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Author: Michael "Longshot" Mendoza
Title: enduro-final-rd-roseville-ca-3-11-01
Date Published: 2001-03-14
Continued from part 3 of the Enduro tourney. See the previous
TRs before you read this one. Now I had a tough decision to
make. Do I change decks before the 4th quarter? My EBO was
5-1 and my FlOps was 3-3, giving me a score of 16 (+139).
Maybe I should use my Court or Hunt Down deck? Well, I figure
I’ll probably never again play FlOps after this, so I’ll see if
I can give it a good finish. I only saw 1 Scum deck at all, so
I decided against Profit and stuck with EBO. I want to go 4-0
this quarter to have a shot at 2nd or 3rd place. Paul is in
1st (he’s 11-1), Kevin is 2nd (10-2). So its past 4 AM when we
start the 4th quarter.....the homestretch. I can hear my bed
calling me......"go to sleep".....that’s what its saying. But
I play on. Oh yeah, and sorry Mason about that barrier on
Tempest 1 last TR. I guess we were too tired to notice that.
Game 1: DS v James Weldon’s TIGIH (Squassin,Insurr,StrikePlan)
I get Imperial Fleet to cancel his drain with Luke every turn.
We both lose to Visage all game. I retrieve w/SFS though, he
has no retrieval. 2nd turn he puts Wedge in ship at my
Kashyyyk. My 3rd turn I Lateral Damage Wedge, drop 2 TIE
Interceptors and Emp Sword, battle, and play APTW. He loses
them plus 14 more force. Next turn I get FlOps on a VSD.
Later, I have 2 Interceptors at Kiffex and he drops Gold Squad
1 there w/Nien and Gen Lando. Battle, I react w/Emp Shield &
play APTW. He loses 9 rather than forfeit a pilot. Next turn,
I drop a SFS cannon and just blast the Falcon away, not wanting
to risk a Punch It! or whatever else he might have had.
BTW, Imperial Fleet is still cancelling all his Endor drains
since he keeps all his guys at the Endor DB. He’s got DOS,Luke,
Midge, and Crix there. I move Piett, Gherent, & Merrejk over
after deploying 2 Interceptors to the endor DB. So Piett
captures Luke, and he battles me. I send a TIE used, and kill
Midge. I’m losing 2 force to TIGIH, but I’ve cards in hand &
I want to get TIEs to my used pile. After killing Crix, the
drains finish him off. Win by 31. 2 (+31).
Best: FlOps actually winning some ground battles!
Worst: Losing 2 per turn to I Can Save Him.
Game 2: LS v Nghia Nguyen’s HDADTJ (IAO, Mob Pts, Crush)
Damn, I hate those Evader/Monnoks! He gets me early (like 4th
turn) for 2 xwings and 2 organized Attacks. I needed the Org
Attacks. I started Insight, Wise Advice, & Battle PLan. I
pulled HoTJ w/Insight 1st turn, and it protected me until the
8th turn or so. He Twi’leked for No Escape, but it was one of
his 3 active force! Huge for me. So EBO gets going by the 4th
turn, and i setup the big drains. He deploys DLOTS and Mara
to his CC DB w/POTF. Boushh blocks that drain. I deploy Comm
Luke in Rogue 1 to my North Ridge, so he’s losing to Visage &
I’m not. Comm Wedge backs him up. Unfortunately for me, he
drops Responsibilty of Command and Much Anger In Him on Luke,
then Tempest 1 and Igar aboard. So I lose 4 force (should’ve
only lost 2 cuz of HoTJ), and quickly go cancel Responsibility
while he flips Hunt Down again.
Now No Escape is out, and Visage is hitting me hard. Luke gets
back to the ridge though, so we’re both losing. Zev in Rogue 2
heads to the Ridge to back up his flight leader. Nghia drops
Thrawn & Jodo to the Ridge and battles. He gets 2 5’s for
destiny, so Zev in Rogue 2 goes down in flames (good thing Luke
adds 1 to Zev’s forfeit or I’d have to lose another guy!). We
are both getting low on force, and he realizes he needs to get
rid of my big drains in space. So he moves Tempest 1 to the
1st marker. Next turn, Fett in Slave 1 comes to Hoth & lands.
