mt-and-wo-6-22-6-24-triple-tr
Title: mt-and-wo-6-22-6-24-triple-tr
Author: Travis "Com Igar" Rumans
Date: Jun 24, 2001
So my friend Cody and I prepare for a weekend full of SWCCGing. Its maybe an hour and a half drive or so to Sheridan, so we get up relatively early to get going. He’s built a new MBO deck and he said he ’fishbowled’ it the night before and it did ok, and since most decks in our metagame don’t do much besides drain you on their planet anyway that seems like a legitimate test result. I agonize over wether to play my QMC or go back to WYS, but in the end I just decide everyone must be really, really sick of WYS so I do them a favor by going with QMC. For dark I stick with Huntdown/podracing, which has so far been undefeated. I have a theory that players about my skill level think that Hunt Down/podracing is the absolute shiznit, but players better than me have some reservations (if you need proof, you can check out some of the highly ranked light decks where the player edited his strategy to respond to reviews criticizing their decks as weak against HD/P). Still, I can’t argue with a deck that’s never won by less than 30 in tournaments.
So Cody and I drive to Sheridan. Once before we went to Sheridan, and the tournament was at the public library, but no one in the town could tell us where the library was so I’m a little worried about finding the place. Anyway, you can tell you’ve crossed into Wyoming from Montana because the roads gain a distinctly pink tint. People sometimes ask about Montana’s speed limit, and its true we used to have no speed limit (the so-called "safe and prudent" law) but it was found unconstitional because it gave local law enforcement too much power and was replaced by an official speed limit of 75 mph. But Montana has a lot of area and not a lot of people so there’s not enough cops to patrol all that highway. And besides, if you drive the speed limit, you’re a nancy. So cruising speed usually hovers around 85-100 mph. Meanwhile, we’re listening to my FF3 soundtrack.
Cody and I arrive and have enough time to grab some food (although I take the wrong exit). We find our way to the tournament place a little bit early. The attendance is a little on the small side, but if I get to play people I don’t regularly play its all good. We’re also playing outside, which is kind of nice.
I’m like 1778 or so going in to this, with I think everything updated.
WO Game 1: My QMC vs. Lucas Endor Trooper Stuff
He uses Combat Readiness to start the Endor Forest Clearing and Dark Forest. I start QMC stuff. I know those are both good battlegrounds, so I make sure to get Menace Fades set up with SOS+Saber on the ground and a couple of ships in space. One of my ships was deployed to my DB to flip before taking off. He deploys some troopers to one of my CC sites. He said he had only played in a couple of tourneys so he thought he was going to lose, but I wasn’t so sure until he played the card from Premiere that gives people Warrior or makes a Warrior power+1. I tunneled for Gift of the Mentor hoping to find Qui Gon’s saber with it, but then I remember its destiny adding function and tunnel for Obi. I path SOS over, SATM Ghhk-in-Stormtrooper’s clothing Elsek, drop Obi, am pleased to find I have enough force for Qui Gon, battle, make one of his guys move away or be lost with Obi, hack a guy, and beat him down for like 18. THen I spread out, celebrate, and take control of all CC sites for a FW of like 28 (or something...didn’t write down my diff for that game for some reason).
Highs: None, really.
Lows: Smacking the newbie for diff. I think I forgot to drain for a few early on.
WO Game 2: My HD/P vs. Cody’s MBO
You know, it just figures that I play the guy I always playtest with after driving for an hour and a half. At least this was a matchup we hdn’t played. However, this was MBO’s first tournament game, and it was my beastly dark deck. Still, the game kind of sucks. He sets up a space drain at Kashyyyk but I forget that Luke can’t drain me there while I’m flipped. I look at my cards and get the inspired diea to use POTF and one of his non-bgs. I’m a little afraid he can actually win if he blows up the happy fun ball, so I use POTF and EPP Vader on the site that makes his Attack Run Total -4. I use EPP Vader hoping he’ll drop some guys to try to kill him so I can counterattack with DVDLOTS+Saber. He takes the bait, but when the counterattack comes he simply Houjixes. He’s using Crix to pull Arconas, so Mara+Aurra put a stop to this nonsesnse and he Houjixes again. Palpy comes in to get another drain. I finish the podrace although I only have like 8 in my lost so I can do a lot of damage and hopefully get one of his important cards. That cleans out his hand, so I Limited Resources, and No Escape to do it again (we both forget its unique). Yavin is mine and the hope of the attack run is gone. FW+40.
