Here are the round 2 pairings from our Highlander tournament.

In this round, the winners played the winners and the losers played the losers from the previous match-up.

Who do you think kept their streak going, and who clawed their way back into the winner's circle to keep their hopes of ultimate victory alive?

1) Nick's "Crazy Cthulhu" vs Gavin's "Skill"

2) Chad's "Straight Jacket" vs Greg's "Darius"

3) Matt's "Lo Pan's Panacea" vs Christian's "Minions of Insanity and Chaos!"

4) Grant's "Can You Spell Mi-Go?" vs Jason's "Femuhlhu"

5) David's "Make Me Go Away" vs Mart's "Miskallaneous, Etc…"

6) Jefferson's "Government Payroll" vs Katherine's "Dreams and Ghouls"

You can find a detailed list of all the decks here:

www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp

NICK (Cthulhu / Hastur)

VS

GAVIN (Hastur / Syndicate / Shub-Niggurath / Yog-Sothoth)

QUICK GLANCE

Both have character theft and drive-insane effects, but will Nick's more streamlined deck and superior combat icons move too fast and hit too hard for Gavin? Or will Gavin's protection from terror, character exhaustion, deck search, and card recursion give him the edge again? This one looks to be a tough fight.

CHAD (Mono-Hastur)

VS

GREG (Agency / Miskatonic University)

QUICK GLANCE

Chad pulled off an upset in the opening round. Can he do it again? This time he's facing a faster, meaner deck with investigation and plenty of indirect character removal. But, can Greg's limited willpower and big friggin' guns protect him long enough to secure three stories? Or will he end up in a "Straight Jacket." You make the call!

MATT (Hastur / Syndicate)

VS

CHRISTIAN (Cthulhu / Hastur / Miskatonic University / Syndicate / Yog-Sothoth)

QUICK GLANCE

Matt's mafia empire chewed through Mart's mono-Miskatonic deck without too much trouble, but things look different now.

Though it seemed unlikely, Christian's 5-faction fracas proved more than manageable and secured a clear-cut first-turn win. He faced a tough opponent and came out on top, denying Grant even a single story. Will Matt's speed stun Christian, or will his sprint deck run out of steam before the do-everything juggernaut that is the "Minions of Insanity and Chaos!"

And for good measure… dun-dun-duuun!

GRANT (Shub-Niggurath / Yog-Sothoth)

VS

JASON (Hastur / Miskatonic University / Order of the Silver Twilight)

QUICK GLANCE

Neither Grant nor Jason won a story during round 1, so both decks come into round 2 untested. However, Grant has years (okay months) of Call of Cthulhu experience under his cloak vs Jason's week-long crash-course on how to play his first LCG.

Then again, Jason does have the "Ladies of Cthulhu" on his side. Will feminine wiles and a bit o' investigation be enough to counter the mystical powers of Yog-Sothoth, or will Jason be asked to leave the Lodge?

On paper it looks like Grant has a distinct advantage here, but he struggled against a multi-faction deck with investigation in the opening round. Is this a fatal flaw?

DAVID (Mono-Order of the Silver Twilight)

VS

MART (Mono-Miskatonic University)

QUICK GLANCE

A mono-match up!

Previously, David's deck showed signs of life by securing a story in round 1, whereas Mart's professors were on sabbatical. Both have investigation and speed, though David's deck is 11 cards heavier which could prevent him from drawing what he needs.

Can the Silver Twilight's tricks - and ruthless sacrificing of their low-on-the-food-chain characters - carry the day, or will Bobby Fisher (aka Chess Prodigy) make a timely appearance and introduce David to his friends "check" and "mate?"

Everyone knows how cutthroat both Lodge and university politics can be, so there's no doubt these two will be going all out for a win.

JEFFERSON (Mono-Agency)

VS

KATHERINE (Mono-Shub-Niggurath)

QUICK GLANCE

And yet another mono-a-mono match-up. I must say, I didn't expect to see so many single-faction decks at a Highlander tournament.

