parker-co-3-31-01-state-championships

Title: parker-co-3-31-01-state-championships
Author: Brian "HuntaWarya" Hunter
Date: Apr 8, 2001

Warning: this may be the longest tournament report...ever.


Well, due to the fact that Mike, Van and Randy have all become disinterested in SWCCG for a little while, the Littleton Crew was in a shambles. Without my usual playtest group to help me prepare for states, I turned to Chris Fanchi for someone to bounce ideas off of. Chris lives in Golden, not Littleton, but is effectively an "honorary member" of the Crew, and his playing skills are improving rather rapidly. since he has already passed Mike and Randy in the ratings anyway, he should be just as good to practice against. and since he changes his decks up more often than the others, he also provides me with better clues as to how my deck ideas would perform against a varied field. After analyzing all of the available themes for both allegiances, I ultimately decide to do exactly what everyone expects me to: Play Hidden Mains and ISB. Yeah, I know, the Hidden Mains deck lost a game, and was 22-1, so I abandoned it in favor of EBO. But the EBO deck lost a game, and was now 18-1, which is even worse! So, I decided to go back to the hidden mains for light, ISB for dark. Admittedly a risky move, since everybody knows those have been my decks of choice lately. And they should both be heavily defended against, particularly the dark deck. In fact, I had already heard several rumors about all of the work being done by Boulder’s finest (including Tim McKnight, Kyle Craft, and John Arendt) to try and find a light deck that will consistently mow down space ISB. the rumors got pretty extreme, I even heard things as crazy as John Arendt playtesting with double agent to stop spies! Furthermore, Kyle Craft had spent all week playtesting against former SWCCG mastermind Thaddeus Chenoweth, to prepare himself for the State Championship. Sounded like people were taking this thing pretty seriously! And the competition in the Colorado State Championship would surely be no joke, since, although I mean no disrepect to any of the strong competitors in Arizona, Nevada, Utah, or New Mexico, it remains true that the top 5 players in the entire Tatooine region are all Coloradans. But I took the ISB deck anyway, anticipated or not. and why? Because I CAN. I designed the damn thing, after all. and anyone else who plays ISB space can say whatever they want, but everyone around here knows that I have been setting the standard for big blue ISB decks long before anyone else even thought the concept made any sense. ("Don’t the drain modifiers for ISB only apply at sites??") I never claimed to be much of an inventor. I’m a much better deck-modifier than deck-builder. I usually just take popular deck ideas and fine-tune them to my liking, rather than designing something totally new. But ISB space is definitely a movement that I popularized personally. Anyway, enough about that. I go into the tournament with 3 main goals:

Primary Objective: Prevent Kyle Craft from becoming Colorado State Champion for the year 2001
Secondary Objective: Become Colorado State Champion for the year 2001.
Tertiary Objective: Go undefeated in the Swiss style rounds.

I travel with Chris and his brother Tony to the tournament, after getting my usual zero hours of sleep the night before. As expected, John, Kyle, and Tim are all in attendance. Also present are Matt Riecks (who had recently gone back over the 2000 mark, ratingswise), and several other deceptively dangerous players rated between 1700 and 1900, including Joe Helfrich, Josh Bader, Jason Keen, Mark Ponting, and of course, Chris Fanchi, just to name a few.

There are 53 players in the tournament overall. Let the fun begin. I never take notes at a tournament, but as always, I will describe the game details to the best of my recollection.

Game One: Hidden Mains vs. Joseph Schlagheck
Joseph starts Agents of the Black Sun, and chooses All Wrapped Up among his starting effects. This indicates I can probably expect a deck that utilizes hidden weapons to keep Luke off the table. I get a decent opening 8 cards, but quickly activate and draw the other critical elements I need to get my deck going. He attacks Luke early, using Jodo Kast and 3 other guys. But a fallen portal helps to even the odds by killing one of his agents. He doesn’t have the hidden weapons, so we go to battle destiny, and I draw high enough to kill two of his other characters, leaving just Jodo Kast against Luke. He does not have the 2 force to transit Jodo away, so I battle back and kill him on my turn. He gets a Jabba’s Palace setup going, and I realize that his deck has the capacity to complete bounties for retrieval purposes. I Ben and Luke down, with a couple friends, but keep everyone together, because the Black Sun agents have some nasty removal tactics if you try to spread your forces. I also get the falcon up into space. He gets a few bounty hunters down in the palace, and we’re trading drains, but he can’t flip his objective since he is wary to attack Luke when he is joined by so many compatriots. He finally puts a Bounty on Ben Kenobi, and puts Mandalorian Armor on Bossk with Mortar Gun. The bounty will allow bossk to add or subtract one from his mortar destiny, almost guaranteeing a good capture (if he draws 5, 6, or 7 he can capture Luke, if he draws 0, 1, or 2 he can capture Ben, and if he is unlucky enough to draw a 3 or 4, he can at least snag Corran Horn) He’ll then be able to use Bossk’s mandalorian armor to play hidden weapons, and take another shot at capturing whomever he pleases. All this without even considering the battle destiny his horde of characters will draw, and the attrition will force me to forfeit someone else, who will quickly be picked up by all wrapped up. So he moves his gaggle of characters in front of my own, putting me in a situation where it looks as though I will have to run, letting him do the classic docking bay drain & chase. But no, I have my sorry about the mess, and I off the Mandalorian Bossk during my control phase. With the threat of the mortar and hidden weapons safely averted, I make short work of his remaining forces. I use a couple of edge cards toward the end of the game, and finish with a full win by 38.