Highs: My diff?
Lows: Playing my friend, and wacking what could be a cool deck with the ’fun and interactive’ strat of podracing.
WO Game 3: My HD/P vs. Jon’s Dagobah Jizz
Jon’s deck is the kind of deck they printed Grabbers fo. He runs like 20 ICBW. He starts MWYHL, and he deploys Yoda but he doesn’t train this game even though he gets set up for it. If I would’ve had a grabber this would’ve been an auto-win for me, and a Monnock would’ve let me do some damage. As it is, the best I can do is finish the podrace before he expects it so he can only ICBW a bit of the damage. He tries to set up a Holotable drain but Visage smacks his POAS. Then nothing happens. He inserts numbers but I don’t need to activate because the only battleground on table is the podracing arena. I ask if there’s any point in this continuing after 5-6 turns of me reminding him to ICBW Visage, and he says no, so we just count our cards and give the person who has more left a timed win, and the TD, Regis, agrees. So we count, and I get a TW+17.
Highs: None, really. The TD didn’t make us go to time, so thank heaven for small favors.
Lows: Now I know why grabbers are good. I start thinking about swapping out some cards for MM+Monnock.
Jon’s deck was the most boring, noninteractive pile of drek I’ve ever played. I don’t understand why anyone would want to play a deck like that. I heard later he played Peter in a friendly game and Peter had a grabber. Serves Jon right =).
WO Game 4 my QMC vs. Cody’s Trooper/RallOps Numbers
Again, I play the guy I play with most often after driving an hour and a half. I fear his numbers and am beginning to wonder if Your Insight would be better than Aim High. ANyway, this game sucks. He doesn’t come after me because he fears Path. I set up, drain, and retrieve, he sets up, drains, and insterts. I refuse to activate witht he insert in my deck. Hopes for an interactive aspect of this game are dashed when I decide not to dispatch Ten Numb to go after Bossk in Bus and another EBH ship at Raithal to hurt his numbers total because I don’t think I could handle his really high destinies if he puts down another ship (turns out later he had no ship). He drops EPP Vader somewhere on CC. Late game, numbers pops, but I still win because he draws up as I’m retrieving more than he’s draining me for.
Highs: Again, none really.
Lows: Beating my friend, again.
Well, any Billings players interested in going to WO tournaments should talk to me because then I might get to face more interesting matchups. As it was, I played my playtesting bud twice, a newbie, and a lockdown deck. After the tourney I play a game of Jedi Knights. Its kind of relaxing because there aren’t so many obscure rules subsets that I need to know and its a game that revolves around battling...no hiding on holosites to drain or other such drek. I’m hoping for a few better games in Montana the next day. I drop my Sith Furies for Masterful Move and Monnock, but my decks are the same. Jeff, our regular TD, is directing this week. Cody and I wonder if I got any ratings points at all from going undefeated in WO. Well, pairings are called, and I’m playing someone from WO ironically enough.
MT Game 1 My QMC vs. Jon’s Construct DSII/Hoth
This is the same guy I played with the stupid lockdown deck. He starts Endor. I set up, drain, and retrieve. I see no TIEs with Guns protecting the DSII, so as soon as finishes I send over a Blue Squadron B-Wing with an Intruder Missile over and track a 4 so he survives to the Core. He plays some Hoth sties and sets up there, but its not until he parks that Second Happy Fun Ball in orbit of Hoth that he really starts to hurt me. On my turn I could SATM U-3PO for the win but I decide to kill the DSII for the win instead for a more spectacular ending.
