Well, to start out, this tourney was the second-largest ever in the Portland, Oregon metro area. I looked around, and we had about five or so newbies. And of course, we had a couple of guys who tend to dominate the tourneys (actually, some of the best players in the region live about 75 miles south of here, in Salem; fortunately, they weren't here today).
Game 1 vs. Tyler Fife
Let me start out my individual game reports this way: Glenn Hall (a
Listserve denzien and the Portland Westside TD that lacks in timing skills
:-) ), has this strange tendency to match me up against difficult opponents
(even when I do poorly), and match my closest friends up with newbies; for
example, two tourneys ago, I ended up playing the Montana Endor Regional
winner in my third game. Anyway, I get matched up against the winner of
last week's 18-player tournament (at a card shop halfway between here and
Salem) in which I placed 16th (but the matching in that tournament is
another story...); of course, he matches two of my friends, Court Ficker
(known as C. Alan Ficker on the Listserve) and Matt Tardy against newbies.
I'm playing Light, the stronger of my two decks. "Great," I think, "I'm
gonna get my pasty Kowakian hiney kicked, and I'm playing my good deck." In
any case, I pull out my Salacious Crumb Star Wars Buddy (a plush action
figurine) from my Jabba OTSD box and set him up to stare at my opponent
(it's actually a great psychological tool). He starts with Kashyyyk and I
start with the MPG (and Yarna). By turn three, he has the Avenger (or
Devastator, I can't remember which) at Hoth with Ozzel or some other random
Imperial. At about the same time, I have a pair of Clouds out (each at
Hoth) with two Cloud Cars at each, and a Gas Miner on the ground. By turn
five, I have a Bargaining Table out, and he's expanded his forces (no pun
intended) to two systems. Meanwhile, he's lost a decent amount of Force
from my AFAs and NTMTOs (my main alien force is seven Elomin). About 35
minutes into the game, I insert a NTMTO and realize that he's almost out of
Force (I've forced the inserts to the top with Kebyc). I quickly play NSWC,
targeting my Elomin, and retreive four or five Force; I Force drain him, an
the game is over. A lascivious 24 Force! It's only the second time I've
ever beaten a tournament winner. I put Sal back in the Jabba OTSD box and
pessimistically assume that I'll be crushed by a superior player with my
semi-coherent Dark Side deck.
After one game, I'm 2(+24).
Game 2 vs. Tyler Fife
"What?!" I think, after Glenn announces the matchings. Tyler, my opponent
from the first game was, of course, at 0(-24). After discussing this
conundrum (or maybe it's something more of a quandry...) with my cohorts
(mmm... BS...), I ask the TD if I can look at the command cards. He
complies, and, sure enough, I'm matched against Tyler again; evidently, only
five of the thirteen games were won by Dark Side the first game. This game
was pretty non-descript; he battled me with mains on Tatooine (I've gotta
stop playing with BHing; at least until SE, when enhancements of some sort
are to become available). I put up a halfway-decent fight, but my legions
of Salaciousness are crushed by the old guy with the flashlight and his
friends.
After two games, I'm 2(+9).
Game 3 vs. Glenn Hall
Let me say a couple of things before I go into the details. First, I
*wasn't* playing against Glenn Hall II, the TD, but rather Glenn Hall III,
his son (a tournament winner himself; like I said, my pairing luck isn't too
Salacious...). Next, Glenn has done the following groovy thing at all but
one of the tourneys that I've been to: if there are an odd number of
players, he'll join (with his dad's decks) so that no one has to sit out a
round; if there are an even number, he'll abstain from playing to achieve
the same effect. Unfortunately for me, he seemingly borrowed his dad's
cards (a couple of Lukes, Obis, etc.). (Side note: Glenn II is also my
local distributor of choice; I've gotten a box of JP from him for $80).
Again, this game is further proof that BHing isn't as viable as Mains and
Toys.
Here's the breakdown: on his first turn, he deploys Luke to Tat:JP. I want to get my prison out, so I deploy Dengar there, find the site, and move him over (I thought he'd be safe). Next turn, he FDs for two and deploys another main or two to Tat: JP. I repeat the same process with Gailid and pull out the AC (and put it on the far side of the prison). His next turn, things get ugly. He deploys a couple more mains to JP. He plays Nabrun Leids and transports them to the prison. He initiates a battle. Needless to say, my Force loss was deserving of some words that I don't use (I'm sure that Kevin Tewart would eat this up if he read it :-) ). (Ironically, I had kept an Oo-ta Goo-ta, Solo in my hand until the last five turns against Tyler.) In any case, I manage to regroup and capture Luke with a bounty (I retrieve seven). Again, I make a decent recovery from the catastrophe that plagued me earlier. Near the end, he deploys a Traffic Control and I draw up shortly afterwards (I don't want him to return his 15+ card hand to his Life Force)--I manage to keep my differential loss down to 18.
After three games, I'm 2(-9). Unfortunately, this is looking much like my first tournament.
Game 4 vs. Cory Wells
Cory is the fourth and final member of our troupe that frequents the
tourneys (see the Game 1 description and below for more information about
the other members). Fortunately, I didn't playtest my deck against him, so
he had no idea what was coming to him (except for my Sal plush action
figurine, who was promptly placed upon his OTSD throne). Cory's actually a
pretty decent strategist for someone who usually finishes close to the
bottom. In this game, he doesn't get overconfident, and starts delivering a
trickle of his characters under the energy shield, I get Hoth/Clouds set up,
and start draining. I also begin inserting and forcing them to the top with
Kebyc. Despite his valiant efforts, I win by 14 (and pull off a bunch of
four destinies; great for picking off bounty hunters).
After four games, I'm 4(+4) (I know it doesn't seem right, but either I'm off somewhere, or Glenn miscalculated).
Not bad; my best finish ever in a tournament (14th out of 26).
If I remember correctly, here's how it broke down:
Thanks for reading and putting up with my almost bombastic overuse of ellipses, semicolons and em dashes. As a reward, here's a joke:
How many Monkey-Lizards does it take to screw in a lightbulb? (Sorry, inside joke).
Travis John "Salacious Crumb" Willse