montana-6-10-01
Title: montana-6-10-01
Author: Travis "Com Igar" Rumans
Date: Jun 10, 2001
This is my first post-Tatooine tournament. I have built a QMC deck for light--in my scrubbiness I once built a QMC deck when QMC sucked. My dark is a podracing/huntdown deck I built the day Tatooine came out. My friend Cody, my brother and I playtested it against my QMC, the RST I built for my brother, and my friend’s Chadra until everyone beleived podracing was the most broken strategy ever and refused to play it. One freak loss aside, it had only once failed to win by less than thirty in these matchups. People who haven’t playtested DS podracing, I will say that its just sick...usually finsihes about turn four, which is right about when most people are just set up. Suddenly all your early game damage is erased and your opponent has to deal with a late-game sized force pile.
Our regular SM isn’t around so another tournament director takes up the call. Cody is talking about becoming a tournament director, which would help serve to bring SWcCG to the Magic-playing heathen of Missoula.
I’m like 1718 or so now with 5-1 not in. My goal is to break 1800 over the summer, playing in Billings, and keep it over 1800 when I’m back playing in Mass.
I built an RST and MKOS to try to get my brother into SWCCG, and he’s picked some stuff up and is pretty good but he feels sick this morning and doesn’t come.
So the matches are called, and I’m playing none other than
Cody’s Chadra vs. My HD/Podracing
Cody and I are not really interested in really playing this matchup, because we know how this happens. In playtesting we pretended he had Anakin’s Podracer, but now he doesn’t so I pretty much auto-win the podrace. He starts Insight to Grab Honor which irritates me until No Escape Comes down. When I won the podrace I only had one card in my lost pile and he had Aim High but I was saving for Aim High to paied 11 to retrieve 1. Billings tournaments are often only 4-game, and every bit of differential would help the race to the end. I have a pile of mains chasing around his Chadra, and finally he deploys Masta in the hopes of getting a duel going. In the ensuing battle, I Sith Fury to kill all his Chadras and Masta gets beat down for the game.
FW+37
Highs: This is the first time I got to use a referee card.
I won by a lot.
Lows: Cody and I pretty much knew this was going to happen. This is a game we’ve done before. This was not a fun and interactive game for us.
Game 2 My QMC vs. Nathan Stahley’s TDIGWATT
Even as he’s shuffling he remarks on how this is bad matchup for him. TDIGWATT will never attain true popularity while QMC is popular; with Path, the LS has a huge advantage in a battle for Bespin. I play a first turn Goo Nee Tay and I get SOS+Saber out pretty early. QMC gives up a fair number of icons, so I use Goo Nee Tay to save myself some agony. He’s using Navy Troopers, which won’t have much power offensively but will be a pain for me to remove. I get down Premiere Obi, and he’s awesome in this matchup because he’s making the troopers move away and keeping Nathan from getting destiny. In the first battle I remind him that Trooper Assault give him immunity. Although no atterition happens I get my weapon hit. With my destiny we deadlock on power. Next turn he gets Dark Deal set up with a lone Cloud Car to CC and spread out troopers, which he concentrates with the aid of a Lift tube. On my turn I use a Z-95 and Lando to flip (using the objective to flip instead of the effect can be tech) and I tunnel to get Dash who commences the beatdown of the Cloud Car. He Ghhks and Lando joins the fight against the Navy Troopers, and I draw enough destiny to deadlock us in power again, but I got two weapons shots this time. I cancel Deal the turn after he played it. He moved his troopers to an adjacent site, and for a few turns we’re exchanging drains but I’m canceling his so I’m doing a little better. I think at one point I spread with SOS and I know later I put down an alien with Lando and Qui Gon to drain him for more and start celebrating. He tries to put down Vader but decides not to pay 9, and late in the game he moves a pile of troopers in front of Gui-Gon and Mara+Trooper in front of Lando and the alien. My turn, I retrieve, drain, Path, SOTM Mara, and beat down the trooper to win.
FW+32
Highs: I like QMC
Path+SOTM is awesome
I beat a deck committed to my planet--one of the tests of any deck
Lows:
I don’t like the idea that SWCCG is becoming entirely a game of matchups, and this game lends some credence to that
ONE CLOUD CAR! I commit a huge chunk of my deck to a space package and he sticks down ONE CLOUD CAR to hold CC.
Game 3: My HD Racing vs Peter’s QMC
I’m a little nervous at first because he actually has Anakin’s racer but I figure this is pretty much for the tournament and I don’t expect to lose I start Watto’s Box. Peter netdecks a fair amount, something that worked against him when he started Insight because he thought Numbers were coming (I was worried he’d sac it for Honor). Qui Gon killed my early DVDLOTs, so then I’m a little worried because the only other Vader I have in my hand is EPP Vader and he’s not as sturdy without immunity. I put him down, and he puts down Melas and Luke and I know he’s probably going to path Qui Gon for the beatdown so I duel Luke. I Operational as Planned, Vader’s Anger to get a guarateed five and Focused Attack--admittedly a blind duel, but one where I had enough advantages to feel confident. I flip the five, a four, and a seven, and although I think he got good Luke turns and he changes his mind about the beatdown. I use Podracer Collision to get rid of one of his racing destinies. He loses the podrace because he made the mistake of tying Sebulba at 20. He wants me to say the podracing is gay in the report, but I do not recall it engaging in any acts of copulation with oher decks of the same sex. Qui Gon hung around for a long time and made me lose to Visage. I think at one point I tried to beat up Melas with Mara+Dr.E/Ponda combo but he pathed Qui Gon over and put a stop to the nonsense. I have POTF in my hand but I don’t play it until I get a mains pile because EPP Vader is vulnerable. I have like Mara+Saber, Vader, Tarkin, Aurra, and his EPP Luke (given in to the stronger side of the force!) draining him for a couple of turns. Although late game he starts celebrating, he’s just keeping pace with Visage loss and so he goes down in a last hurrah by attacking me with Qui Gon and EPP Leia. He mistracks and Leia doesn’t hit Vader, so he swings and hits him with Qui Gon. With three sabers at the site, I hack up all his guys and cancel the destiny he doesn’t have enough cards to draw.
