ramapo3-8-10-jun-00
Title: ramapo3-8-10-jun-00
Author: Doug "Phrim" Faust
Date: Jun 18, 2001
8-10 Jun 01
Well first, let me preface this by saying it’ll probably be a pretty crappy report. I’m usually one to write tournament reports completely from memory, even big convention reports from DecipherCon and last year’s Ramapo, etc. It seems that, after 16 games and a combined total of 3 hours of sleep all weekend, my memory has failed me. So, I’ll do the best I can, but no guarantees...
Well, picking up right from where I left off last week, I had taken Podrace/Harvest/Mess and a TIE Swarm deck, and got 4th place even after missing the first two games. So I’m thinking my decks can’t be all that bad. I know the TIE deck does have weaknesses, but I’m completely out of ideas. As for the light deck, I’m thinking I should probably throw in some good meta cards, like I Hope She’s Alright or Demotion or something. But it turns out that I’m so busy during the week I never really get a chance to revise my decks at all. So anyway, Wednesday night, I’m busy resleeving my decks in my new Game Keeper "Triangle" Sleeves I bought on Sunday, and I notice that there’s only 59 cards in my Light deck. After a cursory glance, I can’t figure out what’s missing, so I figure I must’ve just built a 59 card deck by accident. Oh well, I throw in another Changing The Odds and leave it at that.
So finally Friday morning rolls around. I’ve decided to do something completely insane, and get into work at 6am, take a half day, and still be at the DPC in time. So I get up at 4:30am after some 4 hours of sleep, and head into work. I had meant to do all my packing an decklists the night before, but it just didn’t work out that way. So I spend a rather boring day at work, since no one from my department gets in before 7:30 or so. I take off at 10, get home, and start packing frantically. I finish throwing stuff in my bags, and start on my decklists, since I’m not going to have time when I get there. So it’s now 10:40, and Brian Kim is supposed to be at my house at 10:45 to head up. So I’m writing like crazy, getting mad writer’s cramp, and Brian shows up at 10:50 and joins me in the decklist frenzy (although he’s got time in the car to do his). We end up taking off at around 11:10, a little later than we wanted to, but we should still be there in time for the DPC. The ride up is uneventful, and despite the fact that I’ve never come to Ramapo from the south before, I don’t get lost or make any wrong turns.
So we get there, and I made really good time, so it’s about 1:15. I fill out the registration form, and sign up for the Team tournament and the YJ open, in addition to the DPC and SW open that I preregistered for. As it turned out, I played in neither the Team tournament or the YJ open, so I guess I just made a donation to the "Scott Lingrell is in mad debt" fund, which is okay I guess. Anyway, there’s a good number of people around for the DPC, over 70 at least, including great players from all over the world. All of the big Coruscant players were there of course, with the exception of Jim Li and Dan Sokol. Plus, there were people like the Hayes brothers and Steve Brentson from Kashyyyk, Clint and Steve from Yavin, Steve Kuperman and a bunch of Michigan guys from Corellia, David Irvine and Charlie Herren from Dagobah, a bunch of guys from Oregon and Washington including John Hawkins, Joe Olson, and Charles Hickey from Endor, Yannick and Dom from Hoth: Ice Plains, Alan Sagan and AJ Delisle from Hoth: North Ridge, and Bastian Winkelhaus from all the way out in Germany! Suffice to say, the competition was about as fierce as it gets. They start off with the pairings, and my name gets called right away...
Game 1: My Dark vs. Steve Brentson’s (Kashyyyk, 2085) Hidden Mains
This game is commonly referred to as a drain race. He was on the ground, I was in space, neither of us were really bothering the other. He wasn’t playing I Hope She’s Alright, so I should be able to deal with this kind of matchup. He set up at 3 Tatooine sites with lots of Lightsabers and stuff, and I set up at Kashyyyk, Sullust, and Endor. Corran dealt with my Arica of course, but Ghhhk stopped any real damage. He played On The Edge for 5 like twice, but I had grabbed it the first time to prevent any recursive nastiness. My main problem was that he Altered my Sienar. Not being very experienced with the deck (last week was the first time I played it), I had forgotten that it’s totally worth it to Alter Sienar despite TINT/OE being on the table. So I neglected to throw a ship there and and it found an Alter, which probably cost me a good deal of Force. In hindsight, I probably should not have deployed the Death Star War Room either in this matchup, because I wasn’t particularly short on Force, and it just ended up giving him another place to drain. Anyway, he drained, I drained, he retrieved, and I had my Sienar Altered, so I lost. A few better plays could have won me this game. FL-9, 0(-9)
Highlights: Now I know how to play my deck better
Lowlights: Doing stupid stuff because I’m inexperienced with the deck
Game 2: My Light vs. Brian Cieszinski’s (Kashyyyk, 1743) Hunt Down Podrace
Let me start out by saying I did something dumb. I showed him my Starting Interrupt before he chose his. Him being Dark, he should be the first one to reveal a Starting Interrupt. So anyway, he saw my Podrace Prep start, and he decided to save a few Force and start The Signal for Watto’s Box instead of starting all his Podrace stuff. So I’m sitting here just shaking my head at my own stupidity, but then again, I’ve never lost a Podrace in my life, so how hard can this game be? I Terminate his Visage during his activate phase because I’m annoyed. We Podrace, Sebulba does his cheating thing, and then stacks a 6. Well that’s just lovely. Then he drops the Desert Landing Site and puts Maul there for free. Well that’s just lovely. My turn, I fetch Threepio and drop him, and Mess. Sense. Doh. I was saying before the tournament that I was hoping I didn’t see Dark S/A because it would just wreck me. So I just draw up. Next turn, we Podrace again, he stacks a 5 bringing his total to 17 in 2 turns (!), and I draw a 5,5,1. You’d think that’s not too shabby, right? Well not if the two 5’s are the cards you need to win the Podrace!! That’s right, I drew both of the A Step Backwards I had in my deck, and EPP Leia. Since I’m definitely not going to win this race without going backward, I stack only 1 of them and the Leia for a grand total of 6. Now my task is to cycle through my deck to get the damned thing. So on my turn, I try to Mess some more, and I find some more Senses. Lovely. Anyway, next turn he draws a 4, bringing his total to 24, so I’ve got one more turn left to find my Backward (which is still pretty close to the bottom of my deck). He deploys another Visage, but I’m really out of it at this point, and forget to make him lose 2 Force since Hunt Down isn’t flipped. And then I Terminate again, despite the fact that Hunt Down isn’t flipped. Whatever. Next turn, he wins the Podrace. So I burn 11 and he retrieves his entire Lost Pile. Do I really need to go on at this point? FL-28, 0(-37)
Highlights: [This space intentionally left blank.]
