ryloth-regional-kaatsheuvel-11-9-1999
Title: ryloth-regional-kaatsheuvel-11-9-1999
Author: Koen "Mr. Pink" Meijssen
Date: Jan 8, 2000
Koen Meijssen
Intro:
On Saturday, 11 September, it was time for the regional qualifier in Holland (Ryloth for SWCCG purposes). Because the tournament location was not ideal for public transport and still quite a trip from where I live, I had to get up pretty early.
The Damstede-crew AKA the Reservoir Dogs was almost complete for this tournament only Daniël Faber decided not to go. If he knew what would happen that day he would surely have been there.
Johan, Mr. White and a great player, was already at the bus stop eagerly awaiting a chance to play in the Worlds. We were discussing the day ahead and the decks we would use at the tournament. Johan had been practicing with the Drazin-Manipulator with sabacc influences and this deck kicked butt during play-tests, convincing me to try a variant of the deck at the Regional qualifier.
But I wasnt too sure about this the deck the night before the tournament. So I also decided to bring my HDADTJ deck called Sabotage (I was listening to Ill communication from the Beastie boys while filling in the required deck list with the option to give your deck a name).
My light side deck was named after another great number from the Beastie boys: Get it together, it was a Hidden Base deck with some ground support from our non-furry EPP friends.
Speaking of EPPs, another member of the Reservoir dogs Arjan, would receive his new nickname EPP Arjan this day, but more of that later.
He was playing a Corulag ops deck we developed immediately after Endor came out and a Bothawui ops deck which Arjan had been experimenting for quite some time.
Last but not least Pieter Heerma, the last Reservoir dog, was playing the Drazin-manipulator for DS and a LS deck that has the ability to crush the Empire with one swift stroke.
Johan was also playing this deck, which was just begging to be played!
Along with a lot of other sleepy people in the bus we arrived at Amsterdam Central Station where we would meet Arjan and Pieter. During the train ride we filled in our deck lists, I decided to fill in my Sabotage deck somehow I had the feeling this would be the deck to play.
After going through weird names for Pieters DS deck, I think he decided to name it Your main down the drain. Arjan gave his decks rather tasty names going with Le big Royal and Royal cheese. After Johan named his LS deck Alms for the poor we were ready to go.
But during the ride we all got the suspicion that there were some ISB (ofwel NSB agenten volgens vele Nederlandse spelers) agents aboard the train. After a quick probe we gathered enough information that these were people who had no conversation of their own and were just eavesdropping on other conversations.
One of the tournament directors, Gepko, accompanied us on the last part of our journey, making it easier for us to find the tournament location. Martijn Peeters, who prefers to play real wacky strategies that also seem to work, just arrived when we were near the Werft and was glad to finally find the tournament location.
After going through the registry we talked to different regulars, some old faces notably Bart Ouwehand, a skilled player who didnt visit any of the recent tournaments and surprisingly a lot of new players which is a good thing for a small Region.
I was worried however because I had put my decks together from past experiences at tournaments and predictions of what the Big guns would play.
This predicting is rather hard with all those weird decks circulating the Internet and played at tournaments, but with the large amount of those new players part of our research was wasted.
I was talking to Johan Haneveer and Erik if I remember his name correctly and they observed that I was rather nervous! I thought I was just anxious to play ;) !
For the people who have not given up so far, I will now conclude my intro and get on to the games I played!
Game 1: DS vs. Bernard Stevens with his surprising droid deck
Bernard is a really relaxed guy and it showed again during this game. This game was a good way to start for me, enjoying the game instead of thinking about winning the Regional or something like that. He started with CC: guest quarters and battle order, I was not sure if he played with SAC (the last game we played he did) so I start Oppressive enforcement.
He deployed 8d8, Artoo and one R-unit droid with the thief giving device. Luckily for me Bernard forgot about using this device to steal a lightsaber from the Dark Lord himself!
The tortures in my deck took care of one part of his inserts, but there was still some anger to deal with. The battle order initially worked perfect but after getting some space in my hand I had the means to deal with Battle plan. Bernard also played sabacc, this was really fun because my high destinies stole a device now and then from Bernard.
