meriden-ct-7-14-01-cpa-audit
Title: meriden-ct-7-14-01-cpa-audit
Author: Keith "Tessek-CPA" Henderson
Date: Jul 20, 2001
This is a report of our 6 game monthly tournament that is held at DJ*s Comics in Meriden, CT. It is run by Jeremy Oakes. We had a great turnout with 24 players, including a large contingent from Massachusetts. This was impressive since there was a tourney in Milford, Mass. that same day. Jeremy is taking some work-related time off from running the tourney, so this would be his last one for a few months.
This would be the first tournament my son and I would attend since the Tatooine set came out. We did not know how prevalent the new cards would be in our area, so we stuck to what was familiar to us.
My dark deck is a copy of Retardo Rex ISB by HuntaWarya starting with IAO, Mob Points, and a varying 3rd effect. I finally figured out out to play the deck and it is well balanced for the local meta. This is probably the last month for using ISB since Coruscant is coming out next month. There will be a few LS Coruscant sites to deploy Blount and kill the ISB objective. I will miss playing ISB.
My light deck was a return to QMC using a blend of Avatar and Michael Gemme deck ideas. I used to like playing QMC when it first came out, so I was looking forward to trying it with the new effect that gives it a boost. I had only played a few test games with my son, so I was unsure how to use it facing the tough opponents that come to Meriden.
Game One: my DS against Brian Henderson playing his LS WYS.
Great! After playing games all month with my son, I am paired up with him for the first game. With 24 players, we thought the odds of this happening again would be slim. But, here we were facing each other. Sitting next to us for a different pairing was Hayes Hunter who introduced himself to us. He asked if I was the one that wrote the reports that he had read from previous months. It is nice to know that some people actually read these reports from a scrub.
We both start off with the usual cards for the first few turns. I know that he switched out some cards in the AM before leaving home, so I did not know what to expect. I am in good shape with the Executor / Piett and Merrejk piloting at Tatooine.
Brian flips his WYS objective quickly and is using and reusing Controls to cancel my drains.
After a few more turns, I am ruling space with the Chimaera / Thrawn at Sullust and the Avenger / Ozzel at Kessel. I have also flipped the ISB objective and have 5D6 deployed to Tatooine to lower his drains. I also had Arica joining up at the Cantina to kill Jedi Luke*s Saber drains.
Brian is getting frustrated with the choke on his drains and is pulling up cards like crazy looking for something (I assume his Beru / Owen card retrieval set up). After he is done pulling cards, I drop a lost monnok on him and hit the jackpot. I find two each of Owen/ Beru, Palace Raiders, Harvest, and Patrol Crafts. This wipes out his game strategy.
By now, I am draining him for 8 a turn and the game comes to a quick end after a few more turns.
FW +15
Props: To Brian for keeping a smile on his face after the game.
Slops: To myself, for crushing my son with that Monnok.
Game Two: my LS against Paul Maholick and his DS Rebel Base Occupation.
Now I get a chance to try out the QMC. It was strange starting a game against an opponent not using starting effects. Nowadays it seems that the tabletops are covered in red before the game even starts.
My opening hand is poor. I don’t have any pilots or ships to use Squadron Assignments for deployment. On the first turn, Paul drops Vader at the guest quarters and draws up. I draw up hoping to pull a pilot or ship but all I get are red cards.
For the next few turns, Paul is deploying Tatooine and JP sites and is activating mad force and is drawing, obviously waiting for me to deploy and flip my objective. But I can’t find a ship or pilot and take a chance to draw up over 13 cards. I am hoping that he doesn’t have a monnok. I finally get a good mix of cards and am now ready to come down, deploy, and flip on my next turn.
But my plans are dashed when Paul drops a used monnok on me and sorts out 8 cards for me to keep and returns the rest to the used pile. Of course, by chance, all I have left are red cards. So it is back to drawing up for characters.
Meanwhile, he has stacked up mains at two CC sites and is draining away for 3 every turn. It has reached the point where my force pile is dwindling and time is running out when I finally get a few character cards and deploy two sites along with characters. I also drop a ship with pilot to Bespin and flip. Now the time has come for the fighting and dodging to try to recover.
We have few minor skirmishes, but I am able to evade him at the CC sites. I drop EPP Obi at the JP Audience Chamber to drain since he had so many mains on CC sites. But he comes down with Maul and we battle to a stalemate and lose both cards.
We have one space battle where I lose out and the game is over by the next turn.
FL (-31)
Props: To Paul for a well played game. He never gave me the chance to set up anywhere. This forced me to play into his strengths.
Slops: To pulling red cards in the beginning of the game.
So I am 1-1 when the next round is called.
Game Three: my DS against Kevin Secord and his LS EBO with a New Secret Base.
Kevin is the younger brother of Eric Secord who used to be at all of the tourneys a while ago. The both of them have not played since before DSII came out, so their cards and decks were based on older sets.
We both start out with the first few turns being used to set up our objectives. Kevin deploys to three Echo sites and quickly flips in just four turns. I deploy sparingly and with backup at each system not knowing which EBO attack he would use. He is tentative with deploying cards and this lets me solidify my draining.
I drop DLOTS and an ORS at the North Ridge and move under the Generator to go after his scrubs. He deploys Obi-Wan to the first site to stop my going in any further. But, I now have deployed a second pair of agents to the North Ridge. This let me flip my objective and also completed the Imperial Decree. So his drain bonuses are now ignored when he tries to deploy to space.
I am at 3 systems with force and am draining him for 9 a turn. He has only deployed to one system and I am canceling his drains with an ORS that I retrieve at the end of my turn.
