Patrick Krentz (PK of VA) Tournament Report - 2E Standard - Sector 001 Regional 2011-04-02 - 02:00 PM The Big Fish Introduction Sector 001 regionals are almost always among the first, this year being one of three to be held on the first Saturday of regionals season. This means the 'regionals meta' hasn't been established, and with EM being released earlier this year anything could happen. Add to the uncertainty the fact that many of the best players in the game often make the trip, this year including Ben Hosp, Neil Timmons and John Corbett, so I knew it would be difficult. That all came together to give me all sorts of trouble trying to decide on a deck to play. Having no less than 6 regionals-ready decks tricked out and ready to go, including a very tricky Dabo! that I wish I had played after all, I decided to stick with a deck I knew had a chance at standing up to the standard nonsense that Neil and Ben are known for. So I went TOS with Assess Contamination and Favor the Bold, a deck actually inspired by a deck played recently by Ben, though I had been working on AC+FtB combo for my cardassians before I saw Ben's TOS version. In the end I felt TOS might be better at handling TT/Battle while Cardies were better against attrition piles. It only figures that I never saw TT today. Round 1 silverej ML (-5) Eric is a world-class card player who is still somewhat new to 2E, though he has grown into the game quickly and is never to be underestimated. He played a cardassian solver with lots of interrupts and easy missions. Being the first game we were both fairly casual going about it, chatting about irrelevant things, taking way too long to play dilemmas and whatnot. Add to that the fact that Eric is a VERY methodical player and the thought of having to deal with Kirk and Assess Contamination meant dilemma plays could take 5 minutes for one attempt. Once the TD announced 20 minutes remaining I realized we were in trouble when I had just one mission complete and he had none - it was time to pick it up a bit! He tried to speed things up but in the end time was called, I went first so he got his turn, at this point I had two missions complete for 70 points and enough dilemmas under a third that it would have been auto-solved the next turn while he had only one 40-pointer. But on his last turn he was able to triple attempt a mission requiring only 28 strength, having just played B4 and NA-Data, and completed on his third attempt with three under after Damar said I got to draw 0. Game ends 70-75 i lose. Serves me right for chatting away and taking too long in the first 40 minutes... moving on to the next game I feel dumb for timing out with a TOS speed deck. Round 2 Scott Blauvelt FW (+100) Scott is another local, he has his days where he does very well (he won last year's regional I was told) but today wasn't one of those days. He was also playing TOS with Assess Contamination, though a bit different than mine. He took a little while longer to get moving, and I was able to stop him fairly effectively at AC. Meanwhile I got the space mission in one attempt on turn 3 and moved on to AC, which took maybe 3 turns, then the final planet which took i think 2 more. In the end my TOS out-sped his and we ended 100-0 after about 20 minutes. That's more like how I want my games to go, so moving to the next game I am slightly more optimistic, though having lost in the first round I am pretty sure my SoS is beyond repair. Round 3 Charles Barhite TT (0) Ugh... another TOS. No AC this time, just 3x 40-pointers. This game just never came together for me. Even though he played only 2 people in his first 2 turns and wasn't attempting until probably turn 5 with a 6-range ship I managed not to win this one. Charles is another very methodical player who can often spend 5 minutes on a dilemma draw or trying to decide which 6 people to attempt with when he went second and there are 4 minutes left on the clock. But long before that.. I spent probably 7 turns banging my head against my first space mission, just wishing for a Kirk. I took two trips to nowhere, picked up two Gomtuus, got Outclassed.. you name it. Meanwhile he finally got around to attempting and had an equally difficult time on his first mission, netting no more than one dilemma per attempt. I finally completed my space and quickly got through AC, then on what ended up being my last turn due to time I put enough under mission 3 to auto-complete on the next turn, figuring I would have another turn since there was a decent chunk of time left (at least 8-10 minutes). Charlie's turn, however, ate that time before I realized it. On his final turn he was able to finish his first mission, then he flew to try his 30-pointer to get a True Tie. I certainly don't think he was trying to force a time out intentionally, but sometimes when the stress builds up and the pressure is on, some people take an excessive amount of time trying to decide who is going to attempt a mission, and sometimes dilemmas that allow you to chose your own person to be stopped, in that high-pressure situation, might take over a minute to pick one person. Time was called while dilemmas were being played on that mission... he was able to complete and force a tie. Now I am back to feeling dumb for timing out with TOS.. at least it wasn't a loss this time around, but these ridiculously long turns are killing me. At this point I have no chance whatsoever of winning, but I would at least like to play one of the 5 non-local players before i go. Round 4 Dale Hanak FW (+100) Dale is another local, formerly a world-class 1E player and a formidable 2E player still, he was playing his oldschool Dominion solver. This deck used to win him tournaments but the game has advanced and Dominion is just not what it used to be. I was playing 2-3 personnel per person that he played, attempting several turns sooner, so the speed difference was the whole story of this game. After a few difficult attempts at his space mission, and one instance of a forgotten Kirk, the game ended pretty quick, 100-0. 2-1-1 so far, could be worse, but a very poor performance despite the two wins. At least there is still one more chance to improve the record.. Round 5 Phil Schrader FW (+55) Finally, someone I haven't already been playing for years! Phil is part of the Jersey group, traveled down with Ben and Neil and the rest, so I was happy to at least meet someone new. That is, of course, until I see he is also playing TOS with AC... at this point I am sick of playing TOS, and very very sick of playing against it. I believe the deck Phil was running was a duplicate of Ben Hosp's deck from a tournament they played last month. I don't take any of the credit away from Phil though, and my deck was very similar, plus Phil actually beat Ben two rounds earlier. This worried me slightly though, nearly mirror decks, his presumably built by one of the best players in the world, and he went first. However, he gets of to a slightly slower start than I do, moving to a mission one turn later. He opted to go space first while I went straight for AC. This proved to be a major difference as I was able to stop him many times with few dilemmas in space, while I got through AC and built up enough crew to hit the space mission a bit harder. He got rid of my Navaar early, which hurt a bit since I wasn't able to find another for the rest of the game, but I had Kirk while he never managed to get Kirk in play. Another major factor was Coordinated Counterattack, which I played very early, knowing that Navaar and Security Drills are a big deal in that deck. I also managed to pull a few dilemmas back via McCoy and prolong his torture in space. This game had lots of close calls, I failed two attempts having just 1 less cunning than necessary, and completed my final mission with exactly enough Integrity. It was a very tough battle, but I managed to finish a bit quicker, 100-35. I wish I had had the opportunity to take on some of the other out-of-towners but at least I played one.