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.
Kassel, Germany, played host to two Second Edition events this weekend. The first was the final Vandros IV Regional, which was won by Sascha Keifer, who used this deck:
Title: DomDom-42-Deep-Thought
Headquarters: Founders' Homeworld, Contingent Refuge
Deck Size: Small (35-44)
Deck Archetype: Midrange Solver
Dilemma Pile Size: Medium (40-59)
Dilemma Pile Type: Standard Attrition
Average Draw Deck Card Cost: 2.11
Agonizing Count: 2
Odds of Passing a 3-Skill-Dilemma Legacy: 3.7%
Sascha shared this about his deck:
Why did you choose the deck that you used? What other decks did you consider using?
I didn't really want to play the Dominion deck, because a lot of players around Kassel have just thrown 3 copies of Artificial Ability in their dilemma piles these days, it's just not funny. But because I had built a nice Dominion deck with exactly 42 cards in it (without planing) and no other cards around, and because I am about to move to a different place this week, I decided to give it a try.What sorts of decks were you hoping to face while playing your deck? What decks did you hope not to face?
I really don't like to play against any discard deck, kill pile, or capture stuff. Lucky enough, I didn't have to. I like this small kind of Dominion mission solver with just Jemmies, some Vortas and 1 or 2 Founders or Breen, ones that don't depend on any particular engine. If you get your hands on a Keevan early, fine, play all those low-cost Jemmies, if not, no problem. Can't attempt one of the space at turn 3? Just go for the nice new planet mission - you just need strength 31 to solve it, 4 Jemmies! You can always work something out with the cards you get, as long as you are lucky enough to draw a ship by turn 5.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?
The Mobilization Points event is a nice little booster, why not use all those nice 3 cost Jemmies again? The other event which increases the cost of all events is in some match-ups just useless, but in others it can be nasty or really broken. A nice side effect of that play-style is that you didn't have to think to much about symbiotic cards or wait for some stuff to show up. And of course with Our Death is Glory To the Founders it is nice to be able to erase some nasty events or interrupts.What would you nominate as the MVP card from your deck?
The MVP has to be Draz, the friendly Breen engineer, with him I was able to solve Tsiolkovsky twice, coudn't believe it myself.
My Commentary:
This is the seventh and final time that I'll need to cover a Dominion deck that uses the new Headquarters this Regional season. Sascha is, however, only the second Dominion winner to use Spiteful Strategy, a card that he correctly points out will sometimes do less than nothing. However, against more event-heavy control match-ups, a couple of early Spitefuls can single-handedly win you the game. At What Cost? is usually a great deal at zero counters and five points, but if it costs two or three counters itself it becomes a lot less advantageous to play.
I had plans to make sweeping statements about the reason that the two Spiteful Strategy users were European players. After all, the achievement for running a large deck is even titled "European Style", since historically those large, event heavy control decks were more common in Europe. To illustrate my point, I decided to compare the nine public Ferenginar Regional decks with the nine public Vandros IV Regional decks from this weekend, looking at the average percent of the decks that are dedicated to event cards. I believed that historical trends would continue, and the German decks would have a much greater proportion dedicated to event cards.
Well, not only was there not a big difference, but the Ferenginarian (Ferengi?) decks were actually slightly heavier on the events - on average, 22.35% of their decks were event cards, as opposed to 22.22 of the Vandros IV decks. That's even using a statistic that normalizes for deck size. If you just sum the total events and total deck sizes for each tournament, 22.97% of Vandros IV cards were events, while 24.85% of Ferenginar cards were events. The Ferenginarians seem to have completely embraced the event-heavy lifestyle. Bear in mind though, there are multiple Voyager and Relativity decks in the Ferenginar sample, and those decks tend to run more events naturally.
So, the moral of the story is, don't make assumptions, do the research. Maybe Spiteful Strategy will work for you, like it has for Sascha and Tobias. I'm not going to rush to try it locally though, since only an average of 14.28% of Romulus Regional decks were event cards. Knowing your opponents and how they like to build and play is a big part of building and teching out your own deck.
Also, I agree, Draz is totally the best. I've never used him in a deck that used his ability, but man does that skill list just rock.
The Ferenginar Region also hosted a Second Edition Regional this weekend; J won this Burnaby, British Columbia event with this deck:
Title: Jaded
Headquarters: Earth, Humanity's Home
Deck Size: Small (35-44)
Deck Archetype: Control Solver
Dilemma Pile Size: Medium (30-49)
Dilemma Pile Type: Standard Attrition
Average Draw Deck Card Cost: 2.02
Agonizing Count: 3
Odds of Passing a 3-Skill-Dilemma Legacy: 25.5%
J had this to say about his deck:
Why did you choose the deck that you used? What other decks did you consider using?
