South Arena Showdown Weekend

South Arena Showdown Weekend - Decklist, T8 Rounds Report, observations and GAAAAHLIC BUTTAH!

So after all that prepatory work, as my previous posts indicate, I though I was ready for the tournament. My teammate, J. Post, had created a monster deck in the form of Fire **James Hata**, with an amazing attack base that punished the opponent repeatedly in many different ways. He generously gave me the leeway to tweak the deck as I saw fit, and being so raw to the new environment it took me a while (and some conversations with elite players) to really get my own feel for the foundation base - the attacks weren't touched, except for dropping from 19 to 18 total. After some experimentation, head wrangling and a LOT of testing I thought I had a beast deck that was, at worst, 50-50 with any deck in the format including Astrid and King/Rasho Earth and quite a bit better than that against opposing Fire, Chaos, Death, Life and All builds. Few other resources were seriously viable in our estimation; stuff like Ivy and Void Algol was gimmicky and subject to fits, and while Efrain Costa's T8 Life Tira was tremendous we didn't get enough time to really mess with anything that creative, so we stuck to what we thought was the best for our metagame planning. My personal opinion of the meta on a cursory glance was that the 5 best characters in the format were Hata, Astrid, King, Zi Mei and Heihachi. Definitely in the mix as well were Paul Phoenix, Jin Kazama, Rashotep, Tira, and Kazuya Mishima. Those mostly are the decks that the Hata was thrown against leading up to the tourney, and he fared very well in both in-house testing and with our visiting players' fantastic decks, so I ran with it.

My final decklist and some thoughts are on the forums here, so please check it out. The deck is simply built to abuse Hata's response ability over and over again. Every attack in the deck hits deceptively hard with that simple premise and the foundation spread that enables many more triggers. There are many powerful interactions within the deck offensively and amazingly I can be versatile and play the waiting game with UT, Stand-Off and Hata's zone-changing abilities, then strike and kill when my opponent fatally overextends. However, mostly I will hit hard for 12-15 damage on the second turn (usually unblockable) with a single attack or series depending on the draw, then finish the job on the 3rd. Most of the deck is self-evident so I will not waste space on a detailed analysis. I just build quick and smash, draw some cards with Financial Troubles/Hymen Buster and do it again, or be patient and then back to the first step.

Friday before the tournament I went to J.'s to hang out with the Altanta players, whom I had never actually met but had talked to many times and knew what to expect. Namely, a bunch of wackadoos who love to drink but also know that UFS is SURRRRRIOUS BIDNESS and have done extremely well over the years at many events (Ben Shoemaker got as close as second to James Hata himself at the 2008 UFS World Championship). Ben, Drew Maffei, and Dave Wagoner - Team LION STANCE - are all amazing players with creative deckbuilding ideas and skilz to pay the billz, and their companions Ivey Willis and Josh Kroswick are no slouches either. That they are also friendly and funny people who love to joke around is a major bonus. They were there waiting, we said our hellos and got down to some cards, tech talk and general tomofoolery. In between good games against their decks, Ben was raping stuffed animals, Drew and I were discussing the possibility of Garlic Butter wrestling - which would become a running theme for the weekend and killed my sex drive for days - and Josh, Ivey and Dave were getting drunk at a moderate but deliberate pace. Good times. We were waiting for more of the ATL crew to arrive and also to pick up our Canadian brethren, Brad Penstone, so naturally we sat down and played some cards.

