seattle-wa-7-15-00
Title: seattle-wa-7-15-00
Author: Douglas "Douglas" Harvilla
Date: Jul 16, 2000
Many of the high-profile players are conspicious by their absence. Some are at Origins, others just can't make it. But we get about fifteen players. I'm expecting people to abuse Scanning Crew and numbers, sort of last stand, but it isn't worth warping a deck around this threat. So I play my usual load of anti-cheese.
My Decks:
Light Side - 'Deus Ex Machina.' A New Secret Base with the Rogue speeders and anti-walker cards. ASP-707 droids, Portable Scanners, and Intruder Missles to rig up massive battle destiny draws. Good against Ralltir Ops, not quite as tough against Hunt Down.
Dark Side - 'Kido Senshi Dasu Beida.' My old Hunt Down deck with heavy SAC and cards to turn Vader into a fortress. Good space complement to gun the Light Side down in space, powerful characters to cut a swath through
the mains and toys.
Game One - (Bye)
I see this coming a mile away as Martin reads out the pairings. It's been ages since I got the bye, now it's my turn. Once everybody is seated and shuffling, we play out a casual game.
2 (+0)
Highs: I'm playing the better of my two decks in the next game.
Lows: Zero differential kind of bites.
Game Two - Dark versus Brandon Smith's Echo Base Ops
He starts with A New Secret Base and I get Blast Door Controls, since it cancels Rebel Barrier and takes this burden off my Senses. I'm a little slow getting Vader down, but I eventually flip by deploying him at the
North Ridge. Move over to the Main Power Generators to avoid getting caught in a surprise Ice Storm.
Brandon deploys Kessel with Hol Okand piloting Gold 6 and Zev in the back seat to hold the system. I drop Mara to Lars' Moisture Farm with her lightsaber, and give Brandon a turn to drain me at Kessel. Lose some nifty cards, but I can live without them.
With a bit of force saved last turn, I have enough to drop Boba Fett In Slave 1 and Dengar In Punishing One at Kessel. Put Dr. Evazan aboard Slave 1 as a passenger, and battle. Brandon flips pretty low, adding a 2 to his
power with a battle destiny of 3. I flip a 4, and DIPO makes it a 5. Both pilots on Gold 6 are lost, Dr. Evazan follows.
After I drain for a turn, the Light Side counterattacks. Another Gold 6, another Hol Okand. Lepira in Gold 4 joins him. Brandon deploys Draw Their Fire and initiates battle. His destiny draws added to power are promising,
but he draws a location for battle destiny. I get a 3, DIPO adds 1 for each opponent's starship again, and Lepira's Y-Wing explodes.
Deploying Tarkin as forfeit fodder on Slave 1, I start another battle and clear out the system. Drains and Visage wear out Brandon's remaining life force, and I put my hand back with Reactor Terminal for a win by 42.
4 (+42)
Highs: A lot of interaction in space.
Lows: Brandon's destiny draws kept letting him down.
Game Three - Dark versus Keith Watubayashi's Hidden Base
Keith isn't into X-Wing swarm, to my knowledge, and if he was he'd be trying out A New Secret Base. So I start Bad Feeling Have I to slow down any brute squads. Sure enough, he gets Wise Advice, a good choice against my deck.
As I get Vader set up at the Jundland Wastes, Keith gets out Alderaan and Tatooine. Still nothing going on in space. The first, and best, volley fired at Vader comes when Keith drops EPP Obi and Luke at the Jundland Wastes and battles. He plays Glancing Blow, swings with Luke. Miss. Obi swings, Force Field stops him cold.
I Have You Now nets me a battle destiny total of 8, clearing out the pesky rebels. Keith forfeits Luke first, then Obi, since he doesn't want to leave the farmboy to get stomped at the Jundland Wastes, where he doesn't get a battle destiny.
