the-rattler-gets-rock-bottomed
Title: the-rattler-gets-rock-bottomed
Author: Michael "The Rattler" Schiemer
Date: Mar 12, 2001
Saturday was a very big tourney. The first prize was the elusive PS2 and I was determined to get it. I figured my main competition would be the Hunters, Steve baroni, Justin Desai,Steve Brenston and Andy Clema if he made it. I was partly correct because Eric hunter, steve baroni, justin desai, Stev brenston and andy clema all came but a surprise visit from the Terwilleger(sp?) brothers made me think twice about my chances of winning. Hayes Hunter ended up not going which was actually a bad thing since he was someone you could count on to deal out losses to hard opponents. Only about 25 people came which is strange because that is how much we get for the crappy Video Connection tourneys . The prize was a PS2 everyone, not packs of CC! Although there was only 25, the place was loaded with most of our states and regions best players and then some.
I come to the tournament with my same undefeated HD admirals deck and this crappy EBO mains deck for LS. It was really a poor choice because I had never really played it before and because of my lack of experience with it I made some rookie mistakes that cost me big. My brother and I are dropped off at the Hunter’s house where we get in the car with Mike Pistone and Eric hunter. I am sacrificing doing my homework for the tournament so for the 40 minute ride I just talk with Pistone and get a head start on my homework. Studying Spanish really sucks.
We arrive a little late and I scramble like mad to fill out my decklists and try to find English replacements for my japanese cards. I saw from across the room that Steve Baroni was in a similar situation too. I get finished right before the entry deadline and try to relax. My rating going into the tourney is 2036 with a decent 4-1-1 tournament not averaged in.
Games(I apologize for not remembering some names; that rhymed!)
Game 1 My dark vs Cody Dicarra’s (I think) (1733) How did we get into this mess, CC battle evasion deck
I got out my vader out second turn to the ds db with a PASOA to protect him.I forget to make him lose to visage once or twice and I recognize that as a bad sign. Vader eventually gets his saber and emperor joins vader. Meanwhile, Cody has been playing how did we get into this mess almost every turn but much to my surprise, he is deploying CC battleground locations from hand and not twixes. This gives me all the force I need to do what I have to do. He is now deploying mains and cards like harc seff and pucimir to his chain of 3 or 4 CC battleground locations. I try to battle them but he is playing either narrow escape or path of least resistance to get his characters away. With these tactics he gets in a few drains of 3 which hurt a lot. I keep following his charcters with mara, 4lom, ig and others but he just runs away or paths. He is now a little low on paths so I just keep up the tactic while draining for 2 each turn. I then deploy a star destroyer with chiraneau piloting to my carida and start draining for 4 a turn. I also get down battle order but I forget half the time to make him pay for it. I eventually take control of his CC site that lets you cancel drains on CC sites and the game is pretty much over. We battle for it and I lose a few force to orrimarko and company but he is withering away. I block his final drain with mara and the droids and then finish him with another drain of 4. A very sloppy win by 13.
FW 2(+13)
Game 2 My light vs a Terwilleger’s (I’m stupid and can’t remember which one) (2100’s) HD admirals.
I am always prepared to play against HD but I am not comfortable or experienced playing my EBO deck. He gets out dr e+baba at his ds db early but I don’t risk attacking him for fear of a barrier or a PASOA. I get out all my dbs with insurrection and all my echo sites and systems with ANSB. I then go for my EBO but he tells me I can’t unless its with a site. This rookie mistake by me screws me over and I don’t get EBO off all game because I couldn’t afford to play my signals . I was dealing very little damage and he was being aggressive with visage, S+D, and drains for 2 or 3. He battles my obi at the noprth ridge and I lose my obi. That’s okay because now he falls into my mini trap. I ice storm his mara w/saber and dengar. I put another obi there to satisfy S+D and flip his objective back. I put twass, blount, and leai with gun at his holotheatre for a pretty constant drain of 2 and put a luke at the north ridge. I am forced though to cancel my own ice storm with a control/TV so I can maintain an offense. Very late in the game I get a large space force to endor (H1 w/hashn, captain han and wedge on falcon) and get out menace fades to cancel his vaders saber and janus drain bonuses. He then beats the @#$% out of my fleet with chimara, chiraneau, guri, and thrawn. He plays command to addd a destiny. He draws a 14 to my 5 so he loses nothing and I lose han and wedge. I’m in deep now so I just move away to hoth and keep up my drains of 3. I quickly lose after that byt 13. If I wasn’t so stupid and got out EBO , It would have been a game down to the wire but I settle for a somewhat small loss. This game makes me wish I had brought my throne room deck to the tourney instead (which by the way I posted a few days ago. Rate this solid deck !) .
FL by 13
2(0) 0 differential, son of a @#$% I suck!
