The Final of the 2008 Mid-West Coast Championship featured Jeremy Ray and Jon Herr, two friends from Michigan and Ohio respectively who drove up together and are as elite as they come. Both were Top 8 at Worlds and had success since, so it was expected to be a great match and man, was it ever. Jon ran Evil R Ibuki and Jeremy ran the sick All/Fire Promo Alex that him and Paul Bittner had cooked up which sat on control and board position/card draw until it could toss a Concealed Shallow Swipe for the kill. Both decks were loaded with BRT and Addes and maybe Jeremy might have had an advantage against stock Evil thanks to The Curse Broken and Seals but...Ibuki cheats, folks. I think that Jon was going to win a close one due to Ibuki's response and form abilities that could totally hose Alex's board if needed and in the end it panned out that way, but there was a lot of craziness leading up to the victory in this tightly contested war. Here is the complete play-by-play and some running commentary as well as a few choice quotes.

Dice roll madness started the match off ominously - both players rolled a 10, then Jon rolled a 17 that rotated around the table forever before finally resting. Jeremy rolled a 20 (to which I said, in my mock Chinese accent, "JEREMY RAY, YOU SO GOOD AT DICE ROLL") and won.

Game 1:

Jeremy opened with Mortal Strike, Glory of Ares, The Curse Broken, and Rat Chaser x 2. Jon led off with the first Blood Runs True on either side, Shinobi Tradition, double Megalomania, and failed Unrequited Love. "You're good at this game, Jon." "Thank you, Jeremy Ray."
Jeremy formed with Alex - 10/28 characters are kinda good, I hear - and played Tough Outer Shell and Trade Your Passion For Glory x 2 followed. Jon used BRT to make Jeremy fail Military Rank then saw Addes Syndicate and Saikyo-Ryu immediately afterwards.
Jon Ibuki formed, destroying a Megalo for the cost. "She has a form?" Jeremy said, jokingly. Paul, sitting on Jon's right, commented that that's the best part about her and I agreed; though everyone focuses on her free response, the ability to ready or commit multiple cards at will is just too good. Saikyo was commited. Chain Throw by Jon followed; after damage, Jeremy gained 4 vitality back with TOS. Jon Infiltrated, going ballsy, and Jeremy had no KFT. "Dammit, why did you have to do that?" BRT + Addes followed after. "FU Jeremy Ray!" was Jon's comment. They talked about the risk but both agreed that it had to be done due to Jeremy's TCB, TYPFGs, TOS and Addes. After forming up, Seal of Cessation and Glory of Ares came next for Jeremy, and then Jon hacked an Addes. Jeremy then failed Military Rank all on his own.

Jon Kunai'd, played Pieces of 8, Red Lotus and said go. Tough Outer Shell hit the card pool for Jeremy, BRT hacked it to pieces but it still passed. Then it was Mortal Strike x 2 and Hero of Southtown, and a failed second HoS.
Jeremy responded with Mortal Strike at the ready phase, and Jon led off the next turn with Chain Throw. Jeremy blocked, Dodge Stepped which was canceled by Addes, and did it again. Jon let it happen. Jon then played a Shinobi, then Kasumi-Suzaku at 8 (!) with it's own enhance called plus Absurd Strength x 2. BRT failed the block putting him at two. Another Suzaku at 7 speed high ended it.

Game 2:

I asked Jon about why he didn't just commit TOS and make it easy. He said he did the math and even with Hyper Bomb to pitch to it, Jeremy would have been at 9. The 2nd Suzaku would have still been lethal and impossible to block due to the speed pump.

Jeremy went first, and played a great hand of Mortal Strike, BRT, Military Rank, and Glory of Ares.
Jon led off with Higher Calibur which was hacked and failed. Way of the Mightiest, BRT, Shinobi Tradition, Megalomania, and first turn Suzaku (!), which Jeremy full blocked with an Addes. "That's a good trade, I'll take it" was Jon's assessment.
Jeremy formed with Alex, tried a TOS, and it was hacked but only for -3 on the check. Jeremy rolled a 5 (meaning a 2), and chose to fail. Mortal Strike, TYPFG, SoC, and "done, go". Jon played Infiltrating as an attack and Hammered it. It was eventually for 14 due to Way of the Hammer. Jeremy went for the block and Jon attempted to hack the check but BRT was Sealed and Jeremy passed the block. The Gorgeous Team was next for Jon, then Way of the Hammer again and he was done. Jeremy commented on how confused he was and Jon admitted that he had a crappy hand that turn. Jeremy formed with Alex, then led off with 8th Bill of Punishment. Jon thought about it for a moment and asked me if a Seal can cancel action blocks (answer: "Yes."), then played Infiltrating as a block calling the attack side so it couldn't be negated, putting him at 20. Jeremy finished it with Concealed Shallow Swipe for game right afterwards, being able to either BRT the block or Seal it because Jon's hand was full of actions. There was no way that Jon could block because it was either hacked to hell or negated.

