viper-returns-phoenix-az-3-16-01
Title: viper-returns-phoenix-az-3-16-01
Author: Steve "BlackViper" Marshall
Date: Mar 20, 2001
LS - Obi’s Hutt Mains
DS - Untested Anti-WYS Carbon Testing / Flip
GAME 1: LS vs. Michael Girard’s SYCFA / Onith - Set For Stun
Okay, I really wish Justin Beal was at this tournament. ;-) Okay, well Mike’s an excellent player, but he can be beaten. I’m introduced to his buddy Jonathan Dunn, a guest from the other side of the country. Cool. We exchange @#$%y remarks about who’s gonna take the first loss and begin the game. After a starting hand of 8 red cards, I eventually set up my Docking Bays and draw a few characters. He’s drawing like a madman and can’t find Miyoom. He packs 6 in the deck, and he can never get one in his starting hand! Anyway, I didn’t know what he was playing at first, but he pulled the Control Room instead of the War Room first turn, and I really think he might be flipping. That would be bad. After 2 turns of drawing up, he finally puts her down at the Death Star Control Room. I finally get male characters. Nice timing. I took Goo Nee Tay out of this deck just the other day... DOH!
As for those male characters I drew up, one of them just happened to be Corran Horn. I dropped him in front of the lady and prepare to watch the fireworks. I’ve got 2 Out Of Commissions in my hand, and his lost pile only has Prepared Defenses in it right now. SWEET!!!!! I initiate and get all ready to work my magic, but as the order of Star Wars dictates, he gets to work his magic before I do. Corran Horn gets Set For Stunned (with a 6!) and goes back to my hand. And Miyoom is still there. Well, I guess he’s as good as gone next turn. I guess the phone lines on the Death Star are more advanced than anywhere else, allowing Miyoom to actually call Corran’s mama before the battle concluded. Drat.
Okay, so that was cheesy. I take it back - it’s all Brian’s thing. Anyway, we spent several non-interactive turns as I set up my hand to be as Onith-proof as I could get, and then the battles began. Ben hit the Tatooine Docking Bay the same turn Corran Horn took his run and stole a drain of 1 for a turn. I guess Mike didn’t like that very much, because he sent EPP Vader down to destroy the old man. Vader hits Ben, I draw better than a 0. We die. The difference is that I’ve got an Out Of Commission in my hand (the other went down to Traffic Control). I’ve got a choice of 3 cards... VADER! Sweet. Suddenly, when I drain, I’m consistantly seeing Vader, I Have You Now, and all sorts of Dark Lord-related cards dropping into the lost pile. It’s like a museum in a cemetary. "On your left you can see the actual lightsaber our Lord used to destroy the last known Jedi. And if you look down, you’ll see that you are actually stepping on his face..."
I got to keeping 12 cards in my hand to make him pay the full amount and still keep myself Used Monnok-proof, but he generates an ungodly amount of Force each turn, so it doesn’t really matter. His highest deploy character is out of play anyway. The war continues between my mains and his for several turns. Ability, Ability, Ability hits the table, and I decide it’s time to ditch Insight for Honor Of The Jedi. Cool - saves me a couple turns. He runs from my guys, and he naturally has more on the table than I do. I’ve got a couple left in the deck, but I can’t find them. After the myriad battles die down, he spreads his remaining forces of Xizor, Mara, and a couple others to his docking bays (which he pulled with the Control Room - I’ve never heard of that being used instead of IAO before, maybe I’m just not old enough) to get his 3 battlegrounds to cancel the effects of Honor, and Ability x3 does me in. I put a scrub in front of his army with Draw Their Fire on the table to reduce his differential by 1 and lost my remaining Force from the massive battle damage.
FL by 5
0 (-5)
The Good: I have never played a better game of Star Wars in my life.
The Bad: Set For Stun on Corran Horn sucked! That would have turned the game to my favor SO much...
The Ugly: OOC on Vader on turn 4 was kinda nice - somebody call that damn waa-mbulance already!
Props To Opponent: When the dust had settled and he was the one still standing, he told me that he had to pull out every trick he had in the deck to beat me. That was cool. I asked him what I could have done better (since with Monnok / Miyoom, he saw my hand just about every turn); I appreciated the help.
