parker-co-01-13-01-the-new-era-begins

Title: parker-co-01-13-01-the-new-era-begins
Author: Brian "HuntaWarya" Hunter
Date: Jan 30, 2001

Well, as you all know, the new set, Reflections II, was released on the 10th of January. But nobody on the Littleton crew really did any playtesting with the new cards until Friday, the 12th. And even then, none of us constructed decks utilizing the new objectives. So we went into the tourney on the 13th without really knowing what the new meta was going to look like. Randy goes to the tourney with Van, while I go with Mike.

Decks:
Randy brings Ralltiir Ops and MWYHL jedi-testing.
Van, mike and myself bring hidden mains and hunt down. :)

Once again, rumors of Kyle and Tim’s return to the tourney scene have been greatly exaggerated, and I don’t see them. Nonetheless, we still get 23 players today. I have my oversized Hunt down objective again, along with my Tiuli-signed Epic Duel, so I’m ready for action.

Game One: Hunt Down done RIGHT vs. Bob Pieron
Bob starts Profit so I figure I am in good shape. Instead of my usual Mara/Evazan start, I decide to give Mara/Xizor a try. In the first few turns, I give mara her saber, and put choke vader into the audience chamber. Bob throws down Honor and I don’t have my No Escape, so I need to start doing some damage another way. Mara goes out to JP to drain for 3, while vader and xizor hold down the chamber. Until...Epp Luke visits the Audience Chamber, and Bob puts Lightsaber Proficiency on him. Epp leia comes next, and frees epp han, with "someone who loves you". Bob flips, but secret plans prevents the retrieval. a couple of scrubs join the epp hit squad, and bob battles me. Vader gets hit with luke’s stick, but leia misses xizor. Vader fails to choke Leia, and I draw crap for destiny, killing one of the scrubs. the battle damage is enough to make me forfeit Xizor, and I’ve been cleaned out of the AC, and flipped back to the zero side. with the proficiency going, I get drained for 2 a turn in the AC, and lose 1 to his objective. I am draining for 3 with mara still, so the drain race is even. However, I am also losing to my own visage, while he is not, thanks to honor. I get Vader and tarkin to JP, but that doesn’t help me stop the visage loss, and I can’t go into the AC against all 3 epps. I go to space to make the damage race closer, but sooner or later, I am going to have to bite the bullet and enter the chamber. Vader and tarkin stay at JP, while everyone else and their dog charges the Audience Chamber (Jade, Dengar, Iggy, Dr. Evazan, etc.) The combat in the chamber is ugly, but I manage to kill han and flip him back, which forces him to challenge me at JP to stop the drain. He brings epp obi, so I initiate the Tiuli Duely, and the game is mine. Full win by 21.

2: (+21) I am currently in 7th place

Game 2: Hidden Mains done RIGHT vs. Ryan Kulback
Ryan has dueling Hunt Down, so I know I better mind my p’s and q’s. He takes board control early, and without much trouble. Honor stops the visage damage until he can find no escape, at which point I invade the Executor sites to cancel the visage, and start draining back. He has a big lead in the drain race, but my retrieval cards make up the ground pretty quick. I get Ben Kenobi and Jedi Luke down with their sabers, along with a support character or two, which is good enough to keep vader away. He has some difficulty cleaning me off the Executor, but eventually gets the job done. the drain race is slightly in my favor due to my lightsabers, but the retrieval makes it even easier. Until...I miscount the draw for an "on the edge" and murder my Ben Kenobi. *lol* So I replace Ben with epp obi, and Ryan figures he can take that on. Vader carves my Jedi Luke, and kills my epp obi with attrition. I miss vader with both lightsabers and fail to crack his immunity. sweet. So Ryan flips back to the 7 side, and I drain him out in space. Full win by 25.

4: (+46) Putting me in the #2 spot.

Game 3: Hidden Mains done RIGHT vs. Randy Scott’s Rops.
Well...I start Ounee Ta....soooo....Randy is pretty much screwed from turn one. I wait to see if he will deploy his <>docking bay or not, but he needs the activation from Mobilization Points, so he puts it out early. I drop ben and jedi luke to their respective docking bays and transit onto his planet. Randy drops down on my head with a walker (tarkin piloting) and Vader, and then battles me. Tarkin prevents Vader from being hit with my saber, but that keeps him from being able to cancel my destiny. I forfeit luke, and revive him, and tarkin bites it. Vader and the walker leave, never to return. I put the falcon at ralltiir, and there are now two locations that randy doesn’t want to contest me at, which will keep him from being able to flip. He challenges me at Ralltiir eventually, but that only lasts for one battle. Future battles at his spaceport docking bay are equally one-sided. I miscount for on the edge again, and kill off owen and beru. oops! *lol* Oh well, at least my Luke was power +6. hehe. Full win by 32.

6: (+78) and I get to the top spot early this week.

