Kris Sonsteby (LORE) Tournament Report - 1E - Online Event 2015-03-01 - 12:00 AM Don't be Side Tracked or Shunted... Let Pretenders Feel Your Bite Introduction With the Online League rolling back into Block mode this month, I elected to simply retool my South Dakota Regional winner from last May rather than delve into DS9. Unfortunately, this time around I wasn't the only one seeing red, and duplicate missions quickly became a running theme. Round 1 Jeremy Huth FW (+90) Hardcore was attempting Gamma Quadrant DS9, but was stuck behind an Incentive Based Economics at Investigate Omicron Particles for much of the match. After smashing through two planet missions in rapid succession, Kitrik & Co. cleared an Oops! at Navigate Argolis Cluster to nail down the victory. FW 100-10. Round 2 Jon Carter FL (-40)View opponent's ReportView original Report Dr. Death was also playing Klingon, and took advantage of his superior rules knowledge to crack a Linguistic Legerdemain combo at Surgery Under Fire early. In response to duplicating 3 missions, I went all-in at Host Metaphasic Shielding Test late only to have my upset bid spurned by a Whale Probe. FL 100-60. Kris wins the toss The space line is messsy, we dupe two space missions (both of mine) and the only other is scientific dip, which is smack in the middle of the table. We also share a great hall. Kris starts by speeding through his unduped planets, on the far end of the spaceline out of the reach of my slowly emerging fleet. So I get through two planets quickly as well. this leaves space. with the two shared missions heavily seeded and at my end of the space line he was likely to go to scientific dip. It got worse for Kris, when a lucky spider bite kept him from mission specialist points. This ensured he needed the 40 and left me in the lead if we went to time. His cloacking devices and outposts protect his fleet, but the whale probe at the base of scientific dip lets me steal it for the win. Round 3 Edwin Latrell FW (+40)View opponent's ReportView original Report Loose Cannon was captaining Maquis, and immediately shut down a report engine as Gowron was captured in my first attempt at Renovate Starbase. Forced to change gears, I peppered him with personnel battle before eventually clearing "God" via a cloaked ship to lock up the win. FW 100-60. Wanna know how to shut down 1E klingons? Have Gowron Underestimate the Founders turn 2... Even though I lost this Game, I had more fun slowing the pain train Kris was bringing down. I ultimately sabotaged myself by miscalculating the movement of The Nexus and battled when I should have attempted. I learned more interesting game interactions with Cloaked Ships and The Nexus, nice plays by Kris. After using Underestimate the Founders to Help my Break Prisoner and setting Dr. Soran under the Nexus, I could not get the remaining 40 points. I opted to Battle instead of attempt and that put me too far behind once the Nexus caught my last ship that was stuck due to the battle. OVERALL: I need to remember to not get distracted from my objectives. Deck Draws and plays were good, but VERY slow compared to the multi-free-play engines that Kris was running. If I had not Shutdown Gowron, it would have been a runaway... FINAL Score: 100-60 Full Loss for me. Round 4 Ted Reebel MW (+25) T-Rex was co-chairing Klingon, but was relatively gun shy when it came to mission attempts as the spaceline was only 7 cards long. Killing Nu'Daq mid-game ultimately tipped the modified win scales in my favor, as without him he ended up short on Archeology to clear a Captain's Holiday. MW 65-40. Closing Thoughts Unsurprisingly, Klingons remain the dominant affiliation in Block, as even without a Battle Bridge side deck their ability to attack at will is unparallelled. And in a weak dilemma environment such as this, being able to flex some muscle against your opponent is often the easiest path to victory.