Jonathan Chu RamapoCon II Part Deux 5-6-2000 (tournament report)

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Jonathan Chu RamapoCon II Part Deux 5-6-2000 (tournament report) is the tournament report Jonny Chu posted on DeckTech on 8 May 2000 about RamapoCon II.[1] Jonathan Chu went 5–1 (10 (+88)) in the Swiss rounds of the RamapoCon II constructed championship with Yavin 4 mains and Ralltiir Ops, losing only to Patrick Ziagos, and qualified as the top 5–1 player for the final duel against the undefeated Chris Terwilliger.

Report info

Games

Games as the author describes them; margins are as stated in the report.

Round Opponent Author's deck Opponent's deck Result Margin
1 Wojciech Jankowski Light Yavin 4 mains Endor Ops Win +21
2 Patrick Ziagos Dark Ralltiir Ops Hidden Base Revo Loss −15
3 George Gundry Light Yavin 4 mains Court Snowtrooper Odds Win +29
4 Frank Walsh Dark Ralltiir Ops Profit mains Win +5
5 Steve Brentson Dark Ralltiir Ops Speeder Ops Win +16
6 Travis Desell Light Yavin 4 mains ROPs (modified Charlie Herren Florida GS deck) Win +32

Other results named in the report

Discrepancies

Where this report disagrees with other sources, the wiki keeps the other record and notes the difference here.

  • Jonathan Chu's report says sixty-eight people played the main event; the hub, from Scott Lingrell's director's report, gives 66 players. (see RamapoCon II)

