Edwin Latrell (Latrell) Tournament Report - 1E - Trek Masters 2016-08-05 - 10:00 AM Ferengi Phasmid v0.o Introduction This was my first trip to GenCon and only my second masters. I wanted to play well and to try to do better then my last masters, but any movement up would have been an improvement... Round 1 Michael Moskop FW (+60) Round One: Michael Moskop I was happy to see Michael at the event. He and I had just recently played in one of Jordan Smith’s OTF online events and so we already knew that we would be seeing each other at the event. The Seed Phase went about as well as I could have dreamed for my missions and I had seen his Starfleet/Protect the Timeline spaceline mission-set before, so felt confident that I could keep temo with him as long as I didn’t make any mistakes. During the game I managed to capitalize on Kivas Fajo – Collector (KFC) and was able to play more of the cards I was drawing from the KFCs after his Mirror Image (MI) hit. Process Ore: Mining (PO:M) was on point early, so it was drawing cards and fueling points. Ferengi Ambush (FA) and Ferengi Military Operations (FMO) via Captured went off perfectly. The game was mine to loose if I missed plays or made bad decision. Fortunately, I was more or less on point for the game. However, I did make two mistakes against Michael: 1) I did not flip Valuable Prisoners when my FA team killed a Starfleet personnel. Had I done so, the game would have been over sooner as I would have been getting points from Labor Camp for three extra turns… 2) Second mistake happened before the last of Michael’s turns. We both counted my score at 96 before passing the turn; however, during his turn I was calculating what I needed to win by way of bonus points on the turn following his when I realized that we had failed to count the 5pts off FMO for the capture of one of his personnel in the FA battle. When I realized it, I explained that we had counted wrong and that I was over 100 points. I also think that when I revealed that error, I communicated it poorly because it caused noticeable, and understandable confusion for my opponent. For my part, I am very sorry for the error. Round 2 Dan Hamman FL (-100) Round Two: Dan Hamman I had not had the pleasure to play Dan before this event, and getting that opportunity to play him and to meet him in person was excellent. We are both family guys so we chatted it up a little before rounds about the GenCon and juggling being Dads. Dan was Running the THE deck I know mine is mismatched against. BORG. However, I did not realize that I was playing into that mismatch with KFC and his queen. One of the things I had not anticipated was KFC conversions via the Queen and how that is just straight nuts. (As I am writing this it occurs to me I could have mitigated this in the deck design had I been aware of it by running Obelisk of Masaka in the Ref side of the tent.) Seed phase went well, but I did not pick up on his intent to steal my Host Metaphasic Shield Test (HMST). He seeded the predictable Dead End (DE), which I elected to attempt and hit in order to (IOT) draw it out’ not realizing how bad a mistake was. Dan was able to super-convert-download basically everything he needed to move to the mission and force my UNIV D’Kora to my hand via Space-Time Portal (STP) after Change of Plans-ing Eliminate Starship. The next turn he had established a gateway on the HMST and I realized that I would never see a ship for more than a turn at best so that was that. His deck hit everything it needed and I helped. I won’t make that mistake again, but I will also try to play test more against the bad matchup in order to discover mitigation methods prior to an event… Good lesson. Round 3 Lee Sneathen FW (+45) Round Three: Lee Sneathen I had the pleasure of playing a returning player who was effectively running one of MVB’s OTF constructed decks. He was playing TOS Empire so the spaceline quickly went to what I would call my favor as I was placing the missions I wanted next to each other. His two alpha missions were on the other side of the Bajoran Wormhole just beyond my Paxan Wormhole so I felt like I could keep those missions locked in a crunch. This game was much like the first, where I saw everything I needed IOT get KFC and the PO:M draw online. During the game I was able to get points through PO:M, FMO, a discard to Combo Plague Ship and mission solving Reported Activity and that let me attempt HMST successfully. But the next turn I got stuffed by an Executive Authorization on Salvage Borg Ship. I was at 94 points into his turn after time without the Labor Camp online due to quadrant restrictions on the Valuable Prisoner relocation. However, I have FMO+5 via FA resolving in a textbook manner so I needed to figure out how to get to 100 points in the last after time round. I PO:M for the point to 95 and then attempted Steal Technology and in the dilemma phase, I cleared the last Dilemma, V’Ger to go to 100 before solving the mission. Very close game indeed. Round 4 Ryan Sutton FW (+30) Round Four: Ryan Sutton I have known Ryan for a while and we have talked deck tech via the ChatRoom and the Forums on the CC’s Website for several years now. However, this was not only my first time playing him, like Dan it was the first time I got to meet him; so a double pleasure. (Full Disclosure: The fact that I got paired against him this far in the tournament made me feel apprehensive. I know he is a great player and I make mistakes all the time, so I would have been happy to just make it as challenging as I could for him.) The seed was all over the place, but balanced out with each of us occupying the opposite ends of the spaceline with our outposts/stations. To the my deck’s credit, Michael, Ryan, and Dan were all a little confused by the mission selection they were facing when seeding dilemmas, but the expression on Ryan’s face when I downloaded FMO made my day! Early on I hit my KFCs, but had to wait a couple of turns to see a DaiMon IOT get Taking Charge (TC) and PO:M