2001-texas-state-championships
Title: 2001-texas-state-championships
Author: Justin "hoostino" Warren
Date: Apr 2, 2001
Austin, TX
March 31, 2001
Well, where to begin? Texas States had been looming and I was ready to start the month of playtesting, teching, and preparing. I had discovered early after the release of Reflections 2 that Scum just wasn’t the way to go in my meta, and Hunt Down was. After going through 3 different versions of Hunt Down, I discovered the Imperial Command variant that just wrecks. It’s really the only Hunt Down that can consistently beat WYS, which I thought would be the LS of choice at States. After weeks of teching it out, my dark was done, which brings me to my LS.
Within days of the release of RII, I helped Eric Berger construct what is known as The Machine, the original WYS Raider swarm. Between directing god and friend Brian Guthrie and I, it went undefeated at locals over the span of three tournaments. But, it had become meta, and local players began to tech against it with crap like Sunsdown/Too Cold For Speeders. Plus, I had been noticing the continuing growth of anti-WYS decks everywhere. Well, my only other conceivable option was the tried and true Hidden Mains. I built a new, really solid version that played much like a WYS. It uses the Tat: DB, Spaceport DB, and Moisture Farms to play Celebration and Harvests. Uses I’ll Take The Leader to boost drains, along with Battle Plan/Menace Fades to wreck my opponent’s drain offensive. It also ran the sweet Narrow Escape/Fallen Portal/OTE combo to hang on the ground, but it just didn’t impress me quite enough in testing. The retrieval just wasn’t fully there without Edges. So, I began to rebuild and tech out the Machine, and I finally developed a version I was content with.
The night prior, of course I had to get the brownie after it worked the only other time I tried it. See, the last one I had must have been a kid’s version or something, because the freakin’ thing was LARGE, twice the size of the first one. I was dreading every minute of it. Thing was so damn big I had to stop in the middle of eating it and take a smoke break. I was feeling the sickness come on. It was horrible. I wound up just using my fork to smash the rest of it up and smear it around, pretending that it didn’t count because it was just the residue chocolate left over. After that escapade, it was time to rush home get some sleep.
So off I went with new friend and playtest pal Jeremy Losee to the Austin Convention Center. We arrive, and the brownie hits me. Crap, I scream at people asking where the bathroom is, and I finally find one. I rush in, only to find that there’s piss on the seat. Dammit, so I have to clean that up first before I part my ways with that freakin’ brownie. Ugh.
We enter the playing area and see that the competition is about as tough as it’s gonna be in Texas anymore. Only big name I noticed was absent was Rich Glass@#$%. The big three from Houston were there, Joe Horbey, Eric Berger, and Mike Patterson. Austin powerhouse Jake Mayer was also in attendance, along with the majority of Dantooine’s best from all over the state. I am feeling confident, and the tourney gets underway.
Game 1
DS vs. Travis Meadows (1374) QMC/Sabbac/Weather Vane start
Hmmmm, I see QMC and am fearing Avatar-style, which gave me a little bit of a problem in the one game I tested against it. My fears diminish when he starts with The Signal for Weather Vane, which he actually put to use with Fall Of The Legend and Desperate Reach. I drop a quick Empy, and draw for Vader. Third turn, I drop Vader, Stick, and Tarkin on top of his lone Lando at the Casino. I am expecting some type of trick, so I Monnok him lost and notice Gambler’s Luck and that’s all. So I battle, miss the swing, he draws two threes, one of which I cancel. I lose Tarkin and move the Empy to back up Vader. I start tracking some destinies, and just drain. I get Thrawn and Chimaera to Bespin fairly early, and have amassed a pretty large drain. He makes a few attempts to fight me late, but I made sure everything went my way. He battled Mara, Empy, and someone else with Daughter and EPP Luke. I play I Have You Now and You Are Beaten Luke to lay the smackdown on Daughter. That pretty much sealed it, and I drain and Visage him out.
Full Win by 22
2 (+22)
Game 2
LS vs. Ty Turner (1795) Imperial Command Rumors with mad systems
He starts the usual EOps effects, and I get the Raider engine cooking after a few turns. He doesn’t do much but deploy an assload of systems for the first few turns. He gets a DSSD with a few admirals and scrubs on board, so I automatically have my work cut out for me in space because of Imp Command. I get everything set up, including all three ships in space after about six turns, and I have solid drains on Tatooine, so things are looking up. We have a few battles in space, and I finally ward him off of Tatooine, and begin Celebration. He has no real counters for my deck, and all he does is try to spread out and drain in space. My retrieval takes its toll, and my drains polish him off without any real interaction.
