Juicy Report
And so after being on hiatus for the last 2 weeks, I decided to get back into the local tournament again. I figured, since I'm coming back from a break, why not come back strong? So I broke away from my stereotypical archetype and went ahead planning the deck to comeback with. After mulling over the weekend, I decided on a highly aggro, ground and pound Triple H. After all, doesn't he also come back strong after a long absence?
= = =
Triple H (Heel/Raw/Cheater)
Backstage Area (3):
1 x RAW DEAL Fifth Anniversary
1 x Backstage Signature: Maria (Ave Mariaaa~)
1 x Signing Appearance: John Cena
Pre-Match (10):
1 x Gentlemen's Establishment
1 x The Game Is Back, And The Game Is Here To Stay! (TB)
1 x Bitter Rivals
1 x Old School Manager
1 x Managed By Vince McMahon
1 x It's All About The Game
1 x Cerebral Assassin
1 x Game Over? You're Damn Right I'm Over!
2 x For The Love Of The Game
Mid-Match (10):
1 x Sustained Damage
1 x Road To Victory
1 x You're As Graceful As A Cow On Ice
1 x Unscrupulous S.O.B.
1 x Outsider's Interference
1 x Hardcore Style (TB)
1 x Immune To Pain (TB)
1 x Screw the Rules!
1 x A Beating You'll Never Forget
1 x Sledge Hammer Shot
Arsenal (60):
Action (17):
1 x Paid, Laid, Made
1 x I Am The Game (TB)
1 x I've Got Two Words For Ya!
1 x You Don't Want To Play Me
1 x It's All About Control
1 x Making The Game
3 x That's Broken!
1 x Brave H
3 x Big Time!
2 x Shoot Action
2 x Iron Will (TB)
Maneuvers (21):
3 x Bring The Hammer Down
3 x Precision Clothesline
3 x Shoot Forearm
3 x Handcuffed
2 x Shoot Lock-up
1 x Sucker Punch
1 x Blatant Chokehold
1 x Atomic Powerbomb Suplexbuster Piledriver Bulldog DDT Of Doom
1 x Pedigree
1 x The Game's Sleeper
1 x Dynamic Finisher
1 x The Finisher
Reversals (22):
3 x A Revolution Of The Mind
2 x Elbow To The face
3 x Volley This!
1 x Facebuster (TB)
1 x 'Cause I Am... That... Damn... Good!
1 x Triple H's Reverse Neck Breaker
3 x You Can't Cheat An Honest man
3 x Manager Interferes
1 x Sidewalk Slam (TB)
2 x The Coach Says, "Today's The Day!"
1 x Divine Intervention
1 x Raw Deal Revolution
= = =
Pretty simple and clear cut layout. Reduce opponent's handsize by 4 before laying the C4 for a mega-BOOM on their Backlash deck. HS and ITB (TB) is there mainly for lawlz, that's just the way I do things I guess. From there on, lay the Smackdown (Or.. Raw..) with Hammers and Forearms before moving on to the TMFs. On the advice of my groupies, I previously swapped out a few Superstar-Specifics to make space for Shoot Lock-up and other cards, and I can safely say the switch did prove to save my butt eventually. Overall strategy wise, nothing complicated, really.
Seeing the turnout raised my hopes somewhat of not facing people who always give me one hell of a headache. Before today, it almost seems to me that my match are always fixed against tough opponents (damn you Allan.. LOL)!
Round 1: Vs BALLS (Carlito)
I had it all planned out, really. After blowing away his Cabana and Interests, there will be no stopping me from blowing through his arsenal as well for a definitive win.. except for one thing. I lost in cutting Fortitude values to determine who started the match. Turns out, the match did go as plan, except it went the other way round. Not a very good start if you asked me...
Loss: 0-1
Round 2: Vs Nicholas (Batista)
Boss meets former lackey. This time, the plan was carried out smoothly. I drew That's Broken on opening and use it to search for my Hammer. Pulling 2 more Hammers out, I used Big Time to bring them to my hand while increasing my handsize as well. Two more Hammer shots plus a couple of TMFs ended the match fairly quickly.
Win: 1-1
Round 3: Vs Jack (Big Poppa Pump)
He plays Linda And The Board Of Executives, and after going through his arsenal, I realised the 'B' in BPP stood for BASH Poppa Pump. It was actually an idea I've thought about before, but never really set out to build (mainly because I didn't HAVE a BPP set in the first place). Anyway, my Pre-match goes as planned, though it didn't really cripple him as much as other BASH decks, seeing as he had his ability to tide over his required Fortitude. Anyway, I realised that I had to end this fast because I couldn't possible hold off his Multi maneuvers for long. Fortunately, the old Hammer-ing and TMFs did the trick for me to clinch the win.
