greenwood-in-1-20-01
Title: greenwood-in-1-20-01
Author: Eric "YOYOY" Bailey
Date: Jan 21, 2001
I received an e-mail notifying me of a 6-game tournament held by Rich Dailey in the Greenwood Park Mall on Saturday the 20th. Not having been to a tourney since October, I had to go. I looked forward to this tourney, anticipating it with a mindset of having something to prove, not only for myself but for all the people who accused me of being a bad player, pointing out my low rating. Hey, I can’t help it if I did horrible at my first tourneys. Anyway... I had been working on some ideas for decks that I would use, but they were just ideas, I needed some cards to complete the decks, so I ordered these cards, hoping they’d arrive in the mail before the tourney. About a week before the tourney I ask my friend Tim if he’d like to go, he says yeah. And my sister wants to go, so we’re set. Fast-forward to Friday, the 19th. Turns out Tim can’t make it, and I didn’t get the cards I ordered, so I’ll be playing with mere shells of decks, not quite real decks. Great. I work on them as much as I can Friday night, and now it’s Saturday. After walking all over the mall looking for the shop it’s held in, we find it. Turns out that 22 people showed up, a lot more than expected, some really good players, some newbies, and some I’d never seen before. It’s good to be back in action. After some delay, we get started. I’m playing MKOS for DS (My Kind Of Machine vs. 3.0), and a really screwed-up stupid Y-Wing deck for LS that I threw together, I’ll call it Stupid Y-Wings.
1st game: My LS Stupid Y-Wings vs. who knows who’s DS SYCFA Interceptors
Sorry I don’t remember the name, I’m not good with names, even though I’ve played this kid before, beating him. He’s @#$%y, always saying he’ll beat me and always making lame excuses when he loses. He starts SYCFA, IAO, Mob. Points, and Oppressive Enforcement. I start Ralltiir (yes, Ralltiir), Insurrection, Staging Areas, and Menace Fades. My starting hand has Spaceport Docking Bay, 3 Y-Wings, Lieutenant s’Too Vees, The Signal, an Asteroid Sector, and some other card. His turn, he pulls Wakeelmui and the D*: War Room, deploys them, deploys Sienar Fleet Systems from hand, draws up 5 cards, my turn. I deploy Spaceport Docking Bay and the Asteroid Sector (to Ralltiir of course) from hand, deploy the Home One: Docking Bay from Reserve, deploy s’Too Vees to the HO:DB, draw up, his turn. He activates, deploys Sullust, Kashyyyk, and Kiffex from hand, sits there for a moment thinking about what he’s supposed to be doing, decides to draw up a few more cards, my turn. I activate my 14 Force, Signal for Koensayr Manufacturing, deploy it to Ralltiir. I deploy EPP Obi-Wan to Spaceport Docking Bay along with some Y-Wings (for free), I draw a couple Force and save up a few. His turn, he just activates, Twileks for Dreaded Imperial Starfleet, deploys it and Reactor Terminal, draws up a couple, saves some. I activate, Force drain for 1, he cancels it. This is looking to be a very long game. I deploy Liberty and Red Squadron X-Wing to Ralltiir, a Y-Wing to the Asteroid Sector, Corporal Marmor to the Spaceport Docking Bay, a Y-Wing to that docking bay (retrieve 1 Force thanks to Corporal Marmor), move 3 Y-Wings up to Ralltiir to back up the Liberty and the X-Wing, draw up. His turn, he activates, and actually does something. He deploys a Dreadnought with 6 Interceptors to Ralltiir, retrieving a Force. The Interceptors are currently power 5 thanks to my stupid X-Wing. He battles, I play Organized Attack, he plays All Power To Weapons. His battle destiny’s a 5, so is mine. 6 power 7 Interceptors and a Dreadnought against 3 power 3 Y-Wings, a power 6 X-wing, and Liberty? You figure it out. I forfeit everything, forfeiting Liberty to Used Pile, I use Houjix, he forfeits stuff, moves everybody over to Sullust, draws, my turn. I activate, drain for a couple, he cancels one of it, loses one, I Signal for Rebel Fleet, deploy it, deploy a Y-wing to the S:DB, retrieve Houjix, draw, his turn. The next few turns consist of us draining, canceling drains, my Y-Wings dying to asteroids (then I just retrieve it with Koensayr Manufacturing), me deploying more Y-Wings to the asteroid sector, we’re both retrieving as we go. This game is going nowhere, but I’m doing better cuz he has to deploy TIEs to retrieve, so he has a lot more cards out on table. I’m also draining for more, at multiple locations (3 asteroid sectors now). I eventually get 2 Houjixs, a bunch more Y-Wings, the Big One, Ralltiir Operative, and Liberty into my hand. On my turn I deploy a Y-Wing