a-canadian-in-vegas-dpc-by-serpent
Title: a-canadian-in-vegas-dpc-by-serpent
Author: Alan "Serpent" Sagan
Date: Apr 30, 2001
Well about two weeks before the tournament, I began to panic about what to play for lightside. Just so everyone knows, Lightside really sucks ;P I’m talkin’ online tech with Charles Hickey a ton, cause his states is the week before Vegas. He’s running this really damn cool insta beatdown WYS... different than those european ones, but still damn cool... Right before his states, I tell him "Add a houjix, otherwise you’ll kill yourself with the tripler damage card". Course, since I’m that canadian scrub who went 3-3 at provincials, he doesn’t listen to me. So he kills himself in a game with the triple damage card :P muhahaah!
I think about playing that deck... but I know i’ll screw it up, it’s got all sorts of weird crap in it that only Hickey can make work. It’s a Hickey deck! :) So I whip out some sabacc deck I was fooling around with, and totally tech it out, and bring it to a local. It happened to go 2-0 against the top locals... so I considered it, but scrubbed it, it was too damn .. well gimmicky. Worked great, but wouldn’t last 4 games. So... I’ve got WYS raiders! four tournaments with only a timed loss... hmm... no everyone knows how to play against that. Well Let’s whip out profit, since no one expects profit, and it’s still not bad, and I used to play it alot.
Course, after about three nights of testing with Nick Burke, and one SUPER LONG night of playing with AJ delisle (more on that later), we find out profit sucks. out of like 30-50 games (we’re all fast players), it won like... five times? ug. Well I still got WYS raiders to back me up...
Darkside was easy. I’m gonna play the Nicholas Burke Deck, ISB scum... Burke style. This deck is like five times better than any other ISB scum i’ve seen, and it should be.. Nick’s been playing it since the world’s when it special edition came out, so he knows how to play it. I work on it a bit with him, adding a second arica, a Lat damage, and MORE SITES. Whenever I beat nick and he’s playing this, it’s cause he coudln’t find his sites.... so Four jabba’s Palaces, two audience chambers, and one Lower passages... and two Tatooines. 9 cards. I have a better chance of getting at least ONE Loc that a huntdown deck has of getting vader’s EVER. muahahha.
So it’s now thursday night, and I head over to nick’s for playtesting, since AJ is finally getting into town. Aj being the putz he is arrives at like 10:30 pm, and nick’s got to work in the morning, and is getting tired. There was a funny moment...
Aj walks in the door.. "Did you guys know there’s a F*CKING TRANSIT STRIKE???? How the F*ck am I gonna get to the airport???"
See, Aj has connections with an airline, and so gets to fly damn cheap... but only to where this airline goes. He was leaving friday morning at like 7 am, flying to LA, and then BUSSING 6 hours to Vegas... for like $60 canadian. That’s like $40 american. Nick and I, on the other hand, were flying out that night... and coming back sat night... for $300 canadian. damn.
Being the nice guy I am, I let aj con me into staying up all night playing cards with him, then bussing to the airport. Basically, this testing consists of my Huntdown raping everything he throw at it (cause i’m damn good with huntdown), and both our profits losing to EVERYTHING. at about 6:30, he goes "one more game", and whips out some crappy MWYHL xwing beatdown deck. I beat it, but only by about 4.... So i go "Damn man that deck is GOOD", and we start talking about all sorts of weird tech to add in... Alter for search and destroy, another trans terminated ... Yoda stu combo to screw with Dengar... it’s sounding neat :)
So I get home at like 7:30 am... and can’t sleep cause i’m thinkign about this crappy MWYHL xwing deck, and quickly write it up on my computer. Then I can sleep... but only until about 11 cause my roommates ex-girlfriend, who i hate talking to but now i’m friends with, and cause i’m too nice a damn guy, calls and wants to do something.. sigh. so I spend about five hours with her.. Then grab Nick, and hit the airport. He built the WYS european beatdown deck during the day, and was anxious to tech it out.
