modesto-california-3-24-01
Title: modesto-california-3-24-01
Author: Paul "Dark Raptor" McKelvey
Date: Mar 24, 2001
Scrub Tournament
Version 1.0
Hey. This is going to be my first thing to post on Deck Tech. I’d like to have it rated high but I don’t really care. I just want to be able to rate everyone else’s crap.
Well, Spring Break is winding to a close, and everyone’s coming back from trips and what not. What have I been doing? TRYING MY HARDEST TO MAKE LIGHT SIDE WORTH A DAMN!!! So on Fridays before tourneys when I drag myself out of my hole to play test my decks against someone other then my brother or my girlfriend I have to squint because I haven’t seen the sun for the last few days.
Well so far these last two weeks, I’ve been to 3 tourneys, including the dreaded ENDURO!!! So this tourney was too being the last of a 2-week stretch of non-stop, hardcore star wars. The day started off as usual, went and picked up Shrooms (Chris Green) and then started the usual 45-minuet drive to Modesto from Lodi. Now at the normal speed limit in Cali you should get to Modesto in about 45 minuets, but I had had like 3 mountain dews and 4 Excedrin so we made it there in about 15.
Any ways, in the few hours before the tourney we went to Fosters Freeze and met up with Bale who was coming back from his dad’s house. We walk into the store and make trades and what not and then Bale asks me if we wana flake out on the tourney and go kick it at the arcade near by since the tourney looks like a scrub out. Like the hardcore fiend I am I say no and in a few minuets we start Scrub Tourney 1.0
1. Jonathan Schmitt
Objective less Jabba’s Palace start v.s. My Crazy old school Xwing HB
When I first sit down with Jon I figure this is going to be an easy win to a beginner, nothing to be proud of but a win nonetheless. So we start off doing the normal starts for our decks, me pulling systems, looking for spies ECT. And him pulling Jabba’s Pimp pad sites and dropping characters. I think its kind of weird when I notice the first site he pulls isn’t the audience chamber but droid workshop. Either way I know I have artoo and a gift in my hand and can stop JP drains but its still odd for today’s JP deck. I also notice that he starts to drop high ability characters and glow sticks on them, a tactic I haven’t seen since premier. Still doesn’t worry me too much cause I’m still canceling with Rebel Fleet and spies. It’s when he drops EV 9D9 and six power druids on the other side of JP and I’m out of spies that I start to freak cause he also pulls hutt influence. So now I cant cancel drains via HB or Rebel Fleet and I only have 2 spies to cover 5 sites, one site with a drain of 6 at. I decide I have to start the gifted Artoo on the trek across JP to block the killer drain. After sucking the 18 lost force, I have him blocked at all sites for his drains and then retrieve 11 force with all wings report in, and drain him out.
Basically the game was a drain rush. He had a deck that could have bee crushed by a ground deck. I won cause of spies blocking heavy drains oh well. One more wins for the old school deck.
FW (+14)
2. Jeremy Hansen ß(mmm bop du op)
Profit vs. ISB horse
I love this match up. First off, I get to start with two aliens…. Hmmm in a deck full of aliens what should a choose? Chal and an ORS and on top of that I get an ORS in my hand. There is no way profit can ever win my deck. I am guaranteed to flip first turn. So, I flip first turn. Dropping my two extra ORS’s to JP for 2 force and using the other two to move chal and friend to join um. So what if they free Han. They have not lost force yet, and I can’t drain um there, plus I got Vader and saber in my hand for the stupid rescuer. So he drops Melas and frees Han, retrieves a force, replaces Han and makes it my turn. So, I drain for 3, drop Vader, choke Han, swing at Melas and games down hill for him from there.
