livingston-nj-24-mar-01
Title: livingston-nj-24-mar-01
Author: Doug "Phrim" Faust
Date: Mar 26, 2001
Well, I was on Spring Break this weekend, so I really wanted to catch a tournament while I was home. There were two scheduled for the weekend within driving distance, one at Fat Moose Comics in Whippany (a locale I’ve heard lots of bad things about), and one at New World Manga in Livingston. Blythe, the TD at Livingston, and her husband Tom assure me that it’ll be a good tourney with lots of people (despite the fact that Moose might draw away from their crowd), so I make the two hour trip up. Unfortunately, everyone who plays SWCCG near me was on a different spring break schedule than me, so I had to drive up alone.
I’ve really been going through decks like crazy lately, trying to find something I liked that was good. For Light I tried WYS for a while, but my version wasn’t really that good, so I scrapped it. Then I tried Throne Room Mains, which worked pretty well, but it still had its weaknesses. I ended up modifying my old EBO X-wing deck to include Speeders to add a Speeder beatdown aspect of the deck, as well as so I could use Menace Fades (anti-Gailid) and easily satisfy silly stuff like Search And Destroy and Battle Order. After a few versions, I managed to come up with a version that worked pretty well. I’ve been struggling just as much on Dark as well. I revised my Hunt Down deck to work even better against the current play environment, but the basic themes of the deck just didn’t do well against stuff like swarming WYS or EBO X-wings, seems like it was good against mains and that’s it. So I put that deck on the back burner and tried making a AT-ST ROps deck. The ROps actually worked pretty well, but it had problems against anything that played Ounee Ta. Normally that wouldn’t be a problem, but Ounee Ta was pretty popular in the area as a counter to None Shall Pass in a Scum deck (albeit not a very effective one). So I put that deck on the back burner as well. So at this point I figure I want something that can go to space and outpower there (with Imperial Command to limit destinies) while not leaving itself too open on the ground. ISB was a good candidate, but it’s really tough to make a good ISB Space deck without any Outer Rim Scouts. Oh, well. Next I decided to try out Endor Ops with a twist: lots of Bounty Hunter ships and the new Admiral’s Order that lets an independent ship move during the control phase. Basically set up Ephant at the Bunker, get Merrejk there to get out my systems, then do lots of draining in space. Decided to go with this one, despite the fact that I haven’t really tested it that much.
The trip up was pretty uneventful, and Blythe gave good directions so I found the store without a problem. Got there a bit early in fact, the store wasn’t even open yet. So I wait around for a bit, and then Blythe and Tom showed up. So we all got into the store, and had some of the donuts that Tom generously provided. I still needed a Chimaera and a Merrejk to complete my Dark deck, so I look around for trades. Tom ended up trading me the Chimaera, which was good, but no one would even lend me an extra Merrejk, so I just put an EPP Vader in his slot. I guess one Piett and one Merrejk will have to do for now. Anyway, we have enough to get sanctioned, but we wait for a little bit more, and a few more people come in. When we started, there were 10 people, but the only people rated over 1700 were Mike Dalton (1983), Tom Hermley-Keen (1814), and myself (1779).
