decipher-day-in-nyc-10-feb-01
Title: decipher-day-in-nyc-10-feb-01
Author: Doug "Phrim" Faust
Date: Feb 14, 2001
(Be sure to check out my pictures: http://times.phrim.com/nyc.html)
Well, a couple weeks ago I get this e-mail from Jason Robinette saying that Decipher’s running another big tournament in Neutral Ground in NYC to correspond with the big Toy Fair in NYC. So I’m thinking it might be pretty cool, because I can actually get there by bus without too much hassle. So a few days later Kyle posts to the Squadron list with details, there’s going to be a 4-game Constructed tournament, a 4-game Reflections 2 Draft tournament, and a 4-game Trek tournament. And then I heard that like all the Philly and Jersey people weren’t going to go because they didn’t like the way this event was run last year. So at this point I’m not really sure if I want to go, because (1) it’s only 4 games, (2) a lot of good people that I know won’t be there, (3) I’d have to shell out $65 for bus tickets, and (4) buses suck. But then Brian Terwilliger e-mails me and says he really wants to go, so I figure it won’t be that bad with some company. So I figure it won’t be that bad if I have company on the ride at least. Plus, last minute Brian says his dad can drive us both down instead of having to take the bus, which is just awesome.
So Friday comes, and the Twiggs come and pick me up in their van. Chris and Brian are still making decks, Chris is for the most part done his, but Brian’s still wondering what to play. So they ask me what everyone’s playing, and I’m like everyone good in PA and NJ plays Scum on Dark, pretty much without exception. So we’re talking for a bit, I bring up that I’ve never actually seen the new Dark objective Agents of the Black Sun in a tournament, and Brian tells me that he had an awesome version of that deck that never lost in tournament play or something, but he took it apart for some reason. He says that he might try that deck for the tournament, but he keeps working on his Hunt Down anyway. So we keep driving, Brian’s listening to this wacked-out song sung by 16-year-old girls, Chris falls asleep, etc., etc. Eventually, we arrive at the Twiggs’ grandparents’ house at like 2:30am, which is like 25 miles from NYC. His grandparents were real cool, they even left out milk and cookies for us.
Anyway, Brian wants to playtest the Hunt Down deck he built in the car, so I whip out the Watch Your Step deck that I played in my last tournament, I figure that’s what I’ll be playing tomorrow. So we start out, he doesn’t get Vader in his opening hand, so he draws to get him, and I put Dash in the Outrider at Tatooine. He drops Lord Vader in his Saber at my Cantina with DrE and Ponda, which is of course no good. He drains me, and I lose a card from hand, and take 2 off the top. And the two off the top were the two Captain Hans in the deck, wonderful. Anyway, I back up Dash with Theron and put a RFC copiloting the Outrider for extra power subtraction and Zuckuss-proofing, and it turns out he just drew Zuckuss that turn, so that was in the nick of time. He deploys some more guys on the ground and spreads out, so he has EJP Dengar, DrE+PB, and someone else in the Cantina (read: insta-death), and Lord Vader with Saber and Commander Igar at the Docking Bay. So I drop Goo Nee Tay and I’ll Take The Leader, and deploy ECC Lando and 3 RFC’s to go battle Vader and company. I try shooting Igar with Lando, but I draw a 2 and miss. He swings at Lando, hits him of course, and then plays Dark Strike to make him immediately lost. I draw a 4 and a 4 for destiny, and he draws something low, so he has to lose Vader and I lose a RFC. So I beefed up the Docking Bay, and he tried to attack me in space with Thrawn on the Executor. He plays Command so I only get one destiny, but I take down his power by 8, and I can add a destiny to power with Theron, so I still win. He takes 8 damage cause he doesn’t want to lose Thrawn or the Executor. So next turn, I battle again. He can’t take the hurt in space, and can’t find another Vader, so I win. So now Brian says he doesn’t want to play Hunt Down, and he’s thinking of playing ROps, but Chris tells him not to cause Chris doesn’t like ROps.
