The North American Championships at Gen_Con50 were a long time coming. After the disaster that was worlds registration, we planned for weeks how we were going to camp in front of our computers on May whatever’th and click the button as fast as we possibly could. Even that was sort of a disaster as NJCuenca and TinyGrimes weren’t able to get a ticket right away, but a keen eye and hitting F5 at the right time, and the entire squad was in.

The Teamup was fruitful as we all attacked the meta from different points. I spent a lot of time working on Poe/Maz, Tiny was developing FNkar, Nick was working on all sorts of decks in the gauntlet to see what had legs and what didn’t, and Joe had been working on FN/Bala/Nightsister from day 1. Generally I think taking credit for a deck is absurd, but I was originally a hater when Joe wanted to port his Bala/Sister/Trooper/Trooper deck to SOR by subbing in FN. I didn’t believe. I even remember searching on SWDestinydb.com to see if anyone had posted one, and there wasn’t a single list. I sarcastically messaged him: “Congrats, you invented a shitty deck.”

More than four months later and I have to admit that I have egg on my 2nd place plaque. The deck is real. It’s disgusting. And, all weekend when people came up to me and said something like, “wow, you’re not playing Poe/Maz?!” my reply was, “Absolutely not.” I know Nick, and Tiny were wavering on their deck choices quite a bit, and Joe even questioned it after taking some losses in the cash event, but I 5-0d the Thursday night qualifier and felt great. So many of my practice games and Cash Qualifier games mattered in the main event. Even at the zero hour I was learning things about the deck that helped propel me to my second place finish.

It’s very difficult to prove yourself in this game. There are a few people like Joe and Olivier (Elrathion) who have a disgusting amount of Store Champs wins who I think are very good players (and obviously Joe has further proven himself in the Artificery Online Store Championship and then, of course, winning the North American Championships). But, for most of us regular-joe’s, how do we do it? For me, it was this event. I couldn’t get a seat to worlds, and this was the next, and biggest thing.

About a month ago I went on the Smuggler’s Den Podcast with Tiny Grimes and said that my goal was to make the final table at Gen Con. A win would be gravy, anything else would hurt. For proof of my clairvoyance, I’ve embedded the video below and set it to start at my proclamation.

Below is a chronicle of my games to the best of my remembrance.

I also want to point out before we start that up until the second game of the top 4, where my opponent, Tacster, chose my battlefield, every single one of my opponents chose to use their battlefields and every time I won the roll, I chose to take the shields. I think this had a lot to do with my success, and highly recommend playing decks that don’t require their battlefield so that you can get those shields as often as possible.

Round 1: FN/Grievous/FO Trooper

I love me some Grievous, and I had seen my opponent practicing with this deck in the morning while I was waiting for X-Wing Day 2 to start. Seeing it peaked my interest a bit, and I gave it some thought prior. I decided I had to try and spike Grievous, possibly on turn 1, because if his FN was able to spike one of my characters and steal a weapon, possibly my only weapon, it would be GG.

Luckily my hand was solid and I was able to do exactly 10 damage in round 1, taking Grievous off the board and breathing easy. My opponent eventually picked off both Bala-Tik and Nightsister (I had used her aggressively to R1K Grievous), but FN had no damage on him when his Stormtrooper finally fell.

Round 2: eJabba/eUnkar

Winning the roll against this deck is practically impossible, but had I won I may have chosen my battlefield, but I’m glad I didn’t have the opportunity to make a bad decision. Getting two shields on Nightsister is absolutely amazing as we get two free rerolls against a deck that isn’t going to do any damage against us anyway. This can be key if we have to go HAM on rerolling Discard and Crime Lord Specials with her ability. Also, we should be fast enough to win the game before getting milled for an extra two cards a turn really matters.

