parker-co-1-6-01-end-of-an-era

Title: parker-co-1-6-01-end-of-an-era
Author: Brian "HuntaWarya" Hunter
Date: Jan 8, 2001

Well, this would be the last tourney in Colorado before the release of Reflections II, so it should be an interesting day. Mike, Randy, Van, and myself are all going to the tourney, so the Littleton Crew is in full effect. Additionally, Chris Fanchi (who we playtested with on Friday night, and who may replace Sean on the Crew) should be in attendance as well. I had stayed up until only about 6am, so I got at least 4 hours sleep. That’s a lot more than I’m used to before a tourney (as some of you know), but I don’t expect the extra rest to hurt my performance too much. :) I had decided to switch away from both Scum 2k done RIGHT and hidden mains done RIGHT this week, and had figured on playing MWYHL jedi testing, and perhaps BHBM, even though it sucks. But I decide that MWYHL is not very good for the local meta, so I reassemble my old ebo/baragwin deck instead. The deck has STILL never been playtested outside of a tournament, but it had never lost a game IN a tournament, so I’m not too worried. I can’t quite make myself risk using the BHBM deck, so I switch to Hunt Down done RIGHT instead. After all, the hunt down deck is 18-0 in tournament play, and if I can go 3-0 with it in this tournament, it will be getting close to the win/loss record that Ralltiir done RIGHT established.

Decks:
Me: Hunt Down done RIGHT and the goofy ebo/baragwin deck.
Mike: Hunt Down dueling and Hidden Mains
Van: Hunt Down dueling and Hidden Mains
Randy: ISB/Sandwhirl and MWYHL test to 6.

We arrive at the store, and turnout is pretty solid again this week. 25 of us. It looks like Kyle Craft wasn’t joking when he said he wasn’t going to play for a long while. He just waited until after the Arizona slam to take time off. I don’t think anyone has seen him at a tourney since then. I am wearing the boba fett t-shirt, and I have the oversized Hunt Down card today, so I figure there is really no way to stop me. Even worse for my opposition, I have added into my Hunt Down deck, the Epic Duel that Tiuli Anfossi signed and mailed me. Way too many good luck charms for the other players to overcome. I decide they are all screwed. :) Over the course of the day, the Tiuli Anfossi-signed Epic Duel would come to be known as "The Tiuli Duel" and this will result in me "initiating a Tiuli Duel" from time to time. :)

Game 1: Hunt Down done RIGHT vs. Victor Coppock
Well, my opponent starts Profit, so Game One is mine. Victor’s deck is full of good cards, including just about everything you would want to have in a Profit deck. But he has not used Profit in a tourney before (and furthermore, has never been paired against me before) so he seems a bit unsure of himself in this matchup. I start Crush as my 3rd effect, to prevent Clash problems, and put Jade and evazan in the chamber as my starting aliens. For my first turn, I deploy Carida, the exec. db, mara’s saber, and draw into the Vader I activated. Vader would join them in the chamber on turn 2.

Victor starts assembling a crew out at Jabba’s Palace, but naturally, they can’t force drain. Neither can I, but visage damage is hurting him a little bit. the group outside includes leia, chewie, and a couple of scrubs. So I put a walker there, with tarkin aboard, and move vader out, while jade and evazan hold the AC. I have Fett In slave I at Carida, and Janus Greejatus is draining for another one now, at the CC docking bay. He deploys epp luke to JP, so now he can battle me there with luke, leia, chewie, etc. I trample Chewbacca, and choke one of the scrubs. the other scrub dies to attrition, so only luke and leia survive. Luke misses Vader with the saber, and my immunity holds up.

The twins (luke and leia) rush into the Audience Chamber, and Victor plays someone who loves you, to free han and flip. Then, since the leia in the chamber is Boussh, he plays Double agent, and kills Jade. Evazan decides he doesn’t need any of that, so he joins vader and tarkin outside. I am getting drained for one, and losing one to his objective. we are both losing force for visage. But I am draining 4, so he has to do something.

