This is a long tournament report of the Mountain View Match Play Mini-Manafest tournament held Saturday 1:00 PM, 14-June-1997. The 7:00pm tournament was cancelled - most of the players went off to have lives, having played 5 hours of continuous Fist.
We had 9 players - we probably could have fielded 12 but Bryant and
Earl were out of town. The format was 3 rounds of 3 player, with the winner
receiving 2 points for each win. The top 4 finishers went into the final
game. A "wildcard" game was used to break ties for the 4th slot. The final
game was the only one which used tournament tiebreaker rules, and only
for 2nd and 3rd place prize distribution. Everyone still had a chance in
the tournament through the final round and only one person was sure to
make it into the final by the last round. I did not put a time limit on
the games, because we were told we had the tables as long as we needed
them. In retrospect, that was a mistake, as one deck caused very long 3-player
games, about 2-3x as long as everyone else, which messed up the flow of
action for everyone else.
Bernie vs Jan vs Mike
This game was a clash of titans, as the Queen of the Ice Pagoda changed
sides regularly, the Thing made his appearance, and the final battle was
won by the Thing striding to victory, contemptuously rolling over a Mysteriously
Returned Queen of the Ice Pagoda (with a little help from a timely Shattering
Fire). Jan collected 2 points, and Mike retired from competition.
Travis vs John vs Randy
There was more power in this game than you could shake a stick at.
The endless Bull Markets left Travis's Tunnel Gangers the masters of the
playing field, and ensured that Randy could win any auction, since his
deck was designed to run on very little power and could not possibly spend
the influx. Travis was foiled turn after turn because there were not enough
sites on the board for him to win, and he could only play one, and any
site he played was taken or Suicided before his next turn. After a very
tense game, where all three people were in danger of decking, (and the
Art of War was moving around the table...) Travis put together a winning
attack in a gamble which would have caused him to deck the next turn. Travis
took a well deserved 2 points, and no one wanted to face Randy's deck.
Tomasi vs Bernie vs Randall
Tomasi discovered the weakness of Bull Market which Bryant exploited
at Pacificon. If you feed power to decks with really big thugs you will
get pounded. Bernie, fed by his own excellent power generation plus Tomasi's
deck (might have been only 1 Bull Market, but 5 power is 5 power) muscled
past the Ascended and Architect denial for the victory. Bernie's deck is
very resistant to events, so you have to get characters on the board. The
Sucker Rounds were only large, not huge, and Wing of the Crane dealt with
some of the interceptors. Bernie moved to 2 points, everyone else was still
at zero.
Chris vs Quan vs John
Quan had a quiet game, partly because he was to John's left and John
tends to pount the crap out of Quan whenever they are in the same game.
The Man respects Quan's strength I guess. This game featured Homo Omega
taking sites at will until the White Ninja borrowed some Sucker Rounds
from the Buro and put a hit on him. John won the game without even realizing
it, quietly taking a site and continuing his turn. Before he declared End
of Turn, he realized he had won. I had to make a ruling there, since all
3 players had allowed the attack to succeed without any noticing that it
was for the win. If John had declared End of Turn, he would have had to
keep playing, although he would remain 1 site from victory even ifhe lost
a site. Tournament rules are that if a mistake is missed until the next
turn has begun, it stands. There is no rule that says you have to declare
victory as soon as you take the last site, so John won and scored his first
2 points, with Quan and Chris remaining at zero.
Travis vs Jan vs Scott
The Winners table was decided by the draw, as Travis got a good start,
and Jan and Scott failed to draw the required combination of sites + foundation
characters. Travis proved yet again that you can't let Jammers burn sites
for power early if you expect the game to go more than 5 or 6 turns. Travis
moved to 4 points, and was reasonably assured of a spot in the final round.
Jan and Scott stayed at 2 points. Round 3. I don't think I got the match
ups quite right, as several people played people from a previous round.
I was having trouble focusing on the issue, and finally just tried to ensure
that the point totals were the same at every table so everyone had the
best chance to get to the finals.
Randall vs Scott vs Bernie
Without the help from Bull Markets and with Scotts defensively oriented
deck, Bernie was unable to force a victory the usual way. Randall had weird
distribution, he spent the first half of the game with 4 Feng Shui's in
play, lots of power and no Dark Travellers (his deck's only hitter). This
game was a grueling affair, ending with Bernie decking both Scott and Randall.
Bernie's deck is small, but his hitters are so powerful and hard to stop
that Scott and Randall had to use lots of cards every turn to keep him
from winning. Bernie advanced to the final with 4 points, Scott moved to
the wildcard game with 2 and Randall was eliminated (much to the relief
of the other winners, since it was nearing 5 and we had two games yet to
play).
Chris vs Travis vs Tomasi
Chris's deck was in its element in this game. The game was decided
by the following formula: 2 Bull Markets = 1 Reinvigoration Process + 1
Fusion Tank + 1 Desdimona. Expensive for 9 fighting and Ambush, but if
your power is provided free from your enemies, why not. Travis, with 4
points made the final in spite of his loss, Chris moved to the wildcard
game and Tomasi vowed to return with a different deck.
John vs Jan vs Quan
I should have separated John and Quan, since he had to play both games
agains John, who proved a deadly opponent, even though Quan was to his
right in this game. Jan was not the sort of opponent you could leave alone,
and his Thug + Evil Twin combination won the day. He probably also benefited
from the Bull Markets more than Quan did, since his deck was stuffed with
big hitters. Jan made the final, John took his Juicer deck to the wildcard
game and Quan went back to running his tournament for some other CCG.
Most of the players in the Saturday tournament can't make the Sunday tournament (real life and rpg's are getting in the way), but some promised to try to get new people to show, so Sunday we will either Fist for fun or have another tournament if enough people show.
Last modified: January 23, 1998.
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