Charlie Plaine (MidnightLich) Tournament Report - 2E Standard 2011-02-20 - 02:00 PM The Honor of Homeland Security Introduction It's nothing short of amazing that I made it to this tournament, given that my previously arranged ride had fallen through. Josh (prylardurden) was amazing, driving over an hour out of his way to pick me up and bring me home - so I made the event. Sadly, the Bajoran deck I'd been working on was missing cards and wasn't running well, so I borrowed a DS9-Earth deck from Joel (RedAlucard) and paired it with my Overwhelmed/Legacy-proof dilemma pile. It turns out that The Guardtower was packed with a Pokemon League tournament and Warhammer 40K tournament, and that I'd neglected to reserve us space. Fortunately, we were able to relocate to a Wendy's just around the corner, and we waited until about half-an-hour after the start time to make sure we didn't miss anyone. A few overall notes: Overwhelmed is bordering on really good. It is usually going to need to support from the deck (extra draws / counters to spend) and not having that kept it from being as effective as it could have been otherwise. DS9-Earth definitely got a nice boost from Extreme Measures, but the deck I played felt clogged early in most of my games, and spent too long looking for four different species to fuel Promenade School/Jarseh-Inyo. Still, there's potential in the affiliation now, and that's great to hear. Finally, I went planet first in every single game. In two of my games, my opponents went planet first as well. Not a single copy of Necessary Execution was in sight. Interesting... Round 1 Bye BY (0) We had seven people for the tournament, so I agreed to take the first round bye. I took the time to grab some lunch (Wendy's is too good to pass up) and tweaked my dilemma pile some. Round 2 Pat Bortz FW (+70) Pat (bortz65) is a trooper, driving three and a half hours from Erie, PA to play in our tournaments. He's a good player, but I think the long drive and the infrequent play lead to him making some mistakes he wouldn't otherwise. He made a few critical mistakes (which I ignored in the interests of fun) that lead to his loss. Pat was playing his long in-development Cardassian/Klingon capture deck, combining Evek, Arrest Order, and Kruge + All-Out War to devastating effect. My deck felt very slow, not attempting until Turn 6, but I did manage to get all the pieces working then and was able to have 15 personnel when I went after Track Survivors. He had a few unlucky consumes, and I was able to use Ezri and Bashir to get around most of the kills, allowing me to solve on the first attempt. It was during my second mission attempt that Pat made a few mistakes (misplaying planet dilemmas for space) - however, given that we were all there to have fun, we just played it out as if they were legal plays, and Pat got a couple choice captures. His subsequent play of Evek gave him two more personnel (including two different species for DS9), and earned him so Labor Camp points. On the next turn, I was able to use DS9-E's stat boosts (Worf and Joseph Sisko) as well as a well-timed Bridge Officer's Test to solve my 2nd and 3rd missions, giving me the win. I hate it when my opponent's make mistake (who wants to win because your opponent made an error), but I hate it more when they feel bad, so I went out of my way to help Pat get his head back into the game and told him some stories about my own idiot moves! Round 3 Jared Hoffman FL (-30) If I have an "Eleanor" in the Trek CCG world, it's Jared Hoffman. Since I started playing regularly in 2003, I've played Jared so many times and rarely been able to defeat him. Today would be no different, but I managed to at least keep up with him a little bit. I ended up losing, feeling like I was always half a turn behind; sadly, the initial "clogging" of the hand was a contributing factor - and Legacy missing on his first attempt didn't help, either! My deck was terribly slow getting four species out, and Jared's quick solve of Investigate Alien Probe didn't help much! I did manage to "even up" by solving Track Survivors and getting several dilemmas beneath The Last Outpost, but as I'd gone first, Jared was still a half-a-turn ahead. I threw a combo that would have worked with Overwhelmed, but as I didn't draw it, the combo failed and Jared walked through Rescue Prisoners. Meanwhile, he played Kruge and a 2nd ship, and took my Excelsior away from me - a move which prevented me from regaining the half-a-turn I needed and kept me from winning. On my last turn, I played a ship, but didn't have the range to get any of my personnel stranded on The Last Outpost. On my last attempt, I played a Bridge Officer's Test to get past Outclassed. Jared, being the amazing player he is, properly picked Melora Pazlar and left me one single attribute point shy of solving Investigate Destruction for the win. He was able to solve Brute Force with four the next turn, thanks to the Sword of Kahless. He played a great twist on the "K.Ri.S." deck and it led him to an undefeated victory. Kudos to Jared for allowing me to take back a stupidly-played Center of Attention (as I'd though it asked for a non-Hand Weapon instead of a Hand Weapon) and replace it with