Gen Con ’06 All Axxess Champion Report:
"You Should All Be Ashamed of Yourselves"
(continued)

Let's start with the prematch. The beauty of this deck is that prematch isn't too critical, so getting shut down there doesn't hurt you too badly. Always play your feud and stip (unless you get Your Towned, in which case skip the feud), after that wrestlemania is your first event always. Once you've got those three cards out the rest is up to what you think is important. A belt or two is nice to make your Jeritron more effective, plus Champ is Here is important for the prematch boost.

Don't get too excited about All About the Game, it is ONLY in there for Piper. Piper's Pit will mess you up so if your opponent doesn't drop it first then All About the Game him and pray to overturn your Kidney Punch early to remove wrestlemania from your ringside pile. Piper decks, drop the pit first in the prematch to totally shut down Highlight (you only have to reverse the Tron once, booooo). As for Break You, it should come out of the deck, it's not very useful. The only time I play it is if my belts get shut down and I have an extra slot (remember, you removed Sanctimonious from the game to reverse a move so you can pop break you to keep it out). As far as shutting down Highlight's prematch; your best bet is to blank the streetfight and switcheroo wrestlemania, that pretty much destroys a lot of the point to the deck.

Onto the main game segment. This is a deck that has a lot of angles covered so you can play a little looser. While you should obviously reverse what you can early on don't be discouraged if your opponent can get off to an early lead. The more damage you take the better off you can be since eventually you will wind up with the jeritron in your ringside pile at which point keep using Street Fight to take it back and play it (remember, it is a foreign object, and it is permanent so once it stick's it's there forever). Before that hits you have Dirty Low Blows and Shoot headlocks to get a little fortitude and once you hit 5F it opens up a lot of your excellent actions, Don't You Wish You Were Me, Kendo Sticks (which searches out the tron), and the Overhand Chair Shot (most of which can be recurred from your ringside pile). Through Better Than You and Steel Chain Shots your should be able to keep your hand up throughout the game until the Tron hits the table.

Once the Tron hits it's usually game over. If they let you get your belts you can right off the bat play uniques that cost 12 or less (i.e. Superior Acrobatics, DYWYWM into the Lionsault, etc.), if not you still have access to all of your powerful cheaper unique actions (Y2J, the movie cards, Overhand Chairshot, etc.). Drawing off all of your uniques with the Tron will just become obscene as you'll find that every card in the deck is worth having in your hand, and since most of them are unique you'll be drawing again by playing what you draw. On top of this, if you get lucky enough to catch your opponent without an action reversal (most of them get thrown away on the Tron) or a Don't Try (street fight also baits that out early usually) then with Kurt Met Christy and a Steel Chain Shot you can draw out your entire deck. As stated earlier, don't worry about taking damage since your goal is to get your Tron into your ringside pile, so just take your beating in stride and if need be wait for wrestlemania to trigger. Once that goes off your opponent has no hand, you remove wrestlemania to take back Kidney Punch, discard that to take back the jeritron (this time it'll stick) and from there between the chain shots and the Tron you will have such a hand advantage over your opponent that you should find yourself having no trouble coming out on top, just keep chucking your powerful cards (if you think you're going to get pinned try to save Superior Acrobatics to stop something after Wrestlemania).

As for how to actually put your opponent away, Superior for a Blatant Choke is nasty since that pushes you right into a finisher. Don't You Wish You Were Me with 3 Steel Chain Shots (after WM they'll probably all be in your ringside pile) will cause your opponent to eat Shooting Star Presses, Superplex, and a few other angry angry high risks (keep in mind that even without DYWYWM you can always DLB into a Flying Leg Scissors, this is a great way to jump up in fortitude, plus it's an 8D move which can play right into your other high risks.). Hold onto your few big damage reversals (Jericho's Ensugiri, Breakdown, Springboard Dropkick) as easy ways to do some serious damage on your opponent's turn. And finally, against those constant recovery, put back managers, never die to damage decks use King of the World and Simply the Best to drop their fortitude below 10 and hurl the Walls to finish them (nothing reverses it if they're under 10F except superstar specifics and When you thought you had all the answers).

The final piece of the puzzle is in the Backstage area with the 3 World Tours. Very simply put, recover recover recover. Did you play a card? Then you're probably recovering 3 cards (even if you play a unique reversal on you opponent's turn). Make sure to keep your Shoot Headlocks, Foreign Objects, and Kidney Punch in your ringside pile but other than those cards you'll find that you rarely have anything else in there.

As for how to derail this deck, good luck. Unless you do the above mentioned things to his prematch he winds up with such a huge advantage after wrestlemania that even if you manage to pin him the battle's just begun there. Doink is a serious pain (against everyone) but if you can get the tron out then at least a chunk of your uniques become 0F and out of range of his ability. Piper played smart is almost an auto-loss but they have to see your all about the game coming and play the Pit first (and if he doesn't sig/signing you then you go first in the event phase anyway). GMs stop your stip so that slows you down a little. The best way to stop it in the end is to make an attempt to Don't Try Wrestlemania (which mean pin him on his own turn).

Well, I've rambled on enough, there you have it, that's how it works. Pretty simple huh. Anyone who's tired of combo should give this deck a try before GAB cycles in, it's a lot of fun to play. In closing I have just one more thing to say, 5th anniversary overturn pinning you and triggering Wrestlemania is the greatest thing ever. Hey Mark Laroche, we're going to Wrestlemania. :)

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