These are just the typically rambling spoutings of a simple, odd guy from Seaside, Oregon who travels in order to attend Star Trek tournaments instead of saving money up for things like a car or larger school loan payments or anything responsible.  Unlike last time, these have more Star Trek content in them, assuming of course that I can remember all that happened over a month ago based on the notes that I write (which is in its own language and is beyond logic, or sense for that matter.)  I just wanted to warn you ahead of time, sorta like curing and fixing a torture victim before they face The Machine, by Count Rugin’s instructions.  Just call me the Albino, not to be confused with the card that I never saw during any of the tournaments.

    I get back from Montana and work for all of two days before I get back up to Portland and take a long bus ride from Portland, Oregon to Chandler, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix for those of you scrambling for maps or mapquest.com (a site that would’ve saved me a lot of time in Chandler) I never did unpack from the trip before so I was stuck with the cards I had with me, I just changed the dirty clothes with the clean ones and I was all set.

    So, I have to sit in Portland until literally the last bus before they close the station because 1) The other bus down that way had left literally as I got there and 2) It was the shortest time on the bus, which has its obvious appeal.  So, I try out my chair TV since I have a buck of quarters and I wanted to watch CSI (a great show if you’ve never seen it and I don’t even have a crush on the show as far as regulars but the lady from the dominatrix episode – Wow.  I only wish I knew her name to look out for her more often) But, apparently I have horrid taste in chair televisions as I can’t get NBC (based out of Portland with supposedly the strongest antenna strength in the region) so I’m stuck sorta holding the lever while I watch of all things, WWF Smackdown.  Or, as we call it at home – Male soap opera.  I’m just glad that they added attractive women to the WWE as I suppose I should call it now because the funny is few and far between.  Apparently, they expect this whole wrestling thing to be entertaining as well, go figure.  Me, I think that the best job (outside of rubbing body oil on the female stars, which immediately came to mind) would be the scriptwriters.  Just imagine it – You went to college, maybe even graduate school learning all the ins and outs of being a great writer and you end up writing dialogue for pro wrestling.  The horror…………..the horror…

    I get on the bus and drive down the highway, my ears covered in headphones as I attempt to fall asleep to music.  For whatever reason, we’re taking two buses (apparently this late night trip is popular, who knew) and I get lucky with the more empty bus.  I sleep for a few hours when, about an hour outside of Medford, the bus loses the ability to shift gears.  Literally.  There’s nothing worse than a bus being passed by bicycle riders, moving up a hill on I-5 and it doesn’t register on the odometer because it’s so slow.  We have to get a new bus in Grants Pass, take the new bus to Medford and then combine the buses together.  We’re just lucky that the amount was just the exact amount that there were empty seats on the full bus.  But could we leave in a quick fashion? Of course not, because some person was complaining that his bags were lost.  Even after pointing out that he didn’t even check bags under the bus to begin with nor did he have a claim ticket for such possible luggage, he still wasn’t convinced.  I can only imagine what would’ve happened if an off-duty police officer hadn’t told the guy to, “Sit down in your seat or you’ll sit down in my car.”  I like cops.

    Eventually, we got underway and I made it to Sacramento for an hour layover.  This showed my first experience with a new service that I’ve yet to see in Greyhound stations – Internet kiosks.  For a dollar, I get something like 3 minutes and 20 seconds of time.  Barely enough time to get to my mail, find anything important that I need to read and attempt to stem the tide of trash that’s in my e-mail account.  When that’s covering over a dozen accounts, it takes a while.  Normally, I’d just use my check card but never did any of the card readers work so I had to keep fishing for dollars.

    You would think that for one of the largest cities in the world, that Los Angeles would have a decent bus station of some kind.  The bus station looked to be designed for people from before my Mom’s generation – Very little space, odd angles at an attempt to be “modern” I’m assuming and the ugliest blue on record, a kind of pasty puke blue like after having milk and blueberries.  The place was crowded (naturally) and (naturally), there was only one competent person at the customer service desk.  So I asked the people who know more about the buses than anyone else in the place – The baggage claim people.  They point me to the bus that I want and the line I want to be in, which I do and after getting on the bus, I pass out sitting straight up until we’re about twenty minutes away from Phoenix.

