Massachusetts State Championship Report
by Steve Clicquennoi
Game 1 vs. Alex
This was the first game of the day and some of the details may not be correct, my apologies to Alex if I made any mistakes. Alex was playing a Klingon Blood Oath/Mission solver deck that used Soong and the Great hall to report Klingons and STAs for free. He seeded a 2:4 Space:Planet Ratio with Qo'Nos and some other 35 pt missions. I seeded my Edo Probe/Tox Uthat/Dead End combo under one of his planets and we began. I got off to pretty good start and so did he. I quickly completed an Assimilate Planet and grabbed the Tox. I Supernova'd one of his space missions before he could solve anything. He started attempting his missions and tripped the first Balancing Act. We continue on Objectives and Missions. He reports the Phoenix at the Great Hall then solves his home world and one 35 pt mission but by this time he was still in negative points. I completed either an Assimilate Planet or an Establish Gateway. He then completed another mission and played a Colony. I flipped QIR and downloaded Intermix Ratio but he kept scoring points. He managed to get to +79 points I think before time was finally called. Timed win for him. I was very displeased with the way this game went. Not because I lost but because everyone had finished before us so they came over to watch. After the first round most people had seen my Hidden Agendas and Dilemma Combos. Oh well, nothing I could do I guess.
Score 0 (-29)
Cumulative 0 (-29)
Game 2 vs. Jason
Jason was playing a Cardassian Ore Processing Deck. I'm pretty sure he also seeded a 2:4 space line. I put my Edo/Tox/Dead End at Establish Station where he had seeded an outpost. I went after Establish Station quickly but he decided to battle me with one personnel at a time. After at least a half dozen turns, I manage to kill most of his personnel and ships. I was then finally able to assimilate the Mission and grab the Tox. I was then faced with a tough decision; do I Supernova a space mission and unbalance him, or do I take out his nor and leave him no way to report personnel. Since he seemed incline to battle me, I took out the Nor and then slowly completed 3 more objectives.
Score 2 (+100)
Cumulative 2 (+71)
Game 3 vs. Brian (aka the Green Knight)
Brian and I play online at least once a week and he had seen this deck so he came prepared. He was playing Bajoran with 3:3 spaceline and no 35-point non-homeworld missions. I had to try and assimilate Bajor but it took me too long to get a tent for Bariel. He reached 100 the turn after I made it to the Alpha Quadrant.
Score 0 (-100)
Cumulative 2 (-29)
Game 4 vs. Tom
Tom is one of our Ambassadors and that hardly gives him a chance to play. He was using a deck based on Rom's K'ChiQ/STA deck using the Great Hall and Cybernetics to get Klingons and STA's out quickly and Examine Singularity downloads and Masaka for draws. He seeded a 4:2 planet:space spaceline with Qo'Nos and at least 2 35 point missions. I seeded the Tox combo at Investigate Disturbance, which also had my TNG and his Klingon Outpost. I quickly grabbed the Tox and one of his docked ships. He slowly got to attempting mission and hit a Balancing Act. Once he realized what I was doing he wasn't sure what to do. His turns began to take around 5 minutes and I managed to steal one of his space missions then clear out a planet before time was called. Unfortunately I didn't have the time to probe. I'm positive I could have reached 100 points if given the time.
Score 1 (+50)
Cumulative 3 (+21)
Game 5 vs. Chris
Chris was playing a Federation VCM deck with the Office. He seeded a 4:2 space:planet spaceline with Earth and Diplomacy Mission so I had to seed the Tox at Earth. He started off by visiting the memorial, playing some people to the Office, and playing AMS every other turn or so. He attempted Earth before I could get to it, which cost him 10 points from the Edo Probe. He then managed to get Diplomacy Mission before I could complete Earth. I got the Tox and took out diplomacy mission. This slowed him down severely because his only other facilities were Outposts and he couldn't report to them because I assimilated his home world. He solved Repair Mission but lost 50 for the Balancing Act and I worked my way up to 100 points for the win.
Score 2 (+85)
Cumulative 5 (+106)
Game 5 vs. Shane
This was probably one of the ten best games I have ever played. He played a Bajoran deck much like Brian's using DS9 and the Chamber. He also seeded a 3:3 spaceline(exactly the same as Brian's). My plan was to steal Bajor then Supernova DS9. He was reporting people rapidly to DS9 and the Chamber while also using Examine Singularity downloads to burn for Renewal Scroll. I got Bariel rather quickly this time but to got to Bajor and realized I forgot my survey drone. I had an Awaken in hand that I was planning to save to download two Assault Drones incase he attacked so I had to use that to the Survey Drone. I cleared out Bajor then he started battling me. First he beamed on to my cube and managed to take out a few drones, then he went to the planet and killed my survey drone. I thought it was over at that point but he forgot to take his people off his ship so I counter attacked against it with the Cube and he lost a lot of key people. After that he backed off but the damage was done. He reported the Phoenix to the Chamber for 10 points then I scored the Assimilate Homeworld but no Tox. I decided I had to hurry and score what ever points I could. I went on to Establish Gateway at my Compromised Mission because it was the closest. He only seeded Dal'rok and The Sheliak there so I scored that rather easily. He solved Relocate Settlers for 30 points. I headed for one of my planets and he headed for Cardassia. I managed to assimilate another planet and he solved Cardassia and got Starry Night. He was at 95 now and I was only at 50. He had an HQ: Return Orb on Kira and Winn and two Orbs from the starry night but he didn't have the range to get back to Bajor. I flipped QIR and downloaded The Big Picture. He returned his Orbs so he was at 115 now but The Big Picture was in play. He started to Dabo and I went after another planet and got stopped at Alien Parasites and he didn't do anything with my crew. I Adapted to AP but then hit In the Pale Moonlight. I Adapted to that and cleared the out mission. I started to probe and got 2 or 3 bad probes. At this point I was at 90 and I had one card in the draw deck. He was at 133 I believe and his deck was gone. It all came to this last probe. If it's good, I get a full win; if not, Shane gets a modified win from deck exhaustion. It was Awaken, probe successful. I won but got +1 for a differential because he had over 100 points.
Score 2 (+1)
Cumulative 7 (+107)
Shane placed first, Alex second, and I finished third. After it was all over, I was pleased with how I did. I placed third and beat the State Champion. If I had it to do over again I would have added another Survey Drone and The Wake of the Borg. All and all it was one of the most fun tournaments I've played at in a long time. Thanks to Chris (aka Rom) for running it.
by Steve 'Kor' Clicquennoi
sclicque@mcla.mass.edu
See the deck featured in this tournament report
