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Author: Bastian "Death Star" Winkelhaus
Title: deciphercon-by-bastian-winkelhaus
Date Published: 2000-10-14
Deciphercon 2000 is over. I came home and directly hit the bed. Boy, was I tired. Actually I was tired during the whole con.
But as long as I had a game going it was ok.
The story begins some time ago, with our regional. Death Star 2 came out like 2 or 3 weeks ago and I couldn´t really come up
with anything new. Martin Falke could. We certainly have some other good players in germany but Martin is like my
archenemy. I missed the final by a few points of differential but looking at the matchup I would have lost anyway.
One week later there´s the continentals. I played Ralltiir again, this time with Mob.Points, but basically Akesson style. Light
side was the problem again, I changed decks every day because no deck really pleased me. Grand Slam on friday and day one
on saturday I finish 5-1 but I screw up day 2 at 3-3.
So I have to pay the trip myself. But with 38 players from day 1 there´s no way I´m not trying to qualify.
Whatever...
Tournament starts late. A lot of players arrived wendesday like me but there was no way of registering. Instead I had to wait
more than a whole hour in line next morning. Instead of starting at 10 am we started at 1 pm.
My decks :
DARK : German Blitzkrieg
Ralltiir Operations / In the hands of the empire
Ralltiir
Carida
Executor Docking bay
Jungle
Spaceport docking bay
Spaceport prefects office
Spaceport street
Tempest scout 1
Tempest scout 6
Bossk in Hounds Tooth
Boba Fett in Slave 1
IG-88 in IG-2000
Zuckuss in Mist Hunter
Vaders personel shuttle
Executor
Lord Vader
EPP Vader
Mara Jade
Jabba the Hutt
Sim Aloo
Colonel Davod Jon
Sgt. Major Bursk
Sgt. Barich
Sgt. Irol
Corporal Drelosyn
Sgt. Elsek
Sgt. Major Enfield
Sgt. Torent
Sgt. Wallen
Trooper Davin Felth
2x Stormtrooper cadet
Lieutenant Arnet
DS 181-3
Admiral Ozzel
Prepared Defenses
5x Tactical Support
2x Trooper Assault
3x Imperial Barrier
Projective Telepathy
Imperial Command
Full Scale Alert
Main Course
Trample
Imperial Arrest Order
Mobilisation Points
You cannot hide forever
Search and destroy
There is no try
Lateral damage
First Strike
Bad feeling have I
This deck is a beast. Originally designed by Martin Falke nearly the whole german team played it. It usually flips on second
turn, if you didn´t start There is no try you also have Search and destroy in play. It´s quick and delivers nasty beats.
LIGHT : Falke Hidden Base Revised
Hidden Base / Systems will slip through your fingers
Rendezvous Point
2x Alderaan
Aquaris
Endor
Kiffex
Tatooine
Tibrin
Spaceport docking bay
Gold Squadron 1
Green Squadron 3
Red Squadron 1
Home One
Spiral
General Calrissian
General Solo
Ben Kenobi
EPP Obi-wan
Boussh
EPP Leia
Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight
EPP Luke
ECC Chewie
Orrimarko
Taws Khaa
Lieutenant Blount
Wedge Antilles, Red Squadron Leader
Tycho Celchu
Figrin D´an
Heading for the medical frigate
2x Rebel Barrier
On the edge
Hyper Escape
Punch it !
Fallen Portal
Tunnel Vision
I know
Lost in the wilderness
Shocking Information
A few maneuvers
Grimtaash
Sense
Alter
Wise Advice
Strike Planning
Squadron Assignment
Your Insight serves you well
Honor of the jedi
Battle Plan
Insurrection
Draw their fire
2x What ´re you tryin´ to push on us?
Beggar
Mantelian Savrip
Our most desperate hour
Order to engage
Did I mention I couldn´t come up with a decent light deck? Fortunately I playtested with Martin a few times before worlds. We
came up with a throne room deck that was better against Ralltiir but as we expected more Bring him and Hunt down decks we
chose this deck. It´s all around solid and able to win big.
Game 1 LS against ??? can´t remember the name
I can´t remeber anything except I won by 23. Lack of sleep does bad things to your memory. Should have taken notes.
Whatever.
Game 2 DS against Paul Myers, Profit, Eloms and mains on CC
He starts Jedipack Han, I put Mara and Jabba in the chamber. First turn he signals for Bargaining table, second turn for order
to engage. both times Bo Shuda is in his force pile.
For some turns he just stockpiles Eloms on the table while I drain and set up some defense. Put Tempest scout 1/Arnet down
on Ralltiir and reinforce at Jabbas palace. When he finally came down with Beggar/Draw their fire and 5 or 6 Eloms he deals
no battle damage. Thats game. Win by 28 ?
