I was dead tired the day before, so on the day of the tourney I got up at... well... early... to build my deck. I hadn't even figured out what affiliation to play! I was fairly confident that I could finish in the top three if I played a Dominion Smackdown deck, but I figured I'd rather finish last and have fun while playing. In my last 12 tournament games I had played Dominion, and only lost 1 game. I was starting to think that maybe it's not that I'm such an excellent player, but because Smackdown decks, if played correctly, are virtually unbeatable.

So, being the stupid moron I am, I opted to play something else, and to Gre'thor with that set of BB uncut sheets I could have won, had I finished 1st. Now, with that sort of reasoning, playing Ferengi would also be out, right? Well, no. Not at all. But after tinkering with a Ferengi deck for a few hours I scrapped that idea. I came to the conclusion that they simply can't pass dilemmas quickly enough to stand a chance!

Taking a look at the missions in my Ferengi deck I suddenly realized that I simply HAD to play Borg. Think about it... Deliver Supplies and Runabout Search (dual-icon missions) both have Ferengi icons... hmmm... Keep Deliver Message, a Bajor region mission and two Market Research. Who would think I played Borg? This has to be the best masking ever! And believe me, it worked! I seeded a Cryosatellite with a Horga'hn (only to be used twice, which would be all I needed) and Bareil of Borg (Bajoran icon on Deliver Supplies and Runabout Search) to get some real speed in the deck.

GAME NO 1: Robert Cederlund (Dominion Jem'Hadar Smackdown) - Right up against my worst nightmare. Dominion. I was pretty sure I'd lose, but he made a few fatal mistakes. He waited in the GQ for too long, trying to build up a large crew before going through the wormhole to beat the snot out of me. I had scored 50 points from an Establish Gateway/Assimilate Planet on Deliver Supplies before he entered AQ. Unfortunately he Jamaharoned my Horga'hn, so I only got to use it once. Anyway, the wormhole was two turns away from Runabout Search, so I figured I could make it unless I ran into a wall combo. Then he tented for Alas, Poor Queen and I decided to put the Queen on a Sphere and STP it back to my hand. I was lucky to run into a planet combo, so the Est. Gateway finished right away, and on my next turn, with a Jem'Hadar Warship on the neighboring location, I passed the planet dilemmas and probed for the win. 100-0, but trust me, I was terrified for a while! Score: 2 (+100)

GAME 2: Johnny Ohlsson (Cardassian/Federation Dilemma Bonus Point) - Next up was the region's no. 1. He admitted to have fallen for my masking, but I got off to a terrible start (not a single Awaken in my starting hand), and by turn 3, with me still in the Delta Quadrant, he had scored 100 points from the dilemmas seeded under my missions. I have to say it (no offence to Johnny): This was by far the cheesiest deck I have ever played against. And why the flying %&&%#%¤ can't Borg use Writ????? And why didn't I at least include an Intermix Ratio??? I thought these decks were supposed to be gone nowadays! Oh, well, Johnny is an excellent player, but... DAAAARGH!!!! Score: 2 (0)

GAME 3: Don't remember his name, I had never met him before and I'm not that good with names... Sorry! (Dominion Gamma Only) - A perfect start this time. Out into the AQ in turn 2, and... whoops! Wormholed straight to Gamma! Crap. It's all over, I thought, only being able to "solve" one mission there (Chart Stellar Cluster, all others where without point boxes, or were the Dominion homeworld, or 30-point planets). Fortunately he hadn't gotten a ship out and wasn't playing with Spacedoor (still don't understand why, it cost him the game), so I was able to TNG my way back to AQ before he could beat me up. Everything went according to plan from there on (he didn't get 2 more Wormholes into his hand), and I won 100-0. Score: 4 (+100)

GAME 4: Oskar Grindemyr (Romulan mission solver) - A personal friend of mine and definitely the best player in our gaming group. I had only played against him 5 times though, and only once with a Borg Deck. That was the only game I won.... he forgot to show Devidian Door. So well... I was thinking this would be another 100-0 loss. It turned out to be one of the most exciting and closely played games I have ever played!

I got off to a good start and scored 50 points really quickly. Unfortunately he thought that was cool (and so did I), and then solved a mission of his own, and launched the Phoenix. The score was 55-50 in his favour. He knew that I would win in two turns, and started battling me. He had a huge away team on my cube, and I destroyed his ship and then managed to get all my personnel onto a Sphere, locking his team on an empty Cube. I started scouting and ran into a Crystalline Entity from the Sphere (Shields 6...). Well, that was almost it for me, but he was unable to do anything. I played out some more Borg on the Cube, and solved all the dilemmas before they died. I played out more drones, but I didn't get a chance to probe, because he kept fighting me till my deck ran out. He made a few attempts to rescue his personnel, but I blew up his ships the whole time. The time ran out and score was still 55-50. I lost, but I've never played a more exciting game of STCCG! Score: 4 (+95)

GAME 5: Another new face... Don't remember the name of this one either. Sorry! (Ferengi) - This one was a boring, ridiculously quick and simple victory for me. He too seeded both the dual-icon missions, and I only seeded artifacts and "don't affect Borg" dilemmas under them. He seeded nothing there, thinking that I was playing Ferengi as well and that he could steal them more easily if he didn't put is own dilemmas there as well as mine. He scored a few points from Dabo and FCE, and the game ended quickly (turn 5 or so) 100-8 in my favour. Score: 6 (+187)

GAME 6: Peter something. I wish I could remember the last name because he won the tournament! (Bajoran/Ferengi Cargo Run) - What's there to say? While I was waiting to probe for my first Est. Gateway he stole the mission along with my Horga'hn. He Dabo'ed a few bonus points and then went for the other dual-icon with me only having 25 points. With the bonus point dilemmas he had seeded there he won the game 100-25. I was wrong. Dominion wasn't my worst nightmare. Bajorans were!

Final Score: 6 (+112)

Enough for 5th place out of 18. Actually, it's better than what I was hoping for, not playing my usual Dominion deck that finished 2nd out of 27 (I think) about a month ago, scoring 4(+283) in a four-round tournament.

My apologies to the people who's names I didn't remember!

Marty of Borg
marty@telia.com