carmel-in-10-31-01
Title: carmel-in-10-31-01
Author: Eric "YOYOY" Bailey
Date: Nov 1, 2001
Halloween 2001
Downtown Comics, Carmel, Indiana
Pre-Text Requisite: The following report has been written mostly from memory, so don’t expect exact details, and the details I give you may not be exactly right anyway. Just read and enjoy.
The tournament starts at 4:30, after 4 games and by the time I get home it’ll be late so there’ll be no time for trick-or-treating. For Halloween I’ll instead be playing at a Sealed Deck tournament. Me, mom, and Val (sis) somehow decide we’re going to dress up in costume anyway, though I didn’t really want to. Valerie got all decked out as Darth Maul, complete with all black clothing, cape, mask, and double-bladed lightsaber. Mom was EP1 Obi-Wan, complete with added artificial ponytail, Tatooine-style clothing, and his blue saber. I was Qui-Gon, but I just wore the mask, cape, and had the green saber of his. I didn’t want to do the complete costume. I instead wore my Ducky shirt, in honor of the dearly-departed Mr. Ducky. I was hoping the shirt would bring me luck... we’ll see if it does.
CRAIG SPAID
Craig Spaid
Mr. Spaid
Spaid
Craig
^The above grouping of the name "Craig Spaid" are just there in case Mr. Spaid decides to search, again, for a tournament report with his name in it.^
We get there a half-hour early, we trick-or-treat Rick (store-keeper dude), but to no avail, he didn’t give us any candy. Dang. Players trickle in, eventually we have 6. Justin Stauffer is directing the tournament. Then Rich arrives (LATE!) and we have an odd number of people. Not good. My sister wasn’t planning on playing, but Justin pays her entry fee (though the cards are his, she’ll just be playing with them) and now we have 8. Cool. Deck constructions and opening of packs start.
I get the absolute most craptacular packs I have ever seen. Nothing but crap. I’m DS... the only thing close to a power card that I get is Mighty Jabba, even though I didn’t even get any alien leaders. Ugh. Even with the crappy packs, I somehow manage to make a half-way decent 40-card deck from the packs we got, which were 4 packs of Reflections III, 1 pack of Coruscant, and 3 packs of Jabba’s Palace for $20 entry fee. Not bad at all, here’s the deck I managed to create:
Reservations, Anyone?
Starting: (3)
Tatooine: Jabba’s Palace (2 4 me, 1 4 u, deploy Dungeon from Reserve)
Twi’lek Advisor
Begin Landing Your Troops (deploy docking bays, Rep dudes forfeit +2)
Locations: (4)
Jabba’s Palace: Dungeon (reserved, pulled by T:JP)
Tatooine: Mos Espa Docking Bay (reserved by BLYT)
Naboo: Theed Palace Docking Bay (reserved by BLYT)
Death Star: Docking Bay 327 (reserved by BYLT)
Characters: (14)
Weequay Skiff Master (good Skiff driver, non-unique alien)
Weequay Marksman (good with Disruptor Pistol, non-unique alien)
Weequay Hunter (non-unique alien)
Makurth (add a destiny to power, non-unique alien)
Nikto (non-unique alien)
Cloud City Engineer (various text junk, non-unique alien)
Vedain (wager, good with tracking)
Mighty Jabba (beefy)
Ortugg (beefy)
Niado Duegad (power 8 ability 3)
Edcel Bar Gane (forfeit 7 via BLYT)
Orn Free Taa (ability 3, deploy 1, forfeit 6)
CZ-4 (no reacting)
Sandtrooper (non-unique warrior for Disruptor Pistol)
Vehicles: (3)
Skiff x2 (react with 8 people)
Ubrikkian 9000 Z001 (react)
Weapons: (2)
Disruptor Pistol (just awesome)
Antipersonnel Laser Cannon (Skiff weapon)
Creature: (1)
Bubo (nice in Sealed)
Interrupts: (11)
Bantha Fodder x2 (fetch Weequays, or make a reservation)
Scanning Crew (scan hand, catch a Rebel, make a reservation)
Trinto Duaba (great card, reservation, check out my Trinto Duaba Superstar deck)
Blow Parried (nab a card, make a reservation)
Ommni Box (shuffle something, make a reservation)
Imperial Artillery (lose a Force, make a reservation)
End This Destructive Conflict (cancel a battle destiny)
Sense (duh)
Rolling, Rolling, Rolling (make a reservation)
Imperial Command (make a reservation)
Effects: (2)
Den Of Thieves (should be banned in Sealed)
Colo Claw Fish (nifty)
Strategy: To make a reservation simple means putting a card back into your deck. You see, in Sealed Play, Used Interrupts are gold, they’re precious. Putting cards back into your Reserve Deck is just necessary for survival. This deck is packed with 9 Used Interrupts. A card reserved by another card just means that it can be pulled from Reserve deck with the card it’s reserved by. These terms ("make a reservation" and "reserved by") and their derivatives are now official, feel free to use them. As for the deck, it doesn’t have much of a strategy. Just pull your sites from Reserve, all of them are pullable, beatdown when possible, try to set up drains. Got it? Good.
