then-again-maybe-i-do-dpc-atlanta
Title: then-again-maybe-i-do-dpc-atlanta
Author: Andy "Solo337" McClure
Date: Aug 3, 2001
Alternate titles:
"DPC Atlanta without the strippers."
OR
"The horrible Zuckess and Maul incident- we must never speak of it again."
First off, let me just say that the Props and Slops section of my previous TR was cut a little short because my dad came home, and I wasn’t supposed to be on the computer, so I am going to begin by finishing up my previous TR’s props and slops.
SHAMELESS PLUG: If you didn’t read my other TR, go check it out. It’s cool, and pretend the following section is added onto the end of it.
Additional props:
To Ben Atkins- For inadvertently coming up with a perfect title for my WYS deck.
To Brian Hunter- For finally building a deck I love, his MKOS.
To Clint Hays- Just for Techmo.
MAD props to Decktech- For NOT crapping up my apostrophes like I thought they would.
Additional slops:
To Brian Hunter- For not playing a Lateral Damage in his MKOS (Sorry man, but if I give ya props for the deck, I gots to give you slops for the lack of the most powerful space card ever made).
To THE DAMN DIRTY MEXICANS- For not speaking English, and giving me some weird food instead of what I ordered. In fact, I think they gave me Pepsi instead of the Diet Pepsi I ordered as well. (Note: I am not a racist, and don’t hate Hispanics, but when they mess up my order and can’t speak the same language as me, it generally pisses me off).
To Clay Wilburn- For lying to me and telling me Steven was already married.
To my dad- For not liking me to be on the computer too much and making me cut off my Props and Slops.
--Pre-tourny junk
Well, when I left off, it was 4:30 am and we had just gotten to bed. I had the alarm set for 10:20 so we could get up in time to be at the War Room by 11, but for some odd reason my (staying in another room) mom insisted on calling me at like 9 to "make sure we were up in time" and I couldn’t get back to sleep, so I got a total of 4.5 hours sleep (which isn’t TOO bad, but still).
We get ready to leave a little after 10, and we know the route to the War Room, and there is no decent food places on the way, so we basically drive in a random direction until we see a Chick-Fil-A sign. As we approach the Chick-Fil-A, we notice 2 big groups of opposing picketers, complete with signs and everything. We wondered what the fuss was about, and as we get closer I can make out a couple signs reading, "No porn in our neighborhood," and on the opposing side, "I make porn and I’m proud." So I was all like, whatever perv, and ignored them and got us a couple killer chicken biscuits. I, of course, took off the bread and only ate the biscuit because I am on a no-carb diet that kicks booty, but it’s all good.
So now I am full and feeling pretty well rested, considering I got less than 5 hours sleep, and we show up a little before 11 and turn in our decklists. As you may or may not know, my LS deck was called Brooke Burke is HOT, and as soon as I turned it in the dude looked at the title and said, “HELL YEAH she is.” Right then I knew he was cool, and as it turns out, his name was Steven Michaels (or Michael Stevens) and he is a very cool guy who played a big part in getting a DPC in Atlanta.
So we sit around ahead of time waiting for the tournament to start and playing Spades with a couple cool guys we met from Nashville named Jody and I forgot the other one’s name. (If either of you are reading this and was playing Spades with Andy McClure before the DPC, Dmail me and let me know what your decktech names are.) After a while Neal Razi comes to take my decks and check them out with my decklist, and since I had beaten him twice in the final confrontation we were all messing around about how he was gonna get my DQed. ("Yes Andy, there were 62 cards in your deck, so I’ll guess you’ll be going home now....") As it turns out, a couple minutes later I was called into the little back room because of a decklist error, and everyone there was like, "We told you. You shouldn’t have pissed off the Decktech dude." So I go back there, and Neal said it was only a minor error (I had put Commander Igar instead of Commander Merrejk), but once the DPC started, I would be DQed unless it was changed. I apologized, and explained that I had written it at past 3 in the morning, and he was nice enough to let me change it, and we sat around talking strategy and stuff for several minutes while he checked out my LS deck (which was, thank goodness, accurate.)
We play Spades until a few minutes before the pairings, and my team barely loses. I see a lot of familiar faces from Huntsville before the first round starts, and go chat with John Camp and learn that he’s in Atlanta for a bachelor party. However, something else was going on at the same time, and I didn’t realize that HE was the one getting married. John, if you’re reading this, total congratulations dude (sorry I didn’t say so earlier), and you have to bring her down to the Deep sometime and introduce me.
