viper-is-almost-cool-phoenix-3-23-01
Title: viper-is-almost-cool-phoenix-3-23-01
Author: Steve "BlackViper" Marshall
Date: Mar 24, 2001
LS: Watch Your Step / Nightfall & Spies
DS: Huntdown Viperstyle
GAME 1: LS vs. Shawn Dix’s This Deal (1826)
I hate drain decks. I want interaction. Hoping to achieve this goal, I started Menace Fades instead of Staging Areas. Dash takes to Kessel and Lando w/ vibrator takes the Cantina for a 1st turn Menace Fades. Sweet! He eats that drain of 5 for several turns as he tries to get something that will stop me. He finally deploys at the Tatooine DB and moves over to Lando (why?) and I don’t know what my cards do. I don’t move Lando because I need to occupy, not control. That one cost me a bit. Next turn I was drained for 3, 3, and 3. I used Control on the first, Control from my lost pile for the second, and ate the last one. My Falcon, piloted by Cappy Han and Ghetto Wedge, beat the living hell out of OS-71-1 In Obsidian 1 sitting pretty at the cloud sector and kept the drain of 2 for the rest of the game. He didn’t even THINK about opposing me. I ran around my planet to keep Menace Fades going. EPP Vader, Rappertunie (?), Ardan, and some other scrub tried to take on Chewbacca, Protector and Lando in the Cantina. He missed Lando (sweet), and I forfeited Chewie for 10. Awesome! Lando runs like a girl. He drops Fett in front of my Outrider, piloted by Dash and a Ral Freighter Captain, but Dash decides he doesn’t want to destroy the bounty hunter, leaving Mirax and Melas to do the cleanup on aisle 4 at the Tatooine system. I’m immune to attrition < 7! Sweet! I have Artoo-Detoo in Red 5 in my hand, and I see that I have 13 Force. I search my reserve for a pilot, hoping for Jedi Luke. He’s not there! I leave my number at the beep and take Farmboy Luke instead and put him in space. He had a lone scrub all by himself down there! Zuckuss would have reacted over, but I still would have destroyed them. I eventually draw Battle Plan, and I know it’s going to win me the game. He apparently doesn’t like that and Defensive Fires it away. DOH! Of all the odds... I Signal from my lost pile as soon as I recirculate and get it back. That card and Menace Fades won me the game as I drained him out.
FW by 9
2 (+9)
The Good: I love a turn 1 Menace Fades.
The Bad: He Defensive Fired my Battle Plan! That wasn’t nice.
The Ugly: Yeah, someone shoulda called Han’s mama. ;-)
Props To Opponent: This was a surprisingly interactive game. I was expecting him to run out of characters long before he actually did. It was a fun game.
Starting with a win is always good! Next round, I get paired against Jonathan Dunn. I hear him behind me ask "What’s a Steve Marshall?", and it almost makes the quote of the day. But no... there is another...
GAME 2: DS vs. Jonathan Dunn’s HB Fake / Mains (1785)
Can you say battle? Dude, the phone lines were all tied up this entire game. It was straight mains vs. mains, the way the game was always meant to be played. :-) I couldn’t find Vader’s Saber for the longest time, so I couldn’t duel effectively. I soon lost my Circle when I couldn’t find it after several turns of searching. I drop the Chimaera in front of Lando and Gold Squadron 1, and he doesn’t do a thing. Thrawn deploys aboard, but he gets barriered. In all logic now, how could he get barriered on his own ship? That’s like Palpatine getting a barrier in his throne room... I just don’t see it happening. Whatever. I Lateral Damage the Falcon anyway and move to Tatooine, the only other system on the table. If he wants his Super Falcon, he’s got to say hello to Thrawn. The Falcon’s phone lines are down and Artoo is nowhere to be found, so it stays Damaged at Endor the rest of the game. Zuckuss w/ Guri aboard went to clean up Lando and the scrub pilot aboard real good. Let’s see, add his power (0) to his total destiny (0), and Zuckuss lives. Sweet! After Lando watched the Game Over screen flash before his eyes over and over again, he got tired of playing and went away. Luke took control of the Falcon and tried his luck next, but it turns out he doesn’t have ability > 6 either. tee hee. He eventually gets a draw against me, and Guri has to go away. Mara takes her place next turn, and I beat up the Falcon again. It’s like a cheap bull ride in a bad bar... Anyway, Mara evetually bites it, but Zuckuss still remains. I draw up 4-LOM next turn, and I fear that he’s gonna kill my Z-train. He doesn’t for some reason, and the droid joins his partner in crime.
