dpc-houston-the-htod
Title: dpc-houston-the-htod
Author: Brian "HuntaWarya" Hunter
Date: Jul 25, 2002
So we aquire the Fanchi Family Van (tm) for this excursion to Houston, deep in the Heart of Texas. A bit of a homecoming for some of us, since Thomas McGee and the Fanchi brothers (Tony and Chris) have both lived in Texas before. In fact, Chris used to play SWCCG back in Texas before moving to Colorado. Indeed, Decipher still lists his rating among Texas players, rather than Colorado players. Going into this event, Chris was the 2nd-highest rated player in Texas, despite no longer living there. Nice. We leave late thursday afternoon, with the intent to arrive in Houston the following day, so that Tom, Chris and Tony can play in the LOTR warmup. The 3 of them will also play in the LOTR dpc event, while David Jones and I will compete in the DPC for SWTCG. Then everyone but Tony will play SWCCG on Sunday. Some of us are still considering the YJ Sealed deck on Saturday morning, before the Rings event, although we’d have to learn the rules in order to do so. Much of the ride goes as you’d expect: Plenty of talk about decks, and the players we’ll run up against. Plenty of music, plenty of snack-food, and plenty of stops so that Tom can relieve himself. (though his bladder held up considerably better on this trip than the one to Las Vegas) Additionally, we spent a good 12 hours or so of the trip playing a pencil-and-paper roleplaying game entitled "Maximum Power", which I wrote more than 10 years ago. Back when I was in middle school, some of my friends were hardcore into RPGs, including D&D, Cyberpunk, Vampire, Star Wars, etc. Some of these games were better than others, but they all seemed to be missing a certain something, so I went ahead and made my own. From that point forward, people in my circle of friends rarely played any other RPG again, since we enjoyed this one so much more. So anyway, the game turns out to still be fun after all these years, and provided us with the best "road trip diversion" we’ve had yet. (Yes, even better than "Lore Wars")
We arrive in Houston on schedule and locate the Motel 6 where Alan Denny is providing us with our free room on Friday and Saturday night. But there are no rooms reserved in the name Alan Denny. There are, however, rooms reserved in the name Clinton Denny. I presume that maybe Clinton is his real name, while Alan is his middle name (which would later turn out to be true), but for now, we just head over to Strike Zone. David and I build SWTCG decks for the DPC, while the other guys play practice games of LOTR to prepare for the warmup. We call Alan from the store, and he says he’ll be there before the warmup begins. He does in fact show up by 6:30 or so (the warmup begins at 7) and gives us our room keys. Tony and Chris decide to skip the warmup in favor of sleep, so only Tom will be staying to play. We arrange to pick up Tom after the event. On the way out, I notice the McClure brothers entering the store, though I hadn’t heard that they would attend DPC Houston. I should have known though, since they attend everything else, right? So the 4 of us leave Tom behind and crash in the motel room for a few hours, then retrieve Tom. Turns out that he performed pretty well, and took 2nd place, behind only Andy McClure, who earns himself free entry into the LOTR event the next day. Kudos to him. We may have played a few games of Wars after that, but nothing of particular interest happens before we turn in. I build a QMC deck and beat Tom in a couple of pickup games, then test it against my Dark senate deck, and go to bed. Everyone but Tom decides that they’d like to play in the YJ sealed deck the next day, so we set an early alarm.
