Time: 3/20/99 0100 Hours
Location: Dark Trealon's Residence
I was frantically sifting through my long since sorted stacks of SWCCG cards from any and every set. I was 10 hours away from was my second sanctioned tournament. I already knew that I wasn't going to do very well, so I figured that the event would be more of a learning experience than a full-fledged competition. As the hour dragged on, I finally scuttled together the pieces for my Conservative ISB and Hoth T-47 Battle Formation Decks. The Conservative ISB Deck is your basic spread and drain, but it lacks the insane speed that people try to accomplish. I wanted to play it a little safe with the ISB and used some card slots for Imperial Supplies, Scanning Crews, A Bright Center To The Universe, Imperial Decree, and Evaders that would usually be filled with locations and agents by other players.
Starting (4) ISB Operations Coruscant Twi'lek Advisor Imperial Decree (Usually) Locations (14) Cloud City: Downtown Plaza Cloud City: Port Town District Desert Hoth: Defensive Perimeter x2 Jabba's Palace: Audience Chamber Swamp Tatooine: Cantina Tatooine: Jabba's Palace Tatooine: Jundland Wastes Tatooine: Lars' Moisture Farm Tatooine: Tusken Canyon Yavin 4: Docking Bay Yavin 4: Jungle Characters (24) Admiral Ozzel x2 Colonel Wulf Yularen Corporal Vandolay Darth Vader Darth Vader, Dark Lord Of The Sith x2 Lt. Pol Treidum Officer Evax 5D6-RA-7 Probe Droid x6 Chall Bekan x2 Chyler Outer Rim Scout x5 Effects (1) A Bright Center To The Universe Interrupts (17) Abyssin Ornament x3 Elis Helrot x2 Evader x2 Ghhhk x5 Imperial Supply x2 Scanning Crew x3
Starting (3) Hoth The Signal Maneuvering Flaps (Usually) Locations (12) Clouds x5 Hoth: Defensive Perimeter x3 Hoth: North Ridge x2 Hoth: Snow Trench x2 Characters (10) Luke Skywalker x2 Incom Engineer x2 Arleil Schous Geezum x2 Kebyc Tibanna Gas Miner x2 Vehicles (13) Cloud Car x6 Snowspeeder x8 Starships (7) Red Leader In Red 1 x2 Red Squadron X-wing x3 X-wing x3 Effects (7) Goo Nee Tay Revolution x4 S-foils Ultimatum Interrupts (7) Hyper Escape x2 T-47 Battle Formation x3 The Signal x2
Time: 3/20/99 1000 Hours
Location: Squeeze Play in Tustin, California
After a two hour drive, I arrived. The turn out was great. There was free mineral water, Dr. Pepper, Coke, and Sprite. I met a lot of the top players also from Alderaan, and then some from other regions. All SW Singles were approximately 20% off for all tournament entrants. This discount and my SWCCG euphoria compelled me to buy 5 Outer Rim Scouts at $9.50 a pop. Well that ate straight into my savings, but it didn't stop there... I turned right around and bought another guy's Outer Rim Scout for 8 bucks. I was pretty satisfied with the day already. It could only get better as I drooled over the prize support and the winning plaques.
Time: 3/20/99 1100 Hours
Location: Squeeze Play in Tustin, California
Registering was over, there was a turnout of 84 players. I was impressed. Now, it was on with the games...
