I’ve got a ton to say about the MPC and while I’ll crosspost this on decktech for archival purposes, this will be the uncensored draft because th user agreement when you become a premium member on this site is that you can have a completely uncensored blog.
I really want to start with the Dinelle stuff because it’s been boiling my blood all day. On the way to work this morning I actually had to engage in some deep breathing to calm myself down because I really thought I should’ve lost my cool on Sunday. I’m sort of glad I didn’t because I don’t know what everyone would have thought about me losing it like that, I don’t even think justin and steve have seen me absolutely lose my shit over something but I was ready to snap in my game against Dinelle and thinking about it was driving me nuts.
So I’ll get to all that. But if I’m going to do it chronologically (and I am) It’s going to start with where Steve and I created the profit that wrecked house this weekend by steve on days 1 and 2, and by chu on day 2.
My parents have a house down cape cod and it’s pretty fun to go to the beach and play cards all day at a beach house, grab some drinks at night and chill outside in the cool, summer air. One of these summer days Steve and I decided to go down and just get games and Justin was thinking about meeting us but wasn’t sure yet. On the way down steve and I were just shooting the shit about cards and I was like “I think profit could be good, I’ve been thinking about it a lot.” And he said he was just looking at profit shit and we could probably make a solid one. I wanted to use rebel leadership as an activation platform with don’t forget the droids since seeking pulled r2 and 3p0 and made them cheap. He wanted to use destiny adders like Rug Hug, Skywalkers and Gift of the Mentor and deploy with seeking the guy corresponding to the adders in your hand. So we went to work right there.
Steve was pulling cards out and had two long boxes open with cards in the door tray, the middle tray and all over his lap when we saw the blue lights flashing behind us. I didn’t think I was speeding but when decks are being built in the car I RARELY look at the road, let alone the spedomitor, so who knows. I pull over and obviously steve can’t just put away a ton of cards so the cop asks for my shit and then goes “are those starwars cards? My buddy collects those things and sells stuff like that on ebay for a ton of money.” Turns out my registration was expired or something stupid that I can’t even understand how the cop saw it and let us go.
We put that shit together and it ran pretty well. There were some incarnations of it and maybe I’ll do a blog entry about the progression in my normal style, but that day is not today. I played the deck at PA States and it went 2-1 losing to tanks by 1. It has some problems with tanks but there was no Yoda MOF V out then either which made this deck infinitely better.
So summer went by, into worlds, Profit was good but we were expecting a lot of tanks so I shelved the deck in favor of WYS Spies which doesn’t have any autolosses and doesn’t have too many auto wins (though combat is up there). I took this deck to the top 8 of worlds, switched to combat and got wtfpwned by tom hollingworth in the day 3 play but still earned a lot of money on the weekend splitting 1/2/5th with Chu and Justin.
Now going into the MPC I knew profit with Yoda was very strong, but one of the things we in the KTOD preach is the advantage being “locked into” a deck can bring you, and I was locked into WYS spies even though the diffs are reasonably low.
For dark the only thing that really worried me about playing senate was combat and we came up with sick tech for that, which was Jonus/Scimitar 2/proton bombs to bomb one of the Core sites and limit them to just one drain rather than 2, eliminates retreival, etc. So I thought that was a good choice. One thing I overlooked, which the KTOD overlooked against worlds and I forgot about, was savrip, and it ended up blowing me out.
Not alot to say about the rest of the preparation going into the MPC. However, the guys running the event did ask for an official KTOD ranking list to help determine what players should be ranked.
We had Baroni 6th. ’nuff said.
We dropped off our decklists and then went to Ihop on saturday morning. I had a huge breakfast and by the time we got to the event I had to take a monster dump. I HATE taking dumps in public bathrooms ESPECIALLY gamer store bathrooms. But I thought it had to be done, so I took off my coat, sweater and watch, brought my water with me and stood in the bathroom staring at the toilet seat saying “you can do this, you can do this” but in th end, I couldn’t and I decided to hold it in knowing that it would hurt really bad when I finally moved it. So the whole day I really had to shit and that didn’t help my playing at all.
I did work on some sweet tech for the wys spies and let me tell you about it.
Rendevous point came out for visored vision (so good, it’s better than a grabber).
Flash of insight V came out for corellian retort V, way better than found someone you have, how did I not play this before.
Theron Nett came out for Rayc Ryjerd V. same d/f (2/4) adds 3 to power though and a matching pilot for any of my ships and also not targettable by much anger in him.
