grand-slam-in-vegas-pass-me-a-cold-beer
Title: grand-slam-in-vegas-pass-me-a-cold-beer
Author: Tim "Info Broker" Guzman
Date: May 9, 2000
The Las Vegas Grand Slam was something I was really looking forward to in quite a long
time. The Event was held at Vacation Village Hotel and Casino. The room we had there
was not that bad, and it had a good sound system to direct people to there tables and the
event was ran pretty smoothly with not to many problems. As we know YJ is a part of the
Grand Slam, but we care little of that here, but I still like the game so I played in that.
And out of 28 people I came in first place for that, so that was cool. I was a little high
from that and was now really looking forward to the Starwars Event. Chris Hines(Gold 8)
ran the YJ Event alone pretty good, but he knew he was going to need help for the SW
Event. He had Brad Bedlion and Robert Corbett help him out and now is a good time to
say good job guys. Chris really appreciated it.
We had a total of 52 people show up. I was really happy with this attendance and some of
the names that came were great. Some I havent seen since D-con so this was going to be
interesting. The Arizona crew, had Mike Girard, Mike Sinclair, Dj Andrews, Brian
Garrison, and Jay Web, and I think others, but please forgive me for not remembering
ALL. Josh Martin came to just report on the event, but decided he did not want to play.
Kyle Craft and Matt Reicks came all the way down from Colorado. Utah had about 3, but
sorry dont know who. And California had the biggest Crew beside all the locals that
were there. James Lafferty, Eric Bruen, Ryan Schueller, Ben Vanbuskiyi(sp?), Tom
Mascara, John Borders, Greg Miller, and many, many others that I can not think of right
now. And of course we had all the good Local players show up for this event. I will
mention them, because I know they just like to be mentioned :) Brandon Droid Pimp
Gravo, Kris VegasPimp Lavigne, Ted Hansen, Dan Mystical Christy, John The Man
Spadora, Shane Watner, Noah, Jeff, and the rest know who you are just let me know
continue with the good stuff.
Well we planned on starting at 1:00 PM, but we all know how that goes. There were
some who didnt have there Decklist ready so it took a little while, but eventually we
started around 1:40 I believe, maybe a little sooner, but I was ready. This was one of the
few tournaments that I did not have to face anyone from Vegas. I loved that. Everyone I
played was from Out of Town and I really liked getting to know some of the ones I didnt
already know. I tested so many decks with Ted Hansen, and Chris Hines, for this
Tourney. We went back and forth with what was good, and what people may play or not.
I was trying some wacky Ideas with them. Both agreed that no one will expect Dark
numbers, but I didnt want to play that. However Ted did play it with much success.
That deck went Undefeated. I wanted to go with something strong and proven. So I
decided to play with Profit on the Light Side and Hunt Down/with Duel on the Dark Side.
I will post my new version of the Profit that I played and my Hunt Down sometime later
this week. But if you read all this mumble jumble then thanks and now off to the games.
Game 1 My DS vs Rudy Rojas Hidden Base (Rating 1551)
I love to play hidden base with this deck. I start Presence on the Med Chamber and he
starts, Wise Advice. Now everytime I see this for some reason, I am thinking he is playing
HB Numbers and wants to grab, my Torture of something. I get Vader and No torture in
my starting hand, so I am a little worried. I activate draw a couple and save to deploy
Vader next turn. We both loose from Visage and the first card he loose is a ability 2
scrub pilot so now my worry of inserts are over. When he start deploying his systems I
start deploying my ships. I monnoked him to notice that he didnt have the super falcon in
his hand so there was little to worry about. So I went ahead and left a Dreadnuaght only
at 2 different systems and Boba fett in ship and another. Visage was taking some really
good stuff off the top of his deck. He deploys to battle on one Dreadnuaght, and I use
Med Chambers Text to add a destiny. I subtract 2 from his battle destiny using Their Fire
has gone.... game text to survive and he loses his ship. He got brave towards the end
game and put Obi in front of vader making me flip. I think he had Duel protection in his
hand So I didnt duel him. Later I find out he didnt and just wanted to die to end the
game, but either way I won this one. FW by 26.
Score: 2 (+26)
Highlights: I was glad to see he wasnt playing numbers. And have control all game.
Lowlights: Not dueling when that would have been cool, win or lose my diff would have
been the same. but I was playing it safe I guess.
