dude-wheres-my-tech-albany-6-25
Title: dude-wheres-my-tech-albany-6-25
Author: Mike "Luckywild" Damboise
Date: Jun 25, 2001
Let me give you a spot of background. I’ve been home from college about a month. While I was in school Star Wars was the furthest thing from my mind (save when Matty was at worlds and I was on the phone with his brother every 5 min trying to figure out how he was doing) and when I got back I was terribly rusty. I had played in 2 tourneys since I had gotten back from school and done amazing going 3-3 at states and 2-4 in the bounty tourney. Needless to say I was discouraged, I decided this tourney would determine my future in Star Wars.
Anyway, back to the tourney. I had some mad tech for the upcoming tourney and Sunday night I had left by my bedside, but when I woke up it was gone, I couldn’t believe it, I was like ‘Dude, where’s my tech?’ but no one in my house had seen it. So I head out and start asking the usual suspects, Danny Sokol, Jigga, The Twiggs, everyone remembered seeing it at some point or another but no one knew what happened to it. Eventually I gave up looking for it and admitted I was techless. So now the hunt to find new decks begins
The Hunt for a light: Short journey, I played Aaron K’s Dagobah deck, I loved it, I built it, I altered it, I beat little twigg with it, and we have a light deck!
The Hunt for a dark: I had no idea what to play for dark so I spent many an afternoon at work reading over cards on deciphers web page and whining to Kim Caton over AIM about not having a Dark deck. Eventually she sends me her ISB deck and I change a few cards and am ready to go
The night before
My parents are out of town and they took both cars so I decide to sleep over the Twiggs and hitch a ride in the Morning. Danny Sokol picks me up and we head over, when we arrive Walter, Eric Dulaca and Chris Shaut are already there. Danny grabs Brian’s WYS deck and we play some games. Joe and some Michigan kids show up to play test and we all thought it was very cool that three kids had come all this way to give up ranking points to Team Albany (actually they did quite well in the tourney). Later I play against Brian using his WYS and he teaches me some key things about WYS (more on that later). So everyone agrees my light deck is pretty solid but everyone thinks my Dark Deck blows monkey chunks.
(Aside: Now I don’t know how Kim plays this deck but when I use I am very patient, it’s a Hoth based deck using YMSYL to deal some direct damage, big drains w/agents an garrison and Decree to shut down other decks. Now this deck had huge lockdown potential, problem was I was very timid in deploying, combine that with low activation and you have one very long game. Brian made the best analogy when he said, “Mike, your deck starts in that room and its goal is to make into this one, you move at a millimeter a turn and if you get here, you win. But you’ll never get here” if he only knew)
So everyone had a good time making fun of my dark deck and I got mad, so we all went to sleep.
The day of
Hayes Hunter and crew show up at the Twigg’s in the morning while I eat lucky charms and try to focus on the task ahead. We all head out to Guild and wait for Jigga and the Mich kids, the tourney starts promptly upon their arrival.