An early alarm that we all sleep through. When we awake, it is already 12:30, and the tournament is well underway. Then we begin to get visitors to our room. People staying at Motel 6, who Alan Denny directed to our room. I think these guys were from Lubbock. They are led by Ricky Martinez (who I would continually refer to as Ricky Martin for the remainder of the weekend), and they are looking to make some trades. They are not looking to playtest, and some of them didn’t even bring their decks to our room. So anyway, I get up and the trading begins. Pretty soon, Tony, Chris and Tom gather themselves together and head off for the LOTR dpc, while the rest of us continue the trading. Ricky and his crew are very excited about the card Unsalvageable, which they are convinced can be used to destroy a patrol craft that has a palace raider aboard, since it targets an "unpiloted vehicle", and they point out that palace raiders "drive" patrol crafts, rather than "piloting" them. I tell them they must be wrong, but they say they’ve already talked to TD Alan Denny about it. Hmm, this is not good. I have to talk Alan Denny into reversing his position by Sunday, or I can forget about using WYS in the DPC. Then Ricky grabs his decks and plays a couple of games against David, while I take a shower. While in the shower, I recall that Trample also targets unpiloted vehicles, and I remember a ruling that states how transport vehicles with drivers are not "unpiloted". When I come out of the shower, the Lubbock guys have left. I play a game against David with the QMC deck, and win again. During that game, Justin Warren and Matt Lush arrive at our room, saying that they’ve been to Strike Zone today, and will give us a ride over there for the SWTCG DPC, rather than the guys playing the LOTR event having to come pick us up. I talk decks with Warren a bit, and we discuss how the presence of the McClure’s should alter our deck selections, if at all. Lush busts out his BHBM deck, and I slap him down with the QMC. So I figure I have a decent #2 light deck, if WYS ends up being "banned" the next day by unsalvageable. (I think some of those Lubbock guys were running 3 or 4 copies of it) Warren and Lush drop us off at Strike Zone, and we check in to see how the other Colorado guys are doing in the DPC for "Candyland". (Candyland is also sometimes known as Lord of the Rings) Not so well, as it turns out. I ask Andy McClure how he’s doing. Not so well, as it turns out. The top 4 for Candyland starts up, but doesn’t really involve anyone I recognize, so I largely ignore it. Then the DPC for Yahtzee (SWTCG) starts up. But we have a low turnout, so the event organizers decide that instead of having swiss style, followed by top 4 playoffs with cash prizes for the top 4, we will instead just play Round Robin (everyone plays everyone) and the winner will take all the cash, while the other places will get packs and foils. Cool. In SWTCG, matches are like in Magic, not SWCCG. First player to win 2 games takes the match.
Round One:
Nah, just kiddin’. I won’t make you sit through game details of my matches in the "Yahtzee" tournament. Suffice to say that my light deck owned everyone, and my dark deck (which is completely broken because I have 3 vaders and nobody else has any) owned everyone even worse. I sweep every one of my matches, never losing a single game, finish the tournament undefeated, and claim 1st prize.
So now I’m the first DPC Champion for Yahtzee, and paired with my two wins in SWCCG, that makes me a 3-time DPC champion, while nobody else has won two yet. Okay, maybe a 2 1/2-time DPC champion...but I digress.
The DPCs for Candyland and Yahtzee wrap up at around the same time, and I think the Candyland champ is some guy named Tad. Anyhow, we head back to the motel. A little more trading ensues, and then it’s off to the strip club, baby. Alan seems to know of a place where he can get us in without paying a cover...but it’s over an hour away, so we decide to go someplace closer...but you have to be at least 21 to get in, and Justin is not over 21, for some reason. I kept asking him why, but he never came up with a good excuse. So we go to ANOTHER club, where you only have to be 18 to get in. The place is all-nude, but does not serve alcohol. BUT you can bring your OWN alcohol. So, before arriving at the club, we stop someplace where we can buy some beer. During all of this, there’s plenty of talking and joking around, and it soon becomes obvious that tonight’s "whipping boy" will be Matt Lush. For those of you who don’t know, whenever a group of guys get together, they will usually take potshots at each other, make snide remarks, and generally give each other a hard time. For some reason, there always seems to be one guy in the group who catches more guff than anyone else. It might not be the same guy every time, but there is always one guy that ends up being the butt of more jokes than the others. And that guy is the "whipping boy". As I said, Matt Lush was soon established as the night’s "whipping boy". Anytime we’d catch Matt with a good one, he would use his now-classic line of "I’m dying over here!", sometimes accompanied by "Yer killin’ me over here!" Good stuff. Anyway, some of the Texans seem impressed by how often Tom and I (David, Chris, and Tony stayed behind) use South Park quotes. It takes a little while for it to dawn on them that South Park is a town in Colorado, and then all is explained. Most-common South Park quote for the night was "you’re a towel!", which Alan would take an immediate liking to.
