Second Edition Grimsby Regional winner Stuart Motley
Title: Diversity 2016
Headquarters: Earth, Home of Starfleet Command AND Mouth of the Wormhole, Deep Space 9
Deck Size: 50 cards
Deck Archetype: Speed Solver
Dilemma Pile Size: 37 cards
Dilemma Pile Type: Standard Attrition
Average Draw Deck Card Cost: 2.56
Agonizing Count: 2
Odds of Passing a 3-Skill-Dilemma Legacy: 2.1%
See also: This is our first dual-HQ winner since Mr Slade's errata-stricken DS9/TNG deck.

Stuart's Commentary:
Why did you choose the deck that you used? What other decks did you consider using?
After looking through the few decklists that I've posted, I've been playing a variant of this deck for about five years. It seems to have been my most successful deck for quite some time so Mark, Nick, & Will had already guessed what I was going to play. Despite having another fifteen decks at my disposal, nothing else I have gets anywhere near it in terms of competitiveness.

What sorts of decks were you hoping to face while playing your deck? What decks did you hope not to face?
Over the years, I like to think I've got a decent grasp of the UK meta (and to some extent a European meta from playing abroad years ago). Because of this - and laziness - I didn't really include anything to specifically take on my opponents specifically for this tournament.

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?
About a month ago, I realised I was frequently getting through the deck quickly. So I made a few changes bringing in more events such as Medical Teams, Holding Cell, and To Boldy Go. The latter which I would remove.

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?
I like to think that, in addition to its fast personnel downloading with Jaresh-Inyo and Charles Whatley, this deck has a reasonable balance of everything. The deck can gain skills with Confessions and Melora; add attributes with Worf, Centaur, and Melora (again!); and prevent kills with Julian, Ezri, and Medical Teams. Event destruction with Sloan and interrupt prevention with Holding Cell. The small unstopping element seemed a good idea, in theory, but I found myself never using it. So next time, it's going to go.

Do you have anything else you'd like to say about your deck?
I look forward to seeing plenty of new and familiar faces in London later in the year. But after playing this deck for so long, I think it's time to retire it and make one of my many other decks be competitive enough for the bigger tournaments - that and so I'm not boring and predictable again!

My Commentary:
In the See Also section, I mentioned Mr Slade's deck, but that was an ornate combo deck. Upon reflection, I think that this deck is actually much closer to something like Kevin Reitzel's 2015 Atlanta Regional-winning DS9 deck. Both are largely populated by DS9 Fed personnel, and both are fairly straightforward "honest" solvers that aim to largely ignore and shield themselves from what their opponents are doing. Stuart does a good job listing all the prevention solutions available to this deck, and most were available to Kevin too.

What the second Headquarters affords Stuart is a speed boost in exchange for increased vulnerability to various forms of Dual HQ hate like The Dal'Rok or the non-aligned personnel from Matter of Time. Of course, historically the most popular anti-Dual HQ cards have been the dilemmas, and those cards are largely dead on arrival against this year's bogeyman, All Space Voyager. This may be the safest time in quite a while to run a second HQ, be it for the speed of Guinan, Jaresh, and Whatley or even just the event destruction of Brunt. That said, this deck did take a loss in this tournament - to Nick Yankovec, who was running Provoke Interstellar Incident.

I love love love seeing cards like Memory Invasion in a dilemma pile. There are a lot of cards out there that don't often see competitive play, but deserve to... sometimes. It is a really valuable deck building skill to be able to look at underused cards and figure out what is going to be useful right now. Memory Invasion seems a bit expensive for just discarding a specific card from hand. But since we've been seeing more and more deck-defining interrupts coming out, it seems to be more and more valuable. I'd say that if you could guarantee that your toughest opponents were going to run 5 space Voyager or Cardassians, then Memory Invasion would be a 3x include. As it stands, maybe it is time to include at least one?

In any event, I really enjoy that Stuart is concerned that he's running a predictable deck, while I'm over here thrilled to be able to review something new.

