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Author: Jonathan "jonnychu" Chu
Title: ramapocon-ii-part-deux-5-6-2000
Date Published: 2000-05-08
(continuation from Part One, or stand-alone)
***
Pre-tourney notes
***
Coming off a successful first day of RamapoCon II, I tweak
my decks a little bit prior to the big tournament on
Saturday.
The big decision to make was between playing Yavin 4 droids
or mains. The droid deck is a machine - by now everyone
knows it uses hit and run EPPs for big battle damage,
combined with droid inserts for a huge one or two turn loss
that is difficult, if not impossible, to recover from. The
mains deck was more solid - but also more boring, and it's
been around for a long time. On Friday, Imperial Barrier
was surprisingly popular, making hit and run difficult, and
the area in general was prepped for droids, so mains
became the deck of choice.
Saturday morning, I only made a few changes. In my ROPs deck,
I switched out a Sandwhirl for a Monnok - almost everyone
had heard at some point about some guy who had gotten
everyone Sandwhirled at the desert on Ralltiir, so nobody
was about to deploy or move there. I also swapped Imperial
Decree for Bubo - a tough call. Yavin 4 was rampant and
a first turn Bubo would be, in effect, a 2/0 site for the
purposes of activation, but with 4 destiny. Also, Decree
was always a tough card to get active - with only four
ships in the deck, I never liked to put them at my
battleground systems to control the two system/one site
requirement. For the light side, I swapped my R-3P0 for
an Uncontrollable Fury, mainly because R-3P0 never saw
any action and Fury is huge, if only to get rid of a
You Are Beaten from your opponent's hand. I also switched
Revolution for a Rebel Barrier. The rest of the decks can
be found in my report of Day one.
***
Day 2: the main tournament
***
Sixty-eight people showed up to compete at the second
RamapoCon, held at Ramapo College, NJ. The competition
was stiff; notable names included Brian and Chris Terwiliger,
Matt Sokol, Steve Brentson, Charlie Herren, Mike Dalton,
Chris Praskac, Wojciech Jankowski, and Dan Bojanowski,
among others. Team Albany and Ghetto Squad were out en force.
There were players from ten states, including Michigan,
Georgia and Virginia. Even Juz Pakes and Kevin Reitzel from
Decipher were playing.
The tournament started a little late, but quickly made up
the time - helping Scott Lingrell were Thomas and Blythe
Hermley-Keen, Bart Robinson, and Rich Haman, all of whom
did an excellent job keeping the main event organized and
efficient. Props to them all.
On to the games.
***
Game One: LS vs Wojciech Jankowski (2002)'s Endor Ops
Yeah.... what a great starting opponent. I was hoping for
an easier victory, but I was also confident about the
matchup - I had played Woj, each of us with the same decks,
at last year's RamapoCon and more recently, the Philly GS,
notching wins of 26 and 30, so I knew more or less how to
play it.
I got a decent draw and dropped a 2/0, a nudj and drew. His
turn, he put out two systems to commence the force
activation and drew also. Most of the game, he either had
as much force activation as I did, or more - this worried
me a little because in the previous two matchups I had with
him, he was choked for the greater part of those games. In
any case, I got out an early Bacta Tank, reinforced later
by Savrip, and these allowed me to keep my guys around in
space. I only packed three ships, so this was key. Control
of the ground was mine the whole game, and when Battle Plan
hit the table, I cleared off any guys he had left so he had
to pay for his sparse drains the rest of the game. This
matchup sucks ass for dark.
FW 2(+21)
Highs: Getting the good matchup. Getting out the Tank,
Savrip and having SAC dominate his red cards.
Lows: The matchup sucked for him. Vesden hanging out in the
bunker with a Nudj for a +2 drain somewhere almost every
turn late in the game when I had it in hand.
The big names recorded wins for the most part after the
first game, not surprisingly. One notable upset - Juz beat
Ray Bordier by a good margin. The second game moved in
without any delay - interestingly (and to their loud
disapproval), the Terwiliger brothers were matched up. I
was paired with Patrick Ziagos, from Clarks Summit, PA.
