2-17-01-fall-of-the-legend

Title: 2-17-01-fall-of-the-legend
Author: Brian "HuntaWarya" Hunter
Date: Mar 15, 2001

Well it’s just Mike and myself representing the core group of the Littleton Crew. Van Melancon and Matt Riecks are at a Con up in Denver, so we won’t see them today. We get 22 for the tourney, a little less than we’ve been used to, but not a bad turnout. today we’ll be fighting over a Foil Japanese Darth Vader, which seems to have been a popular prize at tournaments nationwide lately. I myself did not have one yet, so I figured I had better win the tournament today. In the interests of achieving this goal, I bring Hidden Mains done RIGHT, and Retardosaurus Rex ISB. Meanwhile, Mike continues to sport dueling Hunt down, and a Hidden Mains deck as well.

Game One: Hidden Mains done RIGHT vs. Ian Monteith
Ian knows how to play Star Wars...kinda. There isn’t a lot of interaction in this game. the battles are few, far between, and quite one-sided. After the first few bad experiences in ground-based combat with me, he seems content to just exchange drains with me, with us both staying on our own turf. But he never finds an answer for my recurring retrieval using on/off the edge + Mirax for easy tracking. So I just sit back and casually drain him out, while the edge cards undo the damage he inflicts. Eventually I win by 31.

2: (+31)

Differentials are abnormally low in this round, and a win by 31 actually gets me a first place-tie with Chris Mead.

Game Two: R. Rex ISB vs. Chris Mead’s Profit
Well, I put Arica in the Audience Chamber, and put U-3PO at Jabba’s Palace. So force drains are not really a serious concern. I set up in space and start to hit him with heavy Chiraneau assisted drains. So he flips to retrieve, and starts dealing me direct damage with his objective, some of which I get back by retrieving ISB agents with my own objective. He has a sizable space fleet in his deck, but keeps drawing his red cards, while his much-needed starships hide in his reserve deck. He spreads out to a 3rd site on tatooine to increase the "or be destroyed" damage, which is when Mara breaks cover, quickly joined by Vader himself, and clearing away those annoying little mains. With no capacity to cancel my force drain bonuses, and unable to draw the ships he needs to fight me, Chris succumbs to the massive space drain, and I win by 31 again.

4: (+62)

Game Three: R. Rex ISB vs. Mike McConnell’s HB Mains
Really nothing much to say about this game. Mike makes no critical errors that I notice, and there are no severe beatdowns in this match. This game was extremely typical of how Retardosaurus Rex ISB defeats Hidden Mains. I just let him set up on the ground, and have his one system for Menace Fades. He let me set up in the air, and have my one site. Forcing him to keep Menace Fades in effect prevents him from challenging me head-on in space. He has no ways to prevent my drains, only ways to retrieve after them. I, meanwhile, have ways to stop his drains, plus ways to retrieve. Secret Plans makes it even tougher for him to keep up in the race. So I slowly establish board control, and ultimately lock him out of the game. In true Mike McConnell fashion, once he can tell there is no way to win the drain race, he defiantly launches a full frontal assault, and valiantly battles me in space. But as we all know, the dark side is stronger, so I decimate his ships and win by 25.

6: (+87)

Game Four: Hidden Mains done RIGHT vs. Chris Fanchi
Chris brings dueling Hunt Down against me. He starts No Escape in order to ensure that I cannot use Honor to help myself. Vader comes out early, with a lightsaber, and Chris takes early advantage in the drain race. I absorb the drain for a couple of turns while I try to construct a hand that will work against him. Jedi Luke hangs out in the Home One War room, awaiting a good opportunity to come out into the clear. Finally I get what I wanted, and drop Ben Kenobi to the Tatooine docking bay, along with his lightsaber. I give him a couple of friends, and drop the falcon into space to establish Menace Fades, which should be good enough to make Chris come to me. He can’t afford to sit back and plink-drain me because my retrieval will make the difference in the game. So I move Luke over to join Ben and all his buddies, and prepare for Vader’s arrival. And arrive is exactly what Vader does. On my ensuing control phase, Ben Kenobi gets disarmed, and then Fanchi goes ahead and duels the old man. Ben adds 2 to my total, but I lose the duel by an embarrassingly wide margin. So I place Ben out of play and lose 9 force. Since I am playing a dedicated mains deck, I figure I have to be able to out-battle him in order to have a shot of winning, so I pile on all the characters I can, and there ends up being a rather impressive 3-turn bloodbath at the docking bay. But while I manage to win the majority of the battles, I lose my luke in the process, and lose another luke to a force drain in space. With two lukes dead, and Kenobi placed out of play, Chris stays on the 7-side for much longer than I would have liked, which prevents my super falcon from draining or battling. I send a couple characters onto the Executor to eliminate the Visage, and start draining back for a few. As I said, I was able to do pretty well in the ground battles, but Chris just kept replacing characters as I killed them. I start using my edge cards to bring some force back, and utilize Punch It to cause some ugly attrition during a battle in space. The 3rd Luke finally makes it onto the table, so that the falcon can begin to drain again. It is ultimately the drain at the executor sites that wins me the game, while the late-game edge cards push my differential up to 18, making it appear that I won more comfortably than I really did.