Game 3:

Jon went first and dropped a retarded hand with Higher Calibur x 2, BRT, and Red Lotus of the Sun to many oohs and aahs and said "EAT IT." Jeremy hid his face in pain for a moment.
Jeremy formed with Alex, played Vast Resources which was not hacked, Military Rank and TCB followed, but a second TCB was hacked and failed. Searching For a Real Challenge and somewhat diminished Addes was the rest of the turn.
Jon played a third Higher Calibur - yikes!!!, Gorgeous Team, and Way of the Hammer and failed a second Gorgeous Team. Jeremy responded to drop a TYPFG with Vast end of turn, then formed and played an 8th Bill, which was not hacked. Jon enhanced with Gorgeous Team to get back Shinobi. 8th Bill was blocked for half and Jon ate 3 damage. Jeremy played a second 8th Bill not hacked, passed it, and Jon passed the block. Jeremy went for a potentially painful CSS which was hacked and failed. Jeremy then played Vast, Addes, Rat Chaser, and ended. Jeremy was at full and Jon was at 17. Jon tossed a Chain Throw next turn, stunned, passed on Chain Throw E so Jeremy wouldn't get an 8th Bill back, and Jeremy ate the full 5 damage. Jon played a Pieces of Eight, rolled a 3, commited some stuff to pass it and readied Shinobi. Jeremy played Vast Resources' R twice at the end of turn and Jon naturally readied his whole board with HC in response. "Yeah yeah, go ahead."
Jeremy formed with Alex, played TYPFG x 2 which was fine by Jon, then a Seal that was chopped up. It was successfully failed and a Military Rank followed. Jon went for Infiltrating as an attack on his next turn. it's enhance was called, Jeremy passed on E's and Jon used The Gorgeous Team to get a Po8. Jeremy passed E's again and played an unaltered full block and passed it. Jon played the Pieces, a Red Lotus, an Addes - off which Jeremy Military Ranked twice and got back a CSS and Saikyo-Ryu. Suzaku at 6 hit, but it was fully blocked. Then Jon commited two Vasts with Ibuki form to prevent more free board building and said go. Jeremy was at 23 and Jon was still at 17 at this point.
"I don't know how you screwed me but you screwed me", was Jeremy's quote to start the next turn. He was doing math to see if he could push a lethal CSS through but decided against it. He Alex formed, then played the first Revitalize of the match. It resolved, and Jeremy used Rat Chaser off of it to draw 9 cards total. He played a TOS which passed, then attempted a Seal that was hacked and failed, and then another Seal followed by Military Rank and Saikyo Ryu x 2 made it a pretty good turn for Mr. Ray. Jon led off the next turn and just played a second BRT and the FOURTH COPY of Higher Calibur which induced much groaning from everyone around the room, not the least of which was by a forlorn Jeremy himself.

Then it got REALLY stupid.

Jeremy was running out of his deck and he had been saving up for his kill turn with 4 TYPFGs on the board. He either had to go for it or lose, so he stealed himself up and turned a TYPFG sideways. The response chain that this simple action ignited was completely and utterly bonkers and the fact that it happened in 30 seconds was even more remarkable. I didn't even catch all of it but here goes...Jeremy went for a Tag Along, Jon used a Kung-Fu Training to negate it, Tag Along again was attempted, KFT, KFT from both players that left Jeremy up, Jon used a Po8 to cancel it and ready with Higher Calibur, Addes from Jeremy, Addes from Jon, Seal from Jeremy, Addes from Jon which blew it up, and a final use of Addes from Jeremy that blew his up. Oh. My. GOD. And I'm sure there was more in-between that I missed so hopefully Matt gets his video of it up.