So Brian wants to test out his Light deck too, so I use my ROps deck that still has like 5 proxies in it, because I didn’t have the cards to make the deck. So anyway, he starts Throne Room with Ounee Ta. So I figure this is going to be a short game, because Throne Room Mains beats ROps without Ounee Ta, with Ounee it’s just a bloodbath. So anyway, I drop a 2/2 guy at the Death Star 2 Docking Bay, he puts a bunch of guys at one of my sites. Now it’s like 4am, I’m pretty zoned out at that point, so I’m not quite sure what’s going on. I spend the entire game trying to beat him off of Ralltiir, and do pretty well, considering. I was able to get Thrawn on the Chimaera that beat his stuff out of space easily, and I had ROps flipped for most of the game. The problem was, I couldn’t drain because he had Battle Plan on the table and the Chimaera had to be at Ralltiir most of the time, and his Order To Engage was decimating me, because I couldn’t afford to initiate multiple battles per turn. Plus, he kept playing On The Edge with 6’s that he was recycling, and I wasn’t awake so I accidentally started Decree instead of Secret Plans (last time I played the deck was against EBO). So while I was doing a good job of beating him off Ralltiir, I also wasn’t doing any damage. So I lost...
So anyway, Brian says they can lend me all the cards I need to make my ROps deck except the Imperial Command I’m missing, and he knows someone who can lend me the Command, so I decide to go with that instead of the Hunt Down deck that I’ve been using since 1999. So Brian keeps on building decks, he makes like 5 of them over the course of the night, and I’m just kinda sitting at the table sleeping with my eyes open. So anyway, it’s a little bit past 6 in the morning, and everyone’s thinking of finally going to sleep, except Chris who wants to play me in a game. Now to me, the difference between 1 hour of sleep and no hours of sleep is negligible, so I agree, but at that point Marty, who was sleeping on the couch-bed, wakes up and asks what time it was. Brian and Chris say 2:30, which is hilarious cause we got there at 2:30, but he tells everyone to go to bed so we do. The next morning, I was awakened by a dog licking my face. Gotta love sleeping on the floor. Anyway, I rest for a few more minutes and then get up. Now the Twiggs’ grandmother was nice enough to make us some oatmeal for breakfast, so I ate some with Marty and their grandfather. Chris and Brian are having a bit more trouble getting up, but eventually Chris gets up and uses the shower. A little bit later, Brian gets up, hugs his grandfather, then goes back to sleep. Heh. Finally, Brian gets up and Chris gets out of the shower, so we chat for a bit, their grandparents wish us luck, and we take off at about 9:20am.
We get to the store without any problems, and we even get a parking spot right in front of the store, which is nothing short of amazing. I grab the last couple cards I need for my deck and we head up. Art Wright, Aaron Kingery and whole bunch of guys from Albany are there, as well as Chris Praskac, Greg Hodur, and Scott Lingrell. Mike Dalton shows up a bit later, and gives me the Nemet I was complaining about not having. He brought those Hoth 2PG sets he said he had extras of, so I traded him a Flagship Executor for 3 of them. So now I can build that Speeder deck I always wanted to make. :-) Anyway, we start making bets on how late George Gundry is going to be, but he ends up shocking us all and showing up on time. Anyway, there were a good number of people there, but quite a few missing as well. Matt and Dan Sokol weren’t there because apparently they missed the bus. I was told Ray Bordier was really, really sick. And apparently Hayes Hunter’s parents wouldn’t let him go last minute. I don’t know where TJ Holman and Steve Brentson were either. Anyway, Art starts the tournament only 10 minutes late, which is cool.
Game 1: My Command ROps vs. Jason Myra’s (NYC/1588) WYS Kessel Runner
So I start putting guys on Ralltiir, and he puts a Medium Bulk Freighter and some stuff at my Ralltiir. So I deploy Zuckuss there and flip, and kill some of them. He backs up his stuff but doesn’t battle, so I deploy the Chimaera with Thrawn and Dengar in his ship and kill nearly everything. He puts a Ralltiir Freighter Captain on a ship there, and plays Kessel Run targeting it, and moves his stuff to Kessel. I ignore that for now, continuing to drain on the ground. He deploys some more ships, including Premiere Luke on Artoo in Red 5, and comes back to Ralltiir to retrieve 10 (spending 10 because I actually started Secret Plans this time). I deploy the Executor and beat everything up, though he does manage to hit Zuckuss with an X-wing Laser Cannon. So then he deploys another Kessel Run and goes back to Kessel to do it again. He doesn’t have 4 ability there, so I go find my Bossk In Hound’s Tooth, deploy it there, and kill the RFC. I deploy Search And Destroy too, which of course is huge. He deploys a few guys to the Tatooine Docking Bay to satisfy Search, so I deploy old-school Darth Vader with Admiral Ozzel and beat them up, and the walk into the Cantina. The game is pretty much over at that point, and I win by a good amount. FW+21, 2(+21)
Highlights: All-around good game for me, everything worked out great.
