raleigh-nc-9-2-00
Title: raleigh-nc-9-2-00
Author: Mike "OQrygg" Merletto
Date: Sep 5, 2000
Well after missing the last two constructed tournaments I figured I should go to this one to get back in the swing of things. I’ve been playing a Rebel Strike Team, but I started messing around with this weird QMC just to get out of playing Rebel Strike Team. It starts with Insight so I can pull Launching The Assault to grab Homie One. It was fun and did well but I couldn’t find anyone to lend me a CC Celebration or DS2 Wedge.
As for DS, I have no Emperor which limits my choices somewhat now, I felt I needed something that can win with a huge differential just because. So that takes out most of the boring decks in the game, which I’m glad about (it’s not like I’d play them anyways). So I’m like, “What can win by 30 or more on a consistent basis?” and then, being the genius that I am, I decide to play.... Abyssins with my “cool techness/tech coolness” (inside joke). It’s loaded with stupid ass tech that makes no sense in a normal deck. I only used some a couple times in my games though, but it shot my destiny through the roof. Check out my Court Of The Vile Abyssins deck to get a general idea of the deck (I updated it).
My Decks:
LS - Rebel Strike Team, nothing out of the ordinary except 2 Midges cuz he’s the @#$%. Starts Insurrection, Squadron Assignments and Strike Planning.
DS - Court Of The Vile Abyssins v2.0 - New tech coolness!
Well it’s Friday night and I have this Chemistry project to do on Friday morning where I’m the manager of a @#$% treatment plant over Labor Day Weekend and I gotta wake up at 7:30 so I can go over to my partner’s house before I leave to go to the card shop. I wind up watching an MTV Undressed marathon for a long time and I’m dead tired in the morning. I wake him up and he’s all like, “Do you really feel like doing it? I don’t. Let’s do it tomorrow.” So I’m pissed cuz I have the right to be. So I get to the shop around 10:45 and mosey on into the Gaming Room which seats 15 people somewhat comfortably and what do I see? A bunch of umpa-lumpas.. oops, little kids. It’s my home boy (we’re so ghetto =) Rob’s birthday (or last week or something) so I give him a Janus Greejatus and BB Trample cuz he needs them for his decks then I go and pick up 4 Death Star 2 packs. He picks out 2, and pulls jack @#$%, same with me. Whoever said picking outta the right stack of the box is an idiot since the box was just opened for me. So when I’m walking back to the gaming room I see another herd of wild children entering the store. So the tournament is starting and we got something like 22 people which is huge around here but the good part is there’s only like 8 good people there.
Game One: LS vs. Luke Jarmin’s (1500) Random Cool Cards
He starts Bespin: CC and Any Methods Necessary for the Security Tower, Boba Fett (CC), Fett’s Blaster, and Slave 1. There’s not much to say about this game unfortunately. The kid seemed pretty cool but he just couldn’t do anything really. He deploy Slave 1 with Fett + Blaster to his Bespin CC but then I deployed Battle Plan so he never drained, only drew. I blew up the Bunker and was draining him for like 6 a turn then I drew Jedi Luke into hand. I drop Luke to some drain for 2 CC site along with Brooks Carlson. He deploy Emperor and a Royal Guard to the Security Tower. We spend a couple minutes talking about ultra rares and how he has both of them even though he’s like 10. Then on my turn I deploy some scout to Luke’s site and move them over to Emperor’s site. He drops a Force Pike on the Guard and passes. I drop another scout and Daughter Of Skywalker. I battle and play Take The Initiative to add 5 to my total battle destiny. I draw a 5 to make it 10 and he draws low. I lose 1 scout and he loses both along with some overflow. He drains me once and after two more turns he’s dead. FW by 29
Total: 2(+29)
Highs: The kid seemed cool. He had fun just playing the game which is extremely cool.
Lows: Beating a cool kid.
