The Road to Worlds 2013, Week 3

by James Hoskin, Director of Organized Play

18th April 2013

This is a weekly series that aims to preview upcoming Regional tournaments, review Regional tournaments that have just taken place, highlight winning decks, interview players, and more. Last week's article was The Road to Worlds 2013, Week 2.

How can you contribute to this series? First and foremost, I am relying on results and deck lists being promptly entered into this site. I can't write about them otherwise. Other ways you can help include: taking photos, interviewing players, writing previews, and providing background information. Any other way to help the community be a part of your Regional tournament would be appreciated, too. Contact details are at the end of this article.

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Week 2 Review

Saturday 13th April		Sunday 14th April
Second Edition (Standard) Hyperlight 1206 Duthie Avenue Burnaby, BC V5A 2R5 Canada [Results]	Tribbles (Standard) Hyperlight 1206 Duthie Avenue Burnaby, BC V5A 2R5 Canada [Results]	Tribbles (Standard) Good Games Burwood 195a Burwood Road, Level 1 Burwood, NSW 2134 Australia [Results]	First Edition (OTF) Hyperlight 1206 Duthie Avenue Burnaby, BC V5A 2R5 Canada [Results]
Second Edition (Standard) Round Table Pizza 2960 Treat Boulevard Concord, CA 94518 United States [Results]	Second Edition (Standard) Sprode's House 812 Hazelwood Boulevard Jackson, MI 49203 United States [Results]	Second Edition (Standard) Oleg's House ulitsa Nametkina House 9 Building 3, Apt. 307 Moscow, 117420 Russia [Results]

Hyperlight (Second Edition): Six players kicked off the triple Regional weekend in British Columbia, Canada. Four local players were joined by two visiting players from the United States, Matt Kirk (CaptMDKirk) and J (The Mad Vulcan). Matt, playing a Deep Space 9 deck titled "I Drink Your Milkshake!", was undefeated over four rounds and took the title. This was Matt's first Regional title in the Continuing Committee-era. He also became the first player to win the Good Things in Small Packages achievement, for using only Danube-class ships (that's shuttlecraft) in his Deep Space 9 deck. Congratulations Matt! My pick to win, Isaiah Nordhagen (grandnagusmorn), playing an Earth Space 9 deck titled "Target Practice 1.0", recovered after losing to Matt in the first round to finish the tournament in second place. Isaiah built his Prometheus Cadet deck after Kevin Jaeger mentioned it in his Regional preview blog a couple of weeks ago. Other decks played include Borg, Cardassian, Dominion and Terok Nor. All six deck lists and two tournament reports can be found on the tournament results page, and an interview with Matt Kirk is below.

Statistics from Hyperlight:

Total achievements awarded	26
Most achievements won	Matt Kirk (CaptMDKirk) with 11
Average achievements per player	4.3
Biggest ratings gain	Matt Kirk (CaptMDKirk), up 58 points to 1614
Average rating of all 6 players	1512

Winner	James' Prediction	Kris' Prediction	Nat's Prediction
Matt Kirk	Isaiah Nordhagen	Matt Kirk	Matt Kirk

Hyperlight (Tribbles): Part two of the triple header in the Ferenginar Region, saw all six players remain after the Second Edition Regional to battle it out for the title of Tribbles Regional champion. There are no tournament reports to describe what happened, but Isaiah Nordhagen (grandnagusmorn) looks to have dominated the field, scoring 767,720 Tribbles. That works out as 44% of all the Tribbles scored on the day. J (The Mad Vulcan) took second place with 341,633 Tribbles. He was playing a Poison deck, and is in contention to win the end-of-season award for longest deck title with "TK Said; 'Go To the Well and Drink from It, and Thy Need Will Be Gone, and Thy Thirst Shall be Quenched'". Four deck lists can be found on the tournament results page.

