DRDEATH25 vs. Onslaught
The decks
For this set, Deryl was running a card advantage intellect team featuring Mr. Fantastic, Robin, Donald Pierce, and Black King in reserve with Hell's Kitchen battlesite and The Infinity Gauntlet mission set. I was using an anti-energy team of Maverick, Team X, X-Babies, and Sabretooth in reserve with Onslaught's Citadel battlesite and Fatal Attractions mission set. The goal of the intellect deck is very effective - draw a bunch of cards and win. Kingpin and Mr. Fantastic bring the draw 3s, and Black King/Robin have the draw 4s. Hell's Kitchen is a superb battlesite for this deck, as it augments his drawpower theme while also featuring ways to make the opponent stop attacking Mr. Fantastic in the middle of a turn. The Team X deck has a very weak venture game, but makes up for it with big combo turns and extreme survivability. It is pretty hard to efficiently KO the X-Babies with powercards, so they are more likely to be pointed at Maverick/Team X. This allows you to abuse Kinetic Absorption, which helps make up for your low damage. Overall it is a fairly hardy deck with backed up stats and immunity to the KO event, so you want to try to win by outlasting your opponent. If they make this strategy moot due to having a backup 8 stat, it should mean that they are a more passive deck. In this kind of matchup, you would try to win through your combo setups on the two big event turns (Shockwave Rocks the World/Down But Not Out).
This is a pretty interesting matchup. My initial thought was that I would win through attrition route, due to the lack of a second 8 stat character. However, he has the potential for turns that draw out a negate with one draw effect, then punch through with a second draw effect to win the turn. That threat, combined with the general low hits to venture my deck suffers from (mediocre offensive specials and an above average amount of "effects that add nothing to the current venture") meant that I couldn't rely on a winning the long game. If he pushed the pace with early aggressive ventures, I would be in big trouble.
Game One
Hand 1: Both players had no discards, and he started off by placing an 8i teamwork. I placed Lil' Longshot, he placed Fantastic Mind, I placed an 8f TW to Maverick, he placed an 8 intellect powercard, I placed Legacy Regression to Team X, and he placed Donald Pierce to...Donald Pierce. Another downside of the Team X deck is that it is easily outplaced. You have to keep Kinetic Absoption in your hand, and there are very few offensive specials outside of that. The X-Babies can't place teamworks of course, though the deck only has four in the first place.
Right off the bat, I am in a tough spot. He has me outplaced, so if I run before the battle starts his advantage will carry into the next turn. If I stay in, I'm down seven cards to his eight, as Legacy Regression does nothing for me on the current turn. To make things even worse, I have a Post activator in my hand (with only Obfuscate and 4m AA under the Citadel, so it's another very low to venture card). I do have a Kinetic Absorption, so I can theoretically match him eight cards to eight for this turn. He ventures a modest two, and rather than bet one and concede I decide to fight it out and try to draw out some of his placed cards.
He opened with the 8i TW on the X-Babies, and followed up with a 2 multi on...the X-Babies! Crap! Both attacks hit, and my 7 cards vs his 8 was now more like 6 card vs. his 8 with Kinetic Absorption being dead. I don't know if he was picking on the Babies for the free venture or if he actually intended to both spectrum/cummulative KO them to clear out my negates, you'd have to ask him. It could also be that he was playing around Kinetic Absorption. Normally, I would be thrilled to have my opponent attack the X-Babies first. This would guarantee that I would be able to pursue the "outlast them until the powerpack" strategy, since I could wail on their 8 stat characters while they struggled to KO the X-Babies in 4 or less cards. As current things stood though, I was in a bad position. On my first action I activated Legacy Regression on Team X. He continued his assault on the X-Babies, throwing a Bonebreaker at them. Not wanting to waste my negate, I made the very greedy early play of Illusory Reality from the site. This put my Kinetic Absorption back online, and hopefully if he landed a hit or two on Maverick he would be tempted to continue attacking him in the ensuing turns. I was willing to blow my Illusory so early based on the gamble that an event would show up the next turn, which may have been a little risky. This methodical, plodding deck is definietely not a team that wants to be taking risks. On my next action I played the Post activator for a 4m on Mr. Fantastic, which was defended. He had one card in his hand at this point and contemplated conceding, but decided to throw the Fantastic Mind at Maverick. I let it hit, and played the 8 fighting teamwork from Maverick. Elektra's Confusion style card stopped me in my tracks, and he conceded.