Dave was running a wonderful but complicated Death Tira, Ben had an aggressive Fire Zi Mei combination deck and Drew was playing with aforementioned Earth King POTM smash. Between these 3 decks and mine, it was literally 50-50 in testing for each matchup. All things being equal, there were no extreme advantages/disadvantages that we had over each other so that only increased my confidence with Hata. After we got B-Rad in the house, of course we wanted a piece of his excellent Astrid, whom many considered the best deck in the format. I managed to win two matches 2-0 and 2-1 against him, which was a surprising but pleasing result to be sure. After that more people from ATL showed up and it became a house party. These folks, which included eventual runner-up Keenan Meadows and fellow T8'er Alex Marco, were all just as fun and really loved the SFIV setup that J. had on the big screen, with the old school joypads and everything. We all drank a bit more, talked a LOT of tech on the format and matchups, and J. and I worked on our version of Chaos Heihachi which was a modified 20/20/20 build that featured all low attacks and was hilarious to mess with. Then he proceeded to maul Ben's Zi Mei pretty hard for a bit, until Ben pulled off a full 2nd turn PACMAN COMBO. What is the Pac-Man combo, you ask? Named after a terrible but catchy Junkie XL song, the combo goes "ROCK MORE" (Zi Mei's Wheel Kick aka FUCKING FRENCH TOAST), "ROLL MORE" (Dragon Lifter w/Combo), "FUCK MORE" (Neutron Bomb w/combo) , "CAUSE PACMAN IS LOVING IT!" (Fury Of The Ancients with the extra +2 multiple). Yes, ATL does this sort of thing, and I love them for it. It was getting late so Ben and I retired to the back porch to harrass Scott Gaines via phone and call him a little girl for not being here, and for some cigarettes and talk of losing to Hata in Finals (it happened to me 3 times, but his was far worse so we commiserated and cursed his name). Around 2AM I made the long trek home, and noticed my car has a coolant leak. This would come back to haunt me.

On the day of the main event I arrived at the store, 2d10 Games, early after trying to avoid having my car explode on me and to help one of our store owners and set up shop. Who do I see but my old friends, the remaining members of Team Southtown - Aulden Lloyd and Efrain and Alex Costa, all very talented players and especially unique deckbuilders that make crazy shit work. We catch up, talk about how awesome the state of the game is right now and they help me set up till everyone arrives. I get the iPod blaring classic and modern hip hop and it's on. I could do a full report for Swiss, but frankly it's embarrassing that I was scrubbing out hardcore, having excrutiatingly tight 1-2 losses back-to-back to Ben and Drew before turning it around in later rounds. Luckily I had no diversity as the Jins and Heichachis murdered each other and their standings all day. I ended up in 6th after Swiss, with the full Top 8 being:

1. Drew Maffei with Earth King
2. Ben Shoemaker with Fire Zi Mei
3. Brad Penstone with Fire Astrid
4. Keenan Meadows with Chaos Heihachi
5. Alex Marco with Fire Paul Phoenix
6. Vikram Sareen with Fire James Hata
7. Efrain Costa with Life Tira
8. Aulden Lloyd with Fire Cassandra

J.'s Heichachi deck was diversified, but not on some lame tiebreak. The freaking software resolves ties by LAST NAME (!!!), so since the two Heihachis had identical SOS, records, game wins-losses and so forth we all collectively decided that SUDDEN DEATH was the best option and Keenan won it 2-1 in the end. So the spread was 5 speedy Fire aggro decks, an Earth beatdown, a Chaos murder explosion deck and a Life deck with literal personailty disorder. Who plays control in this game? Not us, apparently.

Quaterfinal Round - vs. Brad's Astrid

As I said earlier, we had tested this already and it tilted in my favor, but only just. Astrid as we all know is rough and those irritating reverse Pommel Smashes pack quite a wallop with her E. However, if she doesn't have PTP on the board, Hata mows her down. At least that was the plan.

Game 1: To make matters worse, Brad won the roll and got naught but an asset and foundation down on his turn, while I built with 5 foundations including Standoff and double Brooding. After he dropped some more grey cards, on my second turn I tossed a Hammer of the Gods for 7L10, he blocked for half and reverse Pommeled me for 4...and I just chucked a Midnight Launcher that hit for the full 7 and played more foundations. Now at 15 and in bad board position, he wasn't able to put any pressure on me as I fully blocked two attacks (thanks, Hata!) and then threw a fatal Bomb-Launcher-Breaker 3rd turn. He saw no Paid To Protects and just one Standoff, that sucks.

Game 2: This looks more promising for him as he gets an early Paid to Protect but again, builds really slow. However, he doesn't have a Path out so I am not to worried about my own clock. My deck is also loving me and handing me Pommels. I toss a 14 damage Hammer on my second turn which frankly I expect to get blocked (it was a baiting attack - yes my BAITING attacks are for 14!) but he misses the block and I internally do a little jig because now I know I can win next turn if he doesn't kill me. He does too, so he tries and tosses 4 attacks that get me to 8 but doesn't have quite enough to do it. I draw another Pommel, tap his PTP and hit him for a small 3, and then kill him with a fatal Launcher for absurd damage and speed. W 2-0, GREAT deck and player so congrats to B-Rad on 5th in a tough field.

