dagobah-regional-7-29-00
Title: dagobah-regional-7-29-00
Author:
Date: Aug 1, 2000
I really haven't planned on going to Regionals since I'm supposed to be in a wedding that same weekend when I get a call about 2 weeks before from my friend ( the groom). To my surprise and his ripped out heart, he lets me know that the chick he has changed his life for has called off the marriage. I do my best to make him feel better with all the "time heals all wounds" speeches but, he knows and I know, that ain't gonna help. Anyway, so I can now go to Regionals but I haven't play tested or even played a game since DragonCon. Everyone is asking me if I'm going and I'm still not sure cause I really don't wanna drive 5 hours to get kicked in the head by a bunch a new cards that I haven't even checked out. Eventually, I give in from all the peer pressure ( just like being in high school again). I mean you really can't not go when one of your friends gives ya that ol' '' I'm not going if your not going" crap so I make a Profit deck and keep my Dark Side ( basic beatdown with Combat Readiness on Tattoine) the same and head over to James Barretts to play test with him and Art Rhodes. We run a few games and the Profit deck beats ROPs every time but the Dark Side is getting hammered every time by everything! This is like the Wednesday before the Regional so I have no idea what I' m gonna do for Dark Side. Art gives me the idea to go ahead and make it a Court deck with just a few changes. The next day at my shop ( I got the fever now! ) I buy like 2 1/2 boxes of DS II and get complete crap except for 1 Lord Vader. Oh well, that Friday we head out to Jacksonville at around 3pm. The ride down is cool except James has his game face on the whole way cause he has no idea what to play for LS but we bust his chops some and he lightens up. We arrive at the very pink Villager Lodge at like 8pm. Let me tell ya, I'm not knocking the guys who ran the tourney cause they did an awesome job BUT this hotel was a pit!! I mean when the bathroom smells better than the lobby ( quote Tony) someone in management needs to do something! So we get our "lovely" rooms and decide to go out and see some of Jacksonville plus get something to eat. We spend like 20 minutes trying to find something better than Taco Bell which takes us through the Ghetto, by some dude sucking water out of the sewer, a place we know we can't get in because of valet parking and finally to AIX! Not much of a name but it looks nice so we pile out of the car and head in for some refreshments! Well, the place is like packed full of 40 something, wine sniffing, cheese eating, "Bob you won't believe what happened on the golf course today", yuppies. I mean we get seated and the waitress asks us if we just got done with a softball game. I assumed this was because of James and his damn Astros jersey he loves sooo much, why I don't know, but it could have been because we weren't wearing like buttoned down shirts and ties. Well, we say screw it lets drop the bomb in here. Everyone orders like $25 dinners, $6 dessert and altogether we leave like a $60 tip! Just cause we don't dress like it don't mean we ain't got money!! I will say this the filet mignon I had was stupid good! Back to the Hotel! We play test till like 3am. Art, Tony, and James all play ROPs, I go with Court. Tony goes with Test 5 and the rest of us go with Profit. The tournament actually starts at like 10:30am and I'm thinkin wow this might go smooth today!
Game 1: LS Vs Lewis Cowart ( ROPs)
He starts IAO, Mobilization Points and something else that wasn't important to me. I got crap for my hand a couple a 2-0 sites, Orrimaarko and Lando in Falcon. He goes and gets a site and a docking bay and deploys some guy to his spaceport docking bay. I'm gonna activate 7 so I sack Insight to get Battlle Plan and get ready to drop Orrimaarko. That is what I do and he looses the guy and two more. I'm hoping he doesn't have that great a hand and my wish comes true cause all he does is get another site and saves up force. I'm activating a good bit now so I pay to drain and drop Lando in Falcon and Order to Engage. Save 1 to barrier whatever he is gonna drop down and pass. Sure enough he comes with some guys to clear the site and I barrier one of em. I guess he didn't wanna risk another whoopin by Orrimaarko and looses to Order. My turn I flip with like Chewie and Melas, fly up to Ralitir and save some for Narrow Escape from the Audience Chamber. He drops Emperors Shuttle, a new DS II pilot, Ozzel, and Zuckuss then lays the smack down with a Lat damage, starts a battle and draws a 3 for BD. Like 13 power to my 0. I sack Orrimaarko and loose 9. He is loosing to my objective, and I'm draining for a little before he flips the next turn. I finally get Ben, Boushh, and Massa. We really don't battle for the rest of the game and I make him flip back late with Boushh and Massa. The Objective does a ton of damage!
