nj-states-no-hold-on-lose-1
Title: nj-states-no-hold-on-lose-1
Author: Greg "TychoCelchu" Shaw
Date: May 22, 2001
So it’s a week before States and I haven’t had much playtesting because one of my friends is horrible at the game and I win every time, my other friend isn’t going to States and doesn’t want to playtest at all, and my final SWCCGing friend has track all week. So I get nothing done for a whole week, until Saturday night when Jon and Bill stay at my house overnight and I FINALLY get some good games in, against Bill, after a week of no games (Jon sucks and Bill runs track). Now that night is where the title of this Report comes from. Jon is sleeping and snoring loud as hell, and Bill and I are thinking of how to get Ewoks In The Court to work (see what sleep deprivation does to you?). All of a sudden, Jon stops snoring, gets up a little bit, and mumbles "No, hold on, lose one," all while sleeping! What’s even funnier is that he started to reach for Bill’s leg when he did this! Me and Bill are dieing of laughter when Jon wakes up and doesn’t know why we’re laughing. We ask him if he was awake about 5 minutes ago, and he’s says "no." So we laugh some more, get the Ewoks/Agents to work (surprisingly), then sleep.
Wake up Sunday, leave at 8:30. We drive for almost two hours, getting lost a few times because Yahoo’s MapQuest sucks the big one and we still manage to get there at 10. Unfortunately, the store doesn’t open for another half hour, so we stand around doing nothing. Finally, we head in and talk about the upcoming competition. I have my money on Mike Dalton or Scott Lingrell, and Bill and Jon have no clue what they’re talking about. Ghetto Squadron shows up wearing Burger King hats and arguing about who’s going to win that irresistible fanny pack. We start only 20 minutes late, not bad for a big event. A total of 28 players showed up.
My decks:
Dark- MKOS/Scum with Abyssins and plenty of characters
Light- WYS with Celebration and Harvests for Retrieval, with a small emphasis on spies and the use of Nightfall
My rating before the tourney is 1530. I suck.
Game 1
My DS vs. Jon Dansbury (1443) Hidden Operatives
This is both good and bad. Bad: I can play Jon whenever I feel like it. He lives 5 minutes away from me. I drove 2 hours and now I have to play someone I know. Good: Me playing Jon is like a getting a bye with differential. I have only lost to him like once or twice in my whole SWCCG career. Also, he’s using my deck minus 10 cards, so I know what’s in it, how to beat it, and how to prevent losing to it.
I start with the normal Scum setup; Jabba, Bib, Elephant Man, Gailid, Mosep, and Boelo throughout Jabba’s Palace, and I’m holding some key cards in my hand (Mara, Xizor, some people in ships).
He sets up as usual, pulling planets with Hidden Base, Deserts and Sandwhirls with Kirdo III, and DBs with Insurrection.
I flip fast and start canceling his drains with Myo and a few with Control & SFS. I’m holding a third C&SFS in my hand to cancel one of his Sandwhirls when he doesn’t save any force so I can beatdown on his Operative in Patrol Craft without him moving as a react. Unfortunately, the situation never arose and the game was very non-interactive. I just sat back and drained until he was low, retrieved a few with Jabba’s Twerps, and drained him out.
FW +24
2 (+24)
The Good: Getting a win and some good dif
The Bad: Getting good dif, next I’ll get stuck in the winners bracket and have to play somebody good who I can’t beat
The Ugly: Greg Hodur and Pete Flamini had to play each other in Game 1. Needless to say, they were quite pissed. In the end, Greg won by 2 and he made Pete sign his Burger King hat.
Game 2
My LS vs. John Lolli (1865) ISB Imperial Commands
This sucks. I hate playing against ISB. I hate playing Big Blue. What I can’t stand is ISB/Big Blue.
He gets out Ozzel, Piett, Merrejk in the Executer, and Chimaera (no Thrawn yet) really fast, while I’m taking forever on the nice, safe ground at Tatooine. Things are looking good when I drop Nightfall on Endor, then Boushh (broken cover) and Lando w/Axe to the Endor DB for free to try to get rid of his ORS in Blizzard 2. I drew a 2 or a 3, short of breaking the walkers immunity while Boushh dies and Lando runs to the Tatooine DB so he doesn’t get jumped by Agents who deploy for free (Nightfall).
He converts my Kessel (although his text is cancelled from my objective) and chases Cappy Han and Mirax around in space. I try to make a stand after getting out Thereon Nett in Red 10. I get three destiny, and 1 for power, but I draw extremely low and he loses Merrejk while over powering me by a lot. He doesn’t get past my immunity, so everyone stays alive. He loads up on characters and we battle some more, until all that’s left is an empty Falcon (damn Guri).
His turn, he drops Arica to the Cantina and U-3PO to the DB to stop my drains. I send EPP Luke to the Cantina and drop Bacta Tank. Next I drop Corran Horn to the Endor DB, where he deploys for free, transit him to the Tat. DB for 7 (I saved three force), and brake U-3PO’s cover. He drops Lord Vader and Tarkin to the Cantina, breaks Arica’s cover, and battles. I swing at Tarkin, draw a 5, cancelled, then a 4 and Mess him. Arica and Luke both die, but Luke goes for a swim in the Tank.
