ryloth-national-amstelveen-21-05-00
Title: ryloth-national-amstelveen-21-05-00
Author: Maarten "PIET" Rossou
Date: May 24, 2000
Well, last Sunday was the day I was long waiting for: the Ryloth National. Since we are a small country and also people who play selectively in tournaments, our tournaments aren't so big. But regionals and nationals are always an exception, so I was looking forward to this tourney.
I was mentally preparing myself for a couple of months, reviewing all kinds of decks and trying to figure out what other people were going to play.
About a month ago I thought I had my decks ready; they were a 'Juz' revenge'-deck for light (throne room start, epps, numbers) and a court-space deck that I developed myself.
I started playtesting with Jeroen van den Bosch, and for some reason my lightside deck kept losing to his raltiir, a matchup I thought I could win.
Because Raltiir is the @#$%, and a lot of people play it, I had to come up with something. I have played a lot of Falke-Base lately, but got a bit bored with it. Then I decided, what the heck: EWOKS! I had already played with ewoks a lot, going 2-1 in 3 different regions and it plays easy, is a lot of fun and nobody expects it.
My darkside worked smoothly, I only lost to Jeroens 'I left my han in Budel-Schoot' on a lategame surprise assault. This was the reason I replace my ABCTTU for a tarkin's orders.
My decks are available on decktech.
Onto the games:
My starting interrupt for DS in all three games: Bad feeling have i
Game 1: DS vs Johan Haneveer's profit mains, starting Goo ney tay. I dumped Jabba and Chall in the chamber and fetched CC-engineer from my deck.
Great, my first matchup against someone who has also a shot at winning the national. Johan is a great player and our games are always a lot of fun and trashtalk. Unfortunately, I tend to lose to him a lot, but I played this deck before so I knew what to expect: a couple of revo's, SAC, mains and CLASH OF SABERS. (he won our last game on that card)
As it turned out, this came wasn't as close as our normal games are. He drew absolutely nothing, my objective was doing damage, I was draining on endor for 1 (he had revo'd it) and later on a revo'd Kashyyyk for 2. When he finally tried some beatdown, imperial barrier did its work and I won the battle. He drew up, to prevent more loss. Win by 27.
Game 2: LS vs Koen Meijssen's Raltiir, starting oppressive enforcement.
On with the greatness: Koen won last years regional and went to Worlds 99, is a good player and played the best objective.
His start: 2 raltiir sites, twix and draw. My start deploy backdoor, hnemthe and ithorian and a civil disorder, to put the pressure on him. His second turn: Battle order, 3 dudes, a raltiir site and flip. Damn.
Then we proceeded, he threw bubo at my backdoor aliens and he ate them, but then felt the revenge of the ewoks. He set up boba at kashyyk and I payed for my drains.
Then he made the common mistake: he went to endor. He deployed blizzard 2 with Mara to a site, and moved to the back door. (I had a hnemte and corporal kensaric to the back door, this move cost him 5 force less.) He trampled my ithorian and succeeded, because he had checked his destiny.
Then came the horrible and bloody ewok beatdown, with a mechanical failure on the blizzard. He trampled my second ithorian but had to lose Mara, the blizzard and 12 more force. Also, my second civil disorder was safely set up.
My drains and civil disorder did their work, vader came down to endor but was quickly taken care of by the carebears and the ewoks came out victorious.
Win by 9
Game 3: DS vs Bert Claessen's test5 deck.
This matchup is a bit easier than my first 2, but Bert is also a pretty good player and I have a bit of trouble with 7 as destiny, so I knew I had to take him down before he went to test 5.
In a non-interaction game, I finished him off, 2 or 3 turns before he finished his tests.
Win by 23
A strange situation occurs: there are 3 undefeated players, but we all have played dark in game 3, so we can't play eachother.
Game 4: LS vs Erwin Flohr 3rd /5th marker deck.
On with the not-so-easy matchups. Erwin is also a good player. He has less time to play though, since the birth of his child. But on a good day, he can win from everybody.