Game 2 My LS vs Ryan Schuellers Hunt Down without Duel (Rating 1872)
This game started kind of bad for me. I couldnt find Master Luke or Ben for awhile. But
it seemed like he was having some problems also. We were both loosing to Visage for a
while and he was Draining me for 3 with Presence at Tat: JP with Mara and Vader there.
Soon I put Boushh in front of that drain and was still trying to catch up. When I freed
Han and retrieved my force, I started finding things I needed to win this game. I battled
one of his walkers with Mechanical Failure on it, he had to take 12 battle Damage from
that, but with 2 pilots helped out with IAO didnt really cause to much damage. But I felt
in control of this game. He was hurting from OTE, because he didnt want to battle me,
knowing I had stuff to hurt him. All of a sudden he manages to get rid of OTE and puts
Bubo in front of Ben, Chewie, Lando, Liea, MLuke, and Han. That is 6 people there
chances were pretty slime to eat han. I didnt have a Fallen Portal in Hand which sucked,
and guess want happened. I shuffled and he choose randomly and chose Han. No of
course he didnt have to battle me or stay there to stop the drain so he splits to two
different locations. I cant drain or cause any damage right now, but he has finally find a
system and started drain for 2 at that. I finally get Han back out there, but with little
success, because he gets Trampled right away, and he has built up a force to finally battle,
and I play Gift of a mentor to make him loose some, but not enough. In the end Ben was
alone and he beat he up just a little and I ran out of cards. FL by 12
Total Score: 2(+14)
Highlights: Having Control at Mid game.
Lowlights: Losing Control when Han was pick out of 5 others to be eaten by Bubo, what
is up with that.
As you can imagine this brought me a little down. I couldnt be to upset, because it
wasnt like I made any mistakes, it just happened. Oh well I move on. I go to see how
some of the others players are doing and find out the Kyle lost his first game to Eric, but
he now has this look on his face that he will not lose to another. James also Lost his first
game to a Local, that James says was some bad luck. I thought wow this is going to be
interesting. I was like Kyle at this point, just wanted to continue and focus on the next
few games.
Game 3 My LS vs Mike Sinclairs Ralltiir Ops (Rating 1720)
Now I tested this deck against Ralltiir a lot. In fact I thought I was going to see nothing
but Ralltiir so I was ready for many of the different versions. However Mike proved that
this was going to be a tough game from the beginning. During this game I had the worst
draw of my life. I had up to 22 cards in hand and had only 3 characters, but they were all
Luke so this did me no good at all. He did monnok me hoping he would get all of my
Harvest, but when he looked at my hand he noticed I was playing with none, but he did
manage to get 2 of my senses. Which kept me from battling since I couldnt sense any
reacts. He also played with the Desert and I wasnt going to go there for the life of me,
we all no what can happen if we do. I did not notice if he had a Sandwhirl in his deck, but
I wasnt going to take any chances. I was taking force drains like crazy, and since my
hand was so big, I lost everything from my hand and put only High destinys in my lost
pile. Finally I started to find my characters, I had Luke on Ralltiir early, even before he
flipped hoping I can cause damage. I did a little with a mechanical failure, and then when
he tried to cancel it he failed, so next turn when he drained I surprised assaulted him for
only 3 more cards I think. I finally found Ben which then he rescued Han and then I
retrieved all the High Destinys I put in the lost Pile. I did get Leia Undercover on Ralltiir
and another Undercover over there to slow down some drains. Ben and Han are at the
Tat: JP and are draining for 1 with Obi saber. Fallen Portal helped get rid of Mara which
was good and Clash Helped me a little to. He loose an Altar toward the End game, and
this is when I deploy OTE. This is what helped me catch up to my loses. He would battle
Luke on Ralltiir and I would Narrow Escape to where he had People so he would have to
lose 3 force. Vader got Clash so he would have to lose some more force. Lando was
only in the Cantina Draining for one and making him lose, because my objective was
flipped. With me making him lose force like crazy, and him Draining in Space like crazy,
and when he grabbed Narrow Escape it was getting close. This game came down to the
wire, it is right up there with some of the best games I have ever played. This game was
awesome I will never forget it. Anyway I squeeze out the win...so FW by 1
Total Score: 4(+15)
Highlights: Playing such a close game, it made it so much fun, and I didnt see any mistake
played by either of us...it was good.
