Charlie Plaine (MidnightLich) Tournament Report - 2E Standard - Risa Regional 2011-05-07 - 02:00 PM Homeland Security 2.2 - San Diego Regional Introduction Less than twenty-four hours after touching down in San Diego, I was headed to a Regional. I wanted to give my DS9-E deck another go, so I made a few tweaks (after some test games with Matt Kirk) and felt ready to go. Then I violated Rule #1, and I made more changes to my deck the day of the tournament. Oops. Well, not entirely; one of them (including Transport Crash Survivor) proved to be a good move. The other changes, however, felt like they ruined the flow of the deck. It might be time to retire this deck, and let better and more talented players have a crack at making them work. Then again, there is the 5x and 10x Achievements... Round 1 Thomas Kamiura FL (-65) TK brought a semi-Delphic Expanse SF deck, and it was a solid choice. His deck was fast, resourceful, and quite effective. I was trying to be "cute" with my dilemma pile and played far too conservatively, allowing him to solve his space mission (with the bonus) and his first planet mission on the first try, both before I'd solved anything of my own. Luck finally turned my way on his final mission, as I was able to stop him and open a Temporal Conduit to buy me more time. I solved Track Survivors and went over towards Amnesty Talks to get the victory conditions, but fell victim to a Where No One Has Gone Before. Losing that turn proved costly, as I was only able to stop TK's SF one more time before he solved his third mission for the victory. Round 2 Thomas V TT (0) In the second round, I faced my second Thomas of the day, completing what some at the venue called "The Thomas Gauntlet." TV was playing Dominion, which was primarily a solver but with some light infiltration - primarily the Bashir Founder that reduces my attributes. I had some luck with my dilemmas, stalling TV at two of his missions while I made slow progress against his attrition pile. I solved Track Survivors early, but stalled out at Amnesty Talk for several turns due to Bashir's -1. Of course, I might have done better if I'd remembered to use Benjamin Sisko (Vastly Outnumbered) for three consecutive attempts. Even after reminding myself! There's a reason I don't win many tournaments, and it's because I'm a bonehead. Meanwhile, Thomas had solved both a planet mission and a space mission when time was called, leaving me with just one more turn to play for a tie (or a win). He had stacked six dilemmas under Amnesty Talks, but he had a Machinations on the table. However, I had Benjamin Sisko (Vastly Outnumbered) on my team and he had an Under Siege in his core. Based on what I'd seen of his dilemma pile, I thought the only zero (0) cost dilemma he'd have was Racial Tension, so that's what I'd named with Sisko. That's when things got weird. Thomas decided not to play any dilemmas, thinking my entire crew was immune to Racial Tension. However, I'd brought Jarseh-Inyo along for his skills and Integrity. When I showed him the President, he said he wished he'd played the dilemma. Since I'm far too nice of a guy (and I'm interested in fun more than winning), I let him play the dilemma anyway. And as I'm sure you've guessed, he pulled Ezri Dax and Jarseh-Inyo; since Ben's protection only applies to [DS9] personnel, Jarseh would succumb to Racial Tensions with himself. Thus, I reported Thomas' modified win. But then I realized that even without Jarseh-Inyo's help, my crew would solve the mission, having 32 Integrity. I sighed, disappointed that I acted too hastily in reporting my loss. At that point, Thomas said that we should report the actual result, in spite of my reluctance, and called Dan over. When we did the math, we found ourselves tied at 65 point, each with a planet and a space. Thomas was a stand up guy in allowing the tie to go on record instead of the win (for him), and he has my thanks. Round 3 Johnny Holeva FL (-65) I had expected Johnny to be playing Borg and I'd put a few anti-Borg tricks into my deck and dilemma pile just in case. I was surprised (and dismayed) to see Klingons instead, as it's probably one of the worst match ups for my Overwhelmed Dilemma pile. Johnny and I got out to good starts, but he was able to get Korath out and start destroying my events, causing me all kinds of trouble. I had a chance to equalize when I drew into a Holding Cell and a Grav-Plating Trap at the same time, but Johnny outmatched me again, having two Grav-Plating Traps in hand to cancel mine. Oh well, I'd have to do this the old fashioned way. Johnny got a first attempt solve at his first planet mission, and then quickly split into two crews - one going after Brute Force, and one going after Investigate Alien Probe. He took his crew of five (5) to his space mission, briefly forgetting my Transport Crash Survivor. I offered to let him "take back" the move, but Johnny refused to take the out and wanted to suffer the consequences of his mistake. Sadly, the best my deck could do was send him on a trip to Where No One Has Gone Before. My best hope was that I could catch up during his one turn delay. Unfortunately, my deck wasn't cooperating, and I was never able to find a copy of Under Siege (in spite of there being three in the deck) to power my Benjamin Sisko or Julian Bashir, leaving me vulnerable to a lot of dilemmas I could normally avoid. In spite of some of his best people being at the edge of the universe, Johnny and his Klingons were able to solve Brute Force and leave himself in the ideal position for his next turn. I was able to get through one of my missions, but in the hustle and the bustle, I lost track of Johnny's Klag. He was able to avoid my lone Personal Dute with his ability, and solved Investigate Alien Probe for the win. Round 4 Matt Kirk FL (-35)View opponent's ReportView original Report Matt had been my testing partner the day before, and we'd played several games with our respective decks. In those test games, I'd done poorly and had a 1-2 record against Matt's two-mission win Voyager deck. I was hoping to equalize the series in the tournament. I got a great start (for once) and was able to solve Amnesty Talks on my first try. Fortune smiled upon me again and I hit Matt's Voyager with a Where No One Has Gone Before, buying me time to get a second mission. But Matt could solve just two missions and win, and that's trouble for an Overwhelmed pile. He returned from the edge of the galaxy and solve Seek Savior for fifty (50), then headed Voyager into the Alpha Quadrant to solve Aid Lost Colony for another fifty (50) and the win. I was able to stop him once, and he returned the favor at my final mission. Sadly, I couldn't stop enough people on his subsequent attempt, and he won the game. Charlie was the only person at this tournament who had seen me play this deck. In fact, he was the one who I playtested the most with online. We knew each others' decks fairly well, and it was a tight game that basically ended up being a coinflip. I missed George Primmin with a final Agonizing Encounter so he couldn't use his ability, and picked up the win on the next turn. Round 5 Carlos Maya FW (+70) Carlos was the first player all day I'd never had the privileged to play before, and I groaned when I saw another Klingon deck. (To be clear, it's not that I think Klingons are grossly overpowered. It's that they're a terrible match up for me since they have incredible amounts of skill cheating and a lot of skill density on the skills I target.) I was able to get a great start when Carlos gave me five (5) points with Croden, letting me use Jarseh-Inyo without having to open up a Promenade School. Carlos gets out to an equally good start, solving Secure Strategic Base on his first attempt, then moving over to Brute Force. I have better luck at Brute Force, stopping two attempts of six (6) Klingons with just two to draw and spend each time. Meanwhile, his dilemma pile is filled with stoppers (such as Miner Revolt) that no matter what I call with Benjamin Sisko, he has another option. My only choice is to wish and hope and widdle his pile down. He stops me three consecutive attempts at Track Survivors before I finally solve, and head for The Last Outpost. This was a wild, back and forth game. Carlos made a mistake at Brute Force, forgetting a 2nd Leadership in one of his teams, and ending up being stopped, which was the only reason I was able to pull ahead and solve The Last Outpost for a win. This was a great game, and a great way to end an amazing tournament.