Nathan W (Naetor) Tournament Report - 2E Standard - North American Continentals Day One 2011-07-16 - 10:00 AM Borg Versus McEnroe Introduction I decided to play a Big Borg assimilation on Day 1. It is a power deck which had a great chance of getting me into the top 4 for Day 2 where I was planning on playing my Romulan solver. The version I used is similar in form to Euro Borg solver I usually play. My original goal with assimilation was to do the bare minimum to get K&E working, but otherwise be a solid solver -- forcing my opponent to be aggressive or be unable to catch me. I probably made the mistake of teaming it with an Unfair Comparison pile, which forced me to drop my third easy mission (Plot Invasion) for Transport Crash Survivors. That resulted in forcing me to make the deck more assimilation heavy and dependent as solving 3 missions isn't easy, and using One With The Borg for 2 mission win. In the end the deck wasn't what I really thought it would/could be, but the results worked out alright. Borg are just very good and pretty forgiving with deck-building and playing mistakes. Round 1 Earned Bye EB (+100) I got a bye. I met some new people -- reacquainted with others. Round 2 stephen lee FW (+65) Stephen won the 1E title the day before and was playing a DS9 Gamma Quadrant Captain's Log deck in this event. The usual Borg turns of Fourth, Quintessence, Energize, Fifth, Annexation Drone, At What Cost? ensued and I was out very early attempting missions. I completed Restore Errant Moon before Stephen got out with Captain's Log working. He got 1-2 turns with it -- and one solve before 2 of 9 said 'no more'. A Will of the Collective-Harvest Drone-Unrelenting combo netted me 3 of his personnel, and I solved Assimilate Resistance with some Unyielding help. A One With the Borg + 5 free points from Annexation Drone netted me the full win 100-40. Round 3 Eric R MW (+40) Eric and I revealed the same 5 missions -- and given his deck size it was pretty clear he was playing something very similar to me. I ended up "winning" the go first roll, which meant I lost the early Quintessence battle. However, I would not be deterred, and by the 3rd turn I was back in control with Quintessence and Energize on the table and nothing for him. A lot of both our turns was spent downloading, destroying, and retrieving so the game took a lot longer than it otherwise would have. Thanks to the event advantage, I was just in a lot better shape than Eric and completed Restore Errant Moon in 2 attempts. As time was running down he went out to Assimilate Resistance only to be met by Gomtuu. Time got called sometime around here with me winning 40-0. Round 4 Thomas Kamiura MW (+35) Thomas was playing Starfleet Delphic Expanse speed solver. I was rightfully nervous as I wasn't certain how my dilemma pile was prepared for it. I nearly had him right away in the game when his Sarevo got Gomtuu'd at his space mission. I wanted to Cutting Beam away his range and beat up his ship, but having not played my ship the previous turn (dumb), I couldn't pay for it all. Nevertheless I got a pretty good early setup, but made some more bad decisions. During an attempt I forgot to swap out Fourth with the Queen, then the Queen got ate with a dilemma. This was bad as I had a couple times I had the chance to really put a hurt on his crew, but couldn't get the events I needed. Meanwhile, we solved his mission and I got two of mine -- but had all my One With the Borg in my discard pile. Later in the game I had the chance to end his run, but forgot to put my 2-3 Harvest Drones down during an Unrelenting ambush (he ended up canceling my Reborn and 1st Unrelenting). During that time, time got called with me ahead so I went to complete TCS for the full win but I could only get up to 16 different skils. I ended up winning modified 80-40, I think. That was lucky because the next turn he would have been able to finish his second mission, and would have a chance to win (we played it out) had he got through an Agonizing Encounter (getting only his NAs thanks to Archer) and Whisper. He said he could have done it. Round 5 Neil Timmons MW (+20) Game two where we both revealed all the same missions. I "lost" the roll which meant my Fourth hit the table first turn with two Quintessences after he couldn't muster anything on his opening hand. From there I had event control the entire game. Unfortunately, this also meant I was milling my own deck very quickly. I went down to Restore Errant Moon, attempted with 6 scrubs and ate a Tragic combo that killed off a few people. This gave Neil a little opening as he came over and Reborn'd one. With 5 stacked, but with Neil's Endangereds staring me in the face, I figured I'd save the mission for later (after 2 of 9 would destroy those events). I went to Assimilate Resistance and stacked another 6 at that mission. Neil ended up flying over with The Will of the Collective, and assimilated one of my Cartography Drones. The next turn I flew home and began using 3 of 9 to recycle interrupts and personnel I would need. He had the Queen's Cube out, so I put my personnel on the planet. That ended up being dumb as he came over and used Unrelenting on my other Cartography Drone -- making Restore Errant Moon a very difficult mission for me to complete. Neil managed to finally go out and attempt a mission as time was called, but my dilemmas were no use and he solved his own Restore Errant Moon to end at 50 points to my 5. By going second I had one last chance. Assimilate Resistance was setup as an auto-complete with 9 dilemmas underneath now. That, plus 5 I could get from One With The Borg would only net me 45 points. Meanwhile, I couldn't complete Restore Errant Moon without my Cartography Drone. I did, however, have an Appraisal Drone, 2 of 2, and 2 of 9 -- just enough skills to complete Historical Research; and 2 Adapts and 2 K&Es in hand. I flew over and auto-completed Assimilate Resistance with 6 Drones and the Queen. I ended up taking one of his drones. I then flew over and attempted Historical Research with 8. Neil played 3 dilemmas. The first was the dilemma that makes you stop a Phyics or Science or kill someone. I happily interlinked Archaelogy, then stopped the Appraisal Drone. I then proceeded to K&E the last two dilemmas which left me with mission skills and 34 Integrity to complete Historical Research and win 70-50. Talk about pulling a win out of nowhere! Round 6 Johnny Holeva FW (+75) Johnny was playing a Klingon solver with a lot of event destruction. Despite this, I got out relatively fast thanks to the god opening hand of Fourth, Quintessence, Energize and going second. So first turn I dropped those plus Annexation Drone, At What Cost?, and Surprise Party. While Johnny was catching up on event destruction thanks to Korath, I got hit by Secret Identity and exchanged the Queen for Locutus. The next dilemma was Pitching In -- giving me 10 points -- but that and a 3rd dilemma stopped me from solving. Johnny went out and attempted, and a bad play be me let him complete Protect (or kill) The Escapees. When I went to re-attempt Assimilate Resistance, Johnny revealed Repressed Message which went back to my dilemma pile and plopped out An Issue of Trust. Johnny made the mistake of letting me face that, giving me 10 more points with Locutus and not doing much else to stop me. I ended up solving, grabbed Kang from his discard pile, then flew over to Restore Errant Moon. In either that turn or another, I solved leaving me at 95 points. On Johnny's turn he got him with Back To Basics, then went home trying to draw up my last One With the Borg or Annexation Drone. I ended up getting One With... but had to wait a turn to play it. On Johnny's next turn I buried dilemmas, stopping him, and played One With the Borg the following turn to get the full win 100-30.