You're not worthy of standing in the shadow of a cowboy

I came to a 6th place finish in the third Jasco Retro event on September 19th, and I made sure to take notes during it, so that I could extend my glorious experience to the good people!™

Here is a link to my decklist, but Andy is not on UFS Ultra, and neither is his foundation, Shadow of a Cowboy. I first took up this character because he is  a stronger version of my friend's champion character, Mike Hardiman2, and I love the style of a character who turns building up a wall of foundations into an aggressive art style! The character himself just oozes the Good symbol all over, so that seemed to me like the ideal build for him.

I'm going to quickly go over a few card choices, and some key combos with them, then we'll go on to the tournament itself.

Deflection Swing – One of my favourite cards out of YuYu Hakusho, this attack on its own is only 4 high for 4 damage, but at the very least it draws you a card. Some of the most ideal plays with this card are when you have a big ticket attack in your staging area, hopefully committed, and you get to replace it with a ready face up foundation and pick up the good attack.

Burning with Revenge – A very simple card, but one that brings great synergy with many other cards. When used with Andy, it grants +1/+3, so this stacks up fast. You can play one from hand, then a Deflection Swing, bring it down to your staging area for +1/+3, then pick it up with Deflection Swing, which also replaces it with a ready foundation, then you're able to play Burning again for the next attack!

Flashy Shadow Kick – This attack is most ideal with a card that you get from the retro card pool, Glacial Assault. If Glacial Assault is ready when you play Flashy Shadow Kick, then your attack can get +5/+3 total between Andy's enhance and Flashy Shadow Kick's enhance. There is the issue that this attack basically requires a use of Andy's enhance, so that sometimes can put a hamper on an attack turn.

Round 1

VS Osei Tyson, Nehtali 2 on Fire

This wild man opens up the match by showing me what his wild luck is going to be like, by rolling a 12 against me for who gets to go first, and then right after that he fails his third foundation on turn 1. This man's deck is a wild rollercoaster of emotions to fight. I play out 5 foundations, and commit my character because I wasn't expecting to need him to survive on turn 2, but boy was I ever wrong. Osei opens turn 2 with a Hellfire Impalement and draws FIVE cards off of it. Thanks man, thanks. He uses Nehtali to grab a second copy of Hellfire from his deck, and a pair of Big Shots brings this attack up to 8 speed, 10 damage. I respect his attack, but I decide not to block it, so I take the 10 damage, down to 10 health. He uses Nehtali's form to play his second copy of Hellfire Impalement for free, and goes for the Big Shots to make it lethal. He checks a 2 on the Punch, and isn't able to make the attack lethal, so I'm able to just take the 7 damage and move on.

On my turn, I played back to back Nut Krackers, each of which brought in copies of Burning with Revenge to give them free stats. Then I play a Shadow of a Cowboy from my hand, and then a Spirit Shotgun. Utilizing the 3 shared symbols from Shadow, I'm able to bring the Shotgun to exactly lethal and win game 1.

On Osei's turn 2 of game 2, this BEAST OF A MAN checks beautiful 6s left and right to play two Hellfire Impalements, a Pharaoh Wave which drew him 2 cards, and then ANOTHER HELLFIRE IMPALEMENT! At this point, I'm extremely happy that it received an errata so that it can't ready foundations that it has already readied. He starts throwing out the Big Shots on the third Hellfire, but unfortunately he checks a 1 on the Judy that would have brought the speed up and sealed the deal, and I managed to just block it with Ominous Prophecy on a 5 check.

On my turn 2, I use Deflection Swing to grab a Spirit Shotgun that's in my staging area, and then hit him with double Shotguns and a Flashy Shadow Kick to end the match.

