3rd-place-origins-open
Title: 3rd-place-origins-open
Author: Bill "BRay" Gordon
Date: Jul 17, 2000
After DragonCon and our regional, we all decide what we are going to do about Origins. We (Clint Hays, Steve Lewis, Jim Sells) decide to just meet there, sense I do not want to drive to Nashville. I find out a couple days before that another good friend will be joining us, Gabe Alonzo. After seven hours of driving, a miracle happens. Some how we all pull into the same parking lot, at the same time in a far away place. I do not know how that happened but it must have been an omen. We go get our passes and decide we better go find a place to stay, (no reservations have been made). That works out and about 11pm or so, we have to go to Dennys to get our Brownie. Then another Miracle happens, we get good service and good food, this is obviously good omen number two because that never happens at Dennys. One of the topics we discus is the tradition that if someone wins, they buy steak dinners for the whole group. We then decide to go back to the hotel and we are up till 4am playing and tweeking decks. We set the clock for 8:30 because the team tourney starts at 10am. Now this is getting really weird because Omen number three happens. Steven likes to sleep on the floor, Jim sleeps at his sisters house in town, Clint and Gabe are @#$%s and sleep together, so I get a bed all to my self. The alarm goes off, being the responsible person I am, I get up while everyone else just lays there. I shower get dressed and head out the door to fill up the car with gas. It took me a few minutes, but then it dawned on me that the sun was just now coming up. I look at my watch and it is really 6:30am. One of us Morons (me) did not bother to make sure the clock in the hotel was set for the correct time, so we loose a couple valuable hours of sleep. That was most of the memorable stuff so here is how the open tourney went. The decks I used were similar to the decks I played with at DragonCon, so go read that report for more details.
GAME 1 Jim Sells (1981) Ralltiir Ops
Jim is a good friend of mine who is part of the Nashville gang that I hang around with at tourneys. We always seem to play each other in tourneys too. It was unfortunate for Jim that he got the dark side because my light side is advantaged against Ralltiir Ops. My first turn I drop two Eloms to my swamp, because he started with resistance. Then I insert odds in his deck. The odds does not pop until he has three battle ground sites on Ralltiir which makes the damage minimal. I start deploying Eloms, effects, and using interrupts just so I can dig for Beezer or Lock. I knew I would need them, if I were to win against his reacting ATST. However the whole time I am keeping the doubles down and my hand to twelve cards, until I decide it is time to take a chance. I looked through my deck with wind chimes, noticing Beezer was in the active pile. I decide to draw until I get her, and she ends up being the very last card. This meant I had about 20 cards in my hand and lots of doubles. I would have lost half of my hand if he lost monnoked me, but he was not able to find it, when he searched. My turn I activate all I could, nabrun over three Eloms from the swamp, deploy three more Eloms and Beezer. He didn’t have a trample either, which was fortunate for me, but he would have drawn a one for destiny anyway. I then Mech failured Blizzard 2 with Evax. With his destiny adder he had power 4 to my 30. He lost Evax plus 21. It was just a matter of time from then on out. Full win +19
GAME 2 Yul Beauchamps (1745) Tosche Station mains
My start I get Night Lilly deploy her to the DS control room, get out my 1/0 docking bays and play two scanning crews for Ben Kenobi and EPP Luke. This left Chewy w/ blaster & Lando w/blaster and red cards in his hand. But on his turn he was only generating 7 force. He chose to deploy Lando at Obi's Hut. My turn I deploy Mara w/saber, he shoots Mara, I slice Lando, he looses a couple more cards. I draw scanning crew, and get chewy out of his hand. I manipulate his hand on his turn, but he draws them all up. I used Monnok him, use night Lilly to get rid of characters. This goes on for about 7 turns, while I deploy to the hut for a drain of three, and cantina for a drain of two. He never gets another character out on the table the rest of the game. I know he was very frustrated to get the lock put on him like that, and I felt bad for him. But in the end I could have won by over 40 cards had I kept the reactor terminal in the deck, but I took it out the night before for a fifth scanning crew, and it was probably a good call. Girard was playing next to me and after it was over he made a comment about the power of a lock down like that. Full win +24
GAME 3 Brian Terwilliger (2029) Yavin IV mains
This was the most challenging game of the whole day. In hind sight I probably won this one because he did not seem too knowledgeable about how to play against the manipulator. He starts off good and gets out EPP Luke to his CC carbon chamber. Drains me for two a turn for a couple turns. I am using my resources manipulating his deck and screwing him, so he is only getting red cards in his hand. But he does Nabrun Luke to Night Lilly and kills her. I sacrificed Bane to kill Luke. He then plays Out of Commission and gets Night Lilly. This was the deciding factor in the whole game. I now have just lost my strongest way to make him loose his characters. Once he got night Lilly with the out of commission, I think the game was his. The only thing he had to do was draw up all his cards after I manipulated his pile but he never did and I think ultimately this was what kept me in the game. My only chance now was to plink away with a drain of one or two per turn, while keeping characters out of his hand with used Monnoks and scanning crews. This meant he was getting his ships and minor characters. He got out Gold leader in G1 with Wedge to the DS docking bay and moved to the DS. My turn I deploy Zuckus in MH, DS tractor beam. I battle, loose a couple from power difference and he makes a very smart play and loosed the ship, which has Wedge on it. That Tractor Beam is pure TECH because I would have owned that ship if he had not of done that. But at least this keeps him off of the DS for a while. He gets out Boushh on the DS, breaks cover so she can drain for one at the DS docking bay. Come here you big coward saved me a lot of cards to force drains, because he could not occupy two battlegrounds. So between the plinking away at drains of one, winning every SAC war, I was able to whittle him down. Near the end he tried another valiant effort to recapture the DS. He deployed Lando in Falcon with Hark Seff to the docking bay & moved up, saving two force. I knew he had the Spiral in hand, so I set up masterful move on his turn when he deployed the cards. I activate all but three cards. My logic here was to draw my destiny for the battle, and tractor beam him if he did not react, or cancel the react and kill every thing with my six destiny. It was a win/win situation for me, and he chose the react route. Right after that time was called and he had about 8 or 9 cards and I had 15. Modified win +15
GAME 4 Karl Harford (1855) Main Course type deck.
