seth-ownz-you-almost-iowa-states-2k1
Title: seth-ownz-you-almost-iowa-states-2k1
Author: Seth "Ooryl" Van Winkle
Date: Jun 19, 2001
This is the story of Iowa States as told by Seth. Enjoy.
Pre tourney crap:
This tournament report begins the day that John Arendt posted his TR for Colorado States. I read it and was very interested in the AoBS deck that he used. I read his report about 5 times and wrote down every card that I could find. I decided my mock up of the deck wasn’t too good, so I e-mailed John and got him to send me the card list. I was very excited because I had a good dark deck that no one knew about… yet. Me and Brad Stebbins wind up BSing about decks all the time. We go see Brad Gregg at Villa Pizza where he is an assistant manager one night and Brad Gregg is talking about how he I going to use operatives for both sides. I tell him not too and because I have No Escape in my dark deck. This convinces Brad Stebbins that I’m playing Huntdown, so when we’re driving home, I make up all kinds of @#$%, like have I have 4 I’m here to Rescue You to cancel TT/OOC.
This Brad nonsense has to stop. From this point on, Brad Stebbins will be known as Stebbins and Brad Gregg will be known as Brad.
I’m talking to Brad online sometime next week and there are about 5 cards I need for the Agents deck, one of which is a Vigo, so he knows I’m playing AoBS, but he doesn’t know how I’m going to play it. Soon after that, Alex Tennet posts the AoBS deck, so Brad knows I’m playing that cause I need 2 Emperor Palpatines from him, but Arendt’s version is enough different that I should still be all right. The week before states, we go up to a tournament held in Rochester, Minnesota. I use Yannik’s one turn deck just for laughs and my SYCFA interceptor deck that I’ve used since August. The interceptor deck takes its third loss ever to Josh Grace, but wins its other 2 games. Yannik’s deck beats Derek Ho by 29, but looses by 4 to a Huntdown that started crush and by a lot to Graham Neal’s MKOS skirlings.
I have to work both Sunday and Thursday nights which sucks, because I don’t get to work on my decks then. I’ve had an evil EBO deck cooking in my head for about two weeks and I finally get around to building it Friday night. I fill out my decklists and go to sleep. The next morning, Derek Ho picks me up and we go down to Mayhem Collectibles where the tournament was held.
The tournament scene in Iowa is very strange and needs some explaining or the results of the tournament won’t make any sense. In the middle of Iowa is Des Moines, the capital and home of Mucking @#$%ic. We hate magic. Me members of Mucking @#$%ic in order are Brad Gregg, Justin Fleenor, Seth Van Winkle (me) Derek Ho, and Brad Stebbins. We win most of the tournament in Iowa. Everyone is from Des Moines, except Fleenor. There are also about four or 5 other players from the Des Moines, but unfortunately, two of them were out of town because their grandma passed away. About half an hour north of Des Moines is Ames. There are about five or six people from Ames, but only four of them made it to states. About 45 minutes north of Ames is Webster City. Shawn Banwell, Rob and Dan Lyon and Jared Zimmer are from Forest City. Banwell was second in states last year, and he used to be the highest rated player in Iowa, just before GenCon. Since then, he has been beat on by Mucking @#$%ic more times than he would care to remember. I’ve probably beat him 6 or 7 times since then with no loses. At his last tournament, he went 2-4. Two hours north of Des Moines is Mason City. Justin Fleenor, Bob Schlutz and Dan Meyer are from in or around Mason City. Meyer runs a lot of tournament and is pretty good. Fleenor is good, but very inconsistent. Schlutz is just a big scrub. An hour and a half east of Des Moines is Iowa City. They are somewhat of an enigma, because they never play in tournaments, but are still very good. Greg Reid who got 8th in worlds was from Iowa City, but he moved. Last years winner, Nate Ponce is from this area. To my knowledge, most of the Iowa City people only played in 2 tournaments last year, States and Regionals. They were the "group" that got Jim Li all pissed off, not Mucking @#$%ic. I don’t really know what happened, but I’ve always had a blast playing them, most are really good sports. Despite their low ratings, they are very good and prepare well for large tournaments. None of us had any idea what to expect from them.
