dutch-championships-ryloth-21-05-2000

Title: dutch-championships-ryloth-21-05-2000
Author: Jeroen "S.T.oma" van den Bosch
Date: May 22, 2000

Dutch Championships - 21/05/2000

I was up rather early that sunday morning as I had gone to bed early the night before. I wanted to avoid what happenend last time (I overslept -> see TR:
Rotterdam -14/05/2000 below this report). So no concerts for me but a quit evening at home, just relaxing and watching some movies with my girlfriend. I had playtested a few evenings with Maarten who is becoming my regular
playtestpartner in crime and we where both feeling well prepared.

Decks:
Dark - standard Ralltiir Operations deck with Search and Destroy
Light - I left my Han in Budel-Schoot (the well-known deck tweaked to the Ryloth Metagame)

Game 1: My RallOps vs. Edwin Steenhoek's (1538) MWYHL to test 5.
I have no specific anti-testing in my deck but I flip quickly, search for some locations as I'm low on force and set up Search and Destroy. That does it's work while I try to get some characters to Dagobah via Kasshyyk. I wait to deploy Vader as I'm weary for Uncontrollable Fury but send him at last to Dagobah to confront Luke. He gets hit immediatly by Unctrontrollabe Fury but I prevent him from doing test 3 as Vader is on the same location as the test and he's afraid to move his characters to that location. I have to deal with Projection of a Skywalker and undercover spies but trample and Alters do their work and I manage to get a few drains through. He tries to disrupt me a little by deploying an occasional main to Ralltiir or Han in Redemption to Kasshyyk but Bad feeling and his low lifeforce prevent him from deploying enough to do real damage. Plus I have an imperial barrier my in hand. His on the edge get's grappled the first time he plays it and it is pretty much game there and then. He can't cope with the continuing force loss form Search and Destroy and loses the game shortly after.
FW: 2 +18

Game 2: My Profit vs. Bas van Zuilen's (1484) Charbon Freezing Testing (trying to actually pull it off).
That's a funny situation. Not only Han is improsend now but also Lando. I think he might be playing musicians or manipulator but as he searchs for a charbon freezing effect I get the feeling he's actually serieus in freezing Lando. I flip quickly as I want to disrupt him early and I'm relativly safe as he is low on force. I drain at two sites with Luke, Han and Leia backed up with Orimaarko. As he is halfway through his deck he freezes Lando (and I lose eight force). He transports Lando to the Audiance chamber and drains for three (Mara Jade is also there with her saber) for the remainder of the game. I think I could have battled him away easily but I don't want to take any chances as he is losing five a turn and has little lifeforce left. I just
lose three per turn while I drain him out.
HL: Having two characters frozen, that's pretty 'cool'. Bas pulling of a freeze during a tournament.
LL: deploying Orimaarko to the same location as 4-Lom and IG-88 and intiate a battle, duh.
FW: 2 +15 (4 +35)

Game3: My RallOps against Erwin Flohr's (1687) CC drainmains.
Erwin is a very good player who, especially since the birth of his son, doesn't spend that much time anymore playing Star Wars. I have played some friendly games against Erwin when he also used this same deck. He plays only interior Cloud City Sites and drains there for a lot with lightsabers and that alien (damn, what's he called?) who adds one to force drains at cloud city sites. He always has a lifttube handy for reacting so if you initiate a battle against a lonely character you find yourself facing the whole mains-beatdown crew. I started Bad feeling and quickly try to flip Ralltiir. He has Obi Wan Kenobi on one
site and EPP Han and that alien on another. The first card I search for via the objective is Lieutenant Arnet. Along with choke Vader I deploy him to Han's location,
choke the alien and draw a 3 (total of six with the objective flipped) for battedestiny and he has to
lose Han and then some more. Erwin isn't a player who gives up quickly and he deploys, after long thoughts, Luke to Ralltiir. I'm feeling pretty confident. I deploy Mara and initiate a battle with Mara and an at-st with an at-st pilot. He plays Warriors Courage and The force is strong with this one. He also hits Mara with his lightsaber and the site is cleared. I know he has some more destiny adders and stay away from his mains who are on Cloud City. I play hide and seek and he spreads more and more to drain. I
have more force now than he has and deploy Battle Plan. Kasshyyk I lost earlier on, I knew he had some space and I didn't want to test him in space. He has to pay all of his force to drain and I can afford it. In the end he get's
desperate and forget's about Arnet hoping that I would initiate battle so he can react with all his mains. I do initiate battle but remind him again of Arnet. Game Over.
FW: 2 +18 (6 +54)

