Shadowfist Tournament Report: Origins 2005

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[posted 8 Jul 2005; updated 7 Aug 2005]

Z-Man ran several tournaments at Origins 2005 (Columbus, Ohio, 30 June - 3 Jul 2005). The winners were announced in a couple of postings to the Shadowfist Forum on Yahoogroups (thanks to Julian Lighton), but unfortunately they weren't announced on Shadowfist.com like last year (sadness). The Toronto players swept this year's tournaments.

* 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 8. So Zev decided that they could both hold National Championships.

The "Faction War" tournament did not make a return appearance this year.

Two reports and a pictorial for you so far:

Origins 2005 report from Braz King.

Origins 2005 Comrades in Arms play-by-play by Joey Ferreira (and Greg Zimmerman)

Origins 2005 pictorial from Troy Duffy.

Originally posted to the Shadowfist Forum on Yahoogroups on 5 Jul 2005 by Braz King. Republished with permission (includes one minor correction from Braz). If you're a member, read the original part one and part two in the archives.

Origins 2005 Report by Braz King

I set out for Origins at 5:00 Thursday morning. I stumbled out of bed, showered to wake up, threw on the clothes I had set out Wednesday night, gobbled down a quick breakfast then jumped in the car and drove to pickup Cavebear. He was finishing packing so I waited in the car. We drove to Troy's. He was finishing packing so we waited in the car. By 6:30ish we were fuelled up with Tim Horton's coffee and sugary breakfast treats and on the road.

The drive down was smooth with our regular stop at the Lovecraftian rest area in Angola, New York. The staff were primarily really hot young woman with European accents I couldn't place. It was baffling.

I got a speeding ticket. I always get speeding tickets. I had to attend a hearing two months ago where a frumpy civil servant berated me for half an hour and I knew if I said shit I'd lose my license so I said nothing. This new ticket is not a good thing.

We checked in at the Hyatt on Capital Square. Troy had booked a double room plus a cot. There was no cot. The Bell Captain (who I called Sky Captain), who for some reason escorted us to our room, was no help. Troy called down to the desk and they were no help. Later I went down and talked to somebody, it was no help. They claimed it was an error on their website and that they can not put cots in double rooms due to a fire regulation. We arranged for extra pillows and blankets and agreed on a floor-sleeping rotation.

And then the Con! First thing after registration was a visit to Z-Man booth, greetings to the crew, purchase of Who Wants Some cards. Zev's booth was emphasizing his new games like Saboteur (which I bought for my kids and played with them this morning!), Primordial Soup, etc. The only trace of Shadowfist I saw was one box of boosters on the display table. A sign of things to come?

We bought food and built decks and Wanted Some. I drafted no more than 3 foundations from any one faction with an abundance of 3-cost foundations. I had one hitter, Shi Zi Hui, but a rugged site structure - Temple of the Angry Spirits, Grizzly Pass, Inner Sanctum, Stone Garden. I also had two healing events which worked well. However, I took multiple losses against Cavebear's $10,000 Man and old Thunder King. I had two games where I was winning but my opponent 'had to take off' for some other event. Overall I did jack squat in this event. I was even tempted to throw in two foundations in my hotel that night but realized how completely pathetic that would make me.

The only other event Thursday was Both Guns Blazing and I played "Gold Lightning", an Ascended deck I had built for our Proving Ground finals to attempt to win a 4-player game before Tim and Colin could get their unkillable state-heavy lockdowns in place. It failed. :^) This night it won. I lost to Julian's Secret Wind Across Heaven Tech in the first game, but won all my other games. The turnout was small - I think we had five players. I figured the only way to win was to play really fast and win more games than Julian. Cavebear made a strong showing actually beating Julian. I ended up with one more win than Julian and Cavebear (we had 1 loss each) giving me the first win of the con. I wished there were more players so my first ever duelling title would have a little more weight.

Friday we had a great breakfast at the hotel with the most cheerful, smiling, caring hotel restaurant staff I've ever seen. The morning's event was Comrades in Arms and I was running my "Tangram Alley Boys" deck, which is Lotus/Dragon hoods with lots of self-sacrificing effects, and things that benefit from my dead guys (Luis, White Leopard Club, Shrieking Witch Heads). Dragons were there for Brawl and Is That All You Got? First, I looked over Troy's "Spirit of the Scrappy Kid's Gun" deck as he was looking for some tweaks. I made some suggestions which I almost regretted later when I was facing him and Joey in a critical match and he almost whooped me.

