south-st-paul-mn-10-21
Title: south-st-paul-mn-10-21
Author: Joshua "Stormcrow" Grace
Date: Oct 25, 2000
Anyway, the state of Star Wars in Minnesota is in a slow decline. Local tournaments that used to fetch 30+ players are drawing 20 or so. So I’m hoping that we’ll have 30 or more at the Grand slam. When I show up, the place is already packed (though about 8 of those players were Trekkies), and it turns out that we’ll have 48 players. Jon Swenson, the highest-rated active player in the Bespin region, is at the tourney with his friend, Zach Stenerson. I expect them to do quite well. Otherwise, I’ve seen most of the other players before in various local tournies, and I feel that the competition from the Tuesday night Mirkwood tournaments will be the toughest I’ll have to face. This is a reassuring thought since I typically do well at those tournaments.
So I go into game 1 with high hopes. Awesome decks. A bunch of playtesting against various deck types. And familiarity with most of my potential opponents.
Then I get beat.
Game 1. My Hunt Down vs. Chris Perman’s Rebel Strike Team. Chris always has a twist to his decks that surprises me, and, here, already, I tell him that I’ve never faced a Rebel Strike Team deck, so I don’t quite know what to expect. But from what I know of the objective, it should be a favorable match-up for me. All I should have to do is deploy Vader to Endor and run it over, right? Well, as Chris is telling me that he just tested his RST deck against Jon Swenson’s Hunt Down deck the previous night, he cuts all my Vaders to the bottom of the deck. We draw our hands and begin and, voila!, no Vaders. So I get Rendili, shuffle, cut, activate, search for a docking bay and count my Vaders--still 5 in the deck. Curses! We each lose to Visage, and Chris goes. He deploys Madine and Corporal Kensaric to the Rebel Landing Site, and we each lose 1. I activate, search for a docking bay and count my Vaders--still 5 in the deck! Uggh. Visage takes its toll. Chris, on his next turn, erases all my thoughts about deploying to Endor when he gets out several more characters, including, I think, Chewie of Kashyyk. With Kensaric at the site, it’s too expensive to put the beat down on that crew, and I don’t want it coming back at me. I figure I’ll just get Vader to a docking bay. So eventually, I do draw Vader and set up at a docking bay, but over the next few turns, Chris amasses more scouts, flips and starts giving me a headache with drains, plus he suspends Visage with Honor, and for some reason I don’t have what it takes to occupy 3 battlegrounds at the moment. I ask to read his objective and find that I can flip it back by controlling the Endor system, so I save force and launch a fleet there. He’s forced to run away with what little he had remaining (Cal in the Falcon), and his objective flips back. Unfortunately, with Menace Fades making Vader’s Saber redundant, it’s my drain of 2 at a DB and Endor system to his 3 (two at Endor and one at Rendili--I over-deployed to Endor!). Chris doesn’t have too much in his hand or force pile, so I figure Tarkin won’t get spanked too hard if Vader comes back to my hand for an Endor assault the next turn. And that’s what happens. I activate all but two, search for a docking bay and find two 7’s. Well, that’s gonna work. I throw down Choke Lord, battle, choke Chewie and draw my other 7. He draws a 5, and the game pretty much ends. Fett gets to another DB to suspend Honor, but it’s too little too late. Full loss by 5. Afterward, we both say what a good game it was (Chris played it flawlessly and was a real good sport, too), and I ask Chris how his game went against Jon’s Hunt Down the night before (Chris won) and whether or not he had tracked that 5 (he hadn’t). So I wish him luck and decide that I’m probably not going to win this tournament. So I decide to relax and play for fun.
0 (-5)
Game 2: My Fake-out Hidden Base vs Chris Perman’s SYCFA.
