Let's Play Some Motherf*$&ing Games: 2010!!!!!!

[OblivionKnight]

Unlimited Saga: ...I have no fucking clue what the hell is going on.  At all.

And you complain that the Shin Megami Tensei series sucks >_>  Just wait until you finish Unlimited Saga <_<

[Meeplelard]

Unlimited Saga: ...I have no fucking clue what the hell is going on.  At all.

And you complain that the Shin Megami Tensei series sucks >_>  Just wait until you finish Unlimited Saga <_<

Just cause I say SMT sucks doesn't mean it couldn't get worse.  Ignoring where I put Persona 1 cause I can't remember (and the game is probably ranked that low cause its that bad), you'll note I have plenty of games ranked lower than the SMTs I've played <.<

[Luther Lansfeld]

Pokemon Heartgold - Vappy get! He's way underlevelled though.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Pokemon - Voltorb Flip so addicting. Single best change the remake has made so far, although figuring out ways to make FALKNER and BUGSY not fail deserves an honourable mention.

Three gyms down. Vulpix get! Totodile finally evolved, I don't think I've ever not had the second stage of my starter by gym 3 before but I guess Croconaw is a late evo + gen 2 has lower exp gain than other games so it makes sense. ONIX has been my MVP so far probably, invaluable against both Bugsy and Whitney. His offence is definitely struggling outside the good speed, though. Good thing I just snagged a Metal Coat, so that problem's about to go away! Incidentally, making some of these evo items through pokeathalon = another good idea the remake had. Just wish Togekiss wasn't aftergame... although Togepi did just evolve, so it'll be able to hang on for another while at least. Rest of my team is Zubat (fairly competent, though definitely waiting on Confuse Ray and the evo) and Skiploom (sleeps/flashes things, gotta have an annoyer).

[Ultradude]

Only took me like half an hour to realize I posted this in the wrong topic.

Finished FE8 Pimp Mode. Things went as sadly as expected later on, with everyone killing everything. L'arachel promoted at level 10, and by the time she and Natasha were both level 10 Valkyries, Mag was the only thing Natasha had a major advantage in - and she's a good support for the siblings on top of that. Made Amelia a Great Knight for axes but didn't bother getting her to S for the Final. Not like I needed it - Eirika one-rounded Fomortiis with a pair of Sieglinde crits, and that was that.

Top kill was Myrrh, but that's because I hacked Demon Light onto her and soloed the Tower.

Because I like lists, my top 5 non-Myrrh.

1. Amelia - 180 - She killed at about the same pace as my other top characters, so the extra 20 or so were feeding her catch-up kills.
2. Ephraim - 164 - Ephraim is still a freak of nature; beat Eirika because I picked his route.
3. Tana - 161 - Also a freak. Fucking fast, though lagged behind Vanessa at some points. Had Vidofnir.
4t. Neimi & Vanessa - 155 - Being stuck with bows early on made Neimi lag a little, but these two were also crazy mofos. Neimi supported Amelia, Vanessa supported Lute. Lots of lulz.

Honorable mention goes to Syrene for 32 kills despite being possibly the worst character in the game.

[Pyro]

Persona 1 PSP:

Megido: What.

Megidola: WHAT.

This game is unbalanced.

[Luther Lansfeld]

Pokemon Heartgold - Just beat the fifth gym. Easiest gym leader by far thus far. Team is: Magmar, Bayleef, Flaafy, Rattata, Vappy, and the sixth is either Sudo if I need him or Fearow if I need to Fly.

[Grefter]

Dragon Age: Origins - Replay on easy as mage finally in full swing, only been planning it for months.  Only on easy for AoE lols of making everything explode.  I had forgot how totally endearing Sandal is.

[Sierra]

The best part is his appearance in the final dungeon. "How the fuck are you still alive?" "Enchantment!"

[hinode]

Finished Pokemon XD a few days ago. For a side game, it did a pretty good job of mixing up the gameplay somewhat while still retaining the same core battle system (and trade compatibility). Also a big improvement from what I've seen/played of Colosseum, but I'll save that rant for later; this is long enough already.

I doubt I'd like it if a main Pokemon game concentrated entirely on doubles, but it made for a decent change of pace from all the handheld games. More team synergy potential this way, although I didn't end up using a whole lot myself. No shift option forces you to deal with unfavorable matchups more often, also.

