Wednesday 1E Roundup - 5 JUNE 2019

by Charlie Plaine, Director of First Edition

5th June 2019

Welcome to the Wednesday 1E Roundup, a weekly column looking back at the past week in the world of First Edition as well as a preview of the week ahead. If you've got an event coming up and you'd like to be featured in this column, feel free to contact me at cplaine@gmail.com or on the forums via PM to MidnightLich.

The Big News

The first of the month is the standard time for the Department of First Edition to announce rules and format changes, and there are several for June. First up from Rules Master Jon Carter (pfti) are several rules clarifications in a Current Rulings Document (CRD) update. Mostly the changes are clarifications, for example on how cards like Mas'ud and Ceti Eel interact; the largest ruling is a reversal of a temporary ruling on Edo Probe. From now on, when Edo Probe is encountered, it is placed on top of the mission as a marker until another mission is completed.

The other notable announcement was two additions to the OTF Ban List, both designed to hamper two overly powerful 22nd-century decks ahead of the European and North American Continentals weekend (June 21st-23rd). Vulcans take a hit with the banning of IDIC: Power of the High Command, while the Romulan Drone deck loses some battle power with the banning of Holographic Camouflage. The hope is that these two bans will be short, but allow more diversity of decks to be viable at these major events.

Tournament Reports

It was a quiet weekend in the world of 1E, but the online regional run by Brian Sykes (Armus) did finish up. Jon Carter (pfti) went undefeated with a Khan deck that's generated some controversy and discussion on our forums. Jon's deck, titled Revised Sexy Eel Time, can board your ship and lock it down fairly quickly. In his tournament report, Jon says "Khan is way good. There are ways around it (ship battle) and killing Khan, but it is not a pleasant experience (as evidenced by two of my three actual games ending in concessions)." I've reached out to Jon with the usual post-tournament questions, so hopefully we'll take a deeper look in a future column.

James Heaney (BCSwowbagger) was runner-up playing a very similar Borg deck to the one he played in the Minnesota Regional earlier this year titled "Drone (Or: Assimilate EVERYONE!) v1.1." His tournament report is well worth a read. I ended up in 3rd place with a deck borrowed from Lucas Thompson (edgeofhearing) that I slightly modified into "Lucas Is Very Smart." I'd never played a deck that small, and it was a lot of fun (aside from getting a Borg opponent in the first round.) Michael Van Breemen (The Ninja Scot) rounded out the Top 4 with a general Federation free-report salad deck titled "Study Executive LovePods Valiantly".

Elsewhere in the field, Brian brought a Vidiian deck that went 2-2. In his tournament report, he says that "The whole time I was playing this deck, it felt like Vidiians were at least a half step behind if not more...". Clearly, there's more work to be done to help decks compete as solvers in the modern game. Jason Tang (Pants o.t. Tal Shiar) played a cool Dominion/Cardassian deck that held me to a Modified Win in the tournament, and I'm excited to try out in the future. Austin Chandler (DarkSabre) also played Lucas' TNG Fed deck, and John Paul Veasey (elveez) played a Klingon/Romulan deck called "Combo Guys."

If you played in any events, scheduled or unscheduled, formal or casual, let us know! We'd love to feature your events in this column! Send me an email or a private message, and I'll be happy to advertise your event or games to the world in a future column. My contact information is at the bottom of every column each week.

Upcoming Tournaments

Eden, New York, USA Sunday, 9 June OTF Complete Constructed

Upcoming Championships

Sioux Falls, South Dakota, USA Trek Masters Series Saturday, 8 June OTF Cube Draft (Limited)

Wien, Austria Regional Championship Saturday, 15 June OTF Complete Constructed

Wien, Austria Austrian National Championship Saturday, 16 June OTF Complete Constructed

Atlanta, Georgia, USA North American Continental Championship Saturday, 23 June OTF Complete Constructed

Manchester, United Kingdom North American Continental Championship Saturday, 23 June OTF Complete Constructed

Tournament Previews

The 2019 Trek Masters Series continues with a Limited Draft event - a Cube draft - taking place in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Kevin Jaeger (Hoss-Drone), the host, has been trumpeting this format as the purest way to play 1E for weeks, and we can't wait to see the details of the forum and how it plays out. While there are only three pre-registered players, they are all powerhouses. Aside from the #1 ranked host Kevin, #11 ranked Kris Sonsteby (LORE) and #28 ranked Jeremy Huth (9of24) are going to bring top competition to this Masters. And with the knowledge that a ton of local players will be there with format experience, it's a true toss up to see what happens. I don't think a bet on Kevin would be a bad bet, though.

