auckland-new-zealand-november-18
Title: auckland-new-zealand-november-18
Author: Luke "Lukisius" Badger
Date: Nov 21, 2000
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A bit about Auckland meta.
You may notice that in this tournament report there is a big difference in the cards that players commonly use here in NZ, when compared to American decks and tournament reports. The most obvious difference, and the biggest is the apparent lack of Sense and Alter. Only 2 of the 18 decks at the tournament contained a Sense or an Alter. There are a few reasons for this, I think. The big decks which use a lot of big mains ie Hunt Down and the D*2 objectives are not common here. Sense and Alter are only good if you have the high ability on table, and Auckland has a lot of decks that don’t have large amounts of high ability on table all the time such as HB and ISB. I think this is a good thing, because at big tournaments in America you essentially are playing with a 52 card deck as everybody is forced to play 4 Senses and 4 Alters because everyone else is, otherwise you just can not compete. It has a snowball effect, and I am glad that the snowball has not started rolling in NZ.
The other difference in cards is that we don’t see many barriers in Auckland. When you think about it, Rebel and Imperial Barriers are both extremely powerful, and you would be crazy to not have 2 or 3 in any deck, especially HB, yet I don’t play with them. I do not really know why…
Now, onto the tournament.
Pre tournament
On Friday night I went to see Fur Patrol, Weta and Shihad play in Hamilton with my friend Jason “Over-“ Maas. It was a really awesome event, even though we were up to our knees in broken glass. I was in bed by 1 am so that wasn’t too late but I found it hard to get to sleep as my ears were ringing really loudly. I woke up at 6:30 for some strange reason and still felt really tired with my ears still ringing but managed to get back to sleep. I woke up at 9:15 am a felt really refreshed except that I was supposed to leave 15 mins ago for the 2 hour drive that I make every time I go to play in a tourney. No one was coming with me this time so I was ready to go. 2 hours later I walk in to Heroes For Sale (the store) and get going. 2 things are announced by Marty, the TD. The new JP sealed deck cards are not allowed as everyone has not had access to the cards. I reveal that I am playing the new objective so he says screw that and they are made legal. The other was that foils are not allowed. I only had a foil Bib and I pull him on the first or second turn so that was not a biggie, but Chris lent me a Bib any way.
Have a look at the decks that I played with.
Finally, here we go.
Game 1- My Mega Power B-wing Bomber HB vs Troy Donellys Court
Upon hearing that the new cards were legal Troy (being the person to have bought the only other box distributed to the North Island) added Hutt Influence to his deck. Damn! Well, Troy is one of the smartest players up there and I honestly thought I had no hope, especially without being able to cancel his force drains so right from the word go, I was aiming to lose by as little as possible. First turn he had Mara at chamber and added a couple of aliens over the next couple of turns. I was anxious to flip so as soon as I had the bare minimum of systems out I did just that, so I wasn’t able to deploy the Coruscant that I picked up at the end of the turn. On his turn he deployed ZuckassIMH to Endor, BobaFettIS1 to Hoth and BosskIHT to Kessel, and probed all 3. Ahh ha, nope! He battled against my lone B-wings at the systems that he has just deployed to but lost a ship and some force to battle damage as I played Rapid Fire, a Slight Weapons Malfunction and I also had some power bonuses from Aim High and CAF(AO). He moved all his guys to Roche, and during my deploy phase I mentioned that he could probe if he wanted to. He didn’t realise that you can probe during both players deploy phases, so he probed at got it. Oh well. With the objective now OutOP, I was able to deploy Coruscant. I nailed his guys at Roche for a bit of damage and he lost Hutt Influence off the top and then a few more so I was glad to see that go. I Signalled for Rebel Fleet and deployed it next turn. His space presence was definitely limited so I spread with a few interrupts in hand and that was when I felt a bit more confident. I was now cancelling 1 of his drains of 2 at Tatooine (I have no ground). He spread but too late and over the next couple of turns I hit him for some big drain damage.
FW + 14
2 (+14)
Ups;
Deploying and draining at Coruscant.
Having a deck that didn’t rely on the objective.
Beating Troy for the 3rd time ever.
Downs;
Having a lot of cards on table to seal the deal.
