# Flashpoint Finchley XVI - Report

by Andrew Davidson
December 8, 1997

We met again at the Catcher in the Rye as the Queen's Head is now definitely out-of-bounds to card players. I think that the landlord of the latter never understood us and wasn't comfortable with such strange folk. It's his loss.
We had a bit of trouble with the Catcher too - they were enforcing their age-limit. Bart was just ok at 14 but Mark Wheelhouse, here on his 13th birthday as a special treat, was barred. After a bit of thought, an off-site table was set up at Leisure Games and opponents were sent up the road to do battle with Mark there. Many thanks to Tony Berry, the proprietor of Leisure Games, for accommodating us at short notice.
Given these problems, I am going to see if we can't find a better venue. First choice is the palatial Tally Ho pub - about a mile north of the Catcher. Other suggestions are welcome. The numbers were down on last month's record - not so many Magic players this time. Still, we were pleased to have a singles dealer in attendance - Karen Anne Johnson. She seemed to do a reasonable amount of business - I bought a Kinoshita House for 4 pounds (about $6) myself. Thanks to her for coming and I hope that she will come again - there are plenty of players who still want particular commons or uncommons, let alone the rares.

The players were:

    Alex Wargacki        .D.H... Holy Alliance
    Andrew Davidson      A.FH... Tickertape
    Andrew Trickett      .D.H... Sleeper
    Andy Holt            A.f..Lm We will control the vertical
    Anil Das-Gupta       AdfHjlm A bunch of wimps
    Bart Sobieszczuk     ..F.J.. Tonguelash
    Bill Dawbarn         ..FH... Soulspawn
    Colin Burton         ..F.... Dancing Architects
    Daniel Victor        Ad.H... Shadowhand
    Dave Martin          .....L. Deep Ones
    Ivan Hartley         ..F...M Cuddly Toys
    Mark Wheelhouse      .DF.... Dunkin Donuts
    Nithiyan Thiruudaian ..F...M Blightman's Jewellery
    Ron Wheelhouse       ..f..LM Four Fates
    Thivyan Thiruudaian  .....L. Five-minute Thumper
    Tom Kassel           .DF..L. Return of the Woman
    Yuit Sum Vong        .D...L. Stick Insects

Upper case indicates a major faction presence, lower case just a splash. Typical splashes are Hacker, Plasma Trooper and Queen of the Ice Pagoda.

Faction Popularity
8 Flesh Architects
6 Guiding Hand
6 Lotus
5 Dragon
4 Ascended
3 Monarchs
1 Jammer
1 Peacock

A lot of time was allowed for the first round - 2 and 1/4 hours - but still two games had to be called to a halt. I have the impression that some players, like Anil, were being excessively defensive - too much pure denial like Iron & Silk. Still, I'm all for players playing the game in their own way, even if they are a bunch of wimps <g>.

ROUND 1
Nithiyan Thiruudaian beat Alex, Colin, Yuit
Ivan Hartley beat Anil, Thivyan, Tom t1 (2nd tie-break)
Dave Martin beat Andy H, Bart, Bill t2
Mark Wheelhouse beat Dan, Ron

Another two hour round this time but this time all the games finished properly. I was playing myself in this round and my rambunctious Tickertape deck made sure of a result in my game - Nithiyan stealing the win with a couple of 1 point characters.

ROUND 2
Tom Kassel beat Dave, Thivyan, Yuit
Daniel Victor beat Alex, Andy H, Ivan
Mark Wheelhouse beat Bill, Colin
Nithiyan Thiruudaian beat Andrew D, Anil, Ron

After two rounds, we had two double winners - Nithiyan and Mark - and 4 single winners - Ivan, Dave, Daniel and Tom. Normally, we would have had a 4 player semi-final and then a three player final. With Mark unable to join the rest of us though, he was awarded a prize for his fine performance - a Ting Ting power counter and the rest would play a 5-player final. The remainder then played consolation games:

CONSOLATIONS
Thivyan Thiruudaian beat Alex, Andrew T, Colin
Bill Dawbarn beat Andy H, Anil, Yuit

FINAL
Daniel Victor beat Tom, Nithiyan, Dave, Ivan

Starting at 16:00, I allowed 2.5 hours for the game. Ivan got off to a slow start but the others did not hang back and after 30 minutes, I took a snapshot of the game:

Tom - 4 feng shui sites - Sacred Heart, Whirlpool, Proving Ground, ?
Evil Twin of a Eunuch Underling!
Scorched Earth
3 power
Nithiyan - 2 feng shui sites - both ?
1 Drug Lab with Dan's Fox Outfoxed on it
1 Vivisector
1 Scorched Earth
2 power
Daniel - 3 feng shui sites - 1 Fox Pass, 2 ?
1 Orange Senshi Chamber
0 power
Dave - 3 feng shui sites - 1 Fortress of Shadow, 2 ?
1 Kun Kan
1 Eunuch Underling
1 The Hungry
4 power
Ivan - 1 feng shui site - Rainforest River
1 Art of War (Dan's)

Tom played a Ting Ting and a Friends of the Dragon but, with a Fox Pass and plenty of power out there, this was not enough for a winning attack and the game went on.
In fact the game went on for another 2 hours without a result. I called time at this point because Ivan had to leave. Nithiyan was winning by the tie-break rules at this point, having burnt two sites for victory. This would have been his third tournament win in a row but he very sportingly agreed with the others that they should play on to a conclusion.
The game then ran for another 30 minutes - 3 hours in total. Dave had been amassing vast amounts of power with Glimpse of the Abyss, Kun Kans and three Hungry. Players were starting to run low on cards and so he launched a major winning bid which just failed. This was not a set-up but it provoked more action and when the dust cleared it was Daniel that had the brass ring.
In the light of discussions elsewhere, it's worth noting that Dan was the only player not to be using Pocket Demon or Violet Meditation. The bulk of his power came from a site structure of 5 or 6 sites while the Swiss Bankers and Foxed Outfoxed were gravy. Note also that he used 90 of his 108 card deck - you need plenty of stamina for a win here.
So congratulations to Dan on his first Shadowfist tournament win. Dan is a major contender on the Magic circuit in the UK and so continues the trend of top Magic players starting to dominate our tournaments. Will the Old Guard fight back ...?

Last modified: March 11, 1998.
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