melbourne-australie-15-07-01
Title: melbourne-australie-15-07-01
Author: Luca "Luca/Tzizvvt" Costanzo
Date: Jul 17, 2001
PROLOGUE
Ok, I know that there have already been a few Melbourne TRs posted, so let me give you guys a brief explanation. Melbourne is the second biggest city in Australia, if you need some geographical assistance. It’s situated in the calamari region, soon to have a continental championship with first prize of a trip to worlds. This tournament is something like the second last before it and first prize was a bye into day 2 of the continentals, so that’s what all of the hype was about.
Last week was the last week of my school holidays and I’d been ridiculously busy, so the night before rocked around without me really having any decks built. I went to Adam Amy’s house to build decks and playtest a little. Between myself, Adam, Illiyana and Sean, we managed to come up with 8 decks before 5am or so. The stupid thing was that between all of us, we had 2 copies of A Step Backwards … despite this, Adam decided to play some weird HB/B-wing deck with podracing. And Tunnel Visions to grab A Step Backwards.
DECKS:
Light: WYS beatdown (pretty much nothing out of the ordinary; just wanted to see how much people were metagaming against it)
Dark: TDIGWATT Ties (Well, 1 Vanguard, 1 Interceptor, 2 Squadrons and 5 Scimitar Squadron Ties. Credits go to Ronnie Wilcox; if you want to see a list, it was similar to the one on his member page)
GAME ONE Dark v Daniel Robertson (QMC Racing?!)
Robbo is the guy who won our state championships this year, so it was good to have a tough first round opponent. Anyhow, Robbo started Seeking An Audience to … deploy 3P0 WHPS … and play HDWGITM … surprise, surprise! As he said; it was something original and he wanted to have some fun. Basically, I threw some ties and a dreadnaught at Bespin. Robbo saved up a bit and threw Home One at Bespin (with Ackbar and Haash’n piloting). We fought at Bespin for a few turns without deploying to the sites. In these battles, we tied in power more or less, but Robbo was immune to attrition. This continued for a few turns as I wasn’t activating all that much. Robbo won the podrace. I set for stunned Haash’n, deployed the bus and a squadron, lateral damaged Home One and beat it down for 27 overflow. From then on Robbo got Jedi Luke out to CC and the game dragged on a bit as I only drained for one at Bespin and put a tie on DIS for a turn or two. Maul came down to dispose of Luke, Occupation hit and that was game.
FW 2(+27)
The Good: Well, I won.
The Bad: Both of us were only playing semi-serious decks. Smashing a good player first game.
The Ugly: So I’m thinking ‘what stops mess?’ … then I realise that I’ve got Secret Plans and Shocking Revelation :P (Yes, it does only work for one turn).
GAME TWO Light v Ronnie Wilcox (BHBM)
Ronnie and I decided to have a relaxed game, so 15 minutes into the round it’s still turn two, we’re just trash talking and I’m doing my secret cut (top secret- absolutely no details will be entered into). The fact that Ronnie decided that he wanted to play all the Sense/Recoil In Fears that he had before I flipped also sort of slowed the game down. Anyhow, Palpatine went to the pub and sat there for a bit. I set up a drain at Kessel with Outrider holding on to R2/3P0 for some major beats. The deciding moment in the game came when Palpatine, Mara and Janus were just sitting there asking for a beatdown. I asked Ronnie how much force he had and he said seven. For some reason, I thought that he had 6, so I played Beggar and got him to pay 1 for Mirax then pay 5 for Luke to the adjacent site. Barrier. Kind of sucked, seeing as I was going to play guys, play Run Luke Run and Don’t Get @#$%y. Oh well, this led to a change of plans. I said go, Vader came and picked up Luke and him and Mr Wrinkles went to the happy duelling ground of fun. I spread out, played Celebration and Edge, lost one duel and won the game.
FW 2(+28)
4(+55)
The Good: Calling the TD over all the time to ask stupid questions (“Can he do that?” “What?” “Deploy Palpatine from reserve.” “Kev! We need you to cut Ronnie’s deck.” “Luca, it’s one card.”)
The Bad: Playing Ronnie … sheesh.
The Ugly: One of Ronnie’s slips tore when we were shuffling. Yeah.
GAME THREE Light vs Giles Emery (Hunt Down/Podracing without odds)
Before we started Giles said “I’ve done something very bad.” I asked if he was playing a 75 card deck. Giles said “No, but it’s a net deck.” I said “Huntdown Podracing?” Giles played Start Your Engines …
My starting hand had a Barrier in it, so I decided to grab Kessel and shove a ship there first turn. This resulted in Giles actually having a lost pile after winning the podrace. It was amusing to see Giles grabbing HoloNet Transmissions to cancel those oh-so-annoying Transmission Terminateds, especially seeing as I was just preferring to leave Visage on table to cause more damage to him. I picked up a Dodge shortly, so I flipped around about the second turn with EPP Han alone to the Cantina or something. Sure enough, Vader came down to flip Hunt Down and was met with a barrier (that I then lost to Visage in order to be able to play again …) At one stage, I had a Lost In The Wilderness in my lost pile and Vader was at one of my docking bays, but Giles had landed Zuckuss In Mist Hunter there …
Anyhow, I trippled, but without DTF, so Giles played Vader’s Obsession to eat up some of my destinies. I lost and played A Jedi’s Resilience from lost pile. With only one destiny left to draw, the trippler only did 15 damage. After that, we were both low on force and had entered ‘end game’. I spread with Mirax and EPP Lando to separate sites to get something happening. Of course, DLOTS with Stick came to crash my party and got dodged. DLOTS was too snobby to follow Mirax, so I drained with her … right into a Counter Assault. I decided that anything Giles can do, I can do better and used LITW on Vader. Towards the end of the game, I had Giles’ side of the board cleared and Celebration retrieved me about two or so force.