I am a big fan of Steve Hartmann's Affiliation Statistics analysis thread, and always check back when it is updated to see how the stats are progressing. For the Marysville regional, I chose Borg because they had not yet won a regional, and while I did not win that one, the Borg did win that same weekend. This time, I took the same approach and began by looking at what hadn't won yet.I didn't really think that the odds were good that I would win the event, given how many high level 2E players are in the area, but I did want to do so with something new if I were to win. Two other big factors in my decision were the fact that I was on Play = 9 for this affiliation (meaning that I would get a new Forum Badge, even if I lost) and their access to counter spells (anti-MvB/Ken tech).
What sorts of decks were you hoping to face while playing your deck? What decks did you hope not to face?
I had no expectations or preference in this regard. I think that Starfleet is pretty sturdy and can do well against a lot of different strategies. This is another plus of choosing the affiliation, since the Burnaby Regional always has Medals for the Top 3 finishers - Starfleet is very good at placing 2nd.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?
Yeah, I've played Starfleet quite a bit. I played them before Achievements began and 9 times since (though a couple of those are from 1E). I feel that I have played all of the different iterations of this affiliation and all the possible combinations of the subgroups (space first, mirror, delphic, alien, and maco). I had not played this exact deck before, but there were no cards in it that were new to me (and no cards at all after set 30.)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?
If there is one card for which my appreciation increased significantly, it would be Gannet Brooks, especially considering that if the opponent chooses to kill a key skill to set up their next dilemma, Phlox will return them to hand.What would you nominate as the MVP card from your deck?
At least the way that I play, my ability to win or lose a game or an event is all dependent on the defense. For that reason, the only possible MVP would have to be from the dilemma pile. I have to send out some quick props to my boy Moral Choice, as all 5 of my opponents were playing Federation. But when it comes down to the real star of the game, it was Personal Duty. Moral Choice was a nearly guaranteed 3 stops, but PD managed 4-5 in quite a few attempts. What's more, if I knew that the one key skill I wanted to filter was on one or two Officers, I could play the odds a bit and lead with Personal Duty.Do you have anything else you'd like to say about your deck?
I'd like to thanks Ken Tufts for building it. I lifted this from his tournament profile Thursday night and only changed the dilemma pile slightly. For a minute or two, I was considering only running two Surprise Parties, but I'm glad I didn't. Three means it is very likely to see early game and both That's the Last Time and Trellium-D can turn the extras into draws.The counterspells were also absolutely clutch. Against the Voyager players, I was keeping Enterprise-J off the table and against everyone else, I just eliminated anything that could get more dilemmas.
It's impressive to see such a wide spread of different decks winning regionals this year and I know that a few of the other ones are also able to be played at that level.
My Commentary:
There are few decks that I'd call a control deck in the medium size range; it's just hard to include all the verbs you need to block the opponent's strategy and all the personnel you need to solve your missions when you're building in the 45-59 card range. DS9 can do it, mostly on the strength of Holding Cell, which is such a swiss army knife of a card. However, I'd only pick Starfleet as an affiliation that can play control with a small-sized deck.
Part of it is that they've got access to cheap equipment in the form of Trellium to activate Grav-Plating Trap more easily than any other affiliation. Even with the Trap's extreme flexibility (it's a Kevin and an Amanda all in one), it still shares deck space here with Lustful Distraction. Lustful is, if you can believe it, even cheaper than Grav Trap - if it is played on the opponent's turn, as long as you have personnel in play, it's free. Between the two, it is incredibly hard to rely on any verb-based (event or interrupts, action cards) strategy, unless you can bait them out with lower-priority targets.
The other part is that Starfleet is a bit like the Klingons. Klingons have many great dilemma-busting a mission-solving abilities baked into their personnel, reducing their reliance on verb cards for mission solving - and increasing the potency of their solving exponentially when interrupts like The Promise and Bridge Officer's Test are added to Gowron and Riker. Instead of solving abilities, Starfleet has control abilities: Archer blanks those skill-free dilemmas, Phlox blox the kills, Reed beats the dilemmas without even facing them, and Tucker removes the damage markers.
If you are expecting your opponents to have ornate combo decks, or devious interference decks, or even just stall-heavy decks, a deck like this one could take you far. J read the field correctly, and his call gave him the title.
