bespin-regionals-kohman-brings-a-broom
Title: bespin-regionals-kohman-brings-a-broom
Author: Josh-e-poo "supaposhjosh" Kohman
Date: Jun 17, 2002
It had been a long time since I played, as I was busy with school. But the arrival of summer signaled vast amounts free time. So, I go online two weeks before the Bespin regional is planned, and talk to Brian Hunter. He tells me what decks are popular, what decks beat what, etc. I basically get the meta down, and decide to build some decks for the tournament before regionals.
I build dark deal and use my old x-wing/podracing deck. I feel very comfortable with dark deal, as it provides complete and utter board control once set up. It gets raped by LS Senate; but no one plays ls senate around here. My x-wing/racing deck loses once, but isn’t solid enough for regionals I decide. I build LS Senate like Hunter’s, but modified to be kohmanesque. I don’t test it out at all, I just bring it to the tournament. I’ve played hit and run enough to know how it works.
I manage to score a ride down with Kurt Schlicting. We go to the sealed deck the night before. I get two droids, two A Gift and a JP:Audience Chamber... I also get DBO AND Dantooine; so needless to say I felt set. It was a terrible deck, as it didn’t drained, but it at least made them go to you. I go undefeated with terrible differential... it takes a lot of cards to set up DBO! Unfortunately, Jim Li who was also ls, goes undefeated with a considerably high differential. I have to settle for second place. No complaints.
We go back to Graham’s house to sleep. There are three iowans (Brad Stebbins, Derek Ho and Fleenor) sleeping over at Graham’s house , in addition to Jim Li and I. I fill in the holes in all my decks, have a drink (courtesy of fleenor) and pass out in a ball on a chair.
The next morning we woke up, and headed over. Props to Graham’s family for providing krispy kremes... they’re sooo good...
The pairings were soon called off, and I was ready to tear into some vulnerable human flesh...
Real thing:
Game One: LS vs Rob Jeffery
Rob was playing LSC Podracing for dark. I figured I would win, but knew it wouldn’t be by much. He lays Maul down fairly fast, and I set up my senate and such. I manage to cancel The Phantom Menace with Transmission Terminated, and then I start hacking down his maul(s). I end up losing the race, but doing enough battle damage to make up for it. In the end, I plant my guys at various places on naboo that are too far away to duel. Then let amidala retrieve some. I get a FW +14
2(+14)
Game Two: DS vs Dann Albright
He’s playing WYS. I’m not worried about this matchup, as I’ve metad a bit for it. He lays an early Melas/Scrub combo the the cantina, and I come down with P-59 and Eva/Baba and do some house cleaning. He loses the two guys and 7 force (that’s including the P-59 damage). I drain there, and he comes down a turn later with Han and Luke with murderous intent. I stunning leader, and move P-59 away. I, meanwhile, set up with an iron fist at bespin, with my commands ready for multiple destiny. Then I lay down CC Occupation and get the machine turned on. He can’t find the "off" button for my machine... and it tears him apart. FW +16
4(+30)
Game Three: DS vs Joel Cooper
He is playing the death star II objective. I’m not worried about it too much. He moves Luke over to the landing platform right away, and I throw down a maul with stick feeling fairly confident. I battle, and miss both times, and get a screwy battle destiny. Damn. After that I set up bespin and start occupation. He comes down with a full force, but I stunning leader. I take board control, and win the drain race. That’s pretty much how this deck wins... it waits till everything settles down, starts a drain race, and never loses it. FW +12
6(+42)
Game Four: LS vs Matt Wehner
He is playing MKOs. I’m not too worried, but am a little concerned. He doesn’t hesitate at all, and sets up fast. I kill Gailid right away with Qui-Gon. He runs a lot of Ghhhks though... which gets irritating. I finally end up taking the two Naboo sites and retrieving and such. I should’ve cancelled his Scum early in the game, but never bother. I’m feeling confident with my position. And rightfully so, I win FW +15
8(+57)
Game Five: DS vs Graham Neal