Anyways, we were almost late for our plane... Because I was so damn tired, I took a wrong turn in the airport and went into the hourly parking lot, which is HUGE and the exit is WAY far away, and I wasn’t about to pay HOURLY . So then I’m leaving it, and I have to explain to the casheir about how I don’t want to pay... well Cause us Canadians are all so damn nice, she lets me off scot free :P
On the plane, Nick and I had seperate seats, which was ok, I wanted to sleep. But I couldn’t sleep, so I whip out that CRAP PROFIT deck and start screwing around with it. I think... Man I lose with it only when I get force choked... so lets take out a few docking bays and add some twixes. ... hmm... lets yank the rest of these crappy docking bays, start goo nee tay, and add mos eisly cantina... hmm... now how to get these out... well I can always play with five control tunnel vissions, and get them back when i flip.. HOT DAMN this deck looks good ! :)
A little later, i’m trying to get some shut eye, when this GORGEOUS woman about my age (i’m 19) comes by and asks if I can bring her bag up front later... she’s about five rows up, but her bag is above me. Like i’m going to say no !
Well I get off the plane, giving the GORGEOUS woman her bag, and BAM slot machines. First thing you see when you get off the plane. It was pretty damn cool :P
Get in the taxi to go meet AJ at the hotel he got, and started taking pics with my one time use camera. Man vegas is cool!
Well we get to the hotel, and do some last minute teching. I show AJ the deck I wrote up at 7:30 am, and he goes "man this looks damn good", but it’s got some obvious holes, and AJ kinda takes what he has, takes what I have, and makes something good out of it. I test my profit twice, only losing to ISB scum Burke style by 15, so I’m happy with the deck (I should lose by 30+)...
Last minute arguments ensue about whether I should have lat damage in his deck (like nick) or den of theives (like AJ). I end up going with den of theives, cause it’s nick’s deck, screw AJ!
We TRY to sleep, but end up coming up with a neat @#$% deck, and just joke about that for about an hour. When Tatooine comes out, I’m gonna start working on it :)
Wake up at god awful hours of the morning, find out the shower has no hot water (strangely, the tap does...), and go to the convention center. We try the front door.. locked. Then I remember reading somewhere about how we have to go around the side... and BAM we find the DPC. We’re the first ones there.. what the hell. So we walk off somewhere to find some breakfast, but can’t find jack all. Nothing is open in Vegas at 8:30 am. but we get some subway at 9 am... I settle for an apple from a conveniance store.
I’m sitting around, and then i’m being rushed by this big dude...
" SAGAN!!!!"
takes me a second...
"HICKEY!!!!"
I last saw this guy at dcon last year... but whatever. He shows me the 6 emperor deck, and I go "whatever, i don’t think much of it"... damn cool deck though. But get this.... he’s using WHITE SLEAVES for his dark deck. Now that is the ugliest thing I ever saw... except for his whitebordered reactor terminal :P
But pairings start...
Game1: Profit vs Robert Seymour ( 1584 ), Ralops
RALOPS??? wtf? oh well, i’ll just start ou nee tay, and be guaranteed to not get force screwed. Auto win :P
So my opening hand has... FOUR control/Tunnels. sweet :) I free Han with master luke first turn, and get a twix out. He drops the emperor and sim outside of the audience chamber... hmm. Well. Han will now NEVER leave the audience chamber, for fear of force lightning. My second turn, I tunnel... find some crap, and set up the double jedi run luke run beatdown. Ben drops down, a lightsaber for both jedi, replace with jedi luke, battle, run luke run... Miss with both sabers. Draw like a 1. damn. He draws high enough that he out powers me AND ben’s not immune, so luke is revived without a stick. :( He drops Igar+tempest one vs my guys, and tries to cause some hurt, but no dice.. nothign happens on either side. I end up running away, and start draining him. He puts a walker on raltir... with an at-st pilot. Chewie protector comes down. no barrier. Cancel pilots text, now he has only 3 power, no destiny. Corran joins chewie. Barrier, damn. Well i fight, win by 3, he sacks the pilot. I start causing MORE profit damage, and whip out order to engage, and beat up igar + tempest 1 a bit. I move to the emperors site, and play CLASH of sabers, causing him a guaranteed 3 force loss for order to engage. I drain him out.
FW +15, 2(+15)
Props:
Control Tunnel Visions!
Slops:
after i retrieved those 4 tunnels, I only ever pulled them for destiny.
Game 2: ISB Scum Burke style vs Paul Tartagito (sp? rating unknown) Hidden Base matching pilots.
Well my deck works like it’s supposed to...turn 2, I have two jabba’s palace sites set up with chall, ORS’s, jabba, ephant mon, boelo. hutt influence too :P so he drains me for piddly amounts, I drain him for more... finally, I get tatooine and Occupation in my hand.. but i look at his force pile at end of his turn... NONE! so I twi’lek for lat damage, play it on the general cal/nien nunb falcon at kessel, zuckuss drops down, 4-lom in the passenger seat, and hit him for 11. he choses to Lose it!!! his turn, he moves to the lat damage, and draws... a 2!! muhaha! So i set up occupation... he moves luke in ship to kessel.. well. Bossk in bus, Guri in ship, Jabba’s cruiser and some ORS forfiet come down. He goes "where’d you get all those ships???" and I wreck luke. Occupation plus my isb enhanced drains, wreck him.