I don’t think I could have played that game any better. I didn’t make any actual mistakes, although perhaps there were a couple cards plays that could have been wiser, ie choosing one play over another, and now I see the better result in retrospect, but I had no way of knowing he was out of characters at the time.
...
Wow, that was interesting. My monitor just kinda blew up. Literally. So now I’m on the other side of the house using a different computer. I suppose I’ll have to get a new one. That sucks! But of course you don’t care... on to the games!
GAME 2: DS vs. Daniel Collins’ MWYHL to 5 / Scouts
Okay, this game is just ugly. I start the game with 6 Force; I drop Ephant Mon (4 Force) to the jail with Power Of The Hutt, Scum & Villany from hand, and Mosep (2 w/ Scum) hits the Chamber from my hand. My once per game alien is Mosep (Free w/ Mosep). I want Test 1/Yoda/DoS/site to drop off the top of his deck next turn. I’m protected with an Imperial Barrier, Projective Telepathy, and Ghhhk in my starting hand as well. He takes the drain at the Chamber because he has no other choice - I love playing against decks that CANNOT play until turn 4. Guri (also in my starting hand) escorts Han to the chamber for the flip, where God-Jabba and Boelo soon join them. I retrieved my 1 for my objective, 2 from Scum, and 1 from First Strike almost every turn from here on out. He tried to come get me, but my massive destinies (I was drawing multiples, and they were all high) slowly chipped away at his cards with ability. He set out Bacta Tank and initiated against a couple scrub Bounty Hunters, but I was holding Shut Him Up, and no one wants to take a Bacta Bath if there ain’t no hot water left. We battle, I retrieve, and I Ghhhk out. I stop him from initiating, battle him, retrieve, and Ghhhk out again. His turn the Masterful Move gets the second Ghhhk. Rinse And Repeat. He managed to hold a consistant drain of 3, but I was retrieving 4 a turn, and he didn’t have his Aim High. I set up Jodo on a suicide mission to take the drain of 3 just because it was amusing - Obi slices with his saber but draws his long-lost Dagobah site he’s been looking for the past 5 turns and an Endor site, hitting that poor statue over there instead of our hero. Bane Malar also took on the Jedi and his walking carpet friend, simply because I wanted to mindscan Chewie Of Kashyyyk and Roar at the lightsaber swing. Dan actually made me roar, but I had a sore throat and it really sucked. Obi wasn’t intimidated by my poor display of aggression and sliced Bane up into enough bite-sized pieces to feed a family. But I again Ghhhk out and retrieve it all next turn. As we were approaching a time limit, he drew up realizing that he had no way of doing damage to me.
FW by 23
2 (+17)
The Good: This entire game was one-sided. I got the draws, he didn’t. It was really just a matter of luck in the opening hands.
The Bad: Cracken, Crix, and Beezer tried to take my audience chamber away, but they were easily killed, and I was immune to his draw because flipping CCT rules.
The Ugly: That 1st turn Mosep / Gailid combo took away a pair of Jedis, as well as an Edge card or 2 and some other toys he would have liked to use.
Props To Opponent: I like Dan; he’s a really good guy. It’s always fun to chat and play against him, and drawing up before time ran out showed me a lot of class that I hope I would have if I were in his spot.
I realized in that last game that I never saw my Lateral Damage - I meant to slip it in and remove Jodo Kast. About half of our crowd is playing Watch Your Step, so maybe I’ll get lucky and not have to play against it, since a key card is kinda missing...
GAME 3: DS vs. DJ Andrews’ Watch Your Step
Great, just what I wanted. DJ had a VERY solid WYS deck last time I saw it, and he’s updated it with a few changes. I remember my philosophy: DJ isn’t unbeatable. I can take him. I wish I had eaten a brownie last night...
Anyway, the game went on. I didn’t get a very good start, and it took me 4-5 turns to get Han to the Chamber. God-Jabba and Boelo soon joined the party, but someone gave Mara the wrong address and she wound up in the Cantina instead. Unknown to her, there was a different party scheduled for next turn. Jedi Luke, The Lars family, and a pair of drunk Raltiir Freighter Captains strolled in and asked for a pint. I guess Beru didn’t like Mara’s fashion sense and slapped her, causing all hell to break loose. Luckily, Mara flashed the bartender her "get out of death free" card (the one with the cute little Ghhhk on the front) and escaped relatively unharmed except for that nasty bruise on her cheek. Man, Beru knows how to b-slap! DJ would hold that drain of 3 for the rest of the game.
