11-22-99-boca-raton-florida-back-in-saddle
Title: 11-22-99-boca-raton-florida-back-in-saddle
Author: Mike "Iceman" Fitzgerald
Date: Nov 24, 1999
Well it had been almost 2 months since my last SWCCG tournament ( Dagobah Regional - ugh ) and though I hadn't played in many tournaments due to college work I had kept up with the game. I decided I was gonna use fun decks so I only brought my decks instead of my whole collection ( I'm one of those people who will tweak to the last minute and ditch fun decks before tournaments 99% of the time ). I bring two apprentices , Lee Edwards and Daniel Blackford down to my house for playtesting before the tournament. Lee builds his decks during the testing while I just show my DS. This prompts Daniel to add like 5 Out of Commission instead of Shocking Infos into his LS deck. We got to bed at like 2 AM and wake up at like 10 AM. I get up , tell Daniel I'm gonna go back to sleep and realize I have to be up at this time so I shower and knock down some doughnuts. Quick drive out to Lost Realms while I bust out my Mike Foo to wake me up some more.
Deck Intro :
LS - I'm not gonna name this deck. B-Wings w/ Intruder Missiles and anti-Security Precautions tech. Also Voytek tech.
DS- 'Forever will you dominate your destiny'. HDADTJ w/ dueling.
Game 1 : My LS v. David Irvine's Ralltiir Ops ( +2000 player )
Grr. I didn't wanna use my fun deck versus serious players. Well I annoy him early with an Arcona before he squishes him between to non-reactable ( new verb ) sites ( Swamp and Lt. Arnet ) where upon Officer Evax ( d'oh ) and Blizzard 2 squish my Arcona for himself and like 9 after that. He spreads out way farther then he should've but I've got no ground force so I can't make him pay. I hit him for 2 and 1 at Kessel and Kiffex but the Bus comes out w/ Ozzel , V's Shuttle and other stuff and with ROps flipped his hitting me for like insane amounts of attrition. I miss the bus with an Intruder Missile by 1 ( Oo-ta Goo-ta Trandoshan ? ) . that's pretty much it. I beat down on a Death Squadron Star Destroyer for like 3 after it with a bunch of ships and then use Draw Their Fire and First Strike to launch suicide attacks at him to kill him before his differential would get too high. Later I found out this deck went 9-0 during DecipherCon. Loss by 14. Record : 0 ( -14 )
Highlights : Nothing.
Lowlights : not having fun with a supposedly fun deck. First time in a long time that I can remember losing the first game.
Game 2 : My DS v. some kid's EBO deck ( usually good with name but can't get this one )
He starts classic EBO setup with Battle Plan. I start full HDADTJ w/ The Dark Path.
First thing he says is , ' I can't believe I got both of those in my opening hand '.I don't have a safe location for Vader to deploy to so I'm looking for something to do with my force and low and behold I have a Monnok in hand. Pay 4 , Monnok. There goes 2 Alderaans ( tried OMDH ) . I let Visage go on tap for like 5-6 turns. I'm a bit scared of Ice Storms since he started classic EBO set-up and I don't know this kid . He drops Tawss , Chewie , and Jereon Webb to the 4th Marker so that takes the fear away. I started The Dark Path and he started Battle Plan. I drop Choke Vader and Zuckuss. I use The Dark Path , then battle , retrieve the better card with First Strike to save it for a later day. I choke the mighty Chewbacca and then clear Webb and Tawss. I decide to lose the choke Vader cuz I'm still wondering about Ice Storm. Well Orrimarko comes out w/ Major Palo Torshan and KOs Zuckuss. I retaliate with a new Choke Vader , Brangus , and a Swoop. Vader plays TLC and chokes Torshan and apply nice beatdown on Orri since he drew a 0. Vader skirts to the 1st Marker. Next turn I drop 2 Dreads and a recycled Zuckuss at the Hoth system , fulfilling battle Plan and the following turn I kick out the AChamber w/ Jabba the Hutt there setting up Search and Destroy. Search and Destroy w/ Visage means he's losing 2 Every turn and his deck is burning away quickly. I'm not paying for Battle Plan and I'm even generating more with Jabba the Hutt. Obi-Wan comes out to the 4th marker to flip HDADTJ back for a turn. I toss something. On my turn I replace Choke with EPP Vader and duel . My total is Vader's Ability ( 6 ) + 6 ( Torture ) + 6 ( MMove ) + 4 ( SPlans ) and +3 ( Saber ) which equals 25 to Obi's Ability ( 6 ) + destiny ( 1 --Cpt. Han ) + destiny ( 2 -- random pilot ) which equals 9. 25 to 9 . Vader spanks Obi away and the game is over. This all took place in 15 minutes. Win by 18 . Record : 2 ( + 4 )
Highlights : Everything.
