Oreo League Report: 6/25/08

Last night our regulars were in full force, and everyone was excited to play their new Marvel Universe cards. Crime Lords had a stellar showing last week, so I decided to put the Red Skull away (for now) and try out something a little different for Modern night.

Yesterday marked Warren Ellis’ last issue on the Thunderbolts comic book, and despite the occasional delays it stands out as one of the best comics Marvel has published in ages. To honor this occasion I put together a Thunderbolts build, choosing to rely on their +1/+1 counter theme. The results were a little mixed, but I had a lot of fun and won more than I didn’t.

Other noteworthy decks were Alpha Knights, Superbitches, Clash of Caps, and HULK! I really need to start coming up with some answers for The Hulk, because right now I got nothing. It should be interesting to see what our local scene looks like once people stop trying to get Hulk rares, and focus on the other awesome teams featured in MUN.

Oh, and I brought Oreos for our baked good this week. People criticized me for not baking something myself, but at the end of the night that cookie box was EMPTY! Oreos aren’t so bad when you’re hungry, now are they?

Deck list after the jump!

Hobby League Report: 6/19/08

Dear Red Skull, I love you.

We had an excellent turnout in our Hobby League this week. 9 people showed up, many of them with shiny MUN cards in hand. After skipping last week’s HL it was great to have such a big crowd. Almost everyone was using new MUN, so that helped spice things up as well.

My Illuminati deck is taking longer than I’d like to compile, so I decided to make a Red Skull deck.

In the end the Top 4 was selected through Win/Loss records, which put me and the Red Skull right on top. I was shocked by how well the deck played, since I threw it together only a few minutes after showing up. Of course, I think that’s what everyone else did… hm.

The Line-Up:

• 2x Hulk Warbound
• 1x Red Skull / Crime Lords (Me. Obviously)
• 1x SHIELD Army Burn
• 1x Kree Press
• 1x Secret Avengers
• 1x Heralds/Inhumans
• 1x Skrulls/Inhumans
• 1x Um…. I honestly don’t recall. I’m sure it was way cool, though.

Either way, the top four was Red Skull, Hulk, SHIELD and more Hulk.

HL: Let Them Eat Cake

Last night’s Hobby League was great fun, not only because we got a ‘new’ player, but also because I had the firesight to bring delicious baked goods. Also, be sure to send Omar over at Tier 2 Tutor some birthday wishes for today.

It seems like everyone I know has their birthday within the same month-long period. Oh well.

Myself on the left, Omar on the right.

The format of our Hobby League was Bring Your Own Set Un-Silver, meaning any set rotated out of Silver Age was fair game. I had expected a lot of people to bring Teen Titans, but in reality nobody did. Perhaps our group didn’t want to come in with a ‘lazy’ choice, since everyone brought something different.

1x Avengers Reservist – 2/2
1x Marvel Knights/Crime Lords (Me!) – 2/2
1x Green Lantern Curve – 0/4
1x Good Guys – 2/2
1x Fantastic Four Burn – 3/1
1x Billy’s Jank Deck Not Legal in the Format – 3/1

Even though it was a relatively small turnout I think that everyone had a great time. I don’t know if anyone has any birthdays coming up in our group, but we need to find some mroe excuses to bring cakes to the Hobby League.

Next week’s format is kind of confusing, but it was inspired by Billy’s jank-tastic pile of jank. Everyone will be building mono-team decks from no more than any two sets. All character cards MUST share a team affiliation, and it is highly recommended that the plot twists do as well!

We don’t really have a name for it, but I guess we’ll call it the ‘Super Flavor Format.’ Yum.

How Did it Go?

It went well! We had about ten people show up, and I’m under the impression that everyone had a good time.

The Top 4 is as follows:

1) Marvel Knights KO Fest
2) World’s Finest (Me, yay! Decklist is posted after the jump.)
3) Revenge Squad Front Row
4) Fantastic Four

There were three World’s Finest variants in our small group, one of which was almost identical to mine. I ended up playing against both of them, and both of those matches went to turn 9. I don’t run a 9 drop in my deck, but since I had the initiative I was able to push things over the top in terms of damage.

Although my deck packs 3 Skrees, its was not enough to counter the insane KO shenanigans of Marvel Knights. It’s an incredibly solid deck, so I have no problems with my loss.

In a format with such little hidden hate decks like this or Birds of Prey can go virtually unopposed. I’ll be racking my brain over the next few days to come up with some answers to this dilemma. Well played, good sir.

