Torrance Fisting - May 1998 Report

by Stefan Vincent May 16, 1998

Twelve folks showed up, including one new to us (Steve) and two blasts from the past (Steven and Mike S.) who haven't been able to make it in a while. Here's what everybody was packing:

Tim M.   - "Duplo"                     Dragons
Stefan   - "First Contact"             Peacock (mostly Hand/Ascended)
Ernie    - Architects
Mike S.  - Dragons
Steven   - "Must Be A Drag Being You"  Architects/Dragons
Corey B. - "Play Dead"                 Dragons
Victor   - "Not Enough Guns"           Dragons/Lotus (at least)
Steve M. - ???
Matt     - "Pink Power Ranger"         Architects/Monarchs
Ray      - "Not Enough Power"          Architects/Dragons
Frank    - Hand
Garrett  - "Super Cheese"              Hand/Lotus

with the Dragons as usual the most popular, but Architects making a decent showing this time out, and the Ascended again largely absent. We decided to play 4 preliminary rounds (well, ok, after round 2 we decided on 2 more). Round 1 saw me win obscenely quickly - the relatively early Ice Queen stomping the competition, since Ernie's Architects had never really gotten started. Corey's Dragons took his game, and Matt's Power Rangers won as well (leaving Garrett and Ray tied for second). After the first round, points were:

Stefan (1) 9 Corey (1) 9 Matt (1) 9
Tim M.     6 Steve M.  6 Ray      5.5
Mike S.    3 Steven    5 Garrett  5.5
Ernie      2 Victor    3 Frank    2

Round two put the winners at table one, and with Tim and Steve tied at 6, we randomly put Steve at table one and Tim at table two. Game at table one saw Matt's deck doing practically nothing except spew out feng shui sites, although he did finally get a couple of resources before the end and popped in a couple of events. My deck started slower this time, but eventually assimilated all opponents and took the win, leaving Matt with second and Corey and Steve tied for 3rd. Table two went a bit quicker, with Tim getting the solid win. Table three saw Ernie's Architects kick in and also get a win. Up to this point no game had taken more than 40 minutes (we were flying!). After the second round, points were:

Stefan (2) 18   Tim M. (1) 15   Ernie (1) 11
Matt   (1) 16   Steven     11   Mike S.    8
Corey  (1) 13.5 Garrett     8.5 Victor     5.5
Steve M.   10.5 Ray         7.5 Frank      4.5

So Tim moved back up to table one and Steve dropped down to table two, and Ray moved to the kiddie table. The third round turned out to be a bit more exciting - tables two and three finished in the day's typical speed, Garrett with a fast win on two and Victor taking table three. Table one turned into a longer fight - ending with about 5 minutes to spare. I put the Ice Queen in the MegaTank, and then used Year of the Rat to get in another shot at winning one turn later. Three Shaolin Surprises (and a very fast moving MegaTank. It's here, no it's there, no it's back here again) and I had the win. One of the most fun turns I've ever played. After round three, the Borg were undefeated, but the point spread was such that nobody moved from table one (since Garrett and Victor's points were relatively low to start, their wins didn't really shake much up):

Stefan (3) 27   Garrett (1) 17.5 Victor (1) 14.5
Corey  (1) 20.5 Steven      17.5 Ray        13.5
Tim M. (1) 21   Steve M.    17   Mike S.    13
Matt   (1) 20   Ernie   (1) 14   Frank       6.5

which left everyone still pretty bunched up, except Frank a.k.a "the whipping boy." Victor moved up to table two, Ernie went down to table three. Still open at this point with everyone having a shot at a semi-final unless Frank won at table three (so of course you can guess what happened). Victor got a solid win at table two, Frank made short work of his opponents (ensuring that none of them would advance :), and table one started as a "beat on the three-time-winner" fest, but devolved a bit when others looked scary, and the Borg were once again able to assimilate all opponents for the win with some nifty Shaolin Surprisings. My final winning attack took a site from Corey, which turned out to be just enough to create the need for a semifinal (who knew?). Scores after round four:

Stefan (4) 36   Victor  (2) 23.5 Frank (1) 15.5
Tim M. (1) 28   Steve M.    23   Ernie (1) 20
Matt   (1) 26   Steven      22.5 Ray       18.5
Corey  (1) 23.5 Garrett (1) 19.5 Mike S.   14

Since we had a tie at 23.5, Victor, Corey, Steve M. and Steven played a semifinal (winner goes to the finals) while the rest of us played for fun or took breaks or whatever. Victor got the win in the Dragon-heavy environment, giving him a slot in the finals (again, the game was pretty quick.).
The final game pitted Tim M., Matt, and Victor against the as-yet undefeated Borg. So, of course what happens? The Borg choke. The final was one of the lamest games I've played. Tim's deck came out strong. I totally stalled (my first site was a Secret Lab that I payed for with a Violet Med; didn't see a feng shui site until turn 5), and Matt didn't do much better (although his deck seemed to do its usual spew out feng shui sites thing pretty well). Victor's deck started ok, but after some odd pickings at Matt's front row site, Tim was left with an easy win (Stunt Man plus two Baptisms of Fire, and a Back for Seconds, makes for two sites) in about a total of 10 minutes. Ugh. Tim was kind enough to throw out that result and let us play it over, though :) In this case it didn't go well for him; he stalled very badly while the rest of us did ok (Matt still spewing feng shui sites). I finally made a shot at the win using a borrowed Golden Gunman and a borrowed Shotgun, but Victor and Tim had enough to stop me. Unfortunately, that meant we had nothing left, so Matt cruised in for the (second) win. So, the final results were:

Game 1 Game 2
Tim M. Matt
Victor Victor
Stefan Stefan
Matt   Tim M.

Huh. Matt and Tim split the first place money...

Last modified: May 19, 1998.
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