san-ho-report-by-thabrahmabul

Title: san-ho-report-by-thabrahmabul
Author: Alfred "ThaBraHmaBuL" Dong
Date: Nov 21, 2000

Hey all......Heres a TR for the San Jose tourney this past Saturday, but keep in mind I didnt want to write this up......the tourney itself was pretty weak, only about 11 people(wasnt even supposed to sanction techinically), and the competition was faulty.....anyways, try and get through this mess if you can.


Prelude

Woke up Saturday morning to the sound of my clock-radio, with the WORST SONG EVER playing to it("It Wasnt Me" by Shaggy).....washed up, and Im about to jump in the shower when I look at the clock and I realize Steve Daniel, my ride, should be outside. I run upstairs, and there he is.....guess I’ll take that shower later.

Steve comes in and we play a game of L5R and revel over the fact we both have stupid decks to play in San Jose......somewhere along the course of Friday night, Kevin Shannon gave me an IM and asked me what to expect at San Ho this week. I decided my decks were boring, so I made 2 decks which youll see later, both of which brings the word "SUCKS" to a whole ’nother level.

I beat Steve in the L5R game, get ready and head out. We hit Mt. View on time and check in with Matt Hoskins, the TD. We buy some packs of the newest expansion in L5R, Spirit Wars, and I pull THE card I wanted out of the entire set(kinda like getting DLOTS out of 3 packs of SE).....something that NEVER happens to me, but Im glad it did. We sit down, trade alot, and the place is getting over crowded......63 ppl was the final tally, and we start a little after 12:45.

Time to put the Crane deck Ive been having into overdrive........but I guess I overhauled it because I finished 1-5 before ditching and heading out to San Ho, albiet a little late. Dont get me wrong, the tourney was one of the best Ive been to, and even though I lost most of my games, I met tons of new people, got buttloads in trades, learned new strategies, and pulled those sweet packs to make it more than worth the ride over there.

Im pretty exhausted from the whole experience, and I decide maybe I dont want to play SW. Steve doesnt mind, so it seems like a good idea.....but when we got there, my mind changed and I decided why not have some fun with crap decks I wouldnt bring anywhere else? My mind is jumping back and forth, and I walk in the mall and Nick Stefanko yells "YAY" as soon as he sees me, and hes already paired me up with someone......ack. Guess that made my mind up for me.....and here we go.


The Decks

DS: My Kind of Abyssins(I dont need no stinkin’....)......its straight off Top 10 at Decktech, how bad could it be? If it could activate a little more, then Id say not TOO bad, but it cant, so.....

LS: Deadbolt......I was curious to see what the whole deal was with that Ketwol/EBO crap deck everyones raving about, something thats supposed to get one of the worst characters in SW errataed because of it.


THE GAME


Game 1: DS vs. Phillip Greens LS RTP Leia mustve died cuz I cant find her

This game was brutal.....he couldnt do ANYTHING the whole game. AC got set up with everything but Scum 3rd turn, and he never touched me at any of the JP sites. Gailid/Mosep drains ripped him all game, and he lost 1/2 his characters to it. I dont know what he was trying to do, moving EPP Obi into the prison(he cant exactly free her), but the one-eyed freaks from Mars came and beat Obi down for 15 for the game. Win by 28.

Cumalative Score: 2(+28)
Highs: Winning with these decks
Lows: Ah, what can go wrong....Phillip was laughing it up


Steve got the bye, and even as Mr. Shannon and Mr. Ely came in about 30 minutes after me, Nick had them play each other rather than Steve. Steve wants to play Raw Deal with Nick, but I left my decks in the car, so he pretty much wasted 45 minutes doing nothing.


Game 2: LS vs Kevin Shannons THE ORIGINAL ABYSSINS


Ive seen Kevin play this for the longest time.....as I sit down, I notice Alex Stefanko has the same deck me and Kevin do for DS.....great. Well, I get completely raped this game, Deadbolt is the most stupid LS deck you can EVER play. I DIDNT get a Signal to open, but I drew BOTH generals, the docking bay, and A New Secret Base. Wonderful.....so I set up quickly, as does Kevin. Kevin sets up the AC and starts up Mosep/Gailid pain all over JP. Now I have a choice: Go to JP and get beat, or sit back and watch my deck burn.....I let my deck burn to drag that game out longer than it shouldve. Ketwol could never get anything worthwhile back, and I never got DTF out on table when I needed it to save my life. Kevin continued the pain, dropped Search and Destroy, and thats all she wrote. Loss by 17.

