viper-hits-states-phoenix-az-4-14-01
Title: viper-hits-states-phoenix-az-4-14-01
Author: Steve "BlackViper" Marshall
Date: Apr 15, 2001
I’ve got my buddies over again the night before our big event. They’re going to an airfield for an R/C air dogfight the next day, and I’m disappointed that I’ve got other plans. I ditch them for awhile and run over to The Outer Rim where I know Patrick Hug and Jared Arthur will be. I watch Chris Shaner’s game against John Dunn for awhile. John has a TIE bomber at the DS:DB, so Shaner drops Luke Skywalker and R2 in Red5 (both from hand) to the DB, battles, and draws his destiny to destroy the TIE. Legendary Starfighter. That’s tech! Anyway, I bring decks and ask my buddy if they’re worthy of tomorrow and what I can do to build them up. I get decent suggestions from them and Mike Sinclair, John, and a few others as well. I play a game against Brian Choongphol’s MWYHL / Anakin Skywalker deck and pound it into the ground, boosting my confidence (I let him stack 4 cards - they were all Lord Vaders). If I hadn’t played as well as I did, I was actually planning on skipping States and go flying instead. I fix my decks, confident that I will do fairly well. I get back, and after several rounds of Conker, we get to sleep around 2:00. A few hours later, we all get up again and drive to the carpool guy’s house. I’ve got a few hours, so I actually eat breakfast (haven’t done that in years), watch my cartoons, and head out. My rating going into the tournament is 1710. My decks are similar to last week:
LS: WYS w/ permanent blasters
DS: High destiny Hunt Down
GAME 1: DS vs. Don Anzalone’s WYS w/ Palace Raiders
Yeah, I’ve lost to this deck before. My 61st card is Sunsdown/Too Cold For Speeders - Now I wish I had fit it in the deck. Well, I know my only chance is to get Something Special Planned For Them and Secret Plans out as soon as I can. My starting hand has 2 Vader Sabers and 2 Palpatines, but no Vader! Drat. I drain him early before he gets his Bargaining Table and get the Plans on the table. Vader made his way into the Cantina with a saber for a drain of 3, but EPP Luke came down to put a stop to it. We battle, I hit Luke and he hit me, but I’m cooler so he has to lose a Force. If I had any intelligence whatsoever, I would have searched for I Have You Now and played it to double (or triple) his losses, but I’m a scrub so I don’t. I find Something Special after the first Harvest, basically cutting his retrieval in half. He lost the Harvests and used them from his Lost pile. Tarkin has joined another unarmed Vader in the Cantina for the drain again, but he’s slowly taking my edge away. I decide to move Vader/Tarkin to the Tatooine DB to block a Raider’s drain since he was cancelling my drain of 2 anyway. After a turn or 2, he’s got the Palace Raider hiding like a pansy in the Patrol Craft, Mirax, and Wedge at the Docking Bay, and next door another Pansy Raider is waiting with Melas and an RFC with him. I think I can handle this with only Vader + Tarkin. I initiate and cancel the Tarkin Portal I know is coming. Melas comes over with the Raider. That’s fine. I play You Are Beaten on Mirax, Choke Wedge, hit Melas and play Dark Strike to take him out, leaving just the 2 Raiders. I wish I had Dengar in this deck. He clears the site with destiny of 3, 4, and 6, and I draw Tarkin for destiny (I had good draws up until that one) to kill a Raider.
I’ve got the Chimaera and Admirals Thrawn and Cheerio in hand, but I monnok’d him (killing 3 Raiders and then draining for 3) and found he had a Dash in his hand, so I’m not ready to drop to space yet. He finally deploys Dash and the Outrider at the Spaceport DB, but he doesn’t take off since Mirax is still beaten by Vader and can’t embark on her ship yet. I drop my crew to Tatooine and Damage the landed Outrider at Carida anyway, but I’ve only got enough Force to drop Thrawn inside. I don’t have an Imperial Command in hand, but I’ve got 13 Force left and I haven’t lost any of them yet, so it’s just a matter of time. I fear nothing he has for space right now, and I can’t afford to wait. I draw one next turn, and he takes off both of his ships. Captain Han drops down to join the fun, but I don’t care. He’s still only getting 1 destiny and reducing my power by, say, 0. Mirax, Dash, and Cappy Han all in their matching ships against Thrawn in the Chimaera, and I outpowered him every battle. That’s a beating. It’s not the size of the space force against WYS - it’s what you do with it. I continue cycling my Imp Commands, making sure to only have 1 in hand at a time for fear of Grimtaash. I can do that because i’ve read my tracking articles. ;-) I had to use Janus in the middle of my activation to get one once, but I was set the rest of the game.
