cookeville-tennessee-4-28-01

Title: cookeville-tennessee-4-28-01
Author: Mike "Anime Knight" Wudhapitak
Date: Apr 29, 2001

Hello!
Yesterday I playing in a Reflections 2 Sealed Deck tournament. Turnout wasn’t very high as the tournament was thrown together in less than a week, but some of the better players were there.
I get to Merchant Gamer at about 12:30, run to get my packs at Bob’s, and get back at about 1:00. I scramble like a madman to get my 6 locations for each side, and then it’s announced that I’m playing Light Side. Doh! I didn’t think that Light Side would be the optimal side to play in draft, but there’s nothing I could really do about it.
My draft strategy was to go for the characters. This was my first Star Wars draft, but I’ve played in many Magic drafts before and knew a bit more about drafting than the other players. I didn’t get anything really good, just Mirax, Corran Horn, and General Calrissian.
I draft a pretty junky beatdown/drain deck with some space and very few tricks. The only trick I got(which was probably enough) was Surprise Assault. Almost everything else was a character, ship, or location. When I refer to the boys in this report, I’m talking about the generic Premiere characters that you normally NEVER use(like Talz)!
Round 1:
Andrew Welsh
Scum and Villiany (in Draft!)
I start with the Echo Base War Room and he drops Jabba’s Palace. Crap! I forgot that you could do that kind of sillyness! He proceeds to drop a bunch of Jabba’s locations and draws up. I drop the Back Door and draw. Next turn he drops a bunch of aliens to the Audience Chamber and puts down a Scum and Villiany. Aieeee! My turn I send some guys to the Back Door, which he proceeds to murder next turn. Who gets Vigo, Guri, and Scum in draft?! Fortunately Guri was drawn for battle destiny and not deployed, so I’m not completely out of the game. On my turn I try to take back the Back Door, and I drop Kessel and a lone Y-Wing. I kill of his Back Door boys. =) Next turn, I find out that he also had an Arica... Arica comes down with some friends, breaks cover, and pummel my little scrubs. I realize that I can’t beat him like this(he retrieves 2 force every time he initiates a battle). I decide to look towards the skies and turn the game into a drain race. My drain at Kessel is huge! 3 per turn in draft is some good. I get a Sullust drain up and running(with another Y-Wing, no less!) and hunt for my Tatooine. He kept deploying stuff to fortify his position and had a drain of 4/turn too. Unfortunately for him, he overextended and I drained him out the turn before he beat me. Win by 1!
1-0, 2(+1)
Round 2
Brandon Young
"6 Cards with Ability"
Before the game starts, Brandon tells me that he only got 6 cards with ability. Well, he certainly saw a lot of them! This time I decided to start with Signal/Civil Disorder, and he had Twi’Lek/Ability, Ability, Ability. Somewhat crazy, but it’s looking good for me. Unlike the other Dark Side players, he didn’t do the Jabba’s Palace trick. From what I gathered, most of the players started with Jabba’s Palace(either to get the engine going or to convert the Dark Side’s JP). He draws up first turn and loses 2 to Civil Disorder. I deploy a Talz to my War Room, cancelling his Ability, Ability, Ability. Next turn he deploys a Probe Droid to my War Room, battles, and I lose a force. My turn, I play Corran Horn, Mercenary Armor on him, and drop the Back Door. I battle, kill the droid, and make him lose some force. Unfortunately, now Corran stuck at Echo Base! Dang it! He takes the initiative and drops Snoova and a Vibro-Ax to the Back Door. On my turn I deploy Sullust, and a Devorian, Rebel Pilot, and a Florn Lamproid to the Back Door. The Pilot was there so I would get battle destiny even if he used the Ax, but he didn’t leave and force open and I forgot the Ax wasn’t free to use(so I wasted not only a Pilot, but this will come to haunt me later). I battle, draw a 5 for destiny, and kill Snoova. I doesn’t do anything and loses 2 force on his turn(Civil Disorder is good!). On my turn, I force drain at the Back Door. Now I find out that Dark Side also has the equivalent of Surprise Assault... He draws 3 destiny(dang power=0 Pilot!) and makes me lose 9 force. Crap! I drop Kessel and General Calrissian on Pulsar Skate. He deploys the Emperor’s Shield and a Sentinel Class thingy there and battles. I kill his Shield from attrition, but Lando goes down. Next turn I drop Mirax on the Skate(yay!) and battle. I draw a 0 for destiny(no!)