Game Two: ROPs vs Patrick Ziagos (1821)'s Hidden Base Revo
He started Hidden Base... and I thought immediately, auto-
win. He was a really nice guy who played slowly, but
thoroughly. The game started out rough from the first turn -
I got one 2/0 site, which is nice, but his turn, he drops
3 2/0's and revolves mine. So I activate my 3, draw... no
2/0's. He puts out another 2/0 (count the force advantage...
15 to 4) and draws. I hit him with a used monnok to reduce
his hand size drastically but damn he just drew it all
back the turn after. Soon he gets out a Traffic Control
and puts everything he needs in his hand and everything else
back into his deck. He has guys all over my planet and I
was activating basically nothing. The game was slow - I had
a few small victories on the ground here and there - but he
played it smart, always had enough in his hand to wreck what
I put down, and prevented the flip long enough to make it
useless. Civil Disorder locked the game down.
FL 0(-15)
Overall: 2(+6)
Highs: Getting a 2/0 in my hand! That was all...
Lows: I think out of 10 games, ROps would beat his deck
7 or 8. He got a damn good draw, but to his credit, Patrick
played it like a champ, preventing the trademark ROPs
turnaround.
So after getting hammered, I went outside to see how
everyone else had done. Brian had gotten massacred by Chris
by 33 cards, and it seemed like Revolution decks were
pretty popular - both Travis Desell and Chris Praskac
were sporting them and went 6-0 each between this tournament
and the team tournament. I was disappointed in the previous
game but didn't really care and went into game three
ready to kick ass and chew bubble gum...
Game Three: LS vs George Gundry (1543)'s Court Snowtrooper
Odds
That's right... Court Snowtrooper Odds. He played a first
turn Twi'lek and snagged Undercover... and then pulled
Hoth: Docking Bay from his deck and Garindan using the JP
gametext. heheh....
Luke with Lightsaber hit the Sarlacc pit to stop the Court
GT force loss, and I drew. He drew. I got some more
activation and drew... lots of guys in my hand. His turn,
he puts out Serg Major Bursk (the snowtrooper guy), a cadet,
and a snowtrooper... no insert. I slap down Obi-Wan, his
saber, Tawss and some guys for a beating. His cadet moves
away into the Hoth: war room and I sense his Trooper assault
for a load of damage. The rest of this game goes downhill
for him, as he can't keep any guys on the table for insert
and any red cards he put out got SAC'ed away. Hell, his
Sarlacc couldn't even touch Luke. It was a mess.
FW 2(+29)
Overall: 4(+35)
Highs: the game
Lows: not being able to kill Garindan, who sat undercover
in the audience chamber the whole game.
Chris Terwiliger was undefeated at this point, along with
Ghetto Leader himself, sitting at the head table all the
way up to this point. Michael Dalton was also undefeated.
Dalton got paired up with little Twigg and Hodur played
a Team Albany member, Mike D'amboise, who was sporting
a nifty Profit numbers deck. I went back to inching my way
to the top table.
Game Four: my ROPs vs Frank Walsh (1717)'s Profit mains
This game starts real slow... decent draw but after that I'm
getting nothing I need. He draws for like 5 turns straight,
and by then I flip, but I'm not draining for any because
I'm stupid and I put out Battle Order. He flips with eight
cards in his lost pile and retrieves them all. So it goes
back and forth, I'm losing 4, he's losing 4, and it's close.
I don't put out Oppressive because he started Do or Do Not
so there's obviously no SAC involved in his deck... and he
makes me pay by playing On the Edge, tracking a six, when
I have only two cards left. Ouch. That puts the game slightly
in his favor, but he mistracks the next time and kills off
his Obi and the saber that was put on him. Kashyyyk comes
out way too late, but it's enough to put me ahead in the
drain race. Ability^3 plugs him a few times because he only
plays with the main characters basically and First Strike
helps a little bit. The little damage is what does him in.