The true test for my DS deck; playing against Graham Neal’s WYS deck. The game starts off, and I take bespin with Black 2/Pilot and the Executor. I don’t even let him consider battling there. He sets up his own planets, and lays celebration. I took out my Endor Occupation, and regret it now. He is the only person playing Celebration though, so it was a good overall meta choice. Regardless, I set up Dark Deal with occupation and 4 sites controlled, and in most cases that would’ve been game. Unfortunately, it is not. He lays 4 smugglers down, cancels Dark Deal, and congregates them so they are 2 to 2 sites. I lay down a Maul/Saber to wreck one of his sites... but it doesn’t work out. I’m unable to hit both characters, and he ends up only losing 5 force. Finally I move the Executor off of bespin to cancel a drain at kessel. I also lay to tatooine, but am unsuccessful in killing Dash who is occupying the planet. I manage to drop the falcon (thanks to Unsalvagable killing a hyper escape) and move everything to tatooine. He holds on though, and it is a rough drain race. I end up moving characters to occupy all his sites though, and eventually shut down his drain capability, and later, his retrieval capability. I regret not taking control of the game earlier then that; I was too intent on the drain race. I, in the end however, manage to win. FW +9
10(+66)
Game 6: LS vs Zach Steeeeeeenerson
He is playing HDADTJ without dueling. I realize, that if I lose this game, I am out of the final duel. If I win, I am guaranteed to be in the final duel. Needless to say, I am a bit tense. We both take forever to set up, and are pretty much in a standstill. He tries laying Maul down toe the docking bay, but I send out Qui-Gon and take care of business. He loses the battle pretty badly. After that he is a bit cautious. I move qui-gon to the H1:DB, to prevent the beatdown. Early in the game, I pull out Plea To The Court with my objective and send it back with threepio naked. I do this twice, and he is like "whoa, you play with 2 of those." I’m like, "hell yeah! I gotta have one if they get altered, because Jim is playing Alter I think. They’re THAT good." With that, he monnoks me, only to find that I only have one in my hand. The expression on his face was priceless. He is a really good player, he has just been out of the game for a while... anyways he later lays about 5 guys to the docking bay and the fight is on! He splits them up into two forces after I cancel his drain; one with iggy, 4-lom and fett, bounty hunter, and the other with GMT, Vader and Empy. He forgets to pay for Fett, and he is placed out of play. Then I come down with Quiggy, and manage to chop up GMT. Finally, I clear out the site, and he goes to space. I throw down HCF to space, backed by a life debt. He battles, I spiral, he cancels the react, and I’m screwed. I don’t lose the battle by too much, but I do lose my chance in space. In the end though, I recover and keep him off the ground. It’s good enough for the victory. FW +20.
12(+86)
Alright, so I’m set for the final duel. I figure I’ll be playing Jim or Raveling, as they are the top table right now. Jim is undefeated, and would have to lose by a lot to not make the finals. He, however, does lose and by about 27. I guess he could’ve drawn up a turn earlier and prevented some retrieval, and would have made it, but he doesn’t, and he didn’t. He didn’t consider the possibility that he might not make it, being as his differential was so ungodly up to the point. Regardless, he gets angry and throws his deck up against the wall. It makes a loud noise. He cleans up his cards, and quits star wars. I find that kind of cliche, but whatever. He was over it by the time we went to a movie in the evening.
As it turns out, Raveling doesn’t have a high enough differential to make it into the finals, and I end up playing a guy named Tim Anderson. I had never heard of him, up to that point, and wasn’t too worried. He didn’t play anyone worth noting except Raveling, who slaughtered him. I’m not going to go into the games, as they weren’t that interesting. He was playing BHBM against my Senate, and I tear a hole in it by about 24. Then he played the ds2 obj for ls. Refer to game 2 if you want to know how that turned out. I won the drain race, and took home the cup!
Props:
Graham Neal for the place to stay
Graham Neal for being a cool guy and suggesting the Scrambled Transmission/Grimtaash tech for senate.
Jim Li for lending me the cards and blessing us with his presence (sarcasm) ;-).
Zach Steeeeenerson for being a cool guy, and putting on an entertaining game!
Nick Kolnik for putting on such a wonderful event, and managing to organize it all.
Dion for playing in the sealed deck and showing up friday!
Peter Jacobson for lending me the two life debts and being amusing; I still have to get those back to you!
Kurt Schlicting for the ride, and for liking Ben Folds! Thanks man!
Raveling for being Raveling.
Fleenor for the booze
Stebbins for just being pretty cool...
Ho for being able to suck up to police! SIR YES SIR!
Brian Hunter for talking tech, and helping me get back into the game after my temporary leave.
Brad Gregg for being king of the scrubs... err... iowans.
Garret so he gives me a 5.
Coach’s Corner for the place to play, and for putting the star wars cardboard display on the line... it’s so fricken cool...
Slops:
Perkins for @#$%ty food... but what should I expect at 2 am...
Pizza Hut for not really cooking our pizza.
I think that’s about it. If I forgot you, I’m sorry! I’ll see ya all at worlds and Gen Con I’m sure. Take it easy...
-Kohman