texas-state-champs-or-how-i-got-robbed
Title: texas-state-champs-or-how-i-got-robbed
Author: Matt "Old Skooler" Lush
Date: May 7, 2000
Game 1- My HD vs. Richard Alfonzo?'s Standard HB
Nothing truly exciting, Vader hit the Forest Clearing early for some drains of 3 with his stick, but TK paid a visit. Didn't last long as Bubo paid a visit as well. Boussh was next, but didn't matter by that point as I just Elis'ed to another site and drained. He flipped fairly quick, and was cancelling two of my 3 drains for quite a while. Got ZIMH w/ 4-LOM probing, and finally found it after the 5th system. Started at the wrong end. Oh well. Afraid nothing too spectacular about this game. FW by 11.
2 (+11)
Game 2-LS vs. Kevin Martilla's Endor Ops
Kevin's been playing too much damn Trek, as I shouldn't have beaten him this easy. I loved activating 8 on the first turn. Ben comes down first turn and starts draining at the AC while Ephant Mon goes to the Bunker. I'm drawing frantically for the Super-Falcon combo as I know he'll be abusing Ominous Rumors shortly. I get the combo fairly quick, and before he can drain me in space I hammer BFinS1, Vader's Shuttle, and Evax piloting it. Orrimaarko goes to the Endor Docking Bay, Melas is draining at Mos Eisley, Ben/Luke are guarding the AC, and Savrip's guarding everything. I purposely forget some drains to keep him from drawing up on me 'til I get Celebration out, and Signal for it. With about 8 cards in my force pile, no Celebration. Damn. Decide not to draw for it, and just drain him out and use my used Interrupts in hand to help differential. Full Win by 32.
4 (+53)
Game 3-DS vs. Joe Horbey's Throne Room Mains
This game meant absolutely nothing. It didn't count for jack. Get this-first turn, he goes for a Nudj. Guess where both of them are at.....yep, in that measly stack of a 5-card force pile are BOTH Nudjs. That's why this game didn't count. My first turn, Vader and Saber to the Farm. Visage. Drain. Visage. Drain. (Started BFHI by the way). Mara follows, along with Tarkin, and still no characters. He finally throws down EPP Luke against Vader and stick, and Mara and her stick, and Bacta Tank. Battle, I lost Mara and he loses Luke to the BT. I love doing this....my Objective flips, Alter Bacta Tank. Bye Luke. Anyways, he finally cancels Visage about 2/3's of the way through the game with a TT, I didn't have a Sense as I wasn't drawing that much to keep diff. high. It was too late, though. His last move of desperation was EPP's Leia and Han against Vader and Tarkin. He didn't have the 1 force to initiate battle thanks to BFHI. My turn, drop ECC Iggy, You Are Beaten Leia (thanks Neal), and battle Han. Swing, hit. 17 to 4 and Han's forfeit 0. That's game. Full win by 34.
6 (+77)
Note on that game right there: believe it or not, I really wish he hadn't had that incredibly bad luck, as Joe talks a lot of smack when he reviews my decks. I wanted to hammer him fair and square, and that didn't happen in this case. I honestly believe I would have beat him anyways, as I had Mara and Vader in my starting hand. I would of simply saved up and deployed both. But I mean, c'mon, how often are BOTH Nudj's gonna be in the Force Pile? That game was so wrong. Next time, Joe.
Game 4-LS vs. Martin Boehm's Hunt Down w/ High Destinies
I Careful Planned for Mos Eisley this time, as I feared a quick conversion of the AC for some reason. I don't know, just a bad feeling. He started IAO. He didn't have Jabba's Palace, but he did of course get the 2 1/0 docking bays. Vader comes down quick, and I'm having problems finding one of my 4 Bens. Luke and Melas fight Vader, but I can't get rid of him. Melas is gone, so next turn deploy a Monk to Obi's Hut to make it a BG to prevent HD from flipping and move Luke over there and draw to find Ben. No luck. He's throwing down walkers left and right, with 2/2 shmucks piloting them, severely crippling my Smokescreens. I finally get a Ben and go up against Vader again. He's got a Saber by now, and Ben gets struck down. Ben/Luke both gone, while he loses DS-61-2. Damn IAO... I have the Super Falcon combo in hand, and Tatooine out, but it takes too long to save up the force to get them out, and I'm spending so much moving guys around. I had Gifted R-3P0 early, and that was saving me sooo much force. He tries to Trample R-3P0, and I miss the Sense draw. He draws...Admiral Ozzel. Funny stuff...then I think a second. 'Hey, TD!' 'Yeah?' 'Can you Trample a droid?' 'No.' 'I thought so...I don't think I'll let that fly next time, Martin...' Like I said, funny stuff. Anyways, I can't put Ben/Luke against Vader, as he'll hit Ben everytime. So...I end up just running around all over the place, and finally get Celebration going. It's too little too late, however, as I can't find Ben again to bring back my last Lukes. Eventually, I run out of them and HD flips for good. He gets Vader over to the AC, and I drop Tawss and battle, drawing a tracked Signal. Unfortunately, Tawss is lost as well. I get down Order To Engage after he puts down the Executor, DSSD, and BF in S1 at Tatooine. For some reason, he never battles(maybe it was those 2 5's and a 4 I was tracking...) and he loses about 9 force to OTE. That helped out a lot, as it reduced his win to only 13. Full Loss by 13.
6 (+64)
My LS has a weakness-Lightsabers and high destinies. I'm adding 2 Weapon Levitations....
