 |
|
|
|
|
Author: Kimberly "Arwen Even*" Caton
Title: cedar-grove-nj-8-12-00
Date Published: 2000-08-14
I hadn't thought I'd be able to make Rich's monthly tourney at Cedar Grove due to a camping trip, but as it
turned out the place we were staying was only about an hour away and it was pouring when I woke up on
Saturday... soggy tent or SW tournament? So I manage to arrive on time depite the gas-station less
godforsaken back roads in the Poconos, and the turnout is eventually counted at 29. For light I was playing
an AFA/ MWYHL with come strange combos that's gone tournament-undefeated since I built it, and a
modified Hoth ISB deck with which that #@$!!*%! Lt. Blount has yet to survive more than one turn. I've
been pulling out of my post-Origins slump lately, and I had high hopes (for me, anyway). The games (and
I'm horrible with names, sorry):
Game 1: My ISB vs. ????'s Asteroid Sanctuary
I haven't played against an Asteroid Sanc deck in ages, so I wasn't quite sure how my dark would hold up...
as it turned out, I needn't have worried. I pull Echo docking bay and drop the Ice Plains. He starts Anoat
and pulls out some sectors and a couple of ships first turn. Well, after drawing for my first turn I ended up
with Bossk, Dengar, and an ORS in my hand... My next turn I save, and he deploys an Asteroid Sanc on the
first sector after I pointed out he needed to have a ship there first. My turn, I drop Bossk, a fprfeit fodder
probe droid, and Dengar on his lone X-Wing, beat him up, cancel Sanctuary, and move to his system where
he has (I think) 2 corvettes. His turn he drops a couple pilots and battles... I lose the probe droid, he loses a
pilot and ship and moves the remaining ship into the asteroids. My turn, down comes the ORS, Ozzel and
the Avenger for backup... I WANT that system. I also put out the defensive perimeter. He drains me for
one, I throw away an agent. My turn I drain for two (and point out to him that he can cancel it since he
controls a sector) and deploy a walker with Evax and a probe droid to the perimeter for the flip. PotF goes
on the perimeter and I havbe a steady drain of 4 set up. He eventually comes down with some ships back to
Anoat, we battle for a couple turns, he runs away into the asteroids. I use my terminal to set up three sixes,
blow up his three remaining ships, and drain him out with 6 a turn for the rest of the game.
FW +36 -- 2(+36)
Game 2 -- MY MWYHL vs. Doug Faust's Bring Him Before Me.
Doug's been playing Hunt Down forever, finally decides to change, and what do I get in my opening hand?
2 Transmission Terminateds... grrr... I had started training DOS for just such an occasion, so I was free to
deploy Jedi Luke from my deck to give to Vader on about the third turn or so. I'm passing my tests (I go to
3) right on schedule, and I had had a couple of AFA's pop since I had Battle Plan and Wars Not Make One
Great out... eventually he gets Fett at a system (Rendili, maybe?) and only has to pay one per drain. I bring
down the spies and projections, he counters with search and destroy. Meanwhile, I'm hitting him with
Visored Vision/Polarized Negative Power Coupling pretty regularly. He's also losing one a turn to his
objective, and with my high destinies and test 3 passed, Luke keeps winning; however, he has no cards on
Your Destiny so I'm not too worried. I eventually Hiding in the Garbage for all my ships and funky
interrupts and drop down on Fett and Bossk at Rendili... Order to Engage means he has to battle me, and
Punch It, Power Pivot, and Legendary Starfighter make their appearance... I wipe him out at the system,
knocking out his third battleground so HotJedi neutralizes Search and Destroy. I pay four to drain 1 at
Rendili, and Visored Vision and his objective take care of the rest.
FW+10 -- 4 (+46)
Game 3 -- My ISB vs. Thomas Hermley-Keen's Hidden Base/ Desperate Hour
Well, I'm the top match -- that hasn't happened in a year or three. I have lost to certain types of Hidden
Base, so I'm nervous. He pulls out Tatooine and Alderaan his first couple turns, I pull the Echo docking bay
with IAO, as well as Security Precautions with a Twi'lek (just in case)... He deploys Luke and Ben to the Tat
docking bay he had pulled and starts nicking me for one there and one at the Tat system. I eventually get a
couple of walkers and a couple of agents to my Hoth sites for the flip, and 5D6 goes to Tatooine to stop
THAT little affair. He gets out Endor and puts some ships at Hoth as well, for a drain of one each (and I'm
retrieving an agent a turn). I deploy a bunch of ships and start moving them around to cut the space drain to
1, which I can retrieve. I start hitting him for about 3 or so on Hoth with the Defensive Perimeter, the Ice
Plains, and 2 PotF's since he has Menace Fades off. He starts deploying high ability characters like crazy,
and I counter with Secret Plans (hee hee)... Luke and Obi docking bay transport to Hoth (for a drain of zero,
he had two lightsabers but forgot I had started Decree). He moves them outside to block the drain at the
Perimeter and, BOOM! The Shield Doors Must Be Closed, Frostbite (cuz the sun was already down) amd
an Ice Storm make their appearance... I move over a walker to back up the perimeter and he loses Menace
Fades. He starts losing 2 a turn to Frostbite until Luke and Obi go missing, at which point Frostbite costs
him 4... without Menace Fades I'm draining for 5 and he's losing an additional 4... He never has enough
force to pull off the Our Most Desperate Hour he had deployed, and I win.
