ft-collins-co-1-27-01-new-territory
Title: ft-collins-co-1-27-01-new-territory
Author: Brian "HuntaWarya" Hunter
Date: Feb 7, 2001
Well, I had heard of the Fort Collins tourneys, but had never actually visited one myself. I always talked about how no part of colorado was safe from me, since I had been to tournaments in Littleton, Denver, Lakewood, Aurora, Westminster, Thornton, Boulder, and even Colorado Springs. But it was true indeed: the Fort collins tournament had always been safe from me. Time to venture into new territory. Randy had to work on this day, and so would not be attending any tournaments. So Mike and I make the trip to Fort Collins alone, as Van slept too late to join us. Van would end up going to the Colorado Springs tourney instead, which started an hour later.
We have 23 players for the tournament today, including the always-tough John Arendt, who has passed up Kyle Craft for the #2 spot in Tatooine. John was a semifinalist at worlds in 99 and 2000, actually winning the wildcard event in 99. But he hasn’t played in a sanctioned event for quite some time, and expects to have a little rust today. Mike plays dueling hunt down, and a near-perfect clone of my ebo/baragwin deck. Meanwhile, I utilize Hidden Mains done RIGHT, and Retardosaurus Rex ISB. The deck is effectively big blue, a dark deck concept that is as old as the dinosaurs. And since the concept is also outdated, that gives ya the retarded part. But since the deck somehow manages to still be strong, it gets the Rex added in. Back in the day, I used that deck for months at a time, and it never lost a single tournament game to anything but Kyle craft’s throne room mains deck. Anyhoo.....
Game One: Retardosaurus Rex ISB vs. Nick DeKasa
Well, Nick starts the new WYS objective, so game one is in the bag. He takes over the tatooine docking bay while I take control of the endor docking bay. he deploys to space first, but I use thrawn and imperial command to wreck him in the air, and start to drain 2 a turn at tatooine. he comes to the cantina, but I drop a mini strike force and whack him out of there too. I drain in the cantina for 2 or 3 turns before Jedi Luke comes in, armed with a saber, and backed by a few scrubs. We battle incessantly in the cantina for the remainder of the game, but I am never able to kill jedi luke. His scrubs get pounded, and ISB agents are flying into my lost pile in droves, but they just keep coming back into my life force. During the struggles in the cantina, I spread out in space, and drain him out to win by 31.
2: (+31)
John Arendt wins his first game by 13 or 14. However, that was good enough to make him the high winner on light side, so we get paired right away, in game 2.
Game Two: Hidden mains done RIGHT vs. John Arendt
Well, in the last tournament I played in, I was packing Ounee Ta, which helped me to get an auto-win over Randy’s RalOps deck. But I knew Randy wasn’t coming with us today, and Ralltiir is out of favor in Colorado (like it is out of favor in most other parts of the world) so the Ounee Ta doesn’t make the cut today. Sure enough, my first light game is against Ralltiir. And played by Mr. Arendt himself, no less, who has quite a bit of experience with that objective. John is cautious in the early game, deploying epp vader to the DSII docking bay for extra activation, and putting his ships at the ralltiir system where they can avoid a surprise beatdown. I set up a few characters at my docking bays. He puts Mara Jade on ralltiir with her saber, so I go ahead and deploy to space, to get menace fades in effect. Vader transits over to the spaceport docking bay. With both Vader and Mara occupied, I feel confident putting Corran Horn alone in John’s wampa cave. the drain would remain uncontested for the rest of the game. John goes ahead and flips, knocking the drain in the cave down to 1, making my drain in space zero, and keeping the drains at the docking bays to only one, despite the lightsabers. I try to use my on the edges to counteract his plink drains on ralltiir, put the first time I play one, it gets grabbed. with the falcon already deployed, John goes ahead and spreads out to a second system in space, which gets his decree running, and elimates my docking bay drains, leaving only the drain in the wampa cave. So I put out OTE and transit onto Ralltiir, and try to challenge his decree by facing him in space. He gets the upperhand in the air, but I dominate him on the ground with Ben Kenobi, Jedi Luke and a slew of scrubs running around on Ralltiir. Mirax Terrik ensures that my destiny draws are high, forcing good attrition, and eventually John’s resources run out, and I win by 16.
4: (+47)
Game Three: R. Rex ISB vs. Will Pessetto
Will starts the Rescue the Princess Objective, but it soon becomes evident that this is a mutated Cloud City mains deck. He has the casino down, and is playing half a dozen or more landos in his deck, with a bunch of sabbaac. I easily dominate in space, and use undercover spies to block the Son of Skywalker/Luke’s saber drain at the casino. I win 2 out of the first 3 games of sabbaac, which buys me time to find secret plans. I eventually get it out, and that helps to stall his retrieval once he starts consistently winning sabbaac. he deploys some characters and moves them over so that they can free the Princess. But vader and tarkin put a quick stop to that idea. I spread and drain in space, and Admiral Chiraneau puts the hurt on. There is virtually no interaction in this game, so I retrieve some force off the rim scouts, using Abyssin Ornament, and then just drain drain drain in space. Full win by 28.
