huntsville-al-12-30-00

Title: huntsville-al-12-30-00
Author: Andy "Solo337" McClure
Date: Jan 3, 2001

Pre-tourny junk--

Well, there isn’t too much to tell about the pre-tourny today. 3 new players showed up, which is always cool, but other than that, all we did was sit around and play Tribbles CCG (which totally rocks). Clint Hays had played with us the previous week, but he didn’t show this week, and Chris Bentley had told me he would come, but couldn’t make it, so it stuck me with my 12 year-old brother at about 1700, and a bunch of players under 1600. I love playing any games of SW, but I would have preferred a little better competition. Ah, well, what can you do?

As some of you may know, my current goal is to win 10 tournaments in a row. Having a tournament every weekend helps, but it is still a pretty tough goal. Before this tournament, I was at 2 consecutive tournament victories, so here I am going for 3.

On to my decks. My LS was the same Chadra Fan deck that I have played a couple weeks in a row because it is the only LS deck I have that I don’t think "Man is this deck a piece of crap" after every time I play with it. It has a bunch of Chadra Fans, with some main support and some cool anti-MKOS tech. A similar version is posted if you want to take a look at it.

My DS deck was my version of Hunt Down. I think using Elis Helrot is SO much more powerful than Docking Bays, so I start Crush, Secret Plans and First Strike. Secret Plans lets me search my deck for free every turn, then I grab Shocking Revealation and play it to knock out a Scomp Link. It is an easily trackable 5 destiny and lets me search my deck if I have a lack of Vader in my hand. I submitted it to Decktech, and some dumb people gave it like 2 stars, so it has a pretty bad reviews overall, but I don’t understand why. If you don’t start Insurrection against it, you are never safe to drain on the ground. Vader can go anywhere on table instantly, so you could never leave, for example, Orrimaarko to drain at the Cantina, or Vader would kick the CRAP out of him. Even if they do start Insurrection I prefer it over Docking Bays, because Vader can go to a different planet in your move phase. With Docking Bays, you have to take him into your hand, giving them an entire turn to Force drain without worrying about Vader, then when you re-deploy him, he can get Barriered or something like that. I prefer Elis.

End pre-tourny junk--

Game 1: My Elis Hunt Down vs. Ben Atkins (1504) Queer Man Crap
Ben is my friend, and for the week leading up to the tournament, we have all been insulting how absolutely GAY his LS deck is. He starts Quiet Mining Colony, but doesn’t use the Cloud City sector, so he can’t flip. From there, he just plays Docking Bays and uses mains like Ben Kenobi (who he puts at the Tatooine:DB). He also plays some space and Kessel to get a decent force drain. As I have mentioned before, Ben is better than his 1504 rating, and this deck is better than it sounds on paper, but playing Ben Kenobi in a QMC deck is grounds for being insulted about it.

Anyway, Ben really didn’t want to play me first round, but he had to anyway. I get a decent opening hand, and he gives away enough force for me to deploy DVDLOTS first turn, which is always fun. The game pretty much went downhill (for him) from there. I just sat there draining and hitting him with Visage, then set up Search and Destroy with the Emperor and Janus at his 2nd Cloud City site. He cancels Visage, which I redeploy next turn. He puts Captain Han alone at Vader’s site and starts to draw. I am curious as to why he would do such a dumb thing, when I remember that he had been bragging earlier that day about how good Gambler’s Luck is (it is pretty good). Instead of beating the mess out of Han, I decided to be nice and point out that Captain Han isn’t a gambler, and I let him take the deployment back (even though technically it is now his draw phase). After another turn or 2, and a lot of force loss for him, he deploys Ben Kenobi to the Tatooine: Docking Bay and moves him to the Cloud City docking bay, where DVDLOTS is sitting with his saber. I deploy Tarkin and battle, and as my first action played Circle and Focused. He tried to play Courage, but First Strike prevented him, and I won the duel by a huge margin, so he lost Ben and 9 cards. He keeps taking heavy force loss, then deploy EPP Luke to Vader’s (and Tarkin’s) site, but doesn’t battle. After I active I ask, "Should I be nice about this, or mean about this?" To which he responds, "Either way." I decided to do it the nice way, and Snipered Luke so I could drain. The mean way would have been disarming him, battling, hitting him, playing I Have You Now and canceling his battle destiny. My drains, Visage and S&D finished him off in a hurry.
FW 2(+33)
Total: 2(+33)
Game Highs: Hunt Down doing what it should, shutting down the opponent and dueling, draining, and battling them into oblivion, with direct damage also playing a key part.
Game Lows: Having to play Ben first round, because Ben REALLY didn’t want to play me.

