Hobby League: Random Punks - Or Paul Sung Let Me Play

First things first. Thank you, Daddy Bear! Dude, you're the man. Guy doesn't even play in the tournament, but shows up to lend me some cards so I and a new player I'm trying to get into the game can play. Though he did forget a few. Still, I'd rather play something suboptimal than not play at all.

Click below to see how I did.


What I Played:

4x Superman/Batman Robot
1x Harvey Bullock, Gotham Central
3x Jaime Reyes ♦ Blue Beetle, High-Tech Hero
4x Maggie Sawyer, Gotham Central
4x White Lotus, Supermen of America
4x Huntress, Vicious Vigilante
2x Krypto, Guard Dog of El
4x Tania Belinskya ♦ Red Guardian, Cold Warrior
4x Barbara Gordon ♦ Oracle, Hacker Elite

1x Amulet of Nabu - Fate Artifact
1x Cloak of Nabu - Fate Artifact
1x Ego Gem - Unique ♦ Infinity Gem
4x Helm of Nabu - Fate Artifact

4x Dr. Fate's Tower

4x Bat-Signal
4x Combat Reflexes
4x Flying Kick
4x Teen Supremes
4x The Hook-Up: Team-Up

This should look familiar to you. Because you should be listening to A Proud Zinco Podcast over at VS Realms. Or reading Bearsday over at Miguel Rodrigquez's VS-Blog. Well, Paul hit me up with the idea a few weeks ago. I suggested Krypto, so I feel like I contributed at least a little bit to the deck. So all you netdeckers out there can thank me after you're down kissing Paul's ass! Ha ha ha. But seriously, if you like the deck Paul and Ludin Romero, Paul's co-hostm both shared versions with the online community that I think are strong.

I think a hybrid is stronger. What I really wanted to play looked like this...

4x Superman/Batman Robot
3x Jaime Reyes ♦ Blue Beetle, High-Tech Hero
4x Maggie Sawyer, Gotham Central
2x White Lotus, Supermen of America
2x Huntress, Vicious Vigilante
4x Krypto, Guard Dog of El
2x Tania Belinskya ♦ Red Guardian, Cold Warrior
4x Barbara Gordon ♦ Oracle, Hacker Elite
1x Batman, Twilight Vigilante
2x Superman, Man of Tomorrow
1x Dinah Laurel Lance ♦ Black Canary, Cry In The Dark

1x Amulet of Nabu, Fate Artifact
1x Cloak of Nabu, Fate Artifact
1x Ego Gem, Unique ♦ Infinity Gem
4x Helm of Nabu, Fate Artifact

4x Dr. Fate's Tower

4x Bat-Signal
4x Combat Reflexes
4x Flying Kick
4x Teen Supremes
4x The Hook-Up: Team-Up

And if I was perfectly honest with you I'd cut 1x Dr. Fate's Tower and 2x Helm of Nabu for 3x Clash of Worlds. But I thought it would be tacky to borrow a card, if Paul even had it, that was the prize for the tournament. Especially since I had assumed he would play.

Anyway, I headed for BART with a friend at about 4:30 and go to Berkeley just after 6, hurried over to Games of Berkeley and went to the back to sign up. After doing so I headed to the front to snag a few packs of Universe since everybody was opening boxes and I had a little bit of money. Pulled a James Barnes ♦ Winter Soldier, Communist Puppet - Raid and License To Kill. Not bad. Not Hulk Smash! but I like both.

First round I was paired up with everybody's favorite 27 character sealed deck playin' Wakandan King Curtis "T'Challa" Brown. As I sat down I had this sudden flash of like... ESP. Gotham Knights! And turn two he plays Tim Drake: Titan In Command then Barbara Gordon <> Oracle: Elite Hacker. How'd I know? Hehe.

