salt-lake-city-utah-5-3-200
Title: salt-lake-city-utah-5-3-200
Author: Matthew "MattJ" Jensen
Date: May 4, 2000
With my relative let down of only going 3-3 at the Utah State tourney, I had decided to take a little breather from the game and get a fresh look. This breather only lasted 10 days or so when I hear that Zach 'Yodamuppet' Marshall would be holding his first tournament as a TD at Mind Games on May 3rd. Zach is a great guy and I'm making it a point to support good SWCCG guys, especially when they might engender more frequent tournaments in the Salt Lake area! Especially when he was promising great prize support but we'll get to that later.
For States I had taken my RalOps AT-ST and Hidden Base M&T OMDH deck. For this tournament I wanted a change of pace from my usual RalOps and I would not take the Hidden Base do to its record at States (1-2). I decided to go with this fun Endor Ops Biker Numbers deck for DS and a Throne Room Mains deck for LS. The LS deck had no Revolutions and was set to play on Cloud City with multiples of both On and Off The Edge cards for retrieval. Unfortunately, no Pucimer Thryss was available to be thrown in. The DS looked to be a fun deck. The LS I threw together the night before with no playtesting but seemed competitive at least.
They start to announce pairings when 2 more people walk into the door. We allow them to get signed in and then the new pairings are set. We start with 11 people but another late person makes it 12 by the end of the first game.
Game 1 - DS vs. Nathan Barrett's MWYHL/M&T beats start.
Nathan was a good guy to chat with. He's a casual player and was playing with another person's decks for this tournament. I set up Endor Ops with Perimeter Patrol and a first turn Biker Scout to the Bunker to make sure he doesn't invade Endor without paying. I also insert a Numbers in his deck and figure that I can get a couple more bikers out, if not Raithal in a few turns. Nathan's pretty hesitant on what to do with this deck and only deploys a couple locations while amassing a huge amount of force. I get Raithal out on second turn and deploy Ominous Rumors, Blizzard Scout 1 at Forest Clearing and a Dreadnaught with Biker Scout and Bike aboard for forfeit fodder at Raithal. Nathan was scared away from Endor and set up EPP Obi and EPP Luke at Cloud City for a drain. The insert isn't coming up fast enough and I pull IAO to prevent a Nabrum beatdown. He deploys the Falcon and Harc Seff on Raithal to counter my drain. Of course the insert decides to pop then with him cancelling my Raithal bonus. He still loses 5 to the insert. He doesn't battle that turn and I ignore it as well on my turn waiting for another ship or pilot to give me a destiny. My drains at Endor. He throws down EPP Han to the Falcon and initiates a battle. I lose the Biker and his Bike for attrition. My turn I Lateral Damage the Falcon and deploy a Death Squadron Star Destroyer with Biker Scout and battle. Both of his pilots are cleared and I have to lose the Dreadnaught for 3 attrition. After that his turn he deploys Melas to the Falcon and starts to draw up. I tell him I'd let him move the Falcon away to avoid another beatdown if he wanted to. He does so but then misses the destiny to get rid of Lat. Damage. I deploy another DSSD to Kiffex and drain him down. He tries once more to get rid of Lat. Damage but misses again. After that I drain him out for 10 a turn. Full Win by 27.
Results: 2 (+27)
The Good: Endor Ops seems to be a very nice diversion from RalOps! Worked like a charm even though insert damage should have been more.
The Bad: Not searching for Ominous Rumors or Establish Secret Base for the first 3 turns. DOH! Deploying the Speeder Bike on the Dreadnought, didn't realize there isn't capacity for vehicles till after it was gone!
Nathan's funny because he goes after to Zach and starts telling him how he should have played his own decks! Zach's trying to assure him that this deck was much better. I'm sure it was, but he was not familiar enough with it to make it work effectively. Always trust your own feelings and decks, even though they might not be world caliber!
Game 2 - LS vs. Ben Clark's Big Blue Space with Coruscant start deck.
