Mini-ManaFest - Report III

by Brad Solberg
June 17, 1997

This is a long tournament report of the Mountain View Match Play Mini-Manafest tournament held Sjnday 7:00 PM, 15-June-1997. Most of the players from the 1:00 PM tournament remained - the difference from Saturday is partly that the drivers wanted to stay.

We had 8 players again, with one new player and one person (Quan) dropping out. Quan's Battletech tournament sucked two other Fist players away, and we were unable to do anything meaningful with the schedule to prevent the conflict.  I tried 3 rounds of 4 player again. This time 6 different players won a game. Facing the prospect of 2 elimination rounds to determine a final, two people accepted Netherworld boosters to drop out and leave the larger prizes to the die-hards. One game ended due to time limits, the other 5 finished in time, and the final had no time limit. People switched to decks with lower denial and were more disciplined about victory, so the games in general were crisper.
 

The contenders:

Tomasi Akiyeta Jr, with "Men in Black" (formerly Backstabbing Polititian) (Bull Market + Sucker Rounds + Ascended/Architect Tricks)
Jan Macina with a Hood deck, with Shadowy Mentors and no denial
Ken Ho with a fast Dragon deck.
Abe Gardner with "Phoebe" an Architect/Jammer thug deck
Doug Gardner with "Hookers in the Netherworld" - Bloody Hordes, Feast of Souls, Thing with 1000 Tongues, Monarch Queens & Glimpses
Robert Klemik with "New Blood" a standard set Dragon thug deck with most of the good dragon events & some Flashpoint foundations.
Will Kane with "3 for 4", a Dragon/Architect deck consisting of mostly 3-4 resource requiring medium hitters.
Josh Holmstrom, with Abombinations Unlimited, a Proving Ground/Vivisector Abombination recycling deck.
 

Round 1

Ken vs Robert vs Jan vs Tomasi
Jan's Hood deck came out roaring, partly because he put two Cave Networks out front and both got plinked. Combined with his Cheap Punks, he got many price breaks on his characters, and soon had a small army. To his (and everyone else's) surprise, his "for fun" hood deck dominated the other three decks and forced its way to victory.

Abe vs Will vs Doug vs Josh
This game was played in a style similar to the first tournament, where everyone would beat up the leader and then deny any attempts to play one and win. The problem with the strategy in this game is that the hitting power was not equal to the task when Will established himself as an early leader. Will went for the win with 4 feng shuis, most of which were badly damaged, and pushed through to victory against a field that had shot its wad trying to take his fourth site away. The first round ended with Jan and Will looking as dominant as in the 1:00 tournament.
 

Round 2

Ken vs Abe vs Rob vs Will
Abe's deck managed to get an advantage, keeping his site structure small and burning for power twice in a row. The usual counter-attack strategy was not possible, as he had turned thugs to protect his only sites. People concentrated on other threats on their turns and were very startled when he ended the game by taking three sites in one turn. This sort of play is more common at Match Play than where Abe plays, because they sometimes don't allow burning for power. Abe had clearly adapted to the new environment, and he showed himself capable of good strategic play - showing that his error in a 1:00 game was a lapse, not representative of his actual skill.

Jan vs Doug vs Tomasi vs Josh
This was the only game called on time in three tournaments. It was every bit as unsatisfying as I knew it would be, but we had to move things along. The four players had reached a stalemate that a round of all out attacks could not break. Tomasi had an edge in sites burned for victory, and therefore got the win.
 

Round 3

Ken vs Jan vs Abe vs Doug
This game was very violent, with sibling rivalry erupting between Abe and Doug that lead to much destruction. Jan and Ken tried to benefit from the confusion, but Doug came out on top. The board of this game had at least 2 sites with one body left and I think a couple more with only 2-3 body going into the last round. Since Doug initiated a lot of the wounding, he has to get some credit for courageous play, but he was fortunate that no one else could manage a win against the weak sites before his turn came up.

Rob vs Tomasi vs Will vs Josh
Josh's much feared Abombination Unlimited deck finally stopped just frightening everyone and got serious and won. I think his deck was one of the best designed at the tournament, but his political skills were not up to the task of convincing everyone he was not a threat with the armies he kept fielding. This time, no one had the ability to put him down, and he rolled over the opposition to victory.
 

Final round

At this point I had a real problem, one I had not considered because my Tournament strategy was geared for groups larger than 8. I had 6 winners, and had to get the field down to 3-4. The only solution any of us could come up with involved two wildcard rounds, (2-3 player games to pick 2 finalists and a four player game to pick the third). To make matters worse, Match Play upped the ante, providing about half a box of Netherworld (25 packs of Netherworld) to split among the first three finishers and a Power Rangers action figure for the top finisher that wanted it. After some discussion, Tomasi and Will decided to drive home and leave the prizes to the remaining 4. We all thought Tomasi and Will should not go empty handed and everyone voted to give them a booster pack each in consolation. Everyone also agreed that the 4th place person should get a prize, so in essence, the top three finishers reduced their winnings to give every finalist a prize. In the end, the first prize was 10 packs of Netherworld and the Power Ranger, second prize was 7 packs, Third prize was 4 and fourth prize was 2 packs. With that settled the remaining contenders settled down for a no time limit final.

Doug vs Josh vs Jan vs Abe
This game was strange, in proving grounds formed most of the sites for the entire game. As a result, the Architect players were often starved for power to play their denial.
The first serious bid to win was by Jan, who saw an opportunity to win if Abe played it close and did not intercept. Jan figured that his Hood deck was inferior to the decks everyone else was using, and that this would be his only chance for a bid, so he tried to convince Abe to be greedy and take second place (Abe had an edge in the tie-breakers at this point). It was a hard decision for Abe, and the fact that the big stack of red Booter packs were clearly visible did not help. In the end, he decided to keep his self-respect, since a reputation as a weenie was not worth the five booster packs that were the difference between 2nd and 4th place. I don't know if my argument that I would post the results of his decision to the world made any difference...
Abe intercepted and the game continued. Doug had two sites, neither Proving Grounds, and saw an opportunity to cripple Abe by burning his only power generating site for victory. Abe being to his right, and no closer to winning that anyone else, caused a predictable attempt to talk him out of it, which appeared to be defeated by Sibling Rivalry. Doug knew that Abe's deck was packed with costly denial cards, though, and I think this attack was the turning point of the game. Abe was stuck playing 2 point foundations, and never again had the power to deny. Jan's deck had no denial, which left Josh's deck. Any deck woth its salt can punch through a field where only one person can defend effectively, and Doug's deck was no exception. He was helped by board position, since Jan had to attack left and keep Josh from exploding, Josh had to rebuild from Jan's assaults and Abe was incapable of doing much of anything. This gave Doug the time he needed to muster a winning attack, even though he was generating only two power.

Jan managed his third 2nd place finish in three days. He has earned a lot of respect around here and we hope to see him back. Abe and Josh tied for the first tiebreaker, and the difference between 3rd and 4th place was a Portal Jockey in Abe's camp vs a Reinvigoration Process in Josh's structure.

Thanks again to Match Play for the prizes. Everyone had a pretty good time and I got a lot of questions about whether I am running a Proving Ground. If you are in the Bay, and are willing to commit to 4 tournaments plus a final, send me mail at: brad@flick.com.
If I get at least 12 serious players who agree to stick it out even if they get behind, I'll commit to running the tournament.

Last modified: January 23, 1998.
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