FW + 21, 4(36)
Props:
Lat damage, and him NEVER getting rid of it
Slops:
I couldn’t find scum till mid game
Well.. now i’m at the point where i’m sitting at one of the top two tables. This is already better than my other big tournies :P
Game 3: Profit vs Chris Shaner (1948) ISB Scum
I had just recently played shaner when I made a trip to Arizona... I won two games, so he’s looking for revenge. Right away, I know what he’s playing, and I’m thinking... auto loss for me.
Fortunately, he only got the lower passages site early on.... but he flips second turn. Well, I tunnel, find master luke. Drop him down. He none shall passes, it’s lost due to my Ounee tay start (second time...). I save force. Next turn, drop master luke. None shall pass. I tunnel for more mains. Save force.
3rd turn, drop luke. NO NONE SHALL PASS. drop leia, and chewie. luke’s stick. Start the fight, cancel boelo’s text, bounce someone else, wreck the chamber, except for one guy. Funny moment, we both pulled zero’s for destiny. now THAT is old school :P So his turn, he moves out of the chamber. My turn, I cancel scum, free han, drain for 1, 1 profit damage, and decide to not retrieve due to secret plans... i looked at my hand, and thought, I can either retrieve 5, and lose 6 next turn (drain at mos eisly, and jabba’s palace), or i can NABRUN LEADS and wreck him. Cause what i choosed? Nabrun leads to his site with 2 ORS and a vigo. I hit them all for foriet 0, and drew 6, 5 , 5 for destiny. he loses 20. Kyle craft is sitting beside me, and shaner says to him "Man who plays with that card?" Craft: "What card" me: "This card man, it just won me the game" . I block his drain, he runs. I whip out order to engage, block all his drains, and kill him.
FW + 29 6 (65)
Props:
Nabrun Leads!
Slops:
umm... I didn’t find my other anti scum tech, You will take me to jabba now.
So like wow... i’m second right now! woohoo :P Aj is like fifth or something, so there are now TWO canadians at the top table :P
Game 4: ISB Scum Burke Style vs Jason Ayre Eurpoean WYS beatdown (1875)
Well he starts draw their fire... and now i’m sitting beside Jonny Chu, which is cool :P He looks over at the opponenets start, and says "Dood, don’t you think your giving it away?" And jason replies "yeah but they can’t do sh!t about it"... Jonny: "true"
Unfortunately for Jason, I knew how to beat his deck.
I set up like 3rd turn, at the lower passages and audience chamber. I would NOT go to jabba’s palace, this would allow him to drop luke at the docking bay, where i can’t none shall pass him, RLR him in, clash, sorry about the mess, and blah blah blah. game. so I’m draining for 4, he’s draining for 3 at kessel. he drops a raider+craft to jabba’s palace to drain for 1 more, which I promptly drop arica on :) I save five force a turn, just cause. He drops begger, beggers all my force to get luke to the lower passages, plus two of his. None shall pass. beggar lost. I track that none shall pass... and feel confident with the second one in my hand. I pick up the one I used, and save five force. Beggar, luke again, none shall pass. Track it. next turns go by, and he drops luke without a beggar... my last none shall pass, even though I tracked another one. so my turn.. I now have every ship i need, so I drop them to kessel and beat the CRAP out of the outrider i think it was. so his turn... he FINALLY drops luke inside, and han, and battle, and triples it. I have to lose all my guys, plus like 8 more cause scouts have monster forfiet, and he missed one. GHHHK with my last force.. muhaha.
So now I drop some guys in front of luke, break arica’s cover, start two fights, clear out luke and the raider, retrieve 6 for it, get occupation going, and he has nothing out... he deploys in space again, but just ends up running away all the time, and drops luke to the cantina for the drain of one.. he was afraid of the none shall pass :P I drain him out.
FW + 26 8 (91)
So now i’m top.. man my goal for the weekend is complete :) muhaha
Well Aj, Nick and I are all hungry as hell, and have some time to the next game, so take off for the 15 minute or so walk to get some food. They get some pizza from the slice, and I get... nothing... just cause. Now.. a little side note here.
