austin-texas-8-04-01
Title: austin-texas-8-04-01
Author: Jacob "Armaedes" Taylor
Date: Aug 4, 2001
For dark I’m playing ISB Big Blue (not Hunter’s, but similar) and the same pile of twixes I played last time for light, because people still don’t know how to generate without Mob. Points. Adam is playing Set Your Course for Scum and Villainy and Rescue the Princess with crazy destinies and a lot of destiny adders. So here we go.
Game 1
Light vs. Ted Woodward’s (1781) Death Star 2
He starts the Endor Ops objective, and for some reason I immediately think speeder bikes and ominous rumors - in other words a real Endor Ops deck. Then he reveals the Death Star 2 stuff and I get a little scared, because my deck really does not have a major space presence. He starts We Shall Double Our Efforts, so I start Your Insight Serves You Well as one of my 3 effects so I can get Honor once the Death Star 2 is up and running. We draw our opening hands, and he puts Jerrjerrod down at the Bunker on Endor, puts down the Landing Platform, throws out the Death Star 2, pulls a sector, drops another sector from his hand, and says go. I look down at my hand, and cannot believe my good luck. I have Corran Horn in my opening draw. Down goes Threepio to the Slave Quarters (I got him in my opening hand as well, so I don’t have to deploy Shmi and worry about the beat squad coming later) and Corran to the Bunker. Battle, draw a 3 for destiny, and Jerrjerrod is gone. His deck has effectively been shut down for at least a few turns, since he can’t pull out the stuff to construct the Death Star 2 anymore. His turn he draws, and my turn I back up Corran with Obi-Wan with Lightsaber. He later tells me that this was a good move, because he had drawn up Xizor and Guri and was about to wail all over Corran. I put the Hayes Engine in my deck, so I am pulling Shocking Information, putting it down with Threepio to draw a card, and repeating the process every turn. As a result, when Merrejk hits the table, I just start playing the card instead of recycling it, and Merrejk is suddenly impotent. In just a few turns I have cycled through the majority of my deck, and as a result have more than half of my twixes out and am roughly generating double what he is. This means I can pay for Battle Plan, and he can’t. The plink drains get to him. I put Spiral at Endor with Han, Leia and Chewie piloting, and Padme and Jar Jar as forfeit bait since I have no immunity whatsoever. He drops a couple of destroyers and lateral damages Spiral. I alter it, because by this time Qui-Gon and some other random guy have made it to his Landing Platform and is draining with his saber. He battles anyway, and I draw my 3 destinies, which are all 4s. He loses some stuff, I lose Padme to the Bacta Tank. I would continue recycling Padme to the Spiral and the three 4s through my deck for the majority of the game. Padme could be one of the greatest cards around - pull out Obi or Qui-Gon, and then a forfeit of 5 for 2!!! Crazy . . . . I think I finally get my B’omarr Monk to the Slave Quarters (again, props to Hayes for that idea) and drain for 2 there. The Super-Spiral eventually has to start running from him, because the Executor and a few pilots come down along with Dengar in his ship and Thrawn in his ship. I am dodging between Endor, Death Star 2 and Kashyyyk. To his credit, not once did he let me drain him for 5 at the Death Star 2. As soon as I moved there, the Imperial Fleet was there to greet me. Eventually I draw up the Falcon, and so I’m able to split my forces at 2 different systems and he can only chase one. With 30 second left in the game, he admits I would have beat him, and draws up so I can drain him for his last 3. What a guy. Win by 17.
FW 2 (+17)
Highs: Ted (who I called Tom for the rest of the day) is one of the nicest players I’ve had the pleasure to play against. It was awesome of him to draw up like that to give me the win, he’s a real champ. He and I were having a great conversation the whole game about what his deck was supposed to do, and how that early Corran Horn messed up his whole game plan. I couldn’t agree more.
Lows: Winning against such a great guy, even if he did take a lot of time to think through his turns.
