DECIPHERCON WILDCARD
11 Nov 99, VA Beach, VA
Well, I ended up traveling almost 24 hours to get to this tournament, so I sure as heck am going to write a report about it. :-) Here's how the story begins: I speedily finish (most of) my homework for the week Wednesday morning, get my stuff packed up, and get on the bus at 2pm. The bus to Binghamton, NY, that is. From there, I got the bus to NYC, and then took a train to New Brunswick, NJ, where my friend Andy was supposed to pick me up (as well as Todd, who was flying to Newark, NJ, from Michagan) so we could all go down together. Anyway, we spend the night at Andy's house, and leave at 4:00 the next morning, after getting all of 2.5 hours of sleep. Anyway, we drive down, but not to Virginia Beach, but instead to Charlottesville, VA, where Andy has a meeting in the morning. Several hours later, we finally end up in VA Beach, just in time for the Wildcard. There should be a prize for the most convoluted way to get to a tournament. :-)
We hurriedly check into the hotel, drop our bags off, register for the Con and the Wildcard, and head toward the room where it was being held. A lot of people are there, and I catch up with all the Coruscant people there, and also meet Steve Horton and some other guys. Anyway, my decks are the same ones I had for the tournament a few weeks back: my MWYHL/MnT where I train some ability-4 alien, and the Hunt Down/IAO/Dueling deck. After a bit of a wait and a lot of anticipation, pairings start...
Game 1: My Light vs. Daniel Sotelo's [Coruscant,1831] Hunt Down/CC Sabacc
I had never met Dan before, despite the fact that we're from the same state, because I don't know many of the NYC people. Before the game, Dan notices that I have a white mark on the back of one of my cards, I had never noticed it before, and I panic a little. We call a Tom Lischke over, and he lets me use a proxy for it for the time being. It's one of my Dagobah sites, so I pull it from my reserve first turn so we don't have to worry about the proxy. Anyway, he starts Hunt Down, with no Epic Duel, and Bad Feeling. The Bad Feeling ends up bothering me a bit, since I drew Yoda, and had to spend 7 Force to deploy him. I get my training done with plenty of haste, and he starts deploying CC sites. Eventually Vader and Tarkin come down at the Casino, with Lando. Bad Feeling and not drawing mains right away is keeping me from jumping him right away. He starts playing Sabacc a lot, and he's winning much more often than me, and retrieving nearly his entire lost pile doing it. He plays Sabacc almost every turn (mine and his), sometimes using Unexpected Interruption to fetch his Sabacc only to retrieve it again. He makes me lose my Training Area to Sabacc, but I already have my Jedi Tests so it doesn't bother me too much. I manage to drop Jeroen Webb and Tawss Khaa at the Holotheatre to cancel his Visage. I eventually save enough Force and drop Obi with Saber, EPP Luke, and EPP Han on his guys, who've now been reinforced by Lobot. I battle, he YABs Luke, Weapon Levitates Obi's Saber, and misses with Vader's Saber. I miss Lando with Han's gun (dang traitor!), so Tarkin cancels my battle destiny. I lose everything but Luke (and Obi's Saber, which is now in Vader's pocket), and he loses nothing. Luke sticks around blocking his drain while he can't be battled, and then runs away like the chicken-boy he is. He plays more Sabacc, and then plays Elis; I think Vader's gonna go teach his son a lesson. But instead, he Elis's Vader and Tarkin over to the Holotheatre, Snipers Tawss Khaa, and pounds Jeroen Webb into a bloody pulp. At this point, I only have a few Force left, so I draw up before he retrieves his entire Lost Pile from Sabacc. FL-38, 0(-38)
Highlights: Dan gets mad props for stealing *both* of the Obi's Sabers I had in the deck, one from Weapon Levitation and one from Sabacc. :-)
Lowlights: Losing the first game by 38 isn't a good thing to be doing when there's a bye floating around.
