wv-state-tournament-report-5-12-01
Title: wv-state-tournament-report-5-12-01
Author: Michael "Yoda's Son" Adams
Date: May 16, 2001
Well, it’s been a long year, and I had been looking forward to this tourney for quite some time. I wanted someone to beat our current Champion, John Tatta. Not because of any ill will, I think John is one of the best friends I have "in the game". He is a great teacher and opponent, and I immensely enjoy playing him....but having said that, I wanted to have someone beat him and put a dent in his ego a little.
We have built up a small SWCCG community down here in the southern end of the state, and we carpooled 4 people up to play. We arrived a little early, and got ready.
***Game One***
My DS vs. Clay Swentzel’s TIGIH scouts w/weapons
I was completely in the dark about how my deck would do in actual play. I made it on a whim, from a deck I saw here on Decktech and then changed it some and had only played it a couple of times. I figured if everything went right I could surprise someone. He started pulling scouts with Crix and pulling weapons with Beezer early. The premise of my deck is to lure them to Hoth and then play Frostbite, Sunsdown and Ice Storm. Big loss, every turn if played right. I start getting the pieces together. I was worried about an early Grimtaash seeing what I had, so I packed a Shocking Revelation. It took me forever to get one of my two copies of the Hoth system out. When I do, I deploy 2 Banthas to the Hoth: Def Perimeter and start draining for 2. He tries to counter with Blount undercover, and that was where it all went bad for him. I put out The Sheild Doors Must Be Closed and stuck him outside, then played an ice storm and made Blount lost. Got out Frostbite and started making him lose to it. While this was going on, I had deployed 3 IM4-099 droids and inserted 3270 to 1. I hit him for that three times.
Ups: It was never really close.
Downs: Taking too long to get out No Escape and Hoth.
Game 1: 2(+24)
Overall: 2 (+24)
***Game Two***
My LS vs. John Lilly’s Court
I am very confident of my LS deck. It is a variation of the TIGIH/Speederholics deck posted on here months ago. I have only made about 8 card changes to it, and it has been the best deck I’ve ever played in my life.
I started looking for speeders expecting him to come outside early. I got the Endor: Back Door out and moved Luke there and expected him to attack. I put out Kiffex and Tantive IV with 2 X-wings. I figure I’m safe, because he is putting aliens down in the AC. Then he puts ZiMH and Fett in Slave I at Kiffex and battles. I don’t get BD and lose one of my Xwings because he has bad BD. Next turn, I am desperately trying to get some more xwings down, and can’t find them. I end up getting battled there two more times and losing everything. All he has left is ZiMH. In the meantime, I moved Luke to the Tat: DB to avoid Court damage. I finally get some xwings and get out Incom and S-Foils. I play it all and take 5 xwings to play with Zuckuss at power 6 each....ouch! He gets mad at Luke running around and steps outside the AC and finds 5 sandspeeders with flaps and gets the same treatment there.
Ups: Everything came off almost without a hitch.
Downs: Having trouble getting the xwings and never getting to play All Wings Report In.
Game 2: 2 (+19)
Overall: 4 (+43)
***Game Three***
My DS vs John Tatta’s Profit
So I finally get to play against his famed Profit deck. And with of all things, my manipulating banthas. I get my droids early and spread them out on Tat and Hoth making him think a little that I might have troopers. He frees Han and starts draining early, but not much else. I get a couple of good draws and all of a sudden I have everything I need. He gets out Back Door and puts EPP Leia and Tawss there and starts draining.
I get an early numbers in and make it pop for 9 force loss...nice.
I get the banthas down and figure that next turn I will get to draw him in. He deploys GLiG1 to the Hoth system and Corran Horn to the Def Perimeter vs my banthas. Then he plays a Grimtaash. He sees it all....the frostbite, ice storm, sunsdown, exhaustion....everything I had planned. I was devastated. I was that close! He battles to clear the site, lands GLiG1 and hops Corran inside. I get another #’s in, but he knows that I don’t have anybody to deploy, so he doesn’t activate anymore. We go back and forth between the Death Mark I played on Han, and his Profit damage. I had managed to get U-3PO to the Back Door to stop that, but his other drains were too much.
Ups: Being so close to luring him in.
Downs: Probably not being as close as I though to luring him in....cursed Grimtaash....down with the dejeraks!
Game 3: 0 (-21)
Overall: 4 (+22)
***Game Four***
My LS vs John Tatta’s Imperial Court
Wow, what bad luck to have to play him again back-to-back! Oh well, this is my strongest deck ever, and I’ve already beat one Court today, so I’m fairly confident of a good showing. He starts off pulling Mara w/stick and leaves her at the AC. I figure, OK, I’ll just march Luke over and pay her a visit. First turn, I go for the Tat: DB and it isn’t there!.....WHAT!!!!....that’s right, it isn’t there! So he sees my entire deck, on my first turn. I draw up and end the turn. His turn he deploys Lord Vader and takes Luke captive. I wasn’t expecting that out of a court deck. He moves inside Chief Chirpa’s Hut knowing the speeders were coming, and starts draining for 3. I put down EPP Obi and 4 speeders on the Jundland Wastes, thinking, ok...I have drain sites...I don’t need to battle. His next turn when he force drains, I lose Kiffex, Coruscant and the Back Door. Wow, that is bad. Next turn I lose CC: Downtown Plaza, so I officially have all my good sites in the lost pile. I got out Boushh to stop Vader’s drain, but never got him to come outside while I could do anything about it. He had pulled Carida and put the Executor with Thrawn and Piett there after I had lost most of my xwings.
Ups: Not a blessed thing.
Downs: One of only two losses I’ve ever had with this deck, and the other was the first time I played it. Rotten, rotten luck!
Game 4: 0 (-26)
Overall: 4 (-4)
***Game Five***
Well as good as I had started off, I managed to earn myself the Bye in this game. I played a quick game against the TD and slaughtered his Dark Deal with my speeders.
Game 5: 2 (0)
Overall: 6 (-4)
***Game Six***
My LS vs Clay Swentzel’s Court
Ok, sick of the Court today. I get good draws, and he starts loading people up at the AC. I have out Insurrection, luckily, because after gathering about 8 aliens, he decides to Elis over to Endor to play with Luke. I got to see his deck on second turn and saw no space whatsoever, so I deployed Kiffex and Coruscant with 1 xwing each (a Ghhhk in hand just in case). I pull up some speeders and recycle the xwings the rest of the game. I am draining him for 6-7 a turn and moving Luke away from his hit squad. At one point I decided to go for diff instead of the early win, and instead of bringing 7 power 6 speeders down on his lone Chevin, I put them back in reserve and drained him out a couple of turns later.
Ups: Clay is a great guy, and gets better each time we play.
Downs: None. Everything I wanted to do, I could and more.
Game 6: 2 (+40)
Overall: 8 (+36)
So that’s it. I find out that I came in 4th, the guy in 3rd had 1 more diff....that sucks.
Thanks to Mark Bordenet for great prize support as usual!
Thanks to John Tatta for being a most humble repeat Champion.
Congrats to AJ Clemans for becoming runnerup.
Final Standings (without Final Confrontation):
1. John Tatta 12(+147)
2. AJ Clemans 8(+52)
3. Emerson Sklar 8(+37)
4. Mike Adams (me)8(+36)
5. Chad Reedy 6(+33)
6. Chris Warder 6(+15)
7. Coleman Richardson 6(-10)
8. John Lilly 6(-17)
9. Clay Swentzel 6(-48)
10. Kim Hughes 4(-108)
11. Will Dean 2(-131)