# Origins 1998 - Report

by Bryant Durrell with Andrew Davidson's questions
Deck by Ken Kurpiel

>Congratulations.
Thanks!

It wasn't one of my more spectacular wins. I scraped into the finals with a couple of second place finishes, then reminded myself that the art of winning is in looking like you're in second place all the way to the end. I was playing a Dragon/Architect deck against three pure Dragon decks, so I knew it'd be a fairly low denial environment. I laid down a couple of sites and hung loose while other people built up until I got a pair of City Parks in my hand.

At that point, I dropped down a Fox Pass and revealed it during an attack I didn't really have to stop -- my intent was to make it look like I was really worried about that player. It worked pretty well, focussing attention on him. I then waited for someone to take a site from me, which happened at the opportune time -- the player to my right (Matt Widman, of Thunder Castle Games) did the deed. He agonized over the burn/seize distinction for a while, knowing I might have a Park or two in hand, but in the end he burned. I laid down two Parks, and grinned.

At this point I had two Kiii-Yahs! in hand, along with a Golden Comeback and a Nerve Gas and two points of Power. I didn't have the resources for a Kiii-Yah! and nobody really had more than a point of power to steal anyhow. I had a Plasma Trooper in my smoked pile; everyone had a character in play, but that wasn't going to give me enough Fighting to take a site. I thought about GCing the Trooper, and hoping I drew a Reconstructed or another Trooper, but in the end I just ditched a Kiii-Yah! and prayed.
My prayers were answered when I drew a White Ninja. Emboldened by my unrevealed Whirlpool, I sent her after the exposed Monkey House with two points of damage on it. Someone revealed a Stone Garden and healed a point of damage, meaning that a Final Brawl would stop me cold. Three Dragon decks against me. What were the odds? Apparently they weren't good enough, and I coasted to victory.

Among my prize boosters was a Dangerous Experiment, so I was quite happy with my prizes as well.
Not much of interest to report from the earlier rounds; both of mine went to tiebreakers as a result of playing with a really novice player (he'd never played the game at all before, so things were a bit slow). I'd have been more tolerant if he hadn't spent the second game ragging on the Ting Ting art on the back of the cards. "I'd like this if it wasn't such sucky art!" Geeze.

Oh, and I got a chance to play against Josh Duffin, who had an interesting siteless deck that didn't really hold up in tournament play. C'est la vie.

>Was this the "Bombs bursting in Air" tournament that Ken Kurpiel >advertised? What were the special rules?
Ah, yes. He handed us all 2 RBGs, 2 Grenade Launchers, and 2 Explosives before the tournament started; they were marked to be Cost 0. I don't think they actually affected any of the games too much; some people were concerned about hand clog but I had no problems. I saw one or two sites taken with them.

>He planned to run another tournament too - who won that?
I'm not sure who won the other one. I was fairly fried most of the weekend; being on 24/7 pager duty and attending cons don't mix that well at times.

3 City Parks
1 Sacred Heart Hospital
1 Fox Pass
2 Whirlpools of Blood
4 City parks
1 Turtle Beach
1 Inner Sanctum.
1 Secret Headquarters
4 hackers
3 Friends
1 Stuntman
5 Silver Band
2 Melissa Aguelera
2 Golden Comeback
2 Kiii- YAAAH!
1 Thunder on Thunder
2 Claws of the Dragon
1 House on the Hill
4 DNA mages
4 Plasma Troopers
3 Reconstructed
1 Johann Bonegel
2 Colonel Griffith
1 Nerve Gas
1 Imprisioned
1 Police State
3 Cellular Reinvigoration

Bryant Removed the following
2 Kar Fai's Crib
5 Buro Official
1 Dunwa Salem
1 Neutron Bomb

### Notes

Usually I have 2-3 proving grounds in the deck.
The Idea is to combo combo combo.
The Reconstructed and Silverband with the official make for a Ambush 5. With Col. Grifith that jumps to 9 with Melissa that jumps to 11 ambush. The idea is to look harmless while getting resources. Then play two or more of the three cost five fighting Characters. the deck is affectionatly known as my 'Blitz' deck.
BTW the two White Ninjas were from another deck and accidently got mixed in :> I think I'll leave them in there now.

Last modified: October 1, 1998.
Please send comments to mnickolo@concentric.net.
Send server comments to durrell@innocence.com.