OBW2 – COVID Edition – 8th Wonder Debuts In Giant Fashion…

And is this Corner… The 8th Wonder of the World…. Logan Grimnar?!?

This past weekend, I entered into the One Big Weekend – Corona Virus edition/

I was on the fence of joining the tournament as it fell on the Canadian Victoria Day Long weekend (otherwise known as the May 24 Weekend).

Usually I would be in a boat fishing up North but due to the social distancing practices in Canada, our weekend plans fell through on the Tuesday night prior.

I was looking at what team to run, and it was between an Iceman team (Very similar to the one DMARMADA was running) and running an old card I played in a recent WDA that was not well known.

I know a couple of the Becky’s were banned (Maybe we should all ban her for a year when she is on maturnity leave from the WWE) but I wanted to run an experiment to see if a certain Space Marine could shine this weekend.

The card I was looking at was Logan Grimnar – Fangfather. His stats make him a beast at 0-6-2, 1-7-3, and 2-8-5, plus he gains Overcrush.

I know Hope/Rachel, Jubilee, Iceman, Bloat/Heenan were still available, and in going with my gut, I wanted to see how this Overcrushing Giant would do against the rest of the teams.

I also ran an Alt Art card for the day, as instead of Logan Grimnar, I wanted to honour one of the best Wrestlers of all time, in Andre the Giant. So I will refer to Logan as Andre for the rest of the article.

The world lost the 8th wonder of the world way too early, and if you dont know who Andre was please read up on him as he was truly the friendly giant in the world, and what he did for others was incredible.  Now, people know with my builds I always try to handcuff myself and always try to put extra limits onto my team builds for fun, and this time, I told myself I was required to run 4 characters I ran in last years OBW, that I will get into shortly…

The Team:  http://tb.dicecoalition.com/?view&cards=4x12ai;3x7ki;3x21wwe;2x18sw;2x18tiw;2x48tiw;2x6sw;2x47xmf;3x51wwe;3x50wwe&name=If_Andre_The_Giant_Was_Included_He_Would_Be_Logan_Grimnar

Now, I honestly have never played Becky Lynch previously (In fact her dice are still in their bags) and I turned to the most recent TTTD to see the main pieces I would need.  Becky is a four 4 cost, and Andre is a much larger reach at a 6 cost, so I knew I would lose some control to reach for him.

Knowing what cards were still available in the general pool, I wanted to rush to get to Logan so my opponents would not setup control against me. I wanted to be the aggressor from turn 1,  and I think in all my matches, I stepped right on the peddle from the opening turn.

Optimally, I wanted to purchase Logan Grimnar on Turn 2, so Turn 1, I wanted to go first, and just ramp. To do this, I needed to get 5 dice rolling turn 2 and Xathanhar was welcomed.  Xathanar has a global that I can prep a sidekick die on both players turn for a generic energy.  Moving 1 die on my opponents first turn, will get me the 5 dice I needed. I could have included Atlas, but I didnt want to mess with the bag turn 1.

On turn 2, Kree Captain – Warmonger Global would be required where I can pay 2 fists and purchase something for 3 less energy, and I needed to try to not get 2 sidekicks. Intellect Devourer – Deadly Puppet Master was added in case I had rolled a single sidekick, where I could use its global to spin down a sidekick to any energy face.

If I missed on the Fists rolling, I had Professor X – To The Astral Plane, for Ramping. Once I had Logan purchased, I wanted to prep as many dice as I could, and most turns with Xathanthar and Professor X I would be able to ramp 4 dice…

Thats 5 cards to help get 1 card purchased is alot more than a Becky Build, so I had three cards left for either control or a second win con.

I know with overcrushing damage, I wanted my opponent to have a lean field, so I wanted to include a force global attacker.  It would have been a coin flip between Scott Hall – NWO Founder or Black Widow – The Widows Bite, and I then remembered my limitations I wanted to self-impose.   The choice was to go with Black Widow, and honestly I probably would not have rolled as many bolts for multiple force attacks with Scott Hall anyways plus Black Widow will buff anything I had in the field when she is fielded.

I wanted a second win-con card on his own, and decided to bring back another card from last years OBW Team in Venerable Dreadnaught – Custodian of Knowledge. He can win games on his own, and with Black Widow are definately a force with the range ability.

Now I only had 1 card left, and this is where I sat on Deadline night… It was Between Eddie Guerrero – I Steal to stop my opponent from having Energy, or Istrid Horn – Moneylender to turn off only one Global.  I wish Dice Masters teams had 9 cards, as they both would have made this team. A regular Becky Overcrushing team would have not needed Professor X, or Xathanar, and Grell/Isrid Horn/Gazer/Eddie all would have been options.   I felt my Achilles Heel would be Static Field, and why I reached for Eddie over Istrid.

