mirkwood-richfield-mn-5-6-00-state

Title: mirkwood-richfield-mn-5-6-00-state
Author: Peter "jeeps" Jacobson
Date: May 11, 2000

Well last weekend certainly seemed to be a HUGE weekend for Star Wars... looking over the numerous reports I noticed there weren’t nearly enough reports from the Midwest. So, if I may have the honors...


Location: Mirkwood Coffee Comics & Games Richfield, MN (A suburb of Minneapolis).
Time: May 6, 2000, 10:30 am.
TD: Dion Erbes Gold 102

The night before I decided to forego the sealed deck event at Mirkwood and play in a Young Jedi tournament in Brooklyn Center (or Park...I can’t remember). I went 3-3, but had a fun time. Dion and I play tested into the wee hours and only got about 3-4 hours of sleep. I decided to give my Girard Style Sabacc deck another shot. I knew that my area looks at Sabacc with mistrust and confusion, so I thought their wouldn’t be much counter to it (besides the typical grabber defense which I have defense for. For Light Side, I went with a super falcon NON-flip Hidden Base objective with massive retrieval. I tested it against Dion’sHunt down deck and it faired well. That morning, we went to McDonalds and Kinkos before the event and then headed over.

For this event there were 40 participants. Dion and I got to the store at least an hour early to help set up, but they had things vacuumed and looking a “spiffy” for our arrival (it’s unfortunate that many were “unable” to pick their trash up afterwards...). This was my first State tournament event and I was nervous (Like the other 90% I am sure). The usual suspects came in Josh Kohman, Graham Neal, Mike Raveling, Josh Wittenen (sp?)... and a bunch of “strangers.” I really thought that filling out command cards would send the start time into orbit, but we started at about 10:45.

NOTE: Forgive me, but it was a REALLY long day preceded by a short night of sleep. Many of the games are a blur. I will try to give my opponents justice and credit where it is due, but I may forget some details.

Game One “You again?!?!?” My LS v. Mike Raveling’s (1832) DS NON-objective Tatooine start.

I have played Mike only once in the past and it was fun. I have never beat him and that wasn’t going to change. He comes to all of the tournaments and I really respect him. Great sense of humor, very good sport, and a really tough player. Definitely a contender in every tournament. This game is a blur. I know that I wasn’t able to get my ‘different’ characters out quick enough and he was setting up some nasty drains. My deck is a near copy of Matt Lush’s Hidden base deck so it has 4 Ben Kenobi’s and 4 Luke with Saber. I drew two of each but wanted to wait a two turns so I would have the right amount of force to get everything out at once. It has enough SAC to make it safe (maybe a little too much), yet it makes for highly interactive games. Our Most Desperate hour saved my butt on numerous occasions. He got battle order out to keep me from simply draining while he was able to control a battle ground system and site. He abandoned the ground while he controlled space. I only have the Falcon in this deck so it doesn’t help me in trying to battle all over the place. Even with my amazing retrieval, I was being drained all over and could stop it. He wins in a great game of early battles and late drains.

FL 0 (-13)

Highs: Playing a fun game and against a great player.
Lows: None really... I am having a good time and I didn’t get slaughtered.

Game Two: “You Again Again?” My DS Sabacc deck V. Frank Thielman’s (1568) LS CC battle deck.

