Weekly 1E Roundup - 27 JUNE 2019

by Charlie Plaine, Director of First Edition

27th June 2019

Welcome to the Wednesday Thursday 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've got an event coming up and you'd like to be featured in this column, feel free to contact me at cplaine@gmail.com or on the forums via PM to MidnightLich.

The Big News

Alex Dixon (alexd) and Kris Sonsteby (LORE) are the European and North American First Edition continental champions, respectively. In Manchester, Alex played a KCA deck, emerging undefeated across four (4) rounds to claim the championship spot and the European Continental Championship. In Atlanta, Kris played Borg on both Day 1 and Day 2 (even though both were the same day), earning 3rd place in the former and winning the bracket in the latter. We'll look at both events in more detail below. In any case, congratulations to both Alex and Kris for their titles!

The Road to Worlds

Last week, Julius Melhardt (Clerasil ToB) found himself atop not one major tournament, but two, claiming victory over both the Regional in Austria and the National Championship the following day. I reached out to him to get his thoughts on his decks, and present both of his interviews below.

Borg Regional winner Julius Melhardt (Clerasil ToB) Deck Title: Android's Underground Deck Archetype: Direct Solver Play Engines: Attention All Hands, Cybernetics Expertise, Office of the Procounsul, The Romulan Underground, Draw Engines: Continuing Mission, Kivas Fajo: Collector, Process Ore: Mining Bonus Point Mechanics: Assign Mission Specialists, Getting Under Your Skin, Process Ore: Mining

Julius' Commentary: Why did you choose the deck that you used? What other decks did you consider using? I had my deck for Sunday's National and I didn't want to play the same deck twice. Some of my old decks are killed because of recent Errata, so I needed something new. Unfortunately I had a four day Star Trek Convention in Bonn, Germany the weekend before, so my deckbuilding-time was rather limited. In my opinion, decks are quite easy to build. The fun part of my deck is the same I've already used before, so my decision was made. What is it about decks that make them so good (and so popular) even after so many years? is still THE masterpiece of all the CC has done for 1E. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of very nice and good things that came out in the Virtual expansions, but combines good and competitive decks, easy to build AND play, and because of the limited card pool (personnel and ships in particular) something even complete newbies can build. has two built in free reports with Attention All Hands and the used Warp Core card, a built in and indestructible card draw with Continuing Mission and a built in download possibility for a universal ship (again Attention All Hands). All that with only two seed cards is nothing any other deck could compete with so easily with so few seed slots. personnel and ships are as good as any other, so will never disappear - and this is very good. After the ban of Quantum Incursions even more became competitive and not only the Finest Crew in the Fleet version. What sorts of decks were you hoping to face while playing your deck? What decks did you hope not to face? The only thing I hoped not to face were other Romulans. A high possibility of shared missions would endanger my planned two mission win. 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? Not with this deck using The Romulan Underground, but I've already played a quite similar deck using Always a Chess Game couple of years ago. The changed personnel didn't make much of the difference and the cheesy tricks with Getting Under Your Skin stayed 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? Definitely the possibility to play my personnel on three different locations and the anti-beaming ability of Quash Conspiracy saved my True Tie against Martin's Khan deck. Everything else was good enough to be played again. But it's quite hard to solve Quash Conspiracy with 4 personnel and Lower Decks out, so be beware of that... It looks like most of the decks favor Always a Chess Game. Why did you want to run with The Romulan Underground? I already had the play and win achievement for the Chess Game and wanted the other ones as well. I think both versions are as good as the other. And Coming of Age brought us lots of new Underground member with lots of Geology to feed nasty dilemmas or Process Ore: Mining. What would you nominate as the MVP card from your deck? I won't go with the playing and drawing engines here, so it is definitely Getting Under Your Skin. With some easy event downloads (Special Downloads, Temporal Investigations, Captain's Order events, events played after Parallax Arguers), this one makes a two mission win quite easy, especially if you have other mechanics in there as well (The Romulan Underground, Romulan "Reunification", Parallax Arguers,...). Do you have anything else you'd like to say about your deck? It was quite a surprise to win with this one. The bonus point mechanics worked very, very well, I never had to attempt a third mission. After the True Tie against Martin we played another game and I blew him and his Khan away, so even that could be handled by this deck. I was afraid that I could have a lack of card draws with having most of my engines being events I have to draw, but it worked out good enough. The Modified Win against Steve's very, very Cool deck is more than a full win for me, and a True Tie against nasty Khan as well. lives - and that is very good!!!