2: (+38)

John wins game 1 by 29, while Kyle wins by 41. Several of the other strong players get big wins as well, Matt Riecks winning by 28, Josh Bader by 25, and Tim McKnight by 32. Each of the tables has enough room for 2 games. Kyle and his next opponent go to the top of table #1, while Tim and I settle into the second half of table #1.

Game Two: R. Rex ISB vs. Tim McKnight’s Profit
Well, this was one of Team Boulder’s answers for the ISB deck, try to cause lots of direct Profit damage on the ground, and use landing claws to hold off the drains in space. Furthermore, Tim starts the Wise advice combo card, allowing his grabbers to play for free. He is using THREE grabbers. this strategy is intended to let him grab my imperial command before he even activates his first force of the game. I start Arica in the chamber. Well, I get 3 copies of the command in my opening draw, so I decide to take my chances and play one on my first turn. He does not have any of his 3 grabbers. I put piett and merrejk at the executor docking bay, and use merrejk to pull fondor. Since Tim didn’t have any of his grabbers, I go ahead and play another Imperial Command during his activate phase, still holding one more. On his first turn, he drops Corran Horn into the Audience Chamber and breaks Arica’s cover, then frees Han Solo, and flips. on my turn, I play the 3rd imperial command (since Tim only drew one card) and deploy epp vader into the audience chamber alongside Arica. I initiate against Corran and Han, but he responds by playing I know, dumping epp leia into the battle. Leia shoots at Arica but misses. Vader swings at Han....but misses. He draws 2 destiny, I draw one. Arica and Han die to the attrition, while he uses Someone Who Loves You to send Han to used pile rather than lost pile. On Tim’s turn, he deploys EPP Han with Leia and Corran Horn, and battles me again. I swing at Han again...but miss again. Han and Leia both miss vader with their blasters. Vader dies to attrition, as does Corran horn. Han moves outside to JP by himself, while Leia stays in the chamber, so that Tim can cause profit damage at 2 sites, figuring that my space deck would be just about out of ground power, since he already knocked down vader and jade. But he is wrong. I come down on Han with Blizzard 2, Tarkin piloting, and Lord Vader deploys next to it, wielding Vader’s Lightsaber. I initiate battle, and Tim plays Help Me Obi-Wan Kenobi, to move Leia into the battle as a react. But, I play those rebels won’t escape us, cancelling his react. Before Tim can even ask me the number for Vader’s momma, the man in black swings at EPP Han and FINALLY hits him (3rd time’s a charm!) I draw a 6 for battle destiny, giving me 21 power to Tim’s 4. He forfeits Han for zero, and, since he did not have a houjix handy, loses 17 cards to battle damage. Tim flips back to the zero side, so Leia cannot cause me any damage in the chamber. On Tim’s turn, he brings down epp luke, and ANOTHER epp han, then moves Leia over, and plays a clash of sabers against Vader. Since I have the walker, I cannot run inside the audience chamber. So I put a bunch of forfeit fodder (ozzel, 5d6, etc.) onto Blizzard 2, and wait to see how bad it gets. The 3 EPPs together get 3 battle destiny, but Tim plays a destiny adder to get 2 more. He draws insanely high destiny, and I lose the battle by 17, exactly the number he lost the previous battle by. I lose tarkin for 6, then ozzel for 6. I could then lose 5d6 for 5, and that would cover the damage. But the walker would then still be there, forcing vader to stay outside with it when he recovers from the clash, instead of being able to run inside. I choose versatility, and forfeit the entire walker. tim loses Luke to the attrition, so when vader returns to normal, he is faced once again with Han and Leia. With no more characters to spare (I need a couple pilots for my ships!), the threat of weapon levitation is too great, so Vader runs into the chamber. I move the guys at the executor docking bay out to the endor docking bay, for an extra drain of 2, while the Executor goes to fondor, with Chiraneau at the helm, and I move the big ship over to the endor system. On Tim’s turn, he deploys Gold Leader in gold 1 to the endor system, with a landing claw, and another epp luke, to the endor docking bay. He then goes to initiate a battle at the docking bay, when it occurs to me that Tim should not have had enough activation for all this. He’s only activating 11, not 12. So if he pays 5 for epp luke, and 6 for gold leader (deploy +1 to the endor system), then he shouldn’t have one left to pay for the battle at the docking bay. I point this out to Tim, and ask if he paid the correct amount for Gold Leader. I half expect him to look at me quizically, say "wha?" and look at the endor system, pretending not to know it’s game text, despite the fact that he has probably used the card himself on numerous occasions. But he doesn’t even bother with the ruse, and with a straight face, without looking at Endor at all, tells me it is too late to make him pay the actual cost of his ship, since he has already deployed the claw and the luke. I figure that since I didn’t notice his infraction until a full 8 seconds after he committed it, I am probably screwed. After all, we all know that the official Decipher standpoint on this is "If you catch your opponent cheating, but did not catch them IMMEDIATELY, then too f*cking bad" But, I decide to make a futile attempt to strike a blow for morality, sportsmanship, decency and justice, and we get the Tournament Director. After all, it is still the same turn, so going back and paying the correct cost for the ship would be simple and easy. But alas, as expected, the TD decides it is too late for me to make Tim play by the rules. It amazes me that anyone ever says I double-check my opponents too regularly. If the only way to prevent someone from getting away with a misplay is to catch them on the spot, then what other options are there? In any event, there is little else to say about this game. I never see Captain Godhert, so his landing claw stays out all game. But I split out to the other systems, and although he manages to eventually kill Vader again, I ultimately out drain him for a win by 14.

