parker-co-11-25-00-the-saga-continues
Title: parker-co-11-25-00-the-saga-continues
Author: Brian "HuntaWarya" Hunter
Date: Nov 26, 2000
Yep, you guessed it. it is still cold in colorado. And it is still too cold for speeders. this week, I decide it is also too cold for x-wings. So I try a deck I haven’t used before, and I build the fake hidden base/mains deck that Kyle used in the Phoenix Slam. Van has been using this deck with some regularity lately, so I am pretty familiar with how it works. For Dark Side, I had decided to play "Prodigy". I was never impressed with Bastian’s Brangus deck, and I also never decided to play Scum 2K. But when the two came together, I was impressed by the decklist. So I put it together last night, for use in the tourney today. But then I went over to Van’s place, and did some playtesting with him and Sean. and I discovered...the Brangus engine is LAME! A real waste of time and card slots. I got the recurring control going, which is pretty nifty. And I even used the "play the same disarmed twice in the same turn, and use evazan to kill em both" trick, which was also nifty. I played 4 or 5 games with the deck, and it won them all, but I decided the deck just isn’t as cool as I thought it was. So I got home at about 4am and converted back to Hunt Down done RIGHT. Van and Sean show up at my place the next morning, and then we go pick up Mike. Randy is at work today, so no tourney for him. Our decks for today:
I use the Hidden mains and Hunt Down done RIGHT.
Mike uses MWYHL test to 6, and Hunt Down
Van uses the Hidden mains also, and Hunt Down.
Sean uses the ISB/Walker deck, and my ebo done RIGHT.
We get about 15 or 16 players again this week. But still no Tim McKnight/Kyle Craft combo. Kyle had said he was going to not play SWCCG for a long time, and hence, would not be at the Phoenix Slam. But then he changed his mind, and went to Arizona after all. However, since then, he has been MIA, so maybe he just delayed his decision to take a break from the game. Van keeps wanting them to show, because he wants some revenge on Tim for a couple of losses, and because he knows Kyle is worth some good points if he can win against him. And I would not mind seeing them either, because Tim is a good guy, and Kyle is great for making fun of. :) However, what we DO have this week is a few out-of-state players. Over the years, I have seen players come into Colorado from dozens of different states, to take a shot at the Littleton tourney. It would be interesting to see what kind of play-styles these out-of-staters bring with them. However, I almost never seem to get a chance to play against the visiting players, because they get hammered by the local regulars before they can get to me. But maybe today will be different...
Game One: Hunt Down done RIGHT vs. Sean’s EBO done RIGHT.
Well, I start off against Sean once again. Sean usually earns rating points for each tournament he goes to, since he has not played in very many events. But his rating is still below 1750, so my immunity should hold up. :) He terminates my visage before I can blink. But I go ahead and bring vader out for the early flip anyway. I use Janus, a walker, and another character to hold the CC docking bay, to set up S&D. I alter his EBG almost immediately, but lo and behold, he easily sets up ebo without it, once again proving that alter is not a real problem for ebo done RIGHT. He gets TK-422 out to one of my docking bays, to slow my drain, but the Search & Destroy is still eating away at him. The x-wings start filling space, along with lando in falcon. I deploy to space in force, bringing 3 ships and some forfeit fodder. Mara Jade takes over the north ridge. I deploy my second visage, but it gets terminated again. The battles in space favor him initially, since he keeps using organized attack for immunity. With help from Janus, Bossk is allowing me to draw 10-12 attrition at a time...but the x-wings laugh it off. While the battles in space are going on, I am still getting drained for 3 a turn at hoth, since he has enough ships to battle me and drain elsewhere at the same time. Once he runs out of organized attacks, his ships start to drop, and Search & Destroy proves to be too much. So I win by 23.
2: (+23)
A win by 23 puts me in 6th place, since 5 of the other players won by more. I’ve got some work to do....
