joliet-il-12-16-year-end-bash-goodness
Title: joliet-il-12-16-year-end-bash-goodness
Author: Steve "Crazy Hermit" Kuperman
Date: Dec 17, 2000
The Time: 11:00 AM, Central Time Zone
Amount Of Money I Have To My Name: Less than the amount I owe people, I can tell you that much.
It’s that time of the month again. The cramps, the sweating . . .it could only come from getting ready for the giant bash in Joliet at Leisure Hours and Hobbies, run by the Legendary SM, Ron Fonck. I had been looking forward to finishing up the year, as the overall winner in Joliet for the year supposedly had a boffo prize to be gained. I was sitting at 3 tournament wins, but looming ominously behind me was Eric Olson, a ’master’ of the game at a 2007 rating, and 2 Joliet wins this year. I had been working with EBO/X-Wings for the past several weeks, and they had proven to be viable against most decktypes, so I figured while extremely unoriginal, I would play them. On my Dark Side, I had been developing my MKOS deck, which had proven to be a beast to just about anything. Of course, I needed to get to this tournament, which was no big deal, cause I’ve got a personal driver: Mr. Al Schaefer. He picks me up at about 10 AM or so and we set off for the grand old ride to Joliet. We talk about recent playing trends, and Al feels obligated to pull off some of his trademark "Across 5 lanes in the next 7 seconds" maneuvers. We get to the shop in plenty of time, I finish refining my decks, and first round pairings are called.
Game 1: My EBOX vs. Eric Olson’s (2007) Rops.
Damn . . .Rops? As soon as I saw that goddamn objective, I knew I was more than likely looking at a loss. I don’t have terribly much to fight with, so I figured he would flip pretty easily and establish Decree, effectively ending the game. Nonetheless, it has to be played out. I start ANSB, he starts with Decree, IAO and Mob Points. He starts by pulling a system with Ralltiir, gets a docking bay with IAO, that sort of crap. I get stuff out of deck with ANSB, start setting up for EBO over the next couple of turns with ANSB and Echo Base Garrison. Soon, he puts down an Imperial at each site, flips, drops Search And Destroy, saves 1, lets me go after I lose a card. I put down guys at Hoth sites and EBO, put 3 X-Wings up at Rendili. He invades Hoth to set up Decree, Jedi Luke w/stick comes down and stands off with EPP Vader, as I need to drop TK-422 down to a Ralltiir site and I don’t want to have to sack Luke against Vader just yet. I get drained, lose my Hoth system off the top of my deck, which is bad as I have 2 X-Wings sitting at my Hoth docking bay. He moves Vader into the docking bay, and I’m forced to put Boussh there from my hand and use her to kill Vader. He hits Boussh with saber and destiny is drawn, clearing the site. He puts more stuff onto Hoth to circumvent Jedi Luke, I come down with EPP Obi and kill something, but soon enough Decree is back in effect and there’s nothing more I can do.
Result: Full Loss By 23. Total: 0(-23).
Terrible start, I must admit. I didn’t see Rops coming, and it annihilated me. But I also know that if I play well over the rest of the tournament, I can easily come back and take the tournament.
Game 2: My MKOS vs. some kid’s (didn’t get yer name) Profit
Heh . . .Profit? You can’t be serious. He starts Insurrection and a couple other effects that mattered jack, I start No Bargain, Power Of The Hutt and Oppressive Enforcement. I put Mighty Jabba and Chall Bekan to the Audience Chamber using Profit, pull an Abyssin into hand. This game went hellaciously fast. Here’s the easy breakdown:
Me: Deploy stuff to sites, convert his Audience Chamber once I draw it, pull Gailid, move a couple of dudes over to Tatooine: Jabba’s Palace to drain for 3 for several turns, establish Search And Destroy.
Him: Deploy Ben Kenobi and Elom into Jabba’s Palace: Audience Chamber. He battles, loses battle by 7, forfeits and revives Elom for 3, loses 4 more.
Me: Deploy Boelo, Bib, 4-LOM, to join Ephant Mon and Jabba at the AC, battle, shoot Ben w/4-LOM and play Jabba’s Through With You to get 4 destiny draws at +2 apiece. Battle ends at 37-6, he loses a ton of cards and the game is finished off in the next 2 turns by my drains.
