Weekly 1E Roundup - 31 JULY 2019

by Charlie Plaine, Director of First Edition

31st July 2019

Welcome to the Wednesday 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.

Programming Note: This is going to be a brief column, as I'm writing it in the Portland airport waiting for my flight to Indianapolis for GenCon 2019. We'll be back next week with a review of the US National Championship and an in-depth preview of the 2019 World Championships. But for now, enjoy this short and sweet column!

The Road to Worlds

Better late than never, 2019 European Continental Champion Alex Dixon (alexd) got back to me with a little bit of information about his deck. Below are his answers to my questions, as well as some information about his Klingon-Cardassian Alliance deck.

European Continental Championship winner Alex Dixon (alexd) Deck Title: T'onging in the mirror (Alex's deck is also attached to this article below.) Deck Archetype: Midrange Solver Play Engines: New Arrivals, Emblem of the Empire, The Regent's Flagship, I.K.S. T'Ong Draw Engines: New Arrivals, Pride of the Fleet, Process Ore: Mining, Study Divergent History Bonus Point Mechanics: Arbiter of Succession, Off-Zel Vase Dilemma Strategy: Filters and Walls

Alex's Commentary: Why did you choose the deck that you used? What other decks did you consider using? I chose this deck because it's a solid 2 mission win solver. It's also reasonably strong against battle. I was also considering using a version of my Hirogen deck. 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 face other solvers. I did not want to face interference decks. It was probably good for me that I didn't play against Paddy (Editor: Paddy Tye {KazonPADD}) as he was doing Computer Crash which would have been a difficult game. 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 similar decks before but not exactly like this one. I didn't really learn anything new playing 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 battle bridge was added at the last minute for extra battle protection and to help with dilemma options; but, otherwise, I didn't use any situational cards. What was your toughest matchup between the games you played? The final game against Stefan Slaby (Editor: Winner of Borg) was a very tough game that was much closer than the final score makes it look. My game against Niall was also very difficult. (Editor: That's Niall Matthew {sexecutioner}, who wrote a tournament report you can read.) Why do you think the T'Ong drop is still so effective for Klingon-flavored decks? The T'Ong drop is still so effective because it gives you a lot of options for the personnel you can use in the deck. (Editor's note: This is one way to circumvent the play requirement of cards like Reshape the Quadrant, allowing non- personnel to enter play.) What would you nominate as the MVP card from your deck? I would nominate the whale probe as the MVP for this deck as it bought me the time I needed to solve my final mission against both Niall and Stefan. Do you have anything else you'd like to say about your deck? There is nothing I need to add about the deck but I would like to say thanks to Paddy for organizing a great event and thanks to all the other players for making it a great weekend.

This Day in Trek

Today is the sixth anniversary of the death of Michael Ansara, known to Star Trek fans as Kang. Originally appearing in the original series episode "Day of the Dove," Ansara would reprise the role decades later on both Deep Space 9 and Voyager. In his original appearance, he had the very human-like appearance, but wore the full Klingon makeup in his later appearances. He's one of only eleven actors to appear as the same character in three different Star Trek series, joining the likes of Leonard Nimoy, James Doohan, Marina Sirtis, and John de Lancie.

Tournament Reports

This past weekend just featured a single tournament, a three-player affair in Roseville, Minnesota that saw Jason Tang (Pants o.t. Tal Shiar) win with Dominion/Cardassian deck. In his tournament report, he describes some good dilemma play and a lucky spaceline against his opponents that helped him on his path to victory. Second place was taken by Justin Kaufman (CrimsonRavage) playing a post-The Cage deck, and James Heaney (BCSWowbagger) rounded out the day with an unknown monster hunting deck.

I'd love to feature all of the types of games in this column, not just tournaments! Just 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.

In order to promote all forms of play, we're launching a new program designed to encourage everyone to play 1E the first weekend of each month. We'll be starting officially the first weekend of September, from Friday, September 6th through Sunday, September 8th. You can play a tournament, a casual game or games or just get together to build decks and talk trek. Stay tuned for more details, but start making plans now!

Upcoming Championships

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

Wien, Austria World Championship Friday, 9 August OTF Complete Constructed

Upcoming Tournaments

Online Tournament Friday, 2 August OTF Complete Constructed

Tournament Previews

As mentioned in the note above, this weekend we've got the American National Championship in two weeks at GenCon, in Indianapolis, Indiana. We've got three (3) players, myself included, is pre-registered to play First Edition on the field of Lucas Oil Stadium! That will be memorable, and 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.

Also starting this Friday is an online tournament hosted by Brian Sykes (Armus). This will be a chance from players all around the world to participate in the Chair's Challenge and get a copy of the sweet AI of Population 9 Billion - All Borg. To get the bonus entry, just bring a deck, and deck, or a deck running one of the Borg-related Salvage missions.

The week after that will be the big dance, the World Championship. Currently boasting nineteen (19) pre-registered players from six (6) different countries and three (3) continents, this event looks to be the biggest and toughest of the year. Almost half the field ranks in the Top 20 players in the world, including Meinhard S. Rohr, Jon Carter, Alex Dixon, Johannes Klarhauser, Michael Van Breemen (The Ninja Scot), Robin Honeycutt, Paddy Tye (KazonPADD), and Justin Ford (Resistance-is-futile). This is going to be an event for the ages. No doubt Meinhard will be a heavy favorite for the event, as the highest rated player, but Jon Carter is right behind him; both will be hungry after recent defeats at Kaiserfest and North American Continentals, respectively. The real question is, will Borg or Khan make an appearance?

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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 in mid-August, with the exact date to be determined. 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.

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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:

• Alliance Player
• Three Stops Me
• One Trick Pony
• Good Casting: Combs (Penk)
• The Sky's The Limit
• KCA Flagship Player
• Good Casting: Warner (Gorkon)

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