Brian Sykes (Armus) Tournament Report - 2E - Trek Masters 2022-11-14 - 12:00 AM 2022_Masters_KCA_3.txt Introduction Since I missed Worlds I wanted to play the KCA deck I was looking to take to Day 1. KCA has a lot of ways you can go with it, and I bounced around between full rainbow and 50-point 2 Mission win with Reprimand before settling on a tight speed solver with a Leader/Security Mission Set. Kahmis is an all-star in this deck, and the All Our Yesterdays past Klingons all provide value - Komal presents an actual meaninfgul choice as all of my missions are in play, Woteln can get me captives to feed to Racial Disdain, and Gonik is amazing in any deck. Add in Garak for skill gain, Worf for Bridge Officer's Test, Standard Punishment for attribute gain, and the aforementioned Racial Disdain for stop prevention (powered by 0413-Theta for Counter acceleration), and this deck can move fast and has a lot of answers. Round 1 Benjamin Liebich FL (-30) Ben was playing Cardassian Unstoppables. I was able to get out of the gate first, but once he got rolling I literally couldn't stop him. I slowed him down a little bit by destroying Expedient Opportunity, as he only had one ship in play, and that allowed me to finish 2 missions and have a shot at the third, but random selections not going my way plus Mila guarding against a Standard Punishment kept me from closing it out before Ben won on his next turn. FL 70-100. Cardassians are good. Round 2 Adam Bargar FW (+70) Adam was playing Ferengi. This was a straightforward game. Racial Disdain helped me power through missions, and Garak's skill gain got me around a Rogue Borg Ambush. Adam did Rule 33 his way past my V'Ger, but I killed Lore at his planet mission, denying him the Engineer he needed to solve and won on my next turn. FW 100-30. Round 3 Joseph Wisniewski FW (+100) Another straightforward game. Joseph was playing Johannes Mette's Euro-winning AU TNG Solver. We both miss some stuff in this game, but I'm able to solve my space mission in one go when he is only able to stop 2 with Reflections. After solving, I fly home to reset for planet attempts. On my next turn I kill a Theta and get Racial Disdain out. I attempt at Brute Force where Bregath gets stopped early, but I resist the temptation to Racial Disdain him. This decision pays off as I'm able to Racial Disdain Worf against Discommendation to give me exactly 39 Strength and the skills to solve. I have 3 stopped people on the planet, but the 6 unstopped people and the two people on the ship all go attempt Rescue Prisoners. Joseph throws Dereliction of Duty, which is totally winning against all of my cheater nonsense, Issue of Trust stops 3, and then Vault of Tomorrow into Hard of Heart. Kira and Kahmis get selected, and have strength of exactly 13, which isn't enough. Fortunately I have a Standard Punishment in hand which kicks Kahmis up by 1, giving me a total of 14. With Kahmis safe, he and the other 4 randos left over solve for the win. FW 100-0. Round 4 Kris Sonsteby FW (+65) This was a game where I made several clutch plays along the way. Kris was playing his famous K.Ri.S. (Klingon Riker Sword) deck that he's done very well with for years. Both of our decks are speedy and I get the roll to go first, which helps. Surprise Party in the opening had is nice, as is a turn 1 Theta. I get Worf out early and Kris flips 3 personnel into his discard pile so I play Woteln and he chooses to give me a captive - Azetbur - rather than let him be cheap. That would turn out to be a much bigger decision than either of us realized at the time. I proceed to get 7 people and a ship out and go attempt space, where Kris plays a Nothing to Lose, which Gonik promptly swats away and I get a quick solve. Since nobody got stopped and I have a Kahmis in play, I move over to Rescue Prisoners and roll in with the same 7 clowns. This one doesn't go as well, as I get hit with Well-Prepared Defenses, which stops Gonik, then Unfair Terms, which kills Worf, Kahmis, and Bregath. Ouch!! That also de-staffs me... Double Ouch!! At this point Kris has assembled a fairly