milwaukee-wisconsin-8-12-00
Title: milwaukee-wisconsin-8-12-00
Author: Steven "Sir Yoda" Lewis
Date: Aug 14, 2000
We'll start the journey to Gencon just after Origins. The Origins Open tournament had just ended, and I had gone 3-3 in both the Open and the previous day's team tournament, and so after an embarassing weekend of poor performance and less-than-desirable matchups (more the former than the latter), I began to question my future in Star Wars CCG. Basically, when you have NEVER suffered worse than 4-2 in a 6-game tournament and you suddenly go 3-3 two days in a row, some self-exploration is necessary to assess the cause of the sudden disappointments. I finally realized that for the first time ever, my losses were due to two major factors: 1) I had played two decks which I did not build myself from scratch (for a furthur explanation see my article "To Build or Not To Build" on this website), and 2) I had begun to play more defensively than I ever had. Therefore, some drastic changes were called for, and as I stepped to the brink of just dropping the SW:CCG habit all together, I decided to give it one more shot: Gencon Continental Championship. And so begins the journey...
First of all, I had not qualified for Day 2 of the Continentals at my states (that honor went to my good friend Steven Turner and an old-school player Matt "Blinky" Crigger). Therefore, my deck-testing buddy (the infamous Clint Hays) and I decide we need two sets of decks for both days of the tournament. Eventually we come up with a wicked fast SYCFA TIE deck and a tricky variation of There's Good in Him. We test against everything we can think of and they win consistently against everything but eachother, so we now have our Day 2 decks, yet we're still digging for solid Day 1 tech.
WEDNESDAY
Clint and I are about to leave, and then Clint makes me drive back to the house to get my laptop so he can "fix his baseball team" while we're in Milwaukee (he plays some silly internet baseball game and thinks he has a shot at winning a TV or something). Anyway, Clint and I head out Wednesday afternoon about 2pm from Nashville for the 10-hour trek to Milwaukee. We discuss possible Day 1 decks and I emphasize my unwillingness to play Rops (since I sucked with it at Origins) and Clint is ready to yell at me because he thinks Rops is the best thing since Ashley Judd. Anyway, we come to no decisions and get to Milwaukee around 12:00am or so and start looking for a Hotel. We drive around and ask about 38 gas station attendants where to find a frickin' Hotel and every one of them (in barely comprehendable, half-formed, pitiful attempts at English sentences) send us in all different directions and we spend about an hour driving up and down Milwaukee getting so tired that we're about to give up and crash in the car. We finally find a HoJo and when I try to get the room, some old fart with like four teeth tells me, "I need to see your I.D." So I bust it out and she says, "How about that other guy, is he 21 too?" She obviously saw Clint's goofy-looking self and I said, "No he's not." So she says she can't give us a room and that no other Hotel within 30 frickin' miles has any vacancy! So we end up at this piece-of-crap Motel which services about 10 total rooms and I have to knock on some woman's door at 1:30am and wake her up to get a room. This room is such a piece of junk and has no phone and no alarm clock. We now have to hope we get lucky and wake up in time to lift Steven Turner from the airport in the morning, so every time either of us wakes up, we have to keep checking the watch to make sure we're not oversleeping.
THURSDAY
Anyway, everything works out and we make it to the airport in time on Thursday and head to the con. We meet Nick Burke and a bunch of guys to room with (specifically Clayton Atkin, Arian "AJ" Delisle, and some nut everybody kept calling "Alan" who I didn't know) and we all head to Denny's to get the traditional pre-tournament Brownie to further assure victory. We get the most horrible service ever (which is apparently a Denny's nationwide trademark), but the Brownies finally arrive after an hour in our booth and we head back for some deck testing and so Clint can get online and get off with his baseball team. I fool with some dark decks and can't find any I like, so despite Clint's objections, I play the mad TIE deck on Day 1 and a Dagobah Test 6 deck with light (look for these decks within a week on my page).
