Well, before I get into the actual games, I'll tell you a bit about our trip to Winnipeg. Shane Butler, Jeff Kasper and I piled into my car late Friday afternoon to make the trek. After a quick stop at the card store for extra Deck Protectors, we were off. The drive from Fargo/Moorhead to Winnipeg is about 3.5 hours, driving 80 mph. It's pretty much a straight shot north on I-29. Anyway, we reached the border around seven. The border guard asked the usual questions, and of course, was perplexed as to the nature of our "Star Wars tournament." After he was satisfied we were telling the harmless truth, we were off, and we came up with the "Top 10 things to say when crossing the border" Highlights included:
"We aren't the droids you're looking for move along"
"$.53/liter for gas? We could almost buy our own car for that!!"
"Canada's sort of weird. It's almost like, Bizzaro America!"
Well, that out of the way, we made our way to Winnipeg, and were there in under an hour. When we finally found our hotel, Jeff called a friend of his who showed us around downtown Winnipeg (including the prostitutes, which I really didn't need to see!) and brought us to a pizza joint. After some socializing, Shane and I returned to the hotel for some last minute tweaking and some shuteye.
Next day, after some much-needed sleep, we got up and walked a few blocks to the tourney location. Many players had already gathered there, and we met up with our cohorts from the Twin Cities, including Mike Raveling, Tony Selbitschka, Paul Cairns, Eric Wetterlind, Matt Moses and Scott Hamman. Eventually we noticed Joe Alread and his entourage from Indiana. We decided that the competition would be tough, and we were not disappointed. Being a tournament director myself, I don't get to play in many tournaments. In fact, the last tourney I played in before this one was way back in May. This is my first Qualifier event ever, so I'm a little nervous, and very excited. After an hour delay, we finnaly got started.
My decks: LS is a basic Torbo-Santuary, but of my own design. I'm going to offer this deck to Beakman to be posted, so you can look there to see it (hopefully J ).
DS is a fairly untested skrilling quicksand deck. I'm pretty nervous about this deck. It uses Pote, Wuher, 2 Vaders and skrillings to control Tat. +1 FD sites. Also included, Ability3, Location3, Visage of the Empire and 3720 to 1, Monnok and some other stuff.
Game 1 vs. Anthony Selbitschka of St. Paul, MN
Sort of sucks that I have to play against someone I know, but it's not
all bad because we've never actually played each other before. He's LS,
and starts the Holotable, and I don't recall if he had an SI. I start
Tat: JP, and choose Ability3 as my SE. This hits him hard all game, as
the only ability in his deck are Eloms. On his first turn, he deployed
Hoth: Shield Generators, but couldn't find the North Ridge! So I was
able to see pretty much his entire deck right away. HUGE advantage for
me. My skrillings deployed freely all game with little concern about
battles. I also pulled Wuher with AC game text right away to negate any
possibility of A Gift. Soon after, Location3 also came out and hit him
pretty hard all game. Early on, he had a Savrip at his holotable, and I
deployed both my Monnoks there to dispatch it. After draining there for
one turn, I pulled them back, which ended up being a wise move. In the
end, he offered little resistance, and I won by 23.
2(+23)
Hightlights: 3,720 to 1 hit him early, and my effects made their way to
the table early to give me a decided edge.
Lowlights: Deploying a Visage to the Holotheatre at the end. It was
unnecessary and cost me much needed differential.
Game 2 vs. Dave Magee of Winnipeg
Well, what can I say? I play my cheesy Sanctuary, and it's a fast,
relatively uneventful game. We are the second ones done, and couldn't
have taken more than 20 minutes. Dave started Audience Chamber/Scum &
V., I started Kashyyyk/Ultimatum. It was a drain race from the start,
as he had no ships and I had no ground. Sanctuary came out early, and
he slowly got out all his Tat: +1 FD sites out w/expand the
empire/Mosep. I palyed rebel reinforcements at one point and got back 5
Y-wings. Then, on my second to last turn, I drained him down to 1
force. Damn! He knocked me for 10 more on his turn before I finnished
him. I ended up winning by 5, just the # I retrieved! Close, fast
game. Dave was a great sport, and I would love to play him in a
friendly game sometime.
4(+28)
Hightlights: Winning by 5 due to retrieval
Lowlights: I let an early Monnok hit me, which slowed me down a lot.
