r2-for-r3-mistakes-in-richmond-12

Title: r2-for-r3-mistakes-in-richmond-12
Author: Devon "Devonator" Clark
Date: Dec 6, 2001

Name: Devon "Devonator" Clark
Rating: 1712
THE R2 FOR R3 DECKS
LS: Devonator’s WYS
DS: Devonator’s Black Sun

Hello everybody out there in Star Wars land. It’s another Tournament Report from your friendly neighborhood Devonator. A lot has changed since my last TR installment. We’ve had a new expansion enter the play environment . . . and worlds came and went last month. So things have changed, indeed. I missed out on worlds because of work. It really sucks when you live in VA yet can’t go to FreedomCon. Oh well, what can you do? Oh, and by the way, despite what Decipher or anybody else says, FreedomCon was worlds.

Anyway, my first tournament post R3 will be a tournament in Richmond on December 1 . . . just like it says in the title of this TR. I’ve built decks, tested them, and settled on two decks that I really like in the environment . . . a pair of decks I call "R2 for R3"--WYS and Black Sun. The Black Sun is just nasty and the WYS is solid. I never get a chance to test them out against saber combat, but I have some ideas on how to beat those decks, and I’m pretty confident.

So, on Saturday morning, I leave Fredericksburg heading for Richmond. The last time I attended a tournament at this particular venue, I won it--my only Tournament win . . . ever. I’m hoping to have another strong showing. Halfway to Richmond, I realize that all that I have for Star Wars cards are my decks and sideboards, so that sucks. There will be no trading for me. I’m relatively awake, having achieved about 5 hours of sleep the night before, but I’m just tired enough that I’m not thinking straight but don’t notice it. This did not bode well for my tournament performance. And in the end, it meant that I would play well enough to be able to win games, but I would make a couple of big mistakes that would cost me victories. Hence, the second half of my TR name.

Anyway, let’s get to the games . . .

(Note: I really didn’t want to post such an awful showing, but I figure, "Hell, we always read TRs where people win or come close to winning . . . what about the guy who sucks?" Well, here he is in all of his glory . . . ME! Hopefully, you can learn from my mistakes.)

Game 1: My LS vs, Ben Hosp’s (sp?) DS Senate Capture the Queen deck.

We reveal our starting effects and count sideboards. Ten cards apiece. Everything looks good. We reveal our objectives--WYS and MLITL. His optional site is the Desert Landing Site. Go figure. We reveal our starting interrupts and 3 effects. He starts I Will Find Them Quickly, the Republic IAO, and Mobilization Points. I start Insurrection & Aim High, Squadron Assignments, and change my Another Pathetic Lifeform for Don’t Do That Again.

