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Al Schaefer (ltkettch17)
Tournament Report - 2E Standard - Deep Space 9 Regional
2011-04-16 - 11:00 AM
RomulanBreaking all the rules...
Introduction
In preparing for this tournament I had 3 draw decks and 1 dilemma pile that I was confident would "do well." However, I was not too sure that any one of them was a "sure thing" or really had that "extra something" that would finally take me to a regional win in my home state. Historically I've played my worst or had some rotten luck at the IL regional. Today would be no different. After reading some reports of other completed Regionals I saw that Romulans were making a comeback. I had an FSE deck that was okay, and I thought that adding the new Donatra and Assess Contamination (as well as some other changes) would finally upgrade this deck to a new level. I had a version ready to play-test the night before the tournament and it won 2 games handily and lost one very closely. I thought this was great, a few small tweaks and this deck wold be golden for tomorrow. I named the deck "Breaking All The Rules" after the tournament because it effectively ignores everything I've learned about playing CCG's for over 15 years.
Round 1Eric BiecheFL (-25)
Rule #1: Don't play a deck at a 'championship' level tournament unless it has been thoroughly play-tested. Eric had been playing Tragic Turn/Clown/ACE to death lately and was one of the reasons I felt my new Romulan deck would perform well. I defeated him the night before with pretty much the same matchup but this game took a different turn. I just wasn't able to remove enough personnel from the game to get the Telepathic Deception lock I was planning on. I got off to a great start as Eric had some trouble finding a ship. But my early lead was cut short by his ability to gain skills with Confessions and my inability to play FSE enough. Eric was able to secure the Full Win after time had been called.
Round 2BorgMike BurkeMW (+75)
Rule #2: Don't play a deck at a swiss event that will not win games in the time allowed. Greasy Dukat in my opening had was a welcome sight as Mike's super-sized draw deck probably meant that he was planning on Queen-swapping and playing Back to Basics. Mike was also playing the standard Tragic Turn pile, so my mission selection and Donatra came in handy. I was able to place enough skills out of play to get the Telepathic 'lock' going, but Mike also had cheating interrupts which would allow him to get past my dilemmas if conditions were right. We ran out of time before this game came to an end, I was ahead, but Mike had a ton of drones in play and could have completed another mission if he had some cheaters left.
Round 3DS9Maggie GeppertFL (-85)
Rule #3: Bring a speed deck if you're playing in a tournament you are also running. Maggie's deck was similar to Eric's playing a Deep Space Nine crew except with Gamma Quadrant missions and bonus points for a 2 mission win. I knew I was in for big trouble when the first 5 personnel she played had skills on Telepathic Deception. I decided to try an alternate removal strategy and go for mission skills. This was almost good enough, but Maggie was able to get 2 missions done and score enough bonus' to win without doing a third mission.
Round 4RomulanBrian LeonardFL (-40)
Rule #4: If you have a chance to get a ship, do it. Brian's long time favorite affiliation is Romulans. He loves to play stuff that will affect what cards you draw and re-order your draw deck. One of the weaknesses of my deck is that it only has 3 ships. This hasn't been a problem in the past because I use These Are The Voyages to speed through my draw deck and get key cards in hand. I had already played 2 TATV and still did not have a ship. My third TATV was in hand but I decided to place it on the bottom of my deck because a ship would surely be coming up soon. Then Brian's deck kicked in. He played an event that allowed him to look at X cards on top of my deck for as many Leadership (i think?) personnel he had in play. Well, X=8, and Brian re-ordered my draw deck. He put a ship on top to score points with P&P, so I knew my next ship was at least 8 cards and 2 turns away. This was another game where I was getting FSE, but my opponent was stocking too much of the Telepathic Deception skills for me to get a lock so again I tried for mission skills. Anytime I put two copies of a skill out of play, Brian would play 3 from his hand. I couldn't find the edge (or a ship) and Brian won the game. I should have saved that TATV and played it on my next turn to get down to where my ships were hiding.
Round 5RomulanTOSJoshua SheetsFW (+30)View opponent's Report
Rule #5: It's a game, have fun. This is the one rule that my deck didn't break. Josh is a super nice guy and was obviously drinking similar Romulan Kool-Aide when we laid out our missions for the game. He used TOS card drawing instead of TATV, but was potentially hurt by dual hq hate. I was able to keep his EXO and Telepathy off table and was playing Telepathic Deception at will. He eventually got Navarra (who I should have played but went with Spock instead) and was able to cheat a few dilemmas and make this very close game. His dilemmas were stopping me cold as well. 30 minutes into the game, neither of us had a mission done and only had 3 dilemmas (each) stacked under missions. After I finally got Assess Contamination done I was able to get my last 2 missions completed relatively easily. Josh is a great guy and we had quite a few laughs in this game. He kept forgetting to play an Exobiology guy that was in his hand and I kept forgetting to use FSE even though it was in play.