austin-texas-11-03-01-non-flipping-wys

Title: austin-texas-11-03-01-non-flipping-wys
Author: Jacob "Armaedes" Taylor
Date: Nov 5, 2001

Austin, Texas
November 3, 2001

This is a report on my fifth ever sanctioned tournament. This was also the last tournament for tournament director Brian Guthrie, Red 81. Brian is a great guy and a lot of fun, but he and his wife got pregnant and he decided to focus on his non-Star Wars life. Personally, I think that is a serious misallocation of priorities, but that’s because I’m a loser and I have no friends or life besides Star Wars CCG.

Just kidding. About the misallocation of priorities part, anyway. Some of us Star Wars geeks have to have kids so there’ll be someone around to buy Reflections 19 when it comes out.

Not only was this Brian’s last tournament, but it was also Junior’s Cards and Comics’ annual Halloween tournament. This means that some people came dressed as Star Wars characters. Among others, Chris Gregg came dressed as Oola, Ted Woodward came dressed as a Jawa (and Ted is about 6’2” tall, so that was a great costume) and Mark Leahy came dressed as Anakin Skywalker. There was also a lot of extra prize support , because since Brian is getting out of the game, he was giving away a lot of his Star Wars merchandise to the participants. For instance, the first person to win a podrace got a Gasgano’s Racer toy, and the first person to successfully defeat Qui-Gon in lightsaber combat using the new dark side objective got a Qui-Gon action figure (with lightsaber-swinging action!). There were also big boxes of random cards, so it was going to be a good tournament no matter how many games you won.

About two weeks before the tournament, I had a killer Podprofit deck and a Maul Senate deck that were both tearing it up locally. Unfortunately, they relied on a lot of cards that Reflections 3 hurt, and Podprofit was really weak against the new dark objective since it stops your jedi from draining. I scrapped those two decks to look for something a little more competitive. I wanted to play WYS for light, because speed deal is so popular in our area and WYS is one of the few decks that can handle speed deal without too much trouble. Since I didn’t have much time to put my own deck together, I instead took Hayes Hunter’s new WYS deck, changed it around to incorporate Reflections 3, and decided to run that for light since it’s pretty fast and can slow down a lot of different deck types. For dark I wasn’t so sure. My roommate had build a Bring Him Before Me deck that was taking me to school all the time, so I took his deck and changed about 10 cards in it to fit my playing style. I played a couple of games with it and won really big, so I decided to play that for dark. So for those of you scoring at home:

Light deck: Hayes’ WYS SOLID + Reflections 3
Dark deck: BHBM mains and toys

I ride up to the tournament with Zane, who is obviously playing BHBM for dark and MWYHL beats for light. In case you care.

The tournament starts late, and Brian informs us that since R3 has only been out for a couple of days, he’s going to be lax on timing the games so everyone can get used to the new cards. This didn’t matter to me, because with the exception of game five, none of my games lasted longer than about 25 minutes. As a result, I spent a lot of time in between matches walking around and sometimes watching Zane play when his opponents didn’t mind. I don’t know if tournament guidelines allow me to do that, so if watching other games in some way disqualifies me and makes me a loser, then replace that last sentence with “I went outside and smoked 3 packs of cigarettes in between each game.”

There’s a pretty decent turnout of about 20 people, most of whom I know with one big exception: Matt Lush is making his first constructed appearance (that I know of) in quite a while, so it’s cool to meet the #17 ranked player in the world. They get the computer stuff going (the first tournament I’ve been to without command cards) and I draw light for the first game.

