clarks-summit-pa-4-2-00
Title: clarks-summit-pa-4-2-00
Author: Michael "faramir" Dalton
Date: Apr 3, 2000
So next week is New Jersey states, and I've played like 6 tournaments all year, which is like way less than I used to cause there just aren't that many tournaments around. So I hear this guy Scott Lingrell is heading to Clarks Summit to play and promote some tournament or other called Ramapo Con II (May 5th-7th, Mahwah, NJ - http://orion.ramapo.edu/~slingrel/) and I decide to tag along :). Scott tells me that local player Thomas Hermeley-Keen is interested in going as well so we all plan to make the trip from various locations in Northern Jersey out to Clarks Summit to get in some playtesting before States next saturday. So Scott picks me up at some ungodly hour of the morning and we make our way up to Tom's. We've got some time to kill so Scott tests his LS deck and is beating Tom's DS deck pretty bad by the time we have to head out. The ride is pretty uneventful, much 'tech' is talked and I contemplate what DS deck to play (bringing the cards w/ me to build 3 different DS decks). We arrive a little before noon when the tournament is supposed to start, seems like things are running a little late, but no big deal. We sit mingle w/ the people there, get in some trading, see some familiar faces from our last tournament in Cedar Grove (including Frank Walsh and Joe Gagliardi). The TD Pat Ziagos shows up soon thereafter and players keep strolling in and eventually we have like 13-15 people ready to play.
I got some new decks (new for me anyway), I hadn't played either of them in a tournament yet ever, wanted to do some testing for states and have some fun (I'll let you decide which deck fits into which category). Here's what I played:
The DS was based on a deck by Tim Guzman, I modified his deck, mine has lots more multiples of good characters, I find it makes it easier to hold 1 site (which is good cause you need to hold the AC), but bad cause playing a lot of duplicates means once your characters are down, the duplicates are useless. I started Surface Defense in all my games, getting all effects unless playing against MWYHL (in which case I don't get There Is No Try).
Objective (1)
Court Of The Vile Gangster / I Shall Enjoy Watching You Die
Locations (8)
Coruscant
Death Star
Endor
Executor: Docking Bay
Jabba's Palace: Audience Chamber
Jabba's Palace: Dungeon
Kashyyyk
Tatooine: Great Pit Of Carkoon
Starships (4)
Boba Fett in Slave I
Bossk In Hounds Tooth
Jabba's Space Cruiser
Zuckuss in Mist Hunter
Characters (19)
4-LOM With Concussion Rifle x2
Bane Malar
Boelo
Chall Bekan
Cloud City Engineer
Dengar with Blaster Carbine x2
Dr. Evazan x2
IG-88 With Riot Gun x2
Jabba x2
Mara Jade, The Emperor's Hand x2
Outer Rim Scout x3
Weapons (2)
Mara Jade's Lightsaber x2
Effects (13)
Battle Order
Disarmed
First Strike
Imperial Arrest Order
Imperial Decree
Reactor Terminal
Resistance
Scum And Villainy x2
Secret Plans
Security Precautions
There Is No Try
There'll Be Hell To Pay
Interrupts (13)
Ghhhk
Imperial Barrier x2
Masterful Move
Monnok
Projective Telepathy x2
Shocking Revelation
Shut Him Up Or Shut Him Down
Sniper
Surface Defense
Twi'lek Advisor x2
The LS was a pretty standard Throne Room deck I guess, no Revos, just good characters and good destinies:
Locations (10)
Cloud City: Carbonite Chamber
Dagobah: Yoda's Hut
Endor: Chief Chirpa's Hut
Farm
Hoth: Echo Command Center (War Room)
Rendezvous Point
Swamp
Yavin 4: Massassi Headquarters
Yavin 4: Massassi Throne Room
Yavin 4: Massassi War Room
Creatures (2)
Nudj x2
Starships (3)
Millennium Falcon
Spiral
Tantive IV
Characters (16)
Boushh
Chewie With Blaster Rifle
Han With Heavy Blaster Pistol x2
Jeroen Webb
Lando With Blaster Pistol
Leia With Blaster Rifle
Luke With Lightsaber x2
Master Luke
Momaw Nadon
Obi-Wan Kenobi
Obi-Wan With Lightsaber x2
Orrimaarko
Tawss Khaa
Weapons (2)
Anakin's Lightsaber
Obi-Wan's Lightsaber
Effects (6)
Bacta Tank
Battle Plan
Mantellian Savrip
Order To Engage
Traffic Control
What're You Tryin' To Push On Us?
Interrupts (21)
Alter x2
Careful Planning
Courage Of A Skywalker
Don't Forget The Droids x2
Don't Get Cocky
Gift Of The Mentor
Glancing Blow
Nabrun Leids
Sense x4
Shocking Information x2
Sorry About The Mess
The Bith Shuffle x2
The Signal
Weapon Levitation
There you have it, onto the games...
