# Gencon 1997 - Sealed Deck Report

by Andrew Davidson
August 7, 1997

The event was ably organised by Tom Luongo. It was in a semi-swiss style to ensure a four player final - a pure double-elimination event could have resulted in an awkward two-player conclusion. Each player started with a sealed starter - I got a dream starter with lots of sites and Sacred Heart Hospital/City Square as the rares - worth playing just for those alone. After going through that, the players were grouped into 5/6 for a Flashpoint Booster draft - take a card and pass the rest to your left. This was very interesting - I eventually ended up with:
2 Flying Windmill Kick
1 Scrappy Kid
1 Plasma Trooper
1 Alchemist's Lair
1 Portal Jockey
1 Bzzzt
1 Disinformation Packet
and used all except the Jockey and the Lair. These cards definitely gave one the punch-through needed for Sealed Deck - I particularly liked the Plasma Trooper/FWK/Hospital combo.

I won the tie-break semi-final against Ken Kurpiel, Tim Gereau and Dan Deerwester to see who took the last spot in the final.

The finalists were:
Andrew Davidson
Brad Dubord
Ron Kilby
Yuit Sum Vong

I made an early attempt to steal a win with an Instrument of the Hand and a concealed Flying Windmill Kick but this was prudently shot down by the others. After that the game locked up - I had a hand full of big events but no characters while the other three massed armies of foundation characters. Ron eventually broke the logjam and opened up the game. After a bit more skirmishing, Yuit made a big play for the win with a massed assault. All her weenies were taken out by interceptors and her big hitters - the two $10,000 Men - were taken out by City Square and Robust Feng Shui. Things looked bad but, in her typical style, Yuit paused for effect and then brought out her ace in the hole - the independent Gorilla Fighter. She had been hoarding him for some time - aggressive discarding is a mistake in Sealed Deck - and he now did the business for her - taking Ron's Mountain Retreat for the win.
Yuit was a very worthy winner with four straight wins - no-one else came close to this record. Details of her winning deck follow.

Last modified: January 16, 1998.
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