deciphercon-2000-juz-beer-and-cards
Title: deciphercon-2000-juz-beer-and-cards
Author: Alex "Greedo" Tennet
Date: Oct 13, 2000
I’ve tried to mention everyone special who I met, but if for some reason you aren’t here...sorry. [With any luck you’ll pick up some strategy tips or something from this too.]
Sunday night consists of myself and Chris Moore crashing at Pete DiBiasio’s place before the flight from Gatwick airport. Pete and I stay up and playtest rather than get a few hour’s sleep, Chris is a wiser man and hits the sack. My confidence in my Hunt Down is reinforced, having performed well against Gary Carman the previous weekend. Light side is a mess though. Catch up with Ian Ericson at the airport to complete our travelling group. Bruce Savin shows as well, before heading for the bar.
Florida is hot. I get a rush of warm air when I get off the plane early Monday afternoon and figure it’s the engines running down. It turns out this is actually the state in one of its cooler months. We tip the cab driver 20 bucks (I was told to tip big) and are laughed at by the Inn receptionist. She doesn’t get a tip.
First thing we do is head for Denny’s. My apologies to Mike Kessling at this point. He told me american food was superior to its British counterpart (I scoffed at this) and unfortunately he’s right. Course it’s also a hell of a lot more fattening but...yeah, I admit it’s better. Anyway I only get to eat half the steak (long story) but we’re giving America the thumbs up at this point.
The next few days are a blur. The night of arrival we wonder where in the Doubletree the other Brits will be...though not for long. They are of course in the bar. We hang around in there for a good few hours. Team OK-UK receives its own shirts. Kudos to Alan Rimmel for making those. The back bore the logo "DecipherCon 2k - Came to drink" which wasn’t an inaccurate description. I’m sure everyone saw someone wearing these throughout the week.
We skip to wednesday evening, when everyone was arriving and hanging out. First american I meet is Chris Janiak, who’s playing TJ Holman. These two are really great and funny guys. "Decent blokes" as we say. I glance at the table and Chris is apparently using my Emperor’s Hand deck from the European Championships. He tells me it’s "awesome" before uh, losing with it. Really, it does work...anyway, he was one of three people I saw using it that evening which is a nice compliment in itself. Props at this point to TJ and Chris again for being two of the coolest guys I met that weekend.
I play a few pickup games against Chris Praskac. He’s a sorted bloke too and makes a comment along the lines of "Dude this deck beat Clint, Steven Lewis and now it’s losing to some Brit" - this was funny. I thought so anyway. I learn that my Hunt Down is strong against Speeders and EBO, so I hope to face those two decks the next day.
Manage to meet a slew of other players that night and retire having failed to test my light deck more than twice. It’s won both though...but I’m still not happy with it. I’m using Hidden Base with mains and Our Most Desperate Hour. I came to the USA with nothing and had to build something wednesday morning. I figure it’s good for 2-2, which means I’d need to win them all with my dark. Not ideal and given the choice, I’d have switched it for some kind of Hoth variant. Chris Moore, despite carving big players like TJ and Scott Lingrell up with RST using the bunker, decides not to play it. I told him he’d regret it. He didn’t get through the next day sadly, so perhaps I was right. But probably not.
Wednesday night it gets too late to head back to the accomodation so I crash with Hayes Hunter, Mike Gemme and the rest of the Kashyyyk crew, who interestingly enough are also well-nice guys. Hayes snores. I make the mistake of wearing some black pants and hayes points this out in his report. You still snore like an elephant mate. Even if you did pick up the japanese bird. Jason Burrows shows up late and we exchange greetings.
Thursday morning arrives. We get up for the ’strict’ 10-am start and go wait in the LONG line. I get registered and am comforted by the long queue still waiting, so go fill out my decklists. Switch out a couple cards last-minute to make everything run smoothly. Have one last chat with Martin Akesson before entering the decklists and switch out Home One for a signal. But there’s not much that can be done to help the deck I figure, which should handle Ralltiir fairly well but have problems versus BHBM. (Was that a meta choice you ask? No, it was an idiot one).
We get started eventually. Decipher have rightfully taken a lot of flak for the late start but it probably caught everyone off guard. They should be eased up on and with any luck it will be better next year.
