melbourne-oz-06-01-2k2
Title: melbourne-oz-06-01-2k2
Author: Luca "Luca/Tzizvvt" Costanzo
Date: Jan 9, 2002
It’s late and I can’t really be bothered with an intro, so here are the bare bones. I build decks. They look good. I test decks with Adam Amy. We had perhaps 30 mins after we finished building decks for Illiyana, so we played two half-games. My pile looked in a bad spot against Illiyana’s Hunt Down, which was silly because on paper it should cream it. Profit got spanked by BHBM after Luke and Han got placed OOP and some stuff got Sensed. I got stupid and took out They’re Still Coming Through for Projective Telepathy for some reason. Adam finally listened to me and put interceptors into his speed deal, which meant that it wrecked people this tournament!
Decks:
Dark: The EMPEROR Strikes Back (BHBM very solid)
Light: Pile/Racing aka. You can do that? (Pile with Racing ... it’s pretty straightforward)
The main competition looked to be Robbo (States), Rodney Lee, Ronnie Wilcox and Adam Amy (Continentals). Derek Prout and possibly the just-returned Chian Kee were also poised to spice things up. Interestingly, we had a fairly decent turnout, seeing as bad things have happened to our beloved game. Oh yeah, games ...
GAME ONE Light v Dave Huberman (Senate/Racing)
Not much to write. Dave started with Quick Reflexes (grab Hidden Weapons from lost pile) as his effect. Fine if you can get enough generation, which is a problem against pile. On my first turn I revved the Landing Site. Dave cancelled with Evader/Monnok from hand! WTF?! I dumped Qui-Gon to the Podrace Arena and moved Shmi over to him. Dave set up Yeb-Yeb at the senate with Tikkes and Lott Dodd. Dave used Yeb-Yeb whenever he could, which didn’t end up doing all that much when I retrieved it all back with the podrace. I dropped Corran Horn and Obi-Wan with stick to the DSII: Throne Room after revving two of Dave’s twixes. Dave was choked, but managed to put Mara with stick to the Landing Site, which allowed him to deploy Maul and double-bladed stick there for free. I cleared the site out with Luke, Lando and a Mess/Proficiency and then played Advantage, then drained Dave out for the win.
FW 2(+26)
The Good: Won with a good, old, solid deck.
The Bad: Almost non-interactive; classic Revo choke.
The Ugly: Dave was activating ... 5 or 6 a turn to my 20ish. Pretty cool.
GAME TWO Dark v Rodney Lee (WYS Merletto-style)
Apparently when you play Bring Him Before Me you’re supposed to play Emperor from reserved deck, which is a good thing. Palpatine owned the Pub all game. Rod used the choke aspect of WYS to the fullest, with a second-turn Goo Nee Tay (it’s Rod ... don’t ask me how, but he always seems to have the right cards in hand). He was, however, a bit lacking in characters. Rod got Dash and Melas into the Outrider on about the second or third turn and drew up. At this point, I had a few options to explore, so I decided to Monnok Rod to find out what would be the most effective. Rod had some random stuff, including a Control/Tunnel Vision, Red 10 and 2 EPP Hans ... insert evil laughter here. I paid to drain Rod at the Pub (something that I won’t mention any more as I did it each and every turn). Rod played Control, I played Sense (insert more evil laughter), Rod lost the Mos Espa: DB and EPP Han #3 off the top. Ex-cellent.
I thought about sending Zuckuss and 4-LOM to Tatooine to clear out the system, but with Rod drawing 2 destinies and me not activating enough to rig, it didn’t seem like such a good idea. I suppose I could’ve Set For Stunned Dash and beat on Melas in the Outrider, but I didn’t have enough force for such luxuries :P I drew a few and gave it over to Rod. Rod topped up Tatooine with Theron Nett in Red 10 and drew a few. I topped up the Pub with Xizor and Janus to stop any funny stuff from smugglers and Luke. Rod pulled Luke from reserve to the Tatooine: DB to get Menace Fades into effect and drew a few ... quite a few.
Around about here I decided that the early stages of the game were over with and it was time to do something. Unfortunately, I hadn’t been able to pick up a Chimaera to save myself, so I put Zuckuss to Carida to stop paying for Battle Plan. Maul with Stick went to pay a visit to EPP Luke, who dodged into the Pub. Fine. Just fine. Rod burned up all his Control/Tunnel Visions to ensure a good flip with Mirax and Tallon to the Tat: DB, with Luke following them back. I dropped Dr Evazan/Ponda Baba and 4-LOM with Maul to pick a fight. Portal. Fine, be like that. Rod portalled Dr Evazan/Ponda Baba. I cancelled Luke’s text, cut 2 schmoes, played I Have You Now, cleared the site, made Rod stack and used Kintan Strider (booyah!) to get Maul back into hand.
