Geoffery Peterson (Madred) Tournament Report - 2E - Trek Masters 2015-04-11 - 12:00 PM TNG Masters Introduction I don't really get to play much any more. When Masters was announced for Orlando, I was quite excited primarily due to a "large" event finally being held here. We have so much to do other than just Trek that it can easily be a vacation with a little Trek thrown in. I had no delusions that I would win, and in reality, expected to finish somewhere in the middle of the pack. When I had time to dedicate to deck building and testing and could try them out at local tournaments before going to worlds or whatnot, I was a bit more confident. I built the deck posted here three days ago. I had planned to make a weenie Terok Nor deck because they're fun and lots of 8 strength guys are annoying to stop in mission attempts, but I've been rewatching TNG on blu-ray and really wanted to play with that crew instead. I built the deck at work online, printed the cards and after about an hour of testing, changed all but one mission (sha-ka ree), four ships (the Enterprise-D was the only bonus point ship in the first version), and started pulling most of the Law personnel out and replacing them with Engineer. I was happier with the skill mix and ease of getting a two mission win with no worry about the Phoenix. I also really like the expensive dilemmas made to cost zero with high cost missions. It was a nice mix of attrition and killing, and I didn't have to worry about Causal Recursion. The Stricken Dumb's and Mutual Advantages are useful for getting a ship in your discard pile to keep Sha-Ka Ree at full point value. Depending on the matchup, you can attempt either Sha-Ka Ree or Honor the Fallen first. I think I split them 50/50 in the tournament. Old McCoy is important to start. If you have McCoy and the Enterprise-J out, you can solve either mission with the right four or five personnel. Not too bad for missions that are worth up to 65 points. Round 1 Daniel Matteson FW (+35) You can't really tell immediately if someone that puts down new Bajor will be trying to put everyone you have in play in the discard pile or trying to put everyone they have in their discard pile in play. Dan was doing the latter. He had his orbs out immediately, and was Accessioning what seemed like every attempt. This was a very close game and one of two (if memory serves) that went to time. It was very close, but my dilemma plays were a bit more effective than his this game. Round 2 Justin Ford FW (+65) My first encounter with a Relativity deck was at the warm up event the day before masters. I knew of them, but had never seen one in action. I'm not a real fan of playing against them. Paying two put anyone in your discard pile or hand into play is a bit silly. Of course I say that, but at the same time they were pretty easy to stop early game. I managed to Gomtuu his ship twice, but he got young Geordi out quickly to remove them easily. Then I sent him on a trip Where No One Has Gone before, which bought me even more time. I was attempting space first, and he got two "Chula: The place on your mission and stop someone every time you reveal a Chula dilemma"'s on it while I had five (I think) under. He also had three "The Trial Never Ended"'s, so I made the decision to not solve space and work on Sha-Ka Ree instead, to deny his recycling of those Chula's. I solved Sha-Ka Ree my first attempt with some fortunate random selections on my part, then solved space for the win shortly thereafter. He managed one mission, but it took him so long to get it, I was just too far ahead to catch. Round 3 Sean O'Reilly FL (-45) If I were to sum up this game in one word it would be "ugh". Sean got what seemed to be literally everything he needed to get his new Bajor Assault with one personnel and a Stone of Gol and T-Disruptor to kill at least two personnel per combat going immediately. I had played against a similar deck that Rick Kinney built a while back and managed to win by plowing through my planet before he could destroy everyone. I tried the same tactic here, but after my first attempt, he played his ship and killed all but one personnel I had in play, destroyed my events, and I think scored 30 points. At this point I was a bit disheartened, but knew I could still pull a comeback. I just needed to get a new ship and stall him long enough. Mugato milled away a ship on both my next two turns. At that point I "gave up", but made him earn the win. I did manage to get Sha-Ka Ree solved, but the destruction he caused was just too much. I really thought he'd end up winning the tournament after the game. Round 4 Joseph Bazemore FW (+100) At the start of the tournament, Joe declared very loudly that he expected to win none of his games. He was playing a Klingon deck with high point missions, but it wasn't really close. My dilemmas were working well and his not so much. It was a fast game without any really interesting things to note. Round 5 Ron Oliver FW (+100) Ron hadn't played Trek in about five years, but when we would play in the past, I always enjoyed playing him. He said he was playing one of the same decks that he had built from five years ago, and I managed to keep getting rid of his key mission solving skills. He had quite a few under one mission, but not the required skills to solve, so he went after another where I was able to filter through his skills again and solve my two missions for the win. We had quite a bit of time left after the game and caught up on the last five years and