Greg Hodgin (tomalak) Tournament Report - 2E 2016-03-26 - 01:00 PM Introduction I came off my Master's win very excited and I thought I'd bring something different to the tournament. So I brought my Equinox deck I've been toying with for a while. That was a huge mistake. It wasn't ready for prime time, and I was roasted. Round 1 Michael Parrish FW (+100) Mr. Parrish played well, but it was Equinox vs. Voyager, and I knew his deck very well. He got a mission or two on me, but my deck did what it was supposed to do, and I couldn't complain too much. I didn't get Equinox on turn 1, however, and that did hamper me a bit. His Chula pile was a bit annoying, but that's just a grind which I was willing to do. Round 2 Scott Baughman FW (+70) TOS weenies! As usual it's always fun to play against Scott. It was grind against grind, but in the end the Equinox was able to triumph. Again, it wasn't a blow out, and he managed to score a mission. Round 3 Will Raiman FL (-70) Will stopped me cold with his Dominion infiltrator deck. I did get to download the Equinox Doctor (he's an infiltrator!), but that's all the fun I had. Trying to chew through missions with infiltrators everywhere was incredibly difficult: I was usually facing -2 to my attributes and The Clown: Bitter Medicine made my life hell (he named Treachery, duh). I finished one mission, but he took a full win. He's good. I was annoyed. Round 4 Nathan Miracle FL (-80)View opponent's ReportView original Report Ah Nathan! Always a fast game.. but usually I'm the one who wins. NO... not this time. Adopted Authority + Ent-J on my side = two free stops and a bounceback for him when I really needed every person on deck to get through missions. I couldn't slow him down enough, but I gave him a run for his money. When Greg drew his opening hand, he immediately stated he would play the whole hand out on turn one. He followed through on that promise, playing Finding Our Way, U.S.S. Equinox, a couple of 0-cost events, a 2-cost personnel and Thompson (discarding a Nucleogenic interrupt), ending his turn with nothing in his hand. I went the exact opposite route and played Tain as my first card, immediately overstuffing my hand. Adopted Authority gave Greg headaches throughout the game. At Caretaker's Array, despite Greg's large number of Integrity 4 Equinox personnel, I randomly selected Dathon in one attempt and T'Pol in another. Once Greg finished Caretaker's Array (which took some time, since I also hit him with Moral Choice and An Issue of Trust), Adopted Authority became even more effective. Greg's U.S.S. Enterprise-J boosted all of his personnel up to the point of falling the "stupid question" line. Meanwhile, Greg's dilemmas proved nearly as effective against my Cardassians. He stopped personnel with Unfair Comparison and finished them off with Tsiolkovsky Infection, Whispers in the Dark and Sylvia. My army of non-unique personnel often walked face-first into death, but I just played more. I caught a break at Eliminate Harvesters when after a Whispers in the Dark, I still had just enough Cunning to complete the mission with Tajor. The epic climax of the game came at Access Relay Station, when I attempted with 10 personnel. Unfair Comparison tried to stop three personnel, but Dukat pushed through with The Die is Cast. Next came Formal Hearing, but I discarded a ship for Dukat, Ambitious Commander to gain Honor from Ari. That Honor immediately came in handy again against Whispers in the Dark, allowing me to complete the mission and the game. Closing Thoughts Yeah... this deck goes back to the drawing board dammit.