Charlotte,NC--11/28/98 (fwd)
I went to my first post-SE tournament this weekend. It was held in Charlotte, NC by Butch Branscome who did a fantastic job. Thanks Butch! There was a smaller-than-average crowd of 17, so that means some people were going to have to sit out a game. I brought my new Hidden Base/XWing swarm deck and an Anoat Operative deck (the most common ones I could get my hands on). Joy. I bring a LS deck I've never played before (in the great tradition of all deckbuilders, it was done the night before), and a DS Ops. deck I made 30 minutes before game time. Heck, I even had to TRADE for Imp. Occ. and some more Anoat Ops.! Well, away we went. Wheeee! Let the fun begin...
Game 1: BYE
Ahhhhhhhh! Doh! I drive all the way down here to just play three games?
Grrr. Oh, well. During the wait I decide to try out the Op deck and get
a feel for it. One guy asks me if I want to play so I say "Sure!" As
we're shuffling, I ask him if he's familiar with an Op. deck and he said,
"Yeah," but he wanted to see the objective anyway. I couldn't help but
smile when he said that it'd be kind of hard for me to flip it if I had to
control three sites. "Good luck," he said. I just shook my head. Then
he smartened up and read the flipside. After reading it, he said "Only
two sites? Ha! This is going to be too easy to flip back." Wasn't it
Palpatine who said something about overconfidence and weaknesses? :)
Anyway, I start my turn and flip the objective first turn. I look up at
him as he takes his foot out of his mouth and mumbles, "Oh." His turn he
plays Chewie, Hobbie, and Hol Okand to a lone Op. "You know," he said,
"it's dangerous giving me all of that Force first turn." Uh-huh.
He'll learn soon enough. He initiates a battle, I Ghhhk while he loses
Hol. Happy, he ends his turn. My second turn I drain him for 8, deploy
Nightfall, 2x, Ree-Yees, a couple Ops. and a BEATDOWN on Chewie and
Hobbie. He forfeits everything and then some (I love turning that 3 into
a 6!). On his turn he has to draw up b/c he deployed all of his
characters in his opening hand. My turn I drain for 10. He quits.
Finally realizing the power, he saw he had no hope. He had a space deck
which had *no* hope of out draining me, and he quickly learned not to go
to Anoat. Overall, the outcome was what I expected and the
speed/power/drain was quite sickening.
Result: 2 (0)
Highlights: Seeing an Op. deck in action
Lowlights: Getting a freaking Bye!!! :(
Game 2: My LS vs. Ben Harter's DS ISD/Tractor Beam deck
It was good to see the ol' tractor beams out again. He starts w/ a
system, so I start HB/Rendezvous Point/S-Foils. He activates, deploys a
few systems, and draws. I activate, deploy Kiffex from Reserve, and draw
(I don't dare deploy an XWing out to space until I see him commit to
deploying an ISD somewhere. He's generating enough Force and I know that
he could jump me. Of course, next turn I'd just lay the XWing beatdown
with power 6 immune Incom beauties, but that means I'd have to lose all
that Force in the first lopsided battle). This turn he deploys Avenger w/
Piett and Turbolaser/Tractor Beam aboard to Kiffex. My turn I activate,
deploy Kessel, drop 4 XWings to RP and move them over to the spice mines
of Kessel. During his activate phase I flip my objective allowing me to
cancel his Kiffex drain. He is now forced to start paying to draw and it
slows him down. My turn, I drain for 3 and put S-Foils up, letting him
know that my XWing garrison over Kessel was going nowhere (literally!). I
deploy a few more XWings to some of his systems, holding Organized Attack
in reserve. A turn later I deploy Obi's Hut and Y4:War Room. I signal
for Incom Corp. (allowing me to further spread out in space) and play
Luke/Saber/Prof. to Obi's Hut followed by a Revolution. Ben put up token
resistance at the Hut, but Luke made short work of them. After that, my 5
pt. drain at the Hut along with my space dominance proved too much. Win
by 33.
Result: 4 (+33)
Highlight: Seeing my deck work and having no fear in space!
Lowlight: Needing to pump up my differential after the Bye and not
finding my Traffic Control in time. :(
Game 3: My LS vs. Scott Bower's DS Trooper Assault/Tatooine deck
When I saw Scott start with Cantina and AAA, I knew I was facing a ground
deck, so I pulled Wars Not Make One Great. His first turn he deploys
Tagge and two troopers and draws the last. My turn, I deploy Kiffex
from the Reserve deck, and an XWing to it (I would have to have been
*very* unlucky for him to drop a SD on me for 6 Force), so I can drain
next turn and satisfy AAA. He drains and I lose two 2/0 sites from my
hand. You think I'm deploying those so he can Elis over?! I don't think
so. He deploys LMF and draws. I drain, deploy Kessel and 3 XWings
(cancelling AAA) and don't draw. He activates, I flip. He uses a Force
to drain and I cancel (hehe!) and then he begins to pay Force to draw
(hehe!). The game goes on for a while w/ me draining for 5 (him for 0)
while he looks for his sites. I get him down to under 20 Force when he
dumps a load of troopers and Ornaments for 12! Ugh. I'm not drawing any
cards b/c I'm afraid he'll just draw up and kill himself before I get to
TC. But after watching a few turns, I realize he can't! Woohoo! HB
rocks!!! Fearless, I dig for TC, count his Force while he activates, and
only drain down to where my next drain will kill him. On my next turn I
deploy TC, All Wings Report In my Lost pile, and replace 3 XWings with a
squadron (every little bit helps) Next turn I dump my hand and drain him
out. Win by 47.
Result: 6 (+80)
Highlights: Winning by 47! :) My largest win ever! Realizing that HB
prevents suicide draw-ups. Cruising against a ground deck.
Lowlights: Smashing a friend who handled it very poorly. But hey, it's
not my fault he wasn't prepared...
Game 4: My DS vs. Roger Moss' LS Rescue the Princess deck
Hehe! There isn't much to say. When I saw RTP as his objective I
shuddered. I asked if he knew about Op. decks and he said that he played
a DS one too. I asked him if he knew what was coming then, and he said he
did. The game lasted all of 10 minutes, and I had drained/monnoked him
out (2 Life Debts, 2 Bothan Spies, and 3 DS Plans in one monnok!) by the
fourth turn. I do give him credit for a cool deck which utilized Lift
Tubes, Bothans, Mains, Destiny Adders, Cell 2187, and DSP. Against a
normal deck it may have been scary, but Ops. just laugh in its face. Win
by 38.
Result: 8 (+118)
Highlights: None. Well, I didn't have a lost pile...
Lowlights: Dismantling a very creative deck
I win the tournament in a landslide; the second place guy was 8 (+52). I was very excited with my differential because I had never gone over the century mark before, and then I realized that it was for THREE games! That's about +40 differential for each game! Charlotte obviously was not ready yet for SE. The next time will be nowhere near as easy. This was the first tourney after Mr. D. Cipher's change in prize support, so the TD gave out packs of SE, but no T-shirt. :(
On a related note, there were 5 Ops. decks there, and from what I could tell, each went undefeated. Some did better than others, but a lot depended on the player. I, for one, felt guilty playing it. It was sick how easy it was to play, and how boring. It wasn't fun. Any schmoe could just play it. It practically takes no skill; consequently, every game's the same (i.e. boring). I will *never* play this deck again in a tournament. Maybe one that fights off planet, but never this one. That way, I won't feel so "dirty." I wanted to see what all the talk was about and I found most of it to be true. It's just too damn easy to be sucked up by Shadows.
Thanks for reading! If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, let me know.
Later!
Master Yoda