rochester-ny-1-27
Title: rochester-ny-1-27
Author: R. "Voice of Law" Smith
Date: Jan 29, 2001
For the light side I’m playing EBO/XWings, for the dark it’s SYCFA Scum. Both decks I ripped shamelessly from Brian Hunter’s member page and molded to my own playing style. I’ve got precious little Reflections 2 so there’s not a lot of that in the decks. The EBO I’ve been playing since November and it has only lost one tournament game since, to Chris Janiak who knew my deck ahead of time (and is credited with showing me it’s potential).
So here we go:
Game 1
My dark against newcomer Scott DiBenedetto (1500)
Great to see a new face at a tourney, especially a tourney I’m running. Scott starts the Home One War Room with no starting interrupt. I go with the SYCFA deal and No Bargain/Power of the Hutt/Mobilization.
I get a good draw, with Gailid and Scum - but no Jabba’s Palace. I also drew the Death Star War Room, which seems to be a problem of mine. First turn I activate my 5 and look for a card with Death Star in the title anyway. Turns out I activated one Palace, so I drop the War Room and Carida (whoops, forgot, I pulled that before activating) and draw a few.
Scott activates and puts Treva Horme at his War Room. Draws the rest.
I go and whip out the Palace, the Chamber from deck, Gailid there from hand, Scum, Mighty Jabba from deck, and Ephant with Power. Draw whatever’s left and I have a Projective Telepathy in hand for defense.
Scott activates and draws.
I go and drain him for a couple, Twilek for S&D, and get that set up with Boelo (with Power) and Bib (from hand) at the Palace. Draw a couple but start saving up because I am fearing a Treva Horme/DTF beating, even with my No Bargain and the None Shall Pass in my hand.
He activates, drops the Home One Dockbay, and draws.
I inflict S&D on him his turn, drain, and S&D again as I draw to 12. I now have my Ghhhk and lots of force saved so I figure I’m good.
And I am. The next turn Scott "sells" me an I Thought They Smelled Bad, but I still have like 5 force left after that, more than enough to Barrier the CoK he drops for 8 at the Chamber. EPP Han follows but I take care of that next turn with some aliens from hand. Dengar and Evazan dropped down with Bane Malar and that was all she wrote for Han and Chewie. After that I drained him out with S&D as well. FW by 25ish
The good: Getting in some extra practice with the SYCFA Scum. Meeting a new player and a great opponent.
The bad: Breaking the new guy in the hard way.
The ugly: Did I mention I tracked that ITTSBOTO he sold me? Of course I did, and drew it for battle destiny against Han =)
Game 2
My EBO against Justin Roth (mid 1700s?) goofy Hunt Down.
He starts the Hunt Down crap with no Epic Duel and Crush the Rebellion as his third effect.
On his first turn he pulls Evader/Monnok and for the rest of the game I know not to go over twelve or let too many X-Wings or Organized pile up in my hand. He also gets Rendili and the Ex dockbay, and I Terminate Visage with the old-school TT I had drawn in my opening hand =)
I go about getting EBO set up, it doesn’t take me long. By the time that’s done (with Zev, Hobbie, and an XWing), he has dropped Palpatine with Sim to the North Ridge and moved them to the MPGs. But still no Vader.
I burn the Signal I was holding for an Ice Storm on Incom instead, since it’s clear he is avoiding the North Ridge at all costs. Incom comes out and I spread to Hoth and Kiffex with two X’s at each.
He keeps moving Palpy/Sim in further through the Echo Base, so I drop EPP Obi to duke it out with them. I miss Palpatine with Obi’s Saber and fail to break Sim’s immunity so Obi dies and the two goons stick. The next turn he gets Vader (finally) to the Cloud City dockbay with a stick so there will be no more suicide Obis underneath the shield.
I drain him for a whole bunch and continue to spread out, using all four of my systems. I’m holding some sweet crack in hand, a Hyper Escape, Barrier, Houjix, one X-Wing, a Cannon, Lando in Falcon, and Legendary, so I pray he comes to space.