    Arizona makes traveling down Southern California on I-5 seem like going through a rain forest.  It’s flatter than a dime underneath Louie Anderson’s foot and just as desolate.  We’re stopped in a rest area out in literally the middle of nowhere (which makes one wonder just how they determine where these places are) with nothing resembling green other than trucks and flat as the eye can see.  I can only imagine what it would look like if the sun had risen entirely.  However, once you get near Phoenix, you’re thinking that it’s the biggest oasis in history for it’s huge everywhere.  By sheer luck, the bus station is located less than a mile from the airport (something which would come in handy later that night.)

    After waiting a few hours, I take a bus by myself to Chandler after going by a huge university that seems to take up the entire city of Tempe in relation to the school.  It was horribly hot, over 100 degrees in the Fahrenheit scale and I was oddly dressed for it – T-shirt underneath my leather jacket and jeans.  I walked to the post office, which is conveniently right next to the bus stop and asked for directions, thinking that if anyone would know how to get to somewhere, they would.  Sure enough, after a discussion about the logics of number systems in the area (which, personally would worry me, because how else do they deliver mail if the post office can’t remember which direction it is), I’m pointed on the right direction.  The direction being this really long street of which I’ll have to walk in the abovementioned attire.  For about two miles, roughly speaking.
 Now, truth be told, there is apparently a bus system that does make use of that street but if they had a schedule or any place to sit for those buses, I would probably have taken it.  But they didn’t (a serious flaw in my book, I mean it’s Arizona for goodness sakes….) so I walked.  All the while I’m walking, I’m thinking to myself – Gotta remember the symptoms to heatstroke.  The last thing I needed was to go to a hospital so sure enough, I’m on the wrong side of the street of this eight-laner when I spot the oddest combination restaurant I’ve ever seen that just screamed Rush Hour – A combination Chinese restaurant/barbeque wings.  I wasn’t hungry but they had air conditioning and Barq’s root beer, not to mention incredibly thirsty so there I went.

    After that, about a mile away, I made it to the store.  It was long, had two video games (one of which stole my quarter, which considering I work in an arcade, made me annoyed that I left my keys at work), about ten networked computers, your miniatures table and of course, some CCG cards, all of games that I don’t play except for a few packs of Borg.  Every store that I play in, I make a purchase of some kind, usually of packs or singles because it just seems fair that way to have to put up with me.  Here, I purchased time to get online to try and deal with my e-mail (apparently spammers know when I’m on vacation and decidedly use that time to flood my account) so that made it quite difficult to get anything done.

    After that, I made my two decks, one of which after I talked to the TD, basically would’ve ruled that it wouldn’t work (which was in error but I wasn’t about to argue the facts with him so I took out the bloated Hirogen/Vidiian deck that had Vic in it for some speed but in truth, it was slower than slop by Olavian standards and it wasn’t that good, personally speaking.  Practically every one in the deck reported for free, I used Sherlock to draw cards (when I remembered to actually use Sherlock), made use of the Hexany as well as some War Councils and Kivas Fajo’s when I drew them and had practically every Ref card in the game (at least I thought so).  I didn’t seed a Holodeck Door, actually I Tented for it and reported him to my seeded Olarra via the Tented Holodeck Door.  Unfortunately, I didn’t read that it’s placed out of play after you use that function until my first game, so that hurt somewhat.

    Eventually, they came.  Twelve people in all from Arizona, California and New Mexico, only one of whom I recognized on sight but the name escaped me.  I had met him at DCon 2000, both at the Great Tribble Hunt and Day 2 of Worlds.  He beat me 100-0 with the same premise deck that I had used on Day 1 so I wanted to beat him.  We’ll get to his name later for I did actually end up playing him.    Ten men, two women (both of whom I got the impression were attached, one unfortunately since she was quite stunning although alas, never got to play her.   I’d also like to note for the record, in case my girlfriend is reading this that yes, this was before I met you and she doesn’t compare to you.  Just thought I’d clarify that)

And so we’re underway.

