ramapocon-3-kim-caton
Title: ramapocon-3-kim-caton
Author: Kimberly "Arwen Even*" Caton
Date: Jun 13, 2001
Okay, this is more of a con report than a tourney report, but there are some games thrown in where I rememberJ
So my weekend starts on Thursday, when I wake up at 8am to pack and arrive at Scott Lingrell’s house at 10 to help him pack. I pull up in front of his house at around 10:20 (cuz I’m always late for everything) and we start loading up tables, food, coolers, prize support, and all the stuff from my car (cards, board games, more cards, table) into the back of a U-Haul. About an hour and a half later, we head off to Tom Hermley-Keen’s house to pick up a gas grill and more coolers.
Tom lives on the side of what looks like a mountain when you’re on the way up. I don’t think the U-Haul liked it. Maybe that’s why Scott couldn’t get the emergency brake to disengage after we left, heavy one gas grill. The upside to this - the mileage counter wasn’t moving. The down side - the godawful squealing noise and the fact that we had to drive for an hour with the brake and check engine lights on. But hey - at least we got there, right?
So the first thing we see is Johnny Chu sitting in the parking lot in his mom’s car waiting for us to show up. Scott talks Chu’s mom into driving him over to the building where he has to pick up all the housing keys for everyone. The next thing I see is Johnny Chu running behind his mom’s car because he left his glasses in it. Run, Johnny Chu, run! Johnny Chu didn’t run fast enough.
Scott walks back bout ten minutes later and the three of us pile into the cab and head off to housing, where what to my wondering eyes should appear… but Bart Robinson, Mike Dalton, and some guys from Oregon. So Scott concentrates on getting everyone set up in their rooms and storing all the food we have in the fridges. I get put on sign duty, and therefore spend the better part of two hours assembling direction signs and wandering around campus taping them to everything standing still. I arrive back at housing hot, tired, and grumpy.
However, showers are wonderful things, and after partaking of one I join everybody else heading over to the student center to set up and have the early bird tournament. I think it got about 10 or 12 people, counting latecomers, and I don’t remember enough about my games to report them. I played pretty much the same decks all weekend, Dagoboring (described as "teched beyond belief") and ISB/Hoth/Landing (which "I had to have balls to play"). However, I do remember that I went 3-1 and lost to Pat Ziagos’ RalOps because of the ROC/Anger in Him combo. I decided to put an On the Edge into my light to take care of any of that I might encounter over the weekend (I call …6! Oops, no 7’s in the deck, guess he dies).
The next morning my a$$ is woken up by Scott at around 6:45 to start setting up the playing room, registration and all that other fun stuff. Registration ended up starting a wee bit late ( we got yelled at by the college staff for closing the fire doors to keep out the line, which apparently would have ensured our death by inferno had one started) but everything went pretty smoothly and many YJ demo decks were forced upon all (Decipher must have cleaned them out of their warehouse, that was the product we gave out when you registered. I had permission to throw them at people who refused to take them… sorry again, Sokol, I hope that bruise is gone). I also got put on peel-the-name-sticker-and-put-it-on-the-badge duty because I have long-ish nails. Or at least I did at the time. More on that later.
But, I have to leave the registration tables to write out my decklists for the DPC, which I get in just under the wire because I kept coming up with 60 cards in my dark deck and only 59 on my list… Chris Gogolen eventually finds the problem when he realizes that my writing is so small that I have Blizzards 1 and 2 written on the same line, and therefore only counting as one card. No DQ’s for this girl THIS time! Note to self: write bigger in the future. Especially at DecipherCon.
For the DPC I ultimately end up going 4-4, which sounds bad but considering that I started out at 1-4 (!) I wasn’t all that upset overall. As far as games go, I was too tired to remember much detail but I’ll try. My deck performance had my light going 3-1 and my dark going 1-3.
