Daniel Giddings (Danny) Tournament Report - 2E Standard - Omarion Nebula Regional 2012-04-15 - 10:30 AM Almost Fool-Proof #2 Introduction The last tournament I attended I took two decks: a Klingon deck that placed 2nd, and a Cardassian Capture that placed 5th. I knew I’d be ‘refining’ one and taking it to Regionals, but I wasn’t sure which… Round 1 Nicholas Yankovec FL (-25)View opponent's ReportView original Report I’d seen Nick makes comments regarding the reliability and viability of a Dominion Commodities deck (and how it wasn’t reliable or viable enough to take to Regionals), so I was surprised when DS9, the Founder HQ and a bunch of Acquisition mission hit the table. I was able to play events and personnel, but I couldn’t find a ship (or ship downloader) for love nor money. By the time I did get a ship and send it out, Nick had two missions under his belt (my dilemma combo of Inequitable Exchange and Broken Captive doing little to slow him down as his personnel had plenty of skills many times over). Nick had similar dilemma issues, and I managed to then complete a couple of missions, plus scored some bonus points (alas, I can’t remember whether it was through Quite a Coincidence or Prison Compound), all the while holding Nick off at his last attempt. It then came down to whoever could complete their third mission for the win. That turned out to be Nick. Full Loss: 75-100 My first game was against Danny and his Cardasians. I've played so many decks against Cardies, that I knew them pretty well. Danny did well in this tournament, but he had the same problem as me, a poor dilemma pile. Neither of us could stop the other at missions, although the inclusion of Swahbuckler did manage to stop him once, with An Issue of Trust. Danny was slow starting due to lack of a ship, plus I went first, which gave me the Full Win. Confidence boosted about this deck, I played my 2nd round... Round 2 William Hoskin ML (-60)View opponent's ReportView original Report Will was playing a DS9 deck, and while he feigned being unable to find a ship to play, I realise now it was only a ruse – I was out of the gate and attempting a space mission fairly quickly. Will dropped a Swashbuckler at Heart (to remove my TCCs), then a Tactical Disadvantage, revealing a couple of Defiants, killing a personnel and stopping the rest. This happened a couple of times, at both space missions. After becoming jaded at attempting space missions, and even more jaded about losing personnel and interrupts to the Execution Cell (sorry, Holding Cell), I went to a planet. Big. Mistake. Neural Parasites and a Necessary Execution stripped me of three peeps, and ended another attempt. Luckily, I managed to destroyed Will’s second Holding Cell (after destroying the first), restocked my personnel and hand of interrupts, and went back at attempting, but with no joy. My only points came through the minor exploitation of captives in the Prison Compound. Modified Loss: 5-65 Danny was playing Cardassian Capture and Central Command and I knew I had to get Holding cell out before he started to attempt or I would have no chance. I play holding cell taking Garak and then just for giggles play my copy of Garak. Danny attempted in space I hit him with Bre'nan ritual, hard time and Tactical Disadvantage. Danny decides to attempt a different mission so I hit him with Bre'nan ritual, hard time and Tactical Disadvantage just for fun. Danny decides he's had enough of space and heads for planet, big mistake. 2 dilemmas and I get 3 choice kills bye, bye bio/med people. Danny has captured Worf but other than that I'm not doing too bad I manage to get through 2 missions but am a bit behind and can't get the third before time runs out. 65-5 MW Round 3 Stuart Marsh FW (+10) Great – another DS9 deck (the third I’d seen today). This one was different, and something I’d seen Stuart play before: plenty of unstopping using Vascular Pad and Walk the Line (dropping weenies on the event to prevent the stopping of the fatties). Things were going well for Stuart – he was stopping me at my attempts with Personal Duty (while my hands were free of TCC), and he wasn’t having many problems with my pile, unstopping personnel with WtL and the Pad. Then a couple things happened that tipped the balance. Firstly, after completing his second mission, Stuart realised he hadn’t scored his bonus points from his first mission (Survey Star System) – Stuart was going to have to rely on Bejal Otner in the completion of his last mission (for 5 points), or complete TCS – (after I SI’d Otner