Lucas Thompson (edgeofhearing) Tournament Report - 2E - American National 2018-04-28 - 12:00 PM Indisposable People Introduction I had a great time last time I traveled to Atlanta, and did again this year! Round 1 Sean O'Reilly FW (+95) I played this game very defensively, since I smelled Ja'Chuq/Dominion Will Prevail shenanigans. He did manage to stop me with my ship out once (well, I solved, but had to use three of Tolian Soran's skills), but fortunately he was a little ship-screwed and was not able to capitalize. For the rest of the game, I flew out, dropped a team, flew back, and attempted. I liked that Sean was also using Aceton Assimilators to get dilemmas under his missions. With only two missions to chose from, I can't avoid putting one under a mission he intended to go to. That said, I had Shran and was able to pull a couple of those dilemmas back anyways. Round 2 Michael Shea FW (0) I got very anxious when Shea hit me with Keevan, and I'd already paid full price for a Lore. However, he was gunning for my Transporters, and nabbed Shran instead (and Weyouned Qatai). He even pulled Keevan back with Rescue Captives, but then used him for mission attempts rather than capturing more of my people - I think he was demoralized by the steady stream of Transporters personnel. I was pretty anxious when Shea attempted with 9 and I only had one personnel out - usually it is me playing the speed solver. But once I got out and attempting (after blocking him in space for a while with Vacation From the Continuum), it was clear that he was using an Archaeology/Transporters pile, and Lal/STA/Gav cut through it like butter. I had to use a lot of Emergency Transport Units to keep Lal alive (and one to nuke his Untapped Influence), but it was worth it. Edit: I believe the score was something like 100-45 (Kressari + 1 hand weapon + Odo points) Round 3 Michael Van Breemen FW (+100) I smelled some kills coming from MVB, and dug deep for a couple Emergency Transport Units, and was vindicated when I ran into a bunch of the 4-cost interrupt-discarder dilemmas. Between the ETUs and Ira Graves, he had a lot of trouble stopping me - but he was almost done with his one non-Delphic mission. Once he got past that mission, he'd have a lot less trouble with Archer ignoring my random selections. Fortunately, Vacation From the Continuum stepped in and helped me stonewall Jupiter for long enough to win. Round 4 PaladinAlpha FL (-70) When I sat down across from Athos IV with an Android deck, I was pretty sure I was going to lose, but when I did it wasn't for the reasons I expected. I don't think I've ever looked at Learning Curve since it was spoiled ("Oh, 4 cost event, next please"), but he very effectively used it to fuel a Maquis weenie deck - up to 6 free draws a turn is really nice for low cost decks. And if you use your removal on it, you'll be sad when Biogenic Weapon hits a mission that is buried in Infestations. He mostly used the Infestations to set up things like Programmed Compulsion (high attribute decks could otherwise overwhelm Infestation without Alpha 5 Approach) and Sylvia (synergizes well with Learning Curve). The low cost of Infestation also helps set up Inferiority, which also helps prevent microteaming from hurting too much. He managed to stop the Droids more effectively than anyone else at the tournament, even with me digging for Droids to discard with Graves every turn. Great guy, fantastic and unexpected deck, I'll be picking him to win the next Atlanta event. Closing Thoughts I wanted to thank: Michael Shea, for putting together an excellent National Championships (with help from Ryan Sutton and Sean O'Reilly!). This was my second trip to Atlanta for a tournament, and I had a great time thanks to the hard work of these gentlemen. Extra thanks to Michael for putting together a warm-up event on Thursday at my request! Will Raiman, my former WoW guildmate who hosted Chris and me for a game night one of the nights. Quadropolis was a lot of fun! Thanks too to MVB and Sean O'Reilly for joining us for dinner after the tournaments! And Chris O'Connell for agreeing to come with me, and then planning most of the travel himself. Couldn't ask for a better traveling buddy!