Down on the ground, he’s still outdraining me. I don’t like that very much since he’s winning anyway, so I drop Xizor in front of a Palace Raider to stop the drain. I don’t battle because he’s flipped and has a Portal in the Lost Pile. He drops Melas down with the Pansy Raider, battles, draws insanely high destinies, and destroys Xizor into little tiny pieces all over the Docking Bay floor. The overflow damage is exactly the number of cards left in my deck. His Harvests and Celebration make his victory seem more dominating that it actually was, and I forgot to drain him for 6 on the last turn like the scrub I am today.
FL by 23
0 (-23)
The Good: This was an intense, fully interactive game, making it a fun start to the day even though I lost.
The Bad: I hate not getting a Vader in my starting hand when I start with 6 Force.
The Ugly: I had him in the battles until Melas came to slaughter Xizor.
Props To Opponent: This was a really fun game, and he played his deck well.
Well, so much for winning this thing today. I wish I was at the airfield instead. Anyway, let’s continue. I can go on with 1 loss, I guess.
GAME 2: DS vs. Matthew Cenci’s BHBM
He kept putting bounty hunters on the ground, so I took to heavy space and used my Controls to stop his drains. He dropped Dengar and Bossk in the Cantina, and I didn’t want to use all my Controls this early, so I dropped Master Luke from my Reserve deck (for 3 Force!) with his saber at the Tat: DB and Dash inside the Cantina (flip for me!), initiated against the bounty hunters, and used Run, Luke! Run to move my Skywalker over to the battle. It’s not a react, so it works on my turn too! SWEET! I bounce back Bossk because I don’t want my guys captured, and I slice Dengar real good. He fires at Luke and misses, then fires at him again, hitting this time and plays Jabba’s Through With You (I think) to add a destiny if a bounty hunter just fired a weapon. Drat. So we all die, but Luke is in the personal Bacta Tank that is the Lost Pile. That would be the only battle all game. Vader hit a Docking Bay after a few turns, and I gave up Jedi Luke that very turn to flip him and increase his already high damage. I dropped Battle Plan when he was getting low on Force to help my dif a bit and drained him out. I only had 2 cards in hand, but I realized too late that I had too many cards on the table, so my dif is gonna be low.
FW by 17
2 (-6)
The Good: I know how to beat BHBM, but I don’t think he had much fun this game.
The Bad: Having too many cards on the table to get a good score.
The Ugly: Little interaction makes for a boring win.
Props To Opponent: He was really quiet, but he seemed like a good guy.
I’m getting hungry and the game only took 10 minutes, so I head over to Gag In The Bag for a pair of chicken sandwiches. I find Pat and we joke our way back to the store. A bunch of us talk about nothing special. I finish a sandwich and start on a second, and Mike wants to know how I ate one and made it reappear to eat it again. I told him I was playing WYS and used the Chicken Sandwich from the lost pile.
GAME 3: DS vs. Stephen Smith’s troopers
He starts the Yavin 4 system and Careful Planning for a pair of diamond sites. When he draws his entire Force pile turn 1, I know what he’s doing; I’ve played this before. He’ll draw up 3 turns and destroy me. I set up for it, dropping Lord Vader with stick at the DS:DB for a drain of 2. I take space carelessly, knowing for a fact that he’s not going to contest me. As his third turn comes around, I make sure there aren’t any cards in my Force pile so I can grab Monnok next turn. Well, he drops a turn early, and that really sucks for me. I slice up Obi real good and take out a few troopers with an I Have you Now for an extra destiny (good thing - it was a 6), but Premiere Leia remains. That’s cool with me, but I have to lose Vader and 10 more. I drop Choke Vader at the Farm for 3 and Mara with him for 2 because No Escape is cool. Both are armed, and Palpatine joins them next turn. He can’t drain and Nabruns everyone over during his move phase. I can handle this. I initiate, choke the attrition-sucking trooper, slice 2 more, and zap another. I play another I Have You Now, then You Are Beaten Leia. He loses everything and 1 more Force, but I have to lose Palpy because of the lightning. He has 12 cards in his hand and Leia can’t drain, so I move over. Obi and EPP Luke drop down along with several more troopers. I slice Luke and choke a trooper, but I lost everything and 12 more. I have my other Choke Vader in hand, but I’m down to 5 Force! DOH! We drain and lose to Visage several turns, but he has the edge. If I had 1 more Force left, I would have dropped Vader in front of Leia, stopped a drain, and won the game. Too bad - this went to the bone.
FL by 4
2 (-10)
The Good: I took a trooper deck to the limit.
The Bad: The trooper deck beat me anyway.
The Ugly: Having the game winning card and being short 1 card!
Props To Opponent: Stephen is always fun to play against, and this was no exception.
