J (The Mad Vulcan) Tournament Report - 1E - Ferenginar Regional 2013-06-02 - 01:00 PM History of the Star Empire in the Mid to Late 2360s Introduction Tough call on what to play in this event. Initially, I had considered modifying Danny Nuttall's TNG Ferengi deck. If I had, that would have made my game against Ken a mirror match. But my problem with player what is certainly the most powerful deck in the meta is that it cheapens the win a bit. I am simply the type of player who would like to win with something unexpected. Next, I considered modifying TK's Bajoran deck. TK's a bro and we play similar styles. Plus, for whatever reason nobody is play Bajoran this Regional season even though they are easily on par with TNG. The Pinks don't need the fancy new play and draw engines, they were drawing 4-5 and playing 4-5 before it was cool. Still, I already have a Bajoran victor achievement. And worse yet, I was concerned that it would do poorly against 12 space Borg, which is what I expected Justin to bring (or maybe even Kurtis). So I opted for Romulan. First, they had not won a Regional yet (and they are damned good). Second, I don't have a Romulan victor achivement yet (not for lack of trying), though I do have both Bajoran and Ferengi (I've actually won in both editions with those two). Finally, I already have a good and well play tested deck for that. So I made a few improvements and brought green. Round 1 David DeLashmit FW (+100) This might have been Dave's first tournament. He and two of his bros showed up for the big event, having only played the home meta. I was sympathetic as I was primarily a homebrew player pre-CC. Things have changed a bit, though. David was playing KCA, which I respect. But he was only playing 1-2 cards per turn and drawing 2-3 if he didn't Ops DL for a KCA leader. During the seed phase, I noted that he was seeding the Emblem rather than DL it for free with the mission. So I had lots of advice on this. While the offense was lacking, David had a good defense. The dilemmas were good enough to make me work for it. I attempted a 5 dilemma planet mission where every damned one killed 1-2. Luckily, I wasn't sending the people who matter into danger. Still, by the time I had 2 missions and Soran in the Nexus, he had only the opportunity for one mission attempt - which was failed at needing Officer for the Hazardous Duty. Round 2 Richard DeLashmit FW (+100) Next, I played David's brother Richard. He had a cool Cardassian Capture build, which unfortunately was not playing people fast enough either. He noted that, by the 5th turn I was lining Soran up for the nexus and attempting the second mission while he had 5 personnel in play. When the smoke cleared he had his people on a ship coming over to Captured a whole lot of mine, but it wasn't quite fast enough to make it so. Again, the dilemmas were great. At one point, I attempted with 20 and Flapjacks took the obligatory 10. Then the followup took another. This filled my graveyard to the brim but then revealed Executive Authorization. But I'd just Red Shirted Neral! So with Soran in the Nexus, the Space mission solved and the planet cleared down to a single D; I played a Isomag to get my draw deck back and started churning it for Neral. Round 3 Kenneth Tufts FL (-100)View opponent's ReportView original Report In planning for this tournament, I specifically expected Ken to go DQ. He recently lost all his DQ achievements, so I thought he'd be hot to reacquire them. Instead he was trying one last unholy go at broken Ferengi battle. Too bad my dilemmas were teched for DQ. I think this went quite well actually, though obviously not well enough. I started by using the 1st turn card play to get the D'deridex with AAH and moved it to Romulus with the mission specialists staffing. I then Defened Homworld DL'd for Telak and played him to the HQ so I had all my best play engines in the safety zone. Unfortunately, this is where the draws got me. I couldn't get a handshake to save my life and I needed them to churn for the HQ: Secure Homeworld. I didn't see that necessary card until my last turn and couldn't play until the turn that never happened. I had also had to wait to attempt space for lack of Diplomacy (which turned out not to matter. But Ken loves to lead off with Gomtuu Shock Wave). This attempt left me with a clear mission, but a very full ship heading down the spaceline on a Cytherian cruise. I STP'd them to hand and Ken wisely Scorched it. In retrospect, this deck would tech better against Ferengi if I seeded the HQ: Secure HW, Fed Flagship: Recovered, and then only 18 dilemmas. After the game, I took a peak at the Romulus dilemmas and they were a cakewalk for the green bloods. The space line set up had J hiding at his home world with 2 space missions then my main staging area, if he ventured to far out I would damage his ships for draw and points and stop him attempting space with the Quantum torpedoes. I used Empok to draw up cards gets some equipment and points then started solving. J never saw his secure HW card while I started clearing dilemmas. J went for a space mission with a big crew once I started solving, after Cytherians hit him he STP bounced the ship so I scorched his now huge hand. At this point my lead was to great I was able to just keep solving before he could really recover. Round 4 Justin Ford FW (+65)View opponent's ReportView original Report My deck drew much better here, and unfortunately (for Justin) his was doing the no Handshake to be found gig. I was out and attempting the planet of choice pretty early and found a Founder Secret. Then I built up with Droids, Lower Decks, and HQ: war room. I could bust it with 7, but opted for 8 since flapjacks would take 4 either way. Justin had a cool combo here. Founder Secret + Unscientific Method + Crystaline Entity doubled with Lore. This cleared the board of my whole away team (except Data, who's the fuckin' Honey Badger). But then I waited to have lots of good Mission Specialists before solving. Justin attempted the space mission with my Friendly Fire combo quite early (turn 2 maybe?) which meant that he didn't have his cheat for it in play yet. Still, the countdown ticked off rather quickly and he could solve with 2 specialists for 35 (not he failed to lose 5 from Hazardous Duty because I managed to pick the only officer for the death). After that he was shut out for a bit while The Nexus strolled by as I had solved my planet for 45. Finally, he managed to attempt another mission. But this time he found my V'ger and that cleared the board of all but maybe 3 personnel. At my space, I found Ken patented Cytherians combo. Except this time it meant that my ship was flying into the Nexus instead of a Ferengi Armada. I love it! I just had a ship catch up the next turn, toss Soran on board, and then once my people were in The Nexus, I relocated them to my outpost mission (a planet), boarded a ship, and solved the space. That was 45 + 20 + 50 for the overkill. J is also a frustrating opponent to play, similar to the deck I faced him off at the Vancouver regional where I was playing the DQ Hirogen Solver. Both started out slow a bit. It helped that I was able to destroy his entire away team with a Doubled Crystalline Entity which slowed him down a bit. In the end, it was a failed V'ger combo that ended the game basically, lost the Enterprise with about 25% of my personnel in play and could not draw into a second or third ship. He managed to score some bonus points to top off his 2 mission victory. Not as good a showing as the previous regional but enjoyed seeing his play style again. Closing Thoughts After the last game, Justin and I were discussing the tournament results. We both new that Ken had won, but I pointed out that I would actually win the event if his last game (still going) ended in a loss. And. it. did.