melbourne-australia-28-01-01

Title: melbourne-australia-28-01-01
Author: Luca "Luca/Tzizvvt" Costanzo
Date: Jan 31, 2001

The Tournament:

Sunday 28/01/01, Australia On Collins, Swiss Open

The Disclaimer:

Apologies to everyone. I just started at a new school this week, so there’s been a bit of a delay getting this report up.

The Intro:

Well, I’d won the last two tournaments, but they had only been four games with a small turnout and an absence of too many high-calibre players. Today I was really looking forward to playing against some better competition, in an effort to prove to myself that I’m not a complete scrub. I woke up in time to get to the tournament, after having gone to sleep at some ungodly hour in the morning, so I was TIRED. The tournament was at Australia On Collins, as usual, but there was a Magic pre-release on as well. After some quick negotiation on our TD’s part, we were able to play at AOC, much to our relief.

The Decks:

Today’s dark deck was boring, good-old, overly-powerful, Hunt Down. I tried Hunt Down with Imperial Command and stuff last week, due to a lack of Xizor and Emperor. I managed to acquire a Xizor and some other stuff last week, so I took out the IC/admirals unit, which I found to be really good, but not ridiculously broken. The theory last week was that some slightly heavier space might be needed to deal with WYS. Last week proved to me that Hunt Down is just WAY TOO fast for most decks, hence the lack of necessity for heavy space. You only need to be able to hold one system and Janus is just amazing- he will get you your ships quickly enough.

I decided against good-old, hyper-consistent, ridiculously-balanced Hidden Base mains this week, seeing as I don’t like constantly playing the same decks. I decided to play Profit with some tech. This deck was later unanimously dubbed ’Gay Profit’. Why? Because it was gay and full of dinky tricks. I was starting with Strike Planning, Insurrection and Staging Areas. Crix searches for Beezer, Beezer searches for Obi-Wan’s Journal and, later when you want to spread, Wrist Comlink (allows guys to react). The second main trick was Harvest, which worked extremely well in conjunction with Mirax Terrik and three Ishi-Tibs. It was more of a fun deck (done well) than a competitive deck. I was not happy with it, and I knew that if one deck was going to let me down, it would be this one.

The Games

Game 1 Light (Eek!) vs Andrew’s BHBM

Andrew started with IAO, Mobilization Points and an effect that didn’t matter. Andrew also started with Xizor and Mighty Jabba. First turn, Andrew deployed the Defensive Perimiter and Palpy there. Big drains are very much Andrew’s style, and it was indicative of what was to come. I did my gay general thing and deployed an Ishi-Tib or something. Second turn, big Ben and cool Chewie came down to smash some heads. What about Luke, I hear all you credible players out there ask. I was playing one Jedi Luke and two Massa Lukes for two very good reasons. Firstly, I only own two Massa Lukes and secondly, one Jedi allows you to convert Luke into a character that can hold a site by himself last game. Anyhow, like the scrub that I am, I had activated both Massas. Damn. Anyhow, Chewie cancelled Jabba. I drew a 3 or something and Andrew drew a 5 or something. I necromanced Chewie and Andrew lost the not-so-mighty Jabba. Turn three, Andrew deployed Bane Malar with Xizor, thinking to scan Chewie, beatdown and stack a card. Broken Chewie cancelled Bane Malar. Andrew ran, giving me a chance to flip. Yay!

