Hey all, this will be brief-ish since a lot of the details of each game escape me.
So the part most of you care about, what I played:
Dark Side
Navy Affiliation
2xFall of the Jedi
2xCounsel of the Sith
2xThe Emporer's Web
1xImperial Command
2xThe Killing Cold
1xShadows on the Ice
Yep, pretty standard Sith Control this side. The deck is so consistent and throws a lot at your opponent that is hard for most LS decks to deal with. It can lock you out with tactics, murder your guys in multiple ways, and is incredibly difficult to beat in edge. Probably more importantly, it is incredibly consistent. I remarked a couple of times that the deck plays itself in a lot of ways. Buy some cheap guys and resources early, hold down the fort until Vader/Emp come down and dominate. Only drawbacks are it doesnt take many objectives usually (I think my high in the tournament was 3, most games just 1), and it can be slowed down pretty badly by peaople ninja'ing the force from you. I only lost 1 game with this deck at the tournament, many games were not very close, I think I gave up only 1 objective per game in all but 2 rounds.
Light Side
Jedi Affiliation
2xHero's Journey
2xIn You Must Go
2xForgotten Heroes
1xSecrets of Yavin 4
1xA Message From Beyond
2xSelf Preservation
I would be lying if I said this deck was my idea. I had been planning to play Smuggler's Den, but was faced with a problem - most of my local playgroup (which I anticipated would do very well) would be playing straight Navy Rush, which is incredibly difficult for that deck to beat. I woke up at 5am the morning of the tournament because it was bothering me and was browsing the internet for ideas on how to mitigate that matchup, since I anticipated playing against it, likely multiple times. The straw that broke the camels back was this exact deck won the Austin regional on Saturday and I liked several things about it. First, the Gotals allow you to "race" when you have to against aggressive DS decks and make Jedi in general much more dangerous. This helps when you get into "win now or lose" situations, as I did twice. Second, the deck has 5 Heat of Battles. Heat can be a game breaker if played correctly, and having five (and up to 6 if you went 2xMessage) is pretty obscene. Obviously the rest of the deck is pretty standard Jedi stuff, mind tricks, Yoda-star, Luke, etc. all of which already has a pretty decent track record. So I switched last minute and was very glad I did. Thanks Austin Guy =D
Alright going to run through my games as best I can, but I am very bad with names and likely wont remember every detail, so my apologies in advance.
Round 1 - Opponent's name I dont remember Sorry! playing Straight Navy / Rebel Vehicles
I won roll-off and played DS first. I played a couple derps turn 1 (one of which was a Wampa). He followed up with a Blaster Emplacement and Home One which he decided to hold back since I could have killed it with my guns, stealing the force from me instead. We both basically built up for a couple turns, and he only attacked to lock up my committed guys, one of whom was Vader. He whittled down a Killing Cold and went in for the destroy with a Red 2 and Home One with a shield. I won edge and killed Red 2, then Home One struck, killing the objective. I actually made a mistake here - I could have sacked a guy to save the Killing Cold, which was not only a misplay because I lost the objective instead, but was compounded by the fact I drew a Desolation the turn after, which I could have used to kill his Home One. It didnt end up mattering, I killed most of his board the following turn and follwed that turn with an Emperor, sealing the game. Toward the end I managed to kill 3 objectives, which was only possible because he kept stealing the force from me early.
Game two pitted his Navy against my Jedi. He led with some resources into a Superlaser blast on my Secrets of Yavin, but no defenders, which I thought was odd. I did a point of damage to one of his 2-production objectives that was not locked up and then proceeded to get a really powerful start. I dropped Luke with a free Saber (off Objective reduct) and a Soresu leaving me a resource to either Counter-stroke or steal the force back on his turn using Unwavering Resolve. Luke crushed the undefended damaged objective. He played a duty officer and Tarkin on his turn and committed Tarkin, but I kept the force using the Resolve. I follwed with a two cost guy (I think a guardian) and a mind trick on Tarkin. Again Luke killed an objective and Tarkin. My opponent conceded at that point, he couldnt work his way back into the game.