I should’ve barriered it cuz I had 5 xwings at Hoth. Dumb.
The guys on Tempest 1 disembark. Jodo flies into Echo Base,
cancels Incom. Thrawn (who was at the DB, now moves into the
War Room. Igar disembarks and moves to the DB. So EBO is
cancelled. Tempest 1 then moves over to Fett at the Ridge. I
beat them down next turn, and drain for measly amounts now.
But Visage is still hitting us both. We have the *exact* amount
of force now. 8 force left. I have Comm Luke and Rogue 3 at
the North Ridge (Luke’s not in it though), he has Tempest 1 w/
Thrawn in it. I battle, and pray to god he doesn’t draw a 6,
cuz then I’d have to lose Luke and it’d be game. He draws a 5,
I draw a 5, so Thrawn dies and Rogue 3 dies. Now Tempest 1 gets
no battle destiny, he has no cards in hand, and I get that drain
at the North Ridge to lock the game up. Win by 2 force!
4 (+33).
Best: Great game against a great player. I was proud of my EBO
deck in that one.
Worst: Could’ve barriered Fett to prevent EBO getting cancelled.
Game 3: DS v Dan Mochizuki’s WYS (Insur, Staging, Squassin)
My last game w/FlOps for this tourney. And its against Dan, who
is a great player. He cancels Visage early on (3rd turn I
think) w/ an OOC/TT. I get Piett, who pulls Gherent, who pulls
Exec sites for me. He deploys Capt Han in Falcon, plus Mirax &
a Palace Raider in the Skate to Tatooine where I have Dominator
w/FlOps on it along with 2 Interceptors. I react w/Emp’s
Sword, play APTW, then send a TIE used. Next turn, I drop a
SFS cannon on a TIE, battle, play APTW, blast the Skate away,
& he loses Falcon plus a few more. He lost several ships off
the top. He never deployed to space after that.
After that, he proceeds to deploy I Hope She’s Alright. Not
that card again! Ok, I *have* to occupy a BG site to win this
game. I move Gherent and Piett to his Spaceport DB where he has
Lando w/gun and a Raider on a Patrol Craft. I also deploy 2
TIEs to soak some damage. Well, he drops OTE and battles,
leaving me with a TIE and Gherent there. Well, now I have to
battle him or lose 3, so I battle, he Fallen Portals Gherent.
So I’ve got the lone TIE against Lando & a Raider in Craft.
But do you really think I battled him if I didn’t have a Ghhk?
I ain’t no dummy! So i play Ghhhk, and spread in space. Next
turn I deploy some TIEs to retrieve my guys. His drains are
virtually for zero. U-3PO is at the Cantina w/Master Luke w/
saber. Imperial Fleet cancels his drain of Owen and Beru at
the Farm. He had done 3 Harvests to retrieve his ships, but
the Harvests went OOP due to my Something Special Planned.
Then he’s got the drain at his 2 DBs, one of which gets
cancelled occasionally by Tarkin’s Orders. My drains are big.
I’ve got Kashyyyk, Sullust, Tatooine (Chiraneau there), Kiffex,
and Rendili. So I’ve got it locked. But I’ve got a lot on the
table and I Hope She’s Alright makes it closer than it
otherwise would have been. Win by 11. 6 (+44).
Best: FlOps going 2-0! I can possibly go 4-0 this quarter!
Worst: I Hope She’s Alright!!
Game 4: LS v Paul McKelvey’s ISB (IAO, Mob Pts, Decree)
What a disheartening matchup. ISB usually tears up EBO, and
Paul had done *extremely* well w/his ISB deck today. He told
me its overall record was like 40-2 (since ISB came out). I
start ANSB to get a quick start, and hope for the best. After
I get EBO going (on 3rd turn), he gets an ORS and ATST at Yavin
4 DB and North Ridge. Then I drain him, but he says Decree is
in effect. I tell him to read ANSB, and he says sorry, he
forgot about that. No prob, it was almost 8 AM now anyway and
we had all been up for over 24 hours. The I draw some speeders
which I desperately needed to prevent him from overrunning Echo
Base. Rogue Squadron mobilizes and Wedge and Luke hop in Rogue 3
while Zev and Hobbie hop in Rogue 2 (why can’t Rogue 2 react?!).
