pentecon-xi-april-16th-in-ithaca-ny
Title: pentecon-xi-april-16th-in-ithaca-ny
Author: Doug "Phrim" Faust
Date: Apr 15, 2000
Anyway, the tournament was at the local Gaming Club's annual convention, Pentecon XI. The deal was this: I ran a Sealed Deck in the morning, then Spencer ran a Constructed Deck in the afternoon. I was happy, got 8 for the Sealed Deck, Vincent Gu went undefeated and won, he just dominated space the entire tournament. Anyway, time for the Constructed Deck tournament rolls around, and we've got me, the Terwilligers from Albany, a couple guys from out of town, some guys that had come to play Star Trek, but decided to play Wars instead, and of course the local crew. 11 people total. So the pairings begin...
Game 1: My Light vs. Brian Terwilliger's (2123) Hunt Down & Beat Down
Isn't it just a lovely feeling getting paired against #4 in the World in your first game in a tournament. Anyway, my Light deck isn't that great, so I'm thinking he's going to win, but I just play my game, of course. He starts Broken Concentration against me, which isn't that much of a problem, just means I gotta get my At Peace out. First turn, he gets out some Cloud City site, and drops Vader and his Saber there first turn, so right from the beginning I'm losing Force to Visage and he's not. I can't find either of my 2 Transmission Terminateds right away (I considered using 3, but didn't have the room), so I get Yoda and Luke out there, ready to test. But he's draining me for 2 at that Cloud City site, and I'm losings lots of Force to Visage, so I don't really have that many cards in my hand. I eventually take a damage off the top, and oops, there goes Great Warrior. So, it's an inconvenience, if I did pass my test, it might've saved me a few Force in the end, but it's not vital against Hunt Down. Anyway, he gets out the Endor: Back Door, and puts Mara with her Saber there. I'm fearing Search And Destroy, but it doesn't come. I eventually find one of my Transmission Terminateds and cancel Visage. I find my Maneuvering Flaps with a Signal, and get it out, so he starts to buff up his sites, with Tarkin and some other stuff with Vader (I think there was Ozzel and a Walker), and Fett, Jabba, and some other stuff at the Back Door. I turn on my Flaps and deploy my entire hand at the Back Door, like 9 Speeders and Harc Seff on one of them, it's like 40-some power. I decided to attack there instead of Vader because there's a drain of 3 there, and if I kill Vader Hunt Down would flip back, but I know he's got more Vaders. Anyway, I battle, he gets 2 destiny with EPP Fett and Jabba, and draws a 3 and a 1. A draw a Transmission Terminated for 5, so I clear out the site and make him lose like 11 on top of that. A nice beatdown, but he's still got way more Force than me, because I haven't been hurting him all game. Anyway, I have no hand and no Force left because I used every single Force in that battle, so Transmission is still on the top, and I have to lose that to his drains. He's happy, and deploys another Visage. I get out the Jabba's Palace: Entrance Cavern and drop some Speeders I drew there, but he deploys EJP Dengar and someone else there, and we wipe each other out. I eventually activate all my Force and Tunnel for my Uncontrollable Fury and deploy it, which he doesn't like because he lost his YAB to the battle damage. He gets out Kashyyyk with a bounty hunter ship, but with Visage, he's draining for more than me and has Force than me to begin with, so I lose.
FL-16, 0(-16)
So, Brian beat me quick enough that there's like 30 minutes left in the round. I run out to go pick up some food, as I hadn't yet ate anything that day, and I come back and they're already starting the next game, so I can't eat yet.
Game 2: My Dark vs. Martin Terwilliger's (1812) Throne Room Odds
One would think after getting beat by Brian by 16, I'd get to play some random guy instead of Marty, but Marty just got beat by Chris Terwilliger, so it's all good. Anyway, he starts Throne Room, I'm pretty sure he's not playing Revo, so I don't need to start Crush. I think he's probably playing Throne Room Mains, but I know Brian has played Throne Room Odds in the past, so it's in the back of my mind. Anyway, I start off the game, and I'm having some trouble finding Vader, and eventually I decide the chances he's playing Odds are thin, and I lose a Torture to Visage, that same turn, he loses 8D8 off his reserve deck, so I'm like DOH! Anyway, for now, he's not doing a whole lot, and I deploy DVDLOTS at my Cloud City Docking Bay. He tries to deploy Projection there, but's it's not a planet site, so he can't. He eventually draws a Grimtaash, and asks me every turn how many cards I have in my hand, and every turn, I'm like, 12 (no way I'm gonna draw more than 12 if he's gonna ask every turn). However, he has too many cards in his hand, so I Monnok Used him. I get out Vader's Saber and Mara and her Saber at the CC Docking Bay, so now I'm draining for 3 a turn, not counting Visage. He deploys R2-D2 at an Executor site, and deploys the Holotable, but he doesn't deploy Projection there right away. I guess he's waiting for me to start draining at a planet site or something, but I never do, so he eventually deploys Projection at the Holotable. At this point, he's really been drawing a lot of cards, for some reason, so I figure all those Never Tell Me The Odds he's using must be accumulating in his hand, so I Lost Monnok and am right, and get 3 of them. A big relief for me, because I know what kinds of bad things that kind of deck can do to my Tortures, and I only have 2 left in the deck. So he's left with not much of an angle left, and deploys BG-J38 at some Yavin site. I continue doing my thing, and he wants to flip my Hunt Down back, so he deploys EPP Luke at some Yavin site and moves the Nudj over. We both take Visage for a turn, and then he inserts. I really don't need to activate any at this point, as I'm going to win the way things are going, but I want my differential too. So I've got Torture in my hand, so I'm not that concerned with the odds, but would rather it not come up so he can deploy another. I have Blizzard 2 and EJP Dengar in my hand, and 11 Force active, so I activate 1 Force, deploy both of them where Luke is, and battle. Dengar hits Luke, Luke slices Dengar, he takes some battle damage, and everything dies. So, Hunt Down flips again, and now he's hurting. I don't bother activating (he lost Battle Plans off his reserve deck, in case you're wondering) and just drain for 3 and do Visage damage for the rest of the game, and I eventually win.
