Me, my
son Jorin, and Mike Nickoloff in the Shadowfist booth.
Shadowfist Tournament Report: GenCon 2000
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[posted 16 Apr 2003; updated 19 Jul 2003]
A selection of GenCon 2000 reports and info for your reading pleasure.
GenCon 2000 summary by Stefan Vincent. Originally posted to the Shadowfist.com website, but lost to history.
GenCon 2000 dueling report by Jan Malina. Originally posted to rec.games.trading-cards.misc on 1 Sep 2000. Read the original with a newsreader, or use Google. Republished with Jan's permission.
GenCon 2000 pictorial photos by Mike Nickoloff. Originally posted in August 2000 to the Shadowfist.com site, it was also dropped when the site was redesigned in 2001.
GenCon 2000 Multiplayer Championship Play-by-Play by Mike Nickoloff. Another casualty of the reformatting of Shadowfist.com, resurrected for posterity.
This report is based on a writeup I did for the Z-Man website on August 18th, 2000. The tournament reports were dropped when Z-Man updated the website to the new format, but I saved my copy. I've updated it in a couple of places and added some stuff, including some photos and a movie, and also added Jan Malina's writeup of the dueling championships.
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GenCon 2000, Year of the Dragon. Z-Man's official debut of Shadowfist. An exhausting weekend :) The thing that sticks in my memory is that I had time to play only one game of Shadowfist the entire four days, since most of my time was taken up at the booth, or running the tournaments. Not to mention that my son Jorin was 8 months old, and ready to crawl everywhere...
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Even though we were so busy, it was still a great convention. I saw lots of folks from previous years returning to kick butt, and met a lot of new folks too. The demo tables were always busy. And let's not forget Kelly the Whupass Girl, who roamed the convention floor selling Cans of Whupass for $2. Many of the takers weren't even Shadowfist players, but can you blame them? :)
Download a movie of Kelly [818 kB Quicktime movie] - it's only a few seconds. I'll try to compress it more, but my video software is a bit dated...
On to the report! Z-Man sponsored five tournaments. First, congratulations to the winners:
Folks signed up for this convention-long tournament when the exhibit hall opened on Thursday morning and immediately sat down at the booth to start playing. Each player received a sealed Standard Edition starter deck and their choice of three boosters from the original Daedalus expansions (we were running short of Netherworld so players were allowed at most one of those). Players wearing Who Wants Some? buttons were fair game throughout the convention and outside as well -- the Z-Man-sponsored Hong Kong Cinema room at the Marriott Courtyard Hotel was a popular spot to find opponents, and there always seemed to be somebody at the booth ready for some action. "Hey you! You want some? Then come get some!"
Jan Malina started early Thursday and kept winning throughout the convention, holding on to his top spot despite playing (and winning!) other tournaments on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. He finished with an impressive 32 wins by Sunday at noon.
This year's Baptism of Fire was supercharged by the addition of Cans of Whupass available to all players. 15 secret warriors showed for the event. Everyone started with a sealed Standard Edition starter deck, and their choice of three boosters from the original Daedalus expansions (again, only one Netherworld at most since we were running low). After a few players got lost due to some bad directions on the pre-printed tickets, all the players ended up in the right place and threw their decks together.
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We played 3 rounds of 3-player games, seating by win-loss record. Every player was allowed to pay for a Can of Whupass at any time during each round, pop it open, and play the Open A Can of Whupass promo card inside (provided they had at least 3 resources from any faction). The Can was usually opened two or three times per round -- the popping sound was hilarious! In one particularly hard-fought game, the Can was opened on three successive turns by three different players, and each time the attacking Character got hit by Operation Killdeer. Ow. In a couple of cases the attacking player opened a Can just for dramatic effect, knowing that he already had enough Characters to attack for the win anyway.
In the end, Jan Malina went undefeated to win the tournament, followed by Andrew Davidson and Ken Fischer each with one loss. Jan didn't open a single Can of Whupass during the tournament!
See the player roster and win-loss records here. (opens in new window)
Two qualifiers for the multiplayer championship were open to all players. Format was 4-player games using constructed decks, with Throne War and Year of the Dragon cards permitted.
