co-springs-co-7-8-01-its-an-ambush

Title: co-springs-co-7-8-01-its-an-ambush
Author: Brian "HuntaWarya" Hunter
Date: Jul 14, 2001

So, after regulating at the Denver World Championship Qualifier Weekend, I decide to go ahead and quit playing the game until another set comes out. Because I just can’t stand podracing. Hopefully, Coruscant will bring with it enough anti-racing cards that I will never have to look at another pod again. But until then, I really wasn’t interested in playing Star Wars. Somehow, just one week into my temporary retirement, Chris Fanchi manages to miraculously convince me to attend a tournament down in Colorado Springs. Bryce Stevenson gets a ride to my place, and Fanchi grabs us both, on his way to the Springs. I have decided to use the exact same decks that I used in the Denver Open.

Light: HB flip done RIGHT aka "I am sick of Hunt Down"
Dark: MKOS mains done RIGHT aka "Hunter’s Brillianter Pile"

Chris is using his Maul deck for dark, and WYS with racing for light. We make exceptionally good time, and arrive in Colorado Springs after just over an hour of driving. Chris notices the store that the tournament will be held at, and we prepare to ambush the tourney. BUT, the store is not open! the door says the store will open at 12 noon, but the tourney is slated to begin at 11am. Hmmm. Turns out there is another card store, on the SAME street, with the SAME name, that opens an hour earlier. We arrive at the correct store at around 11:15, but the first-game pairings have not been announced yet, so we are there in time.

Game One: MKOS vs. Ryan Gamble’s QMC
I get the Executor up into space pretty quick, and take over the Bespin system for a steady drain of 2. He gets the Casino out, with Lando Calrissian, and it’s time to play sabaac. We tie on the first game (what happened? I thought it "works every time", just like Colt .45?), and I decide it’s time to go pay CC a visit. Lando is hanging out with orrimaarko and some chump. I figure I will take in Iggy, 4-lom, and epp vader, play you are beaten on orrimaarko, capture lando with iggy, and administer the beatings. I deploy my guys, and play you are beaten, but no, he plays sabaac again and screws up all my tracking. I lose the game of sabaac this time, but secret plans cancels the retrieval. Iggy misses lando, so Ryan gets to draw battle destiny. he draws a 5, and wipes out both of my bounty hunters. My two destiny are enough to kill lando and the scrub. Lando would never come back, so no more gambling. I start setting up guys on Tatooine, using Gailid to enhance the drains, since there is no Menace Fades on table. He gets Qui-gon and obi-wan down, both with sabers, for a good solid drain of 3. I take Slave I to the cloud sector for an extra 2 drain, and when he comes with two ships to try and battle fett, the galaxy’s most feared bounty hunter clears the sector. I never kill qui-gon or obi-wan, but outlast the 3 point drain for a win by 23.

2: (+23)

Game Two: HB Flip vs. Ian Monteith’s Dark Deal
This is not a ’speed deal’ deck, it is a real dark deal deck, with plenty of big nasty characters. I get a few ships up at the endor system, while he puts down 3 characters at his CC sites, and 2 combat cloud cards at the sector, to deploy dark deal. He then consolidates his characters to one site, since I had a good amount of force saved. I put down TK-422 to stop his drain, and use the mini-falcon to destroy his cloud cars. He puts out more characters, and begins to spread a bit more. Boussh blocks another drain, and then I flip to stop the rest. The Hidden Base would never be probed, so he is unable to draw out. I start using mirax to put cards back (re-drawing the same "a few manuevers" each time), and occasionally playing an on the edge to retrieve a few force. Once I go below 3 cards in hand though, to maximize my differential, he suddenly starts playing limited resources every turn, so I go ahead and drain him out. Full win by 29.

