melbourne-australia-6th-may-2001-states
Title: melbourne-australia-6th-may-2001-states
Author: Luca "Luca/Tzizvvt" Costanzo
Date: May 13, 2001
It all started a few weeks before the states with some playtesting. WYS was absolutely everywhere in Melbourne, but dark decks were completely random. The light decks that I had on the backburner were TRM, Hidden Mains (won multiple tournaments with it earlier this year), QMC and WYS. I didn’t want to play WYS seeing as it was obviously going to be fairly popular and well metagamed against. Hidden Mains and QMC were also out seeing as some playtesting with Rodney Lee revealed that they couldn’t really hack ties. TRM, on the other hand, sliced through ties like a hot knife through butter. Between I Hope She’s All Right, Battle Plan and the choke aspect, there was not much hope for Ties. Against everything else it was solid and, naturally, raped anything that didn’t quite give itself enough force (particularly with Goo Nee Tay on table). It was one card off being optimal: Haash’n should’ve been an Alter.
Dark was a harder decision. I had MKOS, Court, Hunt Down, ISB and BHBM as far as ideas went. ISB was tight, and beat things consistently, but it was too passive to fit my play style. MKOS was good, as was Hunt Down, but both had a chance of losing to WYS. That left Court and BHBM. I had been playing Court a bit and it was solid, but I favoured the BHBM deck over it by far seeing as it had no real bad matchups, whereas Court could lose to TIGIH. The problem was that I don’t actually own any Emperor Palpatines and was unable to rustle any up, so Court it was. I built the deck on the morning of the tournament and metagamed against WYS with the perfect space contingent (not too little, not too much), multiple Twi’lek Advisors, POTF because it’s cool and Masterful Moves to fetch Ghhhk, Monnok and keep the destinies high. It had one obvious weakness to TIGIH, but TIGIH is easily the least popular deck around here, so hopefully anyone playing TIGIH would lose to Hunt Down first round and not result in me playing them.
LIGHT- Throne Room Mains (Ishi-Tib/Docking Bay style)
DARK- Court (Bad against TIGIH, Great against WYS and Good against everything else)
I turned up on time, with deck lists already completed to see that Kev wasn’t there, so I relaxed and said hi to people. Adam Amy and Stuart Jones were making decks. Adam had rung me to ask for some Sense Combo cards, but I hadn’t gotten the message, so I went and scrounged them up for him. I spotted Daniel ’Robbo’ Robertson, and the whole Geelong contingent was with him. All in all, there were about 40 or 50 people there, so it was set to be a good tournament.
GAME ONE Light v Dave Martin (Old Skool)
Dave’s a great player, but he’s been out of it for a while. Dave started with Wampa Cave and Combat Readiness for Defensive Perimeter. I felt slightly relieved, but was still cautious. Good players never go down without a fight :)
I got two Ishi Tibs set up fairly quickly and dropped an early Goo Nee Tay. Dave didn’t have too much to do, so he saved up for a turn or so and deployed Mara Jade to beat down on the Ishi Tib at the Hoth: Docking Bay. I wasn’t worried; it happens every game :) Dave then moved Mara out to the Defensive Perimeter to drain. I spun the Wampa Cave around and dropped LSJK with stick to take care of Mara. I missed the cut and Dave made the correct play by losing about 5 force and Mara.
Next turn, Dave dropped the CC: Downtown Plaza and 4-LOM with gun to take care of Luke. Dave picked a fight and deployed Sergeant Wallen (wtf?) for free. Luke got his GT cancelled, but cut Mara. A Blaster Proficiency later, only LSJK was left standing. Dave deployed the Tatooine: Cantina and I took over the Downtown Plaza with EPP Obi-Wan. Some dude got thrown at Obi and he died. I redeployed Obi and Bacta Tank. Dave deployed Emperor Palpatine and Mosep (Dave’s trademark card) to the pub.
