Yet another tournament has come and gone. Sorry I'm kind of late getting this thing out. Sometimes, if you can believe it or not, I actually have other things to do. *gasp* "Master Yoda, you have something to your life outside of Star Wars?" "Yes, little one. And a painful something it is." I speak directly of college, which tends to never allow me enough time to make new decks and partake in other such quality SW:CCG events. Man, I can't wait until the summer when I can start to get serious again...
Somehow, I did manage to change up my LS deck. I was sick of HB/Xwing swarm, so I decided I'd take a revised version of my girlfriend's Obi-Max deck. Obi-Max is a deck I built for her when SE first came out because she told me she wanted to play with Mains. You want mains? You got them. Basically it was just an Obi/Luke buddy deck with 6 Obis and 4 Lukes, Gift of the Mentor, Smoke Screens, sabers, anti-deuling stuff, and lots of Eloms and their helpers (Bargaining Table, Nar Shadda, etc.). Basically, just all-around fun with insanely high destinies which make battling easy. When I started saying how tired I was of HB, she told me to make take Obi-Max. I thought about it for a while, and decided to revise it a little to my taste. Take out the Eloms, put in some space defense (ala No Shelter) and manipulation. Cut down on the amount of locations and add in a few Revolutions and a faster starting Force setup. Take out a few Obis, add more Sense/Alter/Control. Add more Grimtaashs to combat all of the ops decks I've been seeing. You know, that sort of thing. And for my DS, I took the same old ISB/Speed/Decree. Yeah, I knew Maelstrom would cream it (I hadn't made any changes since Maelstrom got hot), but I was hoping I could get away without seeing it. I was going to retire it for a while after this tournament anyay, so why not give it one last shot?
Game 1: My LS vs. Jarrett's DS CC Trooper/Dark Deal
Jarrett's a good soul. The poor guy has played me first his last two
tournaments and each have been a lopsided loss for him. The last time he
played me with just about the exact same deck, only he started with
B:CC. Well, I showed him what Xwings do against preventing Dark Deal by
controling Cloud City, so this time he chose to start with a CC site when
he saw HB. Well Guarded was his SE. I started with HB, Rendevous Point,
and Draw Their Fire. On his first turn he drew up after deploying the
sites he got in his opening hand. I too drew up on my turn, getting a
Luke and an Alter. He was going to have to kiss that Well Guarded
good-bye next turn. :) On his second turn he played Uncertain is the
Future and all I could do was smile. Doh! Bye Luke. Well, it turns out
that my "new" hand was acutally better than my old one. I got another
Luke, 2 Alters, and a Grimtaash among other things. He deploys another
site and draws up again. I activate, deploy Luke, alter WG, and play
Grimtaash lost. Out of the 12 or so cards in his hand, I got ten (a bunch
of troopers, some troopers assaults, and two Elis Helrots). The only
thing he had left was a Lift Tube and some random interrupt. Hehe. This
caused him to draw up for a turn or two, but nothing he drew was a suprise
thanks to the appearance of Shasa Tiel. Another Grimtaash a turn later
again left him with nothing but a frown. Two Dark Deals, another bunch of
troopers, and more TAs hit the lost pile. After that, it was just a
matter of mopping up. I believe he managed to deploy one trooper the
entire game, but he was promptly sent to join his buddies by a Nabrunning
Luke who ended the game on battle damage. Fun game for me, but it was
really frustrating for Jarret. :)
Result: win by +43. 2 (+43)
Highlights: Two huge Grimtaashs. Seeing Obi-Max roll like a well-oiled
machine.
Lowlights: none, really. Having to hear the curse words coming from
Jarrett's mouth was pretty bad after that second Grimtaash, though. :)
Game 2: My DS vs. Zach's LS Skyhopper Swarm/Tatooine Drain
I'll give Zach credit, it sure looked bleak for me at the beginning. My
Scanning Crews could do nothing against all of the high ability aliens he
packed. He started Hoth:War Room and Incom Corp. But that's a bad idea
against any ISB deck. I started Coruscant and Imp. Decree. I was pretty
excited because I already had one Rebel base location out on the table!
