ccw2-syracuse-11-4-2000
Title: ccw2-syracuse-11-4-2000
Author: R. "Voice of Law" Smith
Date: Nov 10, 2000
Well I’m planning to ride down with fellow UR undergrad Mike Van Zander (thanks for driving chief), my roommate Nick "Bong" Bongio, and RIT scrub Chris Janiak. The tourney starts at 11 and we decide to meet at the local shop at 745. I don’t know how long it takes to get to Cuse so I’m like fine, and around 20 after 7 Nick and I head off to meet Zander and drive over to the store.
Janiak’s late and doesn’t meet up with us till almost 8 o’clock. We go to McDonald’s (yuck) for breakfast and I pay 4 bucks for a frickin steak bagel and a coke. That’s jank.
So we hit the road and are there in no time. After cruisin through the ghetto of Syracuse tryin to find this shop, we finally get there around 20 after 9. Great. We’re a full hour and forty minutes early for the tournament. And of course the store doesn’t open till ten.
So Zander’s like "I hereby declare this the official deckbuilding spot," and plops himself down in a parking space in front of the adjacent Italian restaurant to build his light deck. I guess he thought we were all gonna sit down with him or something, I dunno. Then Janiak’s like "Reid you got your hacky sack?" And I’m like "Yeah," and I look through my pockets and stuff and the friggin thing aint there. It musta fallen out of my sweatshirt pocket or something. So Im pissed I cant find it, I go look in the car and everything but it’s gone. I have another one but that was the better. Sucks.
We stand around in front of the store wasting time, talking tech, and giving Zander points on his decks for a few minutes, then this truck pulls up from a septic company. We ignore it. Steve Brentson pulls up and Janiak goes to talk with him. Brett Kingery comes in and he’s got an empty car even though he said he was bringing some people from Rochester. Whatever. I go over and hassle him about it. Ted P. the director shows up with some Twiggs in his car too. They all pile out and start being themselves.
By now this dude from the septic truck has gotten out and laid a hose from his truck to this manhole in front of the store’s door. He’s using a shovel to pry it open with. I’m like hrm I don’t like the looks of this so I head on over towards Janiak, Brentson, and the Twiggs so I wont be near the manhole. Good decision. A few seconds later the dude gets the manhole off and everyone that was standing (or in Zander’s case sitting) anywhere near it starts running away from the stench. It’s pretty funny … until the stank wafts over to where I (and everyone else) am standing. We all get a whiff (even though we’re about 50 feet away it still reaches us) and take a few steps back until we’re out of range. That was some raunchy stuff.
Finally some guy opens up the store (meanwhile the entire parking lot still reeks) and we all head in. I try to hold my breath as I go past the manhole, but I’m walking behind Brentson and for some reason he’s going like soooo slow. Maybe he was enjoying it or something, I dunno. I manage to keep it held and don’t inhale until I get inside the store.
So we get settled in … Janiak plays Brentson with his Endor Ops (against Brentson’s Profit) and gets wrecked. A bunch more people show up like Lingrell, two Sokols, Dalton, Praskac, etc. and we get started right on time.
My Light: "Age of Aquaris" HB matching pilots w/Kessel Runs and Ralltiir Freighter Captains to retrieve. Little bit of tech with Xwing Cannons and Power Pivot. Projections and spies for the ground. Legendary and Order to Be Gay for direct damage.
My Dark: "BHBM for slackers" BHBM deck with an Intruder Missile and tracking ability so I can cross Jedi Luke with 3 battles won. Pretty standard otherwise.
Pairings are announced and I’m the third one called. I get paired against ..
Matt Sokol Champion of the World ISB walkers/Tramples against my "Age of Aquaris"
Awww yeah I get to play Matt Sokol first game. Huge.
So we put our stuff out I ask to count his deck. He has 59 cards. I’m like "let’s talk to Ted" and he asks Ted about it and Ted says he can just add a card. He whips out a white cardboard box and starts digging. I’m not happy cuz he’s seen 7 cards out of my deck and I tell Ted about it and he’s like just play the game, just play the game. I’m like whatever dude not cool and I go back and ask Sokol what he put in and he wont tell me. Fine.
He starts IAO, Mob Points, and TinT. Coruscant system. I get the HB stuff and Squassin, Strike Planning, and Wise Advice, which I start for all games.
