bochum-grand-slam-germany-01-30-00
Title: bochum-grand-slam-germany-01-30-00
Author: Koen "Mr. Pink" Meijssen
Date: Feb 3, 2000
Intro:
The first Grand Slam in Europe would be held in Bochum, Germany. Although I had some exams in the week before the Grand Slam I really wanted to go. Bochum is quite a long trip from Amsterdam so we were glad when Jeroen v.d Bossch offered the members of the Reservoir dogs a ride to Bochum. Johan v.d. Meer and Pieter Heerma were the other members of the Reservoir dogs planning to play in Bochum. Unfortunately Pieter had to cancel his plans and so only Johan and myself would be representing the Reservoir dogs in Bochum.
Jeroen v.d Bossch, Jan-Willem Sipkes and Maarten Roussou were the other Dutch players to have a shot at the uncut sheets.
With the exams eating away my time, I had little time to prepare my decks, so no new wacky strategies from me this tournament! For LS I had no clue what to play and everything I came up with was being slaughtered by Johan and Arjan, a.k.a. Nice guy Eddie, a.k.a. EPP Arjan and another member of the Reservoir dogs. This was turning into a big problem and I had to make a choice between decks that all have serious problems against certain common deck styles being used by the Dark side. After considering 4 alternatives, I decided to play a deck that is based on the deck Martin Falke has been using for quite some time. My modifications were made to increase the space support and more ways of doing direct damage to your opponent. The risk of playing this deck is that all the Germans would be prepared for this deck, but the versatility of the deck is / was its big advantage. I gave the deck a name that I find fitting for most of my LS decks:
Bulletproof I wish I was, a great song from Radiohead that can be found on their best album The bends.
With this rather negative outlook for the LS, Johan and myself could not resist the calling of the musicians. So we decided to play Johans famous ( or should I say infamous for most Dutch players) musicians deck. We made some modifications to adapt to the new post-EJP environment, and were ready to let our musicians reach the top of the charts!
Although this deck is awesome to play, those poor musicians tend to die quite a few times before eventually reaching the top and therefore I gave the deck a name fitting for the rather short life-expectancy of the musicians:
Come on die young, the latest album from Mogwai, an excellent band from Scotland.
Jeroen shared our vision on the light side, but Jan-Willem strangely was optimistic about his light deck and mailed me if I had any ideas for the dark side. So a bit of mixed feelings about the balance controversy, so we were all very curious as what the German players would play for their light side decks.
When we arrived in Bochum Bastian Winkelhaus and Markus Wuest were standing near the entrance and after some small talk I played some friendly games with Bastian. There were a lot of players present, and in total 66 players showed up to play. While we were playing Martin Falke also came by to say hello, so the competition would definitely be though.
I was especially curious what Martin would play that day as he is an excellent player and deck builder. Although I did not play Martin in the tournament, Johan would eventually face off against him in a duel that I unfortunately could not watch:
Musicians vs. Martins famous deck
But more of that later in the report, now for the moment you may already have scrolled to, I will finally begin my report on the games. There were 66 players coming from Germany (duh), England ( Scott Latham and Matt Allen), Belgium ( Patrick Monsieurs) and Holland.
Game 1: LS vs. Bartosz : DS big blue
Bartosz starts Deathstar and Security precautions and I begin with Hidden base and Wise advise. I started deploying some systems and he just drew cards. At first this was fine by me, but after a while I was suspecting beatdown would commence if I would deploy something. So I deployed some more systems and was looking for my Leia with blaster to begin setting some traps for him in space. ( Cpt. Solo with Leia +blaster in Falcon combined with punch it and legendary starfighter equals suffering for the Dark side)
Leia seemed to be stuck in reserve for quite a while, and Bartosz began to invade Hoth: defensive perimeter with Vader and Tarkin.
