"Clash of the Titans" is a series of tournament reports from Titan, our gaming venue overlooking scenic Elk Avenue in downtown Elizabethton, Tennessee.

On Saturday, April 27, 2002, the Clash of the Titans had a hard time keeping players. Three dropped after round one -- including Nicholas Shell, who usually does rather well at these tournaments. The other five of us did finish, with a couple of strange twists of fate resulting in rankings that ultimately came down to 19 differential points. My deck for this tournament used Sherlock Holmes and All Threes to move quickly through the draw deck, with The Vidiian Sodality, Hirogen Hunt, and War Council providing up to three free reports per turn. I knew that it would take something on the order of seven or eight turns for my deck to report personnel and finish my missions, but I thought that would be enough given the strength of my dilemmas.

Round 1 vs. Joey Oliver

As this was our first local tournament with The Motion Pictures expansion legal for constructed deck play, Joey was playing movie Klingons. He also had apparently been reading Where No One Has Gone Before, because he played using Olav Rokne's "Holy Hexany," supplemented with Smooth As an Android's Bottom? (Ironically, I had considered using Olav's Hexany in my deck as well, but I had decided a strictly linear approach was more efficient for my particular deck.) On the very first turn I made a fundamental mistake by recycling a [Ref] card for a card draw (hence executing orders) before I made my card plays. So I squandered my first turn. It was my third turn before I had a [Cmd] personnel available to staff a ship. It took me the next turn to finish off the dilemmas at Repair Null Space Catapult. During this time, Joey was primarily reporting and downloading personnel and ships. On turn 5 I completed Repair Null Space Catapult for 30 points and attempted (but did not complete) both Hunt Alien and Reinitialize Warp Reaction. Joey attempted a mission and wisely stopped when he saw my Edo Probe. On turn 6 I cleared the dilemmas from under Hunt Alien and Corner Enemy Ship, but did not complete the missions (intentionally, because I didn't want to free up Joey's mission from the Edo Probe). Then Joey STP-dropped the Kla'diyus into the Delta Quadrant and attempted to steal Corner Enemy Ship, but he was a little short of the WEAPONS>15 needed to attempt the mission. On turn 7 I solved Corner Enemy Ship for 40 points, but knowing Joey's fondness for In the Zone, I held off on solving Hunt Alien until turn 8, winning the game 100-0. Cumulative score: 2 (+100)

Round 2 vs. T.J. Barnett

Two mistakes (one very stupid) and one good decision by T.J. cost me this game. T.J. was also playing movie Klingons. This time I played the first turn correctly and attempted Reinitialize Warp Reaction. Chula: The Chandra + Engine Imbalance + Cytherians sent me crawling down the spaceline. Where I first went wrong was playing Isomagnetic Disintegrator too early in the game, when I had a hand full of personnel and no All Threes, and only one Isomagnetic Disintegrator in the discard pile. My plan was to swap discard and draw piles with one Isomagnetic Disintegrator, recover some All Threes, then swap back with a second Isomagnetic Disintegrator. The problem arose when T.J. nullified my second Isomagnetic Disintegrator with Kevin Uxbridge, leaving about 2/3 of my cards inaccessible in the discard pile. I finished my Cytherians flight and then redshirted into The Higher … the Fewer for a total of 14 points by the end of turn 5. But now things started to get difficult, because so few of my cards were accessible to me. I cleared out all the dilemmas under Assist Cooperative on turn 6, except for the last one -- Matriarchal Society. I had only one female in play (Sullin) and, as it turned out, all my other females were in the discard pile. Next, T.J. finished Cloaked Mission for 40 points including James T. Kirk and AMS bonuses, but lost 5 points to Hazardous Duty. On turn 7, I solved Reinitialize Warp Reaction for 35, taking me to 49. I then started working on Repair Null Space Catapult. T.J. attempted another mission, and stopped when he saw Edo Probe. I continued to work on Repair Null Space Catapult, and T.J. continued to work on Secret Salvage II for the next turn. On turn 9, I solved Repair Null Space Catapult for 30, and T.J. solved Secret Salvage II for 30 (again getting bonus points from James T. Kirk and AMS). As I started turn 10, I was leading T.J. 79-65, but I was in trouble. I could now get past the Dead End at Corner Enemy Ship, but I had no Stellar Cartography available. I couldn't get past Dangerous Liaisons at Seal Rift, because I had only one SECURITY on the table. I couldn't get past Matriarchal Society at Assist Cooperative, because I had only one female on the table. And I had no way to get out any additional personnel. Then I saw the key to the win: T.J. had Demora Sulu out, and I had several Hirogen with Anthropology! I declared that I would recycle a [Ref] card and convert the card draw to a download with Hirogen Hunt. I picked up my Q's Tent side deck to pull out Rituals of the Hunt -- and I found that when putting the deck together the night before, I had inadvertently included Relics of the Chase instead of Rituals of the Hunt! Argh! So I was desperate. I threw everybody at Hunt Alien, couldn't get through the dilemmas, and ended my turn. I couldn't believe it. I even checked my deck list after the game, and I did have Rituals, not Relics, on the list. On turn 10, T.J. swept by my Dead End at Investigate Alien Probe to take the game, 100-79. Cumulative score: 2 (+79)

Round 3: Bye

I didn't by any means have the lowest score going into round 3, but since three players dropped after round 1, we had only five players for rounds 2 and 3. The particular configuration of who had already played whom forced me into the bye position, so I ended the tournament with 4 (+79). T.J., who at this point something like 4 (+93) at this point, was playing Jimmy Rouse, who entered the round at 2 (-5). I, of course, was calculating that if Jimmy got a timed win, my 4 (+79) would be good enough to win the tournament. As it turned out, Jimmy won 100-35, thanks in no small measure to T.J.'s personnel hitting Your Galaxy Is Impure and later Denevan Neural Parasites without protection. Jimmy's win put him at 4 (+60) and took T.J. down somewhere around 4 (+28). So even though I didn't have a chance to positively boost my own differential in round 3, the mathematics worked in my favor and I actually won the three-round tournament with 4 (+79) and walked home with a Q2 foil! How strange is that? And what a difference a Rituals of the Hunt would've made -- which was supposed to have been in the deck!

Memo to me: Next time (May 18, 2002 at Titan in Elizabethton, TN), double-check your deck list against the actual cards in the box before you go off to play.