mauled-more-than-your-mom-r3-prerelease
Title: mauled-more-than-your-mom-r3-prerelease
Author: Joshua "Stormcrow" Grace
Date: Oct 29, 2001
Eighteen people pre-registered for Saturdays Reflections 3 pre-release tournament at Outpost 2000 in Brooklyn Park, but only sixteen showed up. Sixteen, however, is about twice as many as have shown up for any other Minnesotan events since the demise of Mirkwood coincided with the demise of Star Wars CCG.
The tournament was held according to booster draft format. Nick Kolnik, the director, arranged for everybody to sit in groups of four while drafting. Some players grumbled early when they were chosen to play the light side, but I wondered, Why grumble? Theres more mains for the light side.
I was in the final group called off, and I was chosen to play light. Also in my drafting group were Peter Jacobson (dark), Dan Somebody (dark) and Tyler from St. Olaf (light). Yeah, well... I didnt do the best job of remembering names.
In our group, particularly, the light side had the advantage. Peter Jacobson opened one pack and just laughed in disbelief. He took something out of it and passed it to me. In the pack were Luke Skywalker, Japanese foil, and Naboo Qui-Gon. I was torn, myself, but thinking that Luke was worth mucho cash (not having read the rarity guide), I took him and knew that Tyler was going to get a Qui-Gon. Later, Qui-Gons saber came to me, and I took it out of spite to block Tylers draft. Later still, though, I pulled a Qui-Gon, and I was happy. Peter got absolutely nothing, I think, and Dan managed to draft the new Boba Fett, Blizzard 4 and the new Stormtrooper regiment that squishes good-doers. Tyler managed to add an Obi-Wan, Jedi Knight to his deck, and in our group, we managed to parallel the luck of the entire tournament.
As to the deck-building, we were each able to bring 6 Naboo, Coruscant or Tatooine battlegrounds from any expansion. I figured everyone for the Dark Side would do the Jabbas Palace thing, so I brought the Jabbas enhanced Desert for the light, along with the Cantina, Mos Eisley, Tosche Station, City Outskirts and special edition Coruscant system. We had 40 card decks, and Nick said that according to booster draft rules we were allowed to change cards one-for-one between our decks and the cards wed drafted.
Game 1: vs. Some dude from South Dakota.
He and his friends had driven in from Sioux Falls. That won them the longest drive to the tournament award, beating my 3-hour drive from Duluth. He started Jabbas Palace, and I started the desert to block him. However, he dropped both Jabbas Palace sites from his hand and drew up. Great. I had Qui-Gon and his saber in my hand, so I activated, drew up and saved a couple. He deployed Tatooine and a tie there. I came at his tie with a Corellian Corvette piloted by Bo Shek, nailing him for about 7 overlow. He activated drew and saved some. I deployed Qui-Gon. He came back at me with Blizzard 2, Blizzard 4, and some scrubby character and squashed Qui-Gon in battle. He outpowered me by 10 and I was very seriously considering losing the force and keeping Qui-Gon, but in the end, I decided losing a quarter of my deck in the first battle was just bad. Instead, I lost Qui-Gon and one more. He kept draining where his walker was, and I set up more drains elsewhere. We just drained back and forth, and I ended up winning by 11.
After the first round, 11 was the top light win, so I played against the *only* dark side winner. Yes, 8 games, and only one dark side win.
Game 2: vs Nick, also from Sioux Falls.
So I wondered how Nick had won his game when the tournament seemed like it was going to be so heavily in favor of the light side. I soon found out. We both drew and saved force again for the first couple of turns. Nick deployed the Judland Wastes, and I managed to get Luke and a couple of scrubs on to the table. By this time, Nick had about 15 or so force activated and came at me by deploying a scrub or two and then Dr Evazan and 5 force, yes, 5, to play a Dark Jedi Lightsaber on the evil doctor. He then deployed some other loser warrior with a blaster and operated two of my characters, including Luke. My other character covered forfeit, but I was down one of my mains. He drained for 3 at the Judland Wastes and reinforced Dr Evazan while I dug for more characters. Finally, I got Lando and some other dudes, and sent them to fight Dr Evazan. But the Dr survived and operated on me on my next turn. Realizing that I was losing that battle and far behind in the force draining, I scrambled to get my Kessel and dropped a medium bulk freighter there. I dropped characters at other sites away from Dr E, but it was all too little, too late. Nick managed to outdrain me by 3.
