Weekly 1E Roundup - 8 APRIL 2020

by Charlie Plaine, Director of First Edition

8th April 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

The first Monday has come and gone, and brought with it one errata and some rules changes and clarifications. Dyson Sphere Door is a card that enables a "dilemma side" deck, but previously overrode the no-downloading restriction on the just released card The Squire's Rules. This interaction wasn't intended, and was regretfully missed during development of The Neutral Zone. The errata to Dyson Sphere Door limits the downloading protection to opponent's cards, meaning you can no longer use this doorway to download dilemmas when also using The Squire's Rules. There were no updates to the Ban List or the Watch List for April.

You can check out the full text of April's rules updates in the Recent Rulings Document, but Rules Manager James Heaney (BCSWowbagger) provides helpful context in his article. The biggest change is probably to define characters in disguise or otherwise acting as something as now actually having the characteristic. For example, Leyton Founder is now an admiral and Selok is now a Vulcan and an ambassador (as well as a Romulan). Other clarifications about the Multiplexor Drone, Assimilation Table, and more are well-explained in the article. All of these errata and changes are effective immediately, except for online tournaments that were already in progress.

This Day in Trek

April 8th, 1998 would change the universe of Star Trek forever. For late in the sixth season of Deep Space Nine, a show that had already deepened and shadowed the Trek universe immeasurably, the episode "Inquisition" would air for the first time. Inquisition would introduce Section 31 to Trek for the first time and change the universe forever. The Federation's shadowy black ops division would go on to reappear not only in Deep Space Nine, but in Enterprise, Star Trek: Into Darkness, and Discovery. It completely altered the nature of Star Trek from their debut, for better or for worse, and has been a source of some stellar stories and even more impressive moral debates among fans.

Happy 22nd birthday, Section 31.

Tournament Reports

I hope that all of you are staying safe. I've found that I've had to limit how much time I spend on social media and reading the news. When I don't, I tend to get into spirals of anxiety and find myself just checking and rechecking the same few stories. I am fortunate that my roommates, my family, my friends, and I are in good health and staying safe. I hope the same is true for all of you.

But even with all this uncertainty, I want to hear about you having any chance to play Trek! Did you play online? Tell me about it! Play with family? Send me pictures! 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 had two online tournaments start last week, and we've got three more starting this week - including a Regional that has been moved to be played Online. We'll start with that tournament, taking place this Friday, April 10th. This OTF Complete Constructed tournament is a one day, online only replacement for the Regional originally scheduled in Beccles in the United Kingdom. Hosted by Paddy Tye (KazonPADD), all of the games will be played in a single day, like a standard tournament, just with online time limits. Six (6) players are pre-registered, including 28th ranked Paddy and 29th ranked Julius Melhardt (Clerasil ToB). You're welcome to play as well, but the tournament kicks off at 10:30 AM in the UK, which is 5:30 on the East Coast of the United States.

Update: Paddy has had to delay this tournament. Check the discussion thread for the latest details.

A more traditional online tournament is kicking off on the same day, but this OTF Complete Constructed event will be a release event for The Neutral Zone. Organized by Brian S. (JeBuS), participants must seed The Squire's Rules as part of their deck, committing them to using random dilemmas. In addition, players must use seed at least two (2) Neutral Zone Region missions or at least two (2) missions from The Neutral Zone. This is going to be fun, and with fifteen (15) players pre-registered as of the writing of this column, looks to be a fun celebration of the new expansion. If you'd like to play, there's still time to register.

Finally, Thomas Kamiura (bosskamiura) is running his monthly OTF Complete Constructed tournament as part of The Dojo, his Discord server. Six (6) players are currently pre-registered to play, and there's plenty of time to join in before the event kicks off on Monday, April 13th.

If you have upcoming events, virtual 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)

• The Neutral Zone is officially released, and will be legal on Friday. By now, I hope you've all had time to look through the complete expansion and start building some new decks. Thanks to the hard work of Markus Eberlein (eberlems), Lackey's 1E plugin is ready to go and you can build your decks immediately.


• I shared some behind the scenes stories from The Neutral Zone in last week's office hours. Last week's office hours featured Brian Sykes (Armus), Allen Gould (AllenGould), and myself as we looked at cards from The Neutral Zone. We talked strategy somewhat, and I shared some behind the scenes stories from the expansion's development. I won't have a stream this week, but you can vote on the time for next week.


• What are your Top 3 cards from The Neutral Zone? Forum user Spectre9 started a discussion on this very topic, acknowledging that it's way too early to have anything more that early impressions. But so far, Experience BiJ seems to be an early favorite! What cards inspire, excite, or worry you?


• Maggie Geppert (jadziadax8) posted the android deck to go with her article. During spoilers for The Neutral Zone, Executive Officer Maggie Geppert (jadziadax8) wrote an article about the new android cards featured in that expansion. Now that they are all revealed, she posted her decklist to go along with, if you're looking for a starting place for an android deck.


• Would you like to see more Tribbles and/or Troubles in 1E? Hot on the heels of asking about cards, last week's Friday question was all about two other semi-retired card types: Tribbles and Troubles. Other than their initial appearances in The Trouble with Tribbles, they have never appered in any expansion. Many players find them annoying, although they do have their fans. What do you think? Should we make more, or let them die?

First Edition March Madness

It's all come down to this. Two (2) personnel remain out of the Top 64 most used personnel over the past year, and it's time to crown the winner of the 2020 First Edition March Madness tournament! Who will it be? Dr. McCoy, the ultra rare country doctor from The Trouble With Tribbles? The man who can nullify any MEDICAL dilemma he comes across? Or will this year's Cinderella, Seven of Nine, become the ultimate upset? Can the former Drone from Voyager assimilate the original physician? It's time for your votes to decide!

	VS.
Vote on the Championship

To sweeten the pot, we'll be giving away six (6) 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!

Last week's winner is Achievements Master Rogue Shindler (SirRogue)! Rogue joins our previous winners Brian, Eirik, Cristoffer, and Maggie and will be getting his very own borderless foil promo shipped. Congrats, Rogue! To all of you that voted, whether you won or not, thank you for voting. Don't forget, we'll still have one more winners - remember to vote this week and you'll be eligible to win a borderless virtual promo of your own!

---

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. Join me tomorrow, Thursday, April 2nd, at 3 PM Pacific for the latest edition of my Office Hours. 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.

Back to Archive index