smyrna-georgia-1-13-2001
Title: smyrna-georgia-1-13-2001
Author: John "Parn12" Digiovanni
Date: Jan 14, 2001
I had spent 3 months out of tournament play, but in those three months I had tinkered with my Court deck and Training. I was hoping that I’d go at least 2-2 again. My court is a typical cotvg deck, sets up Scum and First Strike, not too dangerous on the heavy drains but is capible of a lot of direct damage if the other player doesn’t want to play on the ground. My MWYHL deck plays some scouts, for things like Gen. Solo and Insertion Plannings, but overall tries to start to coming after the other guy after the second test, definitely by the time the third is done. I was planning on that quick of an attack from a training deck would take players off of their games and get them playing on my terms.
Everyone will have to forgive me now, I’ve not played in 3 months, like I said, and did not attend many tournaments in Smryna as it was... so regardless to say, the people in that area are a little foreign to me. With all of that out of the way, I think I should get cracking on the actual report.
Game 1: HB/Kessel Run(sorta) vs. COTVG
I had tested against HB a lot and knew that a good space fleet would all but deter me from coming into space to battle. Only weapon I have against this deck is Security Precautions, that way I can retrieve and not worry about losing to battle damage, plus I can widdle away at his ships a little each turn and retrieve my just lost ones and redeploy them the next turn with COTVG, so on and so on. I draw Security Precautions and Ephant Mon into my opening hand, I toss the Precautions on the Dungeon for +1 generation all game there. Search for my Docking Bay 94, deploy Jabba the Hutt (activate 1 each time I drain with an alien) to the audience chamber. Snag Hutt Influence with Power of the Hutt, deploy it. Activated 5, used 4, draw 1 card... ironically it is Scum and Villainy, oh lucky day. He plays a system or so per turn, not really doing much but keeping Gen. Cal on GS 1 on Randevous Point, so they’re not a real concern until he tries to Alter my Scum early, he draws a 3, misses Scum and loses the Alter due to There Is No Try/Oppressive Enforcement. He gets Lando in GS 1 down to Kessel, objective is still not flipped... so I stay away from space still, drains for 1 for a few turns. I’m busy setting up my activation fest and drains down in the Audience Chamber and Pit of Carkoon, S&D him early, plus he’s losing from COTVG. He sends a little force of people down to try to hold a ground site, don’t even remember what he put down, but it was enough to get beaten easily. Kid tries to flip his objective, but only has 4 systems out, must not have known about the page and a half eratta on HB, so I inform him of it and his hear kind of sinks... I felt kinda bad then, but even worse when I had to tell him he couldn’t kessel run with Gen. Cal. He pops Han on the Falcon, and Figrin Dan had been there for a little too, they’re at like a parsec 2 system that’s not Kiffex. He tries to run, makes it to Kessel, and by now I had some space including Zuckuss in Mist Hunter (Han ability 3, Cal ability 3). Game is finished right there. FW +30.
Highs: My first game in 3 months is a complete win.
Lows: My first game in 3 months is a complete win against a kid. I never like doing stuff like that, its just not nice.
Game 2 (2 +30): BHBM Mains vs. MWYHL
Okay, this was something I had never tested against, and knew right off it could be a lot of trouble. He allows me a chance to get set up fairly well, drew the Hutt and Swamp into my opening hand, Jungle is in my reserve deck. I’m about attempting Test 2 by the time I have to worry about Vader and friends. He splits his people into 2 groups by this point, Vader and Emp hanging out at the Docking Bay, Mara Jade (without saber, wasn’t in his reserve deck) and Fett (I believe) hanging out at the CC Docking Bay. I abuse his objective a little and deploy JK Luke (-2 from reserve deck) to CC DB with Anakin’s Saber, and then Crix Madine from hand via strike planning earlier. Hack and slash Mara, the other goes with attrition, I win the battle so no stack, clear out the site, and forfeit Crix in case he gets squirrely the next turn. And he does deploy a little here and there, but he transits Vader over to scoop Luke up, and I figured that was coming. I test a little more, start amassing a force to go and ’rescue’ luke. I drop the Rebel Landing Site and deploy a little out there, including Corporal Kensaric with Mercenary Armor, Beezer, and General Solo. He comes down and kills Beezer, Clashes poor Solo, so he’s out of it for a little while. I have to back the site up. He initiates another battle while I’m waiting to get my card on Test 5, I play Insertion Planning to get something to track (he altered my Traffic Control earlier, so it went into my reserve deck again via Wise Advice). I draw another Insertion Planning for destiny, so I do a little damage, and ate up his attrition with Planning, Test 3, and Yoda in the Hutt. Next turn I do nothing but activate down to 3, spend 2 to get a card from Test 4, nothing note worthy. Deploy some backup, draw... guess what? 2 Insertion Plannings for Test 5. Flip, retrieve my 10, get my 6 on Test 5, and totally stop his SAC. From there in its pretty much over. Next turn I deploy test 6, pull Leia up, drop her to Vader’s site on Endor, duel vader, and naturally win (he’d need 2 7’s to beat me). Complete Test 6, battle, he has no weapons and it is Lord Vader, so no choke. I get my 2 destinies of 6, clear out the site and get luke back. Now it is Leia, Chewwie Protector, Gen. Solo, JK Luke, and some other little peeps. He keeps deploying more Vaders, capturing Luke, battling, and losing bad... it was all just for fun, the game was long over. I finally drop Obi with Obi’s Saber and some Proficiency to keep him from dropping another Vader and Circling Obi (I saw him lose 1 earlier, I knew he was waiting for me to drop him). Rest of the game was to pass time until my drain at the Rebel Landing Site killed him. FW +18
Highs: A WONDERFUL game that did go back and forth for awhile, exquisite battles, and just enough goofs on both sides to keep it intersting. That and beating a BHBM deck with Training.
