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Author: Michael "Joz" Josem
Title: asia-pacific-championships-sydney-16-7
Date Published: 2000-07-16
G'day,
I thought that given that I've got far too much time on my hands, writing a
tournament report seemed like a good idea.
We (Luca and I) left Melbourne Friday evening on the train, slept
sporadically, and arrived in Sydney at about 6:30am Saturday morning.
Having won the state championships a month or two beforehand, I had already
qualified for day two, while Luca needed to play.
While the 'unqualified' players were qualifying, Kev ran a DS2 sealed deck
tournament which was alright. Playing DS2 sealed deck was incredibly
boring - Each player has plenty of characters and starships, and it's just a
battle of attrition. Fortunately, I was given light, and between 2xA Few
Maneuvers and General Solo, Dark Side stuff died awfully quickly, while my
dudes lived. And Hobbie in his personal X-Wing is huge... About half-way
through the tournament, after I'd finished my game, I looked over to see
Stuart Jones finishing up his game, so I wandered over to see how he went,
and this arrogant prick (otherwise known as Stuart Lauder) yells at me for
deck scouting. I say uh, "ok," turn around, and go over the other side of
the room. After this, the insignificant lowlife goes and complains to
Kevin, the SM. Not only does he have the audacity to lie, and be deceitful,
but he is somehow convinced that I have some sort of inclination to see what
he is playing. It never ceases to amaze me how self-important some people
are. Why the hell would I care what he was playing in a tournament I wasn't
even playing in? Unfortunately, he beat Jones, and managed to qualify for
day 2 in 16th position.
But anyway, that night we went off to find out where we were staying, had a
30 minute walk there, and Stuart Jones and I worked together on a light
deck. We ended up with a version of EBO, and already had our dark decks
sorted.
Game 1, Dark vs Rob Blanford (1763)
Rob's a good player, even if i do harass him about being a little slow :)
We played at the Canberra Grand Slam earlier this year, and from memory he
beat me during that game. Anyway, he was playing EBO, I started with
Decree, got some stuff down and happening on the Hoth planet setting up
Decree, and sent Bosssk (barriered), Zuckuss, 4-LOM and IG-88 and Ozzel to
fight somewhere, and killing stuff, but on the following turn Zuckusss got
Laser Cannoned and Bossk was beaten down for +5 force or so. Fortunately,
with decree set up and my retrieval happeninng with ISB, I was able to take
the win by about 10 force.
Game 2, Light vs Stuart Jones (1898)
This is not a game I want to be playing. All I can say is that I got a
miraculous draw, and Stuart got a poor one, and after force choking the
force choker, I was able to get a couple of drains of 9 in, and EPP Obi +
EPP Luke combined to hurt some more, but not until after EBO was cancelled.
The drains of 1 did him in still, and I was able to win by 20. 95 times out
of a hundred, the dark deck should win this matchup, I think, but some
fortunate cards went off the top of the reserve deck.
Game 3, Dark vs Luca Costanzo (1770)
Great, I've travelled 800km to play guys I can play any day of the week.
Unreal. Luca's also playing EBO, Decree is started again, and is in
trouble. Fortunately for me, Luca also deployed Yavin4 system, and the
Yavin4 dockingbay reduces his drain there. It seems to me that the way to
beat EBO is to outdrain it, and to set Decree up. But either way, I was
able to win by 29 or something, 'cause he could drain for very little, and
although EPP Luke/EPP Han/EPP Leia made an appearance to turn decree off, it
wasn't until EBO was gone, and an endless supply of forfeit 6 dudes who
don't get hit by weapons is a hard thing to outfight, especially when you
have an opponent who's tracking destiny.
Game 4, Light vs Jared Brown (1785)
Never having played Jared before (except that I might've played against him
in the sealed deck the previous day), I wasn't sure what to expect. I was
able to set up EBO pretty quicikly, but Zuckusss, Boba and Bossk made an
appearance against a couple of my X-Wings. Fortunately for me, he declined
to attack me, so on my turn I deployed an extra x-wing or two, 2 X-Wing
Laser Cannons, battled, made Boba and Zuckuss lost, power pivoted Bossk, and
made him lose +18 force. After that, Jared didn't have much chance, and it
was just a matter for me to force drain and spread out. EBO rocks vs Court
'cause Arconas don't get hammered by Nemet/Arnet, although S+V is kinda
nasty. Full win by high twenties.
