melbourne-victoria-26-9-99

Title: melbourne-victoria-26-9-99
Author: Luca "Luca/Tzizvvt" Costanzo
Date: Oct 3, 1999

<h1>TR for 26/9/99</h1>

Before the tournament

Well, it's been ages since I last wrote a TR, so I thought that I might try to write one for this one. It was one of the last tournaments before the regional, so I thought that it would be a good opportunity to test out some decks. I'd tried a LS mains and toys, toys beeing chadra-fans, on Tatooine against Cody at Card Heaven and it had been repeatedly thrashed, so it was out of the question. I also had a DS Tatooine Occupation deck which had been doing ok. A few days before the tournament I got my Hunt Down stuff back from a friend, so I tried playing it. On the morning of the tournament I did the traditional thing; get up 5 mins b4 it starts, build a LS deck (Operatives this time) and manage to get there more or less on time. After helping Ashley build a LS deck (mmm... maybe I'm not the only one who's rediculously disorganised) and frantically borrowing cards Kevin arrived, handed out invitations to the regionals and the tournament started. On to the games!

Game 1 Light vs. Derek (Hoth+Perimeter)

Not the easy first round game that people seem to want for some reason. A few weeks before this tournament I had just qualified for the regionals, nocking Derek out so he was back for revenge. Ice Plains+Presence of the Force+Expand the Empire(on Defensive Perimeter)+Blizzard 2+Ozzel on the first turn sound good?! I did the groovy turn 3 flip- always good, but nothing compared to Derek's first turn. Derek countered with Vader+Tarkin soon after and some scrub in a AT-ST who trampled my operative (sniff). I tried a lost grimtaash which revealed ice storms and nightfall! Derek sets up Decree, Rebel Base occupation and controls the perimeter. Obi-Wan heroically beats the living snot out of a walker and gets shuttled into the spiral to cover attrition of 2 (he's not going missing:). It got really close, but with vader chasing ops around derek managed to eek out a win by 3.

Highlights: Really good game.
Lowlights: Not really much of a lowlight, but I'd spent all game scared of trample and Derek told me he only had one in the deck.

Game 2 Dark vs. Cody (Rescue the Princess with Jedi Pack Leia+Wise Advice)

Cody's new at the game, but I wish I was half as good as he is when I started. He'd played Rodney in the first game and lost, so we'd been paired up. He'd played against my Tatooine Occupation deck, and man does trample screw lift tubes! Anyway, my first three turns went something like this:

Turn 1: Flip with Vader (duh!)
Turn 2: Jabba to Holotheatre (you're not getting my visage little bothan dudes:)
Turn 3: Igar+Dune walker to one docking bay, Vader+Tarkin to the other one and Presence of the force on one too.

Might not sound too bad, but I had both duel cards in my starting hand+Focused attack and I picked up 2 tramples. Despite all of this, and Visage, Cody managed to flip! The game was decided when Luke+Leia+Kfc thought that they could take on vader and tarkin. Luke got duelled (Cody chose to lose 15 force), Kfc got slashed, The destiny got cancelled and after the smoke cleared Cody had just enough force left to watch me dump my hand and drain him to death. Win by 34.

Highlights: Man that game went my way.
Lowlights: I always feel bad when I beat someone by that much, but I have to apologise to Cody- I was soo lucky.

Game 3 Dark vs. Merlin (Mind What You Have Learned+Battle Plan)

Just my luck- playing against the only deck that I didn't really have any specific counters to. Ah well, I'll give it a try anyway. I started with BFHI to slow him down, first turn Vader+Presence to the Forest Clearing and Merlin's lost about 7 force by my second turn. Jabba sat at holotheatre and him+ evader manage to keep visage on the table. I drew up to look for systems, but soon couldn't be bothered so Igar+Walker hit the Defensive perimeter with the other presence. Merlin Completed Jedi Tests 1-4 (I had scout 6 in my hand ready to react to a beatdown on Igar) and I got out Secret Plans. Soon I dumped my had and out drained him. Win by 41.

Highlights: Won against a deck that I didn't have anything to counter with ... much.
Lowlights: No interaction- and I was so looking forward to duelling and trampling LS guys...

Game 4 Light vs. Mark (Milwaukee+Sienar Fleet Systems)

Sorry Mark, you got your worst matchup. Well, I flipped turn 2 ?! Mark Deployed Battle Order ... &#%$, but I'm activating enough that it doesn't hurt me too much. A bothan spy came down to Bothawui to make his drains -1 at bothawui, just to add insult to injury. Mark decided to retaliate and jumped me with vader+other guys at one site- cleverly waiting until i didn't have enough force to cancel the battle with it's a trap. I just ate it and deployed more dudes. Epps at the forest are really good, apparently :) Djas Puhr and still more dudes came down to stomp still more operatives, but this time i had force and i decided to get annoying, dropping a ship at his furthest system so that I could drain for free and then pulverising Djas. Drains say 'Retrieval - bahahahahahhhaah hahah aha' and he dies shortly. Win by 33.

