moorestown-nj-22-jul-01
Title: moorestown-nj-22-jul-01
Author: Doug "Phrim" Faust
Date: Jul 23, 2001
Moorestown, NJ: 22 Jul 01
Well, Scott Lingrell has been looking for a place to run local tournaments, since he was having trouble with his old haunt in West Windsor. So I suggested he try the WOTC store in the Moorestown Mall, since it was a nice store and I knew they had space set aside for gaming. So Scott manages to get it all set up, and posts a tournament for the 22nd...
I’ve been wavering between decks a lot lately, switching between my Podracing deck I used at Ramapo and an old Hidden Base deck I used at DecipherCon that I resurrected. I ended up going with the Podracing deck, since the only time it did worse than 50/50 at was Ramapo, I think its record outside of Ramapo is something like 7-1. In any case, it’s a Podracing deck that starts Seeking An Audience to get Threepio and uses HDWGITM, with some Harvesting for late game. Other than that, just mains. Changed I’ve made recently were more Podracing interrupts so I could beat Dark racing decks, and switched out Home One and company for Leaders with Landing Claws, to cover space better and get around Battle Order (and let me retrieve for I Did It!). As for Dark, I’ve been pretty set on SYCFA TIEs for a while, but I’ve been growing less and less satisfied with the deck (especially after going 0-2 in a tournament at Origins). So I decided to switch it out for the deck I used at States, a Geoff Snider creation that starts BHBM and uses a crapload of ships, walkers, and pilots, with Admiral’s Orders for nifty text and destiny. Yes, I’m aware the deck gets completely destroyed by Don’t Do That Again. But I’ve been trying to come up with a new Dark deck since Tatooine came out, and I just can’t think of anything.
So I’m playtesting with my brother Jon and my friend Mike on Friday and Saturday. My brother somehow always beats me, despite the fact that he’s rated 1500’s and goes to like 2 tournaments a year, and I’m 1700 and go to tourneys all the time. So I try my hand against Mike who, as expected, is playing cheese. For some reason, Mike hates battles and anything that has to do with interaction, and therefore always plays stuff like inserts, force denial, and manipulation. Since Decipher as late has trying to punish these strategies, Mike’s rating has taken a little dip. Anyway, we start out, and he’s playing a MWYHL deck that does damage with AFA and Visored Vision, and erases any damage you might be trying to do to him. This is like one of the worst matchups for my Dark deck, as I rely on winning battles to win the game, and he’s not going to battle me. So things go about as expected, he uses Projection and stuff to get rid of my few drains, and ICBW’s any other damage I try to throw at him, and all the while I can’t find my Coward so he’s retrieving away with a 0-destiny Gonk Droid and Off The Edge. So I lose by a bunch and I’m really hoping I don’t see this matchup in the tourney. So we switch sides, he’s playing a fake Hunt Down deck with stuff like Miiyoom Onith, Scanning Crew (yes, it places his objective out of play, no he didn’t care), Defensive Fire, I’d Just As Soon Kiss A Wookie, Ability Ability Ability, Limited Resources, etc etc etc you get the point. In any case, he didn’t have anything for my Podracing or retrieval, so the damage he did was fairly well counteracted. And my deck is all about card advantage, through Threepio and HDWGITM, so he really couldn’t keep the cards I needed out of my hand. He decided to quit when Qui-Gon was going to come beat the crap out of Miiyoom.
So I had set my alarm for 9am the morning of the tourney, but my alarm screws up (for some reason it had reset to 87.5fm and I didn’t hear the faint static), so I don’t get up until 9:30. I took a quick shower, and then to double-check the start time of the tournament I logged on to the internet. I was right about the start time (11am), and I decided to give a quick look over my 100+ e-mail as well. And a good thing that I did. Scott Lingrell had e-mailed me, telling me he didn’t have a printer so he needed me to supply the command cards for the tourney. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, but there was only an hour before the tourney started (and it takes like 20 minutes to get to the tourney), and I only had 4 extras from my last tourney. So I’m trying to think of how I’d make these command cards, printing them would take way too long (especially since my printer sucks), and I couldn’t think of any copy place on the way. So I’m thinking I’m going to have to go to the library, which is completely in the other direction from the tourney, but my brother reminds me that there’s a Kinko’s out on White Horse Road, which is still completely the wrong direction, but it was closer than the library. So we manage to get out the door at 10:08, and head over to the Kinko’s. I get to a copy machine, stick my credit card in, and press the start button. Then the copy machine display says, ready to copy side 2. Side 2? I didn’t tell it to make double-sided copies. So I clear out of the copy job, and try to switch it to 1-sided, but it tells me you can’t switch it to one-sided when it’s about to copy the second side. So I try a few more things on the copy machine, but nothing seems to work (and I had a job as a copy machine jockey a couple of years ago so I knew what I was doing), so I decided to stop wasting time fiddling around and just try a different copier. So I get to the next one, but it hasn’t been used in a while and needs to warm up, so we wait like 5 minutes for that, and finally make a bunch of copies. So we head back up, pick up my friend Mike on the way, and get to the tourney 5 minutes late. But I’m going to say that that’s Scott’s fault, not mine. :-) Anyway, everyone’s waiting for us, and Scott’s ready to use home-made command cards, but uses mine instead.