In the end I could simply drain without activating and let the Emperor loose on his droids.
Full win: +39
We decided to drink something and await the results from the other players. As I was being paired at the second table I had no idea what the other pairings were like, I soon find out there were a lot of tough players paired together. Jan-Willem Sipkes lost to Maarten Roussou and Johan lost to a guy that had not played SWCCG for a while, a real upset as Johan is one of the best players around. Pieter lost to Martijn Peeters and Arjan also lost. The chances of a Mexican shootout in the finals between a pair of Reservoir dogs just tumbled down.
Still a lot of regulars won big and I was surprised that I faced Jeroen Kassenberg ( or was it Kloppenberg?, sorry Jeroen I cant remember). I first met him at Coevorden and he is a friendly guy to play against.
Game 2: LS vs. Jeroens Endor operations with speeders
His deck contained a lot of speeders and scouts, unfortunately for Jeroen this match-up was his weakness he later admitted. Expecting a deck with only Ominous rumours with a lot of space, Jeroen focussed on the ground. After a few battles my ships took control of Endor and this was a critical blow for his deck.
Full win: +30
The other Reservoir dogs had mixed fortunes as Arjan had to play the #1 ranked player in Ryloth Jan-Willem while losing his first game, Pieter had to play Martijn again pulling off a timed win. Johan showed that Drazin could win real big hammering down someone +42.
Now I had to play Jeroen v.d. Bossch a player to whom I lost in my last tournament, I was preparing myself for a grueling duel.
Game 3: LS vs. Jeroen v.d. Bosschs HDADTJ balanced deck
This would be interesting because a well-balanced HDADTJ deck is a threat for my deck.
When you play in a regional you expect from yourself that you play flawless, otherwise you are not going to make it. We both found out that everybody makes mistakes and you better learn to cope with them if you want to win.
Visage damage did its work after a few turns, first the top of my reserve deck was Kessel and after that another system from top of my reserve deck! Tibrin is nice if you have enough cards in hand, but I needed all the cards in my hand the next turns. After some battles in space I found myself in a losing position. This was enhanced by the fact I forgot to deploy TK-422 in the cantina with Vader and friends. Still my TK-422 did his job after that turn and provided me with some hope in this game. The game-text of Bespin helped me out in this game, he deployed Jabba to the CC: Downtown plaza using six force. The one extra force Jeroen needed to use was enough to ensure a lone dreadnought would be the target of a Rebel blockade runner. Luke decided to draw some fire by battling Jabba ending in a hit Jabba and no force for Jeroen to play a ghhhk. After the battle with the dreadnought, his drains were cut in half and things were looking much better. Despite that we were the top-pairing in a regional the game was relaxed but packed with action. It was one of the better games I had played in a while. In the end battle order caused Jeroen some damage and I managed to win. I had the feeling that I would have to play Jeroen again that day, because his DS deck was very good and his LS deck was mostly the same as last tournament where he beat me with that deck.
Full win: +10
The Reservoir dogs were warming up as Pieter, Arjan and Johan won with quite some differential. The Mexican shootout was a possibility again!
Now I had to face Johan Haneveer who also was undefeated, there were four undefeated players left at this stage of the tournament.
Game 4: DS vs. Johan Haneveers killer Hidden base deck
Johan Haneveer is a player known to play mostly Mains & Toys with no objectives, I was rather surprised to see him play Hidden base!
Apparently Johan had studied the metagame in Holland well, because he was fully prepared for my deck: I activate one force my first turn: Transmission terminated then his turn: Johan activates one force from Presence of the force on the Meditation chamber and plays clash of sabers. Great!! No way to flip anymore! I made a crucial mistake with the way I was losing cards from force drains, I chose to loose systems from my hand because he would fetch planets with Hidden base and I didnt need their force. After a few systems were fetched with hidden base I saw that his hidden base would be Clakdor 7. The only problem was Johan had only fetched systems with parsec 2 or less, so there was no chance for me to probe him anymore! Without presence of the force available this would be a real tough game, Houston we have a problem!