Game 1 - Alex Tennet (Hunt Down) Vs Nathan Martin -I think- (Rebel Strike Team)
This guy was pretty cool and claimed to be No30 in the world. By all accounts this would make him Matt Wright but I’m quite sure that’s not the one. It could be any of four Nathan Martins. He wasn’t a numpty though, at any rate. I’m not too pleased to be playing dark in game 1 but hope for an easy game.
First turn I get my Emperor to his Landing site. He tries to beat him up but that’s not an easy thing when he’s completely immune to attrition. I think I lose a card from it but that’s not big. He does get Honour out however. I flip next turn with Vader/stick and beat him off. He draws and saves. I think I get in a monnok somewhere around here, used of course. I’m in no hurry to spread and fulfill honour, already knowing the beatdown potential he can give out. Mara and saber come down in between this and the next big point of the game, to add drain pressure.
He gets Jedi Luke, EPP Obi and Leia and backup crew to his Landing platform soon enough to flip back Hunt Down. I give him the drain for a turn, playing Battle Order and using Projective Telepathy to make him pay 5 for it so as to limit what he could draw and deploy.
Next I put down Tarkin and 4Lom to his docking bay and just move Vader over, enticing him to battle. He takes the bait. Leia hits 4-Lom. I cancel Luke’s text and he looks worried as I remove his built-in duelling protection. Obi misses Tarkin. I duel Luke with Vader, win with a tracked 6 easily and don’t bother canceling his destiny as I’ve already got a much higher total. Luke crosses to the dark side. I cancel his battle destiny with Tarkin. That pretty much decided the game. Vader smacks Leia with his lightsaber and he loses almost all his characters. I have space power at Endor draining for three, fulfilling Honour, and in one turn he loses a total of 9 cards from force damage. Win by 20ish.
I get Nathan to sign my Battle Order and wish him well. We work out the new scorecards with relative ease (good move Decipher with these, I’d like to see them used more) and turn them in. I introduce myself to Justin Pakes, who is a very busy man at this point. Just from conversing with him for a minute I can tell he’s a good guy. Look forward to more discussions with him later that weekend.
I finished early this game, as did TJ and fellow Brit Mat Allen, so we watch Clint Hays and Charlie Herren play ROps vs Profit until the next game was called.
Game 2 - Alex Tennet (Hidden Base) Vs Dominic Gaudrealt (BHBM)
Dominic eventually made day 3 and I already knew him to be a great player. I was a bit paranoid going into this game and I apologise to him for that. Details from this one are very sketchy in my mind, with it being a while ago now. Here are the basics:
I get a somewhat mediocre hand - good cards but only one character (tawss khaa).
Set up Ben Kenobi with saber at Tatooine and enforce with "the mob" while Dominic gets Emperor and Vader, Sim and another character to <>Dbay on Rendili.
Over the course of the game Dominic wins 2 Sense/Alter skirmishes and one "war" - sending his hand to used pile and mine to the lost pile. Not good.
I do not attempt OMDH because it will be Altered. Simple.
Game is decided when he moves Emperor and gang to Tatooine. I notice a turn later that he can’t actually do this (Emperor cannot move to where I occupy) but he points out rightly that its been done for too long. That could well have cost me the game.
We eventually battle and I Weapon Levitate Vader’s saber. This is the one thing that gets through, as Dominic has exhausted his sense supply for the time being. After the game he signs the card - the one thing he didn’t beat me in a SAC war for.
It’s moot however. IG-88 captures Ben, Vader is holding Luke and there’s not much left to do when he plays You Are Beaten. I lose by some 17 cards. BHBM was always going to be tough and this game proved it.
Dominic says after we’re done that I’ve been hanging around Mike Riboulet too much (in reference to my constant checking of his actions - shame I missed the one that mattered!) and I realise I was probably a little unfair. He seems a decent enough chap, we talk for a bit and I think we’re cool now. As a side note, Mike and I live very far apart. We play very rarely. But his comment was taken in good spirits.
I reckon I should be able to get a win or two now. The pairings are announced and I’m playing someone else I don’t know of. Sorry mate, but I do remember our game and you were a good opponent.
Game 3 - Alex Tennet (Hidden Base) Vs. - Nice guy? - (BHBM!)
