Shadowfist Tournament Report: DexCon 8 (2005)

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[posted 28 Jul 2005; updated 9 Oct 2005]

DexCon 8 (run by Double Exposure) was held in East Brunswick, New Jersey on Jul.13-17, 2005. Z-Man sponsored a few events, including the National Championships, Part 2 (Part 1 took place at Origins 2005). A full winner's list hasn't been announced, although Alex Bergmann let everbody know that Gavin Edwards won the championship game.

* The National Championships are usually held at Origins. This year, there was some confusion due to the announcement that the National Championships would be held at Dexcon. So Zev decided that they could both hold National Championships.

Some photos and one report for you:

DexCon 8 pictorial by Bruce Neiger

National Championships, Part 2, play-by-play by Alex Bergmann

Originally posted to the Shadowfist Forum on Yahoogroups on 1 Oct 2005 by Alex Bergmann. Republished with permission. If you're a member, read the original in the archives.

Finally taking care of some long-overdue desk cleaning etc. today and came across my notes for this.

This is the championship game for the Shadowfist Nationals Part II at Dexcon, in mid-June 2005, if my wobbly memory serves. I think the tournament had something like 16 people in it.

The match was played by (in seeded order, all decklists are available in the archive of this list; on Stefan's page [Shadowfist Chimpshack], and on the Shadowfist Hub):

• Bruce Neiger (Mostly Harmless: Monarchs)
• Gavin Edwards (The Moustache of Understanding)
• Alex Poger (Blade Palm O'Rama) [Alex sadly passed away shortly after this. It might well have been his last game of Shadowfist; certainly the last for me of hundreds I played against him since 1994 or 5.]
• Alex Bergmann (Irrational Exuberance - v. 6/2005)

I started to make notes on the state of play after the first couple of turns, so pardon the delayed start to the reporting. The format is to list cards in play controlled by each player, followed by commentary for interesting actions. I haven't captured everything, but the bulk is here. Thanks to Bruce and Gavin for helping me fill in the gaps in my memory. And preemptive thanks to Stefan, in case he decides to post this on his site, for which I happily offer permission. :-)

Turn 3:
============
Gavin: Eagle Mountain, Gambling House, Manchu Soldier, Paper Trail, 2 Students o.t. Bear

Alex P: City Square w/ 3 body, 2 Paradox Gardens

Bruce: Grizzly Pass, Unrevealed site; Violet Meditation, plays Ice Queen. Manchu Soldier and 2 Student o.t. Bear intercept, but it's not enough: BFP Gavin's Eagle Mountain

Alex B: Unrevealed site, Family Estate, Plasma Trooper. Attacks damaged City Square w/ Plasma trooper. Kunlun Clan Assualt from Bruce smokes City Square, failing attack.

Turn 4:
============
Gavin: Gambling House, Paper Trail: Plays 200 Men w/ Hatchets & Ladders

Alex P: 2 Paradox Garden: Plays Yellow Sensi Chamber

Bruce: Grizzly Pass, Unrevealed Site, Ice Queen. Plays FSS. Plays Balanced Harmonies. Attacks Gavin's Gambling House, revealing Sacred Heart Hospital. BFV Gambling House. Everyone but Bruce is beginning to sweat.

Alex B: Unrevealed Site, Family Estate, Plasma Trooper. Plays Arcanotechnician. Plays Bull Market. Plays Loyalty Officer. Plays Rapid Response Squad. Plays Bull Market (again). Attacks Grizzly Pass. Bruce attempts to use Discerning Fire, but Alex B. reveals a Festival Circle. Ice Queen intercepts Rapid Response Squad. Loyalty Officer pulls out Sucker Rounds. BFV Grizzly Pass. Now everyone is sweating, but in a slightly different way.

Bull Market count: 2

Turn 5:
===========
Gavin: Paper Trail, 200 Men wH&L. Plays Manchu Garrison, The Unspoken Name, and Shadowy Mentor on Loyalty Officer w/ Sucker Rounds. Using Stealth and a disloyal sucker, seizes Bruce's Sacred Heart Hospital. The sweating shifts again

Alex P: 2 Paradox Garden, Yellow Sensi Chamber; plays FSS and Golden Candle Society. Alex spends a bunch of power on Wind on the Mountain. Loyalty Officer shrinks.