Security precautions however provided protection for my ships and the tie guns were used to mark no battle zones. Johan was moving the rebel fleet away from my weapons and I was trying to block his drains. This continued for a long time, while battle order prevented us from both draining for some amount. Then first strike came into play and I finally inflicted some serious damage on Johan. His once per game All wings negated this damage.
Johan had no real big lost pile but he was not yet capable of force draining me for much: most of the times for one force sometimes even zero!
Again I made an important mistake: Johan had like 15 x-wings in his deck and after a while there were many in play and quite a few had been blasted out of the sky with my guns. I thought his swarm had hit the table and spread my forces out a little bit.
This led to some heavy pounding on my ships and the Death Squadron showed the real reason for their name!!!
The game had been at a stalemate for quite some time, but in the end Johan could break through it. I had completely forgot about the time and soon after the termination of the Death Squadron time was called. Johan had 20 force left, I had 10 force left.
Timed loss: -20 (the rules for timed differential seem so stupid!!)
They really should change the rulings for timed differential, the word alone says it all: differential If someone has 20 force left and the person 10 force their differential is 10 not 20!! So there goes my differential and my chances for reaching the final took a big blow.
Still I tried to be calm and prepare myself for 2 matches I now had to win.
Fortunately the other Reservoir dogs won so the last 2 matches would decide if there would be at least one Reservoir dog in the final.
The force decided that I did not have to play Jeroen v.d Bossch in game 5 although our position would suggest this, but the pairing was LS for me and we already played that match-up. Jan Koevoets did not believe me when I said I had to play him, but his surprising decks put him in the top of the tables. Jan organizes a lot of tournaments and is a tournament director with a great reputation. Instead of directing a tournament he was now competing for top places in a Regional!
Game 5: LS vs. Jan Koevoets with his Skrilling Carbon chamber testing deck
When Jan put his objective on table I was afraid of Drazin manipulator and I was preparing for a big loss as my deck is quite Drazin sensitive. Another reason why I was not thrilled to play Drazin decks because I find them very annoying to play against.
After his starting effect I was not quite sure if he was playing with Drazin because he started with Den of thieves. When the Skrillings hit the table I was relieved, I know this deck because I played it myself and know what to do against it.
My EPPs helped TK-422 get out of a tight situation and a tight suit. Soon after that they took control over Bespin and the mining colony.
Although the numbers came it was just not enough to inflict the damage Skrillings can do against other decks than Hidden base.
Full win: +30
Johan won against Johan Haneveer and Pieter won with attitude, so we were nearing the last part of the tournament with no undefeated players anymore!
I think Arjan followed the same way as Pizza the Hutt in Spaceballs and ate the cheese from himself!! Arjan could now prepare himself for the EPP overdrive tournament following the last round.
The pairings of the top tables in the last round were:
Johan v.d. Meer (8 P) vs. Martijn Peeters (8 P),
Johan Haneveer (7 P) vs. Maarten Roussou (6 P I think),
Pieter Heerma (7 P) vs. Jeroen v.d. Bossch (6 P I think) and
Bart Ouwehand (8 P) vs. Koen Meijssen (8 P)
Differential would be crucial during the last round because a lot of players could still qualify for the finals. Bart had the highest differential and Johan and I also had reasonable differential. Johan Haneveer and Martijn both had lower differential, while Pieter had average differential. Johan Haneveer and Pieter had both one timed win so in order to reach a final spot there had to be at least one higher ranked player with a timed victory and or loss.
Game 6: DS vs. Bart Ouwehand MWYHL 1/5 with lots of retrieval and damage reducers
Bart played with a surprising train deck that went all the way to jedi test 5!
Vader on the meditation chamber caused some early damage, but Bart was training Leia at such a pace you were wondering what Leia gave Yoda in return for her training!!
After a while Leia was ready to begin jedi test 5 when Chewie and Han decided to drain at the CC: lower corridor. Next turn I pulled Vader from his meditation chamber to prepare him for a fight. We were now both losing force from the Emperor himself and it was his turn. He moved Leia to begin jedi test 5 next turn and ended his turn, again both losing from Visage.