Statistics from Hyperlight:

Total achievements awarded	6
Most achievements won	Isaiah Nordhagen (grandnagusmorn) and J (The Mad Vulcan), with 2 each
Average achievements per player	1.0
Total Tribbles scored	1,739,301
Average Tribbles scored by all 6 players	289,884

Winner	James' Prediction	Kris' Prediction	Nat's Prediction
Isaiah Nordhagen	Kurtis Correia	Kurtis Correia	Ken Tufts

Round Table Pizza: This Risa Regional attracted six players. Everyone's favorite to win Rich Joakimson (Outsider), playing a 99 card Borg deck titled "Borg Harvest, 2013" was undefeated and retained the title he won last year. He almost didn't have it all his way though, as he could only manage a modified win in the third round over Richard Joakimson Sr. (FutureEnterprise), playing a Bajoran deck titled "Bajoran Assassins". Special mention goes to Caleb Tseng for playing a triple headquarters deck. His Cardassian / Romulan / Terok Nor deck titled "Triple Threat Part 2" is the first, and most likely only, triple headquarters deck to appear at a Regional this year. Three deck lists can be found on the tournament results page.

Statistics from Round Table Pizza:

Total achievements awarded	14
Most achievements won	Richard Joakimson Sr. (FutureEnterprise) with 5
Average achievements per player	2.3
Biggest ratings gain	Dan (danleahy), up 41 points to 1514
Average rating of all 6 players	1521

Winner	James' Prediction	Kris' Prediction	Nat's Prediction
Rich Joakimson	Rich Joakimson	Rich Joakimson	Rich Joakimson

Sprode's House: Eleven players participated in this Qo'noS Regional, including six making the trip from Illinois. Klingon, Starfleet and Voyager were the most popular affiliations, accounting for almost two-thirds of the decks being played. Al Schaefer (ltkettch17), playing a Klingon deck titled "Don't Defend the Robots - MI Reginal 2013" (points docked for mis-spelling "Regional") was undefeated to win the Regional. This was his fifth Regional win in a row, dating back to June 2011. Al almost slipped up in the second round though, when he faced Edward Pigman (jindrak), playing a Klingon deck titled "Klingon HC". Edward had supplied Al with the High Council deck he was playing, before Al had tweaked it, and was playing his own version of the deck too. Consequently, both knew each other's deck inside out, and were using their dilemmas to massacre their opponent. The game finally ended 80-80. The third Klingon deck of the day, played by Joshua Sheets (prylardurden), was a speed solver; and lead him to second place in the tournament, with just one loss to his name. The two Starfleet decks played by Eric Bieche (biecheer) and Jason Beyer (sevencrdspud) also had three wins and one loss each, and took third and fourth place, respectively. Other decks played include Dominion, Ferengi, Romulan, Next Generation and Voyager twice. All eleven deck lists and five tournament reports can be found on the tournament results page.

(Photos from Sprode's House in the Regionals 2013 Photo Gallery)

Statistics from Sprode's House:

Total achievements awarded	30
Most achievements won	Joshua Sheets (prylardurden) with 4
Average achievements per player	2.7
Biggest ratings gain	Jason Beyer (sevencrdspud), up 48 points to 1428
Average rating of all 11 players	1505

Winner	James' Prediction	Kris' Prediction	Nat's Prediction
Al Schaefer	Al Schaefer	Al Schaefer	Joel Skon

Good Games Burwood: This Tribbles Kazon Collective Regional saw nine players battle for the title. The first pod was low scoring, with the four players only scoring 669,818 Tribbles between them. Kieren Otten (Honest) won the pod with 331,466 Tribbles, and Jay Coad (jayzilla) took second place with 225,999 Tribbles. It's not often that you see a Tribbles score ending in 999. There was much more scoring in the second pod, with a total of 2,443,899 Tribbles scored. Roxanne Phan led the way with 1,144,905 Tribbles scored, and Peter Hill (leonardmccoy) was just behind her with 813,123 Tribbles. In the final, Kieren sped to the victory with just 311,225 Tribbles scored. His opponent's obviously didn't have time to rack up the big scores, giving Kieren the Regional Tribbles Championship. Congratulations Kieren. Six deck lists and two tournament reports can be found on the tournament results page.

