bespin-regional-omaha-nebraska
Title: bespin-regional-omaha-nebraska
Author: Jim "Stimmed Jim" Li
Date: Jul 30, 2000
Well, after a fairly uneventful 6 hour drive, we pull in to the best western in omaha at 8 pm friday night and sign in our room. we find some random people in the lobby playing some games so we join them and more people come through the night and I'm just playing my Vader vs the world deck and Yops against all comers, yops infact won a game against Zach Stenerson's Hunt down even tho' he started with the anti ops effect :-) however, all of a sudden we look at the clock and it's 4 am and the YJ regional started at 9 so we all go to bed and i get like 3 hours of sleep before i wake up and go downstairs to fill out my decklists and stuff.
Well, i won't bore anyone with the details of the YJ tournament, i played queen/padme and Tanks and i won my first game by 35 and was the highest player at that point and played at the top table in YJ which gave me a pretty good laugh. i lose my next three games, but win my last two to go 3-3 which i guess was okay 'cos it was my second YJ tournament ever. In the finals Tyler Novak (highest rated YJ player in Bespin) beat out Dan Meyer (Iowa state champ) to take the trip to worlds.
YJ was a pleasant way to get pepped up for the real tournament of the day :-) i'm trying to get myself pumped up before we got started and i poured over the competition. There were 81 players total which really surprised me a lot but i guess Bespin is just a cool region like that. If you had asked me before the tournament which two players i expected to make it to the finals, and I (being the great judge of talent in the bespin region) would have said My self and Jon Swenson (2090) from Morehead MN. but i find out from Swenson's friend that he couldn't get time off of work and couldn't come.
Game one: LS vs random no-name #1
Well, this wasn't a very hard game and a pretty nice way of starting the day off. he starts TDIGWATT and all wrapped up and secret plans, i get out nudj's at both sites and he's activating 5 force a turn, he finally drops a CC Site that wasn't FD -1 for me so i get out luke tawss at one site and leia hnemth at other site and drop I hope she's all right. Gen Han and chewie eventually joins leia and madine + beezer joins luke and tawss. he eventually has to make a move so he drops mara, iggy, and bane malar with han chewie leia and hnemth, he battles, scans chewie, i have leia take mara's saber with weap. levitation and he tries to capture chewie with iggy but chewie roars and he draws a 3 so i'm all good and i get 2 destiny and he gets two destiny and basically he outpowered me due to the fact that he scanned chewie so all i do is lose wedge from hand to the savrip and that was pretty much the only move he made the entire game and i spread out all over his CC sites and drain him out, win by 22
Game two: DS vs random no-name #2
he starts the New LS objective and i don't like my hand 'cos there were like no locations. i get out desert on raltiir, and pull out dsII docking bay. i eventually draw into a few twix sites... i take the drain of one from luke for a couple of turns but when he moved luke over to the docking bay i threw down sim aloo and takes him into custody and runs him back to the Raltiir db with a couple of temepest scouts there as back up. I take the damage from luke for a couple of turns before i flip with enough back up to my satisfaction. i then searched for sandwhirl, put it down at desert, and moved sim over so that luke goes back to his used pile. He sets up Gen. Han, Cok, and some guy at his Endor docking bay and throws out Lando, new falcon, and nein nubb to my kashyyyk, well, i have lost a few starships from my hand earlier in the game because i did not expect a space contingent, but i still have a few ships left so i get out zuckuss and fett to fight the falcon but he reacts with the sprial and draws a total of 7 so i lose both ships while i draw a total of 8 so he loses spiral and nein nubb. i look at my hand and boom, sitting in there was ds-181-3 and i thrash my head on the table for making such a huge mistake. well, he slowly puts out more and more guys to back up lando in space while i try to find the chimera or bossk in HT which were the two ships left in my deck, he's still only draining me for one but he throws down battle plan so i'm only draining him sporadically. Well he throws down launching the assault and has home one sitting at kashyyyk and the liberty sitting at Kessel and i'm in huge @#$% and i throw down the chimera with enough fodder to kashyyyk and basically tries to occupy battle plan enough to get some drains through. well for the next few turns i keep moving chimera over to raltiir, shuttle up some forfeit fodder, moving him over to kashyyyk, letting him beat on me until my fodder ran out, move back to to raltiir and repeat, eventually this gets old and i have like no people left on raltiir anymore and he drains me out, lose by 17.
this loss really depressed me a lot 'cos i figure i was out of contention for the finals and i think seriously about just dropping out and going to watch tv, 'cos it was my DS that lost and i wasn't counting on that and i wasn't sure my LS could win all of its games anyways and going 4-2 would just really suck. it especially pissed me off that had i only deployed ds-181-3 he would have lost both lando and nein nubb and i would be sitting pretty good in space and satisfy battle plan and be able to finish him off fairly easily. oh well.