I came down to the pub with EPP Leia, Han, Axe Lando and Corran Horn. Although Lando missed on exclusion (I had been deploying too much to rig all the way down) there was a fair bit of battle damage. One edge card later and some drains resulted in a win by 27.
The Good: Deck worked perfectly.
The Bad: Not getting a good rig.
The Ugly: Nothing too bad. Dave and I weren’t particularly happy to be playing each other first round.
GAME TWO v Michael (AITC)
Michael doesn’t own heaps of Jedi Lukes, so he was playing a creative AITC deck using Bargaining Table and Rebel Fleet to slow down damage and then Celebration to retrieve. Sort of like Matt Lush’s (I think it was his) old worlds deck (X-Wings, Mains and Celebration). I set up the chamber early and Michael grabbed both Rebel Fleet and Bargaining Table within the first few turns. I couldn’t find Masterful Move or Monnok, so I sat back with a Barrier in my hand. Michael decided that he’d had enough in about his second turn and deployed a Jawa to my AC (anti barrier tech). I felt pretty stupid. He then dropped stick Luke, some scrubby Alien and cleared me off the chamber. Next turn I retaliated by fetching Mara and Stick from reserve, as well as Boelo. Michael decided to save himself a few cards by playing Houjix.
Michael deployed Tatooine and a few X-Wings, an X-Wing to Carida and a Kitonak and a Sandwhirl to get in some small drains. I countered the Tatooine X-Wings with Bus and Zuckuss. Seeing as Zuck would stop Out Of Nowhere nonsense, Michael decided to play his combo card to cancel the 5 or so battle damage.
I was getting frustrated as most of my drains were being cancelled by a non-unique of some description and I still hadn’t found a Monnok. I took the chance that Michael was out of Houjixes (after all, who plays more than two?) and Controlled the Sandwhirl, deployed some doom squad and beat up on the poor little Kitonak. Michael was out of Houjixes and lost about 15 cards. From then on, I got a few drains in and the only other thing of note that happened was Michael making a comback at the AC with EPP Obi. He missed, drawing one of his elusive sites for destiny. Next turn I picked a fight, knowing that the crappy destinies were on top and cleared him out. A few drains later and it was +30 for me.
The Good: Nothing much. Boring game. Seeing Michael improve and build a creative deck, I suppose.
The Bad: Not finding Monnok.
The Ugly: Frigging anti-barrier Jawa!
GAME THREE v Rodney Lee (AOTBS)
Rod was playing something fairly close to Dark Surgeon, with Hidden Weapons, though. Rod started off lightning fast by dropping first turn Palpatine to the Death Star: Docking Bay and Bad Feeling Have I. Grrr. I set up my Ishi-Tib and drew a card. No twix or Goo Nee Tay, but I did have a LSJK. Xizor made the trek over to the DS:DB to flip and I deployed the <> Docking Bay and LSJK there. I had all the jank I needed to protect him in hand. I was not stupid enough to put him in front of Palpy :)
Rod didn’t come after me, dropping Guri and more bounty hunters to the DS: DB. Not to be outdone, I deployed Obi and Han to the <> docking bay. I drained for two with a stick and Rod drained for two with a POTF. Rod deployed more dudes and I deployed more guys. In the end, he had something like Bob, Emperor, Xizor, Dengar, 4-LOM, IG-88 and Guri at his bay. I had LSJK, Obi, Luke, Han, Leia, Lando, Chewie, Corran and Wedge at mine. I also deployed Anakin’s stick, so I was catching up in the drain race (he had gotten a faster start).
Rod decided to move his squad over to my docking bay. I messed Guri and Rod told me to switch off. I sensed, he controlled. Whatever, I decided. I deployed Order To Engage and moved my squad in front of Palpy, who was too snobby to follow the other squad :)
Rod didn’t fight and moved guys over. I messed and killed someone and moved. Rod followed. I sat. Rod had something like Guri, IG-88, 4-LOM, Dengar, Bob and Xizor to my guys. He picked a fight. I Fallen Portalled Bob and Dengar, 4-LOM having been already blanked by Chewie. I killed everything and lost some guy to Bacta Tank.
