joliet-il-12-16-00-year-end-mega-tourny
Title: joliet-il-12-16-00-year-end-mega-tourny
Author: Butt "ltkettch" Munch
Date: Dec 17, 2000
Ron Fonck, the td in Joliet runs exactly 1 tournament every month at Leisure Hours Hobbies in Joliet. At the end of each tournament the winner signs a plaque that stays in the store on display for everyone to see. Supposedly at the end of the year, the player with the most wins on the year would win a $50 gift certificate to the store. My good friend and arch nemesis Steve Kuperman had already won 3 events in Joliet this year and was currently the leader. Eric Olson was the next closest with 2 victorys, with a win today, Olson could force a final confrontation with Steve to see who would take the year. And as Steve Kupermans personal driver, it was my duty to drive us both down to Joliet to secure the holiday bounty that awaited him.
THE TOURNAMENT:
Today I was playing New Age Throne Room (with some anti Rops tech ie. ounee ta) For the dark side it was BHBM, yannik style except with only 2 janus’.
Game 1:
My DS -vs- a newbies QMC
This game was pretty fun. The guy had obviously not played in a tournament before and he admitted that he had just started playing. I had a good draw and got the Emperor and his team down to cc for steady drains. The guy never deployed more than a few characters at a time and never really ousted any of my guys from the city in the clouds. He would just deploy one or 2, battle the emperor’s team, lose the battle, stack a card, and repeat in 2 turns. He had a couple of cloud cars draining in the clouds towards the end of the game but it didn’t really matter. Once i finally found vader I had 4 cards stacked on insignificant rebellion. So he gave me farmboy and i crossed him after the second try, drawing two 1’s for the duel and a 4 for the cross. The guy asked a lot of questions during the game so I hope he learned a lot, afterwards we played another game just for fun cuz he was a really nice guy and now i wish i could remember his name. :-(
Result: FW by 23
Highs: Crossing Farmboy.
Lows: Nothing really, the game was pretty smooth.
Game 2:
LS -vs- ECC objective (you know, the dark deal thing)
I really hate the dark deal objective, I hadn’t played against it since gencon and I can only remember beating it once or twice EVER! The name of the guy playing this deck was Bob _____ sorry i’m terrible with names. Once again i had a good draw but I was one turn to late to prevent dark deal from hitting the table. Once it did hit though, the game took off with a big battle at the cc prison. Bob had left adm. ozzel alone there thinking i wouldnt have a spy. So i tunnel vision for I Know, deploy tycho, epp leia, and epp han, then take ozzel to the bank for about 17 force. Hoo-Ray for beatdowns! Out of the cards he lost most of them were characters and locations. I wasn’t giving him any icons with my locations so he was only activating 8 force a turn for the rest of the game. A few turns later Jedi Luke and epp obi take out ds lando and epp vader. After that I put lando in the falcon at bespin cloud city, spread out, cancel dark deal, land the falcon, and drain out.
Result: FW by 16
Highs: Cancelling dark deal.
Lows: Not being able to remember the Bobs last name.
Game 3:
LS -vs- Rops (yes Rops)
Once again i dont remember this guys name, but he was really tall. We both had good draws and i got down to raltiir quick, while he deployed just about every twix site in his deck. we had a couple of battles on raltiir, and the home one was steadily draining at the system uncontested for the entire game. this game was very close especially since i didn’t pull off a han leia beatdown, cuz i just couldnt find han, and i didn’t pull out all my docking bays and drew one for battle destiny at a very inoppurtune time (much to the delight of the my opponent and the mocking laughter provided by steve kuperman). I ended up having to revo my throne room for an extra drain late in the game which probably secured the win.
Result: FW by 6
Highs: Nothin really, i kinda played like crap and almost lost the game for it.
Lows: Drawing a docking bay for battle destiny. I’m gonna hear about that for a long time.
Game 4:
DS -vs- Bobs death star plans insert deck.
Whoa, didn’t see this coming. Once again i got a very acceptable draw, and occupied 2 docking bays quickly, and deployed SaD before he could insert. His numbers were cancelled by you cannot hide forever but he got afa into my deck pretty quick. For some reason he didn’t give luke to vader until late in the game, most of the time he had It Could Be Worse to cover the damage, but sometimes he didn’t. I spent most of the game not activating, draining for 4 and making him lose to SaD. He threw down obi who got massacred and tried to pull off a death star plans but artoo got zapped by the emperor.
Result: FW by 32
Highs: All those cards that make numbers bad.
Lows: A very non-interactive game.
Game 5:
DS -vs- Eric Olson and that ketwol deck.
At this point in the tourny Eric and I were first and second, this due mostly to the fact that Eric demolished steve in game 1 and that Eric just skimmed by Eric Palomar because of Projective Telepathy.
