ottawa-gs-destination-unknown-5-20-200
Title: ottawa-gs-destination-unknown-5-20-200
Author: Jonathan "jonnychu" Chu
Date: May 23, 2000
******** Pre-Tourney *********
So I'm in Nashville around finals time and I'm talking to Hays as usual, and I bring up this Ottawa deal. Ottawa is (only) 6 to 7 hours from Albany, and school for me ended May 12th, so I would be home to take a little trip with some other Albany guys. Coincidentally, Southwest Airlines opened up a terminal in Albany International, and Nashville has decent Southwest support, so direct flights to Albany and back would be cheap. I mention this to Hays and he books a flight (through Priceline, so screw the Southwest thing) and that's cool. We try to talk Steve Lewis into going, and he thinks it's a cool idea, but more for my dad's authentic chinese food than for the tournament. He decides not to, and Jim Sells and Steven Turner are interested but don't go, so it's just Clint to represent the esteemed region of Yavin IV.
School ends. I'm back home and seeing who's interested from Team Albany. The Sokols are good to go, and the Twiggs want to go also, but unfortunately both little brothers can't because of conflicting working hours. Art Wright has a wedding to go to. Aaron Kingery has to put shingles on his parents' house. The crew looks much weaker than normal. We end up with five guys: me, Travis Desell, Joe Giannetti, Matt and Brian. And Clint rounds out the group at six.
But wait - we are making travel arrangements and I'm talking to an old friend of mine, Luke Mroz (ohb on #starwarsccg, at undernet.org of IRC), who used to play a lot of SWCCG before he moved four years ago. He's on the listserv and talks to some guys who play and still kinda keeps up, but doesn't own any cards. He lives in upstate NY, near Watertown, which is only like 2 hours from Ottawa. He had mentioned a long time ago about going to Ottawa, but I had figured it was a joke - he didn't play anymore. But he's serious and we work it out to crash at his place, then drive him up and play. So we have a good crowd of 7 people. Brentson crashes at his place also and follows us up to Ottawa, so the American crew is pretty well represented at 8 people, including three past world qualifiers, two of which were finalists.
So come Thursday, Hays flies in at 4:30, but it's actually 6:30 because of thunderstorms. He gets off the plane and complains about the pilot's poor skills and old people and all that, but it's cool cuz he made it. We head over to the shop, and then to Twigg's house, for some testing.
I had decided on ROPs for dark because it's huge. Nothing new here. For light, though, I didn't know what to do. Light kinda sucks ass right now. I had my Yavin IV deck from Ramapo still built, TJ Holman's Hit and Run v2.0 put together, and some junky Profit deck with mains and aliens and junk. I couldn't really figure out how to play TJ's deck, so I put that on the backburner; Y4 is boring to play, so I decided to try out Profit. I think Profit is kinda weak but it's fun as hell to play and I have a good feeling about it. So I'm playing Dan Sokol's Albany Huntdown and I beat it, beat up some more hunt down decks, and do well against ROPs, so I make a few changes to it the next day and tentatively decide to play that for light. Basically, the deck is a bunch of mains, Tat Cel on the side, and Tessek/non-unique aliens for off-tatooine beats and additional drains. It gets molested by dueling and slaughtered by something like Endor Ops, but hey, it's all about matchups anyways. :) Knowing the deck's glaring weaknesses, I decided I didn't care.
***** Road Trip *****
This was the best part. Well, one of the best parts. Friday rolls around, we had decided to leave at 4:30 p.m. for the 4 hour trip to Luke's house but change plans to leave as early as possible, around 2, to get some more daylight into the whole deal. So people agree to meet at my house at 2, but they don't really get to my place until 5. So much for that. Travis comes a little early and play some games with me and Hays, then some Smash Brothers and Bond old-school. Finally the others come and we're off.