Semifinal Round - vs. Drew's King

Drew is a phenomenal player and hilarious person, and his deck was beastly all day (and the next). He beat me in a tremendous match 2-1 in Swiss but I knew I could win and had figured out that King's hand reveal for the free throw is seriously painful against Hata's speed and zone-changing. Still, I knew it would be hard work to win and advance to the final.

Game 1: However, though he won the roll, the gods smiled on me and he got just a Bloodline Rebellion and Path in play, failing his second foundation check. I tossed down some serious hatred in the form of FTM, Financial, Brooding x2 and he could only shake his head. I drew a Hammer that hit for 11, then played some Stand-Offs and waited. He managed to get me down to 12 but no further and I finished the job with a massively pumped Pommel Smash for game.

Game 2: This was a much closer, extremely tight game that reflected our epic match in Swiss. He got a good defensive setup while I built with the Ultimate Team, PTP, From the Hawk and Hope. He hit me for 4 next turn and had good defense. I smacked for 5 and waited patiently. His third turn was the key. He had Path, and thought he could win if he did the math right. I let him take his time, and he swung with a Close Throw that was pumped to 7, and I enhanced with PTP and revealed a hand of 5 attacks, reducing it to 1. "Good play" was his only comment, in disbelief. With that and my Stand-offs I now knew he couldn't push lethal, and he did too but he tried anyway as he was likely dead next turn. I got as low as 7 but he had to reveal his hand of double Sa, Symbol of Protection and Stand-Off. I used Financial to make him pitch one (he tossed Stand-Off), then carefully did the math factoring in the -3 and took him down with 3 large attacks at high speed. W 2-0, It was HARD work though and Drew's deck was a complete monster, so major MAJOR props to him.

Final - vs. Keenan's Hiehachi

I thought about advance scouting this deck as it was making waves at the tourney but I didn't bother, I figured as long as I do what I normally do and check piles every turn I would be okay. I didn't plan on how many tricks he had up his sleeve, however...

Game 1: He won the roll (I LOST EVERY DAMN DIE ROLL ALL DAY!) and went first, and built quickly. I did the same, and soon I had 3x Stand-off in play. He went for the kill and tossed no less than 6 huge attacks at me in one turn, including a Spinning Demon with an extra multiple thanks to Need To Destroy. I blocked half of them fully, ate about 16 damage and was hanging out at 12. He was completely spent at that point, All I had to do was draw a single attack and win the game. I drew....6 FOUNDATIONS!!!! Wow. So I played some grey and held three cards for blocks and said go. He play some more foundations as well and waited. So finally I draw a Hammer, make it 11H27 (!) and he FULL blocks it with a damn +3H block by popping 4x Chasing After The Power for the check. Wow again. I mean, what can you do? And of course if I had had another attack I would have tossed it after for a lot but at that point I was clearly resolved to God hating me. He tossed two attacks for 13 to finish me, one which I blocked and one that killed me. Aargh!

Game 2: However, I was still pretty confident and able to joke about that block. My thinking was, basically everything that could go wrong did and I still had a chance to win that game, so I was okay. I built very quickly, he apparently was drawing a lot of attacks and not tossing them because his first two turns he played nothing but foundations. By my third turn neither of us had swung but I had Hammer, Laucher and Breaker in my hand. Long story short, the Hammer hit for 6, I made the Launcher for 13 which he ate and Combo'd with the Breaker with at best he could half block and it was still going to be lethal. He didn't hit me at all this game.

Game 3: Once again, he built slow with only two foundations going first. I dropped 5 and knew I was in a great position to win. He had some more gray but it was not enough. On my second turn I hit him with a Hammer for 9, then followed with a baiting Neutron Bomb for printed which he ate. Of course, the Combo E on that allowed me to play a "free" Launcher that I pumped to 8, so he was already at 6 with the only damage done to me by my own Broodings. He tried to push through some damage but with so many foundations open and Hata ready, plus the blocks in my hand I fully blocked it all. I ended on my next turn with a massive Pommel Smash of all things! W 2-1, Keenan's deck was spectacular and he played it amazingly well, this certainly could have gone either way. I look forward to more great matches in the future, sir.

