The Road to Worlds 2012, Week 7

by James Hoskin, Director of Organized Play

10th May 2012

This is a weekly series that aims to preview upcoming Regional tournaments, review Regional tournaments that have just taken place, highlight winning decks, interview players, and more. Last week's article was The Road to Worlds 2012, Week 6.

How can you contribute to this series? First and foremost, I am relying on results and deck lists being promptly entered into this site. I can't write about them otherwise. Other ways you can help include: taking photos, interviewing players, writing previews, and providing background information. Any other way to help the community be a part of your Regional tournament would be appreciated, too. Contact details are at the end of this article.

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Week 6 Review

Saturday 5th May		Sunday 6th May
First Edition (OTF) Tara's Place 11442 76 Avenue NW Edmonton, AB T6G 1N4 Canada [Results]	Second Edition (Standard) Tjark's Place Sankt-Josef-Strasse 29 56068 Koblenz Germany [Results]	Tribbles (Standard) Claytons Hobbies and Collectables 5 Paul Court Baulkham Hills, NSW 2153 Australia [Results]	First Edition (Sealed) Restaurant "Peking" Brabantse Turfmarkt 78 2611 CP Delft The Netherlands [Results]
Tribbles (Standard) Tjark's Place Sankt-Josef-Strasse 29 56068 Koblenz Germany [Cancelled]	Tribbles (Standard) Arby's Restaurant 7110 Clairemont Mesa Blvd San Diego, CA 92111 United States [Results]	Second Edition (Standard) Restaurant "Peking" Brabantse Turfmarkt 78 2611 CP Delft The Netherlands [Results]	Second Edition (Standard) Jazzland Franz-Josefs-Kai 29 A-1010 Vienna Austria [Results]
Second Edition (Standard) Fantasy Flight Games Event Center Suite 10 1975 Oakcrest Avenue Roseville, MN 55113 United States [Results]	Tribbles (Standard) Fantasy Flight Games Event Center Suite 10 1975 Oakcrest Avenue Roseville, MN 55113 United States [Results]	First Edition (OTF) Cranberry Cafe 115 West 45th Street New York, NY 10036-4005 United States [Awaiting Results]
Second Edition (Standard) The Guardtower 3600 Trabue Road Columbus, OH 43204 United States [Results]	Tribbles (Standard) The Guardtower 3600 Trabue Road Columbus, OH 43204 United States [Results]
Second Edition (Standard) Deathbymonkeys Place 253 NE Fairgrounds Road Apt 202 Bremerton, WA 98311 United States [Results]

Tara's Place: This First Edition Rura Penthe Regional attracted eight players, including a contingent of players making the trip from Vancouver. One of them was Kenneth Tufts (Worf Son of Mogh), the number one player in the world. He was undefeated over four rounds; and extended his winning streak to 37 games and twelve tournaments. Kenneth was playing a Starfleet/Klingon deck unimaginatively titled "OTF - Starfleet/Kling Treaty deck". His closest challenger was local player Thomas Solway (tksolway), playing a Klingon Android deck titled "Androids are not Vulcans". Kenneth and Thomas played each other in the third round. At Kenneth's first mission attempt, he was hit by Cytherians and ended up stuck in a two-turn loop caused by Paxan "Wormhole". He eventually escaped though, and went on to blow up Thomas' ships with the Enterprise to buy himself more time, which meant he could go on to win the game. Five deck lists and four tournament reports can be found on the tournament results page.

Statistics from Tara's Place:

Total achievements awarded	16
Most achievements won	Kenneth Tufts (Worf Son of Mogh) with 5
Average achievements per player	2.0
Biggest ratings gain	Kenneth Tufts (Worf Son of Mogh), up 21 points to 1840; and Thomas Solway (tksolway), up 21 points to 1660
Average rating of all 8 players	1533

Winner	James' Prediction	Kris' Prediction	Jim's Prediction	Tyler's Prediction
Kenneth Tufts	Kenneth Tufts	Kenneth Tufts	Kenneth Tufts	Kenneth Tufts