My turn, I take Luke back and forget to drain (common when you’re a scrub), not that it really matters as I’m almost dead anyway. Down goes the Lars Moisture Farm, Luke’s aunty and uncle, and the started reaping the benefits of a good crop season. Luke goes down again to the Cantina, battle, miss Vader with the swing, and draw a 4 and a 1 for destiny. Vader lives (albeit barely ), and Luke dies yet again to the tank.
He spreads out in space and gets out Admiral Chirpmunk or whatever and drains for too much. Another ORS/Walker comes down to beat on Owen and Beru, they get in one more Harvest, then die a horrible death, though not in vain as they take out the walker and the ORS in the process (I love my high destiny average). Next turn I die.
FL -17
2 (+7)
The Good: Giving John a good game, until he wrecked me in space.
The Bad: Getting wrecked in space
The Ugly: Getting wrecked for 24 battle damage in space.
Game 3
My LS vs. Jon Dansbury (1445) Hunt Down without dueling
Mwuhaha! I am the supreme champion of getting good matchups. This should be another autowin, as I built his friggin’ deck and it’s like half made of my cards.
He doesn’t find Vader for a while and we both have a good sized lost pile by the time Vader goes to the D* DB. Now I have to draw like a madman to find one of my two OOC&TTs. Not much happened meanwhile. Mara and Piett showed up, but Mara got Messed by Luke’s vibrator and Piett took about 10 cards to the lost pile with him after getting shot by the handsome black man (Lando). Jon flipped back after I got out Luke, since daddy Skywalker was in the Meditation Chamber and we both started losing some more. I had some huge drains going at Kessel, Tatooine, and the DBs with the help of ITTL. I finally found an OOC&TT, after Vader got back to the D* DB, but TT was cancelled by HoloNet Transmission. Then I played it out of my lost pile to cancel.
His turn, he drops another Visage, but on my turn I C&TV for my other OOC&TC to cancel yet again. He drops ANOTHER Visage, but I play out of my lost pile to cancel. I win the drain race without problems, but I get low dif from drawing to get the OOC&TT.
FW +17
4 (+24)
The Good: More win points and dif for me
The Bad: Playing a friend
The Ugly: Piett against Luke, Lando, and Wedge.
Game 4
My DS vs. John Terkovich (1596) TRM
This game was horrible. First turn, he drops 4 twix sites and EPP han to Tat: JP. I can’t pull any sites, but I had the AC in my hand. This force choke would condemn me for the rest of the game. Boelo goes down to the AC, and I decide to eat the drain of 2 and draw some. Next he drops Harc Seff (aka God). My turn again. I get out Mara, but no saber, and initiate. He hits Mara with Blaster Prof and Han dies. His turn, he drops another EPP Han to the AC, Draw Their Fire, and initiates against a lone Boelo. Draw Their Fire and First Strike work their lovin’. Han misses Boelo and I lose 1. Harc Seff moves over. I drop somebody, forget who, and intiate. Boelo gets shot and whoever else it was dies, and so does Han. His turn, I cancel the drain with C&SFS. Lando with Axe comes down to the AC to back up Harc.
My turn, I drain, but Harc stops it (and he would for the whole god dammed game). Another Mara goes to the AC. Up until now, I had been pulling 5s and 6s for destiny like my whole deck was made out of them. But when I try to Nevar Yalnal Lando, I draw a 2. Sucks to be me.
He drops somebody else down to the AC (EPP Leia, perhaps?). I didn’t really care at this point, I knew I was going lose, and lose like I’ve never lost before. Battle, DTF and FS, his lost pile is no more. He tries to exclude Mara, but I draw a 6 (where was that for Nevar Yalnal?!?). Mara gets shot and I take some spillage. I’m really low on force now, and John has a mean looking life force. In a last-ditch effort Xizor goes down and initiates at the AC. I draw another 5 when Lando tries to exclude him (wtf? Where are these destinies when I REALLY need them?). Lando dies and Harc lives to suck up Jabba’s game-long drain for two at the JP yet again. Backup arrives in the form of Jedi Luke and saber. Xizor gets chopped, Jedi Luke is drawn for destiny, and I die from overflow. He counts up his life force and doesn’t stop for quite a while. This was by far the worst game I have ever played. I was choked to 7 force a turn, and I lost the Lower Passages and the Passenger Deck to drains before I could get them out. "Worst episode, ever" for all of you Simpsons fans out there-you know who you are...
FL -43
4 (-19)
The Good: I’m in the losers bracket, easy matchups now
The Bad: He started WAY too fast and just locked me down in like 2 turns
The Ugly: <-Insert Game 4 here->
I considered dropping after this point, like a few others did, but I decided against it. I felt horrible and needed to redeem myself. But first, lunch break. Jon, being a dumbass, spent all of his money on cards so he couldn’t buy food. Unfortunately, the pizza place next door was closed on Sundays (What’s wrong with having a tourney on a Saturday?), so we had to walk a block to a different place. We started talking to this cool guy, Andrew Last-name-that-I-won’t-try-to-spell, who was a newbie like me and Bill. We started talking about Ramapo, and I said I probably wasn’t going cuz it costs bagillions of dollars, but I found out that I am actually going to go. So Andrew, if you read this, I’ll see you there.
