Title: GEN-CON 99'

Now, How do you start a report on something that took 4 days? Well, I could start by saying that it was a major upset during the Open when I didn't come in first, but I am still wondering if it really was an upset or not. Ok thats a joke of course, but having a great time at the Con is not. This was big and Decipher was busy. They had one tournament after another. Which could keep people like me pretty busy. So if you are in the mood to read then I will Start with Day 1. Now if all you care about is the OPEN then skip to day 3.

Day 1
Thursday it all starts. It was myself(Tim Guzman), Pat Hines, Chris Hines and his wife Sheri, who went to Gen-Con. We picked up are badges and we were ready to go. The first tournament of the day was a Young Jedi Sealed Deck, which started at 12:00 PM. So we had plenty of time to look around and get the feeling of our surroundings. We went to the Decipher booth first to say hi to Kendrick and Sean and some other Decipher folks. We knew Kyle was running the tournament so we had to look for him. When we found him he was ready for Young Jedi and we wanted to still look around. Now the details could take a lot of time to write out so I will keep things short to the best of my abilities. Beside most of you only care about how we did in the tournaments, right?

This was the day we decided to call tournament day. Because the other 3 days we didn't want to play in many tournaments. Anyway Pat and I registered for one Young Jedi tournament and two Star Wars tournaments for this day. Chris only registered for the later two Star Wars tournaments. Pat went undefeated in the Younag Jedi Sealed deck and I lost one game in that one. I was Jedi and Pat was Sith. Even though he went 3-0 he was in 5th place. The next tournament was an OTSD. Now in this one it was my turn to go 3-0 and Chris and Pat both lost one game I think...maybe two for Pat but I can't seem to remember. I came in like 4th place because of so many people playing in it. Now it is about 9:00 PM and we are all tired because of such crazy flights to get here in the first place. We have one more tournament to play in today. It is a Endor Booster Draft tournament. They only let 50 people play in the event and they just choose names randomly. Which left Pat without playing. We were a little upset about that. First place prize was a set of foils so I was going to play to try to win it. Anyway I lost my first game so bad that I drop out of the tournament. Since I didn't have a chance for the set of foils and Pat wasn't playing anyway I really didn't want to play. Chris stayed and played however and Pat and I went back to the Hotel to rest for the next day.

Day 2
Friday ah...a new day. We eat breadfast at Denny's and head over to the Con. This day we didn't want to stay that long since only tomorrow was the Open and we wanted to play test tonight. So we played in the EPP overdrive tournament this day at 12:00 PM. I was light and glad, Chris was Dark and Pat was Light. I was doing good this tournament, but all of the sudden I play a guy with two Vader's in his sealed deck, plus he Limited Resouced me twice in this Game. Wow he has got some good draws for this being Sealed deck. Chris finished the highest in this one at around 8th Place. After this tournament we go up to the exhibit hall and mess around demoing different games. We tried games called Apples to Apples, 7th Sea, and many others. Not to mention spending money here and there. We ate at some Brewery that night before we headed back to the hotel. When we go back to the hotel we used a meeting room there and play tested are decks to about 3:00 AM. We made some of our last minute changes and was ready to go.

Day 3
This is the big day, the day we were preparing for. I was quite confident of my decks and so was Chris. The only problem was we only had less than 5 hours sleep. But that is ok, I kept telling myself I play better this way. The tournament starts at 10:00 AM. So we showed up around 9:30 and waited until that time. The following will be a tournament report based off of my games that I played I will mention how Chris and Pat did along the way. I will not give away my decks YET. but keep checking back at this site and I will post them very soon. Decipher broke a record here with 151 players. So this was big.

Game 1 My Dark Vs Joey's Light side Asteroid Sanctuary Deck.

He started with mind what you have learned and played major Sanctuary Cheese. I was worried at first because I wasn't really ready for this deck. I thought for sure I was going to get crushed. I tried to alter but I had to add 4 so it didn't work the first time. I deployed Reactor Terminal and started putting 0 and 1's in my used pile and when I had it right I altered all effects and killed his ships with my ships. In the end he couldn't keep up with the force loss I was giving him. So I win.
Full Win by 27

Highlights: Was beating a deck I wasn't planning on seeing by 27.
Lowlights: Was Playing against a Sanctuary Deck...I hate those decks.

Game 2 My Light Vs Chris Hines Dark Power deck.

Well this really sucked, Chris and I played till like 3:00 AM... the night before and now we have to play each other in the second game. Anyway his dark deck will always beat my light deck on a consistent basis if he knows what's coming. And of course he knows what was coming so he won. I was hoping for a good draw and for him to have a bad draw. but no he had a great draw and started draining early. I couldn't stop it for the longest time. I decided that I just better keep it close.
Full loss by 13

Highlights:None except Chris won 2 in a row.
Lowlights: I had to play Chris, which ruined my chance for worlds. I still think, if I didn't play him I would have made it to the final. Anyway...

