Kris Sonsteby (LORE) Tournament Report - 2E 2015-03-21 - 10:00 AM My Brains... Are Going Into My Feet! Introduction Six months of local league play boiled down to one final game between myself and The Razor, with the winner claiming top honors and the loser settling for second. As both competitors showcased their best off-season B-side designs, ultimately one small misstep tipped the scales in his favor in a classic back and forth match. Round 1 Justin Kaufman FW (+55) Crimson was schooling me on big Romulan, and connected with Prejudice and Politics early before eventually gifting me a handful of free draws. Getting tagged with attrition dilemmas made Central Command largely irrelevant, but Telle & Co. powered through Investigate Renegade in one attempt to win it. FW 100-40. Round 2 Jeremy Benedict FL (-35)View opponent's ReportView original Report The Razor was employing Battleship TNG, and had the skills for Telepathic Deception covered from the onset. Despite granting him a free pass at Advanced Battle Simulation, Central Command kept me in it until a ill-timed personnel blunder left Ezri Tigan on the sidelines instead of in the attempting crew. FL 100-65. Kris had me pegged on playing Cardassian as one of my other stable decks that hasn't come out this year. In an odder twist he was playing the Cardassian deck that I once borrowed from him that became the first draft of said stable deck. Apart from knowing I was going to have to counter Central Command, Kris showed me why everyone talks about Telle by getting extra positive advantage out of my first-mission Insurrection (I've rarely used him but it's mostly because the options available to use him on were bad choices at the time). I also called Kris playing Consume pile and made many small mission attempts to limit the damage at the planet missions and saved my key skills for the times I was sure I could get through. He wiped out most of the people that get Geo Survey done, but Wesley always gets the MVP for cheating in the skills to solve it. Killing blow came with a 50/50 shot at using Kirk to hit the Timescape I knew Kris was going to throw and getting it right so I could attempt multiple times at Survey New World if needed. Excellent game on both sides. Round 3 Barry Windschitl FW (+25)View opponent's ReportView original Report The Genius was co-chairing Riker / Sword, but lost B'amara to a Guillotine at our game's first inflection point and never fully recovered. As Telle gave him the run around on the ground and in the air, I eventually killed off enough Security at Deliver Ancient Artifact to steal a nail biter at the wire. FW 100-65. This was a slug-fest, with Central Commands and Dukat un-stops giving me problems. Kris gave me enough dilemmas with his consume pile, so it was only an issue of keeping my skills safe while the cannon fodder took it in the face. I got IAP, but couldn't get the Sword out (but at least ships weren't an issue). It all came down to him getting his last TCC at the right time to get his mission (not to mention the threat of Telle, who turned AIoT into a Swashbuckler at one point). The fact that Kris is the brains behind the type of deck I was running also worked against me. Closing Thoughts Old School Tain has always been a favorite build of mine, and is still a highly competitive option when the drawing mechanics fall into place. Unfortunately, I couldn't quite find a rhythm with it today, and my in-game decision making was far from sharp enough to cover up that deficiency.