melbourne-oz-9-12-01
Title: melbourne-oz-9-12-01
Author: Luca "Luca/Tzizvvt" Costanzo
Date: Dec 12, 2001
Okie dokie. Not much of a preamble today. Basically, I’ve just finished school for the year and am waiting on exam results. Adam and Ronnie have fallen victim to an unfortunate string of tragedies, so I haven’t really gotten any playing done since before worlds. On the day before the tournament I mucked around and came up with some Hunt Down deck that I didn’t like and ditched it for ISB. Ages ago I though it would be cool to play ISB with Ozzel and Overload, but I never got around to it. I saw "System Overload (Admiral Ozzel Superstar)" on Decktech and figured it was worth a shot. A few modifications later and I’ve got a dark deck, but no light deck.
Saturday night rocks around so I went and saw Pie II with some people (funny stuff; neither better nor worse than the original, but with a bit of crap that sequels just have to have ie. introductions to characters and @#$%). I came home at midnight and asked my man Soey if I should build a deck straight away or on Sunday morning. He said Sunday morning and I followed his advice, even though pool is his game.
Sunday morning and I got up early, in the tradition of a lot of SWCCG players, to make decks. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I already had a dark deck (bonus!), so it was just down to light. I figured that I wanted something easy to play, so I go for QMC with trippler and no Ten Numb. The only problem was that I think I lent my Guest Quarters and Squadron Assignments to Sean (did I, Sean?). I rung up Adam at about 7:30:
Adam: Ughabuglewuzzawozza ... hello?
Luca: Sorry, did I wake you up?
Adam: No problem. I should really get up and build decks, anyway.
What a classic. Adam lives further away from AOC than I do! We somehow make it to AOC. I go and do some trading and end up getting a new Slave Leia. The common opinion seems to be that I should play one, so I switch out another Leia, figuring that I’ll learn what combination is best. BIG MISTAKE. Well, not really. I just didn’t find out.
Decks:
Light: QMC trippler.
Dark: ISB Overload.
Game ONE Dark v Michael (LSC)
Well, lightsaber combat is supposed to be a hard matchup for most dark decks, for some reason. Fortunately, ISB doesn’t happen to be terrifically Dark Jedi reliant. Michael started out quickly with R3 Qui-Gon and his combat stick to put some pressure on me. I did the whole Mob Points/Executor/Piett/Merrejk/Fondor/Kashyyyk chain and played the Battle Order shield. Naturally, this was quite a hinderance to Michael. Michael did make a run at the Executor with a random Han (not captain) and another ship, resulting in the loss of the other ship and a few cards to keep Han in space. Next turn, I dropped Thrawn and beat on the Falcon for a few more.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch (naboo), I deployed my <> docking bay with 8-D8. Michael deployed the Battle Plains. I dropped a Blizzard Walker with Igar and 2 ISB agents. Chimaera hit space and I was out-draining Michael by a fair bit. Michael dropped some guys to try and kill my walker, but Tramples, high forfeit scrubs and multiple destinies stopped that. Michael, for some unknown reason, felt the need to deploy Lando with Gun to help defend Qui-Gon. Oh well. Overload Qui-Gon (KA-BOOM), Vader with Stick, Bob, no escape cards, game.
FW 2 (+25)
2(+25)
The Good: Solidness ... in complete control against a bad matchup.
The Bad: Nothing major.
The Ugly: WTF?! Not Captain Han? Huh?
Game TWO Light v Robbo (LSC)
What’s with the LSC? Oh yeah, Robbo had a bad throat today so I said that I’d call him the don from now on.
The Don started off with Lordi Mauli and stick to the Generator Core. I pulled my site, dropped Outrider and Leia for first turn Menace Fades (apparently when your opponent gives you 4 off the bat you can do that). Don Robbo paid to drain me and deployed Emperor and Janus. I set up with Celebration and a flip.
Don-a Robbo made two important runs at me. The first was with EPP Vader against a lone Pucumir Thryss. Path. Grab. Sense. My anti-SAC nowhere in sight, so there goes 6 force or so. The second was when he finally came to space. Zuckuss and Chiraneau to Outrider, Dash and R2+3P0. I searched for Artoo, I Have A Bad Feeling About This. Robbo moved Zuckuss away.
At some point in time I OOCed Maul. I then drained the Don. He lost a Barrier. I’m thinking, cool! EPP Obi-Wan to Maul. Barrier!!!
