Top Deck Games Tournament Experience

So I was able to go to Top Deck Game’s VS System tournament this past weekend in NJ. It was my first major VS System tournament and I didn’t do too well. While my record was 3-2, my two losses came from the first two matches. It was great to see some high competitive play, but also it was amazing seeing new types of decks.

The breakdown for the tournament was:

4 Thor

3 Dark Phoenix

3 Kingpin

2 Jessica Jones

2 WO Ripley

Starlord

Mr Black

Viv Vision

*Ms Marvel*

Wolverine

Crystal

Sister Grimm

Elsa

Karnak

Deadpool

Black Bolt

I unfortunately decided to play it safe and played Kingpin, instead of the deck I originally wanted to play. I should have chosen the deck I wanted to play because everyone seemed ready for Kingpin decks. What I learned from the tournament was Fin Fang Foom is the best finisher, Net Launcher is OP and I should try something new instead of relying on the standard meta.

Round 1 – Jessica Jones

This deck was unique, it was comprised of Defenders and the Prey. It leaned heavily with the -1/-1 counters with cards like Mac, Cloak and Mini Gun. Dagger and Scarlet Witch to protect themselves and stop my Kingpin from leveling up. I was stuck on Level one I believe for the entirety of the game. Though Taskmaster did help prolong the game since he would copy Dagger’s abilities. In the end I lost to Dutch with “Get to the Choppa!” as Jessica Jones activated her Superpower to not gain a wound when stunned and had Tough, something I forgot about. Really grindy match. 0-1

Round 2 – Deadpool

When I first saw my opponent reveal his main character I thought I knew exactly what I was facing, I was dead wrong. This was a Predator deck with Deadpool’s win condition. This is where I found out how brutal Net Launcher. He kept stunning my Kingpin and since Kingpin can recover it slowed down my attempt to level up. I was able to sustain in the game because of Taskmaster getting Tracker’s keyword and I had at least 3 different locations including my opponent’s 1 different location. My opponent not getting a yellow location also helped prolong defeat. But in the end, he dropped two Net Launchers, stunned my board, and then killed me with Deadpool’s Level 2 super power. 0-2

Round 3 – Kingpin

So, I never thought how the mirror match would go, so this was a pretty unique experience. I thought my opponent was at least going with the Taskmaster-Ash-Hudson combo, until I saw the Avengers Mansion. He played Nick Fury to help level up his Kingpin. His plan was the Black Widow combo. This combo involves Agent Peggy Carter, Valkyrie, Black Widow and Nightmare. Luckily for me I drew into two Cosmo and was able to interrupt it for a while. I won with the Taskmaster combo, able to execute it six times to end the game. 1-2

Round 4 – Dark Phoenix

I was extremely worried about this match up, not only can Dark Phoenix ramp extremely faster than me but me hitting my Level 3 and activating “Take Over the World” just instantly levels her up. My opponent played a lot of great threats, but having the Dutch win in my hand was relieving. Even though he dropped Fin Fang Foom, I had both Wasp and Private Hudson with enough Red locations. 2-2

Round 5 – Karnak

This was a deck a friend of mine wanted to build, since he likes milling his opponents. So, to play against it was a treat and a warning of what my friend could possibly cook up. I had to play around Karnak’s level up condition so I had to drop a Cosmo on my first turn just to make sure he doesn’t gain an XP. My opponent had the red location ready so I had to figure out ways to spend my resource points, luckily I kept drawing cards that can add up to my resource points rather than just using one card. Once he leveled up I was able to have a secure board state and executed the Dutch combo to end the game. 3-2

While I had a decent record, I wished I didn’t just bring a predictable deck and brought something new. Thanks to everybody involve with organizing the tournament I had a great time despite not making top 8. Congrats to Ralph Edwards (check out his winning deck) for winning and check out The Playset for complete spoilers for SHIELD vs HYDRA.

Come back tomorrow for a look at the deck, I originally wanted to take to NJ tournament.