smyrna-ga-2-24-2001

Title: smyrna-ga-2-24-2001
Author: John "Parn12" Digiovanni
Date: Feb 24, 2001

Whew, another 3 week break or so between tournaments, and in that time I had made some decks I was just dying to bust out with. I go to the tournament with 4 decks ready to go: my capturing/removing ABS deck, HDADTJ (awesome deck!), a teched out EBO deck I modeled after "Deadbolt", and my faithful WYS deck. I felt guilty for having something so close to another person’s deck, so I drop EBO, and my ABS deck still has a LOT of holes in it to work free (but there are fewer now). I settle with WYS and Hunt Down.

My Watch Your Step deck is now pretty well known, especially in Smyrna. Its record is 6-0 going into today, its been a dominating deck so far... but it is getting a little stale play wise. I swapped it up a little to freshen it up, slidding in a Kessel, a couple more starships for my preps to fly, a pair of Run Luke Run’s for the numerous Hunt Downs going around so I can at least keep his objective flipped and protect Luke at the same time. Other than that it is WYS with spies on a nightfallen Tatooine. Retrievial via Noble Sacrifice and Celebration.

Hunt Down is just the dark concoction of my imagination. HEAVY character removal makes this deck a monster, and enough counter cards make it seem like I am ready for anything. Duel oriented, but not slacking in the power at the same time... dueling is a late game breaker, or just Non-Epic Obi with a Circle he will never win. Either way, people don’t drop Jedi for me, which sucks.

Will Raiman is running it this week again (as Kevin was off somewhere else trying to get a booster draft put together), no Drew this week either, he is great competition! But Adam Drake, Ken Brune, Steven Michael, Jean, and Jeff were hanging around, and I carted Luke up... so there’s pleanty of competition to go around (especially seeing as how we were odd for Will to hop in too). Enough of the useless details, on with the show!

Act 1: Hunt Down vs. Jean Morisson’s MWYHL
First 5 minutes we discuss how the blasted cold of Champion’s can possibly affect our game play (*hint!*).
MWYHL is potientially a major threat, and it REALLY screws with my devistating ability to get "high" destiny draws. All starts as normal, we both lose 1 from Visage, my opening game is pretty boring... just drawing to get a DVDLOTS. He has like EVERY Dagobah site he needs in his hand, he deploys the Hutt from reserve deck though. Stacks it with Yoda, we lose another 1. I drop Vader out to the Endor DB, I think I has his stick by then, if not I did it on the next turn when I activated a bunch and spent it to stock Vader some backup (Sim and Palpy) and then Weapon Levo’d it out onto him. He gets test 1 set up easy, test 2 I stall him a turn (by moving it to him on the Hutt, so he’d have to move to pass Test 3 next turn). This game was made MUCH more difficult for him when I deployed CHYBC, and there were only 2 battlegrounds out, all game. CC:DB and Endor:DB, Endor I was stocking at, he needed them both to retrieve. Visage is eating him a little, pinging drain of one (costing me 3, thanks battle plan). Midgame he gets squirrelly: drops Obi w/ Saber, OTSD Lando, and Han with Gun. He doesn’t battle though, which I thought was a little strange, but he reasons it with moving to test 3 to pass it (which was probably a good idea in the long run...). I drop Iggy, 4-LOM, and maybe another scrub to chill with Vader, Palpy, Sim, and a beef forfeit GA Thrawn. I battle and immediately blank Lando (plus First Strike, too). He slashes Vader to bits with Obi, Vader slashes back and draws a 6 and a 2, both modified down 1 for a total 6... but I started You Cannot Hide Forever, Obi is hosed. He pops someone with Han, Iggy snares Han (barely again 4+1-1=4, lol). Then Vader puts the choke hold on Lando... so all he has left is a hit Obi. 12 Power to 32 (total destiny of 8) in the end (I believe), game set.
FW: +30
Total: 2 (+30)

Highs: My deck worked right!
Lows: Really quick game... and I know losing a game in that manner really hurts, sorry man.