Lowlights: I feel like I played into his hand by deploying Ralltiir, with his RFCs and Kessel Runs.
So after the game, Jason asks me if I’m looking to trade, and I say sure, I’m looking for like all the stuff in my ROps deck that I borrowed. :-) He said he left his We’re In Attack Position Nows at home, but he did have an Imperial Command and a Commander Igar for trade. He wanted my Lando with Ax, but I only had 2 of him and I could easily see using 2 in a deck, so I end up trading him my extra Death Star Wedge and a Green Squadron 1 for the Command and Igar. So I’m cool with that, getting that Command was huge because those things are next to impossible to find.
Game 2: My Celebrating WYS vs. Jason Robinette’s (NYC/1616) TIE Bomber Swarm
He starts Kuat which makes he think he’s playing Destroyer Swarm, but he ends up deploying Wakeelmui with Mobilization Points, he’s just using Kuat to get the extra activation. So he deploys a bunch of Bombers and some Intruder Missiles to my Tatooine, which is somewhat annoying. I start dropping guys on the ground, and flip pretty early to stop his extra activation w/ Kuat. So I’m beating me in the activation war, having my guys at Docking Bays with Staging Areas, but he doesn’t have a Lost Pile because he keeps retrieving TIEs with Sienar. He decides being drained on the ground is bad, so he attacks my Lando and 2 RFC’s with Admiral Thrawn, Admiral Motti, and Pellaeon. I have a Fallen Portal in my hand which I’m more than happy to use. Now I could get greedy and go for both the 3-ability guys, but I play it safe and go for just Motti. But I draw a 1 so it doesn’t matter. So I end up shooting Motti with Lando and drawing 2 decent destinies to kill off everyone else, so it’s all good, I just lost a RFC. So I go ahead and play the OOC part of OOC/TT because he has a Lost Pile, and I get Thrawn, which he’s somewhat pissed at because apparently he’s got another one in his deck. Now I really had to make some sort of strike against him, because I was intelligent enough to deploy Battle Plan, meaning I had to pay 6 to drain for 2 and he had to pay 3 (though it turns out once I actually remember to remind him to pay for Battle Plan, he just stops draining). So I come down with my beat squad of Captain Han in the Falcon and Dash in the Outrider to Tatooine, deploy I’ll Take The Leader and battle. But he plays Heavy Fire Zone to deploy a Concussion Missile on his Bomber, and goes and hits the Outrider with it. So I have to lose Outrider with Dash, which is annoying. He has to lose a bunch of stuff too, but he just loses a weapon to Used (he started Superficial Damage), a TIE to used, and I think he lost a TIE. Next turn, he replaces my Admiral’s Order with his, deploys some more TIEs and stuff, battles the Falcon, and shoots it with his gun (I think he played some interrupt to raise the destiny or something), so I lose the Falcon. I just love it when people convert my Admiral’s Orders though, because I go and track it to the top, and retrieve 5 with On The Edge (on Luke), so I get all my ships and stuff back. Meanwhile, on the ground I spread out to the Cantina too, so now I’m spending 9 to drain for 4, and he’s just not draining. So he’s got Kiffex out too, so I go ahead and deploy Captain Han on the Falcon there with Zuckuss protection (read: Melas). He doesn’t have anything to do about that, he’s drawing to find his Proton Bombs so he can blow up the Cantina. But then I drain him (for free--finally), and he loses his Proton Bombs off the top, which he’s upset about because apparently that was his only one and he can’t blow up the Cantina now. So I play the OOC part of OOC/TT again, mainly so I can track it around and play On The Edge from my Lost Pile. So I track it around, play On The Edge (targeting Han this time), name 4, and then draw a 1 for destiny. DOH! Apparently I forgot that I paid 1 to play the OOC, I got confused between the Force I paid and the interrupt itself. So Han committed suicide, so I deployed a RFC on the Falcon and Mirax in the Pulsar Skate to make sure I still had Protection From Zuckuss. Anyway, from there on out, nothing much happens, he says he can’t win because he lost his Proton Bombs (which weren’t anywhere close to the top of his Lost Pile for retrieval cause I shuffled it with OOC), so he doesn’t really do anything, and I drain him for 6 a turn and win. FW+19, 4(+40)
Highlights: Not getting the Cantina blown up, cause that woulda sucked. :-) Actually, I was scared of Bombing Run too, but it turns out that it says "non-interior sites" so it doesn’t work at Docking Bays.
