leaving-billings-8-25-01
Title: leaving-billings-8-25-01
Author: Travis "Com Igar" Rumans
Date: Aug 28, 2001
Sometimes you’re very aware that a tournament is coming, but other times you just kind of space it out.
This is what I did for this tournament, and I think Cody did, too, because he didn’t want to get up and go to it and I wasn’t feeling too well either so I forgot to grab a piece of paper for notes for diff so at first I thought I wouldn’t do a tr but then I thought that this was my last Billings tournament so I might as well.
My brothers, who are big Magic players, built me a Magic deck so I could play in Friday night magic the night before. In playing in that I am reminded why I play Wars instead. And playing in this also makes me think that if Decipher is thinking of doing a sideboard thing (Shield cards) they’ll have to do it VERY carefully because it could easily create a slippery slope and shut down some legitimate decks.
Anyway the next day my brother and I show up but Cody’s not around so our TD, Jeff, plays to bring the total up to 8...hopefully they’re going to keep getting sanctioned with Cody in Missoula and me in Boston (my brother will probably not be coming any more, as well). Maybe the Wyoming people will come up more, but they fear the Might of Billings.
Courtesy of Jeff I have the complete results and what everyone played but I’ll save that for the end. I was playing Jedi Council Mains to use Depa, Threepio, and Mirax to manipulate the drek out of my deck and get whatever I needed set up. Plo Kloon is also good for keeping my guys safe from sabers and Mace’s direct damage ability is also good. I recently cut Ki Adi Mundi (my brother: "What did he do?" Me: "That’s what I asked myself.") and Control/TV for Threepio and Mirax because I’d never used Control with that deck and the destiny manip duo get me more cards which is the point of tv.
For dark I was staying with Senate/Space, Imperial Command lets you set up space off of almost any platform, but getting +2 to power, tunneling every turn, added attrition, a pile of other stuff, and political effects canceling one of their drains and adding to mine every turn was just some very tasty icing on the cake. When I originally built it like two weeks ago I hastily threw my ISB Space space package with a pile of Senators and support interrupts, and thought I’ve refined it since then, one vestige of the old design, like an appendix waiting to burst, came back to haunt me...
I’m rated like 1812...I’m pretty sure all my games were in. I’m also irritated that I have to go back to college this labor day weekend so I can’t drive down to the Denver DPC and play in the invitational before the Kashyyyk people pound me to beneath 1800.
Anyway, the games.
Game 1 Jedi Council Mains vs. Nathan Stahley’s EV 9D9 Drains
He was trying to find some cards before the game and I wasn’t sure what. He starts MKOS and Mosep is his rep. As soon as the Droid Workshop and a bunch of droids start hitting the table I know what’s coming so I use the super signal from Coruscant to grab Vergence. Depa, Threepio, and Mirax all show up and help me get what I need. Qui Gon and his saber show up at Jabba’s Palace, and he comes down with Bossk and Iggy, but Bossk misses and Qui Gon is unscathed. I get out Obi+Saber and Luke+Saber so I’m draining him for 5/turn at Jabba’s Palace, and meanwhile he’s digging for EV by searching every turn to see if he’s in there. Eventually he gets in one big drain for like 17 so I vergence, he Wookie Kisses, and its a Japanese Wookie Kiss so it takes a minute for me to realize he can’t do that to an immediate effect. So then he drains me for one/turn and I drain him for 5. I think I use edge to get back a couple.
Like I said I forgot to grab something to write down my diff, I’m sorry, but I do have my final diff in the complete results.
Highs: I guess I won.
Lows: A dull game.
Game 2 Senate Space vs.Jeff’s Deck You Don’t Want To Play
I was hoping that I could play Jeff’s HB B-Wing deck, because although he would probably shoot up most of my ISDs it would be a fun matchup.
Jeff’s deck is Podracing/Sabbac/Inserts. He starts MWYHL but I know he’s definitely not training. I know what’s going to happen pretty much from the start.
Remember my earlier comment about the appendix of this deck? Well, in ISB Space I used both Coruscant and Executor DBs (Coruscant for Decree). I didn’t bother with the Coruscant DB in this version but I still used old skool Mob Points instead of the Mob Points/Insight. So, in essence, I’ve traded 1 extra activation (which becomes moot when Tikkes sends it through the roof) for an auto-loss to numbers.
