viper-turnss-dark-side-phoenix-az-1-26
Title: viper-turnss-dark-side-phoenix-az-1-26
Author: Steve "BlackViper" Marshall
Date: Jan 27, 2001
Geez, what a tournament. I can’t pick a single quote of the day because this was so screwy! tee hee. Let’s see - I walk into the store and watch DJ Andrews draw Dagobah as a destiny 3 times in a row. It’s called tracking, dude! Don’t you read the articles around here? :-P When the game’s over, he takes it out and rips it into tiny little pieces. I’m serious! He must have sat there 10 minutes just ripping the card into smaller and smaller pieces until they were so small you could only see a single letter on each one. He wanted to tape it together, put it in a sleeve, and put it on his mat or in a training deck or something. Idk what he decided to do. And the entertainment just goes from there...
We finally get our 8 players. Yipee! I’m talking with my buddy Mike Elm, and he is slowly being outsmarted by the bubble wrap sitting on the table. He failed to pop a single one, no matter how hard he tried. Then we hear from across the room "Do you have a Tarkin in hand? If so, does it remind you of your molesting grandfather?" I told you the entertainment went on. Anyway, more stuff is said, more stuff goes on, and we start first round pairings. My DS is the same Dark Deal I used last Sunday with a couple minor changes, and my LS is a new Watch Your Step deck that Pat helped me build the night before. We’ll see!
GAME 1: LS vs. Jay Webb’s Rumors
He drops Mara, her stick, and Rumors on turn 1. Drat. He starts bragging that it’s a drain of 1 that I won’t touch all game. I get Dash in his ship at Kessel and drop Nightfall on Tatooine. This would actually be the only ship I get out all game long. I start Menace Fades, so his celebration might just be for nothing! I try to drop Boushh, but before I do, he uses Ghhhk to cancel Nightfall. Drat. I probably should have been a good player and asked if he had any actions before I deployed. Whatever. He loses to a drain, and Vader is in the pile. I’m sitting with Out Of Commission in my hand, but he’s got 3 Force saved. Catch. It’s worth the risk, so I use it. He doesn’t catch! I miss Vader, though. I think I just sent Prepared Defenses out of play. Drat. Jedi Luke takes to the Cantina, but Vader, Tarkin, and 4LOM beat him up real good a couple turns later. Ouch. This DEFINITELY puts the game in his favor thus far. I pay 10 to drop Boushh in front of the Cantina problem to stop his drain. It’s worth the Force. Next turn, I drop my second Nightfall on Endor and deploy Lando at the Bunker for free. I lose my Force and play Double Agent. Sweet! Mara dies. So much for a drain I won’t touch all game. He asks me who uses Double Agent? Well, most everyone else in the room does, actually. No more drain bonuses from Rumors for you! I leave Lando in the Bunker so he can’t control it and fufill Perimeter Patrol or Security Precautions or whatever the hell hurts me so much.
He drops Palpy to the Endor DB. Fine. He wants to get his drains back! I don’t want that to happen, so Jedi Luke, Talon, and Wedge drop by to pay a visit. He loses Palpatine and MANY more Force. This puts the game back in order, and actually tilts the scales to my side a little. I forfeit Wedge for 10 (can you say BROKEN?) and drop him in the Bacta Tank. His Tatooine forces have since moved to the Tat: DB, so Boushh breaks her cover to steal the drain of 2. I hit him with it a pair of turns, then Xizor, Davod Jon, and Guri take the Tatooine Docking Bay (after getting beat off Endor with serious hate), and Vader’s crew move inside the Cantina. Boushh either gets a beating from daddy or the national guard outside. I use Squadron Assignments to try and find Han, but it’s not there. Drat. I could have deployed them to the DB, moved Boushh inside, and taken off. Time for a new plan. I use a Force to move Boushh away from her papa, and I even use the 7 Force to transit my army from Endor to Tatooine. I beat up his guys real good, and I lose Wedge for 10. SWEET! This is just too awesome. He goes to the tank and comes back next turn. I beat them up again, and he draws something like a 1 and a 0. SWEET! When the dust settles, he’s got Tarkin and 4LOM left, and I’ve lost no one. He moves his guys inside, and I drain him out.
FW by 13
2 (+13)
The Good: My new LS is so broken it’s almost unheard of. Watch for Decipher to break it in the next set.
The Bad: I had to lose a Force to deploy Lando.
The Ugly: Jedi Luke took a bad beating, but he got his revenge!
Props to Opponent: Jay played a very interactive, very fun game. He’s definitely one of the good guys! ;-)
So from across the room, I hear someone say that Honor doesn’t affect the deck. "IT JUST DID!" was the response shouted out rather loudly. Then DJ reads Honor Of The Jedi for all to hear, just in case SOMEONE needs to know what it actually does. Brian Choongphol managed to turn Luke with BHBM with 4 cards left in his reserve deck - how cool is that?
