myers-goes-to-freedomcon
Title: myers-goes-to-freedomcon
Author: Paul "lbmyers1" Myers
Date: Dec 13, 2001
-Paul Myers
November 20th
Sorry for the lateness of the report but Ive been on a tight schedule with exams approaching along with the SAT. This was definetely one of the funnest weekends of my life. As the Con approached, my school work increased and I soon became bogged down with all kinds of crap. I hadn’t play in a tournament for 4 months! All I had done was tested with Bastian a good bit online. He one most of the games including one game where he played this deck that started Imperial Occupation and Coruscant. Then he put a bunch of walkers on Tatooine with Occupation! It was a really weird but little did I know that it would be the deck that took the Top 2 spots of Fcon. So my brain was really out of SW but I went up to Buford, GA with Landon for a R3 pre-release and I got a bunch of the cards I needed for worlds. I had spent a lot of time testing this EBO with Ishi-Tibs and it was ok but on Wednesday night I took it apart and rebuilt a new version of my WYS Raiders which will always be so much more solid than any other WYS. I actually just posted it on Decktech so go check it out if you like. It will help you get a feel for what I played all three days of Worlds! Yep, thats right. I didnt change decks once the entire weekend. Also on Wednesday night I borrowed some cards from Landon and Jim but didnt get to play a single game.
I was supposed to fly up Thursday morning and James Boyd was gonna head up real late that night. So I flew to Atlanta then flew from there to Virginia Beach. I teched out my decks on the plane and messed around with them. The plane got into Virginia and I got to the Sheraton at around 12:00, this shuttle service I used I got a round trip for $36 so that was nice. I picked up my badge and talked to David Akers for a little bit. As I was checking out the gaming room I ended up running into Matt Berta and Tim Guzman so I dropped my stuff in my room and went with them to test decks. I was originally gonna stay with them but at the last minute my mom was said the only way I can go is if I stay in a room with Jim by ourselves. So that sucked big time.
Also, on a side note, I hadnt qualified for Day 2 so I was set to play in Last Man Standing, Day 1, and hopefully Day 2. I wouldn’t do it any differently as weird as that sounds. Day 1 was a complete breeze this year unlike last year, in my opinion. And I enjoyed getting to play in it and testing out my decks and looking at the meta(or at least the meta of the top 13 advancing).
I walked into the Vegas room and there was Brian Hunter, Justin Warren, Shane Watner, Tim Guzman, and Matt Berta. Great, I am gonna have some fun testing with these guys. Brian was playing a LC deck for DS against Shane Watners LS Lightsaber Combat. I ended up sitting down and losing to Matt Bertas HD because he started His Name Is Anakin and I had forgotten to put my Home One Docking bay in to drop my raiders there and transit them over. Then my scum went up against Tims Saber Combat and I beat him down for like 15+ but he somehow came back and won. At this point Brian told me I should switch to MKOS with a heavy space package so he threw a decklist at me and I ran upstairs to get my commons and notebook and my DS to MKOS which Im not gonna post since its not even mine. After building it, I played against Brians WYS and he beat me but I think it was cuz I was focusing a bit too much on my Wendys doublestacks  Thanks Tim for driving out and getting those by the way. So I get beat by at least 20 but then I tell Brian I want a rematch and I finally beat him cuz he couldnt get his Laser Cannon into space fast enough. Matt, Tim and Shane were playing this LS Lcombat with the /Vegas Effect/ or so it was named by Shane, Another Pathetic Lifeform which was very similar to Akessons final deck. It had 7s and Edges and Barguins, pretty standard stuff. Meanwhile Hoostino starts this enver ending process of flicking his lighter every 5 seconds, lol. And Justin, I forgot to get in a religious argument with you so remind me next year!
