lexington-ma-6-22-01-aka-superscrubland
Title: lexington-ma-6-22-01-aka-superscrubland
Author: Stephen "The Gov'na" Cellucci
Date: Jun 26, 2001
There’s a card shop called Hit and Run in Lexington. I’ve always been pissed at them because the lady there is kind of a b!tch and they never run SW tournies, only Magic. One time I asked the owner why he didn’t run them; he said he tried once but didn’t get enough people. Yeah right. Well finally he decided to run one for some reason, and he posted it on big D’s website, which I doubt he did when he "tried" to run one before. Whaddya know, people actually showed up.
I had heard about the possibility of H & R running a tourney from Ross "Ahnold" Littauer, who lives like 0.0000001 miles from the store and said he would go. Eventually it got posted on the D website and I talked to people like Hayes Hunter and Steve Baroni, trying to get some attendance. Well Baroni, Mike "Deck" Gemme, Justin Desai, and Paul Maholick ended up showing, along with 2981750111265192785 local scrubs. The total attendance was 17 I think. I showed up almost an hour early to screw around and playtest and the lady (wife of store owner I think) started saying how we were gonna roll dice or some crap like that to decide what sides we play in each game. WTF??? Granted, she was not the official TD, she was just waiting for him to get there so she had no clue what she was doing. I was imagining playing 5 games dark 1 game light or something crazy along those lines. GAY. So anyway I’m trying to explain to her how it works but she says "well this is the way we do it here" so I’m like whatever biatch. People are showing up and I play a quick game with some kid, my QMC vs. his Tatooine/JP start. Well the lock does its thing-Plan, Menace, Celebration, Path, SATM etc.-while he does some random attacks on CC with gamorreans. I beat some guys down big, retrieve my entire lost pile by the end of the game, and win by 33. Meanwhile I’m waiting anxiously for some cards for the walker garrison I’m playing from Baroni and he shows up, with Deck and Justin, about 0.000000001 seconds before the lady is gonna start the tourney. So I tell them about the gay pairing thing and they’re all like WTF so we go explain to her the whole tourney deal. Paul Maholick who is really nice and has been a TD before volunteers to run the tourney and she lets him. So we’re like "where are the command cards" and she’s like what?? Whatever. Paul makes some command cards out of paper and people write their names on them. One thing that was funny was we counted 17 people but Paul only got back 16 command cards with names and we’re asking people "who didn’t write their name on a piece of paper" and finally we realize it was none other than Justin H2O Desai, when the whole time we thought it was some dumb local kid. Hahaha. Anyway enough of this, onto the games. My decks were Baroni-Deck-style QMC lock and You May Start Your Landing garrison which was basically the same deck Baroni let me borrow for the last tourney but with a couple changes. Rating going in is 1756 (up from 1680 from the last tourney suck it trebek!)
The Games
Game 1: QMC lock vs. sorry I can’t seem to remember your name but you were really cool (rating 1500) COTVG flipping
This kid has only been playing for a few months and its his first tourney so I wish him luck. He starts 3 effects, the only one I remember being Inconsequential Losses, the other two pretty standard I think. I start Keeping The Empire Out Forever, Squassin, and Battle Plan. First turn he draws up. I get the sector out and use squassin to get a ship to the system (Elyhek Rue I think?), holding a barrier in case he used his obj to get a ship. Next turn he gets out Ephant Mon and Scum to the AC. I didn’t bother to touch Ephant for the rest of the game, even though he remained the lone character at the chamber. A few turns later I get out my sites (total of 4), another ship to Bespin, Leia to her quarters, and melas to another site and flip permanently. I use the tunnel vision thing to get paths and SATM etc. He left my fleet of 3 ships alone in space, instead sending a few bounty hunters like Bossk w/ gun and Fett to one of my sites. However when he initiated I just dodged away. Next turn I path, SATM one of his guys, and beatdown with Obi and a Run Luke Run. He tries another attack on another site but I barrier and battle next turn, hitting with sabers and guns with the MAD high destiny in this deck. Eventually my ping drains do him in, even without Pucumir Thryss, but it took a little while because he retrieved a lot from initiating battles. FW +33
Highs: Winning first game. QMC is sweet
Lows: Having to beat up on a newbie, but its cool because he ended up doing ok going 2-4. Later on I saw his COTVG flipping in action and he ate Qui-gon and others retrieving 9 and the opponent losing 9 it was all very sweet! Sadly he only got a timed win in that game because the guy stalled cheaply.
