az-tournament-that-didnt-take-15-hours
Title: az-tournament-that-didnt-take-15-hours
Author: Brian "bgkenobi" Garrison
Date: Oct 14, 2000
The Phoenix Grand Slam is coming up in three weeks, so I wanted to begin getting ready for that weekend of tournaments and such. I went to AZ Gamer, the site of the Phoenix Grand Slam for a 3 Round tournament on Saturday, Oct. 14th.
My decks were -
LS - Profit with a bunch of Mofo’s and interrupts.
DS - BHBM with LS Mains hate.
I show up and find that we are going to have 18 people playing, which is pretty good, considering that about 5 of them haven’t been playing for a while, whith one guy still playing LS Operatives due to not even building decks since April. I talk to Mike Sinclair and Brett Kitani and then we get the pairings.
Game #1 LS vs. Brett Kitanis Hunt Down that has not Lost since Regionals.
Oh great, Kitani for the first game! We sit down and we start talking, him asking me about DCon and such. As usual, he gets a Vader w/stick to a drain 2 location first turn. I drop Obi Wan and Masta Luke and play Gift of A Mentor, he plays I have You Now. We both end up losing everyone at the site. He sets up an EPP Vader on Cloud City and I free Han with Twass Kha and start Profit damage going. More Lukes and such were deployed, but they seems to have died a couple of times. I set up Ben Kenobi with Gen Solo and was pinging him for 3 a turn, (1 from Profit, 2 from Force Drains). He finally dropped Mara Jade, Sensed the Barrier and slinced Ben up, knocking off Solo with a destiny Draw. I made a last ditch effort at the end with Boush at the Executor: Holotheater to drain for 2, but CBHYBC did that Force Drain in. He was able to Force Drain me out.
FL -14
0(-14)
Highs: Actually getting a good Game in against Brett. He beat me the time before by 39.
Lows: Having to play Brett Game 1.
Game #2 DS vs. Jeff Thompsons QMC
I have played Jeff a couple of times and he is getting better every tournament. I dropped the Emperor to the Guest Quarters first turn and he stayed there the whole game. I ended up stock piling Lord Vader, janus, tarkin and the Emperor at the Guest Quarters, draining for 3. He pitched his CC sites right after Vader dropped by, ditching his plans to flip his objective. He dropped Crackin in Tala 1 at the Cloud Cty Sector and I dropped Fett in Slave 1. I initiated a battle, and he played Darklighter Spin. "Darklighter Spin?" I had looked at that card a couple of days before this and thought it was cool, but when he told me that Tala 1’s manuever was 6, I thought the card was now Money. So Fett died and he was draining me for 1 at the Sector, while I was hitting him for 3 in a Force Drain and 1 from Your Destiny. He then dropped the Liberty with Nien Numb at the bespin system and said Go. I then dropped the Flag ship Exectutor with Admiral Piett at the system, and Lat Damaged the Liberty. I played Imperial Command and hit him for 17 damage in the battle. He drew up with me holding 10 cards.
FW +22
2(+8)
Highs: The deck worked again.
Lows: Not many, just the Darklighter Spin thing...
Game #3 LS vs. Andrew Murphys Death Star start.
This game was actually uneventful. He did not really try and do anything to me. He forgot to Force Drain me a couple of times and Ben freed Han with his Lightsaber and Lightsaber Prof on him. I was pinging him for 4 a turn and he dropped the Endor System with two TIES Interceptors. I had Home 1 in hand, along with a Houjix, so if anything went wrong, I had an out. I dropped Home 1 on the two TIES and battled. I drew a 6 for destiny and he lost a bunch. I drained him out. Profit Damage is pretty good.
FW +24
4(+32)
Highs: Profit working correctly.
Lows: None.
Game #4 DS vs. Brett Kitanis LS Docking Bay deck.
What!!!! Brett twice in one tournament? I was confident going into this one, knowing his deck and knowing my deck. I got the Emperor out to the Space Port Docking Bay turn 1 and was draining him from the start. Jedi Luke made an appearance before the Emperor, but Palpatine, Sarkli & Tempest 1 kicked him back to the Lost Pile. I later picked up Jedi Luke and was draining him for 3 from the DB until Ben Kenobi showed up. I tried to Sniper Ben, but he Senced it, so I then tried to Circle the bastard, but I was stupid and we tied. He then Sorry About The Messed Palpatine and then beat down Vader. Igar in Tempest 1 did some work on Cloud City, but Gen Calrissian and Nien Numb drew too high, and Igar was pushin up daisies. I made a fight of it, sending a Demoted Mara Jade against Daughter, but I drew a 3 instead a 4. He drained me out.