Most people didn’t have deck lists filled out ahead of time, so that slowed down our start by about half an hour. I get the cards I need to finish my decks, so I’m set. Tournament was run by Kai Wilken from Nebraska, so that Dan Meyer could play. We began with 32 people.
Mucking @#$%ic’s decks were the tournament were:
Brad: MWYHL start with Frozen Assets and Draw Their Fire Beatdown and a CCT to take Han out of the game beatdown. It also had a 5/3 sense/alter package
Justin: Fleen Machine WYS and Brian Hunter’s Big Blue ISB
Me: Goofy EBO with battle cancelers, Hyper Escapes, Arconas and Order to Engage and Arendt’s AoBS
Derek: SYCFA Interceptors and EBOX
Stebbins: TIGIH scouts and Chain of Command
We get started at about 1230.
Game 1, LS vs. Zeb Sanny (1443) with goofy SYCFA deck.
First of all, I want to apologize for the lack of content during my Light games. My EBO deck was designed to do as much damage as quickly as possible and all of my games were under thirty minutes. I either killed them very fast or was killed very fast. I get Boussh and TK-422 in my opening hand, which was awesome. On his first turn, he deployed with D* War Room and moves the D* to parcep 1 and draws. I grab Echo Base Garrison and the War Room with ANSB, activate 3 and Signal for Rebel Fleet. Activate the remaining 3, grab Hobbie with EBG, deploy him to the War Room, deploy my Fleet and draw. On his turn, he deploys a generic site to Alderaan, deploys Darth Vader with Vader’s Saber there, deploys Sergeant Tarent and a Death Star Trooper to the War Room and moves the D* to pacrep 2, orbiting Alderaan. On my turn, I use ANSB to get my other 2 Echo sites and EBG to get Zev. I activate, deploy the Corridor and DB and throw down Zev to the Corridor. I draw up for a ship to cancel his drain and get one and two systems, one of which was Hoth. He drains for 3 91 from the icon, one from the saber and one from Sergeant Tarent who adds one to drains at sites related to the system the D* orbits0 and I cancel with Rebel Fleet. He deploys another D*Trooper, some clouds to Alderaan, a gas miner to Vader’s site and two Obsidian Squad Ties in the cloud and its my turn. I grab EBO with ANSB, activate, deploy TK-422 to Vader’s site, Hoth and another system from hand, a ship to the docking bay and throw out EBO. Then I bust out a starship at Alderaan and the other system and move the ship at the DB up to the systems I have a starfighter in my hand for his cloud drain and some stuff that will keep me safe if he tries to fight in space. Activates and drains at the clouds which I cancel with the Fleet. He then draws some stuff. I pull a system with ANSB, activate and drain for 8. It goes from bad to worse for him from that point on. He is able to find another generic site to go to Alderaan and gets guys at another cloud. I just stick Boushh undercover in front of the other drain and a ship in front of the other cloud drain. I drain for a bunch again. He comes after me in space, but I Escape Hyperly away. He battles in the clouds, but I cancel the battle with Alternatives to Fighting. I drain for lots again on my turn and hes almost dead. On his turn, he drains at the clouds for 2, which I cancel with the Fleet for the 6th or 7th time, and 2 at the system that I ran from so I loose from hand. He battles me at the cloud again and he doesn’t overpower me, so I don’t have to Houjix. I drain for about 12 on my turn which kills him.
Full Win by 19, 2 (+19)
Highlights: Opening hand, Rebel Fleet and huge space drains
Lowlights: I didn’t get to play with my Arconas, deployed Order To Engage and Bacta Tank, both did nothing.
Brad smacked Fleen pretty good first game, Derek and Stebbins also won. Most of the people from Iowa City and Banwell all won.
