# Gencon 1997 - Report

by Stefan Vincent
August 11, 1997

Hey All,
Got back from GenCon today with less than good news for everyone waiting for Throne Wars - it's not ready yet (I'm sure that shocks you). Jose had only a single proof run of the art, with no card text, on display at the Daedalus booth. For you Feng Shui players, he did have Thorns of the Lotus, and apparently Ronin Publishing has licensed the rights to do the Guiding Hand sourcebook "Blood of the Valiant" and plans to get it out by Christmas.

In the Theme Deck tournament on Friday, Matt played the challenging Guiding Hand/Dragons "Martial Artist" theme, Mike went with the Ascended Hood deck, and I played a mostly Thunder Knight deck (because, as you know, there's no limit to the number of Thunder Knights in your deck...). Lissa was busy trying to win the On The Edge "World Championship" and her final ran over the start time for the Theme tournament, but her Pledged deck made an appearance anyway - played by a local Milwaukee-an in need of a theme deck. There were about 15 people playing. The person running the tournament hadn't run one before, so it was a bit unorganized (he left before the final round so he could get into another game...) but despite that after three rounds of play Matt and I were eliminated and Mike was in the final against a Triumvirate deck played by Andrew Davidson of England and another deck I didn't see (we were already busy playing a game with some other Losers). Mike got the win with the help of Luis Camacho! Andrew told me that he posted a tournament report to the rec.games.trading-cards.misc newsgroup, but I haven't had time to check yet.

The Final Brawl Tournament on Saturday was better attended, with something around 24 people playing. Andrew Davidson ran this tournament, using "London Rules" with a point-based system for advancement. Mike was playing a Lotus/Dragon Bronze Sentinel deck, I was playing Hand/Monarchs Rigorous Discipline, and Matt was playing his all Dragons Smack Back Yak Attack deck (Marisol/ Yak Enforcer/ Final Brawl/ Booby Trap). Lissa was busy outside the con with her local cousins, so her Ascended deck went unused. Mike and I were eliminated, but Matt played the final against an Architects Dangerous Experiment deck and another deck that I didn't see. He was doing well until he forgot to cancel a DE with a Hacker, and then it all went downhill.... The vast majority of the decks were partial or full Dragons, with Architects running a close second (all of my games had at least one player doing the Dragons/Architects Vivisector + Golden Comeback thing). Very few Ascended players - only two or three decks using Ascended, and none of those pure Ascended. I was also surprised to see several 5-7 faction decks relying on Orange Senshi Chamber and Peacock Summit. Who knew?

The "National Championships" tournament on Sunday had 12 players; the four of us from LA, Andrew and Yuit from England, two folk from Florida, and 3 folk from New York (the other guy I didn't play; I think he was from New York too but I'm probably wrong). Matt was playing Smack Back Yak again, I still had the Monarchs/Hand going, Lissa was playing her no-rares Ascended deck, and Mike was now playing an Architects Dangerous Experiment deck of his own. Matt won his first two games solidly. Lissa lost her first two games. I lost my first and won the second, and Mike had also won a game. In the third round, all four of us were seated together - since Matt was in front of the tournament at that point (no one else had two wins) we worked him hard. Lissa won that game. Meanwhile, one of the New York folk (Josh, playing straight Dragons) had won a game and gotten another win according to tiebreaker rules when time was called, and a second (Jan, playing another Peacock Summit deck) had gotten two wins in tiebreaker. The fourth place was a dead tie between me and Lissa. Instead of playing a five player final; we elected to bow out and let only those folk who had two wins play. Matt had a bad starting draw, and a very silly play on the part of Jan handed the game to Josh very quickly. But Matt can tell you all about it in glorious detail... So the final result was Josh first, Jan second, Matt third, Lissa fourth, me fifth, and Mike seventh. Prizes? Well, sort of. The winners got some Netherworld and Limited Ed. boosters. Josh also got a copy of Feng Shui autographed by John Woo. Nothing like the nifty solid metal Ascended medallion from last year...

We also confirmed that the Chapter 11 bankruptcy rumors about Daedalus are true; Jose has filed for protection from creditors and will continue operations in the meantime. What that means for Throne Wars, I don't know...

A reminder for Gateway - preregistration ends August 16th, so sign up early and save $5.50. Matt's tournaments will be 8 pm Friday night, 7 pm Saturday night, and 3 pm Sunday afternoon. All double elimination, 3-4 player games with the deck of your choice. Matt even got Jose to cough up some prizes - nothing huge, but at least you'll get something. Feel free to drag along anyone who might be interested and we'll teach as we go along. No plans to do anything between now and Gateway. We'll talk at the con to see how September is shaping up for another "event" of our own...
Happy Butt-Kicking!

Last modified: January 16, 1998.
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