Shadow Pokemon mechanics are actually pretty neat in this game. Their Shadow attacks are super-effective against any non-Shadow Pokemon but are resisted by other Shadow Pokemon. In addition, they can not level up, evolve, or use TMs until purified into normal Pokemon. Strategically, this means:

(a) Having 1-2 Shadow Pokemon to tank hits is priceless if you're serious about catching Pokemon, as regular ones will get murdered by all the super-effective hits from opposing Shadow Pokemon if you don't KO them quickly
(b) Your Shadow Pokemon have significant offensive power when first obtained, but the drawbacks gradually begin to outweigh the benefits for general purpose use

Some of the non-offensive Shadow moves are pretty neat as well. I got alot of mileage out of Shadow Down, an MT -2 defense move that worked really well with False Swipe for catching. I kept one slot reserved for a rotating Shadow Pokemon to tank Shadow moves throughout the game, swapping which one to use as they fell behind in levels.

Catching most (if not all) of your team from trainer battles instead of the wild makes soft resetting for natures/abilities/IVs god forbit a pain, but if you don't care about that it does make for some interesting boss battles, as you have to juggle killing the non-Shadow Pokemon, weaking the Shadow ones to catch, and not getting wiped out by high powered Shadow attacks from the likes of Snorlax, Marowak, and Tauros. I can't imagine doing it without any in-battle item use like Elfboy usually plays, considering how my non-Shadows like Breloom were getting knocked around like rag dolls in late game boss fights.

Also, Battle CDs are really cool - by far the best minigame in the entire series, with some rather clever puzzles. The only flow is that repeated trial and error can be slow due to all the animations. I'd really like to see something similar show up in a handheld game, where animations could be turned off - that would be perfect.

My biggest complaint about the game is that they put too many Shadow Pokemon in the last dungeon, Citadark Isle - 36/83 I believe. That's a pretty large chunk of the cast who have very little use in-game except as Shadow meat shields, which is a shame. Yeah, the Shadow Pokemon spammage essentially makes the bosses, but there was no need to give so many Shadow Pokemon to grunts. Also, while I do appreciate the absence of the usual HM nonsense, I must admit that I missed having a free, infinite renewable source of Surf. Water types just aren't the same without it.

Lastly, some thoughts on my permanent team members:

Jolteon (Thunderbolt, Bite, Thunderwave, Helping Hand) - Solid special attacker. It and Espeon are probably the best Eeveelutions in-game, and I preferred Electric's type coverage. Bite was a godsend early on, especially before L16 when it didn't even have Thundershock, and had its users even endgame, mainly for Ground types who lacked an actual Ground attack. Thunderwave is there for the usual reasons, while Helping Hand + Surf is handy.

Ursaring (Return, Brick Break, Rest, Metal Claw) - STAB Return off 130 base attack on the second Pokemon you get is brutal. The low speed sucks, but basically anything that didn't resist Normal was pretty much guaranteed to be a goner. Rest is there to abuse the Call command to wake up on the next turn, while Metal Claw is pure filler because I couldn't think of anything better when I decided not to use Earthquake. I used it to help weaken Shadow Pokemon for catching a few types, but that's about it.

Houndoom (Flamethrower, Bite, Charm, Fire Blast) - I couldn't pass on a rare chance to actually use Houndoom in-game for once *glares at Gamefreak*. Possibly the best offensive Pokemon in the game considering it packs two useful STAB types and has good speed, though Crunch being nonexistent in effect is a slight downer. No real coverage moves aside from STAB, but besides enemy Houndooms anything that resists Fire+Dark is too dangerous to stay in anyhow.

Breloom (Sky Uppercut, Body Slam, False Swipe, Stun Spore) - False Swipe off 130 base attack + Stun Spore made Breloom a fantastic Pokemon for catching purposes. Pretty good offense as well, aside from being totally walled by Ghosts. I gave it the midgame Leftovers to help it in its catching role.