Act 2: WYS vs. Ken Brune’s Dark TIES Deck
Give a LOT of credit to Ken, that deck is just vile! This game was a knock down, dragging me away screaming game. First turn I get lucky and drop Mos Eisley, Saber Luke, Nightfall, Boushh, Jedi Luke update, Ani’s Saber.. so I got the Tat:DB well in my grasp for a drain and +2 activation. I get fiesty early and drop Capt. Han to the Falcon and Wedge to the Pulsar Skate at Kessel. This proved to be the BIGGEST mistake of the day. He drops a scrub (DS-61-2 or 3) and his ship to Kessel... Guri in the Stinger, and one of the Saber squad preps. He DM/Talon Rolls Han in the Bird... I draw 6, he draws 4... Han dies by 1... I’m in COMPLETE shock. He battles and I have to forfeit Wedge and the Skate to cover my rear (this game would have been totally different had he remembered to draw another destiny for Guri). No more space for me, this deck is just wicked. I set up a Cantina shuffle crew, Luke and Leia doing their thing at the db still. He sets up to drain on Tatooine, adding in a Proton Bomb on a Scimitar Squad prep... I just sigh, I know what’s coming. I cancel his next drain at Tatooine, nullifying his chance to bomb the Cantina, I shuffle out to Mos Eisley. Next turn I don’t think much of it, I could play the Control/TV from lost pile to save the Cantina another turn... but I didn’t. He collapses the Cantina, pain. Next turn I do my stuff, getting ready to go attack him at Kashyyyk with Dash in the Outrider along with Wedge again. He bombs the db on me, once again I wasn’t thinking... it costs me my Jedi and Leia. I’m down to Mos Eisley. We battle over Kashyyyk a little, Wedge takes a couple of trips to the Bacta Tank... Dash never got out, Talon came instead. He deploys another TIE to beat on Talon in the Outrider a little more, I Noble Sac Talon... nullifying his ability to battle me, and retrieving 8 off of it. I had already grabbed 7 from Noble Sac on Mirax earlier. Wedge grabs the Outrider and skips over to Nal Hutta. He’s low on force, but can kill me in drains in 1 turn... but I lay down my Trump card: Battle Plan. He can’t force drain big, and my two drains of 1 do him in slowly.
FW: +4
Total: 4 (+34)

Highs: Pulling a victory out of defeat. Noble Saccing twice in one game.
Lows: Losing to a well timed Battle Plan sucks.

Act 3: "Hunt Down and Destroy The Boatright"
Luke brought a pretty fair deck today. Local Uprising with a couple of generics on Endor... with scrub scouts. He has some strange affinity to playing Endor+Strike Planning... he’s doing it FAR too much for it to be healthy. This game sucks early because Vader was playing Hide-n-Seek the first three turns... and when I get one (I was truly thankful, too), it was a crap Lord Vader. DVDLOTS is the man for scrubbing scouts. This game I get Vader’s Saber on him too, and a good-for-forfeit GA Thrawn. I can’t spend the 4 to battle Crix, Kensaric, and an Ithorian, so I let the turn go (you could see the steam rising from my head). I let him move away and take a drain of 2 with Vader for a couple of turns, let Visage eat at him until Tycho went down with a little Undercover afterwards. I get Palpy and Janus over to DSII, then down to the Endor DB, setting up another drain of 2. Given the choices he fortifies a little and slides all his pricks over to Palpy and Janus. I try to Force Lightning Ken, and I draw a whimpy Xizor, now I’m miffed. Do I drop Blizzard 1 down, get someone on it, and trample the heck out of Ken for the fun of it (deploying Mara with Saber right afterwards). He naturally grabs Trample. I battle and totally fail at my destiny draws, except for Mara who went to town on someone. He loses a scout and runs away. He ran to space, I went up and did a little, drawing another destiny of 1, so I land Dengar and set up a drain on CC to avoid those stupid Projections of a Skywalker. The rest of the game was for draining for big (farm+saber, cc:db+Janus), and then a final Limited Resources to put that last nail in.
FW: +23
Total: 6 (+57)

Highs: Even after all the flawed destinies, I won... I was just too lazy to track.
Lows: When I bothered to track, I was 1 card off on activation... I drew Xizor AGAIN on my second Force Lightning as a result.

