Michael Van Breemen (The Ninja Scot) Tournament Report - 2E Standard 2011-03-12 - 05:00 PM Necessary Riker Introduction After a long week of work with overtime so that I can take the days off for GenCon and still get paid for it, I head out from work to get some necessary time away from computer monitors and fixing stuff. The deck was just a typical Klingon Riker deck albeit with some glaring skill holes that were only more pronounced as I got to playing with it (not to mention seeing the decklist after I was done.) But it was nice to just play, relax and have fun which is what Star Trek CCG is all about. Round 1 Everett O'Shogay Jr. FW (0) Ev was playing a Klingon Riker deck (adding the DS9 Earth to the deck was for the achievement in our system which is to play a different HQ each tournament.) I completely blank on his first space mission attempt that he has Riker out when he walked past Gomtuu on his first attempt but luck was on my side as he had no Programming to solve Investigate Alien Probe. Meanwhile, on my first attempt at IAP, he gets a filter in front before snatching Riker with Impressive Trophies. Since he was the only Anthropology that I had in play at the time, I decided to go to Rescue Prisoners which I was able to complete, bringing Riker back to me. After that, the deck started to work and, after solving IAP, Brute Force knelt before the Riker for the win. 105-60. Round 2 Amber Van Breemen FW (0) Amber and I were playing almost identical decks which I didn't know until lunchtime while at work. She also sleeved the deck for me so I know that there wasn't going to be a lot of secrets coming out of my deck today. What was different was my dilemma pile which, at planets, were about using Harsh Conditions with dilemmas that had 1 or 2 skills so that they either bounce that dilemma or get all stopped. Between this and Secret Identity, I thought that this might be the best way to deal with Klingon Riker and most any kind of skill cheating that I could think of off the top of my head. We were equal in terms of the number of people that we had when we went out to our first mission, she got none under while I had two. However, as she was going for planet first, she got hit by the above combo with Harsh Conditions and Captain's Holiday along with Dreamer and the Dream in front, taking out a good number of cards. Between that, Secret Identity snatching Riker twice and getting Gomtuu to hit her twice in space gave me the time needed to make it through my missions for the win. 105-30. Round 3 Ben Paulsen FW (0)View opponent's ReportView original Report Ben was playing a heavy-event Romulan deck that used Getting Under Your Skin along with Prejudice and Politics to get bonus points. These points could've been used by Far Seeing Eyes, At What Cost or Power Shift. While I couldn't draw a Bananarama (B'amara for sticklers) to even attempt Investigate Alien Probe, I also found that there's no Archaeology in the deck. This made it easy for Ben to pick off my team for a 1-stop with Counterinsurgency Program (which he did 3 times). Meanwhile, he attempts Investigate Sighting and gets hit with Gomtuu on his Romulan Scout Vessel. He attempts again, gets hit with a second Gomtuu (along with losing his hand with Dreamer.) If I hadn't drawn my third one at the same time as the second, his ship would've became space junk. I managed to get through Rescue Prisoners on my second attempt after getting two Bananarama's that turn, then burning both Stricken Dumbs to get around Picking Up the Pieces so that I had enough people left after T'Vis died to Trabe Grenade. My attempt in space gets the combo Personal Duty, stopping half of my team, only to get Tsikovsky. In a bizarre form of luck, my four remaining people are the Banarama twins, Riker and J'dan, preventing their death. Eventually, Ben solves Investigate Sighting while his ship is stuck in the land of space. He lost an Astrometric Lab to my Dreamer which stalled him for a couple of turns as he just had Scout Vessels in the deck. After a megateam attempt of 12 and 9, netting the last two Counterinsurgency programs, I attempted with a Riker team of 8, drawing up the rest of my deck so that he couldn't get any more bonus points off of my deck (he had made it to Khitomer Research, losing his hand again but was already at 25 bonus points.) First dilemma is Pinned Down which I use Riker to gain two Security from the only Security present (T'Vis). The random selection gets T'Vis which meant that I was missing one more Security now. Next dilemma is Guess Who's Coming to Dinner so I use The Promise to get the skills from a discarded T'vis to J'dan, giving him the security that I could steal for Riker to gain the 3rd Security, then allowing J'dan to be stopped. Last is Whispers in the Dark which I gain the second Officer from the just discarded Riker with the second Promise, getting by the mission with 6 thanks to the Sword of Kahless for the win, leaving the triple team Kahmis group on the ship doing nothing. Great opening hand with peeps and events. Played 4 people opening turn and had GUYS and P&P out in turn 2 with Praetor on Romulus. Delayed draw into a ship. Took out 2 of MVB's intelligence with FSE, he played the other one couple turns later. SI'd Riker at his space mission and he lost Anthro which delayed him a turn. He stalled me greatly with 2 Gomtuu's meaning I couldn't fly anywhere and basically hung out for 2-3 turns. Slow getting a second ship with staffing out, late draw into Astrometrics Lab. Stalled MVB 3 times with Counterinsurgency naming Archaeology each time. MVB got timely interrupts to win in the end, with his 2nd Riker gaining skills left and right. I got stopped on my 2nd mission attempt but had plenty of bonus points and Power Shift which may have carried me through 2 missions following turn depending on attempt and dilemma draw. MVB won 100-55.