austin-tx-6-23-01
Title: austin-tx-6-23-01
Author: Justin "hoostino" Warren
Date: Jun 26, 2001
For decks, I opted for my QMC Beats deck for LS, which has proven to be a consistent and trustworthy deck over the span of post-Tatooine locals, as both my friend Jeremy, who couldn’t come to this event, and I have met success with it continually. For DS, I decided my Hunt Down Podracing was still incapable of losing at locals, so I took it. For Mark, I built a QMC deck similar to my own, but with less beats and a larger space package. His DS was a Speed Trooper Dark Deal deck that uses some tech to do Full Scale Alert beatdowns.
We arrived after a little more than an hour-and-a-half drive due to a huge traffic jam caused by the closure of a section of the Interstate. Also, a large rubber trash can flew at me while going over 75 mph; that wasn’t cool at all. But, it did no damage to my car, it simply scared the living piss out of me. Whatever.
There was another large turnout; 26 people showed. Wow. Maybe there is some life to SWCCG in Texas after all.
Game 1
My QMC Beats vs. Adam Garcia’s (1483) BHBM
He gets a fairly quick start with the Emperor and Janus to the DSII by turn 2. But, he separates them for some reason (Empy to the DSII DB). I have Corran and EPP Luke in hand, and beatdown Janus for 5 overflow damage. He responds by capturing Luke with Lord Vader, and he keeps a fairly large presence on the DSII for the rest of the game. Later, he commits to space with some ships, including a couple TIE Interceptors. I eventually use the tripler and tracked destiny to lay a huge smackdown with the Super Falcon on his Chimaera, which cripples him to the point where he can’t recover. Plinks from his flipped objective and my drains on Cloud City polish him off.
Full Win by 31
2 (+31)
Game 2
My Hunt Down Racing vs. David Forbes’ (1506) Profit
He starts Insight much to my chagrin, but he quickly sacks it for Honor Of The Jedi, thus making me much happier. I Twi’Lek for No Escape quickly, and proceed with the Podrace. I easily win within 4 turns, and deploy Empy and Tech M’or to start the Numbers. The damage from the Podracing and Numbers wears him down fast, and Vader cleans house with a duel on his Ben Kenobi before Han can be freed. A few drains and Visage quickly end his game.
Full Win by 32
4 (+63)
Game 3
My QMC Beats vs. Jacob Mayer’s (1991) Speed Dark Deal Troopers
Jake had been known to play Speed Dark Deal way before Tatooine was released, and I’d seen his old version of this deck rip people apart in a matter of minutes, so I knew this game would be rough. As his deck is designed, he gets a quick start, getting Dark Deal in effect on the second turn, forcing me to respond or face certain death. But, I am fairly certain his deck doesn’t pack any battle avoidance cards, and I have an EPP Obi, EPP Luke, and Gift Of The Mentor in hand. Next turn, I drop them both on top of a lone trooper and battle. I of course hit the trooper, and draw my three destinies, causing him to lose the trooper and 15 Force. This was huge because his deck relies on devoting a large amount of cards to the table, thus his Life Force is rather precious. Shortly after, I cancel his Dark Deal by spreading to four locations. He quickly answers by spreading even more and deploying Cloud City Occupation. He also gets rid of both of my EPP’s with a trooper beatdown, but is unable to cause any real damage to me through battling. He takes the upper hand in space with bounty hunter ships, as I can’t find EPP Leia to complete the Super Falcon and circumvent Zuckuss In Mist Hunter. He deploys another Dark Deal, but I again manage to cancel it before he can drain with it in effect. I get rid of more troopers with another pair of EPP’s, but am taking an awful lot of damage from Occupation and small drains. But, I start tracking destinies and playing Edge cards easily due to his lack of retrieval defense. He continues to deal out gobs of damage, but my retrieval buys me enough time to find an EPP Leia. My destiny is still tracked, and I annihilate his entire space presence next turn, finally canceling Occupation and allowing Battle Plan/Menace Fades to lock him down.
Full Win by 9
6 (+72)
Game 4
My Hunt Down Racing vs. Wade Kothmann’s (1760) HBX
Wade starts Yarna, and drops Anakin’s Pod to contest me in the Podrace. I start the usual Watto’s Box. The initial stages of the game consist of me continually drawing high destinies for the Podrace, and Wade drawing multiple two’s (X-Wings). A Podracer Collision removes his highest race destiny (a 4), and his hopes of winning the race, and I win it by a huge margin on turn 4. He sets up in space with an array of systems and X-Wings, and I get the Numbers engine up and running to his obvious disappointment. Battle Order stifles the majority of his drains, and Visage catches up with him. Another insert pops and he is too low on cards to pay for his drains.
