world-championships-by-martin-akesson
Title: world-championships-by-martin-akesson
Author: Martin "Mart" Akesson
Date: Jan 9, 2000
Here we go:
I arrived in Virgina Beach Wednesday after having spent a few days in NYC so I had time to getting used to US time. First day I spent meeting some of the world finalists, and in the evening I played some games with Maarten Logghe. For dark side I knew what to play. I have used this deck ever since Gencon this summer, and I won my regional with it. I really know how to play it, so that was an easy choice.
The fist day of the convention was a progressive sealed deck, starting with the sealed box, and then you got a new hope booster after each game to boost your deck. I pulled Vader, Tarkin, many TIE's and some usefull interrupts, so that tournament was an easy win for me. The final was played against Aldrin Long from Singapore.
Dark Side Deck
OBJECTIVE
Raltiir opperations/ in the hands of the empire
STARTING (3)
ralltiir
twi'lek advisor
opressice enforcement
LOCATIONS (11)
<>forrest
<>jungle
<>spaceport docking bay
<>swamp
courscant
kashyyyk
meditation chamber
ice plains
Death Star
wampa cave
dagobah cave
WEAPONS (1)
vaders lightsaber
STARSHIPS (5)
devastator
bossk in hounds tooth
vaders personal shuttle
dreadnaught X2
VEHICLES (6)
tempest scout 1
tempest scout 2
tempest scout 3
tempest scout 5
tempest scout 6
blizzard scout 1
CHARACTERS (16)
Darth Vader, Dark lord of the sith
Darth Vader
Lieutennant commander Ardan
Lieutennant cabbel
Grand Moff Tarkin
Officer Evax
Admiral Ozzel
DS-61-2
Navy trooper vesden
lieutennant arnet
AT-ST pilot X4
Brangus Glee
Boba fett with blaster rifle
EFFECTS (6)
Battle order
Security precautions
There'll be hell to pay X2
Bad feeling have I
imperial arrest order
INTERRUPTS (11)
Alter X3
Evader X2
Trample X3
Ommni Box X2
Shocking Revelation
For light side I had two decks to choose between, one mains beat down deck starting with hidden base to pull fast activation and one X-wing celebration deck. After playtesting I realized that the light deck would get easily beaten by hunt down decks and space decks, which I thought would be frequently played. Also, the X-wing/celebration deck wouldn't be that expected as the mains deck so I chose that one. It turned out to be the right choice.
Light Side Deck
OBJECTIVE
Hidden base /YPHGOOTU
LOCATIONS (11)
rendezvous point
Tatooine X2 (indicator)
Dagobah
Yodas hut
Cantina X2
Mos Eisley
jundland wastes
jp: enterance cavern
jp: audience chamber
STARSHIPS (13)
X-wing X12
red leader in red 1
CHARACTERS (10)
Ben Kenobi x2
Luke with Lightsaber
Leia with blasterifle
Han with blasterrifle
Taws Khaa
Melas
Boshek
Bron Burs
Orrimaarko
EFFECTS (7)
S-foils
rebel fleet
the planet that is fahrthest from
Battle plan
Tatooine celebration X2
What are you trying to push on us
INTERRUPTS (18)
Organized attack X2
The signal X2
Transmission Terminated X3
All wings report in X2
Rebel barrier X2
houjix X2
It's a hit X3
tunnel vision X2
Brian Fred (2051) Lafayette, IN
I play LS. Brian played a TIE deck with TIE advanceds. I got lots of X wings to tatooine, and while he was drawing and deploying TIE’s to another system I deployed tatooine sites and celebrations for drain. He couldn’t do much about my drains, and when he came over with his TIE's to Tatooine I was able to outpower him. I retrieved much and won with no cards in my lost pile.
FW +31
Total 2 (+31)
Matt Lush* (1976) Dallas, TX *'96, '97 finalist
Dark Side for me. He played Obi-Wan’s hut and audience chamber as start, so I started with oppressive enforcement. I flipped after a few turns, being aware of that he might nabrun over for a beatdown. with the objective flipped and some tracked destinies Vader, Tarkin and some other guys went to tatooine and battled them away. I altered his mantelian savrip by grabbing his sense. After that battle it was game.