I kind of have an advantage here because the Main Course deck on Decktechs top ten list is my nephews Paul Hodges. I did not know it was that type, until the cards started to play out, but it did not take long and I knew what I was up against. This was a pretty quick game. He starts with all three starting effects. I am not to worried because I know he has to spread to three battle grounds the stop numbers. First turn I deploy two Eloms to the swamp and insert odds. He drops Choke Vader, battles, chokes an Elom, I loose the Elom and two or three. I drop EPP Obi, chop Vader, we both loose our mains. His turn he draws. I deploy two Eloms to the swamp again, and EPP Luke. He activates and numbers pop for nine. He deploys Vader w/saber and 4lom w/gun, but does not have enough to start a battle. I deploy another Elom and battle. I chop Vader, he swings at Luke but misses. Then cancels the game text of an Elom. I loose Luke, he looses Vader plus some. I move my Eloms to the farm. Numbers kill him from there on out, but first I retrieve five cards from wind chimes. Pretty easy win. Full win +29
GAME 5 Andrew Liu (1637) Vegas Style Sabacc
This was an unfortunate deck match up for Andrew. I have play tested against this type of deck and I knew exactly what I needed to do. First turn I deploy two Eloms to the carbon chamber and insert odds. He gets out Lando and plays Sabacc. I win 10/10 but I have less cards in hand, and I make him loose a sabacc from the hand. I signal for wise advise, so I can deploy my pushes for free. My inserts hits him for loss of eleven. He looses two frustrations, which was good for me, then plays sabacc again, and I hook it. He wins the next two hands of sabacc, but does not scanning crew me for one turn and I get EPP Luke to the audience chamber. My numbers are only nine now but I have drain of four going. Finally, I decide to hook the scanning crew after about the tenth time. My theory was to stop the re-circulating of cards. I win the fourth and final hand of Sabacc, drain, and keep the numbers pressure on for another easy win. Every game was pretty easy with the light deck today, which was pretty nice, because that is the side I usually have the most trouble with. Full win +37
GAME 6 Stephen Agnew (1733) Hidden Base-numbers
I usually do not have much trouble with Hidden Base because I can manipulate the decks to keep key cards away from them. This one was tough though, and the second hardest game of the day. He starts with the fat lady, and I knew I would have to dig for an Alter ASAP. I get my usual stuff going with Miiyoom early to the DS control room. He gets EPP Luke down first turn and moves him over to her location. I deploy Vader, Ellis Night Lilly over to the next spot, start a battle, he misses Vader, and Luke goes bye, bye. I draw for a Alter and take out the fat lady. But now it takes me a turn to recover resources so I can start the cycle up. In the mean time he is getting the systems out he needs, ships to rendezvous point with two Eloms, Figgy and Gold leader on Kashyyk. Now his numbers are going to work. They don't pop my next turn, so I deploy Fat Bastard to Tatooine docking bay move Vader over to the DS docking bay, but I still only have two battle grounds. His turn he deploys ships and moves one to Clakdor, now his numbers are for 12 to my 5. My turn I activate 2 and play set for stun an Elom, finish activating numbers pop for 3. He has battle plan down so I do not drain him because I am having to keep using night Lilly and the manipulation going. I am beginning to think I do not have a chance because he has about 35 cards in his life force to my 20, he is hurting me, but I am not him. Then I get the card I need, SEARCH & DESTROY. He looses to it the rest of the game. I finally get out Zuckuss & Bossk to Kashyyk to make him loose some stuff. But he does the old run away trick in opposite directions. I deploy Dengar to teem up with Bossk where ever needed, Zuckuss follows around Gold leader, I start draining for two a turn after his objective modifier and two from S&D to his drain of 1. I was able to pull out a slim win but that is what I needed to still have a shot. FW +9
Jon Chew and Joe Alread were playing each other. I knew my only chance was to win myself and for Jon to win. It didn’t work out that way, Joe won and he and Chris Terwilliger went to the finals. I am sure all of you know by now that Joe won the final duel and earned his spot to the worlds for the 4th time. As for my self, I get 3rd, which is a strong effort, and with my 2nd at DragonCon I am pretty happy with my Con season. And my pocket book is thankful, I do not have to buy all of the gang a steak dinner.
Chris Terwilliger 12(107)
Joe Alread 12(92) overall winner
Bill Gordon 11(132)
Steve Brentson 10(111)
Yannick Lapointe 10(100)
Jared Lockwood 10(88)
Props
The Nashville guys for adopting me in the group
Gabe Alonzo- because he is THE MAN
Juz for making a few rules calls in my favor
Meeting all the cool players I have never met before
Chris and Joe for a great tourney
Not much more I can say except, EAT THE DAMN BROWNIE.
Bill Gordon