moffwicket-goes-to-mn-states-5-12-01
Title: moffwicket-goes-to-mn-states-5-12-01
Author: Justin "MoffWicket" Alfs
Date: May 14, 2001
Anyway, my decks for today are the same as last weekend. For darkside, it’s BHBM beats--tramples and commands. This deck has served me very well, and I’ll prolly post it. Light is still my take on Grace’s TIGIH. I’m planning on seeing lots of EBO, WYS, anything with Scum & Villainy, and TIEs. I know my dark will easily handle WYS and EBO. In fact, I yanked Carida for a monnok because in the last two tournaments I pulled the Ex instead of the planet every single game. My light eats BHBM and scummy decks alive. One important change I have is the inclusion of Demotion, for those Chireanu drains that are starting to get popular around here.
Before the games started, a bunch of people were chillin’ outside. Garrett owed Tony a punch or two from last week when Tony was trying to mess with him. You know how some people don’t understand payback? You repay whatever you owe them, and they think they can just get you right back. Well, now you owe them another one. Tony started retaliating, so Garrett had to teach them a lesson. They weren’t really fighting, just playing. I was inside trading, and when I looked up I saw Tony fly at Garrett, similar to the WWF Raw Deal card "suicide plancha." Garrett is about 6’2", 275+. Tony is about 5’9", 150. Tony just bounced off him, but he kept doing it. I and about 6 other people just started busting a gut watching them to fight.
Anyway, Dion Erbes is directing with help from Nick Kolnik. Forty-two people competed in the tourney. Maybe I’ll get to play some people I’ve never played before.
Game 1: my BHBM vs. Rich Jeffery’s Hidden Mains
I do the usual first turn stuff, sans Carida, and he puts Gen. Lando in Falcon at Endor first turn. Second turn he gets Dagobah and the hut, and that’s it for systems. Nien Nunb joins Lando. I put out the Endor db, fortify with guys and move Palpy there. He deploys Goo Nee Tay, and that annoys me. He keeps drawing, saving a few, then doing nothing but drawing. I play monnok used and he tells me later that I foiled his pending beatsquad. After the monnok he had Leia and I know, and other worthless non-combos like that. I save up a little, then splurge with Thrawn on Executor, but can’t battle. He doesn’t move, so I deploy Chimera and battle. He reacts with the spiral, but I’m not too surprised. I have an imp command that I could play, but I’m not really worried about his destinies. He hasn’t been able to track anything, and I have the almighty Executor, so I don’t play it. He plays darklighter spin on the maneuver 6 falcon, then draws a blind 6! WTF? He loses spiral, I lose thrawn and chimera and move the empty ex to dagobah, where it sits for the rest of the game contemplating the ways of the force. He’s got Battle Plan out, so we’re both paying to drain for 1. He hasn’t been running suicide Luke because the one site I’m sitting at has massive power, and there’s no where to run if the battle leaves him survivors. I therefore, haven’t put out Vader to avoid getting burnt for 1 a turn. The rest of the game is a bit of a blur. He invades the second death star, and we have a series of battles. This happened in every game I played this tournament, so I don’t recall the exact details of Rich’s demise. Suffice it to say I kicked his @#$% with some combination of Iggy, Fett, Dr. E, choke vader, tarkin, etc. At the end I have at least 6 cards stacked on conflict, so I turn Luke.
FW by 20
Highs: key monnok kept his wrecking crew from doing any damage
Battle-tastic game, and I won all but 1.
Lows: Goo + Battle Plan
Darklighter + blind 6
Well, that was a good start. I won by a good amount, and we both had fun. This should be a fine day.
