melbourne-australia-14-1-01

Title: melbourne-australia-14-1-01
Author: Luca "Luca/Tzizvvt" Costanzo
Date: Jan 17, 2001

Hello all. Today’s (Sunday 14/1/01) report is on the open tournament held at Australia on Collins. Seeing as the first half of the tournament was a JPOTSD tournament I decided to forego playing in it. Instead, I agreed to meet Ronnie Wilcox early and have a few games so that we could tweak our decks. Today’s light deck was standard HB mains, with the notable exception of Jedi Lukes and a Strike Planning/Crix/Scouts unit. For dark, I decided to have a go at Ralltiir Ops, seeing as I was yet to see anyone actually play Ounee Ta. Also, having been one of the people who actually gave Ralltiir Ops a shot after the release of Special Ed, I was a bit miffed that I never got to actually play a tournament with it after the release of Endor. Don’t ask! I just never got around to it.

Anyhow, I turned up and found out that R2 was legal, so I went and bought some cards. Ronnie and I finally got around to building him a light deck. We decided to throw together some random EBO X-wing deck, seeing as they seem to be a strong meta choice now. I lent Ronnie my freshly purchased Jedi Luke (anyone out there got any spare?), but a few practise games revealed that EPP Luke and a few of the unique speeders were actually a better choice. Our line of reasoning was that the speeders are immune to Ice Storm, and Jedi Luke doesn’t stop Search and Destroy, a major consideration. Because of this, Ronnie was kind enough to lend me his Jedi Luke for the day. I also took out a random scout for Mirax Terrik. Cool!

Final Decks:

Light: Hidden Base Mains w/ Jedi Lukes, Mirax Terrik and Strike Planning.
Dark: Ralltiir Ops. Absolutely nothing special.

Game One Dark vs Stuart (Profit)

To my utter horror, Stu started with Ounee Ta. Bugger. I asked him about it and he said that it was actually in there to stop None Shall Pass against various Scum decks. D’oh. Oh well, we get the game started and I flip on about the 4th turn, after having to evict Orimaarko from Ralltiir. Meanwhile, Stu flipped on about the 2nd turn with Ben Kenobi and stick to the Audience Chamber. Damn, foiled again! After flipping, Lando w/ Axe leads Mirax Terrik and Jedi Luke to pick a fight against Lieutenant Commander Ardan. I barrier Luke. Stu decides to fight, and fair enough. I drew a 4, which became a 7 due to Ralltiir Ops. Man that’s harsh! Stu draws a 1. End result: Lieutenant Commander Ardan stays and everyone except the barriered Luke stays. Wow! Flipped Ralltiir Ops is amazing, but we all knew that.

Nothing much of note happened after this. Tempest 1 and Igar killed the first lot of Han/Ben Kenobi, flipping Stu back. Lieutenant Commander Ardan fled to Ralltiir. Vader with Lightsaber killed Jedi Luke. Tempest 1 and Igar moved to Mos Eisley to drain and were finally met by another mess of mains, including EPP Han, EPP Leia, Jedi Luke and Lando w/Axe. Han got squished and I got away with losing only Tempest 1 and Igar. Stu stayed flipped back, and my drains of 6 or so a turn finally won me the game.

2(+20)

Highs: Won despite Ounee Ta.
Lows: Nothing, really. Not owning another three Jedi Lukes?

Game 2 Light vs. Stephen (Hunt Down)

Man I love playing Stephen. Stephen is a great player with a good knowledge of the rules, but what sets him apart is that he always plays something original. Today’s deck was no disappointment. Stephen started with Power of the Hutt, Secret Plans and No Escape. I took a look at his starting stuff, took a look at the Yoda’s Hut that I was fortunate enough to have in my starting hand and decided that force choke could be a viable option. Stephen deployed Ephant Mon from reserve to the Holotheatre first turn, meaning that he couldn’t draw up to get locations. Yipee. I searched for both my generals, and threw a Ben Kenobi to Visage. My first turn, I grabbed 2/0 Endor, deployed Yoda’s Hut from hand, Home One: Docking Bay and plonked General Crix there, searching for Blount. Stephen wasn’t in a position to do all that much, so he just drew, presumably looking for locations. I set up a drain at the Meditation Chamber with Blount and Orimaarko, with Barrier in hand to prevent beatdown. We are both being nibbled by Visage, but my drain of 2 is keeping me well in the lead.

Stephen absolutely has to do something to, well … be able to do anything! Stephen saves up for a bit, then deploys Palpy, Janus Grejatus, Lord Vader and stick to his Cloud City: Docking Bay. Naturally, this is what I was waiting for. I started my beatdown crew off with Colonel Cracken. No barrier. I deploy the one remaining card that I need to deal with his crew. Undercover. What a laugh. Jedi Luke with stick pops up to the Tatooine: Docking Bay in order to keep Visage honest. I then draw the bomb- Mirax Terrik. I am 100% deadly serious when I say that Mirax Terrik was broken in this game. Stephen did his best to deal with Jedi Luke by moving over Lord Vader and playing Obsession. I play Run Luke, Run. I used Mirax Terrik to put back Luke #2. Next turn I edged Orimaarko for 5. Tracked Run Luke, Run. Used Mirax Terrik to get it back. Used Mirax Terrik to get back Tunnel Vision. Used Mirax Terrik to set up a 5. Used Mirax Terrik to draw Home One. Used Mirax Terrik to set up another 5. Do you get the point? A few edges later and Stephen just couldn’t keep up.

2(+22)
4(+42)

Highs: Mirax Terrik is the machine.
Lows: Stephen fixed eventually fixed his generation, but it hindered him early in the game. I get the feeling that it would’ve been a different game had he played IAO/MP, but then he couldn’t have deployed both Power of the Hutt and No Escape, let alone Secret Plans.

