Gencon 2017 :vs system 10k report + thoughts

Hello everyone and welcome back to the Blues Effect. Gencon just wrapped up and a new 10k champ has been crown. First I want to congratulate everyone who made top 8. Special shout out to john tatta for breaking the 9th place curse as well to the champion Joseph Keaveny for winning the event with mystique.  Now mystique is the deck I decided to take to the 10K after many many weeks of testing for the event. Although i didnt do as well as I had hope ( win the event), I am proud of the deck’s  performance. Here is the list I played along with card break downs :

mystique

change side deck:

gamora– godslayer blade to win games early

deadpool – attack the player to win games early

ghost rider– use hell on wheels for final wound on hiding mcs

1 drop

cross bones x4– this card is clutch in the gamora kill combo with starlord ideally on turn 5. he lets gamora’s godslayer blade go through with zero fear of plot twists

charlie 27 x2– enough has already been said about this 1 drop that can become a huge 27/27

tim boo ba x4– mvp card in alot of match ups, especially thor. As well as an early monster affiliation to use krackle-thoom for large mystique experience points

2 drop

hi-vo x4– this card is here for added insurance for problematic cards that would slow the deck down like jessica jones

3 drop

elsa x4– A great card for the mirror match . fearless is mvp in the early game.  attack with double strike without fear of giving too much experience to the opponent

4 drop

starhawk x4– the staple card in almost every deck now.  i use him to ensure i am able to complete my turn 5 gamora kill by increasing the chances if needed to recruit starlord or crossbones.

starlord x4– mvp of the deck, he teams every support character. allows hi-vo to use the know where location if needed. also allows crossbones to team attack with gamora (after a mystique change)

savage surprise x4– another defensive attack pump that gains good experience for mystique. can also be played on opponent’s character to be copied by mystique

cat fight x4– another attack pump that gains alot experience. can also be played on an opponent’s character to be copied by mystique

even the odds x4 – great card to stop any over aggressive attacks or weaken opposing characters

krackle thoom x2– the biggest attack pump in the game which is good for experience points

red x4- used for mystiques attack copying  powers

green x4– used for gamora godslayer blade

yellow x4– used for mystiques change and deadpool ‘s player attacking ability

madripoor x4– used for any of mystiques skills
knowwhere x4– used for gamora god killer blade or charlie 27 attack buff. also can be used for hi-vo attack gaining ability once starlord is in play.

Now the goal of the deck was to level early as possible ideally by turn 4. So by turn 5 you can kill the opponent with gamora’s godslayer ability when the opponent least expects it. Especially with majority of decks leaving their main characters in front unprotected. In my testing against the mirror,  thor, and few others,  it worked almost 100 percent of the time. As for deadpool, I knew wo riply would show up at the 10k, making deadpool a solid choice to counter her( and from the looks of it many other mystique players thought so as well). now ghost rider is a card i thought i would use more for the reasons i discussed above but i never needed him. i would most likely cut him in future builds.
during the 10K i face off against 4 different type of decks in the 7 rounds i played until i dropped. played thor just once (wish i played more) , wo ripley (wish i played more ) groot and 3 mystiques (totally wish i didnt, mirrors suck). these are the results :

wo ripley – missed yellow for deadpool kill =Loss

nova- no change = win

groot – draw no characters until turns 4 =Loss

mystique- deadpool kill =win

thor- gamora kill =win

mystique- miss multiple drops turns 4-8 draw only locations= Loss

mystique- gamora kill =win

what I learned from this event , especially the mirror match is that i shouldnt have never dropped kane in favor for hi-vo. i made the change thinking thor and jessica jones would be heavily played at gencon which didnt seem the case in my match pairings. Had  i kept kane in the list i would have most likely  won the matches i lost ( i was winning by wound count by large margin in all my losses). Even though i didnt do as well as i hoped i am glad my testing lead me to the right meta choice in terms of character selection.

what i also learned from this event that playing fair is out the window for the time being. Any deck strategy that doesnt “cheat” the inbeded fundamentals of the game rules isnt going to stand a chance. My mystique build fulfills this goal, but other builds did it better at the event.

With the release of predator i dont see “fair play” decks getting any better. i predict the meta for the foreseeable future will be who can do their broken combo or win condition first. well those are my thoughts on this historic gencon.

well that is all for this installment of the blues effect

until next time ,

blues686 aka Ralph Edwards