Statistics from Good Games Burwood:

Total achievements awarded	12
Most achievements won	Craig Giblett (Ensign Gibbers) with 4
Average achievements per player	1.3
Total Tribbles scored	1,514,772
Average Tribbles scored by all 9 players	168,308

Winner	James' Prediction	Kris' Prediction	Nat's Prediction
Kieren Otten	Mike Nugent	Steve Hartmann	Mike Nugent

Hyperlight (First Edition): In an effort to let the tension build, or possibly to let the players rest, the third Regional in the British Columbia, Canada triple header took place on Sunday. Three additional players joined five of the six Second Edition/Tribbles players for a turnout of eight players. Reigning World and Canadian National Champion, Kenneth Tufts (Worf Son of Mogh), playing a Ferengi deck titled "OTF - TNG FMO Solver, who needs battle" was the man to beat, but nobody could. This was Kenneth's fourth Regional title in just over twelve months. The closest Kenneth came to losing was in the third round, where he could only manage a Modified Win over Matt Kirk (CaptMDKirk), playing a Borg deck titled "This Space Left Intentionally Blank". Matt finished in third place, after being piped to the runner-up spot by J (The Mad Vulcan), playing a Romulan deck titled "Matt Kirk Made Me Do It". Both players had three wins and one loss, but all of Matt's wins were modified, while J managed two full wins. The round two game where Matt beat J had little influence on the overall result. Other decks played include Federation, Ferengi, Hirogen, Romulan and Vidiian. All eight deck lists can be found on the tournament results page.

Statistics from Hyperlight:

Total achievements awarded	25
Most achievements won	Justin (Resistance-is-futile) with 7
Average achievements per player	3.1
Biggest ratings gain	Matt Kirk (CaptMDKirk), up 47 points to 1565
Average rating of all 8 players	1548

Winner	James' Prediction	Kris' Prediction	Nat's Prediction
Kenneth Tufts	Kenneth Tufts	Kenneth Tufts	Kenneth Tufts

Oleg's House: This Second Edition Delphic Expanse Regional in Moscow, Russia attracted ten players. There were nine different affiliations used, with just Starfleet being doubled up. After three rounds, Andrey Larin (Cersan), playing an Earth Space 9 deck titled "Lightning Strikes Twice", was undefeated and looking good for the title. He lost in rounds four and five though, to give another player the chance at the title. Andrey's fourth round loss to host Oleg Ryzhikov (Elfwine), playing a 76-card Ferengi deck titled "Call of the Nagus", was the turning point. Oleg had lost in round one, but winning every other game saw him crowned Regional Champion. Andrey finished in second place, the first of five players with three wins and two losses. Other decks played include Borg, Cardassian, Klingon, Maquis, Androids and Next Generation. Six deck lists and two tournament reports can be found on the tournament results page.

Statistics from Oleg's House:

Total achievements awarded	26
Most achievements won	Oleg Ryzhikov (Elfwine) with 6
Average achievements per player	2.6
Biggest ratings gain	Oleg Ryzhikov (Elfwine), up 48 points to 1595
Average rating of all 10 players	1511

Winner	James' Prediction	Kris' Prediction	Nat's Prediction
Oleg Ryzhikov	Nickolay Korotya	Nickolay Korotya	Andrey Larin

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Interview

This week, Matt Kirk (CaptMDKirk), the Continuing Committee's Second Edition Creative Manager and winner of the Ferenginar Regional in British Columbia, Canada, gets a lengthy grilling from me.

James: Congratulations on your win Matt. What prompted you to travel to Canada for the Regional weekend?
Matt: I had mentioned the idea to J (The Mad Vulcan) in February when the Regionals schedule was released. I actually only bought a plane ticket about two weeks before, and rushed through some last-minute plans with J and Ken Tufts' (Worf Son of Mogh) assistance.

James: Let's start with the Second Edition tournament. Which decks you were considering playing?
Matt: I had thought about Original Series, since it's always a good policing choice for big events. I also considered the Next Generation Loaded for Bear weenie swarm for an easy two-mission win. But I had recently been smacked around by Tyler's latest revision of his Deep Space 9 unstoppable deck, and I reconstructed it from memory since he hadn't posted a deck list from that event before I left.