Game One
LS vs. Sam Hawkins’ (1584) Speed Deal

The entire reason I am even playing WYS is because of Dark Deal, so at least I know I didn’t pick the deck for no reason. I start Squadron Assignments, Insurrection & Aim High and Menace Fades, and I get a pretty good opening draw. He starts Imperial Arrest Order, Secret Plans, You Cannot Hide Forever and I’m Sorry. He pulls out his two sites and drops them, the docking bay and the sector. He then loses You Cannot Hide Forever to pull out Search and Destroy, but then drops two troopers at the same site and tells me to go. I don’t know why he didn’t play Search and Destroy first turn by putting a trooper at two different sites, but I’m not complaining. On my turn I activate 11 force, pull my docking bay and Kessel, and then put Jedi Luke with his lightsaber at the Home One docking bay and Wedge Antilles in his ship at Kessel. I transit Luke down to Docking Bay 94, draw my last card and tell him to go. He puts out the Bespin system and puts a trooper at one of his other sites, puts an obsidian TIE at the sector, puts Lord of the Sith at another site, deploys Dark Deal and Search And Destroy, and puts Dengar in Punishing One at the system. Then he flips his objective. That’s the first time I have ever seen TDIGWATT flipped, so it’s nice to finally be able to check out the picture on the other side of the objective. I lose one to Search and Destroy. On my turn I haven’t quite built up the hand I want to go after him, but since Menace Fades is in effect I’m not worried about being drained too much. I drain for 5, activate about 15 or so and drain him for 4, and then decide to drop Han with Heavy Blaster Pistol and Melas in the Cantina for a pretty solid flip. So I drop Han, and he plays I’d Just As Soon Kiss A Wookiee. Well, that’s certainly an original idea. I guess I should have seen that one coming. I grab IJASKAW and drop Melas at the Cantina. I move Luke over to back up Melas, and also to increase my drains to about six a turn. I then draw up quite a few cards, and end up with a pretty impressive hand. He tries to drain me for 3 at each site by telling me that the flip side of his objective says I can’t modify his force drains. I explain to him that Menace Fades is unaffected by the flip side of his objective, and after he gets a ruling from the TD on it he is satisfied and continues his drains. He doesn’t do much but draw after he drains. On my turn I decide it’s time to lay the smack down. He has Davin Felth all alone, and he’s got 5 force saved for his wookiee kisser, so I drop Lando with Blaster Pistol at Felth’s site to try to bait him into playing IJASKAW. Sure enough he bounces Lando back to my hand. I stack the card, and then proceed to drop most of my hand onto his lone Dengar in Punishing One at the Bespin System. After the Outrider reduces his power to zero and I draw my multiple destinies, he has to lose Dengar and a load of cards. Since I put out Battle Plan & Draw Their Fire before I battled, he only has the force to pay for one drain of one. I had an edge in my hand and a six on the bottom of my deck, but I couldn’t activate down to it in one turn so I decide not to edge some cards back and instead drain him out for the win by 20.

FW 2 (+20)

Highs: Speed deal is a tough matchup, despite all the force they give you. It was good to discover this light deck can handle it, and that I can also get Menace Fades in effect first turn. That’s cool.
Lows: Him giving me 5 icons on my first turn. Dark Deal doesn’t have many down sides, but that one is enough to make me not want to play it.

Game Two
DS vs. Zane Thorp’s (1514) MWYHL Beats

You all know it happens - you always ALWAYS end up playing the guy you came to the tournament with. This game was actually kind of uneventful. Since I helped Zane build his light deck, and Zane helped me build my dark deck, and we’ve played this match-up a couple of times before, we both know how the game’s going to play out. This time is a little different though, because while Zane has trouble finding his characters, I have an abundance of them. I bunker up at a couple of docking bays and get some sizable drains going there. I Monnok his lost once, and get 2 Jedi Lukes, 2 Out Of Commissions, and 2 Edge Cards. I notice that he has most of the cards for the Super Falcon in his hand, so I don’t go to space just yet. I drain him quite a bit, and he does a couple of hit and runs with Luke from his lost pile, but can’t really dislodge me because I’ve bunkered up so much. I wait until he has fewer than 11 cards left in his deck, and once I know he doesn’t have the force to put the Super Falcon out, I put Zuckuss in Mist Hunter up at Rendili and drop Battle Order. He plays his recyclables a couple of times to try to get some edges set up, but he can’t recover from the early drains, and it ends with a pretty uneventful win by 24.

FW 4 (+44)

Highs: The dark deck performed great its first time out, against the original designer of the deck.
Lows: Obviously, playing against the guy I came with.