Missions - Me: 2-5-0, Him: 0-5-2
Placed cards me: Lil' Longshot, him: 8i powercard, Donald Pierce special
So I'm outplaced by one card and X-Babies are bleeding a little, but I am up on missions and have Legacy Regression floating. Illusory Reality really improved my position this turn.
Hand 2: He had Gods of Stone, I have Best Laid Plans. I put Down But Not Out, an 8 anypower (I doubted that he would put Silver Tongued Devil on top since I had Legacy Regression online, but I wanted to be safe), and two activators on top. I had one duplicate, a Lil' Longshot. D'oh. He has a duplicate Insignia Dart. I open by placing Wildcat Attack to Team X. He places Surfin' the Net to Robin. I placed a 6S TW to Team-X, he had Tessa on Black King, I put a 5m on Maverick, and he had a 6f TW for Robin with a 7i TW for Donald Pierce. I was up on cards due to his placing of Tessa, but I wanted to save my Team X placed stuff for the upcoming Down But Not Out turn. I ventured one, and he bet two. I was tempted to stay in and fight, but I ran.
Me: 2-4-1, Him: 2-3-2
Hand 3: My next hand had Shockwave Rocks the World in it, which I had to discard. I had one other duplicate, a 6 anypower powercard. He had no duplicates. I started off by placing a 5 intellect ally to the X-Babies, and he had Inventive Genius. After seeing that, I knew then that I was going to bet for the win, so I stopped placing to reveal less of my hand. He didn't place anything else either, and I ventured six. He had three discards from his four drawn cards - an unusable ally and two powercards. I was actually down on cards at this point - four usable placed cards with five cards in my hand, compared to his eight cards in hand and three usable placed cards. I still felt comfortable though, since I had the advantage of being able to use activators from Team X. I opened with a 6 strength teamwork on Fantastic, which was blocked. Followup 8 anypower which was unblockable, and passed the turn. He played the 6F TW to X-Babies, which hit. Followup 5 anypower to put them at 19, which I took. X-Babies threw the 3I ally at Fantastic and it went unblocked, while the followup Wildcat Attack was blocked. Sensing that Fantastic was near death, he threw the 8i powercard at the X-Babies to KO them both spectrum and cummulative, but I had Street Prophet to block it. I then used Merciless Conqueror on the X-Babies, and that was basically game over.
(http://i.imgur.com/unCjG.png)
I guess the thing to take away from this first match is "don't attack the X-Babies." It's just so hard to ever kill them in less than 4 cards unless you have 8 anypowers. I had a pretty bad first turn, but my greedy gamble paid off due to a second turn Best Laid Plans directly after a Legacy Regression. If I had not been in a position to bet for the win on the Down But Not Out turn, I would have been in a bad spot the rest of the game. It may seem like he could have turned the game around had he negated the Legacy Regression, but I still would have been able to Obfuscate that turn for a similar result. If I were in his situation, I also would have saved the negate anyway in order to prevent any Merciless Conqueror/Apocalyptic Minion shenanigans.
Game two
Hand 1: He elected to go first this game, with neither of us having any dupes. He placed Deathstrike, I placed Government Operative to Sabretooth, he placed a 6S TW, I placed Freelance Spy, he placed Python Hold, I placed Lil' Phoenix, and he had the final placement with a 4m to Robin. I had a 2 multi powercard in my hand that I wanted to place, but I didn't want him to see just how weak my hand really was that turn. I knew he didnt have a 6F TW or a 5F ally, or he would have placed them, so my Government Operative was a dead card. So was my Freelance Spy. Also, considering the way he played last game, the Kinetic Absorption in my hand might have been useless too! This is the downside of playing a deck with tricks - you can be a little slow to start some games.