Tjark's Place (Second Edition): Seven players participated in this Vandros IV Regional. Tournament director, Thomas Schneider (thsch), was undefeated over five rounds playing a Maquis deck titled "Tyler's Legendary Civilization". This was Thomas' second Regional title in the Continuing Committee-era. Host Tjark Ott (tjark) took second place with a Voyager deck titled "Set a course... for home. ver. 1.5", having suffered just one loss (to Thomas) in the third round. Thomas writes in his report that Tjark had some very bad luck in their game: He played Moral Choice against a team with three or four Federation personnel and didn't draw one of them, he played Personal Duty against a team with only one Leadership/Officer personnel, and he played An Issue of Trust against a team with only one Honor/Treachery personnel. Six deck lists and one tournament report can be found on the tournament results page.

Statistics from Tjark's Place:

Total achievements awarded	8
Most achievements won	Florian Ott (h3on) with 4
Average achievements per player	1.1
Biggest ratings gain	Thomas Schneider (thsch), up 47 points to 1821
Average rating of all 7 players	1605

Winner	James' Prediction	Kris' Prediction	Jim's Prediction	Tyler's Prediction
Thomas Schneider	Thomas Schneider	Tobias Rausmann	An Ott	Thomas Schneider

Tjark's Place (Tribbles): Sadly, this tournament was cancelled due to a lack of players. It will be rescheduled. Keep an eye on the Regional Championships forum to see when.

Arby's Restaurant: This Tribbles Regional in the Risa Region attracted ten players. MilesStuntDouble dominated the first preliminary heat, with a 72-card deck titled "Either Utilize is Broken Or I was Really Lucky" that only had three different cards in it. He scored 741,131 Tribbles in a high scoring heat, with almost 2.2 million Tribbles scored between all five players. The second heat didn't see nearly as much scoring, with the five players only scoring a total of 1.1 million Tribbles between them. Achievement master Rogue Shindler (SirRogue) won that heat to set up an exciting finale. Mr. Double and Rogue scored 85% of the Tribbles between them on the final table. In the end, Rogue edged it with 604,215 Tribbles, just 60,062 Tribbles ahead of Mr. Double. Seven deck lists can be found on the tournament results page.

Statistics from Arby's Restaurant:

Total achievements awarded	4
Most achievements won	Mrs. Holeva (Mrs. Holeva) with 4
Average achievements per player	0.4
Total Tribbles Scored	2,208,346
Average Tribbles scored by all 10 players	220,835

Winner	James' Prediction	Kris' Prediction	Jim's Prediction	Tyler's Prediction
Rogue Shindler	Jesse Hallmark	Dan Hamman	Johnny Holeva	Rogue Shindler

Fantasy Flight Games Event Center (Second Edition): This Andoria Regional was the seventh Regional to hit a double figure attendance this year, attracting 18 players from four states. After the dust settled on five rounds of intense action, nobody was undefeated; and four players had suffered just one loss. They were Josh Grace (Unicrom), playing Next Generation; Kris Sonsteby (LORE), playing a Klingon deck titled "...You Must Kill Your Name Before He Kills You"; Kevin Jaeger (Hoss-Drone), playing a Bajoran / Deep Space 9 deck titled "Insomnia"; and Matthew Hayes (karonofborg13), playing a Voyager deck titled "I Hate Voyager! [in both editions of our game, that is, not the show specifically]". Kris had beaten Matthew 100-95 in round one, Josh beat Kevin 95-55 in round four with a modified win, and Matthew beat Josh 100-40 in found five. Josh's modified win put him in fourth place; while Strength of Schedule put Kris in third, Kevin as runner-up and gave Matthew the title. It was all very close, and a number of factors; including any one result from several being reversed, or different pairings in round five; would have resulted in the top three players finishing in a different order. 13 deck lists and six tournament reports can be found on the tournament results page, and an interview with Matthew Hayes is below.