A surprise loss last round for both Katherine and Jefferson, each shows up in the second with 1 story to their names so we know their decks have teeth. The question is, will the horrifying creatures of the All Mother take a bite out of Special Agent Clarkston, or do good and bad no longer matter 'cause he's "the guy with the gun." Err, shotgun to be exact.

In the end, it may come down to speed and bullets vs stamina. If Katherine can't accelerate/manipulate her resources to provide an early character advantage, the G-Men may close this case in time for morning coffee and donuts. On the other hand, if Shub gets rolling this could turn into a long, bloody slog.

Okay, so let's see if I'm as wrong as with my guesses for the first round

1. GAVIN

2. CHAD

3. MATT

4. DAVID

5. JEFFERSON

One thing I didn't think about much in my predictions for the first round was the more beneficial effect of deck filtering in a Highlander setting: If you're looking for a particular card or card type it could be a great advantage if you can e.g. search the top five cards of your deck for something. Otherwise the chance of getting what you need at the right time is very low indeed.

Let's see if I can be any more accurate this round…

1) Nick's "Crazy Cthulhu" vs Gavin's "Skill"

GAVIN

2) Chad's "Straight Jacket" vs Greg's "Darius"

CHAD

3) Matt's "Lo Pan's Panacea" vs Christian's "Minions of Insanity and Chaos!"

MATT

4) Grant's "Can You Spell Mi-Go?" vs Jason's "Femuhlhu"

GRANT

5) David's "Make Me Go Away" vs Mart's "Miskallaneous, Etc…"

DAVID

6) Jefferson's "Government Payroll" vs Katherine's "Dreams and Ghouls"

KATHERINE

hahaha there is some faith in my deck for round 2.

jhaelen said:

Okay, so let's see if I'm as wrong as with my guesses for the first round

jhaelen,

You're missing one match-up: Grant vs Jason. Any guess?

Yipe said:

Interesting choices so far.

I'll post the results tomorrow evening (PST). If you haven't voted yet, then why not roll the dice? It's only the fate of humanity we're talking about here.

While we wait on pins and needles …

Thanks again to Yipe (Matt) for waking up the forums.

Grant

1) Nick's "Crazy Cthulhu" vs Gavin's "Skill"

GAVIN

2) Chad's "Straight Jacket" vs Greg's "Darius"

CHAD

3) Matt's "Lo Pan's Panacea" vs Christian's "Minions of Insanity and Chaos!"

CHRISTIAN

4) Grant's "Can You Spell Mi-Go?" vs Jason's "Femuhlhu"

GRANT

5) David's "Make Me Go Away" vs Mart's "Miskallaneous, Etc…"

DAVID

6) Jefferson's "Government Payroll" vs Katherine's "Dreams and Ghouls"

JEFFERSON

It appears this thread has gotten all the love it's gonna get, so I'll post the scores from round 2 sooner rather than later.

Before I reveal the results, however, I want to thank dboeren, GrahamM, and jhaelen for taking the time to vote. I truly appreciate it. I was hoping a few more board regulars would join us in the festivities, but apparently not.

Now without further delay, here are your winners from round 2!

ROUND 2 RESULTS

1) Nick's "Crazy Cthulhu" vs Gavin's "Skill"

GAVIN wins!

2) Chad's "Straight Jacket" vs Greg's "Darius"

GREG wins!

3) Matt's "Lo Pan's Panacea" vs Christian's "Minions of Insanity and Chaos!"

MATT wins!

4) Grant's "Can You Spell Mi-Go?" vs Jason's "Femuhlhu"

GRANT wins!

5) David's "Make Me Go Away" vs Mart's "Miskallaneous, Etc…"

DAVID wins!

6) Jefferson's "Government Payroll" vs Katherine's "Dreams and Ghouls"

JEFFERSON wins!

