huntsville-al-02-17-01
Title: huntsville-al-02-17-01
Author: Andy "Solo337" McClure
Date: Feb 20, 2001
Nothing too much to explain about the pre-tourny, but Jim Sells (a cool guy and a good player from Nashville) came down, so I was looking forward to a game or 2 with him. Before the tournament, we mainly just sat around wishing we could go to the DPC in Illinois. But alas, I would have to miss 4 baseball games (which I wouldn’t do), and I don’t have a ride. Oh well.
Well, nothing much happened before the tournament, so I’ll explain the decks I was planning to play. For DS, I have the same HD I’ve played several weeks in a row. It is very effective and plays like a machine, and has never lost a game in playtesting, if I remember correctly. It was non-duel with tons of support characters. Maybe I’ll post it some day.
For LS this week, I was planning to play TIGIH, because for some reason I had an insane urge to play it (don’t even ask me why). I always insult it because it can’t beat HD, so I figured I needed tons of HD hate to make it work. I had been working with a beats deck with tons of HD hate, and it was working pretty well. Then I decided I wanted to play TIGIH speeder beats, Steven Lewis style, but about ½ hour before the tournament I played a game with it, and realized why I didn’t like that deck. It uses too many cards! I was down to about 20 cards in my deck, and only a few cards were in my lost pile! So about 10 minutes before the tournament, I changed my Speeders deck back to the mains variety I have posted.
SHAMELESS PLUG: Go check out the TIGIH deck I used. It’s called "One Step Closer" and it’s on my page.
However, I ran into a little problem when I was switching my Speeder deck back to straight mains. I suddenly remembered that I had been proxying my Off The Edges with Alter combo cards, and I didn’t own any. So for the last few minutes before the tournament, I scrambled around asking everyone there if they had any to trade, and of course, as is my luck, no one did. I was in trouble, I could have used On The Edges, but didn’t want to. As I was scrambling through stack of someone’s stack of rares looking, hoping that there was an Off The Edge in there, someone made some sort of comment about Brian Hunter and Steven Lewis (I didn’t hear the whole comment, just their names), and it made me laugh hard out loud. "Heh heh, I could never imagine Steven Lewis or Brian Hunter doing this. Scrambling for cards at the last second wishing they had planned ahead a little more," I said. We all had a good laugh as a couple more player walked in. I begged them for Off The Edges, and they had them! I picked them up with a couple quick trades, finished exchanging my sleeves, and I was set.
End pre-tourny junk--
We had 14 people, and Matt Reed, the director, opted not to play, as that would create a bye.
1st game: My TIGIH against Matt Passion’s (1442) CCT w/ Jabba’s Prize
As we sat down to play, Matt groaned and said, "Great, I gotta play Andy first round." I smiled and sat down. I had never played against a CCT deck before, so it would be a learning experience at least. With Han gone, and Luke stuck on Endor, I was gonna have to rely on Leia, Lando, Obi and friends to free the infamous gambler. I got a good opening hand, and he dropped someone first turn to pick Han up. He started moving him toward the chamber, and I won a couple battles with Obi and Leia on the way, but I couldn’t control the site. He used Mara, Jabba and Boelo to get to the Chamber and flipped his objective. From then on, it was an all out assault on the AC. I won several more battles, and used Leia, Obi, Lando and Chewie, along some sweet battle cards, like Clash and Blaster Proficiency to clear the AC and free Han. He lost a couple battles for several cards, and Luke had been drain 2 per turn on Endor and by the time I got Han back, it was pretty much game. He sent a few more characters down as a last ditch effort, but I killed them, too. I set up my On/Off the Edge engine to get about 10 cards back at the end of the game. At the end of the game I had about 8 or 9 card on I Feel The Conflict and I was wishing he wasn’t playing Scum :-)
FW 2(+34, I think)
Game Highs: I learned a couple things about playing against CCT with Jabba’s Prize, and the deck played very well. Sorry About The Mess/Blaster Proficiency is the best card in the game! Winning a TON of battles.