So fellow Huntsvilleian Jim Colson is the head director, and he begins by thanking the Decktech dudes, Neal Razi and David Akers, and some guy I’ve never met before named Steven Michaels (The guy who knew how hot Brooke Burke is) who had, like I said, played a big part in DPC Atlanta. As Jim announces the pairings, my friends remind to play wear my hat backwards if I want to have any chance at the cash, and I laugh it off, but superstitiously turn my hat backwards, thus transforming myself into an Unbeatable SWCCG Machine.
One last word about my decks….. I was not bright enough to bring 2 different sets of decks, so I went with the same decks that I played in the Warm-up, my version of Brian Hunter’s MKOS deck, and Brooke Burke is HOT (check it out on my page), a balanced WYS deck with Raiders and On The Edges and Podracing hate. The LS deck is so good it’s gay (as are most WYS decks), and I went with the MKOS because it kills WYS. My rating going into the tournament is 1989.
End pre-tourny junk--
Game 1: Me and Hunter’s MKOS vs. Jason Sumrall (1482) Hidden Base Numbers/X-wings
Man, another Hidden Base deck! Hidden Base flip is all but dead in Huntsville, so I have next to no practice against it, but I figure that if I can beat Steven Lewis’ HB X-wings, I can beat this guys’.
I start off as usual (with no idea he’s running Odds), and drop Gailid to the AC 1st or 2nd turn with a guy to make sure he gets destiny and a Barrier to protect them. He starts Strike Planning and does the usual free Xwing crap to Rendezvous Point and Endor, and I spread to all 3 Jabba’s Palace locations and start draining for 6 a turn 3rd or 4th turn. On his turn, he drops Artoo and a 4-destiny droid and I know what’s coming. Sure enough, “insert please,” and I shuffle it all up. Now I have no odds protection in this deck (if Brian Hunter played You Cannot Hide Forever, I ditched it for one of my additions), so I am beginning to wonder what to do about the little droid annoyance. His odds total is 10, and mine is 4, and losing 6 cards is not cool. I had gotten Search and Destroy, so I could just drain and make him lose to that, but as soon as he flipped I would be in trouble. Then I saw the solution. I was activating a mess load of force (close to 20), and knew that the insert would probably come up this turn if I activated it all, so I activated 3, played Set For Stun to return Artoo to his hand, and activated the rest. Odds popped, and we both had 4. I drain for 6 and drop Search and Destroy and save my force so I won’t have to activate next time he inserts. About his 5th turn, he has about 7 systems on table and decides to flip and spread drain. He is now seriously down on cards, because my deck is much faster than his, but the tides are turning now that he can cancel 2 drains a turn. All I have in my hand is Zuckess, the Executor and Thrawn, but I don’t have enough force for the Executor and Thrawn, so I go with Thrawn in the Mist Hunter for this turn to a random system (Mon Calamari, I think) and probe, and what do you know I got it on the first try. He’s now taking like 10 damage a turn (3 drains of 2 in the Palace, and a drain of 2 in the Desert Heart with Mara and her Saber, plus Search and Destroy), and dealing maybe 3 per turn. He drops Artoo again and 8D8 for an odds total of 15 (to my 3), inserts, and I don’t activate another force the whole game, so the Odds cards stays where it is. So during this game, his objective saved him a grand total of 4 force, odds didn’t do a card of damage, I found his Hidden Base on the first try, and had a drain of 6+ going from turn 3. I guess luck was with me this game, and I won in under 20 minutes by 27 cards.
FW 2(+27)
Game Highs: Well, finding a relatively inventive way around Odds is cool, and you gotta love picking the right system against Hidden Base.
Game Lows: I am so sick of Odds it isn’t even funny. Won’t it just die already?
So I take the first game and hang around talking with the people I know and the new people I met, and I am very surprised to find out Brain Rippotoe had lost his first game. I asked what happened, and he said, “It’s hard to beat a deck with 10 cards to beat you.” It turns out that he was playing one of his friends that rode with him, Matt Krigger, and Matt had heavily Metaed against Brian.
Game 2: Brooke Burke is HOT vs. Geoff Gallo-Cornell’s (1526) Crack-smoking HD non-epic dueling
We sit down, and chat a little while the rest of the pairings are being announced, and Geoff is a really cool guy who seems thrilled to actually be sitting at the top table. I keep telling him that I am a scrub now and he will probably kick my ass, but he kinda shakes it off and says that he won’t. He asks if I’m Solo337 on Decktech, so I told him I was, and he said he’s Loaf on here.
