vegas-slam-2000
Title: vegas-slam-2000
Author: pat "Rowen" garcia
Date: May 9, 2000
Last sunday:
the week was going pretty good, tim leung held a invitational tourney, in which the elite of san diego got invited(and me) went, jim lafftery, ben vanbuskirk, tom mascari, greg miller, john boarders, daniel amor, jeff and myself. i-ming chen was there(roddd on the bbs/icq/irc and everywhere else)but didnt want to play. this tourney was basically to playtest for the slams/regional/comic con that is coming up in the following months. well, i win that tourney beating daniel, jim, to get me in the final duel(it was eliminating style tourney) lost to ben, then beat him to take home the 'winners sheet'(it was pretty cool,it was a sheet contain cards like -impressive, most impressive-,-heros of yavin-, and all the celebrations). ben got the cheese award for playing darkside dagobah drain(got a sheet of all the ops, and a asteroid sanc) , and jeff got the last place sheet(sheet that contained cards such as torture, aiii,aigg, ahh!! and overwhelmed :) ), that tourney was sabacc crazy, i only played 1 game where i didnt play it(and that game i called battle of the cheese-speed ops vs dark dagobah drain-)so i see what the good players are gonna be playing(jims 24 sabacc deck was just mean) and now everybody is scrambling to find a good light deck(lightside only won 2 games that whole tourney) i build a crap profit that evening...and hope that i can playtest during the week to see how my light would fare(dark was as sound as a pound, huntdown-sabacc baby)..
week before:
my plans for playtesting went out the door, my best friends cousin came over from canada, so the whole week was just movies and dance dance revalation...oh and fyi, never play ouiji board at 2am, trust me ...
friday:
well, so much for the week, now i have to get up at like 630(ugh) to hitch a ride with ben to jims house so we can get going, well, we dont get going till around 10(thats 2 hours of sleep that i could of gotten) and we are off...well, 4 hours in the desert with no air conditining later, we hit vegas, check in, and jim and ben say them meet up with kyle croft, wow, mr 2100 himself is here, excellent. after we hike to our rooms(i dont think our rooms can be farther away from where everything is being held, it was like a 5 min walk just to get to the place where the tourney was held, in the same building...) we set off to go see gladiator... shiznit, what a bad-ass movie, i see some future oscar winners, plus all the bloodshed got me hyped, im gonna have to see that one again. well, the age to gamble is 21 over there(bull@#$%) so me, greg, and zack stay to 'playtest' while the old'uns go and gamble there money away..i play gregs bad ass court deck with my profit, in which i got really pissed cause i won, he was supposed to beat me to convince me not to play profit, im still mad about that...i was going to make a hb high destiny retrieval/beatdown...but its vegas, i dont want to spend my time building a deck, so i just make some adjustments to my light(adding order to engage, all my urchins, and gimmer sticky, im glad that i did add that crap). so now jim, ben, tom and justin come back from losing there money, and now we are +1 cause they met up with this eric guy from colorado, he is hardcore, is took a bus all by himslef to get down here, and didnt even have a room. well i watch ben and jim smack him around a little with the high destiny isb(the one that jim played at worlds). but this brings up a little problem with jims lightside, should he keep the retrieval, or add ships, it was decided that retrieval stays, cause it would just be way better...i go to sleep after watching conan o'brian on there super craptacular tv(didnt even have audio-video plugs so we couldnt play the playstation jim brought, jedi power battles man).