First round I face Rick Garman (I think this was the only event he played in this year) playing multi-faction students, and Cavebear's Manchu deck. In a wildly stupid move I played Stand Together and chose 'Hood' even though Cavebear had two Bad Colonels in play. I misremembered the card and thought it only made Soldiers you had taken over into Hoods. I forget it made ALL of your Soldiers Hoods. Thus I gave away more pump than I got. So I set out to destroy the Bad Colonels by Bribing one (awesome chrome with him holding a wad of money in his artwork!) and attacking the other. I had janky fun using Mr. Simms to save himself during my Brawls. All decks rolled well and Cavebear put up a ferocious assault with multiple Garrisons, a stack of Edges, and the unturning 3 for 4 guy but in the end I took this one. My round two included John Merrill's Darkness deck and Peter Shah's Sword deck. One highlight included Ting Ting's Bandit's forcing the discard of John's Darkness Queen. But John pulled off a nice Ivory Goddess win when the board was fairly open and Silver Jet was going for the win (I think Troy pulled off another Ivory Goddess win during Origins this year, which is interesting). This dropped me down to a lower table and I faced Troy (Gun) and Joey (Pledged or Cop, not sure). This was one of my most enjoyable games of the weekend. Joey was doing dialogue for all of his characters including a very crotchety Max Brunner complaining "I always get called in when things need fixing" and G-Man telling the Scrappy Kid "Yer going away for a long time Kid". It was like a Dashiell Hammett novel come to life. :^) Mr. Simms again paid the bills by protecting me from the Police Station until I could take it out and screwing with Troy's Tommy Guns and Sub-Machine Guns. I also got to use him to save himself and put extra damage on Big Daddy with my own Final Brawls. This game came down to the wire. Julian gave us the "finish the current turn" announcement during my turn and I managed to get a proper win that turn. This put me in the finals with Tim Linden's Lotus 'Sorcerers', Peter Shah's 'Swords', and Brian Kelly's 'Monkeys'. The game went 10 turns and I won by sending the Shrieking Witch Heads at Brian's Ba-BOOM! at the end of Peter's turn, clearing the board and leaving me at 2 FSS in play and a good reserve of power. At the start of my turn Brian said "He's at 2 Feng Shui and no burned for victory. If he can drop and take two, I'll be very impressed." A Redeemed Gunman attacked Peter's turned Gambling House for 3. Seedy Dive unturned him and he took the Site. I played face down Festival Circle while pondering out loud "the only thing that could stop me now is Tim's Discerning Fire". ITAYG brought back the Red Scorpion Killers and I played a Vassals then attacked Tim's damaged TotAS. Sure enough he slapped down a Discerning Fire and I revealed and used my Festival Circle and won the CiA tournament. Was that a bluff or a lie? ;^) Joey and Greg Zimmerman took a full game transcript which I'll include at the end of this post for anyone who likes such things.

In the evening we had the Who's the Big Man Now duelling championship. This was one of the two 'trophy' events. I usually don't play the duelling events because I don't have a lot of duelling experience and I don't build duelling decks. But I had been fiddling with the idea of a Guiding Hand toughness deck ("Green Leather") that seemed effective but janky enough to warrant an attempt at duelling. I don't remember all my matches but I faced Joey's Underworld Gateway deck and defeated it partially with the help of Shaolin Surprise, which gave me control of a Gateway long enough to place it on one of Joey's sites, then smoke it. I had two losses in qualifying, one to Tim Linden's "Sorcerer's Throne" deck, which just ramped too fast and I didn't have an answer for it. Then I went Hand to Hand with Sean Hendrickson (last year's WtBMN champ). It was a great battle but his Sword Saints and Blue Mandarins meant he was taking more of my sites than I could keep up with. Also he had a Desolate Ridge and timely Confucians that reduced the value of my Buddha's Palms and Breaths of the Dragon. The finals featured Tim Linden against Sean Hendrickson and myself against Paul Gerardi. Paul was playing his "MicroMonkey" deck, featuring <=3 cost Monkeys. My deck rolled smoothly and his didn't and what he did get in play couldn't stand up against monks attacking with 3-5 toughness. We were done in 10 minutes and watched Sean's Hand deck slowly go down to the rising tide of Sorcerer weenies. Tim won a resounding victory. Strangely, the winning deck was a dual faction Lot/Pur deck and the 2nd and 3rd place decks were both Guiding Hand... go figure! Third straight victory by a Canadian player. Talk of a sweep was heard.

