The Road to Worlds 2011, Week 7

by James Hoskin, Director of Organized Play

12th May 2011

This is a weekly series that aims to preview upcoming Regional tournaments, review Regional tournaments that have just taken place, highlight winning decks, interview players, and more. Last week's article was The Road to Worlds 2011, Week 6.

How can you contribute to this series? First and foremost, I am relying on results and deck lists being promptly entered into this site. I can't write about them otherwise. Other ways you can help include taking photos, interviewing players, writing previews, and providing background information. Any other way to help the community be a part of your Regional tournament would be appreciated, too. Contact details are at the end of this article.

Week 6 Review

Saturday 7th May		Sunday 8th May
Second Edition (Standard) Restaurant "Peking" Brabantse Turfmarkt 78 2611 CP Delft The Netherlands [Results]	Second Edition (Standard) Arby's Restaurant 7110 Clairemont Mesa Blvd. San Diego, CA 92111 United States [Results]	First Edition (Sealed) Chermside Library Meeting Room 2B 375 Hamilton Road Chermside, QLD 4032 Australia [Results]	First Edition (Official) OBS De Blijberg Gordelweg 216 3038 GA, Rotterdam The Netherlands [Results]
Second Edition (Standard) Dragon's Den 5403 West 41st Street Sioux Falls, SD 57106 United States [Results]	Second Edition (Standard) University of Washington HUB at Condon Hall 1100 North East Campus Way Seattle, WA 98105 United States [Results]

Restaurant "Peking": Five players played round robin in this New Bajor Second Edition Regional. Reigning European Champion Tyler Fultz (DJstormtrooper), playing a Klingon deck titled "Alex Downloads Your Mom's Dutch Friend", was undefeated and won his second ever Regional Championship title. Enrico Evink (enrico81) took second place with his Starfleet deck titled "Starfleet in the Expanse; and Peter van der Helm (Helmp) took third place with his Cardassian deck titled "Cardassian try to Assess Contamination". Thomas Schneider (thsch), finished in fourth place. Even though he was my pick to win, he can console himself with the knowledge that he won three achievements at this tournament. All five deck lists and three tournament reports can be found on the tournament results page.

Statistics from Restaurant "Peking":

Total achievements awarded	9
Most achievements won	Thomas Schneider (thsch), with 3
Average achievements per player	1.8
Biggest ratings gain	Enrico Evink (enrico81), up 50 points to 1683
Average rating of all 5 players	1721

Arby's Restaurant: The largest Regional of the weekend saw twelve players competing over five rounds to be crowned the 2011 Risa Regional Champion. There was an upset in the first round when Johnny Holeva (jjh), winner of the last three Regionals at this venue, lost to Dan Hamman (SirDan). Johnny then lost his round two game and, even though he went on to win his next three games, was out of contention to retain his title. The third round saw the eventual top two players face off against each other. Even though Thomas Kamiura (Bosskamiura), playing a Starfleet deck titled "Damaged Lust", beat Dan Hamman (SirDan), playing an Equinox deck titled "Equalizer", the final standings were not settled. Thomas only managed a modified win in his fourth round game, and lost his final game to finish runner-up behind Dan. Congratulations Dan! Voyager / Equinox and Original Series were tied as the most popular affiliation at this tournament, played by three players each; followed by Klingon, which was played by two players. Other decks being played included Starfleet, Next Generation, Dominion and Earth (Home of Starfleet Command). All twelve deck lists and four tournament reports can be found on the tournament results page.

