Scott Baughman (Neelix) Tournament Report - 2E - Cardassia Regional 2014-05-17 - 12:00 PM For the Empire Introduction Preparing for this year's 2E GA Regional was kind of on the back burner for me for several months as I was spending most of my card playing time related to preparing for the 1E GA Regional. Nathan and I built 6 new decks for that 1E event and had to get them all cut and sleeved and make sure they actually functioned. When it came time to decide what to play, I decided to fall back on a team I hadn't used in quite some time - the MU Starfleet crew from In A Mirror Darkly. It turned out pretty well... Round 1 Matthew Montgomery  TT (0)View opponent's ReportView original Report My first round opponent hadn't played 2E a lot in quite some time. His rust was apparent when he tried to spend 8 or 9 counters on several turns and I had to remind him that he didn't have that much to spend. I should have won this game but I made the crucial error of going ahead and attempting a mission on my third turn even though I had three cards left in my hand. Jonathan Archer, Defiant Commander and most of my other tricks only work when I have NO cards left in hand, so I saw the good captain and two other peeps die to a Tsiokolvsky Infection. Adding insult to that injury was the fact that between Archer's cunning boost and D'Vela's ability to smash events to award any skill of my choice to a personnel while facing a dilemma I could've passed the dilemma and solved the mission that turn - had I not been holding three cards! Maybe I'm the one who is rusty with this deck, eh? I make some good dilemma plays stopping him with combinations involving Secret Identity and a TI of my own, but I just can't get my crew back together AND have a reliable way to empty my hand before time runs out. I was able to finally solve the mission I attempted - Starbase 718 - and use it to bring back Capt. Archer and others, but as Matthew spent a lot of time reading his own cards and deliberating about dilemmas, when time is called we have the dreaded True Tie! This was my first game at my first regional tournament so I was pretty nervous. Especially because i had been told how great Scott was at this game. I was making newbie mistakes like spending too many (or trying to) counters or not spending enough. I did, however, get into my stride about halfway through. He played a deck with a lot of moving parts - so many I couldn't keep up. To be honest, he was so knowledgeable and such a nice guy, he could have told me he won and I wouldn't have known otherwise. In the end I think he got a bit carried away as he could have won if he didn't burn those five points. My take away from this game was to relax at tournaments and I need to read up on more than just TNG cards! Round 2 Nathan Miracle FW (+35) Nathan and I playtest against each other almost constantly and in this game I was able to use that fact to my advantage. Also, Nathan made some changes to his dilemma pile the night before the tournament and was not happy with the results of his new mixture. I was able to get A Sight For Sore Eyes on the table in this game and use it's 5 bonus points to bring in some people from my discard pile using The Edge of Forever. I didn't get to pull off the At What Cost? trick with SFSE, but I ended up not needing it. However, during my first mission attempt of the game, I used D'Vela with SFSE to gain a skill and mistakenly thought that destroying the Event during my turn meant I lost my 5 points. It doesn't mean that, as Nathan explaind to me after the game, so I forced myself to attempt Contact Mysterious Benefactor when I actually could have solved a different, easier mission for the full win. The clutch dilemma play for me in this game was drawing a crucial Timescape against Nathan when he clearly had another team of 4 guys or so waiting on his ship at a planet mission that were going to go attempt it if Team A had failed. I only added Timescape to my dilemma pile the night before expecting that a few people might show up with weenie decks such as Reman Strength or Bajoran Integrity. Well, the Reman Strength certainly was there with Nathan's deck - along with quite a few non-Remans who are very strong. These guys were vulnerable to some Racial Tension which also helped out in this dilemma pile. Round 3 Will Hawkins FW (+65) Hawk had brought a Gamma Quadrant focused Bajoran deck using a lot of the new cards from Return to Grace. During our game, though, I never saw an Orb artifact so I'm not sure had had any of those. He did show Leap of Faith and the new Kai Opaka, though. I had a fairly slow start against Hawk drawing a MU STF ship but not enough actual MU STF personnel to play and then get it on the table. The low cost of MU STF ships is tempered by the fact that you must command three (or sometimes four) MU STF personnel to play them. Hawk, meanwhile had kind of a slow start himself, searching for a ship early. He finally got one and headed off to the GQ for a planet mission after stopping by DS9 to pick up Worf. He only attempted with 5 and in my opening 5 dilemma draw, I got Necessary Execution. YOU NEVER GO PLANET FIRST! I gleefully killed Worf and General Krim meaning he not only failed the mission (Worf's bonus for personnel who cost 4 or more was helping him get the necessary Integrity) but he was also de-staffed, out in the GQ with no other ships in play. He spent several turns drawing for a ship while I finally got a crew on the table that included Capt. Archer on the Starship Defiant, which gave me a reliable way to get cards out of my hand. I also threw down a Watch Dog and stacked a Lustful Distraction and Brutal Experiments on Porthos. I'd