veez-at-freedomcon-11-15-17-2001

Title: veez-at-freedomcon-11-15-17-2001
Author: John "jpvz" Veasey
Date: Nov 27, 2001

Pre-Tourney stuff

Well I’d been hoping to go to D-con this year, only to have it yanked out from under me. So when FreedomCon was anounced, I was pretty determined to make it there. The plans changed about 5 different times before it was finally settled that DVD (Dave Dalton) would pick up Matt Scott from Ohio State then swing by the Greyhound station to pick me up and we would be on our way, hopefully to Va Beach by like midnight. Of course it ended up going nothing like that. They were late by an hour and a half and then we had to go back 100 miles in the wrong direction to Cinci for the case of R3 and Dave’s cards. We finally got on the road in the right direction by about 5 o clock. Let me just leave it at that it was a helacious 12 hour drive from there to the Oceanfront Shereaton. We finaly checked in like around 6 and the guys hit the bed. I was too wired so I went down to the FCon area and met up with two guys Hayes H. and Alex Tenet, I had talked to on the net but never actaully had the pleasure of meeting. I played some pickup games and met more guys. I tried out my Trek deck and was told by the #1 ranked Trek player (Ian Vincent) to stick to Wars. Got some food, busted open a case of R3 and managed to take a nap before getting ready for the last man standing tourney. Hayes took a quick look thru my deck and I realized I still had an EPP Luke proxy in there along with some other pointers, so I ran upstairs made some last minute changes and made it downstairs in time for a single elimination tourney.

End pre-tourney stuff

Last Man standing tourney

Game 1 vs ?Brian Muler?

I think this it who it was. I know later in the weekend, he won the JK championship, but he explained to me that he was a little bit out of it for SWCCG. Anyways it was his RST vs my YMSYL piece of ass. But he only visited like once or twice to hoth so YMSYL pinged him for a lot and I beat him out of space with my ships. It wasn’t the most interactive game, the only interaction was the beating of his ships so I rode Battle Order to victory in like 59 min 30 seconds, not a good sign of things to come.

FW 2 (+ about 15)

Game 2 vs Chris McClure

Not sure here, may have game’s 2 and 3 switched but anyways. The younger of the McClure’s is playing HDADTJ in cool Green sleves. My WYS flips pretty quick and Vader also camps out early. Battle Plan is his worst enemy as I can camp out in the DB’s along with a good fleet in the sky. He finally comes to space with like ZinMH and da Bus but draws total @#$% for desiny so my ships stay and I think he was even in power. Next turn, Falcon comes out with Capn Han and cleans his clock nicely, never to return to space. That battle probably sealed the game for me, there might have been a skirmish or 2 on the ground too.

FW 2 (+10 or close)

Game 3 vs ?Mike Blumberg?

My memory of this even is hazy but I think this is who it was. He YMSYL and it would have been a good battle normally. But he got the just the anti-draw this game as he found like 1 of his 6 ships and Battle Plan just owned him all game long. He had some ping action going with walkers, but I dominated the system and the exeuctor came out way to late to make much of a diffence. Palpy did spend so time drinkin at the Cantina but barely did any damage. Celebration kept me ahead for good and I had on the ropes when time expired.

MW like +18 and he had like 10 left

Game 4 vs Joe Olson

This game was just bad from the start. Bad matchup, I dont read the podracing shield and would have done good in the race if I had Sebuluba’s racer. Whatever. I know I fogot to activte force the first turn. Other details have been censored to protect my sanity and the general public against my scrubiness.

FL -41 (yeah that bad)

So got a good start to FCon but didnt like my deck much so after some consultation, Matt handed me the Milfonati TIE’s deck to play, because YMSYL was not gonna cut it now, I’m a slow player as is, playin that deck would probably not get any full wins except maybe agianst EBO. The TIE’s were well rounded and really shouldn’t lose if the person doesnt know how to beat TIE’s. The biggest problem for me would turn out to be my inexperince with the deck. Anyways on to the Day 1 open. I played a pick up game or 2 with the deck and get some loses out of the way early. Get some sleep and up early. Finish the decklist and get ready for the big games.