Game 3 Dark vs Rodney Lee’s EBO X-Wings

Guess what the one card that I couldn’t find this morning was? Yep. Imperial Decree. I thought I might be able to edge out a game vs EBO X-Wings, but Rodney was probably the best player there. Eek! Nonetheless, I decide to give it a shot. My starting hand is … weird, to say the least. I had Rendilli and two AT-ST pilots, but I did have Tempest Scout 1 (the broken, free-reacting one) and Bad Feeling Have I. Mixed blessings, but it should be ok. I think that I flipped late (turn 3), and ditched YCHF for Search and Destroy, however I did ditch it a turn later than I could’ve. Rodney, in contrast, seemed to have a bad hand, and was unable to set up EBO until turn 3 or 4. I think I got in one Monnok, which netted two X-Wings. I search with Ralltiir Ops, but can’t find anything of note. EPP Obi-wan makes it to the 4th marker, stopping Search and Destroy for a while. Several X-Wings take over some systems, starting with Kashyyyk. I can’t realistically go to Kashyyyk and not get smashed because of the stupid dark game text. I search and manage to find Grand Admiral Thrawn to complement the Chimaera in my hand. I also finally manage to find Tempest 1 to go with Igar and clear out the 4th marker. The game is getting close at this point. I finally search with Ralltiir Ops and get something useful- Battle Plan. Zuckuss shows up at Kiffex and draws an 8 for battle destiny to clear it. The Executor makes an appearance, but gets Barriered. Battle Order buys me enough time to win by a comfortable 19.

2(+19)
6(+61)

Highs: Beat Rodney when I was at a distinct disadvantage. Incredible!
Lows: Grabbing crap all with flipped Ralltiir Ops and weird starting hand.

Game 4 Light vs Stuart (Black Sun)

Stuart was trying out the Presence/Auto Flip start. Two damage first turn! Stu deployed Jabba’s Palace and the Audience Chamber. I went for the standard two Generals. My turn, I grabbed Dagobah, Yoda’s Hut, Home One: Docking bay, Deployed Crix, grabbed Blount and drew up an Undercover. Second turn, Stu hit me for two, then deployed Palpy to the Audience Chamber (Stu was playing both Palpy and Scum just to see which one was better). I activated, pulled Endor, Chewie, Tatooine: Docking Bay, Tunnel Visioned, but was only able to find an Honor, which I deployed along with Blount and Undercover to the Imperial City. I then drew up and got another Tunnel Vision. Over the next few turns, I get out Jedi Luke to flip Stu’s objective back as well as Ben/Lando with Axe combo and Mirax Terrik. I have both Rebel Barrier and Fallen Portal in hand. I start setting up some 6s with Mirax Terrik. Stu deploys Dengar with Gun and Fett with gun to fight off against Ben and co. Xixor is joined by Guri and Elised over to Jabba’s Palace in Stu’s move phase. I deploy some other guy to Jabba’s Palace, then move Jedi Luke over and used Mirax Terrik to get my Barrier back. We’re ready for a big confrontation.

Stu goes ahead and deploys IG-88 (that got the barrier out of me!) and then Snoova with Axe! Eek. I think about the Run Luke, Run on top of my reserve deck. Stu fights. I play Fallen Portal to kill Snoova and Dengar with Gun. Booyah! Fett takes his shot at Lando, but I play Put That Down! Ben slices up Fett and Luke cuts up Guri. I draw a 5 and Ben revives to get around Stu’s attrition. Let’s take a look at what happened there. Stu lost Snoova, Dengar with Gun, Guri, Fett with Gun and Xixor. I lost … nothing. Home One with Cracken and Haash’n goes to Endor and I deploy Battle Plan. I also set up General Solo, EPP Leia and some scrubs to the Cloud City: Docking bay. Stu has a go at killing Home One with Bus and Zuckuss, I think. The 6 that seemed to be perpetually at the top of my reserve deck took care of them :) In a final bid to get some damage through, Stu deployed a second Xixor and Guri, 4-LOM, Bane Malar and a Vigo to fight at the CC: Docking Bay. Stu fights and scans Han. I decide to use that 6 to squish both Xixor and Bane Malar. The Vigo gets shot, and some other stuff carks it. Stu was then left with pretty much nothing to fight me with.

2(+19)
8(+80)

Highs: Beat Stu, another one of the better Australian players. Fallen Portal- CRUNCH!
Lows: Umm … I could use a few more Jedi Lukes?

In the end, I end up being the only undefeated and take the tournament. I get a bunch of stuff for coming first, including a precious few Death Star II cards, but I give most of it away to some newbies. There don’t seem to be any Jedi Lukes floating around, so Stu, Rodney, Ronnie, John and I head off to play some games. This brings us to the traditional …

PROPS:

Ronnie for helping me playtest and lending me some cards, especially the second Luke.
Stephen for continuing to be original. Keep it up!
Rodney and Stu for the great games.
Terry for being able to run 3 tournaments in the one day and selling me some stuff that I sorely needed.
Mirax Terrik for being broken.

SLOPS:

Stuart Jones for turning up, but not playing.
Jedi Luke for being both expensive and unavailable.
Married With Children for being on while I write this.
Me for being too lazy to change the channel.

And for a little extra …

Luca’s Reflections II top 5 picks, in no particular order:

Watch Your Step/This Place Can Get A Little Rough
Prince Xixor
Blaster Proficiency/Sorry About The Mess (Combo)
Chewbacca, Protector
Mirax Terrik

Surprising amount of light stuff, ha?

Until next time,
Luca/Tzizvvt