parker-co-11-18-00-back-in-action
Title: parker-co-11-18-00-back-in-action
Author: Brian "HuntaWarya" Hunter
Date: Nov 18, 2000
Time for the HuntaWarya to return to Parker. I had a tourney in Boulder, and then 3 in Tempe, and then another one in Boulder, so it was good to be back in Parker again. The Littleton Crew brings 4 players today. Only Mike stays home, so Van, Randy, Sean, and myself all pack into the Jeep and head east. Last week, it was too cold for speeders. This week, it is WAY too cold for speeders. So I have switched back to the ebo/x-wing monster that I used in Arizona. The deck went 3-0 in Boulder the week before Arizona, and then went 10-0 in sanctioned games during the Mega Weekend, over the course of 3 tourneys. I decide to see if I can get it up to 16-0 today. For dark, I choose to stick to my guns, keep my money where my mouth is, and continue to use Hunt Down done RIGHT. It was 3-0 in Boulder, then 6-0 in Arizona, then 2-0 last week. So now you know my decks. Here are the others for the Crew.
Van: Hunt Down and Kyle’s LS Hidden Base High Destiny Mains (if you are not familiar with this deck, you can read about it in my report from Day Two of the Mega Weekend.)
Randy: ISB Walker/Sandwhirl deck and MWYHL
Sean: MKOS Abyssins and Agents in the Court/eloms/speeders
Turnout isn’t too bad at the tournament today, looks like 15 or 16.
Well, since this is just a local, that is enough pre-tourney info, so let’s get it on.
Game One: EBO vs. Randy’s ISB/walker/ORS/Sandwhirl deck.
Yah, it’s Twigg’s Revenge alright. With a few alterations that give the deck a little better chance in space (namely, more starships) Still, even when you fill the holes in the original design, that ISB deck just doesn’t want to play against the x-wings. It’s a pretty bad matchup. Randy gets some docking bays out on Tatooine, along with a desert, and then starts dropping walkers. Blizzard 2 with an outer rim scout at the desert. Tempest Scout 1 with 2 rim scouts, at the tatooine db. In the meantime, as you’d expect, I’m getting my cards together on hoth to set up ebo. I get my EBO on table at about the same time he flips. He accomplishes this by putting a couple of rim scouts at a spaceport docking bay for my kashyyyk. He also puts 5D6 at the north ridge. His objective is keeping my drains at hoth and kashyyyk down to just 2 apiece, instead of 3. The drain race is 4 against 6 in his favor, but I have rebel fleet out to keep things even. He deploys another blizzard walker, with a rim scout and ozzel, and stomps under the shield. Since Ozzel is Imperial, I can finally deploy TK-422 to stop that drain. I have spread the x-wings out to coruscant and Carida now as well. Zuckuss in Mist Hunter confronts the lone x-wing at kashyyyk. Randy puts a rim scout on the mist hunter, but I barrier the ORS. Randy battles anyway, forgetting the text on my kashyyyk. So neither of us get destiny, and my 7-power x-wing beats up zuckuss for 3. He can’t forfeit the pilot (since he got barriered), so zuckuss goes down in flames. He gets Den of Thieves out, but it is too late. I pay for secret plans, and retrieve 8 with my All wings Report In. Full win by 29.
2: (+29)
Game Two: Hunt down vs. Jason Heinz’s Hidden Base
Jason is playing x-wing swarm today, a flipping hidden base deck. I start You cannot Hide forever, so that I can pull either Battle Order or Search & destroy when appropriate. (can’t pull security precautions, since I have stopped using it.) Vader comes to the ds db early, but Honor of the Jedi keeps Jason from losing any force to the Visage. So I put Jade down, with her saber, at the CC docking bay. Hordes of x-wings are flying out to endor and kessel, and I lose S&D off reserve deck. I draw the battle order pretty quick. So now I have nothing to go get with You cannot Hide Forever. But this turns out to be okay, since I see him start losing a few high-destiny droids, which indicates he is probably using a couple of inserts. In order to get around Honor, I put Bossk in Hound’s Tooth and the Chimaera up in space. So now he is losing a few to the visage. He doesn’t want to lose force to my drains anymore, so he flips. I probe Corulag, then move to Kashyyyk. Next turn, I deploy Fett to Sullust, and I probe both there and Kashyyyk. No dice. So I bring the Executor itself to Endor. I get barriered, so I have to alter Order to Engage, even though Wise advice and do or do not are both down. Probe endor. nope. I have now probed all of his systems but Kessel. *sigh* The Chimaera and Bossk move over to Kessel, while Fett flies over to join the Executor at Endor (fett didn’t want to go to kessel due to the x-wing cannon) We have a few furious battles in space, but he didn’t get s-foils out, so I have a fighting chance. Kessel gets probed, and his objective goes out of play. Lando In Falcon goes down, Bossk goes down. x-wings go down, the Chimaera goes down. I put Sim aloo on Boba Fett as a passenger, and keep using my masterful move for battle destiny to kill the x-wings two at a time once he is out of organized attacks. Meanwhile, sim sits in the passenger seat, keeping tabs on Jason’s Battle destiny, to ensure that slave I’s immunity holds up. While Boba Fett exterminates the scattered x-wings, the Executor garrisons Kessel. My drains at the docking bays, combined with the Visage, do him in. Full win by 19.