To round out the team, the Basic Actions were Booker T, and Jerry Lawler were the auto-include Basic Actions I needed as they had the globals to force my opponent to block, and to double to damage to a blocked character when Logan eventually swings…

Okay, I was ready for the matches, my choice of drink for the day was a poor man’s Whisky Sour… (Crown Royale, and Minute Maid Lemondade)

Game 1:

Opponent was DMARMADA and his Iceman/Wand Damage team.

I looked at Stephen’s team and first thing I saw was Static Field. Opening turn without static field on my opponents team would be Black Widow, but If I saw it, I would reach for Eddie. Keep an energy, and use it to ramp 5 for Turn 2.  It happened, and Logan was bought quickly. It wasnt a super long match but it was a classic back and forth match. Purchasing Andre turn 2, and potentially having him in the field was in the the mind of DMARMADA.  He chipped away damage on me, and I know My Andre if rolled on Level 1 side would get pinged out before he got to attack. I ended up getting a Dreadnaught as well, and I took some Iceman damage but with life at 12-10,  I needed to KO his Iceman as Dreadnaught was sitting in the bag to be rolled the next turn. I was able to clear his field, and was lucky enough to get lethal as I know if Stephen had one more turn, I would have been dead. This match was recorded by Stephen and I think it was an excellent match with two great pilots thinking about what their opponent would be doing before making their moves.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/pJzvS9G-4Fo

Result – KO with 5 Life left.
Record – 1-0

Game 2:

Opponent was Trubie and his Jubilee Rush Team.

This was one of the only games I played on the night that did not have Static field/Kate Bishop. My opponent just needed 4 bolt characters at one time in the field for the win, so as they were being fielded, I would need to force attack them to keep the numbers low.

Trubie was trying to counter Andre with Wolf Guard Terminator, and this is where my pivot Alt-win condition came in with Dreadnaught.

I had tremendous luck that his Jubilee’s were not rolling at all this game and let me setup getting Dreadnaught and Andre. I had a large field and was able to keep my bag manangement to roll everything each turn.  It just took one Logan, and a Dreadnaught to Range out his Terminators, I had 19 damage and remembered my opponent brought Raised Shields global for the OTK.   Great match and I think on a rematch, the Black Widow force attack would have been used more.

Result – KO with 20 Life left.
Record 2-0

Game 3:

Opponent was Ian and his Hope/Rachel/Jubilee team

Ian had a Nasty Hope/Rachel/Nihlaloor team for instant zap/KO control, and he was running the Jubilee that when fielded it deals 2 damage, and oh yeah, back to playing against Static field.
I knew once the Hope combo was out there, I would be stuck waiting for my opponent to not roll a mask, and it came a couple times where Ian had something in the field to block, and I needed Andre to roll…
Well he didn’t for like 3 turns (6 rolls…)  Horrible luck on this end, and slowly I was killed by the Jubilee Fielding damage. Hopefully I would get to avenge this loss later in the tournament…

Result – KO’d with opponent having 12 life left
Record 2-1

Game 4:

Opponent was RawTravel and his Lita Fish Slap Team

After losing the last round, I know I need to win my next 2 matches to have a chance at top 4. It was a Quick refill of the Whiskey Sour and my new opponent was Ryan and his Lita Fish Slap team.
I ran a fish slap team last year in the OBW so I know how powerful and fast it could be, and with Lita it could be even grosser.   Lita would be my target in this match, and on my turn, I forced Lita to block with the Booker T global. I think if Ryan saved a Mask each turn, he could have blinked my attacker back and Lita would have done her justice.

Ryan missed a couple of the Black Widow rolls, and Andre the Giant was able to hit the field and hit big twice in consecutive turns for the lethal damage.

Result – KO with 16 life left.
Record 3-1

Game 5:

Opponent was Mbrewer and his Iceman Hope Team

Both Matt and I were 3-1 and the Winner would make top 4, and the loser would be needing some tiebreakers to get in.  It was the second match against an Iceman team, but Matt had the Hope/Rachel fortress pieces.
I was expecting this match to go the same as the match against Ian, but Matt copied iceman instead of Rachel as he only had 1 X-men in the field.

Hope pretending to be Iceman still did its chip damage like I saw in my first match. and eventually there was an actual Iceman in the field as well. Knowing I had a Dreadnaught in the bag, I had to cleared Iceman before my final turn, and I was down to 6 life.  I needed to do 13 damage and nothing to use the BookerT/Lawler Globals on as Matt had an empty field. I had 4 sidekicks, a Dreanaught and Andre. I wiffed on roll 1, and on the re-roll I hit Andre and Dredanaught on Level 3. 13 damage exactly… This was my closest match and I think in a rematch I would have lost.  Sometimes things just go your way, and it seemed like in all my matches I had luck when I needed it. I was onto the knockout rounds for the second straight OBW!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/txgRR03dPts

Result – KO with 6 life left.
Record 4-1 (Placed 3rd in Round Robin)

Semi-Finals:

Opponent was CWALLEY and his Riddler/Dani Moonstar Team.

