the-bad-player-goes-to-deciphercon
Title: the-bad-player-goes-to-deciphercon
Author: Charlie "Bad Player" Herren
Date: Oct 11, 2000
After the Nashville GS, I begin testing ideas that were brought about from what I saw there. I playtested a wide variety of decks, and I eventually settled on 6 different decks, 3 for each side. I figured that I would pick decks the morning of or night before...
I make arrangements to stay with Stephen Michael, Clay Ramey, and Mike Kessling, since they are all heading to Florida by car.
I arrive at the Orlando airport at around 11:00AM, and then the Doubletree at around noon. I wander around, and I am informed that Day 1 of worlds hasn’t even started. I start playing pickup games against Clint Hays, John Lolli, and other day 2 qualifiers. My musician deck continually hands out the beats, so I figure I’ll go with that for day 2. I play many, many games over the course of the day. At around 1AM, I decide to go to sleep, and I start looking for Stephen Michael for the key to the room (he was one of the many who were DQed). At this point in time, I didn’t even know that the Sawgrass room existed (which is where Stephen was the entire time). I grab all my stuff and walk to the Motel 6, where we are to stay. I find that Stephen isn’t in the room, and I call his house from Motel 6 and get his cell phone number. I call him on his cell phone, and get him to talk to the clerk at the Motel 6 so I can get into the room and sleep. A few short minutes later, I was asleep in bed.
The wakeup call comes at 8AM, and I sleep through it. I wake up an hour later in panic, take a shower, wake Mike Kessling up, and we’re off to the Doubletree. We get there around 9:20, and Mike Kessling begins to talk to Decipher reps about the situation with his regional (Michael Riboulet, the Naboo regional winner, was not in attendance). Gabe Alonso, the alternate for day 2, learns of this from Mike, and he drags Mike along and converses with more Decipher reps until it is decided that both Mike Kessling and Gabe are to play. Decklists are written, counted, and checked over four times, and the games begin.
Decks:
DS- "Forty-Six and 2"
A Musician deck with a Court start and mucho direct damage.
LS- "4 Degrees"
EBO with Home One combos and Ishi Tibs (originally inspired by the deck Chris Prascoc.k used to win the Nashville GS)
Game 1: LS vs. Gary Carman (SYCFA start, big blue space, Imperial Command)
I get a very slow start in this game, with no Ishi Tibs or Chimes until I have 20 cards in hand. He gets a fast setup with a turn 1 Emperor to the Death Star DB, then gets out systems and draws cards. I finally set EBO up with blount and 2 ishi tibs. He commits a few Victory Class Star Destroyers to Hoth with Chiraneau and starts his drains. I drop Home One, Ackbar, Hass’n, Redemption, Jedi Luke, and Han all down at Hoth, with Haven and Order to Engage. He drops the executor, vader, and tarkin. I also make a bonehead play. He has his mass of ships in space, to my 2, and he’s outpowering me by a load. I drop EPP Obi against the emperor, and I have 8 force left. He has Something Special Planned for Them on the table. I battle (7 force), he plays Projective Telepathy. Now, if you were a good player, what would you do? That’s right. You’d let the battle be cancelled and go about your way. However, being the one and only "Bad Player," I pay the force, which leaves me with 5, only to get hammered in the following turn, losing both of my ships. I assemble the superfalcon late, but I can’t outdamage him, as he has a lot of power and has Reactor Terminal out (which I missed 2 alters on).
FL by 28
0(-28)
Highs: Um, ok.
Lows: Um, everything. I suck.
Woohoo! 69th place after one game!
Game 2: DS vs. Jared Lockwood (HB matching pilots/OMDH)
The toughest matchup my deck has, and I get to play against it. I get a decent start from the beginning, getting Ak-Rev in the opening hand (he searches for all the other musicians). I pull Mara from reserve on turn 1. He gets a typical set-up, pulling Kashyyyk and other systems and eventually flipping. Honor hurts for a couple of turns, but I drop a POTF to the Dungeon to make a 3rd battleground. He starts taking damage to Court and Search, and then he drops Ben Kenobi, Tawss Khaa, and other aliens on Tatooine. He flips, and I get my ships into space. I probe 4 different planets and nail his HB. He starts fighting me on Tatooine, but Ben saves most of his characters from dying. He’s draining me for a good bit more than I am draining him. He gets Bacta Tank and Legendary Starfighter rolling, and I just can’t stop that. He never gets OMDH off, mainly because of a Secret Plans start.
FL by 3
0(-31)
Highs: close game against a bad matchup
Lows: We both made mistakes that game. He could have played Legendary 2 turns earlier, I could have not probed with Shut Him Up/Down and cancelled Bacta Tank.
Time for the "sea of jizz."
Game 3: DS vs. Sylvain Duc (Uh-Oh/Bo Shuda Profit with Eloms) (regional winner from France)
This is ANOTHER bad matchup for my deck. He signals out Order to Engage on Turn 1. I lose the AC, which is pretty crucial for the deck, and everything turns out to be ass. He gets his drains set up with Tessek, and I’m done for. I managed to beat down some eloms for 10 cards, so I kept it fairly close. He dropped Bargaining Table, and was spreading to hit me for 3 in profit damage and 8 in drains.
I lose the drain race.
FL by 17
0(-48)
Highs: Um.
Lows: Losing to a deck filled with Eloms.
Game 4: LS vs. Gabe Alonso (court scum)
I get another bad start, with no Ishi Tibs/chimes in the opening hand. I get a signal after drawing for a turn, and I get out Honor of the Jedi. I get out EBO on turn 5 or so with Ishi Tibs, and he gets set up on the ground. I get my 2 Projections out. I lose BOTH of my Home Ones off the top. I get out Battle Plan and the falcon with captain han and haven at hoth. He drops Dengar with ship, IG with ship, and Fett with ship, and battles. I react with spiral. I draw destiny of like 8, and he loses Fett and Dengar. I lose the spiral and Han. He has IG, and I have an empty falcon, so Haven is still alive. He drops Danz borin aboard IG with ship, so Haven is cancelled. On my turn, I drop the Independance, Ackbar, Hass’n, and battle, and he loses the ship, Danz, and around 14. I eventually drop Jedi Luke and Obi to Tatooine to satisfy court and battle order. I am draining him for 4 a turn, he’s hitting me for 2, and I’m chasing him around. I get out Order to Engage, and the game ends from there.
FW by 18
2(-30)
Highs: Winning finally.
Lows: Gabe made many mistakes that game.
Game 5: LS vs. Jim Li (court scum)
I know what I have to do to win this game, except I’m only missing one thing: Honor of the Jedi. I get a signal finally, but then I lose Honor off the top that turn. Bad luck on my part means I lose this game. He gets a drain in space set up, and he’s hitting me for Search and court damage. Losing Honor basically forced me to commit to space to try to win a drain race. I get out Order to Engage and start chasing his ships around, so we’re somewhat even on the race for a bit. He eventually gets out a drain-2 tatooine site with characters there, and I can’t find more mains after I used an Obi to kill a mara. I lose this game pretty uneventfully.
FL by 24
2(-54)
Highs: wheee
Lows: ANOTHER bad draw, losing the one thing that could have won me the game off the top of my deck.
Game 6: DS vs. Kouji ? (EBO with matching pilots) (regional winner from Japan)
I feel pretty advantaged this game, since Court is slightly advantaged against EBO (musicians even moreso). I get out Ak-rev, scum, and greeata quickly, and I get my setup on tatooine with all 3 sites occupied (POTF at dungeon again). He drops Blount/Tala 2 to a system, and I follow with Bossk/Zuckuss in ships. He Hyper Escapes away. We drain each otehr for a bit, and I start chasing his ships around. I use Fett to go on suicide runs, and I retrieve him constantly with Scum. He loses the war of attrition after Fett takes out around 5 ships.
FW by 32
4(-22)
Highs: no cards in lost pile at end of game. He gave me 2 japanese packs after the game was over, and he played with excellent sportsmanship.
