Ok, so I get to Hatcherland today for the bi-weekly tournament. I pull out my tournament standard (for now) Gail & Molly deck. My first draw, I get one of my friend's and his JBL heat deck. Now, I've played this deck hundreds of time before, and it's a toss-up every single time. At the end of the first round, one thing finally became abundantly clear: Search out Molly-Go-Round instead of Wake Up. Why give him free heat?
After an agonizing defeat, here comes my next draw. Another friend. And oh wow, another JBL deck. This time not heat; we're going heel, foreign object, Chicago Street, Dem Dam Dudleyz. I was doing great, until the turning point of the match. He draws Overhead Chair Shot, Strike/Strike. I don't have two strike reversals in my hand, so it has to go on the overturn. Nothing. Realizing I can't reverse it, he discards after he draws for Overhead to put it back in his to play it again. And again. And again, And, you get the idea. It pins me.
So I'm feeling a little bit down at this point. But I'm perked up when a trade finally goes through. I get the Light Heavyweight Belt (which I need to build Rey) and Ultimo Rechazo (which I need for Eddie) for a Stunner and some other random UR. Actually, the guy didn't even need the cards he got, but knew I really needed the cards, so he went through with it. So I was really grateful for that.
Now, next draw. I got some kid with a John Cena deck. Nothing too special, except it was a chain deck. Big surprise. He was low fortitude the entire match. I managed to bait out Backlash midway through, sometime before playing Gail's Hurricanrana. So I was high up on fortitude the whole match; POTP is so great when they don't have a strike reversal in their hand. So then here's where I thought he'd cause a turnaround. I draw Molly-Go-Round. I play a simple Punch just to get out the successful maneuver; I pretty much knew it would work, he hadn't reversed a strike the whole game, save the overturn. Yeah, it went through. So here goes Molly-Go-Round, and I had started revelling in my victory, when I see him drop When You Thought You Had All The Answers. Balls. There goes my second trademark. Yeah, so I sense a comeback. But there's still a match. I keep reversing. We end up each down to one card for our hands at one point, sometimes zilch. Eventually I finally finished him off.
So after that match, I get a little kid playing Eugene. I don't care if you suck at the game or not, I take a Eugene deck seriously. If you don't have reversals on your draw, you're boned. This kid really had no grasp, yet thought he knew it all. He tried to opt out of discarding for Wake Up like that was an option. Then he tried Backlash on my first maneuver. And then we had a spat about that. And well, I got fortitude, and reversals. But he got enough fortitude too. Enough to do two unreversable maneuvers, high damage. His third card, I think I Cowed. But no matter what, one more maneuver and I would be dead. I think I reversed two more before it was all said and done. But yeah, I was toast.
So that takes me out of the main tournament. Now for the side tournament. So I was thinking Gail again, but let's go for a change? So I pull out the Shelton deck I was just given by a friend who got out of the game because of several games where he was just given salt in his wounds by a sore winner. Let's see. Seems like a plan.
First Draw: GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLDBERG GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLDBERG. The most broken Character ever. Titles, 9D Jackhammers, now why can't I have any Escape Moves? Just great. Easy win for him.
And the one thing that cheered me up was the most pivotal trade, 3 cards just for me to get one West Coast Bronco Buster, THE card I was lacking for Rey. So now Rey is build-ready.
Then for the next draw, another friend, playing an Edge deck. And here's what killed me here: White Wedding. Followed by a card (I forgot what it is) that blanks my SSV, making it pointless for me to draw for White Wedding. So he keeps hitting maneuvers, removing cards from the game, and I'm defenseless. This was a long battle, where the TD was pissed that it took so long. So just for giggles, I popped Wrestlemania. It only saved me for about 5 minutes. And it was done.
So my final draw was a Two-Man Power Trip. Good strategy. All except by now, I was getting accustomed to Shelton. On the draw, I get a Don't Try This At Home. He's got Wrestlemania out. Yes, I'm hanging on to that card for dear life. I reverse his maneuver, then going into a Panic Grab->Wraparound Wristlock. Either overturn or say bye-bye to four cards. So I keep going till I get 25F. I'll skip to a pivotal moment. He isn't playing a lot of strikes, and I draw a T-Bone Exploder Suplex. Now I could play it as a maneuver, risk it getting reversed, and losing the match. Or just let him bring doom upon himself. So I say, "Your turn." And he draws, and does exactly what I want him to do: a Grapple maneuver. He has about 19 cards left in arsenal. T-BONE. So here he goes, takes the 20D and knows, hey, I've got a second chance...that's what he thought. He tries to pop it, and out comes the Don't Try This At Home I've been squirreling away for THE moment he popped Wrestlemania. That's a pin. That was the match a huge chunk of satisfaction came from.
And that was my tournament day.
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