Pittsburgh, PA SW: CCG Anyone?

I'm not gonna make it- I am at the Gaming tourney at Brian's tomorrow.

BTW, I'll be bringing your 200 dollars

 

fellas, since you were absent from saturday's tourney, here's a mini-report:

game 1
me vs the streets of pittsburgh
im late. there's odd players. i get the bye. mapquest directions are lame-o (first time i havent liked mapquest's directions). i show up halfway into the first round. bah

game 2
me vs drew
somehow he didnt win by very much so he has to play the guy who got the bye (me). wtf. my throne room vs his isb. i get insane luck early on, throwing corran horn at his admiral piett and merrejk at the exec dbay and drawing 5's and 6's out the wazoo. he throws an epp vader down to try and help out (i had luke and queen amidala in there too) and when vader dies i play OOC - pick 1, 2, or 3 - i pick 3, it's vader, he's outta play. neither one of us is activating very much and the game....goes....slow. finally he gets the damn free executor out with bespin system and the stupid effect, cuz i couldnt find my speak with the jedi council, my council chamber, OR my yoda - all of which would have let me get a sense/recoil in fear to mix his hand up and stop the free executor, or an alter to cancel the effect. so he puts admiral cheerio on the ex to start draining and when i throw the hcfalcon at him he plays breached defenses v to turn it into a worthless pos. i had the homeone in space running around also, and some guys on the ground so i got some drains in but he was draining for more and i couldnt keep menace fades in effect. oddly enough, he never even flipped his objective. full loss by 18

game 3
me vs. michael y.
my throne room vs his hunt down. i draw honor of the jedi in my opening hand so he loses to visage like all game and i never do. i also tunnel visioned for goo nee tay second turn. i get the jedi council chamber and pull yoda with it, then move yoda over to the coruscant docking bay he deployed. he drops coruscant maul with a double-bladed saber (blaster rack) and beats the living green out of yoda but i draw high and lose only a few. i get the homeone in space and epp quigon on the ground and he's activating 8 a turn with goo nee tay starin him in the face so he cant do anything. i deploy epp obiwan on the homeone just so i have a guy to edge with, and finish the game without a lost pile. full win by 30s

game 4
me vs matt h.
my mkos vs his jedi training
this guy hasnt played in a long time, is getting back into the game but hasnt updated his collection yet. no shields means i drain for free in jabba's palace, lucky for him he completed test 1 before i could get gailid out. about turn 6 he threw epp chewie against an abyssin that was sitting all by himself somewhere, i barriered. then i dropped psycho fett, epp 4-lom, and someone else for good measure and massacred chewie for game-breaking battle damage. full win by 30s

i end up in 3rd place out of 9, drew went undefeated for first and justin carulli i believe was in second. the ds2 box that drew bought online for the tourney was phat, i pulled an emperor and i heard there was also a jedi luke and a lord vader in the mix. hope you kids had fun doing whatever it was you were doing (what WERE you doing?), and keep yo' eyez peeled for march's tourney announcements....

 

How many cards would I need to get involved in this with you guys?

 

Greetings, blokes.

Reid... Sounds like it was a good time. That's poopy that we missed out on a 9-player tourney. (Well, I guess it would have been 11-player, if Shewski and I showed up.) I'm hoping against all hope that the next one falls on a date/time that I can actually make, but my current work schedule is pretty rough.

[I'm also hoping I didn't get royally screwed on my last eBay transaction. I haven't heard back yet if the dude ever got my payment. I'm starting to get nervous.]

Anyway, I'll keep my eyes and ears open for the next tourney. I really want to go and play in another one. Soon.

In response to your query, Reid, after I got off work at 2pm, I had a whole bunch of members from SWAP come over to my place for a meeting/Epic Duels tourney. A full account of what transpired can be found here . Good time had by all.

Chad... here's my attempt to answer your question honestly.

Technically, you can start playing if you buy the two Death Star 2 Prefabricated decks. You could probably scoop 'em both up for a few bucks off of eBay. These are two fully-playable decks that each contain some very respectable cards: personas of Han, Chewie, Ackbar, Piett, and some other good stuff.

However, since these decks are basically geared towards newbies, and are pretty simplistic, the only decks they could really compete with are each other. I would imagine they would get crushed by any other deck that was pitted against them.

Even though you couldn't really compete by using these decks, they'd still be a good purchase, as they each come with an updated "Rules Booklet," and are excellent decks to learn the game on.

If you then wanted to spruce up your collection, to give yourself some options, I'd recommend picking up a box of Endor. This set was designed to be free-standing, so that new people could jump in and do reasonably well by using only cards from that set. It's a good set, has some great cards, and would probably improve your chances of doing well.

After that, I'd look into maybe picking up a box of Death Star II. This is another good set that has a bunch of handy cards. Between DS2 and Endor, you could probably make a few handy decks.

