etten-leur-netherlands-7-11-99

Title: etten-leur-netherlands-7-11-99
Author: Vitor "Vitor" Alves da Silva
Date: Aug 30, 1999

TOURNAMENT REPORT
Decipher Swiss Challenge Cup
11th of July 1999
Etten Leur, Netherlands, Ryloth Region
Tournament Director: Jan Koevoets
Entrants: 21

Tournament report by Vitor Alves da Silva
INTRODUCTION
It’s already my third tournament report and I welcome you all! It’s really rewarding to hear and read from other players what they think of your report and they even sometimes had the same experience playing certain players.

After the preliminary last month, Jan Koevoets once again held a normal Contstructed Decipher Swiss tournament in Etten Leur, Ryloth region. Only this time it was the yearly Challenge Cup! Jan started this event somewhere in 1997, for which he bought a beautiful metal Jabba the Hutt-statue, which from year to year goes to the winner of the tourney. The first two years Sander Dijst won these two events, thus keeping the statue in Hoorn where he lives. This time it was his last time to keep the trophy there, because it is ruled that you can only win three consecutive years. It was exciting to see who was going to take Jabba home!

It was even more a special tournament in my opinion because it was the first tourney since the Endor expansion came out, so many people were looking around to see what was being played. While some players stuck to older strategies awaiting to see what the upcoming decks were going to be in the near future, some players tried incorporating the new interrupts, effects, characters, etc in existing deck-types.

Me, Johan Haneveer and Sander Dijst drove down to Etten Leur, talking about the new cards & strategies and philosophizing on how to use them at their best in current decks.

It was going to be a hard tournament for me, since I’d slept only for one hour (!!!) Saturday night ‘cause of a girlfriends’ birthday party which lasted till the early morning...

Above all I didn’t know what Johan & Sander were going to play, because we didn’t have time to play last week.

MY DECKS
For my decks, I chose to bring along the 'TallonTIE ‘99'-deck I’d used at last tournament, with a slight adjustment with Endor-cards. For the lightside I constructed a deck during the past week and finished it three hours before we left for Etten Leur. I want to use this moment to thank Martijn de Vrieze for lending me some important cards for my lightside-deck and Rod Latham for his valuable advice on that same deck!

Hereby the Portuguese Jury presents the Tournament Decks for the Etten Leur Challenge Cup Tournament July 1999:



Squish!
Locations (8):
Dagobah: Yoda's Hut
Endor: Chief Chirpa's Hut
Hoth: Echo Command Center (War Room)
Rendezvous Point
Tatooine: Obi-Wan's Hut (SL)
Tatooine: Tosche Station (SL)
Yavin 4: Massassi Headquarters
Yavin 4: Massassi War Room

Characters (18):
Captain Han Solo
Chewbacca of Kashyyyk
Chewbacca
Corporal Beezer
Daughter of Skywalker
General Crix Madine
General Solo
Kal'Falnl C'ndros
Lieutenant Page
Luke Skywalker x2
Luke With Lightsaber
Melas
Obi-Wan Kenobi x2
Orrimaarko
Tawss Khaa
Wedge Antilles

Starships (5):
Gold Leader In Gold 1
Millennium Falcon
Red Leader In Red 1
Spiral
Tantive IV

Interrupts (20):
Alter x4
Careful Planning (SI)
Control x2
Don't Forget The Droids x2
Grimtaash x2
Nabrun Leids x2
Quite A Mercenary
Sense x5
Tunnel Vision x2

Effects (6):
Battle Plan
Lightsaber Proficiency
Mantellian Savrip
Revolution x2
Traffic Control

Weapons (2):
Anakin's Lightsaber
Obi-Wan's Lightsaber


Basically it’s a sort-of No-shelter-deck, which concentrates on battling where the opponent is.



TallonTIE ‘99
Locations (12):
Corulag
Coruscant
Endor
Fondor
Kashyyyk x2
Kessel
Kiffex
Kuat
Nal Hutta
Rendili
Wakeelmui (SL)

Starships (20):
Death Star Assault Squadron
Dreadnaught-Class Heavy Cruiser x3
TIE Fighter x16

Interrupts (17):
All Power To Weapons x4
Dark Maneuvers x4
Ghhhk
Short Range Fighters
Tallon Roll x4
Twi'lek Advisor x3

Effects (11):
Dreaded Imperial Starfleet
Lateral Damage x2
Oppressive Enforcement
Presence Of The Force x2
Reactor Terminal
Return To Base
Security Precautions
Sienar Fleet Systems (SE)
There Is No Try


On your first turn deploy a TIE to Wakeelmui to be sure that SFS doesn’t get canceled by a early Alter. From that turn on deploy the systems as soon as you get them and start draining there with a lone TIE (backup comes afterwards). Later on in the game the opponent is probably gonna come up and fight you. You’ll have your Tallon Roll’s ready... ;)




