nashville-tn-4-8-2000
Title: nashville-tn-4-8-2000
Author: Jonathan "jonnychu" Chu
Date: Apr 10, 2000
On Thursday I'm sitting here at Vanderbilt thinking up good decks. What I have is a pile of cards that resemble a Hunt Down deck but it sucks - it must be like 1-5 in the last five months. My light is a Yavin 4 mains deck that has always been solid because it came straight out of Albany where they know how to play it. Well I decide I need a new dark deck for sure so I throw together this sweet EV9D9 deck that has gotten mediocre reviews because a lot of people on here are dumb. But I guess I can't talk because my tech rating is only 1540... haha I'm a big scrub.
I get picked up by Jim Sells to go playtest some decks at Outer Limits. We meet Steve Lewis and we're playing... well the EV9D9 deck does well but who's gonna take that trash to a tournament? So after a day of playing I don't have a dark deck. Well since everyone seems to think ROPs is solid I figure not everyone can be retarded so I throw together a deck similar to one I went 3-0 with at the Philly slam and am good to go for states.
STATES
Well me and Jim show up an hour early to get sigs from Peter Mayhew (chewie) and the old guy that played Owen Lars, but they're charging $10 a sig so screw that. We write up decklists and being the clever bastard that I am, I name my ROPs 'Hunt down dueling' and my Y4 'Yavin 4 mains' to throw off people who ask me what my decks are without lying. Well the tourney starts a little late but it's run well so there are no complaints here.
Game 1: My LS vs some guy's Hunt Down dueling.
My LS deck is wicked teched out... you can piece it together from reading the report if you're a champ. I start Y4 stuff and pull a nudj and drop a 2/0. We both lose to Visage and he hucks a Torture. During his turn he drops some sites and hucks another Torture to Visage. I activate and draw and Transmission. He puts out a Vader and some guys at a site but I don't really care. My turn I put out some droids and insert, and he looks at his lost pile in fear. That's right dude... your Tortures are in there. I get rid of his third Torture so now he's sitting there helpless, paying 4 to drain for 3 and getting hit for like 10 each time it pops. The game was kept close because of his drain but that's also what killed him. Eventually I drop EPP Luke and Leia and he Elis's over to lose a duel.
2 (+18)
Game 2: My DS vs some guy (i'm not good with names)'s Profit.
This was a pretty straightforward game... I was impressed by Profit by the day's end. It can get set up pretty fast. Anyways he flips like first turn but I set up quick on my planet so soon I'm just losing 1 to Profit gametext. I'm draining away like a happy fool on Ralltiir and set up at Kashyyyk for more. I win a few small battles against guys he drops at some sites and he never really gets anything going, but I lost to Profit damage the entire game. It ended when I tied down his We're Doomed.
4 (+32)
Game 3: My DS vs Steven Turner's LS
Well this was one of the best games I've ever played. He's sporting standard Yavin 4 mains which can give ROPs a good game - it's probably the straight up best matchup against ROps. First turn he can't find a nudj so I get the opportunity to look through his deck... thanks. He puts out Obi to my planet and Tantive IV with some guys at my planet with Bacta Tank as support. He's not activating all that much for a Yavin 4 deck and I get out three 2/0's over the course of like 6 turns. The game is going pretty slowly and I'm setting up just as slow but he keeps whittling my guys down and losing his guys to the Tank. I can't do anything about it. My lost pile is piling up and I figure the game is lost. But I guess he runs out of guys and I'm still setting up so there are like 10 minutes left. I have a guy in a walker on three sites: <docking bay><jungle><desert> and he has Obi at my forest which is next to my desert. He still has the Tantive at the system and now boussh at my Death Star war room with broken cover draining me for a bunch. Well I put out Bossk in bus at the planet and Vader EPP at my forest, which flips the objective. I get lucky with destinies and slice Obiwan, and draw like an 8 for destiny because ROPs is huge. Vader lives because of immunity and suddenly the planet is clear - the only guy left is a Luke EPP sitting underneath a pile of whirling sand. That's right. Well during his turn which goes pretty slowly he pays to drain since battle plan is out and puts out some more guys on the Tantive and battles my Bossk. Well I draw like an 8 for destiny again and he draws a 0. So bossk lives and some guys die. He's getting a little nervous but there's not much time left and he has much more stuff in his stack. My turn, I fish out Zuckuss in and wreck whatever is left floating around Ralltiir. So now he has some guys at the War Room and nothing else on the table on his side. But there is a little under three minutes left. He takes his time and puts some guys out at my Executor Med Chamber but who cares since that's a flimsy drain of 1 he has to pay for. My turn, I fish out Kasshyyk like a speed demon and move my ships over to cover Battle Plan. So he drains some crap out of my hand and I drain him for an uncontested six during my turn, fish out Search and Destroy and deploy Mara to obiwan's hut. He's looking at losing 11 cards a turn potentially and not being able to do much about it... but there's the time factor and he uses it up pretty well. Time is called and I lose by 18. (please read Jim Sells article on using time as a strategy)
4 (+14)
Well I'm pretty mad because I had the game wrapped up but it slipped away. Anyways
Game 4: LS vs Jim Sells' ROPs.
