Well, the tourney this past Sunday was both fun and interesting. I was playing a LS Anti-JP/Our Most Desperate Hour deck and the tried-and-true DS Space domination deck called There's No Place Like Space that can be found on the decks page. An interesting thing that happened was that before the tourney, I counted my deck and only had 59 cards. I couldn't figure out what was missing, so I added another control Here's a break down of how things went.
Game 1 - Matt's JP/EtE Mains and Toys deck against my LS
I started with the Massassi Throne room and Do or Do Not and managed to get a monk down on turn one to stop EtE. Matt was pretty flustered by that and acted as if he didn't understand it. as the game progressed we both got down a bunch of characters and had a few battles, but he was still looking for Gailid and I was still looking for Tatooine (Alderaan was in my hand). We traded force drains and battle losses for another turn or so and he managed to get Gailid down - I was still looking for Tatooine so I could start retrieval. He used Elis Helrot to move some of his characters over to battle, there was a battle and I lost some stuff. There were a few more turns of battle and drain, but still no Alderaan. All of the sudden I look over and he's going through his lost pile. When I told him that you're not allowed to go through the lost pile, but he wouldn't stop. Then he notices that he accidently lost Elis Helrot twice instead of putting them in the used pile and precedes to remove them from the lost pile. I tell him that I'm very sorry he made a mistake like that but a) it was his fault for losing used cards and b) he broke a major rule by pawing through the lost pile. The TD agrees, but I look like a big jerk. after that, He uses another Elis Helrot to move characters from the audience to battle me at a site. I ask him who he's moving and he says "everyone." He draws, pays, moves and then realizes that he moved Gailid with everyone else (poor baby). The battle was a big one and we both lost some people. Anyway, I finally find Tatooine and make a run for a retrieval of 12. As it turns out, I'm just a turn too late because even though he lost Gailid, he's spread out enough to drain me dead. Another OMDH and I'd have had him. Oh well - I'm 0 and -7.
Game 2 - Some little kid's LS Tatooine Snowspeeder / Space deck against my DS
This was one of those games where you know you're going to beat the heck out of a little kid and you just try to be nice about it. The kid started with an exterior Tatooine site (no starting interrupt) and I started with Kashyyk and Imperial Decree. I get Hoth, Kessel, and Yavin in the opening hand and am able to get a destroyer down on the second turn. He deploys a Z95 to his just-deployed docking bay and Commander Antilles to the Moisture Farm. On the next turn I deploy Kiffex and Garindan undercover to the docking bay and a destroyer to Hoth. He deploys an unpiloted Tantive to Yavin and rotates. As mean as it was, I deployed the Stalker and a few pilots to Yavin, deploy lateral damage targeting the Tantive and make the little boy lose 18 force. The next turn a similar thing happened at Kiffex with a lone X-Wing for a loss of 11. He doesn't deploy anything on his next turn and on my next turn Vader stomped Wedge. The rest of the game was the kid losing to force drains. I won by 40 for a 2 and 33 standing.
Game 3 was Bradley's DS space deck against my LS deck.
Bradley started with Hoth and Imperial Decree. I managed to get Lars Moisture Farm and Mos Eisley in my opening hand and deploy them. On the next turn he gets various squdron TIEs down at Hoth. I get a monk down at the farm with Leesub to keep him company. On the next turn, he deploys the DS Tatooine system (which, by the way, was the card missing from my deck at the beginning of the tourney), the Bespin system and some squadron TIEs to Bespin. I deploy Obi's Hut with a monk and Lando.. He drains me for two, deploys Yavin, and a Dreadnaut to Yavin. I deploy the Cantina, Obi-Wan and his saber to the hut and Luke to the Cantina with his daddy's old saber. He deploys a cloud to Bespin and a couple of squadron TIEs - that was to give him the largest drain he would have all game. On the next turn, I deployed Momaw Nadon and Uncle Owen to the farm. He brings Vader down to the farm and battles. I mistakenly read the card "The Force is Strong is with This One" (I still have no clue what I was thinking here) and he uses Hell to Play (for some bizarre reason). He never objected to the extra destiny I drew with the card, the battle finished, we both forfeited and he getting ready to draw when some guy who I'd never met before comes over, looks at the table and tells us that the destiny adder doesn't count. Since I only drew ones for battle destiny, it hadn't changed the result much at all, but now we had a "situation." My theory was that I was stupid for misreading the card and he was stupid for letting me play it - since we had already forfeited (Momaw went to the lost pile), there was no way to go back. Further, it's a rule at our tourneys that no player can comment on a game that they're not playing in. I called the TD over and he said that it was up to me as to whether or not we went back to the battle. I declined and the opponent was cool with that. On my next turn, I deployed Cap Han and BoShek to the Falcon and make a run for OMDH for a retrieval of 14. The rest of the game was pretty much him draining me, me draining him and me retrieving a mountain of force - a total of 41. I won the game by 18 for a 4 and 58 standing.
Game 4 - John's Tatooine Alien Deck vs my DS
To be honest, I don't remember much about this game. I was basically a drain race against my space deck and his alien deck. I got out space sites and Imperial Decree in effect rather early (which was good since Tessek was in the Audience chamber), and he got down his monks and aliens. Fortunately, I got U-3PO and a probe droid undercover before almost as soon as he started the drains. We drained back and forth until I deploy Vader to a site where there was a monk or something. He deployed a pile of Klatooine revolutionaries on me and Vader very dead. For some reason, I wasn't paying attention, and I let him deploy a Bomarr monk to the throne room. Just a turn later we noticed, and he was willing to put it in the lost pile, but since it's my policy that if I don't notice the mistake the card can stay, that was an additional drain I had to deal with. We drained some more and it got to a point where I needed to end the game because both of us were very low on force, and I couldn't tell how many he had left in his reserve, but I could see that he didn't have any in his hand and one active. So I counted my force and took a big chance by deploying Boba Fett by himself to the Cantina where he had a lone Arcona. I initiated a battle with my last active force and used the Those Rebels Won't Escape Us that I had drawn in my opening hand. Seeing that I had six in my used pile and seven in my hand, he lost the last of his force and called it a game. It was a very close one - I won by 7 for a 6 and 65 total - good enough for 2nd place.
It was a fun tourney that was also a lesson to all of us to read the cards and pay attention to the game.
Queen Jawa