After talking about what well see in the meta, Tim Shane, and I go down to play in the Last Man Standing event since our scrub butts aint qualified. I ACTUALLY say “You guys” instead of “Yall” under the influence of all these northerners. When I first walk into the room, I hear some guy with a huge northern accent scream “Hayes, ya cant be in heaaa, get out and close da doow!” Later that night I ended up finding out this was Baroni but thats tonight and we are still in the afternoon! So we go down there and of course Shane and Tim get paired first round; Tim wins. How gay is that? But I am not gonna do a TR for the Last Man Standing as it was pretty uneventful. First Game I play against DS Senate and this guy puts Chimaera+Thrawn+Guri at tatooine and Im like A Few Maneuvers+Darklighter Spin to kill it and win the game. Then I meet Charles Hickey and rape his profit but it was a good game till I monnoked both of his New Leia out of his hand, hehe. I play against a HB hit and run deck and once Bad Feeling hits the table he doesnt stand a chance so I beat him. So I end playing against Matt Allen and the director decides that since there are 3 pairs left, the 2 winners that win by the most will go on. Well Joe Olson /wins/ his game by 41, and Eric Fitzgerald /wins/ his game by 39, so there goes my chance at qualifying. Matt doesnt wanna give up the game so we end up playing it out. He spent 3 to drain 2 early on and I lost off the topm and it was Celebration and Projection!? Oh well, I still had it won but when I sent a suicide EPP Luke over to Naboo things didnt exaclty go as planned and I lost 12 overflow the game by 12.
So now I get to play in Day 1 but I go on up to Hayes room that night. Hayes and I are wondering where on earth Brad Reinhold is cuz he was supposed to arrive much earlier and we just assume some kinda car trouble and hope hes gonna make it since he is carrying some very important EPP Mauls. There are tons of people in Hayes room and I end up playing against Bastians QMC. I lost but it was fun playing against him. I meet Baroni, Gemme, and H2O and they were cool guys to meet. Its always nice to put the Decktech names to faces. Then out of nowhere a blow-up doll flies ontop of bastian and some jokes ensue. I end up heading to this Waffle place with Don Kitsman(sp? ;) and a couple other guys like Joe Olson and Hickey. Got some oh so important Waffle tech and sprinted all the way back to the Hotel in freezing cold weather with Joe. Anyway, I go back to my room with Brian Hunter and Tim Guzman to test some so we can get ready for Day 1. James Boyd arrives then also. Hunter busts out this TDIGIWATT deck and I start laughing my head off. In all honesty, I remember asking him: “Why even waste time playing that? Its not like youll ever use it.” He just said something about using it in sideboard events and the Team event. Little did I know that would be his Day 2 choice, lol. James Boyd got in from Augusta too. Tim and I play and I think I lost to his lightsaber combat, which I just cant seem to beat. Jim(James) plays against Brian and losing to his TDIGIWATT. The deck just got a free executor which is nice. And I really dont care what anyone says, Brian Hunter deserves his rating and much more. He is one of the best deck-builders anyway. He takes a look at my WYS and ends up helping me make a few key changes like cutting down the # of raiders/craft and inserting some other stuff like Bacta Tank and the likes. I then head over to the North Carolina room which was literally right next door. I was like 813 and they were 815 I think. I talk with Brad a bit and end up grabbing a It’s a Hit from him since it was the last card I needed for my LS. Brad and his friend indulge in the art of cigar smoking(you still owe me Brad!! J/k!) and I hung out for about 5 minutes to talk and then went back to my room to get a little sleep. I also met Mike Merletto too, just couldn’t leave ya out Mike. 
I was very confident going into day 1. But alas, I am not gonna do a Day 1 Report either! Dont you just hate me now!? Out of my 8 games I played against a ton of stuff. My only loss was my DS to Matt Allens LS LC deck because I deployed Ability x3 way too aggresively. No sweat though, I figure I can beat the deck if I play smart. I ended up at 7-1 and woulda been 1st but my timed win dropped me to Second. Tim Guzman got 1st, I got second, and Kevin Shannon got 3rd and I met him and he is another of the many cool guys I met all weekend. Anywayz, Gemme loses twice to Gogolen in Day 1 and I think he almost committed suicide. I think it was because Gogolen had the sweat pants to the shins tech which I wish I had been using. J/K, I don’t want to enter that fued. Chris is a good player and showed it by qualfiying. But hey, Gemme went 4-0 and won his first tourny ever on Saturday to completely redeem himself.  Anyway, on to day 2.
