Second Edition Michigan Regional winner Jon Carter
Title: Workhorse
Headquarters: Prevent Historical Disruption
Deck Size: 36 Cards
Deck Archetype: Speed Solver
Dilemma Pile Size: 36 Cards
Dilemma Pile Type: Attrition

Jon's Commentary:
Why did you choose the deck that you used? What other decks did you consider using?
I chose this because I had never played relativity, it was a simple version of it and I only had one other deck built. I do like the Khan deck I have but wanted to do something new.

What sorts of decks were you hoping to face while playing your deck? What decks did you hope not to face?
Good battle or other hard interference could have really slowed this down (especially with the small draw deck). Even a kill pile would slow it down a lot I felt good about most other matchups as this deck is fast as heck.

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 had never really played it before. The surprise was how many people I could get in play. I was triple teaming planets by the end of 2 of my three games.

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?
No real situational cards. I added Torres as a response to fear of getting stranded in the GQ. It turned out to be a call as she removed two Gomtuus and a Greater Needs.

You're primarily known as a First Edition player; what First Edition playing skills translate well to Second Edition?
Not many really. The nature of 2E actually checks my worst 1E impulses. Sending supercrews and reckless plays tend not to pay off, so I am less likely to do things like hit a game-ending Cytherians.

What would you nominate as the MVP card from your deck?
Torres this week. She saved me a few turns.

Do you have anything else you'd like to say about your deck?
Sascha Made a good deck, I am happy I didn't pilot it poorly

My Commentary:
I looked at this deck in depth 2 weeks ago. There is a change though: Jon added a copy of B'Elanna Torres. According to Jon's tournament report and interview, it sounds like she was very effective! I'm not surprised to hear that - I've certainly been in Relativity games that have turned based on the deck's ability to remove Damage cards. I see a few different choices for anti-damage tech in Relativity decks; various Geordis and Exocomps, but I see Torres most frequently. She seems to generally be the most flexible option, and her skills line up well with several favorite Relativity missions.

Now, two weeks ago, one thing I didn't do was review the dilemma pile closely. The first thing that stands out to me here are two Underlying/Loss pile favorites... without those two support dilemmas! It's easy to forget sometimes that dilemmas like Pest Control and Surface Defense are good on their own, but I often find myself unable to meet the requirements even if my opponent hadn't played the appropriate booster. And on the other side of things, when I'm playing an Underlying/Loss pile myself, those dilemmas are often the ones that I find myself most confident in using even when I don't draw a booster with them. And if I haven't seen Underlying or Loss pop up on the mission, when I get to choose my stops, I'm going to be a lot less likely to keep those Archaeology or Transporters personnel around - you know, the ones with just a mission skill or two, who you really only brought along out of a fear of the dilemma that is about to stop you next.

I believe I've called out this dilemma in a review of a Kiefer deck in the past, but Artistic License is one that not many people use, but I see in decks from his meta all the time. I believe I've even promised I'd try it out myself, but have failed to do so. What I did do, early in my tenure on design, was suggest a version of it that killed instead of stopped, in order to promote diversity in kill piles (which was severely lacking at the time). That card is one I tried in playtest games, and found it was way, way too powerful - even in a very homogenous kill pile, it would rack of ridiculous numbers of kills. I hit the cut button myself with great joy. I think it really is time for me to try out the real, actual card, maybe with something like the Stripped Down in this pile in order to mitigate the consume cost

Second Edition Koblenz Regional winner Benjamin Liebich
Title: A Red Sun Rises. Blood Has Been Spilled This Night. (Virtual Format)
Headquarters: Qo'noS, Heart of the Empire
Deck Size: 62 Cards
Deck Archetype: Interference (Battle)
Dilemma Pile Size: 28 Cards
Dilemma Pile Type: Kill

Ben's Commentary:
Why did you choose the deck that you used? What other decks did you consider using?
I didn't have a lot of fun building decks recently. I was always weighing strategies to counter strategies to counter counter strategies and eventually I started overthinking everything so in this case I thought, to hell with all of this, I'm just going to play something I have fun with. And since this is the sort of deck type I've been having the most fun with in recent history, there really weren't any other decks I considered using.

What sorts of decks were you hoping to face while playing your deck? What decks did you hope not to face?
I certainly did not want to face any Dominion decks. Dominion not only have the big ships but also the strong personnel so it really puts you in a bit of a bind with your engagements as well as your combats. I also didn't really want to face any decks using high attribute personnel as they tend to be a little more stout when it comes to the consume/kill pile. Thankfully there were neither of those in this tournament.

