[Armus]

This is it. The 2023 Return to Talos IV (RTT4) finale!

The final installment of the series kicks off as we approach the holidays. In the spirit of giving this time of year, this will be the biggest "giveaway" yet: RAINBOW SEALED DECK!

What's a rainbow sealed deck, you ask? Simple. You get one of every booster pack. Premiere, Alternate Universe, Q Continuum, First Contact, Deep Space Nine, The Dominion, Blaze of Glory, Rules of Acquisition, Trouble with Tribbles, Mirror Mirror, Voyager, The Borg, Holodeck Adventures, and The Motion Pictures.

On top of that, in order to make sure everybody has a playable deck, everyone will receive a Starter Deck II and a Voyager Starter.

But that's not all! In order to maximize playability, this event will also feature a few twists:

-Ignore all quadrant icons on missions, facilities, ships, and personnel; every game will have one 12-mission alpha quadrant spaceline and all personnel, facilities, and ships will be considered native to that quadrant

-Ignore all and icons when reporting personnel. All personnel can report, and be killed. (Though using those icons applies in other contexts e.g., staffing a ship). All dilemmas can be seeded. All other cards can be played

-All personnel, ships, and facilities that a player has in play will be considered compatible with each other. And any player's outpost can repair any of their compatible docked ships

- and may still not be mixed with non- cards. That part hasn't changed.

- The Modern (né OTF) Ban list and rules remain mostly in effect, but per the Sealed Deck rules, there's no limit on the number of copies of a given card that can be seeded under missions.

This should allow for some fun and interesting combinations!

Sounds fun already, right? But we're not done yet!

As a reminder, playing in this event will get you some RTT4 participation points, and a few players are closing in on the magic number of 10 points to qualify for a Talosian Cage promo foil or 20 points to earn a choice of a 2nd Talosian Cage foil or a copy of the 2020 Talos IV Promo.

However, I really want to amp the turnout. As such, as an additional incentive, if we can get 20 or more players, anyone who hasn't qualified at the 10 point threshold to earn a Promo, or the 20 point threshold to earn a bonus promo plays in this event and finishes all of their games will qualify for the next level up. That means if you haven't played in any events, or haven't played in enough events to qualify, playing in this event will allow you to still get at least one foil. It's the giving season, so we're giving!

What are you waiting for? This thing kicks off Friday, December 1st and - based on current registration (14 as of this writing) - will run 4 rounds. If we can get to 17+ I'll add a 5th round.

This is seriously one of the most fun formats I've played in, and I can't recommend it strongly enough. Get signed up today and let's finish the year, and the 2023 RTT4 Series, in grand style!

[Armus]

Looking at who's pre-registered, I see some names from last time that aren't in here yet...

@Orbin
@BCSWowbagger
@jadziadax8
@sexecutioner
@Clerasil ToB
@commdecker
@Caretaker's Guest
@bashircommander
@Jesseon
@VioletBlaze

That's 10... we only need 6 to hit that magic number, and if all of y'all jump in, it'll be the biggest event of the decade! Let's make it rain promo foils and have the biggest tournament to close out the year!

Heck, we may even need to get @MidnightLich in some TrekMas holiday spirit... get in here, Charlie!

[Orbin]

Thanks for the ping! I have pre-registered now!

-James M

[jadziadax8]

Thanks for the ping! I have pre-registered now!

-James M

Same

[Armus]

24 Hours to go until kickoff and we're at a nice, robust 16 players!

It's not too late though... anyone who wants one of those foils help us get to 20 and we'll make it happen!

I've also started creating the card pools, and I'll just say this: some people are going to have some VERY interesting deckbuilding decisions to make going into this gig... should be a blast!

[Armus]

Ok, card pools have been distributed, it's go time!