At this time my destinies were pretty set up and Vader was appearantly ready for a leave of absence into the skislopes as I lost in the wilderness his first drain. I drew a four and Vader went on a little vacation. Tarkin was immediately bored without someone to give orders to and called for backup. Blizzard 1 came led by Lt. Cabbel and Gen. Veers.
With Vader out on the skislopes, Obi with lightsaber, Luke with lightsaber and Wedge decided also to take a vacation on Hoth and battled their way to their supposedly blizzard free skislopes. He drew a zero, but my destiny draw wasnt high enough to inflict some attrition.
Without under attack in my deck this could become quite a grueling war on Hoth. It turned into the Cold War of StarWars as we both began to stockpile our forces their. With more pilots joining Tarkin, things were not looking good but a destiny zero of Bartosz gave me some more time. He lost Tarkin and I was beginning to think that Leia was stuck at the bottom of my force pile when she refused to show up in my hand. ( I guess she really dislikes Hoth) So I better track my high destinies to inflict some attrition on those walkers, I play Out of commission he replies with sense. OK thats fine with me as Wise advise is on table, my destinies are still recycling and his senses disappear from his hand. So I play another one and again a sense. Commander Igar and Tempest 1 came to aid in his destiny zero problems and it seemed to work. I had to loose Wedge and Jeroen Webb. Now he had the characters to return Vader from his early retirement and gave him something else to play with: his own lightsaber.
IG-88 with riot gun also saw some new capturing targets and conducted a visit on Hoth.
I had to battle, and retreat thereafter, his massive force on Hoth before he could retaliate next turn. So I iniated a battle and played Clash, he sensed it and I was beginning to worry about my strategic withdrawal, it was turning into a kamikaze battle!
He tries to capture Luke with Lightsaber and draws a four, combined with the game text on def. Perimeter means that Luke is captured by Vader. At this point I needed to reduce the immense battle damage that was coming my way and played a glancing blow on Vader. Apparently all his senses were gone and Vader was power zero! Then for a moment I thought that he had won the game, when he initiated a duel between Vader and Obi. But he was not playing HDADTJ so it was the non-epic version. As Bartosz pointed out that Obi was out of play, I was thinking about the glancing blow that got through! Wait a second Vader is out of play! Luke returned to his old mentor and gave IG-88 a dismantle on sight by chopping all of his parts in tiny pieces. ( Ok a little overreacting on my part, but I drew a 5 and a 6)
But Igar was still there and his destinies were getting higher all the time. Luke went into the bacta tank and Obi was being thanked for his services and put in the lost pile.
Redemption was on table so I could use my precious force to set up Our most desperate hour.
He came with Executor and Zuckuss in Mist hunter, it would be tough to control space!
When I completed OMDH he played imbalance ( What the %^$^@#$ , this card is not good as it is a lost card in your deck ( secret plans is much better) but it pissed me off) and lost half of my force that I retrieved. Now he also deployed secret plans and thereby my retrieval engine was not running at peek efficiency! Time was slowly running out, without order to engage on table and no legendary starfighter his life-force wasnt that much smaller than me. With less than a minute to go he played lateral damage on the falcon but I hyper escaped and that was game. Although a timed win is actually more of a loss in such a competitive tournament.
Timed win by 18 ( 1 +18 )
Johan also had a timed win, so things were not looking good for the Reservoir dogs as we now had to win everything to have a chance at reaching the final.
Game 2: Ds vs. Thomas: LS hidden base with a lot of planets ( and kessel run)
This was not the game I was hoping for: a HB deck with loads of planets which also used kessel run to retrieve. He started rebel fleet and deployed 9 systems in his first three turns. Those systems were accompanied by x-wings. I set up my ground forces and finally deployed search and destroy to inflict some damage and lure my opponent to the ground. He deployed some more x-wings, tantive and some other stuff and flipped. He had a very high drain potential next turn so I had to act. Zuckuss in Mist hunter and Dengar in Punishing one came probed and cleared kessel. IG-88 in IG-2000 with musicians fodder went probing but it wasnt Bothawui, Tibrin or Kiffex either. I was beginning to get worried as my drains were being canceled and absorbed by rebel fleet. I spread my fleet in order to make sure I would probe his hidden base. It was Raltiir and that made the game much easier. I blew up his ship that tried to complete a kessel run and I won by eight.
