al-states-in-birmingham-4-29-00

Title: al-states-in-birmingham-4-29-00
Author: Andy "Solo337" McClure
Date: May 1, 2000

Well, I had been working hard to prepare for States for a couple of weeks. I have several very strong Dark decks, and a couple good LS, but I decided to go with my Profit and undefeated, Scum and Villany ISB in Jabba's Palace w/ Gailid and Presence of the force x2 to get drains of 3 at several different locations.

I had a highschool baseball double header in Kentucky the day before States, and I didn't get back until about 3, so I ended up playing on about 5 hours sleep (which isn't good.....)

My mom had agreed to take me (1903) and my brother (1683). along with 3 of our friends, Daniel Chappel (1742), Jarrod Chappel (1706) and Clay Wilburn (1521). It's only a 1 and a half hour drive to Birmingham, so we left about 8:30 am and got there in plenty of time. We had a fairly good showing, but there weren't as many people as I had thought. Except for Shelby Abercrombie, all the big dogs were there. Stephen Lanza (1892), Chris Bentley (1932) and Rob Ronnlund (1983) all showed up.

Game 1: My ISB in the Palace vs. Alisa La Porte's (1784) Hidden Base using Red and Gold Squardron X and Y-wings:

Well, as I searched through my deck for a Starting effect, I realized to my dismay that I didn't have a Security Precautions! After I thought about it for a little while, I remembered dropping it for an extra Outer Rim Scout a few days before. It was not big deal, my ISB is fast enough that they should be almost be dead before they flip. I got almost the perfect hand! It had Jabba's Palace (THE key card to that deck), Gailid, Jabba and Search and Destroy! I flipped second turn, I think, by deploying Chall from reserve (JP:AC) and some scouts. From second turn Search and Destroy started eating her...
I had a third turn drain for 6, a fourth turn drain of 9, and then got out Mosep, so it was 9 cards from reserve deck. I put Bossk and Zuckess loaded up with some Scouts in space, but by the time she flipped, she was almost gone. I never even had to probe......

Full Win (+25)
Total: 2(+25)

Game 2:
My Profit vs. Ernest Smith's (1656) fairly standard ISB.
Well, he started Chall Bekan and Mara Jade (big mistake) and I used my favorite start, Don't Tread On Me. Well, needless to say, I beat up Mara and Chall pretty bad. I got a Gift on Artoo really early, and that was HUGE! All his destiny draws were minus 2 almost all game... By the time I freed Han I had about 8 cards in my reserve deck, so I got to retrieve them all. He flipped by putting some Scouts on CC: Port District, and thought he was safe all the way on the other planet.... without anything to stop Nabrun, I sent Ben, Luke and Hand to CC to beat some Scouts, flipped his Obj, and had a solid drain all game. He deployed Jabba's Space Cruiser, and Zuckess and some other ships to drain at Kashyyk, and I deployed Melas piloting Lando in Falcon backed up by nothing but a Mantellian Savrip and blocked his drain all game. My Obj did about 2-4 a turn, and he just couldn't take it.

Full Win (+28)
Total: 4(+53)

Game 3:
My ISB vs. my friend Jarrod's (1706) Profit:
Heh heh, my ISB is the Profit KILLER! It has never won against a Profit by less than 25 cards. But I didn't like playing people I play all the time.....

Jarrod knew how handily my deck beats Profit, so he wasn't too enthusiastic about playing me. I started Chall Bekan and Jabba, and the game was pretty much over before it started. I got Jabba's Palace first turn, so I converted his JP, then I got my Audiance Chamber from reserve deck and converted his. He got 3 force on his first turn. I continued to force choke him by not giving away any icons. At one point in the game, I was activating 11 and he was still activating 3. I set up huge drains really quickly, and took over the Cantina as soon as he deployed it. Very easy game...

Full Win (+33)
Total: 6 (+86)

Game 4:
Ah, the famed Robb Ronnlund. I've been wanting to play him ever since I realized he was the highest ranked player in the State. We talked some before the game, and a lot throughout the rest of the tournament, and he's a cool guy.

My Profit vs. Robb Ronnlund's (1983) Raltiir Ops:
He started no aliens, like all good RalOps do.... I freed Han with EPP Obi like 2nd turn, but had no force lost to retrieve. He deployed EPP Vader and played You Are Beaten to exclude Obi to try to kill Han, and that was his biggest mistake. I played Narrow Escape to run Han away, and dropped Uncontrollable Fury on him next turn. I think he lost something like 22 force to Uncontrollable Fury, and I forgot to make him lose for it once. He couldn't find a You Are Beaten to cancel it, but even if he had, I would have played Weapon Levatation to cancel it. He flipped his objective with some scrubs, and I flipped it back with Melas and Tantive 4, but he flipped it back right away. I got some bad draws, and couldn't get a Nabrun to Save my life. He had started IAO, but I still wanted to put Ben and Luke on Raltiir! He deployed Tempest 1 with Igar but I don't think he battled. He moved EPP Vader and waited. I had EPP Obi, Master Luke and EPP Han. I deployed Chewie to back them up, and he got Imperial barriered (well played Robb). I then Clashed Vader, then battled Igar. I played Jedi Presence and Gift of the Mentor and drew destinies of 4, 4, 4 and 3. He drew 3, and 3 and added 3 for his Objective. He had to lose Igar, Tempest 1, and 6 more cards. If he hadn't barriered Chewbacca, he would've had to lose 12 more cards, for a total of 18. He drained at Kashyyk the entire game, and I couldn't block it. He BARELY outlasted me, and Limited Resources won him the game. I lost by 3 cards, and he had no cards in his hand.

