ta-black-goes-to-buford-3-31-01

Title: ta-black-goes-to-buford-3-31-01
Author: Adam "ADrake" Drake
Date: Apr 5, 2001

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference."

- Robert Frost -

Last week, I wormed my way into getting Saturday off from work. I was looking forward to playing in a tournament, but I have gotten tired of every tournament I play in, having to face one (or more) of my fellow Team Atlanta members numerous times in the same tournament. So we worked out a plan: Team Atlanta Red (Charlie (Road Dogg) Herren and Clay (Mr. A.s.s) Ramey) would head out to Smyrna to lay the Smackdown at Champions, and Team Atlanta Black (Mike (Latino Heat) Kessling, Tim (Stud) Jones, and I) would travel to Buford to play in the Galactic Quest tournament. On Friday night we all gathered at Tim’s place for final preparation. I arrived last, because I went on a date with my wonderful girlfriend earlier in the evening. Upon arrival, I was suprised to learn Clay was "burnt out" and did not feel like playing... GREAT! How was Charlie gonna get to Smyrna?? Anyway, we played some WWF No Mercy on the N64 (which, btw, is the best wrestling game out right now) and did a little playtesting. I settled on playing WYS on the Light side (What else would I play monkey boy?) and MKOS for Dark. I finally crashed at about four in the morning with the Clay issue still unresolved.

Saturday morning came far too quickly. I hopped up, took a quick shower, and got dressed. As we were walking out the door, Clay exclaimed "I AM GOING TO SMYRNA!" WooHoo!! Guess the plan was gonna work out after all. I promised the fellas I would buy them some alcohol if we did well. We (Mike and I) arrived at GQ about 15 minutes late, but tournaments rarely start on time there, so we figured no big deal... But we still got a lecture about being on time from the store owner and TD, Kyle. Anyway, onto the report...

Game 1: My LS vs. Tim "Stud" Jones’ "Direct Damage" DS

Actually, I was supposed to have the bye, but Tim arrived just in time, so I had to play him. Remember that whole "I hate playing my teammates" line... Well, here we go again.

Tim and I have an interesting history. We played against each other in the very first SWCCG tournament held in the Atlanta area. It was a non-sanctioned single elimination event, and Tim beat me in the first round. In the 5 years since then, he has NEVER beaten me in a tournament game. Today would be no different...

So I start the normal WYS setup, and Tim starts Tatooine: Mos Eisley. Tim starts playing Fears and some other card that makes me flip one card from all three of my piles (Close Call?) I hate not remembering cards... Anyway, I get WYS flipped pretty quickly and get my Celebration going early. He came down to Tatooine with Vader and some other guys, but I was able to hold him off with "Panty Raiders" and kept retrieving with Celebration and Harvest. I drained him out with little left in my lost pile.

FW 2 (+22)

Highs: WYS IS A F’N MACHINE!
Lows: Having to play a friend in the first round...

Game 2: My DS vs. Hinton Thomas? LS QMC

I figured that this guy was pretty good, since I had the third highest diff, but come to find out no one had won on the DS last time... This was this guys first or second tournament and he was just learning the game. I kinda felt bad, but hey, I was still trying to win here...

So he starts QMC, bespin and some other site. I start the normal MKOS stuff (Desert Heart, JP, No Bargain, Power of the Hutt, and Secret Plans) I started building up at the Audience Chamber as he pulled cloud sectors and sites. He dropped Kebyc by himself at a CC site and says "go." OK... I dropped Snoova and Dengar, battled, shot Kebyc, and won the battle by like 10... I also ended up pushing him out of the clouds with Bossk in Bus, Boba Fett in ship, and Zuckuss in ship. He was so lost, I kinda felt like I couldn’t beat this guy by too much, so I only one by 23.

FW 4 (+45)

Highs: For my first time playing MKOS it worked suprisingly well.
Lows: Forgetting to use Power of the Hutt sometimes, having to beat a scrub...

Game 3: My LS vs. "Little Heerman’s" SYCFA TIEs

My apologies, but I can not remember this guys first name for the life of me. I remember him being at a number of tournaments in the past, and he has gotten pretty good. TIES could be a potential problem for WYS if played well. Fortunately I playtested against TIEs and knew just how to beat it...

We started out normal, and I pulled 2 Raiders and 2 Crafts in my opening hand. Can you say "first turn flip?" Anyway, he gets Seinar Fleet going first turn, so I knew he would be getting retrieval for the whole game. As I spread out on Tatooine, he spread out in space, and our drains were about the same for the majority of the game. I did not find any of my space stuff until about 2/3 of the way through the game, and he had set up at Tatooine... I decided to gamble. I threw Dash and the Outrider to Tatooine, played I’ll Take the Leader, flew Han and Melas up in the Falcon, and gave him Order To Engage. He was so shaken, he lost the three force and moved away, even though he had enough of a force at the system to battle me. I played Battle Plan the next turn to stop his drains and retrieved as much as possible before draining him out. Win by 22.

FW 6 (+67)

Highs: First turn flip, making a new friend. This young man and his brother have a great future in SWCCG. We may have our first junior members of Team Atlanta.
Lows: All of my space disappearing for most of the game.

At this point, Mike and I are tied at 6 (+67) and we both played opposite decks in our last game. We knew it we be one of us winning and the other taking second...

Game 4: My DS vs. Mike’s WYS LS

This was a pretty good game. It could have gone either way, and I got an early start. We went back and forth draining and having some small skirmishes until he dropped Menace Fades. For the rest of the game I tried to cover his sites so I could get my drains back up while he was retrieving with Celebration (I never saw my ships). He tried to drop Owen and Beru for Harvest, but I shot ’em with Dengar in a battle. For some strange reason he drew up too many cards and forgot to retrieve before he drained me on the last turn. I lost by

FL 0 (-5)
Overall: 6 (+62)

So Mike got first and I got second, by only one diff. I took home a foil Han w/Gun. After the tournament, we called Charlie and Clay to see how they did. Charlie said he went 2-2 and Clay went 3-1 and some other guy won the tournament out in Smyrna. WTF?? It was only after they called back to tell me they were joking. I hate those guys... No, Charlie did win, and Clay got second. Guess it is brew’s on me.

That night we had a big party for Tim’s wifes birthday. Mike made a good point while we were eating: the best part of being in Team Atlanta is hanging out with Team Atlanta. We like to have a good time and enjoy hanging out together. All in all, it was a pretty good weekend. We are all looking forward to the "money" tournament April 14th at Atlanta Comicon.

Props and Slops:

Props:
Mike and Charlie: for winning the tournaments
Clay: for deciding to go to Smyrna after all
Tim: for letting us hang out all weekend
the Heermans: for just being cool players
Stone Cold: for turning heel at Wrestlemania

Slops:
Stephen: for having to do yardwork...

Wow, only one slop... it must have been a pretty good weekend. Peace out y’all! Hope you enjoyed this TR. I’m gone!