dalton-goes-to-ramapoocon-part-1
Title: dalton-goes-to-ramapoocon-part-1
Author: Michael "faramir" Dalton
Date: Jun 24, 2001
It’s in 2 parts cause I apparently write far too much about nothing, sue me.
It all starts wednesday, I’ve got 3 days off due to finishing my project early and so I’m sitting around waiting for Charlie Herren to give me a call cause he’s flying in stand-by that day. No call until like after 4 PM (when the 1st available flight got in like 5 hours earlier) so I call up Tom H-K and plan some playtesting. Charlie rings on call waiting and tells me he’s on a bus to Penn Station. "Penn Station?" I say. I immediately think New York Penn Station and tell Charlie he’s screwed :). He tells me he’ll call back when he’s off the bus, so I go back to Tom, realize Charlie is prolly headed to Newark Penn Station and Tom and Blythe get me some directions there cause it’s really not that far. Charlie calls back, I go pick him up, it takes like 45 minutes to go like 10 miles through the ghetto where there’s a stop light like every 10 feet. Long story short, I pick up Charlie and Clay Ramey in the ghetto and we take a ride out to Tom H-K’s house where I pick up a box of Tatooine and we all grab some free food. Head up to Ramapoo to drop Charlie and Clay off w/ their fellow Atlanta crew at some local hotel. Back down to Tom’s to throw some decks together so I can play a little the next day. Dark is Alderaan Go Boom (sans a Superlaser, doh). Light is Hidden Mains cause my States deck is already built so I throw some Tatooine cards in and there, it’s a deck. Head home, talk to Lani, convince her she should come hang out w/ us on saturday cause it might be fun and I get some sleep.
Wake up at around 10:30, shower, get my stuff all in order. List of people I’m picking up at the airport w/ their flight info, directions just in case I forget, one of those "airport signs" that says "RamapoCon" cause I don’t actually know any of these people I’m picking up. Phone rings, it’s Joe Olson, he gives me new flight info cause it’s all changed and he’s actually getting in earlier which is even more convenient, nice. So I head out to the airport, Charles Hickey has roped me into picking up John Hawkins and Chris Denoma from Oregon while I was already planning on picking up Steve Kuperman. I go to the baggage area and see 2 guys who fit the description (20 or so, kinda dorky, funny clothes, wait, that was just John...). Actually they were pretty cool, I flash them my sign and introductions are made and we head off to find Steve. We check the board and his flight is canceled. "Canceled?", yes, canceled. I’m ready to give up on him but John and Chris go schmooze some airport employee into looking up Kuperman for us and she says he’s on the next flight which is getting in like half an hour later. So we chill, they’re funny guys, John tells me how Chris is gay apparently while Chris rips on John’s clothes saying if 1 of them is gay it clearly isn’t him. Anyway... We play the "guess the SW:CCG player" game as people come down the escalator and soon enough Steve comes down and we’re on our way. 1 problem, I apparently lost the parking ticket somewhere or another and as we get to the exit we see the sign "Lost ticket = minimum $48". I’m so not hearing that, so I drive up to the lady and look all innocent and friendly as I tell her I lost the stupid ticket. Fill out paperwork, show my registration and whatnot, some manager lady comes over and is like "what time did you get here?" and I’m loving life. $4 later we’re on our way. Uninteresting trip, John and Chris entertain us w/ witty banter as all wonder in amazement at the crazy @#$% driving that goes on in NJ and the largest cemetary known to man that we pass along the parkway. We get to Ramapo and the hotties are out in force, pity they all disappear sometime during the day on thursday not to be seen for the rest of the weekend. We chill in the student’s center as we can’t find anyone around and eventually meet up w/ the Atlanta crew as Charlie calls my cell phone only to find me like 100 feet or so away. Hawkins rips Kuperman in a friendly game (a sign of things to come maybe?). Denoma and I sit down for a game where I realize I have no superlaser in the Alderaan deck but I’m doing alright anyway when Lingrell shows up and we close up the game. We meet Lingrell at the dorms as I lead a crew of about 10 over there even though I don’t know where the heck I’m going. We meet up w/ Kim Caton and Jonny Chu at the dorms, and soon after Chris Praskac and TJ Holman arrive. Dorm keys are handed out and Lingrell and I begin unloading the U-Haul as Kim and Bart Robinson make signs. We finally get this big @#$% cart to bring stuff upstairs so Lingrell stands in the U-Haul throwing stuff at me as I load this stupd cart and soon enough we unload most of what needs to be unloaded and I’m headed back the god damn airport.
