greenwood-in-3-24-01
Title: greenwood-in-3-24-01
Author: Eric "YOYOY" Bailey
Date: Mar 26, 2001
Rewind to Friday, March 23rd. I’m getting ready for a tourney the next day. Tim and Joe can’t come (as usual these days) and Val can’t come either, because she’s having some friends over the next day. On the next day, the 24th, mom drops me off at the tourney, and I’m alone, going solo this time, no sister or friends. The tournament is being held in Game Times in Greenwood Park Mall, though the shop has been moved since last tournament. Rich Dailey, the tournament director, said to show up at 10:30 so we could register early. I’m the first one there at around 10:15, some more people trickle in, Rich shows up a little late. We get everybody registered, 16 people showed up. Many familiar faces... Frank, Justin, Shannon (but without Mr. Peanut!), Matt, Jay, Dum Dum, Richard, other familiar guys, and some new faces. For DS I’m playing MKOS (My Kind Of Machine 4.0, modified a little) and for LS, Blue Cheese (speeder/numbers, modified from last week). My DS is solid, my LS is iffy. We’ll see how it goes. A lot of people want to trade with me before the tourney, but I forgot my binder at home! Oh well. Pairings announced, I’m up against Matt.
1st game: My DS My Kind Of Machine vs. Matthew (last name?)’s LS... deck
I put out my sites and Objective, he puts out Hoth: Echo Command Center, starts Seeking An Audience. I know he’ll be doing How Did We Get Into This Mess?s, but in case he includes Numbers I start Resistance (instead of First Strike), Secret Plans, and Power Of The Hutt. Then, I pull out Mr. Ducky. Some laugh, some groan, some ignore it... but the person sitting next to me says hey, I brought mine too. He then pulls out a miniature red figurine of.... Buddha. Mr. Ducky’s excited at the chance to meet a deity, and hops right over to Buddha and starts up a conversation. Matt’s first turn he deploys Artoo & Threepio from Reserve, starts Messing, deploys some twix sites, and some other stuff. I quickly get out Gailid and Mosep to the Audience Chamber, while controlling 3 Jabba’s Palace sites. So that’s a drain of 6 that must come from Reserve deck. I try to spread out more, but he beats me down, thanks to his massive activation, mains, and... Nabrun Leids. I hate that stupid card since I don’t play IAO. I eventually Look Sir, Droids R2&3PO so he stops Messing. I lose my Tatooine system to a drain, so forget Occupation. He has drains at the Cantina and the Defensive Perimeter (shielded, Main Power Generators were out). I manage to knock him out of the Cantina. By now we’re both pretty low on Life Force, but he keeps retrieving with Thank The Maker. He loses his Nabruns, so that’s good... but my current situation is bad. I only have 3 Life Force left, he has a drain at the North Ridge and Kessel (only a drain of 2 because of Resistance). My only hope is to block his drain at the North Ridge, lose 2 to the Kessel drain, and have 1 Life Force left, drain (for 8, 3 JP sites and Cantina), and I win. But the only character I have in my hand is an Abyssin. He has Tawss Khaa at the Defensive Perimeter. I deploy Abyssin to MPG, move over to DP. He drains, I have 1 Life Force left. He’s gonna battle, my only hope is if he draws a 0 or 1. He draws a 5, I lose by 8.
0 (-8)
Good: I only lost by 8, I guess... and Mr. Ducky made a new friend.
Bad: I made a few mistakes early on... if I would’ve played smart, I could’ve easily won this game. And if Mr. Ducky weren’t so distracted with his new friend, I would’ve definitely won.
Ugly: Nabrun Leids... *shudder*
2nd Game: My LS Blue Cheese vs. Richard Law’s Hunt Down
Okay, at first I think this is good, I’ve played Hunt Down with this deck before, I can handle this matchup. I start my stuff (Rebel Landing Site, Insurrection, Staging Areas, Aim High), and he starts... You Cannot Hide Forever. My numbers are canceled. Not good at all. I wince at the thought of having to battle a Hunt down deck on the ground. I pull out Mr. Ducky, he’s my only hope. So he pulls out an Emperor figurine. Mr. Ducky waltzes on over to his new friend Palpatine and starts a conversation. I let him go, I figure he’ll be happy talking to his new friend. But still... this isn’t looking good. My starting hand sucks. We get started, I get Maneuvering Flaps and Incom Corporation out quick. He converts my Endor: Docking Bay... down comes Vader, he moves to the Hoth: Docking Bay, Incom is canceled. My turn I turn on the Flaps, deploy an ASP-707 droid and 4 speeders to Vader’s site, battle. Vader’s lost. We spend the rest of the game battling on Endor, but it’s no contest for him considering he Altered my Flaps like 4th turn. So now my speeders and my numbers are useless. I manage to kill Vader a couple more times, but it doesn’t matter... Jeroen Webb never showed up to cancel Visage, I didn’t get to use many Mess?s, and there wasn’t much I could do, it was really frustrating. Loss by 30.
