finally-a-nashville-local
Title: finally-a-nashville-local
Author: Steven "Sir Yoda" Lewis
Date: Jan 29, 2001
Well, I guess it all started about a week ago when I decided to motor down to Huntsville for the weekly roundup of Star Wars regulars. After a rousing tourney and a first place finish, Jim Colson mentioned a mini "gaming" con in Nashville the following weekend, so I was like "Im there." So I gave Jon Chu, Clint, and Jim a ring and convinced them to join me for a rating-filled local.
Clint and I hit the Chinese buffet (tech) and the DQ (double tech) but neglect to get the Brownie (as I shall soon regret). And the night before, we go see some Snatch (what a waste of my time!). This movie is quite possibly the worst movie Ive seen in years. A half hour in the movie I have no idea whats going on and they still havent introduced a plot and you cant understand a word Brad Pitt is saying the whole time. How retarded! Anyway, it sucked enormous donkey balls so dont waste your time.
After that I had the hardest time trying to convince Clint to play in the tourney. He absolutely refuses to play local tournaments. I say its because hes mad over rating points and doesnt want to lose any to me (who cares?). He says its because he doesnt like to play against me at all (then why do we playtest all the time?). I know, I know, it makes no sense at all, but Clint never does. So hes not playing.
I am fairly certain before we head to the tourney that my former nemesis Andy McClure will be traveling up from Huntsville for some road-revenge and from what I saw the week before, I pretty much guessed he would be packing WYS and some type of anti-WYS deck (after seeing my super-secret "Invincible WYS" deck the week before). Jon Chu will likely be packing X-wings or WYS with LS, and who knows with DS. Jim will play Court and EBO. So I need a LS that beats an Anti-WYS, Jon Chu, and Court; so I settle for my own version of Hunters EBO deck (what a beast); and I need a DS that beats WYS, X-wings, and EBO; so I settle for the ever-popular Biker ROPS deck that I built for Worlds and never got to play (see my Worlds TR and let out your best Mournful Roar for me).
So once we all get to the tourney, theres only FIVE people playing. Nashville sucks. Me, Chu, Jim, Andy, and Andys friend. Even with the Huntsville travelers, we only get five people. But luckily, Matt Reed, Josh Koizura, and Jon Tomayko are all convinced to join in so we can sanction. So here we go
GAME1: My LS EBO/X-wings vs Andy McClures ISB Tatooine Anti-WYS deck
I couldnt have guessed better. No doubt Andy was slightly dissapointed when he noticed me start the Power Generators and not WYS (since his DS deck was built to beat me). Anyway, Andy searches for something in his deck rather early and I get to verify (NOTE, the Andy McClure curse: if you have 48 cards in your reserve deck and 2 cards in your force pile, you invariably activated whatever you want to search for). He has only Star Destroyers and an occasional BH ship in his deck (and no Imperial Decree). So I dump down EBO and a couple Xs on Hoth (with some interrupts as backup). Andy flips and covers a couple Tatooine sites for drains. Rebel Fleet comes down and I get a couple more Xs at another system. I then move some Xs to Carida and Coruscant (thanks for the systems, Andy!) and get a total drain of 15 going (no Battle Order in sight). Andy drops a couple ships and Battle Deployment (anti-WYS tech) but I just Hyperescape. He chases some wings around and I keep draining. I eventually drop Boushh to block a drain and an Arcona (what a champ!). Obi and Luke make some disruptive appearances on Tatooine while the Wings drain. Eventually I win by 18 or so.
FW 2 (+22)
GAME 2: My DS Biker ROPS vs. Jon Chus Brentson Beats
For those of you who arent aware of the classic Steven Brentson beats deck, let me enlighten you. Basically the whole deck is saving Force and drawing cards and playing Tunnel Visions until you have Beggar, DTF, Obi, Luke, Lando, Leia, Han, Chewie, and Jedi Presence in your hand. Then you drop it all and win the game. Sounds goofy? It is. But I am totally unprepared. I get some Bikers down early to the SP:DB and keep them all together (Chu started Oonee Ta!). Eventually I have four bikes, each pilotted by a Biker (surely Im ok, right?). Then Chu drops Beggar, uses up my Force, DTF, then its Han, Leia, Luke, Lando, and Obi, all EPPs (except the Jedi Luke). He attacks, excludes a Biker, hits two others, plays Jedi Presence, and draws three destiny (I dont get any). The end result was something like I forfeit all my guys and then 22 Force (NOTE: he forgot to play his Courage, which would have added an additional 12 Force loss to the stack). Ouch. The rest of the game was me jerking off and running around with like 4 guys and one ship trying to Force drain. I lose by 16.
