carmel-in-10-06-01
Title: carmel-in-10-06-01
Author: Eric "YOYOY" Bailey
Date: Oct 6, 2001
Carmel, Indiana
October 6, 2001
Before I begin, I’d just like to say I love the players here. I love the atmosphere. I love the wacky decks. Where else do you see old school, numbers, new school, Mining Droids, speeders, B-Wings, D*II, and Jar Jar madness? And most of these are on a regular basis... I love it.
With that being said... I originally wasn’t going to write a report for this tourney. But Rich convinced me. And as the events of the tourney went on, it became clear to me that I’d have to type this stuff out... it was quite a tourney. I heard about it earlier this week, a tourney directed by Rich Dailey, with "random goodies"... sounds cool. Actually, I wasn’t even supposed to go... up until the night before I assumed I couldn’t make it... I won’t go into details, but basically it was a miracle that I made it, and that I could go today. I’m not really in the mood to write a report, so excuse me if it’s not exactly immaculate. I’m also tired. I’ll probably read this later and say HOLY FLAMING FLYING BARRELS OF MAGGOT-INFESTED MINERAL-ENRICHED MONKEY CRAP WITH SUGAR AND SPICE A LA PIE IN THE SKY WHAT THE HECK WAS I THINKING?!?!? Or something like that.
Pre-tourney Junk:
Just admit it, you couldn’t possibly care less about the pre-tourney junk. Nothing terribly exciting happened, except that a train stopped in our way. Luckily it started again, so we were fine. We made it in time.
Tourney:
I arrive with my sister, and the store isn’t open yet. The players are hanging out, talking about Reflections 3 and Lord Of The Rings... to my surprise, there are what seems to be a couple hundred LOTR cards being passed around. Cool. Rick, the guy who we’re waiting for to actually open shop, arrives. We enter and start the registration process. Rich will be using command cards today... my name is marked as Tall Boy, and John is Dum Dum, our nicknames we’ve earned. Randy Barker didn’t show up, I wanted him to, he had a Keder The Black for me... Chris Fraker didn’t show up either. Good. The last few tournaments I’ve gone to, he’s been there, and I played him 2 times in each one, losing every time. He’s a good player, yeah, but I’m sick of him... he’s a good guy, yeah, but geez... tired of him. Mr. Ducky is long dead, so I was supposed to wear my ducky shirt today... but I forgot. Dang. I’ll just have to settle for doing the Ducky Dance a few times...
Today, for DS, I’ll be playing Trinto Duaba Superstar. The deck revolves around Trinto Duaba... a Premiere Used Interrupt, destiny 5, you draw destiny during your battle phase, if any of opponent’s cards in their Used Pile match that destiny, those cards are lost. I played a bunch of those, and all the guys who made the opponent draw destiny during my turn... Gardulla, Vedain, and Barquin D’an. Since my opponent would be drawing a lot of destinies, I also included Taym Dren-garen and Krayt Dragon Bones, Taym of course being able to cancel any result of it. The deck was just an idea I came up with, I didn’t have the cards I really needed (Sabacc), and I would’ve borrowed them from Rich, but I had told him I wasn’t coming. Oh well. The deck also utilized Stunning Leader to it’s fullest extent.
For LS I was playing speeders on Endor. Endor lets you play with Ithorians (bigger drains, more activation) and stack Ewok Catapults on your Reserve deck with ASP-707 who also lets speeders deploy-1. It also used On The Edge, considering I could easily rig 7s. It also had podracing, with 7 Catapults, the ability to stack them, and 4 A Step Backwards, I knew I’d never lose a race. Last tourney my LS only lost every game because every DS deck I played had podracing with Watto’s Box, I didn’t play podracing at all, so I got ripped apart. But today I was ready for it.
Pairings announced.
