first-st-louis-tatooine-tourney-6-2-01
Title: first-st-louis-tatooine-tourney-6-2-01
Author: Norman "Norman" Horn
Date: Jun 4, 2001
It was an exciting week, Tatooine had just been released and since we were out of town we had merely 1 day to make decks. Even on Saturday morning we still had no idea what to play. Then, I had an epiphany! I realized that if people decided to play some of these new Dark effects we would see a lot of new draining decks. I decided to play Jedi Testing to 6, because I figured that perhaps JT3 and it’s destiny reducing ability would help me if I needed to podrace (I did include an Anakin’s Pod). Turns out that on a bad draw JT3 won’t set itself up in time to affect a podrace, but it can be done, and that nobody was interested in playing any of the new dark effects. We’ll just see how this all works in the future. For Dark Side I decided that BHBM could be modified with Darth Maul to create an effective Jedi Killing deck with the power to beat down everything else. It’s basically a Mains and Toys deck with a few twists. Turns out that it works pretty well against a lot of decks! The tournament was at All-American Collectibles and only 9 people showed up. It’s too bad, but it was quite fun!…
Game 1: My New School BHBM Mains vs. Kyle McEachron’s RST The Shield is Down
I start the regular Imperial Arrest Order, Mobilization Points, and Crush the Rebellion. He starts The Shield Is Down, Insurrection, and Strike Planning. My starting hand consists of Maul, Cloud City DB, Vader’s Saber, Tempest 1, I Have You Now, Focused Attack, Secret Plans, and Grand Moff Tarkin. In my turn I deploy Rendili, Cloud City DB, Executor DB, and Emperor Palpatine to the latter said DB. I see that there isn’t a Vader in my force pile so I save the last force. His turn, he deploys an Endor DB and a Bunker and pulls General Madine and Solo. He also deploys Madine with Lieutenant Page to the Rebel Landing Site. He pulls a Scout with Madine and deploys it too. My turn I activate a great gob of force and deploy another docking bay from reserve, this time the D*2 one. I see that there are 2 Vaders in my force pile, so I take a chance and deploy the Tempest 1 to the D*2 for some more activation and then draw up all but the one force I had saved previously. I gained a Janus, Lord Vader, and some other nice stuff. The next big thing that happens is a battle with GMT, Palpatine, and Tempest 1 at the Endor Landing Platform against General Han, Chewie, Beezer, another Scrub, and an ASP droid. He wins the battle due to his destiny canceling stuff and a missed Force Lightning on Han, so I end up losing Tempest 1. I move them into the bunker and lock it down with a Sim Aloo. He moves his stuff in and I beat up two characters with Vader and his trusty saber (not to mention that Sim and GMT helped out). Then he deploys a bunch of scrubs to the Bunker and three Explosive Charges. This now means that if I battle him and win (which I still would) then he has three chances to blow everybody in the place to kingdom come. I don’t want that. I also can’t move the Emperor away because is occupying the Landing Platform. Well, I realize that since he has no ability >3 character there I could deploy Maul and make him unable to initiate a battle until Orrimaarko or Daughter comes down (he’s lost his Lukes by now), and at that point I can Barrier and play another I Have You Now to keep my power high. So I deploy Janus and Maul (with his saber) to the Bunker and move GMT and Vader to the Landing Platform where he has the ASP droid, Page, and Madine. Just as I suspected, he deploys Orrimaarko so I barrier. He battles and ends up losing a couple of guys but forgets to move away from the DB. So I battle him at the DB and make him lose 12 so-odd force and he is basically finished. Win by 24.
Score: 2(+24)
Highs: Seeing my deck lay down the beats.
Lows: Beating a good friend who is one of my Padawans.
Game 2: My New School Jedi Testing to 6 vs. Paul Dziuba’s ISB Emergency Deployment
This game went very fast. Paul starts Secret Plans and TINT+OE. Curious. I start The Way of Things, Battle Plan, and Aim High. His turn, he deploys a Cantina with Aurra Sing. I deploy Yoda’s Bungalow and the little guy and call it good. He drains and deploys Boba Fett. The next few turns involve me completing Jedi Tests 1 and 2 and him draining. I then make a move: I deploy Qui-Gon, Ben w/Saber, and Han with Blaster. I Clash Aurra and beat down Fett and Admiral Ozzel for 17 force. Cool. I also have a Nabrun to use on whoever he deploys next. So during his turn he deploys another Fett – to the Cantina! I’m thinking, “Wow, he must not remember that Clash makes Aurra unable to battle until the end of MY next turn!” Boy was I wrong… So I battle and tell him that Aurra isn’t going to be participating. He says, “Oh well.” He proceeds to play THREE Emergency Deployments and a Don’t Underestimate Their Chances, and ends up deploying SEVEN characters right on top of me, including Maul, Sebulba, some ORS, and other bulky guys. I take 66 damage and can’t cover everything, so I die. This is arguably the strangest loss I have ever had. Full loss by 25.
Score: 2(-1)
Highs: Losing in this way was quite amazing and funny, to say the least.
Lows: Losing.
Game 3: My New School Jedi Testing to 6 vs. Jon “Boise’s” Balanced Gangster Court
Boise is known for crazy decks, so as he starts his Court stuff, No Bargain, Power, and TINT-OE, I’m wondering what he has in store for me. I found that this was the most normal deck he’s ever played me with. Luckily, my JT’s work perfectly and I am able to retrieve everything he’s drained me for in the last 8 turns, and my strike force of Qui-Gon, Ben w/Saber, EPP Han, EPP Leia, and Harc Seff can eliminate all other threats of drains and beat him into oblivion. He eventually ends the game by initiating a suicide battle against me so I can’t get more differential. Great game though. Win by 31.
Score: 4(+20)
Highs: Seeing my Jedi Tests make it to five and surprising the @#$%ens out of him by playing JT to 6 in the first place!
Lows: Not using my traffic Control to put 5 or 6 cards back when I had the chance.
Game 4: My New School BHBM Mains vs. John ????’s Kashyyyk Ops
This is the new guy in town, so I’m a little confused with the whole operatives thing. I’m wondering why he’s chosen Ops when there are so many ways to lose with it. But at any rate he starts Don’t Do That Again so I know I need to get a ship fast... My starting hand contains no ships, BLAST! The game consists of me draining and him keeping tons of cards in his hand, for a few turns. Then I Monnok lost him. I take out 2 EPP Luke’s, 2 EPP Han’s, 3 Operatives, 3 Wookiees, and 2 Chimes. He lost the game after that. At one point he attempted to attack my Janus, Sim, and Palpy with an EPP Ben, EPP Leia, Tawss Khaa, and a Wookiee. I fried the Wookiee with a Force Lightning but didn’t cause enough damage to make him lose anything more. Luckily my immunity to attrition made me lose nothing. Then I deployed Vader and his Saber, You Are Beatened Ben, and beat up on Leia for a good 18 force loss. I then proceeded to drain him out with a Darth Maul and his Saber at a <>Farm. Full win by 32.
Score: 6(+62)
Highs: Catching him with a Monnok for over ten cards!
Lows: None.
So I take first place and get an LS Alter foil! Very cool. Looks like that so far Tatooine is making an appearance as mainly meta cards and mains because the new strategies haven’t been built up heavily yet. The hot cards seem to be The Shield is Down, KeepingTEOU, Jedi’s Resilience, and of course the mains. Dueling looks to be on a minor upswing, and there aren’t a whole lot of new dark archetypes coming into the area, yet. We’ll see what happens in two weeks! Be on the lookout for my decks, and thanks for reading!
Until then,
~Norman Horn