Minnesota Rainbow Draft Regional Report

by Kevin Jaeger, Staff Writer

17th April 2008

The South Dakota Crew consisting of myself, Aaron Arnold, Preston Holida and Nate Lindgren loaded up at 7 a.m. the morning of April 8th for the Rainbow Draft. After a quick stop for some caffeine and candy, we were ready for the 3 1/2 hour drive. We talked strategy, cards we were hoping to draft, made predictions on which affiliation would win, and I think we made predictions on the number of people who would come and who might win. We also got on a string of inside jokes that I won’t go into because some are definitely Rated R...Pancakes, Tin foil and Cheese bro.

We rolled in just as Dave and his better half were unloading the Kuck-mobile. We walked in, signed up, caught up with people, joked around, watched Barry Windschitl and Kris Sonsteby play a super fast game of Trek and did some trading. Then it was time for the real fun to begin.

DRAFTING

I joined my other pod members Val, Altoid and Leo Matoush. It turned out we had one Next Generation, one Bajoran and two Starfleet. Let the drafting begin! As the packs went around, I snagged Shinzon (Capable Commander) as my first card, then focused on all those dilemmas. As the packs went around, I just started collecting Romulans since no one else seemed to want them at all. Other than Shinzon, Julian Bashir and Ruk, a personnel was never my first choice from a pack. Palteth went around twice before I took him. Ditto for Tebok, Sela, Pardek, Mullen, Relam and Suran. My first go round choices were dilemmas, Stricken Dumb, Impromptu Prison, two Vascular Pads, and oh yeah - three Stir Crazys. The To Boldly Go pack was the only weird one where I took two missions and Jeffrey Pierce as my first three picks. I was actually surprised by my focus in drafting. Historically, I’ve had problems deciding on a second affiliation during drafting, but this time the only non-Starfleet/Non-Romulans I drafted were some Ferengi and Federation personnel that got forced on me during drafting of Strange New Worlds and These Are the Voyages.

THE TOURNAMENT

Round 1 v. Ian Parmenter (Starfleet/Cardassian)

This game got off to a rocky start for me and I was nearly finished before I even got started. I got seven people down and flew over to Automated Repair Station, only to watch all of my critical Programming die to Kelvan Show of Force and The Clown: Guillotine. It took me three turns to get back and complete the mission. I did have the advantage of attempting first, putting Inferiority in his core on his first attempt, and then I got lucky when I played Unexpected and hit his Transporters for the mission using those Inferiority counters (which caused him to lose two turns). That got me the time to complete space first and move on. After that initial rochambeau, I was able to keep Programming on the table and overpower his dilemma pile with double teaming, which led to two quickly-completed missions.

FW 100-35

Round 2 v. Kris Sonsteby (Bajoran/Klingon)

This game involved so many attempts at various missions that I don’t really quite remember what all happened. What I do remember is that at his space mission, I dark shot killed his one personnel with a certain mission skill. That forced him to go to planet in the interim to keep pace with me, but only resulted in my Necessary Execution eliminating his two people that had his skills for his planet missions (including Kahless). So Kris had to go home, use a Bajoran retrieval card, and then go back out to get stopped again. While this was going on, my personnel just kept plugging away at mission attempts, utilizing Vascular Pad once and Dissolving the Senate once as well. As I recall, I think I had about twelve dilemmas under missions and Inferiority in Kris's core when the shut out was complete.

FW 100-0

Round 3 v. Dave Kuck (Bajoran/Dominion)

The game started off evenly with Dave going first. We got out the same amount of people in the same amount of time. Dave had an early game advantage with a Machinations and Astrometrics Lab. However, it was the combination of him going first and hitting me with a first mission attempt Difficult Rescue that gave him a serious leg up on me. He completed his Deliver Evidence first, the same turn that I completed Navigate Minefield. Right then I knew that I was going to need some luck and some serious help from my three copies of Stir Crazy to stay in this one. Completing four missions to get the full win was going to be one very difficult task. Right away, though, I got some of that luck I was looking for: my second mission attempt was a one- attempt completion, which put us right back to even. Dave went to Risa Shore Leave where I got two stops on him. I went to my third space mission, attempted, and got a couple of dilemmas under. I looked at the time on the clock and realized that I needed to complete a planet mission - and yesterday - to even smell a modified win. So, I went to my planet mission and double teamed. Dave put three dilemmas under to stop the first group, and then used the Machinations to stop the second group. I passed to his turn with 15 seconds left. With three copies of Stir Crazy in the core, Dave had no option but to mega-team and hope for the best at his last mission. I used all three of them and, long story short, threw about eight dilemmas and the kitchen sink. On my turn, I micro-teamed the planet mission, ensuring the modified win, and then took both my ships and all my personnel to my last mission. After dividing-up the mission team and praying Dave didn’t draft a Skeleton Crew or Timescape, I went after it. The first group put some more dilemmas underneath and allowed the second mission team the free pass. Four missions completed at the buzzer. Wow.