Rod decided that he’d had enough of this and presenced my Hoth: DB to beat down on my Ishi Tib with Guri and Xizor. I Fallen Portalled Xizor. I moved a squad in front of Emperor, leaving LSJK to fend for himself in order to prevent Palpy from running to a battleground. Rod lost the game on beatdown on Palpy.
2(+15)
6(+72)
The Good: Didn’t make any mistakes. Sure, AOTBS can be tight, but it all comes down to knowing what you’re doing.
The Bad: Because of BFHI, Secret Plans and all the crap I had to deploy to win, I was unable to retrieve with Edges.
The Ugly: Apparently Emperor Palpatine can’t move to where I have presence.
GAME FOUR Dark v ... Rodney Lee (TIGIH!)
Apparently we’d been paired up against each other again ... ugh. As we started shuffling Rod said "Hey, I just realised something ... I’ve turned into John Arendt." And I’m like huh? So he says "TIGIH and AOTBS," which we both found fairly amusing. I couldn’t believe that I’d come up against TIGIH, but I’m sure that I can take it down to the wire, if not win if I have a bit of luck. Anyhow, Rod gets Back Door in opening hand (aaaaaaaaargh!) and moved Luke over to drain. In contrast, I set up my AC and Carida with Zuckuss, but couldn’t find a POTF or something to put the hurt on. Rod put Crix and Blount down to the Endor: Landing Platform. I drained and Rod lost a Double Agent and I’m like "Cool ... this is my chance" seeing as he only had about 5 or 6 cards in hand and it was too early for him to have a rig set up (not that he’d really need it). I looked at the Mara in hand and decided to go for it. I deployed Mara to the platform (side note: I don’t care whether or not I was supposed to do that with scum. 2 to the objective and take out Luke looked much better than 3 from the back door). Anyhow, I fished up the stick and then Rod played ... Double Agent. I was pretty annoyed at that, seeing as there was pretty much no chance that he should’ve had it, but you win some, you lose some.
I set up some drains on Tat and Carida, but still couldn’t find a Twi’lek or POTF or anything. Rod fished up Midge, deployed General Solo, Midge and COK to the Landing Platform and left LSJK alone at the Back Door. I drained and watched him throw out a Fallen Portal. That left him with about 5 or 6 cards in hand and he’d thrown out two Portals. I didn’t have much choice, so I came down with IG-88 and 4-LOM. I picked a fight and, yes, once again, Rod had the Fallen Portal in hand ... so I had to use up a Ghhhk.
We kept draining and I picked up Mara. There was too much crap at the Landing Platform to go there, so I deployed Mara to the Back Door, followed up with Evazan/Ponda Baba, moved them over to Chirpa’s Hut to avoid yet another Fallen Portal, lost my cards and sat back with a Barrier. Rod came down with EPP Leia and Cracken, neither of whom I barriered, seeing as it was a pretty good guess that Rod had an Obi with Stick in hand (he later told me that he did). I steeled myself for Rod to have miraculously picked up the third Double Agent and ... he didn’t have it. Rod picked a fight, shot Evazan and drew ... a 4 for destiny. Luke went back to the back door. After that, it was a drain race that I lost.
0(-21)
6(+51)
The Good: None. It was well played by Rod, but there were no hilights for me :)
The Bad: Rod had EVERY counter card that he needed.
The Ugly: I got BACK DOORED.