I was able to take Jabba out in round 2 through a personal shield to breathe very easy. Everytime we got milled by Lothal he milled one card I didn’t want in the matchup, so I was pretty fortunate there. Unkar had a Con Arist, but used its ability twice to discard one from my hand instead of trying to reroll for its special. When the game ended I still had over 10 cards in my deck. I consider this a pretty easy matchup, especially if they aren’t on the hardcore Crime Lord plan, which they weren’t.

Round 3: eUnkar/FN/Trooper

After seeing almost no FNkar in the Thursday and Friday events we assumed this deck was fully out of the meta. We even spent a bunch of time on Friday trying to figure out if we should switch to eFN/eAnakin at the last minute, as it is extremely dominant against most decks, but weaker against FNkar than most decks too.

He chose his battlefield despite the fact that we were both playing on Secret Facility. This is generally a good play as they are able to open the game with Imperial Inspection of Salvage Stand. If they start on Stand, we need to have a 2 cost weapon or we are potentially not getting to three resources, if they start on Inspection, we can’t open with a two cost weapon, and could get our resources disrupted before we do. It’s a dirty little dance. Luckily for me he didn’t have either too early, and I was able to take out his FN, ready Bala, and take out his Stormtrooper in one fell swoop.

Round 4: eBala/FN/Nightsister

This round I played against Lascii from the Artificery crew. He posted his list and a repot of all his games on www.artificery.com if you want to take a look. The game wasn’t super close, Lascii got Salvage Stand and Aftermath on the table in round 1, and followed up with a second Aftermath in Round 2, the resource gap between us was too great, and he was able to get several weapons on his FN, but I was never able to get a second on mine until it was much, much too late to come back. Aftermath is absolutely massive in the mirror, and may be a mulligan target depending on your opening five.

I also think he got a boundless off, whereas I didn’t, which is also just one more thing that broke his way. I was dealt my first loss, and knew that I couldn’t lose another game.

Round 5: ePoe/eMaz

Round 6: ePoe/eMaz

I played these two games right in a row, so the details are confounding me at the moment. I’m not sure exactly how things went in each game fully. However, I’m pretty sure my first opponent was on the Planetary Uprising Plan, getting one into play before I killed Poe, and one afterwards. I was able to resolve a Nightsister disrupt at exactly the right time – when my opponent had one resource and had already resolved his dice for the turn, to keep him from using Field Medic or Dug In, and finishing Maz off. He revealed after the match that he had two Field Medics in his hand, one for that turn, and one for the next.

My next game was way more intense. I played against another former magic player who definitely knew what he was doing. He U-Wing’d me in Round 1, then scavenged it back at the end of the round. In Round 2 he U-Wing’d again, and then Thermal’d with his other Poe die, killing both Nightsister and Bala Tik (he plugged some extra damage on Bala with Maz). Luckily for me he had to claim to pull this off, which left me able to play both of my boundless ambitions, doing 8 damage to Poe and 8 more to Maz so that there was never a round 3.

Round 7: eUnkar/FN/Trooper

This was a rough round for my opponent. He was admittedly exhausted, but he literally could not keep his eyes open during the game and played very poorly. Like, I had lethal damage for his FN, who had no redeploy weapons, and he discarded an Electroshock to reroll his dice when it would’ve otherwise saved him. My opponent was clearly frustrated with his play, but with Unkar and Trooper naked I was able to end the game very quickly. I was surprised to face such an easy time so late in the tournament, but it was nice to finish the game quickly without having to stress too much knowing I needed to win my final match to make the top 16.

An interesting thing about sportsmanship came up after this game. What do say to a player who played (admittedly) really poorly, and lost very, very badly? I’ve said “good game” after many a poor game only to be scoffed at or raged at. I’ve taken to saying, “Nice to meet you,” or “Nice talking to you,” after a game like this, and did the same here. Even here my opponent scoffed since I so obviously was avoiding calling our game a good one. But, what the fuck was I supposed to say? Maybe you can’t win, but if you happen to get your ass absolutely kicked, maybe try and realize that your opponent is going out of his way to avoid being a dick. I know I will.

