neal-dredlox-tampa-fl-may-13-2000
Title: neal-dredlox-tampa-fl-may-13-2000
Author: Neal "Dredlox" Razi
Date: May 15, 2000
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Millenium comics in Brandon. Should be the usual group, including David Akers and Ryan Christian. Somewhat short notice on this one, so decks may be sloppy. Also, some people should be out of practice slightly (me included)
The Decks
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Ls is a throne room mains, but somewhat nonstandard. no nudjs, and hence no swamp. it's epp's backed up by savrip and bacta tank to neutralize their only weakness, there lack of immunity. To keep those effects around, sense and alter. Since i've got all those weapons floating around, i'm trying out character removal and wepaons cards, namely aim high and blaster prof/slight weapons malfunction along with the old standard - clash. a last minute space package is falcon, tantive and spiral + kessel (hehe)
Ds is monster blue. start death star/imperial arrest order. LOTS of locations to get huge force gen also lots of vehicles and starships. destinies are absolutely horrible, so sense and alter naturally. last minute change is the addition of first strike for interrupt control + i can't imagine many people wanting to attack a site with three walkers + it can help negate order to engage. i'd seen Tj holman use it very effectively against me, and i've been waiting to try it out.
Game 1 vs. Bill Bishop/Court+bounty hunting
or stick the mains in the slammer
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Bill is a great guy and an up and coming player here in tampa. he always plays creative decks that are his own + he's a cool opponent, so i'm looking forward to this. i also feel i'll have the advantage. he starts court and all wrapped up (uhoh i think, that could be trouble). i start throne room careful plan.
First turn, my hand includes master luke, melas, and a 2-0. so, i figure i'll give him some trouble and drop melas in the audience chamber. he's activating only six force, and i figure melas couldn't get hit TOO terribly with that, next turn Luke will join him. he fishes for jabba, drops lyn me and CC Bob fett for free! uhoh. he draws low, i draw high, so i take only a little spill over, he loses bob fett. next turn i drop another 2-0 and luke, battle, miss bouncing lyn me, but knock out jabba. he runs to the chamber. thinking i'm smart, i put boush undercover and break cover and attack. i get one spill over whoop to do. i should have waited. i've now got savrip down and am owning the chamber. i beat up on him with drains for a couple turns + loses to court, and I get out aim high, he puts a bounty on luke. we skirmish a couple times, but between blaster profiency and savrip, i don't lose anyone. i've seen he's lost his ships so i drop spiral on kessel. he takes a lot of damage before he gets a force of guys including boba and jodo against obi. he hidden weapons obi, i don't have a sense. he gets him and takes him over to the prison. aim high though keeps him from getting the two force back, as he needs cards desparately. and is getting low on life force. to make matters worse for him. for the heck of it, i come over to battle with lando chewie (power+5 with aim high) luke and boush at the prison. he hidden weapons luke (no sense again) gets him. he would have gotten twelve force back (CC boba), but aim high prevents it. he gets chewie from attrition, and gets 2 2 forces back. but it's too late, kessel is eating him alive, and it was too late in the game
FW by 37
Highlights - aim high saves me 14 retrieved force
Lowlights - having so may guys in prison!
Game 2 vs. Bill Bishop CC gambling+mains
or cloud city is tilting!
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Same opponent. i start death star arrest order. he starts casino plans for downtown plaza. wow, a force bonanza. I know i'll see mains from bill and sabacc is a given at this point. he goes first, drops SOS and pulls anakin's saber. nasty that'd be a drain of three on the get go. i have a beautiful opening hand though, except for lack of any ability. i drop kashyyyk, dag:cave and ds: war room (this is not that unusual for this deck) and pull out the coruscant docking bay. i also drop my best friend, u-3p0 and pick up. bill sees the force gen i'm getting, and wisely decides to back up SOS with leia and lando and yox (for free). it's a good plan, he's got a lot of nasty weapons and yox. i activate 14 force on the second turn and just draw. he gets more mains down and lando's blaster (i'd never seen it) and and moves to the casino. i then monnok and knock out 2 sabaccs. he says grrr! i activate a ton of force and drop a walker/pilot and tempest scout 1 and arnet and a pilot! first strike (first strike gets me about 7 force retrieved and 7 force lost for bill net through the game). i battle him, he shoots tempest scout 1 with lando's blaster. uggh! bill realizes he needs a force to fire it (i'd never have caught that) and just uses that as a battle destiny. he loses a good bit. he back up with more mains, and sabaccs, but i grab it. he wins and retrievs. I play empire's new order. i drop another walker, first strike and nail him and retrieve again. he loses an alien i retrieve again. this goes on for a turn or two with him sabaccing me (i sense one with arnet) and he just has to give it up. i'm first striking and gettting new order so i'm retrieving two and just blasting characters off the planet. He jokes cloud city must be tilting with all these walkers at the casino. i've also gotten down zuckuss + evax at kashyyyk a bit earlier. it's game he moves in to the lower corrider but i'm draining him big time.