Moving to attack position went in there for red 10, which means i’m only playing 4 ships but it hasn’t been a problem for the deck so far.
Yaeger beat shwartz in the first round and would face me. I didn’t know a lot about Shwartz but he beat me in the team tourney and that worried me a slight bit until Yaeger sat down across from me with Dark Senate.
Round 2, Game 1: My WYS Nightfall w/ Undercover vs. Yaeger’s Dark Senate
Yaeger started Combat Response, First strike and Crossfire but also started Naboo, which was his downfall. Normally against Senate I just draw up and wait for them to go to space and try and win the giant space battle. But with a second system being out, this meant that I could go elsewhere. He deployed saber 1 with a cannon, guri on the stinger and zuckuss to tatooine early. So I went out with Han in the falon to Naboo, and then dropped Dash in ship to Kessel and said go, not thinknig he had very much else to use. I was also holding retort V and moving into attack position and dropped capital support V that turn too. Next turn I backed han up with luke and melas with dash. There was some draining going on, I sabotaged his Saber cannon though I didn’t go to tatooine ever. He decided to come at me with Guri and zuckuss at naboo against luke and han limiting me to one destiny, so I played chasm and darkligthered the first and drew okay on the second. We pretty much went back and forth at naboo for a few turns and I eventually burned all his guys out because I got to play moving into attack position on two consecutive battles and got to place 3 shields out of play to make luke immune in two consecutive battles. Between that and some well timed retrieval kessel drains once he ran out of senators I ended up winning by 22.
Round 2, Game 1: My DS Senate vs. Yaeger’s Profit.
Now I had profit tech because I knew steve was playing it and that senate couldn’t be it the way we had been playing it. Simple fix, I put in the tatooine system, not for the proton bombs (because any profit player worth their salt is playing planetary defenses, though baroni wasn’t going to until that morning when I told him to play it because i put in the second system). So I start tatooine instead of naboo and turn 1 i have jonus in my hand and instead of going to the senate I decide to drop jonus and the bombs to tatooine turn one. Of course he had the shield but I did get excited for a second there.
I went to the senate next with lott dodd and some dudes. Stupid thing is, he gave me goo nee tay and I forgot my senators were immune and this was pretty pivotal. He drained me early on and I had to lose 2, I didn’t want him to know that I was never coming to fight him, so I lost begin landing your troops from hand and decided to lose one from the top, which should be fine as long as it wasn’t Ability Ability Ability. Of course it was.
He started scrambled and the game plan is to not play the political effects until he flips and retreives and also to retreive them immediately (only the add to drain and drain cancel). But since I thought my senators were deploy +2 I had to do it fast and get two more senators down. So he killed both effects and there were two senators between them with ability on the bottom and I only had 3 senators at the senate. So I deployed 2 more for +4 force total, but he forgot to play aim high and I was able to get both effects AND ability back. I made him lose 4 more to cancel both those ffects, got Maul to tatooine and baron to Naboo (can’t play the aliens in space against profit in case of A gift) and won that game handily with my double space drain, along with baskol ping.
So that was a clinic on how to beat and play senate in two consecutive games. I felt good going into my next round, playing against Kyle who was running fear and TRM. My gameplan vs. Fear is to get capital support V out as early as I can at all costs… of course things never go to plan.
Round 3, game 1: my WYS Spies w/ Undercover vs. Kyle Krueger’s Fear V.
Things started out pretty bleak for me as I went to deckdive multiple times looking for capital support V in my force pile, but it was always in my deck even though I had a control/tunnel vision early. First turn was just a lot of drawing and I think I went to the ground early and he came in with Sidious and crossfire and killed a couple guys. I lost the pulsar skate early somehow and that never saw the light of day, meaning that I was fighting with just three ships, two of which I had to keep together (luke and his xwing protecting han and the toolkit from overwhelmed) with dash handling the duties elsewhere. So no capital support V and no set for stun canceller either and I thought I was in trouble. I was blocking two drains, had the hyper escape for beatdowns and wasn’t doing much damage on my own either.
We had some serious battles with me losing some guys and retorting them and kyle losing some ICSD’s. Eventually I went after Chirnaenoo to stop the big drains but he was still hitting me at the death star docking bay (I was out of guys to go fight merrijk) as well as in space. He got off one overwhelmed on dash pretty early but I grabbed it, and then when I killed the other one with visored vision. Also when he was trying to track a 5 for a set for stun I killed that with visored vision too, which was pretty hot. So once the overwhelmeds were gone I was able to move han in front of icsd’s to start blocking drains along with luke and dash when I got him back. He would move away and I would drain where I could and he was draining where he could. Later on there were some more battles that caused him to lose ships when he left ships in front of my guys and by the end my three ships were just better than his and he kept having to move away from my attack squads while I would move to block his drains. I also got Legendary off when I redeployed dash and a smuggler and that really killed him.