0 (-38)
Good: Nothing, except that Mr. Ducky made another friend.
Bad: Everything. Absolutely everything.
Ugly: I play numbers/speeders, so he cancels NTMTO, Incom, and Flaps. Ouch.
That game was over quick, so we watch the game next to us. The LS player (Daniel Davis) was playing a weird Endor deck... he didn’t have the RST Objective (if I would’ve brought my binder I would’ve let him borrow it). The DS player was playing with Court... but it used lots of biker scouts, speeder bikes, and Disruptor Pistols. Very original, and it actually kind of worked. Dan ended up quitting (he has a habit of doing that). Next game, I’m up against Jay Edwards.
3rd Game: My LS Blue Cheese vs. Jay Edward’s DS... deck
I put out my stuff, he puts out his. I pull out Mr. Ducky. By now half the people there are fed up with Mr. Ducky. Throughout this game, there was a battle around Mr. Ducky... half the people trying to get rid of him (trying to twist his head off, throw him in the trash, etc.) while the other half tried to protect Mr. Ducky from getting lost, killed, or captured. Later in the game I surround myself with sympathizers, protecting Mr. Ducky. Jay starts Tatooine: Jabba’s Palace, and 3 Effects (as opposed to 1, I guess he’s improving, see first Greenwood report). They’re Power Of The Hutt, No Bargain, and the SAC killer. I ask Mr. Ducky (right before he gets grabbed by Justin) if Jay’s playing the same deck as before. Mr. Ducky says yes. Cool. I’ve never lost against Jay. I’m confident. I get an absolute god hand, getting 3 droids, NTMTO, some speeders, and other stuff. I quickly find out that Mr. Ducky is right. First turn I deploy the droids, insert numbers, deploy the Endor: Docking Bay, his turn. He actuivates, and Odds pops up. He loses 11 Force. He gets out Gailid, a few sites, some backup, my turn. I get out the other docking bay, Mess, get out Flaps, Mess, get out Incom Corporation. If he ever deploys to an exterior site, he’s screwed. His turn, he deploys some stuff to Tatooine: Jabba’s Palace! My turn I turn Flaps on, insert Odds again, deploy an ASP-707 droid to T:JP, deploy a few speeders, battle, he loses everybody and some. Steady drain of 2 there for remainder of game. He drains inside, while I drain on Endor. He makes the mistake of deploying a lone Ortugg to the Entrance Cavern, and Presence Of The Force. My turn... turn on Flaps. I figure out that even if he didn’t deploy POTF, I have Jeroen Webb in hand, a spy. To make him painfully aware of this fact, I deploy an ASP-707 droid, Jeroen Webb, and around 6 speeders. He’s like, speeders can’t deploy there, it’s an interior site. I’m like well, it’s exterior too, so they can. He’s like, geez, I didn’t realize it was exterior... he’s screwed. I battle, he has no Ghhhk, he has to lose Ortugg and like 30 more, Odds pop, game over. Win by 10
2 (-28)
Good: Mr. Ducky was right, and I won.
Bad: I had Traffic Control out, my hand was pretty big, I could’ve won by a lot more, but I’m an idiot...
Ugly: His deck has been the same for a couple months, and it needs some work.
Mr. Ducky’s pretty freaked at everyone trying to kill him, so I put him safely back in his box. I promise he’ll be okay next game, I get the players to agree not to kill Mr. Ducky. Next game, I’m up against CM.
4th Game: My Kind Of Machine vs. CM’s Watch Your Step
His name is CM. Okay... he starts Watch Your Step, I grin. I’ve never lost to it, though I’ve played it several times. He starts stuff, I do too... I quickly get out Gailid and Mosep to the AC with backup. His turn, he searched Reserve for Kessel (Corellia isn’t in the deck) and it isn’t in there! I get to verify on his second turn, cool... I find out he’s playing heavy space, with Ralltiir Freighter Captains. This is good in some ways, and bad in some ways. But mostly good, because my deck is designed to handle heavy space. I get out people at my JP sites, draining for 6 straight off his Reserve deck. He gets out Kessel, deploys Mirax on her ship, and a RFC on a YT-300 Freighter. My turn I deploy Guri on Stinger and Zuckuss In Mist Hunter there, battle. His destinies =0, mine are high and +2 each (yes, Jabba and Bib are out and the Objective is flipped), he loses stuff. His next turn he reinforces there with lots of stuff, but doesn’t battle, draws up. I ask Mr. Ducky if he has Dash and Outrider in his hand. Mr. Ducky says yes. So I need to get away from Kessel. My turn I deploy Dengar In Punishing One to his Tatooine system, move ZiMH and the Stinger over there, Resistance is out. His turn he only drains for 2 at Kessel, gets out Ralltiir with some ships there (including Outrider and Dash, Mr. Ducky was right). My turn I get out Tatooine Occupation, kill his people in the Cantina, I control there now. His turn I lose 3, my turn he loses 14. One more turn of that, game over. Win by 15.
