desertified-agland-june-2k1
Title: desertified-agland-june-2k1
Author: Cody "blackgecko" Custis
Date: Jun 27, 2001
It’s a TR. I describe playing at two tournaments, one in Sheridan WY, one in my hometown of Billings MT. And, because I can, I’ll throw in an Endor booster draft at Barnes and Noble. More SW then a man should enjoy while battling for Decipher foil prize support. All this happened the weekend of June 22-24
I was not aware that there was a 7:45 in the morning. But, Travis and I head down to Sheridan around 8:15. The drive takes around two hours, so anyone that complains about having to drive and only goes to tournaments 40 minutes away is a jabroni. We get to Sheridan around 10, eat at the most Italian Quiznos ever, get gouged with sales tax, and manage to find the place with minimal effort. Last time, finding the Public Library was difficult, but finding the Sports/CCG store took little effort. Since the store is small, we played outside. Playing outside is cool, and Wyoming barely gets enough rain to qualify above a desert, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. The tourney was small, but Travis and I are used to that. All we care about is not having to play each other. For light I am running an obsolete Ral-Ops deck. It gets out troopers and plays numbers. I call it obsolete because I had planned to make major changes in the deck, but didn’t get around to it. Light was an MBO monstrosity I had only fishbowled last night. On to the matchups.
Game 1
My Ral-Mops versus Dillon’s TIGIM
TIGIM was not a deck I was used to playing, so I thought that this would be an interesting matchup. I do my usual thing where I play a site and have a Biker Scout hold it. I am not that worried about getting beaten up on turn 1. Unfortunately, he drains me on his first turn; I lose from top of reserve, and lose Raithal. Since the destiny of my deck, and numbers damage both need me to control it, I realize the game will be long. I then do my thing setting up. He deploys a generic docking bay to be able to make someone capture Luke. I want to beat him down, and can crack immunity, but have 2 non-imperial characters. I finish setting up and flip. He deploys Orimaarko and CoK, both with toys, to beat up my biker scouts, which have multiplied by me setting up. They battle, I don’t get destiny but I have a ton of power and forfeit, and barely lose the battle, and I stack Bossk in Bus from reserve on his Feely Conflict. I then Tactical Support, grab Biker Scout jabronis, and beat him off when my guys assault. Unfortunately, I don’t get any battle damage since my guys are jabronis, even when pumped by the assault, but I am ruling the drain war. I think he drained me for 3 the entire game. He makes my jabronis capture Luke, but I had grabbed Vader so someone good would hold on to him, and I am not afraid of Vader having good in him. I drain for awhile, then Obi invades one site I don’t occupy and Wedge, Crix, and Ackbar invade the other unfliping me. I have Zuckuss and IG88 with gun go beat up Obi, stick a Scout with Bike at the other, so that I can flip back, and then initiate the battle. They crack his immunity, and get four or five battle damage so Obi goes away. I reflip, and leave the guy around so they cannot drain, and besides I can react a buttload of guys. He goes out in a blaze, attacking the BST. I react over a lot of troopers, Vader, play High Speed Tactics, and he dies an honorable death. FW 21.
