ohio-states-4-21-01

Title: ohio-states-4-21-01
Author: brad "swccguy" eier
Date: Apr 22, 2001

Well my preperation for states really started when reflections 2 came out. I made 2 decks for each side then: ties/numbers and mkos mains for dark, and hb/xwings and hb/omdh for light. over the course of the next 4 months I tested these decks and many others, and whittled it down to these 4 to chose from for states. I was thinking the ties for dark and the omdh for light, but the week before states I played them both, and the omdh was weak vs mkos and ties just never won by a lot. So then i’m trying to hurry and make decks, i think about the wys beatdown but test it and lose (its hard to fight walkers when they trample your smugglers before the battle). i also put together an ISB space deck with some borrowed ors and a lot of red cards. it’s ok but weak on ground. meanwhile, my tean (BBQ BACON) seemed to be falling apart. So in the end i go with MKOS, because it’s a really solid deck even though i’ve never used it in a tourney. Light I play HBX the same deck i’ve played since r2, with a few minor changes (added melas, tawss and bo shuda for scum). Well Saturday morning I get up and have to help the football team deliver mulch for the fundraiser, that sucked. So I go home, get ready, we get Slutzy and leave. Not much happened on the trip except the exit ramp in town was closed so we drove 30 minutes out of the way. We get there around 2 or so, about the same time as the Toledo crew. Art (toledo td) has won yj states which was cool i guess, congrats. we talk and chester and I discuss decks and what strategies he thinks we will see. He convinces me to change my hbx to hb/omdh lie him, and I was going to but forgot my commons so i didn’t have an Alderaan, so i just stayed with the hbx. We were supposed to start at 2:30, so by 3:30 we were ready for round 1.

1. my hbx vs Ryan Patterson (1684) Hd/big blue and his pimp hat
Well this is the one matchup I haven’t tried yet, big blue vs my xwings. i setup quick but am cautious because I see him play stuff like imp command and SSPFT. He gets out drains fast at his sites, and i’m doing some damage in space. I use honor to slow visage, but when no escape comes out, i toss a uc spy there to cancel visage, then put him undercover. We fight in space and its pretty close, but he is doing more damage than I am. I think I flipped and shut down his ground drains for a while. I do all wings and get back some much needed force. He may have probed me and placed me out of play, i don’t remember. Basically what happened is he chased me around, and i did the spread-and-drain which is neearly impossible to stop. i broke the cover of the spy at holotheatre and dropped melas for backup, and i drained there. he came after me there, which calcelled search and destroy. I edged him out.
FW 2 (+3)

well not a bad game 1, and I should have a pretty easy game 2 since i didn’t win by a lot. the highlight of this round was Abel vs Booker, with Abel getting a timed win.

2. my mkos vs Jadae "epic staller" fox (1496) speed profit and stupid horn
Hmm.....profit. why?? well i guess isb was gonna be huge today so profit is a deck that can beat it. he starts aim hi, battle plan, and scrambled transmission. I start my 3 effects and put jabba + chall in the ac for 2 destinys. then I use chall to get an abyssin. My starting location was the heart and lower passage. I start off fast, deploying scum first turn. That was big since he had me choked. I setup in the ac first, then go to the passages and do search and destroy. He draws up a lot, and then tries to play jedi luke, but I none shall pass. Galid is really hurting him. He sets up ben and a big drain at the farm, so i’m like harvest and get my grabber, but it turned out he wasn’t using harvest. Somehow he freed han (epp leia and SWLY i think). I cant do a good beatdown cause of battle plan and aim hi. But now with his objective flipped, i can drain at the ac. late game he spreads han alone to a site since i have 1 card in hand. So I deploy my ig88 with gun and fight han, retreve 3 and kill him. With no han out he can’t drain at all on tatooine, and my drains do him im quickly after.
FW 4 (+21)

well 2-0 is the way i started states last year...but then i lost my next 3 games. i’m not gonna let it happen this year.

3. mkos vs Blair Franklin (1733) profit , and no gimmick
His deck is like the same as the last one i played so i’ll skip some of that stuff. Hed had a lot of SAC so I was glad I started the SAC killer card. once again i setup fast, and i draw Jabbas palace in my opening 8 so I drop it and get the AC so now he’s choked. I setup mosep and gailid drains which are just wrong. I also setup search and destroy. I forgot about it like 3 turns in a row though. We battled a few times and I kept forgetting to retrieve. He is killing a lot of guys while his immunity is holding up, bit I have retrevial and am doing more drains. Eventually I start to fight him and do some damage. By this time he’s running out of options so he goes inside to the AC. I battle, and draw my 4 destinies that are all +2, and that is game for him.
FW 6 (+40)

after this, Chester, Abel, Slutzy and me went out to subway, and i ordered my "burt chicken on white" sub. we got back right as pairings were called, and we wanted to play fast so we could eat. And guess who i have to play? Chester

4. hbx vs Brad Chester (2063) jumbo huntdown
he knows my deck and I know his. I know i need to be able to use orgainzed attack when we fight or his attrition will kill me. He has crush but doesn’t monnok turn 1, so i get out 6 xwings to endor. I kill visage, and since he only plays 1, that helped me. I drain in space some and he drains plus search and destroy on ground. I flip and retrieve, so now i’m back in the game. We fight in space and he really underestimated my fleet and had to lose some of his guys and ships. he probes so I go out of play. The drain race is even, but he has search and destroy. I operdeployed early in the game. late game I drop luke to the forest at yavin to stop search and destroy. he comes down with dengar, shoots luke, then does dark strike combo, so luke is gone. search and destroy does me in.
FL 6 (+39)

well after this we talked and ate lunch. looking back, had i dropped luke on cc, i could have slashed xizor and s&d would have been cancelled since all he had there otherwise was emperor. darn...loss by 1 card....thats tough. i can still make the final if i win out with a lot of diff.

5. hbx vs Russell Hockenberry (1906, defending state champ) ROPS
well I see rops and know what to do. i gotta flip fast, and setup my drains at coruscant and kessel. My start is slower than I wanted, but since all he does is draw up the first 6 turns, it was good enough. he has old school rops with twix’s instead of db’s which was interesting. Eventually he flips, so i have to also. i cancel his drains on ralltiir. He deploys security precautions. he probes everywhere and the last one he does is where the base is. I do a beatdown in space and play legendary starfighter so that hurts him. I retrieve with all wings. i ooc his lost and nail a copy of zuckuss in MH (he had 2 in the deck he said), which was helpful. I kill off his entire fleet and shut down his ground drains with spys, and drain + legendary give me the win.
FW 8 (+57)

well that was good and i still have a shot, but there are 2 5-0 guys and all 3 of us played the same side, so i need one of them to lose for me to be in.

6. mkos vs Kyle Fisher (1716) Ebo without ebo +space drain + mains thingy
I get off to a mad crazy start with jabba, ephant and scum in the ac turn 1. I think its EBOX but when I drain and he loses run luke run I know it has mains. I setup gailid for a drain of 6 plus search and destroy. He drops jedi luke and dash to a hoth site but It’s not the right one so menace fades wont work and s&d is still in effect. we battle on tat a little but i kill him off. He satisfies menace fades, but i still am draining for 4 (3 off the top). I fight and ghhhk a turn in space. I keep myo-ing his drains. He is running low on cards, so he spreads out on hoth and leaves dash all alone. i have no cards in hand. I deploy Myo from my objective, battle dash, retrieve 3, he loses 1. next turn melas joins dash so I send myo to the used pile. He just runs out of cards before I do.
FW 10 (+71)

well i watch the top 2 tables, if a 5-0 loses i’m in the final, if not i’m 3rd. they both win (by 1 card and 2 cards, darn). So I finish 3rd.

Prizes are awarded mostly before the duel so people can leave. I get a few r2 packs and get a jap commander luke. I cant stay to watch the duel, so I leave and tell chester good luck. He ended up winning I heard, I don’t know by how much or anything though.

props
everyone who was there
my dad for driving me down
roger for being a good td
the place we had it for letting us have it
chester for winning
ricky for turning vader with 1 card keft in his reserve deck
sorry if i forgot anything

slops
not many

-later

Brad Eier, 3rd place Ohio States