Hi! I'm John Crawford, the guy who won the regional at Art of War in Cincinnati on April 20.

First, let me clarify that there was a three-way tie for first place. It was a five round tournament; at the end, three players had 17 tournament points. Apparently I had the most difficult strength of schedule so I was declared the winner.

DECKS

Thanks to Red5ccg for posting my decks here: http://toptiergaming.com/forums/index.php?/forum/6-decks/.

Here is a quick summary:

LS: Jedi Affiliation, 4 x2, 8 x2, 11 x2, 17, 18, 38 x2

DS: Sith Affiliation, 23 x2, 26 x2, 32 x2, 35, 36, 41 x2

STRATEGY

LS: I knew going in that it was a risk to run a rebel deck, but I'd gone 8-0 with this deck before the start if the regional so I decided to go with it. The tournament had 60 minute rounds, and since this deck either wins quickly or loses quickly, I figured that it would help me finish two games each round. It worked in that regard, since I had no rounds go to time. I went 3-2 with this deck.

DS: I've run a variation of this deck since I started playing this game, and I absolutely adore it. It's a blast to play. I’m probably just being egotistical, but I believe that this deck is significantly more difficult to use that your standard Sith control deck. Like my LS deck, this deck is also very fast. Best of all, it has numerous tricks to slow down the “Smuggler’s Den” (or other Jedi) deck. Additionally, it destroys lots of objectives, which helps with differential/tiebreaker if I lose with my LS deck. I went 4-1 with this deck.

I played some very good gamers at this tournament, and everyone was very nice. Luckily, I had some very good draws.

By the way, I don’t use the forums much. A better way to keep track of me is to follow me on Twitter @desilijic78.

Posting this with a different color text:

Hi! I'm John Crawford, the guy who won the regional at Art of War in Cincinnati on April 20.

First, let me clarify that there was a three-way tie for first place. It was a five round tournament; at the end, three players had 17 tournament points. Apparently I had the most difficult strength of schedule so I was declared the winner.

DECKS

Thanks to Red5ccg for posting my decks here: http://toptiergaming.com/forums/index.php?/forum/6-decks/.

Here is a quick summary:

LS: Jedi Affiliation, 4 x2, 8 x2, 11 x2, 17, 18, 38 x2

DS: Sith Affiliation, 23 x2, 26 x2, 32 x2, 35, 36, 41 x2

STRATEGY

LS: I knew going in that it was a risk to run a rebel deck, but I'd gone 8-0 with this deck before the start if the regional so I decided to go with it. The tournament had 60 minute rounds, and since this deck either wins quickly or loses quickly, I figured that it would help me finish two games each round. It worked in that regard, since I had no rounds go to time. I went 3-2 with this deck.

DS: I've run a variation of this deck since I started playing this game, and I absolutely adore it. It's a blast to play. I’m probably just being egotistical, but I believe that this deck is significantly more difficult to use that your standard Sith control deck. Like my LS deck, this deck is also very fast. Best of all, it has numerous tricks to slow down the “Smuggler’s Den” (or other Jedi) deck. Additionally, it destroys lots of objectives, which helps with differential/tiebreaker if I lose with my LS deck. I went 4-1 with this deck.

I played some very good gamers at this tournament, and everyone was very nice. Luckily, I had some very good draws.

By the way, I don’t use the forums much. A better way to keep track of me is to follow me on Twitter @desilijic78.

I guess it's a good thing that I didn't manage to squeeze out one more point of damage with my LS deck against you and force a true draw. It would have cost you a point and the win without gaining me anything.

-Matt/dbmeboy/red5ccg/your round 2 opponent

I'm very curious to the reasoning behind splashing sith for the Emperor's pack, in the darkside trooper deck.

Swinging with an Emperor first to try and lock down a board is never a bad idea either.

dbmeboy is completely correct: the Royal Guard is critical for protecting the other characters, who are often each putting out 1-3 blast damage each. And TGO is right about the Emperor: he is the best controller in the game. Card for card, the Emperor's Web is among the best (if not the very best) objective set in the game.

And yes, dmeboy, I'm very lucky that you weren't able to take out another objective! Maybe we'll have a rematch soon (I'm considering going to the regional in Centerville, OH on 5/19).

4 out of 6 cards in the emperors set are really good, Sith Library is good ramp but the objective is not that good.

desilijic said:

I wouldn't complain about a rematch, but it looks like the only remaining regional I'll be able to make this year is the one in Bloomington, IN on 5/18.

How many players attended?

ScottieATF said:

26

dbmeboy said:

That's awesome!

Any insight on why the TO decided to not do a top cut? That many players, with the scoring varience in this game, was ripe for the type of situation that occured (the 3 way tie).

I think he just wanted everyone to get the chance to play more games. Also, the event started at 6pm (which was far too late), so cutting to top 8 after 4 rounds would have gone crazy late/early.

dbmeboy said:

That's the second regional I've heard starting that late. I don't know whatcsome venues are thinking.