Charlie Plaine (MidnightLich) |
Tournament Report - 2E |
2016-03-26 - 12:30 PM |
Mirror Species 8472 |
Introduction |
This tournament has a bizzare origin. Originally schedule, we found on Thursday that we only had three players. As most, if not all, of the local players in San Diego have families and other obligations, we made the call to cancel the tournament.
Fast forward to Saturday morning, around 11:15, when we realized we could get four players together after all. So after a few texts and emails, we put the tournament back on the schedule! I sincerly apologize to anyone who was planning to attend, but this happened on the shortest notice possible. Pre-registration saves us all time!
I hadn't bothered to put a deck together, so I borrowed one from my roommate. He gave me an all-AU TOS Species 8472 deck, so that's what I played. |
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Round 1 | | Johnny Holeva | ML (-30) |
Johnny was playing five space Delta Quadrant, but doing so with the Equinox. His deck was very interrupt heavy and I had absolutely no prevention in my deck, so I was facing an uphill battle. At the same time, my dilemma pile, combined with Coordinated Counterattack, was giving him trouble. My deck also had a critical flaw I hadn't realized - only 1 Astrometrics in the deck, and I'd wasted a ton of time trying to solve Northwest Passage which requires 2!
In the end, I couldn't rebound from the wasted time and Johnny solved his second mission after time was called to claim the MW. Johnny is an incredible deck builder and great player, and it's always an honor to play him. |
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Round 2 | | Matt Kirk | FW (+10) |
Matt had built the deck I was playing, so I went into this game at a disadvantage. I had the advantage of knowing I couldn't solve Northwest Passage, so I adjusted accordingly and pushed hard for Terrasphere 8, trying my best to hold Matt and his two mission win TNG deck at bay. It worked for a while, and Matt had some bad luck with his dilemmas, so I was able to switch to trying to solve Transport Crash Survivors after completing my planet. I wasn't having much luck with the 8472 dilemmas, so my only option was to play for a traditional win. I was able to buy time by hitting Matt with Pivotal Destiny.
In the end, Matt's own deck worked against him. He was using New Life and had to keep drawing cards on every mission attempt. On my last turn, I had decked and Matt only had two cards in his deck. I attempted TCS, making him draw, and completed it. I then flew to Sha Ka Ree, attempted, and Matt was decked. I eked out a Full Win due to deck out, but it was a pretty close game. I really like playing Matt because he is quite thoughtful as a player and always makes good plays. |
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Round 3 | | JD_Ashley | FW (+1) |
I'd been hearing tales of JD wreaking havoc on Johnny and Matt with his kill based Klingon deck and dilemma pile, so I was not looking forward to the kill fest. JD dropped the Negh'var on turn 1 and just started spamming out Klingons, including Riker. Fortunately for me, I had Coordinated Counterattack in my opening hand and was able to play it before he started attempting. It neutered Riker, and made my 8472 dilemmas and skill walls like Counterinsurgency Program extra effective. I was also able to hit JD early with Causal Recursion, forcing him to go to four missions. That was enough time for me to solve Terrasphere 8, in spite of his Tragic Turn kill pile, and get 8 of the 8472 dilemmas in his core. Time was called, but since he went first, I won on my next turn even though he was at 105 points.
JD was the man that "saved" the tournament, and in addition he's one of the kindest, funniest, and devoted men I know. It's always a pleasure to play him. |
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Closing Thoughts |
This deck was mostly focused on theme, sticking to low cost "mirror quadrant" personnel, but that had some major drawbacks. To play it again, I'd want to sacrifice a little of the theme for some more skill coverage.
Quick card notes:
Coordinated Counterattack is a great card, if it can stay on the table.
Lineage is a pretty darn way to glide through your deck.
I used to not think much of Coordinated Assault (the Species 8472 event that adds a dilemma), but it was clutch for me today. |
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