going-back-to-cali-meriden-tr
Title: going-back-to-cali-meriden-tr
Author: Hayes "Hayes" Hunter
Date: Jul 18, 2001
I hafta work tommorow, and its like 12:30 am now as I write this, but Dan Sacco was so looking forward to this TR, so here it is.
So Jeremy Oakes, easily one of the regions best TDs, has schedualed his last tournament. It turns out he must move to California for work related reasons, and so this tourney was to be a big one. Since we all love the guy, Mike "Deck" Gemme, Steebo, Justin "H2O" Desai and I decide to make the trek down. This is actually the first time I’ll be playing since my infamous arrest and, ironically, we’ll be playing at the same venue I was coming home from. (For those of you who dont know, here’s the quick story short: I was arrested for "reckless driving" - that is, I was going 101 mph in a 65 mph zone - got thrown into a holding cell and my parents had to come down and bail me out at like 3am. Basically all thats come from that is a $135 fine and some community service from the state of Connecticut, and no Gencon from the ’rents... but that might change)
Friday I get out of work at 1pm and head home to find Justin playing cards with my bro. I get packed up and we dash out the door to meet Paul Maholick at a local store for some playtesting. Get there at about 2:15, play some games with my WYS and SYC Brangus racing against Paul and Justin, buy some Gold Edition, then head for Mike’s house at like 7:30. Having only been to his place once before, I am pleased to arrive within a relatively short amount of time coming from a totally different direction. J and I pull up to see Mike’s hot @#$% sister, Jess, and her mad hot friend, Mckenze (sp?), in these tight pants and short shirts leaving to go to a party or something. Steebo is already there so we just play some games till its time to head for Andy Klema’s house at 11pm (he works at a movie theatre so he wouldnt be home till 12:30). Andy lives in CT about 40 minutes from the tourney and was letting us stay at his place for the night. Again I am using my SYC and WYS. They’re all I had built and I had been using them with a good amount of success against my bros many decks, so I figured I’d just change a couple cards in anticipation for all the people who’d attempt to copy TJ/Clint’s Origins decks. Mike’s little bro, Matt, is hella funny. Like he knows how to play and Mike and Steebo have told him about Brian Hunter, and he knows my name is Hayes, so Steebo tells him about this guy Clint Hays and Matt gets all confused. He asks what my last name is and Steebo tells him Hunter and Matt replies, "Then why do they call you [me] Hayes?" And we just burst out laughing... I guess you gotta be there. Pretty soon we pile into the Obsidian 69 with Mike behind the wheel, me his passenger and J and Steebo stuck in back.
Mass pike to 84, to 44 to Andy’s house. Sounds simple enough right? Well since this was my first time on 84 with more than myself in the car I convince Mike to make use of the Car Pool lane (it requires you have at least 2 people in the car). I dunno what point the carpool lane serves, except to assure multiple victims per accident, but its this whole separate lane to the left of the left-most lane. So were in it, and I’m all giddy cause its the freaking carpool lane, and all of a sudden we see a sign for 44, but the lane wont let us out! There are all these signs insisting we dont cross the divider separating us from the main highway, and our exit is coming up in a mile! We all tell Mike to cross over cause no one was on the road, but he’s mad paranoid about getting pulled over since his last visit to CT led to a ticket his dad couldn’t fix so he doesn’t go for it and everyone starts to yell at me cause it was my suggestion to take the carpool lane and we passed the 44 exit. I look frantically at the map and tell ’em to chill. Within 10 minutes we were on 44. All is not well, however. Apparently 44 goes through the most ghetto-ish part of Hartford. So it’s now like after midnight and Mike is freaking out. Everyone, including kids, is outside and everyone is black. So racist jokes start flying and Mike manages to drive faster through Hartford than he was on the highway, despite the frequent stop lights.