We had a decent crowd there that day, 16 people total, including Scott Lingrell himself, John Lolli, Kim Caton, and Greg Hodur. Besides myself, those were the only people above 1700, so I figure I was probably looking at a 4-2 or 5-1 for myself. So they start the pairings up, my brother Jon gets paired against some little kid with a 2-year-old deck, Mike has the honor of playing #1 in the state Scott Lingrell, and I’m playing Tom Carchidi, a 1500’s guy.
Game 1: My Light vs. Thomas Carchidi’s (1501) ISB YMSYL (Kim Caton’s deck from Decktech)
I wasn’t too concerned with this game, as I had beaten Tom before, and ISB shouldn’t be too difficult. But after a few turns I realized he was playing Kim Caton’s deck, almost card for card. So now I’m thinking this might be a problem. I’ve played this exact matchup with Kim at Ramapo, and she won by 3. So anyway, he’s getting a really slow start, and was getting more of the defensive stuff like Sunsdown and Frostbite out. Meanwhile, I’m busy winning my Podrace, and I start to get characters set up on Tatooine. He plays POTF to make one of his Hoth sites a battleground, so I look around, see that Crush isn’t around, and then I cancel it with Clash. He tries sticking some spies and 5D6 on Tatooine to block or reduce my drains, but I get them SATM’ed fairly quickly. I’m sitting waiting with my Leaders and some Landing Claws in my hand for Bossk In Hound’s Tooth to come down at his Hoth for occupation. Instead, he comes down with Iggy and Dengar in their respective ships. He also tries to play POTF again, but I Clash it with the Clash that I had retrieved. At that point he confesses that he took out the Crush from Kim’s decklist, silly him. So anyway, he’s got Dengar and Iggy at Hoth, and they can’t draw a destiny, so I come down with both Leaders and take out Dengar. I can’t battle Iggy, so I sit there a turn, then he comes back at me with Fett in his ship. I lose Red Leader in the transaction, and he loses Iggy. I had managed to throw back a Resilience with Threepio though, so I throw EPP Obi on Gold Leader as forfeit fodder, battle Fett, and draw a 6, killing him and leaving me with a ship at the site. At that point I’m pretty sure he was spent on starships, as he lost Zuckuss off the top. He manages to grab the second Harvest I played, so my days of retrieval are limited. He tries to play a 3rd POTF, and I Clash it again. This time I have a confession to make, I only have 1 Clash in my deck, I just keep retrieving it and using it again. :-) In any case, he plays Garrison and I end up losing like 12 Force in one turn, which is never good. We’re both kind of running low on Force, and he’s doing more damage than me, so I drop EJP Lando at his Coruscant 2/0 site, with EPP Obi to back him up. I have Battle Plan out, so he’s paying for his drains and I’m not, and I’ve doing some retrieval with I Did It and Yoxgit, but he’s got the direct damage from YMSYL too. Then I look at the game and it occurs to me that he’s got 5 Rim Scouts on the table, and if he plays Abyssin Ornament for retrieval, he’ll win the game. I’ve got Aim High in my lost pile, so I use one of my few remaining Harvests to get it back, draw it with Threepio, and deploy it. And then I hear a groan from the other side of the table. With that, I prevented him from retrieving and thus won the game. FW+2, 2(+2)
Highlights: Threepio being the tracking god that he is
Lowlights: Having to play Kim’s deck, I hate playing Kim’s deck :-)
My brother Jon beat the little kid by a whopping 37 Force, and Mike managed to cheese out even the mighty Scott Lingrell, so we were all 1-0 after the first game. They did pairings, Jon got paired up against John Lolli, Mike got to face off against Greg Hodur, and I was paired against Scott Lingrell.