to Kashyyk, a Y-Wing to the Big One, Liberty to Kiffex, and Ralltiir Operative to the Ralltiir site. I grin evilly, his turn. He deploys a Dreadnought and maybe 4 Interceptors to my Liberty, battles, plays All Power To Weapons, draws battle destiny. I just laugh as I forfeit Liberty to Used Pile and play Houjix. He just deployed 5 cards to make me lose 1 Force. If he want to that, it’s fine with me. My turn I drain for like 7. He cancels the Bog One drain, loses some, plays Short Range Fighters, retrieves 12 Force. Dang. I use Organized Attack lost, get 3 more Y-Wings, deploy them to the docking bay (retrieving the Houjix), deploy another Y-Wing to the Big One, I use All Wings Report in, retrieve 7. I draw up, his turn. He drains for 4, I cancel 2 of it, lose 2. On my turn I drain for at least 7, retrieve 3, his turn. This repeats for a while, he never bothered to battle the lone Y-Wing at Kashyyk, of course I always kept a Houjix in my hand for that. He eventually draws his deck up, I finally win by 20.
2 (+20)
Good: I won my first game, with my stupid LS deck nonetheless.
Bad: This game was pretty boring, and seemed to drag on forever.
Ugly: Poor kid wasn’t sure what he was doing.
Since our game was one of the last to finish, we had a crowd watching us at the end, everyone wondering if Y-Wings could really win against TIEs. Of course nobody believed it when I won, they all laughed. When I told Rich I won by 20, he actually had to check with the kid to make sure I won. Pairings are announced, I’m up against John Gardner somehow... haha...
2nd game: My DS My Kind Of Machine vs. Dum Dum’s Deadbolt EBO
Okay, John Gardner is known as Dum Dum by all the non-newbies, because he purposely loses. He’s lost like 46 games in a row. He owns every card except like 3 foils, so he can make world-quality decks, and he’s a great player. But he wants to drive his rating into the ground. That way, people will underestimate him, and maybe he could be the lowest-rated world champ ever. He’s a decently cool guy otherwise, he likes to give thousands of cards away to newbies, and he likes to see a newbie’s face light up when they win against him. Anyway, I start MKOS, Jabba’s Palace, Desert Heart, Power Of The Hutt, Secret Plans, First Strike, Pote Snitkin’s my Rep. He starts Main Power Generators, North Ridge, Insurrection, Staging Areas, and Squadron Assignments. We draw our starting hands. My hand absolutely sucks. The thing about Dum Dum is that against newbies, he’ll let them win by as much as he can without looking like he did it on purpose. But when he’s up against someone he’s played before, like me, he’ll lose by as little as possible, playing mind games along the way. He insisted on telling me what starting hand was. He had EBO, A New Secret Base, General Crix Madine, Outrider, a couple sites, Gold Squadron 1, and Lieutenant Blount. My first turn I just deploy Audience Chamber, Jabba’s Sail Barge, and Passenger Deck from Reserve. He goes, deploying the sites, docking bay from Reserve deck, ANSB, Crix, gets Ketwol, deploys him, my turn. I activate, deploy Chall Bekan to the Audience Chamber from Reserve, taking Mercenary Pilot into hand, deploy it to the Barge for free (he’s driving of course), the I deploy Ephant Mon from Reserve to the Passenger Deck, move Chall aboard the Barge, his turn. He manages to get EBO set up, getting Hoth system, deploying Blount and Tala 2 to the docking bay, some other scrub, lifts Tala and Blount off to Hoth, saves some Force, my turn. He then tells me he’s never played Deadbolt before, so he’s not sure how to work the Ketwol tech. Not that it matters... my turn I drain for 1, then I make the horribly idiotic mistake of deploying the Tatooine system and no ships to it. His turn he first drains for 3, deploys Dash, Outrider, and Leebo to a newly deployed Kiffex, and somehow also deploys Nien Nunb, and General Lando aboard Gold Squadron 1 at Tatooine. My turn I don’t really have anything to do, I hate EBO, I just activate drain and draw up. His turn he activates, drains for 10. Ouch. He just draws up and smiles. My turn, I deploy some people to the Audience Chamber, his turn. He activates, uses 3 On The Edges in a row with a tracked 4, 5, and 6. He then drains for 10, and puts out Battle Plan. I’m severely screwed. He saves up his leftover Force. My turn I use 6 Force to drain for 2, deploy some people to the Desert Heart, his turn. He drains for 10, saves up, my turn. I use 9 Force to drain for 3, his turn. He activates all his whole Reserve. He asks how much Force I have left. 9. He drains for 5, draws up, I win by 4.