Full win by 8 ( 3 +26)
It was a cool game and Thomas was a friendly guy to play against. We talked about the game and then I heard that Johan won his game. The other Dutch guys had mixed fortunes as we all had to adapt to the tournament environment in Germany!
I talked to Markus and found out that he and Bastian won both of their games. We discussed how much fun to play decks are with scum and villainy. I hoped I would have to play light side, because it is my weaker deck and I would have more chance winning against a somewhat weaker opponent.
Game 3: Ls vs. Sebastian CCT with bounty hunters ( I hope I got all the names right because I did not take notes)
I gave him Wedge and the game could begin. He deployed Lando and some bounty hunter to the prison and searched for a site with CCT. None were in his reserve deck so I could verify his deck:
Bounty hunters and all of their ships, and no sense or alter. Then he deployed carbon freezing and picked up Wedge and then some cards. I activated and went looking for a system hoping that Luke would be in my force pile. I had already Han with blaster and Jeroen Webb in hand so hopefully beatdown could commence. He was in my force pile, I picked up some cards and end my turn. To keep this report somewhat readable beatdown came followed by the lockdown.
Full win by 41 ( 5 +67)
This wasnt the game I was hoping for as this was his first tournament I think. The benefit was that it boosted my low differential. Johan won and Jan-Willem was doing fine.
Pairings were announced and this time Winfried Sommerfeld ( by the way great tourney Winfried and Marianne, with tons of excellent prizes) began with the lowest ranked players and went to the top parings. After a while Johan, Jan-Willem and myself were not yet announced and I got a bad feeling about playing a Dutch opponent. So I was not surprised when I got paired with Jan-Willem.
Game 4 : DS vs. Jan-Willem: LS weird profit deck with inserts
This game was really weird, actually on of the most weirdest games Ive ever played in a tournament. I started Jabba and Ak-rev and converted his Audience chamber. He had Han frozen and Wedge in prison, but I had not the slightest idea what Jan-Willem was playing.
When Anger, fear and aggression came along with numbers and spies I knew it would be tough. With resistance in effect I made the mistake that cost me the game. I should have activated my force and pull out my ability^3 and search and destroy that were in my reserve deck. I would have gotten 4 damage and then I would be set. Instead I chose to activate nothing and kept on draining for almost nothing. But his drains were also near zero, only at the hologram board so I thought I would be fine. Projection came and now it became a drain of two. I got out ability^3 and search and destroy, he counteracted with Rendezvous point with ships and moving them to kessel. I decided to come to him too late and I miscounted for a musician and he had just enough battle damage to finish me off.
Full loss by 10 ( 5 +57)
No more chances for the final, now I could relax and play for a decent placing. Johan played that round against Martin and lost, so the Reservoir dogs were out. But the next two games we still wanted to win in order to climb up some places in the tournament. Bastian and Martin remained undefeated, but Markus had lost to Bastian. I dropped a lot of pairings because of my timed win in game 1.
Game 5 DS. vs. Alexander : LS profit deck with the worrt/ order to engage combo
Despite my bad feelings about a combo that could be headed my way (although I start CCT so that is already good against profit) I began with Jabba and Ak-rev. Alexander gave me Biggs.
I started out well and he deployed a docking bay and saved up. Already waiting for the combo, the docking bay made me aware of the fallen portals he would probably play with.
What I did not expect to see was Mantellian savrip combined with sense and alter. He deployed Tawws to the palace and Obi and Wedge to his hut. He canceled my first elis helrot, but the second one got through. Savrip with a lot of corvettes protected him, but his reinforcements were not to be seen. Next turn I deployed Nizuc Bek and barriers with his last force ( smart move because now I couldnt move Obi away to fight a lone Wedge)
But with his last force gone, Lyn me came followed by a free Boba with blaster and first strike ( no more fallen portals this turn) I retrieve some, he loses force and he loses some more with savrip. I move Kithaba and 4-LOM with conc. Rifle over to Boba and their safe.