Anyone who knows us knows how loud and easily excited Team Albany is. It's cool though, Hays gets along with Sokol and everyone else good and we're talking about all sorts of junk. Travis is driving and puts on this constant drone of Techno or Blink or some other trash the entire ride up, and above all that we're yelling or talking tech or eating some of the bags of food Twigg brought for the ride. It's fun as hell. Sokol and Twigg are all yelling about their tech dark deck. Well as everyone at least in Coruscant knows, Twigg's brother Chris is the Messiah of SW. This kid is the Massa. He gets whatever he needs in his opening hand and every single card he proceeds to draw after that. I don't know how he does it. His decks are solid and he fills us with his wisdom when he deems to share it with us, or smacks us upside the head when we play with useless junk in our decks. Well apparently Sokol and Twigg had sat down that morning to make decks with the Massa himself, so they're all about their decks, but everyone knows they're just playing Hunt Down and Y4. But still it's funny as hell.
About two hours west, we turn off the interstate and go north toward Gouverneur, where Luke lives. New York sounds like a place where there's a lot of stuff going on, but if you're not in Buffalo or Albany or NYC, or any of the semi-populated areas around those three places, you're in desolation. The state is big as hell and there's absolutely nothing but forest and hicks here and there. The farther north we head up, the thicker the brush. Hell, we even pass this one gas station that has all these signs put up that read 'We Feature Flush Toilets!!' and all these arrows pointing to it. Yeah. I don't know how the hell people live like that.
Anyways we make the trip to Luke's fine and get there. It's great to see Luke again and everyone is all like 'hey what's goin on' and stuff like that. We drop off our junk and grab something to eat, then head back to Luke's to polish our decks and chill. The TV goes on, we watch the Knicks come back and beat the Heat in Game 6. It's cool watching Patrick Ewing cuz he's good and old and he always tries to make himself not look old but it just comes across as him trying to hide the fact that he's old. But it's all good. Me, Joe, Clint and Travis play a game of hearts and Clint gets all pissed at Joe cuz Joe doesn't play competitively or something, so we play spades and Twigg and Travis wreck the hell outta me and Clint. Bongo shows up late and we stay up till like 3 making decks and testing them. We finally crash and wake up 3 hours later to begin the haul to Ottawa.
We only have meager directions to the small town near Ottawa we're playing in, not any actual directions to the store. Me and LUke had emailed the squadron member running the tourney a week before but had gotten no response on directions or pre-registration or accomodations or anything, but we left ourselves lots of time. The trip up there was pretty uneventful, except we had to stop a bunch of times cuz Hays and Twigg must have the smallest bladders ever. We get across customs fine and get to the place with an hour to spare.
There aren't many people there, and a few more show up but not many. I think there were 38 people altogether. Yannick Lapointe and Raphael Asselin are there, among others. Some guy sets up shop and puts out packs, which are pretty cheap because Canadian currency right now is pretty much ass - it's 2/3 the strength of American money. So we can get a box of Reflections for $90 American, which is decent, and the tournament costs like $6 for us instead of $10 for everyone else. Niiice. The place we're at is pretty nice - it's well lit and spacious and there's food downstairs and everything. It's looking like a nice tournament. Before the games start, Twigg and Sokol and I give a little acknowledgement to the superiority of the Massa and hope he blesses us with good opening hands for our games. I guess it's some sort of ESP or something.
***** The games *****
I get paired off with Andrew Liu, from somewhere in Canada. Sorry if I don't remember where Canadians I played during the day were from, but it's really kinda all the same to me.
Game one: Profit vs Hunt Down mains (1688)
We flip our objectives and starting effects and stuff... he pulls out Secret Plans and Resistance with Surface Defense. I point out he can't do that and instead he pulls Crush with Twi'lek, but that gives me a little confidence booster for no reason at all. I start Goo Nee Tay. I pull my opening hand... and the Massa is with me! 2 of my 3 2/0's are staring me in the face.
Andrew pulls Mara and Dannik Jerriko with Profit's GT. Dannik!! Noooo!! But I'm not too worried because I figure I can play smart and kill him before he can do anything mean with him. I put out my sites and draw a little. Visage does its thing to us repeatedly. The only location he can put out the first six turns or so is the Death Star, so I have the force advantage if you take Goo nee Tay into consideration. Ben and Master come down, one with a saber, and try to clear out the audience chamber, which was reinforced by some more aliens; Dengar gets bounced and I beat up on Boba (I think) and Mara. Masta dies and is revived. Dannik runs like the puss that he is. I flip, retrieve 10, and during his turn he reinforces Dannik with Dengar. So now I'm doing damage with Profit but I want a piece of Dannik, so I put down EPP Leia who gets barriered, and move Han and Ben (with saber on him now) over to the palace. I have a barrier and a smokescreen in hand so I'm good to go.
