parker-co-9-30-00-jesus-goes-to-parker
Title: parker-co-9-30-00-jesus-goes-to-parker
Author: Brian "HuntaWarya" Hunter
Date: Oct 1, 2000
Light Side: 60 light side cards (which is a Fake Hidden Base/Mains & Toys deck)
Dark Side: Ralltir done RIGHT
Well, once I arrive to the tourney, I look around to see who today’s big hitters will be. I do not see kyle craft in attendance this week (#2 in my region, #4 in the world) Nor do I see John Arendt today (#3 in my region) So it looks like my toughest match would be Van Melancon (#5 in my region) I would really like to win the tournament today (not that I would ever like to lose), since an Emperor Palpatine will be given away as part of the first-place prize. This may not seem like a huge deal, but what you must understand is that I did not own an Emperor Palpatine. I had been using one in my decks lately, (including the tourney at GenCon) but it was just one I had borrowed. And the guy I borrowed it from wanted it BACK after the tourney, so I figured I had better win. Along with the Emperor, first place would also get a pack of reflections, 3 packs of DSII, and 3 packs of CC. Not bad for a $3 entry fee, eh?
Game 1: 60 light side cards vs. Mark Lumbert’s SYCFA/SFS Tie swarm deck
Mark comes out swinging, pulling wakeelmui from reserve on turn one, and dropping it, with Seiner Fleet, and a tie. he also drops two other systems from hand. and then puts another tie out, at his endor system. not bad. on my turn, I deploy Tycho the Psycho on GS 3 to the Rend. Point, convert Endor, and move out to his Sullust. on his turn, he deploys a tie interceptor to sullust. followed by a second. and then a third. with an APTW, that would be 15 power, but I choose not to barrier the third interceptor. he deploys one more ship, Zuckuss in Mist Hunter. THAT gets the barrier out of me. he battles me with the 3 interceptors, and plays APTW. I react with the Spiral, draw a five, so he loses one card. on my turn, I drop Nien Numb on Gold Squadron 1 to Endor against his lone tie. he barriers. I go ahead and put gen. calrissian on there anyway, and move tycho and the spiral from sullust to endor. on his turn, his tie has no hyperdrive to leave endor. he has no capital starship in hand to rescue it with. So, he can either move zuckuss over as a sacrificial lamb, to get an extra 4 power, 5 forfeit, and draw battle destiny, or he can leave the tie alone at Endor against my falcon, GS 3, and Spiral, and draw his 11 card force pile, looking for a ghhhk or a masterful move to go get a ghhhk. He tries the second option. On my turn, I deploy Blount on Tala 2 to wakeelmui to say hi to his single tie there. follow in with Home One. Drop I’ll take the leader. Battle him at endor. He loses his tie +13. Battle him at wakeelmui. He loses his tie +8. 21 cards in one turn, and he never recovers. Full win by 24. So I am: 2 (+24)
Game 2: My ralltir done RIGHT vs. Van Melancon’s MWYHL test to 1/beatdown deck.
Van has just beaten his first opponent by 26, so we have similar differential, and opposite allegiance. we get paired early. I manage to flip real early in this game, and I refrain from deploying my spaceport docking bay, to try and keep Ben Kenobi from transiting over from tatooine, or to keep jedi luke from transiting over from the home one docking bay. But, Van drops the spaceport docking bay to ralltir from his deck, and comes on over. so pretty soon, the mains are right in my face. but he doesn’t have his OTE, so I just walk away every turn, letting him have one site, but not two, so I stay on the 7 side, and can keep getting the cards I want with my objective. the rest of the game is pretty routine. we do a lot of docking bay chasing. he chases mara jade from ralltir to tatooine and back again. later he is chasing vader around too. all the while, the little drains at the diamond sites are working him over. he ultimately brings the super falcon to ralltir, cap’n han, epp leia and all. But Bossk in Hound’s Tooth teams up with zuckuss in mist hunter, and the two destiny I’ve set for them are a 6 and a 4. too much attrition. both pilots die. game. Full win by 22. Making me: 4 (+46)
Lunch break: we have burger king today. I get some kind of barbecue burger they came out with and a chicken tender sandwich, along with a mountain dew. just thought you’d like to know. :)
Game 3: My ralltir vs. Jon Cassidy’s MWYHL test to 6.
