rochester-ny-9-30-00-part-i-of-ii
Title: rochester-ny-9-30-00-part-i-of-ii
Author: Ted "Rogue15" Panczyszyn
Date: Oct 1, 2000
Prelude:
North Suburb of Philly, PA, 12:30pm on Friday... My work is done, I have a 1/2 a personal day to leave early, go to the gym, then be on the road by 3pm. The drive up to Rochester is uneventful and traffic is light the whole way. At one point I am behind a caravan of college-aged kids that are bobbing and weaving and not letting anyone pass them... kinda immature but it is their insurance rates, not mine. As I get into NY I look in my rear-view mirror and there is a NYS Trooper behind me. My cruise control has been set at 74 mph for most of the trip.. I glide into the right lane (I was passing some guy) and he blows by me at ludicrous speed. I guess I wasn’t the one he was looking for.. I arrive at TJ Mergott’s house at 8pm. He tells me the pizza is on the way and Chris Janiak is coming over. I give him the cards he needed for his decks (he "retired about a year ago or so...sold his cards and stuff) as we had been talking all week. He was perfecting an Asteroid Sactuary deck and he wanted to play a version of Monkey Ties after seeing it on here. The food arrives..Chris calls because he is lost (TJ lives in the middle of nowhere about 40 minutes SW of Rochester) but he shows up soon. Chris and TJ playtest, TJ gets smacked around like a rag doll. Chris really wants to play me because of the beating he got last time I was around. I concede and whip out a HB deck with matching pilots that I’ve been messing with. He plays BHBM and basically rapes me. I tell him I have another LS deck that I am playing tomorrow. He begs me for info, but I decline.. he says he isn’t playing anyway..but I still hold my ground. At about 1AM I call it a night but TJ’s brother Patrick wants to stay up talking about stuff...so 3AM it is for me!! We wake up at 9:30AM, get some brecky..then head in for the tournament.
Chapter I: Millenium Games
We arrive at about 11:50AM for a 12PM start. There are about 20 swccg players there, but most are there for a Doomtown tourney.. that kinda sucks.. and we get word that the TD is running late and will be there at 12:20. At that time we have 12 folks ready to play. This was supposed to be a $10 entry to win a Premiere Limited set of rares. He decides that he can’t do it with only 12 players so it becomes a $5 entry/regular support tourny. We get paired up at about 12:45 for the first game.
My Decks: DS: Big Pete’s Revenge (4-1 in tourny play)
LS: Kim’s Dagoboring deck (new to me...)
Game 1 LS v. Ben Rich’s Rallops Deck
I hate rallops, but it doesn’t become a big factor in this game.. eventually it is Search and Destroy that screws me over. My goal is to train DOS to 3 with MWYHL then do direct damage with AFA and Visored Vision Combo’s. I have Jedi Luke and his toy there once I have my tests passed and I can basically be immune to attrition <10 (test 3 adjustment and Yoda at Hut) then ICBW the rest of the damage. I decide to put Luke down on Raltiir early to slow him up while I train, hoping to put my Kessel out later with my spaceships. I manage to slow him a bit, but the inevitable occurs. I never get Hiding in the garbage out to get the effects and interrupts I need to slow him down. I also failed test 1 and 2 the first 2 times I tried them, which didn’t help. Not much interaction on the table, but we had a ball busting each other’s balls for the whole game. FL by 22. 0(-22)
Props: Ben’s a good kid and played well. My Jedi Luke made his tourney debut.
Slops: Search and Destroy, @$$ for destiny draws.
At this point, Chris Janiak arrives to hang out and watch. He gets kinda annoying and he plays all of the players that have finished. It seemed like he wanted to play good players but that he didn’t want to risk his rating or whatever by playing. Whatever. He’s going to D-Con so He needs the practice!!
