parker-co-2-3-01-calm-before-the-storm

Title: parker-co-2-3-01-calm-before-the-storm
Author: Brian "HuntaWarya" Hunter
Date: Feb 21, 2001

Well, much like the tournament two weeks earlier, I got my zero hours sleep on Friday night, and was ready to rock & roll on Saturday morning. Once again, Mike and I take one vehicle, while Van and Randy head to Parker in the other. We get 26 players for the tourney today, so that is at least half a dozen solid turn-outs in a row, which is cool. Decks for today:

me: I once again bring the retardosaurus rex ISB for dark, and hidden mains done RIGHT for light. I was thinking of playing ebo again today, but decide against it, based on rumors of a certain "blow up the MPG" deck.
Van: Van brings dueling hunt down, and hidden mains.
Mike: Mike brings dueling hunt down, and ebo/baragwin. but at the last second, he switches to hidden mains, fearing a certain "blow up the MPG" deck we’d heard about.
Randy: Who really cares? I mean, it’s just Randy, right? so who gives a f&^% what he brought? Just kiddin ya, Randy. :)

Game One: Hidden Mains done RIGHT vs. Randy Scott
Randy’s dark deck is Hoth ISB with walker garrisons, and sure enough, this is the deck that blows up the Main Power Generators. So right about now, I am glad I didn’t decide to play ebo myself today. I start Menace Fades to make sure I don’t fall prey to any walker garrison madness. I invade his wampa cave early with a spy and a few scrubs, but he eventually kicks me off of hoth, while I settle for draining him at a docking bay or two, and the corulag system. Randy’s deck was capable of doing much better than it performed in this particular match. He got a bad draw, then had some bad luck, and his strategy never really got off the ground. I am draining him VERY slowly, due to his imperial decree, but he isn’t able to do any damage to me at all, because of my recurring retrieval, which the secret plans is not doing much to slow down. He chooses not to battle Ben Kenobi and friends at the CC docking bay, because that’s just silly. so he battles me at the tatooine docking bay instead. But after the first battle, I come back with Lando w/ Axe to add a second destiny, draw a pair of 6’s, and that forces some heavy attrition. the order to engage makes him battle me a third time on his turn, and that battle is enough to clean him off tatooine, never to return. After the short-lived conflict, Randy can see that he won’t be able to knock me off of my docking bays. So to avoid a slow, painful, and very boring death, he just draws out early. Full win by 29.

2: (+29)

Game Two: R. Rex ISB vs. Matt Rieck’s WYS deck
Matt is using the Palace Raider/Patrol Craft version of WYS, so I figure that my retarded ISB deck should be able to handle him. He comes out early, both in space and on the ground. Mirax on the skate, dash on the outrider, and han on the falcon would take over tatooine, while jedi luke with a saber and obi’s journal, along with a good array of palace raiders and patrol craft took over the docking bays. But I am able to drop down U-3PO and 5D6 on Tatooine. U-3po gets whacked by luke’s saber (sorry about the mess), but I keep 5D6 out of harms way, which subtracts one from each of his drains at the tatooine sites, and the tatooine system itself as well. I establish a ground force at the endor docking bay, and start piecing together the imperial fleet. Matt isn’t able to challenge me in space too much. he has to control a battleground system to keep his menace fades in effect, and he can’t split up and fight me at multiple systems at once, either, due to the threat of imperial commands, and a lateral damage that I deploy pretty early on. We don’t really battle at all on the ground, and battle very little in space. the massive forfeit of his pilots allows him to dominate the battles in space, but he just can’t stop my spread and drain tactics. So I just patiently wait for him to die off, and I win by 19

4: (+48)

Game Three: R. Rex ISB vs. Van Melancon’s Hidden Mains
Well Van has a real hard time finding Home One during this game, and knows that the super falcon just doesn’t cut it against Imperial commands and Guri. Meanwhile, he chases me around a little at the docking bays, but I make that harder for him because of the high transit costs to/from the endor docking bay. Van doesn’t try to challenge me in space, so he just uses the super falcon to keep menace fades going against the evil Admiral Chiraneau. Still, the little drains at the systems are better than nothing, and he loses home one off his reserve deck. He quickly retrieves it with off the edge. I don’t intend to challenge him on the ground, until OTE comes out, and I seem to be without my "Point Man" to cancel it with. I battle him on the ground a couple times, but get massacred pretty badly, and have to start just losing force to Order to Engage instead. I keep draining him in space, and he loses home one again, so it never makes it onto the table. Order to Engage ruins my differential, but I hang on for the win by 15.