Game 1: My Conservative ISB vs. Josh's Hidden Base X-Wing Swarm Deck
I had beat Josh a week earlier at a B&B tournament (my first sanctioned
tournament), and I knew he was somewhat of a newbie. It wasn't so much that
he didn't know how to play the game, rather that he was young and his older
brother was the one that did most of the competitive playing. The game
started out rather oddly. I played my objective, and I saw that he had
Hidden Base. I chose to start with Imperial Decree. Before I cut his deck, I
asked if he wanted to play a starting interrupt. He said he didn't, so we
began playing. My opening was rather strong, I 'Scanning Crew'ed him to
check things out. What puzzled me is that I found The Signal and Yarna D'al
Gargan there. After seeing that he posed no immediate threat, I deployed
Hoth: Defensive Perimeter and Tatooine: Jabba's Palace. I then proceeded to
deploy Admiral Ozzel to Hoth: Defensive Perimeter, Jabba's Palace: Audience
Chamber (via Tatooine: Jabba's Palace's GT), and an Outer Rim Scout (via
Jabba's Palace: Audience Chamber's GT). His set up of Hidden Base moves
rather slowly. He doesn't spread as much as I would've expected and insisted
on leaving 4 X-wings at each planet. A late game The Planet It's Farthest
>From slows my Tatooine drains, but he never managed to flip the objective;
he fell short by one battleground which he attempted to search for, but was
apparently stuck in his force pile. I Elis, Scan, and Imp Supply a couple of
times to put cards back in the Used Pile and Abyssin Ornament my Outer Rim
Scouts for 6 on my final turn to get back my entire lost pile. With 16 cards
on table and 1 Ghhhk in hand, I get a full win by 43.
2(+43)
Highlight: After the quick game, I chatted with him for a bit and he told me about how my DS Musician/ISB/Operatives B&B Deck inspired him (although I didn't think it was all that original). It felt good to know that he held no grudge against me, even after his two rather large losses, and was still determined to become a better player.
Lowlight: I beat him by quite a bit. What I Learned: All you have to be is civil and spirited to put the 'game' back into SWCCG.
Game 2: My Hoth T-47 Battle Formation vs. Kevin's Cloud City ISB w/ a Pinch
of Anti-HB
After the first game, I was the top ranked player and he was the second,
that was all about to change. Looking at my first hand, I was very
optimistic. I thought that the Revolution would be the game breaker because
he had started with Well Guarded as opposed to Imperial Decree.
Unfortunately, he has an awesome start also. He deploys CC: West Gallery,
CC: Carbon Freezing Chamber, CC: Lower Corridor, and an agent or two. On my
turn, I 'revolve' his Coruscant, but it still seems like quite a moot point
now. On his turn, I lose S-foils to the first force drain. That was the
biggest mistake. In a few turns, he sets up A Bright Center To The Universe
and 5D6-RA-7 and my drains are gone. I try to fight for it, but he has Bossk
In Hound's Tooth, ORS in Punishing One, and ORS in Jabba's Space Cruiser. I
did not expect those ships because I made the assumption that his deck was
much like mine. Boy was I wrong. Full loss by 33.
2(+10)
Highlight: Luke did some early ISB agent beating on CC, then finally died to attrition, then came back again as I picked up the other copy. Rinse and repeat.
Lowlight: Losing S-foils and a X-wing or two very early on. What I Learned: Although when I assume, it makes an ass out of u and me; it makes an ass out of me moreso than it does you.
Game 3: My Conservative ISB vs. John's Cloud City Mains And Toys
Again with the quick spread and drain. Unlike Hidden Base, he had absolutely
no drain control. The mains that got past my Scanning Crews were sent at me,
but Ghhhks were thrown back at them. He almost turned the tides with Harc
Seff, Pucumir Thryss, and Chewbacca at Tatooine: Jabba's Palace (which
would've slowed my drains immensely by covering three sites), but I
countered with Darth Vader, Dark Lord Of The Sith, Chall Bekan, and a few
scouts. I managed to draw an Elis for Vader's 'choke' attempt on Chewbacca.
That battle, coupled with the magnitudes of the drains, he was forced Noble
Sacrifice Yoda to an Outer Rim Scout on my 5th turn. I could tell that he
was prepared for ISB because of his 3 Arconae, R-3PO, and Harc Seff.
Unfortunately, they were too late. He didn't have enough active force to
pursue doing damage to me AND 'react'ing with his Arconae. Abyssin Ornament
(yet again) gives me the +21 differential.
4(+31)
Highlight: Doing lots of battle damage with a deck like this.
Lowlight: Obi-Wan w/ Saber ran rampant w/ his buddy Nabrun Leids early on. What I Learned: There are very effective counters to this deck, it's just a matter of getting them in time. Lucky for me, John didn't.
