Lucas Thompson (edgeofhearing) Tournament Report - 2E - Online Event 2015-08-10 - 12:00 AM Gathering Speed Introduction I've been hesitating about joining an online tournament for a long time; my work schedule is not fixed (and is overnight), so I've held off thus far. Now that I've finally taken the plunge, I wanted to play a deck that is fun and unexpected, so I dusted off my old Gatherers deck and updated it a bit. Round 1 Anastasia Kalashnikova FW (+10) My dilemma pile would supply me with huge draws throughout the tournament, but pulling Insurrection on Alexey's first attempt at his only Insurrectionable mission was probably the biggest one. I managed to hold him to no solved missions for quite some time, but eventually his Homeward Bounds activated and missions started falling fast. I was struggling at Brute Force without Pickpocket hitting, but a lucky Timescape draw on Alexey's last turn gave me one more shot with the mission buried. Round 2 Jay Coad FW (+35) I managed to pull off my favorite play of the tournament in this game: Caretaker's Guesting Mila, which removed Jay's interrupt prevention for a turn and put an Intelligence on top of his deck. Sure enough, he gave me Rogue Borg Ambush at my planet mission on my next turn, and I was able to use Bank Heist to pass it (saving Bridge Officer's Test for later). I was very lucky in this game; if his Tains and Damars hadn't been buried, my speed would have been completely drowned out by his sheer card advantage. As it was, needing to play around The Central Command meant that I had to bury his missions, and he could have easily solved for the win with another turn. Round 3 Andrey Gusev FW (+35) Andrey burned my early Gatherer's Raid, and I never drew an Indebtedness, so I saw relatively little of my deck this game. Fortunately, drawing removal with the Raid bought me two missions in one turn when Legacy whiffed and then I was able to use Bridge Officer's Test at my next mission. I was even able to get a Brute Force attempt in due to the Reliant's ability, and since Brute Force ended up taking ~5 attempts in this game, I needed every shot I could get. While I was waiting to draw a second Pickpocket (the first one missed), two missions fell to high-powered four personnel AU Starfleet teams, giving Andrey his own two missions in one turn. On my last turn, I was faced with an interesting choice: On counter #4 (of 8), drew Navaar (#3, numbers 1 and 2 were in my discard pile), who could help me break through a "Rapid Progress"-type wall. I could attempt with 7 and only see three dilemmas, but due to Navaar's 4 Strength, just about any attrition would stop me if it didn't select her. On the other hand, I could draw three more times (with less than 20 cards in the deck and two Pickpockets left), and set up a 5-man solve with 4 under (I Guested a personnel on top on the previous turn. Draw 1/Spend 1 versus Legacy is really good, so I drew for the Pickpocket, and hit it on draw #7. I'm not sure that was the right choice, but it was definitely the most exciting choice. Round 4 Matt Kirk FL (-40)View opponent's ReportView original Report While my dilemma pile continued to deliver with clutch Insurrection pulls and things like that, the draw deck faltered. Though I had Gatherer's Raid early, I only had 1-2 Gatherers in play for most of the game, and no Indebtedness to dig for more. Worse, Matt did a great job of keeping my Pickpockets off the table - in other matches, that usually meant that a uncontested Bridge Officer's Test would steal a mission, but Matt was cautious and never gave me that opportunity. I attempted to make a tricky play when he was attempting for the solve at his first planet by dumping all my space dilemmas, but this backfired in a few ways: 1) he ended up not solving with that attempt, so I could have just thrown 1 dilemma and 2) due to getting Insurrectioned at his first attempt at planet #2, he ended up going back to space for his third mission. That play didn't really lose me the game - Matt's strong dilemma play did that - but I'll probably avoid trying to get that fancy in the future. NA Thieves?? I was beyond amazed to see a "tier-2" deck make it through three rounds in the Dojo undefeated, and put my team to work. I knew that I needed to keep Pickpocket off the table, and that I needed to be wary of any skill wall dilemmas I threw, due to Navaar and Bank Heist. I kept his events off the table, limiting Navaar's usefulness, and avoided swinging for the fences with WNOHGB (which he would have passed with a Bank Heist, since he had used Caretaker's Guests to send my Archer to the top of my deck). I got Insurrectioned on my last planet, and made the call to go space instead (not Delphic but Cunning > 28 was much more in the realm of feasibility). But the MVP of this game was Polywater Intoxication. It stood up THREE TIMES against his team of 7 at Brute Force (he had no one over Strength 6 except Cyrus Redblock at 7) so I knew even stopping 1 would knock him out. I very gladly tried the last mission with 4, and 3 dilemmas under. He showed no play, and I picked up the win. Closing Thoughts I had a great time in this event; all my opponents were gracious and the games were fun. I'll definitely be looking to participate in another online event, time permitting. If I were to play this particular deck again, I'd look to make the following changes: +1 Chorgan, +1 Bridge Officer's Test, -1 The Albino Also, if you're not aiming for Non-Aligned achievement stuff, the deck works a lot better with a 30-35-35 structure, but the missions just aren't there without aligned help. Cardassians work best, adding missions like Kressari and plenty of cheap personnel with the skills.