Bruce (1 BFV): Ice Queen, Balanced harmonies; plays FSS, plays Darkness Queen. Gavin gets 2 Manchu Soldiers back from 200 MWH&L. Uses Balanced Harmonies to move damage from Ice Queen to unrevealed site, which is a Temple of Angry Spirits. Attacks Alex B's Festival Circle with both Queens. Gavin intercepts with some weenies and The Unspoken Name to kill the Darkness Queen. Bruce uses Balanced Harmonies to move damage around, leaving a healed Ice queen and a damaged and revealed Temple of Angry Spirits. At some point he uses Benificent Tao to make the TOAS an univiting target, though that may not have been until next turn. He BFV Festival Circle and plays Netherworld Return. It brings back Cabinet Minister for Gavin, Student o.t. Bear for Alex B, – and Darkness Queen for Bruce. The sweating has shifted again....

Alex B (1 BFV): Family Estate, Student o t Bear, Plasma Trooper; Plays FSS, free Pledged. Plays Arcanotechnician to recycle Bull Market. Plays Athena, Tunneler Drone. Attacks Alex Poger's unrevealed site w/ Tunneler Drone; Drone promptly Blade Plamed by Alex P. Arcanotechnician killed during next turn at some point....

Bull Market count: 3
Netherworld Return count: 1

Turn 6:
=========
Gavin: Paper Trail, 200 MWH&L, Manchu Garrison, Cabinet Minister, Sacred Heart Hospital, 2 Manchu Soldiers. Plays Manchu Garrison, 2 Manchu Soldiers

Alex P: 2 Paradox Garden, Yellow Senshi Chamber, FSS, Golden Candle Society; plays Green Senshi Chamber, Golden Candle Society, and 2 Buddhist Monks. Now we are sweating in new and different ways again.

Bruce (2 BFV, at "play & take"): Ice Queen, Balanced Harmonies, Darkness Queen, TOAS; plays Disco; shortly thereafter reveals it and selects Manchu; gets the first of many power as a result.

Alex B: (1 BFV) Family Estate, Student o t Bear, Plasma Trooper, Pledged, unrevealed FSS. Plays free Pledged, attacks Manchu Garrison w/ Plasma Trooper, plays Sucker Rounds; seizes Manchu Garrison. Plays FSS. Athena attacks Yellow Senshi Chamber (in momentary brain freeze state, alas); Kills 1 Buddhist Monk and 2 Golden Candle Society, but dies.

Bull Market Count: 3
Netherworld Return count: 1

Turn 7:
=========
Gavin: Paper Trail, 200 MWH&L, Manchu Garrison, Cabinet Minister, Sacred Heart Hospital, 4 Manchu Soldiers; Plays FSS, Shadowy Mentor on Plasma Trooper w/ Sucker rounds.

Alex P: 2 Paradox Garden, Yellow Senshi Chamber, FSS, Green Senshi Chamber, and Buddhist Monk; reveals Gambling House (as if he doesn't have enough power already….), plays Buddhist Monk, Paradox Garden #3.

Bruce (2 BFV, at "take"): Ice Queen, Balanced Harmonies, Darkness Queen, TOAS, and Disco. Plays Sky Dragon. Attacks for the win. Alex B. responds with Bull Market, then Neutron Bomb. Failed Attack. We all stop sweating.

Alex B: (1 BFV, at "play & take") Family Estate, unrevealed FSS x2, Manchu Garrison. Plays Tunneler Drone, attacks. Bruce responds with 2 Netherworld returns. Gavin gets Cabinet Minister and Manchu Soldier, Alex P gets 2 Buddhist Monks, Bruce gets both Queens back, Alex B gets Athena and Student of the Bear. Bruce intercepts Tunneler Drone with Queen of the Darkness Pagoda. Failed attack. We all start sweating again.

Bull Market Count: 4
Netherworld Return count: 3

Turn 8:
=========
Gavin: Paper Trail, 200 MWH&L, Manchu Garrison, Cabinet Minister, Sacred Heart Hospital, Manchu Soldiers, unrevealed FSS. Uses Cabinet Minister to take control of Balanced Harmonies from Bruce. Plays Manchu Garrison, Manchu Officer. Officer attacks QOTDP, intercepted by QOTIP, failed attack.

Alex P: 3 Paradox Garden, Yellow Senshi Chamber, Green Senshi Chamber, 2 Buddhist Monks, and Gambling House; plays FSS, plays Portal Nexus on Gambling House.

