Colorado State Championship Report
by William Springer
19 players. 6 rounds. Trophies (theoretically) in the mail. Time to PARTY! ;-) Friday I decided to use a Borg deck... Saturday morning I changed my mind and built a Bajoran deck instead. ;-) I never played Bajoran before, but they're the only affiliation I haven't won a tournament with yet. (Except Neutral... I am NOT playing an all-Spot deck!)
Round One: vs ??
I can't really remember much about the game... I grab my Orb of Wisdom and hit Sarjenka at Bajor, then I go after the two orbs at CNE. Unfortunately, I have transporter skill, so the Orion Syndicate Bomb doesn't stop me and I lost my Orbs to the Borg. I keep drawing until I'm able to Reclaim one of them, then Regenerate and solve Bajor and CNE for the win. My opponent was in the gamma quad and I tripped Sheliaks at his planet missions, but I forgot to get off the planet (sent a Kai through the wormhole to trip the 3rd Sheliak) so I lost time and he was able to solve one mission.
Score: 100-40. Total 2 (+60)
Round Two: vs ??
My opponent seeds 3 dual-icon missions... you can see where this is going. ;-) I put combos that should give him trouble (such as a stasis combo) at two of the missions and an easy thing at the one I plan to steal first. I specifically built my deck to be able to solve two of the DI missions, though I do need a tent for the freighter, since I'm using docking pads to keep Klingons and Cardassians off my Nor. ;-) I accidentally forgot to seed under one of his missions :-̃ and he gets an easy 25. He's able to score 25 more from one of the DIs, then I steal two, plus 10 from the Return Orbs, 5 from Sarjenka, and 5 from Kivas Fajo gives me the win. Brad Defruiter and Greg Fuller both have 4 (+200) at this point, putting me in third.
Score: 100-50. Total 4(+110)
Round Three: vs Kate Destephen
Kate appears to be playing the same Ajur/Boratus/Rommie deck she used at the Slam. Some of my dilemmas go away, and she's able to get a Horga'hn... unfortunately, she only uses it twice. ;-) Sheliaks eat a couple of her missions, and I just barely make it to 100 from my two missions + Kivas + Orbs the turn before she's ready to go after another mission. Brad beat Greg 100-0 so I'll be playing him next.
Score: 100-? Total 6(+1??)
Round Four: vs Brad DeFruiter aka The Man
We both know this is gonna be the tough game, and we have to be careful, but we're both laughing and joking around. I neglected to include anti-PNZ stuff in my deck, but I get a couple ships into the zone (yes, this seems to be the same deck he won the regional with!) and use an STP-download AU door and a Youth personnel to hold him off. He gets past Maglock on the second turn, but a Q moves one of his outpost locations to the other side of the spaceline. I score 40 points from two Return Orbs, Sarjenka, and Kivas... then I download a third ship and forget to move it into the NZ. :-̃ He rifts two of my ships and solves two PNZs for the win. Never got a chance to scare him with the Sisters that time. ;-) (If you don't get that, read my report from the 99 regional ;-))
Score: 40-100. Total: 6(+??)
The good: In 6 rounds, I'm the only person to score points against Brad, and the game was a lot of fun.
The bad: This is the first game I've lost in the last 4 constructed tournies I've played in, and if I hadn't screwed up I would have had, at minimum, another 10 points from the Phoenix in my hand.
Round Five: vs Greg Fuller
We both have Bajoran decks, and 3 missions get placed out of play. He wins the flip, and is a turn ahead of me the who game. I'm only able to get one of my Orbs, and he grabs three missions for the win. Odd note... last time we played he caught me accidentally making an illegal download to Quark's Bar (Morn and Ferengi can't download there, only report).. this time I caught him doing the same thing! Easy to overlook things like that..
Score: 70-100. Total: 6(+??) The TD accidentally reversed our scores and gave me the win.. unfortunately, I caught the error before we signed the PADDs ;-)
At this point, Brad has won by 100 yet again and is in first even if he somehow loses the last game by 100.
Round Six: vs Josh Colwell
Josh's deck is similar to Kate's, with Nebula and two v Space, only Klingon. I'm able to set off a couple Sheliaks with the SoD, but only one of them arrives in time. Ajur results in my Q wiping out my other dilemmas when he attempts one mission, and he goes to 45 from mission specialists. I go after a mission, hit a Chandra combo, and end up with 6 Bajorans but only 1 leadership! :-̃ He amandas the distortion and I lose all my people... beaming down everyone was a dumb move. A Phoenix shoves him up to 55, and with MS he scores 50 from the Dead End-protected mission a turn before the Sheliak would arrive.
Score: 25-100. Total: 6(??)
Overall, this is undoubtedly the worst I've played or placed in a ST constructed since 1997. Fun tournament, actually, but stressful due to the time limit... I always have a hard time finishing in 60 minutes. Brad wins the tournament with 12 (+560), with Greg in second. I'm pretty sure in a couple days I will no longer be ranked top in the region... but I may get to play twice next month. :-)
Advance notice: my regional deck WILL have a NZ planet, 2 STPs, and tons of youth! ;-)
Other notes:
- I never had occasion to flip Fair Play
- None of my opponents did anything Writable, though I played Brunt twice to use the Guest Quarters.
- I never used my OWR, but man, do I wish I'd had a Mirror Image!
by William 'Spock' Springer
spock@wnohgb.com
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