boca-raton-fl-1-9-00
Title: boca-raton-fl-1-9-00
Author: Andrew "Gadget" Ledwith
Date: Jan 11, 2000
Anyway, like almost everyone else, I've been having a heck of a time making a LS deck of any kind. I had the worst LS performance ever at my last tourney, so I made a new one for this tourney. Here's how my decks broke down:
LS - MWYHL 'Fake Out' (Yodie at his Hut for Dengar-proof immunity)
DS - In Time Of War The Law Falls Silent (go rate it!)
Game 1: My DS vs. Jason ???'s MWYHL Test 5 deck
Not a whole lot to report on in this game. I decided to go ahead and start IAO since I was afraid of a fake out. He begins to test, as I set up strong drains at Kiffex, Endor, and Kashyyyk. Once his Test 1 is complete my drains take a cut, but I'm still draining for 5. While testing, he gets out the Cantina and slaps down Obi, Luke, Chewie, and Leia. Not going over there. He is a good destiny tracker and gets an Ewok catapult for every test. I have down Reactor Terminal, madly going through my deck for a U-3PO to block the drain at the Cantina. I finally find him and kill the threat. While pulling up, I find my Downtown Plaza. I deploy Vader, Tarkin, Igar and Tempest 1 there. I'm now draining for a good 7 and he can't keep up. The last card I play is Secret Plans so he can't retrieve with the Objective after Test 5. As I'm closing out the game, he finally picks up the 3 cards he'd been searching for: Mos Eisely, R-3PO, and Nabrum Leids. I would have gotten a pretty good beating over on CC, not to mention a force loss of 4 a turn thanks to the 3PO convention. Well, too litle too late. Win by 22.
Record: 2 (+22)
Highlights: I won the way the deck was supposed to.
Lowlights: None really.
I go to give our command cards to Tommy Minton, the TD. As I'm going there, I notice that Brian Fein has just won his game with a HB deck. The next thing I hear is, 'And my Hidden Base system was Anout.' Whoa! That's a nice tidbit if I have to play him later.
Game 2: My LS vs. Brian Fein's Kashyyyk War deck
Okay, so it's not his LS. Don't be confused by my title for his deck. His deck was supposed to be ground of some kind, but everything happened at the Kashyyyk system. His starting location is Coruscant system and CTR. That's kinda odd. Oh well. He plays Kashyyyk system first turn and throws out PotF and a couple of ships. I set up Yoda at his Hut and pick up looking for a Landing Claw to block that drain of 3. I end up picking up 4 of my 5 ships, so I decide to battle him out. I win the first couple of battles, but then it turns into a destiny war. He eventually gets Vader, Tarkin, ECC Iggy, and EPP Fett to Kashyyyk. I have Luke, Leia, and Han on my side. So he gets from 4-6 destiny (he sometimes got 2 more from I Have You Now) and I get 3. However, all my destiny are high, and aside from Senses and Alters, his destiny is low. I throw fodder like Obi on ECC Falcon to take up one turn's worth of attrition. While this is going on, he sets up a drain of 2 at Coruscant (an SC and a PotF) and I set up a drain of 1 at the Hologameboard. There came a point when I could see that since he was getting the bigger drain that I couldn't block I'd eventually lose. On the HGB I have a Projection and a Houjix. I decide (at great risk) to take the Projection off the HGB and play it on table to give myself a drain of 2 there, leaving the Houjix helpless if he gets attacked. This turns out to be a good move. I soon overpower him in space and he retreats to Dagobah. Before he leaves he tracks a destiny-1 to Alter his own PotF on Kashyyyk. He sets up an alternative drain at CC:DTP, with Vader, his saber, and Dr. E. At this time I have Leia in the Bacta Tank and an Elom in hand. I Deploy them both there and battle. He swings at the Elom (and barely hits him) and operates. I shoot Dr. E. We draw destiny. He gets like a 4 and I get a 5. We both lose everything. My Leia goes to the Bacta Tank. He now has 2 force left and a drain of 6 force left and a drain of 4. I have 6 force left and a drain of 4. He drain me and now I have 4 left. I use that 4 to pull Leia out of the Bacta Tank. I lose her and 3. Now I drain him for 4 and that's game. Edge out a win by 1.
Record: 4 (+23)
Highlights: Winning with my light side for the first time in a long time.
Lowlights: I know how losing by 1 feels and it really sucks.
So now I get to relax my nerves as I hear Brian mutter 'one force' over and over. There's like 10 minutes left and we were the first game done. The next set of pairings comes out and guess what...
