longshot-in-tustin-ca-7-8-01

Title: longshot-in-tustin-ca-7-8-01
Author: Michael "Longshot" Mendoza
Date: Jul 9, 2001

Comicon is quickly approaching and everyone here in Southern CA is getting ready for it. So almost all the big players showed up for this tourney at Squeeze Play in Tustin. Eric Bruen, Jason Makohon, Travis Frasier, John Patchell, Andy Chen, Chris Kroutil and Frank Valdivia (all rated over 1800, most over 1900) were all in attendance. Then there was me and 11 other players there. 18 of us in all.

So, like I said, everyone’s getting ready for Comicon and the Friday before the tourney Patchell calls me up saying he wants to playtest for the tourney on Sunday and wants to go to a Warlord tourney on Sat. Warlord is this sweet new CCG and after borrowing one of Patchell*s decks and playing in the Warlord tourney (where I won 1 game and lost 2), I got addicted to Warlord and the TD hooked me up with a starter deck. So I spend the night at Patchell*s place with Andy and Frank and we played Warlord all night until 6 AM (trading some SW cards for Warlord cards). Then we sleep, get up at 11 and head to the Wars (SWCCG) tourney which starts at 12:15.

Patchell himself is the TD, yet somehow he plays in the tourney (don’t ask me how since we had 18 people). It’ll be 4 games. Since I played Warlord all night (and only a little of the Wars), I didn’t fix any of my decks and just played my SYCFA to flip for Dark and RST to flip for Light. Dark starts A Million Voices, Secret Plans, and either IAO or Oppressive Enforcement. Light starts Strike Plan, Shield is Down, and usually Squassin.

Game 1: LS v Ryan Oneil*s Hunt Down (IAO, Mob Pts, No Escape)

He puts Sim at the Holotheater 1st turn, deploys 2 BG Dbays & Exec Dbay. I have Blount in hand, so I grab Crix, deploy Blount to Sim, deploy Crix, grab Greeve and deploy him, deploy Back Door, play Battle Plan (I need to battle free), battle, and play Rebel Leadership for 2 good destiny. He loses Sim and a couple, I lose Blount, Visage is gone. I save my last force. He drops Lord Vader on Crix, I barrier, then he deploys Tarkin. I put COK and Wuta to the Landing Site, get a site, move Crix & Greeve to Exec DB. He drops Maul on them. I move them to Y4 DB (he has every BG Dbay except Endor).

So I setup on endor, unchallenged. I get Wedge & Tycho to Endor system quickly, and flip my objective by controlling Back Door, Dense Forest, & Landing Site. He deploys Visage (losing 2 force), then he picks up Vader (I dunno why he didn’t do it before, he was just sitting at the Holotheater). I can’t find Luke or Obi, just scrub scouts. But he’s only draining with Maul and Aurra (both following Crix and Greeve at the Dbays). So I On the Edge a couple times, and drain him out at my 4 endor sites w/Midge (I didn’t blow the bunker since I wanted the drain of 2 there). Vader gets barriered when he comes down to the Bunker, then beatdown with 3 destiny (thanks to Rebel Leadership & Gen Lando). Win by 22. 2 (+22).

Best: Cancelling Visage, flipping RST so fast. All he did was draw it seemed to me, and he fortified that Holotheater so well, it made no sense to me (Emp, Janus, Tarkin).
Worst: Where was Luke and Obi?

Game 2: DS v Patchell*s WYS (Staging Areas, Squassin, Menace)

I start IAO (fearing Nabrun). I setup sites & DS gunners, he draws, and he puts Han w/gun and Protector to the Tat Dbay eventually. I drop Mighty Jabba, 4LOM w/gun (text cancelled by Chewie), Dr E./Ponda B., and Gen Veers. I battle, play Imp Command to keep him at 1 destiny, he misses 4LOM. So I forfeit Veers, he loses Han. He drops Mos Eisley and moves Chewie there. I have no one to beat on Chewie, so I blow away Alderaan, then deploy Y4 w/A Day Long Remembered on it. I move into the Cantina. Then he flips by deploying Wedge in ship to Tat & Theron Nett in ship also. A RFC goes to the Tat Dbay, Chewie moves to the Dbay also.

I*m desperately looking for Maul (or any decent character), but all I*m getting is Star Destroyers and he deploys Aim High after I deploy a couple SDs for free retrieval. He drops Luke, JK w/ EPP Han, then puts Nightfall on Tat and drops Lando w/Ax too against Jabba, 4LOM and Dr E/Ponda. He misses with the Ax, but I have to clear the site, he loses Lando. I blow away Y4, but all his Rebels (except Leia) are on table so ADLR isn’t much use. Then Boushh deploys for free to Cantina (stupid Nightfall). I draw IG88 and he*s got Luke and Han at Tat Dbay. I’ve got a 5 & 6 tracked on top, so I cap Han to the used pile, then draw my 6 to kill Luke. But he*s draining at all 3 tat sites & the system, then deploys Celebration to lock it down. I’ve got the drain at the DS Dbay and Hoth system, but its not enough (not with Menace). Lose by 23. 2 (-1).

Best: I had a great opening draw, but then my characters stayed in my reserve, I couldn’t draw them up.
Worst: Aim High REALLY hurt in the end. I couldn’t retrieve.