We play really late that night and I meet ScottyL and watch him play his Watto against Kesslings QMC in Tennets room. I played my MKOS deck against Kevin Shannons WYS Raiders and I got bent over but there was nothing I could do, little did I know that I would have this exact same match-up tomorrow. My decks are completely ready and I am prepared for whatever is gonna be thrown at me.
Day 2 is gonna be rough though. I had some incredibly tough match-ups the entire day. But my decks are still WYS Raiders on my page, and a DS MKOS deck using a heavy space package and an actual scum and villainy with aliens. I always start power of the hutt, no bargain, and Tint/OE except against wys which I have no third effect. This was a deck building error on my part, I thought of including Wipe Them Out All of Them and talked to Brian a bit but never put in anything. In hindsight, it woulda made a HUGE difference if I had put in His Name Is Anakin but it was my fault. As for Day 2 Notables…everyone. Rating before entering is 2115. Actually a little lower considering Ill somehow lose points for going 7-1  Game 1 pairings get called and here we go:
Game 1: My WYS vs. Raphael Asselins(2038) Senate Manipulation+Mains
I started Squassin, Insurrection/Aim High, and Menace Fades. My deck can beat senate almost every time and its even worse when they dont get Maul in their opening hand cuz then I just start dropping all my Tat DBs inbetween Mauls Hutt and the Cantina and Maul never gets to the Cantina to drain. However, such was not the case this game. He tries to start Ability x3 but they rule he cant so we start a minute late. He drops Lord Maul+Double Blade, Lott Dod+Edcel to Senate, and moves to Maul to Tat DB! Wow, what a first turn. So I flip over my Battle Plan shield and activate my force. My hand was purty good, I get Mirax to the system, Raider and Craft to Mos Espa DB and flip to limit his activation by 1 and get menace fades into effect. Apparently he didnt notice though, cuz on his second turn he lost one and put a senator on his effect to drain for 5 with Maul so I tell him I am gonna cancel his Bonuses and lose 1 and he says Oh. Then he played the fisrt of THREE Vote Nows and I didnt grab it which was another huge mistake. He drops Blizzard 4 to the <>DB and gets DLOTS for free on board and tries to use his power but I remind him that DLOTS stays passenger till move phase. He gets out his 4th political effect, and I didnt want to worry too much but he had a nice advantage. Tikkes goes to the senate and he battles my raider/craft. He subtracts 3 from my destiny and adds three to his so I Lose Raider+craft and he loses nothing. But he makes a key mistake of fogetting to disembark DLOTS. So on my turn I drop EPP Han plus a Raider/Craft and battle Blizzard 4 and I lose Han while he loses Vader. Stupid Edcel is still limiting me to one destiny each battle. I run the craft away to Mos Espa DB to keep the Fades in effect which is crucial due to that stupid new lightsaber and his political effect. I cant find my Its a Hit to cancel his Limited Resources and he hits me for the first one which was unexpected. Then I get my hand size at 5 and he pays 3 to put 2 cards away then plays Defensive Fire and hits me with another Limited Resources. My It’s a Hit is deep in my lost Pile but I have forgotten that one of the many cards it cancels is Limited Resources. I am such a scrub. Time is running slim because of multiple rulings questions about actions. He deploys 3 senators to kill my Raider in his craft. So I drop EPP Luke into the cantina to get Menace Fades in effect. I tracked a 6 for battle destiny from a couple turns ago and Edged Luke but drew a 3! I thought I had Miraxed one extra time but reall hadnt, the 6 was the very next card under! So I suck completely, had I got that edge off I woulda gotten 5 back then spent 2 on my last turn to retrieve 2 with celebration to add a total of 7 cards to my life force, but alas, Time was called and I had 12 to his 18 so with the retrieval I woulda been one ahead. Or I coulda cancelled his Limited Resources one of the three times he played it! Or I coulda drew a lot more in the early game which is what I shoulda ended up doing. Ive never made that many mistakes in one game of SW in my life. Truly the worst game Ive ever played in 6 years. I go ahead and draw up to give him a full win. FL -18.
