Colorado and Wyoming State Tournament Report

As previously mentioned, Colorado and Wyoming States were my first tournaments for SW:CCG in almost seven years. Mark “AnakinSolo” Van Driel and I hatched a plan to run Wyoming and Colorado States on subsequent days in Laramie and Fort Collins, so as to further entice those that might be interested in travelling with double the action. After some false starts and balls being dropped (definitely more on my end than his), we had a plan: Colorado States in Fort Collins on Saturday August 16 and Wyoming States in Laramie on Sunday the 17. It was go time.

I definitely knew I wanted to play my Ewok You Like a Hurricane (Chirpa (v) catapults with a TIGIH base) one day, but didn’t have any strong feelings either way for other decks. I put together a Court deck with AO/WW (v) Rancor start to go with the Ewoks for Sunday (I decided to play my more “fun” decks that day), and went with TDIGWATT with the Vane (v) and lightsaber EPPS for dark and Sonn (v) mains and toys for light in Colorado. My old buddy Jon and I played a bunch of games in the week or two before the tournaments, more to just shake off rust than anything else (I hadn’t played a real game in the better part of a year).

Jon and I drove down from Sheridan to Laramie on Friday. Unable to find tournament-acceptable sleeves up here in Sheridan, we hit Dave’s Darts and Billiards (formerly Dave’s Darts and Parts) in Casper on the way down and stocked up. The drive as a whole was pretty uneventful, but we made it to Dillon (another one of the old Sheridan playerbase) and his wife’s place to crash on the couch. Dillon’s figurative boots on the ground was one of the reasons we had the Wyoming tournament in Laramie rather than Cheyenne, but he couldn’t get Saturday off work to go to Fort Collins with us.

Saturday morning, we left Laramie a little later than I’d originally planned so as to pick up my copy of the AR from Staples, but we made it to Gryphon’s right on time – except that the store ownership had apparently forgotten to come in early and left us standing out in the rain. It was pretty nice to finally put faces with some names on the boards, particularly Mark (who did a first-rate job running the show – bravo). After chatting for a bit, Jon and I go back to my car and work on decklists. The store opens up about 11 and we go in, chat with the others for a bit, and get started about noon.

Colorado States
Game 1: DS vs Josh’s RTP
Josh seemed like a pretty chill guy, hadn’t played in a while much like me. I think he activated Artoo first turn, so he got set back a turn drawing her up. I put off getting Dark Deal set up all the way, knowing that RTP is a lot easier to deal with before it gets flipped. In a genius move, I put The Emperor (v) at the Detention Block Corridor, but I don’t zap Artoo when he moves in. No, instead of doing the smart thing, I zap Leia as soon as she’s freed, so Josh just deploys another copy of Prison 2187 from hand to the Yavin 4 docking bay and backs her up with Ki (v) and Chewie Enraged – but doesn’t move her in to flip. Looks like I’m not the only one making dumb mistakes. I think I sent down a beat crew with Boba Fett BH, Zuckuss (v) and 4-LOM (but I don’t recall specifically). A flurry of battle destinies takes care of that, leaving me free to set up Dark Deal and flip. I think I prompted him to deploy Evac Control (v) and use it during another battle where I didn’t have a second destiny anyway, but it was pretty much wrapped up at that point.

FW +24,
2 (+24)

Game 2: LS vs Hunter’s Hunt Down
For some reason, Hunter was a lot bigger than I expected him to be – I’m not sure why, but he struck me as a pretty decent guy nonetheless. My Sonn (v) deck runs a lot of Jedi, so I was able to keep him from flipping most of the game – and that was pretty much the high point for me. For some reason, I thought his Abyss (v) shield gave me a 1 for total battle destiny is mine all got cancelled, so I didn’t play Chasm (v) against a Vader/Grand Moff Tarkin battle (after I’d played my two Smoke Screens) – d’oh! Ever the environmentalist, he thinned my numbers with You Are Beaten, Dr. Evazan, and Sniper.
FL -21
2 (+3)

Game 3: LS vs Jerry’s Endor Ops
Jerry is a pretty cool guy that likes the Aquabats, ‘nuff said. This game went considerably better for me. I had an early SATM on Maul and he couldn’t really keep much out after that. The single best part was a successful Under Attack on Blizzard 1 with Praji (v). Oh, the humanity!
FW +19
4 (+22)

Game 4: Bye
I used the facilities and bought a copy of Watchmen.
6 (+22)

Game 5: DS vs Tom’s QMC
You’d think I’d have formulated a plan of some sort of how to deal with QMC, but that would mean you gave me too much credit. His space package was pretty much unshakable by mine. I flipped for almost a whole turn after EPP Mara took out Obi-Wan JK (v).
FL -24
6 (-2)

Game 6: LS vs Tom’s Trained in the Jedi Arts Combat
This game probably would have been a little different if I’d been smart enough to remember Affect Mind (v), more to cap his drains than remove the finger of death. Unfortunately for me, I wasn’t that smart. Qui-Gon barely lost a Vader’s Anger (v) duel, most of my Jedi got lost to drains, and Leia got fingered (despite Tom’s repeated expressed desire to finger Padme).
FL -15
6 (-17)