:) The game starts off with my SCrewing for nothing, and seeing a hand
full of Skyhoppers (?), high ability aliens (Boshek, Melas, etc.) and
two (!) Grimtaashs. Gulp. Well, I know I probably only have one shot
at cancelling that Incom Corp, but do I deploy and risk the beatdown? And
what do I do about those Grimtaashs? Well, I decide to deploy to the War
Room and cancel his Incom Corp. because the site is interior and the
'hoppers can't get there. Plus, he won't activate enough to deploy and
battle me next turn because I chose not to deploy any locations. Man, I
love the intelligence reports I get from SCrews! He calls me a "meanie"
for cancelling his effect even before his first turn, but I withstand the
savage attack and end my turn. :) He does as I suspect and deploys a
site and Melas to the War Room, but doesn't have enough to battle. I
smile because I am pretty sure I can take us both out next turn. I
activate, don't deploy anymore sites again (I still can't figure out why),
and initiate a battle. I draw destiny thanks to the War Room gt, but we
both draw zeros! Arggh! Great, now my little ISB agent will get beat
down again. Oh, well. That's what Ghhks are for. I draw again and all I
can seem to get are Outer Rim Scouts and Probe Droids. On his turn he
Grimtaashs instead of deploying a character, which really hurt. He got 3
Probe Droids and 3 ORS. Grrr. He initiated another battle and this time
my ISB agent died an honorable death, but luckily his forfeit covered the
damage. Well, after that I decided that it was time to mobilize, so on my
turn I deployed the few remaining ISB agents I had to two Rebel Base
locations (Hoth:DP and Y4:Jungle). He tried to battle me a few times but
I kept running away and Ghhhking when necessary. He had the advantage for
awhile, but the drains from ISB just did too much damage. 5D6-RA-7 made
it to Tatooine so all of his drains there were basically zero. I was
waiting and waiting for Manuvering Flaps but I must have drained them off
the top. Basically, it was just spread-and-drain. Towards the end of the
game, I played Abyssin Ornament on my remaining Probe Droids, retrieving 3
dumped my hand, drained, and manuvered a few agents to block some drains.
On his turn he drained for one from 7 (!) locations and drew up.
Result: win by 22. 4 (+65)
Highlights: Somehow winning despite the fact that his deck seemed
designed to smash mine. I played his brother with this exact deck last
time, so I can't help but wonder if it had "Kill Leonard" all over it.
Lowlights: Being called a "meanie." :)
Game 3: My LS vs. Alex's DS HDADTJ
Excellent! I *do* get to face the deck Obi-Max was designed against. I
start HB, Rendezvous Point, and Goo Nee Tay! while he starts with the full
complement of Hunt Down stuff (Epic Duel included). He starts by
activating and just drawing. I think he might have mumbled something
about how much Goo Nee Tay! sucks. :) On my turn I activate, deploy
Obi's Hut, and Revolve his Meditation Chamber. Yep, Goo Nee Tay does
suck, but not as bad as a Revolution. I smile and end my turn. He
activates his two Force and ends his turn. Well, I'm tired of losing to
Visage (actually, I'm tired of reminding him to make us lose from Visage.
Am I a nice guy or what?), so I deploy Luke and move him over to the
Holotheater. Now Alex is really starting to hurt; he's activating two
Force a turn and he has no way to deal damage to me. He goes into
"hyper-turn" mode ("Activate; Force is with you.) but he finds that it
gets difficult if Oola shows up to remove your Vaders from your hand
before you can deploy them. Haha! I was keeping a good eye on his hand
(The Circle is Now Complete, Vader's Obsession, Elis Helrots, etc.) with
Oola, but somehow he managed to draw an Empire's Back. Unfortunately when
he played it I couldn't Sense it (draws are +4 with Hunt Down) with Luke
so he managed to get Vader out! Why I didn't Frozen Assests his huge
activation pile the turn before I'll never know, but he barely had enough
to get Vader out and deul. I played Courage of a Skywalker but drew a
total of 7 (that sucks!) to his 8. Well, Father and Son, together at
last. I gave him Luke and lost 4 Force. Come to think of it, why would
anyone ever not cross Luke over? He's not worth that much. Enraged that
his pupil crossed to the Dark side, Obi and his saber were deployed, along
with Traffic Control. Obi Clashed Vader, and sliced up Luke. Take that.