4: (+48)
Lunch break: Today we get some pizza. And we are not disappointed. :) I trail Van by one differential point (48 to his 49), so here we go.
Game 3: Ebo vs. Van’s Hunt Down
I get Honor in my opening draw, but Van starts No Escape. grrr. Van always gets the fastest flip possible, and against ebo, that is second turn. But amazingly, Vader comes down without his lightsaber, so the drain is only one. Visage damage is hurting me a little bit, but I manage to cancel it fairly early with Transmission Terminated. I get my guys to my echo sites, and drop EBO. On my next turn, I am ready to take over space in a BIG way. But things don’t go according to plan, because...during his draw phase, Van picks up a monnok, and hits me with it. Just like in Arizona (and EVERY tournament, seems like), I lose my x-wings and my organized attacks to the monnok. I play a few organized attacks so that if my x-wings get monnoked, I can just play the organized attack to go get more. However, this strategy NEVER WORKS, because my organized attacks ALWAYS get monnoked along with the x-wings!! so, instead of setting up at 4 systems on my turn, I settle for only setting up at one. The ships at the hoth docking bay take off to the hoth system, and I call it good. The Executor deploys to Carida, with Evax and Tarkin piloting. Mara Jade has come to the other docking bay, saber in hand, and TK-422 is blocking that drain. Vader is still draining at the death star db, but I am able to cancel it about 50% of the time, using rebel fleet. I have drawn some more x-wings by now, and I am splitting up in space to drain for a ton, except, of course, that I don’t go to Carida, cuz there seems to be a super-class star destroyer taking up that entire parsec. :) Van tries to use Battle Order to slow me down, but I put an Arcona out at the north ridge, and actually drain him with it for a turn, too! Then Blizzard 2 comes down to the ridge, and forces the Arcona under the shield. But Commander Luke Skywalker drops the walker on my next turn. 3 bounty hunter ships come to visit me at one of my systems, but when I barrier one of them, Van chooses not to battle, since the monnok let him see the Out of Nowhere in my hand. On my turn, down comes Lando in Falcon, and an x-wing cannon. Since Lando gives me enough ability to circumvent the Mist Hunter’s text, I use the cannon to shoot down dengar instead. Zuckuss gets killed by attrition, but Boba Fett is immune, and lives to fight another day. But Boba Fett cannot safely go anywhere without the Executor, and blocking one of my drains just won’t get it done, because there are too many, and they are too big. Full win by 18
6: (+66)
Game 4: Hunt Down vs. Mick Ptacek’s Trooper swarm.
