7-jan-01-marlton-nj
Title: 7-jan-01-marlton-nj
Author: Doug "Phrim" Faust
Date: Jan 8, 2001
Well, it’s been a while since my last tournament report, because it’s been a while since my last (sanctioned) tournaments. The last few I tried to go to were unsanctioned because there just weren’t enough people, so I tried to e-mail a bunch of people and convince them to come. Anyway, I’m running a little late, so I pick my friend Mike Vitarelli up, and get at the tournament like 5 minutes late. Turns out there were 6 people already there, so with myself and Mike we had a sanctioned tournament.
As for my decks, I really haven’t had much of a chance to do anything with them. For Dark, I’m using my high destiny Dueling Hunt Down that I’ve been playing for a couple months, except Mike wanted his 2 Lord Vaders back because he was playing Hunt Down too, so I was stuck with DLOTS. For Light, I had thrown together an X-Wing EBO deck. It’s the most brainless deck ever, you just set up EBO, play lots of X-wings, and drain. But I really haven’t had time to come up with anything more imaginative, and the EBO deck wasn’t bad, so I stuck with it.
Game 1: My Dark vs. Scott Lingrell’s (1886) TIGIH/Speeders
Scott was the best person at the tournament, and oddly enough, last time we played I beat him, so he was looking for some revenge. Anyway, I get a DLOTS in my hand, but only have 5 Force, so I just fetch Ephant with Power Of A Hutt and sit him at the Holotheatre. He moves Luke out, so next turn I drop DLOTS at the Endor Docking Bay, grab Luke, and move over to the D* Docking Bay. So, everything’s all good, but then he flips a Speeder to Visage, and I know I’m in trouble. So I reinforce Vader with the Emperor, and he fetches the Hoth Docking Bay and puts Incom there with a Sandspeeder. I have Mara and her Saber in my hand, so I drop Mara at Hoth, but she gets Barrier’ed. Next turn, he deploys like 5-6 Speeders there and toasts Mara, and I lose like 4 Force on top of it. He deploys like 5-6 more Speeders in front of Vader and the Emperor, and deploys Flaps, but doesn’t battle. I figure this is my chance to do some damage, because Flaps aren’t engaged yet, so I drop Mara who gets Barrier’ed. I battle anyway, thinking I can play I Have You Now to get an extra destiny, but he doesn’t have any Rebels there, so I can’t. So basically, I toast a Speeder and the Emperor bites it. Unfortunately, I can’t run away from the horde of Speeders now, because Mara can’t move, so I just hope for the best. He deploys some more Speeders and an ASP droid (who I Barrier), and battles, I lose everything and then some, and he loses a Speeder cause he couldn’t lose the droid. He gets Luke back, and plays On The Edge with a tracked 7 to retrieve 6. So now I’ve got some big problems, so I deploy Lord Vader and capture Luke, but he gets Barrier’ed. He drops some more Speeders and battles, and I play Focused Attack to double Vader’s power, but it isn’t nearly enough, and I lose Vader and then some. At this point, I have 6 cards left, and I’m sure he’ll retrieve more if I do nothing, so I draw up. FL-18, 0(-18)
Highlights: First time I ever used Focused to double Vader’s power...
Lowlights: Getting screwed by Barrier 3 times.
