raveling-fargo-nd-2000
Title: raveling-fargo-nd-2000
Author: Michael "Gilliatt" Raveling
Date: Dec 11, 2000
*note at bottom of TR.
1st Game my Dark Side versus Brent Voels
I didn’t know most of the locals and this guy was a Fargo native. I start Kuat with Oppressive Enforcement, Mob Points, and Secret Plans. He starts Agents in the Court with Yarna d’Al Gargan, Insurrection, Do or Do Not, and Your Insight Serves You Well. His rep was Kabe. I draw my 8 cards and I have a Scanning Crew in the opening draw. I figure it would be only a matter of time before he ditched YISYW so I decided to hold onto it. I deploy Weekulmui and draw my 2 force looking for systems. On his turn he draws up which really surprised me. He didn’t use Insurrections game text or ditch YISYW. So on my next turn I draw up again looking for systems. On his turn he deploys Chewie with Blaster to the Hutt Trade Route. On my turn I finally get out Siener Fleet Systems and deploy Endor with a Tie Scout. I make sure to save a force for my Ghhk in case he plays First Strike. When he gets to his control phase he tries to drain me at the Hutt Trade Route and I play Thinking With Your Stomach to make Chewie go missing. It was pretty funny to make Chewie go missing with that card. It just fits. He tries to deploy Tessek but I play Set For Stun and send him back into his hand. He tries to redeploy him but he can’t. Now he deploys a double shot of Chadra-Fans to the Trade Route. On my turn I drain him and set up another Tie Scout at Endor so I can retrieve my Set For Stun card. I draw up and get Vader with Saber. On his turn he deploys Tessek along with a Chadra-Fan and Sergeant Doylann to the Audience Chamber. He tries to flip his objective but I point out that he needs another site to do it. He also deploys another Chadra Fan to Hutt Trade Route. Then he puts out the Cantina and puts Ben Kenobi down. Now he flips his objective. I decide to try to kill Tessek so on my turn I deploy Vader with Saber in order to see if he would send him back into my hand. Well Vader gets deployed to the Audience Chamber successfully so I play two Set For Stuns on the Chadra Fan and Sergeant Doalan so that he cannot get a destiny draw. I battle the lone Tessek and swing and hit him. Kiffex turns up as one of the saber swings. I draw a 4 in battle destiny anyway and he has to lose 9 force. On his turn he drains me for 3 and draws some. Now it’s my turn. First I drain for four then I deploy U-3P0 to the Cantina. Now Vader is getting a nice drain at the Audience Chamber so I draw up and leave enough force for an Imperial Barrier and a Ghhk. His turn he gets a drain of 1 on me and draws. On my turn I finally set up some more systems and I deploy my Tie Scouts at Kashyyk and Sullust. Throughout his turns he never searches for Chewie at the Hutt Trade Route which is weird. Now the game is a simple drain race and I win with my drain of 8 versus his drain of 1. I play Short Range Fighters to get back my lost pile. I win by 33.
After the game Brent tells me he hasn’t played this game in quite a while and that he is just getting back into it. I feel bad that he had to come back and play me with my super-cheeseball deck as his first game. On the second game he has a bye because I smashed him so hard.
2nd game my dark side versus Dan Grabill
Dan starts with SYCFA and pulls Mob Points, IAO, and Oppressive Enforcement. I start with Hidden Base and Aim High, Strike Planning, and Do or Do Not. On his turn he puts down Rendili and then deploys a Death Star Gunner to the DS docking bay. I wonder what the heck is going on. My turn I pull Endor system with Hidden Base and deploy 3 x-wings to Rendezvous Point. I also get down Bespin. I move all the x-wings to Endor for free and draw up. On his turn he sends the DS Gunner to the used pile and tries to pull the Superlaser but it isn’t in his reserve. Now I know I am facing a strange deck. He draws up all the cards he activated. On my turn I deploy Aquaris and Bespin and 2 more x-wings to R-Point. I move one x-wing to each system and move the R-Point ones to Endor. I am holding a Houjix and a Hyper Escape so I know I can take whatever comes. I save two force though for First Strike and Barrier. I figure that if he had any bounty hunter ships in his hand he would battle me at Aquaris to stop my force generation on this turn. So he activates and deploys the Superlaser. He moves the DS to parsec 1 and saves all his force. Now I know he has something. But all the force he left me leaves me a hundred different options. I decided to deploy Jedi Luke to the DS-docking bay and see if I can bring the force draining to ground. I deploy Kirdo 3, put an X-wing there, move one x-wing to Rendili, and draw some. On his turn he deploys Vader with Saber, Tarkin, Ig-88 and Mara Jade to the DS-2 Docking Bay. He tries to get Mara’s saber but he doesn’t find it. Should have used IAO to check first. He battles my Jedi Luke but misses on the saber swing. I draw a 2 in destiny and play Houjix. Before I do anything else I stop and add up the battle damage. I don’t have to play my Houjix so I just lose Luke and one from reserve. He moves the Death Star to parsec 2. On my turn I have a drain of 4. I deploy Roche system and put an x-wing there. I draw into Kessel so I hope that next turn I get Coruscant then I will flip. His turn he deploys 3 Death Star Gunners to the DS docking bay. On my turn I can’t find any systems as I