He shows his starting stuff (HD), and I am relieved to see Prepared Defenses (With IAO, Mob Points and Something Special Planned For Them as his effects) rather than GAY @#$% Start Your Engines as his staring interrupt. I did put some heavy podrace protection in my LS, but I just hate racing period, so I was glad to see the 3 effects. He also doesn’t start Epic Duel, which means I won’t have to worry about getting dueled, right? I start the usual (Squadron Assignments, Insurrection and Staging Areas), and the game gets underway by me canceling Visage first move of the game. He says he doesn’t mind ‘cuz he has no opening hand Vader, and backs his story by drawing instead of deploying the Dark Lord. I do my usual and get hold of space first turn and draw a couple. He draws a few and saves a few. I drop Luke to the Home One:DB for 5, and a Raider in a craft to the <> Docking Bay and draw a couple, saving one for a barrier. He gets started a little slow, and comes down 3rd or 4th turn with Vader and Mara (I think), but one of them gets barriered, and he decides that the odds are too stacked against him to battle. I drain him in space, and he loses Circle Is Now Complete off his reserve deck. So now I’m really confused, and I’m looking all over the table for an Epic duel, and he says “No, no Epic Duel on table” with a big goofy grin. I deploy some more random guys to the Tatooine Docking Bay, Tunnel Vision for I’ll Take The Leader to boost my drains, drop Tatooine Celebration and draw some, making sure to leave Luke at the same site as Vader (or in a Patrol Craft) so he can’t play Vader’s Obsession, because I am SCARED TO DEATH of that card and I don’t have my Run, Luke, Run. It may seem sorta stupid to be so scared of it non-epic, but I have literally seen someone lose 21 force while the DS player retrieved 21 force with VO non-epic, and since I am winning the game, I don’t need to give it away with something dumb like that. He battles all over Tatooine, and keeps losing tons of Vader’s Obsessions and Circle Is Now Completes and Admiral’s Orders from hand, thus giving me the illusion that he might come in space with a Battle Deployment or something, but he never does. It turns out to be a very close game until I draw a 6 and a 5 for battle destiny, and glance over to see doesn’t have Secret Plans. Insert evil grin and MUWAHAHA laugh here. I activate down to the 5 and play On The Edge from my hand to retrieve 4 (it goes Out of play thanks to SSPFT), and play On The Edge from lost pile to retrieve 5 more, then retrive 2 more with Celebration, and it turns out to be exactly how many cards I had in my lost pile. After a while my I’ll Take The Leader enhanced drains finish him off, and I win by 28.
FW 2(+28)
Total so far: 4(+55)
Game Highs: Beating HD (one of my toughest game), and meeting another incredibly cool SW player. His deck was hilarious, and just playing against it was a game high. Non-epic dueling HD with like 8 Admiral’s Orders in it. After the game, I asked him what he was smoking when he built it, and he said that he just loved to see the look on people’s faces when he busts out dueling after they’ve lost all their duel cards. I could only imagine…. Also, retrieving my entire lost pile to the card is always cool.
Game lows: Nothing.
Game 3: My WYS vs. James Boyd’s (1752) GAY @#$% SYCFA TIEs
James is a cool enough guy, and just like my previous opponent, he keeps telling me that he is a scrub and doesn’t deserve to be at the top table. Whatever. The game gets started, and I cringe as I see his starting stuff. I HATE SYC TIEs, and the week before the DPC I had lost to a like 1750 player playing TIEs, so I knew I was in trouble. Dash is next to useless against TIEs, and Captain Han isn’t much better because TIE cannons on Interceptors are WAY overpowered.
Ok, this game is going to have next to no detail, because basically the whole game just consisted of him dominating space and me dominating ground and both of us paying for Battle Order all game long, and me draining at my 2 docking bays and his Death Star docking bay with Luke and his Saber. It was a long, dumb, boring game, and in the end I won because I retrieved 10 cards with On The Edge and he didn’t have Secret Plans.
FW 2(+5)
Total so far: 6(+60)
Game Highs: Absolutely nothing. This game sucked.
Game Lows: I hate TIEs, and it is so unimaginably gay when they can use Battle Order against you at the Docking Bay where they take no damage that I can’t even begin to describe it.