Game 2
My MBO versus Travis Huntdown - Podracing
This game sucks. Not only have I played Travis Huntdown since he built it, not netdecking it like Peter, Billings famous netdecker, but I do not want to travel hundreds of miles to play Travis. I could do that in Billings. We talk about how this matchup might beat his deck, and then get down to business. I have played him enough times to know that he runs no space, so Luke in Artoos ship sets up early and drains at Kashyyyk the entire game. Unfortunately, as I am trying to flip, he POTFs the Massassi HQ, making the Attack Run impossible. Vader with Saber shows up. I counterstrike with what I have, General Solo, making him lose Vader with Saber. Next turn, Lord Vader shows up and does bad things to me. Yeah, I barely flip, and I am taking major damage from Visage, his drains aren’t too bad. When he wins the podrace, I am screwed. He pulls it off the turn after I get Aim High. After the 22-force swing, my plans of blowing up the disco ball are screwed, and he has no lost pile. He tries to beat up Beezer, but I Houjix. Next turn Mara and Aurra try to beat up Crix, but I have another Houjix. The crappiest point was when he Limited Resources, hit me for four, No Escaped it back, and did it again. That sucked. I had a crappy starting hand, with only one ship, and didn’t pull another, nor another system; otherwise I might have go something going in the drain race. Yeah, Travis thinks this game sucks as well. FL 41
Game 3
My MBO versus Dillons flipping SYCFA
We know this game comes down to whoever blows up the others things first. I set up well this time, and he does not mess with me on the ground, so I have everything I need to blow up the Death Star on turn four or five. Then, I deploy all the crap, fly over there, and farmboy goes on an Attack Run. Technically, I think I have to wait a turn, but I am unfamiliar with my deck since I built it last night and have not playtested it. Even if I would have waited, he was orbiting Alderaan, and wouldn’t have gotten to Yavin. I saved some force, and have to get a five on two destiny, so I Electrobinoculars. I see a 2. I move it. I see a 1. I move it. I see another 2. I move it. I see another 2. I move it. I see another 2. I move it. I am out of force to do this again, so I blind draw the thing. Signal and another 2. Death Star gone, he loses 25 force. Considering his activation is blown away, he will get three force next turn. I dominate from this point, and deploy a ship to retrieve my starting interrupt. I drain for 3 a turn and make him do something about it. I decide to be nice and give him Kessel, and fortify both. When he finally gets enough force to do it, he deploys Thrawn on some ISD, to Kessel, but doesn’t battle. I put the Arconas and Rebel Tech from my hand on the Tantric 4, battle, he loses it all to avoid battle damage, I lose my Tantric with guys to cover 9 attrition, and retrieve it with Great Shot Kid! I wasted a bunch of force with stupid moves to get a bigger reserve deck for purposes of deploying the free Home One from reserve. The other highlight was when Maul showed up. He just ignored my guys; I did not fight him. I let him drain me from hand for three turns, and deployed free Home One to retrieve it. I let him help me cycle my hand through my lost pile back into the deck. The differential doesn’t tell the tale, since I had the game totally dominated. FW 33
Game 4
My Ral- Slops versus Travis QMC
I have played this matchup dozens of times. If I wanted to do this, it would happen after the tourney. I deploy Numbers early, before I set up Raithal, and he loses a whole four to it. I set up, he sets up, he drains me for six a turn, I drain him for 4 a turn, he retrieves 4 to Celebration, and I can’t crack Ten Numb superstar, so I won’t even try. He doesn’t come mess with my systems, and I later learn that he thought I had more space, when I lost it to drains. I know he runs Path, and I have nothing to deal with it. He does not activate, fearing numbers, but is in an impenetrable fortress. Eventually, he starts looking for docking bays to prevent the other numbers I inserted from popping. I deploy Vader with Saber to his docking bay, because he does not want to fight Vader and activate the force to do it. When I am down to three force, and he retrieves more per turn then I drain, numbers pops and hits him for seven, since Vader dragged my total. Then, I do the only thing I can, and draw up to prevent additional retrieval, since he can retrieve more than I can drain and I won’t see numbers hitting him again. That hurts his differential. Drawing up, I see Ornament on the bottom of my force pile. FL 15
Travis wins, and I lose to my good friend. The prize support was a certificate for Travis, since the last tourney there wasn’t sanctioned. Certificates are somewhat nifty, but Travis would have preferred a foil. TD loses points for coming in ahead of me, but playing the weakest kid there when I had to play Travis, and the one thing Travis and I wanted was not to play each other, and he failed to make that so. Afterward, Travis whomped up on the TD in a game of JK. Personally, I think JK combines Young Jedi with Babylon 5. Besides, the bullet point of "Brand New Game" is the lamest bullet point I have ever seen. On the way back, we listen to the music from FF3 and try to figure out what goes to which scene in the game, which is cool when we listen to the ending and figure out which character gets which music.
Waking up at 10:45 is not so bad. I know how to deal with it. There is not much cool pre-tourney banter, since the drive is a coasty twenty minutes. The usual suspects are there and the Sheridan people showed up in Billings, so there is karmic balance. I didn’t improve my decks since yesterday, which I live to regret.
