Here they are, the Princes of the Universe!

This is it, the final round of our Highlander tournament where we find out who really Wants To Live Forever (and who goes home a head shorter).

Matt's perfect score is on the line against Gavin's undefeated deck, and 4 other players are all battling to come away with a 3-1 record. Finally, Jason and Mart are both looking for their first win, and Katherine is on the edge of a breakthrough.

What will happen next is anyone's guess…but that shouldn't stop you from voting on who wins and loses.

The round 4 pairings are:

1) Matt's "Lo Pan's Panacea" vs Gavin's "Skill"

2) David's "Make Me Go Away" vs Greg's "Darius"

3) Christian's "Minions of Insanity and Chaos!" vs Jefferson's "Government Payroll"

4) Chad's "Straight Jacket" vs vs Nick's "Crazy Cthulhu"

5) Grant's "Can You Spell Mi-Go?" vs Katherine's "Dreams and Ghouls"

6) Jason's "Femuhlhu" vs Mart's "Miskallaneous, Etc…"

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

www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp

1) Matt's "Lo Pan's Panacea" vs Gavin's "Skill"

Gavin

2) David's "Make Me Go Away" vs Greg's "Darius"

David

3) Christian's "Minions of Insanity and Chaos!" vs Jefferson's "Government Payroll"

Jefferson

4) Chad's "Straight Jacket" vs vs Nick's "Crazy Cthulhu"

Chad

5) Grant's "Can You Spell Mi-Go?" vs Katherine's "Dreams and Ghouls"

Katherine

6) Jason's "Femuhlhu" vs Mart's "Miskallaneous, Etc…"

Mart

Oh man the final showdown has begun. Talk about intense.

Here we go one last time:

1. GAVIN

2. GREG

3. CHRISTIAN

4. NICK

5. GRANT

6. JASON

Hmm, my guesses for the final round are almost the opposite of dboeren's - intense indeed!

jhaelen said:

Ooh, it's on now!

thanks for the vote of confidence dboeren! at this point i was **** near exhausted and insane myself from being hammered so badly by all my previous opponents. i was glad to discover my opponent jason had only learned to play that weekend or something like that! even the weakest shark loves to smell a little blood in the water!

unfortunately, i must have been bleeding a bit myself because he had the same idea.

i won't spoil the ending of this matchup, but suffice it to say there was more than a touch of excitement in this one…

oh, and i lost the diceroll for this one too. i lost every match AND every diceroll up to this point…

piszcadz said:

Did you go first every round? Ouch!

Once I put up the results, please tell us how this game unfolded. It looked like a serious back-and-forth battle.

piszcadz said:

ouch. its like getting kicked while your down.

bricks16 said:

ROUND 4 RESULTS

2) David's "Make Me Go Away" vs Greg's "Darius"

GREG wins 3-2!

3) Christian's "Minions of Insanity and Chaos!" vs Jefferson's "Government Payroll"

JEFFERSON wins 3-0!

4) Chad's "Straight Jacket" vs vs Nick's "Crazy Cthulhu"

NICK wins 3-2!

5) Grant's "Can You Spell Mi-Go?" vs Katherine's "Dreams and Ghouls"

GRANT wins 3-2!

6) Jason's "Femuhlhu" vs Mart's "Miskallaneous, Etc…"

JASON wins 3-2!

This was an amazing round of play, and the close scores show everyone was on top of their game. I still find it hard to believe that 4 out of 5 matches were 3-2! Incredible.

While I didn't get to watch all of the games, I know that both David vs Greg and Jason vs Mart were very close and came down to a do-or-die situation at the last story. If you guys are reading this, feel free to share what happened.

Wait, is something missing? Why yes, the grand finale match between Matt and Gavin. Stay tuned, I'll post a recap and the final standings shortly.

Yipe said:

i gotta say that was probably one of the most intense games i have played so far.

Matt vs Gavin. The Kurgan vs MacLeod. Simpson vs Tatum. And this time, it's for the money.

By this point in the tournament the beers were starting to kick in, so my recollection of this match isn't as sharp as it should be. For example, I can't remember if I went first or second. I think I went second, but then again, perhaps I went first? Hopefully I'll get the gist of this game right and you'll forgive any minor clerical errors.

