dude, I don't know if I can ever follow you; you and your Red5 just speed off in the distance! >_>...