Game 2: Hidden Mains vs. Don Henry’s My Kind of Scum
Don shows me Ak-Rev for his rep, so I know it’ll be musicians. He is also using some non-unique Weequays for an easy flip, and good retrieval. We each spend our first turn drawing. On turn two, he deploys Jabba, Gailid, and Ephant Mon to the Audience Chamber. I come in with Ben Kenobi and epp luke. Luke misses Jabba, attrition kills Jabba. forfeit luke to cover the attrition, and retrieve him with Ben. On his next turn, Don deploys guys to Jabba’s Palace and Desert Heart for the flip. Gailid and Ephant Mon walk outside. I drain 2 in the chamber, but he cancels it with Ak-Rev. He has two characters at the Desert Heart, so I come down with Han and Leia, shoot both of his characters, and draw 2 destiny. He top-decks a 6 for destiny, but still has to lose cards for battle damage. Han dies. Ben and Luke move in front of Gailid/Ephant Mon again. On his turn, Don loses 3 to order to engage, and moves his 2 characters in front of Leia. She battles and kills them both, flipping him back to the zero side. Leia also dies. He puts Presence of the Force on my Home One docking bay, and deploys a couple of guys there. Ben and Luke return to the audience chamber. Don throws out some guys at the desert heart and jabba’s palace, and reflips. Melas and KFC clean out the docking bay, with a tracked six, reducing his destiny to zero, and forcing just enough attrition to clear the site. KFC dies anyway, due to a weapon, but I put her in the bacta tank. Pretty soon, I bring KalFal out of the tank, and drop her on the guys at the desert heart, along with the new Lando. Draw two battle destiny, pair of sixes, clear the site again. Home One comes to space to add to the drain, and I use on the edges to retrieve most of my lost pile. Full win by 34.
4: (+57)
Lunch today is Carl’s Jr. I go with the Southwestern Spicy Chicken, and some Mountain Dew. After 2 games, my differential of 57 has gotten me into 2nd place. But Mike has 60.
Game 3: Hidden Mains vs. Mike’s Hunt Down
Vader comes out to the death star docking bay early, and he flips. But I have Honor of the Jedi, so neither of us are losing. Vader gets joined by Dr. Evazan. I deploy Ben Kenobi with Obi’s saber, to the tatooine docking bay, and flip him back. He starts chasing Ben with Vader. I am getting outdrained, but the visage damage is hurting him, since he hasn’t deployed no escape yet. I finally decide to battle him once I put down epp luke next to Ben. Weapon Levitation takes Vader’s lightsaber. I miss Vader with both of my lightsabers, and Evazan dies to the attrition. On Mike’s turn, he deploys Tarkin and Sim Aloo, and initiates a battle. I play fallen portal on Tarkin, but as usual, it fails. Sim Aloo checks my destiny, and it is my CC docking bay (though I don’t know it at the time) So Mike leaves the card as is, and initiates the epic duel with vader’s obsession. I play my courage. I draw my first destiny. zero. nice. I draw my second. six. tarkin cancels it. nice. I draw my third. four. okay. Mike has the misfortune of drawing two 1’s. Vader loses the epic duel, and Mike concedes the game on the spot.
Full win by 30
6: (+87)
Van and Joshua Bader are both 3-0, with a differential of 44. But Van just played the same allegiance I did, so I will have to deal with Josh first, and then take care of the last unbeaten player in game 5.
Game 4: Hunt Down done RIGHT vs. Josh’s Hidden Base
Josh starts Strike Planning (to get Calrissian) and Squadron Assignments, so I can be pretty sure this is a matching pilot version that actually intends to flip. His 3rd effect is YISYW, so I can expect Honor on his first turn. I hope for an early no escape...Once again, I have no Vader in my opening draw, so I check to see if he is in my turn one activation. nope. I draw a few anyway, to get the Mara Jade I activated. He deploys Honor on turn one, and draws a few, then I lose one. I figure I could deploy Mara Jade, and go for the alter. But with my objective being Hunt Down, the alter is unlikely to work before I flip. So I decide to wait on the alter until turn 3, and try to draw Vader. I activate 9 or so, go get a docking bay, but I still have all 5 vaders in reserve. hmmm. After deploying the docking bay, there is only one card in my deck that would succeed if I played the alter with Jade. hmmm. So I draw a few more, and lose 1 to the visage. On his turn, he takes over the Endor system, so the Honor is now immune to alter. hmm. I lose 1 to the visage. On my next turn, I finally manage to draw Vader. I lose 1 to the visage. I get drained at Endor. I lose 1 to the visage. agh! I deploy Vader and flip. Can’t find my No Escape, so I