6: (+75)
Game Four: Hidden Mains done RIGHT vs. Will Pessetto
Will gets a shot at revenge, and brings Hunt Down against my Mains. I throw down Ben Kenobi at the Tatooine docking bay within the first turn or two, figuring that my immunity to players with ratings less than 1800 will keep me safe from any dueling mishaps. Down comes epp vader against my unarmed ben kenobi, backed up by an IAO scrub to soak the attrition. But Fallen Portal kills the scrub and it is one on one. But despite the relatively high destiny in Will’s deck, the saber misses the old man, and then will is unable to draw high enough to crack Ben’s immunity. Attrition offs the man in black, and Kenobi stands around like nothing ever happened. Ben gets no backup, so on the next turn, Will tries again, with Xizor. Everyone is immune to the attrition, and they are both five power, but Will draws better than I do, so I lose a few cards to battle damage in order to keep ben alive. epp luke comes down next to Ben and they make a mess of the Dark Prince. Will is now consistently losing force from Visage, while I sit back with Honor of the Jedi. He deploys the Executor to space, and I pounce on it with the superfalcon. But I draw low for my 3 destiny, and the first battle is a tie, with both sides immune to the attrition. On his turn he deploys the Devastator alongside the Executor, and battles me. Leia busts out her cell phone, but is too late to call Han’s momma, as I have already played the Punch It before she can finish dialing. 5 battle destiny is enough to splinter the Executor apart, which destroys Will’s executor sites, and cripples his activation for the rest of the match. So I win by 30.
8: (+105)
Game Five: Hidden Mains done RIGHT vs. Jason Keen
Jason is using the new Black Sun objective, which I have never played against before. He gets Xizor out to a battleground, so I move Jedi Luke out from the Home One docking bay, and flip Jason back to the zero side. He comes down on Luke with epp fett and a slew of other Black Sun agents, and initiates a battle. I have another luke or two in my hand, so I’m not too worried if I lose this one. But he plays hidden weapons with fett, gets lucky and draws a 2, and Luke is captured. Jason flips back to the 7 side, and I cannot deploy any more lukes to get him back on the 0 side. Hmmmm. Better yet, Luke is being carried around by the escort team from hell. There are more enhanced bounty hunters than you could shake a stick at, plus the dark Prince himself, and his favorite robo-chick. yay. He gets the emperor out, along with a few vigos, and splits out to two sites, to make me lose 2 force to his objective every turn, plus the drains at the docking bays, which he enhances using presence of the force. And the character count at each of those docking bays is extreme. Both of his character squads are frighteningly powerful. I draw cards for a few turns, deploy a few characters to the empty docking bay, and wait to set up some destiny draws. I lose 16 or 18 force over the course of 4 of his turns, and cause virtually no damage to him in return. But I’m playing a mains/battle deck, so I figure if I don’t fight him, I can’t win. somehow I have to free luke though, or he’ll be adding 5 or 6 to the attrition against me in every battle. I decide it’s time to make my move. at the end of Jason’s turn, I play two recyclable 6’s, and then use mirax to put another destiny 6 beneath them, so that there will be 3 in a row when I activate down to them on my next turn. On my turn, I put a couple more scrubs down with Ben and Mirax at the Tatooine docking bay. Meanwhile, I deploy epp leia and Chewbacca, Protector to the CC docking bay. I on the edge leia, and retrieve 5 cards. Then I off the edge Leia, and retrieve 5 cards. Then I transit everyone from both docking bays right in front of Xizor, Guri, epp fett, 4-lom, 2 vigos, and who knows all what else. Then I on the edge Leia again (no uniqueness dot on that card, eh?) and retrieve 4 cards. So I retrieve 14 force in one turn, while Jason looks at the Secret Plans in his hand that he just drew, and was intending to deploy on his next turn. So I sit there, end my turn, and wait to see if OTE will convince jason to battle me, since he can add all sorts of attrition with his objective, and has a ton of good battle characters at the site. I know there are 4 cards on top of the last 6 I drew, so when he drains me for 2, then makes me lose 2 to his objective, I lose it all off reserve deck. He adds Snoova and someone else to his stack of characters, and battles me. Since I know I have the 6 on top, I drop the fallen portal on epp fett, free luke and flip Jason back to the zero side. And that’s pretty much the game. Chewbacca cancels 4-loms game text. Ben Kenobi uses his saber to halve Guri, while epp leia uses anakin’s saber to strike down Snoova. Dengar fails to shoot anyone of interest and Attrition kills a vigo, while I forfeit Jedi Luke and revive him with Ben. when I battle him back, the sabers hit 4-lom and Xizor, and attrition kills dengar and the other vigo. So I transit in front of his other squad. and OTE makes him fight me again. sabers hit palpatine and a vigo, and the attrition pretty much clears the site. I win by 25.
