# Gencon 1997 - Theme Deck Report

by Andrew Davidson
August 13, 1997

After the Sealed Deck tournament on day 1 of Gencon, the Theme Deck tournament took place on day 2. The extra construction rule for this was that each deck had to contain at least 23 cards with a common designator. Some folk had the idea that Netherworld was not a valid designator for this purpose but this was not so. The players and their themes were:

    Andrew Davidson      Netherworld/Triumvirate
    Charlotte Henkle     Abomination
    Dan Deerwester       Demon
    David Deerwester     Shaolin
    Jason Rownd          Pledged
    Jeff Stolt           Thunder
    Joshua Kronengold    Netherworld
    Ken Kurpiel          Fire
    Kevin Masterson      Thunder
    Kirk O'Brien         Cop
    Matt Wittman         Martial
    Michael Nickoloff    Hood
    Stefan Vincent       Thunder
    Yuit Sum Vong        Fire

Half the decks were predominantly Four Monarchs and Thunder was the most popular theme. Monarchs are certainly a good choice for a theme tournament - they can use both Discerning Fire and the best counter to it - Brain Fire. The trouble is that Monarch decks are mostly Denial/Soldiers/State-tricks and without the Dragons' Final Brawls or Architects' Neutron Bombs, the Monarch-rich games tended to stalemate. This gave the organiser, Ron Kilby, a problem as the tournament format was double-elimination. The time-limit tie-breaks which had been announced were: first - burnt-for-victory, second - feng shui sites. The additional Daedalus tie-breaks were unfamiliar to most of the players and so Ron ruled that they would not be used to break tied-games. The result was that an extra round was required to get enough eliminations to determine the final.
My Triumvirate deck was a 166 card monster - deliberately chosen as a foreign curiosity to entertain the natives. I even added a few extra cards before the first game to general amusement. The first game broke well for me though and first a Queen and then a King stomped all over the others to give me a quick win. I held my own in the games that followed and so made the cut for the final.

The finalists were:
Andrew Davidson Toccata & Fugue: Royal Trumps
Michael Nickoloff West-side Story
Ken Kurpiel (Fire)

Unfortunately, I didn't get a listing of Ken's deck but the other two are listed here. I can guess what Ken's deck is like though, as Yuit was playing a Fire deck too. The great thing about a Fire deck is that you can play:
5 Brain Fire
5 Discerning Fire
5 Shattering Fire
as the bulk of your theme cards and none of these are vulnerable to Discerning Fire as they are all events.

I was worried that a three-player game might be too fast for me but everyone seemed to start slowly and it was Ken who bore the brunt of the early skirmishing. My site structure developed well and as we reached the middle game I had eight sites, including a Fox Pass, Whirlpool and Turtle Beach and four edges - Molten Heart, Soul Maze, Counterfeit Heart and Art of War. Generating 10 power a turn, things were looking good for me as I was able to fend off the many attacks on my extended power base.
Ken made a big play with the Queen of Darkness but neglected to notice my Soul Maze and she came to an unhappy end as my Darkness Priestess toasted her. Unfortunately this meant that Ken had shot his bolt and I had to cope with Mike's horde of Hoods by myself. Mike made a great play with We Know Where You Live which put a stack of damage on me, gave him 4 power and allowed him to recce my hand. Knowing that I had a Killing Rain in hand was vital as I was holding this to take out my damaged front-row Whirlpool which had been the target of many attacks. After I used up my denial sites on his early attacks, he then brought out Luis Camacho (9 fighting) who went unerringly for my turned Fox Pass to win.
In the post-mortem, we found that Ken had a Discerning Fire in hand but with, only 1 power, was unable to play it. I had a pair of Queens coming up next turn and would have been able to play them both. Ah, what might have been ...
Still, there is no question that the best man won as both Ken and I made slips while Mike seemed very cool and deadly. I'm not so sure about his deck - I have never thought too much of the Hoods - but one can't argue with success.
So, congratulations to Mike. Thanks too to Ron Kilby for running the event and to Daedalus for sponsoring it.