boulder-co-11-12-00-2-cold-4-speeders

Title: boulder-co-11-12-00-2-cold-4-speeders
Author: Brian "HuntaWarya" Hunter
Date: Nov 13, 2000

Yeah, it’s true. It is REAL cold in Colorado these days. Much too cold for speeders. But not too cold for Van’s Jeep. So the Littleton crew, having no Parker tournament to go to this week, looked elsewhere for SWCCG adventure and excitement. We had our pick of tournaments in Boulder or Colorado Springs. We ended up settling on Boulder for a couple of reasons. #1: It is 45 minutes to Boulder, and it takes well over an hour to get to the Springs. #2: Kyle Craft and Tim McKnight live in Boulder, and Van wants to play against them. At least Kyle, anyway. So off we go. "Team Littleton" changes once again this week. No Randy this time (he had to work) and no Mike either (He wasn’t answering his phone that morning, so I guess he didn’t wake up) So it is me, Van, and Sean Elder. Sean doesn’t really play Star Wars too often, and is a rare sight at tournaments. But he came along with us this time, which was good, since Mike was Missing in Action. I have decided to play my "Hunt Down done RIGHT" deck again today. The same one that went 3-0 the last time we played in Boulder, and the same deck that went 3-0 twice for me in Arizona, during the Mega Weekend. But I decide not to use the ebo deck that served me so well in Tempe. Instead, I have picked....nothing. We’re on the way to Boulder, and I have no light deck. So I’m building a deck in the back seat of the Jeep. It is crazy cold on the way to Boulder. Much too cold for speeders. But I decide to play them anyway. I have borrowed a few speeders from Van, just in case I decided to use Speeders at this Tourney. So, I build something kind of like what Kevin Shannon used for light on Day 2 in Tempe. It looked kinda fun, so I figured I would give it a whirl. Granted, I have never used the deck before, but I have never been bothered by the idea of going into a tourney with a deck that is entirely untested. I would guess that my deck probably has about 45 cards in common with what Kevin used, and only 15 that are different. So the decks are:

Dark: Hunt Down done RIGHT
Light: Agents in the Court with Speeders

I finish building my deck 3 or 5 minutes after the first round is supposed to start. But John Arendt (the TD for that day) waits for those of us who are finishing deck construction. :) Kyle and Tim are not at the tournament today. In fact, turnout is pretty low, so John decides we will just play 4 games today, rather than our usual 6. Oh well, at least we got enough people for the tournament to be sanctioned.

Note from the Author: I know that 4 game tournaments aren’t as cool as 6 game tournaments, but it isn’t my fault we only played 4, so try not to dock me points for the TR being 4 games. And yep, that means you, Droid Pimp. Thanks. :)

Looks like my primary competition today will be provided from a couple of former powerhouses, Van Melancon and Matt Riecks. Van used to have a rating over 2050, and was ranked #3 in our five state region. Matt Riecks has also gone over 2000, and spent some time at #3 in the region too. But both of them have had bad runs lately, and dropped beneath 1900. Still, that kind of makes them like wounded animals, so I consider them both to be potentially dangerous, and not to be overlooked. Incidentally, Matt lives in Littleton also, but I don’t mention him as part of the "Littleton Crew" since he almost never playtests with us anymore, and usually travels seperately as well. I skipped breakfast that morning, but I am operating on a solid 4 hours of sleep, so I’m good to go.

