Hey everyone! Well, it's December already! I all flashes by in a blink doesn't it. I remember it was just yesterday when I started doing these Galactic Updates in February... This year just when by us at lightspeed! And, what an awesome year we've had too! We've had our very first State Championship. The incomperable Clayton Atkin will forever hold the distinction of being our State's Champion for the first time ever. We've also had our very first ever Grand Slam. That was an amazing amount of fun! Decipher went above and beyond the call of duty by bringing Kendrick Summers out to join us for the festivities. Thanks Kendrick! This year has also seen the Star Wars Trilogy come full circle with the release of Endor and Death Star II. It was a great honor to be one of the few locations to have the Death Star II pre-release tournament. It was really great to see all the new faces that showed up to play in that. We've also had our first ever Enduro tournament. I have to say, that monstrosity was a shear labor of love! But, it worked out way better than I thought it would have! Big, phat, industrial sized props goes to all you players that stuck it through for 20+ hours straight! This year also saw the true master of this game, Paul Todd Feldman win his unprecidented fourth trip to the World Championship. Expansions get released, strategies come and go, but, that man still continues to win! This year saw one heck of a wild Lightsaber Tournament held by Josh Certo, one of the great Squadron Members we have working for us! Finally, this year saw Nor Cal Players dominate all of the major cons in California and most of the ones in the US. Kevin Shannon scores three big victories: 4th at GenCon, 1St at ComicCon and 4th again at DecipherCon. Todd Feldman scores big at the Alderaan Regional and places 12th at DecipherCon. And, Clayton Atkin took the State Championship. Let's not dwell on the past though... Instead, I want to dedicate this Galactic Update to what cool things we have to look forward to this coming year! >> Star Wars CCG- > Reflections II- Reflections II is expected to release in January. With it, we'll get a good look at some expansded Star Wars universe cards. Many of you have already seen some of the cool cards in this new set. Two standout cards are Stinger and Kir Kanos. Not necessarily for game play, but, the pictures are stunning! We'll also get some nifty combo cards to turbo-charge our decks. Already the Ghhhk/ Those Rebels Won't Escape Us has got me interested... A 3 Destiny! Suddenly beatdowns will be more managable with this little jewel. Out Of Comission/ Transmission Terminated will be sure to put a little fear in those Hunt decks. Play one to cancel Visage, play another to toss that lost Vader out of play! Paul Feldman expacts to hold a Reflections II box opening party when it releases... Stay tuned for that! > Battle Of Endor- It's been about two months now that the Death Star II closed format tournaments have been out. Some changes are on the horizon that might interest you. One) New BOE Ranking system- There have been complaints about the effect BOE will have on you regular swiss tournament rankings (such as they are). To address this, Decipher is considering introducing an entirely new ranking system that will make the BOE tournaments more stand alone and less risky for the higher echelon players. I think this is a good idea, as it separates BOE from regular swiss, much like sealed deck is seperate from swiss. Now there'll be a distinction between them and a sense of espirit de corps. Two) Foils- The foil card prizes for BOE tournament have just begun to ship. That means BOE will be able to offer some really neat, hard to come by, foil cards that will be highly collectible. Be sure to check out a BOE tournament near you to get a chance at these new foil cards! Three) Another cool special prize- I am presently trying to add a new special prize just for you NoCal players! I special Death Star II banner poster signed by Decipher's very own Product Developement group (they guys who brought Death Star II and other Star Wars CCG expansions to life!). This will be a special, limited prize, only for you guys and the BOE tournaments we have here. I'll send out more details when I get them. >> Young Jedi CCG- > Duel Of The Fates- This expansion alone has redefined how this game is played! New dueling rules, starship battle and first shot effect deployment has made this game much more than "just a glorified game of war." If you're looking for something fast, furious and in your face, give Young Jedi a try. It's a great diversion from Star Wars CCG while still keeping that Star Wars feel to it. There'll be lots of tournaments around NoCal over the next couple of months. Be sure to come by and try it out... You might just like it. Heck, it wasn't last year's Game Of The Year for nothing... >> Jedi Knights TCG- This is what you've all been waiting for! Due to release in January, this game will set a new standard in Card Gaming and Collecting. If you've read the design diaries on the Jedi Knights website, you'll have gotten a good taste of what's in store for you with this game. There's less luck involved, much more stategy. You determine what you do in your turn, you determine your stategic needs and weigh them against what you'll expect to need to do later in the game. These new Force cards are an ingenious way of giving you more control over your game. The game itself will focus around four main characters, Heros, for this first Premiere Expansion: Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Grand Moff Tarkin. There'll be a slew of supporting characters to help each of these Heros during the game. Over the next few months retailers near you will start to get loads of promotional material about Jedi Knights. There will also be League signups available. A special Luke Skywalker cards awaits those who sign up for these Jedi Knights Leagues. For more info on this, click the link below: http://www.DECIPHER.com/newsflash/2000/11/112200storyA.html >> Red 32's Whirlwind Demo Tour- Starting next year, I will be traveling about Northern California and Nevada demoing all three of these games. I'll have demo decks, posters and other cool stuff to give away. I'll will be posting my demo destinations so that you can point any perspective players my way. Be sure to come by and say Hi anyway! >> Red 32's Lightsaber Tournament... Postponed- I know I promosed you guys a Lightsaber tournament of my own. Unfortunately, financial condition have prevented me from getting the Lioghtsaber I need for this tournament. So, I will have to postpone this event until next year. >> Bruce Umene's coming to town- You better watch out, you better not cry... Decipher tournament coordinator, Bruce Umene is coming to Sacramento for Christmas. He will be available to talk with you all on Saturday, Dec 23rd's tournament at Krier's Cards and Comics in Modesto. I will be there as well, with some cool prizes that you will absolutely love! He also might be available during the Thursday Gaming Nights on Dec 21st and 28th... But, I can't guarantee that. I'll be there, though! >> Listbot vs. Egroups- This will be the last Galactic Update you'll be able to get through the Listbot as we're switching over to Egroups at the beginning of next year. If you haven't switched over to the new system yet, please, do so as soon as you can. There's a lot of great functionality with the Egroups list. Explore the site some. There'll be a lot of great content on this in the coming months. To get on the Egroups train, click the following link: http://www.egroups.com/subscribe/AlderaanHQ Well, that's all I've got for this month and for the rest of the year! I hope each and every one of you has a safe and happy holiday season. I'll be talking with you more at some of the upcoming tournaments... But, until then: Stay in Attack Formation