Game 3 My dark vs a nice person’s (sorry , can’t remember names) (1400’s or 1500’s) Hidden base with destiny adders and mains.
I had played this guy once before in boxborough and he was okay. From the game we played he seemed to have gotten a lot better. We talked after the game and he said he didn’t get to play much so I tried to give him some strategy insight. Anyway, I get out my vader second turn and visage starts to work for a few turns until it is cancelled by OOC/TT and then again by tycho kelchu. He plays obi to the holotheatre to help defend tycho and he is unaware that he can’t drain where obi is. I feel very guilty about not telling him this until it was too late but I was desperate to win by a high diff. I get a huge force to my DS db, the only battleground site out. It is packed with lord and saber, emperor , janus ,tarkin, and mara and saber. This giving him a drain of 4 each turn. When I see him lose some ships from hand I then deploy chiraneau and deavastator to his corulag along with zuckus and ozzel to my carida. I am now draining for 7 a turn and he is getting weak. He can’t activate enough to move obi and tycho away from the executor db. He tries to make an attack with luke w/saber and chewie prot. He plays rug hug and I play PASOA on luke. I then hit his luke and chewie with a little help from force lightning. He draws 2 but huis highest is cancelled by tarkin. I draw a 5 and he has to lose about 20 and his participating characters. I lose tarkin. He wants to go down with a battle with han and leia. He battles and I forget that he can’t because the objective is flipped. I dark strike his leia lost and its han vs an army. I don’t hit him or draw battle destiny because I’m trying to cycle my last cards in hand with janus for used interupts I can cycle permanently. It doesn’t work though because that battle damage alone is much too much for him. I win with 4 cards in hand. At least I had a little boost in confidence despite a little too much drawing and overdeploying on my part.
FW by 29
4(+29)
Game 4 My light vs Andy Clema’s (1929) almost undefeated MKOS.
Before you read this horror story of a game there is something I have to say: I SUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anyway, I start off okay by signaling for ANSB and setting up my stuff. He gets out jabba and ephant early and then gallid to the chamber. He spreads some guys to another jabbs palace site and I’m losing 4 a turn to drains. I do something very stupid and thoughtless, deploy chewie protector to his site for 7 of my force after I just deployed a lone twass to his site. Chewie gets bounced by none shall pass and all I can afford to play now is melas for my remaining 3 force. I know I’m in deep @#$% when he deploys Ig to his site with Xizor and other characters, including my twas and melas.He flips his objective and then battles. He misses with IG(thank god) but draws a toatl of 12 for destiny with his objective and bib/jabba on table.I draw a 1! I have to lose melas, twass and 12 more! He loses an abyssan I think. Out of the twelve I lost were needed cards like hoth system and menace fades. I didn’t make him lose much after that at all. I got off EBO for a drain or 2 at endor and I put down some guys at the north ridge to counter S+D and drain but he cancelled the big ones with reps. I then go down with him having like 3 cards in lost pile.I think this outcome was from 2 things: Me having no experience playing my LS and me having very little experience playing against scum. In the words of the comic book store owner guy on the Simpsons, “Worst Game Everrr!” Seriously though, Andy had a very solid MKOS deck that doesn’t have many weaknesses at all. Props to him and slops to me.
FL by 34!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
4(-5) not again….
Game 5 My dark vs Justin Desai’s (1915) MWYHL oldschool training, superfalcon, and AFA.
Justin was having the bad day I was by also going 2-2 so far. We knew we were doing the worst of all the high-rated people there and we joked about it before the game. I was confident when he strated MWYHL because I had played against this deck before. Sure I lost to it then, but now I had my HD admirals by my side. I got vader to the executor db first turn but couldn’t move him anywhere. He got out some dagobah sites and yoda to hut. I moved vader over to my deployed ds db after giving him his stick and then Justin decides to TT visage. I drain there a few turns with battle plan out and put down emperor and tarkin there too. Now he starts playing afa and starts to train Orrimarko w/jedi test 1. It takes him 2 turns to pull off test 1 which lets me get in some more drains. I activate all I can and am ready to take the afa damage. Losing 4 force is not bad because with all I activate I can get down devastator with chiraneau and thrwan piloting. This lets me up my damage per turn and avoid battle plan. He still has no characters or ships out to battlegrounds but he plays another afa. I activate 1 and cycle my battle plan and a force lightning to the bottom so when he does put down something I would be ready. I am not activating and am draining for 3, 2 of which he is cancelling with it could be worse. I think he realizes that this is a losing situation so he puts down an obi to the jundland wastes . I activate a lot of force afa comes up. I see he has a force saved and he has OTE out so I am hesitant to put down a character with ability there. I watch as he lets my Ig and 4-lom through while he barriers my mighty jabba. Then with little force left I surprise him by puttin down ozzel for forfeit foder. I battle, cancel text, fail to capture, and draw a 5 to his 5. Ozzel covers and he loses obi. I now have very good control of the game. I have good characters in hand and some extra ships that I can use if he plays falcon at kessel. He instead plays obi to the wastes to flip back my objective , plays a frozen assets (DTF is on table) preventing me from playing imp. Command and battles. I get my total draw of 9 and he draws a 15 total. I lose everything and he loses han by reducing attrition with yoda. Leia is alone in space and I can destroy her but it is so much easier to kill obi and stop leais drains that way. I then deploy Xizor , mara, and fett to jundland wastes with my already deployed Ig, 4lom and mighty jabba. I draw 5 destinies totaling 21 ans he draws a 1. That is basically game .