4: (+52)

Kyle, John, Matt, Josh, and Jason all go to 2-0 as well. The Table 1 matches are now: Kyle vs. John, and Me vs. Jason Keen.

Game Three: Hidden Mains vs. Jason Keen’s MKOS
Jason is playing Skrilling swarm, akin to the deck used by TJ Holman at the first DPC event. I don’t have a lot of faith in the deck, but Jason plays exceptionally well in this matchup. He gets Jabba, Chall Bekan, and scum & villainy down in the chamber ultra fast, allowing him extremely cheap deploy costs. He puts Gailid down in the chamber as well, and has a mercenary pilot aboard the sail barge at Jabba’s Palace, establishing a VERY early 4-point drain. I decide I have to play aggressive, and risk the none shall pass (since he has few cards in hand) Epp obi makes into the chamber, dices Gailid, and Jason loses Chall Bekan to the attrition. Bingo, I am back in the game. Or so I thought. On his next turn, Jason casually deploys another Gailid into the Chamber, adds Boelo to the mix, uses a skrilling to flip, and draws up a ton of cards. the Chamber is now impenetrable, and the 4-point drain is here to stay. I get Jedi Luke to the home one docking bay, with anakin’s saber, and move him out to the tatooine db for a drain of 2. I start drawing for super falcon components, so I can take over corulag and establish menace fades before I bleed to death. Once menace fades gets going, the drain race is fairly even. only it’s NOT, because he keeps cancelling drains with the den of thieves. I get Ben Kenobi down, with a saber, and transit to the CC docking bay. So, now I drain 5 a turn, while he drains for 3 at his JP sites. But, he cancels a drain of 2 every turn with the den, then retrieves a skrilling every turn with his objective. so I am actually down 3 to 2, when I was already behind. Time to start retrieving. But my very first on the edge gets grabbed. So does my first off the edge. damn. I finally get battle plan down, and that’s when the unthinkable happens. He puts bossk in hound’s tooth at Corulag. no problem. I have mirax and han on the falcon, with a spiral in hand, and the force to deploy it. He plays set for stun on captain han, and draws high enough to pop him back to my hand. uh-oh. well, with the spiral, I will at least get destiny, and kill Bossk. But when I play the spiral, he uses Those rebels won’t escape us to cancel my react. He draws high enough to get past Mirax’s forfeit, and I have to lose the entire falcon. Bossk survives, and now I am on the wrong end of my own Battle Plan effect. But I had held onto my other falcon, so I put captain han back onto it, add epp leia this time. He loses his ship +4 in the battle, while I’m forced to lose Captain Han (since he drew another 7 for battle destiny, and I didn’t have the 2 force to make him redraw) It is announced that time is almost up, so Jason decides to quit playing around and put the game away. He drops 6 skrillings down from off the den of thieves, along with 3 more from hand, and retrieves 9 off of his abyssin ornament. He uses extra copies of Pote to cancel my last couple of drains, while using force to pay for battle plan and whittling away at my already mostly depleted life force. Time is called, and I have only 9 cards, so I wait to see how much I lost by. Jason counts his life force and he has....8 cards! Timed win by 9.

