parker-co-3-17-01-downward-spiral
Title: parker-co-3-17-01-downward-spiral
Author: Brian "HuntaWarya" Hunter
Date: Apr 4, 2001
Well, the last time I had played any tournaments was almost exactly one month earlier, when I had the double-header, one tourney in Parker, followed by one in denver. going 9-1 between those two tournaments stung my rating pretty badly, so I was hoping to get back on track in March.
the loss that my hidden mains done RIGHT deck took that day resulted in it now having a 22-1 record overall. So, naturally, I scrapped it, in favor of something more consistent. :) So I brought out the ol’ ebo done RIGHT deck, which was still 16-0. For dark, I stuck with Retardosaurus Rex ISB, which was 11-0 so far. I travelled with Chris Fanchi to the tournament, while Van and Mike were brought by Randy. There were 23 players that day, including a couple of new faces. Seth Van Winkle, Iowa’s top-ranked player, came to join the fray. And also in attendance was Matt Miller, out of the Alderaan region. could be an interesting day...
Game One: EBO done RIGHT vs. Colin Yablon
Colin starts Bring Him Before Me, so that’s game. As is customary when playing against BHBM, I point out my opponent’s objective to everyone nearby, and anxiously wait to see if colin can keep my differential under 20. There has still only been one BHBM player to keep my dif under 20, which was Kyle Craft, who was ranked #2 in the world at that time. Well, Colin doesn’t have one of his Vaders early, so I go ahead and start setting up at the echo sites, moving toward getting ebo on the table, and wait. and then go ahead and put ebo out. and wait. and set up in space. and wait. and wait. It seems to take forever for him to get Vader on the table, and by that time, he is WAY behind in the race, because the enhanced drains at the systems are just brutal. the text on his objective isn’t going to help him any either, since losing one force on each of his turns isn’t exactly the best way to catch up. I keep waiting to see what his deck will do once it gets up and running, but it is BHBM, so it doesn’t do....anything. I forget to stop force draining, so he runs out of cards. (oops!) Full win by 29.
2: (+29)
Game Two: R. Rex ISB vs. Chris Fanchi’s Hidden Mains
Well, while nobody was looking, Chris has gotten his rating up to the 1800 area. I remember the days when Chris was a true-blue chump, so it’s kinda hard for me to get psyched up for a game against him, or worry about possibly losing. But the guy has come a long way, and his decks are no joke. So I figure I’d better pay attention. I come down pretty hard on his Ben Kenobi with the Vader/Tarkin combo, and make him lose some cards to battle damage. But he gets a few cards with high ability out while I slowly set up in space, and wedge pulls off an OMDH that gets Chris back all the cards he lost earlier. that puts us back on even ground, but this deck matchup just isn’t in his favor. the ever-increasing number of big blue ships in space makes it more and more difficult for him to keep menace fades in effect. block the 2 point drain? or move away and use menace fades to stop 2 points worth of force drain bonuses? either way, the life force is going away. I take a deathgrip on the Tatooine system, to ensure that any further copies of OMDH will result in direct confrontation. Direct confrontation is not in his interests, so no more OMDH runs are made. I finish establishing board control and drain him out for a win by 23
4: (+52)
Game Three: R. Rex ISB vs. Jaymson Kulback
Much like Chris Fanchi, Jaymson is using a Hidden Base platform to launch a mains & toys deck. But rather than using OMDH for retrieval, Jaymson sticks with edge cards. Games between my ISB deck and Hidden Mains decks just amaze me. Considering that both decks revolve around putting power cards at battlegrounds, there is astoundingly little interaction. If you’ve followed my tournament reports, you know that I have played quite a few matches with Retardosaurus Rex against Hidden Mains, and they all must sound pretty similar. and pretty boring. There is really just nothing to say. every time it’s the same thing. Use den of thieves, 5d6, or undercover spies, to block the ground drains. set up real slow in space, and just wait for them to die. they retrieve some, then they stop, and then they lose. I think the isb deck is actually more monotonous than my old Ralltiir done RIGHT deck. I almost feel a need to apologize for the lackluster game descriptions that this ISB deck creates, compared to the action-packed adventures of my hunt down dueling deck. I skip over the "same ol’, same ol’" details that you’ve all heard before, and discover there isn’t anything else to tell. Full win by 24.