10: (+130)
Game Six: R. Rex ISB vs. Jason Keen’s Hidden Mains
This game will forever live on in my memory. there were more big beatdowns in this match than I’ve ever seen in a single game before. He deploys tawss khaa early to his home one docking bay, for staging areas activation. I bring an outer rim scout, followed by Vader and Tarkin, and initiate the battle. Vader says "somebody better call my momma, to come pick me up, cuz I’m ’bout to KILL somebody up in here!" But Tarkin is pretty old, and is too slow on the comlink to call Vader’s momma. Fallen Portal forces me to use Tarkin’s destiny cancelling ability, so that Tawss Khaa’s destiny draw will count. Jason draws a 3, while I draw a 5. I have 17 power to his 6, so he loses Tawss khaa plus EIGHT cards. I lose the rim scout. On his turn, Jason deploys Jedi Luke and epp Obi-wan against vader and tarkin, and battles me back. Obi-Wan says "somebody better call my momma, to come pick me up, cuz I’m ’bout to KILL somebody up in here!" But Obi-Wan’s momma is dead, so nobody can call her. Obi slices Tarkin, and Jason plays blaster proficiency to make Tarkin immediately lost. Then Obi reduces Vader’s power to zero with glancing blow. I had vader and tarkin together, and suddenly my total power is zero. Jason draws a 5, while I draw a 2, so he has 16 to my...2. I lose vader for 8, but that still leaves SIX more. I play a ghhhk to cancel the damage, which would turn out to be a mistake, as I would soon need the ghhhk much worse...Meanwhile, epp obi dies to the attrition. I have 2 outer rim scouts at the Executor docking bay, providing more activation with mobilization points. jason deploys Lando w/ Vibro Axe to the site, and follows in with orrimaarko and epp leia. Lando says "somebody better call my momma, to come pick me up, cuz I’m ’bout to KILL somebody up in here!" Epp Leia doesn’t even bother to bust out the cell phone this time, she knows it’s too late to help me. Jason initiates the battle, and Lando excludes one of my rim scouts, so that I won’t even get battle destiny. Epp leia pops the other scout with her blaster, so i have 2 power, no destiny, and zero forfeit. Jason ends up with 12 power, so I lose the rim scout plus TEN cards. eeeyowch! Jason has established total board control on the ground, so I decide it is time to go all or nothing in space, and try for the quick kill. Captain Han is aboard the falcon in space, all by itself. I have no ships on the table, but I have good activation for this turn, and epp leia on table means no "I know". and he doesn’t have the force to react with the spiral, play a barrier, or out of nowhere. I deploy the Chimaera, with Thrawn piloting, and put a dreadnought alongside it, then put a rim scout on the Chimaera as an additional pilot. Grand Amiral Thrawn says "Somebody better call my momma, to come pick me up, cuz I’m ’bout to KILL somebody up in here!!" But the outer rim scout has lost her phone number, so Jason is in trouble. I lateral damage the falcon, initiate the battle, and play imperial command to add a third destiny draw. I have 18 power to jason’s zero, before destiny. I draw 3 destiny while he draws only one. He forfeits captain han for 7, the falcon for zero, and then loses SEVENTEEN more. Full win by 23.
So I finish at 12: (+153)
I get my pick of the 2 new foils, and take the Masterful Move. purty. I also get a pack of Reflections II, and assorted other boosters. Matt Riecks goes 5-1 and takes second, getting the other new foil. Mike lost a game to Jason’s Black Sun deck, and finishes at 5-1 also. But he had a timed win, so Matt still took second, despite Mike’s high differential. John’s Ralltiir deck drops another game, this time to an x-wing/elom/insert deck (???), but his TIGIH/scouts deck goes 3-0, (?????) and he finishes at 4-2. Van dominates in Colorado Springs, going 6-0 to win the so-called "Hunterless tournament". So he picked up the only other foil Masterful Move awarded in Colorado.
Props:
To Mike, for driving.
To John Arendt, for coming out of retirement and giving me an enjoyable challenge.
To Corran Horn, for not getting eaten by a wampa when he hung out in John’s wampa cave the whole game. :)
To Jason, for building a pretty solid Black Sun deck.
To Van, for showing that he can win tournies (when I’m not around. hehe), and picking up the foil Masterful Move in the process.
To Quan Mueller (spelling?) for taking John out, with an elom deck. hehe.
Slops:
To Van, for not waking up early enough to go to the REAL tournament. :)
To Leia, for being too slow on the cell phone.
To Tarkin, for being too slow on the comlink.
To Obi-wan’s momma, for being dead, so nobody could call her
To Leia, for not even trying to call Lando’s momma.
To the outer rim scout, for losing the phone number for Thrawn’s momma.
Thanks for reading.
Brian Hunter