Growl. Another BHBM. Should’ve known, my own fault for not prepping Light in advance.
He seemed in no hurry to be confrontational (ie - put down Vader), so I threw Tycho to the DS2 docking bay and brought in Luke from deck to give slaps to the Emperor. Tycho dies, he loses cards and runs away. Sim comes down and he tries to move Emperor back to the DBay. Nope, I remember his text this time. Sim runs away. Jabba, Boba and 4-Lom smack Luke for cards. I get another force to Tatooine with Ben. Luke comes back from lost pile to give beatings until Vader finally gets the idea and hits the table to seize Luke.
The fact that he’d had to put down so many characters hindered him. I also succeeded in winning any SAC wars. His continued use of the Emperor’s Power meant that he was steadily losing cards. An OMDH run later for some 8 force settled everything. I drained on the ground and in space and he only managed to stack a couple of cards on Insignificant Rebellion. Ben is the key. Win by some 16 or so.
I was pleased to win with my light. Putting the pressure on early was vital this game. BHBM helps you to do that with the cycling Luke, just need to make sure you can keep filling your hand (HB provides the generation straight off) and not play stupidly. Once Vader grabs him you just have to keep reminding them to lose to the objective. Grimtaash is also a key card because BHBM draws so many cards.
Anyway, out of this game and into the next one. I discover that I’ve been assigned to play light again, so I point this out. Unfortunately it was the previous game that I had played the wrong side in (doh, I just made myself play an extra game with light) so it’s time to pull the other half of the deck box out again. Wonderful. I sit down opposite Tim Leung, which is a name I know from the listserv. He seems pretty cool and we get down to playing. I’m not too pleased when I see his objective though.
Game 4 - Alex Tennet (Hidden Base) Vs Tim Leung (BHBM!!!)
No, No, No. You are taking the PISS.
I wasn’t amused. 3 out of 3 games with my light have now been BHBM. I’m really wishing at this point that I’d just gone ahead and built that Hoth deck at 4am without testing. I’m going to play my best but I’m down a few points right from the start.
Tim gets Emperor to Endor and yet again Luke pops out from deck to work the beatings machine. He keeps killing him but thanks to BHBM, Luke doesn’t die easily. He’s not playing Young Fool...
I set up a force at Tatooine using Ben as the centrepiece (please note correct spelling). Boussh blocks his drain. When I have enough power to confront him even if Luke gets captured, I move to Endor. General Calrissian and a whole assortment of numpties follow the Emperor around with Ben. Order To Engage gets played. I’m able to sense and alter anything he plays with success so I’m in control this game.
Wedge makes a run for OMDH to get back a lot of force and it becomes obvious I have this one in the bag, play pending. The Emperor has retreated to the Throne Room and walkers are duking it out with my guys at the DS2 docking bay. I think IG-88 made an appearance but for now it’s safe for me to return to Endor and drain in space. Win by some reasonable diff. Good game.
I was pretty pleased at winning both games with my light against the odds. Fortunately most BHBM decks follow the same formula so it’s easy to plan your strategy several turns ahead. Tunnel Vision is a key card in doing this because, provided you know your bottom cards (destiny draws or Traffic Control), you can choose what you commit to the table without having to plough through your deck in the draw phase. This helped me immensely this game. Do not underestimate the power of Tunnel Vision.
So, I am currently 1-0 with dark and 2-1 with light, which is turning out to be an ok deck after all. I need to win another three games out of four to be certain of qualifying, but 5-3 and reasonable differential will see me through too. Around this time we learn that Mike Girard, Steven Lewis and Kim Caton have been DQ’ed, amongst others whom I don’t recall. This was a real shame that these people had to be made examples of, especially when they’re all good players with a solid chance of making day 2. I had the chance to meet them properly later on and they’re great people. Sorry guys. I’m sure the Australian who was kicked out of Star Trek before it started probably felt even worse...
I think they realised Decipher had to do it though. In the highest level of tournament play sanctions like this are necessary. I’m sure they’ll be back next year with a quadruple-checked list. Good luck.
So now I’m paired up against Johnny Chu, which is a name I know since we’ve spoken a couple of times and read each other’s stuff. He’s friendly and we get down to business straight away. I’m playing my light deck for the fourth time in a row...was pleased when I saw his objective for once.
