here-it-is-another-short-report
Title: here-it-is-another-short-report
Author: Norman "Norman" Horn
Date: Apr 23, 2000
My Light deck was my wonderful Throne Room deck (no revolutions), which I've called 'Anything Genuine,' a song by the Smalltown Poets, a Christian band that I was listening to on my way to the card shop. My Dark deck was Hunt Down with Dueling, starting The Dark Path for big destiny. I decided to entitle it after an old computer game: 'The Crusader.' So here I am, warming up for states next week. . . On to the games we go. . .
Game 1: 'Anything Genuine' vs. Austin's Old Skool and Original
Austin's deck was very old school, using many of the original bounty hunters and hardly anything enhanced. His starting location was Tatooine: Jundland Wastes, and he used Twi'lek to pull Imperial Decree. I start the normal Throne Room, Swamp, and Farm. I have Ben Kenobi, Han With Heavy Blaster, Ben's Saber, 2 Senses, Tunnel Vision, and 2 locations. I deploy Ben, the Saber, and the sites, and after deploying a Nudj from reserve end my turn. He activates and draws. My turn, I activate and play Tunnel Vision NO CHARACTERS IN MY RESERVE! Aaargh... So I pulled my own Jundland Wastes, drained, deployed my JW over his, deployed Han, drew a couple (getting the second Tunnel Vision), and ended my turn. He activates and draws. It proceeds like this for a long time: I drain for 3, he draws 3, I drain for 3, he draws 3... I had the optimum choke for a no Revo deck. Once he gets a few locations out to activate more, he plops down Boba Fett with Blaster, Tempest Scout 2, and DS-61-2 at Docking Bay 94. At this point I deploy my Boussh to DB94, so I'm still losing no force whatsoever. I finally get a Traffic Control sometime around now and I place 20 so-odd cards from my hand back into my deck. Now it gets exciting! He deploys Tusken Canyon right beside my force of characters garrisoned by Dengar and Bossk (from Dagobah!). Then he moves over his guys and ends his turn. I decide that since he has hardly anything left in his deck to try to eliminate everything. I Nabrun Han, Ben, and Masta Luke over. At this point the Mission Impossible theme starts running through my head... Ben creeps along the side of a cliff, right behind Dengar. Tap-tap- tap, 'Psst, buddy, we're battling!' Dengar: 'Huh?' Masta Luke attempts to bounce Dengar, misses, Ben slices Bossk so his skin is only good for a cultured lady's purse, Han blasts Dengar into oblivion once and for all. Boba Fett tries to come back by successfully hitting Han, but that's ok since he was forfeit = 0 anyway from Dengar! The Mentor Ben gives a gift Luke, adding 2 destiny, my destinies are now 3, 4, 4, and 5. That wipes everything clean, and after he loses a few extra force, only Ben Kenobi and Masta Luke are left standing. It is the return of the Jedi! Umm, I break Boussh's cover for 1 more drain, and he's gone within 3 turns. Full win by 36.
Highs: putting a full choke on him despite no Revos
Lows: none
Score: 2(+36)
Game 2: 'The Crusader' vs. Matt Schmaltz's Rescue the Princess
I have never played against a Rescue the Princess deck in a tournament, so this will be interesting because Matt is a good player. He starts Special Edition Leia and Insurrection. I start The Dark Path! My starting hand consists of Darth Vader With Lightsaber, 2 effects, Circle, Obsession, 2 other interrupts, and Cantina. I deploy Vader to the Death Star Docking Bay, flip my objective, and move to the Detention Block. 'Helloooooo Princess!' His turn, he draws. My turn, I draw and get Grand Moff Tarkin, Mara Jade, and another site. His turn, he deploys 8d8 to the Yavin Docking Bay and moves to the Death Star. My turn, deploy Mara and her saber to the Cantina and Tarkin to Detention Block, draw a few, and end my turn. Matt deploys Docking Bay 94 from Reserve and moves 8d8 to the Detention Block (I still haven't taken custody of Leia yet). I activate, drain at the Cantina, finally take Leia into custody, and end my turn. He still can't rescue Leia. His turn, he deploys Jeroen Webb to the Holotheatre plus some other 2/2's for back up, canceling my Visage. Oh well, I dealt him 9 so-odd damage with it. My turn, I move Vader and Tarkin to D*DB, and end my turn. Next, he tries to mass an assault by deploying Ben Kenobi, Major Bren Derlin, and Biggs Darklighter to the Cantina. He battles, I swat the Major with the Saber and draw a battle destiny of 3. He draws a zero, so I just lose 2 force. Bummer. Biggs is lost and he revives the good Major. He stays at the Cantina. I move Mara, Vader, and Tarkin to the DB94. He deploys a Ronto, General Dodonna, and some other 2/2 character then moves Ben and Bren (ooh what a rhyme) to the DB. Hahhaaaha, now I got him. I You are Beaten Dodonna out of the way, deploy First Strike, and battle. First action: Circle Obi-Wan. It's a showdown at 94!!! I use Focused Attack and Dark Path (setting up a 4, kinda low). He uses no interrupts. I draw the 4 and 2 other 3's, he draws a 3, then 4, and I cancel it with Tarkin for good measure. The music rolls, and Vader completes the Circle, Ben is gone! I can almost hear a 'NOOOOOOOOOOOO!' in the background. Ben cries out to his companions, 'Run Bren, Run!' 'Can't do it, sir, my Ronto locked up!' Hahahha. Swing, hit Bren, swing, miss some other guy. Ouch, bad destiny there. He draws a 5 for battle destiny, I draw a 2. That means he loses His other 2/2 plus Bren, and I lose Mara (I have another one in hand though). The game goes downhill for him from there. I'm draining, he's hardly doing anything. What happens last is that I deploy Iggy with Gun to battle his guys, retrieve the force with First Strike and make him lose his last card to FS too. I win by 27.