Game 1 (DS) vs Steven Harpster

I nearly craped in my pants when I realized who he was. I played 2 pickup against Steven already and had lost both of them pretty bad. Luckily for me, he changed his LS deck for more balance from THGG to WYS but played into my strength. He fliped like 2nd turn while I was still setting up. I got what I wanted and droped a lone TIE at Tat with a gun vs Red 10-Theron Nett with Xwing canonns and Dash-Outrider. Drop Fighter cover and 2 shots later, my TIE owns the system. He never did come back to space, but I had trouble satisfing Battle Plan the whole game. It became a drain race, and in the end I rembered that nifty no damage clause on SYCFA and managed to drain him out for the win

FW 2 (+7)

Well I guess 3rd time was the charm there. I didn’t like going into such a major event with an untested deck but really had nothing good constructed on the DS in the weeks prior to FCon. Its just something in my playstyle, but I can’t win with straight mains and toys; I need a gimic to win by. WYS has been serving me well for a while and my DS gimics just stunk lately. But I was off to a good start.

Game 2 (LS) vs Ben Rodriquez

Seond game I get paired up with the guy known as Numb from Kashyyyk. He’s got No Money obj, so I am a bit concerned cause that deck can get a lightning start and put me in an early hole. But Ben played it conservatively fliping early with Watto and guy at Mos Espa. But I get a good start and then split his sites with Mos Espa DB. He is very protective of Watto and flips once or twice the rest of the game. Maul and his beatstick get lost in the wilderness and its just a slow game of tag the rest of the way. Celebration lets me stay on top.

TW 1 (+18) -- 3(+25)

Game 3 (LS) vs Greg Shaw

Greg probably had the oddest deck I saw all weekend. He started SYCFA with Crush, one of the fish effects and something else. Afterwards he told me it was Shaw’s Pile. It just gave my WYS fits. Combined with an @#$% draw that stoped me from fliping and forgeting what monnok used does, I was slowed to like a 3rd or 4th turn flip which gave him like 2 extra turns of mad force generation. Then he POTF’s the D* and puts Thrawn and Chimera there. I never could get a strike team assmbled to take that out. I do rember it was a fun game, Melas got squashed by his own Fallen Portal, but later the door hit Mara, lots of battles all over. In the end I had like 11 or so and and he had like 20, seeing as I wouldn’t get anything out of a timed loss, I drew up to give him the full win.

FL 0 (-20) -- 3(+5)

I was happy to see at the end of the day that Greg made it to day 2. Probably one of the more fun games I played all weekend.

Game 4 (DS) vs Wayne Waitman

I saw Wayne came all the way from California to play and felt kinda bad about how the game went. It was total non interaction except for the one time the combo HanChewieFalcon came to space and battled. I had an All power to weps to burn so I didnt hurt and then he forgot to save enough to upkeep the ship. Even if he did, I had enough beats in hand to do some major damage. So they go OOP and he has to pay for drains all game while I have Palpy chilling at the D* db making my drains free. He consolidated his people at one of the Naboo generator sites fearing EPP beats which never came. From there in it was a drain race which TIE retrival kept me ahead for the rest of the game.

FW 2 (+26) -- 5(+31)

Game 5 (DS) vs Jeff Holmes

This is the one that killed me. In retrospect I should win this game which changes all the future stuff but anyways. He’s got QMC and like on the 2nd turn I take Bespin with a Dreadnought and 2 TIE Ints. Soon after HanChewieFalcon go from one of my other systems to Wikiwhatever, so neither of us is doing much. He finally drops EPP Leia in R2andRed5 for the flip and moves back HCF. On my turn I drop one of the Emperor’s Squads, a cannon on a Int, Fighter Cover and Lateral Damage R2andRed5 to the D*. In my eagerness to kick ass, I skip right past the just actions and dont play the All power to weps in my hand. I do blast HCF from the sky and give the remains a good @#$% kicking but as it will turn out, that might have been the difference in the game. It can’t find Paply to go and satisfy Battle Order and that is a huge pain. Draw there fire comes out and its my undoing as he freely battle to get some back when I need to satisfy BO. I spread and drain but can’t seem to get ahead of his damage curve. An Off the edge gets back some, but the next one makes him lose 4 after targeting Jedi Luke on CC. A game that I thought I had in the bag becomes a:

FL 0 (-10) -- 5(+21)