Game three: DS vs random no-name #3
he starts beggars cannon and farm and spaceport DB to start it off. I knew i would not be safe on raltiir unless i put a lot of pressure on early so second turn vader + tempest scout one + ozzel goes down to his Lars Moisture Farm, vader tries to alter his manuvering flaps but i drew the emperor as destiny which gets a pretty nice chuckle out of my opponent :-) oh well, he drops t-16 thingys and fights me but even with the manuvering flaps those things are still only power 3 and i'm not stupid enough to venture over to his beggars canon where those things deploy for free and are power +2. well, we battle a couple of times with no clear winner but eventually i clear out his site and i leave tempest one and igar at Lars moisture farm and vader + temepst scout one with pilot goes over to the generic farm I drain for 4 a couple of turns and then the chimera and pilot goes out to kashyyyk. he deploys like 5 t-16s at with tempest one but TS 6 gets deployed as a react and TS one with vader and pilot shuffles over too and he gets killed in the battle, and in the mean time i draw another alter and finally alters his manuvering flaps. and move vader and TS 1 over to his farm and drop devastator at coruscant and drain him out, win by 20 even tho' i never deployed any sites to raltiir :-)
Game four: LS vs Josh Kohman (1820)
Well, i practically built his decks for him so i have a good idea whats coming, his deck is basically the same deck as my Dark side. He starts rops with oppressive, iao, and mob point, he drops some scrub to DSII docking bay first turn and gets out rendili with mob points to get some nice activation. i know he has only one spy in his deck so i feel pretty safe throwing madine down to my home one db and save force for a couple of turns. i go at his scrub with blunt, epp luke and obi wan and smack him up, but he just ghhhked the damage. next turn i guess he figured he had my mains trapped on another planet so he drops more sites to raltiir but doesn't quite have enough stuff to flip. well my turn i db transit obi luke blunt and madine all over to his DB on raltiir to try to prevent the flip. well, he deploys his 4th raltiir site from reserve, drops walkers at eversite, moves a walker over to the docking bay, flip, and move any impy over to the docking bay, saving a ton of force to react with and stuff. well, my turn i had enough force for gen solo and chewie to raltiir, look for a scout with madine and drop beezer to the db too, mech. failure the walker and battle, cancelling his destiny. buby 20+ force off the top. i get out both the leaders at raltiir and savrip and i revolve his forest and kill off vader there with leia and melas, and he can't hang for the rest of the game, win by 20s
Game five: DS vs Andrew Wollery (1750)
he starts throne room and i start the usual oppressive, iao, and mob point. again i get no locations in my opening hand which sucks royally. I get the DSII docking bay and desert out, with TS 1 and ozzel at the docking bay. well, i get 6 force second turn which gets me evax with ozzel and i draw a coruscant imp. square. well, third turn out comes imp. square and a scout walker with atst pilot at desert and i'm activating more force than he is 'cos he can't find his sites either :-) I drain for one and get coruscant out to boost my generation, while he finally got out another site. well i get Tempest one with igar at forest, pull out my raltiir db with iao and shuttle tempest one over to flip. his turn he activates and saves, so i drop empy at docking bay, iggy at docking bay, search and destroy and draws for an alter. well, his turn he activates and saves again so i figure i need to fortify even more so a scout walker comes out along side tempest one and TS 5 joins the scout walker in the desert. well, he knows my sandwhirl is in my reserve due to verification so his turn out comes epp leia, epp han, ecc chewie to the desert, he battles, i react with TS one with ozzel and iggy, he senses, i grab and alter, he has only one force left so he can't do anything. he shoots at iggy but miss, i capture han, i out power him by a lot and he loses everything while i lose a atst pilot. after that i get out devastator w/ pilot, zuckuss at kashyyyk and let the drains + search and destroy do him in, win by 20s
well, i guess i was wrong about not having a chance to make it to the finals. there are three undefeateds going into the last game, but one of them had a timed win. I had the higest differential for a defeated LS player in the last game. two of the undefeateds play each other, while i play the one with a timed win (which means if i beat him it doesn't matter what his diff is) Mike Raveling was playing LS against nate ponce a table down from me, and i figure Mike would make a quick game of it, while a table down from them nick resich was playing some random player. despite being at a lower table, Nick Reisch and nate ponce both were 4-1 with higher diff than me, but the way i figured nate ponce was gonna lose to mike raveling, and nick reisch was playing a rops deck which isn't a deck that wins by a lot of differential when playing against a good opponent, so i figured i still had a fighting chance of making it to the finals, i figure if i won by 20+ my chances would be pretty good.
