Weekly 1E Roundup - 18 MARCH 2020

by Charlie Plaine, Director of First Edition

18th March 2020

Welcome to the Weekly 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 have questions, comments, or suggestions for content, you can contact me at cplaine@gmail.com or on the forums via PM to MidnightLich. I'm happy to write about your tournaments, get togethers, or other 1E-related goings-on. But for now, let's get into the column and see what's been going on in the world of First Edition!

The Big News

I want to express my hope and desire that all of you out there are staying safe and sane in whatever part of the world you call home. COVID-19 is unlike anything I've ever seen in my lifetime, and I'm alternating between cautious and anxious as more and more information comes to light. I urge everyone to avoid panic but stay informed, following any guidance set out by their local, state, and national governments. If you're interested in discussing the latest with fellow players, there is a discussion thread you can follow.

I take comfort in knowing that, in spite of the need to be socially distant, technology will help keep us connected. We can talk about, and even play, our favorite game without having to leave our homes. There's plenty of theory to discuss, cards to analyze, and more - and there will be new spoilers coming very, very soon. So order in some food, wash your hands, and start building some decks. We'll get through this, together.

The Road to Worlds 2020

The Road to Worlds 2020 has returned, with the New York City Trek Masters Series event taking place this past weekend. In spite of several players opting to say home because of COVID-19, ten (10) players still met and battled it out in Brooklyn, with Michael Van Breemen (The Ninja Scot) emerging victorious with a deck. Michael was kind enough to answer some of my questions, and we've got his deck for everyone to look at; we'll take a look at the tournament overall later in the column.

New York City Trek Masters winner Michael Van Breemen (The Ninja Scot) Deck Title: Five-Year Communicator (Michael's deck is also attached to this article below.) Deck Archetype: Direct Solver Play Engines: The Final Frontier Draw Engines: Holoprogram: Cafe des Artistes, Risk is Our Business Download Engines: Assign Mission Specialists, Assign Support Personnel, Defend Homeworld, Reunite Legends, Going to the Top, "I'm a Doctor, Not a Bartender", "I'm a Doctor, Not a Bricklayer" Bonus Point Mechanics: Assign Mission Specialists

Michael's Commentary: Why did you choose the deck that you used? What other decks did you consider using? I was curious to see what the ban does to the deck and how I could build around it. Otherwise, I probably would've played something DQ to work on some achievements. Your deck's title references the recent bans of Five Year Mission and Classic Communicator. Did those bans give you any pause in playing ? The bans were the reason I played the deck. Out of the two, Classic Communicator hurt more than Five Year Mission. I can get card draws in other ways, but multiple instances of getting the exact skill when needed during a dilemma is very strong. What sorts of decks were you hoping to face while playing your deck? What decks did you hope not to face? I didn't want to face anything interactive - battle, assimilation, etc. I was fine encountering anything else. 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 decks like this already and sorta plays itself - play three people, download someone. Download someone on their turn. Next turn, repeat if you're lucky. Third turn, play three more people, go out and attempt. 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? Captain's Log and To Boldly Go were key against almost every opponent, allowing my ship to not get blown up in one shot. Coupled with Guinan who was pretty much only got used as doubling Captain's Log, never negating a single dilemma. If using the deck again, I would've added the missing Wall of Ships so I could also get the Enterprise-D at the bare minimum. If I knew so much battle was going to take place, I would've used an Ablative Armor from Admiral Janeway (the deck is low on VIP's). What was your toughest matchup of the day? Austin blew up all of my ships so I didn't do anything except draw out my deck (no Isomagnetic Disintegrator) but mistakes were made that prevented the full win (namely not leaving McCoy on the ship to nullify The Ghost of Cyrus Ramsey.) If I had done that, full win right there. Do you think we should "era-lock" (disallow non- personnel) in these decks? Would it have changed your result if we had? I don't have a preference - I wanted to show that have always been good, either MQ or AQ. Since this went into effect, I modified the deck to reflect it - I got to use James T. Kirk and his ship and his special download without having to discard a card. I used Cafe for card draws and have potentially five personnel in play to go with it in addition to people I would normally just download on my opponent's turn - Admiral River, Guinan, Bricklayer target. With Five Year Mission, I would get not only good people, equipment, ships but I'd also get a free card draw on top of that. Yes, they wouldn't be in the same era but they're often times just as good and with free card draws. So, my stance is - do what you think is best and I'll work with what I have. As for the change of the result, I wouldn't have played this deck. If I wanted to play as close to the same deck, mine probably would've based partially in the MQ with Protect the Timeline. Otherwise, maybe another play hit on one of the DQ affiliations. What would you nominate as the MVP card from your deck? Strange as it sounds, Captain's Log, To Boldly Go and Spacedock. Otherwise, my ships would've been super-toast. Do you have anything else you'd like to say about your deck? Not really - it's nothing really special, it just tries to solve as soon as possible.

This Day in Trek

Today is the 70th birthday of John Garman Hertzler, a.k.a. JG Hertzler, most famous in Trek circles for Martok, the General turned Chancellor of the Klingon Empire. The character first appeared in "The Way of the Warrior," the season premiere of DS9's fourth season, before being revealed as a Changeling spy in the season 5 opener. The powers that be liked the actor and the character, so they had the "real" Martok reappear and be rescued. He would go on to appear as Martok in twenty-two (22) episodes of the show. Hertzler is also one of just five (5) actors to appear as seven (7) or more characters in the universe of Star Trek. Happy Birthday, Mr. Hertzler - we hope it's a good one!

