I eventually had a really interesting idea (which will remain nameless), but I couldn't get it to work (I may yet!), but THAT (nameless) idea finally led me to the idea of playing six space missions. Sometimes, the daring among us will try for six planet missions, maybe converting one to space for the 100-point win. But going the other way? Never. If nothing else, I figured the sheer surprise of it would help me.

I had already committed to a Here By Invitation build while working on the previous idea, and it turned out to fit the six-space plan well. Though I needed to solve four 35-point missions to win (the road to 140 points is long!), putting DS9 at the Bajoran Wormhole and surrounding it with missions on three sides (the Gamma Quadrant is a side!) made it much easier to resupply between attempts. And Here By Invitation, built right, can draw like crazy. It did so here: by Turn 2, with Celestial Temple, Morn, and New Arrivals, I was pulling up four cards per turn.

But six space missions (thus no Headquarters) and New Arrivals both meant that, while I may be drawing four cards per turn, I couldn't use those draws to play a similarly huge number of personnel, as I usually do. Playing only two peeps per turn meant a long, slow climb to develop effective solving teams, even if those teams were top-notch dudes going up against shattered dilemma combos. And I'd be using my card play in the process. So what was I going to do with all these extra card draws?

I decided to fill the open slots in my deck with Interrupts. Nearly half the deck is Interrupts. About half of those are offensive -- mainly Loss of Orbital Stability and Docking Procedures -- and half are defensive -- Asteroid Sanctuary, Transwarp Conduit, and so forth. These interrupts, I hoped, would protect my oh-so-precious personnel from the ravages of space, while delaying my opponents long enough for me to get my party started. (And if it happened to screw over a battle deck, so much the better.)

I also teched a bit against hoss-drone's capture deck, since I've not yet played against it, but I forgot he wasn't coming to this one. Drat.

On my side of the spaceline, Ben's dilemmas were putting up more of a fight than I had expected. (I later realized that they were ALL dual dilemmas, so my six-space spaceline didn't faze him.) Somehow I let the Defiant leave port with only one Leadership aboard, so actually failed a bare Friendly Fire with no filters. After a couple more turns, though, the Defiant had enough dudes aboard that very little could stand in their way. Once I hit Mission Debriefing with a Kevin Uxbridge (first I've ever played in a tournament!), it was smooth sailing to game's end.

The low point of the game came when I attempted Establish Interquadrant Communications in the Gamma Quadrant and was hit with Emergent Life-Form. I had a Holodeck Door in the deck specifically to tech against this dilemma, but it hadn't come up yet. DVK sent the Defiant back through the Bajoran Wormhole to DS9. Although its range was exhausted, I seriously considered discarding a card to download Wormhole Navigation Schematic (through The First Stable Wormhole) just so I could cloak the Defiant from any potential attackers. But all Dan had at his outpost was an I.K.S. Pagh and an I.K.C. Qam'chee, and I had Ablative Armor, and I had a Docking Procedures in hand in case he played another ship, so I wasn't worried.

Then Dan used a Space-Time Portal to play the Fek'lhr. And it wasn't docked, because it had reported with crew from the portal. Oh shazbot. I threw both my remaining Loss of Orbital Stabilities at him in a blind fear and shut down the burgeoning attack -- for a turn, anyway.

Dan decided that, even with the Defiant under his effective control for two more turns, he needed to solve some missions, so he decided to give up Defiant-hunting for the moment. He sent the Pagh off to solve Intercept Sleeper Ship with all his dudes aboard. Phew. If D.V.K. sent the Defiant toward his outpost, I was even greedily eyeing my copy of Ship Seizure, looking for a loophole that would allow me to use it! And I had just drawn into an Asteroid Sanctuary, in case everything went south.

But he didn't; instead, he sent me to Intercept Sleeper Ship. It's a 40-point mission, but I couldn't remember the seeds, and I was confident that I could stop Dan and steal if he started it, so I left it be and continued to build my forces. He sent me on to the end of the spaceline, where I ended up sitting at my own Evade Borg Vessel.