Game 2
Dark vs. Mark Leahy’s (1530) Profit
Mark is a great guy, and it always sucks playing him, because one of us is going down. He starts Don’t Do That Again, to screw my Mob. Points, and also Squadron Assignments and Menace Fades. Huh? Squadron Assignments and Menace Fades in a PROFIT deck? Weird . . . . I forget to deploy an alien to the Audience Chamber (Arica is in my deck just for that purpose), which sucks, because I don’t think he had any spy protection at all. So he frees Han on the first turn and I proceed to take direct damage for the whole rest of the game. Luckily, my opening hand had a system and Zuckuss in Mist Hunter, so after pulling a docking bay and putting Piett there, my next priority is to reactivate Mob. Points, which I do on the second turn, thanks to 2 systems from my hand giving me the generation boost. He puts down the Tatooine system (I think he had 3 in the deck) and start using Squadron Assignments to put a load of guys up there. The inevitable happens a turn later, when Tatooine Celebration hits the table. I decide that I am absolutely not going to put up with that business, so I plow the Executor, ZiMH and I think the Devastator to Tatooine to kick him off his celebration. Easier said than done. While all I have is some random Star Destroyer draining at Sullust, he is draining me for about 6 on the ground, plus 3 direct damage from his objective. Not a good time to be alive for the Imperial Fleet. Luckily, an early U-3PO, and eventually the Arica that I should have started, go down to block some drains, and hot on their heels is 5d6, who as far as I’m concerned is THE ISB agent. We have some battles, with my drawing to destinies thank to Imperial Command, and him using Wedge and Jek to cancel one. Trouble is, I draw the same You Cannot Hide Forever every battle, which he cancels, and then I draw a 1 destiny, and he plays Changing The Odds to reduce it to zero. So he and I recycle the same cards for a couple of battles, and finally I get Thrawn up there, and a Lateral Damaged Outrider helps me start clearing him out. Eventually, much later than I would have prefered, that celebration goes away and he doesn’t deploy much space for the rest of the game, so I am free to spread out and drain. I’m draining for a lot at Sullust, Endor and Tatooine, and although he can’t drain me for more than 1 thanks to my spies, the direct damage is taking its toll. But I got the jump on him just early enough, and retrieving an ISB agent every turn really helps me out as I drain him out for the win by 10.
FW 4 (+27)
Highs: A good game, against a deck I was not prepared for.
Lows: Playing Mark, who (much like Ted) you hate to give a loss to.
Game 3
Light vs. Benjamin Gonzalez’s (1373) Death Star 2
Okay, what’s going on here? TWO Death Star 2 decks back to back? One of the few decks I feel I’m weak against, and I play it not once, but twice. He doesn’t start the Objective, just the Endor system, and I am desperately wishing I had Strike Planning in my deck. That was the 61st card, I promise. He gets Imperial Arrest Order as his starting effect, so I again start Your Insight Serves You Well. I also start Shocking Transmission, because I’m thinking that I can beat Death Star 2 if I out-activate it, and I want to be able to go through my deck fast with Threepio. I can’t tell you why, but I started Battle Plan, and this would turn out to be a big mistake for most of the game. He puts Jerrjerrod at the Death Star 2 Docking Bay, which I think is a much better idea than putting him at the Bunker, since my spies can’t get to him. Unfortunately for him, I have Tawss Khaa and a Revolution in my opening hand, so again Jerrjerrod dies on the second turn, and the Death Star 2 is never completed. Within a few turns I have Qui-Gon draining with his saber at the Death Star 2 Docking Bay, and Jedi Luke with his saber draining with the B’omarr Monk again at the Slave Quarters. All this time, he’s just drawing. Finally he gets a couple of ships and starts saving force for them (he’s only generating 7 or 8), and when he gets 17 force, he deploys the Executor with Piett on board. I remind him that Goo Nee Tay is out, so Piett with the Executor costs 19, not 17. So he asks if he can take back deploying the Executor, and I tell him go ahead, because the next turn I deploy Beggar and use all his force to deploy a whole crudload of stuff. He start saving force again. He gets up to about 15 in his force pile, and then my second beggar comes down and takes all that away again. He’s got nothing on the table but locations, and a handful of cards, and I’m steadily paying 3 for my drains of 1 and 3. He doesn’t look to have any