I some how manage to get us to Andy’s house through all the backroads and stuff, which is cool for me cause I had only been there once before. Andy meets us at the door and we all say hi. Everyone starts playing and I just switch around a couple cards in my decks, guessing at what I might see the next day (I had literally no clue what my buds were going to be using since they each had like 43534058943 decks built). Watching sports news and playing with Andy’s cats got old fast cause his cats aren’t like Pumpkin, so I hit the futon at about 1:30 while everyone else is still playing. I sleep like a log till 9:30. It turns out no one went to bed till like 4 and everyone (except me and Andy) was up at 8. Sucks to be them. We hit the McDonalds, where a second reference is made to my Cody-ness by Andys friend behind the counter. He tries to give me my food free but the @#$%head manager catches him and makes me pay $1.06 for 2 Apple Pies, when I had actually gotten 4 and a shake. Who eats 4 apple pies? Anyway, which happens to be the best transition word for any given TR, we go. Down 8 then east on 84, where there was an accident, then onto 691, and then to the store. Why am I telling you these directions? Are you going to be needing directions? I don’t know.
On the way we pass a dead dear so I point it out to Justin, who is following Mike and Steebo and I with Andy, since the return trip from Ramapo we saw a ton. Whatever. There are also these 12 year olds who kept giggling at us. Umm... we had fun with the sun roof and Andy doesnt know how to drive. Yeah. So we arrive at DJs in Meriden. Lotsa people but our arrival brought 5 of the top 7 players in attendance (Karl Sundberg and Brentson, who was fresh back from his honeymoon, were the other two) and I am highly confident I’ll do well today. As it turns out, Oakes WON’T be going to Cali cause he has exclusive knowledge about a certain program at work, so they need him here. Nonetheless, this will be his last tourney for a while due to all the work they are dumping on him so John Mullarky will be taking over for a bit.
Decks are SOLID WYS and an edited version of Bastians SYC for me, a beats-esque WYS and an edited version of Clint/TJ’s SYC for Mike, a gay pile and garrison for Steebo, and SOLID WYS and HDADTJ racing for Justin. Rating going into it is 2140, with a 5-1 not in.
Game One
WYS Vs Shaun McCarthy’s (1648) JP Podracing
He just starts the Palace and the Box. I grab my racer. I win the race easily with my double race interrupts, and I beat him up on the ground after Maul dies when he tries to duel my Luke.
FW +33
2(+33)
Highs: None.
Lows: Neh.
Game Two
SYC Vs Andy "RexBanner7" Klema’s (1894) HBX Racing
Uh oh. One of the few changes I made to my SYC was elminating the #s and the Sabacc- the best means of direct damage I can loop with either Janus or Brangus. Things start well for me. I get good destinies stacked and I grab his racing interrupts, but Battle Order is on my racer. Palp and Janus head for the pod race arena and I start sensing alot of his stuff with my single sense via Janus. I try to use Podracer Collision to get a 13th card into his hand so I can Monnok his X-wings away, but hes always able to play something, or cancel PC before I get to play the Monnok. Sooner than later I win the race and the happy, happy, joy, joy force swing takes place and I have no lost pile once again. He had been setting up his ships at systems while I was still drawing for my 3, so now he flips. Like an idiot I lose the Battle Order I had been tracking to the first round of drains, so the game just got alot closer. I also pitch secret plans, since I figure he is activating enough to pay for however many wings he may have out. I shoulda deployed it to force him to take his retrieval earlier. Anyway, my ships come down and I have been sensing all his Organized attacks so I probe and kick his ships asses. I move and do more probing and more battling. I am getting hit with a couple drains per turn, and until I probed correctly he wasnt losing any, but whatever. I eventually drain him out after clearing away all of his ships using all (3) of mine.
FW +16
4(+49)
Highs: I won a matchup I didnt think I could neccesarily handle.
Lows: I had to go through Andy to do it.
