st-cloud-city-3-24-01
Title: st-cloud-city-3-24-01
Author: jeff "kazper" kasper
Date: Mar 27, 2001
I wake up 5:30 am on Saturday, to get ready for my 2.5 hour drive to St. cloud from Fargo nodak. I put on my running shoes, and jog my usual 3 miles. I change my clothes, hop in the car, and head out. I stop to get a carwash, but their washer is out of order.
As Im driving, Dion Erbes gives me a call on my cell from his cell, as per my request on an email the night before. Ive never met Dion, and I thought it was great that he called, he informed me that there was potential for 40+ players. It was good news.
I get to St. cloud early; Ive never played here before and am glad I have extra time to find the place. The store isnt yet open, so I walk around and find a coffee shop, and buy some hot tea. The store opens, I count my decks, and register. Zach Stenerson and Brian Herold arrive 20 minutes after, these two play in Fargo a lot. I notice some of the big shot city guys walking around, I try to make small talk, and they werent too interested.
After some more standing around, pairings are set.
Game 1, my ebo against sycfa.
I start aim high, strike planning and battle order. He starts his three effects. He played a lone tie fighter to a system he grabbed with merijek, who was deployed to the docking bay on the death star. He drops a proton bomb on it, and I look at it wondering what he is trying to do. I decide to not deploy the hoth system for the rest of the game. I get ebo going with the ketwol thing, not frozen assets style. Eventually I get luke with stick to the death star and battle his merrijek. He takes no damage, I move to the war room. I get a drain in there during my next turn, following turn, he gets out come here you big coward. He sets up another drain with an interceptor and a cannon, by now he has dreaded imperial out canceling my drain. I deploy and control the 4th marker, and when things seem to be settled, I start to deploy to space. He follows me around and tries to battle my xwings with cannons, he loads up with three force and draws a system, this was the turning point of the game. From there, I spread out, control at least two battlegrounds, drain at war room, drain in space and at marker. FW by 15
2 (+15)
Highs: Aim high and occupying wakeelmui will ruin a tie deck
Lows: if he drew a better destiny than that system, I may not have won.
Game 2, my bring him before me against ebo
This opponent was polite, but didnt have much spirit to him; I wasnt too worried about winning this game. One interesting note here was the three ANSBs I saw in his deck. After all was said and done, imperial decree and at-sts won this game. FW by 15
4(+30)
Game 3, my ebo against a court deck.
I looked at his opening cards and I thought he was playing scum, so I thought, ok, this will be a challenging match. Since it was scum, I wasnt too worried. He stock piled aliens at the audience chamber, I grabbed blount with crix and dropped him and luke with stick to the dungeon, so I wouldnt lose force to the objective. He would spread thinner from time to time and start battles, but I would just docking bay with ketwol them back into my hand. In the end, my drains in space won the game. FW by 9
6(+39)
This brings us to lunch break. I followed the people I knew or knew of. Jim Li was part of this group, we have a bad history from decktech hate wars, and from what I saw of him, he seemed like pretty cool guy, I introduce myself to him, he wasnt too thrilled to talk to me, but shook my hand anyway. We get to the deli, order, chat, eat. The prices were pretty high and the food was good, yet unfilling. We head back to granite city comics.
Game 4, my bring him before me against Derek Hos ebo.