Elsewhere in the universe, Ben Kenobi and 2 random scouts had taken to the Tatooine Docking Bay but soon decided they didn’t like the place, so they moved to Endor instead. Corran Horn and Crix took to the Holotheater to take care of Visage. Xizor suddenly appears in the Holotheater and draws a 7 destiny, but no one else is aboard the Super Star Destroyer, so he’s stuck cleaning the Rebel blood off the walls before he can leave to the DB. Chewbacca, Protector and Mirax take control of my DS: DB, and EPP Leia takes the CC: DB. Those are MY sites, dammit! You can’t have them! So Vader and Tarkin did some damage to Chewbacca, but Tarkin has to get himself out of a Fallen Portal, wasting his ability. I don’t know why he still had game text... I’m not complaining, either. Anyway, he draws a tracked 7 and kills Vader. By that time, Janus had deployed to the Endor DB. I was planning on transit for Vader and Xizor, but I had to settle for Tarkin and the Dark Prince instead. His DS invasion crew was being swept away by the Death Star janitorial staff anyway. After a nasty pair of battles, he clears me off Endor, but I took one of his 2 scouts and Ben down with me. Tycho decides to stay. My Z-train, with 4-LOM aboard, lands on Endor because 4-LOM didn’t go before they left. That pair gets a destiny, ya know! Thrawn shuttles down in front of Beezer at the Spaceport DB on Tatooine, and Sim drops in front of EPP Leia. Now Melas gets a drain of 1 at the Tat: DB, but I get a drain of 2 at the system, and I’ve got more Force left anyway. He battles against 4-LOM and Zuckuss, and I draw a 6. My last destinies were that 6 and 3 destiny 1 cards.
FW by 4
4 (+13)
The Good: This was the most fun game I’ve played in a long time. Mains vs. mains.
The Bad: He tried to take my sites away from me! My own sites!
The Ugly: I tracked the 7 after Xizor drew it, but I couldn’t keep it on the top at the right time and had to shuffle my deck (with the 7 on top) to keep from losing it to a drain. I lost it anyway - DOH! Read my articles anyway... this is a "do as I say, not as I do" moment. ;-)
Props To Opponent: I think I like this guy. He knows how to have fun with this game.
So now Girard, Jared Arthur, and I are the only undefeated players. I’ve got such a low diff that I won’t have to play either of them. :-) Instead, I get paired with Don Anzalone.
GAME 3: DS vs. Don’s WYS w/ Palace Raiders (1612)
I took out Too Cold For Speeders just last night because no one around here plays this deck! Um, oops. So much for the meta game. Anyway, I get a great start going and he’s really slow to set up. Shiny Vader (this one speaks Japanese) hits the Cantina and drains 2 several turns. EPP Luke tries to stop him, but he misses daddy with his big stick and draws too low. On the flipside, Big-V was ready for this one. I pulled I Have You Now and play it to draw an extra pair of destinies. Turns out that my first destiny is a 1, next is a 7, and finally another 1. That works. Japan is more advanced than we are here in the States, so this Vader adds 1 to each of those destinies. Yeah, Luke dies badly, and Vader defends his title as the best StarWars card there is. After his flip w/ a pair of Palace Raiders, Vader gets booted by Wedge and a Ral Freighter Capt’n. He loses the RFC as I lose Vader, and I don’t have any damn characters in my hand! No fair! I wanted to beat up Wedge so badly...
Yeah Girard, you can go make the call. Nine-one-waa... it’s on the speed dial.
Dash hits space, and I haven’t seen a blue card yet. I’ve got I Had No Choice, Lateral Damage, and Thrawn in hand, but no ship. THAT SUCKS!!! It’s that time of the season again, so he starts the Harvest. Did I mention that I can’t find my catch card, either? Yeah, that really bites too. He must have retrieved 24 cards with that. I was worried about those destinies, too. I let Vader stay inside, but Xizor took the DS: DB with IG-88 w/ Riot Gun and 4-LOM w/ because I don’t like Patrol Crafts. I eventually moved them to Tatooine, and Xizor and crew took the Lars Farm while Vader waited for his Master to be able to transit as well. The Patrol Craft was kind enough to move, allowing Palpy to come to Tatooine. I’ve only got like 10 Force left, and he’s got half his deck. Captain Han tried to sneak onto Cloud City, but Dr. E saw it and destroyed him with a tracked 5. Vader heard the rumor that Luke was actually alive, despite the previous battle between the 2. He moved over to the Cantina to see it for himself. Turns out the rumor was true, but this time he was a full-fledged Jedi. In his anger, Vader duelled his son on the spot. Unfortuately for our dark lord, Luke was underestimated. I had the tracked 5, but my other card was blind. I knew I had a 6, a pair of 5s, and a 4 in the deck, along with a couple 1s. Well, I found a 1 and lost the duel. Vader goes out of play, leaving me with 1 Force left. He drained me out.
