Jeremy Benedict (flrazor) Tournament Report - 2E - Andoria Regional 2013-06-29 - 11:00 AM Dominion Invasion Introduction I've been looking forward to this event for a while, especially a chance to draft all packed sets which creates a really unique pool of cards to draft from. Everything is an option aside from the three boutique sets, so it's hard to plan for anything aside from starter deck cards. The Rainbow Draft stipulation that all personnel play and mix regardless of affiliation opens some interesting options across personnel that normally don't interact. I was given a Dominion starter which I knew would have some good missions that would be easy for the personnel I had, but that unless I ended up with a different HQ I was going to have range trouble or be locked into what I was given. When I opened my Reflections pack, Deep Space 9 was the top card of the pack - my sealed deck good luck charm. I passed on some really great personnel and dilemmas for the chance to drastically open my mission selection options. It paid off big time as I got some really choice alpha quadrant missions, and was able to keep the best gamma missions in as well with no range penalties. Round 1 Justin Kaufman FW (+100) Justin and I both got moving fast, but he hit me on my first attempt with a Caretaker's Wave which moved my ship around every turn and limited my options for where to fly to. If not for the HQ range reduction I would have had a much harder time or would have spent a turn repairing the ship to get rid of the damage marker. On Justin's attempts at Explore Black Cluster, I was able to find a lack of Science and keep targeting it to stop him from solving the mission. On my second mission I used both Dukat and Weyoun to solve, and Dukat discarded a ship from the top of Justin's deck which would have given him a chance to move around personnel better. I was able to get multiple teams going on the planets which locked up the game soon after 100-0. Round 2 Chris Volk FW (+30) Chris was rolling with Romulus which gave him easy access to the Reman mines while he was building up his personnel. Kamala was out early and copying much needed mission skills. I was able to make plays with NesEx and Neural Parasites to thin out the short skills and also use In the Way, Joint Operation Drills, and Psych Test to go after the rest. In a race that came down to the wire, I was able to double-team Survey on the last turn for the win 100-70. Round 3 Mike Harrington FW (+100) Mike got in trouble early with both a lack of Command personnel and no ship that he could use until he drew into a runabout. By that time I was already out attempting and using both sets of requirements of Rescue Prisoners of War as needed to set up attempts as skills became available. Minuet got me through the first mission by gaining Programming to solve. Once Mike got going I was able to keep him from solving his first mission and he wasn't able to slow down a host of Jem'Hadar with Klingon support to clear Survey for the win 100-0. Round 4 Matthew Hayes MW (+30) Matthew also had DS9, though he got the starter and had access to big Akira ships and both several Bajorans and Federation powerhouses. Unfortunately Matt didn't draw a ship for 4-5 turns and I was out early. Matt took big shots with Preventative Repercussions and later Aftermath and both hit, taking out 6 personnel on separate attempts. After the first big kill he almost had me destaffed, but I stopped my remaining Command personnel with his dilemmas to make sure he wouldn't be killed randomly later. Matt had a lot more people out and knew I had NesEx and Neural Parasites and decided to go space first, then take 15-16 personnel to his second mission for multiple teams. I barely held him off at his second mission and then cleared my second mission (again with Weyoun and Dukat) just before time was called (I went 2nd in all four games). He stopped me from completing my final mission to prevent the full win, but I had 2 missions to his one at the buzzer and that's all I needed to seal the tournament win 65-35. Closing Thoughts Other than Race to the AQ events, this was only my second tournament win in the CC era, and both were sealed Regionals. The other players started teasing that I'm the "Rainbow Man/King", though the first Rainbow draft in our area was won by Kevin Jaeger the year before my Regional win. Thanks to Chris for putting together the biggest sealed event in recent history and for being an awesome host. For someone like me who doesn't skill-track very well to win based on tracking and going after skill shortages gives me hope that I'm doing something right.