Wednesday 1E Roundup - 12 JUNE 2019

by Charlie Plaine, Director of First Edition

12th 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 Cage, the newest virtual expansion from The Continuing Committee, will be releasing on Friday, June 21st. Featuring sixty-three (63) new First Edition cards, The Cage kicks off the Original Series block with an expansion focused on the Federation, personnel native to 23rd century missions, gender-based dilemmas, and hunting space monsters. We've spoiled over a dozen cards on our site already, with even more on our social media! Check back every day between now and the 21st for more and more hints and what you'll see in The Cage.

The Road to Worlds

Last week, we looked at the results of the Online Regional that was won by Jon Carter (pfti), piloting an eyebrow-raising Khan deck. I finally caught up with Jon to ask him some questions about the deck and how it works, so that's what we'll be taking a look at in today's column.

Online Regional winner Jon Carter (pfti) Deck Title: Revised Sexy Eel Time (Jon's deck is also attached to this article below.) Deck Archetype: Interference Play Engines: New Arrivals, Revenge is a Dish Best Served Cold Draw Engines: New Arrivals, Bonus Point Mechanics: Assign Mission Specialists Tournament Reports: Read Jon's report.

Jon's Commentary: Why did you choose the deck that you used? What other decks did you consider using? I chose this deck because I wanted to look at what power and rules issues that it raises. As we move into TOS block there are going to be cards that move around this deck and I wanted to do some testing of what we might want to keep an eye out for Was there something or someone that put this deck on your "might be a problem" radar? Niall (Editor's note: Niall Matthew, a.k.a. sexecutioner) played this deck against me and it seemed really strong. Specifically the lack of battle/capture protections makes this objectively better than those options as there are not really any explicit counters besides killing Khan and/or shutting down the transporters. What sorts of decks were you hoping to face while playing your deck? What decks did you hope not to face? This deck can handle most things. Ship battle and Borg were my worries. Luckily for me, a single card left out by James (A Change of Plans) let me stay in that game 'til I could cause problems. 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 have done lots of interference, and the key is to be ready to strike in two ways. 1) As fast as possible and 2) when they least expect it. The only impediment to me achieving the former is the limited options of where to seed Cold Station 12 (the loss of 2EBC cards actually reduces this to a single mission I think). Quantum Slipstream Drive takes care of the other half. Being able to stack some level of ship battle, personnel battle, and taking makes this very flexible. 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? Dimensional Shifting was a late add. It was really useful against James, as it let me use multiple ships to chase and board ships. It was a lot of flexibility. Do you feel anything design has done recently pushed this deck from "good" to "too good"? Having a seedable Khan makes this deck ready to go on turn 1. Benefactor also makes sure you can have transporter skill as needed. What would you nominate as the MVP card from your deck? Ceti Eel hands down. It makes the deck work and devastates. Do you have anything else you'd like to say about your deck? I think that either limiting Ceti Eel or just improving Stratagema are good options to soften this deck. (Editor's note: A thread discussing this deck and the power of Ceti Eel is currently ongoing on our forums. Let us know what you think.)

Tournament Reports

The Trek Masters Series event in Sioux Falls, South Dakota took place this past weekend, with six (6) players drafting from Kevin Jaeger's (Hoss-Drone) cube. In the end, local player Mark Muston (mark_mustonjr) overcame a first round loss to claim victory, playing an unknown Bajoran/Federation deck. Kris Sonsteby (LORE), who dealt Mark his loss, took the runner up position with a Bajoran/Klingon deck.

Making up the rest of the field, Kevin Jaeger piloted Cardassian/Romulan to 3rd place, and Jeremy Huth (9of24) took 4th place with a Bajoran/Federation deck. Also playing Cardassian/Romulan was Keith Rupp (malakim2099), who took 5th, and 6th place was claimed by Zlatan Terzic (ZlatanT23) with a Borg deck! Kevin has agreed to an interview for a future column, where we'll talk about the Cube's origins, play patterns, and more. So stay tuned for that!

Elsewhere in the world, it was a quiet weekend of 1E with only one other tournament in Eden, New York. As I predicted, tournament host Robin Honeycutt (robin1234) was able to rally his fellow enthusiasts enough to get four (4) players together. He's doing Q's work and teaching new players, which is amazing. Robin ended up winning the day with a side-deck heavy Klingon deck. According to Robin's tournament report, his continual sparring partner Mark Panna (Shambinks) was playing his favorite Starfleet MACO deck. The aforementioned newer players, Tyler Clark and Amanda Guether, played and respectively.

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 Championships

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

This weekend the spectacle continues with the one of the last regionals of the season in Austria, followed by the Austrian National Championships the next day. Three players - Julius Melhardt (Clerasil ToB), Martin Felber (Enabran), and Michael Albrecht (Ein Gast...) - are signed up for both events. Combined with host and former World Champion Stefan Slaby (Winner of Borg), these are shaping up to be events with fierce competition. Lucas Thompson's prediction contest rages on, so click that link and pick the winners of these two events.

It hasn't officially been flagged yet, but rumor has it that a late addition to the Regional schedule has popped up in the Andoria region; specifically, West Fargo, North Dakota on Sunday, June 30th. Hosted by Matthew Hayes (karonofborg13), this will be the only regional to take place after The Cage becomes legal, so it should be very fun to watch.

Of course, the weekend before is the Double Continental Championship weekend. Both the North American and European Continental Championships take place on Sunday, June 23rd, 2019. The North American Continental Championships are being held in Atlanta, Georgia and currently show eleven (11) pre-registered players, while the European Continental Championships are in Manchester, United Kingdom and have seven (7) players scheduled. 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)

• Discuss spoilers from The Cage. We've only been at it six (6) days, but quite a few of the new cards from The Cage have been spoiled here and on our social media. There's a discussion thread going on our forums where you can chat about the cards as they're spoiled.


• Ask questions of the design team for The Cage. If you prefer something more interactive, there's a thread on the forums where you can ask questions of The Cage design team. This is an old Decipher-era tradition where you can ask questions about the whys of the expansion's design, so check it out.


• Find out more behind-the-scenes facts from The Cage. Last bit about The Cage, I promise. I've been posting a series of "fun facts" about the expansion based on the card of the day. Sometimes it's a testing story, or a behind-the-scenes look at the creative treatment for a card. Either way, it's a new idea, so I'd love to know what you think about the thread as it goes on.

• How many copies of key skills go into your decks? Forum user Takket would like to know what your skill quotas are for your decks. As they put it, "Do you have any minimum numbers you are looking for in a deck for the common skills? (including equipment adding skills when needed)?" Jump into the thread and offer your advice!


• What deck should I take to NACC? Next week, I'll be getting on a plane and heading down to Atlanta to participate in the 2019 North American Continental Championship. If you'd like to offer decks or just general advice, I'm looking for both 1E suggestions as well as 2E suggestions. I've got Tribbles covered!

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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 18th 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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