Torrance 'Fist - March 1999
by Stefan Vincent
March 14, 1999
Coastal Games, Saturday, March 13th
Multiplayer, Sealed Deck, booster draft
The Cast:
Tim McCann,
drafting Dragons, Lotus and Architects
Matt Widmann, "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Deck" drafting Hand and Lotus
(like last time)
Ray Clouse,
drafting Dragons and Architects and a few Jammers
Stefan Vincent, "Strange Bedfellows," drafting
Ascended and Lotus
Victor Luk,
drafting a lot of stuff
Lissa Vincent, "Homo Horror,"
drafting Architects and Lotus
As usual, everybody started with a sealed Standard deck to check out
before the drafting - a couple of rare feng shui's showed up (Sacred Heart,
Fox Pass) and three people got rocks - only one rare. We drafted the 6
standard boosters next and saw a very odd thing (that came back to haunt
us later) - every one of the rare feng shui sites showed up except the
Red Lantern (I think - maybe somebody even got that), sometimes in multiple.
Matt got a Kinoshita House, City Square and a Fox Pass. I got a Turtle
Beach and a Fox Pass. We also saw Hanging Coffins :) What we didn't get
was a wide variety of medium-large hitters or interesting events. Tim ended
up with 3 Flying Guillotines but he made up for that with a King of the
Thunder Pagoda. Ray got a Zheng Yi Quan. I got a Power of the Great. Yay.
The Flashpoint boosters were also productive - out of the 12 boosters,
Ray got a Little Jim (!) and Lissa got a Rhys Engel. I don't know who ended
up with the Arcanotower... We busily put our decks together and were ready
to roll by about 2:30 (we started late, of course).
Round 1
First round sat randomly as usual, two groups of three. Table 2 finished
on time, with Tim's Lotus assault force finally overwhelming Matt's weenie
horde and Lissa's architects. Table 1 timed out after much back-and-forth
between Ray and Stefan, unfortunately timing out as Victor was about to
mount an assault that would have gotten 1 or even 2 of Ray's sites. Stefan
got the win on the tie break by virtue of the one burned-for-victory site.
Scores after round 1:
Stefan (1) 6 Tim (1) 8
Ray 5
Lissa 6
Victor 2 Matt
4
Round 2
Round two sat by score, with Tim and Lissa moving to table 1. Ray powered
his way to victory at table 2, overwhelming Matt and Victor. Table 1 saw
the quick burn for power by Tim (darn Hallowed Grounds are too small),
followed by the stealthy Gruff Lieutenant + Explosives combo for payback
as Stefan burned one of Tim's for victory. Lissa suffered extreme deck
stall and didn't actually get in the game for the first five (!) turns.
Ugh. Game slowed a bit for the building phase, but then Stefan's Monkey
King popped out and ruined Tim's and Lissa's day. Eventually the Shadowy
Mentors and Killdeers turned up at the right time and Stefan got the win.
Scores after round 2:
Stefan (2) 14 Ray (1) 13
Tim (1) 13 Victor
7
Lissa 9 Matt
8
Round 3
Round three saw Ray move up and Lissa move down. Stefan's Monkey King again
showed up to rain on Tim's parade at table 1 (but also had the double-use
of saving his own good Lotus cards), again with the Shadowy Mentor plus
the Tooth of Snake and Walker of the Purple Twilight able to grab the win.
Table 2 timed out after a long brutal game, which saw Lissa get her Homo
Omega out (!) only to be promptly Natural Ordered by Matt... At the buzzer
Matt got the win by virtue of his one burned-for-victory counter in what
otherwise would have been a dead three way tie. Scores after round 3:
Stefan (3) 22 Matt (1)
14
Ray (1) 15.5 Lissa
13.5
Tim (1) 15.5 Victor
11.5
Ray and Victor needed to leave, but after much discussion they decided
Ray had time to stay and play the finals (doh!). With Lissa and Victor
out, we settled in for a four player final that (thanks to all those denial
feng shui sites mentioned earlier) dragged on an incredible two hours before
we all got sloppy. Now I know what it feels like to play a game in New
York or London...
Finals
Game started oddly, with Stefan revealing Matt's first-turn Proving Ground.
Matt had planned ahead and saved a power and managed to put down another
feng shui site behind it. Stefan tried the quick grab with Gruff Lt. +
Explosives, but got denied by Matt's new Fox Pass (!) Game turned into
a slow build for a while, then when Ray tried to assault Matt's Proving
Ground again, he revealed his other feng shui site - Kinoshita House (!).
That basically locked up the game, since no one could get past both sites
with enough left to hit anywhere, and people started piling up defenders
for lack of anything else to do. Folks sometimes grabbed a non-feng shui
site or two, but everyone just built up to four sites and held on to their
limited denial while Matt built up enough to try for a win. About 45 minutes
later, he was ready to try it. He Lodge Politic'd Stefan's Shadowy Mentor
that was controlling Ray's 10K man + Disintegrator Ray, and Tortured Memories
Ray's PubOrd Office in the Aircar to flesh out his team, then came after
Stefan's exposed Hallowed Ground (darn!) with 3 body remaining. Tim's entire
armada, less the Walking Corpses, valiantly threw themselves in the way,
taking out most of the cheese, but his Silver Band got Killdeered. Stefan
tried to Killdeer Matt's opposing Fist of the Bear in return, but Matt
Confucian Stabilized that (his only mistake! little did he know that he
really wanted to keep that...). The big hitters were still on the way through,
and we had to fail the attack because he had saved two Shaolin Warriors
and two Military Commandants for follow-up. Stefan's Might of the Elephant
(at 14! in sealed deck! that tells you how long we built up...) took out
the 10K man, and the Liquidators+Demon Within took the PubOrdAircar,
leaving Matt with what looked like a win - except for Stefan's Suicide
Mission. Doh. Pop goes the target, leaving Matt with a failed attack instead.
Ray then took a shot at Stefan's weakened Inner Sanctum, after double Napalm
Sunrising Matt's Kinoshita House off the table (yay!) but didn't have enough
to get it. Stefan had been accumulating power for too long, and was going
to deck soon, so he of course took his best shot. He played a new feng
shui site, Kun Kan had a Faked Death, Mr. X entered play and grabbed one
of Matt's Military Commandants, and joined the Might with a Shadowy Horror
and a couple of other weenies in an assault on Ray's exposed Jagged Cliffs
with 7 body remaining. Tim and Matt's remaining forces jumped in front,
of course, almost killing Kun Kan courtesy of the Silver Band's Golden
Comeback - except that good old Monkey King bounced him back to Stefan's
hand first. Matt's fox pass rerouted Might, leaving Stefan to hit for 6
points. Kun Kan came back into play and ran for the remaining one point,
but Ray's Booby Trap blew up the Cliffs first (doh!). The actual win, of
course, came for Tim, since everyone had used up all of their cards by
that point. Tim put down a couple of generic characters, and with his remaining
Walking Corpses, had his choice of sites for the win. A bit anti-climactic
at that point, but that's the name of the game sometimes. Congratulations
to Tim!
Tim 1st
Stefan 2nd
Matt 2nd
Ray 2nd
Last modified: April 1, 1999.
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