Cactus Game Design Message Boards

Round 3: Allen Collins, Rob Mulye, Jacob Fountain

Score: Me (4), Rob (4), Jacob (4), Allen (3)

I sat down at this table and was visibly displeased/grumpy. Then my opponents came, and Allen said, “Hey Guys, I’m pretty new to this, so you’ll have to get your cards over here so I can read them all” I sat back with a sigh, apprehensive that we were going to time out, and time outs are never good for anybody. Allen looks at me and says “Hey, that’s a pretty crummy attitude to have” I was like, great, here we go, this is going to be a real enjoyable game. Very fist turn of the game Rob attacks Allen, who blocks and promptly confusions my SoG out of my deck….. Wonderful. Two turns later he drops falling away while I’m at 1, everyone else at two and no guardians out. Needless to say I wasn’t thrilled that he wasn’t playing smart multiplayer regardless of his personal feelings about me. I still managed to get my deck rolling and ended up timing out 4-4-4-3. I am extremely confident that if Allen hadn’t confusion-ed me first turn I would have won that table. At least three turns went by when I could have done Hidden Treasures + Search to get SoG. Allen and I did talk after the game, and we’re cool. Jacob was running ANB reset with Crimson, Rob had an Egyptian defense with Royal offense, and Allen was running silver with pale green, I didn’t see much of his D beyond the confusion, but I’m 90% certain that was all he had. Both Allen and Rob had some sites, but not a full lock. It was almost a 4 way tie, however Allen rescued against me last turn and played Praise Him Moon, and the only hero in my hand was Captain, who he had sitting in territory at the time.

Round 4: Tim Drown, Matt Archibald, Nathan Mashuda

Score: Me (7), Matt (6), Tim (6), Nathan (6)

Great, so I get to play Matt and Tim again, at this point I think that I’m pretty much done, which was super upsetting since I had RNRS on the line (I was 3 points behind John M. for first, and only 3 ahead of Matt for second, so it was a big deal) Nathan was running a TGT deck, with what appeared to be a magician defense, I honestly don’t remember much of it. Plays that I remember included me falling away Matt so he could block a first turn 3 lady TGT band, which he did with Joseph in Prison. I got off one ANB which netted me a few souls, a well timed search for SoG put me up for good, then it was just the stress of manipulating the 6/6/6/6 round until I was able to sneak in for soul number seven from Tim. I believe I used a Provisioned TSA forcing Matt’s Judas to block so as to counter Grapes for the final soul.

Round 5: Tim Drown, Craig Fountain, Rob Mulye

Score: Me (7), Tim (6), Rob (6), Craig (5)

Final round and Chris announces that half the field can win it all under various circumstances, talk about crazy right. I’d played against all three of these guys before, and I was a bit leery since both Tim and Rob were running Egyptian’s which have given me problems all year. I’d already played Tim twice, and neither time I’d been able to draw my Miriam, which was pretty lame, but this game I finally drew her, and I’m thinking to myself, cool, I can hopefully get a few souls with her, (it was mid game and all CM’s had been played already) So I activate Laver and place 4 evil cards beneath to get some support, only to have Craig drop Mayhem!!! AH!!!!  I also wasn’t able to get off a single search because of the two Egyptian D’s with horses staring me down, and Craig false peacing on the other side… Luckily I had good luck for once and drew into Sog/Nj/Guardian. That was a huge relief. I also managed to redraw Miriam about 3 turns after Craig’s mayhem – At the time Tim had Pharaoh’s Throne Room down, but no Pharaoh. And Rob had a Pharaoh, but no PTR, so Miriam rolled for two quick souls. Final round Tm’s at 6 and rescues against Rob since Craig had played Son of god on the shuffler so Rob had souls in sites – Rob blocks the banded Cherubim + King’s Daughter, and plays Enslaved by Egypt, capturing KD, Tim had no silver enhancements, so he lost that battle. During the battle Rob had Used an Egyptian archer to snipe my Nahum from territory, (I was only running one of each prophet) so I was super happy to see the capture, giving me access to a soul. Timing worked out beautifully as Miriam returned from the pretension that Craig had played two turns earlier, and then she walked in for the final soul.

Reserved for T22P

Reserved for T22P/Teams

At this point I had 2 full wins, a time out tie, and two seconds, so I was 80% certain that I was going to place above Matt at the very least, which would give me the RNRS title, I didn’t fully believe that I’d won until Bany pointed to me while I was talking to Gabe, nodded and smiled. Matt’s game was going its final round after time-out, and Scott was in no position to win (He, Tim and I were 1-2-3 going into the final round, I beat Tim so Scott was the only one who could pass me) Matt ended up winning the table with 6 souls at time out.
To give you an idea of how crazy the field was - No one had 3 full wins, and of the 15 games played I believe 7 of them timed out.

Yeah t2-Multiplayer was crazy.  It was nice to meet you and nice to play most of the 12 players in the field.  I switched to multi to even the event and thought I would not have had any chance at doing well.  I think I could say that most of us did well since many of us could have placed had we won our last game.