will need to occupy 3 battlegrounds. He is starting to deploy a multitude of ships in space, and has 4 battleground systems out now. He uses Squadron Assignments to get Captain Han on the Falcon, and then General calrissian hops on. They are at Kessel, but Josh also has ships at Endor and Raithal (including the guy who adds 1 to drains at Raithal) I use Mara Jade, a walker, and EJP dengar to take over the cc docking bay, and deploy S&D. But it doesn’t work yet, just like the visage, due to Honor. The ships at Endor leave to reinforce his ships elsewhere, giving Josh a more fortified position, as he prepares to flip. I need to go to space for my 3rd battleground, so here I go. I have only one ship in hand, and it is the Chimaera. There is a 4-parsec gap between his systems, so I know that once I deploy the Chimaera, it will have to stay on one end of the galaxy or the other, and I will have to draw more ships to probe with if I guess wrong. I decide to stay on the high-parsec end, so that I can later block the massive Kessel drain if I need to. But since the Falcon is at Kessel, I decide to go to Endor for now. He finally starts losing force to S&D and the Visage. As it turns out, Endor WAS his Hidden Base, so his objective does not last long after he flips it. I do manage to get another ship, Fett in Slave I, so I go to fight at Raithal. But he plays Out of Nowhere and the Spiral, and Fett goes down in a blaze of glory. Luke shows up on Red 5 to block my drain at endor, so I move on over to Kessel. The Chimaera has Ozzel, Tarkin, and Sim Aloo aboard, but in just two battles at Kessel, all the forfeit fodder is gone, and the Chimaera has only its permanent pilot remaining. But I have found my Bossk in Hound’s Tooth, so I deploy it alongside the Star destroyer, and finally knock the Falcon out of space. S&D and the Visage have been wearing him down all this time, and he dies shortly after losing the falcon. Full win by 19.
8: (+106)
Sure enough, Van won game 4, so we are the only two undefeated players when game 5 begins.
Game 5: Hidden Mains vs. Van’s Hunt Down
I get the Honor in my opening 8 cards. This would turn out to be the game, as Van would never get No Escape out. He has trouble getting one of his Vaders during the first few turns, and the visage is just plinking at him. I had anakin’s saber in opening draw, and I soon have jedi luke in my hand to go with it. I also have Ben Kenobi, and a weapon levitation. Jedi Luke comes down at the home one db, and Ben goes to the tatooine db. I leave them split up, to gain extra activation with staging areas. This allows me to activate enough force on my next turn to deploy Home One. Checking the reserve deck showed that obi’s saber was not in there, so after deploying the capital ship, I play weapon lev, grab obi’s saber, and put it on him. Van is amassing a small army at the executor docking bay, including the Emperor, Sim Aloo, Mara Jade, EJP Dengar, and who knows what else. I have KFC as the only pilot on Home One. Van comes down with Zuckuss in Mist Hunter (since I just have 5 ability), with Evax piloting. Bossk in Hound’s tooth joins in the fun, and Van battles me. I react with the spiral, to get to 7 ability. Evax dies to attrition, as does the spiral. On my turn, Captain Han shows up aboard the Falcon. Han dies to attrition, as do both of the Bounty Hunter ships. Home One would own space for the remainder of the game. Vader has come down by this time, and Mara Jade has her saber. Janus joins the crew too, but Van can only drain for 1, rather than 3, due to Menace Fades. The Visage is absolutely murdering him. His doom squad chases me all over the docking bays, but he can’t force me to battle him. I use on the edge to retrieve the cards I had lost earlier (like Han, the Spiral, my starting interrupt, etc) Jedi Luke gets Disarmed, but there is no Evazan around. We finally end up having a battle with the Emperor/Janus/Sim Aloo vs. Jedi Luke (no saber) and epp han. Fallen Portal (the cheese that goes CRUNCH!) kills Sim Aloo, but my two battle destiny are not enough to get past Janus’ immunity....I lose luke for attrition, and Han stares down Janus and Palpatine. I deploy epp luke, Han misses Janus, Luke misses the Emperor, but my two destiny are 6 and 6 this time, so they both die. Han goes to the bacta tank, and Luke goes running out to other join other fights. Van loses between 14 and 18 force to the Visage this game, and well...nothing else really went his way either...I win by 33. Which puts me up to:
10: (+139)
Van gets to rematch me in Game 6. Better yet, we get to rematch the decks too, since we are both playing the same thing on both allegiances.
