colorado-states-april-29th
Title: colorado-states-april-29th
Author: John "Crash Beedo" Arendt
Date: May 1, 2000
Kyle Craft is the Colorado State Champion, beating Brian Hunter 2-0 (+60 or so) in the final confrontation. A detailed report on the final confrontation appears below. It had some hilarious moments.
First off, the obligatory deck section:
Light- Dagobah Mega Falcon (pretty close to Mike Dalton's Falcon deck, I've been using it on and off since December and changed some things so it would be better vs Ralltir).
Dark - Charlie Herren's AT ST Rallops - I'm too smart to pass up a good thing. I changed around some cards, worked in recycling 6's for tracking, but other than that its basically the Martin AT ST deck.
The tournament was at Collectormania in Parker, if you come to Colorado, try and attend one of their weekly tournaments. The owner (Scott Gaeta) provides phenomenal prize support for Star Wars, usually throwing in EPP singles for the top places. Joe lined up some excellent prize support for the States tournament, too.
Ok, I'll breeze over my first four games. I went 4-0, a solid workman-like performance, in the lead with Brian Hunter and Kyle Craft. The other top tier players (Matti Riecks, Van Mellancon, Tim Mcknight) had all taken some losses. Game 5 was me and Kyle.
Game 5
RallOps vs Kyle's Throne Room
Kyle got the Nudj Empire going and revo'd Ralltir. Then he revo'd my Dagobah Cave, and I pulled some generic sites just to get some force going. Obi came down to my swamp (backed up by the Savrip) and the mega Falcon went to Ralltir. Things were looking grim for Mr Crash Beedo. I had to draw about 20 cards to get force generation locations (I'm playing 12 or 13 locations -but that's how it goes sometimes) before being able to play the Death Star, Med Chamber, and Ice Plains.
Kyle was like, 'Hmmm tasty, the Death Star. Thanks for the drain 3 site'. I said, 'Don't go there Kyle, the turn you do I'm going to flip'. Ahhh, the jedi mind trick at work. So of course he moved the Falcon to the Death Star. I masterful move'd the Savrip to start a SAC war, since I had out Oppressive, and was holding grabbers and Alters. Buh bye Savrip. My turn, I dropped the 4th generic site I was holding, deployed, flipped, and beat off Obi.
Kyle came back with EPP Luke at one end of Ralltir (barriered) so he followed it up with Melas, dropped Premiere Obi on the other side of Ralltir, Order to Engage, and he sat back. Whew, glad the Savrip was gone. I Dark Maneuvered the Falcon at the end of his turn to track a 6. I think the Savrip or Ben Kenobi is the only way to keep mains on Ralltir..
Activate, deploy Kashyyk, Nozzle on board Vader's Shuttle (Admiral Ozzel is The Nozzle. Ever notice that when you need a good destiny, you flip Ozzel? When that happens, you've been Nozzled) I also dropped Battle Order, and reinforced the two locations where Obi and Luke/Melas were hanging out with additional AT STs. Trample Luke with the tracked 6, and shoved AT ST metal down Melas' throat. At the other battle site, attrition cleared off Obi. The imperials secured Ralltir.
Kyle flew the Falcon out to Kashyyyk, I deployed Bossk and battled. (Very risky, I was counting on NO Punch It). Attrition cleared both Han and Leia off the Falcon, his destiny knocked out both of my ships. He deployed Luke to pilot the Falcon, on my turn I had just enough force to deploy Boba in Slave I and knock out Luke with 7 attrition. Kyle got unlucky flipping only a 3 destiny, Fett stayed in space satisfying Battle Order and I drained him out before Uncontrollable Fury on Vader got me too low on cards to pay.
Very close game, FW +7.
Game 6
Mega Falcon vs Brian Hunter's Good Stuff Hunt Down w Epic Duel.
Brian was playing a good stuff Hunt Down - a mix of battleground sites, light space, high destiny, Elis's, Disarmed, lots of duel cards.
He got out Jabba's Palace turn one, pulled the AC and Mara with Saber. I Yoda Stewed and had enough force for Yoda, dropped a couple of Dagobah sites. Put a Projection on the AC. He paid for drains, moving Mara out to JP while I got test 1 completed. A second Projection shut down JP, too, but out came the Downtown Plaza, Vader / Tarkin, Search and Destroy. Blech. Search and Destroy is the Mega-Falon's doom card, particularly against Hunt Down where the abusive Binoculars / Alter combo can't ensure that you get rid of it. (Incidentally, Visage was gone turn one, I played 4 Transmission Terminated. When Vader came out, he deployed Visage # 2 backed up by Holonet, but I was holding 2 Transmission Terminated and got rid of it again, for good).