So we hook back up with Jody (one of the dudes we were playing Spades with earlier) and march over to Arby’s./Mrs. Winner’s for some killer fried chicken and that awesome Diet Coke I love so much :-) They all keep telling me that I could easily win cash, and I dismiss it, still claiming that I’ll be happy with 5-3. We get back to the tournament, and are surprised to learn that Rippotoe has lost another game, making him 1-2 so far. Nothing else of interest happens between games, so I’ll move on to…
Game 4: MKOS vs. Jeremy Thompson’s (1668) EBO Baragwin’s
Well, he starts the signal for ANSB, and I’m thinking, Damn! ANOTHER EBO deck. I was not expecting EBO at all, because we never ever see it in Huntsville, and I don’t see much of it on Decktech anymore, so I was a little surprised. I start Something Special Planned For Them as my 3rd effect to slow his retreat from my Star Destroyers, and start the game by Imp Commanding for Piett and pulling the Executor with Mob Points. Once again I get set up real early in the Palace with Gailid and Jabba (I think) in the AC with Xizor or some other destiny-drawing dude at Jabba’s Palace, and once again Ozzel alone at the Lower Passages (with a Barrier and a Ghhhk in my hand). Well, it paid off last time, I thought, and left him there most of the game, draining for 2. I couldn’t get Search and destroy out until late, and he set up fairly quickly, with like a 3rd turn EBO and started fortifying Hoth and draining for 3, while I drained for 6, but his Baragwins were retrieving a lot of that loss, and I didn’t have Secret Plans, so I needed to get up in space. I deployed my own Tatooine system and set up Occupation with Thrawn in the Chimaera guarding it, and he knew he wouldn’t last long with S&D hitting him for one every draw phase, my drains of 6 per turn AND occupation for 3 a turn, so he moved his fleet of (as far as I can remember) Gen. Calrissian in GS 1, Hobbie in Red 4, Liberty and maybe another ship or in front of them to try to fight. So play Imp Command and Masterful Move, drop the Executor and Lateral Damage targeting the Liberty and battle, drawing my tracked 6 & 4 and playing Command to add a big fat 1. So he loses most of his stuff there, and is pretty much obliterated in space. He gets off some more drains (of 4 each) at Kiffex, hits me with Surprise Assault once or twice, and his Baragwins retrieve him like 3 force every turn (mine and his), but he can’t handle the mass drains and direct damage of around 11 per turn, so I pull off a close game by 7.
FW 2(+7)
Total so far: 8(+67)
Game Highs: Ozzel. The man is a site holding machine. Also, beating an EBO deck out of space is always cool.
Game Lows: Baragwins suck.
Well I now learn that there are 3 (I think) undefeated players left. Me, Steven Lewis and Clint Hays. Good company to be in, I think, but Clint and Steve both have higher differentials than I do, so I end up playing the top player with 1 loss, and Clint and Steve play each other.
Game 5: My WYS vs. Matt Mathison’s (1822) Ignore Hoth Walker Garrison deck
As soon as Jim announces the pairings, I think to myself, Matt Mathison, I’ve heard that name before, and sure enough, he had come down to Huntsville play a week or 2 ago, and I had even gotten to play him in the tournament. He is an insanely cool guy who kept cracking me up by immensely overusing the word “powerful.” It seemed to be his compliment for everything, and it was so funny. He starts off by saying something along the lines of, “And here I am fixing to get creamed by Andy McClure again, because he is a much more powerful player than I am.” But he said it with a big goofy grin, so I figured he was only messing around.
He starts the 5th Marker and IAO, Mob Points and some other effect (but it wasn’t Secret Plans or SSPFT, so my On The Edges were safe), and I start my 3 effects. On his first turn he pulls the Executor, 3rd Marker and Garrison and gets the Executor:DB with IAO and drops Piett there. I can’t flip 1st turn, so I get Dash in space and draw a couple. On his turn he draws a couple and saves the rest. I know I need to cut his generation, but all I have for characters is 1 Raider, so I drop him in a Patrol Craft to the <> Docking Bay and flip. On his turn, he draws a couple more and saves again. I am expecting a beatdown in space with the Executor and friends, so I reveal Mirax to get the Pulsar, and put a Palace Raider in the Outrider (giving me 7 ability). While I was looking for the Pulsar, I noticed that my Houjix and my Barrier were in my force pile, so I figured that my lone Raider would be safe with either one of those, and after I spend 5 for Mirax in ship and a Palace Raider, one should probably be in my force pile. After I draw a couple, I haven’t gotten either card, and Matt interrupts with Twi-lek to go get No Escape. No I KNOW that lone Raider is in trouble, because all his cards deploying at -3 is gonna hurt, not to mention that he has about 6-8 force saved. I have about 4 force left, and am frantically looking for a way to save my raider from getting CREAMED when the solution presents itself. I had been planning to use Nar Shadda/Out Of Somewhere to go get a Raider next turn, but I figure it will be great as a surprise next turn. I save 3. As I thought, he drops the beatdown at deploy -3 with a bunch of free imperials (Ozzel, Chirneau, etc.), a Blizzard Walker and EPP Vader and has something like power 25. He battles and I play Out Of Somewhere to pull Talon Karrde, and draw a 2, a 5 and a 6, while he draws a 3. I have power 21 to his 28, and the Raider (to the bacta tank) covers all my damage thanks to Out Of Somewhere. He loses Vader and Ozzel. After the game, I calculated it up, and without Out Of Somewhere, I would have had to lose the Raider, the Craft and 8 more cards. Man, as Matt put it, that is one powerful card :-)
We continue to battle around Tatooine, and I am constantly on the run, but I retrieve most of his damage with Celebration. Finally he comes to space with Zuckess, Bossk and the Executor at Hoth, then moves them to Tatooine. I play A Few Manuvers and track it to the top, drop Han in the Falcon and Order To Engage and let him decide to lose 3 or battle. At this point, it is a very even game. We have about the same number of cards left, and he is dominating the ground, but I’m retrieving 2 or 3 a turn with Celebration. On his turn he decides to battle rather than lose 3, and I draw my tracked 6 and another 6 and a 5, while he draws a 4 and a 3 (I think). I lose Mirax to the Tank, and he loses the Executor AND Bossk and runs Zuckess back to Hoth. I glance at the 3 cards in my used pile, and look across the table and he has no SSPFT, no Secret Plans, and not enough force for a grabber. Once again, insert evil grin and laugh here. I activate down to the first 6, and play On The Edge from hand to retrieve 5, then my other On The Edge from hand to retrieve 5, then the On The Edge from lost pile to retrieve 4, then retrieve 2 with Celebration and once again I managed to retrieve my entire lost pile in 1 turn to the card. After a few more turns, my drains and Order To Engage finish him off, and I win by 27. Well kiddies, the moral of this game is: Don’t leave home without your retrieval protection.