Game 1
My MBO against Regis Dark Deal
I make a huge mistake. It is one I am not proud of, and have little inkling to make again. Early in the game, I lost Menace Fades from hand to a drain. That was stupid. I thought that the Arconas would handle the drains, and OTE would male me lose to a drain, but I would beat down in space. He snipered the Arcona, stopping my drain protection. Unfortunately, he got large drains set up for two turns before I blew up the Death Star. I got the Tantric along with Luke and Ship with Squad. Ass. So I could blow up in one turn. I used the binoculars, got a four, felt confident, and drew a system with it, so the big force loss came one turn too late. He had Secret Plans out, so I had to spend on retrieval when I would have gotten ships into hand to deploy and retrieve force. I didn’t last against Deal and Occupation. Nevertheless, his intensiveness and my limited retrieval, along with the big destruction of the Death Star made his force pile small. FL 18
Game 2
My Ral-Ops versus John EBO Numbers
Yes, that is illegal, but I didn’t bother reading the card, and I was playing numbers too. John and Regis were the guys who came from Sheridan, and I feared him before I saw the deck, because his deck yesterday It Could Be Worsed every damage, and I don’t run grabbers or Monnok or Its Worse. He does the EBO setup, and I get my thing set up. I figure I would send IG88 over on a Speeder Bike to avoid Ice Storm in order to prevent him from setting up. It doesn’t work, but I think it was cool. He built his deck on the way down, so it doesn’t work that well. I insert early, and it takes a long time to pop. He only loses four force to numbers, since I control Raithal with Fett in Jet. He deploys a Red Squadron X-Wing to Hoth, and moves to Raithal since I cancel his drain with Strategic Reserves. More power to him. I deploy Zuckuss in Ship, and they beat up on the loser. Then, I fly Zuckuss over to Raltiir to get Decree Working. He inserts on me, deploys Gold and Blue Squadron guys to Raithal and I want to beat him off the system. I quickly pops, and I lose four force to his numbers card. I search, but can only get Dengar in Ship, so I deploy him, and Dengar and Fett take on the loser ships. He plays A Few Maneuvers, Out Of Nowhere, and the card that lets him use the maneuver of a starfighter. So his destiny are six and seven. I get one destiny of four and add five to it from Dengar and Ral Ops. Everyone is cleared from attrition. Since I have been draining the entire game, and he has not I am in good shape, but he is near death. Finally, his guys quit running from IG88, so I can to battle numbers guys. I capture Wiosela and the other guy is beaten up by the droid. It ends the game on a positive note. FW 30 something I think. I forgot to write it down. It was the biggest win Ral Ops ever had.
Game 3
My Ral-Ops versus Scott Lingrells Podracing RST
Peter, the local netdecker is running this deck. I insult him in this tourney report. I have nothing against him personally, and he is not a bad guy, he plays well enough, but I have no respect for his deck construction skills. I do my thing, and he doesn’t really mess with it, and I don’t do much to mess with him. The podrace is cool. I use Teemtos podracer, since I have not bought any Tatooine, and we get a ruling first turn. I cannot use his ability to make him redraw. That sucks. Anyway, I get good destiny in the podrace, and he does not respect me in it, and I almost made him pay. He used that interrupt that makes me put the card back when I stacked a six. Nevertheless, I had good destiny, and it was 19 to 18, his advantage, when he pulls a six and five to my IG88. I lost the podrace, but I made him work for it. I put Fett in Jet and IG88 in ship to his Endor and he never messes with it. He blows up the bunker, and I don’t care, nor do I want to lose force to save it. When Vader with saber goes to beat up Jedi Luke, Leia, and jabroni scout in the Bunker, he uses the anti targeting card to prevent me from slicing. That hurt. Late, Obi with Saber goes to beat up my guys, and he beats down a lone Scout with Bike, but I respond by sending in a guy to kill Obi next turn, but he uses interrupt that takes saber guys into hand to get him back, redeploys him, and tries to beat up some scouts, but they have High Speed Tactics. Final turn I draw up, ask if he wants to do anything, he declines, and after the game is over he reveals that could have jacked Off The Edge with a tracked four. Turns out there was a five on top, then a six, then a five, then the tracked four. He should have just gone for it, what the hell did he have to lose. FL 25
