livingston-nj-10-27-01

Title: livingston-nj-10-27-01
Author: Kelly "dr_divot" Krieble
Date: Oct 28, 2001

This is Tom and Blythe Hermley Keens monthly tourney, which is usually well attended (10-12) and has great prize support.

LS: Old School Hidden Base X-wing swarm with lots of systems and no starting effect.
DS: Vaderless Hunt down the cheese (The skankiest, screwiest deck I could think of that morning!) Look for a posting of the deck "BEHOLD…..the power of CHEESE!"

I had been playing the HB deck for a couple of weeks as a combat to DS senate decks that I have seen being played. It starts off fast and drains like heck. Unless they are playing DS space (not many I have seen recently) they are scrambling when you flip. More difficult to probe with more systems, too. The dark deck would either win big, or go down in glorious flames depending on a couple of cards (see game reports below).

Game 1: LS vs. Eddie’s Jabbas Palace start

Eddie was a young guy but had a good attitude. Too bad he only has one ship in his deck (his comment to me turn one!) I drop down systems and X-wings as I get them, spread with one X-wing at each system (I have 9 systems in the deck!) and am draining him for about 12 a turn at one point. I play Hyper Escapes, Rebel Barriers, Organized Attacks, S-foils etc. to avoid/win space battles, and I’ve got X-wing cannons to shoot down Zuckuss and his cronies. He sets up Mara (coil foil version, Eddie!) with saber, and Jabba at a couple of sites (which drains I cancel with the flip side of HB as well as Rebel Fleet) and drain him out. I had no lost pile at the end of the game due to a final turn "All Wings..". This game took about 20 minutes. FW by 39.

Highs: BIG win.
Lows: Beating up on a young guy

2(+39)

Game 2: DS vs. Bob Catons RST Boomrace

Okay, I drove down with Bob, Kim, and Mike so I know I will probably play one of them sooner or later. It’s sooner! Bob is generally a tough match-up. He has a lot of deck creativity. He’s playing RST Boomrace, which is ironic, since the last time I heard him say that the next time he played against one he said he was gonna draw up, because it was such a sick deck. Guess he decided to turn to the dark side of the force. He’s playing the standard crap, with some personal touches. We start the pod race and I win it in 3 turns because he could not find any racing interrupts even though he drew up a lot of cards (the average destiny in my deck is 5!) with no cards less than3 and 10 sevens in the deck! Then I deploy Palpy, Tech Mohr, and Imperial Trooper Guard Dainsom (that’s right, you heard me!) at the Holotheatre, and insert 3720 to 1 on him. It pops for about 10 one turn and 8 on another. He eventually blows the bunker (which was good for me since I had a huge hand and no Drop! On the table yet. I then proceed to play Counter Assault a couple of times, and Trooper Sabacc (with Dainsom…THAT’S another reason why he is on the table) which forces him to draw cards, popping more inserts, yada, yada, yada, ya… FW by 27(?)

Bob said after the game that he coulda won if he’d just left one card in his reserve (so I couldn’t insert), and drained with Luke at the Back Door for three the rest of the game (I should probably put a couple of Always Thinking With Your Stomachs in the deck for this occurrence). Bob also said that it was the first time he had ever seen Trooper Dainsom in a deck (read his text sometime… pretty useless!)

Highs: Beating Bob (that’s two in a row now, Bob!)
Lows: Nothing, really.

4(+66)

Game 3: LS vs. Kim Caton’s Kims Agents are Landing deck (ISB on Hoth)

OK, I was hoping I would play her with my light deck, since she was sitting next to us the last game and knew all the tricks of my dark deck. Kim is tough! Her ISB deck can be a little slow though, so I need to get the jump on her, FAST. I put out a couple of systems and make a HUGE gamble turn one by deploying two X-wings at Sullust and Kashyyk with no cards saved up to play Hyper Escape. She tries to deploy Bossk at Sullust (but he is deploy +1 there and she wouldn’t be able to initiate a battle), and doesn’t deploy at Kashyyk since she needs 6 ability to draw battle destiny. So she decides to do her thing on Hoth. Whew!!! I then start deploying systems, one X-wing at each. She deploys Zuckuss, I barrier. She dumps a couple of Outer Rim Scouts with him, as forfeit fodder, predicting an upcoming battle on my turn. I DO battle, but drop an X-wing cannon and shoot Zuckuss out of the air…END of Battle! Whew!! She then starts to get Hoth set up with walkers, and I’m taking damage until I flip and cancel drains with Rebel Fleet and HB flip side. Again, I win with close to nothing in my lost pile. A HUGE win against a great player. It was just a case of having a good deck match up. FW by 22(?)