So we’re in the strip club, and I have to say, the place was not real high-class. There was just one "main stage", so obviously a lot of the seats in the house are not going to have a good vantage point for it. Meanwhile, the other stages were cramped up against walls, usually with no seating around them at all. Definitely not as good as the clubs we have in Denver, which also charge a lower cover, and also serve alcohol. A couple of the "performers" end up coming over to us to talk for a bit. Alan and Matt end up making trips to the VIP room with one of them, while the rest of us are content to stay where we are. Both of the "performers" made comments on my "lovely hair", then had to play with it, and then one of them even told me "You look like Jesus! Did you know that?" Hmmm...yeah, I think I knew that. I eventually decide it’s time to leave (this was maybe 3am or so), so I get up and start to lead us out. Matt is reluctant to leave, but eventually relents. On the way back, Matt continues to be the whipping boy. We get back to the room, and I’m surprised to see that Tony is the only one in the room, despite how late it is. I hang out in Alan’s room for a few minutes, then Matt, Justin, Alan, and myself decide to go out for a really late dinner (or early breakfast, whatever) while Tom says he’ll be heading to bed. On the way to the restaurant, we see Chris and Dave, who had also just gone out for food. They head back to the room, while the rest of us push on to the restaurant. Tom had probably been tougher on Matt that anyone else during the trip to the club, but even now that he is gone, Matt STILL is the whipping boy! I suggest that Matt should get the "Chorizo grande con huevos", and Justin busts a gut laughing, while Matt just looks at me quizically. Classic. We finish our meal and head back to the rooms. Justin, Alan, and Matt go to bed, and I return to our room, where I find Chris playing a game against Tom, I believe, even though Tom had said he’d be going to sleep. Well, pretty soon we head over to Ricky Martin’s room, where I do more trading with the Lubbock crew, trying to round up cards for one of the employees at Strike zone who wants to play in the DPC the next day. I also make trades with the Colorado guys, and got a card or two from Justin as well, before he had gone to bed. I trade, and trade, and TRADE, while some of the other guys start up a few playtest games, and Tom does eventually go back to our room to sleep. But the rest of us stick it out until daylight, and beyond. The DPC is supposed to start at 11. We have an alarm set for maybe 10am. It must be after 8am before I get to bed. I still have 3 dark decks, 2 light decks, and no decklists.
We awake, and head to Strike Zone. I have 3 dark decks, 2 light decks, and no decklists. In the van, on the way to the store, I finally choose which decks to use, and begin switching the necessary cards between decks. We arrive at the store, and I make the trade with the employee who needed cards to play in the event. In the process, I’ve traded away my Prophetess, and have to find another. I finish building my decks, and start to make decklists. I do not finish until after 11am, but the start has been delayed anyway. Apparently Jacob Taylor was given directions to the wrong Strike zone, so that buys me some time. The Unsalvageable debate comes up again, and I help Alan find the ruling that specifically states how the patrol crafts ARE "piloted". This rescues several players from having to change their decks at the last minute (myself included, since I just reconstituted my WYS deck minutes earlier) Alan announces that there will be a "team" theme to this tournament. You sign up in groups of 3, and whichever group has the best overall record at the end, will get 3 Lord Mauls. Matt Lush and Justin Warren ask if I want to be on their team, and I say that I suppose that’s fine, since the prizes aren’t really worth anything anyway. They come back and tell me that I’ve already been signed up with Tom and Chris, on "Team You’re a Towel". So Matt and Justin find an alternate. Eventually everything is set in place, and Round 1 begins. I get paired against Michael Richards, who must be at least a minor "name in the game" in Texas, because there are a few oohs and ahhs when the game is announced.
