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Author: Joshua "Stormcrow" Grace
Title: foil-japanese-vader-day-mirkwood-2-6
Date Published: 2001-02-07
Usually, the Mirkwood tournaments draw 10 or a dozen
players, but there are the occassional (and random) nights
when a good-sized crowd will gather at Mirkwood for Star
Wars CCG mirth and merriment. Tuesday’s tournament was one
such tournament, gathering around 20 players, including
Royce, a suprise guest from the Alderaan region who, much
to my chagrin (and Scrye’s), opted not to play Rescue the
Princess...
Anyway, to continue the protracted preamble to this report,
I went up to the register to fork over my dollar for the
tournament (since I forgot to take one of my Cloud City
packs from my apartment) and overheard Tim, the store’s
co-manager, and Garrett, a player, talking about something
when Garrett said, "We should really let Josh decide."
Naturally, I asked, "Let Josh decide what?"
Tim said that, due to my performance in Mirkwood tourneys
over the past month, I had earned a foil Japanese Vader.
The option (!) in this decision was that I could put it on
the line, allowing the eventual tournament winner to claim
the Vader. I actually thought about this for a few seconds;
that’s my proof that I’m a sporting fellow. Then, like any
sane individual, I took the Vader. And promptly traded him
with Chad & Jerry for a Jedi Luke (yes, Chad & Jerry will
get "props" this week instead of the usual trader "slops").
It turned out Tim had another foil Japanese Vader to throw
on the line for the tournament winner, anyhow.
So, feeling like less of a heel, I entered the tournament
hoping to win a 2nd Vader. My chances were pretty good, I
thought, since Mike Ravelling had decided to play Dion
Erbes’ decks and let Dion play his.
My Light Side was a Throne Room Mains deck with Ishi-Tech.
Dark Side was an ISB powerhouse w/DB’s.
Game 1: My Light Side vs. Rich Jeffries’ SYCFA Manipulator
To make a short story shorter, we both dumped a bunch of
sites out onto the table in the first couple of turns while
I controlled the DS:DB early with Obi-wan. He put Vader
down to battle Obi (and an Ishi-tib, I think), but a Fallen
Portal was the end of Vader. Lucky draw, but that’s how it
goes for me against Rich. No big surprise. So, then he
put Mi’yoom at the Executor DB (?), planning to start his
manipulation, and drew up... all of his cards! (??)
So, Lando w/Axe, Luke w/Saber and some others came down to
kill Mi’yoom with Draw Their Fire hitting the table, and
shortly after Rich lost that battle, I ended the game with
no lost pile.
FW 2(+29)
This has apparently put me in the top pairing which, with
a foil Japanese Vader on the line, was pretty darn cool.
Game 2: My DS against Nick’s (not-quite-Ravelling-style) WYS
Having lost to Mike Ravelling’s broken WYS deck on Saturday,
I decided to play cautiously, setting my forces up to avoid
a multiple-destiny beat-down. This allowed Nick to get in
a couple of early drains against me, but soon I had an
undercover spy blocking his Cantina drain, Walkers and/or
the Emperor (and the ominous Force Lightning) blocking all
the battleground DB’s, and big blue in space at both
Tatooine and Kessel (with enough destiny draws to crack
his Falcon’s immunity). There wasn’t any battling since he
played a barrier when I set Grand Admiral Thrawn and the
Chimaera up against a lone Captain Han, and, from that point
on, Nick was afraid to challenge my forces, and it just
didn’t pay for me to attack him, since all his drains were
cancelled each turn (or I would lose an ISB agent and
retrieve him with the objective each of my turns).
However, Nick made me pay for my impatience when I grabbed
his Rebel Barrier. He must have played On the Edge 10 times
and retrieved 4 force with it each time. Yet, the ISB lock-
down proved too effective for him to overcome, and it was
merely a matter of time before my drains overtook his
retrieval.
FW 4(+42)
After this game, I managed to trade with Royce for a Smoke
& Mirrors 5. X-Files may not be a popular game anymore, but
it’s cheap, baby, and fun! I think I traded a Mon Cal
cruiser for the X-Files equivalent of a Mara Jade (and her
saber). Surprised to learn that Dion Erbes had an extensive
X-Files collection, I taught him the rules for the advanced
game.
So, going into game 3, I was again in the top pairing, this
time against my own personal Lex Luther (or am I his?),
Mike Ravelling. But Mike was playing Dion’s decks, so I
didn’t expect as tough a game as usual.
(Meanwhile, Mike’s decks were 1-1.)
Game 3: My LS vs. Mike Ravelling playing Dion’s CCT Hansicle
I didn’t draw any 2/0 locations in my opening hand. Just the
Home 1 DB. So I threw that down and searched for the Echo
DB. Oola went out to the Home 1 DB for early generation
and, hopefully, to get out an early lock. But Mike played
his 1st turn intelligently (duh) drawing a handsize just
above my activation and saved the rest of his force. On my
2nd turn, then, I deployed Leia w/Blaster to the Carbon
Chamber and moved her over to rescue Han. With no Rebel
Barrier in hand, I saved a force hoping to bluff Mike. But
it was to no avail. Mike, in fact, had drawn a Mara and
deployed her against Oola, fetched her saber and put First
Strike on the table. Oola died, but Mara drew Mara for
destiny, so the loss was recoverable. I hoped to take
advantage of First Strike by throwing out Chewie Protector,
KFC, some other scrub and Luke w/Saber against Mara. But
Mike had the barrier for Luke. I don’t think I battled that
turn.