I swear, everyone in Vegas who doesn’t work for some touristy job is either retarded, The ugliest thing on earth, or both. With so many tourist related jobs in vegas, that obviously pay more than some crap convenience store job, anyone with a shred of looks and/or competetance will get that job. Leaving all the dregs of society you never want to see in other jobs. Anytime i got food or anything from a ’normal’ place, the person was slow as hell, didn’t know what the crap they were doing, and were also ugly as all hell.
Ok :) now that that’s off my chest...
Game 5: ISB Scum Burke Style vs Jonathan Chu, Throne Room Mains ( 2182 )
Well. Let’s start off by saying Jonny is a damn cool guy :P
If you’ve read his tourney report, you know how this went. I got the most GOD AWFUL DRAW EVER. I have NEVER EVER seen such bad luck... even the times i’ve beat nick/aj when they’re playing this deck. it took me at least 6 turns to find a SINGLE LOCATION... of 9. He got a grimtassh on me around turn 4-5, but since i was getting god awful draws, and also being carefull of what i drew since i’d search my reserve each turn, he only got 2 ORS. muhaha! :P
I felt pretty pathetic. I was sittin’ beside AJ, he was also playing dark. I was still drawing for sites, AJ already had 3 sites covered and Tat Occ going. Bah.
Well i finally get set up, he’s got like 5 twixes and jedi luke on coruscant draining me. I used like all of my 7 force to drop jabba, chall bekan, 3 ORS, boelo, ephant mon, and maybe some other crap. He got me pretty good in a battle, and clashed boba.... and killed jabba, who he had earlier out of commisioned. The clash boba gave me an advantage... I could leave the audience chamber for a turn or two, and not have him cancel scum. Also gave me an extra occupation damage, since i got out Tat occ that same turn. Well, his turn, he found blount... good timing. So i hit him for 5, and start to find crap, finally getting my game going. He drops the tantive with corran and melas vs my zuckuss in hunter, 4-lom, and maybe another ship? so my turn, I drop some more ships, FORGET TO DEPLOY LAT DAMAGE, and beat the crap out of his ship. He draws a 5 of course, since he’s activating boatloads allowing for easy destiny setup. So next turn, he drops han on ship, chewie and some punk on cloudcity (I think), and gets some off the edge/on the edge action going. Well ok. Lat damage falcon, beat the SNOT out of it, causing 9 overflow... I also dropped arica in the chamber to prevent an earlier drain death. He moves to block my drains, and I die... but I turned what should have been a loss of 30 into a loss of 13.
FL - 13 8 (78)
Props:
Jonny for being such a damn cool guy
Slops:
ISB scum for needing to draw crap... Lat damage sitting in my hand when i shoudl have deployed it. Mistake #1.
Bah. Well AJ won his game... so at least one canadian is still undefeated :P
Game 6: My gay profit vs Dan Lujan (2007) Court mains deck
AJ had just beat this guy with his dark... so now I have to play him.
This was an EXTRAORINARLY interactive game... I saw him start with IAO, secret plans, and something else.... made me kinda think it wasn’t scum, so I started Goo Nee Tay (for the first time this tourney). He started Mighty Jabba and EPP Boba in the chamber, and for his first turn, got like ephant mon or something. First turn, Massa luke for free outside the chamber, lando + axe to chamber. Lando is barriered. his turn, he battle, i run luke run... destinies go bad for me, so i lose lando. Next turn, I drop some back up, and battle again.. more bad destinies and stuff, i lose everything :( So my turn, I drop ounee tay to get back master luke, tunnel for some crap, and try to clear the chamber.. no dice, MORE bad destinies. Well he just began to PILE guys on the chamber (he was getting crap activation though, since i converted his audience chamber... he was getting like 9 a turn, but so was I). So leia came down with someone who loves you to get han out. I watched his blast door controls go off the top once i started causing damage.. good. This is where i started getting tricky.. he’d been draining me at rendili (which he had to draw for) for awhile, and little bits elsewhere, so I was getting low. Well I started hitting him for 3-5 a turn (drains + profit), and had order to engage out. So he’d battle luke at the audience chamber. Narrow Escape. lose 3. I’d sit there, hit him for some more. He’d battle... you will take me to jabba now, to move luke to jabba’s site. Lose 3. Track the narrow escape into hand... lose 3. muhaahah!
In the end, I ran out of cards first....
