madskills-at-milford-ma-8-04-01

Title: madskills-at-milford-ma-8-04-01
Author: Michael "MadSkills84" Pistone
Date: Aug 4, 2001

So a week after chewbacca con, and my friends were going to a local Milford tournament, and said I could hop a ride with them. Cool. So I decide to scrap my huntdown in favor of a better deck, and decide to go with Hunt Down Podracing after it did really well in playtesting. I end up scrapping WYS beats in favor of the more solid version, which was a fair trade off, I think both are equal in strength.

So the day before the tournament there is a problem with my ride to get there, but that is resolved by the next morning and I make a few changes to my decks and am ready to go.

So Rich Hinds picks me up and then we got get Matt McGann. We blast that song from the Mitsubishi commerical, and we pull into the parking lot for Milford. Only person there is Mike Gemme, crap we might have difficulty getting this sanctioned.

Well we sit inside and play some Raw Deal. Then 2 kids I had never met before walk in to play star wars, and that bring us to 6 people. The Scheimer brothers walk in next so we now have 8, enough to make it sanctioned. Johnny Vegas comes in to run the thing and Steve Brentson walks in and we are all shocked because we thought he would be at GenCon, so now we have 9 and some decent competition. Now time for the pairings:

Pretournament rating:
1609 (with 2-2 not in, probably 1627)

Game 1 BYE!

Great so I get the round one bye, oh well I play Raw Deal with Johnny Vegas and school his Chyna deck with his Stone Cold Deck. We played 4 or 5 games I think by the time the 1st Star Wars game was done. Well ok lets see how I do at star wars now.

Game 2
My WYS Solid vs. Rich Hinds (1680) TDIGWATT fake-out mains

Well in playtesting I had beat this deck, but it was not easy so I had my work cut-out for me. He sets up good first turn with Palpatine to my Cantina, so I opt to go for space instead. I throw the falcon with captain han and wedge to kessel. His turn he throws Janus with Emperor says I can go. So I come down with Jedi luke and a scout and battle, he plays weapon levitation. UGH. He plays I have you know and draws high, clearing my stuff away but palpatine stayed. next turn he reinforced on the ground with vader and xizor there. I went again drained, put jedi luke down to battle again with another scout. No avail, force lightning, capturing etc. etc. etc. he pulls the win out after the next turn lateral damaging the falcon and beating me up in space to top it all off.

FL -11

2 -11

Highs: Nothing
Lows: Everything

Game 3
My Huntdown Podracing vs. Mike Gemme (1770) QMC Ten Numb Superstar

Alright I am very confident with this deck and I start the podrace and stack a high destiny. The direct damage is just so ovewhelming to him. I set up a drain at the holotable and then I set up Palpatine, Janus and Mara on Cloud City, draining him big while U-3PO blocked one of his drains and he drained me at Bespin and Leia’s Hut. Vader chases Corran Horn around the Executor. The podrace was a huge swing and I just got outdrained him, there was not much he could do.

FW +22

4 +11

Game 4
My WYS vs. Pat Keach (1498) Huntdown Podracing

Well this was one of the most enjoyable games of the day, and they were all good. Well he starts out the podrace with a low destiny which is good. His first turn he just picks up and we lose to Visage. My turn I activate, thow a ship down to kessel, draw a few and play ooc/trans term on visage. His turn he sets up vader and tarkin at a site and lets me go. I come down with jedi luke to teh cantina and another ship to kessel. He goes and we do the podrace again (he forgot about it the previous turn). I play a step backwards so I am winning the race. He plays palpatine and janus to the site adjacent to the cantina (the tat:db) and lets me go. I get my drain in and throw down han to palpys site and move luke and the smuggler over to his site. He goes, forgets to drain and podrace, goes in for his docking bay. He deploys it and battles, to no avail. Meanwhile I have dealt a considerable amount of damage. He moves Vader over and plays the dueler card. This makes me start wondering if I am going to win this game, well I end up drawing two sixes for the destinies so vader goes out of play and he owes me 9. That is game.

FW +16

6 +27

Game 5
My HD vs. Rich Hinds (1680) WYS

HD podracing rules. I set up a god combo of Janus, Epp Vader and Palpatine at the cantina while Rich focuses on space. I win the podrace the following turn, giving me a huge swing. he deploys a smuggler to the cantina and then epp luek. I duel, he has no counter and I cross luke he loses 5. So now I force lightning his smuggler and have control again. I drain more on the ground and get out mara with her saber and move luke over there. He goes and plays like 3 smugglers to battle. I hit one and forfeit luke to attrition. On my turn I play no escape and get luke back and beat up han who was the only smuggler that survived, who moved to the Tatooine Podrace site. Well that basically covered the game.

FW +31

8 +58

Game 6
My WYS vs. Mike Scheimer (1887) MKOS mains

Well I get a totally crap draw with only one character. His turn he sets up 2 guys at the cantina says i can go. I set up a ship at kessel and draw some. He drains and throws more guys down. I set up another ship at kessel and draw more and still have nothing for the ground. He continues to set up more and gets out Galid. Jesus. I draw more and more and still have crap for the groudn. I eventually throw some crap down but he beats it to death. I battled for every point of differential i get but it wasnt enough to get me 2nd place.

FL -16

8 +44

So this is how the standings finished:

Mike Scheimer 10 + alot
Steve Brentson 8 +45
Michael Pistone (me) 8+44 (ouch that sucks 1 point of diff. behind him)
Mike Gemme
Matt McGann
Jimmy Scheimer
Rich Hinds
the 2 other kids

After this I playtested 2 games with Steve Brentson and they were a lot of fun, i beat him with my hd podracing, by like 10 because of a dueling of obi that he did not expect. So then we switched sides and his BHBM absolutely RAPED my WYS, his deck was really good, PROPS to you Steve for having a GREAT dark deck. Then I traded him an Emperor Palpatine for his Japanese Vader which was cool.

After this, Rich Hinds, Matt McGann and myself all go to Papa Ginos which you can read about in his TR.

Props (no slops today):
Jared/Johnny Vegas/Mike Gemme: For having 3 people run the same tournament :-)
All of my opponents
Jimmy for trading me HHH raw deal stuff
Mike Gemme for trading me Edge’s finisher
Matt and Rich for doing well and hanging out
Steve for the games of playtesting and the trade, thanks

Thanks for reading