James: Matter of Time had lots of meta-changing cards. How did its release affect your choice of decks?
Matt: The main tool that the deck got from Matter of Time was Preposterous Plan, which meant I had an alternate, guaranteed way with Tongo to get some early points that didn't lock me into the Promenade School build.

James: What decks did you expect to face?
Matt: The last time I had played Ken live was when he visited San Diego for the 2011 North American Continentals, and he had a speedy Klingon solver that he played well, so I was prepared for that. I also had the suspicion that I would see not that much interaction, and I built my dilemma pile to punish low-cost personnel. I was really surprised no Borg decks showed up (at least that I faced.)

James: Can you give a brief description of how your deck works?
Matt: It's based on Tyler Fultz's design, mainly using all personnel that have an ability preventing them from being stopped. Deep Space 9 already has Bold Captain Sisko, Vastly Outnumbered Odo, George Primmin, and Little Green Man Nog, but Tyler picked up a couple more unstoppable folks by using First Officer Kira to bring in Mullibok and Tabor, who share a similar trigger for their ability. Add in Lore and a Vascular Pad or two, and you have some major stop-dodging ability.

James: You played the same deck in San Diego a couple of weeks ago, did you learn anything about your deck from that tournament?
Matt: Haha, you saw that one, did you? Well, suffice to say, Tyler's original build used a different space mission for a very good reason: there was no Navigation on any of these guys! I figured Provoke Interstellar Incident was a decent substitution, since it used Strength like the two planet missions it was supposed to complete. However, I needed to swap in Lore (Brother and Son) to grab some Navigation, and I added Elder Dax and Big Willie Ross to back him up. I also blatantly stole Charlie Plaine's mad Luther Sloan/Ritual tech that works because of the Ritual errata.

James: How did the tournament play out, from your perspective?
Matt: With a rough first game! Isaiah really gave me an early scare when he dropped Point Blank Strike and the Prometheus, but my luck held for the rest of the day, and I got some really key random selections to go my way. Ken and I knew we were destined to play, and it was a poetic way to end the tournament (especially since he beat me the next day in First Edition).

James: Who was your toughest opponent?
Matt: I had the toughest game against J Austill. I hate, hate, hate playing against Cardassian capture decks. I always seem to have the worst luck facing them. I ended up with enough for the modified win on the last turn, but I really wanted to try for the Timely Victory achievement. I managed to sneak through J's minefield of a dilemma pile and squeak out a Full Win.

James: Now the tournament is over, how would you improve the deck?
Matt: I don't consider myself much more than a casual player, but the deck is pretty straightforward and methodical in its intention: get all the people out that can't be stopped, and you've pretty much got it in the bag. Tyler had Medical Teams and Emergency Transport Unit in his original build, and I can't argue against their effectiveness. I had thought about Souls of the Dead all day, and how that could be a great tool to get a few key cards back. Other than that, unless you're trying for Good Things Come in Small Packages achievement, the standard Centaur goes great with the unstoppers, and Bellerophon for a free Sisko is never a bad thing. I also swapped in Old Man Jake for Tyler's choice of Living Legend Kirk for a second Earth personnel that Admiral Whatley can download; I was going for the Deep Space 9 crew casting achievement, Kirk is clearly the more powerful option.

James: Turning an eye on Tribbles, how was that tournament?
Matt: Big Tribble in Little Qo'noS. Best. Set. Evar.

James: Ok. We'll move onto First Edition. Which decks you were considering playing?
Matt: The strongest, or at least scariest deck I had recently played was the twelve Space Borg deck that Niall Matthew had recently been proselytizing. I became a quick convert, as the build had everything I felt a Borg deck should, while still putting the fear of the Prophets into my opponent. I had recently got the Specialist achievement, and even though I still needed TNG win achievements for Federation, Klingon, and Romulan, I felt like Borg was going to be the more competitive and more fun build.

James: What decks did you expect to face?
Matt: Well, I can't say I didn't prepare a few surprises for the nonsense Ferengi deck running around. Other than that, I thought I'd see a lot of Continuing Mission. With the exception of Roxanne Barbour's Vidiians, I had made the right call.

