marlton-nj-3-jun-01
Title: marlton-nj-3-jun-01
Author: Doug "Phrim" Faust
Date: Jun 7, 2001
Marlton, NJ; 3 Jun 01
Well, I decided to throw a quick report together for this tourney, despite my apparent stupidity. Anyway, it’s the week before Ramapo (and yes, it will be HUGE), so I figured it’d be good to get some playtesting in. And it certainly helps out that there’s a tourney 15 minutes from my house, courtesy of Nathan Brown. I scan over Nathan’s e-mail, note the 1:00 start time, and get my decks ready. For decks, I was playing a HDWGITM Podracing Harvest deck that I’ve been working on since before Tatooine came out, which works pretty well. For Dark, I just modified an old TIE deck with some Tatooine; my changes were Secret Plans (which I was starting) to Fanfare, and Shocking Relevation to Sebulba’s Pod. The destiny in the deck is very good, so I rarely lose podraces (actually I’ve never lost a Podrace) even without any helper cards.
So I get up around 11am Sunday morning, shower, eat lunch, and head over to Great Traditions in Marlton. I get there about ten minutes early, and everyone’s already playing. Ted Panczyszyn makes a remark about being late, and I’m a bit confused. Turns out that I can’t read. Nathan’s e-mail actually said it started at 11:00, not 1:00. So I effectively missed the first two games of the tournament. Blah. I decide to play anyway, because a little playtesting is certainly better than no playtesting. Attendance was good, 16 people with John Lolli, Greg Hodur, Pete Flamini, Brian Kim, Bob Caton, and Ted Panczyszyn all making a showing. Myself, I was surprised so many people showed up, being that Tatooine only came out 4 days ago and I’d have thought a lot of people might not have cards yet. But I guess a lot of people had the same idea I did, great chance to playtest for Ramapo.
So Game 2 finally ends and the pairings are announced for Game 3...
Game 3: My Dark vs. Jared Napolitano’s (1850) Old-School Profit
I was pretty surprised at having to play Jared at this point, usually coming into the third game with no victory points puts you pretty low in the pairings. I guess Jared was just having a bad day or something. In any case, Jared has no Tatooine, and was playing the Profit deck that he’s been using for at least a year now. So I draw my opening hand, and get no Sienar and no Twileks. Not good. He starts dropping guys on Tatooine fearlessly. I draw my Twilek, so I figure I’ll start deploying stuff next turn. So next turn, I start my deployment and start retrieving stuff for Sienar, when Jared politely reminds me that I haven’t deployed Sienar yet. Oh, what a scrub am I. So I have the Twilek in my hand and over half of my deck activated, but I go for it anyway, and naturally the Sienar’s not in there. The TIE I had deployed at Kashyyyk I don’t ask to take back, however, and I put a TIE Cannon on it in case he tries any funny business (and of course I have a Ghhhk for emergencies). I don’t think he was playing any space whatsoever though (I certainly never saw any). Meanwhile, he’s flipped and has spread out so that he has Luke, Lando, Han, and Leia at 4 different Tatooine sites. My EPP Vader got burned off the top early, so no chance to affect his ground forces at all. I did manage to get U-3P0 and later Arica out however. So anyway, I started draining at Kashyyyk and then Endor, doing some retrieval in the process (after I had finally found the Sienar of course), but he was doing 6-7 damage a turn from the get-go, and I just couldn’t keep up. FL-21, 0(-21)
Highlights: Not getting beat up in space...?
Lowlights: Being stupid with my Twilek.
Game 4: My Light vs. Jonathan Dansbury’s (1480) Endor Ops
Jonathan also had no Tatooine, and therefore had no counter to my Podracing. So of course I won the podrace right away without any trouble whatsoever. Meanwhile, I cycle though my deck and get out lots of sites and effects and stuff, like Goo Nee Tay and Bacta Tank. I put down Qui-gon and Owen/Beru at the Lars Farm, and he puts Choke Vader and EJP Dengar at his Endor Landing Platform. I decide to make a gamble on my destiny, and drop EPP Obi there to fight them (and take advantage of his First Strike in the process). I end up drawing a 5 in my weapon destiny vs. Vader, but he misses Obi twice, so I just send him to the Tank, and he loses Dengar to attrition. He backs up Vader with DrE/Ponda, but I just pull Obi from the Tank and make another go at it, this time hitting Vader and clearing the site. He drops Djas Puhr and some 2-ability guy down, at one of his sites. Meanwhile, I’ve managed to accumulate 4 cards in my Lost Pile, so I Harvest for them back. I pull Obi from the Tank, drop them on said guys, Clash Djas, and beat down on the 2/2 guy for 9 Force, remembering to retrieve my Harvest from his First Strike. Obi sits there confidently, but a few turns later he drops some guy and attacks, so Obi goes to the Tank and I again clear the site. Meanwhile, I’ve found Qui-Gon’s Saber, so I’m draining steadily at the Lars Farm. He’s getting pretty frustrated, and drops a lone Blizzard 2 at one of his sites, which Obi of course neatly takes care of. In the end he just draws up, leaving me with a grand total of zero cards in my lost pile. Lovely. FW+37, 2(+16)
Highlights: The words "complete control" come to mind...