In my last tournament report, I had to play Frank twice... now I get to play him yet again. He’s a great person who is excellent at tracking destiny and making his opponent pay for it. I use the objective Carbon Chamber Testing to get the chamber (and the apparatus that I never use with this deck) and the security tower down. I also get a rebel from him, which is Dutch. My Starting interrupt is Surface Defense and I get Do or Do Not, Secret Plans, and Resistance. I wasn’t sure what to expect when he deployed Leai’s Guest Quarters and Combat Readiness to get the North Corridor (I think). He did this last time and he had LS sabacc to counter my DS Sabacc... I was worried we would be in for yet another timed out game. I joke telling him that you have seen this before. He really didn’t remember which was a bonus, but after I deployed my cards, he had a revelation and groaned. After he deploys, I make sure to get Lando down ASAP. I don’t have to look for him in my reserve deck since I draw him up and a few sabaccs. He gets deployed and we play sabacc. I win but don’t retrieve anything since I don’t have the casino down yet.
His turn he deploys other sites and draws. I play Sabacc for a few more turns and am able to get Leia’s blaster and a Obi’s Lightsaber before he starts tracking PERFECT sabaccs... I learned to stop after he got the first one. I start to draw, looking for my Omni Box to make him lose count. Eventually, Battle Order comes out and neither of us are in space, so we can’t drain as easily. I use Frustration to make him deploy things he can’t, like ships because there are no systems in play or effects like WAYTTPOU?!? Anyway, we battle, but I get Tarkin and the Dark Lord out making short work of any opposition. I was able to win, but Frank made it interesting at the end. I probably would have had about 10 more force at the end, but with him winning late game sabaccs (tracking) and me not retrieving any force until late (I couldn’t find Expand the Empire to keep Lando safe in the tower, while at the same time retrieving from the Casino), I won this one by only 9 force. We had only a minute or so left in time too.... close.

Full Win +8 2(-5)

Highlights: Playing another great opponent
Low lights: slow game and exhausting game...

Game Three “Wading through Muddy Waters” My DS Sabacc deck vs. Matt Moses’s (1658) Rebel Strike Team-Deactivate The Main Generator Deck.

I have only played Matt once and it was about a year ago. I know that he is a good player. He is also very intense and no nonsense. This can be a little unnerving since I play with a much more relaxed style. He has a strong HATRED towards decks that use engine retrieval (Harvest, Our Most Desperate Hour, etc...). I know this because A) he was complaining about his last opponent doing this to him and B) I tried to do it in the only other time we’ve played with a Harvest Deck. Well, my deck uas CC Sabacc so I was worried about similar aggressions. I was intrigued by the fact that he was playing with the LS Objective from Endor and playing it straight out. It was very thematic and I had never played it before. I am not sure how he did with this deck overall in the tournament, but this game was fairly NON-interactive because I was afraid to confront him with all those 2/2 rebels. What made it very difficult was the fact that I had LOST or tied Sabacc for the first 4 attempts... He had some pretty high destiny draws and sabacc seemed too easy for him. I was able to set up my deck while he tried to Signal for a WAYTTPOU. Well, I knew he was trying to grab my sabacc or my scanning crews (which I played several times to keep his rebel deployment down) so I played Frustration and made him lose it (as well as look at his sizable hand). Well, needless to say, he flipped his objective, blew up the generator and made me lose 8 force. I was able to stay hidden on CC to retrieve force from Sabacc to deflect some of this damage. This game ended in a Timed Win for me, with him having 17 force to my 20. It was close with him and I playing sabacc at the last moment . I retrieved 3 force, thus surprisingly keeping the true tie from occurring.

timed win +20 3 (+15)

High Lights: A very strategic game. There was a lot of maneuvering and destiny tracking. He had many good plays, but it seemed like I was able to circumvent or cancel much of it.

Low lights: Well, it was a timed win... means I needed to do very well in the next three games.

Game 4: “Who are you and what are you doing here?!?!” My LS v. Rich Jeffery’s (1468 or 1416... entered twice in the database) Court Deck.

I know that that the title for this game seems a little harsh, but I sort of blew my cool on this kid... maybe it was his sloppy playing style or perhaps it was just the fact that I was feeling a little exhausted that made me frustrated. I had never played him . As Yoda said, “Anger, Fear, Aggression... blah blah...” Anyway, Rich starts Court with All Wrapped up. I start my Hidden Base start with Insurrection. I Get decent draws but I don’t see Mantellian until it’s too late. As I move to try to take out his army of well defended aliens, he uses M'iiyoom Onith on may HUGE hand and makes me lose Ben, Luke, and Han. (I didn’t panic, it just slowed me down because I have several of each in the deck). Anyway, I get the Our Most Desperate Hour engine going and start retrieving about 9 every other turn. He gets Scum and Villainy out and starts to force drain for 8 per turn. I get the Cantina Shuffle going and I am force draining him for about 5 a turn. I see that I am doing damage time him and it’s going to be close because he has about twice as many cards on the table than I, so I activate everything and use tunnel vision to look for Our Most Desperate Hour. This is where things get strange. I don’t have it in there... so I have to pull out Ultimatum, which does NOTHING for me. Where did it go? Did I lose it to a force drain and forget about it or not notice? GUH! Anyway, we keep force draining. It comes down to him having 2 force left and me having 2 force. He force drains me, and that’s when I see my last OMDH... it was there... but I didn’t see it when I looked for it. My theory? I think it was so hot and muggy that day and the store’s AC was working overtime, everyone’s cards were sticking together and maybe it was piggybacking another card... I know that probably sounds really lame but it’s my only reason for it not being there when I looked for it... I am certain I could have held out for one more draining session if I could have retrieved the nine force. As it was, I lost to Rich by 2 cards. Truly an interesting game.