Game 1: My EBOX Speeders vs. Mike Dalton’s (1983) MKOS Scum with Abyssins
Well, I was probably going to end up playing Mike sooner or later, and this time it’s sooner. I get a pretty good hand, but so does he. We both spend several turns setting up. He’s spread out incredibly thin, with Gailid at the Audience Chamber, Bib Fortuna at the Lower Passages, and some other guy on Jabba’s Sail Barge at T:JP. Unfortunately, it’s still way too early in the game to make a concerted Speeder attack (which incidentally would get around any None Shall Pass or Imperial Barrier he had for me). Turns out he did have a Ghhhk though, so it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. So far, I’ve got decent control over his drains, with Rebel Fleet out. However, just as I get EBO set up, he Monnoks me lost, taking out 4 X-wings and 2 Rebel Snowspeeders. Ouch. Anyway, I Signal for my Menace Fades, because I know it’ll be important this game with Gailid doing his thing. He takes a couple turns to reinforce his guys, and then ditches his YCHF for his Search And Destroy, which is of course very bad. I deploy a Speeder at the Echo Docking Bay and Commander Luke at the North Ridge, put Zev on the Speeder, and sent the Speeder over to the North Ridge. Also deployed Kiffex and put two X-wings there with an X-wing Cannon. So now I had a pretty good setup, since I satisfied Search and Menace Fades. However, during his control phase before he drained, he Nabruned some guys over in front of my guys at the North Ridge, and then drained while Menace Fades wasn’t in effect. He then deploys a bunch of guys there, including Iggy, Dengar, and Myo, and proceeds to battle. Iggy misses Luke fortunately, but Dengar hits both Luke and the Speeder. He draws his two destinies, which were low, but I still lose everything and then some, as I only had Zev’s forfeit to work with. Well, the tables had turned pretty completely at this point, I only had my drain of 4 at Kiffex to work with, while he had a drain of 7 with Search And Destroy to boot. So I drain for 4, and he just puts Myo on his objective. Next turn I get drained out. FL-31, 0(-31)
Highlights: My guys at North Ridge would’ve been key to winning this game. Too bad they all died.
Lowlights: I drained once all game. And it was canceled.
Ugh. Well after that massacre I was the first game finished, so I go eat more of Tom’s donuts. After all was through, it turns out I lost by the most, so I’m really glad that there’s an even number of people so I don’t get the bye. The tournament at Fat Moose Comics, which is about 10 minutes away from this one, only got 4 people, so once they heard that there were plenty of people here, they all came over. So I’m still happy that there’s an even number of people, but just then another kid shows up and joins the tournament. Wonderful, now I get the bye. Tom says that he might drop from the tournament to get rid of the bye, but that’s stupid and I tell him so. So Blythe begins doing the pairings, and just then Alex Meseguer shows up to be lucky number 16. So by sheer chance I avoid the bye, which is good because driving 2 hours to a tournament to get a bye sucks. Anyway, on to the next game...
Game 2: My Black Sun Rumors vs. Douglas Ellwanger’s (1606) Hidden Base
Battle of the Dougs. :-) He starts deploying random systems, and I get my Ominous Rumors out and then deploy Ephant Mon to the Bunker. He drops EPP Luke to my Landing Platform, and follows it up with an EPP Obi. So that’ll just be a drain for 1 until I find an Undercover spy. I start saving up lots of Force, and he deploys Dash on the Outrider at Mon Calamari. So I deploy Chimaera, Thrawn, Stinger, and Guri, draw 3 destiny and blow it away, while he draws a 1 and doesn’t beat my immunity. He deploys two Mon Calamari Star Cruisers in front of me, so I deploy Fett in his ship and blow both of them up, while he draws another 1. He flips his Hidden Base, but I’m not too concerned, as he’s got no ships on the table to cancel my drains with, and I’ve got plenty of Force to be able to pay to draw. So I probe Mon Calamari, but it’s not it. I move over to Aquaris, and probe there, and find it. Well, that was quick. I finally find U-3P0 and deploy him in front of Luke and Obi. I get my Black Sun Fleet out so I can increase my drains some without having to spread out. He deploys Home One, Liberty, and a Mon Cal Cruiser to Rendezvous Point, but only moves the Home One over to Kessel for lack of Force. So I move Guri over in front of the Home One with my Admiral’s Order, and deploy Zuckuss in his ship and Bossk in his ship. Lateral Damage on the Home One, so he’s got no power, no destiny, and no forfeit. I draw 3 battle destinies, and have a total of something like 30 power, so he has to lose Home One plus like 30 Force. When he’s done that, he’s got 2 cards left in his hand, and 2 cards left in his reserve deck, so I play Limited Resources to win the game. FW+28, 2(-3)
Highlights: My deck worked flawlessly!
Lowlights: He reminded me that I could probe during his turn. Don’t suppose it made much of a difference, but it completely slipped my mind.
