Matthew Zinno (commdecker) Tournament Report - 1E - Online Event (Mission to Talos IV) 2013-03-04 - 12:00 AM More Talos, More Tribbles Introduction Time again for TWT-era constructed in the Talos cycle. This could be called the thematic heir to the "Golden Age" tournament last year, also Talos constructed, which was my first Talos win. I like this era of the cards. And the rules format was Revised, which gave me the chance to play something I haven't really done before: Visit Cochrane Memorial. Yeah, and Tribbles. Round 1 Chris Morse FW (+100) Chris and I set up on opposite ends of the spaceline. My OP and HQ were next to each other; his were 4 missions apart. I got Kirk and Riker out quickly, and a Revolving Door onto his Tent. A few turns later, I had tribbles on most of his planets and ships, and solved SHIS for 35, then Repair Mission for 40 (passing an Edo Probe encountered earlier). (I also passed several planet dilemmas at those; neither of us noticed at the time that they were mis-seeds.) I then planned to go after a third space mission, Dyson Sphere; Chris had no Referee defenses, making it safe for a 3-space win -- which I got with the help also of 3 "otfban" interrupts. First, Scan showed me a medical combo I could plan for. I played Senior Staff Meeting to discard Hippo, then the first team stopped at DNA Clues. A second team attempted and got hit by the last one, Aphasia. But they were the redshirts -- my first team then unstopped with DSTC, and solved FTW. Round 2 J MW (+100) J was playing Dominion, with Jem'Hadar immune to White Deprivation (it's not in the pool) -- and Homefront on Earth to slow down my reporting. My first play was a Full Planet Scan, before he literally had a chance to flip QTR. If it were face up when I played it, he could have suspended play to get Scanner Interference to nullify it, so it was important that I play it as my first action of the game. It revealed Edo Probe / Dead End, so I triggered that Edo quickly. Then for several turns I built up forces at Earth and gave him Tribbles, while he built some in Alpha and came through to Gamma. He surprised me by flying past Earth to build his RSD. I got worried about either attacking or opposing me at Earth, so I took an opportunity and got Leyton with DH, then attacked and damaged his ship with two of mine. He responded by beaming aboard the Starship Enterprise, killing Kirk, and Commandeering the ship. (Later turns saw its designated pilot usually get stopped by 1 Tribble, since only he could staff the ship.) He then tried to beam aboard the Galaxy, when I suddenly remembered to Kevin the IBI. (I really should have done that before he beamed to Kirk.) He tried his EDF mission, but hit LOP at Construct Depot with no Vorta, so -10. I attempted Dyson after Geordi peeked at it, which let Inge alone pass Cardie Trap (fizzle for lack of target), but she triggered DNA Clues which boosted Hippo. He Toffed the IBI back and replayed it next turn (instead of a QTR, he later told me), and I Kevined it again. Now since he had no QTR in play, I was safe to steal his mission -- I went after Reignite Dead Star, passing LOP, my Borg Ship (T/Vortex), and GravDist (Engineers), to solve with Leah, Bateson, and Dax. That put me at 40, and at the end of the turn I got an equipment probe and downloaded McCoy. Soon thereafter life intruded, and we were near time. We both could see that I would soon get to 100, with McCoy clearing the Hippo at Dyson and then the Edo/Dead End combo falling, so rather than play a few more minutes later, we just stipulated that that's what would happen, and reported it 100-(-10). The next morning we both realized that I had also downloaded Q's Planet along with McCoy, and hadn't solved it (because J put two seeds under it, which I had hoped against). So even with 100, we agreed it was after all a MW. Round 3 Andreas Limmer FW (+100) Scheduling difficulties led our TD Nava to concede. Closing Thoughts I was very happy with how the deck performed, and also very happy not only to win the tournament, and not only to win my 5th Talos tournament, but also to gild the achievement for "Return to Talos IV Master" (i.e. Win 5 Talos tournaments). I've been chasing that since I won my 4th one last summer... and I can rest now.