Game 3 LS against a guy with a big strange hat, ISB drop and drain
He starts IAO, Mob-Points and There is no try. I allways start Squadron Assignments and Strike Planning and normally third
effect is Wise Advice. But because of there is no try I started Insight. Good choice as he played like 6 or 8 scanning crews. He
drained exactly once during the whole game and I won easily by 20 something.
Game 4 DS against Ray Bordier, Hidden Base with matching pilots
Nobody I ever played talked such loads of @#$%. Some of it was funny but some was really ridiculous. Whatever.
He can´t deal with Ralltiir. I mostly leave him alone in space and just drain and search and destroy. Win by 20 something.
Game 5 LS against Dominic Gaudreault, BHBM "The Maschine"
He played the same deck as Yanick and Raphael. Like all the other games I played that one was not close. But this time I lost
by 22. He played very well.
Game 6 DS against Kyle Craft, old-school Y4-throne-room
Old school means he started careful planning. I tested Y4 and we started heading for the medical and docking bays.Like all the
other games on day 1 I don´t remember a lot here but I won by 20 something.
Game 7 DS against ChrisPraskac, TJs EBO
He starts 1stmarker and signal so I don´t expect Sense / Alter and start cannot hide forever. He did play some senses but
didn´t have´em early on so it doesn´t matter. I do the usual thing, play tactical support first turn, play the street to ralltiir and put
trooper danvin felth to Exec: docking bay. Second turn I flip and set up search and destroy. I have 2 cadets at the street, Sgt.
Major Bursk at the prefects office in the middle and trooper Davin Felth went to the ralltiir docking bay. On his second turn he
put premiere Obi-wan with his stick to the street, send one cadet away, hit the other and made me loose 6 force.
As he said later, this looked like a good idea. Unfortunately it was not. On my third turn I hit him with all 4 biker scouts, Wallen
for free, trooper assault, substract 5 from him with barich, draw 2 destinies and he ends up loosing Obi-wan and 22 force. Not
surprisingly, that was game on turn 3. This dark deck really is a beast.
Game 8 LS against David Irvine, BHBM with troopers
I play troopers myself so I know how to deal with them. Plus nobody really puts a lone character out against BHBM early on,
so I set up in space first. When I came down he hit me next turn with like 5 troopers and trooper assault. But he wasn´t doing
any battle damage to me. He had a few more trooper assaults but I allways had 2 or 3 built-in weapons so I got rid of his guys
and win by 20 something.
End of day 1 I end up second with 7-1 and nice differential. Unlike all the 5-3 guys who had to wait for all the results to see if
they had enough differential I got my semifinalist pass immediately and get to bed at about 2.30 am. But instead of sleeping
we´re laying in our beds and keep talking till 4. Next morning I´m tired again and as my decks proofed I only changed one
card. I add the lost in the wilderness and take out another card that I allready forgot. On day one that lost in the wilderness
could have been real big but now that I put it in, every guy I play puts Vader down on CC or death star. Weird.
Day two starts nearly on time, only one hour late I guess.
Game 1 LS against Matt Berta, Hunt down
Never heard of this guy so I hoped for a relatively easy match. Pull Honor fist turn and get Lando+Falcon out, just like allways.
I never got this game under control but neither did he. There were really few force drains because I flipped early and he
couldn´t find my hidden base for a long time. I only lost to visage after he got his 3rd battleground. I retrieved only once with
On the edge but somehow we couldn´t finish within time. I guess I might have lost if we would have played to the end but now I
have 11 cards to his 7 so I win on time.
With a time win first game I surely got better matchups during the next games but I couldn´t get in on 5-3 with good diff
anymore. I needed to win 5 more for sure. But I was pretty confident.
Game 2 DS against Kyle Craft, same Y4-throne room as the day before
This game lasted exactly 11 turns and I remember everything. I started There is no try as my 3rd effect, knowing he has SAC.
His 1st turn : I grab Carida, Ozzel with imperial command and Bursk, Trooper Felth and a cadet with tac. support. He gets a
nudj from reserve, plays rendezvous point and yodas hut and draws a few.
My 1st : Play Carida, street to ralltiir and Executor docking bay, trooper Felth to the DB.
His 2nd : Plays signal to get revolution, revolutions my ralltiir, plays second nudj, draws a bit and leaves 3 force.
My 2nd : Get prefects office and DB to ralltiir, office in the middle like allways. Ozzel, a cadet and Tempest scout 1 to office,
elsek to street, move cadet to street and felth to DB, flip.