Game 2 DS v. Nick Bongio’s HB Swarm
I don’t know Nick, but he seemed relatively new to the game. He had a dangerous deck which should spank my space-lacking DS deck, but he often didn’t read his or my cards and he got behind the 8-ball early. He had played wise advice and forgot to "use" his sensed and altered cards...we both caught on about halfway through the game..and he forgot about the "Zuckuss in Mist Hunter" text and left some guys there without a draw. I tried like hell to avoid his x wing cannons too, as I had 4lo m with toy on ZIMH, Dengar, and Bossk in Bus caravaning around the universe... On the ground he had Bousch blocking drains until I snipered her and I basically was draining him for 5-6 per turn on the ground while he chased me all over upstairs. He did not flip for the longest time, which could have saved him the game too. FW by 9 in the long run. 2(-13).
Props: A good sport and he accepted feedback on how to play his deck better. A lucky win overall.. I worry that if I had been too helpful I would have lost... but his differential is still respectable, mine however..
Slops: None, really. I got the cards I needed most of the time.
We break 30 minutes for lunch and the TD announces we are only doing 4 games because he has to work. I’m a little peeved because the other TD for the store was there at noon and we could have started on time and figured out the rest after he arrived. Oh well.
Game 3 LS v. Nick Smarcz’s Court deck
Interesting matchup... He gets Jabba out first turn, I insert and AFA and "ICBW the one loss.... Next turn I sack Your insight serves you well to get Honor. I draw Hiding in the Garbage and he still only has the two starting battlegrounds out. I use it the following turn to get my Projection of a Skywalker’s out and basically pass all my tests within 5-6 turns. The best battle occurred when I deployed 2 RS x-wings at Kessel. He deploys BobaFett in Slave 1 there and battles...He drew a site for destiny and I lose the force from my hand. Up until that point he had deployed all kinds of scummy aliens and stuff to those locations, but he could not drain me anywhere. He then deploys Lars Farm and Mara Jade and some backup... I deploy TK422 there and another RS x-wing to Kessel and I wait for him to battle me. He deploys Vader’s shuttle and only had one force to initiate a battle ( I also had Wars Not Make One Great on the Hut). He loses 4 to AFA and 3 to OTE. I deploy RL in R1 with X-wing cannons. I initiate, target (miss) win, he sacks everything and I play Legendary Starfighter on RL. It’s all math after that. FW by 12.
4(-1).
Props: Everything worked as it should.
Slops: None, really.
Game 4 DS v Ben Rich’s Endor Ops deck
Rematch. Excellent. Big Pete’s Revenge is a ground-pounding schmack-down waiting to happen. He decides to own the landing site by getting a scout every turn, Wuta, Madine...etc. I stayed on Hoth until he put some "Projection of a Skywalker" on 3rd marker. He deploys a second Endor site and deploys DOS and more scouts and stuff. I decide to Deploy some of my guys to Endor, then Elis over Vader, Ozzel, some other guys... He puts out more sites, but he never controls 3. We have a brief skrimish at Endor System and he enables "Menace Fades" easily between his 2 locations. I Deploy Mara to a site, he deploys obi (barriered) then moves the rest of his crew over to pop mara. I disarm obi next turn then move Dr. E over (bye, Obi) and then the rest of my crew. He deploys more there. Next turn I initiate and "you are beaten" EPP Luke, Cancel General Solo’s text, then make them all go awaw with EPP Fett and Dengar’s guns. He had Weapon Levitated Mara’s Saber to DOS, but had to sack her afterward. Luke runs away to where Ozzel, Tarkin, and VAder are waiting and I just pouond him into oblivion to end the game. I think we exchanged a few drains afterwards, but it was basically over at that point. FW by 15.
Chris tries to get everyone to stay for 6 games (even though he is not playing....), but the Rich brothers’ ride arrived and TJ and I were satisfied being 3-1 and were very tired. I finish 6(+14) TJ finishes 6(+27) His Asteroid deck was the surprise he expected, going 2-0, and somebody made mincemeat out of Monkey Ties in his 2nd game. We went back to his house to eat and watch TV and stuff. Jake Rich wins 6(60), Tom Colloraco 6(50+) Reid (something) 6 (more than TJ), TJ, then me.
We hung out, ate leftover pizza and watched Dave Chappelle’s comedy routine (taped), Office Space (weird movie..), John Legiuzamos "Freak" (excellent show!! a must see!!) then I zonked at about 1AM during "Night at the Roxbury" (boring..)
Thanks for reading..look for Part Deux sometime Monday night!!!
Ted