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 been playing the Delta Pavonis battle deck a lot but this was the first time I really committed to playing it with a consume/kill pile. I used to shy away from those because of the excessive amount of consumes that basically give away the mission but I have to say this really convinced me that it's worth it. The additional amount of kills you get really don't leave your opponent with a lot to play with. Add to that that you can now use the I.K.S. Negh'Var/All-Out War combo to just kill your opponent's personnel right at his HQ works like a charm especially when you managed to de-staff the ship that he ventured out with.

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?
There weren't really any particular situational cards I used. However since this tournament was Virtual fromat, I really had to use some cards I normally wouldn't include and also I couldn't use some of the cards that usually make this deck better.

First and foremost the choice of ships is narrowed down a lot by Virtual. You need a Vor'cha class ship to make best use of Kromm and the only Vor'cha class ship you can use in Virtual is the new Alliance Vor'cha. The one major downside to that though (and something I didn't even realize until my first game) is that the Alliance Vor'cha doesn't have a cloaking device and thus doesn't trigger Once More Unto The Breach. The Alliance Vor'cha however did ensure that I could replace the BaH!s I wasn't allowed to use with War Without End. You need those bonus points to ensure your 2-mission win and also to keep the All-Out War killing machine going. It is a lot less cost effective than the standard Vor'cha/Bah! combo though which is why I included the three Delivery Boys to reduce the cost of War Without End even though it makes the deck a bit more clunky.

It is incredibly difficult to pick the winner of a German regional because you're all so close in skill. Does the tight competition affect your deck or card choices much?
For us I don't think it affects it at all. We all know and accept that anyone of us can win at any given weekend so there's really no point in worrying about it. I finished dead last two weeks ago and won this week even tough I feel I played better in the previous one. I just didn't have the luck. And a lot of times that's just what it comes down to, luck.

What would you nominate as the MVP card from your deck?
This was the first time Duras, the Elder really had his time to shine by snatching away the strength from a killed guy to ensure my only full win of the tournament on my last turn against Johannes.

Do you have anything else you'd like to say about your deck?
Funny story. I included Miles O'Brien in the deck when I really meant to include Molly. Apparently I didn't pay attention when I put the deck into the deck builder and must have clicked on Miles instead of Molly. Funny thing is that I never noticed it during printing, sleeving and not even during the first round of the tournament. Only in the second round came the moment where I thought "wait, this shouldn't be here"

My Commentary:
It's been a while since we've seen a kill pile in this series, and I've got good news: this is an interesting one to take a look at. It has many of the consume dilemmas we've come to expect in a kill pile: The Clown: Guillotine, All-Consuming Evil, Bold Plan. These are all tried and true good cards. One classic kill dilemma, Tragic Turn doesn't show up, despite graduating to virtual status a few sets ago, which is a trend I've been following. It just doesn't trigger off enough of the kill dilemmas that people are using to justify 3 cost and 2 consume.

Some modern kill piles have been using A Taste of Armageddon and Simulated Prey to net some efficient kills, but this is an engagement-based deck: there isn't enough room for the interrupts needed to support those dilemmas. Instead, this deck has plenty of events to fuel the 8-cost kill dilemmas and the 40-point missions to support Unfair Terms. When heavily discounted (for things that a deck like this one is going to have anyways), these dilemmas aren't just efficient, they're brutal.

Where this pile really stands out, though, is its use of Harried and Harassed and Once More Unto the Breach. This combo has been incredibly useful for interactive decks, though the only other time I can recall seeing them show up in a kill pile was in Greg's 2018 World Champion deck. That pile looks still more different, being more focused on the lock-out than the total party kill. Either way, the combo serves a similar purpose to Tactical Disadvantage (which I've seen in a few kill piles), but also gets a ship to the mission, which furthers the deck's other goals.

And with Klaa and All-Out War around, I suspect you won't need many guesses as to what those other goals are. I completely agree with Ben that one of those goals does need to be a two-mission win - if your interference deck isn't trying to win in two, you're asking for the game to go to time. It may take two War Without Ends to reach 100 points with Delta Pavonis and Brute Force, but even when you don't get them both, even one 10 point boost can be enough to put you ahead in a timed game.

Second Edition London Regional winner Nicholas Yankovec
Title: Khan 2019
Headquarters: Ceti Alpha V, Forge Settlement
Deck Size: 50 Cards
Deck Archetype: Midrange Solver
Dilemma Pile Size: 40 Cards
Dilemma Pile Type: Unfair Comparison

Nick's Commentary:
Why did you choose the deck that you used? What other decks did you consider using?
I haven't used Khan with a lot of the new cards, so wanted to give them a try. I'm also retiring this deck from local tournaments, and wanted to end at an "important" event, so a Regional seemed appropriate.