I draw and bang I have the Mini-Falcon so I know I can get Nien Nunb with Squassin. I go get General Lando on his turn w/Strike Planning. He gets Rendili and drops a battleground dockbay. I look over and we’re kinda close together with the games on either side of us and I notice the guy next to him has Executor Dockbay out with a foil Ozzel there and I half-jokingly say "don’t use his Ozzel," and Sokol shrugs and drops his own Exec dockbay w/foil Ozzel. Kinda funny.
So I get 5 force on my first turn which is enough for the MiniFalcon with Lando AND Nien at Endor. Tight.
He drops some schmoes to a dockbay somewhere but still cant flip ISB.
My turn I activate 6 (he had another dockbay out) and fly the aforementioned MiniFalcon to Aquaris so I can generate huge force, Projection the site he had set up at and say you go big guy. Oh meantime I’m checking my deck every turn for Lt. Blunt or Tala 2.
He goes and gets set up at another Dbay. Beefy.
I go and drain for 1 and Projection that other Dbay. Search for a system and hallelujah amen I activated Tala 2. Draw.
He goes and gets the objective flipped.
I go and drain for 1, drop Tala 2 w/Blunt to Coruscant, slide the MiniFalcon over. He doesn’t flip his objective back but I’m like whatever I know what’s going on.
His turn he tries to drain me for one at a 1/1 dockbay where I have a Projection and he has an agent. I’m like "How ya figger?" And he points to the agent. I say "It’s flipped," and he shrugs and finally flips his friggin objective. No drains this turn but he sets up at the Death Star dockbay.
I go and drain for 1 at Coruscant. I’m looking for stuff to set up my Kruns but not being very successful. I drop Boussh to handle the drain at the Death Star.
So he goes and activates all but 4. No drains. Searches for a dockbay and he’s got a 4,1,1,1 with a walker in there. Without comment he drops Battle Deployment, picks up his reserve, pulls out the walker, throws it to a dbay. As he starts to pay force for the walker I’m like "hold up … you can’t drop Battle Deployment." He’s like "why not?" I’m like "you don’t occupy a battleground system." He’s like "so?" and picks up Battle Deployment and starts reading over it. I’m sittin there thinkin "is this guy just @#$%in with me or does he really not know the rules?" So the guy next to him (the one with the other foil Ozzel) notices this and tells Sokol that you have to occupy a BG system to deploy ANY Admiral’s Order. Sokol’s like oh ok… and takes it all back. Sets up at yet another dockbay and it’s my go.
I drain and deploy TK to the Death Star with Boussh because believe it or not that’s the only site (besides Exec dbay) where he has an Imperial (he’s playing a bunch of janky ORSs). I save force to move one of them on his turn, and he goes.
He Tramples Boussh so it doesn’t matter. Then he drops Fett in Slave to Aquaris and deploys Battle Deployment. He then tries to replace the first BDeployment with a second so he can track the first. I tell him he cant do that cause theyre unique. He doesn’t believe me and I tell him we can ask Ted if he wants. He concedes and then asks me if I mind if he takes it all back (the AO and Fett). And I’m like actually … I do. So Fett and the AO both stay.
Couple turns later he tried to deploy EPP Fett to the ground somewhere (Fett in Slave is still up in space). I don’t even notice it until sometime during his move phase. I’m like wha??? He takes it back. Puts an ORS on the Slave for 2 force and I sportingly point out that he costs –1 to go to independent ships. I drop Order To Engage w/Big Bad Wedge and a Red Squad buddy and he loses 3 and lands Fett instead of fighting and getting creamed.
Eventually I set up and drain him down to about 15 cards. I have mid 20s left in my life force. He gets out Search and Destroy and Ability x3 and I lose steadily to those (mostly S&D). Even though I could have cancelled Ax3 on several occasions by over-deploying .. I refrain, because over-deployment = bad. He Abyssin Ornaments for 8 on his ORS (bleh) but I also pull off a KRun somewhere in there.
Finally he has about 12 cards in life force and a couple in hand. I’ve got about 20 in life and 6 or 8 in hand. I’m still not flipped and, thanks to Lt. Blunt, neither is he. He goes to draw up, and I’m like whoa hang on … I think about it, and decide to flip when he has one card left. I’m hoping to KRun for the stuff I’ve lost while he has barely anything he can do.