Meanwhile, I was draining Brian for two at Kiffex with Han and Boshek on the Falcon. Vader got Furied, Brian played YAB, and Fury was Effectively Repaired. It stuck for the rest of the game.
The telepathy was working for him: at one point he had Mara and Evazan over at the Defensive Perimeter (Elis) leaving Jabba and Boba to garrison the Palace. Before draining, he played another Elis, sending Evazan back to Tatooine. I had a few good destinies set up for a Surprise Assault on Mara and Evazan, and he got Evazan out of there before draining. Strong play, he would have lost about 6 card - 7 cards, and I never had a chance of another worthwhile Surpise Assault.
The cumulative effect of suffering to Search and Destroy for the entire game was too much for my meager retrieval. In the end, I got greedy and dropped Kessel to drain for more, and he garrisoned the Kiffex I left behind with Zuckuss / Bossk. Order to Engage was in my lost pile (mistake). So I couldn't force him to battle giving me the opportunity to Punch It and deploy Legendary Starfighter, but he did satisfy Battle Plan making his drains easier. I battled at Kiffex late in the game, and two 6's came up for him (stacked with Reactor Terminal) clearing the Falcon. Even the Captain re-draw game him another 6. That was game, and Brian was able to put his hand back with the Terminal for a beefy win.
Big bummer - not being able to get R2D2 / We're Doomed rolling.
FL -18 or so (Youch).
Kyle went on to pound his game 6 opponent, so he beat me out on differential and played Brian ( who went 6-0 on the day, nice job Brian) in the final confrontation.
Final Confrontation:
Game 1-
Ok, I walked over late to see game one after playing an entertaining pick-up game with Mark Ponting (his Falcon deck vs Ralltir). Yep, I'm convinced the Falcon deck has big problems against Search and Destroy. Anyway, the buzz through the room was that Kyle sandwhirled Ben Kenobi and some other characters at the Ralltir desert. By the time I made it over there, the game was in the mop-up stage, with Ralltir firmly under control and Kyle pounding random.guys that Brian threw out.
Game 2
This game was fast. Kyle got the Nudj start on Yavin. After a few turns, Brian dropped Bubo and ate the two Nudjs. Kyle loudly declared that the Rebels would make Bubo pay for his crimes against the Nudj Empire. That was the line of the day for me. So out came EPP Obi to the Farm, and he carved up Bubo. Next turn, Brian deployed EPP Vader and Tarkin to Obi's site and started a battle. Circle, Epic. Everyone watching got very quiet, as we knew Kyle would be down 3 destinies to 1 once Brian played Focused.
Kyle flipped a 5 (cancelled), Brian flipped a 1. Kyle flipped a 4, Brian flipped a second 1. Ouch. Brian flipped his third destiny (a 5) and Kyle pulled out a Glancing Blow. Kyle had just flipped Glancing Blow for weapon destiny on the previous turn, so the fact that he was playing two really surprised Brian.
There was this ominous silence in the room. Brian looked at Glancing Blow, looked at the destinies, looked at Vader, looked at Obi, etc etc. After a few minutes of gawking, he reluctantly put Vader out of play so Obi and Tarkin could get on to business (it was a battle after all). Back luck, his deck had pretty high average destiny. Ahhh, the double edged sword of Epic Duel at work. Tarkin got severely abused, but Brian had a ghhhhk.
The game was pretty much over. The coup de grace came when Mara tried to Epic Duel Luke a few turns later and Courage of a Skywalker gave Luke the nod. Rough day for the Sith.
Full Win + 40!
So that was it. Kyle won the final confrontation convincingly. It'll be very interesting to see if the ratings update slides Kyle into the number one spot. Overall it was a great tournament. The Colorado scene is growing, and we have a lot of competitive players here. Sportsmanship at the tournament was high.
Hey, now that States and Slams are done with for a while (I can't make it to Vegas) I'll get back to updating the rules' questions. That'll be good. Alright, thanks for reading-
john
B-16
aka Crash Beedo