Lows: none
Game 7: DS vs. Michael Josem (EBO/baragwins)
I get a good start this game, too, and I get Ak-rev, jabba, and scum out on turn 1. He starts losing to court, but he has his silly baragwins up. I set up on tatooine, and then monnok him when he has 20 cards in hand. He loses 2 falcons. Quite large when your opponent’s deck is a super-falcon deck. I start draining him in space when he drops Hoth. I’m draining him for a lot. He gets the <> forest out, with EPP Obi and a couple of other characters. I get out Umpass-stay, Lyn Me, 4LOM, Dengar, and a few musicians down, and beat him off of the forest in the period of two turns. I drain him out, after deploying lots of cards.
FW by 21
6(-1)
Highs: Winning against another EBO deck. Playing Mike Josem, who was pretty laid back during the game.
Lows: none
Game 8: LS vs. Scott Lingrell (anktopot)
I expected a lot of HuntDown, so I played 2 Transmission Terminateds in my deck. Needless to say, this is the only game where they came in handy. I draw one opening hand, play it, and watch Scott’s face. He looks shocked. He starts invading hoth with everything he has. I drop Honor of the Jedi, and I occupy a space battleground, so his drains on hoth are all 0 except at the north ridge. I drop my mains on Hoth and block his Decree. I use Order to Engage to do some damage to him. After losing some to Search and Destroy, I alter it. I draw lots of cards this game, and I end the game with like 8 cards in hand.
FW by 19
8(+18)
Highs: Finally getting a use for my TransTerms. Playing Lingrell, who always makes for good games.
Lows: none
I ended up in 26th place. I’m satisfied with 4-4, although I’m not entirely happy with it.
After the lengthy tourney, I roam around, play Ghetto War, play SW, and eventually go to bed. Clay and I make up a good MBO deck for Race for Alderaan, but I decide that I’ll sleep and not build one for myself. He plays in it on Saturday and wins. Meanwhile, I’m going from room to room, playing more pickup games. I watched the entirety of both games of the YJ and SW finals, both of which were interesting. I end up getting drinks (much thanks to Kim Caton) and drinking them entirely too fast, so I was buzzed quite well. I played in a little booster draft with TJ, Prascoc.k, Joz, Kim, Lolli, and a couple of others. I get a foil DLOTS and lots of stuff to go with him (I Am Your Father, Your Powers are Weak Old Man, Empire’s Back), but after all 4 games were done, I had 1 victory point: a modified win against Joz. I got utterly wrecked by Prascoc.k, Kim, and TJ. We all go get food after this, and everywhere we go, there’s a wait. We eventually settle on McDonalds, eat, and go back to the Doubletree. Stephen, Clay, and Kessling and I all get together to make decks for the team tourney. We build up 3 copies of the EV9D9 deck that I had been cooking up all day long. Clay opted to play a HuntDown deck.
Lots of pickup games later, it’s 8AM, and the team tourney starts at 10AM. I decide to play my profit deck over my speeder deck, and I stick with my My Kind of Scum/EV9D9 deck for dark.
Game 1: DS vs. Chu (profit)
This game is kinda funny. He gets out EPP Leia, I drop Vader, he uses Someone Who Loves You, I lose Vader, he plays Advantage. Who plays that card? :P Anyway, I lose like 10 cards to that. I manage to get like 3 big drains off on him, so I don’t lose by much (after he spreads on me).
FL by 12
0(-12)
highs: It’s Chu. Chu is cool as hell to play.
lows: losing, I guess
Game 2: LS vs. James Barrett (SYCFA TIE interceptors)
He fails to get a Twilek or SFS for several turns, which hurts a lot. I get a CC site with Jedi Luke out on turn 1, then a saber on like turn 3. I drop Boussh and anakin’s saber to the Death Star DB. I eventually flip my objective with Ben after I have 10 cards in lost pile. I lose my ships off the top a couple of turns later, and I know I’ll be paying for battle order. He drops a TIE interceptor at the Death Star DB, then first strike and fights. I refuse to draw destiny, meaning that nothing happens. Next turn, he gets hit for a lot, I fight, then I draw destiny. I eventually spread very thinly and drain him out.
FW by 21
2(+9)
Highs: winning by 23 against TIEs. Good draw.
