coruscant-regional-6-17-by-mike-dalton
Title: coruscant-regional-6-17-by-mike-dalton
Author: Michael "faramir" Dalton
Date: Jun 18, 2000
So I'm getting ready for regionals, I'm not really that big on playtesting, which I guess I should be if I want to win but I'm just not. I'm doing well in tournaments leading up to the regional, playing mostly my high destiny Hunt Down for dark although I played my Tie deck as well. All the while knowing I'd prolly go to Ralltiir Ops for the regional cause it's such a solid deck and it's versatility is nice when I really didn't know what to expect. For LS I had been playing a HB/Revo/OMDH deck but it hadn't been doing that well really and only got worse w/ the new 3rd Anthology cards. So I needed a LS deck. I put together a Profit deck cause I thought it could be powerful and was certainly not that expected (most LS mains decks were Throne Room variety). I playtested some w/ Scott Lingrell and his high destiny Hunt Down wrecked it, I couldn't keep any mains on the table. I played some games w/ it on CardTable and it dominated lesser opponent's, but ran into trouble against a strong anti-Profit start and heavy mains. The day before regional I playtested w/ Tom Hermley-Keen and his version of my Court deck absolutly wrecked the Profit deck so I knew I couldn't play that deck. I had gotten this MWYHL deck that used Visored Visions and Anger Fear Aggression for some direct damage and Mains sent to me by a few people and basically took 3 versions of that type deck and combined them into 1. I playtested it against Tom and I managed a close win against his Court deck but the deck was more designed to beat Hunt Down so that was okay, I had nothing better and I knew it really just all came down to matchups and playing your deck well so I went w/ it.
Oh yeah, there's a Young Jedi tournament too. Being the New Jersey State Champion at the game, I figured I should make a showing, and the game is a ton of luck so who knows, anyone could win w/ the right draws. So I make the trek out the Cedar Grove at like 8 AM for the YJ which starts at 9. Lend some cards to Doug Faust for his Tank deck, give Scott Lingrell my Anakin deck while he borrows Doug's Senators. Travis Desell gets my Battle Droid deck, while my Destroyer Droids went unplayed (oh well). I'm playing Aurra and Senators for dark, w/ a sprinkling of Tanks. LS is Queen and her Handmaidens.
1st game - DS vs. Manny Rodriguez
Manny is a local player and a good guy, he's not too big on YJ but he showed up to play anyway. I get a good start taking Coruscant, while my draw for Naboo wasn't too good. I decide to let him have Naboo and go to Tatooine w/ Aurra and some guns. He's got Obi stuck on Naboo so his Obi and Obi's Saber can't help him and I take the 3rd planet. Win by a decent amount.
2nd game - LS vs. Nicholas Ferrari
Nick took 2nd at NJ States so he's clearly a good player. We are 1 of the top 2 pairings as he is 1 of the only people to win w/ his LS deck. We flip and he gets a 5 (Aks Moe) while I pull a 6. I go for Capital City fearing Senator swarm at the Senate and take the 1st planet. 2nd planet again I get not much of a draw, but it's Naboo, and I'm way more prepared to fight on Tatooine so I take it to Mos Espa. I've got Padmes and Ithorians running wild, and then he converts to Desert Landing Site (doh). So we fight for a little there, it's kinda close, until I pull another Mos Espa, convert back and Padme dominates. Win by over 20.
3rd game - DS vs. Ray Bordier
Ray is playing Gungans. I win the draw and go to the Senate. I get a good start there, and he contemplates letting me have that site but he fights it out. He's playing the 3 Gungans fight together, but even that isn't a match for Aurra w/ a gun and Vote, so I take that easy. He goes to Naboo, which I let him have and we take the fight to Tatooine. Aurra and some senators dominate there as he can't get down 3 non-unique gungans to use the battle card. So I take the planet in like the 1st fight.
