Niall Matthew (sexecutioner) Tournament Report - 1E Modern - Omarion Nebula Regional 2011-06-19 - 10:30 AM Khan'Pla! Introduction For my first tournament it was very enjoyable, despite coming in 7th. the decks I faced were very fast and well constructed, though sometimes I was a bit confused (stuart) Will def be back again, armed with the experience and high standard of the other decks. It was great to meet everyone and will see you all again soon. KHAAAAAN!!! Round 1 Danny Nuttall FL (-100)View opponent's ReportView original Report From turn one I knew I was in trouble. Dannys first turn seemed to takes ages and was quite complex, I felt a little inferior playing my 2 or 3 cards per turn to his sona/romulan frees and downloads, thankfully the Strong points to my deck were my dilemmas. Danny was slowed down considerably but eventually broke through them at the last minute for the win FL MANOWAR!!!!!!!! Niall's Khan deck just didn't get going in the early stages of the game, whereas I was quickly into my stride getting lots of free plays on the board and draws from R'Mal, going back and forth between centuries, and Guardian of Forever. Niall had seeded cards under his own missions (my suspicion was Starry Night/Genesis Device) and so I assembled my strongest Dilemma piles under those two missions (Dead End at his homworld with Horta, and the full 'computer skill' onslaught on his other planet mission). Sure enough, he attempted those missions early on - only to lose some signifcant crew members. It reached the point where I was happy to discard 3 cards to Niall's Handshake, rather than let him draw into some potentially useful cards. Well, not happy as such, but you know what I mean! After almost an hour of the game we were still tied at 0-0, although many Romulans had demised in order to gradually break through Niall's frustrating Dilemma combinations. Eventually my sneaky sods won their war of attrition, quickly racking up 140 points in just 8 minutes and 2 full turns. Full win; 140-0 Round 2 Marcus Smith FL (-90)View opponent's ReportView original Report Ah!! A Borg deck minus the Queen, how refreshing to see. Scout Vessels? Even better, no match for my souped up Reliant. Let me just fly to the Gamma and Delta Quadrant and pick me up some easy points.... It's a shame I took out my QSD at the last minute. The first of two non interacting decks Marcus was going for his gamma and delta missions to scout. Thankfully some well placed combos and SoG cards kept his Borg busy. Meanwhile in the alpha quadrant Khan and co ran in to some trouble through Dead End, Dal Rok and Horta. managed to nulify horta but DR and DE were still between Khan and Genesis. Marcus eventually got through my nasty combos and started to probe for his last AP. 3 bad probes in a row but eventually got the probe he needed for the win. FL If only I had some wormholes.... Niall's deck was an ambitious Khan/Revenge strategy, with Klingons and the High Council for free plays (to be infected with eels), and lots of Handshakes for draws. I'm not sure exactly how the deck was supposed to work, but my playing a scout swarm seemed to mess it up somehow. :/ He had seeded two Starry Nights at adjacent planet missions to ensure he got the Genesis Device as early as possible without being thwarted by Dead End (he also named 'Dead End' for a Genesis Effect played on one of them). Unfortunately, the skill base of his Khan-followers was poor: they lost 10 points to a Lack of Preparation, and had an regrettable tendency to die en-masse to Hortas, Dal'roks, and Neural Parasites before getting stuck behind walls they could not pass. Even Khan died at one point (it was okay though - Niall had a spare :). All of these setbacks to Niall getting the Artifacts gave me the time I needed to bag three Objectives and complete scouting for a fourth. By that stage though Niall had rallied, acquired the Genesis Device, and was poised to start scoring points from Revenge. I hit a run of bad probes for my final objective (despite re-probing with Two of Twelve) but a turn later I probed successfully and just squeaked in 100 points before Niall was able to unleash hell. It was close at the end! Round 3 William Hoskin FL (-70)View opponent's ReportView original Report The second of two non interacting decks. It was simply a case as to whose deck was faster and Vidiians are notorious for their speed. My MEDICAL Dilemma combos were suprisingly effective against Williams crews. esp a well placed Edo Probe - DNA Clues - Menthar Booby