Friday night's game drew 28 would-be champions. Many people hadn't had time to assimilate the new cards so they played their old decks, but a lot of new cards made appearances, including a couple of Jammer decks relying on new cards like Scrounging and Payback Time. A few people were playing Year of the Dragon starters right out of the box, too.
The action was fast and furious, with only four games hitting the time limit. After four rounds of Swiss-style play, Michael Jackson and Jan Malina each had one loss, cementing their slot in the championship final. The next slots went to players with two losses: Ron Wheelhouse, Aaron Foss, Joshua Deacon, Joshua Duffin, and Glen Murie. The final slot went to Tor Swanson, who made the cut since he was the only player in the three-loss bracket who had beaten one of the other qualifiers.
See the player roster and win-loss records of qualifier #1 here. (opens in new window)
Saturday afternoon's game was the last chance to qualify. 22 people showed up, including a few who didn't make the top 8 in Friday's game. Once again we played four rounds of Swiss-style. Play was a lot slower and more deliberate today, with 11 games hitting the time limit! Mark Wheelhouse showed everyone how the game is played, going undefeated. Joshua Kronengold and Steve Valladolid were next in line with one loss each. Paul Heaver and Matt Widmann earned their way in with 2-2 records, and the last slots went to David Smith, Matt Miller, and Scott Gardner, each of whom had one win on a tiebreak, giving them 1.5 - 2 records. Actually, I advanced one person too many, since I was supposed to leave one slot for last year's multiplayer champion, Mike Nickoloff. Mike graciously declined to make an issue of it, but I still felt bad since he hadn't played in the qualifiers, knowing that he would have a slot in the final. Sorry Mike :(
See the player roster and win-loss records of qualifier #2 here. (opens in new window)
On Saturday night, the eight qualifiers from Friday, well rested and ready to go, prepared to whup on the eight qualifiers who had been playing since 2 pm. In the end, it turned out that the warm-up was worthwhile, since three of the finalists came out of the Saturday qualifier.
The final was modified Swiss style, with three rounds of Swiss play to determine who would advance to one last winner-take-all game. No games hit the time limit, although several came extremely close. It was a brutal evening, with no clear leader. After three rounds, Joshua Duffin, David Smith, and Joshua Kronengold all had 2-1 records and secured their places in the last round. To fill the last seat, we had to resort to the tiebreaker amongst those with 1-2 records. Steve Valladolid earned that seat since he had seized or burned for victory a total of seven Feng Shui Sites during the three preliminary rounds, almost twice his closest competitor.
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The final was played without time limit, and with a large number of interested players gathered around. Mike Nickoloff prepared a detailed play-by-play record if you want the details. In the end, Steve attacked Joshua Duffin's Petroglyphs with Adrienne Hart for the win. Josh Kronengold used a Golden Comeback to return his Queen of the Ice Pagoda to play, and Joshua Duffin chose to return his two Underworld Trackers to play. Josh K. declined to intercept. Joshua D. intercepted with both of his Trackers, but one took a quick trip to jail courtesy of Steve's Imprison. The other Tracker wounded Adrienne but was not enough to cause Steve's attack to fail. Steve followed up with a Neutron Bomb to sweep the table clean, and then played Shinobu Yashida to swagger in for the win. Congratulations to Steve!
As part of his prize, Steve was given the opportunity to make a decision regarding the storyline. That definition was a bit nebulous; what he ended up being able to do was request a particular type of Character appear in the next set. (and that ended up as Koko Chanel)
I have a movie of the final turn, but it's way too big to post. I'll work on shrinking it. The still above shows Steve (bottom right) playing Imprison on one of Joshua D.'s Trackers (bottom left). Joshua K. is seated in the upper right, and David in the upper left.
See the player roster and win-loss records of the final here. (opens in new window)
The Year of the Dragon was truly auspicious, with 22 people showing up to prove themselves. This tournament ran concurrently with the Throne War final. Each player was given a Year of the Dragon starter at random. Initial seating was matched up to prevent players with the same deck from playing each other, but subsequent rounds were set at random among people with similar records, so we did end up with a few games where both players had the same decks.