That turns out to be not such a good move with Ability x3 and S&D eating away at me. Battle Plan is out too (I put it out early like a quahog) and so I have to pay for my drains anyway. I play like a schmoe and end up not getting a KRun done after all. But at least I pull out the win by 5.
The good: Uhhh …. Beating the world champ. Yeah. That would be good.
The bad: Flipping my objective like a hick.
The ugly: Hmm lemme pick … Admiral’s Orders rules, persona rules … I dunno …
So I’m at 2(+5) and I feel like a champ. Plus I am reminded to never ever flip my objective when there is any kind of direct damage going on … yeesh. I chill for about 15 minutes till the next game’s pairings are announced. I’m up against:
Peter Srodoski (I’m sure I screwed that up) mid-1800s fifth/third marker start with a hundred sites.
Well yeah it turns out Sokol and I played wrong sides. So I get to play light again. Yippee.
Anyway he starts the two Hoth sites and I’m thinkin where’s my Lost in the Wilderness? But I don’t draw it. I don’t draw anything but crap.
First turn he puts Ozzel BY HIMSELF at the third marker and I’m like wha?? So I go and get Endor with Lando on the Mini-Falcon there. Projection the third marker.
He goes and drains for one. Drops some more guys and a PotF on the friggin third marker. Deploys the Endor Dark Forest too. Great.
So basically what happens is I get screwed. I set up to drain some in space and he really doesn’t have anything for me up there (if he did I had a bunch of stuff in hand waiting for him). I drop some spies and they get Snipered here and there but I’m really not getting hurt for more than I can retrieve. I get my KRun set up with an RFC from Ralltiir, and go to complete it. He draws for the KRun … and gets a zero. Of course. Down goes the RFC and his ship. Terrible.
So that pretty much ruins the game because he is causing some decent damage on the ground and I have no way to stop it up. I flip and he comes to probe and gets it eventually. I battle him in space but he’s draining on ground too so I really cant handle all the damage. I finally get another Run set up but by then it’s too late and I don’t have enough force to complete it all in one turn. He drains me out and I lose by 16 …
The good: Umm… it was a good game, competitive. Pete was a cool guy.
The bad: Ozzel at the third marker first turn. Losing my Lost in the Wilderness off the top early on …
The ugly: Friggin zero on the Kessel Run. Most (if not all) dark decks nowadays play minimal zeroes with IAO and Mob Points to pull em all out. This one played about 15 with no way to get em. Grrrr….
Now I’m at 2 (-9) and I’m feeling really mellow. I was in the zone against Sokol, really focused and able to find what I needed to beat him. I paid attention and called him on every mistake he made. Even though I made the late mistake of flipping I still got the win. Against Pete I let the early disappointment of my first KRun failing do me in. I try and get it together and focus in on my next game…
Game 3 and I’m playing light again.
"Age of Aquaris" vs. Greg Hodur’s almost-1900 MKOS Abyssins.
Well I had decided before the tourney in playtesting that when I faced this objective I would treat it as if it had no space force in the deck, forcing it to show me what it’s got in the stars. So that’s what I plan on doing here.
He starts Power of the Hutt and some useless effects. Desert Heart and Jabba’s Palace. First turn gets a site and I pull General Lando.
I go and activate 5. Search for a system and find I’ve activated 3 of em. Pull Tibrin and draw up to get Endor, Kessel, and Aquaris. Tight.
He sets up on Tatooine with aliens everywhere, Gaylid comes out eventually as does Scum. Hutt Influence appears (grr I hate that card) so Projection is worthless as is flipped HB. Bah.
He’s got three sites he can drain for two at (courtesy of Gaylid): Tat: JP, JP: AC, and AC:LPassages. So I’m losing 6 a turn and draining for only a few in space.
I’m spreading quite a bit in space while trying to find my stuff for a KRun, but I wasn’t paying much attention and I couldn’t find the stuff I needed fast enough. Even Nien and the Falcon eluded me for longer than usual. I got to verify his deck rather early and saw Fett in Slave and Zuckuss in Hunter so I decided to quit being so reckless up in space. Other than that he was playing standard Abyssin jank – bane to my deck.
Eventually he comes to space and probes around for a while until he gets the base but it doesn’t matter because SecPrecs wasn’t out and Hutt Influence was nullifying my drain canceling. I was somewhat in a funk this game and really didn’t play very well. Not sure if I got a KRun off or not. Didn’t matter. I got trounced by 21.