Ben's a great kid and is the Padawan of the local Squadron Member. I gave him a ride to the tournament. He's a nasty Young Jedi player but still developing as a Star Wars player. He starts out with Coruscant and no starting interrupt. I'm like OK. I deploy TR start and he kind of shrinks back in his chair. He's fully expecting to activate only 1 force each turn once I get the Revos going. Lucky for him I don't have any. I'm able to pull out several Cloud City sites and Battle Plan during my first turn. He's conserving force and getting out a few sites to get him going as well. Cloud City sets up for me fairly quickly but I'm having to pay for each of my drains there. He finally get enough force out to deploy the Avenger with Captain Piett down at Hoth, and then deploys DS-61-2 and another Imperial Ability 2 scrub down to battle a lone 'Lock' Navander and I Path of Least Resistance EPP Han w/ Electrobinoculars over to beat down on the two. 'Lock' is lost to attrition and his side is cleared. Next I deploy Son of Skywalker with his Stick to Han's position and then move Han over to the Guest Quarters. From this time on, I'm using the electrobinoculars to rig destinies for On and Off the Edge. Additionally, Figrin D'an is retrieving force with averages draws of 12+ each time. Ben deploys another SD to Coruscant but his drains just aren't hitting the spot when he has to pay 3 for each drain of 1. He finally throws down Vader with another scrub to face off against Son of Skywalker. I Path Han again to join and promptly slice Vader, shoot the Scrub and get a total of 9 for destiny against his 1 (drew a location). He loses both and 9 more while Han goes to the Bacta Tank. I spread out to drain and retrieve while Ben tries to make the best of it. The drains take him out though. Full Win by 22.
Results: 4 (+49)
The Good: Retrieval and Path of Least Resistance was the name of the game. Beating down and taking it back! Having Ben freaked out about Revolutions the whole game!
The Bad: Except for the two battles, a fairly non-interactive game. He was in space; I was on Cloud City.
Ben and I talk strategy for his deck, including starting with Combat Readiness since he didn't have an SI anyway. Get a little more force and possible secure battleground locations on Coruscant to cancel Battle Plans effect.
Game 3 - LS vs. Casey Barson's HDADTJ Dueling deck.
Let me just tell you that Casey my first loss at the State Tournament when he successfully dueled Obi and should have won on a duel with Luke but we forgot to add ability to the total (we had tied without that). I also had tried to cancel Visage 3 times through Revolution or TT and he was able to cancel the attempt or get it out fairly quickly. So when he pulls 7 cards out to start the game this time, I know I'm playing a similar deck to the one at states. He later tells me it doesn't have 5 Visages anymore, just 3!
Anyway, I start out with Jeroen Webb, EPP Obi and Tawss Khaa in opening hand. I deploy a Nudj move it to the farm and hold up to deploy my squad for the next turn. His turn he deploys Choke Vader to the Swamp and flips HD. My turn I hit the Holotheatre with my 3-man, spy-lead wrecking crew to get rid of Visage forever! Ta-DA! He never threatens my hold on the 'Theatre but gets Come Here You Big Coward to cancel the drain. I'm looking to get into the game and pretty much have all my CC sites out, so I deploy Son of Skywalker with Ani's Stick to Lower Corridor for a fresh drain of 3. He responds with Mara, her stick and You Are Beaten. I throw down Momaw Nadoon and Harc Seff to prevent a beatdown but don't battle. Mistake. His turn he snipers SoS, deploys Choke Vader and initiates battle. He chokes Harc and then slices Momaw. Doh! Good thing his destiny was only a 3. I lose 12 cards. My turn I deploy EPP Luke to the Carbonite Chamber and EPP Han to the Guest Quarters. I have Mantellian Savrip and Bacta Tank out with Boussh, Path of Least Resistance and Run Luke Run in hand. He doesn't go for a beatdown on Han or Luke but moves Vader over to Luke and plays Vader's Obsession. I've got a saber and he doesn't so I don't play Run Luke Run. He draws a 7 and a 6, I try to play Run Luke Run then. We get into a discussion on if that is valid and finally have Zach rule that it isn't. Rats! I know it would have been cheesy but it would have saved my back side! I draw a 2 and 5 and lose 5 and cross Luke over. Luke then walks over to talk to his former buddy Han. I try to Sniper Luke but miss by 1. We battle. Han gets sliced, Luke gets shot (now Han hits him!) and I get a destiny! Casey is surprised but his is a 5 to my 2. I lose 4 but the site is cleared. Next turn he drains me down to 5 force so I just draw up to end the game. Full Loss by 33.