Dewgong (Surf, Ice Beam, Rest, Helping Hand) - Only Dewgong and Cloyster get Surf in this game, and nothing practical gets Waterfall or Hydro Pump (well, at least at reasonable levels) either. I opted for Dewgong's all-around mediocrity over Cloysterl's tendency to die to any random special attack that it doesn't resist, and some that it does. Split target is a mixed blessing for Surf, but I still prefer it over Water Pulse. Getting STAB on Ice Beam turned out to be even more important, giving it a decently powered ST move. Rest+Call suits Dewgong's defensive leaning stats.

[BaconForTheSoul]

Dragon Age: Origins - Replay on easy as mage finally in full swing, only been planning it for months.  Only on easy for AoE lols of making everything explode.  I had forgot how totally endearing Sandal is.

Cone of Cold breaks the game on easy.  Just run with every mage you can get and you can perma freeze every fight in the game.  (Except maybe final boss, but he's a joke regardless.)

[Shale]

FFV Advance: World 3. Just beat Bahamut after wiping three or four times because I forgot Carbuncle exists ("I can't put up Mighty Guard if I want to get Reflect on everybody before Megaflare hits! And how am I supposed to have it up again for the random second use?" LATER: "Duuuuurrrrrrrrrrrr"). Just finished mastering Ranger with Bartz and Ninja with Fairs, working on Summoner for Krile and Samurai for Lenna.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

XS3 -

<KOS-MOS> AAAAAAAAAAaaaNd IIIIIIIIIIIIiiiiiiiiiiiiiiIIIIIIIIIIIiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiIIIIIIII WILL ALWAYS LOOOooooooooooooooooVeeEEEeeE YYYYYYYYoooooOOOOOOOOooOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUuuuuuuuuuuuuu
<T-ELOS> OOOOOOOOOH KOS-MOS GIVE ME YOU PENIS TO MAKE ME WHOLE OHHHHHHHH YES OOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH YEEEEEEEEEEEEES

<KevinandShion> zomg hot and steamy sex

I wish this wasn't actual cutscene content.

[Luther Lansfeld]

LFT- Completed after long hiatus! Deep Dungeon made me not want to finish methinks. Kletian is a whore! Laggy is the devil.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

XS3 -

<Mai> Hi I'm totally not a deviantart user reimagination of Maria Belthasar! I'm totally not copyright infringement at all!
<Jin> Yeah get in line with shota Elly and loligoth Fei.
<Shion> ... don't you have a few words to speak for yourself, brother?
<Jin> Shut up.
<Jr.> Wow, Adult Maria Mai is almost as much of a total bitch as you are, Shion.
<Mai> Excuuuuuuuuuuuuuse me for not being able to be the bitchiest bitchwhore in the universe.

[Twilkitri]

Pokémon HG-

I think I've done all the things worth doing. Currently on 150 Johtomons owned (233 seen) which seems like a nice number to stop on. Pretty much all I could do now is grind mons for more completion, and I believe I've been over all the interesting places to do that. To say nothing about needing two other copies of the game in order to finish just the Johtodex ignoring Mew/Celebi/potentiallyothersIcannotthinkof, and I don't even have access to one other copy.

Never ended up doing anything with the 'walker. The manual states that it only becomes usable once you reach a particular point in the game so I was waiting around for that but apparently said point wasn't marked by anything or was missable, and by the time I realised that an option regarding the 'walker had shown up on the main menu I did not consider it worthwhile looking into. I don't exactly do a lot of walking anyway.



Lunar Genesis-

Was recently cursed with a loss of sense of balance, currently training/equipping Gabryel.

Running around nibbles away at your HP, and if you have low enough HP it doesn't let you run which could be a problem if you didn't want to fight an enemy that was quickly moving in on you. This situation has not happened to me yet but it seems kind of bizarre to impose such a penalty on running around.

Menus have the back button in the bottom right hand corner, but when they have a yes/no option instead they have the no option in the bottom left and the yes in the bottom right. Sigh. Also they have touch controls for a vast amount of things including moving, but to change the working character during equipping and so forth you need to use the shoulder buttons. Sigh.

Goddess Statues don't heal Poison. But they do restore MP. Since you are letting me cure the poison with magic and then get the MP back why don't you just cure poison and be done with it game ._.

