Game 1 - My LS Hidden Base deck versus Eric's DS Abyssin deck
Eric started with the JP: Audience Chamber and There is no Try, and I put Hidden Base on Rendezvous Point, put my "hidden base face down on the table, and started with Yarna. He activated, deployed a JP site and drew. In my opening hand, I got Kashyyk and Tatooine. I deployed those and got Coruscant out of the reserve deck. I played the Signal, deployed Rebel Fleet, and drew the remaining cards. For his turn, Eric deployed Chall Bekan, plopped down Scum & Villany, used Bekan's GT to put down a free abyssin, used the AC text to get Myo, and deployed three more abyssins, all to the AC. On my next turn, I deployed Kessel from the reserve and Corellia from my hand, then put down a corvette at Coruscant , two X-Wings at Kessel and ended my turn. I knew it was a risk leaving the X-Wings out there like that, but I'd played Eric's Abyssin deck before and was pretty sure there wasn't any space. On his next turn, he drained for one and I got to use my new Rebel Fleet to cancel a drain with an X-Wing. He deployed Gailid to the AC, two more JP sites along with a PotF, and a handful of abyssins for free, and drew. It was a good thing that he drew so many cards that turn - it was the last time it wouldn't be costly. On my turn, I first drained for 6 and he used Den of Thieves for 3 and controlled the other 3. I deployed Corellia from the reserve deck and flipped over my objective. I put down some corvettes at Tatooine and Corellia, then drew. At the end of my turn, he decided to try to alter my Rebel Fleet. Even though Chall was his highest ability character, he succeeded and there went that. On his turn, I got to ignore the two force drains of two because of my objective and started losing the systems in my hand that I could no longer deploy. The rest of the game consisted of him dealing with my drains of 9 per turn and looking for more sites and abyssins with which to drain - I just deployed an X-Wing here and there and waited for his to run out of force. Even his Abyssin Ornament for 10 wasn't enough to deal with the constant, large drain. Toward the end of the game, he got the Moisture farm and Cantina out along with another JP site and Mosep. There were two turns that I lost 2 from the reserve deck, but otherwise I emptied my hand. When it was obvious that the end was near, I played All Wings Report In for 5, then replaced three of the X-Wings with the X-Wing Assault Squadron, increasing my differential a little. I won game 1 with a +17 differential. Just to be clear, Eric's Abyssin deck is a great one. If I had ventured down to Tatooine, I would have been toast. He played very smart with a deck that was incapable of beating a Hidden Base deck.
Game 2 - My DS Operative Deck against Bradley's LS non-objective space deck
Bradley started with Kashyyk and an effect that I cannot remember. I started with Imperial Operations deployed on Eriadu with the Prefect Office. On my first turn, I deployed a non- unique site from reserve as allowed by the objective, deployed a non-unique site from my hand, then deployed 3 Eriadu Operatives (one to each site) and flipped the objective. Poor Bradley then activated and drew. On my turn, I drained for 6 and deployed Tagge and a Lobel to one of the non-unique sites and drew, praying that he didn't have any mains waiting to crush my lonely operatives. Bradley activated, deployed Kiffex and a corvette and drew. I drained for 9 (remember that we misread the operative cards) activated deployed two Lobels and Grand Moff Tarkin to a site with an operative at it. The rest of the game consisted of Bradley losing cards to my drains (which eventually grew to 12 per turn) and me using the Lobels on the Den of Thieves to cancel drains, deploying operatives from my hand to retrieve force, and backing up the operative with high power bounty hunters and Imperials. Bradley managed to get ships at Kessel and Eriadu, but the operatives were simply too much. At one point, he managed to deploy Luke Skywalker and one of those low deploy, high forfeit aliens, but the operative power bonus and the added battle destiny got rid of them both in one battle. He drew the last of his force before I could play abyssin ornament, but I still won by twenty-something.
