Greetings everybody, Archimedes here with a report on the first Desert Wars event! I'll have a rundown of characters posted in the general discussion, and the Olexa deck I took to the finals will be posted on the deck building forums, so look for those coming soon! But let's hop right into the rounds shall we?
Round 1 versus Vance running the new Chun-li
Goody, first round facing one of the best characters from the new set. No rest for the wicked eh? Vance is running Void Chun-li with an assault of multiples (Spinning Beat, Hoyoku Sen, and Lunar Slash) and discard stupidity (The Ways of Punishment supported by the rest of Jivatma’s support and some of Sogetsu’s.)
Round 1 is a tense balancing act for me. My deck not giving me any Feline Spikes early on or a Tag Along to recur the Feline Spikes that I happen to check. This problem is only compounded by the fact that I have to dance around Chun-li’s ability or I’m going to be eating some pain on my turn.
Luckily, I manage to stabilize the onslaught with a slew of Seal of Cessations and a timely Inhuman perception in combination with White Magic to save me some momentum to cancel Chun li out. He kicks my ass up and down with multiples, me saving myself with Olexa hax, but it’s all for naught when I manage to catch him off guard (and tapped out) with the inevitable Feline Spike. It’s a shame, because he drew his next hand and we both agreed he would have snuffed me if he had had access to those cards.
Round 2 is much like round 1, except five times faster, with Feline Spike coming out early under his guard, and Andrew Olexa hacking the one block he needs to make.
Round 2 versus Khuong running 5 draw Kyoshiro.
It’s funny because I was going to be running Kyoshiro coming into the tournament, but as usual I have a last minute panic attack. Building a variety of decks I finally settled on the Olexa deck I ran for the tournament.
Khuong’s deck had so much card draw it’s scary. He set’s up quickly off chaos and controls the game with Forethought and hand strippage with King of Fighters 2006 (which provides a rather nasty damage pump as well).
Sadly, round 1 was non descript, the only real speed bump being a Destiny that came down to shut off Olexa from HAXXING. This is also the match where I finally fell completely in love with Rising Rage Flash. After exhausting his field on his own turn, I toss a Feline Spike to finish the rest of it off, then Rising Rage Flash finishes him off (Soul of Ling Shen Su+Shooting Capoera=dumb)
Round two saw some serious shenanigans, with Kyoshiro showing him 2 Forethought and Destiny, and me never seeing an Olcadon’s. BUT! Feline Spike has the reversal keyword. After blocking his Mega Spike with a Rising Rage Flash (<3) I reverse with Feline Spike. He forethought’s once and I cancel it with Inhuman Perception. I check a six, and he forces me to recheck with Destiny but that is not enough! Feline Spike throws enough of a wrench into his turn that I’m able to finish him off with another one next turn.
Round 3 versus Truong running Promo Alex.
Shiny deck is shiny.
Mean deck is mean,
This was deck was basically the most blinged out deck on the face of the earth. Chester’s, BRT’s, Lynette’s, Seals…you name in the deck has it. Not a stab at Truong in the slightest. It’s just one hell of a deck and he played it very very well
And as such, the games were quick and relatively painless. Went back and forth both rounds but everything is eventual and he would toss multiple ShinSho’s backed by Lord of the Makai to bring me down…Olexa can only hack so much, and when Feline Spike is useless in the face of Tira’s Contract, BRT, and Bitter Rivals I can do nothing but cry.
Round 4 versus Fernando with Evil Lilith
I play Fernando a lot, as whenever I come down to Phoenix he’s one of the droogs that pops up to get a couple rounds in with me.
The best thing about Fernando’s decks is that they’re built on a budget. Evil Lilith, no Chester, no BRT, just stuff he’s managed to get his hands on,
and
he manages to top 8 consistently (which he does in this tournament!).
Sadly, these games were wholly unremarkable, with temp advantage going to me and he quickly succumbs to Feline Spike after being baited once or twice with Rising Rage Flash.
Cut top 8
Alex
Felicia
Olexa
Sophitia
Lilith
Kyoshiro
Yuri
Nakoruru
Top 8 round 1 vs. Khuong with Kyoshiro (Rematch)
Game 1.
Jesus. Let me lay it out for you.