1st game: BYE! Hrm, all this way not to play, oh well, someone had to get it. Pat and I sat down to play a game, I wanted to try out my DS deck, and he was using his Harvest deck he used to get a timed win off me at the Cedar Grove tournament. Like most of our games things were slow going, and we were barely into it by the time everyone else had finished (that'll happen when you are both retrieving like crazy). He prolly had the upper hand, but it was sort of close, I couldn't seem to find my Grabber so his Harvests were going off well, I was making an attempt to take over his Farm just when we had to stop playing. My deck wasn't doing badly though...
2nd game: DS vs. some guys MWYHL/Mains/Ships
It was pretty clear that this guy wasn't too experienced, he had just traded for some of the cards he put in his deck. He was trying to train Son of Skywalker all the way to test 5, but he wasn't doing it in the most efficient manner. Early on he was losing force to my drain in the AC w/ Jabba and Boelo as well as losing to my objective. I get Mara w/ her Saber to the Pit of Carkoon while he completes Jedi Test #1 and chases down test #2. I guess I'm playing a little too overconfident, and barely notice his large pile of force he's amassed and he drops a beatdown squad of Ben Kenobi w/ Obi's Saber, ECC Chewie and ECC Lando to beat on Mara. I'm looking a pretty hefty force loss if Mara gets hit, but thankfully he spends most of his force, and after spending 1 to battle he doesn't have 2 left, so my Projective Telepathy cancels the battle. I'm not getting much force unfortunatley and don't have enough force to drop my full beatdown squad in hand. Ben Kenobi gets Disarmed, I get out Scum, drop Dr. E, Dengar w/ Gun, 4-LoM and battle. Mara hits Chewie and he's operated on, Lando shoots Dengar, 4-LoM shoots Ben, and Dengar misses both shots. He pulls a 0 for battle destiny and he has to lose either Ben Kenobi or Lando but can't lose both. He opts to lose Ben Kenobi, I lose Dengar cause he's hit. Next turn he continues training, doesn't drop any backup for Lando, decides to leave him in front of the crew at the Pit instead of moving him into the AC w/ Jabba and friends. So my turn I drop IG-88, battle, hit Lando, get 2 destinies, he takes like 15+ overflow damage. From there on out it's just me draining while he tries to test but he doesn't realize that he can trade a card in hand for a lost jedi test so he never gets past test #3. I win by like 35 or so.
3rd game: LS vs. Thomas Hermley-Keen's Ralltiir Ops deck
So Thomas just got finished beating Scott w/ his Ralltiir Ops deck, getting revenge for the game played earlier today at his house, and is pretty pleased w/ himself (as he should be). I know Tom designed his Ralltiir Ops deck after seeing my own, it's a good deck, At-St style, very dangerous. So I go 1st, drop a 2/0 site, and draw up hoping to get some goodies. His turn he drops 2 1/1 sites, Kashyyyk and draws. I don't find a Nudj so he gets to see my deck, and I draw up saving some force. He deploys an At-St w/ a pilot on board and draws. I drop Tawss Khaa, Bacta Tank, battle, kill his pilot and Tank Tawss. I battle some more against At-St pilots and eventually I've got EPP Obi sitting at his Forest on Ralltiir when he pulls a 4th Ralltiir site out, occupies the other 3, and Vader goes to the Forest to battle Obi. I've got Savrip out by now and I cancel his Masterful Move (losing to There Is No Try). He plays First Strike and retrieves his Masterful Move by battling. Obi misses Vader, I savrip to satisfy the damage. Next turn I get Tantive 4 to Ralltiir and kill Vader w/ Obi to flip his objective back and keep him from fetching his Masterful Move (which is good cause I don't have a sense in hand). I eventually move Tantive to Death Star to drain, but down comes another Vader and 4-LoM at the Forest and they beatup Obi-Wan for some Savrip fodder. My turn I come down w/ EPP Luke, Tawss, Momaw, battle, he reacts over w/ an At-St, I play Gift for 3 destinies, hit 4-LoM before he cancels my other swing, I pull 14 in attrition and clear out the site. I've got 7 attrition though so Obi has to go. I've thinned his forces on Ralltiir somewhat. I drop down EPP Han and EPP Leia to beat up Officer Evax but they both miss their shots and I draw stinky destinies and he's forfeit 7 so not much damage there. He drops Lateral Damage on my Tantive and battles w/ the Bus but I just Savrip and run. I drop Order to Engage, track 2 5s and move Han, Leia and some fodder in front of Tempest 1 and some guys at his Jungle. He drops Mara at my Yavin War Room, Igar on Tempest 1, battles, and I pull my 2 5s to take out most of what he has there. I got my 2 5s on bottom so I drop EPP Obi to beatdown on Mara, only to find that 3rd card from the bottom was a 0 so I do no damage as Obi and Mara both die. I get Spiral out to Kashyyyk, move Tantive over there to cancel Lateral Damage and I'm draining for a bunch now as I've taken over Ralltiir and Kashyyyk. I kill Bossk in Bus and Fett in Slave 1 and that's game. Win by 11.