4 (-15)
Good: Mr. Ducky was right, and I won.
Bad: I used Jabba’s Twerps with only 3 alien leaders out... I thought I had more. I made other mistakes too... I should’ve won by more, but too late now.
Ugly: He got one Kessel Run off, but Secret Plans killed it. No retrieval for him.
5th Game: My LS Blue Cheese vs. Andrew (I think) Shock (s?)’s BHBM
We talk a little, he says he stopped playing 3 years ago, but when he did play he was really good. He’s only played in one tourney since then. So the way I see it is this: his rating should be high, but I have a good chance at winning, so if I do win, my rating should go up a lot. Cool. He starts the exact equivalents of the Effects I do, Secret Plans/Aim High, Imperial Arrest Order/Insurrection, and Mobilization Points/Staging Areas. He looks at my starting site and has no clue what I’m doing, so some jerk tells him I’m playing a numbers/speeders deck. He asks what the Odds killer card is. The jerk (not really a jerk, but still, he ruined my surprise) tells him that it’s You Cannot Hide Forever. He says he thinks he has it in there, is it from D*II? The "jerk" (Randy Barker) says yes. He says then yeah, it’s in there... I’m thinking since he’s not sure, it might not be in there, he could be bluffing. So I ask Mr. Ducky is YCHF is in his deck. Mr. Ducky says no. Although Mr. Ducky has never been wrong, I start to worry about what would happen if he was wrong in this case. We’ll see. His turn he deploys Emperor, my turn. I deploy a droid and a docking bay, his turn. He deploys Guri to a newly-deployed Cloud City: Downtown Plaza. It’s not until after his turn that he realizes that Guri can’t drain alone. My turn I deploy some droids, a docking bay, Mess, get Flaps and Odds, insert Odds. His turn he makes the mistake of deploying 2 low-destiny characters somewhere, one of them destiny 2, one of them destiny 1. So that’s 5 (Guri is 2) for Odds. I have 2 R2-X2s and an ASP-707 out, so that’s 11. My turn I deploy some speeders on Endor, his turn. He activates, Odds pops, he loses 6 Force. He deploys to Endor, adjacent to my speeders. Big mistake. My turn I turn on Flaps, deploy an ASP droid to his people (just 2 guys, doesn’t really matter who), deploy a couple speeders, insert Odds, Mess, deploy a couple more speeders and Incom Corp. I battle, he loses the guys and some, but draws high, I lose 2 speeders. His turn, Odds pop, he loses 11 (I lose ASP-707 from the battle, so only 1 ASP droid out). Then he makes another huge mistake. Wanting to stop my drain, he deploys Jodo Kast and Blizzard 2 at the site with my 2 speeders, but doesn’t battle. My turn, I turn on Flaps, deploy an ASP droid to B2 and Jodo, insert Odds, deploy some speeders, Mess, deploy some more speeders, Mess, deploy some more speeders, but no more Mess. I have about 10 speeders there, each power 5 or 6. I battle, he has to lose both of them and something like 30, while losing it, Odds pops. I win by 15.
6 (+0)
Good: The deck worked exactly the way it should.
Bad: I should’ve won by more.
Ugly: I felt evil slaughtering Jodo and Blizzard 2 like that...
The game was over pretty quick, so me, him, and a couple other guys discuss the game in-depth. He says the reason he deployed Jodo and B2 without any backup was he didn’t think I had that many speeders in the deck, and if I did, he didn’t think I’d have that many in my hand. Well, I do have a lot in the deck, and getting them into hand is what HDWGITM is for. He looks through his deck to find YCHF, and it isn’t in there! Mr. Ducky was right again! We figure out that if he would’ve deployed only 2 more characters besides the Emperor, with the Emperor on Endor, he could’ve used Force Lightning on one of my droids, then I would’ve had to lose Force to my own Odds. It probably wouldn’t have worked out perfectly, but it could’ve worked. It would’ve been easier if he wouldn’t have deployed Guri. And of course if he wouldn’t have deployed Jodo and Blizzard 2 on Endor he could’ve at least lost by less. We swap stories, he says he quit when Special Edition came out, and that’s when I started (the worst possible time!). Last game, I’m up against him again.