We start of by talking a bit about all kinds of stuff and after a couple of minutes we start to play while we talk. He sets up imperial decree on turn 3, and starts draining on the 3rd marker. Midway the game he activates 17 force, to my nine, with battle order also up and running. He is draining for 6 for free, and I must pay to drain from the top of his deck (Graak = mini-Mosep). Then I start to disrupt his decree, I drop epp obi and luke before his Choke vader and blizzard 2 with igar. I have 5 destinies in my deck, the average is good, the last one a tracked 4. I have 4 force left and a threepio in hand. My original plan was to drop threepio, cuz I expected a barrier on luke or obi. But since there was none, I decide to battle. He tries to choke luke (he has done that before in a tourney and has a masterful move in his deck) but he failes. I chop vader the first time (DAMN), so my tracked 4 isn't going to be usefull. I draw a 3, and he a 0! So vader dies, my epps live.
On his turn, he moves the blizzard over to the 5th marker, and I drain and move over. Decreed is still in effect, but now he has to pay for battle order.
He was running low on force so he doesn't like to pay and we both end up at the third marker and decree isn't running anymore. I spread my ewoks and drain from the top and seal my win with retrieving 6 force or so with Wind chimes.
Win by ?
The 3 undefeated players are still undefeated, so we can play eachother now.
Game 5 LS vs Johan van der Meer (no not Johan Haneveer and not Jon vanderMeer) with Ralops, starting battle order.
I was surprised to see him playing Ralops, because he is the 'inventor' of musicians and plays it like noone else can. If you want a complete strategy on the musicians, check his decks: Break it down! And Supersounds of the 70's.
He has prepared for the fuzzy bears: By turn three he has a flipped objective, a for free reacting atst, battle order and boba on kashyyyk, draining me for 5 a turn. I'm @#$%ed. Against this kind of matchup, I have to draw like a god and I don't.
Lucky for me, he comes to endor with Epp vader, and Tarkin in a atst. The wuzz. He initiates battle with one force left and no room in the atst. I react with all my ewoks (I had 6 sentries by turn 3, I have 9 in the deck) play carefull planning, activate 3 (I had one force left and play it's a trap. So now he's stuck in the last place he wants to be right now. I proceed with the smackdown of ewoks, topped of by an uncontrollable fury on Vader and a Mechanical failur on the Atst. He barriers my obi. Luke slices vader, vader slices my ithorian and after forfeiting everything he has to lose about 15 force. He stays away from endor and his drains are too much for me.
Loss by 13.
Johan van der Meer was the only 'real' undefeated, with 5 full wins, Jeroen van den Bosch was second with 4 fulls and a timed, Johan Haneveer was third with a big comeback and I came in 4th. Because of pairing, Johan played Johan and I played Jeroen. If nothing freaky happened, the winners of those matchups advanced to the finals.
Game 6 DS vs Jeroen van den Bosch's 'I left my han in Budel-Schoot' Starting don't tread on me.
Along with being a good player, I playtested with Jeroen a lot and we both knew eachothers decks inside-out.
I know he has no space, so along with a great force at the audience chamber, I set up in space, draining for 4. I hold him off with none shall passes and he doesn't draw that well. In the end, he frees han with someone who loves you (I didn't draw a sense) but decides to leave han and leia blocking a drain in the chamber with 2 force left. Narrow escape is hanging in the air. I activate, so my tracked high destiny is on top, and with a big smile on my face I play Blast door controls. Game.
Win with 27.
Johan Haneveer won also big against Johan van der Meer, so Haneveer has 10 points and +101 differential and I end up with 10 points and +96 differential.
But since our objective has been fulfilled, that is a bye into day 2 of the European Championships, the title Dutch champion is nothing but a bit of air, and the young-jedi tourney begins right after the Starwars, we decide not to play a final, to both call ourselves Dutch champion and to split the prices.
After the TD's agree, we head off to the young-jedi tourney. Unfortunately this tourney isn't half the fun we had with starwars, and we both ended up going 3-3. My losses were against the later number 1, the later number 2 and Haneveer. But in the end, my differential was a bit better than Haneveer's, so I edged him out on that.
I you have gotten this far I thank you for reading and I just want to thank Jeroen van den Bosch for playtesting and driving, the players for a great atmosphere and the TD's for running an almost smoothly tournament. Also I would like to thank the clannnn for being the clannnn.
Question of the day for the die-hards:
In one game, luke tried test 5, and was standing on his head. The darkside player had landed on dagobah and battled at that site, where yoda was present. The lightside player forfeited yoda. What happens to the test?
Maarten