ithor-madrid-04-21-01

Title: ithor-madrid-04-21-01
Author: Heraclio "Morgoth" Sanchez
Date: Apr 23, 2001

This was another SWCCG marathon day. We had two tourneys in a row. It has become something usual here in Ithor, as it happened twice in a month. States are next saturday and everybody is playtesting hard trying to get their decks ready.

I will tell about that afternoons tourney. The one in the morning was fine (congrats Miguel) but actually I don´t remember anything from two of my games. Ithor´s favourite cheater came again but this time he got completely screwed. :-)

After the tourney I went to half lunch and there I met Rafa and Peri. They had been playing too and intended to assist the second tourney. Ignacio “Nacho” Esteban was going to run the event. I was not going to play that one but Peri and Rafa conviced me.

We arrived there quite early but had hard times finding the place. Nacho, you live at the end of a labirynth. It was a nice place, big, quiet and comfortable.

So, nine people there. All very good players and nice guys too. We spent some time joking and trading until everything was ready. Seven of us had assisted the tourney in the morning and made jokes about how hard would be tracking destinies and playing well after so many games.

My decks for this event were the same as in the morning. MKOS Abyssins with decent space for dark and WYS with Palace Riders for light.

Game 1
My LS vs Peri´s This Deal is getting weird 4.0
Peri is a pretty good player and very nice to play agaisnt. He always plays orginial decks which most of the times are deadly too. You never know what to expect from him. He starts IAO, Mob Points, Crush the Rebellion and Secret Plans. I start Insurrection, Squad Ass. and Menace Fades. First turn he pulls Wakeelmui. He combining Dark Deal with TIE retrieval engine. Damn! I know he´s playing Ocupation too so I can´t win the drain race if he gets his retieval engine too. I try to set up on Tatooine as fast as I can with some Palace Riders on their crazy cards and Jedi Luke. He´s slow at the beginning. Turn three, I get order to engage so I decide to move over Cloud City db with barrier in my hand. He´s got there Dengar with gun and another guy (the one from DSII which deploys –2 to dbays) and a TIE interceptor for Bantha fodder.

He knows OTE will kill him and makes his move. Guri comes, I barrier, and some other guys. I don´t have Fallen Portal or Luke´s stick in hand so I realize I must flee. He sets up Dark Deal and looses 3. What!? He must be afraid of Portal (last time we played each other Vader died to Portal on turn 2). So I flle from there and put Wedge and Melas on Pulsar Skate in Tatooine. Now Menace Fades rapes his drains and I drain even in cloud city.

His turn. He deploys SFS and a bunch of Interceptors over Bespin and Cloud City. Some locations and guys and Occupation. This was key for the rest of the game. I could not get Falcon or Outrider and The Lars Family was hidden too. I tried a beatdown vs a lonely Djas Puhr and forced him to loose for OTE but he deployed all his characters and I was stuck there. I could not set up my retrieval and he drained me out. FL –9.

Overall: 0 (–9)
High: playing Peri. He´s cool.
Low: Outrider, Falcon and the Lars Family being too shy.
Ugly: Dark Deal and TIEs retrieval!

So this is not the best way to start. The game was crap but I had a good time. Some more jokes as we get ready for the pairings.

Game 2
My DS vs Nacho´s EBOX with W-Xing Squadrons
I knew no game would be easy because all players were really good but I didn´t want to play Nacho, not that soon. He´s one of the toughest players here and we playtest quite often. He got a tye on first round and was eager to play. I start as usual No Bargain, POTH and TINT/OE. I know quite well his deck. It usually sets up really fast and get some annoying drains in third marker but I´m confindent with my own deck. Game was not interactive at all. I fortified the Palace and looked for Resistance and S&D.

I modified my MKOS packing more space but I know I could not resist so don´t even try it. He drains at Kiffex and Hoth but Resistance, Myo and Abyssins retrieve give me the edge. I could not get Den of thieves or Abyssin Ornament so my differential is low. FW +7

Overall: 2 (-2)
Highs: beating Nacho. He´s a really good player.
Lows: low differential.
Ugly: Beating Nacho, he´s a cool guy too.

At this moment Peri and Miguel Tarin are the only ones with heavy differential. Most games are really close because of similar level from players, so I´m in hope I can still make a good performance.

Game 3
My LS vs Mario Tarin Hunt Down with BIG drains.
Mario is the younger of the Tarin bros (Tarkin bros as we know them). He´s a fun player and good too. I knew his HD had a bad performance that morning but I know he always plays new decks so I didn´t know what to expect. I couldn’t imagine he was playing old skool HD (that was a surprise too). So he starts his three effects and I got mine.