Avoiding Grimtaash?! That’s tech! Barriered Obi-Wan does not look good. Good thing that I had Bith Shuffle. So, Obi cut Maul, I played Blaster Proficiency and that was that. Obi was in control of the 3/2 and Palpatine wasn’t about to move over.
FW 2(+25?)
4(+50)
The Good: All going smoothly so far.
The Bad: Not having jack when @#$% got beat down.
The Ugly: The stupid zapping gesture that we made up to prevent Robbo from having to say "Search for Force Lightning" all the time.
Game THREE Dark v Giles (Pile)
This was the matchup that I was unsure about. On the one hand, Pile has the activation advantage and Revos. On the other hand, ISB has Decree (sure it suspends revo, but it’s hard to get running), damage prevention, a whole load of spies and retrieval of an agent. Hmmm ...
I started off with Admiral Pete, Merrejk, Kashyyyk and the @#$%ship Bridge. Giles started off by grabbing Shmi and 3P0. Just as he was about to deploy 3P0, he said "Oh crap, ISB." Priceless. 3P0 went to a twix far away from Shmi. I grabbed Fondor, Giles dropped another two twixes, Goo Nee Tay and a rev on my @#$%ship. The turn before I dropped Executor Giles got a glint in his eye.
Giles: I don’t know if this is going to work ...
I hate it when people say that.
Giles: ... but if it does, it could be good ...
I hate it more when people say that.
So Giles revved the Executor: DB, dropped Qui-Gon with destiny 5 stick, cut Pete, played Blaster Proficiency ... I think I got away with 5 overflow or something. The problem was that Pete and Merrejk were going to be my command crew for the walker that was going to squish 3P0. Bummer. Oh well, I dropped Executor to Fondor with Overlord Ozzel and moved it to Kashyyyk. Giles played the Recoil part of Sense/Recoil In Fear to get rid of my carefully built hand. Man that was an insane play! After the game I told him that I was trying to get stuff together to trample 3P0 (key play against pile). Gile said that that’s why he was Recoiling. My question to you, Giles, is why not just use the Sense part ?!
Anyhow, we eventually ended up with a B’omarr Monk, Shmi and Qui-Gon with stick sitting at Shmi’s hut and Executor to Kashyyyk. I say eventually because it must’ve taken half an hour to get this far. I played Throne Room at states, so I knew that hasty moves tend to end up with the person making them losing the game. I had 5-D6 at the Tatooine DB to subtract from the drain. This was cool, because we were both paying to drain. Him for 1, me for two. I finally fished up Bad Feeling Have I. Mmm ... might help stop the inevitable beatdown when I go to ground. I dropped Tempest 1 with, like 3 ridiculous forfeit ISB agents aboard to the Tat DB. Giles let me drain there in order to get They Win This Round out (that card is huge!). Hmm ... sounds like the hammer is getting ready to drop.
I’d lost Ozzel #2 to a drain. Ex-cellent (picture Mr. Burns). Giles had some idea what I was trying to do, so a flurry of OOCs resulted. Unfortunately, I’d already had to grab Shock/Grimtaash to actually get some systems out, so that was no help. Of course, the craploads of cards that I’d lost did help, so I got my precious Ozzel back. You know what that means.
KA-BOOM go Qui-Gon and the EPP Han that joined Leia at the Tat: DB. To quote Giles’ TR, "That’s what happens when you leave your vibrator on in the bath."
I topped up Tempest 1 with Igar and dropped Zuckuss to Fondor. Time to get the drains in and finish him. Giles topped up Leia and Orimaarko with Chewie, PO’d. +3 to destinies isn’t good. A 6 from Giles’ Claw Fish really helped take down some ISB stuff. Anyhow, to cut a long story short and actually finish this game report, we skirmished over the Tat: DB for a while until I we both annihilated each other. I dropped CHYBC to try and stop some retrieval. We both paid to drain. I dropped an ORS to the Jedi Council Chamber. Drain. Retrieve ISB agents. Game.
FW 2(+9)
6(+59)
The Good: Everything. Absolutely fantastic game, worth turning up to the tournament just for that one. Giles has gone from being a fairly decent scrub at the beginning of the year to being a serious consideration to take tournaments now. Watch out.
The Bad: Half an hour of setting up. I think about 5 minutes before the end of the game we actually said "Now, let’s start the real game."
The Ugly: Bah. It’s all good.
We go to lunch at Subway. Subway has olives. Olives are tech.
Sub Scrub: Would you like any salad on that?
