Here in Bristol, the fledgling Star Wars Destiny scene has taken its first swoop out of the safety of the nest, and had a very nice little fly about!
This week, Severn Gaming Network ran its first Destiny tournament, hosted by the marvellous Excelsior! Games in Bristol city centre, and, despite it being a cold and rainy Tuesday night in the middle of February, had an amazing 17 people turn up to do battle!
It turned out to be the perfect number too, since as prize support we were using the contents of one Game Night Kit, which meant there was enough for everyone to get something; participation prize was an alt art Tie Fighter, with alt art Kylo Ren cards and resource token packs also up for grabs for the top places. In addition, Excesior! included some very generous store credit vouchers as prizes for the evening making it quite a nice haul if you managed to place!
With rounds lasting just 35 minutes each, we had plenty of time to get 4 rounds in for our evening’s play, meaning it felt “good value” for time and money investment required for doing an evening tournament like this.
A good variety of decklists were on display even with the expected preponderance of Jango actually present. With some of our community getting into the game a bit later than others, a few decks were constrained by access to a limited pool of product, but many of us were “early adopters” and bought in early on, so we did have some very competitive decklists on display too.
Although I was TO, I was keen to join in and get some games in too, and decided to run with a Vader/Raider list of my own devising. With an emphasis on getting upgrades in to play and then combat tricks to maximise damage, I was feeling confident my deck would hold up and be competitive so long as I didn’t make silly mistakes.
Here’s a brief rundown of how my matches went!
Game 1: Vs Carl (eKylo/Trooper/Raider)
Carl is a veteran CCG’er, being the last ever Store Champion in Bristol for Conquest (R.I.P...), but explained he was new to Destiny and was building from a limited pool, and so the game progressed in a fashion you’d expect where a finely tuned deck was playing against an expanded starter! Kylo bowed out pretty quickly to Vader’s onslaught and Carl’s trooper/raider never quite had enough poke afterwards to take Vader out. Once Carl gets more product and games under his belt however, he could be a fearsome opponent in our meta!
Result: Win
Game 2: Chris Roberts (eLeia/eAckbar)
Chris is an excellent player and scene stalwart, so I was ready for a tough matchup. Fortunately for me, Vader went about the business of destroying his own kin with characteristic single-minded determination: at the beginning of the third round, armed with Kylo’s Lightsaber, Vader rolled 7 damage, which was quickly countered with a huge Defensive Position play by Chris! So gutting! Not to be deterred, at the start of the fourth, Vader rolled out eight! Feeling shocked by two such huge rolls in a row, I apologised profusely, but Chris played....Comlink! And rerolled the lot! Embarrassingly, Vader rolled into NINE damage off the Comlink reroll and finished off Leia. After that, it was a simple job to finish off Ackbar.
Result: Win
Game 3: Liam (Jango/eBala/Trooper)
I knew this would be a tough matchup; I think this is currently the most competitive list and Liam knows his way around a game of Destiny. As it was, he played it perfectly and I didn’t. Vader fell over himself a few times rolling lots of resources rather than damage to pressure Liam, but this was one of those games I also felt throughout that I wasn’t quite making the very best decisions I needed to against such a deck and such an opponent. Most crucially, I had two Intimidates in hand that I just couldn’t roll damage for so that I could play the Intimidate and create a window to resolve the damage in and maximise it. Eventually, Vader went down under a hail of gunfire, Bala reactivated with 4 more dice and the writing was on the wall.
Result: Loss
Game 4: Tom (eJabba/Vader)
Tom opened with all sorts of excellent banter and that never let up throughout, so a very entertaining game to end the evening with. Tom didn’t seem to have the answers in hand to Vader when he wanted them, and his Vader seemed to just be doing less damage than mine throughout the match; he’d do a 1 or 2 around shields, and I’d be doing 3 or 4 and just staying ahead. I finished Jabba off with a huge swing for 8 and managed to keep my own Vader alive long enough to get the job done on Tom’s.
So, I ended 3-1 with a few other players, but we had a 4-0 player in Mike F; Mike brought a Poe/Hired Gun/Hired Gun list, which, although I didn’t play against him, heard he expertly piloted on the evening!
All in all, the top 5 decklists were:
1: Poe/Hired Gun/Hired Gun
2: Jango/eBala/Trooper
3: Vader/Raider
4: eJango/Trooper/Trooper
5: Leia/Ackbar
It was a very fun evening; my first tournament that I’ve TO’d, a great turnout, loads of great games and a community already formed and healthy! Looking forward to more in the months and years to come!