We had 11 folks (including my older son Ethan) battling it out. Lots of friendly nerds having a great time. Your Winner and Top 4 (w/ their lists):
- Champion: Bobby from Cincinnati - JK Luke, eEchoBaseTroopers, eAllianceRangers, R2, Threepio, Gideon (4-0)
- 2nd: Justin from Nashville - IG-88 w/ Shoot to Thrill, 2x eWeequay, Greedo, Gideon, Threepio, eJawa, Black Market (3-1)
- 3rd: David from Nashville - General Sorin, Cute Imperial Murder Droid, TripZip, 2x eProbeDroids, eJetTrooper, Zillo(?) (2-1)
- 4th: Me from Lexington - My list is here. (3-1)
I'm going to write up my matches below. Hope others who attended chime in!
Match 1 - Sorry About The Mess - ISB HQ, Reconnaissance
My opponent, a Pet Shop regular, was running eEchoBaseTroopers, 2x eAllianceRangers, Threepio, Gideon, Chopper. I got Strength in Numbers and Squad Swarm in my initial draw - I used them in round 2 to play Greedo -> eWeequay -> eWeequay. I took out an entire card of focused Rangers before he could go. It was just a matter of time after that.
Match 2 - Close the Blast Doors! - Anchorhead Bar Vape Shop Cantina, Gaining Favor
I chose to deploy in the outside zone and slowplayed so I could get all my weequay's focused up, moving Greedo to the far terminal and spacing Onar between the door and the opening to the large middle room. I was hoping I could get him to commit to an attack and open the door closest to me. Instead of taking the bait, he interacted with the patrons. He had all four patrons (and 20VP) by the end of round 2. Whoops.
Fearing that I was getting way too far behind, I rushed through the door before the end of round 2 and hit my Squad Swarm combo. I finally rushed one group of my weequays through the door, was able to defeat a card of his eWeequays, and moved another one of my Weequays over to the edge of the big room to do something like 7 damage on his Iggy.
At the start of round 3, I had initiative and used Negation to counter his Take Initiative. I had 2 of the patrons and was sitting at 15 VP total. I wanted his Iggy gone and the 12 VP that comes with it. I used the eWeequay again to push Iggy up to 12 damage. I then used Strength In Numbers to activate my Greedo off the far terminal. I moved him down next to the patrons for a easy shot vs Iggy. (I forgot to put on the graphic below that my Greedo had some damage, so that this move was gonna kill him regardless.)
Iggy gets first shot, Greedo doesn't X-Man. Since Greedo suffers DMG, Justin plays Opportunistic - and Iggy scoots out of line-of-sight from my Greedo!
I start putting Greedo away when Justin reminds me that Greedo can still shoot the weequay that was behind Iggy. We roll, Justin plays On the Lam, and the Weequay runs out of line-of-sight. We both have a good laugh. What else can you do when Greedo gets a back-to-back case of epididymal hypertension?
(And yeah, I realize Justin wanted me to shoot that Weequay so he could move him. I'm not mad about getting played; I would have tried the same thing. Game recognize Game.)
At that point, Justin used his VP lead to chip away at the rest of my army and get to 40 VP. Justin played great and took advantage of my poor decisions. Yelp Score: 4.5 Frustrated Greedos out of 5.
Match 3 - So, You Have Accepted the Truth - Jabba's Palace, New Ownership
I need to explain something to you all - I try my best to be a good dad. I believe in gentle encouragement but allowing life to teach its lessons. For months I've encouraged Ethan to play lists -- even in his favorite Imperial faction -- that are closer to the meta since Jabba's Realm came out. I've provided him with the tools: eJets, Zillo, Terro, etc.
Last night, I took a look at his list and I said, "are you sure you want to play this?" He affirmed in his belief that it would play great. I hoped we would not be matched up against each other.
We played each other in Match 3. Here's his list:
- rSnowtroopers
- rHeavyTrooper
- BT-1
- Blaise
- 0-0-0
- Kayn Somos
Today, life and his father taught him a lesson.
Match 4 - Until the Chances Are Spent - ISB HQ, To Your Stations
After showing Ethan the truth, I happened to see James from Cincinnati's list as he was finishing up playing. It was unlike anything else played at the tourney and I told him I hoped I had the chance to play him.
We were both 2-1 and got matched up with each other. Yes! Here's what he was playing:
- IG-88 w/ In For The Kill
- Onar
- Temporary Alliance
- JK Luke
- eJawa
- BT-1
James "won" initiative & chose the toilet deployment zone. In the first round I spread my weequays across the horizontal hallway right in front of my DZ. He told me that ISB HQ is really a horrible map for his build, and I concluded the same when I saw him rushing BT-1, Luke and IG-88 into the corridor with two security stations. I activated a Focused Greedo last and opened the door closest to me. James played Son of Skywalker and had Luke take two swings at Greedo. Greedo DODGEd the first attack, had BLOCK/SURGE and a bad Luke roll on the second, and Onar's Get Down kept Greedo alive w/ 5 DMG.
I'm a little shaky on what happened at the start of the 2nd round. I think I had Greedo shoot Luke from range & run to BT-1's security station. Then I played Strength in Numbers to activate a group of eWeequays - one was Focused & Hidden, one was just Hidden. The Focused one used Element of Surprise, the Hidden one benefitted from Luke's blank. I think that was enough to remove Clearly Evil JK! Luke from the board; if not, he was gone soon after. When Luke was defeated, I played Shoot the Messenger and James discarded IG's Blaze of Glory.
Everything was coming up Milhouse.
My Greedo died but got a shot off on Iggy. James lost Onar not soon after to my other eWeequays and some Onar-on-Onar violence. James was still keeping pace with VP by controlling both security stations in the vertical hallway, but I kept chipping away. My rJawa w/ Headhunter ran up to shoot the eJawa and rolled horribly to miss; next round, I Focused my Jawa, used On the Lam when his Jawa tried to attack, and then returned to kill his Jawa. Iggy, trapped in that hallway, was whittled away by Onar & eWeequays.
I think on another map, James' list would have hit me harder. But I was fortunate to pull ISB HQ and I utilized every strength of my list to keep James on his back foot.
If Money is All That You Love, Then That's What You'll Receive
Our TO not only had stuff from the Store Championship kit, but also several other kits. I ended up with several Tuskan Raider, Unshakable & one Royal Guard Champion alt art cards. Instead of picking up one of those big IA VP points counter, I grabbed a $30 gift certificate to the store and let Ethan pick out an X-Wing ship.