Full Win by 23
4 (+45)
Game 3
DS vs. Keya Saleh (1775) Deadbolt
I knew I would face an EBO at this tournament, and I knew I could beat it. Patterson was talking about Keya’s Deadbolt, and how it had been giving him all sorts of problems. I was a little tense going in. We start, and I get a decent jump, flipping third turn again. He also sets up pretty quickly, and begins nailing me with EBO drains before I am ready to come to space. I have my ground forces pretty much assembled by the fifth turn or so, and am causing a steady flow of damage each turn with drains and Visage, as HoloNet stopped an early OOC/TT. I go to space with Chimaera, Thrawn, and Chiraneau I think, and wipe out his DSII Wedge in Ship and Cracken in Tala 1 with two tracked fives and a tracked seven (Imp Com-mand to draw three with Thrawn). Next turn, he deploys Jedi Luke at the 4th Marker to stop the Visage onslaught. I still have those three destinies tracked, and notice Mara and Stick in hand. Next turn, I smack Luke with Mara and cause overflow damage of six after hitting him with the stick and drawing the seven for destiny. That pretty much capped the game, as he had nothing to really stop the damage my ground forces were inflicting, and a few turns later, I win.
Full Win by 17
6 (+62)
Game 4
LS vs. Nathan Schutz (1627) Court Space
The Court start makes me grin, as my deck rolls Scum. Turns out it’s quite different than any standard Scum deck. I get a fairly quick start again after having to blow Tunnel Visions on silly little Palace Raiders, but whatever works. I set up with relative ease on Tatooine, while starts dropping bounty hunter ships in space. I’m thinking I’ll Take The Leader and my multiple destinies are going to just wreck him, but most of his deck is space-based, and he has plenty of tech to own space. In the first space encounter, I battle Fett In Slave 1 with Dash and a Raider in the Outrider, I think. He plays Dark Maneuvers, then Watch Your Back to draw an eight for destiny. Whoa, that caught me off guard. Captain Han and the Falcon come down, only to get Lateral Damaged and beat on. I’ll Take The Leader keeps getting sent back by his Black Sun Fleet, which he used to spread and drain all game. His replacing of my Orders had a good benefit for me though - easily trackable sixes that I used to On The Edge with several times. I am never able to beat him out of space, but I am retrieving with Edges, although he is owning the Tatooine system and nullifying Celebration. He eventually puts together a hell of a fleet at Tatooine, and a huge battle ensues. He winds up hitting me with 18 attrition in a huge battle, only to make me lose a forfeit 12 Chewie and a forfeit 7 Raider (Talon owned him). At this point, my drains and retrieval are wearing him out, and I eventually take him down.
FW by 24
8 (+86)
Game 5
DS vs. John Sneed (1882) Hidden Mains
John is in first and I am in second at this point. John is from the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, and is a part of Jake’s "Three Scrubs and Jake" team that is owning the team competition. He just beat Jake’s Hunt Down by 30 with this deck, so I am really expecting the worse. He starts Insurrection, Staging Areas, and Battle Plan. Okay, Hidden Mains of some sort, likely with a decent space package if he starts Battle Plan. I Monnok him early, but get nothing. He sets up Ben and Jedi Luke pretty quickly, and I have Vader and Tarkin down on the third turn. He drops more dudes, and keeps recycling sick destinies. I know I am eventually gonna have to fight him, so I start tracking as well. I desperately need the Chimaera, as I am chasing his Super Falcon around in space only with my three bounty hunter ships, with Chiraneau piloting the Mist Hunter so I can play Imperial Command. I have Thrawn, Guri, and an Imperial Command ready in my hand, so I search for Force Lightning at the beginning of my turn at notice only one Chimaera in my reserve (I use two). Okay, I use only a couple cards during my turn, and I draw for the Chimaera. I keep drawing. I draw some more, and I don’t get it. Damn. Now, I’m pretty limited in space with just my hunter ships, so Chiraneau will never get his bonus, and I can never beat his Falcon down and use Battle Plan against him. His tracking begins to wear me down on the docking bays, as he Fallen Portals Vader (I stupidly forget to cancel the Portal destiny with Tarkin), then he Sorry About The Messes Mara (my only character left with a stick) before I can use Sniper/Dark Strike and You Are Beaten. Oh well, with no more sabers, they make good drain fodder. I now am forced to run away for the most part, and Order starts nailing me. His Edges also take their toll, despite Something Special Planned out for the whole game (he still retrieved 20 Force). I try to keep up and lower his diff, and eventually the game times out as neither of us can drain for more than 2-3 a turn. He has 10 left, and I have 6.
