Disclaimer(s):
1. I sometimes spoil. Rationale, I travel, I have fun, if I remember something cool that was in a deck I will say it and give due respect to the user. Ultimately I feel the more that gets out to everyone, the better everyone gets. It forces me to be better, and everyone to develop new and interesting techs for every tournament.
2. Long post/ (detailed player report) below - read at your own risk!
3. I appear to be addicted to the overuse of parentheses because I like commenting on my own comments…

After reading all of the posts some of the better, and well-respected, players put together after tournaments I've decided to dedicate my own bit of time to documenting my 2009 journeys and competitions. I plan on attending the Path of the Master, Can Nats, US Nats, and Gencon this year, as well as a Western Canada Regional’s (if it comes together) so here's hoping "dut's 2009 tourney log #1" is the first in a line of enthusiastic UFS mini-narratives.

A little history...

I started playing after being rudely (yes rudely, how did I not know about this game beforehand!?!) introduced to the game at Origins 2008 after the events had occurred (side note, went to play Kingdom Hearts and board games) by Vermillian and crew (my first player card was Hata, as he personally gave me his player card upon introduction!!!). I ended up playing at Gencon 08, finishing with a 3-3-1 record with rare Lilith from DS1. I finished 3/4 at Canada Teams in Winnipeg October 08, losing to Kin’s crew in the top 4. Since then I’ve been running all sorts of block three decks at my locals, most notably the Kyoshiro I started with after common grounds in Winnipeg.

And now to the current stuff…

This was a great regional, I am so pumped I got to make it there! Shajir was the ultimate host, and I was happily surprised to see his real life persona was as sincere and as enthusiastic about the game as his online one is.

I decided last minute to attend this Regional - the Wednesday before, and after scouting out the cheapest method to get there. I gained interest after seeing the Montreal regional results and, after finalizing the plans to PotM with 2 buddies from my playgroup, I decided a little practice was in Order (All symbol puns intended). I knew things would be much different for PotM because of the looming release of the SW and SC but I thought it would be worth it nonetheless, and I was really wanting to meet my Eastern Counterparts after hearing great things and meeting some of them Gencon 08 and Canada Teams in Winnipeg October 08. It is said a lot, but I will say it again, the UFS player base is the cream of the crop, and I like to think this has a lot to do with the fun flow of the game and excellent mechanics it offers.

The alone time… I flew out of Calgary at 12:45am on Friday night/Saturday morning and into London Ontario (cheap flight), landed at 6am and picked up rental car at 8am (earliest pickup – yay Avis!), drove 3 hours to Worlds Collide in Oshawa (great place – visit it!), 11am decklist and meet and greet, 12 noon start, 3pm coffee (I don’t normally drink coffee) at diner next door, 6:30pm top 8 starts, 9:30pm finish, drove 3 hours back to Oshawa, 12:30am fill rental car with gas and clean at, 1:30am first sleep 40+ hours, wake up 5am, fly out of Oshawa at 7am, home in Calgary 9am, 10am breakfast with friends, 11am local weekly tourney. Great UFS weekend!!!

My results at the Southern Ontario Regional’s:

Record - 2-1-2 (win-loss-tie) = 8 points out of a possible 15

Place (out of 22 participants) - 10th , 9 points was the cut, with one at 9 being tie-breaker’d out.

Character - Mignon (who Hatman and his Green-Lantern friend have taught me means cute – but in a masculine way!?!)

Reason for the character - Well, honestly I am horrible at deciding. I kinda wanted to play Kyoshiro since I had him best practiced up he had all my power cards in him less Chester’s. I also had a wicked Akuma build that I knew would spank if I really wanted it to. But going into Friday night I had Alex and Mignon on the mind. The latter came to me after a friend, Kiit on the forums, played me with it with farrrrrrrrrrrrrr to many assets. But yeah, it was still good enough to convince me she is playable. The real kicker was when I had characters spread out and I pulled out my favorite cards and said… hmmm…. Who can run these? (said favorite cards being Yoga Adept and Ostracized). Let’s just say I had originally planned to run both, and in full play sets, in Mignon. I also didn’t want to play a well-known, because I like being original, and trying to come up with stuff that doesn’t get used often thus pushing the envelope and generally having more fun.

I also knew it would sincerely piss Kiit off and was the only way to get him to NOT play Mignon at PotM which was the whole point of my trip. Now, I was in no way intending to play poorly with Mignon to turn him off it. Quite the contrary, I was going to play well with it so that he would feel like a ****** running a no longer obscure deck – hehe. GART KILL MANY BIRDS ONE STONE, +1s all around as my friend Gaines would say – listen to the podcasts!!! (shameless plug for how I have been spending my time while preparing tax returns at the office over the last few weeks).

