madison-wi-7-14-01-the-blind-approach
Title: madison-wi-7-14-01-the-blind-approach
Author: Brandon "Jedi Genius" Schele
Date: Jul 15, 2001
Well about a week ago I find out there is a tourney in Madison, which is only about a 45 min drive for me. I ask around the neighborhood and get 3 other people to go with me – Ian Merriman, Bill Ruck, and my little brother, Justin. Anyways, now I have to get myself some decks. Me, being the professional procrastinator I am, wait until 2 days before the tourney on Saturday to make my light side deck which ends up being a basic solid WYS deck with anti racing crap including anis pod, a step backward x3, and too close for comfort. Friday rolls around and I still have no dark side deck. I DO have a brangus racing deck, but I dont wanna play that now that everyone knows about it and I live in the midwest - so everyone plays anti everything. About 9 pm comes along and I still have nothing. Im fresh out of ideas, and so is everyone I talk to online, so I decide to build a maul deck. They seem fun and no one would expect SAC from me because I have never played SAC before in my life(1 sense, 1 alter doesnt count). So I build it and decide to go with it. The only thing I decided not to include in the deck was sebulbas pod cause no one is gonna play light side racing, only anti racing(I guessed right on that btw, no one did play light side racing). I decided to play an extra large space package because I expect to see a lot of WYS and hidden base flip with about 6 starships and 2 lat damages. So Saturday rolls around and im ready to go, but of course Ian is running late again(what a moron). We arrive 25 min early so we grab some lunch and head over to the tourney. Turns out we get 11 or 12 guys( I dont remember) including Christian Kreisel(19XX), Erick Butzlaff(1911) who just came off a 3rd place finish at Origins, and Corey Faherty(1980 or so) the current state champ(he ends up leaving after the first game).
The Decks
Me: WYS anti racing and Desert Landing Site/JP Fun
Ian: QMC crap(and I mean CRAP) and some Court SAC deck(he has an inflated rating of 1740)
Bill: Hidden Base flip and Dark Deal(hes pretty much a newbie)
Justin: MBO and CCT(hes only 11, give him a break)
Erick: WYS and BRANGUS RACING(big surprise)
My rating going into the tourney is 1784
Onto the first round
GAME ONE: my Fun with Maul deck vs. Erick Butzlaff(1911) WYS
Well when we sit down Erick says that a good WYS will always beat a maul deck. Wonderful. Well anyways, I get a decent starting hand so I get the first turn maul to the landing site w/saber and pull AC from deck via JP. I move maul over to the DB and draw and get another maul and saber. His turn he activates, and does virtually nothing and draws. My turn, I drain, deploy lower passages from my deck, deploy mara and saber from deck via AC game text, and move maul to the cantina. Erick then decides to come down with an epp luke to fight maul. We both miss with saber, and both draw a 1 for battle destiny. He loses luke. he then plays jedis resilience to take luke back into hand. I drain for 5 and draw trying to get some starships and more characters. His turn luke comes down AGAIN against maul, he battles, he misses I hit, I draw a 5 to his 1. He loses luke and 7 more. my turn I drain and draw some more. he mentions something about having a huge hand and I reply with that it scares my opponents. He looks scared(hehe). His turn he drops cap han in falcon to tatooine and raider on craft to tat db for the flip. My turn I drain and say “somebody better call Ericks momma cause im about to WHOOP him”(Brian Hunter will like this, hehe). I comedown with zuckuss in mh and guri in stinger against han, draw a 4 and a 5 to beat him off the system(he deploy battle plan during his turn so he now has to pay for it). too bad he didn’t have kessel down so I could play lat damage(hehe). Anyways, hes running low on force and makes another attack against maul with another epp luke. he also deploys wedge and melas to JP. He battles against maul again, only this time we both hit, and both draw 1s so he loses luke and 2 and I lose maul. My turn I drop maul again to the cantina for the drain. His turn he just moves melas to the DSL for the drain and draws a couple. I come down with mighty jabba/boelo to DSL and ig88 w/gun against wedge. Battle at wedges site, he reacts patrol craft, I capture wedge and bounce him to used pile. After drawing battle destiny the site is cleared. I battle at DSL and he reacts away. He then deploys ANOTHER epp luke to JP where melas is. I come down with epp vader/tarkin. Battle, slice luke, he misses, destiny and he loses both. I now have total board control and he has nothing. I drain him out for a win by 25.
2(+25)
Game 2: my WYS vs Jim Beyer(1779) Court/podracing/capture the queen deck
Thats right, not only does he start court and podracing, he also captures the queen. He tells me that he uses the probe droids basically for retrieval. before the game started, he said I would get a full win by 27. Anyways, I dont get any podracing interrupts, and he apparently didn’t wanna start the race right away, so the race didn’t begin until like midgame, the fifth of sixth turn. I drop epp luke to the cantina turn 1 to prevent damage from court. His turn he drops epp vader and dr.e combo to AC. I drop battle plan and wedge in ship to tatooine. He returns with ZIMH(barrier) and guri in stinger. I return with dash in outrider, rfc on outrider, and xwing gun. I battle, fire at stinger, hit, draw destiny. He loses ZIMH and like 7. His turn he drops ig88 with gun and guri against epp luke, battles and captures luke. crap. At least he can’t drain in the cantina. My turn I drop kessel, lando with gun and talon to the tat db, ill take the leader, and move outrider over to kessel. From there I basically drain him out because he has problems finding the rest of his guys for a win by, you guessed it, 27. Thats kinda scary.