First Edition Space Coast Regional winner Sean O'Reilly
Title: Kazon 2.1
Deck Archetype: Interference (Battle)
Play Engines: New Arrivals, The Kazon Collective, Son'a Observatory, Home Away From Home, Going to the Top
Draw Engines: New Arrivals, Duck Blind
Bonus Point Mechanics: Assign Mission Specialists
See also: The last time we covered a Kazon battle deck was when Ken Tufts won the 2015 Online (Not a) Regional with his version of the deck.

Sean's Commentary:
Why did you choose the deck that you used? What other decks did you consider using?
Before the tournament I was two affiliations away from playing all 1E affiliations that aren't in 2E. So I figured I would play Kazon and the best Kazon decks are battle-orientated.

What sorts of decks were you hoping to face while playing your deck? What decks did you hope not to face?

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 had never played the deck before - but I had played against a version of it last year at Orlando Masters. In that game, I actually won and avoided being blown up because I could report my non-Treachery Klingons to Gowron on the cloaked ship. I stole both his space missions (one was Wormhole Negotiations).

This deck is an updated version of that deck by Justin Ford. It doesn't use high point missions anymore, which can be stolen. I tweaked Justin's 2.0 deck - replacing two dilemmas (one addition was putting in a Caretaker's Wave to force them opponent to take [Flip] [Flip] [Flip] or relocate to Caretaker's Array and [Flip] . In the draw deck, I got rid of one Going to the Top and added a Transporter Control Module, Quantum Slipstream Drive, and a Long-Range Scan (which I actually used in the game once to get the Mission II wormhole to reappear).

The three new cards were put in because of the change to the Kazon Warship, which can no longer carry Voyager. Despite that, in 2 of my 3 games Voyager and the Warship both made it to the Alpha Quadrant.

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?
The only time I actually used Outgunned was on my own ship. To prevent a death I gave a ship to my opponent for A Fast Ship Would Be Nice. Next turn, I Outgunned it to get it back (so I could solve using Collect Metaphasic Particles). Long-Range Scan was useful to get the Wormhole back open on my [1E-DQ] Mission II. I never really needed Transporter Control Module since I could attempt from my ships. Jonathan Archer was actually very useful in one game. I needed his Diplomacy to get past Gomtuu Shock Wave (I attempted a mission with him and non-aligned crew) after Gomtuu damaged 5 of my Kazon ships.

What would you nominate as the MVP card from your deck?
Going to the Top is the best card because there are three Leadership x2 personnel in this deck (Jonathan Archer, Cullah, and Naavar). And with the new downloading personnel rule getting a free personnel out on your opponent's turn is great. Cytherians also was important to make my opponent come to my fleet of ships.

Do you have anything else you'd like to say about your deck?
I take no joy in winning with a battle deck. But I needed the achievement of playing Kazon and why not try it in a regional when the Continentals are in Florida this year and I can take advantage of the bye.

My Commentary:
I've reviewed Kazon battle decks a few times now, and I'm actually glad to see it again. I mean, these decks are devastating to play against; you're on a short timer to get things in order before the outpost killers arrive and threaten to turn the game to solitaire. Even if you build up a fleet of your own in time, you can't risk bringing the battle to the Kazon. Since most battle deck can't carry all their ships like the Kazon, and otherwise movement is non-simultaneous, the Kazon can just sit back and Outgun everything that comes their way. Even standard dilemmas like Cytherians become more devastating when every time it hits, that means the affected ship is gone and you can't just Portal it back because you have no where left to play those cards. Ugh, I wonder why these decks don't run Homefront to punish the few decks that can hide from them.

Aaaanyways, the reason why I'm glad to see a Kazon deck win again is that they've recently been the target of a focused assault. First, Expert Pilot gave decks a seedable way to stay safe from Outgunned. While that card is not seeing heavy use, it is showing up enough (and often at larger events) to give a Kazon player headaches. And then there's the errata: Stratagema now blocks Outgunned at a Homeworld - which was essential for maintaining the lockout against decks that could turtle at their HQ. Also, Kazon Voyager can no longer be carried by Kazon Warships, which both makes transporters rare to the Kazon again and requires more resources for getting its fleet through a wormhole to the opponent's quadrant.

