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Author: Michael "Longshot" Mendoza
Title: pleasanton-ca-4-7-01
Date Published: 2001-04-08
Friday afternoon I decided to go to the Saturday tourney in Pleasanton for
Steve Daniel’s tourney. I hadn’t touched my decks since Enduro, so I got
up early on Sat morning (after having been out late Friday night), fixed
my FlOps deck (already on Decktech) so as to remove FlOps and the
non-unique TIEs and instead added several Vaders, Emps, Mara, and unique
TIEs w/matching pilots. Plus I added Epic Duel, Circle, & Obession.
So its now just regular Hunt Down w/unique TIEs. I use Saber & Onix
pilots & ships. Makes me realize I must’ve been high when I made that
FlOps deck for Enduro. Man it sucked (yet it still went 5-3).
After fixing my dark, I was tired and hungry, so I made myself some
breakfast and kept my Light as is. EBO w/Rogue speeders and xwings.
I take the train to Warmasters in Pleasanton and we have 20 people
ready for a 6-game tourney. I pay my $5 and face my first opponent.
Game 1: LS v Tony Massung’s generic ISB (IAO, Mob Pts, something else)
I do the ANSB start (as I usually do against ISB), he pulls Coruscant DB
and drops a Probe Droid there. I get some Hoth stuff, and setup EBO on
my 2nd turn. He deploys Mara w/saber, EPP Vader, & 2 Snowtrooper Officers
to Coruscant DB by his 4th turn. He’s also been pulling other DBs and
moves them all to Tat DB. So he still hasn’t flipped. Meanwhile, I’ve
got 1 xwing each at Sullust, Hoth, and Kiffex (the 3 systems I play).
I’ve got Spiral in hand and Incom Corp on table. So needless to say, he’s
hurtin’ from my drains. He drops Bossk & Zuckuss in ships to Kiffex, I
react w/Spiral, but he draws a 6 & 4 for destiny & I’m cleared there.
I deploy 4 xwings so as to draw destiny, then play Org Attack and draw a
5 for destiny, to which I add 1 by playing Heading for Medical Frigate.
So he’s clear in space now. I move Rogue 1, 2, & 3 to Tat DB to block
that drain, while Hobbie drains at his Hoth DB which he deployed under
the Hoth Shield. A few turns of space drains end the game. Win by 32.
2 (+32).
Best: Not deploying a whole lot and never letting him flip ISB.
Worst: Seeing someone not able to flip ISB. That’s bad. Him clearing me
at Kiffex sucked too, but I just wanted to lure him out.
Game 2: DS v Kyle Ishimaru’s TIGIH scouts (Strike Plan, Insur, Staging)
With my Hunt Down I always start IAO, Mob Pts, & Combat Response.
Let me tell you something. *Never* give up on a game of SWCCG. You’ve
always got a chance. I really saw that in this game. I had 2 Vaders in
hand, and I have to lose to Visage on 1st turn. I lose off the top, its a
Vader. I’m in shock, cuz I expect an OOC any second. He moves Luke to
Mara’s site so she captures him, then draws an OOC and gets Vader. Ok, he
shakes my hand and says it was a good game, but its over. Not for me it
wasn’t. I lose all my Vaders to Visage, get SFS setup, and start deploying
my systems. I use Com Response to get the matching pilots to their TIEs
and get to verify his deck on like 4th turn to see *no* ships! Yes! So I
spread to Endor (sucks that its my system and I can’t activate there!),
Kashhyyk, & Sullust, using Chiraneau to add to my drains where I have the
Executor and Dominator (yes, I play Executor in my HD).
Meanwhile, he can’t draw his sites. He kills Mara on like the 4th turn so
Luke is free and I stop losing force to I Can Save Him. He also cancelled
Visage on the 7th turn or so w/TT. He finally gets out another Endor site,
but he moves Luke there, so I land some TIEs & pilots at the Endor DB to
cancel Luke’s drain. He battles me, I forfeit all the imperials, and soon
after the drains of 6-8 per turn (I was moving my Star Destroyers around so
Chiraneau didn’t always add at every system) killed him. SFS really helped
me recycle TIEs and retrieve much needed force. Win by 19. 4 (+51).