With Profit flipped, Andrew really had to do something to start me hurting, or die (well, be destroyed, to be precise). Andrew deployed Vader and Tarkin to ... the Defensive Perimeter? Ok. I used Andrew’s objective to pull Luke, but can only find the Massa. I don’t give him to Vader, preferring to find his stick and make Andrew lose an extra 3 per turn (rather than one). Meanwhile, Andrew set up the Forest Clearing with Mara and a walker and they were soon followed by Sim and a walker at the Back Door. Told you Andrew likes big drains. I got sick of only causing a loss of 5 or so per turn to Andrew’s 8 or so, so I fetched the Wrist Comlink via Beezer and spread. We were each hitting for a fair bit when Andrew decided that he wants to win, so he deployed the Hoth: Docking bay and moved Vader and Tarkin over. I thought he might try to come to Tatooine, so I had moved scooby and the gang (Ben + scrubs) to the Tatooine: Docking Bay. I decided that I wanted to win, so I fetched the Farm between Ishi-Tibs and Mirax and set up Harvest. I go into Harvest mode, but it turns out that one Harvest is enough. Andrew had this notion that if he moved Mara Jade with stick, DLOTS with stick and Tarkin to fight Ben + scrubs after playing You Are Beaten targeting Ben he’d be alright. I proved how broken Harvest is by Harvesting back Sorry/Proficiency combo card and 3 high-destiny cards. Next turn Mirax grabbed the Sorry About The Mess and Beaten Ben killed Vader (probably didn’t think he was that beaten). Ben then Clashed Mara. Scrub (Leia, Chewie and Beezer) ended the game.

Full win by 12

2(+12)

The Good: Won with my stupid deck.
The Bad: Not finding free Massa.
The Ugly: Andrew making mistakes with an objective that’s not exactly forgiving.

Game 2 Dark vs. Ronnie’s TIGIH

Ronnie started with Insurrection, Insight and Strike Planning. I was not thrilled to be playing him, seeing as we had worked on decks together. Damn. Ronnie was playing a completely different deck from the EBO deck we had playtested with. The thing with Ronnie is that when Ronnie plays cheese, he plays hardcore cheese. For this reason I thought that he was playing his infamous ’16 Insertion Planning’ deck. Pure sillyness. Anyhow, my starting hand was OK, but I didn’t have Operational As Planned for the first turn Vader or even the Vader himself. I also didn’t have a scrub to say ’bad Luke’ with. Ronnie searched for Crix. I drew up and we both lost to Visage. Ronnie activated, inserted AFA and then deployed some droid. I’m still half asleep. I was just not getting it. I deployed Stick Vader and flip. Ronnie activates about 5, so he wasn’t doing too bad for TIGIH, deployed Artoo, played How Did We Get Into This Mess? and inserted odds. Crap. Needless to say, he didn’t give me Luke.

I activated, and odds popped after three or so cards. Bummer. I lost muchos force and kept on activated. I deployed Janus, R2-Q2 and Blizzard 2. I moved Vader over to take Luke. I then trampled Artoo, moved over to Ronnie’s Hoth: Docking Bay and did the whole Janus thing to squish the other random droid. No odds. Better still, no Mess, no fuss. Ronnie re-deployed Artoo, played Mess (damn!), deployed 8-D8 and another high-destiny droid and inserted both AFA and odds. I have Chimaera and Chiraneau in hand, but I don’t exactly want to activate the lot to deploy them, so I activate none and just drain, Visage. Ronnie found Battle Plan. Uh-oh. I then take the only option that I realistically have- I do nothing but use Visage. After the longest time, Ronnie deployed Beezer to the Endor: Docking Bay and started paying to drain me. I really, really don’t want inserts to pop. I lost to Beezer drains for a turn or two, then came up with my cunning plan. I activated one then used R2-Q2 to look at the top 3. R2-Q2 showed me that AFA was three cards down. I knew it was going to pop sooner or later to the stupid Beezer drain, so next turn I activated four, popped the AFA, payed to drain at the Hut, lost four and then used R2-Q2 to peek again. Ronnie was shortly worn down by Visage.

Full Win by 11

4 (+23)

The good: R2-Q2 is insane.
The bad: Geez, losing like 15 force on turn two to an insert isn’t good.
The ugly: Flipped TIGIH. Ugly picture. You’d hate to see TIGIH vs BHBM. Two really ugly Luke pictures. Eww.

