geelong-australia-20-01-2001
Title: geelong-australia-20-01-2001
Author: Luca "Luca/Tzizvvt" Costanzo
Date: Jan 22, 2001
Brief Prologue:
Allrighty, then. Guess I’d better start this report. For those of you who don’t happen to live in Melbourne or even Australia, I guess I’d better explain that Geelong is the best part of an hour’s drive from Melbourne. Because of this, I’d never played in a Geelong tournament before. The TD, Terry Lyons who ran last week’s Melbourne tournament, generously offered lifts up to Geelong this week and, seeing as I’m on holidays, I thought I might as well accept. This left me in the position of having to build decks.
The decks (if you’re reading this report for some tech, read on, if you’re after a light read, you may want to skip this):
For dark this week, I decided to go for something slightly different to what I’ve been playing. If you read my last report, you would know that I played Ralltiir Ops and said that it was because I hadn’t played it since the release of Special Edition. I’ll let you in on a little secret. I don’t like playing both what others are playing and what is considered to be a dominant deck. Because of this, I’ve often played stupid looking decks. This week I said to myself "Whatever". I decided to play Hunt Down. I took a look at what’s more or less a standard Hunt Down deck, then I sorted out what was more or less the best version. I examined it to see what made it tick. I then discovered that I didn’t like some things about standard Hunt Down.
The first gripe was that some people were playing Ephant Mon and, more worryingly, Power Of The Hutt. I didn’t like that at all. To me, it seemed like they were two dead cards. The other main gripe that I had about Hunt Down was Mara Jade. Don’t get me wrong- Mara is a good character, but not good enough. Mara doesn’t have a very good life expectancy. Lightsabers slice through here like a knife through, well, Mara Jade. Immunity to attrition <4 never seemed to do anything. Of course, without a second stick, it didn’t seem worthwhile playing You Are Beaten. The last gripe was vs EBO with X-Wings or even any space based deck, your ships get slaughtered. Vs EBO, Ice Storm means that it’s really hard to set up Decree. And of course, if you lose the Executor, you look really, really stupid.
I was stuck. I didn’t know what to do. I obviously needed to protect my Visage from spies, yet didn’t want to play Ephant Mon. I wanted to be able to kill characters, yet I didn’t want to play Mara Jade. I wanted to be able to deal with EBO and space, yet I didn’t want to play the Executor or Decree. I finally figured out what I would do. I had one Dark Reflections II card. Grand Admiral Thrawn (GAT!). Here’s what I did.
Out:
Mara Jade
Mara Jade’s Stick
You Are Beaten
Executor
Fett In Ship
Power Of The Hutt
Ephant Mon
… and some other standard stuff
In:
Grand Admiral Thrawn
Death Squadron Star Destroyer (!)
Admiral Ozzel
Admiral Chiraneau
Imperial Command
Fett With Gun
Tempest 1
Trample
Put All Sections On Alert
Ok. Here’s the explanation. The whole admiral thingo was just because it’s useless playing just GAT and Chimaera. You need to go the whole hog, unless you play something like two of each. The Death Squadron Star Destroyer was to have another decent ship to work with GAT (I didn’t think that GAT on Dominator was really all that good :). Ozzel was because he’s the man if you get him or Imperial Command first turn and put him to the Executor: Docking Bay and he pilots walkers well. Chiraneau was included because he’s a great pilot and he can really make it worthwhile to deploy some ships to Rendilli against ground based mains decks. I took out Fett In Ship for normal Fett because I wanted an extra gun, having lost Mara Jade, he can pilot the DSSD well and he adds a destiny against Han, who I was expecting to see be an important character in Watch Your Step. I added Tempest 1 to go with Blizzard 2 and to give me enough walkers to play Trample, which can easily squish Ben as the game progresses. Put All Sections On Alert was to protect Janus/Sim, who I was putting at the Holotheatre to protect Visage. Think about it. No-one deploys big guns there, and half of them are useless there anyway with flipped Hunt Down. Scrub spy + another scrub is what you’ll usually see. Stop their destiny draw. You draw one. Next turn, only one guy remains. I was also thinking that Xizor would be cool instead of Ephant Mon for the same reason, but I didn’t own one. Anyhow, it was an interesting deck. If you guys want, I can post it.
Light was easy. Profit looked cool, but I needed Reflections II stuff for it, which I didn’t have. I wasn’t about to go into a tournament with a bad Profit deck. It’s hard enough to win with a good Profit deck! Anyhow, I’ve been playing versions of Hidden Mains, so I decided to stick with it this week. I managed to trade for a Chewbacca, Protector and a Sorry About The Mess and Blaster Proficiency (both very cool, but you knew that), but I couldn’t get a Corran Horn. Bugger. Basically, it was just some Jedi, some edges, a few other good cards, Mirax Terrik (best card in Reflections II?) and more Tunnel Visions than you can poke a stick at. I will probably post my latest version of it, as it has done very well for me.