5: (+61)

A timed win is really really bad in this tournament. Because of the high turnout (53 players), there will be no 4-2 players in the final confrontation. A minimum of 5-1 would be required. And even if there is only one 6-0 player, there will probably be more than one 5-1 player. and those 5-1 players will have 10 win points. At this point, if I go 5-1, with my timed win, I will only have 9 match win points. So, although I haven’t lost yet, I can no longer afford to. If I go 5-1, with 9 win points instead of 10, I am dogmeat. If I am to make the final, I must not lose a game. John knocked off Kyle in Game 3, but because Kyle’s wins were so huge, he is still ahead of John in differential. Nevertheless, kyle can no longer afford a loss either, or he will be eliminated. Same goes for Chris Fanchi, Tim McKnight, and Jason Keen, who are all now 2-1 as well. Mark Ponting, Matt Riecks, and Josh Bader, and Chris Baker join John among the 6-point players. John gets paired against Matt Riecks at the top table, while I square off against Chris Baker.

Game Four: R. Rex ISB vs. Christoper Baker’s WYS
since he starts WYS, I should have the game in the bag. But just as Jason did in Game 3, Chris plays a remarkably solid game of Star Wars here. I get Godhert early in this one, so I am ready for any landing claws. But of course, they never come. He gets a relatively quick flip but I challenge him on the ground early and often. But I generally come up on the losing end. I kill some characters, he kills some characters, and I’m not really making much progress in that direction. I set up a few guys at the endor docking bay, and set up in space. That would be an impressive drain, due to Admiral Chiraneau, were it not for the fact that I lost him off the top of my deck on turn 2 or 3. He only has ships at one system, but they are too much for me to tangle with yet. Unfortunately, that one system is Tatooine, so his Celebration is working rather nicely. He is draining for practically nothing on the ground, while I drain him for a few points a turn. but the celebration is undoing most of the damage I cause. I finally get enough ships to spread out to multiple systems, and start pushing a significant amount of damage past his retrieval. This forces him to send his fleet out to block my drains. But that, in turn, costs him the celebration when Thrawn and the Chimaera take over the Tatooine System. I keep trying to use Vader and friends to challenge him on tatooine, but I am really never able to gain a foothold there, and since I haven’t managed to flip my objective, his plink drains on the ground continue to annoy me indefinitely. But my space drains are a little stronger than his ground drains, and I ultimately outlast him for a full win by 13. Interestingly, this was the first time I had EVER gone an entire game without managing to flip my objective.

7: (+74)

Chris Fanchi, Kyle, and myself all stay alive with wins. Tim and Joe are the strongest players to be eliminated early. Matt Riecks, Chris Baker, and Mark Ponting all dropped down to 3-1 this round, and cannot afford another loss either. John Arendt and Josh Bader are the only 8 point players, and I am the only 7-pointer. Table 1 pairings for Game Five include John playing Josh, while I play the top 6-point player, Kyle Craft (who has the highest differential in the tournament by 18, despite his loss) There is some debate over who will play which allegiance in those matches, but I tell John that I will beat Kyle regardless of which sides we play.

Game Five: Hidden Mains vs. Kyle Craft’s SYCFA
Kyle is using SYCFA big blue with imperial command. but his 3rd starting effect is combat response, which he uses to get the DS-61 pilots onto their matching black squadron ships. He then uses multiple copies of dark maneuvers/tallon roll to eliminate any and all opposing starfighters. Using ties and star destroyers together gives him total space superiority, at the expense of having room for much ground power. he uses undercover spies to try and block ground drains, and the emperor is intended to hold the death star docking bay, in case of battle plan. He gets the Emperor out almost immediately, along with Piett, who gets Merrejk, who joins the other 2 at the death star docking bay and begins to pull systems. Meanwhile I set up at my docking bays. So I’m draining before he is. But then, out comes a star destroyer at kashyyyk, (drain of 2), with presence of the force (3) and Chiraneau (4!) ouch! I have to get menace fades going to drop that drain from 4 back to 2, or this will hurt real bad in a big hurry. So, I activate to one of my recyclable 6’s, and put out the super falcon to a battleground system, initializing menace fades, and counting on the tracked 6 to be good enough if he tallon rolls me. His activation is huge, so combat response has not done anything at all yet. He puts out ds-61-2, on Black 4. That won’t be good enough to roll the falcon without a lateral damage, so I’m feeling good. So he lateral damages the falcon. damn. Since the 6 will no longer be good enough to save me against a tallon roll, I use it to on the edge Han instead, and retrieve a few cards. Kyle then uses his Tallon Roll to eliminate me from space. I put out Order to Engage, and move Ben Kenobi and a couple of his pals to the death star to force Kyle to battle them. Meanwhile, epp Luke and Corran Horn go to CC for purposes of off the edge. I play off the edge, using another tracked 6, to pull back the super falcon that just got rolled. Kyle grabs off the edge with There’ll Be Hell to Pay.

