atlanta-georgia-8-25-01-champions
Title: atlanta-georgia-8-25-01-champions
Author: John "Shadow 29" Anderson
Date: Aug 25, 2001
After not playing in any sort of tournament since June (AugustaCon) it looked bleak for my Star Wars tournament future. However, I did find a nice place in Atlanta to play that is not like 987462894631 hours away. We drove to Champion Comics & Games yesterday afternoon to see if MapQuest would screw us over. Nope, we found it right where our lovely little website told us to. Wooohooo! Anyway, sometime in July I had built Steve Lewis’ Hidden Base and it was working great. No gripes, however, DSII gave it some problems, but I don’t think I’ll see many of those in Atlanta. A little ways after that I had built, modified, modified some more, and finally tweaked my EOps TIEs to perfection. So I was set. Then, my Coruscant box came in and I built this cool dark side Senate deck that uses the one man Naboo Occupation. There was one problem. I didn’t pull any Mauls, so I ditched that. I also built a Watto objective, but that wasn’t reliable. For the light side I built a Senate deck that uses the one woman Naboo Celebration, but that really sucked.
Well, on Thursday night my good friend Robert Matz came over. I had the intention to play several playtesting games with him, but that never happened. Oh well, so I go into another tournament totally unprepared, save the solataire games.
Anyway, we head out for Champion around 10:30 am to get there at 11:00 am. I walk into the store and
Dark Side: EOps TIEs that starts Mob Points Combo (to pull Wakeelmui and ditch for Perimeter Patrol), Fanfare (free grabber and screw O2E, which I despise), and Power of the Hutt (to grab Ephant for first turn "No one is coming to Endor).
Light Side: HBX-Lewis Style (y’all know what it is, so I won’t get into details).
Rating going into tourney: So low, I won’t tell.
Game 1: My DS vs. Stephen Michael’s ANSB Pods (1979)
Well, great, I get to play against Mr. Michael first game. Score. Anyway, he started the racing jank with ANSB and MPG and North Ridge. He went to Signal and couldn’t find an effect so I got to verify his deck and I see like 0 space. So I’m like, score! I drop some TIEs and a Dreadnaught down to Sullust and Chimera and a TIE to Hoth. Anyway, next turn he drops Haven to Hoth, Launching the Assault, Home One, Han, Leia, and Luke, battled played Don’t Get @#$%y for seven destinies. At this point I know I’m screwed. His total power is 50 (with the destinies) and mine is 13 so I have to lose 37 force. I forfeit the Chimera and the TIE for 13 and I still have 24. Oh crap. So I just start flipping cards off the top of the deck, and I see all my fleet and ground go to Hell. So I plink drain him for 1 at the Landing Platform with Vader and a Destroyer and with my TIEs and Dreadnaught at Sullust until finally he kills me.
FL -26
0 (-26)
Highs: Getting to play against Stephen Michael
Lows: Losing. Home One, Superstar.
Game 2: My LS vs. Michael Hill’s Senate (1491)
Okay, coming off a loss like that is good because I get to play a matchup I know is favored toward me. He starts Phantom Menace (AI), Secret Plans combo, and Begin Landing You Troops (I think). This game wasn’t too exciting. He drops a lot of guys down to the Senate and begins doing that annoying little thingy with a senator that goes like this: Peek at the top card of opponents reserve deck. May lose 1 force to make it lost. So that was really annoying. Anyways, I drop down BHBM Luke with Ani’s Stick to the Podrace Arena. (He doesn’t have a pod, by the way). So he drops Maul with stick and Mara down there. It takes me forever to win the race, but when I finally do, he battles me there. We both miss with our lightsabers and we both draw low. Luke covers it all. He drops Bossk in Tooth and some Star Destroyer with Thrawn on board. We have some minor skirmishes with no overflow. He thinks that my Hidden Base is Kiffex cuz it is the last one I deployed and he can’t move there, but its not. He probes all my systems except my Hidden Base and Kiffex. Finally the peanut gallery keeps talking about how his Hidden Base is in the middle and so he drops down to the correct one, so all my force drain cancellers go away. Then he finally hits me with some drains, but I drop Boussh down to the Arena, however, he is still draining for like 5 a turn. Oh, there is another important thing: He forgets to pick up his probe cards. So I’m thinking, yes, because he’s down to like 5, but then he remembers and picks them up, screwing my differential because it takes too long for me to whittle him down.
