phoenix-grand-slam-mega-weekend-day-3
Title: phoenix-grand-slam-mega-weekend-day-3
Author: Brian "HuntaWarya" Hunter
Date: Nov 10, 2000
If you have not already read & rated Days 1 & 2, that would probably be a good idea. I’m sure they will work much better when read chronologically.
After the Saturday night tournament, we hit up Taco Bell for dinner. I stick to 2 bean burritos and a soft drink, even though I had not eaten anything else all day. When I don’t sleep enough, I tend not to get very hungry either. During the final confrontation on Saturday, Van had gone out with Kyle and Tim and bought a few things to drink. When they get back to Arizona Gamer, it looks as though Kyle has been drinking a bit already. Okay, maybe more than just a bit. We get back to our ghetto hotel room, and eat the food there. Kyle has a few more shots of dis & dat, and is flying pretty high. We go to the circle K, to pick up a few things, but we make Kyle stay in the car, so as not to cause a public disturbance. hehe. Back at the hotel room, I take a shower while Kyle lies on the floor outside the bathroom door and yells at me like a blithering idiot. Tim had warned us that Kyle is pretty funny when he’s drunk, but wow, this was more than any of us could have hoped for. Naturally, Kyle will remember none of this the next morning. Tim tries to keep Kyle from having any more to drink, but....things just don’t turn out that way. Somehow, Kyle manages to not throw up, even though he was so drunk that it is doubtful he could have found his own @#$%, using both hands and a flashlight. Tim, Kyle, and Luke leave our room sometime after 1am. At about 2am, I decide that I will switch back from my "auto-loss Abyssins" to "Hunt Down done RIGHT" for Day 3. I have no idea what to play for light. By about 4am, I am deciding I really don’t care what I will play for light. By 5am, I am thinking I may not really care whether I play at all the next day...
I wake up at 8am, after 3 hours of sleep. So, 1 hour of sleep Thursday night, 4 on Friday night, 3 on Saturday night. 8 hours in 3 nights, and I’m feeling bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for the Grand Slam. Or not. It takes me 4 attempts to get out of bed. Van decides he should sleep through the Slam, and it sounds pretty good to me. But since I came over 900 miles to play this card game, I decide I should go ahead and play. Van drops me off at the tourney, and heads back to the room to crash for the next 8 or 9 hours. I arrive about 3 minutes before the start time for the tournament, and I have not changed my deck from Abyssins back to Hunt Down yet. Nor have I chosen a light deck at all. But Girard is waiting for some other late arrivals, so I don’t miss Game One. I pull out my decks from the day before, and convert the Scum deck into Hunt Down. I take a long hard look at my ebo deck, and decide I am not willing to put forth the effort it would take to change it to anything else. (After 8 hours sleep in 3 nights, one can find himself lacking in motivation.) So I play the same deck for dark that I showed my opponents on Friday, and I play the same deck for light that EVERYONE got to see in the final confrontation the night before. Pretty smart, eh? Hmmm. Clint Hays decides not to play in the Grand Slam, although I never found out why.
Game One: Hunt Down vs. Dan McGrath’s Profit
Well, I start with jade and dr. evazan in the chamber, and also start Crush, to protect me from the clash. I give Jade her saber, put out some docking bays, and put the Emperor down to guard the visage. Pretty soon, I’m activating like a madman. A well-timed You Are Beaten against Master Luke allows Jade to do some serious damage to Dan’s forces. He tried to sense it a couple of times, but drew too high. Soon after that, Master Luke gets Disarmed, and Vader initiates the Duel. Dan tries to sense that also, but I alter his sense, and the duel is underway. Luke crosses to the dark side. Han would later be freed by someone who loves him, but Leia was not allowed to initiate battles, due to my giant Objective. I use a combination of lightsaber drains and visage damage to deplete Dan’s life force, and win by 26.
