birmingham-grand-slam-10-28-00

Title: birmingham-grand-slam-10-28-00
Author: Andy "Solo337" McClure
Date: Oct 31, 2000

This is my tournament report from the GS in Birmingam Saturday.
Entitled "Who needs the Damn Brownie?" or
"Who needs Starships to win?" IF YOU WANT A DETAILED Tournament Report, this is definately for you.

First off, I am not trying to insult the Brownie or any believers in it, but as I proved, it is not a neccesity for winning big tournaments.

Also, I would not recommend ditching all space unless you have tested it first AND you have mad drains and/or direct damage that you can set up on the ground, like mine. More infor on them a little later.

Well it was the morning of the Slam, and I was feeling pretty good. I was taking a couple decks that I thought were very strong, but I was a little worried about my LS. It had been having major problems with my friend Brian Buchanan’s Hunt Down deck. I had playtested several times with Brian and only won like 1 game (out of maybe 4).

My LS deck was an off the mix of mains and Palace Raiders in Patrol Crafts, using Agents In The Court objective without flipping, and no starships. It had perfomed very strong against everything except Hunt Down. SHAMELESS PLUG: Go check it out on my Decktech page, it’s called "Who let the Raiders out" because Baha Men were on the radio when I was thinking about what to name it.

My DS was a perfected (in my opinion) version of a deck I had been playing since DecipherCon. It was a very powerful My Kind Of Scum deck, with no starships, using Abyssins, Myo and plenty of Direct Damage and Agents In The Court Hate. It had performed flawlessly in all my playtesting, losing only once when I wasn’t playing very well (it was only a fun game after all). At DecipherCon it had beaten 2 players rated over 1900, so I was pretty confident in it. SHAMELESS PLUG: Go Rewiew it, also on my Decktech page entitled, for lack of a better name, "I don’t need no stinkin’ starships (or Imperials, for that matter)."

I am only 16, and my mom didn’t want me to take several of my friends on a roadtrip from Huntsville to B’Ham (about 2 hrs away), so I got her to agree to take us. It was me Andy McClure (rated 1973), my hilarious friend Brian Buchanan(only rated 1619, but he is better than his rating) and Clay Wilbrun (1691), a bit of an odball, but in a good way, and my little brother, the best 12 year-old on the planet, Chris McClure (1695). This was Brian’s first tournament outside of Huntsville. We would be meeting other Huntsvillians Daniel (1763) and Jarrod (1651) Chappell.

We talked strategy, tech and meta the whole way down. Recently I had been srubbing out at big tournaments (2-4 at the Nashville GS and 4-4 at Worlds day 1), and my rating had fallen from all the way at 2118 down to it’s current 1973. As I recall, my friends told me the element I was missing in my game was my previous ego. "All you gotta do is KNOW you’re gonna win this thing before you even walk in," Clay had said. "Like you do at all the local tournaments."

Once we arrived, I decided to take Clay’s advice, and be as @#$%y as ever. "Hey guys," I asked right before we entered the hotel, "after I win, should I get the DS rare sheet or the LS rare sheet?" Unamimously we decided on dark.

As we’re walking in, we run into Brian Rippotoe, a day 3 qualifier this year, and say hi. When we get inside, we spot some other big name players, like Steven Lewis, Mike Kessling, Clay Raymie and Charlie Herron. To my friends, I’m being @#$%y as anything. One of them pointed out Clint Hays, and I asked haughtily, "Clint who?"

We meet up with Daniel and Jarrod (the 2 other Huntsville players I mentioned earlier) and Daniel asks me to check out his decks. They are very interesting, but he is playing Bo Shuda/ Agents in The Court for LS, and has no Order To Engage. I tell him to get it in, then hook him up because he doesn’t have one.

Another Huntsvillian Matt Reed is running the tournament, and we go say hey to him. As the first round starts, I realize this tournament won’t be all that big, like 26 people, but it will be tough, with so many good players.

