Fifteen players turned up at Fantasy Escape for the Sunday tournament. Mike Pattison, the ambassador running it, was hoping for a turnout of 35, but unfortunately a lot of players just couldn't make it. The store didn't open until 11:00, which was when the tourney was supposed to start, so by the time we got inside most of the players were already there.

I was playing a Ferengi Latinum/Dabo/Mission Solver. I trade in latinum for points with Ishka and the Ferengi Conference, redshirt missions, download the people needed to pass any non-redshirtable dilemmas, and then Dabo off the bodies.

I'm not good with names, so if I played against you and left your name out, let me know.

On with the games:

Game One: (vs John ????)

John was using a Romulan PNZ deck. He had four PNZ's, one Neutral Zone planet, and Romulus (using both HQ's). I moved a seeded D'kora to the NZ on my first turn to slow him down, then put Gaila on the Neutral Zone planet and downloaded Quark's Treasure to the planet w/ Hidden Fighter. So now he couldn't beat the PNZ's without Breenzooka, which he admitted was not in the deck. John later tried playing an Outgunned on the Treasure, but fortunately it couldn't target the landed ship. He Isabella'd the D'kora, but Leeta's youth saved them in time.

John played some free people to the HQ's and tried to Secure Homeworld, but was blocked off by a Scientific Method. He also played a few unique D'deridex's and some other people at his Romulan outpost in the Neutral Zone, but didn't do too much with them. I posted another ship between his outposts to Protection Racket any scientists that he played. I then redshirted my way through a Chula combo at Ferenginar and beat it with Secure Homeworld. Did the same at Runabout Search (for 40 points + ten AMS points). That took me up to 96 with Dabo/Latinum included.

Quark's Treasure took off and attacked a couple D'deridex ships which were actually docked, so nothing happened. On his next turn, John went ahead and blew up the Treasure, not knowing why I wanted this to happen. My next turn, I Dabo'd off the Treasure and Gaila for the win.
Overall Score: 2 +100

Game Two: (vs started with a G...Gordan maybe?)

Another Romulan PNZ deck....this one used six Patrol Neutral Zones and Romulan Shuttles instead of D'Deridex's. That didn't hurt my dilemmas since all but one are multi (and the other is for probe rigging, which I later found out was unnecessary). Unfortunately, this meant I wouldn't be able to just Hidden Fighter the Treasure down to a planet to block him out of missions. He played lots of Scans...I believe he eventually Scanned all six of his missions, and wasn't pleased at all the Scientific Methods.

I redshirted some missions and didn't get far with that. I think I hit an Odo's Cousin at Ferenginar. I Ferengi Conferenced for Maihar'dont and beat that. In the mean time, he had played a Suna and downloaded Reflection Therapy to change Sirol to Science. Then he played a Tallera, so only one more Science was needed. I played a P. Racket on Tallera, and killed her off on the last turn before it expired. He realized that there was no way left for him to win as he wouldn't have enough science left, so he was going to just forfeit until I pointed out to him that he could still try to slow me down enough that I wouldn't make it to 100.

I was trying for Runabout Search, but got blocked by Maglock. I took a few turns to download Soloks to the Cargo Bay, then went back over there. He Temporal Rifted me, so I was out for two turns (AU Door just missed the cut when I modified this Friday...d'oh). When that went away, I announced the attempt as the first action of my turn, but didn't have people on the planet in addition to on the ship, so it was invalid. I beamed some people down, and he Rifted me again, so I had to wait two more turns to atempt it. If I ever got to attempt, I knew I would beat it for the win. He was still hoping to time me out when he realized he had a Regenerate in his hand. He Regenerated, which got Tallera back into the deck. Now all he had to do was hope that she came up (out of about 20 cards) before he ran out of Palor Toffs/Rifts. The Rift went away a turn later, and I attempted first thing on my turn to keep him from playing another Rift. I passed the Maglock and beat Runabout Search for the win.
Overall Score: 4 (+200)

Game Three: (vs John Breeden)

Well, this was annoying. We knew it would happen eventually, but I had really hoped I'd get out without playing against John. I play against him all the time, and I had come down to the tourney with him. The last couple times we played using these decks, he won, but I had changed the deck since then, so hopefully it would work.

John's Cardassian Armada got off to a slow start this game (thankfully!). I don't know what he wasn't drawing; he never did say, but I already had 18 points at the end of turn two thanks to Dabo and Latinum. He really didn't get to do too much...never attempted a mission since he knew about the Sci Methods and couldn't pass them. He did destroy Deep Space Nine once he got his Armada, but I was able to beat a couple missions before he destroyed anything else.

It was a good game, but not especially eventful. After-thought: I probably shouldn't have beaten him 100-0 since he was my ride home. hmm...
Overall Score: 6 (+300)

Game Four: (vs ????)

This time I was playing against another Cardassian deck, this one using Terok Nor. I seeded mine first as DS9, so we spent the first twenty minutes of play fighting for control. I kept doing Quark's Bar/Cargo Bay downloads and moving those people to the Bar to play Dabo. They'd get six Dabo points, then get killed in battle. He also tried playing Dabo a couple times, but only scored six points overall from it.

I had control of DS9 at least five times, but I think he ended up with it. I actually had people left aboard after he was gone, but didn't commandeer as he had an Armada large enough to blow it up if I commandeered again.

I tried Deliver Message, but was blocked out by Founder Secret...it took me a while to gather >70 strength from Ferengi, but eventually I did it. The remaining dilemmas were all ones like Common Thief, Armus Skin of Evil, etc, so I beat that shortly after. Now the score was about 46 to 0. He played a Scientist, and two equipment (officer gets engineer; engineer gets science), and then went for missions. His scientist got killed by Unsci Method, but he had just enough science left from the equipment to path Sci Method anyway. He beat two missions like that for 35 points, then went towards another planet one. While he was going over there, I beat another mission taking me up to 86.

