"HAVING AN EFFECT ON PLAYERS WORLDWIDE"

YJ Origins 2000 Tournament Report
2000-07-14:

Hello everyone,

Origins was, in a word, exhausting -- but a lot of fun was had this past weekend. I'm just feeling the combined weight of a missed opportunity along with the normal exhaustion one gets after a full weekend of gaming and near all day and all night activities. So please forgive me if I slip into tangents. It's my intention of being shorter on this report than in the past, mainly because much of the action early in the trip was "uneventful."

I went to Origins with some familiar faces: Jonathan Dunn and Michael Ganley, plus another friend from the Northern Virginia area, Rick Monson. We left on Thursday morning and arrived with plenty of time to get adjusted to the Con and play in the YJ Sealed deck. Jon and I, unfortunately, got paired in the deck
construction part and Jon got dark. I had chosen my packs hoping to get dark and so Jon got all the goodies. He ended up sweeping through the tournament. I had called my demise, knowing the six 2's (Council Chamber) in my deck were going to hurt me. Of course, those 2's came up at the worst occasions. I hate
it when I'm right. Jon, Mike, Rick, and I also played in the YJ Team Tournament. I was thinking this tournament was six games. Dave "Boss" Nix had called out 4, but I didn't hear. It ended up making a difference since we could have won if we played two more games or if I hadn't been as loose in my sole loss, but what the heck. We all had fun and got close enough. Jon, Mike, and I each finished 3-1 but lost
out on differential to Team Albany. Guess the Influenza will have to wait for GenCon. :(

One of the best things about the con was finally putting faces to names. Got to meet Greg "Gunslinging" Heisler and have him sign my Council cards. I had actually met him at DecipherCon last year, so he didn't count as much. Still upset about not getting to play him and win six packs of cards. :) Next time,
perhaps. Then there was Tim "Leadfingers" Wezner. Still not sure about tearing up those ultra-rares, Tim. Sounds like you need to have another course in fiscal responsibility. :) Tim was one of the workhorses of the weekend, helping to run both the YJ Team Event and YJ Open. Just remember, folks, that if there is
any keying error, it's Tim's fault. :) Dave "Boss" Nix was there to give me some pointers on a whole host of topics. Never did get that Boss Nass over to have him sign, but Dave was also working a lot. One could always find him around, either at the booth or in the gaming room. Natalie "Never Around When I Had a Pen For Her To Sign My Wisdom Card" Franklin. Here's hoping that you'll be at GenCon or in the ver the least DecipherCon. Natalie was demoing a lot. Everytime I saw her, outside of the Volunteer Summit and YJ Open, she was introducing someone new to the game. And then there's Omar "Cheesegrate, Little Yoda, Jawa, Slomar" Hassanein. Seemed like every other word out of his mouth led to another nickname. Definitely be seeing him at GenCon. Hopefully by then he'll have already qualified for worlds at Wizard World. Go Omar!

Well, I'm seeing this e-mail get longer and longer, so without further adieu, let me introuduce the YJ Open. I played as advertised tanks for Dark Side and Anakin / R2 for Light. Without giving away too much, I will state that my tanks did not do as well as Anakin, but then again my tanks faced the top players. Also, let me state that at least four of the five top players had tanks for dark side (inlcluding the two finalists).
Okay, that done, here we go:

Game 1 vs. Henry Mink

Nothing like getting your feet wet. First game I get to play against tanks. I knew they would be out there, so in a way I was sort of glad to face them early. A good test and wake-up call. Henry was playing classic tanks, which was even better since I wanted to see how the Anakin deck was going to perform. He
starts on Naboo and gets tanks out. I don't get Anakin until my second draw, but I hold him off with Guards, Artoos, and Galatic Senators. When I do get Anakin down with Racer, he causes problems, killing one tank. Henry does the sensible thing and leaves Naboo, fearing a massive overrrun. We then goto Coruscant. I was tempted to try and take it since I had three Anakin's in hand, one podracer, a guard, and a transport, but since two of my three Anakin's are Tatooine based, I defer the planet, dropping the guard. I pick up an Artoo and surrender after his second deploy. We have a pitched battle on Tatooine for two turns and then Anakin takes over.

FW 2 (+10)

Game 2 vs. Scott Anderson

Scott never saw the tanks coming. He was playing Mace / Yoda and I believe it was someone else's deck. Scott seemed new to the game and unsure of what he was doing. Bad combination when facing tanks. I really felt bad for him since he also didn't get any weapons. Win on Tatooine, win on Coruscant.

FW 4 (+49)

Game 3 vs. Debbe McEwen

Debbe had an interesting variant of the tank deck. She was using Battle Droids and the new battle card that allows droids and tanks to fight together and if they are defeated only the droid is lost (or take damage from only the droid). All I really remember from this game is that I made a boneheaded mistake early on while we were still on Naboo. I had Naboo Anakin with Naboo R2 and Thanks Artoo up against the tank of choice and what happens? I flip over the top card, battle card, flip over the next card, Anakin!?! I had put the podracer third! Ended up losing Anakin and the planet shortly after that. Thankfully, I was getting Anakins and podracers and her attempt at blowing up my transport failed. This gave me extra cards to maneuver and in the end Anakin was too much for her tanks. And yet, I wonder what could have been had I not made that mistake. My hand was so solid I could have won by at least 25.