First Round – Brady Miller (California), 1591 at the time of the tournament

    He was playing a deck that I hadn’t seen yet, an interesting premise – Bajoran Resistance Cell/Dominion Founders deck, based entirely in the Gamma Quadrant.  Basic idea – Solve Colony Preparations, download a Colony, get a few extra bonus points while eventually solving a space mission to get around The Big Picture for the win.  He was using a very small deck and combined with Mutation and the Cell, he was going through the deck pretty quickly.  He also used Mutation to get back his Q the Refs, which came into play a bit so that he could cycle them for more card draws.  He lost a ship to God (which was bad since all of the missions had Scows underneath them) as well as that being his only ship with a Tractor Beam if I recall correctly.  Me, I had pummeled through (as best as one can describe the speed of my deck, slow and methodical) four missions (Restock Supplies, Liberation, Answer Distress Signal and Inversion Mystery) but since he had gotten Q’s Planet out from his most annoying Flash, I was apparently stuck at 135 when time was called.  Now, I might have added wrong before (I was only attempting from one ship the entire game and Vic never died) but at the end of the game, when counting in the +10 bonus from Distress Signal, it was discovered that I had 145 points, which would’ve counted for a full win.  He said that I never showed that I had Vic on the ship but 1) I made two Vic downloads at that mission and 2) I attempted with everyone on the ship.  But it was just a game so I took the timed win, not realizing that because I didn’t get the full win, I wouldn’t be in the final confrontation.  He did have one rather important flaw in his deck – He had forgotten the Colony in his deck.

Josh Latneau (Arizona), 1709 at the time

    His name I recognized more than him personally, mainly through my cousin who would post things on Decktech, mainly deck reviews and stuff in my stead.  Long story cut short – I didn’t like Decktech, didn’t like the ranking system (still don’t) and the attitudes that went with said site, but I get bored easily so I had her send me the decklists and what not and I’d send in the deck critiques.  I know, I’m weird.

    In any case, I knew his decks were fairly compact and straight-forward, get as many people out as possible in as few turns as necessary, not very light on the dilemmas so not Olavian of speed decks but fast enough.  This one was a Bajoran Orb/Barzan drop with a whole lot of Hexany.  Unfortunately for him, he got a bad draw and his Orb was behind a wall of some kind (I believe it was Dead End) and he couldn’t draw either a ship or a Wormhole fast enough.  My deck, on the other hand, was clicking fairly quickly as in I solve a mission on the first attempt.  I don’t remember having much difficulty (I got a great hand and kept getting cards that I needed)  If he had gone for one of his missions (Relocate Settlers) he would’ve scored points but I don’t believe that he had.

 If you’re wondering where the scores are located, frankly your guess is as good as mine but at least I kept track of the differential at the end of the tournament.

 Mark Rawlings (Arizona), 1526 at the time

    This is when I feel bad.  I mean really, really bad.  “Why?  Why, oh purveyor of text upon tournaments in which you spend hundreds of dollars to attend, why oh writer of long, rambling tournament reports which shouldn’t take up so much space on a computer screen, why you incredibly sexy piece of man should you ever feel bad when you have an incredibly hot girlfriend who you just can’t seem to get enough of, why in the name of all that’s holy should you feel bad?”

“Because, I can’t remember this game.”

 “Burn him!!!!”

    But it’s true, I don’t remember this game, I can’t find my notes, I can’t find the notepad I wrote on for this game, assuming that I did write anything at all.  I know that we were sitting next to the wall on the second table because I had to move for the first time in the tournament, I know that his wife (the incredibly attractive one) was sitting at the table directly behind him and that she was playing some kind of PNZ because she made a reference to it which I wrote down.  I know that I won a full win but that’s about it.

 So, I apologize profusely and hope that it won’t happen again.

Justin Beal (Arizona) 1539 at the time of the tournament

    He was playing your average, turtlized Vidiian/Federation DQSS deck with Ancestral Vision.  He was turtlized because I had gotten out three Hirogen ships on turn 1, two from the deck and one was seeded and I had them all staffed thanks to a hand of 5 personnel, a Mutation and my AU door, plus my jumpstart people.  His dilemmas were giving me problems though as I had to leave people to staff the turtle-stalkers but I made it through two without a problem eventually.  However, with his Voyager, he managed to get the Delta Flyer on board and start going at his missions, eventually solving Liberation and another planet mission, thanks to a combination of said ships and that damn Gel Pack giving him that extra one range that he seemed to need.  I’m almost through the final mission I need to win when the time is called.  I just needed to show the requirements for one dilemma.  He did disrupt me a bit, using Wrong Door on my Tent, plus having a bad hand after that and kept forgetting about Sherlock didn’t help matters any.  Home Away From Home made his Voyager the place to report and I should’ve Vic downloaded my Kevin Uxbridge-Convergence (mainly to counter those SI Lockdowns) to negate the Vision, that too would’ve helped lots.  But it was a close game, no argument there.