Lowlights: See above.
Game 3: My Dark vs. Pat Ziagos’s (Coruscant, 2046) Dagobah Training
Well Pat is definitely a good player, being the PA state champion and all, but he really wasn’t doing all that well today, matching my 0-2 record. I ended up having to dig for my Sienar, and he started testing away with Daughter. I eventually got set up, but he had passed test 2 so I had to super-fortify everywhere. He has out the Lower Corridor and Qui-Gon there, but I’m canceling that drain and taking his smaller drain at some Tatooine site. He continues testing, and we both continue draining, and he stacks some really large number on test 5 and retrieves 10 for his objective. Then he starts Edging, and I grab his Edges, and we start the retrieval war. He puts down test 6 so I drop Vader over in front of Qui-Gon. And then we time out. I have about double the Force Pat does, since I’ve been draining for more. And then Pat does something that I think is silly. He draws up. Now, I can understand drawing up if you’re clearly going to lose the game anyway if you had more time. But that just wasn’t the case here, it was anyone’s game, especially since I was pretty much out of retrieval at that point. So I end up with a full win, through no fault of my own. FW+16, 2(-21)
Highlights: Winning, I guess.
Lowlights: I really didn’t deserve the full win there...
Game 4: My Light vs. AJ Delisle’s (North Ridge, 1962) Speedy Dark Deal
So I’m still 1-2, and I get to play against a world-class player. In any case, this was before I had even heard about this type of deck, so I’m not at all sure what to expect. He doesn’t start a Podracer, but does start Secret Plans, so that’s always something to worry about. I get Threepio out, and start Messing like crazy, getting out a bunch of 2/0’s. He drops 3 unique troopers on Cloud City and Zuckuss at the sector and deploys Dark Deal. I need to do something about this, so I drop Jedi Luke and he goes bounce. So I drop Qui-Gon (I love having a ton of 2/0’s out) and take down a Trooper. He inserts Disturbance In The Force, and I’m like, whatever. I activate all I can and it doesn’t pop. I drop Luke for free. I need to slow him down in a major way, so I play Battle Plan. That goes bounce too, as he goes wookiee kissing. And then he plays Uncertain Is The Future, and I get a brand new hand, how lovely (but no insert poppage). I guess I won’t be seeing Battle Plan for a while at least. So I try battling, but he plays Stunning Leader so there’s no battle. I win the uncontested Podrace so he loses 6, but I don’t have 6 Force to retrieve with. So I’m trying to maneuver around Cloud City, but he’s still draining for a ton. I activate 14 then the insert pops. Again, whatever. Then he gets the Bespin system out and deploys Occupation. I’ve got him down a good number of Force from the Podrace, all the cards he has on the table, and the fact that he’s played a whole bunch of lost interrupts. But he’s making me lose far too many Force each turn, and there’s not too much I can do about it. So he ends up winning by 10. FL-10, 2(-31)
Highlights: His Force choke thing wasn’t really working
Lowlights: I still lost
Game 5: My Light vs. Johnny Rivera’s (Kashyyyk, 1620) ???
Sorry, I really have very little recollection of this game. I’m not quite sure what he even started, possibly Court Scum. Anyway, I won the Podrace and pretty much had complete control the entire game. The only thing I really remember is actually getting to use Changing The Odds, and I verified and took out a Point Man, keeping my Order To Engage pretty much permanently on the table. Unfortunately, I got slipped up by the "deploy on opponent’s side of the table" with Order and Goo in this game, and accidentally forgot to collect them when the game was over. So, though I didn’t realize it until late that night, I played 2 cards short for the rest of the tournament. Luckily, I was able to retrieve my cards on Sunday. FW+20, 4(-11)
Highlights: Actually getting to use Changing The Odds
Lowlight: Too bad I don’t remember anything else about the game
Another bad luck incident for this tournament. In-between games, Kim Caton comes up to me with a Qui-Gon’s Lightsaber in hand, saying her dad Bob Caton had accidentally stolen it when we played in a tournament last week. I’m a bit confused as to this, because if a card was missing I wouldn’t have gotten 60 cards on my cardlist. But then, I think back and remember, on Tuesday I was resleeving my cards and I only had 59 so I added a card in. Hrm. So I take the Qui-Gon’s Saber, but it’s too late to do anything with it today. It’s a pretty vital card in my deck, seeing as there’s only one of them, and 2 Qui-Gons. Oh, well.