Decklist w/ comments as appropriate:

Actions -

4 X Ostracized (umm this is why I ran this deck, a stronger than anti-k -2 hack that I can play on my opponents first turn guaranteed. No other deck to my immediate knowledge gains one momentum even when starting committed before my opponent’s first combat phase)
3 X Through the Defenses (first time using this, an amazing card when executed, +4 damage to feline spikes that aren’t blocked, cancels blocks for 2 momentum, nough said)
2 X Power of the Light (heinsight a full wind build with more of these might have been a better deck, v good draw card)

= 9 actions exclusive of splits

Attacks -

3 X Melancholy Mercurius
3 X Feline Spike
2 X Spinning Beat
2 X Heel Snipe
1 X Wind Storm
1 X Tiger Fury
1 X Air Stampede (this has come out in the revised build, just couldn’t get it off right, and it doesn’t have wind and wasn’t playable often. Biggest thing was me messing up against Akuma with it = I fail and therefore card goes).

= 13 attacks exclusive of splits

Assets -

4 X Mysterious Stance (v. good defense in static momentum gainer…)
4 X Olcadan’s Mentoring
3 X Seal of Cessation
1 X Lynette’s Shop (more in sidedeck, to add once I learn what I ‘really’ need to copy)
1 X Family Heirloom (only have one, o/w I’d probably run in upwards of 3)

= 13

Foundations –

3 symblors

3 X White Magic
3 X Healer (I uh couldn’t find my fourth on Friday night after work)

2 symblors

4 X Makai High Noble
2 X Amy’s Assistance
2 X Superior Witch

1 symblors

4 X Chinese Boxing
3 X Tira’s Contract (to make the Mysterious stance stick, i.e. work vs. throws)
3 X Bitter Rivals (my fav card in the whole wide world)
4 X Chester’s Backing
3 X Lord of the Makai (hindsight the 4th might have helped a bit but I thought with White Magic and the static I’d always have enough momentum, one or two times turn 3 I didn’t)
4 X Inhuman Perception
2 X The Angel of the Evening (I couldn’t for the life of me find more Friday night)

= 37 foundations

= 72 cards exclusive of character

Sideboard included 4th (1X) Feline Spike and 4 X Iga Legacy for quick kills, 1 X Lynettes for versatility, 1 X Tag Along, 1 X Amy’s Assistance for assets

In hindsight… This deck needs more 6 checks and more draw. My only lost round was primarily because I was out built bad by a 6 check deck. Working some enhance negation in would have helped as well (primarily for … Rejection of course).

Matchups:

First round I played Adam from Foxhound (megaman) and his promo Blanka deck. Well, needless to say we were both momentum freaks. Early Ostracized to limit spammage to 3 or less foundations. I won the first game after he committed out to deal 10+ damage to me. I won the second game after using one of my two draw cards to mass draw on turn 3 (4 momentum for 8 cards) and playing 6+ wind cards out preceding a turn of multiple madness.

1-0-0 after one, not bad.

Second round was against a nice but nervous fellow from Rochester sporting an Alexa Sandbag into Chunli. That’s right, Olexa sandbag. I’m not really sure if you consider this a sandbag considering it was highly likely someone would sport an aggressive Olexa… But whatever. First game he spammed 5 foundations and Olcadans first turn, my Ostracize was countered by his millions of 6s and a poor play on my part trying to hit his Chesters. I only managed to get 2 foundations out after hitting a 2/3 check on my third card. He spammed another 5+ cards… I got out 3 bad ones (curse you Olexa). He killed me turn 3 with overkill.

Second game, I was frustrated by my really poor showing and wasn’t thinking too much about the fact that I was now playing against Chun-li. Well, I was thinking a bit, I let him go first so I wouldn’t give him an easy freebie on the first turn. Again he spammed successfully. Again I only got out 3 foundations, to his 5. He used Chun-lis effect and tried to play Tag Along! Umm, sorry buddy, only non-actions. Embarrassed but obviously innocent he let it burn etc. With his 5 foundations he was able to play 2 Felines on his second turn and yeah, I died hard.

1-1-0 , can’t really lose the next one or I would be hard pressed to top 8.

Third round I got to play against another character I was seriously considering building for said event. Kyo (nix the shiro). What with order committal and hacks I thought a strong red lotus would be a nice counter to 8hs Gill et. al. This was the Green Lantern player and scout who came up with Hatman. I loved this guy, nice, funny, fun yet competitive deck, great game. First game was a nailbiter, and went 8+ rounds with a few attacks thrown by me and some damage taken by him. Over all though, he couldn’t get a red lotus out until turn 5 or so and my Chinese Boxing and Olcadan’s were having some fun. He finally got out red lotus and things got serious. After he threw some hard attacks at me, speed and damage pumped ala darkhunter and Ralph’s biggie, he overlooked my mysterious stances and I survived. More or less committed he was a sitting duck and I took game 1.