Highs: Winning a duel with Ben. Never letting him have the Princess.
Lows: None, except allowing my Visage to be canceled.
Score: 4(+63)
Game 3: 'The Crusader' vs. ?????'s X-Wing Swarm
For the life of me I can't remember this guy's name, I even played him TWICE last tournament! Oh joy, big props to this guy for playing a good game. He starts Hidden Base (of course) with Rebel Fleet, I start the regular plus Dark Path. In my hand my notable cards are Djas Puhr, Bane Malar, and Jabba's Palace. I deploy JP and then attempt to deploy the AC from reserve. It's not there. That stinks really bad. He gets to see my deck and remarks that ground does not look very promising and my destiny is astounding. Yay, thanks for the info. So I draw and get my AC, a Cantina, AND a Vader. He deploys Alderaan from reserve, then 3 X-Wings, then he replaces them with an X-Wing Assault Squadron (?) and ends his turn. Pardon my run-on sentences. And fragments. (pun intended) I deploy Vader to the Cantina, flip Hunt Down, and end my turn. He deploys a system from reserve and moves the X-Wings to it. My turn, I drain but he cancels it with Rebel Fleet. May I say now that this guy did a very good job at eliminating the threat of drains against his deck, it was a very interesting deck design. My main mistake came when deploying the Executor and Tarkin to Tatooine to battle an X-Wing Squadron and another X- wing. I left a force to battle, but not to move. On his next turn he was able to deploy a bunch more X-Wings, with Foils and Organized Attack on, to battle my measly 14 and a destiny. I was only able to take the damage by forfeiting both, which eliminated Visage. Very bad idea, Norman. This has got to be my worst mistake in the past year, I suppose the reason being I lost the game because of it. All I needed to do was be patient, and I messed it all up. At any rate. I finally bring him down to a few force, but then his retrieval starts. Major pain now, he's using Kessel Runs to bring back everything! And now I can't even draw up because his objective's flipped! So I formed a plan. What if I could use Secret Plans to take the last card, Shocking Revelation, from my reserve and lose the game! It sounded doable, so I managed to get out Secret Plans and save a Shock. I set it up just right, and pulled the Shock, losing the game. This was a really bizarre situation, I have never had to formulate a PLAN so I could LOSE a game! I still managed to bring him down to 11 force, which for his deck I bet is quite a feat.
Highs: Figuring out a way to lose.
Lows: Figuring out a way to lose. Making an idiotic mistake with my Executor.
Score: 4(52)
At this point in the tournament I had the opportunity to talk to Greg Heiser, Young Jedi World Champion, about my YJ decks. He thought they were decent, and I also had the chance to play his Mace Windu / Yoda deck. We had a good time, though I couldn't find any weapons. Yoda kicks! He won by a fairly decent margin, only about 15 as I remember.
Game 4: 'Anything Genuine' vs. Greg Heisler's Hunt Down
Yes, I finally get to play a 2000+ player! I start the normal Throne Room, Swamp, and Farm. He starts Hunt Down with Epic Duel, and Twi'lek's for Presence of the Force on the Farm. My starting hand again is awesome, I get Ben Kenobi, Obi-Wan's Saber, Nabrun Leids, Sense, Obi- Wan's Hut, Echo Command Center, Courage of a Skywalker, and Orrimaarko. And it's off to the races! My turn, I deploy a Nudj to the swamp, Obi's Hut with Ben and the Saber there, my other location, and draw 1, a Masta Luke! Hail to the man in the cloak! His turn, he deploys Vader to the Farm, flipping his objective, and ends his turn. I have him right where I want him! I activate, Nabrun Ben to the Farm, and deploy Orrimaarko (not Luke because he's the same power and the possibility of a duel still exists). Battle! Ben and Vader face off. 'When I left you I was but a learner, now I am the master.' 'Only a master of evil Darth.' Bzzpz-sss, clash, clash, zoiwip, whish whish! Vader and Ben both miss their sabers, and I draw a destiny of 5. His was a 1, I think. He loses Vader and 2 force from Orrimaarko, I revive Big-O. I activate, drain for three, plop down Masta Luke and end my turn. He activates, deploys Endor and Zuckuss in Mist Hunter, and ends his turn. My turn, I drain and deploy an Anakin's Saber plus Han with Heavy. His turn, he draws. My turn, I deploy another character and draw 2, getting another Nabrun. He deploys Mara Jade with her Saber to the Farm and attempts to duel Luke. I say fine, let's go! He plays Focused Attack, I successfully Sense it. Hahahaha. He draws a 7 and 0. Ouch. Playing Courage, I have just enough to tie him. Oh yeah, he's gone now. He moves Mara. Next turn, I drain for 3, Nabrun to the Swamp, deploy Tawss Khaa, and begin the pounding. I battle, hit Mara, play Gift of the Mentor, draw 4 destiny, make him lose 25 so-odd force, and he basically gives me the game. Win by 29.
Highs: Good game, I had good control from the beginning.
Lows: none.
Score 6(+81)
The guy I lost to in game 3 lost game 4, so with my differential I manage to place first, despite my loss. I won an Artoo foil and a few packs, and I pulled an Executor. I gave the rest of the stuff away to some newer players. It was a fun tournament, and I learned a lot. Here's the best synopsis of decks I could come up with.
Hunt Down: 4 (way up from last tournament)
Dark Operatives: 1
Ralltir Ops: 2
Gammorreans (at least that's what I heard): 1
Hidden Base: at least 4
Throne Room: 1
Rescue the Princess: 1
Mains and Toys: 2
That's the best I could come up with, hope I didn't disappoint you!
Until next time,
~Norman Horn