Game 6 (LS) vs John Irving

At this point I think I’m damn near sunk. Because of the TW, I have to win out to get into the top 20% to advance. I almost got a remach vs Chris McClure which might of just killed me after the luck it took me to escape the first time we played. Luckily for me there was a pairing error and instead I got John. He was running good ol ISB space. Unfortunately for him my WYS usually runs right thu space decks. Mirax was up and running early and DDTA shut him down hardcore. He finaly got ZinMH to Fondor, but the next turn an Xwing blasted that crew out of the sky. Fondor was blockaded and only the return of Zuckuss made me leave with a HyperEscape. The big E finally came out only to run into tha killa known as Capn Han on his Falcon. Thanks to an All Wings/Darklighter Spin Combo the Executor was soon lost pile slag and I controled the board. Some drains finished the job.

FW 2 (+22) -- 7(+43)

Step 1 accoplished. The back door seemed wide open, all I had to do was win the next 2 game. Yeah right, easier said than done. I wanted to play Dark next so I could go into the last game with my WYS deck which I have a lot of confidence in. Of course I have to start with light and finish with dark.

Game 7 (LS) vs Brian Casimiro

Brian was the only local player I think I played. He had what looked like a normal BHBM battle M+T deck. I stoped him early with DDTA, Goo Nee Tay and a 2nd turn flip. Palpy camped out in the cantina but couldn’t drain thanks to Battle Plan shield and when he did, Its a hit and C/TV took care of the problem. I just set up and choked him out, along with Celbration and and a strong force on the ground and super Falcon in the sky. Unfortunately my deck couldnt deliver any real beats or anything and just didnt have the speed in draining to win it. He had 5 cards left on my turn when time was called.

MW 1 (+17) -- 8(+60)

Game 8 (DS) vs Robert Webiki

Just great, another Timed win puts me in a true must win situation, as a full win would have put me in the top 14 at the time but instead I’m the highest person with 8 victory points. At this point I was just totaly fried and did not get the matchup I wanted. Robert had saber combat which makes my UC spies and Dreaded imp starfleet totally useless. My recolection of this game is sketchy but he set up with like 2 Jedi (Qui Gon and another) at the sites while I got some Ties up in space. Once again Palpy made a late apperance (first change to the deck a 3rd Palpy) and Battle Order/Plan bit me in the ass. He did have some ships though and some battle which I think gave him a turn or 2 of free drains. Yoxit got some weapons back for him. It was just one of those tight intense games. I got Short Range Fighters off, and thought that just might be enough to get me over but in the end he got me. The details are a bit sketchy, but it definitly was the most intense game of the weekend. My only regeret here is he didn’t get to move on to Day 2.

FL 0 (-2) -- 8(+58)

Well that put me on top of 8 victory point players, but only good enough for 20th place. I did play 3 guys who made it to day 2 going 1-2 (Steve, Greg and Jeff). It was probably the coolest tournament I’ve ever played in. Stupid Timed wins. Though someone said you shouldn’t play with slow retrival if you want a full win (or something to that extent). So I got my 2 packs of prize stuff and went back to the room. Matt was still searching for a good LS deck and we came up with like 5 in the 2 hours I was concious pefore finally passing out on the floor at like 2am. After Matt got up I stole his bed in the morning before finally coming down at like noon. I hung around, played in the afternoon tourney for fun, which was cool, I went 3-1 only losing to Justin Desai. Got some food then played in a Trek sealed deck for fun. I stayed up and chilled after the Swiss part of Day 2 was finished. I played and beat the legendary Brenson with my WYS. Only thing is it was his Type 2 deck. Oh well, it was cool. I played some more pickup games throught the night and watched some of the final between Winkelhaus and Akinson. Congrats to Bastian for the win. In the morning we packed up and left. Made it back to C-bus in like 11 hours thanks to good conditions. Took the bus from there and made it back here to home away from home at UD. And thats it. Now for some Props and slops.

Maddest Props to

Dave Dalton for driving all the way there and all the way back
Matt Scott for handing me the TIE deck to use
David Akers and those that helped him put on this incredible event

Props to
Steve Harpster, Tim Guzman Brian Hunter and Alex Tenet for signing my cards
Hayes Hunter for helping fix up my LS deck some
All my opponents throught the weekend, you were all cool.
All of the great people I met throught the weekend

Slops
Well, I could but I wont

Thanks for reading

John Veasey