We draw our hands. I’m getting ready to go looking for my Legendary Starfighter when he activates, but I draw it as my eighth card. So, I can’t do that. Darth Maul makes a cameo at the Desert Landing Site right out of the gates, and then it’s my turn. I pull my Mos Espa Docking Bay (not finding the H1: DB) and pull Kessel, as well. I deploy the former but not the latter. I Control & Tunnel Vision immediately and pull my Goo Nee Tay. I deploy it and draw 3. Maul decides that he’s going to share the wealth of his twix, and he drains me for 2. Yeah, it’s all in the mix! Then, Lott Dodd is elected to the Senate and he goes and finds Maul’s Doublemint Stick for him. Double the pleasure . . . double the fun. And now that he’s got his saber, Maul feels super powerful, so he tries to Alter my Goo Nee Tay. Remember I’m playing WYS. You can’t Alter against WYS. And yet, Maul did! Maul proved that when he’s got his saber, he’s so cool he can even alter against WYS. Goo Nee Tay goes to the lost pile. My hand necessitates that I set up slowly. I’ve got some potential to get into space, but I need some time for it to develop. I pull the H1: DB, reveal the Outrider to pull Dash Rendar, he pilots his ship to the Tatooine DB only to hire transport back to Home One. I draw two and get Lost in the Wilderness and Jedi Luke. I pull my Battle Plan shield, and get ready to send Maul on an expensive tour of the Tatooine Deserts. Well, Lott Dodd does his best Bullwinkle impression as he tries to pull a rabbit out of his hat, but keeps getting everything but, and as I anticipated, Maul thinks he can drain for 4 and decides that 3 force and 1 lost is worth every cent. However, in his haste to drain, Maul forgot his map to the Drain site and gets himself Lost in the Wilderness. Now, those Sith Probe Droids that are searching for the queen have to stop so that they can search for Maul instead. How ironic is that? Meanwhile, back on Coruscant, Lott Dodd appoints some friends to the senate. Well, my smugglers have been hiding from Maul. But now that he’s out there amidst the dunes with Lonestar and Yogurt, the smugglers become brave. Theron Nett pulls his X-Wing out of the reserve deck and attaches some X-Wing canons. Luke shows up at the H1: DB (he has dreams of becoming a smuggler) where he follows Dash to Tatooine. Dash and Theron Nett take off to the system. The probe droid searches for Maul, but can’t find him. (Apparently, it was still calibrated to find the queen.) I drain, Mirax finds the Skate and pilots it to Tatooine. I deploy Kessel. Phylo arrives at the Tatooine DB and Protector Chewie comes with her. I add Yotts Orren for a little bit of extra destiny, move Luke over to the Desert Landing Site (thinking that he had to control the site to search), and move my starships to Kessel. The Droid searches but again can’t find anybody. Ben drops DVDLOTS against me and battles. My destiny is a 6, but the Probe Droid activates its Self Destruct Mechanism to cancel all attrition and battle damage. Vader’s destiny, with a little bit of help from the Senate, reaches 7 attrition . . . just enough to kill Luke. That’s okay. I’ve got a spare in my hand, and on my turn, after I drain and drop Captain Han in the falcon to Kessel, I press the mysterious Jedi Luke reset button returning him to the Home One: DB. From there, he rejoins Phylo on Tatooine, but this time, he’s brought a stick. Vader doesn’t like his chances vs. a PO’d Luke with a lightsaber, so he uses the force to find Maul in the desert for some backup. They send 4-LOM to do some light recon work at the DB before they march over for a visit. I drain, Luke and Phylo realize that there are two dark jedi walking their way, so they move their party to Docking Bay 94, but not before the Menace begins to Fade. Maul and Vader march over to meet up with 4-LOM. I drain and draw. Vader and Maul force drain, but Maul never seems to learn from his mistakes, and he loses his map again to go Lost In the Wilderness. I drain and deploy Threepio to the Cantina and begin some monster tracking. Vader decides he’s tired of leading Maul by the hand, so he calls for a Probe Droid to look for him while he and 4-LOM go fight the smugglers. 4-LOM and Vader move over. I drain, cancel 4-LOM’s text with Chewie, and initiate a battle. I swing at Vader, but 4-LOM has a Self-Destruct Mechanism, too. He gets hit by Luke’s saber and forfeits for 9. Vader chokes Chewie, leaving me with only one destiny, so I can’t draw above a 9 to kill them both. I lose Luke to cover the attrition, but Luke is Resilient. He goes to my used pile, and I begin to track him for an On The Edge. The probe droid searches for Maul, but doesn’t find him. (This one had to recalibrate, too.) Vader attacks Phylo and Yotts Orren. He tries to choke Yotts Orren but misses. Attrition clears my side. I can’t crack the 5 on a single destiny. I’m flipped back. I pay to drain for 3, draw, and say go. The Probe Droid finds Maul. Vader drains. The senate drains. I lose a dodge . . . and this is the game right here. At this point, Ben and I are close, but with Kessel hitting him for 3 every turn, I’m in command. All I have to do is keep Menace Fades active and Battle Plan satisfied and I can ride this one out for a win. I have Melas in my hand, Dodge about 3 cards down in my lost pile, and an On The Edge waiting to pop for 5. I deploy Melas to the Cantina to make sure that I can play my On The Edge from the Lost Pile (targeting Han). I draw my tracked 6, retrieve 5, and track Luke again. I use, Mirax to draw him back on my opponent’s turn giving me the power to bail Melas out after he dodges. Ben doesn’t have anybody to drop against me, so he just moves Vader over. Maul can’t move. I hit the Jedi Luke reset button again, and Luke ends up over at DB 94. Vader pulls out his saber and battles. I play an interrupt from my lost pile . . . the intended interrupt is Dodge. Now, those of you who have been keeping track know what I should have known--I retrieved it. So, when I go looking for my Dodge, it’s not there. All I can do is play Run Luke Run. Vader chokes Melas, slices Luke, and I lose Melas, Luke, and 11 overflow. I’m down to 12 cards. Rather than give Ben a chance to retrieve with Squabbling Delegates. I draw up for a loss by 17.