I talk to him after the game and he says he plays with Peter in Sonora every now and then. That’s cool but he’s still a scrub. Feeling bad about the tourney thus far, I continue on undefeated
FW (+40) Over all: 4 (+54)
3. Holly Andorf
Training vs. ISB
Now I was starting to feel better. The cream rises to the top right? I went into this game very vengeful. You see a few months before reflections 2 came out I wasn’t playing as much as I wanted to and when I came back the first tourney I went to was one that Holly was at. Reflections 2 had just been released and I had my ISB deck and some scrubby WYS deck. Holly beat them both. I could careless if someone beat a WYS deck but no one beats my ISB deck. So when I sit down to play her I cry when I see she’s playing training. If this was back in the day and I was still scared of surprise assault, I would have thought this to be a tough match up for my ISB, not anymore however. My speedy little first turn flip lets me drain for 2 on the first turn. And sneak in some awesome drains before she can complete test 1. Anyways, she completes test after test and I drain away, She battles a few time but its nothing. She gets to test 5, draws a 7, I say horary and when she goes to retrieve her 10 she only has 9 force left, secret plans kills her retrieval dead and when she picks up Luke I drain her out.
Over all a boring game I knew I would win. My hand hurt after the game from circulating force after force (battle plan) to drain. Still scrubin on to the next game.
FW (+37) Over all: 6 (+91)
4.Chris “Shrooms” Green
Brandon’s Bring Him vs. Old School Xwings
So the last game of the tourney, I’m in first place, and I have to play the scrubby, cross-country running twig I drove here in the first place. To his credit shrooms is a decent player. I kick the crap out of him when we play at home in Lodi but when ever I have to play him in tournament he always gives me the most nerve racking game of the entire tournament. I figure this will be an easy win and I’ll get to go home with a 1st place that means nothing. I played this match up just the day before and had beaten him soundly by 26. This was not to be the case however. Shrooms starts off by drawing a ton of force and then sitting back. I think to myself what ever and continue my turns pulling systems and setting up and what not. It’s to late by this time to realize that I have a hand full of crap. Even when I try to pull Luke from deck, he’s in my hand and way to expensive to deploy. So Vader begins to drain away and I try franticly to recover my mistakes in the early game and set up in space. For what ever reason I cant pull rebel fleet and I know from prior experience that if I drop I spy it will get hacked. So I suck the drains set up in more in space. I know that he knows my hidden base, and so when I see his ships dropping there after only being flipped one turn, I know I’m in it deep. The bounty hunter ships and Saber 1 plow through x wing after x wing. I make a few final assaults but it ultimately ends in a drain race. He has a ton more force then me but I know he’s got to lose a force a turn from his objective. The final three turns are insane. I finally get rebel fleet and drop it. He has a drain for 4 at cloud city docking bay, a drain at kiffex and one at raltier. Saber 1 looks menacing at kiffex with his fatty cannons and zuckus and 4 lom at raltier look even worse. I can’t do @#$% on ground so I think quickly and drop capitals and a few x wings to kiffex. I battle retrieve one and he loses one from first strike, this is a big plus for me with only 9-force left. Anyways, I pop Saber 1 just barely and then move on to take on the hunters. I also need desperately to have the three force I have activated to draw an x wing to cancel his drain for 4, Hidden base being long dead. I move on to draw 2 force with no luck… only one left… and…. It’s an Xwing!!!! I cancel his drain and he battles and I win. I can win if I go for one more turn… all I need is one more xwing out of 5 cards. I figure at this point I’m dead seeing as how I need 3 force to drain. I slowly draw my force; the first card is out of nowhere combo card, and the second, is the final, game winning xwing. I cancel his drain of 4, he drains for one in space but his objective brings him down to 2 force. With no way to block a drain of 2 at all, I triumphantly spend my 3 force to drain him for 2 and win the game by three.
Brandon the whole time sat over Shrooms shoulder kicking him when he thought he did something wrong. To be honest, I think Shrooms and Kyle both play Brandon’s deck better then he does but that’s for a different story.
FW (+3) over all: 8 (+96)
So I win the tournament. Horary. It was a scrub tournament but it was still fun. In the over all finish Lodi owned the Modesto scene, which isn’t too unfamiliar these days.
1.Paul McKelvey
2.Selby
3. Brandon Bale
4.Scrub
5.Shrooms aka Chris Green