I did consider using Dominion or Borg Assimilation, but my Dominion deck needs a lot of work, and I didn't have the time to spend on that. The Assimilation deck can be a pretty NPE for people, and I wasn't feeling in that kind of mood.

What sorts of decks were you hoping to face while playing your deck? What decks did you hope not to face?
I love facing Tragic Turn/ACE dilemma piles, as there is enough tricky death avoidance/prevention in my deck to reduce number of deaths to a manageable level while putting lots of dilemmas under the mission. I only faced one kill pile, though.

While playing a TRiH deck I'm wary of interactive decks as they can either really screw this deck type over (Maquis!) or they can be slow enough to take a game to time, and as I do three planet missions before Genesis-ing my third mission; modified win victory conditions do not suit me.

Also decks with no HQ makes NA Bashir sad at cost 6...

You're one of the most experienced players with Khan decks, and one of the most successful - do you have any tips for Khan newbies?
For me, it's all about messing with the opponent's dilemmas. Use Udar to change whoever the dilemma chosses; use Soong to prevent losing command of someone (especially good against Secret Identity); use Silik to get past Rogue Borg Ambush.

It's very hard to play effective dilemmas against this affiliation. If you're not completing Ceti Alpha in 2 turns on average then you're doing something wrong.

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?
Rodriguez was one card I wasn't sure about - I almost didn't put him in the deck, but he ended up helping a lot against the two Underlying Influence dilemma piles I faced with his Archaeology.

I think I managed to use Fitting In in all of my games, whereas in the past I've rarely used it.

I'm not sure if Lethal Wound was useful or not - I know Danny had some stop prevention in his Ferengi deck, but never saw him play it. Don't know whether or not that was because of Lethal Wound or he didn't draw any Ferengi Computers?

Survival of the Fittest was awful, I used it once and then I hadn't read the card properly (a required in your dicard pile?!?) so Will captured Arik Soong. I had two copies, might reduce to 1 or get rid of completely.

What would you nominate as the MVP card from your deck?
Hard to nominate just one, as most of the cards work together, but if one card got me through more than anything it'd be Silik, with a shout out to Rodriguez

Do you have anything else you'd like to say about your deck?
It's still such a fun deck to play - and even though it's being retired from London, if I'm traveling elsewhere, then it will more than likely be making the trip with me.

The deck has a reputation as a fun deck, but not competitive; I'd disagree with that, I think it's a very competitive deck. My last 5 tournaments playing Khan, I've finished 1st in 4 of them!

One last thing - Space Seed. Who made that a planet dilemma? Twice now, I've seen the word Space on the dilemma and played it at a space mission.

My Commentary:
It has been quite some time since I last played a Khan deck - looks like late 2016 - and I think it may be time to give the deck another try. There have been quite a few cards released in the interim with the goal of shoring up the faction's weaknesses, and it looks like they've helped out a lot.

These days, I'd suspect an Unfair Comparison pile from Khan decks, largely due to the strength of Space Seed. It's likely to be low cost by the time the opponent hits the planet missions, it has high attribute totals on both of its requirements, and one of those requirements includes the very rare Telepathy. It's no slouch when it hits either - you lose two of your personnel to the charisma of Khan. The other advantage of an Unfair Comparison pile in a Khan deck is the density of events required by several of the high-cost dilemmas, which gives you something to do besides playing personnel during the early turns of the game. That may not seem like much, but it can save you from being unable to avoid attempting with 10+ personnel, since you can't play a ship or fly anywhere until that first mission is down.

That said, there's another newer card, Vendetta that can help you with that same problem. Just stop your excess personnel, then attempt the mission, just like Khan decks have always been able to do with Marla McGivers. She doesn't appear in this deck though (possibly due to her poor attribute and skill to cost ratio), and there's just the one copy of Vendetta - I get the sense that Nick would generally prefer to carefully pace out his personnel plays.

I actually encountered Moment of Triumph recently in a Starfleet deck (yes, that's a shout-out to you, Brian). Even more impressively, it was in a Hall of Fame format tournament, so he wasn't just using it with Mirror Bashir - he was paying full price for Silik and using it with him to nuke events (once played). In a Khan deck, those events likely won't even hit the table, since you'll usually have plenty of Genetically Enhanced personnel to use the first function on the card.

Now, it sounds like Nick wasn't terribly pleased with Survival of the Fittest, though it sounds like inexperience with it tripped him up some. I'm interested to hear from you, the reader, to see if you've used that card to good effect yet.