His 3rd : He comes down with EPP Leia and Han to office and Taws Khaa to DB. I don´t have a barrier, he´s got 2 force left.
He initiates at the office and wants to play careful planning. I remind him that I have the first just action and play projective
telepathy. He senses, draws a 2. Then he plans and draws a 0. I trample Han, he has no other sense and I draw a 5. He draws
another 0 for battle destiny and has to loose 2 force for battle damage! Ozzel stays alive. Knowing my beatdown-ability he
moves Leia to DB.
My 3rd : Play tac. support to get irol, drelosyn and enfield. Use my objective to get trooper assault. Play barich, irol and
drelosyn to DB, initiate, play trooper assault. He hits barich, my power is 28 to his 8 so he looses Leia, Taws and 11 force. I
move felth to street and elsek to office( for free!).
His 4th : Plays EPP Luke to street and order to engage, draws a few.
My 4th : Use ralltiir to get trooper assault, play enfield and torent. Initiate, play trooper assault, he looses Luke plus 9 force, I
loose torent because he´s hit.
His 5th : He is frustrated and play Obi-wan to office an draws.
My 5th : Don´t use ralltiir, play Mara Jade and Davod Jon, initiate and he looses Obi-wan and 10 force.
His 6th : He activates his remaining 4 force and draws up.
Full win by 32! Kyle said he never lost that high for maybe 2 years. Everything went my way and I´m really happy now.
Game 3, DS against Bruce Savin There is good in him
Pretty uneventful game, Lord Vader grabs Luke on turn two, I flip on turn 3. Turns out he´s playing surprise assault but he was
never able to set up any destinies so I win by 26.
Game 4 LS against Matt Sokol, BHBM
Matt does virtually nothing in this game for the first turns. In retrospect I read from his report that he had a really bad hand and
plays a 3 card combo, hoth war room-responsibility of command-much anger in him. He didn´t get this combo going during our
game though. So I get all my systems out and two ships and flip and he´s just drawing! So I put Blount to emperor on DS:II. I
didn´t see him getting force lighting from deck but he had one in hand. Unfortunately he draws one of his war room for destiny.
So I get Han,Leia and Obi, hit him and draw sweet destinies and that´s game. Full win by 24.
Next day I said something like "Good thing he changed his dark, because the other deck was bad" and now every guy in
Albany seems to hate me. If you read this Matt, I meant just what I said, that ISB was maybe the best matchup you could get
and Yanick was well prepared for Bring him. I don´t want to offend you personally but that game was just a piece of cake for
me because you did virtually nothing all game long! Sure your deck beat a lot of other players but I only saw it in this one game
and it performed bad. Statement ended, congrats for being the world champion, take it easy.
Game 5. LS against John Arendt, Hunt Down
These days the first 2 or 3 turns go the same in nearly every game. So I got Honor with insight first turn, pull my 2 generals,
play Lando+Falcon to endor first turn, move to aquaris next turn etc.
He gets a docking bay first turn, can´t deploy, next turn he searches for another DB and there is none so I can see his deck.
He´s playing a lot of interrupts, real high destiny stuff but no SAC. One turn before I flip he must have seen there´s a lot of ships
in his force pile so he draws nearly all of it. I play used grimtaash and he looses all of them to the used pile again. He set up
search and and destroy with Vader at one site and Emperor and Mara (?) at another site. He only left one force though and I´m
holding draw their fire. So he can´t really play all he´s got in his hand. I get down with Leia, General Solo, Luke and Blount. I
play I know to add 2 destinies and he pays his one force to cancel it with Scruffy looking nerf herder. WTF! Anyway, I had
tracked a destiny so I hit Vader and he looses a bunch of cards and search and destroy. When he found my base he only had 2
battlegrounds so I only loose 5 force to security precautions and I win by 22.
So now I´m 5-0 with one time win and I only need to win one more game to be in top 12. One out of three and I´m playing
dark twice. It sounded so easy yet it proved to be real difficult.
