Flashpoint Finchley I - Report

by Andrew Davidson
September 2, 1996

Flashpoint Finchley was the first proper opportunity for London players to try out their new Flashpoint designs.  Flashpoint had only been on sale for two days but many players had already snapped up boxes of this long-awaited expansion.
The tournament was run alongside a Magic tournament at the regular Queen's Head meeting near Leisure Games - one of the top CCG retailers in London.  Despite this competition, there was a good turnout of players and the two tournaments were of a similar size.
The tournament used Daedalus's Final Brawl format - four player games with double elimination.  The games were given a time-limit of 90 minutes +/- 5 mins, with extra time for the 5-player final.  The time-limit was controlled by a face-down alarm clock.  When this Black Box "exploded" all games would finish immediately.  This system was used following previous complaints that completing a round of play after time was up resulted in an abnormal and unsatisfactory end-game.
In the event, only one game went the distance.  This was quite amusing.  Sandy Goh (Wily Duellist) was playing a tight Dangerous Experiment deck.  He had burnt three sites for victory and so was the likely winner on the time-out tie-break (number of FSS + double the FSS burnt for victory).  Unfortunately, his deck was down to its last two cards and so he had to nurse his remaining cards in play while praying for a time-out. Ron Wheelhouse (Gargantuan Sage), on the other hand, was playing his Really Big Deck.  This had 400+ cards and they formed a wobbling tower taller than a Flashpoint box on end!  He was cursing because he hadn't put even more cards in - for example a Curtain of Fullness - with which to finish Sandy's deck off.  Yuit Sum Vong (Moon Avenger) was putting together a winning play in her usual deliberate style when the Black Box froze time and Sandy took the victory.  She was then the one to curse...
I didn't make everyone record their deck but it seemed that many players were using the Architects as their main or only faction - there was more than one game where 3/4 of the players were Architect. The Dragons, on the other hand, were very thin on the ground - very surprising, given the shot-in-the-arm that Flashpoint has given them. Similarly, the Jammers, Monarchs and Ascended were rarely sighted.
The Losers were displaced to consolation games for signed cards while the final was a five player game for the Grand Prize - a matched pair of Arcanotowers - Now and Then.  A fitting struggle for control of the Architects' magnum opus.  The finalists were: 

Stephen Biggs  - Demon Inquisitor  - Hand/Lotus++
Sandy Goh      - Wily Duellist     - Architect/Hand
Tom Kassel     - Smoking Man       - Dragon/Lotus
Richard Martin - Mercenary Trader  - Hand
Alex Wargacki  - The Baron         - Architect
Tom was playing Dragon/Lotus but we never got to see much of this deck.  He was the winner of Flashpoint London and foolishly reminded everyone of this by wearing his prized Ting-Ting tee-shirt.  This made him Marked for Death and he was never given a chance to get established.
Sandy was playing the Dangerous Experiment deck described above - somewhat like Jose's Frankenstein Fu Monster.  He was the only undefeated player at this point but was now gun-shy and played cautiously rather than going for broke.
Richard and Alex were playing classic Hand and Architect decks respectively.  They built big power structures and had lots of potential but, to some extent, cancelled each other out.  In particular, Alex's favourite, Neutron Bomb, kept meeting Richard's favourite, Confucian Stability.
Steve's deck, Xiaoyang Yun's Gambit, is described in detail elsewhere. This kept the other players off-balance with characters like the Plasma Trooper and engaged Richard's deck in a Tranquil Persuader duel.  All the time, he was working up to a big power play with Xiaoyang Yun and when he made his move using a Tortured Sun Chen, the other players could only gawp and shrug.
Steve is perhaps the most enthusiastic Shadowfist players here but this is his first tournament victory - well done.  His sub-title, Demon Inquisitor, comes partly from his persistent questioning of the finer points of the rules, partly from his appearance, which has something of the dark, satanic quality of the Destroyer and partly from his play style which is always fierce, merciless and testing. He is much given to loud, dogmatic pronouncements in the Hefferman style but disagrees with Dennis on every issue of note to date.  If he ever gets onto Usenet too, you can expect the sparks to fly.
Thanks to all those who participated and to Marcus Pratt, the supporting dealer, for his assistance.  There will be a similar tournament at subsequent Queen's Head meetings which always take place on the last Saturday of each month.  To please Sandy and others, I would like to organise a two-player event, too, so please bring a two-player deck to future events.

Last modified: May 19, 1998.
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