Game 2: My Chadras vs. Chris Baker’s (1611) MKOS with Tusken Raiders, Banthas and Sandwhirl:
Chris is actually a pretty good player, despite his age (maybe 13 or 14) and is very good at coming up with off the wall decks that win. This was a very interesting deck, with nice planning behind it. Tuskens are immune to sandwhirl, so unless you are playing against Speeders, Sandwhirl can buy you free drains. I like the idea a lot.

He starts MKOS, with Jabba’s Palace, so I change my starting location from the Audience Chamber to the Antechamber, so it can’t get converted first turn. The entire game, we both played without the Audience Chamber. I never could draw mine, or one of my Tunnel Visions, and Chris is a smart player, so he didn’t deploy his Audience Chamber, because he knew it would help me more than it would help him. The first few turns, we both just drew. Finally I deployed EPP Obi to his Jabba’s Palace, and know it would be really hard for him to use his Jabba’s Palace game text. He would have to control the Hutt Trade Route, and keep me from controlling Jabba’s Palace, so he was hurting for generation the whole game. I drain for 2 at JP a couple turns, then he deploys 4 Tuskens and a Bantha to my Trade Route. I respond with Lando with Vibro Pants, EPP Luke and 2 Chadras. My Chadras are only power 1 and forfeit 2 because there is no AC. I battle, exclude a Tusken and he loses all the Tuskens except the excluded one. In his turn, he has no back up, but moves the lone Tusken to the Desert Heart, where it is stuck. I commence spread drain, with a Chadra at the Antechamber and the LS jundlund wastes, holding an It’s A Trap in my hand. I also deploy Tawass Khaa to the Desert Heart along with a Chadra or 2 to kill the lone Tusken and beat it for like 7-12 cards. He plays a Sandwhirl at the Hutt Trade Route, sending Lando and EPP Luke missing, along with 2 rodents. I drain, and during his turn the Sandwhirl gets the Chadra at the Jundlund wastes, and he puts a Tusken or 2 with the Sandwhirl for a free drain.. I drain again, and send some Chadras behind the Sandwhirl to go save Luke and Lando. During his turn, he gets his free drain, the sandwhirl gets my guys at the Desert Heart , and he moves the Tuskens to stay with the Sandwhirl, but they get stuck in the desert. My turn, my rats find Lando, and I split the group, leaving 3 guys to find Luke, and moving a couple to go find some of the other missing rats at the Jundlund wastes, and I run Obi (who is still at Jabba’s Palace) inside to avoid facing the same fate as Luke and Lando. I also deploy Tessek (who I had been holding in may hand all game waiting for the AC) to the Antechamber for no reason at all. I ponder to myself how strange it is thatTessek is the centerpiece to the whole deck while he is at the Audience Chamber, and does CRAP while anywhere else. The game continues in much the same way, with me winning the drain war. After I find Luke at the Trade Route, he Sandwhirls him again, but it is too late, and my drains finish him off.
FW 2(+26)
Total: 4(+59)
Game Highs: Playing a fun game vs. a very interesting deck. Winning without the Audience Chamber with ULTRA gay Chadra fans (2 deploy, 1 power, 2 forfeit).
Game Lows: Heh heh, sandwhirl so effectively screwing me over. It almost made me want to play controls. Almost.

After I finish my game, I watched the end of a GREAT game between my brother and a guy named Tom Culpepper. It was my brother’s MKOS Musicians (a great original deck, much different than any other deck I have seen, even other Musician decks) vs. Tom’s Chadra Fans. I commented jokingly that they were playing for the honor of playing me 3rd game (because the winner of this game would assuredly go on to play me 3rd round.) It was a GREAT game, and thanks to the DS text on LS Jabba’s Palace making Chris lose 2 force, Tom won the game by ONE card. So I play Tom.....

Game 3: My Hunt Down vs. Tom Culpepper’s (1552) AITC Chadra Fan’s
Once again I play a low rated player who is better than his rating. In Tom’s own words, he is "the most dangerous sub-1600 player alive," and I pretty much agree with him. He is a good player, and great at thinking up original deck ideas, which I really respect. Chadras, even my Chadras, have an inherent weakness to Hunt Down, so I had the upper hand this game.

First turn Agents gives away 2 force, which is just enough for my first turn EPP Vader. He sits there and drains for a turn or 2, while Tom sets up Tessek at the AC with Bo Shuda. I would normally be afraid of Lost In The Wilderness, but I had a Sense in my hand, so I drained freely. I love SAC in a Hunt Down deck. I can’t recall how, but finally he kills Vader, and the Dark Lord comes back for revenge the next turn. This was a relatively short game, and Visage and drains finished him off pretty quickly. Kabe didn’t come until VERY late in the game, which can screw Chadras, so I won easier than I should have. Sorry for the lack of detail, but there really isn’t that much to tell....
FW 2(+31)
Total: 6(+90)
Game Highs: Another huge win with a poorly rated Hunt Down deck.
Game Lows: No comment :-)

Well, the highest rated player besides me was my brother, but he was the same side as me (lucky for him :-) and I got paired with Tom again.

