Well, Washington States are come and gone, and the afternoon had a good number of surprises to it.  The deck I ended up playing was a Romulan armada that could take out outposts on the first turn through a somewhat complicated series of maneuvers including Launch Portals, Captured/Prisoner Exchange, a Decius, and a four-card Maximum Firepower/"Crimson Forcefield" Battle Bridge.  The basic engine was developed by Brad DeFruiter, but I made some considerable modifications to it.  Coincidentally, the personnel I downloaded on the first turn could pass all of the Empok Nor dilemmas, so I threw that in, too, to assist in mission solving after the opponent's facilities were destroyed.

Anyway, here's what happened:

Game One: vs. Kody Bradley (Rating: 1514)

Kody was playing a Klingon speed deck using Hero of the Empire and The Great Hall.  I did the first-turn armada thing all right, but I was hesitant to attack his homeworld.  He Devidian Door-ed Barry Waddle to K-7, which I responded to by Obelisk/Masaka, since he only had a three-card hand.  He ended up drawing another D-Door, though.  Having no way to stop Hero, I Wormhole-d back to the past and blew up K-7, accomplishing Hero in the process.  At the time, I thought I'd be depriving him of some free card plays, but it turns out he wasn't planning on using Sherman's Peak for much other than Hero.

Anyway, I really screwed up the dilemma seeding in this game.  I planned on seeding Dead Ends at homeworlds to force the opponent to move away, but for some reason I seeded a Chula/Friendly Fire combo there instead.  As a result, he was able to get two missions off on this deck -- I destroyed his IKC Bortas in the process, but the healthy stack of personnel (armed with Bat'leths and the like, so personnel battle was out of the question) on the planet solved the mission anyway.  At some point along the line I blew up The Great Hall anyway, since he had most of his deck on the table so Defend Homeworld wouldn't hurt so much.  As it turned out, he didn't have it at all.

While all this was going on, I commandeered Empok Nor and was going after my missions.  His Tribbles were extremely annoying, keeping Lovok tied up trying to keep the planets clear of the high-denomination Tribbles.  As luck would have it, a Penalty Box took out Takket, one of just two Exobiology in the deck, keeping me from solving one of my Impose Orders.  Another had a Dead End on it, which I was unable to pass even after solving Covert Installation II and Patrol Neutral Zone thanks to Hero.  During this time he Devidian Door-ed Dr. Soong and failed to show his Devidian Door, but I didn't catch this until it was too late.  With his Hero-boosted missions, we timed out with him leading, 82-21.  Modified loss, 0 (-61).  Cumulative: 0 (-61)  

Game Two: vs. Marcus Yarbrough (Rating: 1371)

Marcus was playing a pure (or mostly pure) Non-Aligned deck.  After a quick rules scuffle concerning the Fesarius (he tried to Ready Room Door Balok to it on the same turn he played it, which was illegal since his only doorway allowing [AU] cards to play was a Space-Time Portal), I destroyed his outpost on my second turn.  (Even after Obelisk-ing, I had a horrid draw with only one Tent and one Launch Portal).  Having absolutely no way to play cards in the game at this point -- the Husnock Outpost can only be seeded, not played -- he conceded the game to me.  Full win, 2 (+100).  Cumulative 2 (+39)  

Game Three: vs. Carlin Jacobson (Rating: 1536)

Carlin was playing a Klingon DRAGS deck, with two seeded Outpost IIs and a regularly-seeded Klingon Outpost, so he had three facilities on the table. Not a good thing for a battle deck.  Anyway, he was using a four-card Battle Bridge as well, so we had an interesting dance going on during the game as we constantly nullified the other's Maximum Firepowers with "Crimson Forcefields."

Anyway, I destroyed one of his outposts on the second turn, with the others falling shortly thereafter.  However, he had a cloaked ship with an ENGINEER on board, so he rebuilt a few of his outposts throughout the game.  (I've since realized that a ship has to be decloaked to build an outpost, but at the time it didn't come to my mind).  Anyway, he solved one mission before I destroyed his ship (he left it vulnerable at a critical moment), thus locking him out of the game.  I spent the rest of my time working through dilemmas at my own missions, having to deal with his DRAGS along the way.  I ended up solving Covert Installation II and sitting on a Colony there. Unfortunately, time was called at the worst possible instance.  I was at 97 points and it was the end of Carlin's turn... all he had to do was draw and I'd have a full win.  However, time was called just as he put his hand on his deck to draw!  Arrgh!  Anyway, I still got a modified win, 97-41: 1 (+56).  Cumulative: 3 (+95)  

Game Four: vs. Keith Watabayashi (Rating: 1611)

Keith was playing a Bajoran Orb deck.  We both screwed up big in the seed phase... I forgot to seed two of my Prisoner Exchanges (it was a weird seeding method I was using... don't ask), and Keith's Assign Support Personnel somehow ended up in his draw deck.  Anyway, without the Prisoner Exchanges, it took longer to get the personnel needed to blow up outposts. Of course, he was only using the Chamber of Ministers at DS9 (plus a Mirror Terok Nor for Ore Processing), and I saw him Process his Defend Homeworld back into his deck, so I wasn't about to go attacking him.