Lows: None at all, this is quite possibly the best game one could hope to have.
Game 3 (4 +48): Court vs. MWYHL
This game was just a test to see how many mistakes I could make against the deck that would give me the hardest time. Drew made a wonderful Court deck, have to give him compliments and praise on it. But I still believe I could have done a little better had I put some thought into the game. I start a turn behind, forget why, but something I didn’t do, think I forgot to get a Jedi test or something. Get to test 2, but he’s hitting me hard with 3 off my reserve deck compliments of a POTF on the Pit of Carkoon and Mosep at the Chamber. I get panicy for some reason and try to throw down on Mara and E/Ponda at the Pit, He cuts Solo down, I think, and I have Chewwie vs. them and no destiny. I lose the battle horribly. Later I come back and try to mount an offensive again, some rebel scouts, a splash of Merc Armor, and initiate a battle, I win the first round with a little damage, test 3 gives him major targeting problems. But Court is a visciously retaliatory deck, and while I play that kind of deck for dark, it slipped my mind for that little bit of time. I get smashed off of Tatooine again, and run over to the Rebel Landing Site again to avoid a more potent S&D. I completely forget to get Test 4 until my move phase when I realize I’m not where I’m supposed to be and don’t have the test. So I’m another turn down. He comes and smacks me off of Endor, how he did was a blur. So I spend the rest of the game trying to complete Test 5 for pride, and do... I got a 6 on it again, even though his drains killed my tracking because I had no hand. I retrieve my 10, he drains me the rest of the way. FL -17.
Highs: Even though I lost, it was still a very good game.
Lows: I felt that I played pretty bad overall. But I doubt it would have changed much, Drew had an excellent deck.
Game 4 (4 +31): HB B-Wing Weapons vs. COTVG
This game was just about set in stone before it started. Luke and I had spent some time developing and testing decks, and these two tested each other once or twice. Court absolutely demolished it by taking away its strengths and exploiting its weaknesses. I draw Scum into my opening hand, excellent draw, I get DB 94 with COTVG, but Jabba made his way into my force pile... so that sets me back a little. Either way I spend the 4 to deploy Beolo to the Chamber, play Scum. He looks at his icons and makes some crazy comment pertaining to Obi hacking through Beolo. So I play it safe and move him over into the Dungeon. He gets Roche and his crazy effect first turn, but nothing else. He’s searching his reserve deck when he searches with HB to see if Boussh is in his force pile, she remains in his reserve deck most of the game. TK-422 does nothing against me when I hold back deploying Mara. My speed overwhelms him, things just don’t go exactly right all game for him, and even when he flips I had well established Hutt Influence, so the only thing he can stop is Ephant Mon’s drain of 1 in the Dungeon. Boussh negates COTVG loss eventually, I can’t seem to sniper her, so I just deal with it. Couldn’t get S&D either, so I made due without it. The few battles in space were pretty even, but Secret Plans kept him from retrieving a bundle from hitting my starships with SW-4’s and Concussion Missiles. Last few turns were just to see if his drains could cut my differential any, and they did. I went from about a +30 win to only +17 or +14, forget which. Sorry, Luke.
Highs: Finishing up the tournament strong
Lows: Knowing the course of the game from the beginning.
Total: 6 +40somthing
I finished the tournament 3rd on the day, which made me feel real good after coming up off of a slump and a long time out of the game. Couldn’t do much after the tournament with all my boxes of r2 and stuff to trade, had to get back for work. So that’s just about all for the tournament. Overall the tournament was really enjoyable and a great experience to get some relaxation from work. Thanks Kevin for holding great tournaments with some awesome prizes! 9 packs of r2 for 3rd place was a real treat... even though I left them all there in my rush to get to work. Such is life though. Anyways, its time to work now, so until next time everyone!