Act 4: WYS vs. Will’s Hunt Down (Round 2)
I do believe this would be the exact way the last tournament I went to ended. My WYS vs. Will’s Hunt Down. Will is an awesome player, and games against him are tough! I get set up on Kessel as early as I can, and I get Mos Eisley in my opening hand again. I ask will a couple of questions, leading up to "Does Jedi Luke take 3 away from Epic Duel?" (mainly due to the fact I drew Jedi Luke in my opening hand). He says yes, or at least Decipher says yes. Well, I manage to set up Kessel early, Dash in the Outrider very early. He grabs my TV (BOTH Outriders were in my force pile, that sucked big) when I did this though, so this makes Control/TV harder to play. I get 1 drain off at Kessel before he comes and runs me off. So Dash "punks" over to Tatooine, gets some backup, and goes back. Next few turns is him setting up on the ground and me chasing around Zuckuss MH+4-LOM. I finally go to the ground, Lando w/Ax for free, Han with Gun, Talon, and Corran. I battle Vader and Janus. I attempt to knock Vader out, pretty much praying to the high heavens on this one. Of course I cannot, we both draw 4’s. I end up blasting Janus away and ousting Vader with attrition. I’m stuck with Lando and Han now. He comes back next turn and cleans me out easily... Iggy took Lando before he knew what happened, and Han doesn’t draw destiny. I split in space, for what I do not know, but I do. Bossk comes down and ruins my day, I forget to take 8 from Bossk with Outrider+Dash+Palace Raider, but still end up forfeiting them for the 8 attrition. Now I’m running like mad with Wedge in the Skate again (I think). Running keeps Menace Fades in when I drop Jedi Luke to the Cantina, so that helps immensely. But he S&D’s me, and I lose one because of Jedi Luke’s destiny, that steams me a bit. I drop Talon down with him. He moves Mara and co. over to the Cantina. Luke starts packing some of Ani’s heat and immediately gets Beaten. Talon chickens out and runs off to the db. By now the game is literally won by Will, I knew that much... but a couple of the players were watching (as we were the last game going, and last game of the tournament). He was holding a Vader’s Obsession, and they jokingly told Will to duel Luke. I made it known that all my high destiny were toasted long ago (and they were... I didn’t know that they were as bad as they were though). So Will, being the "gambling man" that he is, goes for it just for some fun (he knew he had a 6 and a 1). I draw a 2 and a 3... 13 total (saber), and he has 14 total... but then I reasserted the information he gave me earlier, Luke took 3 from his total, bumping him down to 11. Mara loses the duel, he has to lose the 1 in his hand and the 8 in his reserve deck. Game.
FW: +3
Total: 8 (+60)

Highs: Being part of the only Epic Duel ALL tournament with at least 3 Hunt Down decks around. Will gets the "Boldest Play of the Day." He put the win on the line to have a little fun and "gamble."
Lows: Using a crappy rule to win a game I should’ve lost.

Tournament Top 4:
1st: Me
2nd: Adam Drake
3rd: James McNash (not scrubbing anymore!)
4th: Will Raimen

Well, my WYS deck narrowly advances to 8-0 in tournament play, and I do mean narrowly. Hunt Down is 2-0, kicking hard. Both decks are on my page (Killing Court WYS Style, and As The Curtain Falls), check them out, though they’ve been tweaked more since those posts.

As always with Smyrna, it was an awesome tournament! Thank you Will for running it smooth as ever, and Kevin for starting that scene. We had an outstanding crowd today (the biggest in Smyrna I’ve been in), 16 players total. Prize support was good, as usual. 1 R2 and 3 DS2 + Foil Obi with Saber.

Tournament Highs: Winning my 3rd out of 5 at Smyrna, helping my confidence more after that HUGE slump. Will and Ken for kicking the crap outta WYS, those are huge decks they’re playing. Luke for not playing "cheese" crap again. Everyone for showing up today! Kessling and Charlie for not showing up, big spanking then.

Tournament Lows: Crap ruling on Jedi Luke and Epic Duel. Kessling and Charlie for not showing up, big spanking... but the challenge is always fun and welcomed! Not getting to try out my ABS deck.

Tournament Funnies: Luke for "misplacing" his Boushh and having a 59 card deck... Will generously let him add a card to get it to 60, but the insuing scene was comical. "Immortalizing" Jean’s agonizing demise in that battle he lost by 20. Not pulling a 4th foil Lone Rouge out of 6 packs of R2. Pulling a 3rd foil Lone Rouge out of the 2 R2 packs I bought before the tournament (3 in 5 packs by that point).

Thanks again, everyone... and I hope to weasel my way out there again in the future, soon!