Well, this is my very first tournament report. I enjoy reading them, especially ones from my region, of which I am well travelled :). But this day was a particularly good day as you'll see. Anyway, we've had very fun Gregg Keefer run Bespin & Beyond tournaments here in Jacksonville for the last few weeks & I have been attempting to win the DVDLOTS shirt & came close in three prior attempts only to lose 1 match out of 12 & yet still place 2nd or 3rd due to differential, although I did get a BB Japanese Chewbacca in my pack in the last B&B tournament I was in. Well, this past Saturday was my last chance & I wasn't about to let it slip.
My decks:
I took the same decks I'd been playing all along, with DS Corulag Ops
with SE Death Star named troopers for multiple destiny adding & lots of
starships (yes, you heard me right) for imperial decree, & LS Bothaui
Ops with Tessek & Ithorians to boost drains.
Game 1: DS vs Andrew Dawling's light space
I played carefully, waiting until I deployed my Death Star named
troopers to back up my Corulag Ops and ops to flipped the objective. He
deployed a Gold Squadron Y wing and another ship to control Kiffex. The
drains -1 didn't help him much, but he admirably deployed a squad to
attack my & block my drains. Fortunately I was able to react with a
skiff of Death Star Troopers & battled them away with 3 destiny draws.
In the endgame, confident I could hold the ground drains, I deployed 2
Dreadnaughts & a named star destroyer to his Z95 & Gold Squadron Y-wing
to seal the game.
2+ 21
Game 2: LS vs Michael Lester's DS Cloud City Musicians
Young Michael made sure I didn't want to deploy to Cloud City because he
basically had every souped up musician there controlling 3+ cloud city
sites. Fortunately Bothaui was defended with EPP mains, 3 of which
(except EPP Han) were in my opening hand! He was retreiving force each
time he deployed a musician, but I outdrained him. He deployed JP & the
JP Aud Ch which enabled me to give artoo a gift & that shut his drains
down. Tessek added to my drains with ithorians, even when he was
cancelling my large drain with Den of Thieves. He did play Sabaac once,
which was cool, except we both tied, with him getting 11 & me getting 11
(a Nar Shadda Wind Chimes, an operative, and a location-cloned the 3).
I deployed lots of characters to deter him from even setting foot on
Bothaui thus my differential was low, but that's ok by me!
4 + 33
Game 3: DS vs Chris Hubbard's LS Ops
Chris Hubbard always gives me a close game, & I knew this was going to
be challenging, especially when I know that LS has more drain potential
with ops than DS. We both waited until we had enough force to flip our
objectives & we each did. Fortunately for me, after a couple hands, I
deployed Coruscant & ABCTTU. Crestfallen, he admitted that he had no
starships whatsoever to cancel it. He played skillfully & agressively,
deploying Devaronians, and several pumped up operatives to my sites to
basically attrition my characters away. As he learned, my reactability
with Death Star Troopers in skiffs proved to take its toll, even on
high-forfeitable operatives, since I was able to draw 3 battle destinies
per battle, & DVDLOTS choking an operative here and there. Cancelling
drains with Den of Thieves didn't help either. A close, fun,
battle-filled game against a good young up-and-coming opponent.
6+44
Game 4: LS vs Sam Losco's Musicians & Bounty Hunters on Tatooine
The best game of the day. Sam was playing a unique, yet familiar combo
of cards to negate the common strategies of B&B LS decks. Prior to the
match I heard that a prior B&B winner, Brandon Silvia, had just lost,
leaving me an opportunity to win the tournament undefeated. That added
pressure made it an exciting match. We were both cautious, waiting
several turns to even deploy any characters, except for sites. It
seemed like he had half his deck activated & saved. When I deployed
artoo & moved him to the audience chamber for a gift, he finally
deployed a character armed with Dr E's blaster. He Hutt smooches the
droid! Uh oh, he's got a drain of one. Uh Oh & Bo Shuda deploy, as
well as Tessek. He Blasted droid's Tessek! My operatives and Bothan
spies were spread out & draining for 2. I have EPP Obi at one site,
backing up a Bothan spy & an op, with skiff, EPP Leia with skiff & op &
spy, & Han & Luke at the forest with spies & op & ithorian. He blocks
my drain of 3 with Den of thieves & starts deploying characters &
battling my characters away. I was losing 3 each turn for force drains
from cloud city. Tessek dies again to blaster droid. It takes its
toll, since I only have 4 sites deployed & he blocks two of them with
high powered characters & vader. Eventually both our drains are taking
its toll with me getting the worse of it. Secret Plans is hurting my
retrieval with op deployment & I finally draw Nar Shadda wind chimes to
target 7 bothan spies & retrieve, but he smartly points out I don't have
enough to pay for it with secret plans. Doh! I decide to die admirably
& shift EPP mains over to die in a glorious battle. With multiple
destiny draws & slight weapons malfunction, including hitting aliens
with the permanent weapons, I actually attrition him more than he does
me & he decides to forfiet vader & mains. He drains me for 3 his turn &
Boba Fett is there blocking a drain. I have 1 card left in life force,
activate it & call a battle with EPP mains against him. The damage was
great enough to exceed Fett's forfeit value as well as his life force &
grant me victory!
8+45
I got my name entered in the drawing, get the DVDLOTS tshirt &, a BB Obi Wan in my Japanese Pack! Young Michael Lester gets handed down the other shirt in the prize support. What a day! Epilogue: Drove to Tallahassee that night to play in Michael Porter's fun Swiss tournament, got there late, but still played a later match & got a couple random packs of premiere for my effort & pulled a Luke! How's that for a SWCCG day?
Standings:
Mitchell Velasco 8 +45
Chris Hubbard 6 +60
Travis Cooper 6+44
Brandon Silvia 6+39
Ricky Bignun 6+3
Michael Lester 4+26
Sam Losco 4+23
Scott Boardman 4+22
Rocky Losco 4+21
Michael Regina 4+12
Spencer Vliegen 4-4
Zack Workman 4-33
Michael Ferguson 4-63
Andrew Dawling 0-66
Kevin Lounsbury 0-129
Hope you enjoyed reading this Dagobah's traveling man, & #10 sealed deck player in the world (heh heh).
Mitchell Velasco