48 people and we play each other twice in a row. There are worse fates--many worse. Like the two players that were seated directly behind me and were bickering the whole game. Meanwhile, I expect either a manipulator, Brangus Glee retrieval machine or Ties (or some combination) with his start (Mob. Pts. was out), but he gets Rendili with Mob. Pts., and I’m thrown for a loop. I started Squassin, Strike Planning and Insurrection (the usual), so I just do my thing, getting Calrissian on the Falcon to Endor early, holding an Out of Nowhere just in case. Meanwhile, he deploys Motti to the DB and moves the Death Star to parsec 1. What the ???? Who moves the Death Star? Now, I’m totally confused. I relate a story about how my brother, when he used to play, collected only Dark Side cards and had for the highlight of one of his tournaments the game where he played his Light Side and managed to "confuse Matt Potter" (for those who don’t know, Matt Potter once won Worlds) with a mess of Blue Milk, Beru Stew and How Did We Get into This Mess? Meanwhile, I back up the Falcon with more ships and pilots. Chris throws out more systems and star destroyers, and we finally confront each other at some point after I move my fleet to block his drain. He deploys more ships and battles. I play Out of Nowhere and Punch It! and he loses a couple of ships, and I lose very little if anything. At some point, Order to Engage hits the table, and I just chase him around, maneuvering to keep sufficient power, ability and destiny in each battle to mantain the advantage. Full win by 18.
2 (+13)
Game 3: My Light vs Rich Jeffery’s Hunt Down. Rich reminds me how I managed to spook some cards into my hand when I played a game of Middle Earth against him, so I decide to try again and curse all his Vaders to the bottom of his deck. It was even more effective in Star Wars. Rich didn’t draw a character at all until his 3rd turn. That was ample time for me to get Lando in the Falcon to Endor and make Honor immune to Alter and ample time, also, for me to draw to get TK-422 and a Projection or two. By the time he deployed Vader and Tarkin, it was under control. He deployed Mara to another site, and I sent a squad down to kill her. Our characters danced around a bit so that he never drained, but because Luke was on the table (and no Epic Duel), he kept losing to Visage. Give Rich a break, though, his neck was hurt, and he was on codeine... At least, that’s what he kept telling me. An understandable loss, then, for him, on drugs and with no Vaders. Full win for me by 25.
4 (+38)
At this point, I’m starting to feel better about my tournament not only because I have a sound differential for 4 points, but because I managed to trade for 3 Imperial Commands, a Dark Side Alderaan, Soontir Fel and his ship, and a Lord Vader. Very cool. And somehow the only cards that I traded away that I might have used were two Outer Rim Scouts.
Game 4: My Hunt Down vs. Justin Alfs There Is Good In Him.
Well, by game 4, now, I’m actually within sight of the top table, but I still realize the top players would need to cut each other down for me to squeak through. Justin was a Tuesday night regular until he mistakenly signed up for a Tuesday night course at college. What a blunder! Nonetheless, he’s a solid player, but I still feel optomistic about this game because of the early force choke my deck always gives a TIGIH deck. And I also feel confident because I *never* have such bad draws, Vader-wise, twice in the same tournament. Then, Justin cuts my deck. I draw up to 8. No Vader. Ugly. Nonetheless, some pud goes down to the docking bay and blocks Luke’s activation and drain and ends up capturing Luke on his turn. I back him up with Fett and Dr. E. Sooner or later, I’ve got to get a Vader. Justin still doesn’t have much force to work with; he’s doing his own docking bay thing with Staging Areas, but he doesn’t have the force to put characters down anywhere. Finally, the Choke Lord comes down, and I consolidate all my forces at one site because I’ll be damned if I’m going to let him win battles and turn Vader. At some point, I get the Emperor on the table, and he keeps moving away from Ben Kenobi, an Elom or two, Chewie and Leia (or something like that) while I keep moving Vader, Fett and Dr E. in front of the Light Side crew. This way, I keep draining at one of the sites, and Visage keeps working him over. Half the time, though, it doesn’t hit me because Ben ends up at a non-battleground to chase away a drain. So, my direct damage kills him, especially devastating the one turn where Justin lost 4 cards (I can’t recall exactly what was the source of damage), took them from the top of his deck and lost 4 mains in a row. Full win by 16.