FRIDAY
I run into my nemesis (World Champion) Gary Carman at the con and chat about decks and someone comes up to him and says, "Hey Gary, let's play a game," and so begins Gary's weekend. That guy is a Star Wars CCG machine. He played the same two decks all weekend long and at one point topped of 27 games of Star Wars within about a 6-hour time block. And he always gets so unbelievably giddy when he wins and he keeps saying stuff like, "This is pants!" and "That's nails!" and he starts every other sentence with "At the end of the day..." in his goofy Brit accent. But nonetheless, he automatically becomes the coolest guy I know and he is a frickin' beast at Star Wars CCG tech. Anyway, the Day 1 starts, and since the point of this tournament report is the Day 2 Continentals, I will give a super-brief wrap-up of the Day 1: Cint loses his first two games (playing Rops and Profit), one of which was a loss to some scrub kid's Abyssin deck, but picks up his last 6 games to finish 6-2 and squeeze into Day 2. I go 7-1 losing only to Karl Hartford's SYCFA beats deck (mostly due to a devastating It's Worse for 10) finishing 4th. We then head back to the Hotel and write out our Day 2 decklists while everyone else tries to build their decks. Clayton puts together a (believe-it-or-not) Skrilling #'s deck and AJ puts together a scrubbish looking search-for-Endor-Chewie-and-wreck-you-with-a-Jedi-Presence deck, which I decimate with Scum & Villainy.
SATURDAY
The next morning AJ and I have to get up at like 7:00am to take back his rental car and now there's 7 of us to fit in my car on the way to the tourney. Now, all 7 of us are pretty big guys, so after 6 of us get in, there is absolutely NO room for another passenger, so Alan (the skinniest) has to crawl in and lay down across the laps of everyone in the back seat, jabbing Nick in the face with his elbow about a dozen times. I then get lost on the way there (actually, I get lost on the way ANYWHERE, but nobody realizes that...yet). Anyway, we reach the con and so begins the tournament report...
2000 CONTINENTAL CHAMPIONSHIP DAY 2
GAME 1: My LS There's Good in Him vs. some guy's Court Scum deck (I can't remember his name to save my life)
He drops Jabba on turn 1 from his deck. Luke moves over and Maneuvering Flaps comes down. He tries to Alter it, but Luke is on the table. My next turn I dump a speeder load at the Carkoon Pit and start draining. He tries to work out some drains indoors with Gailid at the Chamber and Evazan at the Dungeon, but an undercover Boushh and Honor of the Jedi take care of that. A suicide Mara Jade tries to off my speeders, but loses too much force to battle damage, and I outdrain in the end. Win +20 (or so).
GAME 2: My DS SYCFA TIE's vs. AJ's Hidden Base beats.
My turn I dump Emperor to the D*:DB and pull Wakeelmui. He starts by pulling out General Han and Madine and uses Han and Luke to try to off the Emperor, missing with his saber. I drop Kiffex and a TIE and keep drawing. He tries again to swing, but bricks and can't off the Emp. I put out an Admiral's Order to increase the Emp's defense value (realizing later that it actually doesn't work on the Emperor), but when I see AJ start tracking a 7, the Emperor transits to Tatooine to avoid a weapon hit. EPP Leia takes care of him on the next turn, though, and I have to start paying for drains. By now I have all the 2/2 systems out and am draining for 8 a turn, so I win anyway by around 20 again.
GAME 3: My LS vs. (I think his name was Tony, but I have a super-bad memory when it comes to names) Rops deck.
I played Tony the day before and saw his deck, so I move Luke out and start drawing for speeders in my hand. He flips with 4 Imps and converges them to two sites for defense. My turn I put out Incom Corp., Yarna and Flaps and about 3 speeders vs. one of his sites, he loses his guys and nothing more. I now have about 4 sandspeeders and 2 Rebel snowspeeders in my hand. He plays Masterful Move and pulls monnok. I'm now sweating. He then activates and uses 2 to pull a card from his deck (Alter for the Yarna?). I'm sweating even more. All he has to do is drop Vader to Luke's site, Alter Yarna, and monnok my whole hand away. Fortunately for me, however, he drops Search & Destroy in stead and avoids my speeders by putting out Tempest Scout 6 and Tempest Scout 2 (with Watts and Marquand) at one site and converging a ton of mega-forfeit Imps at the other site (avoiding my speeders entirely). My turn I flaps, dump all 6 speeders against Watts and Mech Failure T.S. 2; my power is 34 to his 3 and he loses 16 off his deck. I flip him back and win in drains.
GAME 4: My DS vs. Clayton's Yavin 4 mains.
I wait a few turns to drop TIE's until I can more effectively defend myself, but eventually cover Kiffex and Endor with drains to match his drains at the Swamp (with Han & Leia) and CC: Carbon Chamber (with Jedi Luke). With Han, Luke, and Leia already deployed to sites, I feel much safer from a space-based beatdown and I spread thin with TIEs. We keep up a drain race for a while, but my retrieval keeps me ahead of him and by the time he finally gets some ships out, I am way ahead in Force damage. I ghhhk away from his battle, bringing in Legendary Starfighter, but it is too late. I win +19.