So now I’ve got 2 losses, and any slight hope I might have still had of winning this thing is gone. But press on - I’m not going to be a pansy and drop just because I’m playing poorly. This is just a game after all. I take my seat at the now-familiar scrub table, but for some reason John Dunn and Justin Beal are sitting there with me. How fun. ;-)
GAME 4: LS vs. John Towner’s MKOS / Abyssins
Well I’ve played against Pat’s abyssin deck about a hundred times, and I know how it works and how it falls apart. This turned out to be a really great game. We’re battling for the rights to the biggest scrub of the tournament. I decide to start Menace Fades because I really hate Gailid. He packs his Audience Chamber, and I let him have it. He takes his time finding Den Of Thieves, so I drain him in the Cantina and Kessel for awhile before he gets set up. He finally starts cancelling my drains, so I take it to him. I’m at the docking bays, and he is losing abyssins to portals. He’s playing 16 abyssins. 16! By all that’s holy, this is just wrong. My drains are starting to go through and really hurt him, and I’m blocking his. As we were winding down, Lando w/ and Chewie w/ took the Tatooine DB with Aim High on the table, of course. Mirax and a pair of RFCs take the Cantina. I ran around my Docking Bays with I’ll Take The Leader for the extra drain and Celebration working it’s magic. After some heated space battles, I rule supreme and Zuckuss is left. I drop Luke in R2 in Red5 and blow up the bounty hunter that isn’t really a bounty hunter real good, taking complete uncontested control of space. I Noble Sac’d EPP Han in space (abyssins are power 4) and Lando makes his way to the Cantina for the power + 1 bonus. He finally arrives and wants to sacrifice himself really badly, but he doesn’t deploy his abyssin sitting in the Den Of Thieves, so I can’t retrieve my extra. DOH! I drain him out, making me 2-2 and giving him the title King Of The Scrubs. =)
FW by 18
4 (+8)
The Good: This was an insanely fun and well-matched game.
The Bad: I thought he deployed a pair of abyssins to the Lower Passages, but it turns out they were actually at the DB (our sites were in rows because there were so many). He let me take back the battle (I thought I was battling 4 of them - it was actually 6) because he could see how the mistake could be made.
The Ugly: Zuckuss bent over the table in space! I took a lot of Force from him in that one.
Props To Opponent: John is always a fun opponent, and we had a really tight game.
If I can at least win my last 2 games, maybe I’ll pull something out of this tournament after all. It might not be pretty, but I can still place decently. I try to pump up my ego and confidence a bit going into the final round.
GAME 5: LS vs. Jeff Thompson’s BHBM w/ Royal Guards
Royal Guards are sweet! As soon as the spoiler for them was released way back when, I had the idea of using them with RalOps. It didn’t work that well for me, but these guys still have potential. I know how powerful they can be if they’re used correctly, so I take each step slowly. He gets the early drains on me with Palpy, an armed guard, and Mara with her little stick. My first turn I activate 3 and Signal for my Goo Nee Tay (not yet knowing what he was playing), but it was one of the three cards I used to Signal. DOH! The game went like that for awhile. He played a Defensive Fire on me, and I’m considering catching it, but I let it go and be patient. Maybe there will be other interrupts that will be more beneficial to catch. I was wrong and should have caught the stupid thing - he hit me with it several times. I found ECC Lando’s Falcon and Dash in the Outrider joined him at Kessel for a bit of a drain, but Zuckuss and Fett spoiled the party. I was immune, but I didn’t know exactly what went wrong when he didn’t lose anyone from the battle, so I read the package again: "Just Add Wookiee." Okay, I just happened to have one of those in my hand. ECC Chewie joined the crew, and I destroyed both ships that battle. He lost everything, and I just happened to have a Legendary Starfighter in my hand at the time. Okay, let’s deploy that.
He’s winning on drains so far, but I’m coming back and Legendary is starting to even it out. I have to remind him to lose his direct damage 3 or 4 times, and it kinda bugs me. During your move phase, lose 2 Force. I find Menace Fades to take away those terrible Mara’s saber enhanced drains, giving me the advantage. Jedi Luke (from reserve, of course) keeps a ground site for Fades, but he’s got to do a lot of running to do so. I even paid 11 Force for transit to Endor on one occasion. I Noble Sac Lando in space for 7, and I consider doing it to Dash as well (it’s a non-unique "just" action, after all), but I don’t want to leave an RFC in space all by himself just in case he actually has more blue cards in hand. Turns out he didn’t. He drops a few more Royal Guards in front of Luke but doesn’t battle. He also Defensive Fires me again and gets my I’ll Take The Leader; I won’t get it back the rest of the game. I guess it’s okay. I can deal with that. He recirculates and says go. I remind him to lose 2 to Legendary on his move phase - apparently, he used Defensive Fire during his draw phase and didn’t want to lose it. How was I to know what phase he was on? He didn’t battle, move, draw, or explicitly offer me a chance at an action during any phases. He loses the Force. I move Luke away for Menace Fades and he tries to chase, but it turns out Palpatine isn’t very good at chasing characters. I finally found my Controls (I was searching for them the entire game), cancelled several heavy drains near the end of the game, and took the edge away.