Austrian National Championship winner Julius Melhardt (Clerasil ToB) Deck Title: Is the Genesis Device in the Delta Quadrant? 2.0 (Julius' Nationals deck is also attached to this article below.) Deck Archetype: Direct Solver Play Engines: New Arrivals, Museum of Kyrian Heritage, Home Away From Home, I.K.C. T'ong Draw Engines: Ancestral Vision, Mutation, Process Ore: Mining Bonus Point Mechanics: Assign Mission Specialists, Process Ore: Mining, Kruge

Julius' Commentary: Why did you choose the deck that you used? What other decks did you consider using? I had this deck built for some time, tried it out in an Online event and was sure to use it once this weekend. I need to add something - I'm a player who NEVER looks at other decks to get ideas from them, so I was a little bit disappointed when MVB told me during the Online event he has already seen a deck build like this before, so if I'm writing some of my ideas here, those are truly my ideas coming to me under the shower or during an appointment at Winston Churchill's main room. While there have historically been very powerful decks, they haven't been terribly common lately. What drew you to the Delta Quadrant? Tom Son of Owen. When I first saw him I decided to take a look at the Klingons and if I could make something funny with them - probably a two-mission winner (with success). And this two-mission winner is not hurt by the OTF rules (40 more points). 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 any other decks. If a battle deck comes, I'm gone with only three useable weak ships (the I.K.C. K't'inga is only there to be christened with some sparkling wine in round 1). If any other deck is there, I have a problem with my slow ships. But the luck was on my side, no decks this day. 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 it last month at the Dojo event. After a few adjustments (no Kivas Fajo - Collector any more but Mutation instead) the deck got better. I've learned that it is worth to use 2 Space-Time Portals to return a 95% hull-damaged Kronos One to drop it again fully repaired and that I don't need to solve Establish Settlement if my opponent has not seeded a mission in the Alpha Quadrant to get my 100 points (thanks to Assign Mission Specialists, Process Ore: Mining and Kruge with The Genesis Device on his ship - the last thing was intended but mainly to pass a Dead End at Establish Settlement). 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 took a lot of effort to guarantee my two-mission win with the cost of only having 13 dilemmas. My latest addition was Quark's Isolinear Rods to nullify opponents Computer Crash in my turn 1, the only turn I really need my downloads. I never needed it for this purpose, but getting B'Elanna Daughter of Miral is also not too bad. How did using the Museum vs. Ocampa planet work for you? In this deck saving one Seed slot with the Museum is worth everything. 13 dilemmas is better than 12, Conduct Perilous Trade is a very easy mission for my Klingons, Temporal Conduit is a fixed Seed card in my decks because of Temporal Investigations (probably not any more after The Cage is released). And of course, if I don't need Homestead there was no reason for me to use Liberation and Caretaker's Array. What would you nominate as the MVP card from your deck? Again no play or draw engines, not even The Genesis Effect which gave me safe access to my space mission and the seeded [Art] . I would like to go with two cards in combination this time: The Genesis Device in combination with Establish Settlement - a very easy mission to solve mission for 110 points. Do you have anything else you'd like to say about your deck? Absolutely fun to play, it was definitely worth all the effort to guarantee the two mission win (Sarjenka, Kruge, The Genesis Effect for example).

Tournament Reports

All of the First Edition played this weekend revolved around the two Continental Championships, in Europe and in North America. Let's start with a look at the European event, which was preceded by two side events. The first was a three-player rainbow Warp Speed event that saw Paddy Tye (KazonPADD) emerge victorious. According to the picture posted by Gary (admiralgary) on Facebook (see right), players were given an Enhanced Premiere box, and a pack each of Premiere, Deep Space Nine, The Motion Pictures, Rules of Acquisition, Blaze of Glory, Holodeck Adventures, and The Trouble With Tribbles from which to build their Warp Speed deck. If you're curious to see how such a deck looks, Paddy has provided a link to his.

The second side event was a Random Affiliation Constructed, where pre-registered players were assigned a random affiliation. Four (4) players brought a deck of their assigned affiliation, with Alex Dixon (alexd) emerging on top with Vidiians. Niall Matthew (sexecutioner) came in second with the Ferengi, Paddy Tye claimed third with a Dominion deck he called Subjugate Archaeologists and Gary (admiralgary) came in 4th with the Borg.