FL 2 (+6)
GAME 3: My DS vs. Andy McClures WYS
Well, I get to play Andy again. He busts out Oonee Ta (crap, again?) and a basic WYS Palace Raider deck without Kessel Runs. My Bikers (plus High Speed Tactics tech) should own him. Wrong. A couple bikers try to come to Raltir early for a flip, but Mirax and Han fly over to Ralltir system to slow me down. I finally flip with three pilotted bikes on Ralltir and a barriered Bossk in HT at Ralltir. Chewie and a Raider come down on Tatooine to flip for Andy and Bossk dies with only 3 battle damage or so. Andy leaves the lone raider in the Cantina, so I drop undercover Arica there (tech!) who pretends to block the drain and avoids getting barriered. I then break her cover and beat up the raider for 5 damage or so. Andy then comes to Ralltir with Talon Karde and a Raider and a Craft (but he WISELY doesnt put the raider on the empty craft to avoid the HST). We battle back and forth on Ralltir, with me playing HST every turn for destiny and getting it back with my objective. My heavy destiny draws do away with his guys left and right and hes offing Bikers like theres no tomorrow. Eventually Lord Vader and his blade show up and finish off the rest of the invading force, but now Battle Order is down, and my enormous Overseeing It Personally drains arent doing diddly. I finally get a ship (Boba in S1) and put it to Carida with a barrier for back up. Andy keeps playing On The Edges over and over again (despite Secret Plans) and Im having a hard time keeping up with his damage (even though hes only draining me for 1 at the Jundland Wastes). Menace Fades finally comes down and stops the OIP. But my drains are slowly outdoing his retrieval. So Jedi Luke and a saber try to do something to Arica. He swings and misses and draws a 2 for destiny while I draw a 5 and kill him (go Arica!). So Boba gets chased around, but not enough to end his days of free drains. So I win by 6.
FW 4 (+12)
GAME 4: My LS vs. Jon Tomaykos DS Court
Simply put, EBO absolutely owns most non-invincible Court decks. So I play EBO fairly early and go to Hoth. I eventually get out two other systems and drains for 10. Even though Im losing to Court and a Jabba drain, its no big deal. So Tomayko deploys Zuckass in MH (I barrier), then Dengar in P1 and Bossk in HT. He attacks. I could flee with a hyperescape, but I stay and fight because Ive got a plan! He loses Dengar to attrition and I lose both wings. I then lose an Orgy for 3 more Xs and play All Wings for a fourth. I drop all 4 on Zuckass and Bossk along with the ever-nasty X-wing cannon. I shoot off Zuckass, play used Orgy, and draw a 5 for destiny. My power 28 vs. his power 9, which means after Bossk dies, he has 15 more damage. But he has a Ghhhk. Grrrr! Well anyway, I get my 4th system out and drain for 13 while a strategically placed Arcona and Luke walk around Tatooine to block drains, S&D, and Court damage. I win by 18.
FW 6 (+30)
So the tourney ends after the 4th game and Jim Sells ends up taking the honors (after beating Chus Brentson-beats deck with Invincible Court Returns, go Jim!). Nobody went undefeated. Jim gets the way nifty new The Signal FOIL and some random guy gets the Masterful Move FOIL (I dont remember who). I finish third, thanks to diff. Despite the loss, it was a very fun tourney with 3 2000+ ranked players as well as 5 other seasoned vets in a barely-sanctioned 8-man brawl!
PROPS:
To Jim Sells for wrecking everyone with some rockin decks.
To McClure for some good brain-games as usual.
To Tomayko, Koizura, and Matt for making it sanctioned.
To Colson for the Nashville tourney.
To the Huntsville crew for driving up.
SLOPS:
To Clint for being a @#$% and not playing.
To the rinky-podunk Nashville CON which charged me $10 to play.
To my prize support which = JIZZ!
To me for not getting the Brownie (what was I thinking?).
Steven Chu Owns Me Lewis