Looking Back: JLA Matches

JLA Sneak Preview Matches

Deck Construction:

I joined the 1st flight of the day, so there was no deck swapping. Darn, I was cursing myself to get crap before coming. And yes, I did get crap. Aside from Wonder Woman (the one that was previewed at Metagame) which was really a borderline card, the rest were mostly mediocre cards that I would probably never use. I felt a little sad when the people around me were excited with the Hero's Welcome and Lookalike Squad that they got. How I wished I could swap with just any one of them.

I was hoping to build a deck using the Injustice Gang or JLA since I liked to play mostly curve. I was a little disappointed when I realized that my JLI character pile was the biggest as they were supposed to be weenie-based. With all the JLI/JLA dual affiliation guys around, I sorted out the better characters from JLA and JLI for my deck and added in a few good apes (Gorilla Grodd and Ultra Humanite) for good measure. I was quite delighted to find that my JLA were quite thematic with famous faces like Batman, Wonder Woman, Hal Jordan, Green Arrow and Martian Manhunter. It made me feel excited about playing it. For my plot twists, I was being lazy and just sorted out all the ATK/DEF pumps and power-ups that I could find. Thankfully, some of them were JLI/JLA-stamped so I didn't have any major headaches on what to take out.

Match 1:

My opponent had The Mist out on and I found it to be quite a pest. It traded stuns with my character and sent one of my guys to the hidden area. I also making a few mistakes in attacking, having forgotten that it actually has Evasion.

I recruited Wonder Woman on turn 4 and my opponent named "Rallying Cry". I had no idea what it was until he attacked his 3-drop into my Wonder Woman and flipped up 2 of it. I picked up the card, saw "+2 ATK / +1 Def" and went, "Oh wow". Wonder Woman's Cosmic counter dropped off.

The game went to turn 6. He boosted out Scarecrow: Psycho Psychologist which forced me to draw 3 cards. He used its ability and burnt me for 8 damage since I had 8 cards in hand. That was very, very painful. He collided The Mist into my largest drop and sent it to the hidden area to allowed his biggest guy to direct attack. I was in for a lot of pain, but fortunatel, I managed to bring his life below 0 during my attack.

Side-Story: Mark to my side was playing with Scarescrow: Fearmonger and was having a lot of fun eating his opponent's +1/+1 counters, Cosmic counters and whatnot. He had a huge board with many counters. Somehow, I felt that UDE featured quite a lot of Cosmic in this set just so that Scarecrow can eat them.


Match 2:

I got out Wonder Woman on turn 4 and every turn, my opponent would name 'Token Resistance'. I had no what it was, but my Wonder Woman managed to survive till turn 6 with her Cosmic intact. I think that probably saved me a lot of unnecessary headaches.

I realized my opponent was playing a 4-resource deck; he reservist-recruited Black Canary out on turn 5, followed by Tasmanian Devil on turn 6 without replacing a resource to keep himself stuck at four. All I knew was that, even though he did massive damage to me, his characters always stunned on the attack since I curved up progressively, allowing me a couple of direct attacks for the win.

Side-Story: Poor Himura was playing against Oreo (Orry). Oreo seemed like he was having PMS, trying to find fault with every move Himura played and just plain rules-lawyering.

I met David and we talked. I told him that I was nervous as I had 2 wins already and just needed 1 more to get the winner's EA. David told me that I could try to 'negotiate' if I had to. Like, if I wanted more packs, I could offer to concede to my opponent in exchange for his prize boosters or vice versa. He says that sometimes, the people may want the boosters over the EA . That's interesting. I hope I don't have to try such a thing.


Match 3:
My opponent was Lee Keng Yin. This is probably the first time I got to play with him. He was a very friendly casual player for the first few turns... until things didn't start going well for him. Meh.