That brings us to the main event, the European Continental Championship, where six (6) players battled to emerge on top. As mentioned in the headline, Alex Dixon won the event with KCA, but as of the time this column was written, his decklist wasn't available. Second and third places were decided by strength-of-schedule, with Stefan Slaby's (Winner of Borg) Hirogen/Non-Aligned deck edging out Paddy Tye's Federation/Starfleet Terran Empire deck by just three (3) points! Niall Matthew's day didn't go as planned, according to his tournament report, as he piloted an old favorite Hirogen deck to 4th place. Gary, playing Bajorans, and Tony Thrustle (NCC-1764), piloting a Klingon deck, rounded out the field.

In Atlanta, there wasn't enough to sanction any of the side events for First Edition, and a few last minute problems kept the numbers down to eight (8) for North American Continentals Day 1. A clarification: though I'm referring to the events as "Day 1" and "Day 2," that's just to keep them separate; both events took place less than an hour apart, on the same day. This also meant that the Top 4 players would advance to made it to play in the single-elimination Day 2 event. Four (4) players, including myself, had earned byes in the first round, and four (4) players had to play all four rounds. At the end of those rounds, Ryan Sutton (rsutton41) came out undefeated, with three wins and a true tie, to claim 1st place. His Bajoran/Federation deck, using Son'a, Ba'ku, Enterprise-E, and Bajoran Resistance Cell was fast and versatile; he stomped me pretty hard in round 3, in spite of some lucky random selections on my part. Michael Van Breemen (The Ninja Scot) came in 2nd place with a deck he called I Don't Want to Battle. Kris Sonsteby, the eventual winner and our current Director of Organized Play, brought Borg to 3rd place, while Robin Honeycutt (robin1234) battled his way to 4th place with the aggressive KCA/Maquis deck he's known for playing.

Just missing the cut was 1E Rules Master Jon Carter (pfti), in 5th, playing one of the fastest Romulan/Android decks I've ever seen. He had enough people to reliable attempt and complete a mission on turn 1, which impressed me as he was my 2nd round opponent. It was a good game, and had it not been for an errant random selection, I might have won. Lucas Thompson (edgeofhearing) played a lean and mean deck called Deep Space Polyamory which was fun and awesome to watch, taking 6th place. Yours truly took 7th playing a variant on the deck I'd recently used in an online tournament, and Executive Officer Maggie Geppert (jadziadax8) rounded out the day skillfully playing a MACO deck borrowed from Jon about ten minutes before the first round. You can check out my tournament report, or Robin's, for some more details on Day 1.

As I was knocked out of Day 1, I ran the Day 2 event so Ryan could focus on his games. After a quick dinner break, we squared up for a single elimination bracket to determine the champion. Players also had the opportunity to make any changes to their decks, or grab entirely different ones, during the break. Nobody changed decks, though I think most players made some modifications. We paired this bracket as normal, with 1st place Ryan Sutton taking on 4th place Robin Honeycutt and 2nd place Michael Van Breemen battling 3rd place Kris Sonsteby as well. Ryan held on against Robin's armada to win, while Michael surrendered to the Collective after his poor U.S.S. Voyager was destroyed in Orbital Bombardment. This set up Kris vs. Ryan for the title, and Robin vs. Michael for 3rd place. The combination of Orbital Bombardment and the Multiplexor Drone was too much for Ryan, who lost all of his ships in play to Kris' onslaught. Ryan stuck in the game, hoping to draw another ship, but didn't have any more in his deck, leaving Kris the winner.

You might notice the picture to the right, of Ryan holding the belt over Kris, ko'd on the floor. You see, Robin had offered up the belt to the winner of Continentals, but Kris didn't think he could get it home safely. So, much like Kevin Nash once did to Hulk Hogan, Kris lost the belt back to Robin. No doubt, Robin will continue to offer it up for grabs up and down the East Cost as he travels.

Meanwhile, if you played in any events, scheduled or unscheduled, formal or casual, let us know! We'd love to feature your events in this column! Send me an email or a private message, and I'll be happy to advertise your event or games to the world in a future column. My contact information is at the bottom of every column each week.

Upcoming Championships

West Fargo, North Dakota, USA Andoria Regional Sunday, 30 June OTF Complete Constructed

Haimhausen, Germany German National Championships Kaiserfest 2019 Saturday, 6 July OTF Complete Constructed

Indianapolis, Indiana, USA American National Championship GenCon 2019 Friday, 2 August OTF Complete Constructed

Upcoming Tournaments

Brooklyn, New York, USA Sunday, 30 June OTF Complete Constructed

The Dojo, Online Monday, 1 July OTF Complete Constructed

Haimhausen, Germany Kaiserfest 2019 Side Event Friday, 5 July OTF Warp Speed Limited

Haimhaused, Germany Sunday, 7 July OTF Limited Draft

Tournament Previews

With Continental Championship weekend behind us (except for Australia, which I understand will be holding their event this fall), let's take a look ahead at what's coming through the end of June and July. This weekend brings us the sixth (6th) event at Lock Yard, in Brooklyn, New York, hosted by Robin Honeycutt fresh off his bronze-medal performance at Continentals. Having finally had the chance to meet him, I see why Robin's had such good luck building players in the New York area - he's kind, passionate, and a lot of fun.