6: (+76)
Game Four: EBO done RIGHT vs. Josh Bader’s SYCFA
Well, this is the flipping SYCFA deck that handed my Hidden Mains it’s first defeat. I got revenge on Josh that day by beating him in game 6 and taking 1st place in that tournament. But who says I can’t take more revenge on him? especially since I will now play against that very same deck? I get my echo sites out, pull some guys with echo base garrison, and start dropping them down to set up ebo. meanwhile, he gets the superlaser deployed, along with a couple of death star gunners, and starts moving the death star. I wait for him to commit to a system, figuring I can cancel the drain with rebel fleet, and then deploy to a bunch of other systems for big ebo drains. once he puts some ships down somewhere, I put them down everywhere else. (though I am careful not to use my usual ’one x-wing at your alderaan’ trick, since I had seen him Twilek for a Presence of the Force earlier) I even send a pair of x-wings over to the death star itself, for that tasty drain of 5. he deploys more ships, enough to have two sets that are too strong for me to tangle with. But that still leaves me a good 3 systems to drain him at. Worse yet, I get Commander Luke down to the north ridge, wielding anakin’s saber for another drain of 2. the death star speeds past alderaan, intent on blowing away the hoth system. Josh had 4 characters in his death star conference room, and decides to move 3 of them out to the death star docking bay, while leaving piett in the conference room (since he is an imperial leader) Bousch drops in on Piett, while I deploy epp obi-wan to the docking bay. Leia breaks cover and kills Piett, then Obi-wan battles, slashing one character, and killing the 2 death star gunners with attrition. There is no longer any imperial presence on the death star. Leia has taken over the conference room, Obi has taken over the docking bay, and x-wings have overrun the system. Obi-Wan gets on the death star speaker system, and his chant of "All Your Base Are Belong To Us" can be heard echoing throughout the entire battle station. Josh plays Commence Primary Ignition, targeting the Hoth system, misses, and I drain him out. Full win by 27
8: (+103)
Van Melancon has just been defeated by Seth Van Winkle, in "VanWar 2001". Van, Mike, and Randy are all 2-2, and decide to call it a day. Seth is now 3-1, having lost only to Matt Miller. Matt and I are the only 4-0 players.
Game Five: R. Rex ISB vs. Matt Miller’s WYS
Matt is using the ol’ patrol craft/palace raider WYS, with squadron assignments to get his ships together, and lars moisture farm with owen/beru and a bunch of harvests. (four or five) Well, he doesn’t flip on turn 1, but he flips pretty early. My activation isn’t great, so I have to wait for Merrejk to pull me some systems. He sets up some ships at Tatooine after setting up the raiders on the ground. I put U-3PO down to block a drain on the ground, but he gets whacked by Luke’s Lightsaber via Sorry about the Mess. I put down 5d6, but I have to keep him away from Luke, to prevent matt from just playing the SATM out of his lost pile. I finally start deploying to space and kick Matt off the tatooine system with ease. I also set up a drain at my endor docking bay. his ships have gone off to my rendili, and that’s where they stay. I have Chiraneau out, and have control of fondor, kashyyyk, and tatooine, plus the endor docking bay. so that’s a drain of 10 a ten. But, he has menace fades out, which cuts the drain from 10 to only 5. He loses his harvests whenever he sees them, since he knows he won’t get to play them more than once apiece anyway (due to Something Special Planned for Them) I finally transit some stuff onto Tatooine from my endor docking bay, including Vader, Tarkin, a Walker, and some forfeit fodder. And then use the AO "battle deployment" to keep him from drawing more than one destiny on the ground. I toss Arica into the Cantina and break her cover for an extra drain of two, since it looks like most of his characters are accounted for. He keeps playing Harvests out of his lost pile, and we have several skirmishes on the ground. I finally manage to get presence at all of the tatooine sites, which takes his menace fades out of effect. Chiraneau kicks in, and it only takes 2 turns of my full-strength drains to win the game by 13
10: (+116)
So I’m now the only 5-0. Matt drops to 4-1. Seth knocks off chris fanchi to improve to 4-1. I just played the same allegiance as Seth, so a rematch against Matt in game 6 is guaranteed. I’m 39 differential ahead of Matt, so if I lose, it needs to be by less than 20, for me to keep ahead of him. If I lose by 19 (barely enough to keep ahead of Matt) then Seth would need a win by 33 in game 6 to pass me. If I win in Game 6, none of this matters.