4(+52)
at this point there are only 3 undefeateds, me, Dan Waier, and Christian. Since Dan won both his games by 30+, I get to face him the next game.
Game 3: my Fun with Maul deck vs Dan Waier(1690) WYS
Well Erick is sitting next to us and makes a comment about how WYS should beat maul decks(just like his did, hehe). Anyways, I can’t find maul or saber for anything so I drop mara/saber and gailid to the AC and emperor/xizor to lower passages. In the meantime he deploys talon to the tat DB and wedge in ship w/xwing cannon to tatooine to flip. He also drops battle plan. I finally get a maul and deploy him and move him in front of talon, flipping him back. Dan then tries to control some of my drains, but he isnt flipped so I sense. He also tries some tunnel visions which I also sense. He drops kessel, puts an RFC on red 10 to kessel, moves wedge to kessel, and moves talon to the cantina where he deployed epp han. I drain and move maul over to the cantina flipping him back. He then deploys mirax on ship to tatooine and moves talon/epp han to the DB. I drop guri in stinger and fett in ship in front of mirax, battle, and he loses 5 battle damage from his deck. Of course I move maul to the db. His turn he drops jedi luke to the db(barrier) and moves red 10 to tatooine. I have a considerable amount of force saved so on my turn its time to WIN. I drain for 5 in jabbas palace, then SFS mirax. I drop epp vader and tarkin to back up maul. Give maul his saber. I battle at the system and he loses everything there. I then you are beaten han, battle, steal lukes saber, slice talon, and play I have you now to get my 3 destiny. He loses luke and talon to flip him back along with the remainder of his life force. I get the win by 18.
6(+70)
well Christian lost to Ericks brangus racing so im the only undefeated. I look at the command cards and find out that I can win if I lose by less than 13 or win my final game. Since Christian was the same side as I was, I play Dan again.
Game 4: my WYS vs Dan Waier(1690) Hunt down racing deck with wattos box
Well I hate hunt down racing with a PASSION. Good thing I play anti racing. I grab honor early so he loses to his own visage all game. Here is a little breakdown of what happened during the podrace for the whole game(the rest of the game details will follow this): he uses sebulbas headstart and I play a step backwards. We both draw for the next 2 turns and I stack a total of 20(5,3,6,6). Dan gets worried. He plays podracer collision, gets a 6, plays hit racer, gets me so I dont draw. And plays a slew of podracing interrupts to get my total low and not allow me to draw race destiny. 2 can play at this game. I play a step backward a total of 3 more times(from lost with my obj flipped) to prevent either of us from winning the race all game. So now you know what happened to the podrace, neither one of us finished. Now back to the rest of the game. He drop dvdlots to the cantina to stop loss from visage. I drop jedi luke with saber, battle, hit, and make him lose like 3 overflow. He draws for a turn. I set up in space to flip my obj(at tatooine and kessel). He drops dvdlots(barrier) again, dr e combo, and tarkin, my turn I drop ecc lando and chewie protector. Battle, shoot dr e with lando, he chokes chewie, I slice tarkin, blaster pro him out of battle, and it ends up me losing lando and him losing dr.e and a couple from his deck to keep dvdlots there. His turn he drops some scrub guys and battles. I slice vader and he loses the other guy to attrition. From there I drain him out for a win by 18.
8(+88)
this makes me the only undefeated guy so I get the win. We were the first game to finish and Ian finds out that I won the tourney and says something about how he should have won. Erick turns around and says something about how Ian doesnt deserve to win crap and how I deserve the win(thanks Erick). I choose the Sense tourney foil.
Final standings:
1 Brandon Schele(me) 4-0
2 Christian Kreisel 3-1
3 Jim Beyer 3-1
4 Justin Schele(my little bro) 3-1
5 Erick Butzlaff 2-2
6 Dan Waier 2-2
I quit paying attention after this…… but I do know that Ian and Bill finished 1-3(HAHA IAN, that rating of yours is going DOWN).
I calculated that my rating is going to go up to about 1845 or so.
Props and Slops
Props
Me for winning
Me for driving
Justin, for somehow going 3-1 and blowing up the death star one game
Christian for running the tourney
Erick for showing up so I could beat him
Al Schaefer for calling me a “raging tech stallion” because of my space package in my maul deck that beat 2 WYS decks out of the sky and playing my anti racing in my light side
Rocky Roccocos pizza for being a great pretourney snack
Misty Mountain for allowing us to play there
Me for telling Erick that somebody better call his momma
Me for “owning” Erick all game
Jim Beyer for showing up
Slops
Erick for going 2-2
Ian for going 1-3(HAHAHAHAHA)
Bill for losing against an AOBS deck by 2 off a lucky probe
Ian for not leaving when I say LEAVE(next time im leaving you in madison)
Corey for leaving
Brandon Schele
AIM Boygenius9983
email Boygenius9983@aol.com