Here are your Round 1 Pairings:

Jon Carter (@pfti) vs. Chris Lund (@DataNoh)
Brian Sykes (@Armus) vs. Thomas V (@Exon)
Richard Engler (@rtiger32) vs. Paddy Tye (@KazonPADD)
Brad Snyder (@ORION) vs. Maggie Geppert (@jadziadax8)
James Monsebroten (@Orbin) vs. Kris Sonsteby (@LORE)
Matthew P (@flyinhawaiian) vs. Joseph Wisniewski (@geraldkw)
Brad W (@Viper2525) vs. Jarrod Cafaro (@Takket)
Matthew McCalpin (@Professor Scott) vs. Edwin Latrell (@Latrell)

Because it's sealed deck, and y'all just got 262 cards each to sort through, the first round will last 2 weeks. Please have your Round 1 game finished by Sunday, December 17th. However, if everyone gets their games in early, I'll pair round 2 early.

Good luck, everyone, and have fun!

[Takket]

I got Assimilate Homeworld as one of my rares. Eleven of Eighteen is the only Borg personnel i pulled. Think he's enough to make a run at a Borg deck?

[pfti]

I got Assimilate Homeworld as one of my rares. Eleven of Eighteen is the only Borg personnel i pulled. Think he's enough to make a run at a Borg deck?

I got three home worlds and two headquarters, but none of them match

[Takket]

-Ignore all quadrant icons on missions, facilities, ships, and personnel; every game will have one 12-mission alpha quadrant spaceline and all personnel, facilities, and ships will be considered native to that quadrant

So I got a Primary Supply Depot. Can i seed this at a mission with the icon? Or is this card "unseedable"?

[Armus]

-Ignore all quadrant icons on missions, facilities, ships, and personnel; every game will have one 12-mission alpha quadrant spaceline and all personnel, facilities, and ships will be considered native to that quadrant

So I got a Primary Supply Depot. Can i seed this at a mission with the icon? Or is this card "unseedable"?

You can still seed it at a mission, that mission will just be on the Alpha Quadrant spaceline along with all the others.

Same thing with Ancestral Vision and missions. I'm not sure if anyone pulled one this time around but I remember it coming up the last time we ran one of these.

[ORION]

- The Modern (né OTF) Ban list and rules remain mostly in effect, but per the Sealed Deck rules, there's no limit on the number of copies of a given card that can be seeded under missions.

What does this mean? Duplicate copy seeded under same mission?

[Armus]

- The Modern (né OTF) Ban list and rules remain mostly in effect, but per the Sealed Deck rules, there's no limit on the number of copies of a given card that can be seeded under missions.

What does this mean? Duplicate copy seeded under same mission?

No you can still only have one copy of a dilemma per mission, but if you pulled 3 copies of a dilemma you can use all of them (under different missions of course).

[DataNoh]

You can still seed it at a mission, that mission will just be on the Alpha Quadrant spaceline along with all the others.

Same thing with Ancestral Vision and missions.

Same thing with Alliance Nor as well? Does it have to seed at a mission?

Will missions from different quadrants seed in groups on the spaceline, like they're a region? Or do they just get mixed together on the same line?

[Armus]

You can still seed it at a mission, that mission will just be on the Alpha Quadrant spaceline along with all the others.

Same thing with Ancestral Vision and missions.

Same thing with Alliance Nor as well? Does it have to seed at a mission?

Will missions from different quadrants seed in groups on the spaceline, like they're a region? Or do they just get mixed together on the same line?

Yes you can seed an Alliance Nor at a mission.

No, when it comes to seeding missions on the spaceline, the Quadrant icon is irrelevant. You can have a next to a , next to an Alpha, etc.

The Region rule DOES still apply though, so you could have something like Disrupt Alliance next to Alter Records because they're both Bajor Region, though with this card pool even that would be pretty rare.

[Viper2525]

A couple of additional questions:
- Do the "attemptability" icons for missions still apply? For example, if a mission is only , do I need a Ferengi affiliation person in the away team/crew?
- How does infiltration work in this format? Could we report an infiltrator to an opponent's facility regardless of the infiltration icon due to the compatibility rules for this tournament?
- How about affiliation attack restrictions? Do the standard rules apply (i.e. you have to take into consideration the requirements of the strictest affiliation in the mix)?
- For the Neutral Outpost, since it explicitly states on the card that it does not repair ships, I assume that still remains an exception to the "any player's outpost can repair any of their compatible docked ships", correct?