The Worlds Experience.

by Niall Matthew, Staff Writer

6th November 2013

THURSDAY...

And so begins my weekend at Worlds. It began when I got the 100% OK from work on Wednesday, at which point I hastily began work on two decks: My Klingon Sex Yell deck for the main Worlds tournament, and my Terran Empire deck for the 1E random affiliation draft. It took me all night with no sleep (and a little card organizing help from the missus) to build these decks via the power of Lackey, sort out the physical cards, and ensure my decks were drawing good enough.

So finished work on the Thursday, and got the train to Edinburgh then the plane to Frankfurt.... Or so I thought.... When I tried to get a taxi, the driver said that the Carat Hotel was 100 miles away, 100 MILES!!! I ENDED UP AT THE WRONG AIRPORT!!!! (appropriately named HAAAAAHHHNN airport) This put another spanner in the works for my journey to Worlds. I really hoped there was a bus at that time of night (it was almost hitting midnight) but luckily the taxi driver was kind enough to direct me to a bus that took two hours to get there. It was either that or spend infinity Euros on the taxi.

Sooooooo, the onslaught began at 2am Friday as I was welcomed at the lounge area by non other than Stefan (Mogh, Son of Worf) who, along with Peter and Martin (aka Gunter Von Hershy) were very much jolly on German beer and close to getting escorted to their rooms. We settled in their room where there was plenty of beer for all to consume. The floor was 5% carpet, 15% beer and 85% cards. Seriously, there were cards all over the place! Stefan and Peter were finalising their decks while Gunter Von Hershy was still creating his. Thankfully they had a printer with them so I could get some cards that I forgot to bring (a Terran Empire deck would be a tad rubbish without Temporal Vortex would it?)

I was very surprised at Stefan though. I'm sure everyone will agree that we all have an 'online persona' when playing the game (well, maybe not all of us) but Stefan seemed very conservative while we faced each other on Lackey, and I was expecting that same calm and polite personality when I met him. What I got instead was perhaps the German equivalent of myself, so it was safe to say that it was going to be a memorable weekend (or maybe not very memorable depending on how much was drank.)

After many hours in the early morning of yapping and listening to lots of dodgy European music, and realising that my roommate Danny (Nuttersuclan) would be sound asleep, I decided to use my bag as a pillow and crash out on their floor for an hour or two. Afterall, we had a very busy day ahead of us...

FRIDAY MORNING/AFTERNOON...

We (well, it was just me) somehow woke up early enough for breakfast, complete with an almost 'full Scottish' and plenty of coffee to ensure I survived the day. I bumped into the rest of Team Great Brittain; Danny and Paddy (KazonPADD) and we quickly discussed our decks before the event. It seemed that myself and Paddy had a similar deck type, while Danny had his deadly Bajoran Resistance/Son'a combo. Seeing that I barely managed to make the weekend, I'm glad I brought the deck I did. One thing I enjoy about the game is having fun, and this deck was both fun and competitive. I just hoped it was good enough to take on Germany's finest, as they are notorious for being extra good at this game.

Our predictions were seeing plenty of Ferengi, Bajoran Resistance/Son'a, and Borg; as these deck types are definitely top tier at the moment. Ferengi won last year's worlds, Bajoran Resistance/Son'a is very versatile and have the added strength of the 'double turn' and Borg have the infamous '12 Space' deck which I played myself earlier in the year. I think we check some of our Dilemma combos as well just to make sure we can hold our ground against whoever we faced. Ferengi Infestation / The Higher The Fewer / Dead End was key in our decks. If placed correctly, it would force a three mission win for the opponent, and that was vital for success in a high level tournament such as this.

Now, in order to ensure a guaranteed two mission win for each game, I decided to go with the 'Good Guy' Klingons via Legitimate Leader of the Empire. Their Mission Specialists are great for certain planet missions and the rest of the personnel have a fantastic skill pool. However, as some of you know, I like to put a twist in every deck I play. I added a bunch of Klingon Death Yells in the hopes that I could kill some of the honor Klingons off throughout the game. This led to adding Arbiter of Succession into the deck, which would give me 15 points easily. Then I remembered Derrick Marsh using No Way Out to kill Kahless for 10 points, so I combined the two and added an additional Kahless to the deck, resulting in the following scenario:

• Kahless and Gowron fight via Arbiter of Succession.
• Gowron wins for 10 points.
• Play Klingon Death Yell on Kahless for 5 points.
• Place Kahless on No Way Out for 10 points (INTEGRITY 10).
• And presto! instant 25 points for one action.

