Michael Van Breemen (The Ninja Scot) Tournament Report - 2E 2012-05-27 - 12:00 PM Non-Aligned - Because Race to the Alpha Quadrant Doesn't Count Introduction Just as the title says, that's the reason why I was playing this in the tournament. I was also going for the all different species deck as well and decided to try an Unfair Comparison pile to go with it. Round 1 Michael Moskop FW (+95)View opponent's ReportView original Report He was playing Mirror Starfleet but was going just as slow as I was. He attempts his space mission with seven people so I play Unfair Comparison and WNOHGB, not doing the best job at skill tracking. My pile flops - Coolant Leak, Unfair Comparison and Secret Identity while he gets Agonizing Encounter, Pitching In and something else so that was a whiff... but because he didn't have D'Vela in play yet (that would've been the next turn), he lacks Exobiology and Physics for a whiff. I make it through my space mission for 50 points with Debate and Tallera at the mission but my ship got hit by Gomtuu so I to one of his planet missions as I have a Deploy the Fleet in hand. I play it next turn to get me to 55 and then head over to the Deliver Ancient Artifact, attempting with everyone but Tallera. He gives me Secret Identity, taking out someone (can't remember who) and in comes in Gav. Another dilemma comes before I get his Rogue Borg Ambush which Gav gives him five points as I gain Intelligence for the solve and win. 100-5 If someone apologizes for the very first card they play (Goval), it is not going to be a fun game. Round 2 Mike Burke FW (+35) I knew what the pile does and I have no kill prevention in the deck. I knew that practically everyone in the deck could get hit with Clown: Guillotine but only one would die. He's playing with a lot of 4-cost dudes which was something I had to keep track of. He attempts with four at Investigate Alien Probe and I hit him with WNOHGB which was awesome. I attempt with eight and while only three died (one to Clown, one to ACE and one to Dal'rok, it was enough to destaff my Eleventh Gradient and forcing me to get my lone Ent-A in the deck. Meanwhile, he reattempts IAP with five and I give one, but he Kirk's this one to give him the mission (I proceeded to remind him that Kirk goes out of play when he does this which he didn't know.) It takes me about four turns before I draw into the ship and on the fifth turn, I play it with people able to staff both ships. They fly and solve Soliton Wave for 55 points (Ent-A, Tallera, Debate) before flying the ships back to Wormhole and then the Eleventh Gradient flew to Deliver Ancient Artifact for the attempt. Not as much slaughter took place again (4 this time I believe) but with plenty of people in play, destaffing wasn't going to be a problem as my Debate over Dinner made it difficult for him to get more Consumes going. Meanwhile, he was getting stopped at Host Metaphasic Shielding with some awesome top-decking (draw 2, play Unfair Comparison and get it to hit barely 6 over 5 and then draw 1, play Secret Identity and taking out his lone Engineer that he couldn't replace as the remaining Engineers were either in hand or in play.) Eventually he solves and heads to Aid Lost Colony, double-teaming the attempt. I stop his two attempts with three under (forced him to use his ETA during one of his attempts and captured Ilia and Number One on the second of two attempts.) His last attempt, he attempts with nine with two under. I play Unfair Terms (getting his lone Transporters in Nagata as well as Mona Luvitt which was quite possibly the only two people who could've died on this dilemma), Whispers in the Dark which killed three and Sylvia which captured 2. After that, I solved my mission for 45 (spending 5 points on Emck to play for free, downloading Ruk and playing him along with someone else to get the bodies I needed. 100-65. Round 3 Eric Bieche ML (-15) He was playing a similiar deck to Amber's with Samuels/Damaged Archer. I'm having a problem drawing any ships in this game and he's having fun blowing up or returning events to the deck with Grav's and Lustful Distractions which would come back to bite me as I was always one event short of using my typical filter/killer combination. I pick off Archer with Secret Identity (he had already discarded one before) and was able to get just enough people to prevent the solve (Slightly Overbooked, Issue of Trust, etc.) However, he was able to slow me down in space as, while my people are smart, they aren't all that Integrity driven even with Kes' seven Integrity so Gomtuu hit again in this game and I had more of my Treachery people out than normal. Still, I solve Soliton Wave for 55 (Tallera/Mission Accomplished/Debate over Dinner)before he solved his Eliminate Sphere Network. I attempted at Deliver Ancient Artifact and got two under but unfortunately, he put Skeleton Crew on the mission (no TCS in this game) He goes to the Investigate Anachronism and gets stopped but he's gotten a whole lot of people in play at this point so he's perfectly ready for his double teams. I missed my guess and thought he'd send down a false team first so all I play is Issue of Trust but it only stops one and unfortunately for me, that one is Karyn Archer who goes out of play. He then moves to Investigate Refinery with a 65-55 point lead and both planet/space. At this point, this would be his final attempt as we're almost out of time so I give him as much as I can, getting him stopped at that mission with plenty underneath to have him solve any next turn that he would've had. On my turn, I should've played the Navaar that was in my hand but I didn't, instead drawing some to give Goval more events to munch on and enough people to double attempt with a team of seven and a team of six. The team of seven get stopped by An Issue of Trust (which didn't matter as they couldn't solve anyway) I then attempt with six, knowing that as long as Ruk and Goval could keep going, I could solve with any two other people that came along for the ride. Unfortunately, as Ruk was my only Exobiology in that team, Dark Page stopped him and that was game. If I had played Navaar, I could've given them the skill to get stopped for the win but that wasn't what happened.