The hit and run mains aren't able to accomplish much against Vader, so the Dark Lord drains for 3 for most of the game. Mara sets up at Lars' Moisture Farm with her saber and Dr. Evazan for another drain of 3. Eventually Keith's life force runs out and I win by 22.
6 (+64)
Highs: Seeing Vader fend off his attackers.
Lows: Power 0 Vader for most of the game. He looks too cool to be power 0.
Game Four - Light versus Nick Jones' Hunt Down
Nick starts with Presence Of The Force on the North Ridge, going for the flip on Hoth with Controls to stop Ice Storm.
Commander Luke Skywalker is lost to Visage early, leaving only one farmboy in the deck (Premiere Luke) to flip Their Fire Has Gone Out Of The Universe. I wait most of the game for him to come up, but in the meanwhile my speeders and pilots hold their own.
Hobbie is at the Echo Docking Bay with an ASP-707 droid and a Portable Scanner. Search for a replacement, put the Scanner on top of the deck with the ASP. Zev in Rogue 2 battles Vader, takes him right out. Hey, easier than tracking.
I get Commander Wedge Antilles aboard for backup and have a drain of 2 until Nick deploys Vader and Tarkin to retake the North Ridge. Lone Rogue adds a battle destiny, however, and Tarkin is forfeited. Vader moves away,
and now I end up chasing the Dark Side around on Hoth.
Soon, Nick gets tired of running, too, and battles me. Vader is lost, but next turn a replacement takes over the Jundland Wastes with Tarkin backing him up. Well, that bites. We've both been battered a bit by Visage and drains, and I'm about out of characters. Boushh just took over the Holotheatre to cancel Visage, but if I held onto her for a turn, I could've done things differently and perhaps taken control. So I drain at the North Ridge until he finally cancels his own Presence Of The Force with
Alter.
I finally draw Luke Skywalker, and struggle to get him and Han With Heavy Blaster Pistol aboard Rogue 1 at the Jundland Wastes. Can't battle this turn, got to turn things over to Nick. He battles, and plays I Have You
Now. I play The Force Is Strong With This One. Luke and Han are lost, but Vader stays, and that is pretty much game, since he is outdraining me. Loss by 16.
6 (+48)
Highs: Using those devices for guaranteed Vader kills.
Lows: Running out of characters, bringing things to a grinding halt.
Game Five - LS versus Keegan Carlson's Hunt Down
Keegan flips with Vader at the Death Star Docking Bay and deploys Kessel with Zuckuss In Mist Hunter holding the system. Zev hops in Rogue 2 with Commander Luke at the Echo Docking Bay and they transit to the Death Star.
Put All Sections On Alert keeps Luke from using his ability to draw battle destiny, but The Force Is Strong With This One still gives me two flips, and Vader is sent packing. So we're both being hit by Visage, and both losing force to drains. Isn't shaping up to be a very
high-differential win, whoever runs away with it.
With Wise Advice out and Hunt Down still adding 4 to Sense/Alter draws, I feel safe deploying the Bacta Tank. Then I get Hobbie working on the Portable Scanner combo and set up Echo Base Operations. The ships at the docking bay take off to the Hoth system to drain.
Keegan starts deploying bounty hunter ships against me, and we have several good battles in space. At the height of the confrontation, he has three Dreadnaughts with some pilots backed up by Boba, Zuckuss, and Dengar in their ships against my YT-1300 Freighters and Lando In Millennium
Falcon. Luke transits to Hoth and takes off in Artoo In Red 5 to join the fight. Han With Heavy Blaster Pistol is now adding a battle destiny, to even things up a bit.
My 6 and 7 destiny cards are nowhere to be seen, so I keep flipping a total of about 7 while Keegan sends my characters to the Bacta Tank or Lost Pile. Eventually, I whittle him down to just Bossk In Hound's Tooth and
Zuckuss In Mist Hunter, but he finds his Tortures and tracks them. In the next battle, I flip a total of 7, he gets both Tortures.