Game 1: WYS vs. Michael Richards - Invasion/Naboo Occ.
Ah, so this is the famous Invasion/Naboo Occupation deck from Texas that I’d heard so much about. As it turns out, this is also the guy who made the deck famous in Texas. I would later discover that some people (including the tournament director) believe this deck to be SO broken, that they expected me to lose this match. Mike has an extremely long first turn, as his opening draw apparently gave him many options. He eventually pulls Captain Dofine onto the Flagship, drops Imperial Domination on Tatooine, and moves over. He’s giving me only one icon, and the domination means that I won’t activate at Tatooine for long either if I don’t do something. I put Luke on Red 5 at Tatooine so that he won’t control the system. Mike has another very long turn, possibly debating whether to battle Luke with the Flagship. But he chooses not to. Instead, he pulls a Naboo site from reserve, puts battle droids at both of them, deploys Naboo Occupation, moves the ship back to naboo, and activates the occupation. I deploy a craft/raider to the exterior naboo site (the swamp), and put a smuggler on tatooine, to flip, then battle and kill his droid. Battle Plan makes him pay to drain me at the interior naboo site, since the Naboo system is not a battleground. he lets me have the swamp, pulls another Naboo site (he now has the generator and generator core out), puts a droid there, and again activates the occupation. So he can drain me for 2 and 2 at those sites, but I get zero activation at them. Hmmm. The remainder of the game would be relatively uneventful. He attacks Tatooine only with Maul, who has little impact there. I send smugglers (like Lando and Mirax) into his Naboo sites, but am not able to battle effectively, (largely due to the droid racks) so I settle for just blocking the drain. I drain where I can, retrieve where I can, and in a game with very little battling, eventually net the win by 23.
2: (+23)
Team You’re a Towel: 3-0
Game 2: Dark Deal vs. Justin Warren - WYS Raiders
Well, that didn’t take long. Already it is time for #1 in Texas vs. #1 in the World. Some Texans might argue that Texas is bigger than the World, but I guess we’ll see what happens. I just draw on my first turn, but he comes out of the gates aggressively, dropping Luke on Red 5 and Han on the Falcon, to my Bespin system. I deploy the Executor with Piett and Thrawn aboard, and battle, killing Luke. On his turn, he puts Chewie, Enraged aboard the Falcon, and deploys someone to a docking bay on tatooine for the flip, then battles. I forfeit Piett and Thrawn for 13, but his blind destiny draws totalled 14 attrition, so the Executor goes down in flames. I try to recall the last time I picked up the Executor and placed it in my lost pile, but it just isn’t coming to mind. He forfeits Chewie. I go ahead and set up on the ground, and try to draw into more ships. I eventually put a TIE to the cloud sector and deploy dark deal, but naturally Menace Fades has that under control. I put the Mist Hunter and Stinger at Tatooine, and he gets out wedge in his ship, but no cannon yet. Sidious blocks drains on the ground but has some trouble fending off Jedi Luke. I make an attack with P-59 but allow him to be crushed with a fallen portal, ignoring my Molator. The game suddenly is decided when Justin moves the Falcon from Bespin to Tatooine. Menace Fades goes out of effect, so I get off one turn of "deal drains", then I deploy the occupation on Bespin, and move the Mist Hunter and stinger over to defend it. Justin has the cannon now, but I fortify the system with TIEs to ensure that the occupation will not be cancelled, and he succumbs to the direct damage and the many drains of 1. Win by 13.
