Brian Sykes (Armus) Tournament Report - 2E - Trek Masters 2018-02-24 - 09:00 AM Capturing Hearts and Minds - Manassters 2018 Introduction After the success of Texas Chainsaw Masters last fall, BenHosp gets the idea to host a Masters in northern Virginia to kick off the 2018 competitive season. He also successfully petitions Organized Play to make it the inaugural Hall of Fame event. With five cards already in the Hall of Fame, this year's voting took on additional importance, since HoF was about to move from the theoretical stage to being an actual, real tournament format. I hadn't played since Regionals in 2016, so I wasn't sure what the meta would even look like. I still had the Lego Set Starfleet deck that I built for the 2016 Regional and it would be easy enough to update, but it just wasn't that fun to play. I also considered DS9 Rainbow, but it was also pretty Lego set-ish. As the HoF balloting process was going on through January, I decided that I wanted to look at Cardassian, which I had played before but not recently, and I viewed as HoF Friendly with An Issue of Trust and Gomtuu already in the Hall and Personal Duty nominated. I was also looking at 5 space Voyager and Quatal Prime Maquis, which I had never played before. With those finalists in mind, I waited to see the results of this year's HoF ballot. When it was released, the key that made my decision for me were 1.) Personal Duty did in fact get inducted, an 2.) Moral Choice notably DIDN'T. Not only that, it failed to even get 50% of the vote - clearly people think that Feds haven't gotten enough hate yet. That ballot result basically made that decision for me: Cardassians it is. Now I just had to build the deck. I figured Bajorans, Klingons, Ferengi, NeuDominion, Terok Nor, Cardassians (of course), Starfleet, Deep Space 9 Rainbow, and even Romulans were all possibilities. Unfortunately there was no Good way to prepare for all of that, so I focused on a few key themes: Keep my deck fairly simple, Be able to handle micro-teams, keep the dilemma pile generalized, but run both attrition and walls, and have a way to deal with most dilemma piles. The core elements of my deck were already there: I had played Cardassian a few times before and knew that Dukat, Prefect of Bajor (aka Pimp Dukat) and Crell Moset were really good at preventing stops and The Central Command was great for getting around walls. Telle was really good at avoiding problem dilemmas on second and third attempts, so he went in. I liked the concept of 'casual capture' in a Cardassian solver, so I added Evek and Ensnared. Looking through some other players' successful Cardassian efforts, I saw that James Hoskin used mirror Garak and multiple copies of the Rokassa to gain skills. My previous Cardassian builds had used the other mirror Garak from fractured time, but since I already had Pimp Dukat and Moset for stop prevention, that Garak struck me as a bit redundant, so I made the switch. Since I was adding more ships, I went deep into the memory hole of some old Ohio tournaments where Tim Claypoole won with a heavy ship Cardassian build. Unfortunately, he never posted his decks from those events, so I just added three copies of the Groumall, one copy each of the Reklar and Prakesh - the former to get past Outclassed and the latter if I suspected Battle - and that gave me 8 ships, enough for the Tacking Into the Wind win achievement, which I still lacked despite multiple previous attempts to earn. Toss in a couple copies of Ship Damar, and I had a nice supplemental drawing engine. This was also the point that a few elements of my dilemma pile started to come together: With all of the ships, and the ability to cycle them in and out of my discard pile, Tactical Disadvantage was a natural fit. When I considered that I would also be discarding a bunch from my deck (Ensnared, Central Command) and hand (Dukat, Moset, Damar, Garak) Back to Basics also became a must-add. Next, I picked out missions. Kressari Rendezvous had just missed the HoF cut by one vote, so that made sense for a space mission. Alpha 5 Approach was actually the first mission in, as I knew I couldn't win against any deck where I couldn't play dilemmas and didn't have room in my deck for a ton of dilemma support. For planet missions, the in-region benefits of Cardassia IV were too good to pass up, as the logistical advantage meant I could go most of the game with