Tournament Reports

We'll talk about the New York City Trek Masters event shortly, but I want to highlight the Deep Space Nine Limited Sealed tournament that took place in Greater Manchester in the United Kingdom. Five (5) players, including a brand new players, braved the COVID-19 world to crack some packs straight out of 1998. As per the tournament report of host and eventual winner Paddy Tye (KazonPADD), each player received four (4) boosters packs plus one starter deck; for fun, he gave each player a copy of New Arrivals. Paddy also provided a link to his deck if you're curious. Alex Dixon (alexd) came in 2nd, Admiral Gary (admiralgary) came in 3rd, new player Linzi Stockton came in 4th, and Tony Thrustle (NCC-1764) came in 5th.

Meanwhile, in New York City, the 1st Trek Master Series event of the year took place with ten (10) players - an impressive number given that several players had to pull out at the last minute. As we mentioned above, Michael Van Breemen won this OTF Complete Constructed event with his deck. Austin Chandler (DarkSabre) took a break from his dual duties as Social Media Manager and First Edition Playtest Manager to take 2nd place, though it's unknown what he was playing. Host Robin Honeycutt (robin1234) took 3rd with a version of the Borg battle deck that's made a splash over the past few months, while Chris Morse (Trekker777) brought Romulans to 4th. None of the rest of the field has their decks posted, but I hope that everyone had fun and enjoyed the Lock Yard's hospitality.

Upcoming Championships

APPLY FOR A REGIONAL

Online Regional Championship Friday, 3 April OTF Complete Constructed

San Diego, California Regional Championship Saturday, 18 April OTF Complete Constructed

Ypsilanti, Michigan Trek Masters Series Sunday, 25 April OTF Legacy Constructed

Glen Ellyn, Illinois Regional Championship Sunday, 16 May OTF Complete Constructed

If you're playing Star Trek, I want to hear about it! I'm happy to cover tournaments and casual games in this column - you just have to let me know. You can find my contact information at the bottom of every column, and you're welcome to email me, PM me, or just post on the forums. So if you're out there, playing 1E in any way, shape, or form, tell us about it!

Tournament Previews

We've got no tournaments schedule to begin this weekend, so there isn't anything to preview at this time. But if you have upcoming events, get togethers, or anything else scheduled that's 1E related, let me know. I'd love to feature you and your friends in this column. I typically only see them if they're scheduled in our tournament software, so if you're not using that, please let me know!

Short Treks (In Other News)

• In 1E, is this icon - - the mirror quadrant or the mirror universe? A recent discussion about our search engine uncovered an inconsistency, in that some cards use MQ as the code for this icon, and others use MU. To help settle the issue, Chief Programmer Chris Lobban (Maelwys) opened a poll to decide which code/term to use for this icon moving forward. Right now, "Mirror Quadrant" is handily winning, but what do you think?


• What do you think about fixing mission icons and/or the Klingon ship issue? Prolific forum author jrch5618 recently started a pair of threads, one suggesting the icon be added to Berlinghoff Rasmussen and another wanting to fix the IKC/IKS ship naming issues for Klingon ships. This is a semi-regular topic in one form or another, but these are different takes - what do you think? Read the threads and sound off!


• Here's a divisive topic for you - should 1E introduce mechanics that need "bits"? In the context of last Friday's Question, "bits" are extra game pieces aside from cards - tokens, markers, dice. They don't have to be anything that format, either - coins, chips, etc. Most modern games use something like this, although Decipher rarely did. What would you think about something requiring (or strongly wanting) "bits" being added to 1E?


• Our Deck Design forum is a great place to give - and get - feedback on decks. While it's the Gameplay forum that has the most regular activity, the Deck Design forum is a great place to ask for help with a new deck idea. Or, if you have ideas, you can post when others ask for help. Recent discussions have included getting Phlox or the Alpha Quadrant U.S.S. Voyager out on Turn 1, and decks. If you have an idea, go post a discussion thread and get help!


• Read some delightfully cunning teases about the upcoming expansion. Daniel Matteson (OKCoyote) has put together a great article about what he sees in The Neutral Zone, the upcoming virtual expansion from The Continuing Committee. The "Brad" referred to in the article is legendary designer Brad DeFruiter, who started writing similar articles many years ago. We're happy to continue on the tradition now.

First Edition March Madness

It's week three (3) of the First Edition March Madness tournament for 2020, and we're down to the Sweet 16. Just sixteen (16) personnel remain, all vying for the top prize based on your votes. If you're looking to catch up, you can see the results of the first round, and the newly announced results of the Round of 32. With a few more big upsets just complete, are there any personnel who are safe? Your votes will decide!

Click on the link below to open the poll - we're down to just one. For fun, I've also listed a featured match.

Bracket	Link to Poll	Feature Match
Sweet 16	Vote on the Sweet 16	All Good Things: (1) Christopher Pike vs (5) Admiral Riker

To sweeten the pot, we'll be giving away five (5) random First Edition borderless promo cards - one each week - to a participant who votes in the polls. You'll need to enter your email address to win, and an email address is required - if you don't care about winning, then feel free to enter in something like "no@nope.com" instead. But if you do enter your email, you'll be entered each week into a drawing to win a gorgeous foil promo! Each poll you complete is an additional entry, so if you vote in each division this week, you'll get four (4) chances to win!

Today, I'm happy to announce the winner of the first week's drawing: Brian Sykes (Armus). Congrats, Brian, and thanks for voting. Your shiny borderless promo will be packed up from our warehouse and headed your way as soon as possible. Keep voting, everyone, and you can win a borderless promo of your very own!

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That's all for this week's 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 2020. 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.

Discuss this article in this thread.

Decklist

Print Decklist • Copy Deck

This deck is legal in the following Card Pools:

• Complete

This deck is legal in the following Rules Sets:

• Open
• Warp Speed

This deck is currently eligible for the following family or families of achievements:

• Federation Player
• Three Stops Me
• Highlander
• Crew Quarters: Original Series
• The Cage Release

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