have activated almost all my life force. I decide that the drain at the Death Star and the drain at Kessel is enough so I deploy Kessel and put an x-wing to Kessel and the Death Star. I flip Hidden Base. On his turn he plays Commence Primary Ignition and draws a zero to blow up Alderaan. I breathe a sigh of relief because I don’t even remember what flipping the objective does. I imagine it does horrible things to me but when I ask him what it did the objective sounds even lamer then I remember. He deploys Ig-88 in IG-2000 to the Death Star and battles me. I deploy the Spiral as a react but still don’t have enough for battle destiny. He draws a four in battle destiny and I just lose the x-wing. On my turn I get a huge drain on him and deploy the Liberty to the Death Star. I want to recycle that ship if he battles me there again. On his turn he deploys the Chimeara to the Death Star and battles. I draw a zero destiny but just recycle the Liberty to the used pile. He leaves the Chimeara there because I did no damage to him. On my turn I drain him for a ton and deploy every ship I left in my hand to the Death Star which amounted to about 3 x-wings, a b-wing bomber, and Lando in Falcon. I battle and I draw my tracked Liberty. Pretty sad I had to track a destiny 2 just to make sure I wouldn’t draw a zero. I do enough damage to wipe every ship of his off the board. Now I am in a drain race and he is draining for zero. Win by 23.
After this game Dan asks me if I am the John Swenson of my area. I don’t know what to say to that…so I am confused and can’t say anything.
3rd game versus Josh Kohman
My Light Side Hidden Base versus Josh’s Hunt Down. Josh starts with Mob Points, IAO, and Oppressive Enforcement. He also deploys Epic Duel, which translates into a ground anti-mains deck. I switch my starting effect from Aim High to Your Insight Serves You Well and pull Honor of the Jedi on his turn. He deploys Rendili and Bespin docking bay. Then he draws up and we both lose one. I see Houjix go to the lost pile. So on my turn I deploy Oonee Ta and get my Houjix back and deploy Honor of the Jedi. I had a bad draw and got only one x-wing out of my entire x-wing swarm. I deploy Endor, the x-wing, and then move the X-wing to Endor. I draw. Josh loses one. He activates one and uses that to play Masterful Move. He takes out a Monnok and plays it on me. I lose 4 x-wings. Then he plays No Escape to retrieve the Monnok so I am in bad shape. He draws up. On my turn I deploy Aquaris and put down Lando In Falcon there. I deploy Bespin too and draw. On his turn he has enough force to put down Darth Vader and flip his objective. My turn involves putting Green Squadron A-wing down to Sullust and drawing. I don’t draw all my force but I have 2 x-wings in hand and I figure they are going to be lost next turn. He activates and deploys No Escape and deploys Death Star Docking Bay and puts down Tempest one with a scrub pilot. He doesn’t use his Monnok though, which surprises me. Now I have to lose one to Visage every turn. My turn I deploy Roche, Corulag, and Coruscant and deploy both x-wings to Coruscant. I deploy the Liberty to R-Point and then move it to Roche and move a different x-wing to Rendili and Corulag. Then I flip my objective. On his turn he plays Monnok lost but I had just lost a Rebel Barrier to Visage on the end of my turn so he gets no doubles. He sees that I saved my Rebel Barrier and decides to deploy BobaFett in Slave 1 to Bespin, which I have left unmanned. I don’t barrier him and he probes it. He also puts down Search and Destroy. Now I will really lose force. He moves Boba to Endor in order to probe. He tries to draw up but I remind him of Hidden Base and he has to pay which really annoys him. On my turn I get a massive drain in. I see him lose all his dueling cards. Endor gets probed. I move away from Boba in Slave1 and draw up. I am losing force from a single drain of one from the system that Boba in Slave 1 is at and from Search and Destroy and Visage but my drains are bigger. He deploys Bossk in Hounds Tooth to Sullust but I barrier it. He puts down 4-Lom with Gun into Bossk and says "Character of the Year". I am like what? I don’t understand because I am focused on this game. He was just referring to my article. I didn’t advise him to put 4-Lom with Gun into Bossk in it though. He moves Boba to Corulag. I am holding a Hyper Escape so on my turn move Lando to Roche but I don’t move any of my other ships. I just draw a couple and play All Wings Report In to retrieve 6. He deploys First Strike and battles me with Bossk and then I remember that I should have moved one of those ships away at least. I play Hyper Escape and move the Green Squadron A-wing to Corulag. He battles me at Corulag and I only have to lose the x-wing as he draws a bad destiny. He probes both systems but still has not found my system. He knows he can’t take the drain at Coruscant much longer so he moves Bossk to that system and moves Boba to Roche. Now on my turn I deploy Jedi Luke to Bespin. He finally probes my Hidden Base and gets all those probe cards back. I fight off that pesky Vader and I draw a 5, my tracked Hyper Escape. Vader dies and Search and Destroy is lost. I battle at Roche to use his First Strike and I move my ships away from Coruscant. On his turn he decides not to move any of his stuff to Jedi Luke or from Coruscant so that I don’t retrieve with First Strike. I drain him out. Win by 12.