FW 2(+5)
Overall 6(+40)
Highs: Winning against a player that is better than his
ranking
Lows: I played like a shmuck all game and underestimated
his deck. I won't do that with profit anymore.
I'm going to trim the analysis because my plane is leaving
soon. Hodur is still sitting at the top table, which is
cool as hell. Twigg beat Dalton and is paired up with Hodur;
Praskac is also still undefeated.
Game Five: my ROPs vs Steve Brentson (2031)'s Speeder Ops
This is my first time talking or playing with Steve. I was
looking forward to this game - I thought the matchup was
in my favor because I've played against some of the best
Speeder Ops in the world back in Nashville and I know how
to play ROps against it.
So I start the stuff and begin collecting guys to put all
over his planet. My opening hand helps out a lot - a 2/0,
Tempest 1, Blizzard 2, and Darth Vader EPP. That's power
for you. I draw a little and he goes. He puts out a Flaps
and a site and draws. I plop another 2/0 and draw. During
his turn, he locks flaps, puts out an Incom, an ithorian,
and two speeders at the swamp on Bothauwi. During my turn, I drop Tempest 1,
some 2/2 scrub, and some other guy, trample his engineer,
and commence the beating. He moves his remaining speeders
away and puts out some more to ensure it doesn't get
hammered and draws. My turn, I feel silly and flip with
Arden, some 2/2 scrub and some other 2/2 scrub on ralltiir,
with Barrier as my only protection. But his hand isn't big
enough to pose an immediate threat and I alter his Flaps
successfully when Vader comes down for a beatdown so I feel
safe. The whole game I am retrieving with First Strike when
I battle and making him lose guys. Destinies come out in my
favor - one time he has an engineer, an ithorian and an op
in a speeder at a site. I look for something, see four 3's
in my reserve deck, and trample/capture his guys so he only
gets one destiny. Eventually I flip him back and drain him
out.
FW 2(+16)
Overall 8(+56)
Highs: Getting a great draw, knowing how to play against
the deck and beating a tough opponent.
Lows: nothing, really.
Little Twigg beat Hodur that game, so him and Praskac are
the only two undefeateds left. Unfortunately, they were
the same side so they can't play - I'm at the second table,
playing Travis Desell (who is dark side, luckily for me,
since I pack no Revo protection), while Hodur and Praskac
duke it out in the battle of the Ghetto, and Twigg is
playing the highest 4-1 on his side, John Lolli, at the #1
table.
Game Six: my LS mains vs Travis Desell (1683)'s ROPs.
Travis is a good buddy of mine at home and he's much better
than his rating - he didn't play for a long time, came back
and got hammered. His dark deck was a modified version of
Charlie Herren's ROPs deck he used to win the Florida GS,
and I knew basically every card and also knew that he would
stand a great chance of winning if he got a good draw. That's
ROPs for you, nothing special. So I was happy as hell when
he didn't put down any 2/0's his first turn.
On the other hand, my hand had 2 2/0's in it... hell yeah.
I had like a 15 force difference in activation in my favor
the entire game, and anything he put out got hammered into
oblivion. This game was a total rout - the only 2/0 he put
out all game was the Ice Plains, and I put down Orrimaarko
at my Hoth: War Room and moved over for a drain of two the
whole game. Obi and his saber were draining their share
at the docking bay, and Tantive and some guys were chillin
up in space. Civil Disorder came out and the Lockdown was
complete.
FW 2(+32)
Overall 10(+88)
Highs: my hand was ridiculously good and his was horrible.
There wasn't much of a game in this game. We played outside
right after, same matchups, and it was close but he ended
up winning. Shows how much of a difference a good draw
makes, especially in a close matchup like this.
Lows: none
Little Twigg won again, but Praskac lost to Hodur in a
tough game, so Twigg was the only undefeated. He claimed
first place, and I was the 5-1 player with the highest
differential, so I got to play him in the final duel in
an attempt to defend my RamapoCon title.
Unfortunately I gotta go catch my plane to go back to
Nashville now, so I will include the final duel in Part
3 of my RamapoCon II report, which covers the team
tournament. Thanks for reading.
JC |
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