He drops lando and epp obi against the vader/tarkin/evazan combo (I still have no saber for vader) Since tarkin is on the walker, and vader is tough to hit, there is nobody good to swing at but evazan. so lando stands by, while the Jedi hacks Evazan with his saber. Since I have the focused attack, I then proceed to initiate the Tiuli Duel against Kenobi. Vader completes the Circle, Obi-Wan gets placed out of play, and Victor loses 9. The battle continues, with Lando facing Vader, the dying Evazan, and tarkin’s walker, by himself. The battle damage is heinous, and between that and the duel, Victor has lost about 20 force during this battle, which HE initiated. My drains finish him off shortly thereafter, and I win by 22.

2: (+22), putting me in 9th place.

Game 2: My ebo/baragwins vs. Mike McConnell
On my first turn, I signal for Honor, and Mike can’t find his no escape, so it screws him over pretty bad. He plays an imperial command, and grabs piett, who he puts at the exec db for extra activation, and adds igar (pulled by piett) on the following turn. He’s smart enough to keep vader at one of his own docking bays, rather than deploying him to hoth, so he gets flipped, and now neither of us are losing to the visage. Since I’m holding a barrier, I go ahead and drop epp obi to the north ridge, to flip him back, and make him start losing again.

Igar is now on Tempest 1,with Piett, at the CC docking bay, while Vader is on the death star docking bay. So Mike is draining at both of his battleground docking bays, but it isn’t anything the baragwins can’t handle. I end up having to use epp luke to set up ebo, and then start moving him out from under the shield, in case something bad happens to obi-wan. But it never does. Mike doesn’t have the characters he needs to fight me at the north ridge, and without the circle in his hand, he doesn’t want to pick up vader and drop him onto hoth.

Mike deploys the Executor, piloted by admiral ozzel, to the hoth system. On my turn, I deploy the falcon, with capn han and epp leia, and initiate. My 3 destiny draws are not real impressive, and the Executor’s immunity holds up. Mike loses the battle by one. On his turn, he deploys Bossk in Hound’s Tooth alongside the Executor, so now he has 21 power to my 7, and then initiates. It was right around that time....that Captain Han said...."Somebody better call my momma, to come pick me up, cause I’m ’bout to KILL somebody up in here!" I play the Punch It. Both of Mike’s battle destiny draws are low, and he can’t drop the falcon. My 5 draws are 5, 7, 5, 3, and 5. He loses ozzel for 6, and then the executor for 15 (with it goes all 3 of his executor sites). But that is just 21 forfeit, so there is 4 leftover, and bossk goes down as well. I would not be contested in space again, and I drain him out. Win by 22.

4: (+44) I jump up to 3rd place.

For Lunch today, we grab Burger King. And that BBQ burger gets the job done. :)

Game 3: My ebo/baragwins vs. Brian Goble
Brian puts out BHBM, so this is another autowin, like game 1. I get the attention of everyone around me, to point out that my opponent is actually playing BHBM, and we all get a good laugh out of it. He puts out the emperor on turn 1, like he is supposed to, and the first few turns are relatively uneventful. My ebo is a bit slow setting up again, but it doesn’t really matter, because he is playing BHBM. He has 4 or 5 vaders in his deck, but they all keep hiding in his reserve deck.

He tries to slow me down by bringing walkers and other characters in under the shield, but since Vader isn’t down yet, I can keep using my suicide epp luke to put the hurt on. And when you draw 7’s for destiny, you don’t even have to stack on insignificant rebellion. isn’t that neat? as you can figure out, the forfeit of his pilots does not cover the attrition, so the whole walker goes down. twice. Meanwhile, epp obi drops down on Lt. Commander Arden, and shows him what’s up. battle damage galore. I put home one, with Major Hasshn and melas aboard, at hoth, and start draining him for 3 a turn, since he is unable to establish decree. Vader finally comes down, so I give him Luke, which just accelerates the damage. I don’t think my opponent made any significant play mistakes, but as usual, BHBM has no answers for anything, so I Win by 32.

6: (+76) Good enough to get me into 2nd place, behind Matt Riecks, who’s differential is 89.