In games one and two, Jon has knocked off two players with ratings higher than his own. Jon took a lot of time off from the game, and just came back when DSII was released. Apparently, he has improved. However, he makes a critical error at the start of the game, and neglects to use battle plan as one of his 3 starting effects. the diamond site drains hurt him real fast, and real bad. he brings the mains to ralltir repeatedly, but as we all know, ralltir usually doesn’t care how many mains you deploy, it will still kill them all. So I did. Full win by 20. I am now: 6 (+66)
Game 4: 60 light side cards vs. Van Melancon’s Hunt Down deck.
Well, the rematch with Van comes early, so after this game, I won’t have to worry about him anymore. I put in a few duel defense cards to help me against Hunt Down, as well as a tunnel vision to help me find them. I start YISYW, and ditch it to get the Honor. I risk getting it altered, since I choose not to occupy a battleground on turn one, but deploy the honor anyway. he can’t seem to find a vader in the first few turns, even though he is playing 5 in his deck. so the honor works on him for a little bit, and I play cards exclusively to space. I drop Wedge in his ship, and lando/nien numb in Gold Squadron one, and I have them hanging out at endor. I also have the Spiral and a punch it in hand, just in case. So I’m draining one at endor, and the visage is pulverizing him. finally he has drawn his vader, so in a single turn, he drops the bad man himself, with vader’s lightsaber, along with Tarkin and Mara Jade. then deploys presence of the force. neat. he flips, nobody loses to the visage, and it is my drain of one versus his drain of 3. So I have to do something. his crew is at the CC docking bay, so I decide to hope he isn’t playing the Tatooine Docking Bay, and I drop Ben Kenobi into the Tatooine Cantine, along with EPP Leia and General Solo. Ben has his saber as well, so I know that nothing wants to fight that. not even vader, unless he has the duel, and has some high-destiny to stack. ben flips him back. the visage is now eating him again, and it will be my 4 drain to his 3. much better. But he drops U-3po in the cantina, and I have neither my sorry about the mess, nor the tunnel vision to get it with. my drain of 3 goes away. it is back to my drain of 1 versus his drain of 3, but now the visage will still be hurting him, at least. I wait to see if he picks up vader, but he does not. I drop Jeroen Webb and Orrimaarko into the meditation chamber. He comes down with Sim Aloo, Dr. Evazan, and Admiral Ozzel, but they all are killed. Boba Fett comes to space to help him occupy 3 battlegrounds, so he can start making us both lose to visage instead of just him. But I put the falcon in front of him and order to engage finishes him off in a few turns, since he lost his alters, seeing my wise advice/do or do not on the table. Full win by 11. Giving me: 8 (+77)
During this game, Jon Cassidy has just won another game. He is 3-1, with his only loss being to me, despite the fact that all 4 of his games have been against players with ratings higher than his own.
Game 5: My ralltir vs. Mike McConnells’s MWYHL test to 6.
This is the craziest game of star wars I have played in a long time. I get Bad Feeling in my opening draw, which is cool. It turns out that he has both the Daughter AND Yoda in his opening draw, which he is none too pleased about. My initial deployment to ralltir is as follows: Tempest Scout 3 with an At-st pilot-at the docking bay. Emperor Palpatine-at the jungle. Mike brings down General Calrissian for 8, Orrimaarko for 7, and Yoda in his Hut for 7, all on the same turn. and battles the emperor. I lose the emperor. I draw a one for destiny, Yoda reduces the attrition, so Mike forfeits nobody. I come down on Lando/orrimaarko with Epp vader and the grand moff. his characters die, mine live. In the first few turns, Mike deploys traffic control with which to put his daughter back, so he can deploy her from reserve and actually target her with his objective. But vader alters the traffic control. Mike brings Obi-Wan Kenobi down on my tempest scout 3. He draws high enough to kill the pilot and the walker. Obi dies as well. I manage to get mara jade out, along with her saber, to the forest, where she is immune to attrition. Tawss Khaa comes down with with an epp. Weapon Levitation steals mara’s saber, and she gets hit by the epp. mara jade dies, as does the epp. I deploy another at-st, with another at-st pilot, and use it to kill tawss khaa. Captain sarkli is now next to the Tempest scout at that site. Mike finally gives up on testing the