# Card Wars 1998 - Report

by Tom Kassel
March 1, 1998

I've just spent a pleasant day winning the Shadowfist Sealed DeckTournament at Card Wars III (Edgware, London sponsored by the Finchley Games Club). The tournament was efficiently as always by Andrew Davidson and I'm following his practice of posting the winning deck (in its final incarnation) for your amazement and edification.
Following the trial of a smaller sealed deck tourney at Maidenhead some months back, we played three player games (mostly). In the past we have done four player but in sealed deck they can clog up badly with too many resolved on tie-breaks. Three player has the necessary tension and instability so that almost all games finished within a reasonable period, The lucky few reaching the final played eight games on the day. Each game was followed by a booster trading session using mostly Flashpoint boosters. Some people also used this session as an opportunity to focus more tightly on selected factions.
I started with a feeble looking deck. Bite of the Jellyfish was one rare - useless in sealed deck where few sites are burned until the winning one. Police Station was the other - few cops were present to be boosted but it had some potential value as a front rank defensive site. The oddity was two $10,000 Men. I have rarely seen duplicates in a starter apart from the very commons - can't remember seeing any in fact. These are big cards in sealed deck, but I only had one tech resource so I left them out for the first game (which I lost). The draft brought another tech and several more appeared throughout the day. I was so keen on the tech that in one draft where I had first choice I picked the Hacker instead of Silver Jet. They and the Dragon Fighters were the game winning hitters in the deck.

1 Sacred Ground
1 Blessed Orchard
1 Inner Sanctum
1 Ancient Temple A good sealed deck site with many characters present
2 Stone Garden Useful in sealed deck if you can remember them. I was asked by an inexperienced player just after the final why I hadn't used the concealed Stone Garden (which he had seen me play) to heal a damaged site. It was embarrassing to admit that I had forgotten about it. I could have gone on about how I never use them in constructed deck so don't think about them but it seemed best to quietly change the subject.
1 Peacock Summit
1 Jagged Cliffs
1 Cave Network I played with two for a while but nobody fell for it so one made room for the Peacock Summit (which got attacked once for 12 damage when its body was 12)
1 Family Home
1 Police Station
1 House on the Hill these non-feng shui sites are some of the most valuable cards in sealed deck. Without them power generation falls badly behind. Two was ok though three would have been more comfortable.
1 Vassals of the Lotus
1 Shadowy Horror
1 Sinister Priest
1 White Disciple
1 Tortured Memories The only reason to use the previous Lotus cards. TM is a potential game winner in sealed deck, especially when someone puts too many Attack Helicopters/Really Big Guns and other dross in one place.
1 Dump Warrior
1 Hosed
1 Grenade Posse
2 $10,000 Man Game winner's when they got into play
1 Test Subjects
1 Alpha Beast
1 Buromil Grunt
1 PubOrd Squad
1 Plasma Trooper Fun in sealed deck but with a limited life expectancy
1 Total War
1 Buro Godhammer
1 Helix Chewer
1 Nerve Gas The main resaon for bothering with the other Architects. Only used once, in the final, which it won so it was worth carrying all day long.
2 Hacker
1 Everyday Hero
1 Redeemed Gunman
1 Gonzo Journalist
1 Average Joe
1 Gadgeteer
2 Dragon Fighter game winners at the right time
1 Golden Comeback
1 Both Guns Blazing managed a gun combo once on an everyday hero which looked impressive until the Booby Trap - a wonderful sealed deck stopper/
1 Now You've Made Us Mad
1 Swat Team Last remnant of a small Ascended group I used most of the day - gradually replaced by Dragons as they become available.
1 Attack Helicopter Nice boost for a Dragon Fighter
1 Really Big Gun
1 Throwing Star Actually useful in a character rich sealed deck einvironment
1 Family Estate

Last modified: March 11, 1998.
Please send comments to nickolof@scf.usc.edu.
Send server comments to durrell@innocence.com.