Hello Again,

This past saturday I went to a tournament in Cedar Grove, NJ to meet with the usual combatants. Rich Haman always runs a great tourney up here with good prize support and numerous players. This tourney he was giving out a set of ECC cards (divided up among the top 12 players) and Mike D. provided an Obi t-shirt, as well as packs of cloud city, jabba's palace, and premiere. The competition sized up as follows: Mike Daulton (1995), Chris Gogolen (1834), Jay Lembo, Rob Middleton, Mike Smith, and Manny Rodriquez.

Well last week I dediced to start fresh, to try and break out of my 4-2/3-3 funk, by building a new light deck. In the past few months I had been going 3-0 dark, 1-2 or 0-3 light. So I decided to build the batmobile. Well if you missed last week report, I went 5-1, only losing to TJ Holman. But the light deck was 3-0. SO this week I was looking to keep the batmobile undefeated, and hopefully get the dark deck back on track (Hunt Down).

Game 1 - The BATMOBILE vs. "Mr. Freeze" Manny Rodriquez's Coralug Ops.

Well, when I built the batmobile, it was based on the assumption that no one was still playing dark ops. Oops. At this point I was feeling as though the batmobile would not stay undefeated very long. Right before I left home I changed 3 cards, Scrambled Trans and 2 shock went in at the last minute. Thank goodness because Manny was also playing manipulation ops with scanning crew and monnok.

I revo'd corulag first turn, and played a 2-0 site. I knew my only advantage would be that he would have very little force to work with, and I could revo his good sites to help me. The game really went no where fast. I was draining in space for 1 a turn, and was trying to build up so he could flip. Finally he flips, and one of the sites he chose to go to was the forest, big mistake. That would definitely help me when I revo it. I needed to take out 2 of the three sites to flip it back. I dropped every character I had between the two sites, and cleared them out. At this point I felt like I had the game in hand. He had no force and no cards, but my drain capacity was so limited, that he had time to build up again and flip. And this time my characters were already on his planet. So all he had to do is run. Well, luckily for me, Manny plays unbelievably slow, and time was winding down. I was ahead in differential, so I just kept blocking his drains to stay ahead, even landing starfighters to do so. That is why Mara Jade hit the table at Obi's Hut. Ouch. I already played all my spies so Double Agent wasn't going to stop her. And there was only one revo left in my deck. So I counted our piles and I was ahead by 3. On his turn he drained for 3, now we were even, there was less than a minute left, he is thinking about what to do, and then draws a card???? Just as he does Rich calls time. Oh my god!!!! The BATMOBILE stays undefeated via a timed win!!! I couldn't believe he drew a card. But serves him right for playing ops.

Timed Win by 13 - 1(+13)

Game 2 - My DS vs. Mike Daulton

Going into this game, I had a feeling it would play heavily into who would win this thing because Chris G lost his first round game. He started Obi's Hut, so knew he was going to force choke me, and play on my sites. I played Kashyyyk and a drain 2 site (I forget which one). The entire game was played out at these sites. We battled back and forth in space and on the ground. The turning point was when he played savrip. I couldn't alter it, and I didn't play masterful move. Everyone know you can't beat savrip, the attrition eventually kills the dark side. We were battling in space and on the ground. He was winning the ground, I was winning space. He had the game in hand when suddenly he decided to naburn orrimarko to my new drain 2 site where I was draining. If he had stayed he would have drained out the game. Instead he gave me a chance to win. He only had wedge on the falcon vs. my 2 SD's and the Bus. After he drained I only had 2 force left, but that would be enough to battle (free, BP) and draw 2 destiny 7 & 4. He would lose his remaining force to cover it. But being the great player he is, he dropped luke with orri, starts a battle against an imperial in a blizzard. I knew I could cover the damage in forfeit, then he says, lose 2 force to orrimarko. I just lost to orrimarko. Unbelievable!!!! Nice game Mike.

Lose by 8 - 1(+5)

Game 3 - My DS vs. Young kid's Tat Nightfall Snivvian stuff.

At this point I am really depressed as I was hoping to build off last week's triumph, and here I sit with one point playing a young player who is very new at the game. There is no need to talk about this game, it was over quickly and it gave me time to go to Burger King. But more important I traded with this young fellow after the match. He pulled an anakin's saber foil and an obi's saber foil. So I looked at his decks to see what would help him out in trade. He wanted an Ben Kenobi so I gladly traded it to him for the foils. But since he was young and new I decided to also give him an EPP Vader since he had no vaders, and a boelo to help out in his dark jabba's palace deck. I didn't want to take advantage of a new player so I gave him whatever I could spare to help him out. Please let me know if this was a fair trade, I still feel bad, like I should have given him more.

Win by 38 - 3(+43)

Game 4 - The BATMOBILE vs. Chris Gogolen's Hunt Down

Well, here we go...Opening draw, revo and hook. So I play the revo on his med chamber, and play a 2-0 site, plus a nudj, so he is getting 3 force, I am getting 10. His turn, he plays endor planet, nothing I can do about that but go up there and drain for one. 2nd turn I drop Orri at med chamber and move over to cancel visage. Since he is only getting five force he has trouble finding CHYBC, but he does drop U-3PO with Orri and exec DB, but no force left in pile. On my turn I start moving Orri to DB to drain, and go up to endor to drain for one, forgetting that if I revo the planet I can drain 2 instead. I didn't want to waste revo's as I new he had an evader in hand, so I wasn't turning any other sites around. With the force advantage I had the entire game, I slowly choked out his force, but chris made a heck of a game out of what should have been a blowout.

Win by 7 - 5(+50)

Game 5 - My DS vs. Manny Rodriquez's Tatooine Nightfall Snivvian deck

I guess this deck type is popular up here??? Well, besides one cantina beat down that I was stupid enough to fall for, this game was very one sided as he had no way to stop visage until a very late bothan spy. I was able to track some destinies to have a little fun. He had Ben w/ Saber, EPP Luke, and a couple aliens in the cantina draining for 3. So I decided to pick up vader, and drop him and tarkin in the cantina, play overload on ben with a site tracked, and then choke luke with a 7 tracked. Game over.

Win by 18 - 7(+68)

Game 6 - The BATMOBILE vs. Someone's Ralltir Ops

Well, I was a little concerned because Chris lost to this deck earlier. Once again I new the batmobile would give me a force advantage, and turning his sites would help too in battles. He was doing nothing for a long time, so I decided to speed up the game by dropping one character at each of his sites to drain him. That's when he dropped Tagge, and 5 stormtroopers amd imperial troopers and crap, played trooper assault, beat the heck out of epp luke. I lost him and 8 force. The rest of the game I just ran around and drained on his planet until he spread out thin and then I battled him. The BATMOBILE stays undefeated!!!!

Win by 11 - 9(+79)

Well the BATMOBILE IS NOW 6-0!!!!! Surprisingly I am 10-2 now, and the dark side suffered both losses, but they were to Mike Daulton and TJ Holman, so I can't complain. I am gearing up for states, since NJ doesn't have a lot of compeition. Daulton, Woj, Scott, Greg, Pete, Chris and Me are about it.

I finished 2nd to Daulton who was 6-0. He took ECC IG and I took Fett in Slave 1 and then traded for the ECC Falcon too. I also picked up the foil death star (DS).

Any questions regarding the batmobile are restricted, as it seems as though there is something the light side can still win with.

John "Batman" Lolli