2: (+26)
Kyle Craft got a first round bye, and hence a win with zero differential. Kevin Shannon edged out Steven Lewis in Game One by only six cards. So I figure if I can continue to win with good differentials, I should be able to leave the 3 of them in the dust for awhile.
Game Two: Ebo vs. Brian Choongphol’s Tie Swarm
For the third time this weekend, I get to play the x-wings against ties. This kind of matchup bothered me, because a tie deck is obviously custom-made to throw down in space. And tie swarm has a lot more card slots to allocate to battle cards than an EBO x-wing deck does. The Mega Weekend was an important learning experience for me, and this is what I was taught: Tie decks suck. I never thought tie swarm was a good deck, but I was always worried about playing against one if I was using a dedicated space light side deck. Because if I get beaten down in space (which is the whole point of the tie swarm) then I have nothing else to fall back on. Apparently, I need not have been concerned. Beating Ties with X-wings is so easy it is just not fair. I played ebo x-wings all 3 days, and played against ties all 3 days. First it was Clayton’s Old School Tie Fighter deck, that starts Kashyyyk. Then Eric Olson’s Combat Response Interceptors, that starts Kuat, and now a more traditional Interceptor swarm, with even more tie cannons than Eric’s, that starts SYCFA. He sets up a drain in space, and I use rebel fleet to cancel it, while I get my hand pieced together. Then, once again, I come to space all at once. X-wings all over the place, even one at Alderaan to drain for two. :) I also fly a couple of them over to the Death Star, and a few ships go to Wakeelmui. He has to keep chasing my ships back and forth from the Death star, but he can’t drain there. It costs me a pretty penny to keep running away, due to "Something Special Planned", but I can afford it, and his cards just go away. Full win by 32.
4: (+58)
Game Three: Hunt Down vs. Michael Patriquin
Michael starts a Tatooine site, and plays the Signal for Polarized Negative Power Coupling. On turn one, he out of commisions my starting interrupt. Sure enough, the first time I deploy anything with a significant deploy cost, he plays a pair of visored visions, to make me lose 2 force. He then Out of Commisions both of the cards I lost. Hmm. I decide it is time to start being careful, and only deploy when necessary, or I will lose LOTS of force, REALLY fast. I use Vader at the CC docking bay. At the Death Star docking bay, it is Mara Jade, Dr. Evazan, and Dengar. That is good enough to set up Search & destroy, and Vader obviously flipped my objective. I use the Emperor to guard the Visage, and I use Boba Fett in Slave I at Carida to satisfy Honor of the Jedi. And that is pretty much all I deploy this game, so that I won’t lose more force to Visored Visions. He uses an undercover spy to block one of my drains, so I just let it be, and drain at my other two locations, while letting the Visage and S&D wear away at him. Obi-Wan Kenobi drops to Vader’s site, packing his lightsaber and Lightsaber Proficiency, but when Michael initiates, Obi-Wan misses Vader, and Vader does not miss Obi-Wan. Lord Vader’s immunity holds up, and my oversized objective is back on the 7-side almost instantly. A surprise assault against Jade/Dengar/Evazan deals me more damage than anything else in this game, so I transit Evazan over with Vader to decrease my vulnerability, and wait for Michael to die off. Full win by 22.
6: (+80)
This game ended pretty quickly, so there is a fair amount of time before the next game. In order to prevent a repeat of yesterday (sitting down and falling asleep between games), I decide to stay on my feet. I lean against the wall to wait for the next round...and fall asleep standing up! wtf? I wake up on my own, about 8 minutes before the next game starts.
