dragoncon-6-30-2000
Title: dragoncon-6-30-2000
Author: Bill "BRay" Gordon
Date: Jul 2, 2000
I was on DeckTech trying to get some deck ideas and I happened to look at whos members pages had been updated for the day. My good friend Matt Lush had something new to say, so I went to check it out. He said he was getting ready to go to Virginia for a few months, so I D-mailed him and invited him to stay with me as a rest stop along the way. He agreed, the time was set, and I had a new motivation to work on some decks. The big day gets here and I get the joy of play testing with a LEGEND. What a great experience that was. I had about four different light and four different dark decks and we played the Gauntlet. If you have never heard of that term, go check out Gabe The Diplomat Alonzos article. We tweaked some decks and trashed others, and we narrowed the selection of decks we felt would be competitive in the post 3rd anthology days. I would like to say thanks Matt, your experience is invaluable and your just a great guy.
Then as luck would have it, the day Matt left I had a business trip in Nashville. I then D-mailed another good friend Steven Lewis to see if he, Jim Sells, and Clint Hays wanted to play test. They accepted and I was off to Stevens house for six more hours of the Gauntlet. They had a few really unique ideas that did not pan out, and others that my decks had no answer for and they killed me. I have to give credit where credit is due, these guys are tactical masters of playing the game and deck building. This gave me a great reference point, and I knew I had some serious work to do on my decks, if I wanted to win DragonCon.
Now I had one week left. I have been playing different versions of an ISB deck in tournaments lately, but after the last couple days I scrapped the ISB for a new deck. The one I came up with, was an true old Riboulet style Manipulator. But mine would start the new set your course for Alderaan to generate the force I needed. For my light deck I decided to go with my Ultimate Numbers and Assassin deck posted on my page.
I am now off to the Con, ready to camp out in the car for a couple days if I don’t hook up with someone there. I get there just in time to play in the Thursday tournament, but I am thinking it was going to be a sealed deck. I had brought along a couple play decks, cause I thought I could strike up some side games with players there, but as it turned out, I had to play them in the tourney. To make a long story short, I scrub out, and drop out after only getting one win and two losses.
Clint, Jim, & Steve are there and I end up bunking with them for the weekend. We go get a hotel, and go to Denny’s for the traditionally lucky Brownie Sunday. We stay up till 2 or 3 before we finally get some sleep. I am sure Clints report will have more on this part of the trip, so I will save the details for his. I would like to say this though, those guys are so funny, I had the greatest time, and my cheeks were getting tired from smiling and laughing so much. Now I know why Jim Sells has a permanent grin on his face.
The Open
I am not sure the exact count, but there were around 65 players. Some of the notables were, Matt Lush, Ray Bordier, Arthur Rhodes, Charlie Herren, Shelby Abercrombie, and the crew I was hanging around with.