TL by 10
8 (+76)
I am in third now, and get paired with friend Eric Berger, the most innovative deckbuilder and one of the coolest players I’ve ever encountered. He only comes out for the big events, but he always has brand new decks that have never been seen before, yet are always so good and teched. Eric won a Dantooine Regional a few years back in only his second tournament ever. He’s always on the top tables, and he owned me the last time we played back at the Houston Grand Slam. On top of that, he knew my light deck inside and out, mostly because he was responsible for its creation. I was a bit nervous to say the least.
Game 6
LS vs. Eric Berger (1996) Uber-tech TIEs
He starts Kessel, which throws me a bit, although I know he’s playing TIEs. First turn, he pulls Wakeelmui with Mob Points, and draws. I go, convert his Kessel, and draw. I get every-thing I need, including a pair of Raiders and I Hope She’s All Right. Next turn, he deploys a Dreadnaught a couple TIE Fighters to Tatooine. I deploy a Raider/Craft at the Jundland Wastes, two lone Raiders at the two docking bays, flip, and drop I Hope She’s All Right. He begins losing a good amount of cards, and I patiently wait until I have my fleet and retrieval ready. At about this stage of the game, Brian comes over and tells us that the winner of this game is likely gonna make the final. I drop Dash in Outrider along with Captain Han in the Falcon at Kessel and wait for him. He deploys a Scythe Squad TIE, a Dreadnaught, Battle Deployment, and plays Dark Maneuvers/Talon Roll on the Falcon. Crap. For some reason, I am thinking it targets my maneuver, so I anxiously play A Few Maneuvers. Since I have no capital present, I’m power -2. He easily wins and I watch my Han and Falcon crash to my lost pile. I run the Outrider away along with some backup. Next turn, I have tracked the Maneu-vers to the top, and play On The Edge. I start pulling my five back and notice Secret Plans out. So I start to pay after I retrieve and he says "Nope, it’s canceled." Eric and I pretty good friends, and I once let him slide several times in a game at last year’s States, so I ask "You sure you want to be that way, man?" He pauses, and responds, "No." That was a very nice display of friendship on his part, which I appreciated deeply. Needless to say, I paid the five first on the next Edge I played. Neither Celebration nor I’ll Take The Leader happened, but I got down the Entrance Cavern and Jedi Luke in the Cantina to set up a drain of six on the ground to accommodate I Hope She’s All Right. He is unable to find his Dreaded Imperial Starfleet and spies, but I never find Bargaining Table nor Battle Plan to hinder his drains. At this point, the other top games have ended, and Brian informs us that I need to win by 1 to make the final, and Eric needs at least an 11-card victory to get in. I am feeling pretty good, as I am confident I can pull this game out. He spreads with lone TIEs at each system, and I respond with Order To Engage and deploy a retrieved Falcon and Han and move in front of the lone TIEs. Order hits him for a bit, and a few more battles ensue, but Talon once again makes Chewie and Wedge forfeit 12 machines that balance the power gap. Eventually, drains and I Hope She’s All Right wear him down, and I win by 10 to make the final confrontation. Props to Eric for a splendid match.
FW by 10
10 (+86)
Cool, I finally made a final after coming close many times in the past. John Sneed goes undefeated with 11 (+ 131) and is my opponent. His brother Michael finishes third ten differential behind me. I go smoke in an attempt to calm my nerves.
Eric had been ragging me all day about how his light would rape my Hunt Down. I told him he couldn’t win, and I have 45 minutes to blow before the final starts, so we play it. He starts Throne Room and Insight is one of his starting trio of effects, but I suspect he’s playing Speeders, so I opt to not start No Escape and go with the usual Crush just for the quick Monnok. Bad idea. Honor hits first turn, and I have no Twi-Lek, Vader, or No Escape in hand. Crap. He sets up pretty quick, and drops Yarna before I Monnok. Damn. This is looking bad. I keep losing to Visage while he just draws up what he needs. Flaps comes down. Damn. He has about ten cards in hand waiting to beat on me. He sets up Gen. Lando and Capt. Han in Gold Squadron 1 at Carida. I have Vader/Tarkin out at this point, and have the option of pouncing a speeder and Geezum at the Hoth DB with Mara and Stick, or wiping him out in space with Chimaera + Thrawn + Imp Command. I go with the space beatdown for now, and take out his Han. I have a backup Command, which I need his turn to sustain my space presence. Next turn, I drop Mara and clear Geezum and the speeder. I leave her there, confident that he won’t have enough Force to lay a huge smack. No Escape is finally out, but Corran visits the Holotheater to nullify Visage again. His turn, he drops six Speeders and on top of Mara, deploys Incom, and hits me for about ten cards. Crap. Plus he’s draining at the Holotheater. I am getting fairly low on cards while he still has a decent amount left, despite my drains of 3 and 2. He’s only draining for a total of three, and my drains begin to catch up with him and close the gap. He realizes he must attempt to fight me or he will get drained out. He moves some speeders and Jedi Luke over to my DB, where I have virtually my entire ground presence waiting. I track, and I Have You Now helps me clear much of his forces. My drains continue to hit him, and another battle nets him nothing, and I come out on top by 2 cards.
