Search wnohgb.com!

Connecticut State Championship Report by Gregory Dabkowski Well Saturday was the Connecticut State Championships. It was held at Fun N Games in East Windsor, about 20 minutes north of Hartford. 10 people showed up, with Brandon "Alidar Jarok" Argianas running the show. We had 2 relatively new players, and 8 seasoned veterans. For the last 4 weeks I've been prepping for the tourney, playing a multitude of decks, ranging from Devidian Door, Borg, Klingon Armada, Cardassian Freighter with free System 5s, you name it. Well I finally decided on the deck: Bajoran Return Orb To Bajor with DS9, and 3 Kiras. The basic focus of the deck is to beat Cardassia and earn Starry Night, getting the Orb of Wisdom and the Orb of Prophecy and Change, and returning them with either the Kai, Bariel, Kira, or Dax. I use Brunt first turn to start the Guest Quarter peeks, free vedeks, kais, HQ cards, and ministers at the homeworld, Travelers, Examine Quantum Singularity (the best card in the game), 4 Q-Flashes to get either the Q Planet/Horga'hn or Fighting Words on the table, and renewal scroll. Deck list is posted below. The deck is very scan heavy with Full Planet type and the Science lab (I figured most people weren't playing Scanner interference, and even if they were, Quark's Rods get Odo, and one extra dilemma is one that won't go under Q's Planet.) First game: Britt Bisson - Britt used to be my boss at college, where we both went. He made the trip up form Farfield, about 1 1/2 hours away. He was playing a classic Fed mission solver with the HQ and 1 outpost. Well since my Bajor region kept most of my missions together, his were relatively skewed to my right side of the spaceline. I remembered a Farpoint series game against Britt where he attempted to beam his personnel from the outpost to a planet mission, beat it, and earn a Flute. He hit Sheliak/something/Q and that was game. I guessed he might be trying the same trick again, so I seeded a Sheliak at each of the 2 easiest (for Fed) missions: Diplomacy Mission and First Contact (Dipl + Emp), I think. Britt went first and quickly got Barclay and his fellow AMS to Earth for VCM probes. I revealed It's Only A Game and neutralized that threat. Britt played people and I quickly scanned Cardassia. Skullduggery, Flaxian Assassin, Odo's Cousin. I got Furel (Bio and a late addition to the deck that paid off in the fullest), Odo, and Mora Pol (Exo x2). I beat Cardassia (I think I forgot Mora the first time and had to go get him again), got my 2 Orbs, go 35 points, returned the Orbs for 20, and waited for Kira so I could go after Relocate Settlers and Bajor. Britt attempted his Diplomacy Mission, and hit, you guessed it, Sheliak. Coupled with my Q Flash, and Friendly Fire, and then discarding Scanner Interference to lock out the planet destroyed his outpost, and a sizable away team. That gave me the time to finish the last 2 missions for the game. Score: 2(+100) Second game: Jason Bauer - Jason's from West Hartford, about 30 minutes away. Jason and I are good friends and play each other a lot at the tournaments. He was playing Romulan Dual HQ with a Husnock outpost for AMS. At this point I should explain part of the strategy for my deck. For a while in CT, EVERYONE was playing either Ferengi 34th rule, in one flavor or another, or homeworlds. Romulans and Klingon were most popular, and as such, I was beginning to get sick of all the free reporting. I decided to add a little tech to my deck. I have Quark, Son of Keldar, and the Sisters of Duras in my tent. Basic rule is if you see Ferenginar, get QSOK with QIR, play him for free, walk outside, swap to Klingon, and trip Skeliak/Dal'Rok/Dead End at their homeworld. (Tent for the Sisters for Romulan or Klingon decks. It works wonders!) It wrecks most decks and by the time they get to curing Dal'Rok, they've lost 30-40 points and 5 or 6 turns. Well I draw a Q Tent in my opening hand and proceed to knock his homeworld out of it for a while. I proceed with my game plan and get my Orbs. Jason beats his Husnock mission (I'm only playing 16 dilemmas, and his outpost happens to be where the 2 card combo was. Usually Sheliak/Dead End is one, but I needed the Dal'Rok trick, so I had to steal a dilemma from another combo.). I basically return the Orbs, and scan my way to victory. Score: 4(+170). Third game: Chris Brennan - Ok a little history here. Chris and I ALWAYS play each other. We're pretty much tops in the region, and for a while we were battling it out for first in the region, and he's currently on top. (I'm 4th right now). Chris beat me in the first tournament I played in, and we had that whole game loss thing at the Betazed regional over the modified Q's Tent, and he beat me at the Fajo in Mass. Well, anyway, he's playing Romulan Single HQ Capture, with Devidian Doors for flavor and spice. I once again use the Sisters to Sheliak/Dal'Rok Romulus. That slows him down a bit. I report people and see him Prep the Prisoner with Outgunned, and a few O'Brien holos. Oh oh. I manage to escape the nor and land on Bajor before a wave of Romulans board, killing a customer at the Promenade, and Brunt in his room at the guest quarters. He doesn't commandeer the Nor right away, giving me a few extra turns to get people. I'm thinking at this point I should maybe get a second ship to avoid the Outgunned, but proceed with people to help secure Bajor. I land and Chris orbits Bajor with a D'deridex and Husnock. I take off and get outgunned, and so does my wonderful ship of 10 people. =( I should have attempted Bajor. With 1 Kira captured, 2 in my hand, and no one to play the HQ: Return Orbs to Bajor on, I'm reduced to Q's Tenting, Examining, and drawing. Chris attempts my mission with my Brainwashed crew, but I flip Fair Play. Chris goes to the Gamma where he attempts his planet mission with everyone. He hits Sheliak (oh yeah baby), Q Flash (Q's Planet and Fighting words most notably, a few others like Penalty Box with MY Vedek