FW+34
Highs: Three wins by over thirty so far. And I punctured Peter’s rating of 1850ish.
Qui Gon does not kill Hunt Down.
Lows
Peter’s insistence that I did not come up with the deck myself and I probably found it on DeckTech somewhere despite Cody’s eyewitness testimony that I built it myself (Cody helped me rummage through my rares and even loaned me the dueling cards). Peter also alternatively vows to build a better version of the deck I built and a deck that will win the podrace against it.
Again, this was a matchup I’d done before so it was boring.
The SM is playing a game with someone so it takes a long time for the next postings so we just chat. I make sure to get Preston’s email so I can send him a deck for our webpage and since Peter seems to want to build it I’ll also say what I think will hose it.
Cody played Nathan’s TDGIWATT and was irritated that I had made him cut his one RLiR1 because CC Occupation was destroying him and Nathan had no ships to defend it. His Chadra deck lost both games today, so he’s thinking its time to move on. We try to do some trading, but no one wants to give anything up...I get the feeling Sith Probe Droids will become the new ORS or Palace Raider, as everyone seemed to want them. I don’t know if Hunt the Queen is powerful, but everyone wants to try it.
When the SM finally gets around to announcing it, he just says to switch decks so I play
Peter’s Walker Garrison vs My QMC
I think we figured out before this game with my differential of +103 its going to be really hard for him to win the tournament. Walker Garrison smacks around defensive decks that expect Menace Fades to protect them (like my QMC, but RST also) because it does a huge amount of direct damage. We’re mostly pinging each other for about the same amount for an early part of the game, but I made the scrubbiest mistake possible in ANY CCG and deserved to lose the game: I lost my hand. I noticed five-six cards from my deck in the chair next to me at the end of the game; I remember midway through the game thinking that this wasnn’t my hand, I had Deneb Both and a BS B Wing. Also in that pile was CC Celbration. Might’ve been nice to have that around because that would have retrieved all the damage he did to me during the early turns. I send Obi to attack an Imperial Walker and a POTFed Hoth site and clear it, then Veers and Merrejk show up and he uses Garrison to pull an AT-AT but he doesn’t have enough force to battle me so he just plays Ice storm. Since I have nothing to lose with Obi I battle and he dies but I kill Merrejk. In the late phases of the game it becomes increasingly obvious that without Celebration I can’t handle the direct damage, but I miscalulate and drop Obi again thinking htat Ice Storm would go to the Docking Bay (I was wrong--he ended up missing). I get irritated because I know only lost one so I activate everything and tunnel but there’s no Celebration. He sets up Thrawn on CHimaera at Hoth and gets RBO going so I know I’m going to lose a huge amount of cards. I make my last stand at Bespin cause he moved over, the TD rules I can’t fire my Proton torps and not draw so I would have a guaranteed hit with Blue 5’s Intruder missile, but from firing two weapons and my AO Blue Five is power+10 so Peter loses that battle and power but on the next turn the direct damage wipes me out.
FL -10
Highs: The space battle at the end.
He was too afraid to mess with me on Bespin.
Lows: My only loss of the day.
A fairly noninteractive game.
Screwing up with Ice Storm, and losing my fragging hand. It doesn’t get worse than losing your hand, especially when I needed CC Celebration (dunno if it would have mattered, his damage potential on that last turn was huge).
Although the TD didn’t announce the standings, I’m pretty sure based on 6 (+93) because there were no undefeateds and no one with that silly of diff. Since he has no prize support, the TD offers Peter and I (probably the top two) our Choice of ECC Chewie and PLO foils. I don’t have foil ECC Chewie so I get it.
Props:
Preston for giving us a Website, the Endor Bunker.
Cody for helping me rummage through rares and playtest, and he got a free Great Shot, Kid! (My belated cry during the trading was, "Does anyone need any deck enhancers?")
The SM for running a tournament when Jeff wasnt around and giving us foils from his own collection. He’s also planning on running more tournaments so we could have a tournament every week in Billings which would be cool.
Hunt Down and Destroy The Jedi. This is the first time I played the ornery objective, and now I understand why its survived more than any other DS deck type.
The Tat deck enhancers, for making for some diversity in the metagame (last tournament I against a lot of WYS and ISB)
Steve Baroni because he is the shiznit (mandatory in my props nowadays)
The rest of the Kashyyyk people for beating the cud out of me and forcing me to just get better
The people who read this rather lengthy report of a local tournament when there are no doubt RamopoCon reports around.
Whoever ended up winning RamopoCon and the DPC there.
Slops
My brother, for not coming
Decipher, for not giving us prize support and being lazy with GenCon registration (does anyone have any information on the continentals at GenCon? I need to go lose at a big tournament).
Podracing. Even though I won with it.
Sith Probe Droids because you’ll need a lot of them.
Me, for losing my fragging hand. If I can’t keep my cards in my hand, I’ll never be able to track well. On the plus side, I have a new entrant into the Scrubbiest Mistake In History Hall of Fame.