GAME 1
My light vs. Scott Smith –CPI
When he was shuffling his cards he dropped one, I just happened to notice it was CPI. Since my start is Throne Room, I would be in a world of hurt if he blows up Yavin IV. I knew right then I was going to invade the DS. My goal would be to kill all of his gunners. My first turn I drop two eloms to the farm, and insert odds. All of my other resources would go to killing his guys. Next turn I wind chime for a bothan. He plays a lone gunner on his turn and draws. I deploy the bothan & an elom, kill his guy. His turn numbers pops for 11. His only numbers protection was the destinies of his characters and he had none on the table, so he looses cards. He deploys another gunner and draws. I nabrun my two eloms from the farm over on my turn. Insert again, & kill that gunner. His turn numbers pops again, he looses 11 more cards, which include all of the stuff he needed to blow anything up. From that point on I insert numbers again, and just drain him out. FW+36
GAME 2
My dark vs. Andres Scubuiz – Hidden Base (sorry if it is miss spelled)
I get Night Lilly, deploy my docking bays, scanning crew then draw. His turn I Manipulate his active pile, he deploys some systems giving me more force and draws. I lost Monnok and get rid of a couple different pairs of ships and red cards. He has no characters and no ships in hand at this point, and I am generating all the force I need so I deploy a couple characters down for drains. We go through this cycle for a couple turns. At this point he is in a tight spot, if he draws he gets stuff he can not use, if he doesn’t he has no way of hurting me. He bites the bullet for a couple turns, draws up, while I used monnok him. He gets a couple ships out eventually and flips the objective. I get my ships out, kill his ships and there just was not much he could do. FW+30
GAME 3
My dark vs. Matt Lush – Tatooine Celebration Mains & Toys
I get Night Lilly again, deploy my docking bays, scanning crew Obi out of his hand, leaving Capt Han and red cards. His turn he deploys Han to CC docking bay and draws. My turn I try to used monnock, he tries to sense, it fails. I then use Night Lilly and get a Luke. I deploy Vader, battle, he looses Han. His turn I manipulate his pile, he draws up. At this point he probable has ½ of his deck in his hand. My turn I lost monnock, I get 4 Ben Kenobi, and three other sets of red doubles including smoke screen, & alters. I do not think he got any other characters out the whole game. It ends with two lost monnocks in my lost pile and a win. FW+30
At this point I have a big lead with +96 differential after three games. Jim & Steven have both taken losses, but Clint is still undefeated.
GAME 4
My light vs. Curtis Praskac – Court, scum, alien deck.
This is not a good match up. My Eloms are cowards when it comes to the power of an alien deck. First turn I deploy two Eloms to the swamp and insert odds. I do not know if he was worried about the insert or just the game in general, but his hands were shaking when he was shuffling. I took that as a reassuring sign that he was in trouble where inserts are concerned. He activates and deploys Jabba and S&V. I drain and draw. Here is where his skill came in. He was shuffling his deck superbly every turn looking for JP sites, knowing they were not there. It must have been five or six turns before the first numbers came up, and it was only for about 8 force. I was able to get out Battle Plan, Wise Advice and Bargaining table, in the mean time, which meant he was going to have to spend six force to get off the first drain. This is always a good numbers strategy because it makes those numbers come up quicker. He masterful moves for a Monnokk, uses it lost version and gets a couple numbers, but more importantly he got to see what was in my hand. We have some battles, but I am always on the loosing end of them, until I was able to deploy Epp Obi, and EPP Luke to the audience chamber. He barriered one of them, but I was able to swing and kill the fat guy with four force left in my active pile, which I used to cancel S&V. At some point during the battles he captures wedge with IG88, which could have been a turning point in the game. But I was able to forfeit out of the battle, leaving a character which I Nabroned to an unoccupied site my next turn. Then I reinforced there with more Eloms, he just didn’t have enough characters in his deck, because they were all on the table. In the end he was not able to take advantage of the retrieval engine because he couldn’t start battles, and I get a win. FW+17 8(+113)
I think there are four undefeated players at this point, my self, Clint Hays, Walter Cowert, and one other person.
