[FIST] Gencon 97 - Nationals winning deck - Walk Softly by Joshua Kronengold
Andrew S. Davidson
WALK SOFTLY
by Joshua Kronengold
This is the big deck of 1997 - the winner of the US Nationals
tournament at Gencon. Interesting then that it is one of the smallest
decks to be published here - just 48 cards.
Joshua has used the deck for some time but is continually changing
the exact mix. The overall concept remains the same though - seize
an early advantage with cheap events like Final Brawl and "Now You've
Made Us Mad" and then bring out "big sticks" like Ting Ting to win the
game.
The choice of foundation characters - Average Joe, Hacker and Stunt
Man - is interesting. I would have thought that they were too few and
too expensive to work well but I'm not used to playing a deck like
this. Certainly the Hacker did good service for Joshua in one case - I
played Covert Op on him during a threatening attack and chose to make
him discard the Charmed Life instead. I regretted this choice when he
then burnt for power and hacked my Jellyfish - d'oh!
Joshua is a Shadowfist veteran - his name appears in the 1st edition
playtest credits. He has held the top slot in the Proving Ground at
New York's Neutral Ground for many weeks and regularly crosses swords
with the redoubtable Dennis Heffernan. A man to be watched and a
worthy champion.
2 Average Joe
2 Baptism of Fire
1 Charmed Life
1 Chinese Doctor
1 Claw of the Dragon
2 Dirk Wisely's Gambit
2 Fighting Spirit
5 Final Brawl
2 Golden Comeback
5 Hacker
1 Iala Mane
1 Kar Fai's Crib
1 Little Jim
1 Marisol
3 "Now You've Made Us Mad"
1 Redeemed Assassin
1 Scrappy Kid
1 Serena Ku
1 Stunt Man
1 The Golden Gunman
1 The Prof
1 Ting Ting
1 Queen of the Ice Pagoda
1 Cave Network
2 Festival Circle
1 Fox Pass
1 Kinoshita House
1 Ring of Gates
1 Sacred Heart Hospital
1 Turtle Beach
2 Whirlpool of Blood
= 48 cards
ANALYSES
BY TYPE
19 Characters
14 Events
10 Feng Shui Sites
1 Sites
4 States
BY COST
12 0 cost
5 1 cost
9 2 cost
5 3 cost
2 4 cost
3 5 cost
2 6 cost
10 variable cost
1.92 average cost (excluding variable)
BY FIGHTING
3 1 fighting
7 2 fighting
1 3 fighting
1 4 fighting
2 6 fighting
3 8 fighting
2 10 fighting
4.21 average fighting (by character)
1.67 average fighting (by card)
BY FOUNDATION
8 Dragons
1 Monarchs
PERCENTAGES
19% Base resource
21% Feng Shui
2% Site
4% Chi
8% Magic
17% Tech
BY SET
24 Limited
10 Netherworld
14 Flashpoint
BY RARITY
3 Very Common
24 Common
5 Uncommon
16 Rare (33%)
BY FACTION
37 Dragons
1 Monarchs
10 Neutral
Joshua Kronengold
In article <EC902C9128FAB961.3296E4B3...@library-proxy.airnews.net>, Andrew S. Davidson wrote:
>WALK SOFTLY
>by Joshua Kronengold
>
>This is the big deck of 1997 - the winner of the US Nationals
>tournament at Gencon. Interesting then that it is one of the smallest
>decks to be published here - just 48 cards.
to keep it well bellow 60 cards.
>Joshua has used the deck for some time but is continually changing
>the exact mix. The overall concept remains the same though - seize
>an early advantage with cheap events like Final Brawl and "Now You've
>Made Us Mad" and then bring out "big sticks" like Ting Ting to win the
>game.
Sounds about right, though the deck certainly has some tricks in the
late and mid-game as well.
>The choice of foundation characters - Average Joe, Hacker and Stunt
>Man - is interesting. I would have thought that they were too few and
>too expensive to work well but I'm not used to playing a deck like
>this. Certainly the Hacker did good service for Joshua in one case - I
This is actually one of the concepts that I've been using since
ShadowFist hit the streets. In a deck like this (especially with the
character-enhancint states) your foundation characters should provide
some utility above and beyond just giving you resources.
1 They should be able to be enhanced into 5+ fighing guts
powerhouses with Baptisms and/or Claw of the Dragon.
2 They should be able to survive a final brawl.
3 They should be able to give you power when you're Mad,
4 They should, with the possible help of a Final Brawl, be able
to provide power with an early Dirk's Gambit.
5 They should make people fear attacking your Cave Network(s)
when you can't defend them.
Because of all this, I kept the 1 fighting characters out when I first
built the deck, and again decided to keep them out when flashpoint
gave us another 1 cost dragon foundation. The hackers, in fact, had
to claw and bite (as it were) their way into the deck, but have
finally managed inclusion, due to their numerous uses, (plus their
resource for Little Jim), given their ability to be reasonably
applicable for 1,3, 5, and the other two, if baptismed or clawed
>played Covert Op on him during a threatening attack and chose to make
>him discard the Charmed Life instead. I regretted this choice when he
>then burnt for power and hacked my Jellyfish - d'oh!
<grin> Charmed life might have been nice too, but the hacker was what
let me burn for power (which is one of the reasons they're there,
after all).
>with the redoubtable Dennis Heffernan. A man to be watched and a
>worthy champion.
Thanks Andrew.
And anyone who thinks this is the exact deck I'm playing now would do
best to count the cards in the current Walk Softly :)
--
mn...@dorsai.org Joshua Kronengold |\ _,,,--,,_ ,)
---^----"Unix is easy. Just like a cross between /,`.-'`' -, ;-;;'
/\\ English and Welsh. Except that you have to |,4- ) )-,_ ) /\
-/-\\\-- take out all the vowels" -- Me '---''(_/--' (_/-'