Highs: He never deployed a ship the entire game. There is a picture of this very game on the Freedomcon Pic Gallery and its on the first page. It’s the only picture Im in for the whole weekend and you can only see the back of my Zildjian hat, lol.
Lows: The many mistakes I made including missing an On The Edge. Atrocious.
Game 2: Kevin Shannons(2125) WYS Raiders vs. MKOS
Same matchup as last night except I made one big mistake. On my first turn I drew up some and played MM to get a Monnok to threaten his hand size. On his turn he dropped Melas to TatDB and a Raider/Craft to the Desert Heart. On my turn, I wanted to be aggressive and battle him because avoiding him is bad due to Battle Plan+Menace fades. So I drop P-59 to the Raider/Craft and Iggy w/ Gun to Melas. I battle first at the Desert Heart and P-59 does not work every time! Brian lied to me! He said P fitty nine, works every time but he musta been wrong cuz let me show ya why. My destiny kills his Raider and he declined to draw destiny so P-59 stays. I battle at the TatDB and miss my shot yet again! My destiny kills him and his destiny kills my Iggy so I am in good shape since I am taking down characters one for one. However, I don’t have a single force left and its his turn. On his turn he brings down a new Raider to his empty craft, a plain Raider/Craft to the Heart also, and then EPP Luke, I lose P-59 and 13 while slapping myself in the head for not pulling Ghhhk instead of Monnok. Oh well, I draw up a couple turns later when he has like three ships at the system and Celebration out. FL by 16.
Highs: None
Lows:Crap Im an idiot. Why didnt I think of His Name is Anakin as an alternate starting effect!? It woulda helped me out so much, and why did I battle him so aggresively? I coulda just Monnoked out his 2 raiders, and battled him the very next turn! Gosh! Why didnt I just get Ghhhk instead of Monnok on Turn 1.
Oh well, maybe, just maybe, I can redeem myself.
Game 3: MY LS vs. Cruger Dunn-Flanagens HD Trooper Beats
Talk about floating in the sea of jizz, I coulda very easily lost this game and Ill tell ya why. First off, He deploys the Objective and his starting effects but starts drawing his hand without either Executor site or Visage on table. So right off the bat I place his objective out of play and have a huge advantage. Now those of you that are gonna call me cruel and a jerk, you can go ahead and shut your mouth right now. Im sorry, but if you forget to start your sites with HD, you probably dont deserve to be playing in Day 2 anyway. So I dont deploy my 1/1 DBs so that he is cut for activation. Turns out he got Raithal, Holotheatre, and 2 of his 1/1 Dbs in his opening hand anyway. I set-up Jedi Luke at one docking bay and a Raider/Craft at the other DB with dash and ship and Mirax and ship holding up Celebration. He activates like ten force and saves it all but searches for a DB that isnt there so I verify and his surprise is over. I see trooper assaults and all kinds of wacky crap, so on my turn, I tunnel for Chewie, drop him and Melas to Tat DB with Jedi Luke, drop bacta tank, and move the raider in craft over to the Tat DB for as much forfeit as possible. So I have a Raider/Craft plus Melas, jedi Luke, and the New Chewie all sitting at the tatooine DB. He drops EPP Vader, a Garrison, the three Unique Endor Troopers, and Tropper Davin Felth and battles. He is where he makes another huuuuge mistake. He swings his lightsaber at Luke and THEN tries to play Trooper Assault as a Just Action. I tell him he cant do it and the judges come over and agree with me. He still plays Jedi Prscence and has power 51!!? What crap! My power was like 27 so I lose Luke, Chewie, and Melas to cover it all, ouch. So the rest of the game is me running from his mob and slowly draining at Tatooine. At one point he had Zuckuss, Bossk, Dengar, and IG-88 at Raithal so I had to go clear that crap out with my ships. Someone once told me forfeiting Wedge for 9 to the bacta tank and deploying him next turn was good, migtha been hoostino. LOL, Full Win by 25(shoulda been 40).