Game 4: Hunt Down done RIGHT vs. Matt Riecks
Matt has hidden base mains for me today. Jedi Luke comes out early, wielding a saber and obi’s journal. oooooh, nifty. I get Vader and Tarkin down, along with Mara Jade and Dengar. He backs up luke with epp obi, epp leia, and maybe tawss khaa. In the game’s very first battle, I decide to go a little nuts, and duel the old man. I have the focused attack and I know I have a 6 for my first destiny draw, so I figure I am good to go, and I initiate the Tiuli Duely. However, as you may know, I’ve played a fair bit of hunt down lately, so everyone is packing hella "Hunter hate". Matt is no exception. He plays swing and a miss to cancel my focused attack. *lol* wtf? oh well, I still have 2 destiny against his 2, and I can cancel one of his, so no problem, right? I draw the 6 I knew was there, and he cancels it with glancing blow. hmmm. well, hopefully he will draw crap for destiny. he flips his first draw, and it is Artoo in Red 5. a 7?? eek! so tarkin cancels that, and we get one draw apiece now. he flips up a 4, and I have no idea what is on my reserve deck. But I cannot afford to lose this duel, because my immunity to players with ratings <1800 is not effective against Matt. I turn up...Disarmed (5), and win the duel. Matt loses his 9 force, and the inability to redeploy Kenobi’s persona hampers him for the remainder of the game. Full win by 23

8: (+101)

Game 5: Hunt Down done RIGHT vs. Alex Stine
Alex is also playing Hidden Base mains. Wow, that must be a good deck or something...He deploys Corran Horn to the Executor immediately and cancels my visage. I wait for a turn to prepare my strike. He backs up corran horn with another character, and deploys the bacta tank. I bring Vader and tarkin into the Executor, and kill them both. He loses horn to the tank. On his turn, Alex brings Corran out of the tank, and puts him back in the Executor again, preventing me from taking Vader to a battleground, forcing me to move vader and tarkin to stop the drain. Ig-88 joins them. Luke and Obi both join Corran Horn and battle me. Luke uses weapon lev to steal vader’s saber. Iggy captures luke and lets him go to the used pile so that I might be able to deploy another Vader’s saber later. Vader ends up dead. I draw a zero (wait, I mean, I draw the ONLY zero that was in my deck) for destiny, so his characters survive. I move tarkin away. I take the drain, and he deploys another luke. I then sniper Luke with Iggy, and keep him this time. Vader redeploys to the Executor, joining tarkin and battling obi and corran. I manage to kill both of his characters, but corran goes to the tank. tarkin dies. He brings corran out of the tank, deploys to vader, follows Corran in with another obi, and battles me. Vader and obi-wan die, but obi goes to the tank. corran owns the executor again, but must keep running from iggy. Obi comes out of the tank, down to a battleground. I deploy a third vader, but obi prevents the flip. Janus helps me get the upperhand in some space battles, while obi chases vader around on the ground. Mara Jade confronts corran Horn, but her saber gets stolen, preventing the big beatdown. so she dies, just as the 2 vaders did. Corran goes to the bacta tank...Finally there is a turn where we have several fights in the same battle phase, and after all the weapons and battle destiny have been drawn for, Alex has only one card in his reserve deck. I initiate the Tiuli Duely against Kenobi, win, and after that, finish things pretty quick. Full win by 13

10: (+114)

Game 6: Hidden Mains done RIGHT vs. Mark Ponting
I hadn’t played scum 2k in a tourney yet, since reflections II came out, but I knew what changes I would make to the deck. Mark had shown me his dark deck before the tourney started, to see if I thought it looked good, and I believe he was 1 card off from how Scum 2K done RIGHT would look if I had built it that same day. No joke. 1 card. So I told him yeah, it looked REAL good. And now I’ll get a chance to see if I can beat it. He has the JP out right away, along with his other sites. I drop guys to the Tatooine docking bay and wander into Mark’s domain. Losses are heavy on both sides, but Ben Kenobi is giving me a slight edge. I deploy the Millennium Falcon to Corulag, with captain han and mirax aboard, and fly to the death star to see what kind of response I get. He deploys Zuckuss in Mist Hunter to the Death star. I have 8 power to his 4, but my destiny would be reduced to zero, so the battle looks good, especially since Mark has both First Strike, and Scum&Villainy down. And since epp leia is on Tatooine, he knows he need not fear an "I Know" so he battles, and retrieves 3, while I lose one. Mirax takes a look at Captain Han, sees the sly grin on his face, and immediately begins dialing up Han’s momma. I react with the spiral, so now I have 13 power to his 4, and my two destiny draws will not be reduced to zero anymore, since the spiral puts me up to 7 ability. But then I play Punch it, to add 2 more destiny draws. The Battle Damage is extreme, and Mark never really recovers. Full win by 30

so I finish up with: 12 (+144)

Riecks takes second, followed by Alex Stine, then Van, and then Mark Ponting. So I got to play both of the other players in the top 3, and got to play against 5th place also, which is cool. Prizes included Reflections II and assorted other packs.

Props:
To Mike, for driving
To Vader, for still being the best character in STAR WARS
To the Tiuli Duely, for whacking Kenobi in all 3 of my dark side games. :)
To Tiuli, for sending the Tiuli Duely. :)
To Ryan Kulback’s Vader, for hacking through my obi and luke like they were nothing.
To Matt, for using Obi’s Journal. that card doesn’t suck
To Disarmed, for being destiny 5. whew!
To the Bacta Tank and Corran Horn, for doing such an excellent job of annoying me in Game 5.
To Mark, for being able to build Scum 2k RIGHT

Slops:
To me, for not being able to count, and killing off my own characters with on the edge. :)
To Ounee Ta, for being so damn stupid. I went 6-0, while Mike and Van each went 4-2. Randy went 3-3 because he won all 3 of his light games, and lost all 3 of his dark games. And his Ralltiir deck was SOLID. But it just doesn’t matter. Ralltiir isn’t playable anymore.
To Mirax Terrik, for not calling Han’s momma fast enough. didn’t she know he was bout to KILL somebody up in here?? :)


Thanks for reading.

Brian Hunter