Gateway 1998 - Report
by Stefan Vincent
September 10, 1998
Saturday Night: Sealed Deck
The good, the bad, and the attractiveness-challenged:
Jason Jung, dragged back into Shadowfist by his rabid friends
Randy Trepp, playing a menagerie he called "Arkee-teks"
Tim McCann, actually drafting for those Jammers...
Ray Clouse, affectionately naming his deck "Sealed"
Frank Bustamante, deprived of sleep and playing like it :)
Eric Kam, played "Sealed!" (*not* the same as Ray's - note the exclamation point)
Mike Nickoloff, playing the un-named and rather lame thing he put together :)
Victor Luke, going with "Sealed" as well
Stefan Vincent, playing "I Got A Queen!"
Cheap fist was had by all - $4 for a standard deck, a standard booster,
and 3 flashpoint boosters. We did things a little different this time -
everyone opened their starters and sorted through what they had, then we
drafted the boosters (open a pack, take one card of your choice, pass the
pack to the next person, repeat). A new concept to some folks, but very
amusing, I think. As usual, you were allowed to retune your decks between
rounds, too.
One lesson I learned about drafting Shadowfist - check your Feng Shui
Sites. I made a little pile of the ones that came in the starter but assumed
I had plenty as you normally would get from a starter; after the draft
(I picked up a Birdhouse Cafe and a Turtle Island, too) I had only 12 FSS.
Not the assortment I wanted to choose from, since that meant the Lily Pond
and Family Restaurant had to go in...
Round 1
We put aside about 20 minutes or so to make decks, then sat randomly in
groups of three. At table 3, Ray drew first blood against Eric but I managed
to get the site and an early burn for power, and never slowed down. Eric
ended up being the whupping boy; we were finished in about 15 minutes so
both Ray and Eric used the extra time to retune their decks and we played
again. At table 2 Tim's monkey-lovers rolled around in their Homemade Tanks
for the win, and table 1 (the slow table) gradually ground down leaving
Frank in the winner's seat. Scores after round 1:
Frank (1) 8 Tim M. (1) 8 Stefan (1) 8
Jason J. 5 Randy 5 Ray 3
Mike N. 3 Victor 3 Eric 1
Round 2
Second round matched up the winners; this game my Queen of the Ice Pagoda
made an appearance to seal the win for me, leaving Tim and Frank tied.
At table 2, Jason muscled his way to a win despite not knowing what he
was doing, and at the kiddie table, Eric got a win (did you get your King
out Eric? I forget). Scores after round 2:
Stefan (2) 16 Jason J. (1) 13 Eric (1) 9
Tim M. (1) 10.5 Randy 11 Ray 9
Frank (1) 10.5 Mike N. 6 Victor 6
Round 3
So Jason moved up to the big boy's table; Frank moved down by random draw,
and Ray stayed at the kiddie table by random draw as well. Round 3 was
very interesting - I was the complete and utter whupping boy at table 1,
at the mercy of Tim's monkeys-in-tanks. Table 2 saw Frank's chances crushed
as Randy rolled over the opposition, and Ray's win at table 3 wasn't quite
enough to get him into the finals... Scores after round 3:
Tim M. (2) 18.5 Randy (1) 19 Ray (1) 17
Jason J. (1) 19 Eric (1) 12 Mike N. 11
Stefan (2) 19 Frank (1) 11.5 Victor 10
Final
which gave us a clear set of finalists with a three-way tie for first and
Tim close behind. We had quite the interesting game, with a few folks sticking
around to watch. We all started pretty slowly, but we did build up to some
fun stuff - I got out an early Lotus team, with the Walking Corpses leading
me to the first site. Looked like I was going to do some serious damage,
but then Randy played Wind Across Heaven and totally, completely parked
my Lotus goons in front of my sites. I was playing about half Lotus so
that really hurt me. I spent quite a few turns just playing sites while
I dug for characters that wouldn't get wiped out when they tried to do
something. In the meantime, other folks had a chance to build a bit. Tim
brought out the Green Monk for some kung-fuing, then layed the Shadowfist
on him (yes, really. The Shadowfist. from a sealed deck. I didn't believe
it either). He was looking like he had just won the game, with a now unstoppable
hitter unless somebody had a nerve gas (unlikely, but maybe Randy could
get it). Unfortunately, his chances dropped immensely when the Monk joined
my Lodge on the next turn - a Shadowy Mentor was all the incentive I needed
to play Ascended. And now I had a non-Lotus hitter. I had also saved enough
power to get the Queen out, but there was enough trash on the board that
I couldn't get more than one site, so I was also forced to use Tortured
Memories to borrow Tim's Red Monk in the Homemade Tank (thereby giving
him Superleap; good for me) taking me to 2 sites burned. The Red went home
at the end of the turn; without Tank of course since the Queen just couldn't
let such a dangerous toy stick around. Tim made another bid for the win,
Superleaping over Jason's only defender to go for his unknown site, and
of course another Homemade Tank popped out. Too bad Jason's site was -
doh - a Marsh! In the course of the next turn, we managed to damage but
not destroy Jason's Marsh, leaving it with three or four body. When my
turn rolled around, there was no character bigger than a 4 left, so the
Shadowfist-ed Green Monk just moseyed over and grabbed hisself a Marsh.