Statistics from Arby's Restaurant:

Total achievements awarded	19
Most achievements won	James Floyd (jawajames), with 5
Average achievements per player	1.6
Biggest ratings gain	James Floyd (jawajames), up 58 points to 1379
Average rating of all 12 players	1531

Dragon's Den: Last week's article mentioned the possibility of a lot of rounds being played at this Andoria Regional. In fact, it was quite the opposite. Only three rounds were played to find a winner from the eight players in attendance. Kevin Jaeger (Hoss-Drone), playing a Borg deck titled "Jackie Treehorn Presents: Contaminated Ass Resistance", defeated three Next Generation decks (one of which was dual headquarters), without conceding a point to win this title for the second time in three years. This was also Kevin's fourth Regional Championship title. Most importantly though, Kevin was my pick to win. Second and third places had to be decided by tiebreakers; with Nate Lindgren (Methos), playing a Next Generation deck titled "Twins still suck"; edging out Preston Holida (holida2000), playing a Next Generation deck titled "2-hour Box Wine"; for second place. Jerad Berhow (Jerad) won the "Hossyest Move of the Day Award" for using Locutus (Voice of the Borg) to score 10 points from Forsaken, before using Knowledge and Experience to overcome it, and took home a Kevin Jaeger original piece of artwork as his reward. The third annual Quad-B Championship (Beer, Billiards, BuckHunter and Bowling) scheduled to follow the tournament, wasn't held. It was instead replaced by a four game tournament of Horseshoes, Blackjack, Poker and Family Guy Monopoly. Six deck lists and one tournament report can be found on the tournament results page, and an interview with the winner, Kevin Jaeger, is below.

Statistics from Dragon's Den:

Total achievements awarded	10
Most achievements won	Kevin Jaeger (Hoss-Drone), Preston Holida (holida2000), Shawn Colson (rengar) and Keith Rupp (malakim2099); with 2 each
Average achievements per player	1.3
Biggest ratings gain	Preston Holida (holida2000), up 40 points to 1528
Average rating of all 8 players	1547

University of Washington: This Second Edition Ferenginar Regional got off to a bad start when the eight players discovered that the temporary venue intended to be used this year had no seating area. Fortunately, the university campus offered many alternative buildings that could be used, and after a small trek, they were ready to go. Just one player, and my pick to win; John Kalmen (deathslittlebro), playing a Borg deck titled "Quintessence"; managed to win all four of his games. This Regional Championship became John's third tournament win in a row. What is incredible about this is that John has only played three tournaments in the Continuing committee era. He has won all of them, having never lost a game. That's quite a feat John! There were seven different affiliations represented on the day; including Cardassian, Deep Space 9, Klingon, Romulan, Starfleet and Terok Nor. Borg was the only affiliation to be used by two players. All eight deck lists and two tournament reports can be found on the tournament results page.

Statistics from University of Washington:

Total achievements awarded	14
Most achievements won	J (The Mad Vulcan), with 4
Average achievements per player	1.8
Biggest ratings gain	John Kalmen (deathslittlebro), up 44 points to 1592
Average rating of all 8 players	1458

Chermside Library: Eight players took part in this First Edition Briar Patch Regional. It was a sealed tournament where each player received an Official Tournament Sealed Deck (OTSD) and three boosters with which to build their decks. The deciding game happened in the third round where the Dillon brothers played each other. Ben Dillon (Broshak), playing a Federation / Romulan deck; defeated Greg Dillon (Latok), playing a Federation / Klingon deck. Despite Ben then losing to Luke Keleher (MushroomDemon) in the fourth round, his main competition was Greg. That third round win was enough to see Ben take the Regional Championship title ahead of his brother, who was my pick to win. Special mentions go to Luke Keleher (MushroomDemon), Lawrie Keleher (Lozza) and Rebecca Walters (Bei-Quay) for playing in their first Continuing Committee sanctioned tournaments. Welcome to the game! Two deck lists and two tournament reports can be found on the tournament results page.

Statistics from Chermside Library:

Total achievements awarded	11
Most achievements won	Greg Dillon (Latok), with 3
Average achievements per player	1.4
Biggest ratings gain	Greg Dillon (Latok), up 40 points to 1577
Average rating of all 8 players	1495

OBS De Blijberg: Six players participated in this First Edition New Bajor Regional, where Federation decks dominated the event. The top three decks were all blue. My pick to win, Enrico Evink (enrico81); playing a Federation deck titled "Federation Flagship and the Son'a"; was undefeated over three rounds and won his second First Edition Regional in the space of a month. Second place went to Arjan Hoek (arjan242), after his only loss was to Enrico. Arjan played a Federation deck titled "Insurrection." Two deck lists can be found on the tournament results page.