6: (+63)

Game Four: Hidden Mains done RIGHT vs. Joe Helfrich.
Joe is playing non-flipping Endor Ops with Ominous Rumors. He is also utilizing big blue, with admirals and imperial command. Jedi Luke comes down to Joe’s endor docking bay very early, armed with anakin’s lightsaber. Luke would give me a steady drain of 2 at that site for most of the game. Joe puts merrejk in the bunker to get sites with, and deploys some other scrub to the endor docking bay, allowing him to deploy ominous rumors. the scrub then runs into the bunker also, where Luke cannot follow. I start to take over my docking bays while Joe sets up in space. I use the falcon to get menace fades going, so that his drains won’t murder me. Joe challenges the drain at the endor docking bay, using a small scrub army, but Jedi Luke makes short work of them. The next force that tries to stop Luke’s drain is two blizzard walkers, one of them piloted by general veers. one of the walkers goes down in the first battle, then on my turn I bring chewie protector to the site, who ends up getting traded for in attrition for Veers. Order to Engage makes the lone walker battle Luke again on Joe’s turn, and Luke finally regains his drain for 2. I pretty much let Joe have his way with me in space, and let my retrieval try to make up the difference. Something special Planned prevents recurring retrieval, but using the cards once apiece is still good enough to keep me going, and I win by 24.

8: (+87)

Game Five: R. Rex ISB vs. Joshua Bader’s WYS
Neat, another WYS deck. hehehe. But there is better news. Van (who is currently 3-1, with his only loss being to me) is playing dark this round, which means I will not have to get rematched against him in Game 6. Better yet, he is playing against Matt Riecks (also 3-1, with his only loss being to me) So, if Van can knock off Matt, then I won’t have to see either of them in Game 6, which would be nice. Josh’s deck concentrates much more heavily on space than on the ground, so I can pretty much take whichever sites I want. He uses some interesting tactics to keep me from being able to attack him in the air, which include "Star Destroyer!", "Out of Nowhere", and a host of other nasty tricks and surprises. He also establishes his Kessel Drain early, and even has Kessel Runs in his deck. Amazingly, Josh’s deck is SO effective in space that he is actually able to chase ME around. However, it is equally amazing how weak his deck was on the ground, allowing me to force abnormally heavy damage there. He surprises me by neglecting to pay for secret plans during one of his kessel runs, which cancels the retrieval, and allows me to finish him off earlier than I would have expected. In a game that was much more competitive than the score would indicate, I win by 28.

10: (+115)

Well, wouldn’t you just know it? Matt pulls off the upset in game 5, using his WYS deck to defeat Van’s Hunt Down by 22. So I get to play Matt again after all. And unfortunately, I have seen enough of his deck to know that it is very well equipped to handle my hidden mains. Little did we realize that Matt was about to get "Jesus-f*cked", hardcore.

Game 6: Hidden Mains done RIGHT vs. Matt Riecks
Matt is using ISB, with some big blue/imperial command. however, his deck is considerably lighter on starships and systems than my own, which allowed him to put in some solid draining sites on endor, (dark forest, forest clearing) and some more ground support. This enables him to really hurt you with the ISB objective drain bonus, something that my deck doesn’t do. But something really unusual happened in this match: luck was on my side.

You see, I have horrendous luck. I am legendary for it. And ludicrously unlikely occurences, which defy all statistical probability, happen to me routinely in this game. And always in what would be the worst possible way for me. And I constantly have to think harder and work harder than other players, just to counteract my inherent "bad karma". But that was not the case in this game. In THIS game, things ACTUALLY went MY way. And that shocking turn of events would make this game into a truly nightmarish experience for Mr. Riecks.