Game 2: My Light vs. Mike Vitarelli’s (1608) Hunt Down/M’iiyoom
Well, Mike for some reason loves non-interactive strategies, and surprisingly, this was one of his more interactive decks (his last deck had like 9 Scanning Crews and 9 I’d Just As Soon Kiss A Wookiees). Unfortunately for him, M’iiyoom does practically nothing against an EBO deck that gets all its characters with Echo Base Garrison. Anyway, he starts out by putting Vader at the North Ridge first turn (I think he played an Imperial Supply) and deploying Ability, Ability, Ability. I Terminate his Visage before it does any damage. On my turn, I search for my stuff, activate my 3, Signal, and deploy an Ice Storm. It’s usually not good for Hunt Down when Vader goes missing first turn. :-) Anyway, I didn’t have any Force left, so I lost two to AAA, but it bought me some much needed time. So I went and got my EBO set up, and he waited until the Ice Storm passed until he deployed guys to find Vader. He failed to find him twice before Vader finally turned up. Meanwhile, he deploys Bragnus and starts playing the Bragnus/POSOA trick, and he’s got Controls for my big drains. He deploys a Death Squadron Star Destroyer at Hoth and shuttles all his guys up. I battle him with Organizated Attack, but he’s got Vader and Tarkin to cancel my destiny. I outpower by 6 anyway, so he forfeits Fett. He backs it up with another Death Squadron Destroyer, and I battle again with Organized Attack, and I still outpower him by a few. I run out of Organized Attacks at this point, but he fortunately decides he can do more damage on the ground, and shuttles everything down. Meanwhile he puts Janus at the Death Star Docking Bay to get a drain of 1. Anyway, I battle his two remaining Destroyers, so he forfeits them. He plays Imperial Decree and starts spreading out on Hoth. I play Boushh to block a drain, but I can’t do much about the Decree at this point. He spreads out very thinly, knowing that I don’t have any other characters in my deck. He leaves a lone Tarkin in front of my Boushh, so I break cover and battle him away. I deploy TK-422 to block another drain. He deploys another Tarkin at the North Ridge. At this point, I’m pretty low on Force, but I finally draw my All Wings Report In, and retrieve 11 Force. I draw and play the Ice Storm I retrieved, so Tarkin gets lost. He’s only got like 3 Force left, so he draws up. FW+14, 2(-4)
Highlights: Vader goes missing first turn. Hehe :-)
Lowlights: Having to deal with Decree...
Game 3: My Dark vs. Justin Mausner’s (1419) Massassi Base Operations
Now, I have no clue what his Objective does, but I decide early on to just ignore him and do my own thing unless Luke or Obi comes out. He starts Signal for Squadron Assignments, and I’m a bit confused as to why he didn’t use HFTMF, but whatever. He’s giving me Force, so first turn I deploy CC: Docking Bay from hand, Exec: Docking Bay from reserve, put Lord Vader at the Exec: Docking Bay for 6, and move him to the CC Docking Bay for free and flip. He uses Squadron Assignments to deploy ANH Wedge with Red 2 at Yavin. Next turn, I get out my D* Docking Bay and move Vader there. He does some more stuff that I just completely ignore. Meanwhile, I get out Mara with her Saber and Janus out at the CC Docking Bay, and soon I follow that up with Vader’s Saber and the Emperor at the CC Docking Bay. So now I’m draining for 5 and doing Visage damage, and he’s doing nothing. He keeps losing off the reserve deck, but then doesn’t like what he loses, and asks to take it back and lose something else instead. I’m a nice guy, so I don’t care, I figure I’ll win the game anyway. He deploys Captain Han on the Falcon at Kiffex, which I don’t like cause he’ll actually drain me or something, so I deploy Zuckuss and Fett in their ships and battle. Unfortunately, I only draw a 1, but he still loses in power and loses some cards. He deploys some SE pilot on their ship with Captain Han, and battles, but I remind him that his total battle destiny will still be zero, and he takes back the battle. Next turn, I battle his two ships, and draw another 1 for destiny (ugh), he draws a destiny to add to his power, and I lost in power that time, so I ditched a card or two. Then he goes and deploys Jedi Luke as a passenger on the Falcon and battles, I draw another 1 for destiny (what the heck?), and he gets 2 destinies plus a destiny added to power, so I get wiped out plus 4. He’s losing 7 Force a turn, though, and eventually he complains that he lost his Proton Torpedoes so his deck doesn’t work (I have no clue--maybe something to do with his objective that I was ignoring?). Anyway, I track around a 7 with Reactor Terminal, deploy Bossk in his ship and battle Wedge in Red 2, and he loses. FW+21, 4(+17)
Highlights: Well, I won, that’s good, right?