Mick’s starting setup is difficult to interpret, and I have no idea what to expect in this game. But I go ahead and put vader to the ds db early anyway, since that is what my deck does. His activation isn’t high enough to hurt me too bad yet..I don’t think. He saves a couple of force on his next turn, so I deploy Sim Aloo with Vader for extra forfeit. On his next turn, Mick puts Han Solo in front of Vader and Sim, along with CZ-3, and NOW I know what I’m in for. If I battle Han and Cz-3, then he will react with hordes of free rebel troopers, and make me cry. If I had a sniper in my hand, I could’ve offed the droid during control phase, and then gave han the beating of his life. But alas, no sniper, so no easy way out. But...I’m playing Hunt Down, and I’ll be damned if I will let Vader be chased away from his drain by some stupid droid. So I deploy Iggy and initiate. Sure enough, 6 rebel troopers come down as a free react, and then he plays the light side version of trooper assault, making all 6 of them higher power and immune to attrition. And so the fun begins. The Dark Lord chokes Han, and then hits one of the troopers with his saber. Iggy captures one of the troopers, and then attrition kills the droid. So I manage to eliminate half his characters in the initial battle. On his turn, the remaining 4 troopers transit away. On my turn, I drop a blizzard walker, and mara jade with her saber, and battle again. I manage to kill 2 more troopers, leaving 2. Jade walks to the adjacent site, while Sim Aloo transits over to join the walker. Vader continues to drain 2 a turn, and the visage continues to do it’s thing. Tk-422 tries to stop one of my drains, but my walker steps on him, using a tracked masterful move for the trample. (squit) The trample and the masterful move stay together, which will come in handy later. Epp obi-wan deploys over on Tatooine, to flip me back, and there is no tatooine db for me to use to get to him. So I use my objective to pick up Vader, dropping his weapon in my used pile. I play weapon levitation to get my saber out of my used pile, and I’ll be all set next turn. Jade and friends continue to chase around the troopers, but that isn’t helping too much. Vader comes down to Obi’s site, along with Tarkin. I initiate battle, and then play the Circle. Trample and masterful move are my duel draws (who’d have thought?) Obi hops out of the game, and Mick loses 9 for the Epic Duel. So I flip back to the 7-side. But Luke comes down to help the troopers against Mara jade. So Mara Jade plays Vader’s Obsession. I get Trample and Masterful Move for my duel draws (what are the odds? heh-heh) and Luke crosses to the Dark Side. Full win by 24
8: (+90)
Mick was the last remaining undefeated player other than myself, so it is now time to make sure that everyone gets at least two losses. :)
Game 5: EBO vs. Bryce Stevenson’s SYCFA
Bryce is using one of those SYCFA decks that puts out Endor sites for big ground drains, after using Mob. Points for big activation. It also has sense/alter, plenty of dark side mains, and some nifty ships. Janus comes to the endor docking bay on turn one, but I use POAS to fix it. He doesn’t seem to have an alter, but I put out Wise Advice anyway. I get EBO set up, while Bryce uses Janus on each of our turns, draws a bunch, and mounts up a huge force pile. His massive hand + massive force pile is a bit scary, but I figure "hey! His rating is less than 1750! So I am immune!" I play organized attack to get some x-wings, but he senses. Now that I am sure he’s got SAC, I put down do or do not to go with wise advice. I deploy x-wings to a bunch of systems, including hoth, alderaan (heh-heh), kashyyyk and corulag. He pounces on Lando and my x-wing, with Dengar, Zuckuss, and ds-61-2 on Zuckuss. He battles since I don’t have enough ability for destiny...right. I react with the spiral to get my 7 ability, and the attrition I draw kills ds-61-2. However, he draws the emperor for destiny, and dengar adds 3, so I have to lose both the spiral and the x-wing to cover attrition, leaving just Lando against Zuckuss and Dengar. On my turn, I have just one x-wing to deploy, so I put it there. Then, I put the cannon on and battle. I shoot down Zuckuss, and Dengar, suddenly alone, realizes he is just a 2-ability bounty hunter scrub, and forgets how to draw battle destiny. The battle damage is 12, so he loses Dengar plus 7 more, and then the falcon becomes a legendary starfighter. (ouch!) Epp obi and jedi luke combine to wreck Bryce’s ground forces (with a little help from tracked destiny, of course), and I win by 24 again.
10: (+114)
I am the only 5-0, and Van is the only 4-1. So we are set to play again. We just played opposite allegiances, and this will not be the same match we played in game 3, so we can actually play each other!