Game One: Hunt Down done RIGHT vs. Matt Riecks
Matt starts Hidden Base, with Insurrection, Staging Areas and Wise Advice. Due to his starting effects, I figure this isn’t a flipping version, and is probably mains-based (Matt likes to play mains), so I start Crush the Rebellion in place of the usual YCHF, but keep IAO and Mob. Points (obviously) He deploys Dagobah and Yoda’s Hut, as well as as a Docking bay, while I get out Carida and a couple docking bays of my own. The Emperor and Janus hang out at the Executor docking bay, while Yoda shows up in his Hut. Then Matt deploys the Tatooine System, and the spaceport db to it, so now I know what I’m up against. He is playing the Tatooine Celebration deck. The Tatooine: docking bay 94 is on table as well. I get the Choke Vader (saber in hand) to
that site for the flip. I deploy Sim Aloo to join the Emperor and Janus, and the trio transit over to the other Tatooine docking bay (the spaceport one) Matt deploys the Cantina, and puts epp Luke and Ben Kenobi there. I have neither duel in my hand, so I don’t figure I want to go there. He tries to cancel the Visage with TT, but I use Holonet Transmission to cancel his card. My drain is still better than his, so it’s all good. I put a walker next to Vader, and deploy tarkin to pilot it. By the end of Matt’s next turn, things are drastically different. battle plan is now on the table. So is Menace Fades. And wedge is sitting in Red Squadron 1 at the Tatooine system, fulfilling the requirements for both of his effects. Suddenly, I have to pay 6 if I want to drain at both locations, and due to menace fades, his drains are still more than mine anyway! Unacceptable. I decide it is time to pay Wedge a visit. I bring Zuckuss in MH and Bossk in Hound’s Tooth, but I get barriered. Due to Yoda being in the Hut, I know I need to draw both destiny if I want to crack Wedge’s immunity, so I don’t battle. Now that I failed to kill Wedge, I decide I have to bite the bullet, and move Vader and Tarkin into the Cantina. During Matt’s control phase, I disarm the epp luke. Red Squadron 1 becomes armed with an X-Wing Cannon. Zuckuss goes down in a ball of flame. Bossk draws good destiny, but not enough to take Red Squadron 1 down. So I lose both my ships, and Wedge laughs a little. Meanwhile, I get battled in the Cantina as well, and Ben swipes Vader’s Lightsaber, using Weapon Levitation. Hmm, not cool. But if Tarkin can survive the turn, I should be okay. Matt uses a Gift of the Mentor. uh-oh. I have spare Vaders in hand, but no spare tarkin. I need Tarkin to survive the battle, if I am to continue the war in the cantina. And if I can’t continue the war in the Cantina, I will NOT be able to win the game. But Matt draws two fives and a two, so after Tarkin cancels one of the draws, the attrition is only 7, and Vader covers it. whew! I’m not dead yet. Must....win....game. During Matt’s draw phase, I use a combination of Janus and Masterful Move to set up some insane destiny for the next battle. Since Tarkin is in the Cantina, Menace fades is not in effect, so the Emperor’s crew drains for a couple, but I decide not to pay to drain with the walker. I put Lord Vader in the Cantina, and he gets Barriered. I have another Vader’s Lightsaber to put on him, but can’t deploy it, since Ben is still holding the first one. I follow up with EJP dengar, but clearly, don’t want to battle. So my massive destiny draws just sit on my reserve deck for now. I move Sim Aloo over to the walker, so that I will actually have battle destiny at every location. On Matt’s turn, down comes Lando w/ Vibro-Axe. He tries to exclude Tarkin, which fails, but uses up the masterful move I had on top. Dengar lights up the room, and after the battle, Luke and Lando have died. As have Dengar and Tarkin. it is just Ben and Vader, and Ben decides he doesn’t want any, so he moves outside in front of the walker and sim aloo. On my turn, I deploy No Escape, take Tarkin back into hand, and redeploy him (sweet!) I play a Trample on Ben Kenobi, and draw Visage of the Emperor. (Thanks for the destiny-7, Janus!) Squish. Now I can put the saber on Vader, and all is well on the ground. Epp Leia makes an appearance later, to block a drain, but cannot initiate due to my objective. Meanwhile, it is about time for the Empire to take revenge on Wedge. the Big Bad Executor itself, with Ozzel at the helm, takes care of Wedge, using the re-tracked Visage for battle destiny. Full win by 21.
2: (+21)