Interesting quote: "I never play grabbers in ANY of my decks. they’re stupid. nothing but a waste of space." - Kyle Craft, at the Denver Grand Slam in April of 2000.

the Emperor and friends attack me, and merrejk and piett die. On my turn, I deploy Home One against Black 4, and battle. Kyle deploys the Accuser as a react!! My battle destiny kills his tie, and that leaves the Accuser alone, with OTE. But just in case Kyle has another lateral damage, I flee to an open system and re-establish menace fades. But before moving Home One away, I initiate against the Emperor, but miss with the saber, so the battle has no result. I’m trying to kill the Emperor so that battle plan will slow down Kyle’s space drain, but no luck yet. Kyle does not have another lateral damage, but he does have enough space power in hand (including the Mist Hunter) to pounce on Home One and destroy it. The emperor battles me again, but the saber misses again. I toss a 6 back in my deck that I can use to retrieve Home One with (using my other off the edge) I go ahead and do that during my activate phase, and then activate down to just 2 cards. I check those (via insurrection) and they are a 3 and a 4. Since I have YISYW on the table, I am able to finally hit the emperor, forcing kyle to pay for battle plan. On Kyle’s turn, he puts Arica down at the death star docking bay, and splits off Zuckuss for an additional drain at another system. I deploy the Spiral against Zuckuss, with Melas and KFC piloting, and clear Kyle off of that system to put menace fades back in effect again. Then I move Corran Horn over to the death star, and break Arica’s cover, to make her battle me due to OTE. that gives Kyle a turn of free draining, but I figure it is worth it to regain the drain on the death star. Kyle suicides his Arica after deploying ds-61-4 onto black 2 at sullust. (by itself, since Kyle is getting desperate for ways to outdrain me) I have redrawn my previously destroyed Home One, and I deploy it against Black 2. Kyle plays Imperial Barrier.

Interesting Quote: "God, I hate barriers! They are so cheesey! I will NEVER play a barrier in any of my decks, just because I hate them so much!" - Kyle Craft, at the Phoenix Mega Tournament, in November of 2000.

I play Desperate Reach to cancel Kyle’s barrier, draw my tracked 6 for battle destiny. He loses his tie plus some other cards for battle damage, and draws up soon thereafter, giving me a full win by 17.

9: (+91)

Kyle falls to 3-2 and is history. Jason Keen suffers the same fate. Mark gets a timed win, and since he had a loss earlier, he is doomed as well. Chris Fanchi, Chris Baker, Ryan Horwath and Matt Riecks all get wins to improve to 4-1. Josh loses to John Aredt, and drops to 4-1. John and I are the only two 5-0 players, but John has 10 win points, and I have only 9. So John is the only player in the tournament who can afford to lose in game 6 and still have a chance of making the final. The rest of us are all in "must-win situations". John and I both played light in Game 5, so if we both win, no 5-1 players will make the final. The matchups at table one are John Vs. Chris Baker, and me vs. Ryan Horwath.

Game Six: R. Rex ISB vs. Ryan Horwath’s EBO X-wing Swarm
Ryan’s EBO deck is not quite a mirror image of the EBO done RIGHT deck that I used so often, but it is really close, so I understand what I have to do to win. Which is this: don’t bother trying to establish Imperial decree. Just go out and kill some x-wings. sooner or later the organized attacks will run out, and then you just have to draw multiple destiny, force some serious attrition, and just KILL the damn things! I also had Dengar in Punishing One in my deck today, just in case the organized attacks didn’t run out as fast as I might hope. He starts setting up guys at his echo sites, and drawing some cards. Having played the deck a lot, I know it has only one weakness, and that is the card monnok. So I go for it, and get 4 x-wings plus 2 x-wing cannons. Nice. With the cannons out of the way, I put Zuckuss in Mist Hunter alongside my Executor to start draining him in space. Two turns later, he puts Portable Scanner on one of his guys and goes to get a third x-wing cannon. I didn’t expect that. This was the "nifty tech" that differentiated his deck from my own. Mine only played one cannon, and no way to go get it. He had also drawn up a couple more x-wings. So he deploys Home One and his two x-wings, puts the cannon down, and battles. He plays organized attack, and blows away Zuckuss. Home One’s immunity holds up, and the Executor has to flee the system temporarily. Once again, I draw my Captain Godhert, only to see no landing claws. I send Zuckuss out solo to hold a system, while tossing out capital ships wherever I think they’d look good. I hold onto Dengar and Bossk and wait for him to respond. Eventually Home One splits off to stop one of my drains, and I use Bossk to kill it. He is fairly protective of the x-wing that carries the last cannon, and he saves the 3 force every turn, preventing me from using Dengar against it. I keep waiting for Dengar’s opportunity, but Ryan plays smart, and that chance never comes. I kill the Jedi Luke he had at the north ridge, and start draining on the ground, there and at my endor docking bay as well. Getting drained on all fronts, Ryan’s life force slips out from under him, and I get the full win by 20

11: (+111)

