red-81-s-dantooine-regional-report-6-25
Title: red-81-s-dantooine-regional-report-6-25
Author: Brian "Red 81" Guthrie
Date: Jun 26, 2000
Before I proceed with the report I would to take a moment to thank my wife Melissa for her incredible understanding and patience this weekend. As many of you know, the Dantooine regional was originally scheduled for August, but was moved to June 25th about a month ago. It just so happens that the 25th is also our wedding anniversary. Despite the horrible timing, Melissa was willing to let me play SWCCG on our anniversary. Hell, she even helped out with the tournament! I'll never be able to repay her for her sacrifice, but I ask your indulgence while I use this public forum to recognize her. Thank you sweetheart. I love you!
Many of you may recall that the last time I played in a tournament I somehow managed to go 6-0 and win the damn thing. I thought this recent win would make it easier to prepare for regionals, but instead it made it harder. I placed a lot of pressure on myself leading up to this event and spent a lot of time working on my decks (particularly LS) prior to the tournament. Special thanks to Eric Berger and Mike Patterson for helping me with my LS deck, and putting up with a constant flurry of emails (many of them frantic) as I worked out the tech. Thanks guys!
After building and discarding 3 different LS decks, including Profit with Speeders (interesting idea, poor results), QMC with mains (see hookem's QMC Elom/X-Wing deck for a real QMC deck), and Harvest mains (fun, but counterable), I decided to play Kashhyk Speeder Ops. A boring choice perhaps, but I tried to add some twists to make it more fun, including the Super Falcon, Artoo in Red 5, and farm boy Luke. The modest space fleet paid huge dividends for me all day, as the DS did not expect Operatives to have a space presence. For DS, I played my ISB Scum and Villany deck that has served me well for 6 months now (17-1 in tournament play) - see my Disarming S&V deck on decktech for more info (It hasn't changed much since March, though I recently added No Bargain).
Now on to the games!!
Game 1 - My LS vs. Jason Sumrall's Court of the Vile Gangster
When I saw his Objective my first thought was Skrilling numbers. I was wrong. Sadly, this turned out to be a very poor matchup for Jason because he was playing Tusken Raiders. As a result he had no way to stop my drains on Kashyyk. The outcome of this game was never in question, but Jason was clearly nervous so I did my best to put him at ease and keep the game interesting for him. I only deployed 3 operative locations and did my best to interact with him on Tatooine. We had a few good battles between the Tusken and speeder swarms, but my uncontested drains were too much. I drew a few too many cards at the end, but I didn't see any reason to maximize my differential this early in the tournament. That may have been a mistake in retrospect, but I believe it was the right thing to do.
Full Win by 18. 2 (+18)
Game 2 - My DS vs. Jacob Mayer's Anoat Operatives with Y-wings and Numbers
I expected to see Y-wing Ops decks after the success of this deck-type in the European championships. Jacob is a good player who finished 2nd in the Death Star II prerelease on Saturday (By the way, congrats to Chris Gregg on winning the prerelease and taking home the uncut sheets! Chris also won some sheets at the Tulsa Grand Slam, which makes me think its high time for him to start sharing the wealth!). In any event, my ISB deck does well against Operatives, but I had never faced the Y-Wing variant before. Since ISB relies on A Bright Center to cancel operative drain bonuses, a sizable space fleet could easily cancel the effect. Unfortunately for Jacob, his starting location largely determined the outcome of this game. Anoat is at Sector 5 and Coruscant is at Sector 0, which means that his Y-Wings (with hyperspeed 4) could not reach Coruscant to cancel Bright Center. Jacob had trouble draining the entire game, but still put up a good fight in space and on Anoat. In addition, his mid-game use of inserts caught me completely by surprise. I never pulled Resistance, so he hit me for 6 twice with odds. Unfortunately for him, my drains on Tatooine were uncontested, and eventually wore him down.