After the game I see that Graham Neal has lost to Kohman while Zach Stenerson is still undefeated. I hoped to knock Kohman far down so that I didn’t have to play him and would instead get a local yokel from Fargo. No such luck.
4th game versus Josh Kohman
Josh starts Main Power Generators with A New Secret Base. His deck was put on Decktech a while ago so I remembered some of the things he had in there. I figured he had around 8 x-wings and 2 x-wing cannons that were going to kill me. I started my Kuat with Oppressive Enforcement, Secret Plans, and Mob Points. In my opening hand are most of my ground defenses; my 2 U-3POs, my Vader with Saber, and a Thinking with Your Stomach. I have hardly any ships and no systems. I deploy Weekulmui and draw. Josh deploys Endor rather early in the game while he is setting up EBO. So I deploy 2 Tie Scouts there but I still haven’t set up Siener Fleet systems so I cannot retrieve. I get an early It’s An Older Code on him and he only has two x-wings. I send one to the used and figure I am safe. He tries to set up his EBO with Hobbie, Boussh, and Zev Senesca but I play Set For Stun on Zev and bounce him back to his hand. Josh tries to redeploy him but I tell him he can’t. Josh draws some. On my turn I play another It’s An Older Code to get another x-wing out of his hand but he still has one there. I draw and can’t find anything useful. Josh tries to deploy Zev again but I play another Set For Stun and he still can’t set up EBO. He deploys his single x-wing and moves it from Endor to Weekulmui. I look at Zuckuss in Mist Hunter in my hand and I figure I can take him. So on my turn I deploy Zuckuss in Mist Hunter and battle. He plays some goofy interrupt that lets him get an x-wing cannon from his reserve and I see that he has saved 3 force for it. So I cancel the battle with a Projective Telepathy and try to move my Zuckuss to Endor. Then I notice that a hyperspeed of 6 is required to go to Endor and I have to move Zuckuss to Kuat to keep it alive. Then Josh notices that his x-wing couldn’t have made it to Weekulmui from Endor at all. So now I have my ships deployed to Endor with no way to get them to Weekulmui and I have to just sit there until I can find some more systems. Josh has my Tie’s deploying for +2 and I can’t afford them with no Systems out. On my turn I draw looking for systems and get Sieneer Fleet Systems finally. He finally sets up EBO and deploys a back up x-wing to Weekulmui and Incom Coorporation. I figure if I can get a bigger drain going then Josh, I can win so I play I’ve Lost Artoo on his x-wing with the laser cannon and draw hoping for more systems. I don’t find them and he moves over to battle me at Kuat with some more x-wings. So he tries to set up a drain at both my systems and I have to sit there with my drain of 1 at Endor. I try a last ditch effort to retake Kuat by deploying a Tie Scout to Weekulmui and then DinP1 to Kuat with another Tie Scout. Then I moved the one Tie Scout to Kuat. He battles me and uses that same goofy interrupt to deploy another x-wing cannon to Kuat. He shoots Zuckuss down and I lose my ships. He loses one x-wing. My last ditch effort did nothing. He retrieves everything at the end with All Wings Report In and I die. Loss by 28.