Game 4: My Chadra Fans vs. Tom’s Hunt Down...
Hmm..... Here’s some Deja Vu for ya. Last game was my HD vs his rats, this game is my rats vs. his HD. As I have already mentioned, my rats have a BIG weakness to Hunt Down. I play all the counters, but it is still tough. I was very nervous going into the game, but trying not to let it show.

He started out with the first turn Vader, as did I, and I set up Tessek at the AC, just like he did the previous game. From then on, I played the entire game on instinct. I remembered what Steven Lewis had told me about being overcautious, and Clint Hays’ editorial. #6 (I think) is "have some balls," so that is the way I played the whole game. I knew the monkey couldn’t beat Vader and friends by battling, and there was no way I was going to beat him with direct damage, so I had to rely on Force Drains. The entire game was spread-drain with Tessek for me. I usually had an It’s A Trap, but a lot of times, especially toward the end, it was a total gamble as to whether or not he had the cards to kick the CRAP out of my lone Chadra Fan. I didn’t get to deploy Kabe the entire game, despite my 3 You Will Take Me To Jabba Nows and 2 copies of Kabe, but Tessek won me the game. Another HUGE factor was the Chadras’ game text. I stole a Vader’s Lightsaber, and got a constant check of his hand. I usually had 5-7 mice on the table, so every turn I got to see 5-7 cards in his hand. I knew when he had a Vader’s Obsession and a Focused, so I didn’t deploy Luke. We had a few unimportant battle, but in the one key battle of the entire game, he made an error that could have won him the game. He had just drawn a 7 for battle destiny during my turn, so after he recycled he knew there was a 7 destiny on the bottom of his deck. Without thinking, he activated down to it, then drained and deployed a bunch of guys, including EJP Dengar and Dr. Evazan to fight my EPP Obi backed by 2 Chadra Fans (without Kabe). If he had left more destinies, he could have operated on Obi and 1 Chadra Fan, therefore leaving his stack of guys, consisting of (if I recall correctly) a saberless Mara, EJP Dengar, Colonel Davod Jon and Dr. E (maybe someone else), all against my 1 power, 2 forfeit Chadra Fan. He still hit me for something like 5 cards damage, but it could have been much, much more. In the end it was a good game, and Visage ate me alive, but my spread drains outlasted him and I won.
FW 2(+15)
Total for the tournament: 8(+105)
Game highs: Playing completely on instinct the entire game, and having it pay off. Winning against my biggest weakness. I stole Vader’s Saber with a Chadra.
Game Lows: Playing the entire game without Kabe. In the next to last turn of the game I got to use Kave to block a force drain of 2, but never could deploy her.

So I won the tournament, with the best 12-year-old in the world, my little bro Chris, taking second. This makes my streak 3 in a row, 7 more for my goal.

And now for the ever-popular Props and Slops....
Props:
To Tom Culpepper- for being the "most dangerous sub-1600 player alive."
To Tom Culpepper- for making up the saying "most dangerous sub-1600 player alive."
To Ben Atkins- for playing (and winning the game he did not play against me) a Queer Man CRAP deck that started QMC, didn’t play the sector, and used Ben Kenobi.
To my bro- for being the best damn 12 year old alive.
To my Hunt Down- for having an average win of 32 for the day.
To Vader- for being a Monkey killing machiene.
To the 3 new guys- because I really respect newer players.
Especially to Efridge and William (2 of the new guys that came)- for quitting Magic to play SWCCG and realizing the far superior game. (I hope I got their names right.)
To Chris Baker- just for playing Tusken Raiders.
To the brave little rodent- for stealing Vader’s Lightsaber.
To the Tribbles game- for absolutely rocking, and including the Kevin Bacon rule on one of the cards.
To Decipher- for making Tribbles CCG.

Slops:
To the Audience Chamber- for not existing throughout the entire 2nd game.
To Tessek- for doing NOTHING throughout the entire 2nd game.
To Kabe- for doing absolutely nothing the entire tournament, except cancelling ONE drain of 2.
To Chris Bentley- for not coming.
To my brother- for being the highest rated player there besides me, and getting 2nd without having to play me.
To me- for "beating up on the scrubs." (everyone there was rated at least 300 points lower than me, most more than 400 points lower.)
To Decipher- for making Snoova totally broken.

Hope y’all enjoyed.