The Road to Worlds: Regionals Wrap-Up, First Edition

by Lucas Thompson, Ambassador

8th July 2016

Congratulations to all of this year's winners! Thanks for showing up year after year and keeping this community going. And also, thank you for writing just about half of the Road to Worlds, I really couldn't do it without you!

There are certainly some familiar factions showing up on the list, but there are also plenty of new ones too. The new, shiny mirror quadrant factions, in all their various flavors, seem to be able to hang with the old guards (Bajoran Resistance Cell, Son'a... I think TNG counts as the establishment now too). I think that's a sign of a healthy game, where the new stuff doesn't get outshined by the old, nor does it get overwhelmed by what came before it.

We have seen some new(-ish) themes amongst the winning decks this year. Process Ore: Mining and Habit of Disappearing have definitely made a splash - both are seedable additional end of turn draws. Process Ore: Mining is more straightforward, we've seen its ilk before with Duck Blind, though the bonus points are new in a seedable draw engine. It can also be used in the historically less active Delta Quadrant, keeping the 2 Geology relatively safe from harm, though again we've seen a fair number of Delta winners this year.

Habit of Disappearing is a different creature - discarding cards you haven't drawn isn't much of a cost, I expect we've only scratched the surface of this card's potential. Even as a single seedable end of turn draw at the cost of increasing the size of your draw deck (which we've already been doing for years with Handshake) it's a great deal, but the potential taking advantage of a full discard pile is huge. In week two I compared it to The Hexany, and I think the comparison is still apt. This card opens up lots of interesting deckbuilding possibilities for those willing to experiment.

Another recurring theme has been that of free play engine flexibility. Protect the Timeline has been appealing not only because it makes Time Location-based decks more thematically appealing, but because it helps consolidate your play engines to a few locations. It also often overlaps in its free reporting with the Time Location itself, giving the player flexibility in how they choose to spend their free plays. Of course, there are also classic play engines that remain popular and display this versatility - I'm just sure I don't need to keep telling you about the virtues of Bajoran Resistance Cell.

So that's it: Australian and European Continentals and Gencon Masters are all that stand between us and Worlds in London. Have we already seen the winning decks? Will new tech emerge at the remaining major events? I can't wait to find out!

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