Lows: Heh, letting him flip his objective. I was sure I could keep Han out of the AC.
2nd game: My teched out HD against Clay Wilburn’s (1782) TIGIH Scouts
Well, I didn’t know it until the middle of the game, but this deck was just an improved version of Crazy Hermit’s TIGIH Scouts. He added some duel stuff, so it wasn’t an auto-loss against HD Duel, but that didn’t matter against me, I don’t duel.
I didn’t get a Vader first turn (this deck has a curse about that), so he got to generate a lot first turn while I drew for the big man. He dropped Crix to the H1:DB along with Bruckman and some other scrub, which was a good idea, ’cuz he was in for a Mara beating. I decided to drop Vader instead of going to the DB with Mara for the fear of Fallen Portal. Next turn, he just drew. I dropped Mara to the CC Docking Bay and put out Search and Destroy to make him come to me. I had a barrier, but it didn’t matter. He dropped 3 or 4 Scouts on Mara, and Barriering one of them wouldn’t save her, so I just hit one, and killed another by attrition. I drew a 6 for destiny, so he didn’t win the battle. Visage was eating him alive, so he dropped Blount and JPSD Lando to the Holotheatre. I dropped Come Here You Big Coward to buy me a few turns and drew. Next turn, EJP Dengar and Xizor went to extract vengence upon the Visage-cancellers. I hit Lando and played Sniper Dark Strike to kill him, hit Blount and drew a 5 for destiny, so he lost 11 cards in the battle. Up until that point, it was very even, a great game. But cancelling Visage with a spy pisses me off :-)
For the rest of the game, it was just a drain race. The Emperor and Sim went to Chirpa’s Hut for the fat drain of 2 and our other characters kept maneuvering around to avoid getting killed between the Endor, CC and D* docking bays. I couldn’t lose Vader, because I didn’t have a back up in my hand, and he didn’t want to fight the Emperor, so he let me have the drain of 2. He came somewhat close to converting Vader in the end, because he had 2 cards stacked and a 6 on the bottom of his deck. If he could have battled with Leia, he very well might have converted Vader, but the HD objective screwed his grand ideas of a LS Vader.
FW 2(+21 maybe?)
Total: 4(+about 55)
Game highs: Until the Severe Beating Of A Lieutenant, it was a great game. Even then he played well and almost managed to convert Vader. It was a good game overall.
Lows: No Vader in opening hand, as always. That sucks so bad!
Game 3: My TIGIH vs. Chris Bentley’s (1968) Agents Of The Black Sun
As always happens to me, Jim Sells and I were both LS this game, so I had no chance of playing him in the tournament. I hate that!
Anyway, Agents Of The Black Sun has a weakness to TIGIH, but Bentley’s was a good deck. The game was very non-descript. For the most part, I drained on Endor and Tatooine, and he drained at the D* docking Bay with a Presence of the Force with the Emperor, and the Coruscant DB with a Presence with Xizor and Guri and with Fett In Slave 1 at Carida. We had a few skirmishes, but the Emperor couldn’t move to capture Luke, and I didn’t want to mess with Xizor and Guri or the Emperor, for fear of Put All Sections On Alert. Half way through the game, I had 2 Off The Edges in my hand and decided it was time to go ahead and set up that retrieval. I search for my CC Docking Bay, and it wasn’t in reserve, so I played Tunnel Vision for it, and it wasn’t there either. Heh, I had left it out when I switched from Speeders to Mains :-) There’s another move I can’t see Steven Lewis doing, although he did mess up his decklist at day 1 Worlds, which were, unfortunately, just updated :-( The rest of the game went by quickly, and he killed Luke once, who was quickly replaced by a shiny Jedi Luke. In the end, I had won a couple battles, and it was a good game, but my drains finished him. Sorry for the lack of detail, but that was pretty much all that happened.