Game 2: My Dark vs. Scott Lingrell’s (2002) Podracing Profit Deck
It looked like Scott was trying something new today, and I’m glad I don’t have to play against that Podracing RST deck of his. This wasn’t the best matchup though, as my brother quite convincingly proved to me that he could do plenty of damage indoors while hiding from my Walkers. Anyway, we get started off, and I have nothing for his Podrace, so he easily wins. He then goes and deploys EJP Lando and some EPPs to kill my Emperor, which kinda pisses me off, but I deploy EPP Vader and clear him off the Death Star, retrieving my Emperor from First Strike in the process. So I redeploy the Emperor and he Landing Claws my drain at Carida. He uses Qui-Gon to go free Han, so I dump a bunch of Walkers and guys at Tatooine: Jabba’s Palace and start taunting him to come out. Neither of us is really doing that much damage, so he comes down again against my Emperor and kills him again. How annoying. His ship with Landing Claw is getting around Coward and Battle Order, so he’s doing a lot more damage than me now. Then I draw a card and I suddenly have an angle to win this game. Captain Godherdt. He’s got a lone YT-1300 cruiser with a Landing Claw at Carida, and there are no other systems on the table. So if I break his cover, he’s just going to have to wait there for me to beat him down. So I deploy Godherdt, kill his Claw, and he uses Ounee Ta to retrieve it and then redeploy it. The next turn goes by, and as I end my turn Scott makes a jubilant noise. I had forgotten to kill his Claw again. So another turn goes by, and I kill his Claw again, and he’s found his Yoxgit, but he needs a Claw this turn to survive. However, by some miracle of tracking, he managed to track his other Landing Claw that he drew for destiny sometime way back in the beginning of the game over multiple turns through like a 40-card reserve deck, he drew his other Landing Claw with Threepio. The game ended shortly thereafter. FL-23, 2(-21)
Highlights: Well, at least he wasn’t playing his damn RST deck...
Lowlights: The game would have been MUCH different if I hadn’t forgot to cancel Landing Claw that one turn, I would’ve gotten my beatdown...
Jon got completely hosed by Lolli, and lost by 37 to bring him back to 0 differential. Mike lost against Hodur, probably because Hodur played Coward or something. :-) So we were all 1-1. None of us played one of the important players next game...
Game 3: My Light vs. Geoffrey Mikulka’s (1520) Court Scum with Hunters and Stuff
He started out by getting Jabba, Boelo, and EPP Fett in the Audience Chamber. I took a few damage from Court while I saved Force up, and then I came down with Qui-Gon and EJP Lando in the Audience Chamber. Lando excluded Boelo and I killed the other two, and lost Lando. Boelo runs out of the way to Carkoon where he’s accompanied by ECC Iggy. Later, he backs it up with Ephant Mon. Meanwhile, we have a little problem. Being the champ that I am, I managed to accidentally shuffle my Boonta Eve Podrace back into my reserve deck. So we’re not sure what to do, I want to just fish it back out of my deck, but Geoffrey wants it to stay where it is and stop the Podrace in its tracks. Scott ends up siding with me, and I feel a bit guilty, because I’m not sure I would’ve ruled the same way. Anyway, the game goes on, and I win the Podrace and get out I Did It. I attack with Jedi Luke at the Pit of Carkoon, hit Boelo with a Saber, and kill him with a Blaster Proficiency so he doesn’t cancel my destiny or anything, and prevent him from getting a destiny in the process. But I draw a zero for destiny, so it doesn’t matter that much and I don’t kill anything else, so Luke joins Qui-Gon in the AC. He deploys some more guys and then Elises into the AC, but he doesn’t kill anybody in the ensuing battle. So I deploy Han, who gets None Shall Passed, and then Owen/Beru, who gets None Shall Passed, so I just battle with what I have and kill everything anyway. I get out Qui-Gon’s Lightsaber, and the game didn’t last much longer after that, he tried to deploy random guys around Tatooine but I just killed them with my characters immediately. He also deployed Scum, but controlling the AC, I just spent 4 Force to cancel it. So he ran out of stuff to do and I won. FW+36, 4(+15)
Highlights: Qui-Gon is cool in the Audience Chamber
Lowlights: The whole Boonta Eve thing, I should’ve just let it go...