Highs: Placing his objective OOP.
Lows: None really.
Gmae 4: My DS MKOS vs. Alex Tennets LS LC
Great! The almost same deck played by Matt on Day 1 which I lost too! But I am feeling confident at the same time. He starts Insight, Vegas Effect, and Insurrection Aim High. I start my standard stuff and flash my rep. I start off by throwing out Bad Feeling and drawing my entire force pile. He drops Yoda to the 2/2 site. I eventually set up in JP with my main crew of Boelo, Mighty Jabba, Power 6 Bib, and Gailid(#2, he killed first one). I am draining about equal to what he is. He brings down like the same EPP Obi for 9 force again and he has 1 force left. I None Shall Pass, he can either grab it or battle. He Senses it since he has Honor out and Im only at 2 battlegrounds so then he battles and kills my second gailid. Honor is stopping Search and Destroy(Yoda+jedi Luke at both naboo sites, neither count), plus Tint/OE damage, plus Ability x3 damage. So I spread out to all 3 JP sites with my Ghhk to fulfill Honor. I also drop New Fett+Abyssin to the 2/2 and battle his lone Yoda. He dodges away but not before I retrieve 2. I gain another site to drain for one at and cut his drains to 2. Boushh comes down to the AC to stop drains, and he projections the other 2 JP sites since I only had 1 alien at each at the time being for Hutt Influence. So I plink him with a couple drains of 1 while he drains for 2 at the 3/2 site. I end up getting ahead in damage due to my constant retrieval and I am not just referring to Scum though that got me a lot of force back too. I am talking Hidden Reflexes nets me one a turn, plus I retrieve an Abyssin I lose each turn and then play Abyssin Ornamnet to pull it back into hand. It comes down to the wire and time is called. But lucky for me, the good ole’ Brit has enough heart to draw up and give me the full win in a match I clearly woulda won. FW by +23.
Highs: Finally beating Combat when it counted most.
Lows: Alex messing with my mind and acting like he wouldnt draw up! You evil man!
I sit down and breathe a couple sighs of relief about having won that game. We listen to the pairings and then I hear something Ive been waiting for for a very, very long time. Paul Myers, LS vs. Clint Hays DS.
Game 5: My WYS vs. Clint Hays(2237) Endor Operations Bombers
It is even better that we both have 2 losses so this is the do or die game. He starts Combat Response, the card that lets you add one to bomber destiny draws, and something else. Ever since he beat me at the Atl. DPC Ive wanted this rematch and now my time has finally come. Let me tell you how bad my opening draw was, NO SHIPS, NO PILOTS, NO AWRI/Dspin Combos, NO Raiders even!! All I had was like a DB I can pull, 2 Edges which are useless till late game anyway, and EPP Luke and some red. His first turn out comes a matching interceptor w/ Cannon, and a Tie Bomber w/ Bombs so apparently his draw was very nice. He picks up a couple. I slap EPP Luke into the cantina so I can stay with him in the drain race and then throw my Bomber shield on the Cantina too along with deploying the Grabber and Battle Plan shields. He spends 3 to drain 2, draws some and saves 3 to fire his cannon. I verify his deck and see an epp Vader, a Tatooine Maul, and a whole lot of stuff that is bad for my ships like some Special Edition interrupts and a couple Tallon Roll combos. On my turn, I drain for 2 and it gets cancelled by Tarkins Orders so I am really behind in the drain race. I drop a Raider to <>DB and draw a ton of stuff finding the Outrider and good Ole’ Phylo Gandish and another Raider/Craft. His turn he adds a Dreadnaught to the party at Tatooine and drains and draws some saving 3 force yet again. I still havent found my Xwing or Cannon and I wouldnt the entire game. He is stuck activating 8 a turn though and he cant really do too much. On my next turn, I drop Phylo and a Raider/Craft to the Endor DB for a nice drain of 3. On his turn he moves his Dreadnaught and 2 Tie Ints. Over to Endor to get ready and blow his own DB. He also drained for 2 and exploded my DB 94 which was the only site he could blow. I got in a drain of 3 at the Endor DB and 2 at the Cantina. I drew for some more ships and set up my hand for a beatdown now that I had Outrider and Falcon along with Ill Take The Leader. On his turn he just drops Sullust and