The Tournament (finally):
Game One Dark vs ?? Watch Your Step
Oh my god! This was where I realised that I forgot to bring a pad. Sorry, but I can’t remember my first round opponent’s name. Anyway, he started with Battle Plan, Squadron Assignments and Do Or Do Not+Wise Advice. I deployed DLOTS to the Cantina first turn. Stupid move, given that I just moved him to the docking bay next turn after realising that Battle Plan was on the table. I decided to play well after that point. I got HoloNet Transmission early, which cancelled Transmission Terminated/Out Of Comission. My opponent wasn’t activating all that much and had about 4 cards in hand at the end of my second turn. Some asteroids and, more confusingly, clouds made their way to Tatooine. I activated a fair bit, saw that the Chimaera to match the GAT that I had in my hand was active, deployed Janus to the Tatooine: Docking Bay and moved Vader to the pub in order to try and lure out Luke. I draw up and get, surprise, surprise, the Chimaera.
Master Luke and Chewie with gun go to beat up on poor Janus, but the 6 that I had on top meant that I only had to lose about two cards. Next turn, I deployed Janus number two, Sim Aloo, R2-Q2 (insane Hunter tech), Search and Destroy, converted Vader into Vader with Stick, deployed No Escape to get back the DLOTS and moved Vader over. I then used R2-Q2, Janus and Sim to set up my duel and crossed Luke to the dark side. My opponent was running out of options, due perhaps to low activation and hence a low number of cards in hand. He deploys Leebo in Outrider to a cloud sector (?) and matches Wedge into Pulsar Skate, perhaps having activated Wedge’s Ship. Chimaera and Thrawn prove how much better they are than Fett In Slave One when they beatdown on Wedge for about 6 cards extra. My opponent finally finds an Asteroid Sanctuary, which gets set up with the Falcon. I lose to Sanctuary for one turn, then win by something like 25.
2 (+25ish)
Highs: Won. My instinct to go with the whole Admiral thingy seemed to work.
Lows: Not much. Not a very exciting game, perhaps.
Game Two Light vs. Ben’s Endor Ops
I had just met Ben earlier today. Ben’s fairly young, but when I traded some RII stuff off him earlier and had a bit of a chat, he seemed to have a grasp of strategy that you seldom see in most tournament players, so I was on the lookout. Nonetheless, I was somewhat relieved to see that he was playing Endor Ops. It seems to me that it’s not easy to win with Endor Ops, even for a good player. Ben started with Battle Order, Mobilisation (note Australian/British spelling) Points and Imperial Decree. Ben searched for the Executor first turn and deployed it second turn or something to Fondor with GAT piloting. Nice. Ben with stick and Axe (more Australian/British spelling) Boy take the Tatooine: Docking Bay. DLOTS with stick and a walker take an Endor site. I put a spy there, but it’s not stopping the bonus from Ominous Rumors. I have Home One in hand and Tunnel for Haash’n. Home One goes to light side Kashyyyk with Haash’n and another scrub to set up Menace Fades. Sure enough, Ben throws a lateral damage to a drain next turn.
Meanwhile, Ben takes some more systems with a bunch of star destroyers. I’m talking the big boys. I think he must’ve deployed about 7 different destroyers and some other auxiliary ships this game. I Tunnel for Falcon and have super falcon go and beatdown on some destroyers without admirals piloting :) I think the falcon must’ve killed about 7 different star destroyers this game. Order To Engage means that I’m looking cool. It gets to be a drain race for a bit (even with Menace Fades in play), but I finally dig up Mirax Terrik and cruise to an easy victory by 27, although it was looking really tight for a while. It turned out that Ben wasn’t playing Imperial Command.
4 (+ about 52)
Highs: Super-Falcon was really cool.
Lows: This was actually a harder game than I made it sound, which is really more of a good thing.
Game 3 Dark vs John’s Watch Your Step
John started with Squadron Assignments, Battle Plan and Aim High. I wasn’t too sure what the Aim High was for, but anyway, let’s move on. I had actually given John a lot of my ideas for Watch Your Step and had lent him some Ralltiir Freighter Captains, so it was looking to be an interesting game. I played first turn Imperial Command for free Ozzel to the Executor: Docking bay, but didn’t get a first turn Vader. Bummer. IAO did, however, show me that there was a DLOTS in my force pile, so I drew it. John did some cool Tunnel Vision stuff, but didn’t get to flip his objective until very late in the game. I Masterful Moved for HoloNet, but John didn’t have Transmission Terminated (wtf?!). Seems like I spent this tournament playing around cards no-one was playing.
EPP Luke made a showing and killed Vader. Damn. Visage put another card on top of Vader, so I didn’t get him back with No Escape, but it did net me a Trample. It took me perhaps two turns to find another Vader, which was really weird seeing as I had Janus out. What was also strange was that I was also not drawing ships. This meant that Wedge in Red Squadron 1 took Tatooine, but never ended up draining seeing as John was never activating more than about 10. I ended up with R2-Q2, Sim Aloo and Janus at the Death Star: Docking Bay, Blizzard 2 and Ozzel at the Tatooine: Docking Bay, so I naturally deployed another DLOTS to the Cantina and Search and Destroy. I then used R2-Q2.
