For the first time in history, TPC went down last night and I was unable to log in to upload top 8 decks from the event.

Here they are:

T8:
Genre (True Allies)
Brad Wright (True Allies)
Joe Colon (Lightning/Wind True Allies splash Anbu/Biscuit)
MJM (No Hand Water)
Elric (Fire/Water Haku/Kakashi/EOTS instant-Ninja Kill)
Dalegna (Distal Shrapnel OTK)
Saul Pena (BR Flip Earth)
John B. (Monowater)

John vs. Joe
Saul vs. Genre
MJM vs Elric
Dalegna vs Brad

T4:
Joe vs. Genre
MJM vs. Dalegna

T2:
MJM vs. Joe

Winner: Joe Colon

Congrats Joe and I hope everyone who came had a lot of fun. Also I want to give a shout out to MJM for not only playing extremely well against a lot of tough players, but being the best user of the note taking rule I've ever seen. Using Karin [Warden] he was able to figure out opponent's hands by turn 1 or turn 2 and just use the information to out play his opponents...was very interesting to see someone use this very under utilized rule. We apologize for the low turnout, however despite that, we were invited to come back again and host another one of these in October. Anyone interested in attending one of these in the off season?

Lastly I apologize that the finals was not live streamed. I left the room for a minute and came back to see that Joe had moved to a different table then the 1st seed table to play his game and as such I wasn't able to live stream it. I requested they moved back before they started but Joe just ignored me and started playing...so I had to move to text based updates only. I hope you all at least enjoyed the live stream considering it was broadcast from my cell phone.

Shout Outs:
Dalegna - Nice meeting you bro. Had a lot of fun...I'm sad we didn't play in Marvel/Smash but maybe next time! Sick deck. I'll try to write more article based content just for you. I do miss it.

Saul - Fun matches in Marvel. GenCon Indy has an MVC3 machine across the street. We'll settle things there on quality sticks. I. HATE. ZERO! You still have an amazing BR flip Earth deck...there's a few things I'd slide in there for tech though :P

Joe - Why you so sacky? Ha ha ha. I'm watching all your games and your opponent's put you on the ropes and then you research into the nuts and then Tobi exactly into the perfect hand. See you at Gencon, we'll have a blast!

Mike (OneWingedAngel) - Good to see you made the trip. Always a pleasure talking to you. Come hang out with us at GenCon... definitely going to the noodle shop a few times over the weekend. I love that place.

Genre - I'm sorry there was no gym at this event for you. As always, great to see you as you're a hilarious guy. Gen(re)con is going to be awesome!

Elric - Glad you're starting to get back into the game. Losing only to a misplay or two in top cut for a deck you were handed several hours before with no experience is pretty impressive.

Andrew - Thanks for watching my stuff and helping run the event. Always a fun event when you're around. No thanks for taking my slice of pizza & thinking this was a Pokemon competition over the mic.

Brad - Top cut for playing like... 1 game I think the whole day...that's a new record. See you at Gencon man.

Eric - Thanks for letting us preview you your card and help run the deck. I'll talk to you this week.

-TsuMobile

Labels: reports, tournament, TsuMobile

Or There and Back Again, a short novella dedicated to my ego.

4 of us made the trip from sunny California to just-a-bit-too-sunny Indianapolis - ex-mothafucking Sannin Thomas Cao, alcoholic bad player Mike Alpers, token black guy WillieG, and your beloved hero... me!

Building on my past experience from last year, where our layover in Las Vegas had resulted in the loss of our hotel money to Thomas Cao's gambling habit, we decided to take the much safer route of booking a flight with a layover in Milwaukee. I mean, it's Wisconsin. Absolutely nothing can go wrong in Wisconsin, unless you are wearing a Brett Favre jersey.

Aside: speaking of Wisconsin, if anybody finds my Respective Dreams deck (black Dragonball deckbox) at Gate 41B of the Milwaukee airport, I would appreciate it back. Thank you very much.

In any case, we made it to Indianapolis on Wednesday morning, picked up our badges, and then proceeded to rampage through a local K-Mart in search of food to stock the hotel for the weekend. I have never seen a sadder cashier in my life than the young lad who was confronted the sight of our mega-mountains of frozen food and alcoholic beverages.