Game 3 Light vs Rod’s COTVG

I couldn’t believe it. A non-game. I double-checked with the TD that I was supposed to be playing light. Kev said that I was. Twice. Oh, well, time to lose my one game for the tournament. I started with the usual goodies. Rod started with puny Jabba and Chall Bekan, Oppressive Enforcement+There Is No Try, Power Of The Hutt and No Bargain. Just swell. Well, this game went from bad to worse. I had no Luke or Ben in my starting hand, which is stupid. I did my general thing and deployed an Ishi-Tib. Rod killed them both with Mara. Great. I then activated 10, saw that I had activated one Obi and nothing else good. I deployed an Ishi-Tib. I lost one from my used pile to COTVG. I drew nine cards. The one card in my used pile was the Ben. Rod set up a drain of two at the palace.

I proceeded to lose another two turns to get my ’hit-squad’ together and activate enough to actually deploy them. I deployed Ben. Barrier (duh). I deployed Ounee Ta, Chewie, Ben’s stick and his book. Nothing. I said go. Some hit-squad, huh? Rod deployed Snoova and some other crap that I couldn’t remember and beat the crap out of me. I survived one battle, but had to lose force to do it, and 4-LOM made sure that Chewie stayed dead (had to cancel Dengar ’cause Evazan was there). I messed away Ephant Mon then deployed Lando and said go (no cards left). Needless to say, Rod then deployed a bunch more guys and I lost.

Kevin called out the pairings for the next round. It turned out that he screwed it up and I was supposed to play dark. Great. 4 games with what’s arguably the worst deck in the game, no matter what you do with it.

Full Loss by 27

4(-4!)

The Good: Umm ... Obi’s book stopped Snoova’s Axe.
The Bad: The whole game. Nothing I could’ve done, but it might’ve been a bit less one-sided if I had drawn umm ... some mains. And if Rod didn’t have a starting-hand Mara.
The Ugly: The font on Kevin’s laptop. It must be pretty ugly if it repulsed Kevin so much that he just guessed that I was playing light instead of actually reading it. Twice.

Game 4 Light (again!) vs. John’s Ralltiir Ops

John started with the usual suspects and, curiously, Xizor and Snoova. That was not something that I was expecting from Ralltiir Ops. In this game I actually drew something like what I should draw most games, plus Ounee Ta as a starting effect got me some decent force, at the cost of losing Staging Areas. I think it actually ended up being more or less the same amount of activation in the end, though. Anyhow, John deployed three docking bays first turn, Snoova’s Axe and a scrub at each of the non-battleground docking bays. On my first turn, I deployed Crix and grabbed Beezer. Having dumped most of his hand on the first turn, John just drew. I played Gift Of The Mentor to grab Ben’s stick.

On my second turn, Ben with Stick, Massa Luke and Owen + Beru went to the chamber. I fought, bounced Snoova, cut Xizor, played Courage of a Skywalker, played Harvest and made John lose 24 to battle damage. I then flipped and retrieved all of the crap that I had just used. John flipped next turn with two Biker Scouts with bikes to the Forest and Jungle and Ozzel to the Ralltiir: Docking Bay. I set up some Profit damage. We pinged each other for some force for a few turns, then I deployed Leia, Blount and Beezer to go schmackos on Ozzel, somehow drawing a 6 for battle destiny (thanks to some Ishi-Tibs). Game.

Full Win by 24

6(+20)

The Good: Courage being useful outside of a duel.
The Bad: A round with two games of Profit.
The Ugly: Harvest beatdown.

Game 5 Dark (finally!) vs. John’s WYS

John had shown me his deck at the end of the last game to show me what he had changed from last week. Just our luck that we had to play. I let John have a look at my deck to even things up. We pull out each other’s starting stuff and John’s got the standard Squadron Assignments/Battle Plan/Something Else start. My starting hand had Vaders up the yaya with 2 DLOTS and one Stick Vader, but had a Tarkin and nothing else of note. Needless to say, I flipped first turn. John did nothing of interest in the first few turns except deploy Honor and try to TT my Visage, which met with a HoloNet Transmission. It’s all about Visage, baby. I activated about 12, deployed a docking bay and, seeing as I had crap all in hand and I’d activated both Twi’lek Advisor and No Escape, I decided to draw the rest. Wouldn’t you know it, both Twi’lek and No Escape were in the three that I used. Can someone tell me what I’m doing wrong?