4th game - LS vs. Bob Damiani
Bob's a really good player, and he's playing a Maul deck so I know this will be a tough game. He takes the 1st planet easy w/ Maul, I try to fight it out, and even w/ him drawing Maul's for destiny I can't take him down. So I concede and we go to Coruscant. We fight there some, Maul is still stuck on Tatooine though, he's got Nute and Rune for anti-Queen/Handmaiden but they're no match for Padme or the Queen w/ Ami's Blaster and a battle card. He gets out After Her but I win the planet soon after. He's discarding his hand like mad, trying to find a transport but he doesn't find one and he decks out before we do much on the 3rd planet. Win by like 20.
So I'm the only undefeated now, I need 1 more win w/ my big differential to make the final duel.
5th game - LS vs. Ray Bordier's Senators
Ray is playing all out Senators, even for red dot. He wins the flip so we go to the Senate. I think he won that planet pretty easily. 2nd planet I've got a good draw, and he gives me it but I luck out and get my transport so I take a strong force onto the 3rd planet. Senators ain't so tough outside the Senate and I take the win by around 20.
So I'm over 100 differential, and I need to lose my last game by over 30 and have someone else win by over 30 in order to not make the final duel. Brian Goines and Jason Lembo are a close 2nd and 3rd, whoever wins by more in their last game will prolly be in the final duel.
6th game - DS vs. Jason Lembo
I'm really torn here, a final duel between me and Jason would be ideal and I can make it happen but I know he doesn't wanna be handed the win and we play the game all out. I take the draw and take the Senate pretty early w/ Aurra. I get rather unlucky and don't see a transport for the rest of the game. I lose the 2nd planet w/ a few characters stranded there as well and am stuck w/ a Trade Fed Tank on Tatooine and it's not enough. My good draws I had gotten all day had run out as I'm continually ditching useless Aurra Sings from my hand and Jason wins by like 15.
Turns out Jason needed to win by 3 more cards to make the finals so it's me and Brian Goines in the final duel. Brian is a friend of Bob Damiani's and an excellent player. PA State Champion vs. NJ State Champion for Coruscant regional title, very cool. I win the coin flip and I'm pretty sure he's playing Maul for dark, and I don't think I'll get lucky enough to beat it twice, but I figure I'll do what I can w/ my lesser deck and hope Aurra can take me to worlds.
1st game final duel - LS vs. Brian Goines
He wins the flip and goes for Desert Landing Site. I'm hoping for a quick convert to Mos Espa as I play 2, but I don't get it. He gets Maul and Double Saber out and I've got Handmaidens running around. He only gets 1 Maul, and I really can't beat him, but I'm killing everything but Maul, so I get in some breakthrough damage (sacrificing some scrub to Maul). We fight on the 1st planet for a long time, me taking my shots at his Maul when I thought I could, and avoiding him at other times. I'm losing, but not by much. Eventually I run out of resistance on Tatooine and decide it's time to take it to the 2nd planet. I have a bunch of transports but he's got a Starfighter so I lose some, drop Padme on Coruscant w/ her gun. He transports, I intercept, and he drops 1. I dunno if it's Maul or just some scrub, but I go ahead and deploy what I got and hold my last transport. He flips a Tank and concedes. We go to the 3rd planet and I try to transport but he has another intercept and that's game. He wins by 4.
2nd game final duel - DS vs. Brian Goines
I'm pretty pleased w/ the 1st game, win by 4 is pretty insignificant really, the winner of this game should go to Worlds. I win the flip and take the fight to the Senate. He's playing Qui-Gon, Padme and Queen deck. I deploy heavy to the Senate. He flips Padme and just battles w/ her conceding the planet and my weapon draw is a transport so I'm setup pretty good. 2nd planet I drop Lott Dodd and a gun, transport off and draw into some good stuff. He flips and deploys and he's got 2 Qui-Gons and Qui-Gon's Saber down. He's 10 and a destiny and I can't deal w/ that, but it's okay, I battle cause I don't want Lott Dodd stuck on the planet and he takes that. So we go to Tatooine: Desert Landing site w/ most of our decks in tact. His Qui-Gon is stuck on Naboo though. So it's Horox w/ Vote and Aurra Sing vs. Queen and Padme. He's playing Royal Leader who's power 4 at the DLS which is huge. We fight long and hard over Tatooine, 1 critical battle I get a bad draw and Aurra Sing goes down and I flip 3 6s off the top for her damage. There's a couple battles where I have a chance to knock him off the planet but it doesn't work out for me. In the end his power bonus w/ Amidala's Blasters and not needing battle cards was too much, he got some good 6 destiny draws when he needed them and he won the 3rd planet to take the game and the title.