At the end of the game I am mad that I didn’t catch Josh moving from Endor to Weekulmui. I am also mad that Josh doesn’t know the hyperspeed of his own cards. I couldn’t move around after he did that. He says he would have just pulled Kiffex and moved to Weekulmui but then I could have moved Zuckuss there and drained and had more force instead of the 3 systems that were deployed the whole game. Dang. Swenson points out that Kohman pulled two EBO effects with A New Secret Base as well.
5th game versus Andrew Dahl
My Light Side Hidden Base. Andrew starts Court of the Vile Gangster with Mob Points, IAO, and Power of the Hutt. I think that is a weird thing to do because Court lets you pull docking bays so why use IAO? I start Aim High, Do or Do Not, and Strike Planning. Then I realize that I have to lose one every turn for Court and I ask him if I can change one of my starting effects before we start. He says sure and I pull out Your Insight Serves You Well instead of Do or Do Not. I didn’t think he would let me do that. His first turn he goes into his reserve. He doesn’t say with what card. I ask him what he is using because he has 4 things on the table that let him search his reserve. He says IAO and Power of the Hutt. He takes out Hutt Influence but doesn’t grab a Docking Bay. He asks me if I want to verify but I say no but just make sure to be clearer on what cards you are using to search your reserve from now on. I feel generous after he let me change my starting effect. He deploys Jabba from his reserve to the Audience Chamber and then slaps down Scum and Villainy. He deploys Rendili too. I pull out Honor of the Jedi. I set up my drain at Endor with 4 x-wings and draw. His turn he activates a ton of force and now I remember to watch for him activating for Endor system. He has activated plus two this turn and so I made a mistake on his first turn by not checking that he hadn’t activated for it. Dang. He drains me for 1 at the Audience Chamber and I lose the Falcon. Then he deploys the Cantina and gets the Spaceport Docking Bay from reserve. He deploys Bane Malar to the Cantina. Then he puts down Security Precautions. What? Nobody plays with that anymore. I deploy Aquaris, Mon Calamari, and move a set of x-wings to each. I also deploy Oonee Ta to get back the Falcon with Lando and so I can activate one more at his Spaceport Docking Bay. I try to keep two x-wings together to avoid any bounty-hunter beat down. He deploys Ephant Mon with Ree-Yees at the Pit of Carkoon to set up his third battleground and now I am losing to his objective. He seems to avoid the Spaceport docking bay as I would deploy pretty darn cheap there. He deploys Zuckuss In Mist Hunter to battle me and I Hyper Escape away. He tries to retrieve for Scum but I tell him he needs to pay for it and he gives it up. On my turn I deploy Jedi Luke to the Cantina with a tracked 5 on top of my reserve(Hyper Escape). He has a nice Imperial Barrier all saved for me so I just sit there. I put out Corulag and Roche and put down x-wings at each. On his turn he deploys Bossk In Hounds Tooth to Roche and I am cursing that he chose that time to deploy to my secret base system. I barrier it to avoid any beatdown. He moves Bane Malar away from my Jedi Luke. I deploy Kessel and Kiffex and flip Hidden Base so that I can cancel some of his drains. He never remembers the game text to Hutt Influence and I don’t bother to remind him. He drains me on Tattoine and I cancel them with Hidden Base. He has three cards in hand so he can probe both systems he has ships at and would get my Hidden Base for sure. I would lose 6 force because of the 9 systems on the table. However he uses those cards to deploy Jabba’s Sail Barge with Dengar to Endor and probes that system. He he. He must have thought that I would never flip my Hidden Base when he had ships sitting at it. Or that Endor is the most obvious choice? Any way now he can’t probe anymore and I have Hidden Base flipped so he won’t draw much to probe with. On my turn I drain him out with the massive drains I had set up. I win by 13.
After the game he says that he never saw anyone play with Aim High before. I think that is funny.
Going into the sixth game there is only one undefeated left. Zach Stenerson and he is the local hero. He has been whupping up on the Fargo boys since Fargo became a bad movie and I figure that if he goes undefeated at this tourney he will think all of us City boys are pretty wimpy because we couldn’t even make it up to playing him. Even though it was Kohman who made it so that none of us where undefeated and I made it so that he wasn’t either.
