Matt Kirk (CaptMDKirk) Tournament Report - 2E Standard 2011-05-11 - 06:00 PM Road Trip Introduction I had been meaning to finally play DS9 Earth after seeing everyone having a good time with Promenade School and Jaresh-Inyo from Extreme Measures. After familiarizing myself with the basic design, I went a little left of center and tried a GQ 2-mission deck, with lots of Commanders and their ships to shuttle back and forth if need be. Several ways to round the corner were included, as were several 4-costers along with the best cheap DS9 folks. I tried Deploy the Fleet instead of Promenade School for early Jaresh-Inyo points, or for At What Cost?. Round 1 Thomas Kamiura FW (0) TK was playing his TNG weenies, but I was pretty confident I had answers in my dilemma pile for him. He got out to space quickly, and I gleefully threw Spatial Interphase and Slightly Overbooked at him, which was enough to stop him. I finally moved out to Protect Wormhole and began pecking away at it. Another stop for TK's space crew made him hesitant to try again there, and the following turn he abandoned it, heading to the venerable Geological Survey with 13. I tagged him with Fractured Time and a Necessary Execution, smacking up all his command stars and leaving him destaffed. Meanwhile, I finished up my space mission for 45 with extra points from Distant Exploration, then one-shot Changeling Research with a load of smart Vulcans, Data, and Enterprise-J. One problem: I only had 95 points. I had expected to be stopped and play more RTC support before completing it, but I wasn't about to deny the good fortune I enjoyed. I dug deep and played Jaresh-Inyo and At What Cost, dropping to 85 rather than searching for Deploy the Fleet and doing nothing. TK finally powered through his planet mission, but was still apparently missing a key skill for his space mission. He headed to Survey New World, and I bounced one after filtering out all his Biology. I pinged away at Rescue Prisoners of War, and eventually got it done for the win. Round 2 Charlie Plaine FW (0) Charlie had playtested the alpha build of this deck just a couple hours before the event, and his input was invaluable. I mixed up the personnel selection a bit, trying to diversify and have several 3/4 or 5/2 combos I could play to maximize an early personnel investment. It worked brilliantly in this game, allowing me to start with the Bellerophon and Ross, Data and George Primmin, and Jadzia Dax and Julian Bashir. I ran over to Charlie's mission with a Deploy the Fleet, ready for my next turn. He prevented it when I played it, which made my life a little tougher. Charlie was playing his version of the DS9 Earthers, favoring cheap missions and weenies for Promenade School. It was a tight game, but I managed to squeak out the win before he could start on his 3rd mission. Round 3 BlAz3D ML (0) AJ was playing Dan's (and by proxy, The Ninja Scot's) TOS/TT deck. I was afraid, because really the only defense I had against mass death was Julian Bashir, who I knew would have a huge target on him. Sure enough, AJ pegged him twice with two different dilemmas early on, and that proved to be too much for my deck to handle. AJ deservedly picked up his first tournament win.