Gardner, MA 10/29/06 Afterburn

We had an Afterburn tournament at Gopher Games in Gardner MA today, and here's my report.

A total of 8 players showed up, which is good because the last few gopher tournaments have only drawn 6 and therefore not been ranked. I flipped my All Axxess D-X Heat over to Afterburn for the day, judging it to be a much better meta choice than Vince McMahon. In hindsidght I might've been wrong, but meh. You know the drill - prematch hand destruction + discarding a lot of my own cards + Cerebral Assassin to disrupt, lots of good heat cards and shiny things.

Round 1 vs. Family Guy, Mr Kennedy (Rene)

We play the prematch, I drop 4 superstar specifics, he plays ten cards, the last of which is....Dare to Take a Challenge. I point out that it's an All-Axxess card and Family Guy says he tought it was an All-Axxess tournament. He checks with Rog and switches over to Rene Dupree, his Afterburn-legal deck, and we have a long and drawn-out match. His Inferno Match deals tons of damage to me in the prematch because I can't stop overturning reversals. He plays Raw & Ready on my first maneuver, so I know I have to suck up an early Fifi Interferes. I walk into a couple of reversals before pushing another move through, and then FG play's I'M DESPERATE into a Judo Choke, putting me on an even faster clock. He even hits Body Block to stop one of my Atomic Body Locks, and has mroe fortitude than I've ever seen a Rene deck have. Fortunately his Inferno Match hurts him as much as me, and I'm able to force through maneuvers while restocking my deck with Daivari and Neck Torque. In the end I pin him with something huge, like Atomic Body Lock or something.

1-0

Round 2 vs. Rob Hawkins, Mr PPV

He uses Unscripted to take out my Cerebral Assasin in the prematch, so I start the game with a massive hand and reduce his to almost nothing. The game is really back and forth though, as we are both able to lob maneuvers at will (his arsenal-only high risks, my repeated lobbing of heat maneuvers). I keep forgetting to drop sustained for his first four successful maneuvers despite having a hand full of heat. He has Rochester out and is reshuffling reversals over and over, and with Once is Enough down I have very little that will punch through his near-completely-red arsenal. I end up winning by playing Backfire FOUR times, once roaded, once reversed by Introduce Your Brain to Your Mouth, then one successful from backlash and one successful from ringside pile.

2-0

Round 3 vs. Mike, Doink

I lost this match because I made one tiny mistake, one infinitesimally greedy play, in the prematch (and then compounded it with more bad plays). Normally with Icon, Showstoppa, Main Event, I fail to find a Trademark Finisher in my arsenal so as to keep my hand low for Cerebral Assassin. This time I grabbed a TMF just looking to stuff it with Signing Appearance for a different card, but I didn't think the numbers through and I discarded the wrong heat card with It's Getting Hot in Here, such that when I play first turn Sucker Punch and he oversells it, I have five cards in hand and he has an ability. On his turn he pops FLAU OG and pitches two backstage cards for a German Suplex - if I at least had a Rev I could've stopped this, but I don't, and it only gets worse from there. After the German he is able to land another maneuver to get to 14 while reversing my stuff, then plays Break it OUt which I road. On my turn - instead of playing For the Love of the Game to get to ten, when I have 2 Leave Me Alones in my ringside, I go straight to the Maneuver of Doom. Of course he has a reversal in hand, discarding his hand to play Manager and then Volleying the other half. On his turn he plays a successful Break it Out and from that point forward the game is sealed. I crawl back in with a few random heat maneuvers but can't do enough damage or force Daivaris through. Dyanimc Finisher sees me sustain my hand away to stay alive, and after Mike lands a Shoot Lock-Up (which I COMPLETELY Brain Farted on and forgot I had Vince GRA in play - it was a last-second throw in for Afterburn and I wasn't even thinking about it at all), he ends my life with a Shoot Counter on my last Daivari.

2-1

I'm still kicking myself over that game. One small play mistake early, one second mistake in the prematch, and a third with Vince GRA doom my chances. We decide to do a top 4 so that people can play more games. I get paired up with Hawkins again.

Round 4 vs. Rob Hawkins, Mr PPV

He thinks lonnnng and hard about the prematch this time, and comes up with a better combination. He opts not to play Rochester and this time uses Unscripted on my Icon, Showstoppa, Main Event. This makes my starting situation noticably crappier, but at least my Cerebral Assassin prevents it from turning into a Rout. We have another game full of random maneuver violence, and Rob drops two That's Broken early - when I once AGAIN have Vince GRA in play and completely forget it exists - to stow some emergency reversals. I start the game with a Sucker Punch since he searched for Once is Enough and picked up another with Managed by Vince. Unfortunately I just don't have enough maneuver reversals to stop him from gaining fortitude, ability or not, and he hits me with some devastating early-game reversals like Step-Over Heel Kick and King Interferes on my Maneuver of Doom. I force through the MoD eventually and keep plugging away with Atomic Body Locks but I just fall behind in the damage-dealing race. I eat The Finisher for almost the full damage and that seals the game, because he just has too many reversals for me to break through and finish. In hindsight I probably should've tried lobbing Backfires earlier in the game, I knew he had at least Road and Introduce Your Brain to stop it and I thought I'd have more success with maneuvers.

2-2 and out

Mike and Rob played for the finals, but I left before the match really got underway so hopefully one of them will post the final result later. On the plus side I picked up the only card I did not yet have from this TK. On the down side that card is Managed by the Dangerous Divas. File under meh.

Okay, see everybody at the league in Fitchburg tomorrow, and again in Fitchburg next week for All-Axxess (1PM $5 entry)!

-John of Team BTY