Mike Harrington (Ajnaran) Tournament Report - 2E Standard - Worlds Day Two 2011-08-06 - 06:00 AM 2011 World Championships Day 2 Introduction I just love looking at the "happy rainbow of goodness" (as Neil might say) referring to the diversity of HQs played... So I was juggling three decks for the weekend. Kling/DS9, TOS, and DS9/TNG. I really debated late into the night what to bring Day 2, TOS or Kling/DS9. Both of them I had played the hell out of over the years, and so I felt comfortable going forward with either. Eventually I decided Kling/DS9 would be a bit more unfamiliar for my opponents and was better suited for a match-play format. Round 1 Joel Skon FW (0)View opponent's ReportView original Report Joel is awesome. He is a super fun dude and I'm glad to make his acquaintance. Despite Geoffery's insistence, Joel helped convince me to try out True Dungeon and give up a silly bias of LARPs. Bias is the enemy, not the unknown! He's also really good at Trek, which I had already deduced, but which I was now witnessing. Unlucky news for Joel though: I play most of my trek against my pal Nat K., and Nat plays Voyager really well too (with an identical mission set, and very similar draw deck utilizing Chakotay Co. and disruptive events). His Unfair pile, saavy dilemma pile playing skills, and disruptive events almost gave him an amazing comeback victory in game 2, but I narrowly hung on... 2-0 Wow, what a set of games, I would say some of the best trek I have ever played. Mike is a great player, one of the best at the game obviously, even to get to play against him was an honor. The only thing that kept me in both games was my dilemma pile and all the events to help me get extra draws. I was able to kill people over and over again, however I could not solve a mission to save my life, much less win the game. At one point he set up the perfect space combo hitting me with the right set of dilemmas to stop all but two of my team of 14 people and ending with WNMGB sending my ship away. On the other hand a few turns later I stopped three with unfair comp, then killed Navaar and Gorkon with Dal'Rok, which was rather satisfying. It came down to the wire at the end of game two, but he knew exactly how to stop me with his three no win situations on the table. I may have lost both games, but they were both great games and I am glad to have had a chance to play Mike at a top level event, and I look forward to getting a chance to play him again. Round 2 Tyler Fultz FW (0) So Tyler, along with Tobias, were certainly the most curious and exciting draws I saw looking into the day. I really looked forward to playing either (or both) for the first time, but was certainly apprehensive as I really admire their decks and previous accomplishments. What played out was rather odd to me, as I hadn't had many Klingon Guidance mirror match-ups in the past. It turns out the opening draw was pivotal in gaining control of the board. It makes perfect sense of course thinking about the downloading involved, but I just hadn't experienced it yet. So in a simplified sense, I won the draw 2 out of 3 times. I think I made some early mistakes in game 2 that may or may not have affected the outcome, but in general, I got the lion's share of good fortune here. I think I might have had a slight advantage in early game matters with a slightly smaller draw deck, Quark, and Holding Cell, but Tyler's intimidating array of equipment (w/Korath) and extra copy of Grav-trap certainly gave Tyler strong counter-play ability as well. Tyler is an inspiring deck-builder, classy player, saavy opponent, and I certainly hope we play again! 2-1 Round 3 Ben Hosp FW (0) So Ben is the original manufacturer of Big Klingon Mischief, and also the victor of our only other previous match. The advantage I had though was getting to study and play Klingons over the past couple years and understand how to combat it. No-Win Situation is a great security blanket to have once the game becomes a mission solving affair. Ben, however, had other plans, and in the second game took control of the board with a beautiful dilemma play culminating with Deuterium Plunderers, prompting massive death, destruction, and destaffing at my planet mission. NWS saved my butt in the interim, and in the end I was able to get up and going in time to regain the lead and stop Ben in one final desperate dilemma draw of 3...Ben is a super nice and funny guy, saavy opponent, and classy to boot. 2-0 Round 4 Geoffery Peterson FW (0) I'm sure this will get loads of debate, and I really want to emphasize that no one person is to blame here. Let's get at this with an open mind and keep in mind that we're all trying to maintain integrity for the game. As everyone I talked to about this can allude to, I was most worried about facing Geoffery's Maquis deck than anything else I could think of. He has the draw deck beautifully built to ensure effective disruption and saavy mission-solving ability (which normally isn't a Maquis strong point). He can also staff his ships (thanks for demonstrating that Geoffery). He's also a really charming competitor: his wittiness, playing ability, and classiness is great. He was also a roommate. The only drawback to this situation is that we were playing completely drained of mental aptitude due to a grinding day 2, were playing in a demanding situation, were short of sleep, and were playing perhaps the most evenly matched two decks in existence that had no cards really in common. In the end we finished...tied, and I was given the victory due to seeding. I understand there is some rationale behind the current rules, and I'm confident that in the future we can improve upon this situation, but in the meantime I think Geoffery needs to be recognized as the deserving champion as well. 0-0-2