Full Win by 15. 4 (+33)
Game 3 - My LS vs. Paul Hodge's Death Star Force Jump
This was the best game of the day for me. Paul is ranked 3rd in Dantooine and made the long drive from Oklahoma to compete in the regional. Paul is also a very friendly guy and was an absolute pleasure to meet and to play (he didn't make it to the Tulsa Grand Slam, so our paths had never crossed before). Since there are so many variants of the new dark side force jump deck (big blue, heavy SAC, manipulator, etc.), I didn't know what to expect this game. He started Battle Order so I knew I needed to control space to keep my drains going on the ground. Fortunately, I got an excellent early draw with farmboy Luke and Artoo in Red 5 in hand, so I decided to be aggressive and test Paul's space fleet. On the first turn I deployed Luke and his ship to Kashyyk and moved him to the Death Star for the early drain. Unfortunately, Luke's visit to the Ultimate Weapon in the Universe was extremely short-lived thanks to some extremely clever D* tech from Paul. During Paul's deploy phase, he used his objective to look for a card with "Death Star" in the title. I expected to see another site come down, but instead, Paul deployed the DEATH STAR TRACTOR BEAM!!!!!!!! For those of you who haven't taken this card out of the binder since 1997 (like me), this device deploys to the D* docking bay and may target a starfighter after a battle ends at the D*. DS gets to draw 2 destiny, and if the total is greater than the ship's maneuver, it is captured. I was absolutely in awe of this move by Paul, and congratulated him on the awesome tech. Fortunately for me, Paul wasn't ready to battle me in space, so Red 5 got to orbit the D* uncontested for 1 turn. For good measure, Paul also deployed Come Here You Big Coward, which cancelled my drain at the D* anyway since I hadn't set up on the ground yet. Needless to say, I moved Luke back to Kashhyk on my next turn. Well done Paul! ;-)
After the excitement at the D*, I concentrated on flipping my objective. I got everything down on the 3rd turn and flipped, when Paul came out with guns blazing. He deployed Boba Fett and a Dreadnaught to Kashhyk and also dropped Mara and her saber at an exterior Endor site (for a nice juicy drain). He battled Luke and we each drew a 3 for destiny. He outpowered me by 4, but rather than lose Luke I decided to lose 4 cards from hand. He lost the Dreadnaught and ended his turn. On my turn, I deployed Captain Han and the Falcon (for 6 thanks to the Kashyyk deploy bonus for smugglers), and took out Boba with a combined destiny of 5. This was a key turning point because it solidified my hold on space and allowed me to meet the conditions of Battle Order for the rest of the game. Thank goodness I decided to add the Super Falcon to my Ops deck!!!
Paul and I traded drains for a while until he decided to bring some Walkers down to Kashyyk to quell the uprising. I took some damage from battles but once he overcommitted to one location I was able to run away and drain for the rest of the game. I also managed to make Mara go lost in the Endor wilderness to lock up the win. Vader tried to find her but was met by a horde of angry rebel speeders to end the game. Kudos to Paul for playing a great game and teaching me the meaning of the word "tech". I was fortunate to pull this game out against one of the best players in the region.
Full Win by 15. 6(+48)
Game 4 - My DS vs. Michael Fudge's Tatooine mains and toys
This was my 2nd consecutive game at the top 3 tables so I was starting to get a little nervous about the rest of the tournament. In the past 2 regionals I have finished 3-3 so my goal was to win this game at all costs (and break the pattern of poor finishes). Fortunately, Mike was able to put me at ease. Mike is a good guy and we have played in several tournaments together over the years. As a result, I was able to approach this match like a friendly pick-up game. Mike started Obi's Hut and Tosche Station so I knew he was playing Mains and Toys. As a result, I started No Bargain. There is only one thing that gives my DS deck fits, and that is an early Obi or Luke wreaking havoc in the Audience Chamber before Jabba and his scum can get set up. No Bargain helps tremendously because it slows the LS down just enough to give me the extra time I need.
I got a great draw and was able to set up a horde of aliens in the Audience Chamber and flip rather quickly. I also managed to beat down the Semi-Super Falcon (EPP Han and EPP Leia) at Tatooine to set up Occupation. I was quickly hitting him for 4 a turn while he was struggling to find characters. Mike had a hard time draining on Tatooine but eventually managed to get Ben and his saber along with EPP Luke set up in the Cantina. We had a few skirmishes and were trading force loss/regeneration because Mike had deployed Draw Their Fire. This turned out to hurt him in the end because I deployed First Strike and Scum and Villany, giving me a wonderful incentive to battle him (I retrieve 5 - 2 for Scum, 1 for each effect, and 1 ISB agent at the end of the turn, while he loses 2).