Game 2: my TIGIH vs. Tony Lawrence’s Endor Ops biker scouts
I’m thinking that with Perimeter Patrol, this could be tough for me. No beatdowns means a slow game, and if he gets those big drains quick, it could get ugly. First turn he uses PotH to get Elephant man to the bunker as well as perimeter patrol. He deploys two endor sites. Do the usual. Drain with Luke, get home1 db, crix and blount go there, move luke out. Luke drains for 3. I have general solo and orrimaarko as well as the back door in my hand, so perimeter will not be a factor in this game. At least not after a few more turns. The two big scouts deploy at home 1 and move to endor. Tony deploys a biker and bike at the site next to Luke and draws a bunch. I drain with Luke, but he reacts over and captures him, that way he avoided the force loss at the end of his turn. I deploy the back door and move solo and orri over. Vader takes custody of his son. Next turn I move them to the bunker. I think he deploys xizor and guri to help out ephant mon. I think i use I know to react with leia. I shoot ephant mon. I believe he draws a 0. My destiny sucks too though, and his other two characters are immune. My turn I battle, hitting Guri and cleaning house. At some point I On the Edge, deploy Battle Plan, and deploy mini-falcon to Endor. He’s got draining at 2 or 3 sites with biker scouts. I demote one piloting a bike, then deploy a little beat squad to the lone biker at another site. He reacts the imperial flunky over and plays get along side them to add a destiny. He draws low, and I clean the site up. Han and Leia move to the back door to stop Vader and scrub’s annoying drain. We battle there, and Leia shoots the nameless face standing next to Vader. Then Han confesses his love, and Leia says, "I know" once again. My huge destinies cause some spillage. Before the game is over, Ben with nightstick uses some exessive force on another biker on bike. He’s got the imp acadamy thingy that makes me use the bike’s defense value when swinging at the guy, but that doesn’t matter cuz Obi knows how to twirl a nightstick. I draw a tracked 6 for battle destiny and cause more spillage. That’s about it, and we go to eat at Burger King.
FW by 29
4 (+49)
Highs: spillage
Lows: ?
Game 3: vs. Josh Grace’s Vegance of the Prince
We both knew we’d be playing, but the sides were random. I was really hoping I’d be dark, cuz I’m pretty sure my BHBM can walk all over his Test to 6 (training Luke) deck, but that was not to be. We’ve played this match up before, and I know he should slaughter me, so I’m not expecting to do so well. Well, he doesn’t have an opening hand Palpy, so he just sets up and draws. I activate, and he uses A Dangerous Time to fool with my force pile. Luckily I have an opening hand grabber, which could mean the difference in this game. I set up and move Luke out to the db. He knows he must kill Luke, so the droid hitmen, Iggy and 4Lom try to take him out. I chop the lil’ guy, and my insertion planning turns his deadly destiny 1 into a harmless little 0. He deploys Palpy to the ds:db, but is powerless to stop luke. I drain for a few turns with Luke as I amass a fleet at endor. At this point I’m draining for 3 to his 2, and have his objective stuck on the crappy side. It’s looking real good for me. Oh, why did I say that? Here comes the turning point. He monnok losts me to get both my fallen portals, then he deploys a buttload of guys at the ds:db, including snoova with axe, and moves them to endor where I have Luke, crix, and blunt. Now with fallen portal, I’m not too concerned about Snoova. But I know his deck has good destinies, and he’s probably gonna capture Luke and pound the other two guys, so I run away to the carida docking bay. DUMB. I should have taken the chance with snoova, cuz now he can move palpy to the endor db, making Luke absolutely worthless. I have out menace fades and deploy battle plan to slow him down, but he’s been holding zuckuss and deploys him to carida. My ships can’t make it there unless I draw my few manuvers, but even then, mini-falcon doesn’t have enough ability. Grace has PotF on the ds:db and is now draining me for more than I of him. His beat squad chases my guys around on a tour of the galaxy’s finest docking bays. Finally I decide that I must make a stand at the death star. I deploy my only hope, a beefy coran horn to help out, but he gets barriered. Damn I hate that card. I’m not gonna battle without him so I let him do it. He deploys a few more heavy hitters and battles. Iggy captures a guy. Snoova captures a guy. My remaining guys beg for mercy, but are beaten into a pile of goo. Only orrimarko remains, and he promptly runs away to courscant. Grace chases me around as I keep trying to get that few manuvers. I finally get it and move the falcon over to stop zuckuss. Maybe I’ll outpower him. Or maybe he’ll deploy bossk in ht, lateral damage the falcon, and make it die. I really didn’t think he’d have a bossk this late in the game with all my ship stranded at endor. He drains me out shortly after.
