billings-mt-7-14-01
Title: billings-mt-7-14-01
Author: Travis "Com Igar" Rumans
Date: Jul 17, 2001
I finally get my brother to come to one of these tournaments. He is playing decks I built: MKOS and RST. MKOS...don’t let anyone tell you Scum is dead, especially MKOS. Getting +2 to each battle destiny is huge, and its regenerative capabilities in the late game are the best of any dark deck. Its a mains-y version.
I, personally, have not changed my decks since Tatooine came out (although i’m beginning to think its time...and I must come up with new decks for GenCon...I just want to do well enough at GenCon so I can be paired against a really good player and get whomped by him). Light is Quiet Mining Colony. Dark is Hunt Down/Podracing. I’m pretty sure I was the first to do DS podracing (or even any podracing), and its become relatively dominant in the Billings metagame. I feel I’ve unleashed a Pandora’s box.
Anyway, Troy gets up earlier than me and our Dad makes us scrambled eggs. Now, no one ever got me food when it was just me, so I guess it pays to have another person going to a tournament. Then we grab my friend Cody.
I’m just over 1800 going into this tournament. My goal is to stay above 1800 in the tourhg Kashyyyk region...any more ratings points I pick up here are just a cushion.
Game 1 My HD/P vs. Troy’s RST
Well, I built Troy’s deck, and we’ve played this matchup a fair number of times, so its a really dull game. Vader comes at the back door, and he gets Close Air Support set up so he tries to battle Vader. I lose him because he’s EPP Vader and I have DVDLOTs in hand. I win the podrace. DVDLOTs smacks Crix’s crew at the landing site. Over in a matter of minutes.
FW+32
Highs: Uh...he got Close Air Support going, which is kind of cool. Vader owned everything. Hunt Down is the ultimate deck.
Lows: Playing my brother, in a matchup we played a lot. At least I didn’t have to play him or Cody again.
Game 2: My QMC vs. Logan’s Podracing Court
I have a racer, and I wonder if I should start Aim High or Menace Fades. Fearing Gailid, I go with Menace. He puts lone Fett in Jet to Bespin because the db he wants wasn’t in his reserve so he has to deploy something. Dash+another pilot in Outrider and I think even a Bespin Z=95 smack him down. He puts lots of guys in the AC, Obi and Qui Gon flip QMC. Anakin wins the podrace (!) because I got draws of 6,6,7. He elises his pile of AC guys to Obi’s site, I path away, he tries to sense, but Jabba can’t do it (lucky me...if I use QMC at GenCon I’m so packing Control). He also deploys ECC Dengar alone to a site. I path Qui Gon, deploy an alien+ECC Lando, and end the game.
FW+34
Highs: Anakin won the podrace! That’s never happened to me before.
Invading Bespin against QMC hardly ever works...QMC wants to suck you in so it can lay the real beatdown.
Lows: The sense was very tense.
Elis? Elis is back? Whatever happened to our DB Wars? Don’t tell me I need to start using Insurrection for Elis protection again...
Cody and I watch my brother Troy playing my MKOS beat Peter playing Eric Hunter’s WYS. Having Bib hide at the passenger deck decided the game. Troy even won in space with his Bib-powered destinies. The best, though, had to be when Peter put down EPP Han, played the tripler, and used Run Luke Run, expecting to lay a huge beat on the sail barge, and Troy ended up winning the battle by 2. Pter’s the top rated local player, and seeing him beaten by my brother who played in one tournament a year ago was kind of cool. We give Peter lots of drek for netdecking, and its ironic that a scrub like my brother beat the deck he got from somewhere else but his originally-designed dark deck is undefeated as far as I know (sure beats my QMC). Anyway...
Game 3 my QMC vs Nathan’s RallOps podracing
I almost start Aim High, but fearing the non-unique alien leader trick I start Menace. A turn before the race ends I could have tunneled for Aim High...but I grab a weapon to put on the Superstar to fortify the system. He puts Bright Center on Death Star. His podracer collision wins him the podrace, which pretty much wins him the game. I get celebration set up because I know its my only hope. I’m retrieving three, and he’s draining me for three. I started sending Ten Numb with some weapons to take out Zuckuss+Dengar at the Death Star, but by the time he gets there I only have one force left so he can’t do any of his tricks. I know he has to do one more damage to me than he’s doing with drains to win. He sabbacs. Damn.
FL-24
Highs: Ten Numb would’ve rocked had I had three more cards in my reserve deck.
Lows: Sabbac...of all things to take the finale damage from, sabbac.
Essentially, I lose the game because I lost the podrace...and I think when the whole game revolves around the podrace, its a sad state of affairs.
Game 4: My HD/P vs Nathan’s QMC
He’s smarter than I am so he DOES start Aim High...which ends up winning him the tournament. I had to draw a lot to get characters. I know he has at least Path, so I put down Ponda/Dr. E combo at one site and Vader at another, and he does a weather vane trick at one and paths from the other. Unfortunately, this let him flip, and there’s only two sites on CC, so he has a pile of guys at one and I have a pile of guys at the other. The podrace takes a long time because I get bad destinies and he uses a Step Backward, but I podracer collision like four times. Here’s how dominant podracing has become: a non-podracing deck not only has a racer and aim high, but support interrupts! Anyway, the race goes on long enough I get sick of it and start tracking some destinies...but I forget about Aim High. Even if activating would’ve messed up my tracking, I think I was close enough to win I didn’t need to stack my Operational As Planned. At some point Qui Gon came down to make us both lose to Visage. He also played another drain site and moved all his guys to it but I took over the old site by the game ended anyway.
FW +12
Highs: Well, this WAS one of the closest games this deck has had.
He was smart enough to start Aim High.
The Weather Vane was cool.
Lows: He lost two Lukes in used pile. No dueling. And I would’ve really smacked him around in the duel with my hand, but I wanted to keep it because I expected a battle to happen. If I would’ve been able to retrieve my 11, I would’ve won the tournament.
So Nathan ends up winning the tournament and I end up getting second. It figures that the two tournaments I’ve WON since coming back to Billings haven’t had tournament foils...
Props:
My dad for making scrambled eggs
Nathan for winning
Troy for coming
Peter, because he’s going to loan me lots of stuff for GenCon
Cody, because I didn’t have to play him
Hunt Down...never played Hunt Down until Tat came out, and I now understand why it was the top deck for such a long time. I only hope it will survive Corsucant’s fifty billion Jedi. (An interrupt that let Vader initiate an Epic Duel against an Episode 1 Jedi, using the gametext for Obi, would help some)...my HD/P deck is 8-0, and I might retire it soon just so it can stay that way =)
Nathan and Troy, for thrashing the ratings of myself and Peter, respectively
Slops:
Me, for not grabbing Aim high and unleashing the plague of podracing o’er the land.
Decipher, for not getting tournament foils to the tournaments I win
My QMC deck, for losing a game in almost every tournament I’ve played it at...time to get a new LS deck...any ideas?