I've finally got a minute to spare so I figured I write up a tournament report from this past Saturday. Thanks to Joe Harris for running a fine tournament and thanks to everyone who showed up.
After running the last two in Greensboro, I was eager to get back to playing again. The last time I played here was before SE, so needless to say my LS Jawa deck was not going to be played. :) Instead it had been replaced with Hidden Base and DS was an ISB Ops deck running only cards that deployed for 2 Force or less. (Don't ask...)
Game 1: DS vs. Johnathan Beckert's HB/Force Retrieval Deck
I think he had just about every way the LS has to retrieve Force in
this deck. Baragwins, OTE, Kessel Runs, Figrin D'an, etc. But
anyway. When he started HB, I switched my SL to C:Imperial Square and
started Secret Plans (a must-have for any Dark deck, in my opinion).
Opening draw was pretty poor, getting only a location or two, but I was
able to get a SCrew, so all was not bad. After seeing nothing in his hand
that could hurt me (I wasn't too worried about a Baragwin beatdown), I
dropped LMF and the Defensive Perimeter w/ Ozzel, and drew up. I was
concerned with the ICBW (always a problem) and the Kessel Run in his hand,
but those are nothing a little Hell To Pay and Secret Plans won't handle.
:) His turn he gets out Dagobah, uses the gt to deploy Yoda's Hut, and
draws. On my turn, I drain for two (cancelled by a Y-wing to Rebel
Fleet), SCrew (bye-bye SOS!), drop more sites and ISB agents, and draw,
getting my TBHTP. His turn, he deploys some more systems, puts a y-wing
at Kessel and at Coruscant, and draws. I drain huge, and he cancels two
with Rebel Fleet and ICBW (which is promptly caught by TBHTP). I
convert Coruscant, put a spaceport site there w/ Fozec, and now his
giant drain of 3 is down to zero. I love ISB Ops. :) The game goes on
with me draining, and him cancelling drains with a flipped HB and Rebel
Fleet. I put generic sites at all of his planets, so he wasn't draining
me for much. I was cruising until Artoo and We're Doomed showed up.
Oh boy. Now all my giant drains were cut down to 1 each. Eek! He could
cancel three a turn, so I was still hitting him for 7, but he was hitting
me for 5. As I was slowly wittling him down, it got hard for him to
manage his Force with having to pay for OTE (I still don't know how SOS
slipped through) and trying to draw up We're Doomed again. In the end, it
was his Force retrieval that cost him the game. He might have won had he
been able to keep playing We're Doomed. After I played Abyssin
Ornament on my ORS, retrieving a whopping 5 (ha!), he couldn't last
another two turns to drain me out, so he had to try for AWRI.
Unfortunately for him, he only had 6 Force (but a large hand) left with 5
Y-wings on the table, so he needed 5 Force to retrieve, plus the one
destiny draw. Well, the destiny he drew was We're Doomed (serves him
right; haha!) so he couldn't retrieve. And THAT meant he couldn't draw
the We're Doomed either. Hehe. On my turn I drain for full potential to
win.
Win by 12. 2 (+12)
Highlights: Finding more and more every game why I love Secret Plans! Realizing that the slots I have for starships to probe Hidden Base are wasted (just outrace Hidden Base; no need to cancel).
Lowlights: Getting caught with my pants down in regards to We're Doomed. That made this game go from a laugher to a very tight game. Getting a slow start that didn't disrupt his game enough. Choosing to catch ICBW instead of We're Doomed. Needing to add another TBHTP.
Game 2: LS vs. Jarret Saia's CC/Dark Deal/Vader w. DJP deck
Well, after the first game I was a little disappointed that I won a
potentially easy game by only 12, but that just meant I got to play
someone a little lower down for game two. I felt sorry for Jarret because
he started with B:CC as his SL, and you just don't do that against an
x-wing Swarm deck. Especially if you intend to play DD. :) I chose to
start with S-Foils over Rebel Fleet because I knew that it would come
down to a battle over CC, so I was safe from megadrains if I could hold
on. On his turn he deploys 3 (!) sites and draws up. On my turn, I
activated my 7 Force (thanks Jarret!), locked S-Foils, and played the Lost
version of Organized Attack to land 3 X-wings at CC. He just kind of
looked at me and said "Oops." That was pretty much it. He never even
had a chance to get DD up and running. We had a brief skirmish, but
after a 5 destiny draw left only his TIE Avenger with Danz Borin, he
wisely decided to land them at the Docking Bay instead of going at it
for another round. The game went with me having one x-wing at each space
system, undercover spies all over CC, and playing ICBW on any drains that
slipped through. I did get caught by suprise by a dreadnaught with pilot
against my lone x-wing (I even saved Force last turn to deploy the Spiral
as a "react;" that's what I get for not paying attention), but the forfiet
of the x-wing took care of it and RLinR1 paid a visit next turn to wipe
out the bullies. Near the end, I AWRI and ended the game with one card in
my lost pile. After the game, I tried to help him by suggesting that he
doesn't start with B:CC and instead packs three copies of it. We'll see
what he does for next time.