Damn, I love this Hunt Down. I smoke again, get wished good luck by many players and friends, and head back in to meet my destiny. John chooses which side to play first, and opts to play his dark.
FINAL CONFRONTATION
Game 1
He starts Hunt Down, which again makes he happy, as my deck is 6-0 against Hunt Down in tournament play. Only one Hunt Down can consistently beat it, and that’s an Imperial Com-mand version, which I didn’t expect. So I am feeling pretty good going in. I have an OOC/TT in my starting hand, and I play it after he activates. Visage is gone. First turn, he drops Choke Vader and Stick to DB 94, then puts out No Escape and pulls the Visage into hand, and re-deploys it. Damn, good play. I don’t have much to work with in hand, not a single smuggler to begin to flip and play that OOC/TT from lost pile. I have Jedi Luke, but he’s just too damn expensive and John is holding a fairly large hand. He is hitting me HARD very fast. I am losing cards like crazy. I can only draw up, which prompts him to Monnok a pair of Raiders out of my hand. Damn, now I’ll have to take at least two more turns of damage. This is looking very ugly. Tarkin backs Vader up, and much to my chagrin, he drops the Chimaera with Thrawn and Guri aboard to Tatooine along with Battle Deployment. He’s totally owning me. I finally manage a meager flip, and get Dash and Han into space at Kessel to drain. He takes the hit for a few turns, and I play run around with Vader and Tarkin using Jedi Luke. Visage is no longer a factor, but I am forced to use a lot of Force throughout my turns, and am unable to pull off the Edges as I would like due to Secret Plans. I have to settle for only 4 cards retrieved. It is becoming apparent that I can’t win this game, so I just start playing for differential. I bait his Vader and Tarkin by leaving Jedi Luke to face them. He gets pretty happy and tracks around a few destinies. He battles, swings and hits, and plays I Have You Now. Great. He begins drawing his destinies and tell him to wait, as I have an action during the weapons segment. I play an On The Edge from lost pile, say six, and of course fail, causing Luke to be immediately lost. His I Have You Now is lost, and his destinies are wasted, saving me from certain death elsewhere. I continue my trickery to attempt to lower his diff, but his drains catch up, and eventually, he completely removes me from the table and I lose by 11.
I smoke again, thinking I’m not going to be able to beat his light by more than 11, if I can even beat it at all. I figure if I can get a damn Chimaera this time, I should win, but it won’t be by very much. I come back in, and John is kicking himself for forgetting about No Escape all game, which would have allowed for mega-cheap deployment to my Spaceport DB. Oh well. I bust out my dark, and we get started.
Game 2
His start is identical to the game we played earlier in the tournament, as is mine. I have a Choke Vader and Stick in my opening hand, which is more than what I had last time. Cool. I pull Carida and Evader/Monnok before activating. I activate my four. I have No Escape in hand, so I say what the hell and play the Monnok. I get nothing, but notice Ben and a Weapon Levitation in his hand. I deploy No Escape to retrieve the Monnok into hand. I caught that he had a few Raiders and vehicles in his deck the last game, so I didn’t want to deploy my Cloud City DB, because I knew he would put his out, giving him an area to react with. I use IAO to pull a DB, and sure enough, I had activated both the Executor DB and the D* DB, so I am forced to put out the Cloud City one. His first turn, he uses his five and drops Ben to the Tatooine DB. I still have Vader and Stick and activate plenty to deploy him. I deploy Vader but hold his stick, remembering that Weapon Lev he had in his hand. I pull I Have You Now with Crush, and I decide my average destiny is good enough to take his Ben out and hopefully cause some Visage damage for a few turns. A HoloNet in hand supported this idea because I knew his only Visage defense was OCC/TT, so I did it. He draws a one for destiny, cool. I draw a one and a two. Not cool. He loses his three to the power difference and I move Vader away and draw. He activates and draws. I drain and Tarkin joins Vader after I play the Monnok again. This time it nets two Off The Edges, two EPP Leias, and a pair of Fallen Portals. This gives me a huge edge. Eventually, he sets up some characters at his bays, and I finally find a Chimaera, which I deploy with Thrawn and Chiraneau. I own space this game, and Battle Plan begins to work heavily in my favor. We have a few skirmishes on the ground, including a battle where I beatdown a H’Nemthe for six. He’s already low on cards, and I have a solid 17 or so left. I get caught off guard by a SATM/Blaster Proficiency that he uses to take out a character just hit, and I wind up having to lose some cards to the battle. He drains me down to 14 cards. He moves Captain Han in Falcon over from Corulag to block my space drain, and moves Ben over to block a DB drain where I have Empy, Janus, and Sim. My turn, I battle the Falcon first, and he loses the Falcon a few cards. He’s down to one card. I get overly anxious and excited, and for some dumb reason, I refuse to battle Ben and just move them away, totally forgetting about Order To Engage. I ask if I can take the move back, but Chris, one of the directors, tells me I can’t take an action back between phases. F.uck! So I lose three. The game ends next turn and I count my cards, still thinking I’ve won. Everyone watching thinks its done; I start counting. One, Two....Nine, Ten, Eleven...and that’s it. Oh crap, we tied. NO! What a stupid mistake by not battling Ben, it just cost me the State Championships.