only one ship in play. It was at this point where the thought of a two mission win deck really started to come together and two copies of Labor Camp made their way into my deck. However, I knew that there was no way I'd be able to consistently pull off two mission wins against a field this good, so I still needed a third, easy, mission. A card engine search on strength missions gave me the answer: Metron Arena. I'd really only seen it used as a meta Mission in Bajoran and Relativity decks before, but it was basically an Insurrection-proof Kressari Rendezvous in planet form: Officer, 2 Treachery, and Strength>32? Yes please! No personnel changes needed! So with my missions complete I went back to finish off my draw deck. Because I was looking to keep it tight, I wanted NA people with AU icons. Ezri Tigen, Obrist for the occasional Mulligan, Nimira, whose skills were just too awesome to pass up, Doran x2 because he could both be discarded to Dukat/Moset and benefit from them if he's already in play, and finally.... Molly O'Brien. I wasn't planning on using her since I already had Mila in the deck, but when I looked at her, I realized just how many different ways she fit my scheme. Useful in play, useful in hand for any number of things, and even useful on the occasional mission attempt with her 6 strength (though her 4 cunning meant I would be leaving her behind while attempting Cardassia IV). So two copies of Molly to round out the NA package. I filled out the rest of the deck with cheap Cardassian randos. Tajor x3 because jumping to the HQ from the discard pile proved very useful in testing, then one copy of Dakol to make Labor Camp and Ensnared cheap. The final version clocked in at 50 cards, and had a lot of versatility packed into a little space. Test draws showed that I could usually get an Evek down turn 3-4 and be out attempting missions with a full crew by turn 5. While not necessarily the fastest , I was hopeful that my dilemmas could stall my opponents long enough to catch up in the midgame. Finally, to finish off my dilemma pile, I added my bread and butter - Secret Identity and dial-a-skill walls - plus dilemmas that stopped multiple people in case walls weren't going to work. I finished it off with the capture walls of Any Methods Necessary, The Moon is a Window to Heaven, and Impressive Trophies, thinking that since none of them had seen play recently, I would catch people off guard and steal an extra stop and capture. The morning of the event, with all of my preparation complete, I headed to BenHosp's condo to take on the toughest field I'd seen since my last Masters appearance almost 4 years ago. I was a ready as I could be. Round 1 James Self FW (+65) James is rocking NeuBajor, which I know can be scary good in this format, and is the main reason I stocked Alpha 5 Approach as my fifth mission. I win the Coin Toss and go first, dropping 3 Cardassians on turn one and a couple more, along with Molly on Turn 2. I draw cards on turn 3 and pop Evek on turn 4, nabbing Bareil Antos (score!). We both go out about the same time and work on our space mission and it takes me a couple of turns to work through Kressari, during which I play Labor Camp and get somebody over there to start scoring points. Meanwhile, on James's space attempt I'm able to hit him with Outclassed on one turn, and a Broken Captive the next since he didn't have Biology or Science. I'm about to stop him a third time with a Rapid Progress, though I get unlucky by picking The Sirah for Adopted Authority, but he plays Bridge Officer's Test, allowing him to solve. Along the Way I cancel an Accession with Molly and play two Ensnared to grab Odo and Sisko, which has built up my discard pile enough so I can stop his first planet attempt with a Back to Basics. James's dilemmas do a good job holding me off, but between the Labor Camp points and me just chipping away at Cardassia IV, I'm able to solve for the two mission win before James can finish his first planet mission. FW 100-35. Round 2 Ben Hosp MW (+10) BenHosp was rolling with DMZ Maquis and he had the tools to deal with my tech. Fortunately, I had a few tools of my own, so this game turned into a knock down drag out slugfest. I go first but Ben still draws Shankar in his opening hand. Fuck that guy. I play some guys, get Evek out.... and COMPLETELY MISS. Crap. I go to Kressari, which has a Debate over Dinner on it, and BenHosp