Now, on with our title fight…

I chose to take a mulligan (as I did 3 out of 4 rounds). Gavin did not. For his first play, Gavin tossed out Terrors in the Dark. I responded with Clover Club Bouncer and Long-Dead Prince. In a few turns Gavin quickly had character superiority - Master of the Myths, Black Dog, Street Tough, and so on - and was up 2 stories to none. Ouch. I told him he was the first person to win a story against me all day. Needless to say, I was feeling the pressure.

Things looked bleak, but I wasn't finished yet and the tide began to turn my way. I killed off some of his guys, stole another (which he retook), brought out Demon Lover and Lady Lu Chu, and then promptly won the Village of Ash and another story on the same turn. I resolved Village of Ash first, and now the score was 2-1 in my favor. I was smelling a comeback.

This is when the game became tense, and the few turns left slowed way down. It was like a mirror match. We were playing many of the same cards, killing and stealing each others characters in the same way, and we both could sense the end was near.

Each of us had 3 success tokens on the same story card and it was Gavin's turn. I wasn't sure what he would do, but I did have one ace up my sleeve. I had played Marcus Jamburg on the previous turn and I had both Infernal Obsession and Ice Shaft in my discard pile. The question was, how best to use him?

That's when Gavin hard-played Master of Myths for 3. Looking at what he had on the board vs my characters, I could suck up a terror hit, win combat, match his investigation, and then beat him on skill to hold him off and win the next turn. Just to be tricky, I decided to return Jamburg to my hand and take control of Master of Myths with Infernal Obsession. That, my friends, would prove my undoing.

With his last domain, Gavin played Fugitive Scientist (a card I had in my hand as well) and won. Amazing! It was the closest game of Cthulhu I've ever played.

In hindsight, I've been kicking myself for losing that game. Had I simply waited for Gavin to make his last play, I could have stolen the Fugitive Scientist or used Ice Shaft instead. On the next turn, with all of Gavin's domains drained, I would've played Mr. David Pan and Marcus Jamburg again and gone in for the kill. Aarrrrrgh! Curses!

But it was not to be. Gavin was very smart, tempted me with the Master of Myths (knowing that I might use Jamburg on him) and then hit me with his coup de grace. I tip my hat to you, sir. It was an excellent game and a well-deserved win.

1) Matt's "Lo Pan's Panacea" vs Gavin's "Skill"

GAVIN wins 3-2!

And our tournament is now officially over.

FINAL STANDINGS
1. Gavin (4-0 / +12 Stories / -4 Stories)

2. Matt (3-1 / +11 Stories / -3 Stories)
3. Jefferson (3-1 / +10 Stories / -5 Stories)
4. Greg (3-1 / +9 Stories / -6 Stories)

5. David (2-2 / +9 Stories / -9 Stories)
6. Nick (2-2 / +7 Stories / -9 Stories)
7. Christian (2-2 / +6 Stories / -6 Stories)
8. Grant (2-2 / +6 Stories / -9 Stories)

9. Chad (1-3 / +8 Stories / -10 Stories)
10. Katherine (1-3 / +8 Stories / -10 Stories)
11. Jason (1-3 / +4 Stories / -11 Stories)

12. Mart (0-4 / +4 Stories / -12 Stories)

To wrap up this tournament AAR extravaganza, I want to thank everyone who played in this event. Simply put, you guys are the best and I feel lucky to be a part of this group.

I also want to thank everyone on this board who waded through my walls o' text, voted on their favorite decks, and made typing all of these posts worthwhile. I hope you enjoyed the journey.

Until we do it again - this time with triple-faction decks!