Game Four: EBO vs. Ben Robinson’s My Kind of Scum Deck
Ben brings a rating of 1961, and an interesting variant of MKOS. He shows me Ephant Mon for his rep. His deck contains just a couple of Chevins, for him to flip with. His primary non-unique alien is Outer Rim Scouts. Great pilots on ZIMH, or the Space Cruiser, where they add 3 to power, draw one destiny if not able to otherwise, and deploy for only 1 force (free if S&V on table) He also uses empty Blizzard Walkers for them to pilot. Ben sets up quickly in the Lower Passage and the Audience Chamber, using Hutt Influence to prevent me from limiting his drains. Gailid comes out early, as does Search & Destroy. I finally get my EBO rolling, but I am well behind in life force. He goes ahead and takes control of Jabba’s Palace, to put resistance in effect. I have to play all wings report in on my x-wings before I would like to, just to have enough life force to play my turns the way I want. I put Obi-wan down to the north ridge to satisfy Search & Destroy, but he gets mauled by Jodo Kast, and a few other aliens. So I try using an Arcona in Jabba’s Palace to satisfy Search & Destroy, plus block a drain in the process. But Bubo makes an appearance, and the Arcona is dog food. I’ve got my drain of 8 going in space, and this one looks like it will come down to the wire. He controls Jabba’s Palace with 2 outer rim scouts inside Blizzard 1. But those are not 2 aliens with different titles, so I use rebel fleet to cancel the drain twice, and he is too busy trying to contend with me in space to reallocate his ground forces. Boussh blocks the drain at the Lower Passage. Bubo moves over, but I make sure to leave destiny for Boussh every turn, and since there are no zeroes in my deck once ANSB pulls my locations, she never dies. He plays the ornament to retrieve off his rim scouts, but it is not quite enough, and I win by 7.
8: (+87)
Players like Clayton Atkin, Kyle Craft, Steven Lewis, and Kevin Shannon were all playing their games not too far from my own, so I figure they will catch me soon. However, Steven Lewis, despite being 3-1, drops out again. Chris Shaner is apparently the only other 4-0 in the tourney, so my matchup for Game 5 is set.
Game Five: Hunt Down vs. Chris Shaner’s EBO
Well, I played my Abyssins against this yesterday, so I know more or less what to expect. I put vader down at one of my docking bays for the quick flip of my massive Hunt Down card and some early visage damage. Chris nearly plays the signal to get honor, but wisens up, and gets Do or Do Not instead. I guess he remembered that Hunt Down done RIGHT packs multiple alters. :) And sure enough, if he had picked the Honor instead, it would not have still been on table by the end of his turn. I once again put someone in the holotheatre to defend against a spy incursion. Chris drops an undercover spy (either Boussh or Tk-422) to Vader’s site to block my drain of 2. But my activation is high enough to allow easy destiny tracking, so I sniper the spy. Chris seems irritated that he did not have his "It’s a Trap!" in hand when he needed it. When flipping cards off reserve deck for the drain, the other undercover spy goes to lost pile. Chris finished establishing EBO and comes to space at 2 systems. I don’t have the ships to challenge him in two places at once, so I settle for just blocking one of his drains. I take control of my other docking bay, and get the S&D damage rolling. Chris is winning the war in space, and is now able to drain in space at 2 systems, while still maintaining a force large enough to fight me with at a 3rd system. So I deploy Battle Order, in order to force him to make some tough choices. Chris decides to deploy a Bothan spy to the north ridge to satisfy both S&D, and battle order. He sees that most of my unique personas are already on table. Plus, he would later tell me that he was holding two barriers and a houjix, so he figured this was a safe play. Sure enough, I had no characters in hand. But I do have a walker. I deploy Blizzard 2 to the north ridge, and you can’t barrier a vehicle. So I get to initiate. 6 power to 1. He could lose the Bothan and 2, or he could lose the Bothan and then houjix. But if he does either of those, he will start losing to S&D again, and have to pay for battle order on his next turn, which he cannot really afford to do at this stage in the game. So, to keep the bothan alive, he loses 5 cards to battle damage instead. So...I trample the bothan. He loses 1 to S&D anyway, and on his turn, can’t afford to drain, since he needs to deploy epp obi-wan, to once again satisfy S&D and Battle order. Chris deploys his jedi to the ridge to kill my walker, but I barrier. Tempest 1 joins Blizzard 2, and the two at-ats off the old man, putting my huge objective back on the 7-side, making Chris lose to S&D, and preventing him from satisfying Battle Order. Full win by 15.