Lowlights: Drawing 22 cards and still no people...that sucked. And only winning by 1 was
a lowlight, because it probably took me out of the final chances...lets move on
Well now I am getting a little nervous. I am thinking to myself that, first my light loses
then it only wins by 1, this is going to be a tough day for light side. Or so I think. But
just to calm my nerves a little I walk over to the Bar and order me a Beer. I down that
real quick and am now ready for the next game.
Game 4 My DS vs Greg Millers Mwyhl Falcon Deck...(Rating 1769)
Now Greg seems like he is one cool guy. There is one thing I do know, and that is he is
the best young player I met in a long time. He starts Battle Plan and I start Presence on
the Med Chamber. When I see his Starting location I think Super Falcon right away. He
was losing to Visage right from the beginning, since I had Vader in opening draw. The
card he lost from the top was Transmission Terminated which kind of sucked, but it was
good for me. He did manage to get out another one so he did kill it soon, of course I did
have more Visage to put out. Also he got the light side Holo Table out early and then I
was like YEP the is SuperFalcon. Right away I was looking for Come Here you Coward.
At one time he drains me for 2 at Kessel, since I converted his Kessel with mine and I lose
for the top. Guess what, it was Come here you Coward. I told be there that was probably
game for him, and he said he could get around that anyway. I was like...ok. All this time
I already had Image of a Dark Lord in my hand but I was waiting to him to go there first.
He didnt until after our space battle. I was saving a lot of force to battle the superfalcon.
I had Ig in ship, the buss, Dreadnaught, and Boba in slave 1. So I monnoked to see what
he had in hand. During the Monnok I happened to get 3 On the Edges out of his hand. I
was like...Awesome....this is so HUGE....this made up for losing the Coward card.
Anyway I make a note what he has in hand, which is Punch it and Out of Nowhere. The
turn before this I set up my destiny so I knew what I was going to draw. So I deploy
everyone except Boba in ship....so that is 3 destiny for me. And since Vader was at the
Med Chamber I will be able to subtract 2 from every Destiny draw he makes. And since
he had Captain Han, with Out of Nowhere and Punch it gets 5 destinys, which I subtracted
2 from each and I draw a 4, 7, 5...I believe that was game for me, but he still had some
fighting force. I was after all losing to fury deployed on Vader for a good portion of the
game, and he did deploy Projection of a Skywalker on the LS Holo Table to get a Drain,
but this was when I deployed Image of a Dark Lord to battle and I subtracted his destiny,
so my guys stays and his goes. With Visage taking his toll on him it was soon over. FW
by 19
Total Score: 6(+34)
Highlights: I guess playing like I knew every card in his deck.
Lowlights: Taking down such I cool kid it would have been nice to see him in the top 10
Well you would think that I was starting to relax, well not quite. I still needed some more
beer to warm my blood. I to warm my hands, which were a little cold for some reason.
So I go back to the bar and order a 24 oz beer which was like Ice Cold so my hands just
got colder, but I enjoyed it. I went to see how everyone else was doing. Girard just lost
to some local player who he said had a great draw. And who was making drains cost a
little to much. Kyle was coming back by winning all of his games, and James was also
coming back. It was Ben and Eric Bruen who were the only undefeated players so far and
they ended up playing each other twice in the end...here is what comes next for me.
Game 5 My DS vs Tom Mascaris Mwyhl x-wings Swarm Deck...(Rating 1904)
Well the first thing Tom says is oh great you are here to beat me again. He says that
because he always gives me a hard time about beating him in the Wild Card at DCon,
because if he beat me then he would have been in Worlds. I like this guy. He is so cool,
and he makes me laugh. Anyway he start with Yarna and I start usual against this deck. I
think...you are not playing Astroid Santuary are you. Of course he wasnt which I learned
quickly when he started deploying. Now at this time, Tom was so tired, it looked liked he
was going to fall asleep during the game. I didnt feel like he was playing his best. He
said there were up way to late...I guess so. Anyway One battle in space where he had to
lose 17 cards, because I lateral damaged, was huge for me. I later Monnoked to see
where I can go safely. I was draining in space at some of mine and at some of his
locations. The deck he was playing was also the same deck that was playing at the Top
table which I thought was interesting. But with my ability to subtract his destiny I was in
so much control. He did however cancel Visage early and I was unable to find another.
But he could not catch up to the force loss. FW by 33
Total Score 8(+67)
Highlights: Winning by so much when I needed it most. I needed to get back to sheet
chances.
