This is the first tournament run by Sam Wendt in this area. He has run tournaments in the Endor region in the past, and is now attending school here in Moorhead. We had 15 players, and were missing some of the better players. Normally, I am the tournament director in Fargo, so I was excited to be able to play for once!!
My Dark Side is a proven Dark Deal/Sabbac/Epic Duel deck which has not been defeated, even in playtesting with friends. I’m not to worried about this one. My LS manipulator, however, I made last night at midnight, and did absolutely no playtesting whatsoever. It starts with Hidden Base (Kessel) and flips right away for Force Choke, then the rest of my game is on Tatooine, utilizing Luke, Obi, Biggs, Beru and Owen, and also Oola and Shasa Teil. I use Harvest to retrieve, and some obvious destiny adders
Game 1 LS vs. Ronnie Jacobson from Hitterdal, MN
Ronnie’s a great guy who just hasn’t quite fund his SW groove yet (or a
Darth Vader ;) He starts a Tatooine site, and eventually I figure out
that he’s playing musicians and other aliens. Good characters, but
unfortunately easy to kill. I got Hidden Base flipped right away at
Kessel of course, and put Oola on the Falcon with Chewie at Rendezvous
Point. The Kessel drain and HB went uncontested all game, and Oola made
short work of his characters. Eventually threw down Shasa to further
manipulate his hand. Won easily by +32.
2 (+32)
Game 2 DS vs. Rob Brantseg of Fargo, ND
Rob’s been improving steadily since he began playing, especially since
he comes to the weekly SW gatherings at Paradox now. Even so, I’ve
never had a close game with him. This time, he definitely game me a run
for my money. I got Vader out quickly, with Lando to start playing
Sabacc. He was using Devonarians w/bargaining table and the FD
canceling site on CC to reduce my force drains significantly. He also
used fairly obscure cards to mess me up as well. I tried to battle his
characters a number of times, usually loosing Vader and cloud cards in
the process. A well-timed Clash of Sabers really hurt too. He managed
to get rid of both of my original Vaders and DLOTS, which left me with
Vader With Saber. In the end, I did not need to find him however, as
the battles and slow drains eventually wore him down. Also, I got
control of the West Gallery, witch helped a lot. In the end, I won by +
19, but it seemed MUCH closer than that as we were playing.
4 (+51)
Game 3 LS vs. Cole Ryba of Fargo, ND
Cole has been without a doubt the best player in this area since SW
tournaments started. He had an unbelievable winning streak of like 10
tournaments. However, he’s had some trouble lately, and has not won a
tournament since very early this year. That’s not to say he’s not
still a very dangerous opponent. On Wednesday nights, he often beats
me. This time, he was playing a Hunt Down and destroy deck, and I was
pretty nervous. I got Kessel out right away and flipped, which got Cole
very nervous. He apparently haddn’t realized the power of Force Choke,
and he started drawing for a few turns. He controlled my force drains,
and then tossed down two star destroyers to beat down my B-wing at
Kessel. Thankfully, I had my Savrip out already, and the damage done
was minimal. From that point on, I stayed out of space, and it became a
real drain race. I kept Vader and Tarkin out of his hand, and there was
an unspoken agreement between us that neither of us would loose force
from Visage. (I never reminded him, and he never reminded me).
Afterwords, we both had a good laugh over that! Anyhow, in the end my
drains proved to be too much for him, despite two presence of the
force’s being out. Win by +23.
6 (+74)
Game 4 DS vs. Shane Butler of Hitterdal, MN
I really hate playing Shane, since we often play each other during the
week to test out each other’s decks. But, since we are probably two of
the best players in Fargo, it’s inevitable. Shane was playing Jawas,
and he got Kalit, R’kik and another Jawa out first turn. Fortunately, I
had Vader With Saber in my hand, and 7 active force on my 2nd turn. I
deployed vader and swung at Kalit, only to miss ! That really sucked,
but then I drew an Imperial Propaganda for destiny, and ended up wiping
out the two unique Jawas anyway. Vader died to attrition, but DLOTS
came down shortly after. Shane tried Dune Sea Sabacc once, but we tied,
and CC Sabacc took over for the rest of the game. After that, his
jawas tried, fairly successfully, to invade Cloud City. I lost a
couple of battles, but he was taking lots of drain damage. In the end,
one last battle killed him, and I won by only +7.
8 (+81)
Game 5 DS vs. Ashley Freed of Minot, ND
Another good buddy of mine, Ashley had been out of the tournament scene
for at least 8 months, and just moved back to Moorhead to finish
school. We had been hanging out multiple times in the past two weeks
getting him ready for today, and now I had to play him. He has been a
consistently good player, but was definately a bit rusty today. This
game went too quickly, I’m sad to say. After one or two turns of
drawing, I had DLOTS, with saber at the Casino with Lando, and Epic Duel
was in play. He deployed Luke With Saber to the Casino, and before Luke
could get any backup, I played Vader’s Obsession. Vader won, and
Ashley opted to turn him to the dark side. Next turn, Tarkin, Lobot
and Cptn Bewil joined my force. He deployed Leia With Blaster, Pucimir
and and a Baragwin. Next turn was the clincher. I FD at the casino,
Elis Helroted to Leia’s site, disarmed Leia, snipered Pucimir, and
battled. It was very ugly. Baragwin got choked, leia was hit with the
Lightsaber, and I canceled his destiny. He ended up loosing 25+ force
to the battle. After that, there was no fight left in him.. I felt
pretty bad to beat him so horribly, but he took it well. Win by +28.
10 (+109)
Game 6 LS vs. Shane Butler
In the end, I had to play Shane one more time. He was playing his
girlfriend’s DS space domination deck. HB was quickly canceled, and it
became more or less a drain race. I managed to Harvest once, but then I
could not find my other one. I though I knew where it was, and last in
the game I drew all but one card out of my reserve. Still, I didn’t
find it. That sucked. Fortunately, Shane also was having trouble
finding a card ( Bright Center to the Universe) , and had only a few
life force left too. Luckily for him, he actually found his card, and
my force drains were significantly cut down. A very close game, it
came down to me winning by +1 force. My last card, as I had thought,
was my 2nd Harvest. D’oh!
12 (+110)
In the end, I was the only undefeated player. It was a real fun tournament. I was surprised that I didn’t see too many operatives (I played none at all). I guess most players around here were pretty disheartened with the new ruling. I saw some people trying to test the Carbon Chamber, but were unsuccessful for the most part. If there was one thing I saw alot of all day it was elis helrot/nabrun leids. I am going to be sure to include Oota/mecenary in my decks for a while. All in all, there were some very imaginative and fun decks being played, and I had a great time, and not just because I won!
-Kurtis Blow