Game six: LS vs Justin Fleenor
Well, i have to say that a certain group of players from iowa really pissed me off this tournament. At least one of them, Peter Franke, was an absolute @#$% in his games, saying stuff like "okay, i'll give you permission to activate force" and threatening to try to get a player disqualified if he didn't take his objective out of a red sleeve (which i know that juz said was okay from gen con last year). I didn't know if Justin was a part of that group of players or not, but i saw from his command card that he was from iowa and i figured, you know what, i'm not going to show any mercy this game whatsoever, he's not gonna get to take back anything or fix any mistake if i can help it. I know this was probably pretty mean and not "fun" in the eyes of a lot of people but hey, if the players from iowa want to dish that kind of stuff out then they better be ready to take it in return too.
He starts Rops with there is no try and two other stupid effects, while i start with the usual endor, farm, strike planning, wise advice, and insurrection. well, his first turn he tries to activate 5 force but i'm like "read my damn card" he activates three, pulls out swamp, pulls out sleen, draws one and ends his turn while I try not to laugh at his sleens. my turn i pull out docking bay and swamp, pull out a nudj of my own, and draws for some locations. I get Yoda's hut and another nudj to cover up endor next turn, while he pulls jungle and a nudj there. i do nothing next turn, while he gets out generic docking bay on raltiir and puts down a sleen there (note to any rops playing against any sort of strike planning/insurrection deck, do not pull out your docking bay early until you're sure you can defend it unless you want gen han and chewie running all over your planet. well, my turn madine and hnmenth goes to home one db, transit over to his db, and i save force. he only activates 5 and he draws looking for stuff. I get gen han and chewie at homeone db, battle his sleen, and move them over. he deploys u-3p0 and saves force. i get savrip out, RLinR1 at docking bay and fly up to raltiir. next turn GLinG1 goes to raltiir too and I move han + chewie over to the swamp so that i can get a drain on the ground. well, his turn he deploys the guy that downloads BG systems (who is a spy) and blizzard two over to my farm and kills the nudj. now here's the thing, he deploys both the guy and the walker at the same time, but we all know that in order fo it to work the spy has to deploy first, and then the walker, which means the spy is not aboard the walker, he obviously thinks the guy is aboard the walker, and during his move phase he made no mention of moving the spy to pilot the walker, and i don't say anything. My turn i'm pinging him for a couple at raltiir and i drop obi wan, Wedge, weapon levitate to get obi's saber from used, mech. failure on the walker, battle, i swing at his pilot, he says i can't because he's in the walker, but i tell him that since the pilot deployed outside of the walker, and he didn't move him inside during his move phase, that means the pilot is still outside. I hit the guy, hit him up for about 10 damage, while i lose wedge, at this point i move RLinR1 back to endor to drain there too, and i think i genuienly have a shot at the final confrontation. well on his turn mara comes down with obi, battle, she misses obi and i miss mara, he draws high i draw low, not enough to break mara's immunity, so i just lose something from hand to savrip. my turn epp luke comes down, battle, he hits obi, i miss mara, i draw a 3 for destiny while he draws a 3 or 4 or something, he doesn't want to lose mara so he loses a few force while i have to lose both guys. His turn he drains for three which i control, and out comes Lord Vader, and a tempest scout to my farm ( by this time, he had given up all hope of doing anything on raltiir because i had like 2 guys at all three of his sites, including hnmeth at the middle one. he drops bubble boy to endor and battle, i react with spiral and just lose that while he loses a few force from battle damage. i recycle a windchime at the end of my turn, activate, battle boba and draws the five, while he draws a 1 which means i win the battle which means no savrip and rlinr1 dies, oh well. his turn he drains for 3 at the farm which i take and he moves mara with saber and ts 6 over to swamp. my turn i drop obi and saber, plus beezer to vader's site, battle, hit him and i lose beezer, and obi moves over to mara. he recycles some destiny and battles obi, hitting him with the saber, but i take out mara with my saber and ts6 dies to attrition while i soak up his battle damage by ditching like a falcon or something to the savrip. at this point i'm the only person with cards on the table and about 20 cards in my reserve. he has only 10 force left so i know he can't do squat and i don't draw cards anymore and just drain, well, he playes Limited resouces on me and i lose 4, but i'm like "i highly doubt he has more than one in his deck so I still won't draw. well he plays two more on me to drag me down and I'm like "goddamn!" and i have only 9 force left in reserve when i drain him out. win by 9.
