Jacksonville Tourney Report

JACKSONVILLE, FL 10/10/98

I had a big dilemma going in to the tourney today. I could not come to a decision on which light side deck to play. There were three choices:Yoda with spies, Hoth Elom Clouds or Our Most Desperate Hour. I wasn't very confident in either of the three. They are each powerful but can be ground to dust with the wrong matchups. I finally chose the most conservative of the three, OMDH. The Dark Side had two choices. Both decks were undefeated - Skrilling Swarm and Hoth Decree. Again I took the conservative route, the Hoth deck with all the big boys. Here we go with the report.

Game 1 - My DS vs Blake Senn's LS (SE-Haven)
A terrific,nail biting, down-to-the wire game. This was the third straight tourney where we had played in the first round. Blake was playing LS space with It's A Hit, Control and ICBW's. I got the Avenger out early to cancel Haven after he left Yavin undefended. I also had Vader with Saber draining at the Perimeter but his interrupts were slowing my drains down to a halt. He also brought out the Falcon with Luke piloting and later Noble Sacrificed Luke for 7. I tried early to Sense the Hits and ICBWs but they were all met with Controls. Later came Do Or Do Not. I wasn't too upset because he burned a lot of early Controls. It seemed like I was getting the game in control when Captain Han and the Falcon paid the Clouds  a visit. The Avenger was chasing his ships but he would always get away to drain someplace else. I finally got down a Gas Miner and ran and ran from the mighty Falcon. The turnaround came when I deployed Fett on Slave I and took out a Mon Calamari. Eventually the drains of 7-8 caught up to him because I had enough Cloud Cars to run from the Falcon in the clouds. I won a tight game by 5. (2 + 5).

Game 2 - My LS vs Blake Senn's DS (SL-T:JP SE-Resistance)
Yuck I hate back to back matchups. He was playing an all alien deck. This was my game from hell when absolutely nothing went right. He deployed Jabba to the AC. I tried to deploy Obi there but None Shall Pass put him back. Next turn I deployed Obi with a Monk to Mos Eisley. He responded next turn with Fett, Dengar and Bossk. Battle destinies he draws a 5. There goes Obi and the Monk. I drew for a while building my forces  and deployed Obi, Luke and a Monk. Next turn I Nabruned them to a weak spot in his defenses to be met by a Oo-Ta Goo-Ta, Solo? How long has it been since I've seen that card. Things were going from bad to worse. The writing was definitely on the wall. I pulled off 2 my OMDH's for 9 and 7 and still lost by 29. Ouch! (2 - 24).

Game 3 - My DS vs Scott Boardman's LS (SL-Dagobah SE-Do Or Do Not)
Scott was playing a mixed ground/space deck with Dagobah, Yoda and Son thrown in for Training. I had a decent start with Vader, clouds and a Miner all down relatively early. Decree kicked in shutting down his saber bonuses. He tried to hit the clouds with RL/R1 and GL/G1 only to forget that Cloud Cars can deploy as a react. There goes RL/R1. Next turn came Zuckuss on Slave I to wipe out GL/G1. He never could pull of the Jedi Test so the game ended pretty quick. I won by 24 and had 13 cards in hand when he drew up. (4 + 0).

Game 4 - My LS vs Matthew Smiley's DS (SL-T:JP SE-Bad Feeling Have I)
He was playing a DS bounty hunter deck. I had a terrific draw with Luke and Obi but BFHI kind of stunk. I deployed Luke and next turn he deployed Vader and battled. I drew a 5 he drew a 2 which turned into a 3 so both characters went to heaven. Next turn I deployed Obi and he responded with Jabba and a bunch of bounty hunters so Obi ran for a while. I deployed the Cantina and Mos Eisley far away from the Palace and started  the shuffle with a Monk, draining for 2 and 2 which ate into his Force. Finally I deployed Obi's Saber and Proficiency and then I was ready to rock. I battled killing Jabba and again drew a 5 for battle destiny(third time in the game). I also deployed a lone ship to Kiffex to drain for 2. He got some Walkers out late but I was able to shuffle away. I won by 23 (6 + 23).

I finished in sixth place which was disappointing but did finish 3-1 so it wasn't too bad. Hindsight is 20/20 so maybe I should have played the Elom/Clouds deck. Especially when I saw Mitch Velasco was undefeated with his Elom/Clouds. Oh well. There's always next time. Anyhow on to the final face- off since there were two undefeated players.

FINALS - Chris Kuebler DS (SL-T:JP SE-Bad Feeling) vs Mitchell Velasco LS (SL- H:MPG SE-Yarna)
A good tight game. Inserts vs DS ground. Chris got a good start with Jabba in the AC and Djas Puhr at the Moisture Farm. But Mitch slowed it down with the Bargaining Table. Mitch inserted A,F,A on his first turn and then put down an Elom and Chadra Fan to insert Odds. Chris bravely took the insert beatings as he had no defense for them. He came down to Hoth with Bane Malar to stop Mitch from draining there. He later got out Prophetess and Vader who was met with a ton of Eloms. Mitch's drains were blocked and he had to bring his Cloud Cars to the ground to help in the battles. The kicker was Mitch's Civil Disorder. In the end, Mitch won by one. Whew ! Congratulations to Mitch and hooray, another victory for my beloved inserts.