So there it is, I go 6-0, a repeat performance of the State Championships last year, and I’m in the final again. I accomplished the primary goal in Game 5 when I eliminated Kyle from the tournament, and I accomplished the tertiary goal by finishing the swiss style undefeated. My previous three tournaments, I had gone 5-1, then 4-0, then 5-1 again. So it was nice to get back to 6-0. the Hidden Mains deck improves to 25-1, while the ISB deck goes to 17-0, same as Hunt Down done RIGHT. But neither has caught up to Ralltiir done RIGHT yet, which I retired at a record of 24-0. It occurs to me that dark decks are pretty cool...
Matt Riecks, Ryan Horwath, Mark Ponting and Chris Baker all lose in Game 6 to finish 4-2. Kyle and Jason Keen get wins in Game 6 to finish 4-2. Chris Fanchi and Josh Bader both get wins in Game 6 to go 5-1. But Chris is ahead of Josh in differential, so Josh needed both John and myself to lose in Game 6 for him to make the final. Chris only needed John OR myself to lose in Game 6, for him to make the final. But neither of those things happened. I congratulate John on his 6-0 performance, and earning enough points to catapult him back into the top 20 of the world. (welcome back, John!) So, having gone 6-0, and actually earning points for the day, I feel like all the pressure is off, and I am totally relaxed for the final confrontation. Ask anyone who was there, I was pretty psyched up, and had been pretty jumpy all day. All of that tension and anxiety goes away for the final, since final confrontation games don’t count for rating points at all. So by the time I sit down across from John, I am 100% at ease, and ready for a good nap. But the TD decides we should play Star Wars instead. Go figure, right? :) I originally thought I wouldn’t bother posting details from the final confrontation, and just tell you who won, since I wouldn’t want to bore you with hearing about games that have absolutely no bearing on anyone’s rating anyway. But John already posted details from the final in his report, so I figure, if anyone complains, I can just say "Hey, John did it first!" :) So here you go, play-by-play of the games that don’t count. John chooses to play light in the first game.

Meaningless bonus game #1 - R. Rex ISB vs. TIGIH Scouts
I play imperial command to get ozzel, and drop him to the endor docking bay on turn 1 to cut into John’s activation. John moves Luke out and gets him captured. I reinforce Ozzel with Lord Vader, who takes Luke from the Admiral. I eventually get Merrejk to the executor docking bay for more activation, and he begins to pull my systems for me. John has put Madine and Blount at the home one docking bay, and starts bringing scouts into hand. He also deploys his non-unique docking bay to my Coruscant system, while I convert his endor docking bay with my own. I reinforce Vader and Ozzel with a rim scout or two, and flip. I then put the Chimaera at Endor, with Chiraneau piloting. John sticks to the ship with a landing claw, and naturally, I have no Godhert this game. 4 games with this deck today total. 2 games, I have Godhert and see no landing claws. 2 games, there are landing claws and I see no Godhert. yay. anyway, I use fett in slave I to drain at endor while the chimaera moves over to fondor. He loses a copy of double agent off of his deck. So the rumors ARE true! John finally launches an assault on Vader, using General solo and friends, even using rebel leadership to add a battle destiny, and makes me lose everyone but Vader, making me stack a card on I feel the Conflict. I put thrawn at the executor docking bay, move merrejk and vader over to the Coruscant db. John puts out Midge and the Back Door. I use 5D6 to lessen the drains for awhile, until 5D6 gets whacked by a second Double Agent. Despite his relatively small reserve deck, John manages to pull Colonel Cracken with Madine. Cracken leads Epp Obi-Wan into Thrawn’s hideaway. the Grand admiral gets whacked by the saber. I draw a 2 for destiny, while John draws a lucky six, so I lose thrawn plus 10 cards, since I have the misfortune of possessing no Ghhhk at the time. I stack a second card on Conflict. I take control of a third system, using the Executor, but John puts out another ship, with another claw. I later draw up Those Rebels won’t escape us/ghhhk, which i use to cancel the landing claw on Gold Leader in Gold 1. John flies the ship to an empty system, but I pounce on it with Zuckuss in Mist hunter, and make John lose a few cards to battle damage. Lando with Axe and Orrimaarko attack Vader and Merrejk at the coruscant docking bay. Lando excludes Merrejk, Vader hits Orrimaarko. John uses Insertion Planning to reduce my destiny, and wins the battle. He loses lando and orrimaarko, but doesn’t put either of them in his bacta tank. I lose two to Orrimaarko, and have to stack a 3rd card on I feel the conflict. I forfeit Vader, freeing Luke, who gets picked up by Merrejk. But at least I can drain there for 2. I put Arica at the back door and ask John if he has a THIRD double agent for me. He doesn’t respond, but within a turn or two, he loses another double agent off of his deck, making a total of 3 after all. I was completely stunned. I have never seen so much anti-ISB Space in a single deck before. 3 copies of double agent, plus Corran Horn to stop spies. At least 2 landing claws, plus I hope She’s Alright, AND Lt. Blount. Holy cow. I finish draining him out for a win by 8.