Well Andrew is all about battling. He misses Han the first time but hits the second. I hit Dengar with Leia. Destiny: smokscreen, and he draws a 0. Nooooo!!! Why not a 1??? So since he battled he has to forfeit first, and Dengar dies. Now it's my turn. I... have to lose Han. So he gets slurped up by Dannik, who then dies, but I can never re-flip my Profit because Han's soup was eaten! Damn. The only good thing was he had to lose hella from battle damage.
I eventually put out Tantive, Lando in, and forfeit at his Death Star. He puts out some ships but I have a lot of staying power so they eventually all die. Visage is hitting us every turn, but I retrieved so I'm up. Eventually that just does him in, along with the drain of 3.
FW +5
Highlights: wrecking the hell outta Dannik
Lowlights: Han's soup got eaten.. that's not cool.
Brentson and Twigg had lost their first games. Brian had Responsibility of Command put on his guy and couldn't take the damage. I'm not sure what happened to Steve. I think his Both speeder ops lost to a ROPs deck.
Game two: ROPs vs Andrew Liu (1688)'s Juz's Revenge.
Except I didn't know it was Juz's Revenge. One funny thing: right before I pulled my IAO as my starting, I swear I was going to pull Resistance. I think the Massa was trying to tell me something, but being dumb as hell, I didn't get it. Oh well.
First turn, he drops 8D8 to the farm and inserts. My hand is pretty good - two 2/0's again (thank you Massa) - but after that opening draw, the stuff I activate is complete crap. He revos one of my 2/0's at some point early on but I draw another the turn after. Insert pops once and I lose 5. As I'm struggling to set up, he gets his junk out, including Wise Advice, Bacta Tank, and other cool effects. Finally I pull Resistance and set up my Ralltiir, but it's not as secure as I'd like - only two AT-St's (TS1 and TS3), the first with Arnet, the second with a generic. Also Vader's Shuttle at the planet with some 2/2 guy. Well he has a lot of force saved and comes down with two EPP's and Demotes Arnet. Well the site TS1 is at isn't a forest so my other walker can't react... luckily he draws ass destinies and I only lose a few to battle destiny. My turn I come back and clean off the planet. Insert pops and I lose 2. He keeps bringing some guy back from the Tank but I set up and can draw destinies and slowly turn the game around. Search and Destroy puts on the late-game pressure, as does Ability^3.
FW +14. Overall: 4, +19
Highlights: good opening draw. ROPs can take the hits, dig in, and win without too much of a problem. This was ROPs working like it should.
Lowlights: not much really. He played a good game, he's a really cool guy and it sucked that he had to take two early losses.
Brentson took another hit, I don't know what happened that game. Twigg won, Sokol won again, Travis beat Hays with his ISB deck by twenty-something. On the Canadian side, Yannick was undefeated with solid diff. Back to games.
Game three: My Profit vs Alexandre Alami (1815)'s ISB aliens.
His deck started Coruscant and Jabba/Boba at the Audience Chamber. It reminded me of Gary Carman's deck at Worlds - first turn he reinforced the chamber with the good doctor; I drew up and he put down two Outer Rim Scouts for even more fun.
My opening hand had been incredible - Ben, Master Luke, Obi's saber, 2 2/0's, Tunnel Vision, some other junk. Massa was truly with me this game. Second turn I activated my 9 and tunneled; I pulled smokescreen for an early, fully retrievable beatdown. Down came Ben, Master, saber. Battle.
Bounce Evazan - successful. He misses. I chop Jabba; successful. Destiny - he draws a combined 4 and I have a Screen to clear the site. Han is freed soon after and the game is rolling due to a great draw on my part and horrible destinies for him.