Well, enough preamble, lets get down to the games. As we listen for the pairings, I hear my name called, and just my luck I have to play Brain Buchanan, my friend. I didn’t hear which side I was, and I PRAYED I was Dark Side, because, like I said, I had been having Major problems with his Hunt Down.

Thank goodnees, I was Light.

Game 1: My Abyssins vs. Brian Buchanan’s (1619) weird mains deck that only starts Dagobah system.
Brian and I were both a little upset at having to play 1st round, but he was more than I because he knew that he would have trouble with my Abyssins. He starts nothing but the Dagobah system, and only 2 effects with the 3 effect starter (Draw Their Fire and some other). With my DS, I always start No Bargain, Oppressive Enforcement and Power Of The Hutt. I get set up pretty quick, like I usually do, with Scum and some flip with some aliens at 2 Jabba’s Palace sites. He doesn’t do much except draw 1st turn, and I Twi-lek for Bad Feeling have I before he deploys any characters. Now his mains are deploy +4. Anyways, he saves, and apparently he got a really good hand, with Ben Kenobi and Jedi Luke. They come down to wreck some havoc and I can’t beat them badly because he can just forfeit Luke and revive him. Things are going pretty evenly in the battles, but woutside of the battles my drains of 2 per turn and Ability x3 are eating him alive. He moves his guys from the AC to Tatooine: Jabba’s Palace and backs them up, so now he has DOS, General Solo, Jedi Luke and Ben Kenobi together. I then draw 4-LOM and Iggy and I get 4-LOM to blank Ben and start causing some damage (finally). Once I get 4-LOM, it’s all over. In the battle, I capture Han and draw 3 or 4 battle destinies, and EACH ONE is +2 thanks to my Objective (go read it if you have to). His charaters get smacked out of the Palace and I set up Search and Destroy and big drains and win the game.
FW +17, I think.
Total after 1 game: 2(+17)

Game highs: We both get pretty good draws, and none of us have to lose the game by luck. Killing 4 big mains in 1 battle is always cool. Brian put up a very good fight.

Lows: Having to play my buddy 1st round. Only winning by 17 (a close game for this deck).

I walk around and chat waiting for the next game. Brian and I laugh about GAY 1 eyed aliens beating the CRAP out of the 2 Jedi and Han and Leia.

Game 2: My Palace Raiders vs. Jeff Anderson’s (1752)borrowed ISB Scum on Tatooine deck.
Ah, Jeff Anderson. I have been waiting and planning my revenge. I have a personal vendetta against Jeff. It’s not really anything he did, but..... Allow me to explain. A couple weeks before the slam, he had come to one of our local tournaments. I was playing a solid LS deck that could handle pretty much anything but TIEs. Well, long story short, he was playing TIEs and beat me by like 4 cards and that’s how I got my vendetta. There’s more to it than that, but that is the heart of it.

Anyway, down to the game. Right before we start Jeff informs me that he left his decks in Anniston (or wherever he came from) and had to borrow Matt Duncan’s "B" decks. Well, I don’t know if he had any D*2 cards, because he only started Den Of Thieves, but he sure had a crapload of Outer Rim Scouts. I’m not really sure if Jeff knew what the deck was supposed to do, and I got the quick jump on him. I set up I Hope She’s Alright (Search and Destroy for LS) 2nd turn, and he could only keep himself from losing to it 1 draw phase the whole game. I set up the card that says my drains can’t be modified or cancelled (thus rendering Den Of Thieves useless) and spread and drained, with Tessek at the AC, for huge amounts. He doesn’t cause me very much loss at all throughout the game, and my revenge is exacted up him!
FW +27
Total after 2 rounds: 4(+44)

Game highs: Extracting revenge on Jeff. My Raiders deck worked like a charm.
Lows: Nothing

Well about this time I am feeling pretty good, and me and Daniel, Brian and Jarrod take a little Road Trip to the COOLEST MCDONALD’S in the history of the world. This Mickey D’s had a whole downstairs eating area. The underground area was set with like retro tables that looked they were left over from the 50s! We made tons of jokes about the McDonald’s that time forgot, and I keep getting @#$%ier and @#$%ier about my performance.