away during an attempt, it wasn’t much of a choice for him). Then, a ruling on Broken Link vs. Walk the Line went the wrong way for him, and someone ended up in my brig. After that, more people hit my brig (William Ross, Constable Odo, Sisko (Man of Resolve), Bajoran Kasidy) and from them I managed to bag 50 points from two Prison Compounds. I then completed a mission, Stuart found himself one skill and a few points of Cunning shy of completing TCS, and I completed a planet mission to snatch a FW at the end. Full Win: 100-90 Round 4 Soren Ramme Nielsen FL (-65)View opponent's ReportView original Report This game could’ve gone so differently… Soren’s first attempt in space was with 10 personnel. I drew my dilemmas and had among them Distress Call, Inequitable Exchange and Broken Captive. Here I made my first mistake: I decided to go with the latter two, rather than a straight stop. I looked through his personnel, spotted Gannet Brooks and no one else with Intelligence. I’d seen D’vela in there too, but Soren’s hand was full, so I thought keeping someone in the brig and stopping his personnel due to a lack of Intel would be good. After dropping those two, Soren pointed out the text of the Columbia to me. He emptied his hand, destroyed his event, had D’vela gain Intel, and completed the mission, scoring 40, then 10 bonus points for doing space first. I was now 50 points behind. I dropped Oran (Irritable Gul) and gave him and Parek Telepathy, then using Parek’s gametext, gave himself Leadership, then went off to attempt a mission. Soren stopped Korinas, who I then unstopped with TCC, and had a full team face Gomtuu – thanks to Parek’s Telepathy (?!) and Korinas making all the Intel personnel and little more “noble”, I passed, and scored 35 points. That was as good as it got, I’m afraid. Even though Soren had run out of events in his core, meaning D’vela could no longer gain skills, I thought my Broken Captive routine on Gannet Brooks was still a viable play. And it would’ve been, had I not made my second mistake of the game, namely, S.I.ing someone away, only to have them reveal themselves as Daniels (a Fleeter with Intel). Soren went on to do two more missions, and that was that. Full Loss: 35-100 I've only played against Danny a single time before and got a lesson then, so I was determined to redeem myself. I wasn't going too fast this game, but I had a 10 man crew out attempting aroung turn 5-6 leaving some behind as backup (Including Samuels that I didn't want in Danny's brig and Markus Forbes to get back key personnel). Danny played a good combo of Inequitable Exchange and Broken Captive seeing that Gannet Brooks was my only intel personnel. He didn't realise, though, that I could discard my entire hand using Columbia's game text and then destroy the Noble Intensions in my core with D'Vela to gain the missing intel. It was a little painful to discard two Lustful Distractions I was saving as counters for The Central Commmand, but completing on first attempt was worth it. Still, it did come back to bite me, as Danny was able to prevent Korinas being stopped by Moment of Doubt using TCC overcoming the subsequent Gomtuu, and took his space mission in the first go as well. I then went on the attempt my planet missions. Danny would have been able to stop me cold this time using Broken Captive, since I had no events in my core and no way to get rid of my hand (no Vulcan Tricorder), but he somehow decided to throw in a Secret Identity allowing me to replce T'Pol (I believe) with Daniels providing me the missing intel. On my last mission I mega attempted and Danny wasn't able to stop enough guys to prevent me from completing. FW 110-35. Round 5 Peter H. Møller FW (+35) Peter was playing Caretaker’s Array, and this meant Voyager or Equinox. It was the former, and things didn’t look good, as Peter started by dropping Voyager, Future Janeway and one of the Chakotays. Then things changed as Peter discarded a Tom Paris, but then struggled at a mission as he didn’t have the Astrometrics. I also made the right call during one of his attempts and stopped him outright with a Distress Call. And with no HQ, Voyager couldn’t help but become Ensnared…twice. I burnt through ten cards with two Ensnareds and snagged me both of the Chuckle Brothers. Peter was now playing a Chakotay-free Voyager deck, and the rest of my deck worked surprisingly smoothly. I even managed to overcome another Gomtuu thanks to Korinas, Mila and Goran. Full Win: 100-65 Two wins out of five was enough to score me fifth…again with this deck.