Kevin Jaeger (Hoss-Drone) interviews his opponents:
Round 1: Jeremy Benedict (flrazor)	Round 2: Zach Magnuson (MrOberth)	Round 3: Ben Johnson (mindmage)	Round 5: Michael Van Breemen (The Ninja Scot)

Statistics from Fantasy Flight Games Event Center:

Total achievements awarded	15
Most achievements won	Justin Kaufman (CrimsonRavage) with 3
Average achievements per player	0.8
Biggest ratings gain	Josh Grace (Unicrom), up 41 points to 1706
Average rating of all 18 players	1594

Winner	James' Prediction	Kris' Prediction	Jim's Prediction	Tyler's Prediction
Matthew Hayes	Kris Sonsteby	Kris Sonsteby	Josh Sheets	Nat Kirton

Fantasy Flight Games Event Center (Tribbles): The Andoria Region double-header concluded with 15 players contesting this Tribbles Regional. The first of three preliminary heats saw Jeremy Benedict (flrazor), playing a Rescue deck titled "Rescue, Go, Replay, the 2nd!", victorious with 543,774 Tribbles. The second table was won by Amber Van Breemen (Marquetry), playing a Rescue deck titled "First deck"; and the third table was won by her husband Michael Van Breemen (The Ninja Scot), playing a Rescue deck titled "Real cards". It only took 20 minutes to finish the final table. Michael put up the best fight of the three previous winners, but he ended up in second place behind Mike Harrington (Ajnaran). Mike's deck hasn't been entered yet, but it sounds like he was playing Discard in a Toxin-light environment. Nine deck lists and three tournament reports can be found on the tournament results page.

Statistics from Fantasy Flight Games Event Center:

Total achievements awarded	25
Most achievements won	Amber Van Breemen (Marquetry) with 11
Average achievements per player	1.7
Total Tribbles Scored	2,997,170
Average Tribbles scored by all 15 players	199,811

Winner	James' Prediction	Kris' Prediction	Jim's Prediction	Tyler's Prediction
Mike Harrington	Jeremy Benedict	Steve Nelson	Jeremy Benedict	Matthew Hayes

The Guardtower (Second Edition): This Qo'noS Regional wasn't the biggest attraction in Columbus, Ohio on Sunday. It seems the President was in town. Reports that he wanted to play, but was intimidated by his opposition are unconfirmed. The five players played round-robin, and everyone suffered at least one loss. The game that would decide the tournament occurred in round four, when Joel Skon (RedAlucard) played Joshua Sheets (prylardurden). Joel was playing a Voyager deck titled Kitchen Sink, and Josh was playing a Cardassian / Romulan deck titled "Romulan Cardassian Contamination". Josh won the game 70-65 because, in Joel's words, "Josh knows how to throw dilemmas"; but that modified loss meant Joel finished the tournament with one more victory point than Joel. If Josh had taken the full win, he would have won the tournament. As it was, this turned out to be Joel's first Regional title in the Continuing committee-era. Congratulations Joel! Four deck lists and two tournament reports can be found on the tournament results page.

Statistics from The Guardtower:

Total achievements awarded	6
Most achievements won	Neal Lawson (Onomy) with 3
Average achievements per player	1.2
Biggest ratings gain	Joshua Sheets (prylardurden), up 58 points to 1485
Average rating of all 5 players	1573

Winner	James' Prediction	Kris' Prediction	Jim's Prediction	Tyler's Prediction
Joel Skon	Jared Hoffman	Jared Hoffman	Joshua Sheets	Jared Hoffman

The Guardtower (Tribbles): With one player departing and another arriving, there were five players for this Tribbles Regional. Reports the President wanted to play, but couldn't because his dog ate his deck are unconfirmed. In a hotly contested tournament, there were just 1,014 Tribbles between the top two players by the end. Brian Sykes (Armus), playing a Freeze deck titled "You Can't Do That Again!", went out in the first three rounds and ended up with a score of 324,331 Tribbles; but Neal Lawson (Onomy), playing a Bonus deck titled "Deny the Bonus", overtook him by going out in round four for 325,345 Tribbles. With neither player going out in the fifth round, Neal was crowned Regional champion - his first title in the Continuing Committee-era. Five deck lists and one tournament report can be found on the tournament results page.