Highs: Beating Kim legitimately. (I had beaten her with a timed win once, cause I was new to the game and played very slow)
Lows: None, again.

6(+88)

Game 4: DS vs. Mike Eustices TIGIH Twix pile M&T

Another Team Random.Caton member (of the day, anyway). Mike starts TIGIH, and some effects, one of which was Your Insight Serves You Well. Damn! There goes my insert strategy. Guess I will have to improvise, which is what I feared with this deck (the one card to shut it down). We start the podrace, and I flash (he has no podracer) and place a 6 on Sebulba (it was Tech Mohr!) Then on his turn, he SACKS INSIGHT to get Honor of the Jedi to cancel my Visage damage!!!!! He later said that he saw me place Tech Mohr on my podracer, thought about numbers, but nothing clicked in his head. At this point my ears perk up and I am back in the game. I eventually play No Escape to effectively make his Honor worthless. HOWEVER, my strategy had been to deploy the Emperor first at the Holotheater, then Tech and Dainsom, THEN insert. But it took me about 10 turns to draw Palpy. Damn! Meanwhile, he’s playing Shocking Info and keeping my hand size down to 8 cards (fine with me!) and eventually Grimtaashes me for 4 cards, but I get my stuff set up and start inserting. I had won the podrace in 4 turns, and he put down Chewie, Han and Leia at the podrace arena (3 destiny 1 characters), with Luke draining at the Rebel landing site. He’s paying to drain, since he put down Battle Plan, which causes the inserts to pop that much quicker (loss of 13 each time!) He pulls a late game Nabrun to dump Luke to the emperor, causing me to lose 2 a turn (no Vader in the deck). I thought he was gonna Nabrun the beat squad over, but he said he did not have good destiny in the deck and wanted to give up Luke instead. FW by 17

Highs: Pulling it out.
Lows: Mike snatching defeat from the jaws of victory by sacking Insight.

8(+105)

Game 5: LS vs. Bob Catons Kims Agents deck (must be a family resemblance there) :)

See game 3 report. Same deck, same result (almost play by play, even the Zuckuss part). Except I got Boussh down to cancel a drain on Hoth (he had so few cards that I did not fear an Ice Storm at that point in the game). Oh, and nobody probed my hidden base, either. That’s why I have a lot of systems - gives them some difficulty choosing. FW by 25.

Highs: Beating Bob again. The student has become the master. WOW, I am 5 and 0! I am about 50 points in differential in front of Kim, who is in second. All I hafta do is not lose by more than 50 and I win the tourney. WOW.

10(+130)

FW by 25

Game 6: DS vs. Kim Catons Dagoboring with podracing and dueling

Great, Kim again. She trains, I win the podrace, I sabacc and win most every game. Eventually I draw up after she retrieves a bunch. Sorry about the detail, but my mind was not in this game as I knew she would win it. Just trying to keep the damage to a minimum. I made a boneheaded play late in the game - she canceled Visage with an OOC/TT and eventually retrieved it. Then she looked for a card and I played Podracer collision to put an interrupt out of play, but I didn’t choose OOC/TT (some other card). I played another Visage on the Holotheatre later on and she cancelled it again. DOH! FL by 22.

Highs: Winning the tourney. Great deck matchups and some luck helped a LOT!
Lows: None really.

10(+118)

So I win the tourney, Kim takes second, I think Mike came in third (differential),
And Bob fourth. So I get an Imperial Arrest Order foil and a couple of packs and some random rares. Tom and Blythe always have GREAT prize support