Game Two: Speeders in the Court vs. Van Melancon
Van brought Hunt Down today, and has one hell of a first turn. The death star docking bay, with the DLOTS there for a first turn flip. Then presence of the force on the docking bay. Then Vader’s saber on Vader. He sets up a drain of 3, + visage damage, before I’ve had a turn. Ouch. I have no TT in hand, and no undercover spies, but I DO have Honor of the Jedi, so that will buy me a little time against the Visage. On his second turn, it’s Zuckuss in Mist Hunter to Carida, and Ds-61-somebody in the pilot seat. Oh yeah, and battle order is on the table, making it difficult for my speeders to drain on Tatooine. I’ve got Melas, Wedge Antilles, and a ship in my hand. So I know if I can just get my Lando in Falcon into hand, I should be able to make a horrendous mess of Zuckuss at Carida. However, I make the mistake of saying most of this out loud, so Van quickly reinforces Zuckuss with the Executor, and any hope I had of taking control of Carida, or playing Legendary Starfighter, vanish. I’m losing all sorts of cards off top deck, trying not to look at them, so I won’t be pained by the sight of all the critical deck elements that keep dropping into my lost pile. The drain is 4 a turn, and it hurts real bad. In return, I am doing...hmm, let’s see, oh yeah, NOTHING. Must...not...lose....game. I finally get Tk-422 to the docking bay, and Van does not have a sniper yet. I stick a starfighter to the Executor, using a landing claw, and I’m back in the game. I spread Speeders out all over my 3 Tatooine sites, and also have a couple at the Endor db, joined by an Ithorian. Additionally, there are 2 Speeders at the Hoth DB, guarding the critically important Incom Corporation. In comes Mara Jade. No problem, I think to myself. I have the flaps in effect, so the Speeders are 6 power and 6 forfeit apiece. With 12 power, and 12 forfeit, I should be fine, right? In comes a blizzard walker. Okay, I’m down by 2. No biggie. He still has to draw a 7 for destiny to destroy both speeders and cancel incom corporation. Ozzel deploys onto the walker. Okay, down by 4. Still okay. Then Dengar with Blaster Carbine. Aagh! Van initiates, and Dengar caps BOTH speeders, so I watch my 12 forfeit instantly turn to zero. I lose both speeders, and then lose cards to battle damage. And then the Incom Corporation is cancelled. Van then transits his crew over to Endor to block that drain. This also means that he is occupying 3 battlegrounds now, so the Visage is back in effect. I use the T-47 Formation to cause some heavy drain damage on Tatooine, and just hope to drain him out before the Visage polishes me off. I get Jedi Luke onto a speeder, so now we are both losing to Visage. But I have to keep running from Van’s doom squad while waiting for the Tatooine drain to get the job done. A late game Rebel Barrier/Order to Engage helps speed things along, and I win by 13
4: (+34)

Lunch break is between games 2 and 3. for lunch I have...ummm..nothing. Hey, no sleep and no food seemed to work in Arizona, so if it ain’t broke, why fix it, right? Sean is the only other undefeated player, so here we go.

Game 3: Speeders in the Court vs. Sean Elder
Sean is playing the World Champion ISB deck, with rim scouts, walkers, and sandwhirls. Sean’s deck has a few alterations made to it, which have filled all the significant holes that the original contained. The deck is now pretty damn solid. But I am confident, for no reason that I can think of. There is no reason to think this deck matchup is favorable for me, but it doesn’t occur to me that I could lose. I guess I’m just counting on my "immunity to players with rating < 1750" He sets up a walker with 2 rim scouts aboard, at the Tatooine Docking bay. Meanwhile, I put a couple of speeders in the Hoth Db. He puts another walker on Tatooine, at Jabba’s palace I think, and puts 2 more ISB agents on there, and flips. Meanwhile, a rim scout visits the hoth docking bay, allowing him to follow in with other goodies. Tempest scout 1, with igar, and another rim scout. He battles, and I get destiny due to the incom corp. I lose a speeder. He loses the rim scout that was outside, and retrieves it with his objective. On my turn, I lock the flaps, deploy a horde of speeders, and eliminate his presence on hoth. The turn after, several of the speeders transit over to tatooine to take on the walker at that docking bay. That walker doesn’t last long either. But I am still gettting drained for 3 at JP. He puts a couple of rim scouts at the spaceport docking bay (deployed to Rendili) for another drain of 2, but epp luke does some damage. He reinforces the location, but after epp luke dies, Jedi Luke comes down and finishes the job. I use Lando in Falcon and another ship to take charge of the only system. the speeders at the Tatooine docking bay zoom over to JP, and order to engage forces the issue. After a couple more battles, Sean has no ability on table at all, and his objective flips back to the zero side. Full win by 16
6: (+50)