We barely make it back in time for the 3rd round pairings. If we had been like another 5 minutes later, we probably would have had to forfeit. Our buddy Matt held the tournament a little while for us. Thanks again, Matt.

3rd game: My Abyssins vs. Steven Lewis’ (2149) Agents in The Court Chada Fans
I had played Steven twice before: we split a pair of CLOSE games at DragonCon. This one was the TIE breaker :-) Since I had beaten him once before, I wasn’t nearly as intimidated as I should have been; I wasn’t nearly as intimidated as I was the first time I played him.

Anyways, he reveals Kabe as his Rep, and I reveal Myo as mine. I don’t remember this game as well as I should. Matt Reed came over early and said "Oooh, this should be a good game." He seemed very interested, and kept checking back throughout the game. Anyway, I get Mara to the Hutt Trade Route first turn so I can use my Jabba’s Palace text to convert his AC and prevent him from deploying Bo Shuda from reserve. Well, I don’t remember how, but he got Bo Shuda and Signaled for Order To Engage. I knew that would kill me (I needed Gailid and Myo at the AC), so I seached my deck for a Jabba’s Palace site, and noticed that my Pointman was in my force pile, so I drew for it, and got it. The second OtE hit the table it was cancelled. I kept my forces at 2 sites and backed them up, I really didn’t want to get Chadra Beat. A few turns later, I had Iggy in my hand and saw that my Sniper was in my force pile, so I drew for it. A couple turns later, I captured Kabe, and from then on I pretty much dominated. 1 power Chadra Fans aren’t worth it. I later leaned that he played like 3 It’s A Traps to cancel Sniper, but couldn’t get one to cancel mine. Anyway, I keep draining and battling, but I don’t get a Scum and Villainy all game (which SUCKS for a Scum deck). One battle, I beat the CRAP out of his lone Chadra Fan and he Houjixed. He then retrieved like 9 cards on his Chadra Fans, and spread and drained. He left 2 rodents alone in the Desert Heart, and figuring he only had 1 Houjix, so I played Elis Helrot and battled. I had like power 30 something to his 2. During the battle, I retrieved like 8 cards on my Abyssins (although I only had 6 cards in lost pile), and he had a ton of damage and that ended the game.
FW +27
Total after 3 rounds: 6(+71)

Game highs: Beating the 5th ranked player in the world, Steven Lewis, making my lifetime record against him 2-1. Getting the PointMan and Sniper when I needed them. Steven Lewis is one of the coolest opponents in the world.
Lows: Steven had some bad luck, and I hate when players lose to luck.

I am really pumped after beating Steven, and way in the lead in the tournament. I think the undefeated players besides me are Brian Rippotoe, Charrlie Herron, Mike Kessling and some guy named Jody Rodd. Clint had lost 1st round. But Chalie Herron had to drop, despite being undefeated.

All my friends congratulated me for beating Steven Lewis. This round, my little brother Chris had to play Clint Hays, and he played very well, and only lost to the 2nd ranked player in the world by 8 cards.

