Chris Donati (Swisherfan) Tournament Report - 2E Standard - Risa Regional 2011-06-18 - 02:00 PM Jaresh Inyo and the Fellowship of DS9 Introduction I was a little nervous going into this final Risa regional. I knew I wanted to play DS9 Earth, but I did not get a chance to test as much as I wanted. I had issues with going to time, and with all the Secret Identity's in Risa, I decided to run Ezri and Collar Poppin' Kirk as Secret ID weapons. Jadzia and her 8 skills while facing a dilemma combined with Security Drills made me confidant that I could get by just about anything. If not, I had Vastly Outnumbered Julian and Sisko to help with dilemmas. In the end, I was able to continue the rich tradition started by Dan Hamman this year of a TD winning his own regional. Thanks to everyone who came. Hopefully the picture of the prize table gets out because it was impressive! Round 1 Matt Kirk MW (+1) Matt was running cadets, solving the 40 point cadet mission twice and then going to an easy planet for his 100. I did not put up much of a fight for his first run through the cadet mission, I was slow getting online with my events. Luckily the second time I was able to slow him down and I got Inyo and his amazing friends out (usually Jadzia, William Ross, and Worf to give all the cost 4's or greater +1 stats). Matt did solve the cadet mission a second time but time ended the round and I had a planet and a space. Round 2 Thomas Kamiura MW (+1) Tk and I spent the first 30 minutes of the match just staring each other down...that's how intense each of our match-up's are!!! TK was running lightning fast feds, and I knew this was going to be a true test for my dilemma pile. I had geared my pile specifically for quick decks, running 2x In Development + many others focused at hating on the weenies. Once again I managed to solve a planet and a space while TK only got two planets under his belt. TK probably made a mistake playing Guinan and giving me 5 points to use Inyo since I did not have the Promenade School. TK is the best in Risa, so a MW is still a huge deal! Round 3 Jake Griffith FW (+85) With two modified wins, Charlie and Johnny faced each other since they both had two FW's, while I got paired down. Jake was trying a new Borg deck that focused on battling to get my guys assimilated. He did get up to 4 of my crew, and cashed in for a quick 20 points. That gave him points to spend, but since I played Holding Cell on his Queen his drone swapping strategy was put on hold. Once I got the crew online they were really cruising through dilemmas and I managed to squeak out the FW. Round 4 Charlie Plaine FW (+30)View opponent's ReportView original Report The Chairman stood between me and my first round bye. I also knew with 2x MW's I needed to win or I would get bumped down to around 4th. Charlie was running a very cool Terek Nor/Dominion strategy that allowed him the best of both. I got pretty lucky ripping dilemmas, but pretty unlucky at Unfair Comparisson. Once El Presidente got online I was also able to play Collar Popping Kirk which really altered the way Charlie had to play dilemmas. In the end my dilemmas really won me the game here, but Charlie did also manage to get the second bye placing third. All my opponents are great guys and remind me why I love playing competitive Trek! Chris was playing a deck that I was quite familiar with, a DS9-E Jarseh-Inyo deck, but he'd added in Assess Contamination for some extra dilemma avoidance. I was nervous because Assess is pretty bad news for my dilemma pile, but I tried to remain confident in the strength of my deck. Chris was also playing lots of events and big cost dilemmas, but I still hit 2/2 with Unfair Comparison. (That's a fun card.) I made a critical mistake early when I chose not to counter his Promenade School (thinking I would save it for an At What Cost), which allowed him to use Jarseh-Inyo's ability. Stupid, stupid mistake that played a big part in my losing the game. I was able to stop him twice at Mediate Peace Treaty, but had to over throw both times because of Kirk. I was finally able to get a Weyoun out and eliminate Kirk, but the damage had been done. Meanwhile, I had terrible trouble getting past Donati's dilemmas at Clash at Chintoka. On Chris' next turn, he solved Mediate and then solved Track Survivors with a double attempt, putting me severely behind. With the pressure on, and with Donati's incredible dilemma luck (he threw an 8-cost dilemma at every mission attempt), I burned two Ruling Councils to get through Clash at Chintoka and headed over to solve Deliver Prisoners before getting stopped. On Chris' penultimate turn, he attempted Assess Contamination with twelve, and I was able to draw three skill dilemmas that just stopped him. In addition, he'd blown up my Reclaim Terok Nor hoping I'd be unable to use that trick. Instead, on my turn, I played a Feast on the Dying to get back my Reclaim Terok Nor and a Ruling Council and hoped I could go for the win. I moved two dilemmas from Clash at Chintoka to Deliver Prisoners, allowing me to solve it but leaving Survey New World empty. Still, with a RC in hand, I figured I had two solid shots. Donati's amazing dilemma luck continued, and he drew the perfect combo: Hard Time, Overwhelmed, Whisper in the Dark and Sylvea (the latter of which were both free). That left me with one personnel in play, and I conceded the game.