pleasanton-ca-2-17-01
Title: pleasanton-ca-2-17-01
Author: Nick "JediBrain" Stefanko
Date: Feb 18, 2001
After last week’s tournament, I got a little worse for wear. Over the course of the week, I had a fever, running nose, no energy whatsoever, and a hacking cough that kept me from sleeping much. I didn’t have much of anything to do; I skipped classes on Tuesday because I was bedridden, and barely made my Thursday ones. Friday I felt better, and easily made my bus home. Last week, I had a Black Sun deck (don’t laugh; you’ll see why later) to test out, but didn’t have all the cards for it. After tweaking it around, and being able to borrow the 2 Vigos I now needed, I was looking forward to see how it’d do. The tournament started at 12p at Warmasters, so my brother and I left about an hour before that. Upon arrival, I saw a big crowd but no TD, Mike Hardy. 10 after 12, he showed up, we all filled out command cards, paid, and got down to it.
The Tournament:
My decks:
LS - Why Ewoks Care About Hansicles v4.0 - Profit Ewoks with heavy mains as support
DS - Jabba Is Dead - Black Sun Objective-enhanced bounty hunter beatdowns
Game 1: LS v. Paul McKelvey’s ISB
He started Chall Bekan and an ORS on me. I got a very slow start, including getting the Landing Platform in my opening hand and drawing Bo Shuda; he got a very fast one. The Outer Rim Scouts kept on coming, piling on his Cloud City DB, then moving over to Endor. I tried to set up a drain at the Back Door, but down comes Blizzard Scout 1, Tramples 2 Spearmen, then DVDLOTS, Grand Moff Tarkin, 4-LOM w/ Conc. Rifle, another AT-ST, and an ORS join the party vs. my remaining Ithorian and 2 Spearmen. Vader chokes, 4-LOM stones the Spearman, and I take 14 more battle damage (I had played Fallen Portal, but Tarkin cancelled the destiny). I tried some recovery with my mains, but to no avail. Without my Bargaining Table out all game, I would have lost much earlier.
Result: FL -31
Standing: 0(-31)
Good Things: None
Bad Things: Everything
Compliment of opponent: He played very well. Made all the right moves in very calculated ways.
Game 2: DS v. Clayton Atkin’s TIGIH
The first true opponent of this deck is Clay; great. I thought I had lost for sure. Clay was using the same deck he had used last week, so I knew a little of what to expect. I used my normal start - Twi’lek for Presence on the Imperial City to flip immediately. He flipped me back his first turn, of course, but I was still draining there. He dropped a scout squad down to Coruscant to clean Xizor’s clock, but a Barrier and high destiny on my part, low on his saved Xizor. I dropped all my Jabba’s Palace sites, Scum, First Strike, Zuckuss and 4-LOM w/ Conc. Rifle to Rebel Scout Luke’s site, then battled Luke, killing him and losing Zuckuss, flipping back, then Xizor battled Corran Horn and a scout on Imp City, clearing them but living to tell the tale. He cursed my First Strike, showing me his It’s A Trap in hand. We had some more close battles, mostly with either no victor or myself the victor; I only ended up stacking 2 on I Feel The Conflict all game. With the Scum/First Strike retrieval, I was able to keep the game pretty close. He got an Off The Edge and an On The Edge off to keep himself close behind me. Near the end of the game, I had Snoova, EPP Fett, Iggy w/, 4-LOM w/, and a Vigo chasing Jedi Luke and General Crix around, but they weren’t able to corner him. Time was called, and I finished my turn by spreading out to block all his drains. We counted up, I had 21 and he had somewhere around 10.
Result: TW +21
Standing: 1(-10)
Good Things: The deck beat the 2000 CA State Champion.
Bad Things: None
Compliment of opponent: It was a spectacular game. Clay is a phenomenal player, and I’m surprised to have won out. If we had played it out, I don’t know who would have decisively won.
Game 3: LS v. Kevin Howard’s Carbonite Chamber/IAO start
From his start, I didn’t know what the heck he was up to. He started Mara and CC Fett at the AC, then built it up with Dengar w/, Snoova, and Igar. He tried to cancel Bo Shuda, but didn’t realize that Uh-Oh! prevented it, so he had marooned his main forces on Tatooine. I set up on Endor, got Graak out, and with Tessek already at the AC, the drains began to mount. Feeling safe, I began dropping mains to his sites to drain at, and received no contest until the end, when he deployed Bossk w/ vs. Chewie Protector and Tawss Khaa. He didn’t have any Force left to draw destiny with, so he ran away. Master Luke w/ Luke’s Saber and Lando w/ Vibro made him go away painfully, and that was game. It was all over in less than 20 minutes.