4th game: DS vs. Frank Walsh's Falcon deck
Hmmm... Frank stole my deck, but it's all good. He didn't see the exact deck list I don't think, just made a version of it and added some things he thought it needed. He was playing some Yoda Stew's for anti-Monnok, Scrambled Transmission starting and some Shocks. Anyway, I drop Boelo at JP:AC 1st turn and drawup w/ a Projective Telepathy in hand just in case he decides to come battle. He doesn't, and I back him up w/ Jabba, but my site gets Projectioned anyway. So he's losing to my objective and setting up to train Luke on Dagobah. I drop Chall at the Pit, get an Engineer and drop him there too to drain. He comes down w/ EPP Obi who gets barriered. I don't have much in hand, but drop IG-88 and an ORS to battle. Obi dies and so does IG-88. Next turn I drain there and get hit by a Surprise Assault for 9 (ouch), luckily I don't lose anything too important as I take half of it from reserve, only real loss was Battle Order. So he drops Capt. Han in Falcon at Kessel after playing a Tunnel Vision or 2. I drop Kashyyyk and fetch a ship from reserve and drop Fett in Slave 1 there. He Tunnels again and drops Order to Engage and moves over to Kashyyyk w/ the Falcon. I fetch a ship, drop Zuckuss in Mist Hunter and battle w/ First Strike and Scum out, I get 3, he loses 1. He plays Don't Underestimate Our Chances, then I Know to drop EPP Leia as a passenger and goes to play Punch It but I tell him to take it back as I'm going to play Projective Telepathy to cancel the battle after he plays his I Know. I run to Kessel w/ my ships. He starts to see the futility in chasing around my ships (as long as I have a Projective Telepathy in hand it's just letting me retrieve 3 and making him lose 1 and blocking 1 of my drains). So he just hangs out at Kashyyyk. I drop Jabba's Cruiser at Kiffex w/ an ORS, Mara goes to the Pit and everyone else moves to the AC so I can avoid any Surprise Assault damage. He projections my site. I get out Endor and move 1 of my ships from Kessel to there, so I've got a drain of 5 going in space (and he's ICBWing some of it) and he's losing 1 to my objective while he's hitting me for a drain of 2 each turn. I eventually decide that I need to play my Grabber and stop his ICBW and hope Secret Plans is enough to keep him from On the Edging too much. He plays 1 On the Edge, pays 4 to get back 4, but then he forgets about Secret Plans and plays his 2nd On the Edge when he has no force to spend and the retrieval is canceled. I bury his 2 On the Edges w/ a drain of 5 and his 3rd on the Edge only nets him 3 force back. My drain of 5 and 1 direct damage is taking it's toll, he decides he needs to do something and he drops Orrimaarco to the AC where Jabba, Boelo and an ORS are sitting w/ plans to run into the Dungeon for some drain or something but he gets Barriered and beatdown next turn and that's pretty much game. Win by 7 or so.
5th game: LS vs. Scott Lingrell's Anktopot version 2000.xx (high destiny hunt down)
The inevitable matchup occured, too bad we couldn't have switched sides, woulda liked to play my DS deck instead of this matchup which we had already played a few times in playtesting. So I get a pretty sick opening hand, 3 2/0 sites and a Nudj, drop 2 Nudjes and draw up losing to Visage. He started IAO and gets Exe:DB and draws up. I drop Traffic Control and draw. He drops D*:DB and EPP Vader there and flips. I drop EPP Obi at my Swamp and move the Nudj to flip him back. Next turn Momaw and EPP Leia go to the Holotheater to drain. Scott Twi'leks (I'm thinking he's looking for CHYBC) so I Sense it and succeed, but he just deploys CHYBC from hand. He also gets out the Death Star. I drop Savrip, Tantive 4 at Death Star, Master Luke w/ Anakin's Stick to Farm and move that Nudj so I got 2 battlegrounds now. He drops down to battle Luke w/ Blizzard 2 and tries to Trample him, I got to verify his deck and only saw 1 6 in his reserve so I let it go, he failed. Mara comes down to pilot and he battles me. I pull a 5, he gets his 6, I just Savrip an Obi and he loses Mara and moves Blizzard 2 over to the HQers to drain and avoid a beating. I get in a nice hefty drain but my only character is EPP Han so I can't deal w/ Blizzard 2 and can't move to block the drain w/out giving up my battleground :(, so I just draw and get some good stuff to battle Blizzard 2. So he drains me, drops Dengar w/ Gun at the Holotheater, plays Put All Sections on Leia, shoots and hits both Leia and Momaw and he losesthe battle 3 to 4 and loses 1 force while I lose both characters :(. He also picks up his Vader and cancels Savrip