online. Once I did, I had Lurin who quickly set up my Forced Labor Camp (FLC) on top of my PO:M and not a turn too soon. I hit his Female’s Love Interest/Radioactive Garbage Scow attempting HMST which moved my girly Soong-Type over to his Insurrection, but that let me knock off Sojef, who I flipped Valuable Prisoner (VP) on and snagged Labor Camp (LC) on my FLC IOT score points at the start of each turn. This was a huge advantage because after solving Reported Activity and HMST, I wastrying to race Ryan to 100. He was waiting for Friendly Fire to tick off and had a plan to develop the spaceline on this turn to win on his next. I new I had to cover the spread before the Friendly Fire ticked off his Assist Damaged Vessel. While he was working out how to clear the missions on the following turn, I was looking for a means to get the extra points I needed. Almost at the end of his turn, I realized I had it. I STP my UNIV D’Kora with my Scientific Diplomacy people on it to hand. At the start of my turn, Labor Camp got me another five, I pitched T’Pau to PO:M to score a point. this set up Scientific Diplomay's bonus points on HMST was Solved. Looking back I realize I stupidly skipped my play phase (I make mistakes all the time...) because I got excited/ carried away realizing I have the ability to cover the spread useing SciDip to move T’Pau to the point area IOT win. I feel its safe to say that Ryan never saw it coming. And that was phenomenal for me. Like I said, just challenging Ryan to play better made my day, but to beat him was just as unexpected for me as my bonus points were to him. Solid game. Round 5 Andrew Bowling FW (+59) Round Five: Andrew Bowling Team bowling are more of those wonderful players that I was fortunate enough to finally meet on this trip. The seed was pretty much what one expects when a two region deck gets both the regions side by side on the spaceline: Solitare. That said, my HMST and planet misisons where close, but my Steal Tech was all the way on the far side and my Paxan was on the opposite end, all my planets away from HMST. I new early I would need HMST to win, and that would prove awful later. Andrew had a Greater-Glory/Terok Nor deck that was using Overseer Odo to DL Process Ore to the Ore Processing Unit as a draw engine. He also sought out Morn to help in his card draws. My turn one, I failed to have any real draw or a DaiMon. This was bad I needed to draw into something fast… Or slow him down. I moved my UNIV D’Kora to the station (I pack sites for this reason in every deck) and docked to walk Rata and Data over to Overseer Odo and pick a fight with Lower Decks out via RRD. Winning messed up his primary draw and he knew that Morn might be next. On his turn he gave Morn a Disrupter Rifle via the GPL DL from Morn, but it wasn’t enough. I was able to free play my TNG Quark to the bar, report a Soong-Type Android to Telak on the Ferengi Trading Post and card play a UNIV D’Kora with Attention All Hands and get my SciDip FreePlay (Jo’Bril) onto the D’Kora, and then moved to the station and then moved Data Rata and STA #1 to the bar and flipped Captured on Morn. All of the station hoopla caught Andrew off guard and so he began to play what I assessed to be more conservatively. So at this point I had to figure out how to make the Two Card hand (Ablative Armor, Kazago) work for me. I played Kazago, managed to top-deck KFC and played that to draw into a DaiMon. Playing these I moved back to the FTP at HMST and used TC to get Establish Trade Route on my space mission. (I do this as protection against attribute reduction.) Ending my turn saw Andrew contemplating how to ramp up without using his station for worry about being mauled by droids. At the star of my next turn, I played another KFC (even though these started to feed his MI) I drew at then end of my previous turn to see oodles of goodness finally arrive in my hand. I was able to get PO:M online and waited for him to have a run in with my FA IOT kill someone and move them with Valuable Prisoner. I did not have to wait long, but I had solved Reported Activity (where I placed PO:M and subsequently FLC) for 35+1. I hit a Lack of Prep on HMST so 26, and needing to find another mission. My next attempt was on Save Stranded Crew. I had no Transporter Skill, but felt doing something was a good Idea. By the time I cleared it I had drawn into 2 Transporter Skill, and had someone on FLC with LC via VP (unfortunately I forget who I snagged with VP, but I had Morn there as well so it was good to go). After solving Save Stranded Crew I was at 69 (the afore mentioned 26+30+5 (from FMO)+a turn with Labor Camp for 5 and +3 turns off PO:M). I ran into a mine with THTF (-20!) under HMST! Then Dean End with 49! I knew I was able to get passed it next turn. So I have 40 points coming my way with an additional 6 after +1 from Po:M and another +5 from Labor Camp. I again needed a way to cover a small spread and began to look for Science in the discard. Having just played almost his exact scenario out against Ryan I saw that STP was still an option. End of his turn I STP my UNIV D’Kora with my Scientific Diplomacy people on it to hand. At the start of my turn, Labor Camp got me another five, 54, then I pitched T’Pau to PO:M to core a point, 55. I solved HMST and with Dr. Christopher as the Mission Specialist, though I was prepared to move a SCIENCE personnel if I needed too. The unexpected nature of the bonus points in this deck is the strength of the deck. Everyone sees that bonus points are a part of the deck, but how the ramp up and timing the use of them can make a deck that takes -30 in point losses still preform well. Closing Thoughts This Deck performed as well as i wanted it to, and I was able to do a fair job of piloting it, despite mistakes and setbacks. I am truly very happy to have participated and happy for the opportunity to meet everyone that I had not yet met. Thank you to Michael for running the event and to all of those that made it out for the event itself.