Charlie Plaine (MidnightLich) Tournament Report - 2E - Risa Regional 2013-05-11 - 03:00 PM Groumall - San Diego Regional 2013 Introduction I'd played this deck on a previous week, and since this Regional kinda snuck up on me, I decided to go with it again. Cardassians are solid and can be really good if you don't stumble too much on their vulnerabilities. Round 1 Johnny Holeva FL (-30) Johnny is very good with Klingons (which are really good on their own), and got out to a great early start when he solved his space mission on the first try. I managed to rally and get two missions down and put some dilemmas under a third, but I was unable to stop both of his teams at his final missions to get the extra turn I needed. Round 2 JD_Ashley FW (+65) JD has been experimenting with Dabo the last few tournaments, and this version of his deck was the best yet. But as a new player, he just isn't as familiar with the cards and wasn't able to stop my Cardassians much with the power of The Central Command behind them. He did manage to get 5-6 dilemmas under his missions via Dabo, and would have given me fits with his Causal Recursion + Phoenix tricks if I hadn't gotten an early Labor Camp. Round 3 Matt Kirk MW (+40) Matt was playing his DS9 unstoppable deck that he'd had great success with in Vancouver a few weeks ago. I got lucky early and destaffed his ship with my Ensnared, but his dilemma pile was filled with attribute denial and dilemmas like Programmed Compulsion and The Clown: Go Away to make me jump back and forth all around the spaceline. I got two space missions down and made a mistake on my planet attempt (not using The Central Command) that gave him the chance to win after time, but Matt left a key skill out of his attempt and was unable to solve planet and space so I was ahead on points. Round 4 Thomas Kamiura FW (+100) Thomas brought his TNG deck that is lightning fast and had a ton of personnel out early, but I caught a very lucky break with Evek (Agent of Cardassian Justice) and got three unique people including his James T. Kirk. He tried to get them back with Flaw in the Plan, but unfortunately that trick doesn't work. I grabbed his Mot with Ensnared, but he had no answer for my copies of The Central Command and was never able to recover from my lucky Evek. Round 5 Nathan W MW (+20)View opponent's ReportView original Report I knew that I'd likely have to key people to get rid of to have a chance, Nathan Samuels and Jonathan Archer, so I had to hope to get my capture stuff early. I didn't, but I did get both copies of Silaran Prin in my opening hand and won the die roll, so made him "waste" two turns trying to get him out while I played Cardassians. He had an insane amount of counters and stopped three of my copies of The Central Command (stopping me from solving a mission) and my first Ensnared, trying to nab Archer. I played Feast of the Dying to get back an Ensnared and a The Central Command and managed to capture Archer and finally clear a mission, but my doubly damaged ship was a limiting factor so I had to solve my second space. On his last attempt after time was called, having stopped me from solving a planet for a FW, he had enough to double attempt his mission giving me only a few dilemmas. I lucked into an Accelerated Aging which took away all of his first listed skills, preventing him from solving. He took his second team over to his other planet mission but I drew a Back to Basics to stop him cold and get the MW. Going into the last round, a full win would give me the tournament. Seeing Cardassians, I knew my counter-friendly deck would give his Central Command trick pony fits. Well, Charlie went first and dropped Silaran Prin, naming Samuels. Having two in my hand, I figured I would just eat the first and drop the second. Well, I did and charlie killed him and Prin -- but then he dropped a second on turn 2!!! UGH! I sacrificed my 2nd Samuels on turn 2 and started digging. On turn 4 I found a Disruptive Presence and was finally able to go. To Charlie's chagrin, I nuked 3 Central Commands bringing out a yell the 3rd time. I couldn't stop his 4th (via Feast on the Dying). Meanwhile, Eliminate Sphere fell quickly, but after I was hit by Insurrection on Investigate Anachronism and Archer was Ensnared, my game slowed dramatically. As in my loss to TK, I just spun my wheels at IA well too long. As I need the full win to keep my VPs even to Johnny, I kept smashing my head at IA -- hoping to break through and send Insurrection to Investigate Refinery. I probably made some bad plays. I should've mega-attempted IA early to draw out his 2nd B2B, but I ended up double teaming all game and could never keep 7 people around to solve -- or get a jump from Karyn Archer. Via Telle shuffle, a 2nd space mission fell for him. As time was called I needed 1 mission to score the MW, 2 for FW. Planning a final double attempt, Charlie had draw 2 spend 2 and scored an Accelerated Aging at IA which hit me on each requirement -- all first skill Dip and Anthro on my dudes. When I went abandoned IA for that last time to IR to try and salvage a MW, a B2B ended that try. Rough game. Charlie played very well. ML: 45-70. Closing Thoughts Cardassians are an underrated affiliation, but they do rely on luck. In this build you don't really NEED a captive (save for Means of Control which is an amazing and underused card), but it can really set an opponent back if you get lucky. I added an extra Prin and Feast on the Dying and both came in handy in several of my games, being essential to my win against Nate in the last round. The deck is weak to kill dilemmas and to interrupt counters, but I fear that adding in anything to deal with those weaknesses will bloat the deck and blunt its effectiveness. Groumall Damar and the Groumall itself can really help you move through the deck, and Back to Basics or Tacking Into the Wind can rebuild it for you, but I don't think adding more cards is the answer. I think it's just a meta call you have to make when playing the deck.