pleasanton-ca-4-21-01
Title: pleasanton-ca-4-21-01
Author: Nick "JediBrain" Stefanko
Date: Apr 22, 2001
So, I hadn’t played for two weeks, but felt that I would do well. I had spent two days going through my decks, making some minor modifications to strategy. With States in two weeks, I wanted to be prepared for anything, and today was the big testing ground. So, armed with new versions of my decks, I was ready to go. After some 4-20 partying with my friends in my dorm building, Saturday morning hit me like a ton of bricks. I woke up, and soon thereafter, my ride home called up announcing her arrival. So, I grab my case and jet. Once home, I eat, yell at my little brother to get his lazy @#$% out of bed, and an hour later, we’re on the road, and in no time are at Warmasters for Mike Hardy’s tournament, which was actually being run by Steve Daniel because Hardy couldn’t make it. Note to reader: I wasn’t going to write this TR at all because of what you’ll read soon enough, so therefore am going on memory-only and self-rage.
The Tournament:
My decks:
LS - All For Her v1.2 - mains with insanely high destiny draws with the RTP backdrop
DS - CPI Navy v4.2 - manipulator that clears the table with Commence Primary Ignition
Game 1: DS v. Kyle Ishimaru’s WYS
I take a look at his objective and start laughing, since my deck usually owns WYS with ease. Kyle’s freaking out, saying "Please don’t beat me by a lot." So, I settle in for what I think will be a winning game. I get the Superlaser in opening hand, and start moving to Tatooine. He throws a bunch of guys down and flips. Next turn, he starts ripping into me with lots of drains. U-3PO blocked his Cantina drain until ECC Lando Sorry About The Mess-ed him. As the damage mounted, I began to worry. I kept drawing for Arica, but she wasn’t in sight. I blew away Hoth w/ A Day Long Remembered on it, and kept moving towards Tatooine. He drained me down to 3 cards in Reserve, and the only card in my hand was CPI. So, for my last action, I blew away Tatooine, and succumbed to drains at the Death Star and Kessel next turn.
Result: FL -22
Standing: 0(-22)
Good Things: Hitting Tatooine.
Bad Things: Losing Come Here, You Big Coward! off the top; lacking ways to stop the mad drains.
Compliment of opponent: Kyle, whom thinks of himself as Alderaan’s #1 scrub, is a great guy and player. He’s high up on the ratings board, and I think has a chance at taking States.
Game 2: LS v. Kyle Ishimaru’s BHBM
Most all of the Light Side players lost, so Kyle and I are repaired. We had played this as a fun game last week, where he set up Palpatine at the Death Star DB327, Force Lightning-ed Prisoner 2187, then played Young Fool on her. I feared this game. So, he sets up Palpatine and Janus at the Death Star DB327 and draws a few. I get 8D8 to the Detention Block Corridor. He drops Lord Vader w/ Saber to the Yavin 4 DB. I free Leia, deploy Luke from Reserve to take on Palpatine and Janus, but get Barriered. Prisoner walks in front of Lord Vader. His turn, he drops Zuckuss In Mist Hunter to Rendili, Battle Order, ECCs 4-LOM and IG-88 to Death Star DB327, and battles the lone Luke. I play Warrior’s Courage to add a battle destiny, and draw crap. Vader walks into the War Room (feared a Fallen Portal in combination w/ my high destiny draws). I drop Mercenary Armor and Leia’s Blaster Rifle onto Prisoner and move over to flip. He battles, I shoot and miss but play Slight Weapons Malfunction, and lose Leia and a few more. After that, I tried throwing some smaller mains at him, but couldn’t do anything with them but stack on Insignificant Rebellion. He spread out and drained me to death.
Result: FL -22
Standing: 0(-45)
Good Things: None
Bad Things: Horrid destiny draws in a deck packing lots of high destiny
Compliment of opponent: See compliment from Game 1
Game 3: DS v. Paul Green’s EBOX
So now I’m in Scrubland, and have to play Paul. He’s frightened by having to play EBO against my CPI deck, and with good reason. He sets up EBO 2nd turn, and X-wings keep dropping from his hand. I get the Death Star moving a few turns in, and blow away Kiffex and Corulag on the way to Hoth. There, w/ ADLR out, I blow away Hoth, dealing 18 damage. After that, Kashyyyk disappeared, and he drew up.
Result: FW +11
Standing: 2(-34)
Good Things: Winning after a pair of losses.