Lowlights: Repeatedly drawing 1’s in my high-destiny deck...
Game 4: My Light vs. Andrew Bolletino’s (1537) Dueling Hunt Down
I think it was dueling at least, don’t remember seeing any duel cards, but he did start Epic Duel. Anyway, first turn he drops Imperial Propaganda to Visage. I think, crap, not only is he playing Propaganda, he must have a whole bunch of them in his hand to drop one to Visage against EBO. So I decide early on to hold off on deploying EBO so I don’t get hit with mad Propaganda damage. I Terminate his Visage on my turn. He realizes that I have like no characters to speak of in my deck, so he speads out at his sites. He’s got some guys at the Death Star Docking Bay, Mara with her Saber at the Tatooine Docking Bay, and EJP Dengar at the Lars Moisture Farm. So I’m hurting right off the bat, I deploy TK-422 to block the drain where Mara is, but he Hutt Smooches him. I get some X-wings at Kashyyyk and Kiffex, and start draining there. I deploy Boushh were Mara is, figuring that if he Hutt Smooches me, Leia will just go to the Used Pile, because there’s no valid escorts. I leave a Force to move my spy, but he compensates by Docking Bay transiting Mara over to the Death Star, and it’d take 2 Force for me to transit Leia. So I move her over to the Lars Farm, and Dengar moves over to the Docking Bay. He deploys Vader, the Emperor, and Evazan on Hoth and starts marching in, which is bad because of the extra drains he’d get. At this point, setting up EBO is out of the question, as Vader is walking around Echo Base. I managed to get Hoth out and was draining for 4 a turn, and I went and retrieved 8 for All Wings Report In, because I was running low on Force. He moves Vader over an canceled my Incom Corp, but he left Evazan in front of Hobbie, so I battled him to make him lose 1. I drain him so he only has 3 Force left, but I have like 5 Force left, and he’ll drain me for that much. So I maneuver my guys in front of his so he doesn’t win with drains and I don’t get beat down too hard, but he battles my lone Hobbie with the Emperor, draws a 6 for destiny, and I die. FL-3, 4(+14)
Highlights: I almost won with my EBO deck without deploying EBO. :-)
Lowlights: He psyched me out! The Propaganda he lost first turn was the only one in his deck, and it made me change my entire strategy! If I had gone ahead and played EBO, it would’ve been an easy game...
Game 5: My Dark vs. Brian Kim’s (1835) TIGIH/Mains/Falcon
Brian’s a good player, but he’s a bit rusty because he hasn’t played in a while. Anyway, we start out much as expected, I deploy Ephant, he drains and moves Luke, I drop DLOTS with a Saber, capture Luke, and move to the D* Docking Bay. He drops Premiere Obi and his Saber and battles Vader. He hits Vader, and I play Put All Sections On Alert so he can’t draw battle destiny. I unfortunately miss Obi (and I miss choking him too), and I play I Have You Now to add a destiny. He tries to Sense it 3 times, but misses every time. So everybody dies, and Luke is free. I deploy the Cloud City Docking Bay and put the Emperor there, and he transits Luke over to turn himself in. He has Honor out, so I’m taking plenty of direct damage to both his Objective and my Visage, and all he’s got to deal with is my drain of 1. He deploys Oola to his Home One Docking Bay, and deploys Captain Han to the Cloud City Docking Bay and moves it over to Home One. So I’m thinking, if he manages to get an Oola lock on me at this point, it’s game over. I draw some, but don’t find Vader, and he Oolas me, and Sim goes used. Next turn, I draw some more, so I have like 15 cards in my hand, including an EPP Vader. He doesn’t use Oola next turn for some reason, so I deploy EPP Vader and grab Luke, and move everyone to the Death Star. He deploys BoShek and some other 3-ability rebel to the Death Star and battles, but I YAB BoShek and stomp the other guy. Next turn