That night was the Red, White and BOOM! celebration in downtown Columbus. The shuttle buses were not running and I wanted to get back to the hotel to sleep before the snoring barrage began. :^) I watched the amazing fireworks display then hailed a cab. The surly cab driver took us right into the heart of the thousands of pedestrians making their way home from the fireworks. The downtown was choked with people. There were police at each intersection attempting to direct traffic, but they left the traffic lights operating. With so many people and so much noise many drives and walkers didn't realize that there were traffic cops so they followed the lights while others followed the cops and it was bedlam. Finally I badgered my nasty driver into sweeping around the clog and on a side street we got blocked by a massive FINAL BRAWL involving about twenty guys throwing haymakers. I yelled at my driver to honk his $#@&(#% horn and drive and he and I almost came to blows but finally he inched forward honking madly and we drove the brawlers off the street and headed to the hotel. The trip cost me about five times as much as it would have and I hated that cab driver. I counted out the fare right to the penny and dropped it in his hand. He cursed me as I slammed his door and went in for the night.

Friday night was Cavey's turn on the floor but once T-Duff hit the zenith of his snoring power I had to get some distance. I seem to be more sensitive to sound than others. Maybe it has to do with being a musician, sensitive hearing... I dunno. I woke up a Cavebear deep in sleep - very dangerous - but he was entirely accommodating, took the bed, and I settled into the entry way, right by the door and got to sleep.

Saturday morning we grabbed fried egg sandwiches at the Convention Centre food court and got ready for the National Championships Part 1 (as I found out long after the fact) Final Brawl. This title has been in the hands of a Torontonian since 2003 when I foiled John Merrill's attempt at repeating his 2002 victory. In 2004 Rob Cruise won with his classic Dragon deck ("The Usual Suspects"). In preparing for this event I stubbornly worked on a theme deck called "Madame Yen's Parlour of Pain" that I had built during out last league and got beat every time I tried to use it. The deck story is that Madam Yen runs a brothel (Sliding Paper Walls - Look at the art... Dragon Lady... get it?) where she employs the hottest women (Femme Fatale, Sting of the Scorpion, Je Pai) to service the rich and influential (Cabinet Minister, Rev. Paine, etc). She uses her wealth to buy thugs and assassins (Hammer Harrison, Gangsters, Tong Hatchetman, Nine Cuts, etc) and her connections with the magic community to bring in help (Shamanistic Punks). But she has an Insidious Plan - she is killing her clients and using their bodies to create an army of zombies (Walking Corpses) and monsters (Cenotaph). I had tweaked and tweaked the deck, testing it against local decks and finally got it where I felt it was mostly true to the theme but was competitive. I was very happy to win my second Origins Final Brawl Championship with this theme deck. My first win was also a theme deck - 2003's "Heroes of the Twilight".