FW+21, 2(+5)
Well, we were the last ones finished, and the next pairings start right away, so my food continues to get cold. Oh, well.
Game 3: My Dark vs. Joshua Personius's (unrated) Attack Run
He starts Yavin 4: War Room and uses Careful Planning to get the Yavin 4: Docking Bay, aiming to do Death Star Plans without Rescue The Princess, I guess. I don't have enough Force to deploy Vader yet, so I don't do anything my first turn, he gets out the Yavin 4: Briefing Room and puts a Rebel Tech in the War Room. I drop EPP Vader down at the Yavin 4: Docking Bay and flip my objective, he just draws. I don't want to march Vader into the War Room, I'd like him to stay at a battleground, so I deploy ECC Iggy at the Docking Bay, and walk into the War Room, he runs to the Briefing Room. Meanwhile, he gets out the Death Star Docking Bay to do his Death Star Plans thing, and I'm looking for docking bays with Imperial Arrest Order to get zero's out of my deck, and we end up with 5 docking bays on the table. :-) Anyway, he drops Obi-Wan at the Death Star DB. I replace EPP Vader with DVDLOTS and deploy his Lightsaber on him, and transit over to the Death Star. He deploys Colonel Feyn Gospic to the Yavin Docking Bay and transits Obi back there. I deploy Mara and her Lightsaber at the Yavin Docking Bay, YAB Obi, and beat down on the Colonel, though less severely than I intended, as my destiny wasn't the greatest. I transit Vader back to Yavin to block the drain, and I move Mara to the War Room and Iggy to the Briefing Room, trapping the lone Rebel Tech. He deploys another copy of Feyn Gospic to the briefing room, along with some random SE pilot. I look at it and figure that if I capture Gospic, he won't get a battle destiny, so I try, draw a 2, and miss. I draw a 4 for battle destiny and kill someone, but he draws battle destiny and kills Iggy. Anyway, Obi is free to move now, and goes back to the Death Star. Mara is having happy fun draining for 3 at the War Room, and Vader follows Obi to the Death Star. His destiny isn't looking that good, so I figure once I draw a Focused Attack, I'll duel Obi. He foils that plan, as he drops some random schmoe at the Death Star with Obi, and battles Obi. The key here was that he plays Weapon Levitation, and deprives me of my Lightsaber. I masterfully fail to choke his schmoe, so Obi kills Vader and takes home his Lightsaber as a souvenir. Anyway, I try to kill Obi with an EPP Vader, but then I realize that I can't even deploy EPP Vader, because Vader's Lightsaber is on the table! So I have to draw and find another DLOTS, which I eventually do. Obi has gone back to Yavin, but doesn't get in Mara's way. He also deploys Master Luke to reinforce that site. So I'm thinking I will battle, play I Have You Now to add to destiny, then duel Luke and cross him to the Dark Side. But then I realize I don't have enough destiny to do that, so I just settle for dueling Luke. I actually found a Focused Attack, and that Visage that I drew for the third destiny really decided it. :-) So Luke crosses and he loses a bunch of Force. At this point he says that he's not really doing any damage to me other than my own Visage anyway, so he battles. I win the battle obviously, and soon drain him out.
FW+22, 4(+27)
Game 4: -BYE-
You'd think that after winning my last two games by 20+ differential each, I wouldn't get the bye. You'd really think that. But I was due to play Light next, as were both Brian and Chris Terwilliger, who were above me. And all 3 of the people below me on my side had already been given byes, so I was stuck with it. But it's cool, I'm a director and realize how those things work, and besides, now I get to eat my now cold lunch (which is now dinner). Yummy.
6(+27)
Anyway, I finish in 3rd behind the Terwilliger brothers, both of whom went undefeated. Brian had way more differential than Chris did, so he got the win. Overall, I was fairly pleased with my performance, going 2-1 with my only loss against #4 in the world. I still need to find a good Light deck though, especially if I want half a chance playing at RamapoCon in early May. This tournament will finally put me over 1800 for the first time, which is always nice. Anyway, next tournament for me will probably be RamapoCon, which will be *huge*, so look for a report from me there. Until next time...
--
Doug Faust
dlf14@cornell.edu
SM Rogue 40, based in Ithaca, NY