day-one-world-championships
Title: day-one-world-championships
Author: Matt "Old Skooler" Lush
Date: Nov 16, 1999
Game 1- My Hunt Down Deck against Piergiulio Nardulli's Dantooine Base Operations
O.K., the first thing I'm thinking is, I've never played against this objective! Has this guy come up with some way to make it not suck? I hope he doesn't have something crazy in here that slaughters me....it turns out my fears are groundless. My starting hand included DLOTS, Tarkin, the Forest Clearing, Tat: Jabba's Palace, Bubo, Boba, and the Executor. I put down my sites, dig for the Audience Chamber, and tell him to go. He had started with Goo Nee Tay by the way. His turn, he activates and draws. My turn, put down vader and flip the objective, and draw for an alter for GNT. He's put a grand total of 3 sites out for Dantooine, and he finally puts out some Dressilian Commandos at the forest. I've got Vader at his Farm. He's still losing to Visage. I put out Bubo at the Forest, and move Vader and Tarkin over there. Bubo chows down on at least two of his commandos. He puts out Kessel and deploys EPP Han on the Falcon at Dantooine and moves him to Kessel. I save up force one turn, then hammer him with Boba w/ Blaster piloting the Executor, adding a destiny for being with Han. I couldn't find one of my three Alters, so I use Unexpected Interruption to go get one and get rid of Goo Nee Tay. He's running away from Vader, Tarkin, and Bubo on his planet, so I put out Zuckuss at the Forest Clearing for some more drain. He tries to put out EPP Han and Chewie there, but since I started with Bad Feeling Have I, he can't afford it. This guy never really had a chance, and I end up winning by 31. I'm feeling great, having won my first game. That feeling changes.
Game 2- My Tat. Celebration against Martin Akessson's Raltir Operations
I start with Obi's Hut and use Careful Planning to get the Audience Chamber. He's got the Raltiir planet and starts with Oppressive Enforcement. Not good, but better than There is No Try. I'm looking for Ben and Luke w/ Saber to put down while he's fishing for sites. After he gets three down, he put's down a non-unique Tempest Scout with the AT-ST Driver where I had Boshek sitting waiting for him. He initiates, and I play the Solo Han I had. Draw two destiny, but since the driver has +1 forfeit, he covers it. He draws a 2, but since the driver also adds one to attrition, I have to lose Boshek. Oh well. My turn, I have Savrip and GL in G1 in my hand. I debate which one to put down first, as I can't afford both. I figure he could probably flip easy next turn, so I take a risk and put GL in G1 at his docking bay, and then promptly move him up to his planet to prevent the flip. Good call. No ships in his hand yet, so I get Savrip out next turn. I'm draining for two at the Audience Chamber with Ben, Luke, and a Monk. He saves up, and puts down Vader, Tarkin, and Boba w/ Blaster, along with 2 or 3 2/2 unique guys that get the IAO bonus, which he put down first turn. Here's where bad luck steps in. I have yet to find one of my three smokescreens, and the first two battles we have, I MISS Tarkin with Luke. Two times, a one and a two. He had Vader's saber on Vader, and hits Ben the first battle. Ben can't use his text, so I savrip a falcon and something else. He hadn't even flipped yet and he was hammering me. As soon as I would get another Ben down, he would swing and hit him again. By this point I have Smokescreens but they are useless as he has so many high forfeit 2/2 guys there. He attempts to Alter Savrip. I Sense, but he grabs with TBHTP. The only mistake I think I made in this game was not saving force to pay for the next time he played his recycling Alter. Remember, he started with Opp. Enforcement so he just tracks it around and tries again. I didn't have force saved, and lose Savrip. I had to spend it all to get Melas the hell out the way of his hit squad. As soon as Savrip is gone, he comes down on GL in G1 with the Bus and a Destroyer with a pilot. I lose about 8 from the battle, and at that point it's over. He flips next turn, and with him adding 4 or so to his destiny, I just can't hang. Loss by 16.
Game 3-Dark Side against Clayton Atkin's Hidden Base w/ Inserts and suicide Mains
He starts with Battle Plan, which definitely slows me down. All I've got going is Vader in the Cantina. He puts down two destiny 4 droids there and 8D8 on a corvette at the Rendevous Point. Tosses in an insert. I put down U-3P0 just to cut down on the damage for when it hits and look frantically for one of my three ships. Can't find anything by the time he flips. Insert goes off, I lose 8 or 9 force. He sends a suicide Obi w/saber to knock out Vader, and by drawing two 4's for the swing, succeeds. Loses Obi, another insert. I put down another Vader and look for my last two ships, having lost the Executor to the insert damage. I finally get the Bus out and start probing at Kessel, but it's too late. I couldn't find one of my two Coruscants to convert his and his second insert hits, this time for even more. I didn't make any real mistakes this game, I just couldn't find my ships in time. Loss by 14. A note on this game: I did not expect to see numbers in the World's. I hate it with a passion and did not think anybody would be that cheesy. Therefore I had nothing for it, although I normally play with Resistance. Well, harsh lesson learned.....
