madrid-ithor-05-19-01
Title: madrid-ithor-05-19-01
Author: Heraclio "Morgoth" Sanchez
Date: May 21, 2001
Well I guess we´re having good times for SWCCG here in Ithor as we play two or three tourneys per month in Madrid and some more in Zaragoza (guys, don´t you get tired of so many events? ;-) ) and Seville.
Friday evening comes with our usual playtesting at Gen X but Tarin bros didn´t appear so it was just Nacho and me. I´ve changed my LS deck to a TIGIH scouts with some dirty tricks (which I´ll be posting soon if does right) so I want to test it before the tourney.
I won´t be testing my dark deck for I don´t want to get tired of it and it has done pretty well (8-1 in tournament play). It´s a basic MKOS Abyssin with heavy space.
Now on the tourney.
As usual just 8 players there but good ones since Tarin bros, Nacho and Juanfra are attending.
We talk a bit of tech and trade some cards while waiting for the pairings. Everything was ready early and surprisingly well organized so props to everyone.
Game 1
My LS vs Juanfra Court of Surprises
Juanfra is a veteran player so this will be quite hard. This is my first serious game with my deck so my turns took a bit longer (I use to play ultra fast).
He starts Resistance, Secret Plans and SSPFT. I was impressed by such a defensive start but I was pretty sure most of them would be rather useless vs my deck (I pack just 2 On the Edge for retrieval and prefer battling rather than draining). I start as usual, Insurrection, Strike Planning and Staging Areas.
First turn he just draws (loosing one to his objective). I get Madine and activate. Look for a db but none of my two dbays are on the reseverve. WTF!? He verifies so most of my dirty surprises are now gone. My slow start and verification were key for the rest of the game. He got 3 systems really fast (Court with systems?) and soon got a steady drain of 6 per turn. Mara with saber and Dr. Evazan hit the Chamber while I was trying to set my hand for a beatdown my I was loosing too much for his drains, I hope She´s Alright and Order To Engage were lost so I needed to make my move fast.
I just had two scouts and Craken. I was holding Double Agent so I could get rid of Mara before initiating and then smack Evazan. I activated and checked my detinies looking for a dbay. Damn! My higher destiny was a 2 so I had no chance to kill Mara. From this point I knew I was lost. My guys took over Tattoine chasing Mara, Evazan and Jabba but without OTE was pretty useless. Vader took Luke and shuttled to the Chimaera orbiting Endor. I retrieved a bit but could´t even drain for he had played Battle Order. He just drained me out inflicting me the most severe loss I remember. FL –28.
Overall: 0 (-28) ouch!
The good: are you kidding?
The bad: everything?
The ugly: loosing by 28.
My A*S*S hurted me a ton after this game. Miguel finished soon too and we talked about submarine tech that I would need at maximum to finish good. We waited for a while so pairings for game two began. I expected at least two easy games since I was in last position, but I would be wrong as usual.
Game 2
My DS vs Mario “Little Tarkin” TIGIH from hell
Well I´m getting used to it. It seems I´ll never have any easy games. Mario is the younger of the feared Tarin (or Tarkin as we call them) bros. He finished 3rd at Ithor States and his older brother (Miguel) is rated number 1 here.
At least I´ve faced this deck before playing vs his brother and I know exactly what to expect. I start as usual with TINT/OE, No Bargain and POTH. So does he with Insurrection, Staging Areas and Strike Planning. First turn, I look for AC but no single Jabba´s Palace site was there (it seems that nothing will work for me today). I pull the Barge and Passanger deck and draw. He does standard first turn but was quite lucky drawing a site.
I knew I needed to fortify all over the Palace and wait for a spot to beatdown. He got all of his Endor sites and then he had to choose between coming to Tatooine or compete for a drain race on Endor. He decided to drain all over Endor while building a beatdown crew. So we both were playing similar strategies but MKOS is better prepared for it. Cancelling some drains and retrieving one Abyssin per turn. Bubo took a trip to Endor and got Madine for lunch before getting killed. That slowed him a bit.
Mid game he came to Tatooine: Desert Heart with Gen Solo and Sgt Brooks. Nothing impressive vs the Barge, Two Abyssins and Chall. I was holding one copy of Myo to cancel his destiny (he would play Take the initiative for sure) but he didn´t battle and moved towards the Palace. Then came my move. He had just two cards in hand and most of his guys on table so I knew he couldn´t come back hard. I had 4 Abyssins and decided not to attack Gen. Solo since I was pretty sure one of his cards was a Portal. So I decided to battle DoS who was all alone. Three little aliens came and fourth was barriered. Battled and made him loose some cards. He would never recover from this. Solo and Brooks tried to hide at the Lower Passages and there got smacked by my last characters. I could not get any of my two Ornaments so my differential was really low. FW (+7)
Overall 2(-21)
The good: playing Mario, nice guy and good player. Abyssins kicking A*S*S.
