end-zone-comics-bountiful-utah-10-21-2
Title: end-zone-comics-bountiful-utah-10-21-2
Author: Matthew "MattJ" Jensen
Date: Oct 25, 2000
As far as decks went, I wanted to go with something unexpected in our area for LS. So I pulled the Speederaholics TIGIH deck from Decktech. Fun deck but I didn’t have a Jedi Luke to put it into action. So I make a jab at a local trade with Ben Clark and end up losing out on that one. He made a killing for cards to complete his collection so I can’t really complain. He felt bad that he couldn’t do the trade with me so he let me borrow his other Jedi Luke in order to put the deck together. So with Jedi Luke, I proceeded to get my Speeders and X-Wings together to cause havoc on the scene.
For DS, I was set on giving RalOps a fond farewell before JPSD come out. I’ve always loved Biker Scouts so I go for the Speeder Bike RalOps deck that Clint used at Worlds. It is a fun deck and with the immunity, power, reactibility and deploy cost would be a good counter to some of the Elom horde decks that had seen our area lately. It sets up amazing drain potential on RalOps if they don’t come at you and offers a quick and powerful flip through biker scouts. So I borrow an Emperor from Hartman Anderson (Yet another UR card I haven’t been able to get ahold of) and get things set to go.
We had a moderate show up and I try to encourage Casey to start on time. While I wasn’t going to miss this tournament, my wife’s grandfather was being honored with a huge family birthday bash at about 4:30 and there was no way I could get out of that even if I wanted to. Casey’s kicking the idea of having a final confrontation due to the sheer amount of cards being given as prize support and I let him know that I’ll have to drop out of that if I get so lucky. Casey pushes the players through filling out command cards and pairings are announced.
Game 1 - LS vs. Ben Clark’s Hunt Down/Flagship Ops.
So 5 minutes after letting me borrow his Jedi Luke I get to use it against him. Ben’s a good guy and was a Padawan to Jared while he was SM. He plays largely for fun but brings several friends to the tournament and is always a good sport. I start out with the usual TIGIH. We both lose to Visage while I’m draining him at Endor Docking bay for 2 as well. He deploys a couple TIEs with matching pilots to a system. Right then Jared is walking around saying that the next player to get beatdown on gets a pack of Limited Premiere. I tell him to hold on for a second. I deploy Honor of the Jedi, Hoth DB, Incom Corporation, 6 X-Wings and play organized attack against Ben’s 3 TIEs. Jared hands over the pack to Ben as his side of the system is cleared plus 15 or so more from reserve. From there I continue to drain at a couple systems with X-Wings, at a couple of DBs with Jedi Luke and Speeders, and he is losing from Visage. He manages to get Flagship Ops out but by then only has 8 cards in reserve. FlOps just isn’t quick enough and probably never will be. Full Win by 28.
Results: 2 (+28)
The Good: Quick beatdown.
The Bad: Having to play Ben after he was nice enough to lend me a Jedi Luke to use.
Game 2 - DS vs. Jason Ayre’s Hidden Base/X-Wing Beatdown deck
Jason Ayre is the highest ranked player who is active in the Salt Lake area. The last time I played him it was at the Tatooine Regionals where I kept him from making the final by beating him technically with a RalOps deck. Technically I say because I flipped with a AT-ST controlling one of the 3 sites which shouldn’t have happened. As I pull out RalOps to start again, we joke that we won’t let something like that happen again!
We start and I manage to get a 2nd turn flip with the Speeder Bikers doing there charm. He isn’t draining much but flips after getting Haven out on Yavin. He’s cancelling some of my drains but he isn’t doing any damage to me so it’s all good. I play Security Precautions and throw down Executor at Yavin and probe. Nope. Next turn I deploy Bossk in Hounds Tooth to Kessel and find his Hidden Base. Now I’ve got a sore situation. He’s managed to flip back my objective due to EPP Luke at his Desert site on Ralltiir and has Red Leader in Red 1 at the system. I deploy a Biker Scout with Bike to the Desert and move the Executor to Raltiir to get the flip back. I’m trying to figure out what to do with Bossk In Hounds Tooth since he can’t get directly back to join the Executor. I pull him to Corulag since Jason has nothing there. I’m just waiting for a nice big X-Wing Beatdown and Jason obliges. He turns on S-Foils and proceeds to throw down 6 or 7 X-Wings down to Corulag to party with Bossk. He has 2 cards in his Force Pile and uses one to initiate the battle he knows will end the game. DOH! I play Projective Telepathy and he can’t pay to continue the battle. With S-Foils on he can’t move away Red Leader from Ralltiir and just looks sick. I come down to Ralltiir with Zuckuss in MH and battle causing RL to go bye bye and move Bossk away from Corulag to join my Armada. I pegging him for drains which he can’t cancel enough with only Rebel Base out. He does get an All Wings in but he comes after me at Ralltiir with 6 X-Wings. Still can’t figure that out. My 23 power, 2 destiny +4 from RalOps, no destiny for him and he still comes after me. He dies quickly and deploys enough X-Wings to Ralltiir again to make 6 ability and initiates again. The first time I understood but Zuckuss was playing with his head and he really couldn’t do too much anyway. To finish the game, for fun I throw down a Biker Scout and Bike against EPP Luke and initiate a battle. I play High Speed Manuevers, Luke Slices the Biker and I draw a 5 to his 2 for 10 in attrition. Game ends with RalOps whupping on Hidden Base as it should! Full Win by 22.
