mr-lush-goes-to-florida-freakin-huge
Title: mr-lush-goes-to-florida-freakin-huge
Author: Matt "Old Skooler" Lush
Date: Mar 6, 2000
Game 1- Dark vs. Ryan 'CardMaster' Christian's Harvest Deck
CardMaster starts with the Lar's Moisture Farm and the Aud. Chamber, and I raised an eyebrow to that. He tells me, 'I left Obi's Hut in my car..' We call Chuck over and he says it's up to me whether he can get it or not, so I say sure. (I couldn't be an ass, it's not really my style). We start, and I have probably the best hand I had all day: DLOTS, Tarkin, Saber. I throw Sec. Precautions out for activation as I have no locations in hand, and save up. Ryan activates and draws. 2nd turn, Vader/Tarkin/Saber to the Farm, flip, and move over to the Hut. Ryan has a hard time getting anything going, as the massive drain of 4 is hard to take. I get Mara to the Farm, where she sits there draining for 3 with her stick. Ben and Owen make an appearance, but don't last long. Later, Luke and Owen show up. Battle, Owen's gone, and Ryan puts Luke in the Bacta Tank. I love doing this: Move Vader/Tarkin from Hut to Audience chamber, flip ob. back to the 7 side, Alter Bacta Tank with Luke in it. Classic Old-Skool trick. Ryan just can't take the drains of 4 and 3, and was just losing cards too fast to really establish anything. Near the end, I kick out Kasshyyk with the Executor there to seal the game. Win by 31.
Highs- Killer starting hand. Being a nice guy by letting him get Obi's Hut out of his car and having it help me more than him.
Lows- Can't think of any...sorry Ryan!
Game 2- My Tat. Celebration vs. Chris Hine's Imperial Power
Chris starts the Death Star, while I have the usual Hut and Aud. Chamber. My starting hand has a monk and a lot of Sense/Alter. I don't want to put the monk out yet as I didn't have a Solo Han, so I just draw. More SAC. Chris activates and draws. I do the same. MORE SAC, although I get Boshek. Chris activates, draws a few. I put down Boshek, and draw for Ben/Luke. More SAC. My hand has like all 9 Sense/Alters. Still no Ben/Luke. Both of us were taking forever to get set up. Chris finally puts down BFIS1 and BIHT at the Endor he put out earlier. I get out Ben/Luke at Mos Eisley, and Monster Falcon combo at Tatooine with Celebration. He drains and comes on over. My turn, retrieve the two he drained me for, put out a monk and Tawss at the Hut and the generic Farm, and initiate in space. I have Savrip out at this point. 3 destiny to his two. I've got 8 attrition against me, while he has 11. Lucky for me, he has won by 1 card, 19-18. I lose a Ben from hand to cover attrition. He loses everything to attrition. EPP Vader makes an appearance, but doesn't last long. I'm draining and retrieving like mad. Blizzard 2 w/ DS-61-2 make an appearance, and I leave Melas holding them off with a Solo Han in hand. He never initiates, but moves over to Obi's Hut. I let him drain me for 3, lose them from my hand, and retrieve them my turn. I also Altered my own Savrip near the end to get it back into my reserve. This games ends with me having the cleanest set-up I've ever had in my life: Falcon/C.Han/EPP Leia at Tatooine, Boshek at Aud. Chamber, Orrimaarko at the Farm, a Monk at Obi's Hut(making it a BG for retrieval), Ben/Luke at Mos Eisley, Tawss in the Cantina. No hand, 1 card in the lost pile. Win by 43.
Highs- Biggest diff. ever with this deck.
Lows- Having it against Chris, who's a really nice guy.
Game 3- LS against Commieboy's Raltiir Ops.
Commie starts Oppressive Enforcement, and I'm getting a flashback of my World's game against Maarten. I've got probably the best hand I could have against him, Ben, Luke, and a Nabrun. Unfortunately, no supporting characters. First turn, Commie kicks out the Jungle and Swamp. My first turn, Ben/Luke at the Hut. I've got them at Raltiir my second turn. Charlie has an AT-ST at the Swamp, and DS-61-2 by his lonesome next door at the forest. My turn, Nabrun Ben/Luke to Forest. Commie grabs my Nabrun. Initiate, he reacts with Tempest Scout 6. Sense. He grabs my sense, and another one when he reacts with the Walker next door, but DS-61-2 stays alone. Swing, hit, and dammit I have no Smokescreen, so just draw. Destiny is Tat: JP. Damn! Commie loses DS and 8 cards. A Smokescreen could have made a lot of difference, and it sucked not having one yet, hell, I play with 3. Commie puts stuff out, flips. I move over Ben/Luke one at a time, flip it back. He puts out more stuff, moves, flips. I put out Monster Falcon at Tatooine, move over to Raltiir, flip back. It STAYS unflipped. He's got an AT-ST pilot by his lonesome at the next site over to Ben/Luke. I activate, have a total of twelve. Do the math in my head, and hope I'm lucky. Stack my second Nabrun, and pray for a 3. I get it. Ben/Luke initiate. He reacts with an adjacent Walker. Pay 3 to Sense it. He plays what I was hoping he didn't have yet: an Alter. Pay 4 to Sense it. That react is cancelled, but I can't stop Tempest Scout 6 from deploying, and I lose my chance at a second beatdown. He loses a whopping 2 to battle damage. He later comes down on my turf w/ Mara at Mos Eisley and Vader at the Audience Chamber. I've got Artoo gifted sitting at the middle at Obi's Hut, and he's pretty much useless 'cause of the new stupid ruling about actions taking during move phase. I could move, but then Commie would simply move Vader to Obi's Hut, so Artoo stays where he's at. I put down Melas to block Vader. He initiates, misses the swing. Solo Han. I don't draw enough, and lose about 3 along with Melas. Later, Boshek gets his shot. He initiates, Solo Han. A 5 and a 3. Bam! Vader gone, but so is Boshek. My Order To Engage and Savrip are absolute useless, as he'll simply Alter them. I had 4 senses stacked. With Ben/Luke on Raltiir keeping him from flipping and both Nabruns stacked, I'm forced to bring down the Falcon from Tatooine to stop his Tempest Scout and pilot at Mos Eisley. Mara was lost earlier battling a Monk who Smokescreened her. He iniates against Han/Leia. Two destiny. 4 and a 5. He's wiped out, I lose the Falcon to attrition. Could actually win this at this point due to the Cantina Shuffle/Celebration, but dammit, he's got one more ship: BFIS1. I saw him lose ZIMH earlier, and hoped he was out. No such luck. At that point with my retrieval gone, I knew game was over. Loss by 10.
Highs- Great starting hand, long, fun, enjoyable game.
Lows- Drawing a site for the one beatdown, having the two cards that would have won the game for me be absolutely USELESS.
Game 4- My Hunt Down vs. David Aker's Hidden Base
Dawi seemed kinda tired already, and this really affected how he played. I was able to keep Visage going, and that hurt for him. I got Vader down at the Aud. Chamber quick, followed by Mara at the Cantina. These quick drains with Visage caused him to lose a system he needed, and he therefore was never able to flip. About halfway through, he looks for a desert with Kirdo III text, then a Sandwhirl. With both deployed, he puts down Rogue 1 with EPP Obi on it, flipping my Objective, so we both lose to Visage. Absolutely no way I could touch him with that Sandwhirl going. He had Master Luke on the Tantive at Kirdo III to get the desert/Sandwhirl, and meant to move them to Alderaan, but only moved them to Tibrin. My previous turn I had saved my force pile. I had three key cards in my fairly big hand I wanted to keep, and Dawi picks the perfect time for a used Grimtaash. Unfortunately for him, I have great luck and keep the key three. My next turn I put down Executor, Zuckuss, and ECC 4-LOM to Tibrin. Battle, he loses them both. I stay at Tibrin for the drain of two, and my other two drains he can't last much longer. Win by 27.
Highs- Kickin' out a monster space wrecking machine- power 14 w/ 2 destiny.
Lows- Not being able to touch EPP Obi. Beating Dave while he wasn't thinking straight.
Game 5- My Hunt Down vs. Neal Razi's MWYHL X-Wing Beatdown
This one was fun yet frustrating. I get a real quick start, first turn deploying Mara to the Audience Chamber. Unfortunately I don't get Vader down and some Senses in time to cancel his Trans. Terminated. Neal has Battle Plan down, and I'm paying a lot to drain, but I've got the force to spend. With Vader at my Lar's Farm, and Mara at Jabba's Palace, he comes down with EPP Obi and Luke on Mara. We both miss swinging, and I play a Moment of Triumph. I end up losing Mara and 3 cards. I ALMOST played my Ghhk I had, but decided to save it for when I really needed it. My turn, Zuckuss and 4-LOM pay Luke a visit and knock him off. Since almost the begining of the game, Neal has had Rebel Fleet down, and every time I tried to Alter I missed. I had plenty of 1's, but just didn't draw one of them, and Rebel Fleet saved him A LOT of cards. Bad luck on his part consisted of losing All Wings Report In to Visage at the end of his first turn, making the Secret Plans I started with totally unescessary. Neal puts down Kiffex and a lone X-Wing, setting up his trap. I take the bait, and throw down BFIS1 to knock out his lone X-wing. He Houjixes it, and his turn activates S-Foils, throws down 5 X-wings, and initiates. I do a little unintentional mind-gaming with him, and Neal says, 'Aw, c'mon, you gotta have a Ghhk by now...don't you?' He debates whether to bother with Power Pivot, and decides to use it. The card he loses to play is Tatooine, which was CRITICAL to his deck, as he would have deployed PTIFF on Dagobah and target Tatooine, making my drains of 2 and 2 there 1 and 1. I can't resist, and I mess with his head a bit. 'What's your total power?' 'Hmmm, 28 to my 4, wow, that's 20 cards left after I lose Boba..............I better use this.'-and I just Ghhk it. Neal's disappointed, to say the least. I add Tarkin on the Forest Clearing to my drains, and with a drain of 6 to his 2 at Kiffex and later Kessel I drain him out. His last turn he has one force left, and can't afford Battle Plan. Win by 16.
Highpoints- Great play with the Ghhk, making him lose a critical card.
Lowpoints- Mindgaming him to play the Power Pivot, although I certainly didn't expect him to lose such a critical card. I was just wanted him to waste a card.
At this point my diff. is huge. All I need to do is win my last game by a standard amount and 2nd Place is mine. But of course...
Game 6- My Light vs. Gabe Alonzo's Duel-You-Right-Now-I-Don't-Give-A-Damn-If-It's-My-Second-Turn-Hunt Down
This was insane. I start the usual Hut and Chamber. Gabe's 1st turn, he activates and saves. My hand has Ben and Melas, and I really don't want to put Ben down yet, but I don't have a Solo Han for Melas. I figure, what the hell, he's not gonna duel 2nd turn, and I've got a Smokescreen for the battle. Put down Ben, move to the Aud. Chamber, draw. Gabe's SECOND turn. DLOTS to the Chamber, duel. If you've read Gabe's report, you know what I said. I play the one Sense I had, and miss with a 3. Destinies: he draws a 1 and a 3, I draw a 2 and a 3. Gabe plays a Focused Attack to cancel my 3. I inform him it doesn't cancel one of my destinies, it adds one for him. He says, 'Oh, I'll play it to add one then' and draws a 6. Ben's toast along with nine cards. This was so devasting, and it really shook me up. I get my Courage and Glancing, and put down Luke. I want him to duel, so I don't battle. His turn, Sniper. I play FIVE senses in a row to stop it, but needing to draw a site to get it, naturally fail. Lukes history, and with Presence and a Saber, I'm taking a monster drain of 5 at the Hut. All I can do is put down Melas later, as I finally have a Solo Han. He initiates, swings, hits, and before I can play Solo Han he plays Dark Strike to make Melas immediately gone, foiling my little plan. I draw for my last Luke, not even realizing I had lost him very early, and Gabe simply drains me out. Loss by 30.
Highpoints- Do you see any highpoints? I didn't think so...
Lowpoints- After the game, I'm talking to John A., rulings master. He lets me know a little detail I missed...Gabe couldn't play that Focused Attack because we had already drawn destinys. If I had just been thinking a little clearer, I would have had won the duel, and therefore the game easily. Losing knocked me down to 8th or 9th place instead of 2nd, so I'm sure you can understand how I felt at that point...Gabe was VERY cool about it though, and I know he didn't do it intentionally. He knew how to play the deck, but he wasn't familiar with the cards, and I missed out on a game-deciding opportunity to take advantage of that. I'm over it now, though, and Gabe, I love ya too buddy. Gabe gave me a Captain Han as consolation for what happened, and he really didn't have to. Very nice of him.
Well, if you've lasted this far, I guess I did a good job with this. Hope you enjoyed it...