Ok, finally sitting down and writing this up. My friend and I flew in Thursday morning, planning on catching the 2nd qualifier the first day, and the 1st qualifier the second day so we could do the LARP. So here’s what went down.
Thusday:
Round 1:
Jake Tomasello playing City of Lightning with kaneka
I love sitting down against a mantis player, except the PK kind. Luckily, he’s not PK-frenzying so I did well. I went first, got some free gold. He was forced to get gifts. I come over early and take a few before he gets a decent defense out. RAs keep off a late attack, but I end up on top.
1-0
Round 2:
Matt Tyler playing Yogo with kaneka
I go first, and get utter shit and need to get gifts. He gets yudoka with shoju, and eventually a hideo spawn to make me cry. We’re both at one province after I make a comeback and balls to the walls attacks (I knew it was over after turn one) but that damned Yudoka was just too big.
1-1
Round 3:
Dan Fischer playing honorable Hida with kaneka
Basically, Corrupt > honorable. Free gold > not free gold. I just build too fast.
2-1
Round 4:
Ben Harris playing walls with Tsudao
I don’t enjoy playing walls, but hey I can’t lose another game. Luckily he was playing more than just Taeruko, so it was slower than other walls decks and I got a nice corrupt start.
3-1
Round 5:
Nik Vincent playing morning glory castle with naseru
We both start off with ass gold. This is the chuda variant but the one in four games where the opponent doesn’t draw a single kolat, so I win.
4-1
Round 6:
Scott Hadsall playing Yogo towers with naseru
I had to play Scott first round at origins, but I was playing stupid walls. Now I get to bring the beat to him. Well, I would have if I would have drawn a SINGLE battle ender…it was very close though, and Scott is a great player who knows exactly what to do. This drops me to 4-2 and kinda demoralizes me. I wish Scott luck figuring he can take one of his next two games, where I need two in a row.
4-2
Round 7: Crunch Time
Derek Bowen playing walls with Tsudao
I blaze this game, and he gets a pretty bad start. I knock him to one province before he hits 18 honor. Very quick game.
5-2
Round 8: Pressure Game
Warren Connell playing hida rats with Tsudao
Another crab. Sweet. :( so I get off to a nice start, but he runs rats AND kolats and stunts me after I knock him to once province. He really should have won this game, but he plays conservatively which works out for him as he qualifies Friday and does great Saturday. On the attack where I knock him to one province I count his force, see he can not take all 3 of mine, so I gamble. I come over with all except a tenshu just in case he plays something. So on his turn I see him start counting his gold, I start to cry, and he kolat mastered another peep, with like 10 force worth of followers. If he had kolat mastered the tenshu, he could have split forces to take all 3. So I attach stuff, and come over and take his last on the next turn. After the game, I tell him how he could have won and he seemed upset that he didn’t see it, but it’s definitely a learning experience. Still, Warren was a cool guy, and a great player who I hope continues to due well in Diamond.
6-2
Holy damn, I pulled out 2 wins in the last two rounds. Wow. Onto Saturday for me. My friend gets top mantis after winning two coinflips to decide games, and bribing his last opponent for the win (and since then I’ve called him Settozai: The Onisu of Larceny). I talk to Scott Hadsall after and find out that he bombed his last two games, which sucks hard since Scott is a great guy and a great player; but he shows that by qualifying Friday and kicking ass on Saturday.
Friday:
We get to sleep in late today… go qualifying. Once we get up, we hit up the art room, and the dealer room and browse. Then we get to go to the LARP, a first for both of us.
I get to play Hida Hio. My objectives are to make sure that the Ratlings do not get misunderstood by other clans, and to keep an eye on yoe’trr. The guy playing Yoe’trr is reaaaaally good at playing a ratling and makes it tough to remain in character for me. So cool things of the larp: meeting Jeremy Holcomb, Mark Logoteta, Hida Jeremy, Helen Keeble and the other crabs in attendance. Through a series of events, getting Yoe’trr to trade his jade goblet for fealty to the Hiruma family. I’m sure there was other cool stuff, but that was almost a month ago. I remember we were suppose to vie for having the Imperial Navy of the empire. Not sure how that panned out. So we get back late, get to sleep for the Saturday qualifier.
Saturday:
They announce the clan totals and I remember that there were 21 lions and 21 crabs. Scary. I get my camera fixed (see, no pics on Thursday.) and thus there are pics!
Round 1:
Jordan Mee playing ancient halls of the lion with Tsudao
He’s a great guy as we chat before the game. He gets an ass start and I get one that is evil (literally). I take, grab a CIM and a voitagi. He gets second turn favor monkey domotai. I just spit people out and pound on him. It was over rather quickly.
1-0
Round 2:
Marc Thompson playing hida with Daigotsu
Before the game, we talk about his palaces deck that won ETG and despite what some people were saying, Marc is really a great guy who knows what he’s doing. Granted the palaces deck was kind of sporatic, but it still won. Onto the game. I get an ass draw and his is decent. We swap some early provinces which turned into him waiting for a rallying cry. I built up on my Wukau (more force efficiency) who eventually gets mastered, then Marc draws his rally and comes over to pound my face in.
1-1
Round 3:
Robert Hubert playing yogo with kaneka
I play the same 3 decks, I swear to god. This game was similar to last game, but I get the good start and he gets screwed… hard. Corrupt gold and Voitagi is fun.
2-1
Round 4:
Ken playing spawning grounds with… Daigotsu?!?!? ;)
I got a decent start, but his was very good. He just built faster than me so it was an uphill battle… an uphill batter where I get no fate support.
2-2
Round 5:
Adam Feeny playing temple of the 9th kami with Daigotsu
This game has been a long time coming. For a couple of koteis I’ve known Adam and we’ve always wondered who the real Adam is. So I dubbed this game as “The game for the name”. The winner keeps the name Adam, the loser is forgotten. He kills lots of guys since that’s what 9th kami does. But I get lots of guys out and just run over him. 5PS sucks. So I win the game, keep the name, and he tells me that’s fine since he has his friend’s name badge, so his new name is Dave.
3-2 and a moral victory.
Round 6:
Ash Thomason playing ancient halls with Tsudao
Wow, another Kotei winner. Thanks for making it easy Palmer. A) I hate that lion stronghold. B) attacking mistakes early hurt later. C) ow, my bottom. In the last two turns, I didn’t even get a chance to attack.
3-3
At this point I realize that it’s basically for bragging rights now.
Round 7:
Drew Fisher playing walls with Tsudao still
Heh, my tourney report is all in caps and I think it fully sums up this game… “STUPID DAMNED ENTRAP AND T RAIN STALLING FOR 4 TURNS UNDER IN TIME, DAMN YOU!” So yeah, that’s what happened. Damn you Drew… ;)
3-4
Round 8: Must win for breaking even
Sam Chen playing Kosaten shiro with Tsudao
A fun game really, amoro with moto steeds takes 2 early provinces before meeting a not so favorable demise. After that, I just swarm the crane with beef. Lots and lots of beef. Sam’s also a great guy and fun to play against.
4-4
So I end up at 70th out of 164. Not too bad for my first GenCon. My friend Chris and Jared both go like 1-3 drop and then they do a side tourney or something. Chris gets top 16 in that, and gets some packs or something. Overall, I recommend GenCon to all of you. It’s very fun, and well worth it. I’ll be there next year (Job providing) and hope to see you there too!