Statistics from OBS De Blijberg:

Total achievements awarded	9
Most achievements won	Pah-wraith (Pah-wraith), with 3
Average achievements per player	1.5
Biggest ratings gain	Enrico Evink (enrico81), up 33 points to 1627
Average rating of all 6 players	1501

Interview

This week, Kevin Jaeger (Hoss-Drone); 2008 Second Edition World Champion, and four time Regional Champion talks about his new Borg deck.

James: Congratulations on your win, Kevin. In preparation for the tournament, what decks were you considering?
Kevin: I was considering playing Ho.S.S.-D.R.O.N.E 2.0 (it's the same as this one with three copies of Straight and Steady added); the Borg deck I did play, a Klingon High Council / Tragic Turn / Vacation / Q events deck and Romulan Donatra. I don't like playing the same deck twice in a row, the Klingon deck is unrefined at this point and the Donatra deck has a hole or two in its game. So the Borg deck became my choice.

James: What decks did you expect to face?
Kevin: I figured Nate would just play the same Next Generation deck again and Shawn and Keith are new players borrowing decks so those were the decks I knew more or less 100 per cent I would face. I had no idea what Preston would play. I guessed Jerad would play Borg again, that Jody would play either Klingons or Starfleet with three copies of Uninvited and Allison I didn't have any idea. I didn't know of anyone else making the trip but for preparations sake, I anticipated Original Series Integrity, Voyager Chuckles and Romulan Donatra as likely possibilities to face from anyone.

James: Why did you play Borg?
Kevin: For several reasons. First, it was the best of the four options I had to play at the moment that wasn't a repeat from earlier. Second, I'm a Borg fan I guess, so I try to play Borg at least once during regionals; and third, right now Borg have really the best matchups across the board and the ability to adapt to whatever the opponent is doing. Pun intended.

James: Did you consider playing a Tragic Turn based dilemma pile?
Kevin: It's a very, very strong strategy and I fully expected to face it, and this Borg deck is super strong against Tragic Turn. That being said, if my deck is that strong against something, I don't want to play it myself because I don't want a mirror match to come down to luck of the draw. The greatest strength of Tragic Turn is the ability to do massive damage when the opponent is not prepared BUT the prepared opponent can make it whiff big time. The Borg decks best pair is a dilemma pile that stops so that the assimilation has time to work and targets to work on.

I need to peel people away from the group so no matter if the opponent completes the mission, he is forced to leave people behind and out in the open. Once that happens, the offense can go to work.

James: Did you have any tricks in the deck and/or dilemma pile?
Kevin: I had a few surprises. One of the strategies against future interaction is to build up a lot of personnel and then go out and hit the first mission with them all to reduce the possibility of random selections hitting key personnel. This could backfire big time with a surprise Bio-nueral Computer Core to give me two assimilations and an already on-line Unrelenting. Unfair Comparison sets up Not Quite Domesticated Pets and Left Behind with much greater reliability than is typical. The trick that the deck uses to the best effect though is the deck depletion / Three of Nine (Tactician Drone) maneuver. Unless the opponent has Dukat protected you can basically do whatever you want on the next turn - get personnel back, load up with assimilation, replay One With the Borg, get your copies of Knowledge and Experience back or a combination thereof. It is some pretty Hossy stuff.

James: What were you plans to deal with Tragic Turn, Legacy, Borg, Capture, Cadets & Klingon battle?
Kevin: Tragic Turn and Legacy are by far the easiest things for this deck to deal with. Knowledge and Experience with Unrelenting protection makes dilemma pile based strategies really unreliable to near worthless.

