041 - Malifaux Masters Invitational

Last week I was pleased to recieve an invite for the UK Malifaux Masters Invitational tournament to take place early next year.

The invited players are all in the top 16 of the UK Malifaux rankings, but I'd thought I was out of the running, since following the upload of the 2011 Grand Tournament results (which I couldn't attend), I'd dropped to around 20th position. As it happens, the 2010 Grand Tournament hadn't yet dropped from the calculation (only results from the last 12 months count towards your score), so when that happened, a few people who had good results at the 2010 GT but hadn't played much in 2011 fell a few places down and I found myself at position 14 and holding a golden ticket!

The event is going to be a 2 day tournament, with five qualifying games on Saturday 14th January, and then the top 4 from the day fighting it out on Sunday to be crowned top dog. It's going to be a really fun event, and I'm looking forward to crossing fate decks with the top players around, most of which I've played before, and most of which have given me a proper kicking, if I'm honest! Note: Some players in the top 16 have opted not to attend, and so the next in line player from Rankings HQ has been offered their spot.

1 Craig Johnson - Craig's Marcus beat my Seamus in the first game of the GT Warm-Up Tournament I've already posted about. It was a tense, close game, and I'd love another stab at his Arcanists.

2 Ant Hoult - Ant recently won the 2011 GT, and his Kirai crew took me to pieces at the Streets of Malifaux Tournament I posted about in June. I still rank that game as the most comprehensive drubbing I've ever experienced, and so I'll be reading up on anti-Kirai tactics in the hope of settling the score a little.

3 James Doxey - I've played James numerous times at the local club, and we've met twice in competition play, currently standing at 1 win each. It'll be fun if the opportunity comes up to settle a decider for the year.

4 Adam MagicPockets - Had an incredible game with Pandora against Adam's Hamelin at a tournament in September, which we both rate as one of our personal most enjoyable games ever. It'll be good to re-fight the encounter and see what happens.

5 Ian O'Brien - I haven't had the chance to play Ian as yet, but he has a reputation for being particularly deadly with his Dreamer crew. I definitely think he could be one to watch for this tournament.

6 Aidan Kirk - Another experienced Neverborn player that I've so far managed to dodge at tournaments. I believe he favours Pandora, so it'll be interesting to see if I end up with my first ever Pandora mirror-match!

8 Ashley Pinder - I think Ashley usually plays a Colette crew, which I don't have much experience of playing against. I may have to get another practise game in against Collette in case we end up facing off.

9 Mitch Harrison - I posted about my game against Mitch back in May, which just happened to be the first tournament game of my life ever. It was a fun game against Perdita, but I think Mitch has switched his crew of choice to a deadly Lady J/Lucius combo that I've not run into before.

12 Justin Plimmer – I played Justin’s Chompy crew at Toy Soldier earlier this year. I received a bit of a beating, as Chompy landed on top of Seamus in Turn 2 and ripped him to shreds. I almost pulled it back and managed to kill the Dreamer by luring nightmares away from him, and then finishing off Chompy with Bete Noire, but his Alps had already capped his objectives. With the Alp nerf, maybe I’ll do better second time around…

13 David Brown – I’ve met David at a number of tournaments but we’ve never met each other across the table, something I’m looking forward to correcting.

14 Me

15 Steve Scurr – Steve gave me a lesson in Leveticus a few months ago, and I learned how deadly he can be. Levi is master I’m definitely very wary of, as I don’t really have anything that can effectively wipe him and his Waifs from the board in a single turn.

16 Tim Brown – Tim’s Chompy gobbled up Baby Kade in the game we played in Birmingham in June. Thanks to Tim, I now know not to bring Kade when the enemy master gets bonuses against Harmless models! My memories are of a very tense and closely fought game that ended in a draw on VPs. A decider is needed.

17 Ian Brocklebank – Ian is a local player that I’ve played a couple of times, including at the first Leeds tournament, but I’m yet to get the better of his Viktorias. Another grudge match here!

18 Rob Owens – Rob gave me an intro to Colette once, which was a lot of fun, but we’ve not played each other competitively before. He has a large number of crews so could be unpredictable, and it’ll be good to play against him with the gloves off.

19 Jimmy Balderstone – Jimmy is another Arcanist player and fan of Kaeris, so it’s likely she’ll make an appearance in his lists, which will probably feature Showgirls and Constructs.

As you can see, quite a formidible list of players, and each and every one of them is capable of giving me a complete pasting! I'll be back in January with a full report!

Mike