dagobah-regional-9-25-99-tallahassee-fl
Title: dagobah-regional-9-25-99-tallahassee-fl
Author: Mike "Iceman" Fitzgerald
Date: Sep 29, 1999
table. I wake up at 7:20 AM and take a shower while meditating on which cards to keep and which to switch out. Then I work on the names. I was thinking about
names and for some reason Prodigy was in my head so here's the deck intro: ( no offense intended to anyone)--
LS:'Firestarter' - Force denial deck , 2/0s , Oola ,Civil Disorder , mains , SAC , ect.
DS:'Smack my B**** up ' - Drazin. Best deck around.
Well I get to the place or the place I think it is and think it is the wrong place but the building is just huge so I had to go to the deeper recesses to find it. I get there at 9 and talk to a few people I know and look around. My confidence level jumps from about 3 to 8 and I start getting myself pumped up for the tournament. Mike Porter tells me Gabe is coming in by train at 11:45 and I was one of the names to go pick
him up so I Signal for my Dad ( Nabrun ) and tell him that my dad will pick him up. I find Andrew Marchand and give him a 'Drive Me Crazy' Preview because he's a
Melissa Joan Hart fan. I start seeing more players come in and my dad brings me back some Dunkin Donuts so I'm fed. I started to think about how they would
fit Gabe into the tournament ; give him a bye , give him a 0 (0) , or let him have time to make up the games. Well the powers that be took way longer then expected to put in the info ( I'm guessing stalling for Gabe-- Gen Con went smoother). I have a few
thoughts about this ( as a lot of areas seem to ). I like Gabe but holding a tournament 2 hours for him or any player is a bit much. I wouldn't mind if they said , ' hey we're
waiting on a player so we won't start for two hours' or something because then I could go to sleep. Basically I got pumped and had to wait 2 extra hours to play ( 3 total ). That's like warming up for baseball and then having a rain delay , it totally
screws you up. Well we'll see if this affected me later. Also for the first time at Regionals ; none of what I'd call my really inner circle of players were at the regionals ( 3 quit the game and 2 didn't qualify) so I'm just kinda sticking out and try to
find a niche. My buddy Chris Schutz was supposed to show up so I was a little down about that. I talk to my local SMember and local TDs and other players before basically joining up with the Decktech / Brandon tournament group. Get to talk to the Miami Crew , Mike Regina , and a few other players that I know before we really get started. Everyone keeps telling me to relax , though I'm not really nervous. I'm agitated and tired and keep getting more irratated when people tell me to relax ;)'I'M NOT TENSE !!!!!' :)
Game 1 : 'Smack my B**** up ' v. Zack Workman's HB deck
This kid is a little kid and seems like a good start for me. I start off playing really really bad. It's a new deck and I'm basically working around trying to figure out the mechanics I wanna use and see what I can do. I get out Jabba and Djas Puhr and start SACing Asteriod Sanctuaries and random X-Wing stuff just to check out the deck. He starts kicking out systems and I beat the snot out of his ships for a few
Houjixs. I started Security Precautions so I'm sitting pretty. Nothing really spectacular happens. He uses both inserts here and there but I'm able to battle him
and I Torture his Odds. Win by 22. Record : 2 ( +22 )
Highlights : Winning. Working things out.
Lowlights : Playing bad.
Note : Now we take a lunch break. I go out with Neal Razi , David Akers , and Ryan Christian to a pizza place for lunch. Neal starts macking one of the cute girls that works there. Ryan Christian gets a kick out of the FSU surrounding because he's a Notre Dame fan and they have a painting of that game and they lost that year.
Game 2 : 'Firestarter' v. Kyle Matusevich's Big Blue
Big blue was one of the decks that I wanted to test my LS out against but didn't have time or the will to. I figured I'd be okay. He starts Death Star and Oppressive Enforcement. I get a decent hand. I get out both nudjes on turn one and kick out one of my 2/0s. I start drawing like crazy because I need specific stuff. He deploys the Avenger w/ DS-61-2 to Kashyyyk and Imperial Arrest Order. I drop down Battle Plan to slow the game down. He Monnoks me used for a bunch of cards that I really didn't need. I drop down Oola and Tawss Khaa to the Throne Room. I then wait awhile and deploy the Falcon w/ Cpt. Han , EPP Luke , and Obi-Wan Kenobi to Kashyyyk and battle. I play Gift of the Mentor so I draw 4 battle destinies. 5 , 5, 3 ,4. Hmm the Avenger and DS-61-2 cover it. I deploy 2 maybe 3 more 2/0s and drop Civil Disorder and start Oola-ing his hand. I also kick out Order to Engage and my deck is up at
full operation. The Bus comes out and he draws a 10 destiny. I dump EPP Luke and Obi and then send Luke and Wedge back up there and Obi Later. I'm manipulating him really really bad. Civil Disorder hits him for about 8. Order to Engage forces the Devastator to battle under bad circumstances at Endor. He also gets Kiffex out for some decent generation but it proves to be too late. I move Tawss over and kill a Nudj to get the Battle Plan fulfilled. Eventually his characters got bunched together and took a roller coaster ride back to the Used Pile via Oola. Win by 26.
