Weekly 1E Roundup - 6 AUGUST 2020

by Charlie Plaine, Director of First Edition

6th August 2020

Welcome to the Weekly 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 have questions, comments, or suggestions for content, you can contact me at cplaine@gmail.com or on the forums via PM to MidnightLich. I'm happy to write about your tournaments, get togethers, or other 1E-related goings-on. But for now, let's get into the column and see what's been going on in the world of First Edition!

The Big News

As this is the first week of the month, it has brought the usual batch of updates to the game's balance and rules. August is a relatively quiet month, with just a few Rules improvements for clarity, as explained in James Heaney's (BCSWowbagger) article. The most notable change is to Lumba, who is now demonstrably a female; previously, Lumba was male because Decipher said so. Aside from the rules changes, and an excellent editoral from James about communicating rules changes, there was just one other change: errata to Five-Year Mission. This extra draw card now works at the end of turn - which is where you can expect most future draws to appear - and only in a pure deck. With the errata, the card comes off the Official Tournament Format (OTF) ban list as well.

Tournament Reports

Last week, on Tuesday, July 28th, six (6) players met for Tuesday Night Tribbles hosted by Maggie Geppert (jadziadax8). Five of the six players were using pre-constructed decks from Maggie's Family Tribbles project, a set of decks designed to play well against each other for a friends and family game night. Michael Van Breemen (The Ninja Scot), who played the Family Poison deck, won the event with 270,242. It was a tight game, with only just shy of fifty-thousand tribbles separating 1st from 4th. Kevin Jaeger (Hoss-Drone) took second, playing a deck of his own creation, while Kris Sonsteby (LORE) took 3rd with the Family Copy/Score deck. Maggie herself took 4th with the Family Draw/Kill deck, after Kevin denied her points in revenge for her killing his Bonus tribbles. Dan Hamman (SirDan) took 5th with the Family Discard deck while Eric Robinett (rycar60) came in 6th with the Family Rescue deck.

If you're playing, getting together, I want to hear about it! Did you play online? Tell me about it! Play with family? Send me pictures! I'm happy to cover tournaments and casual games in this column - you just have to let me know. You can find my contact information at the bottom of every column, and you're welcome to email me, PM me, or just post on the forums. So if you're out there, playing First Edition or Tribbles in any way, shape, or form, tell us about it!

Tournament Previews

This Saturday, August 8th, sees the kick-off of the first side event for Jon Carter's (pfti) (not a) world championship series, the single-day First Edition Biermeister. Unlike standard online tournament in which players play one game per week, a single-day event starts in the morning and runs like a normal, physical tournament - just online. The Biermeister is typically held in the evening, and there is much drinking. While I'm sure there will still be much drinking, this tournament starts at 9 AM Pacific / 12 PM Eastern / 6 PM  CET. Aside from Jon, both Sebastian Kirstein (Caretaker's Guest) and Niall Matthew (sexecutioner) are pre-registered for this event.

Also on Saturday, John Corbett (KillerB) and sons, Connor Corbett (Connor) and Cameron Corbett (Cameron), are road-tripping to join Brian Skyes (Armus) and his family for a big day of Trek, including a First Edition. Brian posted on the forums with details about the beginner-friendly format, so check that out. I'm interested in the results, as Brian is using the Coming of Age starter decks modified to use The Squire's Rules.

Monday, August 10th brings us the second of the First Edition side events with the random affiliation draft. Three (3) players - Niall Matthew, Sebastian Kirstein, and Mathew McCalpin (Keiimaster) - are signed up, and will be assigned an affiliation at random by the tournament director. They then have to build a deck using only that affiliation, and play in a tournament. There's still time to sign up if that sounds fun, so do so today!

Of course, all these side events have to be on the side of something, and the (not a) world championship proper begins on Monday, August 10th as well. This standard-style online tournament begins Monday and will run one round per week. Twelve (12) players are currently pre-registered, including five (5) players in the Top 50; Jon Carter, also playing host, is atop that list in 12th. Michael Van Breemen (16th), Brian Sykes (Armus; 30th), Paddy Tye (KazonPADD; 33rd), and Pope (princedetenebres; 38th) round out the highest ranked players. But don't count out anyone else on this roster, just because they aren't in the Top 5. Niall Matthew, Sebastian Kirstein, and Stephen P (Spectre9) are in the Top 100, and First Edition is a game where anything can happen and anyone can win. The rest of the field includes Austin Chandler (DarkSabre), our Playtest Manager, Joseph Wisniewski (geraldkw), returning player Stuart Marsh (SAM2000), and Mathew McCalpin (Keiimaster). It wouldn't surprise me to see any of these names at the top when it's all said and done.

In the world of Tribbles, the epic Corbett vs Sykes showdown will conclude with a Tribbles outing. And, as always during the Spotlight Championship Series, Tuesday Night Tribbles returns on August 11th, with the usual suspects pre-registered. Don't forget, all of these online tournaments are part of the Subspace Championship Series and participants are eligible for extra prizes each time!

Meanwhile, if you are in a part of the world where gatherings are allow, and if you have upcoming events, virtual get togethers, or anything else scheduled that's 1E related, let me know. I'd love to feature you and your friends in this column. I typically only see them if they're scheduled in our tournament software, so if you're not using that, please let me know!

Short Treks (In Other News)

• Bareil of Borg, a new forum user, wants to know how combo dilemmas work with card titles. Specifically, he's asking about how Pawns of the Military interacts with the combo dilemma Computer Weapon & Hyper-Aging. As Pawns of the Military names Hyper-Aging, does it also affect the combo version? The discussion thread has been very interesting, so I encourage you to check it out if you enjoy the ins-and-outs of 1E names and rules.


• What do you think about a mix-and-match product to play 1E? Magic recently released Jumpstart, a special booster product with themed "half-decks." You pick two of them - like a Green Elf deck and a Blue Merfolk deck, shuffle them together, and play. It makes for fun, random experiences because there are hundreds of combinations. Forum user boromirofborg wondered if we could do something like that for 1E. What do you think? There are some major logistical issues, but the biggest question is would it be fun to play that way?


• New forum users greenfelt asks about Borg facilities? When Borg were first introduced, way back in First Contact, there was a special rule that the Borg Outpost seeded off by itself at a phantom Delta Quadrant location. Now, returning to the game after a long break, greenfelt wanted to know how these facilities work now, in the modern game. It's a great discussion with a good bit of the history of the game contained within, so check it out.


• You get to decide which boutique expansion goes into production next! Last week's Friday question gives you guys the chance to vote on which boutique style expansion goes into production next. You get to choose from four options - "Suddenly Human", "Take Me Out to the Holosuite", "Soldiers of the Empire", or "Year of Hell." The poll is open through Monday, so go read up on each option, read the arguments, and vote on which one you want to see!

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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 June 2020. 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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