nashville-gs-9-9-2000-by-chu
Title: nashville-gs-9-9-2000-by-chu
Author: Jonathan "jonnychu" Chu
Date: Sep 13, 2000
***Pre-Slam***
So I’m back in Nashville for school and get down here about two weeks early, on the 15th of August, cuz I want to go to the Slam that weekend here in Nash. Lucky for me, after the 18 hour drive, it was decidedly postponed until the 9th of September. Goddamn. So I head over to the Hays residence to bum off him for a few days and play some Wars. I hadn’t played since Origins.
So I get to his house and he’s goin off about his GenCon TIE deck and stuff. I had seen it on Decktech when it was posted by Steve Lewis the day before, and it looked like a pile. I showed it to my friend Travis up in Albany and he looks at it and says it’s a pile. So I’m convinced this is just a pile of cards. However, Clint is all up like this is ambrosia from the Gods and so we play. I’m sporting a straight-up Hidden Base xwing swarm deck because this deck is the stuff. Anyway, we play a few games and I win the first three. Grumbling ensues and then he beats me. I’m still not convinced the deck is any good but whatever. We meet up with Steve Lewis and he beats my EBO with the TIE deck by a few. I thought I had it early and this shows the depth of this deck. Still I have my doubts.
Clint goes off to college and I drive down to scrub off another friend of mine for a week. Then school starts, I put my cards away, and they disappear until a few days before the Slam.
I’m talking in IRC one day and someone mentions that Praskac and TJ are wantin to come down to play in Nashville. So I email Praskac and offer him a place to stay. He is good with that. Him and TJ have problems working out transportation so Praskac eventually has to fly down and TJ is driving by himself. Whatever. Charlie Herren and Clay Ramey email me the day before the Slam and need a place to stay so they come up too. So on Friday night, we test decks through to 6 am. I’m undecided on what to play and pick up two decks that worked well back home: BHBM with some tech and Xwings for light side.
*** Tourney ***
The tournament was run by Jim Colson at a Super 8 Motel in Franklin, Tennessee. Jim did a great job running the deal, keeping it very organized and efficient. There were 32 people total.
As I said before, my decks were speed BHBM with meta and Xwings. I was very confident with the BHBM (designed by Matt Sokol himself) and hoped I would get some good matchups with the Xwings. The deck is slow but since all movement is free (Rendezvous to Endor, and Sullust/Mon Cal) you get to draw a lot of stuff to use to stop whatever the other guy puts out.
Game One: LS vs Russell Cleeton (1667)’s Endor Operations.
This game got off to a fast activation start for both players. He dropped Death Star and drew some. I dropped Sullust from my hand, organized for 3 xwings, converted his Endor and put out my ships/moved them to Endor for free. I had that drain for the game. Each turn I kept putting up Xwings and moving them for free, then drawing most of my force. Basically wherever he came, I beat him down, and cancelled his ground drains. He utilized Rumors a few times during the game but I retrieved my lost pile at the end.
Quick and painless.
FW 2 +28
Highlights: The deck worked like it should.
Lowlights: none.
Charlie Herren had to play Steve Lewis and came out with an early loss. So did TJ, who had to play Charlie’s friend Clay. Charlie’s regional-winning light deck apparently worked like a machine for Clay.
Game Two: DS vs Peter Campbell (1835)’s Anoat start AS
Well.. he starts Anoat and signals for Rebel Fleet. Hmm... cool. The game was a lot of fun --- Peter is from Calamari and was up touring the US and was around for the Slam --- and we talked a bit before playing. I guess the meta was different also because I had never seen this start before and didn’t know what to expect. Anyway, I fish for the Emperor and stuff and alter his fleet. He controls. I alter again. It dies. Turns out he was playing sanctuary with motley ships and hardly any guys. I kept beating up his ships and sensing the reacts to/from Anoat. Your Destiny bit into him hard. I saw TK-422 go from the top and no spies every hit the table. The drains/direct damage became too much too quick.
FW 2 +17, TOTAL 4 +45
Highlights: altering the fleet early
Lowlights: none
Steve and Clint and Praskac all won again. We got lucky and didn’t have to play each other the first round, but of course it would have to start sometime...
Game Three: LS vs Steven Lewis (2030)’s Court-flip.
Court flip? WTF? Well I didn’t know what to expect. Turns out it wouldn’tve mattered. Steve puts out Jabba first turn, I fish for Honor, and he drops Tat: JP. Next turn Gailid, Mara. Next turn, Cantina and guys. Man and I’m moving my Xwings for free and pinging him for one. I signal for fleet second turn and it happens to be in my 3 force. How balls. I can’t find my systems fast enough and he batters me with ground drains. I also know if I put out a spy he will get Hutt Smooched and eaten by the Rancor. This matchup sucked ass and he massacred me in a matter of minutes. We were by far the first game done.
