Torrance - October 1998 Report

by Stefan Vincent
October 25, 1998

Multiplayer, constructed deck
The Cast (with special cameo appearances from the San Diego contingent):

Greg Johnson,     "Both Tentacles Blazing"         Dragons/Lotus Gnarled Marauders
Stefan Vincent,   "Jinky Kar-Fai-o-rama"           Dragons/Lotus Kar Fai Twins
Jason Jung,       "Can I Have One Mommy?"          Ascended/Lotus/Monarchs
Frank Bustamante, "Bao Chou! God Bless You."       Dragons/Hand weenies
Evan James,       "Army of Darkness"               Lotus Bloody Horde
Mike Nickoloff,   "Our Kung Fu Really Is Stronger" Hand with a side of Hackers and Queens
Jeff Stolt,       "One-time Wonder"                Architects/Monarchs
Dave Kish,        "Cops"                           Dragons/Architects
Tim McCann,       "It Came From The Lab"           Architects DE
Eric Kam,         "Thunder?"                       Monarchs Thunder Knights
Lissa Vincent,    "Behold the Power of Cheese"     Hand/Ascended no-rares

which continued the strong Lotus showing from last game, but brought back the Architects and actually knocked the Dragons down a bit. And the royalty was out in force again - the Queen of the Ice Pagoda popping up in way too many decks and winning games as usual. At least this time around with two Monarchs players we saw a few Sibling Rivalries take the Queen down a notch or two.

Round 1

Seating for round 1 was random. With eleven players we sat two games of four and a game of three at what would become the kiddie table; scoring for all tables as if there were 4 players. Table 3 started out awfully - both Greg and Jason stalled and I didn't go very fast. Jason played spoiler and held out long enough to let the game get interesting, and in fact it ended up timing out in the middle of an attack leaving Greg with the win on the tiebreaker. Doh. Dave's cops ran over the other players at table 1, and Frank's weenies feeding his Ancestral Tombs and Bao Chou handled table 2.
Scores after round 1:

Dave K. (1) - 9 Frank (1) - 9 Greg   (1) - 7
Tim M.      - 7 Evan      - 6 Stefan     - 5
Eric K.     - 5 Mike N.   - 5 Jason J.   - 3
Lissa       - 3 Jeff      - 2

Round 2

Round 2 sat by score, leaving Tim with the big boys. Kiddie table again timed out despite the fast and furious control/break control action of Shadow Mentors and Ice Courtiers, leaving Jeff looking down the barrel of the attack that would have knocked him out of first. Evan took the win at table 2 after Mike foolishly Confucian Stablized my Year of the Rat :) and Tim took revenge against the cops and pummeled table 1 into "submission" (i.e., got the win by beating on Greg first, leaving Frank and Dave tied with 4 sites each and wishing they had another turn). Scores after round 2:

Tim M.  (1) - 16   Evan    (1) - 15  Jeff    (1) - 9
Dave K. (1) - 15.5 Mike N.     - 10  Jason J.    - 8
Frank   (1) - 15.5 Stefan      - 8.5 Lissa       - 6
Greg    (1) - 10   Eric K.     - 8.5

Round 3

so with me and Eric tied, we did the random thing, putting me at table 2 and Eric at table 3, everyone else seating by score. Table 3 finally got a clean win, with Jason's deck at last non-stalling and letting him get the upper hand. Table 2 saw one of the lamest games I've ever played - Greg's early revealing of Jeff's only site - a Fox Pass - handed it to me, but I couldn't do much with it as Greg and Jeff both stalled. Mike's Queen had an easy time grabbing one site on each of two turns to take the win. Ugh. But at least we had time to play a game or two for fun while we waited for everybody else. Table 1 timed out, in the middle of an attack again, leaving Frank in control since Evan had two in-the-hole counters from Glimpses of the Abyss earlier in the game. Scores after round 3:

Frank   (2) - 22.5 Mike N. (1) - 19   Jason (1) - 17
Evan    (1) - 20   Stefan      - 13.5 Lissa     - 13
Tim M.  (1) - 19   Jeff    (1) - 10.5 Eric K.   - 12.5
Dave K. (1) - 16.5 Greg    (1) - 11.5

Finals

with Jason's win coming too late to get him into the final. The rest of us losers consoled ourselves with some deck tuning (the bitter irony of my deck was that I never did play either Kar Fai or an Evil Twin. Hmmm. Back to the drawing board) and playing for fun while the top scorers duked it out. When it came down to it, Mike's Kung Fu really was stronger, as he anti-denial'ed (denial-denial?) his way to victory. Never was a table more Stabilized, from a Confucian standpoint anyway. Congratulations to Mike!
Final standings:

Mike N. - 1st
Evan    - 2nd
Frank   - 3rd
Tim M.  - 4th

Last modified: October 28, 1998.
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