GAME 5: My DS vs. Brian Hunter's Dagobah training beats deck.
That's right, I get to finally play the #1 rated (and arguably most illusive) Star Wars player in the world. Hunter is undefeated so far in the tourney, so he obviously has some strong decks. Anyway, I drop Emperor to D*:DB first turn while he sets up training on Dagobah. I then set up some TIE drains at a few systems and begin to whiddle him down. About 4 or 5 turns in, he drops EPP Obi vs. Emperor and swings (with a tracked 6 on top) but misses with a 6 and a 1. My destiny pushes him away to the Bacta Tank. I drop some more TIE's and Ability, Ability, Ability. He seems shocked that I played AAA and says something like, "What deck is that supposed to be good against?" (he's obivously getting pissed that he's losing). He tries some On The Edge's and finally offs the Emperor with a saber, but never really gets enough ships and guys out to make me lose force, so I win by 25 cards. He is genuinly shocked afterwards that he lost. I try to explain that my deck should beat Dagobah every time. He says he's never lost to TIE's and hasn't lost by that much diff in over a year. However, my impression of him (for those who are curious) is that he is an excellent player and over all a pretty friendly guy that I don't mind playing cards with. He plays smart and makes only minimal mistakes (like not activating Force for Daughter a couple times). He seems a little @#$%y, but doesn't he have the right to after being #1 in the world longer than anyone else? Anyway, on with the TR...
GAME 6: My LS vs. Yannick Lapointe's Bring Him Before Me deck.
First of all, let me point out that the two players I wanted to play against more than anyone else in the tourney were Brian Hunter and Yannick, so no matter what happens, I've no had a great day. Anyway, Yannick drops Emperor 1st turn to Endor:DB and Luke moves over. He then drops Vader and transites to the Executor. I drop S-Foils, Flaps, Yarna, Incom, Honor of the Jedi, draw some. He starts dueling Luke and making me lose a Force. He then Alters Honor and I'm in trouble. I finally get some speeders down to drain for 1 (never getting any other drain sites out) and beat him off of Rendili with some X-wings (Bossk survives). On his turn, he lands Bossk at the Rendili:DB and saves 1 Force (Barrier?). I pay for flaps, drop 4 speeders, and attack Bossk. He plays a card to cancel the battle, drops a walker with Bossk and suicides both of them against the speeders. His dueling Luke finally wears me thin and I lose by 15.
After all was said and done, Yannick and I were the top 2 and it was time for the final duel. After getting 2nd to Gary Carman last year at worlds and 2nd to Brian Rippetoe at this years Yavin 4 Regional Qualifier, I needed a 1st place finish to boost my confidence. I head into the game optimistic, having faith in my dark deck to recover where my light deck loses.
FINAL DUEL, GAME 1: My LS vs. Yannick's BHBM/TYFP
This is a repeat of the game we just finished. Yannick drops 1st turn Emperor to Endor:DB, Luke moves over. Yannick drops Vader and moves both to D*2:DB. He pulls out Rendili, but leaves his battleground Docking Bays in his deck. I begin to place speeders at the Home1:DB, waiting for some Effects (like Flaps or Incom) before I go to Endor for the drain. Yannick duels and loses 3 times in a row, stacking cards on I Can Feel the Conflict, making a possible lost game to a crossed Vader more and more feasable, so he stops dueling and moves the crew to the Endor:DB before I get enough support. I dump Incom and some X-wings to Rendili and drop Honor, stopping Mara's drain at Chirpa's Hut. I have 4 speeders at the Hoth:DB protecting Incom and I have X-wings at Rendili. Yannick is draining for 3 (2 at Endor:DB with Janus and 1 at Chirpa's Hut with Mara's saber) and I am draining for 1 (Rendili) and Vader is losing cards to TYFP. The game is not going well. Eventually I have 4 cards stacked and need a 6 to convert Vader, but Yannick Tramples my ASP droid who is guarding an Ewok Catapult, stopping my chance to stack it and win. I now need to win one more battle and draw a 3 to convert. I set up a 2 drain at CC: Downtown Plaza with 3 speeders (mistake #1) and try to even up the Force loss through drain damages. Eventually I am down to 4 cards left in my Life Force (Yannick has about 18). I activate my pile (top card of Force Pile is a 5) and drain for 3. I then deploy my last speeder to Hoth:DB and transit all the Hoth speeders to Endor. If Yannick attacks my speeders (Draw Their Fire and First Strike are both on the table, so the incentive is there), I draw the 5 for destiny and win the battle (after losing one to the drain and 2 to DTF and FS) and Yannick stacks a card on ICFTC. I then win with my last card converting Vader. So Yannick drops Evax to CC and attacks those 3 speeders (he retrieves 2, I lose 2; mistake #2) and he then cancels the battle with some nutty interrupt. He then attacks me at Endor and First Strike knocks my last force out. Yannick wins by +19.