The good: Activating three systems first turn is *usually* good.
The bad: Bad matchup, and I didn’t meta very much for Abyssins (what was I thinking?).
The ugly: Really being out of it mentally.
So after a great start to the day I am scraping the bottom of the barrel at 1-2 with huge negative differential. I almost fall asleep between games and then get paired against what must have been a local ….
Game 4
BHBM jank against Steve K. (I’m not even going to attempt to spell your last name bro ;-) 1500? Xwing stuff w/o HB.
He starts Yavin system w/HFTMF for Ultimatum (who cares), Do or Do Not (yuck) and another worthless effect that I cant remember. He shuffles with the faces of his cards towards me and I really cant help but look and notice that he’s playing a bunch of Xwings and junk. OK …
I draw and Vader is smiling away in my opening hand. Pull Rendili, activate, Emperor to DSII dockbay, his go.
He drops Hoth system and draws.
I get the Cloud City dockbay with Vader there. Draw and I’ve got some more guys in hand along with Search and Destroy. Sweet.
He drops some Xwings to Yavin. Doesn’t give me Luke.
I make him lose 3, drain him, and hold off on setting up S&D just in case he’s playing suicide squads. Drop Evazan to backup Vader. Have a couple Senses in hand for Clash (ya never know).
He drains me for one. More Xwings and a couple Cannons to Yavin. Great. He’s obviously not playing Luke.
Your Destiny, drain, set up S&D with a walker and a bounty hunter. He loses to that and goes.
Drain for 1. Search and Destroy.
Your Destiny, drain for 1 and 1, Search and Destroy.
That’s pretty much how the game ends up. I let S&D slide a couple times to give him a little bit of leniency to work his deck, but he doesn’t have a whole lot to give me. He eventually spreads to Hoth with a few Xwings and I send Zuckit and Fett over to win a battle and stack a card. We duke it out up there but that’s of no consequence. My damage on the ground finishes him rather quick-like, and we’re the first ones done. Full win by 31.
The good: I needed a win, no matter how.
The bad: Taking it to a newbie.
The ugly: Welcome to Star Wars CCG, where if you don’t play with Luke Skywalker, you lose the game.
So since we got done so early we decide to play another game (even though I probly shoulda gone back to sleep or something).
Fun game
My second-string light (MWYHL Fallen Portal/Narrow Escape jank) vs. Steve’s CPI!
This was his tournament deck. COOL. He starts the Death Star and I get to go first, oh boy. Yoda to the Hut. Drop Cloud City dockbay.
He goes and gets some sites out.
I eventually set up a drain of 4 at the dockbay w/2 sabers and Proficiency on Luke (PHAT) while he tries to get set up blowing up planets. I think my drain of 4 a turn can do him in before he can blow anything up … but I’m wrong. He blows up Tatooine (where I had deployed Dockbay 94) then Bespin (bye bye to all my guys) then heads for Dagobah. I drop Lando Wax and Tawss on the Death Star right before he blows up Dagobah. Then he drops Broken Concentration so I generate NO force whatsoever. CHYBC so I cant drain. I say ok and drop Honor of the Jedi. Then he’s like "that’s game."
Neither of us has anything else we can do because the only non-blown away locations on table are Death Star non-BGs. I have considerably more force than he does so in reality I got a timed win. He shows me his deck afterwards, it consists of 6 CPIs, a copy of basically every system that has sites, and a bunch of Death Star sites. He goes around blowing up planets until the Light Side has no force icons left, then uses BrokCon to keep them from generating anything at all. Then he uses Mara/Saber and Abilityx3 to peck away at their life force until they die. TECH. I love this deck. Oh he was also playing Hutt Smooches to keep guys off the Death Star even though I got lucky with Lando Wax and he didn’t have one in hand when I deployed. Tight deck.