I had a Dark Beast activator, so worst case scenario I could seal him off from attacking the X-Babies after he opened with his teamwork. I think he sensed blood in the water, because it's rare to be ahead on cards even after placing a Deathstrike. It's even rarer to get it on an early turn before a negate has been placed, so he could confidently venture big and come out golden any way the turn worked out. Since he was up a card (and potentially up two), he ventured three. My drawn cards were Legacy Regression and a 1 intellect powercard. I ventured two, and stayed in the battle. If I bet one and conceded, he would have more placed cards than me next turn and be in the position to bet four for the win if he had two "Draw X" effects (or if he just had one Draw X and I didn't get a Lil' Longshot). He went right at me with Deathstrike, which I couldn't afford to use Dark Beast on. If I could get some use out of Kinetic Absorption this turn, I had a good shot at winning the venture, which at the time felt pretty vital against a deck that could have such big turns. He predictably nuked my Down But Not Out, and the turn passed to me.
If he wanted to get any use guaranteed out of Python Hold for the turn, he would have to point it at the X-Babies. Due to this, I opened with Lil' Colossus. Of course you want to play it as late as possible, but I didn't want to use the Acrobatics on Python Hold on the off chance that he had a Kingpin activator in hand, so I was going to let the Python Hold hit. By playing Lil' Colossus so early, I ensured Python Hold would just be a 1 for 1 trade. He defended it with The Hand 6 anypower from his battlesite. Python Hold was pointed at the X-Babies, and it was successful. I played Robot Mentality on Fantastic, which hit. To keep the Lil' Phoenix from being used, he pointed the 6s TW at Maverick, which hit. The followup 4m from Robin was avoided by Kinetic Absorption, and my drawn card was an 8 fighting powercard. I was in fairly good position here, with him having three cards in hand and no placed cards for the next turn. Little did I know that he had me right where he wanted me...
I tossed a 2 multipower powercard at Fantastic, which hit. He threw Skullbuster at Maverick, which hit. Maverick was getting bloody, but I was determined not to let him win 3 missions and be in striking range of a mega-draw turn to bet for the win. I burned a turn by using the Legacy Regression on Team X. He had a Kingpin activator for the Draw 3, which Dark Beast shut down with Analyze. I was feeling pretty smug at this point, since I had accurately predicted the Kingpin activator. He only had one card in his hand, while I still had an 8 fighting and the useless 1 intellect powercard. Venture stood at nine points for me and eight for him. With Skullbuster already gone there was no attack in his deck that Maverick couldn't block with the 8 fighting powercard, so I felt safe and tossed the 1 intellect at Donald Pierce.
On his next action, he played Insignia Dart to KO Maverick.
(http://i.imgur.com/EZ0rP.gif)
Not only did Maverick just needlessly die, but the 8 fighting powercard in my hand was unusable, meaning he also just stole the venture by one point. A lot of novice players will always place a special card to an open slot, which to be honest is generally the right play. In this scenario though, the element of surprise was 1000x more valuable than potentially having an extra level 3F attack on future turns, and it was a fantastic move by Deryl. You might argue that it was only surprising because I forgot to take into account that he might be holding it, but even if I had considered the possiblity that he had one in his hand I still would have played out the turn the same way. I wouldn't concede and give him 3 missions on the off chance that he had the 2/49 odds of holding the Insignia Dart at that moment. That's the advantage of not placing sometimes.
Me: 0-5-2, Him: 4-3-0
Me placed: Lil' Phoenix, Government Operative, Him placed: Nothing
Hand 2: The following turn he had two discards (a Donald Pierce and a Ghost Rider activator), while I had none. Though the last turn was catastrophic, Mr. Fantastic was one fighting hit away from a spectrum KO. I placed a 7F TW to Sabretooth, he placed Fantastic Mind, I placed Wildcat Attack to team X, he placed Donald Pierce, I placed an 8 anypower to Sabretooth, he had no more placing, and I placed a 6 anypower to Team X. I ventured two even though I was in a strong position, but I had him outplaced and didn't want to give him extra cards for incentive to stay in and fight. He ventured one and conceded.