Bruce (2 BFV, at "take"): Ice Queen, Darkness Queen, TOAS, and Disco. Turns both Queens to heal. Alex B. plays a Bull Market either here or during his turn (more likely here.)

Alex B: (1 BFV, at "play & take") Family Estate, unrevealed FSS x2, Manchu Garrison, Athena, and Student of the Bear. Plays 2 Test Subjects (to pump Athena). Plays FSS. I make the mistake of saying: "I just want to say I was in the national final and made an attack for the win." Alex P. promptly Blade Palms the just-played FSS. So I (in another frozen-brain moment) declare an attack against Alex P. with Athena. Alex P. plays Wind on the Mountain, but Alex B. plays Arcanowave Pulse, stopping it. Alex P. gives Buddhist Monk toughness and intercepts. Alex B. tries to follow up by playing Shadowy Mentor on Alex P's other Monk, but Alex P reveals Stone Dolmens, smoking the Shadowy Mentor.

Bull Market Count: 4
Netherworld Return count: 3

Turn 9:
=========
Gavin: Paper Trail, 200 MWH&L, 2 Manchu Garrison, Cabinet Minister, Sacred Heart Hospital, Manchu Soldiers, unrevealed FSS, and Balanced Harmonies. Plays FSS.

Alex P: 3 Paradox Garden, Yellow Senshi Chamber, Green Senshi Chamber, 2 Buddhist Monks, Gambling House w/ Portal Nexus, and Stone Dolmens. Plays FSS. Plays Iron Monkey, turns to attack Bruce, whose Queens are turned, with dreams of 50-ish power in his head. Bruce Plays Netherworld Return. Gavin Gets Manchu Officer; Alex P. gets a Golden Candle Society, Bruce gets Sky Dragon, Alex B. gets a pledged. Iron Monkey meets Sky Dragon. Ouch. Failed Attack.

Bruce (2 BFV, at "take"): Ice Queen, Darkness Queen, Sky Dragon, TOAS, and Disco. Uses Kunlun Clan Assalt to kill Cabinet Minister, ping 2 sites, I think. Gets Balanced Harmonies back. Plays Red Bat; 200 MWHL brings back 2 Manchu Soldiers and a Cabinet Minister for Gavin. Balanced Harmonies travels across the table again. Plays King of the Fire Pagoda. No remaining weenies available for 200 MWHL. Turns to attack for the win w/ all 5 huge hitters: that's a total of 54 fighting (Red Bat was at 15).

Everybody but Bruce is REALLY sweating now....

King of the Fire Pagoda pings Cabinet Minister. Balanced Harmonies, very annoyed at this point, goes for another walk. Bruce shuffles Discerning Fire back into his deck. Alex B. intercepts King of the Fire Pagoda with his 2 Test Subjects, Gavin intercepts something with his characters. Alex P delared that he intercepted the Queen of Ice first with one (of two) 8-fighting Monks, then the other. Bruce Drops Celestial Stance on the King. After fighting the first Buddhist Monk, with 8 dmg on QOTIP, Bruce turned balanced harmonies to heal the Queen, prior to interception. In response, Gavin then revealed his Booby-Trapped Tomb, and killed off the Queen before her harmonies could be balanced. Alex P. reveals Fox Pass to redirect the King. Gavin Op Killdeers Sky Dragon, but Bruce Brain Fires it to the Manchu Officer. Gavin reveals HIS Fox Pass. Bruce declines to force the bidding to the max, though both he and Alex P have somewhere around 50 power, and Gavin wins at 3 power. Another hitter is duly outfoxed. End result: 2 hitters coming in. Alex B. finally clears the board with Neutron Bomb. Bruce plays his last Netherworld Return: Gavin gets Manchu Solders; Alex P. gets Buddhist Monk, Bruce gets QOTIP, Alex B. gets Arcanotechnician.

Collective *when* from Gavin & both Alex'; inner AAARGH! from Bruce....

<20 Minute dinner break >

Alex B: (1 BFV, at "play & take") Family Estate, unrevealed FSS x2, Manchu Garrison, and Arcanotechnician. Plays Arcanotechnician. Plays Bull Market. Recycles Neutron Bomb and Bull Market. Plays Bull Market. Plays Supercomputer.