Nobody had any events to stop him, but I also had a Year of the Rat ready
in case something odd happened. So I won the game, courtesy of Tim's characters
(sounds familiar, doesn't it?).
Sunday Afternoon: Constructed Deck, Multiplayer
The cast of characters:
Randy "Arkee-Teqs" (no, not the sealed one) Architects, of course
Travis Ball "Ace in the Hole" straight Ascended denial/control
Jason Jung "Hold On I'm Thinking" Dragons thugs
Jason Yang borrowing my Dragon/Architect cop deck
Frank playing the borrowed Dragons guts/states deck from Tim
Mike N. "We Control the Future" Architects Dangerous Experiment
Eric Kam "Fire + Ice" Monarchs
Brandon playing Dragons with a dash of CHAR for spice
Stefan "Borg" (ok, so I didn't have time to make a new deck. Next time) Peacock
Tim M. playing an unnamed straight Ascended deck rather similar to Travis'
Round 1
With 10 folks playing, we set up a game of 4 and a pair of 3s, but scored
all as games of 4. The lucky foursome at table 1 saw Jason Y. successfully
Jedi-mind-trick Tim into thinking I was the target, leaving Jason J. time
to build slowly. When the dust settled, none of us had anything left to
stop Jason's simple attack for the win. Doh. At table 2, Frank's borrowed
Dragons deck worked the Architects and Monarchs into submission - although
Randy's CHARs were busily chewing up Eric's Fire characters... And at table
3 Brandon's thugs kicked in faster than Mike's Dangerous Experiments, leaving
Brandon with the win as described by Mike:
"Brandon and Mike both took one site from Travis early on, putting
Brandon at 4 sites and Mike at 3. After one turn around the table, Mike
attempted to take a site from Brandon and missed. Mike allowed Travis to
take the site from Brandon; he burned it for power to get back into the
game. Travis repeated this on his next turn (taking a site from Mike) and
had amassed quite a bit of power. Travis had a Might of the Elephant and
Adrienne Hart, but was unable to take a fourth site. Brandon then Golden
Comebacked CHAR, and on his turn, layed a CHAR and went for the win. Mike
was able to Discerning Fire "CHAR" and stop Brandon. Mike Arcanotechician'ed
a Pocket Demon, and tried for the win on his turn. However, it was moot
as Travis Roar of the Beast'ed the Pocket Demon. Travis layed a site and
went for the win on his turn. However, Adrienne left home without a gas
mask (Nerve Gas) and Might of the Elephant was toasted, (Bzzzzt!) complete
with sound effects ;>. Brandon then summoned his heroine, Ting Ting, and
took his final site from Mike for the win!"
Scores after round 1:
Jason J. (1) 9 Frank (1) 9 Brandon (1) 9
Stefan 6 Randy 7 Travis 6.5
Tim M. 4 Eric 2 Mike N. 6.5
Jason Y. 2
Round 2
Round two saw the high scores placed at table 1 (everyone but Jason J.
