endor-regional-championship-9-4-99
Title: endor-regional-championship-9-4-99
Author: Douglas "Douglas" Harvilla
Date: Sep 5, 1999
Location: Embassy Suites, Portland Airport
Date: September 4th, 1999
Final Standing: Second place
When I qualified for Regionals, my report from the preliminary event promised a detailed report from the big event itself. For this reason, and because I like talking/writing about Star Wars, here is my report from the biggest Star Wars CCG tourney I've ever played in.
I was playing Hunt Down And Destroy The Jedi with a good complement of anti-choke cards and some ways to punish the Light Side for playing 2-0 sites. My Light deck was thrown together at about seven in the morning in the room where the tournament would be held, after a fitful three and a half hours of sleep and a long drive. So it is quite surprising that I did so well in the tournament.
Eric Wilson and I had been agonizing over our Light decks for days, trying to figure something out. Finally we settled on Mind What You Have Learned for Sense/Alter protection and a fairly standard mains and toys setup with defense against manipulation. He went for the first two tests, I decided to just keep EPP Leia as a battle card.
Game 1: Dark versus Brian Griffith (1735)
My memory of this game is very sketchy, since I didn't jot down many of
the details, and those I did are illegible, even to my eyes. I think he started with Careful Planning for Obi's Hut and Jabba's Palace. It was a long fight, but I won by 11. The need to keep deploying stuff and draw more cards kept the differential down.
2 (+11)
Highs: I don't remember.
Lows: Not remembering the highs.
Game 2: Light versus Travis Willse (1665)
This was a LONG game involving lots of battles, but the belligerents needed time to set up. He was playing a Carbon Chamber Testing deck with Corporal Drazin and Special Delivery, and I started Goo Nee Tay instead of Scrambled Transmission. Can you say 'mistake'? Scanning Crew messed me up for a good while until I drew Shocking Information and he decided further scans weren't worth it.
Eventually, I got Luke and Obi-Wan to the Cloud City: Lower Corridor to drain for 2 each turn, and put the Tantive IV and Gold Leader In Gold 1 at Coruscant to drain. Travis' retrieval kept right up with me, though, until I spread out a bit. Battles ensued, and having Yoda at his Hut saved my mains from his rather low battle destiny draws. Sabers cut a swath through his mains, but I was never able to cause damage he couldn't repair with Special Delivery until Luke and Obi at the Lower Corridor drew three battle destiny with Gift Of The Mentor, for a total of 12 attrition.
From there, the game just spun wildly out of control for Travis, but as we entered the last five minutes of our time, he honestly kept speeding up and up, and we tried like mad to finish the game. But it was a timed win by 12 for me. He had 9 cards left.
3 (+23)
Highs: Luke and Obi just rocking in battle.
Lows: Timing out.
After the second game we went to lunch at the hotel's dining area. Eric Wilson, Chris Wirfs, and I discussed our first two games, and Travis dropped by. We talked about our high schools and just about everything else we could fit in a little over half an hour. Then it was time to re-enter the field of battle.
Game 3: Dark versus Matt Sarpola
He starts with the CC: Guest Quarters and plays Careful Planning to get the Casino. I deploy Bad Feeling Have I, and on turn 1 get Vader to the Casino, flipping my objective. Matt deploys Gold Leader In Gold 1 to Bespin, driving up the deploy cost on my characters and vehicles by 1 at CC sites. Leia and Lando come out, and a hand of sabacc is played. I lose, but he doesn't get to retrieve without a gambler at the Casino. Bane Malar goes after Lando and his companion, one of the Light Side's many 2-ability pilots. Vader is driven to Uncontrollable Fury, giving me an incentive to end this quickly.
Obi-Wan shows up and is attacked by Jabba and Boba Fett With Blaster Rifle. I fire at him and miss, then draw a 1 and a 7 for battle destiny. The 'crazy old wizard' goes away. Cloud City Celebration is deployed on Bespin, and I respond by dropping the Devastator with Tarkin at the bridge. He forfeits his ship, I forfeit Tarkin, and the party is over.