Game 6: My Dark vs. Michael Gemme’s (Kashyyyk, 1717) Quiet Mining Colony
Well, I’ve never played against the new style QMC deck, so I’m not quite sure what to expect. I do know that Gemme is a big fan of starship weapons though, so I make a mental note to make sure to hold on to my Overloads. I see that he’s not starting any cards that would imply that he’s not playing Sense/Alter, so I put Sienar at Wakeelmui and immediately put a ship there so the first game doesn’t repeat itself. He deploys Dash on the Outrider at Bespin to flip his objective. So I go ahead and drop a Dreadnaught, 2 TIE Interceptors, and a TIE Cannon, battle, and blow Dash out of the water (so I don’t have to deal with attrition. He’s ready for me though, and deploys Ten Numb on his ship and Wedge on his Ship with an X-wing Cannon. I Overload the X-wing Cannon, but I draw a 5. That sucks. He shoots my TIE with a gun and toasts it, and then plays Rapid Fire, gets a Proton Torpedo, and shoots my Dreadnaught too, for good measure. So he clears the site, and I don’t even get battle destiny. A couple turns later, I don’t have another weapon, so I try Overloading his X-wing Cannon again and draw a 0, and toast the whole ship. I drop a the Emperor’s Sword, a TIE Interceptor, and a Dreadnaught and battle Ten Numb away. After that we have a few minor skirmishes in space, but I’ve pretty much established my dominance. Meanwhile, he’s doing his thing on the ground, but not really draining for that much. I use my Undercover Spies to stop his drains some, but he uses Corran to yoink one of them. He plays Off The Edge, which sends out a warning bell in the back of my head, so I grab it, and he never plays another. At that point, I get out some more of my systems and start spreading out and draining for more in space. He can’t keep up to me in drains, plus I’ve got steady retrieval, so I win. FW+12, 6(+1)
Game 7: My Light vs. Steve Baroni’s (Kashyyyk, 1947) Maul and Mains
This game is kind of a blur to me, I even forget what Steve started. Possibly just the Maul site, but I’m not sure. In any case, here’s how this game goes. His turn: Maul. My turn: Mess. Sense. Mess. Sense. Mess. Sense. He had Maul, Vader, and Mara running around Tatooine. I deployed some mains and killed them and he killed my mains, but it seemed to be a losing battle for me. I decided to go for some retrieval. Harvest. Sense. I’m pretty sure I ended up winning the Podrace, but it didn’t really help much. So I killed what I could with my mains, but he still had some left over. At one point I had Jedi Luke and Saber at a site vs. his Maul and someone else, he dueled me, but we tied, so no major beatdowns there. I really don’t remember what else happened. Steve was a cool guy though, and I was just outplayed. FL-12, 6(-11)
Highlights: At one point, I drained at Kessel for 3, so Steve loses a Control/SFS and 2 other cards. I didn’t say anything until after the game, but it was pretty funny...
Lowlights: I keep losing to Dark Sense/Alter...
Game 8: My Dark vs. Paul Maholick’s (Kashyyyk, 1612) Rebel Strike Team
Okay, who signed me up for the grand tour of Kashyyyk? I’ve played 8 people today, and 6 of them have been from the Kashyyyk region, crazy. I suppose it’s better than playing against the people I always play against though. Anyway, I have heard of Paul before, he has the distinction of being the Rhode Island State Champion. So that means he can win a 6-person tournament. Now I know that might not sound too impressive, but being someone who has never actually won a tournament, it gives me a good gauge of his skill. In any case, I’ve played against the new-style RST before, so I know what it can do (and it can be brutal). Not exactly sure how TIEs will fare though. I get to verify his deck real early on in the game, and I think he only had enough ships to Landing Claw with. So I fortunately get my systems and spread out early. He blows up the Bunker after his second try, and I have mostly junk in my hand, so I ditch it to used and lose a bunch of Force. Fortunately, I had the foresight to deploy U-3P0 at the Back Door the turn before, so the turn after he didn’t even drain. I restore my hand and start to get back that lost Force with Sienar. He starts to spread out with his drains, but my Undercover spies are keeping that under control for the most part. He throws a ship and Landing Claw at me, but I TRWEU it. My forces are spread out a lot though so he’s able to avoid a beatdown, but I’m draining for more than him and retrieving too, so I come ahead with the win. FW+13, 8(+2)
Highlights: Beating my second state champion of the day...?
Lowlights: I still hate that whole hand-to-used thing. It just bothers me...