FW (+20)
Highs: Flipping with Chewie and Melas and not getting wrecked!
Lows: Loosing 9 to Lat. Damage!!!
Game 2: DS Vs David Nichols ( Mind What You/ Test 5 )
Well, I didn't really prepare for this so I'm hoping to just Drain fast and hard! Mara goes to the Audience chamber with her stick, Hoth Def. Perimeter goes down as well. He sacks Insight to go get Honor ( this happened all day long) and Deploys Yoda. I drop the Emperor with Mara and I'm thinkin they are cool! He deploys daughter and Test 1, draws a few and passes. Next turn I drop Djas Puhr to the Def. Perimeter and draw, save a little for barrier and pass. He doesn't pass the test, I think both destinies were ones. I'm like hell yeah, I'm draining for 4 next turn. I do and go ahead and drop Fett to back up Djas Puhr plus Jabba at the Rancor Pitt. He passes test 1 next turn, barely, this is pretty much how the game went for him. It took him two turns to pass most of the tests. He is now loosing to the Objective text because I have 3 battlegrounds. We spend a few turns with me draining and him testing when he finally comes down to battle. He decides to pick on Jabba with Han and Luke like an idiot I barrier Han ( deployed him first ) and he starts a battle I Ioose Jabba and I have no destiny ( test 2 ). I've been drawing for a few turns. I wanted to get Kessel, Bosk in the Bus, and DLOTS with Tarkin and go to Dagobah. Oh well, I never could get em so I drop DLOTS, Vader's stick, Blizzard 2 and 4-Lom w/ gun. Cancel Hans text, Hit Luke and clear the site. I sack 4-Lom and draw. The rest of the game is spent with me Sensing his on the edges (or at least trying to) and draining for like 5 a turn.
FW ( +18 ) 4 ( +38 )
Highs: Sensing like 2 out of his 4 On the Edges
Lows: Barrier Han so dumb!!
Game 3: LS Vs Art Rhodes ( ROPs)
This really sucks! Art said it best, he drove 5 hours to play two friends that he plays all the time. ( he had to play James first round ) We both know each others decks so we get rolling. I won't go into all the details cause the big turning point came around turn 4 or 5. Second turn Art drops the Emperor and Greetus to the Audience chamber. I got an OK hand and I'm trying to keep him from flipping with Melas. Anyway, I draw for like two turns. I get what I want and pass. He flips and I'm like I gotta free Han this turn or he is gonna go get whatever backup he needs. I drop Massa for free and his lightsaber with lightsaber proficiency, Epp Leia, Ben and Orrimaarko and battle. I hit the Emperor and shoot Greetus and then play Skywalkers. I draw a total of 7 for destiny and he draws a site which becomes a 3. He takes like 15 or 16 battle damage and I clear the site and free Han and spread out. I drain for a few turns and let the objective do the rest.
FW ( +22 ) 6 ( +60 )
Highs: Wrecking the Emperor ( sorry Art )
Lows: Playing my friend
Game 4: DS Vs Adam Beauchamp ( Mind What / Test 6 )
Well, I've played Adam before and I knew we would have a good time no matter who won. He is a really nice guy plus he is a fellow Georgian. Read his report if ya wanna know the details, he said it better than I could. Anyway, he pretty much tested and did whatever he wanted. I drained for a few turns hard but it didn't help. He couldn't flip because of the lame rule about Daughter deploying from your hand. Even though he couldn't flip, at that point, I think we both knew the game was over. Not much I could do. I was gonna come to Dagobah with the crew when he grimtaashed used and gave me nothing back. I think he still would've won but he would've only gotten to test 4. Oh well, still was a fun game.
