Phoenix Warsong 2: Origins 2.5K Tournament Report & Thoughts

Hello everyone and welcome back to the blues effect. Its been about a week since origins has wrapped up the upper deck sponsored Vs system 2PCG $2500 dollar tournament in Columbus Ohio. I took the long 8 hour drive to try my luck at the large prize. The pressure was on for me for this event to perform well due to the endless smack talk, trolling and bragging being done for months in the Vssystem collective forum on facebook. What can I say, love being the bad guy. To the event I took dark phoenix which For months ive been saying is the best deck in the game with no bad match ups other then itself. Below you will see the list I ran along with a brief round by round breakdown of the event.

(If im wrong about any match details please forgive me as this all from memory )

Round one vs Quake

This round i was paired with the collective regular vernon rowe Jr who happen to be playing a very strong quake deck. A deck i practice against quite a bit with good success giving me confidence going into the match up. We were both excited to get to the cardboard smackdown when suddenly a judge came by for the dreaded deck check 😡. Already i knew my draws were gonna be hot garbage no matter how i shuffle. When the match started post mulligan i opened with four 7 drops, a 5 drop and two non yellow locations. I was getting smacked turn after turn with stealth tricks. Once turn 4 came around and was able to ramp. To get some big guns into play. I was able to stabilize around turn 8/9 bringing the wound count to his quake to 5 while i was at 6. With a nullifier in play stopping quakes push ability and no flight ability vern needed a top deck jungle hunter or coulson to get the stealth to seal the win. He got the coulson and with no dramatic entrances drawn the whole game vern took game one. If it wasnt for the deck check i think this would of gone differently but all good. Ggs dude. 0-1

Round 2 vs Dark phoenix mirror

Already on tilt i knew i had to win this round to stand any chance of placing in top 8 due to tie breakers. I was paired against Scott cozzolino who happen to being playing his variant of dark phoenix. Boy do i hate DP mirror matches because its really all about who ramps first or more to get the big guns in play to ravage the world. Key in the match up is to sneak in early wounds while ahead on the ramp count so that a dramatic into jungle hunter wouldnt put you far behind. That is exactly what i did in this match. I was able to give him 4 wounds before he was able to ramp on turn 4 while i was already ahead in resource count. scott was able to stablize a bit by dropping some thanos and foom with a net launcher in play, i counter with my net launcher on his big guys to be able to attack is dark phoenix for the final wounds giving me the win. Ggs scott. 1-1

Round 3 vs juggernaut

This round i played against james monroe and his juggernaut deck. James won the die roll and opted to go first. First turn he played solo behind jugs and attacked which was answered with a dramatic entrance of jungle hunter getting the yellow location i needed for ramp next turn. That following turn i ramped and got rid of solo with kane. Durning his main phase i opted to use jugs power of giving him minus counters and while he attacked i was able to stun back. On the following turns i was able to drop sinister and ramp so i could drop fin fang foom the following turn along ferocious thanks to sinister. It just snow balled after that leading to wounds turn after turn giving me the win. Ggs james. 2-1

Round 4 vs Mystique (gamora)

This round was the best match i had the entire tournament. It was full of back and forth action that was really thought provoking . I was paired against Jon Lewis, and his gamora mystique build. In this match jon was able to level very quickly with mystique alone not dropping many characters other then kane in the early turns. By turn 4 i was already at 4 wounds to his 0 while Jon was leveled to 3. He was able to stop any early wounds from primeval hunter thanks to some timely dramatic entrances. Turn 5/6 i dropped a jessica jones and used keyes ability to freeze mystique a couple of turns. Every time Jon was able to ko jessica jones i recruited another one to prevent the change. Eventually i was able to bring in my foom with no red locations in play to raise mystique attack allowing me tie up the wound count. Time was basically almost being called at this point. But with the jessica jones locking out the change along with nullifier locking out the change ability as back up jon just ran out of steam and i was able to give the final wounds. Ggs jon 3-1

