10-05-00
Title: 10-05-00
Author: Brian "IceHot" Muller
Date: Oct 11, 2000
Pre-Tourney:
A week before Decipher-Con I get sent to Vegas on a business trip. So practicing is not an option. On the way home my flight gets laid over in Cincinattii. My flight to Orlando leaves the next day out of Greensboro a hour and a half drive from my home in Moneta, Virginia. I guess I am going to have to sleep on the plane. Anyway I arrive on Tuesday to meet former Yavin IV Regional Champion Gary Mohnsen. He brought most of my cards with him when he went down on Sunday.
We practiced a few matches. My Light deck was having trouble against BHBM, but all the games were close. I play tested my BHBM against profit. I lost the first 2 games, but figured out how to play against it. After that I won the next 7 straight.
Wednesday we head of to Disney World to kill some time before Steven Turner arrives. We go to the wide world of sports. It was empty, but we had some fun. I kicked a field goal, barefoot.
Steve gets in and we head to DW again. We ride Aerosmith’s roller coaster. Steve makes some obnoxious comments while we are in line. I was laughing my @s$ off. I thought we were going to get kicked out of DW. We head for dinner at the Prime Time Cafe in DW. Steve gets chastised by the waiter for having his elbows on the table, but we still get our "Clean Plate Club" stickers.
Anyway we get back to the hotel. I watch Gary and Steve wreck the new Star Wars video game, before we head up to play test. I do well with my Light deck, but Steve is the better player. I can beat Steve when Gary helps me and I get lucky. I usually get frustrated against Steve and make 1 or 2 mistakes. That is all it takes for Steve to beat me.
I go to bed and resolve not to make any dumb mistakes tommorrow.
Day 1
The morning comes very early. We check out of the DW hotel and head for DecipherCon. Gary forgets to pack his pillow and I tell him I will cary it. We grab a cab. The cabbie complains because one of our suitcases is filled with cards. I pull the suit case out of the trunk for him, but at some point I left Gary’s pillow behind. Gary is not happy.
Anyway, we get in this huge preregistration line. We run into Todd Rowe, Adam Weinstein, Steven Lewis, Jim Sells, and a bunch of other people I have meet over the years. One of the best parts of playing SW is meeting new people form all over the world. Steve starts his pregame pyschology. Eventually someone says for 5 bucks you can go to the front of the line. The key is not to preregister. We skip ahead. This is good because it gives us time to fill out and double check are Deck Lists.
I decide to play BHBM and my Turn Vader deck.
After we get back down stairs, I start talking to Todd Rowe. Todd is one of the funniest SW players I know. We see Steve getting into a confrontation that we knew might happen. It was some what entertaining. All this talk of aggresive postures, martial arts, and chairs being thrown. I play hockey and have no problem with a brawl, but thankfully it doesn’t come to this. Anyway Steve can handle himself. He is well built and use to wrestle in college. The guy was big, but Steve would have cleaned his clock. Anway it ends peacefully. We still have about 2 hours to kill before Decipher gets their crap together and gets Day 1 underway.
We discuss that if I play smart I should be able to go 6-2 or 5-3 and that might get me to day 2. I am obviously the dark horse from our group. Todd discussed the strategy of dropping the first match for the easy road. Steve says that isn’t smart because all these guys are going to be tough. He was right about that.
Heidi shows up and we convince her to try to qualify for YJ even though she missed the start of the first match. They let her take an automatic lose.
Finally they post the pairings. And I draw...Chris Terwilliger (#2 in the World). Great, well I pretty much pencilled in my first lose. I guess it is going to be the low road for me.
Match 1: Dark vs Chris Terwilliger (#2 in the World) - Hidden Base, Endor Strike Planning
Chris takes the early lead dominating space. I played patiently. The key moment was the Baron shooting down the Falcon with Gen Calrisian, Nien Nunb, and Sqd Leader Wedge aboard. Leaving Melas alone in Red 5 w/ Artoo. Everybody plus 12. Pretty much my game from there.
FW +19
2 (+ 19)
Match 2: Light vs Chris Shaner - The Deal is Getting Worse
I was afraid of a quick flip with Dark Deal so I maintained control of key Bespin locations early. He attacked twice, but I beat him soundly. I killed Vader with a 6, and never saw him again.
FW +20
4 (+39)
Match 3: Dark vs Peter Di Biasio of England (He went 8-0 on the Day) - EBO Baragwins
I was missing a key card - Imperial Decree. I attempted to penetrate Hoth, but found out the cummulative rule doesn’t work on Baragwains. I eventually cancelled Decree, but I was uneffective in space.
FL -17
4 (+22)
I hear Steven Lewis is DQ’ed because he only listed 58 cards. That’s bung.
