washington-states

Title: washington-states
Author: Charles "Teacher" Hickey
Date: Apr 25, 2000

State Championships. The first tournament of the year towards my goal of reaching the world championships. Going into this event, I was completely undecided as to what decks to play. Three weeks ago, I had it down pat, but now, I just wasnt sure. The outside 'tech' world had finally caught up to the other players in the Washington region. So, defending against Rallops and Throne Room mains is what I had to prepare for. I had this gut feeling, that Id see a lot of revolution, as I live in a 'Jabbas Palace' player region. Looking at cheap strategy to beat your opponent, and using the newly introduced broken cards, this set introduced close to half of todays players to the game. Alien swarms, quick manipulater decks, drain cancelation everywhere. These were the players I feared, the ones that would be degenerate enough to play 8 revolutions. So, the week leading up to States, Im, trying to throw something new together, but make a choice on Friday. I choose to play my Profit deck, that has served me very well since the Grand Slam 3 months ago, with 2 losses in that time (both to a tatooine occupation deck) and Rallitar Operations. To help defend against heavy revo decks, I add in Crush, and a second evader. So, itd Friday evening, and My decks are set, so I begin putting my trade album together, and come across Sandwhirl.

'TECH ALERT!' Im putting this card in, but I am tired, so I wait till tomorrow morning so I dont pull a critical card.

Saturday: I get up, and drive my woman to a friends house, because she has something going on today. I drop her off, and begin my long 30 minute trek up north to the WotC gamecenter in Seattle. I arrive at about 9:45, and meet Ghery Pettit outside,and make him go to Mc Donalds to watch me eat. We discuss decks a bit, and I clue on that hes packing Tatooine occupation. The one deck that profit has trouble with. So we go into WotC, and I get the YJ cards Im borrowing from Ghery, and play in the YJ tournament. I go 4-2, and finsh 5th. Yeah me!

Time for the real tournament now. We get I believe 46 players, so were right in the middle of my guess of 40-50. Most of the Washington regulars show up, with a couple new faces, and others that traveled a few hours. Most of the Eastern Washington group did not come. Alexandre Alami from Vancouver B.C. came down to run the event, so that our Squadron members could play.

I start Writing out my decks directly after the YJ tourny, and choose the names of:
Rallops, 'It doesnt MATTER what you play!' As this deck controls the game
Profit, 'At last, the ROCK has come back, to Wizards!' What the hell, right?

So, as the pairing are starting out, I swallow some Tylonal, and get it caught in my throat, and make that wonderful upheaving noise, as to attract everybodies attention. Go me!

Game 1: Profit Vs. Doug 'Red 4' Taylors Abyssyn swarm.
Doug starts his usual of Jabbas Palace, and my Objective then over does his location. He starts Mara and Cloud City Engineer. The game starts a bit slow, but I get a good draw up. I get out Order to Engage, and Ben with Master Luke. I start following him around, and he decides to finally attack me at Jabbas Palace. I fallen Portal 2 Abyssyns, and weapon Lev Maras Stick. I defeat his forces, and he is left with a total of 4 characters there. My next turn, I sorry a dude, and commence the Mentor/Aprentice beating. I now move into the Chamber, and get control of the game, rescuing Han. I control the board, and the Abysyyns just cant cut it.

FW by 32 2(+32)

Highlights: The deck worked perfect, once again. This has got to be the best all purpose deck Ive built in a long while.
Lowlights: Playing Doug. Bad way for him to start a tourny, against a deck that controls Jabbas Palace starts.

Game 2: Rallops vs. Some Dudes Throne Room Mains.
I have no idea who this dude is, so I start Crush. I do not want to get bad drawed and revolutioned out in game 2. His turn, he deploys a nudj, and drops a revo on Ralliter. I search, and play a evader, with no fear of a catch card. I activate my wonderful 3, and search my deck for locations, and to count my force pile locations. So, I play the waiting game with him, and after having about 20 force, I deploy, Flip, and consolidate. His turn, e drops some dudes, and draws. I activate, search, debate against IAO, or soething else. I pull the something else. His turn, Nambrum, beatdown. I react, and stay alive, while killing some dudes of his. My next turn, I search, grab Arrest order like a smart Scrub, ad draina nd deploy that card. From here, I evaded him on Ralliter, set up my drains, battle him when I wanted, and started the Ability ^3 hurt.

FW by 24 4(+56)

Highlights: Starting Crush, he never played another Revo the whole game (lost about 5 from hand)
Lowlights: First card you pull is IAO people. Remember that!

Game 3: Profit vs. Keith Stephansons Droid insert Manip deck
Okay, I see droid workshop start, and Im thinking, EV-9D9 drain. Well, he deploy some droids, and draws some, plays a screw. Bye bye Ben. We both draw for a few turns, me looking for Master and my Surprise assault, for the drain I know that coming (it never comes), and him inserting Knowledge and Defense, and 3720 to 1. I get Luke down, and alter CHYBC, and rescue Han. Vader and stick pays a visit, but Han and Luke Narrowly escape from Harms way. Luke Nambrums over to Vader, and Battles, feeling Strong in the force. Vader gets cut down, and 3 destiny bring the hurt. Luke dies by his fathers dying hand. So, Han is alone, plinking for one on OBD, avoiding drain (battle plan). Inserts are in my deck, which is buggy. I get my surprise assault, Nambrum to the Workshop, and drain and assault it. This brings a loss of 12 cards, 1 is the ornament for the droids. From here, I kep my hand a 4 cards, to avoid his defensive fire and limited resourses. Han pings him out with OBD damage, and I win by 18.