Game Three
LS vs. Jacob Mayer’s (1875) Maul Deck

He starts the Desert Landing Site and Jabba’s Palace, pulls out a couple of locations, drops Jade with her saber at the Audience Chamber and drops Maul and his saber at the Desert Landing site for free and moves him over to docking bay 94. I have crap in my hand - a Jedi Luke and a load of interrupts and effects. I search for the Home One docking bay - but it’s not there. So I drop Luke for 8 to the Cantina. He drains me for some and then moves Maul into the Cantina. I put down Threepio after pulling out the Home One docking bay, and then put Han with Heavy Blaster Pistol into the Cantina. I figure I’ll shoot Maul, draw two destinies and clear the site. But no way is Jacob going to make it that easy for me. He plays You Are Beaten on Luke, and then smacks around Han. I lose Han and about 5. My next turn I put Wedge in his ship at Kessel and draw. He drains me for a couple, puts out Search and Destroy and it’s my turn. I still have a shortage of characters, and his drains are starting to get to me, so I just drain for 3 at Kessel (he plays Enter The Bureacrat on it, and I have yet to see any of my Controls) and keep drawing, hoping for something spectacular to happen. Something spectacular definitely happens. He drops Vader with Saber in the Cantina with Maul and goes after Luke. He hits Luke, plays I Have You Now and draws decent destiny. I lose Luke and about 15. Then I lose to Search and Destroy again. I am now effectively out of the game because I have almost no cards left and no way of doing damage except for my drain of 1 at Kessel. So he stops draining me and lets me die to Search and Destroy, like the punk he is. I never flipped, and lose by a whopping 34.

FL 4 (+10)

Highs: Jacob is a cool guy, and he’s funny, which is good when he’s beating you senseless.
Lows: My worst defeat ever in the history of my Star Wars CCG career. Only draining him 3 times all game. Not being able to get any characters so I couldn’t flip the easiest objective in the world to flip. I am such a scrub.

Game Four
DS vs. Kenneth Chang’s (1411) EBO

I start off with Palpatine and Janus to the Endor docking bay, and I drop my other two docking bays and Rendili from my hand. He gets his EBO sites and draws. For about the next three or four turns, I put out Maul with his saber, Jade with her saber and a couple of other guys and drain for about 7 a turn, while he draws. Draws and draws and draws. And then I play Monnok lost. I get 6 X-wings, 3 It Could Be Worse, and a couple of other cards I don’t remember. He’s got an Arcona, Ackbar and I think Crix Madine in his hand also. He drops those three guys to his EBO sites next turn, for whatever reason, and I proceed to put Bossk in Hound’s Tooth up at Rendili. He puts Captain Han in Gold Squadron 1 to battle, and draws a 1 for destiny, barely taking out Bossk. I draw a 5 for destiny, so the system is cleared. I realize he’s going down and I’m going to win for sure, so I use Janus and a recycling Force Lightning to put back most of my hand. Everytime I play Force Lightning used on Janus, he gives me this weird look like he doesn’t know what I’m doing. I don’t know if he ever figured it out or not, but I put back about 8 or 9 cards from my hand before I drain him out. He didn’t do one point of damage to me all game, and the only battle we had was when Han went up against Bossk. Even though I have more cards in my hand than I would like, I still win by 25.

FW 6 (+35)

Highs: The dark deck wins again. I really smacked the crap out of him.
Lows: Uninteractive to the extreme. Monnok lost for about 10 cards! Gross!