John was losing force quickly, so Search and Destroy was looking like a nail in the coffin. John was forced to deploy a RFC and Lando with gun to fight Oz in Blizzard 2, both flipping his objective and stopping Search and Destroy. The problem was that I Barriered Lando and Trampled him with that destiny that I saw with R2-Q2 and that Trample that I got back with No Escape. Cute. Beatdown for about 8 cards was cool. John finally found some ships to flip and start Kessel Running, I finally found some ships, but the game was already in the bag (seeing as I had Secret Plans).
6 (+ 77, give or take)
Highs: Beat a new deck type two games in a row.
Lows: Not drawing ships or Vaders. Who does that? Also, beating a deck that I sort of had a hand in building.
Game 4 Light vs … John’s Ralltiir Ops
John and I were both the highest ranked players at this point, so we had to play again. Man that’s annoying. John started with IAO, Mobilisation Points and Superficial Damage or whatever the effect that lets you forfeit weapons to used pile for forfeit of 3. John and I had an interesting conversation before the tournament because he was saying that he was playing Xizor and I was disagreeing with him on the basis that you don’t want to have too many non-imperial characters and Xizor is worth a Fallen Portal. Anyhow, I started with Ounee Ta instead of Wise Advice. I had Blount and Haash’n in my starting hand, so I decided to go and beatdown on his scrubs at the Executor and Death Star II docking bays to try and hinder his activation. I have the choice of a non-unique Biker Scout or Sargent Elsek (if that’s his name. The ghhk trooper, anyway). I opted to beatdown on the non-unique because he didn’t receive a forfeit bonus from IAO and it costs 1 less to transit away from the Executor: Docking Bay. Next turn, Xizor and two scrubs come and beatdown on my scrubs then Xizor departs to Ralltiir. Oh well, I lose my scrubs and it seems that John’s proved his point.
Feeling sick of scrubs, I deploy Ben and move him to the Ralltiir: Docking Bay and deploy Jedi Luke with stick to kill some biker scouts on bikes (Luke’s stick gets bikes. How cool is that?). I leave Luke and Ben alone ’cause I’ve got tech. It’s John’s turn to beat me back, so he starts by deploying a few scrubs to Luke’s site. I’m not fooled and hold back the barrier for 4-LOM. Xizor is joined by a scout on a bike and Tempest Scout 6. John fights, but fights Ben first. I Fallen Portal Xizor (proving my point) and play Run Luke, Run to bring power 10 Jedi Luke into the fray. The scout gets sliced and John has about 5 or so battle damage. My turn and my turn to try for a smackdown. John has one force active, so I deploy Orimaarko to the Forest first. John Barriers. Sweet. I follow with EPP Han, EPP Leia and Chewie, Protector. I fight and play Run Luke, Run to move over power 10 Jedi Luke. Unfortunately, I made an error and blanked 4-LOM with Protector instead of Elsek, who had made his way over to the Forest. Damn. I still manage to slice up everyone of note and lose Leia to the tank. I then move guys around to pin the scrubs who remained after Elsek ghhked off all of the damage. A second beatdown ensues, with some spillover damage. Cool.
Nearing the endgame, I played Throw Me Another Charge and John saw that there weren’t any ships in my deck, which was fairly large because I’d only really had to Tunnel Vision for a few cards and hadn’t drawn much. John said "I could be wrong, but I’m guessing that you don’t have any ships," and deployed Fett In Ship to my Kashyyyk. A fair enough move, given that I only had two cards in hand. Those two cards were, for the record, Home One and Falcon. Home One evicted Fett In Ship, but John still got destiny as Fett’s text is "draws one battle destiny if not able to otherwise," so Kashyyyk doesn’t do anything to him. The battle damage was negligible. Lord Vader made a suicide run at Jedi Luke or something and I saw Mirax Terrik amongst the cards that I drew for stick destinies, so I track her and draw her. I manage to play one edge card, the John draws up. I still had a fairly respectable reserve deck and only a few cards in hand, so I won by 25.
8 (+ something like 102)
Highs: Run Luke, Run is cool.
Lows: Made mistakes.
The Epilogue:
So I took the tournament, having gone undefeated. I received a bunch of rares for my efforts, including a Janus and a Sim. I also managed to pick up a whole lot of Reflections II stuff, and all that was left was a long drive home.
Props:
Terry, for being the TD and doing all of that driving and for the lift and everything.
Ben, for being cool and having spare RII stuff.
Mark, for having lots of spare RII stuff.
The guy I played first round because I forgot your name and have to make it up to you … wait … yep … it was Duncan! Pity I’m too lazy to change the report.
Hunter for the cool R2-Q2 tech.
Jedi Luke for being a tank.
Ronnie for lending me a Jedi Luke. Phew!
Anyone who can get me another Jedi Luke.
Slops:
Me, for stuffing up and being too lazy to correct the report.
John for losing to me. If you play me again with WYS, I expect to be solidly beaten :)
Jedi Luke for being hard to get.
Jedi Luke again, for making me mention Jedi Luke so many times.
Farewell, all,
Luca/Tzizvvt