Mike and Jon had both won their games, so we were all 1-1. I really didn’t want to play either of them, both for the obvious reason that I play them all the time, and because they were both rated lower than me and had a fairly good chance of beating me. But I end up getting the matchup I absolutely did not want...
Game 4: My Dark vs. Michael Vitarelli’s (1613) MWYHL Cheeeeeeeeese
As you’ve read, I played this matchup the night before, and I ended up getting shut down and then beaten soundly. So I wasn’t looking forward to this. I set up my stuff, getting out Carida and the Spaceport Docking Bay on Carida to drain, and I actually managed to get a few drains in. But most of that damage got ICBW’ed. Soon, he got TK-422 down to block my drain at the Docking Bay and Gold Leader with a Landing Claw to block my drain at Carida. I tried getting a damage in with We’re In Attack Position Now, but that almost always found an ICBW, and then he got out Honor to nullify it completely. And his Anger Fear Aggressions were taking their toll, but since most of my deck is completely ineffective against Mike, it didn’t sting that much. At this point I realized that there was one way that I’d win this game. And his name is Captain Godherdt. So I’m drawing and drawing trying to find my Godherdt, and meanwhile I’m deploying Star Destroyer after Star Destroyer to Carida in anticipation of the attack. I probably had over 100 power there by the time I was done. He realizes what I’m planning, and asks me a rules question concerning landing a starfighter. I realize that he can land and take much less damage, so I switch over from deploying Destroyers at Carida to deploying Walkers at the Docking Bay. He tries to distract my by attacking the Emperor at my Death Star DB with Lt. Blount, Jedi Luke, and a few assorted droids. I end up losing the Emperor and 4, but he couldn’t drain there because of Coward so I just ignored it. I finally did draw my Godherdt and deployed him and canceled his Landing Claw. He landed Gold Leader and broke TK-422’s cover. I dropped a final Walker, First Strike, and battled him, I ended up winning the battle by 38. He forfeited his cards, ICBW’ed for a bunch, but he still owed me like 20 cards. That brought us to about equal, and I could drain again, but he still had his AFA thing going. So I deployed Lord Vader to the Spaceport Docking Bay, knowing that he didn’t have the 8 Force to transit Luke over and he’d have to lose 3. So he does that, and then drops a bunch of cards with Traffic Control, and moves Luke over next turn. At this point, an AFA pops, so I go battle Blount and droids with Officer Forfeit to get around it, and benefit from First Strike while I’m at it. Then I move two Walkers and Vader over to the Death Star Docking Bay, leaving Igar in Tempest 1 where he is. Blount obviously runs away to the Throne Room, and I get Vader and Ozzel to follow him, leaving no place to run. He battles me so he’d get to use First Strike and not me, but I draw a 6 for destiny and win the game. FW+4, 6(+19)
Highlights: I beat cheese!
Lowlights: Having to play Mike in the first place...
So I was 3-1 at this point, and Jon had lost his game, so both him and Mike were 2-2. So they got to play against random people, and I earned myself a rematch against Scott Lingrell...
Game 5: My Light vs. Scott Lingrell’s (2003) SYCFA Big Blue
I hadn’t seen Scott playing SYCFA at all recently, so I guess today was his day for testing new decks. I asked him if he was playing Dalton’s SYCFA flip deck, but Scott just looks at me innocently. It soon becomes clear that he’s not though, as he just puts the Emperor at the Docking Bay and starts getting out ships and Chiraneau and stuff at Endor, Sullust, and Kessel. I win my Podrace easily, but since I drew I Did It on my very Podrace destiny draw, I couldn’t search for it with Anakin’s Podracer (I don’t go fetch it early because I’m playing HDWGITM). His drains are getting pretty brutal already, so I deploy Red Leader with a Landing Claw to block one of them. I find my Bacta Tank and deploy it, then I deploy EPP Obi, chop the Emperor in half, and send Obi to the Tank. I shortly follow up by deploying Qui-Gon and his Saber to the Death Star Docking Bay. And then I drop Jedi Luke and his Saber at the Podrace Arena, and start throwing some random characters there as well, including Yoxgit. He comes and kills Qui-Gon with EPP Vader, but I blindly Threepio for my other Qui-Gon, retrieve his Saber with Yoxgit, and redeploy both of them. At this point, we’re both dealing some pretty major damage to each other. I finally remember to pull Obi back into my hand from the Tank, and deploy him and Owen and Beru down to the Death Star and move them over to the War Room. Since I hadn’t managed to find my Lars Farm, Owen and Beru have to resort to farming the Death Star War Room for their year’s Harvest. Well, I thought it was pretty funny. I finally manage to find Gold Leader and deploy that with a Landing Claw to block yet another drain. Scott was hurting at this point, and he went and killed Qui-Gon with EPP Vader again. It just wasn’t enough at that point though, and I pulled ahead for the win. FW+12, 8(+31)
Highlights: I played a pretty good game this time...