Game 5 - Alex Tennet (Hidden Base) Vs Johnathan Chu (Ralltiir Ops)
He gets out the DS2 docking bay first turn and I’m itching for him to put someone there due to the Tycho in my hand. He’s a wiser man though and doesn’t do it. It was potentially not such a bad move from his POV; I had no Strike Planning to get madine and blount so he could be safe. John’s not taking any chances however. He’s careful not to give me a route into Ralltiir too, when he sees me pull Home 1 docking bay. When I’m ready I just put my own <> Docking Bay out though and transit Ben and Jedi Luke over, holding a Gift Of The Mentor in hand. All I need to draw now is a barrier and if he tries to flip then he’s in trouble.
I get to verify his deck and see Sandwhirl, so I’m cautious about the Desert. He spreads to drain there and at the Forest with AT-STs. I’m reluctant to split up my forces at the Docking Bay where I’m draining for 2 with Anakin’s saber and, now that I’ve tracked Obi’s saber into my force pile, soon that too. Eventually John decides to flip however and my drains are cut down.
I confront his Bossk and Chimaera at Tatooine with a really loaded Falcon, which has moved from Ralltiir to block the drain of 2. I originally had Captain Han and Melas piloting, but put in Wedge and Hobbie too to make it a big, big ship. Boussh has been restricted from deploying this turn due to the +2 of Ralltiir’s text. (Ounee Ta is really going to hose this strategy reckon. Ralltiir is going to have to work for its generation while the LS can just play off their opponent’s sites. With Light able to draw more cards and deploy cheaply early on, while the DS spends all its force emptying its hand, there’s no way to flip Ralltiir against a deck committing even some resources to ground. Thing’s aren’t looking so good for ROps, just thought I’d add that for anyone thinking it can still work).
It was around this point that I lost a game which was pretty much in my control. He sets up yet another drain at his jungle with Tempest 1 and Igar. He’s spent all his Alters and controls getting rid of Order To Engage in a SAC war which I lost, so that’s not good because he can just run away from my Falcon. I get itchy feet and move Ben and Luke in front of Igar and walker. He drops EPP Vader (I still haven’t drawn a barrier) and IG-88. Ben gets captured with a tracked 6 and that’s pretty much game as Luke gets beaten up for cards.
With no way to flip Ralltiir back, Boussh being trampled, and the fact that the key card, Order To Engage, is gone I know I’ve now lost this one. I do as much damage going down as possible. Loss by about 14.
John played a great game and I really didn’t care about fighting over generic sites, which many people hate. There are so many levels to this game and so much that you have to take into account that I don’t mind when I’m outplayed. SW:CCG is the most complex CCG out there and you have to be on the ball when you’re up against an equally skilled opponent. I made a mistake and Mr. Chu punished me for it, good man. It was just really harsh luck that he was DQ’ed later after game 7 (while 5-2) for a decklist error. Sorry John. You deserved to make it.
So, I’ve won with my light twice against decks I’m disadvantaged against and lost to a deck I’m good against. Weird stuff always happens to me. In this case it’s at least for the better.
I finally get to play my dark deck again. I’m up against Joe Horbey and his Akesson-style profit deck. I look forward to finding out "Why Joe Horbey is No. 50 in the world" and playing the supposed best minor in SW:CCG. Joe seems a reasonable enough kid who’s apparently not done too well with his light so far (bet there were a lot of people saying the same).
Game 6 - Alex Tennet (Hunt Down) Vs Joe Horbey (Profit)
I won’t let him flip easily, so I barricade the chamber with Mara and back her up with the Emperor first turn. If he’s going to flip it’s going to be via Someone Who Loves You, or so I think. He drops Master Luke for free. At this point I have a bad hand, having been unable to pick up a Vader. I decide to take the risk and duel. Like a numpty, I proceed to lose and Mara dies having drawn a docking bay and herself for destiny. That’s not good. Luke is replaced by his Jedi persona and someone else comes down. I projective telepathy the battle and he runs to Jabba’s Palace.