Game Two: DS vs. Phillip Marshal’s (1500) Hidden Base
He starts Hidden Base stuff and Rebel Fleet and I start Scum. I get Jabba in my opening hand and pulled Myo with the AC text. Back them up with an Abyssin or something. He just draws after deploying 2 systems from hand and 1 from deck. Then I deploy a lone Abyssin to the Jundland Wastes with Ghhhk in hand and some techness so I know I can regenerate him (Combat Readiness is sooooo sweet in an Abyssin deck. If you don’t realize why, you’re stupid.) That Abyssins stays there the entire game never getting harassed. He drops Haven and an X-wing to Rendezvous Point and moves it to Kessel. I have Fett In Slave 1 in hand but I want the Bus but I can’t deploy both so I’m stuck deploying Zuckuss In Mist Hunter with Fett and he loses some overflow. He’s being drained for 5 a turn and 1 from Court while he’s draining me for 1. We have a few small battle where he loses some overflow but it stays the same for the remainder of the game. FW by 36
Total: 4(+65)
Highs: Winning again
Lows: Getting Zuckuss beaten up by some A-wings
After this game I hear some arguing so I go over to watch the game between Eddie “JediMasta” Brown and some Henry guy. They are close to timing out and both are pretty low on life force. You can tell Henry is stalling because he keeps leaving the room for the time even though everyone is telling him just to sit and play. It’s Henry’s turn and Paul (the TD who doesn’t play SW) is sitting there watching. He announces 30 seconds. Henry just sits there and moves something. Then asks for time. 20 seconds. Moves something again and asks for time. Paul doesn’t answer. Henry moves something else and asks for time because it’s obviously over time. No answer. Then Henry has nothing more to do to stall and it’s Eddie’s turn, who’s gotten really pissed. Eddie drains him out and gets the full win. I gotta give props to Paul for not timing it out cuz Henry was being a @#$% and stalling.
Game Three: DS vs. Adam Weinstein’s (1854) Profit
I told him before the game that my deck matched up best against Profit just because I can set up so damn fast. I start Chall and Jabba and pull a Cloud City Engineer into hand. First turn I convert the AC and deploy Myo from reserve along with 2 Abyssins from hand. He drops Master Luke to Jabba’s Palace and moves him to Tosche Station. We both are in a bit of a stalemate until he drops Order to Engage, See-threepio, Artoo, ECC Chewie and EPP Leia to the Audience Chamber and moves Master Luke into the AC. I had a None Shall Pass in hand but I was waiting for Ben, which never showed up. It’s my turn and I battle him at the Audience Chamber. He draws 5 destinies and my 1 is reduced to a 0 by Artoo or See-threepio or something. I have the cool ass tech and forfeit a Chevin to cancel all the remaining attrition which woulda wiped out half my guys. I move the remaining guys to Jabba’s Palace. Then he flips, retreives his lost pile, cancels Scum and hits me with some OBD damage and drains. I can’t do @#$% because he’s following me with a 3 destiny hit squad and he’s using Narrow Escapes if I try to get his lone Han at Jabba’s Palace. Order to Engage, OBD, and drains do me in. FL by 32
Total: 4(+33)
Highs: Keeping his hand in check with a bluffed Monnok (mostly)
Lows: OBD damage sucks
So now it’s announced we’ll go 6 games which makes everyone happy.
Game Four: LS vs. Mark Schneider’s (1471) ISB Operations
He starts out IAO, Mobilization Points and something else that I can’t remember and I start my usual. I get a god hand against ISB: Colonel Cracken, Battle Plan and Menace Fades. I set up General Lando in Gold 1 at Endor and General Crix with CocK, Cracken, and Wuta at the Rebel Landing Site. He’s not doing anything and just drawing. The only thing he dropped was the Ops Killer, Leave Them To Me. He loses Vader off the top to one of my drains and then he retreives him with Leave Them To Me, which I thought was pretty cool. I’m saving Battle Plan and Menace Fades until he drops some guys and when he does, 3 ISBs and Mara go to the Hoth Docking Bay. I drop Battle Plan and Menace Fades and he’s like, “Damnit!”. So he’s draining for 1 and I’m spread up about to blow the Bunker but I can’t find any charges. He trys to Elis Mara and the ISBs to the Bunker but I tell him he can’t because of Insurrection so he goes to the Landing Platform and moves his guys in. I drop some scouts and battle him off and he moves away. Then I come down with General Solo and Corporal Midge against Mara and some ISB and he gets his ass beat with my destiny so he leaves the ISB. Then he trys to play Limited Resources right as I’m drawing a card and I’m like: “It’s my draw phase and I get first action.” but he didn’t say he wanted to play it in my battle phase or anything, which I would’ve had to let him do. On his turn he comes down with 3 ISBs to the Platform to try to get some revenge but luckily I see Cracken out of the corner of my eye and he loses the 3 Force then transits away to Hoth.