30 minutes of scanning and a total of just over $100 later (or, approximately $0.03 per pound of food)...

*fast forward through boring bits*

Midway through those boring bits, new challengers had arrived in the form of first class noob and all-around ginger Nick Botchis, ultra-noob Pat O'Neill, and king of the noobs Andrew Kardis. Luckily for them, they had arrived bearing offerings of Smash Bros. and Wii and so were allowed to prostrate themselves in the temple of me.

We ended up cubing (so much fun, btw - every group should have someone with a cube) and I felt so sorry for Alpers that I graced him with a victory in the finals. Considering this was the one and only time that he had ever won anything in his entire life, I decided I had done enough good deeds for the day and disemboweled a kitten before heading to sleep.

zzz...

zzzzzzzz...

zzzzzzzzzzzz...

Crono! Wake up!

zzz....

My electric travel razor doesn't work! Curse you and your inferior products Remington!

(That was why I was unshaven the whole weekend, in case anyone cares.)

*fast forward through more boring parts*

We partook in a variety of adult beverages on Thursday night - vodka and Sierra Mist, vodka and cranberry juice, vodka and coke, vodka and diet coke, and of course, Thomas Veazie's favorite of vodka and vodka.

Pop quiz!

What did Pyrot do/say while drunk in our hotel room?
A. Attempt to hook up with Alpers.
B. *in high pitched girly voice* "Woah! Laurent! You're... BLACK!" *extends fist* "Knuckles?"
C. Attempt to gift various members of our hotel room with an iPod touch, his virginity, and a small quantity of weed (ironically stored in a Naruto deckbox).
D. Drink all of our vodka, the fucker.
E. Get punched out by Amir (lol).
F. All of the above.

If you answered anything but F, you're an idiot.

*fast forward through fuzzy parts*

Watching Pat play Blazblue drunk against a completely sober Andrew was hilarious. The amount of Jack Daniels left in Pat's cup corresponded inversely with the savagery of the annihilation he was dishing out to Andrew. By the time he had none left he was perfect-ing Andrew in 3 seconds flat. Drunken fist ftw?

*fast forward through parts not for public consumption*

I ordered the same thing at Steak and Shake the 4 times we went there over the weekend (Western BBQ Bacon Double Steakburger) - it got better each time.

...

Plus: getting humped by Ari's girlfriend
Minus: getting humped by Ari

...

If you would like to hear someone rage more than Thomas Cao using Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu, please ask Andrew Kardis about his experiences in 2HG MTG Draft at GenCon.

...

Dude, I swear I thought it was a Negate.

...

Oh, the actual tournament. Because nobody actually likes reading about matches, I have condensed each game into one sentence.

Round 1 - Kelvin Smith - ANBU
Game 1: Sealing Barrier on Dispatch elicits the insta-scoop.
Game 2: No Sealing Barrier, I insta-scoop.
Game 3: Time is called when I have 9 BRs and a Sasuke/Oro + Sasori/Deidara, and he has 0 BRs, 0 cards in hand, and 0 ninjas in play.

1-0 (SoCal players faced: 1)

Round 2 - Juan Romero - Taijutsu
Game 1: Chidori Stream!
Game 2: Chidori Stream (after a mulligan to 4)!

2-0 (SoCal players faced: 2)

Round 3 - Colin Mitchell - Dreams
Game 1: Lots of yelling, and he sacks the shit out of me.
Game 2: I sack the shit out of him (after attempting to ambush a platoon - this is what happens when you don't play the game for a year).

In all fairness, I was, as Zero puts it, "playing to my outs."

2-0-1 (SoCal players faced: 2)

Round 4 - Mynor Del Aguila - Taijutsu
Game 1: Chidori Stream!
Game 2: I get buttfucked.
Game 3: Snake Waves!

3-0-1 (SoCal players faced: 3)

Round 5 - Nick Brady - Earth
Game 1: Chidori Stream (eventually)!
Game 2: I am the Prince of Persia!

4-0-1 (SoCal players faced: 3)

Round 6 - Steve Aragon - Dreams
Game 1: Pillars! Pillars! Pilla- oh wait, I died.
Game 2: You can't miss drops against the Prince of Persia and expect to win.

4-0-2 (SoCal players faced: 4)

Round 7 - Michael Cano - Dreams
Game 1: Chidori Stream!
Game 2: Sasori/Deidara!

