TAWC BYOT MARQUEE HOBBY LEAGUE REPORT.

By Joe Corbett

On July 26, 2008 we had our first crack at The Bring Your Own Team format @ our local gaming store. The Marquee was held at The Gatekeeper in Topeka Kansas. I love this format. Depending on what teams your opponents play almost every team could be viable. Unfortunately, we only had 6 attendees including myself. 

 

We went ahead & played a round robin style tourney so everyone got to play everyone. After 5 Epic Rounds Tom Cox, brother of Reid Cox playing in his first tournament for VS, “Hulk Smashed” the competition with a 4-1 record with his Warbound control deck.

 

Hulk Smash!

 

 

 

Here is a breakdown of everyone, what they played & their records.

 

1) Tom Cox: Warbound 4-1

2) Joe Corbett: Teen Titans 3-2

3) Cody: Spider Friends 2-3

4) Brett Cantrell: Gotham Cop Stall 2-3

5) Zach Thorp: Crime Lords 2-3

6) Reid Cox: Mr. Fear Abuse 2-3

 

 “This is probably the only format where 2 mono Crime Lords decks can be competitive.”  – Reid Cox

 

Winning Deck List

Warbound Control

Tom Cox

 

4 Mastermind Excello, Amadeus Cho

4 Rick Jones, Monsters Best Friend

4 Hulk, Exile

3 Archangel, Champion

2 Hiroim, The Shamed

3 Hulk, green scar

2 Brood

3 Hulk, Gladiator

3 Hulk, The Green King

1 Hulk, Skaar’Son

1 Hercules, Secret Avenger

1 Hulk, World Breaker

 

4 Omnipotence

4 Mobilize

3 Blood Sport


2 Righteous Anger


3 Warbound to the End


2 The Strongest One There Is


4 Hulk Smash

3 Trouble with Dinosaurs

 

4 The Great Arena

 

Here is everyone else’s deck list:

 

Teen Titans (Yes I know I am a sissy for playing Titans.)

Joe Corbett

 

1 Roy Harper <> Speedy, Mercurial Marksman

1 Ray Palmer <> The Atom, Tiny Titan

1 Dawn granger <> Dove, Terataya’s Chosen

1 Dawn granger <> Agent of Order

2 Hank Hall <> Agent of Chaos

1 Lorena Marquez <> Aquawoman, Titans Tomorrow West

4 Tim Drake, Young detective

1 Beast Boy, Garfield Logan

1 Rose Wilson <>  The Ravager

3 Roy Harper <> Arsenal, Sharpshooter

3 Terra, Tara Markov

3 Red Star, Leonid Kovar

4 Garth, Atlantean Sorcerer

1 Koriand’r <> Star fire, Alien Princess

1 Conner Kent <> Super boy, Tactile Telekinetic

 

4 Teen Titans Go

4 Mobilize

3 Press the Attack

2 Remove from Continuity

2 Have a Blast

2 Omnipotence

2 Savage Beatdown

2 Heroic Sacrifice

 

4 Argus

3 Tamaran

2 Titans Tower

1 Optitron

1 Birthing Chamber

 

Cody played an illegal Spider-Friends deck. Apparently Cody didn’t realize that slaughter swamp & Reconstruction Program were stamped for other teams. Since there were only 6 players in the tournament we didn’t make a big deal about it. Cody still has not gotten me his list. I will update this post with his list as soon as he does.

 

Gotham Knight Stall

Brett Cantrell

Note: Brett put this deck together the morning before the tournament.

 

13 GCPD Officers

4 Commissioner Gordon

2 Batman, Founding Member

2 Jason Todd, Robin

1 Kate Kane

1 Batman, Cape and Cowl

1 Apocalypse

1 Onslaught

4 Armies of Qward

4 Bat Signal

3 Chilly Reception

3 Trial By Sword

2 Have a Blast

2 Removed from Continuity

3 Cover Fire

2 Ego Gem

2 GCPD Headquarters

4 Wayne Manor

3 Bat Got Your Tongue

 

 

Crime Lords Bald Guy’s Leader deck

Zach Thorp

Note: Zach has lusciously long hair in real life.

 

7 A.I.M. Agents, Army – A.I.M.


3 Red Skull, Aleksander Lukin – Raid


3 James Barnes <> Winter Soldier, Communist Puppet – Raid


4 Master Man, Max Lohmer – Raid


1 Kingpin, War Profiteer – HYDRA


2 Red Skull, Johann Schmidt – HYDRA


2 Kingpin, Over boss


3 Baron Strucker, Baron Wolfgang von Strucker – HYDRA


3 Red Skull, Master of Creation


1 The Sleeper, Doomsday Device – Raid

4 Losing the Argument


4 Death of the Dream


3 Radically Advanced


4 Code White


3 Home Surgery


2 Cold Storage


4 Combat Reflexes


4 Collateral Damage


3 House of M

 

Mr. Fear abuse

Reid Cox

Note: Reid asked me not to tell any Stiltman jokes here.