FW 6(+6 74)

Highlights: Winning thjis game only because of my Play skill.
Lowlights: Number deck? Manip deck? WTF?

Game 4: Rallops Vs. Joe Olson Throne Room Inserts.
Alright, Im playing Joe. I start IAO, because I no he is not playing Revo. And any TRM deck played by a good player is packing nambrum. At least on that doesnt play inserts does. My hand kinda sucks, and I get locations out. Joe activates, deploy some nudj, and draws. I activate, save some, go. He drops artoo, and 8D8, and inserts. Oh crap, this is bad. Look at hand. Only character is Vesden, and if I burn number damage quick, Im not flipping. So, I make newbie mistake galore here. Drop Vesden in a walker at the swamp. He deploys Luke, battles, but I remind him of the +3 three. Well, at least I was smart there. Fbut here, I get dumb, I deploy backup, and move Vesden one way, and the back up the other. Idiot. Well, his turn, Vesden gets creamated by Leia, and I am an idiot. At least his number total is 7. Well, I make a bunch of dumbass mistakes, and am getting kinda pissed. We go back on a battle in which we didnt retrieve and lose, and that makes me lose Mara to a changed destiny. So, Im getting buggy, and Go for a last attempt strike against Luke, and Draw a friken 0 with Darklord for destiny. At this point, I hit the wall, and look 10 years younger than Joes age, which is 14. Well, Im about ready to draw up, but decide to at least play it out, and cut my loss from at least 20 + to 11, with Ability ^3, and some scrubs.

FL by 11 6 (+63)

Highlights: None, I played like an imature ass.
Lowlights: I played like an ass. Every attempt at a counter strike failed horribly. I want to Apologize to all that witnessed my imature actions.

Game 5: Profit vs. Mike Mikaelians Yavin Occupation deck.
Mike starts Mara, and my hand is complete ass. Well, Im rattled from my past game, and Mike is getting my buttons pushed. Its not wise to play someone you work with, they learn what gets under your skin. I make some dumb mistakes, but make Vader go missing, and Tarkin Feeling a bit lost. He supports Tarkin with an AT-ST pilot and Tempest Scout 1. Well, Im losing to the occupation, and hes losing to the OBD. Well, I make some more Dumb Mistakes, but am able to outplay him. I win by 4

FW 8 (+67)

Hightlights: Winning under such crappy conditions. I was not in a mental state of mind.
Lowlights: Mike being a hard ass Speed player. I got rattled, and it made me suffer from his brash action. Im still upset a bit. Han was to be released during your control phase, but due to your activating during my draw phase, and dumping cards as soon as I recirculate, one of which was secret plans.

Game 6: Rallops vs. Nick 'slow mofo player' Jones HBX
Im not looking forward to this game, cause I know Nick will be slooooooow, and question everything I do, and especially in multiple towards the end of a game. Last Wednesday, Itold him the best way to beat rallops is, is to put ships at Ralliter, and play some Laser Cannons and barriers. So that if his oppoennt deploys a ship there you barrier, then drop your hand down, and pound him for 30 damage. Well, The scrub dumped ships down, and had force saved up. Gee, I wonder what he has? So I go for like 10 turns, reminding him to pay three EVERY time he wants to drain. (Cheater, youre such a cheater Nick) I drop 2 ships at Kessel, he barriers them both, but I suck that crap down. I eat a 30 power total on my ships, with no card loss. Just the 2 ships, and TS6. So, I get more control of Ralliter, Ive freed up his barriers, and finally get the flip and decree in effect. His drain =1, which he has to pay three force for (I keep telling him, spend three) to my drains of 2 or 4 in space, and 3-4 on the ground. I cant find S&D for the life of me, till the last couple minutes. Nick Retrieves 11 force with All Wings. And Im making him lose between 6-8 a turn cycle. So, Nick begins reading all my cards I play, or shall I say stalling all my cards I play. Who has to read Trample for 5 minutes to understand what it does? Well, in another 1.5 turn Cycles, I will win, by 14 life force, but Time is called.

TW by 15 9 (+82)

Highlights: Shutting his drains down, but taking forever to find my non laser bait ships. No security precuation for the probe.
Lowlights: By nick Stalling me out, it cost me 2nd place.

Conclusion:

Joe Olson won the tournament, going 5-1.

Joe Olson 10 +90
Mike Peralta 10 +67
Some Cheater Dude 10 +60ish
Tom Thoma 10 +40ish (I think
Me, Charles Hickey 9 +82
Nick Jones 8 +91

So, I finish in 5th, with the second highest differential of the 5-1s but do to nick Jones, being a complete stalling @#$%, I get 5th, instead of my rightful place at 2nd. Had Nick defeated me, he would have been the Washington Champ, but NO WAY am I letting a criminal win this thing. Ask him about his protest of the WTO, and then ask him what WTO stands for. The @#$% doesnt know.

Prize support was good, and I got a reflections pack with All wings report in it, and an 8D8 (Im getting you to sign this Joe), and ripped up the other 15 cards in one motion.

13 of us went out to dinner afterwords to IHOP, and the best quote has to be me, saying to Ghery Pettit, 'Ghery, we can split Dereks meat'

Derek Snook is a vegetarian :-)

Well, this is Charles Hickey, saying 'Im pissed at states, and timed games'