Game Five
LS vs. Carl Thompson’s (1606) Big Blue Tractor Beam

This is the third time I have played Carl. In the previous two games, he has beaten me pretty soundly. He starts Fondor, Imperial Arrest Order, Mobilization Points and Do They Have A Code Clearance. He uses Mobilization Points to pull the Executor and I pull out the Don’t Do That Again defensive shield. He plays Imperial Command and draws some cards. I figure he’s playing Big Blue, and if I know Carl’s playing style, he’s going to find some way to drop a bunch of big ships down for next to nothing, so I don’t jump straight to space. Instead I put a couple of guys in the Cantina and draw. On his turn he drops about 5 systems from his hand and saves his force, so I’m guessing the Executor’s on its way. I spread out to my docking bays for some ground drains, put Threepio out to recycle Kessel for a turn or two, and start building my hand to go to space. On his turn he drops the Executor, and then puts a couple of pilots on it that lowers his deploy cost, Ozzel and Piett I think. Another destroyer goes to his Kessel, and I think Tarkin might have been on it, so that’s a lower deploy cost. He puts out the admiral’s order that lowers the deploy cost of his pilots, too. Then he drops all kinds of small star destroyers (small meaning they were about 7 power each) for three or four force each and spreads out in space. He also puts a tractor beam on one of his ships, so I have a pretty good idea of what his deck’s about now. I put Dash and Melas in the Outrider and Theron Nett in his ship up against two destroyers and a pilot. I draw low destiny, so he just has to lose one star destroyer but I have to lose Theron Nett, On his turn he does all the tractor beam stuff and captures the Outrider with those two guys on it, so I’m back to square one for space. I don’t think he was expecting me to come after him so soon though, because he moves his ships together, fearing another smuggler attack. . I have a drain of about 4 or 5 on the ground going, but he’s draining for about that much in space thanks to Chiraneau. I convert his Kessel with my own and drop Han on the Falcon there, hoping to bait him into over-deploying himself there. Sure enough on his turn he drops a load of ships and pilots onto lone Han, then Lateral Damages the Falcon and battles. He’s got a power of about 60 to my 6. I of course play the Houjix, and he looks a little ticked that he put all those guys there and didn’t really do much with them. I finally get Phylo Gandish in my hand, so she and Talon Karrde go to the Mos Espa docking bay, and I pay the 8 force to transit them to the Death Star 2 docking bay for a nice fat drain of 3. Then I edge twice for a total of 9 cards, since he’s playing Code Clearance (that card really is wrong). Coincidentally, that is the first time I have ever played any kind of edge card in my tournament career - Threepio is GOD. Carl has one card in hand, and as luck would have it it’s EPP Maul, who goes down to Talon Karrde and Phylo. Thanks to Goo Nee Tay, Maul goes down for 9 though, so he doesn’t have any cards left for destiny and doesn’t battle. He chases me back and forth between the Death Star 2 and Executor docking bays until I finally can’t pay the 8 force transit cost. I have put out Battle Plan, so we are both paying for our drains, but thanks to the edges I played earlier it looks like I will have the edge (no pun intended). I guess he realizes this too, because he moves all of his destroyers over to Tatooine and drops all the pilots onto the docking bay to go up against Jedi Luke and another smuggler. Suddenly he satisfies Battle Order and I don’t. There’s not much I can do at this point, because the only card in my hand is Wedge Antilles. I can either drop him to the site with all the pilots and try to beat his guys off so he doesn’t satisfy Battle Order, or I can drop him down with Talon Karrde and Phylo Gandish to prevent a beating from Maul. I decide a beat from Maul could kill me instantly, so Wedge goes down there and I take out Maul, but lose Phylo in the process. On the next turn he drains me out with the four card he has left. So close, and yet so far away.

FL 6 (+31)

Highs: The closest I’ve come to beating this guy yet. He really has my number.
Lows: Do They Have A Code Clearance is NOT RIGHT!!

Game Six
DS vs. Eric Berger’s (1965) Rebel Strike Team

This game went really quick. My first turn Palpatine goes to the Rebel Landing Site. He drops Crix, General Han and some random scout, but for some reason doesn’t battle me. I put down Boba Fett with Blater Rifle and Dr. Evazan and Ponda Baba, play I Have You Now, draw three destinies and clear out his guys. He puts out the Back Door with a couple of Baragwins and Oola. I put down Darth Maul, Young Apprentice and his saber and battle him there. I say I’m going to target ability-1 Oola but Chris Gregg, who is sitting next to me and came to the tournament dressed like Oola, tells me I can’t target her because it wouldn’t be right. So I say whatever and go for an ability-2 Baragwin instead. I draw two ones. Chris Gregg is a loser. I clear the site anyway, and he only draws a destiny of 1 so Maul stays. He puts out another Endor site, and so on my turn I put Mara Jade with her saber and P-59 there, and then put Zuckuss in Mist Hunter at Endor because since he didn’t start Squadron Assignments, I’m guessing he doesn’t have much space. His turn he draws. I drain him for 9, but don’t put anything else on the table. He draws some more. I drain for 9 again. Then he drops Jedi Knight Luke, armed with his saber, and EPP Qui-Gon to Maul’s site and initiates. Luke swings at Maul but misses. Maul swings at Qui-Gon and I draw a 7. You Cannot Hide Forever has been out, so Qui-Gon is hit and I play Dark Strike to make him immediately lost. We both draw destinies of 0, so I lose a card. I drain for 7, then battle Luke again. This time I hit him, but we both draw zero for destiny AGAIN. I didn’t want to pull out my docking bays because I didn’t want to lower my differential, and now I’m paying for it. So he loses Luke and I lose a card from hand. On his turn, he uses the 7 cards he has left to drop Sergeant Junkin with an Concussion Grenade. He takes out Maul with the grenade, and then moves Junkin over to Jade and P-59’s site. I put Tatooine Maul at the Back Door, then battle him at Jade’s site. P-59 misses but Jade doesn’t, and the overflow does him in for the win by 28.