Game 4
My MBO versus Arts Court and Motley Mains
I have a lot of respect for Art. He is a good guy, and the oldest player by far. His deck is not traditional, since he doesn’t use Scum. He uses it as a platform for space and to cause damage. I have never seen him play this deck before, but fear it because Art is good. This time, I get the Arconas set up, and they stop his drains on Tatooine, along with preventing Court damage. I then start getting the things I would need to blow up the Death Star, and the Arconas prevent him from getting the drains set up. I am worried when Xizor and Kast show up to my docking bay, since the Death Star remains. However, he leaves them at docking bay, and reinforces the guys he had at Yavin instead. He doesn’t move to Massassi HQ, so I feel confident. I deploy things for run, Tantric, Squad. Ass. Artoo in Ship to get Luke, and make the run. I use the binoculars to get a 3, have to save in order to move Arconas. By now I have OTE set up so the Arconas hurt. He moves the bounty hunter ships over to Death Star after moving it to parsec 1, but moves Xizor to beat up an Arcona, and does not battle at the Star. Next turn, I make the run, make sure I get a five, and blow up the disco ball. He asks for a ruling about how much force to lose, but loses 14, like I said. On his turn, guys fly back to Yavin, and my guys follow on my turn, then I start piling on the system in order to retrieve. The entire time he had been losing to Arconas with OTE and Arcona drains, so he was moderately hurting. He deploys Boba with gun and Sing to beat up The Best Persona of Han with Beezer, but they shoot at Han but miss, with nothing left for battle destiny, and he loses Sing to attrition. He flies the bounty hunter ships down to Yavin. I deploy ships, retrieve, and put the starfighters at the docking bay so I have fodder too. Xizor and Kast beat up Crix at some point and I Houjix. The docking bay pile of ships was funny, but I retrieved for it. He shoots Han at some point, but I do not care. I am retrieving, cycling through the lost pile. OTE hurts him, and so does the Civil Disorder I deploy at some point. I control. The game was a great example of how the deck works when I get set up right. FW 24
After the tourney, Travis and I play my MBO versus his Death Star II construction deck. It is cool because I blow up both Death Stars, and he Lateral Damages Luke in Ship, but I take battle damage to blow up the first, then Luke flies out to blow up the other disco ball, and survives the maneuver checks, since Luke does not care that he has power 0. Helsby shoots at Luke, but doesn’t get a two either time so Luke gets to the Core. Then, I activate all, deploy ship to retrieve, and Bith Shuffle something to put a five on top of my deck and blow the second disco ball up during his control phase. That was cool. Travis SYCFA TIEs destroys me, so we retool my deck to have more spies, since deploying spy ship, and doing everything to blow up the disco ball on one turn is cool and safe. That is enough until the booster draft tomorrow.
Old Saturday Night Lives are not best for their comedic value, but for allowing me to remember what the Bush administration screwed up on. Back in the day, Clinton hadn’t been president for eight years. That is enough comment about life. Onward to the sealed tourney.
We need another person to show up in order to get sanctioning, mainly because a lot of Billings is too cheap, or is that stupid, to do sealed. After all, you have to buy cards anyway, may as well have some fun with them. During the draft, I tried to get the best cards, drafted about ten blaster cards that became jank when I only got the speeder cannon. I worried about getting enough sites in the draft, but it turns out I had more then enough. I did not get Combat Readiness, and afterward Nathan, the other Dark player in my group, admitted that he only saw one. I drafted 3 Wounded Warrior, which is far more than I need with only one gun. I got a lot of jank, drafting for things that did not work out. I wanted to get some guns, but failed. I ended up worrying about sites halfway through, and having more then enough in the end, and only running three 2-1 sites. In fact, the cards I did not run were sites or gun related, and I ran almost everything else. Have a decklist.
Endor: Ancient Forest
Endor: Dense Forest
Endor: Dark Forest
Corporal Misik
Sergeant Wallen
Elite Squad Trooper
Biker Scout Trooper
Sergeant Elsek
Sergeant Tarl
Navy Trooper Vesden
Lieutenant Arnet
Lieutenant Grond
Navy Trooper
Navy Trooper Shield Technician
AT-ST Pilot x4
Search and Destroy
B.O.
