[FIST] Gencon 97 - Theme Deck tournament report

[Andrew S. Davidson]

After the Sealed Deck tournament on day 1 of Gencon, the Theme Deck
tournament took place on day 2. The extra construction rule for this
was that each deck had to contain at least 23 cards with a common
designator. Some folk had the idea that Netherworld was not a valid
designator for this purpose but this was not so. The players and
their themes were:

Andrew Davidson Netherworld/Triumvirate
Charlotte Henkle Abomination
Dan Deerwester Demon
David Deerwester Shaolin
Jason Rownd Pledged
Jeff Stolt Thunder
Joshua Kronengold Netherworld
Ken Kurpiel Fire
Kevin Masterson Thunder
Kirk O'Brien Cop
Matt Wittman Martial
Michael Nickoloff Hood
Stefan Vincent Thunder
Yuit Sum Vong Fire

Half the decks were predominantly Four Monarchs and Thunder was the
most popular theme. Monarchs are certainly a good choice for a theme
tournament - they can use both Discerning Fire and the best counter to
it - Brain Fire. The trouble is that Monarch decks are mostly
Denial/Soldiers/State-tricks and without the Dragons' Final Brawls or
Architects' Neutron Bombs, the Monarch-rich games tended to stalemate.

This gave the organiser, Ron Kilby, a problem as the tournament format
was double-elimination. The time-limit tie-breaks which had been
announced were: first - burnt-for-victory, second - feng shui sites.
The additional Daedalus tie-breaks were unfamiliar to most of the
players and so Ron ruled that they would not be used to break
tied-games. The result was that an extra round was required to get
enough eliminations to determine the final.

My Triumvirate deck was a 166 card monster - deliberately chosen as a
foreign curiosity to entertain the natives. I even added a few extra
cards before the first game to general amusement. The first game
broke well for me though and first a Queen and then a King stomped all
over the others to give me a quick win. I held my own in the games
that followed and so made the cut for the final.

The finalists were:

Andrew Davidson Toccata & Fugue: Royal Trumps
Michael Nickoloff West-side Story
Ken Kurpiel (Fire)

Unfortunately, I didn't get a listing of Ken's deck but the other two
are listed here. I can guess what Ken's deck is like though, as Yuit
was playing a Fire deck too. The great thing about a Fire deck is
that you can play:

5 Brain Fire
5 Discerning Fire
5 Shattering Fire

as the bulk of your theme cards and none of these are vulnerable to
Discerning Fire as they are all events.

I was worried that a three-player game might be too fast for me but
everyone seemed to start slowly and it was Ken who bore the brunt of
the early skirmishing. My site structure developed well and as we
reached the middle game I had eight sites, including a Fox Pass,
Whirlpool and Turtle Beach and four edges - Molten Heart, Soul Maze,
Counterfeit Heart and Art of War. Generating 10 power a turn, things
were looking good for me as I was able to fend off the many attacks on
my extended power base.

Ken made a big play with the Queen of Darkness but neglected to notice
my Soul Maze and she came to an unhappy end as my Darkness Priestess
toasted her. Unfortunately this meant that Ken had shot his bolt and
I had to cope with Mike's horde of Hoods by myself. Mike made a great
play with We Know Where You Live which put a stack of damage on me,
gave him 4 power and allowed him to recce my hand. Knowing that I had
a Killing Rain in hand was vital as I was holding this to take out my
damaged front-row Whirlpool which had been the target of many attacks.
After I used up my denial sites on his early attacks, he then brought
out Luis Camacho (9 fighting) who went unerringly for my turned Fox
Pass to win.

In the post-mortem, we found that Ken had a Discerning Fire in hand
but with, only 1 power, was unable to play it. I had a pair of Queens
coming up next turn and would have been able to play them both. Ah,
what might have been ...

Still, there is no question that the best man won as both Ken and I
made slips while Mike seemed very cool and deadly. I'm not so sure
about his deck - I have never thought too much of the Hoods - but one
can't argue with success.

So, congratulations to Mike. Thanks too to Ron Kilby for running the
event and to Daedalus for sponsoring it.

Andrew