The qualifying rounds were very competitive. My first game I got an early BfP when a player joined my probing attack against an undefended opponent. I dropped a Sword of the Master on Student of the Shark and took that site. I quickly won that game. The second round "head table: saw David Eber (peacock deck), Andrew Davidson (old-skool Archies with lots of non-FSS), Sean Hendrickson (Out-of-turn Archies featuring Grunts, Assault Squads, Commander Corliss, and TacOps Troopers), and me going at it. Andrew's deck ran Trade Centers, Secret HQ, new Biomass Centre, Drug Lab, CHAR, Vivisector, and the scientist that recycles events (mainly Nerve Gas and Imprisoned). In the first round Julian was laughing because Sean was making a winning attack with TacOps Troopers, which Julian considered one of the worst Deadalus hitters. I replied that I was in the midst of a winning attack with Madame Yen, one of the worst Z-Man hitters and he strongly disagreed. :^) Andrew won this game on a time out, iirc. The most memorable moment for me occurred when Andrew attacked my site with an eight fighting Plasma Trooper, my Femme Fatale called over some of Sean's soldiers to "save me save me!" and I also intercepted with my own characters in case of a nerve gas or imprisoned on the soldiers. Andrew played Cellular Reinv on the Trooper, I played Op Killdeer on the trooper. David, who was not at all involved in the scene until this point, Confucianed my Killdeer meaning Andrew's drugged up cyborg burnt through all of my characters and my front row site leaving me with a single card in play. I crawled back into the game in a minor way but Andrew's massive site structure was generating 6-8 power a turn and he could not be stopped. I made a note that if I faced Andrew in the finals I'd be more aggressive against his big sites. This game also featured the bad tie-break scoring that gives a point for an in-time loss and zero for a timed-out loss. Sean tried to assist in Eber's push for the victory because the "finish the turn" notice had been given. We convinced him that was not allowed but he did play events that assisted the attack. I was in the dumb position of throwing everything I had to stop David even though it was costing me a point. I couldn't blame Sean as he was playing to win the tournament. It is the rules that are the problem. In Toronto a loss is a loss, zero points regardless of time out. That's how the game should be played.

Sean and I dropped down to the baby table where the Femme Fatale continued to call over Sean's soldiers to save them many times. Sean is a funny guy and had lots of great lines including, after the Femme called over the Dogs of War, "she loves it Doggy style". Much laughter and applause. I won this game and John Merrill, also playing Lotus, said "I gotta give you props for playing a theme deck that kicks a lot of ass" and that made my day.

The finals featured Andrew Davidson, Joey Ferreira playing self-toasting Dragons, Jeff "Cavebear" Stroud with a straight Jammer Battlematic machine, and me. I had a great couple of early turns and had Hammer and Ninja Six ruling the board and that, of course, drew lots of fire. I got smacked, then Joey dominated the next phase of the game and by turn five or so he had the Golden Gunman, Ting Ting, and Johnny Badhair in play. We had to team up against him but even after killing them all, Johnny just came back. I used Larcenous Mist and Nine Cuts to make sure Johnny stayed Dead, Dead, Dead and Joey was sad about that. I also started using the White Leopard Club to shut down his power generation and that pretty much kept him out of the game. But with three sites in his BfV pile, he could not be allowed back in the game. But he got massive respect when he played Suong Xa at a discount when Andrew played a fifth power-generating site. THEN during the same turn he used her ability to gain guts and stop Andrew's attack on Joey's only site. It was awesome!

Cavebear's Battlematic deck just got stronger and stronger as the game went on and it took a lot of work to keep it from steamrolling. Andrew's Archie brutality and my Asc/Lotus control kept it from winning but it made a massive push, including a Buffalo Soldier in a MegaTank, and I think three other characters in Battlematics, one in a Netherflitter. It was a long, drawn out turn with everyone pulling out all the tricks to stop him. We stopped his first push with interceptions, and Andrew's City Square to stop the MegaTank. But then Cavebear pulled a followup attack out of his arse and went again. Only Andrew's Orbital Laser Strike stopped him. My turn was next and it felt like the right time to go so I played a FSS and went for it. Cavebear still had lots of dudes loaded with states to intercept but I faked the Tong Hatchetman's death, Inauspiciously Returned three Gangsters, and played a Walking Corpses. I also had a damaged Evil Twin of CHAR still in play plus a Femme Fatale upon which Cavebear had played a Telsa Lightning Blaster in the early game just to get it out of his hand. In my final push she pulled that blaster out of her garter and killed one of Cavebear's interceptors. And that was that. Cavebear's rolling army of Jammer steel had sucked the life out of the table and I was able to cheaply play a lot of fighting for the win.

Every round of this tournament featured massive amounts of attacking. Many games had several turns in which there were no characters on the board. I loved that. My deck ran lots of Assassins so I could attack almost every turn. Anybody who thinks Assassinate is a weak ability is a doofus.