2(+33)
Between games Ross and I went next door to get some subs from this little Italian place and it was funny because it was this kid who was 13 or so making our subs. He was the classic Italian kid, wearing the cap at an angle and running the family store while his dad was on the phone. His voice sounded kinda like a kid version of the godfather voice, or maybe I just couldn’t hear him well. I dunno it was funny
Game 2: Walker Garrison vs. Mike "Deck" Gemme’s (1794) QMC
Going into the game I think about how I’m gonna play the matchup, knowing the QMC deck well. I decide that I have to at least occupy, if not control Bespin system, to screw up Menace Fades long enough to get a garrison off and delay celebration. The garrison deck has a lot of big blue so its as good a match as any against the tough QMC space. I start YMSYL, IAO, and mobpoints (the deck works even if the opponent starts DDTA because its not hard to occ a BG system). He starts KTEOF, Squassin, and Insight which eventually grabs Menace Fades I believe. First turn I get out a DB and a guy there for generation, but no Imp commands so I draw up. His turn he puts Elyhek Rue to Bespin using squassin and gets out the sector. I decide I have to put the pressure on early. I deploy Fondor from hand and Fett in ship goes there but I don’t want to do it and he lets me take it back. Fett goes to Bespin instead and battles Elyhek Rue (anagram for Kyle Heuer!) off the system. I lose Fett but next turn I get him back by deploying No Escape. He leaves space alone for a little while and gets some guys to ground. I get out Executor, which I grabbed with Mpoints, to Fondor along with Fett in ship and move over to Bespin. I drain there for a turn, he gets a ship or two there to flip, then moves away to Fondor. Meanwhile he does a blind off the edge and draws a 6. Grrr. I build up guys like Piett and Merrejk, who were at the exec db and who I used to get Hoth system out, along with ozzel or someone on the executor, piling up at Bespin. I also get guys on walkers to the 3rd marker, DB, and 5th marker to make him lose force to YMSYL. Finally he gets out Ten Numb with missiles to Bespin and moves the whole fleet over from Fondor so we each have a buttload of ships and guys there. I battle at Bespin after deploying Thrawn on the devastator. BIG mistake. He shoots the executor with one intruder missile from ten numb to add 3 to his next draw. Shoots another missile tracked 6! 6 + 4 from ten numb + 3 = 13 BAM Power Pivot and the executor with 4 guys on it is gone! Nice play by Mike. So I have a devastator and fett in ship left at the system vs. his 235071235 ships. I lose the battle big and the devastator moves away to Hoth while Fett dies. Predicting the move, I had deployed Rebel base Occupation that turn to up the walker damage. We’re both getting pretty low on life force, me losing from the ping drains and him from YMSYL and my ping drains, but he does an off the edge with a tracked 7 intruder missile. I get out Secret Plans to make him start paying for celebration. At first he treats it like not a big deal but later it turns out to be game breaking. He comes with ships to assault me at Hoth and Chiraneau goes to the devastator and I battle. Chiraneau dies but so does one of his guys and I shuttle some scrubs from walkers up to the system for backup. I’m getting really low in life force but he’s losing 6 a turn now and he is too. He battles me back at Hoth and I lose fodder while he loses a ship. I get evax to a CC site to block a drain of 1 because I only have 4 life force left and he was going to drain for 4 next turn. So his turn he drains and I’m down to 1, he gets a card with KTEOF, which turned out to be a mistake, because he had to pay to retrieve so he only could retrieve 3 instead of the 4 which would’ve kept him alive. Now he has 6 life force left, he battles me but the devastator holds on at hoth and he’s cleared off. Next turn my drains and RBO are just enough to finish him off. FW +1
Highs: Winning a very close game that I thought I would lose.