In my opinion, the best errata brings strategies down to a level where they remain competitive but not oppressive. I don't think every deck should be either battle or anti-battle, but I do think that decks should still need to be prepared for the possibility of a heavy battle deck like the Kazon can bring. We may not see TNG Ferengi or Mercenary Raiders winners anymore, but the reappearance of Kazon battle as a winning deck is reassuring.

Second Edition New South Wales Regional winner Matthew Ting
Title: Romulans Sensing Things - At Regionals
Headquarters: Romulus, Patient Stronghold
Deck Size: 60 cards
Deck Archetype: Control (Interference)
Dilemma Pile Size: 51 cards
Dilemma Pile Type: Standard Attrition
Average Draw Deck Card Cost: 2.27
Agonizing Count: 3
Odds of Passing a 3-Skill-Dilemma Legacy: 8.5%
See also: This is our first new-Romulus winner!

Matthew's Commentary:
Why did you choose the deck that you used? What other decks did you consider using?
I really like Sensing A Trap, and I didn't have time to build anything new. I also had 5 space Voyager and Dominion decks ready to play, both of which I felt were more competitive decks, but I like Romulans being able to shut down lots of tricks.

What sorts of decks were you hoping to face while playing your deck? What decks did you hope not to face?
I was hoping for decks relying on power interrupts I could easily remove, things like Homeward Bound or Central Command. I didn't want to face fast solvers, as this deck can be a bit slow.

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?
It's the same deck I played at Australian Nationals in Perth. This time, I didn't spend time trying to use the text on Nelvana III and Tenak'talar, which probably helped speed things up. I realise the problem with this deck is that it can slow the game down resulting in timed games.

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?
I may not worry about Tenak'talar again, but it's fun when it works to mess up opponent's mission attempts. Pest Control is a dilemma that is pretty situational, but I really enjoy getting it to hit (especially with this deck).

What would you nominate as the MVP card from your deck?
Sensing A Trap is hilarious. I pretty much always knew what was in opponent's hand in every game, thanks to Nanclus / Clear Ultimatum / Tal. If you can get it out on turn 1 it's fun naming things like USS Voyager, USS Relativity, USS Enterprise B.

Do you have anything else you'd like to say about your deck?
I don't understand why Sensing A Trap and Clear Ultimatum don't see more play. Maquis is the better control deck, but Romulan feels more fun and thematic to me.

My Commentary:
New Romulus decks haven't seen much high-level success, but I'd posit that's in part because it is a less obvious process to turn an old Romulus deck into a new one. Unlike most of the other upgraded headquarters we've seen so far, this one doesn't just give a flat power upgrade in exchange for not playing non-aligned cards. Instead, it gives an incentive to play a whole new type of deck (reinvigorating old, unused cards), which makes using it or not more of an interesting choice. I'd be hard-pressed to say that there are any non-aligned personnel that are worth giving up passive opponent point loss or the ability to play powerful artifacts without a solved mission. On the other hand, if you don't intend to do any lurking, giving up Silik, Bashir, and Weyoun isn't worth reducing the cost of ships you aren't going to use.

If you do intend to lurk, though, you finally can - and potentially win like Matthew has. From my own experimentation with this deck type, I've got to throw out some praise for Premiere Sela. I've never included her in a deck before, but man is it satisfying to reveal her and block an opponent from using an ability (like, say, Interlink) that they've never had to worry about not being able to use before. I've been noticing Intelligence being lighter than expected even in typical bad-guy affiliations (like Dominion), you might be surprised about how many opponents won't have a way out when Sela shows up. Between her ability and Deep Hatred removing key interrupts, mission attempts on the other side of the table will be a lot harder.