Game 4: My Profit against Jan-Willem Sipkes (1819) Undercover ISB-space.
I start Profit with the usual opening (Don't thread on me), deploying all three effects. I flip immediatly as I see he has problems activating. On the third turn I'm making him lose five because of the objective and drains. He doesn't get his planets out and loses some of them from reserve. His
undercovers I nail with Sorry about the mess and Double Agent. And he still gets to lose from the objective so I don't mind that some of my drains are canceled. He comes down with some characters and also in this game I play
Hide and Seek. He manages to come back by a bit but can't cope with the continual forceloss.
LL: Jan-Willem who doesn't draw anything usefull at all.
HL: The fact that my deck doesn't rely only on draining to make my opponent lose force.
FW: 2 +22 (8 +76)

Game 5: My Ralltiir Ops against Martijn Peeters (1737) MWYHL to test five.
Winning four games is pretty standard in my opinion. Winning five games is way more difficult. Martijn is a good player but I knew this was an oké match-up for my deck. In the first hand I had the Dagobah Cave. I thought about deploying it and did so cause I thought I needed the force. He get's some additional trouble because I can move test 2 even further now with the cave out. Search and destroy hits the table and he's a bit slow with testing forgetting to move Luke once. Also Bad feeling has delayed him. He had Yoda in hand so that costed him seven force for Yoda and another seven for Luke. I drain some before he gets two projections out and an undercover and he loses the jungle from reserve. His luck that I deployed the cave! I get Mara
to Dagobah (same scenario as the first game) and do not deploy Vader because a monnok revealed Uncontrollable Fury. Now this happens: I initiate a battle with Mara with Luke turned upside down and he forfeits Yoda. Is the test 5 in progress lost? Gepko, the TD rules that it is not. We move on with the game. He activates all next turn so he can't finish test 5 that turn but get's a off the edge through (wich I ofcourse push). So he gets five cards back, he has now like ten lifeforce. He also's retrieves ten as he flips. He has the superfalcon on Kashhyyk and I have some ships there. The falcon gets lateral damaged but he can draw a six anytime he wants with test five and I decide it's not the effort (battling him). He retrieves one
every turn with Figiran and he flips my Ralltiir. But time is called. I had still many resources but it would have been a long game and chances were that Martijn would come out victorious.
LL: winning timed when I had him down to five lifeforce and no cards in hand.
HL: Martijn playing better and better towards the end.
FW: 2 + 12 (9 +88)

Game 6: My profit against Maarten Rossou's anti-profit Court.
There are is one other undefeated but I can't play him (Johan van der Meer) because we're paired with the same side. So I get to play Maarten who had won all but one game. He played Court with space and some Sense and Alter to stop my Someone who loves you. He deploys big on the audiance chamber stopping me from freeing Han (backed up with none shall pass) and drains in space (surprise, I have no space). In playtesting I won by surprise assualting him but because of that he added a Tarkin's orders in his deck. I manage to free Han eventually, but way to late. He has really postponed my setup with none shall pass and he's draining on two planets for four a turn and then for one at the audience chamber where he has like ten-plus aliens. Not a nice game. As he deploys Blast Door control I'm really doomed.
FL: 0 -27 (9 + 61)

I come in fifth. Not bad with fourty participants. Maarten places second and Johan Haneveer (who won against Johan van der Meer) comes in first. They don't want to play a final duel. Instead they go for Young Jedi (wich turns out to be a
bit of a bore). I also participate with two borrowed decks because my two passengers both want to play. I finish last. I the last game I begin to get the hang of it a bit and even win that game.

Props:
Gepko for organising a really cool tournament
All others who helped make the day a really nice one
Maarten for Playtesting

Slops:
Everyone who acted puberal during Young Jedi
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Below follows a tr wich I started but never properly finished. It describes a tournament that happened a week before the Dutch championships. I didn't feel like finishing it because I just couln't remember much from
those games. But I'll throw it in as a added bonus.

