parker-co-6-2-01-into-the-unknown
Title: parker-co-6-2-01-into-the-unknown
Author: Brian "HuntaWarya" Hunter
Date: Jun 6, 2001
So May 30th rolls around, and the new expansion is available for play. But the store I pre-ordered my box from runs out of Tatooine and I do not get my cards until the 31st. I haven’t playtested a single one of the new cards yet, so aside from a couple of games in the days prior to the tournament, I will more or less be going in blind. When I open the packs from my box, everyone nearby agrees that it is the worst booster box known to man. It contains no Padme, no Darth Maul, and no Qui-Gon. So I make a few adjustments to the ol’ Hidden Mains deck, and I also rebuild Jedi Testing. I playtest both of those decks, along with the R. Rex ISB space. Even with the anti-mobilization points card, the retarded dinosaur still walks all over everything. And the Hidden Mains are still reliable as well. But the night before the tournament, I decide to play QMC and Walker Garrison instead. The Twiggs say the Garrison deck will be completely useless, so that should be fun to play. And TJ Holman insists that QMC is "still balls", so it is almost certainly a strong design. Anything TJ says sucks, has just GOT to be good.
So I build those 2 decks, with a couple of hours to spare. Again, I have stayed up all night, and hence will have zero hours sleep before the tourney. I drive over to Van’s place, and he then drives Tony Depa and myself to the tournament. Tony is one of the top 4 players in the Tatooine region, with a rating of 2094. But he lives in Louisiana again now, so he hardly ever gets to play anymore. But since he has spent the week in Denver, he’s done some intensive practicing in the past several days, so he does not expect to be too rusty at the tournament. Nonetheless, Van still refers to Tony as the "rating point pinata" for the day.
Decks:
Me: Totally untested QMC and Totally Untested Walker Garrison
Van: Hunt Down Dueling and HB Mains
Tony: QMC and Desert Landing Site/JP with mains & toys
Game 1: QMC vs. Josiah Halasz dark side podracing deck
Well, podracing is gay, so I figure Game 1 is in the bag. :) Besides, Josiah is rated beneath 1800, so I am immune. While the podrace goes on, I set up at the cloud sector. But I get ambushed by a bounty hunter ship and have to start over again. So I go to the system this time, after destroying his ship. He uses some dark side mains to take over Cloud city but battle plan is keeping him from draining me for too much. Anakin beats Sebulba in the race, 28-27, so I retrieve 6 while he loses 6, and he seems glad that he didn’t start Watto’s Box in this game. I get a few characters to battleground sites, and establish celebration. But his ground forces are much more dominant than my own, so on most turns I am just retrieving 1 force a turn. He uses elis helrot to send six or seven of his characters on a visit to Melas. I check my force pile for a path of least resistance or a dodge or anything that will help me, but no such luck. I lose Melas, and then an additional 14 cards. (apparently Elis Helrot was adopted, so nobody knew how to contact his momma) For the remainder of the game, I plink-drain him at the bespin system, occasionally kill his characters with some sorry about the mess/clash of sabers trickery, retrieve my losses with celebration and edge cards, and just wait for him to die off. With 3 minutes to spare, I get the full win by 35.
2: (+35)
Tony, Van, and Joe Helfrich all win in Game 1 as well, and all with light side as well. should make for some "interesting pairings" in Game 2
Game Two: Walker Garrison vs. Jymn McGhghy’s HB Flip
Wow, this guy has some name, eh? He gets haven onto the rendezvous point and starts dropping all sorts of big nasty ships for dirt cheap. I start setting up walkers on hoth, and save some force for my eventual deployment to space. He has a Yt-1300 or two in his deck, along with a couple freighter captains, so I expect kessel running. But he loses the ralltiir system off his reserve deck, so I am in good shape. Without that system, he never ends up flipping his objective, because he had only deployed 4 battlegrounds when he lost it. Since he can’t cancel my drains, that allows me to pull off the Walker Garrison, and I hit him for 15 cards in one control phase. I am never really able to challenge him in space, he just has TOO many ships for me to contend with. But with his objective on the zero side, even the kessel drain does not bother me. The unlucky loss of the ralltiir system cost him his chance of being competitive, and I end up with a win by 28.
4: (+63)
Tony and Van both win again, while Joe loses to Jordan. Tony and I are already in the top 2 spots, so there will be an early showdown between 2 of the Tatooine region’s top 4 players. For the lunch break, we head over to Burger King, and take advantage of the 49-cent cheeseburgers.