I am a bit disappointed that Matthew plans to take out the Tenak'talar, since it is the first thing I noticed when parsing the decklist (even before noticing that the deck used new Romulus). Commandeer Prototype is a Romulan staple, but getting anything other than the Phoenix is really uncommon. On the other hand, Brainwashing is another uncommon tech card that sounds like it would be a blast to use in this deck. Ting mentioned above that he often knows exactly what is in an opponent's hand, and that really affects the amount of value you can squeeze out of Brainwashing. High cost personnel often sit in the hand a turn or two, waiting to be played at a time when you can afford the cost, and a Romulan deck with access to both Donatra and Kirk sounds really threatening.

Second Edition Austrian Regional winner Stefan Slaby
Title: if it moves kill it
Headquarters: Caretaker's Array
Deck Size: 82 cards
Deck Archetype: Control (Battle)
Dilemma Pile Size: 50 cards
Dilemma Pile Type: Chula Attrition with Damage (Tillman)
Average Draw Deck Card Cost: 2.21
Agonizing Count: 2
Odds of Passing a 3-Skill-Dilemma Legacy: 2.9%
See also: Do I need to keep linking to other 5-space Voyager winners? This is the only one that also plans to blow up the opponent anyways.

Stefan's Commentary:
Why did you choose the deck that you used? What other decks did you consider using?

Let's see. First I considered my old favorites, but all the good old stuff that used to be slightly above the power curve has been errata'd into oblivion. Big Borg? Dead. Klingons? Lost their download cycle. My 2013 Romulans? Significantly weakened. Voyager is still out there, minus Navaar, but I'll get to that...

In place of the old good stuff, we've now got all those shiny new Phase 2 bullshit factions that are so far above the power curve that you might as well play Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock. Let's see if I can list them in alphabetical order:

• New Bajoran micro-attempting on overdrive, getting their Orbs before the first mission, and bringing in more personnel from the discard pile than they are actually playing. And somebody gave them a 20 point space mission? Attempt with 2, draw 2 dilemmas, bring in 4 more personnel. Stop 3, play some interrupts and solve with the remaining 3...
• New Dominion screwing with the opponent's score. I remember when we used to do hard stuff, like Commandeer Prototype + the Phoenix for a similar effect, it is that good. Now they made it a side effect of regular missions. On top of that, Crippling Strike and an overabundance of personnel killing assault cards ensure that the opponent never gets to those extra missions you're forcing him to do.
• Old Romulans have gone into exile in the Gamma quadrant because they were bored by the new ones playing the bad ships. There, they realized that they can prevent so many stops that those Stakoron Strait missions could actually give a discount on dual dilemmas and it still wouldn't matter. Plus, whatever they always did.
• Starfleet has always been crazy good, barely bearable after the Nathan Samuels errata. Now they got a huge pile of stop prevention. It doesn't matter if you give them a surgical stop, a filter or a wall. Knowledge covers it all. And now the best part? It can be combined with most of the Delphic bullshit we already hated.
• And then there's 5 space Voyager, plays personnel way below their value, gets 3 extra turns, and doesn't have to face planet dilemmas. At least they're weak against battle. Or was it strong at battling? I keep mixing those up ;)

Anyway, I don't know of any actually broken decks right now, and I don't think any non-broken deck stands a chance against all of those those 5; so I went with Spock. At Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock, you always pick Spock. I liked Voyager before Phase 2, and now they're the only one of this bunch I can actually stomach to play.

What sorts of decks were you hoping to face while playing your deck? What decks did you hope not to face?
Well, obviously Paper would have been bad. Paper disproves Spock. And Lizard poisons Spock. Equally bad. Come to think of it, I didn't want to play against any decks from my above list; but that was probably hypocritical, considering that I picked one of those 5 for myself.

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 played Voyager a lot; but I learned that the 5 space deck with TCS needs to tech against Timescape, which cost me the win in one game.

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?
A lot of decks auto-pass Alternative to Fighting, but it hits Starfleet, which is important these days. I was disappointed by Chimeric Diversion, never reached that sweet spot where it activates, but still helps stopping attempts.