Game 4: My Hoth T-47 Battle Formation vs. Evan's Jedi-hunting Mains And Toys
OUCH! I hadn't read Visage Of The Emperor carefully enough. It is,
literally, twice as strong as I once thought. I thought that players lost
one force at each of their own turns. Whoops. Well, the 2 force loss per
turn cycle really ate at me. He managed to flip on turn two by deploying
Darth Vader and Vader's Lightsaber to Tatooine: Mos Eisley despite Goo Nee
Tay. Furthermore, he Altered my Maneuvering Flaps. That was a big dent. I
was planning to deploy Luke (which would've protected the flaps) and my
vehicles next turn to deliver a beatdown on Vader. Unfortunately, I was
instead a lame duck. His early drain of two and the Visage damage dwindled
my life force. I attempted to 'revolve' the Holotheatre to get a chance at
cancelling the Visage, but he Altered that too. Additionally, as I was
amassing force to set up for the expensive attack on Vader, he Monnok'ed me.
I had neglected to include Yarna D'al Gargan because I wasn't planning on
keeping much in my hand anyways. I lost 2 T-47 Battle Formations, 3
Snowspeeders, and 2 Cloud Cars. After that, I just keeled over and died.
Full loss by 35.
4(-4)
Highlight: Hmmm... can't really think of one.
Lowlights: Everytime I was going to do something that might've turned the tides, he stopped me just in the nick of time. What I Learned: Read all cards more carefully.
Game 5: My Hoth T-47 Battle Formation vs. Jack's Hoth ISB Deck
I pulled off the first turn 'revolve'd Coruscant again. This slowed him down
significantly. He was using Walkers, Tarkin, Vader, and the ilk so his
deployment was dramatically slowed. A few turns later though, he 'Evader'ed.
A few turns after that, I 'revolve'd it again. A few turns after that, he
'Evader'ed again. By this time, there were enough locations out that I just
dropped the rest of the Revolutions. As the game dragged on, we split up and
held our respective sites. He took Hoth: Snowtrench with a Blizzard Walker,
the Dark Lord Of The Sith, an Outer Rim Scout, and a lot of Probe Droids.
Unfortunately, I could not activate my flaps AND move over to confront them
on the same turn. That seemed to be the biggest weakness of my deck. Also, I
could never get Geezum or North Ridge, thus I could not set up T-47 Battle
Formation. Eventually, he got Blizzard 2 and decided to expand his control.
At this time, I was down to about 15 life force. Despite the fact that I had
had the Cloud drains, he was still at 20+ because of an Abyssin Ornament
with Probe Droids and the Trampling of my Tibanna Gas Miner when Blizzard 2
showed up (I should've put him inside, grrr...). In the end, I finally drew
my North Ridge. I un-locked the flaps and split my speeders and cars between
the two sites and put a lone one at North Ridge. When he battled, and I
forfeited everything at both sites except for a speeder per site, a miner,
and Kebyc. I was down to two life force. My last ditch T-47 Battle Formation
knocked him up for 13 (9 off of the reserve). What a blaze of glory. I
suicide by drawing up my life force and I lose by 9.
4(-13)
Highlight: Pulling off T-47 Battle Formation for the first time this whole day.
Lowlight: Not getting my 3 battlegrounds. Also, the game was drawn out so long that I didn't get to get dinner and went hungry while I waited for the pizza that they ordered for everybody who didn't get to et. What I Learned: Put your Gas Miners inside your vehicles.
Game 6: My Conservative ISB vs. Billy's Hidden Base X-wing Swarm
This game was exactly like my first game. In fact, after the game, he told
me that his deck was exactly the same as Josh's. He remembered to start with
Rebel Fleet which slowed me down. Like his friend, he lost speed because he
insisted on deploying 4 X-wings to each system. Other than that, just see
the Game One report for a general idea of the proceedings. I won by 34.
6(+21)
Highlight: Digesting pizza.
Lowlight: Another non-interactive easy win against the exact same deck. It does little to improve either player's skill. What I Learned: A better representation of how Hidden Base fares against ISB.
