Anyone who regularly reads WNOHGB articles has without a doubt read at least one  of Olav's (AKA the Pendari Champion) articles. What you may not necessarily know is that he is ranked #1 in the world for sealed deck. I do know this because I live in the same city as him (Calgary) and not only that, he is my mentor. Now many of you know how annoying it is to be the second best in your area, and never get any of the good prizes. I am writing this article to propose a solution to the problem at hand.  It may not be moral, it may not be legal and it definitely needs us to get our hands dirty, but hey I'm free this weekend, and you obviously are too or you wouldn't be at an online Star Trek Card magazine.
    I propose we round up all the top players in the world and send them to a desert island...while this is a very overused cliché I believe that it would appropriate under the circumstances. Though I am very thankful to Olav for getting me to where I am
today, I would banish him to hell in a second for one of those complimentary mints you get at hotels (If you are reading this Olav I am just kidding, if this is anyone else don't tell Olav but I mean every word of it). Well this wouldn't be so bad, but what's keeping the third place people from banishing us? This is the only problem with my plan, I have yet to figure out a way for the second place people to be protected from the third place  players. It is a proven fact that the better you are at Star Trek Cards you are, the more nerdy you become, so therefore the lower ranked people being less nerdy than the more highly ranked people could beat up the more highly ranked players. That is the only reason we could have the means to banish the top players.
    I have to date only come up with two solutions to this problem at hand, neither of which are very efficient. The first is to hire a bodyguard, someone who doesn't play any CCG, doesn't spend more than 2 hours a day on the computer, and has/had a school average less than 98% (which is an A+ to you Americans). All of this is fine and dandy, but if you hired him that would be money you aren't spending on Star Trek Cards, which in turn decreases your level of play and you will no longer need the bodyguard. The second is to carry a gun around at all times.  Now this also is fine and dandy but for two small glitches: working out for anyone who is ranked 2nd in their area is lifting a Star Trek Card or moving the mouse on their computer, so I find it extremely unlikely that anyone of any rank at ST:CCG could carry the lightest of pistols. Now there is another small problem...I don't know a single Star Trek Gamer that is right in their mind, which is why we are playing Star Trek. So even if they could wield a gun it would be extremely unsafe for anyone around, innocent or not.
    If anyone reading this article has any new ideas that I have yet to think of feel free to write me an email, and if you aren't ranked 2nd in your area you never read this *flashes the device from MIB in your eyes*. "Now wasn't that a great cooking article?"
 
                                                                                --Gazi