leaving) where Jason was able to continue his streak and leaving the other
three in a three-way tie for second. At table 2 Travis came up 1 point
short of taking my Peacock Summit (you'd think 17 points of damage would
be enough, wouldn't you?) leaving Mike in a good position for a win, which
he did on the tiebreak since we timed out during the turn I was going to
mount my winning attack (I hope. Oh well.). I did get to have a lot of
fun with Shaolin Surprise along the way, I must admit. At table 3 Eric's
Fire deck started rolling but not soon enough - he got the win on the tiebreak
when the time ran out. Scores after round 2:
Jason J. (2) 18 Mike N. (1) 13.5 Eric (1) 9
Brandon (1) 13 Stefan 12 Tim M. 10
Frank (1) 13 Travis 11.5 Jason Y. 5
Randy 11
Round 3
At this point Jason Y. dropped out, not seeing a future for himself in
this game. We resat in three tables of three; with only Jason J. assured
a spot in the finals, it was all up for grabs. After an amazing amount
of back-and-forth at table 1, Jason J. continued his streak with another
solid win; here's the way Mike described it:
"Jason Jung (2 time winner), Brandon and Mike all battled it out on
the top table. Jason had a slow start, as his first three resources were
Darkness Priestesses (his deck is mostly Dragon), but generated a ton of
power from his 4 site structure and from the sacrificing from Mike's Vivisectors.
Both Mike and Brandon took advantage of this by Pocket Demoning Jason for
4 regularly, and by taking his sites. Brandon had a chance for the win,
but made a huge error. He discarded a Hacker late in the game, which allowed
Mike to Bzzzzt! (with sound effects) a Yakuza Enforcer, that stopped Brandon
from winning the game. Mike was unable to win on his turn. Jason summoned
the Queen of the Ice Pagoda, and took his final site easily -- Both Mike
and Brandon were void of stoppers."
At table two Frank fought his way to Travis' front-row Kinoshita House
and kept rolling from there. He quickly built to four sites, and when I
mentored his Average Joe (with Baptism of Fire) and Shaolin Surprised the
Mentor that Travis had put on Frank's Stuntman (everyone needs to join
the Lodge sometime) plus attacked with my Golden Candle Society, I thought
I'd be able to get at least one site. Some event work by Frank left me
with only my Golden Candle Society - the Stuntman with Shotgun had been
Vivisected for power and the GCS was suddenly riding in a MegaTank, hoping
to knock Frank down a bit when Travis sleepily played an Operation Killdeer
on him. I didn't understand why, but I had enough power for a Neutron Bomb
so wasn't worried too much - until Frank put down Jason X and my Bomb now
cost 4, which I didn't have. Doh. Game to Frank. At table 3, Randy took
advantage of the kiddies and CHARed them into submission. Scores after
round 3:
Jason J. (3) 27 Frank (2) 22 Randy (1) 20
Mike N. (1) 19.5 Stefan 17 Tim M. 16
Brandon (1) 18 Travis 14.5 Eric (1) 13
Final
Leaving us with four clear high-scorers for the final. I had to get some
dinner so I bailed out, but Mike was kind enough to send me some comments
about the final:
Jason Jung (3 time winner), Frank, Mike and Randy (who made it from
the kiddie table!) battled it out in a showdown of good (Frank, Jason playing
Dragons) vs evil (Mike, Randy playing Architects of the Flesh). Jason had
a worse start, this time starting with a Darkness Priestess and no sites
for quite some time. However, it looked that Jason's lapse from playing
Shadowfist hurt him, as he did not discard as heavily as needed. Randy
had character problems too; however he always seemed to have a stopper
available when needed. Frank started the assault early with a Stunt Man
with a Claw of the Dragon. This allowed him to take one site for an early
lead. Mike, on his turn, played a CHAR and Gnarled Attuner, and went after
Frank. Frank revealed a front-row Kinoshita House and sent the Attuner
home. However, he didn't realize that CHAR would still be successful in
the first attack. Mike took the site and burned it for victory; 2 away
from the game. Randy built up to 4 feng shui sites and a Secret HQ, but
no hitters. Jason summoned alot of weenies but they only put 4 damage on
one of Mike's Inner Sanctums. Frank followed up Jason's attack on the Inner
Sanctum, but the big Stunt Man was stopped by a Police State from Mike.
Randy stopped Mike's attack by both Imprisioning CHAR and the Gnarled Attuner.
The table stabilized for a full cycle around the table, with everyone now
at victory conditions. Frank went for the win on his turn, but Mike was
able to stop him. Mike then played the CHAR and the Attuner from before
and went to take Randy's Creche of the New Flesh for the win!"
Last modified: October 2, 1998.
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