Wyoming State Championship/Walter Cronkite Memorial Tournament Report

>Note: it’s been almost a week since the tournament, and I didn’t take notes so details are gonna be sketchy and possibly of questionable accuracy.

In the weeks prior to our epic trip south, Jon and I tried out a number of decks – mostly originals, but were ripoffs (of varying degrees) of netdecks. For dark, I was pretty happy with a Bring Him Before Me starting Look Sir, Droids (v) and rocking Emperor’s Power (non-v) for extra battle destiny fun (although this was counter-productive almost as often as it helped, since the deck had a tendency to lose a high destiny to add a low one). For light, I was originally planning on playing We’ll Handle This (v), but changed my mind about a week prior to departure for a Yavin 4: Jedi Academy Careful Planning start reactive mains deck that (ideally) gets Luke Rebel Scout (v) out fast with his lightsaber and Lightsaber Proficiency for an early drain of 4. Both decks were rooted in ripped off ideas, but had plenty of Regisisms.

We had a total of ten people for the tournament – a step up from last year, as Dillon and Roman bailing after Game 2 to play DnD left us with an effective eight players. I dropped the ball on ordering prize support and it didn’t make it in time, but everyone is cool with divvying it up at Tatooine Regionals next month (as pretty much everyone plans to be there).

Game 1: Light vs Hunter’s Coruscant CR Dueling
Looks like I’m starting off with a loss – joy. I think I held off on getting Luke out to see if he’d put Vader elsewhere, but don’t hold me to that. About the only thing that went my way was an early (maybe second turn?) Tantive and some backup to his SE Coruscant. I’m pretty sure he didn’t duel once all game, I think we had a couple battles (Lord Sidious retrieved two when Luke got smacked down, I remember that), and his ground drains outpace what damage I’m doing. FL -22.

Game 2: Dark vs Hunter’s IITFYS Wookiees
Lucky me, the results of the first game were lousy enough that I got to face Hunter again. Don’t get me wrong – Hunter’s a hell of a nice guy to play against, and no game is a 100% certain loss, but he just plays so damn solidly and it’s safe to say I’m kind of scrubbish. Anyway, he gets some direct damage pinging going with Yarua (v) and a Wookiee (v) at the Sacred Forest and protects them with Nudjes at his sites. I draw into J’Quille (v) (a card that I almost always pack) and send him down with Vader to beat some Wookiees down. I do so, take out a Nudj, and the other Nudj moves over so Vader isn’t at a battleground for another turn. Shortly after I deal with Nudj Number 2, Luke pops down and gets captured, so I flip and start losing to my objective. I think we had a quick battle in space but I wind up letting him have it, and he wins the damage race. FL -13; I’m now at 0 (-35).

Game 3: Light vs Matt’s ISB Scum
I’m less than jazzed with this matchup too – he played a similar deck (I don’t remember seeing any AT-STs this time) back in April when he rolled the living snot out of my Back Beat RTP. However, this deck has some answers for him. It’s a bit of cat and mouse at first; I set up a lone Dodonna at the Y4 Jungle next to my Luke (with his saber, Proficiency, and a Bionic Hand (v)) and he takes the bait with an Outer Rim Scout and a walker or somesuch. I play Run Luke, Run! and dish out some pain. Yoda MOFO gets captured on Tatooine by Crazy Fett but after a couple of minor mistakes I don’t remember, he draws one too many and can’t pay maintenance so Fett gets ditched and Yoda breaks free. He doesn’t flip the whole game and I drain him out pretty quick for my one win of the day by 20. 2 (-15). Since we still have half an hour, we start a rematch but don’t finish; it’s looking pretty even when we give up for the next round.

Game 4: Dark vs Matt’s TRM
And thus Matt gets his revenge. An early Corran-led beat squad takes out The Emperor (v) who totally forgot to use his built-in zapping action and bites the dust. I try to take Corran out with Janus, but draw too low so they both just sit at the Throne Room looking at each other until Corran’s backup arrives to beat the holy hell out of my poor little Janus. Knowing that the deck has a tendency to leave crappy destinies on top, I cross my fingers and play Elis, hoping for a one ‘cuz that’s all I’ve got in my Force pile – and meet success! Janus runs away and gets beat down the next turn when Matt plays Nabrun. He’s activating about fifty force a turn or something and I kick myself for not playing Wipe Them Out, All Of Them (v). That’s pretty much all she wrote, FL -26. Now sitting at 2 (-41).

Game 5: Light vs Jerry’s Walkers
I’d joked about playing Under Attack in my light deck for Jerry (since I blew him out with it at Colorado States last year), but I didn’t. Not that it would have made much difference. He gets non-v Decree going so my big drain gets neutered from 4 to 1 (he has Vader on a walker) and blows the MPG without much trouble. I get some guys on Hoth and we rumble a bit, but I’m not smart enough to get Ultimatum satisfied so his direct damage and Garrison drains wipe me out with little trouble. FL -23; now at 2 (-64).