Decks
Light: MWYHL Test to 6/3 Battling Characters/Podracing
Dark: ISB/Hoth lock
Game 1
Light V.S. Matt F’s Carbon Chamber Testing
I had to laugh, Carbon Chamber Testing?? And to make things better, he didn’t use Han, so I had to give up EPP Obi! The Game begins and he has no podracer. He activates and we draw race destiny. I stack he doesn’t. He pulls a Docking bay, another site drops a third site from his hand and Drops Xizor to the Security tower. I activate and have 7 force, ahh the magic number. I pull the Training Area, Leia, Yoda, Test one and the backpack. His turn he moves Xazor over to the carobinte chamber with obi and pulls carbon freezing!?! I stack a couple more destinies on Anakins racer. My turn I complete my test and grab the hut and test 3 (pulled test 2 on his turn) I drop test 2, move to it and draw. His turn we race, I get drained and he draws. My turn I complete test 2 and deploy a site with test 3, move to it and save force. His turn he goes and drops the Unique Ugnaut and 4 non-unique ugnauts. I count, he freeze’s Obi automatically next turn. I am 2 away from winning the race but Anakins waits at the finish line since I have one lost card. I go and drop Qui-Gon and his saber across from the ugnaut army and battle. I swing and hit Xizor he plays prepare the chamber to add a destiny. I don’t really care b/c his ugnauts are power 0 and I am getting obi back. I draw a 6 for destiny and he draws something (I don’t remember) but I lose overflow and keep Qui-gon, the dead prince gives my obi and the sight is mine, all he has left is the unique ugnaut. His turn he drops Maul at the Tatooine docking bay and moves his ugnaut. The next few turns are spent with him draining me at the docking bay and me draining at the chamber. Eventually I get to test 5, he has built up a small army at the docking bay, but whatever, Obi and Qui-gon are the pimps. So on his turn I win the race, I lose an R2 in red 5 to his drain and at the end of his turn retrieve 6. I activate down to 2 cards in my reserve and test. I pop the R2 in Red 5 on the test and the game is mine. I retrieve the last 3 cards in my lost and we trade drains, eventually I drain him out. I felt bad for the poor kid (since I had pretty much wrecked his deck), so I don’t bother to use my On The Edges to retrieve what lost pile I have at the end of the game. This proved to cost me a couple of spots in the tourney but oh well, I’m not a mean guy.
FW (+20)
Highs: My deck for doing everything I built it to do
Lows: Nothing
Game 2
My Dark V.S. Alex Bayer’s RST
I had seen this deck on decktech so I knew what to expect. He started podracing and I started my usual stuff substituting Secret plans for TINT/Opressive. I get the 5th marker early and a Twi’lik. I decide to forgo getting Den of Theives and go straight for the kill. So I grab You May Start your Landing and go straight for the kill. His turn he activates and looks for his generals, but all he can find is Solo, so he deploys him and drops some more scouts from his had (including Wuto) and I go. I get the 3rd marker and a garrison and put Blizzard 2 down with Merrijik. I search and Pull Hoth and put Nightfall on the system. I then drop an Outer rim scout to the 3rd marker, flip and move over. His turn he finds Crix and another scout (midge I think) and gets a site from his reserve and moves everyone to the hidden trail. My turn I deploy Blizzard 1 with 2 more scouts on it at the 3rd marker and put 5D6 on his planet to stop his drains. His turn he moves to the bunker and looks for his effect but he can’t find it. I go and drop some more agents on Hoth and Arica to the back door. I also put a Presence of the force down on the 5th marker bumping my drain from 3 to 5 (+2 direct damage). His turn he puts some guys in the bunker and gets ready to blow it up. He also deploys Luke JK and Leia and spreads his forces a bit to flip by controlling. My turn I drain and draw for a Twilik. His turn he drops some charges in the bunker and drains for a couple. My turn I drain and Twilik for Bargaining Table. I then draw and get the 3rd marker. His turn he blows the bunker and I lose 8. He moves his dudes to the back door and 5D6 becomes useless. My turn, he wins the race so there goes another 6. I Drop the 4th marker and a Dune Walker with Chall Bekan and pull an ORS agent to table with. He is set up at 4 sites, I have Arica blocking one drain so I am losing 3. I lose an OSR, Table with a second OSR and lose something else. He backs up some of his weaker sights and it’s my turn. I garrison and hit him for 5 at the 3rd marker, 2 at the 4th, and 4 at the 5th then he loses another 3 in direct damage. I then deploy No Escape and take the garrison back into my hand and draw, retrieve my ORS and it’s his turn. He drains, I lose some crap from hand and garrison again. He just can’t survive after 2 14 card drains. My drains are bigger and I drain him out
