Danny Nuttall (nuttersuclan) Tournament Report - 1E Modern - Omarion Nebula Regional 2011-06-19 - 10:30 AM [OTF] Shades of Sneaky, v1.1 Introduction Thanks to all my awesome opponents over the course of the day; the fantastic organisation and hosting of the event; to the western part of the 'Northern Horde' Marcus and Paddy for endless discussions and playtesting and, finally, to Nava for his helpful comments and discussions about what is, essentially, an updated version of his awesome deck. Round 1 Niall Matthew FW (+100)View opponent's ReportView original Report Niall's Khan deck just didn't get going in the early stages of the game, whereas I was quickly into my stride getting lots of free plays on the board and draws from R'Mal, going back and forth between centuries, and Guardian of Forever. Niall had seeded cards under his own missions (my suspicion was Starry Night/Genesis Device) and so I assembled my strongest Dilemma piles under those two missions (Dead End at his homworld with Horta, and the full 'computer skill' onslaught on his other planet mission). Sure enough, he attempted those missions early on - only to lose some signifcant crew members. It reached the point where I was happy to discard 3 cards to Niall's Handshake, rather than let him draw into some potentially useful cards. Well, not happy as such, but you know what I mean! After almost an hour of the game we were still tied at 0-0, although many Romulans had demised in order to gradually break through Niall's frustrating Dilemma combinations. Eventually my sneaky sods won their war of attrition, quickly racking up 140 points in just 8 minutes and 2 full turns. Full win; 140-0 From turn one I knew I was in trouble. Dannys first turn seemed to takes ages and was quite complex, I felt a little inferior playing my 2 or 3 cards per turn to his sona/romulan frees and downloads, thankfully the Strong points to my deck were my dilemmas. Danny was slowed down considerably but eventually broke through them at the last minute for the win FL MANOWAR!!!!!!!! Round 2 Stuart Marsh MW (+20)View opponent's ReportView original Report Stuart is someone I respect immensely as a player. He's got an outstanding knowledge of the cards, builds intricate, interactive and thoughful decks, and he also plays at a far higher standard than myself overall. We've met once before in a tournament, where I was soundly beaten 100-0. Before the tournament began, Stuart was both my and RedDwarf's favourite to take the regional title. After a couple of turns, it didn't seem likely that I would even things up by beating Stu. His deck was focussed on the metagame and built around the 'theft' of 40 point missions. In this match, he was able to seed weak dilemmas under my Historical Research' and breeze through them on his second turn. From then on, the rest of the match was very strange. Stuart's turns were taking a long time as he completed one convoluted and complex play after another. Comparatively, I felt somewhat inadequate throwing down my free personnel and throwing some expendable crew members at Stuart's Dilemmas. However, the sheer number of seed cards in my opponents deck meant that I was often only facing 2 Dilemma cards under each mission. I stuttered to 65 points and time was called, in Stuart's turn to give me a modified win. Had the game lasted longer, I'm not confident I'd have won, but you never really know. It did justify my deck choice more and more though. 75 minute rounds make it necessary for some fast play in 1e. I went with a deck that was capable of solving an early mission or two and put points on the board, but also a deck I was very familiar with and could play as quickly as possible. Typically, I am a notoriously slow player - methodical and systematic about every little thing. I don't know if Stuart would agree, but with hindsight the intriocacy of his deck may have been a hinderance rather than an advantage, considering the tight time schedule of a live tournament. Expect him to destroy all in the next LackeyCCG OTF! Modified win; 65-40 This was an epic Romulan v’s Romulan power struggle. My 135 card deck v’s Danny’s 60 card deck! It was a strange seed phase with both of us seeding Romulus, both HQ’s and the Drone Control Room, but it turned out Romulus was the only mission we doubled up on. Danny had seeded Historical research with The Guardian of Forever which was his primary draw engine – but I had designed by deck to specifically target that mission. I used Defend Homeworld for Daniels and go Vash (Life from Lifelessness) from my Q’s Tent and along with my mission specialist I had the skills and the ship to steal the mission in turn 2. I had seeded Lack of Preparation and Duenetic Field generator there. I would have preferred to use dead end but I was concerned that he would steel my Quash Conspiracy as it was a 40 point mission. I moved my ship over to Historical Research in turn 2, beamed down three people completed the mission then used the Guardian of Forever to travel to the Drone control room. I have 45 points 40 + 5 mission specialist points and I though I was in a good place – but I had undermined my key deck strategy by leaving the Goraxus in space. By the time I had retrieved it Danny had completed 2 missions. I had HQ: Defensive Measures in my Q’s Tent but I wasn’t able to get the Goraxus into position to attack him before he completed his missions and then time was called... ML 65-45 Round 3 Sean Turner FW (+100) This was a match up I had little experience of, but a few ideas that turned out to be crucial to the game's outcome. Sean's delta-feds deck was sure to be fast, with high quality personel. Going second, I used Q The Ref to put Containment Field into play. Over the course of the match, this proved itself to be highly restrictive to Sean and his delta-quadrant advantage and speed were negated to some extent. The access denied/ferengi ingenuity/dial up/dejaren combination also set Sean back several turns and prevented him from completing a 45 point mission, whilst stopping crucial personnel needed for the 55 point beast next door. Eventually, the sheer number of personnel I was drawing from GoF and Duck Blind, and playing for free each turn, meant that my 'crews of 3' wore down the Dilemma combinations Sean had set up and I was able to complete the Collective Metaphasic Particles objective. An extra turn proved too muhc to overcome for Sean, as I gathered 125 points. Full win; 125-0 Round 4 Thomas Olley FW (+25) Tom's deck was one I feared before the tournament began. Andriods give him a ton of computer skill to beat my dilemmas and it's probably a faster deck than my own overall. Not only that, but had 2 x Holographic Ruse/Deneuvan Neural Parasites/God combos...and Baresh to double the ruse! Do you know how hard it is to get 60> intergrity with Romulans and their Son'a friends!? Not only that, but after several die, there's got to be 2 left with 8> integrity or BOOM! I thought about that during seeding and decided on a slightly riskly, but potentially match deciding strategy. I would seed Dead End and nothing else at our jointly seeded Historical Research. I'd then seed my weakest combination, but guaranteed stopper at Tom's Wormhole Negotiations, hover around it until he attempted to complete and then steal the following turn. The other missions would then be loaded with strong dilemma piles. It worked an absolute treat. We were both off to a flying start, drawing lots of extra cards and playing plenty for free each turn. Eventually I had 4 x treachery and 3 x officers with Strength 5> right next door to the Negotiations. Tom attempted, Personal Duty and Maglock prevented him from completing it and I strolled in next turn for 45 points. If only I had been close enough to picking up R'mal from Historical Research, I'd have scored 50 and could have downloaded In the Zone and taken historical research down. On the brink of victory (with 90 points and 2 missions to attempt with little/no dilemmas left), Tom scored 75 points over two turns, but it wasn't enough to stop me racking up 125 points and the title of regional champion! Full win; 125-75.