Misguided Activist - buying me a turn in the game. I love the players in Columbus for allowing such leeway in the interests of fun. (To be fair, this is a quality I've observed from Trek players all over, even in higher level events.) Round 4 Brian Sykes FL (-65)View opponent's ReportView original Report Brian is a player that, much like Jared, has frequently vexed me. In my early days of 2E, Brian and I played regularly, and I consider him a "mentor" of sorts. Gradually, I got better and better, getting closer and closer to victory - until I was finally able to win a tournament! Since then, Brian and I haven't played as often, and I'll admit he usually edges me out, but it's usually close and it's not a sure thing. Today would be no exception, with Brian edging me out in a close, knock-down, drag-out game. Brian played a "Bare Minimum" DS9 deck, featuring Michael van Breeman's Tragic Turn pile that was quite effective at killing all my people. I wasn't ever able to keep Ezri or Bashir in play to prevent the kills, and he managed to wipe me out twice (although burying two missions.) Brian played well, including a great play where he played Promenade School twice in one turn to give him points to play Krim. With Krim, he was able to remove my only Legacy that would have otherwise vexed him. Lesson learned: play a 2nd ship early and often. Being stranded at a buried Last Outpost kept me from winning the game, as I couldn't get to my space mission until it was too late. Even a well-played Where No One Has Gone Before didn't buy me the time I needed to go after my last mission, and Brian earned a great victory. Jared won his round 3 match, so at this point I'm pretty much playing for 2nd place. Charlie is the third player in the field to think Promenade School is a good card, and he had his own take on it with DS9 earth. It takes him a few turns to set up, which is good because as fast as I start out, he is able to stop me 3 turns in a row at Investigate Maquis Activity, including one stop with Legacy. He also played a ritual card that allows him to shuffle his dilemma pile every time one of us attempts a mission, which gives him a shot of hitting me with Legacy every time. I get around this though, by attempting IMA with 6 and 3 under, successfully completing the mission. I then start drawing for Krim. Meanwhile, Charlie has assembled a pretty solid crew with the help of Promenade School and Jaresh-Inyo bringing in his power players, and he also has a Kirk Original Thinker for me to deal with as he heads to his first mission attempt. He attempts with 6 and I'm able to put together an Urgency/TT/Clown/Polywater combo. Charlie makes a Saavy play and faces the first dilemma (Urgency), which allows him to Kirk the TT. Clown still does its job though, and an All-Consuming Evil adds to the fun. Despite me getting a few hits in, the mission is buried and he has enough people still alive to still staff his ship. At this point in the game I have a very large contingent of people in play and am able to successfully play 2 Promenade Schools in one turn, giving me 2 'Tricks' without having to pull a 4-mission win (I used an AWC early, as usual). I draw into Krim as well, and get him into play to sack Charlie's Legacy and go to work in space. I should point out at this point that I have nine personnel in play that are stopped and havent even attempted a mission yet this turn! I take my remaining seven unstopped personnel and attempt Investigate Destruction. Charlie throws Overwhelmed/Quantum Filament, going for the hard stop. I have 2 Astro and 2 Nav for the filament, but if I stop everyone I fail to solve the mission, so I use Melora Pazlar's ability to double up on skills and only have to stop her and one other person, allowing me to solve with five personnel. On Charlie's turn he solves his first mission and starts working on his 2nd planet mission, again attempting with six personnel. I draw into Secret Identity/Tragic Turn/Clown/Urgency. Charlie switches it up and Kirks the first dilemma, allowing SI to do its job one way or another, and My TT combo wipes the party with some help from All-Consuming Evil. This buys me a couple of turns, which I need becasue Charlie's dilemmas have been doing a really good job of stopping me up to this point. I attempt Host Metaphasic with my Centaur Crew and get his with a combo that only puts one dilemma under and sends me to the end of the universe (Again, with the lack of Medical in the deck...). This isnt a huge deal, as I play the Bellerophon next turn and have plenty of people at my HQ to go attempt.... except for the fact that EVERY Diplomacy personnel in my deck is currently on board the Centaur lost in space. I figure that Charlie doesnt know this, however, and Attempt with the Bellerophon anyway to try to get more dilemmas under my last mission while I wait for the lost Centaur crew to retutn. It works (kinda) and I get one more dilemma under the mission for my trouble. On Charlie's next turn he is unable to draw into a ship so I make up my lost turn, and on my next turn I fly the Centaur out to Host Metaphasic, shuffle some people around and attempt with 2 solid crews, solving the mission and netting the 100-35 (I think) win.