Tally: 4 (+50)
The Good: Validly whooping on Jason this time. Projective Telepathy is so cool!
The Bad: Thrashing on the same newbie twice in a row!
Game 3 - DS vs. Nathan Magro’s EBO/X-Wing Swarm.
Everytime I’ve played against Nathan I’ve played LS and he invariably beatsdown on me with Skrillings or something like that. So I’m excited to be able to finally go after him with my trusty RalOps deck. I go for a quick setup and have the capability to flip on 2nd turn if I get the DB with IAO. I hold off though in fear of an invasion from Hoth and the fact that I’m still trying to figure out what his slant of EBO is. He hasn’t deployed any starships but has thrown down some Eloms on Hoth so I hold off. His turn he deploys a hug load of X-Wings at Hoth and another system and looks to start draining. Here I realize my mistake. I should have flipped so I could have went for Imperial Decree this turn. I instead spend my turn flipping. I’ve got Presence of the Force at the DB with Choke Vader and Saber with piloted speeder Bikes at other sites. He continues to spread X-Wings through the universe and I’m behind on the force drain race. Here was my second mistake. As I search through my deck, I go for setting up Emporer with Overseeing It Personally instead of pulling out Imperial Decree and trying to eliminate his drains. When I do get the Emporer setup, He comes to the Empy’s site with EPP Obi and KFC. Third Mistake was trying to hold the site and not run Empy’s butt away from the battle like I should have. Empy’s sliced and now my drain potential is never going to match Nathan’s. I try to get Imperial Decree out and miss the first time and when I do get it out I don’t have enough characters to make a drive on Hoth. He proceeds to drain me out of a game I could have made much differently. Full Loss by 13?
Tally: 4 (+37?)
The Good: Not much. Mistakes cost and a lack of insight cost me the game.
The Bad: Not getting Imperial Decree going. Dumb, Dumb, Dumb, Dumb!
Game 4 - LS vs. Jason Ayre’s Set Your Course For Scum & Villany!
Jason has recovered from his earlier loss and is ready for some revenge. He pulls his starting hand and says, "This game is going to be interesting!" I’m looking forward to it as well. First turn I have a plethora of Speeders in hand so I move Jedi Luke over to the Docking Bay to inflict some drains and lull Jason into a Speeder beatdown. He comes for the Jedi but without an Imperial He brings down Dr. Evazan, IG-88 with Gun and some other scrub. No battles occur so I know something is up and I have a feeling of dread when he asks me to tell him when my control phase is. Sure enough, Disarmed comes down on Jedi Luke and Dr. Evazan quickly operates to send my only Luke in the deck to the lost pile. He had an incredible hand and I was at a loss to know what to do. So much so that when I came down with 4 Speeders to punish his characters I forgot to retrieve Jedi Luke through Draw Their Fire with my initiating a battle! DOH! I try to make the most of the game and spread out with X-Wings at the Death Star and Speeders at DBs to drain him for a bit. His only reliable drain was from the Audience Chamber but he was getting a drain of 2 from the reserve there (Mosep and Gailid). I’m foolish and keep trying to put Boussh there but he keeps None Shall Passing her back to my hand. I finally give up on that and he starts running suicide runs to make me lose 2 force while he retrieves 4 force through the combination of Scum & Villany, Draw Their Fire and First Strike being on the table. That and the combination of Search & Destroy slowly killed me off. He also stopped my drain at the Death Star by throwing down Bossk in Hounds Tooth and Zuckuss in Mist Hunter to effectively eliminate any X-Wing potential. Full Loss -18.
Final Results: 4 (+19)
The Good: This might sound crazy, but seeing Jedi Luke get operated on was a hoot! The game was actually well played.
The Bad: The only real complaint I have was my not remembering to retrieve Jedi Luke through Draw Their Fire. For shame on me!
As I finish the game, my wife has come to pick me up for the party we are going to. I wish Jared the best, thank Casey for the tourney and tell Jake to bring home anything I win. Jason Ayre ends up winning the final confrontation against Nathan Magro from what I hear. A majority of Jared’s collection, including a binder full of rares from every set was put out as raffle prizes. In my absence I end up being drawn as the winner of two 5,000 card boxes of uncommons and commons from Limited Premier to Endor. Not bad for me! So I now have enough of these cards to help many a people get into the game.
On to a short Props and Slops section:
Props:
Jared - for being a great Squadron Member and providing awesome prize support. Good luck in all your travels as a YJ Ambassador.
Casey - for running a good tournament and talking Jared into the prize support!
Jason - for Disarming and Operating on Jedi Luke. And Decipher thought Seekers would be a threat to their beloved Ultra Rares!
Ben and Hartman - for letting me borrow those same Ultra Rares!
Slops:
Me - For scrubbing out and not getting Imperial Decree out against EBO.
End Zone - For not having a working light in the restroom for almost the whole tourney. You either had to be a good aim or head to the store down the mall.
That’s pretty much. Hope you enjoyed the read!