Game Three
SYC Vs Paul Maholick’s (1727) RST
I had played this matchup the day prior at the comic store and had lost. Of course, the deck had changed since then, and I had made a couple errors in my strategy last time. Well I get a great start getting a nice 8 and Brangus out quick. He is unable to find a spy so he wants to move them in so I barrier a guy so he can’t. Palp goes to the bunker next turn and I fry a spy then get the lightning back. He enters the bunker and Vader comes down and we fight. I play I have you now and kill alot of his stuff, but I take some battle damage. It’s okay cause on the next turn I win the race and get them all back. I am just able to manipulate the @#$% out of him. SFSing, Kissing, satisfying Battle Order while he cannot, using Maul to make his charges go away, then Vaders Obsessioning Luke for a 14 force swing. I totally dominated and played the game without error.
FW +31
6(+80)
Highs: Winning.
Lows: None.
Game Four
WYS Vs Andy "RexBanner7" Klema’s (1894) MKOS Space
I had played against an incarnation of this deck back when I stayed at Andy’s house 2 weeks ago for the L5R event I was here for last time. He starts the standard MKOS jank, minus the Well Gaurded since he was only playing like 2 Abyssians. He pulls a site and drops another then draws looking for something (S+V?). I take Kessel into hand, and am forced to deploy the Spaceport DB, giving him an easy second turn flip with Jabba and Chall, each with a Abyssian at 2 JP sites. Oddly enough he doesnt leave any force, or maybe he does and I just Beggar for it, but anyway I get someone in ship to the system and drop Melas, Lando and some other Mofo infront of Chall. I fight, no Jabba’s Twerps, and I shoot his chall and flip a 6 and a 3 for destiny, neither of which he cancels (an error on his part he tells me). So he loses a bunch and flips back. Now, I wasnt supposed to mention this, but I havent seen another Meriden TR up yet so I might as well: in the middle of this game Mike shouts across the room to Steebo for the marked sleeve cause the guy he was playing was inserting him. Steebo tells him to just use a sticker, then thinks to ask Justin for one, so all of a sudden, in the middle of the game, in the church basement he goes, "Justin, take the sticker off your nipple." And, of course, we all look, and when he pulls up his shirt there is the @#$%ing Red Line on his left nipple and we all burst out laughing. From there Luke comes down, Celebration is set up, and I just kill his ground stuff while fighting off some minor opposition in space. I edge a bit at the end methinks.
FW +26
8(+106)
Highs: WYS is just to @#$%ing good.
Lows: Me no know.
Game Five
WYS Vs Steve "brentson" Brentson’s (2034) HDADTJ Racing
HDADTJ racing sucks ass. If you are even going to attempt racing for dark you HAVE to do it with Brangus to loop your Podracer Collision and hope they dont have grabbers (which I do) or at least play multiple Frustrations for them. So we race and I just keep ASBing his stuff while he gets Vader and Saber and POTF to my Cantina on his second turn (I was unable to flip on my first turn). I control the drain of 4 that he payed for because of Battle Plan, and have to eat Visage for a bit. I get sapce finally and once I have Luke on the ground (and a RLR in hand and in the lost pile) I am able to spread to Kessel and amongst the Tatooine sites. Mara is Barriered then completely raped for about 11 force (I didn’t hit her) and Vader dies to attrit against 3 of my random smugglers. So all of a sudden I am about to win the race, he has nothing on the table, and is only getting like 8 a turn. He picks up, but not before I get off an On the Edge for a few.
FW +20
10(+126)
Highs: Domination.
Lows: Picking up before the race is done?
Game Six
SYC Vs Steve Vallee’s (1689) Speed Profit
I was certainly not expecting this matchup, and Mike had lost to Karl’s deck earlier today, but I felt I could outplay him. I get a nice draw, start the race, stack a 6, get a site and then just draw and save 3. He activates 8 then drops Padme then pulls Qui, who I Kiss so he is forced to free Han to fortify her. I drop Ponda & Dr. E and EPP Vader and battle. Han is operated on and he has to lose Padme and like 8 or 9. Next turn Qui comes back and Clashes Vader so I lose Ponda and like 9 or something. My turn I win the race so he is left with a 20 card lost pile while I have none. He is unable to get a Han out (at least during the control phase, thanks to my set for stun) so he has trouble draining while I am plinking him on the Holotable (I dunno why he pitched Honor from hand). We skirmish a bit, with my superior destiny causing alot of damage. He is playing recircuable 6s so my Pod Collisions do well. Unfortunatly he never drops Luke so I never get a chance to Obsession. I beat him up some more and it’s done.