5-0-2 (SoCal players faced: 5)

Round 8 - Joe Colon - TBM Earth
Game 1: I Sealing Barrier his Yamato, which lets me set up for... Chidori Stream!
Game 2: I mulligan to Oro, Oro, mission, mission, and proceed go: drop, drop, drop, Oro, Snake Waves on time.

This "playing to your outs" thing is pretty effective.

Saul: "Hey Josh, how does it feel to have god licking your ballsack?"

6-0-2 (SoCal players faced: 5 out of 8 rounds)

...

We go to some horrible wings place and watch Anderson Silva get the shit beaten out of him (and not care) for 23 minutes, only to make the other guy tap out in the 24th minute. Best fight ever.

...

Top 16 - Ari Kathein - Concentration Water
Game 1: Chidori Stream! Oh wait, he's not dead... Chidori Stream!
Game 2: Snake Waves! ...holy shit Ari, what is with you and not dying to game-ending jutsus? Chidori Stream!

Ari bestows upon me the title of "Master of Water." He also mentioned someone else, but I don't really care about them.

Top 8 - Mike Cancelleri - OneWingedToads

Ok, fine, I'm going to go longer on a sentence in this one. But that's because I made my only good play of the tournament in this game.

Game 1: I get a Sasori in play while getting beaten down by turn 2 Gamabunta. I know he has a Shika U in his hand after seeing it with Temari WS, so I organize a Shino into Sasori's team with my only ninja being a bug coin. He takes the bait and deploys Shika U, uses it on my Shino, then organizes into Naruto Reliance/some random 1 drop, Gamabunta/Lee, Choji/Shino, ShikaU/bug coin. I give him some BRs, then Invasion for Freezing Eyes, ambush it, activate Sasori, hard charge to give me more chakra than him, organize, activate the squad...

Boom!

His 1 card in hand was not enough to make a comeback.

Game 2: I see Oro/Snake Waves in my opener. He doesn't get Bunta out on turn 2.

Top 4 - Thomas "Knuckles" Veazie - Dreams
Game 1: Tragic Destiny does WHAT?!
Game 2: I go all in with my trips Stream and trips Wind Scythe. Unfortunately, there is only one person playing poker at this table, and it isn't him.

I put the same curse on him that I put on Brandon Thieben 3 years ago and he draws horri-bad in the finals and loses. Revenge?

Mmmmm... noodles...

They really need one of those places in Cali.

We go to the arcade and Mike Alpers tells me he's good at MvC2. I have never played in my life. I beat him by repeatedly slamming my hand down on all 6 buttons at once.

Victory!

I also crush Andrew 7-1 in air hockey but fail to draw Snake Waves against Joe and lose my air hockey king title. I blame my ignominious defeat on button-mashing related fatigue.

Back to the hotel, more cubing...

THERE ISN'T ANY BOOZE FOR SALE IN INDIANAPOLIS ON SUNDAY. EPIC FAIL.

Monday was mostly Fogo de Chao and raging.

Overall, not a bad way to go out.

...

Hello Hello (Good to be Back)

3 Sea Monstah [Monstah of the Sea]
2 Anko Mitarashi [Pupil of Orochimaru]
2 Cursed Warrior [Ubiquitousness]
2 Shino Aburame [Insect Warriors]
1 Sakura Haruno [A Double Personality]
1 Kiba Inuzaka [Keen Nose]

3 Temari [Wind Scythe]
1 Kabuto [Database]

3 Konohamaru Ninja Squad [Successors to the Will of Fire]
1 Shino Aburame [Silence]

2 Orochimaru (Childhood) [Shown Signs of the Legends]
1 Naruto Uzumaki [Reliance]
1 Sakura Haruno [Reliance]

1 Sasuke Uchiha [Severing the Bond]
1 Sasuke Uchiha [Freezing Eyes]

1 Sasori [Creating the Masterpiece]

3 The Second Hokage [Supremacy]
1 Sasuke Uchiha and Orochimaru [3 Years Later]

3 Sakura's Decision
3 Loss
2 Invasion of Akatsuki
1 Sealing Barrier
1 The Next Target
1 Tragic Destiny

3 Chidori Stream
3 Wind Scythe Jutsu

3 Tobi [Man of Mystery]

Sideboard:
1 Shino Aburame [Insect Warriors]
1 Shino Aburame [Parasite]
1 Kigiri [Smoke Screen]
1 Shimon Hijiri [Keeping an Eye]
2 Yakumo Kurama [With a (Sea) Monstah Within]
2 Make-Out Tactics
1 The Next Target
1 Ten Thousand Snake Waves

Labels: Gencon, josh, reports

This post will be edited as more info comes in.