Game Three - My Hidden Base Deck versus Matt's DS Hoth/Imp. Decree Deck
Matt started with one of those 2/0 DS sites and Imperial Decree, and I again put Hidden Base on Rendezvous Point and the hidden base face down on the table. He activated and drew. I activated, deployed Corellia, (from hand), Coruscant (from reserve), Rebel Fleet, and an X-Wing to Coruscant (again, a risk, but there were a number of ships in my hand just waiting to be deployed and I was pretty sure that if he had space in his deck, it was of the big, nasty, and high- deploy variety). Matt activated and drew a few. I activated, deployed Bothuwui (from the reserve) and S-Foils, put a another X-Wing down at Coruscant and drew. He activated, deployed a Hoth site and Blizzard 2 and drew. On my turn, I drained for 3 at Coruscant, deployed Kessel, Tatooine (from hand), Roche (from reserve), two corvettes at Kessel, and flipped the objective. Matt activated a pile of force and plopped down the Executor, Admiral Ozzle, and a Victory- Class Star Destroyer. Of course he initiated the battle. I was able to play Organized Attack, but still had to lose both X-Wings and eight force. Within two turns, there was an armada of pumped-up X-Wings and corvettes draining and stockpiled in order to confront the Executor. In one battle, I managed to take out Ozzle and the Victory-Class. He got Vader and Tarkin down to the Hoth surface which put Imperial Decree into effect, but neither of us noticed (which is pretty unusual for a great player like Matt), and I continued to drain for 3 at both Coruscant and Kessel. Fortunately, I was able to ignore or cancel 3 drains per turn, so I wasn't losing much force. There was one more big space battle in which those X-Wings on steroids ate up a TIE and pilot that he had just deployed (note: it was with this TIE that he first "probed" for the hidden base). Being able to put a forfeit 8 corvette into Docking Bay and Repair just seemed wrong, but that's what I was able to do. The Executor moved and "probed" again, but didn't find the base. Combined with the battles and force draining, I won by twenty-something - even though I missed the draw for All Wings Report In. A important thing to note is that since the objectives were so new, Matt didn't really understand how to "probe" for the hidden base, nor did he realize that my hidden base wasn't necessarily the system deployed immediately before the objective flipped. In reality, the hidden base was Kessel - probably not a great choice since it was pretty likely that any space deck would go there to try to crush the drain of three. In addition, Matt seemed to get caught up in defending himself against my game rather than setting up any kind of offensive for himself.
Game 4 - Jon's LS ??? deck against my DS Operative Deck This game was cool because it was a true championship. I had no idea what Jon was playing wasn't any closer to knowing when he started with Yoda's Hut. I decided to stick with my plan and start with Den of Thieves, then proceeded to get out three sites and three operatives one turn one, thus flipping the objective. On turn two Jon lost a boatload from the force drains and drew. I deployed two Lobels, General Tagge, and another non-unique site. Jon then activated and tried to deploy Obi Wan, but he didn't have enough force because of the +2 for Rebels on my objective. So he drew a few and it was my turn. Looking in my hand, I realized that I didn't have enough characters to back-up the operatives that were alone, so I stupidly moved the two from the outside sites in to the middle site and left a decent-sized pile of force active. What I didn't realize was that this now flipped my objective back over - poopy. On Jon's next turn, he deployed a space site and Obi Wan w/ saber to the middle site and left him there. On my turn, I deployed Vader to the same site as Obi and two more operatives to flip my objective back over. One Jon's turn, he initiated a battle and missed chopping Vader in two by one. I only drew a 3 for attrition and even though he lost some force, Obi remained. On my next turn, I deployed two more operatives (retrieving two) and Tarkin to the same site as Obi and initiated a battle. Obi got hit by Vader's saber and the two destiny draws just added to the carnage. After that terrible battle, the game was pretty much mine. I honestly can't remember if he ever got anything else down - I think he put down some space and might have drained for a few. I remember using Lobel on the Den of Thieves at least twice, so he must have. I backed-up the objectives with some powerful bounty hunters and increased the drain to 12 per turn. The game was over rather quickly with a +30 differential - I never figured out what the original deck design was supposed to have been.
Overall I finished 8 and 98 - my very first tournament win. I got a Jabba shirt and 12 SE packs, none of which contained anything interesting to speak of. Most of the rares went toward filling in Beakman's set and the commons and uncommons went to the kids at the tourney who couldn't afford vast quantities of SE in the first week. This tournament was a big lesson to all of us. Even though I won, there are a lot of things that I would have done differently in my decks. I think that the next tourney will result in some pretty inventive counters to operatives and hidden base, as well as players with a better working knowledge of the cards in the set.
Queen Jawa