plays Uninvited, which Molly says NO to and goes away, but he kills Dukat, drops Pattern Loss, and hits me with Pest Control, stopping two. I attempt to play Central Command but he cancels it with Operational Necessity and I proceed to his last dilemma: Dreamer and the Dream. So if you're keeping score at home, that's a dead Dukat, a stopped crew, a dilemma in my core discarding my deck, a discarded hand, and ONE dilemma overcome. OUCH! The only thing that prevented this game from becoming a blowout is BenHosp only had about five people in play at this point, so he wasn't ready to start doing missions. On his turn he played The Inner Light and Mirror Quark to set up some Shankar Shenanigans and flies to Soltok IV to start farming cards. On my turn I play Ensnared and grab Quark, shutting down the shenanigans, Dakol, and a Cheap Labor Camp (Surprise Party made this work because I had to draw all three). I drop a person on Cardassia IV to man the Labor Camp and head back out to Kressari to keep slugging away. I get stopped again, but catch a break when I flip three zero cost dilemmas off the top for Overburdened, avoiding additional casualties. On Ben's turn he plays Kalita and bounces Labor Camp to the top of my deck. He goes out and starts working on his nebula space mission, where I'm able to stop him with Any Methods Necessary after getting rid of Santos with Secret Identity, adding another captive in the process. Unfortunately on the start of my next turn, Pest Control eats Labor Camp, meaning I'm going to likely need to solve all three missions to win. I take my third shot at Kressari, and Ben throws a stopper, but I'm able to solve after finally getting a Central Command off. I proceed to Cardassia IV and start working on that mission, getting a couple of dilemmas under and getting stopped by an Underlying Influence-enhanced Bread and Circuses. Ben and I spend the next couple of turns stopping each other at our respective missions, and Somewhere along the way Shankar gets killed and replayed, Ben scores 5 points from Allegiance and uses them to play Organized Terrorist Activities, leaving me with no hand and removing a Central Command from the game, and drops Biogenic Weapon on Cardassia IV, stalling me out there and forcing me to go to Metron Arena. Ben does eventually solve his space mission, taking him to 50. On his first attempt on his planet, I hit him with In Development + Impressive Trophies, capturing Shankar. He stops me on the first try and on his turn I stop him again with a skill wall, putting 3 under total. I do have Garak out and on my second attempt at Metron I use him to get past Bread and Circuses with Garak, Nimira, Ari, and discarding two AU Cards to gain the extra Exo and Transporters, solving Metron and taking a 60-50 lead right as time expires. Since I went first, Ben gets one more turn and sends seven, giving me four. I draw Vault of Tomorrow, Secret Identity, a Space Dilemma, and Becalmed. I play SI, and notice that Chakotay is his only Navigation, but his ability makes Becalmed hit everyone so I select Sark instead, leaving him with only one Transporters in his team. Reide comes in to replace him, Becalmed stops three and I use Vault of Tomorrow to go grab Timescape, preventing him from bringing in his second team and hold on for a squeaker of a win. MW 60-50 Round 3 Phil Schrader FW (+100) This was one of those games that was won in the deckbuilding phase. I figured somebody would be bringing Terok Nor Dilemma Mill and prepared accordingly by making a 40 card dilemma pile that didn't really rely on any one thing. We both get going and we're both having a hard time getting people, though I do draw into basically everything else I need. Phil gets Dukat and Weyoun out early along with a few Jobbers but no ship yet. Instead he drops War of Attrition and plays a couple copies of Tenuous Alliance, putting him over the magic number of ten of my dilemmas out of play. While he's doing all of that though, I play Evek and nab a random Jem'Hadar, get a ship into play, and draw into my third copy of Central Command, so I'm totally locked and loaded. It takes me two turns to get through all three missions, but Phil's wall pile can't hold up against the Central Command onslaught and I solve all three missions before he gets off the ground. FW 100-0 Round 4 Neil Timmons FW (+60)View opponent's ReportView original Report Going into