mt-view-1-26

Title: mt-view-1-26
Author: Alfred "ThaBraHmaBuL" Dong
Date: Feb 2, 2001

Yeah, I know its late...Mt. View was the place to be this past Friday and it was cool to have something to do on a Friday night when your friends are busy. Got the TR, fresh from the keyboard to your face. TR begins NOW.


Prelude

The whole week I got pretty bummed out every time I talked SW with people, having went 3-3 at Pleasonton the week before. Ive made up my mind and told myself I DONT SUCK, and it was just a bad(very, very, bad) day for me. Dark was still somewhat an issue for me, my MKOS got worked last tourney and that wasnt any fun at all....Id have to make a new one thats not so easily destroyed, especially by WYS, THE popular LS deck now.

I figure I can hit a tourney this week and check out what everyones running and go from there, start from scratch. A tournament in Mt. View caught my eye, Neutral Ground was usually held back for stuff like the Grand Slam.....so it was cool to go there and play a few and check out some stuff too. Besides, none of my friends wanted to do anything so its that or sit and watch reruns at home. Now about the DS....well, I was tired, bored, and not feeling too creative, so I just threw a Hunt Down together and went from there.

Shawn Ely offered me a ride on the Alderaan listserv(yeah, weve got one ourselves), providing I would take some buses down to San Leandro and meet him there. I said what the hell and did it, and the whole trip took about a few hours due to some bus delays, and I got there in time, but barely. The whole trip was spent sleeving my DS because I was too lazy to do it during the week. We get down to the store a little early and waited for a few people to come in and get started.


THE DECKS

LS: Watch Your Step.....what everyone and thier mom is running for LS right now, I just wanted to see what was so broken about it.

DS: Hunt Down Choke Out.....15 sevens(damn right) for high destinies and it chokes out Luke and Obi in seconds flat, no tracking required.


THE GAME


Game 1: LS vs. Dan Mochizukis DS BHBM

Dan had some guts running a standard BHBM, but it proved to be effective. First turn I get Luke and put him at the H1 Dbay for more activation, but it turns out I forgot to include the new Luke in my deck. Alrighty then.....as expected, he overran the Cantina and Tatooine in general, and stayed there the whole game. I had space, but bad drawings and choppy activation would stop me from securing it, and Zuckuss and a tracked 5 came and killed some smugglers. Still, between my constant Controls and my constant Kessel drains , I was hurting him more than me, but then I got stupid and played On the Edge on Han in a lone Falcon and mistracked to kill him on accident. I never regained Kessel, and his drains were huge between the Cantina and his lightsabers, so all hell broke loose and I lost by 12.

Cumalative Score: 0(-12)
Highs: Dan and I always have some fun during our games, this ones no different.
Lows: That blasted On the Edge.....



Game 2: DS vs. Kevin Shannons LS Hidden Base Mains Variant

Whoa....I lose by 12 and somehow I end up playing Kevin. Turns out I lost by the least from all the LS players, seems almost every LS lost thier first game.
Kevin and I get weird starts and I get a good activation early with Janus to the Executor Dbay. He sits and draws so I drop Emporer next turn and reunite him with Janus and draw to find a Vader. He drops the Tatooine Dbay and drops Ben there with a buddy. I drop Vader(DLOTS, every Vader in the deck is the same), and battle, when Kevin notices my sleeve is backwards. I check the deck, turns out half the sleeves of my deck was backwards, thats what I get for sleeving them on the bus. I apologize and fix the problem, and reshuffle the deck. I choke Obi anyways(13 or so sevens in the deck plays toward my favor), and beat his buddy up. He drops Luke to another Dbay and leaves him open. IG-88 captures him, and he loses his second Obi off the top to Visage to pretty much end it for the Jedi. I stya flipped, drop the Plaza to CC, and sit on Visage and drains for the game. Win by 25.

Cumalative Score: 2(+13)
Highs: Playing Kevin
Lows: My mis-sleeved deck, and Kevin wasnt prepared for Hunt when he made that deck.


It looks like DS won every game and EVERYONES playing Hunt Down minus Kevin and Dan. Im in a defensable position, and I dont know who Im up against next, but Im just jittery and I play some L5R(damn right, its also L5R night Fridays here) to kill the time between games.



Game 3: DS vs. Steve Daniels LS MWYHL Test to 6

I get the perfect hand to start on him, Downtown Plaza and Vader in my opening. Both come down with Rendili and Executor Dbay first turn and I sit and drain there for the rest of the game. He tries and sets up Dagobah, but has trouble because he activated a few things during his first few turns. I set up the CC Dbay and Mara, and eventually get Search and Destroy out for some extra pain. He kills Mara with Tawss and Test 2, and knocks off Search and Destroy, but I kill Tawss and just re-populate next turn. Visage and CC drains are pounding him, and I cripple him too much, so he tries and battles Vader and a crew with a Captain Han, and he gets smashed for the win. Win by 27.

Cumalative Score: 4(+40)
Highs: Crushing MWYHL and proving ITS JUST THAT BAD
Lows: Nothing much...


Game 4: LS vs. Steve Daniels DS Hunt Down Dueler

There wasnt much to this game, Steve pretty much gave the game to me on a silver platter. I took Kessel early and kept it for the game. Visage got nixed first turn, and he never drew his spares until late game, when it didnt matter much anymore. I stuck Luke at the Cantina and Smoke Screen cleared the site every time someone came down. He tried to set a presence on Cloud City, but I did hit and run smugglers and beat off his guys. The game was clinched when Steve mistracked and tried dueled Luke but forgot Jedi subtracts 3 from it. Win by 40.

Final Score: 6(+80)
Highs: Finishing strong...
Lows: Uh, nothing too much


So I take the tourney as we wait for Kevin and Dan to finish thier final game together. No undefeateds, so my big differential threw me over the top for the win. I cant say it felt all that great, seeing as how we only had 8 people, but beating Mr. Shannon was pretty cool.

We sat down and played some more L5R with the other players group guys there, while Shawn decided to play in the Magic prerelease of its new expansion(what kind of prerelease is held as midnight?) in some deal where he scored a box of Reflections 2. Shawn ended up dropping out early, and we took off around 6 the next day.

Where to go from here?

Time for me to sit down and just kick back and make a GOOD deck instead of doing a week by week crap one and struggling at tourneys. As soon as I can analyze a few things about the games current state, I’ll start playing again.

What do we learn?

I dont know.....but L5R is damn cool, aint it?

All right, all right....dont trip.


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