Game 2 I got forethought locked after hitting a Feline spike first turn… He got out 2 forethoughts, it wasn’t fun. I tried, but lost it after 5-6 turns. Game 3 I managed to double Ostracize him on his first turn after playing a White magic on my first. The -4 hit hard and it was hack revenge. Second turn I Ostracized his second or third foundation and him hitting a 3 check =’d done. I now had a 8-3 staging area advantage and went on to win the rubber match.

2-1-0, no ties = good. I hate single points. Break time and I am looking a-ok. There are 2 at 2-0-1 and I think maybe one at 3-0-0 (Felicia) as well as a well ranked Chun-li. Things get interesting.

3rd match I pair up against Andre’s Voltron… I mean 1st place Akuma. Seriously though he was playing with a marvel Voltron card (with back card stats) from Marvel collectibles 1990s. Sweet I think, cuz I own the whole set from childhood. This Andre guy is coolbeans already in my book. He wins the dice roll (I lost all my rolls on Saturday, I went 0-5 yay… )He got out two blood runs true and failed his third hitting a 2. I got a really good start after baiting Voltron and 2X BRT’s, getting out 2 Chinese and another foundation and 2 Olcadons. He plays lunar rebellion and kills on olcadon’s but I enchance and lock down both of his blood runs true. He hacks my block and I take 10… He gets out an evil dooer destroyer and a foundation and then fails. At this point I am ready to go all out, I have 2 momentum, melancholy, a Feline in hand w/ 3 ready foundations and he is committed out lest the asset and a dud foundation + Akuma. I think a bit and know I need to bait the asset enhance negation to get my multiples off. I play stampede thinking I can push blow up my Olcadon’s and threaten his asset, it works and he negates it which I negate with inhuman. Now he is totally committed out and yet he blocks! He has 16 life left and I go for it with Melancholy. Doh, I hit his rejection hard and he only takes like ~10 damage that turn, we are both at half life. I have not much ready. He attacks me and drops me to 5 life after speed pumping and hacking my block w/ Akuma. Now I know I need to kill him, I have some momentum and a Feline, I go for it after baiting a BRT with Chesters and other fun stuff I drop the Feline thinking I can negate his asset’s enahance negation with inhuman. Stupidly I stun 2 first. I COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT AKUMA’S E: Damnit!!! He first enhances committing his last foundation (un stunned) and commits my inhuman perception. I can’t get the multiple off. He can’t block and is at 2 life, but I can’t finish him with another 2 attacks (he blocks) and he wins the first game.

2nd game vs. Akuma. I manage to play smarter now, I will not forget about Akuma’s second ability (equally as strong). I manage to win after baiting a bunch of hacks again and smiting with Feline.

3rd game we exchange minor blows, he rejections and has half life. I build a wall, he builds a wall, etc. We draw.

2-1-1

Ok, I am still in it. I can’t really afford to lose I think, and a tie will be cusp… And I get paired against another team Foxhound member, this time one running the 8hs Gill that won in regional’s at Montreal. I quickly find out that he is in the same situation as me, 2-1-1. This is it, can I push attacks through???

I do push some through and I get him down to 1 life (with 2 through the defenses on feline spikes = ouch) with an all out effort on turn 3/4 or something. He now locks me down for good I think, or does he? He doesn’t he doesn’t have a Spiral Arrow!!! And I have skull advantage/whatever I negate his tag along for Spiral Arrow and he plays foundations, forms with Gill and is back to 4 life. Meanwhile he has had 2 Olcadons since turn one and I have been seriously struggling to keep valid items out… I am still mostly locked down; he has 2 experienced combatants out now and commits all but 2 of my foundations. I throw more attacks and his assassination arts and blocks leave him with 2 life… He forms again… 5 life and is finally able to get enough control to be able to commit my 2 Mysterious Stances with experienced… And I know I am in for it. I play one attack, he negates all damage… I only have one idea. I have no foundations ready and no attacks. I did draw my one Lynette’s… Hmmm, I play Lynettes on a 4 and turn it into an experienced combatant!!! Mwahaha. I discard two and commit his 1 Tenacious. He plays Spiral Arrow finally and locks me down, but CAN’tT recur it with Tenacious. He now has forethought out… I manage to get out 2 foundations (crap 1 diff cards) after his forethoughts and blood ruin everything else. He can’t draw into another Spiral Arrow and cycles!!! Again I get out like 1-2 foundations against even more Blood Runs True and 2 Forethought. Uggh… I am now only locked down for 4 of my cards (2 X experienced) but I can’t get much damage out with is defense. He drops to 3 life after more attacks and forms the next turn (now at 5 hs) to gain a smidge more. We look at each other and he realizes that his chances of getting the arrows and killing me within time are bleak, and I realize I may or may not kill him. It is incredibly tense. We end up timing out and draw.