FW 2(+27)
Total so far: 10(+94)
Game Highs: Playing Matt is very cool, and he was hilarious with all his "powerful" cards (maybe you had to be there) and I hope he’ll come back down to Huntsville more often (but not this weekend, ’cuz I won’t be there). As for the game, making him lose the Executor AND another ship by attrition is insanely cool, and retrieving 16 in one turn isn’t bad either.
Game Lows: Nothing.
Well, I wish I had been able to pay more attention to Clint and Steven’s game next to me, but I had my own game to play. All I know was that Clint played WYS and Steven played Brangus racing, and Clint barely won.
So by now I’ve sort of acquired my own cheering section of 6 or more people who keep checking in with me every game to see if I’m still undefeated. My bro keeps telling me that I’m gonna win cash, and for the first time I actually considered it instead of just dismissing it. Most of it would go back into Coruscant unless I won the $1000, but what would I do then? Anyway, by now Clint and I were the only undefeated players, and we were both supposed to play DS, so I get paired with the 2nd highest 4-1 player.
Game 6: MKOS vs. Brad Reinhold’s (1774) Hidden Base flip with B-wings and weapons
Well, Brad and I are talking, and he mentions that he is the South Carolina State Champion, and I start telling him that I am the AL State Champ and all this random bullsh1t about how much better AL is than SC and how I was gonna kick his @#$% and all this stuff, but he knew I was just messing around, and started joking around with me. It turns out we had a while to talk due to pairing problems, (Like Steven Lewis and his opponent were supposed to play LS), and Brad is another really cool guy, and I enjoyed talking with him.
He shows his objective, and I’m like, MAN, ANOTHER Hidden Base deck, but I have the means to beat it, so I’m cool. We get to playing, and I do my usual setting up the Palace with Gailid and some guys that get their own destiny, and once again end up putting Ozzel alone in the Lower Passages with a Barrier and a Ghhhk in my hand (man, this was getting to be a tradition), and I get Search and Destroy going like 2nd or 3rd turn. He does his normal dropping ships for real cheap, and I’m draining for like 6 a turn until he drops TK and Boussh on me (REAL early, maybe 3rd turn) and reduces my drains to Ozzel alone draining 2 per turn at the Passages. At the end of my turn (about 3rd or 4th turn maybe), he loses to S&D off the top, and it is the Tibrin system. As soon as he flips it, he kinda stares at it for a little while, looks back at me, back at Tibrin, then thumbs through his hand a couple times. On his turn, he deploys EPP Luke to the Lower Passages to try and mess with the mighty Ozzel, but he gets barriered. He then plays On The Edge targeting Luke and guesses 1, and draws a Houjix/OON, so he breathes a sigh of relief as he retrieves Tibrin. Gee, I think to myself, I WONDER what his Hidden Base is.... It was quite comical to me just to see the expression on his face when he lost it off the top, then when he barely retrieved it. On my turn I drop EPP Vader and Tarkin (I think), he hits Tarkin and I miss Luke and cancel his destiny, so Ozzel and Vader stay draining for 2 at the Lower Passages. When he finally flips, I know right where his Hidden Base is, so I drop a random ship and probe, and his objective does a grand total of letting him cancel one drain for 2. S&D is eating him so, and he drops EPP Obi to the Forest to block it and moves Boussh (still undercover) to the same site as Vader and Ozzel (I’m not sure why). My turn I drain and draw some, but I have nothing to kill an Immune To Attrition EPP Obi with, ’cept my back up EPP Vader who is useless while Vader is on Tatooine. On his turn, he breaks Boussh’s cover (again, I am not sure why) and battles, and I hit Boussh and he takes a couple cards battle damage while I lose Vader and OZZEL SURVIVES ONCE AGAIN, and keep draining 2 per turn. On my turn I drop Vader to kill Obi, and that pretty much seals the game.