My dilemma pile is strong against Cadets plus the ability to go after certain skills with Unrelenting puts pressure on the opponent's  missions (aside from Practice Orbital Maneuvers that is.) Unfair Comparisons, when it works, makes that mission hard as well.

Borg is a medium level matchup. If they are assimilating themselves the game could be a staring contest for the most part. It happens. If they are a solver based Borg, they are as much trouble as Cadets as I can go after their skills then be smart enough to not let the Queen bring anyone in; and your Quintessence is gone via Two of Nine (Transtator Drone). You will move too slow to catch me.

Klingon Kruge is really the biggest threat but again, I don't have to do anything. I can drop an Annexation Drone for the lead and sit at my headquarters all game. Once they have to leave and attempt missions I can swoop in the with the upper hand and take control. Probably just a modified win, but that is better than a loss.

James: Holding Cell looks like a big threat to your deck. Did you have plans for that?
Kevin: It is a big threat and I did play against Shawn with it. The solution is very simple - just keep Two of Nine (Transtator Drone) off the table until it gets played. Once that happens, you can just bring him in and blow it up! Since it is unique now, you get a turn of interrupts and Two of Nine (Transtator Drone) is back in your deck protected.

James: How was the tournament for you?
Kevin: It was a lot of fun! I always enjoy tournaments a lot and these days we've been putting a lot of emphasis on post tournament activities so even when the fun is over - it's not over. With all the needless bickering, and strife on the boards it's great to just have fun and bond as a playgroup over some BBQ, horseshoes, beers and what not.

James: Who was your toughest opponent?
Kevin: Shawn was... he's a long time Magic player who's got a lot of card game history and strategy under his belt so he's progressing quickly. The deck he played, he only played one game with before the tournament; and when we played, he did quite a few things that were solid "out of the box thinking" moves. Had his deck given him better draws and if he had better luck, the game would have been closer.

James: You didn't let anyone score points against you all day. Who came closest to completing a mission?
Kevin: Shawn did... he was this close to doing it. The irony is that he chose to take a turn to build up and protect himself but it probably led to the game being more of a blowout. My dilemma pile did show up big in our game though.

James: Now that the tournament is over, how would you improve your deck?
Kevin: I'm not sure. I've thought about putting the A Few Minor Difficulties back into the deck to deal with Dominion Defiant, Prometheus, Tenak'talar and the U.S.S. Enterprise-D but I'm not sure.

James: If you had to face your deck in a tournament, how would you play to beat it?
Kevin: As I've said in the discussion thread for the tournament, the deck has so many weapons and moving parts that it is really, really hard to know what to go after. So I don't really have an answer for you. It's a strong deck and variations of it will likely show up at Worlds and the Europeans. I think the answer is just simply - you have to move faster than it.

James: Do you have anything else to add?
Kevin: All my other thoughts will be in my weekly meta-game shakedown blog posting.

Thanks for taking the time to answer these questions, Kevin.

Byes

This week, two players won a Day One, Round One bye into the First Edition Continental Championships:

• Ben Dillon (Broshak), winner at Chermside Library
• Arjan Hoek (arjan242), runner-up (bye handed down) at OBS De Blijberg

And, five players won a Day One, Round One bye into the Second Edition Continental Championships:

• Enrico Evink (enrico81), runer-up (bye handed down) at Restaurant "Peking"
• Dan Hamman (SirDan), winner at Arby's Restaurant
• Thomas Kamiura (Bosskamiura), runner-up at Arby's Restaurant
• Kevin Jaeger (Hoss-Drone), winner at Dragon's Den
• John Kalmen (deathslittlebro), winner at University of Washington

Congratulations to all players, and I wish better luck to anyone who didn't make it this time. These bye winners have been added to the list of current bye winners for the Continental Championships and the World Championships here.