Van is 2-1, but we both just played light. there is another guy who is 2-1 also, but he just played light too. So I will play the only other 2-1, which is Sean.

Game 4: Hunt Down vs. Sean Elder
Sean’s light side deck is Johnny Chu’s Hidden Base/x-wing swarm. This deck has been in the Decktech top 5 for a long time now, and refuses to go away. The deck still has a full 5 star rating, and as a result, it sees a lot of play. However, contrary to the strategy section listed for that deck, Hunt Down does not need to occupy 3 ground sites to get around Honor. Hunt Down can’t WIN in space against the x-wing swarm, but it can SURVIVE in space. And maintaining any presence in space at all will allow the Hunt Down deck to: A) Probe B) satisfy Battle Order C) ignore Honor of the Jedi. So, since the Honor is vulnerable, Sean is also packing multiple Transmission Terminated in his deck.
I use Lord Vader, with Saber, to flip on turn two. Mara Jade goes to the other docking bay early, and I deploy search & destroy. I have the No Escape early, so Sean doesn’t even bother to deploy Honor. He tries to cancel the Visage with TT, but is denied by Holonet Transmission. Janus joins Ms. Jade at the docking bay. TK-422 comes to block one of my drains, but is quickly eliminated by a sniper. I deploy the Chimaera to space, with Tarkin as pilot, and ditch YCHF to pull Battle Order. Bossk in Hound’s Tooth would later be deployed as well. Sean drops the non-unique forest, and puts luke there, accomplishing 3 goals at once. He flips my objective, so that we will both lose to visage now. He satisfies Battle Order, so he can drain for free in space. (and he really WANTS to drain in space, since he is flipped, and controls Kessel) And he stops the damage caused by Search & Destroy. I come down with Blizzard 2 and sim aloo, and draw a 6 for destiny (thanks again, Janus!) Luke is immune, but the battle damage is bad enough to force Sean to lose him. I forfeit the walker. Flip. search & destroy and Battle Order are back in effect. The second TT gets by my defenses, and the visage is gone. Obi-wan comes down to the forest to try his luck against Sim Aloo, but I barrier him. Flip. No more search & destroy or battle order. So I bring Tempest 1, and battle the old man, after checking Sean’s destiny with Sim Aloo. The battle damage is crippling again, so Obi dies. Sim and the walker are both immune to the attrition Sean draws. Flip. Search & destroy damage, along with the docking bay drains, and my new-found drain at the forest, put the x-wing swarm to rest. Full win by 25.

I finish at 8: (+75)

I get a few packs of DS II, Jabba’s Palace, and Cloud City for first place. I revert to my old ways, and open the DSII packs. Nothing outstanding, but one of the packs had 3 rares, which is always entertaining. Interestingly, all 3 of the rares in that pack were capital starships, including the Flagship Executor. Van finishes at 3-1, losing only to me, and takes second. Sean goes 2-2, also losing only to me. So the Littleton crew ends up with a combined record of 9-3. Not too bad. But it looks better when you consider the fact that all 3 of the games we lost....were to me. Thanks for reading. Until next time...

Brian Hunter