FW +14 -- 6(+50)
Game 4: My MWYHL vs. Mike Dalton's SupeRops.
I hate Rops. I really, really, hate Rops. This game was fairly uneventful... I passed my tests, I blocked his
drains... he had Battle Plan satisfied really early so he had very little need to activate force, so I couldn't get
my AFA's to pop. Search and Destroy comes down and I attempt to alter it, but I couldn't find Hiding in the
Garbage so I couldn't set up a low enough destiny and had to wing it... as it turned out, the lowest destiny in
my reserve at this time was a four. Crap. A couple of turns later, HitG and both my alters are gone,
courtesy of S&D. It's game at this point, but in an attempt (unsuccessful, as it turned out) to limit the diff I
deploy Tantive and Artoo at Kessel, then move to Dagobah so I can play We're Doomed and cut my losses
to just the one on my turn. I get that a couple of times, then deploy Red Leader and 2 Red Squadron X-
Wings at the one system he occupies, not realizing that Tantive can't make the jump from parsec 9 to parsec
2... whoops. I leave it at Kessel, it gets beat down, my X-Wings get beat down, I get beat down... I get in a
couple of nicks with Visored Vision, but lose... and badly.
FL -26 -- 6(+24)
Game 5 -- My MWYHL vs. ????'s Endor Drain
He starts Careful Planning for two +1 drain Endor sites... I think he hits me for about 4 or 5 total before I
shut him down with test 1 and a couple of projections. I start inserting AFA's and get out Polarized
Negative Power Coupling to start hitting him with a couple of Visored Visions a turn. He gets out another
couple of sites and I counter with Artoo Undercover and TK-422. He starts looking very frustrated. He
deploys Search and Destroy and I get hit for a bit, until I get a We're Doomed on his turn, It Could Be
Worse on mine to neautralize it. I eventually use Hiding in the Garbage to get an alter and set up a 2 to get
rid of it. He gets out another site, I get out Kessel with a bunch of ships. I It Could Be Worse his drain of
one and start paying three to drain him for three at Kessel. A couple more AFA's and Visored Visions help
to finish him off, and he eventually draws up his last 12 cards or so.
FW +15(I think) -- 8(+39) (I think)
Game 6 -- My ISB vs. Rob Middleton's Quiet Mining Colony
Pretty standard stuff. He sets up his four sites, I put down four undercover spies. I flip and set up on Hoth,
but he gets out Menaces Fades. I drop a PotF on the Ice Plains and he deploys Luke and a couple of other
characters, unable to resist the drain of three... I wipe him off the site with a couple of walkers and a bunch
of agents to wipe him out. I deploy Secret Plans and start draining for one at the Plains and one at the
docking bay, but he has a bunch of Eloms and Bargaining Table to counter some of it. Then out comes
celebration, and he's paying four to retrieve four every turn. I bring out an Ice Storm for protection and
another PotF and spread out to a drain of four to keep him even. With Battle Plan out and Bargaining Table
down, I'm gaining zero headway. I eventually get out a bunch of ships at my Hoth to satisfy Battle Plan and
shuttle up Vader and Evax for some fodder. At this point he has a drain of 2, one of which I'm retrieving...
and I spread out some more for a drain of five, four of which he's retrieving. We start doing a ship dance,
spreading out and regrouping so that now I'm losing 2 on one turn, one on the next, for a net loss of one
card every two turns. Which, sadly enough, is too much , considering he retrieves another seven with his
seven Eloms. (Damn! That was seven turns worth of my work!) With that, he has no porblem continuing to
pay four for his celebration and gets back some of his Eloms for the bargaining table. I do a final drain of
five and draw up my last card. Between this and Joe Young's demonic QMC, Endor Occupation is SO
going back in my deck... Hell, it's a five...
FL - 14 (I think) -- 8(+25) (I think)
There were no undefeateds, so Mike took the tournament (and his t-shirt back) with the highest diff on a 5-
21 finish. All in all, I was satisfied with 4-2... I pull a foil Tyrant from my Reflections pack and a Lord
Vader from my DS2 pack... Was I happy? Hell, yeah! So I rejoined my friends at my campsite to find that I had missed many hours of A**hole, bubble hockey, drinking, and rain. Went to go to bed, only to find water had gotten in through the bottom of my tent, soaking everything in it EXCEPT (ironically enough) my bathing suit (go fig) which I had to wear all the next day coupled with a borrowed sweatshirt and pair of boxers. Ain't camping grand...
|
|
|
|
|