He drops an Ice Storm at the North Ridge to make my two agents go missing. On my turn I deploy two walkers with one going to each of the Hoth sites. This protects DLOTS and the ORS from the Ice Storm that would move over on the next turn. I have the two Walkers trade sites to let me get a search party ready to look for the missing agents. But, by this time my drains have wiped his force pile down to nothing and the game is over.
FW +15
Props: To Kevin for dropping the Ice Storm. I never saw it coming.
Game Four: my LS against Brian Hollingsworth and his DS Podracing Huntdown.
Brian is a tough player to face as it is and now he has Podracing to add to his strong deck ideas. I had no idea about podracing so I knew I was about to get a quick lesson in losing a podrace.
Again my start was awful. On turn one, Brian deploys Vader at Leia*s Guest Quarters and flips his objective. I had drawn two Transmission Terminated / OOC in my opening hand. I dropped one right away to cancel Visage. Brian looks at his hand and drops another Visage to which I drop the second TT/ OOC to cancel it again! That was the only excitement I was going to have this game.
I am drawing up to look for pilots or ships to use Squadron Assignments and deploy to space. But, there are none coming up. Brian gets his podracing going and surprise, surpise, surprise he has sevens dropping like snow flakes from his reserve pile. Within a few short turns, he wins the race and I lose 11 or something cards.
He is also draining me like crazy at a few spots for a few turns before I can finally flip the objective and try to put up a fight. But, the damage was done and now the game is over in less than 20 minutes.
FL (-32)
Props: To Brian for a well played game.
Slops: Sevens, sevens, sevens. And the point of podracing for the LS is….?
I am 2-2 with the QMC deck losing both times. I was trying to focus on getting two sites occupied and flipping, but I can*t seem to find characters or ships to get it done quick enough to make the difference in the games I played.
Between games I went over to Michael Gemme and Andy Klema to ask about QMC gameplay. Their input was very helpful since I was focusing on getting sites out with characters to flip. They told me to focus on space at the start unless you see that the DS is playing big blue or ties. Michael offered to played a quick game but there really wasn’t enough time.
Game Five: my LS against Anthony Muscaro and his DS This Deal Is Getting Worse.
I have never played Anthony before and seeing that he was starting with Cloud City sites I knew that I should get a quick flip.
I am able to flip by turn three and have single characters at two sites. Anthony comes down hard with stacked mains to battle me, but I am able to evade him with POLR and Dodge cards.
I deploy heavily at the Bespin system to get CC Celebration going for retrieval.
The rest of the game is a fun (for me at least) cat and mouse chess game with Anthony trying to drain and then battle. I pay the drains and evade the battles. Then I retrieve the force loss and drain him.
He makes the mistake of leaving a single main at a site and I drop a hit squad to wipe him out.
The game ends shortly after that.
I finally see that fun of this deck style. I enjoy playing a game where I have to think 2-3 moves ahead.
FW +24
Props: To Anthony for a fun game.
I am now 3-2 and wait for the game six match-ups.
Game Six: my DS against Paul Maholick and his LS Rebel Strike Team.
I used to play RST and was toying with the idea of playing it for today*s tourney but went with the QMC instead. I used to played it before, so I knew what to expect when I played Paul for the second time that day.
We both went for the usual starting stuff. I dropped Piett with Merrejk at the Executor DB while he deployed a Crix, Solo, and more scouts at the rebel landing site. I am able to deploy the Executor and was going to move Piett and Merrejk over to the bridge when I decided to deploy some ORS pilots (bad thought). Paul comes down with a spy and EPP Obi to wipe me out of the DB. I was able to deploy all of my planets before losing Merrejk and now I concentrate on getting my space drains lined up.
Paul has a huge stack of mains move into the bunker and drops TMAC to get charges to blow the bunker. I am deploying big blue as fast as I can figuring that this will be a drain race and hoping that he is light for space.
Paul deploys a ship with a landing claw to block a drain. I did not have Captain Godhert in my deck to cancel the claw. I just keep deploying ships to get a drain of 5 going. He tries to blow the bunker and fails. He then deploys another ship with a claw to block a second system drain. I don’t have any characters to deploy to an Endor site to drain. But when I draw up I get Vader and his saber. I am hoping to use this against his Obi and then move over to Endor for some battle damage against some of his scrubs.
On the next turn, he blows the bunker and I lose cards and have to place my hand (including Vader) into the used pile. He points out that these two acts can go in any order and that I could put my hand down in the order I wanted to lose the cards (if I had cards I thought I could lose) to the blown bunker force loss.
Paul is now retrieving scouts at the end of every turn. I lost my den of thieves and Chiraneau to the bunker being blown. So, I couldn’t add to my space drains or cancel drains with my ORS*s.
The game ends when I am finally out of cards due to his drains.
FL (-13)
Props: To Paul for another well played game.
So I end up 3-3 (-22) in Meriden that day. Playing only one tourney a month doesn’t give me the chance to keep up with the players coming to Meriden. Sadly though, once fall comes I think that we will lose of few players to colleges out of the region. I just hope that there will be enough players left to make for good matches.
I had to leave before I could write down the final results. I do know that Hayes Hunter came in first with Steve Brentson coming in next after him. I finished up 18th and my son ended up 2-4 to finish 21st.
Props:
To Jeremy Oakes for running the show and letting us have our fun. I know we will miss you while you are away playing in the real world of slave labor.
To Michael Gemme, Andy Klema, and Paul Maholick for all of your helpful tips. It is the games within the game that will let you win in SWCCG play and I appreciate your taking the time to help me.
To Mike Cote (the new owner of DJ*s Comics) for renting the hall we play in.
Slops: Podracing, it is truly evil.