I throw down Sim to back up wrinklies. Pick up a Vader, fetch Monnok with Masterful Move and used Monnok him when he’s at 13 cards. I keep track of the 6. By now the Emperor is backed up by Sim AND Janus and I even drop Vader there for added incentive not to go near. He’s not damaging me at all so it’s fine, though I can’t drain him there either. We’re both losing to Visage until I drop IG-88 and capture Luke with my 6. Hunt Down flips back and Vader goes on the loose again.
Late game Ben comes down to Mos Eisley and Lando/Melas to my Death Star Docking Bay. I have a drain set up at Carida to fulfil Battle Order. I settle the game by tracking Imperial Command and Masteful Move round and duelling Ben, leaving a 1 on the top with Sim. From that point Visage does him in. Joe puts down Chewie late game and manages to make Vader lost in the wilderness on the last turn. I’m knocked down by an extra diff and it was a good play. Win by some 20.
That makes 2-0 for my dark, but I’m only going to get to play three games with it. I’m up against John Arendt for game 7. I’ve known John for a while now and it’s nice to finally meet him. He’s a good player so this won’t be easy, but I have three straight wins on my back so I’m confident.
Game 7 - Alex Tennet (Hunt Down) Vs John Arendt (Hidden Base)
I throw down Palpy on turn one and yet again don’t draw a Vader in starting hand. Takes me two turns to pick one up. John gets his five systems out relatively quickly and flips when I have a drain of 2 established with Emperor and Janus. I’ve drawn Zuckuss but it’s not enough to go to space with, so I continue looking for my ships while paying to draw cards. He’s lost Insight for Honour so that’s protecting him for the time being.
I get a look through his deck for verification and see a desert, sandwhirl and Rogue 3. Pretty good tech, props to John for that one. He was of course playing Kirdo III. I finally get Bossk and Zuckuss with a pilot into the skies and begin probing. Hit the base on my penultimate attempt. He’s been getting drains in all the while so my deck isn’t looking too hot. The turning point is when he fetches a desert and puts down Jedi Luke there, both satisfying Battle Order and flipping back Hunt Down. He had a ship at the system so there was no way I could pick Vader up (which is quite inefficient anyway unless you can duel immediately) so I planned to work on satisfying three battlegrounds for Honour.
The crux came when he beatdown at Kessel however. Han and the Falcon with Wedge and ship against Bossk and Zuckuss. Bossk was power pivoted, Zuckuss was shot down with cannons and Legendary starfighter was played after the battle. That was pretty much game. I worked on lowering his differential but it was an easy win for John after that. I could never find Search and Destroy, having ditched You Cannot Hide for Battle Order early on. Loss by about 16.
John was pretty cool about the whole thing and playing him was a good experience. Everyone was well knackered by this point and I needed to win the next game with the right differential to make it into the final 38. For anyone who said this would be an easy tournament...you were wrong. Basically.
I’m paired up against Arthur Rhodes for the final game. I know he’s a state champion and having to win with my Light isn’t a good thing. I’m up to the challenge though, even if I am pretty tired (it’s around 2:30am by this point). Unfortunately this was to prove the worst game of the day. Read on.
Game 8 - Alex Tennet (Hidden Base) Vs Arthur Rhodes (Hunt Down)
I get my deck out of the box and it’s been left quite haphazardly. The objective and starting stuff is in the middle for some reason. It looks a bit messy. I’m surprised as I never leave it like that, but think nothing of it and shuffle away to begin the game.
Get Honour out after losing only one to Visage, so it’s all good up to this point. When I go for a docking bay I check for my Bens and Lukes. One Ben is in hand, others are in deck still. All THREE Jedi Lukes are not in the reserve deck, so I draw to get one. When I draw the last card of my force pile and they aren’t there I know something’s up.
After verfiying my deck and checking my deck box, I realise they aren’t there. Quite clearly someone had been in there, pulled out the Lukes and stuffed the deck back in, hoping it wouldn’t be noticed until too late. Yes, I kept my eye on it all the time. What a thing to happen. I’m also down another card which I can’t identify at the time, so am playing with a 56 card deck. I report it to Juz and he says we’ll have to carry on playing as its been spotted too late, which is of course the correct decision. I was pretty pissed off though. Luke’s integral to the deck and I saw no real way of winning now.
