clear-lake-iowa-6-24-00
Title: clear-lake-iowa-6-24-00
Author: Seth "Ooryl" Van Winkle
Date: Jun 28, 2000
The Week Before The Tournament I'm playing around with several Dark decks (Several SYCFA variants and my TIE Scouts) and I think my light is set as Throne Room Mains. I have Brad Stebbins over several times and destroy his Huntdown on Endor deck each time. We actually get in very few games because we were so busy playing Perfect Dark for N64 (this game is schweet). So its Friday and I go to Decktech and see David Akers Ultimate Power deck. I build it with some small changes for local meta. So Sunday night I get off work early, come home, and go to Decktech. I see an EBO Mains deck that I'd been thinking about and tear my throne room apart to make that.
Saturday Night I get a ride over to my friend Adam Moore's house and we mess around for a few hours. At about 11 P.M. Brad Gregg (3rd place in Iowa States) picks us up. We drive out to the boonies to pick up Stebbins and get lost. Luckily, I had my mom's cell phone with me. We call his house and get directions. We pick him up and get to Brad Gregg's house at about midnight. Adam and Stebbins have a lightsaber duel and Stebbins gets whipped. We play Perfect Dark some and I skool everyone. I play a few games and determine that my DS deck is awesome. Adam and one of Brad's friends go out to have another duel. It was ended when the Maul's saber broke in two as a result of a vicious swing. Brad and Adam go down to Brad's room in the basement to try and get some sleep. About 2 hours later, we sneak down there with a string of firecrackers. We light them wait for them to go off. When they do, it's loud as hell. Brad and Adam come out and kick the four of our asses because we were laughing so hard. We watch Big Trouble in Little China and go to bed.
We get a call from someone else who wants to go at about 9 and Brad says he can go. Great. Now we have 4 people in the back seat of a semi-compact car. Nothing really eventful happened on the 2 hour drive up to Clear Lake. We get to the hotel where the tournament was at about 12:30 and I trade for a Mara Jade that I needed. I play Adam a game of pool on some crappy table at the hotel and get smacked. There were 13 peoples most notably Shawn Banwell (2nd in states) Brad Gregg (3rd in states) and Tim Anderson (1712 from Southern Minnesota). My rating was at 1573 going into the tournament and I was hoping to move it up even further. On to the games.
Game 1 DS vs. Adam Moore's (1509) Throne Room Mains
Adam is the person who got me into the game, but he hadn't played at all for about 3 months. He starts the standard throne room stuff and I start my obj. and Bad Feeling Have I. I don't get a Miyoom Onith in my starting hand. Curses! He starts by deploying the Massassi Headquarters with an Obi-Wan Kenobi. He attempts to Alter my BFHI and I play sense to cancel. He plays a sense and both his draws are successful. I get a Mara Jade to the D* DB 327 Control Room and get all my other docking bays. I draw, play Masterful Move to cancel Mantellian Savrip, Alter Bacta Tank, Alter Goo Nee Tay and end my turn. Next turn he draws a bunch. I activate, play lost Monnok and out of his 20 cards, only one pair of doubles (Clash.) Deploy D Vader, V's Saber and Moff to Mara's site and draw. Before he activates, I played a used Monnok to get him down to 8 cards. He just draws again. On my turn, I used Monnok him again. Got Mara's Saber, deployed Miyoom Onith. I elis helrot over to where Obi is and battle. I schwing with Vader and miss. He schwings at Tarkin and misses. I schwing with Mara and hit Obi. I draw a 4 (5 with Vader) and cancel his destiny. His turn he draws. The rest of the game is me draining at the Farm and Massassi Heasquarters and hitting him with Miyoom. He eventually gets Leia with gun and KFC to the Carbonite Chamber, but his drain of two there just took my differential down a little. Full win by 32. 2(+32)
Highlights: Getting rid of those 3 killer effects in 1 turn, Miyoom rules, beating on Obi, winning.
Lowlights: Loosing that early S/A war, the drain of 2 at the end.