Lowlights: Getting hosed by my own Battle Plan, forgetting make it affect him too. And showing that I suck at tracking.
So at this point, I was pretty happy, 4(+40) was the kinda score you wanted if you were going to win this thing, but I figured I would play someone good next game to beat me down.
Game 3: My Celebrating WYS vs. Chris Schaut’s (Albany/1689) Hunt Down Beatdown
Now I had never heard of Chris Schaut before, so I figure I might have a fairly good chance of winning this game and making into the last game undefeated, which would of course be huge. Anyway, he starts Hunt Down without Epic Duel, which is good because Epic Duel tends to make me overly paranoid. So I draw my hand, and there’s like absolutely no characters in it whatsover. It did have a Trans Term, which I played right away because Visage is bad, and a couple ships, but that’s it. So first turn he drops some guy at his Death Star 2 Docking Bay, and I deploy the Outrider with Dash to Tatooine. Next turn, he drops Lord Vader with Saber to my Docking Bay with some other guys, and moves the guy on the Death Star on over. I deploy the Pulsar Skate with Mirax to Tatooine. He deploys like 3 more big guys and takes over my Spaceport Docking Bay on Tatooine. Okay, this is seriously bad, as he’s got like 6-7 guys on Tatooine, and I’ve drawn maybe 1 character in the first 2 turns of the game. Eventually I get some scrubs in my hand with Talon Karrde, so I track to go beat up Vader, but Karrde gets all Barriered, so I’m going nowhere. So he ends up dropping a crapload of guys, and killing everyone, and the fact that I didn’t have a Fallen Portal helped none. So now he’s got like 10 guys on Tatooine and I’ve got jack. He goes and redeploys his Visage, and plays Search And Destroy. Now this is all bad. So I do find some more guys, and I deploy them so I can flip again and play the Trans Term from my Lost Pile, but he just cancels it with Holonet. And, as you would have it, a couple turns later, he beats me off of Tatooine again, so I’m going nowhere. So I’m losing craploads of Force to Visage, Search, lots of drains, and battle damage, and he’s taking my drain of 1 every turn at Tatooine. Guess how long this game lasted? That’s right folks, 10 minutes! FL-24, 4(+16)
Highlights: Well, lots of free time. :-)
Lowlights: Apparently I was playing the Turbo-Lose version of WYS. You should try it someday. :-)
Game 4: My Command ROps vs. Tom Weldon’s (NYC/1642) Classic HB/Squass
So next I get paired up against this real short guy, I look at his Command Card and it says he was born in 1986, so he’s like 14-15 or something. Anyway, he starts Hidden Base with WA/DODN, Squass, and Strike Planning. So I drop DS-61-2 at the Death Star Docking Bay and start getting my stuff set up. He deploys Farmboy Luke in Artoo in Red 5, and goes and parks it at Ralltiir. So I deploy the rest of my stuff on Ralltiir, then I deploy Zuckuss and Dengar to Ralltiir to go beat on Luke, but Luke Hypers away to Kiffex. Zuckuss and Dengar follow, only to have him deploy a bunch of ships and beat the crap out of them, so I lose everything plus 4. So that probably wasn’t how I wanted to start the game off. Anyway, I’m short on cards, so I draw and find stuff with ROps. He flips deploys a bunch of planets and flips his objective. Fortunately, he was playing all space, so that means ROps will stay flipped forever. I find Security Precautions and deploy it, then start attacking him with the Executor and other assorted ships. Executor takes out whatever’s escorting Home One, and he deploys Independence there and battles again, but does nothing because of Security Precautions. So I chase him around with Thrawn on the Executor, and kill some other ships with guys on Dreadnaughts. Eventually I probe his Hidden Base at Yavin IV and he loses 7. The battle in the high parsecs is going very poorly for him, and Home One runs away to Rendezvous Point. He’s fairly fortified at Coruscant and Kiffex though. So I finally find my Search And Destroy and deploy it. He’s running out of Force a lot faster than I am. Eventually, he’s down to 6 Force. So I drain him for 4, then I deploy Chimaera with Veers piloting at Coruscant and attack just to use First Strike, then he loses his last Force to Search and I win. FW+9, 6(+25)
Hightlights: Gotta love the Invincicutor with Security Precautions. :-)
Lowlights: Getting Zuckuss and Dengar beat up early on.