Lows: Beating Mike, he’s a cool guy. Low diff too
4(+34)
Game 3: Walker garrison vs. Joey Quigley’s (1504) Weird Bothan spy jank
Ok before I start I would just like to say this is the gayest and most boring game of star wars I have ever played. I might not mention many details because, frankly, there were none. He started the Yavin 4 DB (???) with staging areas and two other effects (not insurrection). I started the usual YMSYL, IAO, Mobpoints. First turn I grabbed 3rd marker and garrison as usual, deployed 3rd marker and a db from reserve with a guy there and let him go. His first turn he inserts AFA, a gay card, and deploys Order to engage. My turn I activate a bunch and the AFA pops like 3rd card I lose 4, 3 of which were off top and 2 of which were Hoth and Fondor, my only systems!!! GRRRR. Ok that sucks but I’ll see what happens. I get a guy on a walker to the 3rd marker and on his turn he gets an undercover bothan spy there. Next turn I cant drain but I make him lose 1 to YMSYL. His deck is based on an illegal strategy: he thinks Order will make me lose 3 with an undercover spy there but he’s not present so no go. Its cheap because he won a game by a lot earlier with this strategy against a kid who didn’t know it was illegal. Basically, after I get another walker out to the 5th marker, I’m sitting there making him lose 2 for the next 9578109487 turns while he does little. The only other site he gets out is the death star trash compactor so he’s activating 4 a turn. For some turns he draws until he gets Artoo to the Yavin DB and targets him with Death star plans, then nabruns him over to the Death star compactor then a turn later nabruns back, retrieves 15 or so because of the mad high destiny in his deck. He’s blocking my drains at the hoth db and 3rd marker with bothans undercover, so basically the game consists of me making him lose 2 a turn and him retrieving with death star plans every several turns. He inserted another AFA but I didn’t need to activate so it didn’t matter. He tried to get a drain going at the compactor but Arica stopped that. Basically the game goes like this: my turn, I say "lose 2" then "go," he either draws or plays death star plans/nabrun leids. Finally I get a grabber and grab nabrun so his strategy eventually dies out and after 5981275982173592 turns I win from YMSYL and walker garrison for a drain of 2 at the 5th marker. Pathetic. FW +22
Highs: Um winning? Maybe?
Lows: Blech. See game details.
6(+56)
Game 4: QMC vs. Justin "H2O" Desai’s (1919) Hunt Down jizz (racing and dueling)
Justin is pretty cool and he’s a very good player. He starts Hunt Down w/ stuff and the racing interrupt to get Boonta Eve, the podracing arena, Watto’s box, and sebulba’s racer. I start anakin’s racer with a half decent chance in the race because of this deck’s sweet destiny. His first turn he gets palpy to my CC Guest Quarters and we lose to Visage. For the race that turn he prevented my draws and drew a 5 for his destiny. My turn I get out the sector and a ship to the system and we lose to visage. His turn his destiny is low, a 2 or something and mine are good, 5 and 4 I think. The game goes by pretty quickly, him getting more guys to CC and me holding the system with more ships. After a couple turns I have people controlling 2 CC sites so I flip. He’s been drawing low for race destinies and I’ve been getting decent, but at one point we’re tied at 17 or something and he cancels mine for a turn. That combined with an interrupt that puts one of my destinies back and causes a redraw allowed him to win the race. He retrieved 11 I lost 11. I managed to get celebration going and retrieve a few, holding on to get off some ping drains to damage him. But eventually Vader came down and Iggy captured Luke with a tracked 6, so Visage finished me off combined with some drains that he payed 3 for because of battle plan. FL -15
Highs: Getting to play Justin for the first time. Blah
Lows: First loss. I don’t like podracing.
6(+41)
Game 5: QMC vs. Paul Maholick’s (1727) ISB big blue
It’s always fun to play Paul because he’s a good player and a nice guy. I see ISB and predict lots of space battles. He starts IAO, Mobpoints, and Secret Plans I think. I did KTEOF, Squassin, and Menace Fades. His first turn he got out a db and a scrub for activation. I used Squassin to get Ten numb to Bespin, holding a barrier. He used command to get Piett to get Merrejk to get systems like Fondor and Sullust out. I get Han in the falcon to bespin next turn and we trade drains for a couple turns at our systems. He gets the executor out to fondor, moving piett and merrejk from the db to the bridge. I get some cheap deploy characters to the ground for the flip. I get the lock going with battle plan, menace fades, and celebration so I’m doing well. However he deploys a scrub on a walker to the Endor DB to satisfy battle plan, as well as zuckuss to sullust and a death squadron star destroyer to endor. At this point he’s draining for more and canceling one of my drains with a rim scout to the Den of thieves each turn, but I’m retrieving 4 a turn and doing ping drains. Eventually he gets 5D6 to one of my CC sites and flips, which is trouble for me because I only have an alien at the system and rebels at the sites, preventing my drains from being unmodifiable and limiting me to a drain of 1 a turn. At this point I decide I have to fight him or lose the game. I had deployed Order to engage earlier so I send DSII wedge in his ship over to sullust to fight zuckuss, with an x-wing cannon. He avoids losing 3 to Order and battles, allowing me to shoot zuckuss using 3 force to add 3 to the destiny and make him immediately lost. In this way I continue to break through his big drains one by one, using Order to make him battle me and letting my big immunity (I’ll take the leader was out) keep me alive. I have wedge and one other ship moving in front of his death squadron destroyers at endor and then at kashyyyk (I think) making him battle and slowing his drains. Finally all he has left is the executor at fondor and the walker at the endor db draining me. He sees that my retrieval is overpowering his drains and, having a fairly small life force remaining, he draws up before my differential gets any higher. FW +22