Game 2 LS vs. Shawn Banwell's Huntdown with Dueling (1796)
I always wind up playing him at least once in a tournament and I've never beat him. He placed second in state and wins most of the local tournaments. I've lost the deck he's using no less than 6 times. He starts the standard huntdown stuff and Imperial Decree (he thought I was playing EBO at first.) He draws for a couple turns while I'm setting up my mass activation. We both loose from Visage for a long time. One of the cards he lost for Visage was The Circle is Now Complete so I was on the look out for dueling (he always plays with epic duel but doesn't always use duel cards). I eventually get Luke w/Saber and Obi (no saber) to the North Ridge. Next turn Vader with Vader's saber come down and duel Obi. He plays Focused Attack and I play Courage of a Skywalker. He draws a 1, 2, and 1 (2, 3 and 2 with the saber.) I draw a 3 and 5. I'm so excited that I forget my additional draw from CoaS. I win the duel. He looses most of the rest of his characters off the top for loosing. I get Jeron Webb down to the Holotheater to cancel Visage. He deploys CHYBC, so my drain there is temporarily canceled. On my next turn I deploy Super Falcon to Kashyyyk and meet my battleground requirement for CHYBC. He tires to fight it with some ships but I whip them. I drain him out. Full win by 18. 4(+50)
Highlights: Winning the duel even though I forgot to draw my third destiny, finally beating Banwell, Super Falcon beating on people.
Lowlights: None
Game 3 DS vs. Tim Anderson's Profit (1712)
Tim is form Southern Minnesota and I don't know him very well. He was playing a profit deck that used ASP droids and Portable Scanners for high battle destiny and On the Edge. I got a Miyoom Onith out first to the DB 327 Control Room and grabbed all my other Docking Bays. His first turn he deployed EPP Leia springs Han, and moves to the Entrance Cavern. I also had a Mara and Saber draining at his Jabba's Palace for 3. I deploy Vader and Tarkin to the Entrance Cavern and battle. I kill both the guys and he kills Tarkin. He deploys Leia to the Cantina and starts putting 6s on the top of his Reserve deck. I Elis over there and he hits Tarkin with Ani's saber and draws a 5 for battle destiny. Leia and some ASP droids die, but Tarkin and Vader do too. I start hitting him with Miyoom Onith and Monnok. I eat several males (2-3 Obis and Lukes and 3 Hans) and drain him with Mara. He gets a Boussh to the D*DB 327 Control Room and kills Miyoom. Next turn Vader and Tarkin pay Boussh a visit. Id been drawing the whole game for Reactor Terminal, but I couldn't find it. He draws out when I have a huge hand. Full win by 12 6(+62)
Highlights: Beating on Han and Leia early, the Miyoom lockdown.
Lowlights: Not having Reactor Terminal out. I would have won by at least 30.
Now I'm in 1st and everyone is gunning for me. But unlike normally I've already beaten 2 of the best 3 people there.
Game 4 LS vs. Bob Schlutz's JP Expand the Empire start. (1515 or 1539)
Let me explain the double ratings. I found 2 entries for him, one as Bob Schluzt and the other as Robert Schlutz. He starts with Jabba's Palace and Expand the Empire and grabs all his sites first turn. I take my standard 3 turns to set up. By then he has Jquill, Niger Dugad (Adam mispronunced the name the first time he saw the card and the name stuck.) and one other alien at my North Ridge. At the end of his turn, he pumps up Niger to power 8. On my turn, Obi and Leia with gun come down and battle. Obi moves Jquill away and Leia hits Niger. Niger and the other guy die and Leia goes to the tank. Next turn he reinforces Jquill, but I kill all the guys there. On his next turn he used the Audience Chamber text to pull Galid and backs him up with Mosep and Boleo. He also deploys 2 PotF there. Next turn I deploy Kashyyyk R2D2 in Red 5 with Jeron Webb as a pilot. I also deploy Battle Order. On his turn he attacks me with ZiMH, BfiS1 and a pilot (Danz Borin?) on the Hunter. I just loose some stuff to Mantellian Savrip. On my turn I deploy Cap Han and Falcon. I try to shuttle Leia up. Oops! Wrong planet. Oh well. I leave the guys there. On his turn, he battles me and I react with the Spiral. He looses the pilot and I loose the Spiral from the battle. I'm getting tired of his JP drains, so I send in Luke with Saber to the AC where he has Galid, Mosep, and Boleo. Battle and hit Galid. Draw destiny. He cancels it with Boleo. Damn. I forgot about that. I loose something small for Savrip. He battles me there again next turn. I hit Boleo, but I can't use Savrip cause I won the Battle and my Bacta Tank is full. He moves some guy over to protect Mosep and I get drained for 2 from reserve for the rest of the game. The rest of the game is space maneuvering. He eventually gets Bossk in Bus out and that helps him a lot. He always runs from my semi fleet. I spread out for a tunr and get 2 drains of 1. Then he moves his guys to the weaker force. I move my guys there and he runs away. Repeat. I win a very close drain race. Full win by 2. 8(+64)
I think I'm in the clear now, but I was wrong.