I got a pretty decent draw and got the emperor and janus out to the cc db early. Eric set up his ebo and ketwol thing and then the game really started. I held on to vader for most of the game not wanting to lose to my own objective. So i deployed mara jade with her stick and tempest 1 to the 4th marker and moved in to the mpg. On erics turn he deploys epp luke from his reserve deck with epp han and initiates. His first action he swings and of course hits mara with a 1 and a 5. I play you are beaten on luke and hit han with the stick. Then i draw a whopping 2 for battle destiny and han goes to the lost pile with 10 other cards. Mara also dies and wasn’t seen for the rest of the day. On my turn i get blizzard 2 to the 4th marker, move tempest 1 over there and wait. Somewhere in between all of this one of us deployed battle order/plan. Olson now has General Calrissian at endor and colonel cracken at the hoth system, vader also hits the table and drains for 2. Luke moves over to the walkers and now it’s my turn. I deploy zuckass and a dreadnaught at hoth, first strike, and initiate against the colonel. Of course i draw a 3 and the colonel lives, then i initiate against luke with the walkers and luke dies. now you would think that at this point in the game i would have 3 cards stacked for crossing luke, but no i have a big 0 just like i did at the beginning, and just like i did at the end. I am an idiot. Next turn ressurected luke rises from erics lost pile and joins colonel cracken at hoth with another monkey in a ship, they beat down on my ships and i opt not to draw battle destiny so i can lose them both. and maybe keep vader away from luke for another turn. I forgot to mention one thing. the only reason i still have a hope of winning at this point is because i grabbed olsons on the edge and he has only retrieved 4 force so far. The rest of the game was pretty tight, SaD came out and olson had to lose some force to that, luke landed at the endor db, so vader had to come down and capture hime so SaD would still work. We drained back and forth for a couple more turns, battle order/plan was now coming into play, and i kept playing projective telepathy to make him spend more to drain. on my last turn i cancelled my SaD thinking that i could get one more big drain off but it didn’t work. Now that i think about it I could have used janus to pull the projective telepathy off my reserved deck, kept SaD out, and maybe make the game a lot closer than it was. Oh well.
Result: FL by 6
HIGHS: Keeping the game close even though a few small mistakes lost the game for me. Playing against Eric is an incredible challenge which makes it no wonder that he is a 2000+ player.
Lows: Not making him stack for insignificant rebellion, I’m just dumb i guess.
Game 6:
LS -vs- Eric Olson’s Rops (yes Rops)
At this point in the tourny Olson is still undefeated, I’m 4-1, and Kuperman is 4-1. If Eric wins our game he takes the tournament and forces a final confrontation with steve to see who wins the year. Although it would be cool to see steve lose to Eric three times in one day, i was still going to try my best to beat Eric.
Ounee Ta had very little effect in this game. I got a great draw again and had Jedi Luke down at raltiir with his stick by the third turn. I get off a drain for 2 and see a vader go to the lost pile so i play an Out of Commission to see if i get lucky. Nope, just a Ability x3, but Eric grabs my OoC. Next turn, mara jade without a stick gets sucked into the tempting drain of 1 at my echo docking bay, and Eric has no force saved at the end of his turn. At the time i have epp han in my hand and 3 tunnel visions. So i activate just about all that i can, 16 force, leaving me with a little more than 20 in my force pile. Search for db, nothing, but no epp leia, I Know, or twass either, hehe. I’m really, really, really, lucky that i got away with playing 3 tunnel visions in a row. And Eric was none to happy. So leia, han, twass, anakins stick, and an I Know, pay poor mara a visit and take her for like 17 force. Eric loses a lot of characters and sites off his reserve deck and is not very happy with me at all. He get’s decree going in space and the home one hits the table and the game is pretty much cat and mouse from there on out.
Result: FW by 22
Highs: Beating a good player, and thus winning the tourny.
Lows: None really i don’t get to play Eric too often but whenever i do, no matter what the outcome, the games are always a treasure.
Top 3:
1. Me (2nd win for the year)
2. Steve Kuperman (3 wins for the year)
3. Eric Olson (2 wins for the year)
Final Thoughts:
Playing in Joliet is always a lot of fun, the guys down there are not only among the best players in the state, but they also know how to have a good time. Ron Fonck is an excellent TD and Squadron member, and does his best to make sure everyone has fun and learns more about the game. Eric is a great guy, an excellent player, and an all around good sport. Steve and I went down to 6 tournaments in Joliet this year and won a combined 5 times! I think my record in Joliet this year is something like 25-9, which is pretty good for me. Congrats to steve for winning the year and cashing in on his $50 gift certificate at the store.
Oh well guess that’s all for now. I think this might be my last tourny before Christmas so I’d like to wish everyone on decktech a safe holiday season, Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!