Original report

ramapocon-ii-part-deux-5-6-2000

  • Author: Jonathan "jonnychu" Chu
  • Published: May 8, 2000
(continuation from Part One, or stand-alone) *** Pre-tourney notes *** Coming off a successful first day of RamapoCon II, I tweak my decks a little bit prior to the big tournament on Saturday. The big decision to make was between playing Yavin 4 droids or mains. The droid deck is a machine - by now everyone knows it uses hit and run EPPs for big battle damage, combined with droid inserts for a huge one or two turn loss that is difficult, if not impossible, to recover from. The mains deck was more solid - but also more boring, and it's been around for a long time. On Friday, Imperial Barrier was surprisingly popular, making hit and run difficult, and the area in general was prepped for droids, so mains became the deck of choice. Saturday morning, I only made a few changes. In my ROPs deck, I switched out a Sandwhirl for a Monnok - almost everyone had heard at some point about some guy who had gotten everyone Sandwhirled at the desert on Ralltiir, so nobody was about to deploy or move there. I also swapped Imperial Decree for Bubo - a tough call. Yavin 4 was rampant and a first turn Bubo would be, in effect, a 2/0 site for the purposes of activation, but with 4 destiny. Also, Decree was always a tough card to get active - with only four ships in the deck, I never liked to put them at my battleground systems to control the two system/one site requirement. For the light side, I swapped my R-3P0 for an Uncontrollable Fury, mainly because R-3P0 never saw any action and Fury is huge, if only to get rid of a You Are Beaten from your opponent's hand. I also switched Revolution for a Rebel Barrier. The rest of the decks can be found in my report of Day one. *** Day 2: the main tournament *** Sixty-eight people showed up to compete at the second RamapoCon, held at Ramapo College, NJ. The competition was stiff; notable names included Brian and Chris Terwiliger, Matt Sokol, Steve Brentson, Charlie Herren, Mike Dalton, Chris Praskac, Wojciech Jankowski, and Dan Bojanowski, among others. Team Albany and Ghetto Squad were out en force. There were players from ten states, including Michigan, Georgia and Virginia. Even Juz Pakes and Kevin Reitzel from Decipher were playing. The tournament started a little late, but quickly made up the time - helping Scott Lingrell were Thomas and Blythe Hermley-Keen, Bart Robinson, and Rich Haman, all of whom did an excellent job keeping the main event organized and efficient. Props to them all. On to the games. *** Game One: LS vs Wojciech Jankowski (2002)'s Endor Ops Yeah.... what a great starting opponent. I was hoping for an easier victory, but I was also confident about the matchup - I had played Woj, each of us with the same decks, at last year's RamapoCon and more recently, the Philly GS, notching wins of 26 and 30, so I knew more or less how to play it. I got a decent draw and dropped a 2/0, a nudj and drew. His turn, he put out two systems to commence the force activation and drew also. Most of the game, he either had as much force activation as I did, or more - this worried me a little because in the previous two matchups I had with him, he was choked for the greater part of those games. In any case, I got out an early Bacta Tank, reinforced later by Savrip, and these allowed me to keep my guys around in space. I only packed three ships, so this was key. Control of the ground was mine the whole game, and when Battle Plan hit the table, I cleared off any guys he had left so he had to pay for his sparse drains the rest of the game. This matchup sucks ass for dark. FW 2(+21) Highs: Getting the good matchup. Getting out the Tank, Savrip and having SAC dominate his red cards. Lows: The matchup sucked for him. Vesden hanging out in the bunker with a Nudj for a +2 drain somewhere almost every turn late in the game when I had it in hand. The big names recorded wins for the most part after the first game, not surprisingly. One notable upset - Juz beat Ray Bordier by a good margin. The second game moved in without any delay - interestingly (and to their loud disapproval), the Terwiliger brothers were matched up. I was paired with Patrick Ziagos, from Clarks Summit, PA. Game Two: ROPs vs Patrick Ziagos (1821)'s Hidden Base Revo He started Hidden Base... and I thought immediately, auto- win. He was a really nice guy who played slowly, but thoroughly. The game started out rough from the first turn - I got one 2/0 site, which is nice, but his turn, he drops 3 2/0's and revolves mine. So I activate my 3, draw... no 2/0's. He puts out another 2/0 (count the force advantage... 15 to 4) and draws. I hit him with a used monnok to reduce his hand size drastically but damn he just drew it all back the turn after. Soon he gets out a Traffic Control and puts everything he needs in his hand and everything else back into his deck. He has guys all over my planet and I was activating basically nothing. The game was slow - I had a few small victories on the ground here and there - but he played it smart, always had enough in his hand to wreck what I put down, and prevented the flip long enough to make it useless. Civil Disorder locked the game down. FL 0(-15) Overall: 2(+6) Highs: Getting a 2/0 in my hand! That was all... Lows: I think out of 10 games, ROps would beat his deck 7 or 8. He got a damn good draw, but to his credit, Patrick played it like a champ, preventing the trademark ROPs turnaround. So after getting hammered, I went outside to see how everyone else had done. Brian had gotten massacred by Chris by 33 cards, and it seemed like Revolution decks were pretty popular - both Travis Desell and Chris Praskac were sporting them and went 6-0 each between this tournament and the team tournament. I was disappointed in the previous game but didn't really care and went into game three ready to kick ass and chew bubble gum... Game Three: LS vs George Gundry (1543)'s Court Snowtrooper Odds That's right... Court Snowtrooper Odds. He played a first turn Twi'lek and snagged Undercover... and then pulled Hoth: Docking Bay from his deck and Garindan using the JP gametext. heheh.... Luke with Lightsaber hit the Sarlacc pit to stop the Court GT force loss, and I drew. He drew. I got some more activation and drew... lots of guys in my hand. His turn, he puts out Serg Major Bursk (the snowtrooper guy), a cadet, and a