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FROM THE MIND OF FAMILY GUY, VOLUME 4: DECK KNOWLEDGE As you advance into competitive Raw Deal, especially with the advent of Revolution, it becomes very important to know exactly what cards are in your Arsenal and why. I happen to have a near-photographic memory, which helps immensely when I'm playing one of my favorite Superstars, Rene Dupree. Having the drawback of only being able to pack one of each card in your deck means that you have to be able to be creative, cover your bases redundantly, and most importantly, remember what's left in your Arsenal at any given time.
Rene Dupree/Afterburn/Raw/Face/Fan Favorite
Backstage Area:
Prematch: (10)
There are two alternate prematches here; one for offense, one for defense. The defensive prematch is played against First of All decks and Lashley; the offensive one against most everything else. With the deck being designed to overturn reversals, you need to be able to scramble Lashley's hand to prevent him from rolling you as long as you possibly can. As you're a 1 SSV, you'll be able to see the First of All coming and play Trash Talkin' Interview/Managed by Fifi/FLAU (T)/AIUU to deal with it.
Midmatch: (10)
Heavy Red Midmatch - a Rene Dupree classic. Adding in some of the Revolution cards gives you a little protection against Means and Antics, but the trick is to pummel your opponent to dust before they get to Colossal range.
Maneuvers: (20)
Shot In is there only in the case that you're getting rolled early. FTLOTG/Shot In OR Shock/Shot In is a great way to get back in the game. Everything else is Unique or Dynamic, which feeds the two themes.
Actions: (5)
Key hand disruption, mass recovery, minor searching. Basic stuff.
Antics: (4)
I'm working with the theory that Antics will be the hardest to reverse cards in Afterburn format - so I sprinkled in the important ones - recovery and momentum.
Reversals (31):
Here's the meat and potatoes of the article and build - the reversal base. The way I get to know exactly how optimal my reversals are is asking myself how many ways I can stop a certain maneuver. For example, a Precision Kick.
Well, from hand, I have nine (Over Sell, Raw and Ready, Fifi, Step, Elbow, It's Great to Be Back, Raw Deal Revolution, Overshot Your Mark, Sloppy). From Arsenal, two (DI, Great to be Back) From Backlash deck, none. If I'm hit with a Precision Kick during the game, I'd need to look at my Ringside pile to determine whether or not I'm going to reverse the move - if I see Great to Be Back and DI over there, I know that there's no way to stop it in Arsenal so I should reverse it from hand.
The reversals in this deck run from the normal (Step, Escape, Reach) to the very situational (Volleyed Beyond the Edge, Enough With the Trash Talk). The thing they all have in common is that they all work on the overturn. I can stop a Chain move with the basic reversal, with Chained Heat, with Raw Deal Rev (depending on text), or with DI. The redundant reversals are how to survive.
Now, back to the original point - deck knowledge. If you throw a move that I know I have three or four reversals in Arsenal for, I'm more than likely to let it through and catch it on overturn, as that's the way my deck is designed. From knowing my deck, I can focus on knowing YOUR deck and putting back the correct reversals to prevent you from breaking through and pinning me.
There's an order to thinking, and while I'm no expert, I'll give you a paraphrase:
Level 1: What's in my hand?
As the levels progress, the questions become more complex. Generally speaking, if you're thinking deeper than your opponent, you have a much better chance at winning games - and you can't think deeply until you know the ins and outs of your deck.
Now, I know what you're thinking. Some schlub shows up at your game store with a NetDeck that he found three hours ago, slapped together, and won the tournament. We had one of those at my store for awhile, too - he played Pat Eshegy's PPV and dominated for a couple weeks. However, I play in one of the toughest metagames in the world, and our more intelligent players figured out the counters to the design and played something that would handle PPV.
Know your deck to destroy your opponent's. It can happen in World Qualifiers; just ask my teammate John who I ran into in Philadelphia. We had been playing his BFM vs. my Rene in the hotel room almost constantly leading up to the tournament, and I kept getting steamrolled. However, when we got paired up, I was able to overturn the reversal to his first move, strip him of his reversals in the prematch, and roll over him with Dernier Slam/French Neck Breaker technology.
The deck I've posted above, on its best day, will only win about 65% of its games. However, playing it, and learning how to play it well will make you a much better player over the long term. Know thyself, and the wins will come.
....from the mind of Family Guy....
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