Lowlights : He never had a chance.
Game 3 : My B-Wing thing v. Richard Becker's TIE Scout deck
Interesting. He starts Milwaukee and like Oppressive Enforcement. I start HB and Yargna. For the first 6/7 turns all we do is deploy system , convert that system , draw , deploy Reactor/Control , and recycle cards. I set-up Order to Engage , S-Foils , and junk quickly. I finally flip so the table and resulting battle grounds look like this : Kiffex , Milwaukee , Bespin , Kashyyyk , Tatooine , Endor , and Kessel w/ RPoint way off to the right. I'm feeling okay since the cards I have in the deck to counter his deck are in my hand. He Monnoks. **Mike Fitzgerald Time out here** : He just Monnoked out my 2 Grapplers and 2 Direct Assaults ( I'll give you the appropriate time to go to your Uncommon SE box or deckmaker and look at the gametext of this card. 9.8.7.6.5.4.3.2.1 done ? K good) well my deck only uses 7 B-Wings and no All Wings so that means I've got little means of regen ; actually only one ( Draw Their Fire ) . So After I flip I move 2 Goldies to Kessel and wait. He drops miscellaneous stuff after fortifying Milwaukee and dropping SFSystems ( also probed Milwaukee for the full protection effect ) and I Barrier it and then attack with junk and DTF to retrieve Grappler ( HUGE !! ). Over time he retreives a bunch with SFS and I've hit him for small drains of 3 , 2, and 1 which after Dreaded Imperial Starfleet translates to recycling stuff ( SFS retrieval). He probes Bespin and I It Could Be Worse the damage. I've got enough to get destiny at all my systems but he's struggling for destiny at one or two places. He also retrieved 12 for the DS All Wings . Sidenote : He's played Twi'lek like 10 times this game ( not joking ) to get TinT , Well Guarded , DISFleet , RTerminal , SecPrecautions , and Grapplers. I battle him where he has 4 Scouts and I grapple his All Power To Weapons ( remember this ). I over power him and lose like the Spiral. He now chooses to lose 6 force to Order to Engage at two locations ( must not have AP2Weps or more ships ) and then moves like all 7- 8 ships he has left out to Kiffex. Well I drain him pretty good and then unload on the Kiffex crew. I S-Foil and draw my tracked Intruder Missile ; remember that grappler ? Well that makes the All Power to Weapons he has in his hand play for 3 in combo with Draw Their Fire and he only saved 1 because he was tracking destiny too. Oh well all the ships go down in flames to cover the huge damage and then I drain out to win. Basically he should've won this game but somewhere in between the Order to Engage damage , Draw Their Fire's effect , and the grappling of All Power , I win this one. Win by 12 . Record : 4 ( +16 )
Highlights : Winning when I shouldn't have.
Lowlights : This deck is still bad.
Game 4 : 'Forever will you dominate your destiny ' v. Andy Echnoz's HB deck
Starts : I start Full HDADTJ w/ Security Precautions. He starts HB with Haven.