FW 6 (+61)

Game 4 vs. Chris Terwilliger

Tanks vs. Officer deck -- the ones that get one dot bonuses on Corsucant or Naboo and have base 3 power, come with a gun and a battle together card. Not sure of their title, but I'd playtested against them before -- not recently enough, though. Had I, I would have started on Naboo rather than Coruscant. Still not sure why I started there rather than my customary Tatooine start. Anyways, he took me out in short order on Coruscant. I moved us over to Tatooine and won that quickly enough. Naboo was the end point and while early on I was taking a beating because we were on his site, I soon converted and got a foothold. From my last scan of my deck and my counting and tracking of cards that I'd seen for destiny, damage, etc. I knew that I had about ten to twelve 6's still in there, two 2's and one 1. Knowing this, I felt confident enough to
battle him face up despite he having a battle card. I knew that if I drew anything but that 1 I would at least tie or win the battle (and also the game). Of course, as things are oft to happen, I drew the 1 and lost the battle. The following turn, he cleaned up my remaning tanks and Probe Droids, killing me on damage and winning the game. Without a doubt, this was an awesome game and Chris certainly deserved to win. He played it smartly and had the most important draw on his side.

FL 6 (+56)

Game 5 vs. Chris Terwilliger

At this point, Chris was the lone remaining undefeated player. I knew I had to win this game in order to have a chance since there were at least five others who only had 1 loss. Chris was also playing tanks. He got the draw and started on Naboo. I really didn't get anything in my opening hand. I wasn't even sure I wanted to put something down on Naboo, but in the end I played two Coruscant Guards. Next turn, I sacrificed them by fighting. I went to Coruscant next and got some Anakin's. He stayed a while, trying to win the game without going to a third. I believe he stayed a bit too long, but not long enough for me to gain an advantage as we headed to Tatooine. Again I got some Anakin's and racers and would have won this game quickly had we been on my location. Nonetheless, we were both knocking each other silly, wasting battle cards and good destinies on each others weenies. Though I never got my site out, I was fighting continuously against him. Some battles were not as smart as others, but I was getting desperate. I had to win. He could afford a loss, but I could not. What it came down to was one battle. Two of his tanks against two of my Anakin's. He had one battle card as did I. The first fight was the important one as both of our enhanced warriors paired off. He drew a six. I drew two sixes. Next battle, he draws a 5. I draw a 4 and a 6. Game over. I win a very close one and still have a chance.

FW 8 (+58)

Game 6 vs. Jonathan Dunn

I just knew this game was going to happen. Jon and I had discussed this earlier in the week and figured it was a possibility but we fancied it would happen in the finals. Had I been able to beat Chris, it probably would have, but alas it was just not in the making. :) The winner of our game was almost guaranteed to play Chris in the finals. I knew if I played him again I would win. Sorry if that sounds cocky, but in that
game with my tanks, I messed up from the beginning and gave him a huge advantage on Coruscant. It wasn't going to happen again. I knew Jon could beat Chris. If I could beat him, Jon (playing esentially the same decks) could crush him. So, in essence, our game was going to decide the winner of Origins.
I was not very humored by this game. My apology to anyone who might have been watching and saw me very sour faced. I had been getting good hands with my tanks all day long (with the sole exception of that destiny draw against Chris) but this was dreadful. Not as long as I've been playing tanks had I gotten off
to such a slow start. I began on Tatooine, as was my custom against Anakin. First turn of bad luck -- he converts. I stayed there a while, trying to flush out some battle cards and set up second planet, but he didn't have to do much since I was drawing 1's for destiny. It was nice having the guns, but they
weren't helping me in the immediate. I goto Coruscant and he puts up little resistance. Naboo is where things end. He got the draws that I couldn't and he smokes me.

FL 8 (+37)

The final standings before the final confrontation are:

Chris Terwilliger 10 (+114)
Jonthan Dunn 10 (+70)
Jason Sniegowski 8 (+68)
Chris Hines 8 (+51)
Patrick Sullivan 8 (+37)

Chris and Jon pair off against each other. Jon played his tanks first and played against Chris' deck perfectly. It helped that Chris never got weapons when he needed them and rarely had enough power to make his battle cards worthwhile. As can happen against tanks, the game snowballed and Jon rolled to an impressive 32 Force win. The second game saw Jon playing Anakin against tanks. This was unfair for Chris, despite his good hand, because Jon knows how to play against tanks. Using Artoo and Coruscant Guards to their maximum effectiveness, Jon was able to whittle Chris away. In the end, Anakin and podracer struck home, knocking out tanks without battle cards. After about fifteen minutes of the second game, the finals were already decided since Chris had already lost more than 28 cards, but they played it out to the end and Jon won by 21.

I would like to put in a special plug for Chris Terwilliger. What an impressive show for him, getting to the Star Wars Constructed Finals the night before and still having enough to play in YJ and going to the Finals.
I would also like to congratulate my friend Jonathan Dunn for his victory. It was well earned and quite impressive. I'm not sure I've ever seen a finals so lopsided. Perhaps all the playtesting and pep talks helped after all?

Thanks to everyone who made this weekend possible, especially Rick for driving. Hopefully, we can keep the magic going for this weekends Battle of Yavin II and all the way through to GenCon.


Councilor Sullivan
Sith Master

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