Shadowfist Tournament Report: Plattecon Upsilon (2007)

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[posted 18 Mar 2007; updated 20 Mar 2007]

Plattecon Upsilon [plattevillegaming.com] was held in Platteville, Wisconsion on Mar.2-4, 2007. The local playgroup ran several tournaments including Who's The Big Cheese Now?, the Wisconsin State Championships. The winners were announced by Willow Palecek in the Shadowfist Forum on Yahoogroups on 5 Mar 2007 (read the original in the archive if you're a member).

One report, and some photos for you:

Plattecon Upsilon report by Willow Palecek, originally posted to the Shadowfist Forum on Yahoogroups.

Plattecon Upsilon pictorial by John Monnett

Originally posted to the Shadowfist Forum on Yahoogroups on 5 Mar 2007 by Willow Palecek. Republished with permission. If you're a member, read the original in the archives. A few additions and corrections in [square brackets], courtesy of Jim Sensenbrenner and John Monnett.

Tournament Report: Plattecon Upsilon (2007)

Yesterday, the Wisconsin state championships, called "Who's the Big Cheese Now?" were held at Plattecon in Platteville, WI. My memory is a little hazy of some of the plays, but I got most of the important details down. If you enjoyed this, you can also read my full con report at my blog. [wordpress.com]

-Willow

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Shadowfist: Whirlpool of Blook

Don't blame me, that's how it was printed in the Platteville Schedule.

We've got me, Tim, Rebecca, John [Monnett], and Jim (Sensenbrenner) for our draft. Jim TOs, but participates in the draft pool so there will be more packs. He declines to rare-draft, building a Hand-Monarchs (I think) deck. I suggest we play a crazy five-way exhibit game at somepoint, this does not materialize. We test Jim's new foundation draftstack, which seems to be a resounding success. [The draft stack is a big pile of 40% FSS and 60% foundation. Before drafting everyone was given 3 at random. Halfway through the draft, each player then got 2 10-card draft packs that were draft just like normal boosters. After the event each player gave back 23 FSS/foundation to reseed the pile for future events. - Jim.]

I go for Architects early on, with Hand and Shadow Syndicate as possible secondaries. I get four good Syndicate cards (Salary Man, Inconvienient Debt, 2x Wall Running), but after the SSG packs, it's not enough. I end up drafting far more good cards than I need, and end up packing a 55 card mostly architect deck with a splash of Hand, running 2 $10,000 Men, Elsa Winterhagen, a Conversion Drone, 2 Bonechills, a Blood Eagles, a Leaping Tiger Troupe, a Desdemona Deathangel, and a Redeemed Pirate for hitters, with a Napalm Belcher, 3 Buddhist Monks, 2 Plasma Troopers, Hammer Harrison, and new Dr. Curtis Boatman in the slightly-fearsome spot, with a nasty Orange Sage, Rise of the NeoBuro, Blood of the Valiant, 3 Imprisons, 2 Expendible Units, an Arcanovirus, and a Wave Disruptor for support. And also a MegaTank.

Rebecca was playing Architect/Jammers, which really surprised me since lots of Architect cards were coming back to me, and I was utterly convinced there was no other archie at the table; many of her cards were from SSG, so it wasn't just a last minute splash, either. Tim had Ascended and Four Monarchs, and felt unsure of his deck capabilities. John had Lotus and Dragons.

Game One sees an early Rise of the NeoBuro, little discarding on my part, and me generally running away with the game. Boatman and the Orange Sage (both brought into play thanks to Smiling Heaven Lake) and two Guard Towers make attacking me a difficult prospect. The turn I win, I ponder for a few minutes, and Tim remarks that "that's Willow's Game Face. You can tell she's going to win this turn."

Game two starts with me horribly hosed for resources; I discard roughly half my deck before I'm rightly in the game. Tim and Rebecca make some bizarre attacks, such as Tim attacking right to me when I have one site and nothing to defend it with (giving someone else the site soon after), and Tim attacking Rebecca when I have an undefended site with two body left. Everyone burns for power but me. I get out a Cave Network which leads to cheap resources, and I'm finally in the game. John is winning the game and builds up strong; he has at least two FSS, one of those lotus evil temple foundation sites, and another non-FSS. He has a Flesh Eater, a Demon Whiskey, a Big Bruiser, and another character or two. I get out a couple of Plasma Troopers, one with a Buro Godhammer and a $10k Man and start selectively whupping ass. A good burn gives me a Rise of the Neoburo + Leaping Tiger Troop to dig for the play of the play and take, and then the superleaping Tiger Troup plus a Hammer Harrison take Tim's site that no one can get in the way of.

Event Win-Loss: 2-0

Total Con W/L: 4-1

Total Hours Without Sleep: 24

Tim and I go check into the Super 8, I am pleasantly surprised at the quality of the hotel room. It's clean, doesn't smell bad, and has reasonable accomodations for the budget minded traveler on the go. I give it 2 stars. We get dinner at Subway; my tummy is feeling a little funky, and I only get a half sub and a 16oz soda.

Shadowfist: Who's the Big Cheese Now?

Jim and John have been busy demoing; we have two new players and one of John's old play-buddies who hasn't played fist in 5 years. Everyone plays, we have 8 players, and 2 four player games going at a time. I repeatedly and erroneously refer to the event as the world championship, and am repeatedly corrected.