Result: Full Win By 35. Total: 2(+12)
Game 3: My EBOX vs. Tony Maravola’s (1752) Carbon Chamber Testing/Emperor’s Prize
Tony always brings whacked-out stuff to tournaments and seems to do pretty well with it. He had played the previous game in the tournament against an Agents In The Court/Speeders deck that had exactly one Rebel . . .Jedi Luke. Luke got frozen for 8, and then Emperor’s Prize was immediately completed. I wasn’t going to be stupid and hand him Luke, and I didn’t want to give him either of my Undercover spies, and the same went for my cheap guys that I could pull with EBG . . .so I hand him EPP Obi. I start setting up EBO and get it established early on, he pulls Ugnaughts out of his deck, pulls Lando using Security Tower and puts him down there to grab Obi and move him to the Carbonite Chamber. I set up 2 X-Wings at Hoth and 2 at Kiffex guarded by a Barrier in my hand to begin a drain of 7 once EBO hits the board. He attempts to freeze Obi-Wan and is easily successful, causing me to lose 8 Force and making Ben a frosty old man. After draining, he deploys the Interrogation Room and moves his crew over. I drain some more, and draw, looking for Boussh. He drains me for 3 at the Interrogation Room (+2 if you have a captive that’s a unique Rebel there). I decide that it’s worth the risk of Captain Bewil-aided beatdown (just the type of thing that Tony would do), and I drop my Arcona to the Interrogation Room. He never goes to space, and I set up another X-Wing with a cannon to Kashyyyk. The game ends a short while later, as Tony just can’t keep up with the combined efforts of the Arcona and my huge drains.
Result: Full Win By 12. Total: 4(+24).
Game 4: My MKOS vs. Tony Maravola’s Agents In The Court/Chadra-Fans/Revo/Clash-Happy Goodness
Ehh . . .Agents, huh? He converts Jabba’s Palace as we deploy, he puts down Uh-Oh, and a couple of other effects that I don’t remember. The first part of the game is very slow, as I’m being force choked but I have established a drain of 2 at Tatooine: Jabba’s Palace. He puts down his AC, chooses not to deploy Bo Shuda there just yet. I convert the AC and move in, but he has Revo’d my Desert Heart, which still leaves me with little Force. Chall and Mosep sit at Jabba’s Palace while Mighty Jabba, Ephant Mon and Boelo have moved inside. Masta Luke drops to the Palace. He battles, bounces Mosep and I cancel his draw using Myo and my objective. I lose 4 cards. He starts drawing stuff. He puts a couple of Chadras w/Monk to Hutt Trade Route and flips, then gives Luke Anakin’s Saber. I put down Iggy against Luke, he clashes him. I deploy a couple more guys to the AC, then move Jabba and Boelo out to deal with Luke. He drops EPP Han next to Luke, Clashes Jabba, and beats the hell out of Boelo, but I Ghhhk the huge battle damage. I drain a bit at the AC, eventually get Scum out (after missing a Twi’lek for it earlier . . .that sucked), put Boba Fett and Mosep to the Desert Heart to drain for 2 (Revo, remember?). The rest of the game is a bunch of drains and a couple of battles, and I take it due to a head start and some prolific use of Scum to retrieve cards.
Result: Full Win By 12. Total: 6(+36)
Game 5: My EBOX vs. Scott Sichta’s (1739) Court/Scum with Rancor
I always get a kick out of playing Scott . . .and no, it ain’t cause I don’t lose to him. He turns the tournaments into riotuous (sounds like it might just be a real word) affairs, and provides a good game. He starts No Escape, Power Of The Hutt, and You Cannot Hide Forever. He starts deploying stuff into the Chamber, I start pulling stuff for EBO and establish it early on. I put out a few X-Wings to Hoth and Lando in Falcon w/another X-Wing to Kiffex. I’m holding all sorts of fun stuff that’ll ruin his day if he comes to fight, as in more X-Wings, Out Of Nowhere, laser cannons, Spiral . . .but he never did come to fight. However, he starts hitting me for considerable damage, as he ditches YCHF for Search And Destroy, Court-related damage sets in, and he pings for a couple of cards in drains. He heavily fortifies his sites, and I know he’s got Elis, so anything to a non-shielded site other than suicide mains and that might be it. It looked to be a huge drain fest, until I draw looking for help and I find an Arcona. I put that out along with Order To Engage at the Pit of Carkoon, where Mara Jade sits alongside a couple of other dudes with her saber. Suddenly, I’m blocking 1 of Scott’s two drains, and I no longer lose to Search And Destroy or Court. He attempts to battle the Arcona and retrieves 2 with Scum, I react away to the AC and he loses 3. He gets royally pissed, to the point where he Elises his whole AC crew onto Hoth and splits them between the MPG and North Ridge. I activate all but 3 cards, check my destiny with ANSB . . .three fives. Drain for 7 in space and 2 in the AC that Scott left unprotected. I put EPP Obi against SE Jabba, Fett and Gailid at the North Ridge, battle and hit Fett, draw a 5 for destiny and clear the site except for Gailid. He drains, moves Gailid to the MPG, and I decide to pay 4 to cancel Scum. The game is decided, as he is doing little damage and I’m hitting for mounds of Force loss every turn.