2-1-2

Ummmm. I get 10th place. ****, if either of us would have given… the Gill or I would have topped 8. Oh well, great tourney and great fun.

I watch all of the top 8 matches, and believe you me they were all tight. Unfortunately I have to drive it back to London and can’t go out on the town that night. Will have to wait to PotM and/or Can Nats, great season awaiting us!!!

Props:

- Shajir and Worlds Collide (store operator that I can’t recall name, coolest guy there). Flawless tournie, welcome area, yummy foods, everything. So much fun ?
- Kin. He is so much fun to watch, excellent deliberator and just an all-round nice guy. Plus! He checks cards with some serious authority. I feel sorry for his playmat when he plays…
- Voltron, I mean Akuma, I mean Andre. He was a classic winner here. True gentleman, strong and steady deck, and a very calm mind.
- Everyone else, team foxhound, team Quebec, mr. green lantern, and for me not having to play either of the two Sakuras (I get enough of it at home)
- My buddies for picking me up at the airport and my Scout for being a cool guy and listening to all of my indecision on Thursday/Friday re: deck choice
- Ruining Mignon for Kiit – mwahahaha – Nako is next!
- Anyone who read all of the above.

Slops:

- Not being able to stay after to have fun with everyone due to me needing to get the last 3 hours of drive out of the way before falling asleep, thus risking my early morning flight home
- My worst match of the day against Olexa/Chun-li, I should have played a bit more defensively, and I definitely should have played slower/smarter

- dut

Thank you for coming to our event, I hope you had tons of fun.

Shajir

BTW: It was Ultron, not Voltron that Andre played. Both are robots, but that's where the similarity ends.

Also, mignon is gender neutral. It really means "cute" though.

Also, I wish I could have played you. I absolutely LOVE Ostracized and wish it'd be used more.

Yikes! Thank you for the correction Hatman.

You are right, I called him Voltron at the tourney over and over (Andre kept correcting me every time lol). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultron

I wish I played against you too Hatman. Remy is **** good if built well, I think Olexa used him and sandbaged into Chunster (but probably won a lot of first games with him) at Motor City or whatever, and now you have proven he is strong in his own right!

Always nice to meet a fellow Ostracized lover, and it was especially nice to meet you and your crew this past weekend

- dut

good job dut!! good idea with mignon and ostracized lol. that is pretty freaking cool.

Hey Dut, thx for attending the event. Nice report. I just wish you have more time that night so I can take you out for a sushi buffet. As per my playmats... I think my playmats are fine, they were "trained" hundreds of time before I take them to tourneys... on the other hand, the table beneath the playmats are all cracked after the tourney, LOL. I bet I will see you real soon, in a couple of weeks time... see u in the invitation event.

AwesomeDhalsim said:

He doesn't say it, but his playmats are laced with steel. Also, I totally jacked the CC slam for a 6 check in one of my games. Blame Brad, he told me to do it.

Geez Hatman you can't go stealing a man's control check technique, that's... that's... like stealing his card playing soul!!!

lol at the tables being busted, I was wondering why there were so many cracks on them ^^

- dut

Apparently, the harder you check, the higher your control check, or at least that's what Kin tells me lol... I hear rumors that sometimes he even checks 7's. I also pulled it off against david from montreal during the montreal regionals in the semi finals, because of the sacred "Hard Check", I was able to check a 5 in order to lock david down on his turn 2... stupid spiral arrow...

I remember hearing about one of the Team -- argh I can't remember the name of the predecessors of Foxfound >_< -- guys hitting 10 sequential 5s FTW with Reverse Waterfall, using the HARD CHECK

It could be one of my previous team members from TEAM Pacific... Stephen Liu use reverse waterfall to the perfection in his Cassandra Deck to capture the Belt and CCC 2007 but... he doesn't need to hard check, he already had total control before he pull the trick to kill you. So it must be either Andrew Tran or Baker, they both use simple and effective strategies which require hard checking 5 or 6. Andrew is a more competent deck builder, in my opinion, than Baker. If you are talking about Canadian Open 2007 then I am quite certain is either one of them.

nice tournament report. Yeah I don't know why Giggles (the Olexa/Chunners) player didn't just outright play Olexa or a slightly weaker, but less likely to be played air character.

quarzark said:

It really depends, I think, on the playstyle of the person.