Game 2- My MKOS-On a Nikto know basis vs Aaron XXXs SuadAssigns HB
A pretty standard start really with me flipping quite early. I think Aaron forgot to pull a system a couple of times early on. On about his 4th turn he deployed Master Luke with a lightsaber and Wedge the Leader down at the AC and battled. I Wounded Wookied MasterL and had to lose a couple of guys, he lost Wedge. Next turn I deployed enough to battle him and make him think twice about battling there again. I saved a bit of force and that was turn. He flipped HB and next turn I came down with BobaIS1 and battled/probed, saving 5 force to react with the Accuser that I had in my hand. Accuser is 1 of the best ships for Scum&V in my opinion as I gives much needed defensive power to a Scum deck. Simply deploy it as a react for the extra 7 power and forfeit it at the end of the battle, thus not affecting the bonuses of S&V. I probed his base on the next turn and was starting to build up a strong space presence, Battle Order was hurting his small drains and I cleaned him up in the next couple of turns for a big win.
FW + 30
4 (+44) (that must be worth something…)
Ups;
Keeping his boys out of the chamber.
Reacting with the Accuser and then battling next turn (with the guy that the Accuser saved) to retrieve it back.
Proving that my dark could win by 30
Downs;
Not getting anything for the 4 +44, come on Marty!
Game 3- My MKOS-On a Nikto know basis vs Paul Monks Ewoks from hell.
This is the 1 deck that I was really worried about playing against. Pauls deck is legendary, a total drain of 15 by the 4th turn. I know that he has no guys to go off Endor except for a couple of wookies so my aim was to spread thin right from the start, with Battle Order as 1 of my starting interrupts. It slowed him down a lot and by my 4th turn I had the optimal setup across Tatooine. BobaIS1 at the system, a Nikto at the desert, Mosep at Tat:JP, Bib at the EC with POTForce there, Jabba at JP:LowerC and Gailid at the AC (with Scum there) for a total drain of 10 a turn, with 5 coming from the top of reserve. He was able to cancel 1 a turn with Bargaining Table, which he started with but otherwise was in a tight spot. He was so lucky that I didn’t get out Tatooine Occupation. GGggrrrrrrrr. Mara and Chall paid a visit to Chirpas Hutt to see how he was recovering from a recent heart attack, but Kazak made some remark about methane to Chall and it broke into a brawl. Kazak was on the receiving end of a lightsaber stroke from Mara, but managed to take Chall with him. Mara took a stroll out to the backdoor to see what awaited her on the next turn. Paul had been paying for drains most of the game and 1 turn he spent 9 force to drain me for nothing. 3 force to drain for 3, cancel with Den Of Thieves, 3 force to drain for 4, cancel with Vizam on objective, 3 force to drain for 3, played Projective Telepathy and he didn’t want to spend the extra force so I was happy. Projective Telepathy was the icing on the cake for the drains, effectively getting my own mini ‘Jason Maas “Shoot you in the sky” force wastage’. It must have saved me about 10 force in the course of the game, very nice. Paul piled on all the guys he could muster with his limited force to the same site as Mara but although she was lost I did not suffer any extra battle damage. Next turn I cleaned him up for a text book win, just as I had planned. (I don’t pretend to be a particularly good player but this did work out just the way I wanted.)
FW + 22
6 (+66) Sorry Satan, did you say something?
Ups;
Going all according to plan.
Projective Telepathy rules.
My Nikto who must have been crapping himself sitting in the Desert Heart all alone for the whole game.
Downs;
Not getting out TatOccupation.