Game 1: My LS Speeders vs. John Gardiner’s DS non-Objective D*II deck
I’ll be doing every game by memory, though I did keep track of differentials. So forgive me if I make mistakes. Even if, chances are, you wouldn’t even realize it anyway... he starts Endor and D*II starting Interrupt to pull Jerjerodd and junk... I started Endor: Back Door, Podrace Prep, Tatooine: Podrace Arena, Anakin’s Podracer, Boonta Eve Podrace, and Insurrection & Aim High. I’ll start these every game. My starting hand contains both the docking bays I’m supposed to pull with my Effect. *sigh* He does his D*II junk, deploys Jerjerodd, deploys Desperate Counter, pulls a sector, yeah, you know... my turn, I deploy both docking bays. My second turn I depoyed Maneuvering Flaps that I drew and deployed stuff to Back Door, he deployed another sector, saved a Force. My turn I drained, his turn he searched for the last sector, wasn’t there. I win the podrace, though I forgot to pull I Did It!. It’s funny though... he didn’t care about the race, the only race destiny he kept was a system, so he’d keep the destiny 0 out of his deck. Other than that, he has high destinies. I used A Step Backwards to put his 0 back... heehee... anyway, my turn I drain, deploy stuff to the Endor: Landing Platform (Docking Bay), and deployed Incom Corporation (pulled with The Signal) to the Hoth: Echo Docking Bay. His turn he drained at Endor with some TIE with the A New Hope TIE gun, searches for a sector, not there. He realizes it’s that one Force he’s been saving. He draws it, next turn That Thing’s Operational! is out. Yay. I’m draining for a bunch, he has systems out at which he’s draining for a bunch... but I’m retrieving with On The Edge and Catapults and Luke With Lightsaber. So I guess I’m ahead. My memory isn’t the best... but not much happened. He never really came to the ground, and I have no ships, so it was a pretty boring game. I ended up winning by 4.
2 (+4)
Good: I won, I guess.
Bad: No interaction whatsoever.
Ugly: It’s John! Dum Dum himself! You have to know him...
Game 2: My DS Trinto Duaba Superstar vs. John Gardiner’s LS Hidden Base
John again? Um, k... I start My Kind Of Scum, Tatooine: Desert Heart, Tatooine: Jabba’s Palace, Ephant Mon as my Rep, Prepared Defenses, Power Of The Hutt, Secret Plans, and There Is No Try & Impressive Enforcement. I’ll start these every game. He starts the weapons forfeit =3 Effect, the SAC killer, and something else... we’re both setting up, me setting up my aliens at AC with Gailid and stuff, him deploying systems... and B-Wings. He loves space decks with weapons and weapon Interrupts and Effects and crap. I hate ’em. Oh well... it soon becomes apparent that he’s also playing Jar Jar and his Brisky Morning Munchen.
Let me explain something... a month or two ago, Rich played a Jar Jar deck. It was a Hidden Base podracing deck, starting Brisky Morning Munchen and had like 30 7s in it. It was insane... wacky, yet it worked. Worked a little too well, in fact. People started copying him. Others started packing anti-Jar Jar tech. I love this area meta... Jar Jar... lol... but anyway, I was prepared, Stunning Leader was my Jar Jar defense. Rich’s DeckTech screen name is Joh Yowza for those of you who want to see the deck.
My memory’s fuzzy... the game was extremely boring, again, no interaction, he had a space deck, I had a ground eck with no space. Eventually he was canceling my drains, but I had my Barquin/Taym/Gardulla/Vedain/Bones/Trinto Duaba machine going. Funny thing was, he kept drawing 4s, so I kept retrieving with the Bones. Trinto was doing damage... I eventually win, somehow, by 7.
4 (+11)
Good: Winning, I guess.
Bad: No interaction.
Ugly: It’s John... the win just somehow feels different when it’s against him. ;-)
For being 2-0 so far, I get a random freebie from Rich... I choose a random card, it’s... Inconsequential Losses. I thought the freebies were cool stuff?!? Oh, he says something about "now because he picked that, he gets..." then he pulls out an It Could Be Worse foil! Kewl. I was scared for a minute there, but, cool...
Game 3: My DS vs. Karl Harford’s LS Tatooine Mains
Paired up with a player much more highly rated than me. Great. I started my stuff, he started Mos Eisley, and podracing crap with Honor Of The Jedi. My first turn I deploy the Barge (as usual) and it’s site (as usual) and a JP site from Reserve (as usual) and the other JP site from hand (not usual). His first turn he deploys Cantina. My turn I start setting up. His turn he deploys Eopie, Padmé, then Premiere Obi from Reserve, then his saber, all to Mos Eisley.. My turn I deploy Chall Bekan, Scum & Villainy, cool... I deploy Arica to Mos Eisley. His turn he shuffles to Cantina with Obi, drains for 3. My turn I deploy U-3PO there. At the AC I have Gailid, Gardulla, Taym, Barquin, Chall Bekan, and Vedain. I had Bones out, but he Altered it. Why can’t there be a true SAC-killer, that doesn’t allow it to be played it all? Just a thought... anyway, he deploys EPP Han, EPP Leia, and Qui-Gon to the AC. He battles, I use Stunning Leader. Ha. My turn, I retrieve it. This cycle happens for like 7 turns in a row, neither of us really doing anything else... finally he nails me when I don’t have a Stunning Leader in hand. Ouch. It hurts. A lot. I lose a lot from the battle... I decide to draw up, I tell him, he recylces a couple cards, uses On The Edge for a couple more, I draw up and lose by 39.
