Hi Everyone! It's time again for another riveting monthly update for all you Star Wars CCG and Young Jedi CCG gladiators out there. This last month's been a wild one for the playing community. June promises to be even more exciting! On a personal note, I had my car in the shop throughout most of last month. This made it difficult for me to support a lot of the events that were happening this last month. If I've missed your event or I've seemed out of sorts, please accept my apologies. It ain't easy when you take away a guy's car! :) On with the updates! >> The Force is with 4-H: Early last month I got the privilege to run a special tournament event for a group of 4-H students in Woodland. It was a lot of fun and a real breath of fresh air to see a group of new players having fun with the game. In fact, I haven't seen this much enthusiasm from a group of youngsters since the Junior League days. Thanks goes out to Michele Craig for her tireless efforts in making that tournament event a real success. >> BayCon 2K: Talking about enthusiasm... For those of you picking your nose at home on memorial day weekend, you missed one heck of a time at this year's Bay Area Sci Fi extravaganza, BayCon 2000. Finally, Decipher has come BACK to San Jose (that's for you Alfred...;) Who I might add was missing at that event). It was a great experience and I want to thank everyone who took the time to drive all that way and participate. There was a lot of confusion during the events. My fault! I seemed to be an hour behind throughout the entire convention. Again... A guys without a car is a terrible thing. Big props goes to Thad Aid for being the driving force behind this event, Charles Palmer and The Enigmatic Ron for kicking all butt in tournament directing and Sean Smallman at Decipher for supporting us throughout the event. >> Star Wars CCG Updates: Have I got some great updates for you this month!!! This month is going to be a really exciting month for you Star Wars CCG fans! >>> Third Anthology: Finally, the Third Anthology has arrived! Next Wednesday (June 14th), the third installment of the anthology series will hit stores all over the planet. Pull your Attack Runs and your CPIs out of the binders boys and girls, 'cause it's time to start blowin' stuff away! We've seen the cards Massassi Base Operations (The Light Side Attack Run Engine), Prisoner 2187 (The heart and soul of the Light Side juggernaut, Rescure The Princess) and Artoo In Red 5 (the new super fast scourge of the Space Lanes). Yet, there will be one more card previewed before the 3A's release. What will it be? Take your guesses! And, now, for the update you've all been waiting for... >>> The Death Star II Pre-release Tournament Event! For the past month and a half, Decipher has been planning a little surprise for you, the player, as a reward for your patience as they go through many internal changes which slowed the release of the 3A and DS2. Now you, get a chance to play with the cards before you can buy 'em! On June 24th and 12:00 noon, Neutral Ground in Mountain View will be one of only six locations world-wide to hold such an exciting event! Only 100 players going to Neutral Ground will have the honor of playing with these new cards. For $25, you'll get 1 Death Star II Pre-Constructed Starter Deck, 2 DS2 Booster Packs and 1 Endor Booster pack. To be one of the 100 elite players to recieve this honor, visit my website for complete details: http://cmikehardy.tripod.com/starwarsccg/articles/ds2prerelease.htm >> Young Jedi CCG Updates: With Battle Of Naboo on the shelves and safely tucked away in our binders, it's time to look ahead to what's in store for us next month... Wild Cards hits Young Jedi CCG in July. The Enhanced Menace Of Darth Maul set will include six brand new cards (Qui-Gon, Darth Maul, Mace Windu among other pwoerful new cards), to supercharge your YJ decks. What's so Wild about these Wild Cards, you ask? Well they can assume any color dot they want for one. Coming with the new "White Color Dot", any normal color dot can include one Wild Card in their number (9 normal color dots, plus one Wild Card). So, your deck can have up to ten Wild Cards in them, all the same Wild Card, or mix and match to really turn up the heat! Imagine, 15 Darth Mauls! The normal 10 Red Dot Mauls and 5 Wild Card Mauls covering the other 5 color dots... That's pain! That's not all! These new Wild Cards boast the highest destiny in the game. Each sporting a destiny of SIX! A destiny 6 Darth Maul? NICE! >> Website Updates: I've been updating my website like a mad fiend! If you haven't seen the new content, check it out! I am soo on the look out for players to help me put up new content on this website. This website is for you! Get involved! Here's what I'm really interested in: Card Reviews: Do you have a sassy, unique, humorous way of looking at the way a card works? Let's hear it! Your wit and wisdom can go a long way towards helping new players develope their card play. Deck Designs: A staple of many webiste, mine included. Do you have a great, fun deck? Give give give! Ruling Gurus: I'd like to get a body of players/ Squadron Members/ Tournament Directors that are especially good with the rules to share their knowledge and wisdom with the rest of the playing community. Maybe a commentary on the new rulings in the CRD? Got a ruling from Decipher? The listserve? The rest of us wanna hear it too! >>> Player Registry: If you have been to my website recently, you notice that there are a few ways for you to register yourself as a player! This is a great way for other players to locate you and for you to find other players in locations you want to explore! Don't be anonymous, get registered! >> Listbot Woes: As many of you might have realized, the Listbot (the medium through which the Alderaan Listserve works), has got a hefty back-log. It appears that messages sent on the Listbot take aproximately 2+ days to get through. Understand that this is a free system. It doesn't cost us anything to use it. So, there's bound to be a heck of a lot of traffic on it. This is why it's slow. Please be patient when posting to the listserve, and plan accordingly, it does take a long time for your message to get through. I'm working on a message board to put on my website for just us Alderaanians... However, that will take a bit of time. >> The Alderaan Express: Due to the cost of postage and it's lack of overall success, I've put postponed further releases of the Alderaan Express. Instead, I'm going to concentrate on posting the centent you'd normally see in the AE onto my website. In the future, the Alderaan Express will be made available through your retailer instead of being mailed directly to you. I will be contacting retailers all around Northern California so that I can have the AE available where you can get it. If you have a retailer that you go to, and would like to get the Alderaan Express there, please let me know. >> Tournament Updates: Check out the tournaments that are in store for you this month! http://cmikehardy.tripod.com/events.htm >>> The Battle Of Endor and the Tale of Two Cities: With the release of Death Star II, a new tournament format will be introduced. This "closed" tournament format will include only thos cards found in Death Star II, Endor and a select amount of utility cards found in other sets. It's purpose is to level the playing field, giving new players a chance to be cometitive and get started into the game. It also give the veteran players that have been there and done that something fresh new to do. The actual name of this format is not yet know, but, I've already called it The Battle Of Endor! To celebrate this new format, Josh Certo and I have begun work on the Sacramento/ Sonora Battle Of Endor League. Starting in August, players from these two communities will engage in three full months of intense Star Wars CCG play. The best players of these two communities will then compete against each other in a battle royale of playoff to determine whose the best among these two cities! Josh Certo, Red 93 will command the Solora players as they gear up for the League Contest. I will lead the Sacramento Players into Battle. Whew! Well, that's it for this month! Many of you are like me... Lots of great stuff to do this month! I hope to see all of you this month at some of these great tournaments! Untill then: "Stay in Attack Formation!"