this round, Neil and I were the only undefeated players left, meaning that the winner of this game would likely be in the driver's seat to win the tournament, basically having to lose both of their last two games to not finish in first place. We sit down and I see that Neil has a Maquis DMZ setup that looks very similar to Ben's, the one difference is Neil is running Historical Research, presumably to download Shankar. Neil wins the coin toss and goes first, so no HR download, but manages to draw Shankar in his opening hand and hit me with him before I even get a turn. Seriously, fuck that guy. Annoying as that is though, I can draw and play people fairly quickly, though Neil and I get into a little back and forth where I play Pimp Dukat and Neil returns him to my hand with Stalling for Time. Twice. Neil is drawing for people and apparently not finding them, and I eventually get enough Cardassians out to play Evek, and when I flip three, they're all personnel, so that's a big help. I finally play a ship and head out to Kressari, where Neil stops me on my first attempt, and would have stopped me on the second attempt too, but the following exchange happened: Neil plays a wall to stop all of my people. I play The Central Command to prevent the stops to my crew, which has enough people to solve the mission if they all get through. Neil plays Grav-Plating Trap, destroying an Emergency Transport Unit to cancel. I kill Mila to prevent his GPT. He plays a SECOND GPT to again cancel my Central Command, blowing up another equipment (his last one in play). I play A SECOND Central Command which Neil cannot stop so I get through and solve the mission, but that was an epic counter war! I start working on Metron Arena next and after a couple of attempts, with four dilemmas under, Neil drops Biogenic Weapon on Metron Arena, forcing me to move to Cardassia IV and start working on that mission. Meanwhile, on Neil's side of the table, he finally has a ship and a decent sized crew in play so he goes to Elude Federation Forces and starts working his way through. I've been tracking and know he has Chakotay and no Intelligence in his crew so I hit him with Any Methods Necessary. Next attempt I hit him with some attrition dilemmas. On his third attempt, he gives me 3 to work with and I draw two unplayable 5-costers and Inequitable Exchange, so I play it and see what happens. Neil has enough redundancy to solve no matter what I do, but he picks Michael Eddington to rescue and I grab a different guy. Neil solves for 40 and heads to Soltok IV. I hit him with In Development + Impressive Trophies, which turned out to be a great combo on a first mission attempt all day. This gives me my fifth captive and makes Cardassia IV super easy - the only time all day I had that many captives at once. One critical mistake that Neil makes is forgetting to use the text on the Cosette, which leaves his events vulnerable. On my next turn, with my draw deck getting thin, I draw for Corbin Entek, which I am able to find and play. I solve Cardassia IV, then use Entek and kill a captive to blow up the Biogenic Weapon and reattempt Metron Arena. Neil can only play one dilemma - Intimidation - and it would stop 3, but I play my last Central Command to get everyone through and solve for the win. FW 100-40. I caught Maggie with a bad shuffle, now it was my turn. I played about 7 people, then spent 3 turns digging through about 10 cards of ships and verbs. I had all the tricks and ships I just plain didn't need. ugh. Then what happens? Sykes drops Evek and captures 3 personnel. This isn't going well. So I finally found some more dudes, played them, went and did missions, but I just couldn't find what I needed and Sykes just mechanically punched through my dilemma pile. Capture is very strong in HoF. Round 5 Joshua Sheets FW (+70) After beating Neil in round 4 I was definitely in the driver's seat, but Josh was having a sneaky good day so far, sitting at 3-1 with a very close round 1 loss to Neil the only blemish on his record. Josh is running a Deep Space Nine Rainbow deck, so I know he's going to be out and running. I draw a few guys early and get set up, but no Evek, so I just play the Reklar (no Groumall yet either) and head on out to Kressari, taking along Mila and Molly because that's who I have. Josh hits me with the dilemma that makes me have to score ten more points, and stops me, but I figure