deciphercon-report-2000
Title: deciphercon-report-2000
Author: Martin "Mart" Akesson
Date: Oct 12, 2000
I started to prepare for worlds as soon as I qualified in August. I kind of knew that no new cards were to be released before worlds, so I spent lots of time thinking of decks and playtesting with local players. I figured BHBM would be big, but I also knew that the light deck should be able to beat Raltiir to stand a chance. Finally I came up with this idea to build a throneroom deck, but starting with three effects instead of farm/swamp. This would give me both the huge advantage to go first, but also to activate lots the second turn. I figured that most DS decks would rely on activation by dropping guys to dockingbays with mobilization points. If I activated like 8 second turn, they might think twice before dropping a lone Ozzel there. Since I used the home one docking bay I threw in the three calamari pilots there, they deploy cheep (first turn in case I get no force from opponenet) there and are good pilots aboard the flagship. When playtesting I discovered how powerful the ship with all the three pilots on it, which is not that hard to set up with a few tunnel visions in the deck. The deck was built like a basic mains and toys deck, and I added farmboy Luke to pull first turn against BHBM. In playtesting this deck wrecked raltiir and TIEs (even though I only used 2 starships). Against BHMB and Huntdown I was slightly advantaged, so I felt confident with the deck. I called the other Swedish qualifier, Jesper Larsson. He lives in the southern Sweden, I live in the middle, which means a 6 hours drive. We only meet a few times a year at big Swedish tourneys. I told him about the deck, and we discussed the deck back and forward, and he gave it a shot at a local tournament. He won the tournament, and decided to go for it instead of profit. Jesper wanted to go with tatooine docking bay and ben instead of saber obi-wan, but otherwise our decks were quite identical.
LS deck:
locations (8):
throneroom
spaceport docking bay
hoth docking bay
home one docking bay
home one war room
echo war room
rendezvous point
yodas hut
characters (17):
Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight X2
Han with blaster X2
Leia with blaster X2
Obi-Wan with lightsaber X2
Wedge Antilles
Jeroen Webb
Lieutenant Blount
First Officer Thanespi
Admiral Ackbar
Major Haash’n
Taws Khaa
Melas
Weapons (2)
Anakins lightsaber
Lukes lightsaber
Starships (2)
Hone One
Lando in Millennium Falcon
Effects (11)
Staging areas
Insurrection
Wise advise
your insights serves you well
what are you trying to push on us? X2
Order to Engage
Goo Nee Tay
Revolution
Honor of the Jedi
Battle Plan
Interrupts (20)
Heading for the medical frigate
Sense X3
Alter
Control
Clash of Sabers
Rebel Barrier
Tunnel Vision X4
Shocking Information
The Bith Shuffle
Keep Your Eyes Open
I Know
Skywalkers
The Signal
Weapon Levitation X2
For dark I had a hard time to choose between BHBM and Raltiir ops. I decided to go for BHBM. Even though both decks were expected, the BHBM deck would probably vary more then the ROPs decks (I was quite wrong though). Jesper played a similar deck as well. Note how similar this deck is to the one Yannik played, even though I had no idea that he would play.