Game 2 vs. Peter Franke (1798) with TIGIH scouts
I really didn’t playtest much for this tournament because I was more concerned with keeping my decks secret. Because of this, I didn’t really know how to play this matchup. You know how I said we had no clue what the Iowa City people were playing? Turns out most of them are using TIGIH scouts, which I don’t know how to play against. He starts the standard Insurrection, Staging Areas, Strike Planning thing and I start IAO, Mob. Points and Crush. I didn’t change my start all day. First turn, I get one of my battle ground DBs and throw Palpy down there. Since I hadn’t playtested, I didn’t know that it would be better to deploy him to the Landing Platform to force choke them. Then track a 6 and zap Luke with a Force Lightning. The deck has the tools to kill Luke, but I had a hard time getting them this game. Anyways, I grab a Force Lightning with Palpy and I Have You Now with Crush and end my turn. He had Crix in his opening hand, so he just grabs Gen. Solo. Activate, pull Homo One DB and deploy it. Then he tries to drain with Luke at the Hut and I say, "No, you already deployed." He looks at me for about 30 seconds like I’m some big jackass for not letting him drain after deploying. He finally stops staring at me and deploys Crix to the DB, grabs CoK with Crix and moves Luke to the landing platform. On my turn, I activate 3 and play a Twilek for Bad Feeling Have I. Activate the rest, pull the Coruscant DB and move Xizor over there. Draw up some and its his turn. From this point on, the game is a total blur. He comes down with a force of Leia with Gun, Gen Solo and CoK on my Plapy who had since been joined by 4-LOM. Me being with fool that I am, forget to play Force Lightning OR I Have You Now, so both my guys die. He looses Chewie. On my turn, I deploy another Palpy to the CC DB and on his turn he deploys Obi with Stick and transits his guys over. I come down with IG with gun, capturing Gen. Solo and releasing him to used pile. Obi and IG die to attrition with about equal power. I don’t remember the next battle at all, but he wins and says, "You owe me another card for I Feel The Conflict which I forgot to start." Well, screw that, I’m not losing a card for something that’s not on the table. We call Kai over and after he looks through all his piles to make sure its in his deck (it was in his force pile, the last pile he checked) Kai rules that the card will stay in his force pile. Nice middle of the road solution, I was trying to get his objective placed out of play and he was trying to be allowed to deploy the card from where ever it was. I have one last hope, a massive attack on Crix with Presence of the Force and lots of guys. I come down with 4-Lom with gun, Guri, a Vigo and Dengar with gun. I battle and Fallen Portal misses. I shoot twice with Dengar and miss both. He plays Help Me Augie Ben Doggy to add a destiny and I play Jabba’s Sick of Yo Punk @#$% to add one. When all is said and done, he loses Crix and 8 more. I loose one of my guys to attrition and its his turn. He comes down with Obi with saber and some other guy and all my characters die. On my turn, I have 10 force left and I draw them one by one. None are characters except Guri who was one card off the bottom.
Full loss by 19 2(+0)
Highlights: Beat up on Crix
Lowlights: Not knowing what to do, not drawing Zuckuss.
Stebbins beat Derek, Brad and Fleenor won. Mucking @#$%ic is doing alright with a combined total of 7-3 so far, with 2 losses to ourselves. Blake Carpenter, one of the local semi-scrubs is 2-0 as are Shawn Banwell, Nate Ponce and others.