I took the match 4-0.
Round 2 - Trevor (friend) Navy Blitz / Hoth Rebels with smugglers
Trevor was playing a deck he and I had tested earlier in the week as a potential answer to the Navy and Sith/Navy builds which had Sensors are Placed mixed into the Renegade squad rebels, but I was pretty confident my Sith could handle it for the most part. He lost roll-off and I chose to play DS first again. If memory serves, I had a pretty decent start, very similar to previous round, except Emporer came out sooner. He was able to steal the force a couple times and then get several vehicles, including the Renegade Squadron and Rogue 3. I managed to kill off some of his guys, mostly focusing on the Echo Defenders and speeders but I he correctly kept me from getting at his Rogue 3 and Renegade Squadron. The emporer did manage to lock up the Renegades and then I followed with a Lightning. He replayed it on his turn (womp womp) and finished me off by locking up the Emp and sealing the game. My dial was at roughly 6/7ish, can quite remember. I felt like he had a lot of answers and played the deck well, and got a little lucky with the second Squadron, not sure I could have played what I had much better.
So lightning round, the matchup I dreaded the most. He got a couple early death squadron destroyers and took some early objectives, jacking the dial over 6 by turn 3. I got an early luke/2-drops and was able to capitalize on his self-inflicted damage on his deploy the fleets. I eeked out a win with the dial well over my score, so he got the match win.
I lost the match 2-3.
Round 3 - Ray (friend) Navy Blitz / Rebel Vehicles with Red5
Ray had agonized over what LS deck to play but wanted to play Rebels and decided on pretty standard Rebel Vehicles. Ray is one of the best card game players I know and I knew I would have to get a little lucky to beat him since he does not make many mistakes.I played DS first and basically got the gas start, seeing Vader/Wampa turn 1 followed shortly thereafter by the Emp. He saw a couple of red2s, Red 5 and a Rogue 3, but had trouble keeping them on the table. He managed to take a Counsel early on, but never really threatened after and the dial quickly went to 12 on force control. If memory serves, I took two objectives to his 1.
Second game I got pretty lucky in that his DS deck had a really slow start. He managed to keep the dial pumping upward by preventing me to really take much force control. His deck eventually caught back up and despite me being able to take 2 objectives pretty quickly, he stabilized with devastator and a Death Squadron and took 2 from me, which combined with devastator pumps got the dial to 12. Unfortunately, his slow start cost him the match, as I won it on tiebreakers.
I won the match 3-2.
Round 4 - Opponent's name I dont remember Sorry! playing Scummy Sith/ Preservation Jedi
I lost the roll off and my opponent chose to play LS first. I honestly dont remember much of this game aside from I managed to kill an early Luke and then got the usual Vader/Emp defense up, basically preventing him from doing anything. I killed one objective to his 0. My opponent commented that he has never seen Sith lose after that game, and we talked about that while shuffling up for game 2. I personally think Sith are beatable, but it takes a lot of patience and the right mix of cards, a point I illistrated in top 4.
This game my opponent got turn 1 Jabba's orders/Get me Solo which trapped my Obi-Wan and allowed him to get the early weequay. I had a ho-hum turn 1, playing a guardian and a Gotal, and stealing the force back. The game went pretty back and forth, i killed and locked down his stuff, hed play more, I whittled down an objective, etc. He got a Vader and I got a some tactics and was able to extend the game long enoungh to get a luke and then the second obi-wan and free my Ben, which I then had to discard to an edge. He killed Obi and Luke and managed to drop the Emp, who proceeded to take an objective and win him the game. I won on tie-breakers, mostly because he failed to kill any objectives as LS. He barely missed the cut to top 4 on tie-breakers.