What would you nominate as the MVP card from your deck?
Homeward Bound.

Do you have anything else you'd like to say about your deck?
Well, the state of the game includes this deck, so am I allowed to talk about that? I'm not sure how the state of the game is in the US, but over here I see a huge amount of resignation about this shiny new Phase 2. I've seen it the last year, especially at the continentals, and it got only worse since. A few years ago we've had a game where new players were rare and most players had played the stuff they loved for 10+ years. Some of us cycled through achievements, and every now and then, you found one or two interesting new cards, and tried to build a deck around it. Well, except of course for Peak Performance, which gave 2 factions a set of new powerhouse cards, gave us a World Championships that everybody hated, and around 10 errata.

To be fair, Phase 2 wasn't all bad; there are cards I like and mechanics I like, but they are drowned out by these new powerhose decks. Also, Peak Performance had factionless game-changers like Legacy, and made only 2 of the factions major NPEs; whereas Phase 2 has been carefully tying everything to a faction, and by now at least five different factions have reached the NPE status, balancing things out a bit? Still, the overall effect I perceive is that by now everybody I know got four new powerhouse decks they hate and don't want to play against, and some equally disruptive strategies to support one faction they like. In other words, nobody wants to play regular tournaments anymore. Every new set brings a brief period of excitement about the new stuff, followed by the realization that it doesn't matter, if you take it to a tournament you'll have to play it against those decks.

For a long-lived game with a very small player base where every player turned away from this game is a tragedy, I can only consider this a major fuckup in recent design, and I'll be surprised if we'll have enough players left to play something like continentals 3 years from now. Not sure what to do about it, but I'm pretty sure that "reducing the game length" or "reducing the entry barrier for new players" is not going to bring in enough new players to replace the ones that are being turned away right now.

My Commentary:
Well, I covered Stefan's unique combo of Voyager, battle, a Tillman pile, and Chula when he won with it last year, and I've already covered 5 space Voyager in all the articles forever, so I'm going to take this opportunity to try to address some of Stefan's points. Now, yes, 5 space Voyager's popularity does seem kind of stifling at this point, but otherwise I personally think that the sky is being better held in place than might be indicated above. Bear in mind, I am nowhere near as good a player or a deckbuilder as Mr. Slaby, but I do have some spreadsheets!

• Reports of the death of old builds have been greatly exaggerated. The Borg have had multiple wins this season, with multiple styles of deck (speed interference, control interference, and midrange solvers). I'll admit that ALC Romulans haven't won much (aside from US Nationals), but they haven't been played much, in part due to their reputation as being a mean deck on par with Maquis. And Maquis would be exhibit A in the realm of decks that would be horribly oppressive if anyone were willing to face the scorn that comes with playing them.
• New builds aren't quite as oppresive as it may seem. New Dominion in particular was very overwhelming at first, but as dilemma piles have adapted to its presence and the existence of 5SV, its success has significantly calmed down. I'd say it's still early to say about Starfleet yet (though they do seem quite good), but I'd object to saying that they were only lightly hit by the Samuels errata. And while Bajorans are fun again with their new phase 2 tools, aside from an episode that was hit emergency errata for an interaction with old cards, they've hardly been tearing up major events.

In general, I'd say that the new hotnesses are certainly powerful, but they are competitive with the old powerhouses rather than overwhelming them. Certainly, being new and shiny means we see more of them than we might of the old pillars, but I'd be hard-pressed to bet against Maquis, ALC Romulans, or Borg in a fight against the new guys. I've been wrong before (see also: every predictions thread), but I do manage to be fairly often surprised by a new and interesting winning deck build in these articles (despite my rising frustration with 5SV). And, personally, I've had fun a lot of fun building stuff with the new phase 2 toys.

Second Edition Seattle Masters winner Amber Van Breemen
Title: Luna's Dream Journal
Headquarters: Earth, Humanity's Home
Deck Size: 60 cards
Deck Archetype: Midrange solver
Dilemma Pile Size: 42 cards
Dilemma Pile Type: Standard Attrition
Average Draw Deck Card Cost: 2.58
Agonizing Count: 4
Odds of Passing a 3-Skill-Dilemma Legacy: 31.8%
See also: Ben Dillon has also piloted the new Starfleet toys to victory.

