another-short-tourney-report
Title: another-short-tourney-report
Author: Norman "Norman" Horn
Date: Mar 29, 2000
TOURNAMENT REPORT, 3/18/00
No, this isn't that short, but it will be DETAILED!
What a great day for Star Wars; it's cloudy and is about to rain, and it's tournament time! The tournament is at 5:00, and the current time is 4:00. As I leave the house in a rush, I realize that I'm going to need to get gas! Arrrggh. So I get exactly $10.00 worth of gas at the CFM and head on my way to All American Collectibles. Despite my detour, I still made it 10 minutes early. Chris (the coordinator) tells me that we are going to wait until 5:30 for more people. That is fine with me, so I make some trades for a foil Commander Luke and a foil Stalker. At 5:30, we find that 12 people are in attendance, so we go ahead and start.
Simply put, my Dark deck was Ralltir Ops, and my Light deck was Speeder Ops. On to the games, which is what you're here for!
GAME 1: My Ralltir Ops vs. Matt Schmaltz's Hidden Base
He starts the normal HB stuff and Battle Plan. I start Bad Feeling Have I. My starting hand consists of a Desert, Coruscant, DS-61-4, Officer Evax, Tempest Scout 3, Comm Chief, Trample, and Zuckuss in Mist Hunter. A very good hand that is workable. First turn I deploy my locations, a location from reserve, and end my turn. He deploys Alderaan, Dagobah, Yoda's Hut, Tibrin, and draws. Fine with me. I activate 9 (for a total of ten force), deploy the Tempest and Comm Chief to the Swamp, DS-61-4 to the swamp, Officer Evax to the Desert, and flip. I move DS4 to the forest with Evax so I can react with TS3 to the forest for free. I'm figuring he's going to try something real quick. He activates and deploys Luke w/saber, Chewie w/blaster, and a Rennek to the swamp and battles. His first action is a Rug Hug, and then I Trample Chewie to the lost pile (goodbye FURBALL! hahahha). I draw a 3 for destiny, adding 2 from objective for a total of five and the site is cleared. I unfortunately still have to lose 4 force because he got some lucky destiny draws. Next turn I pull Tempest Scout 1 from reserve, force drain for 1, deploy the Tempest, and draw up for DVDLOTS, Defensive Perimeter, 4-Lom with gun, and Dreadnaught. Yeah baby yeah! In his turn he draws up for a lot of cards. My turn, I pull Security Precautions, deploy Vader to the Defensive Perimeter, draw and get an TS2 and Marquand. Cool. He then activates, deploys Yoda to the hut, RLiR1 to Kessel, GLiG1 to Tibrin, Traffic Control, Descent Into the Dark, and leaves about 4 force. Uh-oh, that doesn't look good. I pull Tempest 1 from reserve and deploy it to Defensive Perimeter with 4-Lom, back up Ralltir with Major Marquand and TS2, and leave a force for reaction. His turn, he deploys Tawss Khaa, Obi w/Saber, and Orrimaarko to the Defensive Perimeter and battles. I miss choking Orrimaarko, get my Vader hit, take out Orrimaarko's game text, and draw a total destiny of 5. He subtracts 2 from attrition and forfeits Tawss. He draws a 6 for destiny so Tempest 1 falls to the ice with a big boom! 4-Lom looks up and intuitively thinks he should stick around for further reconnaisance and assistance... Next turn I deploy the Dreadnaught and Zuckuss in MH to Tibrin and fight Gold Leader, hahahahhaha! I take him out and make him lose 8. I draw and get Iggy and Darth Vader. Note that he still hasn't flipped. At this point he drains me for 1, throws some cards back in his reserve, and flips at the end of his turn. I activate, force drain for a total of 2, and search my reserve for a starship... Bingo, Boba Fett in Slave 1 has hit the table! I deploy him to Kessel probe there and at Tibrin and miss. I battle and take out Red Leader, not giving him any force loss. He has only 1 card in his hand, so I move Fett to Tatoonie, Zuckuss to Alderaan, and Dread to Kiffex and end my turn after drawing Secret Plans, Oppressive Enforcement, and Lateral Damage. Hmm, an effect for once? He activates, drains for 1, and I probe successfully (I won't say where though). Down goes another 7 force from him. He draws until he has about 3 cards left in reserve. I force drain for about 8, leaving him with no hand, and pull Vader's Saber. I deploy Vader, the Saber, and Iggy to Def Perimeter and battle. 4-Lom takes out Ben's text, Vader pays ends the circle once and for all by hitting Ben, and I deal him enough damage to end the game. Win by 28.