It only got worse. I had drawn up another 2/0 in like the two cards I drew up after that turn. His turn, he converts my Tat: JP and my Audience Chamber right after. He saves a little and draws. During my turn, down comes my other 2/0, Chewie EPP at Tat: JP and I move Master Luke over, leaving Ben and saber with Han Solo in the Audience Chamber like a moron. Well he comes down hard with Jabba, Mara, saber, Dr Evazan, Boba EPP and Dengar EPP. He's holding nothing behind here. Like a fool, Master Luke is outside spanking it and unable to help out at all. He battles... takes three shots at Han and swings at Ben. I've never seen worse destinies in my life. He didn't hit a single guy. On the other hand, with all the 1's I have floating around in my deck, I hit Jabba and screened again for destiny. That's all she wrote.
FW 2 +32; Overall 6 +51
Highlights: dude any deck is unbeatable if every single thing goes your way. Woohoo! A grimtaash killing off two ORSs and IG-88s also applied the lock down.
Lowlights: sorry about the ass destiny draws. It would've been a lot different if Han was sitting in my lost pile...
Well Sokol right now is undefeated, as is Joe Gianetti, Yannick, me, the eventual winner Alex and maybe one other guy. Brentson and Twigg are struggling and Luke is 0-3 but it's all good since the last time he played, Corvettes were the stuff and Asteroid Sanctuary was broken.
For game four, Sokol is paired up with his Hunt Down against Yannick and I have to play Joe with my ROPs.
Game four: ROps vs Joe Giannetti (1884)'s Albany-style Yavin 4 mains.
Blah. Playing Joe is less fun than walking into a screen door. I can say this knowing full well anyone else from Albany knows exactly what I mean. Outside of the game we're all friends but in a tournament, playing Joe is only fun if you enjoy having dumb questions asked and rulings demanded over the most obvious things every other phase.
Well this is the only game all day I play in which I don't get two 2/0's in my opening draw, but it doesn't matter since his draw isn't great either and he's making more mistakes than anything. First turn he puts out a Rendezvous Point and a Nudj and draws. I fish for a site and draw. He only activates 6 force, forgetting about his RP, and pulls a nudj and draws, forgetting to move it over. I activate my extra force and he groans in despair over forgetting to move. Oh well. I see no 2/0's in my pile so I leave it there. He revo's my ralltiir and puts out the spiral by itself there and draws, forgetting to move the nudj again.
I activate and find the Death Star in my pile, so I draw for it. The game is slow; playing Joe is always slow. He draws. I used Monnok to set him back a few, and Evader for more force (sucking up a drain of 1, no biggie). Out comes the Death Star and draw a few; I have enough to flip, but I need more force. Save. He puts out Tantive and Lando with Pistol at the Star. I could suck up the drain of 3, which is what I would normally do, but Zuckuss begs to come out so he does, with Evax as backup. I wreck the hell outta Lando. During his turn, Luke w/ Saber comes to help out and kills off Evax. I want to save guys to flip so I flee next turn to Ralltiir. I suck up the drain and he moves over to join the Spiral against Zuckuss. I activate and flee. The turn after, I flip and he never flips me back. Oppressive comes out, and one turn he draws all but 1, I Masterful Move his Savrip, he senses, I tie-down and Alter. Bubo comes out to munch on Nudjs and after calling the tournament director over, Joe finds out that indeed Bubo does eat the Nudj. It is even slower from now on because he takes his time but the game is locked once ROPs flips and half your guys are either on ships useless or dead, and the SAC advantage is gone.
FW 2 +17; Overall 8 +68
Sokol got wrecked by Yannick by like 20-something cards, and so now it's just me, Alex, and Yannick undefeated. Alex and Yannick play and I am paired up with the highest 3-1.
Game five: my Profit vs Maxim Briand (1682)'s Hunt Down beats.
I was optimistic with this matchup because my Profit had been running like a machine all day and I hadn't even had to set up my Tatooine Celebration. Plus Visage is nice because it effectively gives me a 10 card bonus; I will retrieve once I get 10 and he has lost all those cards to his own Visage.
My opening hand is god-like once more; Massa was all over this. He fishes out a Death Star docking bay; I avoid it like the plague because experience has told me never to go there (thanks Scott!). He draws some and we lose to Visage. I put out my 2 2/0's (woo!) and draw. Out comes Vader next turn to the docking bay - that's one less big guy I have to worry about. I put out Master and saber, Ben, so we have to both lose to Visage, and draw for everything I'll ever need. He drains for one and reinforces Vader with Tarkin. Awesome.