Meanwhile, in West Fargo, North Dakota, Matthew Hayes (karonofborg13) is hosting the final Regional event of this year. Though he's the only pre-registered player right now, this will be the first weekend that The Cage is legal, making this a potential early look at what new decks the latest Virtual Expansion might bring to the table.

Finally, on Monday, the latest of Thomas Kamiura's (bosskamiura) online events (as part of The Dojo) kicks off with an OTF Constructed Tournament. Nine (9) players have pre-registered, including Michael Van Breemen, Matthew Zinno (commdecker), and Julius Melhardt, all of whom are in the Top 50 ranked players. It looks like a great and global event, with players pre-registered from Europe, Australia, and North America, and rated from the high 1700s to the 1500s. We'll keep an eye on this event as it unfolds!

The following weekend is Kaiserfest 2019, hosted by Johannes Klarhauser (Kaiser), from whom the event gets its name. The main event there will be the German National Championship on Saturday, July 6th. The 2nd ranked player in the world, Meinhard S. Rohr (Mogh, Son Of Worf), with a 2009 rating, will no-doubt be a favorite to win the OTF Complete Constructed event, but the rest of the field will be no cakewalk either. Including Meinhard, there are nine (9) players pre-registered for this epic event of four (4) rounds of 1E and BBQ! Sounds awesome!

The German National at Kaiserfest is preceded by a Warp Speed Sealed event on Friday, complete with pizza, and succeeded by a Rainbow draft event on Sunday. It looks like many of the main event attendees will be joining these side events, with five (5) players and six (6) players pre-registered respectively. Johannes looks to be putting on a great weekend!

Looking ahead, we've got the American National Championship in about a month at GenCon, in Indianapolis, Indiana. So far, only one player - Robin Honeycutt - is pre-registered to play First Edition on the field of Lucas Oil Stadium! But no doubt there will be more, as we're running quite a few events at the con. Don't worry if they say they are sold out; we can almost always accommodate more players than listed.

Short Takes (In Other News)

• The Cage will be legal in all formats on Friday, June 28th. The cards have been out in the world for a week now, and the Continuing Committee always has cards legal one week later than their release date. Have you printed out copies of new cards like Obsession, Sameul T. Cogley, and Thasian Powers? What decks are you excited to try?


• Check out some of the articles written about The Cage. Just yesterday, Matthew Zinno (commdecker) posted an article about how the named-in-lore references work with Preserver Obelisk. Maggie wrote an article about how to use Let Me Help, and Paddy has written about Risk is Our Business. Check out this page for all articles about The Cage!


• We will be getting a new sub-forum dedicated to 1E Rules. Our forum moderators ran a quick poll to see what the community would like to see, and the majority wanted to see this change. So stay tuned for a specialized forum dedicated to rules questions.


• What do you know about the Q-Flash side deck? Forum user Brian Sykes (Armus) started a thread about some Q-Flash interactions, and it's spawned a discussion about the complexities of the mechanics. What do you think? Is Q-Flash something you'd like to see cleaned up and made simpler? Or is it better to leave it alone and focus on other priorities?


• Who will win the final Regional of 2019? As usual, Lucas Thompson is asking us to predict the biggest ratings winner West Fargo, North Dakota regional. The TD, Matthew Hayes, is the only pre-registered player, but the thread seems to be favoring James Heaney (BCSWowbagger). Who do you think will win?


• Ever wanted to see some old decklists? Forum user Nessi recently asked where they can find older, pre-2002 decklists, and a few suggestions popped up. The Wayback Machine is so fun, and you can easily lose hours of time looking at very old websites - including game creator Decipher's website!

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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 2019. My next office hours will be on Saturday, July 6th at 10 AM Pacific. 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.

Decklist

Print Decklist • Copy Deck

This deck is legal in the following Card Pools:

• Complete

This deck is legal in the following Rules Sets:

• Modern
• Open
• Revised
• Warp Speed

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

• Klingon Player
• We Don't Need Your Help, Q
• Good Casting: Combs (Penk)
• Good Casting: Warner (Gorkon)
• Good Casting: Lenard (Krase)

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