Charlie Plaine (MidnightLich) Tournament Report - 2E - Risa Regional 2014-04-12 - 03:00 PM I Found Scotty Introduction I had a very busy week ahead of the Regional, and didn't have time to build the new Bajoran deck I wanted to play (turned out to be fortunate). I was originally going to play my Dominion Infiltrator deck, but I didn't want to slog through playing it. I settled on net decking a speed solver, and chose Michael Van Breemen's TOS deck w/Tragic Turn. Tragic doesn't see a lot of play out here, and I thought I could catch people off guard with it. Round 1 Dan Hamman FL (-100) Dan was playing a Genetically Enhanced deck out of DS9, with a little bit of support in the deck from the Niners. His deck was fast, and once he got Arik Soong and Udar out, he very easily avoided my TT Kill pile. (It didn't help that I made many mistakes.) I was never able to get off the ground, and it was over before it started. Round 2 Thomas V ML (-30) TV had Bajoran weenies doing Integrity missions. I was able to destaff him at his first mission with my dilemma pile, but he stood me up for quite awhile at Deliver Ancient Artifact. I just wasn't fast enough with the deck to keep up with the fact my dilemma pile was giving missions away in two turns. I did manage to slow TV down enough to hold him to a MW. Round 3 Rogue Shindler ML (-25)View opponent's ReportView original Report Rogue was playing Bajorans, with a MASSIVE deck using a lot of the new cards in Return to grace. He showed both 50 point missions, so I figured this was going to be a race - and it was. My dilemma pile utterly failed to produce an ACE, and he was able to stop me a very long time. I managed to be ahead at time, thanks to some bonus points, but he solved a planet to give him P/S for the win. Well played! Charlie was running an interesting mix of general and TMP TOS crew, using Dyson Sphere and Enterprise-B bonus points for the two mission win. He was easily the opponent most familiar with the capabilities of the RtG cards I was running, but wasn't around back when TV ran the original version of this deck, so wasn't as prepared for Odo and Dukat. He did have very entertaining reactions though as Starfleet and Romulan cards flowed into my discard pile. Charlie started at Vulcan with 9 where I promptly drew 7 space or useless dilemmas, and basically had to wager a whole mission on The Oracle's Punishment. Charlie thankfully did not use stupid broken Kirk, but downloader kirk, which was actually quite cool. It made me laugh to think I could have killed other kirk with TOP, but instead had to strain my brain to find two people to stop to prevent him from two different sets of requirements he could solve with. I almost gave up once, but a final check of a more mundane skill (science, I think?) ended up saving it and I held him off. That was easily the most dramatic attempt of the game, as I was sweating giving up 40pts super early. Instead, I was able to hold him off a few more while I built up my shenanigans and headed out to attempt. I failed my first attempt against an army of consume dilemmas, but despite his best efforts, no ACE came up. Next round we both solved, but his bonus points put him ahead 55-50. He started working on another mission, but got held off, and at some point time was called. He had gone first and I was behind by 5, so I just needed anything to win, but all my remaining missions were unattempted. Instead of the usual Pegasus Search, I went for Arena; easiest mission in my spaceline and two sets of requirements to possibly score. He rolled a Tragic Turn, which I let consume, then Toxed to start over, and was able to solve past his next set of dilemmas for the MW, 80-55. Round 4 JD_Ashley FW (+5) JD also had Bajorans, but his was a two-mission win focused on going to other quadrants and using Distant Exploration. I was glad I had the Grav-Plating Traps in my deck (and Sisko), as I was able to cancel both of his Accessions. I was able to take advantage of a major misplay on JD's behalf when he wasn't able to score his bonus points from Parada II, and stole the win from him 100-95. Good game JD! Round 5 Johnny Holeva FW (+30) Johnny brought his Klingon deck, and it is super strong and lightning fast. He attempted early in space with 6, and I was able to catch him by surprise with my kill pile - leaving him without enough people to attempt by my TCS, and costing him a turn to build back up. Johnny then threw one dilemma, Rogue Borg Ambush, at my planet, and I was able to Driven past the dilemma and solve on the first try. But Johnny was able to fight back, hitting me with a WNYHGB and playing two ETU to get around most of my kills. Finally, I had dilemmas under Dyson Sphere and he had two missions, and he made a decision to go to solve TCS for the win. He played expertly around my kills, but was left with just 15 skills. He was guaranteed to win next turn, but I used a Field Studies to bury my mission and solved it for the win. I just want to say that, win or lose, Johnny is one of the nicest guys and best opponents in all of Trek. Closing Thoughts I love playing Trek in San Diego. Every single person I played today was classy, fun, entertaining, and a good friend. It's a privileged to live and play here.