Lowlights: Not much, SSPFT was annoying, though.
Mike and Jon had also won their games, so they were both 3-2. There was no one undefeated at this point, and I was the lowest of the 4-1 players, the others being Greg Hodur, John Lolli, and Bill Bacheler. Kim, by the way, had dropped to go to work, and Scott was 2-3, having lost against Mike, Bill, and myself. So John and Greg faced off against each other, and I got to play against Bill Bacheler...
Game 6: My Dark vs. Bill Bacheler’s (1652) Podracing RST (Scott Lingrell’s Deck from Decktech)
Bah. I thought I had managed to avoid this deck when Scott wasn’t playing it, but apparently it’s just too popular. I haven’t played against Scott using this deck before, but I’ve had experiences with several clones before, and not successfully. Anyway, my hope of winning this battle lies in getting battles in early before Podracing or Bunker blowing up happens. The variants that I had seen usually build up at the Landing Site before moving in, which would give me my opportunity. So I set up with a ship at Carida with some guys, including Godherdt. He kind of flinches at that. For good measure, I put Bossk In Hound’s Tooth and Dengar in Punishing One at Endor as well, but he seizes the opportunity and puts Hasshn in Artoo in Red 5 (don’t ask me) with a Landing Claw there for block the drain. Meanwhile, I’m waiting for an opportunity to come down and battle on the ground, but it never comes. He moves over to the Bunker the turn he deploys his characters, and then sticks to deploying stuff there, not outside where my Walkers can get at him. So I end up dropping some Walkers and pilots at the Landing Site; by this time he’s got a huge mass of characters at the Bunker so I’m avoiding the Back Door. Eventually he blows up the Bunker and moves all his guys over and starts draining. While I’m actually draining for more, his damage has certainly taken its toll, and he’s retrieving with I Did It and his objective. He’s not about to split his forces at all, so I’m very much in a bind. I deploy a 3rd Walker and move them on over. He has so many characters there that I lose the ensuing battle by a bunch, and General Solo, who I had forgot about, conveniently canceled my destiny of 6. So I lost 2 pilots and a Walker. I leave them there to suck up the drain, and soon I’m left with only Blizzard 2. I’m left with only a few Force next turn, so I land Bossk in Hound’s Tooth (Red 5 breaks cover) for forfeit fodder and destiny. He drains and I’m left with one Force, then he battles and does tons of damage, my forfeit won’t cover it, so I lose. FL-17, 8(+14)
Highlights: *shrug*
Lowlights: I wish I would’ve though of landing Bossk earlier, wonder what would’ve happened...
Mike and Jon both won their last game, so we’re all at 4-2 to finish the tourney. Mike and Jon were happy, and it was about what I expected for me I guess. Mike had 41 differential, so he did the best of us, followed by Jon at 18 then me at 14. Here’s the final standings:
1. Greg Hodur
2. Bill Bacheler
3. John Lolli
4. Michael Vitarelli
5. Jonathan Faust
6. Doug Faust
Everyone got a pack of Death Star, I pulled a Battle Deployment, which is decent, my brother got Lord Vader, which is awesome, and Mike got Green Squadron 1, which is crap. I also randomly got a $5 gift certificate, which I spent on getting the game Guillotine, which is a pretty cool game.
Props:
- Scott Lingrell for running a nice little tourney
- The WOTC store for hosing a SWCCG tourney
- The Moorestown Mall for having an easily accessible food court
- Bill Bacheler for being a 1600’s player and beating Scott, Kim, and myself
- Jon Faust for proving that he’s the better Faust :-)
- Greg for winning
- Anyone who had to play Mike’s cheese, that takes some testicular fortitude
Slops:
- Kim’s and Scott’s decks for being too popular
- The girl at Sbarro’s for mocking my brother
- The guy in the bathroom for flushing 5 times while I was waiting to go
- Kim’s job, for making her work when she could be finishing the last two games of tourneys
- The WOTC store for having no Tatooine
Until next time...
--
Doug Faust - dlf14@cornell.edu
SM Rogue 40, based in Ithaca, NY
http://times.phrim.com/