Game 4-Light Side against James Lafferty's ISB
Damn. I hate ISB. My deck has a problem with ISB, but it's normally form them running away from me. This is one of the guys who won the Wild Card, so he's got a tough deck. All kinds of Walkers down on Obi's Hut, with 2/2 dudes benefiting from IAO as pilots. I've got Ben and Luke there. About 3-4 turns into the game, he shows Trample and says 'Trample Ben?' I'm thinking, o.k., there's no way he's tracked a 7 already, and I had a sense, but Op. Enforcement and There is No Try is out, so I tell him go for it. Draws a Visage...and I crap myself. Damn! I've got Savrip out, but it still hurt. He's got like 5 Effects stacked together including First Strike, and he had Reactor Terminal sitting right in the middle of them. He was real subtle about putting stuff back with it, and that turns out to be the only mistake I made in the game, but it was so huge it cost me the game: not Altering his Reactor Terminal. He also had an insane amount of 2/0 sites out on the table, allowing him to recycle that seven so quick. Later on he's got DLOTS and Tarkin with some pals at my Audience Chamber. Yeah, you guessed it: choke Ben. I couldn't even stop that one, and I just could never come back hard enough to get rid of them. Loss by 30. Ouch.
Game 5- Dark Side against Gregory Reid's perfectly normal all ships no inserts or mains Hidden Base
This guy was a trip. He had an infectious laugh that just had me rolling. A big guy with long hair and glasses, he was cracking jokes about how bad his deck was and we were at the 'we suck' table that I couldn't help but relax and laugh. Unfortunately he Trans. Terminated my Visage real early. I got my ships, and I actually probed his planet, but it wasn't enough help. He simply had too many fives in the deck, and was constantly playing Organized Attack. I never seemed to have one of my 6 senses, and he was hurting my ships. I actually retrieved the Bus thanks to his Draw Their Fire, but by the time I got it out, it was too late. Even converting Coruscant didn't help. My mistake in this game was underestimating my opponent. He was laughing so hard about how crappy his light was, that I probably didn't play as well as I could've. Near the end, when I noticed he was going to win this in a few turns, he wasn't laughing anymore. Neither was I.
Loss by 7.
Game 6-Light Side against Brian Fred's Tie Advanced x1 Sienar System Retreival Deck
This poor guy had the WORST luck I had EVER seen ANY player have in my +4 years of playing this game.
He starts with the Death Star, I do the usual Hut and Chamber. I go first, cool! I put down a Monk and draw. I have 3 senses in my hand which was unusual. It was also the reason I put down the monk, cause a Monnok at that point would suck. I'm only playing with 6 senses. He activates, plays Twi'lek. Sense. Get it. He plays ANOTHER Twi'lek. Sense. Get it. His next turn, draws and plays another Twi'lek! Sense. Got it. He says 'Well, that's game...' He was looking for There is No Try and Opp. Enforcement of course. Weird that I had so many senses. Weirder that he had so many Twi'leks! Anyways, that's only part of it. I'm getting my guys out with monks and draining for a good 6-7 cards a turn, and he's still looking for another system besides the Death Star! He's got ONE out. Rendeli. I've pulled two great grimtaashs on him, getting three Dreadnaughts along with other stuff. He had started with Well Guarded, but of course he couldn't make it immune to alter so it didn't last long. I was drawing for a Captain Han and Leia w/ Blaster, already had the Falcon in hand, but got to the point where I had about 15 cards in my hand and just stopped bothering. He never put out another system besides Rendeli. When he's got about 11-12 cards left, he says, 'Watch this.....' He activates about 9 and starts flipping them over one by one. Kashyyk, Kiffex, Kessel, Yavin, ALL his systems just stuck together in one part of his deck that eluded him for the entire damn game. That game was all luck, although I think I could of taken him even if he got some out. Never know now, though. Extremely weird game and I still feel sorry for this guy. Brian was cool and I really wish he had had better luck. Win by 31.
Game 7-Dark Side against Stuart 'I took down the Executor!!!' Jones Hidden Base
This guy bugged me. I don't have a Vader in my starting hand, and it takes me about three turns to finally put one down at a site. As soon as I put him down and flip, he plays Trans. Terminated. Of course, I don't have a sense. I ask him why he waited to play it, and he says 'Oh, I don't mind if we're both losing force, but not if it's only me'. Arrrgggh! Why couldn't I of had a Sense? Not the worst of it. It's a normal game for the most part, until about 2/3's of the way though. I've got a DSSD with Tarkin on it and the Executor at Endor. He's got 2 B-wings and the Spiral. He puts down two Intruder Missles. Initiates battle, and fires at the Executor with the first. Of course, misses. Fires the second. He gets to add three 'cause it was targeted before, adds one for the B-wing, and plays Stay Sharp lost to add another 4. Of course, I still don't have a sense. He draws The Signal. 5+4+3+1=the Executor down in flames. He raises his hands above his head and yells in his British accent, 'Yay! I took down the Executor!!!!' Oh, lord. Frustrating game, but he was a good player. I couldn't get Vader up in space with Tarkin to cancel the destiny 'cause Vader was in the Cantina again. Cost me the game.......Loss by 17.