Meaningless bonus game #2 - Hidden Mains vs. ABS
Well, I’ve played a few games against agents of the black sun now, and had discovered that the ones who use all aliens, with Jabba’s Palace and Scum & Villainy, are relatively easy to beat, while the ones using the Emperor are much faster and tougher. So I’ll hope there are no imperials in John’s deck. On turn two, he deploys Emperor Palpatine to the death star docking bay, and moves Xizor over to join him. Oh well, so much for John having no imperials. Turns out he has FIVE Emperor Palpatine’s in his deck. (that’s right, the one that is destiny 6. five of em.) I drop Jedi Luke to the home one docking bay, and transit out to cloud city to flip john back. He puts presence of the force down on the site where he has Xizor and Palpatine, and then he comes down on Luke with 4-lom and ig-88, and battles, hoping I don’t have a fallen portal. I don’t. He tries to capture luke with iggy but misses. He shoots Luke with the concussion rifle, and plays Jabba’s Through with you to add a destiny. He draws high, I draw high, both his bounty hunters die, and my luke dies. he flips to the 7-side again. I have no more Lukes in my hand, and it’s going to be a drain of 2, plus direct damage of one if I can’t flip him back. I play clash of sabers to cancel the POTF, but he loses a force to stop me, since he started crush the rebellion. I can’t ignore ground and concentrate on space, because I have no ships in hand. I can’t just draw a bunch of cards to try and find my ground battling cards, because he’ll just pull monnok/evader with crush, and screw me. and I can’t just sit around losing 3 force a turn. So, although it is my 3rd turn, I’m basically already dead. I make a last ditch effort, to try and get myself back in the game. I play epp leia, mirax, and melas against the emperor and xizor. I figure if I can shoot Xizor (might work, the destiny in my deck is fairly good), and then out of commission him (I have the OOC in hand), then I might have an outside chance of winning the game. I initiate the battle. John considers using force lightning against Leia, but he knows if it misses, the Emperor will lose his immunity to attrition. then, if Xizor gets shot, they will both die. So he stays patient, deciding to wait until after the battle to play the lightning. I target Xizor with Leia and hit him. John plays I have you Now to add a battle destiny. I try to sense with Leia, but he controls the sense. He draws a 2 and a 3, so I lose mirax for 5. I draw a 4, but Palpatine is immune, so he only has to lose xizor, which flips him back to the zero side. John then tries the force lightning against Leia, and gets it. that leaves melas all alone against Palpatine, and I don’t have the force to run away. So I play the out of commission, and John shuffles his lost pile under the table, and tells me to choose a number, with #1 being the card closest to the top. I think for a moment, and then say "four" with so much conviction that you’d think I had never been so sure of anything in my life. He flips over the fourth card, and there is the Dark Prince himself. John will not flip his objective again this game, so I say "I’m not dead yet" and we continue. Palpatine makes short work of Melas, and is feeling pretty good about his 2-point drain at the ds docking bay. John draws a bunch of cards that turn, so I figure he must have a beating crew ready for me, along with another force lightning. maybe even another I have you now, who knows? So I decide to keep to my own sites, and deploy Ben Kenobi, Corran horn and KFC to the tatooine docking bay, then alter his POTF. John puts fett in slave I at my corulag system. I drain at the Tatooine docking bay, and John asks if I paid 3 for my battle plan, so I say no. So he refuses to lose anything to my drain. He plays Twilek advisor and gets an effect. so I try my drain again, and he again points out that I have not paid for battle plan, so he won’t lose anything to the drain. after a minute or so, I eventually manage to convince John that battle plan is NOT on the table, so he finally loses force for my drain. I think he honestly believed Battle Plan was on the table, because this seemed way too over-the-top to just be a jedi mind trick. And John and I keep our mind tricks subtle when we play eachother. We play what I like to call "good-natured cutthroat". I remember a game against him where I had search & destroy out, and I was making him lose force to it every turn. It had been a good 5 turns already, and I had not once forgotten to make him lose the force for it. But still, I had to remind him every turn, because he never lost it voluntarily. On the 6th turn, as I was in my draw phase, I stopped drawing cards, and waited. John asked if I was done, and I said no. I glanced at my effects, and he glanced at my effects, and then looked back to me. I glanced at my effects, and he glanced at my effects, and then looked back to me. So I said "Lose 1 to Search & Destroy" and he said "Oh yeah! THAT card again!" I found the whole thing very amusing, and it’s a perfect example of what I’m talking about. He makes you enforce your cards, and will take what you give him, but he’s totally cool about it, so I don’t think we have ever had a serious disputer over anything. our games always have a friendly atmosphere, even though we are both serious competitors. so that’s what I mean by "good-natured cutthroat". In any event, I still have no ships to challenge fett, so I draw up a bunch of cards and finally get 2 captain hans and then the falcon. John drains me for one, and I lose Captain Han. That makes it fairly obvious that I had 2, so John starts to wonder what other doubles I might have. So he goes ahead and plays the monnok lost (a moment later than he should have, considering the size of my hand) and gets 2 off the edges. ouch. so much for me not being dead yet. Knowing the falcon is on the way, John reinforces fett with guri on the stinger, and (in case I draw high destiny) a forfeit passenger on slave I. John plays another POTF, this time on Corulag. I bring the falcon, but I believe it was barriered. On his turn, he lateral damages the falcon, deploys Bossk in Hound’s tooth, and brutalizes me in space. I do draw high enough to drop Slave I, and it’s passenger. On my turn, I deploy Home One with a pilot and use it to kill guri, leaving Bossk and an empty Stinger. I forfeit the pilot off of Home one. I draw up my alter, and alter the POTF on corulag. But Ben Kenobi fails the alter, drawing jedi luke for destiny. hmmm. that would most definitely end up costing me the game. along with the fact that I couldn’t find my OTE for a while and then lost it off my deck. because there were at least 5 or 6 turns in a row where I had presence at the Emperor’s location, and John ran rather than battling me. anyhoo, on John’s turn, he puts a couple passengers on Bossk and battles Home one again. The Stinger goes down to the attrition, and I lose Home one. Now there’s nothing there but Bossk, with it’s two passengers, and my empty lateral damaged falcon. I put epp leia on the battered remnants of the falcon, and she flies it to coruscant, and cancels the lateral damage. I on the edge corran horn, and John grabs it. I choose 5, draw a 5, and murder Corran Horn. There are now NO rebels of ability >2 in my hidden mains deck that I have not killed with on the edge at least once. Han, Leia, Corran, Obi-Wan, Luke, they have ALL fallen before my wrath. You can’t target Chewie with on the edge, since his ability is too low, but I sure have killed him with off the edge! No rebel is safe, while I’m playing light side! If I ever learn to track, I’ll be dangerous. Sure, I might be the #1 Star Wars Player in the World, but if I actually LEARN TO PLAY, then you’ll all really be in trouble! :) Anyway, when I draw the destiny for on the edge, there are gasps of surprise from the crowd watching us, followed by a stunned silence. Which Kyle Craft breaks by saying "How come that never happens when I’M playing him??!" I put chewie on the repaired falcon with Leia, and fly it back to Corulag. But before my move phase, I battle at the docking bay, where I have my Ben Kenobi and KFC with Dengar and palpatine. John plays force lightning to reduce Ben’s defense value by 4. Dengar shoots ben, and shoots KalFal. ben swings, hits the Emperor, and attrition kills dengar, clearing the site on both sides. John plays set for stun on Chewie, bouncing him back to my hand, then battles me in space. I draw high, killing both passengers on the hound’s tooth, which is now the only card on the table with ability. I put Chewie down at the CC docking bay, and I drain for 1 a turn, while he drains for 2 a turn (thanks to the POTF that Ben Kenobi failed to alter) We’re both paying for battle plan, and the life forces are winding down. Kyle points out that at the rate we’re going, John will win by 8, exactly the same number I won by in Game One, and the TD starts trying to figure out what will happen if we need a tiebreaker for the final confrontation, because two other onlookers agree that Kyle is correct. But John shakes his head, and I say "no, John will win by 9, not 8, if that one card in his hand is Projective Telepathy". John says "I’ve got it", reveals the one card in his hand, and it is Projective Telepathy. I lose game two by 9.