Objective:
Bring him before me/
Locations:
Death star 2: throneroom
Death star 2: docking bay
Endor docking bay
Cloud city docking bay
Rendili
Characters:
Emperor Palpatine X2
Lord Vader X3
Vader, DVDLOTS
Sim Aloo X2
Janus Grejatus X2
Mara Jade X2
IG-88 with riot gun
U-3PO
weapons:
Vaders saber X2
Maras saber
Interrups:
Sense x4
Alter X2
The circle is now complete X2
That think is opperational
Prepared defenses
Masterful move
Monnok
Imperial Barrier X3
Twi’lek Advisor
Sniper
Force Lightning
You are beaten
Projective telepathy
Omni Box
Set for stun
Effects:
Lateral Damage
Mobilization points
Imperial arrest order
Oppressive enforcement
Your destiny
Insignificant rebellion
There’ll be hell to pay X2
Search and destroy
Security precautions
Starships:
Zuckuss in mist hunter
Bossk in hounds tooth
Dengar in punishing one
Dominator
Vaders personal shuttle
Boba Fett in slave one
So I was finished with my decks before the convention, which is fine. My flight leaves early Monday morning. Early like 7 am Swedish time. The flight to Oslo is one hour, and then I have to wait there for like six hours. Nice. When I get on the New York flight I realize I am the luckiest guy: the whole plane is full of old-timers, there were only seniors, except one: this twenty-year-old Norwegian chick who is damn hot. I happen to sit next to her. The eight-hour flight passes in no time as we order more free beer and drinks then probably allowed. We had a party at the plane, and the four hours we spent together at Newark airport passed really quickly. Then I had to leave her for my Orlando flight. I was supposed to meet the other Swedes at the airport, since they arrived from Frankfurt, but they are two hours delayed, so I have to wait at the Orlando airport for three more hours. When we finally arrive at the hotel it is 3.30 am US time, which means 9.30 am Swedish time.
Tuesday we go shopping in the day, and in the evening I meet some old friends from Europe; Maarten Logghe, Bastian Proot and the British team. We play some games, and then go to bed.
Wednesday morning the other Swedes go to Universal Studios, but I don’t feel like going up at eight, so I stay at the hotel and sleep. I discover that my razor, which was fully loaded when I left apparently didn’t enjoy the flight much, because it was totally empty of battery. Nevermind, it is a convention after all. Down in the lobby I see a bunch of guys playing this cardgame called star wars. It seems interesting, so I join them. My rancor eats TJ’s Obi-Wan and Luke. Later that evening the Germans show up, as the Canadians (Quebecers?) and many other old faces. I play until late, since I am already qualified for day 2.
Thursday I play in the JPSD prerelease. It was really boring, because LS was so much better then dark side. I was the only DS player who won more then one game (Yannik dropped after going 1-1), so I got to play Koen Mejsen in the final. It was really close, since I sandwhirled his gifted droid away, and held the 2 exterior sites with my skiffmasters. In the end his Lando was too heavy and I lost by 3 force and he got that tee shirt. Our tournament started at 12, the wildcard open was to start at 10, and we were finished before the first game of the wildcard was over. I feel very lucky I didn’t have to play in that one. I had lunch and dinner with Yannik (since we both got those food-coupons from decipher), and I spent the rest of the day playtesting, and watching the wildcard. I feel sorry for all of you who were disqualified; I know what I would have felt. I write my decklists that evening and go to bed pretty early.
Friday. Double-checked the decklists, and then waited for an hour or something for the first game to start. Has any star wars tourney ever started on time?
Game 1
LS vs Kouji Yukuhisa, BHBM
I get Goo Nee Tay in my starting hand, so I go on and deploy it, along with wormie on the home one docking bay. He deploys DS2 docking bay and draws. I tunnel for revolution, revo hos docking bay and deploy some punk there, move him to the throneroom and move luke to the docking bay. He deploys one more location and rendili, but I have a huge force advantage from the beginning, so there isn’t much he can do. Win by 27.
Kouji was a nice guy, even though I bet him pretty bad, and he gave me two Japanese boosters. Next game I am pared against Maarten Logghe, and I don’t want to play him because he is my friend. I am lucky I am light side though.
I star out as normal by deploying emperor for activation and janus. I get to look through his deck early, so I see he plays mains and toys and the weathervane again. That kind of scares me, since I never know what tricks he has got with that card. I also see lost in the wilderness and R3PO. When I see him throw R3PO to a drain I deploy U-3PO to the site where he drains, and ignore him since I drain and he don’t. He starts to retrieve with off the edge and I loose from my objective. In the end IG88 makes a raid and kills off his characters and I drain him out. It was a close game. win by 10 something.
total: 4+30?
Game 3
DS vs Chris Terwilliger
I think he played fake hidden base similar to the Falke version. I have bad memories from this game, but I think he flipped and I found the base with security precautions out and made him loose from that. Sorry, I cant remember more.
FW +15 something
Total 6 + ?
Game 4
Light against John Arnet, Hunt Down
I start your insights serves you well, and pull honor. He looses to visage for a couple of turns, until he deploys Emperor and alters it and Vader to another site. I deploy a spy with a backup guy to cancel his visage. He surprise assaults them, and then play come here you big coward. I have problems finding my Luke, and I don’t dare go to his dockingbays without him. He deploys Fett in slave to his system (since I deployed battle plan early). I Tunnel for home one, drop it cheep with the war room and thanespi/ackbar on it and battle him to make him loose some force. Not enough though. I try to get my mains to his site, but he battles them away without problem and I loose with 15 something.
total 6 + ?-some
Game 5
Dark against Tim Guzmans Profit mains and stuff
I deploy Mara to the AC, and back her up with emperor and Sim Aloo. He deploys some dockingbays but does nothing else. I finally draw Vader and deploy him with saber Audience chamber, and move the other bad-guys to Jabbas palace. Ben comes out with luke, I look at his top card with Sim Aloo, and it is a 1 (in case of curage o.a. skywalker), so I duel him with Vader and capture Luke. He draws like mad, and after a few turns he deploy boushh and free han with someone who loves you, and move him to JP where emperor and pals no longer are. He starts to hit me with profit damage and drains, and my few characters are not enough to block all of his drains. But once again my savior IG88 shows up and attack Han and Chewie. Emperor successfully senses fallen portal and narrow escape, and IG captures Han. I sensed his sorry about the mess a few turns before, so I knew he would track it and draw it. I moved IG to death star and from that on he couldnt drain me but I could drain him. It was a very close game, and IG88 is semi-god next to Janus. FW +11
Game 6
LS against Bastian Winkelhaus trooper raltiir
This is a good matchup for me, and I playtested with Bastian on Wednesday and won two out of three games. I attack him at his dockingbay, and get my guys cheep to raltiir. He is quite low on activation, and he has to leave lone guys at his sites to prevent me from flipping. I activate huge amounts, and he is kind of force-choked. I hit him on two sites where he has got lone troopers, sense his tempest scout 1 reacts and make him loose a lot. That was game. Win by 25 something.
Now I am 5-1, with a pretty good differential so I have to win one more game to be in day 3. Next game is dark against Raphael Asselins Machine killa deck, which was made to destroy my dark deck. However I bet it when we played on the Wednesday, so I thought I had a chance.
I get a good start, and get emperor and Janus and Vader to the CC docking bay. I cancel his inserts with projective telepathy, track and draw it again and monnok him lost for 2 leias and some more stuff. However he pulls test one off, and all of a sudden I only drain for one. He cancels my search and destroy by killing off some guys at one docking bay with frozen assets and obi-wan. I loose one each turn to my objective, and I deploy some ships in space so I don’t have to pay for his battle plan. Bad decision, he frozen assets me again, deploy falcon, Han and some other guy, battles me and play legendary starfighter. Damn, now he is advantaged. He retrieves once with on the edge, and wins a close game by 5 or something.
5 and 2. Have to win my next game, or loose by a few force since I have a good differential. I play Steven Brentsons court deck. I Start by deploying farmboy luke with saber to his audience chamber. he deploys Jabba and both die. I keep on deploying characters to tatooine, and we battle, drain and move away from each other. Jedi-Luke is hard for him to kill, but in the end he dies to some stupid 4LOM. I deploy another Luke, and he moves away from him, but he drain me at more locations and I don’t have characters enough. He slowly drains me out, and win by 6. We talked about the game afterwards and agreed that if I had played more defensive, and loosing some force to his objective in the beginning I would have a better chance of winning. You learn from your mistakes, but I wish I had made this mistake in any other game.
Total 10 (5-6) +69
I hear that this is not enough, since some guys won with huge amounts the last game my differential is not enough. When they call out the final standings I finish at 13:th place, only one differential after Dominic. The top 12 went to dinner somewhere and appearently I was invited, European champion and all, but I had no idea, so I missed it. Well, that’s it. I go with Markus Wüst and Koen to the supermarket and buy a 24 pack of bud. We meet Kilby in the bar, and go to Markus room to drink the beer. Later I meet TJ and Ray. They teach me Ghetto-War, which is the most stupid @#$%ing game I have ever played. They caught me cheating, I lost, and I went to bed.
Next day I get up at lunchtime, check the standings for day 3 and played lots of games during the day. We watch the final, which was very exiting. I bet for Yannik, but Sokol was a worthy champion. I congratulate them both and go to play in the Japanese sealed deck. I got junk, still I made a good deck and placed high for being light side. played some friendly games in the lobby, got to bed.
Sunday it is time for the team event. My team was re-constructed, and this year I played with Jesper Larsson (Sweden), Koen Meijsen (Netherlands) and Markus Wüst (Germany). Our team was called “Non Americans +1-Yannik-Paul+Jesper+Markus” but Decipher didn’t get that. I played my rancor deck, and he managed to eat 5 guy in a single game! Rancor is pure evil. I also had the best game of the entire weekend with Steven Lewis. Here is the situation: I play court, makes him loose much in the beginning to search and destroy, my objective and drains. He never comes down to Tatooine. He flips hidden base and projections my sites, so I don’t drain him but he still looses to my objective and to search and destroy. My 3 ships makes a strong presence in space, but his starships are way bigger. He drains me for 4-5 each turn, but I still have the advantage since I hit him for much in the beginning. I have like 15 force, he has like 8. He deploys a raltiir freighter captain with ship to raltiir, I barrier. He moves some guys over to protect him (my ships are there). I activate all, pay to move the ships away, play operational as planned to put the rancor pit on top of my reserve and pay my last movement with it to get the 0 on top (to kessel run). The next turns he drains me, and I make him loose and I will win as long as he doesn’t make the kessel run. When he has got like 4-5 cards left I eventually loose the 0 from top, and he makes the kessel run and retrieves one turn before he should have died. Very good game. Me, Koen and Markus were 3-1, so we thought we would place pretty high, but we only got third and got some packs. It was a cool tournament.
I play a game with Clint afterwards. Everyone leaves the convention, and I say bye to everyone, and went out to dinner with the ones that were left. Played Blackjack with Jason Kilby in the bar. Monday I leave Florida, but I will be back next year!
props:
-Jesper Larsson for playtesting, and being a great company the whole week.
-Jesper Larsson, Koen Mejsen and Markus Wüst for being teammates.
-Team Quebec (Yannik, Dominic, Raphael) for being cool and damn good..
-Maarten Logghe, Bastian Proot for playtesting.
-TJ Holman, Ray bordier for kicking my @#$% in Ghetto War.
-Gabe Alonso, Bastian Winkelhaus, Martin Falke, Martin Shumacher, Gary Carman, Alex Tennet, Bruce Savin, Matt Allen, Peter DiBasio (and the other UK guys), Paul Feldman, Charlie Herren, Jason Denee, David Akers, Neal Razi, John Arendt, Mike Girard, Michael Josem and all other new and old friends I forgot. You make this thing what it is!
-Jason Kilby – you are the man!
-Steven Lewis for the game. That was awesome!
-Clint for the game.
-Yannik for having dinner with me every day.
-Erik Hansson for lending me cards.
-Bert-Olof Lunding for being a funny guy to hang out with.
-Patrik Wallgren for playtesting.
-Matt Sokol for being the champ.
-Yannik for being a champ as well.
-Judges and tournament directors.
-Everyone I played and everyone else who made this a great weekend!
slops:
-those who disqualified Steven Lewis, Mike Girard and others. that was evil.
-Those who stole Alex Tennets Jedi Lukes. That was evil.
-Me for missing the final cut by 1 force, and missing the dinner!
next year!
/Martin Akesson