Rod was, apparently, left with not much to do after this, so he dropped Chewie, Enraged and Luke to the Tatooine: DB to try and get his Menace Fades back. I dropped EPP Vader, picked up Luke and beat on Chewie, although I missed the cut. Bummer. Stack, please. It was pretty much mopping up from now on, with Stormtrooper Garrison showing up at the Pub to speed things up.
FW 2(+26)
The Good: Won against a bad matchup and a good player.
The Bad: Where the f&(# was the Chimaera?
The Ugly: Chewie and Luke together against BHBM.
GAME THREE Dark v Derek Prout (Lightsaber Combat/Racing)
So I look at my starting hand and saw Imperial Command, Force Lightning x2, Flagship: DB, Evader/Monnok and some other crap. Terrible, but Emperor from reserve should help to balance things out. Derek drew a 5 and a 6 for the podrace. I activated my 8 and deployed a docking bay ... no Emperor. Maybe giving away lots of force against BHBM is tech?! Ok, so that’s game, I figured. I drew up a few and played Monnok and Masterful Move because my force pile was also crap and I wanted to deploy Emperor -2 from reserve. Derek had Qui-Gon, JM as well as EPP Han, EPP Leia and some random cards. Derek deployed Qui-Gon to the 2/2 site and drew 1.
Ok, I took this as my chance. Emperor to the 3/2 ... not much to protect him, but it’ll do. I drew up a few, and it wasn’t really possible for all of my deck to be crap, so I picked up a Maul with Stick, Phantom Menace and some other stuff. Derek came down with EPP Han and EPP Leia against Emperor and deployed Goo Nee Tay. No blind 7s to shoot him, I played I Have You Now and drew a 2 and a 1. Gr-reat! Derek drew some medium destinies and I lost 7. Qui-Gon came over and smacked Emperor around for 4. Ouch! 11 force on the third turn!
I decided that I really should give winning, or at least doing things that don’t result in me losing lots of force, a shot. Derek drew two fives for race destiny. I deployed Maul with Stick, TPM and picked a fight. Dodge. Sense. Cut Leia to used, Force Lightning Qui-Gon then cut him up and it’s about 15 or so, lose everything and stack. I lost the podrace, but used CHYBC to stop Derek from retrieving ... end of my fourth turn or so and we each had about 25 cards in our lost piles!
After the early-early game, Derek’s hand was a bit depleted, so he drew up a few while I drained and deployed Zuckuss in Mist Hunter with Admiral Chiraneau on board to Carida. Derek came back a few more times with Qui-Gon to combat Maul, but I had a fairly shoddy rig (Janus, where were you?) to keep Maul alive and then beat on Qui-Gon for some. Derek drew a few, I drained and when Derek had lost everything that he wanted to from hand I played Uncertain Is The Future (sense) to ditch our hands. Derek combated Maul with an Obi-Wan, who was then killed for the game.
FW 2(+10)
The Good: Winning a tough matchup with a nightmare start.
The Bad: Losing so much force so early.
The Ugly: Derek had anti-BHBM Luke as well as LSJK!
GAME FOUR Light v Adam Amy (Speed Deal/Racing)
Fortunately for me, I was playing relatively heavy space, so it looked like I may have been in with a chance. A glance at my starting hand, once again, revealed that it was going to be an uphill struggle. In contrast, Adam didn’t stall me ... to get first turn Dark Deal. Bugger.
Basically, I threw an EPP Obi to kill off a trooper and moved him to block a drain. Adam drained me and I lost most of my ships off the top early ... game. Ok, so I figure that I should still give it a shot. Corran to a site. Jar-Jar to another site. Tank. Kill a trooper with Jar-Jar, kill one with Corran. Jar-Jar on the tank. Adam smacked down Corran for 15 or so ... ok ... gay. For some reason, I never pulled Jar-Jar off the tank, and Adam never grabbed my We’re Doomed ... I retrieved with I Did It and did my crap, but you know how it is. You try so hard and get so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter.
FL 0(-10)
The Good: Hey, I won the podrace!
The Bad: Not drawing Senses (for TA) or ships ... them’s the breaks.
The Ugly: Do you know how much time it takes for a game if you agree to say "Three to the P to the O, y’all," every time you use Threepio.