Van has just lost game 3 to Joe Helfrich, and is none too happy about it. Van goes to the TD, and brings up the fact that at the start of the game, Joe had a dark side card in his deck (which was a light deck), and hence, had 61 cards, and an illegal deck. However, since Van didn’t say anything to the TD until after the game’s conclusion, the director does not DQ Joe, and the game’s result stands. Van decides he is going to leave. And since he is our ride, any of us who decide to stay through the rest of the tourney, will probably have to wait until after the YJ tournament (which follows the SWCCG tournament) is over, to find another ride. So Randy and Mike both drop out of the tournament as well, and suddenly I am all that’s left of the Littleton Crew. Matt, Joe, and myself are the only 3 players with a 3-0 record. And all 3 of us just played light in game 3. Mike, Randy, and Van were all 2-1, and all 3 of them had just played dark. As you can see, this is going to lead to some REALLY screwed up pairings in Game 4. In fact, there are multiple byes, because there just aren’t enough light players to go around. Anyway...

Game 4: Hunt Down done RIGHT vs. Brian Goble
Brian starts Profit and I almost lose my mind. I have never been so lucky as to get paired against Profit twice in the same day. I gleefully put Mara and evazan in the chamber again, point out to the players around me that I am playing against profit AGAIN, and wait to see how much I win by. Once again, I deploy the exec db, carida, and mara’s saber on turn 1. Once again, I drop vader into the chamber on turn 2. I flip my big Hunt Down, and the visage damage begins. I add tarkin in the AC. And the turn after that, i deploy ephant mon into the chamber, and move jade and evazan outside where they can drain for 3. Brian puts down Boussh to block the drain of 3, since he cannot use her to free han (as ephant mon prevents her from deploying or moving to the chamber to play someone who loves you) Mara Jade snipers Leia, and the drain for 3 goes through, as does the continuing visage damage.

The Emperor hangs out at the Executor docking bay, and I’m activating about 14 a turn. Zuckuss is at Carida this game instead of boba fett. So I’m activating twice as much as he is, draining 4 to zero, and making him lose force to visage, and (get this)...search & destroy. Yup, I set up Search & destroy against a mains deck. gotta love profit. By the time he puts out some epp mains to flip me back, I’ve got all my destiny tracking set up, so weapons + evazan, combined with iggy’s riot gun, guarantees that the light sides forces are wiped out in the blink of an eye. win by 24, with the Hansicle still intact.

8: (+100) that keeps me in second place, since matt is now at 8 (+124!) that means he is averaging over 30 differential each game. wow. good thing this is a 6-game tourney. :)

Game 5: My ebo/baragwins vs. Matt Riecks’ ISB
Again, this is Matt’s outer rim scouts & admirals & ships & imperial command speed drain deck of death and mayhem. on turn one, he imperial commands to get piett, who in turn, grabs Commander Merrejk. while I set up ebo, Merrejk starts getting all of matt’s systems down, like endor and fondor. he gets the endor db out. he puts down Vader, with his saber, at the north ridge, backed up by Tempest Scout 1, with 2 pilots on it, and gets the flip. I drop the ice storm, and Vader is on a permanent vacation.

I have finished setting up ebo, and deploy the superfalcon to endor. Matt deploys another walker, and moves it to the MPG, establishing imperial decree. Matt deploys the Executor to fondor for 10, lateral damages my millenium falcon, and moves the executor in front of me, then moves piett from the exec db onto the bridge, giving him 15 power to my zero. I deploy Home One to endor, and drop thaneespi and hasshn onto it. Hasshn cancels the lateral damage, and I battle the Executor. Matt plays Imperial command to keep me from drawing more than one destiny, while thaneespi reduces Piett’s battle destiny to Zero. Matt staunchly refuses to forfeit Piett, and loses 9 cards to battle damage. On his turn, he has to move the ship away, after losing 3 more cards to OTE.

I’m draining for spit at endor, so I put jedi luke down under the shield to stop the decree, then move home one and the falcon back in front of Matt’s super star destroyer. Luke causes some heavy damage, but Matt tracks his "We’re In Attack Position Now", and surpasses Luke’s immunity to attrition <6. Matt reinforces his position on hoth, keeping decree in effect, loses another 3 to OTE, and moves the Executor again. Matt tramples one of my baragwins, but the other two combine (with help from a tracked 7) to finish clearing him off the MPG, and since I never deployed the hoth system, the north ridge is not enough to keep his decree going, and it falls out of effect. OTE eventually forces matt to battle me in space, and once he does, the game ends quickly. win by 28.

10: (+128) And I finally get into 1st place.

Joe is the only other 5-0, so it’s gametime.

