cedar-grove-nj-23-jun-01
Title: cedar-grove-nj-23-jun-01
Author: Doug "Phrim" Faust
Date: Jun 25, 2001
23 Jun 01, Cedar Grove, NJ
Well after my week’s break after Ramapo, I decide to head out to Rich Haman’s tournament in Cedar Grove, about 2 hours north of me. So the night before, I’m thinking about making new decks, because I wasn’t really impressed with the performance of my Light deck at Ramapo. But I’ve got a bunch of ideas for Dark, but I’m completely clueless for Light. My Dark deck, which is your typical TIE Swarm, was 6-4 against mostly good competetion, so I decided to stick with it. My Light, a HDWGITM Podracing Harvest deck, on the other hand, was 5-5, and I was a bit more unsatisfied with it, but I couldn’t come up with anything else I wanted to play, so I stuck with that as well.
So I manage to get up on time, but no one really wants to make the trip up with me, so I’m heading up alone. I make good time on the Turnpike, but then I hit the Parkway and it’s all backed up. So instead of getting there early like I had planned, I end up getting there about 10 minutes late. But it turns out that they were waiting for an 8th person to make the tournament sanctioned, so it was all cool. Now, I had expected to see a lot of the local high school kids that had showed up for States at this store, but this was very much not the case. Here’s who showed up: Mike Dalton (1984), Pete Flamini (1867), Kim Caton (1854), Rich Haman (1791), Greg Hodur (1776), myself (1776), Chris Gogolen (1763), and Bob Caton (1704). So I was rather toward the lower end of this spectrum, and it reminded me of a similar 8-person tournament at Glenside last year when I managed to go 0-6 (yes, 0-6). So I was a bit leery, the only person here I had a winning record against was Bob, so it might not be a good day for me. Anyway, enough gibber-jabber, on to the games...
Game 1: My Light vs. Greg Hodur’s (1776) SYCFA TIEs with Bragnus
Well, I play Greg fairly often (unlike Pete, who shows up at pretty much all the same tourneys, but I’ve never played), and he’s one of the players that habitually beats me. I think I’ve only won once against him. Anyway, he starts out fairly normal stuff as far as TIE Swarms are concerned. I get through the Podrace fairly quickly, and he didn’t have a Podracer, so I win easily. Unfortunately, I forgot to get I Did It! again. Since I’m a bad player, I ALWAYS forget to get I Did It!. He grabs my Mess the first time I play it, so that kinda sucks, but whatever. Maybe it means he won’t grab my Harvest later, which is by far the more important card to grab. I drop EPP Obi down at the Lars Farm for a quick drain, and he puts Arica there right away. So I go ahead and put Qui-Gon with Saber at the Pod Arena, so I get my drain of 2 while he blocks my drain of 1. He drops Bragnus at the Death Star Docking Bay and starts doing the Bragnus thing, and I really don’t like Bragnus so I deploy Jedi Luke with Saber at the Docking Bay and kill him. Doesn’t end up doing much, because he just deploys another Bragnus on one of this Dreadnaughts. I finally find my Owen and Beru, so I start to Harvest, but he grabs that too the first time I play it. I still play the three that were in my deck though. Eventually, I managed to retrieve a SATM I had lost, track it around, then Threepio for it and kill Arica. I play an Out Of Commission on him just because I have nothing better to do, and he grabs that too. I had gotten Aim High and Battle Plan out early, so his force is on the meager side. He deploys Ability, Ability, Ability and he’s got way more stuff on the table than I do, but I respond by deploying a bunch of guys for no reason, first EPP Leia then EPP Han then Major Hasshn, then FO Thaneespi, then Home One at the Rendezvous Point. It managed to use up some of my Force, but I had plenty. He plays Lateral Damage on the Home One, but the Home One was *never* going to go out to where it was vulnerable to a TIE Swarm anyway, so that was a bit of a waste on his part. Anyway, he never gets off his Short Range, probably because of Aim High, so I manage to outdrain him and outretrieve him, and I win the game. FW+23, 2(+23)
Highlights: Beating a TIE Swarm after losing repeatedly to it in playtesting
Lowlights: Forgetting to get I Did It!...again
Game 2: My Dark vs. Kim Caton’s (1854) Dagoboring