But he doesn’t. He puts Xizor on the Death Star docking bay and drops S&D, then Blizzard 2 at the North Ridge with Snoova there. Tries to put the Vibro-Ax on him for free from hand but I say "nope" and he pays the three. Moves Snoova to the MPGs and I see what he’s getting at - trying to cancel EBO.
Of course such efforts are futile when one is being drained for THIRTEEN a turn in space. The following turn I drop EPP Obi to take care of Xizor (by this point in the game, all the low destinies are out of my deck, I hit the Prince and draw a 5 in BD).
The only other thing of consequence in this game was a battle that occurred in the Hoth War Room. Somehow he had pinned Commander Luke there with Palpatine and Sim - I think I just decided to leave him there because I had my Houjix in hand. Anyway he initiated the battle, and thanks to I Have You Now, Sim, and the War Room game text, he was to draw 5 battle destiny. Sounds impressive, no? He draws them, and they were ALL 1’s. Thrawn, Tempest 1, Vader, Tarkin, Vader. Hilarious.
Anyway I drain him out in space and All Wings before I win by 20.
The good: Beating that punk kid, he had been talking way too much trash and I had to put him in his place ;-)
The bad: Obi not being able to take out Sim OR Palpy.
The ugly: FIVE destiny 1’s in a row. Hahahahaaaaaa
Moving right along...
Game 3
My EBO agaisnt Mike Van Zander (upper 1700s) with Court/Scum.
Zander and I had playtested this matchup the previous night and I had let him win by one force =) So I figure I better make up for it now.
He starts Court with No Bargain, Power, and There is no Try/OEnforcement.
He gets set up fast as usual, Mighty Jabba and Gailid chillin at the Chamber with Ephant by turn two. I got a good hand though and was clipping right along myself. Pretty soon EBO was out and XWings had control over a couple systems with defense cards in hand - but Tatooine was swarming with aliens and Hutt Influence was rendering my Rebel Fleet and Projection useless.
I was losing some good stuff to early drains, but then one turn I got off two drains of 3 and 4 apiece, and Zander top-decked three of his ships in a row ... that’s rough. Seeing that I spread out as much as possible in space, but one of the cards I had lost to his drains was Corulag, so I only had Kiffex, Hoth, and Kashyyyk to drain at.
Late in the game Zander actually got the Cantina out with Mara there with some support (Boelo?). I dropped EPP Obi for 5 hoping he was Barrier-less....and he was. Obi smacked Mara and Boelo died to the attrition.
Other than that, the only battles were his aliens against my Arcona, whom I dropped in the Palace to satisfy S&D and the Court "mini-Visage." I knew Zander had no Bib or other defense against my little salt-smoker zipping around the Palace causing trouble - the only drawback to this was he got the 2 force retrieval from Scum each turn (First Strike was buried in his lost pile).
Luckily his ships were buried deep enough as well that he was unable to pull them to ever contest me in space, where I drained him out for the win by 8.
The good: Obi got it right this game, clearing the site like he’s supposed to.
The bad: Losing some good cards to early drains.
The ugly: Three ships in a row down the drain. Ouch.
Game 4
My dark against Zander again, playing what else? EBO X-Wings.
Honestly, I don’t remember what game I played light and what game I played dark. Having the same opponent two games in a row playing similar decks muddies the memory. But games 3 and 4 were definitely me and Zander.
So he starts the EBO jank and I get my SYCFA, with Resistance as my third effect - a key card lacking in his Court deck. I draw the Palace and, after pulling Carida with Mobilization, activate the Death Star War Room. So I search for a card with DS in the title and get nothing but a sly grin from Zander and he grabs my deck from me. At least I drop the Palace and get the Passages with that (oh yeah - I activated the Audience Chamber too - huge).
Anyway we each get about setting up our stuff, Gailid is in the Chamber pretty fast and S&D drops a couple turns later. I spread massively in the Palace as I am holding boku defense cards in hand, and Resistance is fulfilled easily.
He drains me for a bunch, I drain him for a bunch and add S&D. I couldnt draw a ship for my life so I never go to space to retrieve, but Resistance pulls through and nets me this win. He never drops down to the Chamber either (or if he did I quickly dismissed his attack) so the game was basically one big drain race. He had about 9 XWings on table at one point and less than 9 in his life force, I dropped Secret Plans thinking it would save me the All Wings retrieval hurt but Zander admitted he had lost both his AWRI off the top earlier in the game. I drain him out for the win in the teens.