The next couple of turns saw me losing battles at the Home 1
DB while Mike was retrieving from First Strike. I eventually
decided that it wasn’t worth the fight and had Luke transit
the heck away. So it became a drain race for a while, and I
was losing. But Mike attacked Leia and Cap’n Han with Ephont
Mon and Mighty Jabba. When the smoke cleared, Ephont Mon
had died along with Cap’n Han, but Mighty Jabba couldn’t
afford to run his lard @$$ away from Leia before we all
discovered that Han hadn’t died but had just run away to
fetch his blaster. So I initiated battle, hit Jabba with
Han, targetted again with Leia to add 5 from Aim High, and
drew a total destiny of 9. Mike ended up losing Jabba and
11 force while Han took Advantage of the situation to run
over to join Obi-wan and Major Hashish at the CC DB. I ate
another drain of 2 at the Home 1 DB before I was able to
deploy Boussh to block that site. Mike was now losing the
drain race and attempted to retrieve force by battling
Luke w/Saber and an Ishi-tib with Bane Malar. However, that
move backfired when Luke sliced Bane and drew a 4 for
destiny to Mike’s... 0 (I didn’t even have to lose the
Ishi-tib). That pretty much summed it up. One or two more
turns of draining ended the game.
FW 6(+51)
And it’s looking good so far since there are only 3
undefeated players left, and one of them, Tim, has a timed
win. I’m 19 differential ahead of 2nd place and think I
might get two Japanese foil Vaders in one night.
Game 4: My ISB vs Mike Ravelling playing Dion’s Hidden Base
Well, this wasn’t what I wanted. After the last game, I had
breathed a sigh of relief and shook Mike’s sweaty hand...
Only, as it turns out, to play Mike again. Royce, the other
undefeated player with full wins, is on the same side as
me, working his Alderaan tech with Scum. (Tim, meanwhile,
is playing Light Side and *should* be playing me, but
Decipher’s software doesn’t see things that way. And none of
us realize this until after the game.)
So Mike and I sit across from each other once again. I
decide to start You Cannot Hide Forever in order to ditch
it later for Search & Destroy. Mike starts Squassin, Wise
Advice/Do or Do Not, and the effect that lets you forfeit
weapons. So I think it’s a B-wing deck or such and joke
that I’m not going to be stupid enough to deploy to space.
I get an Emperor in my hand and deploy him for free to
the Coruscant site, use IAO to get the Coruscant DB and
move Palpy over. Along with Rendili, this gives me
beaucoup activation early. Mike reveals Tycho to fetch
Green Squadron 3 and set him up at Rendili. Well, I swallow
my earlier comment about not deploying to space since my
hand holds: the Executor, Chimaera, Grand Admiral Thrawn
and that crazy Victory Class whose name I shall never
remember. So I save force for a turn and deploy Thrawn in
the Chimaera to his Barrier. Blah.
We then battle frequently in space, and I lose. I can’t
get agents on the ground to flip. I can’t set up Imperial
Decree or Search & Destroy. I can’t kill Corran Horn. And,
when on my 2nd turn I search for a docking bay, the only
one in my deck is the <> DB that I want to deploy to Kessel,
Kiffex or Coruscant. Except I forget that people who are
playing pure space play the Coruscant system, so I deploy
my generic docking bay to some drain-1 system instead. While
I go about losing all my ships in battle (including Bossk
which I draw later), I probe all of Mike’s systems except
the correct one.
In the end, I’m upset that I’m going to lose the foil Vader,
but given my poor play, whittling Mike’s force down to a
differential of 13 was an accomplishment.
So, I go 6(+38). Royce loses his game by 4 or so. But Tim
notches a 4th win to take the tournament and a foil
Japanese Vader.
Mike Ravelling gets 2nd. I get 3rd. Nick, who travelled
down from St. Cloud for the tournament, defeats Royce,
knocking him out of the top 4, to claim 4th for himself.
Chad, Jerry, Justin Alfs and I discuss the possibility of
taking what I know of the incredible, edible Middle Earth:
the Drinking Game and modifying the rules for Star Wars CCG.
Cheers:
Tim for the big win!
Mirkwood for all the tournaments and the great support.
Chad & Jerry. To get them off my back.
Graham for the surprise Cherry Coke.
Mike Ravelling for being one of the few players to
consistently play well enough to merit shaking a
consistently sweaty palm.
Jedi Luke being for destiny 6 (even if I never drew him).
Foil Japanese Vader for being trade-bait for a Jedi Luke.
Rich Jeffries, thanks for the auto-wins ;-P
Royce, Nick, Nick’s brother, Sam, and Sam’s friend (even
though he cheated) for joining in the fun.
Royce for the Smoke & Mirrors 5.
Jeers:
Herb. Had to constantly avoid him.
Decipher’s software. I get screwed weekly.
Ex-girlfriends in general.
Joshua "Stormcrow" Grace |
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