Sincerely,

Matt

Yipe said:

hahaha it was awesome. i was really feeling it when you got village of ash. what fugitive scientist does is characters without investigation do not count their skill. i had 2 characters with investigation(inside man and fugitive scientist) so i only had 2 skill total, and matt only had 1. i ended up winning investigation also which got me the 2 story tokens i needed to win. its funny the 2 pics of matt and i playing together for the championship in the original post made me laugh. the first one where i am grinning is when i had won 2 story cards and the second was when he got village of ash. lol

Yipe said:

well, i'd be lying if i said i didn't feel a little cocky going into this one (against a newbie player no less). i could feel my luck was about to change…

i went up 1-0 pretty quickly, i think off a combing the archives/open for inspection combo(?). i cannot remember any of the finer details or cards, sorry, my brain doesn't retain that sort of thing. i do recall having to remind him of many of the basics of play (exhaust yr characters to send them to stories, detach them from stories afterward, etc.). he certainly wasn't terrible by any stretch, but i felt i could finally claim my rightful victory and 2nd to last place!

there was a $10 gift certificate on offer for the last place finisher of the tournament. i can use that $10. and most people were thinking i should just play poorly and claim it as mine in the end. yeah… but no. i LOATHED the thought of coming in dead last. i'd rather leave with nothing in hand than come in last.

then i went up 2-0! hahaha! closer… closer… jason clawed back a story of his own to make it 2-1. i was trying to assemble the pieces to nail down the final story. jason had 2 tokens on 2 different stories. i had 4 on a third after an all-in play that came in juuuuust short of winning me the game. i used the arcanes from that play to refresh 2 characters to block on his turn, fend off anything he might have to commit and hold on for my next turn and certain victory!

except he played initiate of huang hun. twice. and it dawned on me i had just lost my final game of the day!

i'm NOT this type of a player, but i really felt like sweeping everything off the board and screaming… i swear, i love playing games even when i'm getting my butt kicked (which is almost always the case, no matter what game i'm playing), but this was just a little more than i could handle. i cursed up a storm, then congratulated "@#*(&%@!*(#%@#%*" jason on a great "@#*(&%@!*(#%@#%*" victory and for outplaying the "@#*(&%@!*(#%@#%*" out of me.

then i took my "@#*(&%@!*(#%@#%*" $10 gift certificate and went home.

stupid "@#*(&%@!*(#%@#%*" highlander deck.

:-)

mart / piszcadz

thanks again to everyone who played. and to matt for setting it up. i did have a great time despite my dismal luck.

Yipe said:

Mart, your game recap made me crack up.

Stupid Highlander deck! Oh man, too funny.

Um, by the way… have you spent that $10? I kid, I kid.

also the only downside to a tournament is that i didnt get to watch a bunch of these games. from what i have heard and read there was a bunch of really good games.

Yipe said:

Woo, called it!

dboeren said:

Sounds like a great match, the trap was baited and the prey stepped right in - but it came down to the final play and could have gone to either man. Bravo!

There's just something so cool when you find a devious way to solve a problem and it works

Fugitive Scientist I think is the best of that "set" of Syndicate characters that contains him, Brazen Hoodlum, and Arcane Grifter.

Yep, I fell for it hook, line and sinker. What a sucker!

Fugitive Scientist is by far the best of his type. When combined with Mr. David Pan or Parallel Universe, it's brutal.

I also realized - after the fact - that if I had simply kept Marcus Jamburg in play, I would've matched Gavin's investigation and his skill with Fugitive Scientist at the story. Doh.

Yipe said:

lol yeah i was really hoping you would get rid of jamburg. i had all my chickens in that basket.

Next time, bricks, next time…

Which reminds me, I've got to set a date for the next "Mythos n' Micros" meet up.

All black border cards are allowed yippee Yipe which is a play on words. I just doubled my card pool!

Yipe said:

great match !! and good tournament.

i just have to ask the question and i'm pretty sure it was discussed somewhere on here a while back. is was my understanding that the village of ash and the well are both 'each player must choose' activations, and if 1 player has no valid stories to choose then the effect cannot be resolved ?? if someone could clarify that'd be great.

but yes. congrats on the day. congrats to the winner and placers.

COCLCG said:

Yes, that's my understanding as well - both players must have at least one other won story for the effect to be able to resolve.

dboeren said:

I'm also quite pleased with my other guesses for the 4th round: 5 out of 6 correct! In total I predicted 16 of 24 (or 2/3) correctly. Clearly better than tossing coins

Thanks Yipe (and thanks to everyone of the participants for chiming in and giving their personal reports about the matches) - this was very fun and definitely the most entertaining tournament report I've read in a while

Oh, and congratulations to Gavin for winning the tournament!