GAME FIVE Light v James Ward (Brangus)
James started off with SYCFA, Crush, Mob Points and Battle Order. He pulled Rendilli and I was very confused, suspecting Big Blue ... but then, why wouldn’t he have pulled Executor? Anyhow, I dropped guys to my bays and James dropped Death Star: Docking Control Room or something and I’m like ... wtf? James pulled CC: Docking Bay and Executor: Docking Bay. I dropped a Goo Nee Tay around turn two and James was like ’Fine then, be that way’ and lost a Miiyoom Onith to a random drain or something ...
I was getting suspicious, and when James searched for a Death Star: Docking Bay and dropped Brangus, King of the Docking Bays to the Executor: Docking Bay. At this point, my suspicions were confirmed, but if there’s anyone in Melbourne who knows Brangus it’s me, so I knew that I could pull this one off. I killed Brangus #1 with enough guys that PASOA wouldn’t hurt me and James had some small amount of overflow. James did get a Control/SFS back before he died, though. I killed the guy at the Death Star: Docking Bay, once again playing around PASOA.
James dropped Mara to beatdown on my Ishi-Tib and I Fallen Portalled her. James was being slow, so I decided to take some initiative and drop I Hope She’s All Right (transiting the guys at the Executor: Docking Bay to the <> Docking Bay on Rendilli). James responded with a POTF on my Hoth: Docking Bay, Guri, IG-88, 4-LOM and ... Brangus, Supreme Overlord of the Bays there (droids moved over, though, so he didn’t fight Mr Tib). I dropped Order To Engage and moved some dudes over. James picked a fight, I Fallen Portalled some guys, cut some guy and James lost everything and one or two cards.
I played an On The Edge with a tracked 6 during James’s turn. My turn, and I just got back into position and kept the ping up with I Hope She’s All Right. James needed to get some stuff going so he dropped Zuck In Ship to Rendilli and Arica to the <> Docking Bay where Luke was draining. I Edged with a different 6 again. My turn, and I messed Arica, deployed Haash’n to the H1: War Room, Home One and Wedge Antilles, RSL and beatdown. Unfortunately, I hadn’t been able to activate all the way down to my 6, so I had to settle with a 3 or something. James settled with a Ghhhk.
James had a last-ditch effort with Stick Vader and ... Brangus, Master of Docking Bay 327 to EPP Obi at the CC: Docking Bay. Cut, die. I Messed Arica, Edged and put back some cards. Next turn, I tried my Nar Shaddaa Wind Chimes and missed, drawing Corran Horn for destiny (aaaaaargh ... I could’ve sworn there were two 1s there ...), which only cost me the edge in my Lost Pile. Game.
2(+29)
8(+80)
The Good: Pretty much perfect game. It was great to see someone playing Brangus.
The Bad: Frigging miss-tracking ... how embarassing ... I understand how Brian-I’ve missed On The Edge with every main-Hunter feels :)
The Ugly: Fallen Portal is just ... sooo ... good.
So at this point there is one undefeated. Adam Amy, Rod, Ronnie, Stuart Jones and I were all on more or less the same margins. I was almost certain that I should’ve been playing Stuart Jones, so if I win that by a fair bit and Adam and Ronnie don’t win by heaps, I should be into the final. I’m thinking I’ve got a decent chance, as Stuart was apparently playing WYS, which I had metagamed against ...
GAME SIX Dark v ... Daniel Robertson (TIGIH !!!)
Before this game, Kev announced the pairings. Some of them were wrong, so Kev re did them. He ended up re doing about one pairing. Robbo and I go and check that we’re playing. According to Kev, we are. Seeing as Robbo was the undefeated and I was definitely not the highest dark side player that he hadn’t played, there was no way that this pairing was right. I’m pretty sure that Robbo should’ve played Adam Amy and I should’ve played Stuart Jones, but the pairings were not right, Kev was convinced that they were right and there was nothing to be done about it.