deploys Onyx 1 alone to Tatooine with a Cannon I think. On my turn I drop the Outrider and Falcon and battle him but he draws high enough to where even if I played my A Few Maneuvers I still woulda been hit. He loses Onyx 1 and Outrider relocates to the Tatooine Docking Bay while Dash relocates to the Bacta Tank. They would reappear every turn back at the system mucch to his dismay. I think it got shot down at least twice this game. He continued to pay 3 to drain for a steady 2 on Endor but my drains were overwhelming him and I finally got solid control of the Tatooine system when I wiped out the Baron with Chewie and Mirax in the Pulsar skate. He replaced my Aorder with Fighters Coming In so on my turn I got to On The Edge for 5 and then he drew on his next turn before I could play it again. FW+25
Highs: Waffle>Brownie, making Clint drop from the tourney, I am sure this fact alone will make many people rate this thing 5 stars, LOL.
Lows: None
Game 6: My MKOS vs. Hayes Hunters(2281) WYS Solid
He starts the usual WYS effects but changes Menace Fades out for The Camp. I start my 2 effects and we start off. I drop the Bridge and Bad Feeling Have I and Hutt Influence, and then draw all 7 force. On his turn he puts Mirax in ship at the system and decides not to flip first turn though and just starts using Mirax, he also deployed Goo Nee Tay on his first turn. On My turn I drop Chall Bekan to the AC for 7(I felt like a champ after that!), then Mighty Jabba for 4, then Gailid since he still didnt have Menace Fades. He Miraxes throughout the game by the way. He drops I believe it was Melas to the Docking Bay to flip and then draws some. On my turn I am having trouble finding my ships. He gets to verify my deck and sees one of my Guris and my Stinger and and I cant find the Lower Passages. I spend 3 to drain 2, drop Scum, drop somebody but I cant remember who it was, and battle melas and he Dodges away after I retrieve two. On his turn he drops EPP Luke, Draw their fire(which ended up costing him in the long run), and some other dudes and laid the smack down on my guy but I had a Ghhhk. He also got Dash in ship up to the system with Mirax. On my turn I still was trying to find my ships. I never found Guri or Virago but I got Zuckuss and Bossk in my Hand but would need one more force/turn to deploy them and battle. So I set up another drain 2 at the Lower Passages which I found and deploy an Abyssin and New Fett to Cantina and battle Melas for the four force and he Dodges away. On his turn he dropped Ill Take The Leader and a Raider/Craft to my JP. Deployed Kessel, with the Falcon there if I remember correctly. And moved his guys so he occupied Tatooine DB and Generic DB and JP. So I am obviouslly gonna get outdrained unless I make a move to space. He has Falcon with Han and Melas at Kessel and Dash in Outrdier and Mirax in ship at Tatooine. I want to go for Tatooine though so I can stop his Ill Take the Leader bonus and I can cancel his drain at Kessel with my Myos anyway. So I drop Zuckuss and Bossk and battle for the four force swing. He reduces my power and my destinies are high enough to clear out everything due to the +2 to each. Both my ships stay and its his turn. He hits for me like 7 total but I cancel the Kessel drain with Myo. He then Edged for 5 with a tracked Run Luke Run and spent 5 to get 5 and then moved the Falcon with Melas aboard over to Tatooine. On my turn I get in a turn of free drains and no Fades in effect either, so I drain for 6 I believe. I battle at the system for the fource force swing again. He gets three destinies and I get two but each of mine is +2 and I have a 4 and 5 tracked. I lose both my ships and he loses Han and Melas and then puts Legendary Starfighter on the empty Falcon and I lose 2 in my move phase. At this point Ive got like 23 to his 10 and I have a 1-2 in hand and we get the 1 minute warning. On his turn he spends three to drain me for one and one, then drops Dash to the Cantina. I don’t think he battled but I cant remember. The end was kind of frantic because I wanted him to draw up for me. I shuffled my deck which was my fault because I thought I had a searcher card for it but then he Bith Shuffled anyway so it was fine. He battles at one site I think to use First Strike but it wasnt enough and they call time. Ive got 23 to his 11 or 12ish?