Game 2: My Dark vs. Chris McClure's [Dagobah,1583] Mains and Toys
Well, I was two people away from getting the bye first round, way too close for my tastes. If I lost this one, I might be in bye territory, and getting a bye in one of the biggest tourneys ever is certainly not something to brag about. :-) Anyway, Chris is pretty young, but he was winning for the first half of the game. I don't remember too much about it, I think he started Obi's Hut and something else. Anyway, Vader came down early on Tatooine, but Luke decided to beat him up, slicing him in half with a Lightsaber. He deploys Premiere Han and Chewie or something and drains for a while. Zuckuss and someone else takes them out eventually, but I'm not left with anything. I think he Terminated my Visage at one point as well. He deploys Obi and BoShek to a site, my hand is looking better at this point, and a couple turns later I deploy Vader with his Saber and Tarkin to deal with him. I battle, Vader duels Obi and uses Focused Attack, he uses Courage, I have Tarkin cancel one, and Vader wins easily. He loses Obi and 9, I then chop BoShek in half and draw a big destiny, he drew a 0 I believe and ended up having to lose like 15 Force. The game's over shortly after. FW+25, 2(-13)
Highlights: I love dueling.
Lowlights: I'm not sure, but I probably gave him the bye. :-(
Game 3: My Light vs. Philip Pipitone's [Coruscant,1824] RallOps
I also had never met Philip before, I guess he's one of those NYC players I rarely see or something. He starts Ralltiir Operations, and I'm pleased, as my Mains deck has never lost against RallOps. I start my training and drop the Tantive at Ralltiir right away. I draw my mains and save up Force, and he takes out the Tantive with a ship and a pilot or something. He's using a variety of weird things to occupy his Ralltiir Locations, including some Navy Troopers. Eventually, I leave enough Force to smack his guys around some, and flip his objective back. He deploys EPP Fett and beats on me some, and flips back his objective. We go back and forth a few times, I get out my Bacta Tank, he flips his Objective like 4 times all game, but it I don't think it ever stayed flipped long enough for him to fetch a card. I eventually clear him completely off of Ralltiir, but he gets Coruscant and starts draining there with a Destroyer. I'm not draining for much, as many of my characters are dead, and he puts Bane at the Mos Eisley I had deployed early on. I deploy EPP Luke there, slice him in half, he doesn't get a destiny because of Test 2, I draw a 5 or something, and smash him into the ground. I'm not quite sure, but I think the game ended up that battle. FW+13, 2(0)
Highlights: Still undefeated against Ralltiir Ops...
Lowlights: None really, it was a great game.
Game 4: My Dark vs. Joe Mornout's [Corellia,1891] Mains and Toys I had heard of Joe before and knew he was a really good player, so I knew this would be a tough one to win. He starts Throne Room with Farm, Swamp, and Nudj's, which makes me think he's playing Revo, but I didn't see a single Revo all game. I get Vader out at a Docking Bay to flip my Objective, and soon reinforce him with his Saber and Tarkin on Tempest 1. He deploys some guys including a spy to cancel my Visage, and I respond with Come Here You Big Coward. I get some guys at my other docking bay to drain too, and he deploys Luke at the Cantina. I don't have my duel card for Luke, and Visage is canceled with guys sitting there, so it doesn't bother me too much. For a while, I'm draining for 3 while he's draining for 2, so I'm happy. He decides to do something about this, however, and deploys Chewie and BoShek to Yavin and kills or moves away his Nudjs to drain for 2 more. Now I'm the one that needs to go do something about it, so I stack some destiny with Reactor Terminal and pick up Vader. I then deploy Vader to kill Chewie, but he Rebel Barrier's him. He drops Obi in front of Vader and sits tight. I activate up to those destinies I tracked, and duel Obi with Focused Attack. He plays Courage and Glancing Blow. I draw a 6, which he cancels right away, and then proceed to draw a 7 and another 6. His destiny isn't shabby though, and I end up having 19 to his 21. I lose Vader and 6, and the game just goes downhill from there. FL-10, 4(-10)
Highlights: I was winning, for a while at least.
Lowlights: After the game, I realized I was incredibly stupid. When I dueled Obi, I had EPP Vader in my hand. If I had replaced Vader before dueling, I would have tied instead of lost.
