dagobah-regional-29-june-2000
Title: dagobah-regional-29-june-2000
Author: Charlie "CommieBoy" Herren
Date: Jul 30, 2000
Hey folks.. back once again, writing another one of those tourney reports... this will probably end up being pretty long...
<enter pre-tourney garbage that is entirely pointless>
2 weeks before the tourney, Adam Beauchamp and I fly out to Columbus, OH for Origins... The weekend was fun, but SW:CCG-wise, it was quite bad for me. I ended up going 0-3 drop at the team tourney, stranding Adam, Steve Brentson, and Scott Lingrell in the process. Team Charlie's Angels lost the reason for the name, and ended up in 3rd, behind Team Anglo-Americans and Team Albany. The open wasn't particularly exciting, either, as I went 3-3, losing to Chris Gogolen because of a dumb-ass play on my part, and winning against Tim Guzman (who is, by the way,dd one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet playing SW) at the 0-2 table..
Death Star 2 was quickly approaching, and I had no money. Origins and DragonCon left me strapped for cash, and I needed to get some Death Star 2 cards. I start talking decks with Adam Beauchamp (what are teammates for, anyway?) and we come up with a revised ROps deck. We piece it together and hash it through everyhthing humanly possible. I come up with this weird super-falcond deck based on the new light-side objective. I figured there were 4 things possible with the objective:
1. Luke gets captured by a non-DS2 Vader. Uncontrollable Fury, handshake.
2. Luke gets captured by random.imperial. Lose 2 at the end of each of your turns, handshake.
3. Luke doesn't get touched. Drain of 2 at the DB all game.
4. Luke gets captured by Lord Vader. Kill him with an EPP Obi.
I based a deck on this principle, using super-falcon and used 5s and 6s to win battles. You win 3 battles, draw a 6, extend the hand. Alternate win methods are good, mmmkay.
Adam, on the other hand, begun working on a Test 6 deck, since Test 6 is direct damage, and Test to 5 gets so much better with The Way of Things and the new starting interrupt. I have no real faith in MWYHL flip, so I keep on going with my falcon deck.
Having decks didn't really solve the lack of cards situation. I got Clay Ramey to lend me a Jedi Luke, objective, and other assorted rares, but I didn't quite have everything I needed for the regional. I logged onto IRC (as I do a lot.. #starwarsccg on Undernet), and I jokingly asked Mike Blythe and others to mail me cards to use in my regional. Mike asksI ha me for a list of stuff I need, and he agrees to send me cards.
Clay and I meet up with the other Team Machiners (Wes Addison, Adam Beauchamp, and THE MACHINE himself). We play a few games and leave at about 1AM for the regional, which starts at 10AM. The drive is like 6 hours, so we have plenty of time to mess around. After a blowout of a tire, a Denny's that had grease but no Brownie, and little sleep, we arrive at the Villager Lodge in Jacksonville, at around 8AM.
<end meaningless pre-tourney garbage>
60 people in attendance, 3 drops through the day.
Decks:
LS: "Iron Maiden": A super-falcon deck utilizing There is Good in Him, and lots of high destinies.
DS: "Corpse Explosion": ROps with a Mobilization Points twist. Much faster and more consistent than the previous ROps deck, plus it has more characters and an additional ship.
Game 1: LS v. Kristin Dion (Atlanta area) (big blue ROps)
This game gets out to a slow start. She takes incredible amounts of time on her turns, and I was practically rushing through each of my turns. She flips ROps on turn 4 or so with an ATST and 3 guys. By that time, I have a Falcon/Cap'n Han set up at Ralltir. The ship she deployed to flip was barriered (Thunderflare/Evax). I drop Boshek in the falcon and fight. I draw high destiny, and she loses both the pilot and ship. I flip her back with an EPP Obi and the falcon. She flips again with Bossk in bus, but it meets my one barrier (tracking is sooo underrated). I end up tracking a 6,5, and 4 from a battle and a used interrupt, and I play On The Edge three times in one turn, retrieving 5, 4, and 3 cards each time. I also Signal for Legendary Starfighter and fight the bus. I draw high, and she draws low. She loses the ship and like 5 cards, I play Legendary Starfighter, and the objective flips again. I proceed to drain her out with 2 minutes remaining on the clock.
FW by 27
2(+27)
Highs: I Feel the Conflict. 5 cards under it. 'nuff said.
