Love Lockdown: Didier’s 2013 Gen Con Tournament Report

My predictions of how fun this weekend was going to be were right on the money. I didn’t end up making it to the Drunk Panel due to playing Krillin in the Tuff Enuff tournament (which I was told afterwards I was very, very happy about), but I top cutted in both Retro tournaments, recorded a player interview, played a bunch of Smash and Munchkin, and spent a lot of time with the character I love: Vegeta. Greetings Dragon Ballers, Didier here with my Gen Con 2013 tournament report. I know why you’re here so let’s get right to it!

 

Majin Vegeta Saiyan TS Stasis

 

44 Majin Vegeta Lv. 1

 

Main Deck: 71, Total: 78

Majin Vegeta, the Grinch

Vegeta, Settled Down

Vegeta, the Last Prince

Vegeta, Ascendant

Vegeta, the Revitalized

 

Sayian TS

North Kai

You’re Invited

HUH???

S. Power Beam

S. Strength Blast

S. Ki Ball

Gohan’s Kick x2

Aura Clash x2

Android 17 Smirks

Cell’s Threatening Position

Energy Lob

Gohan’s Power Hit

 

Attacks

S. Lurch x3

S. Beef x3

S. Heads Up x3

S. Acute Rapid Slam x3

World Champion Punch x3

S. Youth Bruise x3

S. Destiny x3

S. Hurricane Kick x3

S. Dashing Kick x3

S. Cross Punch x3

S. Face Jab x2

S. Concentrated Blast x3

Goku’s Power Strike x3

Majin Buu’s Chokehold x3

Gohan’s Power Hit x2

Blocks

S. Perfect Defense

S. Planet Explosion x2

S. Stop x2

S. Brace x2

S. Wrist Block x3

Utility

S. Truce

Majin Lightning Hit x3

Hercules Amazing Techniques x3

Battleground

Cell’s Arena x3

Non-Combats

Victorious Drill

S. Jeering Drill x3

S. Aggression Drill x2

S. Lunar Drill

Momentum

 

This deck is super fun to play but painstakingly frustrating to play against. At least when it faces beatdown. The idea is to get out S. Jeering Drill or Cell’s Arena as quickly as possible while knocking the opponent’s MP to 0 power stages with a combination of the mastery lowering 4, the 12 focused attacks played (including the semi-unstoppable Power Hit), and Majin Buu’s Chokehold. Lock them at 0 with S. Beef and supplement with S. Concentrated Blast and S. Face Jab if they manage to discard my drills or get out CIT. Majin Vegeta is chosen for the MP as allies really screw the lock up because of redirection of damage. Plus Majin Lightning Hit really makes up for not playing CIT. After you lock, pump out the damage with supplemental drills and big attacks like S. Cross Punch, S. Dashing Kick, and S. Destiny. It was a meta decision to take out Majin Buu’s Fury for Chokehold instead at the last minute. I figured there would be a lot less control/dragon ball than there was and Chokehold not only helped if my attacks were stopped to initiate a lock, but also pushed out WAY more damage than Fury having nearly won me games solely. This deck is SUPER strong against beatdown (especially Broly) but much weaker than traditional Saiyan in the control match up. Because of this, the entire Sensei is dedicated to disrupting control where I am able to Amazing Techniques for Gohan’s Kick, S. Power Beam, or S. Strength Blast if I need. A quick Aura Clash could turn a game in the right match up not only discarding their drills, but also taking me to Settled Down. Other than that, HAT for Energy Lob getting S. Jeering or Momentum proved to be very useful.

 

After playing this deck in a major tournament, I really don’t regret the decision of removing Fury and would probably leave those out. I would likely drop Clash from the Sensei for Black Water Confusion Drill and a third Kick and trade S. Heads Up in the main deck for S. Cliff Slam. The option of allies or nons with Heads Up is nice, but it does 0 damage and the guaranteed discard is much better against control.

 

Round 1

Dan O’Brien

Vegeta 1-5 Red TS Anger.

I was slightly worried about this matchup since that L1 would level him regardless of lock and his TS mastery was still usable.  I go first, drop Aggression, and pass. He goes and enters on me and opens with West Kai killing my Vic Drill and Aggression. It would’ve been bad if I wasn’t holding Truce, since I drew into a second Aggression and Momentum, but Truced and ended combat. Played the two nons, North Kai’d, entered with Lurch knocking him to 0 getting Jeering and the lock. I beat on him to 4 anger with his power and used Momentum. North Kai a second time, enter and smacked him. He leveled and Axe Heal Kicked fetching a Double Strike, but I followed with HAT for Power Hit, knocking him to 0 and locking with beats for the win.

Win (1-0)

 

Round 2

Scott Dashy

Broly Triple Victory

This match was so bittersweet. I went first and dropped both Jeering and Aggression and passed. He passed so I entered with North Kai and locked with beats along with a HAT Energy Lob for Momentum to go again. Entered with North Kai and Beef for total lockdown and pounded him that combat. He drops CIT on his turn and passes, but I was holding a Cell’s Arena from last combat just for that. He could have entered on his turn after, but Arena+Jeering+Aggression left him with only 1 power stage and already had him locked. I entered on him with beats, bringing him closer to death. He CITs again on his turn and I curse the stars for I had a second Arena but discarded it at the end of combat. He had to pass so I entered and locked with Concentrated Blast and beat him hard bringing him down to just 9 cards. Thick Broly is thick. He goes, drops Earth 5, then Earth 3, plays the other 5 balls and wins. This was probably the first time in history Broly Saiyan wins without even performing an attack. He was super modest about the win and told me he knew I would be top cutting and hoped he never faced me again. Good show guy, but you’re playing triple victory for a reason and it doesn’t get better than this.