Game 5: My Dark vs. Ted Panczynsyn's [Coruscant,1628] Hidden Base Odds
Well, I'd rather not have gotten paired against Ted, but I'd never played him before, so it's all good. Ted's rather known for playing inserts all the time, but I was told he was actually playing Mains at Scott's tournament last week, so I was hoping. :-) He started Hidden Base, and I got Vader at a Docking Bay right away. He drops Momaw and some high destiny guys at the Holotheatre, canceling Visage. I get out my other battleground Docking Bay and deploy Search And Destroy. He inserts some, I try to look for my Tortures without activating too much. He's canceling my drains, though, and draining in space, and making me pay one to draw, so it's tough. He's losing to Search And Destroy, but that's the only damage I'm doing to him, and I'm forgetting a lot. He's using Visored Vision some, and gets one of my Tortures with it. I eventually get Security Precautions out and some ships to probe, and in a few turns probe his base. He It Could Be Worse's for 8 to satisfy Precautions damage. I lose both of my ships in battles. Eventually, an insert pops and I lose. FL-10, 4(-20)
Highlights: Yes, there is a reason Search And Destroy is in my deck.
Lowlights: Yuck
Game 6: My Light vs. Kris Bourgon's [Hoth Ice Plains, 1300] Hunt Down
I have very little recollection of this game at all. He deploys Vader and Bane Malar at one of those drain +1 Endor sites, and gives Vader a saber. I get my Mos Eisley and Cantina out, and deploy Ben with Saber and some other mains there. He gets out the Holotable, and almost immediately after, I lose both of my Transmission Terminateds in rapid succession of my reserve deck. I think I eventually cancel Visage with a spy or something, though, so it's all good. Anyway, he draining me for 2, because Test 1 is in effect, I'm draining him for 4 with Cantina, Mos Eisley, and Ben's Saber, so he Elis's both of them over to Mos Eisley. He epic duels Ben with Focused Attack. I play Courage, he draws 1,5,1, I Glancing Blow his 5, and win easily. Bane tries to run away to Mos Eisley, but I just use the Mos Eisley text to chase him during my control phase and beat the stuffing out of him. The game ended shortly thereafter. FW+16, 6(-4)
Game 7: My Light vs. Robin Mayne's [Hoth North Ridge,1585] Tat Occ
This turned out to be a pretty fun game. I started Dagobah, and the first thing he did was deploy the Bus with Vader, Niado Duegad, and Blizzard Scout 1, and landed on Dagobah. Fortunately, I found my Bacta Tank right away. Yoda, of course, runs away, and the Bus takes off again. I deploy EPP Luke from my reserve deck to Vader's site, and move Yoda back over. He battles me, Luke slices through Niado, and Blizzard 1 and Luke are lost to attrition, except Luke goes to the Tank. During my turn, I activate a bit, use the Training Area text to get a Jedi Test, get Luke out of the Tank, and deploy Luke on Dagobah again with Great Warrior. I battle him, Luke chops through Vader, and I again lose Luke to the Bacta Tank. I've successfully fended off an attack on Dagobah! Anyway, I deploy Ben, Chewie and Melas to one of his Tatooine sites, and he ATWYS's them, and Ben gets lost. Then he deploys a Krayt Dragon! I futilely try to beat it up, fail, and it eats Chewie. Tawss runs away, only for it to chase him down and eat him next turn. He deploys some stuff and gets the Bus back at Tatooine, reinforcing it with a Death Squad Star Destroyer, and gets out his Tatooine Occupation. I deploy the Redemption with EPP Han and Chewie and take out the Bus. He just deploys another Death Squad, and I eventually take both of them out. At this point, he's got Walkers at two sites, a Krayt Dragon at another, and Jabba and Zuckuss at the Audience Chamber. I get Chewie out of the Bacta Tank, and deploy him and EPP Luke at the Audience Chamber. I Clash Zuckuss and beat up Jabba, and use Yoda to get rid of his attrition. He deploys the Rancor, Trap Doors Chewie, and the Rancor eats him, making him retrieve 6. The funny thing is, the Rancor regurgitates him right into the Bacta Tank! :-) He loses 3 for the Order To Engage I deployed earlier cause he can't battle with Zuckuss. It comes around to my turn, and I can't battle Zuckuss, and he's in my way, so I knock him off with SATM and then drain. He Trap Doors Chewie again, the Rancor eats him again, and again he coughs up the hairball right into the Bacta Tank. :-) Anyway, I've been draining him at Tatooine and at the AC, and I'm starting to wear him down despite his retrieval. I pretty clearly have control of the board, but the time runs out then, so I get a timed win, my 14 to his 5. MW+14, 7(+10)