After that, it's hard to say. The problem is there are SO MANY cards, that I find it difficult to advise where to begin pulling from. A lot of the original, old-school Premiere cards are pretty standard and good to have (Luke, Vader, Han, etc), but there's also a lot of crap there, too. The same could be said of many other sets.

I suppose maybe the best thing to do would be then to try to think up a deck idea, or find an already-existing deck listing, and pick up the cards to implement them. That way you could focus on the cards you want/need to play your deck, and could ignore everything else. Your collection would then grow slowly, but it would still grow, and you'd have a deck or two to play with.

Having said all this, I think the first, and best, course of action would be to keep an eye on this thread to see when the next impromptu session with me, Shewski, and Reid is scheduled and try to attend. I have both the DS2 prefab decks, and between the 3 of us, we could probably teach you the game pretty quick.

Since you play Magic, you should be able to pick it up easily. A lot of card types are analogous. Examples:

-Creature = Character (more or less)
-Enchantment = Effect (more or less)
-Instant/Sorcery = Interrupts (more or less)

There's even some similar concepts...
-Casting cost = Deployment cost
-Fighting = battling (more or less)

Anyway, if you made it to our next session, you could then play a round or two, witness a few games, and see if this is a game you would even enjoy playing. (For free, no less.)

Those are just my ideas, and I'm sure Shewski and Reid have other words of wisdom for you, too. As I just noted, I think the best thing would be to try to make the next impromptu session that we have

 

Wednesday is no good for me... I've got a supplier taking me out to dinner.

BTW, Chad, I'm sure if you like what you see with the initial game you could borrow cards from at least me if you wanted to hit up tournaments and the like.

 

i'm gonna hafta disagree with ya ben on the endor suggestion, for only one reason: it's the second-hardest set to find (after coruscant, which we discussed). getting a box of it as you suggest would run your buddy chad about 80 or 90 bucks...
for that same amount he could likely score a box of reflections 2, a box of enhanced premiere, AND a box of death star 2. i also would recommend getting the starting effects and set of defensive shields FIRST thing.

what is this game you had a tourney for?

and i'm planning a tourney on the 15th of march ... it's going to be held at helm's deep. i havent posted details yet, but i'll let yall know when i do. that gives you plenty of time to request off

 

Not that this should impact your plans, but I am going back home to Columbus that weekend.

The game we had a tourney for was Star Wars: Epic Duels. It's basically a board game version of Super Smash Bros. starring star wars characters.

 

Greetings, blokes.

Reid... I had no idea Endor was such a difficult set to lay hands on anymore. I figured since it was relatively recent, it wouldn't all that difficult/expensive. Oops.

Thanks for the news on the 15th. Hopefully, I'll be able to hit this one. Just as an FYI, the later in the afternoon it is, the better chance I'll have of being present, though you probably shouldn't go out of your way to schedule it around me.

Chad... As Shewski noted, I also wouldn't have any problems letting you borrow some cards if you wanted to hit tourneys with us.

General Announcement... I get my schedule for next week on Thursday, so I'll let you guys know how things look then. Hopefully we'll be able to get together at some point and squeeze some games in, and maybe even have a chance to teach Chad the game.

Dislikes working,
Yours Truly

 

(been doing some looking around on the web) hmm...i may have to get my hands on this epic duels...

 

At the Monroeville KMart I saw it on clearance for 13 bucks. You're more than welcome to come to our next tourney in a few months, when I can rightly assume my title as champion.

 

Greetings, blokes.

Although there's no evidence of it in this thread, me and Shewski made plans for our next "impromptu session" to take place this Saturday night. Chad, Reid, if you're interested, you're more than welcome to join us. Just let us know if there's any interest, and we'll try to work something out.

Needs to post something elsewhere in a fake Australian accent,
Yours Truly

 

im off that day, may be up for some swccg. i think drew wants to get together that day too. would you two be cool with meeting somewhere again?

 

I'd be game, either way.

 

Greetings, blokes.

I'd be down for the four of us meeting somewhere to get some CCG games in. Barnes and Noble again? That worked pretty well last time... If that works as a venue then when should we meet up? I get off work at 3, so I could meet up in the neighborhood of 4 - 5 o'clock. Just let me know what you guys want to do. I work tomorrow from 3 - 10, so either post a message here, or leave a message on my phone about how you want to work things.

Unfortunately, I haven't had time to make any new decks, or to even tinker with my old ones, but it never hurts to keep taking the old ones out for a spin, to reveal more weaknesses and try to weed them out.

Hopefully I'll see you guys Saturday.

Till then,
Yours Truly

 

I'll be at the Fan Film planning meeting till half past whenever, but I'll try to keep tabs on any developments and make it wherever.

I think you guys have my cell #, I'll have it with me.

 

ehh check that .. plans got changed and i gotta go out somewhere .. something about my gf's birthday i think .. whatever

 

If you guys are playing at B & N in Robinson I'd like to drop by after the FanFilm meeting. It's on my way home.

 

Bad Reid- forgetting the little lady's birthday...