Match 4: Light vs T. J. Holman (I am drawing the big players today) - Scum Retrival Deck
I beat him in an early battle stack and drain with Luke, he has no Imperials so Luke is a wrecker with his saber. I learn quickly that the key to victory is concentration of mass and pursuit. I pull the generic DB and head to Tatoine. Luke and Han and some scrubs work there way into the Palace and cancel Scum. I stacked about 4 or 5 cards. T. J. is a great player, but my deck works well against his.
FW +21
6 (+43)
At the break (halfway):
I am overjoyed at the sucess I am having against the big players. Steve and Gary are calling me the "Giant Killer." I am 3-1 at the break. I feel like I have a shot, but I know it gets tough from here. I figure I just need to go 3-1 on the backside.
Match 5: Dark vs Justin Burrows(?) - EBO Haven Star Cruiser Variation
I hate EBO. If only I had never taken out that Decree. I cancel EBO, but again it is too late. He deploys Kiffex and some more stuff late in the game, that seals his victory, but costs him some differential.
FL -9
6 (+34)
Match 6: Light vs. Jason Denais(?) - BHBM Duelling Deck
Standard start. Emperor deploys. I give him Luke. He brings Vader. He loses 1 a turn. I set up a drain to draw his attention and try to get my 3 victories. He doesn’t bite. Instead he goes to the Throne Room to duel me. No problem. I figure I will win the duels and those count just like battles. I get counter assaulted. He stacked cards 7, 7, 7, 5, 3 - ouch. I lose about 22 cards. He duels. I win the first 11 to 10. Only 2 more to go. He wins the next 2 duels. I lose 6 more force. I win the 4th duel 12 to 11. We tie a duel at 12. He starts draining me in space, but I can’t muster enough strength to win a 3rd battle. He duels me one more time to run me out of force.
FL -19
6 (+15)
Now my back is against a wall I have to win the last 2
Match 7: Dark vs. Mark Berta(?) - Dagobah Hut Start w/ DB’s
I pull the emperor in my hand, but I also drew Kuat. I get Wakemuli and jump to an early force lead. I mass at the Tatoiine DB to prevent an early deploy of the old man. I use Mejarik to pull Kashyyk and expand my force drain. He gives me me Luke. He tries to slow the game with resistance, but my force generation is to much for him.
FW +13
8 (+28)
Anothert guy I think Jonathan Chu is DQ’ed after 7 games. That is BS. How can decipher let someone play for 14 hours and then tell him that he is DQ’ed. What a bunch of bung.
Well I have a glimmer of hope, but I am on the 27th table and I am going to have to win my final match big. I need to jump up about 20 positions to get in. I am exhausted it is about 2:00 am and we have been waiting (I mean playing since 10:00 am).
Match 8: Light vs. The Deal is getting worse (again).
He deploys Ozel and Evax to Bespin. I wreck him with Han, Greeves, and Delvar. I draw a 6 - victory 1. He deploys OS-10 to CC. I get Blount and Wedge in Red 6 and Red 3, I don’t have enough to deploy and battle so I wait. He backs OS-10 up with Bossk. I attack. I win - victory 2 - but it costs me Blount (he got 2 destiny draws.) I retreat to Chandria. Luke has been draing him at endor DB. So he decides to deploy Vader w/ his tie to force Luke to used pile. The ruling is there is not enough room to capture him. So, Vader gets out, big mistake. My objective flips. I pull Chewie and deploy him to Red 6 and bring Wedge back. He deploys another ship and battles. I draw a 6 cancel his destiny. I win victory 3. My turn I shuffle my deck let him cut. I draw 6. "Boom, welcome to the light side Vader!" He ends up losing about 45 cards in one move. I won by 31. I needed the big victory to have a chance at the cut.
FW +31
10 (+59)
The game only took about 15 minutes, but at that time of night it was emotionally draining. I had to turn Vader to make the cut and I did.
I anxiously await Gary, Steven, and Todd Rowe’s matches they are all on the bubble too. Gary pulls out a close victory and Steve wins his. We wait for Juz to read the standings from bottom up. Gary has the worst differential, but he makes the cut with a tie for the 38 spot. I ended up 29th. Steve and Todd both make the cut too. Yavin IV gets 9 guys to Day 2, Coruscant gets 10.
Time to call it a night. It’s only 3:30am.
Slops:
- Decipher registration for being poorly planned. They had to know how many people were coming based on preregistration.
- Decipher for poor organization. that most have been the slowest tourney on the planet.
- Me for losing Gary’s pillow
Props:
- Steven, Gary, Todd Rowe, and Jim Sells for making the cut with me.
- Peter D. for going undefeated.
- Chris Terwilliger and T. j. Hollman for being awesome players and awesome people (They understood how excited I was to actually beat these great players).
- Heidi for making the Day 2 cut (5-3) in YJ despite taking an auto lose in the first match.