Statistics from The Guardtower:

Total achievements awarded	10
Most achievements won	Neal Lawson (Onomy) with 7
Average achievements per player	2.0
Total Tribbles Scored	762,899
Average Tribbles scored by all 5 players	152,580

Winner	James' Prediction	Kris' Prediction	Jim's Prediction	Tyler's Prediction
Neal Lawson	Joshua Sheets	Joshua Sheets	Joshua Sheets	Joshua Sheets

Deathbymonkeys Place: This Second Edition Ferenginar Regional attracted four players. Last year's winner, John Kalmen (deathslittlebro) made it back-to-back wins, playing a Original Series deck titled "TOS Swarm". 30% of his 63-card deck cost less than 2 counters to play, and just one card (Sarek) had a cost of 4 or more.  While the other players all had two or more copies of Moral Choice in their dilemma piles, they didn't have enough anti-weenie dilemmas to keep up with John's deck. Deathbymonkeys took second place with a Starfleet deck titled "Space Healing". Four deck lists and one tournament report can be found on the tournament results page.

Statistics from Deathbymonkeys Place:

Total achievements awarded	8
Most achievements won	John Kalmen (deathslittlebro) with 7
Average achievements per player	2.0
Biggest ratings gain	John Kalmen (deathslittlebro), up 31 points to 1682
Average rating of all 4 players	1538

Winner	James' Prediction	Kris' Prediction	Jim's Prediction	Tyler's Prediction
John Kalmen	John Kalmen	John Kalmen	Deathbymonkeys	Deathbymonkeys

Claytons Hobbies and Collectables: Five players took part in this Kazon Collective Regional on the outskirts of Sydney, Australia. With Masaka and Utilize dominating proceedings, the tournament was over in 25 minutes. The first four rounds were all shortened by Masaka, with two players going out with around 100,000 Tribbles scored, and another going out twice with around 10,000 Tribbles scored each time. Masaka wasn't played in the fifth round as players tried to crank up their score, but an Antidote revealed to a Poison cut the round short. At the end, Steve Hartmann (chompers), playing a Go deck titled "RD - Replay Discard / Rescue Discard / Regional Deck", lead the field with a score of 431,156 Tribbles. It was his Antidote, and two scores of 100,000 Tribbles from Utilize in the third round that won him the tournament. Without those points, second place finisher Mike Nugent (Iron Mike) and third place finisher Daniel Waller (Walzo) would have been in with a good chance of winning, as they were only just over 300,000 Tribbles behind Steve. Four deck lists and two tournament reports can be found on the tournament results page.

Statistics from Claytons Hobbies and Collectables:

Total achievements awarded	3
Most achievements won	Steve Hartmann (chompers), Clayton Walton and Peter Hill (leonardmccoy); with 1 each
Average achievements per player	0.6
Total Tribbles Scored	664,781
Average Tribbles scored by all 5 players	132,956

Winner	James' Prediction	Kris' Prediction	Jim's Prediction	Tyler's Prediction
Steve Hartmann	Clayton Walton	Steve Hartmann	Mike Nugent	Steve Hartmann

Restaurant "Peking" (First Edition): Four players participated in this First Edition New Bajor Regional. Each was given a The Next Generation starter deck, so there were two Federation decks and two Klingon decks being used. Everyone's pick to win, Enrico Evink (enrico81), did just that with one of the Federation decks. This was Enrico's third Regional win in the Continuing committee-era, and his second title this year. Arjan Hoek (arjan242) was runner-up with one of the Klingon decks. Four deck lists can be found on the tournament results page.

Statistics from Restaurant "Peking":

Total achievements awarded	8
Most achievements won	Enrico Evink (enrico81) with 5
Average achievements per player	2.0
Biggest ratings gain	Enrico Evink (enrico81), up 29 points to 1704
Average rating of all 4 players	1566

Winner	James' Prediction	Kris' Prediction	Jim's Prediction	Tyler's Prediction
Enrico Evink	Enrico Evink	Enrico Evink	Enrico Evink	Enrico Evink

Restaurant "Peking" (Second Edition): This New Bajor Regional was rescheduled after a lack of interest from players last week. Four participated this week as part of a double-header with the First Edition Regional. Enrico Evink (enrico81), playing a Romulan deck titled "Regional 2E deck on loan", continued his good form with three more wins and added a second Regional title to his haul for the day. Enrico has now completed the 2012 Regional trifecta of First Edition, Second Edition and Tribbles Regional titles - all within eight days. I don't think anyone else has ever managed that. Congratulations Enrico! Rem Boon (Boon of Bolian) was runner-up, playing a Deep Space 9 / Next Generation deck titled "Fed regional", having only lost to Enrico. Four deck lists can be found on the tournament results page.

