DDM 2.0 Constructed Qualier Dickson TN 05/17/2008

Here's a tournament report for the DDM 2.0 Constructed Qualifier in Dickson TN on 05/17/2008. The original link can be found here:

http://www.hordelings.com/forums/postView.php?post_id=146772&viewPage=0#146772


So when I started to think about what I wanted to play for this qualifier, I looked at alot of stuff. I thought about Whips but they seemed to be on the way out. Alot of anti-Whip stuff started showing and people seemed to be on the look out for them in general so I decided not to go with them. I looked at some EB/Wulfgar builds. But having already ran that at Cincinnati and it being all the rage now, I decided I wanted to run something else. Then I started looking at some Death Knight builds. I considered Death Knight, EB, Mind Flayer for a little while.

But I kept coming back to Dual MFL. I kept looking at it and thought that it was a good matchup against the multitude of EB/Wulfgar bands that kept showing up. It has a tough matchup in some things but overall I thought it was still strong.

So Saturday my buddy Tony (Visage) drove over to pick me up at Somerset, KY. We then made our way to Bowling Green, KY to meet up with our buddy Kenwig. Kenwig took me and Tony out for some Japanese food which was something new for us. We spent the rest of the day hanging out, painting figures, and playtesting our warbands. Tony and I played 3 games that night. He originally had an EB, Wulfgar, Wild Mage, Raistlin band. Our first game he got too aggressive with his Wild Mage and lost her on Turn 2 of Round 1. We reset the game after I got Wulfgar and tried it again. This was alot closer but the Liches managed to pull it out in the end.

So then we went and got online to check what happened and saw Aesoph's Jarl band. Tony wanted to give that a try and got a Jarl from Kenwig. We played it on Hellspike and Tony absolutely spanked me. I mean he beat me BAD. I started thinking about it and realized it's probably about an 80/90 matchup in his favor on that map.

Sunday morning we get up and head down to Dickson, TN. We get at the store a little early and Brig and Ninjapimp showed up not long after we did. We set around and talked for a little bit. We were wondering how many we would have and until close to start time we only had 7. However Kris Blais showed up and that made our 8th for the tournament.

Round 1
I got paired up with Clint McGill (Ninjapimp). He was running his same band from the GA Qualifier (Dwarf Battlemaster, Dol Dorn x 3, Harpy). He got map which meant we played on Hellspike. It was a good matchup playing back and forth. Clint had some very bad die rolls at key points and by the time he was able to engage the MFLs it was too late. 1-0

Round 2
I got paired with my buddy Tony who was running the Jarl band that Aesoph played in Bloomington. We rolled for map and he got it. I pretty much considered it an auto loss, but that's why we play the game. I played a different strategy this time and managed to get up on activations and points on him. This forced his Jarl and EB to come out of hiding in the smoke. And at that point I was able to take some shots on the Jarl. I got luckier this time than I did the previous night though and got some of the rolls. It came down to the Jarl at 10 hps against my Shadow at 25 and one MFL at full. Tony won the last init and went for an attack on the Shadow so he could cleave. He missed the attack roll. I moved up the MFL to flank with the Shadow and hit to kill the Jarl. 2-0

Round 3
I got paired with the only other undefeated Shayne Linderman (Brig). Brig was running his same band as from GA (Large Shadow Dragon x 2, Digester, Babau, Darkmantle x 6). He got map roll so we went on Fane of Lolth. We went Darkmantle on Darkmantle early on and he was able to win the battle. After going up on activations for me he jumped in with both dragons. I was able to get one of them but by that time the Babau and Digester joined the party and it was too much for the rest of my force to overcome. 2-1

Round 4
I got paired up with Kris Blais. Kris and I had actually met back at the 2006 Limited Qualifier in Richmond, KY where I played Kris in the last round of Swiss and in the Finals of it. Kris was running EB, Astral Stalker, Oni, Wild Mage, Kobold Archer x 5, Farmer. He got map roll and picked my map Blue Dragon's Lair. First round he gets a shot off with the Wild Mage. I move up and I think I rolled a 1 to miss her in a shot from one of my MFL. He got another shot off with his Astral Stalker onto the other MFL. And then that was the only shots he got off on the MFLs. I finally got a shot off on the Wild Mage and confused her. I had some bad rolls mid game, 1's and 2's when I needed a 3. But that was overcome by Kris failing several Confusion saves. I was able to get the Wild Mage eventually and the Oni. Kris conceded after I got the Astral stalker confused. 3-1

So after Swiss we looked at the standings and Kenwig was in 4th. At Gencon Ken runs games for Goodman Games and has other commitments so he wouldn't be able to play in the Champs if he made Top 2. So he dropped which allowed Visage to get in at 4th place. I got a rematch against Kris Blais and Tony played Brig.

SemiFinals
This time Kris picked his map, Caves of Chaos. We went back and forth with some shots. I got a cone off with the Large Shadow onto 3 Kobolds and the Wild Mage and I missed the Wild Mage which was the real target. His Astral Stalker came after the Shadow which it had hate against. It came down to his Stalker getting a shot off on the Large Shadow that was at 20 hps left. He missed on the conceal check and retreated with the Stalker. I shadow jumped and got off a monstrous breath weapon. It hit his Wild Mage, hit the Astral Stalker, and then critted the EB for 45 damage. After that I moved the Ravenous Ghoul over to the Oni and managed to stagger it. After I killed the Wild Mage and started shooting some other stuff Kris conceded.

In the finals I had discussed a prize split with Shane. I had plans to drive up already and Shayne will actually use the plane ticket. So I came in 2nd officially but most importantly I qualified. I have to give thanks to Tony for playtesting with me. Big thanks to Kenwig for repainting one of my MFLs http://www.hordelings.com/forums/postView.php?post_id=146776&viewPage=0#146814.
Thanks to all my teammates in Team Mini. And of course thanks to Blackstone Game Center for hosting us. A great store that I hope to see later this year for a Limited Qualifier.