Deck Statistics

There were 14 First Edition players at two tournaments this week, taking the total players at First Edition Regional Championships to 34 - an average of 6.8 players per tournament. With one of the tournaments being an OTSD sealed event, the number of multiple affiliations has kept pace with the Federation. Hirogen also makes its first appearance this week. The best performing affiliation is still Non-Aligned, averaging 12.4 victory points per player. Cardassian is second best, averaging 10.3 victory points per player; and Vidiian is third, averaging 9.5 victory points per player.

The most popular First Edition affiliations are currently:
1.	Federation	Used by 9 (26%) players	1 Regional win
2.	Multiple Affiliations	Used by 8 (24%) players	2 Regional wins
3.	Klingon	Used by 3 (9%) player
3.	Non-Aligned	Used by 3 (9%) player	1 Regional win
3.	Unknown Affiliations	Used by 3 (9%) player
6.	Borg	Used by 2 (6%) player
6.	Romulan	Used by 2 (6%) player
8.	Bajoran	Used by 1 (3%) player
8.	Cardassian	Used by 1 (3%) player	1 Regional win
8.	Hirogen	Used by 1 (3%) player
8.	Terran Empire	Used by 1 (3%) player

There were 33 Second Edition players at four tournaments this week, taking the total players at Second Edition Regional Championships to 169 - an average of 9.9 players per tournament. Klingon was the most popular affiliation played this week. 14 of the 17 Regionals organized so far have featured at least one Klingon deck. At the other end of the scale is Bajoran, having only been played in two Regional Championships so far. Borg had two wins this week, helping it to become the joint best winning affiliation, alongside Original Series. Voyager / Equinox has also almost doubled in popularity, thanks to three players using it in San Diego, California this week.

The most popular Second Edition affiliations are currently:
1.	Klingon	Used by 24 (14%) players	3 Regional wins
2.	Original Series	Used by 17 (10%) players	4 Regional wins
3.	Romulan	Used by 15 (9%) players	1 Regional win
3.	Next Generation	Used by 15 (9%) players	1 Regional win
5.	Starfleet	Used by 13 (8%) players
5.	Multiple Affiliations	Used by 13 (8%) players
7.	Borg	Used by 12 (7%) players	4 Regional wins
8.	Cardassian	Used by 11 (7%) players	1 Regional win
9.	Deep Space 9	Used by 7 (4%) players	2 Regional wins
9.	Dominion	Used by 7 (4%) players
9.	Voyager/Equinox	Used by 7 (4%) players	1 Regional win
9.	Unknown Affiliations	Used by 7 (4%) players
13.	Ferengi	Used by 5 (3%) players
13.	Terok Nor	Used by 5 (3%) players
15.	Earth (Home of Starfleet Command)	Used by 4 (2%) players
16.	Bajoran	Used by 3 (2%) player
16.	Maquis	Used by 3 (2%) player
18.	Non-Aligned	Used by 1 (1%) player

There were no Tribbles Regional Championships this week, so the statistics have not changed. The total players at Tribbles Regional Championships is 25 - an average of 8.3 players per tournament. A total of 7,897,725 Tribbles have been scored to date - an average of 315,909 Tribbles per player.

Week 7 Preview

The complete schedule can be found in the article Regional Championships Series 2011 Schedule. There are five Regional tournaments this week:

Saturday 14th May		Sunday 15th May
Second Edition (Standard) Game Knight 726 Osborne Street Winnipeg, MB R3L 2C2 Canada [Discuss] [Pre-register]	First Edition (Revised) Astral Games 737 Main Street Klamath Falls, OR 97601 United States [Discuss] [Pre-register]	First Edition (Official) Kaiserpalast Pressather Straße 113 92637 Weiden Germany [Discuss] [Pre-register]
First Edition (Revised/Sealed) Ultuna Studentkår (ULS) Duhrevägen 6 756 51 Uppsala Sweden [Pre-register]	Tribbles (Standard) Ultuna Studentkår (ULS) Duhrevägen 6 756 51 Uppsala Sweden [Pre-register]