Game 3 My Light Vs Someone's Railtier Ops

I was still a little upset by this time about playing Chris so I wanted to take out my revenge on this poor guy. I was very aggressive this game. Somehow he flips anyway and deploys a ship to kessel. he battles against my lone ship. So I react with Spiral. It is all down hill for him after that. I call it beat down from behind because he didn't see it coming. I had 11 cards in my hand and still won by 30. That was fun.
Full win by 30

Highlights:Dominated the game from the beginning
Lowlights: Having 11 cards in my hand. I could have won by more.

Game 4 My Dark Vs Nice Guys Kashyyyk Ops Deck.

I was a little worried about this at first. You know some Ops are just hard to beat. But once I got started I was ok. My draw against him was great. Vader was down early with Saber and he couldn't kill him the whole game. Next thing you know he does a last ditch effort and deploys some lone guys at my sites to get some drains in. I was like what? I couldn't stop him for a couple of turns then finally I have something. As soon as that happens I win.
Full Win by 27

Highlights: Winning big against an Ops Deck. Those decks suck now I think.
Lowlights: Winning aganinst someone who was such a nice guy. OH and drawing a zero and a 1 against an ability one guy.

Game 5 My Dark Vs Eric Olsen's Hidden Base Deck.

Things were going great when he said he just lost his hidden base to a force drain off the top of his reserve. I was punishing him the whole game. Vader had a drain that he couldn't stop the whole game. So now I have around 25 force left and he has around 10 force left. I think yes, yes, yes, I am going to win. Well guess what happens. He deploys 8D8 in front of Vader and Artoo the Inserts Never tell me the Odds. My chant changed to yuck, yuck, yuck. I tried to avoid the insert as long as possible I bring him done to only 4 force left, and think to myself if the insert doesn't come up juring his next force drain I might make it. Now his turn starts. He uses All Wings Report In and targets 7 x-wings and retrieve 7 force. Then he force drains me for 4 and his insert comes up as the 4 card is drained. I lose to that card and he wins. I had that game I should have done one thing different.
Full loss by 11

Highlights: Watching his Hidden base go to his Lost pile.
Lowlights: Watching him insert a card toward the end of the game, when if it was the beginning I would have never drained away the cards that take care of that. Oh well...

Game 6 My Light Vs Someone's Dark Space

Well since I lost my last game my chance for a glass was gone. Chris just lost his last game as well but he still had a chance for top eight. I had control the whole game in this one, but it took awhile to finish this guy off(No pun). He always had something coming. I win in the end. I will keep this one short.
Full Win by 21

Highlights:I had control over the Death Star most of the game.
Lowlights: I was starving by now and really tired from lack of sleep.

Well I fineshed with a 4-2 record and going 8(+81). Out of 151 people I came in 17th Place. Chris goes 5-1 and comes in 14th place. And in the end there were 3 people who were Undefeated. To bad for the person who came in third place. Pat came in near the bottom with a 1-5 record, today just wasn't his day.

The top decks were Mains and Toys mostly. Ops are dead, those who brought them wish they didn't. I don't really know what decks made the final since we didn't stick around to watch. but I heard that it was between Nathan reish and Joe Mornout(sp?).

There was a Endor booster draft tonight but after 8+ hours of playing Star Wars we were tired. So we called it quits for the day. In fact we were so burnt out that we ditched the Team Event the next day. I know we promoted it all week and we don't even play in it. I will tell you why later.

OH and during the Tournament Sheri was nice enough to take my Young Jedi 'Captain Panaka' Card and get it signed by the Actor. That was COOL. Thanks Sheri.:)

Day 4

Well if you made it this far Thank you. And if you are one of those who read the first 3 days and waited for Day 4, then here it is one week later!! Sometimes for some reason the last day of a Con is the best. Maybe it is because you do as much as you can in such a short period of time. I don't know the reason, but I so wish the Con was open longer on Sundays. But as it is we only had until 4:00 PM. So we tryed one game after another. At one point there was this 'Spin the Wheel' game from WOTC. Chris and Pat got boring Coupons, but when I spinned the wheel I got three Booster packs and a Complete Card game called Guillotine. You win at this game by getting a head(Pun get it). We didn't play in the Team Event this day, because we knew we had decks that needed to be kept a secret for Comic-Con. So that was one of the reasons why we didn't play and thats why I said I would tell you later. Because Now officially Comic-Con is over. More on that in the Comic-Con report.

Anyway as this day came to a close Chris and I chose which games we like the best not counting SWCCG. And thats what we played at the Airport. Now before we left Kendrick asked if I would help at the Decipher Booth in Comic-Con and of course I agreed. Chris did also. Well now it is the end of the day and we are sooo ready to go home. Guess what? Are flight is delayed by 4 hours. This gave us plenty of time to pratice at Doomtown CCG. But I think I would trade in a flight home for that. We didn't end up home until 3:00 AM. That was a late time for me....I had to work at 6:00 AM. Some how I made it through and that was my experience at this years Gen-Con. Can't wait for next years.