So I am now at 10: (+102)
After taking care of Shaner, I am now the only undefeated player in the Grand Slam. But there are several 4-1 players, including Shaner, Ben Robinson, Ben Wehunt, and Kevin Shannon. If I lose in Game 6, I could still miss the final confrontation. And I really don’t want a repeat of GenCon, where I went 5-1 in a field of no 6-0 players, but missed the final due to differential.
Game Six: EBO vs. Ben Wehunt’s Hunt Down
Ben’s Hunt Down deck is a lot like my own. I only remember seeing a handful of cards in his deck that I did not expect. And I just HATE trying to play ebo against Hunt Down. It is SO tough, when you don’t have an early TT. And in this game, I do not have an early TT. Ben’s deck gets off to a lightning start, and before I know it, he has already taken control of 3 battleground sites (his deck is designed to be capable of getting around Honor without going to space) I have tk-422 in hand. I decide not to go where Vader has the saber, due to fear of a sniper. I decide not to go to where the Emperor is, due to fear of force lightning. So I block the other drain, and hope for the best. I am getting drained for 4 a turn, and the visage is tearing me up. The Rebel Fleet is helping me somewhat, but I am falling WAY behind in this one, and it isn’t taking long. Must....not....lose...game. Must....make it...to...final...confrontation. The early games are finishing up, and word has gotten around that Hunter is getting his @#$% handed to him in Game 6, so we have a few spectators now, as people gather around to see if I can somehow bail myself out of a seemingly hopeless situation, as I have done so many times before. Search & destroy comes down, so I try to satisfy it (once again) by deploying Commander Luke to the north ridge. And once again, I get wasted at the 4th marker. I am down to 11 cards in my life force, and he still looks to have over 25. Must....win....game. Some...way. Some..how. His guys go under the shield to avoid an ice storm. So I use Melas at the north ridge to satisfy S&D (since Melas finally made it into my deck that day), and make him come back out. First Strike is on the table through much of this game, making it difficult for me to play battle interrupts in space. This is giving his ships more staying power than they would normally have, and I am having a hard time clearing him off my systems, to push my drains through. I finally manage to cancel the visage, and there is a faint glimmer of hope. I go ahead and initiate with Melas, to get the First Strike benefit, even though suiciding Melas will make me start losing to S&D again. I play my all wings report in, but only retrieve a handful (six I think) By this time, almost all the other games have finished, and the crowd watching our game contains most of the participants in the tournament. Ben has taken sole possession of the north ridge now, and adds it to his other drain locations. I have run out of x-wings to cancel drains with, but I have finally managed to establish total control in space, and cards are coming off his reserve deck in bunches. The "all wings" retrieval didn’t buy me much time, and my life force ticks back down under 10, with only a card or two in hand. Must....win...game. No cards in hand now. 9 life force. 8. 7. 6. And then...he dies. Full win by 6.
I finish at 12: (+108)
I think winning this game was my single greatest accomplishment of the weekend. I haven’t pulled off a comeback like that since the game I won (with this same ebo deck) against Van in Boulder (when Van was playing Hunt Down also) I won that game by 4, this one by 6, and they were both incredible matches. (If you want to read about that game, you can check my member page, and look at my TR from Boulder) Of all the 20 sanctioned games I played in Arizona, this one had the smallest differential. I have scarcely ever worked so hard to win a game of STAR WARS. After the game, and after people have finished congratulating me on the victory, I stagger around a little bit, complaining about this incredible pain I have just behind my left eyeball. I must have hurt myself from concentrating too hard. :) My opponent for the final confrontation is...wouldn’t you just know it? Kevin Shannon.