4 (+24)
Good: I won... sort of.
Bad: I won... sort of.
The Ugly: I won... sort of.
With Dum Dum letting me win, I’m now in 8th. That second round was weird; a lot of newbies won their games, including my sister, and Frank Quillen was found using Tallon Rolls with Interceptors. I also realized that when Dum Dum used those On The Edges, I had completely forgotten about Secret Plans. *sigh* One cool thing about getting top 8 is that this shop has a main area, and a little upstairs area. The upstairs area has 2 tables, room for 8 to play. So the top 8 get to play in the quieter, cleaner, better, cooler, elite, prestigious, special upstairs room, while the 14 other people have to play in the noisy, dim, messy, crowded, downstairs area. The pairings are announced, and I get to go upstairs.
3rd game: My LS Stupid Y-Wings vs. that one dude’s That Thing’s Operational
Sorry, but I don’t remember the guy’s name. He starts Endor and Operational As Planned. I start Ralltiir, Staging Areas, Insurrection, the usual. His turn he deploys D*II: Docking Bay with Jerjerrod there. He grabs some stuff, doesn’t deploy it for some reason, and draws up. My turn I deploy Home One: Docking Bay with an Ishi Tib there. I use his text, and get Corporal Marmor. His turn he deploys D*II, it’s 3 sectors, and TTO. What the heck? He deploys a Tatooine: Docking Bay from Reserve, now I know that he’ll have the Tatooine system out with the D*II orbiting it within a couple turns. He uses Imperial command to get Admiral Piett, deploys him to the D*II: DB and gets Merrejk with him. My turn, I want to do something but don’t have enough Force... I just activate, deploy Spaceport Docking Bay, use Tunnel Vision, get Reflection, save the rest, use Ishi Tib, get The Signal, his turn. He deploys Merrejk, deploys Tatooine system, saves up, my turn. My turn I activate, deploy Daughter Of Skywalker with Reflection, Marmor, and Figrin Dan to the S: DB. I Signal for Koensayr Manufacturing, deploy it, deploy a Y-Wing to the DB, retrieve a Force. His turn he activates, deploys Chimaera, Thrawn, and Palleon to Tatooine. He Imperial Commands for Chiraneau, deploys him on Chimaera too. He moves D*II to Tatooine, saves up, my turn. I drain for 1, I use Figrin, but he ends up retrieving with it, I Reflection a Force. I then manage to deploy 2 asteroid sectors, then I used Ishi Tib and got the Big One, and draw up to get the last asteroid sector. His turn I have to lose some Force, then he deploys Emperor Palpatine, Guri, and some scrub to the Tatooine: DB. My turn I drain for 1, Reflect, don’t use Figrin (I decide not to use him for the remainder of the game). I deploy Big One, the asteroid sector, a couple Y-Wings to some sectors, I really don’t have much else to do, his turn. He activates, I lose a bunch, he deploys Lord Vader w/ Vader’s Saber to my S:DB. He battles, all I have there is DOS, Marmor, Figrin, and a Y-Wing. He slices Marmor, he’s immune to my battle destiny, and I lose Figrin and the Y-wing (he drew a 6) to attrition. Not looking good. He saves up Force, he has a bucnh saved up. My turn I just drain for 3, both Y-Wings die, I retrieve one of them, I deploy s’Too Vees to the S:DB. He’s the only character I had in my hand. I battle, I draw a 5, he draws a 1, he decides to lose Vader, I lose s’Too Vees. His turn he deploys something like Executor (Dangobah) with Evax and GM Tarkin piloting. From there all I could do was drain at the sectors and the site (fortified it eventually), with him making me lose plenty of Force every turn. It can’t go on like this... he wins by 14.
