apocolyptic-mirkwood-4-3

Title: apocolyptic-mirkwood-4-3
Author: Joshua "Stormcrow" Grace
Date: Apr 5, 2001

Okay, the Tuesday night tournament at Mirkwood was merely a normal tournament after several really fun tournaments in a row. As such, it almost did not seem worthy of a report, but I have little else to do at work to occupy my time since I have decided that Sartre knows less about psychology than he would like to think he does.

And, maybe, someone can learn a thing or two from the report.

My decks were Save You It Can, Apocolyptic, by Grace for the light side. I just submitted this wicked training deck. Nothing really new. Just extremely tweaked. Check it out, and rate it.

For the dark side, I played an ISB deck I may post soon. It was sort of an Imperial gang bang.

15 players, but I escape the bye. For once.

Game 1, my light side vs, drat, I already forgot his name. This guy showed up once before with his buddy. They both got smashed since they had been playing against each other for years but not against anyone else. They learned a lot but not quite enough to be dangerous in their second tournament.

He was playing SYCFA without starting effects.

That was a big surprise, but the bigger surprise was that Mike Raveling was playing MWYHL in the game right next to me. Mike usually avoids such decks like the plague. But I think Mike is developing a definite thing for my light side decks. Really, Mike is freaking me out with this new Grace style light side fetish. First, it was TIGIH. Now, MWYHL. Soon, Mike will be playing heavy SAC in a Profit deck with Tatooine Celebration.

Anyway, I administered a beating by 32. It went like this.

First several turns, he gets out sites and draws. I complete Jedi Tests. After deploying Test 2, I look, and Mike deploys Test 2, I tell him I am winning because I deployed Test 2 earlier.

Next couple turns, dude sets up Devastator at Death Star to start draining for 0 and starts moving the Death Star, parsec by parsec, with no laser on it. I set up SuperFalcon at Kessel and I ll Take the Leader for a drain of 3. He battles with a bunch of stuff. I play Punch It, and he loses a bunch. He leaves the Thunderflare, so I battle it. He loses a bunch more.

For kicks, I set up Obi-wan, Melas and R3P0 at the Lower Corridor. He battles me with Vader, Mara, their sabers, Bossk and Snoova. He hits both Obi and Melas. He loses everything but Vader. I lose everything and a bunch more.

I complete my tests. I retrieve all my lost stuff. I go to where Vader is just dying to meet Luke. Luke completes Test 6 and destroys Vader in a battle the next turn.

FW 2, +32

Mike, meanwhile, ended up losing to Garrett Larson. I told Mike he had brought shame upon MWYHL. Garrett’s deck was tough, but my Save You It Can beat it by 11 in a previous game.

Game 2, my ISB horde vs Dion Erbes Kashyyk start

What? So I was a bit confused, starting against Kashyyk. What third effect would I take? I ended up grabbing Oppressive Enforcement, I think. It never mattered. I felt a little disappointed that I had to play Dion. Not because I dislike playing Dion. No, quite the opposite, I think Dion is a good and fun player to play against, and I felt bad that my deck was going to whup him in a fairly non-interactive game after my other deck had whupped him in a fairly non-interactive game in the previous tournament.

I got out a couple of docking bays and a spy to the Death Star II docking bay for early generation. Dion put out more docking bays, and we had a docking bay stand-off for a while until he put out his generic docking bay. I deployed No Escape to take back my Prepared Defenses and drop half a handful of characters to flip and start draining like crazy.

Dion deployed Dash in the Outrider and I ll Take the Leader, and, with all of the docking bays that he had in play, I had discovered, at last, the objective of his objectiveless deck. Dash drained at Kashyyk on the next turn, but it was for 0 because I occupied a related site.

Dion set up Ben and Jedi Luke and Chewie, but 5D6 made a continual pest of himself, following them around, blocking their drains. When Dion deployed Kessel and moved a mass of ships over there, I had a drain to contend with, so I deployed Bossk, Zuckuss, the Chimaera and Thrawn. He barriered one of my ships, so I waited on the battle. On his turn, he pulled a cool move, using the space equivalent of Sorry About the Mess to blow away Zuckuss. He battled and we both lost some stuff.

