austin-tx-12-11-99-ecc-discussion
Title: austin-tx-12-11-99-ecc-discussion
Author: Brian "Red 81" Guthrie
Date: Dec 11, 1999
11 players braved the first significant rain in Austin, TX in more than 2 months to test out the post-ECC tournament scene. The field was small, but enthusiastic and talented. Best of all, Matt Lush (1999 World Qualifier) and Martin Boehm (1999 Dantooine runner-up) were both on hand to test their decks and hope for a rematch of their exciting final duel at the Dantooine regional in September. The competition was fierce, but the day belonged to Matt, who won the tournament with a 5-1 record. Congratulations Matt!!
Also, kudos to one of my younger players, Philip Olson, who is new to the game but is improving every tournament. Philip doesn't have all the high-priced rares, but today he brought a LS Ewok deck that ABSOLUTELY ROCKED!!!! His deck produced the two best highlights of the day: First, he deployed a beatdown crew of Ewoks on Vader and MADE VADER POWER 0 with an Ewok Spear! That had everyone rolling on the floor. In another game, Philip deployed 15 Ewoks and started a battle against Tarkin and Vader. No spear this time, but the Ewoks were Power 36 to 10 for the DS. It was not a good day for Imperials to be on Endor.
To honor Philip's efforts, I awarded him an extra foil Threepio from my collection at the end of the tournament. I have feeling we have not seen the end of the Ewok beatdown crew! ;-)
Before I get to the final results, I wanted to share some of my thoughts and insights from the days events:
1. Despite the new ECC cards, DS did NOT dominate the tournament. In fact, at the end of the day the LS won 17 games vs. 13 for the DS. All of the new DS ECC cards were in play, particularly Boba in Slave I and 4-LOM with Gun. Still, LS managed to win a majority of games, many in commanding fashion. Very interesting.
2. No one played with the new ECC objectives, but in pickup games before/during/after the tournament, these objectives consistently lost to most tournament proven decks. I think these objectives will become more tournament worthy as time goes on, but for the time being, they are still works in progress. The DS Objective has no answer for a solid character-based LS Insurrection deck, and the LS Objective simply gets outdrained by most DS decks before it can get going. I think its WAY TO EARLY to judge these objectives fairly though. Personally, I think the DS objective in particular has all sorts of nasty potential! ;-)
3. REVOLUTION IS NOT DEAD! Yes, you heard me right. Despite Crush the Rebellion, Martin Boehm brought a heavy Revolver deck to the tournament today and only lost once. However, his loss was unrelated to Crush, which did not slow him down. How you ask? Hell to Pay and Visored Vision! Martin made clever use of these cards, counting on the fact that most DS players would only play with 1 Evader in conjunction with Crush. He guessed right, and Evader was usually taken out of the picture early in his games. Very well done Martin!!!
4. Boba in Slave I, IG-88 with Gun, and 4-LOM with Gun ABSOLUTELY ROCK!!!!! Enough said! ;-)
5. Hunt Down remains the dominant deck for the DS, while Careful Planning with a variety of starting locations dominated the LS. Here is an official deck breakdown from today:
Light Side
Mains and Toys Tatooine (x3 - most with Tosche Station)
Hidden Base Space (x2)
Bothawuii Operatives (x2 - one with speeders, one with mains)
Yavin IV Revo
Yavin IV Nudj (no revo)
Cloud City Pucumir/Devaronian (he did not use the LS ECC Objective)
EWOK Madness
Dark Side
Hunt Down and Destroy the Jedi (x6 - some Space, some Duel, and one Sabaac!)
ISB Operations
Corulag Operatives
TIE Retrieval
Raltiir Ops
Mains and Toys Imperial Decree
Other highlights from the day's action:
- EWOK MADNESS! (see above)
- Matt Lush and Martin Boehm (1999 Dantooine finalists) met twice today for the first time since Regionals. Just as he did in September, Matt prevailed winning on both sides of the force. Both games were competitive however, and featured several epic battles on ground and in space
- Vader lost an Epic Duel when LS sensed Focused Attack, drew a 0, and then played Glancing Blow AND Courage of a Skywalker. The poor DS player could only shake his head and mumble.
- The DS Sabaac deck, driven by DS Lando, won the Millenium Falcon TWICE from the LS. The disgruntled LS player, after losing the 2nd Falcon, discarded both Capt. Hans in his hand to a force drain
- The DS managed to 'eat' Han's soup and 'behead' Luke in the same game
- In one game, Hell to Pay held 5(!) senses at the end of the game, and DS still had 2 in circulation!
- LS played It Could be Worse, and got nailed for 15 by Its Worse
- Vader was Lost and Found in the Wilderness all in the same turn when Tarkin drew a 5 for search destiny
Finally, here are the final results for the tournament:
LS Wins: 17
DS Wins: 13
Largest Differential: +47
Smallest Differential: +3
Timed Games: 1
1. Matt Lush 10 (+78)
2. Martin Boehm 8 (+103)
3. Justin Warren 8 (+28)
4. John Farmer 8 (+7)
5. Joseph Amaya 6 (+26)
6. Chris Gregg 6 (+10) - left after Game 5
7. Ted Woodward 6 (-15)
8. Philip Olson 6 (-60)
9. Eric Clegg 5 (-22)
10. Torsten Louis 4 (-67)
11. Brad Bouque 2 (-88)
Thats all for this month. Look for my next tournament report in the next century!
If you made it this far, thanks for reading.
Regards,
Brian, Red 81
brimel@aol.com