From the 9 that I picked up, I drew Tarkin, Chimaera, Dengar with Gun, Tempest 1, Put All Sections On Alert and Search and Destroy. EPP Luke came down to kill Darth. Next turn, I re-deployed Darth and, seeing as occupying the damned battlegrounds was going to be the easiest way to negate Honor, deployed Dengar and Tempest 1 to the Death Star: Docking Bay, thinking that POAS would give me a margin of safety, seeing as I thought John was likely to come down with Lando and a smuggler, or just Luke. John deployed some ships and flipped. Chimaera and Tarkin went to Kessel and knocked farm boy (wtf?) out of his ship. This gave me my third battleground, so I deployed Search and Destroy. John was in trouble. Sure enough, he came down to the Death Star: Docking Bay. With Melas and Leebo. John drew high, forcing me to lose both the walker and Dengar, killing Search and Destroy as well as stopping Visage due to Honor. I deployed Fett in Ship to backup the Chimaera and drew some. John found Dash and Outrider who joined some other smuggler in ship and beatdown on my ships. I decided to lose three cards and then Tarkin. Next turn, I played No Escape to get back Tarkin. Oh yeah, and stop Honor.

John proceeded to deploy the captain and his boat, which met with a barrier. It was time to skidaddle. I deployed Janus, got back my barrier and decided that seeing as I was playing the tempo deck, I’d have to establish a tempo, so I deployed Arica and cracked her open to the Tatooine: Docking Bay, set up Janus at the Death Star: Docking Bay, Sarkli and Blizzard 2 to the Cloud City: Docking Bay, gave DLOTS his stick and ran the Chimaera and Fett the hell away from the captain and Outrider. John then made an interesting move. He deployed Lando with Axe - for 10 force - to the Tatooine: Docking Bay. This left John with one force, so he moved Outrider with Dash and another smuggler scrub to fight the Chimaera and Fett. Unfortunately, for John, dark side really isn’t all that scared of ships with total ability < 7, so 4-LOM and the Zuckmeister killed everything at Kessel. John then showed that Arica by herself isn’t all that scary by beating down on her with Jedi Luke and Lando with Axe. This meant that John had deployed Luke, so I moved DLOTS with stick over. I then used R2-Q2 and saw that I had Vader’s Obsession a 6 and a 5, so I decided to Janus and duel. John decided that his Jedi Luke will never cross to the dark side.

Full Win by 13

8(+33)

The Good: R2-Q2 is amazing.
The Bad: Arica really shouldn’t have to deal with Jedi Luke and Lando.
The Ugly: Light ships with ability < 7 aboard.

Game 6 Light vs. Ronnie’s Hunt Down

Yay. Ronnie again. Great. Ronnie’s been tweaking his Hunt Down deck for a while and he plays it very well. For those of you who want to see it, it’s right here on DeckTech under the name ’Bastardised Huntdown v. 3’ or something like that. Oh, and for those of you who think that ’Bastardised’ should be spelled ’Bastardized’, ’Bastardised’ is the British/Australian English way of spelling it. Just thought I’d clear that up. Anyhow, I started with the usual crap and Ronnie started with IAO, Points and Crush the Rebellion. Ronnie also started with Snoova and Mara. First turn Vader to the Chamber enabled Ronnie to flip, but I was able to Terminate Visage to give me some breathing room. Crix went to his docking bay for the fourth time today and I searched up Blount. Ronnie re-deployed Visage. I deployed Blount and Cracken to cancel it. Ronnie killed Blount with Sim and Janus, but lost Janus in the process. Cracken ran to the Med Chamber, later to be joined by Mirax Terrik. For those of you who think that leaving scrubs alone for a turn or two is dangerous, you’re damned right, but against Hunt Down you can easily reach your third or fourth turn and find that you’ve lost 10 force, so it’s really important to kill Visage.

