Spirit World Fortress

SoI must admit to not doing a great deal of testing coming int othe Worlds, but what little I had done revealed I couldn't pull anything out the bag as Wardens as comnsistent as Fortress even post Nico nerf, so opted to stick with a deck I at least knew how to pilot.

Changes were to remove a Nico as he'd flipped from being the definitive game ender to just being a possible easy 3 to clicnh. Meanwhiel Maza's had to be replaced with Hunter's if you actually want to get a way to win via control points.

Also rejigged the hexs on Theo, as I realised having Puppet in your fortress is quite a deterent.

Round 1 - Anders - Regulators. Technically a loss on time.

Maggie - Jen and dropping Yagn's everywhere build. Inconclusive early scuffle sees me lose Butch and Anders lose Irving. A few days later I carelessly decide Anders hasn't got a Run eEm Down, when he in fact did and hance lose Theo when I could have easily saved him. That's it for the scuffles, despite abit of hand clog from Hexes I couldn't put out, I've established a serious fortress on Hunters but Anders has Yagn's everywhere and slowly adding influence. Not much happens as we both build loking for an edge, then time calls. I'd been cmoplteely forgetting about theh 5 inf cap from regulators so completely screw up the game plan. We fluff the tie breaker. I though it was total combined of Control and Influence (probably me), Anders thinks it;s control (him by 1). I think we cuaght Scott ata busy time as when we go to report I ask 'first tiebreaker is control?' and Scott says yes. SO the win on time goes to Anders. Of course after round three has already finished I get informed it was a mistake and I probably should have had the win. But hey ho, I play for fun so not that bothered (note that for later).

Round 2 - Mads - 108. Win Second Dane. Fortress early on Hunters, and the Red Horses gives Mads trouble as he can't just move in and Chun Li all his guys in to studs (they're all draws). But a Shotgun is going to cause Butch to stay well out of it. I think Mads realises that over time I'm just going to get even stronger and the Hunters is putting him on a clock whilst he's not seeing much progression on his side. A series of scuffles occur, each time Mads loses one of his ablative dudes, then Hamshanks simply due to having to come in one at a time and me booting/sensing home key people. I make a mistep and fail to account fora Raking Dragons that gets comboed out to lower Thwo into shotgun range, but that's my only loss. Eventually Mads goes all in to try and break up my fortress as by then I was perilously close to outstripping hiw inf just on mugged grannies - it didn't work out.

Round 3 - Beni - Eagle Wardens. Win after time All three Danes in a row. Again I get the right deed and an early fortress going, but Beni manages to cath my Mariel isolated and nails here with a kidnappin from his own Mariel. Beni also swipes an early Turtle's Guard.

Queue a series of completely ineffectual scuffles in my Hunters where I haven't landed a combat totem, so all that happens is I do some hand manipulation/sacrifice a chump and go home, or Beni activates Turtle's Guard then he goes home. This goes back and forth for pretty much the whole game with each of gradually building up our arsenals but not able to really land a decisive shootout as we both have too many tricks to keep us alive. Admittedly, we've both been playing pretty slow and it heads into the last turn sut to hearing the time warning. I get super paranoid as as far as I can see I have the win on control points if I just don't lose any of my muggers (because I'm thinking about Anders' tie breaker system fom round one!). So I gradually booth everyone hom thinking that I could see three kidnappins in his discard so he probably had no way to actually come at me. Turns out he had the kidnappin, but time gets called just as he was about to launch it. There was a lot ifs at that point. He had one more control point he could drop, I had one more too. If he kidnapps he can probably get one of mine off the table probably with inf, but I have a Jackson to move to steal. Ultimately though, the count up goes to me by one. MAybe I shouldhave stayed at Hunters for the extra inf. I probably should have played faster, but was ina situation where I was confident the only way I was going to lose was by cocking it up which always makes be extra careful.. Turned out Beni had quite legitimate ways to beat me down, but not to be.

Round 4 - Dan - Regulators. Win after Time More Maggie - Jen stuff with Yagns. This time using the ranch. This time Theio sticks around to get a Phantom Fingers - whilst it isn't an auto win, it's a massive tool versus these kind of decks (which why it's there and I start Theo!). If you get it off, it completely turns Jen off mid combat, alternatively it forces the use of the Slight Mod out their hand. As it was I got it early enough and started Fortrtessing. Dan was consistently coming at me trying to destroy my board state, but each time his deck didn;'t quite outperform mine despite him having the advantage on studs (being able to Theo a lowball Joker twice helped). In the end he keeps losing by one and losing a chump or simply forcing me home without loss. That was the game in a nutshell, but as fast as I could kill his chumps in single rounds of combat, he'd refill his influence so I was onyl keeping pace with my control. Goes to time, I win by one again.

Round 5 - Neil - regulators. Win after time. Odd early hands from both of us, neither of us get an in town deed but a Jacksons each so we bounce around trying deny income. Had to put two totems on my home just to get it out of hand. Everntually Neil makes a move on my Jacksons when I'd unbooted a Deuces there and Silver Pheasanted (Deuces was to stay there for the rest of the game ensuring a decent income). I move Theo over, he responds witht eh delivery boy - I think he'd failed to notice/recall what Pupet does, so I swiftly bring him on to my side of the table. Mis play on my part as I thought his shoutout ability moved goods - it's just gadgets. I could have moves Pedro off him. INstead we go intot a shootout where I have little stake in the game, and manage to second guess Neil's hand perfectly - we both reveal legal full houses. Neil uses a INWYK to reduce it to just the delivery boy hitting the discard then goes home.

Two Phantom of Fingers on Theo then reall crimps Neil's forces as he for a long time only saw the single Yagns, then a minor scuffle sees his MS hit the discard so no more to be made. Meanwhilke with an excellent economy going I drop a ton of dudes and eventually start to mug grannies. Careful not to give Neil a windwo to really have a go at me when split - Speaks with Earth was very useful in that regard - allowing deuces to stay at the strike for economy, Black elk to guard the General Store that had been the first fortress and messing with the incoming dudes at Hunters.

Eventually the scuffles see minimal loss from neil but his influence growing. Meanwhile I've deployed an army into the protectoions and ceded him the store. Nico even shows up to mug a granny himself. Time is called - Neil has a couple of control points but gets to 19 based of a ton of high inf dudes. On the other hand, I;ve got quite a few control points from Hunters plus a ton from all the peeps boosted by Veil - 25 in total aggragate.

So I end up 4-1 on the day (and the loss was not actually a loss).

But....

Because three of my victories were to time, all the 3-2 reocrd people who won before time are ahead of me on points so I get bounced out the top 8 cut and top Eagle Wardens.

I'd had a lot of fun over the three days, and I play for fun - so mission achieved. I'm mildly aggrieved that despite being 4-1 I didn't cut because of the points system - but the rules are the rules and they were available before the tourney. I knowlingly chose a deck that takes a long time to win, and post-nico nerf it's become clear will win on time but will have difficulty actually clinching the deal before time. Oh well.

But I'd had enough at that point so said my goodbyes and came home. Unless I can come up with a way to further accerlerate the CP generation , Fortress will probably no longer be my prefered for tourneys - because there's no point winning if it is going to be worse than decks that win less often but do so faster.