Here's where the bull@#$% starts. The tourney's at the Sci-Fi Expo, and they want to close the place at 6:30. It's quarter to 5. Brian (the TD) is forced to announce that the last 2 games are reduced to 45 minutes each, and that there can be no final round, AS WAS INTENDED. The bastard merchants at the Expo were worried about leaving all their crap $100 dollar G.I. Joe Storm Shadows around while we were still there and their lazy asses left, so we were being kicked out. Complete and total BULLSHIT. Brian does say, however, that if both top players agree, we will hold a final at his house or a nearby restuarant or SOMEWHERE.
Game 5- DS vs. Ross Lillie's Throne Room Inserts
Well I don't scout games, so I started BFHI against him. Surprised the hell out of me when he didn't put down any Nudj's on his turn. First turn Vader to the Farm, but Visage was cancelled by the TT in his starting hand. His 2nd turn, 2 destiny 4 droids and 8D8 show up on Yavin, along with an Insert. You can imagine the look on my face...lucky for me, I had my only other Twi'lek in my starting hand. Activate 3, Twi'lek for Resistance. Activate 4 more, and drop it with Tarkin to back up Vader against suicide Mains. I'm activating everything after that, trying to make the insert pop before he can occupy a BG. It finally pops, but another one follows shortly. He finally has enough force and the right cards for a beatdown. EPP Luke/Han and Wedge come to visit Djas Puhr at the Forest Clearing. Battle. Djas Puhr's hit, Moment of Triumph. Draw sorta low, the overspill is 7 damage. Ghhk. So much for beatdown...unfortunately I lost U-3PO to the drain he got going the Clearing. Both my Elis's were gone as well, so I couldn't touch him there. He's got GLinG1 at Kiffex along with the Spiral and Torvyn Farr piloting it. I'm one force short of dropping BFS1 and ZIMH there, as I had to move Bane out of the Throne Room, where EPP Obi was sitting, waiting to to wax him. I didn't have a MOT, and didn't want another beatdown, so I just deployed BFiS1 to Coruscant and move Bane. Next turn, ZIMH to Kiffex and move BF over to help out. Battles commence, but with his destiny = 0, I slowly wear him down while draining on Yavin. He had thrown in a few more inserts, one hurting me for 6 as at that point he had Luke, Wedge, and 4-destiny droids out for a total of 9. I didn't occupy 3 BG's as he had knocked Djas Puhr off my Forest Clearing. He's getting low on force though, and I pull out the win. Full Win by 9.
8 (+73)
Game 6- LS vs. John ???'s Court
Sorry man, forgot your last name. We were rushed as hell, though, as we only had 45 minutes. Brian had told us as soon as you get paired, start playing. Careful Planning for the AC, he was pretty much hosed from the start. Ben and Orrimaarko come down early, and I'm getting him for a good amount. Luke follows shortly. He finally gets something going, deploying BIHT and 3 Skrillings as passengers. Oh yeah, and an insert. No protection in my deck, but I can deal with it. My turn, Super Falcon to the rescue. Initiate, but I draw pretty low, and BIHT stays. He backs him up next turn, and has a total of 6 in destiny so Leia goes. BFiS1 is left against Cap'n Han, so I drop GLinG1 to help and knock out Boba. Move over to Tatooine and start Celebrating. Back on the ground, he deploys Scum and Villany, and I immediately Alter. He grabs the Alter and Controls it. Another Alter, as I had the force. It's gone. Later, SE Jabba shows up and S+V follows along with 4LOM and Skrillings and Pote. A series of battles, and I made tons of mistakes, as I was feeling so pressured to win big in 45 minutes. I wasn't drawing a lot, as I needed a huge diff., and I was trying to beat him with one hand tied behind my back. I can't get rid of S+V, and he retrieves an amazing amount of force by battling constantly. First Strike follows shortly, and we are both retrieving like mad. I finally get him to the point where he's battling EPP Luke with a single Skrilling. It was either initiate and retrieve 3 or don't and lose 3 to my OTE. Luke swings, hits, and he loses 5 in damage along with the Skrilling. This game was frantically played by me, as I needed a full win, and was really crazy. Full Win by 25.
10 (+98)
Continuation of the bull@#$%........
Everyone gathers around, and Brian announces the standings. Martin 'Odi-Wan' Boehm is in first, going undefeated for the day. I'm in second. Brian asks Martin if he wants a final, and of course HE PUSSES OUT LIKE A LITTLE BITCH. Why? Cuz he knew it'd be a repeat of the Dallas regional last year. He had gone undefeated, I came in second, and I stomped him in the final. Some of you I know will say, 'well damn, if I was in first, I wouldn't play a final either!' That makes sense, but my @#$% is that THE FINAL WAS SUPPOSED TO BE MANDATORY. If we weren't getting kicked out like a bunch of Poke'brats, there would of been one, no 'asking' about it. There WOULD have been one. Those greedy corporate bastard runners of the Expo are the ones I blame. May they rot in Hell. Those @#$%whores made a mockery of the State Championships. Martin did the smart thing, but it was also the dishonorable thing, and pretty much everybody knows he doesn't deserve that 1st Place. And ANYBODY who knows me KNOWS I would have played a final if I was in first. Stupidity or Honor, call it what you like, but I would have played a final. How you gonna call a State Champ without a final? That's bull@#$%! I was robbed in broad daylight. End of Rant. Anyways, hoped you enjoyed the report, and I'm interested to hear your views on this matter in your reviews. Thanks for reading.