Congrats go out to Brian, he's an excellent player. The time and effort he puts into the game really showed, I just play YJ for fun and it was really cool that I was able to do as well as I did. All day long I kept getting great draws, drawing into just the cards I needed, getting the right destiny draws, my luck just ran out a little too soon.
So we finish the final duel and it's nearing 1 PM now, and the SW regional is about to start. When I won my 5th game of YJ and knew I'd prolly make the final duel I went and made the last minute changes I wanted to my LS deck. A 3rd ICBW for insert protection, Yoda's Hope to help train and fetch that Weapon Lev to keep Fury around a little longer. The deck was complete but I needed to write out deck lists. More importantly I needed to eat some food though, Jason Lembo offers to do my deck lists for me so I can go get some food and relax before the tournament starts up again (maybe I shoulda let him win that last YJ game by more, what a guy, great SM). So I order a Hot Dog from the concession stand they have running and it's this microwaved hot dog thing that's really not very good, but I eat it cause I'm starved. It does bad things to my stomach but whatever. I'm a little disappointed right now, I'm a way better SW player than I am a YJ player, but I know my best chance at a free trip to worlds just passed me by. The competition would be fierce, and I knew my LS deck was not really up to par although I also knew my ROps was plenty good enough. On to the main event:
1st game LS vs. Livio D'alessio's Court Capturing deck
I knew what he was playing cause he had it at the last tournament we were both at, he'd been very successful w/ it in capturing LS mains and feeding them to the Rancor so I knew I'd be in some trouble here (my deck was more geared to handle other DS strategies). Oh well, we play. He drops Jabba at the AC 1st turn. I just drop Yoda and lose 1. 2nd turn he draws, I drop Tawss Khaa at the AC, DTF, battle retrieve,. predict I win, kill Jabba and move out to the Sarlaac pit cause he hasn't used his AC once per game and I don't wanna make it easier to beatdown Tawss. So he comes down w/ Dr. E and EPP Fett, shoots, misses, plays Hidden Weapons and captures her. My turn I Signal for a Tank, drop BoShek to battle them and try and free Tawss but he gets hit and is Tanked. He redeploys Jabba at the AC and moves Dr. E and Fett there. He gets out Scum, I'm Visored Visioning him for a few here and there, but he eventually grabs it. Tawss gets escorted to the Rancor by Fett but I ICBW the damage while he retrieves some. He gets out Resistance so AFA isn't hurting really until I drop BoShek on Lando in Falcon at Kessel. The insert hits so he comes to battle me w/ Zuckuss and Fett in Slave w/ some fodder. I took out the fodder. Next turn redeploy BoShek from the tank, battle, take out Fett. He comes down w/ Bossk In Bus, pulls 7 in attrition and I lose everything. We fight once more at Kessel but I can't put Han and Luke on a ship cause all I have is the Leaders so Luke on GL in G1 tries to take the system but fails. So Luke goes to the Tank. He drops Mara w/ her stick in the Cantina and Search and Destroy. I drop Luke and Han there, battle, miss her twice, but still cause some overflow damage after Levitating her Saber. He Elis's Ephant and Dr. E from the AC, drops Dengar, hits Luke but misses Han, while Han shoots Dengar, so I lose Han and a few. Next turn Luke and Melas come down to clear the AC. Soon after Bane, IG-88, 4-LoM come down and beat up Luke and capture him, Bane is lost and the 2 droids carry Luke off. I come down and kill Jabba in the AC w/ like Melas and cancel Scum. He deploys another, but I cancel it again. All the while I'm clearing out his guys, but he's retrieving and I'm not and I'm slowly losing. Luke finally makes it to the AC and gets Trap Doored and eaten, that's about game. Fun game but I lose by 23.