he Oolas me, and sees Mara with her Saber in my hand, but there’s nothing really he can do about keeping Oola from getting beat up. So next turn, I deploy Mara with her Saber to the Home One Docking Bay, and deploy No Escape and retrieve the YAB into my hand. I YAB Han and beat down on Oola. BoShek becomes un-YAB’ed, and he uses Squadron Assignments to deploy Tycho and his ship there, along with D* Wedge. He battles, but I POSOA Wedge so he can’t cancel my destiny. He ends up losing Tycho and Wedge, and BoShek runs away to Cloud City. He deploys Boushh (with broken cover) and Anakin’s Lightsaber to his Endor Docking Bay, but I don’t care because Hunt Down is flipped. He deploys Oola to the Home One Docking Bay with Captain Han, but I Barrier her. He gets confused between Barrier and YAB, and moves Han away, thinking Oola can’t be battled. So next turn, I smack Oola around (again), and on his turn he has one Force left. He had moved Boushh and BoShek over in front of Vader, and he tried to battle me, but I told him he can’t because Hunt Down is flipped. So he lost that one Force to Visage and I won. FW+13, 6(+27)
Highlights: Using the same YAB twice was pretty cool.
Lowlights: After the game, Brian kept saying, "Barrier, not YAB!" :-)
Game 6: My Light vs. Justin Mausner’s (1419) TIE Interceptor Swarm
Not sure exactly how it worked, but the pairings were all skewed for the last game, and I ended up having to play against Justin again. Anyway, he started Wakeelmui and Sienar and put an Interceptor with a SFS Cannon there right away. I got my EBO set up without a hitch. He deployed Flagship Executor at Fondor, so I deployed 5 X-wings there and beat it up. He deployed a TIE Interceptor with a SFS Cannon there and battled, making one of my X-wings lost and missing the other. However, I outpowered him like 18-3. He was like, wow, that was really stupid, can I take the entire battle back? So I’m like whatever, he takes it back, and puts the Interceptor with gun at Wakeelmui instead. My drains aren’t digging into him that much, because he’s got Dreaded Imperial Starfleet out. I move my ships over to Hoth to pick up the X-wing I used to set up EBO. He deploys a lone Interceptor at Sullust, so I deploy Incom and 4 X-wings and smack it around. I figure he doesn’t have many characters in his deck, so I deploy Commander Luke at the North Ridge. He puts another lone Interceptor at Hoth, but I don’t have any X-wings in my hand, so I leave it alone. Meanwhile, he’s apparently running out of ships for Dreaded Imperial Starfleet, so my drains are starting to get to him. He deploys a Dreadnaught to Hoth, puts a SFS Cannon on the Interceptor, and deploys The Emperor’s Shield, and moves it in front of my ships at Sullust. I deploy an X-wing Laser Cannon, destroy the TIE with the gun, and play Organized Attack. He plays All Power To Weapons, and I grab it. He loses the Dreadnaught and some Force. On his turn, he battles me with his lone squadron and APTW (I dunno why), and loses a whole bunch of Force. I proceed to drain him out on his turn. FW+22, 8(+49)
Highlights: I finished the game with 2 cards in my Lost Pile.
Lowlights: I kept reminding him to retrieve for his SFS, I don’t think he did it once on his own...
Anyway, it was a good tournament for me, though the competition was a little less than usual. Top three were:
1. Scott Lingrell 6-0
2. Doug Faust (me) 4-2
3. Mike Vitarelli 4-2 with a timed win
So I ended up getting a pack of Premiere, a pack of Cloud City, and a $7 gift certificate to the store, which was pretty cool (though the packs just went into my pile of unopened CC and Premiere packs). The store owner said he already shut down the register so I couldn’t use my gift certificate then, but that’s okay. Anyway, overall it was a cool tourney, thanks to Nathan for running it and Great Traditions in Marlton for hosting it. Until next time...