carmel-in-5-30-01

Title: carmel-in-5-30-01
Author: Eric "YOYOY" Bailey
Date: May 31, 2001

Today there was a 4-game Tatooine release day Sealed Deck tournament. I figured I could get some packs at a discount and have some fun at the same time. Starts at 5:30, good turnout. We pay $15 for 5 Tatooine packs, 2 Jabba’s Palace packs, and one random rare character from a previous expansion to make one 40-card deck for a single side. Sides are chosen, I’m LS, I sit opposite Rich Dailey and we trade cards. He ends up with 37 useful cards, and has to choose 3 cards just for the destiny. I have 51 useful cards, so I have the opposite problem, I have to choose 11 cards to cut from my deck. Here’s the deck I end up with:

Bring it!

Starting: (3)
Tatooine: Slave Quarters (twix site, pull Shmi)
The Signal
Bargaining Table (plenty of non-unique aliens from the JP packs)

Locations: (4)
Tatooine: Mos Espa (can move here from Slave Quarters during control phase)
Tatooine: City Outskirts (2 icons for me, 1 for them, not bad)
Tatooine: Podracer Bay (decent site, better with Entering The Arena)
Tatooine: Hutt Canyon (tech, you’ll see)

Characters: (15)
Obi-Wan Kenobi, Padawan Learner (yes! Awesome in Sealed Deck play)
Padmé Naberrie (yes! Get Obi from Reserve, and she’s just cool)
Shmi Skywalker (yes! Pull to the Quarters for free)
Han Solo (my random rare character, not bad)
R’kik D’nec, Hero Of The Dune Sea (at Hutt Canyon, opponent gets no destiny!)
Deneb Both (draw cards, drains from Force pile)
Caldera Righim (ability 2, card drawing ability)
Loci Rosen (give opponent a Reactor Terminal, but can be powerful)
Chadra-Fan (non-unique for the Table, ability 2, peek at opponent’s hand)
Kitonak (non-unique for Bargaining Table)
Baragwin (non-unique, ability 2)
Klatooinian Revolutionary (non-unique, can be powerful)
Florn Lamproid (non-unique, ability 2, adds to attrition)
Ortolan (non-unique)
Ithorian (non-unique, ability 2)

Effect: (1)
The Camp

Interrupts: (13)
Either Way, You Win x3 (fun card)
Changing The Odds x2 (screw Watto, subtract from battle destiny)
Entering The Arena x2 (add a destiny at Bay, or recycle a 6)
Too Close For Comfort (subtract 2 from a weapon draw, or cancel a certain card)
Losing Track (screw their destiny, or help in a podrace)
Neck And Neck (help in a podrace, or lengthen a game)
Skull (recycle a 4, or add to power)
Choke (kill attrition, or cancel text)

Vehicles: (4)
Eopie x4 (awesome, add destiny with Padmé, move for free, destiny 5)

Strategy:

I figured it wasn’t a bad deck, with the mains, destiny adding, and a couple tech tricks. But I knew if I ever went up against a deck that actually podraced, I’d lose. I can’t win a podrace, period. Activation is good, plenty of sites. Drains are good, since I can spread out. And the battles are good, since I have mains, destiny adding, Han Solo can re-draw a destiny, Shmi and Changing The Odds subtract from destiny. We’ll see what happens.

Everyone gets done building decks, first game pairings announced, I’m up against Austin Breedan (s?).