So I wind up in fifth, middle of the pack – which is about what I’d figured. I won one game with each side, so that was good too. But I still had a blast, and that was the big thing. Jon and I skipped out shortly thereafter to catch another buddy of ours that now live in Fort Collins; we head back to Laramie later and I lend Dillon’s friend Roman a couple of decks for Sunday (Set Your Course CPI and EBO), even though he and Dillon claim they’ll have to leave early to play Dungeons and Dragons.
The Colorado crew makes it to the store Sunday morning in time for us to start about half an hour late, so we’re off to a pretty good start. We have a total of ten players Sunday (compared to eleven on Saturday), so nobody gets a bye this time around.

Wyoming States
Game 1: LS vs Mark’s Mystril
Being the stellar player I am, I leave Luke at the Endor docking bay so Mara can snag him and run back to Coruscant without dealing with the locals; gold star for me. Nobody else came to Endor (except maybe a U-3PO, but that may have been another game). His damage outpaces mine.
FL -19
0 (-19)

Game 2: DS vs Roman’s EBO
Roman is just learning how to play and has a pretty good attitude about the game. He had a pile of space that he was going to play, but I lent him the EBO deck I considered playing instead and walked him through the setup the night before. Unfortunately for him, not only do I know the deck and how it gets going, but I made sure to throw a J’Quille (v) into all my dark decks in case I came up against EBO. He gets EBO set up and gets the Falcon with Captain Han in space before J’Quille brings the party to a lone General Riekaan (v) and overflows him for 17. Riekaan gets snagged with All Wrapped Up (v) and is eventually fed to the Rancor (by walking Greedo on down). He puts up a bit of a fight in space, but it isn’t enough.
FW +36
2 (+17)

Game 3: LS vs Tom’s ISB Star Destroyers
I couldn’t win a single battle and Luke got snagged by EPP Vader. Tom opted not to stick around on Endor and outdrained me in space.
FL -20
2 (-3)

Game 4: DS vs Tom’s QMC
Tom played the same light deck both days, so at least I had an idea of what was coming (particularly in space). He gets a bad starting hand and draws three sites so I get to space early with Bossk in Bus, ZiMH, and Danz (v) in Jabba’s Space Cruiser (v). It had dawned on me in playesting that Danz and BiHT didn’t combo too well, but Tom’s space package cancels and reduces your destinies pretty easily, so Danz turned out to be money. He opted to lose to my Objective rather than come to Tatooine all game. My non-sarcastically brilliant play of the day took place this game. I had Jodo Kast and Boba Fett (v8) together on Cloud City looking at Kebyc and Pucimir. He Path’s Qui-Gon with Lightsaber over and plays SATM on Jodo, leaving a lone Fett looking at a beatdown. He initiates the battle and I Outflank (v) Aurra Sing (v) (wielding Felty’s Rifle (v)) over, play Defensive Fire (v), Mace and play He’s All Yours, Bounty Hunter (v) to add two and capture Qui-Gon. Fett snags Pucimir with Hidden Weapons and Kebyc takes a beating but at least Tom has a Houjix. I clear him off the ground and our space plays tag between Bespin and Nal Hutta.
FW +17
4 (+14)

Game 5: LS vs Jeremy’s V-free walkers
He plays Imperial Decree, so my drains don’t sting too much. Like a champ, I play Qui-Gon with Lightsaber to his one Hoth battleground and he gets barriered with no backup in my hand. He unloads his hand and overflows me for 12, as I don’t have a Houjix. A couple copies of Walker Garrison later, he finishes me off. At least Luke didn’t get taken off Endor this game.
FL -19
4 (-5)

Game 6: DS vs Mark’s DBO
I didn’t take any notes on this one, as it went timed and I had to total everybody’s scores and divvy up prizes. We got off to a slow start. He doesn’t come to Tatooine for most of the game, I think I smacked down on Mon Mothma with some bounty hunters at the V15 site and we played tag on Dantooine. He plays Leia, Rebel Princess in front of my stack of guys at the Audience Chamber, but moves her away after a turn or two when I comment how awesome a Trap Door would be right about then (I’d actually lost both copies by that point, but he didn’t know that). He’s leading by a solid margin when I call time, but I think I may have pulled it out if we’d played it out.
TL -31
4 (-36)

So this time I’m sixth out of ten (really, out of eight), and I’m pretty bummed my Ewoks didn’t do better. But once again, it was a lot of fun and definitely worth the drive and using two days of vacation. We’ll definitely have to do this again next year.

The obligatory Props and Slops:

Props
The fine people at Gryphon’s in Fort Collins and Slackers in Laramie for letting us play for free
Everybody that turned out for either or both events
Hunter and Tom for winning the byes
The calzone orders at Gryphon’s

Slops
The sink at Slackers for being too small to fit my water bottle in
Dungeons and Dragons, specifically the misplaced priorities it can engender