2nd game: DS vs. some guy's RTP
This was his 1st tournament, he didn't really know that many of the cards and had to read a lot of what I deployed, he had lost his 1st game to TJ Holman and now he got to play me (1st tournament ever and you play people rated #9 and #12 in the world in your 1st 2 games, that's rough). Well anyway, I'm sitting at like the 3rd from last pairing and not liking it so I need to make up some ground. He starts by dropping a Bothan Spy undercover, targeted by Cell 2187. So I go try to trample it, but I miss, so I just transit over to Ralltiir. I setup and flip on Ralltir. He gets out Bacta Tank (he started Wise Advice). I flip quickly w/ some pilots and guys, and he frees Leia and drops a Talz w/ her. He moves Leia and the Talz to the D*:DB and drops EPP Han and saves 3 force. I fetch Vader, drop him and Evax in an At-St, First Strike, battle, he can't play Put That Down cause he's 1 force short, so I hit the Talz and Leia dies and I run to Yavin:DB as he can't drain there anymore anyway. He drops Obi at the Yavin:DB and brings Han over, we battle, everyone dies. He eventually gets another Leia out and flips, but I've got Decree and am draining for 2 at Kashyyyk and 3 on Ralltiir. He moves Leia out to the Yavin:DB and drops Chewie and I come down w/ a smackdown of EPP Vader, IG-88, At-St Pilot in At-St, Leia is captured and Chewie and a bunch of force are lost. That's about game. Win by 23.
3rd game: LS vs. some guy's Endor Ops
He starts Surface Defense and I curse that my AFAs won't do much for me again. He drops a Biker Scout on a Bike quickly to the docking bay to drain and I drop EPP Luke to kill him. EPP Vader and Ozzel come down and Vader hits Luke, Luke hits Ozzel, everyone dies and I lose a few more. More Biker Scouts, and I drop Luke and the Tank and kill stuff. He drops Tarkin and someone to battle but Luke just Tanks it and I get DTF out and start retrieving for Luke battling bunches. Eventually I clear the ground of everything. He drops a Death Squadron Star Destroyer at Endor. I track a 5 and kill his ship w/ Redemption w/ BoShek on board. He battles in space but I react w/ Spiral and Tank BoShek. He goes back out for free, Tantive, RL in R1, battle, clear the system. He drops a lone Biker Scout at Back Door and I Signal for Frozen Assets and Luke does his thing. I drain him out soon after. Win by 29 or so.
4th game: DS vs. James Leiser's EBO
He starts ANSB of course. I go for Decree, not really sure about that but I do it anyway. I wish I had playtested this more to know what to do but I didn't so I just wing it. I don't get much activation going, which I know is key, as he will have plenty, I get Security Precautions down, and maybe a 2/0 after a turn or so, but neither of my Hoth 2/0 sites want to find my active pile. I drop down Arnet on TS 1 at the Jungle and when he puts out Echo Base Garrison I Alter it hoping to slow down his deploying of EBO but to no avail. He drops EBO, and a turn later Hoth, Haven, and some ships there and EPP Leia at an unoccupied Ralltiir site. I've got 12 force, contemplate what to do, I drop my 4th site on Ralltiir, Capt. Lennox, some 2/2 scrub at different unoccupied sites and EPP Vader to Leia (flipping my objective) and 1 to battle. I miss her (doh), but still cause 1 overflow damage thanks to my bonus destiny. I'm pretty spread out now and he takes advantage. He drops Melas at TS 1 and EPP Obi to Capt. Lennox, he battles TS 1 (so no free react for me) and takes some damage while I'm immune. Then Obi hits Lennox and I take 4 damage, he moves a ship to Ralltiir as well. Things are not going well, but they could be worse. I drop Blizzard 2 to Obi's site, a 2/2 guy to my other site and Zuckuss to Ralltiir to flip. Battle at Ralltiir and clear the system, move Blizzard 2 away and I've got my flip secured. He's still draining though so I need Decree. Thankfully there are plenty of systems out (my Kessel and Ralltir, his Hoth, Anoat, and Kashyyyk) and I only need to control 2 of them. I drop the Avenger w/ an At-St pilot to an unoccupied Kessel. He spreads out to block every system but 1, however Fett in Slave 1 comes down w/ a big destiny and takes out a ship w/ a pilot even w/ Insurrection out. From there he had only a drain for 1 at Kessel when he could, I got my Ralltiir drain and some in space so I win pretty soon thereafter cause EBO deploy so many cards. Win by 16 or so.