8: (+105)

Game 5: Hidden Mains done RIGHT vs. Josh Bader
Josh starts SYCFA, and on his first turn, goes to get the Death Star War room. which doesn’t surprise me. but he also deploys another Death Star site that turn, which catches my interest momentarily. But I decide that he might just be using it for extra activation, and that I shouldn’t panic yet. On his second turn, he pulls another death star site from his reserve deck and deploys the superlaser, then moves to parsec 1. Damn. He’s playing to flip. time to panic. I use the signal to go get menace fades, in preparation for the ugly force drain bonuses that the flip side will soon give him. I drop Ben Kenobi and a couple friends to the tatooine docking bay, and transit onto the death star to begin my invasion. If I can keep a significant presence on the death star, I might be able to keep him from blowing away alderaan. But he draws 2 gunners into hand, and pulls the other from his reserve deck. those deploy in the heart of the death star sites, along with Emperor Palpatine, and a couple of pilots. Josh starts dropping systems onto the table. Xizor shows up on the Virago, and Guri shows up on the Stinger. I march inside the death star, putting Ben and friends right in his face, and deploy Order to Engage, which could be the key to victory. He either loses 3 a turn, or I will hack his death star gunners to ribbons. But he alters my OTE, and runs off. I flush Palpatine and the rest back toward the docking bay, giving me some good drains at his death star sites. But although I occupy 3 death star sites, he draws high for CPI, and Alderaan is history. The drain in the death star sites is getting pretty severe, so Josh sends everyone but the Emperor back in, while Palpatine goes off to wander across my docking bays, and make sure that Josh won’t have to pay for his own battle order. Thrawn has come out, piloting one of two star destroyers. zuckuss in Mist Hunter is out and about as well, and there is evil blue nastiness all across Josh’s systems. I use the falcon and home one to hold down Corulag, and keep menace fades running. After just two battles, I have killed all of Josh’s forces inside the Death Star, and the Emperor is the only surviving dark-side character on the ground. Eventually I have to let the falcon hold down corulag by itself, and send home one to block one of the drains. Sending the falcon instead would be inadvisable since it has less power and less forfeit. And I wouldn’t be able to draw a bunch of battle destiny with the falcon since he is running multiple copies of Imperial command. Home One has Mirax as it’s pilot, and I stick it in front of Guri and Xizor. It was right about then that I thought I heard Guri announce that someone had better call her momma. I was a bit perplexed by this, since it is usually my own characters who use this phrase, and not my opponent’s. I explain to Guri that she is a robot, and doesn’t even HAVE a momma at all. But she insists that somebody better call SOMEONE to come pick her up, cuz she was ’bout to KILL somebody up in here. Josh deploys Bossk in Hound’s Tooth alongside the Virago and Stinger, so that he can now draw 3 battle destiny. He then proceeds to lateral damage Home One. He battles me, I react with the Spiral, and Josh draws his 3 destiny, which are all high, since he had used reactor terminal to stack them. I lose Mirax for five, then lose the spiral for 7, then lose TEN more cards to battle damage. the sirens go off in my head, but there isn’t even time to go into "must...not...lose...game" mode, because the game is already lost. And my immunity to players with ratings <1800 will not do me any good against Josh Bader. I chase the Emperor all over the galaxy, because if I can just kill him, then Josh’s Battle Order would give me the game. But without the Order to Engage that got altered, there is little I can do to make the Emperor suffer. I try to play a couple of high destiny used interrupts to set up for on or off the edge, but they just get sensed. and with mirax dead, I have no other means of getting the high destiny cards back into the deck. Josh spreads his fleet across every battleground system, making it impossible for me to control one, and breaking the protection of Menace Fades. On my last turn, I drain him for 5, bringing him down to just 6 force, and he has no cards in hand. I have finally trapped the Emperor with nowhere to run, in front of epp leia. I put chewie down next to her and battle the emperor. the battle damage is enough to make Josh forfeit the Emperor, and Josh will now have to pay for his own battle order. On my next turn, I would be able to drain him for 5 again, bringing him down to 1 force. He would be unable to pay for battle order, and would lose the game. On Josh’s turn, he controls only two systems, where he can drain for a total of 4. I have 4 cards left. He pays exactly 6 force to drain at exactly 2 systems for exactly 4 cards, and I die. If he has one less force, then he can’t pay for both drains, and I win. If I have even just one more force, then I survive the drain, drain him back, then he can’t pay for any drains, and I win. But he does not have one less force. and I do not have one more force. So I lose by 6.