The drains and Visage catch up to him and I win by 21.
5 (+44)
Highs: Jabba and Boba beating up the old man.
Lows: Being hurt quite a bit by Uncontrollable Fury.
Game 4: Light versus Marshall Talbot
I remember playing this guy at my first tournament, back in February. At that tourney, I won versus his Light and got crushed by his Dark manipulator deck. As a result I became a huge fan of Don't Tread On Me and all the effects it deploys.
So naturally I start with Scrambled Transmission. He is playing ISB Operations with Imperial Arrest Order. We draw our opening hands, and thank God, I get a lot of characters. He deploys some sites from hand and a docking bay from the Reserve Deck, and it is my turn. Searching for a Shocking Information, I check for Yoda's Hut and the muppet. Deploying both, I then draw up a couple cards.
He flips early with characters at the Yavin 4 and Echo docking bays. Obi-Wan Kenobi deploys to battle an ISB Op and Tempest 6, while Han and Chewie hit a pair of agents. Smoke Screen takes out the Op and the walker, while the scoundrels clear their own site. These hits flip ISB Ops back over, and Jeroen Webb deploys to Coruscant: Imperial Square followed by Leia. More walkers show up, and Marshall fails about a half-dozen Trample destiny draws.
The game text on Yoda's Hut and Jeroen Webb saves Leia and her companion from attrition during battles at the Square, and the drain for 2 goes unchallenged after a couple skirmishes. Kessel is deployed and controlled by Red Leader In Red 1 and the Tantive IV. Back on the ground, Obi-Wan gets dueled and loses, and my mains spread to stop drains and avoid Vader. I drop Draw Their Fire and manage to retrieve some force before finishing him off. Win by 24.
7 (+68)
Highs: Bashing ISB agents and walkers with mains.
Lows: Getting Obi placed out of play.
Game 5: Dark versus Tyler Franks
He starts with Obi-Wan's Hut and Careful Planning to get Lars' Moisture Farm. I get out Bad Feeling Have I and then draw up four of my five force on turn 1. Last card drawn? Darth Vader, Dark Lord Of The Sith. So I'm pretty well set up. Tyler draws up on his turn, and Vader hits the Moisture Farm on turn 2. Now I'm on the good side of Visage.
Tyler still can't drop a main because of Bad Feeling, so he draws more, and I deploy Tarkin to the Lars' estate and move the dynamic duo over to the Hut. Next turn he saves up some force, and I drop a pair of 4-ability aliens to the Moisture Farm. Luke is deployed, and Tyler uses all 7 force, forgetting his text on the site. He battles, and the site is completely cleared. Visage is still only hurting him, and I get in more drains at the Hut.
Transmission Terminated is played twice. Once it is canceled with Sense, and the next time I have a spare Visage in my hand and re-deploy it. Lost In The Wilderness makes Vader missing, and I have to look up the rules on search parties. As it happens, I had a 6 on top of my Reserve Deck, so I could've found him with just Tarkin. But instead I play Elis Helrot and move Zuckuss over. It takes all my active force, but Zuckuss adds 2 to my search party total because he is another character and a scout. I search and draw a 3, finding Vader.
I get a turn to flip Hunt Down back over and move the duo back to Obi's Hut before Ben Kenobi finally deploys to the Hut with his saber. He can't battle me, though, and doesn't want to move away to flip Hunt Down back over, because of the drain for 3. I drop a couple more aliens and battle to make him lose force or Ben. He loses a bunch, then draws up on his turn to end the game. While he's drawing cards, I play Alter on Bad Feeling Have I and get a win by 37.