FW 2(+6!!!)
6(+61)
The Good: Excellent game, very close and well played.
The Bad: The Obsession saved your arse, Giles.
The Ugly: Bah … the whole damned game.
GAME FOUR Dark vs John Lampe (WYS Trippler)
This game was slightly uneventful … well, not really, but I can’t remember the details. Basically, I set up Dark Deal and moved some guys together. Those guys got beaten down for a little. Maul decided to hold on to the CC: DB. I was reluctant to move over to the beatdown squad, John was reluctant to move over to Maul, so we stayed there; him draining for two, me draining for three. John also established a drain at Kessel and Cantina. I held onto Bespin and managed to get Occupation up and running for one. Anyhow, due to some early drains stopping me from having enough to rig properly, I sent DLOTS to Tatooine to try and handle some scrubs instead of clearing out the beatdown squad. Due to some drain cancellers on my part (Dreaded Imperial Starfleet, Control, Asteroid Sector :P) I managed to eke out the win by one.
FW 2(+1!!!)
8(+62)
The Good: Asteroid field rules! God card … ?
The Bad: Expensive deploy stuff.
The Ugly: Last tournament I played against John and won by one … LOL
GAME FIVE Dark vs Adam Amy (Hidden Base/B-Wings/Podracing)
So Adam and I weren’t particularly thrilled to be playing each other, but off we went. So yeah, I set up Dark Deal with Palpatine, DLOTS and Dr Evazan/Ponda Baba. Adam deployed Jedi Luke to smackdown on DrE. DLOTS elised over to Luke and laid the smackdown on him. Maul with stick also made an appearance at CC and Janus came down to accompany his sidekick (Palpatine). Adam, meanwhile, won the podrace and got his destinies thinned out with that damned droid …
I was looking to be in control, but in the end Adam was cancelling enough drains to take the lead … nothing teriffically exciting.
FL 0(-?)
8(+? Let’s guess 50)
The Good: Nothing much. Seeing Adam be too scared of I Have You Now to move Jedi Luke with Stick over to Palpatine.
The Bad: How about … LOSING!
The Ugly: Elis/I Have You Now.
GAME SIX Light vs John Lampe (SYCFA Interceptors)
Yawn. This game took ages. Basically, I flipped early. John fell for the Kessel lure and beatdown on some meaningless ship, stranding his dudes at Kessel. He later took over Tatooine, after two attempts at Trippling … frigging Red 10 powering up interceptors … gah! Maul with stick came down to the pub early and got (eventually) evicted thanks to EPP Luke tag teaming with A Jedi’s Resilience. John had Battle Plan, which he kept on the good side of for a while until I finally killed Lord Vader off. Because of all of the retrieval on both sides, this game dragged out for a bit and the same Lord Vader was deployed to beat down on ECC Lando at the Pub while Luke was chilling next door. Lord V got Barriered and I played A Few Manouvers. Like an absolute moron, I took the Tripple(well, double)/Run Luke, Run option, but activated one less presuming that I would easily be able to cut the Lord. With the average rig that I had set up, I should’ve got him, but as it was I just missed and the doubler didn’t cause all that much damage … doh! Anyhow, I finally won the game when John, trying to do something to let him win, deployed an Interceptor to the Tatooine: Docking Bay in order to beatdown on a lone Mirax (DTF and First Strike were both on table and there were about 4 dark ships at the system). I played Barrier from lost pile, then next turn used John’s force to deploy Melas and drew a 5 and a 6. Game. Phew!
FW 2(+11)
10(+about 60 or something)
(NOTE: From Adam’s TR I finished on +58)
The Good: Good game, well played. I abused the hell out of WYS.
The Bad: Missing the cut on Lord Vader (should’ve got him with the rig that I had). Not going for the right beatdowns.
The Ugly: WYS/Resilience combo.
So I ended up finishing third or something, which sucked, but the two that placed above me were Ronnie (winner) and Adam, so good on them. I got two Tatooine packs for prizes and pulled an Anakin’s Pod, which I needed, and a Maul’s Stick, which I traded to Ronnie for one of his 4 or something ridiculous Aurra Sings. Sean ended up going 4-2, which everyone was very pleased with. Robbo, being the legend that he is, had a box of Tatooine stuff with him and fixed Adam and I up with more A Step Backwards than we will ever need. He wanted to see how his dark deck would stand up to WYS, so we had a quick game that he won by a few … tight deck. Very tech. Robbo also got me an extra Qui-Gon, which I needed. All in all, I was a little bit irritated to miss out on the bye into day 2, but Day 1 will hopefully be good practise.
PROPS:
Ronnie for giving me the inspiration for the dark deck and for winning after being completely smashed and having an hour of sleep :P
Sean for playing the silly deck that we built and going 3-0 with it.
Robbo for everything.
Rage Against the Machine and Foo Fighters for keeping the Geelong crew going.
Ben for being a dude.
Ben for winning BB (I could care less).
Terry for showing.
Palpatine for being Janus’ @#$%.
Lampe for playing like a pro.
Giles for playing a really awesome dark deck … and letting me beat you.
Craig David for pissing off Robbo.
Kev for rigging my prize support with decent cards.
SLOPS:
Adam for beating me.
Sean, Giles and Adam for posting their TRs before me.
Whoever it was that came up with WYS in the first place.
Mariah Carey. ‘nuff said.
Until next time,
Luca
“Keep watching the skiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis … err … skies.”
-That guy from that TV Show. You know. The one that you watch. With your eyes.