FW (+12)
Highs: My deck made it into the room, click
Lows: None
Game 3
My Dark against Joe Giannetti’s WYS beatdown
I am psyched to be playing Joe, even though he is one of my very good friends, I really wanted to beat him and get some respect. I was equally psyched to see him pull WYS. I had learned a lot about the deck the night before I was ready to take it on. I started with a fairly good opening hand, I had the 5th marker, my Den of Thieves and a Twilik. I activated, dropped the 5th marker and pulled YMSYL and put down Den. Joe pulled Mirrax and put her at Tat. My turn I dropped Blizzard 2 at the 5th marker alone. Brian had shown me that there are no smugglers who are also spies, so I knew if I used the 4th, 5th and 6th markers to deal all my damage I could focus my agents on his planet. I put down YMSYL and draw some cards. He goes and drops EPP Han at the Cantina and Jedi Luke goes to Home 1 DB and transfers to Tatooine. My turn I use Twilik and get sunsdown and look to see where my sites are. One is my force pile so I draw and get the 4th marker. Joe goes and drains me for 5 (he had out his Admirals Orders) so I den and lose some junk. My turn I drop the 4th and put a Dune walker down with an Outer rim scout, a second scout goes into Blizzard 2 and I flip. I drop 5D6 down on his system and it’s lock (or so I thought). The next few turns are spent with Joe losing 2 force to YMSYL and me drawing to get some good stuff. He is draining for 1 at the cantina but I am just losing agents and retrieving them in an endless loop. Somewhere along the lines he puts down Naked 3P0 and Lando. I remain unconcerned. He loses a sorry about the mess off the top so on his turn he playes it from the lost pile to fry 5D6 with lando. I hook it from the lost pile and lose to his drains. My turn I drop an ORS off my Barging table at the cantina across form his Han and it’s his turn. I consider dropping 3 or 4 agents and battling but I had noticed a lot of destiny adders and cards like run luke run going into the lost pile. I decide the OSR in the cantina will be enough to stop his drains for a turn. I retrieve my 5D6 and track it. I then draw a few cards and get my second 5D6, Joe is in a world of hurt. His turn he battles and plays Slight Weapons Malfunction to add a destiny so I ghkkk. My turn 5D6 goes back down and I draw my first one. His turn he plays another Sorry about the mess from his hand and kills 5D6. I lose some to his drain and it’s my turn. I put down 5D6 (yet again) across from Luke and put Arica in the Cantina and act all smug, I am pretty sure there is nothing he can do. On his turn he replaces his Admirals orders with No Questions Asked. Let me take a min to congratulate Joe on extreme tech, this card lets a smuggler move or fire a blaster during the control phase he then moves Han to the same sight as 5D6. Well on my turn I track my other 5D6 activate an extra force and the 5D6 on the Table flees from Han to the unoccupied cantina. I then draw my other 5D6 and tell Joe to go. His turn he moves Han into the Cantina and Lando to the Adjacent site, 5D6 is Trapped. Luke moves to the 3rd docking bay and it’s my turn. I make him lose to YMSYL and let him go. He smokes my 5D6 and drains for 2. My turn I drop the other 5D6 across from Luke and retrieve the one he just shot. Joe corners my 5D6 again but it takes him 2 turns to kill it, so by this time I have the other one in my hand. Somewhere along the lines he also shot Arica. So the game went on like this. Me tracking 5D6 around my deck and Joe getting a drain of 2 every other turn. Eventually my pinging did him in. Towards the end I Abyssned to retrieve a handful.