5th game: DS vs. Joe Gianetti's Throne Room Mains
I get IAO for starters. 1st turn he Revos Ralltiir and I'm thinking heavy Revo would be very very bad for me. I activate, drop a 2/0 (pray it stays my 2/0) and get the Jungle and Docking Bay for Ralltiir. He deploys to Ralltiir w/ Lando in Falcon and some guys. He gets out his own 2/0 later and fortifies Ralltiir more. I finally get out another 2/0 and I'm eventually activating 8 force per turn. I get hit w/ a used Grimtaash which hurts. I figure I gotta deploy at some time, so why not now. I drop TS 2 w/ Watts and an At-St pilot from reserve and draw up my last force pile cards which I know is my Death Star. He comes down w/ Tawss Khaa, premeir Obi, Mech Failures my At-St, drops DTF and Smoke Screens for a 6. I pull a 4 so it's his 14 to my 4, but both guys cover, I leave the At-St and he has to lose Obi. He goes and shuttle up Tawss to the Tantive at Ralltiir. My turn I drop Death Star (knowing that drain for 3 will hurt but I need the force and a way to get to Ralltiir as I lost my Zuckuss in the used Grimtaash and am left w/ only capital ships). So he puts BoShek on the Falcon and it goes to the Death Star. I've got some force now, I drop an At-St pilot on the damaged TS 2 at the Jungle, TS 1 w/ Arnet and Igar at the Docking Bay and TS 2 goes over to cancel the Mech Failure. His turn he drops R-3P0 and premeir Obi w/ Obi's Saber at CC:LC. I left just enough force to flip this turn, drop Mara at the Jungle, Dreadnaught at the Death Star, move Dreadnaught to Ralltiir, At-St pilots in TS 2 to the Desert, shuttle Igar to TS 1 and I'm flipped. He piles Han and Chewie onto the Tantive and I take a beating of 22-12 at Ralltiir but Igar and the ship cover it while Chewie goes to the tank. So he gets in a drain for 2 at Death Star and CC:LC for 2 turns cause when I go look for Fett in Slave 1 it's not there, he drops Boussh to Mara. I try to Alter the Tank but he senses (I have Oppressive Enforcement out) and I grab his Sense. He OOCs my lost pile and I grab that as well. I fetch another Alter so I'm not worried about Mara all alone as I can Alter his Sense to cancel my react. Next turn I do find Fett in Slave 1 and he clears out the Millenium Falcon at the Death Star. A turn later EPP goes to CC:LC, I hit Obi, he hits Vader, we clear the site w/ no battle damage. He drops Chewie and EPP Luke to the Jungle, breaks Boussh's cover and battles. I react over w/ Arnet in TS 1 and Mara hops inside (he questions whether this is legal but it is). He can't pay for the Sense of my react, or the Trample which follows that takes out Chewie. He loses Boussh and Luke, 1 of them to the Tank which I Alter. We're running low on time, and while I have drains and he doesn't he's ICBWing some and I'm not doing enough damage. He gets EPP Obi out at CC:LC, shuttle down some guys including Harc Seff to my Jungle but Mara gets company in the form of Lennox on Blizzard 2 and they're dealt w/ quickly. I go to Kashyyyk to drain w/ at-st pilot on Avenger. Time is called soon after and I get my last turn. He's got like 10 force left, I've got more, but I want the full win. I activate all but 4, drain for 2, pull a card from reserve (taking out the low destiny leaving 3 high ones). Drop EPP Vader to EPP Obi and battle (I retrieve he loses), I hit him, he pulls a 0 for destiny, I pull a 4 (+3 makes it a 7) and he loses Obi and 6. He's losing force and covers it w/ 1 left. I look over and he had shuttled guys down to the docking bay on Ralltiir, so I battle there and he loses his last card. Win by like 15 maybe.