4: (+52)

Game Three: HB Flip vs. Robert Schiermeyer’s AOBS
He activates his coruscant docking bay on turn one, so it takes him an extra turn to get flipped. But when he flips, he flips strong, with hordes of guys at both the death star docking bay, and the cc docking bay. Emperor at one site, with plenty of backup, Xizor at the other site, with plenty more backup. So I am eating direct damage from his objective, but I again use TK-422 and Boussh to buy myself extra time (though this isn’t easy, since he got bad feeling have I down on turn one.) I have managed to get a decent amount of ships up in space. On one turn, he activates about 14, to go along with the 4 force or so that he’d saved. He makes me lose 2 to his objective, so I say "no thanks", and play It Could be Worse to reduce the loss by 2. Suddenly he gets the "I’ma beat da numba one playa in da world!" glint in his eye, and plays It’s worse for 18. So I play It’s a Hit to cancel It’s worse, and he has no force for the remainder of his turn. He uses hutt smooch to capture one of my undercover spies, and kills the other with force lightning. So I’m forced to flip, in order to stop his drains. He puts down search and destroy and the direct damage is getting really out of hand....until I deploy Honor. Once I clean his ships out of space, he occupies just two battlegrounds, so Honor allows me to ignore damage from Search & destroy, and ignore the damage from his objective, while my objective allows me to ignore his drains. nice. Like my previous opponent, this one is never able to probe the hidden base, and I end up with a win by 26.

6: (+78)

Game Four: MKOS vs. Joshua Bader’s WYS
Josh is using a solid Palace Raider/Patrol Craft WYS, with Squadron Assignments to get out all his nifty ships, along with all the other bells & whistles you expect from a well-built WYS. So I hide inside my interior JP sites, and inside of his Cantina, where the patrol crafts cannot eat me. I get BFHI out early, so his jedi lukes will either deploy to the home one docking bay, so that I can see them coming, or deploy for 10. (eek) I chase him around in space a little (with thrawn and guri on the executor), so that I won’t get drained for 3 at kessel. SSPFT makes it a bit more costly for him to keep evading the big ship. Eventually I settle in at Tatooine and set up the occupation, figuring that I can stand the drain of 3 at kessel for a couple of turns, as long as I get to drain him for 2 back at tatooine, plus enforce the occupation damage. So he goes ahead and concentrates his ships at the Tatooine system for the big hurrah. I play imperial command to add a 3rd battle destiny (2nd destiny courtesy of Thrawn, of course.) I had set up a 6 and a 5 (thanks, janus), and the 3rd destiny turns out to be another 5. 16 attrition does bad things to Josh’s ships, and he loses the capacity to contest me in space. Epp vader uses you are beaten and a little other trickery to maintain control of the cantina, and the damage from occupation does him in. Full win by 22.

8: (+100)

Chris Fanchi is now leading the tournament, with a differential of 111. So, in order for me to pass him up in differential, I would need to win by at least 6 force. So Chris says I will win the game by 6 force.

Game Five: MKOS vs. Chris Fanchi’s WYS podracing
Yay, the two things that made me want to quit playing Star Wars: WYS and podracing. Before we came to the tournament today, I had told Chris that his light deck would not go 3-0 in this tournament. Well, it was 2-0 so far, so it would be up to me to bring truth to my words. I will just NOT ALLOW a WYS deck to go 3-0 here in Colorado, so it is time to strike a blow for non-cheesey decks everywhere. Thrawn comes out on the executor early. I am not putting up much of a fight in the podrace, but by deploying to multiple tatooine sites early, I am keeping Chris busy enough that he isn’t saving 6 force on my turns, so I think I’ll be able to keep him from retrieving off the race. Chris gets some dorky unique x-wings up to the system, piloted by people like ralltiir freighter captains. I don’t have any imperial commands to stop him from drawing 2 battle destiny, but I figure the Executor can handle it. And since I draw 2 destiny at a time, his ships should go down rather easily. But that did not happen, because Chris kept playing organized attack to make his x-wings immune to attrition, and greater power. So the early battles in space were standoffs. I lose 6 force for losing the race. It takes Chris a while to get a Jedi Luke down, even though he uses 3. He has a couple raiders out, on a couple of patrol crafts. the battle in space rages on, but Chris continues to play organized attack in over 50% of the battles. I lose Piett to battle damage, and ozzel. The Chimaera goes down as well. He loses a pilot here and there, but just replaces them with new ones off the bargaining table he is using to stop my drain in his cantina. Not cool. He places Boonta Eve podrace out of play to retrieve 4 cards, and is also getting a card back each turn with "I did it!". Must...win...game. Must...not...lose...at....STAR WARS. Must....not...allow...f@ggoty WYS deck...to go...undefeated. With patrol crafts at JP and my desert heart, I decide it’s time to get desperate. I deploy characters at 3 more Tatooine sites (after already controlling the cantina), deploy Tatooine occupation (he had no ships at the tatooine system at the time), and move the Executor over to Tatooine. The occupation starts hitting him for 4 a turn, which, combined with my force drains at the sites, is starting to put a dent in his life force. "I did it!" is keeping me from saving force, so draw their fire is really becoming a thorn in my side. I drop Tarkin in front of the patrol craft at the desert heart, them move merrejk to the bridge of the executor, then shuttle him down to join tarkin. Chris can’t battle me there, because he knows if he trades off the palace raider for merrejk, tarkin will still drain him there. I can’t battle chris either, because his other craft will react over and wreck me. Life force is dwindling down to nothing on both sides. I’ve shuttled down Thrawn to a site for more occupation damage, and Chris is now playing organized attacks from lost pile to try and drop the Executor, but to no avail. He lands one of his x-wings at the docking bay, and moves his freighter captain into the cantina to stop the 2 point drain from Prince Xizor. But the one card in my hand is Dr.Evazan/Ponda Baba, and that is enough battle damage to put Chris down and out. As predicted before the game began, I win by 6 force. I go to +106, Chris drops to +105.