FW by 10
6 (+18)
The Good: Just Add Wookiee - wow, it works! See, Pat? Chewie’s good for something... ;-)
The Bad: Reminding him to lose to Legendary so many times. You know it’s coming, and you know I’m going to remind you every time; just do it.
The Ugly: Luke ran out of battleground sites to control near the end of the game, so he got a good drain or 2 on me at clutch time.
Props To Opponent: I love Guards - it’s cool that he actually built the deck. He played it well, too. Another fun game.
Must... win... last... game...
GAME 6: DS vs. Andrew Emmit’s Local Uprising / Dagobah / Clouds / Drains / CHYBC sucks for you deck
Um, yeah. This was the most odd game I have ever played to date. I Twi’lek for No Escape first turn as he lost Insight for Honor. I use Imperial Command to find Admiral Cheerio and lose him to Visage. I lose a card off the top of my deck, then Vader hits the table. No Escape gets that card back. He drops 3 cloud sectors to Dagobah, so I’m getting an idea of what he’s doing. I draw until I get CHYBC because it’s in my Force pile. I have to dig a little because he’s using diamond sites and I’ve got No Escape, so I’m generating around 30 Force turn 2. He drops Son Of Skywalker to Dagobah and drains next turn, but I’m flipped so Skywalkers can’t drain. I drop CHYBC and search for Evader / Monnok. Monnok lost gets 5 x-wings, 2 houjix combos, and 2 arconas. Next turn he activates it all and draws up. This game took all of 5 minutes, and I’ve got like 18 cards in hand from finding CHYBC. DOH! My lost pile consists of Prepared Defenses, Admiral Cheerio, and Monnok, meaning I actually only lost 1 Force.
FW by 25
8 (+43)
The Good: This...
The Bad: ...was...
The Ugly: ...odd.
Props To Opponent: I think I saw what he was trying to do, but I countered every aspect of his deck by turn 2. What’s ya gonna do?
I would have liked to drop Janus and put a few of those cards back. I searched and didn’t have any more Used Ints left (I used them all on my turn - the Imperial Commands without any admirals, Masterful Moves without holograms, Twi’leks without effects, etc.), so there was no way of putting Force back short of dropping Janus next turn. Had I dropped my hand, I would have 8 (+61), which would have put me 2 places ahead in 5th. I’ve got to wait an hour for the other games to finish, so I head to Target to get a soda. I didn’t do too badly, but I didn’t check the scores. So at this point, I think I scrubbed out hard. I’m sitting talking to some people, and Brian Choongphol tells me he turned Vader with TIGIH while he only had 1 card left. His opponent had him beat, but he depleted the Life Force with his last card - a destiny 6. SWEET! His opponent had about 10 cards left. Way to go!
I manage to place 7th of the 30 people who showed. Brandon Allen is calling prizes from 30 place forward, and I’m surprised my name is called so late since I spent 4 of my 6 games at the scrub table. :-) I get a Palace Raider, Reflections 2, Cloud City, and a box of card sleeves and make fun of Girard that my Raider isn’t for trade. Then his name is called in 6th place - he gets a Raider, too. "Waiter - I’d like a tall glass of Shut Up Juice, please!" Yeah. Anyway, here are your top 5 for the State of Arizona:
STATE CHAMPION: DJ Andrews
By The Numbers:
1st: DJ Andrews @ 12 (+118)
2nd: Michael Sinclair @ 10 (+92)
3rd: Brett Kitani @ 10 (+37)
4th: Ben Wehunt
5th: Aaron McCormack
Props:
* Brandon Allen and Gold 14 Will Schmidt (sp? sorry!) for running a smooth State tournament
* Gamerz Edge for hosting us
* DJ for defending his title
* All 6 opponents for playing with 60 cards :-)
* Jeff, Ryan, and Grayson for turning off Conker and actually letting me get some sleep the night before States
* Noble Sacrifice for being cool
* All those who helped me with my decks the night before to get them ready
* Me for winning games in 5 minutes and 10 minutes
Slops:
* Mark Jennings for letting air combat coflict with SW States! *g*
* Me for not playing anyone above my rating
* The computer for pairing Justin Beal with Girard first game AGAIN
* The scrub table for being so cool I didn’t want to leave it
* Pansy Raiders for being so broken
Thanks for reading! I’ll be in Vegas on the 28th for the DPC; sorry to everybody else who’s gonna be there, but I’ve decided I’m gonna have to win the thing. Until next time.
-Steve