Game 3: My EBOX Speeders vs. Paul Terkovich’s (1471) Flipping Endor Ops
I assume it was flipping at least, because he kept searching for Establish Secret Base, and he was doing stuff at Endor sites. I got another great hand, so I started setting up EBO, and he deployed Tempest 1 alone to his Landing Platform right away. Then he goes and deploys a Scythe Squadron TIE to Endor, and a Dreadnaught to his Kashyyyk. A bit early for spreading out, methinks. I really can’t swallow the drain of 4 at Kashyyyk, so I deploy 2 X-wings to battle it. At this point, I have EBO set up, but I haven’t found Incom yet, so I play Organized and win the battle 11 to 5, he loses the Dreadnaught plus 1. I’m not too concerned about him coming and taking out my X-wings, because I have a Barrier in my hand plus I deployed an X-wing Cannon and have Force saved to shoot things. He deploys Flagship Executor to Endor, grabs the Scythe TIE, and moves over to Kashyyyk. I deploy my Incom Corp, and two more X-wings to Kashyyyk, but unfortunately, he plays Tallon Rolls my X-wing with the Cannon. So I don’t win the battle by that much, and he only loses the Scythe TIE. I let the X-wings sit for a turn, but he deploys Chiraneau and Piett on the Executor and battles me. I Barrier Piett, but I’m all out of Organized Attacks so I have to forfeit an X-wing, and he loses Chiraneau. Meanwhile, he’s deployed Tempest Scout 6 to back up Tempest 1, and moved them both over to the Forest Clearing. I’ve accumulated a good number of Speeders in my hand by now, so I lock Maneuvering Flaps and deploy 3 Rebel Snowspeeders, 2 Sandspeeders, and a Snowspeeder. I battle, and draw the 5 I have tracked, so my power is 44 to his 14. He loses everything plus a lot, and he doesn’t really have much Force left over. I move my X-wings out of the way, and the Executor follows. So I deploy two more X-wings, battle, and play Organized, and the battle damage beats Piett’s forfeit so the Executor goes down. After that it’s pretty much over, I spread out over Endor, drain for lots, and win. FW+19, 4(+16)
Highlights: Forest Clearing is fun vs. a Speeder deck, it gives all my Speeders power +1. :-)
Lowlights: Getting my X-wing Cannon Tallon Rolled away.
Game 4: My Black Sun Rumors vs. John Terkovich’s (1601) Throne Room Mains
Well, John’s a pretty good player, and Throne Room is a pretty good deck, but against me it’s just the wrong matchup. Before I get a chance to go, he drops EPP Obi at my Landing Platform, which is bad because now I can’t deploy Ominous Rumors. At this point, I’m hesistant whether to drop the whole Bunker strategy because I can’t use it for Rumors, but I have Piett and I need to put Merrejk somewhere, so I decide to fortify the Bunker. I put Ephant there, then Piett there, and then Merrejk there, and after that activation wasn’t a problem. Meanwhile he keeps dumping lots of mains at the Landing Platform. I take to space and start draining. He deploys the Falcon at the Landing Platform, then puts the Home One at Endor and shuttles most of his guys up. I put U-3P0 at the Landing Platform, and he complains that he just lost his Sorry About The Mess to a drain, and shuttles the rest of his guys up (too bad I just tossed my Ominous to his drain). So eventually he spreads out, with Home One with Ackbar, Hasshn, EPP Luke, and EPP Obi at Endor, and the Falcon with EPP Han and EPP Leia at Kashyyyk. I decide to go after the Falcon, so I move Fett in his ship over with my Admiral’s Order, then deploy Guri on the Stinger and Thrawn on the Chimaera there, and Lateral Damage the Falcon. I battle and get lots of destiny, and he only gets one because of Guri. So Han and Leia died easily and then some, and I lost nothing. He left the Falcon on table though, since there was really no reason to forfeit it. Next was time to go mess with the Home One. I move my ships over to Endor in front of the Home One. He battles me, and I play Imperial Command to add a destiny, so I get four. I easily get past his immunity, and he forfeits EPP Obi and Hasshn. He leaves the Home One there though, so I go ahead and deploy Bossk on his ship and Dengar on his ship. I want to deploy Lateral Damage now that Hasshn is gone, but he reminds me that Lateral Damage is unique and already on the table (stupid empty Falcon). So I go battle anyway, and play Imperial Command so I get 5 destiny this time. I win the battle 49-20, and kill off everything there. He drew a 6 for destiny though, so I forfeited Guri. He goes and deploys Jundland Wastes and puts Lando with Ax there, but there’s not much I can do about that. In any case, my drain of lots beats his drain of 2, and I win the game shortly thereafter. FW+19, 6(+35)
Highlights: 5 destiny in a space battle... as dark? Unheard of. :-)
Lowlights: Couldn’t Lateral Damage the Home One.
