After the Sealed Deck tournament on day 1 of Gencon, the Theme Deck tournament took place on day 2. The extra construction rule for this was that each deck had to contain at least 23 cards with a common designator. Some folk had the idea that Netherworld was not a valid designator for this purpose but this was not so. The players and their themes were:
Andrew Davidson Netherworld/Triumvirate Charlotte Henkle Abomination Dan Deerwester Demon David Deerwester Shaolin Jason Rownd Pledged Jeff Stolt Thunder Joshua Kronengold Netherworld Ken Kurpiel Fire Kevin Masterson Thunder Kirk O'Brien Cop Matt Wittman Martial Michael Nickoloff Hood Stefan Vincent Thunder Yuit Sum Vong FireHalf the decks were predominantly Four Monarchs and Thunder was the most popular theme. Monarchs are certainly a good choice for a theme tournament - they can use both Discerning Fire and the best counter to it - Brain Fire. The trouble is that Monarch decks are mostly Denial/Soldiers/State-tricks and without the Dragons' Final Brawls or Architects' Neutron Bombs, the Monarch-rich games tended to stalemate. This gave the organiser, Ron Kilby, a problem as the tournament format was double-elimination. The time-limit tie-breaks which had been announced were: first - burnt-for-victory, second - feng shui sites. The additional Daedalus tie-breaks were unfamiliar to most of the players and so Ron ruled that they would not be used to break tied-games. The result was that an extra round was required to get enough eliminations to determine the final.
The finalists were:
Andrew Davidson Toccata & Fugue: Royal Trumps
Michael Nickoloff West-side Story
Ken Kurpiel
(Fire)
Unfortunately, I didn't get a listing of Ken's deck but the other two
are listed here. I can guess what Ken's deck is like though, as Yuit was
playing a Fire deck too. The great thing about a Fire deck is that you
can play:
5 Brain Fire
5 Discerning Fire
5 Shattering Fire
as the bulk of your theme cards and none of these are vulnerable to
Discerning Fire as they are all events.
I was worried that a three-player game might be too fast for me but
everyone seemed to start slowly and it was Ken who bore the brunt of the
early skirmishing. My site structure developed well and as we reached the
middle game I had eight sites, including a Fox Pass, Whirlpool and Turtle
Beach and four edges - Molten Heart, Soul Maze, Counterfeit Heart and Art
of War. Generating 10 power a turn, things were looking good for me as
I was able to fend off the many attacks on my extended power base.
Ken made a big play with the Queen of Darkness but neglected to notice
my Soul Maze and she came to an unhappy end as my Darkness Priestess toasted
her. Unfortunately this meant that Ken had shot his bolt and I had to cope
with Mike's horde of Hoods by myself. Mike made a great play with We Know
Where You Live which put a stack of damage on me, gave him 4 power and
allowed him to recce my hand. Knowing that I had a Killing Rain in hand
was vital as I was holding this to take out my damaged front-row Whirlpool
which had been the target of many attacks. After I used up my denial sites
on his early attacks, he then brought out Luis Camacho (9 fighting) who
went unerringly for my turned Fox Pass to win.
In the post-mortem, we found that Ken had a Discerning Fire in hand
but with, only 1 power, was unable to play it. I had a pair of Queens coming
up next turn and would have been able to play them both. Ah, what might
have been ...
Still, there is no question that the best man won as both Ken and I
made slips while Mike seemed very cool and deadly. I'm not so sure about
his deck - I have never thought too much of the Hoods - but one can't argue
with success.
So, congratulations to Mike. Thanks too to Ron Kilby for running the
event and to Daedalus for sponsoring it.