 

4x Stiltman

4x Doctor Sun

4x Redskull

3x MasterMan

1x Jester

4x Mr. Fear

1x Incredible hulk

1x The Sleeper

4x Cosmic Cube

4x armed escort

1x Code White

3x Mobilize

4x Call in a Favor

2x Carrying the Torch

3x Clash of Worlds

3x cold storage

4x omnipotence

3x pathetic attempt

1x Flame Trap

1x Foiled

1x Kaboom

1x Only Human

3x Coast City

 

 

With round robin if you are not careful two people may have to play the same opponent at the end of the tourney & one may have to wait out a bit to face off. During the last round some of us had this problem so why don’t we just show what deck beat what deck overall instead of who faced whom every round:

 

Tom’s Hulk beat Gk, Crime Lords, SPF & Mr. Fear

Joe’s Titans beat CL, Gk & Hulk.

Cody’s SPF beat Mr. Fear & Titans

Brett’s Gk Beat Crime Lords & Spf

Reid’s Mr. Fear beat Gk & Titans

 

The Joe Corbett Report:

 

My intentions were to play New Gods. After that didn’t work out I decided to play Warbound since I went 5-2 with it @ World’s. However, I was talking with Reid the night before & he wanted to borrow my Righteous Angers because his brother wanted to play Warbound. I didn’t want there to be 2 Warbound decks at the tournament so I opted for Titans because it was the only other good deck I knew how to play & could throw together the morning of the tournament. I actually had a New God deck built & ready to go but it really couldn’t deal with MKKO, Titans or TNB so I didn’t play it. After I saw what everyone else was playing here though I wish I had played my New God stall deck.

 

Overall the mood for this tourney was jovial. There were some intense match ups though. For me personally I had 3 close match ups. The Spiderfriends, Mr. Fear Abuse & Hulk matches were intense. I guess that is one thing I really like about Titans. It is either close or you blow them out. As usual the matches I lost I can go back & see mistakes I made that cost me the game.

 

Here is what happened in my rounds:

 

Round 1 Zach’s Crime Lords

 

This game was a blow out. Zach whiffed drops on 3 & 6. I hit 1-5 & Removed from Continuity his 4 drop Master man on 4. He played another 5 drop on 6 & Roy ate both of them for lunch. Red Star burned him low enough on 6 FTW. Zach tends to like to play real honest & straightforward decks & let’s face it the Teen Titans play dirty. Afterwards I felt real bad for playing an ultra competitive deck @ a casual tournament. Zach got his revenge however by cursing me so I wouldn’t be able to use or see a Teen Titan Go for the next 3 games.

 

Round 2 Cody’s Spiderfriends

 

This game went all wrong from the start. I lost the dice roll & then proceeded to whiff on 1 & 2. I dropped Roy on 3 which stink against Spiderman. Cody hit 1 through 7 & saw ESU & ego gem by turn 2. Cody hit 3 nice try by turn 7 which sucked when I threw terra @ him on 4 & Roy on 5 & 7. Cody also was running illegal cards in his deck. I hear both Slaughter Swamp & Reconstruction Program make The Amazing Spiderman a little better. Luckily, I played Omnipotence on 5 to completely neuter Spiderman. On turn 6 Cody used Reality Gem to bust my Omnipotence so I flipped another Omni in response naming Spiderman. Interestingly, I could not see a Teen Titan Go this game after being cursed by Zach. I lost this match up because of stupid errors. I went ahead & used Roy on 5 & I should have waited & gotten Koriand’r out to help Support Roy & Terra. I had 2 Omnipotence by turn 5 & I should have named Nice Try with the other. I was waiting to name Sentry with Omni which was a mistake. I needed to play more aggressively instead of playing it safe. Spiderfriends in general is not the most favorable match up against Titans. After Cody used Nice Try on 7 he was able to attack for allot so I scooped.

 

Round 3 Brett’s Gotham Knight Stall

 

This game was another blow out. Apparently I tend to auto win any match up where my opponent whiffs his drops on important turns. Brett whiffed completely on 4. He brought out Kate Kane Batwoman on 5 to try to stun someone & in response I Have a Blast his GCPD Headquarters. That made it so he didn’t have 3 resources with the same cost thus neutralizing the stun. I saw a whole lot of Press the Attack this game so it was over on 5. It would have been nice if Brett would have seen his ideal draw.