6th game: LS vs. Dan Bordier's SYCFA/Manipulator
Well 1st turn I get Scanning Crewed twice for Luke and Obi, and he gets hit for 4 damage in Visored Vision (a fair trade if you ask me). He drops a 2/1 Endor site too. He started BFHI so I spend a bunch to get Yoda and later Daughter setup, but by this time he's got Vader w/ Saber at the 2/1 Endor site and Mara w/ her Saber at the Jundland Wastes (ouch, drain 6). So I Projection 1 of the sites while I get Daughter and test 1 out. He hits me for full drain damage once and then I pass the 1st test. I ICBW his drains some, he Senses, I Visored Vision, so he's losing force but so am I. He drops Defensive Perimeter and Cantina, Dr. E and someone at Def. Perimeter, Vader Elis's to the Cantina cause he can't drain on Endor. I drop Fury on Vader early, he YABs it but I Effective Repairs it back and he loses to it the rest of the game. He also drops Miyoom at the D*:War Room. I've got some males I don't feel like losing so I drop Lando in Falcon, GL and G1 w/ BoShek and Melas as pilots and fly over to the Death Star to drain. I drop an AFA and it pops so he comes to battle me w/ Zuckuss and Bossk In Hound's Tooth. He outpowers me unfortunately so no Legendary Starfighter for me, but I take out Zuckuss and he runs Bossk to Alderaan. Next turn I get Melas out of the Tank, drop Han and Luke on the Falcon (while I can get them down) and chase the Bus. I draw into Order to Engage, drop Tantive for backup at the Death Star w/ GL in G1 and follow the Bus to Alderran w/ Han and Luke on the Falcon. He battles instead of losing to OtE and I drop Legendary Starfighter. I eventually drop Battle Plan too, so now he's paying 9 to drain for his 4 and it slows him down and I get in move VV damage. He's losing 4 to direct damage and 2 to my drain at his Death Star (thanks to Resistance). I edge him out by 6.
So I manage a 5-1 which is fine w/ me, woulda been cool if I coulda been more of a factor at the top tables but it wasn't to be, I did manage to make it from 1 of the very last tables in game 2 all the way up to like table 5 for the last game which is cool. The last games were very intense, John Lolli took a close win over Jon Chu to give him 11 points and assure himself a spot in the final duel. Meanwhile Chris Praskac could only manage a timed win over Pat Ziagos in game 6 so it came down to differential w/ a bunch of people at 10 victory points. My differential stunk so I was nowhere close to making the finals, turns out Pat Ziagos had the highest so he and John play the final duel. George Gundry is kind enough to offer me a ride home and after spending 13 hours there the idea of waiting 2 hours to find out who won the final duel was not too appealing. So I wish John and Pat the best of luck, I've played against both of them on numerous occasions and they're both great players and nice guys, and I head on home a very tired, slightly disappointed, but overall rather pleased. - Mike Dalton
P.S. As I'm sure you've heard John Lolli won the final duel by 1 card over Pat Ziagos, congrats to John, New Jersey represent :).