FL - 9 8 (69)
Props:
The game, very interactive
Slops:
I had honor out, and forgot about it for first strike damage all game. He initiated like 8 battles on me.... mistake # 2
Game 7: ISB Scum Burke Style Vs Brian Hunter (2329) Hidden Mains
Well.. I was kinda happy with this matchup, My deck shoudl beat hidden mains, and Shaner had beat hunter earlier with his ISB Scum.
But I played one of the WORST GAMES OF MY LIFE.
bah. :P
He just deployed outside jabba’s palace, to start pinging me with drains.. then he whipped out corulag... So I drop zukuss with an ORS to head over to yoda’s hutt,.. Mistake #3. On one turn, i forgot to land zuckuss. He dropped home1 + super falcon at corulag.. well ok, I got every ship I need. Guri in boat, bossk in boat, jabba’s cruiser + 2 ORS... he barriered bossk. I lat damage home1, then DON’T BATTLE. WTF!!! I Have like 13 power + 2 destiny to his 7 + 1... bah. So I lose 3 to order to engage. That’s Mistake of the tourney #4. So we exchange drains, and he alters my Lat damage, but I still wreck him in space, with my monster forfiet scouts, and zuckuss+4-lom joining the party,,.. and i’m outdraining him, even though he’s retrieving tons despite secret plans. So eventually, he drops han+leia on the falcon again, and moves to dagobah.. he’s going after my scout! This was right after I got Tat Occ going, so i’m hitting him for TONS, and he’s running low ( less then 20 cards),... so If i was smart, i’d notice he wouldn’t be able to drain at all 3 of his sites due to battleplan, AND retrieve, and track easily... course, i’m not smart, so this is mistake # 5- 9 or so for all the itmes i made him forget to pay.... well the turn before he lands in front of my scout, I draw like a madman for my ghhhk.. and find it, last card of my forcepile, leaving me only two cards left. This was a luck thing, if it was in the middle, or earlier, I’d have enough force to pay for Aim High for retrieving a scout a turn, and for the battle I was gonna start vs the landed falcon. but no... Last card. So i waste my scout, and ghhhk it. Now, his turn, he drains (for free cause i’m dumb), and takes off. I hit him for tons .. 4 for drains on ground, 2 for drains in space, 2 for occ. less then I wanted, but good enough. His turn, he activates, ready to do some draining and retrieval, but I FINALLY remember to make him pay... so I’m down to three cards, and he moves the falcon infront of zuckuss + 4-lom at tatooine. my turn, I think it over, hit him for 7, leaving him 4.. and there is no way I can lose less than 3 cards, and just lose to OTE.
FL - 4
8 + 64
Props:
Hunter, Alot of people go to a tournament just hoping to play against Jesus :P
Slops:
Me, the SUPER SCRUB.
Well i’m 4-3.. no way of getting in the finals, and Nick convinces me to drop, so we go and hang out on the town till 10:30 at night, then hit the airport... on the taxi trip there, we were kinda dismayed, cause we hadn’t found a tacobell. For those who don’t know, Tacobell almost doesn’t exist in west canada.. there is like maybe TWO. And they’re in the middle of nowhere. But, to our Delight, in the Airport... TACOBELL! With the most BUT UGLY guy working there ever. They even forgot one of my damn tacos, so I had to lay the Canadian Smack down on that ugly freak.. what a shmuck.
Funny thing happened at the airport slots.. nick found a quarter on the floor, put it in... won $5. So he gave me $1 of it, i put in a quarter.. win $5. So now of course, we didn’t want to carry this change around.. Man I hate slots, I kept winning :P Took awhile to get rid of the cash.
We finally get on the plane about 11:30, and cause Nick is THE MAN, grabs the wrong seats. We got the emergency aisle... now on this plane, there were two emergency aisle’s, one after the other, but nick grabbed the wrong one, which happend to ONLY have us two in it, while if we were in the other one, we would’ve had to share with another person... and the guys who came along didn’t make us switch, they just took ours. So we got to stretch out :P So it was a nice sleep home..
Props:
Girard, a very well run tournament, waaay better than anything i’ve seen decipher do.
Jonny Chu, for being an awesome guy
Hunter, for playing me :P
Nick Burke, for being the ISB scum champ
The free nudie mags on the street
All the hot chicks on the strip
Elvis!!!
The giant Slot Machine
Chris Shaner, for being wrecked by me, but still making finals.. I own you Shaner! 3-0! muhahah!
Slops:
ISB Scum for crapping out on me
AJ for choking in his last game, going 6-2, and not having the differential to make the finals
Me, for being under 21
Everyone who didn’t work at a tourist thing