1. Max Grahnet (Females/Medical)
2. Daniel Collens (Taijutsu)
3. Thomas Cao (Animals)
4. Jerry Balentuangin (Taijutsu)
5. Amir Abboushi (Monofire)
6. Gersain Perez (Females/Medical)
7. Casey Strong (Monowater)
8. Destin Earsery (Unknown)

Credit and thanks to Joe Colon for the updates.

Now I know why Jerry said "You think Taijutsu is bad? *laughs* Oh man..." in our interview. It was a segment that got cut from the Bandai article. Very impressive~

Labels: random, reports, Shonen Jump Championship, sjc, tsu

Yesterday was the All Things Fun Chunin in New Jersey. Despite the fact that a lot of people confirmed they were going, only 15 people showed up. I can think of at least 6 people off the top of my head who said they were going all the way up to the last minute and never showed. Strange. Not a terribly large Chunin but still you want to win it and walk away with the prize support for sure.

As you guys all know, we've been play testing this format a decent amount since Set 16 Release and the general consensus (at least for Josh and myself) is that the 4 most overhyped supers in the Set are generally accepted as jank (Obito, Kakashi, Chidori, and Fear). While Kakashi isn't 100% jank, he's jank when not in a Monofire deck and the versatility other combinations have makes them more favorable than just Recyladori.

I was expecting two packages before this event: 1 Containing all of my Earth cards and some Wind cards. The second containing 2 Tobis, 2 Kakashi, and 2 Chidori. One did not show up. The other showed up however I was informed before I received it that 1 or 2 keycards were missing from it. Awesome! Luckily, Andrew and Nick (Shino's Dad) came through for me with their awesome cards.

Friday rolls around and Andrew shows up late. Again. He swears up and down he's on time but phone logs say differently. Five Guys for dinner. My buddies show up and we get some gaming in, including me finally getting to see the ending to God of War 3. Nick (Zounder) rage quits on Final Fantasy XIII cause he can't beat this boss. He has the boss basically won (he just has to hit square to trigger the cutscene to win)... and at the last second his main character gets blind sided and dies. Heh. Nothing terribly exciting.

Saturday I got up and watched Mighty Morphin Power Rangers cause that's how pros do it. Andrew didn't watch some of it cause he slept in until like 12:30. Nick (Zounder) came over around this point. Went and picked up Nick Botchis (Shino's Dad) from the train station. So now Nick, Nick, Andrew, and I go to Chili's cause Andrew said he'd treat us to lunch. For the record: Don't get the tacos here. Just opt for the fajitas. I mean the tacos were fine and all but why are they sweet? I've never had Mexican food that tastes like candy... very strange. After Andrew pays up and everything we get up and head towards the car. Andrew calls "Shotgun" but Nick Botchis is already on his way to the car and takes the front seat anyway. Andrew stands there and goes "Really? Really? I called shotgun. Really?" for like 3 minutes until finally I tell him get in the back or I'm leaving.

And then I start pulling away.

And he stood there.

And I kept going.

And he stood there.

I stop the car and Zounder is like "Why are you stopping? Just drive!" I should have. Now Botchis gets out of the car and throws up his hands and gives Andrew the seat. We all decide to call him a baby when he gets in the car...and he proceeds to play it off like he's not a whiner. Yes he did just pay for lunch for all of us but come on, holding us up for 5 minutes just so he could get shotgun? Needless to say we all harassed him about this for a while.

Then my buddy Lael shows up again. Perfect Dark was played. And it was fun.

BlazBlue was played. And people complained that I was cheap for using "Combos."

Final Fantasy XIII was played. And there was more rage quitting over stupid fights.

Naruto Clash of Ninja Revolution 3 was played. And people complained that my Rock Lee was too much of a pimp.