First turn I deploy Holotable and Back Door and then draw up a few because I have no Vader. Visage goes on tap for like 3-4 turns. He deploys Vettes and Sqaudrons for like nothing at RPoint and gets Kessel , Endor , Tatooine , Anoat , and Bespin for the flip later. I deploy Snuggles and Swoop at the Back door so I can get some damage going quickly. He searches for a system but there isn't one there so I get to look at his deck which is basically pure guys , ships , and systems. He's got really low destiny so dueling is definately a possibility. Well EPP Leia and Han come down and visit Snuggles. I contemplate the path. I decide to draw destiny and get a 0. Mind you at this time I'm looking for a second Battleground site to set-up Search and Destroy. He doesn't shoot brangus or draw particular high BDs so I get off light. I drop EPP Vader and Jabba. I draw a 12 for weapon destiny on Han . He misses both weapon shots at Jabba. He draws like a 4 total for BDestiny and I draw a 0 ( different location ). I'm not getting impatient yet though. So Vader stares at EPP Leia for like the next 3 turns while he eats Visage. Right now he's got a Vette , Vette # 2 , and Red Squadron X-Wing at Tatooine , Endor , and Kessel respectively. I drop three Dreadnaughts at Tatooine versus the lone Vette ( not sure why ) and battle , BTW I've got First Strike on the table so I've been retrieving after all these battles I've been iniatiating. Well I flip my destiny over , guess what ? another 0 ( different location ). I almost laugh at that. He loses the Vette and 2 after that. I control my solid Battleground system. He deploys a Bothan Spy at the holotheatre with Bron Burs and BoShek comes out next turn and moves the Med Chamber. I elis my EPP Vader in and have some words with the Shek. I smack him and hit him for 5 damage after that. He draws a 3 BD which -2 for HDADTJ text just gets over Vader's Immunity to nothing. Vader gone. Next turn he flips and hits me for like a 9 drain in total. He deploys Orrimarko and moves him to the Med Chamber. I deploy Zuckuss and Bane Malar to knock out those alien intruders off the executor. I Dark Path and use Zuckuss' text to reduce the bothan to 0 and draw my 6. that site is cleared. Bane starts a battle versus Orrimarko. Flip over destiny ... another zero. I lose like Bane and like 3 after that. Grr. Well he hits me for another big drain and the game starts to heat up now. He deploys EPP Obi with Orrimarko and kicks Orri to the Holotheatre. Aha ! Ay un baligrafo ! So right now I've got 3 Dreads at Tatooine and 4 systems left to probe and stuff in reserve. I deploy my EPP Vader v. EPP Obi. I battle , retrieve with First Strike and play my stuff for Epic Duel. My destiny is in the low 20s to like 12 and Obi is out of Play and he loses 9 force after that which is huge. I take his like 7 drain again and now come to the wrap up time. I've got 3 dreads and 4 systems to probe. My , how General Psychology can help you at the oddest times... Well if I probe correctly I win and if I don't I lose , pretty simple. I move my first ship to Kessel since I need to cut down that drain anyway ; he gets pretty nervous -- then again it must be misery to watch a win go down to a probe ;) Well I have Bespin , Anoat , and Endor to choose from. tick tock tick tick tick tick tick tick .... where is the hidden base ? is is brown today or white ? insanity... I cover up Anoat and choose to go with Endor over Bespin. He does his drain and I'm left with 1 in Reserve and 3 in hand. Probe , Probe , Probe . It was Kessel . Win by 5. Record : 6 ( +21 )
Highlights : Beating another Hidden Base deck when things were going against me.
Lowlights : Drawing 0s I guess.
I come in second to David Irvine who used ROps and Bothan Ops to go undefeated. I get a nice amount of packs and get C-3PO and Princess Leia out of my packs. Not bad...
Mike Fitzgerald / ' and twisted thoughts they spin round my head , I'm spinning ' ( Pearl Jam , Black )