saturday:
wake up at 7:30...man, i hate waking up early, but the hardcore guys who are gonna play in the yj slam..well, they leave, and me, jim, ben and eric set out to rios for there bad-ass buffet, crablegs for breakfast...gotta love that! :)
so no we go back to the hotel, find out that zack got 2nd at yj, write our stupid decklist(i hate this crap) change the names of my decks in honor of gladiator...and wait around till and see such people as mike girard, kyle craft, eric bruen, ryan schuller, and a bunch of others. wow, good compitition. so after the hour wait...the games begin
game 1: lightside vs eric's endor ops(grrr)
great, i play eric(the person who we picked up) and say this sucks, i didnt want to play anybody in our group..oh well, had to happen sometime. i already knew his deck, and he knew mine, so thats just great. i start dont trend on me(you heard right) for do or do not, and scramble transmission, he starts perimiter patrol.. we draw our 8 cards..i look at them, and have to find jim, cause my whole hand was nothing but red cards...hes right behind me, ask eric if i can show him my hand, jim looks, and i say 'doesnt this remind you of something?'(for those of you who dont know, in game 4 of day 2 of worlds, it was jim vs gary carman, the winner would be in the final duel, but jims starting hand contained nothing but red cards) i was shocked at this, 3 bens, 3 lukes, and 3 hans were in my deck..the hezie? so we just drop sites and depoly effects and draw for a first couple of turns, i was using scrambled transmission to the fullest, seeing what guys were in my force pile to see if i should save up, or draw. he depolys some guys that help endor ops at the bunker and a ship to endor to drain me for some. when i got 9 cards in lost pile, i gift for anakins sabre, depoly some chump(wedge i think) to spree han, depoly master luke and twass khaa to db, with order to engage out, try to move in, but stupid bunker game text stopped that...epp vader and tarkin drop to hill han(eh, no biggie) and i just forfiet them, and moves them to jp with a walker waiting. i look at my hand, ben k, epp han, disarm, and a signal sweet. i activate 3, signal for all my urchins, drop benjamin and han to sit in from of vader, his go, i disarm vader(no swing for you) and now he has to a)lose 2 to all my urchins to battle me, or b) lose 3 and run away, he keeps on battling me costing him 2 cards each time, all i do is decline to draw battle destiny, lose han and revive. i think that he must of lost at least 10 cards to amu. i was hurting him too much, so now he goes crazy and spreads over endor and in space. i move around master luke and twass, in front of his cheapy endor ops helper guys and depoly my ships infront of his ships, his go, he battles master luke and twass, i courage luke, swing and hit a guy, and draw a 5 to his 1(maras sabre, he must of drew this card 8 times the whole game)..power 19 to his like 7, he doesnt have enough forfiet, so in the end profit destroyed him... win by 16
highs:winning with light, from the way light was performing from last week, i figured light would lose alot of its games..
lows:playing someone in our group..after his loss to me, he seemed really down
well, turns out that most of the san diegans won, and most(except i think greg) was playing light(which really surprised me), zack won by 42(man, it must be his day)but jim got a timed loss due to bad luck..if the game would of continued to its end, he would of gotten it though..
game 2: dark(huntdown-sabacc)vs toche revo mains and toys
man, turns out there was an error in my deck list, it took me and the td around 15 min to try to find the card that was extra, but i just wrote the decklist wrong(i still dont know how i got an extra card in there) so he say that he is going to have to pull out a random card out of my deck to make up for it..not good, i tryed to sway him and just let me take out a grabber, but he said no, so his friend comes and picks a card...grabber...*whew* the gods must of been smiling on me..turns out this was one of the quickest games all day, i got a good hand, 2 locations(along with the tower) vader and the casino(one of the 2 locations) and a real hero, great! i look for lobot, snag a lando, depoly my sites and lose to visage for one of the only times i do..he has troble getting one of his many obis, so its like im choking him out, i drop vader to toche and move to hut. hes saving force now, so i move vader to toche with mara and tarkin...he drops epp han, luke, and leia, i duel luke, choke leia, and smack han for like 20 cards...that was it, i set up lando and lobot with a walker to casino, and perfect sabacc my lost pile away...in the end i had no loss pile, was draining for 6, and making him lose 2 cards to sabacc..win by 42
highs:hmm, winning i guess
lows:this guy got mad at me saying i was cheating(the extra card thing-which i still cant figure out how a extra card got in there)but he was just fooling around, i think he was mad that i beat him by so much...
everybody from san diego won there 2nd game, so we are going strong....
game 3: dark vs eric bruens toche-harvest
i am at the top table right now, i look at erics command card, he beat kyle craft by 29 cards with his light...ok...well, this game was straight odd, i am not saying that his deck sucks(it is good) but i had the wierdest luck, no locations drawn the whole game for me...i was surviving on 6 force(2 of which he was giving to me) he had goo nee tay from the begining, so all i can do is depoly a lone vader to try to smack somebody, or draw for locations(still getting none), i do remember that i threw away a casino cause i thought that i had 2 in my hand...as a last resort i tryed to sabacc some, but counldnt find my casino that i thought i had in my hand...so lando was just getting perfects sabaccs at the tower, with me not retrieving any force...i couldnt do crap, iao was out, but he still nabrun'ed han leia and twass to my tower(i wanted this game to end) so lando and loboticus die like men...loss by 31
highs:well, after this game, i asked for a rematch and won, why cant i do that in the tourney!?!?!?
