las-vegas-19th-mothatron
Title: las-vegas-19th-mothatron
Author: Danny "Skuff D" Rider
Date: Aug 20, 2000
Ahh the splendor of returning to the tournament scene. There had been several other tournaments following our Tatooine regionals but I was unable to attend them for one reason or another. However I had made it my goal to attend this tournament, which would be the first one for new Director, Dan "Mystikal" Christy.
The night before this tournament I am blowing fumes. I have no clue what to make my decks to be, I haven't even got inspiration and most importantly, I don't have the time to build them as I have to be at work until 1 in the morning. But the way of a Jedi is never easy, is it? So I am up to 4 in the morning making decks. I get a few ideas for a light side deck from some stuff online. I combined 2 profit decks and said to myself, "Self, this will be your lightside." (BTW thanks to every profit player out there as well as ScorpioStalker, who provided me with a glimpse of what Profit can do.)
So now I turn to my dark side. Well gee, this pile of cards from Endor and DS look like they'll work. Hmm now how do I make endor ops? So after some reeflective thinking and choosing cards that just make sense I choose a hastily put together Endor Ops. Then I sleep for 2 hours, wake up to a phone call from work, who demand we have a mandatory meeting at 8 in the morning. (Dammit, I just closed last night!) and I head into town. The meeting is of course stuff I already knew and after banging my head against a wall, I head to the tournament.
Currently I am running on 2 hours sleep, a granola bar, a rating of 1651 and half tank of gas. This will be my motivation for success today.
Game 1: VS Brad Bedlion (1582)
His DS Beatdown vs My Profit
This game starts off great for me. I get some mad activation and most of the cards I need. He sets up a few systems and deploys some capitals hoping to drain me out in space. Landing claw comes into play and Lando takes a ride on the Executor Express. He puts down the Emperor and Janus at Jabba's Palace and starts drawing up like mad to find his anti claw tech, I deploy Shasa Tiel, Liea and Chewie to the Chamber and prepare to free Han. During his turn he puts down CHYBC. Ohh, I guess I'll have to deploy Jedi Luke and his saber to the Palace, free Han, retrieve and then Nabrun over my beat squad to join up, with Luke. I started with Insight serves you well and didn't pitch it so the Emperor is defense value 6. Sweet. I battle, smack the Emperor with a saber, then Clash him to make him lost and knock him for a good 12 force. He decides to stay off the ground and I decide to Profit around. Hey, that ryhmes.
He puts out Admiral Chiraneu but by then it's too late. I've got a saber and profit set up he loses within a turn.
Full Win for me by 29.
Currently 2 (+29)
The Good: Profit pulls through. Making the Emperor regret his visit to Tatooine.
The Bad: Nothing. This game went like it should have.
The Ugly: The two old prunes I beat up on at the Palace. What do they feed these guys? The emperor is like a sun dried tomato and Janus, well he looks like one of those cross dressing old men...ugh creepy.
Game 2: Brandon Chong (1436)
His EBO vs My Endor Ops
Brandon's got a good jump in activation over me in this game early on. But quickly I put out Merrijik and began to pull systems I doubt he'll have in his deck. I've got the force for the Executor and Ozzel and sure enough, I get a jump in space. I start to drain before him in space and after he sets up EBO (I breath easier seeing him use Luke along with yoxgit and a baragwin to set up EBO) he comes to Endor. He doesn't battle yet as he doesn't have enough power to comparee to my flagship. This is advantage 1 for me. My turn, Chiraneu aboard the DS Squadron star destoryer come to visit Ozzel. I deploy Something sepcial for them and initiate a battle. Oh, wait, you can't hyper escape as you only had 4 force saved, not 6! Darn looks like you'll lose that battle and 12 force. Advantage 2, me.
He puts out Kiffix his next turn and draws. I get a little greedy and dump the Chimera and Evax to Kiffix hoping for a drain of 2. I won't get it but I'm glad that I put them there. He comes down with a gold squad Y-wing to block my drain. This time he saves the force to move his starship when I intitiate a battle, including the force for my First Strike but wait! I'll use Gravity Shadow.
???What's that do??? One of the best things to hear in a SW:ccg game. I draw destny 5 and that y-wing comes right back to Kiffex and gets hammered. Lose 10 more force. Advantage 3, me.