Airport trip #2 has me picking up Joe Olson, Charles Hickey and AJ Delisle. Original plans had me meeting them all at Terminal C where Joe was getting in like an hour or so later but Joe got in early so I meet him. Joe is cool, just as you might picture him even if you had never seen him before. He’s carrying like twice his body weight in SW:CCG cards and I feel bad dragging him all across Newark Airport but so be it. We follow these poorly placed signs up to the monorail, the monorail rules all. It zips us over to Terminal A and with little trouble we run into Charles. Charles doesn’t look like you’d picture him to look at all... We wait for AJ and like half an hour or more later he arrives and is all like "eh" and whatnot, Canadians are funny. Back on the monorail and a long @#$% walk out to my car but I do remember the stupid parking ticket this time so we get out w/ out incident and back up to Ramapoo. We stupidly walk right past the early bird tournament and head on to the dorms only to find there was no one to give them their keys at the dorm and we eventually have to walk back but not before Joe and I think AJ start a game while Charles and I find Steve Kuperman falling asleep in their room while making a deck. Anyway... Charles and I make our way to registration and there’s a small tournament going on, bunch of people there (the Clarks Summit crew, Ray Bordier, Brentson, Gogolen, the Hermley-Keens, Rich Haman, etc.). So I sit down and relax some, watch some games, chill for like a whole half hour before Lingrell says we need to make another trip out to the airport. I’m so kicking myself as I really don’t want to go there but I agree to let him drive my car to the airport but then I realize I totally can’t find my keys and I’m hating life once again. I run back to the dorm where I meet up w/ Lingrell and see my keys are left on a table where Olson and whoever were playing a game so I’m pretty much thrilled to have found my keys. Lingrell and I plan to make our trip back to the airport to pick up Matt Berta who’s pretty much hating life right now while sitting at the airport waiting for a ride. I walk back Jamie Abel to help him find the registration and call off the alert on my missing keys.
So, airport trip #3 of the day, Lingrell driving cause I’m way too sick of driving although I must question this decision. Everyone who I drove around thought I was a pretty crazy driver, they would’ve all @#$% themselves if they saw Lingrell drive. I’m just praying for the car (it’s not even my car). Not a fun trip, basically everything that can be going wrong w/ the con is going wrong and it’s all just a mess and we need to make lots of money or Scott is screwed. I arrive at the brilliant idea of selling alcohol in the dorms, but unfortunately it is never implemented. In the course of the trip my cell rings and I climb back to the trunk to try to answer the phone in time but fail, however I do stumble across Olson’s wallet and take my finder’s fee cut :). So anyway, we pick up Matt Berta at the airport, and he’s all like I’m from Vegas so I’m cooler than you but that’s okay. He was pretty cool about being stuck at the airport though, so that’s cool, we stop at the Wendy’s drive-thru and he gets like 2 sandwiches which cost like far too much and spills his lemonade all over the floor of the back of my car but that’s okay... We get back to the tournament as it’s closing up, I think 1 of Brentson’s crew won. We close up and I lead another crew of people back to the dorms. By now it’s like past midnight and I still don’t have decks for the DPC the next day and Lingrell has plans for us to setup at like 6 AM the next day. Tom goes to his room and gets beer and like a ton of cards and we setup in the 2nd floor lobby. I head off to find Gundry and sure enough he’s in the 3rd floor lobby playing a game w/ Ed Rebman. Nice to meet Ed who I’d talked to a bunch online but never actually met. So, I help transport Tom and all his @#$% up to the 3rd floor and we watch Ed and George go at it. George loses (big surprise there). I then somehow or other lose to Ed w/ my stupid Hidden Mains against his stupid CCT/SCrew deck, whatever. Ed goes to bed cause he’s a pansy and can’t stay up all night like real men should. Gundry and I play a game or 2 or 3 and I school him w/ Dark Surgeon a little. I eventually give up on having good decks for the DPC and just go w/ what I already have made, I play my ISB deck from States card for card. For light it’s Hidden Mains, which is just silly, cause there’s way better platforms for mains now that don’t tie up 2 of your 3 starting effects but whatever, it’s already built, I go w/ it. By this time it’s like 6 AM so I help Tom but his cards away and we go wake people up to get setup.