This made three wins for me and four for the Toronto group. I had had enough cards at that point and said my goodbyes for the day. I made my way back to the hotel and settled in to watch a couple of classic Mohammad Ali bouts on ESPN classics. I loved every minute of it and ordered room service and ate a great meal and drank great wine and left voice mail for one of my sweethearts back home. Ahhhh...

Back at the Con they were doing the Whirlpool of Blood draft using foundation pods because Z-Man is almost out of Daedalus starters. Good time for the new Core Set to be printed! Cavebear took the event with Tim Linden close behind, from what I heard. Hopefully someone else will give the details of the draft. Five wins for the Toronto group.

Sunday morning Andrew was running his Array of Stunts tournament and Julian was doing a standard Final Brawl. Very few people showed up. John and Greg never returned from the previous night's festivities and I can only hope they are still alive and out of prison. :^) The Ithaca boys were doing train games, Tim Linden was in the championship match for Starfleet Battles. I don't know where everybody else was. This left me, Troy, Cavebear, Brian Kelley, and Joey Ferreira. Cavebear was intent on Array of Stunts and everybody else was intent on the Final Brawl. Having to choose between a three player Array and a four player Brawl, I went with the Brawl. I didn't have a deck for Array but I still felt bad leaving Andrew and Cavebear to an Array of Stunts duel. But they were not deterred and seemed to have a good time during which Cavebear's ReAscended deck romped over Andrew's Underworld Gateway deck.

In our Brawl, Troy played a reworked version of last year's Faction Wars winning deck, Purists - Live at the Memory Palace. I played a reworked version of my previous year's Faction Wars and Final Brawl deck. It used to be called Hand Air but the new version is called Leap of Faith and runs much faster. It won me a Proving Ground league night with each game going no longer than about 18 minutes. Joey played an Ice/Weapons deck and Brian played a Purist evasion/penetration deck featuring the Voice of the Unnameable, Cognitive Spirits, and the Unnameable itself. Joey's deck stalled horribly though he banked up to 11 power at one point. Brian got an early Cognitive Spirit and support weenies and looked unstoppable. Brian and Troy started building up lots of Quantum Sorceries so I used Fist of Shadows and Rig Dis to destroy as many as I could. There was a lot of attacking going on and both Troy and Brian had Voice of the Unnameable out at different times and I now fear and respect that card. Brian wiped the board at one point but I used Shaolin Surprise to move Righteous Heaven Stance from a Buddhist Monk to a Blue Monk, keeping him alive and stopping one of Brian's pushes.

The last round of turns featured a push for the win by each player. Troy went for it with a 7-fight Shards of Warped Reflection, holding the Voice plus power to clear any interceptors. I Blade Palmed the Shards and Troy declined to use the Voice. Troy played something else, I forget what, so he had less power to Voice with after that. On Joey's turn he played an Ice Healer, attacked my damaged Stone Dolmens, dropped a Thunder Lance so interceptions were useless. Then he dropped an Ice Sword and was going to take the site and win but I Confucianed the Ice Sword. Then it was Brian's turn to make another push. He attacked one of Joey's FSSs, I intercepted with both Monks, he Disc Fired both and I had no response. Troy played Entropy Sphere and stopped the attack, putting four damage on his Mountain Fortress behind his 7-fight Shards. Brian's remaining attackers did four to Joey's site. I had no characters left and was only at three FSSs. I declined to generate power cause I had five. I drew three sites, two events, and my last card was a Shih Ho Kuai. I dropped him at 12 fighting and attacked Troy's Mountain Fortress for the win. Joey and Brian were out of power and had no tricks. I figured I would have Shih fight the Shards, boosted to 11 by the Fortress, and take the 1-body site with my 1-fight attacker. But Troy played Impossible Angles (known to many as "They Came Out of Nowhere!" but Troy had stroked that out and written in the playtest title on all his copies! LOL!). The turned Voice came over and intercepted Shih, bringing him down to nine fight, then the Shards intercepted and it looked like I'd fail, but I dropped a Buddha's Palm and the firey hands of Shih Ho Kaui burned their mark into the Shards' chest for 12 damage, smoking him and letting me hit the site for 8 and win the last event of Origins 2005, giving me four wins out of five events and a sweep for the Toronto playgroup.

