The event was ably organised by Tom Luongo. It was in a semi-swiss style
to ensure a four player final - a pure double-elimination event could have
resulted in an awkward two-player conclusion. Each player started with
a sealed starter - I got a dream starter with lots of sites and Sacred
Heart Hospital/City Square as the rares - worth playing just for those
alone. After going through that, the players were grouped into 5/6 for
a Flashpoint Booster draft - take a card and pass the rest to your left.
This was very interesting - I eventually ended up with:
2 Flying Windmill Kick
1 Scrappy Kid
1 Plasma Trooper
1 Alchemist's Lair
1 Portal Jockey
1 Bzzzt
1 Disinformation Packet
and used all except the Jockey and the Lair. These cards definitely
gave one the punch-through needed for Sealed Deck - I particularly liked
the Plasma Trooper/FWK/Hospital combo.
I won the tie-break semi-final against Ken Kurpiel, Tim Gereau and Dan Deerwester to see who took the last spot in the final.
The finalists were:
Andrew Davidson
Brad Dubord
Ron Kilby
Yuit Sum Vong
I made an early attempt to steal a win with an Instrument of the Hand
and a concealed Flying Windmill Kick but this was prudently shot down by
the others. After that the game locked up - I had a hand full of big events
but no characters while the other three massed armies of foundation characters.
Ron eventually broke the logjam and opened up the game. After a bit more
skirmishing, Yuit made a big play for the win with a massed assault. All
her weenies were taken out by interceptors and her big hitters - the two
$10,000 Men - were taken out by City Square and Robust Feng Shui. Things
looked bad but, in her typical style, Yuit paused for effect and then brought
out her ace in the hole - the independent Gorilla Fighter. She had been
hoarding him for some time - aggressive discarding is a mistake in Sealed
Deck - and he now did the business for her - taking Ron's Mountain Retreat
for the win.
Yuit was a very worthy winner with four straight wins - no-one else
came close to this record. Details of her winning deck follow.
Last modified: January 16, 1998.
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