Extra Life Event Recap
This past Saturday I competed in our Double Burst Extra Life fundraiser event, also known as our WK-No. It was an unlimited tournament with the primary goal of raising money for Extra Life, a charity that encourages gamers of all types to use gaming marathons as a way to raise money for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. The secondary goal was for some of our local players to get some practice in a highly competitive environment before travelling to WKOs this month. We had 14 players show up for 3 rounds of swiss before a cut to top 8.
My team is one I’ve had a lot of fun with, but it definitely isn’t the most competitive team I’ve built. It’s centered around rare King Shark and using force blocks and Cone of Cold global for massive overcrush damage. I also built teams for my two stepsons, Bug had my go to Bolt Ring team and Stinky had a Fiend team with Teamwork to get some really big swings happening. Their teams suffered from a lack of practice, mine suffered from a lack of consistency.
I was running Ring of Magnetism – Action Attraction, Wonder Girl – Cassie Sandsmark, Goblin – Lesser Humanoid, Hal Jordan – Green Lantern’s Light, Goblin Attack Force – Goblin Squad, Oracle – Master Investigator, Rip Hunter’s Chalkboard – When am I?, and King Shark – “I’m a Shark!” with Big Entrance and Cone of Cold as my basic actions.
Round 1 I played against Mike Plumb, a great player who has won multiple WKOs,
PDCs, placed 2nd at US Nationals, and just missed top 8 at Worlds. I have played against Mike in past events, we even had a top 4 match that came down to a coin flip after we finished time and turns in a tie. This was not going to be a close game.
Mike was running Breaker the Magical Warrior – Mana Break, Elf Thief – Lesser Harper, Dwarf Wizard – Paragon Zhentarim, Constantine – Hellblazer, Professor X – Trainer, Half-Elf Bard – Master Lords’ Alliance, Oracle – Master Investigator, and Rip Hunter’s Chalkboard – When am I? with Imprisoned and Magic Missile as his basic actions.
This game went fast. Between my less than ideal rolls and the well oiled machine Mike had built, he had Oracle, Constantine, Bard, and a few sidekicks in the field before I could get anything going. His Imprisoned die took care of the meager defenses I had fielded and he swung for lethal. I think it was turn 4 or 5. It was a rough start.
Round 2 I played against my stepson Stinky, he was running a Fiend team I had built and had some success with in previous tournaments. He hadn’t run the team before round 1 and just didn’t know how to get all the different fiends to help each other. I took this opportunity to help him learn.
Stinky was running Elf Thief – Lesser Harper, Beholder – Lesser Aberration, Orcus – Demon Prince of Undeath, Hell Hound – Lesser Fiend, Balor – Greater Fiend, Erinyes – Paragon Fiend, Pit Fiend – Lesser Fiend, and Glabrezu – Apprentice Fiend with Horn of the Unicorn and Teamwork as his basic actions.
This game went pretty slow. Between me helping Stinky learn his team better and my own team running pretty slowly we ended up going to time. Things started off pretty well for Stinky and he had a pretty good wall with some successful gates going for him. I encouraged him to be aggressive with his big guys, but he was apprehensive until he got a Teamwork cycling. I was playing catch up, sacrificing my board presence to block his big attackers hoping to recover each turn. I thought I was going to lose until Stinky blocked my King Shark with a sidekick even after I asked him a few times if he was sure about that. At the end of time and turns we were 8 to 6 with me barely beating a wall of fiends.
Round 3 I played against Ben Johnson, a fun local player who always brings off meta teams that often have a surprising combo that is very hard to beat if you’re not ready for it. Ben is also a good friend to the Double Burst podcast and authored an article detailing his own experiences at our Extra Life Board Game Appreciation Day event.
Ben was running Iron Man – Secretary of Defense, Bullseye – I’m Magic, Falcon – Aviary, Mary Jane – Watson-Parker, Black Cat – Probability Control, Rip Hunter’s Chalkboard – When am I?, Doctor Light – Actual Doctor, and Cerebro – Supercomputer with Superhero Registration Act and Feedback as his basic actions.
This game was deceptively easy for me to win. Ben just couldn’t get anything rolling for him and I had nearly perfect rolls for my team. The game was over fast enough that we played a second game just for fun and Ben trounced me. I know this article is supposed to be about the game that counted, but me ovecrushing a couple of sidekicks just isn’t as interesting as our second game. He started with Bullseye early, when Bullseye is fielded Ben gets to KO 2 of my (fist) characters unless I KO 1 of my own characters. He immediately goes after my Goblins to kill my swarm ramp and King Shark to take away my attacker. He gets Mary Jane in the field and I start taking damage for trying to keep my board alive. He adds Falcon to the field and starts gaining life when I field sidekicks to protect my other characters. By the time he got Iron Man into the mix to keep me from blocking his Bullseyes it was already clear that his team only lost to his rolls in that first game. Ben’s team absolutely had my number and I really can’t believe I was lucky enough to win the first game.
After 3 rounds of Swiss we cut to top 8 for a single game, single elimination bracket. I was 2-1 and managed to make the cut as the 7 or 8 seed. We took a break to raffle off tons of awesome stuff for everyone who came out so those who didn’t make the top 8 cut could go out into the world and enjoy their Saturday.
After the top 8 cut I played against Nathan Magro, one of our local TOs. Nathan is a very serious competitor who sees the game in a way I haven’t seen from anyone else. Crazy combos, unpredictable win cons, crippling control builds, Nathan always presents a very unique challenge.
Nathan was running Cyborg – Technis Imperative, Oracle – Master Investigator, Captain America – The First Avenger, Professor X – Recruiting Young Mutants, Merlyn – League of Assassins, Rip Hunter’s Chalkboard – “Only Zatara Can Reach The Point”, Red Dragon – Greater Dragon, and Bizzaro – Me Am #1! with Polymorph and Imprisoned as his basic actions.
I have played against Nathan enough to know how well he can use Imprisoned to shut down an opponent, so I started buying them to keep them away from him. This created new problems like I had no plan for using Imprisoned, my bag flow was totally messed up, and somehow I didn’t see his other plan. Nathan quickly started buying Bizzaro and using my force block global against me. I lasted longer than the last time I played against Nathan, but not by much. He thoroughly wrecked me.
That was it for me, I made top 8 and lost. Top 4 round saw Double Burst’s Zack Green beat Mike Plumb, and Nathan Magro beat local powerhouse Brock Cordingley. In the final round Nathan beat Zack in a very close, very intense nail biter of a game.
This was a very fun and successful event and we raised a respectable amount of money for Extra Life. Congratulations to Nathan. Thanks to everyone who played. Thanks to everyone who bought raffle tickets. Thanks to everyone who donated to Extra Life. Thanks for reading and thanks for listening to Double Burst.
Tags: Dice Masters, Double Burst