Record : 4 ( +48 )
Highlights : Beating a Big Blue
Lowlights : um , nothing.
Game 3 : 'Firestarter' v. Rene Hildalgo's ISB Ops
He starts ISB , IAOrder , and Coruscant. On my first turn I Signal for Battle Plan. I also get my Nudjes out quickly and kick out a 2/0. He uses IAOrder to deploy the Hoth and Yavin 4 docking bays and one on Coruscant later. He deploys General Veers and Blizzard 1 and goes around to kill my Nudjes. I deploy Oola and back her up with Wedge and Tawss later. I get my Traffic Control up pretty quickly and set up my plan. He deploys Kashyyyk and a Death Squadron Star Destroyer there. I deploy the Falcon , Cpt. Han , and Harc Seff. I intiate battle and draw a 6 and 5. 19 to 9 and the DSSD goes down hard. I deploy Order to Engage and EPP Luke , Obi w/ Stick , and move over Oola to the Docking Bay infront of Blizzard 1 and Veers. He deploys Ozzel and Blizzard 2 and battles. I play Gift of the Mentor and draw about a 9 on the
three destiny. I set up Savrip a bit later and Order to Engage his deck thin. Oola also reappears on the Falcon and I keep Igar , and Choke Vader recycling through his deck. He was never able to flip ISB or fulfill Imperial Decree for a turn. I Altered Lateral Damage and a few other little things. To fulfill Civil Disorder he was forced to deploy
ships to Coruscant. My deck works again. Win by 18 I think. Record : 6 ( + 64 )
Highlights : A pretty interesting game.
Lowlights : Just having Wedge on the ground and Harc in space.
Game 4 : 'Smack my B**** up ' v. Arthur Rhodes MWYHL
Hmmm. This should be a good game. I hear someone call out , ' there is a marquee matchup'. Well away we go. I get Orrimarko for my prisoner and he starts Scrambled Transmission. I drop Drazin pretty early and deploy the DTP and kick out the AChamber from hand. He gets DoS and Yodie out quickly with an Electrobinocular. He makes me go slow through a Drazin Delivery . Hmmm ; either he thinks I'm stupid , is trying to psych me out , or actually uses Strangle. Either option would play to my advantage especially number 3 ;) Well Drazin gets to work and tells Orrimarko to bite the towel for a few turns. I hit him over the head for about 10-15 force through the game with Aiii ! Ahhh ! Aggg!. I also Monnok pretty hard and keep a good eye on his hand. Choke Vader gets to the DTPlaza quickly to keep the damage on and EPP Fett , Evazan , and Jabba go to the Tower to make sure Orrimarko stays in there. He completes Jedi Test 1 easily but he never walks over to Test 2 because I was
requiring his attention elsewhere. He deployed Battle Plan and Coruscant. Yipee! I have no qualms about deploying a few Dreadnaughts , Zuckuss , and the Bus
for smaller amounts of force. He draws nice destiny but I just SDeliver my ships back ( the Z-Man went back up to pilot at Coruscant about 3 times ). He deploys Artoo to my prison. Hutt Smooch and he goes back to hand . I Hutt Smooch him about 3 times in a row before he grapples Hutt Smooch. EPP Han and Luke come down and battle my alien triforce and Drazin. He swings and Hits Drazin , I shoot at EPP Han and operate on him , draw destiny and Luke is gone as is Drazin and someone else. Drazin comes back and delivers whatever I lost back. Luke comes out and does
an Off the Edge ( I monnoked out two On the Edges a bit earlier ) for 5 force. I persona replacement EPP Vader for Choke and drop Evazan again. Battle , hack ,
operate and that's the end of Luke. I run another Special Delivery and try to get Recyleable stuff.I play Masterful Move and Twi'lek for the Fork . He draws up and I'm stuck with 8 in hand. Win by 23.
Record : 8 ( + 87 )
Highlights : Basically whacking him on all fronts.