I cannot say that the storyline so far has been the greatest storyline of this or any other century, especially since Jian is apparently being motivated by the voices in his head or something. But the gameplay is being reasonable enough so far. I have some concerns that the courier system will become irritatingly grindingful in the future but it has not yet reached that point.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

XS3 -

<Voyager> rarr i almost ohko momo with my best st attack and like 7hko average with everything else oh and i waste turns telling who am i going to target too
<MOMO> rarr i shave off 600 hp off voyager a pop with fire bolt 2 and have broken mt healing
<Jr.> rarr i do that too
<chaos> rarr i have mt damage buffing
<Voyager> BUT I HAVE ABYSS WALKER AND BREAK IMMUNITY
<MOMOJr.andchaos> lulz
* chaos spams MT buffing.
* MOMOandJr. set Voyager on fire.
<Voyager> I feel like Strawman going up against Holly. ;_;

It's pretty sad that Voyager is probably the best boss fight so far (...).

[Luther Lansfeld]

Pokemon HG - I beat the sixth gym! Booyah.

[Sierra]

X-Com: So I started this on beginner difficulty because there's obviously a metric ton of micromanagement and I don't know which parts of it break the game yet. Couple false starts where I just totally crashed on the first terror mission, then spent way too much of the day playing it once I got things running smoothly. Reminds me of playing Civilization because there's never a good, obvious break at which to shut down for the day. "I'll stop once this mission's over. Well, no, I may as well restock and everything before calling it quits. Oh hell, there's another UFO. I can't just leave that sitting there."

Currently in Mid-May or so, just cleared out an alien base for the first time. Have no idea how long a typical game of this is supposed to run but presume Grefter or Rob or someone will tell me. Currently wishing the science team would hurry up and unravel the great mystery of arming the plasma rifles they figured out how to build two months ago. C'mon, I've got thirty guys working on this. It can't be that hard. Not that lasers are bad (infinite ammo!), but anything that makes aliens die faster is worth the money.

Trying to build a second base but can only add to it in drips and drabs. Don't have a ton of spare cash around. Is there any point in keeping around extra alien bodies or anything like that? I've been selling them off to clear storage space and make some extra money.

[OblivionKnight]

And...just beat up the Necrophiliac Paladin and got Eirika promoted.  

All I can say is, that once people started promoting, the game returned, again, to having fail difficulty.  Blah.  Well, I tried.  I really did!  Everyone's promoted to their final classes now.

Chapter freaking 14...because my characters have relatively poor SKL and STR...it took me 200+ turns to finish this map (257, to be exact).  I couldn't hit Carlyle.  I got to a point where I got him down to 1 HP...then proceeded to miss, continuously, until he fulled healed up.  Just...wow.  I ended up gaining crazy levels there, not even planned!  My best hit rate was in the 60's, and I was still missing with them constantly.  Other than that, been pretty normal.

I'm also using the worst possible promotions I can, in most cases.  Neimi the Sniper, Amelia the Great Knight (well...I guess Paladin is worse, but I need an axe-user >_>), etc.  Natasha went Bishop, Vanessa and Tana Falcoknight, Mage Knight for Lute, L'Arachel went Valkyrie, Marisa Swordmaster.

Current Stats:

Eirika
Lvl 1, 31 HP, 10 STR, 19 SKL, 17 SPD, 15 LUK, 12 DEF, 12 RES

*ABOVE AVERAGE ON DEFENSES YESIU!!!!

Tana
Lvl 5, 33 HP, 17 STR, 14 SKL, 25 SPD, 17 LUK, 12 DEF, 14 RES

*...wow, she's...below on everything except SPD...and RES, where she's average...

Natasha
Lvl 5, 38 HP, 23 MAG, 10 SKL, 22 SPD, 27 LUK, 13 DEF, 22 RES

*...damn, she turned out well.  Except for that SKL.  Yuck.

