Rogue Shindler (SirRogue) Tournament Report - 2E Standard 2011-03-30 - 06:00 PM Allegiance Introduction The last several times I've played Athos, it has either been with my surprise Damage marker deck (which wasn't much of a surprise after a while) or a completely non-Maquis deck, like Revised Voyager and the holograms. With the release of Allegiance, I thought it was time to give classic Maquis another go. Lots of card-bouncing tricks to keep my opponent's hand empty and try to score points or draw cards with Allegiance. Of course, this is only helpful if you can get Allegiance out early, and I underestimated how much time it takes to get six Fed Maq in to play... Round 1 Bye BY (0) It was touch and go, there for a while. The score doesn't really reflect how close this game was, but in the end, I was able to edge out a Full Win from my old nemesis, Bye. Round 2 Matt Kirk ML (-15)View opponent's ReportView original Report A very close game against Matt in which he definitely earned his victory. He was playing Bajoran Resistance, but splashed with other tricks to keep it going. I got the Defiant out early, but had to wait for staffing, so didn't start begin annoying until a few turns in. He built up a crew and headed to Honor the Fallen, a pretty easy 40 pointer for Bajorans. I had a BioWeapons in my hand, and usually like to wait an attempt or two before playing it, but my dilemma draw was such that I had to put four dilemmas under to stop him. Not wanting to risk being able to stop him again, I went ahead and dropped BW on it, and Matt went digging for In the Pah-Wraith's Wake, but unfortunately discovered that it only works on core events. This forced him to his other space mission, Transport Crash Survivor. Meanwhile, I got my Javert out, but still no matching commander so I could try my other schtick of solving Practice Orbital Maneuvers with the Javert text, so I headed over to Elude Fed Forces to get the show on the road. Matt dropped four dilemmas, three of which were meant to bounce, but the first was Personnel Duty, which by some fluke, I failed. No Leadership or Officer, so all are stopped, but three dilemmas meant to bounce got overcome. Bully for me. While Matt was still picking away at TCS, I solved with 4 Maq to get the bonus points, but wasted a turn forgetting to play For The Cause, so I couldn't attempt any more missions. I finally head to planet, and Matt comes over to combat me for points while I keep attempting, now with only one Leadership. Pick Pick Pick and I only draw one dilemma I can play to stop one person, and Matt solves TCS with exactly 16 skills on 7 people. He played a Ent-J, but before he can put it to use, I used another card I haven't tried before, Strafing Run, to blow it up AND make him remove any other copies from his hand or deck. Youch. From there, we both pounded at our respective missions. On the last turn of time, I solved and was out of range, then Matt solved, but was short on bonus points, and knew he couldn't solve Historical Research, so didn't bother with a final mass attempt. ML 75-90. Rogue playing Maquis is like watching Ian MacKellen play a villain; you think to yourself, "…he can't be evil, he's Gandalf!" But then you realize he's a really good actor and the most brilliant villain you could imagine. But you still hate him for killing your perception of him as a good guy. Anyway, I was a little confused when I saw Athos IV and Practice Orbital Maneuvers with no way to report 3 Cadets. It rang a bell in the back of my mind, but I couldn't place it where I had seen that combo before. I had a decent start, but of course, after the first stop on Honor the Fallen, the dreaded Biogenic Weapon came down. I didn't panic, knowing I Bareil and a Souls of the Dead in my hand. I calmly went and fetched In the Pah-Wraith's Wake and tried to kill it. Well, turns out you can only Wake core events. Suck. So that meant I was gonna have to do TCS. Again. With the recent experience in TK's game, I was a little more confident of my ability to plow through it. Meanwhile, Rogue tried Elude Federation Forces, and my Personal Duty stopped him cold. Since when does a Maquis player not have *any* Leadership or Officer?? They all went under, and I knew I was going to have to make quick work of it to have any kind of chance. Bringing one extra body on my last attempt @ TCS was critical; Kurn gave me Law as a 17th skill, and I had to stop one, leaving 16 and enough Cunning to complete. I started working on Off-World Raid, as Rogue began pinging on his DMZ planets with the Javert and For the Cause. Then I realized he was planning to use the Javert to try Practice Orbital Maneuvers, and I remembered having the same idea after Raise the Stakes came out, but never capitalizing on it. The challenge in this game was the lack of usable counters to play or draw cards. I had to keep spending counters to keep my interrupts in my hand, and Rogue religiously emptied my hand every turn. I finally got into a Just Like Old Times, and tagged him for 15 after I finished Off-World Raid. Unfortunately, time was called and I had to settle for a 90-75 win. Round 3 Thomas V FL (-60) Thomas was playing a fast Cardassian weenies deck that was too fast for me. Again, I drew Riker and a Trip to Rom right off, so went ahead and DLed the Defiant. Should have held it for Cal/Javert, but oh well. I also started off with Shankar and Allegiance, but had to wait for more Feds before I could try to get it going. TV was super fast and got out and attempting quick, putting four under in two attempts. I dropped a Strange New Worlds to slow him down with Integrity, but then drew crap all for dilemmas to stop anyone, and even seven crappy Cardies have integrity >32, and he had all the skills on one guy (Kovat). Back fire! He headed to planet, and I finally got my Coolant Leak, but still needed help, since you can solve Eliminate Harvesters with 4-5. I put off attempting one more turn to play extra Feds because I REALLY wanted to try Allegiance, and in the meantime, TV solved and headed to mission 3. A lucky skill stop gave me an extra turn, which I needed after my first attempt put me out to WNOHGB. A few more good plays held him off long enough for me to get my ship back for one more mass attempt with 12. Surpisingly only half my people were stopped by Issue of Trust and another filter, and my 6 people left managed to just squeeze by another WNOHGB and solve for 40 points before TV won the game outright. FL, 40-100.