So we’re not having a lunch break but we can order food and Janiak is like hey you wanna order pizza with me and this dude I know? Apparently some guy is there for Magic and he knows Janiak and they’re gonna order so I’m like yeah of course so Janiak’s like gimme 4 bucks and I do. Then I see this dude I’m ordering pizza with and he’s a HOUSE. And I’m thinkin great I just paid 4 bucks and I’ll be lucky if I come away with one slice of pizza but the pizza comes and I snag 3 pieces and all is good. On to game 5 …
Game 5
Age of Aquaris vs. Spencer Hamblen’s 1700 "gay droid deck"
Yeah it’s a good ol’ EV9D9 deck. Zander had played against it first game and lost and gotten incredibly pissed. So I’m thinkin alright I gotta beat this.
But once again I fail to focus and play well and it costs me. He starts the gay Droid Workshop with Twilek for Security Precautions. Ok …. You know there’s a new starting interrupt that lets you start THREE effects right guy? You can always start YCHF and sack it to get Sec Precs if youre that worried about HB …
Well I set up in space but I’m just not thinking clearly and I cant get my friggin Kessel Run stuff together. Second turn he SCrews me and gets Boussh. That’s peachy. I still Projection the Workshop and get Honor out so his drains there are very little early on.
But then, so are mine as I am reluctant to flip HB. Eventually I do so I can drain for more and so I can cancel his drain at the Shop (which is steadily increasing as he drops more and more droids). He comes to space with Zuckuss and frickin DLotS in his Shuttle and I’m sitting there thinking "I know I should beat this guy, but I’m gonna lose."
He gets my base and I lose 9 to SecPrecs. I cant find Legendary OR Order to Be Gay OR a mother@#$%ing Signal even though I have THREE in the deck. So the only damage I’m causing is some weak drainage and battle damage here and there. Meantime he’s draining for mucho at the friggin Workshop. He also has the CC:Incinerator out but I ignore it.
I never do get a KRun off and one turn he Elises all his schmoe droids over to the Incinerator and drains for ten. Yep, ten. So that’s game. Loss by 16
The good: Absolutely nothing.
The bad: Playing like a chump.
The ugly: Just … everything.
Hey now I’m 2-3, let’s get another loss shall we?
Game 6 janky BHBM against Don Mattingly (err Dave Mattingly ;-) Tatooine start with no tech that still beat me.
He Careful Plans with Obi’s Hut and Mos Eisley.
Vader goes to the wretched hive of scum and villainy second turn but Dave sends Jedi Luke to the Cloud City dockbay I so conveniently deployed like the true scrub I am. I’ve got Mara and Saber in hand so I drop em and decide I just have to have faith in my deck’s destiny. It comes through and I swing and hit Lukie, draw 5 to his 4 BD and win the battle. But I have to lose Mara. Crap.
He does nothing on his turn but redeploy Jedi Luke from lost to the friggin CC dockbay. GAY. So on my turn I drain then burn my Rise My Friend to grab Vader and toss him down to get Luke. Mara’s Saber is looking tasty on top of my lost pile so I drop No Escape and get it back. Resolve to try to find my other Mara, but forget about that in the upcoming turns … move Vader to the DSII dockbay because we’re gonna duel.
He eventually deploys Kessel and sets up there with some chumps on the Tantive. I let that drain go for a while so I can set up some destinies. Lose to my objective too. Don’t duel just yet because if I lose I’ll have to shuffle and there goes my tracking.
Finally I’ve got some destinies set up and some ships in hand so I go to Kessel and win a battle. Now I’ve got two cards and I only need 3 because I’m playing a frickin Intruder Missile so I can track it and cross Jedi Luke with only 3 battles won. Duel here and there to make him lose some cards.
He fortifies in space though and starts to beat me back. I have some bounty hunter ships up there, no Ex, so I can’t hang for long. He puts Fury on my DLOTS but doesn’t have anyone on table to make it work. Next turn he sends EPP Leia to some Tatooine site and I’m like you do that pal and drop some scrubs in a walker to crush her and stack my third card.
So now I’ve got my three stacked cards and am working hard to get that 7 on bottom of reserve (where’s Janus when you need him?). The war continues at Kessel…
In one battle he draws high BD and I have to decide whether to stick it out with Fett in Slave and some tracked destinies or just give up the system entirely. I make the wrong decision and leave Fett there. He deploys entirely too many guys and smacks Fett for something good. Battle damage from that ends the game, the turn I had tracked the seven to the bottom. Bah.
The good: My destiny 7 tech almost came through for me.
The bad: Once again knowing I could have played much better.
The ugly: Losing to a deck that played with the Tantive.