Round 5 vs x23

Im gonna try my best here to make this as exciting as possible. This round i was paired against collective regular marcellus hendricks with his x23 deck. He won the die roll opting to go fist. Turn 1 x23 attacked with her adamantium claws at slashing dark phoenix godlike aura giving me the first wound with the mutual stun. I was able to use dark phoenix godlike powers and ramp that turn and pass. With x23’s berserk barrage dark phoenix took another wound for the mutual stun. Well knowing marcellus was planning to heal all of x23’s wounds the following turn i had drawn a nullifier the turn prior. So i played nullifier on DP calling the healing ability of x 23. Along with playing a primeval hunter in front protecting DP. Instant head shake form marcellus as he drew nothing that would help in the lock. So essentially the 5 min 3 turn match ended. Lol sorry dude it happens ggs though. 4-1

Round 6 vs dark phoenix mirror.

Siiigh yet again another mirror match in a paired up match with the undefeated player joseph keaveny. My game plan was similar to what i wanted to do in the first mirror match. Get early wounds while ahead on the ramp count which was working allowing me to get what i believe 3 early wounds. The difference in this match was joseph was prepared for the mirror match with his discard package via ronin and getting rid of multiple copies of my 8 drops while he was able to recruit his. Eventually he tied up the wound count ravaged the world and dropped his thanos to sealed the deal. Ugh i hate mirror matches. Ggs 4-2

Round 7 vs Dark Phoenix (mirror)

I was currently still in the run for top 8 after that loss. with two rounds to go i knew losing would hurt those changes of making it. I was on major tilt after that loss and prayed i didnt get another mirror match. The tcg gods did not like me and i was paired against adam logan with his dark phoenix deck. Boy was i pissed. And surprisingly this guy apparently loves mirror matchs … ewwww lol.. same game plan that failed me in the end due to not ramping and eventually getting ravaged before my 8 drops could hit the playing field. Major salt at this point. Ggs dude 4-3

Round 8 (final round) vs sister grim

After doing so well in the tournament it came down to a win and in match for me. I was on major tilt. All the shit talking and trolling came down to this match. And how fitting was it to be against DMG’s own Anthony Calabreses. Everyone knows my little trolling antics against dmg members. So to be knocked out of top 8 by one of their players was not what i was looking for lol. Ill never hear the end of it. So Anthony was playing his staple of sister grimm with an update of dutch win condition. I knew going into this match net launcher was going to be key and to attack only when ready. I was able to give his grim wounds and lock down with netlaucher while i ramped to get my high drops into play. During those turns anthony had solo and copy cat and aforce loki in play getting crazy counters and draw 6 cards with a power up each turn keeping his hand huge. Eventually i ran out of blues for net launcher due to his massive copy cat and floke. with grim on 4 wounds he used the ability where i couldnt attack and dutches game winning ability. I was basically screwed unless i found a way to get a blue location for net launcher. Luckliy i topped deck a jungle hunter which made me search for a blue location for the net launcher on dutch. The following turn with thanos, foom and jungle hunter, anthony didnt have the defense to stop the attack. Ggs man. Thats one check mark on my DMG hitlist. 5-3

So after the round ranks were posted

And i finally broke the ceiling of topping a major with these fellow players.

Unfortunately for me round one of top 8 i was paired against joseph and his dark phoenix deck. I wish it was against something else but the mirror. So i joseph won the set and i was on my merry way back to NJ. On my drive back found out joseph did in fact win the event.

So i dont feel too bad losing to the champ. Congrats again dude!

Well the tournament was a blast. I proved multiple things this event. Dark phoenix is the best, my tier list is pretty accurate, and a shout out to rob, theres no * next to my wins lol. Hold that! Lol And the trolling will continue. So next time you all see me at a tournament

well that is all for this installment of the blues effect, until next time As we prepare for a (jean) con come August. we recover and rise from the ashes of dark phoenix’s fury.

–Ralph Edwards aka Blues686