This year's Second Edition Romulus Regional took place at the home of yours truly in Chelmsford, MA. Len Neidorf conquered the event with a deck that I'm surprised I haven't had a chance to write about yet:
Title: A Len Edit of a Sonsteby Revision of a Harrington Deck (note: when entering the decklist, I entered an In Development instead of a The Weak Will Perish)
Headquarters: Earth, Lush and Beautiful Home
Deck Size: Small (35-44)
Deck Archetype: Speed Solver
Dilemma Pile Size: Small (20-29)
Dilemma Pile Type: Chula Attrition
Average Draw Deck Card Cost: 1.82
Agonizing Count: 4
Odds of Passing a 3-Skill-Dilemma Legacy: 0.17%
Len told me what he thought about the deck:
Why did you choose the deck that you used? What other decks did you consider using?
I used the TOS speed deck because I recognized that it was exactly the sort of deck that I tend to play well. I knew after playing a different version of it in the last tournament that I would use it at the regional, without question.What sorts of decks were you hoping to face while playing your deck? What decks did you hope not to face?
I felt confident that the deck would handle most match-ups well, but I always hate playing against Borg decks and Romulan discard decks, regardless of what affiliation I happen to be playing.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?
Of course, I've played speed decks for most of my career in 2E. This is one of the better ones. I played Harrington's TOS deck at the last tournament and decided to play Sonsteby's version of the deck at the regional, mainly because I thought its dilemma pile was superior. Because I was playing a deck I didn't build, I learned something new every game about the subtle forms of synergy that exist between the cards.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?
One card whose usefulness exceeded my expectation was Miss Sarda. I made some minor changes to Sonsteby's deck: I swapped out a few dilemmas for ones I prefer, and I added Miss Sarda and Minuet to the draw deck. Sarda netted me an additional four or five draws in one game - great for the deck's economy.What would you nominate as the MVP card from your deck?
Tough to say, since so many of the personnel are excellent. The most important one, however, must be Benjamin Sisko. There are many games where his presence is decisive.Do you have anything else you'd like to say about your deck?
I thank Harrington and Sonsteby for building the deck's predecessors. In today's meta, it is one of the best speed decks, because it has answers to most major problems. If you play it well, you can beat just about any dilemma pile - the key is to be versatile and to recognize that many options are open to the player with fifteen or sixteen personnel in play.
My Commentary:
At our last local tournament, Len asked to peruse my box o' netdecks, and was intrigued by the idea of Mike Harrington's 2014 Worlds Day Two deck. The plan is simple: spam cheap personnel, and refill your hand with the TOS hero power headquarters text, Rigel X (one extra cost/draw at planets isn't so bad since you can't go where no one has gone before there), and/or Miss Sarda; then, if your people die, get 6+ unique personnel back in play using Starbase 718. While weenies typically provide the same attribute strength that higher-cost personnel do, they tend to have fewer skills and you need to spend counters to refill your hand more often. Including all those draw engines cuts out one of those two drawbacks, and when you're using personnel like Minuet, David Marcus, and Tolian Soran, the skills part doesn't seem that bad either. The speed of this deck is intense, while also having useful dilemma busting abilities like Kirk, Giotto, and Driven. It also uses the Chula dilemma pile, which is a great way to stall the opponent long enough to absolutely overwhelm the table.
Len's more of a minimalist deck (and dilemma pile) guy, so when he asked to use the deck again for our Regional, I also pointed him to Sonsteby's slimmer version. There are fewer non-essential cards in this version, which I believe weakens its match-up against an interference deck like Neil's Romulan Discard deck, but strengthens it against the more ubiquitous solver decks. It was love at first sight, though I made a strong case for including Miss Sarda (he'd liked the free draws she gave him in the previous tournament) and Minuet - I consider her the strongest weenie in the game. Since you can stop a personnel who is about to be stopped or killed or discarded or whatever, as long as someone is going to be removed from the attempt in some way, she's a 4 skill 6-6-5 (the bad thing still happens to the personnel that she stops though).
I am a bit surprised that this is the first opportunity I've had to cover this deck this season, since I consider either version to be one of the best decks out there. They are incredibly fast and powerful, and are some of the few solver decks that I believe have a favorable match-up against something like the Romulan Tragic Turn/Aid Legendary Civillization decks that dominated last year. They are also good counters to the popular new Dominion decks - The Enterprise-B effectively counters the headquarters text, Sisko and general card advantage keep those Crippling Strikes in check, and this deck gets much more out of the extra draws from Keevan than most Dominion decks do.
