the-real-vancouver-bc-9-17-00
Title: the-real-vancouver-bc-9-17-00
Author: James "Wraith One" Hsu
Date: Sep 19, 2000
This was a nice little 4 game tourny on Sunday. I didn’t know if I was going to go to this one, because school had already started. Plus, it was a Sunday, but I figured, what the hey. I wanted to try out some new decks. Prior to this tournament I had tried all sorts of decks, but they were all unsuccessful.
For Light Side, I didn’t have Jedi Luke, so I couldn’t try the new LS objective. But then I had heard from others that it wasn’t too good, and even the speeders variant would have trouble against certain decks. Three weeks ago I played a Jedi Test 6 deck but it got crushed one game by 30 against a good TIE deck, that looked almost exactly like one I saw on Decktech. So I decided on using Hidden Base for Light Side, not xwing swarm but a deck built to stand a good chance against TIEs. A couple starship/pilot combos, like Wedge and Jek in their ships. Three copies of I’ll Take The Leader. Squassin/Strike Planing/Wise Advice start, with the original Falcon and all the good unique Star Cruisers. I also had some Grimtaash, Barriers, two Houjixes (for Lateral Damage) and the guy that cancels Lateral Damage (I REALLY hate Lateral Damage). It was designed with just 5 battleground systems, no Coruscant (too much force to opponent with Kiffex and Kessel already), and it didn’t have to flip to win. I always come back to playing Hidden Base eventually, it’s like a cycle I can’t break.
For Dark Side I had to put together a new deck also. Like Matt Lush, I was always a big fan of SAC. The last two tournaments or so I ditched ROPs and went for old-school Set Your Course start with Big Blue and Lord Vaders. Last tournament the deck lost horribly to an S-Foils Hidden Base deck, it was one of the worst losses I could remember, beatdown by about 25 force. That was an okay deck but I still craved the stability and power of ROPs. Yeah, it’s unoriginal but I went back to ROPs for this tournament. I used Mob Points/IAO with all those nice 1-0 docking bays and three Raltiir sites - forest, desert, spaceport docking bay. I had lots of AT-STs in the deck. Pull Carida right away for a battleground system. A Sandwhirl and Always Thinking With Your Stomach to make some guys missing. 2 Ghhkks because now I am super paranoid about getting beat down in some way, I swear I’m putting in 2 Houjix/Ghhkk in every deck I make now :-). Guaranteed force gen is just too good to pass up. Who knows how much longer I’ll be able to play this, so I’m gonna make another run with ROPs.
Well most of the good players were there that day. David Houle, Alan Sagan (our regional winner), Alex Alami, and Ryan Mathison. Talked some strategy with Alan, then the tournament started. Sorry I’m bad with names, I apologize for not writing down anyone’s name.
Game 1 - Dark Side versus MWYHL Test 6
I had never played Son before, but judging for his trading binder lying on the table he had probably every card out there, in multiples. And sure enough he was playing a Jedi Test 6 deck with lots of mains and lots of destiny adders. I had no protection against training/retrieval in this deck so I knew this was going to be trouble. ROPs flipped on turn 3 or 4, and I drained for a steady 3-4 (3 sites + Carida) every turn. Apparently it took him longer than usual to train. I think his mistake was only playing 3 Dagobah sites and depending on Electrobinoculars. There was one turn where he used Electrobinocs until his whole reserve was gone (about 8-9 times) and he still couldn’t draw high enough. While he was training he didn’t try and come get me at all, so I set up Search and Destroy and a react network on my planet. Search and Destroy was money in this game, doing tons of damage to him. Whenever he would try to Alter the card I would cancel it with a Sense. Later (around test 4 or 5) I dropped down Vader and managed to Alter Traffic Control but not Bacta Tank. He lost uncontrollable fury and anakin skywalker early so I knew it was okay for me. I Altered when he had a huge hand, around 20+ cards in hand, but since I had no CHYBC or Secret Plans he flipped his objective and got 10 life force back. From that point on he started playing On The Edges, the only thing I could do was play my grabber, he retrieved in total about 20-30 cards that game. He was ready to come over and fight me with his stacked 7. He dropped Obi and saber and Luke and saber at the forest, battled, I react with about 3 AT-STs, he plays Gift of the Mentor. He was surprised that I was able to satisfy 21 attrition by forfeiting around 5-6 cards from the battle. Luke goes to his Bacta Tank. Next turn I run from Obi. I held Always Thinking With Your Stomach, hoping he would be dumb enough to drain for zero with Obi :-). Luke came out again and wiped out a whole bunch of guys at the spaceport docking bay. I don’t remember how exactly I did it but I eliminated Luke and Obi with suicide strikes and for some reason he didn’t use Bacta Tank again. Turns out he wanted to use the Jedi Luke in his deck but he couldn’t find it, it was in his force pile. I was getting worried, we were going to time out. But then Jedi Leia comes to Ralltiir, he puts Meditation on her, and moves her and General Han into the desert. With a devious smile I drop the Sandwhirl and he is shocked to learn of the rules for missing characters. After that Search and Destroy starts its damage again, and he draws out.