I won the match 3-2
So I had 12 points going into the cut to top 4, netting me second. Trevor was 1st with 14, Ray was in with 11, and the 4-way tie for 4th went to a local guy on 3rd level tie-breakers, barely keeping our other local buddy Jim out. Glad to see so many of the people I knew in top 4, but I was hardly surprised.
Top 4 - Opponent's name I dont remember Sorry! playing Straight Sith / Jedi
I won the roll-off and chose DS first as usual. My start was pretty mediocre, but I did get some early Icetromper/Wampa love. He got Luke turn one and attacked and I was able to kill him by winning edge and then choking/trompering luke to death. I went several turns just dropping mostly 2-cost guys and holding off the Jedi with killy tricks. He eventually got a Yoda with 3PO and some guardians. I managed to force him to kill off his guardians when he took an objective then I finally drew into Vader. I held him off pretty well, but he was able to force the kill on an emporer's web using Hit and Run. I flipped another Web (womp womp) but killed Yoda by playing both Lightnings (the first 3PO ate). I held him off for another turn and then got the Emp, thinking I was now safe. He got the mind trick and sent all his stuff to try and finish off the web. My now considerable team defended and beacuse he didnt have the force and I won edge, was able to hold him off. I felt like this game would not have been so close had it not been for getting both Webs on the flips. He killed 2 objectives to my 1.
Game 2 was equally close. His Sith came out gang-busters with Vader turn 1 and I played just a pair of spuds with Obi's spirits. My opponent clearly felt a lot of pressure to attack early and often because he was being very aggressive with his units, allowing me to get some swing back and lock up Vader a bit.I took an early objective and then staved off as much of his attacks as possible. He took 2 objectives, but overcommitted with Vader and I was able to break through by mind-tricking the Emp with Gotals and a naked Yoda for the win. Dial was at 10, had I failed to win then I would have lost the match. Close match, but the Sith matchup is frequently close. Had he been a little less aggressive he might have won the match since I needed to win outright after he took the 2nd objective.
I won 4-0.
Finals - Ray again =)
Unsurprisingly Ray had managed to hang tight and make it to the finals. So we got to re-match. I made a LOT of mistakes here, but thankfully Ray was pretty gracious and let me adjust a couple times. He and I play a lot, so this felt a lot like a friendly match. He played DS first and had a pretty unremarkable start of a few MTV-7s. I had Luke with Spirit and 3 Heats opening hand (!!!) which I thought was really troll against his navy, so I kept it. I went turn 1 Luke/Spirit and used a heat/lightsaber deflect to kill his lone defender, then put damage on the objective. He swung back by dropping another MTV and Backstabber after we both heated our attackers/defenders to death which combined with a tallon roll and Death from above allowed him to kill an objective. I stole the force from him on his turn using Resolve and dropped Gotal/Yoda allowing me to kill one objective and put damage on another. Yoda camped the force and he swung back with a Death Squadron, but Yoda managed to prevent the unopposed damage and lockup the unit he had saved to defend with. I put an enhance on Yoda and sealed the game on my turn, killing the 3rd objective with dial at 5.
Game 2 his LS came out with a couple speeders to my early wampa/derps/Vader. He attacked and got an early counsel, but I was able to kill off his speeders and just like our prior match keep him pretty light on units. I believe he was close to getting a second objective, but fell short. The dial ticked over 5 and we basically just quit, since I had the match on tie breakers regardless.
So I took home the trophy =D
A lot of good things to say:
- Rogue4 ran a great tournament, was very tight and had a lot of transparency in how you were being scored, what rulings were, etc. I was very pleased, especially since I felt like a previous Regional I had attended had been run improperly. Look forward to seeing more tourneys run by him in the future.
- My friends Ray/Trevor/Jim/Tony - I could not do anything like this without you guys. Playing last few weekends basically non-stop helped a lot, as did ya'lls support during the tourney. Was very pleased at our performance, the preparation obviously showed.
- My opponents, you all played very well, appreciated the games. The more experience the better =).
