[MidnightLich]

Hello, and welcome to the month of September! I hope that all of you are ready for the joys of autumn, Halloween candy, and pumpkin-flavored everything - I know I am. There is some cool stuff coming in the back third of 2023, and I can't wait to start sharing it with you. But first, we are just 3 weeks away from this year's World Championship in the United Kingdom.

The Department of First Edition generally believes the game is in a pretty healthy state right now. There are some things that still need work, but overall there are a good number of decks that feel like they can do well during high level play. I wanted to hear what all of you think will do well this year, but I thought it might be fun to look at what did well over the last several years.

2022 World Champion: KCA w/Maquis Splash
Jared Hoffman (Mugato) returned to the world of competitive 1E with a robust deck based around the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance with a side of Maquis help. Since his win last year, the only errata to affect the deck is clarification of how Q's Tent works, meaning this same deck would work the same way in this year's event.

Tournament Results | Runner-Up: | 3rd & 4th:

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2021 World Champion: Staging Ground Homeworld Defense
James Heaney (BCSWowbagger) relied on skilled gameplay and the element of surprise to win the prize with his deck designed to download virtually all of his ships and personnel into play at once. Since his win, the entire Q-Flash mechanic has been revamped and the icon removed from Defend Homeworld. But though the trick is harder now, there is still a solid Staging Ground deck to be had in his list.

Tournament Results | Runner-Up: | 3rd: | 4th:

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2020 Trek Masters: KCA w/Maquis Splash
In 2020, we unfortunately had to cancel our World Championship due to so much uncertainty about COVID-19. However, in one of the largest online events of the year, the Online Trek Masters event "Masters of the Universe III," Michael Van Breemen (The Ninja Scot) won with his version of the / build. I believe that 2022's winning deck was based on this version.

Tournament Results | Runner-Up: | 3rd: / | 4th:

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Note: Both the 2018 and 2019 World Championships below were running with the Bracket Final format, where the Top X people squared off in a bracket elimination.

2019 World Champion: Starfleet / Vulcan
Winner: Peter Ludwig (martok88)
Tournament Results | Runner-Up: | 3rd: | 4th:

2018 World Champion: Cardassian / Dominion
Winner: Michael Van Breemen (The Ninja Scot)
Tournament Results | Runner-Up: UNKNOWN | 3rd: | 4th:

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And thus, today's Friday Question: what deck (or deck type) will win the 2023 World Championship? Will Nemesis or Ships of the Line have noticeable impacts? How will the removal of The Final Frontier in Modern affect the standings?

Sound off and share your thoughts! Maybe you'll inspire some tweaks to the decks of those planning on attending this year's big dance. And no matter what, I hope the 9th month of the year brings you all some joy.

-crp

[Armus]

I wouldn't be shocked to see some flavor of deck win. They never stopped being good, they just got overrun by being bananas good.

and / are always competitive, the latter being an equalizer for a newer/ returning player against a more experienced field (see Hoffman last year and Nathan Flaming at Continentals this year).

And don't sleep on ... it's not like they stopped having awesome cards, they just have to play at Sherman's Peak.

[stressedoutatumc]

Alpha is going to be strong, even with the changes to The Ultimate User. A touch slower, yes, but still strong. My money is on this or a variation of the well-known MVB's Maquack. If there's another in the mix, I would say Rommy Drones.

I'd love to see but only because it's one of my personally favorite decks and I think it's wildy underrated.

From Ships of the Line, I would say the dilemma is going to get alot of play, and could be a surprise shake up of the dilemma meta.

Should be a fun weekend either way.

EDIT: Wouldn't be surprised if Brunt's Shuttle made one last big splash. Even without the exploit it's wildly powerful and fast. Ive been running it with Empok and Tower of Commerce for Study Divergent History and it's just as good as any other variation.

[BCSWowbagger]

My bet is spam salad. Boring but effective.

What I want is for spam salad to reach the finals and then lose, in a shocking upset, to Decimate Homeworld.

[Takket]

The only thing Distant Control lost to at Kaiserfest was another Distant Control. So I'm going to go with that..............

[BCSWowbagger]

The only thing Distant Control lost to at Kaiserfest was another Distant Control. So I'm going to go with that..............

Depends on if the meta expects it. (Since Worlds is also Euro this year, I suspect the meta will expect it.) There are a lot of ways to absolutely screw Drones over if you're prepared for them. Many of them are very simple, very popular dilemmas. Others are easily adaptable from other well-known counter-strategies.

But, yeah, the first time a meta sees Distant Control, it often doesn't have a clue what to do with it. Distant Control plays at right angles to what everyone is used to, and has to be treated very differently. Which does, I admit, give me some joy.

[Dukat]

Here is my take.

The affiliation/sub-group does not matter. The deck concept matters.

What do I mean by concept?

Let's say I want to play a deck with a MEDICAL-drain dilemma pile. In that case, I simply chose the affiliation/sub-group that fits that concept.

There are a lot of deck concepts.


Given however that I only chose a fast deck, then there are big differences of course.
However, going to Worlds and choosing a regular solver deck seems ... unbefitting.

Building a deck for Worlds deserves something ... special.

[LORE]

I think KCA / Maquis has a solid chance, since they have their own quadrant, can hide behind Strategma, and have access to loads of hand weapons. That deck is an absolute nightmare matchup for most interaction decks, like Aggro Borg, Kazon battle, Dominion slaughter, etc.

I think it could be toned down some, but apart from gutting it by taking away the cross-quadrant reporting of Maquis to MQ planet, idk how to do so.

[Takket]

The only thing Distant Control lost to at Kaiserfest was another Distant Control. So I'm going to go with that..............

No one even played . Great call, me!

[boromirofborg]

The only thing Distant Control lost to at Kaiserfest was another Distant Control. So I'm going to go with that..............

No one even played . Great call, me!

True, but it's a classic example (to me) of why the meta at small events like this should always be taken as a data point, but not assumed to be positive of the whole.

Events like this are always going to have people trying to outlive the competition. Drones are good, people will play drones, so I'll play something good against them....

And then people play speed solvers and crush thru the things that would have tripped drones.