FW 2(+26)
Total so far: 12(+120)
Game Highs: Ozzel, Ozzel, OZZEL! The man is a SITE HOLDING MACHINE. I can’t even guess how many turns he sat alone at the Lower Passages against Hidden Base and EBO over the weekend, and HE NEVER DIED EVEN ONCE! Ozzel is a BEAST! Also, I’ve had incredible luck against Hidden Base these last 2 games, which is definitely cool.
Game Lows: Nothing.
So once again we go get something to eat at Arby’s, and on the way out about 10 people ask me if I’m still undefeated, and I get tons of "Good luck"s and "We’re rooting for ya"s so I’m feeling pretty good by now. I know I’ll get the cash if I can just manage to win one of the next 2 games, but I also know I’ll have to play Clint. I know his decks somewhat, because I’ve been sitting next to him all day, and his I know his DS will give me trouble, but I think my DS will have a real good chance to beat him, because as I said before, it absolutely destroys WYS.
So we eat the awesome fried chicken from the Mrs. Winner’s half of Arby’s and head back for the final 2 games. I figure I’ve been playing pretty good so far, so it’s about time to:
ENTER UBER-SCRUB MODE NOW
Game 7: Brooke Burke is HOT vs. Clint Hays (2147) Brangus/Racing/Odds/Shaft crap
At this point, I have a higher differential than Clint by like 2 or 3 cards, so I have to play LS (which I didn’t want to do). He reveals his starting stuff, SYC and Podracing with TINT/Opressive as his effect and I reveal mine, including my Japanese Cantina, and he immediately starts asking me if I have an English version of it because, “he doesn’t know what it does.” Right….. Of course I have one with me in my box (somewhere) because I knew someone would be a @#$%got about it, so I go through my 3rd anthology box and pull it out. We finish waiting on the parings and get started. I get an awful opening hand, and he starts the game by stalling Anakin (because Anakin SUCKS at Podracing), and draws a 5 destiny, then pulls the War Room and draws a couple. My first turn I drop the Home One docking from hand, and say something along the lines of, “Reveal Dash and get a Docking Bay” and pull my <> docking bay and deploy Dash to it for -2, and Clint says, “you said Reveal Dash before you said get the docking bay” and I have never wanted to give a SW opponent the finger more in my life. But, I didn’t, because we were playing for cash, and I could see his point (although anyone who knows me will tell you I would have let him do it in a heartbeat). So I pay the full 5 force for Dash at Tatooine and draw a couple. On his turn, we race, and I get crappy destinies (a 4 and a 1 I think), and he gets a 4 and drops Brangus to the War Room and the Emperor to the Cantina. On my turn I Tunnel for A Step Backward and play it and he grabs it, so there went any chance of me winning the podrace. I set up some guys on the ground to flip, drop Battle Plan and put some more guys in space, but I can’t seem to get a Han or Luke to save my life. The next few turns consist the gay podrace going on, and him playing 3 to drain 2 while I drain for one in space and 1 on the ground at 2 different docking bays. Somewhere in there I get I’ll Take The Leader (finally boosting my drains to a decent amount), and he drops the Hoth:War Room and Arica to block one of my drains and inserts 3720 to 1 in my deck. I play an Out Of Commision, and he grabs it. I also end up canceling Hit Racer twice with Too Close For Comfort to keep the race relatively close (though I still don’t have a chance to win). Odds pops for 4 cards (his 10 to my 6) once or twice, and the race nears the end early, because he has drawn race destinies above 3 every turn. I have A Step Backward in my hand, and his race total is 22 (a 5 and two 4s) to my 16 (fours 4s), but I have a tracked 6. He races, and I draw a 2, then my tracked 6, then a Jedi Luke, which is pretty good. Then I learn that he has drawn a Masterful Move, giving him a perfect total of 31. So now I am faced with 3 options, all crappy. I can put the 2 and the 6 on my podracer and play a Step Backward to give me 18 and him back down to 22, but he could easily track the 6 back around and win. Or I could put both the 6s on my racer, not play A Step Backward and lose 31-28. Or I could put both 6s on my podracer and play a Step Back ward, giving us both the lovely total of 22 so Sebulba can be a homosexual and stall me again. All options suck, and I lose the race no matter what, so I go with the 3rd option to delay it a turn.