We were running out of time now, but it looked like he'd get his third mission in time. He had four science (from the equipment) and attempted the Cardie homeworld with Secure Homeworld. Dukat got randomly killed by Unsci Method, but he passed Scientific Method with the last three science. Less than a minute left on the clock, and he's checking the requirements...Mike called hands down, but he got to finish checking for the mission. He had no leadership left for the Secure Homeworld! He wanted to flip a HA (I'm guessing Defensive Measures even though that would only have given him one leadership), but Mike told him no other actions could be taken now. So the game ended 76 to 86, my favor. Very close. If I had had one more turn, I'd have beaten another mission.
Overall Score: 7 (+ 310)

Editor's Note: On the DBBS, it was revealed that Dukat lost treachery somehow, and the opponent illegally chained several equipment (one gives an OFFICER engineer, but he's still OFFICER classification so he can't get the skill from something that requires ENGINEER classification.

Game Five: (vs William Perdue)

William was playing a VCM deck; first turn he did the probing for it and as a result got out Admiral Riker and DL'd the USS Enterprise. I flipped It's Only A Game next time he tried it, so that slowed him down some. I started with my usual Dabo/GPL exchanging. After a few turns, I attempted Ferenginar, but hit a Dead End. So I started Protection Racketing his Admiral Riker, the request being that he discard the Dead End. Unfortunately, Mike ruled that he could not comply with a request that under normal game circumstances could not be granted. So, I just asked for a million bucks. He couldn't grant that, so Riker got aced. I redshirted Runabout Search, hitting the Alien Parasites/Armus combo, so five people died to that.

Later on in the game, with nice big crew of twelve, I went over there again. I could not for the life of me remember what was there, but I did not want to risk Leeta, Quark, Zek, etc...so instead I made the biggest mistake I've made since last year's wildcard. Down goes Nava to check it out, the whole crew meets their demise. I had another Zek in my hand, so I played him next turn and started Conferencing for a new group, but I never came back from that.

Eventually I got up to 51 points and passed the Dead End. I needed one more Exobiology to beat the mission. I could either Cargo Bay download for it or Ferengi Conference. I tried to Cargo Bay, but my only Exo left was Maihar'du who couldn't Cargo Bay download. Next turn I Conferenced for him and beat the Odo's Cousin and the mission, putting me at 86. I then tried the Runabout Search again, remembering the dilemma combo this time. Passed all the dilemmas and then realized all my Transporter Skill had been killed already. I traded in a GPL to put Kassidy back into the draw deck, and planned to Cargo Bay DL her next turn.

Unfortunately, William had gotten enough Science to pass the Sci Methods (my Protection Racketer had been killed, so I was getting behind in that), so he beat two other missions, and then stole the Runabout Search.
Overall Score: 7 (+296)

After this game, I figured my chances of winning had been shot. However, talking with the other players, we determined that I was still in the top three. I then got to play against the guy who was in first at the time, Joe Lenow. If I beat him (either full or partial win) and William lost his game, then I would be in first. Even if William won his game, I'd still be in second if I had a full win (I think).

Game Six: (vs Joe Lenow)

It was hard to tell what Joe was playing...he used Aid Fugitives and a Dominion Gamma Quad mission, along with three copies of Nebula and two of Space. When I saw the "Space" missions, I figured Black Hole...Maybe Borg, hoping to take my missions? Then he played a Ferengi Outpost (?!) and a Primary Supply Depot.

First turn, Joe Tented for a Q's Planet and put one card there. Next turn he was able to go over and complete it, getting himself a Horga'hn (use it three times, use it three times!). Then he built a Colony there and started bringing people over (slowly, since I used It's Only A Game against his Red Alert).

I sent some people to the GQ to oppose the colony. That stalled him a few turns, but he killed them off. In the mean time, I redshirted Ferenginar, and seeing an Unscientific Method, I Ferengi Conferenced for two Navas and Mardah. Passed the Unsci without using Scientists, then attempted with everyone. I was right about a Scientific Method being next, but I had actually moved all the medical I had played over to the colony, so I Conferenced for another and passed the Scientific Method.

Twenty minutes into the game, William Perdue's game ended and his opponent came over. Before Mike could get him to go away, he told us that William had lost, so whoever won our game was the State Champ. Not too much pressure here....

I beat the Deliver Message with Nog, so with GPL/Dabo I was at around 70. I then moved over to the GQ once I had some more people. Joe was now up to about ten people over at the Colony, with 30 points. Once we came through the wormhole, a Jem'hadar Attack Ship damaged Quark's Treasure...I had to win next turn, or start a new crew. Joe was now at 40 from the Colony.

I redshirted Tulaberry Wine Negotiations and it looked like the same combo, so I passed it the same way I had the first time and used Quark and Pel to beat it for the win.

Joe then pointed out to me that if he had gotten just a few more points, he would have place Second instead of Third. Just trying to make me feel guilty for beating him... : )

So, I won the State Championship! I was surprised, as I had only hoped to finish with a positive score. I guess I'll be getting a hockey puck in the mail some day if Decipher ever orders them. I'm guessing they'll do that once the last State Tournament concludes next weekend.

Prizes...I think everyone got the same thing. Three Premiere packs, a pack of BoG, and one of RoA. I traded the Premiere ones for a Protection Racket without even opening them, and gave the BoG rares away since I didn't need them. Got some good commons though. William Perdue got the best pull of the day when he opened his BoG pack and pulled a Riker Wil FOIL.

Now, to see if John would still give me a ride home....

Jedi Jawa of Borg