4 (+10)
Good: Nothing.
Bad: Everything.
Ugly: TTO?!?
The pairings must be screwed up or something, I get to play upstairs again.
4th game: My DS My Kind Of Machine vs. Frank Quillen’s Profit
I hate this guy. Everybody does. He had a ban from all Corellia region tournaments, apparently it’s been lifted. He cheats all the time, especially against newbies who don’t know better. Against people better than him he just stalls a lot, like getting as many rules verifications as he can. He’s tried to convince me that you can use Warrior’s Courage on Red Leader In Red 1, that Bespin: Cloud City is not a sector, that Master Luke is a Red Squadron pilot, etc. He’s also stolen cards, my U-3PO being one of them. Anyway, he starts Profit with Premiere Han and 3 Effects, don’t know what they were. I start the usual, starting with Mighty Jabba and Ephant Mon at the Audience Chamber. Now don’t say that I should’ve started with Chall Bekan, I prefer Ephant. He’s a built-in Ghhhk with Jabba, which is really cool. I start by deploying the Barge and it’s site from Reserve. My Audience Chamber is converted, so that sucks. His turn he gets A Gift out and draws up. Not looking good so far. What happens for the next few turns is I get a Merc Pilot on the Barge with a Disruptor Pistol, with Chall, IG-88 w/ Gun, Boelo, and a Skrilling as passengers. He chooses to wait until his Lost Pile is big enough, then comes down to release Han, battling the Hutt and Ephant Mon, hitting them both with lightsabers. I just forfeit Ephant, that takes care of everything. When he retrieved Force, he had to use 10 Force and then I used Imbalance to make him lose 5 Force. Why don’t more people use Imbalance? Anyway... he moves Han, Luke, and Obi over to the Barge’s site, Jabba’s Palace. I deploy Ability x3, his turn. He deploys Dismantle On Sight on Iggy, deploys Order To Engage, deploys Dash and DOS, battles, he retrieve one I lose 1. He misses both slices, haha... I blow up Dash with the Disruptor Pistol. We forfeit stuff, my turn. I deploy some people, deploy Scum, battle, I retrieve 3, he loses 1, I use Projective Telepathy, cancel the battle, thus also avoiding OTE damage. His turn he converts Obi to Ben, Han to General Han, and deploys Wedge, Red Squadron Leader. He battles, I capture Wedge, he slices some scrubs, we forfeit stuff. My turn, I deploy Tatooine system, deploys some stuff, battle, we both lose stuff, his turn. His turn he deploys RLiR1 to Tatooine, some stuff to Jabba’s Palace, battles, we both lose stuff. My turn... I activate, save up. His turn he battles, we lose stuff. My turn, I activate, deploy ZiMH, Bossk In Bus, Stinger, and 4-LOM w/Gun on ZiMH to Tatooine. I battle the lone RLiR1, I retrieve 3, he loses 1. I get 3 battles destinies, his destiny =0. He loses the ship and 16 more. We end up taking an hour, just doing stupid stuff back and forth, and the time limit is up. I get a Timed Win by 21.
5 (+31)
Good: Winning, beating on RLiR1, beating Frank.
Bad: Playing Frank.
Ugly: He insisted on putting Ability x3 on his side of the table... behind a box, a cup, and under one of his Effects. Not to mention all the stupid ruling arguments he made...
I get to play upstairs again...?