the Labor Camp will take care of that for me. Josh is having his own struggles, trying to find a ship, so I play Labor Camp (figuring I'll use it eventually) and continue to hammer away on Kressari. Attempt number two results in an all-stop from Intimidation, since Molly got selected last, which buries Polywater and Healing Hand, and puts 5 under, setting me up for a solve on the next turn. Josh, seeing the threat that Labor Camp poses, proceeds to trade another turn not attempting for the chance to blow up my Labor Camp with Tacking Into the Wind. So on my turn, I play Evek, grabbing one captive, solve Kressari, and move on to Cardassia IV, getting stopped in the process. Josh plays the Centaur and ventures out on his next turn, but I'm able to stop him with In Development + Impressive Trophies, capturing Martok. On my turn, I finish Cardassia IV and head for Metron Arena. Josh SI's out Dukat, which I replace with Moset, but then a filter dilemma stops a few and then I get hit with Not Quite Domesticated Pets, which stops me and grabs Moset, giving command of him to Josh! Ouch! On his turn, Josh gets a super crew together that have basically all of the skills, but I get lucky and draw into Outclassed, which stops his Centaur, and puts 3 under, cancelling his attribute boost. On my turn I draw into and play my second Labor Camp, then re-attempt and Solve Metron Arena, but I'm only at 100 so I drop someone off to man the Labor Camp and go home, giving Josh one turn to solve three missions. Doing the math on the situation, Josh draws a couple then plays a person and the Danube, giving him the second ship. He reattempts and I play Inequitable Exchange; Josh gets Martok back and I open up a skill hole for my Rapid Progress. Unfortunately I forgot what Martok does and Josh cheats the dilemma for the solve, giving him a chance. He then flies home, switches ships, and heads out to a planet mission. I play Becalmed, which stops a couple, and The Moon is a Window to Heaven, which Josh gets around with Martok by playing the multi affiliation attribute boosting interrupt, but he doesn't have the skills to solve so on my next turn I close it out with Labor Camp taking me to 110. FW 100-30 Round 6 John Corbett FW (+35) Being undefeated after five rounds, I'm fairly sure I've clinched the tournament at this point, since I have the tiebreaker over Neil and everyone else has at least two losses. However, John is still in contention for a money spot and I know he doesn't want me to finish undefeated so he has a lot to play for. He's running an old school TNG Science deck with some of the new high attribute characters for support (NeuBarclay, Moriarty) as well as Living Legend Kirk and "Scotty-don't" aka Montgomery Scott, Relic for dilemma prevention. It's a solid concept. He wins the coin toss and we get going and John plays Orfil Quinteros each of the first two turns. At this point I realize that I actually don't have any non-unique ships in my deck, so I opt for the two card draws option, which helps by giving me more people to play and more counters to play them with since I don't have to draw a bunch on my turns. John also plays a couple of Common Grounds, allowing me to get Nador and Seska, and giving him NeuBarclay and AU Data. I play Evek and for the second time today, COMPLETELY MISS. Grrrr! We both start attempting missions about the same time and I'm able to sneak through Kressari on the first attempt thanks to some help from the Central Command. Meanwhile, I'm able to stop John at his first attempt at Geological Survey. On my turn I play Labor Camp in the hopes that at some point I'll have reason to use it, and start working on Cardassia IV, getting stopped with a couple under. On John's turn, he reattempts and I play Ominous Presence, which only stops Lwaxanna Troi since there's no other Betazoids present, and Moral Choice, which hits both copies of Quinteros and one copy of Davies. That's the good news. The bad news is John has another copy of Davies and 3 attribute beasts unstopped so he solves Geo Survey but doesn't get the bonus points, so it's 30-30 at this point. John also played Living Legend Kirk that turn and now goes and gets him and heads to Avert Danger with a pretty solid crew. I SI out Kirk and while I drew Greater Needs, I can't play it due to Scotty-Don't being there so I have to play Rapid Progress instead, which stops him but puts an