austin-tx-2-10-01
Title: austin-tx-2-10-01
Author: Justin "hoostino" Warren
Date: Feb 12, 2001
The night prior, Jeremy and I headed to the local Denny’s to see what the brownie tech was all about, and we were in that damn joint for over an hour and a half just to get some freakin’ brownies. We ordered some of the crappiest fries I’ve ever eaten in my life. They were supposed to be cheese fries, and the damn picture on the menu showed the cheese melted, but we get two saucers of crap sticks with cold grated cheese scattered everywhere. Then, the damn waitress tells us that there are no more brownies-sundaes-whatever, and I start to get pissed. Half an hour later, she comes back with the cursed brownies and we consume the crappy things and get the hell out. She did, however, have a full set of teeth (quite unusual for Denny’s employees), warranting a normal tip from Jeremy.
Last tourney I played my still unbeaten Hidden Mains, and a variant of Invincible Court Returns, but I quickly discovered that Court just ain’t a good choice for my unpredictable meta, so it was back to Hunt Down. I dropped the dueling aspect, as I saw a lot of WYS last time, against which Circle is useless and Obsession will just get canceled by Run Luke, Run!, so I went with a character removal power variant that was working well in testing. For light, my Hidden Mains was losing appeal to me despite winning so much, so I used the product of the deviant deck designing mind of Eric Berger along with my meta expertise - an almost invincible deck yet to be held under 20 differential. It’s the WYS Palace Raider engine. I won’t go in to too much detail with my light games, simply because I assured some that this deck wouldn’t be revealed on the Net for a while. Anyway, only a few players showed up (around 11 I think), but local powerhouse Jake Mayer managed to show up barely in time, and Jeremy ain’t someone to sneeze at, so it wasn’t going to be a breeze. On to the competition . . .
Game 1
My Hunt Down Vs. Wade Kothman’s Hidden Base X-Wings
No Vader in my opening hand, but I managed to have him out second turn. He takes his time in setting up, and tries to Terminate Visage early, but I HoloNet. I have a pretty solid drain and set up Search And Destroy within the next few turns. I continue draining and dealing out the direct damage until he drops Boussh and starts establishing his presence in space. I begin tracking and take out Boussh with a Sniper/Dark Strike. He flips HB, and drops TK-422 to stifle me again. I start to go into space, dropping the Chimaera with Dr. E & Ponda Baba along with Zuck In Hunter and Bossk In Bus. I start to probe, track a five and Force Lightning TK. The direct damage has thinned his deck to the point where X-Wing beatdown isn’t an option, and I never even manage to probe his base before my drains, Visage and Search wear him out.
Full Win by 17
2(+17)
Game 2
My WYS Machine Vs. Wade Kothman’s Old School Non-DB Hunt Down
He sets up quick with a second turn Vader and Tarkin on Tatooine. Visage hits for a turn or two before I find a OOC/TT. I begin to unleash the Raiders, and all he can do is watch. By the fifth turn, he’s already locked down, as my ground forces are almost untouchable and I start the retrieval engine. I have no more than five cards in my lost pile for the rest of the game. He starts just drawing up looking for something, and after three turns of taking my drains, he plops down Xizor and Guri at my weakest point. I converge my forces in response, and he is overwhelmed by power and a six for the one destiny I am able to draw. This was his last gasp, as my retrieval makes it impossible for him to mount any sort of drain race.
Full Win by 23
4(+40)
Game 3
My Hunt Down Vs. Joe Amaya’s EBO Mains
This time I have multiple Vaders in my starting hand, which leads to another second turn flip. Joe Terminates Visage early when I don’t have a HoloNet in hand. He gets out Premiere Obi with Stick on Hoth, but I am far ahead in the drain race with a Stick on Vader and Empy and Janus at my DBs. He invades the Executor with Corran and Orrimaarko, but I deploy Coward to keep the game in my favor. He drops EPP Leia and BoShek at the Entrance Cavern, and I respond with Snoova, Dr. E & Ponda, and a tracked five. I capture Leia and apply the beat on the Shek. He comes down with Jedi Luke two turns later, but I made sure that five was still on top of my deck, and send Luke to the Used Pile. My drains are in full force at this point, and he’s still only draining for 2 at the North Ridge. Not much else happens, as he begins to run out of options and I continue to outdrain him.
Full Win by 17
6(+57)
Jeremy schooled Jake’s Deadbolt, so I avoid his TDIGWATT that has been ripping people up here (it’s a lot better than you think).