Highs: Beating the Objective of death especially when he started The Camp and deployed Goo on first turn. I am not sure how I came out ontop.
Lows: Both my Guris had to be jerks and hide in my reserve deck.
Well we talked about who wouldve won in the long run and he thinks he woulda and I think I woulda but it doesnt really matter. Even though I won by 23 he still went on to finish top 4 and I didnt so he got what he deserved.
Game 7: My MKOS vs. Brian Freds(2054) WYS
Another WYS…but heck, if I can beat Hayes by 23 then this should be NO SWEAT right….? WRONG. Brian had told me earlier that this guy had been in the worlds top 10 before so I wasn’t gonna mess around since one more loss will for sure put me out of contention for the top 8. I must get two more full wins. With that in mind, we start. My opening hand was decent. He started Menace Fades and apparently had No Camp. On my first turn, I just draw up and Ive got the Stinger and Guri along with the Virago so Im thinking this is looking very nice. On his first turn he just Signals for Staging Areas and draws some. On my turn I drop Mighty Jabba, Gailid, and Boelo into the AC along with Bad Feeling Have I/Hutt Influence and deploy my Lower Passages. Not bad. On his turn he drops the Outrider to Tatooine, and puts like an RFC at the <>DB and a Palace Raider in Craft at the Tatooine DB I think. On my turn I just need Zuckuss or Bossk to challenge him in space and then Im set. I drop some dudes to JP and battle his craft and we both loses a guy. I draw some and find a Control/SFS and Zuckuss and another Guri, Xizor, and my space fleet is good to go. On his turn he drops Mirax in ship and a Palace Raider to the system so he has 7 ability. On my turn I have a Barrier tracked about 4 cards down, and can then activate the rest of my reserve to the 2 5’s on the bottom of my deck. He has an RFC and a Raider/Craft at the Tatooine DB now. SOOOO here is where Paul gets a little bit anxious. Brian thinks he is safe with his 3 destinies but Pauly knows he can battle, plays the Set for Stun on the Raider, and then he wont be able to play Dodge because we would have passed the actions phase. Paul realizes this, Paul also realizes he can activate up to the Barrier, set for stun Dash Rendar in the Activation Phase, and then use the 2 5’s on the bottom as battle destiny to knock him off the Tatooine System. Both are great options, and so Paul takes a minute to think and decides to go after the Docking Bay because he figures he can cause massive battle damage and at least 20 overflow on the lone RFC who cant Dodge. Since Paul needs the 4 battle destiny for overflow, he cant activate to the 5s at the bottom for Set for Stun destiny, and since he cant set for stun the Raider in the Activation(this would allow him to Dodge from the lost Pile), Paul is relying on a blind Set for Stun draw in the Weapons Phase. He only needs a 3 and the destiny in the deck is high now that hes pulled the low stuff. Paul deploys Fett and Iggy and an Abyssin and battles, in the Weapons Phase he goes for his blind Set for Stun draw and draws a whopping two. What a silly Idiot Paul is for not going to space! I mean, it wouldn’t have been a huge beating but it woulda given him the solidness he would need in the “Long Run”. Its tood bad Paul cant think into the future. BUT HEY! That’s all ok, because Paul can just go to space the very next turn right? So Brian has to lose the Raider and RFC and Craft for 13 and takes no battle Damage and Chewie and Jedi Luke go to different sites on the ground away from my crews to set up different drains of 2. In his control phase he drains one at the tatooine system. I look at my hand and see the 2 guris and think, Man, if he Grimtaashes me its over(read Hayes game against Martin ;). So Paul loses a Guri to which Brian responds with an Out Of Commision. Pauls gives a little smirk thinking about the odds of a 15 card lost pile…and then the odds begin to smirk at Paul as the lone Guri is pulled out of the lost Pile. What rotten luck? I just couldnt believe it at that point. Then as if to mock me, he deploys Kessel with Captain Han/Melas/Falcon!? Battle Plan/Menace Fades in full effect for the rest of the game practically. He has 3 destinies at Kessel, 2 Destinies and a power reduction at Tatooine, Ability 7 at both systems, and Ill Take The Leader on the Table. Game, Set, Match. FL –13.