Ouch. So much for my YT-1300s and Han. Keegan forfeits Zuckuss, and on my turn Luke and Bossk finish each other off. Two space decks ran each other out of ships! Soon Visage and my modest drains end the game, for a win by 6.
8 (+54)
Highs: Very interactive game. We fought each other to a standstill in space. Those kind of games, slugfests over one or two locations, are a bit of a relief in the current environment.
Lows: Really low differential. Getting my fleet nuked by tracked Tortures.
Game Six - Dark versus Nick Jones' You Can Either Profit By This
He starts with Profit, Premiere Han, and Don't Tread On Me for Ultimatum and Scrambled Transmission. Strange start against Hunt Down, which rarely uses inserts or any serious manipulation. That he doesn't put out Do, Or Do Not is a dead giveaway, he's playing Senses and Alters himself.
I start with Mara Jade and Jabba The Hutt at the Audience Chamber, and pick Crush The Rebellion for my effect. Activate, get Mara's saber, and draw some cards. Nick draws cards, and I flip with Dark Lord Of The Sith and Tarkin at Jabba's Palace. I also deploy Blast Door Controls, a rather important play, since Nick's deck involves the Order To Engage/Narrow Escape gimmick.
Master Luke and Ben Kenobi battle Mara and Jabba at the Audience Chamber. No sabers, though, and Mara misses Luke, so we just draw battle destiny. Gift Of The Mentor adds two draws, but the total is covered by Jabba's forfeit value. I draw a 6, Nick forfeits Luke and re-deploys him.
On my turn, move Vader and Tarkin to the Audience Chamber. Nick battles, plays The Force Is Strong With This One. Vader tries to choke Luke, misses, Mara hits Luke with her lightsaber, and I play I Have You Now. I draw a pair of 2s and a 3. Nick draws a 4, which is canceled, another 4, and a 1. I forfeit Mara, but the site is cleared of rebels.
I haven't been drawing my Senses, so I can't stop him when he deploys Leia to the Audience Chamber and plays Someone Who Loves You. Han is released, and Nick retrieves 10 force. He moves Han and Leia away. I deploy Bubo in hopes of eating Han, but I randomly choose Leia, who is too big to swallow. D'oh! Move Vader and Tarkin over.
Nick sizes things up and decides to move away. He begins using the force and moving the characters, when I tell him to back up, because Bubo is attacking during the battle phase. So he announces that he is using 1 force to attack Bubo. That isn't the way it works, way I see it, I'm asking him to back up because he passed and I have an action to take in a phase he skipped.
We call over Martin and the ruling goes in my favor after a bit of a heated debate, as this is rather important depending on which character Bubo tries to fit in his mouth. He munches Han.
Leia is taken out by a bounty hunter team, but is replaced with Boushh next turn. Nick buys time to try and get out the backup copy of Han by locking down the sites. I can't drain at the Audience Chamber, and Artoo with A Gift blocks my drain at Jabba's Palace. Boushh holds Mos Eisley.
So the damage is being caused by Visage. Eventually, Nick deploys Master Luke to Jabba's Palace and flips my objective. He still can't drain, but Visage hurts us both while he's there. So I track a destiny and IG-88
captures Luke. Visage ends the game shortly thereafter, and I win by 23.
10 (+77)
Highs: The Emperor's Hand and The Emperor's Right Hand Man holding off the Light Side mains.
Lows: Tempers flared a bit over the ruling. When something like that has a drastic effect on the outcome of a game, someone is going to be upset by the decision.
I take first place with a 5-1 finish. Nick has massive differential built up from his first three games and would take first if not for a timed-out game earlier which knocked him down to 9 points in the end. So he comes in second, with Keith Watubayashi in third place.
Prizes are handed out, and they're awesome. Credit for two packs each of Death Star II once it hits shelves, and another four packs for first place. Plus the Cloud City prize support, which typically finds its way into the
hands of new players.
Many thanks to Martin Norris for running the tournament, and to all the new faces who drove out here from God-knows-where.