Gen Con Special Edition - by Dave Gerspach (dgjedi)

Let the Games Begin

It’s only fitting that largest gathering of Buffy CCG players this year would occur during the Olympics, where the variety of tournaments created a Buffy CCG type Olympic atmosphere. It’s also fitting that such a gathering would occur at Gen Con. The number and variety of Buffy tournaments held at Gen Con 2004 tested both the stamina and ability of those involved. Sleep seemed secondary to cramming as much fun as possible into the four official days of gaming. Juggling participation in multiple events required a skill all it’s own.

In total, 27 different players competed in one or more of the Buffy tournaments. Six tournaments were held starting with Wednesday night’s sealed deck and a total of 141 tournament games were played. Virtual and Classic Big Bads and Protectors of Gen Con were determined. Four players managed to participate in all four scheduled tournaments. Awesome prizes were handed out. A few players shared their less than stellar moments of play. And yes, there was a first ever North American Buffy CCG Champion crowned.

Our opening ceremonies began at the Indianapolis downtown Hyatt, just one block from the convention center. Seven eager participants received a brown paper bag containing their sealed deck materials. After a quick 30 minutes of deck-building, actual play began. Main characters consisted of two Buffys, two Spikes, two Willows and one Drusilla. Buffy got the better of both friends and rivals. John Bruno started an early trend with his Buffy deck winning all three rounds and first place in the tournament. Final tally:

As a side note, someone needs to remind me to bring a cart with wheels next year to carry tournament materials and prize support. Buffy cards aren’t the lightest things to be carrying around all weekend. Thanks to Keith for all the help during the convention.

How Does This Card Work?

The first officially scheduled event for Gen Con was an Introductory game for people who wanted to learn how to play the Buffy CCG. The event was limited to ten participants and it sold out well in advance. Unfortunately, there were two “no shows”, and I certainly hope their other alternative was worth the missed opportunity.

Keith Kusnier, Kit Radtke, Matt Strehlow and I presented an overview of the game to the participants. They were then each given a premade deck and paired off to play a game against each other under the watchful eye of, well, a Watcher. The premade decks handed out consisted of Buffy, Giles, Willow, Cordelia, Drusilla, Faith, The Master and Angelus.

Everyone commented on how much fun they had and their intent to continue to learn and play the game. Joel won a drawing and received a complete set of the Buffy CCG expansions, including all ten foil ultra rares. Everyone who participated received an additional Pergamum Prophecy starter, a Class of 99 “The Wish” Theme deck and two boosters from each expansion. And all this for only a $1.50 entry fee!

Participants were also given samples of the virtual cards and directed to this web-site for more information. After scouting the exhibit hall, we also directed them to retailers selling Buffy CCG product. The biggest sellers were Dave and Adams Card World selling booster and starter boxes for $9 each and Card Haus selling them for $12 each. Everyone should take note that by noon on Thursday no one had any Class of 99 boosters available. I don’t know if anyone else is starting to have problems locating this expansion, but after using up the couple of boxes we had for prize support, the WCA has very little of this expansion left as well. 

There Can Be Only One

The first officially scheduled Buffy CCG tournament at Gen Con and first tournament to count toward the North American Championship was the Classic Buffy CCG Highlander Tournament. The format was suggested by Aly Greaves, who also ran the tournament. With a 7:00pm start, it was soon dark, and vampires ruled. Slayer decks were less effective this night as Spike and Collin decks took the top four spots. Always wanting to show a girl a good time, the most used Spike main character was the Wizard World version, who could bring Drusilla into play as needed.

John Bruno continued the trend he started the night before as he took first place with his Spike deck. He was very seriously challenged in the third round by Patrick Parker playing with ‘Collin, the annoying one’. A deck I’ve been told that he’s been using to win normal constructed tournaments back in Iowa. This time, John scored a 6-2 timed win. For those Seth Green fans, the highest finishing hero deck was Oz, played by Mike Rodgers.

There were 16 participants in this tournament, making this the largest Buffy CCG tournament held this year (at least for one night). Besides the normal assortment of boosters, promos and ultra rares, prizes included a D’Hoffryn bust, a Buffy RPG Corebook and cards autographed by Amber Benson, Danny Strong and James Leary. The autograph cards were popular. One special card given to participants was a filler card printed by Score. The back was the normal Buffy CCG format, but the front of the card is completely black. Very cool. Here are the final tournament results.

The tournament finished with a tribute to everyone’s favorite rat/witch, Amy Madison. Joshua Smith reprised his role as host of this Amy-a-thon event. For anyone not familiar, it consists of all participants receiving a set number of (in this case) Angel’s Curse booster packs. Once a signal is given, everyone rapidly opens their packs searching for Amy. If they find one, they yell “Amy!” and are allowed to trade their Amy Madison for a random foil ultra rare card. It’s a lot of fun and I believe 4-5 people received ultra rares this year. Josh absolutely must have the largest collection of Amy Madison cards in the world.

It was suggested that the next such event be in search of the card B.O., with anyone who pulls one yelling out, “I’ve got B.O.!” in exchange for an ultra-rare. If you’ve ever been to a gaming convention, this is both appropriate and very funny. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough Angel’s Curse boosters to run the event this year.

And if There Can’t be One, Have Two

With several sealed deck brown bags left over from Wednesday night and enough interest from players, an unscheduled Sealed Deck tournament was held on Friday afternoon. Like Wednesday night, there were no prizes, but that didn’t seem to bother those who just couldn’t get enough of Buffy. This time it was I, playing a Giles deck, who took home the victory. In the second round, I was very lucky to survive with a timed win against Keith Kusnier. While we both had 7 Destiny Points at the game’s end, I secured one final park turn for a 9-7 victory. Whew! Here are the final results of this tournament.

A Virtual Good Time

We’re off to the first of two (yes, two) Grand Patrols held at this year’s Gen Con. This one allowed the use of any virtual cards created by Score Entertainment as part of their Hero of the Week/Villain of the Week or Broken Links on-line releases. Hero decks made their presence known on this night, although villain decks once again made a strong showing. Anya seemed to be the most popular deck of choice for this format, and I can say from experience it’s definitely a fun deck to play and can be used very effectively.

This was proven by John Bruno, who won the overall tournament and title of Gen Con 2004 Virtual Protector with his Anya deck. The Gen Con 2004 Virtual Big Bad was won by myself playing an Adam deck. In one of the most fun and challenging games I played at Gen Con, John finished with a 6-5 timed win over my Adam deck in the fourth round. He then hung on for a victory over Mike Matthew’s Ken deck in the final round.

In the tradition of past Grand Patrols, foil expansion sets were awarded to the top Protector and Big Bad decks. Additional prizes included a White Witch Willow action figure and cards autographed by Amber Benson and Robin Sachs. Nineteen players showed up for this event, as it supplanted the night before as the largest Buffy CCG tournament this year. Here are the final results of the top Protectors and Big Bads followed by the overall finish of everyone else.