4: (+36)
Team You’re a Towel: 6-0
Game 3: Dark Deal vs. Chris Fanchi - LS Senate done RIGHT
Chris starts DDTA over the Claw Fish, so I’m forced to draw into the Executor. But he drops the Claw Fish anyway, flips early, and deploys the Hovercam. The rest of his hand seems to be chock-full of Amidalas, Epps, and Resiliences. Interesting. 3PO with parts showing makes an appearance to help ensure that Chris has only what he wants and needs. I get the big ship out, and try to start setting up on the ground, but Chris is religiously knocking me off of all my sites. Leia, Qui-gon, Luke, R3 Lando...they just keep coming in swarms. And since Chris is often attacking two sites at a time, he is also retrieving off of DTF, which I cannot suspend with CHYBC. It takes me forEVER to set up Dark Deal, and when I finally do, he brings the Combo Falcon to attack the TIE at the cloud sector, and forces the Ghhhk out of me. TINT combo helps me a lot in this game, as the stunning leaders cycle back into the deck when sensed, for later use. Once he is out of the afore-mentioned senses, the battle evasion comes up big, forcing him to block drains, allowing me to initiate battles on my own terms. I outlast him for a win by 14.
6: (+50)
Team You’re a Towel: 8-1 (since Chris just lost to me)
Game 4: WYS vs. Joe Horbey - Hunt Down/Imperial Command
Joe drops Choke Vader to my Cantina on turn one, with the lightsaber. Ugh. I pitch Insight for Honor, and eat the early damage. I pop out battle plan shield, making him pay 3 for the cantina drain, which I am able to sometimes cancel with It’s a Hit. Since he isn’t dueling, I drop epp Luke to flip him back, and the Visage is now only hurting Joe...who quickly loses No Escape from reserve deck...hmmm. In our early battles, I kill an epp maul, then place him out of play with OOC. This diminishes Joe’s capacity to fight me on the ground, so he tries his luck in space, deploying the Chimaera with Thrawn aboard, to Tatooine, where I have Dash aboard the Outrider. He then deploys Lateral Damage, targeting the outrider, but cannot afford to initiate a battle. I use DDTA shield to pull Legendary starfighter, and on my turn, I deploy captain han on the Falcon, with a palace raider to co-pilot, and initiate. The battle destroys the Chimaera, so the Falcon becomes a Legendary Starfighter. Direct damage from that, plus his own Visage, eat Joe alive and I win by 26.
8: (+76)
Team You’re a Towel: 11-1
Game 5: WYS vs. Thomas McGee - Dark Deal
Tom gets the Executor out, and I flip early without much trouble. He deploys Blizzard 4 to the docking bay, and uses it to pull Vader, then deploys the Emperor and Janus to another site. Vader moves to an adjacent site, Janus moves to an adjacent site, and suddenly Tom occupies a BG system and 4 BG sites, VERY early in the game. But the dark deal does not come down the next turn, so either he can’t find a starfighter to set it up, or can’t find the Dark Deal itself. He also seems reluctant to deploy the CC Occupation. Either he doesn’t have it yet (which would seem hard to believe, when he uses 2 copies of it and multiple interrupts to pull effects) or he is trying to find out whether I have the free ride combo yet (special anti-Tom tech which I have almost never used in a tournament deck before), because he can either grab free ride and deploy a 2nd occupation, or use his grabber for something like ICBW instead. I give him ample opportunities to grab other interrupts. Everything from A few manuevers to We wish to board at once to ICBW to the All Wings combo, but no. The occupation finally comes down, and I cancel it, so he grabs the Free Ride. When he uses the objective to search his deck, the 2nd occupation is nowhere to be found. Dark Deal has never hit the table either. I split out to drain at Kessel, and recur the ICBW with Mirax to slow his drains. Tom’s deck tanks on him (as Dark Deal is prone to do) and I coast to victory by 25.
