Hey Everyone! Whew, what a month last month was! I'm still playing catch-up on all of the cool things we did over the last couple of weeks. Let's take a look at what we did! Death Star 2- This expansion was such a hit. People are beginning to say that this is the best expansion since Premiere... It's flying off of the shelves as well. Many places online were sold out days before it released. It was nice to see some of you at the Box Opening party we had on the evening of the release at Kriers. I missed some of you, though... Maybe next time! As I had predicted, the new starting interrupts, Prepared Defenses and Heading For The Medical Frigate opened up a whole Pandoras Box of strategies! The Ultra-Rares weren't really that much of an issue either... In fact, out of two boxes, Rufino Sanchez was able to pull FOUR Emperors and a Jedi Luke! Alfred Dong and Kevin Shannon were also able to get all they needed out of their boxes. I hope your box pulls were good as well! Enduro- What an incredible success that was!!! I was so pleasantly amazed at how many players showed up and stayed for the entire event! 34 or 36 I believe! No THAT's hard core! I'm still waiting on a Tournament Report for the Enuro from Clayton. When he get's that to me, I'll be sure to post it up on my website for all of you to read. A lot of effort went into making the Enduro what it was. So, I want to give out props to where they're due: Robert Selby deserves a big hand for being a driving force behind this whole thing. Sure, you might have seen me all over the place with this... But, this whole party wouldn't have been without his enthusiasm and tireless efforts! Janice Nichols and The Gauntlet deserve props for offering us a place to hold this monstrosity! Janice, thank you for being cool with us while you were holding the store down. Kreir's Comics & Cards PUT OUT for this event! All of the prizes, and there was a ton of great stuff there, came from the fine folks at Krier's. I swear, Krier's is just such a damned cool place. Big, phat, industrial sized props go to them for their generosity. Last, but not leats, I want to thank all of those players that came in and duked it out for 18+ hours for the event. You guys made it soo much fun for me... You made it worth it! This Enduro was such a huge success, look for another one (with even better prizes), around November-time. ComicCon- It was sooo hella cool to see all of you down at ComicCon! Thanks for stopping by and saying hi to me. Congratulations to Kevin Shannon for winning top honors at the ComicCon Open championship. He's won his first trip to the World Championship at DecipherCon! The Alderaan Regional Championship- I'd like to thank everyone that made that heinous drive down to Santa Barbara to compete for the top honors in the Alderaan Region! It was good to see some of the Southern California folks there. Mad props go to Nick Miller for being a machine down there! Without your help, the tournament would not have gone as smoothly as it did! Thanks, Man! Congrats to Paul Feldman for tearing it up and winning his FOURTH trip to the World Championships! This guy just keeps proving that he IS the best player on the planet! I also want to put out some props to Jason Makohon and Greg Miller for putting in valiant efforts and coming within inches of getting to the big dance! Keep the faith and next, year, it'll all be you! As you can see... We had one wild ride. But, that ain't it... Not by a long shot! Look at what's coming up on us in August and beyond! >> Star Wars CCG- As many of you have noticed... There's a megaton of tournaments going on this month! It's a tournament frenzy! With all of these tournaments, it's really hard to keep it so that don't compete with each other. To make it easier on the TD's I have a special listserve, like this one, just for them. There they can email all of the TD's and SM's and make sure they can run tournaments on a particular day. The list is called the NoCalSquadron (NoCalSquadron@listbot.com). If you are a Tournament Director, Squadron Member or Jedi Council Member and you aren't on this listserve, email me and I'll get you on. > Jabba's Palace Sealed Deck (JPSD)- They unvieled this next Star Wars CCG product due out in a couple of months at Wizard World in Chicago. Similar in construction to the OTSD, you'll get those cool looking deck boxes that have pictures of memorable Star Wars scenes on them (one such scene is a picture of Han Frozen in Carbonite...). Inside these collectible boxes, you'll have access to 18 new Premium cards (of these, I'm told will be a new Jabba and two new Objectives (built especially for Sealed Deck usage)) and 6 Jabba's Palace Boosters. This should tide you over until... > Shadows and Skywalkers- Rumor has it that Skywalkers will also come in Starter and Booster format. Again a good breaking in point for new players. Lots of rumors surrounding how Shadows Of The Empire will be packaged. Some