Turn 1 I was in with Maggie Sawyer after mulliganning a hand I wish I had kept when I drew Maggie. But oh well. Turn turn I had Huntress in the concealed. She traded with Tim and I poked with Maggie again. Turn three he plays Card Draw Barbie, Aerie One and draws a card. I Bat-Signal with Maggie for Barbie myself. The Hook-Up teams Superman/GK and I discard to draw. Tim smacks around the cop. Huntress smacks around Tim. My Barbie to the face. He death traps Huntress with his Aeried Oracle.

Now, I draw into a Robot and the Helm of Nabu, exhaust Barbara for Jaime Reyes and flip Fate's Tower to complete the suit. He plays the Huntress 4 drop, Harsh Mistress. She's a sweetie. I attack Tim and he moves her for free to reinforce and I don't dare Teen Supreme even though I pumped. I was hoping to bait him into negating a Kick, but he's a sneaky Panther.

On turn five he had Cassandra Cain: Death's Daughter. I played Tania Belinskya, used her backup on herself and formed with Maggie adjacent to both. He declared a team attack into the Batman/Superman Robots with Cassie and Huntress. I have nothing so I take 0 and he takes 5. Hey. I like that trade! Tim hit the cop lady again and he passed. I passed and he went ahead and exhausted Barbara to Finishing Move the Robot. Le Sigh. Good-bye Fate Suit! Luckily I drew Robots next turn and played them for a full 6 points, backup with Tania on Robots and form the same way as last turn.

He under drops with Commissioner Gordon: Gotham Central and Batman: Twilight Vigilante. Tim and Huntress still the only visible characters. I declare Robot into Huntress and he reinforces, then discards a copy of herself to Gordon for plus four and used Break You for +6, just in case. Making her 17 attack and stuns back even if I'm still on the Dr. Fate curve! Daaamn. Well, I didn't have any other attacks to make so he sent Batman into Maggie, I took 7 with the double stun damage. Then 8 with Cassie into Tania. Barbara Gordon exhausts to Death Trap the Robot... Okay. :D I assume he was playing around a potential Clash of Worlds.

Next turn would be the last with him playing the Jade Canary, Lady Shiva and me boosting a Superman/Batman Robot for 7 plus replaying Fate's Tower to search for a Helm so I could at least stun back. He made good swings and I stunned by Shiva and that was game.

Round 2 I faced the new player I brought with me, Matt. Sadly we both knew how this was going to go and with a little grumbling we shuffled up and played it out. I hit my curve, what little I had, I had Teen Supremes on 4, but not very much pump so I finished it with a triple swing on turn 6. Basically took the time to tutor him a little more on smart attacks and reminds him not to accidentally shuffle his mulligan into the deck against anyone but me! Hehe.

Round 3 I played a player I haven't met before, named John. As I sat down he said he thought we were playing the same deck and we might have been playing something similar, but not quite the same. He opened with no drop. I missed as well and as we drew he commented, "Want to go back to last turn? I pulled my one." I replied, "I got a one drop, but not one I wanna play." He asked if it was Maggie Sawyer and I said I'd love to play her on turn one. lol I laid down my resource and recruited Krypto. He had Kelex: Caretaker of the Fortress. I couldn't attack and he didn't dare. So I exhausted the super-dog to remove Jaime from the game and get an Amulet. Turn three he recruited Barbara: Elite Hacker, played The Hook-Up and drew. I drew Barbara Gordon and a Fate's Tower. We both free draw off Barbara and then I flip The Hook-Up and draw a Helm. Sweeeet. So I flip the Tower, grab a cloak and let Batgirl fly again.

He didn't have any attacks and so I hit Kelex with Oracle and went to the next turn. Superman/Batman Robot came out, took the mantle of Dr. Fate and I subbed Barbara out for Barbara to draw a card. Replayed Helm a couple times and did some math in my head discarding Flying Kick, White Lotus and Jaime. Subbed in Tania Belinskya and used her backup on the Robot. He had Batman: Twilight Vigilante and passed. Krypto attacks Kelex, Robot goes into Batman with some pumps. We take a minute trying to figure out the math. Robot is 25 and Batman is 7 defense and... We both just kinda go slack faced. lol "Uhhhh." He says, "Do you have Teen Supremes so we don't have to figure this out?" I show two and it's scoops.