The rest of the game was a losing battle for me at Kessel. Losing, but manageable. Meanwhile, I drained for a fat 4 or 5 at the Kashyyk docking bay all game long. Finally, Dion had to block that, so he moved Luke, Chewie and Ben over. I trampled Chewie, battled Luke and Ben, swung and hit them both for forfeit zero, cancelled his destiny, and forced an ugly 15 or so overflow. Win by 28.

FW 4, +60

Rich Jeffries played an ugly, ugly deck. Graham, Mike and I go to grab dinner at the local Burger King while Chris Perman times out. The two new guys join us, and the other one tells me about how he played against Rich, facing all the inserts, Surprise Assaults and cheeze Rich had thrown together. Ugly. I suggested the dude take the concession, grab the deck, throw it in the garbage and make Rich dig it out.

It was in sleeves. It would be fine.

We get back and, shortly, get underway. I get paired against Graham, so that gives me time to finish eating. I play my light against his Scum. I offer him the chance to pick his differential. He thinks for a second and says, twenty. But we both know we are going to play anyway. So we do. And I win by twenty.

Game 3, my Save You It Can, Apocolyptic against Graham MKOS Skrilling

I get Test 1 completed on the second turn. Graham fusses and pays for all his drains. I just keep setting up stuff while losing to drains. No big deal. I complete my tests after setting up Han in the Falcon at Kessel. I could have had Leia and I Know in my hand or not. Graham knew better than to battle me. Of course, I can not bluff, so the cards were in my hand. Once I retrieve all my cards, I deploy Lando with his Booyah Axe and Melas and Obi gets free passage to Jabba s Palace, too, since Graham never drew a None Shall Pass. They battle a Skrilling and Chall. Exclude the Skrilling, slice Chall. 23 overflow.

Game.

I win by 20. But we passed some time while waiting for the next pairings, so that was good. Kudos to Graham for calling it. Like Babe Ruth pointing to the fence. Except more like the pitcher pointing to the fence against Babe.

FW 6, +80

With Justin Alfs gone, there was no Raw Deal madness between games. There was Raw Deal, but it was without madness. This made the time between rounds quiet. I talked and traded, and game 4 began.

Game 4, my squishy ISB variant against Tyler Rugman, strange Hidden Base and Endor scouts variant.

Tyler started out by saying how much he hated his deck and played Heading for the Medical Frigate to get Insurrection, Squassin and Strike Planning. That was the same start as my Grand Slam deck, so I figured it couldn t be all bad. I set out a couple of docking bays and Merrejk at the Death Star II docking bay for early generation. Tyler played Endor and drew some. He eventually put out the Rebel Landing Site and then the Back Door and set up a bunch of scouts with Madine, Chewie, Han and friends.

So I flipped my objective by controlling the Hoth and Yavin docking bays with ISB dudes and played Tarkin and some ISB fodder at the site where Tyler’s guys weren’t. On my next turn, I fortified the Rebel Landing Site by deploying Vader to join Tarkin and the puds.

And that was all she wrote. I drained for a lot. Tyler drained alternately for 0 or 1. When he drained for 1, I lost an ISB agent from my hand that I later retrieved. Full win by 28.

FW 8, +108

Tyler had won one of his games with a timed win, so that loss knocked him back a bit. I failed to catch the final results because I was otherwise occupied. Sorry.

Going undefeated did get me the win, though, and I know from the report Garrett Larson submitted that he got third. I got a foil Leia with Blaster for my efforts.

After the tournament, I played a game with Tim Halverson. My ISB guys against his WYS without retrieval. Instead, he packed his deck full of direct damage like Anger, Fear, Aggression and Order to Engage. Goo Nee Tay made things rough, too, but in the best game I played all night, I squeaked out a narrow win after the Executor survived multiple losing battles at Kessel.

Cheers:
Tyler for being a good opponent and trying something new.
Tim for the fun game.
Dion, Tim and Rob for the trades.
Graham for pinpointing the differential.
Mike for trying MWYHL.
Garrett for ending Mike’s further attempts at MWYHL.

Jeers:
The deck Tyler built.
The MWYHL deck Mike built.
People who failed to show. Where was the Saint Cloud contingent?

Joshua "Stormcrow" Grace