Jeremy Commandeur (California) 1706 at the time of the tournament

    He smacked me, hard.  First, it was the fact that he had Chaotica but the mere fact that he blew up my Olarra with his two Olarras and seeded Dauntless made it worse.  Later on, he said that the reason that he stocked the Dauntless was to mess with Vic decks and sure enough, it messed with mine (Of course, he later conceded that it didn’t really work against true, powerful first turn Vic decks but he had hoped his dilemmas would)

    His deck was a Hirogen Alpha/Hologram deck with easy armada capabilities (as I saw) but primarily focused on dilemmas resolution, using a ship of holograms to get past the scary dilemmas and the rest of them to go after the walls.  He obviously got the Holodeck Doors that my boxes never had and while he wasn’t drawing much per se, it didn’t seem to matter.  If his opponent were going faster, he would go over and smack some people down in battle if they were in the DQ (AQ though, would’ve been different).  He did use DQSS as well but really, it was about just getting through dilemmas.  I did attempt to get a timed loss as The Whale Probe almost let me get a mission in but alas, Chaotica was there and I couldn’t draw either of my two Iden’s, not even after I was going through my deck like mad.  I did have one other shot, which was Cyrus who was in my Tent.  I had already gotten my Olarra back into the game and was on the table.  So, I went through my deck with every single toy of the Hexany available in this madcap dash for either a Q-Tent or Iden but no such luck as I couldn’t get a Palor Toff to save my soul.  At the end of the turn, I draw a card and sure enough, a Q-Tent.  He wins the game with about two minutes to spare.  It was an ouchie.

David Belt (New Mexico), 1803 before the tournament

    He was the guy in the abovementioned DCon experiences, who beat me with a two mission Ajur/Boratus deck (Although mine was a bit odder) as well as at Tribbles.  He was originally from Virginia who moved to New Mexico due to the Navy (which I find funny, picturing the Navy in New Mexico), mainly for government installations and stuff (I didn’t ask exactly what he did for a living, so no need to censure me, Mr. American Military)

    But like the military, he came in with some power behind him – namely the Kazon/Hirogen armada.  I wasn’t quite sure how he’d deal with my Hirogen but he suffered from a horrid hand and surprised me immensely.

    He had no Referee cards, not a one, nowhere, notta, zippo, zilch, nada.

    Naturally, being the type of person I am and because I’m going first, I use my jumpstart people to go after his missions, getting past my dilemmas relatively easily, especially when I don’t flip my Mission Debriefing and can take advantage of a Vic-downloaded Distortion of Space-Time.

    He, unfortunately for him, doesn’t get a really good hand and he doesn’t want to try and have his Kazon Warship take on my Venatic Hunter and Olarra, especially with my ability to gain a ship on the fly.

    Needless to say, I won to which lead to a discussion about, obviously the lack of Referee cards.  His basis was that he figured that he could blow up his opponents before they could take advantage of his lack of protection.  Only problem was people who were playing Hirogen (like yours truly) and turtle decks (although I think he had Orbital Bombardment in the Tent)  Plus, he also figured that for the most part, the abusable people would’ve done things that wouldn’t be covered by Q the Referee in the first place, so to save deck size, he cut them.  Personally, I’d have some if for no other reason than for the Ref cycle to convert into a card draw but that’s just me.

 The final standings were as followed –

1) Jeremy Commandeur – 9 (+405)
2) Justin Beal – 9 (+313)
3) Me – 8 (+325)
4) Brady Miller – 6 (+40)
5) Josh Latneau – 6 (-29)
6) David Belt --- 5 (+50)
7) Mark Rawlings --- 5 (-35)
8) Kevin Hawkings --- 5 (-95)
9) Deana Belt --- 4 (-50)
10) Jennifer Rawlings --- 2 (-300)
11) Jeff Schwartz --- 2 (-335)
12) Bryan Wade ---- dropped

    So, if I had that one extra victory point, I would’ve gotten my second binder but alas, that was not to be.  Now, this is about 3 am at night and they’re just getting to the final confrontation so obviously, sleep was definitely in mind, especially those of us who haven’t had decent sleep in who knows how long at this point, but I watched the final, pretty sure that Jeremy was going to win.  After all, he was the only one to beat me.  But I was surprised as to how it happened.