 

Round 4 Reid’s Mr. Fear Abuse

 

This was an intense game. Reid was suited to deal with any situations I had to throw at him. He also had the search to back it up. I lost the dice role & ended up on evens. Again I didn’t see a TTG until turn 5 & by then it didn’t matter since you cannot attack him on turn 6 if he gets the combo going. I didn’t see Argus, Press or Remove the entire game. I only saw 1 location the entire game & that was Optitron. The biggest mistake I made this game was shooting with Roy on 5 & 6. I should have brought out Korinad’r on 6. With Reid being so dependent on formation Star fire would have wrecked him. Reid Flame trapped me on turn 5 & I responded with Roy & that really cost me the game.

 

Round 5 Tom’s Hulk Control Deck

 

I won this game by the skin of my teeth. I made one really stupid error & a bad formation that almost cost me the game. I won the dice roll for once & picked odds. To be fair Tom had never played against Titans before. In fact this was the 5^th time he had ever even played the Hulk deck & Tom is new to Vs.

 

Turns 1-4 Tom set up for Hulk Green Scar. I saw my 1-3 drops & then top decked Argus & Argus snatched me Terra on 4 which I was extremely happy about. The Teen Titans tend to have trouble with Flame Trap & Hulk Green Scar is a Flame Trap on a stick. Tom saw Mastermind on 1 & then Hiroim on 3. I natural Dawn Granger & Hank hall on 1 & 2 & brought out Beast Boy on 3. During Tom’s Build on turn 4 I used Terra on Mastermind so he could not bounce him during combat thus preventing me from being Green Scared.

 

Turn 5 I double Omnipotence naming Great Arena & Omnipotence & then I recruit Garth. Tom Brings in a boosted Hulk Gladiator & stuns my Beast Boy. I attack in my 3 weenies believing I have the game in the bag. I have Remove from Continuity in hand & everything else but TTG. My flaw here was that I completely forgot about Blood Sport. So that whiffed my first attack. This means I cannot remove his 5 drop Hulk this turn which blows. I send Garth & Terra on Hulk & he Strongest One There Is targeting Garth. In Response I Tamaran & a Garth goes in the pile so I pay 3 to get back Garth so I can play him next turn.

 

Turn 6 I play mobilize to search for my 1 drop Speedy. I recruit him & recruit Garth again. I formate wrong & his humungous 6 drop Hulk was able to push through some damage via Righteous Anger.

 

 Turn 7 I boost Tim & play Roy Sharpshooter. By this time he has 6 drop Hulk, Hercules & mastermind on the field. I still don’t have a TTG so I team attack everyone but my smallest guy into Hulk for 20 attack. Tom uses Hercules ability & powers up. For those of you who didn’t know you can use Hercules effect on a ready character. So Hulk is a 22/22. I use Tamaran & pay 3 to power up Garth which allows the stun to go through. Then I remove 6 drop Hulk with Remove from Continuity. We go to turn 8.

 

It’s Turn 8 & Tom is out of tricks. He drops Rick Jones & Rallies to Hit 7 drop Hulk. Then He drops Brood. I know I recruited & paid a resource to burn Tom for 5 but I am not sure what else I spent my other resources on. I sharp shoot Brood, Press the Attack & shoot Hercules via Roy & we go to turn 9.

 

Turn 9 I draw 2 Teen Titans Go. I boost Tim Drake again pay a point for Red star & pass. Tom plays 8 drop Hulk. Tom currently has 8 drop Hulk, Hercules, Mastermind & Rick Jones on the field. I team attack everyone into Hercules & then TTG to attack into 8 drop Hulk. Hulk having invulnerability nearly destroyed me. Fortunately Red Star pushed me over. The end score was 9 to -3.

 

 I got exceedingly lucky this game. Not having to deal with Great Arena at all was quite a blessing. I knew the Hulk match up better then Tom knew the Titans match up. I am quite sure that if I had not played Omnipotence in Titans I would have been hosed. At least Zach’s curse was broke by the end of the tournament & it couldn’t have broken at a better time. Beating Tom put me in 2nd place overall. If we had played a match I am sure I would have lost.

 

The Aftermath:

 

I had a lot of fun with this format. The deck possibilities for BYOT are endless. Right now I am working on Skrulls, League of Assassins, Negative Zone, Manhunters, X-MEN discard & FF Infinity Gauntlet Gem BYOT decks. I find myself elated at the deck building possibilities for this format. There are just so many viable options to choose from that I cannot see one deck being the best deck in the format. BYOT truly is the Golden age format for the future. We plan on having another BYOT on August 23 2008.

 

I want to thank everyone who attended & again congrats to Tom.

 

Joe Corbett has been playing Vs. System for a long time, and playing casual decks and competitive decks alive.  Being an ultimate fan of all things not explored, Joe is constantly coming up with new and fun decks to tinker with. Joe is also known on VSRealms as Savage Tofu.