The good: This deck is a monster.
The bad: Drain race.
Game 5
SYCFA Scum against Jason "Ears" Stewart (mid 1700s) with RTP jank.
So yeah he’s playing RTP which is an auto-win for me. I DON’T activate the DS War Room this time so after pulling Carida and activating I get that and put it between the Docking Bay 327 and the prison where Leia (Prisoner 2187) is. I get to work on setting up in the Palace while keeping an eye on what he’s doing to rescue the ho.
About third turn or so he tries to put Lt. Blunt in the War Room with EPP Han, and I’m like "doesn’t your objective say you can’t deploy spies to the Death Star?" And of course it does so he takes Blunt back. Then, very next thing, he tries to put Blunt at the Dockbay 327. I say, "No. You can’t deploy spies to the Death Star AT ALL." And I make fun of Ears along with Ken Rose, who was sitting next to me. Ears tells me no one has ever told him that before and so I make fun of him some more for cheating any and all prior opponents whom he had deployed Blunt against.
Anyway instead of Blunt, Crix goes to DB 327 with Han. Ears has also been dropping Lift Tubes here and there but I’m like whatever, get that Lift Tube jank outta my face.
By this time I’ve set up two drains of two in the Palace and have some extra guys in hand so EPP Fett comes down with Bane and Evazan to square off with Crix and Han. Fett misses Crix with his gun like a scrub, Han misses whoever he was shooting at, and attrition wipes Crix, Han, Evazan, and Bane so Fett holds DB 327 by himself.
Yeah and did I mention that 8D8 had been Lift Tubed over to the prison and had tried unsuccessfully to rescue the ho about 3 times already? So there’s not much going on there. I’m just draining away in the Palace while Ears tries to get Leia out of the prison.
A turn before he does I drop Mara in the Yavin War Room with her stick to drain for 3 and prepare for Leia’s arrival. When Ears does release Leia it’s during the control phase, then he’s like "Drain for 4" and I think he’s joking, but whoa! Believe it or not the drain at the prison is a 4, 1 icon + 1 gametext + 2 for Leia. Not too shabby. The next turn I drop Resistance so Leia won’t be screwing with me too much.
So Ears finally gets Leia to the War Room (after battling Fett off the Death Star, no battle damage yippee), after which I drop IG-88 with tracked destiny to re-capture her and fend off everyone else (Orrimaarko was in there along with someone I can’t remember) with Mara and stick.
That’s about it. The drain in the Palace finishes him off. I get the win by 20ish.
The good: Absolutely dominating Ears from start to finish.
The bad: Drain of 4 at the prison, watch out!
The ugly: Leia being in captivity for all but two or three turns of the game. That’s rough.
At last, we’re nearing the end...
Game 6
EBO XWings against Dan Castle (mid 1500s)’s SYCFA TIE Bombers.
Before the game Castle tells me he won all 3 of his light games, and lost both of his dark games, and that his dark deck sucks. I think he’s just trying to psych me out =)
Anyway he starts SYCFA with Mob Points, Planetary Subjugation, and TinT/Oppressive I believe.
And I’ll keep this one short. He puts Choke Vader at the DS Docking Control Room first turn and pulls Endor docking bay, and that’s all the action I see from him for the first 4 turns or so. That gives me a chance to set up EBO and spread out drastically in space with all 4 of my systems, Alderaan, and the Death Star. I put one XWing at each system with Hyper Escape and Houjix in hand. He eventually drops the Executor with a DS2 TIE Bomber to the Death Star - I just run away from it for the rest of the game and drain him where he’s not. He does nothing on the ground and is unable to catch me in space so my drains murder him. Full win in the mid 20s.
The good: Finishing up undefeated.
The bad: I guess Dan wasn’t just trying to psych me out ;-)
So yes indeed, I go undefeated and win the tournament as the only player with such a record. My reward is 3 packs of R2 and a foil Fett w/Gun. None of the packs yield anything worth mention so I’ll wrap this one up. Thanks for reading.