I mulligan'ed away a hand with several 6- and 7-drops and got... another hand with 6- and 7-drops and several plot twists (the plot twists were pumps, though). I thought I was gonna lose this one. I managed to draw into a Blue Beetle on turn 2 and used him to tutor for Booster Gold. On turn 3, I drew into Aquaman was very relieved as his sizeable 6/6 body fended off attacks. My top-decking luck continued as I drew into my 4-drop, John Stewart and played Roll Call to gain 3 life and cycle 2 cards (so far, everyone who have seen me play this card said it was 'nuts'). I discarded a pump for Roll Call and he remarked, "Wow, if you discard that, it means your hand must be good." Well, I had no choice since I was in dire need of keeping my later drops. Keng Yin team-attacked into John Stewart but I managed to get away with a defensive pump (Shake it Off). He sighed as it failed. I struck back and he, too, had a defensive pump (Wall of Will) but I had a Glass Jaw ready. He commented that I had "a lot of good cards" and "all the answers". On turn 5, I missed my drop and recruited a 2-drop and 3-drop. At first, I thought that this was a 'bad play', but then I realized that I had the Justice League Force team-up that granted bonus to my team-attackers. I managed to stun most of his characters. On turn 6, I got out Hal Jordan. He tried to attack but I powered up with Reform the League. He was a little sick by now and Oreo was watching and agreed that I indeed had "all the answers". "I might have a chance if you miss your 7-drop," Keng Yin said, "You have been curving almost perfectly." But I had my 7th-drop since turn 1; I recruited my Guy Gardner and attacked for the win.

Oh, well. Who cares if I am a luck sack. I was just making the best of what I drew; not like I can just pretend I didn't have all the pumps.

Sidestory: Oreo had dropped so I was the only one left with straight wins. I decided to stay on, since I had a chance of meeting Himura. If so, I might throw the match to him so that he can get an EA, too.


Match 4:

My opponent was not Himura, but I was in quite a good mood. I told him that for our game, no matter who wins or loses, I could report him as the winner if he wanted. He misheard me and exclaimed, "You want ME to concede to YOU?!" (Okay, even I would be pissed if someone asked me to do such a ridiculous thing.) I tried to explain myself again, but it seemed that my opponent was quite a righteous person and tried to dissuade me from doing such a thing. "Okay, I guess we'll just play normally then." I said.

I mulliganed and got a handful of characters but they were all big drops. He did an interesting 'combo' on turn 3. He recruited Booster Gold with a boost to get Blue Beetle, then used Blue Beetle to get a 1-cost Equipment to make use of the remaining free resource point from the boost effect. I managed to recruited Mr. Miracle who was promptly stunned. On turn 4, I cringed as I failed to recruit any drops at all. I got smashed for tons of damage. On turn 5, I drew into Martian Manhunter and under-dropped with him. He got out Steel and it tutored for an equipment with it. *gasp* It was an equipment deck.

I considered my options; he had all his drops from 1 to 5 versus my 2 lonely guys. I was thinking of trying to force him to reinforce his small guys and went for his 1- and 2-drops. At this point, he stopped me and asked, "Hey, are you deliberately trying to lose the game to me?" I was kinda surprised and he pointed out his equipment to me. I read it and realized that the High Tech Flare Gun allowed him to attack hidden characters, namely Martian Manhunter. I re-assured him that I wasn't trying to lose to him (though actually, my original plan was just to try to bully the small guys). This guy was obviously quite strict about his morals, so he allowed me to re-trace my steps and I did a 'proper' attack on him.

I got out Hal Jordan on turn 6 and moved away Steel who was protecting a 2-drop. After he attacked my guys and passed to me, I decided to go for massive breakthrough to bridge the huge gap in our life. I made Hal Jordan go for his 2-drop, but to my surprise, he flipped up a Location (The Castle) and promptly reinforced it.

Turn 7 was his initiative, but my Guy Gardner was too much for him to handle since all my drops from 5 onwards had willpower. His equipments were simply not enough and he couldn't attack effectively. I struck back on my attack step and won.

Sidestory: The match was over and I offered to report him as the winner. He asked why I was doing this (probably suspicious there might be some strings attached) and I simply said that "two happy guys are better than one". He finally realized that I was not trying to squeeze any benefits out of him and thanked me as I reported him as the winner.

Oh, and Himura was playing against Keng Yin with Oreo watching. Poor Himura suffering more PMS bursts. hehehe.

Conclusion:

Anyway, I was extremely pleased with my performance and my prizes (the Martian Manhunter EA and the deck tin). It was an immensely satisfying feeling to off-set the fact that I just paid $40 and opened totally crap cards from all my boosters.