Full Win by 32
8 (+104)
Game 5
My QMC Beats vs. Michael Richards’ (1587) ISB Hunter-style
I playtested my QMC against this deck with Jeremy before, and it took a lot of effort and concentration to beat. Mike, a TD from the Waco area, is a much better player than his rating indicates, so I knew I would have to be on my toes to win this game. He sets up fast with Piett and Merrejk to the Executor DB. He is earning a ton of Force early, and deploys a quick Executor with an ORS piloting to Fondor. I respond with the complete Super Falcon, and hope my destinies are good enough to crack it’s immunity. They aren’t, and I wind up taking a few cards to battle damage. Crap. I run the Falcon away and begin drawing to find the rest of my fleet and Power Pivot. I find Dash, but again am unable to deal any significant damage to his fleet. I run to his Kessel, only to get smacked by Chimaera/Thrawn/Imperial Command next turn. I do have Battle Plan out, along with my EPP’s on Cloud City, so I am causing a small stream of damage while slowing his offensive slightly. He continues to dominate space, as Ten Numb is nowhere to be found. Pucimir and Melas come down and my drains grow on Cloud City, forcing him to try and shut them down. He eventually deploys the 5D6 droid and flips his Objective, effectively cutting my drains in half at sites controlled by Rebels (my flipped Objective negated his modification at sites with aliens). He also deploys Lord Vader with Stick to a Cloud City site in an attempt to get Decree in effect, but since no Cloud City sites are planet sites, Decree doesn’t happen. I play a few Edge cards, but SSPFT prevents me from creating any sort of retrieval loop. My inability to control the Bespin system, thus restricting me from deploying Celebration, didn’t help matters. But, since there are three battleground systems on the table, I am able to keep Menace Fades in effect most turns, thus keeping Chiraneau in check. I rid myself of Vader, and Battle Plan is back in my favor. After another Edge, I have a fairly large card advantage. He moves Piett and Merrejk back to the DB from the Executor, and moves them to the Endor DB in a desperation attempt to fulfill Battle Plan and continue draining in space. However, an EPP Obi spoils his plans, and I pull out the full win moments before time is called. The game was much closer than the differential might indicate; Mike played very well.
Full Win by 23
10 (+127)
Game 6
My Hunt Down Racing vs. Mark Million’s (1648) QMC
I’ve played Mark countless times in tournament play before, but it’s been quite a while. He knows I’m playing Numbers, thus Insight never leaves the table. I get a head start in the Podrace once more, and he doesn’t bother to stack his destinies. He has difficulty setting up, then I run into the worst luck I’ve had so far in my experience with Podracing. I draw a 1 (less than 10 cards of destiny 1 in the deck). Then, next turn, I draw the only floating location in the entire deck, the Holotable, which I had just passed up for a Monnok with a Masterful Move. So, after 4 turns, I’m stuck at a 24 race total. First time ever this deck has failed to win the race within 4 turns. It didn’t matter though, even if Mark had been stacking his destinies was and using Anakin’s Racer, as I was holding Collision. I deployed Bossk In Hound’s Tooth with the Emperor as forfeit bait to his Cloud City sector, but he responded the following turn with Dash In Outrider. He battles, but a six destiny clears him from the sector, while Bossk remains to drain for two. He has Obi out with Tawss Khaa, but Vader quickly hits the table and initiates an Epic Duel. I win the duel easily and proceed to battle his lone Tawss. I draw a six for destiny, forcing him to lose more cards from his deck. Visage is constantly draining his life away, and I win without taking any real damage. This Hunt Down deck is now 10-0 in tournament play with no close games. C’mon Hunter, it’s at least decent, eh? :)
Full Win by 42
12 (+169)
No one else is undefeated, so I take home first place and my choice of tourney foil. I opt for an Imperial Decree, as I don’t have that particular foil and it has some playing value. The loss knocked Mark out of contention for a foil, and he’s quite the collector, so I told him I’d trade him the Decree. He gave me one of his 3 Emperor foils and a DLOTS for the Decree and an AI Sebulba. I’m happy with that.
Props:
Mark, for coming down to visit his old friends and for going 4-2. Good job.
Jake, for playing (and winning all three games with) YOps (!). And for using RTP and Skrilling Odds to go 6-0 last time. You have the largest balls in Dantooine, man.
Jeremy, because Jeremy is so used to getting props, that I don’t want to give him any sort of withdrawal by not giving him props. :)
Mike, for the splendid game.
Chris, for running a smooth event, as always.
My Hunt Down Podracing, for rolling everything despite it’s often weak appearance on paper.
Austin area players, for being so numerous and willing to play. We haven’t had 20+ at locals in years it seems.
Slops:
Brian, for deciding marriage and other things are more important than SWCCG, thus not showing up. Traitor. :) (hope I didn’t break the sarcasm meter with that comment... nothing but love, Brian! :)
Me, for just now getting around to playing RE: Code Veronica.
Later.
Darwin bless. Hoostino out.