I felt bad for the "Bruins" because they'd played well and fought hard and been great fun to hang with for the weekend. But sometimes the luck flows one way and this weekend it flowed my way. But I shared the hell money prize with them as we parted ways. I look forward to playing with them again sometime. We talked about them coming up for an event in Toronto as Brian has been to Canada quite a few times to see hockey games. But his border crossings tend to end up with car and body searches so he'll need to coach his nervous buddies better (note that his past misadventures did not include Joey or Peter!).

With Shadowfist over I cashed in my wad of hell money for prizes. I was congratulated by the Z-Man guys and Julian said "he's the new Jan". I shook my head and made excuses to diminish my victories but inside it felt damn good. I bought some games for my kids (Apples to Apples Jr., Columns, and Saboteur - all games I highly recommend for family game night!). Saw Tim just long enough to hear about his near miss at the Starfleet championship. He lost shields on his port side and the opponent's above average rolls took out the weapons he was going to launch from his bays. Tim is remarkable in that he can compete at the highest level in many different games.

Andrew, Cavebear, Troy, and I got lunch together at the pub across the street. I was amazed they had fresh salmon. Cavebear threw glasses around the room but the waitress was kind to us anyway. I talked to Andrew about his diamond mining in Mozambique and his latest robotics research on behalf of the Welsh government. He's an interesting guy that Andrew.

On the drive home Troy dozed in the back, having gamed until five o'clock that morning. Cavebear put on a mixed CD to introduce us to his musical tastes. That meant we listened to racy Mariachi songs, 1930s French and Italian show tunes, Russian Opera, and a few Scottish drinking songs for good measure. He then played us a comedy CD by some Harvard grad playing piano and singing clever songs. After it was over he told us that Jan Malina gave him that CD as a goodbye gift when Cavebear moved back from Oakland. Troy and I pondered when we would actually have the opportunity to play against Jan... one day. :^)

Cheers,
Braz.

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Originally posted to the Shadowfist Forum on Yahoogroups on 6 Aug 2005 by Braz King. Republished with permission. If you're a member, read the original in the archives.

Origins 2005 Comrades in Arms play-by-play by Joey Ferreira and Greg Zimmerman

Many thanks to Joey Ferreira for taking 99% of these notes and to Greg Zimmerman for stepping in and recording the last turn when Joey had to leave.

Players and order

Tim Linden      Peter Shah
Brian Kelley     Braz King

Designators:

Tim Linden - Sorcerer
Peter Shah - Sword
Braz King - Hood
Brian Kelley - Monkey

Turn 1

Tim does nothing. Braz plays a Drug Lab, starting Peter's Disco craze.

Turn 2

Tim plays a FSS, Eunuch Underling, then pre-emptively slays Peter's Shaolin Swordsman. Braz' new Redeemed Gunman triggers the Disco then attacks it.

Turn 3

Brian plays a Marmojet. Monkey Count: 1. Mo' Monkeys Mo' Problems shows up. Braz plays another Redeemed Gunman and they stare down the Disco. But the new Gunman attacks the Marmojet with a Dirk Wisely's Gambit and Tim's Palace Guards intercept and save the flying monkey, failing the Gambit.

Turn 4

Brian plays a FSS. Monkey Count still 1. Tim Glimpses the Abyss for 3. Peter attacks Brian's damaged Mobius Gardens with the Shaolin Swordsman, Marmojet wimps out and the Swordsman gets Butterfly Swords. Braz Final Brawls but everyone goes to the Festival of Giants for safety. Exit Mobius Gardens. Braz plinks the Disco then plays a Seedy Dive, triggering the Disco and the Dive rouses the Gunman and he and the Snake Fighter attack. Exit Disco (burn for power).

Turn 5

Brian plays a FSS. Monkey Count: 1. Still. Tim Glimpses again then plays Jueding Bao-Fude and his Evil Twin. They sack Brian's Disco for power. Peter's Shaolin Swordsman takes Braz' Drug Lab from Peter. Big Daddy Voodoo puts in an appearance.