Ah, sweet victory! I couldn't believe I pulled off the comeback, and still can't believe it. J. was ecstatic and the ATL guys were teasing me for being a scrub early and coming back to win it all. I got a binder of every card in ShadoWar and SCIV, some great schwag as well as some uncut sheets and a Death resource life counter along with art cells and whatnot. What a great package, and the tournament itself was a blast.

Though tired, I wanted to hang with ATL and celebrate, but my car was on the fritz. Ivey rode with me to keep me company and also to help if needed with the car. I got it as far as I could before it was really billowing, but thankfully I was near my parent's house so I walked in, told my dad I won and needed the car to get to Naples and traded in my shitty Civic for his Lexus. We got there and tossed back some beers, talked about the event. Soon everyone was asleep except for me, Drew, B-Rad and some stragglers, so we went on the back porch and talked about the state of the game, my trip to STG and many other things. Great conversation.

The next day, I repaired my car (or so I thought) and went to the shop. We didn't really have enough teams to do a full team event so we did another singles event for the last binder. I abstained and decided to run it as everyone wanted me to play Christie with Samba loop, and I was like, "fuck that shit". I cranked the iPod and relaxed as everyone played it out, with J. running Hata this time. We took a break to eat at Golden Corral, which I sensibly refused to eat anything at unlike the other idiots in our party (they regretted it later, I TOLD them they would). After this, Ben read us some hilarious things that I cannot mention further because they were extremely pornographic. It ended up being Drew and Ben in the Finals with Drew winning a close close match 2-1. Congrats to him for that! We went back to Naples one last time to party it up except my car stalled on the road again, and though I managed to get it there I had to get it towed back. This time, me, Ben, Ivey, Josh and our local player JB had the "back porch convo" and played some games; Ivey wanted to play me and we had the most hilarious match of all time as we were both inebriated and our decks kept giving us strange but humorous hands. Soon It was time to say goodbye. I got home, thanked AAA for saving my ass (and money) and crashed hard to bed.

All in all, it was a fantastic fun weekend and a true pleasure. One of the reasons I came back to the game, aside form the format changes itself, was that the community is so amazing and this weekend confirmed that in spades. The best part of all of it was that Jasco Games decided to award the winner a paid plane ticket to Gen Con, how cool is that! So I WILL be at Worlds this year again, no more excuses.

Some MAJOR PROPS go to:

-J., what can I say? The man planned and executed the whole event spotlessly, at great personal cost, had a house full of nutjobs the whole weekend and at the same time got me back in and playing at the level I needed to be at to win. There are no words for that, and I can only say a sincere THANKS, and I look forward to a brand new era of Team Misery in the future. Also his wife, and her tremendous hospitality both before and during the tournament, definitely deserves a shoutout.

-Ben, Drew, Dave, Ivey - After so many talks online and on the phone over the years, it was a true pleasure and honor to meet you all finally. I had expectations of your awesomeness from the stories that many other players had about y'all, but it turned out that they had underestimated even that, and it came through a hundredfold. In-between the drinking and hilarity, there were top level games, tech talk, general life talk and GAAAAHLIC BUTTAH. I feel sad that you all don't live here, that's how much fun it was! I cannot wait to do it again soon, and we shall win the South some cardboard this year for sure, Southern Alliance baby!

-Everyone else from ATL especially Alex, Josh and Keenan - you guys were great, and made tremendous showings. I feel like I didn't get a chance to spend as much time as I wanted with some of the ATL crew, but I still think they had a blast and these 3 that I mentioned above were right there all weekend competing hard. Will look forward to the next round of battles, guys.

-B-Rad - for making the long trip to Florida, and for being super chill and a great player to boot. We all feel like you are officially adopted as a member of the Dirty South, and you earned your trip with your showing, even if it was with that horrible evil bitch Astrid! Great matches sir, you'll get me next time I am sure.