Well, I probably had the best draft of anyone at the tournament since I saw most of the other light decks, but Nick had played that game masterfully. I played a decent game, but decent didnt cut it, there, and I figured my chances of winning the whole tournament (and the Foil Maul with Double-bladed Lightsaber that came with it) were slight to nil. Then Nick informed me that the tournament was only 4 games, and I realized my chances were nil.
Nonetheless, I switched out the desert for the Coruscant system and chose to start the City Outskirts.
Game 3: vs Graham Neal
Graham chose to start the Wampa Cave instead of Jabbas Palace, figuring that hed get blocked yet again. He saved all his force on his first turn, and I had drawn Qui-Gon into my hand (because I started the site that would pull him, of course). On Grahams next turn, I saw what hed been saving for when he dropped Lord Maul at the City Outskirts. I took the drain for a turn because I didnt have enough force for Qui-Gon and no one else that could stand to the dark Jedi. Graham spent the next couple of turns draining and drawing while I got my act together and dropped several characters to a site I deployed next to the Outskirts. Graham moved Maul over to block my drain, and I deployed Lando but didnt have enough force both to battle and pay upkeep. I paid my upkeep figuring that Lando could retrieve force for me. Maul received back up from a number of scrub aliens and battled. I retrieved one and added the destiny to Landos power--very cool, but I had to forfeit 3 of my other characters. Maul moved away, and I began to chase him around. Graham meanwhile got Miyoom Onith to the Cave, so I got Qui-Gon onto the table ASAP. Qui-Gon was a beast in the booster draft since he couldnt be chopped or lost to attrition. I lost 2 cards from my hand to fetch his saber and took command of the ground. Graham paid to Miyoom me, but I had a Shocking Revelation just for such an occassion. I got rid of Maul with Qui-Gon, and Grahams scrubby aliens couldnt keep up. I won by 11.
There were a few more dark side wins, and for a second I had hope again. I thought that maybe if I pulled out a high-differential win I could sneak into first.
Game 4: vs Dan Albright, yeah, thats his name.
So I knew Dans draft since I passed him about three-quarters of his cards. I decided not to let my characters get mushed again, so I waited until he deployed Blizzard 4. Then I deployed elswhere. I managed to get my Corvette to Coruscant early, putting on the big pressure, fast. Dan spread his forces a bit thin to come back in the drain race, but in spreading them thin, hed left a couple of characters with a combined 3 power sitting alone at the Audience Chamber. I smacked them around with Luke, Lando and Sio Bibble and 10 destiny. Once he split the walker and the stormtroopers, Qui-Gon came out to play. I was draining for 7 each turn, after causing him a mess of battle damage, and I pulled out a huge win by 25.
Unfortunately for me, Mike Raveling went undefeated with his pile of rejected interrupts. The man had no mains or anything even halfway good, but hed used It Could Be Worse and drains at Coruscant to win each of his games. Donovan, whose last name I forget, also went undefeated, and I took third. Nick from Sioux Falls took the dark side foil with 3 wins. By himself, he had half of the dark side wins in the tournament. Rich Jeffries had 2, and somebody else managed 1 win.
A dark day for the Empire.
After the tournament, Nick Kolnik opened a box, pulling 4 Mauls, two of them the Ultra-rare foils, while I managed to trade for 2 Lord Mauls, hence the reports title, as well as everything necessary to play the new Dark Side objective. Check it out. The decks called The Finger of Death, or All About R3. In playtesting against my light sides, which arent quite as fully R3 enhanced, its a monster.
Thanks for reading.
Josh Stormcrow Grace