FW +16
Total: 4 (+47)
Marcin Solonczak (1920) Krakow, Poland
My dark deck again. He played a hidden base deck with different star fighters. we booth flipped before I got security precautions. I got my whole starfleet out, but couldn’t spread out due to order to engage. I had almost no drains on him, one POAS and the others were canceled by hidden base. When I finally got security precautions I started to probe. At least I found the hidden base, and he lost 6 cards I think. from then on it was a drain race, which he won.
FL 2 ; +6
Total: 4 (+41)
Clint Hays* (2125) Juliet, TN *'98 finalist
He played Hunt Down. I canceled Visage early, but he invaded Tatooine and the sites before I could do @#$%. my X-wings couldn’t do much, and neither could my characters. It was an easy win for him.
FL -15
Total: 4 (+26)
Steve Brentson* (2022) - Worcester, MA *'98 finalist
I play light. This was an odd game. He set up big drains on different sites. I got my celebration going quite late. he grabbed my all wings report in early in the game. He had secret plans in play. When we booth had like 10-15 cards left I activated 11 of my 12 remaining cards, deployed one X-wing and played the retrieve version of all wings report in. Neither of us remembered it was grappeled, so I paid all my 11 force to retrieve. 2 turns later we noticed. I didn’t want to go back, changing it since two turns had past, but I know that would change the game situation totally. I feel really bad about it, so I was really relived when he qualified for the second day.
FW +16
Total: 6 (+42)
Yannick Lapointe* (1947) Ottawa, ON, Canada *'98 finalist
He played a beatdown deck starting with mind what you have learned. I got the objective flipped, and deployed to kashyyyk not to be affected by battle plan. His beatdown came in space as a surprise, and I lost about 10 cards in that battle. He took control in space and started to drain me at the death star. I deployed Vaders shuttle and moved it to dagobah, and landed on Yodas Hut since I saw him loosing Yoda to a forcedrain. What I didn’t think of was that he still could deploy Luke with the objective, which he did, causing some more force loss. He drained me to death after that.
FL ; -24
Total: 6 (+18)
Ray Bordier (1991) Syracuse, NY
I deploy Raltiir opperations/ he deploys local upprising converting my raltiir. He also deploys the farm. I go first. I got a real lousy starting hand, and I deployed no location to raltiir since it would only get converted. I drew some locations, and in his following turns he only deployed the spaceport sites since otherwise I would convert his sites. I deployed some 2/0 locations, so I had quite a good activation, and he had only about 6-7. He managed to flip his objective, and I battled one of his ops/speeders with Tarkin/Vader causing booth to be lost. He deploys some more locations. At my turn there are 6 locations at raltiir and he occupies three of them with opperative and speeder. I deploy so I can draw destiny at all sites where his opperatives are, and some small imperials to the other sites. I flip the objective, and initiate battle at all sites where he has got opperatives. With my bonus draws from the objective I manage to wipe all of them out, flipping his objective back. From there on he stands no chance anymore, and I drain him to death fast.
FW +27
Total: 8 (+45)
Markus Wuest (1785) Velbert, Germany
Last game against Markus Hunt down. Something real weird happened here.. we end the game by booth loosing our last card to visage of the emperor. When we call the judge he says that the player who had the last turn decides who looses first to Visage of the emperor. Neither me nor Markus remembers, and it ends that we draw one destiny each from Markus light side deck to determine the winner. I draw 8D8, Markus draws Vader with Saber. I win the game by 1, but I now think that Markus should have won that draw, since I would have qualifyed for day 2 either way due to my differential.
FW +1
Total: 10 (+46)
So I placed 7:th day one. I played some friendly games to Bastian Winkelhaus the day before and after seeing him play I thought he would win the WC's. Bastian was the top player after the first day. That evening I change the two Evaders in my deck for Imperial barrier and DS-61-3. The light side I changed totally, I expected more Hunt Down decks for day 2. I built an anti hunt down deck starting with hidden base to pull 1/0 sites and dagobah stuff. No battleground in the deck, that was a mistake! I also played undercover spies instead of transmission terminated, also a mistake. I realize now that I should have used the X-wing deck, then I would at least have won one more game day 2.
That evening I played in the Japanese sealed deck tourney, but I dropped after loosing my first game. I had to test and build the light deck for day 2.