Round 2

VS Ben Stevens, Cervantes2 on Void

I win the die roll, and I go off on turn 2 with back to back Scarlet Meteors bringing in copies of Glacial Assault for free stats. I use a Glacial Assault for +1 speed, Ben does a bit of internal math and decides that he needs to cancel it in order to block, so he uses Toguro Brothers to negate the +1 speed. Unfortunately, this destroys the Glacial Assault, which triggers the foundation's static to build me a foundation, so I get to respond with Andy for +1/+1, and the attack still goes through. I'm sorry, Ben. :(

In game 2, my staging area was set up quite well for me to go off on turn 2, but I drew only a Nut Kracker. I throw it out in hopes that I can draw another attackIt draws me a foundation, but it does deal some damage from a partial block, so I build 4 and hold a copy of my champion foundation, The Badger Club.

Ben opens up his turn with a 13 damage high attack, including him using No Worthy Opponent, and then telling me that he is no worthy opponent for me. I get flashbacks to the design phase of The Badger Club, where Rodney, my teammate, he and I discussed at length if our card should have a high block or a mid block. I was adamant on the high block, but he had a good point that a mid block would allow us to block anything. So, because of a conversation in December 2016, I'm forced to take 7 damage from the half block on this attack. Badger Club nets me a Nut Kracker off the top of my deck, and more importantly it gets rid of a bunch of foundations that would have clogged up my back swing next turn! The Nut Kracker's breaker block helps a ton, and I move on to my turn. It only required 1 copy of Scarlet Meteor that I drew, and I make it fast and strong enough to finish the game.

Round 3

VS Jeremy Pobiel, Raiden on Air

I hope I spelled your last name right, Jeremy. It's definitely an uncommon one!

For game 1, all I wrote down during the game was “He won the die roll, but I got hands full of free foundation” which I figure must mean that I drew lots of cards that triggered Andy's R really fast, and I got him quickly? Jeremy had played out THREE copies of Ageless & Wise, and a bit of other speed reduction, all of which are ridiculous with Raiden being able to re-use them.

For game 2, I side in all of my copies of Emergency Rations to fight his speed reduction. He can reduce, but I'll be damned if I let him reuse and recycle! I got completely lucky during his attack turn by drawing in to a Meteor to block with, and the breaker saved my life. On my turn, I draw in to, how shocking, Spirit Shotgun and it wins me the game.

Round 4

VS Mike Lowe, Mike Lowe on Good

With us playing a couple of Good decks, I expect the staging areas to get pretty big. I was incredibly correct. It is important to note that when I build a deck, I aim to make sure that I can have turn 1 build turn of at least 4 foundations, even while going first. I achieved this very often with Andy during this tournament, and Mike took advantage of this. About a week before the event, I messaged Mike and told him how cool the card Luck is with his character. He told me that he had it in before, wasn't really liking it, but he'll consider it.

Well, for game 1, I win the die roll and go first. I build 4 foundations, as I do, and Mike responds with Luck and adds down a Refusing to Let Go and a Koppouken Training, both very strong wall cards. Then on his turn 1, he builds 6 foundations, like a true champion. This man had 8 foundations in play at the end of turn 1. EIGHT FOUNDATIONS, I TELL YOU! He blew me out of the water with a build like that, and I wasn't able to stop his shenanigans.

I sided in the Emergency Rations again, as he is able to re-use Refusing to Let Go, and that combo basically beats my deck. I go first in game 2, and after I play my fourth foundation I joke to Mike about him responding with Luck again, so he does it. I was shocked and excited that he was able to pull off Luck's response for two games in a row. Mike had some mediocre draws, and I tried to get out Ominous Prophecy ASAP to shut off his combo keyword so that would stop killing me so brutally. I blocked with Badger Club and snagged a Spirit Shotgun which ended up doing EXACTLY lethal, and only because I played my 1 copy of Confronting Jedah, and it shares two symbols with Andy. If it were most of my other foundations I would have been 1 damage short!

Game 3 goes similarly to game 2, except that he went first so he wasn't able to get lucky, haha. He has a really depressing build turn compared to my great build, especially with me getting out more copies of Ominous Prophecy to shut down his Geysers. I still had to fight hard through his defenses, but I got him in the end. Spirit Shotgun is a good card.