Soon 10 cards fill my lost pile so Han pops free. This is fourth turn and out comes Ben's saber, Tessek, one elom apiece at my tatooine sites and I move Master over. He draws during his turn. I make him lose eight cards to drains/Profit turn 5, put out Tatooine and Lando in falcon with Chewie EPP piloting and Tatooine Celebration. Man this deck is working like a machine! The game is totally in hand now, as he is losing 10 cards a turn plus Visage. What a machine. I fear nothing.
But wait... scrap that. In a turn the madness turns around. He puts out Hoth: War Room, Twileks for a Much Anger in Him and Responsibility of Command's my Ben. This effectively cuts down 4 damage (3 to drain and one to profit) and one retrieval. Sucks!! To boot, he puts down DS-61-2 and makes me lose 4 force a turn. Still I'm hitting him for 6 between Profit and drains so I'm sitting pretty. I move Obi around to make him use force to follow and I draw draw draw looking for stuff to do. This goes on for another turn; I drain for 6 and move Obi over, lose 4. then lose another in his turn to the DB drain. Well it's a lot closer than I thought it would be but I'm still confident I'll stay undefeated. His turn, he puts out Blizzard 2 at Tat: JP, like Ozzel or some 2/2 scrub, and Mara with her lightsaber at my Tat: JP with Leia EPP, an elom and Master Luke with Anakin's stick on him. I figure I'm good for at least this battle. Wrong. He searches for a docking bay and finds 2 6's and 2 1's in his deck... tries to trample Master Luke... and gets him. Damn! Then he battles, slices Leia, and draws a one. Talk about bad luck. I smokescreen and kill Mara, but I have to lose the site and the 1 damage I would've dealt him with Leia and the one retrieval I would've gotten too. Sucks.
During my turn, I finally realize how important it is to not take any outside damage besides the Much Anger in Him. I move out Obiwan to block his Tat: JP drain and hope he battles me so I can sac him. I also put out Battle Plan to make him pay for his Death Star drain; I had seen some bounty hunter ships come off the top and I figure Lando with Chewie should be able to hold off at least one battle. I also partially figure I can draw my Barrier, but it doesn't happen.
Well, he puts out Zuckuss in Mist, and I figure... sucks, but I'll still have the retrevial and Lando to make him lose 1 force to Profit. Wrong again! He battles and draws an untracked 6. DAMN. Well there goes everything. Celebration is cancelled, I'm only making him lose 2 to a drain and one to Profit and I'm taking a hit from Much Anger in Him still and his drain of 3 is free. Desperate, I put aliens at Executor sites (they each drain for 3 there!) - one bothan and a hnmemphte, but U3p0 takes care of that. Eloms and Luke EPP come down to the Death Star to clear Tarkin and Vader with yet another Smokescreen, but by then it doesn't matter. He drains. I drain and pay for it. He drains. I die. He has two cards left. What a game!
FL 0 -2; Overall 8 +66
Highlights: Well, it was a great game. He played it well. I had a great start but messed up somewhere... there was a lot of room to play and I just didn't anticipate 1) Luke dying to a trample, 2) Space being cleared by an untracked 6. The 6's he had in that one battle had been lost to Visage or drains/Profit.
Lowlights: Have you ever had a game in hand, but manage to lose it? There you go. It's the worst feeling. If I run into a Revo deck with Civil Disorder and odds and HB and whatever and get totally raped, I can still have a lot of fun joking around and junk, but when you know you messed up but don't really know where (it was the Battle Plan and bad luck) - it sucks.
Well Yannick lost so Alex is the only undefeated. The way the pairings worked, they replay their game and I play against Maxim again, who is 8 +90 something.
Game six: my ROPs vs his Profit.
Revenge... I was seeing red. All anger toward my own plays.