Game 3: LS v Frank*s Deal (I*m Sorry, TINT/OE, Com Response)

Frank beat me in the Warlord tourney, and I told him after that I wanted to play him at this tourney for revenge (in Warlord tournies, if you lose twice you’re out of the tourney). Frank had lost to Travis last game. He draws (only pulling 1 site w/ I*m Sorry), I deploy Dense Forest & Chirpa*s Hut (both in opening hand!), get Crix, Kensaric, & a scout to Landing Site. He puts Saber 1 & Baron at Endor,
he*s got Bespin, the cloud sector, & 2 sites out (he plays with like 5 sites, so I dunno why he only pulled 1). I drop Cracken in Tala 1 & Wedge in ship against the Baron, I lose Cracken while he loses a few force. Then Obsidian 2 w/pilot goes to the clouds, while Zuckuss goes to the Endor system. He beats on Wedge, I lose Tala 1 and a few force (keeping Wedge). I tell Frank that that*s an insult to my deck to leave the TIE alone at CC (even if it does draw destiny), so I drop Nien & Gen Lando in Falcon and beat up the TIE for some force.

Wedge & the falcon move to Bespin. He deploys Lord vader & Dr. E/Ponda against some scouts and kills one (Insurrection on table means they forfeit big), he loses Dr E/Ponda. Now I deploy Tycho and Blount in ships to Endor, move Wedge & Falcon to Endor. Saber 1 can*t run (he tries to land, and he KNOWS TIEs cannot land except at Dbays, what a cheater!), and he has no backup in space, so he*s done right there. He backs up vader w/Tarkin, battles, but I play Insertion Planning (he grabs it) to zero his destiny of 1. I was hoping for Home One, but I didn’t draw it. Instead, I get Close Air Support and do the double beatdown against Zuckuss & Saber 1 and against Vader & Tarkin on the ground. That gives him some battle damage and I spread my fleet out to Bespin and spread my ground guys to drain him out after Edging for a few more force. Win by 21. 4 (+20).

Best: The battles were almost ALL in my favor. He took damage in almost every battle.
Worst: None, except losing to him in the Warlord tourney.

Game 4: DS v Kroutil*s HB mains (Insurr, Menace, Squassin)

I start Oppressive. He gets out Yoda’s Hut, Hoth Dbay (hurts my CPI draw!), H1 Dbay, Tat, & Tat Dbay. Chris pulls a Frank and insults my deck by putting Corran Horn alone at the DS War Room. So I drop Xizor, Dr E/Ponda B., & a DS Gunner there and he loses Corran and 7 more. I know I’m a scrub but I’m not THAT scrubby! He gets skinless 3PO to H1 DB, then sets up at the Tat Dbay with Padme and Qui-Gon w/saber, moves them to DS Dbay. Now I need to spend an extra turn finding a gunner since the Hoth site -1 from CPI and him being at the DS Dbay means I lose the +1 bonus to CPI for that site. So he drains, I drop Maul to Tat Dbay, he counters with Ben w/saber, hits Maul but has to lose 3 force in damage. I blow away Alderaan, move all my guys together at the DS Conference Rm (next to the Dbay), and deploy a Destroyer to the DS to retrieve 3. He doesn’t play Aim High (and I thought all the top players down here in southern CA played it), so I’m retrieving all day against him.

But he’s draining for 2 at both Dbays, then EPP Leia and Luke Jedi Knight w/saber go to the DS Dbay. Now its a 5 drain total. Wow. I deploy Flagship on Chimaera, put Motti on Chimaera, move them both to Tat (for a 4 drain). We trade drains, I deploy Devastator to DS w/EPP Fett aboard and save 5 force. He drops Capt Han in Falcon, Dash in Outrider, Tycho in Red 6, and Spiral, battles. I react w/Accuser from hand for 5 (retrieve 3), then react Devastator over w/Flagship. He loses spiral & tycho, I lose Accuser (he drew 9 attrition). I’ve got a few cards in hand (one of which is Lat Dmg), and he can’t move away thanks to SSPFT, but he remembers he can land for free so he does so. I deploy more SDs and am now draining at Y4, Hoth, & Tat for 10 force total, so that quickly ends the game. His only retrieval was OMDH, so you can imagine that he was pissed about Alderaan being gone. Win by 24. 6 (+44).

Best: Being able to make people pay for insulting my deck (Corran beatdown).
Worst: I cant mess with 3 Jedi all with matching sabers. Thats just too much. So my guys stayed in the Conf Rm until late game, when they came out to block the drain of 3.

I immediately start playing Warlord with Frank and Andy, and the final rankings are called with Andy in 1st place (he beat Patchell TWICE) and me in 4th place. Bruen and Makohon both went 3-1 (beating each other once) and I believe they got 2nd and 3rd. I pulled Shmi and A Million Voices, but I forgot them on the table when we left (too much Warlord on the brain I guess). Thanks for reading, time to play some Warlo....err.....I mean Star Wars.

Props to:
Patchell for the tourney and for not insulting my deck like everyone else.
Andy for beating me (though it wasn’t until after he lost 8 straight games to me). But he*s good at the Wars.
Everyone who read this, and liked it.
Frank for the good taste in music.
Rick (the Warlord TD) for the starter deck.

Slops to:
Chris and Frank for insulting my decks.
Frank for coloring his hair green, he must get beat up a lot for that one (he looks comical now).