He tried to play TCINC before the battle, but a lucky Sense draw of zero
took care of it after a small SAC war. On the next turn he just
activated. On my turn I dumped a few cards, deployed Shasa Tiel, and drew
a Nabrun. Again he just activated and ended his turn, but not before
Shasa got to put all of his fun characters at the bottom. Meanwhile I'm
draining with Obi's saber, but the game is going long. A turn later I
Nabrun over, initiate a battle, and slice Vader with a few stacked 5s.
After that, he never got another character out thanks to the lockdown
provided by Oola and Shasa Tiel. I somehow played a lot of cards because
I ended up winning by only 23.
Result: win by 23. 6 (+88)
Highlights: Locking Alex down hard. Letting one character be deployed.
Having Obi come out and open up a can on Luke, and then Vader. You see,
Obi is just the man.
Lowlights: Having Luke cross to the Dark side. What was he thinking any
way? :)
Game 4: My DS vs. Paul's LS Maelstrom
Well, need I go on? :) ISB/Speed vs. Maelstrom. Care to place your
bets? I see the all too familiar Bothawui/Farm/Local Uprising start, and
a first turn SCrew shows me what I fear: merchants. I try to play a
little bit safe, so I don't deploy anything and instead draw up hoping to
get one of my two There'll Be Hell to Pay. He draws on his turn too. I
draw on my turn. Again, no TBHTP. He plays a lone Merchant and starts to
try to do things. He got a few things going, but it wasn't a turn later
until he get the mains out. Well, he starts the megadrains and I know I
can't keep up, so I deploy 5D6-RA-7 and that combined with ABCTTU (my
starting effect this game) shut his drains to zero. I have nothing to
defend ABCTTU, but I see Gold 5 is on Bothawui, so that means the Falcon
is left unaccounted for. At one point I got to verify his deck, or should
I say David Akers' deck, and I saw that it was identical to the one posted
everywhere. I'm not sure if he really even changed a card. :( Well, at
least I knew what to expect. Well, actually, he did change two cards:
Frozen Assests and Effective Repairs (nice combo, btw). Once his mains
were out I decided to deploy to get a few drains in. I deploy lone ISB
agents everywhere (I could draw without fear because he had no Grimtaash),
and prepare for a massive drain next turn. Unfortunately, I forgot about
Chewbacca, and he came down with Lando (ok, three cards) to beat up on an
ISB agent. I spent a Ghhhk, and he moved over to block a drain.
Effectively he just removed two drains of three (we were on Tatooine). :(
I draw, knowing the end is near, but hope that I can find something,
anything to help me out. On his turn he activates, plays Frozen Assests
on my Force pile, Nabruns (gosh, I sure wish I had Force for this Oota
Goota...), played DTF (four cards, for those keeping count), and brought
the beatdown. Ghhhk was unplayable and I lost the game on the spot. There
just wasn't a way I could beat him unless I was lucky enough to get a
first or second turn TBHTP.
Result: loss by 28. 6 (+60)
Highlights: Ha, none. :) Knowing his deck inside and out thanks to
everyone posting it everywhere.
Lowlights: Getting beaten. Actually, I guess just getting beaten because
I'm lazy. I should have put counters in, but that's what I get. Losing
the tournament.
I was in first place going into the last game, but the loss knocked me to third because there was another undefeated. The winner was Paul Vass and Butch Branscome took second. I ended up with four packs for 3rd place and pulled a Luke, so that wasn't too bad (yet another Luke for unrevised Obi-Max). The last place guy got 4 packs and pulled a Vader so he definitely went away happy! Isn't that one of the greatest things about SW:CCG? The last place guy got arguably the best prize (next to the t-shirt, of course). What other game does that? :)
I'm kind of mad at myself for not bringing a better DS deck, but at least I wasn't taken by suprise. It was kind of stupid to bring a deck that wasn't the best out there, but hey, it was a learning experience at leaste. Maelstrom is quite powerful, but I don't intend to lose to it again. Not that I ever intend to lose, but you get the picture. :) We'll see what I can cook up for next time.
If you made it all the way through this enormously long TR, then thanks! If you have any comments, questions, or advice, feel free to let me know.
Master Yoda <(-_-)>
lfmitche@uncg.edu