So John wins the final confrontation by one.

Props:
To Chris Fanchi, for driving
To John, for earning enough points to get back in the world’s top 20.
To John, for becoming State Champion. If it can’t be me, I’d just as soon have it be him, because as I’ve said in the past, you won’t find a nicer guy anywhere.
To Chris Fanchi, for going 5-1, and taking 3rd place, in a field with several players rated higher than himself.
To Jason Keen, for showing he has what it takes to contend with the very best.
To Christopher Baker, for somehow preventing me from flipping ISB for the entire game.
To Kyle Craft, for providing the ironic "interesting quotes"
To Retardosaurus Rex ISB, for beating up on decks that were designed to counter it.
To Kyle Craft, for winning his games by SO MUCH, that his differential was actually higher than mine, even though he went 4-2 and I went 6-0.

Slops:
To Kenobi, for forgetting how to alter. Isn’t that HIS face on the card?? sheesh.
To Those Rebels Won’t Escape Us, for cancelling my react with the Spiral, and costing me my falcon.
To Those Rebels Won’t Escape Us, for cancelling Tim’s Help Me Obi-Wan Kenobi, and costing him 17 cards.
To Me, for murdering all my cool characters with edge cards.
To Thrawn, for letting epp obi-wan onto the Executor.
To Godhert, for only being around when I didn’t need him.
To John and Myself, for playing like scrubs during the final confrontation, after playing so well all day to get there.

Did you just read this whole tournament report? In one sitting? Get up, stretch, walk around some, clean the blood out of your eyes, and try to figure out what day it is!! :) thanks for reading.

Brian Hunter