Statistics from Restaurant "Peking":

Total achievements awarded	7
Most achievements won	Enrico Evink (enrico81) with 3
Average achievements per player	1.8
Biggest ratings gain	Rem Boon (Boon of Bolian), up 37 points to 1421
Average rating of all 4 players	1514

Winner	James' Prediction	Kris' Prediction	Michael's Prediction
Enrico Evink	Enrico Evink	Enrico Evink	Peter H. Møller

Jazzland: Five players took part in this "Borg Region" Regional. It was a round-robin event were four of the five decks were blue. Three-time previous winner of this Regional, Stefan Slaby (Winner of Borg), that dominated proceedings with his Voyager deck titled "Leave No Survivors". He extended his current winning streak to 20 games and four tournaments, and breached the 1900 ratings barrier too. Tournament director, Julius Melhardt (Clerasil ToB) took second place with a Next Generation deck titled "Guinan's Solving Team 2.0", having only lost to Stefan. The other three players were playing Cardassian, Deep Space 9 and Next Generation decks. Four deck lists can be found on the tournament results page.

Statistics from Jazzland:

Total achievements awarded	1
Most achievements won	Helmuth Auberger (Aubi) with 1
Average achievements per player	0.2
Biggest ratings gain	Michael Albrecht (Ein Gast...), up 27 points to 1627
Average rating of all 5 players	1654

Winner	James' Prediction	Kris' Prediction	Jim's Prediction	Tyler's Prediction
Stefan Slaby	Stefan Slaby	Stefan Slaby	Julius Melhardt	Stefan Slaby

Cranberry Cafe: The results for this First Edition Regional have not been entered yet. When they are, a review will be added to this article.

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Interview

This week, Matthew Hayes (karonofborg13); The man at the top of the achievement leaderboard, the top ranking Tribbles breeder in the world, and winner of the largest Regional so far this year; answers my questions.

James: Congratulations on your win. In preparation for the tournament, what decks did you consider playing?
Matthew: Original Series, Deep Space 9, Dominion, Romulan, and Voyager.

James: What decks did you expect to face?
Matthew: Cadets, Maquis, Romulans, something extremely funky à la Michael Van Breemen, Motion Pictures Original Series; just about anything, actually.

James: Federation decks, and TNG in particular, has been very popular at Regionals this year. Why didn't you include Moral Choice in your dilemma pile?
Matthew: That's a fairly good question. I suppose, I didn't want it to be a dead draw when up against the non-Federation decks. Pretty much the only one of the Federation decks I was really concerned about encountering was the Cadet deck type, which has been way too prevalent for some years now. The In Development and Preventative Repercussions I included were meant to deal with such nuisances, as well as the other occasional "weenie" decks that are more offensive than the occasional non-Cadet Federation solvers.

James: Can you describe how your Voyager deck works, and highlight any special tricks in there?
Matthew: The deck list is here. My initial build point was centered around giving Ezri Tigan to my opponent (a fairly easy feat, considering she's a focal target for many of the choice dilemmas, such as Pitching In, Polywater Intoxication, Dark Page, Night Terrors, and others) in order to net the 10 additional points off of my primary space mission, Seek Savior. Tallera can net 5 more points. And the two mission kill can be completed with a somewhat similar skill set found on Reestablish Neural Cooperative. I backed up Seek Savior with Instruct Advanced Drone and Hurried Departure if I had to modify my plans and/or mission target. The rest of the deck used all the usual Voyager shenanigans; the Chuckles brothers, Seven of Nine (Efficient Analyst), pre-errata Finding Our Way, Rebuilding the Fleet, etc.

James: Up against such a competitive field, you must have thought you'd lost your chance to take the title after your first round defeat to Kris Sonsteby?
Matthew: Certainly so. It wasn't until after the final game, when I had scored four victories in a row, and upon discovering that both Kris Sonsteby and Kevin Jaeger had also finished with 4-1 records; that I was on "pins and needles" and extremely curious to see who earned the top spot when the dust settled, and the tiebreakers were applied.