Rox, that might work out. I'll be at the Fan Film meeting. I'll just see what Brian wants to do. If he gets off work early enough maybe we can meet up. It just depends on how long the FF meeting goes. If it goes till 5 or so, I think he said he could make it. If it's till 3, we'd both be waiting around for a few hours. I'll bring some teaching decks to the FF meeting just in case.

 

Greetings, blokes.

If I left immediately after work, I could probably make it to B&N by 3:30 or, at the latest, 4. (I'm pretty sure of that.) As Shewski noted, things kind of revolve around how long the FF meeting goes.

How does this sound: As soon as I get off work, I'll call Shewski's cell, and see where things are at. I'll bring my CCG stuff to work, and leave it in the car, so I could just leave straight from there, if need be. Shewski can then let me know where you guys are at in the meeting, and we can more or less go from there.

Heck, if I'm lucky, maybe I could even catch the tail-end of the FF meeting. Not likely, but would be cool.

At any rate, Shewski, expect a cell call roundabouts 3:00 on Saturday. We can take it from there.

Till then,
Yours Truly

 

Good enough- if nothing works out regarding meeting up with the three of us, we can just rendezvous in our neck of the woods Sat. Night.

 

Wow, we were about to fall off the first page. That's a big no no!

Well, due to being on the wrong side of the city, Rox did not get his mini tutorial for the CCG. He is interested in coming next time we meet up in Robinson.

On a related note (mainly to Reid), at the Pittsburgh Comicon, SWAP has the ability to host/sponsor a CCG Tournament. Rox was wondering if you or Drew would be interested in running one or two tournies over the weekend. Maybe even try to do a sealed event to get some interested onlookers involved for a few bucks. Message Rox for some details.

Ben and I met up over his house for a few games, 3 in all.

Round 1:

My DS Musicians vs MBO

The game started off with me getting a pretty good opening draw with Mosep and 3 Musicians. I set up shop at the Audience Chamber and started to ping away with COTVG damage. Ben's MBO is very non agressive on the ground, and he left me alone on Tatooine for the most part. I set up a presence on some adjacent sites and was draining off the top, which made Ben very nervous since many needed cards were in there. I actually got very agressive and spread thin, since I had oota goota solo (V) and some ghhks in case Ben struck back. After a few turns, Ben was ready to Run, and he left Luke in red 5 alone at Yavin. ZiMH, BihT, and Iggy and his ship dropped by to ruin his day. From there it was a matter of draining him out.

Game 2:

My Poor Mans TRM vs IO (V)

This was a cool matchup. My TRM is poor since I only have 1 of each EPP and other neat cards like Goo Nee Tay. I got a decent draw, was able to set up Gungan tech on turn 1. Next turn I was able to play Goo Nee Tay and Revoltion the Ice Plains. From There, I proceded to get more activation, and then track good draws to systematically wipe out his AT ATs. He was able to blow the MPG, but I kept beating him down. Finally, I was able to get some of my meager space fleet out to get my drains quicker and win the game.

Game 3

Musicians vs TIGIH

Best game of the night. We both start First Strike/Draw Their Fire. Basically, since I have no Imperials, Luke was able to run amok. There were many battles going on, with many destinies being added. Boelo and Jabba were instrumental in canceling many destinies. What finally swung the balance in my favor was getting Scum out. I was retrieving 4 Force and causing Ben every time I started a battle. I was able to use Hit and run BHers to everntually win it out.

 

Greetings, blokes.

What Shewski conveniently forgot to mention was that after Luke got pasted in orbit around Yavin, he got replaced by another Red Squadron pilot who flew to the Death Star system, but then got murdered. However, another Red Squadron pilot took control, made his run, and blew up the Death Star into a million teeny, tiny little pieces.

And then I lost the game.



Just clarifying the facts,
Yours Truly

 

yeh i havent been online in a few days...

lets see - first off ... did i just read the words "revolution the ice plains???" read the virtual IO objective please!

as for comicon, when is it? i appreciate the nomination, but i doubt id be up for running anything sanctioned ... not sure ill be able to make comicon ... gonna try and get to dpc chicago next month, and the work schedule will prolly be holdin me down ... we'll see how things pan out

shewski - i got some epps for ya man, we'll hafta do some trading.

anybody free on thursday?

 

Details, Details.... Yeah, I guess I forgot about that. It's no fun to get dinged for 14 force.

Comicon is April 25-27. Here's the thread with some more details:

http://boards.theforce.net/message.asp?topic=10723648&replies=9

We have the option to run one there, just wondering if any of you official tournament people would want to run one. I'm still a TD, but I would not be comfortable running one since I am still easing back to the game. YOu think I should post this info on CCG group web page?

Revolution the Ice Plains.... Whooops! Well, you learn how you unknowingly cheated a friend every day! Want a rematch, Ben?

Thursday is bad for me- I'm going to see a musical at my Gf's middle school.

 

your gf is in middle school?