Tom hooks us up w/ a box of donuts for breakfast and we’re pretty psyched about this. Unfortunately we have nothing to drink w/ it and it’s like a frigging "Got Milk" commercial. The relative hotness of Anna Kournikova and Martina Hingis is discussed as people get their lazy asses out of bed. Apparently the school can’t provide tables, so Lingrell buys like 80 tables at like $50 each w/ the intention of returning each and every one of them when all is said and done. So, Bart, George, Lingrell, Scott (Tom’s friend), Tom and I have to move these 80 tables up to the 2nd floor of the student center. Again, we get the help of a big @#$% cart and even w/ that it’s an effort. The tables are setup, chairs put in place, and the gaming area looks really sweet when all is said and done. It’s now like 8 AM and Gundry and I get leave to go crash cause neither of us have slept and we’re playing in the DPC later that afternoon. I crash in Scott’s room for like 3+ hours and somehow I’m refreshed after all this. Wake up Gundry, chat w/ Lolli who comes in the room to finish making his decks and head back to the student center where registration is in full swing. I register and buy some pastry thing which hits the spot. Fill out decklists and hang out for a few hours until the DPC gets under way.
So, there’s like almost 80 people for the DPC, less than I thought but whatever, it’s like 9 of the top 13 players in the world, the competition is tough. I know my decks aren’t even close to good enough, but I just wanna play and have some fun. I just didn’t quite have time to playtest, damn all of you for not giving me better decks... Enough excuses, on to the games. I’m paying ISB/Space for dark, and Hidden Mains for light.
1st game: DS vs. Don Kitzman’s WYS/Lock
I didn’t know who Don was, and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one. It was only after the game that I found out he was friends w/ Hawkins and Denoma although I’m sure he was 1 of the guys they were talking about the day before. He starts podracing and YISYW while I ponder my 3rd effect and grab SSPFT. My opening hand is pretty solid, as I have Lord Vader and Vader’s stick so I drop the Endor:DB (the only one I could find) and move Vader over to the Tatooine:DB. He just draws some, I drain and drop Piett and Merrejk and move Vader over to the Cantina. He drops the Jedi site, pulls Luke and moves him over to that Tat:DB. I’m fearing the EPP Han + Tripler + Run Luke Run beatdown right about now and so I Masterful Move for a Ghhhk and hope. He drops like Melas at the Jedi site, RFC to the Cantina, flips, battles and Run Luke Runs over Luke. I go to swing at Luke but he plays the podracing card that makes me spend 2 of cancel the targeting and I have no force so it’s canceled, he misses Vader, I lose a few force and he loses the RFC. Next turn Vader hits Luke and I lose a few cards to battle damage but Vader has the Cantina. I got out Den of Thieves so his minimal drains are canceled, he wins the podrace and I lose 6 while he gets 6 back. His objective flips back and forth. I get out the Exec at Fondor w/ Chiraneau and move to Tatooine. Soon after Endor w/ Thrawn on the Chimera and I have a phat drain for 9 going. I get inserted w/ A Tremor and an AFA. I setup more drain w/ some ORS and Ozzel on the ground, AFA pops and I go battle Chewie w/ Blizzard 2 and an ORS. I’ve got good board control when he drops Jedi Luke at the Endor:DB, Corran Horn and Wedge on Tatooine and NTMTO. His total is 13 to my like 2, not good. I just stop activating and sit there draining for 9, while he keeps Recoiling to get the insert to pop and eventually it does. However in the hand I draw from the Recoil I get my YCHF so there will be no more insert silliness and I drain him out soon after, win by 16.
Unfortunately I think we messed up a rule when I deployed Blizzard 2 for free after an It Can Wait and Recoil when I should’ve had to pay for it, but I didn’t know the ruling at the time. I also prolly forgot to make him place his Effective Repairs out of play cause they’re retrieval and subject to SSPFT but neither of these was really game breaking.
2nd game: LS vs. Steve Kuperman’s SYCFA/Ties/podracing.