He keeps doing a lot of nothing, just draining 2 per turn and popping Odds every now and then, and I am draining like 3 a turn. I know the race it his, but I also know that the game is nowhere close to over, because he doesn’t have Secret Plan or SSPFT, and I was guessing he had already used both his grabbers (I asked him after the game, and I was correct that he only played 2 grabbers), and we’ve all seen what can happen with uninhibited On The Edges, but I can’t play any, because I can’t find a Jedi Luke or Han to save my life. He wins the race and I lose my 6, and am getting relatively low on cards, but I knew I’d be all right if I could get a Luke or Han. I spend the rest of the game looking for them, and finally manage to get a Han, but I had lost the Falcon to the Podrace, and the only place he could deploy was the Hoth War Room and I couldn’t get another character in my hand to save my life. I finally decide that I have to do something, and I know there is a Houjix in my lost pile, so I deploy Han alone to the War Room, and On The Edge from hand to retrieve 5. During his activate phase, I play On The Edge again from the bottom of my Lost Pile to retrieve 5 more cards, including the On The Edge I had played during my turn. He drains and drops EPP Vader to kill Han. He swings and hits him and draws a 3 destiny, and I Houjix (from lost pile) the 5 damage, and Clint points out that I had already played an Interrupt from Lost Pile this turn, and I realize what a scrub I am and lose my 5 cards. I can’t get a Luke or any of the other cards I need the rest of the game, and his measly drains finish me off, and he wins by about 20.
FL 0(-20)
Total: 12(+100)
Game Highs: Absolutely nothing. I don’t know if I could imagine a gayer deck (excluding WYS) than Brangus/Odds/Racing/Shaft, but it’s one of the most solid decks out there, so I can definitely see why Clint and Steven played it.
Game Lows: The whole Han thing sucked, and not being able to get one Jedi Luke all game despite 2 Tunnel Visions where I was hoping to get him sucked so bad.
Well, I didn’t play that badly that game (excluding the Han thing), and I knew his DS would probably beat me, and I was definitely still in the tournament, so it was cool. Nothing big happened between games, so I’ll move on to….
Game 8: MKOS vs. Clint Hays’ WYS
Well, apparently I am the highest player opposite Clint, so I play him again. We get out our starting stuff, and I am glad he is playing WYS, because my deck normally handles it quite well with interior drains and lots of space power usually involving Guri and Thrawn and Imperial Command(s) or Maul to make them no occupy the system. I get a decent hand and set up early in the Palace with Mara with Saber first turn backed by Gailid second turn to set up a phat drain of 3. He gets Dash to Tatooine early, and Jedi Luke to the Cantina with Melas at the Tatooine Docking Bay. I have a Barrier in my hand so I feel safe putting a destiny getting character (Mighty Jabba I think) alone in the Lower Passages to boost my drain to 5. He get out Menace Fades and Battle Plan to crap with my drains, and I know I need to get up in space to get around those evil effects. We both eat each others drains a couple turns while I draw for the cards I need. Then I decide to make my move. I have Zuckess, the Executor, Thrawn and Maul in my hand, and with Melas and Jedi Luke on the ground, Maul will easily reduce Dash and friends’ ability to 0 in space, and Zuckess will be safe at least until Melas gets picked up from the Docking Bay, and by then I will be able to give Zuckess some backup. I’m a little tight on force at this point, I think I have 14, so Zuckess and Maul will cost all of it and I won’t be able to save 1 for my barrier. Plus he has like 4 or 5 saved, and I’m sure he has a barrier, and I want to get it out of his hand if possible. So I somehow come up with the BRILLIANT (and by brilliant, I mean horrible) idea that I will deploy Zuckess in space (who will get Barriered), then Maul to the Tatooine Docking Bay for –2, battle and kill Melas, shuttle Maul to the system for free (since he’s at a docking bay) and still have my 1 force saved for a barrier. Yes, I’m sure all you SWCCG non-scrubs out there have already realized a fatal flaw in my plan, but for some reason, be it lack of sleep, lack of practice or something else, for some reason it seemed like a great idea to me. I deploy Zuckess in space, and he gets barriered. Haha, I thought, he fell right into my trap and wasted his barrier. Then I deployed Maul to the Docking Bay, and right about that time I realized that, yep, you guessed it, Zuckess is starfighter, and therefore can’t shuttle people up from a site. I wanted to take the insanely stupid move back, but knew that there was no chance he’d let me, so I went ahead and battled with Maul and he canceled the battle with It’s A Trap. Zuckess is Barriered, so he can’t move and is stuck there for the beating. I save my 1 puny force for the barrier. Now that is pretty bad, but the scrubbiness is not over yet. On his turn, he drains and plays Tunnel Vision, and I KNOW the Falcon is coming down, but instead he reveals Mirax to pull the Pulsar. Well, I figure Mirax in the Pulsar isn’t gonna hurt me too badly, especially since he still doesn’t have enough ability to get destiny, and he has enough left for the Falcon, so I save my barrier. He deploys Wedge aboard the Pulsar and I continue to be the ultimate scrub by figuring in my head well, he still has enough left to drop the Falcon and battle, and right now he only has 6 ability and his destiny will be 0, so I’ll save the barrier. Yes, once again as you decent SW player out there have probably already realized, Dash Rendar does have 3 ability, so his 3 plus Mirax’s 2 plus Wedge’s 2 gives him, WOW, a total ability of 7. So I am the biggest scrub ever, and he battles, reduces my power to 0 and beats Zuckess for around 16 cards, and the game is over. With his drains and Battle Plan/Menace Fades I have no prayer, so I try to minimize my loss, and draw out before he retrieves his whole lost pile.