The game was sealed when Dan went ahead and attempted Intercept Sleeper Ship. He didn't have any Astrophysics to stop for Magnetic Field Disruptions (just two Vekors with Navigation), so he had no chance against The Cloud, which would stop him cold for this turn and the next. And revealing the combo told me what the final card was; I knew I could solve it.

On my next turn, Emergent Life-Form finally counted down and discarded, so the Defiant was back in my hands. I attempted and solved Evade Borg Vessel. Then I hopped back to Intercept Sleeper Ship, doubled-checked that I had Diplomacy, Anthropology, and Computer Skill, attempted, defeated V'Ger, and solved. Then I threw down my Transwarp Conduit and used the extra range to dive back into the Gamma Quadrant and solve Establish Interquadrant Communications for the win.

I really enjoy playing against Dan, whether winning or losing. Here's hoping we start seeing him around here more often.

I paired down for the last game, which possibly cost me the title, not to mention the rare chance to play somebody I haven't before -- Nat, in this case -- but I enjoy playing Hobie so much I can honestly say I didn't mind.

Bobbert was doing a neat Followers of the One / Cybernetics Expertise mashup, with some affiliated splash making appearances where helpful. He had early Ocular Implants and was able to play very smart at his homeworld, but didn't expect me to shut down his Duck Blind with a Thine Own Self. Talosian Cage / Matriarchal Society held him at Save Stranded Crew for a long while, although -- for the second time in three rounds -- Flash Plasma Storm failed to so much as scratch his personnel. Odd; I had projected one to two (female) casualties each time it was encountered, but I guess maybe there's a reason nobody uses it.

Early in the game, I triggered The Nexus at Verify Legendary Journey, which ripped his dudes up from their mission attempt at Save Stranded Crew and wreaked modest havoc on his end of the spaceline. I then immediately lost Colonel Kira to Female Love Interest, and she ended up in the same Nexus. Sadly, there were no planets of any kind on "my" end of the spaceline, so the odds of her rescue seemed low.

While R.P. struggled to defeat the tyranny of Loss of Orbital Stability (he, like Dan, wisely stopped docking ships), I hit Dead End and moved on to attempt Refuse Immigration. Cytherians hit me, which wasn't a problem because I had a Wormhole in hand and a Space-Time Portal on the table, but it did buy him a few turns while I made my way (under cloak) back across his territory toward Deep Space Nine. But I was able to keep him mostly tied up at Foster New Collective (though he did use his knowledge of the dilemmas there to solve in a single smash move) and finally made it back to my end, where I solved Evade Borg Ship, stepped over to Verify Legendary Journey (cleared the Dead End with my Cytherians bonus points), and solved, catapulting me from 0 to 90 in short order. My now very large crew was able to punch through the combo at Establish Interquadrant Communications in short order, and then all we had to do was wait a turn to have enough range to go solve Refuse Immigration for the win. During this, Pob Reterson was finally able to beat Matriarchal Society to bring him to 65 points, but it was too little too late, and he never made it to a space mission before my megateam swooped in and (leaving a SMALL reserve at the station in case something went horribly wrong) completed Refuse Immigration for the win.

At some point in all this, R. Robot Petersen became the first player all day to hit me with Scorched Hand, which was a very well-advised move: I was about to murder his Duck Blind with Kevin Uxbridge when he hit me with it. Worst part was that I goaded him into it, because I thought he was bluffing about having a copy of it and was trying to call that bluff. Damn that coyly deceptive Petersen grin!

Needless to say, I was grateful as ever for the opportunity to play with these guys. I warned my opponent before each game that this was a deck designed to annoy and harass and generally get in the way of their fun, but all took the incredibly frustrating experience of getting locked down at an outpost in stride and with the best spirit of the game at heart. We had some great laughs along the way. And, in the end, that's the really important thing.

On second thought, that sounds too saccharine to be true. I get sentimental after 1 AM, and, lo, it is 1:01 AM by my clock.

Thanks to Justin for running yet another excellent tournament. And, to Nat, Barry, and Ryan: consider yourselves on notice! I can't wait to play you guys sometime.