James: How were those four victories in a row?
Matthew: Very good, very fun, and very competitive. Some more than others, notably Jeremy's Cardassian deck, which gave me fits between the capturing and The Central Command/Comfort Women jank I've run a few times myself.

James: Who was your toughest opponent?
Matthew: That would have to be a tie between Kris Sonsteby (as he's a highly competitive player and a tough one to beat) and Jeremy Benedict (as he's always a smart, strategic opponent with strong decks.)

James: Now the tournament is over, and with the new errata just announced, how would you go about improving the deck? (if at all.)
Matthew: Actually, the title of my deck hits the nail on the head. After successfully reactivating our local playgroup back in 2007/08, our top level player, Jody Lamb, drove most - if not all - of our players nuts by playing Voyager with their jank ad nauseum for about three years. We tried and tried to come up with ways to defeat it, and while some of us had limited success with a couple of cards/strategies, we never could really get him to put them aside, for the most part. Having read up recently on some interesting successes that a few of the Australian players had employed, specifically the Shock Trooper trick to recycle Revised Chuckles, a strategy I hadn't ever contemplated before (and wanted to try my hand at before it would've been nerfed); I inferred that errata was coming down the pike, and wanted to see if I could help put the final nail into the coffin, as it were, if errata hadn't been issued this month/week.

James: Moving on to Tribbles, what decks were you considering playing?
Matthew: Just my current build, an IDIC rainbow monster that I have an affinity for, as I'm a strong proponent/supporter of variety/diversity.

James: What decks did you expect to face?
Matthew: The usual behemoths; Discard, Poison, Rescue.

James: You're the top scoring Tribbles breeder in the world, yet you only managed 11,202 Tribbles in the preliminary round, and 2,033 Tribbles in the final round. What went wrong?
Matthew: Yeah, not that great of a breeding total. I got Poisoned for a few 100,000's (not my Antidotes sadly), and my tables went out before I could build up a nice play pile and attempt to do so myself. Oh well. Sometimes you get the fuzzies and sometimes the fuzzies get you!

James: Now the tournament is over, how would you improve the deck?
Matthew: Probably consider swapping out some of the copies of 100,000 (Assimilate) for a few more Antidotes of same value.

James: I can't let you go without talking achievements. You now have more than half of the available achievements, and over 100 more than the second highest achievement earner. Is it still possible to pick off "easy" achievements, or are you having to work on the "do something 5 or 10 times" achievements now?
Matthew: That's pretty much it. I've been looking at what I need to play to start racking up the "5/10 of each" affiliation achievements. While also trying to concoct what might be the hidden achievements specific to the given affiliations that haven't been earned yet (those besides the "No Tattoos, Bizarro TOS, Call off the Dogs, Limited Resources, ones etc.) Some of which I've already whiffed at in trying to accomplish just such and put a few more "feathers in my cap" - as the saying goes.

James: I asked this last year and you rebuffed me, so I’ll try again. What's the next achievement you're aiming to win?
Matthew: Well, the big one I was trying to unveil, one I had hoped existed, was a sort of "Victory in All Things 2E". If it did exist, I would've had it about a month or so ago. Alas, I did not unlock such. Maybe there's a "Victory in Both Editions" and if there is, I believe I've got only two First Edition victories left to conquer in order to reveal such?

James: If you could create an achievement, what would it be?
Matthew: The KCA in 2E...the Klingon Cardassian (Bajoran) Alliance in Second Edition deck achievement. I tried for a possible hidden achievement for this around September last year, and was bummed when it didn't materialize. Yes, it was a three headquarters deck.

James: Do you have anything else to add?
Matthew: Just a great big thank you to all the members of the community. Those on the "inside" furthering our great (three) games by designing new cards/sets, and those on the outside. The players with which I take great enjoyment in getting to play and discover new strategies and good times with, wherever that occurs.

Thanks for taking the time to answer these questions, Matthew.

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The Road to Worlds, Week 7 continues in part II.

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