discussed random things like species extinction. Round 6 Tyler Fultz FW (+30) I knew that win or lose, I'd be playing Tyler in the last round, and also knew that it would determine which of us would win the tournament. He was undefeated with one modified win, and while I didn't want to play him, it wasn't because of the player, it was because of what I assumed was another Bajoran "kill all your personnel with simple battle" deck. I thought he might be running a super kill dilemma pile, and I wonder if he was running a non consume pile if he'd have won the game (I'll get to that in a bit). He went first (I only went first in one of my games today, so I was glad I switched in "Historical Research"), but seemed to be having a bad start. His multiple draw engines were up and running, and I destroyed one of his "battle for 15 points" events. He didn't have a ship while I attempted my space mission (I wasn't about to go planet first again after the game with Sean). On my first attempt, he ended up putting six (seven?) under, but didn't consume a single All-Consuming Evil, so I think only one person died (one whiffed when he forgot I had an AU personnel in play, Jadzia Dax). I was quick to solve my space mission, and went home to regroup. I knew I would absolutely lose everyone in whatever first attempt I made at Sha-Ka Ree, so I bluffed it a bit. He hit two All-Consuming Evil's with a Clown Guillotine, naming Anthropology with the first one, which killed no one. I left them on the ship for protection. So one whiff and he named leadership with the second one, which killed one. He named Leadership again for the Guillotine and I Stricken Dumb'd one leader so T'Lara would be selected and he would get one kill, then I ETU'd her back to the ship to keep another body safe. I ended up losing my hand to a Dreamer and the Dream, but there wasn't anything worth saving in there. So, I had the rest of my crew on the planet and some "safe" personnel on my ship. On his turn, he played a ship, flew over, and killed everyone on the planet (while scoring 15 points) with a mixture of battle, two artifacts, and Kurn. I kept asking him if my stopped personnel would be valid selections for his battle kills, and I swear he looked at me like I just asked him the dumbest question ever. He kept saying that all personnel become unstopped at the start of each turn, but I was asking because I had Alyssa Ogawa down on the planet, and if I could use her to save someone, she'd be stopped on his turn, and I thought maybe I could save one more personnel from the Bajoran death camp if she was stopped. It was all moot, though, as I forgot I had no hand from The Dreamer and the Dream and she requires you to discard a card from hand to save someone, though he said she'd still be a valid selection even when stopped. On my next turn, I flew the remains of my safe crew home after playing some personnel and ended. He attempted his planet mission and I thought I was going to get away with stopping him, but he Tox Uthat'd and restarted to solve. I attempted on my turn with backup mission skills left on my ship. He would draw and spend two, but he used Uninvited to get Bold plan to go along with the All-Consuming Evil he drew. He took out a Leadership personnel again and I was stopped. On his turn he plowed through his draw deck searching for another "Just Like Old Times", played it, and came back for some more battle. I was grateful that he had only one assault event in play as I would only lose two personnel and I had the skills needed on my ship. He killed two, won the battle, and scored another 15 points, then made an attempt at his space mission. I threw everything I had at him, knowing that he didn't have another Tox Uthat in play and I would win on my turn, assuming he didn't have another Uninvited in hand (even then I may have made it). I stopped him and on my turn, he immediately asked if I had it, and I showed him the six personnel at Sha-Ka Ree that would solve for the win. It was a tough game and while I thought he was "ship screwed", he told me after the game that he got a ship when he needed it. As for the consume pile he was using, I wasn't too worried about ACE piles given my attempt style and ability to easily solve the next attempt. With so many under, you'd have to kill everyone in play to make good time with it. After the game, I wondered how my game with Sean would have gone if I'd attempted Space first, but with his minimal pile coupled with killing everyone after an attempt, I'm not sure if it would have mattered or not. Closing Thoughts I thought Tyler was going to walk away with the trophy after round five. New Bajor is just really good. With a refined deck and enough Assault events, It'd be hard for a three mission deck to pull a win out against it. I brought a deck that I felt would give me protection from the Phoenix, Causal Recursion, and ACE piles. It did succeed at that, but I'm not sure what I could change to make it a little more Bajor Battle proof. I'd not want to add more cards to the draw deck as even 60 is way more than I am usually comfortable with. I had to leave right after prizes were given out since I work early Sunday, but it was a great event made great by Rick Kinney's organization, dedication, and ridiculous amount of prize support. I'd love to see something like the world championships come to Orlando (there's so much to do here!), but maybe that's wishful thinking. It only took ten years to get a "major" event in Orlando, so perhaps in 2025.