    As it happens, Justin’s Voyager was under attack by his forces and losing it on turn 1.  He Data, Keeps Dealing it back into his draw deck when Jeremy does the “Props move of the tournament” and Q the Referee’s The Juggler on him.  Turns out, he doesn’t get back Voyager for quite sometime, giving Jeremy enough time to whittle past Justin’s dilemmas for the tournament win.

    It’s after 3 am at this point and I’m rather tired so I start walking towards the airport since apparently no one was driving in anywhere remotely to where I was going.  Now, the distance between here and the airport is over 20 miles on foot so after figuring out while I was walking just how likely it was that I wouldn’t make it, I start using my cell phone.  My first time traveling with this little handy gadget, I’m marveled by the ability it has to find a taxi cab company that will take a credit card over the phone.

    The driver is kind enough, we talk about fly fishing, how it’s unbearably hot in this area of the US, what it’s like to see green naturally speaking instead of green being painted on, various other small talk as my eyes are constantly on the meter.  I don’t especially like cabs, they always seem to cost more money each time I ride in one.  The last time I rode in one, it was for GenCon of ’99 from the airport to the bus station at a cost of $20.  Double that and you’re close to how much this one cost although to be fair, it wasn’t his fault that a train was stuck in the tracks that it was on for whatever reason.  Personally, I think it was just an attempt to piss me off which it did quite adequately.

They lie.

    I make it through after being thoroughly padded down by security (I’m so much a terrorist type, it’s not even funny), I go around to grab my cart when two things happen: 1) Two security guards almost physically try to grab me and 2) My cart is gone.  I inform them of this but apparently no one can even remember that I even had a cart.  So I carry my bags once again, this time to a restroom so I can change clothes and give myself the traveling shower – Comb my hair with water, change clothes, soap myself down in record time, re-apply loads of deodorant, shave and splash water over my face for a few minutes.  I was feeling much better while waiting for my flight to Sacramento, so much better in fact that I passed out for all of 41 minutes before they started letting people on the plane.  Luckily, I passed out on the plane for most of the flight except when I was fed trail mix and soda.  Oddly enough, I seem to wake myself up just before the stewardess arrives to my row.  Way cool trick, I recommend getting that skill sooner or later.

    I land at Sacramento’s airport and was pleased by how straightforward and easy it was to get out of it, a necessary thing when you’re trying to catch the bus from the airport to the bus station.  The information desk was even helpful in pointing me towards the bus stop although the labels on the bus stop should be altered slightly so that you knew exactly which one was going downtown and which one wasn’t.  But at least I got on the right bus by myself, which was always nice and seemed to be a trend at the time.

    I make it right in front of the bus station with a few hours to spare so I try to figure out how I’m going to spend my time.  Tweaking my decks only took an hour and eating in a restaurant that seemed to be covered by mild schizophrenics doesn’t exactly appeal to me so I thought I’d try to hit a movie by going through this rather odd outdoor mall.

    I am under the distinct impression now that it’s not just Southern California that has way too many attractive women, this mall has an inordinately potent number of them.  Of course, none of them paid attention to the weird, gangly guy carrying two bags that could be their same weight in the area that they were but I’m used to that.  The bookstore wasn’t adequate enough for my tastes (I’m spoiled on Powell’s, I can’t help it) plus I don’t like paying sales tax (It’s an Oregon thing), so I just went around to the movie theater which wasn’t showing a single thing that I had wanted to see in the slightest, much to my dismay.  So I thought, “Maybe I’ll get something new to listen to,” so I go into the Sam Goody.

    And come out again.  And go in again.  And come out again.  And go in again.  And come out again and finally go in again.

    I had already, by this time, had taken off my coat, given them both of my bags, took off my shoes and removed my glasses before it finally occurs to us what was causing it – My card holder a.k.a. wallet has a magnetic money clip which was setting off the detector.  So, shoeless, I walk around the store, eventually finding everything to be over-priced and nothing I especially wanted to buy except for batteries (I had a coupon which they honored)

    I should’ve figured that the mall only could have attractive people in it because it was practically nothing but clothing stores and jewelry and all this artsy stuff as decorations without anything really “male.”  Like benches.  The only benefits that they had was looking at all the attractive women which would be fine if 1) They weren’t reminded of the fact that those that they’re with aren’t as attractive and 2) They wouldn’t get beaten up at home for it.  If I were to have a job in that mall, it would’ve been working the cellphone booth.  He wasn’t a stunner by male standards but he was never without various attractive women leaning over his counter, women who were wearing little left to the imagination.  The difference between his job and mine can be summed up like this –

    He – Gets to see attractive women wearing clothes that leave little to the imagination.