By now I’m getting pissed because I can’t find any Charges even though I use 3 and 2 Throw Me A Charge. So I Projection the Hoth Docking Bay and move my guys at the Bunker to the Back Door with it’s text and flip my objective. He drops more ISBs and splits them into 3 groups at 3 docking bays. I drop Jedi Luke on one group and lay the smack down then transit to the next docking bay. He drops Vader, battles, but I only lose a couple. I battle him again and nothing happens except the ISBs dying off. So I Projection Vader’s docking bay and transit Luke to the Docking Bay since he’s getting low on force now and it’s all about the differential. It takes two more turns before he’s drained out. FW by 24
Total: 6(+57)
Highs: Playing smart (Cracken, other ways to flip objective, Projections, etc.)
Lows: Someone trying to play Limited Resources on me
Game Five: DS vs. Eddo (Eddie) Brown’s (1462 [rating doesn’t reflect ability]) Tatooine Retrieval
I told him I wouldn’t talk much about the game, but I’ll just say a couple things: 1) Abyssins rule 2) Abyssins rule 3) By the way, did I mention that Abyssins rule? FW by 40
Total: 8(+97)
Highs: Getting the rights to rag on him for the amount; pissing him off by being my own DJ and making weird “Wild, Wild, West” noises while he was trying to concentrate (It was all in fun though)
Lows: None
BTW, for some reason I felt extremely tired that game which was why I kept making those noises (to stay awake), but he was cool with it. So Rob, whose birthday it was, is making some crackhead General Blissex with an afro and this huge ass goatee and stuff which is pretty funny to me since I’m so tired.
Then Adam from Game 3 is pissed cuz his big stack of Death Star II rares is gone and no one knows where it is. The TD is all like: “Whoever it was who took his cards, I just gotta tell you how much you suck and how lame that is.” There’s a happy ending later on though...
So cool, I have the highest differential of everyone, but I’m not undefeated so I get to play the person I’ve never beaten:
Game Six: LS vs. Jason Hairston’s (1687) Set Your Course For Alderaan
My first turn I have out Madine and Wuta at the Landing Site and he activates 11. He goes: There’s only one shot and I’m thinking, “Oh @#$%” and he drops Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin. I play Insertion Planning to drop his to a 0 but I lose a bunch. He in control of the game and I know he’s going to win off the bat so I just feel like having some fun. I set up the Bunker to blow and draw the 2 @#$%tiest destinies in my deck full of 5s and 6s. Same with the next turn too =( but the third try works out. I have the DS2 Falcon set up at Endor and he deploys all this powerful stuff and I don’t do anything on my turn because I think I’m so cool because I have It’s A Trap! in my hand. Boy I’m such a @#$%in retard. He Lateral Damages the Falcon and beats on it like it’s his @#$%. Then I deploy Tantive IV with CocK piloting and he Tractor Beams it which I don’t know why he did that since he woulda beaten it down. He’s draining for a bunch (like 7) but he still hasn’t blown up Alderaan and I’m seeing CPIs go off the top or else he’d be draining me for 5 at Sullust. Jeez... FL by 18
Total: 8(+79)
Highs: Getting to check out his Rebel Strike Team deck after the game. You’d never expect what it is. I also have my proof of my theory: I do good against normal players but scrub out against good ones.
Lows: Being a retard and thinking I was so smart because I had It’s A Trap in hand.
Well during that game some Games Galore finds a stack of DS2 rares in some kids box. He asks Adam what cards are in it along with how many Anakin Skywalkers and Adam gets them back. The kid told Adam he though they were his own, but I’m skeptical.
Top 5:
1 - Adam Weinstein
2- Jason Hairston
3 - Chris Harmon
4 - Mike Merletto (ME!)
5 - Eddo Brown (Cool, he came back from our game!)
So I get like 5 Death Star II and 1 Cloud City. I pull junk because that’s what I’m good for. Rob wanted me to say how bad he did so... He went 3-3, which shoulda been 6-0 because everyone should’ve rolled over and drew up for him because it was his birthday =P