Luca: Yeah, olives.
Sub Scrub: Is that all?
Luca: No.
Sub Scrub: What else would you like?
Luca: Umm ... some more olives.
Sub Scrub: (furrows brow) OK. Is that all?
Luca: Hmm ... olives would really hit the spot.
So I ate my sub, and it was good, but I don’t think it had enough olives. Giles and I had a very amusing conversation:
Giles: What’s your Light deck?
Luca: QMC. What’s your dark?
Giles: Landing. How do you beat QMC with Garrison?
Luca: You’re playing what now? I’m playing what now? You expect me to tell you?
Man, Giles is a funny guy.
Game FOUR Light v Giles (Mr. Garrison)
This game was nuts. I started the bidding with Wedge to Bespin with a cannon. Wedge is cool. Unfortunately, second turn Zuckuss, Chiraneau, Lateralus Damage @#$%s all over Wedge. @#$%s all over Wedge for 11, precisely. Ouch. Giles backed it up with Devastator later.
Anyhow, I grabbed Outrider with R2+3P0 on board, I’ll Take The Leader and Melas. I trippled, but it did jack all when I drew a Zero. Basically, I think that I kicked Giles off space for a few turns before he went to Hoth with a Star Destroyer. Giles set up Hoth, I set up Bespin. He couldn’t touch me on CC, which I figure he realised when he lost EPP Vaders from hand (yeah, apparently playing around tripplers is tech). I made a run at Blizzard 1/Veers with Lando. Lando didn’t get trampled and I drew a tracked 6 to take them out.
There was still like half an hour left, so we went off to get a drink. I bought some soft drink called "Californian Grape," which tasted exactly like Bubblegum. Man, it was repulsive. Disgusting. Oh well, I downed it and we came back to learn that there were E1 foils as prizes, so Giles asked me how much I want to win by and he forgets to draw up while I celebrate for a turn or two.
FW 2(+26)
8(+85)
The Good: R2+3P0 = tech (pronounced teach)
The Bad: That drink that only reminded us of Pocari Sweat. Eeew.
The Ugly: How the f does Lando beat on Bliz 1?!
Game FIVE Dark v Leigh Smith (Watch Your Something-or-other ... sorry, I can’t quite remember ...)
Leigh is an absolute dude. He always has some offbeat tech that will catch people by surprise. He knows what he’s on about, but isn’t quite a top player yet. I was pleasantly surprised to see that he’d gone 4-0 so far! Good onya Leigh!
We started off with all of the standard moves. I grabbed the crew, grabbed the systems, grabbed the Executor, dumped it at Fondor and moved it to Tatooine. Leigh waited until the second/third turn to flip, which he did with Tallon to the DB, Melas to the Pub, Jedi Luke with Stick and PORTABLE SCANNER to the H1 DB, then moved Luke to Tatooine and Tallon to the Pub. Let’s get ready to ruuuuuuuuumble!
As I’d spent a whole bunch of force dumping my crap I decided to just back up Merrejk and Pete with Chiraneau and draw a bunch. During Leigh’s turn I eyed the Jedi Luke, then eyed the Overload in my hand and decided that I wanted an Ozzel in my lost pile, so I played Command to grab him before Leigh drained. BIG MISTAKE!
Leigh: I don’t know if this is going to work ...
I hate it when people say that.
Leigh: ... but if it does, it could be good ...
I hate it more when people say that.
Leigh dropped the Outrider and EPP Han to Tatooine, with rather irked Chewie aboard. Uh-Oh. I regretfully looked at the * on the Command in my hand. D’oh! Leigh picked a fight.
Me: Life Debt?
Leigh: Yeah.
Well, the +2 to each of the destinies, combined with (I believe) the destinies from Leigh’s techy devices (put in to be searched for and put back) well and truly killed the Executor AND THE DOCKING BAY! Uh, D’oh.
I decided that I needed to go into "ISB craps all over WYS mode," so I flipped with Igar, Tempest 1 and a bunch of ISB scrubs to Tatooine. I retrieved Ozzel ... 1 ... 2 ... 3 ... KA-BOOM. Bye-bye, Jedi Luke. Leigh decided that he needed to cause me some damage, so he deployed Kessel, topped up the Outrider with another smuggler and moved over. Hmm ... I had Thrawn in hand, but no Star Destroyer. Only an Interceptor and a cannon. Those things give me the heebie-jeebies (WTF?!). I have distinct memories of playing It Can Wait against Tyng’s cannons in the continentals and beating the ties for lots ... multiple times in the same game. A Few Manoeuvres can also do bad things. I checked my destinies, and they were all fairly high. Oh well, here goes nothing.