well, it turns out Nick Reisch won his game by 20+ to beat my by about 14 diff. to make it to the finals, while even Mike Raveling won his game by 20+ to overtake me differential wise.
here are the top 8 finishers:
Joshua Smith, 11(+112) 1952/New DS objective beatdown/Hidden Base with squassin
Nick Reisch, 10(+89) 1938/Rops/Aker's EBO
Michael Raveling, 10(+78) 1962/New DS objective beatdown/Squassin space without hidden base
Jim Li, 10(+75) 1995/Rops/Endor Uprising
Peter Franke, 10(+67) ?/New DS objective ties/hidden base squassin
Graham Neal, 10(+53) 1911/Rops/EBO
Justin Fleenor, 9(+103) ?/Rops with sleens/?
Zach Stenerson, 9(+70) 1844/Rops/hidden base beatdown with squassin
I finish 4th overall which i guess is not bad but I was hoping for better, but oh well.
In the first game of the finals, Smith puts down emperor at the tatooine docking bay 'cos i guess he thought Resich would really not have anyone good to fight with in the ebo, well a couple turns later epp luke and epp obi comes down, smacks the emperor up, and makes Smith lose 15 off the top. Resich plays around with epp luke at the tatooine docking bay for a while, he gets smacked by jabba+4lom+iggy but he doesn't really have to lose a lot of force and he retrives a couple a turn with the baragwins, he gets out ebo with super falcon at yavin and tantive + haven at hoth (can you say spiral bait? ) well smith battles around in space with no big result and resich drains him out, won by 19
Second game, resich gets spread out on the ground while Smith pulls out his systems and controls raltiir, Resich gets out search and destroy but Smith pulls a surprise of his own and drops Wedge in his ship, and an xwing cannon, to the cloud that he put down at raltiir. this proves to be a thorn in resich's side. I didn't catch everything but i think Smith got beaten off of raltiir the system, but resich had no ships there left either, and smith had some ships draining at kashyyyk. well resich turns the game by dropping baron and saber 1 to the clouds, flip, tie cannon on saber one, battle, shoot down wedge's ship and beats up on the other two ships that were there to back up wedge. this turns the game as smith had a drain of maybe one a turn while resich had 2 at clouds, 3 at raltiir sites, and 2 a turn to s+d, at 17 force with no way to retrive, Smith just resignes and Resich wins the trip to worlds.
Props:
-Nick Kolnick for lending me an Emperor to use in my deck
-Mike Raveling for being such a great sport and driving and putting up with all of our @#$% and finishing 3rd for like the 5th time
-Kohman for being our beating stick
-Zach Stenerson for being a dogg
-Larry Hutson/Vicky Luthy/Dan Meyer for being great squadron members and running a smooth tournament (even tho' Hutson made an ass ruling against Graham Neal)
-the Best Western Omaha for having a bunch of hot chicks who were at some magazine seller convention staying on our floor
-my LS for being a machine and running rops to the ground
-the guy i played in game two for beating me with mon-cal-star crusiers
-the narshadda in my deck for showing up at all the right times
Slops:
-Iowa for being dumb (but, as expected, at the end of the day, they got their asses handed to them by the good players)
-some dumb kid who got paired up against me in YJ and started bragging about how high his rating was and i was like, you play YJ, find someone who cares
-Perkins for not having key lime pie
-me for forgetting ds-181-3 (this will be haunting me for the rest of my life now)
-my last opponent for not just accepting his fate and dragging me down with the Limited resouces :-)