forgotten just how much fun this deck is to play! I later got Trip online to protect my events and did the SFSE plus Edge of Forever trick again to get Lorien into play. Hey, any tournament where I can play a card named after a Babylon 5 character is a great tournament! At one point I used How Would You Like a Trip to Romulus? to download the I.S.S. Enterprise and Hawk tried to respond with Hidden Resource to download a ship - I reminded him that HWYLATR downloads the ship, it doesn't let me play the ship. He grimaced and on his next turn went back to drawing cards searching for a ship. He finally found one and with the help of Benjamin Sisko, shipwright was able to get a rescue crew out to the GQ. He solved that mission, but I was running at full steam by this point and was able to solve my final mission for the win quite easily thanks to Archer's bonus and T'Pol's bonus as I had no cards in hand. Round 4 Kevin Reitzel FW (+30) Earlier in this tournament, Nathan had a real tough game against Kevin - prompting me to tell him "Hey, you can't sleep on Kevin Reitzel!" and I had to make sure I followed my own advice. But in this match I got the WORST start of the day. I drew three MU STF ships and ZERO MU STF personnel. I had two personnel, but they were non-aligned and one regular STF personnel - no MU icon on that guy. And the guy in question was Benjamin Sisko, Outlaw. I did play him on my first turn but a few turns later, Kevin grabbed him with a Holding Cell! "I need to do this before I screw it up later on and put my own Sisko in the cell," Kevin explained with a grin. Ouch! Not only did I lose Sisko and his cool Cunning boost for my mostly treacherous MU STF guys, but now, I have like no hope of getting a Standard Punishment or Brutal Experiments off with the cell vaping my interrupts! It was a tough match, but Kevin also, thankfully, decided to take it slow using DS9's cool play engine of Bustling with Activity to download various Federation personnel. He made sure to include Admiral Watly and Admiral Ross in his early goings and so I knew that my Dignitaries and Witnesses dilemmas would be useless when he got out and started attempting missions. He eventually did, using the U.S.S. Centaur and was going about his missions well before my guys ever had enough skills to pay the bills. I was able to use SFSE and Edge of Forever again in this game to get some cool people out of the discard pile, but it was not enough to catch up after Kevin shot out to an early lead. Naturally, when he had all those Admirals hanging around, my dilemma pile decided to feed me Digs and Wits on his first mission attempt. I stopped him with a welcome Personal Duty instead of throwing Digs and Wits at his space mission attempt. I was not able to get my 10 bonus points from Earth in this match because Kevin solved a space mission before I ever even attempted one. But later in the game, I was able to use SFSE points to fuel an At What Cost? and finally got a good team on the table, a fine starship with the I.S.S. Avenger and two copies of Admiral Logan Black! I hit the Starbase 718 mission like a cruise missile and thanks to D'Vela destroying that SFSE I got the key skill I needed to pass Kevin's Tsiokovsky infection. Solving the mission meant I got back a copy of A.G. Robinson that I had pitched earlier with Logan Black to download the I.S.S. Avenger. I had several ships in play by this point and so shuttled people around to go for another mission attempt at Investigate Refinery. Kevin stopped me with some good dilemmas. On his turn, though, I was able to use Moral Choice to stop him cold with his feds. Time was winding down and I made another go at Investigate Refinery only to be stopped in my tracks by a cunning dilemma play from Kevin. He threw a combo of Equipment Malfunction and then another dilemma that required certain skills. Having the equipment card (an Engineering Kit) go back to my hand meant all of my bonuses and special powers turned off because my hand was no longer empty! TECH! I could've gotten past the next dilemma, too, if only I'd been able to use D'Vela to destroy my final copy of The Edge of Forever in play to gain a skill. I pass the turn and as Kevin looks at his hand, time is called. He went first, though, so I'll at last get one more turn. He gets together a good crew and goes to attempt his final mission. I draw into Hard Time and Moral Choice and throw both to remove four people from his 8 man attempt. I get one more turn to try and get the full win. I play some cards - including replaying that Engineering Kit - and draw some cards, drawing into two copies of Standard Punishment, as my final two cards in hand. I decide to leave them there hoping to bluff Kevin into thinking I won't have my tricks online. I'm able to solve Investigate Refinery when Kevin draws dead against the planet mission attempt and then head back to Earth to switch ships to the Starship Defiant and pick up some personnel and my Engineering Kit. I go attempt Contact Mysterious Benefactor. Kevin sends a Formal Hearing my way. I play my two Standard Punishments which are promptly eaten by his Holding Cell causing it to decay and send Sisko to my discard pile. But more importantly, I have no cards in hand now and I am able to use D'Vela to destroy The Edge of Forever to get the last programming I need to pass that dilemma! I check my skills and thanks to that Engineering kit I've got the 2 Physics I need to win the game on my final turn! Great game, Kevin! Closing Thoughts Having the True Tie meant that I didn't get another epic showdown with Greg Hodgin for the regional win, but I did get to say I finished the day with no 2E losses!