6th Game: My Kind Of Machine vs. Andrew (I think) Shock (s?)’s Profit
He sees my starting stuff and he’s like "I’m screwed." I inform him of the fact that I’ve never lost to a Profit deck, and the look on his face doesn’t exactly get any better. He starts Insurrection, Staging Areas, SAC killer, I start Power Of The Hutt, First Strike, and Secret Plans with Mighty Jabba and Ephant Mon at the Audience Chamber. EPP Han is the Han that’s frozen. My first turns are spent setting up at the JP sites, his first turns are spent trying to get Leia and Someone Who Loves You. By now I have Gailid and Mosep at the AC, while controlling 3 JP sites, but I can’t drain at the AC. I drain at Lower Passages, he tries to cancel it with Someone Who Loves You. I kindly point out that it isn’t a prison, so he has to lose 2 Force. He finally releases Han next turn with Leia w/gun and SWLY, retrieves (I wish I had Imbalance in hand...) and moves to the Lower Passages. My turn I come down with IG-88 w/gun and Boba Fett w/gun, battle. I capture Han, his Objective flips back to the zero side, Leia misses her shot, I shoot Leia, he loses Leia and some. My turn, I drain but not at the AC because I can’t because of his Objective and it’s getting annoying. His turn he deploys a hit squad to the Lower Passages, manages to get Han back (IG-88 w/gun ended up dying), moves everybody over to the Lower Passages, Boba lives. My turn I deploy No Esape, take IG-88 w/gun into hand, deploy him to the AC to reinforce. No way I’m going to battle him though, not yet anyway... right now he has Master Luke, Han w/gun, Boussh (deployed, then cover was broken), and Obi-Wan w/saber. I move Boba there. His turn he deploys Chewbacca, Protector and Lando w/Ax, makes a mistake by not battling me, my turn. I deploy J’Quille, Xizor with a Vibro-Ax, and Guri. Everyone at the table is like, who’s J’Quille? I pass him around, they’re all like cool, he’s a spy, and he can exclude characters... so we think of characters he can exclude. RFCs, Ewoks, rebel scouts, Palace Raiders, scrubs, other stuff... who else? Everyone looks at the table. He can exclude Chewie! Anyway... Mighty Jabba, Boba w/gun, Boelo, Mosep, and Gailid are already there. So it’s Chewie, Luke, Obi, Han, Lando, and Leia vs. J’Quille, Xizor, Guri, IG-88 w/gun, Jabba, Boelo, Boba w/gun and a couple scrubs. I ask Mr. Ducky if he has any destiny-adders in hand. Mr. Ducky says no. I breathe a sigh of relief (I kept a Ghhhk in hand anyway). My Objective is flipped and each of my battle destinies are +2 (Bib is chillin’ on the Barge with Chall Bekan, a Mercenary Pilot, and an Abyssin at T:JP). I think I can win this battle. Another nifty thing about J’Quille is he’s immune to Chewie, Protector’s text. Chewie cancels Boelo’s text. This is gonna be a very bloody battle. I battle, exclude Chewie with J’Quille. Lando tries to exclude Xizor w/Ax, but my power’s higher and my draw is good enough to keep Xizor in the battle. Xizor is successful at excluding Obi from the battle. Han tries to be daring and fires at his former captor, IG-88, misses. I capture Han with IG-88. He forgets about Master Luke’s text, so I shoot Lando with Boba. Guri only lets him get one destiny (though at this point, since it’s just Obi, Luke, and Leia, he only gets one anyway) and it’s a zero! Tosche Station! So I didn’t need Boelo after all. I get 4 destinies, none of them are zeroes and they’re all at least 2. With my Objective, that makes them all at least 4. He loses Obi, Luke, Leia, and some Force, I don’t have to lose anything! Lando and Chewie come back from exclusion. I draw some. His turn he moves Lando and Chewie to the Lower Passages. I use Jabba’s Twerps and retrieve 5. My turn I put my some of my hand back with Reactor Terminal, then I deploy Jodo Kast, Dr. Evazan & Ponda Baba, an Abyssin, and Snoova (without an Ax) to the Lower Passages. I battle, capture Lando with Hidden Weapons with Jodo, I draw high and it’s +2, he loses Chewie and some, that’s game. Win by 31.