I move Executor to my Sullust and begin to accel in drain bonuses from Endor and Chiraneu. In a last ditch effort he pulls out an X-wing, A-wing and holds up at Kiffix to stop my drain. That's when Zuckuss comes into play. Intitate, battle damage +more and advantage, me. Game, me. even with his baragwin retrieval (which i found out he was doing wrong) I still quickly took him down.
Full win by 26
Currently at 4(+55)
The Good: Gravity Shadow, Something Special and First Strike.
The Bad: Not catching the way he was using the baragwins. Also if I could have got CHYBC, I would have been happier.
The Ugly: Surprisingly this game was pretty, oh so pretty.
I am now at the head table. Not a place I want to be at as I'm playing a 6 game tournament but he, it'll do.
Game 3: VS Jeff Lavigne (1740)
His Bring Him Before Me VS My Profit
Well early on he gets a lock on the audience chamber. Having to make sure Luke stays away from Vader as well as not having a Han to work with puts a crimp in my plans. By the time I muster enough cards to form a battle force it looks pretty tight. However with a pivotal card, I might turn the battle. Liea, Orrimarrko and an Elom pop down to the AC and Liea tries to show Han someone who loves him. But sense comes into play and despite me having Double SAC protection. (Do or do not and Wise Advice) He can't afford not to sense it, which he does. I don't have enough force to turn tail and run, so I battle. I take out only one character lose everyone due to those weapons he's got going on. Damn. However I won the battle and he stacks a card on my Feel the Conflict.
But wait, he's got the Emperor alone at the DB. Hmm, my next turn I send down a spy, Elom and Obi-wan Kenobi and his saber. We smack the Emperor but miss him with the saber. Another card goes to Feel the Conflict. I pay for a drain of three at the throne room for two turns but then he comes down with Iggy and Janus. I get a look at his reserve however. He has a 1 and 6 destiny remaining. He battles and draws the 6 to capture Obi-wan. I draw a 5 for battle destiny but Janus is a 6 forfiet! Iggy stays as does my Elom. I don't have much of anything left to do and by the time he puts the emperor to the throne room to battle, I've all but accepted this loss.
Full Loss by 16
Currently 4(+39)
The Good: Smacking the Emperor up on his turf.
The Bad: Obi-wan getting captured. Also tough working against this deck with my small base of characters.
The Ugly: The word Batholith. Go ahead, just say it. Doesn't it make you sound gay? It's an ugly word and I for one vote for it's removal from the English language.
Game 4: VS Jeff Lavigne (again)
His I Can Save Them VS My Endor Ops
I start IAO, Oppressive Enforcement and the DS2 Bullet. Turn 1 deploy Ephant Mon, and send the bullet to get Perimeter Patrol. During his turn he puts down 4 characters, Loses 4 force to perimiter patrol. Along with that force goes his back door. HA! On his turn he tries a intersting move. He deploys Honor to nullify the loss cause by PP and then sends his insight to get A little optimism and then loses that to retrieve the back door. Looking at this however, I just realized that he should have retirved Your Insight instead of the back door. However this game was full of mistakes by me and this one actually won me the game anyhow. I mass up what ground beatforce I can. (Igar and Tempest 1) He deploys more folks to the landing platform and wants to Nabrun to the bunker. But IAO says you can't. And the bunker makes him have to use the back door. So I wait for him to try the back door, while I drain in space. In a couple turns he has out the back door and sends over Madine, Chewie and Han with blaster. I then follow up with The Walker and 4-lom which cancels Han's GT. My two destinies take out Chewie AND Madine. He decides to back up Han with Liea the next turn and battle. Looking back He was only battling with Han as Perimeter Patrol prevents Liea from Battling right away. Another mistake by me. It didn't cost me much but it should have cost him more. He left Liea, so Vader comes and smacks up the remaining rebels. I hold my own in space and finish up this game in a close race with him draining with Luke, at the Platform and in space and me draining at the backdoor and at two systems.
Full Win by 2
Currently at 6(+41)
The Good: Having my revenge. This is the first time I beat Jeff Lavigne and I caught his little tricks.
The Bad: Not catching all of his little tricks. Sure the back door helped me but I gotta watch that. Also missing the game text of perimeter patrol. that would have been game for me so much!
The Ugly: Ephant Mon. Sure I was using him but the guy couldn't get a date if he went to the zoo and was hitting on the animals.