So I end up with a respectable score, which is plenty good for me. Brian Terwilliger is a machine and wins the whole tourney, with Chris Erwin coming in second. They didn’t announce the standings after that, so I have no clue what place I got or anything, but I heard Steve Baroni from Kashyyyk got 3rd. So now the Reflections 2 booster draft is coming up, and I completely forgot that I needed these battleground locations. Apparently, everyone else did too, because everyone was scrambling for battlegrounds all of a sudden, and only a few people brought enough cards to lend. So I ended up borrowing like 6 locations from Dalton and 1 from Brian Twigg (thanks guys!) and got the rest from the decks and rares that I brought with me. So it admittedly wasn’t the optimal configuration of locations, but it wasn’t horrible either. So anyway, we start the pairings, and I end up as Dark Side between Brian and Marty Twigg. My pulls are pretty decent, I end up with Djas Puhr, Snoova (no ax though), Bragnus, and Bane Malar for ground, and Dengar in Ship, Emperor’s Sword, and some other stuff for space. I do manage to get a Limited Resources, which we all know is HUGE in Sealed, but I don’t get the other card that would’ve been huge, Counter Assault. So I think I’ve got a pretty decent deck. I end up starting with the Cloud City Port Town District that Dalton lent me, because my deck was like all aliens.
Game 1: My Pile vs. Random.Guy’s Pile
Okay, I got 1 hour of sleep last night, so my memory wasn’t all there, and I forgot a few names. Anyway, he started Guest Quarter, so I figure we’re going to be fighting on Cloud City all day long. I get a decent hand and drop Djas Puhr to the Port Town District first turn. He eats a drain there for a turn, but then deploys Tawss Khaa (who’s HUGE) and fights. We fight and fight and fight, and somehow I manage to kill of Tawss with Djas still alive, so all’s well. He deploys Bespin and puts an X-wing there, so I deploy Virago and battle it, but he plays Out Of Nowhere and kills it. I’m looking to spread out, so I deploy Endor: Dark Forest with Snoova and a bunch of guys. He comes down en force and kills everybody but Snoova, which is no good. So I go ahead and deploy 2 Imperial Trooper Guards there, and we sit there and stare at each other for the rest of the game. He deploys a B-wing at my Kessel, so I deploy a TIE Defender in front of it. He battles it of course, but I play Tauntaun Bones to add 3 to my power, so he lost 2 cards. I then go and deploy The Emperor’s Sword there, battle, and draw my tracked Tauntaun Skull for destiny, so he has to lose the B-wing plus a bunch of Force. Once he’s done, he’s down to two cards in his hand, so I play Limited Resources. And the rest of the game consisted of me draining... FW+9, 2(+9)
Highlights: Defending a site with Snoova and 2 Trooper Guards is fun :-)
Lowlights: Having to deal with Super-Tawss
Game 2: My Pile vs. Random.Guy’s Force Choke Deck
Okay, here’s what I mean by Force choke. He starts Jabba’s Palace, and Signals for Goo Nee Tay. First turn he deploys Restricted Deployment. Okay, now like my entire deck deploys +1, and anyone that’s good deploys +3, wonderful. So I go ahead and put some guys at the Cloud City PTD and start draining away. He deploys Bothuwui, Kessel, and Dash in the Outrider (ugh). Then he goes and completes a Kessel Run. This is Sealed Deck, these things aren’t supposed to happen! Anyway, I manage to draw my ships and beat down upon the Outrider, and I had control of space after that. He puts some guys on Tatooine and starts draining, so I counter with some of my own guys. So he’s got Admiral Ackbar with Mercenary Armor and some other scrub draining in the Cantina. I move my guys in to Mos Eisley, so he transits over and attacks. I play my Tauntaun Skull to add 3 to my power, so I lose like all of my stuff cause Ackbar is huge, and he loses his scrub. So I deploy Bane Malar to come beat on lone Ackbar, mindscan him, and draw my tracked Tauntaun Skull for destiny. So he has to lose Ackbar plus a few, and his hand drops down to two, so I play Limited Resources. Sound familiar? Same exact thing happened last game... Anyway, he didn’t do much for the rest of the game, and me draining in space plus at the PTD all game wins me the game. FW+12, 4(+21)