James Lafferty (1963) San Diego, CA *'98 finalist
James was late for this game. He was two minutes from being disqualifyed, his friends hadn't woke him up, so he looked really tired. I played my LS deck against his ISB deck. The only battleground in his deck was the holotable. I had no Transmission Terminated in the deck, so he had a constant drain for 1 there. He also had lots of 2/0 locations in. He deployed come here you big coward, and since I had no battleground in the deck I couldn't drain him. I couldn't do @#$%, I just sat drawing. I deployed a spy, Melas and Obi with saber to his 5th marker just trying to get Vader out there since I had Uncontrollable Furry in hand. Vader got there, but I barriered him. He also deployed some spies and Blizzard 2. Trampled my Obi Wan, and battled my other 2 guys away causing some minior battle damage and moved the spies into the walker. I couldn’t do the beatdown there due to imperial arrest order gave the ISB guys high forfeit. I deployed Gold leader in gold 1 and Luke with saber in space, and uncontrollable furry. He lost one 2 per turn, I lost one. However he flipped his objective and retrieved one per turn after that. My lost pile was much larger than his, and he also deployed his ships to drain at my alderaan when I had too few cards left to make a beatdown. At that time I couldn’t do anything, and there wasn't that much time left so I drew my remaining cards.
FL ; -21
Total 0 (-21)
Gregory Reid* (1877) Coralville, IA *'96, '97 finalist
Man this guy is funny to play! He laughs all the time, and when he laughs.. well you just have to laugh too, you know what I mean if you have meat him!. Anyway, He played hidden base with lots of corvetes and Kessel runs. I flipped, and deployed security precautions early. Some battle occurred, and I managed to find his hidden base. I also altered his kessel run, and in the end he died to my force drains.
FW +8
Total: 2 (-13)
Stuart Jones* (1948) Surrey Hills, VIC, Australia *'96, '97 finalist
Stuart played Opperatives. I had no opperatives protection in the deck, and he always had enough stuff to prevent a heavy beatdown. I lost control of corulag due to his biker scout combo. I missed his opperatives with my three played lost grimtaashes, but I got 2 dreadnaughts and 2 tempest scout 1. You could see practically the whole game that he would win, but I did my best to cause him some force loss, but he drained me to death in the end. I should have played the tatooine deck instead, it would have won for sure!
FL ;-11
Total: 2 (-24)
Clint Hays* (2125) Juliet, TN *'98 finalist
My chances of going to the final is now gone. Still the 4th game was important to me off course. He had an opperatives deck on Bothawui I think with speeders and maneuvering flaps for beatdown, very similar to the one that Steven Lewis played in the final. I flipped my objective early, so did he. I kept on battling him as much as I could trying to flip his objective. At least I managed to do that, and he didn't have a lot of speeders left at that time. He hit me with a lesser beatdown, but I only lost cards from hand to that one. I had really big drains going on, and with his objective unflipped he couldn't do much about it.
FW +12
Total: 4 (-12)
that score gave me a 7th place in the world which I'm very happy with. We played one sealed deck tourney while watching the finals, but I didn't do that well. After the dinner we bought some beer and played another sealed deck tournament which was really fun. It also was the noisiest tournament ever. (I sucked in that tournament, won one game, lost 2 and got one buy)
On the Sunday I also attended to the team tournament. Our team was 'non americans +1'. At first it was supposed to be me, Yannik Lapointe (canada), Koen Meijssen (the Netherlands) and Bastian Winkelhaus (germany). However Bastian changed team, so we got Martin Falke (germany) instead. But then he joined the other Germans in team Sebulba, so Paul Todd Feldman finaly joined our team making the +1. We happened to win that team event, and we got the coolest trophies!
This years Gencon was a blast, as a star wars player you can't experience anything better. I really hope to see all of you there last year!
My thanks go to:
Markus Wuest
Maarten Logghe
Yannik Lapointe
Koen Meijssen
Paul Todd Feldman
Jason Kilby (for the beer)
Patrik Wallgren
Per Wahlgren
Erik Hansson
All decipher staff for a great convention
Everyone I played for great games
Dad (for taking me to new york)
Congratulations Garry to the title!!!
Martin Åkesson