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Author: Jonathan "jonnychu" Chu
Title: ramapocon-ii-part-1-5-5-2000
Date Published: 2000-05-08
This is just part one of an overly long, extended and
comprehensive tournament report of RamapoCon II. I have
about seven hours until my flight outta here and a computer
lab with T-1 internet access.
***
Pre-tourney notes
***
So my finals end on the Sunday before this tourney, and I
have nothing to do for like five days. I talk to Clint and
we're all about prepping for Ramapo all day Tuesday and
Wednesday. Sunday and Monday I'm throwing together all these
goofy decks like Vegas-style and EV9D9 and Yavin 4 droids
Twigg-style, plus keeping together as much as possible the
tried and true, like ROPs and Hunt Down beats and Yavin 4
mains. Vegas-style is cool as hell and I'm thinking it'd be
fun to play this stuff if I got to learn how to play it.
Tuesday rolls around and me and Clint test a whole bunch at
a local store. Stevens Turner and Lewis drop by and we play
a little. Vegas-style flops around while getting trashed by
Yavin 4 all day long. Numbers eats it alive and the Casino
is nowhere to be found. So I scrap this deck but I figure
it'd be a hella fun to play for No Such Thing As Luck. I've
got like six decks and nothing innovative that works so
I'm set on playing some of my old stuff that does allright.
On Thursday I catch an early flight up to St Louis, then
connect to Newark, NJ. Scotty Lingrell hooks me up with a
and we wait around for Charlie Herren's flight to roll in
from Atlanta. It ends up being delayed for like an hour and
a half so we get a bite to eat, wait on Charlie, then drive
back up to Ramapo to crash at Scott's place. Me and Charlie
are psyched for Sunday's team tourney - we had agreed with
Brentson and Dalton on a team for it. We end up playing our
different decks at some place on campus with Scott's goofy
Anktopot and Juz's Revenge that gets pushed around by
ROPs. At like 2 am we head over to Scott's and crash for
the night.
***
Friday's tournament decks
***
Friday had the first two tournaments of RamapoCon - two
four-game sanctioned constructed SW:CCG, one at 3 and one at 7. The
first one was run by Rich Haman (Red 86) and had twelve
people, including three guys from Michigan that made the
long drive. Two guys from Ohio were supposed to come too,
but they fracked up and drove down the week before. Oops.
The competition was pretty good - nobody expected a really
large turnout for the first event. Notables included Mike
Dalton and Charlie Herren, as well as Scott and myself.
I decided to play Yavin 4 droids and ROPs. Y4 droids was a
tough call - I think in most places it would work so much
better than a Yavin 4 mains deck, but here, where Juz's
Revenge originated, everyone would know how to play against
it. Since most tournaments end up being all about matchups
anyways, I figured it'd be cool to play and see how it did
to help make my choice for the big tourney on Saturday.
Here are the decks on Friday - I'm posting them here and
not in the deck section because these decks have been put
there in every single ass variant possible.
Yavin 4 droids, modified Twigg-style:
Locations (6)
Yavin 4: Throne Room
Farm
Swamp
Dejarik Hologameboard
Rendezvous Point
Dagobah: Yoda's Hut
Guys (15)
Luke with Lightsaber x3
Obi with Lightsaber x2
Captain Han Solo
Leia with Blaster
Bousshh
Artoo
R2-D2 x2
8D8 x3
Wedge Antilles
Creatures (2)
Nudj x2
Starships (3)
Tantive IV
Spiral
Millenium Falcon
Effects (20)
Draw Their Fire
Frozen Assets
Uncontrollable Fury
Wise Advice
Traffic Control
Do Or Do Not
Never Tell Me The Odds x5
Mechanical Failure
What're You Trying to Push x2
Projection of a Skywalker x2
Battle Plan
Wars Not Make One Great
Order To Engage
Legendary Starfighter
Interrupts (14)
Gift of the Mentor
Visored Vision x3
Glancing Blow
The Signal x4
Careful Planning
Effective Repairs x2
Transmission Terminated x2
Brief notes: Everything should be self-explanatory. Order
To Engage is in case the guy you're playing really knows
how to play the game and doesn't draw destiny to kill off
your hit and run mains, leaving them stranded and messing
up your numbers. Jim Sells did his to me at the Detroit GS.
