hastings-mn-7-15-00
Title: hastings-mn-7-15-00
Author: Peter "jeeps" Jacobson
Date: Jul 16, 2000
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The Back Story:
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My good friend Nick Kolnik came to the tournament I ran on July 1st. It was the first event I ever ran, so I was nervous. He said he would come to mine if I came to his tournament. So I agreed and planned to be in Hastings, MN two weeks later. I had only played in one tournament in Hastings and I had some major beginner's luck. I won my first and only tournament there... could I repeat my success? heh... we shall see.
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I arrive 10 minutes late. I hate when people are late. I really do. It shows disrespect and a lack of concern for the TD and other players. Naturally, I was really bummed. I decided to hit this event on the way through the Twin Cities on my way home to Southern MN, so I had never came from this direction before. Anyway, Nick and several players knew I was coming down, so everyone waited. That was awfully nice. It seems like this is a growing quality in the SW:CCG community... is it?
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I had to quickly make some changes to my Dark Side Endor Base Ops deck by putting in some numbers protection. I was out of town and away from my cards, so I called my friend Dion to bring a few Tortures and a Corporal Vesden. I quickly (and rather randomly) exchanged a few cards out of my deck for the numbers protection. Why did I do this? I did this because I knew that some tough players would be here today and that Numbers would make a Final Curtain Call today before DS2 effectively makes Numbers a "dead" strategy. Go figure.
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The Tournament:
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I brought my heavily tested Rescue the Princess Deck called "Jeeps' Rescue the Gal" deck and my Endor Ops deck. Both decks were intended to be flipped quickly. I had some major help testing the RTP deck with Dion Erbes (1650+) and Jim "stimmed Jim" Li (2015+) over the past few weeks. Both said (basically) that RTP sucks and that they would never play it. Well, I was intent on making them eat their words. Jim had given me some tech advise on the deck so he pretty much knew the recipe. Dion did too. He played the RTP about 7 times... and went 7-0 against it. Maybe I should have switched and played my Ewok deck...
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Game One: Oh... that's nice -or- "WTF! You are packing restraining bolts?!?!?!?"
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My LS RTP dck vs. Dion Erbes (1650+) Hunt Down Non-Duel
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Great. Just great. I play Dion first round. This wiseguy. He completely metamorphed his deck to rock mine. He the day before, he put in a restraining bolt... a RESTRAINING BOLT to keep me from rescuing the princess or use my ASP droids to replace my lift tubes to the top of my reserve deck... today he put in another one (!) for good measure. ANYWAY, as I mentioned, I played him 7 times before with this deck against his Hunt Down so this game is quite hard to remember without thinking of things that have happened in other games. Basically, I will paraphrase. He knows exactly what to do to keep this deck down. I get a kick ass hand (a lift tube, lift tube escape, an ASP, and 8d8, Luke w/ stick Blast the Door Kid). I start Echo Base Garrison as a starting effect. He plays his usual Bad Feeling Have I. He gets vader down first turn at the Y4 docking bay, flips objective, and moves into the War Room. He's force draining me for a nice and Visage is doing some damage now too. Not only that, Leia can't force drain (with that +2) when she gets free and she can't flip the objective back either. Cripes! So he draws the rest, I lose a force. My turn, before I active, I look for Bacta Tank or Cmmdr Wedge. I get the Tank and activate. I can't deploy Luke (yet) thanks to Bad Feeling, so I get an ASP, a Lift tube, another Lift Tube (thanks to Lift Tube Escape) and 8d8. I deploy one to each D* site. I move 8d8 over to D* docking bay, move 8d8 with a lift tube, free leia (retrieve the two force I have lost), move leia to the docking bay with the lift tube, docking bay transit to the Y4 docking Bay and draw all but one (I have Blast the Door). I then lose a force. His turn, he force drains, gets a few more characters down (Mara and her stick), deploys a few force draining battle ground sites. He is loading up to battle me. I lose a force. My turn, I get Luke (flipping objective back and allowing me to force drain) down with Leia. I also get Wedge out and throw Momaw with Tawss to the Holo theater. I move the who bunch to the War Room and flip. Things sort of peter out there. The game seemed a lot closer than the differential was. I battle him in several places. He is always a turn ahead of me. I was going to disarm Mara, but he Elis-ed her away during his control phase (he gets first action during his turn). I also draw a Quite a Mercanary (again, a turn late). We battle quite frequantly and I do keep his characters out of play, but never Vader. Anyway, he drains me out with Mara at a site and Fett at Kyshyykk. Full loss by 21. 0 (-21).
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Highs: getting everything I needed to flip by turn three. battling like crazy. Playing a good friend and a great player.
Lows: Never having the right cards when I need them. Playing Dion for the 100th straight time. Feeling like I have been banging my head against a wall.