Pairings announced, it’s me and Danny Boy.
1st game: My DS vs. Dan Spaid’s LS Skywalkers
He starts that RIII 2/2 interior Theed stupid site, I start my crap, he also starts Bargaining Table, which means I get to lose this game. Whoopee. My turn I check my reservations, reservations confirmed, I pull a docking bay and the Dungeon, recycle a couple Interrupts (he verifies and gets to see my whole deck). I also use Scanning Crew. He uses Shocking Information. Big ouchies. His turn. He deploys a site or 2, draws up. My turn, pull another docking bay, I’ll pull the last one next turn, I draw up and get Mighty Jabba. Cool. His turn he deploys a foil Japanese Luke Skywalker at the 2/2 site along with some random freak. My turn I deploy Mighty Jabba at his Palace along with Makurth as backup. His turn he drains for 2. Ouch. My turn I drain for 1, he cancels it with a Cloud City Trooper, and he realizes it can only deploy to Cloud City, so he’ll never get to use it. I deploy a Skiff to the Mos Espa docking bay, his turn. He deploy Leia Organa and backup to some other site where he can drain me for me. Yay. I drain, he cancels it, as he will every turn. His turn he drains for 3, ouch. My turn I deploy Vedain, Weequay Skiff Master, and Niado on the Skiff so I can actually drain. His turn he drains for 3, ouch. My turn I drain for 2, he loses 1, cancels the other 1. I use Vedain’s text with a tracked 5, he loses a Force. I use Scanning Crew, get a Rebel. I use Trinto Duaba, he doesn’t have to lose anything though. I then use Bantha Fodder twice, then RRR, then Imperial Command. I just recycled 6 Interrupts in one turn, Dan will re-iterate this fact to everybody at various times during the tourney. No matter, I lose by 25 after he deploys Kiffex and a starship there. Yuck.
Good: Nothing
Bad: Everything
Ugly: Losing by 25 in Sealed play
0 (-25)
I go around seeing other games and DS decks and stuff. Turns out I did get the worst pulls of the tourney. Rich got Thok & Thug, RIII Boba Fett, Snoova and an Axe to go with, and other nifty junk. Dan got 3 Qui-Gon’s sabers, though no Qui-Gon. Justin go the Executor. My sister got RIII Lando, RIII Leia, and Han & Chewie In Falcon x2, along with Beggar and other decent cards. The one guy whose name I always forget (in 4 different TRs it seems like) pulled 3 Mauls... foil Tatooine Maul, and 2 RIII Mauls. He also got his double-bladed saber! A lot of people have systems and ships in their deck... all I pulled for space was 5 systems, a cloud sector, and Big One, which were all useless considering the only starships I got were TIE Fighter, TIE Defender, and Droid Starfighter. At least when Rich got his TIE Defender, it came with the cool SE gun. This just sucks. Oh well... next game.
2nd game: Me vs. My sister’s Random Junk
I always have to play my sister. I don’t remember much at all from this game, sorry... I just remember 2 beatdowns from me (thank you Colo Claw Fish and Disruptor Pistol), and setting up drains at 2 sites. That’s seriously all I can remember... but I won by 19.
Good: Winning, I guess
Bad: Beating my sister, I guess
Ugly: Um, yeah, having to beat my sister
2 (-6)
The prizes for this tourney are tournament foils, one going to the top DS player, and one going to the top LS player. The foils are Imperial Arrest Order and It Could Be Worse, top player gets first pick. I’d love to get one of those, but with my sucky deck, it’s not likely. But there’s always the possibility. Next game...
3rd Game: Me vs. Mark’s Speedy Deck
The reason I call it a speedy deck is it lost in 4 turns. My turn I pulled junk and deployed 2 sites from hand, his turn he deployed 2 characters to his Audience Chamber, my turn I beat the crap out of those characters, his turn nothing, my turn deploy Colo Claw Fish with a 5 on it, Makurth to the Mos Espa Docking Bay, Niado there too, and Sandtrooper to the site with a Disruptor pistol also. His turn he deploys a couple decent guys there and battles. Funny thing is, I had no Force saved up. Even funnier, Disruptor Pistol can fire for free, Mark didn’t realize that. So I casually atomize his highest ability character, the other guy just gets pummeled, plenty of spillover, Mark gives up saying he screwed up. I win by 26.