FW 39
Highlights - activating 14 force on second turn, having mad walkers on his planet, sensing and altering with arnet, first striking
Lowlights - realizing that i'd have taken some big drains without the master protocol droid u-3p0
game 3 vs. Ryan 'cardmaster' Christian throne room/revo/loads of nudjs
or Nudjs Nudjs everywhere not a one to eat.
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Ryan is another very creative player and a master of card games. he is probably the best destiny tracker i know. We have played each other countless times. (side note: ryan was laughing at what he'd done to his opponent and telling me to look at it in a previous game, so i saw what he was doing. it was sick. he was playing multiple revos and multiple nudjs. he was dropping nudj on rall and the opponent couldn't even deploy to his own locations. he had revo'd the opponents swamp!) Anyhow, i start death start arrst order, he goes for the typical throne room start. i feel good because i know EXACTLY how to beat this deck. It doesn't do much damage, so all i have to do is be patient, get out systems, and i'll win. these revo decks are always weak against space. unfortunately I draw only ground locations. ryan drops a nudj, but no locations. i drop docking bay and draw, as i only have back door and i'm not ready to commit to that. patience. he revos. and nudj. i drop a 2-0 and draw. he revo's and draws. i do this a couple more times trading a location for a revo, but now have out a system, and he has out entrance cavern with mains. i drop 3-p0 hahahaha. i'm up to 10 force a turn, i think that's all i'll need. i drop back door and vader and tarkin, and alter his traffic control to piss him off+ i want to know if he's playing SAC. it flies, hehe. he drops order to engage, i alter it he grabs and controls (i think). grr. he nabruns everyone in his move phase. i make him pay the force then cancel with THOSE REBELS WON'T ESCAPE US!!! ha, what a great card (thanks to mike bellefatto, i played with one or two for 2 years, stopped around SE, now play it again). so he sits around goofing off with 3p0, and i drain him for two a couple turns. i see a couple leaders go out, so zuckuss goes to kiffex (he can't have room for much else i figure, plus han's down on the ground. who else can hurt zuckuss but han). i drop forest clearing. he revos. and gets over there. uhoh, now i've got mad mains, including big ben the resurrectionist to deal with. i start dropping walkers and first striking. plus i now put boba on kashyyk. my plan is this. if i can hold on long enough on the ground, battle order will catch up to him, he's taken a lot of damage. so for a couple turns, it's this. i first strike and run. he pays three to drain for four and follows. but he's taking drain of 4 and soon to be 6 from space. i get enough guys down, and cancel another nabrun with TRWEU!! i love it. we attack each other for a number of turns at the back door. i conviently lose my last guy (i get the last first strike in) and get him down to two life force. he can't drain
FW by approx 25
Highlights : cancelling nabrun twice with TRWEU. what a great card. zuckuss draining for about 20 force by himself. U-3p0. activating force against a revo deck( a minor accomplishement in itself)
Lowlights : taking a couple drains of 4. ouch!