Robin Honeycutt (robin1234) is hosting a tournament on Sunday in Eden, New York. Though there are no pre-registrations at this time, there's a good bet some of Robin's peers and fellow locals will turn out to make sure the event fires off. Robin is no doubt looking to establish a new winning streak and keep dominance of his custom-made championship belt.

Next weekend, the spectacle continues with the last regional of the season in Austria, followed by the Austrian National Championships the next weekend. Two players - Julius Melhardt (Clerasil ToB) and Julius Melhardt (Clerasil ToB) - are signed up for both events. If only we had a transporter and I could easily get to Austria, I'd be there!

And finally, at the end of June, we have the double whammy Continental weekend with both the North American and European Continental Championships taking place on Sunday, June 23rd, 2019. The North American Continental Championships are being held in Atlanta, Georgia and currently show twelve (12) pre-registered players, while the European Continental Championships are in Manchester, United Kingodom and has seven (7) players pre-registered. Across those two events, there are eight (8) players in the Top 20, which will make for some fierce and amazing competition. We can't wait to see what happens!

Short Takes (In Other News)

• My first office hours stream was last night. I'm going to be hosting bi-weekly streams where I make myself available to anyone in the community that wants to join, ask questions, or just talk about trek. Due to some technical difficulties, this first stream is split into two parts. I'd be honored if you'd check them out: Part I and Part II.


• What improvements would you like to see in Lackey? Our newly minted Director of Operations, Brian S. (JeBuS), is asking about improvements to Lackey. Brian has been working on a 1E replacement for Lackey to allow play online, and though it's just a fun project and not a sure thing, knowing what people dislike about Lackey can only help improve upon it.


• What stuff in the game news new cards to deal with? Our department is always looking for information from our players, and in that vein, I've recently asked what people would like to see addressed through new card design. I used "too much equipment" as an example and had several people make it clear that no, thank you, equipment is just fine, but the question still stands? Are there dilemmas that need countering?

  

• Who do you think will be the biggest ratings winner at Trek Master Series Sioux Falls? In week 11 of Lucas' prediction thread, there's a healthy debate about who might unseat Kevin Jaeger. The smart money is probably on Kris Sonsteby, who's a two decade veteran of sealed 1E. But I'm going to put my money on a local player, name unknown, who's studied at the feet of Master Jaeger and is ready to unseat him.


• Would a reward for seeding fewer than 30 cards be worth it? Forum user Tim Mirkes (tlmirkes) proposed an idea to earn points in exchange for seeding fewer cards. What do you think? Is there any incentive that would cause you to seed 24, 18, or even fewer cards?


• How do you build a Schoolroom deck? Prolific poster Discovery sucks wants to know how to build a deck based around the Schoolroom site. Most of the discussion seems to be that it isn't worth it, but what do you think? If it's too hard, what would the deck need in terms of new cards to be viable?


• Did you know that the CC historically announces new expansions on Fridays? Just thought you ought to know.

The Time Capsule

This time last year is was Kazon Week of the Spotlight Series, and I wrote a Design Spolight article on the first villains of Voyager. In that article, I talk about the strengths of the Kazon - Delta Quadrant skills and attributes with unrestricted battle - as well as the weaknesses - no transporters, complex free reporting, and general nerfs. Andreas Rheinländer (Dukat) wrote a two-part article - Part I and Part II - about how to play Kazon. And Executive Officer Maggie Geppert (jadziadax8) took a look at a basic Kazon deck, though you'll need to replace Quantum Incursions to play it now.

Five years ago, the announcement of The Maquis took place this week. This expansion, the second in the Deep Space 9 block, gave development and lots of new tools to the terrorist sub-faction from DS9. The expansion has ended up with mixed reviews, but featured one of my favorite alternate image promos of all time. At the time, I was dead set against the French-language text, but it's grown on me over the years.

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That's all for this week's brief roundup of First Edition news and events. For more news, you can follow The Continuing Committee on Facebook, Twitter, or bookmark our front page. News about upcoming First Edition projects can be found in the most recent Project Status Update from March 2019. My next office hours will be on Tuesday, June 4th at 6 PM Pacific. If you've got an event coming up and you'd like to be featured in this column, or if you have comments about this column's content, feel free to contact me at cplaine@gmail.com or on the forums via PM to MidnightLich. Until next week, may you expand your power in the universe and live long and prosper.

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