Game 5: VS Kris "VegasPimp" Lavigne (1916)
His Hunt Down vs My Profit
To sum it up, this game went bad. My hand consisted of Boussh a saber and every interrupt in this deck. 3 Luke's and I finally get 1 in the last throngs of the game. I could go into detail as far as how badly I was beaten and to assure a detailed report, I will. Honor saved me a few turns but then he altered it. I tried to use someone who loves you but he sensed it. I tried to double agent Mara Jade but that too was sense (lost 9 force total due to do or do not) I saw more characters lost from reserve to drains than I saw in my hand the whole time. By the time I thought I had a possible good hand, it was used monnok and I was left with scraps. Finally I think I've got Jedi luke and Ben Kenobi (I was really hoping he'd duel me. He was playing dueling.) By then he'd stacked some nice destiny and my Jedi didn't stand a chance. They went down in a blaze of unglory and the game went quickly to him. MothraTron tore me up with his torn up shirt.
Full loss by 32
Currently at 6(+9)
The Good: making him lose force for playing with his SAC. Heck if anyone plays with thier SAC, they should lose something. Namely privelage to be in society.
The Bad: My opening hand. I've never seen so much except for that time I went to a communist convention. And if that joke went over your head, wear stilts.
The Ugly: The mental image of MothraTron's SAC. Also I have to say that Visage of the Emperor isn't a very flattering picture of the old prune either. If it's possible, he actually looks worse.
Right after this game I went over to watch the last game that was going on. It was between Matt Berta's LS and my next opponent's DS. As this would be the last time they'd play either deck, I didn't consider it scouting and niether did the 10 other people watching the game. Anyhow watching the Rancor almost eat Luke, then get slammed by the Jedi's saber was almost like watching the begining of RotJ. Except RotJ didn't have Obi-wan getting snared by Boba fett, Iggy capturing Liea and an Elom getting beat on. Yah, it was ugly but exciting just the same.
Game 6: VS Justin Abdallah (1460)
His Light Side vs My Endor Ops
There really isn't any exact way to describe the deck I was against except to say it consisted of rebel troopers, guards, Mon Mothma and the cantina shuffle. I set up my operations and began a drain away in space. He starts using it could be worse. I would've given anything for a grabber this game but that's what happens when you make a deck at 4 in the morning. Anyhow, Igar and his walker buddies did a lot of battling in Mos Eisley and by the time I got the Vader, Tarkin combo, I was set up for some heavy battling. The problem with the cards he was using was thier low forfiet and I just tore them up in the Cantina. By then the game was won and his lateral damaged x-wing sealed his fate.
I realize this game is lacking detail but hoonsetly it was all a blur. Even now I'm still reeling from the events that transpired yesterday.
Full win by 18
Final at 8(+27)
The Good: Domination. It's always a good thing.
The Bad: Insanity. It's never a good thing.
The Ugly: Mutilation. It's a very ugly thing.
After this game I see that Shane and Kris Lavigne are finsihing up. Monkey Ties vs Profit. It goes all the way down to 1 force due to a ruling that asteroid destiny does not need to be drawn. Actually we just asked Tim Guzman and he told us that. Right after the game was finished up, Tim corrected himself. Asteroid destiny is a must! Unfortunately it swayed the whole game. Shane would have had people left on the ground and the whole thing would've been differant. Man it sucks when you find out that a game was ruled incorrectly and I didn't even play the game! But at least Tim did correct himself. Better than as opposed to a week down the road.
Anyhow the tournament ends and the music plays.
Chris Hines went undefeated and took 1st place. I never got to play him as we weree always on the same side but his decks were just mean.
Kris Lavigne took 2nd due to a high differential (thanx to me...)
and I took 3rd. I was surprised but pleased. I opened the packs, gt a Captain Han, tipped my hat and went back to work. Man what a day. I tell you if I wasn't using speed, I'd never have made it. And if you believe that let me show you this brand new weapon called the bow and arrow.
Overall:
The Good: Turnout, going 4-2 and the humor factor. This tournament was full of laughs, some good, some just downright great. props to Dan for a great 1st tournament.
The Bad: Little kids who sexually abuse themselves. It's disturbing to see that and even more disturbing when they laugh about it...
The Ugly: How can you call a tournament ugly? It's a glorious thing.
Well that's it for me, I'm gonna go over there now. props to George Carlin and may the Force be with me and not with you.