scrubbing-out-hardcore-rochester-mn
Title: scrubbing-out-hardcore-rochester-mn
Author: Joshua "Stormcrow" Grace
Date: Feb 4, 2001
Preamble: I had nothing better to do on Saturday, I had travelling companions in Mike Ravelling and Graham Neal, and I felt like attending one of Peter Jacobson’s tournaments since he seemed like a nice enough guy at the Grand Slam (which, somehow, I had won...) and had been asking when we Cities dwellers were going to travel down south to Rochester. So, the answer was: Saturday.
I felt confident about my chances to win, knowing that my greatest obstacle would be Mike Ravelling’s light side Watch Your Step deck since, in summary, it’s broken. I don’t know what Decipher was thinking, but Watch Your Step is an ugly objective that promotes scrubs whom we’ve never heard about controlling the board with: 1) extra destiny, 2) interrupts from the lost pile, 3) NO sense or alter, 4) extra forfeit to smugglers, and 5) force choke. Yes, Watch Your Step is a more effective force choker than a Throne Room deck at this point since it kills Dark Side generation from non-battleground locations. Mike, like the intelligent fellow he is, opted to play his WYS on the ground with beacoup destiny and the whole host of Fallen Portals and Barriers. My Light Side, I knew, could win as many games and by similar differential, but I would have to come up with a Dark Side that could beat Mike’s deck. Not wanting to target only his deck, I developed an ISB deck with beacoup power and forfeit that I thought would work. Tramples and Imperial Commands could help (if I drew them). It was solid against everything it had faced thus far, including a match against Rich Jeffries on Friday night who had a similar deck to Mike’s. Unfortunately, playtesting against Rich proved more that Rich is no Mike than that my deck would be solid against Mike’s.
There were, I believe, 16 players. The tournament was held in a CD shop, with miscellany, which was cool, because the highlight of the tournament for me (apart from the many witty jokes I was later able to make at my expense) was the new Moby CD I bought.
Round 1: My There Is Good in Him (Uber-destiny) vs. Graham Neal’s SYCFA Brangus deck
Set Your Course is an extremely versatile platform, allowing a wide range of deck options, and I feared a manipulator deck. I just did my basic opening stuff, getting my Generals and activating a ton of force, while Graham was setting up his deck. Then, when Graham searched for a 2nd Death Star: DB, I knew what was going on. In short, I took over the Death Star, giving Brangus no place to hide (or survive). Graham was playing a Mi’yoom or two, but by the time she hit the table, I was already fully in control. Graham captured my Luke at one point with Vader, but it was Stick Vader, and some dudes came down to pound Stick Vader and stack another card. Shortly, I had 3 or 4 cards stacked, and Graham couldn’t capture Luke with Vader (or he’d lose). And he couldn’t capture Luke with anyone else, because the damage was more than he was causing me. In the end I won in the mid-twenties.
Game 2: My ISB vs Brian’s Rescue the Princess
Brian started off by apologizing about how new he was and asking me to be patient. The game was, from there, largely uneventful. A nice enough fellow, Brian spent the first several turns deploying protective effects (Bacta Tank, etc.) while I simply established a good solid couple of drain sites and Search & Destroy. He moved 8D8 over to the prison at the end of one of his turns and was about to attempt to rescue Leia, but I pointed out that he didn’t have enough force to retrieve (Secret Plans), and that he would get jumped during my turn without enough ability to draw a destiny. Opting not to attempt to free her that turn, he never freed her at all. With Mara in the War Room with Saber, he was forced to launch at her with Farmboy and Chewbacca. Mara survived the attrition (to which Chewbacca died) and lost a couple of force. She then retaliated against Luke with the Saber and the extra destiny from the War Room tearing Luke apart and the majority of the remainder of Brian’s deck. Full win for me by 20-something.
At this point, I think I might get paired against Mike Ravelling already, but I don’t. Someone has fallen in-between us, and that makes me happy. Until the next game occurs...