Game 6: Hunt Down done RIGHT vs. Joe Helfrich.
You’re not gonna believe this. Joe starts....Profit. In a 6-game tourney, I get paired against Profit 3 times, and BHBM once, and only have to play 2 real games. I’m tellin ya, somebody up there must like Jesus. But I guess that makes sense. :) Once I manage to control my fits of laughter and dry my eyes, I put mara and evazan into the audience chamber for the 3rd time today. I get tarkin and vader’s saber in my opening draw, but it takes me 2 turns to find a Vader. But mara and Evazan hold firm in the chamber. After I put Vader in the AC and flip, Joe quickly puts Ben Kenobi down with his saber, and flips me back. Nobody can drain now, so I just wait, and prepare my hand. Once I am ready, I keep Vader/tarkin in the chamber, while jade, evazan, and sim aloo move over in front of Kenobi and a couple of scrubs. I disarm Ben and evazan operates. Joe plays Ounee Ta, and pulls Ben back to his hand. But since he doesn’t have another saber, and no weapon lev to stop Mara’s, he deploys Ben at the docking bay, and moves the scrubs over. but Joe still can’t drain me, while I can now drain 3 at Jabba’s Palace. So I know he’ll be back soon enough. He deploys Jedi Luke, with Luke’s Lightsaber, and moves the crew in front of evazan, jade, and sim. so i deploy no escape, and take the Disarmed back into my hand. I then switch Mara and Sim into the chamber, while bringing Vader and tarkin outside to Jabba’s Palace. during Joe’s control phase, I disarm jedi luke, and evazan operates. Undaunted, Joe deploys another Jedi Luke during his deploy phase, along with Lando w/Axe, and battles me. He swipes Vader’s saber with weapon levitation, and then tries to exclude tarkin with Lando, which fails. So I initiate the Tiuli Duel against Ben Kenobi, and after Tarkin cancels one of his draws, Ben folds in a heap. Lando, luke and friends draw 2 destiny, so I forfeit Vader. But i redeploy him next turn. We have several more fierce battles on Tatooine, and that Lando was a severe pain, excluding sim aloo, and adding battle destiny, and so on. But when you’re fighting against Vader and Tarkin, and Luke has no saber, and Ben is out of play, and Han is still frozen in Carbonite....well, it just ain’t gonna happen. Joe slowly but surely runs out of characters, Han never gets freed, and I win by 24.

I finish at 12: (+152) First place nets me 3 packs of JP, 3 of SE, and 3 of DS II. 9 packs for $3 ain’t bad. But next week, the prizes will include reflections 2. mmmm.

Matt overcomes Alex Stine in game 6, and finishes in 2nd place, having lost only that one game to me. Joe takes 3rd, also having lost only to me. Since Randy, Van, and Mike were all 2-1 when they dropped, the Littleton Crew ends up with a combined record of 12-3. Chris Fanchi, potential future crewmember, went 4-2, and placed 5th. As it turns out, the YJ tournament was not posted on the Decipher website, and hence would not be sanctioned. I manage to catch a ride with Matt.

Props:
To Van, for driving to the tournament.
To Matt, for the ride.
To Vader, for STILL being the best character in STAR WARS.
To Victor, for finishing at 4-2 in what was only his 2nd tournament.
To the BBQ burger, for being good, and costing just $0.99
To the Tiuli Duel, for whacking Kenobi twice.
To Tiuli, for sending the Tiuli Duel. She said it would be a powerful addition to my deck, and she was right. :)
To Jade and Evazan, for doing such a great job of holding the chamber.
To my falcon, for destroying the executor twice.
To my baragwin assault squadron, for knocking down at-ats like they were nothing.


Slops:
To Profit and BHBM, for being silly. :)
To Admiral Ozzel, for not calling Captain Han’s momma.
To my "secret tech", for doing practically nothing all day.
To ishi-tibs, for being so inferior to baragwins.
To figrin d’an, for losing so many wagers.
To Van, for dropping out early, taking most of the Littleton Crew with him, and wrecking the pairings for Game Four. hehe. :)
To me, for opening my DSII packs, and getting another Admiral’s Order. grrr!

Well that’s all for now. Check back next week, when Reflections II will be legal, and a new era begins...

Thanks for reading,

Brian Hunter