Welcome back for another season of The Road to Worlds. Around this time every year, we have a three-month stretch where each region of play for the various Star Trek card games gets to have its "big dance." Whether the players of your locale are rated 1800 or don't know their rating, whether your nearest regional attracts 4 players or 40 players, once a year everyone brings their best decks and competes for their regional title. I'm here to celebrate with the winners, ask them what they think, and analyze their decks.
The very first Regional of the weekend was held in the Qo'noS region, in Oliver Springs, TN. It was won by Ryan Sutton, using a familiar deck:
Title: J-Drakeage with Southern Sutton Flair with Agriculture
Deck Archetype: Avoidance Solver
Play Engines: Finest Crew in the Fleet, Attention All Hands, Cybernetics Expertise, Holodeck Door, Going to the Top
Draw Engines: Continuing Mission, Handshake
Bonus Point Mechanics: Assign Mission Specialists, Drought Tree, Sarjenka, Particle Fountain
Ryan has again answered my call with the following insights:
Why did you choose the deck that you used? What other decks did you consider using?
I chose the deck I used because I wanted to play something that was really way different and unpredictable from what people would think I would play. I had also never played the Federation TNG Continuing Mission in a tournament. I knew they were great and had some neat tricks! The deck I used is HUGELY derivative of Jason's deck from Worlds Day 2. I put a couple of things in there to make it feel a little bit more like something I would build. Jason had specifically designed it for the bracket environment however after looking at the design I thought why not try it in a head to head swiss environment tournament. It was a risk to play 6 planets. However, it did pay off. I did hit a Balancing Act in my game against Matthew McClain. I ended up having to score 190 points. The deck handled itself well after hitting Balancing Act. I had heavily considered playing Borg, Dominion/Ferengi (Because I love them), Hirogen, and/or Bajoran/Cardassian.What sorts of decks were you hoping to face while playing your deck? What decks did you hope not to face?
I really hoped to face any deck without a Balancing Act in it due to making it easier for me to convert Unstable Matrix instead of having to go to 140/190. I was really dreading point-loss dilemmas like The Higher... The Fewer and Hazardous Duty and mega kill dilemmas like Denevan Neural Parasites because of the elimination of my Mission Specialists and point-loss. Hitting these dilemmas would cause me to have to do 3-4 mission to win depending on the deduction and kill selection.Prior to this tournament, did you have much experience playing this deck (or decks like it)? Did you learn anything new about it when you played it this time?
Prior to this tournament I had no experience playing another person with this deck. Jeremy (Arcanthas) and I practiced multiple times but I always played something different and never played this deck so he was unaware of what I was going to play as well. Good thing too since we played each other in the last round to determine the tournament victor.As far as experience playing decks like this: I have played Continuing Mission / Attention All Hands before but never the Federation flavor until this tournament. The deck worked perfectly the way I expected it to so I really didn't learn anything new about it. Except: I probably could have gone out a turn earlier in every game to attempt but I chose not to-to avoid a potential away team wipeout for not having double of a necessary skill that was targeted specifically for elimination before for something like Barclay's Protomorphosis Disease.
Did you use any situational cards (cards that you wouldn't expect to be useful in every game)? Are there any whose usefulness exceeded your expectations? Were there any that you wouldn't include if you played the deck again?
My favorite situational card that was always useful was Betazoid Gift Box. It is so handy in this deck to just grab what you need from your deck. I exchanged Betazoid Gift Box for the Blade of Tkon in the seed cards because I did not fear battle or Dead End as much as Jason did in his Worlds matches due mostly to the bracketing.Bluegill Infestation totally exceeded my expectations. The enhanced strength really helped in some hard to pass Strength walls like Founders Secret and Hanonian Land Eel seeded after something that stopped or killed 3-4 people in an away team. I had never used it in a deck before this one but I really liked it. As far as not including anything: I would probably remove a Dig from the draw deck. I always seemed to have two in my hand and situationally I never needed it the 2 copies of Vash (The Next Generation) can grab it for free.
What would you nominate as the MVP card from your deck?
Assign Mission Specialists and my 4 mission specialist were definitely the MVPs. The bonus points it/they generated for me in my 3 games were very important for me winning quickly.Do you have anything else you'd like to say about your deck?
I have to thank the heart of Jason's deck design for being so solid. It is a great fun deck to play and I thank him for sharing it in so much detail after Worlds.
My Commentary:When I labeled Michael Van Breemen's Terran Empire/BRC deck as an "Avoidance Solver", I paused to think if there were other decks that I would place in that category. I could think of two off the top of my head: Peter Ludwig's 2014 European Continentals Maquis deck, and Jason Drake's 2014 World Championships all-planet TNG Federation deck. Both decks accomplish their avoidance in different ways, and Peter's deck deserves plenty of attention on its own, but for obvious reasons I'll be focusing on Jason's/Ryan's deck here.