4 (-28)
Good: His eye is better... it’s not all freaky and bloody anymore.
Bad: Stunning Leader isn’t a Used Interrupt.
Ugly: He podraced, I forgot to mention... I was ready for DS podracing this tourney, got LS instead.
For, um... I don’t remember... but I get another random freebie. I choose a random sleeve, and get... Jabba’s Sail Barge: Passenger Deck. Um, thanks Rich. You shouldn’t have. No, really... ~8-p
Game 4: My LS vs. Craig Spaid’s classic TIE deck
Craig hears the pairing, seems excited. We sit down... he’s like wow, he can’t believe it... he gets the attention of Dan Spaid, his son, telling him to look, see who he’s playing. Dan sees me, and does that nod/grin thing he does. Craig’s just shaking his head and smiling. What’s going on? Craig’s smiling and laughing a little and it’s weird... I ask him, is he playing the same old crap? He just looks at me, smiling. We reveal our starting stuff, he bursts out laughing. I’m like, what? He says he’ll tell me later. Okay... he starts with Kashyyk, Prepared Defenses, Mobilization Points, SAC killer, and Dreaded Imperial Starfleet, which he isn’t allowed to start with, but I don’t catch it until the game actually starts. Wait... I’m playing speeders, like I did a while back. He’s playing the same stupid crap TIE deck I hate, like he did a while back. The only difference is I’m podracing, I’m not playing numbers this time, and his deck has some Coruscant. Something’s fishy here. We’ll see. Anyway, I know what to expect... billions of Undercover spies, both built-in Undercover and the Undercover Effect... he’ll also be draining a lot and retrieving a lot. *sigh* We get set up, he’s getting systems, I’m deploying stuff, he blocks my drains, I get Corran Horn out, so I hold one site, but when I drain there he just cancels it, and On The Edge has been grabbed. Obviously, I can’t go on like this. Non-interactive yet again, sorry... the podracing didn’t help, considering he can just retrieve. I lose by 29.
4 (-86)
Good: Craig is always a pleasure to play, and I retried 18 Force with On The Edge, even with it grabbed.
Bad: Playing Craig with his same old TIEs.
Ugly: The exact same matchup, we’ve done it before.
He told me the story of why he was laughing... I’ll try to explain it to the best of my memory... it turns out that he was searching for something with his name in it, found one of my tournament reports. It was my Indianapolis one. He read it, and couldn’t stop laughing. He says I’m a good writer. Thanks Craig, you’re right. ~8-) Anyway... in the report, the first game is me against him. His TIE deck, my speeder deck. I lost the game, and I hated that deck. So he built that same deck, just hoping to play me with it. He did. And I just happened to be playing a speeder deck again, which made it all the more hilarious... I can’t believe he did that... but it paid off. For him, anyway...
Game 5: My DS vs. Rich Dailey’s HDWGITM EBO without ANSB with #s
We’ve played this matchup literally like 8 times, we always play this matchup if both of us are playing in a tourney, and he always wins. And it’s always EBO. And it’s always been Scum, at least, it seems that way... But at least this time is a little different. This time, I’m doing less with little effectiveness, and he’s doing everything quicker with more effectiveness. Yay! I start my stuff, he starts the Hoth: War Room and Seeking An Audience to deploy R2-D2. No interactivity... this was an incredibly quick game, like 3 minutes, literally. We both, before the game, agreed to play it quick. We both got off to fast starts, him Messing for systems and Y-Wings to deploy at them, me setting up Gailid-enhanced drains and my alien/Bones stuff. So we both had our engines running, but Trinto Duaba just isn’t hitting cards. But Monnok is working wonders. I used it once, got 6 Y-Wings, 2 Hyper Escapes, and 2 All Wings Report In, then deployed No Escape to get it back, then use it again next turn. But since I don’t have any space, his drains are un-contested, and he’s draining for a lot... and Numbers sucks too... the damage is way too much way too fast, he wins by 29.
4 (-86)
Good: Rich is always a pleasure to play.
Bad: Rich always wins.
Ugly: This deck he played, it’s cool, yet so ugly and cheap and gross... yet cool.