One pivotal moment I thought might lose me the game was when I couldn’t save a force to move with sidious from the cantina to the docking bay and I forgot to break lando’s cover to make my drains free plus giving me a cantina drain. Just that turn of no damage I thought would lose me the game, but some well placed we’re doomed, it’s a hit and controls really tightened the game up, I got some retreival in and eventually took the game by 6. If i couldve found capital support v at all I think I win this game by a LOT more.
Round 3, game 2: my DS Senate vs. Kyle’s TRM
So Kyle sat down and said that he hoped not to see dark senate but I think that was a lie. The dude played 3 lando’s and maybe 3 tantives. Turn one he just saved. He started civil dis so I couldn’t do much early. He went lando in tantiv turn 2 to naboo. Finally I got two senators down, he stacked a six on colo and then came down with Obi Wan and blew out both my senators. I had begin landing your troops and dropped tikkes and another guy, he throws down leia and OOPs tikkes which was huge because that meant he didnt have to lose to ability all game, or baskol. I threw out tatooine with jonus while I was fighting the tantive with Maul in ship. He got Savrip out super early and I had nothing for that so this game was going to be pretty fruitless from the beginning but I triedt o even it out. He dropped Quigon on the tantiv and drew 3 destiny against maul and then moved over to jonus. I didn’t have anything in my reserve deck for combat response so I threw zuckuss down on saber one to fight and lost jonus. while clearing out some of his guys because I lost the fight but maximized attrition. he moved the empty tantive back to naboo and restocked it on a later turn while dropping the 3/2 site, but with scimitar 2 at tatooine i was pretty fucked not being able to bomb it even if i could get a drain off. The game felt a lot closer than it was but in the end not having the colo shield or masterful move combo in my deck killed me and i got wtfpwned by 24.
So I’m out but I know I made it tough on kyle and steve said he was so exhausted from having to play me that he played awful vs. steve, forgetting to drain with his fear once and forgetting to make steve take fear damage on two different turns! So I feel like I contributed to that.
I don’t know how much of a chance I would’ve had vs. steve but it wouldve been close. the two space drains wouldve made that game end in single digits in either direction and if i can get han/toolkit out turn 1 vs agents and survive a turn 2 zuckuss I know I can make that a single digit game as well. Unfortunately I never got that chance but I had a feeling steve would come out of the bracket and he did, and I was proud of him.
While they were all playing their last round I went across the street to the bar with TJ and Ray Bordier to drink yingling and stare at the bartender’s perfect tittyballs and watch the skins/’hawks playoff game. Eventually we made it back to the hotel with gross chinese food, a handle of vodka, settlers of catan and I FINALLY go to take my massive shit in the privacy of my hotel room.
Next morning we worked on steve and justin’s decks. They both asked me for advice on card slots to make me feel better about losing as much as for my expertise in fitting in a card or two and it worked out for me and them. I made sure justin played the masterful combat AND fit in an ellis which turned out to be instrumental in his championship win. Also, we got an escape pod and a quite a mercenary into the profit for steve. I put my TIES together with inconsequental losses 5 and added a third tie cannon and second lateral damage so it would have more beatdown potential, which really paid off game 1 when I beatdown luke in space for 14 overflow when I faced hidden base xwings which is pretty much the second worst matchup for my TIES.
I don’t really want to talk much about the consolation. I didn’t even want to stick around for most of it but I wanted to try and contribute cash for my team who so graciously paid me for being part of the team.
Short of it: I lost with my wys spies finaly again. I was dumb and didn’t put the toolkit out before he got the free executor effect, that really boned me. But what boned me more is that this guy just stackeda ll his pilots under the executor lengthwise, so you couldnt see who was on it as he was flying it around the galaxy. Apparently Lando was on there and when i tracked a 7 for edge, I said 6 and he popped my luke off the board, killing 6 retreival and regular luke retreival for the rest of the game. I ended up losing by like 9 or so trying to avoid that executor and veers f’d me on the ground, as did lando, when i used HFTMF to pop his immunity he used lando to pop it back down.
I lost to Mike Richards with my Ties in the 5th round when i was 3-1. He was playng wys panic which ties just can’t touch. A theyre capital ships and b. you just can’t even battle them or hold the ground, so that sucked.