So, thinking dark thoughts about whatever scum would do such a thing, I play on without much heart. Arthur clearly gets the upper hand and at a couple of points I just feel like drawing up. Ben is deployed now with a numpty backing him up. My retrieval (including Tatooine) has been lost to drains. Eventually Arthur duels Ben, ready to smack the character he’s with. I figure I can topdeck all my force and that’ll be that.
I pull a 5 and a 4 for the duel. Vader dies. All of a sudden I’m back in the game.
I play to win with renewed vigour. Order To Engage forces him to battle. Ben is the revival machine as ever. I’ve lost a lot of important cards but I make sure to use what I have left properly. I win on the Sense/Alter and get ships in space to Rendili while draining on the ground. Boussh follows his characters (Enperor, Janus and others). Visage hits him after a while and that’s that. I pull this game out of my arse. Win by 14.
Arthur was pretty cool and seemed a bit annoyed at losing (well, so would I after all that). We turn in the scorecard. I doubt my diff is enough to make it through. I go and ask my previous opponents if they know anything about the stolen Lukes but they’ve not picked them up by accident or seen anything, so that’s pretty much it. All gone. Next time, padlock and bag.
We wait around while Juz announces the pairings. Fellow Brit and good mate Peter DiBiasio wins the tournament, going undefeated. He gets a huge round of applause. Other notables get in and some unknowns. A lot of good players have dropped or missed out on a place, a testament to the quality of competition.
We get down to 32nd place and are into the 5-3 players. The differentials being called are very close to mine.
33...34/35...36...37/38
and place 39, the alternate, goes to Gabe Alonso, only a few diff above myself. I throw numbers around in my head. Add the four cards stolen to my differential, and realise that’s what kept me out of the top 38. Pretty painful. I’m pleased for Gabe though, who I’m sure will get in the next day. He’s a decent guy.
So I’m a little burned out after that but it doesn’t stop me heading to the bar and playing a few more games (with dark side of course). Martin Akesson, who’d lent me a couple of cards, tells me to hang onto them till the next morning. People are pretty supportive in general so that’s cool. I get back to find Pete building his decks for the next day and crash out flat on the bed.
That’s the tournament over with, so here’s the rest of the weekend through my eyes. Friday I get up later than usual, having failed to be roused by my fellow Brits. I wasn’t playing so it made no difference. Well, except that I still had a couple of Martin’s cards. Fortunately he was able to borrow them, I’d have felt terrible if he couldn’t get hold of the ones he needed.
On the way in I catch hold of Mike Kessling, who’d also failed to qualify for day 2, and notice a semi-finalist tag on him. Apparently Michael Riboulet had not caught his flight and, after a LOT of persuasion from Gabe, Decipher had allowed Mike K to play in his place as the Naboo regional runner-up, leaving one spot free for Gabe to fill. I was incredibly pleased. Mike really deserved it and seeing him play, even if he didn’t get through to day 3, was excellent. Good job mate. And for the record, "Gabe Alonso, you are a hard man to stop."
I met up with Neal Razi, who was definitely the greatest guy I saw this weekend. We both narrowly missed out on qualifying, so we play a pickup game in the lobby with my decks and then head out for a drive in his car - the legendary falcon. Fail to see any of these famed alligators but I do get introduced to the local ants...yeah I still have a few scars. It didn’t matter though, it was a load of fun. Cheers to Neal for just being the man.
Friday night I get to meet plenty of different people during the japanese sealed deck. I pulled a Han Solo, three Blue Milks and two arconas but still failed to win more than two games. Nevermind. While we’re building our decks MaryGail Dufresne and I eventually figure out who we (each other) are. She’s toting a "Big Gulp" which is quite an interesting piece of equipment. Apparently it’s meant for beer but was being used to carry water. Anyway, she’s good fun and a bunch of us hang around after the sealed and talk. I meet Greg Anderson, Scott Valentine and Joe Helfrich. Doug Faust is there but doesn’t introduce himself, being a bit shy - but I knew who he was. Apparently he said the same about me, hmm. Stranger things have been known to happen. Great bunch of guys anyway.