The only light loss I had (and 1st game) was to a speed Dark Deal deck with Disturbance in the Force… (I think it was a guy from Oregon but I can’t be sure). DitF didn’t have all that much of an effect but I couldn’t get my Jedi test 1 set up fast enough (1st turn activate the training area, second turn I activated test 1, first time I drew for test destiny I got the Tantive and Kessel… bad stuff). He got off one turn’s worth of DD for 12 damage and I Iost some cards but nothing TOO bad… I eventually pass some tests and drop down at Bespin on a lone ship (Zuckuss, I think) that he had with RlinR1 and a cannon… I had a destiny set up so Zuckuss goes bye-bye. Next turn he comes down with Ozzel in Vader’s shuttle (maneuver 2). Now, here’s where Kim is an idiot… I say (actually SAY) "well, I could target him for free, but why bother." So I don’t. I just… don’t. I draw a Visored Vision for my battle destiny (a 3) which would have been my weapon destiny. I lose RL, he loses Ozzel, and the shuttle survives. I can’t find my other ships, and that %$!!@# ability 2 shuttle sits there the entire rest of the game satisfying Battle Plan and holding down CC Occupation. I lost by a lot. Whoever’s reading this, next time you see me, slap me. Maybe that way I’ll remember for next time. And between games… 3 and 4, I think, I accidentally knocked my cell phone into the sink in the bathroom. Running sink + cell phone = total submersion and buzzing, vibrating, smoking cell phone. Why me? I was getting a new one the following week anyway (I needed a new one for work) but I was planning on using it to keep myself from getting backed up on cases over the weekend. Plus all my friends laughed at me.
The only dark win I had was against Steve Kuperman (I’m almost positive it was for the DPC) and his Tat Slave Quarters/Harvest/Revo/Force Choke Deck. Details on this one were a bit fuzzier, it was much later in the day, but I know I had Decree staving off his Revos, HDWHITM and Harvest grabbed, and his attempts at draining me on Tatooine pretty much shut down. I had Arica undercover at my Coruscant Imp. Square where he had Corran Horne and a couple of other characters… he forgot Corran’s game text and as a result she stayed there a hell of a lot longer than I though she would (I had a ghhk, a Den of Thieves, and a couple of ORS in my hand just in case he remembered, but it was still nice). I won by a bit. The DPC was really well run, and when it was down to the final 4 we all ran back to the dorm lounge where the playoffs were going to be held. Since I got back earlier than most and was really tired, I changed into my pj’s and settled down in a front-row seat on the other side of the glass to watch. As soon as I was able to tell that the final was going to be TJ vs. Don, I offered up my primo chair to some lucky individual (there was quite a crowd, I think it was a Canadian) and went to bed.
Day 3 saw me sleeping in until… I think it was 8:30 or so. Got my deck lists in late, but I groveled a bit and squeaked by. Swore I was more awake today, time to turn over a new leaf and stop screwing up perfectly good decks with idiotic mistakes. Yeah, like that’s going to last… I went 5-3, 3-1 dark (?!?!) and 2-2 light.
Game 1 I remember perfectly clearly. I was the first match called and all I heard for my opponent was "Hayes." My first thought was, "Hunter or Clint?" My second thought was "Does it really matter?" He was playing Tatooine/Revo, the same type of deck I had beaten yesterday, though, so hope gleamed. I set up, I drain, I hit him with Landing… He sets up, gets his Bo’Marr Monk set up for a drain of 2 which I can only cancel with Den and ORS for so long… He Nabruns some characters over to Hoth, I realize after he’s battled and gotten rid of some of my stuff that I had a Ghhhk/Those Rebels Won’t… the whole time. I bang my head on the table a bunch of times, he tells me he had a second Nabrun anyway so I stop. I can’t find Arica to save my life.. So it’s really close, we’re losing about the same amount of force to each other, and during the last four turns or so our conversation consists of "Kim, I think you got me." "No, dude, it’s all you." "Damn, Kim, I think I’m going to lose." "Hayes, you’re going to come out ahead." So on my next to last turn, I ascertain that he has three cards left after I hit him for 3 with Landing. I have 6, but I have to draw up for an ORS to cancel one of his drains of 2, which would leave me with one card to spare to get him next turn with my Landing for his last 3. Eager to find that ORS which I know is in my force pile, I completely forget to drop (for free, with Sunsdown) the ORS I have sitting on Den to the walker sitting in front of a couple of his characters for forfeit fodder, should he draw a high enough destiny to kill both characters and make the walker ineligible for Landing damage. Next turn, he drains me down to 1 card, initiates, and sure enough, clears my walker - I would have still had one pilot with the spare ORS. My control phase, he loses two instead of 3 and wins by 1 card. At this point, I a) have lost one of my long nails and b) remember that had I cancelled that Nabrun he had played earlier, he might have played his other one but that was one less card he would have had in his reserve deck. Grrrrrr…