Lowlights : I guess not fitting in Broken Concentration for Draw ups.
Note : Mary Gail Dufresne makes a funny joke about wanting a Quad Laser Cannon on her car during Orlando traffic. Right now there is 4 undefeateds : Me , Jason
Burrows , Gabe Alonso , and David Irvine. I hope to play DS versus David Irvine' LS Ops deck because my DS deck just kills Ops for some reason but I don't get that
matchup.
Game 5 : 'Smack my B**** up ' v. Jason Burrows MWYHL
I get Wedge Antilles as my guy and he also starts Scrambled Transmission. This was actually quite the exciting game though I might downplay it ;P Well I
search first turn for the AChamber which is in my active force ( it was in my hand or force pile in every single game ) so he gets to go through my whole deck. Urgh that probably hurts. He kicks out 3 Dagobah sites and the JT stuff really early and is able to complete both ( but a site isn't there so I get to look through his deck ). He has EPP Han and Luke beat up on Zuckuss early ( Jabba wasn't in reserve - hmmm
). He grimtaashes out 2 EPP vaders and 2 Alters. I deploy Choke Vader to the CChamber and start to do minimal damage. He starts using Out of Commission and
gets a Vader on his first pick ( eeek ! ). Sidenote : He put out about 10-15 cards with OOC. Well he Nabruns the EPPs to the prison and busts out Wedge. I'm just
fortifying the CChamber with EPP Fett and Jabba. Next turn he reinforces it and has Webb , Melas , Wedge , Han , and Luke there. We start recycling High destiny
all over the place. He drains...Counter Assault. 6...4...6...4....3 . ' Um , my 23 to your 14 , you lose 9'. Heh , he said he wanted to punch me ;) That's the first time that's happened...during a game :) MKay. Well that 9 was mostly ships that weren't seeing
any action. We trade drains for awhile before I make a significant move. I Elis my group over and deploy Evazan. Start a battle ; hit and 'operate' on Luke w/ Vader's Stick. He hits Drazin ( Goo Nee Tay on table so no Tarkin ) with EPP Han. I shoot at Wedge w/ Fett and 'Operate' on him. My destinies total up to 9 and he has to lose everyone and like 3-6 more. If I played my deck like I'm supposed to I won the game right here , unfortunately because of the 2 hour delay or whatever I didn't play it right. I then deploy another Drazin and pull off my only Special Delivery of the game . Mistake # 2 is I show him what I retrieved and he sees that I didn't get another SDelivery -- if I didn't show him that then he'd have drawn up. Mistake # 3 was what ended the game. He only had like 2 cards left and hand so I started to spread out. Djas Puhr to the AChamber and Vader and Drazin move to the CChamber. EPP Obi comes to the AChamber and beats up Djas Puhr for 7. EPP Luke deploys to the CChamber and sticks there. For some reason I deploy GM Tarkin to the DTPlaza and sit Vader and Drazin in front of Luke. Obi Nabruns and hits GMT up for 6 force.
That was basically the end of the game. Loss by 9 in a really exciting yet agonizing game. Record : 8 ( +78 )
Highlights : Realizing that I have the best darkside
deck in the game even though I used it wrong.
Lowlights : Losing through stupid mistakes.
Note : If I won this game then I would play Gabe and Jason would play Arthur Rhodes. Winners basically advance to Finals. As it works out Gabe gets a timed
win over David Irvine so it is Jason Burrows v. Arthur Rhodes and then Gabe v. Someguy. Gabe is the key for me. If Gabe loses by a little bit then I have a chance
to get in the finals and I'd play either Arthur Rhodes or Jason Burrows again. Small chance but its what I got.