Cumalative Score: 2(+11)
Highs: Hmm.....finding out Deadbolt is GAY
Lows: Nothing....not a dull moment with Big K....


Steve and I break for food, something not had since the early hours of this morning. We kick it to McDonalds and I overdose in fries there.....a mans gotta eat. We get back and play some Raw Deal.....Steves SCSA deck showed MAJOR improve ment over last time, actually giving my HHH deck a run for its money. I had the advantage in the end, after ripping up HHH’s Facebuster foil in Mt. View during the time when it cursed me by appearing in my opening hand EVERY game......we even got a few more ppl interested in it. Steve sat down and took some YJ lessons on Dueling and such introduced in Duel of the Fates.....not a bad concept on dueling, but the game as a whole, STILL blows.


Game 3: DS vs. Nghia Nyugens LS RTP "Super deck"

Ah, Nghia.....RTP is his passion. The ONLY thing I had going for me this game was my GOD opener. Check out my first turn: AC from reserve, Jabba, Scum, Gailid, Mosep, Myo, and Bib. Everyone turned around as Nghia screamed WTF????? out loud, but the rumors are true, I AM THAT DAMN GOOD. Well, even with that, I couldnt get the win. Lando w/ Ax overtook JP 3rd turn, taking that drain of 2 there for the game. Nghia and his chock full of Fallen Portals made going there a pain, and Leia got out pretty fast. He dropped Home One to Kessel, Battle Plan, and thats a drain of 7 for free to my drain of 4 I need to pay 6 for....needless to say, I didnt last to long, but I put up some fight. Loss by 9.

Cumalative Score: 2(+2)
Highs: Any time you lose twice in a row and youre still in positive differential, its something to be happy about.
Lows: Nothing much....as I expected, this deck BLOWS



Game 4: LS vs. Phillip Greens Hunt Down from Hell

Ah....one more dreadful game with LS and Im done. Didnt expect it, but I lucked out here. Got a decent opener, and he drops Endor Dbay from reserve and draws. We both lose to Visage, I lose Orrimaarko, he tosses.....Vader. OCC immediately hits table, and Vader gets picked and hes out of play. Things go downhill for me again from there. Took me awhile to set up EBO, and as soon as I did, he managed a secure drain with the Emporer and his cronies at the Cantina. I try and fight him off, but my destinies crap out and it becomes a lost cause. Things look bad for me until I take it to the air with Blount and Tala 2 to Hoth. As expected, he drops Zuckuss and initates. Out comes Spiral for 1, and then I run them both to Endor. I drop Cracken on Spiral and move them back. He drops Bossk and initiates, but draws a 3 and a 0 so only Cracken dies.....I drew a 5 to Bossk bites it. Realizing I wasnt supposed to draw with Cracks, I dropped Luke on my following turn, and fight Zuckuss....I draw that same 5, he draws that same 0, and thats Zuckuss and 9 more. After that, he cant pay off Battle Plan anymore, and thats game. Win by 18.

Final Score: 4(+20)
Highs: Finishing at least 1-1 with both decks
Lows: Nothing much


So I place the lowest Ive placed in awhile, but hey it was all in good fun. I pull crap in my DSII packs and dump all my CC on the table in front of Steve. Steve loses it and tosses half the cards in his binder(99% crap) on the table and leaves it up for grabs. Kevin comes around and takes a bite out of a Forced Landing card, only to realize hes "polluted his body with Cloud City filth" and Ugaught chunks. We stay around and rip up over half the cards, and we do some cheesy roleplaying, such as myself screaming "I FOUND HAN!!!" and pulling a "Well find Han" out of the mess in front of me, and Kevin "glancing" at the Surrepticious Glace card. I show Kevin what "Hopping Mad" is all about, and he joins in on it. After twisting Hindsight inside-out so one can read it, Kevin and Shawn ditch for the night. Steve and I head back to my place and Steve stays the night and we sort out all the L5R weve gotten over the day.

Anyone whos made it this far can go ask Marygail Dufresne for one of her famed Jawa Cookies. This report was done in literally 30 minutes, so if you thought this was good, hey, I cant write a crappy report. :)

Oh, and remember.....

DEADBOLT SUCKS



Alfred Dong
The Brahma Bull
The Stone Crab
I AM THE GAME