daughter. so he deploys HER to ralltir (for 11!) and puts anakin’s saber on her. he battles me, hits captain sarkli with the saber, and draws a seven for battle destiny, killing the at-st pilot AND the walker AGAIN. the daughter is killed also, and vader/tarkin continue to be the only characters on ralltir. Mike deploys luke from reserve deck to start testing him instead. But I drop dagobah cave with failure to slow him up an extra 4 turns. I get blizzard scout 1 down with an at-st pilot, but Mike comes to ralltir again, and kills the at-st pilot. but blizzard scout 1 survives! it’s a damn miracle! I deploy tempest scout 5, and move tarkin onto it, so it can go to the site next to vader. I then put presence of the force on vader’s site, but mike uses clash of sabers to cancel it. I move tempest scout 5 (with tarkin aboard) to the adjacent site, and I have recently deployed zuckuss in mist hunter (with ozzel aboard) to the kashyyyk system. At this point in the game, I have lost the following in battles: Emperor Palpatine, all 3 at-st pilots, 2 at-sts, Captain Sarkli, and mara jade. wow. it’s so bad that my ralltir setup is now this: Epp vader alone at the jungle. Tarkin aboard tempest scout 5 at the docking bay (which doesn’t even draw destiny, due to jedi test 2), and Blizzard Scout 1 next to an empty tempest scout 1 (for forfeit value) at the forest (which wouldn’t even draw destiny if jedi test 2 WASN’T done) Mike deploys Melas against Blizzard Scout 1, but I imperial barrier, and move the walker over to the desert. Melas follows. I drop the sandwhirl and Melas goes missing. Mike decides it is a good time to concede, and so ends the most bizarre game of star wars in recent history. Full win by 15. I am now: 10 (+92)
Game 6: 60 light side cards vs. Jon Cassidy’s "Build the Death Star 2/that thing’s operational!" deck
Jon is convinced that starting the endor system by itself is much better for this type of deck than playing Endor Ops. You save at least 4 card slots in your deck that way. and when he uses the new ds starting interrupt to get Moff Jerjerrod and the DS II, he takes Imp. Arrest Order as his effect. then, on turn one, you get the DSII docking bay, and put jerjerrod there. the Moff prevents your opponent from deploying spies there, so he can’t get beatdown, unlike the Endor shield/bunker Jerjerrod decks. Jon makes a lot of good points in his argument for using endor by itself, instead of playing endor ops. So i decide to show him why everyone plays the endor ops version, instead of just starting endor (even when just starting endor is technically better) And I start Strike Planning as one of my 3 effects, preventing him from activating force for his starting location. On his first turn, he activates one force, and desperate to get more, he deploys the Death Star II. On my first turn, I use strike planning to get lando, and with squad. assignments, use lando to get the falcon. I converted his endor system earlier in the turn, so lando goes to endor, on Gold Squadron 1, for 3, then moves to the Death Star II, allowing me to drain for 5 on turn TWO. and, with only one exception, EVERY TURN after that. you can see where this is headed. Full win by 30. So I finish at: 12 (+122)
So I managed to win the Emperor. there was nothing good in the dsII packs I won, but the reflections pack had a foil Tarkin, so that was cool.
Props:
To Jon Cassidy, for coming out of retirement and beating several players who are SUPPOSED to be better than he is.
To Scott Gaeta, the tournament director, for looking at my light side deck and giving it the name: 60 light side cards.
To Mike McConnell, for giving me an interesting game, even after getting the daughter and yoda in his opening draw.
To the guy who came from out of state to play against Colorado’s finest, for not dropping out of the tournament, and sticking with it for all 6 games, even though he would finish 1-5.
Slops:
To Matt Riecks, for missing game one of the tourney AGAIN. Did you know these tourneys are 6 games, and not 5? Just kiddin’ ya, Matt. :)
To Van Melancon, for getting caught with 61 cards in his deck at the start of game 6, and having to forfeit the match as a result.
To Joe, (van’s opponent in that sixth game) for not letting Van take a card out, which would have allowed them to go ahead and play the match. And I can totally see the reasoning behind Joe’s decision, but still, doesn’t seem too....sporting.
To me, for pulling a bunch of gay crap out of the DSII packs I got for prize support, just like I ALWAYS do.
To Burger King, for discontinuing the Rodeo Cheeseburger.
Well, that’s it. Thanks for reading.
Brian Hunter