Trap - Tarrelian plauge ship + SoG (at least thats what I think it was) I got hit with Science and Medical based killers followed by a Science wall. unfortunatly all my science must've been at the bottom of my deck so William got the win FL Once again Niall, remeber wormholes next time... After the lunch break I played Niall who travelled down for around 6 hours on a bus to play trek, now thats dedication. Niall played Ceti eels and I thought I would struggle however he was in a different quadrent to me so I struggled on. I hit a dilemma that I was unable to get past (no queen/counter-part etc) so I had to go to a different dilemma and attemtp it was then that Niall flipped one of the Shades of Gray hidden event/incidents and I got hit hard losing my crew to a nice combo including Talerian plague ship which stopped 2 of my vidiians both with double medical (thanks to the harvester) and I walked into the last part of the combo with no medical left so lots of people died. Luckily one of my combos hit Niall where it hurt killing off the one science he had in play and hitting a big wall of 2 science and a medical. This wall stopped Niall for a number of turns as he couldn't get any more science in play and his other mision attempt hit a well placed Dead End. I scraped enough people to gether and got the full win. Round 4 Stuart Marsh MW (+10)View opponent's ReportView original Report This was the most interesting game of them all. I heard Stuart was the favourate to win. So I was wondering how quick the game would be. Stuarts complex turns were suprisingly giving me time to aquire Genesis; and for the first time in the tournament, I managed to score 30 points using revenge. however on that same turn, stuart Outgunned the reliant with a Raptor and D'deredix with Khan and Genesis on board. I tried to carry on, knowing that my klingons get discarded at the end of every turn. I thought of destroying the Reliant to get it back in my deck but I remembered I had Mona Lisa on it so I didn't attack, not wanting to risk -25 points. I eventually got Azetbur to get past executive auth and complete my second mission. At this point It was Stuarts turn to feel the wrath of SoG. Eventually time ran out and was releived that I got at least one win, barely. Last game was against my favourite deck, KHAN! Now it this game I made two epic mistakes. First of all Niall played a universal mission. I set myself up to steel it with a Lack of Preparation and Dead End under the mission. Niall attempted it in the first turn and hit the lack of preparation and lost 10 points. I Q’s tented for Dropping In and because I didn’t have Geology to steel the mission I played a Reflection Therapy (one of my favourite cards) and changed one of my mission specialists to....computer skill.... this is the point where I had lost my mind. I moved over to the mission, attempted it and informed Niall that I got past Lack of Preparation because I had the skills, hit dead end and nullified it with Dropping In went to complete the mission and realised my mistake!!! I didn’t have Geology and couldn’t do the mission. Next turn Niall moved over and completed the mission getting a Starry Night and using that to get a Mona Lisa and The Genesis Device. Now if you’ve been reading carefully you’ll realise our mistake – I didn’t have the mission skills so should not have passed the Lack of Preparation in the first place... but hindsight is always 20 x 20! Niell went back to his Reliant to start scoring points so I gathered three ships and each one fired at the Reliant causing it to be hit by 3 target shields. Niell then made the mistake of undocking and I played outgunned to capture the Reliant, Khan and the Genesis device – but the damage had been done. Niell was on 40 points and I was on 0. I started to mission attempt and moved through the first mission well clearing all dilemmas then realised I was missing a skill. I moved onto a space mission and used my large number of ships to attempt with one person on each ship. I cleared away 3 dilemmas leaving only one! I then made the fatal mistake of under estimating one dilemma and attempted with my entire crew only to hit Cosmic String Fragment DOUBLED by Shades of Gray: Anguish! It destroyed my ship and crew. We both now had no people. He was on 40 points I was on 0. We both rushed to play people. I managed to get people to my two mission which had been cleared and scored 60 points – but Niell managed to complete Defend Home world scoring 30 and the TIME was called. ML 70-60.