As I mentioned in my regional recap last year (my apologies for the dead image links), landing ships has and continues to be very powerful. Not only are landable ships often free through Hidden Fighter, not only do they satisfy "God" without being destroyed by "Him", not only do they avoid Transport Inhibitors and Murasaki Effects, but landed ships just can't get shot at without Orbital Bombardment or some really big hand weapons. The catch is, you've got to attempt a space mission sometime, right? Well, no, you don't; all you need to do, as Ryan sets up here, is either solve the Genesis Planet or just get 140 points. Michael noted last week that 140 points from 5 missions is rough, but what works so well about this deck is that mission specialists means that 140 points can easily come from only three.
Now, one of the first things I looked for when I went to compare Ryan's version to Jason's version was that artifact slot. I was of course disappointed to see Blade of Tkon go, but Betazoid Gift Box is also a huge treat to see (I still remember that I got one and Worf in my first starter deck, and they were both in most decks I built for quite some time). Now, seeding something that gives you draws when you solve a mission is already a fairly reasonable choice to make: see Explore Gamma Quadrant. Now, imagine that you didn't have fly back to the Alpha Quadrant to get those draws, and those draws were the exact three cards you needed. That's the power of the Betazoid Gift Box.
Of course, battle/Dead End avoidance is not the only use for the Blade of Tkon. With some experience playing all-planet myself, I had a follow-up question for Ryan:
I was curious if you noticed any pattern to your opponents' seeding of space dilemmas? Were they typically distributed evenly behind parts of real combos, or did you usually have at least one "free" mission with all space dilemmas beneath it?
In my game against Jeremy he only had one combo with any space dilemmas in it all the others were dual or planet. He shared this with me after the game. I play Jeremy a lot and we always try to psychologically mess with each other with were we will put our Dead End. I knew he would think I would not do attempt that one first as it was quite a distance from the Genesis Planet. I chose right with Jeremy as the mission I attempted first was the mission where he put his Space Combo. I cleared it and scored 50 points as I was "In the Zoned" - I then went to Genesis and solved for 55 then subtracted 5 for the win of 100. (In the Zone points just don't count towards winning that turn so I could score 55 then subtract 5.As for my game with David - Davis has been taught by me and this was his first OTF so he had no idea about Genesis and the flip to Space card. So he just randomly seeded. He had massive pointless dilemmas so I ended up just going for 140 in his game and not flipping. I believe that I hit one of his space combos but still got nailed with a Higher... The Fewer.
In my game against Matt - I scored 200 points and did not flip to Space card either. He had a Balancing Act and I hit it first mission as he predicted very well where I would attempt. I then attempted 2 more missions after my first and on the 4th mission I hit his Space combo. I don't believe that I hit more than 1 of anyone's space only combo.
As added info: I have found that most people don't use all Space or all Planets for a combo there is usually at least one dual in the combo.
Ryan's experience with dilemma seeds against all-planet decks lines up with mine: there tends to be one, lonely planet in the middle of nowhere that is a free ride. If you can find that planet, then Blade of Tkon could essentially read: get a free mission. However, if you use Betazoid Gift Box to get a couple Hidden Fighters, you can easily daisy-chain your way across the spaceline for the same effect.
As a side note: I had thought that In the Zone worked differently from the way Ryan describes above, but I tried to do some research and came out more confused than I was to begin with.
The last Regional of the weekend was held in the Andoria region in Roseville, MN. Kris Sonsteby took down this event with the following deck:
Title: Remember Who the Real Enemy Is...
Deck Archetype: Solver/Battle Hybrid
Play Engines: Always a Chess Game, Attention All Hands, Cybernetics Expertise, Office of the Proconsul
Draw Engines: Continuing Mission, Let's See What's Out There
Bonus Point Mechanics: Assign Mission Specialists, Always a Chess Game
Kris filled me in with some thoughts on his deck:
Why did you choose the deck that you used? What other decks did you consider using?
Contrary to popular belief, I have a handful of designs on the back burner, ranging from TNG Federation to DS9 Cardassian, and even a half baked iteration of First Contact Feds in addition to Hirogen, which was also on display this weekend. Ultimately, I stuck with TNG Romulan as it is the build I felt the most comfortable with, given my play style and the stakes.What sorts of decks were you hoping to face while playing your deck? What decks did you hope not to face?
I wasn’t really hoping to face anything in particular, as with a player base as deep as ours up here in greater MN Land it is often anyone’s guess who will be bringing what. This was no more evident than last month’s Local League finale, which ended in a bizarre Vidiian vs. Vidiian match where the deadliest zombies took home the title.As to what I did not want to face, I was a bit concerned about a mirror match versus Romulan, as duplicating missions is just flat out gross and I end up playing handicapped without the ability to battle my opponent at will. Naturally, this exact scenario played out in the opening match on Sunday. Murphy’s Law in motion right there!