Oh wow, I'm now 4-0, this is crazy! My anxiety is running wild, and my heart is pumping, and I'm hungry because I haven't eaten all day.

Round 5

VS Sam Tate, Goro on All

If you've looked over his decklist, or seen this deck on stream, you likely know how incredibly consistent it is.

In game 1, he blows me out of the water early with Kaden's Blindfold looping Scarlet Meteor repeatedly.

For game 2, I was ready to fight that style, so I sided in Emergency Rations to stop the abuse of that asset. With me going first, I get a really good build going, and I take him out on turn 2 with back to back Shadow Kicks for 8 damage each, and back to back Shotguns doing just over 40 damage total.

In game 3, I'm ready for him. I have a fair bit of damage reduction available with Andy's ability, I have Emergency Rations to stop his Blindfold abuse, I've got the right high blocks for his Meteors, I have this. So he plays Dark Chireitou, which says that I'm not allowed to reduce damage, and then he kills me with back to back Nut Krackers. Well, I definitely was not prepared for that.

Round 6

VS Chris Bromley, Yoshimitsu on All

We decided that we would take the draw. We're both exhausted and hungry, and just want to relax. Chris and I joined the stream for the Goro vs Goro mirror, and we shared our mutual disgust for what we saw on the stream, haha.

Top 8

VS Chris Bromley, Yoshimitsu on All

We get to have the match anyway, funnily enough. I knew going into it that I would want to use Ominous Prophecy to get rid of his Weapon keyword. This would mean that if he is running Steel Resurrection that its static would be useless, and that Yoshimitsu's R wouldn't be able to draw him cards if he used it when he checked an attack.

Well, he played a 7 difficulty attack at the start of turn 2 after I used Ominous Prophecy, and he checked a weapon foundation, so the keyword wasn't removed. Yoshi makes it a 7 check and he gets free cards. I feel cheated out of my fine strategy :(

On the bright side, he then played Superior Technique to clear the attack from his card pool and draw, then after he drew the cards we were alerted by the stream that the attack did not have the weapon keyword, and that the Sup Tech was an illegal play. Whoopsie. We call on a judge to ask what to do, we both get a warning and we use the power of technology to rewind the gamestate on Tabletop Simulator to before the mistake was made, he shuffles up his deck, and we move on.

As you may have noticed from my saying that I made 6th place, and the fact that Chris made 2nd place in the event, I did not win this match. In game 3 I made a very greedy play by attempting to block with a breaker block early, and I checked poorly for it. I knew that he would be throwing out an obscenely high damage high attack, and yet I decided to commit my entire board to pass the breaker block. It meant nothing overall, and he played the Scarlet Meteor anyway and did my entire health bar with it. I stared at the high block in my hand, and I stared at the stupid breaker block that I used, and I regretted my decision quite a bit. Not to take the win away from Chris, I'm sure he would have killed me afterwards anyway, but I definitely identified a greedy play or three on my end that I didn't need to make.

It's nice to see that the only players that I lost to were the ones who were in the finals, and as they say, there's no shame in being beaten by the best.

And that's about it for the tournament itself. I had a lot of fun in it, and I'll absolutely be entering the next one with the aim of making top 8 again! I felt it was run very smoothly, and I like that Jasco are trying interesting things with these events and seeing how they shake out, such as implementing a 10-card sideboard for this event. I also relish any opportunity to run my card again! I absolutely love playing The Badger Club, it means so much to me, and I was able to do some really good plays with it during the event, including winning a couple of games with it!

If any players are on the fence about entering the retro events because the old card pool is too intimidating, don't worry about it. Look at how the top 8 was filled with standard characters running standard attacks, it's fine. The decks are basically just amplified by a few retro cards sprinkled in here or there, and you can easily talk to any veteran about what to add to a standard deck to make it retro appropriate.

I'm going to try and brew up something new and cool for the next retro event. If the deck runs well, I'll talk about it here again too! Until next time, may the checks be ever in your favour!

Church