papalorax-goes-to-worlds
Title: papalorax-goes-to-worlds
Author: Evan "Lorax" Fitzgerald
Date: Dec 4, 2001
Cut to Wednesday November 14, I get to the hotel to find my roommate and the Brits drinking in the bar just as planned. I find out that some people are gathered on the second floor just drinking, smoking and playing pickup Wars. Now that is what Cons are all about. I have an untested Dark Deck that is posted (Last Sith Fury Standing Corey Faherty Design) and a Fairly typical Boomrace deck that still has the OOCs in it (thanks to Scott Lingrell for original design, Corey Faherty, Brandon Schele for modifications). Only one major problem I need 2 EPP Qui-Gons and 2 EPP Mauls, and everyone that had them was using them.
I immediately decide that I need to go get some beer so hello 7-11. A case of Icehouse will do the job just nicely, because it has more of what you want and less of what you dont. I have been given credit in a couple TRs for providing beer, I am sure I checked IDs for anyone who may have had some of my beer so I dont know what any of you minors (Desai, Klema, Baroni) would be talking about :) I play a few games, not really wanting to show off the dark deck since I thought it had some major weaknesses if you knew what to expect. Everything goes fine although I played two guys using ties and that didnt sit well with me heres to hoping I dont play against any ties since I have ZERO space in my boomrace.
The next day I come down at 9am for the volunteers meeting and the whole place is opened up. Each room has red white and blue tablecloths, a great vinyl sign goes up, this local store sets up a huge storefront and many volunteers are ready to help. I was stunned! This wasnt a group of people who pulled something together at the last minute. This was the most professional, organized, and impressive Con I have ever been attended. I meet David and his wife and they are both great people. I also meet Michael Carr and his fiancee and they are great. I cant remember the other volunteers names, but the whole crew impressed me. The hotel, the glasses, the crowd everything was great. Since I am a mechanical engineer, I got assigned the task of cutting paper with 2 command cards in half. I guess it was clear that someone with a special talent would be needed for that task.
5:00 and that means the Last Man Standing Gulp, ready or not here I come
Game 1 my LS vs. AOBS (no Ref 3)
I have never played an AOBS deck, but I know that I have 6 EPP with lightsabers in the deck, so after I read the objective I decide that I must keep Xizor off the table. First turn he flip with a vigo at the new coru DB and Xizor. So instead of paying two for the RST stuff, I drop EPP Ben take out Xizor, use the broken @#$% jedi resilience and end my turn. Next turn he flips again at the Death Star Docking bay and now has two vigo (I think I drew a zero). So now I must decide am I scared of PASOA or do I go for it hell its a single elimination tournament! Go for it! No PASOA so I clear off Xizor again. Win the podrace, blow up the bunker next game
Game 2 my DS vs Efridge (I think WYS)
I dont remember what he was playing because it didnt matter. I put vader down second turn and he gave me luke. I walked over to the Throne Room and started dueling while I setup the sith fury sickness. Once I had reactor terminal what I needed to (4 7s on top of each other) I play sith fury for a 9 loss duel and I do that 3 turns in a row for 27 force and add a couple counter assualts. Ugh. Efridge was cool through this and just said the quote of the Con this is the worst game of SW I have ever played that is worse than numbers
Game 3 my DS vs Justin Desais (senate/JCC/mains)
To be honest I dont remember if Justin had the WYS or Efridge. But this game was even worse. The only battleground that hit the table was the 1/1 docking bay that I played. He gave me Luke, and I Sith Furried 4 times for 36 force! Justin was a cool guy that I talked to a bunch over the course of the weekend.
Game 4 my LS vs Andy Klemas MKOS
This is an easy game to describe. Turn two he puts down baby jabbe and looks with power of the hut. Only to find nothing except the effect. With two none shall passes in his hand, my only Qui-gon with lightsaber is going to cause some pain. Jabba and 8. Podrace, bunker, game. I think I met Andy at Dcon 99 at some Alian/Imperials/Rebels only tournament that only 3 people went to. We all walked away with sweet prizes. Anyway, he was just another cool guy at Fcon this year that I hope I get to run into again down the road.
Final Game 5 my LS vs Joe Olsons old school AT-ST ROPs
Question 1: Yes I picked Boomrace because I thought it could stand up to anything.
Question 2: No I wasnt playing the Ounee Ta defensive shield
First turn he drops Bad Feeling and I had a bad feeling about this one. So I start up just as would be expected in the matchup. I get going in the podrace and the bunker and complete both of those actions although not retrieving for either because of CHYBC. He starts hitting me with the little drains. I get the two drain at the back door to even things out. Its very close and I finally get some characters down on Ralitiir including the New Leia. She saves the game as she gets both of her drain stoppers in. I win by draining him out one turn before he would have got me.
So I am still standing and for that I get to judge day 1 and play in day 2 before this I have won a 4 game local, so I was pretty excited. Get some beers bought for me, go up to the infamous room 511 and do a shot with Hayes after he foams my beer all over their carpet. Chill in there with Kilby, Klema, Desai, Mat Allen, Tennet, Alan and Bruce, Berta (?), and Baroni until Baroni decides to puke over the balcony. So since I was one of very few people of legal drinking age, I thought it best to move on out of that room since puking on the street below tends to get people noticed.
Friday LONG @#$% day of judging bleh!
Friday night I play in a LOTR sealed deck with two boosters. Is getting the witch-king and and rare Aragorn foil good in two boosters? :) LOTR sealed deck is the worst game ever. Something needs to seriously be done about that.