GAME FIVE Dark v Lee Pullen (Hidden Mains w/Tatooine Celebration)
This game was silly. Lee was playing docking bays, as was I, which was a huge bonus for me because all of the dark docking bays are ridiculously expensive to move between. I started off with Emperor to one of Lee’s docking bays with a few Senses in hand. Lee came at Palpatine with enhanced Qui-Gon first turn. He missed the chop and I lost a few force. I built up my hand so that I had 4-LOM and Zuckuss. Lee dropped Outrider with Dash and Mirax on board as well as Qui-Gon #2 and EPP Obi-Wan to Emperor’s docking bay. I figured that I needed to clear them out, so I deployed EPP Maul and 4-LOM there and picked a fight. Lee portalled. I sensed. I cancelled Qui-Gon, Obi missed, I cut both of them and played Kintan Strider (Dark Jedi’s Resilience!) to get Maul back while Lee played Resilience on Qui-Gon.
Lee deployed Qui-Gon and Luke to Emperor ... yeah, he was playing a few EPPs :P Ok, so I deployed Maul, cut them up good, Force Fielded a chop, played I Have You Now then played Young Fool to place Luke OOP. Somewhere along the line, I picked up a Stormtrooper Garrison and deployed Zuckuss to Carida, which put an end to all of the funny business of trying to beat on Emperor. Lee had set up at another Tatooine DB to drain with some guys, so I sent Vader to clear that site out and eventually managed to out drain Lee and win ... phew!
FW 2(+13)
The Good: Stormtrooper Garrison/Carida/Emperor ... muahahahaha
The Bad: I think Lee played a Fallen Portal at one stage and I was, once again, holding the Projective Telepathy that I took They’re Still Coming Through out for this morning.
The Ugly: How many EPPs tried to hang with Grand Emperor P?
GAME SIX Light v Chian Kee (Lightsaber Combat)
Chian started with 3 effects, including Conduct Your Search to pull Back Door ... for generation. 10 force first turn was some good for me! Chian set up Maul with Double-Bladed stick to one of his sites on the second turn (starting Goo is some good). I took one or two drains from him, then killed him with some random characters. I didn’t give Chian a scrap of force, so he was only generating 9 a turn.
Chian decided that he wanted to be a smart arse, so he deployed Mara with stick to Shmi’s hut. I played We Wish To Board Immediately to grab Too Close For Comfort. Chian fought, I played TCFC and put Shmi on the tank. Next turn I grabbed TCFC back with 3P0, deployed EPP Obi-Wan and Corran Horn then beat on Mara for lots. Obi went to the tank, Corran and Shmi went to the Podrace Arena and I won the Podrace during Chian’s turn. Chian dropped Maul with another Stick. It took me a few turns to get rid of this one, for some reason ... I think I was playing around trying to get Advantage down on Qui-Gon, Jedi Master (yes, I was playing non-enhanced Qui-Gons). The last hurrah for Chian was an armed DLOTS, who was a bit of a pain to get rid of when he circled Obi-Wan and I didn’t have a Sense (yes, I know there have been expansions since premiere). I beat on Vader with Qui-Gon and Luke, then that was pretty much it.
FW 2(+20 something)
The Good: 10 force first turn!
The Bad: Circle is still cool.
The Ugly: Not moving Shmi earlier.
Adam came first, so at least my one loss was justified ;P I came second, with Rod in tow. Yeah, that’s about it.
Props:
Adam for the test games and winning. I’ll take my $50 in cash, thanks.
Illiyana for keeping the lubricant to a minimum.
Lee for having the perfect phrase to sum up the current situation of the game.
Robbo for being my nigga. Respect, aight?
Rod for losing to me. Ta.
Derek for playing Dodge. I like people who play Dodge and get beaten down.
Chian and Ashley for making an appearance.
iio for having a hot singer.
Dave for the tech.
Ali G for being a worse black person than me.
Ronnie for starting the game with Yoda in play (tech!).
Leigh for kicking some LOTR butt.
Slops:
Kev for forgetting my foil Qui-Gon with Stick, what, 3 times in a row?
Chian ... sorry, but you get slops if you’ve played nothing but Jedi Testing since SE. It’s about time, but someone has to break it to you. You need to try something else ... for your own sake.
Uber Slops:
Lucasfilm licensing department. Just don’t go to sleep near me, ’cause at the moment I feel that I should rip your eyeballs out and skull-@#$% you, you colluding scum.
Bo Selecta!
Luca/Tzizvvt