FW 8 (+59)

Highs: Smacking him around hardcore, and for the first time ever I went 3-0 with dark. This deck really is a machine.
Lows: Taking out Maul with a Concussion Grenade? That just ain’t right!

So I finish at 4-2, same as my last two tournaments. Zane finishes at 3-3, but if you want details on that you can go read his tournament report, because I’m sure he’ll post it eventually. I finish fifth, so I get two prize packs instead of one, and they have Mace Windu AI and Do They Have A Code Clearance, which is the most ironic thing ever since I HATE Do They Have A Code Clearance!. I already have about nineteen Mace Windu AIs, so I give it to Brian because he says he needs it. Then Brian gives me some more stuff for showing up – a nice card box with the Special Edition glossary in it, an Endor poster and a Jabba’s Palace poster. All in all a pretty profitable tournament, even though that light deck did not work out for me at all.

Props:
Zane, for driving.
Zane, for giving me the most awesome dark deck I’ve ever played.
Brian Guthrie, for giving us all a great tournament experience. We’re going to miss you man! Good luck with your new baby, and don’t forget to start him/her on Star Wars as soon as he/she gets here!
My dark deck, for being a machine. Between Zane and I that deck went 6-0 with a differential of +101.
Jacob Mayer, for taking me to school like I was a newbie - that was hardcore man.
Matt Lush, for being nice enough to come down and hand out rating points to scrubs. What’s the deal man, how come I didn’t get to play you?
Tatooine Darth Maul, for being an unstoppable juggernaut of pain and destruction.
Hayes Hunter, for trying to make me a good player – you’ve got your work cut out for you, buddy!
Jacob Mayer, for winning the Gasgano’s Racer toy by being the first person at the tournament to win a podrace.
Richard, for winning the Qui-Gon action figure by being the first to take out Qui-Gon using the new dark objective.
Chris Gregg, for dressing up like Oola. Seriously, he sprayed green liquid latex on himself to get that scaly green skin, and he had the fishnet and everything. It was actually pretty gross, now that I think about it.
To the guy who dressed up like the Death Star - I don’t know who you are man, but that was the funniest thing I saw all day long.

Slops:
The people in Austin, for the cards they play - not one of my opponent’s had defensive shields, but they were all playing either Secret Plans or Do They Have A Code Clearance . . . those punks.
Hayes Hunter - I all but copied your Watch Your Step deck and I had my worst performance with light ever. I know it’s my fault for playing like a scrub, but I still hold you personally responsible for not making a dummy-proof deck.
Speed Deal, for seriously dismantling every deck there is except Watch Your Step. When is there going to be an errata or Defensive Shield or something that stops that deck?
Chris Gregg, for telling me not to target Oola - that’s the last time I listen to you!
Darth Maul, for not being able to hit a Baragwin. In the words of Eric, "A Baragwin is a freakin’ elephant!
Reflections 3, for screwing up my Podprofit deck that I’m sure I could have won with at least twice.
How can you miss a Baragwin with a lightsaber?!"
My prize packs, for being crap. But aren’t they always?
As usual, the bathrooms at Junior’s for smelling like a coyote died in there. No, I take that back - it smells like a coyote went into the bathroom, took a dump, set it on fire, pissed on it, and then died on top of his flaming pile of poo.