Interceptor. Nothing. Cannon. Nothing. Fight. Nothing. Shoot. Nothing. Hit. Nothing. Woo-hoo! I saved up 6 force to hopefully stop the damned thing from getting beaten down, picked up some force (including Chimaera) and said go. Hang on a second ... I’m using the shields from the Hunt Down deck that I scrapped ... no Wog-speaking Beggar-bashing shield, but an anti-Weapon Lev shield?! Uh-oh!
Anyhow, Leigh didn’t have beggar, so my tie didn’t get its head beaten in. Bonus! There wasn’t too much more to this game. I dropped Chimaera and another walker. I think that Leigh came after Tempest 1 by moving Mirax, 3P0 and another scrub smuggler over. I Trampled the scrub in his turn, picked a fight, Leigh played WERE YOU LOOKING FOR ME? Huge! Leigh lost everything and about three, then I drained out for the win.
FW 2(+20?)
10(+105)
The Good: Playing Leigh.
The Bad: Geez, you tell me. Is it bad when you lose a loaded Executor because you played Command to grab Ozzel at the beginning of the turn? I don’t know ... obviously!
The Ugly: Trackmaster central aka. Home One DB with Mirax and 3P0 there.
Game SIX Light v Leigh Smith (Agents)
Apparently Leigh and I did good, so we got to play each other again. Cool. This was set to be interesting- Leigh had already beaten two QMC decks today. In fact, if there’s anything that’s going to be a threat to QMC it’s something fast and they don’t come much faster than Agents ... or Hunt Down, I suppose.
As if to prove my point, Leigh started with Twi’lek and Presence for first turn flip. I played the Battle Plan shield. Leigh deployed the @#$%ship Hallway with two destroyer droids there. Hallway is insane. My Jedi deploy +2 there? WTF?! I deployed Red 7 and Red Squadron 1 (from memory) to try and get a stranglehold on Bespin. I looked at the R2 and 3P0 in my hand and decided that I didn’t need to cancel Leigh’s battle damage where he only has droids :P
This game was, actually, fairly straightforward. Leigh didn’t want Xizor killed, so he backed him up with the new Bob, who he paid for every turn. It made sense for the first few turns, but I personally would’ve placed him in used once Guri showed up. I flipped, got Celebration going and dropped another ship to Bespin (mine!).
We had three important battles in this game. First was Jodo Cast capturing Luke (used pile) with Hidden Weapons. Second was me beating up Jodo with Luke and Han. The third was over the @#$%ship Hallway with They Win This Round on it where Obi-Wan (deploy +2!) and Lando cleared about 3 destroyer droids so that I could retrieve. The rest was just celebrate, drain etc.
FW 2(+30?)
12(+135)
The Good: Winning in a bad matchup, although it seemed as though Leigh did have bad luck ... I don’t think that the Bridge ever showed up despite multiple accelerates.
The Bad: R2 and 3P0 stop battle damage? Umm ... the only decks this card shows up in are beatdown decks!
The Ugly: Self-destruct Mechanism and Oh, Switch Off. Droid solidness!
Apparently 6-0 with good differential was enough to take first place, or something. I got a few token packs and my choice of enhanced Qui-Gon or Maul. I chose Qui-Gon (don’t know why ... I think that you can actually get away with only 1 of them, but you need multiple Mauls and they’re both coming out umm ... today?!). The Maul got raffled off to Giles, who split everyone’s ears with a "Booyah," or something.
Props:
Adam for the cards. Apparently pilotless ships aren’t very good without squadron assignments.
Giles for having the skill to win a Maul (j/k).
Ronnie for turning up and not getting busted :P
Leigh for drawing like 5 battle destiny to take out a loaded Executor against some fool who was actually playing Imperial Command and for going 4-0. Congrats!
The Don for sensing Path and beating on my @#$%.
Kev for getting enhanced Qui-Gon/Maul for prizes.
Slops:
Kev for not having the groovy cards at the tournament (WTF?!)
Leigh for drawing like 5 battle destiny to take out a loaded Executor against some fool who was actually playing Imperial Command.
R2+3P0. "Players take no battle damage in battles where they have no ability." What the hell’s up with that?
Yo Word,
Luca
Oh yeah, does anyone know what shizzle my nizzle means?