mr-2nd-place-and-the-birmingham-slam
Title: mr-2nd-place-and-the-birmingham-slam
Author: Steven "Sir Yoda" Lewis
Date: Nov 17, 2000
The night before the long-awaited Birmingham Grand Slam was an indecisive one (as usual). My playtesting buddy, Clint Hays, and I are mulling over various decks and wavering back and forth about whether to make the trip to Birmingham the next morning. Clint has built his own LS Ketwol EBO deck (entitled "Deadbolt" on this website) and is swearing by its solidity (despite my objections). I carefully demonstrate the deck’s weaknesses after defeating it with ALL of my Dark decks, and say repeatedly, "It’s a good deck, but I’m not going to play it." So I need a Light deck. I have built three different Agents In The Court decks (speeders, raiders, and chadras) and test all of them against different Dark decks. The Palace Raiders are too slow in set-up and a little uncertain if the opponent deploys fast. The speeders are solid, but suffer vs. TIEs and Abyssins. Chadras seem to be the way to go. As for Dark, Clint and I toy around with a Dark Deal deck using Mercenary Pilots and end up with a super-solid version (drawing three destiny in every battle is frickin huge!), but once again it’s a little slow. So I choose an untested Bring Him Before Me deck using Tech Mor and inserts with TIE Interceptors (soon to be posted).
About 2AM, when we have both decided on our decks, Clint and I head to the gay Denny’s for a ritual pre-tourney Brownie and then get about 5 hours sleep before the drive. On our way to Birmingham, I’m cruising at about 90 (thinking we’re going to be late) and Clint says, "Hey, I think you need to slow down because we’re gonna be like two hours early." So I say, "Sure," and slow to about 85. Not two minuts later, some Alabama I’m-gonna-sit-in-this-here-construction-zone-and-earn-my-county-some-money cop decides I need a ticket. So I get a ticket for going 85 in a 50, and when he hands it to me, I can’t read a frickin thing because this cop obviously never went to grade school and can’t seem to manage any legible writing beyond physicianesque chicken-scratch. So I have to call the frickin Birmingham court secretary to find out what my fine is ($133). So needless to say, I’m a little peeved by the time we get to the tourney (we arrive over an hour early, by the way).
As for competition at the event, Clint and I expected little-to-none. The only "known" player we thought would be there was Mike Kessling (Charlie Herren was aiming to "mack the poon," so he says), but come to find out, Herren is going to play a few games, Brian Rippetoe and Josh Koizura have driven up from Nashville, and my scrub-nemesis, Andy McClure, has shown up (FYI: a "scrub-nemesis" is a little-known player whom you always expect to beat, but seems to wreck you in tournaments every time), so I look forward to a little competition.
GAME 1: My Chadra-Fans VS. Michael Durhan’s funky Court deck.
Okay, this guy is playing Court, but starts only two effects with Prepared Defenses: Resistance and Planetary Subjugation (that’s right, the effect that lets you add 5 to the destiny of your TIE Bombers). He searches for a Docking Bay his second turn and I get to verify his deck. He is playing with a bunch of TIE Bombers, Intruder Missiles, NO systems, and Thermal Detonators (not to mention a Bounty or two). So I scratch my head and continue. I put Rennek and Bo Shuda in the Audience Chamber. He tries to deploy Vader for 6 to the Chamber and battle, to which I reply, "Ummm, Vader costs 8 becasue of Uh-Oh," so he picks Vader back up, loses 1 to Court, and draws. Next turn, he drops Djas Puhr in the Chamber and says, "Battle you," to which I reply, "Ummm, you can’t battle with Bo Shuda there." So he says, "Oh," and draws. I deploy Order To Engage, Kabe to the AC, and a bunch of Chadras to the Carkoon Pit. He then loses 1 to Court, 3 to OTE, moves Djas Puhr out, and draws. I beatdown Djas Puhr for 12 or something. He deploys Vader to the AC and says, "Bo Shuda is cancelled," to which I reply, "Ummm, Uh-Oh says it can’t be cancelled." He reads Uh-Oh and says, "Wow, what a great combo! Bo Shuda with Order To Engage is unstoppable!" After Snipering Kabe with IG88 (I wasn’t holding any of my THREE It’s A Traps), he drops Danz Borin and a Thermal Detonator vs. all my Chadras and attacks. He draws all 1’s for the Thermal and loses Danz + 7 force. He then loses 3 to OTE, 2 to Civil Disorder, and 1 to Court the rest of the game because he’s afraid to deploy. FW by 38.
2 (+38)
Clint ends up losing his first game to some scrub playing Endor Operations with Biker Scouts. So he and I end up avoiding eachother the entire tournament due to this enormous separation in the pairings.
GAME 2: My BHBM Odds/TIEs VS. Mike Kessling’s New Age TR Mains.
Mike Kessling is one of the best Dagobah-region players. He starts YISYW and leaves it on the table the entire game. He drops farmboy Luke to the H1:DB 1st turn. I drop Wakeelmui and Emperor to D*2:DB 1st turn. He drops some other guy to Hoth:DB and draws. I drop Vader to CC:DB, transit Emperor to Vader, and draw. He drops Obi w/Saber to Tatooine:DB, transits Jedi Luke to Vader, and draws. We both build our hands a few turns, draining eachother, before I drop Sienar, Endor, 4 TIE Interceptors, Battle Order, and say "Go!" He drops mains down, kills Vader and Emperor, and plays Out Of Commission with 4 cards in my Lost Pile (he misses, whew!). We drain a while. I drop another Vader, re-capture Luke, and clean off the CC:DB. He kills Vader again with Leia’s blaster and plays Out Of Commission (missed again, whew!). I drop Vader #3 who cleans the CC:DB again and stays there the rest of the game. My TIE retireval + Vader’s drain + TIE drain + Dreaded Starfleet bring me victory by 12.
