UFS In-house Beatdown!
After culling the weak last week, twelve fighters remain in combat:
- Jonathan leads the board with a perfect 6-0
- JR trails behind him after tasting defeat with 4-2
- Rob, Sabe, Sam, and Mike break even with a 3-3
- Dan and Tony Doepner enter the fray with a 2-1
- Casey and Evan are the yin to Dan and Tony's yang with 1-2
- Rick and Tony DuLac hone their decks with 1-5
This week's rounds started off with a whimper. Due to some dropouts and scheduling conflicts, the draft for this week was done on Monday instead of Friday. Word to the wise, don't do this. It can quickly spiral into a waiting game, rather than a fighting game. Drafts this week were from the Blades of Fury and Extreme Rivals expansions. With a lot of combatants playing the same symbols, drafting was fierce and quick.
[From L-R: Rick (Sales), JR (Line Coordinator), and Evan
(Warehouse) devise their strategy for their next picks.]
Once the new cards were added to decks, the rounds began.
Round 1 Highlights
•Rob versus Dan
Rob's Sagat deck proved no match for Dan's Ken deck. Without the momentum, most of Rob's foundations were dust in the wind. Dan goes on to finish Rob, and score his first win.
•JR versus Jonathan
JR's Sagat deck and Jonathan's Akuma deck both went into this fight with a 3-0. Unfortunately for one of them someone was walking away with a loss. The match started heated, with Jonathan laying out 4 foundations on the first turn. JR responded with 3, and both staging areas grew rapidly from there. Akuma's ability to subtract 4 from a control proved to be too much for the speed powerhouse Sagat, and Jonathan beat JR handily.
The first round gave all the fighters some new insights, decks were tweaked, control checks were honed, and round two began.
Round 2 Highlights
This round saw two separate forfeitures, and both Mike and Jonathan get easy wins.
•Dan versus Sabe
Dan's Ken deck squared off against Sabe's Sagat deck. Dan got off some early attacks and had Sabe on the ropes, until Sabe got his foundations in order and pulled off a nine speed, 25 damage attack! This reduced Dan to one life, and from there the game was over.
•Tony DuLac versus JR
Tony's Victor deck had seen some major revisions, and was set up to be a milling monster. JR's Sagat deck had seen many changes in foundations and attacks, and he felt he was ready to take on Tony and his 34 health beast. The game saw both fighters playing foundation after foundation. JR pulled slightly ahead with Sagat's ability to pull foundations out of his deck. Using this he was able to play attack after attack, finally getting Tony's beast down to four life. On Tony's turn the milling almost finished JR, as JR had only two cards left in his deck. JR had six cards in hand, so he didn't draw to death. JR played his attack, drew control, then proceeded to pump the speed on it up to a mighty 13. Unable to mount a block capable of matching that speed, Tony and Victor went down for the count in one of the most nail biting battles this tournament!
Round 2 gave each fighter another notch in their belt and cemented a few ideas, and gave new ideas to others. Dan added Holding Ground, a foundation which allows you to return an attack's damage to its printed value. JR added a few more foundations, as there are a handful of milling decks in the draft.
Round 3 Highlights
Round three saw yet another forfeiture, and saw some new strategies proven viable.
•Dan versus Rick
Dan's Ken deck saw some revisions after the loss to Sabe, and Dan was excited to inflict these changes on Rick. Rick's Haomaru deck had undergone a handful of changes since the week previous, and was set to take on Dan. The game saw some early attacks and health was lost on both sides. Rick was unable to do much damage to Dan, as Holding Ground prevented any of his damage pumps from working! Dan went on to take the win.
•Jonathan versus Sabe
Jonathan's Akuma deck had chewed up and spit out all comers, and Sabe's Sagat deck sought to do what JR's Sagat deck had failed at. Two turns of setup, and Sabe comes out swinging for the fences, dealing an early eight point hit. Jonathan rolls with the punches, building up in turn. One small oversight ended up costing Sabe the game. On the kill turn Sabe has Jonathan on the ropes. As he plays his last attack to finish Jonathan, the symbols don't match. The attack is discarded and Jonathan, using 2 foundations and Ready for Anything, manages to draw A Powerful Offer. Using this card as his last attack, he deals the death blow to Sagat.
This week was exciting. Big wins, hard losses. Lots and lots of damage dealt all around. Next week will be a deviation, as we will be drafting a brand new deck out of boosters and battling as equals. The week after will see these cards added to our decks and the quest for domination will continue in all its glory!
See you in the arena,
Jonathan