FW 2(+about 16 -maybe I should have written this down!)
Total: 6(+around 73)
Game Highs: Protecting Luke like a champ, then replacing him when he finally bit the dust.
Lows: It was a very non-interactive game. Not a whole lot of fun. NOT HAVING THE CC Docking Bay in my deck!
At this point, I am the only undefeated player besides Jim Sells, and I am ahead of Jim by 14 differential. I need to hold on to the 1st place spot so I can get my Signal foil.
4th game: My HD vs. Brian Buchanan’s (1656) WYS with Harvests
Brian is one of my best friends and his deck is pretty good. I don’t think my HD has ever lost to it (or ever, for that matter), but it has had a couple close games.
I got an opening hand DLOTS, foil Vader and I saber, so I was happy. I dropped foil Vader with stick to the Cantina for the fat drain of 3. His turn, he activates, plays Cantina Brawl, and I draw a 6 (Damn Emperor), so Vader dies. He then plays Out Of Commision, and I only have 3 cards in lost pile, one of which is a foil (Vader) with a nice, big bow to it. I decide that it is totally unfair to let him pick from the 3, as he can see the tell-tale foil curve, so I shuffle under the table, and ask him to pick which card will be OOC. He says the top one, and thank God it is a Prepared Defenses. He draws, cancels Visage, and it’s my turn. I drop the DLOTS back to the Cantina and No Escape for his Saber to re-equip the Dark Lord and deploy a new Visage. He draws, loses to Visage, I drain, drop the Emperor to the Tatooine:DB. He draws again, and in his draw phase plays Cantina Brawl again, and once again, I draw a 6 (Damn Put All Sections On Alert) and Vader again dies in a bar fight. I get a few more turns of draining, and he finally drops a the Farm. I go to it with Mara, and he drops a Raider in a Craft, a Raider out of a Craft, the Lars’ and Talon to beat up on poor Mara. I hit the Lars’ and operate with Dark Strike, and kill a Raider by attrition. I drain and draw a couple to go rumble at the Farm next turn. The last few turns involved constant fighting at the Farm while Harvesting was going on. Luckily, I had my grabber, so he only got to Harvest FOUR times. It was a great game, and because I was able to grab his Harvest the first time he played it, I was able to pull it off in the end for 14 cards.
FW 2(+14)
Total for the tournament: 8(+86, I think)
Jim didn’t win by enough to overcome me, so I get the Signal foil. Jim starts to accept his Masterful Move foil, but discovers that the other foil does not go to 2nd place, but is random. "That is gay!" he exclaims, and I laugh, because it is always funny to me when people other than me use the word, "gay." However, he wins the random foil, and I tell him, "slightly less gay now, huh Jim?"
"Well, it’s still gay," came his reply, "but not as bad for me."
And now, for the ever-loved Props and Slops:
Props:
To Jim Sells- for being a cool guy from Nashville, and NOT taking the local tournament victory from me (as has happened 3 out of the last 4 local tournaments I went to).
To Brian Buchanan- for giving me an excellent game.
To Brian Buchanan- for NOT Out Of Commissioning Vader 1st turn of the game :-)
To Brian Buchanan- for killing Vader with a lucky Cantina Brawl- twice.
To Chris Bentley- For coming for once :-)
To Clay Wilburn- For using TIGIH to put up a fight against my HD
To me- for playing 2 Off The Edges, and no CC Docking Bay:-)
To Matt Reed- for running a smooth tournament, as always.
Slops:
First and foremost, to Decktech if they turn my apostrophes into @#$%.
To Brian Buchanan- for killing Vader with a lucky Cantina Brawl- twice.
To me- for playing 2 Off The Edges, and no CC Docking Bay:-)
To Clay Wilburn- for canceling Visage with a spy- I hate that.
To me- for not thinking up a better Props and Slops section.
Hope you enjoyed-
Andy