GAME 2: DS vs. Brian Choonphol’s Watch Your Droids
This time I had Lateral Damage in my starting hand. Yeah. I drop Xizor at the Cantina on turn 1 for the drain. I wouldn’t normally do that, but I’m learning to take the initiative. Do it, and do it now. He can hold a site by himself. Just go. Dash and the Outrider make their scheduled appearance at Kessel. I have a choice; I can either set up Occupation, or I can beat up Dash with HATE. So Dash gets Damaged and Bossk comes out to play. I take out the ship and 4 of his friends from the Reserve deck. Bossk goes away - his job here is done. He takes his next turn to beat up Xizor with some hate of his own; Lando, Wedge, and the droid pair, I think. Xizor gets a destiny if not able to otherwise, so I’m not too worried about any bad feelings anyone might have. The Prince gets shot, so I lose him and 10 more. Brian loses his droids. In the loss is Dark Deal, along with some other cool stuff. DRAT! Arica takes care of the painful Cantina drain, but he moves away and I break her cover to take the drain. He takes on Mighty Jabba and 4LOM on Cloud City, but he deploys Captain Han (laughing as he uses his Force) along with an RFC, kills Jabba, and I take out an RFC in the process. He drops Theron Nett to keep his destiny draws going. Vader and 4LOM try to take on the pair, but he draws a 6 and I’ve got to lose the Dark Lord. He spreads out, and I can’t find any cards with ability. Drat! He drains me out.
FL by 21
2 (-8)
The Good: Bossk took out Dash and then some!
The Bad: I got beat off my own system.
The Ugly: The Xizor battle won the game for him.
Props to Opponent: Brian is just awesome. He plays his cards smart, and I paid for it.
Remember that Tarkin crack earlier? Now I’m hearing something about This Is Still Wrong and your sister... I don’t even want to think about how the entire conversation went.
GAME 3: LS vs. Roach’s RalOps Biker Scouts
What a horrid, horrid game. He’s excited that he gets to be in a TR. This game takes forever due to several rulings questions. Our goal was to give Jared (the TD) a HUGE headache by the time he was done. ;-) Vader visits my Cantina with his glostick; sure. He flips his objective without any resistance as I’m setting up my setup. He’s shuffling his deck upside down so he can see the cards as they fly by - that kinda bugs me, so I give them a good shuffle before the pile drops back down. He winds up drawing a few 1 and 0 destinies, so I guess I can’t complain. As the game continues, the Falcon has a Lateral Damage stuck to it, and Dash is stuck with I Had No Choice. That’s some cool tech. I drop Wedge and an RFC to one of his sites in a suicide mission and initiate a battle. As hoped, he brings over a bike in a react. My guys die, his guys live. I land my damaged Falcon to the now-empty site and fly Dash to the system to make him flip. Cool. Next time, Dash returns to Kessel and the Falcon takes off again. Fett takes on a few biker scout passengers and spreads out again to flip back. DRAT! I manage power 9 (not bad for a Lateral Damaged ship) to his 12. Melas takes a Bacta Bath, and Fett loses his cargo. Melas would come back again and again, but he manages to drain me out with 4 on the ground plus his space.
FL by 10
2 (-18)
The Good: Power 9 through a Lateral Damage. That’s just cool.
The Bad: Wedge and the RFC were supposed to take out at least SOMETHING...
The Ugly: We had a heated quarrel about takebacks and "just" actions. I drew a 4 against DVDLOTS. While we were totalling power, I remembered that I had Heading For The Med Frigate in the Lost Pile. He complains that I can’t play it since I lost Luke, which I did as soon as I saw his high destinies (before power was even totalled). Jared takes a headache trying to figure out how to rule it, and I suggest he consult Girard. That’s why he’s a Squadron Member, right? Well, the ruling goes against me and Vader lives for the rest of the game. Bad for me that I remembered too late, but nothing against the ruling. That’s Jared’s job, and whether I agree or not doesn’t affect the outcome. I will ALWAYS stand next to a judge’s final ruling.
Props to Opponent: Dude, just that he’s playing RalOps. This is the first deck in a LONG time that hasn’t had Ounee Ta - DOH!
Mike wants to play me for the final confrontation of last place, but it isn’t meant to be. btw, don’t tell Mike that it started raining outside. Instead, the scrub I get to play is...
