Shadowfist Tournament Report: Pandemonium 22 (2005)

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[posted 26 Apr 2005; updated 24 Jun 2005]

Pandemonium 22 was held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on Feb.25-27, 2005. The local playgroup ran several tournaments including the official Canadian National Championship. The winners were announced by Braz King in the Shadowfist Forum on Yahoogroups on 28 Feb 2005 (read the original in the archive if you're a member) and the full report was posted 18 Apr 2005 (read the original in the archive if you're a member).

One report, some photos and a play-by-play for you:

Pandemonium 22 report by Braz King, originally posted to the Shadowfist Forum on Yahoogroups.

Pandemonium 22 pictorial by Braz King and Troy Duffy

Pandemonium 22 multiplayer championship final play-by-play by Braz King and Greg Zimmerman, originally posted to the Shadowfist Forum on Yahoogroups.

Originally posted to the Shadowfist Forum on Yahoogroups on 18 Apr 2005 by Braz King. Republished with permission. If you're a member, read the original in the archives.

Tournament Report: Pandemonium 2005

This report is being written long after Pandemonium. My memory is astounding at fringe details and sieve-like regarding things people want to know so apologies for anything important I may have forgotten, like who won the first Final Brawl event!

Many thanks to the players who came and make Pandemonium 2005 a great con.

We had the local regulars and several irregulars, plus John Merrill and Greg Zimmerman came from Jackson Michigan, and Marek Laskowski and Scott Huston came from Winnipeg, Manitoba! Given this was the first Canadian Championship I was relieved to have some out-of-province players join us. The events ranged form 10 to 14 participants, which beats the snot out of last year, but not quite as high as I had hoped.

Pandemonium is a decent con as far as I know. I'm not much of a con gamer and have never done anything other than play Shadowfist at such things. This one is probably typical. Lots of sweaty gamers in under-ventilated rooms with the majority playing D&D. In terms of CCGs, our 'Fist events seemed to attract the most steady crowds over the weekend. Other games had one big event then seemed to disappear.

Pandemonium is cool for the LARP factor. I can't quite figure these people out. Are they frustrated actors or RPG extremists? Some rare combination of campers/gamers/actors? It was fun to wander by and watch them get gobs of makeup applied for their events, the biggest of which seems to be the Midnight Masquerade. I figure that's the place you are most likely to get some sweet lovin' at a con but can't confirm that. I'm looking for an undercover correspondent to investigate this next year. Must resemble a drow and be up for anything. :^))

Okay, onto the Shadowfist.

I put together a decent prize table, prompted by Greg Zimmerman's great work at the Smackdown in Jacktown last year. Prizes included:

• Original artwork for Loyalty Officer, sincere thanks to Jeremy Dale
• A custom ink drawing of Big Bruiser, sincere thanks to Roberto Campus
• Signed prints of Carmen Zhou and Kwan Lung Wei
• Loads of signed cards thanks to Jeremy Dale, Roberto Campus, Chris Dien, Michael Komarck (who signed about five and kept the rest!). Glen Osterberger had apparently signed a bunch too, but all I got back was a torn envelope inside a plastic bag with a printed apology from the Georgia postal service assuring me that customer satisfaction is the first priority.
• DVD of Jackie Chan's first strike, boosters, 10KB starters, power counters, and the standard promo cards.
• T-Shirts custom made for the event (email me if you want to buy one for $15 Canadian. I still have a bunch).
• Engraved glass trophies for the duelling and multiplayer Canadian Champions

People seemed impressed and inspired by the prize table so that made it all worthwhile. Sure, I'd have liked a bigger turnout, but it was a step in the right direction. I've decided though, that this is the last year I'm going to put so much of my own money into the events. I either have to charge for the events or tone down the prizes.

Friday night we had casual games and demos. I don't think we had anybody come by for a demo proper, though we did attract attention and on Saturday two old school players participated after having seen us attempting to demo the night before. That made it feel worthwhile. Troy Duffy and Kel McKay worked hard at making posters with magic marker announcing each of our events and that was cool. Troy also desktopped some 8.5x11 posters thanking 410 Games, which provided us with a box of Boom Chuka Luka for a prize.

Saturday started with a Final Brawl event. This was our warm up event and I apologize but I can't remember who won. :^)

From 2 to 6 Saturday afternoon we held the Canadian Duelling Championship. Marek and Scott flew in from Winnipeg just for this event! Many thanks to them for spending the money to come and kick our asses. As we had 11 people sign up I opted out and really enjoyed just running the event for a change. Play was at a high level and we had lots of cool geographical matchups with Michigan's best facing Winnipeg's best at one point. Marek and Scott showed the payoff of endless hours of intensive duelling and duelling deck engineering. They dominated most of their matches and only Charles Soong, the Toronto phenom (yet another engineer, fwiw) challenged for the trophy. In a decisive match, Charles' Monarch deck beat Scott's necromonkey variant with a timely appearance of the Spear of Destiny. This prevented the final from being yet another duel between Marek and Scott! Marek prevailed with a rain of Archie removal against Charles in the final best-of-three to hoist the engraved glass trophy!