Saturday:
First one in line for Decks let me give mad mad mad props to the guys running worlds deck checking went perfect. Only changes are I go to epp maul x3 and epp qui-gon x3 since I had the cards now
game 1 LS versus brian fred - senate walkers with naboo occupation
autoloss as i couldn’t do any damage with the EPPs and couldn’t hold the bunker against maul and vader. I could describe almost every turn to you. I battle draw a 6 for destiny against a loaded walker. He reduces it to three. Doesnt forfeit anything, I jedi resilliance. I easily win the race but cant blow up the bunker or should say cant even try to blow it up.
FL 0 (-20)
game 2 - brian hunter with palace raider WYS (i don’t have the defensive shield for aliens).
Well I was honestly hoping for this game. He talk so down to BHBM, and I thought I could get him with this. I tried to act real stupid so he would give me when I put vader down turn three at the CC docking bay (he hadnt deployed 1 card yet). The obvious play is to put vader in the cantina which is much more of a threat because the drain is big. But I was siting on a hand of 3 sith furries and he grabbed kessel which is big bad news for me. I didnt pay off when he responds with jedi luke to the cantina next turn he drops spaceport docking bay and if I remembered to activate my extra force for it, I would have had enough for epp maul to the cantina with a bunch of 7s stacked so slash, I have you now, and emporers power .argh it pisses me off to no end still that I @#$%ed this up so bad. He could have had the houjix (and brian if you read this just tell me you had it). I get luke back to the throne room and sith fury twice but he edges for 5,4 and I cant do @#$% as my forces just disappear.
FL -22
0 (-42)
o.k. I have never played in a day 2 and now I am choking. Time to get my head out of my ass!
Game 3 - Michael Kessling - QMC.
I counter assualt against aliens and a flipped QMC and he let me..whoops. big force loss. But that probably made up for the 5 times I forgot about Your Destiny. Michael was a really cool guy and he seemed to get nothing that he needed. Finally the sith furies did him in.
FW +18
2(-24)
Game 4 - Justin Beal AOBS...
If you read my description of the AOBS game in the last man standing, re-read it except this time I had EPP Qui so I didnt worry about the PASOA. It was the same thing, this time I was just much more persistant about killing Xizor.
FW +15
4 (-9)
Game 5 - Jeff Holmes QMC
he is a friend of Michael Kessling...see game 3. Even to the point of me counter assaulting his aliens after flipping. This time I had luke so I didnt forget Your Destiny, but he had good destiny so I lost the sith furies a couple times, plus he jedi resilianced too.
FW +12
6 (+3)
Game 6 - Nick Jones Hunt Down.
First turn vader to the rebel landing site. EPP Obi and an OOC put he OOP on my first turn :-) Thankfully I didnt drop the OOC like Scott Did (although he ended up 5th so I dont think he has any regrets. The rest of the game was me trying to blow up the bunker but never being able to and after winning the race just staying ahead. I had a momentary lapse of coolness when I won the race and he didnt take an action in his move phase. I said, back up I have an action I will complete the race. He said that he wanted an action to play Coward I let him after I got my head out of my ass He kept telling me I had the game won, but I didnt see that since I had like no characters in my hand. I never did get the bunker blown up, but I still just pinged him out.
FW +12
8 (+15)
O.K. 6 games played and I am still in this thing. I know I need to win the last two to make top 8, because I have no differential, but I am hopeful.
Game 7 Tim Guzman - LS lightsaber combat.
We sit and draw hands, I reactor terminal until I have major 7s sitting in the reserve deck. Drop Maul to one of his sites and see what he does as I have 2 7s on top. He drop qui-gon puts a 7 under him and combats he draws a damn blind 7 argh! TIE. So he moves away. I dont activate which he understands to mean I have 2 more 7s on top. But he cant drain and I can, so he has to come to me eventually. The problem is the new lightsaber adds one so I am going to lose. I finally drop vader and he gives me EPP luke (right now I need to think win two battles and win the game but I dont). I can’t even win a duel as he tracks 2 7’s every time. I can’t win a battle either because he draws a seven too...but I have this card called emporers power that I never use. Had I used it, I could have won this game...DAMN!!!
FL 25
10 (-10)
Game 8 Chris Praskac Watto
1st turn watto, ozzel, S&D...lose 3...ouch! epp gui-gon to junkyard - barrier. second turn lose 2 to a slave, he drops epp vader and thankfully he misses the swing on qui-gon as i hit watto - a jedi’s resilience for qui-gon. my turn - remember ozzel...well qui-gon and leia do too...give me him 12, and lose search and destroy. I win the race, but never blow up the bunker but he has to spend a lot of effort to keep going at the bunker and he cant ever drain me with those resources.-
FW +10
12 (+0)
15th place.
how tough was the competition? It was the best in the World
Props:
To Decktech you are clearly the best
To all the volunteers and everyone who went we were FCon
To Corey for the Decks and the Cards
To Brandon for minor tweaks that make a big difference
To my wife for letting me go
To John and Carson for rooming with me
To Bruce and Alan for the beer
To Gemme for letting me be annoying as hell while he was playing scrabble and not getting pissed
To Klema for drinking from a glass
To Kilby for the vodka
To Hayes for being tall
To everyone who uses the plural form of force to be forces
To the Sheraton Oceanfront you were cheap and let us trash your hotel yet were so cool about everything
To everyone who I got to meet again or meet for the first time Baroni, Desai, Berta, Efridge, Heidi, Steve Turner, David, Cherry, Mike, Brad, Ryan, George, Alex, Kim, Arturo, and countless others who I cant remember but who all came in search of a good time and hopefully found it
To the hostess at the Pocahontess for thinking a 45 year old 90-lbs woman can have breasts that big
Slops:
Only to Decipher for punking out on the whole thing. Shame on you.