Highlights: Doing the Tauntaun Skull, track it around, beat down, then Limited thing two games in a row. :-)
Lowlights: Kessel Run, in Sealed Deck? Plus Signal for Goo and first turn Restricted Deployment? C’mon...
Game 3: My Pile vs. Aaron Northrup’s (Albany/1677-Sealed) Pile
Now Aaron’s a real cool guy, he lent me an Imperial Command for the first tournament, which I greatly appreciated of course. Anyway, I start off, as always, by dumping some guys at the Port Town District. However, he gets out his Bargaining Table right away, and he’s got oodles and oodles of aliens, so I don’t think he ever lost to a drain there. So anyway, he started Jabba’s Palace, and deployed the Cantina, with some guys, so I deployed Djas Puhr and Snoova and some guys to fight, and successfully. However, he comes back at me by deploying Tawss Khaa and a bunch of guys and beating me up. So I end up losing Snoova (prolly should have lost Djas in hindsight, because Snoova has more power and doesn’t make Tawss big). I reinforce with some guys and a Trooper Guard. He puts a Monk at Jundland Wastes to drain, and then battles me again, and I lose everything but Djas and the Trooper Guard. So I back it up with another Trooper Guard and an Amanin, which causes him to hold off on attacking. So now I’ve got my drain of 2 at the PTD which only makes him put another alien on the Bargaining Table, and he’s got a drain of 2, which makes me lose 2 cards. :-) So I’ve got this huge problem of not being able to hurt him. He’s got like 2 cards in his hand, so I move the Amanin out in front of the Monk cause the Monk can’t battle me. He puts an Ithorian on a Skiff at Jabba’s Palace, and moves the Monk there. I finally get out a system (Nal Hutta) and I put a ship there. I drain at the Jundland Wastes, but the Skiff reacts over with the Ithorian. So I go walk in front of the Monk again. Anyway, my late game drain of 1 doesn’t help me too much, and while it’s close cause he wasn’t draining me much either, I end up losing. FL-3, 4(+18)
Highlights: Trooper Guards are "tech"
Lowlights: Getting screwed by Bargaining Table
Game 4: My Pile vs. Bill Power’s (NYC/1587-Sealed) Shiny Space Deck
Bill had like an awesome draw for space, he had his own little fleet of shinies starring shiny Red Squadron 1 with Shiny Wedge. So anyway, first turn I drop Bragnus and 3 Dantooine Operatives at the PTD, having 4 characters on table first turn is cool. He puts out Crash Site Memorial, which I don’t care about. Then on like turn 2, he switches out the Foil Red Squadron 1 that he put there with something in his hand, and deployed that and Foil Death Star Wedge to Kiffex (which he started). So I go and put Dark Forest out with a bunch of guys to be winning the drain race again. But then he puts out Kessel with Shiny Gold Leader In Gold 1. So we’re having this drain race, but then he goes and plays Coruscant too, and puts a Shiny Blue Squadron B-wing at Kiffex and moves Wedge on his ship to Tatooine. So now he’s draining for 8 and I’m draining for 4, never seen quite a drain race in Sealed before. He loses another Foil Red Squadron 1 to my drain, he’s got waaay too many foily ships. :-) So anyway, I finally draw my ships, and I deploy Dengar, Virago, and a TIE Defender (power 1, but what’re you gonna do?) to Coruscant where they’re nice and cheap. So I go and beat down on Wedge, but I manage to kill Wedge plus do a few damage, and the Virago blows up. I move over to Kiffex to block his drain there. But he deploys more ships (and another pilot on Red Squadron 1) and beats me up. So basically from there it’s a drain race hugely in favor. Still, I got set up a lot faster than he did, and my draining was never interrupted, so I still have the advantage. He deploys the Spaceport Docking Bay at Kiffex and puts Premiere Han there, so I deploy Bane Malar there and battle him, but a Fallen Portal falls on Bane’s head. In the end, he just barely drains me out. FL-2, 4(+16)
Hightlights: Killing Wedge
Lowlights: Another really close loss...