For dark, I played ROPs:
Objective (1): Ralltiir Ops
Locations (12)
Ralltiir
Forest
Jungle
Desert
Spaceport Docking Bay
Kashyyyk
Death Star
Coruscant
Hoth: Wampa Cave
Hoth: Ice Plains
Executor: Meditation Chamber
Dagobah: Cave
Vehicles (7)
Tempest 1
Blizzard 2
Tempest Scout 1
Tempest Scout 2
Tempest Scout 3
Tempest Scout 5
Blizzard Scout 1
Starships (4)
Zuckuss in Mist
Bossk in Bus
Boba in Slave 1
Vader's Personal Shuttle
Guys (18)
Darth Vader with Lightsaber
Darth Vader, DLOTS
Grand Moff Tarkin
Commander Igar
Lieutenant Arnet
Navy Trooper Vesden
Lieutenant Cabbel
Officer Evax
DS-61-2
Admiral Ozzel
AT-ST Pilot x3
Mara Jade
IG-88 with Riot
Major Marquand
Lieutenant Watts
Lieutenant Commander Arden
Effects (12)
Battle Order
Resistance
Imperial Arrest Order (start)
Security Precautions
Oppressive Enforcement
There'll Be Hell to Pay x2
Search and Destroy
Ability, Ability, Ability
Sandwhirl
Imperial Decree
First Strike
Interrupts (6)
Imperial Barrier
Alter x2
Masterful Move
Trample
Twi'lek Adviser
Brief notes: Your standard ROPs. I don't pack Revolution
protection because it's a waste of space IMHO. A good Revo
deck will rip apart ROPs anyways unless you pack like a
Crush and 3 Evaders, and if you can fit that in here you're
a champ. Ability^3 is a choice call but I like it - early
game it forces your opponent to play out of his game, and
late game it makes him put down guys for you to wreck. It's
great against Profit and Dagobah, and anything that forces
your opponent to use force and put down guys when he would
much rather be drawing for the big beatdown is solid.
***
Friday: first tournament
***
Game One: my DS vs Todd Theiner (1756)'s Hidden Base mains.
This game was pretty trademark of ROPs - it starts slow
then mows people down. He started Battle Plan.I got a decent
draw, put down a 2/0, searched for a site, and drew. He did
the same during his turn. This went on for two turns, then
I started saving force and flipped strong like fifth turn.
Wherever he put down guys, I wrecked them. He eventually
flipped his Objective but I got Security out and probed
right within two turns. The deck worked like a machine.
FW: 2 (+18)
Highs: This deck is an auto-win against Hidden Base. Or
so I thought...
Lows: none
Game Two: my LS vs Mike Dalton (2023)'s Court space
I didn't want this matchup at all - Dalton is a good friend
of Scott's and must have played against Scott's version
of Y4 droids a billion times. Luckily he was playing a fun
deck and not his machine Hunt Down or ROPs.
I got an OK draw and put out a Nudj, losing to Court and
drawing. He started Surface Defense with all three and put
out an 0/1 Docking Bay, lost to Court, and drew. Next turn,
he put out some aliens and Scum and fortified the chamber.
I projectioned the audience chamber, lost to Court for like
five turns, eventually getting out the Hologameboard, a guy
there, Battle Plan, and Boussh at the Sarlacc pit to stop
the Court loss without having to worry about Hutt Smooch
or any of that trash. He missed a Sniper with IG-88 and we
were pretty much at a standstill.
The turning point was when I put down Artoo and 8D8 and
inserted. My total was 11 and his was 3; Hologameboard
covered my part of Resistance and there were only two
battlegrounds on the table. His deck was about fortifying
on the ground and then running space with forfeit and
bounty hunter ships, but an early monnok revealed Captain
Han, EPP Leia and the Falcon in my hand, so he was wary of
playing any space battlegrounds. The insert changed his mind.