I beat booker’s Combat racing propoganda deck and that was really fun. He got pwned by fury and we had a really cool interchange. I was draining for 3 without fear at the cantna (after her) and kessel. He dropped his fifth propoganda, teh first non v on a kessel drain, and I sad control. He said brief loss of control, i paid 10 and said it could be worse, he paid one and said it’s worse, and finally i said it’s a hit. I ended up winning by 12, I couldve edged for four more but no big.
Now I wanna talk about my game with dinelle and preface it a bit.
Dinelle plays wys nightfall but not with undercover, he actually tries to hold the ground. Justni and I agree that this is a pretty bad strategy vs. ds mains and justin handily defeated it the day before. However, in this game, Dinelle skipped the control phase by revealing dash for Get to your ships. Then he wanted to go back and drain but justin wouldn’t let him.
So immediately when we sit down Dinelle brings this up and says he hopes we don’t have a game like that, and I tell him that I’m not justin and stop acting like we’re the same person.
Then he covered his cantina icons, and I asked if it was okay that he not do that. Anyone who plays vs my WYS knows that I offer to cover up the icons if they like, but I personally find it insulting when people cover them up on me. Dinelle was insisting that he cover them up because he thought id “FORGET” and yes he used quotes and said it like i’d be cheating, which is doubly insulting. An argument ensued and finally he relented.
For whatever reason he thought going turn 1 dash to kessel was a smooth move. Outrider’sg ot no maneuever. So i went down and battled with an interceptor and a cannon he said wait i want to sabotage, and I said before the battle? he said yeah. so he did, and i didnt grab it, then dropped another cannon from my hand. he had anotehr sabotage but it’s unique. I blew out dash and saved 3. He sabotaged my second cannon and i grabbed it. Played a tie next turn to get one of my cannon’s back (he out of commissioned the other).
He sabotaged the cannon in play on the next turn and I got that one back as well when I went to go battle his luke on tattooine. Dropped another cannon but meant to play an all power because of the low probability of shooting luke. Good thing as I drew my admiral’s order for destiny and blew him out of the water. I’m holding space pretty strong but he puts mara on the pulsar skate to wakeelmui and I can’t find another cannon to go shoot it down. He’s draining me for 1/1/1 at the db, the farm and wakeelmui while im cancelling his cantina drain with dreaded imperial starfleet and moving in front of his space drain with 2 dreadnaughts 2 interceptors 1 with a cannon. eventually i trap him and get luke alone at kessel and though he knows luke can’t draw destiny he plays out of nowhere to add a destiny, i laugh and he flips two cards over. then i draw mine adn am like ‘you can’t draw destiny there fool’ and he says “too late i flipped them over! just like justin yesterday” at this point i’m boiling. A few minutes before in a battle at tatooine justin came over to watch and dinelle refused to pay attention to our game and demanded justin acknoweldge the fact that he screwed dinelle. Justin was firm and said play your game, I was ready to reach across the table and throw dinelle’s shitty deck in the trash, screaming at him to get back in the game. He is an absolute prick to play cards against. I think he’s an okay guy away from a card table, but on the table he’s a different guy…
see dinelle acts like he’s really particular about everything, he counts your activation every turn, and announces rules like ‘tatooine lets me move for -1 force’ but then goes and does shady shit like underpays for dash when there’s a card in his used pile already. He did this vs. me multiple times and he underpaid for things multiple times against justin and i’m sure other people will chime in with the same kind of stories. but what really got me, adn what just got me absolutely bullshit on my ride tow ork today was the shit about staring up at justin refusing to acknowledge our game and I really wish i just lost my shit on him. It’s not pretty when I lose my temper but I think everyone would’ve seen a side of me they never knew I have. I ended up beating dinelle by less than 10 in what is a pretty tough match, but I’m glad I beat him and I honestly hope i never have to play him again.
I was going to say a lot more about imarahil and karrdeshark whoever they are being pricks on the boards about kyle beating me. Kyle is a classy guy that I’ve liked a while through vs. and I know he said he got pretty hooked up in our matchup by getting tantiv to naboo turn 2 for a drain of 3 off the bat as well as us all taking colo shield out of our decks that day. but yup, i got beat, i still walked away with more money than him or anyone else at this event save the guys on my team, i knew only me or steve could come out of the bracket and we all help each other out. if people wanna talk shit and continue to discount me as just that other guy on the KTOD can slurp it up come out say shit to my face, and I’ll buy you a drink with all the prize money I get from playing the card game I’m better than you at.
