Matthew Hayes (karonofborg13) Tournament Report - 2E - Andoria Regional 2013-04-06 - 01:00 PM Less than 1/3 of this draw deck is virtual. There's something to be said for traditions. Introduction Of the four decks I had ready for this event, chose to go with the one with the overall lowest cost in order to maximize my speed. Didn't quite work out the way I had hoped. But, had fun in three of my games, fought tooth and nail in another, and the other, well, not so much fun. Round 1 Justin Kaufman FW (+100) Justin ran his latest Starfleet build. A good deck, and a good player. I was able to hold him at bay from completing ESpN for a goodly amount of turns, crazy number in fact, while my Romulans completed three missions for the FW, 100-0. Round 2 Mike Harrington FL (-100)View opponent's ReportView original Report Mike ran the Maquis shenanigans. While my army of 2 costers **COULD** have provided some success, perhaps, after getting Shankar'd first turn, Cascade Virus'd on second (?), with Defiant coming in to play on third (I believe, contrary to Mike's statement of my concession on supposed second turn), I determined that my time was way more/much better well spent getting my head 'back into the game' after conceding, rather than sitting there twiddling my thumbs watching him play the npe solitaire edition. We discussed some possibilities of errata these annoying, imbalanced cards deservedly need. One thought, that for each effect of a 'negatizer' card like Stolen Warship, Cascade Virus, Shankar, etc etc the wording could (and possibly shoud be) reworded to work exactly like the errata to Flagship of the Federation Ent-E received, wherein the triggering player has to complete/perform the exact same function upon themselves, i.e. Defiant owner bouncing two cards from hand in order to bounce two cards from opponent's hand on top of respective decks. Another, would be the verbs (any events or interrupts), and this extrapolated to all such verbs (not just the Maquis ones) that perform similar functions to hurt an opponent (i.e. Biogenic, Cascade, SNW, Friction, etc), not necessarily those that increase a player's capabilities (i.e. Surprise Party, USS Ent-J, Unimatrix Zero, Vorta Experiment Tables, Under Siege, Warrior's Birthright, Brinkmanship, etc.) that when such cards get either prevented or destroyed, rather they are removed from game than placed in discard pile. Or any/all non-dilemma cards that have an affect that targets an opponent be limited to one use per game, which wouldn't detract from a player including three copies of any such card in their deck, to help getting it early, but, only being able to use shenanigans once per card title per game. I don't know what is the best answer, but, I do know that in my 10 years and 4 months of Second Edition experience, that something does need to be done, for the benefit of both establishing/welcoming new players into the fold and those of us experienced to continue playing AND growing this game ever onward/upward. game balance, game balance, game balance. ??? Matt conceded on his second turn, but graciously. He's frustrated at the disruptive power of Maquis, and I can't say I blame him. Round 3 Zach Magnuson FL (-30) Zach's always good to see when he's able to make it out these days. He ran a Dominion build similar to a couple versions of ones I've run. We had a very close game. When he took the full win, I had had five dilemmas under my third mission and could've completed it in another attempt next turn, with 6 personnel and his top dilemma turned out to be Hard Time. If I had been able to hold him off, but, alas, wasn't meant to be. These are the games I have no problem whatsoever losing. Good, clean fun all around. My FL, 70-100. Round 4 Ben Johnson FW (+60) Ben, Ben, Ben. My buddy. He ran a TOS deck different from his recent solid TMP focused one. I had his number. Held him off at Military Exercises for quite a long time. My Rommies completed three missions in fairly good order and time. My FW, 100-40 (due to his Beautiful Lady +5 pts.) Round 5 Amber Van Breemen FL (-30) Amber was one of two players running Relativity, as I had deduced that Barry was likely to be doing same, I had wanted to face him and see if my tech trick of A) me going first; B) getting a Rommie Intel peep into play first turn; and C) along with one of my copies of Sensing a Trap on same, thereby naming U.S.S. Relativity for an easy 10 pts. to be followed every turn thereafter naming Temporal Transporters for beaucoup points, making my primary strategy of an easier two mission kill than my normal, a reality, was also not meant to be. Nor did it happen here with Amber, but, oh well. No SaT all game kind of saw that plan fizzle. Amber's deck was a fairly good one, though, I will say, some of the tricks employed are a real nuisance. Chakotay BBTC for one, and the event wall (guess I'll have to incorporate Quinn, I believe), but, the thing that I slogged through for the latest time, that is Amber not being the first player to do it, just the latest, was the Hindrance crap. When design (and the mouthpieces of our august body) has/have said repeatedly that the dilemma draw/spend shenanigans are meant to give a player a chance to come from behind can be used by a player ahead of another to keep them down, it leaves a very bad taste in the gaming experience. Why, oh why do not these cards, all of the lot, Hindrance, Complications, Conflict, Predicament etc. etc. have text that says something to the effect of "When an opponent's personnel begin a mission attempt, if you have fewer points than that opponent, you may xxx to spend/draw an additional... Then, remove this card from the game." ??? Closing Thoughts With the exception of the two games that were npe's (even for a veteran like me, believe it or not), all in all, I had a fun day and it was mostly worth the trip. The second Tribbles table was a blast and that was probably my high point of the day. Congrats to Nat on his win and keeping the MN streak alive, that of no repeat victor thus far! Also, congrats to my own playgroup's Chris Volk on his Tribbles Regional Champion title/victory!