Highs: Beating ISB big blue with QMC which can be tough. Playing Paul
Lows: Not much
8(+63)
Game 6: Garrison vs. Justin Desai’s (1919) MWYHL Test to 1
Basically at this point we figure out that the tourney comes down to this game, whose winner will probably win the tournament. I recall the same matchup earlier between Baroni’s garrison and Justin’s MWYHL-Baroni won that matchup. So I figure I have a chance at the tourney. He starts the obj and dagobah along with Battle Plan, Wise Advice, and Squassin. I start the usual YMSYL, IAO, mpoints. I got a nice hand with a good mix of blue and characters along with an imp command. First action of the game I play command, he grabs it right away. Ouch. I get piett, 3rd marker, executor, and a walker garrison. My turn I do the standard thing deploying marker and exec db with piett there, get merrejk who gets fondor. His turn he gets the hut to dagobah and uses squassin to get luke on artoo in red 7 to my fondor, so no executor for me while he controls it. I decide to wait until I get some ships and instead get the dsII db and a couple 2/2 pilots in a walker to the 3rd marker for the YMSYL ping and the drain. His turn he gets out tawss and yoda to the hut along with the training area and test 1. My turn I pay the 3 to drain 2 and he loses 1 in ping damage. I get the hoth db and see ships in my force pile so I draw to get them, saving some force. He tries for the test 1 and needs to draw a 4 but gets a 1. Besides that he draws as well. With my saved force I get Bossk in ship to Fondor followed by the executor and battle the heck out of luke for a bunch of overflow but he plays ICBW for 9 or something crazy and loses only a few overflow, along with luke but not artoo in red 7. I lose bossk from the attrit of 1 and I move piett and merrejk to the bridge of the executor, holding barrier. Next turn he tries again for test 1 but bad luck again, he can’t even draw a 3 for it. Now in space he did a cool tech thing, putting wedge in his ship to fondor using squassin, followed by corran horn in red 7, who happens to be a rogue squadron pilot. TECH. I barrier wedge and battle next turn, adding another scrub or something on the executor, battle him, but he cancels my battle destiny. However I am immune to his attrition and I overpower him so he loses corran. All along I am draining and pinging at 3rd marker. Next turn he comes down with leia in the empty ship and han in the falcon, battles, plays I know, draws 5 destiny for a total of 23 attrition. Damn. So that clears me off the planet. I give up space and put a walker to the 5th marker for more ping damage. His turn he brings Jedi Luke and Epp Obi to the 3rd marker and battles. He draws a battle destiny of 1 so his power is 12, my power including destiny is also 12 but I am immune to his attrition so I lose nothing and luke is left alone. Next turn I come down with Igar in Tempest 1 and a bunch of pilots on another walker so its 3 walkers + pilots against luke. He loses luke and a ton of overflow battle damage, which is basically game. He tracks an A few maneuvers and does an on the edge to retrieve 5, but I grab it. With his low life force all he can do is pay 3 to drain 2 in space at hoth, where he sent one of his ships, and succumb to my drains and ping damage. FW +18
Highs: It was a really good game. Winning tourney. Rating points $$$ cha-ching
Lows: can’t think of any
10(+81)
So, I finish in 1st place. Paul, being the great TD that he is, had a box of WB premiere with him that he split among everyone so I got 5 packs of that and a box of Jabba’s Palace boosters from the store. Good prize support all around, with Paul pitching in a few Hoth 2-player game boxes that he got cheap cause he works for Hasbro. Baroni finished second and Ben Rodriguez got 3rd, good job Ben. I believe Justin placed 4th and Ross got 5th.
Props:
Hit and Run for finally running a SW tourney.
Paul Maholick for stepping in and taking charge, he did an excellent job with what he had.
Baroni for getting me some cards and for the goodness of garrison (and QMC, props also to Deck for that).
Deck for shooting down my executor with 235927 pilots.
Ross for getting me some cards and being cool.
Justin for being a good opponent and cool guy.
The kid who I played first game whose name I can’t recall but who was good for a first tourney and did some awesome eating with rancors (2 on the table at once!)
Garrison (6-0) and QMC for both being sick.
The Italian sub place next door.
All the locals who showed up and made it a decent tourney.
You for reading.
Me for winning my first tourney I guess
Slops:
Um that lady who didn’t have a clue about how to run a tourney but tried to seem like she did.
The owner and official TD for showing late.
That bothan spy deck that was cheap.
Annoying scrubs. (I don’t have anything against newbies but some kids were just plain annoying)
The lack of command cards and overall disorganization of the store. I think their tournies will get better though.
Thanks for reading, and if anyone has any ideas about what to do with this unopened box of JP boosters let me know :)