So anyway, we finish up the DPC, and it turns out that the Oregon crew has done surprisingly well. John Hawkins got 1st, TJ Holman got 2nd, Jonny Chu got 3rd, and Don Kitzman got 4th. TJ and Jonny would be making their second trip to the DPC finals, John I believe is a former world qualifier from Oregon, and Don is a fairly unknown (but obviously quite good) player also from Oregon. I’m pretty hungry at this point, and Chuck Hickey is bugging Janiak to take him to some store, so I volunteer instead. The guys in my room, Brian Kim, Josh Paterniti, and Tony Vigliotti, are hungry too, so they go with me. Chuck directs us to some supermarket, where he buys a can opener for some cans of food he apparently had. I take the opportunity to buy dinner (at 2 in the morning I might add), so I end up getting a package of corn muffins (yummy) and some milk. Everyone gets what they want and head back to Ramapo. The DPC finals are being held in the lobby of the dorm floor we were staying on, in a super-cool glass-windowed room that made sure lots of people could watch the games but not distract the players. I wasn’t too interested in watching the play by play, as long as I could find out what happened at the end, so I gave Scott my camera to take some pictures, then retired to my room. Brian, Josh, and Tony were all working on decks for tomorrow, and I follow suit. Earlier today, I had planned on making 2 completely new decks for the Open, but noting the time and how tired I was, I realized it just wasn’t going to happen. So I decide to tweak my decks from today instead, making sure to put in the missing Qui-Gon’s Saber, Order To Engage, and Goo Nee Tay in my Light deck. I start getting my decklists together, which are a pain as usual. Brian does end up building entirely new decks, seeing as he was borrowing a lot of cards from Chris who was arriving in the morning and would want them back. So I decide to playtest a quick game against Tony’s TIE deck, and he beats me pretty bad because of a number of reasons, among them being that he started SSPFT and that I was stupid and deployed Home One. After that, it’s like 4:30am and I’m pretty tired, so I get in bed and end up falling asleep.
I end up waking up around 8:30am the next morning, plenty of time before the open. Shortly after, everyone else gets up too, and we head down to the convention room. I turn in my ticket, command card, decklists, and decks, and sit down to wait. Apparently though, they decided to verify every deck before the start of the tournament, so we didn’t actually get started until after 12:00. Seems that it was a good idea, because if they did it during the tournament they’d have had to disqualify like 25 people, but I just wish there was a quicker way to do that. Oh, well. Anyway, we get started and I for the first time (and last time) this weekend get paired up against someone I’ve never met or at least heard of...
Game 1: My Dark vs. Brandon Jones’s (Corellia, 1691) ???
Well, I don’t know who he is, but he has a State Runner-Up bag and his command card says he’s from Ohio, so I assume he’s decent at least. Unfortunately, my memory seems to have failed me again, and I have absolutely no clue what happened this game. Because my next game was Light I assume I played Dark, but that’s about all I can tell you. Sorry, folks... FW+14, 2(+14)
Highlights: Umm, I won...
Lowlights: Amnesia
Game 2: My Light vs. Scott Lingrell’s (Coruscant, 1880) ISB Walker Garrison
This game was ugly. Last time a new set came out, the meta was still up in the air and I was able to beat Scott. This time, however, he was really on his game. Anyway, we draw our hands, and Scott later tells me that he got something on the order of a god hand. My hand wasn’t terrible, but I shot myself in the foot early on by forgetting to draw Podrace destiny... twice. He wasn’t contesting the Podrace, so it was better to get that in as early as possible. Meanwhile, he managed to get set up in no time, getting Walkers all over Hoth plus the Executor at the system with Occupation down. So in addition to his drains (which was mostly based around a drain of 3 at the Defensive Perimeter), he had lots of direct damage from the Occupation and the Garrison helper. And here I am trying to get set up with Mess and doing basically no damage at all, and his damage is just too much for me. Then he plays Garrison. I had kinda forgotten about that card until now. With it, I lose like 15 Force in one turn. Ugh. So now, I’m down to my last few remaining Force, and I haven’t even finished the Podrace yet! So his turn, I draw race destiny and finally get my total over 24. He drains and does his direct damage, and I lose all but one card. Luckily, he can’t find a way to make me lose that one card before the move phase, so the podrace resolves, he loses 6, and I get all my destinies back (Secret Plans prevented retrieval--I didn’t even have 6 Life Force!). Anyway, in a turn or two he makes short work of me. FL-22, 2(-8)
Highlights: Well, it’s always a pleasure to play against Scott.
Lowlights: Stupidly forgetting to Podrace.
Game 3: My Dark vs. AJ Delisle’s (North Ridge, 1962) Quiet Mining Colony
Well, I had already played against AJ once yesterday, but this was the opposite matchup (plus he was using different decks). Coming off my win versus Mike Gemme’s QMC yesterday, I’m fairly sure how to go about this matchup. Unfortunately, so is he. He flips his QMC with Tycho in Green 3, and my mouth is watering with all the beatdown in my hand I can issue that ship. He’s smart though and lands Green 3 at the Docking Bay. For the rest of the game, he stays out of space entirely. So then we get into a straight-up drain race, me in space and him on the ground. I think we played around with the normal spies and Corran doing his thing, but that wasn’t too relevant. I’m stupid and I deployed the Death Star War Room, so he happily took over the Death Star and drained there. So I’m not sure exactly of the specifics, but he ended up winning the drain race by a bundle. FL-18, 2(-26)
Highlights: It certainly gave me another perspective of the QMC vs. TIEs matchup.
Lowlights: Maybe I should just take the stupid War Room out of my deck...