6th game versus the last undefeated player, Zach Stenerson
Zach has been playing the same light side deck since he was conceived. MWYHL with Battle Plan, Wise Advice, and YISYW. I get a good draw with 2 systems and some nice interrupts and effects. I have plenty of force too. I deploy Weekulmui, Endor and a Tie Scout there. Zach deploys Yoda and then gets the training area. I thank him for his generous force generation and I deploy another Tie to Endor after I set up Sieneer Fleet Systems. Zach ditches YISYW and pulls Squadron Assignments. I wonder why he didn’t just start with that effect and keep YISYW in his reserve but I don’t say anything. Zach is moving slowly and drawing a bunch after he gets out his Dagobah Site. I play It’s An Older Code on my turn but he has 2 Falcons in there and 2 Cap’n Hans so I know I can’t get rid of all those cards in one turn, not with Squadron Assignments out. He also has 2 Liea with Blasters and an I Know. I have just spent most of my force so I can’t do anything else versus the Super Falcon. I am paying 3 for each drain and I back up Endor with 2 more Tie Scouts to make sure I can draw a battle destiny. Zach still hasn’t put anyone down to train so I have no idea what he is doing. He draws again and surprises me. He saves some force. Here comes the beat down. My turn I pay the three to drain and do not deploy anymore to Endor. I save my force to play 2 Set for Stuns in my hand and I also have an Operational as Planned in case he puts down Frozen Assets. I don’t figure on that though. On his turn he deploys one more Dagobah site then he deploys Frozen Assets on me. I play my Operational as Planned to have a force and maybe convince him I have an Imperial Barrier. I don’t. He deploys anyway. Down comes the Super Falcon with Captain Han. He waits for my barrier but I don’t have it. He puts down Liea and waits for my barrier but I don’t have it. Then he battles. I lose one and he retrieves. He plays I know. He draws some big destinies with 2 sixes. I lose one Tie Scout to the used pile and the other 3 to the lost pile. Then I laugh. That was the Super Falcon? That stunk. He can’t figure out why I said that but I thought I would lose part of my life force. Instead I lose nothing but the stuff I had deployed. On my turn I try I’ve Lost Artoo on the Falcon but I miss when I draw Vader with Saber. So I deploy No Escape and draw I’ve Lost Artoo to try again. This time I succeed and the Super Falcon is going to sit for a while. I deploy Sullust and put 3 Tie Scouts there to retrieve everything I lost then I deploy Dreaded Imperial Starfleet. He drained me for 2 at Endor the whole game and I never remembered that that system is drain -1. I drain for 2 and retrieve it while Zach drains for 2 and I cancel it and then retrieve one when I deploy the Tie Scout I canceled it with. I contemplate battling the Super Falcon when I draw Dengar In Punishing One and Zuckuss in Mist Hunter but I decide not to as he could then lose the Falcon and re-deploy it minus the I’ve Lost Artoo. He plays It Could Be Worse to cancel my drain but I grab it and when he retrieves with On The Edge I grab that too. I deploy Kiffex and start a drain of four going and Zach knows he is dead. He doesn’t have a single astromech in his deck and no way to get rid of I’ve Lost Artoo. He deploys Anger Fear Aggression but I cancel it with Projective Telepathy. He inserts another one and I have to do some searching using Secret Plans on my control phase to get another Projective Telepathy into my force pile. I track it into there and use it to cancel his second AFA. Now he has no means to do me any damage and his retrieval has been KO’d. He asks if I would mind if he drew up and I say heck no. He starts to draw up and I play Short Range Fighters to retrieve a couple. I don’t retrieve more because I left some Tie Scouts sitting on my Dreaded Imperial Starfleet. Win by 23.
That win is enough to knock Stenersen back to 4th place and I end up in second to Kohman. Some local Fargo guy gets third and Graham Neal had two losses to move him back farther than I can remember.
*NOTE: I would like to take this opportunity to announce my retirement from SWCCG. I don’t plan on playing anymore as I have found something (someone) better to spend my time on. It has been a nice hobby and I like it a lot. See you all around.
PROPS:
Me. Seems every tournament report I read the author gives props to himself. I might as well get my share of self-props.
Swenson. For running a heck of a tourney and for bugging me about stuff I thought was kinda private in front of everyone.
Stenerson. For being a big silly goose and killing all Fargo natives.
Jerry. For the Tuesday night inspiration of x-wing swarm.
4-Lom with Concussion Rifle. For being the card of the year as indicated by my excellent article...
Sue. For being worried about me when I skipped doing something with her on Saturday to go to Fargo and play cards.
SLOPS.
Fargo. For being a one-horse town with crazy side streets.
Kohlman. For writing WHOOWNZU on his tournament report and not giving me the proper props.(and for cheating)
Graham. For losing to Kohman not once, not twice, but oh...it was twice.
Me. For losing to Kohman when I made a vow never to lose to Kohman again.
Peace,
-Michael Raveling