geoffs-dpc-main-event
Title: geoffs-dpc-main-event
Author: Geoff "gsiva" Snider
Date: Feb 26, 2001
i sit down on the toilet...and while i’m sitting there, i look down at my arm for some reason, and there’s like WRITING all over my arm...
it turns out that at the pizza place, i’d gotten everyone there (including the employees) to sign my arm. whoa....i usually remember when i do sh1t like that.
so anyhoo, i start thinking about what my chances are today at the big event. my dark deck is hell bent on battling and possibly turning luke. my light deck is space drain w/retrieval.
the dark deck is blitzkrieg, and with 8x admiral’s orders, i should be prepared for almost anything. 5 of those deal w/swarm decks like EBOX and HBX, etc...3 let me download combat vehicles, 3 let me deploy pilots cheap, 5 let me do extra "occupation/drain" damage, but the big card for the day is Battle Deployment. against WYS, this one is key for stopping the multiple destiny draws that all those damned palace raiders get, and i know everyone is packin’ ’em today. as i keep saying, against WYS all you have to do is take the system. they cannot pay to drain all game with battle plan, they cannot use tatooine celebration, and once you get the AO’s out, there’s no stopping you on the ground.
the light deck is Hidden Phil. it’s kinda old school hidden base, and nothing new, but for lack of a better alternative i take it over the "super force gen." of a twix/new-school throne room. i figure that the versatility of a retrieval deck should pull me through some sticky situations, and the "avoid battle" cards should get me past the bad beatdowns. OMDH and OTE are key here for waiting the opponent out, and if you really want to beat them down, then save some force and drop a corvette and the outrider..track a 6, you get the idea.
i’m prepared for almost anything w/2x TT/OOC, 2x hyper escape, 2x barrier, scout jedi luke, honor of the jedi, and like 15 ability 3 and 4 characters. huntdown, i just wear them down with their own damage, avoid vader, control space, drain alot w/kessel and coruscant...then retrieve everything. BHBM...not sure what to expect out of this one, but i’m sure retrieval works against it like it works against every other deck. Scum Beatdown...i can take this. i know i can get the scum decks to blow their load at like 2 locations ’cause i run 3x "it’s a trap"...it’s really the "balanced scum" with MKOS that i’m pretty worried about. the "scum fortress" is a better name for it, ’cause it just sits there and gets EVERYTHING out on turn 3...and you can do nothing about it. kinda reminds me of ralltir. so anyhow, i figure i’ll play against that kind of thing like 1 out of 8 games, so i’m fine.
i’m sick as a DOG. it’s like 8am, and we all get to the store (yeah, i had like 16 people staying at my place), and i think i make about 4 more trips to the bathroom before i begin to feel "regular" again. we begin things about 1/2 hour late, but that’s to be expected w/ 86 people. holy cow i hadn’t expected 86, and it’s a good thing i’d rented extra chairs and tables for this one.
EVERYONE is here. 8 from quebec, 10 from michigan, 10 from wisconsin, few from iowa, few from minnesota, 8 from missouri, 4 from tennessee, few from kentucky, and all the fly-ins. 86 was a shockingly large amount of people and Normal hasn’t seen this many since the DS2 pre-release last spring. it’s a good day.
game 1, DS vs. Al schaefer’s HDADTJ dueling
i sit in space and cancel visage w/ TT/OOC. he doesn’t get 3 battlegrounds for S&D until Thrawn/chimaera/guri/stinger come down to kessel. i’ve long since flipped hidden base, and have been cancelling his Docking bay drains of 2, as well as draining for 3 at kessel +3 at coruscant. i run away to tatooine, and then retrieve w/ OMDH for about 8 or 9. OTE for 5 more. run around and drain more, lose to search and destroy for a few turns, then drain him out after retrieving more.
2 (+alot)
game 2, DS vs. Frank amador’s WYS
i think i have this one in the bag when i sit down ’cause i usually beat the cr@p out of WYS, but frank is full of surprises. i go to tatooine first turn w/ thunderflare, deploy an AO and get 2 more pilots at -1. frank plays with some pretty funky weapons cards, and i think it’s kinda cool. he shoots down my thunderflare with a QUAD LASER CANNON!!! holy sh1t! now i’m kinda worried wether or not i can control space, but i end up going to the ground to get some extra activation before he can get a good foothold on kessel. walkers, walkers, and more cliche’d walkers come to DB:94, and over the next 2 turns, i get a sizeable space presence at the tatooine system with Executor and Godherdt (+1 armor is going to be important in this one), + conquest. i’m not wasting any pilots in space this time ’cause multiple SD’s are going to die. i’m gradually draining for 1 at 2 db’s, plus winning small battles here and there to stack cards. i end up winning a big battle in space against a bulk freighter, and when frank plays houjix from lost pile, i make a HUGE blunder. playing an interrupt from lost pile requires WYS to be flipped, and houjix requires you to lose all cards from the location where you lost the battle. if this WAS your 2nd battleground, and WYS flips back AS you lose everything, then you cannot play the interrupt if you just lost everything. my bad. i should have won the game at this point, but it just drags on for another 20 minutes.