    I – Get to see way too young and way too unattractive women that unfortunately leave little to the imagination (at least more often than not, although there are exceptions)

    In any case, it was back to the bus station and the craziness inherent in traveling the roads of Greyhound.  For example –

    The drunks – They’re generally not the most sterling examples of higher-level consciousness, these can be spotted by their all denim and/or leather attire, scraggly beards, mid-30’s to mid-50’s, incoherent speech patterns and distinct lack of manners along with issues of authority.  On this trip, our sterling example was the man who the bus driver was threatening to kick off, even so much as pulling off to a rest area and telling him to get off the bus.  Fortunately, he behaved himself until he got to Portland, which is where he was getting off.

    The incompetent – They’re equally as intelligent as the drunks but not intentionally so they’re not someone that you should hate a majority of the time.  However, they do have their moments.  Case in point – We’re delayed by over 30 minutes because a gentleman was convinced that his bags were not on this bus.  There’s no rationale reason why he thought this, he put them into the bus himself, and several of the passengers told him that he put the bags into the bus himself but he wouldn’t believe anyone until he saw the bags himself.  Then, when he saw them in there, his comment was, “You just put them in there while I wasn’t looking.”

    I really need to be able to drive.

    In any case, I passed out in the bus as I had tried to do, succeeding in missing everything from north of Redding to Salem as well as after Portland to Tacoma, giving myself enough time to get awake for arriving in Seattle.  I needed a plan of attack and that required me to be conscious.

    First, I needed to spot a phone book for the number of the store so I could get an address.  Second, I needed to navigate Seattle’s public transportation system.  Third, I needed to make it there before the tournament started.  And when I got off the bus, that’s what I went to do but the phone wasn’t being answered at the store so I asked the person at the bus café if he knew where a place to get online is at but to no avail.  I’m in downtown Seattle, so it’s likely that there is such a place, the trick is to find a place.  This is where one of my travel tips can come in handy –

    If you’re in a big city and you have no idea where something is, go into a fancy hotel and ask the concierge, they know everything.  He points me to the convention center where one of my favorite businesses of all time – Kinko’s – is located.  In no time, I go online, find the store’s website while simultaneously opening the Seattle’s public transportation site (not as good as Tri-Met’s but oh well) and because of the speed, I catch the electric car just a few minutes before its scheduled pick up.

    Praise be to Kinko’s

    The travel on this tram/electric cable car was interesting as it seemed to take quite a wide berth around the city before making it to my supposed destination but I had time to spare which was a good thing as I had gotten lost after getting off the bus.  Apparently I had gotten off too early, which wasn’t true according to the website.  In any case though, it wasn’t far off and I made it to the store before anyone else.

    Eventually everyone arrived, a small contingent from BC but the rest were from Washington as I was the lone representative of the state of Oregon, much like every other territorial that I had been in at this point.  Steve a.k.a Rachmonioff a.k.a the TD and I were chatting up deck designs, focusing on the oddities that can be done with Ferengi, stuff of which really can’t be done as of yet but one can always try….

    There were eleven people all said and done, seven from Washington, three from BC and yours truly.  I had actually completed two decks (tweaking the one from Phoenix slightly) and the odd Ferengi deck that I still didn’t feel up to playing with.  But would it be enough to do marginally well in Seattle was the real question.  The fact was that I had written the entire decklist on my notepad in a script that, if Steve hadn’t been a math major in college, would’ve been undecipherable.

Round 1 – Kody (Decipher Rating at the time – 1518)

    He was playing Romulans with quite a few high point missions – Pegasus Search, Wormhole Negotiations, Study Lonka Pulsar and Diplomatic Conference along with the Romulan Homeworld and Compromised Mission I believe  With my normal opening hand, I can have all the requirements of Pegasus and Lonka Pulsar and thought I’d try and steal them, even though I was in the Delta Quadrant, noticing the lack of HQ: Defensive Measures after I flipped all of my QtR’s to which he mimicked.  A Tent for Wormhole and with Dr. Telek R’Mor, I was 55 points ahead of the game (No In the Zone apparently) on turn 1.  Unfortunately, Lonka Pulsar was on the other side of the table, which meant I needed two Palor Toff’s to get it back in a speedy fashion.