Lows: James had a bad draw.. no SFS or twilek until turn 8 or so
At this point, Kessling and Stephen are both 0-2, and Clay is 1-1, so they all decide to drop and go home. I’m without a team, but I decide to keep playing, as the prize support has been good this weekend.
Game 3: LS vs. Kenny Sidhu (TDIGWATT w/exterior sites, 7s, and tramples) (from Alberta, Canada)
I get a decent draw. He drops an ATST to the DB on turn 1. I drop Tawss Khaa there and fight it. He attempts 2 tramples and misses both. I draw destiny, he loses the ATST and 1, I retrieve with Tawss. He kills off Tawss. I drop Leia, he tramples and succeeds, but I catch. I flip, retrieving 10, and I start to pour on the damage. I get my interior sites, and drain there for bunches. We skirmish a bit here and tehre on the ground, and I get Order to Engage up. I block his drains, and when he fights, I either stop the battle, run away, or play Help Me Obi Wan Kenobi and react to the battle with Jedi Luke. This game ends pretty easily.
FW by 28
4(+38)
Highs: High-diff win. Catching Trample.
Lows: None
Game 4: DS vs. Brian Muller (TIGIH scouts) (from VA, I think.. he qualified for day 2)
This game gets off to a quick start. I drop a turn 1 ephant. He gets out crix on turn 1, then moves Luke to the DB. I drop Vader, he barriers, I sense. I battle Crix and he loses Crix. I then transit Vader to the Death Star DB. On my third turn, I drop EV9D9 and 6 droids, and begin my drain. He attempts to stop my drains with Gen Solo and scouts, but I get Mighty Jabba and 4Lom and start drawing 3 destinies, eventually clearing the site. drains of 10 and 12 end it from there.
FW by 13
6(+51)
Highs: Harsh drains with the good start. Sensing a key barrier. Killing Crix Madine
Lows: none
I ended up 7th out of the 70ish people who participated in the event, 2nd highest among 3-1s.
After that, I basically got my stuff and headed home... I am sad that DCon is over. I had lots of fun while I was there. Next year should be just the same... I can’t wait.
Props:
- to Decipher, for running Day 2 without too much of a hitch.
- to Decipher, for DecipherCon.
- to me, for being able to count to 60
- to me, for finally deciding NOT to quit the game.
- to all the cool people I talked to over the course of the weekend.. so many that I couldn’t list them all without taking up too much of your time.
- to Kim Caton, for taking getting DQ’ed better than I would have, and for getting the alcohol for me (being 19 really sucks).
- to John Lolli, for the many, many pickup games and the interesting conversations.
- to everyone I played on Day 2 and the team tourney, for providing me with 12 fun games and lots of good sportsmanship.
- to my musician deck, for laying out some really good beats in pickup games.
- to Mike Kessling, for the playtesting help.
- to Dominic Gauldreault, for going through day 1 and 2 to make day 3. You are the man!
- to Mike Girard, who gave me droids to finish my EV9D9 deck.
- to Neal Razi and John Arendt, for convincing me to get a lot of sleep for day 2.
- to Ghetto Squad, for Ghetto War, the dopest fuc.king game ever.
- to Art Rhodes, for the Team tourney finish... pretty impressive, man.
- to anyone else I managed to forget... I apologize.
Slops:
- to whoever stole Lee Edwards’ and Alex Tennet’s cards.
- to me, for drinking alcoholic stuff too fast. I had never been drunk before until then, and it was quite the interesting experience.
- to me, for forgetting to get stuff signed.
- to the bitc.h at the 7-11 who had an attitude problem
- to the pan pizzas that cost 4.50$
- to the hotel bar, for the @#$%tiest sandwich and fries I’ve had in a long time.
- to Mark Tuttle, for intentionally skipping the word ’jizz’ in Team Jizz Wailers. If it is inappropriate, then WHY is it on the lore of the Droopy McCool card, eh?
- to Decipher, for the most poorly run tourney I have ever seen (day 1 of worlds)
Anyway, it’s been lots of fun. I’ll be playing this game for a couple of more months at least.
Charlie "Bad Player" Herren