massachusetts-states-boxboro-4-29-00
Title: massachusetts-states-boxboro-4-29-00
Author: Michael "rayc" Hawley
Date: May 1, 2000
A Hunt Down/no dueling variant for the Darks side - Lot's of activation, anti-Y4 Throne Room and anti-cheese.
A Tosche Mains and Toys lightside - look at my Power Converters deck and you will get the general idea.
Game 1 - Turn and face the strain --- chchch...changes (last minute deck changes, that is)
My Light Side vs. Chris Beaulieu (1624) Tatooine musicians deck
He started Jabba's Palace + Expand the Empire and, kicking myself under the table for taking the Tatooine: Jabba's Palace out of my deck the night before, I started Obi's Hut and Careful Planning for Tosche station. Well somehow I got it into my head that this was going to be a manipulator. Even when I saw Jabba and a couple musicians go down to the audience chamber, it still didn't register that this was a musician deck. So I sent Han and Leia to the Audience chamber. He played None Shall Pass on Leia. My Sense failed (in more than one way, obviously). I still had some force so I sent down Tawss Khaa. Battle. Managed to kill the musicians but not the Hutt. He drew a location for destiny so my characters stayed. On his turn he deploys the mega-beatdown cheap deploy musician squad -- including the character who moves a character away . He moved Tawss Khaa. So it was Han against eleventeen musicians. Han killed someone with his gun and died. I lost Han plus 20 force. He got Gallid down to the Audience Chamber and the rest of the game was a drain race. He played very smart and maintained his advantage for the rest of the game. Full Loss -17.
0 (-17)
Game 2 - I'll take those aliens scrambled
My Dark Side against Michael Rodriguez(1432) Profit with Aliens
Well this was an amazing game. I figured (no offence to Michael R.) that this would be a fairly easy game. I played him a couple tournaments ago and had no problems. However, because of my loss in the first game, I was determined to make no mistakes. I knew that I could not afford it. Well this was a sqeaker. He was playing aliens. He started with Jedi Pack Han as the Frozen Captive. I put Jabba the Hutt and Ephant Mon at the Auduence Chamber to start. For a while it went on with him losing force to Visage. Eventually he deployed the Cloud City:2/2 location with Orimarco an 2 Eloms. I went in with Mara, ECC IG-88 and ECC 4 LOM. I captured Orimarco and cancelled the game text of an Elom. This cleared the site of his guys and left IG-88 and Mara. He played Uh Oh and Bo Shuda and Order to Engage. He had a couple Transmission Terminated for Visage - good thing I had 3 Visages. He played Scramble, and since I had Vader down and he did not deploy Obi or Luke, I could never get it off the table. We battled back and forth over the Cloud City site. IG-88's game text was crucial. When I deployed Boba with Blaster and a second Mara (he had taken out Mara in a counter attack), I was able to draw destiny despite Scramble because of IG being with Boba. It came down to him losing 6 fprce per turn (2 for the Cloud City site drain, 1 for Jabba's Palace, and 2 for Visage -- 1 on his turn and 1 on mine) and me losing 3 for Order To Engage. He deployed Uncontrollable Fury but I was able to keep his 4 ability characters off the table. So that never hurt me even though I could not draw my You are Beatens. Because of Scramble, I really needed to make sure I topdecked 6s and 7s for weapon destiny. This was the most fun, challenging and intense game I played all day. Full win +15
2(-2)
Game 3 - I never listen to rumors
My Light Side vs Steve Anderson (1649) Ominous Rumors
He started the Endor objective with Endor, Bunker, and Landing Platform. He used the signal to get Perimeter Patrol. I did the usual Obi's Hut/Careful Planning/Toschi Station start. He quickly got a couple of ability 2 imperials down at the Bunker and got Ominous Rumors deployed. I got Orimarco down to the station for activation. I drew Spiral and Gold Leader in Gold 1 in my opening hand. He deployed Kashyyyk and one of the Obsidian Leader cards. By this time I was activating quite a bit so I deployed the GL in G1. He played Dark Manuevers which I grabbed and Sensed. He then played a Tallon Roll. Sense. Another Tallon Roll. Another Sense. Another Tallon Roll -- this one goes and I lose the destiny draw. So I deploy Spiral with Luke Piloting and get rid of the Tie + some force. The rest of the game we battle over Kashyyyk with me also maintaining a small ground drain on Tatooine. I never had to go to Endor. Full Win + 25.
4 (+23)
Game 4 - Big Coward, has cheese - will travel but will not come here.