Everything but the play testing was pretty much done. So everyone leaves and we find ourselves at the like... 1 AM mark...looking at the decks going "Well... ****!" Last minute testing was done, decks assembled and put together. By the time the deck lists were written out and we were off to bed, it's like 4:30 AM. We have to get up at 9:30 to be on time.

So I'm enjoying my 5 hour nap only to be woken up by Shino's Dad snoring. Normally I'd throw something at him but what kind of host would I be if I threw something at someone while they slept in my house? I couldn't decide which was worse... Andrew sounding like a cat while he slept or this. All I knew is I was tired as hell... when I finally got to sleep, I got woken up to let the dogs out. FML.

Arrived at All Things Fun and turn in the deck list:

Player: Pat O'Neill (Tsu Kiyo Me)
Deck Name: "A Target's A Target"
Archtype: Wind/Earth Puppets

As usual, I do not give out my entire deck lists because there are key cards in the deck that need to be used for later events in the Season. You'll just have to guestimate based on the rest.

Round 1 vs. Shino's Dad (Monolightning)
Well... that sucks. Having to play your buddy round 1. We decided to just take the Draw super early and just play test games to warm up for the day. The result ended at 1 game a piece, then we switched decks to try to get a feel for the others deck to see how it works. By the time the round was over, we found out that Andrew had also drawn in time over procedures with his opponent JD (No, not Josh Lu).

That means that no matter what, one of us is going to get screwed next round because there's 4 people with 1 point each. So Round 2 I'm either playing Andrew or JD.

0-0-1

Round 2 vs. JD (Monofire)
JD is a good guy that comes down every once in a while for Locals. When I first met him, he was playing a Tailed Beast Mode deck however he didn't really use the power of Naruto 2K Uzumaki Barrage. After playing me a few times in the past, he started to adapt to the Naruto Dangerous Chakras I was using in the past 2 formats and it was no surprise to me when I saw the Dangerous Chakra in his deck. Lightning, just like expected.

What was a surprise was me playing Long Awaited Reinforcements on turn 2 of the 1st game of the match only to get Sealing Barrier'd immediately after. I looked at him like "Seriously!?" That's never happened before. NEVER. I charged my entire hand to chakra and decided to see if I could sack a win. More importantly, I decided to not scoop to try to figure out if my prediction about the deck being Lightning was indeed correct. Much to my surprise, there were no lightning cards played and Kakashi (Boyhood), Drift, and a few other cards led me to believe it was Fire. I eventually scooped after I had seen enough to get an idea of what to sideboard.

The rest of the match was pretty much a blur to me. I just remember that I did get sacked by 2K Barrage, which prompted me to yell at Zero saying that splashing it wasn't as bad as he was thinking. I clearly just lost to it. He still thought it was bad. All I'll say is karma.

0-1-1

Round 3 vs. Monolightning
One of Eric's friends. I didn't catch his name which is odd cause usually I catch everyone's name. This matchup was pretty much the same as playing against Shino's Dad's deck however it wasn't nearly as optimized. The thing that did throw me for a loop though was the random 5 drop Tailed Beast Naruto. That thing was scary but I still won game 1 with my field presence.

Game 2 was pretty much the same fashion however this time what appeared to be a surefire win was clearly not the case. I have: Injured Ninja in Team 1. Sasori & Crow in team 2. Shino & Kiba, Ebizo & Salamander in team 3. He drops Tailed Beast Mode again. That's fine. Disaster of the Nine Tailed Fox spirit. WAT.

Kills Team 1, injures all of Team 2 and 3. Uses Naruto's effect to destroy Sasori, leaving me with just team 3. He must attack and I still have a 1 up on him in 1 team. I'm at 8 BRs so I must blow. Rasengan's my whole team off the board.

Ughh.

Game 3 I ripped Godly, hit him with Naruto & Hinata, Shino & Kiba, Kankuro, and a jutsu or two all by turn 3. He was forced to scoop up on 4.

1-1-1

Round 4 vs. Luke (Animals)
Luke is someone who I've played before at my local as well. He's a nice guy and I was really happy that he enjoyed reading some of the stuff I've written for Bandai. After some talking, we're allowed to begin. I take a guess based on his first turn Naruto Guard of the Prince that it's animals because that's the only deck I remember him playing. Sure enough, it's Hikaru. We were talking about how he had me beat one time until I dropped Triple Tombs on him with Gaara IP one game. Fun times.