Game 3: My TIGIH vs Andrew’s Ties ’N’ Stuff
Andrew starts Coruscant, Moby Pts, IAO and Oppressive Enforcement/There Is No Try. I get my mega-activation going quickly. He sets up more and more systems, and when the Bargaining Table for Ties hits the table, I realize what’s going on. Andrew has Vader take control of Luke, and we spend the rest of the game, hopping across various docking bays. Andrew, wisely, flees from my characters, not wanting to allow me to stack that 3rd card. In space, meanwhile, he set up a drain of 2 (which I couldn’t allow) at Sullust with Dengar and Bossk. He had two force saved which I suspected would be barriers, but I decided to throw down with General Calrissian and Nien Numb and forfeit-fodder Blount in the Falcon. He barriered my Falcon. On his next turn, he dropped a mess of ties and battled me. My Out of Nowhere aided my greatly, but I still had to lose Blount and 8 overflow. He, however, is stuck with Bossk and a Tie at Sullust, so on my next turn, I battle again and stack my first card. He plays All Powers Lost to fetch Ties, but I grab it. Meanwhile, this kid is playing soooooo slow. At one point, he sets up a lone Chimaera at Coruscant. I Tunnel Vision during my turn to fetch Corran Horn and deploy him in Red 6 and then deploy Wedge in Red Squad 1. I battle and stack a 2nd card. With about a half-hour left, I look at him and ask him to play faster. "This shouldn’t be a timed game," I say. But he just sits silently, staring at his cards, his force pile and the table for about 2 or 3 minutes each turn. Aaargh! Finally, to wrap up a long, long story, time’s nearly over. I haven’t been able to stack the 3rd card yet since he runs from everything, refusing to block my drains unless he has his whole space armada against my 3 fighters. I even accept those odds a couple of times, and the attrition withers his forces (though Corran Horn dies). Finally, finally, he’s stuck with a battle he has to face: Vader and Tarkin and Mara against my lone Han. He initiates, and I play I Know. Leia comes down and blasts away Tarkin with a 6. Then, I play Insertion Planning and draw my 2 destiny: 6, cancelled, and a 5. We tie on power, and he runs away with Vader. So, time runs out, and after an hour of which Andrew has played 45 or 50 minutes and left me 10, I get a timed win by 11. But I hate timed wins, and this leaves me in a pissy mood to face Michael Ravelling who is the only other undefeated player, but, of course, without a timed win.
Game 4: My ISB against Mike’s broken WYS
Well, this is the match-up I wanted to test. Suffice it to say, I got blown out of the water. I spent my first turn to get the extra activation, and he flipped on his first turn with two scrub smugglers to cancel my activation. He left a force saved for a Barrier and was holding X many Fallen Portals, so shame-faced, I let his two smugglers, each power 1 or 2 and ability 2 and forfeit a gazillion, sit and hold their own locations. Instead, I concentrated on flipping my objective. I couldn’t find both my rebel base docking bays in the reserve, so I had to try flipping by getting 4 ISB Ops on the table. I threw down 3 of them and transitted them to the Tatooine: DB. Mike then activated a million force and Tunnel Visioned, then again from the lost pile, to beat me up with Han w/Blaster and Luke w/Saber, Slight Weapons Malfunction and the extra destiny from having Han at the same sight as the Raltir Freighter Captain kicked my ass. Of course, only one of my characters was left with any forfeit value, so I ended up losing about 11 off the top of my reserve since I couldn’t afford much from my hand. Among the cards I lost was the Hoth: DB. The battle broke my spirits in this game. I knew that since Mike had a full win in the last round to my timed win and was going to win this game, I couldn’t beat him in the tournament (since no one else was going to beat him) even if I managed to beat his Dark Side. So I just brooded over the timed win while Mike continued to spank me. Full loss in the high twenties.
This moved me back into the Puddle of Jizz, moving into the last two games, the place where (in small tournaments) people play oddball strategies that sometimes "eat you up." Ha, ha!
Game 5: My Light Side against Chad’s F-ed up Court.
