Second Edition Inaugural Hall of Fame Online Regional winner Michael Van Breemen |
Michael's Commentary: What other decks did you consider using? 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? 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? What would you nominate as the MVP card from your deck? |
My Commentary: The Bajoran package in this deck is here mostly as fuel, but a couple of the cards are possible to see in play. Ranjen Koral's utility is obvious - you want to play TCC as often as possible in a TCC deck as you can - and Michael calls out the synergy with Surjak in his interview. Bareil's use is a little sneakier. Like Intendant Kira and the B'tanay, he's got that Alternate Universe icon to feed Crafty Garak, but he can also help keep the TCCs up and running. That milling cost of three cards isn't super relevant in most Cardassian games, but when you're playing it more than three times, it can add up. Tacking can refuel your deck, but what if it gets milled? That's where Bareil comes in - if he makes it and Tacking doesn't, he can rescue the Tacking for you. Like most Cardassian decks, this one is vulnerable to dilemma piles that do something besides stop your personnel. People have been picking Cardassians for Hall of Fame events because they're going to be better in a meta that lacks An Issue of Trust, but there's more to the story. They're also good because you're playing in a meta without All-Consuming Evil. It's not the only way to play a kill pile, but it is the way we're used to playing a kill pile. Might be worth investigating other options next time you're looking to make a Hall of Fame dilemma pile. |
Second Edition Kassel Regional winner Johannes Mette ![]() |
Johannes' Commentary: 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? 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? What would you nominate as the MVP card from your deck? Do you have anything else you'd like to say about your deck? |
My Commentary: Now yes, he coined the term (I believe), but my understanding is that it refers to decks that build themselves with just the new cards from a single set. In my mind, Damaged Starfleet really embodies this definition, even above other Starfleet decks. You just put all the Damaged cards in a deck, with really the only missions you can use, and then you're playing a good deck. Done! Even the Starfleet cards from A Time to Stand, which more commonly gets the Lego Set appellation doesn't fit the definition as well. With that group, if you include all the tricks from the set (as most people did when the new stuff was released), you'll probably lose since they are all so win-more in nature. Rainbow DS9 is even less Lego in nature. It uses the "Common" cards from Strange Bedfellows as an engine, but I've seen all sorts of effective decks that use the engine to fuel different sets of cards. The problem here is one of those effective decks is above the curve, won a World Championship in the hands of a good player, and is being netdecked often. Because we're seeing the same netdeck over and over, it can feel like it builds itself, but really someone smart (Ken Tufts) built it and tested it (with the Seattle group) and proved it (via Michael Van Breemen) for us. The problem in my eyes is that it keeps winning in a variety of different groups despite ample opportunity to tech against it. In short, yes I am sick of reviewing it, but let's not take away from the the creative process that led to it. |
Second Edition Virginia Regional winner Phil Schrader |
Phil's Commentary: What sorts of decks were you hoping to face while playing your deck? What decks did you hope not to face? While I didn't play against any pure versions of those three affiliations, I did play against a Triple HQ deck (James Self) that utilized the two Klingons I hate most - K'mtar and Chang - as well as high-strength Dominion personnel. Surprisingly, this was the only game in which I pulled off the 8472 alternate win. In my other two games I actually earned traditional, three-mission wins. 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? 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 deck is so tight as it is that I can't think of anything I'd remove. The goal is to keep it at 50 cards and it's very hard to do that. One thing I'd like to do in the future is experiment with Gangster Kirk, since drawing 6-7 cards when my opponent solves a mission sounds very appealing to a deck like this where counters are at a premium. What would you nominate as the MVP card from your deck? Do you have anything else you'd like to say about your deck? |