So I think I was the top of the 2-2 for Sealed Deck, with two decent wins and two tiny losses. Not sure who had the best diff, but Marco Habert was the top Dark player with his Snoova *and* Vibro-Ax, and Aaron Kingery was top Light (his deck had some crazy stuff in it too, but I forget what). After that Decipher breaks out the pizza, and they had a lot of it! When we left, there were still like 7 pizzas sitting there untouched, it was crazy. So a bunch of guys went and tried out Jedi Knights, which looked pretty cool, but I just hung out and took some pictures, cause I was exhausted. So a couple hours later me and 9 other guys squeeze into Marty Twigg’s van (me, Marty Twigg, Brian Twigg, Chris Twigg, Pete Srodosky, Chris Talbot, Jason Foss, and 3 others...), so we’re all piled on top of one another, and Marty drops me and Brian off at the Port Authority Bus Terminal. So we get tickets and everything with no problems, and we get to the waiting area. Brian wants to play a game, so I break out my old EBO deck. So I set up EBO, cancel Visage, and get out Rebel Fleet to cancel his drains at the Docking Bay with Vader. He deploys Bossk and some other destroyer to my Hoth, but I Barrier something, deploy more X-wings and beat him up. He tries to deploy Devastator but I It Can Wait it and beat him up again. Next turn, he deploys Devastator for free, so I Barrier it, then beat him up again. At that point, he conceded, which was good cause I couldn’t think any more (good thing EBOX requires no thought). Anyway, we get on the bus, and fall asleep. When we wake up, we’re back in Ithaca, and in the middle of a snowstorm. Wonderful. Luckily, the bus drops us off right next to where I live (and it was early too, who’d have guessed?), so we go up to my room, and Brian crashes at my place for the night. And then I go to sleep and don’t wake up for a very long time. (My version of living happily ever after...?)
Props:
- HUUUUUGE props to the Twiggs for giving me a ride and a place to crash! I still owe you a drink or two Marty!
- Twiggs for lending me lots of cards.
- Aaron Northrup for lending me an Imperial Command to finish my deck.
- Mike Dalton, for lending me a bunch of locations for Sealed.
- Jason Myra for trading me the Imperial Command that I needed.
- George Gundry for being so photogenic. :-)
- Mike Dalton for having a good haircut
- Greg Hodur for eating a foil A-wing
- Chris Praskac for being one funny guy
- Chris Schaut for putting me in my place
- Art Wright and everyone else helping out for running a smooth event
- Kyle Heuer for bringing cool preview cards, and pizza!
- The bus back for being early
Slops:
- New York City for being New York City
- The bus, for leaving Matty Sokol behind
- Adam Kronfeld for once again missing out
- Marco Habert, for not showing up until Sealed
- Tawss Khaa, for thinking she can mess with Djas
- Me, for forgetting locations for R2 Draft
- Snow
Until next time...
--
Doug Faust - dlf14@cornell.edu
SM Rogue 40, based in Ithaca, NY
http://times.phrim.com/