FL by 27
4 (-14)
The Good: What an awesome start! Vader hits the table and drains for 2 about 4 turns unopposed.
The Bad: I couldn’t find a single ship all game. I drew Fett in his roadster just before he drained me out.
The Ugly: That damn duel. I had 10 cards, he had 30. It was my only chance to pull a win out of my you-know-what. I heard once that you’ve gotta have balls to play this game, so I did it. I had no other choice - I would have been drained out next turn anyway.
Props To Opponent: It’s hard to get so far behind early on and still come back. It’s a mind game, but it didn’t get to him.
So that game kinda blew, but I’ve got another. I’m playing Girard... no wait, I’m playing Jared... no wait, I’m playing Pat... yeah, that’s it. I’ll play Pat.
GAME 4: LS vs. Patrick Hug’s Rumors / Big Blue (1824)
I again start Menace Fades because I hate drain decks. He gets Merrejk to the Bunker w/ Evax early on. Night falls on the forest moon and Boushh uses the darkness to try and sneak inside, but she is detected and destroyed by Nevar Yarnal. I was hoping he didn’t have it that early. Master Luke and Out Of Commission were going to bring some hate to the place, too! DOH! He pulls his once per game Executor, and it soon hits the table with Thrawn and Guri aboard. Okay Pat, that’s MY tech! Judge! Judge! He’s stealing my tech! (Guri + Executor = Executor never dies, and you’ve got MANY new card slots because you don’t need Imp Command anymore) Somebody get that judge! This isn’t fair! Anyway, Dengar joins the stolen Viper crew and take on my Falcon. I lose Cappy Han, but he loses the Devastator. I notice next turn that Captain Han is activated, so I draw for him. Cool Wedge in Red Squadron 1 with X-Wing cannons (Wedge doesn’t like Zuckuss) goes to Sullust to join the freshly deployed Luke Skywalker in Red5 against the super ship. I wind up losing Luke, but he loses some random Star Destroyer. I run around getting a drain here and there, and my ground chracters are thinning out, making Menace Fades harder and harder to enforce. He gets me with a big drain a couple times, but I manage to Control most of them. His network of characters eventually cover all the docking bays on the table (there are 4), and Tallon Karde has nowhere to control. We exchange heavy drains several turns, but he eventually wins out when I can’t pay to drain anymore. Realizing there was nothing I could do, I drew up.
FL by 4
4 (-18)
The Good: This was an incredible game, requiring TONS of intelligent thought on both sides.
The Bad: I had to choose to put Mirax on the ground with Tallon Karde, or in space with Dash. I chose the ground; I chose wrong.
The Ugly: YOU STOLE MY DAMN TECH!!!!!
Props To Opponent: NO! YOU STOLE MY DAMN TECH!!! tee hee j/k
I suppose that’s not too bad. I came in 9th of 12 again, just like last week. I learned a lot playing better players, and that’s always a good thing. Shaner and Pat decide they want something from Jack in the Crack. Pat drove last time, so we take my car. I enter and realize that my pager is going off. Jeff paged me 4 hours ago. I want to call him, but it’s half past midnight, and I don’t think he’d like it too much. That one’s still bothering me. Anyway, here are your top 5:
1st: Mike Girard @ 8 (+77)
2nd: Jared Arthur @ 6 (+18)
3rd: Don Anzalone @ 4 (+34)
4th: Anthony Alfien
5th: John Towner
Quote of the day (the quoters request to remain anonymous):
"Watch out, Girard’s bigger than you."
"He’s bigger than everybody."
"... put together!"
PROPS:
* Outer Rim and Shaner for hosting us
* Deese for beating up Anthony real good
* Jared for giving Anthony that noogie
* Jack for having an Oreo Cookie Shake
* Brian for continuing the quest to find the good in Vader
* Vader for being the coolest card in the game...
SLOPS:
* ... except when he’s duelling Luke in a clutch situation. Then he sucks.
* Pat for STEALING MY TECH! Give it back! Judge! ...
* Vader for not turning to the Light Side - You know you want it!
* Me for not getting back to Jeff
Thanks for reading! If you want to see something different from these TRs, let me know.
-Steve
A PBS mind in an MTV world