My turn I deployed Vader, Grand moff Tarkin and Brangus Glee with first strike to battle Han and Chewie. At that time Bart noticed that I did something wrong in my own turn before this one: I thought you could pull Vader back to your hands on both sides of the HDADTJ objective but this was not the case! I decided to call the judges and hear their opinion.
Because Bart noticed this mistake after two turns had passed they ruled that play continued as it was. I felt sorry for Bart, especially because he had a really cool LS deck.
My tracked destiny 5 choked Han and Vader hit Chewie with his lightsaber.
After the battle Bart had little cards in reserve deck to complete jedi test 5, flipping the objective and begin retrieving. Visage damage took his toll.
Full win + 20
The win was enough to give me a place in the final. Now I had to wait to see if it would be a Mexican shootout or facing a non-Reservoir dog in the final.
Johan Haneveer won his game and now had to hope on time being called on the match between Martijn en Johan. Pieter lost to Jeroen v.d. Bossch, this time the Drazin engine was disturbed by a beat-down crew! Too bad, now only Johan could reach the final.
When time was nearly being called we saw that Martijn Peeters won against Johan, no Mexican shootout for that evening!
Now I had to play Martijn Peeters in the final and because we had not played each other since the last Regional this would be fun.
We managed to persuade the judges to allow three spectators: Jan-Willem, a good friend of Martijn, Johan and Pieter.
Meanwhile Arjan gained his nickname during the EPP overdrive tournament:
Obtaining not only 3 EPP characters (including Leia) but also 4 packages of EPP characters!?
This really granted him the rights to be called EPP Arjan.
The computer decided that I had to play DS and we were ready to begin the final games:
Game 1: DS vs. Martijns Bothawui ops with lots of vehicles (turbo if you want)
I played Bothawui ops at the Antwerp Open and knew that speed is essential in this deck, so therefore I started with battle order. Martijn started with Yarna so I could expect to see lots of ops. Besides the horrible music on the background the room was fairly quiet with only the Star trek finals also being played in the same room.
Vader hit the table pretty early and I thought I altered the Yarna but I drew a Vaders obsession for destiny. Martijn had another copy of Yarna in hand he later told me, this was too bad because my masterful move was just about to fetch that monnok from reserve!
For some strange luck on my part Martijn kept losing ops from the top of reserve deck and I was not expecting a flip when he suddenly put three vehicles on table along with ops at each site!
Then soon after my dreadnought had taken control of the Bothawui system, a Bothan spy and an Ithorian visited the Holotheatre and pulled the plug on the Emperor!
Now my drains were virtually zeroed and Martijn was safe from Visage damage, oops!
Battle order did his work however as Martijn could not drain me at all his drain locations, therefore I was expecting to see some space coming my way and was prepared for it.
He deployed Tantive with EPP Leia at Bothawui were my lone dreadnought was cruising in space. Martijn initiated a battle and looked for a second when I began deploying Tie defenders as a react! He lost Leia and the Tantive and I lost a defender. That is what you get when you are a traitor aboard a vessel helping the Rebels!
On the ground Obi was avoiding Vader who was ready to duel him and Martijn used the HDADTJ objective text really clever. Obi was constantly at the site but I was not able to duel him because Obi stayed in a vehicle all the time!
This allowed Martijn to set up some drains, which were getting a little annoying. I could have played a counter assault but I wanted to put some high destinies back in my reserve deck and hoping Martijn would drain with the Bothan spy and the Ithorian.
His drains were getting larger and I had to play a counter assault the turn before my destinies were set up. Although the destinies in my deck are really high this would be crucial.
I think my total was 6 against Martijns total power of four, this was not the blow I was hoping for. Still it convinced Martijn to be careful with his drains, because he knew now that a second counterassault would be deadly.
Obi thus decided to drain along with a vehicle with an op in it and Han was also draining with a vehicle with an op in it. I tried to use Vader as cannon fodder so I could use my other Vader in hand alongside Tarkin and a bunch of interrupts, but Martijn called my bluff and went on avoiding Vader. Tarkin and Brangus were now being used to bring the emperor back on line killing the spy and the Ithorian. A womp rat started a food fight on Bothawui and even survived the slashing of Lukes saber and was hunting down all characters not in vehicles.