The bad: low diff. Not getting the Ornament
The ugly: Bubo vs Madine.
I felt much better after this game. Beating Mario is a really difficult task and my confidence was coming back but my differential was still way too low. Pairings came for game three with a surprise…
Game 3
My LS vs Jorge Raltiir OPS AT-ST
Finally luck is on me! Jorge has been playing for years but it´s not a tough opponent and Raltiir is a piece of cake for my TIGIH.
He looks for a while to my objective and deploys Imperial Decree, IAO and Mob. Points. I start Insurrection, Strike Planning and Ounee Ta. He looks at Ounee Ta but seems not too worried about it (!?). First turn he deploys Rendili, Holotable, <> db and <> desert to Endor. He was trying to get rid of Luke with a Sandwhirl. My turn, I activate 13! He looks like wtf? And goes on reading Ounee Ta again. He´s pissed about that. I get my Tatooine db and Beggar there. It´s not that I needed force but this would avoid his force savings thus no Barriers or reacts.
It was not too much from there. My first crew hit Raltiir even before he could set a foothold there and when he did Sgt. Brooks was and incredible tool vs his Tempest Scout (how can this old man run so fast?). He got Decree working soon deploying Zuckuss to Carida and Fett to Raltiir thus my drains were not too much but was not able to flip and I was winning more and more battles (with my new reinforcements from hand, he never stayed for more than a turn). I was missing OTE but AFA insertion forced him to make a desperate move deploying Chiraneau, DS-61-3 and Tempest 1 vs Wuta, Madine and Delevar. I ignore the reason but his two pilots were outside the AT-AT and I have had all my high destinies tarcked so fallen portaled both guys and got a 6 for battling destiny. A few more battles happened but this time he was lucky and we tied. After stacking 6 cards he draws. FW +19
Overall: 4 (-2)
The good: winning a very easy game. Activating 13 first turn!
The bad: I could not get On The Edge for higher diff.
The ugly: Ounee Ta. Still negatives.
It was a long game (Jorge plays soooo low) and we finished just a couple of minutes before time. Miguel was still undefeated beating Juanfra. They were playing next to us and it was a crazy game: MKOS with Jawas vs TIGIH with Ewoks and inserts. Pairings are called and we all play the same as before switching sides.
Game 4
My DS vs Jorge no objective Elom swarm over Jabba´s Palace
I expected something weird so I decided playing Lower Pasages instead of Tatooine Jabba´s Palace. He started Audience Chamber with Scrambled Transmission, Uh Oh and a third I can´t remember. He was complaining about his two match-ups for this deck had been MKOS (Miguel and me).
I feared a timed game since he plays too slow and I could not set up as fast as usual. My first turns were trying to get any of my sites but always seemed to keep in reserve deck. First turn he deployed Oola and Bo Shuda so the Chamber was no longer a battleground. After that I tried a quick flip deploying Xizor and Mosep to the Desert Heart and Ephant and Bib to the Lower Passages but my guys got missing at the desert due to a Sandwhirl and I flipped back again.
He was pulling Shocking/Grimtaash combo every turn to verify his deck and then playing used (with the Barge, were was the only Scomp Link) at the end of the turn. When he got 3 characters inserted the Odds thing and I was pissed. Now I needed more battlegrounds and Resistance urgently. It took me some turns to get Resistance and he had deployed the Cantina so I finally flipped but took heavy damage from several inserts (about 18 cards) before running Resistance. That was game. He could not cancel my drains or beating me because his Eloms were S*HIT vs my Abyssins. I battled him twice and drained him out. FW (+17)
Overall: 6 (+15)
The good: winning another long but easy game.
The bad: it took him too long, almost timed out.
The ugly: inserts.
Miguel beated Juanfra again and was the only undefeated player taking his third (I think) tourney in a row. His brother Mario won too and took second. I took third because of my poor differential so we switched places from last tourney when he beated me but I got second.
I was quite happy because of my recovery after loosing so bad my first game. This time Nacho´s submarine tech worked fine for me. Prize support was crap as usual so we all headed home.
Props
To Submarine Tech, working this time.
To Miguel, for winning.
To MKOS for being so good and undefeated since his second game (lost first)
To everyone who came, but the Cheater.
To the TD for arriving on time.
Slops
To me for getting my worst loss ever.
To Jorge for playing so slow
To Avalon comics or whoever is responsible for crap prize support.
I hope you enjoyed. Rgds,
Heraclio.