# Flashpoint Finchley XVIII - Report

by Andrew Davidson
February 25, 1998

We met for the first time at the Tally Ho pub. We were assigned a roped-off wing of the upper floor and this nicely accommodated our 18 players for the afternoon. The food, drink and service were all very pleasant and even our Smoking Man, Tom Kassel, did not grumble at this being smokeless zone. We shall return.
There were a couple of new faces - Luc, a French Canadian and Jonathan, a Guild regular.

The full list of players and their decks were:

    Alex Wargacki        .DF.... Evil Tom
    Andrew Davidson      ..FH... Lobster Thermidor
    Andy Holt            A....L. We even control the Z-axis
    Anil Das-Gupta       .D..... Independence Day II
    Arthur Howlin        ..F...M April Showers
    Colin Burton         ..F.... Hey, Big Spender!
    Daniel Vandenburg    .D.H... Shadowless
    Glenn Cannon         ..F...M Ninja Thunderflyers
    Hedley Coppock       .D...L. Bodycount
    Jonathan Coates      A.....M On the Square
    Luc Chamberlain      ...H.L. Beginner
    Michael Rogers       ...H... Chinese Violets
    Nithiyan Thiruudaian ...H... Invincible Shi
    Peter Woodmansee     .....L. The Thing
    Stephen Biggs        ..F..L. DNA
    Thivyan Thiruudaian  .D...L. Kick the Kan
    Tom Kassel           .DF.... Return of the Man
    Yuit Sum Vong        .D...L. Lapdog

Faction Popularity
7 Dragon
7 Lotus
7 Flesh Architects
5 Guiding Hand
3 Monarchs
2 Ascended
0 Jammer
Yuit won her first round game quickly and so I re-used two of the players from that game to make up a foursome with late-comer Daniel and myself. I was playing my Lobster Thermidor deck and had a good crack at the win but Stephen was able to stop me and then, with a well-timed Year of the Rat, take the game himself.

Round 1
Tom Kassel beat Jonathan, Luc, Nithyan
Arthur Howlin beat Glenn, Peter, Thivyan
Yuit Sum Vong beat Andy, Anil, Stephen
Stephen Biggs beat Andrew, Anil, Daniel (Stephen, Anil were fillers)
Michael Rogers beat Alex, Colin, Hedley
In round 2, I faced newcomer Luc and experienced youngster Michael. Michael lobbied furiously to get Luc to attack me and, as I made counter-arguments, poor Luc was pulled this way and that. Happily, I emerged on top of this tussle.

Round 2
Arthur Howlin beat Andy, Daniel, Nithyan
Glenn Cannon beat Hedley, Tom, Stephen
Yuit Sum Vong beat Colin, Jonathan, Peter
Andrew Davidson beat Luc, Michael
Alex Wargacki beat Anil, Thivyan
Yuit and Arthur were both double winners but as we had 5 single winners too and it was already 17:00, I decided that it would be best to have two semi-finals rather than one big qualifier. Arthur and Yuit would certainly survive for the final and we would have either one or two others to join them.
My siteful deck faced an interesting challenge as the three other players, Glenn, Michael and Tom were all playing with fairly parasitic decks and they each played at least 3 Pocket Demons or Violet Meditations off my site structure. Diplomacy played a significant part in this game too as Tom joined Michael in fingering me as the major threat. My position never collapsed but Tom won the diplomatic war and emerged victorious. This game bore out Dennis Heffernan's theories but I am not dismayed or ready to defect yet. Next time, I will play "What has it got in its pockets?" and we shall see how the parasites like that ...
In the other semi-final, Yuit won her third victory in a row. She had returned to a tried and tested deck, Lapdog, and this fitted her like a comfortable old shoe, bringing success after the repeated failures of her siteless deck, Stick Insects.

Semifinals
Tom Kassel beat Andrew, Glenn, Michael
Yuit Sum Vong beat Alex, Arthur

Consolidations
Peter Woodmansee beat Daniel, Hedley
Andy Holt beat Colin, Jonathan, Stephen

Final
Arthur Howlin beat Tom, Yuit
Tom was playing his classic Architect/Dragon deck, "Return of the Man" - typically playing Golden Gunman, Vivisector and Golden Comeback. Yuit's Lotus/Dragon deck, "Lapdog", featured favourites like Claw of Fury, Dirk Wisely's Gambit and Tortured Memories. Arthur's deck, "April Showers", was mostly Architect with a splash of Monarch for extra magic and states.

I took a snapshot of the game after the opening moves:
Arthur
4 feng shui sites
1 DNA Mage
1 Ice Healer
1 Test Subjects
1 Darkness Priestess
0 power
Tom
3 feng shui sites (1 damaged Ring of Gates)
1 Chinese Doctor
1 Golden Gunman
2 Friends of the Dragon
Yuit
4 feng shui sites (1 Inner Sanctum)
1 Evil Twin of Golden Gunman
1 Hacker
1 Scrappy Kid
1 Power

This situation led to a flurry of attacks. Tom complained that, by playing 4 indefensible feng shui sites, Yuit and Arthur had forced the game to a hasty conclusion. Yuit, however, was very threatening as her attacks were winning attacks and her strategy looked sound to me. My notes from this point are:
Tom attacks with Golden Gunman - hits an Inner Sanctum
Yuit attacks with Evil Golden Gunman - stopped by Expendable Unit (an event which does affect the Gunman)
Arthur is unable to attack and plays a Secret HQ
Tom attacks with Golden Gunman - Yuit intercepts with Evil Golden Gunman, healing it with a Doctor so that both die (Tom overlooked the Doctor).
Yuit attacks with Scrappy Kid + Dirk Wisely's Gambit and follows this with her favourite thug, the Big Bruiser. He is stopped as Arthur reveals a Fox Pass.
Arthur makes no attack again and accumulates more power
Tom brings the Golden Gunman back with Golden Comeback but this is stopped by the combination of Yuit's Chinese Doctor and Arthur's Cellular Reinvigoration.
Yuit attacks with Scrappy Kid and Arthur drops a Bomb. Arthur, Tom and Yuit are all unable to follow-up with significant attacks on their next turn. Not one of them had drawn the right cards - for example, Yuit's hand was 2 Dirk Wisely's Gambit, 1 Ting Ting's Gambit, 1 Evil Twin and a Flying Kick.
Arthur must have foregone power generation because he was then able to lay The Reconstructed, CHAR and Ghengis X who made an unstoppable attack to win.

So congratulations to Arthur as he joins the elite ranks of our repeat winners. He, Yuit, Alex Wargacki, Dave Martin and Nithiyan Thiruudaian have all won two Flashpoint Finchleys each. Tom might to be included too as, besides FPF4, he won the similar event Flashpoint London. Who will be our first triple winner, I wonder? I must prepare a special trophy ...
Thanks to all who came and most especially to the staff of the Tally Ho.

Last modified: March 11, 1998.
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