My other games consisted of me losing with my light to Andres S. from Florida and Chris Twigg thanks to the fact that I realized halfway through one of the games that I had no Wise Advise combo card in my deck, so all my interrupts got sensed to death… I beat Scott Anderson with my light because I held onto the Spiral in my hand as one of my last, like 8 cards period… I beat Doug Faust with my dark due to a grabber/ Secret Plans combo leaving him without enough force to play that last-minute harvest… I beat Jonathon Marchi because he was playing EBO vs. my Hoth walker deck in a bad matchup for him… and that’s all I remember. I was 5-2 going into the last round and hoping for a more respectable showing, but that’s when I encountered Chris Twigg, the lousy bum. Immediately following the tournament, I went over to help Bart at the "selling-stuff" stand because we weren’t selling enough raffle tickets and Bart isn’t pushy like I am… so I immediately starting attacking anybody that wandered within a 30-foot radius and informing them that they were purchasing tickets. Apparently it worked, because I sold a lot… and won a DVD to boot. I got Gladiator (which I already have), but through an intense series of complicated negotiations involving me, Tom H-K, Steven Lewis’ fiancee, and Hayes Hunter, I ended up with Half-Baked, with which I could bride my roommates to do dishes for viewing privileges.
The team tournament REALLY went by in a blur… I went 0-4 (which I have never done before, even in my first sanctioned tournament ever I went 2-2) but refused to drop after each game because 1) I didn’t want this to be my 0 for x ever and 2) I never drop, it’s a personal policy. The only tourney I ever dropped from was the invitational at Dcon 2 years ago, but that was because I had wanted to play in the EPP Overdrive. I lost to Pete Srodoski first round, ???? second round, timed loss to Aaron Kingery third round, and hmmmm, I’m 0-3, and who do I get paired up with ? John Hawkins’ evil Brangus / podracing / Sabacc deck.
I remember the game against Aaron only because I knew he was playing inserts and for some strange reason did not start Resistance (he didn’t occupy a battleground the whole game). So the first thing he says when we start is why do I have Sebulba’s Podracer in the deck, anybody who loses to just Sebulba (with no interrupts) is gay. Shouldn’t have said that, Aaron…I go on to win the podrace. He takes no damage from it (an It Could Be Worse, which I grabbed) but I get to retrieve 6 of the 11 force I lost to a numbers insert earlier. I had dropped down with a walker, a pilot, and a trample to get rid of Artoo and cut down his numbers total, but numbers popped when I drew the trample destiny. WTF???? Numbers went through before the trample, so that’s an extra 6 in my lost pile…
Anyway, after my mercifully short fourth game I went to bed. I found out the next morning that my team (Team Tired, it was me, Andres, David Irvine, and some Ross guy) came in third. Well hey, I can ride coattails. I have no scruples.
I decide to indulge myself and sleep in the next day, so I wake up around… I think it was 10 or so. I arrive at the Student Center too late to join the Reflections booster draft, but Nathan Brown (who’s running it) has to take off so I get put in charge of the Command Cards. Ah, the power… mwahahahaha. There are some people just milling around hanging out, and I just bought a Hoth 2-player set because I never actually bought one, so I ask Bastien if he wants to play while he waits for his ride to the airport. He says sure and we indulge in the most ridiculous game of Star Wars I have ever played. "My droid defuses your timer mine" is so much funnier when said with a German accent… I get taken down singlehandedly by a Tauntaun and a Tauntaun handler and lose my chance to give Bastien his only light loss of the weekend. We also had some hot TD debates going on, with much consulting of CRD’s and glossaries, regarding the intricacies of timer mines rules.
Following the booster draft Pat Ziagos gets up a last-minute pickup tournament with a box of Tatooine as first prize. I end up going 1-3 (AAAAAAARGH!!!!). I had to play Joe Olson’s WYS in the third game… I was reduced to about 10 force by the fourth or fifth turn of the game, but managed to hang in anyway until time was called (I cancelled Tat Celebration AT LEAST 5 times… it just kept coming back…). He got the full win, though, since he drained me out on his last turn after the time call. We all get 2 packs of Jedi Knights as prize support. (woo hoo!)