-Aulden, Efrain, Alex, Harold Ellis - unexpectedly glad to see the Southtown crew, some of my favorites from Florida, show up and not only that but do well both days in the events. All of you are really really good and push me to the limit, but once again know how to have a good time. I hope that your store situation works out and that you continue to play, and I will use whatever weight I have to make things happen for you.

-Finally to the shop and our locals, thanks for coming out and supporting the event and I can't wait to have the playgroup grow to herculean proportions in the future.

Slops to:

-For The Money, for being busted in half. POTM, same diff.
-Tournament software and the worst tiebreaker system in the history of all time, along with a confusing SOS and point system with strange weighting and such.
-Anyone who didn't show up, like Omar, BOO! Well, there's always next time...
-Drew for inadvertantly causing my penis to cease function for 3 days. Thanks asshole.

That's it, check back next week for more metagame talk, and as always till then, PEACE.

The Final Countdown

The Final Countdown - Or, avoiding a last minute crisis of faith at 2 AM while intoxicated.

Let me tell you a little story. In March of 2008, I went to the South Coast Championship in Orlando for some fun and card floppery. Also, of course, to do the best I could and finally WIN a damn tournament instead of constantly losing to James Hata in final rounds (it happened at the 2007 East Coast Championship and again in the 2008 New York City Team AoP in January, d'oh). Granted, if you're going to lose to someone, you can't really complain if he's the best individual player ever in the game (and also the current lead developer, of course). That was the plan, anyway.

Now for some reason, this event featured Teams first, then Singles on Sunday. So Saturday our team was set; I was playing Void Ibuki (yes, VOID Ibuki!), my local teammate Chris Kovaz was playing Water loop *James Hata*, and Omar Chavez had come down from New York and was running Andrew Olexa's character card off Evil. It was a strange team composition, three essential hybrid decks, as mine was the closest to being control. All day we did great, getting good matchups in terms of decks, and we all were on our game. Team Southtown, from the Tampa area, was the only team to defeat us in Swiss, so we were 5-1 and ranked 2nd going into top rounds. We met them again in the final, however, and ended up losing a close match. It was a tough loss, especially for me as it was my 3rd consecutive runner-up finish! Yikes. Would I always be doomed to lose when I was so close? It weighed on me for sure. you have to consider, in card tournaments, that the better you do, the longer your day will be - so finishing 2nd is not only emotionally draining but physically as well.

Now this Void Ibuki deck was built for fun, mostly, but featured a lot of great cards for defense like Tough Outer Shell - exploitable with the Life response, which Ibuki had access to - and Seichu Nidan Tsuki for the kill - still my favorite attack ever printed, by the way. It didn't hurt that she was busted as hell, if you recall this Ibuki was later banned for doing horrible things with Higher Calibur and The Red Lotus Of The Sun. However I had known that it wasn't good enough to play in Singles and win, and that result further confirmed that I needed a new deck. Well, all of us were hungry and so we all went to Friday's to eat. Everyone was talking about their day, and having a good time, and I kept plying myself with Bloody Marys while discussing ideas for tomorrow. After about the 4th Bloody Mary, I had a decent buzz going, and thankfully the hotel was literally next door. We walked back, and I pulled out my cardboard and starting looking through everything for ideas. Meanwhile, I continued to drink alcohol, because we had 3 beers in the fridge.

So now, I'm basically drunk, and my stack of characters is fast becoming a tower. Then it hits me - Cody. With an Evil/Fire split. I basically cobble together a deck out of spare parts and hand it to Omar, which he plays against my Ibuki. Omar first turn - Chain Throw + TRIPLE Absurd Strength! And I fail my block! GG. Yeah...so I'm thinking, though that should hardly ever happen normally, that's still quite nice. Nicer than anything my Ibuki can do on the first turn. Another attractive thing about Cody's character was the vitality - 24, for a 7HS! Again, being degenerate with both his abilities didn't hurt either. Now it's 2 AM, I need to finish this deck and get to sleep, and I can't find any Addes Syndicates. Which I know I need because of the stupid Void/Order Yun-Seong mill deck that Steve Kline had just won the Gulf Coast Championships. So I was in a depressing, inebriated stupor here, trying to get this deck done while my brain was creaming things like FOOD and SLEEP back at me. Also, I needed sideboard tech, and in this state of malaise I suddenly hit upon a perfect solution - The Illuminati. Though I was using Higher Calibur, I didn't rely on it to win and could be selective, while The Illuminati seriously crippled all forms of Yun-Seong, as well as many loop decks using Shinobi Tradition.