FL 0 (-17)

Props: To Maul for pulling off an Alter against WYS. To Ben for being a cool guy . . . even if he does laugh like Scooby Doo.
Slops: To Me for not grabbing SDM the first time. To me for not grabbing SDM the second time. To me for not realizing that I retrieved that Dodge. And overall, to me for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory . . . I suck!

Game 2: My DS vs LS MBO X-Wing semi swarm (Sorry, I don’t remember his name)

This game starts with my opponent telling me that he had bought some cards that had never arrived, so he wasn’t able to put together the decks that he wanted. Well, I’m playing my Black Sun, which I know is beast, so I’m pretty sure that I have this game in hand. Then, he reveals his objective--Masassi Base Operation. Now, I know he’s really in trouble. Then, he plays his starting interrupt--He Signals for S-Foils. It just keeps getting better. Then, I draw my hand--Palpatine, POTF, Suicide Fett, 4-LOM, Dengar, Bad Feeling Have I, Zuckuss in Mist Hunter, and Djas Puhr. I set my sites on 30+, because I know I have this one in the bag. How can I lose with that kind of start?

As I said, my opponent started S-Foils. I start Crush, IAO & SP, and Wipe Them Out. First turn, I deploy Palpatine to the Y4: DB, pull the non-battleground Coruscant DB, and move Xizor over. He deploys two systems, the Massassi War Room, and a 2/2 pilot in that War Room thinking he would be safe. I activate 10, drain, play POTF on the War Room, drop Suicide Fett and Djas Puhr and battle. My 3 destinies cause character loss and 11 overflow (and to those of you who say that I should have gotten another for the War Room’s text, I just figured that out myself. Chalk another mistake up for the Devonator), I lose 2 to recycle Fett, and I move Palpatine into the War Room for the drain of 3. My opponent drops a few starships to Yavin 4. I drain, deploy 4-LOM on the Mist Hunter, initiate my battle, kill some starships on my 2 destiny and run away. He responds by dropping some more ships into space and chasing me. On my turn, I activate 10. Now, normally my deck generates 11-13 on its own by turn 4, so the fact that I was only getting 10 with a POTF on the table really perplexed me. It was then that I realized that it’s turn 4, and this whole time, I’ve been forgetting to pull my sites. I drain, start pulling my sites, back up Xizor, and move him to the Y4 DB. I run the Mist Hunter away, pull my Battle Order shield, examine the cards in my force pile, and draw them. They are a Control & Set For Stun, POTF, Vigo, and We Must Accelerate Our Plans. He pays to drain, deploys Dash and the Outrider and chases the Mist Hunter. I do my 6 damage, deploy the Vigo, deploy Dengar, deploy POTF on the Executor: DB, Set For Stun Dash, battle, kill all but two ships, move Xixor and the Vigo to the Executor, check my force pile, see that the second card down is an Imperial Barrier, and draw a few. Of course, Dash returns to attack Zuckuss, but he runs into my Imperial Barrier, and therefore no battle takes place. I WMAOP to pull First Strike before his turn ends, and then I activate. I go searching for my DB and after I’ve deployed it, I realize that I just passed over doing 8 damage. Bossk drives his bus to Yavin where he and the Stinger (minus Guri) back up Zuckuss in a battle vs. the Outrider, the Skate, and a couple of X-Wings. I clear nearly every ship out of the system. I lose Bossk in Hound’s Tooth in the process. The Pulsar Skate becomes a Legendary Starfighter because of it. I lose 1 and draw into my Lateral Damage and a spare 4-LOM. My opponent plays one or two ships to the system and battles. My destinies leave the Skate and one X-Wing. I lose 4-LOM and the stinger. I deploy my spare of 4-LOM and battle to clear the system leaving me with supreme board dominance. I was doing 8 points a turn for every turn (except for that one), and that gains me an easy win by 32.