He put out Zuckuss in Mist at Endor, moved Mara over to
the Sarlacc Pit, put a guy on Zuckuss, moved the Death Star
(the only other system out) to parsec 1, and drew.
My turn, I put out the Falcon which promptly got barriered.
Nevertheless, in went Captain Han and Luke EPP (Leia was
hanging out on the ground undercover). Drew. Insert popped
for 0 during his turn, and he put down Bossk in and Battled
the almost super-falcon. I cleared the system with stacked
destinies and legendary starfighter hit the table. This
card won me the game. A late Tantive IV and Wedge, and
a stranded Boba Fett in Slave 1 at the Death Star vs
the Supra-Falcon and Tantive reinforced the victory.
FW 2(+6): Cumulative 4(+24)
Highs: Legendary Starfighter - thanks Hays for this one.
A close game... these are the most fun.
Lows: none, really. It worked well and I played it pretty
well too.
Game Three: my LS vs Scott Lingrell (1886)'s Anktopot.
This deck is so messed up on paper, but it works like a
machine! He only plays like 6 different cards with ability,
and the rest is all about high destinies. He flipped second
or third turn and got good activation - a Coruscant in his
opening hand helped this alot (he only runs like five
locations). I got off one insert, but losing to Visage hurt
all game long and he tortured my second insert and cancelled
Uncontrollable. I couldn't draw an EPP with a saber fast
enough to kill Vader and get around his junk like Put All
Sections on Alert. Holonet Transmissions killed my TT's.
This game was a rout.
FL 0(-16): Cumulative 4(+8)
Highs: Taking a few hits early and hanging in the game...
a different draw might have made it closer.
Lows: Stopping everything I had for him.
Game Four: ROPs vs Scott Lingrell (1886)'s LS droids.
I knew his deck so he didn't stand much of a chance. I
started Resistance instead of IAO to force him to deploy a
guy to cover his portion of occupying at least one
battleground. I set up fast and put all my guys in walkers
to avoid the EPP beatdown and have enough forfeit to cover
any battle damage. He could never get anything going.
FW 2(+20): Cumulative 6(+28)
Highs: none... I knew his deck and knew what I needed to do
to absolutely shut it down.
Lows: the same.
I was the only 3-1, getting second place, while Charlie
Herren went 4-0 and nabbed first and a Captain Han foil.
***
Tournament two
***
Many people started to roll in around 5 and 6, including
Juz Pakes, Kevin Reitzel, and Dan Bojanowski from Yavin 4,
and Team Albany from Coruscant. The second tournament
started half an hour or so after the first one ended, with
28 participants.
For decks I played the same ROPs deck as before and played
Y4 mains instead of droids.
Y4 mains deck:
Locations (11)
Y4: Throne Room
Farm
Swamp
Endor: Chief Chirpa's Hut
Tatooine: Obi's Hut
Dagobah: Yoda's Hut
Rendezvous Point
Hoth: War Room
Y4: Massassi HQ
Cloud City: Carbonite Chamber
CC: Lower Corridor
Effects (5)
Bacta Tank
Mantellian Savrip
Battle Plan
Revolution
Civil Disorder
Ships (3)
Tantive IV
Spiral
Millenium Falcon
Characters (18)
Luke EPP x2
Obi-Wan EPP
Obi-Wan Kenobi x2
Leia EPP
Boussh
Han EPP x2
Chewie EPP
Lando EPP
Oola
Harc Seff
Tawss Khaa
Melas
Orrimaarko
Wedge Antilles
R-3p0
Interrupts (18)
Sense x4
Alter x2
Careful Planning
The Signal
Glancing Blow
Shocking Information x2
Out of Commission
Transmission Terminated x2
Smokescreen x2
It Could Be Worse
Nabrun Leids
Creatures (2)
Nudj x2
Weapons (2)
Obi-Wan's Saber x2
Device (1)
Landing Claw
Brief notes: This deck was pretty junky for a Y4 deck, but
I didn't put a lot of time into it. I forgot to put back
stuff I had taken out for the droid deck, like Draw Their
Fire and Order to Engage. Oh well.