Result: FW +26
Standing: 3(+16)
Good Things: The deck worked well.
Bad Things: Beating a scrub down hard.
Compliment of opponent: With some better understanding of opponent’s cards, I think that he can improve.
Game 4: DS v. Philip Green’s Watch Your Step
He got Rebel Fleet AND Bargaining Table out early, so I was going to have to work hard for my drains to get through. Honor came out, so now I had to get 3 battlegrounds, too. I got all my Tatooine sites out, and after Elis-ing Xizor to the Cantina, began to spread out with hunters and Vigos. Dash in the Outrider went to Kessel and drained me for 3 there all game. I Death Marked him. He dropped an RFC on a YT-1300 to Ralltiir midgame; I Barriered it so it wouldn’t make a Kessel Run this early. Zuckuss In Hunter and 4-LOM w/ went to kill him, but Dash in Outrider reacted over from Kessel and made Zuckuss hit the Lost Pile. Search And Destroy came out, and my damage was beginning to add up. He completed a Kessel Run, and before he died, was going to do one more, but a lucky Defensive Fire made it return to his deck.
Result: FW +13
Standing: 5(+29)
Good Things: The deck worked once again.
Bad Things: Lost Resistance off the top early.
Compliment of opponent: He played it well, but without the ground challenge, WYS folds.
Game 5: DS v. Alex Stefanko’s HB mains
He was NOT happy at all at this pairing, especially since there were 20 other people at the tournament. His anger made him not care about the game, and he acted like a crybaby all game. "Whatever" was his response to everything I deployed, used, moved, and drew. Second turn, Xizor was Elis-ed to Jabba’s Palace, and Premiere Obi w/ his Saber came down to greet him, but a Barrier stopped that. Xizor was joined by Bane Malar, Zuckuss, and Djas Puhr, and battled Obi. He missed the saber swing on Xizor, and drew a 1 vs. my 4. I told him that he had attrition of 8 thanks to my objective (+1 for each Black Sun agent in battle); he threw Obi into his Lost Pile quite violently. I moved them around, and set up to drain for small amounts on Tatooine (Battle Plan and Menace Fades were a tad hindering). Rebel Scout Luke went to the Endor Landing Platform to flip me back, and was joined by Melas, whom I Death Marked (gee, what a useful card!). He came after my Tatooine setup a few times, but was beaten badly every time (his destinies were quite bad). I sent a beatdown crew to remove Luke, and did, but that left EPP Fett alone escorting him (had captured him with Hidden Weapons). He retaliated, freed Luke, and my next turn, a bigger crew came down and got Luke back for good. After that, it was my direct damage and small drains that did him in.
Result: FW +26
Standing: 7(+55)
Good Things: The deck went undefeated!
Bad Things: Playing my little brother in such a large field of players.
Compliment of opponent: None; he acted like a 2-year-old in our game.
Game 6: LS v. Dan Mochizuki’s Hunt Down
I saw Hunt Down come out without Epic Duel, so I was ready for it. EPP Obi sat at the Dense Forest for a few turns keeping Hunt Down 0-side, and was eventually killed off twice by scrubs and high destiny. Dan had DLOTS out first turn, and two turns later had Palpy + full crew out too. Master Luke went down to free Han, then they both moved out to Tatooine: Jabba’s Palace, where Mara w/ her Saber wrecked them (YAB on Luke after slicing him), taking Han + a few more. In my death throes, Lando w/ cleaned Mara with a tracked 6. After that, nothing doing. Visage’s compounding, his many drains that got around my Bargaining Table, and grabbing Out Of Commission sunk me.
Result: FL -11
Standing: 7(+44)
Good Things: I whittled him down to 11
Bad Things: Not getting my sites out fast enough.
Compliment of opponent: It is always fun to play Dan. I was acting friendly and talking a little smack, making some jokes, etc. I don’t know if he appreciated that or not, but I had fun.
Results:
Out of 22 players, Kevin Shannon, as usual, walked away undefeated and with a short stack of prizes, with Paul McKelvey coming in 2nd. Hardy gives all the good stuff to 1st, 2nd, and last place, so everyone else was left with 1 pack of Reflections II. I pulled in 7th, and pulled a Luke’s Saber FOIL. I made some notes about how to modify my Light deck a bit once I got home to UCSC, gathered my brother, and left.
Thanks for reading!