Michael Van Breemen (The Ninja Scot) Tournament Report - 2E - Online Event 2014-03-03 - 12:00 AM Counters and more Counters Introduction I thought that I would try a bouncing dilemma pile to be different instead of the typical standby of killing everyone. Problem was coming across people who could prevent stops like it was nothing... Round 1 Brian Sykes FW (+100)View opponent's ReportView original Report Mirror Starfleet got stopped a lot, despite Adopted Authority doing little against them by itself. Meanwhile, I cheated past dilemmas that would've otherwise made me sad (i.e. getting blown up) for the win. Michael was playing 2 mission win and using Martus Mazur to play Alien Gambling Device for cheap, then Treasured Collectibles to cycle it and get seven more counters. He got that tech going and started spitting out people, whereas I found my AWCs but no ASFSE to fuel them. Translation: I was behind in the counter war. Michael autosolves his planet on the first attempt and at this point I realize just how bad my deck is: Usually with Tillman I play Counterinsurgency Program/Infinite Diversity to get stops on planets, but in this case I dont have cards in hand to fuel them, so I left them out. This leaves me VERY weak on the planet side. Michael actually goes planet first and I hit him with a few dilemmas, but he cheats around one of them with Rule 33. He solves planet easily and goes to space. I actually draw a solid Tillman Combo and everything is going according to plan... until Michael busts out a second Rule 33 to make up for his lack of Navigation against Quantum Filament. With the Filament Failing, I dont get the extra stops and Michael passes Gomtuu and solves for the win. OBTW, Lustful Distraction was two cards down... boo... Round 2 Oliver Thust FW (+95) Same as the first game minus the ship getting blown up. Kurdon, Ent-J, Zek and Pel got my four people past Gomtuu, so trippy. Round 3 Nickolay Korotya FL (-95) Revised Chakotay and Kirk eventually got through my dilemmas whereas his dilemma pile killed enough of my staffing to strand the Kurdon and not enough remaining Programming to get the Ent-D over there to rescue them. Would've been fine if he hadn't gotten two ACE's on Bold Plan (only 1 died to Overburdened and 1 to Guillotine.) Round 4 Anastasia Kalashnikova FL (-55) Revised Chakotay was doing the heavy lifting in this game as Chakotay didn't hit the table until his last turn. If he hadn't blown up my last Treasured Collectibles, I would've won this one as a result. Instead, not so much... Closing Thoughts If you know what you're going to play against, a bouncy pile can work. But there's just too many ways to unstop people. It's no wonder why killing works better.