Me: 2-3-2, Him: 4-2-1
Hand 3: I drew Shockwave Rocks the World, and he had Gods of Stone. I had two discards - Lil' Longshot and an X-Man activator. He had no dupes. I started off by placing 3S powercard to X-Babies, while he placed a 6F TW to Robin, a 6S TW to Donald Pierce, 8i powercard, Tessa, and Surfin' the Net. Both of those teamworks were shut off by Shockwave, and I wanted to force him to stay in and fight this turn so I could use my placed Lil' Phoenix (since I had drawn two Lil' Longshot this turn, I really wanted to make sure my placing slot was open for the last one). I ventured four, and he drew two and kept both. He ventured one and conceded. You'd have to ask him if he was trying to deny me the ability to clear out Lil' Phoenix, but either way I was annoyed.
Me: 5-1-1, Him: 3-3-1
Hand 4: He drew Silver Tongued Devil and had a duplicate 8i powercard. I had a duplicate level 7 powercard, and I kept the 7 anypower due to his event. I had no Lil' Longshot, but I did have Beyonder. I checked my battlesite. Oops, I already used Analyze this game. This could be bad. If he bets big (or even for the win), I know he has Inventive Genius in his hand. If he bets for the win, he's guessing that I don't have Lil' Longshot. I venture two, while he ventures three. I remind him that I have discarded two Lil' Longshot this game (which he would have known anyway if we were playing "for real"), so he decides to instead bet five for the win. I cross my fingers for a Lil' Longshot off the top, but none show up. I do keep two of the three draws though. I want to kill Mr. Fantastic as quickly as possible, but it doesn't look good. I don't want to walk into Hypersenses or Elektra's Confusion, but I don't really have much of a choice. 7F TW from Sabretooth on Fantastic for KO, blocked by Hypersenses. Annoying. Followup 3 strength pointed at Donald Pierce, which he stops with Pretty Boy. That's fine. 6f TW from Robin to Sabretooth blocked by 7AP, followup 9i from Fantastic avoided by Beyonder for Street Prophet. I don't want to throw the Dangerous Mind in my hand and let him block it with a powercard, because (as seen by his teamwork followup) he is obviously trying to burn through cards to lower his chances of duplicating when he plays Fantastic's Draw 3. He can't really afford to wait until he has no cards left to use it, because Fantastic is still on the verge of being toast. I've only seen two Donald Pierce specials go by this game, so I'd also prefer not to let him use the placed negate and hope that he dupes into one off of all the card drawing he has to do this turn. There's also the fact that he needs to have a 6i or 7i powercard in hand to be able to pop Surfin' the Net, so it would be good if I can force Fantastic to use one of those for defense.
Still, things were looking grim. I ended up tossing the Wildcat Attack at Mr. Fantastic, which was met by Enforcers Only Universe. If things were grim before, they are downright hopeless at this point. Where is Lil' Iceman when you need him? A Bonebreaker on Sabretooth was blocked by an 8 anypower, and my string of A-Next into Lil' Phoenix landed on Robin. He hacks my Wifi network's password to Surf the Net (discarding a 6i powercard to pay its cost), while my 6 anypower from Team X on Robin is succesful. His Fantastic Mind on Sabretooth is blocked by Acrobatics, which later in the turn let my placed Government Operative avoid The Rose from his battlesite. He hit X-Babies with an 8 intellect powercard, so I tried to Apocalyptic Minion the hit to suck it up, which was negated. His next turn he played a 5f ally on the X-Babies for a hit and the followup Insignia Dart on them was also successful. He must have drawn really crappy cards off his Surfin the Net, because I was still ahead on venture. I Merciless Conquerored the X-Babies, which gave me a tiny bit of hope. He played Inventive Genius and kept all 3, while I played Dangerous Mind on Robin. He blocked, then used a placed 6S TW on Sabretooth and finished him off with the followups. A Next and a Ghost Rider activator for Donald Pierce to offensively negate/remove my Lil' Phoenix won him the venture and the game.