Next week we hope to get some new faces in the crowd. Our format?

Bring Your Own Set Un-Silver!

That’s right kids, anything older than Silver Age is legal! See you there!

BYOM Round-Up! Part 2 (of 2)

Yesterday I explored some of the ‘older’ deck types that could make a splash at your local Hobby League’s Bring Your Own Set (Modern) Event. Today I’ll be exploring the two latest VS. sets, Marvel Legends and DC Legends, and what impact we can expect from them in this format.

Actually ‘impact’ is an understatement, because these two latest sets will most likely define the average tournament and metagame…

BYOM Round-Up! Part 1 (of 2)

Exciting times are upon us, as tomorrow our local Hobby League will be hosting our Bring Your Own Set (Modern) tournament. Admittedly I have not put much thought into the deck I will be running, but I figure this post will serve to flesh out some of my ideas.

After all, it’s a limited format. How many viable decks can there be?

Apparently enough for a two-part series, that’s how many.

HL: Count(er) Your Blessings

Ironically, the week after we had an amazing showing at our local Hobby League was when we finally got our prize support. This was the prize kit that I had been waiting for since December, since it included the much-too-awesome Superman/Batman Robot and Roshambo! The night itself is already documented on Tier 2 Tutor, but I thought I’d include my personal story as well.

One of our newer players only had an Avengers reservist build on hand, so it was decided that the six of us try our hand at a Bring Your Own Set tournament. Yes, we’ll be giving away those same prizes all month long… but I wanted them NOW!

In order to win, I pulled out the big guns for this one. It was time for Shadowpact.

CLM: Hobby League: You’ve Been Netdecked!

This week’s Hobby League had a fantastic turnout, and we were pleasantly surprised to have some extra players join us. This brought our ranks up to a healthy 6, a major improvement over where we have been in the past few weeks.

Sadly, our plan to play ‘mini-decks’ fell apart with these new players, but that didn’t stop me from playing Crime Lords!

Tonight I decided to pilot a new Marvel Knights/Crime Lords built in honor of Crime Lords Month. I was having a great time with it when I began watching the match taking place next to mine. One of our new players recruited a copy of Halo, immediately followed by Katana on turn 2. That’s odd. Those are the first two drops in my Grace deck from a few weeks ago…

As their game continued I realized that he WAS playing my Grace deck! He admitted that he found the deck on Stu’s ‘Rallying Cry,’ and thought it was a lot of fun. Though I had little success with it a few weeks earlier, he went the entire night with Grace undefeated. If I wasn’t so flattered that a complete stranger had ‘netdecked’ me, I probably would have been jealous of how well he played it.

Perhaps if we’re lucky lightning will strike twice!

Hobby League: Say Goodnight, Grace!

Remember Grace?

I do. Heck. How could I forget her? When the World’s Finest set was previewed this card was almost universally praised, yet it’s many months later and I don’t think I have ever seen a deck featuring the card. What gives?

Well, as you can guess (or maybe not, I shouldn’t overestimate my audience,) I finally figured out what I’m bringing to the Hobby League!

 Goodnight, Grace!

4x Thunder, Anissa Pierce
3x Halo, Gabrielle Doe
4x Grace Choi
3x Katana, Tatsu Yamashiro
4x Batman, Problem Solver
2x Barbara Gordon * Oracle, Hacker Elite
1x Catwoman, Feline Fatale
4x Huntress, Harsh Mistress
2x Batman, Twilight Vigilante
3x Grace, The Bouncer

3x Soul Slicer
3x Fighting the Liar
4x The Hook-Up
2x Training Day
4x Bat-Signal
4x Taking Out the Trash
4x Crackshot
3x Skreee!

3x Batmobile, Burn Rubber

This deck is BYOS and Random Punks legal, so that’s kind of fun. As always, the plan is kind of simple: Hit big characters with tinier ones, making use of control-oriented Batman and Huntress to ensure that your opponent plays fairly.

On turn 6 you want to end things, bulking up Grace to stun a higher drop, recovering, readying, and stunning their five. You’ll also underdrop on 6 with Batman and Katana, which should lead to a lot of stunning and happiness. Thunder is mostly there for flavor, but also for discard fodder later on.

Grace should be your only visible character for pretty much the entire game, so that’s also fun. My biggest concern is getting the team-up consistently, and also going against other off-curve strategies. But really, I’m playing an Outsiders/Gotham Knights team-up without a single rare, so we can only do so much.

I’ll give it a couple of plays tomorrow and see how it turns out.