Lows: um, 58 minute games off of no sleep bad
Game 2: DS v. Matt Smiley (Jacksonville, FL) (There is Good in Him mains)
This game gets off to a quick start. I get a 2/0 and some guys on the draw, and he gets a quick start as well. I get a power flip on turn 4. He gets Battle Plan, so I search for Kiffex. I drop it with the Chimaera and pilot. He drops Cap'n Han and BoShek in the falcon at Kiffex with a Landing Claw. He battles, and we both draw 4 for battle destiny. I lose my pilot and he loses nothing. On my turn, he attaches at Kiffex. I search for Godherdt. I drop the Devastator and Godherdt, and cancel his Landing Claw. He runs to Ralltir. I drop Bossk, Dengar, and Zuckuss and fight. He ends up losing the ship and pilots. I lose Dengar. His mains are high-deploy on Ralltir, so he can't drop them all in one turn. I end up draining him out.
FW by 23
4(+50)
Highs: Godherdt cancelling Landing Claw, the beats against the Falcon, Lord Vader in the opening hand to stop the There Is Good In Him loss.
Lows: having the same exact differential and victory points as another member of Team Machine (Adam)
Game 3: LS v Adam Beauchamp (ROps)
This game practically comes down to the opening hand. I get 8 red cards, he gets Captain Sarkli. His first turn, he drops Sarkli to the hut and captures Luke. On my first turn, I'm stuck activating 3 force. I do get Honor of the Jedi on the draw, so his non-battleground drain gets reduced by 2. He steadily reinforces the hut with Vader and a couple of IAO scrubs. Meanwhile, I'm drawing cards and saving force up. He flips. I manage to get enough for Captain Han and the falcon, and I deploy them to my <> DB on ralltir. He barriers, I catch. He activates and drops Janus to the DB. I barrier. He drops a Tempest Scout. I move the falcon up to Ralltir and get Battle Plan out. I eventually set up a beatdown squad in hand. I did make a mistake, though: I had Obi, Leia, and Melas in hand to go raid the hut to try to kill Vader so he'd have damage from my objective. After I deploy Leia, I get monnoked for 2 Obis and On the Edges (I should have played Obi first). I deploy Melas and battle. Vader gets shot, I draw a 5. I lose both, he loses Vader and a scrub. Another scrub gets control of Luke, and he starts taking damage from the objective. I get out Kessel quite late, and I move the falcon there for a drain of 2. I end up losing the drain race by a very small margin. A well-played game on Adam's part, and not so much of good play on my part.
FL by 2
4(+48)
Highs: Getting some damage in.. not losing by much.
Lows: The horrible start. He gets a god hand, I don't, and that basically decides the game.
Game 4: DS v. Torger ? (from Florida, I think) (QMC)
He starts QMC with Goo Nee Tay, Bespin, and the Guest Quarters. I get out my docking bays early and flip pretty solidly on turn 3. He gets a cloud sector to Ralltir and flips me back with Jedi Luke at the Jungle and 2 Cloud Cars at the sector. I drop Bossk and Zuckuss at the sector and fight him. He loses one of his cars, because I draw ass low destiny. He drops a couple of Cloud Cars and Z95s to the sector. I flip by sticking empest 1/Ozzel in front of Jedi Luke and a scrub at the forest. I battle, draw a 6 for destiny (Devastator. 1, oppressive adds 1, Objective adds 4, Luke dies :). I also battle him off of the cloud sector. He eventually flips his objective, but I flip him back the turn after with Fett in Slave 1. He gets drained out quickly, as I'm hitting him for roughly 8 a turn.
FW by 26
6(+74)
Highs: Not losing a single force to a force drain. Applying beatdowns at assorted places.
Lows: Ass destiny a couple of times.
Game 5: LS v. Jason Burrows (Miami, FL )(TIEs)
He starts Death Star and Dreaded Imperial Starfleet. He gets a bad start and draws lots of cards. I start the drain, and I set up super-falcon at Kiffex on turn 3. I also get a bantha droid on turn 1. I drain, search reserve for a DB, and draw for the Grimtaash that is in my force pile. I hit him with a Grimtaash lost, netting 3 Dreadnaughts, 3 TIEs, and 2 All Power to Weapons. He drops U3PO to the Endor DB. I get Obi out to the <> DB I put at Mon Calamari. He drops a hoard of TIEs to Sullust and Endor, with POTFs on each. I move the Falcon in front of one of those piles. He plays Lateral Damage and battles me. I react with the Spiral, play Punch It and I Know to draw 7 destinies. I draw high, so our total power is roughy equal. He loses a Dreadnaught that he had there. I retrieve my Grimtaash with On The Edge. I move the Falcon and Spiral to Endor to clean off the Lateral Damage. He runs from me to get in some drains. I get out Battle Plan and Order to Engage. I run him around a bit with Order to Engage. I get out Legendary Starfighter, and I drain him for a few cards each turn, barely enough to outlast his retrieval with TIEs.
FW by 15
8(+89)
Highs: Winning a hard-fought game. Getting Battle Plan to help me immensly. Tracking my Grimtaash and Controls.
Lows: Lateral Damage/Bantha droid ruling that wasn't in my favor.