FL ( -30 ) 6 ( +30 )
Highs: Joking around and just playing with no pressure
Lows: Loosing to Adam again. ( I'll get my revenge sooner or later, probaly later!)
Game 5: LS Vs Dean ? ( ROPs )
Well, this is the 3rd time I've played against ROPs and I'm like this should be easy. He tells me this is the 3rd time he has played Profit. He starts with Mara and Jabba in the chamber and I'm like well that is a suprise. He deploys some sites and starts deploying sleens. Now I'm like what the @$%# ! So now I'm being force choked and that happened for about 3 or 4 turns. I finally start getting force and decide to go beat on Mara with Ben and Massa. I've got Luke's stick so I deploy him with that and get ready to Clash Mara. In response to me deploying Ben, he You Are Beatens Ben. I'm like I can't believe that so I go ahead and Clash Mara cause I don't wanna loose Luke. Well, he is playing with troopers and flips, draws some and passes. I start a battle and get ready to free Han but he swings at Ben plays Dark Strike and hits him. Thank God, he draws a 0 for battle destiny so Massa stays. I run and draw. His turn he drops Darth Vader and his saber to Luke's site and I barrier. One thing I forgot to point out was that he didn't start IAO so I Nabrum over and wreck a trooper. He plays houjix and looses the site. I slide Luke over and save some for narrow escape. His turn he activates and Ellis Helrots over to Luke's site drops Iggy at the docking bay and I'm like so. Then he starts a battle and I narrow escape to Iggy's site. Now I know why he did that, on my turn he disarms Luke and there is nothing I can do. I draw get another Massa, Ben and his saber, Boushh, Epp Leia and Skywalkers. Now I want him to start a battle and kill the Massa Luke on Ralitir so I can deploy Massa back at the Audience Chamber. His turn he does just that and I get real nervous when he draws to capture Luke with Iggy. Massa stays free and he makes me loose him to battle destiny. Do or die cause the Emperor is on the board with overseeing it personally and he is gonna start draining hard. I drop the hit squad, start a battle, hit Mara and play Skywalkers. I clear the site, free Han and spread out. He drains me for like 7 and says this is gonna be close. Oh yeah, In that battle with Mara and Jabba I lost Epp Leia so I could deploy Boushh undercover at the site where he is draining for 3. He has had to deploy alot to controll Ralitir and I haven't so I have more cards left to loose not to mention he has to pay for Battle Plan every turn so he isn't deploying or drawing much. It is close but soon he can't pay for the drains so I win a close one.
FW ( +12 ) 8 ( +42 )
Highs: Winning a game I could've lost easily.
Lows: Underestimating my Opponent
Game 6: DS Vs Jason Burrows ( Mind What / Test 5 )
All I could think was this really sucks! Not because I'm playing Jason, he is cool I've played him before, just the same deck 3 times in the same day! I mean my LS played ROPs all day but I knew it could win 9 times out of 10. But my DS really had no chance against this deck in the hands of a good player. So I sit down knowing how this is gonna end. Deploy Mara and stick at Audience Chamber and Pass. He starts with the testing. I have to pay to drain since he started with Battle Plan so I pay and drain, draw a few and pass. I swear Jason has that deck down to a science. I think he trained up to test 5 in like 8 turns while I paid to drain and tried to draw characters. This was pointless cause he just came down and cleared sites drawing 6 destiny for everything. Anyway, I think Jason was worried I was upset at him but I was upset at my deck being such a big piece of donkey crap!
FL ( -30 ) I think. 8 ( +12 )
Highs: Talking about different things and basically just cruising through the game.
Lows: Making Jason uncomfortable. Sorry Man no hard feelings!
So I'm sure everyone knows that Charlie won the Regional. Art finished 3rd and the rest of us went 4-2. Not a bad showing and we all went home happy. The ride home was the bomb and so was the club we went to before we headed home, Heaven!
Clay "Fantastic" Cushman