8 (+31)
Good: Since I had Scum & Villainy out I was retrieving a lot this game, my aliens deploy -1 everywhere, -2 to the AC, and throughout the whole game he never Force drained.
Bad: After the game I realized that in the big battle I had forgotten about First Strike. Even if he had destiny adders in his hand, I’m not sure that he would’ve been able to use them.
Ugly: The big battle... that was brutal, and really showed the power of the DS.
Again, we study the game in-depth, this is when I realize I had forgotten First Strike, and he realizes he forgot Master Luke’s text. Shannon’s done with his game too, so I go over to him, and see that he brought Billy Dee instead of Mr. Peanut. So I let Mr. Ducky talk to Billy Dee while I talk to Shannon a little. Frank asks me if Mr. Ducky wants to see the picture of his girlfriend, Mr. Ducky politely declines. The games get finished, I got 6th out of 16. Not too bad I guess, but I should’ve done better if I would’ve played smart. Rich randomly chooses the receivers of one The Signal foil and another foil, Decree maybe? I dunno about the other one because I didn’t get it, but guess who got The Signal foil? Me! I trade it to Jay for a couple pages out of his binder, plus some other stuff I needed. Good deal. I’m waiting for my mom to pick me up but I know she’ll be late... everyone leaves, it’s just me and Rich, and we start playing a fun game that doesn’t really count.
Fun game: My LS Blue Cheese vs. Rich Dailey’s MKOS
We don’t do much he first couple turns, but I manage to deploy a few speeders to T:JP. His turn he deploys a bunch of Abyssins, battles me, he then uses the "recently errataed" version of Jabba’s Twerps, so he deploys like 10 Abyssins and some alien leaders as a react for free from his Reserve deck. I don’t like the looks of this, so I play Hoth: Echo Incom Docking Corporation Bay. I deploy every single card from my Reserve Deck to the site as a react for free In doing so, I lose (no Reserve Deck, no Life Force). So Rich is 5-0 against me.
Rich leaves. I sit in the store for half an hour (doesn’t sound like much, but trust me, half an jour doing nothing is a long time) then I discover the commons box. I by over 50 cards for 5 cents each, getting about 40 Japanese cards and some other cool stuff. There were some decent cards in there, lots of Reflections 2 combo cards, fixed cards, and some rares, including Tawss Khaa, which I didn’t get. Some cool Japanese stuff I got included Echo Base Operations, my 5th ComScan Detection (when you’ve only bought 6 packs of Reflections 2 that’s a lot), Bacta Tank, Rogue 2, and Rug Hug. Some cool English stuff I got included Kabe, Djas Puhr, Expand The Empire, another Mess, another Sandspeeder, another Houjix & Out Of Nowhere, POLR & Revealed, Demotion, and Kessel Run. After buying the cards, I wait another long half-hour for my mom, she finally comes to pick me up. The girls that were spending the day with my sister come to see me too. We shop a little. I get home, it gets late, and here I am at home with 3 girls in their pajamas. But wait, I’m getting off-topic now... so no more details for you. ;-)
Props:
Rich, for running a great tournament despite various difficulties, for the Signal foil, for nicknaming everybody there (Tall Boy, Dum Dum, CM, Shane [much better], etc.), for everything.
Shannon, for bringing Billy Dee.
Richard for bringing the Emperor.
That one guy for bringing Buddha.
Andrew (I think) for saying I’m his second favorite person to lose to.
Jay for trading me all that stuff.
Dum Dum for playing Numbers.
Everyone who protected Mr. Ducky.
Everyone who asked where my sister was (except Frank), she appreciates it.
My sister for having cool friends.
Hannah, Trish, and Carrie for being Valerie’s cool friends.
Mr. Ducky for making friends with Emperor Palpatine, Billy Dee Williams, and Buddha. Those are some impressive friends. And for your psychic (or is it clairvoyance?) abilities never being wrong.
Slops:
Frank, for only asking where my sister was because you wanted to beat her, for the stupid jokes, for making fun of and trying to kill Mr. Ducky, for bringing that picture, for cheating, for complaining, for whining, for almost getting disqualified, for being loud, for using a stolen card in your deck (mine in fact), and for being the All Time Slops Master.
Everyone who made fun of Mr. Ducky and tried to kill him (including Frank).
Everyone who made fun of my 6-year old KMart sleeves (including Frank.)
Everyone who didn’t like the fact that I was playing Numbers (including Frank.)
My mom, for coming 2 hours later than she said she would, and for packing my lunch in a handbag... everyone insisted on calling it a purse.
Everyone who called it a purse (including Frank.)
Justin, for almost letting Frank win, and for trying to capture Mr. Ducky.
Thanks for reading,
Eric