Charlie Plaine (MidnightLich) Tournament Report - 2E Standard - Qo'noS Regional 2011-04-30 - 11:00 AM Homeland Security 2.1 - Ohio Regional Introduction I was pleased to see ten (10) players for the Regional/Birthday Tournament. The day before, I'd been play testing against John's decks and my DS9-E deck hadn't been doing too well. I also tested against Brian's deck, and did okay. Up until the tournament started I was seriously considering borrowing John's [Car] deck, but I decided to stick with the deck I knew. If I'd been able to avoid mistakes, I might have done a little better. Round 1 John Corbett FL (-65) I knew that John was going to be playing Terok Nor going into the tournament, and I was eager to see it. I'd heard a lot of conflicting reports on how good the deck is, how broken it is, what it matches up well against, etc, and I was looking for some first hand data. (In the end, I think it's very good, but also beatable.) I had an okay start, but John was using Weyoun to keep me from getting four species of [Fed] [DS9] personnel into play so I couldn't open up the school. When I finally did (because he had to get rid of Admiral Brand), a Jem'Hadar showed up to kill everyone (i.e. he countered my Promenade School with an Our Death is Glory to the Founders. Twice.) In spite of my inability to educate the youth, I was able to get some heavy hitters into play and solve Track Survivors (but correctly Kirking The Dreamer and the Dream, making Pitching In too expensive). But John was able to get through Kressari Rendezvous for 65 points, and I was only able to hold him off at Assess Contamination once (with a Timescape to prevent Ruling Council) and he got the win. I will say, I did better, and lasted longer, than I thought I would. If I'd had a 2nd Timescape and maybe a Swashbuckler at Heart + The Dreamer and the Dream, it might have been a much closer game. Round 2 Joshua Sheets FW (+35)View opponent's ReportView original Report Josh always plays interesting decks, and he's always a great opponent. I knew a little about his deck, and I was worried. I'd already proven that I don't do well with micro teams and two mission win decks, and that's exactly what Josh had in store for me. He was able to get 30 points by killing his own K'mtar, and he got my James T. Kirk (Living Legend) in exchange. Things weren't looking good, but I was able to open up the school and get a high powered team into play just as quickly. His dilemmas were effective at stopping me at least once each mission, but I was tending to solve on the 2nd attempts. Meanwhile, he's double teaming his missions with four people, and there's not a lot an Overwhelmed pile can do about that. He solved Investigate Maquis Activity on his 2nd turns worth of tries, (of course, having my Kirk didn't help) but then went for Transport Delegations. I told him he should do his space mission for the win, and then let him change his mind. (After all, it's only a game.) Fortunately, I was able to stop him from solving his space mission, and managed to solve my 3rd mission to earn my first win of the day. Josh's deck is a lot of moving pieces, but when it works, it's tough to stop. I'm dreading the day he fine tunes it. This started out better and I got my bonus points around turn 3 or 4. However, after killing my people at that point, rebuilding took too long and I only solved 1 mission before he completed his missions. Round 3 Joshua Sprung FL (-65) I'd never had the pleasure of meeting or playing "the other Josh," who'd come down from Michigan to play. He was a relatively new player playing a fun all-Hologram deck based on Athos IV. I was able to open the school early, but I had trouble drawing for a ship. So while I had a massive stack of people on Earth, he was taking the Olarra out for a tour of the Galaxy. I was able to slow him down a little bit with Overwhelmed and Security-based dilemmas, but his deck had a lot of Security in addition to the ability to generate skills with Cluttering Irrelevancies. I finally did get a ship after he'd solved his first mission, and was able to use Kirk to get through Track Survivors on the first turn. Kirk really made him think about dilemmas, and he made some wise plays that slowed me down. I was playing from behind, so I didn't take the time to get home and back for Kirk, so he stopped me with an Agonizing Encounter. Joshua wisely didn't gain skills to pass my Overwhelmed + 1-point dilemma combos (Broken Link, Trilithium Heist, etc.), and