Highs: Hidden Reflexes saved at least 5 force.
Lows: The Out of Commission that knocked me out of worlds.
I fought hard the last couple minutes to lower his differential. He accused me of stalling during the entire game also which made me incredibly mad. He apologized later after he got the full win. I wasnt too happy with him, thats for sure. He drained me out on his last turn but I woulda drawn up either way. Well, Im out of contention and I know it. But having never dropped from a tourny, Id like to keep the slate clean. I want to finish 5-3 and not 4-3 so I dont drop.
Game 8
My WYS Raiders vs. Chris Mcclures(1800) Hunt Down Jabbas Palace
He starts the standard stuff and also three effects: No Escape, Crush the rebellion, His Name is Anakin. I start the same stuff along with Menace Fades. At this point he goes on this incredibly annoying rant on how that card completely is one of the best cards ever. Im not sure if he is annoying all the time or whatever, but he was incredibly annoying during this game. His brother is completely different though and is a really good player hence he made top 8, so sorry to call your brother annoying Andy but he is. Anywayz, his HD doesnt play DBs and instead used Nemodian Advisor and the 3 Jabbas Palace Battlegrounds. On his first turn, he drops a JP, pulls the AC, deploys the Bridge from Hand, and deploys Mara/Stick to AC from reserve. Well I am almost forced to go for a first turn flip now. I deploy the Home 1 DB from reserve and a Raider/Craft there, along with Dash/Ship to system, then transit my Craft to the Tatooine DB for free and flip. Yay, so at least he is hurt for activation now, Menace Fades is in effect, and I put out my Battle Plan shield. We are both still losing to Visage currently. So the rest of the game is practically boring. He never ever spends to drain on the ground while I retrieve force with Celebration and run away from his guys. He first time he dropped a Premeire Vader my raiders swarmed all over him the next turn. He never dropped another Vader for the rest of the game and that was it. FW +25.
5-3 aint bad but I was expecting more from myself. I guess Ill have to wait till next year…if there is one. So I go out to eat with Kevin Shannon and we talk about the game he is about to have to play. He lost to Bastian but we ended up figuring the game down to one point. Could Bastian sniper his Maul in Ship with an Xwing Cannon and also spend 3 force? Well, turns out they rulled he could and Bastian did. LOL, so then Kevin lost to him. Then Bastian went all the way and I got a front row seat to watch him do it. It was pretty fun considering I knew both his decks and had played against them before in fun games. This has taken forever so Ill cut to the props/slops.
Props:
First off, God, for making this trip possible and allowing me to play cards and enjoy such an experience.
The following people for being great and cool guys: Don Kitzman, Joe Olson, Charles Hickey, all the NC peeps including Mike and Brad, Alex Tennet, Matt Allen, Scott Lingrell, etc.
Tim Guzman, Matt B., and Shane for hanging out with me all weekend.
Hoostino: Welcome to the Non-Texas playing field, lol. Hope your lighter isnt broken yet.
Steven Lewis: Remember hoiw bad we felt after the first three-4 games of day 2! Lol.
Brian Rippetoe: You played HD RACING DAY 2!?! You are my idle. 
Brad Reinhold: How on earth did I end up lending YOU an Epp Maul? 
Mart Akesson, Bastian, Hayes, Brian Hunter: You guys made a great top 4 and each deserved to make it.
Everyone eles I left out cuz I know there are a ton of you but Im struggling to get this thing finished!
Slops:
Only Decipher and we all know why.
Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed.
-Paul Myers