Well, today, 11 players and the TD  showed up at the Moorestown mall for the
NJ state championships. I took what some players and myself call "My Money
Deck." I played the deck at last year's regional, only without DRAGS. The
deck is a somewhat simple Bajoran Return Orb to Bajor deck, with point
denial as a side strategy.

Round 1 vs. Michael Burke

Mike is playing a Baj/Fed deck using MQ people for free. We duplicate THREE
missions! I seed nothing at Bajor except for my orb, and I solve it early
for 50 (ROTB + Sarjenka + 35 for the mission) points. He plays Memory Wipe
on my ship, but I Kevin Ux it. I work through my missions that had only his
dilemmas at them for the win.

2 (+100) 2 (+100)
 

Round 2 vs. John Corbett

John is my main competition here in NJ, so I expected a tough game. John
actually seeded THREE TERRAFORMING STATIONS!!!
He played his PNZ deck that he's been playing for the last 4 weeks. I
figured that if I landed on his planets early, he'd be locked. He is also
playing point denial, but no DRAGS. I try to get to his planet but I don't
make it. I try to use WNOHGB to get to his other planet, but he Ux's it. I
attempt a mission and get stopped by Edo/Dead End, knocking me to 5. He
attempts a PNZ and hits Dead End after a Scow. He eventually does one PNZ
mission for 34 points after DRAGS and TH..TF. He scans an NZ planet and sees
Q so he waits a while to build up. I get to 34 points after one mission,
then stupidly I attempted with most of people at a space mission. Edo Probe
+ Ferengi Infestation + Crystalline Entity killed all my people and made me lose
10. I dabo'd them away for 6 points before he got a win. At the end,
Relocate Settlers is rendered useless, becoming : Animal x2 + Civilian +
Barbering OR Animal x2 + Klingon Intelligence OR Weyoun of Borg. Luckily HQ:
Secure HW overrides it and he can't change the Orb icon on Cardassia.  At
this point, things are not looking good for me winning.

0 (-70) 2 (+30)
 

Round 3 vs. Sam Reza

As soon as I see the TNG seeded on the spaceline, I frowned. All of my
dilemmas other than Q and three Ferengi Infestations will be irrelevant.
The only way I would win this game is by being faster, which I was. I solved
Bajor, then dabo'd and did ROTB for 54 points before he even makes it through to the Alpha Quadrant.  For some reason he NEVER scouts any of his missions! He was set on assimilating Bajor. He tried once, while I had all my people on DS9, but thankfully, he got a bad probe. He assimilated it the turn before I won, which had no real effect
other than scoring 40 pts. After the game, I show him my dilemma combos, and
he smacks himself in the head ;-).

2 (+60) 4 (+90)
 

Round 4 vs. Josh Grancell

Josh was playing a federation old school deck that was AMS/Q. I see 3 self
seeds and immediately DL Writ + Brunt + Writ. He only had Brain Drains to
stop Brunt, but I pointed out that Brunt's SD can suspend the play of brain
drain. I do my orbs for 15 and bust through 3 missions in a couple turns
(not dabo'ing for the bonus points I usually get). (I love how Ferengi
Ingenuity + No Loose Ends is irrelevant to the Bajorans)

2(+100) 6 (+190)
 

Round 5 vs. William Ruglass

Will is playing a fed deck using GTTT for speed. I get through his
anti-OFFICER combos to win. He solved 55 points of mission which because of
DRAGS and TH..TF, turn into 21 + 5 for Mirasta Yale.

2 (+74) 8 (+264)
 

Round 6 vs. Josh Nardone

Josh was playing a speed Romulan dual HQ speed deck. He got a major Rakal
shuffle with all three of his ships on the bottom of his deck! I pass his
combos and win, pretty simple game.

2(+100) 10 (+364)

At this point, the standings are:

1. John  12(+530)
2. Len Neidorf (me) 10 (+364)
3. Sam Reza 7 (+120)
4. David Neidorf (my dad) 7 (+120)

Sam and Dave actually had the EXACT same score!! So, its a rematch between
John and I for the final. It is now 5:40 PM and the mall is closing at
6:00 PM. So, we all migrate to the Wendy's across the street. Yes, the final
confrontation of the NJ State Championships takes place at a Wendy's ;-)
 

FINAL CONFRONTATION:

Me vs. John Corbett

Now my Relocate Settlers is rendered useless because of Terraforming
Station, so he seeds nothing there. I seed a FLI & RGS at a PNZ mission,
rather than a planet, like I did in the other game. He solved Iconia
Investigation early for 32 after DRAGS and TH..TF + his AMS points. I solve
Refuse Immigration after redshirting with Minister Rozahn through a Edo
Probe + Cytherians combo and I'm at about 35 points after losing some, but
gaining points for ROTB and Sarjenka. He attempts a PNZ mission with the
people who hadn't died to DRAGS and hits my Q-dilemma ;-) The interceptor I
had that was affected by Cytherians is relocated to the end of the spaceline, putting
me at 50. I put one NZ planet next to that and one NZ planet next to Bajor. I land
one ship with Rozahn and one ship with the Emmissary. No more PNZ for him
;-). I attempt Orb Negotiations and hit his Q!! So the damage I did is fixed
and he puts Bajor on one side and my people on the other ;-( He gets Yint
and the Breen CRM out and begins working on my interceptors but 8 turns is
gonna take a while. I solve Orb Negotiations with Opaka for 85-ish. I STP my
ship back to hand, and rebuild my AT at Bajor, passing a Edo Probe/Dead End
combo for the win!

A VERY memorable game. The TD, Tom King, takes some pics of us at the
Wendy's. I receive nothing but a bag that says "State Champion", but I'm
still happy. I get the seat at Day 2, which puts me that much closer to the
$10,000 (I wish ;-)

Questions, Comments?

-Len Neidorf