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Author: Eric "Grimnok" Olson
Title: corellia-regional-5th-place-6-3-00
Date Published: 2000-06-04
Obligatory road trip story:
Geoff Snider and Jason Markley make the trip up from Normal, IL to my
apartment near Chicago, and show up an hour late at 12:30 in the
afternoon. Geoff has brought a mini tape recorder to do some interviews
for an Older Code, http://starwars.cyberianet.com. Not
surprisingly, they had already started recording various amusing
anecdotes on the drive up from Normal. Apparently, a WB Vine Snake hit
an Illinois State Trooper on I-55, and they were almost pulled over.
But Geoff must have canceled the Trooper Assault, and they made it up
here.
After resting in my apartment for a few minutes, and reliving some of
the more humorous memories of the 2 hour journey up here, we embarked
on our journey to Detroit. Much humor was had on the trek to Detroit,
but only Joe Alread, chief computer guy for Older Code, will determine
what is suitable for publication ;) Our long journey was extended when
a key exit was closed for repairs, and I ended up driving all over Ann
Arbor and its surroundings, including the Univ. of Michigan campus. But
we made it to the hotel with a 45 minute delay.
Obligatory night before portion:
By the time we had arrived, I had decided to play Rops for dark side,
but I still had not figured out what I wanted to play for the Light
side,
so we began our playtesting. Sometime during the process, I had
determined I was going to play the Snider speed Profit deck since it was
more straight forward than my alternative deck, Test to 2. By around
11, we had wondered if the Indiana crew who was supposed to stay with us
(Brian Fred, along with an unknown assortment of guys), were going to
show up, but they eventually did. By this time, I had just wanted to
get to sleep, since it was already 2 in the morning, and we needed to
get up between 7:30 and 8. But I could not sleep, so Markley, Fred, and
myself, decided to stay up all night to test decks.
Sometime between 5 and 6 in the morning, I decided that the Profit deck
relied too heavily on the opening hand, and decided to switch to Test
to 2 deck, despite the Older Code interview 7 hours before. We left the
hotel, and arrived at the tournament location at about 9:30. By this
time, I could barely stay awake. We ended up starting the tournament
around 10:30. I was hoping for an easy first game to try to wake myself
up, unfortunately, this did not happen.
Game 1: DS vs. standard Throne Room (Brian Fred, 2128)
Going into this game, my plan for dealing with Throne Room was to only
deploy the Desert to Raltiir, and hold off on the other generic sites
until I could safely flip. I was able to do this, and have the right
combination of Barriers/Reacts/Alters/Grabbers to withstand the first
attack on Raltiir. I think I was able to keep the objective flipped for
the entire game, and use his Draw Their Fire more than he was
giving me an advantage. The key plays were Iggy w/ Gun capturing Melas
in the Executor ending his drain there, and Premiere Vader and Obi
battling with sabers on the Jungle, and Vader hit, and Ben missed,
giving me a steady drain of 2 for the remainder of the game. I win by
6.
2 (+6)
Game 2: LS vs. ECC Objective Dark Deal/Occupation deck.
This is one of my better match ups, and I was able to get my Testing
done, and use various cheesiness such as Clash, Barrier, Sorry About the Mess,
Order to Engage, Scramble to win fairly easily. I win by 23.
4 (+29)
Game 3: DS vs. standard Profit (Ed Rebman?, 1863)
I was able to flip and again have the right combination of defensive
cards to withstand his first attack. I keep the objective flipped, and
eventually manage to kill Han eliminating his drain. Most of the damage
came from Uncontrollable Fury and EPP Luke camping out in the Audience
Chamber, and Boussh on Raltiir. In retrospect, I should have come for
the beatdown with Vader on EPP Luke when he was on Raltiir because it
was not necessary to drop that much power to get rid of Luke, and I
missed with my swing anyway ;) I win by 14.
6 (+43)
Game 4: LS vs. beatdown Court (Casey Galvan?, 1969)
He starts Bad Feeling, but his objective gives me enough force to pull
Yoda on the first turn, and Daughter on the 2nd turn, so it does not
slow me down too much, it just gives me less cards in hand to lose to early
drains. I was able to finish Test 1 only missing one draw, and with the
help of Electrobinoculars, able to guarantee the 2nd test. I was able
to Uncontrollable Fury Vader early on, and Weapon Lev his first You are
Beaten. And I was able to Effective Repairs soon after his 2nd one, so
I was getting 2 cards a turn most of the game. I was keeping keep up
with his space drains with EPP Luke w/ Proficiency and Barrier/Sorry About
the Mess to protect him. I get EPP Obi to the Cantina to start winning
the damage race, and EPP Han and Orrimaarko with the help of Scramble,
are able to clear his Audience Chamber stopping his last ground drain.
Throughout the game, EPP Vader managed to Alter Projection of a
Skywalker several times, but with Wise Advice, I was able to recycle
them, and managed to keep one on his drain +1 site eliminating that
drain. I win by 8.
8 (+51)
Game 5: LS vs. Vader/Tarkin/Jade Hunt Down (Jason Ogden?, 1874)
I had a Tunnel Vision in my hand on the first turn, but looking through
my reserve deck every turn, I never had the opportunity to Tunnel Vision
for either a Wind Chimes or a Bothan Spy, since they were all in my
reserve deck, and eventually, they were all lost off the top. The 2nd
Uncontrollable Fury was able to keep the game reasonably close, but he
got out his space drains to keep ahead of the damage race. He got out
the Hoth War Room/Responsibility of Command combo on EPP Obi to stop my
drain of 3 at my Cloud City lower corridor, but by that point, the game
was really over already. I lose by 15.
8 (+36)
Game 6: DS vs. Hidden Base #s/Kessel Run
This was a relatively easy game, and I manage to flip and get out Navy
Trooper Vesden before his first insert pops, giving me a 14 total to his
5. Search and Destroy was also active most of the game until he landed
some ships and Freighter Captains on my Raltiir, which I was able to get
rid of. I win by 28.
10 (+64)
I end up tied for 4th, and the first tie breaker after differential was
head to head, but we never played each other, and the second breaker was
highest win, but we were tied after that as well. I would technically lose out
on the next breaker to second highest win, so I came in 5th place.
Brian Fred won the final duel by 1 or 2 points after two very good games
against Jared Lockwood. Since we would have gotten back late, we
skipped the usual after tournament festivities, and got on the road for home.
Eric Olson |
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