Game Three: QMC vs. Tony Depa’s desert/jp/maul deck
He starts the landing site, and uses combat readiness to get jabba’s palace. I start battle plan in this game because I know he can get off some REAL quick drains if left unhindered. He gets the first turn darth maul. I put epp luke down on Cloud City. He brings the Choke Vader, backed by Tarkin, and battles me. I use narrow escape to run away, but it gets sensed. so I swing at the dark lord, and draw a 6 as my first lightsaber destiny. Tarkin has to cancel it, since YISYW has reduced vader’s defense value to 5. The other lightsaber draw is a 7, so Vader gets hit anyway. Tarkin and Luke die to attrition. I use squadron assignments to get some ships out, and start throwing down some more characters on Cloud city so that I can establish the celebration. Tony has all his JP sites out now, and has Gailid at the AC, along with some backup, while Maul has moved out to JP itself. Vader makes another appearance on CC. I try the rebel barrier, and it gets sensed too. But when I path away, it works. I evade Tony on the ground for a while, and let menace fades/battle plan take care of his drains (with some help from the celebration of course) He eventually gets Zuckuss in Mist Hunter at Bespin, with Guri piloting. He also had Bossk in Hound’s Tooth and Dengar in Punishing One there, and another pilot aboard the Mist Hunter for forfeit fodder. Suddenly Tony is unaffected by both Battle Plan and Menace Fades, so it is time to take action. I put an x-wing cannon on one of my ships, and use it to shoot down Zuckuss. I play a darklighter spin on my falcon, and the total battle destiny is high enough to clear Tony off of Bespin entirely. From there, I just run away on CC and let the celebration do it’s thing for a while. I use clash of sabers to create a game-ending battle, but Tony has the ghhhk, so it takes me a while longer to put him away. But the retrieval just doesn’t stop, and I end up winning by 31.
6: (+94)
Van and Joe both just won, but they were both playing light side, just as I was. So I rematch against Tony, for another crack at the pinata.
Game Four: Walker Garrison vs. Tony Depa’s QMC
I don’t really have any tools to go challenge Tony on his own turf at Cloud City, so he is able to set up on the ground at will. Meanwhile, I also do not draw the tools to set up on Hoth, either. Although I put 6 at-ats in my deck, I cannot seem to find any of them, so "you may start your landing" just sits there causing no damage at all. What I DO get is some starships, and that would be what allowed me to take an early advantage in this game. Tony made one error in this game, and it cost him dearly. When he tried to move the super falcon away, I enforced the text on SSPFT, and Tony did not have the +2 force to move away from my Star Destroyer. That forced the falcon to sit in front of my Executor (Piett piloting) and Chimaera (Thrawn piloting).
Thrawn: Piett.
Piett: Yes, Grand Admiral?
Thrawn: (with wicked glint in his eye) Call my Momma.
Piett: (with evil grin) Yes, Grand Admiral.
I played Imperial Command to keep him from drawing more than 1 destiny, while Thrawn added one on my end. Tony lost Leia for 6, Han for 7, the Falcon for 7, and then 3 more cards to battle damage. I lost nothing. Owwww. Tony was never able to re-establish a space presence, so Menace Fades was never a factor. That would have enabled me to go ahead and play my Walker Garrison to cause huge damage EXCEPT I never got more than 1 at-at out the ENTIRE GAME. When some of his characters come to Hoth, I put a severe beating on him, but just like Tony had the ghhhk last game, he has the houjix this game. So it takes me forever to drain him out and I have to settle for a win by 11.
8: (+105)
Van wins again and is the only other 4-0 player. Joe wins again and is 3-1. Tony is 2-2 and is ready to exact his revenge on whichever unsuspecting chumps have the misfortune of playing him in Games 5 and 6.
Game Five: Walker Garrison vs. Van Melancon’s HB Mains
I get walkers out at the 5th and 6th markers, so that I can cause 2 direct damage a turn at locations where Van cannot get to me without a spy. Van plays Control/Tunnel Vision to go get a card from his huge force pile, and I prepare for the worst. My "weaker" location is the Mountains (6th marker), where I have ds-61-2 aboard Blizzard 2. That is 9 power, 12 forfeit, and battle destiny, so I figure I am fine. He deploys Corran Horn, followed by Orrimaarko and Qui-Gon Jinn. 12 power to my 9. No biggie. Ds-61-2 will easily cover the battle damage by himself, and if I get lucky on battle destiny, I won’t even have to lose 2 to Orrimaarko. Van deploys Mechanical Failure targeting Blizzard 2. uh-oh. I lose all 9 of my power and half of my 12 forfeit. Ds-61-2 desperately searches through the Imperial Database, looking for the number of Qui-Gon’s Momma. But unfortunately for Ds-61-2, he is looking under "Phone numbers for Rebel Mommas", and Qui-Gon is not a rebel! By the time Ds-61-2 realizes his mistake, and starts looking under "Phone numbers for Republic Jedi Mommas", it is too late. Van battles and draws a 5 for destiny. I draw a 1. Hmmm. All 3 of his characters are immune to the attrition. Hmmm. I forfeit ds-61-2 for 6, the walker for zero, lose 11 cards to battle damage, and then lose 2 cards for Orrimaarko. Hmmm. At the start of the turn, my lost pile had only "prepared defenses" in it. Now, there are 15 more cards there. Hmmm. On my turn, I drop an Ice storm at the 6th marker, making all 3 of those nasty light side characters go missing. Van deploys Ben Kenobi and Lando with Axe at the Tatooine docking bay, but U-3PO keeps them in check. So Van would eventually transit over to the Hoth Docking Bay. I get another walker down, with Veers aboard, so that I can cause a couple damage each turn with YMSYL. I get presence of the force down on the ice plains, to cause extra force loss from rebel base occupation, but it just gets altered. Jedi Luke tries to block the drain at the defensive perimeter, once the ice storm has passed, but Veers uses Imperial Command to add a battle destiny, and Luke bites the dust. Van uses Home One to keep Menace fades running, but Ben and Lando are unable to stop the direct damage, and after Van uses some "edge" retrieval, he eventually succumbs, and I win by 9.