was able to use his Cluttering to pass the skill dilemmas when I didn't draw an Overwhelmed. He earned the win. As an aside, before the tournament I was thinking we should make the rest of the Children of Light... now, maybe not. :) Round 4 Crosis101 FL (-25) Dave is an old friend, and one of the players that played regularly in Columbus when we had five tournaments a month. He is known for playing [Dom] and [SF], and I was happy to see him playing his (updated) [SF] deck for the regional. Since he hadn't played in a while, I did my best to give him an update of the current game before the tournament, and was happy to see that he was having fun come round four, even if he wasn't winning. Dave got a lot of high cost [NA] personnel out early, many with powerful abilities like Gav, Lore, and Shran, while I played my non-Humans to open the school. When I did, I was able to grab Outmatched Sisko, Ezri, and Julian Bashir, and then headed out to attempt. Dave's lack of recent play experience hurt him, and he threw a Head to Head and an Assassination Attempt at Track Survivors. As I had Ezri and all my people were [DS9] or [E], they whiffed and I solved, heading home. Meanwhile, Dave got out to a good start at his space mission, and while he was stopped, managed to stack three dilemmas under. On my next turn, I went out for my space mission and he wasn't able to filter out Ezri, and his kill combos missed again, giving me a 2nd solve. But on his next turn, he solved his space mission (not getting the bonus points), and went for his 2nd. I drew almost nothing I could play, and the Overwhelmed + Just Following Orders I played didn't stop him, and he tied up the game. I decided to go "all in" and attempted with thirteen at my easy space mission. Dave had a very-heavy killed dilemma pile with few filters, so I felt that my chances were good. I also gambled he wouldn't have Fractured Time or Distress Call, and I was right. His first dilemma was Exposed Power Relay... "Okay, I thought, as long as he doesn't pick Ezri, I'm okay." Well, I'm sure you can guess... he picked Ezri. Followed by Bashir. Followed by Kirk. Ouch. That meant that his combos pretty much killed half my people, but buried the mission. All I needed to do was hold him off one more turn. He went to attempt Survey New World (having previously solved his two space missions), and taking after me, attempted with eleven. Finally, fortuned smiled on me and I drew a great combo. It was perfect. He would be stopped, I'd solve, and claim the win. Well, it was perfect - in space. I don't know how or why, but I played three space dilemmas at a planet mission. My only dual was Overwhelmed, so he solved and win. Well earned, Dave. It just goes to show that even veterans and chairmans can make silly mistakes! Round 5 jason bales FW (+40) I've played Jason once or twice, and he's a nice guy that plays fun and innovative decks. I was happy to see him playing Ferengi when the tournament started, but sorry to see he'd be having a tough time. Hopefully he can refine the deck and make [Fer] a threat! He got out a Tongo: Confront and a lot of people early, so he decided to play. I won the Tongo, but discarded a ship. That meant I could use Jaresh-Inyo without opening the School, but I'd discarded one of my ships - a problem I wouldn't solve until he'd already attempted to Acquire Ilicit Explosives. When I did get a ship, he stopped my crew of eight at Track Survivors with four stopper dilemmas. Next turn, he solved his space mission and headed over to Qualor II, and my dilemma pile gave me nothing and he solved there, too. But on my turn, I was able to complete my 1st planet and my space mission. If I could hold him off, I might have a chance. That's when I noticed the 3rd mission he was working on would only give him a total of 90 points. I immediately suspected Ferengi Tradition, as there was already a [Fer] Enterprise-D in his discard pile. I asked if he had any bonus points I'd forgotten, and he said no, he hadn't. With that in mind, I tried to be "cute" and stop him with none under, but failed to do so. He flew home to set up for next turn, but only had 90 points. On my turn, I played a Kirk and went after my 2nd planet. I'd tried twice and failed twice on the previous turn, so I felt like I had to win here or he'd play Ferengi Tradition on his next turn for the win. Fortunately, he wasn't able to draw dilemmas on my 2nd attempt (because I'd Kirked on the 1st) and I squeaked out a win.