Game 4: My Light vs. Jeremy Oakes’s (Kashyyyk, 1628) BHBM 7’s
As it works out, I’m 1-2 at this point, pretty horrible, and I end up sitting down across from David Irvine. Now, I don’t care what kind of tournament you’re in, going 1-2 and then facing a 2100+ player is just rotten luck. Fortunately, there was some problem with the pairings, and I ended up getting re-paired against Kashyyyk squadron member Jeremy Oakes. I was kind of surprised at Jeremy playing BHBM with all of the Mob Points killer going around, but I think he started YCHF to psyche people out and then fetched Mob Points later. Anyway, he had Sebulba’s Podracer, and pretty high destiny too, so this wasn’t going to be easy. He dropped the Emperor at the Cloud City Docking Bay first turn. I Mess away, getting out a slew of 2/0 sites and Goo Nee Tay and Bacta Tank. He drops Mara down at my Home One War Room for an easy drain. I see a way to get some quick damage in, so I deploy EPP Obi there and attack. I unfortunately miss her and draw low destiny, so Obi goes to the Tank and I stack a card. We Podrace for a while, but thanks to my going backward, I manage to win the race. He drops Vader, so I give him Jedi Luke to avoid any unpleasantness, and then he starts making a trek back to the Emperor’s living room. I end up taking Obi out and using him to fight Maul and company on Tatooine, along with some other characters. For some reason, I get pissed at Mara and try to attack her with EPP Leia (not too risky, seeing as Mara still doesn’t have her weapon), but I only end up stacking another card. I end up getting another card stacked in the fighting on Tatooine, so if he draws a 7 he wins the game, despite the fact that I have like 30 cards in my reserve deck to his much less. In any case, the fight on Tatooine is going well, and I’ve settled at the Moisture Farm to do some Harvesting. He duels me for two consecutive turns, I win the duel both times, but he draws a 1 for crossing destiny each time by some odd stroke of luck. He attacks my position at the Farm with Maul, EPP Fett, and Dr. E, and takes out Lando, but I take out both Dr E and Fett, leaving him with a lone Maul. I drop like my entire hand on that Maul, and hit him for a lot of battle damage. So he duels a few more turns, but actually wins those duels, so I gladly take the 3 damage over losing the game. In a few turns, I manage to drain him out. FW+22, 4(-4)
Highlights: Winning the Podrace against Sebulba
Lowlights: That was the closest game I won by 22 ever... I seriously thought he was going to cross me
Game 5: My Light vs. Kim Caton’s (Coruscant, 1736) ISB Hoth
As you might have heard me mention before, I don’t really like playing against Kim. It’s not that I don’t like her or anything, it’s just that for some reason I ended up playing her about 5x more than I’ve played any other person, and my record against her is something like 2-15. Anyway, her deck isn’t really that much like Scott’s, though I can’t really tell you how. She used to play ISB Hoth before the Garrison helper, and she uses many of the same tricks then as she did here. Anyway, she also doesn’t get the insane god draw that Scott gets, but she does manage to grab the first Mess I play. Somewhat of a setback, but it didn’t turn out to be game breaking (I don’t think at least). Anyway, we both get set up, and I win the Podrace. She gets to verify my deck and decides to save her second grabber for my Harvest, which is somewhat annoying. She drops a few ORS down to the Home One War Room for an easy drain. I respond by deploying EPP Han and Leia there and killing them, sending Han to the Tank. Then I go ahead and deploy Home One to Hoth, and move Leia aboard. I manage to maintain control of the system for the rest of the game, which is a definite plus. I start attacking her positions on Hoth with my mains and the help of Bacta Tank. She’s at the North Ridge without destiny, so I drop EJP Lando and a couple guys to beat it off, and then move in to avoid the Ice Storm. I start maneuvering by shuttling guys up and down off the ship, and she finally gets her Sunsdown/Frostbite combo going, so I evacuate to the Home One. Meanwhile, I start Harvesting on Tatooine, and she grabs the first one. She’s got Secret Plans out too, so I’m having to pay. We’re both running a bit short on Force, and it ends up coming down to the very last turn. I’ve got 6 Force left. She can do exactly 6 damage next turn. I drain her and bring her down to 3 Force. One more damage and she can’t pay for her Force drain (I had Battle Plan down early), and I’ll win. I can’t do it though. I have Harvest in my hand, and if I play it I’ll win. She’s already got 2 stacked though, so with Secret Plans it costs 7. So I can’t do that either. She’s got that one drain at the Defense Perimeter, if I block it, take less than 3 damage from Frostbite, and take no battle damage, I’ll win. This is doable, landing EPP Obi and one other character should withstand it easily. However, by some odd stroke of luck, there’s a Sandwhirl there. So I can do nothing, and she wins. FL-3, 4(-7)
Highlights: I almost won.
Lowlights: I almost won.
Game 6: My Dark vs. Tony Vigliotti’s (Coruscant, 1748) HB X-wing Swarm
This was another game I didn’t really want to play, as Tony is staying in my room and we both know exactly what the other is playing. In any case, the matchup isn’t that bad for me. Last night I asked Tony what his X-wing deck did against TIEs, and his response was something on the lines of "hope they don’t have weapons". Anyway, Tony gets off to a pretty good start, getting a bunch of X-wings to Wakeelmui early on. So I know I won’t be able to compete if he’s at Wakeelmui the whole time, so we fight a bunch over the system. I try to Overload his X-wing Cannon and draw a 5, I should really stop doing that. I grab his Organized Attack early, and grab his All Wings Report In too. But anyway, in the meantime, he’s not draining, I’m retrieving a good portion of what I lose, so I end up coming out ahead and eventually clearing him out of Wakeelmui. Meanwhile, I’m focusing on just destroying his X-wings rather than doing him any real damage, because I know it’d be tough for him to get them back. So we maneuver around the various systems (mostly his, I just didn’t bother deploying many), he’s mostly running away from me, but my low (or non-existant in some cases) hyperspeed was hurting me. He eventually flipped, but I managed to find his base pretty quickly because of the large number of starships I had everywhere. So I get most of his ships killed, and I’m retrieving and he’s not, so I manage to get a win for myself. FW+18, 6(+11)
Highlights: It was a good game, gave me a lot of good insights about the matchup.