6 (+54)
Game 5: My Light vs. Zach Stenerson’s Court Scum.
Zach already wrote on this game in his own tournament report, and to that, I’ve got to comment, if you’re going to cut before a battle, you might as well cut to a 0... And that was pretty much it... Anyhow, this was my first game against a top player, and I realize that I have a slight chance to make the final confrontation. Zach started up on Tatooine. I started up in space and managed to Projection his Audience Chamber and play Honor to block the pain from Court. He finally dropped a character (I think it was Mara) to the Great Pit of Carkoon. So I decided Jedi Luke would pay a visit where he couldn’t be hit by None Shall Pass. A Frozen Assets prevented a Barrier, Mara Swung but missed, and Jedi Luke obliterated Mara with The Force is Strong with This One. Zach’s next turn he deployed 4-Lom w/gun and Bane Malar and battled. 4-Lom pointed at Luke, freezing the Jedi in his tracks, but Bane Malar proved what a total loser he is when he drew that fateful Kashyyk ZERO for battle destiny. Luke drew a 3. Bane bit it and 3 more force. (Note to Zach: you should have lost 4-Lom, too, and retrieved him with Scum.) Since, 4-Lom stuck around, Luke decided to run from the all-powerful droid each turn. This dance carried on for a while while at the same time Zach had deployed a Ghhk to the Holotable which I beat away with another Projection. So he wasn’t draining for anything, and I was getting my 1 at Endor each turn and 2 at the Holotable when it wasn’t cancelled. But Zach kept on battling with stuff and retrieving force. EPP Vader paid Luke a visit, but missed on the swing. Then Mara visted again, and again the Force was Strong with Luke, and when she died, Luke had the Advantage (with so few Jedi in the galaxy, each confrontation between them has far reaching consequences...). Obi, meanwhile, was trying to deploy to the Audience Chamber, but Zach played his None Shall Pass, which was promptly grabbed (Projective Telepathy was the other card grabbed). Obi tried for another two turns before he got through and sliced Jabba. Obi died to the Bacta Tank from attrition, but Luke was able to walk over and pay the 4 force to cancel Scum. He deployed another alien and another Scum and sent Bossk and Zuckuss to wreck the Falcon. And Bubo came down to reduce Luke’s landspeed to zero with IG-88 and 4-Lom staring at him with their beady little light sensors. But on my next turn, Wedge came down in Red Squadron 1 with an X-Wing Laser and blasted Zuckuss and then beat Bossk to turn Red Squadron 1 into a Legendary Starfighter. And though I had no destiny left, I was able to give Luke Anakin’s Saber and pay the 1 to attack Bubo. My power was 10, enough to kill Bubo, and Luke ran away from IG-88 and 4-Lom. Near the end of the game, Aim High hit the table and made retrieval prohibitively expensive for Zach. So my direct damage and drains picked away at what he had left for life force. Full win by 11.