Game 4
My WYS Machine Vs. Joe Amaya’s 3rd/5th Marker Start M&T
First turn, Joe shows some balls by deploying Zuck In Hunter to Tatooine. My first turn, I reveal Dash and deploy him with the Outrider and battle Zuck. He draws a site for destiny and takes the six card hit. His turn, he activates and deploys the Chimaera to back Zuckuss up. I have Han in hand, reveal him and pull out the Falcon, and deploy him along with Mirax to the Outrider. I have flipped, so I draw three destinies, a 4, 5, and 5. I reduce the Chimaera’s power to zero with Dash and Mirax, and he lost both ships and some cards. He’s already pretty far behind at this point, and the Raider engine is cooking two turns later. Menace Fades shuts down his 3rd Marker drain, and I deploy Kessel and move Dash over. He eats Owen & Beru with Dannik, but I Harvest before forfeiting in the middle of the battle as a consolation. He tries a few more battles before realizing that he can’t handle 10 attrition every battle, and he begins to retreat, allowing me to commence huge drains and regenerate most of my Lost Pile.
Full Win by 26
8(+83)
Jeremy played Jake again, and was unable to overcome his vicious TDIGWATT, but Jeremy has a higher diff, so the pairings are announced.
Game 5
My WYS Machine Vs. Jeremy Losee’s MKOS
Jeremy has a very tech MKOS with superb interior draining capabilities, so this could prove to be a matchup. I am able to find both Menace Fades and Battle Plan quickly, so his drains are stifled for much of the game. I establish my fleet fairly quickly, and soon after, the Raider machine is once again implemented. Jeremy has the character base to contest me, and does with a horde inside the Sail Barge, including that bastard EJP Dengar. Dengar is beatings for my deck, especially when surrounded by craploads of forfeit fodder. Thus, my only option is to find Chewie, Protector. I play a Control/Tunnel Vision from Lost Pile, and he’s the top card. He comes down along with Talon Karrde, and I await his battle. He initiates, I react and immediately cancel Dengar’s text. I draw three destinies only to make him lose a silly Chevin. However, he can’t withstand the battle I bring next turn, and most of his crew is gone after I track a few fives. He’s running low on cards at this point, and Celebration is nullifying the few cards he can afford to hit me for. Within a few turns, my drains have completely exhausted him, and I win quickly thereafter.
Full Win by 25
10(+108)
Jake played light as well, so Jeremy’s still next in line, cursing because we tested this matchup multiple times, and he never met much success.
Game 6
My Hunt Down Vs. Jeremy Losee’s Test To 6 MWYHL
Notice a trend here? Notice that I only played THREE different people? Ah well. Vader and Saber hit the Death Star Docking Bay on turn one, and Visage becomes an immediate factor. He inserts AFA quickly, along with that damn Uncontrollable Fury crapola. Of course I have Choke Vader out instead of Lord, I’m flipped and can’t find You Are Beaten. Great. But once again I set up Search And Destroy quickly, and nullify his attempts to stop Visage with HoloNet and a backup Visage. I start spreading a bit, and he invades the Executor, finally canceling Visage. No Coward, so I just go in and try to fight him off with Mara and Dr. E & Ponda. A battle or two takes place, but the point is moot, as my drains and Search are consuming him despite the Fury still pinging me (I had the opportunity to cancel it late, but it wasn’t necessary), and a few turns later that’s all she wrote.
Full Win by 18
12 (+126)
Hot damn, I win another tourney. Not much in the prize support area, considering that four limited foils were given out a few weeks ago. I got like a JPSD Lando and a pack of RII, but it’s all good. All I can say is that WYS is one of the best options for LS right now, and Hunt Down is easily the best dark deck for my meta.
Props:
To Jeremy, for being Van for a day.
To Jeremy, for keeping things funny as hell.
To Brian, for running another quality local and loaning me the cards to play the Machine.
To Eric, for his uncanny innovative deckbuilding prowess.
To Jake, for whipping @#$% with TDIGWATT.
To Hunter, for buying my extra box of RII and saving me from owning the crap it contained.:)
To Matt, for making progress.
To Darwin, because it’s Darwin Day.
To the brownie, because the tech is real :).
Slops:
To the U.S Army, for f.ucking up my friend’s life.
To Denny’s, for sh!tty service.
Until next time,
Darwin bless. Hoostino out.