FL by 10
4 (+39)
Highs: opening grabber to stop his manipulation
Luke’s ownership of the bounty hunting droids
Lows: monnok to get my portals, resulting in my overall demise
Game 4: vs. Garrett Larson’s New Age Throne Room
This is an exact rematch of what happened last weekend in St. Cloud. The only difference is the monnok instead of carida. He gets home1:db and I get out palpy at ds2:db. He deploys some fishhead to hom1 and gets out hoth db. I put out endor:db with iggy and some other guy, and move palpy there. My power’s about 11 there, but surprisingly he attacks with suicide luke. Insight says that his 3 and 4 kill my emperor. I force lighting him, and think about capturing him with iggy, but decide that without vader in my hand it could suck. He gets han and leia with daddy’s glostick there and takes it over for a while. Goo nee tay rears its ugly head again. I set up on the cc:db. Monnok used takes away key cards from his hand again. He gets out kiffix and home 1, with ackbar piloting and LiMF as backup. I think I deploy thrawn in big E but can’t battle again (is this all sounding familiar?) He demotes Thrawn and battles me so I lose him and a couple from hand. He moves Hashn’ and thanespee from the db to the bridge. I forgot that thanespee is zuckuss, so i deployed bossk alongside my empty executor and battled. I got reamed, so I just lost both ships. Battle Plan is out, and he’s dominating right now. I try to take out Han, Leia, chewie protector, and perhaps someone else on endor with dr. e and Igar on Tempest 1. He noble sacs ackbar when dr. e deploys to the same site as anakin’s saber. I trample han. Chewie cancels igar’s text. He draws a 0 for destiny. On his turn he redeploys han and battles with I know. He draws @#$% destinies and I lose the walker. I deploy mara with stick and operate on someone, beating the remaining character. Later on he invades my death star (where have I heard this before?). I move guys in to stop him. After one battle he has luke opposite Mara and someone. I deploy fett there, hit luke and draw a big destiny. He loses about 9 in overspill. That’s pretty much game, as he can only drain me once more.
FW by 9
6 (+48)
Bah, I know I messed up all sorts of details in writing this game. Maybe Garrett will post his version.
Highs: Perfect revenge from last week when he won by 9 with this exact same match up.
Lows: I’m not doing so hot in space today.
Only Graham Neal and Josh Grace are undefeated. They face off this round.
Game 5: vs. Michael Raveling’s BHBM Big Blue drain
First turn he gets Palpy to my docking bay and cripples my activation. I give Luke to him and he eats the 3 force loss for 2 turns. Meanwhile, I’ve got the mini-falcon combo, but nothing else. He put out Kessel, so I’ll only get one destiny. One destiny makes the falcon just another ship, and if he’s putting out Kessel, he’s playing space. Instead I wait until he deploys Fondor and then I camp out there, taking the Executor out of the game. I never leave Fondor until he throws the Ex to a drain. Meanwhile, on the ground he’s got Vader w/saber/w/luke and i think iggy at the endor db, and palpy w/janus at the hut and sometimes the back door, which I deployed. I throw down a few characters, but never a really good combo, so I can’t just beat on him. Empy zapped han, and I only won a battle once during the game. Mike’s objective and my drain at Fondor kept gnawing away at his life force like a toothless gerbil, but eventually it added up. Near the end, I On the Edged for 5 to make a game out of it. My few mediocre characters chased around Janus and Palpy and the Mini-falcon chased after the big drains in space--fett at endor or chireanu somewhere else. I had a fallen portal in hand, and was tracking a 6, with at least one more 6 floating around, so I was praying he’d battle, but he never did. Depending on where I was at the time, either Vader or Palpy would die. I was down to 7 force, so I went for broke. Suicide Obi would sacrafice himself to take out EPP vader. No swing, just a destiny. If I kill vader, then I can move Luke over to palpy and chew up mike for 3 force at the end of his turn. Well, the second I deploy Obi he gets You Are Beatened. Damn. Mike just keeps running from my guys until he drains me out.