He’s got Decree going, and his objective is flipped. I had
deployed Boushh to Yavin 4 DB (the turn before he lost Nevar
whatever from hand...the card that makes spies go lost if they
are with your spy), and she followed wherever they went. During
one of his drains I lose HoTJ off the top. Damn! Could’ve
killed the drains under the shield! He tries adding to his
drains under the shield, but I remind him they aren’t BG sites.
So there are some battles under the shield as Rogue Squad is
defending Hoth. It was cool....since he was using ATATs and
ATSTs. But I had 5 xwings at Hoth (power +5 in Hoth battles)
& I was immune to whatever attrition he drew.
So slowly his forces on Hoth were dwindling. After I drew Battle
Plan, I moved Rogue Squad to the North Ridge to drain for free.
He had DLOTS w/saber in my interior sites, so he cancelled EBO
and also moved his guys out to the North Ridge. I deployed
Rogue 3 and moved Wedge aboard it. At this point he had 2 ORS,
Blizzard 1, and Blizzard Scout 1 at the North Ridge. Plus DLOTS
w/saber draining at my War Room. That’s all that was on Hoth.
He had Tarkin & an ORS at his Endor Forest Clearing. On my
turn, TK-422 blocked that drain, Boushh broke cover and battled
where he had an ORS and ATST (only ability 1 though). So she
cleared that site. Then I battled at the North Ridge. My power
was 31 to his 18 or so (I had moved almost all my xwings to Hoth)
so he lost Blizzard 1 and both ORS. Rogue Squad was victorious.
Plus it was funny cuz he had 1st Strike on table and since I
had battled I retrieved EBO! I could set it up again! lol.
Anyways, a few drains later and that was game. Win by 22.
8 (+66).
Best: Beating ISB! I was damn proud of my EBO in that game.
Worst: Losing HoTJ off the top.
40 people showed to Enduro, but only 32 went through to the end.
Its past 8 AM, I don’t remember exactly what time though. Paul
went 4-0, so he finishes at 15-1. Kevin lost once, so he
finishes at 13-3. I’m 12-4 with a score of 24 (+205). But
there are others who are 12-4, and I don’t know how good my
differential is compared to theirs. So as the prizes are being
handed out I listen for my name.....
5th place......Dan Mochizuki
4th place......Alfred Dong
3rd place......me!
Paul takes 1st and Kevin takes 2nd.
The top 3 got a framed Enduro award, the top 2 got tshirts, and
Paul got a Mara Jade foil and Mara’s Saber foil. The top 3
also got other cards. I don’t remember what they got, but I
got a RL in R1, GL in G1, Rogue 1 foil, & Bravo 1 card, all
signed by the respective Decipher employees. Plus I got an
EPP Leia foil box topper, and a reflections 2 pack. Pulled
Xizor and Dr E./Ponda combo. And I got a $10 certificate to
buy stuff, but everything was sold out, so I bought some
sleeves. Thanks for reading. Now for the props/slops.
Props to:
Mike Hardy for staying up and running all 4 tournies!!!
Alex Thompson for the ride and for not leaving midway through.
Paul for winning.
Nick Stefanko for playing 2 awesome decks and winning with them.
My FlOps deck for going 5-3 and not totally sucking.
My EBO deck for going 7-1 and beating Hunt Down and ISB!
Everyone at Enduro, you’ve got endurance!
The guys at A-1 comics for staying up all night too.
Everyone who read all 4 TRs, you’ve got to play it next time!
The sushi place next door who gave free sodas w/purchase if you
were in Enduro. Get them to translate your Jap cards! lol
Slops to
Kevin Shannon for playing that funky HB deck.
Nick Stefanko for losing twice to Paul.
Alex Thompson for scrubbing out in Enduro.
Anyone at Enduro who played I Hope She’s Alright!
A-1 Comics for running out of reflections AND reflections 2!
A-1 Comics for not having the new Scrye.
My FlOps deck for losing 3 times.
The long ride home (who do I blame for this?).
Thanks for reading. I’ll post the FlOps deck sometime...give
some comments and maybe I can make it work! |
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