Game 1, we tempo evenly which as you can tell is bad for Animals. I sweep up this game.

Game 2, he's just super aggressive, with I think 5 or 6 Ninja by turn 1. Yeeeeouch. I try to hold on as long as possible but Baki can't really do anything vs. 3 teams of 2. Itachi GiG comes down to score him a few BRs and win it for him.

Game 3 was very much like game 2. Things weren't looking good until I pay a chakra with Michiru and draw into my bomby animals hate cards which allow me to completely rip through his defenses and win in the next turn or two.

2-1-1

Surprisingly after all this I make Top Cut. Zero wins by round 3 and I still top? Ridiculous.

Top 8:
8. MJM's Cousin - ??? (Assumed to be Fire)
7. Tsu Kiyo Me - Wind/Earth
6. Squee - Monofire (???)
5. Andrew Kardis - Monowind
4. JD - Monofire
3. Nick - Monowater
2. Andrew C. - Medical Kunoichi
1. MJM - Monowater

I believe those are the standings + their decks. Correct me if I'm wrong. I originally thought there was Lightning in there but I guess I'm wrong.

Top 8 vs. Andrew C. (Medical Kunoichi)
Andrew is one of JD's friends and probably one of the nicest people I've met at All Things Fun. Always pleasant to talk with and play against, I was really looking forward to an interesting game. My signature Sakura Cards + Sakura Mat was a decent foreshadowing of what I was about to face given his remarks and also what he was asking me to borrow earlier in the day... this was indeed going to be against a Sakura Haruno based deck. She may be my <3 <3 <3 but I'm not going to lose to her, that's for sure.

Game 1 I believe he got the ShizTon combo out...I do remember though I had a team of all 3+ Ninja and because I was puppets... I clearly had the bigger team. He attempts a jutsu in desperation with Sakura at some point, but I simply just Concealed Weapon her. Even though he got out his secret tech Sasuke Cold Headed, things just went very smoothly.

Game 2 I hit Naruto & Hinata against him, setting him back. Then I hit Ebizo and pick up Salamander. He drops Sakura and I simply Arbitrate her for Salamander. Temari & Kankuro next turn to limit the hand. And he has a field of 1 of ninja so Baki comes down and cleans up.

After, I made some adjustments to his deck and gave him recommendations. By no means do I believe females are bad. I am by far one of their biggest supporters, however they are somewhat frail and need specific builds in order to gain consistency and good performance. It is probably the 4th or 5th best deck at the moment in my eyes.

Andrew loses in the first round of Top cut to JD because he got sacked by 2K Barrage. I called it! Karma! HA HA! Squee loses to his teammate Nick. MJM wins against his Cousin.

Round 4 vs. Nick (Monowater)
Nick from Squee's Play Group was my only legitimate loss at the Mist Kage back in June of 2009. The only other loss at the event was me forfeiting to Andrew Kardis in the last round or so of the Kage. I've played him a few times since then and I know for a fact this was going to be one tough game.

Game 1: He manages to Tobi about 4 times in a span of 2 turns. (Triple Tobi and then Ninja info cards) I go get Hinata off my bug coin via Substitute turn 1. Using his player priority afterwards, he Sealing Barriers and calls Naruto Uzumaki blindly. He asks "Did I get it?" Apparently he didn't know how crazy Naruto Hinata was before this event and has been making it a point to just go for Naruto or Hinata when the opposite is dropped. So there goes my 3 Prince Narutos :( But it doesn't matter cause I still curve out perfectly with Kiba, Shikamaru, Kankuro, and Baki to just wail on him and end it on turn 4.

Game 2: I attempt a Tobi knowing full well he has Sealing Barrier in hand, trying to get him to waste it. No take. I play Kiba knowing full well there's Akamaru in my hand. I play dumb and fail to find a search target. Then I deploy Naruto knowing full well that he'll attempt to try to get either Michiru or Hinata after this play. I fail to find a Michiru (which was also already in my hand). At this point he's feeling pretty sure of himself when I substitute and fetch Hinata, Naruto & Hinata him on my turn 2 into 3. Then next turn I squad into Shino & Kiba, discard the Akamaru, draw 2, and then play Michiru. The look on his face was like "What?" 4 Sealing Barrier Targets, he whiffed all of them. However, Kisame from EA comes down and he causes problems. My terrible selecting off of LAR + Second Hokage Matchless Hero to prevent a Jutsu rally costs me the game.