FL by 5
6 (+43)
Highs: Somehow I came back and made it really close.
Lows: Most of the game was really frustrating. Never got the right cards at the same time except for the mini-falcon, which never did anything more than draining for 1 a turn.
Grace got a TIMED victory, which means he has to win his next game or he won’t make the playoffs. He and Graham go at it again.
As for me...
Game 6: vs. Herb Macy’s Jedi testing
D’OH! I was hoping not to play him today. I’m sure you all know why, but in case you don’t, it’s because he can be the biggest ass. I won’t go into details, but I was sitting next to Nick Janegus (sorry, I know I mangled your name) and Herb while they were playing, and Herb was a total @#$%. Herb is quitting Star Wars, and this tournament was probably his last. He sold most of his cards, and I payed $25 for his Palpatine. I must say though, that in this match, Herb was very friendly, and didn’t piss me off at all. I was very impressed.
Anyway, all of Herbs decks are basically the same: mains with lots of random 7s. He trains Leia, much to my dismay, but that also means there’s no superfalcon. Then again, I have no system in my deck, and I doubt he has one beside Dagobah. He just sets up the first two turns, so I burn him for 3 on my 2nd and 3rd turns. I set up a strong crew at the CC:db along with Empy to discourage the suicide Lukes. I wait on deploying the Endor:db until I have another beat squad to deploy. He tests up to 3, then searches for 4 and loses it to a force drain. I’m like, "what the hell?" and he says he slapped the deck together this morning and forgot the bog clearing. Anyway, he invades the empty throne room (God, this is getting old), so I have no choice to retaliate with various combinations of Choke Lord, Iggy, Dr. E, Fett, and Mara with saber. I never fail a single destiny draw the entire game, even with test 3 subtracting one. Over the course of the game, I choked blount, zapped some guy, and operated on corran horn and someone else. Needless to say I demolished him on my death star. He had given me Luke while vader was kicking ass, so he was actually causing some damage to me. I moved guys to endor, and moved palpy and Vader to the throne room for the kill. Unfortunatly he didn’t have a reserve deck at the time, so I won the duel. He only had 2 force left though, so that was game anyway.
FW by 32
8 (+75)
Highs: Spanked Herb good in his last game. Everything went my way.
Lows: He was missing a key card, so it should have been much closer.
Well, Grace beat Graham again, this time a full win. It’s Josh Grace vs. Michael Raveling for the final. Josh is playing his Vengance deck and Save You It Can, Apocolyptic. Mike is playing BHBM Chireanu drain and WYS, I think Winklehaus style (Han damage tripler).
I was busy trading and playing Raw Deal, so I didn’t watch the whole thing. Here’s what I do know:
First game Mike plays light. All I know is that Josh won by 17. I imagine with the capturing and multiple destinies, Mike could never critically wound him in a battle.
Second game: Josh foolishly loses to a force drain from the reserve instead of his hand and there goes tests 4. This is just after he did test 3. Don’t ask me why he didn’t already have it in his hand. He doesn’t get an On the Edge until it’s too far down there. At one point Mike has one card in hand and 16 force left, but the one card was an interrupt or something, and he put it back. Josh couldn’t cause anymore damage the rest of the game, so Mike won by 17.
They tie in the final confrontation, but Josh had 11 points to Mike’s 10 in the basic tournament, so Josh Grace is the new Minnesota State Champion.
The final standings:
1-Josh Grace
2-Michael Raveling
3-Josh Kohman
4-Me, Justin Alfs
This was one of the funnest tournaments I can recall.
MAD props:
-Tony and Garrett for fighting in the parking lot. Everyone laughed their fool head off.
-Grace and Raveling for being the two best SW players in the Midwest.
Just plain ordinary props:
-Me, for getting 4th. My two losses were to 1st place by 10 and 2nd place by 5. I can’t complain.
-Dion for running a smooth tournament.
-Mirkwood for keeping all the grimy Magic players out until the tournament was over.
-Pretty much everyone else.
Slops:
-Anyone who played operatives.