My draw is god-like yet again. Down go two 2/0's. I draw and get everything I need to flip within two more turns. He is slow to deploy stuff but flips his objective when he has no lost pile. I flip mine the turn after and he is only hitting me for 1, while I am hitting him for 3 and have unlimited potential with the search text. He splits up Master Luke and the Ben/Han, moving him over to Tat: JP. Down come Vader EPP and backup destiny to clear the site and reflip the objective. He draws for a turn. I grab more useful junk into my hand. He puts out Chewie EPP and Han EPP at my <>Jungle - Han gets a barrier. He battles and hits my lone Evax; I have no force left to react. I lose Evax and some insignificant cards. During my turn, I activate all but three, pull the lowest destiny from my deck; IG-88 hits the table, Han is captured and Chewie dies to a machine. Profit is never reflipped. There are some big battles on Tatooine between mains and Walkers and stuff but it's all for force retrieval (First Strike out) as I try to catch Yannick in differential.
FW 2 +20; Overall 10 +86
Highlights: The deck worked well.
Lowlights: not winning by enough...
I figure I have a pretty good chance to catch one of those guys; I'm the highest 5-1 but Yannick and Alex are still playing. Yannick ends up winning by 3 so Alex is 10 +95 or 96, Yannick is 10 +91 and I am 10 +86. Missing the final duel by 5 cards is disappointing! Well Travis finished a strong 4th and so we both get uncut sheets - he gets LS commons and I grab LS uncommons. Yannick and Alex play exciting games but Yannick's draws aren't going his way and Alex dominates the ground, has SAC control and the Super Falcon is dumb with Hunt Down flipped. The second game is inconsequential as Yannick gets down below 20 cards so even if he wins he can't win by enough. So Alex takes home a DS sheet set, and Yannick is runner-up and gts a LS rares sheet.
Now they're handing out prizes and something funny happens. The prizes are pretty much ass - it was a $7 tournament for us and $10 for Canadians, and the prizes are a pack of WB hoth and a Jedi Pack, and a poster. Woooooo. So as they're calling out each person, people are talking and it's all cool. Brian Twigg's name gets called and he gets up from a game he's playing and he's all like 'Keep the packs, I don't need them.' Well the guy handing them out gets all upset, I guess at Twigg's attitude, and he goes off about how he's done so much for Canada and how Brian is a stupid kid and doesn't give him any respect. Brian's like whatever, but the old man doesn't relent. He goes off saying how his dad would've slapped him on the face had he spoken to his dad like that.
Well Brian is a little upset at this old guy and walks away but the old guy keeps shouting and wants Twigg's number and stuff to send to Decipher. Not like anything would've happened, but the old man is relentless. The tournament director is like whatever, and everyone's attention is drawn to the whole spectacle. A whole bunch of Canadian guys including Maxim, Yannick and Raphael come over to Brian and the crowd he's drawn and are like 'that guy is the dumbest old man in Canada' and are all defending Brian. The old man keeps yelling and suddenly there's almost a brawl as all the Canadian guys charge over and start yelling in French Canadian and English and they're all in each others faces. There's nothing like a brawl between guys you don't really know but are cool as hell and some gay old man blowing steam for some reason. Anyways the thing blows over and we talk to the Canadians for a little bit more, exchange congrats and pleasantries, then leave for the 7 hour drive home.
PROPS AND SLOPS
Props:
-Chris (Gold 61) the tournament director for running a smooth tournament. He did a great job and knew his stuff pretty well; the questions he did not know the answers to, he got 2nd opinions and wasn't too proud or whatever to change his ruling if it wasn't correct.
-The place was cool and fit us all well.
-All the Canadians with the exception of the gay old man for being cool guys and not treating us like some queer foreigners.
-Alex for winning.
-Mapquest and AAA for providing solid directions
-Luke for letting us crash at his place, and Steve Brentson for showing up in the middle of the night with Bongo and some decks.
Slops:
-The gay old man.
-Having rulings asked and answered in French was a little disturbing sometimes. :) But it wasn't a big deal.
-The @#$%gots who spammed Ghetto Squad's message board for 8 hours straight because they obviously have lives, jobs, brains; find something better to do with your time.
-Those @#$%gots again - they're so gay they get two slots.
Anyways it was a great tournament and trip! Paintball the day after was cool - how often do you get the chance to shoot Clint Hays in the face at point blank range with a rifle?
Ciao,
Jonathan Chu