Game 8-Light Side against Aldrin Long's ISB
I start the usual, he starts with Coruscant planet and Sunsdown on it. He activates, throws down IAO, gets a docking bay, and throws every character he had in his hand for free to the site. I've got Artoo, so I put him down and get A Gift. He's only draining for one, but he has a probe droid with restraining bolt on it at Obi's Hut to hurt my drains. By this point in the tournament I just didn't care anymore. I could of beaten him easily by just drawing for my second Tatooine and putting PTIFF on it. I already had A Gift in effect, and that would of shut down his drains completely, while I celebrated on Tatooine. But I thought, screw it. Nabrun Ben and Luke over to his site. Battle. He's got the 2X droid there that adds power while under Nighttime Conditions, so he overpowers me by a LOT. I swing and hit his droid to get rid of it. Smokescreen. Lose Luke, bring him back. I still have ten damage left, but I don't have Savrip out and don't want to lose Ben because I didn't have another nabruns to get him back over there. So just lose ten. Put out Savrip and battle him. Because the droid isn't there, he's much weaker. No damage, lose Luke, bring him back. His turn. Another droid, battle. Huge power again. Lose Luke, bring him back, lose another Ben to Savrip, while swinging at his second droid. This continues in this fashion for about 2-3 more turns, then he gives up the site, I beat him off his own planet. He moves them all up to the Bus and the Devastor hanging at Coruscant.
I put down Falcon, Captain Han, Leia w/ Blaster, put Ben and Luke on as passengers and head up there. Many battles, and I'm drawing three destinies, good ones at that. Four, five, two. Huge attrition but all those ISB's just soak it up, and the Bus and Destroyer stays. I'm running out of Savrip bait. Lose Ben and Luke, and then I eventually have to lose Leia to attrition. There's no way Han's gonna hang by himself, (too bad Solo Han doesn't work in space...) so I lose Han too. I'm drawing for another character, Melas is by himself on Tatooine, and I need two battlegrounds occupied to deploy Celebration. I've got three cards left when I draw Boshek. Too bad he costs four. I've got like 15 cards in my hand and no way to get any of them back. He hasn't played a single interrupt so my Sense are useless. He's got POTF on Coruscant so he's draining me for 1 and retrieving one. I'm only draining for one with Melas at the Cantina so the game is pretty much over. I just drew up. Like I said, I could of won this one, but by this point I just didn't care anymore. Loss by 15.
I take this game very seriously, and I am used to winning. After my second loss, I just started losing my edge. I knew the World's would be incredibly competitive, but I saw a level of play that I just had never seen before, even though I went last year. Losing game after game just wore me down mentally, and made it easier for my next opponent to beat me. Sense and Alter are truly dead. A skilled player will work around them, as Akesson did with Op. Enforcement and his ONE Alter. With sense grabbed, even if I had left force I would of ran out of senses eventually. I was getting more and more bummed out game after game, when I should of played every game as carefully as I played my first. The first game I only made two mistakes. I forgot Visage once, and forgot to have Bubo attack on his turn once. Once I started losing, I just stopped playing as good. It cost me a seat in the top 12, as three or four of the players that beat me ended up in it. Another frustrating thing is that I was prepared to totally shut down ops, yet I never played a single ops deck. They were out there, unfortunately I didn't get to play against them. As for Hidden Base, I took out Security Precautions because I beat HB 9 times out of 10 without it. But the HB decks at the World's just had crazy tricks in them, enough to give them the edge over me. Intruder Missles? Inserts? Just wasn't expecting those. Well, if you made it this far, I thank you for reading this report, which, by the way, is my first ever. I hope you enjoyed it, and maybe learned something from it. If you have any questions, just drop a line in my box. -Matt Lush
P.S. Funnily enough, we had a unofficial world qualifier ECC sealed deck late Saturday night after the awards ceremony, where I had proceded to get sloshed. Drunk off my ass, I went 3-1, only losing the one game by one card to Mr. 'I took down the Executor' Jones. One of the guys I beat was Yannick LaPointe, and I don't remember the other two. Like I said, I was trashed. It was some consolation. Kinda like last year, where I took 3rd for the World's sealed deck, but this year was seriously 'unofficial'. Thanks to Ray Bordier for suggesting it and getting it going.