Amber's Commentary:
Why did you choose the deck that you used? What other decks did you consider using?
-- I knew I wanted a solver, as that's what I'm comfortable with. Our area tends to play a lot of Federation decks, which has tilted dilemma piles into anti-Fed territory, and this helped make my decision to not play Fed. I had considered my other 3 primary affiliations though - Relativity, Voyager, and Dominion. Starfleet also had the advantage of recently-released new cards which seemed fun.

What sorts of decks were you hoping to face while playing your deck? What decks did you hope not to face?
I was hoping to not face much interaction in general, or Dominion due to Crippling Strike's range reduction. It would be good to face something I'm familiar with, to better predict how well dilemmas would work.

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 Starfleet quite a bit before - my profile has a shiny Pioneer badge (Starfleet x10)! I tended to stay away from it for big events as I felt it was a couple steps slower than top decks, and didn't have much of a way to compensate. However, it now has some of the power of a Voyager-type solver; first few turns can be slow, then it builds up and can steamroll later missions.

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?
Preeminent Precision was included in case of Dominion range reduction; although I didn't face that deck, it helped in a game or two. The duo of Ripple Effect and Charles Tucker III, Standing In worked very well; the impact of even 1 extra counter a turn was significant, and in multiple games I had 9 counters per turn by the time my 2nd mission was complete. I was worried about not including Surprise Party (trying to keep deck size down is an issue of mine), but didn't miss it. Next time I play the deck I'll remove Respect in Diversity; it usually got discarded for T'Pol, and I'm not sure it would have helped much even if played.

What would you nominate as the MVP card from your deck?
By a slight margin, I would say Accumulated Knowledge. The ability to prevent more than one stop at once was huge in overcoming a few dilemmas. I played it anywhere between 4 counters and free; it was worth it even at the 3-4 counter range. Second would be the new Jonathan Archer, Novice Mediator; being able to choose your personnel is a good way to keep Adopted Authority (popular in our area) under your mission! Honorable mention goes to Jupiter, the new mission fueling the T'Pol-Accumulated fun.

Do you have anything else you'd like to say about your deck?
It was fun to play and worked well, and I look forward to seeing how it stacks up the rest of this competitive season.

My Commentary:
My initial reaction to the new Archer was that his ability was a downgrade from his Delphic version in exchange for more flexibility as to where you could use him. After all, your personnel are still getting selected, and bad things are still happening to them, right? Well, as Amber mentioned with regards to Adopted Authority, not exactly. He can turn a 3-cost fairly reliable bouncing double-stop into a one-stop one-under scenario, and that's not all. You can choose for that high-statted Rossi to be the one personnel to get through In Development; you can guarantee that Chula: The Chandra and Intimidation are underwhelming 4-cost dilemmas that only stop two of your choice; Becalmed could easily fail to stop anyone; and The Weak Will Perish will always hit that one 7-strength personnel you have. He's still not quite as potent as his predecessor, but he's still very flexible and will allow you to use non-aligned personnel with less risk.

Unlike Ben, Amber opted not to use Gorgans in her dilemma pile, despite having the Accumulated Knowledges as fuel. I'm not sure what the right call is in this case; having the flexibility to discard them in a pinch to stop the opponent with one under sounds good, but every time you do that you're limiting your own ability to blow past mass-stoppers (or even single stoppers that would otherwise stop the attempt). I suspect that the answer is neither approach is wrong but is rather a matter of personal preference; both players obviously made the choice that worked best for them.