Result: Full Win by 12. Total: 8(+48).
At this point, I go check out the game between Eric Olson and Al Schaefer. Olson’s Deadbolt has taken over space after a few vicious fights, but Al’s BHBM holds the ground and is hitting for a few cards every turn. On The Edge has been grabbed, but Eric holds on and squeaks by with 6 cards left. The situation is now grim . . .I’m relying on Al to win the next game, which prevents a playoff between Eric and I from taking place. If he doesn’t win, Eric and I play, but it don’t matter anyway cause I’ve already got a plan that will give me a huge chance to win the playoff. As for winning the tournament . . .my differential has been mostly on the low end, which means that for me to win, I’d need Al to edge Eric in game 6, with me winning my game by about 15-20 cards.
Game 6: My MKOS vs. Scott Sichta’s Agents In The Court/Speeders
I choose to start the AC instead of the outdoors site, as I know I won’t be treading outside too much. He starts Staging Areas, Insurrection, and Draw Their Fire, shows Harc Seff as Rep. I put Mighty Jabba to AC from my hand on first turn, pull Gailid using AC text to start boosting my drains. He starts drawing and deploying stuff, like Hoth Docking Bay and Incom Corp. guarded by a couple of speeders. I’m drawing and looking for stuff as I ping away, and I set up a second drain of 2 within the Palace at the Lower Passages. He deploys 1 speeder to his Jabba’s Palace, 1 to Hutt Trade Route, 1 to Desert Heart and 1 to the Jundland Wastes that he had also deployed that same turn. He hides Harc Seff in the speeder at Jabba’s Palace. I drain on my turn for 2 at the Passages and 1 at the AC (he uses Harc Seff to reduce the loss by 1). Dengar and two Abyssins come down, flipping my objective, and I battle, and he reacts over with all of his speeders. I shoot Harc’s speeder down, and shoot another down, but my destiny sucks and I end up losing my guys and a few more cards. He draws looking for more speeders. He sets up at a bunch of sites with a speeder apiece again, and I know he’s going to whack me with a giant set of drains thanks to a T-47 Battle Formation next turn. Nonetheless, there is little I can do except continue to drain and draw for more offense. He plays the Formation and drains for a total of 10, 3 of the damage is canceled by me putting Myo onto my objective. Luke visits the Lower Passages and is Barriered. I drop a few guys down there next turn along with Ephant Mon and Bib (already there) and beat on Luke for a few force after canceling his draw of 6 (another Jedi Luke) with another Myo. He prevents Search And Destroy damage by hiding JPSD Lando inside a speeder, but it doesn’t matter, cause he’s lost a ton of cards due to my consistent drains.
Result: Full Win by 18. Total: 10(+66).
So, it comes down to the game 6 between Eric Olson and Al Schaefer. Al was running New Age Throne Room and had Ounee Ta available in his deck to start with. From what I saw of the early game, Jedi Luke and his saber hit Ralltiir early on. Eric grabbed Out Of Commission, and then saw the error of his ways when Al played Tunnel Vision three times in one turn, setting up a gigantic beatdown on Jade at the Hoth Docking Bay using EPPs Leia and Han, Ani’s Saber, and I Know. Al wins the game by 23, which wins him the tournament, but gives me the win for the year. As a prize, I receive a $50 gift certificate to Leisure Hours and Hobbies. Al, Tony, Eric, Ron and I all go to eat at a McDonald’s across the street, and I even win a McSalad Shaker there (it was damn good, may I add). The car ride home is filled with chatter about upcoming SW:CCG product, decks and about how incredibly difficult it is to fit three people into Al’s car, as Tony joins us for the return trip. But I suppose comfort isn’t necessary as long as somebody has a kickass sound system, right Al?
My thanks for the tournament go to:
Ron Fonck, a quality tournament by a quality tournament director, as always.
Al Schaefer, for the ride and for taking care of Eric for me. WTF Squad Represent!
Eric Olson, a tough competitor, for beating the hell out of me.
Scott Sichta and Tony Maravola, for putting up with having to play me twice apiece. I consider that the mark of a true iron man.
Special thanks go to Tony for taking the back seat on the way back, which undoubtedly has reduced his life expectancy by 3 to 5 years.
You Can Either Profit By This, for being an auto-win.
Leisure Hours and Hobbies, for being a place to play in.
Myo, for although he has only one eye, he sees all.
Thanks for the tournament do not go to:
Rops . . .still a tough matchup for the vast majority of decks, pull it out again and see what I mean.
Speeders, for being a general pain to play against.
Team Tech, cause you dudes didn’t show.
Hobo Squad, who are you guys anyway?
Saber Squadron, we know who you are. And you guys didn’t show up either, I needed the easy Game 1 out of you guys.