Game 6: My LS vs. Valerie Bailey’s DS Senator mining droids
I get to play my sister. She’s fun to play, anybody will tell you that... but still, I live with her! I spend every day with her! Her deck starts Senator Objective, senate, the Battleship Bridge twix site thingy, and no starting Interrupt. She has the stuff to play podracing with Sebulba’s pod. But she took it out of the deck...? Um, k. Another boring game... mining droids can be incredibly annoying, blowing up your characters and all, but I just use vehicles, Timer Mines don’t affect those. She just Force drained at the Senate... so I deployed TK-422 there, she had an Imperial. So she blew him up with a mine. So I deployed Boussh. So she blew her up too. All the while I’m abusing On The Edge and draining for tons... she had no chance. Not much to say, she drew up, I win by 42.
6 (-44)
End of games. It’s weird... the games were fun, but I’ve never had a tourney in which all my games were so non-interactive. And it’s not like I was playing non-interactive decks... just that people love space decks all of a sudden. There are random goodies for random placings... I get like 6th place, out of 10. Guess what random freebie I get? Another It Could Be Worse foil. Awesome... I’m not complaining. Jeremy Salinas gets 1st... but when he leaves there’s talk of how he didn’t win with skill, he won with cheese. Dum Dum won against Dan, which is one of the most amazing things I’ve ever witnessed in my life. You have to know Dum Dum.
We all talked a bunch, about decks and stuff... see, I’m having trouble now with decks. I don’t play as serious as some say I should, so I make goofy decks. "Jank doesn’t begin to describe your decks" is how Rich puts it. But it’s fun, the decks are fun, I have fun. But I’m in the middle... I play goofy decks, but they’re not cheese. Right now I feel like I either want to play something that could be considered cheesy (Math Class with Numbers and Raithal, EBO Mess #s mining droids w/o ANSB) or a "real" deck like the good Scum deck or TDIGWATT decks I’ve played. For LS, I’m just screwed. I had a good deck, but it didn’t podrace, and when I brought it to a tourney every opponent played Watto’s Box racing, so it lost it’s games. I’ve hated podracing with a vengeance ever since. That’s why I played serious podracing for LS today... but no DS deck played podracing. Just my luck. I’d love to hear everybody’s input for ideas on decks, whether they’re fun, serious, cheesy, goofy, or whatever. Craig especially says that I’m too good of a player to play goofy decks, I need to play for real. But I dunno, am I capable of that? At States I got 21st out of 42... of course, I would’ve been higher, but I got a crap ruling I’m still ticked off about... I dunno, sorry for ranting, I’m just not sure what to do. Oh, if you want the cardlists for the decks I played today, just ask, thanks, and feel free to e-mail me at YOYOY008@aol.com.
Props:
Rich, for being Rich, for the random freebie cool junk stuff, for directing the tourney in the first place, for everything.
Rick, for being the nicest person on Earth, for giving me cards for free, for providing me and Val with free lunch.
Craig, for that game... yeah, I hate your stupid deck, but I have to admit it was clever, what you did.
Val, for constantly reminding us all about the power of mining droids. Maul getting you down? Blow him up, Val would say. Undercover spies? No problem, boom, dead and gone. Jar Jar? Ha, boom, dead. Mines are apparently the answer to everything. After watching you play them, I’m seriously considering it...
Dum Dum John, for showing up, I wasn’t expecting it, and for beating Dan... wow.
Randy, even if you didn’t show up, though I can understand...
Mark, for the Japanese cards, only increasing my collection... >:-)
Mr. Ducky, for being with me in spirit, and imparting to me the mystical Ducky Dance and Ducky Shirt as your legacy. We’ll miss you.
That one guy whose name I’ve never known but should by now. You get Props because I haven’t played you yet but I want to, and you’re not like annoying or stupid or anything.
Me, because, I dunno, it’s me, Tall Boy... I get Props for something... ah yes, for snagging 2 It Could Be Worse foils.
Shannon, ’cuz you’re Shannon. :-p
Billy Dee.
Slops:
Frank, because you are the all-time eternal Slops Master. For being an idiot, for stealing cards, including mine, getting into fights, getting kicked out of tourneys, even States, for always cheating, for ever being born. Glad you didn’t show up.
Dan, for getting that Maul in your Coruscant pack. I’ve seen you open 3 packs and get 3 Mauls. Geez... oh, and threatening to hit me... even if I am annoying. It’s just you. :-)
Justin, for not showing up with your handy-dandy super-duper laptop.
Clint Hays, because I can.
Osama Bin Laden. Need I say more?
Shannon, ’cuz you’re Shannon. :-p
Mr. Peanut.