old-bespin-regional-98
Title: old-bespin-regional-98
Author: Jim "Stimmed Jim" Li
Date: Sep 27, 2000
On Aug. 22nd, 90 people showed up for the Bespin Regional in Minneapolis, Minnesota. There was large groups from Duluth and Nebraska, and others from Iowa and as far as Kansas. Some big names in attendence were: Adam Ankrum, Hoang Nguyen, Matt Potter, and the list goes on.
Here are the decks that I used:
DS: Semi-Manipulator, flexible.
Locations:
Kashyyyk
Death Star
Corulag
Jundland Wastes
Lar’s Moisture Farm
Imp. Holotable
Cantina
JP: Audience Chamber
Tatooine: Jabba’s Palace (starting)
Characters:
Grand Moff Tarkin
Capt. Needa
Boba Fett(CC)
Djas Puhr
Zuckess
M’iiyoom Onith x2
Jabba the Hutt
Gailid
Bane Malar
Darth Vader x3
Starships/Vehicles
Blizzard 2
Blizzard Scout 1
Avenger
Slave 1
Executor x2
Weapons:
Vader’s LS
Creature:
Bubo
Red Cards:
Sense x6
Alter x3
Control x3
He Hasn’t Come Back Yet x2
Monnok x5
Scanning Crew x4
Trample
Lateral Damage
The Circle Is Now Complete
Expand The Empire
Resistance (starting)
Broken Concentration (starting vs. Dagobah)
Twi’lek Advisor (starting)
This deck can be fairly fast. And with 8 locations other than Tatooine:JP, I thought it wouldn’t be totally shut down by Throne/Monk.
My LS Throne/Monk/Revolver Deck:
Locations:
Y4: Massassi War Room
Tatooine: Obi’s Hut
Dagobah: Yoda’s Hut
Y4: Massassi Throne Room (starting)
Hoth: Echo Command Center
Y4: Massassi Ruins
Tatooine: Mos Eisley
Characters:
Klatooinian Revolutionary x3
Obi-Wan x2
Elom x2
Wedge Antilles
B’omarr Monk x4
Chewbacca
Lando Calrissian
Luke Skywalker x2
Capt. Han
KFC
Leia Organa
Yoxgit
Ships:
Millennium Falcon
Tantive 4
Gold Leader in Gold 1
Weapons/Devices:
Obi-Wan’s LS
Anakin’s LS
Landing Claw
Red Cards:
Sense x6
Alter x3
Control x3
Shocking Info. x2
Nar Shaddaa Wind Chimes x2
Gift Of The Mentor
Nabrun Leids
Don’t Forget The Droids
Clash of Sabers
Revolution x5
Civil Disorder (starting)
The Signal (starting)
When playing a JP deck, I get a Monk at JP first turn, and keep up the pressure with Civil Disorder. If they want to battle, the Klatooinian Revolutionarys are pretty buff. If not playing a JP deck, revolve their sites, drain at Tatooine or what ever locations they play with.
All right, on with the report.
Sorry, no big road trip stories for you guys. The place is where many of our local tournaments are held. So after an uneventful 15 minute drive, I arrived at the card shop. I got there WAY early, so I saw people trickling in. At 9:30, we lined up to sign in, and there were about 60 people in line. The official total was 90 players. There were many players I had never met or heard of before.
I met up with some local regulars, and sat through Josh Lynch’s (Gold 69) offical speech. I was pretty nervous going into my first game, as this was my first regional.
Game One: LS vs. Buffy Petelle
We were the first pair called, so we had to sit for 10 minutes while everyone else were seated. Buffy was playing a DS space deck. She started with Yavin 4, while I started with the Throne Room. I drop an Elom first turn at Throne Room, protecting my Civil Disorder. For the first couple of turns, she had no choice but to lose 2 to CD, and I proceeded to revolve her first couple of locations, cutting her activation to 3. Later in the game, she dropped a bunch of space sites, and no longer had any activation problems. Seeing this, I dropped a Monk each at Obi’s Hut and Mos Eisley, along with a bunch of other characters to back them up. I drew until I had the Falcon, Capt. Han,
and Wedge in my hand. The Falcon proceeded to fly from system to system, leaving burning Dregnaughts in its wake. Win by 14. 2(+14)
Game Two: DS vs. Garrison Avery’s LS Alien, Drain, Tessek deck.
I started with JP/Resistanc, and he with ThroneRoom/Yarna. We both had lots of tatooine sites and it was a battle from start to finish. He drops a Monk at JP first turn, I return the favor with a Ability 4 alien 2nd turn. I don’t remember that much he had Tessek and friends at Audience Chamber, Vader/Tarkin/Zuckess comes in to mess up his party, but he deploys Bo Shouda. I move my group away, but made the mistake of moving Zuckess first. Had I moved Vader, Tarkin, then zuckess last, Bo Shouda would still be in effect, thereby cancelling his drain. I spread out on tatooine to drain. I was winning the drain race, so he had to spread his force out to stop me. But it wasn’t enough, I was able to manuver my characters to cover all his drains, while still having one character left to drain for me. A real nail biter, win by 6. 4(+20)
Game Three: LS vs. Travis Bean’s JP Manipulator.
My LS deck matches up perfectly against his deck. I plop down a Monk at JP first turn, and it was all downhill for him from there. He tried to occasionally bring out characters to fight me, but I had way too much power. He had Vader/Tarkin/Bane chasing my Monks/revolutionarys. But
in a big fight in the Cantina, Luke Clash of Sabered Vader, and everyone battled Tarkin and Bane Malar. He lost both characters and 8 more force. After that I just spread out to drain, and Civil Disorder also helped. Win by 23. 6(+43)
Game Four: DS vs. some kid’s LS deck.
I think his name is Dan C. Anyways, he seemed fairly new to the game. I brough Gailid and Jabba out at the Audience Chamber, and had Vader chase Chewie around on Cloud City. He tried to use Electro Bin. for 1 force, but I had to tell him about the errata, and told him he could ask the TD. He said he’d take my word for it, and that Electro Bin. seemed
too powerful otherwise. He dropped Obi and some aliens to over power Vader, but Tarkin came down next turn and beat up his guys some more, all the time while Gailid was draining for 2 at Audience Chamber. After a while, I just stopped drawing. Win by 26. 8(+69)
Game Five: DS vs. John Petelle’s LS Asteroid Sanc. Deck.
John started with Kiffex, and had a pretty bad draw. A first turn Monnk revealed 5 Asteroid Fields and his stratagy. Second turn, Gailid came out at the Audience Chamber, ’cause I knew it was gonna be a drain race
down to the wire. Third turn Monnok took away 3 more Asteroid Fields, and he was really mad. He dropped Obi and killed off Gailid, but I brought out Vader and drew a He hasn’t come back yet for battle destiny, killing Obi. I spread out to drain on Tatooine and draw frantically to
get an Alter for the AS that I was sure would be coming. He manages to setup drains at Kiffex and Kessel, and Asteroid Sanc at both system. (albeit with only one Asteroid Field and a Big One :=) ) I tried to deploy the Executor at Kessel, but he It could waited it. I forgot that the Executor deploys for free next turn!!! I figure I wouldn’t have enough force for the Executor again, so I lost it to a drain. It was a drain race, and I appeared to be in control, when he deploys Luke at Lar’s Moisture Farm, where I had a Blizzard Scout 1. For some reason, he didn’t battle. My turn, I move my guys around. I had Vader with
Luke at LMF, Tarkin at Jundland Waste, and BS1 at Jabba’s palace. Next turn, his drains/AS bring me down even more, and I was down to my last turn. He moves Luke to Jundland wastes, and had 4 cards left in his hand and reserve deck. On my turn, I drain for 2 at Lar’s Moisture Farm and
1 at Jabba’s palace. He had one card left in his reserve, and appeared to have won the game. But I played a nice little interrupt.. He hasn’t come back yet on Luke. Now at this point, I had 3 cards in my reserve. I knew the bottom 2 cards were both destiny 1 from my asteroid destiny
draws last turn, but I had no idea what the top card was. So I draw my destiny, with the game on the line. And it was.. 4, alter. Luke was missing, and I drained for the last 2! :=) that was an exhilarating game. Win by 5. 10(+74)
The situation going into game six:
There were four people who were undefeated. By differential:
Matt Potter
Khang Ngo
Jim Li
Adam Ankrum
A little note about Adam Ankrum. Adam almost always wins, but never by much. So going into the last game, his differential was in the 30’s !!
Matt, Khang, and Adam were all LS in game 5, so they couldn’t play each other. I play Matt Potter, while Khang and Adam both play 4-1 guys.
For Matt, Khang and I, our future were in our own hands. If we win, we get in the finals. For Adam, he has to win, while Khang loses, in order for him to get in to the finals. If there are three undefeateds, Adam is sure to be third by differential.
Game 6: LS vs. Matt Potter’s Manipulator
Matt starts with the usuall JP/ETE combo. First turn, I drop a Monk and Yoxgit at JP. He loses force constantly for Civil Disorder, while he couldn’t draw any characters. I build up unchallangable power at Jabba’s Palace with Eloms, Revolutionarys, and other assorted characters. He deploys some Jabba’s palace sites, but lost the Audience
Chamber from his reserve. I revolved the Rancor pit to cut down his activation even more. He deploys Bane Malar and move him over to Rancor pit to drain. Next turn, after I made sure he had no force pile, I nabruned everyone from JP to the Rancor pit, deployed more guys, and battled. My power of 24 to Bane’s 1. He loses all of his cards from
his hand and reserve. Win by 29. 12(+103)
Our game was over in 15 minutes, and Matt was really nice afterwards. It must be tough to come so close both at GenCon and here, but he didn’t show it :-)
(*note: Matt went on to win the St. Louis Regional, beating me in the finals, and won the world championship that year, so i guess he had the last laugh :-) )
Adam won his game fairly quickly too, and it was all up to how Khang does to decide who I play in the finals.
Khang lost I play Adam.
The standing after 6 games:
1: Jim Li
2: Adam Ankrum
3: Mike Raveling, aka Motti 12
Finals:
Game One: LS vs. Adam’s DS fight everywhere deck.
Hmm. I figure I’d better not give away too much of Adam’s deck. Especially what he considers to be one of the best cards.
He started with JP/Imp. Decree. I couldn’t get a Monk into my hand, so I settled for deploying Luke first turn to JP. He deployed Needa and Ozzel there, cancelling CD and letting him get the Audience Chamber. Not much to tell… I ran and ran from his guys, and couldn’t find my
revoulutionarys. He hits me for 10 cards in a battle in space. Lost by 18 0(-18)
Game Two: DS vs. Adam’s Haven/Inserts/Hologameboard deck.
He starts with Yavin 4. I get the Audience Chamber out first turn. I set up a drain of 2 at Audience Chamber with Jabba and Gailid. A couple turns later, Vader/ LS came out at Jabba’s Palace, upping my drains to 5. But adam spreads his fleet of Red and Gold squad fighters to Kiffex and later Kessel, deploys a Projection of a Skywalker as a Effect and another at the Hologameboard. An early insert hits me for 10, before Resistance was in effect. I tried to find more of my Tatooine drain locations, until I had less than 19 cards in my life force. With no Reactor terminal, I knew it was a lost cause, not that I had a lot of cards in my hand anyways. I put down Executor with Zuckess at Kiffex, but he consistantly made me lose force by outpowering me. In the end, his drains at Hologameboard, Yavin 4 and Kessel were too much. Lost by
5. 0(-23)
Congrats to Adam Ankrum, who is finally making a well earned trip to worlds, after 3 years of trying.
This was my first Regional. I was hoping for a top 8 finish, and am extremely happy with my performance. I met some very cool people from Nebraska and Duluth, Including Hoang, Matt, and Mike Bergum (sp?), who won the regional in Nebraska, but showed up here anyways to cheer his friends on.
I left with my second place trophy, 9 assorted packs, and a T-Shirt. (Before the finals started, Adam and I agreed that second place instead of first will get the shirt, so both of us will come away with something.)
Highlights:
Placing so high… after playing a list of practically the Who’s Who in Bespin. (In the first six games I played # 6, 11, 12, 20 and 29 in Bespin… sorry for bragging :-) )
Props:
Mike Bergum, who lent me 3 cards because mine were beat up and recongizable from the back.
Adam, for finally making it to worlds.
Paul Cairns, for paying the security guard $20 to stay 2 extra hours so people can stay and watch the finals.
And last, but definitly not the least, Josh Lynch, for running a great tournament.
Slops:
NONE, it was a great day all around.
Wait… I do have a slops:
To Khang Ngo for losing. Had he won, I’d have played him instead of Adam. (I’ve played Adam twice before, and lost both times. I’ve played
Khang before twice, and won both times )