My DS vs. Brian Fein's Hidden Base w/ matching pilots deck
YESSSSS!!! I know his Hidden Base, and I'm ready to use that to my fullest advantage. I had designed this deck to beat Hidden Base so I was pretty confident. I start IAO and pull Security Precautions in my opening draw. He sets up 7 systems, and with my Death Star that would make the force loss 7. Not too good, but fair. Once he gets his systems out he doesn't flip for a while, but eventually he does. We do a lot of little battles, but I'm getting my stuff out quick since he's got Ralltiir and Coruscant down for me to drop my ships for dirt. I don't probe for a while. I was concentrating on the Coruscant system since he had really started to build up there. I probe there just so I won't take battle damage. After a while, I deployed Dengar in Punishing One to Anout, probe and I'm correct. I then move all my stuff to Kiffex for a solid drain of 2. He starts to spread out and makes it a drain race. I split my forces, but I can never block more than 3 of his 5 drains. I'm losing anywhere from 3-5 per turn, but he's losing ships off the table from constant battles. I play Lateral Damage on Falcon w/ premiere Han and ECC Chewie piloting (that's not something you see every day...), and I beat him up there. He starting to get into trouble. I am now starting to get some drains in and he's running out of ships. When I needed to lose something to attrition I lost one of my many 2-2 dinks. Eventually I can block all of his drain, and just needed to initiate one battle to win the game. I pull off a good win by 18.
Record: 6 (+41)
Highlights: Winning without having any big drains throughout the game.
Lowlights: Knowing his Hidden Base from the start was an unfair advantage.
So now there are two undefeated players: myself and Jeff Alexander, who has also never won a tournament. But we both just played DS, so we won't be playing each other. The first set of pairings would have had me play Brian a third time (!) so that's out the window. So when the new pairings come up I end up having to play a deck I had lost to in two other tournaments. I'm mad as hell at this pairing and smash my OTSD Luke box into one of the tables (ruining the box in the process). Looking back that was a pretty stupid thing to do. Not only did I wreck my only Luke box, but I'd already won 3 games and was getting mad about a game I hadn't even played yet. Some other people had not managed to even win a game and were taking it just fine. To all of those people who were there I'm sorry for acting so selfish. Now on to the game...
My LS vs. Andrew Echnoz's ISB Docking Bay Blitz
In my opening hand I manage to get 2 cards I really needed: Order to Engage and Houjix. Why the Houjix? I'm hoping to be able to cancel his Sunsdown when he plays it and delay his flip for a couple of turns. Well he doesn't flip first turn, but ends up doing so on his second. On my first turn I get out the Yoda junk. When I start my second turn he starts predicting how I'm going to go in and get out my DoS stuff now. I just slowly shake my head, making no other facial gestures (sort of one of my trademarks). He starts guessing other cards like SoS, Luke's Backpack, etc. Finally I just tell him that I'm not testing and he is in utter disbelief. He didn't seem to set up as well as he had in the past, but he still got the ball rolling just fine. He had drains of 2 all over the place, and was killing my own drains. I starting dropping characters in sets of 2s. Two sets of two Eloms here, Wedge and Orrimaarko there, and Leia all by herself (once I got out Bacta Tank that is). That was 4 drains down the tubes, and if he doesn't battle them he'll lose 3 force. He starts to see how painful that can get to be and initiates crazy battles in hopes that he'll lose less than 3 cards. Leia goes around shooting down Probe Droids. He relentlessly throws down ISBs at Coruscant and transits them to where they are needed. Ghhhking battle after battle, he finally runs out of steam. I am finally able to block all of his drains and even set up some of my own. I battle a lone Ozzel to end the game. I win by 16.
Record: 8 (+57)
Highlights: Finally beating that ISB deck!
Lowlights: Getting all mad about the initial pairings.
At the time that I'd finished my last game, Jeff was still playing his game (against Brian Fein of all people). My 4-game differential was lower than his 3-game differential, so he had to lose or time out for me to win it all. I wait it out, and finally Brian pulls off the win. Kind of surprising too, since Jeff was playing HB and Brian beat him in space, yet I was playing heavy ground and I beat him in space.
So it's official, I have won a tournament! Only thing that would have made it better would have been if Lee Edwards and Mike Fitzgerald could have been there to see it. I've been playing a long time and I don't think either of those two ever thought this day would come. In my packs I pull a Scum and Villainy and a What Is Thy Bidding My Master (promises be a hot card when the Emperor arrives). Dan Blackford (who had a rough day) was skeptical about the strength of my LS so he challenged it to a 'friendly' game vs. his latest Endor Ops deck. I ended up winning by 15 or so. I think I've finally made a working LS. Now that's news. I don't think I'm going to post it for a while (I need to keep some secrets). Now, if you think the day couldn't get any better, it did. Dolphins beat the Seahawks and advance to play the Jags. Yeah baby!! There is another tourney in 2 weeks, so unless I do terrible look for another report real soon.