Maidenhead Sealed Deck - Report

by Andrew Davidson & notes by Andy Holt November 25, 1997

Here are some notes on the Shadowfist Sealed Deck tournament at Maidenhead yesterday. There was a modest turnout - comparable with the Magic Sealed Deck but enough for a good time. The system was to give each player a starter and then allow trading with a Flashpoint booster draft pool after each game.

The most unpopular cards which were discarded after this process were:
8 Mooks
5 Auspicious Termites
4 Family Restaurant
3 Chimpanzer
3 Helix Rethread
3 Hill of the Turtle
3 Shattering Fire
2 "Now You've Made Us Mad"
2 Cheap Punks
2 Dance of the Centipede
2 Edge Warrior
2 Illusory Bridge
2 Inauspicious Reburial
2 PubOrd Officer
2 PubOrd Squad
2 Stolen Police Car
2 Swordsman
2 Too Much Monkey Business

Not all of the discards were useless cards - I would have particularly liked the one discarded Drunken Stance myself. We need some way of making these discards available for further drafting - suggestions are welcome.
We played 5 rounds of 2 and 3 player games. Each game gave 1 point per player + 1 point for an outright win.

The final scoreboard was:

Andy Holt       12
Tom Kassel      11
Andrew Davidson 9
David Adlington 7
Yuit Sum Vong   7
Colin Burton    4
John Garrett    3
Shawn Slamaker  1
Arthur Howlin   0

Andy had to leave early but was still the easy winner - undefeated in 4 games. His prize was a White Ninja - well done.
The best novice was David Adlington and his prize was a Legendsbooster. This lure was offered too late to get more of the Magic players to cross-over but there was plenty of interest and I'll promote this harder next time.

Here are some notes from Andy about his winning deck. It seems that it was the Sun Chen that won it ...
Feng Shui
Cave Network x2
Family Home
Inner Sanctum
Marsh
Stone Garden x2
Turtle Island *nu*
Neutral
Ancient Grove
Really Big Gun
Chi
Armoured in Life
Claw of the Tiger (Replaced an Inauspicious Reburial *nu* after Healing Earth the last round)
Whirlwind Strike
Wing of the Crane
Guiding Hand
Gardener
Golden Candle Society
Green Monk
Instrument of the Hand
Iron and Silk
Natural Order *nu*
Rigorous Discipline
Sun Chen *MVP*
Shaolin Master *nu* - see below
Shaolin Monk
Swordsman
Wind on the Mountain
Dragon
Average Joe
Chinese Doctor *nu*?
Everyday Hero
Friends of the Dragon
House on the Hill
Last Outpost
Lotus
Eunuch Underling
Infernal Temple
Sinister Priest
Thorns of the Lotus
Tortured Memories
Vassals of the Lotus
Architects
Plasma Trooper

Cards marked *nu* I cannot remember having played

Opening up the starter, I saw Sun Chen & thought *#%@ - I'll never have the resources to use him. Then I discovered that I not only had quite a good collection of Hand resources, but also the Shaolin Master. That made the whole thing look better. A Tortured Memories meant that I should play some Lotus; Chinese Doctor implied Dragons were useful. No brilliant cards in other factions so I had a 3 faction deck that was reasonably compact (approx 40) - just as well because there were only 9 FS sites in the starter, and one was a Family Restaurant.
In the first game I had just played Sun Chen and was playing the Shaolin Master when time ran out - all players on 4 Feng Shui sites. A particularly useless Flashpoint booster gave nothing that helped the deck.
Second game, I had Sun Chen + Green Monk in play having burned one FS for victory and expecting to complete the job on my next turn - also had Tortured Memories in hand ... but one of the players took 8 of the remaining 10 minutes completing her turn so I had to settle for a lesser victory (3 FS + 1 burned for victory, vs 4FS, vs 3FS)
This Flashpoint booster had Plasma Trooper <fx: immediate grab with almost no thought required> and Wing of the Crane <a reluctant choice, but better than the card I threw in>
In the third game, the Wing of the Crane prevented Arthur sneaking a win with a Mutoid onto which he had Rigorously Disciplined Ambush from a Midnight Whisperer. On my immediately following turn, I played the Plasma Trooper, Rigorous Disciplined it onto an Everyday Hero and turned both to attack a Family Restaurant - add in Last Outpost and the mass of weenies could do nothing.
Again a not very exciting booster - Turtle Island replaced some other site.
The final game went very easy when one player almost cleared the table with a Final Brawl, then I played Sun Chen and took an already damaged Hallowed Earth.
Final result: 2 Games - victory inside time limit
1 Sole winner on Tie Break - would have won next turn
1 Draw - would probably have won that turn

Last modified: March 11, 1998.
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