Did you see the mistakes? I should've dropped the speeders to Endor and fought to win battles and I also shouldn't have lost to First Strike because Honor was on the table and Yannick did not have 3 battlegrounds. I missed this, as did Juz, Yannick, and Gary Carman (who was able to point out mistakes, but failed to notice). If I only lost one to the battle, I would have won with the conversion. Anyway, on to game 2...
FINAL DUEL, GAME 2: My DS vs. Yannick's Dagobah beats
My TIE deck had just pounded Brian Hunter's Dagobah deck by 25, so I felt certain I could beat Yannick's by a similar amount. The game starts bad for me, however, and I draw no systems (out of 8 in the deck) in my first few turns. Yannick does not set up testing, but drops Jedi Luke to handle the Emperor at the D*:DB, missing with the saber. I finally get Kiffex down and a TIE there and back up Emperor with Vader and a TIE (Sienar is deployed). Yannick attacks and hits the Emp. I lose him and the TIE (to used pile). I then drop another TIE with Vader and drain at Kiffex. Yannick attacks and kills Vader and the TIE, clearing my battleground site and forcing me to pay for drains. I finally get another system out and start drains of four. Yannick drains at D*:DB and begins drawing cards like a fiend digging for something (Falcon?). I establish a 3rd drain at a system (paying for all of them) and Yannick puts out Draw Their Fire and plays Signal. He doesn't find whatever he was looking for and is obviously quite dissappointed (Frozen Assets?). I suspect an impending Frozen and fortify my TIEs, but he plays another Signal on his next turn, pulls the Frozen and wrecks me off a system, playing Legendary in the process. He then runs with the Falcon to Alderaan and I begin losing too much Force to keep up. I drop TIEs regularly to battle Luke at the D*:DB (retrieve for Sienar; retrieve and lose for DTF; lose TIE to Used for attrition), but the D*:DB drains and the superfalcon pound me out and Yannick wins by 12 or so.
At the end of the day, however, I realized that I had experienced a thrilling tournament (getting to play Hunter and Lapointe) and ended up with $200 credit at the Decipher booth for 2nd place. I must also attest that the Brownie served me well. Also, after we got back to the Hotel Saturday night, we find out that the room we were in owes $80+ in phone bills for calling long distance. Apparently, Clint picked the wrong dial-in # for his frickin baseball team and ended up paying a ton of cash for the bill. We couldn't stop laughing.
Anyway, I now declare myself the top loser of Star Wars CCG (2nd at worlds, 2nd at continentals). And since I seem to lose only to non-Americans (Gary Carman and Yannick Lapointe), Ray Bordier pointed out that I am the top American player, so I guess it's not all bad going home without the title...
PROPS:
1) Some guy for drawing up against me when I was about to get a timed win on Day 1 (I don't remember his name, but he was the best frickin sport I've ever met!)
2) Gary Carman for having the most insatiable appetite for SW:CCG I have EVER seen!
3) Nick Burke for letting us crash in their room.
4) Clint for being frickin dumb and not thinking that Hotels charge for long distance when you're on the internet.
5) Ray Bordier for looking on the bright side.
6) Brian Hunter for being a pretty cool guy after all.
7) Yannick Lapointe for being a great Star Wars player and a darn fun guy to lose to.
8) Somebody whose last name was Rowe for playing my Stick It In Your Yavin deck and wrecking with it.
9) Karl Hartford for playing the junkiest looking Dark deck I've ever seen and wrecking me with it.
SLOPS:
1) All 6 other guys in my car for making fun of me every time I got lost and not ever telling me which frickin direction to go! ;)
2)Gabe Alonso and Jim Sells for wimping out and not coming with us.
3)Clint for losing his last game (which would have put him and I in the final).
4)Me for making stupid mistakes and losing continentals.
I appreciate your comments and I'll see everyone at Deciphercon,
Steven Lewis