He started off by telling me his deck stinks, he signaled for ansb to start the game. He grabs echo base garrison, and for some reason it took him a few turns to get things going. This was good for me, I knew I needed to get imperial decree running or I would lose the game. He tries to deploy tk-422 to the mpgs, for what reason, Im not sure, but I pointed out there was no imperial there, so no tk. He gets his ebo running, by this time, I have vader out at endor docking bay, hoping to make him lose some force, instead he deploys luke with stick to the 4th marker. I have walkers and some enhanced aliens with their guns in hand; I take tempest scout 6 and deploy him to the 4th with dengar and iggy with gun. By this time, luke was already under the shields. I noticed I had 3 tramples in hand and checked destiny and there was a 6 in there, out of the 4 cards I had in reserve, I need to control two echo sites, or he will drain me big at kiffex during his turn, I move the walker in, play trample on luke, draw a four, three cards left in reserve, I play trample again, draw a 3, two cards left in reserve, a fifty fifty chance of trampling luke and saving my tail, I play trample again, its the 6, luke is lost, Derek says nice play, I thank him for the complement, I end my turn, he drains me for three in space, no ebo bonuses. And has xwing cannons everywhere. I have fett in ship in hand, and I know he has barrier, since I looked through his deck earlier with imperial code cylinder, a great card for bring him before me. I drain at 4th marker, mpgs, and at endor db, he drains in space, and eventually drops boushh, luke with stick, to 4th marker and lands a couple of xwings. I need to control that site, or he will drain me hard. He ends his turn without battling, I activate, so that I have enough to draw two weapon destinies for dengar, one destiny for iggy with riot, and three destiny, one from iggy with another bounty hunter, one from ability and one from emperors power. I drop dr e and ponda bobba, I then decide to deploy my lat damage that Ive been saving the whole game on one of the landed xwings, making it forfeit 0. I check my destinies, nothing smaller than a three, with one of them being a 5, and at least 2 of them being 4s. I show derek what I have back there and start a battle. I target boushh first with dengar, because she will be the easiest to hit and I want her to be eliminated. I hit her, Derek automatically takes her from table, knowing that dr e and ponda will be operating. Now, Ive got two shots to draw that 5 and either make luke lost, and fight 2 xwings at 0 power, or to capture luke and again fight those xwings. I shoot with dengar again, not the 5, I shoot with iggy, again not the 5. I lose a force from the top to add a destiny, and draw my three. He ends up losing by double digits, he forfeits luke, and the both xwings, one of them forfeit 0, he stacks a card, and goes to his next turn. His turn, he drains at kiffex, and backs up his lone xwing with my previously barriered fett in ship and drops red leader in red 1 with an xwing cannon I think he drops luke again to 4th, which if Im not mistaken got barriered. So, two cannons, plenty of charge up force, he starts a battle, and shoots fett out of the sky. With all those cannons out, my zuckuss in mist hunter isnt going to stand a chance, and I couldnt find my bossk in ship. My turn comes, I drop 4-lom with gun, and battle, he wasnt happy to see that so I cancel lukes text, and since I lost much of my party from a saber swing and attrition from the battle before, I dont dish out as much damage, but the extra destiny from emperors power certainly helped. By now, we are both getting low on force, I cant touch his drains in space, and he has few options left for the ground. He deploys an undercover bothan spy to the mpgs where by this time I had mara and her stick draining for 2, I drain at 4th marker and endor docking bay, its a close race, and final my drains win, FW by 3
8(+42)
Highs: Derek is a fine player, it was a close and challenging game.
Lows: None.
That is the end of round 2, Im undefeated, with a low differential, there is only one other player undefeated, Josh Grace, whom I heard about, but never met. I introduced myself to him on the way back from the deli, seemed like a nice person. We get paired up for the first game of the third and final round.
My bring him before me against Graces Mind what you have learned deck.