We played five rounds of Swiss. Each round was limited to 45 minutes, but in practice all but one round ended in 30 minutes or so. Only one game reached the time limit. After five rounds, James Hamblin with his Dragons deck was still undefeated, so he walked away with the nifty Year of the Dragon statuette, an uncut sheet, and some other cool stuff. Todd Luikart, Spike Murphy, and Cy Myers were all tied at 4-1, so they played one final three-player game to determine who would get the second place prizes (another uncut sheet, among other things). Cy and his Lotus deck edged out his opponents' Ascended decks for the win, giving him second place in the tournament.
See the player roster and win-loss records here. (opens in new window)
I had to fly out on Sunday afternoon, so Paul Gerardi judged the dueling championship. I don't have a report for you (read Jan's below), but the top finishers were: Jan Malina took the win, with Andrew Davidson in second and Tor Swanson in 3rd.
This report was originally posted by Jan Malina on 1 Sep 2000 in rec.games.trading-cards.misc, republished with permission. I've done a bit of editing to clean up typos and such. I added stuff in [square brackets].
Steve [Valladolid] and I arrived late and rather by accident because we thought that it was at 2 rather than 12:00 and just chanced upon it. I played the deck I listed in the other article and Steve played my Marauder Gun deck dispite his objection that I should put a Shifting Loyalties in it.
There were only 4 other people there to my memory with Andrew [Davidson] going off to play Brawl, correct me if I am wrong Andrew. So Andrew got a first round bye. Someone else showed up so that made an even 8 after Andrew reappeared in the second round.
I was forced to play Steve because we showed up together, and he drew no sites early so I won. If I remember Tor [Swanson] was playing the elder [Ron] Wheelhouse. The younger [Mark] Wheelhouse was playing someone who's name I unfortunately forget. It is a shame that most people had to go home early that day so there were not more in the tourney. If I am remembering correctly, and correct me if I am wrong, Tor won his game and the younger Wheelhouse won his. I played Tor and won with a rather sly play of seizing his Family Estate and then playing my Ascended faction cards which he did not know I had. Andrew won his game and Steve alas lost his again to poor drawing of sites. As I am writing this I realize that there are glaring omissions due to faulty memory so if anyone can correct them that would be much appreciated. I went on the play Andrew and Steve played the young Wheelhouse. I remember that Steve won his game. My and Andrew's game was very unusual. I played a Hacker early and Andrew had no foundation even though he played a second turn Family Estate. The Hacker slowly took his front row site as I seemed to draw nothing but sites and Andrew drew no resources. I finally managed to play a Ting Ting and start hurting Andrew. Things progressed a little and I went for the win attacking with a just played Gunman. Andrew revealed his Sanctum and I frowned. Next turn he Mentors Gunman but I managed to stop him from taking a site by Brawling. I forget now if it was that turn or the next but I managed to Comeback Ting Ting and Lodge Politics the Gunman back and that ended it. Sorry for the really bad writeup.
Jan Malina
This report was originally posted on Shadowfist.com, but was removed when the site was redesigned. I think it's neat, so here it is :) Thanks to Mike for permission to republish.