Nice to play Steve, although he’s playing some cheesy @#$% Tie/Insert deck. I start YISYS though and his inserts never happen, however he does get setup w/ the Emperor at the DS:DB and some matching pilot Tie/LN at Kashyyyk. I get out Padme at the Tatooine:DB and she pulls out Ben and Qui-Gon for me. I get mad lucky and pull all 3 Sabers in the deck pretty quick, so it’s Qui-Gon w/ stick at CC:DB, Ben w/ stick and Padme at Tat:DB, and Jedi Luke w/ stick goes to face off w/ the Emperor at the DS:DB. Eventually Luke hits the Emperor and ground control is mine. He wins the podrace but I had tracked my ICBW and canceled all 11 damage. He gets out SFS and I ponder the Alter on it but I wait and instead go to space w/ the Super Falcon against his Tie but I get Barrier’ed. He Lateral Damages and I Alter seeing the Tallon Roll coming a mile away. He plays the Dark Maneuvers half and then the Tallon Roll half, we draw and his pull is bad while mine is good and we tie, nice. So he goes and draws and sure enough another Tallon Roll gets my Falcon. I Off the Edge it all back, but in his next drain I lose 2 On the Edges and the other Off the Edge and my retrieval is done. So, I pull up another Super Falcon and send it over to the Death Star to drain. Battle Order comes out and that stinks so I kills his Barriered ship at the D* and run over to a battleground planet. Another Lateral Damage is met w/ another Alter, Tallon Roll meets Sense. So he goes and draws and finds another Tallon Roll and again I lose my stinking ship. I concede defeat and settle for the drain race instead. I’m paying to drain, he’s not thanks to a Tie at the D*:DB which is also blocking a drain so I move Jedi Luke to that Tat:DB and Ben goes to the Podrace Arena to drain. My drain is bigger, and I squeak out the race, win by like 10 maybe, no clue really.
3rd game: DS vs. John Lolli’s RST/Podracing/junk
Earlier when John came into the room while I was napping I saw him throwing together this deck, he even let me look at it again while we were sitting around filling out decklists, there were really no surprises coming. At the same time we had both played ISB/Space for dark a few weeks earlier at States, so he knew what he’d be seeing from me. What he didn’t expect was me to get pretty much a god draw. I get out Piett and Merrejk and back them up w/ Ozzel cause he’s playing RST, there’s spies galore in the deck. I then setup in the bunker w/ Lord Vader and Tarkin, and I have Guri and a Dark Lord in hand for backup. He comes into the Bunker w/ EPP Obi and a spy, he swings at Tarkin, pulls a 3 and something I cancel. His 2 destinies don’t break Vaders forfeit so Vader and the spy both die. My turn down comes Guri, Dark Lord, an ORS I think and I battle. This time he hits Tarkin, but I don’t care as I cancel his battle destiny and hit him for Obi and another like 8 cards or so. It’s pretty much an ideal start for me. He goes to setup outside on Endor while I setup in space w/ Chiraneau and the Exec at Endor and drop Battle Deployment so he gets only 1 battle destiny on Endor. Thrawn on the Exec go to Kashyyyk as well. He wins the podrace, I lose and he retrieves. He comes back into the bunker w/ General Solo, Jedi Luke, EPP Leia, a whole crew and sure enough what looked like a solid force I had at the bunker is reduced to nothing. Charges follow and the bunker is blown and theregoes my hand. The rest of the game is him kicking me off Endor cause his destinies are absolutely sick, Midge adding to his drains, he comes to challenge me in space w/ Super Home One and there’s really not much I can do. I got a god draw and lost by almost 30.
4th game: LS vs. some guy’s JP/EtE deck
I dunno what was doing on this game, I think the whole DPC mindset caught up to me cause I was a jerk to this guy whoever he was :). Who plays JP w/ ETE anyway? It kinda worked though, cause he got mad force going pretty early. Early on I think he searches w/ the AC game text for an alien and he gives me his deck to verify. There’s like a ton of aliens in there, but I don’t really feel like making him deploy one so instead I just look through. He’s playing heavy S/A, mains, Hidden Weapons, and I don’t see a single ship. 1st chance I get Corran Horn goes on the Falcon at Corulag to drain for 1 for the rest of the game. He drops Mighty Jabba and Gallid at the AC. I drop Padme at Tat:DB and she fetches Qui-Gon while they run to the Home One:DB cause he’s got a lot of beatdown. He comes w/ Mara and 4-LoM. 4-LoM blanks Qui-Gon, and I’m surprised he decides to target Qui-Gon w/ Mara’s stick instead of Padme but I guess I should go read my cards closer :). So, he misses Qui-Gon, Padme covers, while I pull a 4 so he has to lose Mara. Next turn Ben drops to Tat:DB and Qui-Gon follows. He drops some characters in front of my 2 jedi (Jodo Kast, IG-88, some others) and Elises 4-LoM from Home One:DB. I just setup Menace Fades, drop Jedi Luke, EPP Leia and they all move to Tat:JP. We have some minor sense/alter wars, I lose like all of them, but I do manage to get most of his senses out of his hand. 1 turn we get in a S/A war over Savrip I think, he wins out and is drawing for his Senses when he pulls a 4, he’s got Mara out, but doesn’t realize, so he goes to play another Sense from his hand. He pulls a 3, succeeds and then notices Mara, asks for the other Sense back but I’m like "no dice". So, he moves all his guys over to JP. My turn I SatM on Jodo (didn’t really want that getting sensed) and battle. He blanks Ben, I play Gift, EPP Leia hits someone, Juke hits w/ his Saber, and I clear his side of the site while only losing Leia. So, now I’m draining for 3 at JP (4 when Ben gets his Saber), 1 at Corulag to his drain of 1 at JP. He gets a bit desperate apparently and comes at my 3 Jedi w/ EPP Fett, and the unique Force Pike power 5 guy. I have a 5 tracked so I Fallen Portal Fett only to have it Sensed. He goes to play Hidden Weapons and pulls like the only 1 left in his deck and he complains about his poor destinies (all he had left were 3s and 4s cause of al his Sense/Alters but maybe he should track them). It really didn’t matter as Fett got hit by Luke and then Blaster Proficiencied. Ben hit the other guy, and it was his power 5 to my 3 Jedi. Him and like 18 cards please, game over, thank you for playing. Win by like 18 or so.