We were chatting as the other pairings got settled into their tables. I was quite nervous, I asked him what his rating was, he told me 1979, or 1969, or 1959 I think, as he wasnt sure what decade it was, but I told him that either way it was a fine year, he asked me my rating, I told him 1600s. Being one of two undefeated players this late in a tournament filled with high quality players, such as stenerson, raveling, and li, was quite a big accomplishment for me. Not having tread this water much, I tried to keep the atmosphere light by asking questions about his deck, hoping to get a laugh, he wasnt amused and told me to basically speed it up. I nervously went to start up. I wasnt prepared for a jedi testing deck, for I was expecting to see a lot of wys and ebo. I scramble for options as I mentally examine my deck. Luckily, I believe on first turn, I deployed palpatine to ds docking bay, and had a force or two to draw, maybe this was my second turn, but I drew up an imperial code cylinder and threw it on his side of the table, he read the card and I proceeded to look at his deck, test to at least 5 I noticed and superfalcon with a lot of 7s in there, with one obi with stick. I was happy to see the obi with stick, I packed two the circle is now complete and sat on one for most of the game hoping he would deploy obi to the endor docking bay. He set up his training and was slow with it at first, getting less than great draws as he trained farmboy. I drained at the endor docking bay for one, and had a large pile of cards in my hand, he ate the 3 force loss from my objectives starting effect. I got most of my effects out early, something special planned, no escape, secret plans. I held onto search and destroy the whole game, I had only tested this deck twice, and wasnt wise enough to add an extra battleground docking bay. He eventually got superfalcon going at kessel for drains; I eventually got zuckuss up to carida. Problems happened in there somewhere. On one of his jedi tests(5) that I was frantically reading trying to find some way to win, I noticed it said At the beginning of your control phase for the attempt portion of the test. Well, while he should have been attempting that test, he was using his traffic control to put cards back, this also happens during his control phase. I told him he couldnt attempt the test, because the beginning of the control phase was past, he got mad, we called dion over, I was right. This is just like the text on your destiny where it says at the beginning of your turn, opponent loses 3 force, I wouldnt expect to pull that sometime after that. Anyways, he told me to get a life and a few other unpleasantries, and we continue. Im still scrambling for an edge that would give me a victory. I realize he is getting low on force, but will soon be retrieving 10 force if he remembers that he needs to pay 10 force to do it. So, when he finally is going to complete test 5, I notice he has no force left in his reserve. I check test 5, it says, At the end of your next turn, turn apprentice right side up(restored): then it says, Place on apprentice. Immune to attrition < 4. Reveal the top two cards of your Reserve Deck and place one upside down on apprentice. Since Ive never been in the situation where it matters and the opponent has no reserve deck, I want to find out what At The End of Your Next Turn means. Because if it happens before he recirculates, he will have no destiny to draw, and that means no 7 destiny any time he wants it. If he does get to reciruclate, which he already did before we called dion over, and he even drew his two, that would mean no destiny left for a battle at carida against his falcon, because he only put two cards back with traffic control. This really made him mad. Apparently playing a 1600 rated player means nothing to him, because he is so far beyond it, which I can see being the case, however, to me, this could have been a major breakthrough for me in my swccg career if I were to win against such a skilled player. It meant a lot to me; Josh just gave me dirty looks. Anyways, Dion ruled in his favor, Im still trying to find official ruling from decipher. All the while, he was so sure he was right, just as he was on the ruling for the beginning of your control phase ruling that he drew his destiny, spent 10 force, retrieved 10 force, realized he didnt have a destiny for battle destiny, so he unretrieved the 10 force, unspent his 10 force, unstacked his 7, undrew his battle destiny, un recycled his used pile, and went back to his control phase to traffic control a third card down. I wasnt very impressed. Anyways, we talk back and forth, he scowls. I battle at carida against his superfalcon in his battle, I draw 5 destinies, one for ability, one for fett with gun being with han in battle, one from 4-lom, one from iggy with riot, and one from your destiny. He whomps me with 5 7s, I ghhk, and await a chance to draw up, I dont want to give him an opportunity to retrieve force. I leave the table and report my loss.
FL
Highs: playing a quality player late in a tournament
Lows: the arguing it caused, and losing. And not having a second site for search and destroy.
A quick btw, as per jedi test 2, I shouldnt have gotten a battle destiny there at all, I only 4 ability piloting.
Game 6, my xwings against the eventual champions isb deck.
This guy was a total gentleman, and a fine opponent. He owned me from the start, I was under potential shock from the previous match, but this guy was ready, polite and kicked the crap out of me by 34.
After the games were over, I continued to try clear the air with josh, he wasnt too interested. Frankly, Im sick of ill-will caused by misunderstandings. I was in one with Jim Li, I later found out first hand that he was a very nice person, Im ashamed of my behavior towards him on decktech, and wished I wasnt such a chump to him without knowing him. Anyways, misunderstandings happen more than once. The Minneapolis guys and the St Cloud guys are an incredible bunch of people. I hope to have the opportunity to play amongst them in the future.
All in all, was a great tournament, Dion Erbes did an excellent job.
Props to all the people that traveled, and the St. cloud people
Slops: none, I had an incredible time.