Trenzalore - Round 8

[RootRanger]

Round 8 Pairings
Play the opponent across from you.
Support Cards may be found in the Inforarium.
Round 8 has ended.

dragonsdemesne	trashduke
Ginyu	BYE

Round 8 Lore
Nothing happened. And then it kept happening. Or, if you'd prefer, everything happened at once, and it won't ever stop. Time is dying.

Doctor Who Video
Doctor Who Music

GINYU: What is that towering abomination obstructing my field of vision?
WILLNG3: I am the Cyberking. I have reached the maximum upgrade.
GINYU: Why even bother? You are the last of your race.
WILLNG3: Incorrect. I will use the energy from the crack in the universe to unleash an army of Cybermen.
GINYU: So that’s why you’ve come to Trenzalore. This whole time, you’d been planning this.
WILLNG3: This is correct.
GINYU: Then I applaud you for your brilliant move, soldier. Unfortunately, I am under direct orders to obliterate you!
(Ginyu catapults an atomic bomb at willng3, exploding him.)

TRASHDUKE: How dare you stand in my way, boy.
PUFF: I’m actually…
TRASHDUKE: This planet shall be a colony of the glorious Sontaran Empire.
PUFF: You’re not an empire. There are three of you in the entire universe.
TRASHDUKE: Then the rest of the Sontarans must be in another universe!
PUFF: No, that’s not what I meant. There are no other Sontarans.
TRASHDUKE: Then it’s settled. We will rescue the missing Sontarans from Gallifrey.
PUFF: I would rather die than see Gallifrey return to the universe.
TRASHDUKE: Very well, then! I am glad to be of assistance to you.
(trashduke dispatches Puff with a chakram.)

DRAGONSDEMESNE: I shall give you one last chance to surrender to the Sontaran Empire.
MAJOFA: Why should I? You would cause the death of the universe.
DRAGONSDEMESNE: Then you leave me no choice but to destroy you.
MAJOFA: Not if I destroy myself first. Bwahahahaha!
(majofa places his hand to his heart and electrocutes himself.

[Zawadx]

I warned ya sontarans OP

[majofa]

I warned ya sontarans OP

We all warned him.

[Zyardran]

MAJOFA: Not if I destroy myself first. Bwahahahaha!
(majofa places his hand to his heart and electrocutes himself.

best part...

[trashduke]

Sontaran vs. Sontaran... what is this world coming to?

[RootRanger]

I warned ya sontarans OP

We all warned him.

Zawadx and ji412jo told me Sontarans were overpowered. I don't recall that anyone else did.

Although the three remaining players are all Sontarans, the Sontarans also had many of the bottom-ranked players. Furthermore, the three remaining players are all solid players who would likely have done well in other races. Thus, even though the Sontarans may have a small edge, player skill is a significantly more important factor.

Furthermore, a skilled Sontaran player is far from invincible. Ginyu and dragonsdemense both lost 1-3 to Puff. trashduke has remained undefeated, but only narrowly, as three of his matches were won 3-2.

It would have been preferable if Sontarans had been nerfed, but event balance is very tricky. In TPvP, for instance, four of the five top teams used Aether as their main Element. In Falling Empire, some of the players went undefeated but still lost the event because they picked the wrong faction! The point is, it's difficult to balance an event, and I'm content with the job I did.

Feedback/advice is still great, of course. The only problem was that the feedback came after the sign-ups had already begun, at which point I did not want to make any major rule changes. I might be hosting a similar event in December (with different Elements and a different theme), and I will appreciate hearing which species people believe are too strong.

[dragonsdemesne]

dragonsdemesne - 2
trashduke - 3

GGs... and I continue my trend of placing one off of the prize in nontourney/league events... :p  I knew this one would come down to RNG and matchup luck, and that's exactly what happened.  Game 1 I got a perfect draw vs a 1 pillar start, games 3 and 4 he had a pretty good counter, and game 5 he had a decent counter (though not as strong as games 3/4) and I had a 1 pend draw in that one.  Game 2... well, he could've won that one probably, but that wouldn't have changed anything except to make this 1-3 instead of 2-3 for me.

Game 1: WIN (used discord/antimatter once, trashduke used flying weapon)

Spoiler for Hidden:

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

4sl 4sl 4vl 4vl 4vl 4vl 4vn 4vn 55k 55k 55k 55k 55o 55o 55o 568 568 568 576 576 576 576 744 744 752 752 752 75m 75m 75m 8pj

Won toss, I got amber/discord lock out on turn 3.  Trashduke had a 1 pillar draw.  I found out afterwards I was facing catatitans; I never saw a nonquanta card played.

Game 2: WIN (used arctic squid and shard of patience once, trashduke used purple dragon and discord)

Spoiler for Hidden:

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

4sl 4sl 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 568 568 568 56i 56i 56i 576 576 576 576 576 5j2 5j2 5j2 74b 74b 74b 74b 74b 7gr 7gr 7gr 8pp

Very close game, I goofed once letting his otyugh eat my squid instead of eating it myself, then he goofed big time by playing and eating his dragon instead of killing my otyugh that he'd put gravity pull on earlier.  I ended up keeping his entropy quanta down so he couldn't play another one.  Pretty funny game where we kept eating our own creatures in order to prevent them feeding the other person's otyugh; this mentality is why trashduke made the mistake.