Vanessa
Lvl 6, 37 HP, 15 STR, 19 SKL, 23 SPD, 14 LUK, 9 DEF, 13 RES

*More accurate than Tana, and that's really about it...still, flying is good!  Oddly, she's below average on like all her stats, but stands out on this team so much because for the longest time, she was way above >_>

Neimi
Lvl 5, 37 HP, 14 STR, 16 SKL, 23 SPD, 16 LUK, 11 DEF, 15 RES

*Above on SPD, HP, DEF, RES, slightly below on SKL and LUK, way low on STR.  Damnit, Neimi ;_;

Lute
Lvl 8, 34 HP, 19 MAG, 11 SKL, 19 SPD, 21 LUK, 9 DEF, 19 RES

*...6 below on MAG.  Above on RES and HP only, below on everything else.  She was amazing to start because...she gained MAG!  And could do damage to the RES stat!  Which was lower than enemy DEF!  And now...yuck.  She was like a Jeigan >_>

Tethys
Lvl 20, 33 HP, 4 STR, 4 SKL, 27 SPD, 27 LUK, 8 DEF, 17 RES

*Eh, she dances.  Low on defenses, higher on SPD/LUK.  Works.

Marisa
Lvl 7, 44 HP, 22 STR, 26 SKL, 26 SPD, 24 LUK, 12 DEF, 10 RES

*Happy days...a good growth character!  My female swordmaster luck continues!  Above on everything!  Hurrah!  Will be my main offense in the future, probably.

Amelia
Lvl 1, 39 HP, 21 STR, 17 SKL, 22 SPD, 19 LUK, 13 DEF, 11 RES

*She was a pain to train up...but gained massive levels the past few maps.  The only axe-user, so she'll be very good later...she's a little low on LUK (lol 1 point), but otherwise above or average in other places.

L'Arachel
Lvl 2, 28 HP, 18 MAG, 16 SKL, 21 SPD, 22 LUK, 10 DEF, 22 RES

*Another character who turned out well.  The last 3 are turning into MVPs, if only because they've been getting good growth/NORMAL growth >_>  Though Tana is getting better.  L'Arachel, Marisa, Natasha, Amelia will probably be the ones who dominate the end-game, although Neimi and Tana might catch up there a bit.

Syrene and Myrrh are at starting levels...uh...mostly because I forgot to bring Myrrh into chapter 16 >_>

Once more, this re-instates my opinion that FE in-game use is all about luck with growth.  Game is fun, though it's going to be a pain to get any more challenge out of it...I could stop using Marisa, I guess...

[OblivionKnight]

X-Com: So I started this on beginner difficulty because there's obviously a metric ton of micromanagement and I don't know which parts of it break the game yet. Couple false starts where I just totally crashed on the first terror mission, then spent way too much of the day playing it once I got things running smoothly. Reminds me of playing Civilization because there's never a good, obvious break at which to shut down for the day. "I'll stop once this mission's over. Well, no, I may as well restock and everything before calling it quits. Oh hell, there's another UFO. I can't just leave that sitting there."

Currently in Mid-May or so, just cleared out an alien base for the first time. Have no idea how long a typical game of this is supposed to run but presume Grefter or Rob or someone will tell me. Currently wishing the science team would hurry up and unravel the great mystery of arming the plasma rifles they figured out how to build two months ago. C'mon, I've got thirty guys working on this. It can't be that hard. Not that lasers are bad (infinite ammo!), but anything that makes aliens die faster is worth the money.

Trying to build a second base but can only add to it in drips and drabs. Don't have a ton of spare cash around. Is there any point in keeping around extra alien bodies or anything like that? I've been selling them off to clear storage space and make some extra money.

X-Com is awesome!  More people should follow Cid here!

Games can take...anywhere from 2 months or so (you can technically get all the material needed to finish the game in 3 missions, and finish it...I think in 2 months is the fastest?  I'd have to look).  My first game took me about a year of game-time or so, maybe more, since I didn't know all the ways to go through and break the game. 

I'd suggest getting more scientists if you can afford it.  I usually hit for 50 the first 2 months minimum, then 100 when cool new projects come up (after several missions, stuff piles up). 

Sell all but one of an alien body so you can research it and get points for it.  Sell all plasma items except Heavy Plasma (keep those for your soldiers, never manufacture your own - aliens stop carrying anything but Heavy Plasma when Mutons start showing up).  Manufacture Laser Cannons when not doing anything else with your engineers and sell them.  Where is your first base?  The best way to make money is to do as many missions as possible.  Raid alien ships, capture materials, sell, etc.  If you have any Mind Probes, they sell for shitloads of money - they're great to keep at least 1 or 2 around for so you can see Alien specs (and find out which ones are Leaders, etc.), but other than that, they're just $300k to get. 