FW +6
2 (-20)
Highs: Winning, all around great game
Lows: Forgetting to spread with my wings after he had no hand left (Thanks, Stephen). Also, him not drawing up, but we can’t get it all, can we? =)
Game 3: My LS vs. Stephen Michael’s Brangus Glee (1979)
Oh boy! I get to play Stephen again! He starts SYCFA and all its jank, Start Your Engines, and Watto’s Box. I saw that I was playing against the superstar pretty early, so I spread with one wing at each system. He flashed me first turn, drew a 7 or something, so I knew I was screwed race wise. I lost all my racing interrupts to force drains cuz I kept drawing the four 1’s in my deck. I was draining for bunches and bunches at Kiffex, Death Star, Tatooine, Endor, and sometimes Kessel, but then he won the race and did that 22 force swing. After that, I was screwed. I don’t beleive that there were any battles, but don’t hold me to it. I barried the Executor deploying to Kessel, so I was proud of myself. He kept doing that Brangus shift the entire game. Anyways, this was another relatively quick game.
FL -13
2 (-33)
Highs: Playing Stephen, a great guy. Draining at the Death Star. Barriering Executor.
Lows: DS Podracing. Brangus.
Lunch Break:
I use the remaining half-hour to go next door to CiCi’s Pizza, which is excellent, however, they ripped me off by charging two bucks for a drink. I also finish writting my TR notes.
Game 4: My DS vs. Ken Brune’s ? MWYHL Test 1 (?)
He starts MWYHL jank with Squassin, Insurrection combo, and Staging Areas combo. This game was pretty cool. He does the training to 1 third turn so my ORumours is screwed. I do get a bit of a jump on him, however, by having a Vader at the Landing Platform and some TIEs and Dreadnaughts in space. I couldn’t find SFS for the life of me, though. By the way guys, Great Warrior SUCKS! I spread a little, he beats my @#$% a little. He drops Quiggy to Docking Bay 94 and shuttles over to Endor by converting my Landing Platform. He battles Vader, Vader misses, and Quiggy stays. I drop TC-14 and 4-LOM down, but stupid 4--LOM can’t battle. I don’t get another character the entire game. There is a significant battle at Wakeelmui. He has DSII Wedge in ship and Farmboy in Artoo in ship. I have two TIEs and a Dreadnaught. He cancelled my destiny and drew low so one TIE was lost. Stupid Dreadnaught can’t move away, nothing to back it up, so next turn he kills both. He On The Edges for 12 force, to give him the advantage back. He drains until I have 1 force left, so he can boost his differential, so I suicide battle against Dash. End of game.
FL -36
2 (-69)
So I finish at 5th place. Not bad considering the ratings of everyone there, almost all 1700+ and playing two games against Stephen Michael. In my prize support I pull a Jar Jar and I Will Find Them Quickly Master. In my entry fee I pulled a Keder the Black and some useless combo that I have 689512681 of. I also bought two more after the tourney, cuz I thought it was a good box, but I pulled another Natalie Portman and another frickin combo card. Oh yeah, and a -69 differential, that is sooo cool.
Top 5: ( I think)
1. Ken Brune
2. Stephen Michael
3. Will Raiman
4. ?
5. Me!
Props:
Ken Brune- for taking the tourney
Stephen Michael- great guy
Will Raiman- thanks for the cards, I’ll come in October to the next tourney, I am sooo busy
4 Place person- who are you?
Champions
Kevin Goddard
Taking Michael Hill’s rating points.
Me0 for a sneaky hidden base
Slops:
Watto’s Box
Test 1
Rare combos
Thanks for reading,
John Anderson