state-championship-tn-5-12-01
Title: state-championship-tn-5-12-01
Author: Josh "Blue1138" Koziura
Date: May 14, 2001
At some point two weeks ago Brian Rippetoe convinces me that we should playtest decks every single day until States. Not knowing what I was getting myself into, I agreed to go with along with this brilliant plan. About 4 times a week in 4 hour sessions we practiced, we built decks and we talked tech. I never ever want to do that again. For me it was like studying for an exam in which I knew I had no chance in passing. Needless to say that "Rip" schools me for two weeks and I only win like 4 games out of 20. I do get a little bummed out but it’s Rip and I can’t get too upset about it because he’s the best (IMO). During the playtests I came up with a sweet Hidden Base Mains deck and we both decide that’s what we should play. Rip decides on Huntdown for Dark but I hate Hunt Down and go with my trusty Bring Him.
Jim Colson ran the event and called out the pairings at 11:30 or so.
My Ranking going in is 1788
LS Deck: Hidden Base Mains... Just Old School Fun
DS Deck: Bring Him... More fun with Mains and Toys
Game 1: My DS vs. A Gentleman from East TN EBO
In my opening hand I pull a Darth Vader, Vader’s Stick, Janus and other wonderful toys. I nab Kuat before I activate with Mob points and deploy Smiley (Emp Palpy) and Janus to the Endor Docking bay first turn. He used a Triple Effect start with Strike Planning, Insurrection and Squadron Assignments. He nabs Crix during his turn and plays Signal for A New Secret Base drops it and procedes to get out two echo sites. My turn drain for 2 and he loses Luke off the top of his reserve deck. I drop Vader and Stick to the docking bay and Draw up. On his turn he sets up EBO slowly and draws up. He loses 3 from Your Destiny and there goes another Luke. At this point I’m kinda thinking why doesn’t he just deploy Luke from the lost pile? He never does. Your Destiny and Draining for 3 at the Endor Docking Bay finish him off.
FW +22
Highs: Your Destiny actually working
Lows: Your Destiny actually working
After the game I go outside the shop and talk to Brandon Young. I know him from the one time I played in Cookevile. He beat the Tar out of my RTP deck and we joked about it. Grumble Grumble...
Game 2: My LS vs. Brandon Young’s (1507) ISB with Imperial Command
As Darth Maul would say "At we will have revenge." In my opening hand I have Jedi Luke, Luke’s Stick, Ben Kenobi and 5 other characters. His first turn he gets Admiral Piett to the Exec. Docking Bay and gets Merjeek (sp?) into his hand. He drops Fondor, Endor Docking Bay, Kessel and ends his turn. My turn I search for Home One: DB and also snag Dagoblah and Yoda’s Hut as well. I drop the boy and stick at the DB and draw a Gift of the Mentor and Tatooine DB. Sweet! He puts out Endor with Merjeek and drops the Executor to Fondor. Piett and scrub move to the bridge and he ends his turn. I deploy a <> DB to Coruscant, Tatooine DB and Ben there. I Gift for Obi’s Stick and move Luke to Coruscant. That turn I end up drawing Order to Engage and Goo nee Tay. He drops some Outer Rim scouts to the Endor DB with some Scout Walkers. I drain him at the Tatooine and Coruscant docking bays for the rest of the game and drop EPP Han and EPP Leia and crew to the Endor DB plus Bacta Tank and Orders the next turn. By controlling all the DBs he could never mount an effective offense and was lossing more to Orders and my Ground drains than what i was losing in Space. Order to Engage is now my favorite card.
FW +17
Highs: Getting Brandon back for reaming my RTP deck a year ago. Killing ORS with Portal is awesome too...
Lows: None, Really.
Game 3: My LS vs. Brian Rippetoe’s (2043) Hunt Down
Ack! Before the game Brian asks me if I would like to concede the game. He and I both know that I can’t beat his Hunt Down... My deck is like an Auto-Lose against it. I decide I wanna play it out and maybe I’ll get lucky. In my Opening Hand is HO:DB, LSJK, Glancing Blow and Ben. Wow maybe I won’t lose that badly... About 5th or 6th turn he tries to Cross Luke, I play Run Luke Run and then he plays Circle. Ben dies and I lose 9. He battles chokes off Luke and slaughters everyone at my site save little Melas. I have about 6 life force left and no hand. Melas goes out in style.
FL -15
Highs: Run Luke Run Baby!
Lows: I can’t believe he’s gone...
At this point my goal is to go 3-3. I have never gone better than 4-2 (Tidewater 98) in my life.
Game 4: My DS vs. Jim Sells (1876)TRM Mains
Ever have one of those games where everything goes your way? This was one of those games. On my 3rd turn I have Vader, Smiley and JK Luke captured at the Endor:DB draining for two. I play Presence of the Force on his Yavin IV warroom and drop Mara Jade with Stick and IG-88 with Riot Gun there. On his turn he drops Wedge Red Squad Leader, Orimaarko and Corran Horn. He battle Weapon Levitates the Stick and draws a 1 for battle destiny. I lose Mara and then its my turn. I drop Mighty Jabba, Xizor, 4-Lom with Rifle and battle. I capture Wedge with IG-88 and Blank Corran. I draw 5 battle destinies and clean out the warroom plus 19 battle damage remaining. That was game set match. After that I drained him out with a few battle here and there.
FW +19
Woohoo! I’m 3-1... Maybe I will beat my 4-2 record!
Game 5: DS vs. Matt Mathison’s (1743) TIGIH Scouts
Argh... Well here’s my decks hardest match up. In my opening hand I get all red cards and that was the game. I kinda want to forget about this game because it was sooooo bad. Read Matt’s TR for more details...
Highs: Beating the ever loving piss and @#$% out of Wuta. Matt is very cool even though he has Green Hair :)
Lows: 8 Red cards in my opening hand and not drawing a character for 3 to 4 turns... argh...
FL -11
Game 6: LS vs. Matthew Crigger’s (1954) Jabba’s Prize Deck
This game was fairly short. He loses both of his S&V from his hand to an early drain not knowing what he did. Mid Game I have Civil Disorder, Orders, and Goo Nee Tay plus Advantage on Ben Kenobi and solid ground drain of 8 on him to his drain of 1 at Carida. Another game of everything going your way and your opponent not getting any luck at all.
FW +18
Here are the tournament standings:
Steven Lewis (Nashville) 11(+119)
Jonathan Chu (Nashville) 10(+109)
Brian Rippetoe (Nashville) 10(+67)
Josh Koziura (Nashville) 8(+48)
Matt Mathison (Memphis) 8(+39)
Michael Crosby (Knoxville) 8(+35)
Jonathon Chu ends up winning the Final Confrontation by 1 point!!!
So I finish 4th place and later go on to win the Young Jedi State Championships.
Thanks for reading.
Josh