houston-grand-slam-7-8-00
Title: houston-grand-slam-7-8-00
Author: Justin "hoostino" Warren
Date: Jul 9, 2000
I went with two new decks I had no tourney experience with, again. For the light, I played a variant of Paul Hodges Elom Numbers deck, which defeated me in the regional. As for dark, I have been having trouble finding a dark deck that will win two games, so I decided to go with the tested and true - Rops.
Game 1
My Rops VS some guys Tatooine M&T
I had a little trouble getting flipped, as almost all of my Imperials were hiding in my reserve deck. After drawing for a bit, I get the necessary cards and flip. He comes after me with a few mains, but I wipe them out with attrition. Again he comes after me, this time with Beezer, Obi-Wan, and Chew-bacca (I think) on top of an AT-ST Pilot on a chicken and battles, but I draw a high destiny and forfiet the pilot. Next turn, I sent a beatdown on him and wiped him out again. He deploys another Obi-Wan, but I Barrier and kill next turn. He never really tried anything on Tatooine, and battles and small yet steady drains gave me the win.
FW by 28
Highs: I dominated almost all of the battles.
Lows: Beezer.
Game 2
My Elom/Numbers VS Justin Gillenwaters Hunt Down w/SAC
I get my Nudjs out quickly, and drop a Bothan Spy and three Eloms on the Holotheatre to cancel Visage and throw an Odds. He never deployed Coward, so that drain of two was there the entire game. He deploys Mara to the Farm to drain, I just use Bargaining Table to cancel it for about three turns, then I drop a beatdown on Mara. He had killed one of my Nudjs, so next turn he finally gets Vader out, but I lay the smack down again. The Odds consumed him the entire game, giving me a quick win.
FW by 28 (again)
Highs: Most everything.
Lows: He Altered Bargaining Table when I could have came in handy.
Game 3
My Elom/Numbers VS Ira Babbs ISB Space Undercover
Ira had also won his first two, so I thought I would be in for a decent game. On the second turn, I drop three Eloms and an insert, he responds with an Undercover spy. He started to drain in space, which I slowed with Bargaining Table later. The first Odds that popped caused him to lose eight, I think, and one was a Torture from the Reserve deck. He only had one more Torture, which he used only once. Pretty much all of my drains were nullified on the ground while he drained for two to four in space, but my SIX Odds did their work. Late, I invaded space and knocked some ships out, but he eventually took me out. He made a few fleeting attempts to fight me on the ground, but I had too much power and too many Odds. Not much else happened.
FW by 18 or so
Highs: Killing a Torture with an Odds.
Lows: Not finding a grabber when I needed it.
Game 4
My Rops VS Eric Bergers Numbers Beatdown Retrieval QMC
I had seen Erics deck, and I knew my chances were slim even with a god draw. The draw was rather fair, I had Vader, an Alter, and Masterful Move. Second turn, I dropped Vader, Altered Yarna, and Moved for my Monnok. Since Eric was playing like 10 or 12 Eloms and 10 or 12 X-Wings and Odds, I thought Monnok might be a staging point for victory, so I held on to it for when I could force him to draw a big hand. He played well, avoiding the Monnok by keeping a minimal amount of cards in hand. I never had the balls to use when he had only five or six cards in hand, but he always would deploy a pair of Eloms and X-Wings after I decided to hold the Monnok. I eventually played after he drew about nine cards. Guess what? Not a double. Predictable with my luck. He had sent an X-Wing to Ralltiir first turn, so I was drawing for a ship. After a good three turns of drawing (crap), I get a lousy ship. By this time, he has Eloms on Ralltiir, so I had to muster enough Imps to spread to all four sites to flip, which I did and avoided his beatdowns. Thing is, a flip didnt really matter, as once he flipped, my objective was balls, as his drains on Cloud City cannot be modified, so I took the plinks of one and one all game, which eventually wore me down to too few cards to keep Battle Plan out of my ass. Late, he retrieved damn near everything with Chimes and All Wings.
FL by 32
Highs: The early Alter on Yarna got my hopes up. For a little while. Loss to a teammate.
Lows: Everything else.
Game 5
My Rops VS Mike Pattersons Test 2 Visored Vision deck
I really should have won this game. But my lack of experience with Rops cost me. He starts Polar-ized Negative Power Coupling and I start Coward. He drops Do, Or Do Not and Wise Advice early, which would wind up keeping me from Altering much of anything all game. He tries to fight me early on Ralltiir, but I keep him at bay everytime with the enhanced destinies, even with Yoda at the Hut. He goes to space, but I wipe him out twice. I should have Altered Coupling at the first chance I got, regardless of Do Or Do Not. He kept playing Visored Vision, which I could not stop as my second grabber was elusive (the first was used on It Could Be Worse, which he kept using on Search And Destroy). What really got me was a third turn Uncontrollable Fury on Vader. Even if I could have managed to cancel it, he was playing with 2 Effective Repairs. I got stupid towards the end game and didnt draw for my grabber when I knew where it was (via Coupling), thinking I had it with the drains and Destroy, but then he keeps playing the same 2 Visored Visions every turn for like five turns in a row, causing me to lose 4 a turn when one includes Fury. 2 POAS also hurt towards the end. A late Wars Not Make One Great also helped him immensely, as my Force got too low to do much with. I must congratulate Mike for a nice comeback win.
FL by 5
Highs: The whole game up until the last few turns. Loss to a teammate.
Lows: Not finding a grabber and not drawing when I should have.
Game 6
My Elom Numbers VS Leeland Simmons strange M&T with heavy SAC
Leeland is one of Martins crew, so I know hes gonna be a challenge. He starts with the Back Door and plays Combat Readiness for the Jungle and Forest. Hey, you can give me 4 Force at the start any day of the week. First turn, I dropped three Eloms to Back Door and inserted. However, he activated for a good four turns without the Odds popping. He eventually drops ECC 4-LOM, ECC Iggy, and Zuckuss on top of the Eloms, but draws low on his three destiny and I draw a Chimes. He loses all but Iggy and I lose two Eloms. Next turn, I drop two more Eloms and run away. The Odds began to murder him at this point, as he had no protection, which suprised me. He deployed a late Vader/Tarkin at the Back Door and drained for a bit, but I dropped Battle Plan and kept the Odds going to pull out the win.
FW by 24
Highs: No numbers protection. I got lucky in that first battle when he drew a total of six with three destiny.
Lows: He wiped out a good six Eloms with bounty hunters through the course of the game.
Well, I placed seventh, but our team (Eric, Mike, John Farmer, I) completely dominated again. Eric placed 2nd, Mike 3rd, and Farmer 4th. Joe brangus Horbey took the win and the sheet of LS rares after Farmer lost his last game to Eric by 2, and letting Joes immense diff to come into factor. Thing was, Farmer made a critical mistake at the end which cost him the game and the tournament, but look for that in another report...
Well, peace, Im tired.
Darwin bless. Hoostino out.