8: (+99)

After game 5, josh is the only 5-0 player, with a differential of 125. So he is ahead of me by 26. I need to beat him by more than 13 in Game 6 to drop his differential behind my own, and win the tournament. Must....not....lose...tournament. Must...win....shiny...Vader.

Game Six: R. Rex ISB vs. Josh Bader
Josh starts Obi’s Hut, and uses Careful planning to pull the moisture farm, making it relatively evident that this is a Harvest deck. Unfortunately, it must be a rather good Harvest deck, because it is 2-0, with wins by 35, and 37. I put U-3PO at the moisture farm, figuring people are going to end up there sooner or later. He puts Obi in the hut right away, with the lightsaber, to start up a drain of 1, but I have the den of thieves to stop that for a couple of turns. then my den gets altered. And this game immediately starts to feel a lot like the previous one. I set up a ground force at my endor docking bay, while he puts luke at the moisture farm, with owen and beru. He gives Luke a lightsaber, so it is just as well that I didn’t think of moving U-3PO to obi’s hut. I put a couple of ships in space and get ready to proceed with my game plan as best I can. But then Luke nabruns over to the endor docking bay during Josh’s move phase (due to the arrest order) So I play those rebels won’t escape us to cancel nabrun leids. And it gets sensed. hmmm. okay. so luke stands in front of Merrejk and Piett, and is ready to do some damage. I play Masterful Move on Josh’s turn, and activate down to it on my own turn. I drop 2 walkers, along with vader and tarkin (that’s right, 22 force) Luke screams for somebody to call Vader’s momma, but I watched Episode I, I know what Vader’s momma looks like, and I don’t see her anywhere. So I proceed to beat the holy hell out of Luke. I don’t even know what the battle damage was, I just know that Josh was flipping cards off the top of his reserve deck like as if he was looking through his rolodex. Later on, Josh uses Corran Horn to break U-3PO’s cover, but I put down 5d6, who ensures that Josh cannot drain me on Tatooine. So he has to go to the air, but as you would expect, that doesn’t go over too well with the admirals of the Imperial Navy. I wipe him out of space, grab his harvest the first time he plays it, and wait for him to die off. win by 22.

I finish with 10: (+121)

So I manage to recover, and win the tournament, snagging the shiny Vader. I bump Josh down to second place, as he finishes 5-1, losing only to me. Mike McConnell also finishes at 5-1, losing only to me, and takes 3rd.

Props:
To Mike, for driving.
To Vader, for dueling my Ben Kenobi out of existence.
To Mike, for winning 3 in a row to finish 5-1, after a very boring and disheartening match in Game 3.
To Josh, for sensing and altering everything I even thought about doing in Games 5 and 6.
To Josh, for putting the biggest dent in my Home One that I’ve ever seen. 22 battle damage. Yikes!

Slops:
To Ben Kenobi, for losing me that duel.
To Josh, for flipping SYCFA (Oh my God! They killed Alderaan! You Bastards!)
To Josh, for running off with all my rating points. ;)

At this point, we hear that there is going to be another tournament the same night, in about 20 minutes, at the Con that Van and Matt went to earlier in the day. It’s expected to be a four-game tourney. I figure I’ve already played 6 games of star wars today, why not make it 10? Besides, I need the rating points, right? After all, my 5-1 performance in the tournament brought my record for 2001 to a total of 29-1. Meaning that the one loss today would pretty well eliminate all the points I had earned so far in the year. So if I could go 4-0 at the night-time tournament, that would bring me to 33-1, which should be enough to put me a couple rating points into the positives for the year overall. Better yet, the rumor was that there would be another shiny vader given away at the other tournament as well. So if I could go from zero to two, all in one day, that would be pretty cool. So Mike and I get in his jeep, and drive over to the Con, to meet Van for the other tournament.

Details from that tournament will surely be coming your way soon. Thanks for reading, and seeya then.

Brian Hunter