FW +25
12(+151)
Highs: Going 6-0 again. And doing it with an average differential of > 25.
Lows: Not that tough of a game.
So I win a Box of Tatooine and my pick of 4 Tournament foils, while another box and a half and some other stuff is distributed among the other players which is very cool. I sell the packs for a buck a piece, and the Twilek foil and a MM foil for $25. The box ends up netting an AI Qui, 3 Mauls, and 2 of his Saber, but I didn’t need them. I convince the store owner to open up the store for me (the actual tournament is held in a church basement) so I can quickly drop $35 on some more Gold Edition. Then it’s off to dinner with Andy and Oakes.
I successfully navigate us to the Applebee’s which is a rush for me cause, you guessed it, I had only been there once before :P In the cars we had determined to implement the Jedi Testing for Women (hereby known at JTW), see Mike’s TR titled "#’s 2, 3, 5, 12, 13 In the world UNITE" on his page for reference, but Justin had his own spin on things: Dark JTW. I still don’t understand how he’s supposed to get women with it (maybe he’s just not the best person to demonstrate the technique?) but I think it has to do with being kinda badass and ghetto as opposed to a nice smooth guy. Whatever. Of course, given the current popularity of podracing our conversation had to go that way too, so just keep that in mind.
We get seated in the smoking section by this fine hostess, since it was the first table available, and before we are all sitting down Mike pulls Test One out of the reserve deck, "Hey, you have something in your hair.. right there," he says to the hostess aided by one of those perfect smiles and she kinda laughs playfully and thanks him graciously. Damn. He @#$%ing flashed his vents and left Justin in the dust, and stacked a 6 like that *insert finger snapping sound here*. He declares he *is* his own objective, that he gets through test three automatically, and were all like whatever. Our waitress comes and Justin has yet to say anything, while Mike is being waaaay to polite and therefore dumb. Like, she asks what we want for drinks and he asks her, of all things, what she recomends. WTF? Like shes going to say Sprite. So we all order and Steebo is left with the single uncola and Oakes gets a diet Coke Lemon (you’re supposed to say that with a french accent). I rag on Mike for his dumb comment, and he counters with the fact that he thinks shes nasty, but I disagree- she’s got a really nice smile and this tight @#$% in these nice tight pants and Klema concurs. Justin is still silent to we make fun of him and he says he’s going for some sorta James Dean silent guy thing. We just laugh more. When she returns Ben Quadarnos (the tallest of the pod racers) makes a suprise appearance and I come through with the compliment on her tounge piercing, bringing forth a laugh and smile. Justin feebly asks for her to show us and she just walks away, giving us another great view of that ass. Heh, Justin, even with his draw 3 pick 2 text, managed to stack a total of 0 that time.
Anyway (transition time!) we eat and drink and talk and stuff when all of a sudden Mike needs to get something out of the car. He leaves then waves once hes out in the parking lot. We look out the window past the middle aged couple sitting right next to it, and witness him lift up his shirt and reveal himself to the entire Applebee’s! The eyes of the woman at the table kinda grow and she just starts laughing. Once we stopped laughing at Mike and realized that she saw him we all started laughing uncontrollably. The expression on that lady’s face was absolutely priceless. Then Mike comes back and we all start laughing again and pointing to the lady. He turns BRIGHT red and he once he can bare (no pun intended :P) to look at her he sheepishly says hi and she says something like, "Well it was the highlight of my day." We all pitch in and pay the check then were off. We think better of us all mooning the resturaunt, so our three cars each drive by with someone missing their shirts. So much partial nudity of the wrong kind. Oh well. The drive home is mostly uneventful, no tickets or anything and only minimal lisence plate poker.
That is all. Really. Thanks for reading.
-Hayes "Hayes" Hunter