Game 3: LOSS (fractal, dimensional shield used once, trashduke used nova/purple dragon/discord)

Spoiler for Hidden:

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

4sl 4sl 55k 55k 576 576 576 576 576 576 576 576 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 622 622 622 622 745 745 745 745 75m 75m 75m 75m 8pu

I put up an early dimshield against an empty board the turn before discord was playable.  Unfortunately, no early charger meant no damage, and trashduke put at least one momentum in the deck, which went on a dragon and punched through the shield.  I thought about including lightnings, but I'd have needed two just for that.  By the time I got a charger it was way too late; I committed it to the board thinking he had no way to remove it, and then he played gravity pull and another dragon, so I couldn't fractal it the next turn.  Had I held it in hand... he'd have won with 7 more hp instead.

Game 4: LOSS (discord/antimatter used twice, trashduke used fractal/lightning)

Spoiler for Hidden:

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

4sl 4sl 4vl 4vl 4vl 4vl 4vn 4vn 55k 55k 55k 55k 55o 55o 55o 568 568 568 576 576 576 576 744 744 752 752 752 75m 75m 75m 8pj

Same deck as game 1.  Early otyugh meant nymphs/shards could not be played, and they were not drawn early, anyway.  Gravity shield came up, and with otyugh out, I needed two shards to remove it.  We desynced, and trashduke's AI committed some of the most serious blunders I have ever seen.  It played double lightning on my dragon, letting it through the gravity shield for about 4 turns before killing it with a 3rd lightning.  It played a 4th lightning on my next dragon.  It fractaled its otyughs instead of my dragon.  When it finally played a charger, I antimattered it, and it healed me up a few turns before taking the 5th lightning.  The next charger met the same fate.  I ended up winning vs the AI by deckout, with all my shards/nymphs in hand.  Trashduke provided a screenshot of a win with 11 turns to go (he didn't miss the chance to fractal my dragon :p) and since even the AI feeding his otyughs did not make an 11 turn difference, I conceded this game.

Game 5: LOSS (Rage potion/red nymph used, trashduke used flying weapon)

Spoiler for Hidden:

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

4sl 4sl 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55p 568 568 568 568 576 576 576 576 576 576 5fb 5fb 5fb 5fb 5fb 5fb 5fk 5fk 5fk 5fk 5fk 5fk 752 752 752 752 75m 75m 75m 75m 8po

I got a 1 quanta draw with 20/40 quanta sources.  Topdecked one right after, but that is not a good way to start.  50hp titans are not good, either.  Tried to race with a triple raged shard, and got an amber out near the end, but it made no difference at that point.  With quanta, and a good draw, I could have won this game, but it was an uphill battle to be sure.

[trashduke]

trashduke - 3
dragonsdemesne - 2

Great games dragons!  Thanks for the match.

Spoiler for Hidden:

g1 - lost

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55s 55s 55s 55s 55s 55s 55t 561 561 561 561 56i 56i 576 576 576 576 576 744 74b 74b 7n2 7n2 7n2 7n2 7n2 8pl

I'll let him verify, but it seemed like he had the perfect draw, while I had one pillar. by turn three he popped a disco + a nymph and it was pretty much downhill from there... I was hoping to get more quanta and then he brought a second lovely lady.... well, thanks for g1 dragons!


g2 - lost by misplay….

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

4vf 4vf 4vl 4vl 4vl 4vl 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55p 55q 55q 55t 55t 55v 55v 55v 568 56i 56i 56i 576 576 576 744 744 744 74b 74b 75m 75m 75m 8pj

This one was interesting... we got into an oty eating contest. I had a fatal misplay that dragons pointed out to me after the match... I played a dragon and ate it instead of letting it hit his oty that I had g-pulled.  ugh. As it turned out, his oty eventually ate mine and then came the nymphs..... and sopa too.


g3 - won.

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

4vf 4vf 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vl 4vl 4vl 4vl 55k 55k 55k 55p 55q 55q 55t 55t 55v 55v 55v 568 56i 56i 56i 576 576 576 744 744 744 74b 74b 75m 75m 75m 8pj

Well I didn't want to get blanked so I brought out my trusty DBH again... He brought fractal chargers.  I had a rough start as he popped a dim shield early, but I had an early oty that I imagine slowed down his plans - eventually the cards came and I was able to whittle him away with a momentum dragon + nymph, and then the sofo sealed the deal to allow my other dragon to pop through. 

g4 - won

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55p 55p 568 56i 576 576 576 576 61q 61q 61q 61q 61q 61q 622 622 622 744 744 745 745 74b 74b 75m 75m 8pu

This was an inverse of last game, but this time I had a gravy sheild blocking most of his damage and an oty that I'm guessing prevented the nymphs from coming. disco slowed me down, but I eventually earned enough quanta for Fractal and used it on his dragons.  then we desynced....  I won pretty handily on my side, but he decked me out on his.  Being the sportsman he is, dragon conceded after seeing my screenshot (where he had 11 cards left and I had lethal). 

g5 - won

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

4vj 4vj 4vj 55k 55k 55k 55r 55s 55s 55s 55s 55s 55s 561 561 561 576 576 576 5i7 5i7 5i7 5oi 5oi 744 744 75m 75m 7n2 7n2 7n2 7n2 8pl

So - no more dbh-s to bring or worry about... time for trusty cata-titans. He had raged sofo's but only drew one of them.  I started hitting him down with one titan... then two... eventually three which hit down for the win.  Whew... that was a close game and match!

Always a pleasure to play against you dragons.... I learn something every time. Thanks again.