I felt kinda bad, I was a jerk to that guy, but I really didn’t want to lose to someone who started JP w/ Expand.
5th game: LS vs. Matt Berta’s Hunt Down/Imp Command
This game just went bad for me, and showed that my deck was a little behind the times. His was too kinda, but anyway... I don’t really remember too much about this game, we battled over both our docking bays, w/ me getting the upper hand thanks to a Weapon Lev on Vader’s Saber and some well placed Blaster Deflections. None of this really mattered as he had Emperor and Janus out, and some tracked destinies later Maul w/ Saber comes down and duels away Qui-Gon and Ben I think (might’ve been Luke, but we’ll say it’s Ben cause it’s more storyline :). Whichever Jedi didn’t get dueled away got beaten the crap out of and that was pretty much game. Him placing his objective out of play w/ Maul wins him the game handily. Anyway... we make plans to get drunk later, which never come to fruition, although that’s likely my fault. Lose by 14 or so?
6th game: DS vs. Mike Kessling’s MWYHL/Podracing/Beats
Basically he pulls all the Dagobah sites, sets up the naked droid at the podrace arena and abuses him for high destiny. I lost the race, big surprise, and in the cards I flip off the top are Admiral Piett and Chiraneua, I hadn’t even seen an Imperial Command by this time. Anyway... I setup at Sullust I think, I anticipate major beatdown, and w/ I Did It out I know DTF will come and prevent the Imperial Command so I setup w/ Guri on the Exec and some pilot and I have a drain for 2 he can’t really touch. He gets down Qui-Gon and some people at the Podrace Arena to drain, I flip ISB and drop 5d6 there. I backup my Merrejk and ORS at the Exec. DB w/ Blizzard 2. He comes down w/ like Han, Leia, Chewie after Lando and beats the snot out of me there but I just decline my destiny draw and Ghhhk stranding most of the good mains there to drain for 1. Now I spread out to another system, but he’s got Battle Plan out and it’s costly to drain. I get Vader w/ his Saber on Zuckuss in MH and go to land him at Yoda’s Hut but alas he’s got Great Warrior and EPP Luke left in hand so I lose them. He eventually drops the Cantina and move some guys in there, I come to battle at the Podrace Arena but it’s no use as he’s drawing all 5s and 6s for destiny which kill my guys too quick. I lose by like 15, maybe 20, who knows. Mike was cool though, I met him the day before, and for some unknown reason I had a preconceived notion that he was a snotty little kid, and he proved me totally wrong.
So, I was 3-3 and didn’t really feel like playing anymore so I dropped but I ended up hanging around until the end of the 8 games anyway (sort of silly). Got to watch much of the Holman vs. Denoma game 8 matchup which was pretty cool. They were all heading back to the dorms for the final duels and I headed home cause I wanted a good night’s sleep and didn’t exactly have any clothes to change into had I decided to actually stay. So, after the hour ride home I popped online to give an update of what went on during the day and then I crashed, sleeping in until like almost noon while the Open started far earlier. I kind of wanted to play, but I had no decks, and no time to make decks, and in the end it was prolly better that I just skipped the darn thing.
This won’t all fit so I gotta break it up into 2 parts, sorry.