Next morning, my head is killing me, but I'm happy with the deck. Despite being TOTAL jank, with not even playsets of key cards like Addes and Unrequited Love, and being built under the influence, I did great all day and amazingly, played against Steve in the finals and won. It was a great feeling. So great that the 3 hour drive back to Fort Myers breezed by, despite me being the one doing the driving (and being really, really exhausted).

Now the point of this story is, DON'T do that! Like, ever. I got really lucky, had done a LOT of homework on the metagame and knew Cody fairly well, as I played him for months before that before I switched to Ibuki. That, and thankfully sobering up JUST in time for start of the tourney were my only saving graces. I did play very well during the tournament and I had a brutal final match against a wall of control to deal with, so the focus was there. Still...outcomes don't justify the means, as Machiavelli believed. I've won or competed at events at a high level since then, and my preparation has always been far more careful. I DO have a tendency to finalize decks at the last second, I can't help it. I'm a tinkerer; a card here or there CAN make a difference. Other than that, though, the steps that I take to prepare for a semi-major or major tournament are markedly different.

So, after all that, the question remains, what SHOULD you do? Different people have different processes, so I can only say what works for me. At least, I HOPE it STILL works for me, that would be more accurate! Because of the way I've kinda thrown myself back in headfirst, and with little time to prepare due to school/work and other obligations, my preparation for the SAS has been sporadic at best. Still, I think I've managed to get the best use of the time I have had, so that's what matters. Typically, I try to do the following before a tourney:

1. Find a deck that you are comfortable with, NOT just the "best deck" in the format. Whether you develop your own idea, or netdeck and modify someone else's idea, YOU should be familiar with the deck and ready to play it against anything. That is the most important, otherwise you will simply be ill at ease and more prone to making play errors. You gotta roll with what suits you. If you have and like a deck that's winning locally, but that hasn't made any impact anywhere else - hey, go for it! It could be YOU making that impact. As you play more and more games with a deck, certain additions and subtractions become apparent. Modify, and do it again. You will also notice patterns, combinations and strategies better - as opposed to simply copying something off the forums that seems to have won stuff and hoping for the best.

2. Play a LOT of games, and keep the metagame in mind at least a little. I mean, a lot of games. This is where metagame planning starts to factor in, an important part of any competitive CCG environment. Some top players, such as Omar, swear that they don't care about the meta, and it doesn't impact their decks. Some, like Team UFS House (Matt Kohls, Paul Bitner and Jon Herr - all on cardboard) play everything they can in every shape and style and DEFINE the meta themselves. I tend to skirt along the middle of this path - I do the best I can with my own ideas, then take the most consistent decks in the format and repeatedly play against them. I am not a fan of netdecking for playing purposes because I like to create on my own, but I have no problem with it as a useful tool for testing. For example, Astrid and Rashotep are extremely powerful decks right now that you need to be careful for, by general consensus and my own specific observation. So, getting a good list of those decks is important to gauge readiness and find chinks in the armor. On the same note, I leave the sideboard for last. I try and get the maindeck makeup of the deck sorted out, and if it's working on Game 1 wins at least 70% of the time that's good enough for me. Only then do I work on sideboard options.

3. Make good use of your sideboard slots. Those extra 8 cards are very important, and they should be chosen with care. What is hurting my deck? Is it specific to one character or card, or more general? Unless literally there is only one deck that you need help dealing with, your sideboard should contain cards that are good counters to your two or three big concerns BUT also not be too limiting; those cards should have more than one use. The recently reprinted Martial Arts Champion has long been a sideboard and even maindeck staple for precisely this reason; it's flexible, and flexibility means value in CCGs. It provides counters to a wide range of annoying problems - card draw, recursion, silly loops - at low cost, balanced by its numbers and no block. Perfect. The new Soul Wave is another example, as it is anti-discard along with asset hate - screw that Path Of The Master! If you have 3 copies of a card in the main, ocassionally the 4th copy is needed in certain matchups to ensure you draw it at critical times. Taken together, you can whittle down to 8 cards and set it up nicely for a toolbox of solutions.