Game 6: DS v. David Akers (Tampa, FL area) (HB/Tatooine Celebration)
He starts Wise Advice, Battle Plan, and Do, or Do Not. He gets out Tatooine, Dagobah, and Yoda's hut. I pull DBs and sites. He moves XWings to Ralltir. I flip eventually, losing 3 to the Order to Engage he dropped on the previous turn. He manages to get Celebration up with 4 XWings, DOS, and EPP Luke. He collapses the 2 characters to the cantina. I drop Zuckuss to Tatooine, which gets barriered (I catch). I drop Dengar and Bossk. I battle, drawing a 13 for total battle destiny, wiping out all 4 XWings. I lose Bossk. I decide, like a moron, to drop characters to stop the amazingly painful drain of 1 each turn. I drop Lord Vader and other characters, only to lose about 12 cards to assorted things. I eventually shuttle my characters out by dropping Chimaera to Tatooine. I win the drain race.
FW by 9
10(+95)
Highs: Dengar/Bossk ripping up XWings. Him not being able to retrieve at all with Celebration.
Lows: Me, for playing like a schmuck.
I end up getting into the final by like 10 differential. Ben Matthews goes undefeated on the day, so he makes it to the final as well. Neither of us care which deck goes first, so I flip a coin, and it's decided that I get to play my light deck first.
Final Confrontation, Game 1: LS v. Endor Ops flip
I start with Insurrection, Squadron Assignments, and Your Insights Will Serve You Well. He starts Operational as Planned for Jerjerrod, DS2, and Perimiter Patrol. I get a god draw. He drops 2 TIE interceptors to Endor on turn 1. I sack Insights to pull Battle Plan. I reveal Cap'n Han from hand to pull the Falcon from reserve. I drop both for 8 at Endor, play Battle Plan, and fight. I draw a 4, so he loses both TIEs. I drop Legendary Starfighter. He starts losing to drains and Legendary. He puts a POTF on Chirpa's Hut and sticks Tarkin and a biker scout there. I drop EPP Obi to stop the drain of 3. He drops 5 biker scouts and another random trooper and battles. He loses Tarkin and a trooper, I lose Obi and 8 cards. I get out Red Squadron 1 and ANH Wedge out, and move them to the DS2 for the massive drain of 5. He uses Dreaded Imperial Starfleet to cancel the 5, but he loses one to my drain, and he has Luke captured and in the bunker (held by a scrub imperial). I On the Edge twice for 5 and 4 cards. He attempts to beat down Red Squad 1 with 4 TIE interceptors. He doesn't have an All Power to Weapons, so I only lose like 4 cards, while he loses 2 TIEs. I move Red Squad 1 out of the DS2 and back to Endor, and I move the falcon in to take its place. He pitches Establish Secret Base and Ominous Rumors to a drain, so he isn't going to flip (which is good news). The game ends quickly.
FW by 29
Highs: Umm, last time I checked, first turn Legendary Starfighter is just too good.
Lows. Obi getting drilled for 8 cards.
Final Confrontation: DS v XWing HB
We both get out locations rather quickly. I flip on turn 3, droppping Search and Destroy in the process. He flips a couple of turns later, and I pull Coruscant from reserve. He Grimtaashes me, and sees the Monnok in my hand. He drops some XWings on the table (he didn't start Yarna, but instead SFoils). I Monnok him for 2 XWing assault squadrons. I get Bossk in bus with a lot of forfeit on it (total forfeit of guys I packed on the ship was 24). I move to Dantooine and probe when he only has 8 cards in hand. Hidden Base is placed out of play. I proceed to drain. He drops Coruscant, and I convert it. I drain him out eventually in a very boring game.
FW by 10
Highs: Making day 2 of Worlds without having to enter day 1.
Lows: None
Props:
- to Team Machine, for driving me a long distance to the regional, and for being some really cool folks to hang out with...
- to Gabe Alonso, who is so incredibly money.
- to Ben Matthews, for 2 well-played games in the finals.
- to the people I played in the first 6 games, for some good games and fun.
- to Gregg Keefer, Mitch Velasco, and Jeff Alexander for running the tourney rather smoothly.
- to the Tantive M, for being the coolest van for a road trip.
- to Mike Blythe, for sending me cards to borrow for this tourney. I wouldn't have won without the cards...
- to Clay Ramey, whose laptop I am using to type this TR, for both letting me use said laptop and for letting me borrow cash for food.
- to Orgg, for being the coolest damn Magic card ever.
Slops:
- to Gabe Alonso, for playing like horse@#$% today, going 3-3
- to me, for making lots of stupid plays in games, some of which could have cost me games.
Thank you all for reading.. hope to see you at DecipherCon.
Charlie Herren (no longer "Bad Player")
2000 Dagobah Regional Champ