Now I’m 2-4 and I’ve never in my life, even as a newbie, finished a tournament with a losing record. I’m thinking two things:
a) I don’t want to end that record now;
b) I should be pretty low in the standings so a couple wins shouldn’t be too hard. I hope.
Game 7 BHBM jank against Doug Faust upper-1500s HB with mains and random red cards.
He starts Squassin, Strike Planning, and Do or Don’t.
So Faust is a cool guy, he runs this tight little website called the Coruscant Times, if you havent been there you need to go: www.times.phrim.com
Anyway he does the whole pull General Lando first turn deal while I put the Emperor to DSII dockbay and deploy Rendili which I drew. I’m cool with that though cuz now I can get the Ex with Mob Points.
He goes and puts the Mini-Falcon at Endor (big surprise).
I get a Vader to a dockbay. Huge. Deploy SecPrecs cause I had drawn it. I battle the Mini-Falcon with Zuckit so I can take a card. It’s my power 4+destiny to his 6 with destiny = 0. I draw a 3 so the Falcon stays but he loses 1 to damage and 1 to Insignificant Rebellion. I move Palpy in to the Throne Room with Emperor’s Power so Zuckit wont get smashed too badly.
Faust puts EPP Luke on the Falcon so he can draw BD and beat Zuckit off, but doesn’t lose Luke at the end of the battle.. Good for him. He loses to Your Destiny.
I get a walker and a pilot to the Endor Dbay. Looking for S&D.
He drains me for one at Endor and gets some guys at Kessel. Flips. Huge. Sends EPP Obi to deal with my Vader, swings and hits, Smoke Screens and I don’t want to/can’t Sense because I’m tracking a 7. I draw it for BD and cut my losses. He’s still losing to Your Destiny because Luke is putzing around up in space.
Down comes the Ex to Kessel and I win another battle. Probe Kessel and that’s not it. His ships all flee to the lower parsecs. Now the only systems I can probe are Endor and Roche cause the Ex cant make it elsewhere.
I fly to Endor but don’t probe for a while because I’m low on cards in hand and I’m guessing his base is in the lower parsecs anyway. He transfers Luke down to the Endor dockbay and flies his ships out of there. I beat on Luke next turn. He tries to deploy Blunt (most likely with some beatdown) to visit the Emperor but Palpy’s Power means he doesn’t have enough force. Tough. Vader finally picks up Luke and heads off to the DSII to duel.
He drains for a few, I drain for a few and duel. Eventually I probe Endor and hey that’s it. Smooth. He loses like 7 to Sec Precs. Shortly after that I win another battle or two and lose a duel so I convert Luke. Full win by 8.
The good: Again, I needed a win.
The bad: Converting Luke. It’s not even fun.
The ugly: My goofy Executor sitting at Endor for 4 or 5 turns while he cancelled my drains just because I didn’t want to give up any cards from my hand.
And folks I’m 3-4 with negative 27 differential. I’ve never finished with negative differential before either so I resolve to win my next game by at least 27.
Game 8
Age of Aquaris vs. Chris Talbot’s mid-upper 1600s Tat Occupation (good luck with that) with Deserts, walkers, and Sandwhirls.
Talbot’s from Team Albany, I guess. He starts Imperial Occupation with a Desert and some janky effects that don’t touch me. I draw and guess who is winking at me from my opening hand? Yeah you got it Nien Nunb. So on his turn I pull General Lando then use Squassin and the nice 3 force Talbot provided me with (he deployed a Tatooine Desert on his turn) to drop them in the MiniFalcon to Endor first turn. As I deploy Endor I say "you generate no force here" y’know since I start Strike Planning. So he goes and activates force for Endor anyway and I’m like "dude you don’t get force there take it back" and he won’t! So I’m like "look you’ve got 9 cards in your force pile and you should have 7, just take em back real nice." And he still won’t do it. We’re kinda joking about this so what I don’t realize is he seriously thinks he gets force at Endor. Finally I tell him "dude I’ve got this effect, I started with it, it says you get no force at Endor" and he reads Strike Planning and is like "wow." We’re sitting next to the Kingery brothers who had gotten paired against each other and we all laugh about it. So he sticks with his 7 force and drops a chump walker somewhere. Good for him.
I have both my Projections in my hand along with everything I need to pull off a KRun so I’m sitting rather pretty. I Projection the site with the walker and move my guys over to Aquaris for some force.
