Al Schaefer (ltkettch17) Tournament Report - 2E - Deep Space 9 Regional 2013-06-01 - 12:00 PM VGer_+_IA_Regionals 2013 Introduction The Iowa Regional is the final regional I would be attending this year. I've had great success in the last two years and was hoping for another great outing. I met up with Eric and Brian the night before for dinner and some games. We spent the night at Brian's place then met up with Ed and Casey to make the road-trip to Cedar Rapids. We were certain to plan enough time to stop at the Worlds Largest Truck-Stop on the way. When we rolled into Cedar Rapids we had lunch at their finest Hardee's and met about half of the tournament participants there. The ample dose of grease took the edge off of our caffeinated highs and we were ready to play. HUGE thanks to Amber for running the regional again this year. Round 1 Jeremy Benedict FW (0)View opponent's ReportView original Report Dominion is totally off my radar and I did not know what to expect from the Chief Ambassador. I was expecting some kind of ship destruction to come my way, but it never did. Jeremy was also playing cautiously and kept saying "I'm not sure what you're up to..." so I must have disguised my mission solving well. Jeremy was able to stop me easily with dilemmas like Gorgon, Tactical Disadvantage, Moral Choice, and Unwanted Guests. When he finally went to attempt a mission I was practically foaming at the mouth when I drew into my Overburdened, but the card whiffed and I faced a Hard Time at my next attempt. Jeremy was giving me plenty of card draws via Hollow Pleasantries and with 7/9 manipulating my top two cards and Energize on the table I was able to get the most out of my Euro-sized draw deck. Jeremy did an excellent job with his dilemma plays but I was able to end this close game just as time was called. As soon as we get paired, Al delivers the line of the match: "Let's see who the real Chief is, Ambassador." I've had bad tilt in the past with Voyager, but I'm starting to get over it now that I know more about what makes it work. I was loading up Al's hand repeatedly with draws from Keevan and Hollow Pleasantries and then making him get rid of all the extra cards with Shared Hallucination and Dreamer and the Dream. I was able to get rid of a number of Chakotays from his hand this way, but he was still able to do enough damage with the one he had on the table and his events to make me work extra hard with dilemmas. Al made great plays and held me to two missions in a close race to the finish. Well played, sir! Round 2 Jeremy Huth FW (0) Jeremy had just defeated Ed in round 1 so I did not know what to expect. Jeremy is a very experienced gamer and although his 2E record is not all that spectacular, you never know when a player of his pedigree decides to start winning. I was especially cautious when his first two card plays were Invasive Drones. Now I'm thinking that I'm going to see some kind of drive-by assimilation so I try to lay down as many personnel as I can and store up some Grav Traps in my hand. In then end, Jeremy had no special tricks and I was worried for no reason. Energize and 7/9 were on the table like in the previous game, and I had no trouble getting any cards into play. Round 3 Michael O'Shogay FL (0) Finally, on my 4th straight Regional visit to Iowa, I get to play Michael. When he springs Dominion on the table I'm especially nervous because I have no idea what to expect. Michael just defeated MVB in the previous game so either his Dominion is for real, or he just knew how to spoil MVB's gimmick for today. I get off to a solid start with Long Journey Home in my opening hand and drawing into Voyager on my first turn. I thought I was in great shape when Michael decided not to give me any dilemmas when I attempted Caretakers with 4 and I solved. But then things took a dramatic turn when my draw deck absolutely refused to produce personnel for about 3 turns straight. Specifically personnel with gold stars. Voyager sat at a solved Caretakers Array for 3 full turns before I could move to Instruct Advanced Drone and attempt with a paltry 7. Meanwhile, Michael's multi-species Dominion deck is making my dilemma pile look like a pile of you know what. He attempts back-to-back planet missions (without a completed space mission) which absolutely blows my mind - I wasn't playing Necessary Execution, so it was an awesome move, but I just didn't think people did that anymore. I over-play dilemmas at Michael's first attempt in space and just miss sending him Where No One Has Gone Before. Then I'm able to bluff him on his next attempt with a Shared Hallucination and 4 more dilemmas that won't stop his crew. He chooses to stop everyone to the SH and I have a shot at my last mission. He gets 7/9 on a Hard Time but 6 personnel still make it down to the mission requirements and I have exactly 38 Cunning, just one short of a come from behind win. If 7/9 had made it through, I would have had that last Cunning for the mission. Congrats to Michael, he played extremely well after giving me Caretakers and his deck was something I was completely unprepared for. Round 4 Michael Van Breemen FL (0)View opponent's ReportView original Report When MVB revealed Bajor, I expected his first card play to be Quintessence. Unfortunately, MVB's deck was similar to O'Shogay's in the sense that he had a bunch of low-mid cost personnel with high attributes that can complete his missions with a small group of 5. MVB gets off to a solid start again, going for two planets first and me without any NE. I really fall behind when MVB is able to cheat past my Rogue Borg Ambush. I discarded a Grav-Trap early, but his hand size was small and I thought it was worth the risk. But he played his one copy of Natural Instincts anyway and I was never able to catch up. MVB's Legacy's went 3 for 3 and I had nothing that could combat them. Up until this point I hadn't used a single interrupt in my deck whatsoever and thought that maybe next time not to use it. However, Al reminded me why I had them in the first place. First, he played some filters at IMA and would've gotten a kill if Trazko wasn't in the deck for Covenant. While he didn't use Covenant, he did nicely take care of Occupational Hazards for me to keep enough people living to solve the mission in one attempt. At Track Survivors, he gave me Rogue Borg but my lone Natural Instincts was in hand to get past it and solved the mission in one attempt. Meanwhile, he was hit by every Legacy and took four turns to solve Caretaker's Array and was having a hard time just keeping people in play as he was killing people left and right with Hinderance. As a result, space took a long time but there was just too many of my people in play to stop them forever. Closing Thoughts Eric defeated O'Shogay in the final game, winning his first regional ever. Eric and I played for the win at MI this year, IN last year, and he got second at IL in 2010. I'm really glad he finally got the win. My streak of Regional wins is finally at an end. I wasn't able to do my normal Regional preparation for this event and I feel that my performance today is definitely a result of lack of preparation. Both Michael's played incredibly well and took advantage of my dilemma piles weaknesses. Both were playing decks that I hadn't seen before and while Voyager is solid, it is predictable and doesn't have any new tricks, giving them another advantage. All good things to remember for next year when we plan another epic invasion of Iowa for some good laughs, fun games, and great competition.