He starts Don’t Do That Again, and I start SSPFT instead of Decree because I know an earlier version of Jeff’s deck had Death Star Plans but I didn’t see it this time. I get Lott Dod out early and he tries to Counter Assault but my objective cancels it. I manage to get Chiraneau out on an ISD so Mob Points works again. Numbers and AFA pop so I lose a bunch. He has Wars Not Make One Great and Battle Plan so I’ll have to pay to drain (and hence let inserts pop) so I activate it all, drop Ozzel (mighty deploy 0, though he brings my numbers total down further) to the podrace arena to satisfy BP, and for a couple turns I pay one to drain for three at Kashyyyk. With only one force, he can’t insert or sabbac. At one point he asks me if I have a big force pile, and I fear a beggar beatdown on Ozzel (like he needed my force to beat down Ozzel) so I spend some more to put out some ISDs and stuff. Next turn he inserts me, but my boneheaded move is somewhat alleviated by the fact he puts out I Did It! to make me cycle my force pile or lose 2. Anyway next turn I activate one to try drain him, he sabbacs, numbers pops, which does enough damage to pop AFA, so I sod playing this stupid game out.
Highs: Well, Jeff was nice and is a cool TD...
Lows: His deck sucked to play against. He also called some functions of the Senate (canceling Surprise Assault, for one) gay, and someone playing Podracing/Numbers has no right to call anything gay. Frag, I wasn’t even playing a manip version of the Senate--I couldn’t even find deck space to abuse Limited Resources, although I’m thinking I really should use at least two to punch through that last bit of damage late game against Battle Plan.
I kick myself repeatedly for not using combo mob points...DDTA cancels my numbers protection, but I occupy a BG system easily (I even did it in this very game) so it wouldn’t have mattered.
Game 3 My Senate Space vs. My Brother’s Senate Space
We’ve playestest this matchup a lot and neither of us really want to play it, especially my brother Troy because he knows I win it. I Squabbling for Lott Dod and set him up with Aks Moe for a turn 1 flip. I’m only activating a bit so I put down Piett alone to the Exec DB and don’t have enough for Merrerjk. Boush comes down and kills him. This prolongs my setup; I pile guys in the senate, and by the time I get Merrerjk out on an ISD I have almost all my systems already. He deploys lots of ships to Hoth, then Moves Independence over. I lat damage it and beat it up. On his turn he moves it back to Hoth and it takes a few turns to fix. I’m draining him for a bit, and I send Kedir to stop Boush’s drain and I chuck a Senate interrupt to make him think I no longer believe he will challenge me in the senate (because I want him to try, with my hand). He shows up and Wookie Strangles Lott Dod (everyone talks about it, but Troy uses it) and will probably eventually win the senate because he has the Bacta Tank. I keep Aks Moe and Passel (for his huge politics bonus) and some guards around because I want him to keep trying, at this point staying flipped and cycling Senators from my effects is more important than a majority. I just lose guards. He spreads to block my drains but Independence gets lateraled again (just after he fixed it...2x Lat Damage rules) and beaten up for the game.
Highs: I won, I guess.
Lows: We knew how this would go.
Peter plays Jeff’s light deck, and although he has Resistance he doesn’t start it because he doesn’t think Jeff will be draining him. Doesn’t matter because he eventually gets it out and wins. You might remember Peter had a 49er water bottle shaped like a football player, and although it helped him win one tournament, its powers had become weak and he lost the post-coruscant tournament. So for this tournament he had a new talisman of luck: a small statueette of a hand with the middle finger extended. Check out his diff at the end to see how awesome it worked...
Game 4 vs. Logan’s ISB Drop and Drain with Emergency Deployment Madness
I get Yoda out and I have EPP Han, Don’t Get @#$%y, and Luke’s Saber in hand but no Luke. I drop Qui Gon to battle a scrub, he plays Emergency Deployment and gets some guys but Qui Gon always wins. I get Threepio and Mirax going and I know Qui Gon will handle that site fine but I want someone to back up EPP Han to drop on another site becuase he will probably run away from Qui Gon. One battle against Qui he played Emergency Deployment like three times but I clashed Motti (the best guy he got with that) and Qui Gon still comes out largely on top. I finally get Luke by using Threepio on his turn and I expect him to run away from Qui Gon and then Luke and Han can go to town. But he moves his other scrubs in front of Qui Gon, so I pretty much drop Han, Luke, and win the game after Edging for a couple.
Highs: I won, I guess. Another Billings West Alum came in during this game and I talked to him a bit but I didn’t want to be too rude to Logan.
Lows: There’s really no victory in beating up poor Logan.