Highs: I killed the DSII! Its a card-intensive monstrosity, and you need to use the Scythe TIEs to protect the thing or it will just get blown up. 10 isn’t hard to get when you’re adding ability, +3 for missiles or torps, and +1 for each piloted starfighter at the central core.
Lows: Boring, noninteractive.
MT Game 2 HD/P vs. Regis’s Objectiveless Chadra Swarm
He twi’leks for Uh-Oh and starts the AC. I regret cutting Sith Fury. I have to wait for the podrace to finish before there’s any battlegrounds anywhere, so I take it over with Vader, Mara, and Ponda/Dr.E combo. I’m draining him for a lot. At one point he puts down Luke but I have no dueler so he plays the LS Dueler and I use Operational As Planned/Vader’s Anger to get a stacked 5 and I focused to get three destiny. He adds 6 to his total with one of his dueling cards. I win it, but Luke is ’only’ placed out of play. Towards the end he throws down some Chadra just because its a little more fun to see them die then sit and have me drain.
FW+36
Highs: It was quick? Regis is pretty cool, and he’ll get some more tournaments going in WO so I’ll have more opportunities for gaming.
Lows: Not that interesting of a game, and we had to wait like the entire hour to play our next game.
MT Game 3 HD/P vs Preston’s HDWGITM/Inserts/Podracing
That’s the best desciption I can come up for for the deck. This was easilyt he best game of the weekend.
He starts the podracing stuff so I’m worried I’ll lose the podrace and I start POTF and his Home One War Room instead of Watto’s Box. This lets me invade it and get a drain of 4 going with Vader’s saber. We forgot the FD -1 gametext for the entire game, but we also forgot that I added a battle destiny in battles I initiate. He gets down Nekkid Threepio and starts Messing. Mara+Saber and Palpy invade one of the twixes he drops, but he soon puts down Honor to deal with that and Visage. At this point I feel like I’m in control, but I haven’t seen him do anything yet and he’s getting lots of activation and cycling through his deck so I know better than to get overconfident. He inserts numbers so I struggle to get down Palpy in time to take the edge off of it. Orrimaarko and EPP Obi try to come down to stop Vader in the War Room, but Obi gets barriered and 4-Lom helps Vader counterattack. I take the opportunity to choke Nekkid Threepio to put a stop to this destiny tracking nonsense. I’m stupid and forget to use my There Is No Conflict to knock his bd down beneath Vader’s immunity so he dies but I don’t sweat it too much because I have an EPP Vader in hand. I No Escape DVDLOTs back, too. Its probably better that 4-LOM survived, as we’ll see later. He uses EPP Obi+Bacta tank to clear out Mara+Palpy. When he’s facing off against just palpy, though, I realize he has no more reserve deck for battle destiny to I gladly lose Palpy and one to strand the recurring suicide character at one of his non-bgs (my play of the weekend!). Corran Horn had come down to cancel Visage earler and I think I lost Visage from hand to a drain because I didn’t think I could get it set up again, but now EPP comes down to deal with Corran, hacks him, Focused Attak for 12 power, and now I play There Is No Conflict. So his destiny is -3, he has no forfeit, and my power is 12 and all he has is Corran. Fortunately his destiny is pretty good. I regret losing Visage earlier because now one of his Jedi is stuck at a non-battleground and No Escape is on table (I didn’t think the game would get this far). Anyway, DVDLOTs rejoins 4-LOM to take the Home One War Room back and I start draining again. Can’t remember if I drew this DVDLOTs or if he was the one I No Escaped (maybe he killed the one I No Escaped...Vader died and was reborn multiple times in this game) Now, he uses the other suicide staple of EPP Luke and like Obi before him he gets barriered (just wish I could’ve dueled one of those bastards...). On my turn Xizor comes down to deny Luke his destiny and 4-LOM kills his weapon swing. The War Room is mine, at last. Seeking to expand, I almost drop Mara at one of his twixes but remember Honor and send her to the podracing bay. Unfortunately, her previous incarnation had the saber. Taws Khaa comes down and they battle for a bit, but I eventually take it over. There’s only like ten minutes left in the round, but it at last appears that I have the upper hand. I think I said a few times if I had started Watto’s Box this would be over, but without starting POTF I would’ve had no chance. I finally manage to win a very hardfought game with 11.
