Hey everyone! Sorry this report is so late, but things have been very hectic lately, so I hope you forgive the tardiness. TCG Con is an event that travels to many different cities across the country throughout the year. On the weekend of January 29th, the event came to Tampa, FL, a not so bad 3 hour drive from where I live, so I decided to make the journey. This was my first TCG Con event, and my first big tournament overall since the pandemic started. Needless to say, I was very excited.
Due to work, I was only able to attend on Saturday the 29th. My plan was to enter the Dragon Ball Super tournament, and then enter as many pods for My Hero Academia that fired that day. I will keep the DBS section short, but the short story is that I got bodied. I was playing my favorite deck, evil Android 21, and played in two matches. First, against a very good King Cold player that ended up going 2-0 in his favor after a very close game 2. The second was against a local friend, Eddie St. Hilaire of Team FOE, and his incredibly aggressive Jiren deck. In both games I didn’t see a Senzu Bean once, and only saw my Unison once. After that match, I dropped from the tournament.
This event was kind of my last hurrah for DBS, so I saw it fitting to end my journey with two great matches. Not in a state of frustration or salt, just acceptance. Some games just aren’t for everyone, and that’s fine. But now, moving onto the highlight of the day, the MHA pods. The idea was that for every 8 people that signed up for $10, you would get two Plus Ultra packs, and more if you did well. Since the side event was announced fairly last minute, it was a lot harder to get people than I thought it would be. We managed to fire one pod for the day though, so all was not lost. So I paid for my entry and had three rounds to go through.
My first round was against a completely new player who borrowed a deck from one of the staff at Pro-Play Games, who ran DBS, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Digimon, and MHA that weekend (and they did a fantastic job). So shout outs to George and the crew. Between myself and a friend named Sergio, we had two judges playing in case anyone had any questions. I apologize for not remembering this player’s name, but he borrowed someone’s Tsuyu deck. I was playing Denki off of Order, my favorite deck in set 1. During the match I helped him along with rulings and playing cards, and he seemed to enjoy the game.
Note: At the time of this event, MHA CCG floor rules allowed for sideboards of up to 10 cards. The floor rules have since changed to require 0 or 10 cards in the sideboard. Visit the official MHA CCG website for up to date rules and regulations.
I won game one fairly decisively using Denki’s once per game Response and dumping a bunch of speed and damage into a Recipro Burst after landing a few attacks before the R. Game two went to Tsuyu, which just shows how aggressive the deck can be, even in a new player’s hands. I highly recommend that deck for anyone looking for a beginner friendly aggro deck. Her ability to consistently clear her card pool can be a nightmare to deal with. Moving into game three and going first, I was able to establish a strong board of foundations on turn 1, and go for the kill on turn two with another Response, Recipro Burst combo.
After the game, my opponent expressed interest in continuing to play the game, which was great. I pulled an extra Mina Ashido in my Plus Ultra packs, and he said she was one of his favorite characters. So I was able to give him that one, since I already pulled a million of her (Jasco please stop putting characters in the promo packs, I beg you). Round two was against Sergio and his Eraserhead deck, one of Denki’s toughest matchups. But thankfully there are several very good Eraserheads at my locals (shout outs to Andrew Simeone, aka “Goose”) so I knew the matchup was tough, but very winnable.
Game one went to me after a long and grueling back and forth. I should have switched to Iida in my sideboard to make the matchup easier for myself into game two, but I had blinders on at that point. Game two went to Sergio after a few good attack strings on the clapback, since I didn’t have enough gas to go for the kill beforehand. Then, in game three, he went very heavy on the Erase ability to blank out Denki. Which is a very effective strategy, but can lead to you seriously depleting your hand if you aren’t careful. During a long attack string, I was able to not get erased and let one attack connect. Which was all I needed to activate Denki’s R, and follow up with Recipro Burst and then an Indiscriminate Volt as his ten card staging area was all tapped out thanks to Denki’s fantastic ability to commit the opponent’s board, along with cards like Grasping Tape Toss.
Moving into round three I was about to play Andrew Dovale, who had only recently been crowned the DBS World Champion. Admittedly, DBS and Universus are two very different games, but a champion is a champion regardless, so I was nervous going in. Andrew was playing Kirishima, the undisputed best deck in the format. Which is another very tough matchup for Denki, but again, thanks to some great players at my locals (shout outs to Chris Bromley) I knew the match was very winnable. But I had to be patient and precise. Which are, admittedly, not my strong suits.
Game one went very long. Kirishima was doing Kirishima things, walling up and blocking very well. But one of the downsides of Kirishima is his lower hand size. Sure, he is able to pick up cards from his staging area and reuse attacks with cards like Coordinated Effort (which, in my opinion, is what actually makes Kirishima so good), but he still doesn’t have as much gas as the more aggro heavy characters. After a few pokes with Grasping Tape Toss and getting some Electric Jolts in my momentum, I was able to do a big attack turn and take game one. Game two was extremely funny because it is probably the fastest Kirishima match I have ever seen. Andrew built a big board on turn one, and then I built a modest board. Then, on his turn two, I blocked a couple pokes, and then got smacked with a double power Hardened Chop combined with Plus Ultra. I was taken out in one hit. Denki is a squishy boy with only 20 health after all, and it definitely showed.
Last up was game three, which went all the way into time on the last turn, which was Andrew’s. We thought about calling it a tie, but Andrew decided to play it out. At the eleventh hour, I made the critical mistake of using the enhance on Short Circuit to cut the damage on an attack that wouldn’t have killed me. Andrew then played one more attack for game. It was 100% my fault, but this is how you learn, and Andrew was a great opponent. I look forward to seeing how he does in Universus moving forward (come play Standard with us Andrew! It’s fun, I swear!).
I ended up getting second place, almost beating the DBS world champ, and got 2 more Plus Ultra packs and a Judge pack for helping judge the event. Which George was nice enough to surprise me with. So I considered the day an overall win. I wish I had more time to explore the venue, but I had a 3 hour drive back home, and it was already getting late. The venue was great, there were lots of cool vendors, and the tournaments were ran very well. My friends who played Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokemon, and Digimon all had great things to say as well. I am very much looking forward to going back if and when TCG Con decides to come back to the Sunshine State. If they are coming to a city near you, I highly recommend going to one if you can. I hope you enjoyed my recap, and my Denki list will be posted in this article if you want to take a look at it. Thank you so much again to Chris Bromley of UnFunStuff for helping me build the deck and walk me through the Kirishima matchup!