say it will be like an Enhanced Product. Containing several Shadows cards and various boosters from other expansions. Some say it will be like a mini-expansion complete with it's own boosters and displays. I've also heard from one source at ComicCon that it may be like a Fajo Collection (STCCG) only not as expensive. I'll hit you with more details when I learn of them myself. > Squadron Member Bounties- If you've visited my website, you'll notice that I've placed bounties on all of the Northern California Squadron Members and high profile players. Here's your chance to win some Death Star 2 packs! Don't miss out! http://cmikehardy.tripod.com/starwarsccg/contests.htm Remember, you must register with my website in order to take part in this contest. There was a problem with my wesbite form sender, so, if you've resgistered with the site, please register again. The reason I'm having you register is so that I can get your mailing info to send you your bounty. Many of you don't write very well, and I don't want my shipments getting sent back to me because I can't read the address you left me on your command card! > Sacramento vs. Sonora League- Because of all of the action that we saw last month... I had to postpone the League until Semptember. Keep your eye on my website for all the details! > San Fransisco vs. San Jose- You know that rumbling that you've been feeling lately up here in Northern California? No, it's not because you're hungry and it isn't because there's an Earthquake! It's the battle for Bay Area supremacy. Players from San Jose will lock horns with the elite from SDan Fransisco in a battle royale to see just who is the best in the Bay! Thad Aid's masterminding this war of Star Wars CCG skill. Email him for info (t_aid@hotmail.com). > Mike Lightsaber Tournament- Bet you thought I forgot about that didn't you? I haven't... I've just had next to no money to purchase the the vaunted weapon of the Jedi. I will do it! This I promise you. Perhaps maybe for the November Enduro? Hmmm.... >> Young Jedi CCG- First off, I want to officially welcome Abby Goldthwaite into the corp of Decipher Volunteers. She's a new Jedi Council Member and the Young Jedi CCG force in Sacramento! I demoed this game a lot at ComicCon and, believe it or not, I forgot just how fun this game really is! It's such a blast to play... Fast and furious. I think what I like best about this game is that, there's just enough strategy to keep it interesting, but, not too much where it'll take away from your main game (be it Star Wars, Star Trek, or what have you). If you haven't had a chance to play, come on by one of the tournaments that's going to be taking place around in Sacramento and Modesto. You'll kick yourself once you realize the fun you've been missing! If you want to learn how to play, Abby and her freinds will be joining me at Great Escape Games for the Thursday Gaming Nights! She will also be a commentator for my Young Jedi website. She'll be sharing he words of wisdom with you about everything Young Jedi. Stay tuned for that! > Enhanced Menace Of Darth Maul- I haven't had a chance to pick up some of these new cards. But, I've seen them... Oh, boy, have I seen 'em! The card images are excellent... Best Darth Maul pic out there in my opinion. Qui-gon's pretty nice, too. This set is cool because it opens up even more strategy by lossening some of the deck building restirctions imposed by the color dots. Now, you can have up to 15 Darth Mauls in your deck (10 Red color dots and a wild card dot from each of the other 5 color dots...). < Not For A Sith + Darth Maul's Lightsaber + Darth Maul, Sith Assassin = Meesa thinks heesa gonna kick some booty... > > Duel Of Fates- The next full Young Jedi expansion, expected around October time, I think... What will be cool about this set is that there won't be any duplicates (no redundant blasters and crap (God, I hated that!)). Each card will, be new and different... Nice! There'll be a new game mechanic introduced with Duel as well... I'm not sure what it's going to be. More details to come! > Triathalon- Now that Death Star 2 is out... We've got all the ingredients to making a really cool Triathalon event! Some of you probably remember my ramblings about this a couple of months back: Imagine playing a 4 game Star Wars Tournament, then a 4 game Young Jedi Tournament, and finish it up with a Star Wars or Young Jedi sealed deck Tournament! Wouldn't that be hecka fun. < Some body need sto run that so I can play in it... :) > >> Website info- Some of you have probably already tried to register with my site. If you have (either for the player database or for the Squadron Member Bounty), I've had some problems getting the info from the website. I fixed that now, so, please send your information again! Well, another month for the record books! Take care, be safe, and be good humans! Hope to see you on the tourny scene! Until next time... "Stay in attack formation!"