Game 3, LS vs. Dan Wardell (1483, but he played as Daniel so its 1500) with COTVG
Dan is scared to death of me because I win most of the local tournaments and he’s surprised that I lost early. He starts with Power of the Hutt, All Wrapped Up and one other effect. On his first turn, he gets out Mosep with his AC text and deploys Galid from hand. This would be bad, but I have Rebel Fleet in my hand. I grab EBG and the Corridor. Activate and deploy the Corridor and War Room that was in my opening hand. Deploy EBG and use it to grab Zev. Deploy him to the corridor and draw, loosing one to Court. He activates and drains for 2, which I cancel with the Fleet. He then deployed Elephant Man to the Dungeon so I was pretty sure that he didn’t have Hutt Influence. On my turn, I grab the Echo DB, EBO and Hobbie from reserve, activate, deploy two systems from hand and deploy Hobbie to the War Room, a starfighter to the DB and EBO. I then deploy a ship to one of the systems and draw till I have 2 cards left. He activates and drains for 2 which I cancel and 1, which I loose. He then deploys another person with Power of the Hutt (Boleo?) and draws looking for something. I grab Hoth with ANSB and activate, but I forget to drain for 3. Stupid, but whatever. I deploy Hoth and another system that I drew last turn and deploy a ship from the Fleet and shuttle the one at the DB up to Hoth. I draw and get some more anti battle stuff. He drains for 3 again, and again I cancel two of it and lose one. He says something to the effect of, "I know you’ve got tricks, but I’m going to die really fast if I don’t do something." He died really fast anyways :) He deploys Zuckuss in Mist Hunter (what would you want to hunt mist for anyways?) to one of my systems, but I flee with Hyper Escape. He doesn’t follow because he fears a big beatdown. On my turn I grab my 5th out of 6 systems and drain for 9. I then deploy Order to Engage and an Arcona to the AC. I throw down the system I pulled (I’m sure all my systems have names, but it really doesn’t matter what they’re called) and throw another ship there. I draw, saving a few and its his turn again. He drains for 1 with Elephant Man at the Dungeon and I cancel with the Fleet. He then drains for two with Zuckuss and I curse my stupidity and loose 2. He gets some guys to the Pit of Carkoon and battles the Arcona. The Arcona uses his nifty text and flees to the dungeon. He looses 3 to OTE and moves Zuckuss over to an occupied system. I drain for 9 and move the Arcona back to the chamber. He gets out IG in ship from reserve and Bossk from hand to systems and battles with IG which is canceled with Alternatives to Fighting, Bossk which is Houjixed and Zuckuss which is Escaped. He looses 3 to OTE for the acrona. I drain him down to 11 force and draw for some more anti battle cards. All his battles are canceled/ran away from/houjixed on his turn and he looses 3 for OTE. I drain for 6 at two systems and I’m looking for some way to kill him. I realize IG doesn’t have presence, so I drain him for 3 when he only has 2 left.
Full win by 20 4(+20)
Highlights: Deck worked exactly like it was supposed to.
Lowlights: Canceling a drain of 1 then getting drained for 2.
Stebbins wins the war of the Brads over Brad G due to a Monnok for 12 cards. We go get lunch at Burger King, I have the 8 piece chicken tenders. I didn’t see how Derek and Fleen did because we were still playing. I think they both won, but I’m not sure.
Game 4, DS vs. Travis Winters (16something) with TIGIH scouts
Well it turns out that almost everyone from Iowa City brought TIGIH scouts, the deck that I am least prepared for. Travis has played in 2 sanctioned tournaments ever, states and regionals last year. I lost to him last year at states, so I know he’s good. He starts out with the standard TIGIH scouts and I also start my default. You would think that after my first game I would have figured out that dropping Palp to the Landing Platform first turn was good. But noooooooooooooo. Anyways, Palp goes to one of the Docking Bays first turn and grabs some stuff. He grabs Crix, activates and sticks Crix at the Homo One Docking Bay. He grabs a scout (CoK?) with Crix and moves Luke to the platform. This game is a big blur from this point of, but I’ll do my best to describe what I remember. He gets set up with scouts at the Back Door (good idea) and attacks my Palpy and Xizor. Xizor dies, but the swing on him missed so his forfeit covered. He has just Jedi Luke at the Landing Platform, but I know he’s holding barriers cause I saw some with I verified his deck earlier. I deploy Blast Door Controls and come down with 4-LOM with gun, Zuckuss and one other character (Vigo?) I battle and he Portals but misses. I cancel Luke’s text with 4-LOM and play Jabba’s Through. I draw fairly high and he draws a 4. I win the battle 21-10, he looses Luke and 3. All my character die to attrition. A few turns later, his characters are spread out so that it is