Game 5 DS vs. Shawn Banwell's Mains and Toys (1796)
This is probably the most feared deck in local tournaments. Shawn has been using it for several years with only slight modifications when new expansions come out. He starts Obi's Hut with Careful Planning for the Cantina. I start Bad Feeling Have I. On my first turn I grab the D* Docking Bay Control Room (you already know how this goes) deploy Miyoom there and draw. We both draw our next turn. On his turn, he deploys Luke with Saber to Obi's hut and attempts to Alter BFHI. I play Sense, he plays Sense and I play Alter. He's out of Senses so I win the S/A war. He deploys Goo Nee Tay and draws. My turn I activate a bunch (I still had some saved from last turn too) and deploy Mara to Obi's Hut. Alter Goo Nee Tay successfully. Deploy Darth Vader, V's Saber and Moff. Get Mara's Saber from reserve and battle. I schwing and miss. He schwings at Tarkin and misses. I schwing again and hit Luke. I loose Tarkin from attrition and he looses Luke and about 6. He goes after me with Leia with Gun on his turn. He battles, shoots and plays Slight Weapons Malfunction. Schwing twice and hit her the second time. He kills Mara from attrition and looses Leia and 6. My next turn I start the lockdown. Miyoom kills all the guys in his hand and I deploy Djas Phur to the Cantina. I continue killing guys with Miyoom. One time when is scan, he has a Twass Khaa so I'm ready for that. He deploys her to battle Djas, but before he battles I Elis Vader over. He battles anyway. I loose Djas and he looses Twass. On my turn I throw all my cards back with Reactor Terminal. He concedes the game because he has no more females in his deck. Full win by 37 10(+101)
Highlights: Miyoom lockdown. Winning a S/A war with no characters on the table.
Lowlights: None.
I played some scrub with a Walker Garrison deck and was wrecking him when the next round started. I'm still in first, and only 1 person can beat me.
Game 6 vs. Tim Anderson's Huntdown with dueling. (1712)
Tim is the only person with a chance to beat me. If I loose by more that 16, I get 2nd otherwise I get first. He starts the standard huntdown stuff and Epic Duel. I don't remember his starting effect. I do my standard get set up in 3 turns thing and then were both drawing and waiting for the other person to make the first move. He deploys the Back Door and draws. I put Obi and Obi's saber and Luke with Saber down there. On his turn he throws an undercover spy down and screws me up royally. I have no way to kill the spy and no way to get off Endor. He takes control of Kashyyyk with Boba in Slave, Executor and ZiMH. I deploy the Super Falcon there and battle. He draws below my immunity and he has to loose the Executor or both bounty hunter ships. He chooses the Executor and I play Legendary Starfighter. That hits him for the rest of the game. He deploys Vader, V's Saber and Moff to the Back Door. You Are Beatens my Luke. Battles Obi and Levitates his Saber. I draw battle destiny and he forgets to cancel it with Tarkin. Tarkin dies and I just loose some stuff to the Savrip. Vader zooms to the Hoth War Room. WAIT A MINIT!! As I'm typing this up I now realize that was illegal because the Hoth energy shield was up. Oh well. I deploy Battle Plan and he's out of space stuff. I get an ICBW in my hand and track the hell out of it for the rest of the game. I use it to cancel his War Room drain for the rest of the game. He eventually gets a guy to my North Ridge and one to the CC: Downtown Plaza. I was making him loose 2 from the Legendary Starfighter and 1 from a drain at Kashyyyk for the rest of the game. He was paying 9 to drain me for 6, 3 of which I would cancel. I couldn't get him below where he could pay for drains fast enough. Full loss by 10. 10(+91)
Since Tim Beat me by Less than 16 I stay in first place and win my first tournament.
Final Standing:
1st: Seth Van Winkle (me) 5-1
2nd: Tim Anderson 5-1
3rd: Justin "Mucking Fagic" Fleenor 4-2
4th: Brad Stebbins 4-2
5th: Shawn Banwell 4-2
Sorry, but that's as far as I remember.
Decks:
There was a pretty wide variety of decks. These are the ones I remember.
Dark: 4 Huntdown (3 with dueling)
4 SYCFA (2 flip, 1 beatdown, 1 manipulation (mine))
1 Walker Garrison
1 Troopers
1 Rops
Light:
3 MWYHL (2 to test 5)
1 EBO
1 Echo Base Beats
2 Throne Room Mains
1 Rescue the Princess
1 DBO
2 Profit
After the prize support was handed out (I got jack and gave it to some newbie) we went to Burger King and had to wait like half an hour for our food. Fast food my ass. We stopped at a rest stop on the way home and messed around there for about an hour. We were waiting for the people to clear out so we could mess with the toilets, but there were always at least 3 cars. I finally got home at about 11. I've got 2 more tournaments between now and Monday so expect reports from those too. May the force be with you.