Highs: seeing my deck work great, trampling Chewie, paying Ben back for that humiliating hit.
Lows: none really, except that his deck didn't work that great for him.
Score: 2(+29)
GAME 2: My Speeder Ops vs. Dustin Horn's Hiding Out On Coruscant
If you've read any of my tourney reports, you know I hate playing my brother. His deck consists of draining on Coruscant while preventing rebel deployment by Coruscant's text. Sunsdown helps deploy the spies, and combat vehicles even out everything else. It really is an annoying deck if you've never seen it before, but of course I have! He starts Coruscant and Imp Arrest Order, I start Alderaan, Farm, and Yarna. He deploys Spaceport Street, Coruscant DB from reserve, and draws. I deploy Swamp an Op + Speeder, and draw a few. He deploys an agent to start draining, 2 more sites, and draws. I decide now that I'm going to need to speed drain to gain the quick advantage, so next turn I drain, deploy the Jungle and Desert, 2 more Ops and speeders to flip, an ASP707 for forfeit stuff, Maneuvering Flaps, and draw 2. Good deal. He then deploys a Star Destroyer to Coruscant, flips his objective deploying 3 more agents and a Presence of the Force. Ah-ha, here we go, now it's going to get tense. Turns out it didn't. He couldn't manage to find a Sunsdown, so I was pretty much unhurt the entire game. I'm draining for about 8 a turn, he's draining for about 4 with Mosep on Coruscant with the agents and Zuckuss in MH at Kiffex. I'm backing up my guys with the speeders for protection. He drops Vader w/saber and GMT to the Desert and battles my Snowspeeder and 1 Op, hitting the Op but drawing a 1 for destiny. Bad for him, good for me. Next turn I drain for a good bit and leave him with with 10 force. I deploy an Op to the adjacent battle site (farm) to retrieve a force and move the lone speeder there. Dustin moves Vader and GMT to the farm. Next turn I drain for 8, so now he has 2 force. I then deploy Draw Their Fire and an Op to a site on Coruscant where he only has ability 3. I battle, retrieve a force, make him lose a force, and forfeit the Op to cover the damage. Then I initiate a battle where Vader and Tarkin are and win the game with DTF. Full win by 22
Highs: nothing much, really.
Lows: having to play my brother, as usual. Of course, with 12 people it's bound to happen.
Score: 4(+50)
GAME 3: My Speeder Ops vs. Michael's (?) Cloud City Trooper Dark Deal
This guy had no idea what was coming to him... He starts Bespin: CC, CR, and Port Town. I start Alderaan, Farm, and Yarna. I have 4 speeders in my hand, plus DTF, Frozen Assets, The Signal, and Forest. First turn he activates, deploys Den of Thieves, and draws. I activate and deploy a speeder to the Desert and draw, getting a Flaps. He activates, deploys a site, and draws again. I'm not particularly happy that I'm not getting any Ops, so I voice my opinion of my 'bad' hand, deploy another 2 speeders to a different site, the Flaps, and draw. I now have a complete combo of 5 speeders, Luke w/saber, Clash, and ASP. He deploys 6 CC Troopes and 2 Disrupter Pistols to Port Town and draws some more. I activate and deploy my only Op to the jungle and another speeder and draw. He then moves his guys around with Upper Plaza Corridor and leaves 3 guys at Port Town. Perfect... My turn comes. I drain for a little and activate flaps, he loses the cards. I deploy ASP-707 and 4 Rebel Snowspeeders. He cringes. I deploy 3 Snowspeeders and 1 Sandspeeder. He yelps 'Chrriiiiiiiis! HELP!' to his friend. Chris doesn't listen. I laugh and deploy down Luke, DTF, Frozen Assets, and Clash a guy with a pistol. AOOOOGA AOOOGA you can nearly hear Port Town's sirens blazing bloody murder with 8 speeders flying around. Now he's really sweating. I battle, hit a trooper, and draw a destiny of 3. He forfeits his other guy and takes 41 damage. He can't believe that it is actually happening. I mop up the rest of his force by draining and win by 20. This game ended in about 12 minutes.