Here is a transcription of the Throne War finals between the finalists. Enjoy! (Note: Any errors are unintentional)
Notes
Feng Shui Positions:
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1 |
3 |
5 |
7 |
9 |
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2 |
4 |
6 |
8 |
10 |
Player Positions:
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Joshua Kronegold |
Steve Valladolid |
David Smith |
Joshua Duffin |
Play-by-Play
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Turn |
Player |
Cards Discarded |
Power Generated |
Action |
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1 |
JD |
0 |
0 |
Feng Shui (1), 2 Sinister Priests. |
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DS |
4 |
0 |
Feng Shui (1), Just Another Consumer, Payback Time. |
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JK |
5 |
0 |
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SV |
3 |
0 |
Feng Shui (1), Student of the Bear. |
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2 |
JD |
0 |
1 |
Feng Shui (2). |
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DS |
0 |
2 |
Scrounges JD (2), Feng Shui (2). |
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JK |
4 |
0 |
Feng Shui (1). |
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SV |
1 |
1 |
Family Estate (3). |
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3 |
JD |
1 |
2 |
Sinister Priest. |
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DS |
1 |
2 |
Feng Shui (3). |
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JK |
1 |
1 |
Stunt Man, Attacks JD (1). JD Die!!!s Stunt Man & Just Another Consumer. |
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SV |
0 |
2 |
Feng Shui (3), Attacks DS (1). FS(1) is Floating Restaurant (2D). |
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4 |
JD |
0 |
2 |
Feng Shui (3). |
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DS |
1 |
3 |
Just Another Consumer. Attacks JK (1). JK Final Brawls: Just Another Consumer, 3*Sinister Priest, Test Subjects are smoked. Floating Restaurant heals 1 (1D). Just Another Consumer. |
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JK |
0 |
2 |
Feng Shui (3). |
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SV |
0 |
3 |
Family Estate->Student of the Bear, Test Subjects. Attack JD(1). JD uses Cave Network (1)->Underworld Tracker. Cave Network (2D). |
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5 |
JD |
0 |
3 |
Underworld Tracker. Attacks DS (1). Just Another Consumer intercepts. JD Die!!!s Just Another Consumer. Floating Restaurant heals 1 (0D). Floating Restaurant (3D). |
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DS |
1 |
3 |
Feng Shui (4). Dallas Rocket. |
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JK |
1 |
2 |
Feng Shui (4). |
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SV |
0 |
3 |
Family Estate->The Pledged. DS plays Portal Jockey. Attack JD (1). Portal Jockey joins. JD Inauspicious Returns 3*Sinister Priest. Floating Restaurant heals 1 (2D). JD Die!!!s Dallas Rocket. Sinister Priests each intercept The Pledged, Student of the Bear & Test Subjects respectively. All are smoked. Imprision Underworld Tracker. Cave Network (2D). Adrienne Hart. Attack DS (1). Burn for Power. DS plays City Park (2). Payback Time inflicts one damage on Family Estate (3), Festival Circle (1), Kinoshita House (2). |
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6 |
JD |
1 |
3 |
Earth Poisoner. Attack DS (1). DS reveals Petroglyphs (1) (2D). Inauspicious Return 3*Sinister Priest. Stone Garden (4) heals 1 damage (1D). Attack DS (1). Sieze Stone Garden (4). Payback Time inflicts one damage on Gambling House (2), Möbius Gardens(3). |
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DS |
1 |
3 |
Napalm Addict. Attack JS (1). Burn for Victory. |
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JK |
1 |
3 |
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SV |
1 |
3 |
Family Estate (5) |
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7 |
JD |
1 |
3 |
Gambling House for 1 Power. Attack DS (3). Portal Jockey intercepts Earth Poisoner. Petroglyphs (4D). Underworld Tracker, Palace Guard. Attack DS (3). SV Kinoshita Houses the Underworld Tracker. |
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DS |
1 |
3 |
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JK |
1 |
3 |
Queen of the Ice Pagoda. Attack DS (3). Reveals Kinoshita House (2)->auction toasts JK's. Burn for Power. Payback Time inflicts one point of damage on Cave Network (2), Festival Circle (1). |
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SV |
1 |
4 |
Neutron Bomb. Family Estate->Adrienne Hart. Attack JD (3). Siezes Stone Garden (4). |
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8 |
JD |
0 |
2 |
Gambling House for 1 Power. Evil Twins Adrienne Hart. Attack DS (3). Burn for Power. Payback time inflicts 1 damage on Gambling House (2), Petroglyphs (1). |
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DS |
0 |
3 |
Scrounges JD for 3 Power. Feng Shui (2). Portal Jockey. |
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JK |
1 |
2 |
Hacker. |
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SV |
1 |
5 |
Feng Shui (6). Family Estate->Student of the Bear. Attack JD (3). JK Golden Comebacks Queen of the Ice Pagoda. JD plays 2*Underworld Tracker. Portal Jockey (1D) intercepts Student of the Bear. Underworld Tracker*2 intercepts Adrienne Hart (4D). Imprison Underworld Tracker #2. Petroglyphs (4D). Neutron Bomb. Family Estate->Shinobu Yashida. Attack JD (3). WIN! |
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