FL 0(-27)
Total for the tournament: Not good enough
Game Highs: I suck.
Game Lows: I suck.
I suck, I suck, I suck. I can’t stress that enough. So Clint wins the money and Rippotoe makes an insane comeback from 1-2 and gets second. I stick around and watch the finals, but Rip concedes to Clint, which sucks for me, ‘cuz I wanted to see them play it. Everyone there keeps telling me how good I did, and I did better than I thought I would, but I would have pretty much rather go 5-3 than lose the last game by being a TOTAL RETARD. A bunch of people kept asking me what happened, but I couldn’t even bring myself to tell them, because I was too ashamed.
Huntsville as a whole didn’t fare all that well, with me 6-2, my bro and Clay Wilburn both went 4-4, and Ben lived up to his 1524 rating with 2-5 with a bye. Clay had played WYS, and somehow managed to lose with it 3 times.
So we head home and the usual post-tourny jokes and stories were severely marred by my scrubbiness, although we did have some fun with the Out Of Somewhere thing anyway. I have to drive home, because my mom says she’s too tired, and about half way home we see a white Pontiac FLY past us at probably around 100 miles an hour, and we get a fleeting glimpse of the coolest license plate ever- SirYoda. And I smile as the Nashville boys fly past us, $1000 richer.
And now, for a change of pace, it’s time for Slops and Props.
Slops:
First and foremost to Brian Hunter- because after the tournament I went back and read, and reread his strategy section, and not once in the whole thing does he mention that you shouldn’t leave Zuckess alone in space against a WYS space fleet.
To me- for playing like such a scrub in the 8th game.
To the Zuckess and Maul incident- We must never speak of it again.
To me- for playing WYS which is so good it’s gay.
To Clay Wilburn- for losing 3 times with WYS.
To me- for sucking so bad at this game
To Jeeps- for giving me 1 star on my last TR because I used the word “gay.”
To podracing, especially DS- because there is no way a 12-22 force swing should ever depend on nothing but destiny draws.
To Senior pictures- for making me dress up in some lame wannabe tux (I had to get them done a couple days ago).
To the McClure family reunion- because it’s looking like it is going to make me miss DecipherCon this year.
Props:
TO OZZEL- For being the ABSOLUTE MAN and sitting alone the Lower Passages draining for 2 per turn all game long in 3 of my 6 LS games over the weekend AND NEVER DYING even once.
Once again to Brooke Burke- for inspiring my LS deck name.
To Jim Colson and the whole TD crew- for running a very smooth tournament, other than 1 minor delay.
To Decktech- for DPCs.
To Matt Mathison- for being an insanely cool guy and cracking me up with overuse of the word “powerful”
To Brad Reinhold- for being another insanely cool guy and looking like Jim Breuer
To Jody- for hanging with us, and even adapting to several Huntsville customs, like giving my brother the finger :-) Dmail me man!
To James Boyd- for playing like a champ and winning cash despite his <1800 rating.
To Brian Rippotoe- for coming back and winning cash despite starting off 1-2.
To Out Of Somewhere- who knew it could be that powerful?
To me- for retrieving my entire lost pile to the card twice out of 4 games.
To John Camp- For being a cool guy with a hilarious voice and getting married.
To all the guys who wrote stripper TRs- that is some funny stuff.
To Geoff Gallo-Cornell- for playing HD non-epic duel
To Vader’s Obsession- for being the most underrated card in the game (I have seen a guy retrieve 21 while the LS lost 21 with this card)
To Jamie Giberti- because on his review of my last TR, he said “Where’s my props” so here they are :-)
To Diablo 2- because it lets me leech like a mofo (My Barb got from lvl 81 to almost lvl 83 while writing this TR)
To the chick in front of me at senior pictures- for being blonde and hot and wearing a skirt that showed an insane amount of leg and making senior pictures suck that much less.
To Britney Spears- go look at my page and figure out why.
Well, I think that’s it (sorry no stippers) and I hope I didn’t forget anything. Hope you enjoyed-
Andy