First of, I'd like to thank everyone who helped me out during the prep process for the MPC. Pete Hansen for loaning me a bunch of cards, Jarad and Keith for letting me be on their team for playtesting, Greg Shaw (who probably regrets saying that he'd help me out since I harassed him constantly for advice for the last few months), Steve Skilton for loaning me some shields at the last minute. If I missed anyone it is not intentional. I'd also like to thank everyone who was involved in running the event. Getting that group of people to do anything in a timely manner was a Herculean task and I think it was done well. Finally, thanks to everyone who made me feel welcome.
Ok, with that said, this will probably be two posts. The first will my prep for the tournament and the outcome of my matches and the next one will be my personal reactions.
My MPC started when my wife won two free airline tickets and ended up using one of them to help out her family. That left one free ticket and after a number of serious rounds of guilt-tripping I was able to secure it for atending the MPC.
I knew that the HDv Rambo Trooper and Wookiees deck I was playing on HT was probably not going to do well at a large event with high level competition. I immediately realized that I had a problem because I was not going to be able to wait and pick a deck based on the meta because I have no collection and at the time I didn't know anyone well enough to borrow an entire deck. With that in mind I started testing Communing and HDv (the real one!) on HT and in my online league play. The 2nd time I ever played the Communing deck was against Greg Shaw and he beat me by less than 10. He seemed impressed that it was only he 2nd time I had played it and he agreed to help me (I'm sure much to his chagrin) if I needed advice for match-ups and the like.
So after that I spent the next 3 months playing almost exclusively Communing / HDv. I knew that I was probably going to be a low seed so I identified the top 4 seeds from the previous MPC and figured out what they all played for the last year. I started to make match-up cards for each of these decks (how each deck played, how I should play against that deck, what cards to grab, what shields to pull etc...). I sent about 4 of these to Shaw and I got back from him asking me why I wasn't starting 'Nick of Time' against Walkers. I checked the decklist I had stolen (don't even remember from what event) and it wasn't in there. So I looked at other lists and saw that most of them had it in. I decided to steal Baroni's communing list since I had already stolen his HDv list.
A short time later, I ran into Jared and we played quite a few games and when I mentioned that I was goign to MPC he said that he would help so we started playtesting most nights. The 9.1 stuff came out and he had an interesting light side deck idea using AT-RT walkers. I was very tempted to switch, but I had already spent nearly $200 on my decks and there was no way my wife would let me spend more. We continued testing and Keith started watching our games (I only had one incomplete game testing with him).
Once brackets were posted, we started discussing if any changes were made for my deck against Harpster. The only thing I was worried about was his Rebel Senate deck he played last year with Frozen Assets/First Strike beatdown combo. I have a lot of things to improve about my game, but leaving a force available is one of them (see game summary
) We went over my shields list and realized we didn't have the counter so we put it in.Leading up to the game I had been assured that everyone was really nice in person (despite how they act on here) and then Harpster posted that he might miss the event because he choked someone out.
I didn't change my preparation any other than to make some bad jokes about making sure to bring neck armor so I felt ready to play him.Game Summary: Team Event round 1 - Me & Pistone vs. Greg Shaw & Amar Banger
There was some drama regarding my teammate in the team tournament. I was going to team up with Matt Pagano, but he wasn't at the event even though he was supposed to show up for the early cube event. Since he wasn't there, I signed in as a single. It appears that Matt had talked to Pistone about teaming up with one of Matt's friends since he was playing with me, but he didn't show up at the time of the event. So Me and Pistone ended up getting teamed together and I believe that Matt and his buddy got teamed up. Fun times.
Anyway, since I was a 13 seed, I dropped us down to a 7 seed in the team tournament.
I matched up my darkside against Shaw's It is the future you see (Luke v) that puts Luke in his skyhopper and runs a bunch of sandspeeders to react to battles. Shaw seemed surprised when I identified the deck when he put it down and he seemed even more surprised that I told him that I had actually playtested against it (he played it in a HT tournament that I had run earlier). The matchup was pretty good for me since I had removed Hoth 3rd marker with the Naboo Generator (2/2) interior site. I got Vader/Emperor/Emperor's power in there by turn 3 and was draining for 3 and pinging for 1 each turn. He didn't have anything that could come in and root me out. I remember we had some battles outside, but nothing conclusive. I won by 21 (or 22). Pistone fought a close battle against Amar and lost by 5 or 6 so we advanced.