Highlights: Teheheh ... gold leader in gold 1 single-handedly taking on the empire's fleet.
Lowlights: I administered another thrashing ... to the easiest matchup for me.

Game 5 Dark vs. Paul (Hoth War Room+Rebel Fleet)

Well ... this is gonna end my winning streak. Ah well ... I got a first turn presence to the war room and picked up. We laughed as i lost a vader to visage. Paul deploys the Med Lab ... hmm ... force drain +1 with imperials hey, so i naturally drop the other presence and vader there. Visage is eating him alive- as visage does- tarkin backs up vader and Veers in walker hits perimeter (theme game, anyone?). Paul valliantly deploys 2 x-wings to kessel, but picks up his last force, so Bossk in Bus beats them up and it's all downhill from there.

Highlights: Very fun guy to play against, hunt down was fun again.
Lowlights: Nothing went Paul's way, he even said 'Ok, I'm picking up until I get what I need' when he had about 10 force left ... he was that unlucky.

Game 6 Light vs. Rodney (Death Star+Battle Order)

Alright, I don't think I've ever beaten Rodney. Last tournament he was my only loss (He came first and I came second). Well, an early grimtaash (used) screws Rod for a couple of turns, so I flip. Dlots comes down to battle random scrubs, misses a choke and draws a 0 for destiny! I get oola out and pick up tunnel visions and more grimtaashes to play used. Rodney gets A Bright Center out targeting ... Hmmm ... tough one there :) I throw lotsa ships at bothawui for battle order. There's some big battles there and Rodney alters my tank with wedge in it :(. I grimtaash used for a 3rd time and Rod grapples it! He's getting annoyed 'cause he didn't have shocking revelation and Oola is saying- 'no, bad tarkin/vader/ds dudes/etc, you go squish now' Finally the big ball of fun (aka. Executor) hits bothawui, a ship is lateral damaged and he battles. Savrip sees me through and my ships spend the rest of the game running. By now Rod doesn't have much force left and starts chucking out walkers to drains. Win by 15.

Highlights: Oh my god- I killed kenny ... err... Rodney!
Lowlights: Getting mega-broken draws which just say 'give up now'

At this point I find out that we've got another 2 games and I'm playing Michael Josem. No good can come of this!

Game 7. Dark vs. MJ (Mind What You Have Learned+Draw their fire)

There's only one reaction to a deck that starts with Draw Their Fire- 'eep' (or EPP). I flip first turn with Dlots. Michael looks through his deck and says 'They're both in there'. Sure enough, he eats visage that turn, my drain the next turn and then it's his turn again. He says 'good- there's one in my force pile', I put visage in my lost pile and he picks up :) Next turn he puts momaw nadon and wedge on the Big E to get some drains. Jabba comes down to battle wedge and I get to see where my second visage is :)- destiny 7 rocks! Meanwhile Luke is poppin' in and out of the tank, but Michael gets bored and decides to deploy EPP obi to the forest clearing w/ igar and dune walker. I say yippee- someone to duel, elis vader over, deploy veers, battle and duel. Ok. I lost. I lost a duel, vader's out of play, I loose 6 force and probably all hope of winning the game. Oh well- i draw some cool destiny and kill the old man, luke and han come down to the pub, jabba + bobba + dr. e+ needa elis over and fight. Upshot is that everyone 'cept jabba die. Orimaarko hits the cantina then runs, straight into a beatdown squad of 2 at-ats and scout 6. Obi comes back and is always thinking, leia goes looking for him. MJ controls more sites than me, but has less force, so i deploy battle order. I've got more force, so i loose 2 to put down visage and it hurts us both, but i can afford to pay to drain. Win by 11.

Highlights: Whoa! I beat Michael. PS. In case i haven't made this clear- visage rocks.
Lowlights: I played really, really badly.

Game 8. Light vs. MJ (Carbo Chamber Testing+Secret Plans+Resistance)

Ok, drazin gets set up before i get to flip, boba is making brief appearences to shoot guys, dying and coming back to shoot again, I have nothing specific to stop drazin and we've got to go 'cause if we don't we'll be kicked out of our venue, so I pick up. Loss by 15.

Highlights: None really, Mike was in complete control, at least he didn't get to retieve his entire lost pile!
Lowlights: I can't decide wether or not losing to Michael by 15 is good or bad :)

Well, I ended up coming second, Michael came first. I got a DS-61-rare dude out of the premier prize support. Cody placed fairly lowly, but got Luke in a pack. Well, the security guard was asking us to hurry up so we left because it's not good to lose a tournament venue.

Props:
Cody for giving me a lift home.
Ashley for lending me cards.
Kevin for running the thing (and not turning up late:)
Adam for giving me my 10th bantha droid.

Slops:
Kevin for asking me to send him a copy of this TR so that everyone can point and laugh:)
Me for not being able to find a way to insert WTF! into this article ... wait ...

Well, if you finished this monstrosity, you deserve something. Umm... ask Kevin.

Thanks for reading,
Luca Costanzo

Email: tzizvvt@hotmail.com
Comments, Q's, Criticisms, Cash etc. all accepted.

PS. To the decktech guys, please apply word wrap and correct html as needed.