FW 120 – 75

Round 4 v. Caleb Grace (Bajorans/Ferengi/Random Federation Personnel)

With a five-round tournament and Caleb being the only other undefeated player, we were in control of our respective destinies. The winner sits in the driver's seat and the loser needs help. Given our many, many match-ups over the last couple of years, I knew this was going to be a good game; our games are always tough. When Caleb showed his favorite (and signature) headquarters, Ferenginar, I almost expected Brunt (FCA Liquidator) to hit the table and ruin my Stir Crazy party.

I was smooth out of the gate and attempted my first mission on turn three with no cards in hand. I think Caleb is so used to being the person to get the early jump that he got flustered and didn’t realize I didn’t have any mission skills on the table. He did throw a Damage dilemma on the ship and stranded me. So now it was a race to draw into my second ship before he completed Deliver Evidence. Luckily, after just two turns, I had my second ship and mission team with mission skills on the table. Also fortunately for me, it took Caleb until his fifth turn to even make a first attempt. My dilemma pile was still solid and I got the stop. In that two-turn interim, I attempted my mission twice and got a dilemma underneath each time with no more kills. So when I walked the Romulan Scout Vessel with Suran, Tebok and Palteth on board, I was able to try a micro-team. Luck smiled again as Caleb drew two dilemmas he couldn’t use. With the ten extra points, I had a good feeling. Caleb quickly responded by taking a chance and using nine people at Deliver Evidence instead of going home and back, and taking the guaranteed micro-team completion. I couldn’t stop enough and he was able to complete the mission and move on to his next mission before I could move on to my second mission. What was worse for me was that he one-attempt completed with one point of Integrity over the requirement! So there went that good feeling. After a deep breath and some thinking, I decided I needed to dig for my other two copies of Stir Crazy. I drew one, played Bashir for free, drew These Are the Voyages, played it, and that got me what I was looking to get. The look on Caleb's face when I dropped two more copies of Stir Crazy was priceless.

I moved on to my second space mission, and what do you know? I got the one-attempt complete with one point of Cunning over the requirement. We had a game, folks. Caleb drew a bunch and sighed, ..."I can’t find my second ship. I've got all these people at my headquarters I can’t even use." So he had to go to The Last Outpost with the eight people on his ship. After a first attempt, there were four dilemmas underneath. I moved over to Elude Federation Forces, and he had to put four under. His turn, he drew a bunch more and still couldn’t find his other ship. So once again, he attempted with eight. I decided to use a Stir Crazy I had dug for, and got Murder Investigation, which I knew would shut down the attempt. I luckily got the stop on him and got one more turn. I had no choice but to use my mission team of nine. Caleb put three dilemmas on the stack, but his body language said he wasn’t happy. I flipped over a dilemma that got him a stop which nailed one of the three Programming on my ship. With that, if he stopped any of the others, I was sunk. Much to my surprise, the second dilemma was Timescape and the third dilemma was a wall that Palteth and Tebok overcame with ease. I completed the mission and took the win. What a game! Caleb looked at his deck and showed his Voyager, sitting as the second-to-last card of his deck. Rough.

FW 100-65

Round 5 v. Barry Windschitl (Bajoran/Klingon/Jem'Hadar)

Before the game, Kris walked over and gave us the scoop on the standings. If I win, I had the title alone; if Barry wins, we go into a guaranteed three way tie where each person had beaten one and lost to one of the other two. Barry rolled snake eyes, I rolled an eleven... and so it began.

My deck had its best draw of the day, and I actually had the option of waiting a turn to attempt. I took that option and it paid off big time as I drew into a Dissolving the Senate, another mission skill person, a Vascular Pad and a second ship, both of which I held onto. I went out to Automated Repair Station, and right away Barry was not happy with his dilemma pile. He threw three one-personnel stoppers which wasn’t enough to prevent the one-attempt completion. For his turn, he got some more personnel down, but had to take a turn picking up his Klingons. For my turn, I put down the Vascular Pad and Chagrith. I re-attempted and got the completion when his dilemma pile yet again came up short, only getting one stop and putting forth a wall that Palteth and Charles Tucker pwned. I completed the mission and flew home. On Barry's turn, he went out to Kressari Rendezvous with only one Bajoran, but an Emergency Transport Unit aboard the Vedek Transport. A quick attribute count in my head told me that I just needed two stops. I threw Security Weapons followed by Unexpected. The Weapons picked a Jemmie he needed for his mission, so he used the Transport Unit to save him. The Unexpected, though, was the death blow. It selected his Bajoran who went to the deck and de-staffed his ship.

On my turn, I spent nine counters with Charles Tucker and went out to Sensitive Search. I attempted with nine, and for a third time, Barry didn’t seem too happy with his dilemma pile, which failed to get enough stops yet again thanks the power of the Vascular Pad and Dissolving the Senate. I one-attempt completed for the win 15 minutes into the round.

FW 100-0

What a day! After five solid rounds of play, my deck surprised me. I came to the conclusion that if it wasn’t for Vascular Pad and the copies of Stir Crazy, it would have been a much different day.

My hat's off to Dave Kuck for running such an awesome event and holding onto those sealed Necessary Evil packs for so long. That must have been torture at times.

A final tip of the hat to the Minnesota Players' Group: The toughest place to play in Trek!

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