So, I end up getting second and the final standings (and the decks played), courtesy of Jeff, are:
Peter Kelleher 8(+115) L-Throne Room Mains Force Choke D-ISB ORS Scum
Travis Rumans 6(+34) L-Jedi Council Mains D-Senate Space
Nathan Stahley 4(+29) L-HBX D-MKOS EV-909
Jeff Hansen 4(+5) L-MWYHL Every Annoying Thing Decipher Created D-TIE Bombers
Preston Stahley 4(-10) L-PodProfit D-ISB Space and Docking Bays
Troy Rumans 2(-53) L-Senate Space D-Battle Droids
Logan Stahley 2(-58) L-WYS Panic D-ISB Emergency Deployment
Mike Kelleher 2(-62) L-AITC Jawa D-MKOS Jawa
I apologize on the spacing of that if it came out a mess. If it made no sense, Peter won, with an awesome differential of +115 (in only four games!)
Anyway Peter wants me to come to the closed environment tourney tomorrow so it can be sanctioned so we go grab McDonald’s, then to his house to get his cards, then to my house to build some things and playtest. I build a Dark Deck by changing out the 15 or so cards from my brother’s Battle Droid deck that are not Ep1 for a podracing element and a different site selection. Peter’s Hyperdrive Generator deck beats it. We also build a dark deck (Naboo Occ) for his brother. Although his brother doesn;t show up, Jeff again plays to make up the difference so we’re sanctioned.
I thought the closed environment would suck but I went on to win the tournament so maybe its not so bad =). My mighty rating of 1564 would put me at like No. 7 in the world, except there’s a whole drekload of closed environment tourneys this weekend so that won’t be so high. Because this was the first close environment tournament, Jeff doesn’t have the new foils but I get an IAO foil which is still cool. So between the IAO, Sense I won earlier, and the Speeder my brother’s giving me from the tourney he won I have three tournament foils for the summer (should really be two more, the Wyoming TD owes me, I think). I didn’t bother keeping any notes at all for the closed environment because I expected to be destroyed so I won’t go into my games, just two pieces of advice:
1. Jedi are often more a liability than an asset in this format because Maul and Phantom Menace are so prevalent. (On a side note, since Maul kills all the Jedi, Luke gets dueled/captured by Vader, Chewie gets trampled/strangled, Han gets hit by lots of smuggler hate, Leia can’t battle or drain vs. HD, all you have to turn to are the Black Men of SWCCG: Lando and Panaka.)
2. The podrace, as some people think, is not everything. Most decks have to stack a lot more interrupts to win in this format because racing decks are more common, and if you are using those 10-12 cards for something else you have an advantage. I lost the race both LS games (I didn’t even bother with a racer in my LS deck) but I still went undefeated. The Senate is probably much better to focus on.
Anyways...
Props
Jeff, for playing in both tourneys to keep us sanctioned and having a tourney foil handy for the closed environment (if it wasn’t a Maul, yet)
Peter, because over 100 diff in four games is awesome. SPTRM forever. You owe Cody, his MBO has kept SYCFA out of our meta and that would stop your revo tricks.
All the Billings people, because that’s really what makes the game fun...hope you guys don’t let Peter break the 1900 barrier too easily. And try to keep things sanctioned despite the loss of Cody, my bro, and I. And we have to make sure that Montana States Champion 2002 is from Billings...I probably won’t be able to make it myself, so I’ll dig up all the decks and tech I can to try to make it happen.
The Kashyyyk people...although I need someone to bum rides off of now that Hayes is in Arizona, I’m willing to take the train to the nearest station. I’m nice and fat, ready to give up lots of ratings points to a different metagame and tough region.
The EP1 Environment, if only because it brought out players I haven’t seen much this summer...if Art and the Troy that’s not my brother keep coming, then Peter’s brother can show up instead of me and these can still be sanctioned.
Slops
Inserts and podracing...an unholy alliance if there ever was one. If shield cards blunt these, they can’t be that bad.
Me, for not using combo Mob Points.
The new arcade game at the Splash Page...I was there Friday for Magic and the whole weekend for the tourney, and the music from that game drove me crazy.
Tufts, cause no one plays Wars and I won’t haven’t anyone close to play against (and just after drilling my brother into a decent playtesting partner, too).
The roomate I wanted, because he bailed for an RA position.
The roomate I’m going to get, because he hasn’t returned my email about paying for the phone/cable...he may just be an administrative blip and not really exist (then I get a huge single).