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Game 2: On the rebound.
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My DS Endor Ops deck vs. Young Kid's Tosche (1500) mains deck.
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Okay, this game was a good rebound game. I forgot his nameI never play to "kill" my opponent. I play to play the game. Whatever. Anyway, I start with Parameter Patrol. He gets Tochse and Mos Eisly out. I set up Endor with AT-STs, he tries to set up a force to force drain me at Tatooine. I get to flip my objective and start some monster force drains. I then go towards Tatooine with At-sts and trample his characters and a battle. between stomping (literally) his characters and force drains, this game lasts about 25 minutes. Perhaps I over deployed, but I win by 15.
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Highs: getting the deck to work. It's a fun and engaging deck.
Lows: Not a very high diff. win.
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2 (-6).
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We have lunch. I go to hardees where I see why I am glad I went to college and graduated (no offense to Hardee's workers- I just wouldn ever want to make a career choice out of fast food!). During lunch, I sit with Dion. We find out that Hardee's is overcharging customers (check your math out there folks!). Dion gives up arguing about the 11 cents he was bilked. Besides the flies, my Mushroom and Swiss was quite good. A few more games finish and Jim Li comes up. We sit and talk to him. I didn't expect to play him later... he was still talkin' smack about my deck... ug! Back to the games.
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Game 3: On a Roll.
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My DS Endor Ops vs. Jared's (1500) borrowed LS Tatooine (non-Profit) battle deck.
Hey, if I can finish 3-1, I will have a good chance. Anyway, I start the usual. He gets Careful Planning and starts with the Ben's Hut and Audience Chamber. My opponent doesn't try to come at me. He sets up some nnice force drains at Tatooines early, but I get set up fairly quickly too and flip. Jared's a new player that only played so the tournament would be balanced with 14 people. He was uncertain about rules and I helped him where I could. I even advised him how to move about his business. Seriously, I play to play. I don't see the point of squashing an opponent when they are new and rather fragile to the game. I can at least help them. I often warned him when he didn't have enough ability to draw destiny or where he should deploy to where he could block the best drains I had to offer. Anyway, we battle and it's a fun and engaging game. I deploy a ton and the outcome is never uncertain, but I want to have fun too. I win by a measily 10.
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Full Win 4 (+4)
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Highs: Fun game.
Lows: Again, not a very high diff.
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Game 4: "Bang Your Head" or "Hey Jim, How's Radio Shack?"
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My LS RTP deck vs.... Jim Li's DS RalOPs deck.
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RalOps... man, one of my favs... in the hands of an expert, a done deal. Remember how Jim helped tweak my deck earlier? Right... he new my deck basically better than I did. He was taunting me too... every move I made was met with some comment about "I could alter that" or "Hmmm... who told you to put that in your deck?" I got a great start. I got to the Detention Block on turn one, but it takes me two turns to draw a decent destiny ((I had to use an ASP droid to plop a 6 on top of my deck). I get some nift force retrieval going.) He doesn't flip his objective until the 5 or 6th turn, which helped me. I snagged his Shocking Revel (not gonna let him keep tracking a 5). He waits until he has everything in his hand or on the one site at Ralthir. Once he he does, he gets the three sites, and spreads out with his AtSts... and deploys then flips... Yeah... this was a fun game. About the game itself... I am normally not a slow player, but I was making sure my primate brain could out think Creigh (sp?) Super Computer (yeah, Jim's that good. The Td placed a "Bounty" on Jim. Anyone to beat him would get a pack of reflections and Special Ed. He was beat by Graham Neal... so I got to play Jim). I play slowly... mostly to make sure I wasn't making any mistakes. Jim was getting annoyed. The game goes for about 50 minutes. I could have retrieved a few more, and stalled to a timed loss, but I knew Jim would not appreciate me afterwards... and it would have really effected my rating much. I do take out a few ships and characters with RTP Out of Play feature, but I lose by 20.
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Full Loss 4 (-16).
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Highs: Playing a phenomonal player.
Lows: Getting smacked around by the guy who knew my deck too well.
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It was a 4 game or 2 round tournament. That's okay, because I needed to get back home anyway. Graham Neal takes it. Jim, Dion, and Herb Macy get the next three spots... not sure where exactly. I take middle cake. Nick's tournaments have GREAT prize support. I got two packs, pack with Red Leader in Red One and Gold Leader in Gold One, and a Darth Maul key chain. Not bad. Nick also had many plaques and trophies to give out. Overall, a very fun tournament. Nick deserves praise for running a fair and entertaining tournament.
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Well, I will be out of touch for a while. I will be in Japan for a month teaching English to little kids with my wife. I will be hosting a tournament in Rochester, MN August 26th. Check Decipher's website for more details or d-mail me if you want to come.