10: (+101)
Team You’re a Towel: 13-2 (as Tom and Chris each have a loss to me now)
Game 6: Dark Deal vs. Andy McClure - LS Senate
Having little experience against Dark Deal, Andy seems unsure of what to do on some of his turns. So, like Michael Richards, he has some REALLY long ones. But Dark Deal makes for quick games (win or lose), so I don’t mind. He gets an early flip (with Tendau and Horox, I believe) while I bust out the Executor. I don’t deploy to ground early, drawing a few cards, and saving some force. Andy waits, since I haven’t given him a good target yet. I eventually deploy en masse, giving him several targets at once. He seems to contemplate deploying enough guys to cancel the Deal, but realizes it would be suicide when Palpatine isn’t out yet, so he just goes forward with his main game plan, and starts knocking me off my sites, much as Chris did in Game 3. Again, the Stunning Leaders and the Ghhhk buy me some time. I can’t seem to force any 3-point drains past his political effect (he has Amidalas coming out of his ears), but I get an extra point of damage now and then from the occupation. Palpatine eventually joins his forces in the Senate, while I continue to play Hide & Seek on Bespin, trying to keep my characters alive with tactics like Sniper combo. Andy clears one site after another, but it just isn’t enough to keep up with the steady drains at the system & sector, and I bleed him out for a win by 15.
12: (+116)
Team You’re a Towel: 15-3 (Chris loses his match with Justin Warren this round)
Hot damn! I just EARNED rating points at a DPC for SWCCG. In the 3 I’d played before, I had won two of them, and taken 2nd place in the other, but had lost rating points every single time. Not today. With the swiss style behind us, I prepare to find out whether I’ll walk away with a decent amount of cash as well. At 15-3, we run away with the team tournament, and are awarded our Lord Mauls. Mocking the other teams in attendance, I hold up the Mauls and coin the phrase "All Your Towels Are Belong to Us!", and a good time was had by all. Fanchi’s loss to Warren in game 6 takes him out of contention. Instead, Warren goes in at 5-1 as the #2 seed, with his only loss to me. Tom, also 5-1, comes in at #3, with his only loss to me. Matt Lush was 5-1, but with two timed wins, he has only 8 victory points, same as the 4-2 players. Chris McClure edges him out in differential for the #4 spot. Justin elects to use Hunt Down against Tom’s WYS, while I choose to play Dark Deal against Chris McClure (as I have no idea what he’s playing for either side. In fact, nobody really knows what he’s playing for either side, as he managed to avoid playing against anyone who finished in the top 6)
Meaningless Bonus Game #1: Dark Deal vs. Chris McClure
So Chris turns out to be playing Saber Combat with racing. I put out Sebulba’s Racer, and we get underway. I pull the Executor, pull my sites, activate, stall Anakin, and draw "they must never again leave this city" for race destiny. I stack it, and Chris seems happy, as he believes this might delay the arrival of the Executor. No dice. I accelerate for the other copy of the effect, and deploy it. Then drop the Executor with Ozzel aboard. On Chris’ first turn, he deploys the combo falcon to bespin and initiates. I do not play imperial command to limit him to one destiny. He plays life debt. Alas, I have no imperial command to limit him to one destiny. His blind destiny draws total more than 12, so while he forfeits the Falcon, the Executor falls. I try to recall the last time I have picked up the Executor and placed it in my lost pile, but...oh wait, that was earlier today! What the @#$% is going on?? On my turn, I draw Imperial command for race destiny (ah, what irony) and pick up some cards. He deploys Ounee Ta to pull the Falcon back into hand. Interesting. I play an Accelerate on his turn to grab another accelerate, then track it for race destiny, giving me a total of 23 now. I deploy to ground this turn, with Janus and some other stuff. On his turn, I use Janus to put back Emperor Palpatine, which I then draw for race destiny, giving me a total of 32. He also now has 32, so on my next turn, I will stall him and win the race. But no, he draws A step Backward during his draw phase, and plays it, so the race goes on. But drawing that card left him with too little force to retrieve from the race. I put back Battle Deployment with Janus, but decide that will not be enough to win the race. So I just pop out the racing shield, put a ship to the cloud sector, put the Mist Hunter at Bespin, drop dark deal and occupation, then go to the move phase. I occupy 6 battlegrounds, so I lose zero to the race, while Secret Plans combo cancels his 6 retrieval. He deploys the Falcon against Zuckuss, but I draw the tracked Emperor (which has the tracked battle deployment just beneath it) and he loses the battle 10 to 9. Since I crack the Falcon’s immunity, he forfeits it. I Janus for the Battle Deployment so that I can put it back later, while the Emperor cycles to the bottom of my deck, and I activate to it. I use that tracked 6 to sniper Qui-gon with P-59, since YCHF has reduced Qui-gon’s defense value. He loses Qui-gon and 2, then P-59 drains him there for 3. Classic. Chris is losing buttloads of cards every turn and the game ends quickly. Win by 21.