GAME BY GAME ANALYSIS
Round 1, Game 1: DS vs LS (Arjan 'Smiley' van den Broek):
Arjan is one of those players who’s fun to play with; always well tempered, sportsmanlike and with a smile. He was so positive this tournament, that he decided to give Leia a chance. So he played me with a MWHYL-deck which had the objective to train Slut of Skywalker until she was a true Jedi Knight. Oh well, if she hadn’t succeeded in it during the original trilogy, she sure wasn’t going to now, if you ask me!!!
While Kermit was training Sleia on Dagobah, her fellow Muppet-comrades were trying to give my TIEs a fight in space. The retrievement throughout the whole game was what killed the game for Arjan; in the beginning he was doing fine against some of my lone TIEs, but using SFS and SRF gained me a big advantage above the lack of starships in Arjan’s deck.
Result Full Win 2 (+15)
Score: 2 (+15)

Round 1, Game 2: LS vs DS (Johan 'Pleasureface' van der Meer):
The times I’ve played Johan are unaccountable... This time he played a Ralltiir Operations-deck. I thought my own made lightside deck was a match against this type of deck, but soon I was forced to think otherwise...
Early in the game I deployed Tawss Khaa to Tosche Station to activate some extra force. But Johan was faster, deploying Biker Scouts with their scooters and lots of 'ability 2'-characters with AT-ST’s on Ralltiir, flipping the objective. I managed to flip his objective once (or twice?) and battled him where possible, but he avoided being battled by me by moving away, thus leaving me with a 0-drain. On his turns he deployed some and battled. I lost battles, drains almost didn’t exist and above all none of my Sense and Alters were used. The mega-destinies were what killed me in battles.
I had a feeling the other players and I were going to see a lot more of these Ralltiir-decks during the tournament. In my opinion one of the strongest strategies for the DS at this moment! Result Full Loss 0 (-20)
Score: 2 (-5)


Round 2, Game 3: DS vs LS (Jeroen van den Bosch):
Jeroen was unknown to me, but his deck-type wasn’t: Local Uprising! This time it were the Anoatonians who were revolting against the oppression by the Empire. This was one of those games without any interaction. Jeroen drains on Anoat, using Anoat Operatives and Snowspeeders (maybe some Sandspeeders too, but I don’t remember) and I try to outdrain him in space. He drained fast, very fast! I managed to retrieve some cards at the end of the game, but it was in vain. I found out I missed 'A Bright Center to the Universe' the hard way.
Result Full Loss 0 (-13)
Score: 2 (-18)


Round 2, Game 4: LS vs DS (Juriaan de Graaff):
I’d never played Juriaan before, but soon during the game I found out he was a very funny youngster! He told me he quit collecting the game because it became too expensive for him, so he was playing with cards he borrowed from a friend. He started out with Hoth: Ice Plains & Defensive Perimeter using Careful Planning. His deck was packed with AT-STs and their drivers, but the mainstream of the deck was using Imperial Decree to slow down my drains. I didn’t drain, but battled him mostly throughout the game. It was very sad for him, but all battle destinies (but one) were zeros! (At the end of the tournament he came to me and asked me to write in this report that during the tournament he drew 16 zeros for battle destiny!!! Talking about bad luck!) Eventually I won the game. When I asked Juriaan what the strategy of the deck was (to mention in my report) he told me: to lose!
I guy like Juriaan deserves to win! I hope he picks the game up once again and manages to become one of the #1 players in the Ryloth region in the future! Result Full Win 2 (+33)
Score: 4 (+15)


Round 3, Game 5: LS vs DS (Arjan 'Smiley' van den Broek):
Arjan is a friend of Johan van den Meer and Koen Meijsen, and at this point other players and myself had drawn the conclusion that the three of them were using exactly the same Ralltiir Operations-deck for this tournament. So exactly the same thing happened as against Johan van der Meer at the beginning of the tournament. Result Full Loss 0 (-18)
Score: 4 (-3)


Round 3, Game 6: DS vs LS (Robin Borger):
Robin was playing an X-Wing deck without Hidden Base! Wauw! The only X-Wings we saw being played at this tourney! The darkside’s Security Precautions surely had scared him!
For me this was going to be easy because he didn’t manage to get S-Foils on table (I don’t even know if he was using it!), although he was using Organized Attack. My combination of TIEs with Dreadnaught’s was lethal against his deck. I battled and Tallon rolled his X-Wings. Besides this, I drained more than he did.
Thus leaves me to say that Robin is a very sportsmanlike player, because he played the game through till the end, without giving up or drawing all of his Life Force into his hand. This way he gave me the opportunity to put my hand on the Used Pile using the Reactor Terminal and lifting my average rating, sacrificing his. Some people could use him as a example (remember my last report?)! Result Full Win 2 (+34)
Score: 6 (+31)