... His turn, he plays Boba Fett to the Sentinel, and drops Arica to stop my drain at the Back Door. He also put a Sandtrooper in some transport vehicle at a generic Desert. He fights Mirax, and I draw another 0 for destiny(maybe I was fated to lose?) and he kills her. I deploy Jundland Wastes, kill his Sandtrooper and his vehicle at the Desert, and go to the Wastes to drain. He drains for 1 at Kessel and moves to Sullust. He loses 2 to Civil Disorder. I drain for 2. Rinse, repeat, and win! Civil Disorder gets the job done. Win by 2!
2-0, 4(+3)
Round 3
Billy Permerton
Jabba’s Palace with Thrawn and Flagship Executor!
Wow, I’m in the championship game! I’ve never played Billy before ever, I don’t think. However, this is one match I did not expect to be able to win. I start up like normal and he does the Jabba’s Palace trick. However, he was seated to my left during the draft so we knew roughly what was in each other’s decks. He deploys some sites and draws. I just draw. He deploys more sites and draws. I just draw up once again. He deploys some little aliens to the Audience Chamber. I drop the Back Door and about 4 guys to protect it. He drains and draws. I use Balanced Attack to get Lando at the end of his turn. My turn, I drain for 2 and drop General Calrissian in Pulsar Skate and a Devorian in Red 9 at Kessel. I also deploy Tatooine and Civil Disorder. Next turn, he drains and deploys IG-88 in IG-2000 to Kessel. I drain for 5 and deploy a lot of guys to Mos Eisley. Next turn he drops Flagship Executor and Thrawn to Kessel. My turn, I drain and RUN from Kessel. His turn, he deploys Arica to Back Door and chases my ships. I drain and deploy Corran Horn and friends to Jabba’s Palace. I run from Executor. His turn, he drains and deploys the guy that adds 1 to drains at Jabba’s Palace sites(Gallid?). He also plays some effect that knocks out Lando’s nav computer so I can’t run anymore. I still drain for 4. I brace for impact from Executor. He drains for 7! That darn Gallid! He’ll be the end of me! He also battles with Execute, gets 3 destiny, and totals up to 30 power! I forfeit everyone, but attrition kills off IG-88 in his ship. Civil Disorder knocks out 2 force from him. We count up force, and I will win in 2 turns. My turn, I deploy Mercenary Armor on Corran Horn. Wait a second, I forgot to force drain. Doh! Trying my best to survive, I move Corran and a couple of scrubs over to block a drain at the Entrance Cavern. He drains for 6 and moves an Ugnaught to block my drain at Jabba’s Palace. He also drops Thrawn from the Executor(which was at Tatooine) into the Entrance Cavern. Dang, I didn’t know you could do that. Things are looking kind of grim for both of us. However, I have one chance. He loses 2 to Civil Disorder, and I drain for 2. I battle the Ugnaught with 3 guys totaling power 5 and ability 4. If I can draw a high enough destiny, I can make him lose the Ugnaught and the last 2 force in his deck. I draw destiny...
5
BINGO!!!
I WIN! WOO-HOO!
Win by 2.
3-0, 6(+5)
Final Rank: 1st place
So I win the first Reflections 2 Booster Draft we have in this town. For my efforts I take home another foil Alter. That’s 2 for 2 in sanctioned tournaments this month! Booster Draft is fun, but it’s pretty expensive. I know that a lot of the younger players wanted to play, but they didn’t have $16+ on hand. Also, Star Wars draft seems to be a lot more luck oriented than Magic draft. In Magic, you can draft any card you want out of the pack, and you can build your deck just about any way you want to. In Star Wars, that kind of thing just wouldn’t be possible.
However, I think that perhaps we should do draft in another way: everyone brings in 8 packs(yes, EIGHT), and you can draft any card you get your hands on. However, you will have to build both a Light Side and a Dark Side deck. That way, it’s more skill intensive and less reliant on luck. I doubt that this SW draft variant will ever make it off the ground, but that’s my thoughts on the matter.
That’s all I’ve got for now. Join me again next time as I try to win with Bring Him Before Me and There is Good in Him. Thanks for taking the time to read this! Bye!

Mike Wudhapitak