the evil Corporal Midge and Cracken at the Back Door and another group of guys at the Landing Platform. I deploy Xizor to the docking bay where Palp isn’t and flip my objective. I then deploy Dengar with gun to the Back Door and look at my destinies with my objective. They are a 2 and 5. I go ahead and battle, getting one back with first strike while he lost one. I shoot both his characters. I don’t remember what his destiny was, but I lost Dengar and 3 more. Before that point, I was completely out of the game, and just did that suicide run with Dengar to amuse myself. But it wound up getting me back into the game. The situation is now Palpy and Xizor at the D*DB on my side. On his side there is a group of guys at the Landing Platform, another group at the Rebel Landing Site and the last group at the Homo One DB. On his turn, he spreads out the Endor guys again, so they cover all 3 sites. I come down with Iggy with Gun on the Back Door group and battle. One of the characters there is captured and released to used pile. The other was ability 4 and my destiny wasn’t high enough to capture him, but I killed him from attrition. Sadly, IG also died. On his turn, he transited his group at the Homo 1 DB over to the Courscant DB in an attempt to do some more damage. Not sure what else he did, but he may have moved Obi with saber to the Back Door from the Rebel Landing Site. I drain for 2 and do 2 with my objective. I had been holding a PotF for a long time, hoping to get the beats on Crix, but now that he wasn’t there, I deployed it on Palp’s site allowing me to do one more damage a turn. I come down on his group at the Courscant DB and we battle. I win by a small amount, but his forfeit covers and the site is cleared. The situation is now Palp at the D*DB with a PotF, Xizor at the CC DB, Obi with stick at the back door and a 2/2 scrub at the Endor Landing Platform. He drains for 3 and its my go. I drain for 3 and do 2 from my objective and move Xizor in front of the scrub. He drains for 2 and runs the scurb to the Rebel Landing Site, which was between the Back Door and Landing Platform. I drain for 3 and do 2 from my objective, bringing him down to 4 cards, I have 3 force left. I move Xizor over to block the drain. He drains for 2 with Obi, so I’m down to 1 force left. I look at my effects and almost choke when I see First Strike. Fortunately for me, he uses his one force to move the scrub to the Back Door instead of battling. On my turn I do 6 damage and he only has 4 force left.
Full win by 1 6(+21)
Highlights: Pulling that game out of my ass, I was so dead, I gave up and that suicide Dengar won me the game
Lowlights: Low differential is bad, I almost had a heart attack when he paid one to move the scrub away, thought he was battling.
Details are getting fuzzy here Brad Stebbins had a timed loss against Noel Burns dropping him to 3-1, Nate Ponce who won last year lost an early game, not sure to, but he beat Brad Gregg who dropped to 2-2, so he’s out. I think that was Travis’ first loss, so he is 3-1, Isaac Small is 4-0, as is Shawn Banwell who beat Blake Carpenter in the last 2 games. I think Derek and Fleen were also 3-1. The parings for game 5 are Banwell vs. Small, Stebbins vs. Burns, Ponce vs. Ho, Me vs. Fleen and Gregg vs. Winters.
Game 5, DS vs. Justin Fleenor with "Fleen Machine WYS"
He starts WYS and I can’t remember what his effects were. I draw my starting hand and one of the cards is Prepared Defenses. I have all my effects out, just forgot to get out PD. I show Fleen and he calls the TD over. Kai says I can start my effects and draw a new hand if Fleen will let me. He doesn’t, so get no starting effects. After shuffling my effects and hand back into my deck and calling Fleen a bastard, I draw my new starting hand. I get Crush and the Coruscant DB, so it’s not too bad. I deploy Crush and search for Evader/Monnok. Both of my BD docking bays, IAO and Mob Points are in reserve, so I deploy Palp to his Cantina. I would drain for 2 there the entire game. I remember very little of this game, but here are some of the highlights. Fleen plays an early C/TV which I grab. I eventually get the D*DB and get Xizor over there, flipping my objective. He gets Dash in the Outrider to Kessel, I think he also had Mirax on the Skate, but not sure. They would drain me for 3 the whole game. There are some brief skirmishes at a <>DB involving Melas, Theron Nett who kept going to a Bacta Tank and occasionally a Luke with saber Against IG with Gun. I don’t really remember what happened, but I know I eventually canceled Bacta Tank with Theron Nett on it and Fleen killed Luke with an On The Edge due to bad tracking. We get into a drain race and I keep playing Projective Telepathy on his drain at Kessel, so he can’t do much else. I eventually drain him out.
Full win by 5 8(+26)
Highlights: I got to deploy IG for cheap to the <> DB because I had No Escape out.
Lowlights: Getting drained at Kessel the whole game.