snowtrooper... no insert. I slap down Obi-Wan, his saber, Tawss and some guys for a beating. His cadet moves away into the Hoth: war room and I sense his Trooper assault for a load of damage. The rest of this game goes downhill for him, as he can't keep any guys on the table for insert and any red cards he put out got SAC'ed away. Hell, his Sarlacc couldn't even touch Luke. It was a mess. FW 2(+29) Overall: 4(+35) Highs: the game Lows: not being able to kill Garindan, who sat undercover in the audience chamber the whole game. Chris Terwiliger was undefeated at this point, along with Ghetto Leader himself, sitting at the head table all the way up to this point. Michael Dalton was also undefeated. Dalton got paired up with little Twigg and Hodur played a Team Albany member, Mike D'amboise, who was sporting a nifty Profit numbers deck. I went back to inching my way to the top table. Game Four: my ROPs vs Frank Walsh (1717)'s Profit mains This game starts real slow... decent draw but after that I'm getting nothing I need. He draws for like 5 turns straight, and by then I flip, but I'm not draining for any because I'm stupid and I put out Battle Order. He flips with eight cards in his lost pile and retrieves them all. So it goes back and forth, I'm losing 4, he's losing 4, and it's close. I don't put out Oppressive because he started Do or Do Not so there's obviously no SAC involved in his deck... and he makes me pay by playing On the Edge, tracking a six, when I have only two cards left. Ouch. That puts the game slightly in his favor, but he mistracks the next time and kills off his Obi and the saber that was put on him. Kashyyyk comes out way too late, but it's enough to put me ahead in the drain race. Ability^3 plugs him a few times because he only plays with the main characters basically and First Strike helps a little bit. The little damage is what does him in. FW 2(+5) Overall 6(+40) Highs: Winning against a player that is better than his ranking Lows: I played like a shmuck all game and underestimated his deck. I won't do that with profit anymore. I'm going to trim the analysis because my plane is leaving soon. Hodur is still sitting at the top table, which is cool as hell. Twigg beat Dalton and is paired up with Hodur; Praskac is also still undefeated. Game Five: my ROPs vs Steve Brentson (2031)'s Speeder Ops This is my first time talking or playing with Steve. I was looking forward to this game - I thought the matchup was in my favor because I've played against some of the best Speeder Ops in the world back in Nashville and I know how to play ROps against it. So I start the stuff and begin collecting guys to put all over his planet. My opening hand helps out a lot - a 2/0, Tempest 1, Blizzard 2, and Darth Vader EPP. That's power for you. I draw a little and he goes. He puts out a Flaps and a site and draws. I plop another 2/0 and draw. During his turn, he locks flaps, puts out an Incom, an ithorian, and two speeders at the swamp on Bothauwi. During my turn, I drop Tempest 1, some 2/2 scrub, and some other guy, trample his engineer, and commence the beating. He moves his remaining speeders away and puts out some more to ensure it doesn't get hammered and draws. My turn, I feel silly and flip with Arden, some 2/2 scrub and some other 2/2 scrub on ralltiir, with Barrier as my only protection. But his hand isn't big enough to pose an immediate threat and I alter his Flaps successfully when Vader comes down for a beatdown so I feel safe. The whole game I am retrieving with First Strike when I battle and making him lose guys. Destinies come out in my favor - one time he has an engineer, an ithorian and an op in a speeder at a site. I look for something, see four 3's in my reserve deck, and trample/capture his guys so he only gets one destiny. Eventually I flip him back and drain him out. FW 2(+16) Overall 8(+56) Highs: Getting a great draw, knowing how to play against the deck and beating a tough opponent. Lows: nothing, really. Little Twigg beat Hodur that game, so him and Praskac are the only two undefeateds left. Unfortunately, they were the same side so they can't play - I'm at the second table, playing Travis Desell (who is dark side, luckily for me, since I pack no Revo protection), while Hodur and Praskac duke it out in the battle of the Ghetto, and Twigg is playing the highest 4-1 on his side, John Lolli, at the #1 table. Game Six: my LS mains vs Travis Desell (1683)'s ROPs. Travis is a good buddy of mine at home and he's much better than his rating - he didn't play for a long time, came back and got hammered. His dark deck was a modified version of Charlie Herren's ROPs deck he used to win the Florida GS, and I knew basically every card and also knew that he would stand a great chance of winning if he got a good draw. That's ROPs for you, nothing special. So I was happy as hell when he didn't put down any 2/0's his first turn. On the other hand, my hand had 2 2/0's in it... hell yeah. I had like a 15 force difference in activation in my favor the entire game, and anything he put out got hammered into oblivion. This game was a total rout - the only 2/0 he put out all game was the Ice Plains, and I put down Orrimaarko at my Hoth: War Room and moved over for a drain of two the whole game. Obi and his saber were draining their share at the docking bay, and Tantive and some guys were chillin up in space. Civil Disorder came out and the Lockdown was complete. FW 2(+32) Overall 10(+88) Highs: my hand was ridiculously good and his was horrible. There wasn't much of a game in this game. We played outside right after, same matchups, and it was close but he ended up winning. Shows how much of a difference a good draw makes, especially in a close matchup like this. Lows: none Little Twigg won again, but Praskac lost to Hodur in a tough game, so Twigg was the only undefeated. He claimed first place, and I was the 5-1 player with the highest differential, so I got to play him in the final duel in an attempt to defend my RamapoCon title. Unfortunately I gotta go catch my plane to go back to Nashville now, so I will include the final duel in Part 3 of my RamapoCon II report, which covers the team tournament. Thanks for reading. JC

See also

Sources

References

  1. ↑ ramapocon-ii-part-deux-5-6-2000, DeckTech (Jonathan "jonnychu" Chu, 8 May 2000). Preservation copy: GitHub Pages.
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