Game Knight: This is will be Canada's second ever Regional Championship. The first, held last year, saw six players take part under the virtual format rules. That was a pretty good turnout when you consider that there are only ten players living in Canada who have played in the Continuing Committee era. This year sees the Regional Championship as the first of four tournaments being held that weekend. Following the Regional, there is an Infinite Diversity Draft on Saturday evening, a Race to the Alpha Quadrant tournament on Sunday morning, and an Academy format tournament on Sunday afternoon. The top rated player who has pre-registered is Matthew Hayes (karonofborg13). He has played no fewer than 35 tournaments this year already, and has played over 600 tournament games since the Continuing Committee was formed. Tournament organizer and 2010 Canadian National Champion, Keith Morris (Foreman) is the local favorite though. With his 71% winning record over Matthew, Keith is my pick to win.

Past Regional results at Game Knight:
2010 (alternate venue), won by Mark Morris (BaronMorrath) playing Romulan.
2009, not played.
2008, not played.

Astral Games: This is the first of three First Edition Regional Championships being held this weekend, and the inaugural First Edition Regional Championship to be held in the Ferenginar Region. Five players have pre-registered so far, with Jeremy Commandeur (Commandeur) standing out among them. He won the last Regional he played in three weeks ago. J (The Mad Vulcan) also won the last First Edition tournament he played in three weeks ago, but I'm not going to pick either of these players to win. My pick to win is Manuel Diaz (manny1978d). Manuel may have only played in three First Edition tournaments in the Continuing Committee era, but he has a 89% winning record and has never finished lower than second.

There are no past Regionals results at Astral Games.

Ultuna Studentkår (1E): At 59 degrees, 53 minutes North; this is probably the Northernmost Regional held since the Continuing Committee was formed. Participants will receive the 20 OTSD cards, the Away Team pack, 58 additional cards (found in the tournament listing), and additional booster packs with which to build a deck for this tournament. There are currently four players pre-registered for this four round tournament. Of those four, two have not played a sanctioned First Edition tournament in the Continuing Committee era. Cristoffer Wiker (Smiley) has won the last three First Edition tournaments he has played in, of which two were sealed deck, and is my pick to win.

There are no past Regionals results at Ultuna Studentkår.

Ultuna Studentkår (Tr): This Tribbles Regional Championships follows the First Edition Regional, and if the players change tables after that tournament, it may well become the Northernmost Regional ever held! The tournament will be sealed deck, with participants receiving one of the four decks from a Tribbles starter box. At the time of writing, just two players have pre-registered for this tournament. Given that Torbjörn Lindquist (Linkan) has actually played in a sanctioned Tribbles tournament before, he is my pick to win.

There are no past Tribbles Regionals results.

Kaiserpalast: This First Edition Regional, the only First Edition Regional in the Vandros IV Region, was originally scheduled for 17 April, but was moved to this weekend due to a lack of player interest. It forms part of the "Weiden Triple Feature"; with the First Edition Regional, a Second Edition tournament, and a Tribbles tournament all taking place on the same day. At the time of writing only three players have pre-registered, but with at least three other players at the venue for the Second Edition tournament, I suspect some of them will be encouraged to play too. Of the pre-registered players, Andreas Limmer (Nava) has the best winning record at 79%. He has won two tournaments this year, and has picked up a second place as well. He is my pick to win. The player with a 0% winning record in First Edition, who sent me hate mail following my prediction for this tournament back in April, shall remain unnamed. On a completely unrelated note, I wish good luck to Johannes Klarhauser (Kaiser) at this tournament - and not just because he sends me hate mail.

There are no past Regionals results at Kaiserpalast.

Predictions

I must have had something going for me last week, when I picked three of six winners correctly. My record is now 38% (9 out of 24) correct. Another couple of weeks like that, and everyone will think I can see dead people the future.

Next Week

A review of the five results from week seven, an interview with a First Edition player, and a preview of the four Regional Championships taking place in week eight.

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