So here we go. I won a game against Kevin on Friday, and made him settle for second. And beat him again in game 7 on Saturday. He came roaring back in the final confrontation, beating me both games Saturday night, and made me settle for second. So I am 2-0 against him in sanctioned games, 0-2 against him in final confrontation games, 2-2 overall. We have each won one tournament this weekend, and we are ready for the tiebreak. We talk about the uncut sheets, and decide we don’t really need to play a final to decide who gets which sheet, since neither of us really cares. HOWEVER, there is a Boba Fett T-shirt at stake, and we both want to win it, so we have to play the final after all. I decide to play light first in the final. Kevin has played against this deck once on Friday, and twice more on Saturday, so he probably knows it pretty much card-for-card.
Final Confrontation Game One: EBO vs. Kevin’s SYCFA deck
Instead of his normal starting effects, Kevin pulls out Secret Plans and Battle Order. Did I mention that he knows my deck pretty much card-for-card? I did? Okay. Kevin’s deck has no theme or focus whatsoever. He has a bunch of cool characters, a bunch of cool ships, a couple of systems to drain at, and a few nifty interrupts. He is also playing the Brangus glee/death star docking bay/put all sections on alert thing. I get an 8-card opening draw but do not look at it, except for the first card. Every time Kevin deploys a location, I take another card from my opening draw into my hand. If he deploys an effect, I take another card from my opening draw into hand. Kevin seems amused that I intend to play the game without looking at my entire hand. I go through my first turn, which is not too eventful and let him go. He deploys no locations on his next turn, so I decide that every time he draws 2 cards from his force pile, I will take a card from my opening draw into hand. Pretty soon, this leaves me with only one unseen card. But although he continues to draw cards, I state that I won’t take the last card into my hand until he deploys a card with ability. Pretty soon, he deploys Brangus Glee and Janus Greejatus to his docking bay, so I can see my entire hand now. Kevin’s turns are PAINFULLY slow. Six to eight minutes apiece, and the people watching the final confrontation in the other room are getting restless. I finish setting up ebo, while he uses Janus to assemble his hand. I get hit with a used monnok, and then another one. I have finished setting up ebo, but nothing is really happening. Due to Kevin’s insanely slow turns, we are about 45 minutes into the game, and there have been no battles, and no force drains. Eventually, he plays the lost monnok on me, killing my x-wings and my organized attacks. Soon after, he decides this would be a good time to come to space. He deploys Boba Fett in Slave I, and there are cheers and applause from the next room. I deploy an x-wing, and follow it in with Lando in Falcon. He barriers. So I follow in with the Spiral instead. He barriers again. Zev and Hobbie have walked all the way out from under the shield, and are hanging out at the north ridge. Dengar and Bossk join Boba Fett, but the out of nowhere forces ten attrition, and only Fett survives. He would then bring a dreadnought with a pilot, but it doesn’t last any longer. Fett flees the scene, but I pounce on him with a single x-wing...armed with the x-wing laser cannon, and the last of the bounty hunters is exterminated. Kevin takes over Hoth with the flagship executor and some other capital ship, but I let him have the system for the time being, and drain 4 a turn at kiffex. I bring Jedi Luke down on Brangus and Janus, but Kevin uses Put All Sections On Alert to kill Luke’s immunity, and he dies. Boussh deploys to the Death Star War Room and breaks cover, setting up a drain for two. Ultimately I use the x-wings to destroy the Executor, and drain him out. Full win by 22.
Final Confrontation Game Two: Hunt Down vs. Kevin’s Agents in the Court/Chadra fan deck.