Round 8: ePoe/eMaz

Well it all came down to this. I generally don’t get nervous or anxious while competing, but a little bit of it started to leak in. You might’ve seen pictures of me at the Con rocking big silver headphones; noise cancellers. I spent about 2.5 minutes before every round blasting parts of the A New Hope Soundtrack: the first minute or so of Imperial Attack, and the first 90 seconds of Ben’s Death and TIE Fighter Attack. I find behavioral economics fascinating, and I’ve read about how many genius-level competitors (Michael Phelps is a good example) listen to the same song over and over before a competition. It helps with resetting your mental acumen. With a song stuck in your head, when you’re not actively thinking your mind resorts back to the song in your head, which saves brain power and prevents decision fatigue. This has been wildly successful in practice over the past year from CCGs to Golf.

Anyway, my opponent was very excited to be playing for top 16. He was all smiles and said he just wanted to kill one of my characters. After my mulligan I had Logistics, a Holdout Blaster, 2 IQA Rifles and a Vibroknucklers. While my opponent was able to Thermal and put some serious damage on Bala Tik, my round went like this:

Roll Bala (Blank/1R)

Play Holdout Blaster on FN (Resource), don’t resolve it, play Logistics

Overwrite with IQA (+3) leave it. Opponent doesn’t resolve it: 4 to Poe (8HP left)

Roll out Nightsister (2R)

Overwrite IQA with another IQA (+3), leaving it since I knew my opponent didn’t have removal. 4 more damage to Poe (4HP)

Roll out FN, rolled the special, two more damage to Poe (2HP)

Overwrite IQA with Knucklers, hit the 1X, pay to add one = Dead Poe in Round 1.

There may or may not have been some Nightsister rerolls in there, I honestly don’t remember, but after that first +3 play I knew I had a shot at the 12 damage and went for it. After killing Poe I got to activate Bala again after readying him, rolling the 1R/+2R just for the kick in the nards, leaving me with needing to do only 5 damage in the following round. It was easily done, and I was into the top 16 as the #4 seed!

We get to sleep on it all. We go to an insane dinner with Andrew Cox, Ed Martinez and the entire South Florida crew. Words won’t do it justice so I’ll move right to Day 2 where I know I’ll be facing Vader/Raider in the top 16.

Top 16: Elliot Lusk playing eVader/Raider

Dodging Darth Vader, Sith Lord all of Day 1 was fortunate, and while I felt OK about the matchup, I was definitely worried after Round 1 of Game 1 when I didn’t do a single damage to either of his characters, while he had rolled straight fire. I did, however, roll a buttload of resources. This allowed me to catch up quite a bit in the following round. I was also able to doubt and Nightsister away big damage, keeping my guys alive longer, allowing me to pick off Tusken Raider while I waited for my Vibroknife to show up so that I could get through shields and Force Illusion. Game 2 went even smoother when my Vibroknife showed up early, and instead of overwriting I focused on going the distance with Melee weapons, and when Vader died he had a shield and a Force Illusion still on him.

Top 8: Andrew Webber playing ePoe/eMaz w/ Cargo Hold

I was pretty excited that the Cargo Hold Poe/Maz won, as it’s much easier without the Throne Room. I took the shields in game 1, happily allowing my opponent to Cargo Hold me. I’d gotten some practice against it, and felt pretty good about being able to mitigate its effect on me. He was able to use it in Round 1 of Game 1 to move my F11D over, but I’d already resolved its die once, so it wasn’t too bad. I’ve honestly forgotten a decent amount of these games; my gut told me to go after Maz, but I’m not 100% sure that I did. I know that near the end of the game he claimed but he should’ve waited for me to roll FN out, since I was able to suicide the sister and get the weapon back on FN, going off and ending the game right there.

Game 2 started out like the first, only I played even quicker with my actions, resolving the F11D rifle die twice before he could move it to the nightsister. I think this was the game where I was able to claim and move a weapon back onto FN, but honestly the details are blurry. I just know I 2-0’d my opponent and nothing really interesting happened.