Highs: This game rocked. Lots of battles at the war room. 4-LOM is the man. Vader is a machine and keeps coming back. POTF on opponent’s twixes is tech. Sebulba always wins the podrace. My dark deck remains undefeated. Preston made the best LS deck I’ve seen since returning to Billings. A very tough, very well-played game. When you play some boring, noninteracrive games you begin to wonder if the only reason you still play SWCCG is because you’ve spent a lot on it and can’t recoup your investment. A game like this restores my faith in the fun of SWCCG.
Lows: We forget some Gametext which would have changed the game. I don’t know if me adding a destiny in each of the battles I initiated would have balanced the drain -1.
MT Game 4 QMC vs. Peter’s Walker Garrison
Well, I have to decide if I want to kick back, drain, and retrieve while I take his draining and direct damage but I decide to try to be a little more aggressive. I move Ten Numb superstar to confront Ozzel in Executor at Hoth, leaving Melas and two Z-95s at Bespin. He lost Thrawn off the top so I’m feeling unjustifiably safe at Bespin, especially with CC Celebration (which I had played just after he lost Endor Occupation). He No Escapes Thrawn back into hand, though, and him and Chimera come down and he gets enough to clear the system and cancel Celebration. Then he parks it in front of my Ten Numb. So now the Sullustan that could is facing off against Executor with Ozzel and Chimera with Thrawn. I have to use my Stay Sharp during my Control Phase to kill Thrawn instead of using it to get a huge power bonus like I wanted (would’ve been +10 with my AO). I have to tunnel to get another Intruder missile instead of another ship like I had hoped. I opt not to fire it and get the bonus from the AO because I want to keep it around so if Ten survives I can Power Pivot again when we battle, but he draws a 4 so I have to lose him. He loses Ozzel and like 2. If he hadn’t moved Chimera over, he would’ve had to lose a lot more or Executor and Occupation. Then he throws down Maul in front of Amidala and tries to battle but I remind him I have no presence so he can’t. Now, Menace Fades isn’t working anymore so he can play Garrison and drain me for a lot. He just wips me out at that point.
FL-16
Highs: Ten Numb, Superstar. The best space package I’ve ever used short of a full-on space deck. Peter took my advice and used Mob Points, which gives me a warm fuzzy feeling.
Lows: I lost. This is my only constructed loss of the weekend. I’m thinking of building my own Walker Garrison deck so I can playtest the drek out of it and figure out how to win this matchup, which most people agree is bad for QMC.
Peter ends up winning, Preston gets second, and I get third. Afterwards Peter and I play a fun game to keep with the tradition of us playing two games every tournament, and, true to form, I win this one. He’s playing the Podracing/RST, and I duel Jedi Luke and win the race (you don’t want to be tied with Sebulba at 28.)
So Cody hangs out at my house for awhile and we play a few games, I get some insight into how MBO works. He plays my Construct the DSII deck for the frag of it, and he does little damage to me through drains but he blows up both Death Stars which is cool (Luke’s nemesis, Major Mianda, is unable to stop him either time.) What’s really cool is that the ship who does it is Lateral Damaged. Then we find some markers and write on our cards. We are now convinced our decks are better because we marked them up. Cody has an idea for a cool new dark deck.
So now the final event of the weekend is an Endor booster draft. Peter and I are drafting light at the same table; Cody and Nathan are drafting dark. If Peter and I had coperated and said "You get Scouts, I get Ewoks" we might ahve done ok, but we don’t because we both want Ewoks. I get foil CoK, and he gets like Threepio, Were You Looking For Me? And Crix. I, however, get the mighty power card of a YT-1300 Freighter. As is typical, the first game you play the guy you drafted across from...4 games, 8 people, I will eventually play everyone who drafted dark.