Justin puts away Thomas in the other game. I choose to play light side first in the final confrontation.
Meaningless Bonus Game #2: WYS vs. Justin Warren
Like Joe, Justin is using Hunt Down with Imperial Commands. Unlike Joe, Justin decides to start No Escape in favor of his Crush the Rebellion or Colo Claw Fish. No Honor tricks this game, so I start Menace Fades instead of Insight. He has the Claw Fish early anyway, so no matter. Justin puts Choke Vader into the Cantina on turn 1. Hmmm, that looks familiar. The first time I use It’s a hit to cancel that drain, he grabs it. So now I’ll have to rely on ICBW instead. I set up REAL strong in space, I mean REAL strong. Falcon, Outrider, the whole bit. Luke lands to a docking bay and boards a patrol craft to flip Justin back so that we will both lose to visage instead of just me. He brings the noise with Maul and I have you Now, and after the Claw Fish too, I have to forfeit all sorts of goodies to the attrition, but Luke survives. I ultimately cancel the Visage with Transmission Terminated. I miss with a fallen portal, but the threat of more of them makes Justin play carefully. Vader comes out to the docking bay to stop the AO-enhanced drain there, while we have raging battles at the other tatooine docking bay. Sidious leads the charge, and gets help from Maul, Fett, and other support, while I keep losing characters and then retrieving them with Celebration. The bacta tank eventually shows up, and I take greater control of the ground. Phylo adds insult to injury by draining for 3 at Justin’s Death Star docking bay. Justin keeps drawing ships for destiny, rather than drawing them into his hand, so he is never able to make a bid for the system, and I eventually split out to Kessel to accelerate his demise. Win by 24.
Meaningless Bonus Game #3: Dark Deal vs. Justin Warren
Okay, instant replay from Game 2. On my first turn I just draw. He deploys Luke on Red 5 to Bespin, then puts Talon Karrde and a Palace Raider at my Docking Bay (for deploy -1 each because he controls Bespin! Aggh!) then deploys his Admiral’s Order. On my second turn I again do nothing special, so he gets to drain me for 2 at the system, and 2 at the related docking bay. Aggh! Luke then flees to Tatooine, while the smugglers flee to the Tatooine docking bay. Just in time, as the Big Blue Monster deploys for free on my next turn to Bespin. He sets up and flips, I set up and flip. He puts out Celebration so I cancel it with MM combo, but he grabs it, then deploys a 2nd celebration. His AO is annoying me by enhancing his Docking Bay drains (even though I am blocking them when possible), so I replace it with Battle Deployment, even though that will allow him to track a 6. He puts a 3rd docking bay to tatooine, and pretty soon occupies all 4 sites. So he’s celebrating for 4, and using Luke for 1. But that’s costing him 5 force a turn, while my drains and occupation damage are free. So I have more opportunity to move cards around, draw when I want to, or activate less than I can, in order to keep tracked cards on top, while he is forced to activate as much as possible every turn. Late in the game, Justin deploys EPP Han and Chewie Enraged to the CC docking bay, where I have Blizzard 4, and he initiates. He draws huge battle destiny, so I forfeit the walker and then lose 15 more. I had forgotten that Battle Deployment was on the table, which would have saved me from taking this massive beatdown and allowed me to breeze to an easy win. Instead, I am suddenly on the ropes in a big way. I could just draw out, knowing that he has fewer cards than I won by in Game 1, but I decide to play for an unlikely win. Thrawn is blocking the Cantina drain, backed by the stunning leader in my hand, while I have a dark jedi at one of the docking bays doing the same. After beating down Blizzard 4, he used docking bay transit to move back to Tatooine. So I land the Stinger which had been at the Cloud Sector, in order to get another point of occupation damage in, then I move the Mist Hunter from Bespin to the Cloud Sector, in order to reclaim that drain of one. I soon draw into the ghhhk, so even after I run out of stunning leaders, Thrawn and the rest of my guys on Tatooine are safe. The damage is more than Justin can bear, and I eek out a win by 5.
