FLYING FOXES
by Nithyan Thiruudaian

This is the deck that won Flashpoint Finchley 54. Nithyan has now won Flashpoint Finchley four times and he has always favoured the Hand, first winning number 14 with a mono-Hand deck back in Sept 97. Shih Ho Kuai was the big star of that first deck but he has been cut completely from this one. Instead, I'd say that The Iron Monkey is the star of this deck - he certainly did good work in this event.

The deck has grown from 81 cards to 98 cards over time but some of this may be accidental - Nithyan intended to take out the Virtuous Hoods. The only card which is not often seen is Fire on the Lake - an expensive edge. Nithyan likes this because it discourages attacks on him - perhaps he is starting to feel the heat as his reputation grows. And if players attack him anyway, the edge will provide power for a stopper event like Wing of the Crane or Blade Palm.

Nithyan tended to accumulate lots of power during his games and this was especially useful with the Tranquil Persuader. He requested another copy of this card as his prize and, happily, I was able to award him a Limited edition copy signed by the artist, Kaja Foglio. You can expect to find this in the deck now too.

The name for the deck is fitting. It seems that, whenever I play him, he sticks me with at least one copy of The Fox OutFoxed, and so it proved in the final here where he played one on my Paper Trail and followed this with another on my Family Estate. Flying foxes are bats which, in this case, resemble vampire bats - bloodsucking parasites! You also get superleapers flying back and forth with Contract of the Fox. Nithyan was able to rack up 3 quick burns for victory in one game with such tricks when the time limit was bearing down. The deck is designed for the long haul but can fly when it has to.

Guiding Hand

5 Confucian Stability
3 Fire in the Lake
1 Fist of Shadow
2 Fong Sai Yuk
5 Golden Candle Society
1 Green Senshi Chamber
1 Hung Hei Kwon
5 Instrument of the Hand
3 Into the Light
3 Iron and Silk
1 Kung Fu Student
1 Orange Senshi Chamber
1 Positive Chi
4 Red Monk
2 Righteous Fist
3 Rigorous Discipline
2 Robust Feng Shui
3 Shaolin Sanctuary
3 Shield of Pure Soul
2 Sun Chen
1 Temple of Boundless Meditation
2 The Iron Monkey
1 Tranquil Persuader
2 Virtuous Hood
3 Wind on the Mountain
1 Yellow Senshi Chamber

Chi

4 Blade Palm
3 Contract of the Fox
4 The Fox Outfoxed
4 Wing of the Crane Feng Shui

1 Dragon Mountain
1 Fox Pass
5 Inner Sanctum
1 Kinoshita House
1 Sacred Heart Hospital
1 Turtle Beach
4 Whirlpool of Blood
3 Puzzle Garden
1 Gambling House

Other

2 Pump-Action Shotgun
1 Secret Headquarters
1 White Ninja (new)

= 98 cards