Game One: My LS vs Manny Rodriguez (1550)'s Biker Scouts
He started Combat Readiness, taking out Endor: Forest
Clearing and Dark Forest. I had gotten absolutely raped
by a deck like this back in Nashville the week before, but
I had been playing droids instead of mains. Whew. He put
down a biker scout with a bike at both sites and drew for
his turn, and I proceeded to destroy them with guys. The
game was all played on Endor, except for Melas who was
pinging him for two at the Carbonite Chamber the entire time.
Savrip was out for protection and basically his troupe of
seven bikers and bikes, three of which had guns, drained me
for one or two at one site while I plugged him for 2 with
Melas, 2 at one of his sites with Han and Chewie and 2 at
another Endor site with Obi and his saber. Boussh prevented
him from cancelling my drains with Strategic Reserves.
The game was over pretty quickly.
FW 2(+24)
Highs: SAC and mains wreck!
Lows: none.
Game Two: DS vs Luis Rodriguez (1708)'s QMC deck.
ROPs got a great start in this game, flipping safely by
third turn. He got a first turn flip with Wedge in Premiere
Falcon and Lando with at the guest quarters, but Zuckuss and
Evax reflipped. Once ROps got flipped, I beat him off
every single location he had a guy on and drained him out.
He never came to Ralltiir.
FW 2(+29): Cumulaive 4(+53)
Highs: The deck worked like a machine. Deploy -1 Tarkin,
Vader and IG-88 with a stacked destiny wrecking the hell
out of one guy.
Lows: none.
Game Three: my LS vs Dan Bojanowski (2055)'s ROPs.
This matchup is usually decided by who gets the good draw...
I got it this game. A bunch of 2/0's in my opening hand put
Obiwan on his planet with Bacta backup. A saber followed.
He put out a few guys but a smokescreen and power beat them
off his planet. Tantive and a guy hit Ralltiir but he
manhandled them with three bounty hunter ships. That was
the only low - soon after Oola and Civil Disorder put down
the lock.
FW 2(+20ish): Cumulative 6(+70ish)
Highs: The lockdown. A great draw.
Lows: It would've turned out opposite if he had gotten his
2/0's and me none..
Game Four: ROPs vs Rich Haman (1767)'s Y4 mains.
Rich is a great guy and this game was solid and a lot of
fun. He got a pretty good draw, but so did I - we both had
2/0's out early. He avoided my desert like the plague but
put down some guys at my docking bay and drew a lot. I got
enough stuff in my hand to flip but waited a few turns,
activating and drawing a little bit each time but no more
than two cards each time. Took a few drains of one or two
but then I flipped and held it down almost the whole game -
he flipped me back once but I reflipped the next turn.
High destinies and not battling until I was ready won the
game. Pulling anything you want out of your deck is huge!
FW 2(+teens): Cumulative 8(+80something)
Highs: a great game! Well fought and nobody got really
screwed with draws.
Lows: none
Me and Dalton both went undefeated, but I had the higher
diff so got the Jabba Foil. Scott had everyone sign three
Endor posters - the one with Luke and Leia flying a speeder
bike through the forest alongside a biker scout - and those
were given out as prizes, along with packs. Both tournaments
were run well - Rich ran the first and Scott the second.
Brentson didn't play on Friday but between me, Dalton and
Charlie, we claimed the top two spots both days. Our team
was looking strong for Sunday!
Props and Slops for Day 1:
Props
~Scott for handling everything well and moving us to a room
that had air-conditioning
~The team for placing well in both tourneys
~ROPs because it's a machine
~Juz and Kevin and Dan for making the drive up to play
(sorry about the 0-4 finish Juz)
~everyone for being great sports!
Slops
~The heat - it must've been 95 degrees outside
~Scott's Anktopot for wrecking the hell outta me
~Team Albany not playing Friday night to not reveal their
tech (Hunt Down and Y4... surprise)
~Ramapo College for closing the cafeteria at 7 p.m.
Thanks for reading all this, it's long as hell but I'm
gonna be as thorough as possible to cover everything.
Hopefully I'll be able to put up the big tourney on Saturday
later today... if not, then soon. Look for Part Two!
JC
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