5th game: My LS Stupid Y-Wings vs. Jay Edward’s Jabba’s Palace... deck
I start the usual, he starts Jabba’s Palace, tries to use 2 Starting Interrupts, I point out that he can’t do that, I prove it, he says okay and just starts with something I don’t remember, I think it was There Is Not Try. His turn he deploys the Entrance Cavern from Reserve, draws up. My turn I work on getting set up, deploying Home One: DB with Lt. Blount there and draw up. His turn he deploys Audience Chamber from Reserve, deploys Ortugg to the Entrance Cavern. My turn, I get out a couple asteroid sectors and Spaceport Docking Bay, controlling it with Marmor and Tawss Khaa. His turn he deploys Djas Puhr and Commander Nemet to my S:DB. I guess he doesn’t know Tawss’s text. He deploys the Lower Passages from Reserve, then battles me. My power is 9 to his 3... I draw a 5 for destiny, he draws a 3. He loses Nemet, Djas, and one off the top, which happens to be the Droid Workshop, which he didn’t want to lose. I lose Tawss. My turn, I deploy DOS to the S:DB, Ishi Tib, get Ralltiir Operative, his turn. He just drains for 1 and deploys Gailid and Jabba to Audience Chamber. My turn I drain and deploy the Operative to the Docking Bay. Figuring out that he has no space in the deck, I deploy a Y-Wing to the docking bay for free, retrieve a Force, lift off to Ralltiir system, his turn. He says he drains for 4, but I say nope, Menace Fades. He says that Menaces Fades totally screws his deck, so I just lose 2. He saves Force, my turn. I drain for 3, deploy 2 asteroid sectors, deploy 1 Y-Wing to each of them, draw up, get another sector and Tunnel Vision. His turn he drains for 2, then deploys Guri, Kitik Keed’Kak, IG-88 w/Gun, and Brangus Glee Jabba’s Palace. My turn I drain for 5, deploy Rebel Fleet, deploy a bunch of Y-Wings, retrieve some, draw up, get some cool stuff, his turn. He drains for 3, I cancel one of it, lose 2. My turn I use Tunnel Vision to get the last sector, deploy Koensayr Manufacturing, Big One and a sector, a Y-Wing to the Big One, and 3 Y-Wings to Ralltiir just in case, and save some Force. His turn he just drains and draws. My turn I decide to make my move. I deploy Lando w/Axe (spy) to the Entrance Cavern with the lone Ortugg. Then I deploy Jeroen Webb, Lieutenant s’Too Vees (adds a destiny to power with Lando, he’s also a deploy 2 forfeit 5 [with Insurrection] power 3 character), and Chewbacca, Protector there too. I battle, he chops Jeroen with a Gamorrean Axe, I get 2 battles destinies and one to power. He loses Ortugg and somewhere around 15 more. His turn he deploys and moves Iggy w/gun, Kitik Keed’Kak, Guri, and CC Boba Fett to the Entrance Cavern, doesn’t battle. My turn, I deploy EPP Luke and EPP Obi-Wan there. I battle, I exclude Iggy witth Lando’s Axe, and I manage to slice Kitik Keed’Kak. We draw destinies, I end up losing just s’Too Vees, he loses everybody ’cept Iggy, who was excluded. The game goes with me draining and retrieving a bunch, and him draining a little. He drew himself dead before I got to retrieve 7 with All Wings Report In. Win by 17.
7 (+48)
Good: I won, didn’t I?
Bad: I could’ve won by more, couldn’t have I?
Ugly: The deck starts with T:JP and TINT?!?
The pairing must really be screwed up or something... I play the same kid again, we go upstairs.