Full Loss -2 3(+13)

Highlights: Seeing my deck keep me in a drain race far longer than it should have been.
Low lights: slow moving game... sticky cards... ack!

Game 5 “Sing Me a Song” My LS vs Andy Williams (1368) Court Deck

Andy is another player I had never seen before. He’s also a young player who has played in 70+ games. This game was interesting, but came down to one big battle with me getting the cantina shuffle going and avoiding his brute squads. He was drawing and saving a few force each turn. The funny thing was he sang or hummed for much of the game. I was funny and he was trying to be funny. It wasn’t a nervous condition (I don’t think it was at least). Anyway, I knew he was going to try to bring a HUGE group down at one time and take on Luke and Ben because of his ever growing hand and force pile. So I drew a few cards and made sure I had some High forfeit characters in my hand to feed to the Mantellian Savrip. Like expected, he brought the brute squad and had 3 times as much power against me, but I played Smoke Screen, Clashed his Dark Lord of the Sith, and forfeited a ton to MS. I survived the battle and ran away to the Cantina. After that, I was force draining for about 5 a turn and retrieving about 11 force with OMDH. He never could battle me again. The game wound down and I won by +17.

Full Win +17 5(+30)

High Lights: It was a fun game, pure and simple. I was feeling confident that I would do well if I could win my last game.
Low lights: none.


Game 6 “ARG!” My DS vs. Rob Jeffery’s (1630) Bothwai Speeder Ops deck.

Rob is Rich’s younger brother. He was a talker. Everything he did was narrated in some way. I set up the usual start with CCT and got Lt. Page as his rebel. I drew Lando into my starting hand, Two IG-88’s and the rest red. I activate, deploy Lando, play Sabaac (win- I remove red card from his sabacc hand) and draw (I am looking for some more defense for Lando and don’t find any). His turn, he deploys a site to Bothwai and draws up. My turn, I activate and decide to try to keep him from flipping his objective (which may have been the wrong thing to do- oh well). I deploy 4-LOM and Iggy to the Bothan Planet. I have no force to draw up. He activates more and stays like that. I still don’t have a good hand or any characters in my hand. I scanning crew his hand. He has a ton of Aliens, Ops, and speeders, but no rebels... I see what is coming his next turn. I can’t stop it. I play Sabacc (we draw-nothing happens). I play FEAR and he loses one off the top of his deck. I say go. With his huge force pile and large hand, he deploys about 6 characters with a spy to the Sec. Tower and jumps Lando, all the while saying “this is probably a mistake.” For the record, it wasn’t. HE jumps me and after a quick consideration with the TD if he can have more than one Op at the same site OFF planet (he can), we battle. He hits Lando with something making his forfeit 0 and I lose a a ton more off the top of my deck and can never recover after that. It was a sad game. I lost.

Full Loss -27

Final Standing 5 (+3)

Overall, I had ambiguous feelings about this tournament. I felt I played fairly well, but had to play some very tough opponents early on. I wish that I could have done some things differently, but isn’t that the eternal lament of every Star Wars player?

Jon Swenson of Moorehead, MN won the tournament, He was the only undefeated player. Graham Neal took second. Congrats to both. I believe I took 20 something... middle of the pack.

(As a side note, Jon Swenson also won the Youn Jedi tournament afterwards [out of 32 people]. Another Congrats to him!)