Highs: seeing a great beatdown force comedown and watching him tremble... and not even having to flip my objective!
Lows: none
Score: 6(+70)
GAME 4: My Ralltir Ops vs. the same guy's Dagobah Drainer
I don't know how I ended up playing him again. He starts Dagobah, Careful Planning, Swamp and Jungle. My hand is bizarre, with me getting both my Vaders, Vader's Shuttle, 3 effects (including Battle Order, thank the Good Lord!), Twi'lek, and Coruscant (again!). Since this guy has been recently bragging to me about his cheesy strategies, I'm assuming this is Dagobah Draining, which is why I'm glad I have Battle Order. So in my first turn I activate 6 force, probably the most I've ever had with a Rallops deck. I deploy Coruscant and a site from reserve, draw 4, and end my turn. He just deploys some more sites. Now I'm activating 10 force. Yowzers! This is perfect for the setup. I deploy another site from my hand and Vader to the Swamp (just in case). Draw a few more cards. He deploys more sites to Dagobah and draws more. Gee this is strange. I activate 13 now, and deploy ATST's and characters to flip my objective. I'm on the home stretch. Within two turns he's deploying his stuff: 2 Clouds, DOS, Anakin's Saber, Encampment, Ithorians, Miners, but no ships. I get out Kashyyyk, Zuckuss in ship, Dreadnaught, Vader's Shuttle, and Battle Order. I also pulled Def. Perimeter for later use. He deploys RLiR1 to Kashyyyk with a Claw. I'm thinking, 'so what do you think THAT is going to do?' I deploy Lateral Damage on it and move the Dreadnaught to Ralltir and shuttle Vader up just in case he tries something. Besides, I have another Vader in my hand. I also deploy Blizzard Scout 1 and Lt. Arnet to Def. Perim. He drains for a little more. Next turn, I drain and he plays WE'RE DOOMED. Drat, that's gonna hurt since he has Artoo out now. Now I'm only draining for 2 a turn. I search for There'll Be Hell To Pay and grab the We're Doomed, so I now just drain him to death. Win by 9, since he still managed to pull drains averaging 4 a turn.
Highs: nothing extremely serious, but just generally out-smarting him.
Lows: playing against a 'dead' deck without my Come Here You Big Coward! Grrr.
Score: 8(+79)
So I take first place and get a couple of packs, but more than that I gained some respect. It was, after all, the first SWCCG tournament I attended at All American. Ah, and one more thing, after some observations, I made a list of what types of decks were being played. And here they are...
Light Decks--
Hidden Base: 5
Operatives: 2
Profit: 1
Mains & Toys Tatooine: 1
Dagobah Drainer: 1 (and you thought it was dead)
Dark Decks:
Ralltir Ops: 2
Hunt Down: ZERO (I'm dead serious, I saw no HD decks there)
This Deal: 1
Cloud City Other: 1
ISB: 1
Operatives: 1
Mains and Toys: 1
Court of the Vile Gangster: 2
That is approximately 5/6 of the decks from each side. Interesting meta, wouldn't you say?
Until next time,
~Norman