8 (+65)
At this point, there is only one undefeated player, Graham Neal. There are several players at 5-1, but I have one of the best differentials among them. I get paired against Graham, so I realize if I win, I should make the final confrontation. Graham, meanwhile, has been talking a bit about his deck, saying it’s the "you deploy, you die" deck. So I decide I’d best play quite cautiously. He starts TIGIH against my Hunt Down along with Draw Their Fire, Insurrection and Staging Areas. I draw Sarkli into my opening hand and am quite happy for that since it means a force choke for two turns. I also get a Vader in my opening hand for the first time in the day. That helps. Sarkli goes to the Landing Platform. Graham tries to activate a bunch, but I point out that activation is cut off at Luke’s site. So is the drain he attempts. He deploys a speeder to the Home One DB, and I realize exactly what to watch out for. I deploy Vader to the Landing Platform and move him and Sarkli to Chirpa’s Hut. So the next turn, I point out that he doesn’t activate at Chirpa’s Hut, and I’m sitting on a nice, early drain along with Visage damage. His life force just keeps on dropping. I put Mara at the Executor DB and the Emperor joins Vader. I back up Mara with a walker (which proves to be a good move later). Graham’s got speeders at both the Home One and Endor DB’s, so he’s activating quite enough force now. He deploys Boushh undercover against Mara, then an ASP droid, then a handful of speeders and battles (with Maneuvering Flaps activated). I lose one from Draw Their Fire, the walker, and a couple more. I decide to keep Mara because I plan to use Search and Destroy over the next couple turns. And that’s precisely what I do. I consolidate my forces to two battlegroudns, and continue to pick away at Graham’s life force with Search and Destroy and Visage. He manages to win 3 battles, but I get the Emperor to the same site as Vader, and there’s no chance (with Graham’s deck) that he can turn my Vader. It’s a tough game for Graham, though, since he was sitting undefeated for so long, but his differential wasn’t high enough to carry him to the final confrontation with a 5-1. Full win by 22.
Surprisingly (to me), after starting out with a loss, I manage to go 5-1, for a score of 10 (+87) and earn the first berth into the final confrontation. After 6 games, then, the results were:
1. Josh Grace 10 (+87)
2. Mike Raveling 10 (+75)
3. Josh Kohman 10 (+67)
4. Graham Neal 10 (+51)
5. Jonathan Swenson 9 (+127)
6. Herb Macy 9 (+64)
7. Zach Stenerson 8 (+58)
8. Andy Newton 8 (+44)
9. Garrett Larson 8 (+38)
10. Ryan Coller 8 (+33)
Mike Raveling and I play in the final confrontation. We have played both our decks against each other already, starting with a tournament in St. Cloud a couple weeks prior to the Grand Slam, so there are very few surprises to be revealed. Dion Erbes, the TD announces that I will play Dark Side first, and I feel, though, in this first match-up that if there are any suprises, mine will be the better since I changed about 5 cards in my deck, most importantly to include Come Here You Big Coward--a card whose importance Mike made evident when he handed my deck its first loss.
Game 1: My Hunt Down vs. Mike’s New Age Throne Room. Mike starts the throne room with Insurrection, Staging Areas and Strike Planning. I start IAO, Mob Points and Battle Order. He grabs Madine and Solo for generals and sets up to get Oola controlling my hand. I, on the other hand, have now twice this tournament drawn a Vader into my opening hand, and I’ll be damned if Oola’s going to knock him back. So I’ll lose force from anywhere but my hand if that’s going to knock me into Oola range. Finally, after Mike deploys the Back Door, I get Vader to it and flip my objective. He follows with Crix Madine, Solo, Chewbacca and... Leia w/ Blaster. He tries to initiate a battle, but I point out that he can’t because my objective’s flipped. So his characters sit around to block Vader’s drain, but Vader’s able to move to Chirpa’s Hut, which was out, forcing him to follow or let me drain. Meanwhile, I set up Palpatine at the Holotheatre to protect Visage from his spies, but he deployed Lt. Blount there. I tried to fry him with Force Lightning but failed, and Blount was followed by a whole mess of scrubs, including Major Panno and some guy who adds a destiny with Panno. He battles, but the Emperor covers it. Holding a Come Here You Big Coward in my hand, I feel quite good about the mess of characters he has at my Holotheatre, but he draws and finds a Grimtaash which he plays used and sends my CHYBC to the used pile. At some point he sends Home One to Rendili to satisfy Battle Order, but I respond with Zuckuss in MH and the piloting skills of Fett w/blaster. I win the battle, but only by a few force, so Home One sticks around. He deploys Cracken aboard Home One, and on my next turn, I deploy a star destroyer of some sort and send Home One and Cracken packing. Space, then, is mine, and this greatly helps out the drain race, since he has to pay 3 for each of his. Mine, on the other hand, are free. Not long after the cancelling of Visage, I draw a Twi’lek and use it to pull CHYBC which I play this time, and the game is nearly over. One last battle with Choke Vader with Saber and Dr. E piloting a walker against Leia, Han, Chewie and Grix Madine seals it for me. Full win by 12.