Somehow, I manage to play Kim in almost every single tournament that we both participate in. Even in something as large as the Ramapo Open, I still find myself sitting across from Kim. Kim *always* plays basically the same decks, and pretty much always beats me. So I’m not incredibly happy. Today was no exception for the decks, as she was using the same Dagobah turtle deck that she’s had since time began. So anyway, we start getting set up, and she passes her Jedi Tests in record time. I set up with a Dreadnaught and a couple TIEs, one of which with a TIE Cannon, at Kashyyyk. She makes her move, coming down with a Red Squadron X-wing, the Spiral, and an X-wing Cannon, allegedly with all sorts of goodness in her hand that would make me lose right there and then. But then I Overload the X-wing Cannon. And, for only the second time out of 4, I actually draw low enough to destroy it. This ruins Kim’s plan completely, and she drops Lando In Falcon there to back it up, fearing a beatdown next turn. I drop as much as I can on her, battle, play All Power, shoot both the Falcon and the X-wing, and pound on the lone Spiral. That ends up taking her out of space for the rest of the game, so my drains went uncontested. I grabbed her Visored Vision early, because that card’s annoying. Later on, she deployed Artoo In Red 5 at the Bog Clearing and started doing her It Could Be Worse/We’re Doomed thing, but I grabbed the It Could Be Worse. Unfortunately, I didn’t have another grabber for the We’re Doomed. She put Qui-Gon and his Saber down at her Cloud City Lower Corridor, but I easily canceled that drain until I found Arica to block it completely. She also made an issue out of my Death Star Docking Bay, which I was using to satisfy her Battle Plan, but I managed to hold on to the site long enough to get some good drains in. Anger, Fear, Agression reared its ugly head once in the game, but after that we were busy interacting at the Death Star Docking Bay for a couple turns, so that kept her from deploying another until too late. In the end, I was draining and retrieving, and she wasn’t, so I won. FW+17, 4(+40)
Highlights: Beating Kim is always a highlight, since I do it so rarely
Lowlights: I couldn’t grab We’re Doomed
Game 3: My Light vs. Rich Haman’s (1791) Hunt Down Podracing, Brentson-style
Rich, having run the Open, has access to decklists from all the top players at that event, and today has decided to bring Steve Brentson’s Hunt Down Racing deck. So it was Podracing versus Podracing, and I’m a bit iffy as to my chances because he’s probably got more Podracing helper cards than I do. He initiates the battle using my Epic Event, meaning that the race will take place during his Control Phase. So he goes, "Okay, let’s race," and I give him a confused look. "Aren’t you...umm...going to use Sebulba’s text?" He thanks me for reminding him, and uses it, and stacks a Vader or something. Meanwhile, I go Messing through my deck, and get out a bunch of 2/0 sites and Goo Nee Tay. I try to Terminate his Visage, but he uses TISR to cancel it. So we both sitting there Podracing, losing to Visage, and doing little else, he contemplates deploying Vader to the Pod Arena, but it’s not a battleground, so he doesn’t. Soon, we find the Podrace all tied up at 8-8. I look at him expectedly, but he doesn’t catch on, so I again remind him to use Sebulba’s text, which he gladly does. Soon I’m finding myself in Podrace trouble, so I mess through my entire deck to find an A Step Backward, which turns out to be like the second card to the bottom of my Reserve. The other ASB was stacked, so not much I could do about that. So I play that, and about a turn later, we’re both in sight of Podracing victory. We draw, I get big destiny, he draws a one, and I’m winning 29-26. But then he plays Podracer Collision to remove one of my destinies at random, and snabs a 3. So we’re once again tied, this time at 26, and I know I’m dead in the water now. But Rich doesn’t, as he’s forgotten about Sebulba’s text once again. So I’m like "read Sebulba’s text", and he remembers what he’s supposed to do and wins the Podrace. So he drops Vader with Saber, and I drop EPP Obi, and he immediately duels him. He plays Focused Attack, but draws pretty low destinies, so I have a pretty good chance to put myself ahead right here. But my destinies are low too, and he ends up barely winning, so I play Resilience to cancel the duel. So we take turns throwing mains at each other, me with Qui-Gon and his Saber and him with Maul and his Saber. He wants to duel Qui-Gon with Maul’s text, but I remind him about Qui-Gon’s anti-dueling text, so he duels Obi instead. I draw big destiny and win the duel. So we continue trading tit for tat at the Pod Arena (there being no other battlegrounds in the game), with neither of us doing any significant damage. Visage is doing a number on both of us, but more me than him, since he had the 12 Force swing from the Podrace. So I’m looking for EJP Lando to deploy to the Holotheatre to cancel Visage, but it turns out that I lost him. I manage to clear out the Pod Arena, and he deploys Mara to the Home One War Room to drain. I end up losing by 6 Force, because I just could never make up for the Force swing caused by the Podrace. FL-6, 4(+34)
Highlights: He was so sure he had me in that duel... then I played Resilience.