The takeaway message from game two is "don't robotically place." The element of surprise can be so understated sometimes, especially if you get caught up in a numbers game. Yes, it's important to mentally calculate what your points to venture for the turn are while estimating your opponent's potential points to venture for the turn and then betting accordingly. But that pure number crunching doesn't account for everything, as seen here.
Overall, these were entertaining games. The intellect deck is lacking in defense, but the Team X deck is so slow and unable capitalize on that vulnerability. Normally I would be salivating to use a team with two 8 stats against a deck with only one, but Mega-Draw can be too fast to let the game even reach the powerpack. It is an interesting dynamic, and makes for some unusual matches. Hopefully in the future I can do some more concept matches that cover some of the commonly used archetypes, like a very offensive deck vs. a defensive net.
Awesome play by play. Had me at the edge of my seat. :o
Before we move on to different archetypes, I challenge you to a rubber-match on this one!
Also, 100% agree with Onslaught on the "don't place cards like a robot" theory. Especially, when you know your opponents playstyle. I have played Onslaught thousands of times over the last 12 years, and know what cards he normally places, but when one of those cards gets kept in hand and played against you as a surprise, it can mess your whole hand up.
Good article for people to learn things on, I hope we can do more.
Yeah, when you play the same person a bunch of times you really get into a Princess Bride situation.
I know that he likes to _____.
But, he knows that I know that, so he might do the opposite of ______.
But, since I know that he knows that I know....
And so on.
Great play by play. Like listening to a football game on the radio. ;D
Quote from: drdeath25 on March 19, 2011, 06:13:38 PM
Also, 100% agree with Onslaught on the "don't place cards like a robot" theory.
Don't tell me how to play!
Great PbP, but there's something I seem to be missing: Why couldn't you just use the 8F power card to defend the Insignia Dart? If I remember correctly, only Intellect cards can't be used to defend against the Dart.
unfortunately, Insignia Dart is just the opposite:
QuoteActs as a level 3 Fighting attack. Can only be defended by a card with
an Intellect icon.
Quote from: ncannelora on March 21, 2011, 11:07:49 AM
unfortunately, Insignia Dart is just the opposite:
QuoteActs as a level 3 Fighting attack. Can only be defended by a card with
an Intellect icon.
Yeah, apparently I can't read after a long day at work. Oh well, at least it's not bugging me anymore.
My question is if he had the daredevil (no universe) and the enforcers (only universe) played to Mr. Fantastic did that make him untargetable for that battle or did the enforcers play 'cancel out' the previous daredevil card? :o
Quote from: Nostalgic on March 21, 2011, 04:50:39 PM
My question is if he had the daredevil (no universe) and the enforcers (only universe) played to Mr. Fantastic did that make him untargetable for that battle or did the enforcers play 'cancel out' the previous daredevil card? :o
They stack, the character is locked down.
Quote from: Jack on March 21, 2011, 06:55:06 PM
Quote from: Nostalgic on March 21, 2011, 04:50:39 PM
My question is if he had the daredevil (no universe) and the enforcers (only universe) played to Mr. Fantastic did that make him untargetable for that battle or did the enforcers play 'cancel out' the previous daredevil card? :o
They stack, the character is locked down.
Thanks.
Just thought of one more general question. Do any of you think it would have been worth putting the any mission event card: "To Save the World" in the Team X deck?
Nope, it already has three events and they are all essential. Four is just way too many (even three is pushing it). More importantly, the point of the Team X deck is that you have two frontline characters who can play Kinetic Absorption. If you added To Save the World, the event would be hurting your own deck more than it hurt the opponent in most matchups.
very kool