As everyone recovered from their shock and started tossing out "WOW's", Jon asked for quiet - "Hold ON!".

"So right now Ibuki is negated?" I replied that that was correct. Jon thought about it and really, he could have won the counterspell battle if he had just kept Po8'ing every KFT and using the Addes only near the end of the string. He was still in very good position and let the Tag Along resolve and used a Red Lotus. "If I respond with Curse Broken..." was Jeremy's query, to which Matt and I replied that one thing would still be commited in the end for Jon. a Po8 was commited.
Jon had 3 cards left in hand after all that. Jeremy formed with Alex. "I want to kill you so bad right now but I just can't do it because of (effing) Higher Calibur!!!", as Jeremy voiced the major thought of all of us watching (correctly, I might add). He looked at his hand, and did a lot of thinking in his head. I counted his RFG pile for him while he was doing the math and Jon's benefit and Jeremy had 13 cards in hand at this point after the form but only nine in his deck. On top of that, he couldn't make the CSS lethal. Say it with me folks - Higher Calibur is broken.
Sighing deeply, Jeremy went for a Hyper Bomb that was BRT'd and still passed. Saikyo-Ryu which Jon allowed as he revealed a hand of two Rejections, and Absurd, and The Gorgeous Team. A Rejection was eaten. The second Saikyo-Ryu ate the second Rejection. Now the issue was, even if all the Po8s were commited, Jeremy couldn't force the CSS through due to the High block and if he played a KFT for the speed pump, Jon could respond and basically ready everything he needed. Jeremy sadly pleaded "Kill me now so we can all go eat" to cries of "YES!" and passed. Epic, epic turn.

Jon, instead of complying, played a prosaic Pieces of 8, another Gorgeous Team, BRT, Red Lotus and an Addes and grunted with satisfaction. Jeremy played Vast Resources and Saikyo-Ryu EOT. Matt said, "I don't even know who has an advantage right now" and Jeremy responded with "There are no real winners here". A frustrated Jeremy commented that thanks to HC, "Playing responses is no longer worth it". Nobody argued the point. Jeremy had just cycled and was certainly going to mill out if he didn't do something immediately. He gamely tried a Hyper Bomb which was hacked but passed. Saikyo-Ryu was played to rip out a Rejection. Jon used HC enhance. Jeremy used his two enhances to pump Hyper Bomb to 12 and Saikyo-Ryu to rip a possible block, while Jon asked if passing counts for the HC to which Omar replied that it does not. He passed, then used Gorgeous Team to get the Rejection back for the expected Shallow Swipe. He ate the full 12, leaving him at 6 but with an answer to CSS in his hand. The Swipe was played and hacked to minus 10 on the control check with two BRTs. It failed but a second Shallow Swipe landed in the card pool for Jeremy. The 3rd Saikyo-Ryu enhance was negated by Jon. The Curse Broken came into play here but...well, you can already guess that Jon readied nearly everything on his side of the board in response and we all talked about how stupid HC is with Ibuki. Jeremy knew he was out of ideas and cards in his deck and conceded, and Jonathan Herr became the 2008 MWCC Champion! He did it with the current Queen of Evil and obliterated many along the way, demonstrating her power yet again and proving without a shadow of a doubt that she is the best character in the game right now. Incredible, amazing match to watch and both players played extremely well and in the end it boiled down to, what else, the card that no one wants to see across from them in any situation. Congratulations are due to Jon and Jeremy for giving us all such a treat. Slops to Higher Calibur for simply existing at all.

-Vik

I remember that match, man MWCC was fun

This could probably had been better to have been placed in the tournament report subforum, right?

vermillian said:

I think Vik did as well I think he just posted it here before he noticed it .

But I agree matt I loved MWCC I think it was a event where all the players were so laid back it was more a lot of the other big events.

vermillian said:

Wow, you're quite the picky person aren't you?

I'm gonna' have to go with. . . No. This isn't a tournement report, or else it would be an overview of the entire tournament. Wheras this is just one match from a tournament. More of an article, think of it like the rest of Vik's work. It is meant to be read, and to learn from.

ahh the good old days, when Alex could deal with everything but Higher calibur(pretty much all of block 2). This is back when people still didn't really consider Alex a super powerhouse yet either, everyone knew he was good, but no one was playing him.

Also the start of that Alex deck's run as the undefeated anchor of three event winning teams. Super Rad

failed2k said: