the-circle-is-now-complete

Title: the-circle-is-now-complete
Author: Bastian "Death Star" Winkelhaus
Date: Nov 23, 2001

"When i started the game, i was but a learner, now i am THE MASTER"




Nearly 5 years ago I played in my first ever sanctioned tournanemt of SW CCG, going 2-2 in the infamous monthly Bochum tournament.
Now i won the FreedomCon World Championships, which might very well have been the last truly great tournament ever for our beloved game.
Its been the joyride of my life, some, most of the best moments in my life where somehow related to this game and the people playing it.
I will continue playing the game, I will even buy a box of Naboo but looking at the sheer number of good players that quit the game allready or made freedomcon their last tournament and the near-fact that Theed Palace is gonna be the last product by decipher i doubt its gonna be the same.
Oh well.
Hope dies last of all.
If theres gonna be another Worlds, or even better another FreedomCon, you bet I´ll be there.
Now lets go on to my personal rundown of FreedomCon :

Disclaimer : From now on i will write "worlds" instead of freedomcon cause thats what it was, our world championship for the year 2001. If you disagree, free opinion for everyone. But the people i care about reckognize it as worlds (you do Raphael, right? :-) and thats all that counts for me.


The last weeks before worlds i played lots of star wars, way too much for my liking. First the Essen game fair with 2 Ref3 booster drafts. Then, 2 weeks before worlds i have my friend Angelo Consoli over at my flat for 24 hours of sleeping, eating and playing cards. We tried tons of decks with Ref3, mostly me throwing all kinds of different dark decks against his QMC and losing way too many games. We just couldnt find a decent dark. That sunday the two of us drive to the netherlands for the 3rd leg of the Ryloth Cup Challenge, where i use Senate for dark and QMC for light. I go 6-0, combining with my 6-0 from the 2nd leg for the overall win.
Then the next week, 4 days before leaving for worlds, i play in the monthly bochum tourney, using the same 2 decks. I manage to go 4-2 with my QMC losing to Martin Falkes Senate and my Senate losing to Mario Boleys QMC. All over the year i didnt lose 2 sanctioned games in any european tournament at all and now, one week before worlds, that. Even worse, i find out the hard way in some pickup games that my senate performs horribly against the new objective.
So i dont have a dark deck yet. I still have some faith in the QMC though.
So i talk online with some european guys the next days and Fabien Jacques shows me his secret dark deal tech deck. He also shows me his version of QMC which made some good points so i changed a few cards, mainly alternatives to fighting for hyper escape, which was really huge. I also build the dark deck but have no time to try it before i leave.
Wednesday morning at 3.50 am(!!) i have to get up and get to the airport. I didnt really sleep the night before and i knew exactly that i would not be able to sleep on the plane. Instead i was able to watch some movies. The plane was equiped with individual screens so everyone could choose their program from like 10 different channels.
I ended up watching Legally blond three times in a row. Yes, it was that bad (The choice, not the movie, Reese Witherspoon is kind of cute).
At about 6 pm i arrive at Norfolk International to be picked up by Kim Caton and George Gundry.
During the drive to the hotel i notice a scrabble game lying in the trunk. That would turn out to be an integral part of the following weekend. I played 6 games of scrabble in total, including 1 on 1 matches against Chris Praskac, decisive win by more than 70, and Clint Hays, the infamous "sibian" game, which he won by a few.
During the next day i playtested the dark deck only to find out that its total and utter crap. No offense Fabien, but this deck is a heap of junk. Which leaves me without a dark deck yet.
The Mass boys arrive and a lot of hugging ensues. Gemme falls for my "Yeah, right" again on the very first try!
Mike "We should play that card in the deck"
Me "Yeah, right"
Mike "Why not?"
Me "Yeah and right, two words meant to agree with you"
Priceless.
Thursday evening rolls around and my dear roommate Hayes Hunter wants to party. In our room. Funny, cause he insisted on getting enough sleep during the nights and not stuff his room like the year before.
But this night the room is quickly cramped to the roof and everyone has a bottle of beer.
I know a lot of people think its stupid that americans are not allowed to drink alcohol until their 21. But maybe it makes just a little bit of sense. I will spare you the details but our room smelled quite badly the next 2 days and the sight of Hayes on the next morning was far from a pretty one.
On friday, Martin Akesson asks me to do some playtesting. He wasnt really sure if his dark deck is good enough and wants to find out. We play 2 games against my QMC and i win the first one comfortably and then lose the second by like 3 cards. The deck he played is the Tatooine Occupation deck we both ended up using "All Your Base Are Belong To EUROPE!!!".
Before Ref3 we allready played around with this deck over the net but i didnt build my own version with Ref3 yet. Still i thought about it and i tell Martin that he shouldnt worry and play this deck cause it is good. I then go on to build my own version of it, largely copying Martins deck and only changing like 5 cards. On the evening i write my decklists and go to bed at like 1.30 am to get some sleep.
My light is the QMC deck "QMC Winkelhaus Style".
Day 1 on friday had about 70 players, resulting in 14 players going through to day 2.
So we had a total of 48 players on day 2. Although the number of players doesnt require it we are gonna play 8 games. My rating going into it, if anybody cares, is 2201.


Game 1, LS vs. Matt Berta (2019), Hunt down
As soon as the pairing is announced i yell out "Timewin!" only to have Matt tell me "If you play Hidden Base again, i punch you in the face".
I think that needs some explanation. Last year at DCon i played Matt in game 1 of day 2, i never met him before that. Decipher had some huge clocks hung up in the room and i was the one facing the clock in that game. We ended up timing out with me getting the time win and the situation clearly indicating that he would have won if we play to the end. So he flames me quite badly on decktech afterwards, accusing me of stalling although i can honestly say that i didnt. After talking online and meeting at ramapo we settled the issue and are friends by now so i decided to make that little joke.
The game starts badly for me and i know after a while that this definitely not going to become a timewin or any kind of win for me. Hunt Down is a bad matchup for QMC, sure, but this game was ridiculous. Matt started Crush the rebellion so i never drew above 12. But i lost most of the cards to visage from hand and kept him busy by deploying some stuff so i could allways draw a few cards.
However, i couldnt find a single card that i could deploy at the system. Ever. That means no flip so any chance of competing in this game is gone. And shortly afterwards, the game is gone by no less than 30.
Total : 0 (-30)

That puts me on the second table from the bottom. Ouch. I told Hayes beforehand that i didnt really care about how i do cause im mainly here to meet the people again. But now, having all the people ask me how i did and having to tell them that i lost by 30, that hurt.

Game 2, DS vs. Steven Turner (1998), QMC
Normally we both have decks that are able to fulfill Battle Plan / Order without any problems. But this game is different. He kicks me off my system while i manage to get hold of his sites. I still have my ships, cause of the admirals order they are at the docking bays so i wait for the right time and the cannon to go back up. Its looking really good for me until bad lucks kicks in. Heres the situation :
Steven has just deployed Tat Qui-gon to the middle one of my docking bays. I deploy EPP Maul against him which he barriers. I check the 5 destinies in my reserve to see two 1s and one 3. His turn he activates all but 2, drains me at the 2 systems and then uses naked 3po to get the barrier back, leaving him with 1 card left in reserve. Then he jumps straight from control to move phase and moves Qui-gon to the side, away from my landed ships. I tell him to go back cause i have an action. I search for force lightning to shuffle my deck and see three destiny 1 and one 3 in a total of 15 cards. I decide to play a blind maul strikes to duel qui so maul can go to the ships immediately on my next turn. I flip the top 2 cards : 1,1. He has a 4. So i lose Maul. And even worse, he keeps Qui-gon. I bury my hope to go to space again and just pay to drain. He drains for more but im ahead. Time is called on my turn, i drain him down to 2 cards. His turn he drains me down to 11 cards. He cant block my drains so he would definitely die the next turn. He draws up his last 2 cards to give me the full win. He later tells me that this was the first time he ever drew up in such a situation.
Dude, i really appreciate it. It was a good and tense game all the time and its too bad you didnt make it. After 6 games, he was in the top 8 but unfortunately we played 2 more and he ended up missing it.

Total : 2 (-19)

Game 3, LS vs. Yanick Lapointe (2063), BHBM
Yanick quit the game allready but borrowed some cards to make decks for this weekend. You could tell though, that he was out of practice. That was not the guy that nearly won worlds last year. The game was pretty uneventful. I flipped early, enforce Battle Plan. Vader comes down to take Luke. He comes to the system but i beat him down for a few extra cards. Then he puts another Zuckuss at his system, Rendili, only to be beaten down for even more cards by Ten Numb and the falcon.
Full win by 27

Total : 4 (+8)

Game 4, DS vs. Raphael Asselin (2038), Theres good in him
Raphael has build a really original deck. His starting effects were Scrambled Transmission, Another Pathetic Lifeform and Colo Claw Fish. On my first turn, while searching for a db, i see that my only Vader is in my force pile so i draw up. Raphael stacks a 7 on the fish and moves Luke to the db. On my second turn i deploy Vader and retreat to my DS 2: db. His turn he deploys Brisky Morning Muchen, Jar Jar from deck, new Lando and Phylo Gandish and draws two 7s for battle destiny! I only draw a 3 so Jar Jar covers and i have to lose 4 more cards. I have my Ghhhk in my hand but looking at his mad destinies i decide to keep it and lose 4 cards instead. I deploy to the system and come here you big coward shield. His turn he just pays 8 to move everyone to Tatooine. At one point i think i can do some beatdown and deploy Blizzard 4, a chicken walker, IG and some pilots against his Baragwin, Lando and Phylo. I trample Lando. I initiate battle but he fallen portals my IG so not much damage for him. But at least i can stop his retrieval and kill the annoying Phylo to would have eaten me alive. I get lucky in the fact that Raphael cant find his Han,Chewie in Falcon although he has naked 3po running.That means i can drain at Tatooine and Carida and at one of the dbs where i keep all my stuff together, Bizzard 4, At-sts, Maul etc. He has to pay for his plink drains and i can block some with undercover spies before Corran Horn comes down and i win a close one by 10 although Raphael has beaten Martin in both of their playtest games.

Total : 6 (+18)

Game 5, DS vs. Steve Brentson (2060), WYS
The game where i dont get to start any location. Steve starts regular Staging Areas and both of us forget to deploy their anti-shield in time, me once and Steve twice in a row. The key in this game is him burning quite a few ships and matching pilots on the ground and my beatdown on Wedge and Dash with EPP Maul and Dr. Evazan & Ponda Baba. I operate on Wedge and miss Dash, but still he has to lose 8 cards. I then get easy control of the system and damage him away for the just-in-time full win by 10.

Total : 8 (+28)

Game 6, LS vs. Matt Scott (1896), Let them make the first move
Matt races with Wattos Box as his effect. He puts down Emperor on Naboo and im totally unsure what to expect, SAC, maybe even numbers. He draws mad race destinies and could have ended the race on turn 3 but decides to wait till he has some cards in lost. I do my thing, flip and do celebration. When the race finally ends, i deploy aim high and a close race so he wont retrieve and i lose 6. Matt plays multiple Blow parried and he just recycles them used all the time. Blow parried cancels Clash. But when i clash Vader to hurt Dr. E he wont cancel it. He cancels the first battle Stunning leader, which is a great card for that deck with all the anti-barrier stuff going on. Then he deploys 4-LOM and moves Dr. E away. But running away is not easy on CC, so i sorry about the mess 4-LOM with Obi, initiate battle, run luke run and kill Dr. E for a good amount of overflow damage. I retrieve some more and finish the game with a full win by 20.

Total : 10 (+48)

Game 7, LS vs. Scott Lingrell (1931), MKOS
Scott plays scum with Myo as his rep (surprise). I hear that he has quite a few ships but while i draw and set up stuff he cant go to my system yet. That would have been his only chance. I go to the system and flip, celebrate, the usual stuff. When he finally comes down to the system i play alternatives to fighting. Then Xwing cannon, Dash and Corran Horn in Outrider, battle, handshake. Full win by 23.

Total : 12 (+71)

Martin and me are both 6-1 so we are the only ones that are in the top 8 for sure. Hayes Hunter and Scott Lingrell both are 5-2 with a time win. But theres no way they would miss it with 11 points if they win their last game. I tell them more then once but somehow they refuse to believe it yet. With only 48 players and 8 games theres absolutely no way they could miss it, there would probably be someone with 10 points making it.

Game 8, DS vs. Brad Reinhold (2004), We´ll handle this
Brad built the deck with help from Hayes so this morning in our room he was telling Hayes that he was catching everyone by surprise and how the deck is just a monster. I asked Hayes about it and he told me to allways save the 3rd shield for numbers. That helped. If you dont pay attention you could easily end up having deployed all 3 shields and getting hit by numbers. He starts racing and on his first turn gets i did it and deploys the new yoda to naboo. I deploy my first shield, Battle Order. He gets a sense/recoil in fear with yoda and stacks another one for the race. I deploy my second shield, There is no try. I set up my stuff and get free drains. Brad allways pays the 3 to drain. Puts down Jedi Luke on the other Naboo site. Pays 6 to drain 4. Adds Lukes saber. On my fifth turn, he gets over 24 for the race so he will win in my move phase. He has 7 force saved for my secret plans and just a few cards in lost pile. I was able to activate all but 1 which was the Imperial Artilery i played the turn before. I deploy IG in front of Luke. He has to play Recoil in fear or else Luke would have been captured. That way he cant pay for secret plans anymore and i did it went back into his deck. I lose 6 force for the race. He deathfingers IG and drains for 5 more. At that point i have like 20 cards left in reserve to his way more than 30. But now im finally all set and hit him for drains of 8 and 4 damage from occupation while he only hits me for 5. Han, Chewie and the Falcon come down, but the Baron shoots them to the lost pile. I edge him out in the drain race and win a close one by 6.

Total 14 (+77)

Allthough he lost, he still made it to no. 8, barely edging out Brian Rippetoe by 2 or 3 force.
Heres the final top 8 :

1. Martin Akesson 14 (+90something) All Your Base / We´ll handle this
2. Me, Bastian Winkelhaus 14 (+77) All Your Base / QMC
3. Brian Hunter 12(+100something) This deal gets worse / WYS
4. Hayes Hunter 11(more than Scott) Hunt down / WYS
5. Scott Lingrell 11(less than Hayes) MKOS / RST
6. Andy McClure MKOS / Senate
7. Kevin Shannon MKOS / WYS
8. Brad Reinhold Hunt down / We´ll handle this

Andy, Kevin and Brad all had 10 points and unknown diff.

After some lengthy discussion, the top 8 would play like that :
First round :
1-8
2-7
3-6
4-5
One game only, the player who placed higher during swiss chooses side.

Second round :
Winner 1-8 against Winner 4-5
Winner 2-7 against Winner 3-6
Same procedure, one game only, higher placed chooses side

Final
Two games, overall winner takes it all

Game 9, Quarterfinal, LS vs. Kevin Shannon (2125), MKOS
I choose to play QMC cause its just a very good matchup against MKOS and my dark can have problems against WYS if i dont find my ships and a cannon early. The game was very uneventful.
I would love to tell you something exciting, cause its the quarterfinal and stuff but the matchup dictated that game and Kevin didnt stand a chance. Not his fault, he did all he could. But i had menace fades going, celebration and my drains were free and i got the full win by 24 with like 6 cards in lost.

Martin chooses We´ll handle this against Brads Hunt down and wins.
Brian chooses WYS against Andy. Andy does not reveal Myo before playing his starting interrupt. Brian makes him place his objective out of play. Brian wins easily.
Hayes chooses Hunt down against Scotts RST allthough he lost that match during swiss by 3. But he told me he made lots of mistakes and now knows better what to do. Hayes wins by 14.

Game 10, Semifinal, LS vs. Brian Hunter (2340), This deal is getting worse all the time
I choose QMC cause that way he should be unable to play dark deal and again, i dont want to play against WYS.
The next day we go out to eat with a bunch of guys including Brian and hes a nice fellow and all but during this game he was just annoying. Every turn he searches his reserve deck with the objective to see whats in it. And all the time he complains about how he could not activate any of the 5 key cards in this matchup. Thats Accelerate the plans x2, They must never leave this city x2 and Bad feeling have i. Then he tells me how his deck has never won by less than 25 in any of his 4 games against QMC he played so far. How he should allways have Executor down at Bespin turn 2. When i search my deck with my objetive, searching for a db just to see whats in it, he starts to read my objective claiming that normally QMC would never flip against him and he does not know the flip side of QMC.
Near the end he says, he played a perfect game, hes not to blame but he got the worst draw ever.
Annoying.
During the actual game, Brian starts Im sorry, Combat response, IAO/secret plans and there is no try/oppresive enforcement.He played Emperor first turn to a site and converted the system. I deploy a site and draw some. Turn 2 he looks for 2 sites from im sorry (forgot turn 1), deploys those and draws.
I deploy dash in outrider to system and deploy Leia and Melas for very cheap, flip. He deploys Xizor against Leia, notices that i can shoot and then path away, deploys P-59 with xizor. I path before he can battle and he grabs path. I set up celebration, hold alternatives to fighting and just wait. He plays Imperial command to get Thrawn and i grab that. He draws again. I add Pucumyr to fasten the game and during his activate phase, grimtassh his hand of 16 cards used. That was the last nail into his coffin. He gives up and deploys random stuff in front of my big guys to end the game quickly. He never ever drained the whole game. Not once. Full win by 29.

Immediately after the game Brian takes out his wallet, throws 100 $ on the table and asks "Wanna play again?". I tell him i have a final to play. We still had the whole sunday. But between the team tourney, the booster draft they did from their winning and other stuff we couldnt do it. Sure he got a bad draw but i just dont buy his "i allways win by more than 25" stuff.

Anyway, in the other match, Martin chose We´ll handle this against yet another Hunt down and beats Hayes Hunter. Because Brian now has a combined diff of -3 from the last 2 games while Hayes has a positive one, Hayes is declared 3rd and Brian 4th.
Martin and me head off to start the final, Martin chooses to play light side first.

Game 11, 1st game of the final, DS against Martin Akesson (2078), We´ll handle this
When we start the game i realize that through all the talk i had about those peoples deck that i played where i could choose the side, i know very little about Martins light deck. But my intuition serves me well as i deploy both there is no try and oppresive enforcement shield before seeing any sense only to find out hes playing a bunch of them. Then its an Akesson deck, meaning it has some old-skool tunnel visions and twixes/JCC cause, well, all of his light decks have that. While we didnt allow spectators during the top 8 on a majority vote between the finalists, Martin and i had nothing against spectators during the final as long as they keep absolutely quiet. That was hardly a problem for them as it was about 3 am when the game started and everyone was half asleep. I managed to wake some people up though by trampling EPP Luke with a blind destiny. In that situation Martin allready had Allegations out and as we both knew our dark decks inside out it was clear that he would grab trample. He didnt have a force saved though after initiating the battle. So playing it was basically for free and the destinies in the deck are pretty huge, i think there were 5 or 6 cards in my deck at that point that would do the work. So i tried and it worked, clearly frustrating Martin. Later Martin gets Boush to Tatooine and i set up EPP Vader at the same site as i couldnt drain there anyway but now had a big bad guy to react around in case he would try to stop one of my other drains. When i had another trample set up, i stomp on boush and move Vader to the DS 2 db. Han, Chewie and the Falcon come up again only to be shot down with the cannon. The dark never won high for me cause you have to deploy lots of stuff and dont stop opponents drains but it wins for the fifth time in a row, this time by 11.

Game 12, 2nd game of the final, LS against Martin Akesson (2078), All Your Base Are Belong To EUROPE!!!
So far, through the previous 5 world championship finals, dark side is 11-0. Yep, light side has never ever won a single game of the final confrontation. But i did beat Martin in playtesting on friday and i know i can pull it off again.
We both set up on our planets, set up celebration/occupation. Martin hits me for 7 a turn, 4 drains of 1 and 3 from occupation. I drain for 2 cause of his 2 undercover spies and retrieve 3. But my tunnel visions every turn allow me to collect all the important cards in no time and then i make my move. I deploy the X-wing cannon on Wedges ship, deploy Han, Chewie and the Falcon to Tatooine and move Wedge over where he has Saber 1 and 3 and Zuckuss, he lost Mauls ship early on to a drain so thats all the ships he has. He deploys Cannon on Saber 1 and attacks. I play Alternatives to fighting. I play A few maneuvers cause i need a 6 to shoot down Saber 1 as he definitely has dark maneuvers. All the time he allways had 12 or less cards in hand knowing that i play grimtaash. Now he draws up like a mad man, desperately searching for his omni box. He has like 25 cards in hand but couldnt find it. I activate, initate, shoot down the Baron and kill Saber 3 through attrition and make him lose some extra cards cause he wants to keep zuckuss. He moves Zuckuss to Bespin and occupation is canceled. I battle Zuckuss with Dash in Outrider who remained at Bespin and play help me obi-wan kenobi to have ability 7. I reduce his power and draw a 5 while he draws a 4. He has to lose Zuckuss and 2 but plays Ghhhk instead. I lose Dash. Theres where he made his mistake. Being the active player i would have to forfeit first, triggering the cancelation of celebration (that sounds funny) before he would have to forfeit Zuckuss. But he misses it and celebration remains on table. I dont know if he would have won that game if he catched it, but if, then definitely not my 11. I dont even bother to move Wedge over to Bespin, leaving my celebration alone, cause i know for a fact that he doesnt have any other ships. Martin keeps on paying 3 for his drains of 1 while i retrieve 2 a turn and drain him for 3 or 4. Shortly thereafter, the game is mine by 12 and i am the first ever player to win both games of the final confrontation of worlds.
After losing game 1 by an asswhooping 30 i went on to win all of my next 11 games.
Its 5 am now and i should feel very happy but im just dead tired. I spent the whole day on nothing but Mountain Dew and Aspirin. Ryan Christian (I think) handed me a gross looking sandwich he brought me from 7/11 and knowing i need to finally eat something i manage to force it down. I collect my money from Gemme cause we had a bet going on. If he wins worlds, i double his winnings. If i win, i get 10 $. Then, Hayes and me head up to our room to catch just a little bit of sleep. Just after we got there, Jeremy Oakes, our other roommate, got up and headed home. At 10 we needed to get up to check out of the room. David held a little award ceremony at 11 and then one half headed for the team tourney and a lot of other people left. I was too tired to play in the team event so i just hang out and play some pickup games.

I signed a Brangus Glee for David, the only one i ever signed over the whole weekend! Hes gonna put it up for an auction, im sure its gonna be for a good cause. And its wasnt a generic Brangus, it was one of the 3 that i used in my deck all the time. So do some good and bid on it, its one of a kind!! I swear here and now that i did not give away another of my Branguses, im not gonna give away another of my Branguses and never ever sign a Brangus again!!!Ever! So buy it.

After the team event, we head out to Applebees with the vegas boys, Matt Berta, Tim Guzman and Shane Wattner , Brian Hunter, Alex Tennet and Kim Caton. I start to feel really sick and cant even finish my burger. Meanwhile Kim doesnt finish anything for no good reason! We head back to the hotel to watch the "Britney Spears Experience" on HBO. Drool. Kim obviously has no clue what its all about cause she goes to take a shower during the show!!! No such weakness from Alex or me of course, we didnt miss a single second. Theres not many people left from the con, so we had down to the vegas room where Alex, Brian, Matt and Kevin did some drafting with the stuff they got for winning the team tourney. Actually Matt wasnt on the team, but Andy McClure rather wanted to play a game against me instead of doing all the drafting. And his light senate deck really is a beast, he took me down quite badly.

Monday i still cant go home cause there was no flight out from continental and im stuck till the next day. And today, even the last brave souls leave. Except the spaniard whos visiting a friend in texas, so we head out for the budget lodge next door and i end up watching tele all day. The trip home takes about 24 hours and im still sick. But its all good, cause im the F****** WOLRD CHAMPION!!!

Time for props:

David Akers, Neal Razi and all the guys that were there to run the show - YOU ROCK!
Martin Akesson - for the dark deck and european domination
Mike Gemme - for being the man and bringing me a gift
Hayes Hunter - for having faith in me and knowing exactly how much alcohol his body can take,NOT!
the rest of da boyz, Justin, Steve, Brian - just because
Jeremy Oakes - for being a great roommate, not inviting 20 guys to our room and borrowing me cards
Matt Berta - for being the only one able to beat me
Kim Caton - for the ride, the room, bringing the scrabble game, the name for the dark deck, etc.
Scott Lingrell - for a good game and being a good man
Alex Tennet - for finishing european domination and being a funny chap
Steven Turner - for giving me the full win
Fabien Jacques - for helping me with the QMC
Jonny Chu - for having me on his dream team list for "total domination"
The Star Wars Fan Club - for giving me all these toys
Everyone else who was there - for making this worlds and not letting decipher take it away from us


Slops

Yeah, right!






Bastian Winkelhaus