juniors-in-austin-9-8-01
Title: juniors-in-austin-9-8-01
Author: Zane "Godzanet" Thorp
Date: Sep 12, 2001
I go into it playing a No Money, No Deal, No Parts, deck for dark that has gone undefeated in play testing. I was pretty confident with it. I have fellow Decktech member , Jacob "Armaedes" Taylor, to thank for that. My light deck was a docking bay version of There is Good in Him. It was an old style Mains & Toys deck that I had constructed the week before. I was kind of worried about it, but played it anyway. (By the way, I would really appreciate it if some of you would be nice enough to review that deck here on DeckTech.)
I went with my uncle Adam to the tournament that morning and prepared for the lessons ahead. It didn’t matter, I was going in there to have fun, and get some experience under my belt.
The first round I was picked to play dark. Here we go.
Game 1 Watto’s Yard vs. Matt McDonald’s Dantooine Base Operations
Well Matt and I talked before the tournament and he told me that he hadn’t played since before DS II. I was kind of surprised to hear it, but we sat down to play it out. And I must admit, I didn’t expect to see this deck.
I flip first turn by laying out Watto and Jade. He proceeds to take the two points of damage for the better part of the game. He quickly sets up his pilots on Dantooine and flips. He then sets up and Menace Fades hits the table. By this time he stops my direct damage and pays the two instead. All my drains are gone, and I am having a hell of a time getting things to Dantooine. All sems lost to me, then I get Tatooine Occupation out. The space battle follows. I get Maul set up with Zuckuss in Hunter and then I get out Bossk in Tooth. Several battles occur but Bacta Tank holds the damage to reasonable amounts. My drains are dead and I can’t deal any direct damage. The inevitable happens. Last turn of the game, He has two cards in his force pile and nothing else, and I have three cards in my force pile and nothing else. I have Broken Concetration on the table, but I have no cards in my hand for my Objective. He drains me out the next turn.
Full loss by 2 (-2)
Game 2 There Is Good In Him vs Matt McDonald’s Carbon Chamber Sabacc Musicians.
Well, because of how close our first match was, we got paired again. I started the game with quick docking bay drains using Luke and Qui-Gon. He drops loads of musicians at the casino and plays sabacc with Lando.(And he wins Qui-Gons stick in the process.) The game goes on for quite sometime with him playing sabacc and me draining him at several locations. I have Battle Plan out and he controls no systems. After several turns of noninteraction he decides to Nabrun over to my site. I have been trying to use Threepio with Parts showing to set up perfect sabaccs, so he decides to battle. This is where the game got good. Light Mains vs Dark Musicians. The first battle decides the rest of the game. A Fallen Portal takes out two. Weapons mow down the rest and a couple of destiny adders swing the game in my favor. I end up winning a couple of turns later.
Full win by 14 (+12)
Game 3 Watto’s Yard vs Andrew Espinola’s Rescue The Princess Podracing
Well this is also a deck type that I had never seen before, but because my Uncle plays a version of RTP, I was ready. He starts Echo Base Garrison so I figure that he going to use 8D8 to release the princess. He initaites the podrace and we are off. His destinies for the race were kind of low so it takes him a while to beat me. But in the meantime. I set up and flip the first turn. I deal two points of damage and set up my drains on Tatooine. Meanwhile, he deploys 8D8 to the Yavin Docking Bay and then transits him over. I then deploy the Emperor and blow him to pieces. After this, Leia never leaves her cell. He gets up the Outrider at Fondor after I have deployed the Executor there for free thanks to my objective. Several battles follow. By this time, he has won the podrace, but forgot to save force for Secret Plans, so I lose 6 and he retrieves nothing. The game ends a few turns later. My drains are too much for him at this point.
Full win by 19 (+31)
Game 4 Good In Him Mains and Toys vs Dark Senate Hand Manipulation
Would you believe that this is another deck that I had never seen. I am going to have to watch myself, because I have yet to play against a senate deck of any kind. I start by moving Luke to the Endor docking bay and start my drains. He then flips his objective first turn and starts messing with my hand from the start. The game proves to be completely un-interactive. I set up drains at Kiffex, Endor docking bay, Mos Espa docking bay, and with Phylo at his Theed Palace docking bay. But he uses his political effects to cancel my drains. He then sets up Prescence of the Force on the Galactic Senate and on the Imperial Holotable and drains me for two at each site. Towards the end he plays the shaft on Han and hits me for eight. The game seems to drag on and he ends up winning by 9. What a way to lose, but he just out played me. Good job.
Full lose by 9 (+22)
Game 5 Watto’s Yard vs. Ted Woodward’s Quiet Mining Colony
Well I have to say that I haven’t been looking forward to playing this matchup, but my deck did pretty well in playtesting against decks like this. My deck is supposed to work fast, and that is always a plus against QMC. I get the first turn flip again for the third time today. I think that I might give Ted a good fight. Second turn, Ted drops Luke with stick down on Watto all by himself. The battle takes out Watto, but I have no fear because I play five Wattos in the deck for occasions such as this. Next turn I drop Vader with stick to knock off Luke and succeed, but I then run into a big problem. I never get another Watto out for the rest of the game. The worst thing about this whole scenario is that I have FIVE of them in my deck, but I never see Watto again. I try to make a go of it by deploying my characters to Tatooine hoping that I can get out Occupation, but things just don’t seem to go for me this game. He sets up QMC and flips and then lays a major beatdown on my characters. This is the worst tournament game of my life. I get stomped.
Full lose by 28 (Ouch baby, very ouch.) (-6)
Game 6 Good In Him Mains and Toys vs Adam Garcia’s Set Your Course Beat Down
Well before this game I was up front with the big boys. I was in fourth until the tragic loss to the hands of Ted. Then I get paired up against my uncle. This is a guy that I play all the time. But it is the last day of the game and we decide to just play easy. I set up Qui-Gon at the Endor docking bay and leave Luke where he starts. He promptly jumps on Qui-Gon and the battles begin. He lays down Vader w/ stick and Snoova. He swings and hits Qui-Gon, but I cut down Vader. After destiny draws he loses all, and I put Qui-Gon back in my hand using A Jedi’s Resilience. Several more battles take place across the table, and he ends up capturing Luke. But after three On The Edges, I retrieve enough of my force to take the win.
Full win by 21 (+15)
Well I finish the tournament 3-3 with a positive 15 differential. Not bad I guess for a second tournament. I end up taking home a Clas of Sabers foil for fourth or fifth place, I can’t rember which. It was fun, and I will be playing in the next one, and my only hope is to improve which shouldn’t be to hard after this mediocre performance.
Highlights. Getting a first turn flip every game with my Dark Deck. Getting a prize for doing decent in the tournament. For meeting new people and getting some experience under my belt.
Things you hate to see. Playing my uncle. That is something that I could have done at home. Not getting any Wattos during Ted. I mean come on, you think that with FIVE in the deck I could have at least got one more out.
Thanks for reading.
Play on.