drain cancellers of any kind, so I Nabrun Qui-Gon to the Slave Quarters so I that I only have to pay 3 for my drain of 4 instead of 6. I decide that paying at all is crazy since he has nothing on the table, so I put up a semi-super Falcon at Endor (Han and Chewie on it, I think). This is when he strikes. Down come the destroyers, pilots and all, and a lateral damage on the Falcon . . . . which I alter. He battle anyway, I draw a good destiny and he draws enough to crack my immunity, so Han goes to the lost pile and he loses a couple of pilots. The next turn I deploy my second Han, along with Leia with Gun and some forfeit bait, and we battle a few more times. It soon becomes clear to me that not even the superfalcon is going to handle this fleet, so I run away to the Death Star 2. He follows. I run back to Endor. He follows. I run to Mon Calamari, and Ord Mantell, and he follows . . . with his whole fleet. Which means he’s paying 3 for his drains of 1 or 2, while I drain for free. I eventually use Threepio to get some 4s and 5s stacked, and decide to hold my ground. The superfalcon’s last stand will be at Endor. Up goes my usual forfeit fodder, Padme and Jar Jar, and then he plays his second lateral damage. This time, I don’t have an alter. Luckily, he has no ships at Endor, but that changes immediately when the entire swarm of destroyers smells blood and moves in for the kill. I draw up a LOAD of cards, hoping he has no Monnok, and finally, on about my 18th card, get an alter, which I use to cancel lateral damage. I breath a sigh of relief . . . . and he plays control. I stare at the table. The Executor with about 4 pilots, Chimaera with Thrawn and another pilot, Baron Soontir Fel, Dengar In Punishing One, and that big red lateral damage, that I can do nothing about. He hasn’t moved his whole fleet this time - just the Executor, Soontir-Fel and Dengar, which should more than do the job against my suddenly not-so-super Falcon. My turn I frantically draw some more, but no alter. I have 4 of the freakin’ cards in my deck, where are they!!!?!?!?! His turn I put back a card with Threepio and draw one . . . . . . yeah, you guess it, it was the alter I was looking for . . . . . right on top of my two tracked 5s and a 4. I alter his Lateral Damage, he battles anyway, I clear out most of his stuff, and from there I just drain him out. Win by 9.
FW 6 (+36)
Highs: Having to play this space-weak deck agains two heavy space decks, and it holding its own.
Lows: Two Death Star 2 decks in a row! Two lateral damages in one game! No alter! Having a handful of cards when the game ended! Not putting in Traffic Control to stop that problem! (it was the 61st card, really).
Game 4
Dark vs. Justin Warren’s (1984) Watch Your Step
I am immediately intimidated. This is Justin freakin’ Warren, the Texas State Champ. I wanted to play him at the last tournament, but I lost too much, so this time I get to see exactly what it takes to be a card master. I’m a little disappointed to see WYS, because I am so sick of seeing that objective it’s disgusting, but at least it’s not a podracer, so that’s good news. He starts Insurrection, Your Insight Serves You Well, and I think Squadron Assignments. I get Fondor in my hand first turn, so I get the Executor down 2nd turn as I set up Mobilization Points and try to get Piett and Merrerjk around. He gets off to a quick start, with Jedi Luke to the Home One docking bay, following by Melas, and a turn later, a Palace Raider on a Patrol Craft. I get a drain of two going with the Executor at Sullust, and another drain of 1 going at the Endor Landing Platform with an Outer Rim Scout on an AT-AT. Justin flips with Mirax, uses his objective to pull Kessel, and uses Mirax to put a card back. His next turn, he searches for Kessel again. That’s the coolest idea ever, and I’m going to use it someday, it’s almost as good as the Shocking Information trick. He pretty much ignores my drains, although as soon as Battle Order comes down he starts gearing for heavy space presence. He eventually beats down Zuckuss in Mist Hunter into oblivion, so I have to burn my Ghhk early, which I’m a little pissed about. He flips his destinies, and I notice that they are a little on the crazy side, so I’m going to have to get my Imperial Commands into my hand fast to stop another beat down. I get Chiraneau out, and he immediately ditches Insight for Menace Fades, which is unfortunate. He puts Celebration up (again, twice in one day) and I immediately go in for the kill to get rid of that business. However, I soon realize that the smugglers do not appreciate being messed with, and I am playing my Imperial Commands just to stay