FW (+13 or so)
Game 2 - LS versus Ryan Yee’s ROPs
His ROPs was a little slow, it used just characters and no walkers. He told me before we started if I had a Security Precautions for trade, I just thought well, I guess that means it’s not in his deck. A first turn Lando in the Falcon was followed second turn by I’ll Take The Leader and Nien Numb. I moved to his system second turn and that slowed him down enormously. Slapped two Projections, reducing his drains to nothing. I would harass him with Leia with blaster and Tawss Khaa plus Bacta Tank on the ground. He wasn’t very bright in his decision making. One turn I used Fly Casual just to track a destiny 6, and two turns later he still wanted to initiate battle against my lone Leia with his lone Premiere Vader. That was just incredibly dumb, I shot down Vader and Leia went to the Tank. He finally flipped after about 11 turns, and I was just waiting. I flipped my HB, and drained him quickly for 4-5 force a turn while he paid to draw up. Now he had a grin on his face. He said something like, "Let’s see if this works, he he..." So next turn he drops Zuckuss to Ralltiir system, plays the Admiral’s Order that deals one damage to me for every commander/general or whatever at his related planet site. My AO goes to used pile, I track it for a six. I remind him that he needs to occupy a battleground system to play the card, he’s like "oh" and he drops Fett in Slave One to Kiffex, I Barrier even though there’s no LS ship there, he probes, not my base. That was the only system he probed the whole game. Too bad he didn’t see the 2 I’ll Take The Leaders sitting pretty in my hand. Next turn send his AO to used pile, I just sit there with the Falcon, I want him to battle so I can deploy Spiral. Well he deploys some Star Destroyer with some scrubs on it next turn at the system and battles. He is very surprised by my Spiral, oh well. I draw total of 10 for battle destiny, I win the battle, he loses Zuckuss. I play Legendary Starfighter...bye bye bye Dark Side. I then use Draw Their Fire to get some more cards back and Legendary Falcon leeches him to death.
FW (+20)
Game 3 - DS versus Squassin Hidden Base
His deck had the same start as my LS, with General Lando at Endor. I set up very quickly, flipping with a minimum of characters, hoping he wouldn’t come get me right away. Plus I had the money card, Ghhkk, in hand so I played with no fear. The suicide flip strategy worked, so I flipped fairly quickly but also being certain to draw some ships into my hand. What I didn’t anticipate was him dropping a Cloud to Ralltiir, deploying there, and then moving to the Ralltiir system. He flipped my objective back. That was some tech I didn’t anticipate in Vancouver. So next turn I drop Zuckuss to Ralltiir from my hand, waiting for Barrier, he had no Barrier. So then I drop Bossk to the Cloud, and flip Ralltiir back. I move Zuckuss into the Clouds, because he had 4-5 ships at Ralltiir system, including Nien Numb and General Lando. I was disappointed again next turn. He dropped some intruder missiles, laser cannons, and shot down Zuckuss, power pivoted Bossk. Lucky for me I only had to lose 2 or 3 force for battle damage. Once again my objective flipped back, only now I had no ship that could go into the Clouds. I decided that to win this game I had to outdrain him. He flipped Hidden Base and I deployed Security Precautions, deployed Sarkli and Avenger to Kiffex, probed. That wasn’t it, but I expected as such. I just wanted to drain for 2 there with no worries about battle damage. That same turn I deployed Chimaera to Ralltiir with some guys and We’re In Attack Position Now. Just sat there, I didn’t battle for fear of Punch It! Strangely enough, he didn’t chase me around but elected to stay at my system. The Hidden Base had to be Endor or Kessel but they were too far away. I realized my mistake. My ships were at parsecs 2 and 3, and that meant I had to wait until next turn to deploy the Devastator to the other side of the galaxy. He controlled no systems so he basically took my drains of about 3-4 a turn. Jedi Luke came down with his saber, but I tracked a Twi’lek and two turns later EPP Vader chopped his son to itty bitty pieces. Finally I got First Strike out and just kept battling his Falcon to get force back. Even with two battle destinies in space he couldn’t beat my Destroyer’s immunity to attrition less than 7 (Evax and Cabbel both onboard). This was a great game, very close and lots of battles. The game was much closer than the differential suggested, because of late game First Strike. I ended up draining him out and eking out a close win.