4th game: My Palace Raiders vs. Jody Rodd’s (1846) Court non-flip
Well apparently Jody was doing very well, because he was the highest DS player this round and undefeated.
I don’t remember this game too well either. He starts Power Of The Hutt, Mob. Points and something else. I was very concerned about a Court Flip deck, but I knew his wasn’t right away because he didn’t start All Wrapped Up. I set up Bo Shuda early, but couldn’t get Order To Engage. I dropped EPP Obi far away from Jabba’s Palace to stop the 1 per turn loss. He was winning most of the game until he made 1 fatal mistake. I had EPP Obi at one site, and a Palace Raider in a Patrol Craft at another. He has Scum and Villainy and drops Chall Bekan and Danz Borin to eradicate Obi. He battles, and I react with the Patrol Cradt. Maybe he didn’t know I could react, but anyway, I swung with Obi and hit Danz Borin. I was holding a Clash Of Sabers and just happened to have the force to use it, so I clashed Chall out of the battle. He now has power 1 and no draw vs. my power 9 and 2 destinies. I draw some good destinies, like a 4 and 5, and he loses like 17 cards Battle Damage. That’s the game.
FW by something like +17
Total after 4 rounds: 8(+88)
Game Highs: The react/ Clash incident that won me the game. Jody was a good sport, and even commented something about "well played" about the Clash of Sabers.
Lows: Not too much. I guess I got started a little slow....

Now I am really proud of myself. I am the only undefeated player. I am now looking to getting to play Clint. I always have wanted to play Clint, but never gotten to, even though my brother has twice. I figure Clint is probably in 2nd place behind me....

But I’m wrong. Ahead of Clint is Mike Kessling. They both are 3-1, but I guess Mike had a higher differential.

Game 5: "Who Let The Raiders Out" vs. Mike Kessling’s (1950) Docking Bay Hunt Down.
"DAMN IT!" I think as soon as I see his objective. My LS has more trouble with HD than anything else. All it has is Enclosed Vehicles (to prevent Dueling) and 1 Trans Term. When I draw my opening hand, I am glad to see my Trans Term in it, but am dissapointed that I get no Luke, no Obi and no generation at all. I play TT right off the bat, and just my luck, he has a holonet Transmission (damn)to cancel it. Now I have to find another way around Visage. I get the slowest start in the history of the Palace Raiders deck and he gets a quick one. Lord Vader w/ Saber is down early at the DS Docking Bay, and I am getting like 6 force a turn to his 12 or something. I decide to take a little damage while I draw for generation. None comes. For the first few losses (to Visage and Force Drains), I lose the cards I don’t need from my hand. When I decide I need everything in my hand, I start losing off the top. 1st card lost is Yoda’s Hutt. Damn it! There’s one generator. Out of the next 5 cards I lose, one is Rendevous Point (Damn), one is Lar’s Moisture Farm (DAMN) and another is the Jundlund Wastes (DAMN IT!!!). Now that my generators are gone, and I am already like 10 or 12 cards down and I have done NOTHING, I decide I need to get something going. I deploy Broken (JPOTSD) Lando and a Palace Raider to cancel Visage and hopefully get a few quick drains. Visage never comes back down all game. I am holding a barrier (Japenese, if anyone cares) to hopefully block the Mara beat I’m expecting. I am finally happy to set up my first Force Drain, and he drops Come Here You Big Coward (DAMN IT!!!!). I set up Tessek at the Audience Chamber, but Lando and a Raider are stuck on the Executor. I deploy Order To Engage, hoping to make him