Fw by 22
6(+17)
Game 6 My light vs my brother Jimmy Schiemer’s(1784) BHBM CC draining deck.
I already know I can win this game because we played the night before and I won by 20. He gets vader, emperor and tarkin to his CC db early. I get my ANSB set up early and give him luke. I basically set up EBO and super falcon on hoth while he sets up drains of 2 at CC battlegrounds. I forget to make him lose to his objective about 3 times and this costs me some differential and almost costs me the game. His drains on ground are unopposed right now but menace fades and some scrubs at north ridge keep them down to 3 or 4 a turn. I get out bacta tank and my obi to his site. I mess up with a barrier in one turn and it ends up costing me my melas,twass and obi. We fight around with obi and twass with bacta tanks bringing them back. To life. He only gets 2 or 3 cards stacked on his insignificant rebellion but his deck never duels anyways. I get H1 with hashn to endor and start to up my drains. I finally move my twass and obi to where his vader is and I have destiny tracked to hit vader. His vader is DVDLOTS and he tries to circle my obi. I let him take it back once he realizes his mistake. I think I’m being nice but then comes a vader with saber to replace the choke vader. He then successfully circles my obi, detroying most of my ground force. He beats on twass with vader and emperor. He misses him with the saber and He draws a 3 and I draw my tracked 5 so I only lose twass to tank and 2 more .From then on I drain him until he has one force left. I am pissed because he now gets one more turn of draining because I forgot to make him ,lose to his objective. I redeploy twass from the tank to mara’s site woith a tracked 5 and land falcon and db transit to block his drain of 1 at the CC db. I take his final drain of 4 and he can only battle me in one place (only 1 active life force) so he dies to OTE. Another sloppy game by me.
FW by 12
8(+29)
Wow, my worst diff ever for going 4-2. I am usually in the +70-80 range. So I kind of scrub out but make it to 8th or 9th place. Here are some of the standings or records of some of the leaders.
1. Andy Clema 10(+100’s)
2. A terwilleger 10(+100)
3. Another terwilleger and Brentson both went 5-1.
4. Eric Hunter and Steve Baroni went 4-2 with good diffs.
5. Some other people. Sorry if I missed other names that went 4-2 or 5-1 .
Now for the Props and Slops:
Props:
-Kris Earle for running a smooth tourney
-prize of PS2
-Andy Clema for winning
-Terwilleger’s for being cool and going 5-1
-My bro Jimmy for beating Clema’s undefeated MKOS deck and giving him his only loss.( This will explain it: First turn Jimmy gets out 4 twixes and goo nee tay and melas to the H1 db. How could he lose?)
-Hunters for giving us rides to and from.
-Mike Pistone for being good converation
-Guy I played 3rd game; what’s your name again?
-25 people for showing
-Brian Ciezinski for driving me and others to Mcdonalds and trading me an OOC/TT for 2 chicken nuggets!
-Everyone who went 4-2 or better and everyone that didn’t
-My 15-0 HD admirals deck
Slops:
-Entrance of $20
-Only 25 for showing up
-Hayes for not coming AGAIN and causing byes to occur
-My sloppy playing
-My light side decks and my bad luck streak w/LS
-ANSB game text
-Me for forgetting names and using bad grammar/spelling
-Me for not winning PS2
-japanese ice storm
-Jimmy for beating Clema by only 5 with a god hand
-Me for doing HW between games.
People To Keep In Your Prayers:
Justin Desai and Michael Hawley who went 3-3 and 2-4 this tourney. Don’t worry, no one has lost respect for you and we all know you will be back going 4-2 and 5-1 in no time. Seriously though, Everyone has bad tourneys and it is just a fluke. You guys are great players that just had an unlucky tourney.
Thank you for reading my tr. Rate high because of the effort I put in to this( I type slow and it took me a long time to type) and rate fairly. That means you MaceW! Thanks again.
-By the way, if you haven’t yet, rate my new age throne room deck I posted a few days ago. Its cool.
-Mike Schiemer