Double Cornered in the dilemma pile is not surprising, considering how potent that dilemma is. Three cost for two kills is an amazing deal, you'd normally expect to see really easy requirements. However, 2 Astrometrics and 2 Navigation is quite a tall order, and a completed 4-span mission is incredibly rare. There are only a few decks that even run 4-span missions currently - 5 Space Voyager, which will never encounter Cornered due to it being a planet dilemma; New Starfleet decks using Terra Nova, which is likely to be their last mission solved in order to maximize the value from its gametext; and the odd TNG deck that uses Sha Ka Ree for the two mission win, meaning that they will never face a planet dilemma while their planet mission is complete. Yeah, time to start packing plenty of Astrometrics and Navigation for planet missions.

First Edition Seattle Masters winner Richard DeLashmit
Title: Yesterday's Enterprise
Deck Archetype: Speed Solver
Play Engines: Bajoran Resistance Cell, Office of the President, Visit Cochrane Memorial, Deep Space Station K-7
Draw Engines: Bajoran Resistance Cell, Kivas Fajo - Collector, Visit Cochrane Memorial
Bonus Point Mechanics: George and Gracie, Assign Mission Specialists, Kira Taban, File Mission Report
See also: Richard has been playing variations on this deck since November 2013.

Richard's Commentary:
Why did you choose the deck that you used? What other decks did you consider using?
It was a tossup between TOS Fed and TNG Ferengi. I felt my Fed deck was the most competitive choice, despite it being so well known in my playgroup.

What sorts of decks were you hoping to face while playing your deck? What decks did you hope not to face?
Low interference. My best match is against another solver, preferably one that stays out of the Alpha Quadrant, and my worst match is fast-battle or Borg assimilation.

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 been running this deck since Canadian Nationals 2013. I've changed it a bit over the past two years with new personal and modern dilemmas, but the core of the deck is the same.

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?
They are few and far between, but this deck is running some options to evade battle without being battle heavy itself. Evasive Maneuvers in my Battle-Bridge and Ablative Armor downloaded from Admiral Janeway protect my ships from one-shot attacks. Strategema and Establish Landing Protocols let my hide from battle all together. I also have a few answers for mission steeling with HQ: Defensive Measures in my Q-Tent and Transport Inhibitor.

What would you nominate as the MVP card from your deck?
Honorable mentions to Buried Alive & Dr. McCoy, but the MVP still goes to Starship Enterprise.

My Commentary:
An earlier version of this deck is actually the third deck I ever reviewed for the Road to Worlds. Much of what was said is still true now - TOS equipment and downloading still blasts through otherwise hard dilemmas; Bajoran Resistance Cell is still the most splashable single-seed combined play engine and draw engine; two mission wins are hard to beat; Cartwright is still a beast against other decks that seek to abuse Bajoran Resistance Cell in Federation decks. Good times.

What's new: this is a great deck for blowing through Quantum Incursions. Plenty of navigation, physics, Security, and Science, it even has three empathy across two personnel who play for free and mach the primary affiliation of the deck, and is absolutely saturated with Alternate Universe icons. What's more, this was not the only well-prepared for Quantum Incursions deck at the tournament. Some intelligence from participant and mad Vulcan J: "Yesterday, Ken ran DQ with Dr Syrus as a mission specialist and Gem as his turn 1 support personnel (to the Equinox) to set up Ancestral Vision. That's Turn 1 QI requirements. It was the worst dilemma to be running. Nobody failed it twice and both Ken and Justin had 6 man crews with every option to guarantee a pass."

I'm going to need people to help me on Buried Alive though. Richard calls it out as one of his honorable mention MVPs, but I just don't understand it. Sure, it turns a mission into a dual-icon mission... would definitely be useful against an all-planet deck, but so would a Balancing Act. I suppose a battle deck would benefit from forcing an opponent to put some personnel at a planet mission aboard a vulnerable ship at the mission, but this is not a battle deck. I guess Buried Alive into Arsenal Divided would almost certainly stall an attempt, but is that worth a slot in a deck with only 14 dilemmas? Buried Alive into "God" could potentially kill a crew? It would stop the away team if Mission Debriefing were on the table, but that's not in this deck. Borg don't "attempt" missions, how does this card even interact with them? Please, help!