Full Loss (-3)
Total: 6(+83)

I wanted a rematch so badly! I knew I could beat this guy!
I hoped that I would get a chance to play Robb with opposite decks......

Well, I was mad at myself about that game. I made a few mistakes that cost me the game. He won by 3 cards, and I had forgotten Uncontrolable Fury, forgotten to move Undercover Artoo to block his drain of 2, and I didn't replace EPP Obi with Ben Kenobi after I clashed Vader (and that was a BIG mistake). I really didn't want to lose 2 games, so I made sure to concentrate my hardest, and not forget anymore basic things like Uncontrollable Fury. Ah, I guess people do need more than 5 hours sleep to play their best.

Game 5:
My Profit vs. my friend Jarrod's (again) Hunt Down with dueling.
Now, we have playtested these decks against each other many times. He's about my only friend with a half decent (Jarrod, if you're reading this, I'm not saying it's good)
HD dueling deck. It's the weirdest thing...... I have never lost to this deck or even come close when we play just for fun, but I lost to it twice in tournaments recently! I know he doesn't play bad outside of tournamnets to fake me out or anything, it's just weird.

Anyway, this game was kind of a blur to me. I spent most of the game lamenting over what I did wrong against Robb. I don't think he started any aliens, so I just dropped Luke, I think and freed Han. Well, I did a lot of manuvering this game to avoid fights with Vader (because Han has a nasty way of dying in battles with Vader), and I blocked his drains with A Gift/ Artoo again. Artoo has saved me at least 6 cards from force drains every game, not to mention all the force drain and destiny subtracting he did! And people say droids are useless.... Anyway, I was able to make him lose much more than I did to drains and direct damage from the objective. We both lost to Visage the entire game. One thing that made me mad about this game.... I had Ben Kenobi with no Saber, and he moved EPP Vader to the same site, and blind dueled Ben. Well, I played Courage of a Skywalker, and was confident about winning the duel, because the destinies in my deck are very, very high (like 3.5 average). His blind destinies were 6 and 4, and that made me pretty mad. He didn't track them or anything, and they totalled 10! My destinies were 3, 5 and my big courage added a 0. His total was 18, mine was 16. I don't remember how, but he also ended up winning a duel against Luke, and I did some sweet manuvering to win the game, barely.

Well, I did win the game after losing 2 duels, which almost never happened, but the game should not have been so close.

Full Win (+10)
Total: 8(+93)

Game 6:
Ah, I got my wish! I got to play Robb again, and this game for the State Championship! He had won all 5 up to this point, but still his differential was much lower than mine, so if I won this game, I won the state championship.

My ISB vs. Robb Ronnlund's (1983) Throne Room Odds:
Well, after Robb beat my friend Chris Bentley, I got a little scouting report from Chris. I didn't mean to, he was just talking about it when we went for lunch, but anyway I heard he was playing Odds, and Chris lost his torture first turn to his own Visage. I absolutely despise Odds, and when I got to thinking about it, other than my huge ISB drains and the 2 destiny on all my characters, I really don't have any odds protection. Well, I was worried about this the entire tournament.....

It was a slow start. I didn't really get what I wanted, and apparently neither did he. I did get Jabba's Palace in my first draw, which was huge, but other than that, we mostly waited. After he had built up his hand, I Monnoked him back down to 8 cards, and that was very big. He dropped EPP Luke to try to take care of Gailid, but he was easily delt with.

I didn't flip until 4th turn (unusual for that deck). I set up drains of about 7 from reserve as soon as I could, like 5th or 6th turn. He put down Artoo and inserted. It came up, and I lost 1 card, no biggie. By the time he really set up his odds, I had already fired off a few big drains. He had been hurting for force the whole game. Mosep was hurting him, bad. He was only getting 7 at most until he deployed Kessel. He put out 8D8, I think, and Wedge at Kessel. Once he got out Battle Plan, I couldn't do much else besides pay for my drains. I kept draining, and odds hit me for 10 once. I was just about to go into space to block his drain of 3, but he drew out. It was practically over anyway. He had no more odds in his hand, and thanks to Mosep, he couldn't play Effective Repairs to get them back because he only had to cards left (in his force pile). That deck can't cause much damage without odds. Cheese never pays!

Heh heh, full win (+20)
Total for the tournament: 10 (+113)

I ended up winning it. I was pretty happy about it. I was even more happy that my ISB still hasn't lost a game.

Final Standings:
1st: Andy McClure (me, 1903)- 10(+113)
2nd: Stephen Lanza (1892)- 10(+100)
3rd: Robb Ronnlund (1983)- 10(+38)
4th: Kyle Matusevic (1817)- 8(+65)
5th: Chris McClure (my brother, 1683)- 8(+42)
6th: Barry Dekale?- 8(+35)
7th: Chris Bentley (1932)- 8(+21)
8th: Clay Wilburn (1521)- 8(-20)
and some more people.

Props to:
-Robb for one of the best games I've had in a while (the one I lost, not the one I won).

-All the people who rode with me, because they all did better than I thought they would. My brother won 4 games, and came in 5th!

-Matt Reed, for running the tournament, and getting it started almost on time.


Thanks for reading everyone!


Andy