My Commentary: Specifically, the lynchpin dilemmas we're trying to get to hit are the one-stop walls like "Rapid Progress." Many 8472 dilemmas, if they work right, aren't actually doing anything to stop the active attempt - I'm thinking here of the ones like Dubious Decoy or On Guard. You'll want to spend as little dilemma cost as possible on actually stopping the attempt so that you can slip as many of those other dilemmas in as possible. This is one of the slimmer 8472 piles I've seen, at a mere 36 cards - Phil is right to fear Terok Nor dilemma milling decks. As a result of the smaller size though, he's more likely to draw what he wants when he wants it. It's one thing to have the plan to slip in Decoys and Guards when you block their "Progress", but you've got to draw those dilemmas at the same time first. 8472 is the quintessential anti-interference deck. There aren't many interference decks that are effective enough to stop a deck from solving a single mission, and they also tend to be the decks that are least capable of cheating around the 8472 dilemmas. Borg in particular have a tough time with the "stop a personnel with 2 X" dilemmas, because none of those skills are ones that Borg can interlink - which, given that the Borg had a tough time with species 8472 in the show, is unlikely to be accidental. |
First Edition American National Championships winner Michael Van Breemen ![]() |
Michael's Commentary: |
My Commentary: The other frustration is that I hate-built a TNG Romulan Minefield deck (aside: don't do this), and this deck is very carefully built to be completely unaffected by it. Romulan Minefield plays between two missions, and all but one of his missions were next to a Doorway. He has two Mirror Quadrant missions (next to the wormhole), one Gamma Quadrant Mission (next to the wormhole), Bajor (inserted next to the wormhole), and two Cardassia Region missions. As long as he gets one of them next to the wormhole, he can insert Cardassia to be the one next to it, and never attempt Kressari Rendezvous. He was also effectively defensive against decks that weren't mine. Jon met with frustration when he discovered that his Snipers wouldn't be very effective with both of Michael's planet missions being homeworlds. On the other hand, his Snipers also provided him a solution to Enemies of the State (once he remembered that Michael could only download the dissidents once per turn), so they weren't completely wasted, but it required a significant change of plans. In terms of the rest of the deck, I find that the general opinion on the forums is that Reshape the Quadrant decks are underperforming compared to TNG or Enterprise-era decks. Even if they're right, the main exception in my mind are Cardassian/Bajoran treaty decks. They have the best personnel output capabilities of any groups in that era, while also having a wide skill base and a good mission selection. |
Second Edition American National Championships winner Lucas Thompson ![]() |
My Commentary: I worked on a TOS Q's Planet deck too, but it just wasn't coming together. Then there's the Risa achievement deck I made for the Thursday warm-up event, which ended up better than I expected it to be, so I strongly considered taking the Emergency Transport Units and Grav-Plating Traps out of the android deck and throwing them in the Risa deck. I also had my Starfleet deck from worlds, which is probably my most well-rounded deck, but (a) it has a tough time with the attribute reduction decks that Will likes to play and (b) I just didn't really want to play it again. What sorts of decks were you hoping to face while playing your deck? What decks did you hope not to face? I hoped not to face interference decks - I included a copy of Rescue Captives largely because of how brutal capture is on androids. I could always use it to fuel NA Data, and almost did so even when I had some people in the brig due to a Sylvia. Turns out the main thing I had to fear were fast decks that didn't have personnel with an attribute>6, and just a bare minimum of Honor/Treachery/Leadership/Officer. 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 never played this particular Overwhelmed/Attrition hybrid pile before, and it turned out definitely be the weakest part of the deck. I'd probably stick to either a pure Overwhelmed pile (and just accept the bad Terok Nor match-up) or a Standard Attrition pile with a few 8-costers thrown in. 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? What would you nominate as the MVP card from your deck? Honorable mention goes to Emergency Transport Unit. It's not even situational in an android deck - even if you don't have stuff to nuke with Grav Trap, and your opponent isn't killing your people, it is plenty effective as a way to keep Lal around after using her ability. Do you have anything else you'd like to say about your deck? He mostly used the Infestations to set up things like Programmed Compulsion (high attribute decks could otherwise overwhelm Infestation without Alpha 5 Approach) and Sylvia (synergizes well with Learning Curve). The low cost of Infestation also helps set up Inferiority, which also helps prevent microteaming from hurting too much. Great guy, fantastic and unexpected deck, I'll be picking him to win the next Atlanta event. Chris O'Connell (who traveled with me) and I had a great time down in Atlanta, thanks to the hospitality of Michael Shea and the rest of the Atlanta players. We'd be more than happy to make a repeat visit should the opportunity arise. Finally, I wanted to link to the clip that inspired the title of the deck. It is one of my favorite scenes in all of Star Trek, and the first time that The Next Generation lived up to the promise of its franchise. |
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