Game 6 : 'Firestarter' v. Stephen Lanza's HDADTJ
This guy tells me to relax and just play the game for fun. I'm pretty happy right now but look across the hall to see what my chances of making the finals is. He starts the full compliment of HDADTJ. He sees Throne Room and asks if Nudjes can go inside. They can so he just starts with Bad Feeling Have I. I get down both Nudjes first turn again which is pretty sweet. I have a horrible hand so I start drawing. 'We lose to the Visage'. First card - Captain Han second visage Falcon , third Visage EPP Han to start me off ;) great !! We let Visage go on tap for awhile before he
deploys EPP Vader to the CC DTPlaza and flips the objective. I lose for about 6 more force before coming after him. I play Transmission Terminated and get rid of the stupid Visage after Jim Colson tells me that I can't make him lose one then play TT to cancel it. He plays Masterful Move next turn to get Visage and loses Boring Conversation Anyway and something else to deploy it. I stick out EPP Luke and Savrip next turn ;) I start throwing out Alters to get rid of BFHI but to no avail. He deploys a few regular Imps and a walker but I just lose Falcon and Harc Seff and an
Oola while he loses 2 pilots. Next turn I drop Obi , wait a second to see if he'll duel , then deploy Obi's Saber and Draw Their Fire w/ Frozen Assets on his pile. I start a battle , play Gift of the Mentor and draw a total of 7 on the destinies after whacking
Vader. He can't forfeit everything so Blizzard Scout 1 will have to stay =) On my next turn I deploy Tawss Khaa. Battle , retrieve Frozen Assets , beat down Chicken Walker for 13 after it and draw up a few more. Retrieve an EPP Luke with Tawss. I'm sittting pretty good right now. Something that was hopeless about 3 turns ago I now have a shot of. A few drains of 3 start to get to him. He throws out a few characters
and Vader , slashes Tawss but I remove everything but Vader. Then I battle Vader and beat him down for 8 more. Everything I retrieve is either a Frozen Assets
or EPP Luke. Finally it turns out I have Obi with stick left at DTP and I deploy Oola to the Swamp. He deploys Battle Order to slow me down a bit. I drain and Frozen Assets him again -- this being like the fourth or fifth time. He calls for a judge to come over and asks him a rules question which the only applicable thing I think he could be wondering about is if EPP Vader gets hit can he try to play The Circle
after both weapons have been fired. The answer is logically yes so I make sure to keep 6 in my reserve deck just in case. He activates his six and deploys EPP Vader in front of my Obi w/ stick and Savrip. His situation is looking bad and worse since I've been stacking my destinies. Here's what I know from top to bottom : my destinies are 5 , 4 , mystery card , 5 , 5, and a 5. He knows about my 5 but doesn't know the
2nd and 3rd destinies. He says something about getting pissed if I play Courage of a skywalker and Glancing Blow. He plays The Circle. I ask if it is epic or non-epic ( sense and CoaSky in hand ). Well I only had one of the cool duel things. He draws a 3 and a 3 which is now a 4 and 4. So his total is 14. I draw my 5 , my 4 , and another 4 so my total is 6 + 6 +5 + 5 which is a total of 22 so Vader is gone and nine more
force. He loses it from all over the place but isn't done yet. He draws up his cards and I tell him to wait so I can dump my hand and finish him off with the new differential. He seems to get very angry while I try to tell him that I still have a shot at the Finals if
Gabe loses and that's the only reason I dropped those extra cards for the bigger win. He starts telling me how the internet is a bad thing for SWCCG people copying decks and stuff ;) I'm just quiet and start packing up my stuff. Win by 18.
Record : 10 ( +96 )
Highlights : Pulling out a game where I thought I was done for.
Lowlights : Irritating this guy through miscellaneous actions.
Wrap-up: Well somehow my differential got short-changed somewhere and they said I finished 10 ( +94 ) , since Gabe won his game I really didn't care about 3rd or 4th. I got the little 4th place trophy thing and starting to take pictures since I brought a
camera ( I didn't open it up this time ;). Gabe congratulated me on playing like a Champion even though I didn't get to play versus him and he asked for a ride home. I wasn't really gonna stay for the finals if possible , I pretty much knew the decks and
could hear the result later. Also my body cringed at the thought of two more hours of SWCCG which would run the total up to 17 hours on the day when all I was thinking about was getting home ASAFPossible to work on my English partner -- I mean project ;) I was also a little dismayed that there was no Decipher people in sight and this was the biggest expected Regional ; what is up with that ? Hehe guess they didn't wanna be in the general area of Andrew 'Ozymandias' Marchand and David ' Maelstrom ' Akers ;) I have a long ride home during which my dad is unusually quiet and I just start thinking if my decks are good enough to venture to Decipher Con to use. Then my mind starts thinking about the game I lost versus Jason Burrows and starts showing me all the things I screwed up on ( thanks ! ) this keeps me from
sleeping only like 5 minutes since I'm dead tired and we stop at Ocala. Next day ( Sunday ) I wake up and see my dad is wearing the Grand Moff Tarkin T-Shirt that I gave him and joked about him wearing it yesterday. Coulda said he taught me everything I know and scared a few people ;) Shoulda had him bring his YJ cards and
get demo-ed by the five or six Squadron Members there;) Ah well I think that is all for now.
Mike Fitzgerald / Who signed Jason Burrows' Tis the future you see ' / took 4th place and had quite the wonderful Sunday evening.