Best: Winning without Vader (5 are in the deck).
Worst: Losing so much force to I Can Save Him. Kyle just couldn’t draw his
sites and since he had no space I was draining uncontested. If only I had
Vader I could’ve really controlled ground too.
Game 3: LS v Alex Stefanko’s ISB ORS Scum (No Bargain, POTH, Secret Plans)
Another ISB deck? Well, I start ANSB again and I’m setup by 2nd turn. He
can’t find any JP sites so he just draws. I pray I draw into my Grimtaash,
but I don’t. When I pull a Rogue pilot or system, Grimtaash is always in
reserve deck. So I get an xwing at my 3 systems, plus at his Coruscant
system. He drops Fett in Slave 1 but I barrier. He puts an ORS aboard it.
Next turn, I only have 1 xwing to deploy to Fett (Incom Corp is out), but he
barriers it, so i don’t battle. He now has his 3 JP sites w/Scum out. To
make matters worse, he’s got Gailid & Mosep & ISB agents at all 3 sites, so
next turn I’ll lose 9 off the top. He battles me w/Fett to retrieve some,
I draw a 5 and add 1 w/Heading for Frigate to clear him.
I draw Signal, and pull Menace Fades. I eat the drain of 9, then deploy
Menace Fades. Now its only a drain of 3 off the top and he isn’t going to
come to the North Ridge where I have Rogue 1 & 2. To my surprise, he does
come to Hoth though (with Xizor and some ORS and 4-LOM). He battles, I lose
Luke to cover the damage, then I Ice Storm to keep Menace Fades in effect.
All his guys go missing, & that’s game right there. He gets all mad, but
there’s nothing he can do. I’m draining uncontested as he had to focus on
the ground to keep Menace Fades from cutting his drain bonuses. Boy I love
that card against MKOS & ISB. Win by 18. 6 (+69).
Best: Menace Fades & Ice Storm. I had drains of over 10 per turn!
Worst: Eating that 9 drain off the top for 1 turn. Lost a lot of good stuff
in that one.
Game 4: DS v Chris Green’s HB mains (Insur, Squassin, something else)
Maybe I’ll get to use Vader this game, heheh. EPP Vader goes to his Endor
DB 2nd turn, so he drops DTF & Jedi Luke & battles Vader. I hit Luke, so
they both die. I show Vader’s TIE next turn to grab Vader (yup, I play
Vader’s TIE), plus retrieve 1 force w/SFS. Its funny cuz I had Twi’leked
for SFS, then we both had to lose to Visage. He lost an Alter/Friendly Fire.
I was confused. I guess he didn’t want to Alter SFS (I have no S/A
protection except my objective). Later, when I deployed SFS he realized his
mistake and wished he had kept it. Oh well.....I just setup my drains at
Endor, Sullust, & Kashyyk. That’s a 6 force drain.
Lots of ground battles in this game. Vader left the table proabably like 6
times, but SFS retrieved him and his TIE would recirculate. The only space
battle was Chris deploying Dash in Outrider against Saber 2 w/pilot. He
cleared me (by reducing my power), but I countered by deploying Executor w/
Piett aboard and drawing a 4 for destiny. That was the last of the space
battles. He canceled Visage w/ Lando w/Ax, so I deployed Vader to kill him
plus 1 battle damage. Emp and Mara held his CC DB and I deployed my Endor
DB so all his guys were stuck on Endor unless he wanted to pay massive force.
Once again, the space drains & SFS were the difference in this game, although
I won my fair share of ground battles too. It was a very good game and fun.
Win by 10. 8 (+79).
Best: Killing Luke 3 times and Obi twice. Holding all locations except the
Endor DB where he was draining.
Worst: Vader dying 5-6 times.
John Monroe and I are the only undefeated players, but he had a timed win.
So we’re paired and will probably play twice regardless of who wins this
game.
Game 5: LS v John Monroe’s HB mains (Insur, Staging, Squassin)
Both of us had really janky opening draws, so we were drawing for 2-3 turns.
