Lucas Thompson (edgeofhearing) Tournament Report - 1E 2015-05-07 - 05:00 PM Flim-Flam Artists Introduction Round 1 April Pinnick FW (+65) April managed to develop a fair amount of firepower quite quickly, due in no small part to Ancient Burial Site and Mercenary Raider she pulled. Sure, about half her personnel were Federation, but she had enough Non-Aligneds (and NA leaders) that she was able to keep me pretty well pinned down. Fortunately, she was about as lucky as I was with dilemmas, and I was able to punch through three beforemy ships got too damaged and pulled off a full win. Round 2 epinnick FL (-65) About a half-hour into this match, I looked at my stack of six people, and, after comparing it to Eric's stack that was so tall he could barely manage it with two hands, I asked him how he could have so many personnel in play. Well, he never battled me, but his dilemmas kept killing me, while mine were happy to barely stall him for a turn. Oh well. I did manage to solve a mission, but walls like Nano-biogenic Fugitives are really tough to pass. Round 3 Matthew Zinno FW (+100)View opponent's ReportView original Report The spaceline, at first glance, favored me: my missions were generally in the middle, with Matt's at the end. But he placed his Outpost at the same mission as mine, and (like April) was able to produce more firepower, so I had some mobility issues. A turn 1 Surprise Party emptied my deck quickly, and I'd solved the first mission, so when I found Matt's Flim-Flam Artist, I red-shirted a whole crew to get the double deck-out. It was only after we'd cleaned up and were sorting our dilemmas that we realized that the draw on FFA is optional. Bluh, wind right out of the sails, I had been so proud of that play. I should have won ... but it was a lot of fun. I won the coin toss, but I needed to put down my outpost by my second seed of the facilities phase. By that time, he wouldn't have put down his outpost, and I wanted to get them near each other so I could run him down. So my first move of the facilities phase was ... pass. He got it right away. He said he could pass too, giving us a TT. I said I didn't think he would do that. He blinked, and did his seeds. Now getting to go second, I put my outpost at the same place as his (Carraya). We both built up forces early, and both including the strong ships (Bortas and Deranas – which made me worry about Sleeper Ship theft). He snuck out for a quick nearby solve at Genesis, and snuck back on the same turn. He only lost two people – Tomalak killed by my downloaded Duras on the mission solve, and Tallera (who stopped for Romance), killed by Duras battle on my turn. (Fortunately for me, and I didn't realize it then, those were his Leadership, and thus his chances for the SS steal.) He flew his Deranas off to the end of the spaceline, and I blew up his other ship. He drew out thanks to Surprise Party, and then he made what we both thought was a brilliant play: noticing that his crew was larger than my draw deck, he repeatedly redshirted into Flim-Flam Artist. I drew, and drew, and drew out. Double deck-out, FW for him. When it started I looked around for some seed card or some interrupt I might have to prevent this, but nothing. It was only during cleanup that I realized Flim-Flam says I "may" draw. All I was supposed to do was decline, and recycle my deck if needed with Get It Done. Oh well. I cheesed at the beginning, and he cheesed at the end. Fun! Round 4 Bye BY (0)