We sat down, shuffled and revealed starting stuff. Robbo revealed TIGIH, perhaps unsurprisingly :) If there’s anyone who knows how to play TIGIH, it’s Robbo. Not much point going into details. I set up a drain at Carida with POTF. Robbo activated an absolute crapload and here was where it was refreshing to see that he’d put some though into his non-net deck. He Control/Tunnel Visioned for OBI-WAN’S JOURNAL, which he said he had put in as a result of playtesting against Scum and AOTBS. Well, fine then!
I tried to set up my chamber, but when I looked for Ephant Mon (huge- stops Boushh, Cracken, Blount and Lando with Axe), only Boelo was there. Boelo’s a pimp-daddy in his own right, but I wanted friggin Ephant! Anyhow, down came Boushh. Grrr. Luke made his way to my chamber and I’m like hey, Kev, can I pick up Luke with Mara then put her in the Brig? Kev says yes, so I’ve got a plan. I look for Mighty Jabba, who should be in reserve along with Ephant, but find only Evazan/Ponda Baba. Grrr. I pick up Luke with Mara and make my most bonehead play of the day. Robbo had a huge hand, but I moved to the AC anyway. Robbo played Double Agent using Boushh ...
I kept up my draining, but there was nothing much to be done about it. Midge was on Endor and that was pretty much that.
0(-didn’t matter)
8(+whatever)
The Good: Robbo missed an Edge on the last turn when it didn’t matter and he hadn’t tracked. Ah-hah! Take that!
The Bad: F#$%#d up pairings.
The Ugly: Ephant Mon not showing his ugly, ugly face.
So I’m fairly disappointed that I stuffed up, but managed to claim 6th or something due to my unbelievably cool light deck. Apparently Kev had been hoarding excess prize support for a while so everyone came off at least 4 packs better off. I pulled something like a Tawss Khaa, Corran and some other stuff. Adam Amy and Robbo (unsurprisingly) made it to the finals, so I hung around and kept half an eye on them.
FINALS GAME ONE Adam Amy (Profit) v Daniel Robertson (Hunt Down)
Basically, what I saw of this game was Adam with Corran Horn sitting on the Executor draining (I’m guessing Adam had a Dodge in hand) and Robbo sitting on a stacked AC. Adam’s fiancee was watching, so let me explain it how I explained it to her:
"You see how there’s those double-sided cards?"
"Yeah"
"Well, basically, having them on the side with the 7 on them is really good. Robbo’s got his flipped but Adam hasn’t, so he’s causing a lot more damage."
... a few minutes later ...
"What just happened?"
"Well, Adam just flipped his over and got a lot of cards back, so he’s going to be able to start causing a lot of damage now."
"And how do you tell who’s won?"
"Basically when all of those piles have nothing in them."
"How long will that take?"
"About two minutes."
FW to Adam by 14
FINALS GAME TWO Daniel Robertson (TIGIH) v Adam Amy (AOTBS)
Adam had asked me earlier in the day how to beat TIGIH with Agents. I told him that either he got a first turn Emperor to the Landing Platform or loses. Adam deployed a docking bay first turn and moved Xizor over. Robbo fished up Obi’s Journal and Back Doored Adam. Adam pissed around a bit draining for one or so, but he had been back doored, and he knew it.
FW to Robbo by 20-something
Robbo took the state championships and that was pretty much all there was to it. Adam was overjoyed by the Runner Up Bumbag. To quote him: "Great. I’m a nerd, and I’m not even any good at it."
Props:
Adam for turning up drunk and playing worse as he got more sober.
TRM for being un-be-lievable.
Robbo for being a champ.
Ronnie for the Goo Nee Tay and LSJK and for coming third or something!
Sticks for turning up.
Kev for running it and coming up with good prizes.
Rod, Ronnie and Stuart Jones for the playtesting.
Slops:
Anyone who played TIGIH. There were perhaps 3 TIGIH decks there and I played against two of them.
John Arendt for posting such a tight deck in the first place.
Kev for screwing up pairings.
Terry for not turning up.
Cards for being expensive :)
Luca Costanzo
Tzizvvt@hotmail.com