Game 4- My Mega Power B-wing Bomber HB vs Paul Monks TDIGWATT(Dark Deal)
This was Pauls chance for revenge. Yet another powerful drain deck, but I was confident that if he didn’t probe my base then I could get an easy win. I wiped out his lone Tie (Obsidian something) at Bespin:CC and held the sector for a while making it impossible to deploy DD. As a sign of true arrogance I moved 2 of the 3 B-wings at the sector to the Bespin system to spice things up a bit. He came down with IGIIG2000, ZuckassIMH and another tie and battled. I played a few of my cunning interrupts and nailed Zuckass and the tie with a lovely display of weaponry skills from my B-wing. I was more power than him but had to forfeit away my guy, leaving IG at the sector. On my go I cleared out the system and spread in space but didn’t make an effort to retake the sector which was a big mistake. Next turn he throws an Aqualish on IG to get control of the sector and Dark Deal hits the table. Normally this would be a very nasty turning point in the game but he never made an effort to probe so I was cancelling 3 drains a turn and then only losing 2 to the other couple of drains that made it through because I started Ultimatum, a purely brilliant card. He finally got some Mandellorian Armour on Salacious Crumb (Paul has a whole binder page full of foil S-Crumbs, this part was the highlight of the game for him) but unfortunately it wasn’t enough to get him back into the game. My drains of 11 a turn killed him as he had no way of stopping them. I slapped some cards back into the life force and that was it.
FW + 15
8 (+81)
Ups;
Nailing him at the sector with 2 B-wings,
Playing Paul, he enjoys the finer things in Star Wars, really funny.
Seeing the MArmour on SCrumb.
Downs;
Letting him get the sector after the other B-wings did all the hard work.
Not seeing any effort to probe.
Well, that wraps up the tournament action. Chris made an awesome trade with me. I went back to Simons house for 3 more games. In our own mini tournament of 3 games I finished 4 (-24) and Si finished 2(+24) so I won, but I wasn’t overly pleased as playing Simon is pretty much a guaranteed win… just kidding.
And in conclusion…
Thumbs up;
Heroes for letting us use their tables once again.
Chris, Paul and Peter for the Trades.
Martin for running a tight ship, well done on a first tournament, it also meant I didn’t have to play him.
The 2 big chimneys in Huntly, apparently they don’t need them any longer…
Thumbs down;
Simon for not doing too well early on, I wanted to play you man!
Decipher for only sending a couple of boxes to New Zealand. Give us more. And drop the price. Mine was US$22 approx and Troy paid US$33 approx for his.
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My Tournament Decks
Light Side
Starting
Hidden Base/SystemsWSTYF
Rendezvous Point
HB Indicator (Roche in this case)
HeadingFTMF (SI)
Aim High
Superficial Damage
Wise Advice/Ultimatum (depends on the opposing deck)
Locations
Endor
Kessel
Roche
Hoth
Kiffex
Coruscant
Starships
B-wing Bomber X 10
Weapons
Intruder Missile X 2
Concussion Missile X 6
Interrupts
All Wings Report In
The Signal X 2
Power Pivot X 2
Rapid Fire X 4
Stay Sharp X 2 (good when you fire an Intruder Missile)
Slight Weapons Malfunction X 4
A Few Maneuvers
Steady Aim
Weapons Display
Effects
WYTTPOU? (grabber)
Slayn and Korpil Facilities
Do Or Do Not
Traffic Control
S-foils
Rebel Fleet
Yarna d’al’ Gargan
Admirals Orders
Concentrate All Fire X 2
Dark Side
Starting
My Kind Of Scum/FearlessAI
Tatooine: Desert Heart
Tatooine: Jabbas Palace (depends)
Well Guarded
Prepared Defenses (SI)
First Strike
Power Of The Hutt
No Bargain/Battle Order
(depends on the opposing deck)
Locations
Jabbas Palace: AC
JP: EntranceC
JP: LowerP
Tatooine
Kashyyyyyyyyyk
Characters (All Aliens)
Vizam X 2 (my Rep)
Jabba (SE)
Bib Fortuna
Boelo
Ephant Mon
Chall Bekan
Ephant Mon
Gailid
Mosep
Dengar W/BC
Mara Jade THE
Nikto X 10
Starships
IG-88 In IG-2000
Bossk In Bus
Boba Fett In S1
Effects
Zuckass In MH
Accuser
Weapon
Maras Saber
Interrupts
Jabbas Influence
Projective Telepathy X 2
Wounded Wookie X 2
Abyssin Ornament X 2
None Shall Pass X 2
Twi’lek Advisor X 3
Effects
Presence Of The Force
Reactor Terminal
Den Of Thieves
Scum And Villainy
Tatooine Occupation
Hutt Influence
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Later
Luke ‘Lukisius’ Badger