alive. Power Pivot does bad things to the Chimaera, while the Bantha Droid comes down a turn before I draw up my lateral damage, which was unfortunate. Then, I hit the jackpot, drawing up Maul. Maul goes onto one of my last remaining ships at Tatooine, and suddenly Wedge, Han and Dash don’t exist anymore and Celebration is cancelled. Of course, Melas goes up to the system right after that, but I accomplished my purpose, so I back the destroyers off. My drains get pretty steep, but I’ll Take The Leader makes his equally steep. I put down U-3PO, which helps a little. I think that if we keep going like this, I’m going to beat him by about 5 cards. I think he realizes this too, so he proceeds to go ape-dookie on my stuff. Jedi Luke goes against my scout on its AT-AT. My scout runs. His ships spread out to battle me. I have run out of Imperial Commands, so I run. A couple of times he tried to move away from the Executor, but since Something Special Planned For Them is out, he can’t. I don’t know why I didn’t let him anyway . . . . it would have cleared me a drain of 2 at Sullust. He leaves Mirax alone at the Cantina, so I drop 2 Outer Rim Scouts to battle her. I don’t have a card to draw destiny, so he just loses 1, and then brings down someone horrible (I don’t remember who) to clear out the scouts and cause 2 overflow. That prevent me from occupying a battleground site, so I have to pay for my drains now, but since I only have 2 cards left, I can’t pay anyway, and I lose by 8.
FL 6 (+28)
Highs: Playing the Texas State Champ.
Lows: Almost beating the Texas State Champ, and then being shown a lesson about what happens when you think you are going to beat the Texas State Champ.
Game 5
Light vs. Michael Richard’s (1600) Walker Garrison
Michael was a nice guy, so the game was pleasant. Unfortunately for him, he relies on Mobilization Points like a crutch, and my deck is specifically designed to take out Mobilization Points and prevent it from ever being reactivated again. Since Walker Garrison is relatively popular in the area, my deck is also designed to bend it over. He starts Imperial Arrest Order, Mobilization Points, and You May Start Your Landing. He gets the 3rd marker in his opening hand, then tries to search for Walker Garrison. I tell him he has to get both or nothing. He tells me I’m wrong. The guy next to him tells me I’m wrong. The TD tells him I’m right. I didn’t want to be a jerk about it, but he was good-natured and the game continues. He saves force for a while, amazed at how little he is activating with Mobilization Points. I dive for his sites with one of the two Qui-Gons I had in my hand. Next turn he Monnoks, sees I had another Qui-Gon, and wishes he had done it last turn. Unfortunately, that lost Monnok uses 4 of the 5 force he’s activating. I put down Padme, use her to pull Obi-Wan, and move the two of them to the third marker. Qui-Gon’s saber goes on him, and I establish an early drain of 5. He drops Mara Jade and her saber down to the Slave Quarters, hits Shmi and draws a 1 for destiny. I forfeit Threepio, and Mara is stuck there the rest of the game, draining for 1, courtesy of Honor Of The Jedi. Why does everyone go down to kill Shmi and Threepio with Mara? I rarely take any battle damage, and unless they’re playing a Tatooine deck themselves, they’re stuck there. Whatever. He puts down the Hoth Docking Bay, Sullust, and U-3PO at Qui-Gon’s site. I don’t have the Sorry About The Mess which isn’t cool. I put Spiral with Han and Leia at Sullust (Chewie follows the next turn), and move Qui-Gon into the docking bay to drain for 2. Michael can’t activate enough to save force to move U-3PO, so the undercover droid stays there for the rest of the game. Igar on an AT-AT comes down to battle Obi and Padme, but he draws a zero and a five for his destiny, so Padme goes to the bacta tank and he loses Igar, but not the walker. Jedi Luke makes sure he regrets that. I cause 13 or so overflow, but he Ghhks the damage and we’re back at square one, him draining for 1, me draining for 4. Iget a couple of character in my hand, and think about battle Mara off the Slave Quarters, but I figure it’s not worth the hassle and I let her drain me for 1 (which he sometimes forgets to do anyway). He eventually comes to Sullust with a Destroyer and Ozzel, but by now I have had turns and turns of doing nothing but draining, so I have my destinies set up, and everything he throws at me goes down. I end up having Padme and Jar Jar (who have now been on Spiral 3 games today) draining at Sullust and the Super Falcon draining at Endor. Win by 17 (with about 10 in hand). He never activated more than 9 force the whole game.