Brian and Chris consult each other as to what the hell is supposed to happen next. They decide we must play again, and flip a coin to decide who chooses which side to play. John says he’ll play LS if it’s heads, and it is. I go smoke, and tell Eric to hit me for being such a retard. I just start punching the metal brace on the smoking balcony. I was so upset and frustrated. I calm down, and go back in. Dammit, I’ve already played eight freakin’ games, I don’t know if I can handle a ninth. I get a grip and sit down to play. This time, I just need to win, differential is irrelevant. John is ready, so we get the LAST game underway.
Game 3
This time, John opts to not start Battle Plan after I used it against him last game. This game starts out almost exactly like the last. I Monnok him again early, netting nothing. I drop DLOTS and Stick to one of my bays and ignore him for a while. We both begin building our forces up at docking bays, tracking and waiting. I have the advantage in drains, and take control of space again. He is forced to come to me after both Secret Plans and SSPFT hit the table to dent his Edge retrieval. Order is out again and he moves a huge crew over to meet my crew. He has Ben, Jedi Luke with lightsaber in hand, Lando With Ax, a HNemthe, and Chewie, Protector. I have Choke Vader with Stick, Tarkin, Mara, and someone else, I can’t recall. I have been tracking for a few turns now, and now my deck is loaded with high destinies. I activate to reach a tracked Force Lightning and Command. I play Sniper on Luke, and he’s gone. I battle, try to YAB Lando but it gets canceled by Weapon Lev. So, I choke Lando with another Command as my next action. He has nothing, so I swing and hit Ben. I play I Have You Now, and draw two low destinies but still take everything out and then some. The battle gave me complete control, as space was also mine. He had Tawss at the Holotheater draining me, but I tracked that Force Lightning again (play it used on any crony sitting with Empy), and deployed Xizor. I battle and take out Tawss and cause a few more cards to come off the top of his deck. I start to get a lot of damage going. He comes to space late with Captain Han and the Falcon. I drop Lateral Damage and Zuckuss In Hunter to take Han out. I battle, and he reacts with I Know, the only card in his hand. He only has a few cards left in his deck, and is unable to find a Leia. So I take Han out, along with his hopes of winning. Next turn, I drain him out to finally end the tournament and become Texas State Champion.
What a day. Damn, everything was great. John played like a champ. Brian, Chris, and every-one ran a hell of a tournament with minimal delays and difficulties. It was the best day of my SWCCG career. Thank you to everyone.
Props:
John, for going undefeated and playing the best final ever.
Brian, for being a good friend and the best damn TD that ever lived
Jeremy, for the company, friendship, playtesting, and laughs.
Eric, for being Eric and a good friend.
Mike, for being one of the coolest guys I know.
Matt, because hes my boy, and I owe him a lot for getting me into this game.
Chris, and everyone who helped run the event.
The Brownie, it’s worked every time I’ve tried it.
My Darwin shirt, because it’s lucky and just so damn cool. I know Eric wants one.
Jeff Weintkamp (sp?) and else who played and helped make this tournament run smoothly.
Slops:
Not a one. Even the food on the way home was pretty decent.
I hope to have a blast at DCon.
Thank you and goodnight.
Darwin bless. Hoostino out.
-Justin Warren
2001 Texas State Champion