Win: 2-1
Round 4: Eric (Vince McMahon)
Meet father-in-law, and also the reason why Raw Deal stopped expanding (Damn you VKM). Our difference is Backstage Signature packing (My two against his one) ending up in cutting of Fortitude values, which let to me playing the Pre-match Phase first. I got overzealous in seeing his mediocre handsize and laid down The Game Is Back instead of Bitter Rivals. That first mistake ended with HE who played BR and beating me to the Event Phase first, and he called out my Cerebral Assassin. <Insert sad face here> Anyway, I started the match and on opening, drew That's Broken. I decided to do as per normal and that was when I made my second major mistake. Vince played a Volley This and then.. his eyes popped out at me in the form of a Mid-match Reversal and INTERUPT-US my grand scheme. After sealing my actions with J.R. Style Clubberin', I eventually got action-shot to death (that's Shoot Action.. in case you haven't figured it out).
Loss: 2-2
Round 5: Vs Mike (RTC)
After my humbling loss at the hands of Vince, and with the spot of Top 8 at stake, I decided to play a little more conservatively now. Taking no chances, I bust out Bitter Rivals before giving him the potential chance to. However, it was for naught as he plays I Want To Play The Game and removes my IAATG. I removed his Underated in return. Seeing he packed I'm Gonna Break You, I skipped my first Pre-match event phase and he plays one event (I can't remember what). As I am still vulnerable to Break, I skip again, and he skips too, which is actually fine by me. Even after my first Hammer punches through smoothly, I played extremely cautiously as I certainly do not want to be caught with my pants down twice. In the end, I do wear him down with Hammers, Forearms and 3 TMFs for the pin.
Win: 3-2
Quarter-finals: Vs Ronnie (Eric Bischoff)
I know that I was in for a tough match as I was hearing about a formidable Eric in the midst, and lucky me gets to face him here in the QF. He enforces the People's Champ and is able to lay down New Orleans and Hell In A Cell, followed by Managed By Eric Bishoff. Now that was a potent set of cards as I rely on You Can't Cheat An Honest Man and Big Time to bounce my Hammers, Forearms and Blatant back into my hand. But with my Vince negated, it seemed like I could do squat about his Hell. Following my game plan, IAATG seems the natural way to close up the Pre-match Phase. His hand has Uncle Eric's Karate Kick + 2 SHS (I can't really recall if he drew another 2 from discarding 1 For The Love). He goes first, kicks me where the sun don't shine and switches his Enforcer to Mankind/Cactus Jack, for the card drawing ability of course. As I was mulling over my course of action, I realised that in my very hand, I held a saviour. Paid, Laid, Made. I gambled on him not having an Action Reversal in his minute hand, and apparently he did not! I saved myself by retrieving Screw The Rules from my Ringside Pile and basically screwed his Hell over. From there on, it was the bread and butter beating + TMF that did him in.
Win: 4-2
Semi-finals: Vs BALLS (Carlito)
It was the time for me to redeem myself. And by the luck of the draw, I was able to go first. It seemed to me that I had this in the bag.. but the bag in question had a very big hole at the bottom.. My first Hammer got in good, but he overturned a Once. From there on, my small handsize proved disadvantageous against a chain deck, and that's really all i have to say. Oh, and of course I had to compound my predictament with another mistake. I failed to remember removing You Can't Cheat An Honest Man to retrieve another Hammer from the Ringside Pile. It may or may not have made a difference, but hell, I'm still pissed at forgetting anyway.
Loss (4-3)
Finals: BALLS (Carlito) Vs Rachelmon (Batista)
We all know how this turned out. The turning point of the match was when Carlito spit away Blindsided Spinebuster from Batista's Ring Area into his Ringside Pile, and conveniently forgotten about it. We fast forward to end game, and we see BALLS trying to build back his Arsenal strength after a flurry of chain maneuvers. He plays Chained Heat in hopes of shuffling in two chain cards. Rachelmon ponders for a moment, goes through his Ringside Pile for a while and reverses it with a BLINDSIDED SPINEBUSTER!
In the words of Jim Ross himself, "MY GAWD! BATISTA JUST BROKE CARLITO'S BACK WITH THAT SPINE BUSTER!"