Good: Winning by 26 in Sealed
Bad: He gave up
Ugly: He gave up!
4 (+20)
I am getting extremely hungry by now. Usually we bring food, but since we had NO food at the house and dad doesn’t get paid until next week and we have NO money, this means we couldn’t bring any food. So I’m starving. But I’ll endure, one more game...
4th game: Me vs. Steve’s Battle Plan
He starts Battle Plan & Draw Their Fire. I have no starships. He obviously does, and at least one system. This means I’m going to lose. The game is pretty much a blur, though half my reservations were canceled since I had the Dungeon and Theed DB in my hand from the start. Basically what happened is we both set up drains, there were never any battles, I was canceling the big drain (of 2) with DOT (cool acronym, eh?), and it came down to the wire. I was Force draining at 3 different sites for 4, but had to use 9 Force to do that. He was draining for free at a few places, including the system. What happened was he had 4 Force left, and I could’ve won, but I only had 6 Force and no hand. I drained for 3, he had 1 Force left, his turn he drained for 6, I couldn’t cancel the big drain, I lost by 1.
Good: Close game
Bad: Too close
Ugly: He won, not me
4 (+19)
If it weren’t for Battle Plan, I would’ve won. If I would’ve had a non-unique alien in my hand on that final turn, I would’ve won. If I would’ve had Imperial Artillery in my hand, I would’ve won. If I would’ve not bothered to deploy as many people (he never came down to battle me, just spread out instead), I would’ve won. 1 card. 1 card! So close, and yet... not close.
Tournament is over, sort of. There’s still one game going, Dan vs. Rich, Dan has Bargaining Table out, Rich had DOT, so the game is taking forever, even longer when Rich sends Abyssins to Used Pile. Eventually Dan wins. The tourney is officially over.
There are a few grumbling about the tourney, one is that Bargaining Table and DOT should be banned from any Sealed tourney in which JP packs are provided. Justin agrees. Also, in this RIII tournament, DS was screwed. It was discovered that LS somehow had a distinct advantage, for one thing, it was too easy for LS to pull mains. The results are announced. Dan, of course, is the LS winner and overall winner of the tourney. He chose the It Could Be Worse foil. And the DS winner is...
Me!
Yeah, somehow the DS was so screwed that I ended up winning for DS and snagging the IAO foil. Nice. I do some various trading with people, get some stuff, the trip was worth it, but I’m still starving. Rick gives me a free candy bar. That guy is too nice. I eat it, and man, it was goooooooooooooooooood. 3 Musketeers bar, when you’re starving, is just heavenly. Thanks again Rick. Everybody leaves, my mom is gone somewhere so me and Val can’t leave, so we hang around yakking with Rick and Rich. Mom arrives, but instead of leaving, we go next door for pizza! There’s a pizza place next to the comic shop, we head in. It turns out that Obi-Mom Kenobi does have money, she has $50. But, instead of spending it on groceries for next week so we can actually eat next week, she decides we can blow some of it on a nice meal. We get a pizza, some garlic bread, drinks... good stuff. The pizza and bread were exquisite, though the portions left something to be desired. All in all it was good, and we got complimentary mints too. We head home, and it turns I do have some Halloween candy from grandparents. I eat it all. I’m no longer starving. It’s a very good feeling. Of course, right now I’m starving, and there’s no food in the house, so I’m writing a tournament report. Shouldn’t I be foraging for sustenance or something? Whatever... oh, and in retrospect, there were a lot of cards in my deck I never even deployed or used at all. Stupid me.
Props:
Rich, for being Rich.
Rick, for being the nicest guy on the planet.
Justin, for directing the tournament.
Reflections III, for being decently cool, even if my packs sucked. Badly.
The other players for showing up.
Candy bars for being so good.
Mom for being a good Obi-Wan lookalike, for the pizza and such, and for bringing me, and for being probably one of the coolest moms on Earth.
Mr. Ducky for being with me in spirit.
The Ducky Shirt for channeling the luck from the departed spirit of Mr. Ducky.
Slops:
Frank, for being the All-Time Slops Master, for stealing cards (including mine), for constantly cheating or trying to, for being obnoxious, immature, and annoying, for just being the idiot you are. Glad you didn’t show up, hopefully you won’t ever again.
My packs. *sigh*
Dan Spaid, for whatever reason I want.
Clint Hays, because I can.
Steve for starting Battle Plan in Sealed.
YES! My mom just got home from the grocery store with FOOD! This means I g2g. You know, people have to eat and such...