seattle-wa-2-5-00
Title: seattle-wa-2-5-00
Author: Douglas "Douglas" Harvilla
Date: Feb 7, 2000
12530 Lake City Way
Seattle, Washington
February 5, 2000
Eleven players showed up for this six-game tournament run by Martin Norris, Rogue 7 and a pillar of the local Star Wars scene.
My decks:
Light - The Third Apparition. MWYHL with some surprises and obscene destiny draws.
Dark - The Last Command. Hunt Down with the Emperor's favorite two servants and a bunch of evil henchmen.
Game One - Dark versus Mike Mikaelian's Rescue The Princess
Mike is the only guy I know who gets results with RTP. Anyway, he starts Goo Nee Tay, and I might as well tell you now that I start Bad Feeling Have I in every game. Turn 1, we both draw cards and he cancels Visage with Transmission Terminated.
Deploy Vader to the Death Star: Docking Bay and move to Leia's cell. Take her into custody and flip. Not a lot of pressure on Mike yet, but that will change. Deploy Mara to the Yavin 4: War Room and go for her saber. Nope. Oh well, Mike has seen this deck before. He verifies and I end my turn.
Mike deploys Obi-Wan With Lightsaber to the docking bay, flipping Hunt Down back over, and moves to the cell confronting Vader. He is apparently hoping I'll battle, which means he has a suprise in store. I move Vader away, flipping again. When Obi follows, I deploy 4-LOM With Concussion Rifle and Boba Fett With Blaster Rifle. Battle, cancel Obi's game text, and take him out with attrition, but Mike plays Strangle and draws two battle destiny. The Jedi takes 4-LOM and Boba with him.
Tawss Khaa shows up and battles Vader, Mike plays Strangle to add a battle destiny. Sense cancels it, and Vader delivers a beating on Tawss. Later, Orrimaarko disturbs Mara in the War Room. Battle, we each draw 4 and the battle is a tie, but the site is cleared. Mara is replaced. Soon the drains and Visage end the game.
Win by 35
Highs: Plenty of battling, yet still good differential.
Lows: Not getting a saber out during this game.
Game Two - Light versus Charles Hickey's Hunt Down
He tells me this deck was inspired by, and meant to munch, my Light deck. Seems to have worked, but this match-up was never easy to begin with. I get Obi-Wan's Apparition on his Executor sites on turn 2, and Charles deploys the Death Star the very next turn.
Vader, Tarkin, and IG-88 With Riot Gun take over Endor: Dark Forest and begin draining. I save up some force and deploy Luke, Han, Leia, and Wedge to the site. Battle. Shoot Tarkin, swing unsuccessfully at Vader. Play I Know, draw five surprisingly low battle destiny, and one draw is canceled. Charles has played I Have You Now and Charming To The Last, so he gets a ton of draws, too. Everybody but Leia and IG-88 is forfeited.
Leia is Disarmed, Charles deploys Vader again, battles, captures Leia with Iggy. I get Gold Leader In Gold 1 to the Death Star, then invade the Executor sites with Commander Vanden Willard and a H'nemthe. Charles battles the H'nemthe with Motti and moves him to Willard's site. I have just enough force to deploy Tawss Khaa and battle, but I draw only a 2. Oh well, good days and bad days.
Loss by 16
Highs: Seeing a total of ten battle destiny drawn in one battle.
Lows: It only happened once. The rest of the game was a drain race.
Game Three - Dark versus Keith Watubayashi's Bothan Speeder Ops
Cool, this is a deck I haven't seen in Seattle often. He starts with
Yarna d'al Gargan and the Swamp instead of the Farm. Good move, since it saves him force when Vader hits the table and starts draining.
Soon three operatives in speeders flip the objective. Zuckuss clears one site by reducing the operative's forfeit to zero and forcing Keith to forfeit the speeder. Another is cleared by Mara, and I cancel Yarna with Alter. Masterful Move grabs Monnok and sets up a draw.
Keith knows he will lose pretty much his entire hand if he draws up a load of cards, so there won't be a dogpile. But I still need to fight him off all those sites, and it won't be easy. Tarkin backs up Vader and the duo move towards the Farm when it is deployed. Jabba, Boba, and 4-LOM smack another speeder/op combo around, and Keith starts having trouble keeping the objective flipped to stop my drains.