GAME 5
My dark vs. Clint Hays – Yavin IV M&T
Many of the details of this game are a little vague to me, so you might want to read Clints report too. He goes first, gets out a nudj. I don’t get what I need so I get a DS site and draw. Good thing too, because I get come here you big coward, scanning crew and a dangerous time and a character. His turn he pushes the dangerous time, deploys some 2/0 and a ship to Alderaan and moves to the DS. I get docking control room, deploy my character, get my docking bays, & deploy you coward. He deploys wise advise Obi hits the table on Yavin. He sits there a couple turns until he gets some back up. But in the mean time I get Mara with stick to the cantina, and he gets Boush out blocking that drain. I still have a couple drains going, I am generating a ton of force so it is no big deal to pay for them. He gets Harc Seff with Obi canceling my drain with Vader next to him at the farm. So I am only draining him for two. He deploys Tawass Khaa & Melas to battle Mara. He doesn’t draw enough to kill Mara, I don’t get rid of Tawass Khaa. He is now occupying two battle grounds and his drains start to hit me on the DS. He is canceling all but one of my drains for one, and is now out draining me. This game is more like a chess game because of all pre planning of your next move or two. He plays the game very smart and gives me my first loss of the day. FL-7 8(+106)
GAME 6
My light vs. Walter Cowert – Ralltiir Ops
I start with a pretty crummy hand so I draw up. He deploys Jungle, and a 2/0 and draws up. I signal for do or do not, and save force. He deploys DS, desert, and saves force. I deploy a couple eloms to the jungle, insert, draw. He comes down with an AT-ST, Vesden on it and a scrub at the docking bay. I deploy the Tantive to the Ralltiir system, an other elom to the site, and a 2/0 site. He deploys choke Vader to the docking Vader with Vesden and the ATST. I now have EPP Obi, so I deploy him and an Elom. He chokes the Elom, I chop Vader, draw a 4 for destiny and he looses Vesden, and I forfeit Obi. His turn Numbers pop, he looses cards and my numbers are going to work the rest of the match. He deploys characters to sites on Ralltiir but can’t get enough ships to take me off Ralltiir. I reinforce Ralltiir with Lando in falcon, Spiral, and a couple Eloms for forfeit. After I see him loose about 5 ships to the lost pile I go over to the DS to drain there. He never flips and I get the win and a spot in the final round. +12 10(+118)
Me and Clint are in the final duel against each other. He comes up to me before the match starts and says we have this tradition, if any of our group wins a spot to worlds, the winner has to buy the others in the group a steak dinner. He ask me if I am in on the deal. Sounds like a great tradition to me, besides I am starving and I get a steak either way.
FINAL DUEL
I win the coin toss and choose to play light first. I know it will be the hardest challenge and if I loose, I will be in a better spot for the next game to manage my force better. I know what he is playing, but then he knows my decks too. His dark is Ralltiir Ops, and he is an extremely skilled player.
Play off Game 1
I could sum this game up real easy. My opening hand I get 8 red cards. The way I beat Ralltiir Ops is to come out fast with lots of eloms and numbers, and I was not going to be able to do that this time. He starts resistance against me, but he still has to occupy three battlegrounds. Not much to say here, he controlled the game the whole way, flipped pretty early, and I actually had to loose one force to my first and only insert. He masterfully deployed his battleground system at the same time he also deployed Zuckuss in MH and Bossk in HT. Now He has free drains, most of my Eloms are gone from him drawing 8 per destiny. He took the win easy +18
Play off Game 2
This game went pretty similar to the first game, with one difference. I didn’t get come here you big coward the whole game. I did not start Twillek, but instead used Surface Defense. That was a huge mistake because I did not have the option to pull something other than Resistance. I knew he wasn’t playing SAC, so I would not have had to worry about it getting altered. My big mistake was in the design of the deck. He drained me on the DS the whole game as a result. He took another easy win, and earned a trip to the Worlds for the third time. But what the heck, I get a steak dinner out of the deal.
I have been playing this game since the beginning. That was my second final and my third real close opportunity to earn a spot at Worlds, and I suppose my time will come sooner or later.
Props
Clint for winning yet another, fabulous tournament.
The Nashville guys for adopting me for a weekend
DragonCon for all the people in costumes to watch
The Decipher group for loving what the do
Slops
Denny’s for the slowest service on the planet
DragonCon for not having close parking
FINAL STANDINGS
Clint Hays 12(82)
Bill Gordon 10(118)
Andy McClure 10(98)
Matt Lush 10(85)
Walter Cowert 10(75)
Kevin Shannon 10(58)
Brad McGee 10(54)
Scott Anderson 8(83)
I hope you enjoyed the read!
Bill Gordon (BRay)