Game 7: My Conservative ISB vs. Juan's Hidden Base X-wing Swarm
I was getting tired of Hidden Base. This player was more experienced than
most the other Hidden Base players that I encountered. He made the
assumption that I didn't have a very prominent space fleet (which was
correct) and started with Rebel Fleet. Furthermore, he spread and drained. I
also knew he had no ground troops because I scanned his hand multiple times.
It became a drain race. TPIFF slowed my Tatooine drains as did multiple It's
A Hit!'s. In the end, he put up the good fight and attempted to stop some of
the drains by landing his X-wings. I was expecting this, so Darth Vader
flanked with Outer Rim Scouts delivered the final blow. Win by 21.
8(+42)
Highlight: Getting a mental picture of Vader and 4 Outer Rim Scouts pounding on the hull of an X-wing.
Lowlight: Realizing that I only effectively used my Ghhhks, Scanning Crews, and Elis Helrots in one game this whole tournament. What I Learned: Even a better representation of how Hidden Base fares against ISB.
Game 8: My Hoth T-47 Battle Formation vs. Nathan's TIE Scouts
I start with Hoth and S-foils for the first time. He seems confused about my
choice of starting location. I think he thought I was a newbie at that
point. As the game proceeds, I beat up on lone TIE Scouts here and there
with Red Leader In Red 1. I manage to flee for safety with both Hyper
Escapes for two turns as he chases me down with Dreadnaughts and Scouts. All
the while, I spread thinly on the ground hoping that he has little or no
characters and that 'react'ing with the speeders will be enough if he
surprises me. He eventually holds my Hoth and his Kessel with Presence Of
The Force on each of them. A few Counter Assaults and Tarkin's Orders slow
my ground drains down and I cannot seem to find any of the four remaining
Clouds in my deck. He attempts to assault Red Leader In Red 1 with a couple
of Scouts that he moves down. I make him pay for it by battling him with Red
Squadron X-wings and Cloud Cars (I didn't deploy any yet, so I guess he
assumed that I only had X-wings for the Clouds) with locked S-foils and
Maneuvering Flaps (respectively). He loses 25 force from that one battle
(even with All Power To Weapons). On the next two subsequent turns, I give
up on finding those Clouds and T-47 Battle Formation twice with what I have.
Most of the drains are cancelled via Tarkin's Orders and Counter Assault (I
kept forgetting to lock the effects before I drained). He uses Short-range
Fighters and eventually pulls ahead. I lose by 13.
8(+29)
Highlight: Exercising my supremacy in the Clouds.
Lowlight: Getting beat by Counter Assaults when I shouldn't have been. What I Learned: To consider putting the grappler effects in for next time.
All in all, it was very fun. Everybody loved the prize support. A guy who came all the way from Connecticut by himself was awarded a BB Darth Vader and BB Obi-Wan Kenobi for his devotion to the game. The last place finisher, for his good sportsmanship and effort, received a SE starter for both sides, two packs of SE, two packs of JP, two packs of Cloud City, two packs of unlimited Hoth, two packs of Unlimited A New Hope, a T-shirt of his choice, and a full set of Jabba's Palace. The first place prize, if you hadn't heard, was a set of every single card ever made. There were very nice looking plaques given to the top 8 finishers. All thanks and credit go to the tournament director, Nhat Lai, and Decipher who provided the prize support (the first place prize was part of Nhat's personal collection). I was stuck in the middle somewhere (the region that got the worst prizes, but I'm not complaining) and finished in the upper 30's. I received 2 packs of Special Edition, a pack of unlimited Premiere, and a pack of unlimited A New Hope. My horrendous pulls: DS Coruscant, Slayn & Korpil Facilities, Fear Will Keep Them In Line, and Retract The Bridge. I really regret using my LS Deck. I was just experimenting with possibilities, but it seems I'll resort to more orthodox decks with objectives, mains, and the ilk for my next tournament. Again, I must thank Nhat and all of Decipher for the great sha-bang that strengthened the already vibrant enthusiasm in SWCCG all over California. Thanks to anybody who actually read this far, may the force be with you all.
Dark Trealon