Lowlights: The podrace.
Game 4: My Dark vs. Rich Haman’s (1791) Profit Mains
At this point, Rich and Pete were undefeated, but they were both on the same side, so Pete played against Mike Dalton again, and I played against Rich again. Now, both in playtesting and in tournaments, I could never beat a Profit deck with my TIE deck, and in fact, every time the matchup came up I lost big. So I’m not too happy about this matchup. He frees Han pretty early, and I do a good job of getting my systems and spreading out to drain, knowing that his space forces would be little to none. So he keeps on deploying mains to his various sites, but he’s having a hard time finding Lightsabers for them. He’s left Han alone with Tawss Khaa in the Audience Chamber, so Ghhhk in hand, I come down with EPP Vader to hopefully kill Han and stall him for a few turns. He just Narrow Escapes away, but for some reason, he doesn’t bother Vader there for the rest of the game, giving me an extra drain of 2. So we both continue draining and I’m retrieving and canceling some of his drains too, so I’m winning the drain race. I have Battle Order out to slow him down, which is doing its job admirably. He’s not playing any of the cards I have trouble with, like I Hope She’s Alright or Landing Claws and Yoxgit, so I’m doing all right here. At the end of the game, he does manage to deploy Home One against my lone TIE Squadron, which is a problem, but he doesn’t have enough Force to initiate a battle. I’ve thrown out all my battle helper cards at this point, so I just deploy a bunch of TIEs there and outpower him by 5. Eventually, the drain game plays out and I end up winning by a good amount. FW+17, 6(+51)
Highlights: Finally beating a Profit deck
Lowlights: None
Game 5: My Light vs. Mike Dalton’s (1984) SYCFA Flip
Both Pete and Rich lost their games, so the four of us were all 3-1. Myself and Mike had the highest differential, so we faced off. Now, I have beaten SYCFA Flip decks before, but that was mostly through getting huge battle damage on the Death Star after he flipped. Since Mike is (allegedly) a good player, that probably won’t happen. So first turn, I activate both of the Threepios in my deck, so I can’t get one with Seeking An Audience, which kinda sucks (I play two so that this sort of thing doesn’t happen). Anyway, the Podrace goes uncontested so I win easily, and I retrieve despite the fact that Coward is on the table (we both forgot). I try Messing, but he grabs it right away. He’s starting to set up on the Death Star, and I’ve got Qui-Gon and Lightsaber in my hand thinking I could make a surprise visit and maybe kill some Gunners to stall him a bit. But then he goes and drops the Emperor to the Docking Bay and moves the Gunner that was there out of harm’s way. I decide to go after the Emperor anyway, thinking with the huge destiny in this deck I should be able to hit him. So I swing and draw a seven exactly, which doesn’t cut it. For the next few turns, I keep missing the Emperor with surprisingly low destiny, so, since they’re both completely immune to attrition, they basically sit there staring at each other. He manages to blow up Alderaan and flip his objective, and he starts deploying Destroyers at the Death Star and keeps moving the Death Star over. Meanwhile, I’m hoping I can manage to hit the Emperor before he draws one of the Put All Sections On Alert that I know he’s playing. One time, he tries searching for a system with his Objective and doesn’t find one, so I play Changing The Odds and put a PASOA out of play. Eventually, I do manage to hit the Emperor. I get Order To Engage out and start moving Qui-Gon over in front of the other guys he has on the Death Star. This ends up causing about 5 battle damage or so after I kill everyone, and then Qui-Gon goes back to the Docking Bay because of Coward. Meanwhile, he’s got Star Destroyers draining at Fondor, Kashyyyk, and Endor for 2, 3, and 3. Neither of us realize that he *should* be draining for 4, 5, and 5 with his Objective flipped. As a result, I manage to keep the game somewhat close. I get set up with Mains on Tatooine and Harvest some, but he’s got Something Special Planned for me so that doesn’t last for too long. Eventually, he realizes that he should be draining for 6 more than he actually is, and then I lose. FL-10, 6(+41)
Highlights: Wow, I actually got a chance to play Changing The Odds...