extra dilemma under. On my turn, I play Ensnared, targeting Scotty-don't, and get my first captive of the game. I send a full crew to reattempt Cardassia IV, and John stops a couple, but thanks to Scotty being in my brig, I'm able to just squeak by with exactly 39 cunning. I leave the stopped people behind to man the Labor Camp and head to Metron Arena (thinking I probably won't have three more turns to get the two mission win). Unfortunately this crew isn't the best and gets stopped fairly easily. On John's turn he plays a second Kirk and Rescue Captives (!) Getting Scotty back on his side of the table - "Don't you know a jailbreak when you see one?!" - very solid meta call and play move by John. He still only has one ship in play and makes the bet he can stop me at least one more time by going and getting Kirk and reattempting Avert Danger. I don't draw great, and only have five to spend, so I cross my fingers and play The Moon is a Window to Heaven. My play kind of works, as he left Lwaxanna and Moriarty on his ship, presumably as part of his backup team. He did bring Kirk though, and decides to take the sure solve over leaving anything to chance, so he kills Kirk and solves the mission, but is out of range. Probably the right move, though he mutters something about burning a perfectly good Kirk. On my turn, with plenty of people in play, I draw cards looking for Central Commands or Ocett. Turns out Ocett is in my discard pile thanks to the Ensnared I played last turn. I get down to the last three cards in my deck and still haven't seen any Central Commands, meaning two of the last three cards are them and they're both completely useless unless I get a Back to Basics. I go fetch the stragglers on Cardassia IV and send a full crew to attempt Metron. John's bet pays off, as my lack of Central Commands means he's able to stop me, but the mission is buried at this point so I'll have it next turn regardless. John's last turn involves him playing a second Excelsior and future Geordi LaForge, who can prevent and overcome damage dilemmas by losing 5 points. The score is currently 70-65 me, so I figure John will go for Mining Survey. Instead he plays a Grav Trap on my now-useless Labor Camp, blowing up one of his equipment cards in the process, and heads out to Dyson Sphere, which is now worth 40 points, giving him room to use Geordi if needed (to say nothing of Scotty - thankfully no Kirk). He attempts with 9 with his first crew, and while I unfortunately don't draw my Timescape, I do finally draw one of my Back to Basics, stopping his main crew with only one under. He goes with his second crew of six, giving me five. I play Becalmed, which stops two, and Adopted Authority... That's right, I spent six counters on dilemmas when I was only given five. Total boneheaded mistake on my part. I get lucky though, and despite having a few studs in the crew, John comes up just shy of the 32 cunning needed to solve. On my turn I finish off Metron Arena and squeak by. FW 100-65 Closing Thoughts So I pulled it off. When I set out to build this deck I was just hoping to not embarrass myself. Instead, I had a solid outing against a very competitive field - I didn't expect anyone, including myself, to get through completely unscathed. I have to give credit to John, who demonstrated a deep understanding of the game, even on a 3-3 day. I also have to give props to Maggie for making the trip out from Chicago to play with the DC crowd. I also wanted to acknowledge BenHosp, first for putting Manassters together and making it a thing, but also for his original deckbuilding ideas. Sure, Quark cycling Shankar is a big-time NPE, but it was at least a fairly original NPE. Finally, I want to acknowledge Neil. He's one of those guys who people love to hate, but the fact is that he's damn good at this game and has been for a long time. When the road to a tournament championship always goes through the same guy, that's a sign of top-tier player. Final thoughts: it was great to get back to playing competitive 2e after a way-too-long (almost 2 years!) Hiatus. Hall of Fame is a great format that really got my creative juices flowing and it's something I'd easily play again. If you haven't tried it, I highly recommend - it's a lot of fun seeing cards you don't recognize hit the table and having to figure out what to do with them. If you made it this far, thanks for reading. Until next time!