In the early going, we stick to our respective game plans. He gets Kabe and Tessek to the chamber, and I get Vader to my docking bay and flip my BIG Hunt Down. Ephant Mon defends the holotheatre, and the Emperor gets me some extra activation. He starts setting up drains at a couple of Tatooine Sites, and I transit the Emperor to cloud city, and set up Search & Destroy. Kevin uses a BoMarr Monk to avoid S&D damage. I deploy Zuckuss in Mist Hunter to Carida by itself, figuring that Kevin has no ships of value in his deck. Meanwhile, Dengar with Blaster Carbine is making a mess of Kevin’s Chadra fans in the cantina. We have frequent battles on Tatooine, as I try to keep the number of chadra fans low, to avoid a massive wind chimes retrieval. Attrition has been horrid on both sides, but the visage is doing its job. Kevin states that he knows he cannot win by 22, and hence cannot win the final confrontation, but still wants to pull out a victory in this particular game. I am thinking "no". I decide I want to kill that monk, so I deploy Janus Greejatus there, but Kevin cancels the battle with It’s a Trap. Ultimately, most of my tatooine ground forces have been eliminated, and I have just janus and dengar together at a site, in front of the afore-mentioned bomarr monk. He deploys a Chadra fan, and then another. And then another. 9 power to my five. Plus he draws destiny, and can add one destiny to power with his objective. This would probably be enough to kill both my characters at once, but I choose not to barrier. A 4th Chadra fan. I would now lose both my characters, and still suffer battle damage on top of it. But I grit my teeth, and do nothing. Lando w/ Vibro Axe. THAT gets the barrier out of me. Battle Order is making it tough for Kevin to drain, and although epp luke makes an appearance, the visage damage seals the deal, so I win by a handful.
I take the Dark Side Rare Sheet, and Kevin seems satisfied with the light side sheet. I also win the Boba Fett T-shirt, which is cool because although I have won 60 or 70 t-shirts at Star Wars tournaments, I never had that one. Kevin and I reflect on how amazing it is that we took the top 2 spots on all 3 days. I am now 2-0 against him in sanctioned play, 2-2 in final confrontations, 4-2 overall. I have edged Kevin out for the title of Mega Weekend Champion. I’m ready to go get some food, and head home. Overall, I would have to say the weekend went very well.
The ideal: Go 20-0 in the sanctioned swiss style games, and win all 3 tournaments.
The mininum goals I had set for myself: Go at least 15-5 in the swiss style games, and win at least 1 of the tourneys.
The reality: I went 19-1 in the swiss style games, and won 2 of the 3 tourneys, taking second place in the other.
Kevin says he looks forward to our next meeting. I feel the same way, if he can promise to keep his turns under 6 minutes apiece. ;)
Props:
To Kevin Shannon, for taking 2nd Place, 1st Place, and 2nd Place, in the 3 tournaments.
To Mike Girard, for doing an excellent job as event coordinator, throughout the weekend.
To all the YJ players who kept wanting to check on my progress throughout the weekend, and were convincing enough to actually make me think they had genuine interest in how the star wars tournaments were going for me.
To me, for FINALLY having the good sense to not open some of the packs I won, since I always pull crap.
To Justin Beal and Eric Olson, for being classy opponents.
To ALL the people that I talked with in between games, who I had not really known before. Including: Brian Garrison, Zach Marshall, Jay Webb, Charles Hickey, Matt Berta, Jason Ayre, and Casey Barson, just to name a few.
To Tim Guzman, for not telling me to shut up. hehe. :)
To Vader, for STILL being the best character in the game.
To Steven Lewis, for no reason that I can think of. He just gets props automatically, for being Steve. *lol*
And again, MAD props to Van, for driving to Arizona!
Slops:
To my abyssin deck, for being retarded.
To me, for playing my abyssin deck, even though it was retarded.
To Steven Lewis, for complaining about not getting a chance to play against me. maybe you would have, if you didn’t drop out of 2 of the 3 tourneys! hehe. :p
To Clayton Atkin, for not knowing how to build Ralltiir as well as me and Clint Hays. *lol* Just kidding!
To Yo Mama, for not coming to Arizona, and playing her Dark Deal deck. :) (if that one made no sense, check my dark side decks on my page)
And finally, to Kyle Craft, for being so drunk that he actually flashed Van. hahaha!
Until next time....
Brian Hunter