He also had the heavy hand on space, with the drain of 3 at Kessel and the single at Tatooine. I lost I Had No Choice, but quickly got it back via the objective. He had Aim High out, severely limiting my options. As his drains continued, I must have lost IHNC 4 times this game. I needed that card! Numbers hit me twice, first time for only 3, but the second time (he retrieved it with Effective Repairs), he hit me for 6. I also couldn’t find Guri most of the game, and when she did finally arrive (she had died, but being a droid, she was able to return to the deck), it was on the ground to stop his multiple destinies, and I had to land Bossk and Dengar to pick her up. Bossk was the only one who had room for her, and leaving Dengar alone in space is just silly, even for me. By the time she finally saw the stars, it was too late to make any sort of difference. Losing her, I Had No Choice, and the complete lack of Lateral Damage really doesn’t make this an anti-WYS deck anymore, I suppose. I initiated a suicide battle on my last turn to reduce his diff by 1 again with First Strike.
FL by 25
2 (-7)
The Good: Nothing, really. I had the drain of 1 at the chamber most of the game, that was kinda nice.
The Bad: I caught Control & Tunnel Vision on turn 3 or 4, which is key to defeating this deck. Don’t let that card go in the lost pile! Nar Shaddaa took the 2nd catch card, but I couldn’t find my 3rd one when he started to Harvest. That really sucked.
The Ugly: Guri was so hung over from the Audience Chamber party that she didn’t answer the door when I needed her.
Props To Opponent: I tried to shuttle Guri to the Hound’s Tooth, and he pointed out that it was not allowed. I had errored (sorry!), but he wasn’t a big jerk about the situation, realizing that I wasn’t actually trying to cheat. I’ve played against people who tried to DQ me because I tried this one before, and it got ugly. I really don’t try to cheat, damn capital ships w/out docking capabilities! Again, sorry about that one. Thanks for being cool about it.
Well, so much for a respectable appearance at the tournament. I hadn’t played in about 2 months, and one of my decks was untested, so I wasn’t really expecting to do all that well anyway. I’m not upset about my place as I head into my last game.
GAME 4: LS vs. Jonathan Dunn’s SYCFA
Okay, the game takes forever because he’s playing Mike Sinclair in a fun game. Me and Shaner (Mike’s next opponent) sits opposite me, and we poke fun at them for taking so long. With Shaner being the TD, I’m not worried about timing or anything. Mike finally hands Jonathan his head on a platter and we begin our game. He is using the same objective as Girard, so I’m kinda worried already. Along with that, Big-G is sitting next to us, and he looks at our game and says "BOOM!" really loud with this evil grin on his face. Now I’m paranoid he’s gonna flip, as I casually ignore the Planetary Subjugation effect sitting on the table. I’ve never played against a Bombing deck before, and I’ve never heard of how to play it before, so I have no idea what to do.
I started and managed to get EPP Leia to my Spaceport Docking bay on Tatooine. He deployed Seinar Fleet Systems and has a few TIES at his Death Star system. I notice that there is NO Sense/Alter protection, and I just happen to have an Alter in my hand. I also just so happen to have another pair of Out Of Commissions in my hand! But alas, I draw a 5 for my destiny, and this would be the tale for the entire game: I think I’m gonna do something really cool, but it will all fail. Oreo had taken the Death Star docking bay away from a TIE Bomber while Lando w/ dildo and EPP Han took the War Room away from some scrub. Now I get a good drain - cool! I manage to take a few Force away from him, and a Bombing Run hits Leia’s Docking Bay. I ask him how collapsing works and how bombing runs work, and after a few miscommunications between us, I’ve finally got my answers. I’d really like to look up the rules right now, but we started late so time is short anyway and the guys next to us tell me that the rules he told me are right. The next few turns, he successfully collapses the Tatooine Docking Bay, the Death Star Docking Bay, and the Death Star War Room. I drop I Hope She’s Alright on his next drain since there is only 1 battleground site left intact! Silly me - I didn’t prepare for bombing runs when I built this deck. During his next battle phase, the bombers start raining down on Leia. She runs to the payphone to call somebody’s mama, but there are like 10 TIES, and far too many mamas to call in time. She is obliterated with a total power of 37 to 7. My deck’s remaining destinies were 6, 6, 5, 5, 5, 4, and 1. I drew the freakin’ 1!!! So she dies, and I lose everything from my hand including the Slight Weapons Malfunction (I can’t fire at TIES!!!), and the other 20 cards come off the top of my deck.