Bull Market Count: 6
Netherworld Return count: 5

<short pause for a glass of Kosher Spanish Rioja [red wine] provided by Evan Markowicz (sorry if I've misspelled your last name, Evan): very tasty!>

Turn 10:
==========
Gavin: (at "play & take") Paper Trail, 200 MWH&L, 2 Manchu Garrison, Sacred Heart Hospital, Booby-Trapped Tomb, Fox Pass, and Manchu Soldiers. Plays Manchu Garrison. Plays Manchu Officer. Takes Paradox Garden. Plays Manchu Soldier, unturns Manchu Officer. Attacks QOTIP w/ Manchu Officer. Queen now has 8 damage on her.

Alex P: 2 Paradox Garden, Yellow Senshi Chamber, Green Senshi Chamber, Buddhist Monk, Gambling House w/ Portal Nexus, and Stone Dolmens. Plays Golden Candle Society, FSS, and Derek Han. Bruce uses BH to heal his Queen and mess with the Shui of his sites. Plays Benificent Tao to make his Temple unappealing again, leaving only 3 damage on his Disco.

Bruce: (2 BFV, at "take"): TOAS, Disco, and Balanced Harmonies. Plays Fortune of the Turtle on his Queen of the Ice Pagoda. Alex B. responds with a Neutron Bomb. Derek Han turns out to be immune to neutrons. Bruce plays Red Bat.

Alex B: (1 BFV, at "play & take") Family Estate, unrevealed FSS x2, Manchu Garrison, and Supercomputer. Plays Secret Pact to draw cards. Plays Bull Market. Play free Student of the Bear. Play The Pledged. Play FSS. Attack for the win. After Alex P. and Bruce decline to intercept (presumably due to bluffing threat of at this point truly monstrous Sucker Rounds), play Megatank on SOTB and Sucker Rounds on The Pledged. Fox Pass used; Alex B. attempts to discard Loyalty Officer to cancel. Third and most crucial brain freeze moment! Doh! The ability works the other way: L.O. must be in play! Alex B. uses Petroglyphs to cancel Fox Pass. Alex Poger uses City Square to redirect to a Paradox Garden. Alex P. Robust Feng Shui to redirect Pledged damage back to itself. Alex B. Uses Festival Circle to cancel Robust Feng Shui. Bruce uses Discerning Fire to smoke both Pledged characters. Failed attack. Alex B. belatedly plays Loyalty Officer. Alas, had I played the Loyalty Officer correctly, I very likely would have won. *sigh*. :-)

Bull Market Count: 7
Netherworld Return count: 5

Turn 11:

Gavin: (at "play & take") Paper Trail, 200 MWH&L, 3 Manchu Garrison, Sacred Heart Hospital, Booby-Trapped Tomb, Fox Pass, Paradox Garden, and Manchu Soldiers. Plays Jan Zvivreci; designates Alex B (who has nothing interesting in hand). Plays FSS. Plays Manchu Officer, Natraj Thalnasser, and another Manchu Officer. Plays Shadowy Mentor on Red Bat; Bruce uses Balanced Harmonies to move his remaining damage onto Red Bat, dropping him to 4 fighting under Gavin's control. With all denial burnt out after my push for the win, only Derek Han and my Loyalty Officer can save us. Derek smacks Natraj Thalnasser, but it's too little to stop the win. Even without the Mentored Red Bat, Gavin's Manchu Officer would have taken my 4-body Festival Circle in style to win the game!

On a side note, Gavin seems to have fallen for Alex Poger's "Jedi Mind trick" on the winning attack, although it didn't matter. My Festival Circle was damaged, and so an "easy" target, but Alex P had played a small (forget which but 5 or 6 body) FS site in the front of his fourth column (or perhps it had originally been behind a nfss and got pushed up?)... Regardless it was 2 columns from Derek Han... So if Gavin had attacked THAT site, instead, he would not have had to deal with Derek Han who was too far away to intercept. I dont' remember what Alex said, but I think he nudged Gavin toward my FS. Better a little hope than no hope. :-)

Final tally: about 3 hours, including 20-minute dinner break. Gavin had 22 cards left, Bruce had 9, I had 11. Alex P packed up before I could get his count. Gavin wins in splendid fashion, Bruce places second, I was third, and Alex was fourth. Thanks to all for one of the most memorable games I've played, for many reasons. I look forward to seeing Gavin and Bruce across the table again soon!

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