game 4 vs. Ryan 'cardmaster' Christian Court/musicans
or elis helrot the double edged sword
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I start my weird careful plan, he starts court and there is not try/secret plans/resistance. I get a crap opening i get a 2-0 but can't get a main out to the audience chamber. DAMN. i know this deck, he'll have the audience chamber locked down in a matter of turns. yep, he goes, put down scum, greeata, jabba, and a bunch of musicans. I go draw up and throw out. he drops down more musicans, and mara and saber (nearly everything deploys for free or one). well, i'm starting to get a fair number of sense and alters, so i need to get someone down, master luke gets the call at the great pit along with battle order. that'll slow him down, he aint activating much. he goes continues putting down musicans including the dreaded lirin cairn. he starts saving force, crap. it's coming the: elis beatdown. i have a sense, so it's cool for now. i drop han and lando and another 2-0. he goes for the elis, i make him pay the force and i sense, i lose three. he doesn't seem to care. obviously he's packing more elises. i now know i need savrip. out it comes and a sandspeeder. he's getting ready to drain, and i've been hanging out on the sarlacc pit, so i drop jundland wastes, so i can match his drains, and keep away from sarlacc, JIC. we sit there staring at each other (but i do get out aim high) and i am desparately looking for a card, one card. can you guess? quite a merc. i still don't have it. he saves up force. he has about 15 characters down there, it is looking nasty, really nasty. he saves up and elises. he pays, i sense, i lose three. he grabs, and elises again! uhoh. ryan gets a little @#$%y at this point, and calls everyone over to watch. he makes what i consider a couple errors at this point. number one, he nabruns everyone. i think he should have left jabba and greeata. that way he could defend the chamber and draw destiny and still get her bonus of forfeit. two, he doesn't wait for first strike, i might not have been able to pull off all my interrupts (i forgot to ask him if it was in his deck). finally, he initiates a battle and plays wounded wookie cancelling obi's game text. i think he should have first used nizec bec, but i guess he wanted to keep obi around for kithaba and make luke move away. but it was a minor error. ok, here's the setup. EPP luke han lando, regular obi and a sandspeeder against about 15 characters including all the musicians like umpass stay, kithaba(power of 9, sick), lyn me(sick just sick), akrev + mara. ok, he wounded wookie's obi. i don't know who to pick so i go for nizuk bek (power 5 and make someone move away), i shoot him and blaster proficiency him, and slight weapons malfunction. he 4-lom's luke. i shoot umpass with lando get +5 power from aim high(also he had to spend 2 force to retrieve two from scum). i draw three destinies. anyhow, to make a long story short, total battle damage for me is 41!!!!! whew, everyone is watching at this point and just groans. i put on my best tough guy face and say don't worry i can take care of myself (i'm like my god 41, even i didn't expect that, and it could have been worse). I savrip like you can't believe (thanks to matt lush, i had forgotten just HOW immensely huge that card was until recently), i throw out like spiral, sandspeeders, r-3p0, dude, everything (EXCEPT Melas). i also lose obi from the site. i end up losing about 10 cards counting the profiency it's cost, but he loses 5 characters due to my executing, shooting and attrition + a wounded wookie. if i didn't have savrip it was over. as it turned out, it wasn't too bad. my go, i sniper 4-lom and drop melas to the audience chamber, cancel scum (hehe) run, and draw. where the hell is quite a merc? he has to take a turn to lick his wounds he just deploys. i am actually about to drain, like the first drain of the game, and come up with a scheme. i 'deploy' a vaporator from the reserve deck using the farms game text, and see no quite a merc in the reserve deck. i draw and there it is, my twelth card. i now go for the cheap victory, i drop obi with stick at the farm, what could be more enticing than that. i start making remarks like '5 senses and i can't get em in my hand.' I can't lose i think. but ryan has one more trick up his sleeve ability X3 (we added it after playtesting before the grand slam). i have lost a lot of ability to savrip, and this could hurt big time. after a number turns of me just trying to drain for one and run and deploy (i actually lose about 4 force to abilityX3) and save for QAM, he finally can't take it. elis to the farm, everyone, i make him pay and play the QAM. 15 characters down the drain (abilityX3 goes out too naturally). he quits! cheap victory, but hey. We reset it later, and i THINK i could have won anyway, every battle would consist of me shooting tons of people, executing one and losing to savrip.
FW by 17.
Highlights - taking a 41 point damage in stride. killing fifteen characters with QAM
Lowlights - killing fifteen characters with QAM. almost deploying the falcon and harc seff to kessel (ryan said 'are you out of your mind' and i took it back)
The wrap up
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i win an interesting tournament. i warn you to not underestimate musicians. aim high was very good, i don't quite KNOW that it is a tournament heavy card, but with all the scum and ties floating around, i think it's good. blaster prof excellent. packing at least a moderate ls space fleet+kessel, a good idea, but landing claw and leaders is almost as good. savrip and sac and mains old skool style, i love it. if you are planning on battling extensively, make sure to pack at least one masterful move if you aren't playing sac. also, the super nudj tech was AWESOME, good job ryan.