lows:wierd game..odd luck..
well, me and greg lossed our 3rd game, zack who is in the lead got a timed win(it screwed him over for some sheets) tom also lost, so ben and zack are the only undefeateds left..this was lunch break, but i spent most of it on the rematch vs eric, but it didnt bother me none, cause i got crab legs for breakfast :)
game 4:lightside vs dj(or was it bj?)ral ops
man, it seems that right from the start he hated me, didnt even want to share his play mat..i look at his command card, he has like double my diff, what the hezie was i doing playing him? well he starts bad feeling have i, i start regular(do or do not was key in this deck, he didnt have retrieval, so he was wasting cards altering my stuff)i know i just have to do as much damage as i can, because ral ops doesnt have retrieval(well, all the ones that ive seen dont, cause first strike doesnt really count). he grabs sites and when he gets out the desert i saying something like, im not going there, i dont like sandwhirls, and he gives me a funny look..hee hee, well, he flips with a atst at desert with a atst pilot, tempest 1 at swamp with ozzel piloting, and igar at the forest, he moves him to tempest 1, so no beatdown..well, i wait till i have cards in loss pile, flip, depoly epp luke with yodas gimmer stick and all my urchins infront of igar, and nabrun obi, leia, and han with wedge to keep luke company, order to engage was out, so he has to battle or lose 3, well, he looks for a card(most likey alter) depolys vader, mara, and alters urchins(fine by me, made him lose 3 cards instead of 2)and battles, i courage luke, and gift of the mentor, all i do is just lose wedge(he hit somebody so i revived them instead)he goes bye bye...well, the next couple of turns was me hatching a plan to flip his obj back, i do , and it is clearly obvious that i will win(not by much though) so i shuttle up han, liea, and twass to spiral and move to kasyyk, he depolys avenger, needa, and bossk in hounds tooth and battles..ok, he says that i dont get destiny, i look at the site to see if there was some funky gametext, nothing, i ask why and he goes, 'you didnt declare them piloting'....wtf? man, talk about a jerk move, i still get 1 draw(epp leia) but i lose twass, leia, and like 4 cards(have to keep han alive) so i move back to ralltiir, and then move to his death star for the fat drain of 3...he goes and alters my order to engage, but wise advice was out, so it goes to my used, and my turn i signal it right back...i drop boussh to stop his only drain..in the end he lost too many cards..profit killed him off..win by 6
highs: winning..good game
lows:this guy was very unsportsman like, not what i would expect from a 1800+ player..
things are looking good, ben is now going into these last games for the win, jim is making a monster comeback after his timed loss..tom mascari drops though, lack or sleep, and the yj tourney got to him, he asked me for the key to our room and gets some sleep, he could of gotten top 10 if he would of stayed though..oh well...
game 5: lightside vs franks cct
oh shoot, franks crew has this little rival with san diego players..man i wish i could of played dark this game..oh well, my start was terrible, no characters again! not as bad as last game though, i did have a location :- man, he was well prepared for profit, he starts secret plans, converts my ac, grabs dr e, and moves mara(he started with her and jabba) and dr e to jp...he left jabba all by himself asking for a beatdown!! man...why couldnt one of my 3 lukes show up...hes draining for 3, and i am doing nothing but drawing up..i finnaly get some guys, and he looks for lando, whoa, i suspect sabacc, so i depoly him to hoth war room to stop that...well, he elis's them, and i only saved 1 force for my quite a mercinary in hand...DAH! so lando gets smacked, and he couldnt even take out dr e...i do go and finnally smack down jabba with master, ben, and twass with a gift of the mentor, and spring han..alright, now i can get the ball started, i stay at the ac for a couple of turns draining...i have a gift of the mentor in hand, i wanted to look for a sabre, but decided that the 2 destiny would be better(duh! nobody's going to fight ben, master, twass and han..) so now choke vader comes down, with sabre, battles, non-epic duels ben, guess what card i have in hand? up, glancing blow, but no sabre!! so ben gets dueled(i was shocked by this, i didnt think anybody will have the grapefruits to non epic duel anybody anymore, i give him mad props for this) chokes han, hit master, and draws a 4, all he does is lose a couple of cards and clears my sites..vader, the one man wrecking crew! that was got to be the best play of the day, and thats pretty much game...loss in the 20's...
highs:playing frank, fun game, the non epic duel, he is hardcore
lows: i wanted him to sign my circle, but i fergot and i didnt get it signed...ill see him again at the la slam/regional/comic con though..
being the serious gamer that i am, i want a rematch(its what i do if i lose) but all the time i cant get characters in starting hand, so greg steps up and wants to play my deck vs frank, and man, that was a good game, in the middle of one big battle they were calling the games, so we couldnt see the end of that one(man, looked like a good game)
well, greg ends up playing frank next round, and i want him to get revenge for me, and i go play my final game..
game 6: darkside vs hidden base/omdh
well, this game went alot like game 2, i know i have to blind sabacc(non tracked perfect) so i can steal his ships, during the corse of the game i stole falcon, both leaders, and a gold squad y-wing, that was freaking cooL! never lost a sabacc either :) early in the game he plays out of commision, and i make it my right to never let vader hit the lost pile, so i did have some 1's in my reserve deck which i didnt want..i was draining him at the casino with mara and sabre, and when he had 2 red squad x-wings, i plop down falcon with tarkin piloting(hee hee hee) and zuckuss, and wax him, i was thinking to myself how cool it would be if lando piloted the falcon making it immune to attrition, oh well, lando was needed for sabacc..near the end he did depoly epp luke to generic docking back at alderaan...but, to stop my sabaccs he activated all his reserve, bad idea, i pick up vader, depoly him and blind duel, i win(he cant draw destiny >:) ) was kinda mad that i couldnt non-epic luke, to get back my little lost pile..oh well...win by 30
highs:he didnt even flip his obj, sabacc rules..
lows:none really
i go 4-2, and watch bens and erics game, but they @#$%ed each other giving the other timed wins(they played each other twice) so that puts jim up to win(well, jim/ryan schuller won, jim had the most victory points/diff for the 6 games, there was supposed to be a final duel, but its vegas, jim wanted to go gamble and not spend 2 hours playing swccg in a duel, so he said if ryan let him get the dark rare sheet, he could say that ryan won the duel(thus the slam) and call it a night, but i think that they still ruled jim winning the slam). ben gets 6th, and i go 4-2 finishing 9th...not bad considering i didnt even playtest my light. i play andy chen here, man, best game i had in a while, we were both getting perfect sabaccs, but the game never saw an end(the results were being called) so i give myself the moral victory stealing a x-wing, x-wing lazer cannon, depolying both of them, and blowing away a x-wing, thats was cool :)
well, we had a little state compititiong going on, and it was clear that cali won(1st, 2nd, 5th, 6th, 9th out of the top 10) san diego did well, 1st(jim) 6th(ben) 9th(me) 12th(greg)16th(zack, had to play jim twice so that dropped him), so out of the whole day, 3 of the 9 sheets given out went to san diego, sucks that i didnt get one, but oh well, there is always la slam..nothing exciting happend after that, cause we were all tired, jim lost 80 bucks in 5 min though..haa haa...so now its sunday, and i spend another 4 hour drive in the desert with no air conditioning to get home...i hope that if worlds is being held in vegas(rumored that it might) that it doesnt get the cheap hotel we stayed in(ghetto)...
props:
the td: for putting up with the decklist crap on me..
jim: for winning and letting me borrow 20 bucks
ben: for driving me
andy:funniest game i played in awhile
frank:that non-epic duel was bad ass...
rios: damn that was a good buffet, crab legs for breakfast! :)
slops:
greg:cause you didnt beat me and i played profit...damn you!
ben:for driving a car w/o air conditioning!
vacation village: for putting us so far away from the casino and gaming room, for having the crappiest tv's..and for the small rooms..
hope you enjoyed..peace