~Attempt a Seal~
~Flip a Feline Spike~
He builds ridiculously
~Attempt a Lord of the Makai~
~Flip a Feline Spike~
He builds ridiculously alongside Kyoshiro draw to build even more
Guess who won that round?
Round 2.
I set up better this time, but the game is incredibly hazy. I know I stay under Destiny for most of the game, but that doesn’t matter when Rising Rage Flash and Feline Spike are coming at you.
Round 3
Holy sweet moses this was a hell of a game. My deck basically decided to give me
nothing
the entire time, so I’m stuck defending his onslaughts of Mega Spikes, Great Gerdenheim, and Neo Raging Storm
Let me set the end game for you.
We’ve both cycled both our decks fairly recently I’m at 18 (don’t ask) and he’s at 20. I’m sitting on…I think 6 or 7 foundations, 2 Seal of Cessation, and an Olcadon’s Mentoring and he’s sitting on the following (this all from my head, so this could be a little hazy)
Tira’s Contract x4
Forethought x4
Destiny x1
Dancing Battle Kabuki x2
The King of Fighters x1 (this card is nasty, I spent basically the entire game keeping copies of this card off the field)
Lord of the Makai x2
Red Lotus of the Sun x2
American Made x2
Return to Southtown x1
Powerful Style x2
He then proceded to toss the following at me (in order)
Mega Spike, Great Gerdenheim, Neo Raging Storm, Neo Raging Storm.
I honestly don’t know how I did it (2 Rejection), but I survived! In the process I had baited out his 2 Red Lotus (off a single Chinese Boxing+Inhuman Perception/Seals), and he had committed most of his board in the process.
Going into his next turn, I get rid of Destiny, bring his Tira's Contract under control (soooooo many blocks) and proceed to Feline Spike him into Oblivion. Hell of a game man.
Top 4 versus John Chen with Felicia
These rounds could best be described as an epic Feline Spike off. As such, they are short and sweet. The best part about them is that we were both flipping Spikes all over the place and just laughing our heads off about it.
Game 1, I ping him with a Rising Rage Flash early, and Spike him the turn after.
Game 3: This one was in a similar vein to Game 1, but he got the Spike off first. Good thing I was holding two rejections in hand to survive. Turn afterwards was Rising Rage Flash into Feline Spike FTW.
Fiiiiiiiinals vs Truong and Alex again.
Sorry mates, I know you’re expecting a big finish. But both of us were tired, the store was winding down, and people wanted to get out of there. So we settled on a tie, with the plaque going to me because I won the flip. Lame I know, but I was fully cognizant of the fact that Truong would have whupped my ass so I’ll just tuck my tail between my legs and saunter home with a tie.
Afterwards in the parking lot, we strapped a pack of matches to a Happy Holidays and lit it on fire.
The current condition of the card could best be described as “slightly charred”
We tried to kill it with fire and it would not die.
Props
First of all, and it may sound weird, but props to DisneyVegaClone for her enthusiasm in getting this ball rolling. Without you (and anybody else?) this would not have happened. Sure, you dropped off the face of the Earth, leaving me to run the tournament on short notice but it’s coo’.
Props to Atomic Comics for hosting us.
Props to the players from California from coming out, and congrats to both of you for making top 4. Sorry about the first round
Props to FFG for the prize support. Good stuff mangs.
Props to all the players for rollin’ out and having fun. Seriously, no drama the entire tournament.
Props to Andrew Olexa for having a freaking amazing champ card, also props to him for signing it at nationals…
Props to Rising Rage Flash.
Slops
To DisneyVegaClone for dropping off the face of the Earth and not letting anybody know. We ran into TigerBear at another gaming store in the mall getting food and his approximate words were “Well…she was supposed to make a post on the forums…but I guess she didn’t”
Slops to me jumping the gun on round 1, sorry to the two CA guys having to play each other in the first round after driving 300 miles.
Slops to Feline Spike in round 1 of top 8. I shouldn’t have to explain myself.
SLOPS TO ARTHUR FOR PESTERING EVERYBODY WITH HIS VIDEO CAMERA THE ENTIRE TOURNAMENT SRSLY. :3
Slops to Lord of the Makai for being a broken steaming pile.
Slops to Happy Holidays. Banned for close to a year now and I still hate you.
