# An Englishman in New York - Part 3

by Andrew Davidson
February 8, 1998

To finish up my US trip, I made a second journey to Neutral Ground in Manhattan on 23 Jan for their regular Friday Proving Ground. I drove north from Philadelphia through an awful Killing Rain - about 2 inches of stair-rods and backwash. My car's Satellite Intelligence helped me make up some time though - a brilliant route across the Verrazano Narrows and through the Battery Tunnel. I arrived at Neutral Ground at about 20:30. Most of the games had just started but Matt Lee kindly squeezed me onto the last table, persuading the players to accept a late-comer - thanks again, guys. My arrival made this a 4-player game. I thought it prudent to switch from the Tickertape deck I had played on my last visit and so I decided to play the Lobster Thermidor deck which had proved successful in New Jersey.
The other players and their decks were:
Paul Ruiz - Architects - Dr April Mucosa & much Napalm Sunrise
Wayne Thiessen - Hand - a Shih/Chi deck with Violet Monks
Jeff Berg - Arch/Hand - a control deck with recycled events
I had played Wayne on my previous visit but the other two players were an unknown quantity. All the players developed a large site structurefairly quickly and when I checked the numbers were: 5/6/4/5. I had a hard time initially as my site structure appeared open and vulnerable but I was fairly aggressive in defending it or recapturing any lost sites. Wayne kept picking off my Killing Ground with his Violet Monk but, as he then placed it at the end of his own large structure, I would then take it back. This must have happened at least three times and made both of us a handsome profit. Paul, too, made some attacks on me, softening me up with Napalm Sunrise. Some of the time, I had an answer like Satellite Intelligence - other times I lost the site. I was always able to maintain a critical mass though and kept laying a site down every turn.
After this skirmishing, Wayne and Jeff both threatened to win at any time and this took the heat off me. Jeff, in particular, impressed as having good control of the game with nasty events like Blade Palm and the ability to recycle them with Wind on the Mountain. The game went on for some time and my site structure continued to grow - attracting some attention from spectators who had never seen a deck play 8 locations before.
The time came when I had a winning opportunity myself. I had to take two feng shui sites for the win and sent the Spawn in to seize the first of these without much opposition. I then vivisected the Spawn and replayed it with Reinvigoration Process - a standard tactic with my deck. The Spawn then attacked a site of Paul's for the win. It was defended by a Gnarled Attuner but this would not be enough to stop the ambushing Spawn. A Positive Chi was played and the table breathed a sigh of relief as this was used to play a Shadowfist from Wayne's smoked pile onto the Gnarled Attuner. I was ready for anything though and with some satisfaction played Invincible Chi and announced "states!". The table could do nothing more and so I won the game.

There were 11 players altogether and the results of the 1st round were:
Lico Aquino beat Vanessa Singh, Zib Richardson
Brian Sweeney beat Chris Choi, Kevin Lighton, Rob O'Flaherty
Andrew Davidson beat Wayne Thiessen, Jeff Berg, Paul Ruiz

The tournament format was single elimination and so Lico, Brian and myself played a three-player final. Lico was using an Ascended/Lotus deck while Brian was playing pure Architect. I didn't see too much of their decks though as I started and went:
turn 1: Cave Network
turn 2: Cave Network
turn 3: Locksley Station
turn 4: City Square
turn 5: use Locksley Station to take an Abominable Lab from Brian at the end of his turn, giving me 7 power. I played a Killing Ground, a Plasma Trooper and a Spawn. I then attacked Brian for the win - the Plasma Trooper getting a boost from his foundation characters. Lico stopped the 6-fighting Spawn with a Killdeer but with my final point of power I played a Godhammer onto the Plasma Trooper and this was enough for the win.
This only took about 10 minutes and this rapid victory caused a pleasing stir. Matt Lee presented me with my prize - another White Ninja - and that was that. Many thanks to Steve, Matt, Neutral Ground and Daedalus for organising and sponsoring the event.
I made some notes of the Proving Ground standings from Steve Fritz's records.
66 Julian Lighton
41 Kevin Lighton
39 Jeff Berg
35 Wayne Thiessen
28 Chris Choi
20 Andrew Davidson
19 Carlos Leone
19 Chris Kim
19 Lico Aquino
12 Zib Richardson
11 Joe Meyerson
9 Dave Cardillo
6 Paul Ruiz
2 Brian Sweeney
2 Vanessa Singh
1 Bill Grace
1 Dennis Heffernan
1 Lionetta Warfield
I'm not sure of the exact scoring system but I think it's pretty much winner-take-all. My score is made up of 6 for my first win in December and 14 for this victory. The other scores do not include that night's results. Still, it's all fairly academic - Julian Lighton was the certain winner of that season which has now ended - congratulations.
I then played a couple of friendly games. It was interesting to see Steve Fritz's deck in action. This was a fairly effective Jammer deck called "Everybody Dies!". This was a good antidote to my Spawn deck and did a good job of destroying all sites in play before he had to call it a night.
The final 5 player game is a blur - it was getting late. The die-hard players - Brian, Chris, Zib, Lico (?) - then walked me to a nearby Netherworld Passageway (aka subway). I made my way back to my hotel at the Trade Center where I snatched a few hours sleep before rising early to fly out of JFK. This was a great flight - fairly empty and daylight all the way. I used the time to catch up on my email but have only got to this report now - mea culpa.
I don't know when work will take me to the US again but will try to get back again for a short break while the flights are still cheap.
New York has a pretty good Shadowfist scene - regular games and congenial players - and so I'll try to bring some company too. Be warned that I am not the best of the UK players ...

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