FW 2 (+15)

Props: To the god draw. To my opponent being gutsy enough to play MassOps.
Slops: To me for forgetting to pull my Docking Bays until turn 4. To me for forgetting to add a destiny for the War Room’s text. To me for forgetting to do my 8 damage one turn. To me for not deserving that win, because of how poorly I played . . . I suck!

Game 3: BYE

Somehow, a victory by 32 in round 2 makes me the lowest man on the totem pole, so I get a bye. What’s up with that? I later discover that it’s because Tim put me in as the loser in my second match. So, this seriously sucks for me. At the time I didn’t think about it, but I should have. Oh well, at least I won’t suck for one round of this tournament.

FW 4 (+15)

Props: To me for not sucking in round 3.
Slops: To Tim for giving me the bye when I shouldn’t have gotten it. To me for not realizing that when he did it.

Game 4: My DS vs Curtis Brown’s QMC

All right, this is the pairing I was dreading. In the tournament prior to this one, I basically played Curtis for the win. Sure, it was round 3, but whoever won that match was going to win it all . . . well, after an incredibly tight game, I managed to squeak out the victory and the tournament win. Now, Curtis was out for revenge. Well, I was happy to be playing DS because I felt like it was the better of my two decks, but I had to play the game.

I apologize that this game won’t be more detailed, but this game was basically just a lot of me floundering trying to put something together. So, what follows, is a pretty accurate account of all of the interesting stuff that happened.

Curtis is playing QMC and that bodes very well for my deck. QMC decks give away lots of force and any deck that gives away lots of force will have problems vs. Black Sun. Curtis starts Insurrection & Aim High, Squadron Assignments, and Keeping The Empire Out Forever. I start the same as before. I don’t get the god draw, this time, but I do get Palpatine, First Strike, POTF, and Broken Concentration in my opening hand, so it’s workable. I deploy Palpy to the Guest Quarters, deploy the Coruscant DB, and move Xizor over. Curtis deploys a CC site, deploys a DB, and draws a couple. I drain, deploy the Executor DB, deploy a POTF on the Executor DB, and move Xizor over for the flip. I search my force pile and draw a couple. Now, the fun begins. Luke arrives in Cloud City fresh from training on Dagobah. How do I know that he’s been training on Dagobah, you ask? Well, somehow Luke has taken Yoda’s Gimmer Stick unbeknownst to Master Yoda. Well, it’s "Yoda’s" Gimmer stick, so Luke must have just come from there. And the first thing that Luke does when he arrives on Cloud City is run to the North Passages where he starts taunting Palpatine, "Nya, nya! You can’t drain me!" Palpatine tries to run over and give him an old school whoopin’, but there’s some invisible force holding him back. A little bird tells him that it’s his game text. Palpatine protests that it’s just that he’s old and has forgotten his walker. Anyway, the Gimmer Stick is the game, because after I make two mistakes, Luke just sits there in the North Passage like Connor MacLeod yelling, "Why won’t anybody fight me!" I mean, I’ve got a pretty good handle of what the Gimmer Stick does, but I overlook one line . . . plus I don’t consider what the most important line means to my deck. In case you’re wondering what I’m talking about, I forgot that the stick makes its wielder immune to attrition. I remembered that you have to have a character of ability >3 to initiate battle, but I had overlooked that other than Palpatine, my only ability 4 characters are Bane Malar, Djas Puhr, and Grotto Werribe. Those two oversights cost me the game. Like I said, I forget that the Stick makes its wielder immune to attrition, so when I attack with Xizor, 4-LOM, and Bane Malar, my 5 attrition doesn’t get rid of Luke. Later, I toss Djas Puhr to battle damage when I didn’t have to . . . and I also lose Grotto Werribe off of the top to a drain. With Bane, Djas, and Grotto gone, only Palpatine can still battle Luke . . . and he can’t move to his site. There went any capacity for me to battle Luke. So, I can’t flip. So, Curtis just sets up Celebration with Mirax on the Skate and Capt. Han on the Falcon. With that he retrieves all of the damage that I can muster. I do have Guri and the Stinger at the system, just in case a bounty hunter comes by to pick a fight. I even had Lateral Damage from the onset, but I could never find another Bounty Hunter ship. Doh! So, in space, I’ve got Guri waiting for anybody to give her a jump while the rebels circle her like sharks, and on the ground, Luke is beating bounty hunters away with Yoda’s stick. It’s looking pretty bleak. The best bit of offense I muster in this entire game is when Curtis drops Tawss Khaa alone for the flip. I dropped Suicide Fett and Djas Puhr and battled. I caused a bit of damage there, but I lost Djas in order to save Fett for a beatdown on Luke. I’m a retard! The funniest thing in this game was when Curtis drops R3 Leia and Lando Scoundrel against my lone Bounty Hunter. He tried to battle but couldn’t because of Leia’s text. We stopped to laugh about that for a minute. "Hey guys! Enjoying your stay on Bespin? Great! This is Lando Calrissian. If you need anything, just ask him." Anyway, towards the end of the game, Dengar has an idea. Luke’s holding the Gimmer Stick in his left hand, so Dengar approaches from the right and snipers him. I draw a 5 for destiny, but Luke was drawing him in. At the last second, he pulls out his saber and Blaster Deflects the shot back at Dengar. Dengar dies. And that’s really the end. As I try to mount an offense, I can’t afford to drain, and that means that Curtis wins this one without a card in his lost pile for the victory by 26 (I think).

