The tourney was held at Bibliotech in Shawnee, OK, Saturday, Feb 24.  We had 11 participants and two other part-time players that showed up to watch.  This was a great turn out and we certainly appreciate those out-of-towners that drove in.  I was the TD in charge and we had three other TDs in attendance as well to help out on rulings.

I was playing a Klingon mission solver.  The basic goal was to score three Military Exercises and then Q's Tent for either Arbiter of Succession or the Phoenix to score the last needed points.  My other missions were A Good Day to Live, as I had Kang, Kor, Koloth and Jadzia Dax in the draw deck, and the Klingon homeworld with Secure Homeworld and Explore Black Cluster II for the built-in outpost.  I was also playing a Homefront on my opponent's homeworld to slow down the free reports.

Decks included: Federation, Bajoran, Klingon x2, Romulan, Borg x2, and an OTSD plus boosters that someone put together at the last minute.  I didn't have time to see the others.

1st Round: I played The Janitor of Kedanya fame.  He was playing a Dominion Gamma quadrant deck.  I got going early with my AMS personnel and a quickly reported Kang and Kor to use Blood Oath to download the other two and some ships.  I flipped Spacedoor to get IKC Vor'cha when I didn't draw a ship with more than 2 staffing icons.  The Janitor was having real problems drawing several cards that he needed while my deck was clicking with Kivas Fajo-Collector and The Traveler-Transcendance.  I solved three missions and played the Phoenix to win 100-00

2 (+100)

2nd Round: I paired up against Steve Jones.  Steve had been tuning a deck and had it finely tuned for this tourney.  He was playing a basic Romulan mission solver with the two HQs.  I played a Homefront and that slowed him down for several turns.  However, when I started attempting missions, I ran into the finely tuned part of Steve's deck.  His draw deck complemented his dilemma selections as well as I have seen.  First, I attempted the Outpost mission and hit a Dead End.  Then at a Military Exercises, I ran into Male Love Interest/Tarellian Plague Ship.  His Barclay's Transporter Phobias kept me from beaming and killed a whole crew.  So I had to start building up again.  He tried to steal my Military Exercises where I had cleared 2 dilemmas, so I flipped a HQ Defensive Measures to slow him down.  But I couldn't get the right people out in time so he went up on me by 30.  He then attempted another mission and gave me 4 points on a Mandarin Bailiff when he hit a Q-Flash but solved the mission.  I got a crew together and attempted another mission.  This time his Q-Flash snagged me with Penalty Box and Mandarin Bailiff and kept me from solving that mission.  Then he solved another mission for the win.  Steve built a great deck.  I may have to reinstitute Goddess of Empathy for protection.

2 (+4)

3rd Round This time I get paired up with Jonathan Knapik.  He's number 2 in the region and the best player in the state.  This time he chose a Bajoran deck with DS9.  He was slowed by my Homefront, but downloading Odo really helped him there.  He used the Shrine and Guest Quarters to conduct services and choose end of turn draws.  My Q-Flash gave him real problems every mission.  What made the difference in this game was that every time I tried to play a Q's Tent, he Wrong Doored it.  I never was able to get my Traveler out and my Kivas Fajo-Collectors were at the bottom of the deck.  I hit a Theta Radiation Poisoning/Cytherians combo and wormholed myself to the end of the spaceline for 15.  Then I used Blood Oath to download the IKC Lukara there and abandoned the Vorcha.  This turned out to be a flaw in my deck.  Since I couldn't get my card drawing mechanisms going, it took me forever to draw another big ship.  I cleared dilemmas at two Military Exercises but couldn't solve.  By the time I drew one, Jonathan was up 95 to 22.  The Higher the Fewer also caused me problems in several games including this one.  I quickly solved my two Military Exercises to get up to 82.  However, Jonathan was closing in on another mission.  He used a Q-Flash to nullify a Fightin' Words and solved for the win after I was stopped on my homeworld by a Firestorm/In the Pale Moonlight combo.  It was only later that we realized the Fighting Words can only be nullifed by Oof or initiating personnel battle.  We were both going by the text on the Q-Flash and missed the Fighting Words nullification terms.  However, I would still have had to draw a person with INT <5, so he probably would have had time to solve for the win anyway.

2 (-14)

4th Round I pair up against Jim Watkins this round.  Jim is playing a Borg deck that he's been working on.  He scored first with an Establish Gateway. Darn Borg just Adapt through your dilemmas.  Then I get rolling and solve three missions.  However, a Higher the Fewer at each of them decreased my point total.  Jim completed another Establish Gateway.  I swooped into Explore Black Cluster II with two ships and crews that could solve, bashed through the dilemmas to get up to 95 points, and then Q's Tented for an Arbiter of Succession for the win.  Jim's deck was clicking but a Borg ship moving down the spaceline battled him once to slow his probing and my Q-Flash did slow him down some.

4 (+36)

The tourney ended up with Steve Jones winning with his nice deck with dilemmas and draw deck finely in tune.  I ended up in 5th place.  My two losses to the top two players pushed me down.  I will note that this was the first tourney that I have played and directed.  Questions from other players tend to make you lose concentration in your own game.  But it was great to be able to let everyone play.  With the number of local TDs we plan on switching off directing to keep on playing.

Problems that popped up in my deck: It needs a guaranteed card drawing mechanism.  Not being able to get in my Q's Tent one game really hurt and showed this flaw.  If I hadn't had a Rakal shuffle on the Kivas Fajo-Collectors, I might have been able to overcome it. The Barclay's Transporter Phobias hurt.  I had a Establish Landing Protocols to get around that on my homeworld, but it got Kevined immediately.  Ready Room Door wouldn't have protected it.  Goddess of Empathy is looking better. Also, I needed another IKC Vor'cha to protect against not drawing a big ship.  If only they had made the IKC Gr'oth with two staffing requirements. And, of course, it just needs to be trimmed in numbers.  A usual problem I have.  :-)

The tourney was great.  Everyone said they had a great time from 1st to last.  All of the games, win or lose, were well-played and everyone had a great attitude.

Randy Smith
TD, Ronara Region
Shawnee, OK