Al Schaefer (ltkettch17) Tournament Report - 2E - Deep Space 9 Regional 2014-04-05 - 10:00 AM Everything is Awesome Introduction I play-tested several decks in the weeks leading up to this event and I really liked the way Michael O'Shogay's Dominion deck was working for me. I had lost to the deck in Iowa last year ending a crazy streak of going un-beaten in my previous 5 Regionals. I added Greasy Dukat x2 to help combat any discard mania I might come across, but I should have added more anti-fed to my dilemma pile. A LOT more, 10 of the 16 players today brought some flavor of Fed. Let's hear it for deck diversity! Round 1 Edward Pigman FW (+40)View opponent's ReportView original Report Ed was rolling Relativity and used OT-Kirk early on to force me to stack more dilemmas than I would have liked. He got out to an early 2-mission lead and I was struggling to finish my first space mission. Greasy Dukat didn't show up until late, so Ed had free reign over his lost pile. Ed nearly won, but a clutch Repressed Message forced him to face his own Personal Duty at his final planet mission and I got another turn to finish my first planet mission and take my second in one attempt. Very close game... This is one I was sure was in the bag. I got off to a great start with cheaper personnel and a ship than Al had. I also managed to stave off his attempts with less dilemma plays. A poor dilemma choice at his second mission, and having to brutally slog through the aforementioned Aid Lost Colony let him cap off Survey New World faster than I could keep up with. The crowning moment was having to face Personal Duty at my own planet mission. Al earned plenty of bad karma for that one. Round 2 Michael Van Breemen FL (-65)View opponent's ReportView original Report MVB was playing a TOS solver and ACE dilemma pile. I was expecting something totally random for his draw pile, but I wasn't surprised by his dilemma choice. I used both my Escapes to limit ACE kills, but still lost time replacing my crew. Greasy Dukat, again didn't show up until late and I couldn't limit his lost pile for Dyson Sphere. TOS was much faster than the Dominion, and I had to give him points with Odo in order to complete my second mission and have a shot at my final, but it was not to be and MVB won a hard fought game. Al was playing Dominion with the excluding folks which made my dilemmas a mental taxing experience. I got 55 from Deliver but I had already discarded 2 Field Studies and only had 3 different card types in the discard pile. Thankfully, he gave 5 points with Odo that paid for my last Field Studies to make the mission a walk for the win. Round 3 Amber Van Breemen FL (-65) Amber's streak of luck continued from the night before, or maybe my streak of bad luck. She got off to a fast start and it took forever for me to find a ship. I whiffed on an Infinite Diversity when I called Treachery, but had missed Revised Neelix being played. I thought I would gain some ground when I got a Greater Needs placed on the Relativity, but she had the Wells in her hand for next turn! Amber played solid dilemmas when I finally started attempting and walked away with an easy win. No Greasy Dukat this game either. Round 4 Brian Leonard FL (-65) 4 games, 4 flavors of the Federation. Brian was rocking Voyager and used Vic Fontaine and Field Studies to limit my dilemma draws. I was again playing from behind, but thought I could get the comeback win. Unfortunately, Brian's final attempt with 8 I was able to reduce to 5, but all his high Integrity people made it through and he scored the win. Closing Thoughts Well, I'm not overly pleased with my performance today. I played well against Ed and MVB, had some bad luck against Amber, and bad dilemma plays against both Amber and Brian. I was really hoping to see a lot more variety today with the new set, but I guess people just didn't have time to get something going. I really feel that the Design team can shelf the Federation for a few sets and really flesh out the other affiliations. I brought some cards to deal with the Feds, but they either didn't show up, or just weren't enough. If you look at the final standings, you'll notice the Fed players took 1-10 and the non-Fed players took 11-16. I still like the Dominion Exclusion team, but a lot of dilemmas I faced were 'choose' dilemmas and not the typical mass-stop filters. With all the negative press lately, it was nice to get a chance to play some games and see that things were not exactly broken. Chula The Game, needs a second look more than any other card in the set, but other than that I don't see what all the commotion is about. 2E is still the best CCG you can play for free.