(FW +20 or so)
At this point I find out that Ryan M., Alan, and David had all played DS so I wasn’t playing any of them for the last game. But my last opponent was still very tough...using a theme deck to boot.
Game 4 versus Alex Alami’s Court Deck with loads of capturing and the Rancor (!)
I started off nervous, I knew he was playing the Rancor (he told me he placed guys out of play every game) and I had zero experience against a court deck that flipped. Because he could deploy Zuckuss from reserve I held off deploying the Falcon for a long time, until I could get some backup. I had difficulty finding Honor of the Jedi the whole game also. First turn he deployed Boelo to Audience Chamber, that was it, then he drew up. I didn’t want to mess with him at the Chamber, because I guessed he would either have a barrier, ghhkk, or trap door waiting for me. My first turn I deployed Projection on the Audience Chamber, deployed Blount and Jek to Sarlacc Pit. At least I felt safe at the Sarlacc Pit. I set up at Kessel with Lando in the Falcon. He deployed Zuckuss to Kessel, I barrier. Next turn I deploy I’ll Take The Leader, Nien Numb and Home One to Kessel. He barriers Home One. Alex wiped out Jek and Blount, put Mara Jade with saber at the Sarlacc pit and deployed Search and Destroy. I though uh-oh. But at this point he began to have incredibly bad luck. I only had EPP Obi in hand. I decided to go one-on-one with Mara anyways, knowing that I would die to attrition. I knew Search and Destroy would then still work against me, but I wanted to eliminate his drain of one there (Projection there also) and use Draw Their Fire to at least get a force back. I deploy Obi, ask if he had a barrier, apparently he had one in hand but just chose not to use it. I knew he wanted to Ghhkk when I battled Zuckuss at Kessel, and he suspected I had Draw Their Fire. So I put down Draw Their Fire, and battled in space first. Yep, he had Ghhkk. Next I battled at the site, hacked Mara, Mara failed to hack Obi. I drew a five for battle destiny, he drew...zero! So he lost some cards for battle damage, and Obi miraculously survived unscathed. Search and Destroy was lost in the process. Too bad I lost one of my grabbers early in the game, and used the other one already on his Imp Barrier. Next turn he tracked Masterful Move and used IG-88 to capture Obi. I knew the Rancor was getting ready, so I flipped and drained him at Kessel and Kiffex. Fortunately for me he didn’t go to space again and he was paying to draw. The Rancor was always in his force pile. Near the end he fed Obi to the Rancor, retrieved, I lost some force because of Court game text. But it was too little, too late. I drained him out soon afterwards. What really won me the game was getting rid of Search and Destroy, that was the clincher.
FW (+10 or so can’t remember...)
I take first place in the tournament. Unfortunately, for some reason, we didn’t get any prize support because apparently Decipher halted the shipment of prize support. Not sure exactly what happened and why. Nonetheless, it was still a fun tournament to play in. Didn’t get to play Ryan M. or Alan...oh well, maybe next time :-)
Props:
-Legendary Starfighter - friggin’ amazing
-Ghhkk - Money!
-Houjix - See above
-Hyperlight for running the tournament
Slops:
-Obi getting fed to the Rancor
-Lack of prize support - but I suppose I can live without JP or CC for awhile...
Thanks for reading!