Turn 6

The lone Marmojet attacks Tim's Puzzle Garden to prove they had a plan. Monkey Count unchanged at 1. Tim plays Jueding Shelun for Total Jueding Supremacy. Shelun and a guard attack and BfP Brian's unknown FSS (a Monkey House!). Braz' large army of hoods attacks and kills the Shaolin Swordsman. Many hoods are killed.

Turn 7

Brian plays the new Battlechimp Potempkin (but he's not a Monkey. Monkey Count *still* at 1). Potempkin and the Marmojet attack Braz' unknown FSS and trust them, they have a plan. During the attack, the Bao-Fudes kill Big Daddy Voodoo then Shrieking Witch Heads tear apart the true Bao-Fude in return. Brian hits the Hall of Portals and BfP. Tim replaces Jueding with two White Disciples, then sends Shelun to attack Peter's FSS. He takes the City Park and BfV.

Turn 8

Brian plays a Flying Monkey Squad (Monkey Count: 2!). Tim plays another White Disciple. Shelun and a Guard attack Peter's City Park. Braz Final Brawls, which starts an orgy of death as the two unturned White Disciples finish off the Flying Monkey Squad and Braz' Poison Clan Warriors, who respond by killing themselves to shoot Shelun. He hits the Site for only 3. And the Monkey Count has been reduced to zero.

Sun Chen and a new Shaolin Swordsman attack Brian's unknown FSS. A Butterfly Sword later they burn a City Park for victory. Braz bribes the Sinister Sibling of Bao-Fude, then plays an Evil Twin of Sun Chen and a new Big Daddy Voodoo for good measure. Even Chen attacks Brian's unknown FSS but Tim Discerning Fires the Chen brothers. Bribed Bao-Fude then kills Shelun and Braz Brawls to clear the table but it turns out that Big Daddy Voodoo is the Monkey Now.

Turn 9

Brian plays a Gorilla Fighter on the cheap. He then plays Apes of Wrath. Potempkin and the Gorilla Fighter attack Peter's damaged City Park. Bao-Fude shoots Potempkin and Braz' Vassals of Chin intercept and finish him off but the Fighter BfV's the Park. The Apes of Wrath and a new Ba-BOOM! and Ape Nuts attack Tim's damaged Puzzle Garden. Bao-Fude kills the Apes of Wrath but the rest BfP the Garden. Monkey Count: 3.

Tim plays the Hall of Brilliance causing everyone to ponder what will happen when he plays the Imperial Palace.

Peter's Shaolin Swordsman attacks Brian's unknown FSS (Braz only has non-FSS accessible for several turns) and picks up another Butterfly Swords. Tim tries to Glimpse the Abyss yet again but Confucian says no. Peter burns the Petroglyphs for victory. Peter plays a Gambling House and turns for a power. Braz' Shamanistic Punks try to finish off the Swordsman but fails when a Festival of Giants bursts out.

Turn 10

Brian's Gorilla Fighter and Ape Nuts attacks Tim's unknown FSS. Bao-Fude blocks the Gorilla and they then die to the Temple of the Angry Spirits. Ba-BOOM! tries to die fighting the Shaolin Swordsman but Braz' Red Scorpion Killers burn through some Hoods to kills the Swordsman instead, keeping the explosive monkey alive. Brian then plays Apes of Wrath, Gorilla Fighter, and Big Macaque Attack. The Gorilla attacks Tim's TotAS but dies to Braz' Red Scorpion Killers. Monkey Count: 3.

Turn 11

At the end of Peter's turn Braz sends Shrieking Witch Heads after Ba-BOOM! and clears the board. Brian says "if he can play a FSS and take two, I'll be really impressed. Braz plays a Redeemed Gunman and attacks Peter's turned Gambling House for 3. Braz plays a FSS face down in the third column. Turns Seedy Dive and unturns the Redeemed Gunman, attacks Gambling House again and seizes it. Braz plays Is That All You Got and brings back the Red Scorpion Killers, plays a Vassals of the Lotus and attacks Tim's damaged TotAS for the win. Braz says "only Tim's Discerning Fire can stop me now". Tim slaps down a two point Discerning Fire and Braz reveals his new FSS as a Festival Circle to douse the fire. No other stoppage left and Braz takes the TotAS for the win.

[summary by Joey Ferreira with help from Greg Zimmerman; posted by Braz King]

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