Chad tried to play one of the BHBM effects as his starting effect--the one that said: Deploy if BHBM is on table. I pointed that out, and he said, "Yeah, he realized it, too, and he built the deck at 2 AM." Well, my Light Side tears apart Scum decks. Scum has no power over me. Chad decided to start his two (?) effects: All Wrapped Up and Secret Plans. First turn, he deploys Dr E & Ponda Boba at the Audience Chamber and deploys the Death Star II: DB. I drain with Luke, deploy Obi w/Saber, miss the slice on E&PB (??) and draw a 5 for destiny, hitting Chad for 2 overflow. His next turn, he deploys Xixor from the reserve with the AC’s game text. I drain for 2 w/Luke at the Endor: DB, then deploy Madine, Nien Numb and General Cal and battle for Xixor and a bunch of overflow. He draws a 0. At this point, I am *firmly* in command of the game. As I should be. So he does some move with Snoova and somebody else battling me at the AC. The somebody else dies, but Snoova lives, somehow, and captures the Madine I forfeit. This flips his objective. Snoova runs to the dungeon and dumps Madine, then picks him back up. My next turn I drain for 2 with Luke and 2 with Cal/Numb. He then deploys the Rancor Pit and the Rancor and moves Snoova over (???). "Well, damn," I think, "I’m not going to let him eat Madine." I look at my hand: Blount, Leia w/Gun, Chewie Protector and General Solo. For some insane reason, I deploy them to the Rancor Pit to kill the Rancor and free Madine. Except this backfires wildly. In fact, this is suicide. In fact, this kills me in this game and makes this the worst tournament I have ever attended. In fact, Chad has nothing left to do but sit in astonishment as his Rancor manages to survive my attack as I blast at it with Leia’s gun and draw (instead of one of the 24 or 27 5’s or higher still in my deck) a 3, to miss, and then draw (instead of one of the 24 or 27 5’s or higher still in my deck) a zero to add to my power. He draws a 1, and the Rancor survives. In short, over the next several turns I lose 6 direct damage each from: Madine, Blount and Leia. And I lose 8 direct damage from both Solo and Chewie. While Chad retrieves all of that. Somehow meanwhile, Luke is still causing him damage. But this game prompts me to consider the entire value of Star Wars CCG and CCG’s in general, and shouldn’t I be doing other things with my time? Yeah, I probably should...
Full loss by... Don’t ask me, I was too bitter.
So I feel sorry for the next kid I have to play because, you know, some kid that’s gone 2-3 in a tournament thus far shouldn’t have to face a Grand Slam champion (and vice verse), but I play the kid anyway.
Game 6: My DS vs Joel’s Quiet Mining Colony.
Oh... my... Quiet Mining Colony is an auto-win for any deck. I really deployed too many cards in this game and drew too many since I had the ISB droid I could deploy on my side of the table to kill all his drains (I started with Imperial Decree) at Bespin. But I decided to take it over in fine fashion and did so. Really an uneventful game apart from the fact that when I finally did go up to Bespin against the Home One he played with Launching the Assault (cool move), I did so with Grand Admiral Thrawn on the ability-2 Victory Class, Bossk in Bus and some forfeit-fodder, monkey ISB pilot. So I was cracking his immunity to attrition every battle. A few battles, and all his support ships fell to my might. All in all, little consolation for the timed win and my earlier stupidity. (Good luck to you, kid, that was a cool move with the Home One.)
And I finish near the top of the Puddle of Jizz. So I get a pack of Reflections II and some white border Dagobah for my efforts. Didn’t open the Dagobah, and the Reflections II had nothing of interest.
Mike Ravelling won the tournament, going undefeated, playing his last two games against Graham Neal and throwing Graham Neal deeper back into the Puddle of Jizz than me. So Graham shows up like a scrub in the results, but of the 6 games he played, the only 3 he lost were to me (pre-brain withering and intelligence-loss) and Mike, including a nail-biter in which his EBO was going toe-to-toe with Mike’s Black Sun space. The last few turns were played with no cards in hand by either player, maneuvering to block drains and win battles, each at less than 10 force. Finally, Mike managed to block Graham’s drains, battle, then spread out to get in the last drains of his own. Win by 4.
Cheers:
Mike for winning the tournament.
Graham for multiple anthology rares in his Reflections II booster.
Peter Jacobson for a well-run tournament.
Dion Erbes for a couple of fun games after the tournament.
Luke Skywalker for eating Scum on a daily basis.
Jeers:
Andrew (if that’s really his name; I forget) for the slow play. He played well, but no one should be that slow.
MYSELF... didn’t you read the report???
Joshua "Scrub" Grace