Game 5: My EBOX Speeders vs. Vikram Bali’s (1506) BHBM
Before we start, he’s telling me that he really hopes he doesn’t have to play another EBO deck or something, but I’ve got bad news for him. :-) We start up, he deploys Emperor’s Power and Rendili, and puts the Emperor at the DS2 Docking Bay. I start getting my EBO stuff out. He goes and deploys Lord Vader with his Lightsaber at the Endor Docking Bay, so I’m going to start hurting a lot if I don’t get Luke at a battleground pronto. So I deploy Luke at the Echo Command Center, put a Speeder at the Echo Docking Bay, deploy EBO (I had already deployed Hobbie at the Echo Corridor), put a Snowspeeder at the North Ridge, moved Luke to the Echo Docking Bay, put him on the Speeder, and moved the Speeder over to the North Ridge, so I satisfied Your Destiny. My Rebel Fleet makes his drains inconsequential, so he deploys the Chimaera and Bossk in his ship to my Kashyyyk. Unfortunately, he doesn’t notice that the text on Kashyyyk disallows him from drawing destiny, so I deploy 5 X-wings there, battle, play Organized, and win by lots. He starts ditching the ships in his hand, so I guess he’s not going to try to attack me in space any more (but you can never be sure). He keeps asking for my power at the North Ridge, so I fortify it with another Snowspeeder and Zev, and turn my flaps on every turn. Meanwhile, I send two of my X-wings over to Kiffex, holding a Hyper Escape just in case. Eventually, he does come down to the North Ridge with Iggy, Fett, and some other guys, and battles. Iggy misses Luke, but Fett hits him. He draws his two destiny, but they’re low, and I draw a 5, so I outpower him by a lot and he loses everyone. I go ahead and redeploy Luke there from my Lost Pile so I don’t have to deal with Your Destiny. Apparently he has no way to get Vader over to Hoth, so he’s kind of stuck. He puts a POTF on his Endor Docking Bay, but that doesn’t help because I keep canceling his drains with Rebel Fleet. So it was my drain of 8 vs. his drain being canceled. I deploy my remaining 3 X-wings to his Carida, but he just draws up. FW+20, 8(+55)
Highlights: Successfully keeping Luke well away from Vader.
Lowlights: I felt kinda bad about exploiting his mistake of deploying to my Kashyyyk...
Well, at this point, Tom Hermley-Keen had just beat Mike Dalton twice (!), so Tom was the only undefeated, and I was the only 4-1 player, everyone else was 3-2 or worse. So I was thinking I’d get to play Tom for the tournament (he had a timed win vs. Dalton, so if I beat him I’d win), but it turns out that we both played the same side last game. So now I had to win my next game and count on him losing to have a shot at first place. Pairings are called, and Tom gets paired against Alex Meseguer, and I get another go at Mike Dalton. Lovely...