CONCLUSION
The Tournament ended with the following qualification:
1. Johan v/d Meer 10 (+124)
2. Sander Dijst 9 (+128)
3. Koen Meijssen 9 (+86)
4. Pieter Heerma 8 (+86)
5. Johan Haneveer 8 (+71)
6. Erwin Flohr 8 (+6)
7. Gepko Sterringa 6 (+32)
8. Vitor Alves Da Silva 6 (+31)
9. Willem Sterk 6 (+23)
10. Jeroen v/d Bosch 6 (+8)
11. Ronald Rullens 6 (+5)
12. Jeffry Koreman 6 (+2)
13. Jeroen v. Beers 6 (-20)
14. Maarten Rossou 6 (-41)
15. Menno Brandsma 6 (-73)
16. Arjan v/d Broek 5 (+29)
17. Robin Borger 5 (-26)
18. Xander Soudan 4 (-59)
19. Aron Stegenga 4 (-101)
20. Maarten Voskuil 2 (-121)
21. Juliaan de Graaff 2 (-127)

This tournament left me with the following thoughts:

The darkside’s advantages at this moment are kick-ass-decks! With Endor came so many combat vehicles accompanied with great drivers. If you use these cards with the correct Effects (like 'Imperial Arrest Order') you can create a very viable battle-deck!
No-Shelter decks still rule the tournament scene and they probably will during the next couple of months... The darkside has Alters, Evaders, etc. against this type of deck, so it would be wise to use a deck that contains these cards.
TIEs are still viable too, provided that you include ABCTTU in your deck.
There is NO deck that ends victorious against all types of decks.
The new Endor-mains for the lightside (Leia, Chewie, and Solo) are too expensive to use outside an Endor-based deck. Play with them if you want to blow up the bunker, otherwise stay with the cheaper (and stronger) EPP versions.
Hidden Base is a goner, for the time being...! ;)
Congratulations to Johan van der Meer for winning the tournament! He used two very strong decks that you can find at the end of this report. But first of I want to thank Jan Koevoets for holding the tourney, the good prize-support and supplying me with the Tournament Results!


If you want to react on my tournament report or the decks I played, you’re welcome to, by sending e-mail to: vads@xs4all.nl


Thanks for reading this report and I hope you can use some of it for your future games!


Good luck to everyone!


Just leaves me to supply you with Johan van der Meer’s winning decks:



Force choke
Locations (6):
Yavin 4: Massassi Headquarters
Yavin 4: Massassi Ruins
Yavin 4: Massassi Throne Room (SL)
Yavin 4 Massari War Room
Forest (SL)
Swamp (SL)

Characters (19)
Chewbacca x2
General Solo
Han With Heavy Blaster Pistol
Leia With Blaster
Luke With Lightsaber
Melas
Obi-Wan Kenobi
Obi-Wan With Lightsaber
Orrimaarko
Tawss Khaa
Wookiee x8

Creatures (3)
Nudj x3

Starships (3)
Gold Leader In Gold 1
Millennium Falcon x2

Interrupts (19)
Alter x3
Careful Planning (SI)
Don't Forget The Droids x2
Grimtaash x2
Sense x4
The Signal x2
Tunnel Vision x2
Wookiee Strangle x3

Effects (10)
Bacta Tank
Civil Disorder
Draw Their Fire
Frozen Assets
Mantellian Savrip
Revolution x4
Traffic Control



Ralltiir Operations
Ralltiir Operations

Locations (10)
Forest
Imperial Holotable
Jungle
Kashyyyk
Ralltiir (SL)
Spaceport Docking Bay
Spaceport Prefect's Office
Swamp
Tatooine: Docking Bay 94
Yavin 4: Docking Bay

Characters (22)
Admiral Ozzel
Biker Scout Trooper x2
Commander Igar
Corporal Drelosyn
Darth Vader
Darth Vader, Dark Lord Of The Sith
DS-61-2
DS-61-3
DS-61-4
Grand Moff Tarkin
Lieutenant Arnet
Lieutenant Cabbel
Lieutenant Commander Ardan
Lieutenant Renz
Lieutenant Watts
Major Hewex
Major Marquand
Officer Evax
Sergeant Elsek
Sergeant Irol
Trooper Davin Felth

Vehicles (5)
Blizzard 2
Speeder Bike x2
Tempest 1
Tempest Scout 6

Starships (4)
Bossk In Hounds Tooth
Dreadnaught-Class Heavy Cruiser x2
Vader's Personal Shuttle

Interrupts (12)
Alter
Evader x2
Imperial Barrier x2
Main Course
Masterful Move x2
Monnok
Sense
Trample
Twi'lek Advisor (SI)

Effects (6)
Battle Order
First Strike
Imperial Arrest Order (SE)
Oppressive Enforcement
Presence Of The Force
Reactor Terminal

If you want to know anything regarding these two decks, you can e-mail Johan at: vdmeer@wins.uva.nl