The second major event this weekend in Kassel, Germany was the Second Edition German Nationals. Johannes Mette emerged victorious from a field of 12 players using this deck:
Title: DM Klingon
Headquarters: Qo'noS, Heart of the Empire
Deck Size: Medium (45-59)
Deck Archetype: Midrange Solver
Dilemma Pile Size: Medium (30-49)
Dilemma Pile Type: Standard Attrition
Average Draw Deck Card Cost: 2.18
Agonizing Count: 4
Odds of Passing a 3-Skill-Dilemma Legacy: 0.9%
Johannes offered the following insights about his deck:
Why did you choose the deck that you used? What other decks did you consider using?
I started playing 4 months ago, and I've built only 3 decks since then. Well, okay, more than 3 decks but only 3 which are consistent. But the good old Klingons are tough and I've played them in several versions and improved them every time, after tournaments and private play sessions. The other reason I picked the Klingon deck is that it’s easy to play. You push out leadership, security, navigation and a ship and it runs.What sorts of decks were you hoping to face while playing your deck? What decks did you hope not to face?
I went to this tournament to meet nice people, have fun and get some points to buy fresh gagh. I didn’t think about facing this deck or that deck… the only plan was to have a good time. But the deck is built to handle weenie decks by running Unfair Terms (zero cost) and In Development or decks with easy missions by running Insurrection. The only hope at this tournament was not to play against my friends and teachers: Sascha and Benjamin.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've played this for about four months and have improved this deck many times. I tried TNG twice, but that deck wasn’t tough enough against enough strategies. I've seen many new strategies and faced dilemma cards I haven’t seen before. So I learned much… but I also learned that these Klingons are much tougher than I thought.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?
I played three games without having fun with Klag or Jean-Luc and there were, I think, two times I prevented a Central Command played by the Cardassian players. If there is space in your deck, trellium will be your friend. If I play this deck again, it would be changed only by two or three cards, but at the moment I can’t say which they would be.What would you nominate as the MVP card from your deck?
I would nominate these five guys (I'm amused by them working together): Gowron, William T. Riker, Klag, Weyoun and Jean-Luc. This is a teamwork deck, but in the end the challenge should be working to win the games.Do you have anything else you'd like to say about your deck?
I only would say it’s a challenge to win with the three challenges! But I would thank Benjamin, Sascha, and the other nice guys which helped me in learning this great game over the past four months. They've taught me a lot and I met new nice guys.
My Commentary:
I mentioned in my review of J's deck that Klingon personnel have great solving abilities, and supplementing those abilities with a few more power interrupts can go a long way. Well, that's what we've got here. K'wov and his mission (Provoke Interstellar Incident) are here, and he's supported by the dial-a-skill of Cluttering Irrelevancies. Gowron and Riker and Bridge Officer's Test and The Promise stand at the ready to tear through those missions too.
The other advantage to having solving abilities baked-in to the personnel is that you can also choose to use some of your deck's verb-space on control-type cards. Tech in Trellium, Traps, and Tacking and you've got yourself a solid midrange solver. Using those cards instead of solving-oriented cards will certainly hurt some match-ups; the deck won't play quite as reliably. However, where a pure solver would just twiddle its thumbs while being Cripplingly Struck three times, this deck has the capability of Grav-Trapping its way to victory. Midrange decks tend to have fewer blow-out victories, but should also have fewer games that just feel unwinnable.
One other thing this deck does that very few other decks have done this season is plan to win with just two missions. The 2012 season was practically overrun with two-mission win decks, and I was surprised to see only a few such decks this year. It's obvious that it is good to only face two missions worth of dilemmas, but there are other benefits too. Decks like this one have the flexibility to score up to 30 bonus points, and anywhere from 70 to 90 points from two mission - being able to do that is very valuable in a season where we've seen seven Regionals taken down by the new Dominion Headquarters. And if you've got three Chula: The Games stacked on a mission? Just abandon it and never look back; an empty mission is easier, and you've got three other options to go to next. Two-mission wins are definitely something I'd expect to see more of, as we continue to see Chula and the new Dominion continue to rise in popularity.
And that's it for the 2015 regional season... for now. I plan to do a wrap-up article for each edition, summarizing the winners and what they used, crosslinked for ease of use. Second Edition can also plan to see my fifth annual dilemma popularity analysis. Those will probably take a little longer to write up. So in the meantime, I'll see you next week with a look at the winning decks from the Autralian Continental Championships!
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