Game 3 vs. Joe Alread of Libertyville, IL
Well, to say the least I'm nervous as hell going into this game. Never
met Joe before, and it's cool that I had to play him and all, but I half
expected to get pasted going into this game. Then I realized that I was
playing my LS (thank God!), and I decided that I had a chance. Joe
starts the same as Dave did in my previous game, and it's soon clear
that he is playing a skrilling/numbers deck. I have an excellent draw,
with Kessel, X-Wing, Y-Wing, Big One, Asteroid Field, Sanctuary, Hyper
Escape and A Few Maneuvers. So turn 1, I lay the Y-Wing down at Kessel,
put the asteroid sectors there with the X-wing and Sanctuary at the Big
One, and the race is on!! Skrillings made their way to the Tat: +1 FD
sites, and about mid-game, Joe finds his Den of Thieves to help him out.
He plays at least 2 inserts during the game, possibly three, but never
hit me hard. Due to some good maneuvering on my part, Ultimatum was
always in effect when they popped up. At one point, I had ships at
Kessel and Kashyyyk and a Big One, and I had a feeling that Numbers
would be up next turn if I activated enough. So I moved my ship at the
Big One to the next Asteroid Field, and next turn it was revealed! I
managed to keep up with an early Ability3, and eventually retrieved 5
Y-wings again. The rest of the game was just a drain race, but I ended
up on top. Win by 8.
6(+36)
Hightlights: Beating Joe Alread and playing an extremely tight game.
Lowlights: Honestly, I don't think I made a single mistake (for once).
I played that game about as perfectly as I possibly could have.
Lunch Break - Walked down to the downtown Mall, where we found a food court. We ate Chinese and talked about our chances. Shane had gone 1-2, Jeff 2-1, and I was one of only 4 undefeated people in the tournament at that point. Man, this competition was tough!
Game 4 vs. Brian Fred of Lafayette, Indiana
How quickly the thrill of victory can be replaced by the agony of
defeat! Brian is LS, and starts Holotable/Do or Do Not. I started
Ability3, thinking that this game might be similar to my first. How
wrong that assessment was! I had a poor starting hand, with no
characters. I managed to keep Obi out of the Palace for one turn with
NSP, but he was back the next turn. Then came a corvette with Figgy,
and my Ability3 was gone. I get Vader and a Circle in my hand, but
since Obi has his saber it's useless. I begin a frantic search for a
lightsaber. This poor decision results me getting Grimtashed, and I
loose both Vaders, Bobos and 2 Twileks. It's all downhill from
there. Lose by 26.
6(+10)
Hightlights: I played an excellent opponent. Very courteous, and we
chatted a little after the game.
Lowlights: Drawing a 7 for Abyssin Ornament when I needed to draw <6.
Played poorly and had bad luck.
Game 5 vs. Anthony Selbischka (again)
I'm forced to play Tony yet again. Oh well. At least I get to romp
with my LS. Tony starts Droid Workshop and Bad Feeling. No problem, I
think to myself. I had never seen an EV-9D9 deck before, and I got a
rude awakening when he deployed her w/about 6 power droids on turn 1.
Thankfully, I was able to put Ultimatum in effect right away, and it was
not such a big deal. Tony forgot to draw Asteroid destiny the whole
game, and I once again retrieved 5 Y-Wings. Not too eventfull
otherwise. I win by 14.
8 (+24)
Hightlights: Talking with Tony again.
Lowlights: Uneventful game, but that's what I get for my
non-interaction strategy!
Game 6 vs. Scott Hamman of Hastings, MN
Another of the Cities boyz, Scott is a fairly quiet guy. But he beat me
in a real loud way. This game was pitiful for me. He played a LS
anti-JP. He quickly got Obi and Luke w/sabers and B'omars out to drain
me to threads. I got nothing. Vader made a quick appearance vs. Luke,
but Vader's swing missed, and died to a 5 destiny draw. End up loosing
by 34.
8(-10)
Hightlights: Killing one B'omar Monk.
Lowlights: The rest of the game, and my whole DS deck.
Well, after all was said and done, I ended up in 18th place (I think) out of 46 players. I'm happy with that, especially since I ended up with a winning record. That's more than I can say for Shane, who ended 2-4, and Jeff I think ended 3-3. Scott Hamman placed highest of all of us Minnesotans, with 7th place. A big surprise was Michael Raveling, one of the top players in the Bespin region, doing about as well as Shane did. Well, out of 46 players, not a one of them were bad. It was an amazing experience to play with so many experts. In the end, Brian Fred and Eric Orleanna played in the Finals, where Eric won both games to go on to join his brother Chris at the Worlds. Congratulations to all for a great day and a wonderful tournament. Thanks especially to Mike Hughes for running it, to Shane and Jeff for riding with me, and to the cities guys for keeping me entertained between games!
-Kurt Schlichting