10: (+106)

Chris is still easily the highest of the 4-1 players, so I prepare for the rematch in game 6. But wait! There is another 5-0 player in the tournament: Dante Montoya out of Pueblo, Colorado.

Game Six: HB Flip vs. Dante Montoya’s BHBM
BHBM??? Auto-win in Game six, for the tournament! Nice. :) But Dante is 5-0, so I figure I better mind my P’s and Q’s. He gets the Emperor out quick, and deploys emperor’s power. I amass the fleet at Endor, reluctant to spread out just yet. He has mara jade with lightsaber at one docking bay, and a 2-ability blizzard walker at the other. I decide to drop the walker, so I deploy an epp luke from reserve deck and initiate. I draw a 6 for battle destiny, while he uses Emperor’s power to add a battle destiny and draws...a zero. The walker goes down, but I am unable to forfeit luke! And Dante has a good 16 or 18 cards in hand. Ouch time. He comes down with another walker, and deploys vader as the pilot (since vader is not "present at the site", he does not capture luke), and then puts down Xizor for another 5 power. He initiates, uses I have you now to add 2 battle destiny, then uses Emperor’s Power to add a FOURTH battle destiny. And naturally, Xizor’s text will prevent epp luke from drawing any destiny at all. I notice that Dante has the "I’ma beat da numba one playa in da world!" glint in his eye. For his 4 battle destiny, Dante draws a 3, two 4’s, and a 1. But lo and behold, this is PREMIERE Vader aboard the walker, who adds one to all 4 of the draws. Dante’s total power? 30. Mine? 5. I forfeit luke for 7, and have to lose 18 more. So I lose Houjix for 18 more. ;) But I do have to stack a card on Insignificant rebellion. Soon he deploys yet another blizzard walker, which joins Mara Jade. I bring down epp obi, who slices Mara Jade, and then I draw enough attrition to destroy the walker. I forfeit obi-wan to the battle damage, and stack a second card on insignificant rebellion. The drains in space are getting pretty ugly, so here come Dante’s ships. Rebel Barrier/OTE helps out some, but I end up losing a battle in space, stacking the 3rd card on insignificant rebellion. But Dante is unable to probe the hidden base, and hence unable to force drain, and the bone-crushing drains at kiffex and kessel prove too much to withstand, so I win by 16.

I finish with 12: (+122)

I take the Twilek Advisor foil, and also win several packs of Tatooine for my troubles.

Props:
To Chris Fanchi, for driving.
To Patrick Napier, for running a good tournament.
To the "I’ma beat da numba one playa in da world!" glint in the eye, for making me laugh.
To the HB deck, for once again having a sneaky hidden base indicator. 4 games at the Open, 3 games here. ZERO games where anyone could find the friggin’ hidden base. hehe.
To Dante Montoya, for becoming the 3rd player to ever lose to me by less than 20 force when using BHBM.
To Chris Fanchi, for somehow knowing that the differential in game 5 would be exactly 6 force.

Slops:
To the city of Colorado Springs, for having 2 of the SAME store, on the SAME street.
To me, for using the "I am Sick of Hunt Down" deck, in a tournament where I played again zero Hunt Down decks. Oh well. :)

Thanks for reading. Cya next time (but not before August 1st!!)