[deck list moved here]

Saturday evening we held the Whirlpool of Blood draft. We had a good turnout and the draft when quickly and smoothly. Jason Blackthorn (formerly known as Jason Stiney - a Seattle player at one time and now back to Toronto) won the final in a tense four player featuring myself, Tim Linden and Colin Donaldson. I was a bit tired of playing Tim and Colin who I sometimes feel (justified or not) play as a team and I got a bit sloppy and vengeful in the late game. Jay pulled off a good win with a Hand/Dragon deck that made great use of two copies of CB Radio which he managed to draft. Jay was really happy to have won a 'big event' given he hasn't bought new cards since Flashpoint. The first place prize for the draft was a big load of cards, so Jay can start making new decks!

Sunday at 10:00 we held the Final Brawl Canadian Championship. What I remember most about this event was that I could have made the final if I had played a Feng Shui site on my last turn. I'll never be good at timed out games I don't think. Anyway, Colin Donaldson (he who kicks much ass with a single 7M/Jammer deck and recently won Season Three of the GTA United Proving Ground League), Troy Duffy, Charles Soong, and John Merrill made the final. I felt this was a very strong field given that John was the 2002 Origins National Champ, Troy has won multiple con events, Charles was the 2003-2004 GTA United League champ and Colin was dominating the 2004-2005 League. The game lived up to National Championship expectations as you can read for yourself. I have to thank Greg Zimmerman for taking the notes after I left. We had gone a several hours over our expected completion time and I had a petite Italian sweetheart that had been waiting three hours and I didn't want to push my luck any more! ;^)

[transcript below, deck list moved here]

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Transcript of the 2005 Canadian Shadowfist Championship

by Braz King and Greg Zimmerman

Seating order:
John Charles
Colin Troy

Turn 4:
Colin (2FSS ) - g2, play 3rd FSS

John (1 FSS, The Legacy, Armies of the Monarchs) - g1, play Fire Acolytes, attacks Colin's Nine Dragon Temple for 1, play Drug Lab

Charles (2FSS) - g2, pass

Troy (2FSS, Golden Candle Society, 2 power) - g2, GCS attacks Colin's 9DT, plays Deadly Hands on GCS, discards 4, burns it for power.

Turn 5:
Colin - Violet Meditates for 4, plays Battlechimp, passes

John - g2, plays Cassandra, passes

Charles - g2, passes

Troy - g2 (10 power!), GCS w/ Deadly Hands attacks John's Puzzle Garden, John plays Snowblind

Turn 6:
Colin - g2, passes

John - g2, plays 2 Fire Acolytes, Acolyte attacks GCS w/ Deadly Hands, Troy discards 2, GCS dies at end of turn

Charles - g2, plays Spirit Pole.

Troy - g2 (12 power!), plays 3rd FSS, plays Budhist Monk & Iron Monkey. Monk & Monkey attack Colin's FSS, Colin Kunlan Clan Assaults Troy's FSS and characters to get rid of the power for the Monkey to steal, hits site, Temple of the Angry Spirits! Kills Troy's characters, 1 fight left on site.

Turn 7:
Colin - g2, Battlechimp attacks Troy's Festival Circle, BFP

John - g2, plays 3rd FSS, 2 Fire Acolytes attack Colin's damaged TotAS, BFP.

Charles - g2, asks if Colin or John would stop his attack on Troy, Colin: "We got our burns, but we don't want the club to get TOO big", turns Spirit Pole to play Ice Pagoda at reduced cost.

Troy - g2, plays Jade Dragon Monk.

Turn 8:
Colin - g1, plays Deep Cover Rebels, DCR & Battlechimp attack John's FSS, John Snowblinds DCR, Battlechimp hits Puzzle Garden for 3.

John - g?, seizes Bazaar from Charles, plays Fire Mystic.

Charles - g3, Fire Acolyte attacks Bazaar (he wants it back!), drops Ice Sword on Acolyte, plus Sword of the Master from the smoked pile (with the Spirit Pole), seizes Bazaar.