Lasers are awesome, and you can make do with them the majority of the game (I know I used them up to the end in my first playthrough).  Use them too for your interceptors until you get Plasma Cannons.  Interceptors with Plasma Cannons can take down almost all Alien Ships except Battleships, but they'll blow up the smaller ones.  Don't build the Lightning or Firestorm.  Use Interceptors, Skyrangers, and the Avenger. 

There are a couple cheats you can use to help your income (i.e., how to build things for totally free, then sell them for craploads) if you are desperate.  To help with money, I wouldn't destroy alien bases - raid them, kill all but one alien, grab all the stuff, and take it home to sell.  Lather, rinse, repeat.  The funding nations pay you jack crap, so let the damn base sit in their country for a while.

A new base ASAP is good, as you cover more of the world, which means you down more alien ships, which makes you more money. 

Uh...other thoughts specifically you want input on?

[Ultradude]

FE7 Harem mode!

The early game was hell, and that's allowing Lucius into the harem for being prettier than all of the women. I had to give Florina the Angelic Robe in Lyn story to keep her alive long enough to get good. Archers with just Florina, Lyn, and Lucius capable of killing things are not fun, for all that Lyn can usually just evade tank them. Lundgren was the usual... except that Lyn would get one-shotted by his Silver Lance. Yikes. Baiting him into the Javelin made it easy to blow him up with Mani Katti though.

Eliwood story was not easy; again, even making an allowance, this one being weaponless Marcus as a meatshield. Hector, Eliwood, and Rebecca having to kill everything on the map was something. Once I got Florina, Lyn, and Lucius back things got pretty damn reasonable though. Haven't had to bench a character so far, and I'll be using Nino for sure. Surprisingly, Isadora has been perfectly usable - 17 Str and 19 Spd at level 10 is on pace to be way better than average, though she HAS to dodge things to cover that loltastic 9 Def. Good chance I'll bench Louise before I bench Isadora, though losing Ninian means losing a unit and I've got one more lady (sort of) coming up that I'll probably use.

This will also mark the first time I don't abuse Athos to crush the last stage.

[Sierra]

Think that pretty much covers it, OK. Some of that stuff I'm doing, some of it I can't yet. (I've found dozens of plasma rifles, so I figured I may as well learn how to use them. Why I diverted a chunk of the research staff to that instead of heavy plasma--I haven't found any of the latter type of weaponry. Free weapons that are better than the ones I have to pay for? Yeah). I have 60-65 scientists at the moment, as there are quite a lot of things to research lately.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Lunar Genesis-

Was recently cursed with a loss of sense of balance, currently training/equipping Gabryel.

Running around nibbles away at your HP, and if you have low enough HP it doesn't let you run which could be a problem if you didn't want to fight an enemy that was quickly moving in on you. This situation has not happened to me yet but it seems kind of bizarre to impose such a penalty on running around.

Menus have the back button in the bottom right hand corner, but when they have a yes/no option instead they have the no option in the bottom left and the yes in the bottom right. Sigh. Also they have touch controls for a vast amount of things including moving, but to change the working character during equipping and so forth you need to use the shoulder buttons. Sigh.

Goddess Statues don't heal Poison. But they do restore MP. Since you are letting me cure the poison with magic and then get the MP back why don't you just cure poison and be done with it game ._.

I cannot say that the storyline so far has been the greatest storyline of this or any other century, especially since Jian is apparently being motivated by the voices in his head or something. But the gameplay is being reasonable enough so far. I have some concerns that the courier system will become irritatingly grindingful in the future but it has not yet reached that point.

Oh God, Lunar 3.

The game does some interesting things with how it tries to balance its very weird systems. Basically, the reason why running has a penalty is because -not levelling- is the key to success. Seriously, enemy level is dependant upon player level, so if you just don't level up Jian, the game rolls over and dies.

The only hard fight in the game is the one you're coming up on, where you have to fight the Beast King (unexpectedly, so save before you talk to the bastard) solo with the balance curse, thus destroying your ability to deal any damage.

Level up just enough to beat him and then never fight anything that's not a boss ever again if you can help it -> you win!