Everything started out fairly normal. I put a few guys down to one of my docking bays to establish an early drain of one, while matt gets piett and merrejk to the exec. docking bay and begins to pull out some systems. He starts to drain me a little in space, and I start to retrieve a little with the edge cards. Then, seeing that Ben and Lando were already occupied at the tatooine docking bay, and seeing han and leia in space, matt deploys the dark forest and puts sim aloo there, figuring that luke is really the worst thing that could happen. But amazingly, I actually DO have luke in my hand. Jedi Luke, whom I deploy to the dark forest. I don’t have the anakin’s saber, but I battle sim aloo anyway, since I have double his power. Matt draws high, and I draw low, so sim’s immunity holds up, and Matt only needs to lose one card to battle damage. I draw a few cards, and am surprised to see that anakin’s lightsaber is one of them. I expect for my luke to get a severe beating on Matt’s next turn, but rather than kill off luke at the expense of some of his characters, he chooses to establish another drain by putting down tempest scout 1 with two pilots at the endor docking bay, and flipping his objective. he puts Janus down next to Sim, so that he can now drain me for two at the docking bay, and if luke battles janus or sim, he can just react the walker over for free and punish me. On my turn, I give Luke his stick, but don’t initiate (for obvious reasons) Instead, I deploy order to engage. Matt goes ahead and battles me at the dark forest, but uses weapon levitation to swipe luke’s saber. I draw low, and everyone survives the attrition. I lose a card or two to battle damage to keep luke alive. I figure on Matt’s next turn I will be set. I leave Jedi Luke in front of Sim and Janus. I move Ben Kenobi, Mirax, and KalFal to the endor docking bay, in front of the Tempest Scout 1. And I put home one and the falcon in front of his ship at endor, then I slap a couple high destiny cards on top of my used pile, recycle, and wait for OTE to do it’s thing. Matt has the imperial command to keep me from drawing more than one destiny at Endor. and he knows Janus and sim can handle luke, since Sim is still carrying luke’s saber. and he has lord vader in his hand, to drop down next to the Tempest Scout 1, which will let him be competitive at the endor docking bay. He battles me in space first, playing imperial command to keep me from drawing more than one battle destiny. I draw...a 6, and since he doesn’t want to lose thrawn, he forfeits 2 outer rim scouts instead. then he battles me at the endor docking bay. But somehow, just by luck, I have the fallen portal in my hand! so I play it against lord vader, and draw a 5, and he’s gone. I draw a 4 for battle destiny, which is enough to kill both of the outer rim scouts on the tempest walker, leaving it empty. finally, matt battles me at the dark forest. But amazingly, I have MORE good luck. now my own weapon levitation is in my hand, so luke swipes the anakin’s lightsaber back from Sim Aloo. Luke then uses that lightsaber to play clash of sabers on sim aloo, leaving Janus alone against the 8 power jedi. Janus draws a 3 for destiny while I draw...another 6! which I didn’t even know was there. Unbelieveable. Matt gets totally hosed on this turn. And since Sim aloo is clashed, at least I won’t be able to drain for 3 with jedi luke, right? except that I just happen to have my sorry about the mess in hand, so during my control phase, sim bites it. Amazing. In this game, I just drew all the cards I needed to have, and then got a few lucky destiny draws on top of it. It was a truly unique experience for me. It sure was interesting to play SWCCG one time with luck on my side, instead of against me. Anyway, Matt never recovers from my mysterious good fortune, and gets "Jesus-f*cked" for THIRTY-THREE, even though his deck is specifically designed to have all the tools needed to beat hidden mains done RIGHT.

12: (+148)


Joe Helfrich goes 5-1 to take second, losing only to me. Jon Cassidy goes 5-1 to take third, losing only to Matt. Van goes 4-2 to take fifth, losing only to me and Matt. Matt goes 4-2, losing only to me twice, but takes 8th place, because I hurt his differential so badly in game 6.

I go to 24-0 in 2001, which might be relevant if Decipher ever actually posts the "year to date" ratings. But there are 10 other games from back in 2000 that never updated, so I am actually waiting on 34 wins to be counted total, against my "career rating". Oh well.

Props:
To Mike, for driving
To Hayes Hunter, for coining the term "Jesus-f*ck"
To Jon Cassidy, for finishing 5-1, after getting beat down for 28 in Game One.
To Menace Fades, for being such a big irritation to my Admiral Chiraneau.
To Jedi Luke, for mopping up on Endor against both Joe and Matt (I guess somebody should have called his momma)
To Josh Bader, for kicking me around in space in game 5.
To the God(s) of Bad Luck, for letting me off the hook, even if just for one game.
To Retardosaurus Rex ISB, for not sucking too bad, I guess.

Slops:
To Randy Scott, for bringing a Target the Main Generator deck. hehe. :)
To Order to Engage, Fallen Portal and Lateral Damage, for being too good.
To Josh Bader, for "pulling a Chris Shaner", and not paying for secret plans when completing a kessel run. :)
To Mike, for losing 3 games in a row.


Well that will do it for now. see you again soon. thanks for reading.

Brian Hunter