FW (+11)
Highs Beating a great player and state champ, My deck for locking down again (sort of)
Lows No Questions Asked, who plays that sh!t
Game 4
My Light v.s. Steebo’s Garrison
This game was just painful, I would like to play it again, I don’t know if I could have won, but I think it would be a lot closer. Steebo pulls Executer DB and Merrijk comes from hand. We start racing and Steebo doesn’t stack. He also gets the 3rd marker and Fondor with YMSYL and Merrijk receptively. My turn I get 7 force again, but I have the most depressing hand Yoda and tests 3-6 are in my opening hand so I am resigned to pulling the Hut and Leia. Next turn he deploys Igar and a non-unique walker to the 3rd marker and pulls the Hoth docking bay. My turn I activate and go for a sight, The trining area isn’t there so I pull the swamp and the backpack. I then drop Yoda from hand and think about how much this sucks, I should be done with test 1 already. He drains and puts some guys at the Hoth Dockingbay, He also deploys the Executer to Fondor and moves Merrijk to the bridge. My turn I get the training Area but now test 1 is in my force pile. I do some stuff to use force and let him go. I lose more in drains more to YMSYL and finish the race. I retrieve my 6 cards and get my test one (finaly) but it’s too little too late. I start testing but Rebel Base Occupation comes down when he pulls Hoth with Merrijk. I throw Obi to the Podrace arena to do some damage while Luke JK and Qui-Gon go to battle the walkers. Unfortunately through imperial commands Steebo makes short work of my pitiful ground force. Secret plans seals it up for him since I don’t have enough left to retrieve when I complete test 5. I guess I can’t complain to much, that’s the risk u run when you play Dagobah, now let us never speak of it again
FL (-19)
Highs Not much, Steebo was a cool guy but that’s about it
Lows Activating stuff you need sucks, Having Yoda in your opening hand sucks and knowing you are going to lose and fighting for Diff sucks.
Game 5
My Dark v.s. Chris Shauts Choke deck
Well Chris and I had played this matchups the night before and he got locked down b/c of a lack of battlegrounds. Well, he wasn’t going to let that happen again. I got off to a very slow start, I hunted for my sites by they insisted on hiding in my deck. It was 5th turn before I saw a site. Luckily Chris’ deck didn’t move much more quickly. He couldn’t find a spy to come to Courscant with and his monks were MIA so we spent a good deal of time drawing. Eventually he found Jar Jar and came to Courscant with Qui-gon. I responded with Arica and that turn I got my 5th marker. So Chris drew and Grimtashhed me lost. I hooked it and lost a couple of Blizzard Walkers. My turn I dropped the 5th marker and put down YMSYL. Chris then put Leia at the hut and played Revolution, next he moved Shimi and Naked 3P0 over from Shimi hut to back Leia up. During his move he played Nabrum and to move Qui-gon over to the 5th marker. I let him draw and pay for it then played those rebels won’t escape us combo to cancel it. He sensed it (doh) and lost the sense and a pair. The combo card went to my used but Qui-gon got to Hoth with Jar Jar. This proved pivotal. On my turn I deployed U3PO to the hut and the 3rd marker from my reserve deck. I also dropped the Hoth system from my hand and put nightfall down. Next I played a twilik intending on getting Ice Storm but he sensed it. So he lost a couple more I declared I was done after drawing a few. On Chris’ turn he droped a monk at the Shimi hut, altered his own revo, deployed endor hut and played onee ta to get his revo back. He then put Padme and Obi at the endor hut and played his revo on that, next he dropped Luke JK on the 3rd marker and moved Leia, Shimi and 3P0 over with his monk. I didn’t have any force left so U3P0 couldn’t follow. On my turn I knew I had to flip. I dropped Blizzard one at the 3rd marker with an 4 ORS to flip. 5D6 went to the Endor hut and I drew a card, it was a Twilik so I played it, this one goes through and I get my Den of Thieves. I draw a few more and get everything a guy could want. Chris Drains for 1, 1, 1, and 2 at his sites and I lose some junk I won’t need. Then he battles my ORS, I count power and decline to draw destiny. He draws a 5 giving himself 12 power. I lose 2 ORS and he doesn’t lose anything (can’t actually). Chris didn’t even see my next move coming. I play Ice Storm on Qui-gon and Jar Jar and they go missing then I play Frostbite on the Hoth system. At then end of every turn Chris has to lose 4 force for his missing characters. After Luke goes missing, it’s 6 a turn. That’s 6 on his and 6 on mine. The game swung in the opposite direction. Now he was draining for 3 but so was I. I was tabling his drains and looping agents. Not to mention he was losing 12 from Frostbite and another 1 force from YMSYL. The direct damage was too much and the game didn’t last another 3 turns.