I couldn’t draw a Vader, but I finally drew vader’s TIE so I used that to get
Vader to his Tat DB. HE had pulled Tat, Tat DB, Home one DB, Corulag, &
Alderaan. By now I had deployed Endor, Endor DB, Exec DB, Kashyyk, &
Wakeelmui (w/SFS). Emp & Merrejk back up Lord Vader. He cancels Visage at
this point w/TT, so I drop No Escape, pick up Visage and redeploy it, only to
have him play another TT *sigh*. I also deploy Vader’s saber (w/Circle in my
hand). He drops Capt Han & EPP Leia in Falcon to Tat, deploys I’ll Take The
Leader. I deploy more TIEs and pilots to Tat DB (Leia can’t drain anyway), &
move Vader w/ some guys to the Endor DB. I put the Emp’s Shield to Endor, he
drops Wedge in Red 1, kills the Shield plus 2 force. I deploy Saber 2 w/pilot
and SFS cannons there, but don’t battle and just save 3 force to shoot. As I
predicted, Wedge ran to Tat w/ the Falcon after deploying Ben to Tat DB. At
this point I had moved Vader back to Tat DB and could’ve Circled Obi, but I
wasn’t confident about my destiny. So I let him go and he deployed Obi’s
stick, then ran him to the Home One DB.
So HD is still flipped and Leia’s still just sitting in the Falcon, but Visage
isn’t on table. That sucks. I now have 5 TIEs at the Tat DB, so i fly them up
to Tat to greet Han, Leia, & Wedge. Saber 2 is still at Endor and the Executor
is at Kashyyk (w/Chirneau). Mara & Emp are at Endor DB, and I replace his Order
with my Order, which is Fighters Coming In (so my drains are +1 at DBs). Now
Vader, Merrejk, and Fel. He deploys Lando w/Ax to Tat DB, then Jedi Luke to
Home One, & moves Ben & Luke over to Vader. I foolishly ignore those guys and
focus on taking over the Tat system. Jendon and Yorr are both at Tat so I get
2 destiny there, plus Piett is in Vader’s TIE, so I play Imperial Command to
limit him to 1 destiny. The Falcon dies (as does OMDH which was targeting Han),
and Wedge runs to Endor.
Now at this point I should’ve moved Mara over to help Vader deal with the Jedi,
but I was feeling @#$%y after having conquered Tat. So on his turn he clashes
Vader, excludes Merrejk (w/Lando), but I react w/Emp’s Sword to soak some pain.
He also plays Gift to get 4 destiny, and I lose everyone (except Vader &
Merrejk) plus 7 more. But now I realize he has no reserve deck, so clashed Vader
Circles Obi and repays the favor by making him lose 9 force. Sweet!! He’s only
got 5 force left, so my drains next turn kill him. Win by 14. 10 (+93).
Best: Conquering Tat, Circling Obi, not letting him pull off OMDH. The reason he
hadn’t completed OMDH sooner is because I had Secret Plans on table so he needed
a turn to save force to retrieve with.
Worst: Not moving Mara to backup Vader. Mistake on my part.
Game 6: LS v John Monroe’s ISB Big Blue w/Imp Commands (IAO, Mob Pts, Decree)
Jeez, me facing 3 ISB decks in 1 tourney, can ya believe it? I start ANSB. He
can’t seem to get an Imp Command to get Piett (who gets Merrejk, who gets his
systems), so he’s just drawing. He plays 5 freakin’ Commands! I get EBO out by
3rd turn, do my usual spread of 1 xwing at each system. 1 at his Coruscant, my
Hoth, Sullust, and later I get 1 to my Kiffex. He has Executor at his Fondor w/
Piett & Merrejk aboard. He deploys Something Special Planned, & that’s a card
I’ll be hatin’ for this game. He drops Bossk in ship to my xwing, I barrier, so
he moves Exec over to back Bossk up. I drain for 7 on my turn, (would’ve been 10
had he not cancelled one w/an ORS on Den of Thieves) and setup Menace Fades by
having Rogue 1 & 2 at North Ridge. He has several ATATs, but can’t draw them &
is losing them all to drains. So he doesn’t even deploy to the Ridge, and still
hasn’t flipped ISB (he’s got 3 agents out). I have 12 cards in hand at this
point, so he Monnoks me (lost), and gets 2 Org Attacks (I needed those). At
least I only had 1 xwing in hand.