In the meantime, an Ishi Tib with Crix cycles through my deck and helps me put together a squad. I came down to the Audience Chamber with Ben, stick, Massa Luke, stick, Owen and Beru or some other scrub and the book. Ronnie tries to play Obsession for Luke, but Luke runs. I fight, bounce Snoova, cut Vader, cut Mara and clear the chamber. I lose nothing as the book enables me to stop Ronnie’s sticks. Huge. I flip and retrieve some crap that I’ve lost, including Run Luke, Run, Blount, Beezer, Transmission Terminated and Out Of Comission and Gift Of The Mentor. It’s all good, baby. I moved my squad out to the palace to be able to utilise Fallen Portal. DLOTS and Snoova were re-deployed to beatdown on the scrubs at the Med Chamber. Cracken got throttled, but Ronnie drew low and I got away with losing about 5 force and tanking Mirax.

Ronnie deployed another Janus and picked up Vader. I set up the Farm with the Lars clan and Chewie, sporting a brand-new Wrist Comlink. Ronnie lost a turn deploying Chimaera and Chiraneau to Rendilli, but it was well worth it. I re-deployed Mirax and Harvested. Ronnie started using Omni Box to stop me tracking Harvests and, at one stage, all but one Harvest were in my lost pile. Two Ishi-Tibs and Mirax Terrik enabled me to cycle through and find Harvest again, though. We were damaging each other fairly quickly and Omni Box was slowing down my retrieval. Ronnie re-deployed Vader and tried to Circle Ben. My Glancing Blow enabled me to draw the duel, despite a throwable stick. Ronnie ran out of options and was forced to leave DLOTS with a proper stick in front of my doom squad. I had two options; beatdown, probably resulting in the chokeage of Han, which would slow me down a turn or running from Vader. I decided to take secret option number three and Harvest back Harvest, two high destiny cards and Mess Proficiency. Mirax drew me the Mess Proficiency and I messed Vader up good with the two high destiny cards. Harvest rocks.

Full Win by 20

10(+53)

The Good: Harvest. Retrieve any 4 cards. Drool.
The Bad: Chiraneau in Chimaera.
The Ugly: Scrubs parading around the Executor like they own the place.

The Wrapup:

Rod (see game 3) ended up going undefeated so I took second. I don’t think it would’ve mattered if Rod had lost a game, as he played four games with a scum deck. Scum is prone to higher win margins than Profit (even with Harvest), so he would’ve probably ended up taking the tournament in any case. For my efforts, I received 3 packs of DSII, 2 packs of CC, a pack of JP and a pack of RII. I managed to pull three Admiral’s Orders from three packs of DSII, but one was I’ll Take The Leader, so I wasn’t too disappointed. There was nothing of interest in the rest of the packs. Ronnie ended up taking third, having lost only to me, I think.

The Props:

Adam Amy for showing up.
Jarron for winning the Magic pre-release.
Andrew Grain- Happy Birthday.
Kev for showing up remarkably punctually.
Lee for having the guts to take Endor Ops to a tournament.
Darude for being on fire.
Rod for winning.
Ronnie and John for the games. I’ll see if I can bribe Kev or something next time.

The Slops:

Kev for making me play Profit four times.
Whoever stole Kev’s excess RII prize support. You’re a jerk and you’re just reducing the amount of prize support for future tournaments. I’m sure someone will come up with something suitably devastating to say about you.
Rod for beating me. What do you expect when you beat me? Props?
John for still not playing twixes and getting screwed for generation. I don’t like to say I told you so.
The word ’the’. I think that I used it too much.
Profit.