Shawn Banwell won so he moves to 5-0 and is the only undefeated player remaining. Isaac Small drops to 4-1. Nate Ponce got a timed win against Derek Ho putting him at 4-1, but he had a timed win. Stebbins beat Noel Burns, he went to 4-1, Noel dropped to 3-2. Other 3-2 players are Brad, Derek, Fleen and Travis who lost to Brad. Matchups for next round are Banwell vs. Small, Stebbins vs. Ponce, Me vs. Noel. I don’t remember the rest, but they wouldn’t affect the final anyways. So going into the final game I can make it if I win (obviously) Nate beats Stebbins and Banwell beats Isaac or if Isaac beats Banwell by a huge amount and I win big. If Stebbins wins, he’s in because his differential is a lot bigger than mine. Nate Ponce can make it if he wins, Banwell wins and I loose. Does any of that make sense?
Game 6, LS vs. Noel Burns (1511) with TDIGWATT
I remember nothing about this game. I got EBO set up early, he couldn’t find sites for the deal. I drained for lots in space, he tried to contest, but I ran away or canceled battles. He eventually got out Dark Deal, but I got an Arcona running around on CC and I was canceling another drain with Rebel Fleet. He died quickly.
Full win by 15 10(+41)
Highlights: Deck works again.
Since our game was so fast, I get to watch other people decide my fate. Brad Stebbins looses to Nate Ponce’s BHBM because he forgot to stack cards about 3 times when he won duels, so the Stebbins losing requirement. After that game Brad G was making fun of him for now stacking cards and Stebbins says "yeah? Well at least I placed higher than you." Brad G responds with "what’s your differential?" "67" "Mine is 70 @#$%!" so not only does Stebbins blow his shot at the final, he also makes a fool of himself. I go check the status of the Banwell vs. Small. It’s really close and could go either way. I’m to nervous to watch so I leave the gaming area and talk with some people. A nerve racking 15 minutes later Banwell and Isaac come out. Banwell lost BY ONE, so I don’t make the final.
Final Standings:
1. Isaac Small 10(+57)
2. Shawn Banwell 10(+53)
3. Me 10(+41)
4. Nate Ponce 9(+?)
5. Brad Gregg 8(+70)
6. Travis Winters 8(+70)
7. Brad Stebbins 8(+67)
We stick around for the final. I was playing pickup games against Brad, so I didn’t see the games, but Banwell won both games to take the title. He got a nifty lightsaber and a poster signed by all the participants, which he gave to Isaac. The Brads and I go to my house for a while and then go bowling at AMF lanes. Unlimited bowling from 11 to 130 including shoes for 10 bucks is damn cool. I haven’t bowled in about 6 months, so the first game is a practice one for me. I roll around 50. 2nd game, Me and Brad are close the whole way, but in the end he pulls it out 136 to 132. Don’t remember the 3rd game, but 4th game is close till the end. Final scores: Stebbins- 104 Brad- 106 Me- 110. So I win my first game of bowling in forever. Don’t remember the rest of the games, but Brad threw a 180 one game and destroyed me and Stebbins.
Props
To John Arendt for the deck. It didn’t to to well then, but since then, it hasn’t lost.
To Kai Wilken for running the event, he did a great job.
To Zeb, Dan and Noel for feeling the wrath of my EBO
To Ho because he’s cool
To Stebbins for all the BS about plans to steal decks
To Brad because he gets us free food
To Travis for being a great opponent, gracious loser and awesome sport.
To Dan Meyer for being a cool guy
To the store guy for letting us stay and finish the final after the store closed
To everyone else there for the great tournament
To Zuckuss for being a major pimp
To Arconas for being silly
To A&W Cream Soda for being the best pop ever
To the EBO deck for wrecking
Slops
To Me for having @#$%ty differential
To Banwell for losing his last game
To Stebbins for forgetting to stack cards
To Me for not knowing to play against TIGIH scouts
To Peter Franke for being pissed that I wouldn’t let him drain after deploying and trying to stack cards on an I Feel The Conflict that wasn’t there
To Fleen for not letting me start any effects
Thanks for reading
Seth Van Winkle
2001 Iowa State 3rd Place Scrub