w/ a Masterful Move. I drop a Bith Shuffle and track it and drop Tawss Khaa to kill his Blizzard 2, I predict correct so I retrieve 1 at random and it's Obi-Wan so I got a 1 and a 5 on top of reserve afte drawing and recycling. Down comes EPP Vader at the Farm to battle Master Luke, he swings and hits. I know he has I Have You Now in hand, but we both know I have a 1 on top of reserve. I can't pass my action as he could just decline to play IHYN, let me draw my 1 and cause some decent damage. So I swing @ Vader, knowing I'll miss and he plays his IHYN. I fail at Sensing it 3 separate times, I pull a 5 for destiny, while he pulls 2 6s and a 4, 20 to 9, Luke and 11 :(. I was pretty much in control up until then, but oh how the tides have changed. So I drop Luke and Han at the Farm, move Tawss and try to occupy 2 battlegrounds so my drain of 3 at the Death Star can go through. Dengar makes his way from the Holotheater all the way over to the Death Star:DB. We're both running short on cards, I drop Orrimaarco at CC:CC and try to push my advantage but Battle Order comes down and I'm stuck paying a lot to drain. He drops Vader to CC:CC and chokes Orri. Fett in Slave 1 comes down to the Death Star but I take him out w/ a tracked 5. Vader gets picked up 1 more time and comes down to Yavin but he can't keep me from occupying my battlegrounds and I eventuallly drain him out. Win by 7.
6th game: DS vs. Joe Gagliardi's Ralltiir/Mains/Ops
Well, if you read my last report you would know that Joe is a little punk. To his credit he wasn't near as bad this tournament as he was the last (far less offensive, still offensive mind you, but...). I ignored his idiotic little mind games. He starts Ralltiir w/ Farm and no effect, I go for my usual start. I get 7 force 1st turn, search for my docking bay and don't find it (this was a recurring theme throughout the day), I drop Mara w/ her Saber at the AC hoping that she can hold it leaving the rest of my aliens to go battle on Ralltiir. I get Death Star opening hand as well as Security Precautions and I'm activating plenty. His turn he drops Obi and an Op at his Farm and loses to my objective. I drain and draw on my turn and find my Twi'lek to go get Battle Order as well as a Scum and Villany. He drains me for 2, loses to my objective and draws. I drop Zuckuss in Mist Hunter at Ralltiir, Battle Order and draw some. He pays to drain, drops EPP Han at the Farm. I'm fearing a Nabrun beatdown, so I decide a pre-emptive strike is best and I send IG-88 and Bane down to battle his guys and retrieve me some force. IG-88 shoots the Op to the used pile, Han hits Bane, my 2 destinies are weak so Han covers the attrition while I lose both. I drop a Masterful Move into my reserve to track for next turn. His turn he drops General Solo and an Op w/ Obi. My turn I activate up to my 6, drop Jabba, Dengar w/ Gun, IG-88 at his Farm. Battle, capture Obi, Dengar hits Han, my destinies aren't too good so he only loses all and 4. Next turn he drops EPP Leia, she gets Barriered, and Melas comes down w/ her. I try to Sniper Leia but fail, I forget to Disarm Leia but no bother. Down comes Chall and Boelo, battle, IG-88 hits Leia and Dengar takes custody, Dengar can't seem to hit Melas but I cancel his destiny and get 2 of my own and he owes me Melas and like 16. I'm draining for 2 at the AC, 2 at his Farm and 1 at his Ralltiir now and he's running low on force. He drops Chewbacca in my AC, he gets Barriered and an Ithorian is deployed w/ him. Mara takes care of them w/ ease. I go to drain at the Farm and try to play Projective Telepathy but he Surprise Assaults before I can and loses all his life force to the damage. Win by 31.
So I go undefeated and win which is cool. Scott takes 2nd place, Joe is knocked down to 3rd place and Tom gets 4th. There's WB Premeir and WB Dagobah for prize support, I get like 5 packs of WB and trade 1 in for an oversized MWYHL as well as 2 WB Dagobah packs. I get a $30 gift certificate for 1st, pickup a Boussh EJP pack, some Jedi Council cards and a WB Dagobah pack to round things out to an even $30. Lots of prizes, very cool, Pat Ziagos did a very good job of running things. After trading and everything was done it was about 7:30 and none of us had eaten any lunch yet so it was off to Wendy's for us. The trip home was rather uneventful besides the foul gaseous odors I kept emanating. All in all a fun day of SW:CCG, hadn't played too much of late, nice to get back in the flow of things. - Mike
P.S. some details were real fuzzy (I was pretty tired all day), so I just made up stuff where I couldn't remember, sue me.