Game Six: EBO done RIGHT vs. Matt Miller’s MKOS
Well, ebo done RIGHT had never lost a sanctioned game. it’s only non-sanctioned loss was against Kevin Shannon, in the final confrontation of the Mega Tournament. Kevin Shannon (of California) had been using a MKOS Abyssin Swarm deck that day. Matt Miller (of California) is using a MKOS Abyssin Swarm deck. hmmm. He starts Resistance, which is a pretty important card against me. Matt’s deck gets off to a lightning start. He gets Jabba and Gailid down right away, without having to use the Audience Chamber text to pull either of them. He also gets his Den of Thieves, his first strike, and his Search & destroy, without having to twilek for any of them. So while his deck gets up and running like clockwork, mine is faltering, perhaps worse than I have ever seen before. I don’t get any of my echo sites, or the EBG, or the EBO. I have to use ANSB to get every one of my sites. I also have to use it to get EBG and EBO, because I never draw any of them. I also have to use the EBG for 3 turns in a row to get the 3 characters it pulls, because I don’t draw any of those either. After pulling my sites and effects with ANSB, I FINALLY start to pull systems with it. one at a time. why? because I didn’t draw ANY of those either. Not having systems means having nowhere to deploy the x-wings to. putting more than 2 of them at the docking bay is counterproductive, so I just hold onto them. Sure enough, he monnoks me and I lose 1/3 of all the x-wings in the entire deck. It takes SEVEN turns just to get my locations on the table, and by that time, he is draining like a madman. I can’t find Bousch to get her onto the table, and I don’t get rebel fleet until my fourth turn, which is bad, because I could have used it to cancel drains on his 3rd and 4th turn. but by his 5th turn he has hutt influence out, and working. I use the Arcona/OTE combo to block a drain in the palace, but he eventually uses point man to cancel OTE. Keeping the arcona there without Order to Engage would be insanity, because of Scum & Villainy plus first strike. so I suicide the arcona and houjix the damage. I drain 8 a turn in space with my 4 systems, but for 3 consecutive turns, he cancels one drain with Myo, one drain with the den of thieves, then loses 4 cards, one of which was always an abyssin, so he could just retrieve that too. He never challenges me in space, and I finally manage to whittle his life force down to less than my own. I take over the north ridge, setting up menace fades to stop Gailid, and satisfying search & destroy at the same time. He has only one card in his hand. But unfortunately, yes, that ONE card IS the Abyssin Ornament. So he retrieves 9 off of his Abyssins, and polishes me off for a loss by 10.
10: (+106)
since I only lost by 10, I stay ahead of Matt, and Seth would need a win by 42 to pass me. I watch the conclusion of his game, and he defeats Joe Helfrich. But only by 7. So, Seth and I each go 5-1, losing only to Matt, while Matt goes 5-1, losing only to me. I take first, Matt takes second, Seth takes 3rd. Chris goes 4-2, losing only to me and Seth. The ISB deck improves to 14-0, but the EBO deck drops to 18-1, not even as good as the 22-1 Hidden Base deck that it replaced. There are no good light decks, and I am dismayed. My prize support has nothing good (naturally) so I am further dismayed.
Props:
To Chris, for driving.
To R. Rex ISB, for being a dark side deck.
To Colin, for playing BHBM against me. that was funny.
To Chris, for not being a scrub anymore.
To my ebo deck, for taking over Josh’s death star and making all his base belong to me.
To the out-of-state players, for shaking things up.
To Seth Van Winkle, for winning "VanWar 2001"
To Randy, for taking us to pick up lunch at Carl’s Jr.
Slops:
To R. Rex ISB, for being boring as hell.
To My EBO deck, for losing a game.
To the Light Side, for being lame.
To Decipher Inc, for not just letting me play dark side all the time.
To the Littleton Crew, for dropping out after game 4.
To Obi-Wan, for his bad grammar when he took over the Death Star intercom/speaker system.
Next up: My report from the Colorado State Championships.
See you then. Thanks for reading.
Brian Hunter