At 12 differential, though, the confrontation is still very close.
Game 2: My Light vs Mike’s Bunker deck. Some of us can see the possibilities within an existing deck type and tweak it and make it new (that’s me), but some people, like Mike, can make strange new decks that work when you wouldn’t expect them to. Mike starts the Endor Bunker, IAO, Mob Pts and You Cannot Hide which he scraps for Perimeter Patrol. This is a favorable match-up for me since I can get spies to his drain sites and hold up in space. If my spies can’t block his drains, I can land my starfighters so that my pilots can block his drains or use DB transit to get my characters to the Landing Platform. Honor takes care of the loss from Perimeter Patrol. That, at any rate, is the game plan coming into the game since it worked the first time we played these decks against each other. Mike, though, knew not to play the Landing Platform against me, and I expected that move this game. However, what was revealed to me after the match was that he simply chose not to deploy any sites where I could land my starfighters. Instead, I was able to draw Blount, Luke w/Saber and Obi w/Saber before he drew one of his 3 Ephont Mons, so Blount and the mains paid a visit to Evax and Lt. Pol Treidum in the Bunker and knocked them around for 8 force. The rest of the game, sadly, is rather fuzzy to me since it took place at the rear end of 8 or 9 hours of gaming. I know that Mike battled Luke and Obi with Vader, Tarkin, and (I think) IG-88, so that the Bunker was cleared of rebel scum. Blount went to the Bacta Tank, and I had another Obi in my hand. Spies cancelled all of his drains, so it was my 1 drain at the system to his zero. But I felt like battling, so I deployed more characters. I had Luke at the site next to the Bunker, so I deployed Blount to the Bunker thinking something... However, I double-checked Perimeter Patrol before I deployed Obi and realized that my nagging suspicion was right... Blount couldn’t move away that turn. Well, that stunk. Obi had to go to the Bunker to help keep Blount from dying a most horrific death. As it turned out, Obi died a rather horrific death, and as I finished losing my force from the battle, I glanced at my Bacta Tank and blinked hard. I realized I had somehow *not* put Obi in the tank as I had meant to do. As anyone watching the game would know I had meant to do. As Mike kindly and graciously allowed me to do. Mike is a gentelman of a player. There are times when I’m glad I play in Minnesota rather than against the players who cheated against me at GenCon. This was one of those moments. The end of the game was rather slow. His side was locked down, and mine wasn’t doing much but a drain of 1 at Endor. Mike may have even drawn up; I can’t remember for certain. But Boushh and TK-422 pulled off another game for me, this time by 14.
So I got the uncut sheets and Mike got... a foil Threepio???!!! What’s up with that? Come on, Decipher, you’ve got to do better than a foil Threepio for second place at major tournaments. The 3rd through whatever-place prizes were several packs.
Ah, well... At least no one got DQ’d after deck checks.
Here are some cheers and jeers.
Cheers:
-Mike Raveling, Graham Neal, Zach Stenerson, Justin Alfs, Rich Jeffery and Chris Perman for good games. Not a bad sport among them.
-Dion Erbes for running a quick and clean tournament.
-The guy who traded me a Lord Vader. Sorry I didn’t catch your name.
-Jerry and Chad for not beating me up when I jumped into the middle of their trade for an Imperial Command.
-Advantage. I love that card.
-Kashyyk for being such a ZERO. :-)
Jeers:
-The two guys (nameless, here) who were bickering and whining all throughout the second game at the table behind me.
-4Lom with gun for being a droid that makes Jedi tremble awake at nights. What gives?
-Vader for hanging out at the bottom of my deck two games in a row.
-Prize support. (Well, I can’t complain about mine, but that 2nd place prize leaves a bit to be desired...)
Joshua "Stormcrow" Grace