Game Summary Team Event Round 2 - Me & Pistone vs. Sokol & Partner (don't remember)
If I didn't know I was going to be beat when I got matched up against Sokol, my belief was further confirmed when he showed that he was playing Restore Freedom to the Galaxy. I've playtested my HDv vs. that matchup and lost every single time, most of the time very badly. That is exactly what happened here. I managed to get my space package out (Rogue Shadow, Juno, Tarking and One beautiful thing in hand) and he dropped an x-wing with x-wing cannons and made them lost before the fight. I dropped thrawn with two BD and lost and at that point the game was over. I drew up and he won by 21. Mike won a close game against Sokol's partner, but I think he only won by 10-12 so we lost.
Game Summary MPC Round 1 - Me vs. Harpster
First off, I'd like to thank Harpster for being cool. I had some deck issues and he was very reasonable with how to resolve them. In my first game (My HDv vs. his LS Mains) I got Boba Fett into my hand and realized that it was supposed to be the non-v version, but it had a V-slip on it. I usually like my HDv vs. Mains, but Harpster got Savrip out early and I wasn't able to clear him from sites (blaster deflection + low saber destiny when I finally got to swing) and he cancelled all of my attrition. It took me three turns to get my Savrip canceller and when I did, I thought I'd be sneaky and let him initiate a battle, and then cancel. Unfortunately he had playted First Strike and I hadn't saved a force. He beat me pretty convincingly (22) Game two was my Commmuning vs. his CCT (who and the hell plays CCT?). I'll be honest, in all of the games I'd playtested this was one that I hadn't run. On the beginning of my turn 2 I started activating force and a clear sleeved card gets activated (WTF?) It was a LTWWW that I had taken out, but kept in my deck box so I wouldn't lose it. Harpster was cool with me putting it out of play. THEN I played Chewie Protector that he wasn't able to read. I was very mad at myself because I had a printing problem with about 5 cards and thought I had fixed them, but I missed on. Harpster called a judge over and they replaced it with another copy of the card from my deck. It was entirely my fault and I was visibly agitated, I hope that Harpster knows that I was only angry at myself and that I was impressed with how well he was handling it. Anywhoo, this match was a lot closer, and I resigned when I was below 22, but because it was Star Wars we kept playing. I ended up drawing up when he had 10 or 11 cards.
Game Summary - MPC Consolation Me vs. Matt Pagano
So I ended up getting to play my would-be teammate in the consolation round. I played a lot more loose this round since I was already eliminated and was just trying to have some fun. We played my HDv vs. his credits will do fine. I can't remember exactly what happened, but I lost by 27. I know I should have done better in the matchup, but I didn't get out to space quick enough (I thought he had a splashable space package so I wanted to wait until I had Juno and Tarkin/Boba Fett for multiple desinties) and I couldn't dislodge him from the junkyard. So he was draining for 3 and making me stack one (not a recipe for success). I suppose I should have gone to space and started setting up drains in my interior site. We swapped and it was my LS vs. his ASM. I had tested this matchup and felt pretty good (not 27 card good), but he threw me off my plan. In just about every single PT match, I started Yoda and he gets lost turn 1 or 2. Then he gets stacked on communing early and I can work some magic. Matt dropped on Yoda turn 2 with maul and missed with his Saber (twice). I ended up peeling two and keeping Yoda there. I didn't have gun runner out (buried first turn) and didn't get it out again. I reinforced with Chewie anyway for the extra bd. He drops grievous + saber. Maul misses twice, grivious misses. draw destiny, I draw poorly, but still win on power. recyle chewie and I think he peels 1 or 2. On my turn, I drop Lando + another chewie and finally get Gunrunner out. Battle, he decides to swing at chewie first and I run, luke run. then he swing on yoda twice and misses twice. Three BD later (only an 8 or a 9) he loses, but grevious covers. I lose lando. Battle again with maul vs. chewie / yoda. maul misses the first swing but finally hits on the 2nd. Chewie misses maul and he finally gets to move the prisoner. I'll be honest, I don't remember what happened after that because I was probably still laughing at everything else that happened. In the end I believe I lost by about 10.
This is the end of my main event/ consolation round post. I'll post about the other events in my next post.
Thanks!