Game 6: Hunt down vs. Van’s "Kyle Craft mains"
I start secret plans to try and slow down the on/off the edge. And I get Crush the Rebellion out pretty quick. I put Ephant Mon at the executor db for activation, and for quite some while, he is the only card on table with ability. We activate, draw some cards, save some force, and wait for the other to do something useful. But we don’t. I evenutally decide that I will deploy first. So I bring DVDLOTS (with his lightsaber) to the death star docking bay. Follow in with Tarkin, Dr. Evazan, and Dengar with Blaster carbine, for a total cost of 17. I flip, and wait to see how bad he can hurt me. It’s not so bad. Jedi Luke, epp Obi-wan, Melas, and Orrimaarko. He battles me, and uses weapon levitation to swipe Vader’s Lightsaber, which he gives to Luke. Van decides that his top priority is to get Evazan off the table, so epp Obi whacks the not-so-good doctor with his saber. My turn to fire. I have another Vader’s Lightsaber in my hand, but cannot deploy it as long as Luke is sitting there holding the first one. I gotta kill the Jedi Knight. So my bounty hunter steps up and proclaims "I am Dengar, and THIS...is my BOOMSTICK!" I draw Vader’s Obsession for weapon destiny, so Dengar busts a cap in Luke’s a$$. Evazan ("I’m not quite dead yet!") operates on Luke. When the battle concludes, Luke is dead, obi is dead, melas is dead, evazan is dead, and vader is missing his saber. Orrimaarko decides he doesn’t want any, and transits over to the Home One db. I get back to the 7-side of my objective, but my visage gets cancelled by TT. I put a walker down for Tarkin to pilot, give Vader his saber back, and deploy the Emperor too. All at the same site, to await the next conflict. I deploy No Escape, take my visage back into hand, and redeploy it. But the second TT re-cancels the Visage. I put down Janus also, to get a better drain going. I transit the entire brigade over to the cc docking bay, because I know he needs it for off the edge if he doesn’t have his downtown plaza in hand. So he deploys the Downtown Plaza, and puts epp Luke and epp Obi there. On my turn, I bring Mara Jade to the Home One docking bay, to visit Orrimaarko. I deploy her saber and battle, but Van has the weapon lev AGAIN, and I have to settle for just killing orrimaarko, but forcing no battle damage. The walker, Vader, Tarkin, and Dengar go visit the two jedi, leaving palpatine and Janus at the docking bay, since the Emperor cannot move over. Van deploys tawss khaa against Mara Jade, and then follows in with ECC Lando, Lt. Blount, Wedge antilles, Jeroen Webb, and Melas. (this is not another melas, but he has redrawn the one I killed earlier, after retrieving him.) I lose Mara Jade plus two more, while Van loses Jeroen webb. But the weapon destiny, combined with the battle destiny, has left Van’s reserve deck empty. So I duel obi-wan, and van loses 9 force. Tawss, wedge, blount, and Lando transit over to the CC docking bay. I step on Luke with my walker. (squit) On my turn, I deploy Ig-88 with riot gun alongside the emperor and janus. I battle, and iggy captures ecc lando. Attrition kills his Melas, and my Janus. So I move Vader/Tarkin/Dengar/Walker over to the docking bay in front of Tawss Khaa, Lt. Blount, and Wedge. On van’s turn, he deploys epp han and battles me. He shoots at Vader, and draws a 6, so tarkin has to cancel it. The choke Vader strangles Wedge. Dengar lowers his boomstick, and splatters Blount all over the wall. Dengar whirls around and puts his second shot right between Han’s eyes. Vader halves Tawss khaa with his saber, and Van’s 23 forfeit has suddenly become ZERO. The Battle damage kills him and I win by 17
So I finish with 12: (+131)
There are no 5-1 players. Van takes second at 4-2, with his only two losses being to me. Sean and Randy both go 3-3, so the Littleton Crew again finishes with a 2-1 ratio, 16 wins for us today, 8 losses. I get several packs of DSII, Special Edition, and Cloud City for my troubles.
So I now have a total of 36 sanctioned games that I am waiting for Decipher to update. (6 in Boulder, then 20 during the Phoenix Mega Weekend, then 4 more in Boulder, and now 6 more in Parker) Fortunately, only one of those 36 games was a loss, so I should be in good shape when all the results post. I tried to go "all-out" with the game details in this one, so I hope you all found them interesting. :)
Props:
To Van, for driving again!
To Vader, for yep, you guessed it, STILL being the best character in STAR WARS, and winning 3 epic duels for me in the same day.
To Dengar with BOOMSTICK for being a one-man army.
To Joe Helfrich, for running the tournament with absolutely no complications or delays.
To Mark Ponting, for deciding to play today like I told him he should :)
To Van, for being smart enough to copy Kyle’s nifty deck idea.
To Sean, for using two decks in the tourney that he had NEVER played a single game with before.
To the pizza, for being pizza.
To the YJ players, for giving me fun games to watch in between rounds, when I won my matches in under 20 minutes.
Slops:
To Randy, for still having yellow hair. heh-heh.
To Van, for not being smart enough to copy MY nifty deck idea, instead of Kyle’s. :)
To the Mist Hunter, for only having Manuever 3, and being the biggest x-wing cannon bait in the galaxy. Maybe we should all start playing overload....or maybe not.
And to me, for opening my packs of DSII, and getting crap! AGAIN! *sigh* When will I ever learn?
Thanks for reading. Cya next time.
Brian Hunter