Top 4: Tacster (Nick Obee) playing ePhasma/Guavian/Trooper, obviously

These games were pretty lopsided. I rolled really, really well. Like, multiple 4’s in each game between the Rocket Launcher and Flamethrower. Tacster was able to string together some heavy damage in the first game, and his Sabotage on my Aftermath kept me from pulling ahead, but in game 2 I had two Aftermath to his one, and we had a round where 4 characters died. Things got fairly insane, but I still rolled like an absolute madman and the second game was over before he killed a single character of mine. I was into the finals, achieving my goal.

Because the round was over so quickly I was able to watch the end of the insane game 3 that Joe played vs. Brian Lindberg who went 8-0 on day 1. Brian played a Thermal on Maz and was able to do the 3 to FN as well as kill Bala Tik. He followed up on the next turn by playing a second Planetary Uprising meaning a claim would kill Joe instantly. Two ambush weapons on FN later and the game was over, and it was an all Hyperloops final.

Finals: HonestlySarcastc playing eBala/FN/Nightsister

I lost Game 1 in the very first action of the game when I chose to roll out Bala-Tik instead of Enraging. Playing FILP and playing around FILP is something I’ve struggled with while playing the deck, and it burned me here. I tried to roll resources, but any time I did he would ping them with Nightsister or remove them. I put a little damage on Bala, and he aggressively used his nightsister while I passed, maybe 15 straight actions. I had two dice in the pool, a holdout and an FN die, both on pay-sides. He pinged his Nightsister for the 6th time, so I pinged my FN die, rolled a 1X, and killed his NS. He killed my Bala, and then played boundless (maybe he played both?) and killed my nightsister. That was all in Round 1!!!

I killed his Bala at the start of Round 2, but his FN was untouched and mine had 6 damage on it, and we didn’t go to a third round.

Game 2 was much closer. Things were still insane, but I continued to make what I felt were good plays. Once again my Boundless Ambitions failed to show up, but this time Joe got Aftermath and I didn’t. It’s possible I should’ve been mulliganing for these cards in the mirror, as they wrecked me in the 3 mirrors I faced (0-3 in the mirror in the main event). Anyway, when it was FN vs. FN, he claimed with his FN with 5HP left. I had a 2X and a 1R in the pool, an F11D and a Lightsaber in hand. The 2X was from the Baton, and the 1R was FN’s character die. I overwrote the Holdout Blaster with the F-11D, needing either the special, the +2R, or the 2R/r, with the reroll it meant I had a 75% chance of winning the game. I whiffed on both. Joe started the turn with a Riot Baton, giving him a 50% chance of winning, and me a 50% chance of being able to play my own Riot Baton and having my own 50-50 shot. He hit, and the tournament was over.

All in all it’s fucking insane that he and I went 1-2 in such a large tournament. We worked hard to prepare for the event, and writing everyday for TheHyperloops.com has made us better players for sure. Working together and with Tiny Grimes was also a huge help. On Day 1 alone, the 4-man crew of Joe, Tiny, NJCuenca, and myself went 26-6. Overall I went 13-3. The runner up prizes kind of suck, but I have a seat at worlds, so I’ll be able to try and keep the hot streak going in Minnesota this winter.

In the end, even if I hadn’t made the final table I would’ve felt accomplished. I thought I played great on Day 1. The field was massive and fierce, and going 7-1 felt like a legitimate success. The tournament was also quite the endurance trial with 35 minute rounds, no time in between rounds, no lunch breaks, and only two minutes between pairings and the start of the round clock. We barely had time to breathe, let alone eat or use the can. It’s a good thing our hotel had hardboiled eggs in the complimentary continental breakfast.

Thanks for reading, and for everyone that messaged me and the crew to congratulate us. It was awesome meeting everybody, and it meant a lot anytime anyone came over and said what’s up.

BobbySapphire