James: Can you give a brief description of how your deck works?
Matt: Niall's brilliant article series (starting here) gives the best explanation, but to sum it up, They Will Be Coming gets you a seeded Cube in play, and from there, you have lots of copies of the two Borg Queens (First Contact and Shades of Gray). Drop the Shades of Gray Queen first, download We Are the Borg a couple times, and then persona swap the First Contact Queen in on turn two. Generate lots of card draws and download whatever you want.

James: What was your dilemma strategy?
Matt: The dilemmas were tied into the deck strategy, which was heavy interaction. Each combo had a potential way to get a Subcommand: Navigation (green) drone out, as to provide a target for Transwarp Network Gateway, and allowing my Cube to stop by for a chat. Combined with heavy point drain and combos that I could walk through if a stealable mission presented itself, it proved pretty effective.

James: How did you get on in the tournament?
Matt: Having a chance to face the reigning World Champion was something I had been looking forward to all weekend. The same pattern happened in the tournament pairings, where Ken and I knew we would eventually meet, and we did in Round three. I tried to speed up my play in each game, as the deck is very susceptible to Modified results. Against Ken, I drew a sub-par opening hand, but so did he, and it was the only thing that kept our game close. I was set up to steal Host Metaphasic Shielding Test with Salvage Starship, but I needed to destroy his ship there first. However, his Ablative Armor made tagging his docked Marauder fairly impossible. I did manage to get him to bounce his ship full of people via Space-Time Portal, but sadly, I had replaced Scorched Hand with Panel Overload in the last tweak I made (I was anticipating Spacedoor armadas blowing up my cube). But perhaps the most fun I had was finally getting to use the Borg overlays I had tracked down a month ago. My counterparts on the day included Sirol of Borg, Baran of Borg, and Lansor of Borg (this last one was not the best choice, having failed to reassimilate Marika and P'Chan as well).

James: Now the tournament is over, how would you improve the deck?
Matt: I feel like there is a way to keep the feel of that deck while reducing the number of Borg Queens significantly. Aside from the Panel Overload/Long Live the Queen trick, it seems like this deck should be able to function on about 60 cards, rather than the 91 I took to Vancouver.

James: I know you enjoy achievement hunting. If you could create an achievement, what would it be?
Matt: Probably adding a few Player-verses-Player achievements for the underdog winning against someone with a higher rating of 100, 200, or 300+ points.

James: Do you have anything else to add?
Matt: I had a fantastic time last weekend. Thanks to Charlie and Rogue for lending me the last few cards I needed for the Borg juggernaut, Tyler for his inspired Second Edition design, Niall for teaching me the Neu Borg style, J Austill for being my chauffeur and host throughout the weekend, the Vancouver crew for a great, low-stress environment, Roxanne Barbour for graciously allowing us into her home, and Ken Tufts for running all the weekend's events and letting us crash at his place Saturday night. It was definitely a trip to remember!

Thanks to Matt for taking the time to answer the plethora of questions I posed to him.

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Byes

This week, one player won a Day One, Round One bye into their local First Edition Continental Championships:

• J (The Mad Vulcan), second place (bye handed down) at Hyperlight

And, five players won a Day One, Round One bye into their local Second Edition Continental Championships:

• Matt Kirk (CaptMDKirk), winner at Hyperlight
• Rich Joakimson (Outsider), winner at Round Table Pizza
• Al Schaefer (ltkettch17), winner at Sprode's House
• Joshua Sheets (prylardurden), second place at Sprode's House
• Andrey Larin (Cersan), second place (bye handed down) at Oleg's House

And, two players won a 100,000 Tribble Headstart into their local Tribbles Continental Championships:

• Isaiah Nordhagen (grandnagusmorn), winner at Hyperlight
• Kieren Otten (Honest), winner at Good Games Burwood

These bye winners have been added to the list of current bye winners for the Continental Championships and the World Championships here. For everyone who didn't win a bye, there are still 66 Regionals where you can earn one.

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The Road to Worlds 2013, Week 3 continues in part II.

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