After 5 Rounds, we were into the knock out rounds and a best of 3 format. That first win would be key to get to the finals as I dont think we would have gotten to a game 3 with only 50 minutes to play.
My Opponent for the Semi-Finals was Charlie and his Dani Moonstar/Riddler spin while blocked crazy team. I wasnt sure if Andre the Giant would be fast enough here, as the Riddler had a big butt to defend with.  Once again my opponent had Static Field, and forcing Riddler to attack would not help.

Game 1 – Charlie purchased the Dani, and Riddler and I knew he was going to force me to block and re-roll.  I missed on my Andre first time through, and took 8 damage on my sidekicks being forced to block. I didnt want to do that again. I looked at what an alternate win con would be, and I reached for Dreadnaught.  I also noted that the opposing characters were not huge on the attack values. I was going to use life as a resource the remainder of the game, and just left my field open so I could not be re-rolled. I kept forcing Riddler to attack to make my opponent lose their masks they held back. Eventually I had Dreadnaught and Andre the giant roll in the same turn, and was able to use the Double BAC globals with dreadnaught and Range to swing for Lethal.

Game 2 – My opponent knew I was not going to leave anything in the field, and Charlie reached for Mimic. Cannot copy anything not in the field, so I just waited for a low Defence Mimic in the field, and thats when the 8th Wonder of the World hit the field and I swung for 12 and 16 overcrushing damage in multiple turns. A much quicker game 2, and it would have been different if Mimic rolled at the right time. I was onto the finals!!!

Game 1 – KO with 12 life left.
Game 2 – KO with 20 life left.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/eTsIdSnuoQw

Finals:

A rematch against that horrible Hope/Rachel/Nialoor Combo… (Not that people weren’t saying that Andre The Giant was horrible as well!)
I needed a strategy as once Hope hit the field with an X-men I was in trouble. I figured to go for a rush and just hope my opponent did not roll masks. Eddie was needed, but this was the time I wish I also had Isrid horn for that pesky Auto-KO global on Nialoor.

Game 1 – Andre Failed to roll the first time around, and I was in trouble as Ian setup The Purge. I ended up having 2 Giants, and a Dreadnaught and did have a chance to swing for 16 damage, but needed Ian to not roll any masks, but his dice I think had 4 sides of masks in the final as they always showed up. I was a sitting duck, just hoping to roll characters only to have them KO’d once fielded. Jubilee started doing her damage and it was then to the point that I needed to get a game 2, or he could have just waited out the clock. Game 1 to Ian.

Game 2 – I tried the same exact format, but Hope came quickly and I was in the same lockdown. This time I believe I had 2 Logan’s and 2 Dreadnaughts (The Max I could have) they kept rolling, and I kept getting KO’d. I tried my best and hit for 10 damage at one point, but if I had a mini table to flip it would have happened and with Ian constistantly rolling 2-3 masks, I was in big trouble. (I even had intellect devourer to help if he rolled a sidekick) I waited and waited and the crack in the wall never came. With 10 life I was dead, and congrats to Ian as well deserved win. I was hoping not to see Hope/Rachel in this format, and that was a team that was my kryptonite.

Game 1 – KO’d with 10 life left.
Game 2 – KO’d with 10 life left.

Post-Mortem:

I was very proud of my piloting this tournament, I felt like I was in a zone actually using both teams globals and everything seemed to line up. Even when the rolls were not in my favour, I had a counter or a prep to get back the next turn. I played 9 matches, and in all 9, I could have lost each of them. Very close games, and very fun to play people in the community. It was nice to get the chance to avenge my round robin loss to Ian, and was nice while I only lost to the person that won the whole darn thing. If I replayed the tourney, I could have easily been 1-4 and more Whisky Sours would have been drunk. I thank the whole community for the tournament, and honestly it was nice to see all the comments during the matches in chat. I had some people backing me, and it just made me concentrate more. I was happy to see Logan/Andre get so far, he is such a powerful card, but obviously nerfed by Becky in the meta.
If I was to change a card from this tournament it would have been to remove Professor X and add in Isrid Horn, but I would then lose my ramp, and not sure if I would have the energy to have done the BookerT/Lawler globals as easy.

Thank you to Arge for the event, to the CRGR gameroom for organzing, and everyone else that helped out to make a great day of dice rolling across North America again!

MuthafuckinReggie out!