Although I had control of this game, the turning point didn't come until near the end, when I deployed a lone Iggy with Gun to the Audience Chamber where Ben (w/saber) and EPP Luke were STILL hanging out (despite multiple battles by me just for the retrieval). Mike gave me a look when I did this, but soon discovered what I had planned. During his subsequent control phase, I disarmed BOTH Ben and Luke, thus eliminating all his weapons. Mike later told me that this was a key move because he planned to Nabrun to the AC, play Sorry About the Mess on Jabba, deploy Leia, and play 2 destiny adders in battle. Needless to say, I owe Iggy and his gun a debt of gratitude. PHEW!!!! ;-) After Iggy did his thing in the Cantina, the game ended soon thereafter.
Full Win by 30. 8 (+78)
Game 5 - My DS vs. Eric Berger's Elom/X-Wing/Numbers/Retrieval QMC
After 2 rounds there were 7 undefeated players remaining. Eric and I were hoping to avoid each other since we are good friends and trade deck ideas and suggestions all the time. Sadly, it was not be. On paper, my DS deck matches up well against Eric's QMC creation. However, Eric's LS deck is a work of art (I am not exaggerating!) and works like a machine. He posted his deck on decktech, so I suggest you check it out. Very little went right for me in this game, and even though Eric could only drain me for 2-3 a turn, his retrieval, combined with Bargaining Table and Rebel Fleet, and numbers, was simply too much for me. I did what I could to make it close but the outcome was never in doubt. Going into this game, my ISB Scum deck was 19-1 in tournament play. In the blink of an eye, it was 19-2. Kudos to Eric for playing a great game and completely shutting down my deck. Well done!
Full Loss by 28. 8 (+50)
After this game, there were still 4 undefeated players, but 3 of them were playing on the same side of the force!!!! As a result, it seemed clear that 2 undefeated players would advance to the final round. With no hope of advancing to the final confrontation, my goal was to finish in the top 8 and go out with a win. That goal would not be easy however, because my opponent in the final game was John Bowles.
Game 6 - My LS vs. John Bowles' HDADTJ High Destiny Big Blue
John is yet another example of the great guys I had the pleasure of playing on Sunday. John used to play in Austin a lot before he moved back to Houston, so we have faced each other in tournaments a couple of times. The last time we played was last year, and John absolutely CRUSHED my Hidden Base X-Wing Swarm deck because I drew up 13 cards (with Yarna on the table!!!), and he played monnok lost. Little did we know it, but a similar mistake (on his part) in this game would help me tremendously.
We both spent the first couple of turns getting set up and feeling each other out. I pulled an early Luke which helped tremendously against Visage. I flipped soon thereafter, and John started deploying Walkers and Imperials to battle my speeders. I cancelled an early beatdown opportunity with It's A Trap and started playing the runaway game. Unfortunately, I tried TWICE to make Vader go lost in the Kashyyk jungle, but drew a 1 both times! The game was fairly even until John brought down some reinforcements to my planet, but forget to move Officer Evax out of harms way. I had 12 cards in my hand, and 9 were speeders. Needless to say, the beatdown ended the game. John took the game in stride and we agreed that the speeder beatdown was a fair trade for the deadly monnok the last time we played. ;-)
Full Win by 22. 10 (+72)
FINAL SYNOPSIS
When the dust cleared from the final games, Micah White was the ONLY undefeated player remaining in the field of 77. I was among a group of 9 other players that finished 5-1, and was extremely pleased to learn that I finished 7th. I don't remember everyone's differential, but the top 10 looked like this:
(NOTE: I'm not sure I got all the differentials correct, so forgive any errors!!)
1. Micah White 12 (+120)
2. Frank Truong 10 (+110)
3. Robert Rau 10 (+108)
4. Eric Berger 10 (+95)
5. Martin Boehm 10 (+78)
6. Joe Horbey 10 (+75)
7. Brian Guthrie 10 (+72)
8. Ira Babb 10 (+72)
9. John Farmer 10 (+35)
10. Paul Hodges 10 (+??)
I couldn't stay for the final confrontation (Melissa had suffered long enough!!!!!), but I understand that Frank Truong came from behind to win 2 (+9). Congrats Frank!!!!
If you made it this far, thanks for reading. Let me conclude by thanking Charyl Perry, Mike Patterson, Bill Sweeney, and Rodrick Powell for running a GREAT regional tournament. Well done!!
That's all for me. I guarantee that my next report will be from the TD perspective - after my unlikely success at San Antonio and Houston, its time for me to take a break (I think Melissa will appreciate that sentiment as well!). Until then, MTFBWY!
Regards,
Brian, Red 81
Brimel@aol.com