Constructed deck tournament, Collectormania, Parker, CO, 5 rounds. 12 players. Sanctioned! :-)

I'm playing a swarm deck based on my deck in WNOHGB Print #1, using Gowron and Locutus as counterparts. Putting the deck together the night before, I used 5 missions with Fed and Klingon icons, plus Quo'nos, but only 3 space missions. :-p I also forgot to put a distortion in the tent, and a seeded crash would have helped. I'm gambling on not seeing Access Denied or too many construct depots. I've NEVER seen AD around here, and Dominion isn't popular, so it seems to be a safe bet.

First round: vs Greg Fuller

As soon as she calls out the parings, Kate swears she didn't do it on purpose. ;-) (Greg and I generally play for first in most tournaments we're both in. I also have a tendency to play badly the first round.) Naturally, he's playing Dominion (founder solver with lots of Shapeshifts), so I have to rearrange my dilemmas to put the Cryosattelites at my missions, leaving me with only 13 dilemmas for his.

I won the flip, so I get out a ship and start breaking through his dilemmas. Eventually I'm able to score Establish Gateways at my 3 space missions, and I'm about to STP Locutus back to my hand and play Gowron to try an Assimilate Homeworld when he uses 2 distortions to get to a third mission for the win.
Score: 75-100, Total: 0 (-25)

Second round: vs ??

Another Dominion deck. :-p For some reason he's playing 5 planets, plus construct depot. I seed a lone Dead End under one planet and move Balancing Act to one of my missions. ;-) I get a quick start again, but by the time I get through 3 Establish Gateways I'm almost out of cards. I regenerate, but am not able to get a successful probe for Assimilate Homeworld before my cards are gone, so I draw-go until time runs out. My opponent never scores any points after Sheliaks take out two of his missions and Dead End blocks off a third.
Timed win 75-0, Total: 1 (+50)

Third round: vs Atticus Bergman

He seeds Earth, and I'm waiting for a Q-bypass or something. We have one duplicated mission…he takes a planet mission from my trade binder, then switched it for a space mission when I point out that would make him unbalanced. My space missions are at the opposite end of the spaceline from his, but I notice he picked Investigate Incursion :-) so I seed my TNG near my missions.

Once the game starts, he keeps playing Fajos, and he seeded 4 STPs, so I'm trying to get as many points as possible before the big AU drop. Except for the Fajos he just plays Admirals for free. I get my artifacts at his missions, then start working my way through mine. He does the STP drop, but only with 4 personnel; he apparently is having trouble getting what he needs. He tries to tow a scow away, but he only has one engineer. I finish my third objective, doing a same-turn probe thanks to my counterpart. He seeded the same combo at my other missions, so 3 adapts get me the win.
Score: 100-0, Total: 3(+150)

Fourth round: vs John Bergman

Kate's throwing Bergmans at me now! ;-) After we seed missions I say since I can't tell for sure what affiliation John is playing, I'm guessing Borg. He says the same. Eventually he seeds a Borg outpost plus a TNG at my mission in the alpha quad. He has 4 of a universal space mission in the gamma quad, so I seed my TNG there. SIDE NOTE: I have now won every coin toss…that never happened to me before!

I drop a BSV, scout, draw. I'm afraid he'll drop a BSV with a counterpart and steal the Horga'Hn, until he points out the mission is now untargetable with ES. He starts downloading drones with Activate Subcommands, while I get the Horga'Hn and move to the third mission for my BGB. Needless to say, I'm using Writ as much as I can this game. ;-) I'm going after the second mission when he gets a cube out and goes after the 4th. I didn't notice he had self-seeds, but it turns out to be an Orb in a cryo. I get the EG there, but he's scouted the last mission. I drop a BSV in the alpha quad and scout one of my own missions. He gets a bad probe, so I'm able to finish scouting and probe for the win.
Score: 100-0, Total: 5 (+250)

Final round: vs Roger Gardner

I think I'm in third at the moment, possibly fourth. We duplicate a mission, which I replace with a Construct Depot. I score at two of his missions, while he scores a Cytherians and then starts taking shots at my BSVs. I'm able to score at Construct Depot, losing my counterpart to the one dilemma there (Cardy Trap) but I can't each the last mission to probe because I moved my ship away so he couldn't battle and he RRD'd a Defiant Dedication Plague to catch it, lowering the range to one less than I need. If he gets another turn, it's game over for me, since I'll have no way to get my ships to where I can scout without them getting killed, so I risk using the Horga'Hn a third time. He doesn't have Writ, and an Intermix Ratio gives me the full win.
Score: 100-0, Total: 7 (+250)

I'm in second place with one loss to Greg, who is undefeated. Everyone else has at least 2 losses and at least 1 win. Now to build two more decks for the tournaments next weekend… ;-)

William "Spock" Springer
spock@wnohgb.com