lose 3 when I barrier the Mara I just know is coming down. Well sometime in there he drops the Emperor to the CC Docking Bay and sets up a drain there also. So he has a drain of 2 and a drain of 1, and I’m still doing approximately nothing. I finally get a Palace Raider in a Patrol Craft with Obi on the ground to the Hutt Trade Route to flip his objective to the 0 side. On his turn, just like I suspected, he drops Mara to Eliminate Lando and the Palace Raider. I barrier her, and he loses 3 to OtE (I LOVE THAT CARD!). During his move phase, he pulls Vader into his hand. On my turn, I finally get my first Force Drain of 2 thanks to Tessek! Woo-hoo! I finally caused him some damage! Now that Vader is mobile, I am scared to DEATH of dueling, so I put Obi as a passenger in the Patrol Craft, and back that site up with Han. He drops Lord Vader with Saber and You Are Beatens Han. Now I only get 1 destiny. Well, Obi dies for all my damage, and Vader live. During my turn, I deploy Luke and a Palace Raider in Patrol Craft to the DS docking Bay, and move the Palace Raider into the Bo Shudaed AC. Now I occupy 2 BGs (Han is still excluded, but occupies a BG) and can drain on the Executor if Mara doesn’t block my drains. He picks up Vader during his turn, after losing 3 for not battling the Excluded Han. The rest of the game is kind of a blur in my mind, except 1 part. I am Force Draining for 2 at the Hutt Trade Route. The Emperor is Force Draining me for 1 on CC. And Mara has started using her Saber to Force Drain me on the Executor placing his Objective Out Of Play. Mara has also been moving to block my drains with Lando and the Raider. I never battle Mara because I don’t want to lose both characters and draw a low destiny. However, I have been tracking a 5 like a MAD MAN throughout the end of the game. Luke is now in the Patrol Craft to prevent dueling and Harc Seff is out of the PC to make sure I get to draw 2 battle destinies (the Palace Raider adds one). I track the 5 to the top and battle Mara. It’s a little hard to explain, but I had no cards in my hand, and I had planned it so that after I battle Mara and Recirculate, the 5 will be the next to top card (one card down). Then he will Force Drain with the Emperor, and I lose off the top, thus putting my 5 on top so if he battles with Lord Vader, I will most likely kill him by attrition. I had it all worked out perfectly, except for one thing. In the battle with Mara, I had to lose both characters and 1 card Battle Damage. I hadn’t expected the damage (he drew a 7 destiny), and I had to lose it off the top (I had nowhere else to lose it from). My plan was SCREWED! All he had to do was Force Drain me with the Emperor and I would have to lose my 5 destiny off the top, and then I had no idea if I would have killed Vader or not with my next 2 destinies! I sat contemplating what to do, then decided there was nothing to do, so I let him go, and HOPED that I would draw 2 destinies and kill Vader by attrition of 6 or more. I have no idea if I would have killed Vader or not, but I doubted I would have been able to. BUT, for some reason he forgot to Force Drain with the Emperor. I WAS SAVED! I don’t know if he knows that he forgot to drain, or the signifigance of it, but because he forgot to drain that 1 measely card, when he battled with Vader, the big man had attrition of 7 (my tracked 5 and a 2 for destiny) and he went down hard. I lost Luke and got a Force Drain of 2 at the DS Docking Bay. He only had 5 cards left in his deck, not enough to deploy another Vader and I drained him out. GREAT game.
FW +4
Total after 5 rounds: 10(+92)