Game 6: Dark vs Jason’s MWYHL Asteroids

I cross my fingers that he’ll train Luke, but he’s not that dumb and trains DOS instead. I have a brief moment of hope: early draws of Zuckuss in Mist Hunter, Bossk In Bus, Vader (v), his saber, and Crazy Fett. I deploy ‘em to Kessel (maybe Kashyyyk) and move to Dagobah, where Corran in Red Squad 7 with X-wing Cannons is waiting. He shoots ZiMH (where my dudes are) into the lost pile, thus canceling my planned invasion of Dagobah. I try to battle him in space, but he keeps Barriering my Star Destroyers. His drains and Asteroid damage outpace what little damage I’m able to do (but I manage to win a battle, so go me). Oh, and Reegesk (v) steals Obi-Wan In Radiant VIII, but it just gets pitched to a drain. At the end of the game, he reveals an EPP Luke was in his hand the whole game (I knew it was there). FL -19, final score is 2 (-83).

So at the end of the day, I’m sitting in ninth out of ten with Jon pulling up the rear. I jump the gun and put Thomas’ name on the certificate I had Jon make for the winner before he plays the final confrontation, but he winds up winning so I don’t have to give Hunter a certificate with Tom’s name crossed out. Thanks for taking pictures, Jerry!

The next day in Denver (or Aurora, whatever), I play a silly AITC with Chadra-Fans trained by Sai’tor and packing Disruptor Pistols and Sebulba (v) dueling. I lend Jerry my White Trash (he plays it as is) and my Rancourt deck from Wyoming States last year, which he proceeds to RUIN by removing bounty hunters and adding more creatures.

Game 1: Light vs Matt’s ISB Scum
Matt’s playing the same deck as yesterday. I manage to thwart an attempted beatdown on Lando With Vibro-Axe and a Chadra-Fan when Lando excludes P-59 and a lone Fett doesn’t get any battle destiny. P-59 runs away, his deck does some heavy damage to me, and I manage to win a second battle with the same Lando and Chadra-Fan (who now has a Disruptor Pistol) against three Outer Rim Scouts (I pat myself on the back for playing Yavin Sentry shield) – Lando excludes one, the Chadra-Fan zaps one to the Lost Pile, and I draw three battle destiny against the last one. Alas, it isn’t enough and he wins by 19.

Game 2: Dark vs Mark’s EBOX
Here’s my epic John Kerry moment of the weekend, where I snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. I get my Sense combo early and Uncertain About The Future him before he gets EBO set up. I had Darth Vader and The Emperor’s Prize (v) in hand, which I wind up drawing back. I don’t really derail him too bad (I should have waited until he’d pulled EBO into hand and THEN done it). After he puts out Luke on his Rogue 1 I play Vader and Prize to the Carbonite Chamber, so he’s taking some pings the rest of the game. I get J’Quille (v) in my hand, but can’t send a good beat squad until after he plays EBO. J’Quille, Lord Sidious, and Myn Kynaugh (v) come down to beat on a lone Romas. Here’s the problem – Myn’s Force Pike is NOT under my Starting Effect where it’s supposed to be (I had 12 shields instead – curse my lack of playtesting this deck!). As such, Romas doesn’t get hit and have his power reduced to zero so Mark ONLY has to peel 19 (he forgot to re-borrow my Houjix combos for the deck). So I’m feeling pretty good, but I’m not smart enough to get Resistance satisfied to cap his drains. Winning the podrace (yeah, this deck podraces, hence the Sebulba) helps a bit, but he winds up beating me by ONE. As in, the ONE card he would have had to lose if my Force Pike had been where it was supposed to be. It’s frustrating, but it was still a fun game.

Game 3: BYE
I run across the street because there’s a gyro place, but it’s closed on Sundays so I settle for 7-11 taquitos.

Game 4: Light vs Mark’s Vane Mains
This game was a trainwreck for me, nothing worked at all. I couldn’t get Kabe out, and when I did she just got zapped by the Gemmeperor, a fate also me by Artoo with A Gift. I’m not begrudging Mark on an impressive deck build, but playing against the damn thing is no gorram fun at all. He plays Broken Concentration so I can’t draw up while he SLOWLY puts his hand back (until I’m smart enough to grab Look Sir, Droids (v)) and keeps Projective Telepathy-ing my attempts to initate battle and counterbeating the snot out of me. I don’t remember how much he won by, but it was a lot. Mark’s a good guy, but I still kind of want to punch him in the face, not gonna lie.

So for Sunday, my only win was the bye – disappointing (especially after my lousy showing the day before), but I was playing fun decks so it wasn’t a huge surprise. I come in last (seventh of seven), Jon's in sixth, and Jerry's in fifth (I think he would have done better if he hadn't RUINED my dark deck, but maybe that's just me). Matt is a super cool dude and gives out a rare of our choice (assuming he as a spare of it) from his personal collection for prizes – thanks again, Matt! Also, thanks to everyone that turned out for the events, and to everyone I had the pleasure of playing against. You’re all gentlemen, even if Mark does play that evil Vane Mains deck. And finally, a super big thanks to the guys at Slackerz in Laramie and Attactix in Aurora for letting us play and not charging for it – you guys rock!

Team Wyoming has nowhere to go but up next month.

Cheers,
Regis