formidable crew and goes out to attempt Secure Strategic Base. I stop him, but it costs me 3 dilemmas, so it's not looking good for next turn. On my turn I kill Theta for 2 extra counters, play a second ship, a second Worf, and draw into Kortar. On Kris's turn he attempts SSB with 5, giving me 2, and I luck into an Infinite Diversity, and successfully call Astrometrics for the stop, which I definitely needed. On my turn I play Kortar, Kahmis from discard, Bregath from Discard, and Telok, getting me a second command star and a couple of needed draws. I fly my new crew over to Rescue Prisoners, where they join up with the 3 stragglers that were already there. I leave Worf as the wheel man since I had to discard my Bridge Officer's Test to the Infinite Diversity and I can't afford to get de-staffed again. My attempt fails when Chula: The Game, Chula: The Chandra, and The Weak Will Perish all do their thing, and to add insult to injury, Kris hit V'Mor on the TWWP, who was the only one who *didn't* have enough strength to overcome the dilemma. On Kris's turn he plays a second ship, Endangered, and Duras the Elder. finishes off Organia, and moves to Brute Force. I draw into a Dreamer and the Dream and he has a 6 card hand, so I go all-in to stop him with Unfair Terms + Vault of Tomorrow -> Becalmed + Dreamer + Excalbian Drama, which altogether hits and makes him pitch his hand, including the Sword, Gorkon, and a couple of other nice cards. On my turn, I draw a bunch of cards and find a Standard Punishment, among other things. I had a Sense of Obligation in my hand so I pop the Endangered and attempt with 4 at Rescue Prisoners. Kris can't play his one dilemma so I solve with the help of a standard punishment. I then move over to Brute Force and attempt with 8. He plays Chula: The Game, Chula: Pick One to Save Two, and Chula: The Chandra, stopping everybody, but thankfully no casualties. On his turn Kris draws a fresh 7 card hand looking for his second Sword, but doesn't get it. He re-attempts Brute Force with 6, and I draw the nuts: Timescape + Abrasive Allies, which lets me stop Duras the Elder, preventing any attribute gain shenanigans and leaving him about 4 strength short of solving the mission. On my turn I draw into Racial Disdain (FINALLY) and play it and an ETU. I go get the ETU and attempt with an all-Klingon crew. Kris plays Chula: The Game, which I prevent the stop by removing Azetbur from the game with Racial Disdain. Next is Chula the Chandra, where I prevent one of the TWO Game stops, keeping Kahmis in the crew, then Kahmis and Gonik get selected for the Chandra and I prevent the Kahmis stop, leaving me with 6 crew going into his last dilemma: Polywater Intoxication, which since I still have 6 crew is overcosted (I attempted with 8 with 2 under so he only had 6 to spend and Chandra cost 4.), and since I have 6 angry Klingons, including 2x Kahmis, I'm able to solve for the win. The Azetbur Captive won me the game because without it, I wouldn't have been able to prevent enough stops to get 6 through and overcost the Polywater. FW 100-35. Round 5 Michael Van Breemen FL (-70) MVB was running a very well built 2 mission TOS Solver. I did what I could, but he did a great job of keeping Garak off the board which opened me up to his skill walls. I put up as much of a fight as I could, but I had to play all 3 Standard Punishments just to clear an Excalbian Drama and solve Rescue Prisoners, and it seemed like I lost 2-3 critical cards, including Bridge Officer's Test, to Pest Control. Add it all up and I was just outmatched. FL 30-100. Closing Thoughts I'm glad I got to play my KCA solver in a high level tournament after missing Worlds. It definitely ran as good as advertised, though I think there's still room for additional improvement. This is quickly becoming my favorite HQ to play, as there's several different decks that can operate off of this platform. And given how many "core" cards for this deck are retired in Hall of Fame, I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of KCA nonsense I can make work in that format as well!