Game 5, Dark vs Stuart Lauder (1833)
He was playing Bothawui Operatives, with a copy of Artoo in Red 5 or two,
some Luke Skywalkers, Red Leader in Red 1, Gold Leader in Gold 1, and
nothing else for space. Naturally, I started Battle Plan, and he barely
drained all game. Soon, I had Decree in effect, and after altering
Maneuvering Flaps a bunch of times, I was safe to go down to the farm even
though I had no walker. No EPPs allowed my guys to be outside anyway, and
with the -1 from ISB and the Decree, he could only drain where he had
Ithorians. Naturally, Tempest 1 + Igar + someone went to go kill one, and
IG-88/4-LOM dealt with the other. After that point, aware that he was
unable to win the game, knowing he was beaten, Stuart knowingly decided to
stall the game out to prevent me from getting the 2 points. How does
someone justify themselves when they behave like this? Now, technically,
Stuart played within the rules. He moved his speeders over to the Farm so
as to force me to battle (which takes longer than draining), killing one of
my ISB dudes who would simply get retrieved + replaced, and had to do it
merely long enough to stall the game out. In hindsight, it didn't matter as
I was able to go on and remain undefeated and thus get into the final, but
Stuart's decision to stall the game out was typical of his mentality. It
makes no difference to him whether I get 1 point or two - it's just such a
small-minded and spiteful thing to do. It's also unfortunate that there are
such scum playing this game. Though he may well have been to worlds, both
him and I are fully aware that he will never amount to anything significant
or worthwhile. Timed win by 16.
Game 6, Light vs Luca Costanzo (1770)
Luca was also playing Court, but my drains in space were just too big. He
might've come to try and fight in space, but X-Wing Laser Cannons tends to
eliminate Bounty Hunter ships very quickly. Full win by 27 or so. As it
turns out, Luca's only two losses for the day were to me, which was rather
unfortunate. As he remarked on the train on the way home, he lost 2 games
and ended up in 6th, while Ben Isaacs lost two games and ended up with a
trip to worlds. Of course, I'm rather biased here, since I have now
developed a distinct distaste for finals, but they are rather silly :). On
that subject, wouldn't it be a better idea to simply play an extra round
rather than have a final? The top 2 players play each other at the 7th
game, and if the top player wins that, he'll probably still be in first
place. On the other hand, if the lower player wins it, then effectively the
8th and final game becomes the decider anyway. It might be something to
look at in the future :)
The scores before the final:
Me: 11 + 130-odd
Ben Isaaccs 10+a lot
Stuart Jones 8+
Marcus Cheong 8+
Wai Bien Wong 8+
Luca Costanzo 8+
....
Game 1, Dark vs Ben Issaacs (1656)
He's playing some sabacc deck, so I twilek for TBHTP early, grab his first
sabacc, monnok him once netting a couple of cards, and really just do as
little as possible to win. I made a couple of mistakes here, and probably
could've pushed the differential as high as 28 or 29, but it wasn't to be.
He also did well to force me to deploy as much as possible, but i ended up
winning by 26.
Game 2, Light vs Ben again
I got a dodgy draw, played badly, he played well, and beat me by more force.
I made mistakes here and there, and probbaly could've been 5 or so force
better off, but I was simply out-played and beaten by 31. It was just so
frustrating to see my 4th final end in a loss again, especially after doing
so well the previous 7 games. It was so frustrating to think that his Dark
Deck, with Sabacc, was probably the only deck there that day that could beat
my light deck by more than 26 force. It was so frustrating to see him
effectively net 5 force every time he played sabacc (retrieved 3 with Lando,
and stole one of my ships), making him 4 force better off and me 1 worse
off. It was so frustrating to see him deploy Search And Destroy and First
Strike (which was bad to my Arconas), and to establish steady drains for 2 +
2. It was frustrating to see that rogue deck, unique to the tournament and
difficult to meta against, beat me. It was so frustrating to see months of
preparation and effor go down the drain. It was so frustrating to end up in
second again.
Anyway, I've no doubt that Ben will do a fantastic job in Florida come
October, and I wish him all the best. It would be cool if a Sabacc deck
wins worlds.
For myself, I think I've got one more tournament. It's sorta sad to say
this, but I think that come July 30, I'll have to significantly reduce how
much I play and pay for this game. Realistically, though this game is still
fun most of the time, my priorities have changed over the 4½ years I have
been playing this game, and it is simply too expensive to continue buying
new sets. I can no longer justify myself paying $5 or $6 for a pack of
cards, the vast majority of which I will never use. Josh Martin's got it
down sweet.
And besides, playing NetSet is much more fun, doesn't require weeks of
preparation, and is quick and easy, but still requires a similar depth of
thought.
Props:
Stuart Jones for helping with decks and stuff
Luca for putting up with me on the train both ways
Kev for running the event
Wai Bien for coming along
Ben Isaacs for winning
Terry Lyons for being the good guy
Adam Amy for being overly inebriated at the start of the second day
Dono, Dave, Keith, Mark, and John for having a sense of humour
Rob Blanford for being slow
Slops:
Stuart Lauder for being Stuart Lauder
Ben Isaacs for beating me :)
Channel 7 for showing the rugby on Saturday night rather than the footy
Have a good one,
Mike J ---- joz@swccg.com
For the hippest, funkiest and downright coolest SW:CCG website out there,
check out http://www.ilovekev.com now!
NetSet...the most addictive game ever made...find out more at http://netset.mjosem.com
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333: Half brother of the Beast.
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For sale: One premiere, black bordered, limited, uncut SW:CCG sheet with
uncommon cards on it. Contact me if you want it!
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