Sealed Game 1 vs Nathan’s Endor Stuff
He converts one of the sites I carefully planned for and locks down the forest clearing on turn 1. I’m screwed. I put down some guys but he attacks and plays lots of Endor interrupts you probably wouldn’t recognize. FL-22
Highs: At least no other LS player won.
Lows: I was turned into a smoldering crater.
Sealed Game 2 vs Cody’s Endor Stuff
Well, these are also decks we haven’t played. There’s lots of battles over the back door, and he uses the Main Course antidestiny to hurt me. The Wokling shows up at the Back Door. I put down Chandrilla nd the Freighter to start draining late game, and I block his drains with some guys. He piles guys on the back door but I dare not attack because as long as Wokling’s around I have the advantage. Towards the end, we’re each pinging for one. I look around and do the math and I know I will win by one unless he does something. I end up winning by 1. My shout disupts the people reading at Barnes and Noble.
Highs: I won! The only LS win the entire day! And my ship drain worked!
Lows: Well, this game didn’t suck as bad as my previous games vs. Cody.
Game 3 vs. Jeff’s Endor Trooper Stuff
Jeff is our Squadron Member and he’s also TD. He’s pretty cool. There were lots of battles at the back door. I use the Endor scout gun that fires repeatedly to kill lots of his guys, but he just kept on coming...he must have been lucky enough to draft a lot of characters. He kills my Wuta early on so I decide to drop Endor system for activation. I decide my Dresselian commando can run from some guys he has at the Back Door to the Bunker and I can just outdrain him. He drops a Lambda shortly thereafter at Endor and he drains me for 4/turn which burns through a 40-card deck really fast. He also tracks a lot and those 6s come up at bad times for me. I drop some guys to block his drains but we stalemate on power. The Freighter stops the system drain. I figure out that if I battle at the bunker and I draw a 4 or better I’ll win because he only has one force left and that’s all I need for overflow. But I only have two left and now way to block his drain next turn. I only get destiny because of the bunker’s gametext. I draw a 3. FL -1.
Highs: Almost beating Jeff to get TWO LS wins. Jeff was pretty cool.
Lows: I thought I was in control, but I wasn’t. Sealed is deceptive that way. My own Endor hurt me.
Game 4 vs. Preston’s Endor Stuff
Well, Jeff and Preston drafted at the same table, and Preston got a lot of combat vehicles while Jeff got lots of troopers. I play Free Ride first turn. He beats me down at the Back Door and plays Relentless Tracking. I run to the Bunker. He’s in total control, all I can do is track my Free Ride back into my hand and play it like 6-7 times (all he has in hand is high speed tactics). FL-20
Highs: Free Ride! I’ve found another cycling 5!
Lows: He owned me.
Well, after Peter thinks he’s beating Jeff but I told him that at one point I thought I was beating Jeff, too. Again, Jeff pulls out the victory. DS has a big advantage in Endor sealed (Stormtroopers, and Speeder bikes, and AT-STs, oh my!) After the tourney Preston and I play a game of Jedi Knights. I found out a lot of people have bought Jedi Knights but haven’t played it much. Some people might not like it, but its winnning more converts from that other CCG made by that one company (The Sorcerors of the Beach or something) than SWCCG is. Then I run Cody home after grabbing some food and then I come home and let the dogs out and then I write this TR.
Props
Cody, for coming with me to all these tourneys and playtesting
Preston, for building an awesome LS deck and winning the sealed
Regis, for running tourneys in WO
Jeff, for running tourneys in MT
Ten Numb, Superstar
Lando with Afro
Peter, for beating me
Sebulba (he always wins)
The changing metagame....before Tat I saw mainly WYS and ISB
You, for reading this long local report.
Slops
Decipher, for not getting prize support out so I do not have tournament foils for either of the tourneys I’ve won
Stupid lockdown decks
The plants in the house that I need to water