For our first tournament of the new season, intrepid Ranger Jason Dettman ran a sealed deck tournament. We had a total of 8 players (2 of which were new) and everyone had a good time. The format was Premiere starters (out of the "2 player set" boxes, so they were only the 50 card fixed starters) plus a Deluxe booster and a Shadows booster for each player. We sat in groups of 4 and drafted for each of the two boosters (take 2 and pass), and then built decks. We played 2 rounds of 4 player preliminaries and a 4 player final. There were 2 players of each of the main 4 races (no alternate ambassadors, NAW, or Psi).

The finals consisted of:

-P'Ter Bakija (me): Delenn, with opening hand of Delenn, Minbari Aide, Power Politics, United Front.
-Peter II: Londo, with opening hand of Londo, Vir, Knowledge is Power, Centauri Prime.
-Matt: G'Kar, with opening hand of G'Kar, Border Raid, Declaration of War, some fleet.
-Ben: Sinclair, with opening hand of Sinclair, Ivanova, Power Politics, Mars Colony (?).

The final round proceeded as one would expect, with the Narn declaring war on the Centauri (who were at each other's throats from the get go), Londo Knowledge is Powering the Narn, Sinclair building up a diplomacy front, and Delenn building a better diplomacy front. As the Narn/Centauri war savaged both races, Delenn managed to push through a few Power Politics conflicts (due to having Delenn with both United Front and Personal Sacrifice, as well as Minbari Aide and Hedronn), eventually getting up to 16 influence. On the last turn, with Delenn at 16 influence, the Centauri finally switched attentions to the Minbari, but Delenn replaced her agenda with Servants of Order, purchased enough Vorlon marks from Virtual Kosh to hit 20 power, and discarded Minbari Aide to avoid losing influence to the Knowledge is Power.

Final Scores/Agendas:

Delenn: 20/Servants of Order
G'Kar: 14/Revenge
Londo: 13/Knowledge is Power
Sinclair: 12/Power Politics

At the beginning of the tournament, I made sure to clarify whether or not Virtual Kosh marks could be counted for power, and as Jason had no reason to believe they couldn't be (as they lasted till the end of the turn, just like on regular Kosh), and were unable to recall any special rules to the contrary, so we played that they counted.

The Minbari, who have always been thought of as the worst in Sealed, managed to win 3 of the 4 preliminary games (with the 4th being called for time, when Londo won by Default)--I won both my preliminaries by getting to 20, and the other Minbari player did the same in one of his. Alliance of Races did very poorly, and the Humans came in last in virtually every game, but then AoR never wins sealed around here.