Note: Curtis played Blaster Deflection at the right time, I was just trying to beef up the narrative portion of this game.

FL 4 (-9)

Props: To Yoda’s Gimmer Stick for really being a bounty hunter whoopin’ stick. To Curtis being the man! Mad Mad Props to you, my friend.

Slops: I’ll give you one guess who the slops go to . . . that’s right . . . To Me for not reading Yoda’s Gimmer Stick. To Me for not realizing that there were only 3 characters in my deck that could have attacked Luke besides Palpatine. To Me for losing with my Black Sun deck that is just so nasty.

After the game, Curtis and I play our opposing decks just for fun. His Senate Deck is pretty good, but it gives away a ton of force. So, despite a first turn Maul, I am able to set up a ton of troops both in space and on the ground. He manages to get the Executor out to disrupt me, but a Power Pivot in my lost pile keeps the Executor on the run for the entire game. Meanwhile, I have a firm grip on both Tatooine Docking Bays, and with some late retrieval I win this game in a rout. Curtis and I talk a little bit about his deck and our opposing views on the game. Curtis makes a couple of changes to his deck after talking to me, and we run it back. The second game is much much closer, because I can’t find a starship to save my life, so I can’t choke him with Battle Plan. I lose that one by about 15.

And so, I leave the tournament at 1-2 . . . but with 4 victory points that I did not earn. It’s enough to put me in fourth or fifth place (there were only 9 people), but as I leave the store, I’m more confident in my decks than ever. In both of my losses, one mistake cost me the game. The decks were giving me the tools to win, and when I’ve got the tools to win, I should win every time, but my decks are not fool proof . . .

. . . Or maybe they are, but as Douglas Adams said, "A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools."

Until next time . . .

Props
To Tim Davis for running a good tournament . . . and for winning it, too.
To Curtis Brown for being the man! I have so much fun every time I play him . . . win or lose.
To Jeffrey Wachter for rising through the ranks quickly. You’re getting lots better fast, man!
To Bastian Winkelhaus for winning worlds!
To Luke Skywalker being a Jedi Highlander
To WYS playing 3 interrupts from my lost pile with A Useless Gesture on the table.

Slops
To Maul for getting lost on Tatooine . . . twice! Dude, they’re just deserts.
To Palpatine for being so old that everybody has to come to him.
And
To Me . . . You know why!

Well, I hope you enjoyed my tale of tournament woe. Believe it or not, it was fun. Thank for reading.

Devon "Foolproof" Clark