Bad Things: Playing lousy; beating a scrub
Compliment of opponent: Paul is a decent player, and has had some decent decks, but needs to tech them out a bit to stay competitive.
Game 4: LS v. Steven Howard’s Build-The-Death-Star-II deck.
Still in Scrubland. He starts Endor and Operational As Planned. His first turn, he draws. I get 8D8 to the DBC and have some backup in my hand. He deploys Jerjerrod to the DBC alone, pulls a Death Star II sector, deploys it, and draws. I see this, and feel a little bad for what comes next. Prisoner is freed, and EPP Obi joins her. Jerjerrod gets beaten down for +10 (I think). Obi stays at the DBC, and Leia moves to the Yavin 4 DB. Colonel Davod Jon and an Elite Squadron Stormtrooper come down to her and battles, but I play Warrior’s Courage and draw a 3 and a 6; the site is cleared. I drop EPP Han and my 2nd Prisoner 2187 down to the Y4 DB, and move Leia for the flip. He deploys Tatooine, a Victory-Class Star Destroyer to it, and moves the Death Star II (which by this time was completed) to there. I drain, and drop Orrimaarko to the Death Star DB327, and prime 8D8 with the Death Star Plans. He drains, does That Thing’s Operational damage, and drops He Is Not Ready on Han, which makes me have to move him around or lose Force. The game continues with us trading damage, and close to lategame, 8D8 completes the plans for a pathetic 8 Force (what the hell is going on???? Where are my high destinies???). Turn after that, I drain him out.
Result: FW +40
Standing: 4(+6)
Good Things: Recovering from the first 2 games of the day.
Bad Things: Beating a scrub down hard.
Compliment of opponent: He played rather well, but didn’t have a focused deck.
Game 5: LS v. Alex Stefanko’s BHBM-except-I-left-Your-Destiny-and-Insignificant-Rebellion-at-home-and-place-my-objective-immediately-out-of-play
The day just got a little worse. I hate playing my little brother because he is SO slow and is a jerk. I got get Leia freed, and drop Goo Nee Tay to his side of the table. I move Leia to the Y4 DB and let him go; why I didn’t provide backup to her escapes me. He drops Blizzard 2, Ozzel piloting, and Lord Vader w/ Saber. He battles; I lose Leia and +12. I then see how much he had activated, and point at Goo Nee Tay. He says, "It’s your card; oh well." This infuriates me since Goo Nee Tay was right next to the Yavin 4 DB on table. With this game-changing occurrence, I start to not give a @#$% about the game since my little @#$% brother cheated. I have a little fun having Corran and Owen & Beru taking out Janus, and then Corran sitting unchallenged at the Death Star II DB all game. He spreads out and drains, and once I lose my last Leia off the top (no hand at that point), I yell at him to hurry up, since he had the game sewn up.
Result: FL -20something
Standing: 4(-at least 18; not too sure about precise)
Good Things: None
Bad Things: Cheating little @#$% of a brother.
Compliment of opponent: None.
Game 6: DS v. Alex Stefanko’s EBO matching ships
Steve goes through the pairings, and we have to play AGAIN. I double-check it, and am still not happy. I was sucking horribly all day, and just wanted to go home at this point. I know, I know; not very sportsman-like, but I couldn’t care less. So, I go through the motions as he takes advantage of knowing my deck and deploys lone starfighters everywhere. He drains for big, as I slowly move over to Hoth. As the drains intensify, I lost all hope of blowing away Hoth. Blount and EPP Obi infiltrate the Death Star, but Blount gets Force Lightning-ed and EPP Obi was targeted by Put All Sections On Alert. After that, his massive drains enveloped me.
Result: FL -20something
Standing: 4(-a lot)
Good Things: None
Bad Things: Playing the same little bastard again.
Compliment of opponent: None.
Results:
On an amusing side note, this tournament saw the return of Ohmy Fasudhani. He hadn’t played for a year, but wasn’t off his game thanks to heavy playtesting with Alfred Dong. Despite this, I heard that he lost to Philip Green, whom has been dubbed Alderaan’s Super-Scrub (a scrub that places high due to whipping other scrubs bad and not having to play the better players).
I didn’t stick around for the prizes; I had Steve had me and my brother each a middle-placing prize, and we got the hell out of there. I was not happy at all, and felt I had some bad karma floating around me. I sped most of the way to my parent’s house, and once there, got some good food and returned to my home at UC Santa Cruz. There, I whipped out my decks and began card-for-card analysis of the deck and spent two solid hours making changes and going through my binders looking for better cards to throw in.
Thanks for reading!