1st game: My LS mains vs. Austin Breedan’s DS Jabba’s Palace deck

I start my stuff, he starts Tatooine: Jabba’s Palace, no starting Interupts or Effects. My opening hand has an Eopie, Either Way You Win, a non-unique guy, and other nifty stuff. His turn he dumps his 2 Jabba’s Palace sites (Dungeon and Audience Chamber) from hand on table, my turn. I activate 5 Force first turn, not bad. Pull Shmi for free from Reserve to the Quarters, deploy Mos Espa from hand, draw up, I get Padmé, Entering The Arena, and another Eopie, his turn. He activates, deploys Boba Fett to the Audience Chamber using it’s text, deploys a Skrilling to back him up. My turn, I move Shmi to Mos Espa to drain, he says I can’t, but I can, ’cuz he’s wrong and I’m right, as usual, he loses a Force. I use Entering The Arena, get the Bay, activate, deploy the Bay, deploy Padmé and an Eopie to the Bay, deploy Obi there from Reserve, and deploy the other Eopie to Shmi’s site. His jaw manages an impressive double somersault triple jack-knife dive to the floor at the sight of my many mains. His turn he drains, I lose something ’cuz no non-unique in hand. Dang. He gets a few guys at the T:JP. My turn, I drain, draw up, get Han Solo, a non-unique, R’kik, the Hutt Canyon, and Losing Track. Cool. He drains, I cancel one of them, lose a Force. He uses Jabba’s Palace Sabacc. After 3 cards I have 11, he has 10, I win. I get to steal his Whiphid to my Used Pile, cool. He uses You Swindled Me!, we activate Force. I ask is he’d like to retrieve it, he says yeah, it’s cool, so I use Either Way, You Win. He retrieves it, I retrieve 3. Fine with me. My turn I drain, he loses a couple, the top card of his Lost Pile is a site. Hmmm. I deploy the Canyon with Ricky and Han there, move Padmé from the Bay to the Quarters, move her and Shmi onto the Eopie there, move it to the JP in front of a couple of his aliens, draw some (I get the Whiphid, and Loci Rosen), saving 2 Force. I can hardly contain my eager anticipation of the bloody slaughter that is about to occur. At least I hope it’ll be a bloody slaughter. His turn he drains, I cancel it with his own Whiphid! He groans. He deploys EV-9D9 and a Pit Droid *snicker* to the JP to help, and, he actually battles. Big mistake. First I use 2 Force to move Obi over. I then use Losing Track to put the site on his Lost Pile on his Reserve. I then draw 2 battle destinies, his destiny is a zero, my power is high, his isn’t. He forfeits everyone but one guy, then moves Boba and a Whiphid over. I still have Padmé, the Eopie, Shmi, and Obi there. My turn, I drain, deploy Loci Rosen to the JP. HE has 9 cards in hand. I tell him Loci’s text, but he chooses not to recycle any cards. I deploy the Whiphid there too. Now we have 2 Whiphids on opposite sides of the Force staring eachother down. His says to mine, "Brother, have mercy!" Mine just kind of drools and grunts. So let’s see... that’s my Padmé on Eopie, Shmi, Obi, wild Whiphid, and Loci Rosen at power 9 to his Boba Fett, wussy Whiphid, and some other little guy, forget who. Sounds good. I battle, I draw 2 high destinies, he draws a 2, I subtract 1 with Shmi, another with Changing The Odds. It’s a 0 now. He loses everybody and some. A couple turns of draining and I win by 18.

2 (+18)

Good: Winning by 18 with a 40-card deck.
Bad: Having to play a good DS deck next round.
Ugly: That Whiphid that did more harm than help for him.

After the game a lot of buzz is going around about people’s decks. Daniel Spade managed to pull the Desert Landing Site, Darth Maul, and his saber. One player was able to pull Qui-Gon and his saber, he starts with the Outskirts of course. Another player pulled Shmi, Jar-Jar, Princess Leia Organa, and Tamtel Skreej. Podracing is everywhere. My victory is exaggerated, and people keep asking me "Do you really have 8 mains in your deck?" I’m like, no. Next pairings announced, I’m up against Brian Harford.