I commandeered Empok Nor, and started going after missions, all the while keeping a watchful eye for battle opportunities.  I used personnel battle to kill Kira Nerys and Lore on a planet, and I took out a Bajoran Freighter with Mora Pol after he was stopped at a space mission.  He finally worked through the dilemmas at one mission to give him thirty points.  By now, he had exhausted most of his deck, so I destroyed the Chamber of Ministers and about a dozen Bajorans located inside.  He grabbed his DHW, but the only personnel left to grab were Suna and Colonel Day, neither of which were much help.  I also destroyed the Phoenix in orbit, dropping his score by ten points.

Now, I turned my attention to my missions.  I worked through dilemmas at two Impose Orders, but I was unable to solve them... for lack of a Treachery personnel!  (Yes, in a Romulan deck!)  I had a couple in my Tent, but it was closed by Revolving Door and I had already used QIR and my AU Door earlier in the game.  The Sisters of Duras were caught by a Mandarin Bailiff, since I didn't want to transfer eight points to him  (because I would have had to solve an extra mission to win).  His heavy troika caused some delays as well as my Captain's Log, Wormholes, and Bynars were constantly being countered. So, that's where the game timed out, with me being unable to solve an Impose Order in a Romulan deck -- because of no Treachery.  So, instead of winning 35-33, I take another modified loss, 33-0.  0 (-33).  Cumulative: 3 (+62)  

Game Five: vs. Ryan Agnew (Rating: 1570)

So, by now I knew my chances at making the final were slim.  Regardless, I hoped to boost my score before ending the tournament.  Ryan was playing a Romulan battle deck, and I couldn't get the Captured/Prisoner Exchange trick to work since he had several SECURITY and a hand weapon at his Headquarters after the first turn.  So, I simply commandeered Empok Nor and waited for an opportune moment to battle.

I ended up not needing to, though, since he failed to stock Operate Wormhole Relays.  I sent two crew-laden D'deridexes (the Decius and Haakona) to the Mirror Quadrant, ignoring the remaining Cha'Joh since there was only one personnel aboard (and he died after making a suicide mission attempt.)

From here, I went and solved three of Ryan's missions with relative ease, again due to his lack of a Fair Play.  Since I was using only 9 dilemmas (4 of them Empok Nor dilemmas, which my deck could pass very easily), I stole his Explore Typhon Expanse II, Investigate Sighting, and Investigate Raid (using Takket to boost my score at Sighting and Raid via AMS and by dying at Typhon to my Plague Ship combo) to get a full win, 100-0.  2 (+100). Cumulative: 5 (+162)  

Game Six: vs. David Martina (Rating: 1498)

David was playing another Romulan deck, this one Treaty-ed with Cardassians and focused on solving space missions.  The deck worked like a charm, and I destroyed his Romulan outpost on the first turn (using HQ: Defensive Measures and a Romulan/Klingon Treaty).  I commandeered Empok Nor, and stole two of his unprotectable missions (Investigate "Shattered Space" and Study Lonka Pulsar), using AMS to put me ahead 90-0 after 3-4 turns.  He played the Naprem at his Headquarters with a couple of other personnel, but my Decius took it out.  From here, it was just a matter of turns while I Ops-downloaded my way through dilemmas at my Impose Order to win, 100-6 (he scored five from a Lemon-Aid and one from Mandarin Bailiff on Takket).  2 (+94).  Cumulative: 7 (+256)

This score was actually good enough for third place, just out of range of the final, which was to be played out between Tigh Bradley and R.J. Smith. Tigh was using a Bajoran Orb deck, while R.J. was playing Federation speed. Tigh got off to a fairly quick start, doing plenty of drawing and playing of Bajorans.  R.J. slowly built up his Federation crew.  Tigh ended up winning before R.J. had solved a mission.  Many of the spectators were wondering why R.J. didn't attempt more missions, since had a rather large amount of personnel on the table.  But this has always been one of his weaknesses: waiting too long to attempt missions.  So, Tigh is the Washington champion for 2001.  Here are the top placings (I don't remember anything past fifth)

1. Tigh Bradley (Bajoran Orbs)
2. R.J. Smith (Federation speed)
3. Steve Boyles (me, Romulan armada)
4. Carlin Jacobson (Klingon DRAGS)
5. Jason Drake (Bajoran armada)

I'm fairly satisfied with this deck, although there are a number of opportunities in this tournament that were blown.  Several of them were in the first game (my first games are usually weaker since I'm not fully into the STCCG mindset yet), such as seeding the dilemmas wrong and failing to call him on not showing a Devidian Door.  Against Carlin, if the round was just five seconds longer I could have picked up an extra victory point.  Or, against Keith, if I had retrieved just one Treachery personnel from my Tent when I had it open (which I should have done if I had known that I had no Treachery in play), I could have gotten a modified win.  I think my differential was high enough that almost any of the above would have gotten me into the final round.  I don't know how well my deck would have fared against Tigh's (armada decks hate Bajoran decks, because they stick multiple facilities at a homeworld and have many landable ships), but I know I could have beaten R.J.'s fairly easily, since he only had one Alpha Quadrant facility, a built-in Federation outpost.

So, I'll have to head to the Open in Vancouver on July 1 to try to qualify for Day 2 of Worlds.

See the deck!