Though beating Lunar 3 is a dubious honor at best. It's a mindless time-waster and there are only one or two lines of dialog that made me chuckle, but if you can get past the terrible interface, more power to you!

[AndrewRogue]

World of Warcraft TCG, North American Continental Championships

Short story version, because eh. If people express interest, I'll do an elongated version.

Thursday: Andrew 3-0 in the Pet Collection event and scored a Spectral Kitten. Hurrah, $100.

Friday: The main event. Started off strong by scoring a win R1 to a no show opponent. Won R2, unfortunately, due to a rules misunderstanding that was realized after the matter and thus unable to be corrected. Went on to win the next two rounds legitimately (one of which was covered in CZE's blog: http://wowtcgcoverage.typepad.com/blog/2010/06/round-4-feature-match-cahshurn-harrigan-vs-andrew-bartosh.html (fear my contemplative face). Sitting pretty at 4-0, I was feeling pretty good, especially given that the deck I was playing was an accident. Unfortunately, Round 5 put me against a similar deck type. Despite threatening to regain control of the game almost every turn, I never quite managed. Round 6 and 7 went similarly for me and suddenly things were looking a lot less happy. Sitting at 4-3 with 3 rounds to go, I needed at least 2 more wins to be assured a spot. Round 8 saw me against another similar deck and I destroyed him. Round 9 saw me against one of the more popular decks in the meta and had me rolling him as he played out a little too fast and made a series of errors that I had no issues capitalizing on. Round 10 saw me against a variant of the deck. Very tight game, but I managed to pull it out, bringing me to a record of 7-3 and, along with fellow teammate Daniel Rossi, making it to Day 2. Hu-fucking-zzah.

Saturday: Day 2 of the main event, or Wherein Andrew's Day Grows Increasingly Worse, Leading To Him Playing Increasingly On Tilt Throughout the Day. Drafting today, rather then constructed. Pod 4 of 12, so I had the potential to squeeze into Top 8 with some good play. Can I do it? As it turns out? No. Was very unhappy with the draft to begin with, as the packs felt pretty weak and, while I was sitting on a solid curve and some decent cards, I had no major bombs. Managed to win R11 in a very close set of games. (And by very close, I mean Game 1 was very close, while 2 was a blowout in his favor, 3 a blowout in mine). Then it all went south. R12 was a complete blowout against me. R13 was similarly rough. I lost game 1 to a brutal curve ending in a bomb rare. Game 2 was looking good for me as I utterly dominated board position and was brutally winning the damage race (20 to 0), until a combination of a bomb uncommon and his bomb rare managed to utterly reverse the tempo of the game and let him pull out a win. 8-5. At this point, I'm feeling pretty demoralized, having been basically rolled in two games in a row (and having around 30 minutes between each round to dwell on it). Not a good thing. Going into the second draft, I'm feeling very out of it and it shows in my agitated body language and such. Still not happy with the draft either. And then things get worse.

I'm pulled aside by the judges during deck construction and interrogated and finally informed that, apparently, a judge and another player heard me signal the player on my left (saying blue or something similar) which is, unshockingly, super bad mojo. You have got to be fucking kidding me. After getting a statement from me a couple times and some questioning, they finally decide that I did indeed speak out loud but it was unintentional (ala I was talking to myself or something). So, I avoid a DQ without prize, but DO score a gameloss, meaning I start the next match down. Full tilt mode begins as I'm unable to compose myself. Immensely tired, desperate to win, feeling screwed out by luck and the similar, my play deteriorates rapidly, culminating in an utterly ingenious play decision that costs me card advantage and board position. Despite brainless play decisions, I almost manage to pull it out, but the card I need is one deeper then I can reach. I attempt to compose myself R15, but instead get rolled by an opponent who yanked a Death Wish (bomb rare) and played it successfully on Turn 2 twice. Oh joy. R16 is looking good for me as I manage to handily win game 1, but a mediocre hand fails to improve in game 2 and game 3 sees him rip the win off the top of his deck RIGHT before I can pull the game out again.

Despite the promising start, Andrew drops from 7-3 day 1 (30th) to 8-8 day 2 (79th), dropping out of most relevant prizes. Still, 79th of 245ish isn't that bad. Just... really wish I could have done better. Oh well. Next time. Next time.

Coming up, the rest of the weekend!