4 (+alot)
game 3: LS vs. Erik Peterson’s Endor OPS
i’ve never played against this guy, but i know him, and i know he’s a lawyer (a REAL lawyer...like US court of law sh1t...not a cards-type lawyer), so i’m sure he’s tedious, deliberate, and will pull no punches. i also know i’ve never heard of anything major that he’s won, so i’m sure i’ll win this one too. Ominous rumors is the only card that will give me trouble, but it’s nothing compared to the power of retrieval. he blunders early, shows me his deck, and i know i’ll win it, but he plays so slow. i retrieve alot, and i’m still at about 22 cards when he’s at 5. another turn, and he won’t be able to drain because of battle plan, + i’ll retrieve another 8 cards with OMDH. "hurry up" i say, "we really need to speed this up!!" and he just keeps looking for a Shocking revelation with secret plans. blah. timed win
5 +22 (+about 65 total)
game 4: DS vs. Johnny chu
again, i’m pretty sure i’ll win this one, but it should be a good game regardless. i get a strong start, deploying an SD w/4 pilots to tatooine on turn 2. i’m winning the activation race at this point, but chu decides to take me on at the system. we fight back and forth until we both have about 2 cards in hand, and nothing else is going on. he’s flipped, and plays harvest (i don’t draw CHYBC or Secret plans until later). i cannot draw any "immune to <4" admiral’s orders (i can never remember the name), and each time i go to add a destiny in space with the Emperor’s Power, i lose the 6 off the top and draw 2x 1 destiny. suck. this is killing me. the lack of good destiny to break past his immunity in space. i have, however, managed to collect about 8 cards on Insig.Rebellion, and put lord vader in the cantina...it’s not really going to do anything for me because he’s controlling tatooine and celebrating for 3+ per turn....and i’m draining for 2, + 3 from your destiny. he plays me like a chump, but i think i coulda’ had it, had my destiny been at least average. i lose by 28 (i think), but a good game nonetheless...and chu and i had a good time with this one.
5 +40 (total)
at this point, if i’m even going to try for the final 4, i cannot lose a game. my timed win will screw me, and i’ll end up with 11 points (12 are needed...i think, to get in).
game 5 DS vs. Neal Graham’s EBOX
uhm...EBOX is not a contender in my mind, but if played right it’s got a chance. i get an early foothold in space AND on the ground w/IGAR in tempest 1 to hold the rendili docking bay. i’m forced to forgoe my "immune to <4" AO and use Battle Deployment to utilize the "-2 power" text as well as "fighters coming in" for its’ "-2 power" text. i have to avoid a beatdown, and IAO is great for that sort of thing, not to mention an extra destiny draw. he’s paying to drain every turn from battle order, so he’s limited, and then doesn’t play his "all wings" once per game while he has 12 xwings on the table. he spreads out to about 5-6 systems, but i am able to fight him with my 8 ships (i think i drew 6 or 7 of them). i think i drain him out eventually after chasing the xwings around for about 10 turns. he knows he’s beat, and just initiates to retrive/lose w/ DTF, but i just drop cards from hand. good game.
7 (+50)
game 6 LS vs. David Irvine’s balanced MKOS scum fortress
i know i will lose this as i go into the game. i’m just not prepared for the scum fortress (so much like ralltir it makes me ill), but i’ll give it my best shot. the goal here is to reduce the loss by not letting him initiate battles. i run around in space, and i can’t for some odd reason find my last system to flip, but i manage to avoid search and destroy damage by doing some funky shuttling up and down from the tat: desert heart and tat:JP from the system. i also retrieve about 20 cards, but since i can’t flip because i’m spending so much for retrieval (i keep activating the system) i cannot contend for the drain race...+ he gets bossk w/ something evil for forfeit to kessel, so he doesn’t have to pay to drain anymore. the games turns bad for me at this point, but i’ve got him down to 14 before he drains me out. jabba’s twerps puts him up to 14 from 9, so i consider myself lucky to have not taken a beating on this one. and i played it pretty well considering what i was up against.
7 (+36) i’m not sure if this total is exactly right, but whatever. it’s around where it should be.
game 7 LS vs. frank amador’s HDADTJ ties.
i’m pretty sure i’m going to win this one if i can stall out the ties early. he doesn’t use mob. points to get wakeelmui, and i’m wondering why. so i run around in space and drain a bit at kessel, coruscant. he’s having trouble getting around Dash’s awesome text, and keeps getting beat up. spies invade the executor, and vader goes down. vader comes out again, and again spies invade to kill him. (visage was cancelled 1st turn). he finally gets SFS on wakeelmui...the game drags on for another 15 minutes while he tries to keep retrieving by deploying and losing ties. i eventually battle him out.
9 (+60)
game 8 DS vs. Josh Kohman’s WYS
i should win this one hands down. i’m wondering what he’s doing deploying Theron Nett to the back door, but i stop wondering when i beat theron for 12. i have control of tatooine with Chiraneau, and i have "figters coming in" giving me FD+1 at both tatooine docking bays. there’s some more minor skirmishing at the back door, and when the endor docking bay comes down, i put out vader to get luke and bring him to the emperor. vader gets barriered, so he just ends up playing cat and mouse with me. wedge is noble sac’d for 10, and i curse myself for not drawing secret plans. darnit. i beat down in one more battle, and drain him out.
11 (+75 or so)
final standings put me at 11th place, but if it weren’t for that damned timed win, i would’ve placed 8th. i NEVER TIME OUT DAMMIT!
so irvine, raveling, lewis, and holman are top 4, raveling and lewis both lose by alot, and holman provides a great deal of entertainment as he smacks irvine in game1, and then pulls a "bastard maneuver" and draws up, ending it at about +10 i think.
jackoffasaur, cocoballs, some weird "mario" voice, and some weird grunting, snorting, and yelling come out of TJ’s mouth while playing irvine, and i can’t help but laugh my a$$ off...this is truly entertaining, and then TJ has to go call his woman.
there should be An Older Code stuff to come soon, but only for TJ and Irvine.
so another good day for me, and i drink some more jack&coke, and we all crash out at my place around 3:30am.
i’m exausted, and i have to go clean up the store as well as drive brentson, girard, lingrell, and irvine to the airport tomorrow.
more to come about the sunday team event.
later
geoff