My Dark Side vs Joe Sottile (1584) HB no flip Y-Wings/Odds/Retrieval
Ahh bring on the cheese. He started Hidden Base and signals for Yarna. I started Huntdown and T'wileked for Crush. The very first card I drew was a Torure. The second Card was a T'wilek. First turn I deck dive for an Evader and see that Come Here You Big Coward is in there. I use my Twilek to get it and deploy it immediately. Within 2 turns I have Vader set up with a presence of the force at the Ice Plains. He inserted an Anger Fear and a Never Tell Me the Odds and Moves a few Y-wings with Artoo, Figgie, and another Bith guy to Clackd'or. I stop activating. He deploys Raltiir (Japanese -Rant: those cards should be banned from tournament play. If you don't already know the gametext it can be a pain in the neck) and the Effect that lets you retreive a y-wing every turn. Problem is he can't retrieve because he doesn't have 2 battle grounds and I'm not giving him one. I drain/Visage him out slowly. Did not get my Reactor Terminal out so I had a moderately large hand. Full Win +26.
6 (+49)
Game 5 - Less of a coward, has more cheese - will come here.
My Dark Side vs Louie Gagne (1619) HB with flip B-Wings/Odds
This tournament has so much cheese you could make a pizza restaurant. He started Hidden Base and signals for Yarna. I started Huntdown and T'wileked for Crush. Again a Torure and a T'wilek in my opening hand. I had 3 starships as well. So I set up Vader with a Presence of the Force on Coruscant: Imperial Square to flip the objective. I grab his All Wings Report In when he played it. Because he had battle grounds to drain at, this game was closer. I waited until he had deployed a good sized fleet and Flipped before I deployed any ships. I probed successfully the first turn after the flip and we had several interesting space battles. He was using destiny 4 droids to play odds and Recoil In Fear to make me draw from my reserve deck. Each time, however, I pulled a torture and the Odds never came up. He was using Eject Eject so I only got one good battle in with Dengar in Punishing One. But one was enough. That card rocks against swarms! Excellent game. Full Win +17.
8 (+66)
Game 6 - Where oh where has my Obi-wan gone?
My Light Side vs Brian (ReeYees) Partridge (1683) Huntdown with Epic Duel but no Dueling
He started Huntdown with Epic Duel and I forget the Starting effect. I started Obi's Hut/Careful Planning/Toschi Station. I got a very bad draw -- no characters but I picked up a couple of locations in my first activation. He deployed the Jundland Wastes between Toschi Station and Obi's Hut and quickly got Vader down to the Station on turn 2 or 3. He also deployed a 2/1 Endor force drain location. I put EPP Luke at the Endor site on turn 4 or so and Mara came to play. The battle was a draw and the site was cleared. We went back and forth over this location with me establishing dominance and scoring one moderately good beatdown (Clear the site +9 or so force). He did not appear to be playing much space so I deployed Kessel and put Wedge and the Spiral there to drain for 3. He deployed the Holotable and put Image of The Dark Lord there to Drain for the rest of the game. I managed to Nabrun a squad into the Executor: Holotheater to cancel Visage so the drain advantage went to me. This was a fun game with many battles. In the end, when he spread out to drain more, I was able to block his drains while he could not block mine. Full Win +13.
10 +(79)
Tournament Results
1st Hayes Hunter 12(+???)
2nd Eric (Bounty22) Hunter 10(+88)
3rd Michael (rayc) Hawley 10(+79)
I'm sorry I did not get the rest of the Standings. There was a final 1 game playoff between the Hunter brothers. Eric won it. So he is the State Champ.
Observations:
Come Here You Big Coward, Torture, Grabbers!!! Cheese lives (and dies)!
In the 'Best laid plans' department: I tweaked my light side deck the night before taking out Tatooine: Jabba's Palace and putting in another Obi for a total of 5. I figured that any Tatooine alien deck would start COTVG and thus I would not need to convert Jabba's Palace. I also figured that the 5th Obi-Wan would assure me of getting him or Luke (3 copies) early, maybe in my opening hand, so that I could get a quick grip on Toschi Station. Well, I never got either Luke or Obi in an opening hand. I never saw Obi before the 5th or 6th turn (other than in a destiny draw -- but it was for a Sense :-) . If I had hung on to the Audience Chamber , I might have won Game 1 and the whole tournament is different.
Anyway, when the big tournaments come, you have to be prepared for cheese .
Props:
To Michael Rodriguez for a great game.
To all my other opponents. The games were fun and, for the most part, well played.
To Kris Earle for running the show
To Michael Sheimer for winning the door prize (a Nintendo 64)
To My Family for being patient with me while I prepared for this thing
Slops:
To whoever was screwing around over the intercome during the last game.
Thanks for reading,
rayc