This deck is so much fun to play with, using womp rats to scare off mains, wonderful!
I could have deployed Visage next turn but then I first had to lose 2 force and then 1 force at the end of every turn and that would hurt me even more as Martijn.
So Vader kept on walking around Bothawui alongside his fellow hunter the womp rat, my free drains at Kiffex, Bothawui and Endor were causing problems for Martijn.
His Bothan spies reduced the damage of the drain at Bothawui, but a presence of the force and his last Bothan spy being eaten by those rats was giving me total drain of four each turn.
Battle order became even more bothersome for Martijn when he had to chose between draining and no cards in hand or picking up some cards without doing damage.
Reactor terminal was on table and after both games I heard from Johan and Pieter he could have drawn up at some point. I used my reactor terminal and battle order prevented him to drain, but I forgot and played my last card in hand a counter assault.
Full win: + 20
After a short stop in the toilet Martijn and I were talking about the first game. We were expecting a quick game between ops and HDATJ but it took quite a while. We made some jokes about beating the time used at the Raltiir final (4 hours) and continued to play our second match.
Now my hidden base deck had to play very conservative and not risk anything to let Martijn give me a serious beating on one location. I had to play very focussed and not think of the results or anything else.
Game 2: LS vs. Martijns dueling HDADTJ deck with high destinies
When I saw the epic duel it instantly put me on red alert (Sorry wrong game) because dueling could ruin this game for me. I started rebel fleet and Martijn started security precautions.
At the end of Martijns first turn he lost Visage from top of reserve deck and hoped my transmission terminated would soon come up. Using the hidden base objective to check if my 2 transmission terminated were in my force pile. This wasnt the case, so I deployed four x-wings to Rendezvouspoint and moved them to Bespin. The search for transmission terminated kept on going for a couple of turns, but somehow they remained in my reserve deck for a long time. At last I could cancel Visage and had to hope that Martijn played with 2 not 3 visages.
I was draining at Tatooine and Bespin for 2 force and I could rebel fleet his drain with Vader. Martijn began to increase his drains with tempest 1 and Igar and I decided to deploy TK-422 followed by a trample from Martijn. His drains began to increase even more after captain Needa and company were deployed at Kiffex. Security precautions had made me wary to flip the objective but I had to increase my own drains and prevent Martijn from draining too much. His first probe was successful and I lost 8 force, oouch!
The flipping of my objective did however give me an opportunity to drain for 8 force and his life force was shrinking. I was looking for my all wings report in and it could be worse, but they never came. His reactor terminal was working overtime to get his life force around 20 but after a couple of force drains this was somewhat reduced.
I asked Martijn how many force he had in life force at the end of his turn, it was like 10 or something. All wings report in was still in my reserve deck with lots of x-wings on table. I had to decide to go for the all wings report in or the strategic option of drawing my cards.
After one last check I decided to go for the second option, although I still could not believe that the winning of a Regional was now a possibility. I pick up my 4 cards: 2 it could be worse and 2 all wings report in!!!.
Full loss: - 10 or something around it I cannot remember
I was still completely unaware that I won but after Pieter and Johan kept saying: You are going to the worlds and stuff like that I began to realize it!
We had already decided to open the 4 Endor boxes Johan and I got from qualifying with the old qualification system. Johan traded his box for a DLOTS and I sold my box to Arjan for a small price. We got a lift to the Den Bosch station from Martijn, really nice if you consider he just missed the Worlds because of me!
In the train everybody was looking at those weird people with cards all over them as we started to open our boxes. Every time we opened a booster we started bidding over our cards without showing them. Pieter, Johan and I had exactly the same cards except for foils. This was no problem because we all got Daughter, Solo and a bunch of other cool cards. Pieter also had a daughter foil so great boxes!
My foils were even more awesome getting Solo and Tempest 1, after a few quick trades everybody was happy and I had the feeling I had finally enough luck to win a regional!
Koen Meijssen