GAME 4: DS vs. DJ Andrew’s Watch Your Step
Yes, it’s DJ. How he got so low in scores as to play me in the final game, I don’t know. I really didn’t want to work this hard to get my last victory, but we’ll see. Being as how I know what to expect from his deck (almost card for card), I might have an advantage. On other other hand, I also happen to KNOW that he’s got an easy game in front of him, judging from the matchups. Dark Deal does NOT beat a good WYS deck, and DJ’s most certainly qualifies. Here we go.
He starts laughing as he sees my Abyss in the starting effects. That’s just a cool card. I’ve got my CC: DB in hand. Sweet. He suggests that I start IAO to pull the DB from my deck, and I use all my willpower to keep from laughing at the irony. Instead, I just drop the site from my hand and grin. DJ’s had bad games when his opponent has docking bays in the starting hand... but I won’t go there. I search my deck, and all my sites are in there. DRAT! I deploy the Bespin system and telll him to go. A couple turns later, Mara finds herself at the Downtown Plaza as Cloud City has 3 of 4 sites on it. I drop Xizor beats up Chewie, Protector real good, and he joins Palpy and 4LOM in the Cantina for the drain and fearing a beatdown. Mara just has to hope that she doesn’t get raped next turn. Sure enough, Smuggler Jedi Luke and Chewbacca Protector (fresh from the Bacta Tank) come and beat her up real good. Ouch. Chewie goes to the tank again, and next turn Lord Vader picks on Luke with I Have You Now just to make sure he goes away. He loses Luke and 1, Vader was hit. DOH! I drop Fett in front of the Outrider with a Lat Damage in my hand - barrier. Well, I had to at least try. I needed some kind of Force loss on him. A random RFC and Theron Nett in his ship come to beat up on Fett at the expense of his Freighter Captain. He’s got I’ll Take The Leader on the table, so I don’t challenge him in space again. I’ve only got Dengar in his ship anyway. I move Xizor over to the DB, knowing he’s getting low on characters. He puts Chewie, Protector down to block the drain. That wookiee is starting to piss me off! "WHY WON’T YOU DIE???" Okay, so Xizor is no Austin Powers. You get the idea! ;-)
Xizor sends Chewie back to the tank and charges 1 Force in battle damage. Can you imagine the Rebel doctors? "You’re back AGAIN???" That was just as effective as draining 1. I can’t pay to drain anymore, so I get him to land his ships down to the Docking Bay when I’m down to 1 Force left. He puts the beats on Xizor, then moves over to take on Palpy. I initiate (taking away my battle destiny), and that’s game.
FL by 24
2 (-42)
The Good: Vader wiped up the floor with Luke! Somewhere in there, he lost the Outrider to Abyss (and wanted to make sure I included it in this TR)
The Bad: Fett getting barriered. That battle would have at least shifted the balance of space power for the rest of the game, and Dengar would have joined Fett next turn.
The Ugly: Mara getting slaughtered in a horrible, horrible battle.
Props to Opponent: This was actually a fun game. I’m glad he ended the game the way he did. It was entertaining! ;-)
So I wind up 7th out of 8 players. Mike is below me, and we play a pair of games to determine who is last place and who is the king of the losers. I destroy his LS with my Dark Deal (set up Dark Deal and Occupation on turn 3... why can’t I get that setup in a tourney game?), and there’s nothing he can do. My LS (Agents with Japanese Chewbacca as the Rep) does some damage against his MKOS deck. My deck was designed to DESTROY Skum decks, so I drop the bomb and destroy him again. He gets the coveted last place, and I confirm my throne as king of the losers. Cool! Here are your top 3:
1: Chris Deese
2. Aaron "Roach" Hanten
3: DJ Andrews
We start handing out prize support, and DJ jumps up "Just cut to the chase!" and grabs his stack. I pull a WB Darth Vader in my R2 packs... sweet. I also pull a Mirax. Now all I need is Dash and Corran Horn to complete my prize support for my upcoming yet-to-be-announced team tourney. The combo & expanded set is apparently going for $40, so it should make good prize support. I drive Mike home, and we share really dirty jokes all the way. "SHHH... There’s vultures up there!"
PROPS:
* Jared for holding the tourney
* The Outer Rim for hosting us
* Pat for getting me a new deck and keeping me in the game
* Me for having fun at a tournament again
* Mike for finally finishing last
* The Bith Shuffle because now it cancels Barrier
SLOPS:
* Me for forgetting about my Starting Interrupt
* Dagobah for being a 0 destiny
* Abyss for not taking more cards
* Control for being destiny 1 even though it’s too sweet in WYS (drain for 4 - cancelled. drain for 4 again - cancelled. Drain of 8 with 1 card loss!)
* All the people I can beat that didn’t show up for not coming! ;-)
Thanks to everyone who came! It was a real blast to play with a new deck, new style, and new attitude. Thanks for reading.
-Steve
A PBS mind in an MTV world