We got back just in time for Game 5.
Game 5
My LS vs. Andrew Cirigliano (1465) SYCFA Ties
This is good for me, because my WYS rapes TIEs. He gets set up in space, while I can’t find anything for space except Mirax, but I do find some ground. He gets a TIE with a cannon to my system and blows away a lone Mirax in Skate. He drains for quite some time at Tatooine while I’m waiting to amass a small fleet in my hand and I’m draining on ground with Lando, Wedge, Corran, and some RFCs. He gets out Endor and Kashyyyk and we’re both paying to drain because of Battle Order. For a while, nothing happens except the Tat DB floods with Dark Waters. Finally, Cappy Han in the Falcon and Red 10 and Thereon Nett jump two TIEs and a Dreadnaught at Tatooine. I also drop ITTL to lower his power and Celebration to start retrieving. He doesn’t save force to shoot, so the Falcon doesn’t die. I get 3 destinies, but draw high, low, low and he keeps one TIE.
He doesn’t have any reinforcements in hand, so he just initiates with the lone TIE and tries to blow away the Falcon with maneuver seven courtesy of Cappy Han and a RFC. He draws a 1, so the falcon lives. I draw pretty high and he has a lot of spillage. I now have Menace Fades and Battle Plan covered, whereas he’s paying to drain for 2 at Endor and 1 at Kashyyyk.
During this time, I had to pee real bad, and if I didn’t go soon, I think my bladder would’ve exploded. Andrew’s a nice guy, and we had 20 minutes left still, so he wasn’t mad the I got up to pee about 5 times (somebody must’ve had chili or something, because the bathroom was occupied for a good 10 minutes).
So I get back and feel the best I’ve felt all day. The game is pretty close now, were draining for about the same, and we’re both low on life. I new I could win, I just had to find Owen and Beru, because I had 2 Harvests and a LMF in hand. Unfortunately, I lost them off the top to a drain. It took me a few turns to track them back after retrieving them with Celebration, but I did and took control of the game. I got to Harvest 4 times (2 cards, twice from Lost Pile) before I drained him out, or he drew up, I forget which.
FW +29
6 (+10)
The Good: This was a great game, and close until Owen and Beru started Harvesting, and I finished without a lost pile
The Bad: The Pulsar Skate getting blown away
The Ugly: Cappy Han and a RFC in the Falcon and Thereon Nett in Red 10 against a lone TIE
Game 6
My DS vs. Bill Kafer (14xx) WYS semi-Winklehaus/Falke style
My crazy-mad-sexy-cool-good-luck works again, I get to finish on a good note. I beat Bill like 90% of the time I play him, but he’s known for giving me a run for my money, sometimes. We playtested this matchup quite a few times, and I always win.
We start by both going our own ways; I set up at my JP sites while he takes the Cantina, Tatooine, and the Tat DB. Everything is fine and dandy, until he deploys Kessel with Wedge in RS1. This is unacceptable. Down come Zuckuss and Dengar in their ships, I draw low but he doesn’t have immunity thanks to Dengar and he dies. I don’t really remember anything else that happened, as we played this matchup so many times and the games all kinda blur together. I don’t think anything else happened in space. On the ground, we skirmished a few times, but I only remember one battle. It was his Lando with Axe and a Freighter Captain against Mara and Dr. E & PB. I tried to Nevar Yalnal that handsome black devil, but missed, not that it really mattered. Initiate, retrieve with First Strike and Scum, and Bill says he’s playing something from his lost pile, but I point to his empty Force Pile, then to First Strike. He shuts up soon thereafter. Mara swings and hits Lando, Dr. E operates, and the RFC dies with some overflow. He draws up, gives me a chance to play any used interrupts, I win.
FW +24
8 (+34)
The Good: Finishing with a good game, Bill giving me the opportunity to play any used interrupts, even though I had none.
The Bad: none
The Ugly: That last battle
So I finish 9th, I think, out of 28, which isn’t bad for me. As you’ve all heard plenty of times by now, Dalton beat Scott by 9 cards in the final duel. On to Props and Slops:
Props:
-Me for coming in 9th after the horrible Game 4 loss
-Me for coming in 9th, period
-Me for getting three easy wins with my super-keen-ultra-cool-best-luck-matchups-against-people-I-can-beat
-Rich Haman for running a smooth tourney
-Ghetto Squad for wearing those BK crowns, I am so dam jealous of you!
Slops:
-Pizza place next door for being closed on Sundays
-Read game 4 again
-Jon for thinking he’s butt buddies or something with Pete and Greg (I truly feel sorry for you guys)
-Me for being too egotistical and giving myself 3 props (this should even it out)
-Game 4 again
Hope you enjoyed!
Greg