Well, two concerts and going to bed at around 4 a.m. two days in a row isn't what you call the perfect preparation for a tournament. It is, however, a heck of a weekend. Anyway, that's exactly what I did before the Sunday in question. The tournament was held in Rotterdam and I had put my alarm real early. I always wake up early at tournaments, even if I only slept for two hours like I did now. Well, there has to be a first for everything, so half an hour too late, I call up Maarten and say I will be a bit late. I arrive at his home at ten so one hour to make it to Rotterdam, that should do. Underway we both asked each other where he put the map. Uh Oh. No map but Maarten thinks he knows the way.

Game 1: My Peugot 206 vs. The Asphalt Jungle of Rotterdam:
At 10:45 we arrive in R'dam. We see a lott of Rotterdam the in next hour but that was not what we came here for. We call to the location twice and in the end (we where almost there) Jurgen picks us up. We arrive at 12:30.
HL: At least they waited for us so it's only one game we're missing.
LL: Everything, I have a really big hangover, I smell like hell cause I've put on the same trousers I had on yesterday and there soaked with beer and sweat, It's hot and my neck hurts moshing/stagediving and i was ready to turn round and drive back home.
FL - 0

When we walk in we're greated buy only a handful of players. Most of the Ryloth players have chosen to stay at home in prearation for the Duth Championships next week. 'll try to describe the games the best I can but do not expect to much since I have some real memory lapses.

Game 2: My Ralltiir Operations vs. Johan vd Meer's (1787) MWYHL with Anger, Fear and Agression and some Mains.
Johan starts MWYHL and begins to train farmboy Luke to test 1 while I set up Ralttiir. He inserts an Anger, Fear and Agression early on but with all the shuffling I postpone
the four forceloss for quite a while. I grapple It could be worse and off the edge but the first one I shouldn't have
(He also plays We're doomed what really hinders me). He gets the falcon out and and I battle him of Ralltiir and he battles me out of the skies. In the end he get's nailed by Search and Destroy and my little drains.
FW: 2 +1

Game 3: My Ralltiir Operations against Edwin Steenhoek's (1538) Hidden Base spacebeatdown with powerpivot.
Again Search and Destroy is the card. I begin to probe when he flips and after I probe (with security precautions out but he it could be worsed the damage) I get the suspected beatdown. He hadn't that much cards in hand so it's only a moderate beatdown. I fortifie Ralltiir and he can't get his characters to stay at a battleground so he loses all game from S&D. In the end I get sloppy and he beats me up for twelve or so but I drop my hand and two form reserve and finish it shortly after.
FW: 2 +? (4 +?)

Game 4: My Profit against Edwin Steenhoek's (1538) Ralltiir Operations.
A rematch for Edwin. Edwin is a 'converted' magicplayer and a nice guy but he has still some work in order to become real good. I think this matchup favours profit and it becomes a drain race wich I win.

Game 5: My RalltiirOps vs Koen Meijssen's Profit deck
He played interesting. Instead of staying at Tatooine, he nabruned over right after his flip. Add to that the Super Falcon at Ralltiir and later Kasshyyk and it didn't look to good. I can't remember making any mistakes (as a matter of fact, I can't remember a whole lott of that game) and I played my best but I just couldn't surve order to engage (which I succesfully altered once but kept coming back) and his mains.

Game 6: My Profit vs Koen Meijssen's Hunt down/disarm/dr. Evezan/dueldeck.
He get's a first turn Vader on the death star docking bay and I take a gamble and deploy orimarkoo, battle and he loses vader and three more. I lose only Ori. Well, he get's rid of Han after I flip and retrieved eight force (I ussually flip real soon but against Hunt Down I want to retrieve the whole lot) and he has pretty much won. Then he duels Luke. I add a destiny (he has a rigged 5 and 6 but no lightsaber) and I draw a 4, 5 and a 5. Vader is placed out of play. Would it have been a important game, Koen would have drained me out. Now he toke a gamble because of the fun of it. He does manage to win with Mara next time he tries to duel Luke. I lose 15 and battle Mara away with another Luke. Now he has almost no force left and
only one character on table. Another Beatdown and it's Game Over for Koen.

Props:
Jurn De Ruijter for bringing us to the location
Jan Koevoets for organising a tournament after a long time
Osdorp Posse for some really cool concerts

Slops:
Rotterdam