Results: 4 (+16)
The Good: Canceling Visage fast and hard. He admitted that he wasn't going to mess with that combination there!
The Bad: No retrieval going at all. Never did get one of the Edge cards or Figrin out. Doh! Not getting characters enough to control two battleground and thus CHYBC shutting down any possibility of draining at the Executor.
So I'm feeling that I'm out of contention for the 1st and 2nd place prizes. Drats. I ask him what his LS decks are since there's no way I'd be playing him. He talks about Speeder Ops, not much but just how he goes with them. Well, pairings get announced and guess what?
Game 4 - DS vs. Casey Barson's Speeder Ops deck.
We throw down together and I'm interested to see what happens. He starts out Yarna and I stick with Perimeter Patrol. I set up on Endor quickly with a Biker in the Bunker and another Biker and Bike at the docking bay. I also Twi'lek for Battle Order to give me some time. Additionally I throw down Strategic Reserves, Reactor Terminal and Oppressive Enforcement all during my first turn. Casey might have flinched a bit but didn't show anything but confidence. He proceeded to set up his Ops in Speeders while I'm able to get a couple Endor sites out and both Ominous Rumors and Establish Secret Base out, flipping my objective. I think it was then that he realized he was in for a fight as my drains on Endor couldn't be modified or cancelled. However, the only system I had out until late in the game was Endor. I'm draining for 8 a turn to his 4 a turn after I cancel through Strategic Reserves. He finally decides to go after Endor and starts to plays a Frozen Assets then deploys an ASP droid and 6 Speeders to a site with a single Biker Scout with Bike. He's losing force for the deployment but then I remind him that he won't be able to battle or move this turn. Sorry to say this Casey, but you just looked kind of sick for a second. I ask if he wants to take back the deployment and he does. He redeploys the Speeders to his Ops planet but paying for drains due to Battle Order is limiting his effectiveness. I get Kashyyk out and throw down Boba Fett in Slave 1 and a Dreadnaught to back it up. I'm soon draining for 11 a turn and he's only hitting me for 4 or so after canceling. He gets a late game Chimes in but it really only allows him an extra turn or two. I kill him by drains. Full Win by 14.
Results: 6 (+30)
The Good: Endor Ops setting up quickly and working like no other! First turn Battle Order was crucial!
The Bad: Nothing at all. His was a drain deck as was mine. Maybe not as interactive as I wish it could be, but it threw him for a loop.
So I keep Casey from going undefeated. The other games get wrapped up and we find out that I successfully kept Casey from first place! I was hoping to finish 3rd then but another sneaks into that place with my devastating differential loss to Casey. Only the top 4 wind up with positive differentials.
Here's the break down of how we finished:
1st Nathan Magro 6(+76)
2nd Casey Barson 6(+69)
3rd Greg Ashby 6(+44)
4th Matthew Jensen 6(+30)
5th Matt Freed 6(-3) (side note: he's the store owner)
6th Eric Fausett 4(-1)
7th Ben Clark 4(-22)
8th Allen Butts 3(-35)
9th Derek Conklin 2(-9)
10th DaRell Frehner 2(-18)
11th Nathan Barrett 2(-39) (side note: Zach's brother-in-law)
12th Robert McKenna 0(-92)
Since this was Zach's first tourney and no Decpiher support was around, Zach broke out his collection of extra rares for support. Here's how it ended up:
1st: Choke Vader, Grand Moff Tarkin, Vader's Saber + 4 random picks
2nd: Ben Kenobi, EPP Luke, Obi's Saber + 4 random picks
3rd: Yoda, Yoda's Hut and MWYHL + 3 random picks
Others: 2-3 random picks. 12th got 4.
I ended up picking Hidden Base, Commander Igar, and something else (DOH! It was good though). Traded the Igar for a BB Tantive IV I'd been needing though. Others walked away with BB Falcons, Mains and other great cards.
Props:
Zach Marshall - For running a great tournament and providing unbelievable prize support.
Nathan Magro - For coming out of 'retirement' and taking the tourney.
Casey Barson - For consistently showing me that a dueling Vader is the MAN!
Slops:
Myself - For still not being able to overcome a good Hunt Down deck.
Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed.