Release Celebration Report

Ah good times, good times.

We had eight players in for the tourney and everyone seemed excited about the prospect of playing our first sealed games. As an aside, we've only been playing here in Calgary for about 7 months, me having started the group back at the end of November last year. I was expecting around a dozen, because we had 14 for our DC Legends release event back in December. We didn't have DCL cards for that one, so it ended up being a constructed event...but back to more recent gaming.

Everyone cracked packs and furiously set about building their decks. I saw some copies of nice rare cards in a few of the players piles, but in the four games I played, I didn't see many of them on the table. I think it was more that they didn't fit in that well with the other cards than that they were bad ones. I know that I had a few in my deck that I was never able to use...

I ended up constructing a Crime Lords / SHIELD deck, as they had the most characters which would allow me to build a decent curve. I had actually had two team ups, and based my deck around the 3-drop Red Skull, followed by a 5-drop Master Man, then Genis-Vell for a turn six win on evens. I should have written down my full deck list, but didn't think to do so before I dropped the cards in with the rest and started sorting on Saturday.

In the first round I can't remember what I played against, but I think it was mainly Thunderbolts. Once I brought out my Red Skull things started going downhill for my opponent Roy. I think we both made a few mistakes, but mine were just smaller/luckier. This was a VERY close game, with me winning by only one point of endurance.

Round two I was up against Jordan, who was playing Avengers. His smaller guys just couldn't keep up and his draws were poor. I had drawn well into my curve and got my team-up, which allowed me to make it to turn five with only losing my 1-drop. I was able to recruit my 6-drop Mar-Vell to burn him for 9 and then stop his stun-back with a Grudge Match on my Red Skull. This left me with a full board left to defend against an army of flight-less small drops. The game was over.

Round three I was up against Brian. His deck was amazing for a sealed deck. It wasn't team specific, but it kicked my butt all over the place. I remember seeing Bishop, the common Speedball and Spider-Woman (evasion/invulnerability) and the finishing touch...Norman Osborne. The details of this are hazy due to the severe beating I took, but needless to say I lost spectacularly.

The final round I played against Colin. He was playing mainly Thunderbolts, but wasn't able to draw into many decent plot twists, and was unable to get rid of either my Red Skull or Master Man. By the time Genis-Vell came out his Karla Sofen and smaller characters couldn't stand up. I felt bad that he'd drawn so poorly, but it happens to us all at times.

As for the other players, I know there was an Avengers deck with hopes of bringing out the 8-drop Captain America, but didn't have the luck needed to make it...and a few mixes of Crime Lords and Thunderbolts. Amazingly enough, it seems no one drew enough cards to run Warbound, which I was fully expecting to see. My case of cards had arrived the day before the tournament, so Carrie and I had gone through a practice game of sealed. I had amazing luck and was able to team up Thunderbolts and Warbound and it simply wrecked house. In constructed I'm more than certain I'll see a Warbound deck or two, and may even be tempted to try one myself.

I really enjoyed the sealed tournament and I think the other players did too. We're talking about doing another one soon, but our next event is going to an interesting challenge...stay tuned for that.