Game 3: The game goes to time in on turn 1. We are tied at BRs. I drop Naruto GotP and search for Michiru. I confirm that I do indeed have the last attack of the game. I have 2 Wind Chakra from substitute (which I used to get Kiba off a bug coin). I charge the two other missions in my hand + the michiru giving me 2 cards in hand, 5 chakra, 2 of which is wind. Pressing onward with Shion, Naruto, and Shino. He blocks. I fear by Genjutsu to get through for the last BR, holding Wind Scythe in case he has something else to stop me. Winnar!

Top 2 vs. JD Monofire
Considering Andrew had to leave, the store needed to start closing ASAP, and JD is my good buddy who had never gotten this far, he and I decided to just split the prizing and I let him have the pin since I can no longer get one.

Congrats to JD on his first Chunin win!

Afterwards, we headed to the parking lot where there was a fight over shotgun. An actual fight. Headlocks. Punches. Knees. Good times.

We went back to my house with my 36 blister backs to pack poker, 12 each. Highlights of my pulls:

-2 x Sasuke [Finishing Blow]
-1 x Yamato [Control by Fear]
-1 x Bashfulness
-1 x Sakura Haruno & Tsunade Squad
-1 x Orochimaru [Forbidden Jutsu]
-1 x Approaching Showdown
-Tonton Foil
-Sasuke Uchiha [Severing the Bond] foil
-Hinata [Reserved Character] foil
-Kakashi Childhood foil
Lots of Baki/Sasuke/good stuff non-foil

Also got another Sakura Meijin Mat, giving me 2. Unsure if I want to trade it but I guess if the offer was good enough . . .

After Andrew left, Nick and I decided to watch Downfall before turning in for the night. If you don't know what it is, you can watch this clip: Click Here. (Warning! This movie is rated R and as such some material is not suitable for all audiences)

Woke up crazy early to take Nick back to the train, only to go back to work in the morning.

Well at least I won another Chunin!

Labels: AllThingsFun, Chunin, I Heart Lightning, reports, tsu

I had the urge to play Naruto again the other week... lo and behold, there was a Chunin a few hours away and my good buddy and local hero Mike Alpers was willing to drive... so...

Perfect Circle Circus

3 Sasuke Uchiha
3 Kiba Inuzaka [+1/+1 to Animals]
3 Naruto Uzumaki [Guard of the Prince]
3 Giant Tiger

3 Shion (Awakened)
3 Rock Lee [Guard of the Prince]
3 Tortoise Ninja [+1/+1 to Taijtusu]
1 Kikki
1 Cham

1 Akamaru (3/2)
1 Shikamaru Nara [Unwillingness]

2 Hinata Hyuga [Reserved Character]
1 Ninja Dog Squad (All Gathered) [Howl]

2 Baki [Able Brain]

3 Hikaru Tsuki (Lightsworn Animal Summoner)

3 The One Who Lives Within
3 Communication
3 Naruto vs. Sasuke
2 Long-Awaited Reinforcements
2 Just Like Drifting Clouds
2 Being a Fool

1 Paper Bomb
1 Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu (2F for 1 damage to any ninja)

Sideboard:
3 Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu (kill mission/client)
2 Apology
2 Paper Bomb
2 Sakura Haruno [Nonstop Attacks] (This card is actually awful vs. Puppets... but it lets me swing through with Wonderful Days in play while getting value. It also wrecks Kank/BA randomly.)
1 Temari [Wind Scythe]

Reinforcement Deck:
3 Naruto Uzumaki and Hinata Hyuga
3 Naruto Uzumaki and Shion

The point of the deck is to swarm early with Animals, then break through for the last few BRs with NVS, Shion, Baki, or Being a Fool. Tortoise Ninja + Lee/Sasuke helps you win the 4 BRs you usually need from NVS. Being a Fool is particularly helpful against Water but will also turn games into blowouts occasionally. Hinata is there to help form the Naruto/Hinata squad. Everything else should be fairly self-explanatory.

