glenview-il-12-5-99
Title: glenview-il-12-5-99
Author: Jonathan "Soma" Morse
Date: Dec 6, 1999
The tournament had a pathetic turnout. We had seven players for an hour, then two stragglers showed up and we had nine, so we went ahead and sanctioned it but could only get in four games. The turnout used to be much better. I think the rampant rainstorm may have contributed.
For light I played a Harvest/power deck, and for dark I played a revamped and updated version of my Vicious Rumors/Endor Ops deck.
Game 1 LS vs Rick Erpelding's Dark Aliens
Although rick is an adult, he told me that he had only played about 20 games in his life. It's unfortunate that pairups like this happen in the first round, but that's the way it is. He was playing solely with aliens but no S&V, thereby sort of removing the point. He played on Cloud City and was careful not to spread out. When he did I did a fancy Nabrun, SATMess, then beatdown. He Ghhhk'ed! I was so pissed, that would have been game! I was very impressed with his resourcefulness with the Ghhhk, because most DS players are too overconfident to play them. The game played out painfully, and I won by 40. 2 (+40)
Game 2 DS vs Tony Prokes Light Sabacc power deck
This was a great game. Tony is Gold 64, and we've been friends for a long time, but he plays more for fun instead of for cutthroat tournament victories. Despite that, he played wonderfully. He spread out on CC with Lift Tubes, and his SAC really hassled me, despite my start with OEnforcement and my grabbers. I took over the Casino early with Blizzard one and two DS-61's. That screwed his big Sabacc retreival, but he cancelled my drain of two there all game long with the other LS site which allows you to spend one to cancel a CC drain. He won many hands of Sabacc without retreival, and he Figrin'ed every turn until Vader sliced the little band-leader up. He gave Vader a big Glancing Blow, and I lost maybe 6 force when his EPP's beat the lone Sith down. I had undercover spies running around on CC, but he kept running them away with lift tubes. (Very clever) He also played R3PO three times, each time retreiving him with the incinerator after I killed the annoying bastard. I eventually realized that screwing around on CC wasn't what my deck was meant to do, and I got Ominous Rumors going, and by the end I was draining for 7 per turn in Space. Battle Order helped a lot, since he couldn't get into space because his mains were committed to CC. Great game. I won by 12. 4 (+52)
Game 3 LS vs Frank Amador's TIE Manipulator
This was a very original deck. He relied on Fears, Monnoks, Close Calls, and Voyeur for force loss. He didn't drain at all, but instead used Battle Order to slow me down on Tatooine. I only played with GL, RL, and the Falcon (with two LClaws) so I wasn't about to take him on. He occupied Wak so I couldn't Alter SFS, although my SAC really screwed him over all game long. He had no protection. Despite his MASSIVE retreival, I just kept draining until his lost pile started to build up. He did use Voyeur to remove Harvest from my used, which I thought was cool. In the end of the game I went up into space, deploying to a Big one to beat his lone TIE down. I deployed Jeroen on the Falcon to get there. I had almost 20 power, and he Ghhhk'ed! Ghhhk'ed again, three times in two games! I was pretty pissed, because once again, I thought that would be game. Well, OTEngage started to take its toll, I was drawing three destinies on the Falcon with the EPP's, and Beru and Owen were freaking out in the Fields. I retreived a ton, also searching with Tunnel Visions for Harvests. Interesting note- Frank played with one Bubo, and I killed it THREE TIMES during the game, each time after it had killed Owen or Beru! I was so pissed! He also always picked them, because when I held out Owen, Beru, and Ben Kenobi for the Bubo to choose, he examined the card backs, looking for the nicer sleeve and the newer looking card, thinking it would be Ben. Interesting strategy I thought. Cool game. I won by 35. 6 (+87)
Game 4 DS vs Steve Kuperman's HBXwing Swarm
Hidden Base annoys the hell out of me! A child could lock S foils, deploy 10 X-wings, kick your ass, then All Wings to retreive. It's so abusive! Well, that was this game. I had mostly a Space deck, but I played very cautiously. My secret weapon is two Lat Damages and two Gravity Shadows. INCREDIBLE combination. Early on I hit RL for about eight force. I failed with both of my Gravity Shadows, but had I succeeded, the game would have ended very very early. The two Lat Dams saved me the game though. I just kept running from his X-wings, killing a few here and there. You HAVE to stay away from the X-wings if he's in a position to Foil, because he can just play a lost ORG attack, deploy, demolish you, which he did to me multiple times this game. Big E (Executor) really pulled through this game for me, kicking ass wherever he went. I play with two and Fondor. I start with OEnforcement and play with three grabbers, but Steve, the Scumbag, played four ORG attacks before I could draw even one grabber! I had to Twi Lek to get it, then grabbed it later on. Very irritating. I had him on the ropes, then he retreived nine force with Allwings, which infuriated me. Nothing I could do. He replaced them with Squads, then deployed more. He flipped late in the game, and I probed four systems in one turn, depleting my hand of resources and making myself vulnerable. I hit it on the fourth try, sending good cards to my used. What a crock HBX is! I want to say it's broken, but that just isn't true, because I ended up winning the game, in a real squeaker. Very good game. It was hilarious to see the look on his face after I played Gravity Shadow. He was terrified to move the rest of the game. I won by 7. 8 (+94)
So I won the little tournament. Sorry if I rambled on too long, but since there were only four games I wanted to be comprehensive. There were many HuntDown Duelers there, but I didn't play against any. HB and HDown are such unoriginal strategies, that it sickens me to see them. I guess I'd rather see them than Ops though. Hope you enjoyed the report. Later-
Jon