First turn. He´s got a god hand and deploys Endor: forest clearing with Lord Vader and POTF there. S.hit! I loose one and guess what: Menace Fades! That was key at the end of the game. This was another non interactive game. I set some PR/Patrol Crafts on Tatooine and my ships over the system with Battle Plan. He deployed Vader´s Saber so I got huge drains all over the game. I was still trying to set Celebration and OOC/TT but coud not get them. I´ll take the leader puts me in head of the drain race but Visage is a pain in my a-s-s. Finally foud OOC and played it. Next turn he deploys another Visage I cancel it from lost pile. At last I got Luke and Celebration which is game. He deploys Mara to the Cantina and Thrawn to Endor Dense Forest but he has to pay for Battle Plan and is low on force. My turn I block his Vader´s drain with a PR holding Houjix. He battled and I lost my little green alien. Realizing he could do nothing finally drew. FW +13

Overall: 4 (+11)
Highs: beating Little Tarkin.
Lows: beating him on his worst day. He had a bad performance all over the day. Don´t worry man, you know you´ll get much better next time.
Ugly: Loosing Menace Faces and his HUGE drains.

This was a fast game so we went to see Peri and Miguel fighting for first place. I was impressive. Miguel´s TIEs vs Peri´s EBO with Mon Cals and tons of pilots. They battling each other every turn. Each battle was like 45 vs 49 but Miguel had the advantage beacuge Peri could not get his grabber for APTW. When he finally grabbed it he had run low on pilots and could not match TIEs retieval so Miguel won and was the only un defeated player.

I was exhausted after seven games in a row and prayed for an easy last game (which I knew I could not get because anyone here was difficult)

Game 4
My DS vs Victor´s everybody in the place is here EBO
Umm. It looks like everybody here plays WYS or EBO for light. It´s OK for me since I play MKOS and it usually it´s a good match-up. I haven´t played Victor for months so I ignore what kind of EBO is he playing. I start as usual and he gets three effects (strike planning, Battle Order and Menace Fades).

As it usually it´s vs EBO this game a non interactive game. I was looking for S&D, Resistance and Den of thieves. I could get the first one pretty fast but not the others and that was key. He was packing lots of characters and deployed EPP Luke and DSII Wedge to fourth marker. I was somewhat low on characters in my hand so I could not beat him hard. ECC 4-Lom, Xizor and 3 abyssins hit Luke and friend. He lost Wedge and some cards. I could not get any of my 5 starships so he ruled space (Hoth and Kiffex). He deployed Falcon with Nien Numb and Gen. Cal. Tala 1 and 2 to Hoth. I played Monnok lost trying to get his Hoth:db (he was playing Ketwol and On the Edge for retrieval) but got nothing. My deck packs 3 grabbers but I got them on the late game so On the Edge hurted me for long.

The battle for Hoth contunued and I was running after Luke. He moved him again to fourth marker and I decided to chase him for I had no characthers to hit him there. Then he signaled for Ice Storm and everyone there was missing. Some boring turns came until Ice Storm was lost. I had Mosep and Gailid but had to pay for every drain and I was running low on cards. I could not find enough abyssins so had to play ornament for just three. He activated all his force and that was game, since he had bigger hand than me. He won by just 2. FL (-2)

Overall 4 (+9)
Highs: Not too much. Having fun with Victor.
Lows: Not able to find my protection fast enough.
Ugly: Ice Storm!

Every game was truly close so differentials were low. Miguel went undefeated till the last game and won his second tourney in one game. Peri won his third game and went second. I was amazed finishing third due to my “huge” differential (weird).

Ranking
1 Miguel Tarin (Big Tarkin)
2 Alejandro Peribañez – Peri
3 Heraclio Sanchez (me)
4 Rafael Arnaiz
5 Mario Tarin (little Tarkin)
6 Ivan
7 Nacho
8 Victor
9 Angel

We traded some more and had a lot of fun. I was trying to get ORS from Victor but he wanted to keep his 8! Slops for you (just kidding). After 12 hours of playing we headed home.

Props
Big props to Nacho for running a great tourney. Nice place too. Looking forward for the next one!
To Miguel for winning. You have come back unstoppable (but you won´t be so lucky next saturday, he he)
To everyone who assisted. This one was one of the best tourneys I´ve ever assisted.
To Rafa for his weird deck (BHBM with Carbon chamber, freezing and Emperor´s prize which rules!)

Slops
To Den of thieves: great card I could never get.
Nacho for not assisting States next saturday :-(
Nothing really, it was almost perfect.

Thanks everyone. See you next saturday there!