If I could pull this move off while scoring additional points through Death Yells and at least 45 points on a planet mission (assuming a Mission Specialist might die during the attempt), it would ensure a two mission win even if point loss is taken into account.

As for seeds, I made sure my Outpost had protection via Strategic Base as my deck was definatley a speed solver. An Equipment Replicator could get me a Tricorder and Medical PADD to ensure I could pass the 'Scientific Combo'. Quark's Isolinier Rods could grab me Data (The Sky's the Limit) and Reflection Therapy an additional Computer Skill on him to pass the infamous 'Access Denied' combo.

I also threw in Sarjenka at Reported Activity to ensure I'd get 50 points at that location, it also helped that the opponent may place their Dead End at Khitomer Research or Distress Mission.

So after a good catch up with my fellow Britty folk, we made our way to the Great Hall where the action would take place. There were at least 25 people in there at that moment, all surprisingly calm and cheery. I must have been expecting a lot of tension, being a high level tournament and all, but I found myself chatting to other players almost immediately. The fun part here was looking around and trying to guess everyones CC handles as I only knew a couple of people via Facebook. My casual chat to the fellow players was interuppted by the tournament director, who promptly handed me two bits of paper; a tournament record score and a decklist sheet. At this point, it was 10.29 and the Round One pairings were about to be announced, so I began rushing through my decklist with almost incomprehensable writing (having been drinking the night before, I had the severe case of 'the shakes'.)

The judges asked for silence, the pairings were announced, I was ready to begin sexecution...

(Please note that after round one, I managed to secure one of the lovely bar staff to bring us through beer, yes the drinking began almost immediately, and we did not stop...)

Worlds Day One Tournament Report

Now that was a result I could be proud of: five games, three of which were against players I hadn't faced before. My only two losses were against two of the top players in the world, and close games they were as well. I also breathed a sigh of releif that I didn't face Paddy or Danny. Not because I knew I'd probably lose to Danny, but because there were almost thirty players in the room and I wanted to take on people outwith my normal playgroup. Directly after my final round against Andreas, I promptly headed to the bar yet again to get rid of that horrible taste of Tribbles (that game seriously messed with my head.)

Not long after, the results were in. I knew I didn't make the top four but I was listening closely to hear the results for Danny and Paddy. I made 9th, Paddy made 6th and Danny made the top four, get in there boy!

I was propmtly interupted by two groups of people. The first lot were Stefan, Peter, and Gunter Von Hershy who demanded that I come to the restaurant to eat and drink with them, while Danny asked if I had a spare half hour. I decided that Danny would take precedence at the moment as a knew he was wanting to prepare for the Finals.

Myself, Danny, and Paddy went up to the room and began disscussing ideas for the finals. This was a very tense moment, so tense it felt like I could hear montage music in the background as we prepared Danny. He decided to keep the same deck, but cut out cards that he didn't use during the qualifiers, tightening up his deck even more. Dilemma combos were changed to accommodate potential Ferengi and Borg encounters.

After about 40 minutes of painstaking work, he was ready to take on the top dogs...

I had other plans however...

FRIDAY NIGHT...

Down at the restaurant, the atmosphere was brilliant. Most players were yapping away to each other about their matches earlier over a beer or two. The chatty atmosphere was occasionally interupted by the yelling of 'DAS QAPLA!' This quickly became the trademark saying of the weekend. By this point of the day, every noun that Stefan and myself came across had to begin with 'DAS!' which made me feel like I was getting the full German experience. I also headed to Das supermarket earlier in the day to acquire a bottle of Jagermeister for only ten Euros, a very nice price as it would've cost more than double that in Scotland.

Knowing I wasn't in the finals, I was preparing myself for an event completely different from what Danny would be experiencing: The OTSD sealed tournament. I do love this format as it is so brutal if you don't get certain cards e.g. personnel with Diplomacy. The criteria to a winning OTSD deck is Diplomacy, a Treaty, an extra Outpost, a PADD and enough Personnel to fuel the Treaty. If you have these, you're going to win. If you don't, then it's going to be an interesting game...

And so the Round One pairings were announced for this three round event.

My aim in this tournament: To have lots and lots of fun...

