open-qualifier-seattle-wa-10-17-99
Title: open-qualifier-seattle-wa-10-17-99
Author: Douglas "Douglas" Harvilla
Date: Oct 23, 1999
Showed up and started jotting down my deck lists. Began to pen the name 'Hunt And Choke' for my Dark deck, before I remembered what happened in the final at the Regional, and reconsidered. 'Hunt And Strangle.' There, doesn't conjure up a bad memory. Scrawled the name 'Mind Over Matter' for my Light deck, and it was time to begin.
In game 1 my opponent starts with Cloud City and plays Combat Readiness to get the Downtown Plaza. Soon he starts getting Navy Troopers down. Now I know things are going to be painful, because my Light deck's only sites are Cloud City-related, and I'll have to fight my way through these troops. Oh well, I drop mains and battle like crazy using Frozen Assets and Draw Their Fire to stop Trooper Assault.
Unfortunately, the Navy Troopers are still power 3 on defense at mobile sites. OUCH! And to make matters worse, almost every single time I draw for a weapon, I miss the 1-ability troopers. With 2 or 3 locations remaining in the deck, they come up constantly. After he pops a Counter Surprise Assault and retrieves, it is very clear where the game is going.
Wasn't expecting troopers. So I lose by 16 and jump to the conclusion that I'm out of the running. A bit hasty, since I eventually made it to the final.
In Game 2, my opponent starts Hidden Base to my Hunt Down. Oh, no. Yarna, so he's definitely playing X-Wings. Early on, he gets out Dagobah and goes for the Swamp. Oh, great. If he wins, he'll retrieve and put his X-Wings back, hitting me with such a huge loss I'll never recover.
Meanwhile I've got Vader at the Endor: Back Door draining, and he deploys a Bothan Spy to the Holotheatre and puts him Undercover to avoid getting beat down. But the damage is done, since he had lost cards from his Reserve Deck to Visage earlier, including Tibrin and his hidden base, so he couldn't flip.
Alter on Yarna and a well-timed Monnok takes out some X-Wings. Zuckuss deploys to the Holotheatre and I deploy another Visage. He drops Rebel Fleet, I Alter it. He puts and Undercover Bothan Spy at the Back Door, and on my turn Bubo comes out and eats it. I deploy the Dark Forest, Forest Clearing, and Cantina with 4 ability at each. He spreads just a bit, putting 2 X-Wings alone at Ralltir. I track a 6, deploy Bossk In Hound's Tooth and Avenger, battle, and draw a 6 and a 3. He doesn't have a Houjix, and I kick myself for not putting my hand back earlier. Win by 20. I'm vindicated against HB!
Game 3 and I'm just pleased to be back in the running, though I only have 4 games to build up some good differential. My opponent starts ISB and Well-Guarded. Oh, great. Outer Rim Scouts almost without question. Anyway, my hand is unbelievable, just loaded with beat-down. But he takes forever to put anything on the ground. When he does, it is a walker at the Jundland Wastes. I put Obi and Luke down with Orrimarko to battle, and feel like an idiot when he tells me the walker isn't piloted.
But soon I get the Saber out and it becomes a nice, steady drain. In space, my Landing Claw comes in real, real handy, and my characters take over all the Tatooine sites. Win by 28.
I'm ecstatic going into Game 4 because my differential no longer bites. But now I get paired against Yavin 4 Throne Room Revolver/Nudj. Now, I had prepared my Hunt Down deck for such a match-up, but never really got to try it out. In my area, the frenzy over Careful Planning kind of slowed down before I got to play against this deck much. I start Imperial Justice on the Meditation Chamber.
He drops Nudjes, I draw cards. He gets Obi out and tries to Alter the Imperial Justice to no avail. When he puts a Revolution on the Holotheatre, I play Evader and he tries to Sense. No dice. Vader deploys at one of my 2-drain sites and there will be no more Sense/Alter for a while. Luke and friends eventually show up, but I'm prepared for them by that time. Obi actually attacks a Nudj and kills it to be at a battleground. When Luke and some friends deploy to battle me and he played Clash Of Sabers, I have a Ghhhk for Tarkin. After the battle, I play Vader's Obsession Epic and win the duel. He concedes. Works for me, since I'm sure he would've caused more damage to my by sticking it out. So I pull off a win by 18.
In Game 5, I am facing a CCT/Drazin Special Delivery deck. Early in the game, I deploy Obi-Wan's Apparition at his Jabba's Palace sites and put Obi-Wan With Lightsaber on Cloud City, move him over to the Security Tower. Using most of his generation to do it, my opponent puts a 4-ability alien down and takes the hit to get rid of EPP Obi. Then I deploy another one. Same trick. I get to free Commander Vanden Willard, and we move to the Freezing Chamber.
A number of battles on Cloud City deplete his reserve of characters, and he decides to go elsewhere to cause some damage. Paying 8 (ouch!) to deploy Jabba The Hutt to the Hoth: Defensive Perimeter, he sets himself up a bit. Nabrun Obi and Luke over, deploy Han and Leia. Draw Their Fire, battle. I Know. Don't Get Cocky. Draw 6 battle destiny, hit Jabba with a lightsaber. 30 battle damage and game. Win by 31.
In game 6, I face off against Throne Room/Careful Planning again. So I start Imperial Justice. Too bad he isn't playing Revolution or Nudj. Anyway, I get Vader out turn 2 at the Farm and more or less take over Yavin 4. He had deployed some non-battleground sites there, and these came in handy as a refuge for the aliens I was using to drain, since Luke, Obi, and Leia couldn't battle them there with Hunt Down flipped. Not much to say. I ran away from this guy with my little characters, and just stayed at the Farm with Vader and Tarkin draining for 3 for quite a long while. It ends before long.
So they start announcing the standings last-to-first, and our wrists soon ache from clapping. When they announce third and it is not me, I am ecstatic. I made it to the finals again.
Finals game 1 is a mains and toys competition. MWYHL with testing versus Hunt Down. This game went entirely my way for a long time, but then the supply of characters dried up. Ouch. Insurrection kept Vader in his place, and the LS mains got to take over some sites. Loss by 9.
Finals game 2 is pretty much a one-game series, since most games finish with a differential higher than 9. Well, wouldn't you know it? TIE retrieval deck, and after a lot of battles and draining in space with Battle Plan running, I'm unable to cause enough damage once he plays Short-Range Fighters to retrieve. So he draws up when I have 7 cards left. Win by 7, technically. Not enough to get me to Worlds, but I congratulate my opponent, Brian Fred, from the Corellia Region. He is a nice guy, and our games were very entertaining.
Anyway, since I've made it to the final round at Regionals and at the Open, I'm thinking it might be worth my while to go to Deciphercon. A second-place finish there is a seat at Worlds. And a second place finish THERE is pretty bloody good.
Douglas