Lowlights: Having Tom so Tired and him making a mistake to not save force to play
alternatives to fighting.
I am pumped, I do think I need any more beer until afterwards. Which we might do
something later with the group that traveled. James wants to gamble a little in between
this round since we both finished so early. Things are starting to get interesting, because
the two undefeated people just timed out with Ben being on top. Ben only need one more
drain of 2 to win the game so it was crazy.
Game 6 My LS vs Dan Lujans CCT/with SAC...(Rating..1939)
Well Dan and I see each other at big tournaments like this, but for some reason we never
ended up playing until now. First thing when I see his objective, I am like...where this is
interesting. I give him Orr, for a captive and start with Wise Advice like I do every game
with this deck. Since Clayton just won the California State Champs with CCT Skrillings
Numbers I was thinking he brought the same thing. So I held onto Dont forget the
Droids until I knew for sure. As it turned out he wasnt. In fact the deck was very well
put together, and it had some profit hate in there. I was losing force like crazy to drains,
and was once again looking for cards I needed to catch up. At one point I thought I was
going to beat up on Dengar, because he was with Vader. So I deployed Master Luke and
gave him his Saber. Then played Clash on Vader, he Sensed and I grabbed the Sense and
played Altar. Then he just YAB on Luke so I never did get the beat down. He then on
his turn Elis Dengar to the Cantina to drain for 2 and then elised him back to safety. I
though wow maybe I can catch him in an important time and use quite a mercenary.
Anyway he was in so much control of this game. I still have not freed Han, and he had
like about 6 people in the audience chamber protecting him. Boushh never came out this
game I was really wondering what happened to her. Anyway I move Ben, Master Luke,
Chewie, Lando over to the Chamber, because frankly this is my only choice. He deploys
Djas, and some other person, he already had Dr. E, Mara Jade, Vader, and Jabba there,
and 4Lom. He battles and I play Weapon Lev on Mara, but somehow he has enough to
stack some sense and get rid of that card. But he couldnt get rid of Gift of a Mentor.
This saved me somehow. We went back and forth battling there, but in the end I had the
chamber. I could not believe it. I then freed Han and retrieved 10 force and starting
finally making him lose cards other than just battling. He had to lose 5 the first turn...I
spread, then 8 the next and then it was to much for him. He elis some over and YES I got
to use QAM to put them to the lost pile and that was it. I dont know how I did it, but I
reach up real high and pull out a win :) FW by 12
Total Score 10(+79)
Highlights: Yes I won...I know I will be getting a sheet for sure. And coming back when I
thought it was over.
Lowlights: Well I didnt win Huge to be in the final, but it was fun.
Well what a tournament this was. I came in 4th place overall which I thought was great
considering the day I had. This was so much fun and now I am looking forward to the
regional. It was interesting that the top 2 players timed out Again. But this time Eric won
the timed victory. So it looks like they kind of screwed each other. So we had no one
person who was Undefeated and it was James Laffety, who came in first overall. Jim
didnt want to play in the final, because he just wanted to gamble and see more of Vegas.
So he let the Second place person which was Ryan Schueller pick which sheet he wanted
then went to party. Anyway here are the Top 10, because for right now that is all I have.
1. James Lafferty (San Diego)
2.Ryan Schueller (LA)
3. Kyle Craft (Colorado)
4. Tim Guzman (Me, Las Vegas)
5. Eric Bruen (LA)
6. Ben Vanbuski (SD)
7. Christopher Hood (Las Vegas)
8. Brandon Gravo (Las Vegas)
9. Patrick Garcia (Cali)
10. Ted Hansen (Las Vegas)
Props:
Chris Hines for running the event and not needing me to help
Jim Lafferty for being such a cool guy.
Kyle Craft for being cool after meeting him
Mike Sinclair for giving me an awesome game to play
Vacation Village for selling beer so cheap
For not playing anyone Local at all....how often does that happen
The Arizona crew for bringing cute looking girls who play cards.
All my Local Players and friends for doing pretty good at this event.
Slops:
Vacation Village for screwing up Girards room(long story)
Vacation Village for being such an old casino the reeks with smoke
For Brian Garrison, because he had to play Kyle twice :)
having it end so soon.
Not many really
Thanks for reading this report. I will post the decks I played soon.
Thanks Again,
Tim Guzman
Gold 117
Information Broker