Dax, and Mandarin with Altovar (he didn't give me the points)). He finally hits Friendly Fire and is stopped, with the Sheliak 2 turns away. I flip over Scanner Interference and lock his people on the mission. Bye bye away team (of which half is mine). I play Big Picture and draw. He goes back through the wormhole, in a desperate attempt to try his Sheliaked homeworld for bonus points. Time is called on my turn, but Chris would have been stopped by the Dead End on Romulus anyways. True tie. What a GREAT GAME. Score: 5(+170) Fourth game: Mark DePace - Mark is pretty new to the game. He started last summer during the regional qualifying season and is really doing well. He's playing a PNZ holo deck with some of my cards. Unfortunately we've been play testing all week so it's over quick. "I Tried To Warn You" hits 2 PNZs, and I proceed with my plan. Score: 7(+270). Interesting note: At the Betazed regional, Tom Lamberg ruled that an Isabella played by my opponent on my ship in the Nuetral Zone during my turn let me have one more full turn to try and get away. Major Rakal ruled, when asked on the list, that the reading of "your" meant that the PNZ player could play Isabella on my ship at the end of my turn, and the ship would blow up at the end of the PNZ player's turn. Brandon ruled against the Major and with Tom. That severely disabled Mark. Maybe an entry in the Glossary or rulings (for which one on Isabella does not exist) is needed. Anyways it was still a great game. Mark ended up finished third and had an interesting fifth game against Chris, which I'll get into later. Mark won the Magic JSS in Mass last month, and is a great player (not to mention a 15 yr old). I see big things in his future. Editor's Note: it was later revealed on the BBS that Brandon did rule correctly (ie agreed with the Major) but the players misunderstood him. Fifth game: Jeff Stone - Jeff is a Farfield player and it's always fun playing him. He's playing Ferengi PNZ, with 3 PNZ space, and the 2 planets, and Ferenginar (see my grin yet). His PNZ are worth 50 points each, and he's attempting to secure trade routes there. He has 3 HAs and I'm tempted to not seed Dead End and try to steal Ferenginar 1st turn with Quark. I decide against it because he might stocking Defensive Measures or Fair Play. Jeff goes first. He reveals all 3 HAs and gets Brunt, an Intruder Alert/Intruder Force Field, and Quark (I think). Darn it! No Fair Play or Defensive Measures! He ends his turn and I do the QSOK trick on his HQ. That slows him down enough for me to complete my Orb plan with Kira and her 2 clones. Dax does some studies at the Science Lab (I was lucky enough to get 2 of her in one Anthology box, without the Legate, so I stocked them both) while her friends on the Bajoran Interceptor clear the dilemmas. Score: 9(+370). Since we finished relatively quickly, we watched Chris and Mark's game. Mark was having a tough time getting enough Paul Rices to pass the Officer related dilemmas Chris had setup in the Nuetral Zone. Chris had 65 and Mark had 60, with time quickly counting down. Mark got his 3rd Officer and undocked and said he was attempting. At the exact moment Brandon called time. Mark went through the last 2 dilemmas and got his mission. Brandon however said that the game ends when the he calls time, unless it's the checking of requirements checking for mission points. I really have never had this happen so I'd like to have someone refresh me on the rules (I never got a TD guide). Anyways Mark was 30 seconds away from beating Chris. Next time Mark! Editor's Note: This ruling was correct - when time is called, the game is over, unless you have passed all the dilemmas and only need to show skills for solving the mission Sixth and final game: John Simon - Simon's playing a triple HQ with Klingon and Romulan. I once again use the Sisters to Sheliak/Dal'Rok at the Qo'noS, then realize it might have been better to trip the Romulan homeworld. I slowly beat Cardassia and get my Orbs. Simon attempts his HQ and hits Sheliak/Q-Flash (and the usual Fighting Words)/Friendly Fire. I have a few problems with the space mission at DS9 but Minister Rozarhn and Dax help in the Science Lab. Simon attempts his Sheliaked Romulus for the Horghan and gets 10 AMS points, but doesn't take a double turn (Brunt and his Writ are out). I win the next turn with the Pheonix drop. Score: 11(+460). I win the CONNECTICUT STATE CHAMPIONSHIP! WAHOO! I am so excited =) YIPEE! =) It was a great tournament. We all bought 2 packs for prizes and I pick the Seven of Nine as my first choice. We end up giving the extra cards/rares to John, a new player, who dropped after round two. Brandon didn't have any trophies though. I thought 1st and 2nd get the pucks =( Chris finishes second. Mark in third. I guess I'm going to GenCon. I was expecting some kind of certificate or something for the National invite. Oh well. Of course how am I getting to Wisconson? I think this whole Worlds thing this year is really weird. I win in my state and don't get an invite to day 2 of Worlds but have to compete in a whole other tournament to just get a shot at day 2? Why not play in Day 1 in the wild card? Seems like less work than a Regional or State/National. And the money needed to visit the Cheese state might be better spent on DCon. Well I had a great time. Thanks to Eric Unger at Fun N Games for letting us run the tournament, Brandon for running it, and special show outs go to my boys for all the days and weeks of play testing: Paul "What deck are YOU playing, Greg?" Conti, Ben "Dabo-ing Humpter" Unger, and Mark "Trademark" DePace. Interesting notes: Only 1 person played Scanner Interference against me Never saw a Fair Play (although I didn't try to steal) No Borg decks No Dominion 4 Romulan 1 Bajoran 3 Ferengi 1 Federation No Writ-able decks were played (or at least used, ie. no 3 turn Horga'hn, etc) Gregory Dabkowski Y2K Connecticut STCCG State Champ See the deck featured in this tournament report