mara-s-obsession-pittsburgh-3-5-2000
Title: mara-s-obsession-pittsburgh-3-5-2000
Author: Eric "Brutus_9" Steinhauser
Date: Mar 5, 2000
I got to the tournament a little before start time and pull off a few trades for foils, etc. I have a big trade with Rick, who I end up playing in round 1. Convenient.
Game 1: DS vs. Rick's Profit/Beatdown
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I start Secret Plans and try to slow his retrieval down. I don't get a Vader in my opening hand, so I just draw up and we both lose to Visage. Luckily, I get DLOTS, Saber, and Vader's Obsession into my hand, and they come down next turn to the Back Door. Boussh drops to the Audience Chamber and lies in wait. Ben Kenobi visits Tat: Jabba's Palace, but on my next turn, I drop Iggy with Riot Gun down and initiate battle. A battle destiny of 5 to his 2, both guys are lost, and my objective flips back.
Leia tells Han that she's someone who loves him, and he retrieves 10 force. We trade drains for a while, he replaces Boussh with EPP Leia, and then I start to make my move. I drop ECC 4-LOM, EPP Boba Fett, and Jabba to the AC and initiate battle. Leia's gametext is nill, Fett hits Han, and all is good. With his I Know, the whole site is cleared. EPP Han returns on his next turn to reflip his objective, but Dengar and Dannik pay him a visit and knock him around for some damage. Dannik eats him. Yummy! Since his objective had flipped back, Master Luke comes down for free and does some hurt, but I have the perfect remedy. Even though Vader's chillin' on Endor, Mara, Saber, Vader's Obsession, and Focused Attack are sitting in my hand. Ahh, the beauty of it all as Luke is forced to turn to the dark side, which ends it all. Win by 20.
FW 2 (+20)
Highlights: Turning Luke with Mara!
Lowlights: Letting him deploy Master Luke for free.
Game 2: LS vs. Brandon's COTVG
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Brandon and I always play each other at these, but today he was certainly not the player who took my HDADTJ down a few weeks ago. He tried to use two starting interrupts (Twi'lek and Any Methods) which I quickly corrected, and then I decided I should count his deck, since he was saying that he'd just built it ... uh, oh ... 62 cards. He remedies the situation, and we get going. I start Battle Order, while he starts Scum & Villany. My opening hand consists of EPP Obi, Premier Obi, EPP Luke, and a Lightsaber Proficiency, so I'm feeling good. His moves are all very timid, so I don't really know what to expect.
I eat some damage from COTVG for a while as he gets Jabba and Ephant down to the AC, followed by Gallid. I finally get Obi and Luke down and do some battle. I clear the site, but have to lose Luke to attrition. Dannik Jerriko and some other alien come down to battle Obi, and I have to lose him due to a 5 battle destiny (dangit!) ... Obi's soup is eaten, and that just stinks. Meanwhile, I get all my planets out and start building up the Super Falcon and prepare to flip HB. (Kashyyyk was lost to a drain off the top, but God bless Tibrin!) I put Melas and Tawss down to fight Dannik alone and I get control of the AC. I Alter S&V and his Reactor Terminal. Brandon starts to build a force at the Great Pit of Carkoon with Jabba's Sail Barge as I build my force at the AC. He tries to Elis over, but it's sensed. Hehehe. OMDH lets me retrieve at will. Boba Fett in Slave 1 tries to threaten me, but Red Leader takes care of him, and his space threat is dead. I flip HB, and we dance around Tatooine for a while, avoiding a major battle. My drains at Kessel and elsewhere kill him. OMDH is the only card in my lost pile as I win by 35.
FW 4 (+55)
Highlights: Retrieving 11 force ... at will.
Lowlights: Having Obi's soup eaten, and having to dance with his 8-character alien posse.
Game 3: DS vs. Steve's HB/OMDH
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Gee, I haven't seen this deck before. Steve and I have played quite a bit at tourneys, and I know he's one of the better players in the area, so I play this one a bit timid. I didn't know what he was doing with HB, so I just start with IAO (wise choice). Vader's not in the opening hand (again) and he starts putting out some systems. Boussh drops to the Holotheatre, breaks cover, and cancels Visage. I'm not too upset, since I can't get a Vader into my hand for the life of me. Steve loads characters over on the Executor while trying to get some nice drains. Vader comes down with his stick to the POTF'd-Back Door next turn and we wait for a while as we drain. Luke and Leia are stranded, and I drop the alien posse over by them, putting in some damage.
Meanwhile, in space ... he flips HB and I start probing for his HB. Thankfully I had gotten Sec. Precautions down earlier. I finally get to the last one (Endor) and probe. Voila, right? Not really. He reveals his HB to be ... Yavin 4?? It's not even on table!!! What's up with that? We call Dean (TD) over and agree to treat his Y4 as if it were Endor, which I guess is OK with me. He loses 9 force to Sec. Precautions and starts to clear out space. He can't pull off OMDH since he has no way of getting there from Tatooine (no intermediate parsec planet ... and no more Falcons), so I'm ready to win this game.
Mara, Stick, Vader's Obsession, and Focused Attack pay Luke a visit. Luke turns, and he loses 5. The Executor is now secure, but he has spread out in space and might start draining. I get Battle Order out to slow him down (this wins me the game) and keep the drains up. On my last turn, he has 5 force left, but has just gotten BoShek to the Landing Platform, so I have to either win now or never. Luckily, there's a Visage in my hand. I drain him for four, and then deploy Visage, which causes him to lose his last force and give me the victory. The game causes a sensation at the tournament, and I'm totally pumped to win this tournament now! Win by 6.
FW 6 (+61)
Highlights: Turning Luke with Mara (again)!!!
Lowlights: The whole HB mess. Grr.
Game 4: LS vs. Steve's DS Space/ISB(??)
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Steve's deck didn't make a whole lotta sense, but that's OK.
He was playing without any planet sites, just a lot of capital ships, the BH ships, and probe droids (for the retrieval function, apparently ... whatever). He starts Sec. Precautions and I start Battle Plan. Wise move, again. At this time I discover that I'm the only guy with 6 points so far (Ed Wearne had a timed win over Jim Li) and so I'm in the driver's seat. I win, I win the tournament. OK ...
Planets start filling the table, as we get Coruscant, Alderaan, Tibrin, Chandrilla, Kashyyyk, Tatooine, Kessel, Endor and the Rendezvous Point all out within the first three turns. I delay flipping HB as Steve has begun to build a very large space fleet with ISDs and the BH ships. I get the Carbonite Chamber down and put Obi-Wan and Melas down to chill out and fulfill Battle Plan. The Super Falcon comes out to play, as do the Rebel Leaders and the Redemption. No major battles happen as I claw RLiR1 and start maneuvering around. We dance in space as I put out the Tantive IV, Spiral, and a bunch of ability-4 dudes. I finally decide the time is right for OMDH, and I retrieve 13. (Nobody's playing with Secret Plans today ... oh darn.) I put out Order to Engage and challenge him to play with the Super Falcon and friends. He declines and often loses his 13 force. I eventually flip and build a nice force at Alderaan so he can't probe without being smacked around. I drain him out and his force becomes impotent. Full win by 25.
FW 8 (+86)
Highlights: Outwitting the Imperial Fleet and controlling the theater where I want to.
Lowlights: Forgetting to drain for 2 at the Carbonite Chamber! D'oh!
So that's it ... I come in first place outright and break Jim Li's streak of dominance. We are again thwarted in our quest to play each other at a tournament, and can't even play afterwards as the store is closing. I pull a lot of crap out of prize support (Jedi Presence and ETE only ones of note) and give most of it to a brand new player.
Hope you enjoyed the report as much as I did playing it!
-- Brutus_9