That is also why I played it... because it's self-explanatory. Thinking or testing optional!

Round 1: Ferdie - Monofire

Game 1 I stall out and slowly pick up a few BRs. Eventually he uses Sasuke STB to start trying to push through - I swarm to get up to 8 BRs while losing most of my ninjas, then play NVS for the win on the next turn.

Game 2 goes to time while I'm up by 4 BRs. Right before time is called, Ferdie plays Wonderful Days. I chump block to victory.

Round 2: Mason - Monowind Puppets (Kank/BA)

Game 1 he plays Sakura ADP as his 0 drop while I ht Sasuke, Lee, and Tortoise swinging at him on 1. I win that game. (Shion on his Kank helped)

Game 2 he plays more than just Sakura ADP but dies again when I Shion his Kank.

You know the great part about playing Circus? Every match is over in 10 minutes... or if it goes to time you have the advantage BR-wise.

Round 3: Laurent - Snake Waves

Game 1 I have no action at all - he Wind Scythes me and sees I have 2 NVS and a LAR, then Kabutos up a Sealing Barrier. I think he's going to SB my NVSs but he just holds on to it. I eventually play 1 NVS for 4 BRs and another for 6 BRs to win.

Game 2 he plays a Sasuke CTS, misses a drop, then gets greedy and plays a Sakura ADP instead of the Shimon he's holding. I go crazy with a bunch of dumb animals and he dies.

Round 4: Donovan - Monowater
I don't remember too much about this match - he was playing Baby Haku so both games Being a Fool wiped out his whole Haku into Kabuto start. And when the opponent has no early game, Animals tends to do its thing quite well.

Round 5: Fidel - Monowater - Intentional Draw

Round 6: George - Snake Waves - Concession
I scoop to George since he is Mike Alpers' tiebreaker... and then Mike proceeds to lose.

We play for fun and I win 2-0.

Top 8: Fidel - Monowater
Game 1 he mulligans to 4, misses his 0, and I swing for 5 BRs on turn 1. Not much else to say.

Game 2 he plays turn 0 Buying Time, turn 1 Crying in Vain, turn 4 Secret Meeting on even, turn 5 Secret Meeting on odd (yes that's right... no one can be sent out to battle)... and I still win. I believe this is what is termed a "bad matchup" for Monowater.

Top 4: Amir - Monofire
Game 1 I keep a risky hand - if Amir plays two ninjas with mental power, I should be able to blow him out with Being a Fool into Baki. He does in fact do that... however, my deck neglects to flip over any animals in three TOWLW activations. At one point in the game he plays Surprise to put me up to 5 BRs - this is with him having 1 ninja in play, me having a Baki, a Lee, a Kiba in play. If I had one animal in my graveyard, chakra, or hand I would have won on the spot... except my deck apparently chose to wrong time to get a horrible draw. He stabilizes with Sasuke STB and plays a bunch of Trigrams (didn't even need mastery!)

Game 2 I keep a decent hand with a 0, 1, and 2 drop, some missions, and a Hikaru. I then proceed to draw Hikaru, Hikaru, another copy of my 1 drop, another copy of my 0 drop, and then I am forced to use the "Being a Fool/chump block all my MP ninjas" strategy just to try and stabilize. Protip: Animals doesn't win when it's trying to stabilize.

Even better protip: when you use Hikaru 0 times total in a match, odds are you didn't win that match. I knew I was due for some bad draws... they just aren't supposed to happen all at once!

I open up a foil Tonton, foil Miroku, foil Giant Tiger, Yamato CBF, Sasuke [Finishing (the) Blow], and 4th Kazekage in my pity packs.

Not the worst, and had loads of fun chilling with everyone from the BA and Fresno.

+
ChuninChillin' With Mike Alpers Episode 3
Sasuke Finishing the Low (and MLow losing to this card multiple times!)
Stealing the WOBMOB's chicken sandwiches
Finishing up playsets of all the good set 15 SRs/Sasuke STB
Being a Fool

-
Losing to Amir
Vit/Akatsuki not playing
Nasty Denny's at midnight
Bad draws
Mike Alpers not listening to my deck advice
Not beating Laurent with Being a Fool
Wonderful Days

Thanks for reading. I'll try to have something less cursory next time.

Labels: decklists, josh, reports