10: (+114)
Tony wins, to get up to 3-2. Van drops to 4-1. Joe wins in Game 5, to improve to 4-1, with a differential more than twice as high as Van’s. However, Joe just played dark, so I cannot play him in Game 6. Instead, I will play Van again.
Game Six: QMC vs. Van Melancon’s Hunt Down Dueling
I start the anti-mob points card, which slows him down a little. I also start YISYW, and ditch it to grab Honor of the Jedi on my first turn. But Van has the "No Escape" in his hand, so he only loses one force to the visage. On my turn, I send Corran Horn into the Executor and cancel the visage. He drops mara jade, with her saber, and battles. He misses with the saber and we go to battle destiny. he draws low, I draw high. Mara dies, Corran survives to drain for 2. Van deploys Vader and Tarkin against Corran Horn, complete with Vader’s saber. I path Corran out to the exec db, and Van chases me over. I docking bay transit over to the CC docking bay. Van deploys a walker and Janus, and finally destroys Corran Horn. By this time, I have an insurmountably strong set-up at the Bespin system, and Van’s star destroyers/bounty hunter ships would never be able to challenge me there. When Vader epic duels epp obi-wan, I cancel the duel and move obi to an adjacent site, using "What was it?". I hold onto "Run Luke Run" to make sure that Luke won’t be dueled either. Van has dark side mains running all over CC, including Vader/Tarkin, Emperor/Janus, and another mara jade, who hangs out with the at-at. But Menace Fades keeps the force loss under control, and I just retrieve retrieve retrieve. Van got the Secret Plans out early, but it is not enough to keep my characters from continually recycling. I eventually wear his forces down enough to get a foothold on the ground and drain for more than 1 a turn. By the time the game ends, the retrieval has pushed my differential up to 32.
I finish 6-0 at 12: (+146)
There are no 5-1 players. Tony whips his Game 6 opponent to finish at 4-2 and take 3rd place, losing only to me. Van also finishes 4-2, and takes 4th place, losing only to me. Joe finishes 4-2 with a huge differential, and takes 2nd place. He did not play against me, Tony, or Van. How you finish in 2nd place at a tournament, without playing against anyone else in the top 4, I have no idea, but somehow Joe pulled it off. So kudos to him. I get a tournament foil, plus some packs of Tatooine.
Props:
To Van, for driving from his place to the tourney.
To my car, for not falling apart when I drove to Van’s.
To Joe, for weasling his way into 2nd place.
To Scott, for running another smooth event in Parker.
To TJ Holman, for saying that QMC is "balls", so that I would know to play it. The deck went 3-0 with wins by 31, 32, and 35, for a total of 6: (+98) on the day.
To Anakin, for winning the podrace against Sebulba.
To Burger King, for 49-cent cheeseburgers.
To Epp Luke, for singlehandedly killing Vader and Tarkin.
To Ice Storm, for saving my @#$% in Game 5.
To Path of LR, for saving Corran from Vader/Tarkin in Game 6
To the Colorado Meta, for being varied enough that I have played against 6 different decks in each of the last 2 tournaments. At least we don’t get bored.
To Tony, for visiting Colorado for a week.
Slops:
To Ds-61-2, for looking in the wrong part of the database.
To Van, for adding Mech. Failure to his deck after he saw I was using Walker Garrison. *lol* ;)
To Josiah, for beating me down for 14 force, and then still letting me win by 35. hehe.
To The Walker Garrison deck, for not being able to get 3 walkers on the table at the same time in 2 of my 3 games, thus preventing me from actually playing "walker garrison"!!
See you next time. Thanks for reading.
Brian Hunter