Game highs: WHAT A GAME! Too many highs and lows to name. I thought I was losing the whole game, and then he ran out of cards. I played very well, not making a single mistake that I know of. I was so happy to have won after such a slow start. Another high is that a crowd of people, including Matt the TD had gathered to watch the end. Several people were amazed I pulled it off.
Lows: Slow start was the biggest.

I am totally pumped about winning and still being in the lead. I am so excited that Matt invites me outside to get some fresh air. I grab a Dr. Pepper and go with Matt. He knows I have to play my DS deck last round, and he asks what it will lose to. I tell him that I don’t know, as it has never lost for real. It’s only loss was when I was messing around and not playing my best. Matt and I started speculating about what it would lose to. The things we could come up with were pretty far out there, and it just game me more confidence.

I am the only undefeated player at this point, and feeling confident. I think the only players with 1 loss are Clint and Steven, so I know I am going to play one of them...

Wrong again! Apparently Clint would be the same side as me, and Steven was the opposite side, but we had already played my DS vs. his LS, so it couldn’t happen again. I ended up getting paired with Mike Kessling again.

Final game: My invincible Abyssins vs. Mike Kessling’s (1950) New Age Throneroom w/ SAC
He was playing nearly card for card Martin Akesson’s New Age Throneroom, so you can check it out if you wish.
Well he gets a pretty good start, and the game starts pretty slow. I really don’t remember a lot of details, other than him generating a TON of force and only giving me 1 icon. I remember that it was a good game, but the Abyssins sort of dominated, as usual. I drew a lot the whole game, but I never could find a Scum. Two games in a row where Scum won’t come up! I play 2 Scums and a Twi-Lek for a REASON, dang it! There was a lot of manuvering around and a few battles. My Objective and my boy Myo, along with Den of Thieves blocked almost every drain he could muster. Finally toward the end of the game I draw a Twi-Lek Advisor. "About TIME." I think to myself. When I go to play it Mike Senses it!!! Now that really made me mad. Right then, I decided it was time to kick the CRAP out of Jedi Luke (his highest ability character on table, thus, by my logic, the character who sensed it). This is the only thing I remember clearly about this game. He had Jedi Luke and EPP Leia at Jabba’s Palace. I had Boelo, Mighty Jabba and Bib at the same site as Luke and Leia. Remember, thank to my Objective, since Bib and Jabba are on table, EACH of my destiny draws is +2. During my turn (because Luke had pissed me off so much), I deployed a few Abyssins (4 power each) and ECC 4-LOM to beat the Jedi and his little sister. I battle, and blank Leia so she can’t shoot. Jabba adds a destiny, 4-LOM adds a destiny and Boelo cancels his destiny. I draw a 3, a 4 and a 5 for Battle destiny, and each one is +2, making them 5, 6 and 7. I don’t remember the exact number, but Luke and Leia had their forfeit and he still had to lose like 12 cards or something. SERVES HIM RIGHT FOR SENSING MY TWI-LEK! I LOVE THIS DECK!
FW +19
Total after the tournament: 12(+111)

Game Highs: My abyssins doing what they are suppossed to do. Kicking the crap out of the Luke who sensed my Twi-Lek.
Lows: Not getting a Scum and Villainy for the 2nd game in a row. MIKE SENSING MY TWI-LEK! Also I didn’t want to knock a great player and a cool guy like Mike Kessling down to 3-3, but I had to anyway.

Wow, what a day! I played very well, and took 1st place. Steven Lewis took 2nd, I wanted to have a Final Confrontation, but Steven said he wanted to get home. I know he was just chicken, scared to play me again, however :-)

Clint got 3rd, followed by Jody I think and a couple other guys. On a high note, my friend Brian, at his first tournament outside of Huntsville went 3-3 but had a big enough differential to take home a uncut sheet of commons. To my dissapointment, my nemisis Jeff Anderson was 7th and still won a sheet.

Just to make sure, I asked everyone which sheet I should get, and the answer was a resounding "DARK!"

On the way home me and my friends discussed my victory without a single starship and only Mara for my imperials.

Now for the infamous Props and Slops section:

Props:
-To Steven Lewis for being the coolest opponent I have evr played.
-Again to Steven Lewis for coming in 2nd at almost every tournament he goes to.
-To Mike Kessling for being a great opponent also.
-To my brother only losing to the 2nd best player in the world (by rating) by 8 cards and for being 12.
-To that McDonald’s for having an UNDERGROUND eating area that looked like a bomb shelter from the Cold War.
-To my friend Brian, for taking home an uncut sheet at his 1st tournament outside of Huntsville.
-To me for pulling the 5th win out of a hat somehow.
-To Matt Reed for running a very smooth tournament and holding the tournament a couple mintutes for me.
-Also to Matt Redd for winning the YJ Grand Slam.
-To my decks for winning without any starships


Slops:
-First and foremost to Mike Kessling for SENSING MY TWI-LEK ADVISOR.
-To Charlie for dropping out after going undefeated (I know he had a good reason, but still)
-To Steven Lewis for coming in Second at almost every tournament he goes to.
-To Jeff Anderson for winnning an uncut sheet even after I smacked the CRAP out of him.

Well, hope you enjoyed the details-
Andy McClure