Lowlights: Having to play Tony, and missing with Overload *again*.
Game 7: My Light vs. AJ Delisle’s (North Ridge, 1962) ISB Scum
Ack. This’ll be the third time I have to play AJ this weekend. There being 80 or so people there this weekend, I’m really not too keen on having to play the same person 3 times. Anyway, fortunately for me, AJ had switched up up his deck. I cycle through my deck and get out a whole bunch of useful stuff for this game, including The Camp, Battle Plan, Goo Nee Tay, Bacta Tank, and of course a bunch of 2/0 sites. AJ gets out some sites with Jabba’s Palace, and deploys SE Jabba and some other little guys. I come down with Qui-Gon and friends and pound them some. He’s moving around Jabba’s Palace, but I just keep up the pressure with my mains, and Goo with Camp is really making it hard for him to do anything. Unfortunately, ISB is cutting down my drains as well. I win the Podrace, and deploy I Did It, which enforces my Force choke even more. Eventually he manages to battle Jedi Luke with EPP Fett and capture him with Hidden Weapons. Meanwhile, I’ve got EPP Obi and Owen/Beru down at the Farm Harvesting. So by all appearances, I have this game in the bag, right? Well, the problem is, with ISB flipped, I’m only draining for 1-2 per turn with Qui-Gon and his Saber. Then he starts taunting Qui-Gon with EPP Fett, and I figure he’s got another Hidden Weapons in his hand. And I can’t really venture into the Audience Chamber now, since he’s got like 7-8 guys there. He’s really not damaging me either though, as I’m just retrieving everything. So I find my Kessel and put Home One with Squids there to increase my drainage. He gets out his own Tatooine and puts Zuckuss In Mist Hunter there, followed by Bossk In Hound’s Tooth. Then comes the Occupation. So now he’s actually dealing damage to me, while I’m pretty much running status quo. So I move the Home One over to Tatooine, and he neither moves nor battles me, so he loses 3 for Order To Engage. Then time is called. He takes his turn, and my reserve deck is still large. I drain him and he has one Force left. I have an angle though, I had just drawn the card I was waiting for during the entire latter half of the game. I’ve got Qui-Gon with Saber at a site, to his EPP Fett (with Jedi Luke and Saber captured) and ORS. And I’ve got Sorry About The Mess in my hand. A beatdown against the lone ORS with two Jedi would certain end the game. Too bad I draw two 1’s and miss. MW+14, 7(+25)
Highlights: Finally beating AJ in the third attempt.
Lowlights: I had everything going in my advantage that game, and I still couldn’t get a full win.
Game 8: My Dark vs. Josh Paterniti’s (Coruscant, 1816) Profit Mains
Well, turns out that I get to play another one of my roommates, Josh. Unlike Tony, I have no clue what he’s playing. Turns out it doesn’t really matter though. The game turns out to be exactly the same game I played last week against Jared. He flips Profit like first or second turn, puts mains everywhere with Lightsabers, and plays I Hope She’s Alright, and leaves me completely alone in space. I just simply can’t win this matchup. FL-13, 7(+12)
Highlights: Josh had managed to mooch a cold pizza off of someone, and he shared it with me.
Lowlights: Playing another one of my roommates, and playing an unwinnable matchup.
So the tournament finishes up, and a bunch of the IRC guys are hanging out at one of the back table. A girl I haven’t seen before is there too, turns out she’s a girl I know on IRC that Mike Dalton drove over to meet all of us. So anyway, I finally get a chance to break out the Settlers of Catan, and we all start playing. So me, George Gundry, Mike Dalton, and the girl Lani Fisher are playing, and George is like not paying attention at all, he’s busy talking to other people and not really playing the game. Kind of annoying, since in Settlers you really have to pay attention. In any case, I took the early lead, so everyone starting picking on me and Dalton won. Meanwhile, Rich is announcing scores for the tournament from the bottom up. He gets to the 8 point range, and I haven’t heard my name yet so I go up and ask, and Rich tells me that I have 9 points. So I’m kinda confused about that, but it turns out that he actually gave both me and Josh wins for the last game. It was fixed I think. So anyway, we continue playing Settlers, and Scott Lingrell and Hayes Hunter (1st and 2nd at the tournament, respectively) play game one of the finals. The consensus is that Scott is going to win, because his Light deck is absolutely huge. However, for some reason he plays Dark first, and loses by 29 (!). By now it’s like midnight, and Scott says we have to clear out the room or he’s going to be charged extra for it. So they put Game 2 of the finals on hold, and the group of us that are still hanging around (me, George, Mike D, Lani, Scott, Hayes, Tom H-K, Rich H, Ed Rebman, Brian Kim, Chris Lanci, Charlie Herren, and Blythe H-K) all work on stacking up all the chairs and moving all the tables out to the U-Haul. So we all get that done, and Hayes and Scott play the final game of the finals out in the lobby. George and Ed decide to go out for a liquor run, but all the store in NJ are closed (some law) so they have to jump the border into NY state.