Lowlights: Mike made all sorts of mistakes, and I still lost. Oh, and did I mention that I forgot to grab I Did It! AGAIN?
Game 6: My Dark vs. Mike Dalton’s (1984) Watch Your Step
Well, Mike’s score at this point was 8(+47), so if I win this game the tournament is pretty much mine. My angle here is to wipe him out of space, which shouldn’t be too hard if I can use my TIE Cannons efficiently. He’s started with Don’t Do That Again, so I’ll need to put something at a battleground to get Wakeelmui out. So, I Twi’lek for my Sienar, drop a TIE at Tatooine, and fetch Wakeelmui and deploy Sienar. Naturally, I have a Ghhhk in my hand at this point. He does the obvious thing and deploys the Falcon with Captain Han and Melas to battle my TIE. However, he also uses Don’t Do That Again to look for an immediate effect--in this case, Legendary Starfighter. Ugh. So he battles, draws lots of destiny and stuff, so I lose my TIE to used and play Ghhhk. And he, of course, plays Legendary Starfighter. He starts spreading out on the ground and flips, and I really need to kill the Falcon because direct damage is bad. I count my Force, and I have just enough to deploy a TIE with a Cannon, battle, fire it, and have enough Force to fire it again when he attacks me next turn if need be. So I deploy the TIE, and deploy the Admiral’s Order that lets me redraw my weapon destiny so that it’d be difficult to miss. So I battle, shoot the Falcon, and draw a 5, theoretically hitting it. But he plays A Few Maneuever to make it maneuver 8. I can’t hit that... Out of sheer frustration, I grab the AFM. He plays the card that lets you use your manuever as battle destiny for his first destiny, then draws 2 6’s on top of that, for a grand total of 30 power and 20 attrition. Good thing I have another Ghhhk. (Who deploys lone TIEs without a Ghhhk, anyway?) But the game goes downhill from there. I threw away my systems thinking that we’d be fighting over his systems, not mine, but he reminds me that I can only activate one at the Death Star, so I’m effectively Force choked. He gets a ship at Wakeelmui, making the Force choke even more severe, and then puts another ship at the Death Star. So he’s draining all over the place, and I’m having trouble getting cards on the table. We both keep forgetting about Legendary, but at this point it really doesn’t matter. I lose. FL-29, 6(+12)
Highlights: ugh
Lowlights: Three words: A Few Manuevers
Amazingly, 3-3 with 12 differential is enough to get me third place. Mike Dalton, of course, wins the tournament and nabs some tourney foil. Chris Gogolen gets second with a 4-2 performance. Being in third place, I somehow end up winning the t-shirt that Mike Dalton donated in lieu of the entry fee, which I find a bit odd, because that usually goes to the winner. I felt kinda sorry for Mike about that, because he clearly expected to win it back (he did win the tourney after all), but Rich decided to give it to 3rd place instead. 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/