Lowlights: I think I forgot the I Did It! text once or twice.
Game 5: My Dark vs. Thomas Carchidi’s (1596) Podracing Harvest
Thomas started Podracing with Lars Farm and Seeking An Audience, so I thought he was playing a HDWGITM Harvest deck very similar to mine. Fortunately, my deck is pretty effective against this kind of deck. I start Fanfare and TINT/OE, so HDWGITM gets grabbed on the first try, and there’s 3 Twilek’s for the second grabber for Harvest. So I draw my opening hand, and I get a grabber in it already, so I don’t go for my other for fear of Grimtaash. I Twilek for my Sienar and get out my usual first turn stuff. On his turn, he drops Naked Threepio at the Farm, and leaves 4 Force. Okay, I’m confused. If you don’t draw Mess in your opening hand, at least you can draw for one... Anyway, I get Kashyyyk out and set up there with a Dreadnaught and a couple Interceptors. He drops EPP Obi with Threepio at the Farm. Huh? I deploy EPP Vader at the Farm, hit Threepio, and kill Obi with attrition. So no more funny business. Anyway, the podrace goes on, and he’s got too many characters in his deck and it shows. On the other hand, I stack at least a 3 each time (which is at least a 6 with Sebulba) and win while his total is still in the mid-teens. Then he goes and drops main after main after main on Tatooine, with an assortment of Lightsabers at his 3 Tatooine sites. However, I was canceling a drain every turn with Dreaded Imperial Starfleet, plus some with Control/Set For Stun when I was in a position to retrieve it next turn. I was setting up in Force at Kashyyyk, Sullust, and Endor, and draining for 6 a turn. In addition, I put out Battle Order and threw a TIE down at the Death Star Docking Bay. He eventually put out an Underworld Contacts and had two different aliens at one site so I couldn’t cancel one of his drains, but that only proved to be a minor nuisance. He started Harvesting, and I of course grabbed it, but he proceeded to play every one of the 4 Harvests in his deck, delaying the game a good deal. However, I was draining for more than him and had his drains pretty much under control, so by the time he had only a few Force left I only had 7 in my Lost Pile. So I played Short Range Fighters, reduced my Lost Pile to zero, and drained him out. FW+25, 4(+41)
Highlights: Winning someone else’s Podrace.
Lowlights: Harvest delaying the inevitable.
Game 6: My Light vs. Bob Caton’s (1620) Podracing Scum Deck
It turns out that Bob had a great idea with his Dark deck, he started Tatooine Jabba’s Palace with Podracing and used his one effect to put Expand the Empire on JP. I hadn’t seen the Expand trick in a little while. So first turn he gets out all his sites (except the AC which he activated), and I cycle through my deck a bunch and get out a variety of sites and effects. Fortunately, I was playing lots of anti-Scum stuff in my deck, like Goo Nee Tay, The Camp, and Aim High. On the other hand, his unconventional Scum start provided a lot more Force than old Scum decks. So he finally drops a bunch of aliens and Jabba to his Audience Chamber, and Qui-Gon isn’t feeling mighty so he goes to T:JP. Bob is making some low draws for his Podracing, but he’s still managing to exploit his early lead. I deploy Owen/Beru to the Lars Farm and move Qui-Gon over to back them up. He puts a lone Ephant Mon at T:JP, so I drop Chewie Protector on him, None Shall Pass, and then drop Jedi Luke, None Shall Pass. He’s not going to keep that up forever though, and I’ve got plenty of Force to keep deploying them. To take me off guard though, he deploys Xizor and Aurra down at the Lars Farm, battles, steals Qui-Gon’s Saber, and hits him with it. So he clears the site, and I somehow manage to get rid of Aurra, leaving Xizor alone. Qui-Gon goes to the Tank. I deploy Jedi Luke, Saber, another Owen/Beru, and EPP Han and beat the tar out of Xizor, losing Han. Meanwhile, I get out Kessel with Home One and some Squids to increase my drain and satisfy Battle Plan. Next turn, I untank Qui-Gon and slaughter Ephant with him. Meanwhile, the Podrace is 19-18 in his favor. I suppose I should’ve been concerned at that point, but I’m not, and he stacks a 1 (which is a 4 with Sebulba) and I stack 10. So I win the Podrace and deploy I Did It. At this point Bob is in dire straights, there’s not much he can do except pay to drain at his interior JP sites, and even that doesn’t last long, as I drain him out. FW+22, 6(+63)
Highlights: Beating Sebulba in a race (no, he’s not unbeatable)
Lowlights: Scum with lots of Force can be pretty scary...
So anyway, I finish 4th, which certainly isn’t bad considering I missed the first two games. Even more impressive, though, is John Lolli, who won the tournament after missing the first game. Kinda funny. Anyway, Pete Flamini took 2nd, and Brian Kim took 3rd. And I can’t think of anything else, so that’s about it, I guess.
Until next time...
--
Doug Faust - dlf14@cornell.edu
SM Rogue 40, based in Ithaca, NY
http://times.phrim.com/