So that pretty much ends it all. Every site is either destroyed or deserted, and I remember the last level of Conker (his world is in fiery pieces after the war against the evil Tediz). I draw, knowing I’ve got 2 characters left somewhere in the deck and maybe I can lower his score a little, but he drains me out to quickly.
FL by 25
2 (-32)
The Good: I had a good start - if he was playing just about anything EXCEPT bombers, I think I could have had the game.
The Bad: Leia was ripped limb from limb! Ouch!
The Ugly: Interested in building this decktype myself, I looked in the CRD for the rules the next day and found that Bombing Runs allow you to move your bombers during your MOVE phase, not your battle phase. This cost me half my deck.
Props To Opponent: We chatted a little and threw a couple game-related jokes out there, making this a really fun game, despite the slaughter.
So I finish 9th place of 12 people. Considering my rating and those of my opponents, I’m not too disappointed. I learned a bit from playing today, I almost took Girard, I saw a new decktype (for me, anyway), and my opponents were all fun to play against. This wasn’t a bad day after all! We all got a random expanded universe card and a pack of Reflections 2 - I managed to get Dash as my random. Vader’s Obsession was my foil, and I immediately swapped it out for a WB in my shiny Hunt Down deck. The Dash went into my prize support as the final card I need for a combo/expanded universe set. SWEET! Here are your top 5:
1st: Chris Shaner, 8 (+82)
2nd: Mike Sinclair, 6 (+82) - played against Shaner in the final game
3rd: DJ Andrews, 6 (+67)
4th: Jonathan Dunn
5th: Johnny Marion
After the tournament, a few of us were screwing around, doing voice impersonations of StarWars characters and such. DJ has an AWESOME Admiral Ackbar. It’s hilarious. I asked him if he could do Mon Mothma, solely because I knew he couldn’t. At least, I was pretty sure. Which brings us to the quote of the day, again from DJ. He seems to get them all at the Outer Rim.
"It’s hard to do a girl."
You know, you can’t even twist that to be more dirty than it already is. tee hee. I played my Hunt Down against Brian Choongphol because he wanted to turn Vader. As it turns out, Ben went OOP fairly early in the game. He stacked enough cards to do it, but Vader died the same battle as Luke. DOH! Brian is cool. He wanted to play against another Vader deck, so I used Patrick Hug’s deck against him, too. I look through it to see what exactly he’s doing: Stormtrooper, Stormtrooper, Stormtrooper... okay, I’m getting the idea now. ;-) I had some problems with the deck (turns out Vader can’t deploy "on" Tatooine quite the way I pictured it... tee hee), but it was a close game. One of us won by about 8 cards, I think... but I won’t mention who. Did Brian turn Vader? Or did I beat him up with a trooper deck? The world may never know.
Props:
* Outer Rim for hosting us. We always appreciate it!
* Girard for the confidence boost after the tournament about our game.
* Dan for showing up - It’s been too long since I’ve seen you around!
* Choongie for trying to turn Vader. I want to see you actually do it!
* Shaner for bribing me to enter the results.
Slops:
* Me for not making sure my decks were ready before the event
* Me for not knowing the rules I needed to know, such as what bombers can and can’t do. More specifically, WHEN they can do it. I should have stopped the game to look up some rulings.
* Brian for losing to a trooper deck. (at least it wasn’t ewoks!)
* Me for telling you Brian lost to the trooper deck. ;-P
* Patrick for building a trooper deck.
* Leia because she didn’t use the speed dial to call the mamas! Ouch!
* Set for Stun for not letting me kill Miyoom Onith!
* The Bith Shuffle for being a destiny 5 and costing me my Alter draw.
* Jodo Kast for stealing Lateral Damage’s spot in my deck.