Milwaukee joined the august ranks of such fabled locales as Grand Rapids, Madison and Libertyville this weekend when a Buffy tournament was held at a local game convention. Paul Weisner ran the gig, and a good time was had by all. Ten participants, many prizes, Studying cards for all involved, and some exposure to different deck styles.
I can offer some coverage on the three games I played in -- we played head-to-head, five games per round, three rounds. I hope some other players who were present will add their rounds and observations to this thread when they get a chance.
Deck breakdown: 3 Giles, 2 Willow, 2 Spike, 1 Drusilla, 1 Buffy, 1 Kendra. Reflects what I've seen written about the current metagame. While I didn't play two of the Giles or either of the Willow decks, I know at least one of them was a card-drawing monster, and one of the Willow decks was a challenge-completion deck. The Buffy deck used Angel's Curse Buffy Level 1 to excellent effect and shut down other decks with Oh, The Other Cemetary, New Kid on the Block, and others.
My deck was a Spike fight deck, the only one I have traded heavily for. As per Reason's assessment of the fighting deck in his Deckbuilding 101 article, movement and controlling movement are very important. I prefer Spike to Angelus because of Spike's Car and Spike's Essence - Destiny is nice, but an extra three or four or seven Butt-Kicking looks meaner. Run, Fast!, Hit the Streets, Madison Body Switch, Sunnydale School Lawn, and Grounded are all useful to this end. I used to use Blind Panic, which served as both forced movement and challenge disruption; unfortunately, like Total Lecture Overload, it's only really good every other turn (it's still "good" but not "really good").
First round: Spike vs. Drusilla.
First words out of my mouth, "Oh, crap. Enjoy the +1 to all your stats for the rest of the game."
First words out of her mouth, "Don't sweat it, I have a reputation for coming in last at these things."
Despite her "reputation" : ) I enjoyed the first round immensely. Unlike some CCGs, where you go, play, win or lose, and go home feeling empty and alone, this Buffy tournament was a good time and I look forward to meeting with my opponents again. Vampire: the Eternal Struggle tournaments have this quality as well. Socializing and gaming - two great tastes that taste great together. I felt badly about using my Spike deck to beat up Spike's girlfriend, but sometimes you just have to knock the girl unconscious and throw her in your Car. I killed Dru twice, and few of her minions, then completed a Festival of St. Vigeous for the win.
Second round: Spike vs. Giles
Another opening comment that floored me: first turn I move Spike to Giles' location, and in conflict step, declare an attack. The Giles player, a friend of mine, looks at me and says, "Okay, how do you fight? I've never been in one of these before, just challenges."
Golly, did I feel bad. But, c'est la fight deck.
Needless to say, there was much ravaging of unprepared Heroes and Companions. In the aftermath, I was able to complete a Welcome to the Harvest with ridiculous Talent values for the win.
Third round: Spike vs. Buffy
This round was prefaced by the announcement that three players had two wins so far. Swiss style requires similar records to play against each other, so someone had to play down. Rehlow, that thoughtful little sweetie, reminds Paul that I played down (against a player with a worse win/loss record) last round, and therefore should play against the other undefeated deck, David Gerspach (hope I'm not misspelling, Dave).
Third round was the toughest round I played. I tried to come correct with Spike, but Stunt-Doubling prevented me from killing the right blonde (Amy Madison for Buffy). The other blonde dropped a Hair Flip on me in the next fight, and Spike went down like a drooling teenager. ("Oooh, it's like season 5 and 6!") Having been handled at my own game (fighting), I switched to Challenges and disruption. I moved Xander numerous times, and Madison Body Switched Jenny to keep her from doing free things (Hey, Score, how about a Jenny Calendar for Evil?) that would have won David the game at least twice. David scared the hell out of me with his ability to complete things, and I was starting to scare the hell out of David with my Talent totals (Spike w/Quarterstaff, Angelus, Master, da Three x2, Claw, da Pack -vs- Pergamum Prophecy). It came down to controlling Jenny's location and controlling Spike's Talent values (Body Switch and New Kid on the Block). Fortunately, the turn neither of us could handle the other, I was active player, and completed Pergamum Prophecy for the win.
Two decks went undefeated in this tournament - my Spike and Rehlow's Giles. Rehlow was declared tournament winner on the basis of the win/loss records of his opponents. I'm pretty pleased with the performance of my deck, though I know next tournament I go to I'll see lots of Hair Flips, The Look and I Quit. : )
Again, thanks for Paul for running the event, thanks to everyone who traded cards, and thanks to everyone who came out for the event. It was a good time, and I look forward to seeing you all again. David G., e-mail me if you want a ride out to Misty Mountain this coming weekend. : )
--Wyld (Matt)
Email the webmaster any additions, corrections or dead links.
Revised 7-December-2002