We end up mucking around and I get to meet Chris Coffee as well, who’s another guy I’ve ’known’ for a while. I’m pretty pleased that everyone’s friendly thus far. The bar shuts at 2am and we’re not back in time that night so the boozing is curtailed. I post an update on how things are going to the Decipher message board. Bastian Winkelhaus, having failed to make day 2, plays against David Akers in the lobby area and the Ghetto Squad get together to play Ghetto War. Apparently Martin Akesson nearly won but was thrown out for "cheating." That’s pretty funny. If I had to guess the winner I’d say TJ. Just a guess.
Saturday Neal and I watch the Jedi Knights presentation - everything looks good so far and the artwork is solid. Look forward to how this one develops. At the end we chat to the Decipher guys about SW:CCG and other stuff. Some good points are made during the discussion and I remind them to avoid anything that begins "Insert in opponent’s deck..." on their cards. The guy is actually a Trek player so he doesn’t get it...Dean Irwin I believe. Nice enough chap.
We watch the final between Yannick Lapointe and Matt Sokol in a cinema-style room. Tension is high but Juz appears to do a good job as ever of judging. Yannick wins game one by 20, leaving the path clear for a victory. Matt appears to be going to lose the second game as well but it turns swiftly in his favour. He uses Sandwhirls and ISB Ops/walkers to drain for too much every turn. Yannick’s immense retrieval can’t keep up and Matt wins by 21. If you slowed down the picture you could probably see him reaching back into his pants and up his backside, grabbing the game and yanking it out. Good job Matt and commiserations Yannick - both good guys and it could have gone either way. Matt becomes our new World Champion and the Coruscant people in the room go quite wild.
(As a side note, Clint Hays becomes the first person to be DQ’ed from watching a final, something to do with the anatomy game. Congrats mate. You set a record).
Saturday night is spent in the bar, after yet another japanese sealed deck. Yeah, someone stole my deck again (must be something about me), but I was allowed to stick in there and got an Emperor in prize support, so I don’t really mind beyond the princple of the thing. Juz talks about life, the universe and everything to a group of us while letting his hair down (literally) for the first time all weekend. He deserves the break. Unfortunately he supports Manchester United so we can’t give him too much credit for anything. Anger, Fear, Alex Ferguson - the dark side are they. Nevermind anyway, I’ll bring him a MU dartboard or something next year. Or a scarf. Anything specific Mr. Pakes? (Americans should probably ignore this whole paragraph, it’s about football, real football).
Sunday I haven’t made new decks, so decide to skip the team event. There’s plenty other things to do. I spend the day saying goodbye to the folks I’ve met and getting some pictures and other tourist stuff. At the end of it all a bunch of us gather round to sign cards. I’ll enjoy playing with my "Worlds 2000 collection" next year, provided they don’t ban obscured cards after a few people used stickers and blacked out their card fronts. That would not be good after getting Lord Vader signed...
The last part of Sunday (which is actually well into Monday morning) was firstly playing a few final games and then chatting to a group of players/squadron members about the direction of the game. I took wins against Chris Twigg, Bastian W and Martin Schumacher, proving I’m not going rusty. I then put a few controversial viewpoints across during the group talk which put me firmly in the "professional player" side of things, according to Doug Taylor. It was a thought-provoking discussion and pretty interesting.
Monday we just pack up, head to Ponderosa for breakfast and leave for the flight home. It’s delayed and I spend the time giving out beatings one last time to Peter DiBiasio. "Alex, why can’t you play like this in the worlds?" he asks. Well...I did. Actually.
I look a complete idiot when we reach London and miss my bus back up north due to the flight being delayed. Not because of that, but because I’m still in shorts and shirt. Hanging around the freezing capital for over four hours wasn’t much fun. But hell, for the week I’d just had, it was definitely worth it.
In a break from tradition I’m going to go for a Props section, in no particular order. Off we go. This will be long:
The company:
- Decipher. For whatever you did wrong, you did lots of things right.
The staff:
- Justin Pakes. For being Juz, for showing at the bar, for chatting even when you were busy, for not complaining, for being yourself.
- Mark Tuttle. For the tribbles.
- Jennifer Ketterman. For smiling.
- Rest of the Decipher birds. For being congenial.
- Bruce Umene. For being cool under pressure and remembering me.
- Dean Irwin. For the JK presentation.
- Kendrick Sumners. For the dodgy look.
