Welcome to Nosebleed City

Hello people,

Last weekend was another double event with Gaurdians of Tyr's X-Wing Store Champs on the Saturday and a Netrunner Winter Kit at Dark Sphere on the Sunday. The week off immediately afterwards is not entirely unconnected :)

Saturday I ran Vader Crack Swarm and felt the "click" that I'd been waiting for to really connect with it. I started on the top tables and stayed thier all day.

My brain finally meshed with the list as I realised the need to control the first engagement and fly the necessary approach to get it. In short after four rounds I was 3-1 up with very strong MoV, the loss genuinely due to horrific green dice.

As such expectation of making the top 8 cut reared it's unwelcome head with 2 rounds to go. I didn't feel pressure but suddenly it was a possibility.

Game 5 was against an Imperial Aces / Palp list that went on to final victory, the top 8 was stuffed full of them. A mis-set dial on approach knocked me off plan and I failed to recover sufficiently. Still a fairly close loss.

Going into the final game I knew I had to get a big win to progress. I also knew it would be the same for my opponent. Thankfully I was paired up with a good guy I've played a few times before so I knew it would be a decent game whatever the result. In the end a minor mistake on approach allowed dice to decide things against me. No complaints.

My opponent went through in 8th while I suddenly ended up 3-3. It really does get that tight up at the nosebleeds and it's a reminder that at that level the hours spent honing your list and play can make all the difference to tip things in your favour, assuming that's your thing...

Sunday I headed down to Dark Sphere for a Netrunner Winter Kit. I was surprised that there were only 12 of us until I was reminded that Leisure Games had run thier Store Champs on Sat. Oh and it was Mother's Day!

As such there weren't too many of the top end faces about but I pulled one of them in the first round. We'd played the Saturday before and split, both winning as Corp, and it was the same story again. He ran Jinteki Replicating Perfection and it's a match up I struggle with. A bit more learning required.

Moving on I got the rub of the playmat a few times and somehow won both ways rounds 2 and 3 to find myself on 10 Prestige. That was already my best result ever but suddenly I was in a final round shootout.

This turned some heads and once again invited expectation, mainly that I was going to get utterly hosed, but the potential was there and dealing with that is important. I've since found out that my opponent, who smashed me at our first event, is ranked 5th in the UK which I'm glad I didn't know at the time. That didn't stop him getting the lowdown on my decks from my first opponent who looked rather flustered went I overheard him doing so.

They didn't need to worry as his Noise / Virus deck steamed into my slow start and never took its boot from my neck. Against his Near Earth Hub / Astro deck I did at least play enough of a game to make him sweat, I rather enjoyed that ;), until he took the game to go undefeated for the day.

He was running two very strong decks and obviously had plenty of experience with them. We kind of chatted about the strength of NEH and how to counter. "I don't really know" was his main response. A couple of days later I realised that the mill effect of a Noise / Viral deck would cause it trouble....

In the end I finished 3rd and won myself an Anarch deckbox, which was hugely pleasing and something that will hold a special significance to me as a symbol of how far I've come on in the game, in the manner that I wanted to. 

For me, that's what it's all about. The vitory pizza was particularly tasty :)