OTSD sealed Tournament Report

I barely escaped this event in one piece. The Jager hit my head good and proper and Gunter Von Hershy was filling our glasses with more. Between rounds we were running up to the semi final tables to see how the matches were going. I noticed at one point that Danny managed to hit Julius hard with a Kazon Bomb, which wiped out most of his Gozars and other Ferengi; it looked like Danny would be in the finals, excellent.

So the moment my game was finished in the final round of OTSD, I grabbed some Jager and headed to the Finals table. It was Danny versus Stefan Slaby (Winner of Borg), a player I wasn't really familiar with. This match was pretty intense for a final; Bajoran/Son'a against the deadly 12 Space Borg setup. Danny was holding his own by playing Dabo (which I promptly screamed DABO! after every successful probe) and getting a mission in putting himself over 40 points, to which Stefan flipped Add Distinctivness and opened a First Contact booster pack. Dabo and FC pack opening? This game got serious!

But time was called and Stefan was announced the victor on a modified win. That was such an entertaining game to watch. Two of the best decks out there pitted against each other in quite an even match, but there could be only one winner; The 12 Space deck. As with the previous two Worlds decks, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw errata of some sort for this deck, but that's another story which can be disscussed in this forum topic.

It's also interesting to note that Danny made a promise to me earlier in the day. If he won worlds, he would have some Jager with me. This was very strange as the last time he had any was at Destination Star Trek London and overdid it a touch. He was quoted as saying the best bit of that weekend was me laughing at him as he was throwing up in the Excel Centre, but again, another story for another time. I reckon he lost Worlds deliberately so he could avoid keeping his promise

The official rankings for everyone were announced and the prizes were handed out. I noticed a Dabo Girl badge on the prize board which I unfortunately missed out on. But I got myself a lovely shiney Elim and a Kor, which will complement my upcoming DS9 decks.

So off to the bar, again! We filled the table with a ridiculous amount of booze for all. There we're about ten of us having a late night yap about the results of the day. among them were Danny, Stefan, Seppel, and Gunter Von Hershy. I'm sure Rem 'BOOOOOON' was there but I can't quite remember. But once again I was, somehow, one of the last standing along with Paddy and a couple of others. So off to bed for another couple of hours yet again.

SATURDAY...

Danny complimented my face as soon as I woke up, apparently I looked a bit worse for wear. But there was no time to suffer as we had one more tournament before we headed off; the random affiliation event. Danny got Cardassians, Paddy got Dominion, and I had the pleasure of playing Terran Empire. It's quite a tradition that I always get the short straw when I join this type of event, but I was ready for a fun filled day whatever the result. I'd be happy if I at least won a game. I took the moral ground and decided that I wouldn't mix my deck with the powerful Bajoran Resistance Cell and go completely Terran solo. So after a good feed at the breakfast buffet we began...

Random Affiliation Tournament Report.

Once I suffered some more inevitable defeats, myself along with Stefan, Danny, and Paddy retired to the bar one last time to disscuss the weekend and prepare for future events such as the British Nationals and Aberdeen Anarchy 2014. We were welcomed by Einbrow the Barmaid and an African statue with her chest exposed and no fingers. We had to get to the airport earlier than expected because I wasn't able to check in online. We said our goodbyes to everyone and began the journey back, which went smoothly for Danny and Paddy. I had to figure out a way to get to Aberdeen from Manchester. Things did not go to plan as the busses wouldn't let me on (not because I was a state, but because they only allow prebooked passengers on) so I had to wait overnight at Manchester train station before I could continue my long journey home. I at least got some amusement out of watching many drunken people, acting worse than I did over the weekend, fall over the place at the station. From then on my journey got a tad hazy as I began to hallucinate on the train! Reality and daydreams began to get mixed up because of the sheer lack of sleep! So on Sunday afternoon I was greeted by my good lady, who said I looked a little 'out there' and promptly directed me to bed where I slept for a solid 16 hours.

And so ends my experience at Worlds. I had an amazing time and would recommend that all of you should try and make it for Gencon in 2014. If you say hello there, I may even buy you a beer.

By the way, here is the deck that got me ninth place at the tournament.

See you all on Lackey boys and girls

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Decklist

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

• Klingon Player
• TNG Klingon Player
• The Continuing Mission
• Good Casting: Armstrong (Korris)

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