madskills-at-milford-ma-12-1-01
Title: madskills-at-milford-ma-12-1-01
Author: Michael "MadSkills84" Pistone
Date: Dec 2, 2001
This is a very basic straight-up tournament report. Nothing really cool happened before it so as far as pre-tourney stuff goes there is not much. I have been spending a lot of time working on decks and thinking about them, because I want to do really well in the remaining few tournaments before the game is finished. So after talking to lots of people and bugging them for information, I built two decks that I heard did well at Freedomcon and they looked really solid. I ended up using LS Combat w/numbers and stuff and Solid Huntdown.
Rating going in: 1738
I get to the tournament, and there are only 4 people there, after waiting about a half hour we managed to get 8 people and start the tournament.
Game 1
DS vs. Paul Maholick (1856) LS Combat
I start No Escape, IAO/Secret Plans, Mob Points. He starts DDTA, Pathetic Lifeform, and the new insurrection. My first turn I deploy bad feeling have I and Lord Vader to his 3/2 Naboo site, expecting I could back him up with another dark jedi next turn. Wrong, out comes quigon, and he stacks and I lose Vader and 4 to the duel. Ugh. The game basically consisted of him deploying qui-gon and dueling my jedi’s away, and me sometimes killing qui-gon in the duels. Qui was the only character he deployed the whole game. I started winning more duels than I lost but the damage he dealt me due to early duels and the fact that he could track his EIGHT destiny 7 cards easily was too much.
FL (-4)
0 (-4)
Game 2
LS vs. Justin Desai (1928) Brilliant Huntdown
His deck was so ready for ls combat, it was sweet. The ideas he came up with for this deck were incredible. Basically, I kept the differential of this game down because he did not start No Escape and I started Honor, that kept him losing to Visage for a long time during the game, because he couldn’t find his No Escape. He started Sando Aqua Monster which allowed him to stack destiny 7’s and in combination with his 3!!! Iggy w/guns meant that I was in deep @#$%. Inevitable Jedi Luke met his doom and was escorted by Iggy around most of the game, and there was really nothing I could do.
FL (-11)
0 (-15)
Game 3
Ds vs. Rod Dobson (1548) LS Combat
So I really wanted to win this game, because I was upset about the first two. I deployed Lord Vader to the 3/2 site first turn w/ a stick. He comes down w/ new yoda and padme and duels. I win the duel and he loses Yoda, and doesn’t have force to move padme. Uh-oh. All I had for the beatdown was a Janus in my hand, so I deployed him too and fought. He played Warriors Courage and drew like a 3, I hit Padme. He lost her and like 12 and I lost Janus. Cool. Next he deploys epp obi, stacks a card beneath him and duels vader away. My turn I play no-escape and pick the saber up. I Deploy another Vader and his saber, along with the new fett. We fight, I play I Have You Now to add a destiny. He swings at vader, misses. I draw 4!!! Battle destinies, he draws low and has to lose Obi and 24. From then on he didn’t have enough to do anything with.
FW 2 +32
2 +17
Game 4
LS vs. Rod Dobson (1548) DS Combat
This was a matchup I didnt expect to see, but luckily I practiced against Gemme on AIM the night before so I had an idea about how to go about the game. I will honestly say right now that I should have won this game, except for the fact I had two things going for me, I won the podrace, and he used all 3 of his defensive shields early so I could insert whenever I wanted to, and that ended up being huge because I hit him for almost 30 damage because of that. I dueled poorly, as he kept winning against me consistently with usually two sevens stacked each time, but the inserts saved this game for me, along with a few well-timed destiny draws.
FW 2 +18
4 +35
Game 5
DS vs. Ben Rodriguez (1615) Jedi Council Start
His deck confused me, and I didnt really understand what he was trying to do with it. This game was really one-sided, as Ben was too pissed off about Neutron Stars to concentrate. Chasm hurt me really bad twice, when I drew lord vader and then emperor in successive lightsaber destinies. Ben just really didnt get much of anything going and I just set up a docking bay with a boat load of guys at it and Ben just reduced his losses.
FW 2 +23
6 +58
Game 6
LS vs. Ben Rodriguez (1615) Watto
From my opening hand, I could tell that I would have good luck the whole game. I don’t remember most of the details of the game, but basically he only deployed one Jedi to my sites and I killed him, and I won the race. I really wasn’t losing that many cards to his small drains of 1, 1 and 1. He couldn’t really battle me with much and it just really hurt him.
FW 2+34
Final: 8 +92
The top 3 were:
Justin Desai 10 +????
Michael Pistone (Me) 8 +92
Paul Maholick 8 +30ish?
I ended up with a reflections 3 pack and two tatooine packs. I saw some people playing Lord of the Rings, I do not know I am just not interested in the game. It is sad when only 8 people show up for a tournament, I just think that people should not be giving up on this game so easily. One thing I consistently heard at the tournament was "This tournament was a lot of fun" and it was. The new tournament environment, the meta and the new cards are all really cool and balanced and fun to play. Gameplay is very good right now, and I think players should really think about that, because that is why we are playing this game, to have fun. It is fun right now, why not keep playing? They FINALLY have killed all the stupid strategies so we can focus on battling. Sorry about that, it was just an observation I made that I thought I would share.
Props:
Everyone who helped me w/Decks
Scheimer for playing
Desai for being cool and winning the thing
All of my opponents
Jared for running great tournaments
Slops:
Those damn neutron stars
:-)