Tempest Scout
T.S. 4
Lambda Shuttle x2 (This card really is gay. It tried to copulate with the YT-1000 Transport)
Speeder Bike
Cannon for Bike
Main Course x3
Sneak Attack x2
Wounded Warrior (I only ran one, but had three.)
Always Thinking With Your Stomach
Counter Attack
Go For Help x2
Imperial Tyranny x2
The deck had a lot of tech, and a bunch of characters that got destiny together. The space package was for protection. Overall, the deck was rather coherent and cool for sealed.
Game 1 Peter
Before the game, I give Peter a hard time about not being able to netdeck the sealed. But, Peter plays sealed at about a standard rate, not nearly as good as at constructed, but solid. He has Threepio, and got the card that adds destiny with the gay protocol droid. His early drains are handled by Always Thinking With Your Stomach making the Ewok Spearman go lost. I set up some guys, and make a huge reacting bike, and we drain for while, I knowing that I have the better drain set up. Eventually, he has the big fight, I lose some guys to attrition, then I Counter Attack his losers and use Imperial Tyranny to get another destiny, and he has no reserve deck. The battle was just for attrition, and I got nine of it. That clears his big site, and I outdrain him, with nothing exciting happening for the rest of the game. FW 13
Game 2 Travis
The Dark won every game last round, so I have some confidence, but feel the pressure to do extremely well. He gets his sites, and a first turn foil CoK, but cannot find Wuta. He deploys a Spearman. I deploy the guys to get destiny, and do that battle thing. I draw a three, not enough to force him to forfeit Chewie. That is a bad sign. I move to his Dense Forest and fortify, and drain for two a turn, and he drains me at the Back Door. I convert, and drain at his Docking Bay, my Dense and Ancient Forests. Drain ping goes along, until he beats down one of my lone losers after I made the mistake of spreading too thin, and lose a lot in battle damage. Damn. I beat up a lone guy after Arnet prevents the react, so I get some revenge. He deploys Endor and ship, and I lost both ships to drains and damage. I move my pile to the Back Door, and he spreads thin, so I ping for one and he pings for one, but his deck is one card bigger. Late game, my Elite Squadron Trooper tries to beat up a lone Spearman with Tyranny, but he has the card that cancels it. Damn, he outdrains me, and wins the race by 1. It would be the only win for the Light the entire tourney. FL 1
Game 3 Jacob
He is new, so I try to help him along. I play with my hand face up, since I refuse to whack a newbie to help my differential. Nevertheless, he really did not have a chance anyway. I beat up some guys early since he spread and did not get destiny, and set up my solid drains. I get my pile of guys on reacting vehicles, and outdrain him. I used the cool Imperial Tyranny tech on him as well, but would do that to any player. I did pull off Wounded Wookie, but targeted an ability 1 guy rather than ability 2, so he still got the all-important destiny. Late game, his guys try to beat up lone Elsek. I Go For Help, and see two Main Course and some other four. I react over the Bike with guys, he does not have enough destiny to shoot and draw battle destiny. I play Main Course from hand, shoot Spearman with gun, and take the four as battle destiny, and he gets a four for destiny, so I satisfy no attrition, and he loses guys to cover battle damage, which is about the same as attrition. He keeps a guy, and I slowly drain him out, and stop almost all his drains. FW 18
Game 4 Logan
Logan is young, but he plays fast, and is definitely improving, reminding me of the time I first played sealed. Good times. But, he has little chance to defeat me. His first drain is Stomached, making the Spearman go missing. Early, he puts Endor and ship to drain me. I deploy Ship in response, and draw and pull Grond. Next turn, I deploy Grond and B.O., then pile of guys to deal with him on ground, since I have a good interrupt. I battle in space, he loses ship to cover damage, I battle on ground, and he gets beaten up by Tyranny. He moves guy, and on my turn I drain him in space, only to have him say it is minus 1, only to have me point out that there are plenty of Imperials on Endor. I spread out to drain, confident that reacts and interrupts can save me, and soon drain him out. FW 20
Overall, the Light Side went with 1 win and 15 losses, so my victory was not that great. I win a pack of BB ANH, and get Felth as prize support, then get lucky with the random foil. Thankfully, there are no more tournaments for three weeks, and by then I should recover.