Neil Timmons (ntimmons) Tournament Report - 2E Standard - Sector 001 Regional 2012-04-07 - 01:00 PM Two Great tastes that taste great together Introduction We drove all the way down to the store in Chesapeake. I swore I wouldn't go all the way down after last year's regional, but well, we went down anyway. There were 5 people in the car, BenHosp, Phil Schrader, John Corbett and his daughter Constance Corbett. We were all rooting for Constance to win a game, as she loses a lot up in Delaware. I had a really great plan to build a deck that would wreck BenHosp's Borg Dissidents that he has been beating me with lately. Then I struggled to come up with a deck because it was a rough week and I didn't have time to build it, then I ultimately put it together 5 minutes before the tournament. Instead of the awesome dilemma pile I had half built in my brain, I ended up having to grab the dilemma pile out of my box that I thought may work the best. So much for best laid plans. The Maquis. I have written about them a lot before. it's a simple to play deck. get the Defiant out. use it as much as you can. Use the Maquis tricks to bust through strength missions. rely on killing events and dilemmas to keep my opponent from speeding ahead. Also I feel like there are lots of very powerful ships that people rely on, so I was packing 3x A Few Minor difficulties just in case. James gave me the Madden curse when he put me on the box of "People who will win" but I manged to overcome some of the curse and come in second. At least I wasn't traded after injury... Round 1 silverej FW (+65) This was a scary game from the beginning. He was doing the right things to beat me. he had a Hypospray in play, and a lot of guys. I could tell he was playing a Central Command unstoppable deck, so I figured I had one or two shots at some good old fashioned murders, but that was about it. I caught him at his first space mission with an equipment malfunction, and was able to wipe his ship down but not out. It was also the Prakesh and despite me having both A few minor difficulties and Power to the Weapons, I could not play both in one turn, so his personnel were safe. I however caught him at his second mission and sort of killed everybody a little bit. I was able to get a planet and a space done, so when time was called I had one chance to do my final mission for the FW. I somehow managed to dodge through a bunch of dilemmas, and at the end had just enough to complete my final mission. FW 100-30 Round 2 John Corbett FW (+100) Ah crap. more of this TNG/Cadet/2 mission win with the new Genital Captain. I know that if I can attack the commanders I have a reasonable chance at forcing him to do a 3rd mission, but this deck can do two easy missions and score 20-30 bonus points to come up with an easy 2 mission win plus bonus just in case. John knew exactly what I was doing, so he ran a crew headlong into my dilemma pile to get a bunch of dilemmas under. it worked. he caught a lot of dilemmas. then he went to build up a crew, but was stuck without a security personnel. so while he waited to draw into a security personnel, I was working on my missions. I caught a trip to nowhere, but was able to get back and finish my space mission. While I was working on my second mission with a timescape on it, I tried a weak attempt at my 3rd mission where John tried a one drop bouncing wall, but I was able to overcome it and one attempt complete my 3rd (well, second at this point) mission, leaving me only Rescue prisoners with 3 dilemmas under it. While John was still digging for Security I was able to double team the mission and get it finished. FW 100-0 Round 3 Phil Schrader FW (+70) Phil was playing Jaresh-Inyo with DS-9 personnel who won't die. Ugh. This may be a long game. I was able to slow him down with Stalling for Time, Cascade Virus, Defiant, and Alarming Rumors, giving me time to chew on my own missions. I was working on my second mission when we had a rules dispute. If he plays Jaresh-Inyo, to download 3 personnel, does he lose the 4 points if I prevent him with Alarming Rumors? before the entry in the CRD it was ambiguous at best. admittedly I had not read in great detail the CRD that explains the timing of playing personnel, so I just called the judge over to have him sort it out. He ruled (after the fact, in my opinion he ruled incorrectly) that if Jaresh-Inyo was prevented he would in fact lose the 5 points as well, Phil was set back and on tilt. He did manage to play another Promenade School, and play Jaresh Inyo to download a bunch of personnel, but I was too far ahead working on my 3rd mission. He ran headlong into my dilemmas as his first mission, but due to the one Medical Teams I was not able to catch with Valjean he didn't lose too many personnel. He completed his first mission and ran headlong into my dilemma pile at his second mission. Knowing that I was going to most likely win the next turn, when most of his personnel died, he just picked up. FW 100-30 Round 4 Ben Hosp FL (-25) Ben knew exactly what I was doing, and he had a plan. He was wondering if I had learned the lesson he learned about Tragic Turn in the future. I had not. See, Tragic Turn is not good if you face 17 personnel, with a limited number of dilemmas that actually kill personnel, even if they all work, it's hard to kill enough. also even if you fear Kirk, don't put Secret ID last, because it lets your opponent pull out whatever it is you had been filtering for. Long story short, yes. I have learned my lesson, Fractured Time needs to be in that pile. He was able to complete his cadet mission despite something like 10 personnel dying. he built up a few more turns, and went to Restore Errant Moon, and did a very effective double team. I slowed him down with a few minor difficulties, but in the end it was not enough, his first mission attempt was very good. You remember the scene in Hunt for Red October were Captain Ramius steers into the path of a torpedo, because he knows the firing locks don't engage until the torpedo is very close to the enemy ship, and he closed to within the distance? yes. I feel like the enemy captain having to turn all the safety locks off because I didn't learn a lesson when Ben tried to teach it to me the first time. FL 100-75 Round 5 Constance Corbett FW (+100) Wow.. wait, Constance?!? how am I facing Constance in the 5th round?? what, is she 3-1 or something?? oh, she is?? and she is playing a TNG deck that most likely has a lot of doctors?? well crap. So if my math is right, that means this 9 year old girl just laid waste to 3 Virginia players. Ok.. well here we go then. Basically I had a perfect draw this game. why can't I have perfect draws against people like Ben? I had Definat out on turn 3, and I had all three cascade virus' in hand, and 2 stalling for times sent Data as Dr. Polaski back to her hand. I was also able to get through her dilemmas and chew on my missions. She was having problems finding a ship. Finally when she found a ship, I was able to filter her doctor away and kill a bunch of personnel. She was all ready to complete her mission, but I snuck in and completed my 3rd mission. People were giving me some guff about running a 9 year old girl into the jaws of Tragic Turn, and I had to say that anybody I meet in the 5th round, who is 3-1, gets both barrels. I helped her a little when she forgot I was at a planet mission, and gave her back the misseeded space dilemma so I wasn't mean, but in a must win situation, even 9 year old girls have to have their team killed. Other then that I am very proud of Constance for going down there and doing as well as she did. Her only losses were to Ben and myself. She was bouncing off the walls in the car from her victories, and it was great to see her having fun playing our super awesome card game. I predict she is the first Jr. STCCG Worlds winner.