I'm playing my 'Nazi Cheese', which is big-ass architects (paid for by burns or Dangerous Experiments) with a splash of dragons for Golden Comebacks and Final Brawls. (Annoying weenie buildup seems to be very en-vogue in Madison right now.) It's a nasty nasty deck, and perhaps a little slow to get going, and the Dangerous Experiments can be a notable anti-combo with the Dragon splash if they aren't timed correctly.

[details added by John Monnett:
As Willow mentioned, we had 8 players:
Willow Palecek, playing an Architect deck called "Nazi Cheese"
Jim Sensenbrenner, playing Jammer monkeys
Tim Jensen, one of the Madison group, playing a Lotus deck whose schtick I was unable to determine
Rebecca Frey, another of the Madison group, who had learned the game at last year's Plattecon, playing Monarch good stuff
Brian Stewart, a friend of mine who played 'Fist a while ago, playing a 10KB Purist deck with 3-4 RW cards -notably Paradox- added
Andrea Englert, a brand new player just shown the game, playing my Lotus hood deck
Matt Blackner, another brand new player, playing a Lotus 10KB deck I just gave him spiced with a few cards from the TW and N2 packs I had also just given him ]

Game 1-

Me (Nazi Cheese), [Brian] (Purists, [modified 10kB starter]), Andrea (Dragons, possibly a modified 10kB starter), Rebecca (Monarch Good Stuff).

Brian hasn't played in five years, Andrea learned less than two hours ago, and Rebecca is the Madison playgroup's weakest player. I may be sleep deprived, but my kung fu is strong, and I'm a big shark in a small fishpond. I try to give genuinely good unbiased play advice, and I think I do a good job, but my early CHAR leads to quick board domination, and a fairly effortless win. Rebecca made a clever play with a Mark of Fire to try to take a heavily damaged site, but I thwart her with a 1-pt Aerial Bombardment and take it for myself. Meanwhile, at Table 1, Jim's monkey deck wins the game.

Game 2-

Me, Jim (Monkeys!), [Brian], Total New Player [Matt] (Lotus Hoods, borrowed from John.)

Brian and the new player are early leaders, I keep Jim in check with Final Brawls. CHAR weakens Brian's Father of Chaos enough for someone else to finish it off. I manage to get a burn in and plop down a Elsa Winterhagen; despite having the fewest sites, I'm a popular attack target. The new player [Matt] ends up supporting Jim a lot, and making some attack choices I was extremely skeptical of. He did have a well-used White Disciple and a Floating Restaurant that got lots and lots of mileage. I spend most of the game playing spoiler for Jim, keeping his mad monkey machine in check. Elsa attacks Jim, in an attack I'm sure will work and get me ahead. Jim Potlaches it to Brian, who wins a few turns later on game points when time is called. At table 2, John wins his game. At that point there's 4 1-1s, and 4 0-2s.

Game 3-

Me, John (Dragon/Lotus, with a loose 'Barbershop' theme. I didn't get it.), Jim, Brian

We all know this one is the final; some discussion about whether or not it should have a time limit, but some people have 9 PM games to get to. A game with lots of good plays. Jim has Funky Monkies, Brass Monkies, and Wild Gorillas. Brian mostly plays defensively. I Dangerous Experiment, with only one Dragon resource in my pool, 2 FSS, and not much else, fully expecting my resource to get toasted, but it's a price I'm willing to pay. Jim does something unexpected: he plays a Potlach in response, forcing John to toast one of my sites to prevent me from being at a play-and-take. I drop an Elsa Winterhagen and get a burn for power. More buildup. I'm at 2 sites, 1 bfv, with an Elsa. I play and drop an Agent Tanaka; Elsa and Tanaka go for Jim's site, defended by a Brass Monkey and some 3 or 4 fight character. Jim has a 3 fight Bloody Horde and Brian has a Amulet of the Turtle equipped Paradox and a Void Sorcerer. Void Sorc blocks my Elsa, Paradox blocks Tanaka; I redirect the Void Sorc's damage to Paradox to kill it during combat damage. (Rules discussion over whether this works with separate Ambush timing windows. Consensus is that the interceptor is still dead, so Tanaka keeps attacking.) John doesn't intercept, since it would only do 3 damage to Elsa and 3 to something of Jim's. I've now got a 4 fight Elsa and a 3 fight Tanaka; I can't remember Jim's interception, but I ended up with a dead Tanaka and a point or two of damage on the site. I seem to remember Tanaka being the one doing the site hitting, so I think I might have final brawled right after the attack.

Golden Comeback brings back Agent Tanaka. No other character on the board is bigger than 4, and Jim's site (Monkey House?) has 4 body left. Brian reveals a Stone Garden, of all possible sites, which I Whirlpool. Never thought I'd Whirlpool a Stone Garden for the win.

I jump up and yell "Who's the Big Cheese Now?" loud enough to startle the whole room. Booyahs are said, prizes are handed out (I got Cheese. Jim got Cheese for Best Theme, and one of the new players got Cheese for the 'best-combo' play on a Die!!! on an Evil Twin of the Queen of the Ice Pagoda, with some other convoluted things in there.), photos were taken.

All hail the Big Cheese.

Event W/L: 2-1

Total Con W/L: 6-2

Total Hours Without Sleep: 28

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