2nd game: My LS mains vs. Brian Harford’s DS Podrace deck

I start my stuff, he starts some site, Start Your Engines!, Podrace Arena, Sebulba’s Podracer, Boonta Eve Podrace, and His Name Is Anakin. Crap. His first turn, we draw race destiny, mine’s a 5, his is a 0. But Sebulba makes it +3, so I’m only ahead by 2, and in the end I know I’ll lose. Neither of us are getting much Force, my aliens deploy for too high, and I’m not giving him any icons, and neither of us can draw sites. Second turn race destinies, mine’s a 3, his is a 5, so we’re both at 8, thus Sebulba flames me. 3 turns later he wins the race, I lose 6, he retrieves 6. We both eventually get drains going, his are more though, somehow, and we have like one battle, but this game was pretty uneventful. He gets out a Bubo who eats every single one of my characters (where’s Obi when you need him?) and that pretty much ends it. He ends up winning by 19.

2 (-1)

Good: I get to win my next game.
Bad: I lost by 19 with a 40-card deck.
Ugly: The game played too fast, neither of us were sure how I lost so quickly.

After the game he shows me the Aurra Sing he pulled but never got out. Then he tells me about his last game versus Karl Harford, when Karl pulled out Anakin’s pod at the beginning of the game and won the race. I go over to Justin, the tourney director, and inform him about an incorrect ruling he made. I love doing that. Pairing announced, I’m up against Austin again!

3rd game: My LS mains vs. Austin Breedan’s DS Jabba’s Palace deck

We start our usual stuff. My starting hand has The Camp, Deneb Both, Entering The Arena, Mos Espa, and Hutt Canyon. His first turn he deploys a site from hand and the other from Reserve, my turn. I activate, deploy Shmi to the Quarters for free from Reserve, deploy Hutt Canyon, deploy Mos Espa, use Entering The Arena to get the Bay, deploy Deneb Both, draw 2 cards, get the Outskirts, deploy that. I just deployed 4 sites on my first turn, on his he deployed 2. We already have 8 sites out. I deploy The Camp, his turn. He deploys Gamall Wironnic (I think) and that weapon alien, you know, the one who Force drains +1 while she has a weapon? Yeah, he deploys them 2 to Jabba’s Palace, then deploys a Mos Eisley Blaster on the one alien, and a Pit Droid for backup. So he’s draining for 2 there, but I never lost from it the whole game, always made sure to cancel it with a non-unique. For the rest of the game, every turn, he’d deploy some backup guys there, in fear of a beatdown. I spread out, I’m draining for 4, he isn’t draining for anything. He gets daring and deploys a lone guy in the AC. I deploy a non-unique or 2 from my Table, a unique guy or 2 from hand, battle, kill the guy, the AC is mine. He tries Jabba’s Palace Sabacc again, I win it again with 11. He tries cheating, I don’t let him. My next turn, I drain for 6, I win by 17.

4 (+16)

Good: Winning by a bunch again.
Bad: Ummm... uh... hmmm... not winning by more?
Ugly: I never lost Force from the drain.

We don’t play a fourth game because we run out of time. Obviously it would’ve made a lot more since if the tourney were started earlier, but I’m sure there was a valid reason to start it so late. Austin gets out all my Japanese cards (arranged in alphabetical order, might I add) and quizzes me on their card titles. I guess he didn’t realize it’s not too hard to memorize every single card by picture. I dunno what place I got, but I don’t care. I thank various people for stuff, I had a great time, got great packs, Tatooine’s cool.

Props:

My mom, for bringing me, for bringing food, for bringing drinks.

My sister, for coming just to watch and learn bout Tatooine, I guess.

My packs, for being so good.

Eopies for being so cool.

Austin, for being fun to play against.

Those kids, for letting me eat the rest of their Cheetos.

The guy who pulled Tamtel, Princess Leia Organa, Jar-Jar, and Shmi.

Rich, Brian, and the other guy who managed to pull a Bubo.

The guy who ate Shmi with a Bubo and made everyone cheer... lol...

The guy who pulled Qui-Gonn and his saber.

Karl for pulling Anakin’s Podracer, and being the LS winner winning the LS foil.

Slops:

Dan Spaid for pulling the Landing Site, Maul, and his saber, being the DS winner, and snagging the DS foil. >:-p

Thanks for reading,

Eric