The tournament started bright and early, 9:00. We had a few players from interstate and three new players too. The day before I'd been running around to various card shops to make some new decks (I'd played a DS Bounty Hunting deck for about 3 tournaments before and only managed to collect one bounty- against a Dagobah deck!). Some people were borrowing cards, writing decks down, testing jawa decks etc. To our surprise our TD arrived on time ;-). After a Q&A session (there weren't any major questions- 'If E-3P0 is alone in the jungle and DS plays "E Chu Ta", does it make a sound?') we started.
My LS Deck was basically a CC Mains 'n' Drains deck, with Kiffex and Kessel thrown in. DS was a tatooine drain deck, I'd opted to go without space/dagobah defence, in favour of more charachters + Ability, Ability, Ability.
Game 1, My DS JP/Tatooine drain deck versus LS Dagobah deck
Please note, I'm horrible at remembering names, so I won't bother. I
was surprised to see a Dagobah deck at the regionals, and even more
suprised when I saw that it didn't have any space in it. I started with
JP/ETE (Surprise, Surprise, although maybe I should have used Ability,
Ability, Ability), he started with Anger, Fear, Aggression, which came up
on the first turn. Not much to tell, I got my sole gailid out and
started putting the pressure on early. A droid with a gift came out,
and promptly got LSD'ed. Great Warrior got completed late in the game
but because I'd been putting pressure on from the beginning it didn't
make much difference. Some clouds came out on Dagobah later in the
game, but I still won by 12.
2(+12)
Highlight: Getting rid of A Gift the turn after it came out.
Lowlight: Dagobah. Need I say more?
Game 2, Ls CC vs. Ds Drain deck
I was playing someone who had ALWAYS managed to beat me by EXACTLY 16.
He is probably the friendliest guy to play SW:CCG against that I have
met. I started with the CC:Guest Quarters, he started with Defensive
Perimeter and Imperial Decree. This looked bad. Well, we both got
started with our decks, ignoring each other's strategies, until the
Wampa Cave came out with Zuckuss, fulfilling the requirements for
Imperial Decree. Obi had done some battling against darth + others at
the perimiter, and now obi w/saber and darth w/ saber were left at the
perimiter (thanks to some smoke screens). I moved obi to the cave,
thinking to mess Zuckuss, but darth + tarkin move in on obi. Oh well,
I'll just have to mess Tarkin, what a pity:-). Tarkin goes down, Obi
battles darth, who hits Obi (oops), Obi smoke screens. While this has
been happening I've been draining, and retrieving with yoxgit. I
managed to pull clear with a win of 10. Yipee !! At this stage I was
third. I nearly fainted.
4(+22)
Highlight: Seeing both of us loose Kiffex one after the other ("I know
what you were thinking!").
Lowlight: Not winning by 16.
Game 3, Ds JP Beatdown vs. Ls OMDH
I was playing one of the players who would make it to the finals. I
didn't think that I would win, but I didn't think that I would loose
this badly. When everyone heard who I was playing they started cheering
for me to win. He started with the Throne room, a monk came down.
After 2 turns I manage to respond with Djas Puhr. Mains come down, I
avoid and drain. He retrieved what little he had lost, I loose by 41.
4(-19)
Highlight: Seeing him use OMDH w/monks.
Lowlight: Loosing by 41.
Game 4, Ls CC vs. ds. Beatdown
In this game I played the other finalist. Once again, people started
chanting. He started with Imperial Decree, Defensive Perimiter. I
started with CC:Guest quarters. He drained, I drained, he drained, I
drained. Obi w/ saber got to the defensive perimiter on the 2nd turn.
Smoke screen in my hand, and I thought I was safe. Vader comes down
w/tarkin+saber and battles. I target tarkin and drew a 1, and a 5
(cancelled). For some stupid reason I played the smoke screen. Idiot.
Stupid. I lost (but only by 14).
4(-33)
Highlight: Obi on 2nd turn.
Lowlight: Stupid smokescreen move, I still can't believe it.
Game 5, Ds beatdown vs. Ls Hoth clouds.
This was vs. another regular, we had always had close games. I got a
drain of 2 on my first turn w/ Zuckuss at the tusken canyon. Cool. On
my 2nd turn I monnoked and killed 2x droid shutdown and 2x cloud car.
Groovy. I got set up draining, and then came Artoo w/ A Gift. (I was
starting to regret lending him an Artoo). I drew to get LSD. And got
it. I played LSD. Droid shutdown. Damn. Anyway, the clouds came out
early, but monnoks kept away cloud cars. I got U-3P0 down to counter
the 3rd marker tibanna gas miner. I forgot to move him. Near the end
of the game I drained. He deployed luke to a 2 drain site. I drained.
He had one left. It was close. I had to draw a destiny of 5 more than
he got to win. I knew that the circle was floating around there
somewhere. I activated. Battled. Drew Needa. He drew a cloud
sector. I lost by 1. If I had activated one less I would have drawn
the circle, oops.
4(-34)
Highlight: Monnoks!
Lowlight: I did a couple of stupid moves, and lost because of them.
Game 6, Ls CC vs. Ds. Tie scouts.
I knew that this guy would play ties, but I was determined to beat
them. He started with Kashyyk + DODN (or the Ds version if i got that
wrong). CC:Guest Quarters again for me. I got Pucumir at the Guest
quarters on my first turn. He got a tie to kashyyk on his first turn.
He countered with U-3P0. I got drained, until I got R-3P0. He lost 4
for a few turns. I had a sense to counter LSD, but no, restraining
bolt. Anyway, I eventually set up the Upper Corridor, Revolved with
Luke+Anakins Saber+Obi-Wan+Obi-Wan's Saber+Lightsaber proficiency. On
his turn he used Twi'lek Advisor to get Imperial Decree out. I had a
corvette + GLIG1 at Kashyyk. I moved them to Hoth (one tie). Next turn
I drained. Yoxgit was out, helping me to loose/retrieve
Electrobinoculars. Near the end of the game I had some left, he had
some left. He was draining for 3, I was draining for 6. He drained. I
lost my entire hand. He played limited resources. I lost and there
were still 2 left. I drained and won by 2.
I finished on 6(-32)
Highlight: Having my decision to take out landing claws, and add ships
come in handy.
Lowlight: First turn U-3P0.
Finals:
The first game saw the deck that I'd played against in game 3 vs. the
game 4 deck. Vader+Saber got to the perimiter early. Luke + Saber +
Monks got started at Mos Eisley, and promptly recieved an undercover
U-3P0. Zuckuss got to the Throne Room (via the Jungle) and was battled
by BoShek. LS drew 4, DS drew 2, and played Takeel :-). Jabba got set
up at the tusken canyon. Not 1 OMDH got completed. There was a S/A/C
war over a Tunnel Vision, which LS lost. DS won by 30.
I had to leave, but I read the report on the last game. It was DS Mains&Drains vs. Dagobah Baragwins. DS had Vader, Mosep and Lieutenant Commander Ardan in the starting hand. LS lost Figrin to a reserve deck drain, followed by the Bog Clearing second turn. LS conceded. DS won by 45!
I finished a bit less than half way, but i wasn't disappointed. A few of the players that I thought would go well got beaten by a lot, and I actually placed above some of them. In all, I had fun, and although I didn't do too well, I had a lot of fun and was pleased with my ranking. I also managed to trade for a D* and DS Lando, which I needed. I think that I'm going to do some tweaking to my DS deck now.
Luca Costanzo - Tzizvvt