Kris Sonsteby (LORE) Tournament Report - 2E - Deep Space 9 Regional 2013-04-20 - 11:00 AM Forget About the Curve Ball, Ricky... Give 'Em the Heater! Introduction With my timeless K.Ri.S. design garnering global attention lately and a quick turn around between the Minnesota and Illinois events, I audibled back to Motion Picture Medics for this CodCon showdown. Five rounds and another 4-1 record later, my silver or bronze Regional streak now stands at six straight and counting. Round 1 Jason Beyer FW (+50) JBL was employing Starfleet, but didn't draw into Samuels early and subsequently lost a trio of full cost All-Stars due to Aid Legendary Civilization. Despite my progress being slowed by Shran, Outclassed and Fesarius Bluff held him off in space long enough for my Exo-centric crews to extract a win. FW 100-50. Round 2 Amber Van Breemen FW (+65) The Glamazon was running Relativity, and kept my speed advantage in check via Well-Prepared Defenses and 8-cost dilemmas. However, failing to Kirk through a Greater Needs proved costly as I then quickly solved ALC, leaving her both de-staffed and unable to attempt missions for the remainder of the match. FW 100-35. Round 3 Michael Van Breemen FL (-65)View opponent's ReportView original Report The People's Champ was also utilizing ALC, and breezed through his space mission before I could even muster an attempt. Forced to gamble with dilemmas from that point forward, his well-crafted away teams deftly dodged both IoT and PutP en route to victory before Scotty could shrug off a Biogenic Weapon. FL 100-35. Kris was going with what looked like the same deck that he was running in Minnesota, a TOS deck, which meant stopping him from solving ALC as he had more higher-cost people than I would, all of which could be played for way cheaper than mine as well. Having an opening hand of four NA's, Biogenic Weapon and Cascade Viruses didn't help, especially when only one of the NA's was a Maquis. Since I figured that Kris already had an idea as to what my dilemma pile was going to try to do, I went for minimizing my dilemma usage. His first attempt at ALC got only four under, a low amount for this deck. After that, Biogenic Weapon came into play and, with both Matt Decker and TMP Scotty already in play, it was going to stay around for a while. Meanwhile, I went with just the Cosette (partially because it was the only ship I could get for quite some time.) The other reason was that I was able to solve Elude Federation Forces in one attempt. I managed to hold him off at Find Lifeless World for longer than expected and a combination of Clown Guillotine at Investigate Alien Probe and then Stalling for Time away two more people gave me some cushion as I worked on my last mission. However he had two things going for him still - Helen Noel took out two of my three Ace's and Will Decker brought Scotty back into hand. I'm not sure if Scotty could have gotten into play with playing the TMP Enterprise because he couldn't be downloaded (can't download what's in your hand) but thankfully that didn't come up as I double-teamed my way to victory. Round 4 Brian Leonard FW (+100)View opponent's ReportView original Report Straight Edge was schooling me on TNG, but with a hand full of 3 and 4 cost personnel was comparatively slow out of the gate. Blitzing through ALC in one shot set him back even further, and then a Driven fueled solve at Investigate Alien Probe put me over in what was a warp speed affair. FW 100-0. I had no chance after Kris quickly completed Aid Legendary Civilization. My dilemmas could not do anything against Kris. Round 5 Mike Burke FW (+40) The Butcher was captaining Voyager, but had no answer for Helen Noel and my minimalistic planet first approach. After a full shot of ALC left us both limping mid-game, a team of D-listers fell on the grenades at IAP prior to Willard Decker earning me a free pass and another second place finish. FW 100-60. Closing Thoughts Unfamiliar player groups are always tricky to decipher, and the Illinois contingent proved to be no exception. While my scouting report served me well in anticipating and then reacting to the field at large, failing to account for Maquis and straight speed rightfully kept me from taking home the day's top honors.