The Brits:
- Peter DiBiasio. For winning day 1, for being the man, for doing it all in America despite being a dirty, southern...
- Chris Moore. For carving up with RST.
- Mat Allen. For being willing to lend me the cards I might’ve needed.
- Ian Ericson. For drinking in bed.
- Bruce Savin. For the beer.
- Alan Rimmel. For the shirts. OK-UK!
- Dave Crane. For being such a great SW dad.
- Billy Crane. For looking even more knackered than me.
- Thomas Crane. For sticking with it.
- Adrian Selwood. For coming along, nice to meet you properly.
- Rob Bowles. For taking the only X-L shirt.
- Gary Carman. For the playtesting, for being a true champ.
- Derek Hawkesworth. For getting the Japanese wampa.
The Gang:
- Neal Razi. For making me feel at home in america.
- TJ Holman. For being damn cool, for being a mate when we’d just met.
- Chris Janiak. For using my deck, for being "staff."
- MaryGail Dufresnse. For all the questions, for being there.
- Chris Coffee. For the good games, for being there.
- Gabe Alonso. For being a hard man to stop.
- Mike Kessling. For getting your deserved place.
- Greg Anderson. For being such a friendly guy, for the serv photo.
- Scott Valentine. For quoting me (obscenely).
- Doug Faust. For knowing who I was.
- Nathan Martin. For calling me a good player.
- Dominic Gaudrealt. For beating me soundly.
- Nice Guy in game 3. For letting me slap the Emperor a lot.
- Tim Leung. For letting me continue to slap him.
- Johnny Chu. For the good game and winning on sunday.
- Joe Horbey. For being cool at the end, for the great play.
- John Arendt. For the excellent tech, for being cool in person.
- Arthur Rhodes. For playing it out, for duelling.
- Mike Gemme. For being Deck, for the bed, for drinking.
- Chris Praskac. For the repeated games, for being a good bloke.
- NerfHerder. For reminding me I’m not the real slim shady.
- Bastian Winkelhaus. For trying to be the real slim shady.
- Markus Wuest. Because it just wouldn’t be complete without you.
- Joe Olson. For meeting up, for being a good guy.
- Stefan Kaiser. For being too damn funny.
- Martin Akesson. For lending me the cards, for the tips, for being a champ.
- Jesper Larsson. For the chin, for forcing Martin to become EuroChamp.
- Bastiaan Proot. For having the humour.
- Jason Burrows. For being there and being cool.
- Lee Edwards. For being funny, for getting pissed out of your depth.
- Dan Blackford. For controlling Lee somewhat.
- Koen. For being the friendliest guy there, for having a surname I STILL can’t spell.
- Maarten Logghe. For being a legend.
- Mike Josem. For Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi. And spilling the ink.
- Martin Schumacher. For playing me again and signing the card you hate.
- Steven Lewis and Mike Girard. For taking the DQ like men.
- Kim Caton. For taking it with a drink.
- Hayes Hunter. For getting the japanese bird, for snoring.
- Kyle Craft. For giving me the cards when you didn’t know me.
- Clint Hays. For the Vader, for getting DQ’ed from watching the final.
- Joe Helfrich. For the moon during the final game.
- David Akers. For being my main observee, for your enthusiasm.
- David’s wife. For saying hi, for being as cool as your husband.
- Michael Hawley. For being a great writer and friendly chap.
- Jeremiah Himmelbrand. For being the most insane collector there.
- Justin Desai and Steve Baroni. For hanging out all weekend.
- Shannon Baksa. For answering "yes."
- Michonne Bourriange. For not reading this and not seeing the spelling mistake in your name.
- Heidi Farinholt. For getting pissed early, for penisaur.
- Charlie Herren. For not quitting, for playing Clint with his hand visible...and losing.
- Paul Myers. For selling me the Lukes in a good deal.
- Chris Twigg. For the games.
- Matt Sokol. For becoming a champ.
- Yannick Lapointe. For being a great runner-up, for being a nice guy and a new mate.
- Anyone I neglected to mention who did something special. You all meant a lot.
- Me, for spending a couple hours doing this report and now stopping. Hope you enjoyed it. Cheers.
Alex Tennet
-Roll on DecipherCon 2k1