Speaking of which, the JK Open is still going on, so some of us start cleaning up the room and just hanging out… Some of the guys started to get people to sign their cards (I signed some ISB objectives, heehee) and we watched the end of the 76’ers game. They lost, and I was upset (I live in Philly). Scott and I go over all of the rooms to make sure nothing’s broken and everyone’s checked out that should be, and then I go to bed.
Surprise, surprise, I have to be up nice and early the next morning to get loaded (the truck, not the alcohol) and leave with Scott. This is when I find out something REALLY funny… we have to drive 2 people to the train station and 5 or 6 to the Newark airport, with a top at Tom H-K’s house… in a U-Haul. Being enterprising individuals, we load me, Joe Olson, and Alan Sagan into the cab with Scott driving and David Irvine, Charlie Herren, Andres Not-Gonna-Try-And-Spell-It, Charles Hickey, Clay Ramey and George Gundry into the cargo space in the back. With a gas-filled propane grill. Does the fun ever start? After we drop (I think) George and David and Andres at the train station, we head to Tom’s tp drop off the grill. All is going well until we hear the engine start bucking. What is it, do you ask? We ran out of gas on the highway!!!!
So we pull over to the side, call Tom for some assistance, and everybody climbs out of the back like a bunch of Mexicans on a border run. Blythe (Tom’s wife) says she’ll drive out with some gas, so we settle down to wait. At this point we’re causing a rubberneck delay (we figure everybody’s trying to figure out why there are 7 or so people stranded with a U-Haul) so our cover story in case a cop pulls over is that the other car we were caravaning with went ahead to get gas and left everybody behind to keep the U-Haul people company. Luckily, we had no need for a cover story. (FYI, it’s illegal to transport people in the back of a U-Haul). Charlie gets out of the back passing out form the gas fumes, so we decide that he’ll ride up front instead of Alan. The gas shows up, and we make it to Tom’s. No more grill.
Well, I was kind of jammed up front sitting completely sideways and my waist was really cramped, so I offered to sit in the back and let Clay sit up front. We head to the airport only stopping once to switch the seating arrangement (Charles Hickey goes up front and Clay and Joe come back). Following this switch Scott forgets to turn the cargo light back on, so we arrive at the airport in total darkness after having talked tech the whole way. Scott opens the back and we all get out really quick in case a cop comes by (our new cover story is that we’re Canadians Scott is sneaking into the U.S.) and everybody but Scott and I head into the airport following the farewells and nice-to-meet-you’s… (Alan, having sat half in your lap for most of the ride, I feel like I got to know you really wellJ… your name is Alan, right?J just kidding…
Scott and I head to Sam’s Club, where he fast-talks the salespeople into letting him return all the tables, and then to his house where my car is. We unload the truck, and I head home, falling asleep all the way… luckily, my two Monday night appointments ended up cancelling on me so I didn’t have to worry about sleeping through them (I’m a therapist, and it really doesn’t help the client when you’re falling asleep through their life story and how their relationship with their mother was…)
Props:
Scott Lingrell for running a FANTASTIC weekend and giving so much of his time, effort, and money to make sure everyone a great time.
Don Kitzman, Hayes Hunter, Team Shhhh… Grandma, and all the other winners and runners-up for kicking a$$.
Andres, Dave, and Ross, for our team coming in third (with 0 help from me).
All the guys who subjected themselves to luxury travel by U-Haul.
Blythe for showing up with gas.
Chris Gogolen, for finding my decklist error (whew).
Someone who knows what and whom I’m talking about (since I got yelled at for not mentioning the D-Con version in my C-Con report).
Hayes Hunter, both for being abnormally tall and for playing with me one of the BEST games of Star Wars I have ever played.
Bastian, for playing with me one of the FUNNIEST games of Star Wars I have ever played.
John Lolli for getting me food when I was starving during the team tournament.
Everyone else who helped out - Tom, Blythe, Bart, Chuck, Katie, Scott, Kristen… etc.
Scott, because he deserves more than one prop.
Slops:
Me, for scrubbing out the entire weekend.
Ramapo, for charging Scott beaucoup $ and kicking us out at midnight.
Ray Bordier and everyone else who made fun of my "I’m an Angel" pajama pants (cuz pants don’t lie).
Everyone who didn’t come, because they should have.