Meanwhile, me, Brian, Chris, Mike D, Charlie, and Lani are all hungry and decide to go out to eat. Charlie supposedly knows the way to some diner, so we head out to the parking lot. We had 6 people, and I thought everyone would be able to squeeze into my car, but it doesn’t work out like that, so I take Brian and Chris, and Mike takes Charlie and Lani, and I’ll follow him. I figure the diner is somewhere on Rt 17 (the local highway), since there were lots of food places there, especially south of the college. Anyway, I’m following Mike, and he blows right past 17. I’m like, okay, he knows where he’s going... Anyway, we get to some little podunk street, and he turns up it. Okay... Well, he goes up it a bit then turns around and heads back to the main street, backtracking toward the college. This time he gets on the exit for Rt 17 north, he must’ve just missed it before. So we’re heading down Rt 17, and I’m getting kinda concerned, because north of here 17 is looking less and less like a highway you’d find lots of stores on and more like an interstate. Eventually we get to a fork in the road, and Mike exits onto I-87 going toward Albany. So I’m pretty darned confused at this point, and it begins to sink in that they actually have no clue where they’re going. I’m following them though, so I can’t take the lead and I can’t just ditch them, so I’m stuck following. We go up towards (into?) New York for a while, and then he gets off at some random exit to make a u-turn. So we head straight back the way we came, and get on Rt 17 again, this time southbound. We pass the exit for the college, and then we blow right past a McDonalds, and my passengers complain profusely. And I’m kinda wondering too. We keep going, and eventually we pass a Burger King on the other side of the road too. At that point, Mike takes an exit, and turns around to go the other way on 17, so I think he’s going to the Burger King. Instead, he blows right by it. The people in my car are about to mutiny when we finally pull into the diner next door. So I get out of the car and yell at Mike, "Where the hell are you going?!?!" And apparently Charlie won some bet because of that, they were betting on what I’d say when I got out of the car or something.
In any case, the diner was actually pretty good, I got this chicken parmasian wrap that was great. It was kinda funny, because my entire car ordered wraps, and Mike’s car ordered breakfast food. *shrug* So anyway, we head back home, and I make sure to get on the road before Mike, cause there’s no way I’m following him again. So we get back to the rooms and the Team tournament is in progress, a bunch of us had wanted to play in that, but we got caught up in other things (read: moving tables), so whatever. So we all head back to my room, and I break out the Settlers again, and we teach Brian and Chris how to play. Tom brings a whole bunch of beer, and everyone (except me, I don’t drink) has some. George and Ed return with even more booze, and Charlie leaves to go talk to someone, so Ed (who is kinda drunk and has no clue how to play) takes over for him. So eventually someone Chris wins the game, which is surprising since he had never played before. So I pack up the Settlers, and we sit around talking for a while, and Charlie keeps drinking beer after beer after beer. Meanwhile, Mike Dalton and Ed somehow end up in some sort of wrestling match, which, quite naturally, ends with Ed atop Mike in the missionary position bouncing up and down gleefully. Anyway, a few hours later, Tom retires to his room, and Mike takes Lani home, and a lot of the other people clear out too. Except Charlie, of course, who is still sitting there drinking. So anyway, Steve Kuperman, Joe Olson, and this other guy I don’t know came in and started talking about decks and stuff. It was like 5am at this point, and I hadn’t really planned on getting any sleep tonight, but I really did need to take a shower. So I wait around a while for everyone to clear out, but nobody seems to be in any rush... Steve’s still talking about decks and Charlie’s still drinking away. So I decide just to take a shower anyway, and when I came out everyone was either gone or asleep (except Chris who was working on his deck or something).
So it’s getting close to 6am, I’ve gotten 3 hours of sleep all weekend, so I decide I really need some food to keep me going. I ask Chris if he wants to go to McDonald’s with me, but he’s not hungry, so I venture out into the floor lobby, only to find Steve, Joe, and the other guy throwing around cards like crazy, while the drunk Charlie tries to clean up (you’d think it’d be the other way around or something). Anyway, I ask if anyone wants to go to McDonald’s with me, and Joe jumps at the suggestion, Steve comes too, and Charlie asks me to pick up a sandwich for him. I end up missing the turn for Rt 17 this time (stupid thing isn’t marked), so I make a u-turn in the middle of the road with another car coming, sounds fun, doesn’t it? So anyway, we get to the McDonald’s, order our food, and grab a seat. Joe is pretty much unconscious, but he somehow manages to finish his sandwich and stuff. Steve, on the other hand, is wide awake and talking up a storm, but seems to be negligent of the fact that we’re having a meal and for the most part doesn’t touch his food. *shrug* Anyway, I pick up Charlie’s sandwich and we head back to the school. I get to the second floor lobby and look around for Charlie, only to find him passed out on one of the chairs there. I went to make sure he’s not awake, but he was pretty much out cold, so I just left his sandwich on top of him. Whatever.