Loss (1-1)

 

Round 3

Nick Wasinski

Meta Cooler Blue MBS

I was afraid of this matchup to be honest. In playtesting, this deck was 1-2 against my own Meta Cooler since I didn’t main deck Power Beams, Energy Bullets, or CIT. Meta Cooler is a beast if you give him a few turns to set up so I knew I couldn’t let him. I go first and enter, start with Lurch for Jeering, it hits and he gets locked. I also made sure I killed his Vic Drill with Lightning Hit before he got Assimilation out since not only is it cornerstone in Meta, but it’s amazing against lockdown. He was barely was able to gain stages after that with Lurch and Beef, but played two Leg Catches throughout the game allowing two attacks total before getting relocked. I dropped Arena 3rd turn to pump out massive damage. It took 5 combats with burning through his entire LD twice over with his mastery but it was a solid victory.

Win (2-1)

 

Round 4

Kevin Bock

Baba Black CS

This was a nail biter. I’ve never really played against Baba except once with Ryan’s ‘50 card Baba Speed Mill Spirit Bomb’ (lol) so… really I’ve never played against her. I thought MV would auto win against Baba since I can get around her power but this certainly wasn’t easy. I go first and enter and do a bit of damage. On his turn he grabs and ally and enters with Oh ho poi poi to jump to L2. I do some damage but he keeps me in check with his mastery and Black Body. I put on pressure with North Kai and continuously enter after he blows all his ally milling. He clashes us later bringing him to L3 and me to L2 and taking away my shuffle power. Dammit. I’m not sure which was worse, only netting 1 ally a turn and taking a focused energy or making ⅓ of your deck blank. He starts dropping massive allies and milling on me and catches up in damage fast while keeping me in check with his mastery and some stop alls. Late game he Earth 7’s to end combat after a HAT Ki Ball from the Sensei, allowing me to later snag it placing Threatening Position on top. I enter and start with Threatening bringing him to L1 and severely slowing his mill. I catch up in damage and with 12 LCs left I enter with HAT for Gohan’s Kick for the win. Close match and a great game.

Win (3-1)

 

Round 5

Eric Goodhue

Broly 1-5 Saiyan CS

He goes first and passes and I drop Aggression and pass. He enters with Broly’s Might. I hit Lurch for lock with Jeering, Choke hold, double Dashing Kick for 14 twice, and my power takes close to half his LD away. Next turn I enter with North Kai but he stops all my attacks, follows with A17 Smirks, and does some damage hitting 4 anger. He goes and passes. Next I enter with Lurch for another Jeering for the lock but he Braces it to L2. Hits me for more damage and stops all my physicals. Next combat he gets locked and beat down. He gets some power stages and stops all my physical attacks, but Lunar Drill and Aggression boosted my power and hit for 4 ps around his stop all for the lock. I push out the final bit of damage to end the game. Good clean win.

Win (4-1)

 

Round 6

Darryl Fisher

Baba Black CS

I was afraid of this one cause his friend did so well against me, but World Champ Punch means for the rest of the game my damage is all removed. I managed to put a lot of pressure with Lunar and Aggression drill along with Majin Lightning Hit. Add in that he never drew Oh ho poi poi or Clash and was stuck on L1, he was forced to enter on me on his turns to even hope on doing any damage. This hurt doubly as it allowed me to then enter on him with no allies in play. Solid victory with less than half of my LD remaining with baba sustaining her damage on me.

Win (5-1)

 

Top cut, Top 16

Shaun Hindman

Trunks Orange MBS EDQ Namek Ball

His bare Bama’ chest confused and distracted me so I never Sensei’d in HUH??? against him. I went first and put amazing early aggression on him. Took him two passes for him to finally drop an Orange drill, but I was coveting my North Kai for that moment. An early Lightning Hit snagged his only Orange Drill, Fatherly, and Vic Drill. He managed to stall a few turns with Unlocked Potential on his L4 (all physical do 1 ps) and Super Saiyan Effect. I’m not sure if he was able to even EDQ in this game as the hurt was laid on him and fast.

Win

 

Top cut, Top 8

Bill Skreiner

Goku Orange MBS Dende Ball

Such a close match. Putting early aggression on him with North Kai was effective much like with the last Orange MBS. Lightning Hit killed WTLTH early, so I thought the game was sealed. I was saving my North Kai as much as I could, but he drew into his last Brothers in Training for an Orange drill to start his set up earlier than I wanted him to. Once he COGD’d HUH??? he started laying down the balls and locking with drills. Dende 7 gets back WTLTH. His deck was thinning and the game was his with that card out. I drew into 2 HATs and knew this was my shot. I had two options: Kick and then Power Beam or Power Beam then Lob for HUH???. I chose the former and Kicked off combat. The last combat consisted of us trading Dende 3 back and forth after my Kick, Power Beam, and Smirks removing his 10 drills when he started pounding me with energies. With WTLTH in play, it didn’t matter that I had a 10 card hand when he only had Dragon Balls. Came down to the wire but couldn’t pull it out.

Loss

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Props:

Freestyle for winning Gen Con. Woo!

Zach for playing with Meta Cooler.

Bill for playing alternate win conditions like OVA, Farewell, and beats. Loved it.

Bama’ boy for having a nemesis.

Team Baba for giving me a Baba lesson.

Orange Hat Guy for the Gutter Wallop. Last one I needed!

Joey D. for the Krillin Freestyle advice.

 

Slops:

My car breaking down.

Serious thanks to all the Retro guys for throwing the tournament and generally making everything possible. Just like last year I’ve already decided on what I’m playing next year. I think me and Geoff have a similar play style 😉

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