Win by 38. 4 (+50)
Highlights: Putting 3 x-wings at B:CC on the first turn. Playing tough and shutting down my opponent's deck. Getting differential up to where it belongs.
Lowlights: Not remembering to 'react' with the Spiral! Needing to play well to boost my miserable differential.
Game 3: DS vs. Jonathan Rose's LS EPP madness w/ Elom beatdown
I remember Jonathan from the last tournament he came to (way back in
November), and he beat me to win the tournament. I wish Jawa's weren't
limited to ground, because stupid DS Space Decree decks *always* shut my
Jawa deck down. Grrrr.
But anyway, I start Coruscant and Broken Concentration, cause he starts
Dagobah and Bargaining Table. I get another opening hand with only two
sites and one SCrew, but amazingly I get Ozzel again (gotta love that free
deploy!). On my turn I SCrew (bye-bye EPP Luke), deploy Ozzel regardless
of the Eloms in his hand (no more Imperials after that though; those eloms
are scary...), and draw, hoping to get another SCrew or at least another
location. Nada. Doh! His turn he just draws, but gets this evil grin
when he's done (does that mean something?). On my next turn I drain, but
he cancels it with an Elom. Now I'm forced into a dilemma: do I deploy
to flip ISB Ops. and drain en masse next turn, or do I draw, hoping to get
a SCrew and check his hand out? Well, I chose to deploy and that cost me.
I did draw up a SCrew and played it, only to find out that he had EPP Obi,
Obi Wan, and EPP Leia in his hand. Loss by 18. 4 (+32)
Highlights: Hmmm. None that I can think off. Well, actually, deciding to put some Nabrun defense in could be considered one. :)
Lowlights: Duh. Not getting a Ghhhk when I have so many in there. Oh, well; dumb luck does suck. Losing. Being out of the running for the
tournament because there are still two undefeateds. We'll see about next
time.
Game 4: DS vs. Alex Pomer's ISB/CC/Probe Droid deck
Win by 20. 6 (+52).
Well, I end up in 3rd place with one differential point separating
me from 2nd. That was cool with me though, because somehow this kid snuck
up to take second, and that made his day. It would have been sad if I
took second after playing like a schmuck. Well, I didn't play too bad, I
just had a case of bad luck in game 3. Anyway, I won a WB Obi for taking
3rd, with 2nd (Craig Reed) getting a WB Vader, and 1st (Jonathan Rose)
getting the Veers t-shirt and an EPP Boba Fett. Hey, I'm not complaining
too much. ;) I did manage to trade for another SFS, so I'm off to make a
TIE deck probably for my next tournament. Wheee!!! I also managed to
land a few more wookiees, so I'll see what I can do with those for next
time too. Maybe. :)
Well guys, thanks for reading! If you want to comment, please feel free
to email me. Take care, and may the Force be with you!
Master Yoda <(-_-)>
Alex is a good kid and is learning fast. He always seems to have trendy
decks, and it makes me wonder what he'd do without Scrye. :) Anyway, he
starts with Well Guarded and CC:Imperial Square, me with RP and Rebel
Fleet. The first couple of turns all he does is deploy site after site,
which is fine with me because the more he waits, the longer I get to set
up. Then, on about the fourth turn, he deploys 6 probe droids to the 6
sites, and ends his turn. I also deploy a few x-wings, an undercover spy,
and flip HB. He only gets a drain of 2 in through HB, Rebel Fleet, an
undercover spy, and ICBW, so I'm happy. I sit and drain for a turn or
two, with him drawing like a madman and losing all kinds of probe droids
to my Force drains. I couldn't get to a Grimtaasch, so he was lucky
there, but he kept deploying more sites than I could keep up with (I
didn't realize CC even had that many sites!!!). He did manage to play the
Exectutor w/ DVDLOTS against my lone x-wing at Kessel, but an Imperial
Barrier took care of the element of suprise. I had to evacuate Kessel,
which slowed my drains and allowed him to catch up a little. But in the
end I had enough ICBW and undercover spies to take care of most of the
sting. A quick AWRI for 6 and the deployment of a XWAS to put three more
xwings back in my deck boosted my differential to 20 for the win. I never
say an Abyssin Ornament; I wonder if he even had one. That could have
really made things interesting...