Don't you hate those moments when you can't remember shit like, "Batman's defense is 7, 7 minus his cost is 3. 25 - 3 = 22 endurance loss?"

Final round I'm playing Michael Gilmore who's been around and we've played multiple times. We think the last time was at the last PCQ in the area. Could be. I'm not sure though. In anycase we play and I mulligan into an awesome draw. Seemingly. He plays Rem Ram and grabs Harry Delgado. I drop Maggie Sawyer and he passes attack. I attack.

"Uhhhh." Oh yeah. They're both 1/2's. Next turn I play Huntress: Vicious Vigilante to his Chrome. Huntress and Chrome trade, I attack Maggie into Rem Ram again, but I have the power up! Sadly he decides to play Lying In Wait and that's the story of this match. I lose Huntress, naturally and we move on to three. Barbara comes out for me with Amulet and Cloak, I don't play the Helm because I'm low on hand size and don't wanna have to discard any pumps or Supremes, Senyaka for him. He hit Maggie and I think she Bat-Signaled. Oracle hit Senyaka and he had Lying In Wait again. I played The Hook-Up to team up and recovered Barbara. Turn 4 I had the Supa-Mecha-Bat and switched the suit over, Helmed out. He had Anne Marie Cortez and I had a feeling that if I played my Combat Reflexes and Flying Kick then he'd just reveal a two cost, so after asking him to hold on before the Combat phase I decided to pass. When he didn't reveal a two anyway, I kinda had a feeling he wasn't familiar with Teen Supremes, so I swung and saved my Flying Kick for a kill turn.

Cortez went down with reinforcement or something... I'm kinda hazy on the middle here. Turn 5 wasn't too eventful except I expected to replay the Robot so I sent the Fate Set to Barbara and let him stun my 8/8 robot with Polaris for 1. With Huntress and Harvey Bullock in the hidden area I didn't have much to attack back with so I tried to Hook-Up with a power-up, since I had a Bat-Signal in hand, but no luck. I looked at the Acolyte Body Armor in his hand.

So, next turn I exhausted the old Superman/Batman to look for a new one. Boosted, moved the Fate Suit over and re-buyed the Helm a couple times. I had like... 15 cards left in my deck at this point with 4 full Helm draws, Barbara'd out and 2 face up Hook-Ups. I subbed Tania in for Huntress. He had Harry Delgado. He used Harry's effect on Tania. He didn't reveal for Anne Marie. Then in combat he replaced for Polaris. This plus a third Lying In Wait won him the game. I attacked Anne Marie first and she got reinforced. I played Teen Supremes and he seemed not surprised so I assume he just didn't have a two drop. :( I had one more Supremes, but...

I thought about it and at 3 endurance, I had to hit Harry Delgado to win. So I hit him. And he had that third Lying in Wait to end it. He was able to attack back and that's all he needed. So I offered him the shake and I finished 9th of... 17 I think.

Matt had fun. He wasn't in last, went 2-2 with a bye. I think I might be able to convince him to buy some old boxes considering how cheap they are. He was very impressed with the idea of 20 bucks getting more than a box with some sets. Especially since he couldn't afford the Magic Pre-Con he wanted and still pay for BART home. See? Pre-cons don't work!

One final thanks to Paul Sung for the deck idea and the cards and big "Fuck, I coulda won if I'd just had a Black Canary to Bat-Signal for on turn 6 and that Harvey Bullock had been a Superman: Man Of Tomorrow like I planned to replace him with!" ;)

Anyway, it's always fun to get out and play. Can't wait for next time. Hopefully Saturday for the Release Celebration. Oh...

Pokemon Milkshake. Blame Curtis.

-Mike