Jason Tang (PantsOfTheTalShiar) Tournament Report - 1E 2017-11-18 - 09:00 PM Surak's Dirty Dozen [Block-ENT] Introduction James, being the mad scientist that he is, wanted to host an unusual tournament in his dungeon laboratory, and we were his willing (though perhaps unwitting) test subjects. The whole process did feel a little bit like playtesting, though I have to grudgingly agree with James's assessment that "Block isn't as broken as I thought it would be." More thoughts on that in the Conclusion. I had some hints that IDIC: Wisdom of Surak was bonkers, so I wanted to try taking that TO THE MAX. I paired it with Kolinahr, which seems much better than Protect the Timeline (though not strictly better, as I once thought). The ability to play Vulcans for free to an outpost on the spaceline and the easier method of picking up reinforcements put it over the top, and the built-in treaty can help you solve your homeworld. Round 1 James Heaney FW (+73) James was also Vulcan, but with High Command. I got both Tucker and Archer early. To his credit, his dilemmas did stop me several times, with some help from a well-placed Thorough Debriefing. However, no dilemma stopped me for more than one turn, and soon enough I had solved both of my missions adjacent to Thorough Debriefing. I'm pretty sure I used Archer's download after he was selected to die in this game. James does eventually get through my Assassination Attempt(/Thorough Debriefing)/Contaminating a Culture/Friendly Fire because I should have ended with Linguistic Legerdemain instead of Friendly Fire. There was also a Founder Secret at the beginning of that combo or at another mission that he eventually passed with like 10-12 guys. However, he can't get through my OFFICER space combo before I can cross over Vulcan and solve Police Trade Route in a couple of turns for the win. At the end of the game, I had just one card left in the deck and only 1-2 of my personnel had died. Round 2 Kevin FW (+100) Kevin O. was Regent's Flagship battle. I think this game I got Massage out early, but didn't draw into Katra/Archer for a few turns. After my first planet attempt, he uses WNOHGB to come to my end of the spaceline and battle me on the ground. (Later we realized WNOHGB actually doesn't seem to work for inter-quadrant travel, but whatever.) I learned the hard way that Bat'leth was Block-legal. Kevin was very effective in killing my guys, with 4 total casualties from battle this game and at least that many from dilemmas like T'Pol Has Some Issues. However, my Away Teams were very effective in clearing the dilemmas out, so it only took 1-2 more turns of personnel plays before I could solve each of my planets. Kevin gets an Alliance Vor'cha out, so I'm worried about Direct Hits vs. my ships as I look to my space mission on the other side of Vulcan. But Kevin has to start solving missions, and the Forsaken/Rules of Obedience combo at his one mission in my sector stops him cold and leaves him more than one turn's range away from my space mission of choice. He crosses to the other side of the Alpha Quadrant to attempt another mission, where he gets hit with Gomtuu Shock Wave, and that gives me a window to solve space for the win. Round 3 Joe Kallstrom FW (+100) Joe was also Wisdom Vulcan, though not as extreme as mine. We duplicated three missions, so winning was a matter of solving my three unduplicated missions. A well-placed Dead End stops me at my planet, and Joe was thwarted by my OFFICER space combo. I think I get Archer out right away, but I'm a little slower to get Massage out. Soon, though, I get through two other missions so I can solve the Dead End mission for the win. Only two of my personnel had died from dilemmas. Closing Thoughts I was happy to get my first tournament win, though it did feel a little dirty. All of my games finished with ~20 minutes to spare. We had some fresh faces, and I think people had fun. After my game with Joe, he said it was interesting to have some restrictions, particularly with regard to dilemmas, and I have to say that playing in this tournament did force me to try out some different combos that I will certainly try in Complete, too. With that out of the way, let's talk about the elephants in the room: Block, and IDIC: Wisdom of Surak. First, let's talk Block. In theory, a Block deck should be easier to make. In some ways it was, since the play and draw engines are pretty obvious, and time-location factions get two free reports from one large personnel pool. In other ways it wasn't easier, because of limited mission selection and some surprising omissions like HQ: Secure Homeworld. I used Crossover and the mirror Vulcans to attempt my homeworld instead. There's also the challenge of learning a new card pool. This is only a factor for veteran players, but if the barrier to entry is too high for the veterans, then they'll just stick with Complete. There's a good chance that the veterans will be building the decks for the newbies anyway. In the process of building a deck for the tournament, I discovered that the database wasn't accurate, which James thankfully managed to fix within 24 hours. However, after the tournament I noticed that the deck viewer still doesn't properly identify a Block-legal deck. None of the articles about new Block cards contain Block-legal decks, so there seems to be no easy way to find Block-legal decks. The hardest part of building for Block is the dilemma pool, which is a sea of filters with no payoff. A couple days before the tournament I considered abandoning this deck in favor of a KCA deck that seeded 4 copies of Enlistment Drive just so I could use Pursuit Just Behind and cause SOME damage. The flip side of this is that mission attempts become so easy that they lose strategic depth. Because nothing really bad can ever happen to your crew or Away Team, you can freely attempt with everyone all the time. I'll save philosophical discussion about what Block SHOULD BE for some other place, but those are my observations about how it IS. Now let's talk about IDIC: Wisdom of Surak. I encountered The Ghost of Cyrus Ramsey twice in this tourney, and passed it both times, even though my deck has no Transporter Skill (I also never passed it with the MEDICAL requirement). I encountered Subspace Shock Wave twice, and passed it both times, even though my deck has no Navigation. I'm pretty sure I passed a Maglock even though my only two OFFICERs are unique. Wisdom of Surak is a very powerful card together with The Katra of Surak, which is easy enough to draw into when you dig 3-5 cards into your deck each turn and have a slim deck because you don't have to worry about skill holes. I don't think I ever ran out of personas for the "use Honor as X" ability. For the sake of science, I have to explore some other possible factors. Since Block is weak on kill dilemmas, I was never tempted to hold any personnel back, so they could pool their skills (both printed and gained) to maximum effect. However, my deck had enough redundancy that I would just replay any personnel that died. This was also the first Block tournament since LLAP, so it might be possible for the metagame to adapt, perhaps by going overboard with the BB dilemmas. But then the Wisdom of Surak deck could also adapt by actually trying to cover skill holes. Wisdom of Surak + Katra of Surak allows you to basically ignore the skill requirements of 2-5 dilemmas of your choice per game, while giving you an attribute boost. Considering that a three-mission win will require encountering at most 12 dilemmas, some of which won't require skills, and some of which you'll have the skills for anyway, that's huge.