I get back to the room, and Chris has disappeared, and everyone else is still asleep. So I try to find something to do, and I end up just sitting around for a while. Eventually, it’s around 8am, so I decide to head down and see if there’s anything going on in the gaming area. I vaguely remember hearing something about the gaming area being in a different room today though, so I’m not quite sure what to do. In the downstairs lobby, I catch up with Art Wright and Chris Talbot, but they don’t know where the day’s events are either. So Art and Chris head off, and I head back to my car to do some early packing. I grab what I’ll need for today and head off to the main room. As expected, the room we were in yesterday is all closed up, and with the exception of a few RPGers in the lounge, the place is empty. So, not knowing where to go, I just sit and wait around for a while. Then Talbot comes along and tells us that they’re downstairs in a room off to the right, so I head over. Bart Robinson and some other guys are setting up tables and chairs, so I lend a hand. We get everything set up, and people start coming in for the various events today, including a fairly good number of RPGers. Even Wojtek Jankowski, one of the top SWCCG players of a couple years ago, showed up, but he had thrown off his card-playing habits to become an RPGer. Anyway, Greg Anderson, who was running the YJ Open, showed up, and since I had decided not to play in that event (I was way tired and my decks were 2 years old), Greg recruited me to help him check decklists. Gave me something to do for a while, and there were no major problems. One fairly amusing issue that was brought up though was foreign language YJ cards--do you really need to provide an English translation when the card literally has no game text? :-)
So anyway, I’m looking to get in a few games of Settlers in today, but the people who play Settlers haven’t showed up yet, so I just hung out for a bit. Nothing much was happening here, so I headed back to the dorm for a bit to see if I can find George. I head up to his room and Ed Rebman lets me in, him and the rest of the Michigan crew are packing up to head out this morning. George is still asleep. So I help the Michigan guys bring some stuff out to their car, and walk back to the gaming area to show them were the new room is so they can check out. By this time, they’ve started the Reflections 2 sealed deck tournament, where Adam Kronfeld (who, oddly enough, I’ve seen very little of this weekend) is doing rather well. So I chat with him for a while, and then sit down in a chair next to the registration desk in stupor from lack of sleep. So eventually the Sealed Deck tournament ends, and then Pat Ziagos and Joe Gagliardi try to organize a spur-of-the-moment unsanctioned Constructed tournament cause they’re bored. I might’ve played, but I was very tired, and I still hadn’t gotten any games of Settlers in that day. So I decline, but they do find a good number of people and end up starting with like 20. Meanwhile, like 3 or 4 people people are looking for George Gundry, who still hasn’t come down to the gaming area, so I volunteer to go look for him (along with Brian, Chris, Tony, and Josh from my room, who were also MIA).
So I get back to the dorm, check my room first, and that’s where George, Chris, and Brian were, along with Greg Hodur and Pete Flamini. Turns out that Tony and Josh had already left to head back to New York. So anyway, the six of us talk for a while about various things, then everyone goes to Pete and Greg’s room to talk for a while, then we head up to George’s room to talk for a while. Eventually, the conversation turns to the mighty Jar Jar Binks, and it all pretty much falls apart from there. Greg and Pete take off, and the rest of us pack up the rest of our stuff in the cars and drive up the the gaming area. Turns out that the parking lot on the other side of campus isn’t really that much closer though. So we get in, and I return to my chair and my tired stupor. I’m wondering when Mike Dalton will get back so we’d have enough people to play Settlers, but he never shows up. The big unsanctioned tournament finished up, with Joe Olson as the winner, which was pretty cool. Brian decided to go home with Chris instead of me, so they took off. There really wasn’t that much going on at that point, and I wanted to leave before it got too late, so I ended up taking my leave as well.
Let me sum up the ride home real quick. Last night I got no sleep. The night before I got 3 hours. The night before that I got 5 hours. Suffice to say, I was pretty tired at that point. So I start to drive, and naturally, I find that I’m having trouble staying awake. Normally, my good sense would prevail and I’d just find someplace to spend the night instead of risking driving while asleep. However, I had work the next morning at 8am, so it really wasn’t an option. So I broke out the preventative measures. Put in a CD and pumped the volume up. Then I turned on the air, really cold on full blast. And to top it off, I started purposefully talking to myself. (It’s really hard to fall asleep when you’re talking.) It was a pretty scary ride, but I made it home in one piece.
Anyway, on to the props and slops...
Props:
- Scott Lingrell, for putting this whole show together
- Rich Haman, Blythe H-K, Art Wright, Tom H-K, Bart and Mr. Robinson, Greg Anderson, Jeremy Oakes, Nathan Brown, and Tom’s friends on the BBQ for helping to make this event a huge success
- Hayes Hunter, for being a Champ
- The Oregon crew, for proving their worth and then some
- TJ Holman and Jonny Chu, for repeating as DPC finalists
- Joe Olson, for coming
- Everyone who played Settlers with me (that’s the real reason I came anyway :-) )
- Lani Fisher, for putting up with Mike Dalton
- Ed Rebman, for humping Mike Dalton
- John Lolli, for being the best "retired" player in the region
- Greg Hodur, cause he’s funny as hell
- Brian Kim, Chris Lanci, Josh Paterniti, and Tony Vigliotti, for splitting my room
- Kim Caton for giving me my Qui-Gon’s Lightsaber back
Slops:
- Decklists. I hate them.
- Mike Vitarelli for bailing out on me.
- Economics, for putting Scott in debt.
- Sleep, for not being a good thing to do while driving.
- Settlers, for not getting played more.
- The cop who pulled Ed over.
That’s about it, I guess. If I didn’t mention anybody, it’s prolly cause you aren’t important. j/k Anyway, I’m planning on hitting 4 tournaments in the next 2 weekends, and Origins after that (though I dunno if I’m up for the Open), so be looking for plenty of reports from me in the near future...
Until next time...
--
Doug Faust - dlf14@cornell.edu
SM Rogue 40, based in Ithaca, NY
http://times.phrim.com/