He goes and puts a walker at another site. OK.
I activate mondo force, drain, and Projection the other site. Put Wedge and a Red Squad buddy at Tatooine with an Xwing Cannon on Wedge, Power Pivot in hand. Move the Falcon over too.
He doesn’t have any drains, so he looks over my ships and says "ok you cant shoot the cannon at capitals right?" And I say "no I cannot." And he says cool and drops the Bus, a Dreadnaught, and Captain Piett (yeah that’s right CAPTAIN Piett) piloting the Dread there. Battle. I ask him if he has any actions and he says just BD so I say I’m gonna Power Pivot the Bus. He’s like "what’s that do?" and takes the card and I’m like "yeah buddy" and drop a card from hand that I didn’t need to reduce Bossk’s power to zero. Or maybe I did it on the Dread. I cant remember. They were both power 7 and I couldn’t think of a legitimate reason to choose one over the other, so it was pretty much arbitrary. Anyway I cancel one of his BDs and the other one is a 1. I draw a destiny to power and two BDs (with ElyTECH Rue and the MiniFalcon, respectively) so I smash him and he loses everyone and I drop Legendary. PHAT. He loses 2 during his move phase and it’s my go.
I drain him for 2 at Tatooine and he loses 2 cards to it even though I’m not flipped. Hey it’s not my fault HB is worded the way it is ;-) I look over Tatooine and he’s got 5 sites out, 4 of which have walkers, 2 of which have Projections, 1 of which has Boussh. The walkers are, left to right: Tempest Scout 4, TS 3, non-unique TS, and Blizz Scout 1. I look over to see who can react where and the dude’s like "They all do." And I’m like "Hmmm that’s not what it says here." TS 4 and 3 cant react, and he only has one force saved so the only one that can react is Blizz Scout 1. Phatty. Down comes EPP Luke to clear off with a walker. Draw BD and it goes down. He doesn’t get BD and Luke stays. Break Boussh’s cover and drop Melas with her, battle the walker there, draw BD and it goes. Now I own two sites AND the system. Tight. I go ahead and flip.
He goes and has like one drain far away from my guys that I cancel with HB. He flips his force pile upside down as if to draw up and I’m like "you can’t" and he’s like "yes I can" and I’m like "sorry Charlie you got to PAY to DRAW." So he cant draw up and I KRun twice to retrieve a bunch of junk and win by 31.
The good: Winning and NOT ending up with losing differential. Getting to whip out a bunch of tech like frickin Power Pivot. Playing like I played in the first game and should have been playing all day long.
The bad: Not much, this was actually a fun game.
The ugly: Not knowing he was serious about the whole Endor deal.
So I end up 8 (+4) NOT a losing record and NOT a negative differential. I had actually expected to do much better, but there’s always next tournament. Brian Twigg stole the show, the glass, and the gift certificate to the Italian restaurant next door (which was where seemingly every hot chick in Syracuse went for dinner on Saturday night … wow). Mike Dalton came in second and I was smack dab in the middle of the standings, 22nd out of 45.
Here we go:
Props:
Ted Panczyczxyczyn for having a cool last name.
Me for having a great first game and last game.
Zander for driving and leaving me a sexy phone message at 3 am.
Janiak for umm….
Matt Sokol for being the world champion and still going to a tournament. If I was champ I’d only play at the biggest cons.
Stephen Chast for being a really cool guy.
Brian Twigg for winning.
That dude for playing CPI in the tourney and winning some games.
Aaron Kingery for playing Tractor Beams.
All my opponents for being cool, especially Greg Hodur and Steve K.
All 5 of my dark side opponents for not playing Secret Plans. So there Janiak.
Slops:
Ted P. for making some shady calls and letting Sokol put any old card in his deck first game.
Me for having a crappy 6 middle games.
Me for losing my frickin hacky sack.
My Decipher rating for going down for the first (and only) time in my life.
Zander and Janiak for deciding we were going to eat at McDonald’s before AND after the tournament…no wonder we all played so lousy …
Nick for scrubbing out with my Xwing deck, forgetting about Civil Disorder, and going 1-3 with the deck when he should have gone 3-1.
The septic company guys for causing the big stink.
That guy with the gay droid deck for playing the gay droid deck.
"And that’s all I have to say about that."