Game 6: My Black Sun Rumors vs. Mike Dalton’s (1983) EBO X-wings
Theoretically, this is a pretty good matchup for me. But then again, theoretically my last game against Dalton wasn’t a particularly bad matchup either, and he beat me by 31. He starts getting out his stuff with ANSB and EBG, and I put Ephant and Merrejk at the Bunker and start fetching my systems. He gets his EBO set up on turn two, but doesn’t deploy any space stuff yet. So I Monnok him lost, and take down 3 X-wings. I deploy the Chimaera with Thrawn along with Fett in his ship at Kashyyyk. He draws back up to twelve, so I hit him with another Monnok Lost, and get 2 more X-wings, as well as 2 Hyper Escapes. So I’m sitting pretty at this point, he draws some more stuff up. I get out Black Sun Fleet, but his Rebel Fleet and Controls are keeping my drains under control. He eventually musters up a small attack force and deploys 2 X-wings, an X-wing Cannon, and the Spiral to Kashyyyk. I barrier the Spiral. He converts Kashyyyk, battles, and shoots Fett with a tracked destiny. However, he makes a huge miscalculation, and Thrawn plus the Chimaera is still six ability, so I still get battle destiny (two, in fact). He plays Organized, but I grab it. My destiny is good, so he decides to toast the two X-wings instead of taking battle damage. He tries to move the Spiral away, but I tell him it’s Barrier’ed so he can’t. My turn, I deploy Bossk on his ship and Guri on the Stinger, Lateral Damage the Spiral, and battle. So I draw 4 destiny, but he has Houjix so it’s all for naught. I spread out in space, but he moves Commander Luke over to the North Ridge, deploys Boussh to my Landing Platform with cover broken, and deploys Battle Plan and Menace Fades. He also deploys an X-wing to Carida. I figure I’m activating plenty of Force, so I spend 9 to drain for 6. He cancels one drain with Rebel Fleet, another with Control, and takes the third. Well, it turns out I didn’t have all the Force I needed, so I just moved Ephant and Merrejk out in front of Boussh to satisfy Battle Plan. He tracks around his destiny, deploys an Arcona to the Landing Platform, and battles. His 5 destiny kills both of my characters, and Boussh dies. He also put an X-wing at Kiffex, which is no good. So on my turn, I forgo draining because I need to take care of some stuff. I deploy Zuckuss in front of the X-wing at Kiffex, but he gets Barrier’ed. I deploy EPP Vader to go beat up the Arcona, but he gets Barrier’ed too. So I move Guri on the Stinger over to back up Zuckuss. His X-wing at Kiffex runs away, but the Arcona stays put. Next turn, I move Zuckuss in front of his X-wing at Carida during my control phase, and battle him. He plays Organized, which goes on the stack, but I draw a 1 for destiny so he wins the battle by 3, so I just lose 3. Turns out I activated too much and didn’t leave any destiny for battling the Arcona, but I battle him anyway, and he Houjixes anyway. I deploy Arica at the North Ridge to stop his drain there. For some reason though, he decides to Ice Storm and make both Luke and Arica go missing. This completely baffles me, as he now doesn’t satisfy either Menace Fades or Battle Plan. Anyway, I drain, and he’s running out of cards, so I Limited Resources him too. I move Bossk over in front of an X-wing during my control phase and battle. I draw my other copy of Black Sun Fleet for destiny, and the damage is enough to win the game. FW+12, 10(+67)
Highlights: Monnok
Lowlights: Houjix
And that about wraps it up. Tom won his game against Alex, so he took first place, and I was second. I think Alex got 3rd, and Vikram got 4th. And Mike Dalton, with his not-so-hot 3-3 record, came in 6th place. Prize support was great, as always, one guy walked out with two EPPs, Luke and Leia! I got a couple of packs I didn’t open, a Reflections 1 pack (which was pretty good--got foil Jabba, plus 6 rares including Trample), and a Jodo Kast. Anyway, Tom wants to know if I want to go out to dinner with him, but I’ve got a hoagie waiting at home, and it’s kind of late, so I decline.
Props:
- Blythe for running a great tourney!
- Tom for trading me a Chimaera.
- New World Manga for being a good venue.
- Ed Rebman for giving me the idea for my Dark deck.
- Alex Tennet for giving me the idea for my Light deck.
- Tom for bringing donuts.
- Alex Meseguer for saving me from getting a bye.
- Everyone I played for being good sports.
Slops:
- Fat Moose Comics for trying to run a tournament at the same time.
- Merrejk for not being in anyone’s trade binder.
- The guy in the deli who, when I asked him to use his bathroom, told me not to make a mess! Some people...
Until next time...
--
Doug Faust - dlf14@cornell.edu
SM Rogue 40, based in Ithaca, NY
http://times.phrim.com/