Kris Sonsteby (LORE) Tournament Report - 2E - Andoria Regional 2013-04-06 - 01:00 PM Take Over Monty... I'm in the Bag Introduction Having effectively played in Regionals all winter via the online league, I elected to retool my V-format winning Motion Picture Medics design for MinnMania 2000 plus 13. Special thanks to sparring partners The Original Champion, Syxx, and The Gunslinger, and congrats to The Beast from the East on his latest big win. Round 1 Ian Parmenter FW (+60) Primetime was kicking it with Klingons, and muscled through Brute Force before I could really get rolling. Trying to gain some momentum mid-game, I took a gamble attempt at Investigate Alien Probe that paid off and from there I pounded my way through planets while he was stuck rebuilding. FW 100-40. Round 2 Barry Windschitl FW (+100)View opponent's ReportView original Report The Genius was testing out Relativity, but was tripped up early by an Insurrection at Navigate Xindi Corridor and pinned down late due to Aid Legendary Civilization. Even without Dukat to limit his discard pile recursion, 9 counter turns and a Chula: The Dice drive by proved too much to overcome. FW 100-0. Given that Kris is The Old Pro, I wasn't expecting too much success out of this one. If I recall right, I didn't get my ship until a turn or two in, so was off to a slow start. Kris was playing the TMP guys on the cheap (meaning that my 6-cost dilemmas were likely to whiff), and soon got out to ALC. I was soon able to get going and began working away at NXC, but was busted back a few steps when he ALC'd away three of my guys. The deck just wasn't chugging along on all thrusters (ditto with the dilemma pile), and he was able to get a full win out of me. Given that he /builds/ plays for speed and efficiency, I wasn't on hard-core tilt from this one. Round 3 Nat Kirton ML (-25) The Beast from the East was schooling me on attribute denial, and powered through 2 easy space missions despite pitching 9 cards to a Shared Hallucination. With time winding down and 5 dilemmas under ALC, a third shot of Zero Hour tipped the modified win scales in his favor in this meat grinder matchup. ML 60-35. Round 4 Keith Morris FW (+60) The Foreman was working his old Voyager design, but fell behind early by piling up verbs instead of nouns. Vault of Tomorrow slowed my pace a little, though with Gary Mitchell and Dukat both on steroids much of the game he eventually ran out of ammo once Scotty nuked a copy of Hindrance. FW 100-40. Round 5 Kyle Schewe FW (+100)View opponent's ReportView original Report The Stampede Kid was looking to shoot up my ships, but never had the resources following a Kirk and Driven fueled 1-attempt solve at ALC. With his cage sufficiently rattled, smacking his Vor'cha with Gomtuu and then Outclassed added insult to injury in what was a cordial albeit one-sided encounter. FW 100-0. I went a little dumb playing Kris in the last round. I had cards drawn dilemnas in one case, like Secret Identity, and Vault of Tomorrow, and I did not play against Kirk, and I could have. *smacks head on table* I had a terrible draw on top of other problems, though my dilemna pile slowed him up a bit, and if he had not knocked out Warf, Klag, and Gowron, all the guys who had the things that won me my other games, I might have had a chance. But that is what makes him a good, if not great player, identifying those threats, and eliminating them. Closing Thoughts As was the case in December, ALC did much of the heavy lifting for this early game killer build while the mission solving capacity was sneaky good this time around. Considering MinnMania was its first test in the standard format, I'm confident it can become a go-to deck of mine pending future revisions.