Here are the standings after 2 rounds of play.

Note that I've added a new category to the scoreboard. I'm tracking not only how many stories each player has won, but also how many they've given up to their opponents.

I think this score will demonstrate which decks were tough to beat even if they didn't win all of their games, as well as those that might have allowed a few early stories against rush decks and then were able to close things out in the long run.

STANDINGS
Matt (2-0 / +6 Stories / -0 Stories)
Greg (2-0 / +6 Stories / -1 Story)
Gavin (2-0 / +6 Stories / -2 Stories)

Chad (1-1 / +4 Stories / -4 Stories)
David (1-1 / +4 Stories / -4 Stories)
Nick (1-1 / +4 Stories / -4 Stories)
Jefferson (1-1 / +4 Stories / -5 Stories)
Christian (1-1 / +3 Stories / -3 Stories)
Grant (1-1 / +3 Stories / -4 Stories)

Katherine (0-2 / +3 Stories / -6 Stories)
Jason (0-2 / +1 Story / -6 Stories)
Mart (0-2 / +1 Story / -6 Stories)

Yipe said:

Woohoo! The guy I picked (Greg) is 2-0!

AGoT DC Meta said:

Nice choice! Does anyone else want to get in on this Highlander horse race?

Just imagine it's New York City circa 1986.

We've got trenchcoats and katanas and Queen.

Twelve immortals are poised to beat on each other with big sharp sticks for something called "The Prize" (in this case a limited edition Khopesh of the Abyss playmat).

What more could you ask for? Just remember, at the end of four rounds there can be only one.

Gimme a sawbuck on Gavin.

dboeren said:

hahaha

Yipe said:

so when i played nick i knew he was going to have character control in his deck along with loads of terror and multiple terror struggles. this one was a bit slower the first few rounds. when playing him i was able to get out faceless abductor, guardian of the key, and servant to the elder things. i ended up getting getting most of my yog characters out that had at least 1 terror and 1 combat. he didnt really have much a chance since he had almost no combat on the board. every time he killed at character or one of my support cards i would use servant to put them back in my hand. After the first few rounds he wasn't really able to commit and i started getting my investigation characters on the field. i pulled jamburg also which made it much harder for him to get rid of my support. he used infernal obsession on jamburg but i had a stygian eye in my hand just in case.

dboeren, I've got your down for $10 on Gavin.

Gavin MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod gets a fan!

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to order a glass of Glenmorangie. Make that a double.

My match against Christian finished in under 8 minutes, and I won the round 3 stories to none.

Here are some of the highlights (if I can remember correctly):

I went second and opened with Ghost, Long-Dead Prince and Anarchist for my initial characters. It was a strong start and that helped me control the game from the get-go. Christian responded with Blood Magician, Snow Graves and the Sleepwalker. I came back hard with Demon Lover and Crow Bar and cleared the board. A little later he dropped Many-Angled Thing, forcing me to sacrifice Ghost, but that's about as much damage as he could muster.

To wrap up the game, I used Victoria's Protege and returned a wounded Long-Dead Prince, then Stygian Eye on The Sleepwalker, and finally a surprise Parallel Universe. By the end I had 6+ characters out to 1 or none, and it was all over.

As we had time to kill, I pulled out my unbloodied triple-faction deck and we played two additional games (thanks to Grant for making the suggestion of asking for a rematch after a quick loss). We ended up splitting the difference. I took the first game, and then he handily wiped the floor with me on the second.

By the way, we have a special way to determine who goes first that I forgot to mention.

For the first round everyone rolls a die with the highest choosing to go first or second. In subsequent rounds, you ask your opponent if they went first or second for their previous match. If you answer the same, then pick up a die and determine the first player randomly. If you answer differently, then switch. This gives players a better chance to go second at least once in the tournament.

Yipe said:

my first fan! cthulhu yeah!

p.s i was really named after Gavin MacLeod