Game 6: Hunt Down done RIGHT vs. Van’s Hidden Mains
He terminates my visage, and we play the waiting game for a while. I use the Emperor at the executor docking bay for a little extra activation. We just kinda sit there and draw cards, and save force. I put a walker down with the Emperor, and we continue to wait. Then I drop Lord Vader, with his saber, and Tarkin. And EJP Dengar. And Janus. And transit them ALL to the death star docking bay. On Van’s turn, he deploys a 2/2 location that I can’t get to, and puts Jedi Luke there to flip me back. He also deploys the Super Falcon to space, with Jeroen Webb on board for extra forfeit. My 3 point drain at the docking bay is now 1, due to menace fades. and he can drain me back for 3. not cool. I deploy Mara Jade, with her saber, and Dr. Evazan, to Luke’s site. I put another walker with them as well. Battling will not help, since he will just steal Mara’s saber anyway. I decide to just let them sit there, to take Menace Fades out of effect, while I wait to decide whether or not to pick up Lord Vader to go duel Luke. If I can kill Luke without picking up Vader, cool. If not, well....So Van puts Melas next to Jedi Luke, and battles me. Luke grabs Mara’s saber, as anticipated. He draws a 6 for destiny (surprise, surprise!) so I lose Mara Jade. (I could have lost the walker instead, but I have a trample in my hand, and a visage in my hand. If I can use Janus to stack the visage, then I can trample luke. it will just take two turns to set up) Melas goes to the bacta tank, and van draws a few. On my turn, I drain for 3, and deploy a few ships to space (NOT where the falcon is) I use the Chimaera (with Ozzel aboard) and Fett in Slave I, to try and draw the falcon over, saving Bossk in my hand. I embark evazan aboard the walker, and hope it can survive one more battle, so that I can step on luke, and not have to pick up vader. Nothing doing. On van’s turn, he brings melas back from the tank, and redeploys him. Tawss Khass and epp obi-wan join in as well. Since it becomes clear that the walker won’t survive the turn, I go ahead and burn the trample to step on Tawss Khaa. Melas goes to the tank again for attrition. Evazan and the Walker get obliterated. Palpatine alters the Bacta Tank. The Falcon sits tight for a moment, to keep menace fades in effect again. I pick up Vader. On my next turn, Lord Vader pays a visit to jedi luke and epp obi-wan. The lightsaber hits Luke, and i draw the visage for destiny. Obi and his apprentice hit the bricks, and Lord Vader survives both the lightsaber swing, and the battle destiny draw. Van sets up destiny for next turn, and I let him go. Down comes another epp obi-wan. This time, Vader’s defense value of 8 would not be sufficient, and he gets whacked by the blue stick of death. Vader hits Obi-wan as well. destiny time. Van draws a 1. I draw the masterful move that I had used to trample tawss khaa earlier. 13 power to 6, so Van has to lose Obi-wan plus 7 more. ouch. the falcon moves over to where my ships are, and Van has two 6’s and a 5 ready for battle destiny. But I manage to get another Vader down just in time, and since that flips my objective, the super falcon cannot initiate against me. Han curses Leia for being a Skywalker, Van curses Vader for killing all his Jedi, and I win by 21.
I finish the tournament with 12: (+160)
I get packs of Special Edition, Cloud City, and Death Star II, but I haven’t opened any of them yet, not even the DSII! I might be learning (finally) Mike is the only 5-1 player, so he takes 2nd. Van finishes at 4-2, and takes 4th. Between the 3 of us, we go 15-3, and all 3 of those losses were to me. Sean scrubs out big time, so we won’t mention what place he took. :)
Props:
To Van, for driving. Yeah, Van pretty much always gets the first prop, but that’s the way it goes. :)
To Vader, for STILL being the best character in STAR WARS.
To that nifty light deck, for winning all 3 of it’s games by 30+ force.
To Van, for going 4-2 and yet still finishing with a NEGATIVE differential. Sorry bro, didn’t mean to cost you 54 differential in those last two games. my bad. :)
To me, for not opening my DSII packs. :)
To Honor of the Jedi, for screwing me in my game against Josh, since I couldn’t find my No Escape.
To Honor of the Jedi, for screwing Van in my game against him, since he couldn’t find his No Escape.
To Carl’s Jr., for having a good chicken sandwich.
Slops:
To Brangus Glee, for being lame, and keeping me from playing Prodigy at the tourney today.
To Fallen portal, for being lame. I have used Fallen Portal on tarkin FOUR times, and never hit him. *lol*
To Randy, (even though he wasn’t there) for having yellow hair. :)
To Scott, the Tournament Director, for playing that board game the whole time, and paying absolutely no attention to the tournament he was "running". j/k!
Well there ya have it. Thanks for reading and see ya next time.
Brian Hunter