Game 8: My Dark vs. Joshua Bradley's [Yavin 4, 1739] Revolver
To tell the truth, I have never played against a devoted Revolver before, and this was a bit of a rude awakening (especially at 3 o'clock in the morning). :-) Anyway, he started the normal Throne Room/Farm/Swamp/Nudjs start, and Revolved the Meditation Chamber first turn. He deployed some guys there and moved them over to the Holotheatre to cancel Visage, I deployed CHYBC so he couldn't drain there. Seeing this, he just Revolves it. :-) I end up getting two 1/1 Docking Bays out, Endor and Cloud City. He deploys a Nudj at Endor so I don't activate there, and Obi with Saber and Farmboy with Saber at Cloud City. Every turn, I'm activating 2-3 Force. Every turn, I search for a Docking Bay with IAO, checking to see if I've activated one of my two Evaders. Several turns later, when I finally do, he doesn't try to Sense it (he only has Farmboy out at the time), so I get my Force back. He tries Revolving the Med Chamber again, but that time I had Evader in my hand and get it right away. Anyway, I'm really hurting from his drains and the such, since I haven't been able to do anything for the first part of the game at all. I end up drawing EPP Vader, Tarkin, Circle and Focused Attack. I save up for a while so I can get it all out, but decide not to battle and use Tarkin because I know that if I do so I won't have anything left, as Luke will hit Tarkin, Vader will be lost to attrition, and I won't have any reserve left to draw battle destiny. So I duel Obi with Focused and hope for the best. He plays Courage and draws 6,6,5, and says that he's not been activating for like 5 turns, expecting the duel. Well, that's certainly not what I was hoping for, since I didn't have time to stack my destiny, and I so wasn't paying attention to his activation. My completely random destinies are: 6,6,5. We tie, and we're both completely amazed by that turn of events. Anyway, he deploys EPP Han and EPP Leia, battles, Tarkin cancels one slice through Vader, the other Slice misses, Han shoots Tarkin, Leia declines to take a potshot at Vader, and he draws huge destiny. I lose everything and the game. FL-28, 7(-18)
So I end up 4-4 with a timed win, not too bad for a player of my caliber, I think. John Arendt ended up winning the whole thing, followed by Jim Lafferty, Brian Terwilliger, then Matt Sokol (I think). In any case, I certainly had a good time. Here's a brief recap of the other stuff I participated in at D-Con:
- Young Jedi Sealed Qualifier, I went 3-3, not so much because I had a bad pull, but mostly because the luck of the draw didn't swing in my favor.
- Young Jedi Constructed Qualifier. I was 4-0 and in the lead going into the 5th game, and ended up losing the last two games. Ended up getting 12th. Oh well, those are the breaks.
- Star Wars "No Such Thing As Luck". This is where you had to play your opponent, then switch decks, and play your opponent with his deck. I ended up winning with my EBO deck (even though I didn't get to deploy EBO), then beating my EBO deck (yup, I knew that deck's weaknesses), then winning with my Hunt Down deck, and then losing against my Hunt Down deck, because I couldn't figure out how to beat it with Bruce Savin's aliens deck. :-) So I ended up going 3-1 and getting 4th, not bad.
- Star Wars "Player's Choice" Sealed. This is where you got to pick 4 packs from any expansion to use along with your OTSD, I picked 2 Jabba's Palace, Cloud City, and Endor. I won my first game, lost my next one, and got slaughtered in my next one. At that point, administrative stuff was going really slow, and it was late, and I had to get up early the next morning so I could catch my bus, so I decided to drop and go to sleep. (I really hate dropping, I really do!)
One last note. Never, ever, ever, ever eat a whole bag of those Olestra potato chips. Boy did I ever pay for that one... :-|
Until next time... :-P
-- Doug Faust dlf14@cornell.edu Star Wars TD, based in Ithaca, NY