4 (+50)
GAME 3: My Chadras VS. Andy McClure’s Abyssins.
Once again, Andy is my scrub-nemesis, so I know I’m in for a good game. He Snipers Kabe with IG88 within 4 turns (once again, I had none of my THREE It’s a Traps in hand), and my chances to win are severely wounded. I deploy my last hope (Order To Engage) and he sighs. His turn, he loses 3 to OTE and draws one card. He then plays Point Man (arrrggghh!), the one card he drew. I play the rest of the game dropping Power 1 Chadras everywhere, getting in a few drains, but I can’t hang with the reverberating Abyssins + Scum retrieval, so Andy wins by 27, and is slightly annoying in his elation (but hey, I lost fair and square).
4 (+23)
GAME 4: My BHBM VS. Tim Stack’s old school There Is Good In Him deck.
BHBM is advantaged vs. TIGIH, so I feel quite confident. I drop Emperor to Endor:DB 1st turn. He activates 2 Force, moves Luke over, and draws. I activate 9, drop Vader, transfer Luke, and drain. He tries to muster up some scouts to face Vader, but they all get slashed and zapped. Some TIEs come out and start draining in the process, and Tech Mor visits Emp and Vader, followed by an insert for 13. Some more scouts try to do something, but they die too. Insert pops for 9 damage and I win by 22.
6 (+45)
GAME 5: My BHBM VS. Brian Rippetoe’s Agents / Tatooine Celebration / Speeders.
Brian is a top Yavin 4 player, and is notably the player who defeated me in the Yavin 4 regional final duel this year, so a little "retribution" is in order. Brian starts YISYW and leaves it on the table the whole game (grrrr!). He plays Maneuvering Flaps his first turn, tipping me off to leave Vader interior the whole game. I deploy Presence Of The Force on the Emperor’s Throne Room and drop Vader with Saber there (+Emperor) to drain. He puts Luke on Tatooine (wisely) along with some speeders at various 2/1 Tatooine sites. I drop some TIEs and drain for several turns before Brian finally gets out the Tatooine system and protects it with Home 1 and all the squids. I move a Dreadnaught and a stack of Interceptors over there and we battle a few turns while he retrieves with Celebration and drains for 4 at the sites. I eventually wreck him off of the system, cancelling Celebration, retrieving my whole Lost Pile, and draining him out for a win by 21.
8 (+66)
GAME 6: My Chadras VS. Clay Ramey’s Abyssins.
I have to win this game (and the undefeated Andy McClure must lose) for me to win the Slam, but I notice I am up against Abyssins again and am in for a tough game. He Snipers Kabe with IG88 within 4 turns again (that’s right, it happened to me in all 3 of my games that day, and I am playing with THREE It’s A Traps just for that...oh well). He never puts Myo in the AC because of Order To Engage and never deploys Scum for the same reason. He drops Dengar w/Gun, Jabba, Fett w/Gun, and 4LOM to the Carkoon Pit to drain (since I wasn’t doing anything). I drop Tessek and Rennek to the AC, and the Cantina. He drops Djas Puhr and Mara (no blade) to my Cantina. After "Choking" Djas Puhr, I drop a Bomarr Monk at my Mos Eisley, then 1 Bothan and 5 Chadras to my Cantina (Power 2) and flip my objective. I then attack, and draw a destiny to Power and a Battle Destiny (both 5’s). He draws a 4. My Power 22 to his Power 9, he forfeits both of them and loses 7 more. He moves his crew at the Cark Pit to my Jundland Wastes. I shuffle between Mos Eisley and Cantina (drain for 6) and deploy Obi’s Hut. He moves his crew to Obi’s Hut. I shuffle and drain, then deploy Tatooine:DB. He moves his crew to the dokcing bay. I shuffle and drain. He finally gets all his guys to Mos Eisley so I deploy one Chadra at each Tatooine site and a Skiff with all 6 of my Chadras at Mos Eisley and move them away. My next turn I drain for like 12 and he can’t do anything about it. In other words, I get unbelievably lucky and win this game by 25 WITHOUT Kabe.
10 (+81)
As it turns out, Andy McClure goes undefeated (playing me once, and never playing Clint) and wins the slam. I get (you guessed it) SECOND PLACE! So that makes World ’99, ’98 Y4 Regional, 2000 Y4 Regional, 2000 Continentals, the Nashville Slam, and the Birmingham Slam...all 2nd place. I decide not to play a final duel (because it’s late and I want to go eat) and let Andy have the title. Clint goes 5-1 and gets 3rd.
PROPS:
Jim Colson for a smooth tournament.
Michael Duran for playing Court with TIE Bombers.
Tim Stack for not playing with Your Insight Serves You Well (my only opponent who didn’t).
Clint for driving the entire trip back to Nashville.
The Brownie.
SLOPS:
Me for getting 2nd yet again.
Josh Koizura for being 21 years old and just getting his PERMIT!
All of my DS opponents for Snipering Kabe in the Audience Chamber with IG88 despite the three It’s A Traps in my deck.
Charlie Herren for going 3-0 and dropping for poon.
Clint for losing his first game to a scrub.
The Alabama Highway Patrol.
Thanks for reading,
Steven "2nd Place Is My Ho" Lewis