He moved Obi away from the angry mob that was out to get him. My turn activate two, unexpected interruption, go for elis. Elis helrot to Obi with my gang. He has no force left and I think any death metal band would be proud of the onslaught that proceeded. Sebastian saw it and, without counting cards in hand or reserve, said: Ok you win
Game over with way too many cards in hand!
Full win by 18 ( 7 + 75)
Johan, Jan-Willem, Maarten and Jeroen also won, so that was nice to hear.
Jan-Willem now had to play Bastian and Martin Falke had to play Martin Schumacher, I think. I got to play Soeren Kaiser. As I later heard, Johan had won his first game against him on time, so I should have been warned. Somehow I managed to do some pretty stupid things that game.
Game 6: Ls vs. Soeren Kaiser : Ds Court deck
He starts scum and villainy and I start wise advise. I had a lot of characters in hand, but was a bit afraid of those Ds interrupts and without grapplers in hand I played a bit too conservative, waiting for backup.
He deployed some aliens including Gailid to the Audience chamber, Brangus to the dungeon and Dengar with a few bountyhunters to the jundland wastes. I confronted Dengar and we both lose some characters. The cards I really needed were order to engage and bacta tank, but I could not find them. I did grapple a sense and deployed some systems. I had a lot of defensive cards so I deployed Redemption at Chandrilla to increase my activation. I had deployed battle plan to slow down his drains and he responded a couple turns later with Bossk in bus and Zuckuss in mist hunter. I had to convince Obi in this most desperate hour that he must help to stop their drains. So Obi and Luke go sightseeing in the palace and Solo and Wedge set up a trap for Soeren. Zuckuss and his Mystic abilities had foreseen this so he did not confront me when he could, but Boba wanted to collect his bounties. Result:
Eleven cards over the top for him and legendary starfighter. With their backs against the wall, the rebels gave all they got. Soeren began to play more slowly every turn, but my chances for the final were long gone I didnt make an issue of it. I made a big mistake here, instead of telling him to hurry up a little, I started to play much faster and made some errors. I flipped hidden base without controlling two systems to cancel his drains. I also lost a ship in battle while I should have lost a character. Time was running down and I was glad Martin Falke came by and made some remarks in German that it was not cool to stall the game. When order to engage was altered, Soren suddenly realized he could win the game with less than a minute to play. It was my turn and Winfried Sommerfeld came by and said: last game action
I moved a ship and it was game over. A timed loss, I do not know exactly by how much but I think it was 4.
Timed loss by 4 ( 7 +71)
I learned a lot from the games and it was a great tournament. Martin Falke had lost his last game against Martin Schumacher and Jan-Willem won against Bastian. The finals were Martin Schumacher against Bastian Winkelhaus.
Johan had a timed loss / full loss against Patrick Monsieurs and we both had 7 victory points.
I played a friendly game with Martin Falke while the prizes were awarded. Apparently there were a lot of timed wins because there were quite some players with an odd numbered victory points. I had the highest differential of the seven pointers and I came in 18th or something like that. Johan finished 20th I think and Jan-Willem placed an impressive 3rd!
I had a god draw against Martin in the friendly game we played ( Profit vs. Court), but it was getting late and we had to go. Otherwise we would be stranded somewhere without transportation. It was too bad, the game looked pretty interesting. I had a lot of fun and we said goodbye to some players and went home.
Jeroen, thanks again for the ride and hopefully we will see some familiar faces at other Grand Slams in Europe.
The next day I found out that Bastian won the Grand Slam ( He had already won the young jedi Grand Slam), talk about a grand weekend Bastian ! Congrats to you!
Koen