Michael Van Breemen (The Ninja Scot) Tournament Report - 2E - Trek Masters Side Event 2023-02-24 - 06:00 PM Introduction So, this tournament was probably the most unexpected of the events for the weekend. We each got a draw deck based on Lucas Thompson's Beginner decks blind and would find out what we get afterwards. Then, we drafted dilemmas: Put your hand in the box, grab three dilemmas and put one back. We did this until we got 22 dilemmas and each subsequent round, we would do that one more time. You had to create the pile with all dilemmas that you had pulled. The box only contained up to three of any one dilemma so you couldn't go over the game limit. I got the Starfleet one and apparently it was very strong. Round 1 blinkgotti FW (+100) William was rocking the Cardassian starter and its Central Commands while I was rocking with the Accumulated Knowledges. My deck seemed to start out slower as he gone out to attempting a turn or two before I seemed to get going. My dilemma pulls worked out here (Center of Attention, In Development, etc.) so that I had gotten six dilemmas underneath this first mission and two Central Commands were used before he got a mission solve. Meanwhile, I had gotten space done first before I had dropped the two power cards - Jonathan Archer and the first of the Accumulated Knowledges. Between the two, I managed to one-turn solve each of my planets without any other cheats for the win. Round 2 Keith Gibson FW (+100) Keith was playing TOS and I think that the main issue for him in this game was that he wasn't drawing all that well. There was also the issue of inexperience with the affiliation as I don't recall him ever using the TOS Earth draw in the game. As a result, despite him having less expensive people, we were attempting at roughly the same time. Because of Archer's "random isn't really random for me", I was able to get through much faster and, once the Accumulated Knowledges started flowing, it wasn't long before the game was done. Round 3 Scott Baughman FW (+70) His mission selection (Provoke, Rescue Prisoners, Brute Force) was much more efficient for him but his draw deck wasn't helping him in this game as he spent almost two missions worth of attempts with only one Leadership. He originally had Kahmis and Azetbur but Azetbur experienced The Phase and went to the bottom of his deck. Two mission stops thanks to Show Trial getting his only Leadership at Provoke stalled him long enough to get space solved first. By the time he got through the space mission, I had started with my Accumulated Knowledges to eventually make it through my planets before he made it through Rescue Prisoners. Closing Thoughts Accumulated Knowledge in this format (along with cards like Central Command and, to a lesser extent, Bridge Officer's Test) are very powerful, especially if you don't get counter cards. That being said, I think that the dilemma pile making made completely random from what you pull made this a lot more fun because no one knew what anyone had drawn. Not knowing any notion as to what it could be coming made this format a hoot.