Troy - g2, Jade Dragon Monk attacks John's damaged Puzzle Garden, Troy plays Shaolin Surprise to take Charles's SotM (promises not to kill character so he'll get it back), turns Hot Springs to cancel having his damaged reduced by Puzzle Garden, John Snowblinds, Troy cancels it Confucian Stability, Colin threatens with his Stick it to the Man, mainly so he can just play it, John ahead of Troy, convinces Colin to hold off, in response to Conf Stab, Fire Mystic does 2 to Troy's Eagle Mountain, then reveals a Desolate Ridge to do 2 more and smoke it, JDM hits Puzzle Garden, Troy BfV's

Turn 9:
Colin - g2, DCR attacks Ice Pagoda, Charles plays Shattering Fire for 4, but Colin plays Who's The Monkey Now to smoke Charles's sword-bearing Fire Mystic, seizes Pagoda, Charles plays Avenging Fire, toasts DCR (and Colin can't play his 2nd WtMN?!) and gives Charles 5 power, Battlechimp seizes Bazaar

John - g3, plays FSS and Silver Jet, SJ attacks Troy's Hot Springs, BfV

Charles - g5 with Pocket Demon, plays Drug Lab, 2 Darkness Priestesses, Fire Acolytes, Acolytes w/ Ice Sword attacks John's Drug Lab for 4

Troy - g0, plays FSS, gains power, plays Wandering Teacher, Jade Dragon Monk attacks John's Drug Lab and seizes it.

Turn 10:
Colin - g6 on a Scrounging, passes

John - g3, plays Fire Mystic, in response Colin Discerning Fires 5 "fire" characters, from John & Charles, no other 5 targets to Brain Fire it to.

Charles - g3, plays Silver Jet, wins Auction, SJ attacks John's Temple of Celestial Mercy, BfV.

Troy - g2, plays Swords of Heaven, SoH & Wandering Teacher attack John's damaged Puzzle Garden, Colin Discerning Fire's "secret" to get Troy's SoH and Charles' Silver Jet, Teacher hits for 3, Troy attacks with JDM, BfV

Turn 11:
Colin - g3, plays Deep Cover Rebels, Mad Scientist, Discerning Fire's 3 "darkness" characters, still nothing to Brain Fire it to, attacks Charles' Stone Dolmens, BfV.

John - g1, plays Fire Acolyte

Charles - g2, plays Fire Mystic

Troy - g2, passes

Turn 12:
Colin - g3, plays Wu Man Kai, WMK, Battlechimp, Mad Scientist, DCR attacks Charles' Tangram Alley, Troy's Wandering Teacher intercepts WMK, Charles Fire Mystic finishes him off, Colin BfV.

John - g1, plays FSS

Charles - g1. Mystic & Acolyte attack Bazaar, Seizes it.

Troy - g3 w/ Violet Med., JDM attacks Colin's Whirlpool of Blood (has had 4 damage on it since near the beginning of the game), no one can block, Colin Discerning Fire's "fire", Charles Fire Mystic responds by damaging and smoking Colin's Whirlpool

Turn 13:
Colin - g2, plays FSS, MS, DCR & Battlechimp attack John's Desolate Ridge, John attempts to Discerning Fire two Fortune of the Turtle, Colin plays WtMN, smokes John's Ring of Ice, John Snowblinds DCR (possibly in response to the Fortune), Battlechimp damages Ridge for 5

John - g2, passes

Charles - g2, plays FSS, It's "Subversive" night at the Gambling House (DCR + Battlechimp), Fire Mystic attacks Colin' 9DT, plays Sword of the Dragon King (+5 Fighting), BfV

Troy - g2, JDM (with Righteous Heaven Stance & Sword Stance) attacks Colin's FSS, Golden Mile, survives w/ 7 damage, Troy attacks John's Desolate Ridge with GCS, BfV

Turn 14:
Colin - g2, Bchimp attacks Troy's Eagle Mountain, BfV

John - g1, plays Darkness Warriors, attacks Colin's Golden Mile, BfV

Charles - g2, plays Book of Wrath, gambles subversive

Troy - g1, JDM attacks John's FSS, plays Deadly Hands, discards, but its a Puzzle Garden, hits for 3

Turn 15:
Colin - g1, DCR attack Bazaar, seize, plays Invicible Stance on DCR.

John - g1, plays FSS

Charles - g2, gambles, plays FSS, plays The Baron, Baron & Fire Acolyte attack John's Puzzle Garden, Colin plays Blow Things Up on Puzzle Garden, Charles plays Brain Fire but John Brain Fires it back to his own Puzzle Garden. Failed attack.

Troy - g1, play FSS, JDM attacks Charles' ToTAS, but Colin Blows It Up.

Turn 16:
Colin - g1, plays FSS, Bchimp & DCR attacks Troy's FSS for the win, Charles Shattering Fire, Colin responds with Fortune of the Turtle, John responds with Snowblind. Troy intercepts DCR w/ JDM and discards 5 w/ Deadly Hands to stop DCR (both survive due to DCR's toughness)

John - g1, Darkness Warriors seize Bazaar, plays FSS

Charles - g2, gambles, plays FSS & Darkness Priestess, then Baron, Darkness Priestess and Fire Mystic w/ sword of the Dragon King attack John's Puzzle Garden, John Mark of Fire's, Charles pings Puzzle Garden with Fire Mystic, Charles plays Ice Sword on Darkness Priestess, John Queen's Wrath's her, FM pings Puzzle Garden, John's D Warriors block the Baron, Fire Mystic takes the site - Charles wins!

Colin was 2nd, John & Troy tied for 3rd.

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