9 (+105)
Game 6: Light versus Scott Mendenhall
I'm a bit surprised to play Scott, but the timed win earlier allows me to avoid the one undefeated guy. Scott starts with all the usual Hunt Down And Destroy The Jedi stuff, and I get Goo Nee Tay. He deploys Kashyyyk on turn 1, and we lose force. Yoda's Hut. Arrrgggh!
On my first turn, I play Obi-Wan's Apparition on the Meditation Chamber, shutting down his generation on the Executor sites until he gets presence there. Then I deploy Dagobah: Jungle from the deck and it is his turn. He drops a couple troopers to the Executor sites to restore his generation, and draws. Still no fireworks.
I get out the Dagobah: Swamp and work on saving enough force for my mains. He deploys some Dreadnaughts with troopers as forfeit fodder to Kashyyyk. Battle Plan makes him pay extra for the drains, but he can handle that for now. Obi-Wan Kenobi deploys to the Cloud City: Downtown Plaza and I get in a round of draining before Vader shows up. Just before he put down Vader, a drain of 2 knocked a pair of 5-destiny cards off my deck, so Scott figured my next draws would be low.
He initiates an Epic Duel, and with no sabers or nifty interrupts, it comes down to draws. He draws a 4, so do I. He draws a 1, I draw a 3. Vader is placed out of play and Scott loses 6 force. If that duel went the other way, the game would have been over in short order. I save up enough force eventually to put some ships at Kashyyyk with Leia and Han, getting an extra destiny. His forfeit fodder is all lost, but a Lateral Damage next turn really hurts despite the Spiral's timely arrival as a 'react.' Both ships move to Dagobah, and I turn off Lateral Damage.
Battle Plan and Obi's Apparition now provide me with a chance at a finishing blow. Nabrun Leids takes all my active force, but moves Obi to the Executor: Meditation Chamber to battle the lone trooper. Initiate for free, draw a 5. 10 power to 2, troopers covers 3, remaining 5 end the game. Win by 10.
11 (+115)
Highs: Winning the Epic Duel.
Lows: A very stressful game with bleak prospects 'til the end.
So I finish the three rounds with good differential, and I'm the only undefeated player. Prizes are handed out to places 3-50 something before the final round. The guy in last place gets a stack of boosters from different sets, including Limited Premiere. He goes to the Endor pack first, and I tell him to open the Limited pack first, because it is a black-border Darth Vader. He opens it. Sure enough, it's Vader. He holds it aloft and the place cheers. Kinda cool.
Doug Taylor (Red 4, one of the TDs and judges for the day and a great squadron member out in the Lake City area of Seattle) runs out to the dining area to pick up some sandwiches for me and the other finalist, a Salem player named Jason Kilby. I barely get any change back, so the food was expensive but good. Some of the commuters to this tournament stand around gaping as if I'm torturing them, so I start handing out fries. Meanwhile, Seattle players keep coming up to me telling me, 'you have to <expletive> win this!' I just tell them I'll try my best, but anything can happen.
We're ready for the final and everybody is standing around watching, dead silent except for some whispers which prompted me once to ask the crowd to keep it down. Some of them were quite discernable, and I didn't want my opponent to take cues from the audience. Kilby is playing Light first, and reveals his objective. Hidden Base.
Finals Game 1: Dark versus Jason Kilby
Oh, man. The one deck I couldn't fit adequate defensive measures against. I think it takes about five starships and both Security Precautions and Secret Plans to battle a good Hidden Base deck, and I just didn't have room. So I knew I was toast if I played against it, and hoped it would be eliminated by all the Dark 'sky' brought down by Seattle players.
But, seeing as how only a couple of Seattle players won their first game, this wasn't going to happen. Anyway, all I have worth starting with is Bad Feeling, since he undoubtedly has mains. He starts Wise Advice to protect his interrupts and effects. My opening hand contains no locations, and for a few turns I don't draw any sites. I get one, the Audience Chamber, and Vader deploys to flip Hunt Down. But I never get a successful drain, and don't draw any locations to spread out until the end of the game.