6th game: My DS My Kind Of Machine vs. Jay Edward’s RST Ewoks
He starts RST, Endor, Rebel Landing Site, and some Effect, don’t remember what... I start the usual. Looks like I’m up against another weird deck, he didn’t start with Strike Planning. I ask him if he has it, he says no, he doesn’t try to flip the Objective. Okay... this is looking good. My turn I deploy Audience Chamber from hand, then Barge, Passenger Deck, and Lower Passages from Reserve. I draw up, his turn. He deploys Chief Chirpa’s Hut, draws up. He never deploys any more locations the entire game. My turn I deploy Chall from Reserve to the Audience Chamber, get Merc Pilot and deploy him to the Barge (driving of course) for free, deploy Ephant to the Passenger deck for 2 Force, move Chall over onto the Barge, draw, his turn. He deploys General Solo, Lumat, and an Ithorian to the Rebel Landing Site. He’s giving me another icon, even though he can only drain for 1 there ’cuz of his Objective. Sweet. My turn I drain, deploy Scum, deploy the Tat: DB. I then deploy a Skrilling to the AC, deploy ZiMH with 4-LOM w/gun and Tat Occupation to Tatooine, then I move Skrilling over to the Barge. His turn he drains for 1, then deploys 2 Corellian Corvettes to Tatooine. He then deploys Romas ’Lock’ Navander and Boshek to pilot one of them. Great. Even if I do get 2 battle destinies, he has ability >6 piloting, and his power is 12 to my 4. He battles, my super-high destinies manage to take out a Corvette, Boshek, and Romas but I have to lose my ship, 4-LOM, and Tatooine Occupation. My turn. I deploy Murtocc Yine (underrated character) aboard the Barge. I notice the Corvette alone at Tatooine. I deploy Bossk In Bus and Stinger there, battle, he loses the Corvette, I’m sittin’ pretty. His turn he just drains and draws. My turn... I activate, I use Murtocc to get J’Quille (another underrated character) into my hand. I deploy Snoova and a Vibro-Axe at the RLS to his General Solo, Lumat, Teebo, and Ithorian. I battle, he loses 1 I retrieve 3, I play Projective Telepathy to cancel the battle. I move Snoova over to the Hut, Ghhhk in hand, saving all the Force I can. His turn he deploys Threepio and DOS to the Hut, then moves Han, Ithorian, Teebo, and Lumat to the Hut, without battling that turn. My turn... I activate, drain, grab Dr. Evazan & Ponda Boba with Murtocc. I deploy the devilish duo to the Hut. I deploy Dr. Evazan’s Sawed Off Blaster on the duo. Let’s see... my Snoova w/Axe and Dr. E & PB w/gun to his General Solo, DOS, Teebo, Lumat, Threepio, and an Ithorian? Ha! I battle, retrieve 3, he loses 1... I then use my vibro-ax to exlude DOS from the battle. Then I use Dr. E’s awesome gun to shoot Threepio, Lumat, Teebo, and the Ithorian. They’re all immediately lost thanks to Dr. E’s text. So now he just has Han left. I draw a destiny of 5, he loses Han and 5. Leia comes back. His turn he moves Leia back to the RLS. My turn I drain for 4 and manage to kill Leia. He has no characters out on table, and he never deployed anybody else. A couple turns of draining, he loses. Win by 22.
9 (+70)
I’m feelin’ really good, winning 5 out of 6 games. I trade with some guys while the other games are playin’. When they’re all done, it’s prize time. I got 4th! I couldn’t believe it... 4th out of 22 people. So what if I didn’t win? Before this tourney I had never finished in the positive, much less won 5 games. It’s about time I got to show my skills, it’s about time I did good at a tourney, it’s about time people realized I was at least a decent player. And remember, I did this well with incomplete decks, especially my LS. I also had a whole lot of fun, which to me is most important. For prize support I got a D*II pack, a RII pack, and a random foil. The random foil was Dengar w/gun, already had the non-foil. My RII pack had a japanese Cold Feet (useless really), a foil General Crix Madine (already had it), Black Sun Fleet (didn’t want it), and Sniper & Dark Strike. My D*II pack’s rare was Onyx 1... so my packs weren’t very good at all.
Props to:
Rich, for putting on a great tourney, and for the good prize support for everybody.
Conrad Kirby, for wanting to play me, and for getting that japanese Darth Vader.
Dum Dum, for getting last place, and for giving red-shirt boy (he’s like 8) a few hundred cards, and giving him pointers.
Jay, for being a good loser.
Everybody who played with weird new inventive decks. We saw TTO, Y-Wings, Jay’s decks, Timer Mines, and other weird stuff.
Slops to:
Frank, for delaying our game ’cuz you went to grab something to eat, then eating it during the game, for the stupid rules arguments, for Tallon Rolling with Interceptors, for just being an idiot in general, and for getting into a fight with that one kid.
My packs, for being bad.
Thanks for reading,
Eric