Game 6, DS against Martin Akusson, Y4-throne room with DBs and the super home one
He´s playing Hoth and Home one DB and a bunch of twix sites. We practiced that match on friday night and we split the two
games we played. This time he owned me big time. Difference to Kyle was Marten playing Batlle Plan. I never found the time
and resources to go to space so I can´t drain him while we skirmish over ralltiir. He never leaves anybody alone so Order to
engage does me in. Loss by 27
Game 7, LS against Kyle Craft RalOps with big power
I get a real big start with 3 systems in my hand but against Ralltiir I expect a very hard match. But with only 1 match against
Ralltiir in 8 games I selected the right deck in my eyes. I don´t remember why, but I get to see his deck on first turn. Lot´s of
big power stuff, sabers for Mara and Darth but also tempest scouts and at-st pilots. So first turn I don´t go to Ralltiir but
Aquaris to generate a bit extra. Second turn get Lando to Ralltiir and Green Squadron 3 to Aquaris. His turn he sets up at 3
sites with Emperor, tempest scout with pilot and Mara Jade. My turn I can´t attack but I hold General Solo and I know so I
send Solo down to the planet to delay his flip. So I can´t decide where I should go Emperor or Mara, Mara or Emperor and
finally I put him down with Mara. Then I start picking up cards and I suddenly feel really bad. You know where I just put Solo
down? At the swamp! No reacts for me!! So i thought, play it cool, maybe he won´t notice. He stretches a bit to flip, get 4th
site down from reserve, deploy an lone at-st pilot there, deploy dengar in ship to system. I barrier dengar, well knowing he
can´t deploy a passenger to soak battle damage. He plays another tempest scout with pilot to mara and initiates. I play I know
and search reserve for Leia and he let´s me. I don´t give a f*** if it was unethical or whatever, this was worlds. Plus I didn´t
want to look dumb for deploying Solo and then let him beat the snot out of him. I take out the tempest with pilot but couldn´t hit
Mara with Leia. He wants to move Dengar but I remind him of the barrier, he draws everything except one to react with the
tempest scout at the desert ( with sandwhirl on it, he played it in advance). So I have one more chance to hit the lone pilot he
needed to flip. I´m having beggar in hand and Insurrection out and a tunnel vision in hand. But I need EPP Luke or Obi to inflict
some real damage. So I check my deck during activate phase with 7 cards in it and there´s the DB and both EPPs! I activate 2
more and guess what, the DB was in those two force. I beat down Dengar but can´t flip him back and against a flipped Ralltiir
with all bases covered my deck just looks silly. Full loss by 16.
Game 8 DS against Gary Carman, non-flip HB with huge activation
ARGH! I know there´s not a lot of scrubs in day 2 of worlds but couldn´t I at least get a semi-scrub?! He started staging areas,
Insurrection and Strike planning. First turn he grabs Crix, Dagobah and yodas hut, home one docking bay, puts down crix and
grabs blount. Second turn Endor and Hoth docking bay and he activates silly amounts of force. I flip and he comes down with
the new Wedge, Tycho Celchu and Kal Fal C´ndros. He plays Bacta Tank and Order to engage and everytime I get a combo
down to draw a second destiny he played barrier and moved. He sensed stuff like trample and when EPP Obi joined the party,
things were getting out of hand, he played clash of sabers, sorry about the mess etc. It was pretty clear that he won so I let him
initiated the battles with first strike and draw their fire out because he said that he might need the differential. I think he finished
the day at 9th or 10th anyway.
So thats it, I was out. After winning 5 straight I couldn´t finish the job. I played a lot of pickup games the next day with my
Brangus Glee Superstar and ISB / ties and entered the japanese sealed on saturday night. I got a lot of crap and Arconas are
really silly in that enviroment. My space consisted of one Tie fighter, one Tie vanguard and Black 4. My first opponent had 2
corvettes. I dropped after the first game and headed for the bar. Sunday I didn´t want to play in the team event because I never
played a single game with the new cards. So I played Brangus Glee in the kibitz tournament. I actually didn´t do a lot of
kibitzing, it was just a nonsanctioned tournament. If you haven´t read the description, during this tournament you were allowed
to watch the other games, comment on game plays, errors etc. I lost the first game by 6. My opponent started the usual EBO
start. So did his neighbour. When they saw that, they exchanged decks to make it more interesting! Really cool! During the
games they said things like "You should play Ice Storm in here, I play one in my deck" / "I know, but it´s absolutely useless in
my game". Made loosing much more fun. I then won the remaining 3 games with high diff ending 6 (+95). I played one
undefeated in my last game and there was one more. So after finishing my game I go over to their table and ask his opponent
how he´s doing. He answered " Not good, I think I´m loosing". So I said " No way you´re loosing, show me your hand!".
Together we pull it of and I win the tournament because of him winning this game and get one of the ultracool grey t-shirts.
Kyle Heuer told me they were about three times as expensive as white ones but they look awesome! I played some more really
cool games the whole day, especially against TJ Holman, this was my funniest game ever!!!
This report is allready way to long so I cut the props allthough some people think it´s the best thing about TRs.
I just want to say thank you to everybody I played or talked to over the entire con, it was a great experience and I hope to
meet everybody again next year.
Bastian Winkelhaus
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