So it would have been over with even if I had the effects to deal with Hidden Base, considering my draw. Bossk In Hound's Tooth deploys at Tatooine with Jabba and some other aliens to soak up damage. I probe, nope. Battle, he plays Houjix. I move to Bespin, then probe during his deploy phase. Yep. It hardly matters now, though. The bus moves to Kiffex to block the drain instead of going to heavily-fortified Kessel and being mobbed.
He drains me and I draw my one card up on my turn. Loss by 23. I was a bit surprised to see a Hidden Base deck which so closely resembled me own but wondered how these Salem guys could make it through 3 rounds of a tournament without Monnok protection on the table. I always start Yarna instead of taking chances.
Highs: Early probing.
Lows: Running into, essentially, my own Hidden Base deck at a tournament where I resolved not to use it due to metagame concerns. Even the indicators were the same. It's uncanny.
Finals Game 2: Light versus Jason Kilby
I start Mind What You Have Learned, Kilby starts with Hunt Down. He plays Defensive Fire repeatedly, but all this card accomplishes is putting Kessel back in my deck (rather nice unless his hand was packed with ships bigger than mine). So I hold onto my 'grab' effects to see what else he's doing.
Yoda's Hut and Yoda are deployed, along with the Swamp and Jungle soon after. I really wished I had drawn an Obi-Wan's Apparition to shut down his generation at the Executor, because his deck looked pretty light on cheap characters. Jeroen Webb was able to cancel Visage and drain at the Holotheatre for quite a while before being bumped off.
Kilby deploys the Casino with Vader and Lando, then plays Cloud City Sabacc. I grabbed it with What're You Trying To Push On Us? and we tied. He played about 5 hands of this and won only two of them. The crowd giggled whenever we both said 'eleven.'
Luke With Lightsaber and Obi-Wan With Lightsaber make their move. Swinging twice at Vader, I hit him and draw high, making him lose Vader, Lando, and three cards. His attrition aganst me is reduced to zero, and he is surprised, reading the text on Yoda's Hut.
Battles rage for sevearl turns, and about five different Vaders hit the table during the game to block my drains. Cutting down all these Dark Lords took some desperate moves. I lost Han and 4 force when Kilby miscounted his power by five or six after cutting the smuggler down with Vader's saber. The 6 destiny card I fixed for my blaster draw let me send yet another copy of Vader to the Lost Pile.
It became clear after a while that I wasn't going to get the 24-card win I needed to go to Worlds, and I aimed at just winning this particular game. But we both made mistakes. He could afford them, I couldn't. It was a loss by 1 card, and I congratulated Kilby before stepping over to get some much-needed water in my system.
Judging by the groans and noise from my fellow Seattle players, some were more than a little disappointed, but hey, were they in the finals? Anyhow, I walked away with an engraved plaque trophy for second place and a heck of a story to tell. More than I expected to get when I was agonizing over my Light deck on the drive over at four in the morning.
There are two things I really must say here, however. At this tournament, the one-hour time limit made it pretty easy to run out. I'm sure the timed games here were honest, but at Worlds, with so much on the line, will people play nice? I think we should give them the benefit of the doubt, but not the opportunity to stall.
Second, I heard some of my opponents described as 'machines' or superhumans because they've been to Worlds twice or concentrate intensely during a game. I was even ascribed with mystical powers, an aura, or the power to curse my opponents because they didn't draw any of their 3-5 locations. Hey, I've got 5 Vaders in my deck. Sometimes I don't draw even one for two turns, and rarely more than one during the early game, so wouldn't 3-5 sites be a little tough to run on?
Don't believe the hype. Anything can happen, and your opponents are human. So don't get intimidated. And don't make assumptions about how your deck will play. Some of my opponents probably had counted on getting generation from me, and I counted on Hidden Base being eliminated early in the tournament.
Douglas