Dengar With Blaster Carbine comes in real handy, since his permanent weapon can blast two speeders out of the sky per battle. Luke shows up to flip Hunt Down and make me lose to Visage, but Djas Puhr trades for him straight-up. Drains and Visage end the game.
Win by 6
Highs: Shooting speeders with EJP Dengar. That card rocks.
Lows: Low win differential, but hey, it was a blast.
Game Four - Light versus Mike Mikaelian's 'When Weapons Are Outlawed'
He starts with the Death Star, I get Scrambled Transmission in case of manipulation. Zuckuss In Mist Hunter takes over Nal Hutta early and is soon backed up with TIE Bombers. Surprise Assault costs Mike six cards the turn before he gets a Dreadnaught to the system.
I deploy Gold Leader In Gold 1 and move to the Death Star. Mike follows with the Dreadnaught and TIEs. Frozen Assets, Spiral with Han and Luke, Draw Their Fire, battle. 6 attrition and he loses a Dreadnaught and TIE. Move to newly deployed Kashyyyk, and the fleet follows us. We battle back and forth a bit here, and he uses Dark Path, then plays Overload to get rid of Han With Heavy Blaster Pistol.
Put Landing Claw on Gold Leader's ship and move the rest of the fleet away. Attach to block the drain. Everything but Zuckuss In Mist Hunter moves away. Detach, deploy Millennium Falcon with Han piloting, and battle. Takes out Zuckuss In Mist Hunter and Gold Leader.
We shuffle around a bit before I deploy Obi-Wan With Lightsaber to the Lower Corridor and battle Mike's remaining ships in space. Play Don't Get Cocky, draw some tracked destiny, and it is over with.
Win by 22
Highs: Unusual game, new experience. Also the first time I've played with the Millennium Falcon since before Hoth came out.
Lows: Entirely space. Not one battle on the ground, and I only even deployed a character to a battleground site on the last turn.
Game Five - Dark versus Steven Harpster's Hidden Base
I helped Steven build this deck, so it isn't an entirely fair matchup. Interesting game, though. He draws three systems in his opening hand, and I get two copies each of Sense and Alter in my first twelve cards. Nice.
He gets X-Wings out for early drains, and I drop Vader and his lightsaber at the Jundland Wastes. When he gets an X-Wing to Kiffex, I pounce on it with two Dreadnaughts, cancel Hyper Escape with Sense, and make him lose 6 force. Alter cancels Rebel Fleet, and Bubo eats TK-422.
Mara at the Audience Chamber with her saber means I'm now draining for a total of 7 a turn, so Steven has to flip. I probe successfully and he moves to block my drain at Kiffex. Deploy two pilots for those Dreadnaughts, draw a tracked 6 destiny, and the battle is very one-sided. Spread the Dreadnaughts and the drains combine with Visage to end the game soon after.
Win by 35
Highs: Bubo eating TK-422.
Lows: I won't get to rematch Charles, since we both played the same side. In other words, the outcome of the tourney is decided.
Game Six - Light versus Steven Harpster's Hunt Down
Ouch. Double jeopardy. Not only does he get paired against the guy who helped him build his decks, but it happens twice, back to back. This is a pretty solid Hunt Down deck, though, with Sabacc for retrieval. In the endgame, it is nasty.
He plays Sabacc early and often, winning the Millennium Falcon and retrieving a fair amount of force. Obi-Wan's Apparition shuts down his force generation on the Executor, however. My mains battle his walkers and Vader for a while before taking over a site to deny him even more force generation.
Clash Of Sabers and extra battle destiny draws cause some battle damage, and when I kick Lando out of the Casino, it pretty much takes the Dark Side out of the game. I made certain to get my foil Falcon back, needless to say. (g)
Win by 20, I believe
Highs: Getting some good battles in.
Lows: Losing 1 to my own Surprise Assault. Losing three mains to Visage back-to-back.
So I finish the tournament 5-1, but there is an undefeated player, Charles Hickey. So I take second. Not bad, and my differential was actually higher than the undefeated player's. It seems that I get better differential when I'm not playing decks designed to retrieve force.
Reflections and Premiere were handed out as prizes. Strangely, the top four players are the only ones not given two Reflections packs. Oh, well. Thanks to everyone who showed up, and to Martin for running yet another successful tournament.
Douglas Harvilla