FW (+9)
Highs FROSTBITE!!! What a cool friggin card.
Lows Slow start, not getting to retrieve with the Abyssian
Game 6
My light v.s, Joe Giannetti’s Huntdown/Beatdown
After a great day playing I entered super scrub mode. No offense to Joe but this is a game I should have won, no, infact it was a game I did win, I just never realized it until it was too late. I started with a OOC/TT in my hand so I got rid of Visage straigt away. I started the race and Joe didn’t have racer so I was in no rush. He deployed the Tatooine docking bay and EPP Vader to said docking bay. On my turn I do the usual, get Leia, the training area, the backpack, and test one. Joe drains and draws. I get Yoda and begin testing. Joe Deploys Maul to the CC Docking Bay and Mara with Vader in the subsequent Turns. I win the podrace when I am on test 3 so I retrieve and make Joe lose 6. I play I did it and go on to test 4. Joe gets out Search and Destroy and spreads to the Podracer arena with vader leaving Mara alone. My turn I drop Qui-gon with saber and EPP obi across from Mara. Now here is where I play like a champ. I battle and Joe plays the Triple damage card for the dark. I’m like ok….I swing and hit her. Then Joe plays a bunch of destiny adders like Vader’s eye, Trooper Charge and things of that nature. He plays 5 different cards for 6 destinies. And like a champ, I let him draw them all. Now had I been a good player I would have realized Mara can’t draw destiny b/c of Test 2, so Joe would have gotten no Destinies and lost Mara +13 tripple that to 39 and it would have been game. As it was I draw my 5 and Joe draws a bunch of high destinies. So I lose both characters and some overflow. I am such a scrub. Well it all goes downhill from there. I test to 5 and stack Artoo in Red 5 in the same manner as I did in game 1. I flip and drop test 6 but Joe still has the pressure on with drains and S&D. So feeling the pressure I send Qui-Gon and Obi after Maul. He barriers Obi but I battle anyway, he tripples the damage again, I kill maul but he draws 4 destinies. Tripled I lose Qui-Gon and a bunch more. Now I am really hurting. On Joe’s turn he moves Vader over and Duel’s obi. He plays focused and I draw my 2 sevens. Then I come out one behind b/c Brian ruled that my saber does not add to my destinies if I use test 5. Whatever. So I lose Obi + the force and I’ve got nothing left. I draw. Good job by Joe but he didn’t beat me, I beat myself.
FL (-9)
Highs I did some stuff right, Tracking and getting my 0 or 7 playing my cards right for the firs half of the game
Lows forgetting to enforce test 2, losing the duel ending the tourney by beating myself
So that marked the end of the tourney. Over all I was pleased with my performance and decided that I would continue to play.
Eric Hunter edged out the competition and got the foil sheets. I finished 8th and got a YJ poster signed by Aura Sing, pretty cool
Mad Props
Kim Caton for the undefeated dark deck
Props
Brian Twigg for running a good tourney
Mrs Twigg for the lucky charms
Eric Hunter for winning
The Mich kids for coming
All the other out of towers
Aaron for the good light deck
The Mich kids for making fun of Joe
Eric Dulacca for hitting on the girls at Dennys
Danny and Eric for drinking with me after the tourney
Bagel for being Bagel
Mikey P for being there
Everyone else who was there
Slops
Me for playing like a scrub my last game
Danny Sokol for not playing in the tourny
Aaron and Pete for not showing up to drink
Team Albany for letting Eric Hunter win again
Art for not having Wednesdays off to play Bball
Thanks for reading!!