FW 8 (+45)
Highs: Owning the game, from start to finish.
Lows: Him getting frustrated by not being able to do . . . . well, anything.
Game 6
Dark vs. Carl Thompson’s Hidden Base
I was going to get a bye this round for some reason, but was informed that if I took the bye, I would be in first place, and win the tournament. So I knew that if I won this game, I would win the whole thing. This was Hidden Base podracing, which started Haven. I started my standard stuff plus Sebulba’s Racer, which I threw in at the last second. Let me just say that this is a terrible idea. If you have low destiny, as big blue usually does, it is a wasted card slot, as you are going to lose the race no matter what. Carl always plays beatdown decks that first stop you from moving, and then kill you dead. He’s using Nebulon B Friagates with Turbolaser Batteries, as well as the standard X-wings with cannons, and the Admirals’s Order that makes it easy to hit everything. Nothing happens for the first few turns, courtesy of Battle Order. I get the Executor with Ozzel and the Devastator with Thrawn at Sullust. Meanwhile, I’m drawing my 1s and 2s for race destiny, and then getting a Step Backwards played on those. Suddenly, the beat squad comes to Sullust. S-foils, organized attacks, cannons, power pivots, the whole nine yards. He sits back and says "I think that’s game." I have to take 35 battle damage. I lose both ships and pilots and two more cards, and it is far from game, although Piett and Merrejk did go down with the Executor Docking Bay. He flips his objective and wins the race, and I put up Bossk in Boat to probe. I’m wrong the first time, but get it the second time. Then the beat comes down again. Not too bad this time, Bossk and a couple and I’m good. Chiraneau is on a destroyer, and Boussh is blocking my drain my a couple of ORS on walkers at the Endor Landing Platform. He moves his ships to Chireaneau, and on my turn plays On Target, to stop me from moving, in typical Carl style. Then I deploy Maul. Suddenly, his guys don’t exist. Maul rules, and that’s all I have to say. Unforunately, premiere Luke Skywalker goes down on his turn, and suddenly the massive rebel fleet exists again. He battles, plays his adders, and says "That’s game." I play Ghhk. It definitely is not game, although now it’s getting close. I have 2 scouts and 2 walker on the table, which can’t drain and have nowhere to go. He spreads out and drains. The podracing, the beat downs, the drains, it’s all more than I can take. I make a last-ditch dive for the podrace arena with two scouts to lower his differential, but Obi with stick takes care of them, and All Wings Report in retrieves him about 8 before he drains me out for the win by 29. The game was over in about 25 minutes. So I finish at:
8 (+16)
Adam goes 1-4, with a bye, so we have a total of 5-6, which is one win better than last time, although my dark still can’t seem to win 2 games in a tournament, so Team Trailer Trash is happy. I finish about 4th or 5th, and Warren takes 2nd. I get my prize pack of Tatooine, which as always has a load of crap in it.
Props
Adam, for driving
Justin Warren, for teaching me how to play the late game
Justin Warren, for not bringing his Huntdown/Podracing/Numbers deck
H.E.B., for having clean restroom facilities.
Adam, for winning with Rescue the Princess.
Me, for finally winning 4 games in a tournament.
Mark Leahy, for showing up, being cool, and playing the first Profit deck I have ever seen that had both Squadron Assignments and Menace Fades as starting effects.
MAD props to Hayes Hunter for e-mailing me about decks for 2 weeks prior to the tournament.
Brian Hunter, for making his name so synonymous with ISB that everyone saw my dark side objective and said "Oh, Hunter-style ISB." If I was playing ISB troopers, people would still say it’s Hunter-style Big Blue.
Tom/Ted, for drawing up in game 1. You are my hero.
My light deck, for killing everyone who thinks Mob. Points is still a good thing to do.
Slops
Junior’s, for NOT having nice restroom facilities
My pack of Tatooine, for sucking
My dark deck, for being a pile that can’t win twice no matter what I do
Me, for forgetting someone I was supposed to give props to, even though it’s 1:30 in the morning.