That's all I have to say for now, but that was a lot! With two days to go before the big show, I've finished these steps at least and now am simply playing more games to get practice in. It feels good when you can lock your deck AND have time to just spin it as much as possible. As I illustrated concretely, though, that doesn't always happen! Check back tomorrow for one more update before the tourney Saturday, and till then, peace.

Initial Impressions

Initial Impressions - Or, long day's journey into night (without the booze and drug abuse).

So I sat down with my friend and teammate Jay last night and played 6 straight hours of UFS. Man did it feel good! Like a junkie straight back into the vein after 9 months, it was a blast. In the spirit of competition, sometimes we can overlook the main point - to have FUN. And I was relieved and pleased to see the changes have made the game better than ever.

What did I learn? Well, it doesn't pay to be tentative in the current environment. 2nd, 3rd and sometimes 4th turn kills were the norm (in fact I think only two games got to a 4th turn, and none beyond). The attacks that Mr. Hata and Mr. Horvath have blessed us with are fantastic. Hammer of the Gods definitely lives up to its name and is quite abusive, on its own or as a setup card. All of the Earth throws are another example. They smash like the days of old, and having Close Throw back in the mix doesn't hurt. The wide mix of sneaky, useful and just plain great attacks is really perfect.

But let's get down into the nitty gritty. I have always been willing to discuss my deck ideas openly and will continue to do so, as I feel it only makes the community as a whole better if we are willing to share. The decks we were running were Earth Rashotep hybrid with throws, Life Ivy with deceptive tricks and plink attacks, Generic Fire with a rotating cast of characters (among them Paul Phoenix and Bryan Fury) and a Knight Breaker kill with stunners before, Chaos Heihachi Mishima old school style with a "block it or eat it" mentality, and a work-in-progress version of Jin Kazama off Death. I also wanted to experiment with Void King or Algol along with Astrid but there wasn't enough time to get them done yet.

Rasho is strong, as strong if not even a bit better than I thought upon reading him and his support. With his numerous blanking (bummer) abilities and Stand-Off, he is pretty resilient to even the most furious Fire assault. While there are a few amazing cards that deal with him - Pommel Smash, anyone - even in that there is a defense in the form of the BRUTAL Torn Hero, a card I already hate with a passion. With throw recursion tossed in he is hard to deal with. Still, our Generic Fire was pretty up to par. I mentioned the attacks earlier, it's not too fancy but the character options, amazing foundation base with card draw and pumps, and pure speed plus one-turn-kill potential if necessary is often good enough. Rasho and Fire are pretty even, and further testing will hopefully reveal the subtleties of this crucial matchup. For now, though, I would rank them the best of what we have.

Not too far behind, though is the lovely Life Ivy. She packs quite a wollop and with her support, especially that crazy action of hers, she can do some LAME stuff in a single turn. Like, a bazillion attacks maybe, with no progressive? Stack checks, or see what's on the way? Speed pump like crazy? I was primarily in the driver's seat for the Fire deck, and I was NOT happy with how close this matchup was. After some deck tweaking, with more consistency and a better ratio, the battle becomes better - a key is using the right blocks at the right time. She can go off real quick though, sometimes you get steamrolled with few foundations in play. I expect a lot of her at the SAS.

Finally we come to Jin and Heihachi. Both of these decks were played very little and performed poorly to be frank, but they have amazing potential - Heihachi is a BEAST with the right build and Jin is nuts of Fire as we all know, however even off Death he can unleash some serious bang. The interactions in some of the cards, with him and his character, are nasty to say the least. So those decks I will talk about as they develop more, but in rough patch form even getting swept they are not bad.

Overall, it seems to me the meta is wide open, diverse and creative; anyone has a chance if built optimally and everything is fair game. There are tremendous characters, the resource spreads give options that are very attractive, the attack pool is phenomenal and blocking is very relevant. Hey, what more could you ask for? Hats off to Steve and James, in this man's estimation their hard work and commitment to keeping this game going strong and healthy is really paying off. So stay tuned until next time, when maybe I can get even more in-depth after exhaustive play (or not, if my brain ceases to function). Till then, Peace.