FL 0 -25, TOTAL 4 +20
Highlights: playing against Steve cuz it’s fun to play against him
Lowlights: The game
So I got raped, Clint and Praskac each win (Praskac against TJ). Scott Anderson is also somewhere up there, as is Charlie. Around now, some guy is trying to sell off his collection. Jim Sells hears about it, flips through the stuff and finds a lot of good cards. He talks him down to $240, and between Hays, Steve Jim and I, we split the collection. Yeeaahh... lots of good stuff in there.
Game Four: DS vs Randy Koruschak (1787)’s EBO.
Randy is a cool guy who reminded me of some cool guys I had met at some time before. Anyways I get off to a fast start and commence the draining. Your Destiny is hitting him for some. SAC is wreaking havoc. He comes to space and I beat him down or prevent him from doing anything. We talk and it’s fun but I feel like I had control over this game from the beginning. It’s a tough matchup.
FW 2 +24, TOTAL 6 +44
Highlights: nice matchup, cool opponent.
Lowlights: none
Clint Steve and Praskac are all undefeated right now. That’s it. Clint and Steve get drawn for LS each, Steve paired up with Praskac. So Clint and Steve will never have to play. I am also paired as LS so I won’t have to play them! Woohoo! On to the game...
Game Five: LS vs Charlie Herren (1985)’s TJ-tech ROPs
TJ plays some goofy stuff like always and Charlie found a liking to it so he sported the deck. I got off to a fast start and drew some systems. Decent activation for both of us; he flipped second or third turn with David Jon, Janus and Mara (?). I flipped also early, but couldn’t find S-Foils for the beating. Also managed to grab his Barrier. I sat 6 xwings at Kessel and 5 at Endor (dunno why, never wanted to spend the force to move away to my other drain 0 systems) and shot down or beat up anything he put down. He probed correctly on the third try and I lost a handful of force. He also set up We’re in Attack Position with Arden, Desanne and some other punk on the ground but EPP Luke took care of one of them and Concentrate All Fire kept replacing his junk. The drain of 2 hit him every turn. Retrieval, Civil Disorder also bit in. Lucky for me TJ didn’t pack Search and Destroy in his original deck. It was drawn out but fun.
FW 2 +15, TOTAL 8 +59
Highlights: playing well, doing well, the deck did well.
Lowlights: I won because he didn’t play search and destroy. I gotta fit in junk for that...
Praskac beat Lewis and so has to play Clint in Game Six. Lewis and Scott Anderson are paired up on Table 2. I am the lowest 4-1 and have to play TJ, who is the highest 3-2.
Game Six: DS vs TJ’s LS Rebel Strike mains
The only other time I had played TJ was in the Ramapo finals and all the games were tight... so this would be a tough match. Emperor came out and sat at DS2 Docking Bay while I fished for other junk. Second or third-turn Blount/EPP Luke combo minced him and a few cards, while Blount hit the tank. This effectively stranded Luke at a non-battleground the enitre game, and I never deployed my only battelground docking bay. Choke Vader and a saber came down at his Rebel landing site and Your Destiny got into effect. He shoots Vader with Han (and You Cannot Hide) but Vader chokes him and mashes Leia and the other scrub he through down there. Another Vader hits the table. I set up space control and mess around with his guys in space. Weird tech hits the table and suddenly he’s losing 8-10 force a turn between drains and damage and all I’m suckin up is Luke’s force drain at my Throne Room. He throws more junk out but it gets batted aside by the machine that is the BEAST.
FW 2 +13, TOTAL 10 +72
Steve Lewis wins, Praskac beats Hays in a timed win to go undefeated and win the tournament. Lewis comes in second, I in third, Clint in 4th. The top two forego a duel and claim the rare sheets; me and Clint claim the Uncommons. Great tournament with a lot of different decks; for DS, Rallops, Court with Flip, court without, Monkey TIEs, TIE Bombers, BHBM, SYCFA Scum,you name it. LS, Profit, Hidden Base mains, Rebel Strike Team, Hidden Base space, matching pilots, EBO with Tibs, etc. Lots of variety.
Props and Slops:
Props
-Praskac for flying down, finding me in a closing airport and winning.
-TJ for driving 10 hours to play.
-Scott Anderson for being cool as hell
-the little girl at Q-zar for calling Clint a @#$%
-Colson for running a phat tourney
-Jim Sells for finding the collection and splitting
-Charlie and Clay for being cool
-Team Albany for being the best group of players in the world. [plug]
Slops
-Clint for being a pedophile
-TJ for being a pedophile
-BNA for closing down at 10:30
-having no money
-having gay roommates
-etc
Take it easy. Hope the report helped you get a good idea of what was seen there and what worked/what didn’t.
Jonathan Chu