Prior to this tournament, did you have much experience playing this deck (or decks like it)? Did you learn anything new about it when you played it this time?
I have had some success with this design in the past, the most notable being a clean sweep victory over the airwaves in February’s Online League event that felt more like a Cyber Masters tournament than anything else. That experience proved invaluable though, as coming out on top in one of the toughest fields you’ll find anywhere was a terrific stress test leading into the Minnesota Regional.Did you use any situational cards (cards that you wouldn't expect to be useful in every game)? Are there any whose usefulness exceeded your expectations? Were there any that you wouldn't include if you played the deck again?
About the only truly situational cards I stock are the personnel that I can fetch with I’m a Doctor, Not a Bricklayer. Keras has been a staple for awhile despite limited use due to his ease of skating around the ever popular Personal Duty -> Friendly Fire combo, and The Viceroy made a guest appearance this time out as a secondary way to bypass Executive Authorization, which sees a great deal of play locally. While neither hit the table this weekend, I’m not certain either would ever get cut in favor of something else, as I’d much rather have them at my disposal and not need them than need them and not have them.What would you nominate as the MVP card from your deck?
Over the handful of times I have played this design, the MVP has varied from tournament to tournament. When last I played it live, the MVP was shockingly You Are a Monument. When I ran the build online a few months ago, the key to victory was Edo Probe. This time around, the most vital card was Dr. McCoy, who ate a Scientific Method in round 3 to win a nail biter against my running mate and then cleared a Medical Crisis in round 4 to effectively lock up the Regional win.Do you have anything else you'd like to say about your deck?
Not about the deck, but I do want to give a quick shout out to all who traveled and the local crew who came out to play this weekend. As both victor and Chairman of T2E Entertainment, I am very proud of the huge attendance numbers we put up, and more so of the level of sportsmanship on display the entire weekend. I am truly honored to play with such a great group of people, and expect nothing less from those that make up The Land of 10,000 Champions.
My Commentary:
Kris' TNG Romulan deck also fits in smaller category than most. I mean, it is definitely a solver: it has four fully stocked play engines, it includes dilemma busting tricks like Dr. McCoy -> Bricklayer -> Keras (when, frankly, even seeing McCoy in a TNG deck would be enough), and it doesn't include an overwhelming number of ships. However, it is a deck that is perfectly capable of putting up a fight: all four ships have matching commanders (with three cards that download Captain's Log in the deck), and there's even a Battle Bridge side deck! Kris' deck occupies a rare "hybrid" spot that will solve missions effectively while still being tough to outgun.
Kris's dilemmas effectively support his hybrid theme too. Three of his dilemmas will damage an opponent's ship, giving him the chance to take that attack of opportunity. Additionally, with the Battle Bridge side deck, the damage will also thin out the opponent's personnel. Likewise, also among his dilemmas are stalling classics like Scows and Chula: The Game - dilemmas that won't lock someone out on their own, but will likely stall them long enough for either (a) an opposing solver to win or (b) an opposing Warbird to swoop in and destroy.
I also had a follow-up question for Kris, due to recently attempting to adapt his TNG Romulan deck to use the Handshake draw engine:
I know that at Worlds, you adapted a similar deck to have a route to the Delta Quadrant after losing to a DQ-based deck on day one. The deck that you played last weekend used the Let's See What's Out There draw engine again, but the Barzan Wormhole is gone, yet you still triumphed over a DQ-based deck. In short, how have you adapted your strategy to deal with non-Alpha Quadrant decks when you're using Let's See What's Out There as a draw engine?
The huge caveat to this statement is that I defeated a DQ deck of my own creation. As such, I knew precisely which Referee cards to get out when, and benefited greatly whenever Nat played a copy of Kivas Fajo: Collector thanks to Mirror Image. On top of that, I knew all of his dilemma combos, and even if I didn’t know precisely which ones were placed where I was still able to use that knowledge to minimize the damage during mission attempts.Obviously, LSWOT is meant to be a card play in exchange for four draws, yet even when you do not meet the requirements you still get two draws for a card play, which isn’t terrible. Against non-AQ builds, forcing them to 140 points via You Are a Monument has usually been enough to buy me the time to get to 100 even without the bonus LSWOT draws, as we are both essentially playing the long game. And if a non-AQ player attempts to skirt YAaM by attempting an AQ mission, I can likely delay or outright halt their progress with ship or personnel battle.
I've been hesitant to try LSWOT myself due to concerns that it would under-perform against the delta quadrant; it looks like I may just need to try it out for myself. However, I wouldn't pin my lack of success with the Handshake engine on the engine itself, but more with my inexperience at playing a hybrid deck; in one game I battled too little, and in the next I think I battled too much (and both opponents were well prepared for battle). Kris definitely has the battle to solving ratio in the "just right" column, and it worked out quite well for him.
See you tomorrow for the Second Edition results!
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