However, each turn he is deploying a Star Destroyer (which I barrier, or react
the Spiral to, or Hyper Escape away from even w/SSPFT) and I am running out of
places to run to. He has We’re in Attack Position Now out so his Destroyers have
immunity w/the ORS aboard. I also can’t keep paying 3 force per xwing to run
away. Now ISB is flipped and he has Ozzel and an ORS at Y4 DB. I deploy Wedge
in Rogue 3 there and draw a 5, killing Ozzel (he draws a 5 but Wedge is immune).
So I’m having to keep my xwings together now and battle his destroyers cuz I
can’t run. I only have 1 Org Attack left also (2 were Monnoked away), so I’m
losing xwings to attrition. Thankfully I am always able to deploy an xwing from
Rebel Fleet (after cancelling a drain for me) to an unoccupied system to keep
Menace Fades in effect. He’s got Chiraneau adding drain bonuses all over, so
Menace probably saved me like 12 force throughout the game. No battles to report
cuz I ran away from or barriered everything, until the towards the end. At that
point, it would be a star destroyer (like Avenger) with 2 pilots aboard (like
Evax and an ORS), then we battle, I lose an xwing, he loses an ORS (or Evax) &
just retrieves them during his draw phase. Not good for me. I had 2-3 xwings
at each system (Incom Corp on table).
Anyways, I’ve got about 12 force left, he’s got about 18....and time is winding
down. I draw into an AWRI w/7 xwings on table. He has no Secret Plans, only
SSPFT, so i immediately play AWRI and retrieve 7. Then the TD says we have 1
minute left. I tell John to go, and he takes a long time on his turn after he
drains me. We’re both at 17 life force now, and time is called. So he moves
some guys around to block my drains, leaving me with Wedge’s drain of 1 which
he loses from his hand. So that ends my turn and we’re tied up at 17 life
force apiece. So we count up our lost piles....I’ve got 13 cards in there,
John’s got 15 in there, so apparently I get a timed win by 17 (the amount in
my life force). Seemed like the wrong way to win (by counting your *lost*
pile?), but whatever....I was happy to pull that win off. I can honestly
say that John would’ve easily had that game had they let it play through cuz
he had stopped all my space drains and I was losing xwings to attrition
while he was usually immune to attrition. Timed win by 17. 11 (+110).
Best: Hey, my EBO just went 3-0....all against ISB decks (totally different
types of ISB decks; Scum, Big Blue, & generic ISB).
Worst: Winning a game I should’ve lost, though we played great. I actually
would’ve liked it ruled as just a true tie, rather than this whole thing
about counting lost piles. I never had that happen to me before. Whatever.
So I get 1st place, and Kyle Ishimaru gets 2nd. I forgot to record the other
top finishers, but there were DSII, CC, & JP packs as prizes for everyone.
I also got a Masterful Move foil, Tim Green got the Signal foil randomly.
Thanks for reading.
Props to:
Steve Daniel for the awesome tourney and taking me to the train station.
John Monroe for the cool final 2 games.
Chris Green for the good game.
Nick Stefanko for playing RTP and CPI (not SYCFA) and going 4-2. I’m
just glad I didn’t have to play against your CPI deck. Bye, bye Hoth!
Everyone who read this, and liked it.
At least it didn’t rain on my way home.
Opaque sleeves-I used ’em for the 1st time at this tourney and I
loved them! I was tired of the same ol’ clear sleeves.
Slops to:
Kyle Ishimaru for OOCing Vader 1st turn.
Alex Stefanko for getting all mad at my Ice Storm. Just play Control
if it bugs ya that much dude.
The offshore flow for making it so frickin’ cold here!! I guess I
just miss the Southern Cal weather.
Anyone who doesn’t like Weezer. ;) |
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