I got beat pretty bad at the Detroit slam with the same matchup but Jim stuck some goofy stuff in his deck, and he also thought I was playing Yavin 4 mains so he didn't start the right stuff against my deck. I drop a 2/0 and nudj and all that good stuff and basically draw the best hand possible. A few turns later I have my defense set up and destinies tracking - we both have 20 cards or so in our hands and we know the other doesn't play grimnok so it's all good. Well I go and drop some droids and insert. Being the clever guy he is, Jim sticks it as the 2nd card but I cut one down and he has to reshuffle. I guess he does it again but I cut the deck deeper than he thinks so when he activates it all it pops and he loses 10. That sets him off but it's all good. He drops Resistance (haha) flips Ralltiir that turn but no walkers. My turn, I insert, drop EPP luke and obi at his swamp, battle plan, draw their fire, battle, swing at both his 2/2 guys there and hit them, draw like 12 for destiny with a gift of the mentor. I lose my Obiwan and he loses his cards and the insert pops again so he has to lose like 8 more because he no longer occupies three sites. He's really mad now. He puts out some guys and kills off my Luke but I take them both out with me. During my turn I re-insert and drop EPP Luke at the forest where all he has is a lone Vader, with his lightsaber. I battle, hit him, play The force is strong with this one and draw some trash, but he has to lose vader and cards. He's mad and picks up.
6 (+50)
Game 5: My ROPs vs Jason Hasis' profit madness.
Jason is cool and it was great meeting/playing him. I start getting set up and on his first turn he puts out Ben Kenobi, saber, and flips. So I start losing 3 early. I set up pretty quick and get established but by now he has Master Luke with saber at JP so I'm losing four cards to drains and profit. I am answering with a drain of 3 on my planet but it's weak and I have deployed much more. He puts out some ships and we mess around in space but eventually he sticks all his ships at Tatooine to consolidate his Celebration. Ability^3 hurts him for a little bit and I wreck Master Luke with Tempest 1, igar and Blizzard 2 but it's not enough too late in the game and he pulls out a 3 card victory. Great game though.
6 (+47)
Right now Blinky is in first by a margin, being the only player to have five full wins - he had wrecked the Gamemaster himself by 31 cards the last game. Turner has to play him with his ROPs and we are hoping Turner does well so the Tenn champ isn't a kid named Blinky (no offense to Blinky).
Game 6: My LS vs the guy I played game two's Tatooine mains dark deck
Well his first turn he puts out Mara with saber at my swamp and I lose to that drain the entire game. I have a slow start but eventually set up my droids and insert and he loses Resistance off the top so he's losing the full value all game. He puts out some guys but every guy except Mara he puts out I wreck with an EPP and he has to lose cards sometimes so I keep up with the drain he's paying 4 for. He snipers one of my droids and that sets me back a bit. Well eventually I just out insert and battle/drain him. Tight game for this deck though.
8 (+55)
Me and Hays are done pretty early so we watch Turner's game against Blinky. When we get over there Turner is looking in a bad way - Blinky is activating like crazy, has guys running all over Ralltiir and has the planet revolved so Turner can't deploy there. Worse off is no docking bay on the table so he can't even drop a ship and move up to flip the objective. We go somewhere else to hang for a bit and when we come back like 20 minutes later Turner has the game turned around and looks like he might even have an advantage. Time is running low and BLinky is looking in a pinch but he draws Kessel and has Lando in falc out. With that advantage Blinky would definitely have pulled it out but I think Turner realized all he needed was a timed win so he took his time and got it.
So the final results are in other people's reports. It was a fun tourney and I hope you enjoyed this report.