FL -13
4(+19)
Highs: Playing 2 great games against Brett.
Lows: Uh...playing Brett twice?
Game #5 DS vs. Brian Choongphols EBO.
Right before this one, Brian asked me how to beat EBO with a BHBM deck. I told him to start with Decree and control a Docking Bay and just two Systems, and soak up the drains for 1 and 2. So we start and I look for Imperial Decree....and I do not find it. Well, 3-3 is looking good now! I start with Crush instead, due to me not wanting to pay for my early Force Drains with Palpatine. I get Janus opening hand, so I have a drain of 2 at the Space Port Docking Bay the whole game. Vader and tarkin sit at the Endor Docking bay and drain for 2 also. He gets EBo set up, but forgets to pull a system when he is set, so he just drops two X-Wings at Hoth, with Incom on Echo Base. I then drop Chimera, with Admiral Piett, Admiral Chiraneau. We battle and I play Imperial Command. He loses both X-Wings and about 10 Force, I lose everything as well. Next turn he drops Boush in front of Vader and tarkin and a couple more X-Wings at Kiffex, which he just deployed. I then Sniper Boush during my Control Phase, drain for 4, and then drop Fett in Slave 1 against 2 X-Wings. I battle, and draw a 3. He loses an X-Wing, I lose 5 Force. He doesn’t do anything his turn, but just move two more X-Wings over to Kiffex. So now he has 3 X-Wings at Kiffex, staring fett in the face. My turn, I drain for 4, then I drop the flag Ship Exectutor on Kiffex. Mara jade was piloting. I smacked him with a total of 26 power, to his 15. He lost everything, mara went to sleep with the fishes....So he moves Lando in Flacon from Hoth, with a X-Wing to Kiffex, leaving a lone X-Wing at Hoth. My turn, drain for 4, and then drop zuckess in Mist Hunter at Hoth, but then before I finish that action, I see that that damn Commander somebody is at the Echo War Room, and his group at Kiffex could react back if Zuckess picked on the X-Wing. So I drop Zuckess at Kiffex instead, and smack him with a Power of 29 this time. I drained him out after that.
FW+20
6(+39)
Highs: Beating and EBO deck without Decree.
Lows: None, the deck worked great.
Game #6 LS vs. Brian Choongphols BHBM
Great, Brian again. This game should have been his. My openning hand was all red, except a Masta Luke and a Jedi Luke. I freed Han turn 2 with Twass Khaa and Masta Luke and expected Hell to open on me. he dropped Chock vader, capturing Luke. Tarkin then came in behind him and battled. He missed choking Han and only drew a 3 for battle destiny, cancelling mine. I didn’t lose as bad as i expected. Next turn he dropped Tempest 1 at Jabba’s Palace and moved Vader/Tarkin over and Tarkin got in Tempest 1. I then dropped Ben Kenobi with his Lightsaber in front of them and let him go. He initiaed, I Dropped Fallen Portale on Vader, drawing a 5 for the destiny. Luke and Ben then smacked Tarkin and Tempest 1 around, killing Tarkin. Due to Vader being lost from the battle, I dropped Advantage on Ben, and that won me the game. He picked up Master Luke again next turn, so he ended up having to lose 3 Force every one of his turns, and I then deployed Han to Bens location, so he lost 1 Force every one of my Turns. I soaked up a couple of Force Drains, and then he decided to try and duel Luke, so I was able to get in 2 Force Drains of 3 each turn, (Lightsaber Prof is pretty good). he had 3 cards stacked under his Objective, so I had to win every battle from here on out. I sacked YISYW for Honor and that made me only lose 1 Force when he won a duel, while he lost 3 Force every one of his turns, and 1 Force my turn. I finally did enough Direct damge to win the game.
FW +8
8(+47)
Highs: Winning a game I should have lost.
Lows: Getting a terrible opening hand.
I finished 5th, the only player going 4-2. The top 4 were all 5-1, but Brett won it all.
Thanks for reading.
Brian