Overall score for the day:
18: (+166)
I get something like $270 for 1st place, which puts me over 300 for the trip, counting the win from the TCG. I win a 2nd DPC for SWCCG in a row, my 3rd for SWCCG total, and my 4th DPC overall. Alright, 3 1/2! Heh. Trading went extremely well, as I traded for a total of 8 Ultra Rares, and gave up only 2 in the process. I revisit the Mexican Restaurant, this time with Chris and David, and then we get some much-needed rest before leaving for Colorado the next day. On the way back, we play another 10 hours or so of Maximum Power, and then we make it back to Colorado safe and sound.
MAD Props:
To Tony, Chris, and Tom, for driving.
To Alan Denny, for hooking us up at the Motel 6.
Props:
To Alan Denny, for running a great event. The late start was no biggie. Especially since it gave me that extra time to build my decks!
To Tom McGee and Chris McClure, for blindsiding the event and making top 4.
To Tom, for "Blast ’Em"
To my teammates on Team You’re a Towel, for owning.
To Mike Richards, for his original dark deck.
To Justin Warren, for his strong showing.
To Justin Warren, for help with decks and meta choices.
To Matt Lush, for successfully defending the majority of his money, for being the "whipping boy", and for being an all-around good guy.
To everyone I traded with, for making me a happy man.
To Carl, for being one funny mutha@#$%a, especially when he’s hopped up on Xanax and Alcohol. (much like the Stripper, he also asked me if anyone has ever told me I look like Jesus)
To Tony and Chris, for securing the Fanchi Family Van. (tm)
To Chris Fanchi, for convincing Tom to go.
To Jacob Taylor, for the free lunch.
To Maximum Power, for being the best roleplaying game "in the history of ever".
To David Jones, for lending me cards to build QMC.
To Tom, for lending me cards to play SWTCG.
To anyone not already mentioned in these props, that it was cool to see again. (Like Andy McClure)
To anyone not already mentioned in these props, that it was cool to meet for the first time (Like Zane Thorp, Joe Horbey, Ricky Martinez and his Lubbock crew)
To Chris Fanchi, for helping to co-create "Welcome to Colorful Colorado...B*tch".
To Patrol Crafts, for being "piloted vehicles", not just "driven vehicles".
To Tom, for securing the Prophetess I needed.
MAD Slops:
To Justin Warren, for failing in his secret mission.
Slops:
To Justin Warren, for not being 21.
To Ricky Martin(ez), because his newest album sucks. heh.
To my Executor, for blowing up. Twice!
To Battle Deployment, for not having gametext.
To me. (Turns out Battle Deployment has gametext after all, I’m just too stupid to remember it.)
To Alan Denny, for thinking I would lose to Mike Richards. Heh.
To Tom and Chris, for putting me on their team without telling me. *lol*
To the strip club, for being sub-par.
To Texas, for the monster bugs.
To the Fanchi Family Van (tm), for stealing my CDs. heh.
To me, for leaving out a million other hilarious things that happened during this trip.
To all the people that were at this event who are too lazy to post tournament reports, hence forcing ME to have to remember EVERYTHING that happened, and making me need to give myself slops for not including all the funny sh*t that went down. Punks. ;)
Alright, that’ll do it. See you at the next stop...of the Hunter Train of Dominance.
The HuntaWarya