    He, on the other hand, was having a bugger of a time getting a ship at all, having no Spacedoor in order to speed his search considerably.  Later on, we were surprised that most of his Hidden Fighters were on the bottom with a few of his ships.  His delay gave me enough time to make it to Lonka Pulsar but for whatever reason, I seemed to have forgotten one of my AMS so I was stuck at 95 points (although he would’ve TBP’d me)

    I was still reporting people in the Delta Quadrant so I thought I’d go over and try to weasel my way past it with these sacrificial people until I could get my STP back to hand.  Surprisingly though, before I could get a Palor Toff (my deck was bulky as all get out), my people made it through the combo at Liberation for the win.

Full win 100-0

Round 2 – R.J. Smith (Decipher Rating at the time – 1586)

    I look through his mission selection and I give him an odd look for all of a second before I nod and realize (or at least thought I had realized) what he was doing.  I was only half-right.  When he plopped down the Borg facilities, my heart sank.  Scows and Mission Debriefings don’t really work on stopping the Borg all that well and where it was located, I didn’t think I had much of a chance except to go as fast as possible.

    He does his Borg thing, going Awaken crazy and doing all sorts of pretty things with his unique drones and I’m thinking that he’s going to go for Ooby Dooby but he was Q-Bypassing, which just surprised the snot out of me.  I was going hard at the dilemmas under my missions but Your Galaxy is Impure/Scientific Method on turn 1 is just plain nasty.

    He makes it past two missions and was on his way for a third when I realized that I forgot that I had Brunt and two Writ of Accountabilities in the deck!  Lucky for me, I place a Palor Toff in the Tent, which I got to without problem, to get back my TMW and then used it to get the full win, much to his chagrin.
 It wasn’t really the way I wanted to win, both of us knew that he had me beat otherwise.  He asked me why I hadn’t used Feedback Surge and I thought that I didn’t have it   I asked him why did he feel the need to Q-Bypass and he said, “Why not?” or something along those lines, I unfortunately got Subway meatball sauce on this page of the notebook.

 Full win for me – 100 to 0 – 4 (+200)

Round 3 – Eric Wood (Decipher Rating at the time – 1615)

    I look at his missions – Test Mission II, Earth and Wormhole Negotiations along with not much else.  I think to myself, “You can’t be serious, not back-to-back….,” as he self-seed three cards at Earth and 1 at Wormhole Negotiations.  I feel rather confident, knowing that I have Brunt at my disposal as he goes first.

    He does the typical, get a whole lot of Feds via any number of ways, get enough Integrity with a ship via Admiral Riker and go Q-Bypassing.  He attempts to do the first one when I try to QtR for Writ but I have to stop myself.  You can’t use TMW on your opponent’s turn.  Shit.  My mind completely blanks out and I don’t even think about Feedback Surge.  He does the Bypass at Earth, getting rid of his Barclay’s in the Bypass and netting his Horga’hn.  I flip Mission Debriefing so he has to use the second turn on the Horga’hn and sure enough, he Bypasses Wormhole Negotiations, netting 50 points from Riva.  He’s now at 95 because he got rid of his Barclay’s.  He doesn’t have the means to get to Test Mission II as I QtR-download Temporal Vortex.

    Next turn, I use my other QtR to download Writ, downloading Brunt who downloads the other one for the win.

    It’s only after the game that I realize that I could’ve used Feedback Surge on him.  I’m definitely feeling tired at this point.

Round 4 – Roxanne Barbour (Decipher Rating at the time – 1690)

    There’s things that I always find annoying and they’re called Q-Flashes.  She’s the only one I saw using one there and she’s the only one who ends up really annoying me with them.  That being said, we play always down to the wire and it’s always a close game but we’re rather friendly with each other, having played each other at practically every tournament we’ve ever been together at.

    She was playing practically the same thing I was – Hirogen/Vidiian although she was more reliant on Organ Thief after hitting dilemmas to download that which she needed at the time whereas I was more interested in using Vic for the same token.  I keep forgetting to draw cards with Sherlock and God at Assist Cooperative nailed her before running afoul with the Scow combo.  It was at this point that I used the DRAGS, which I had added into my Tent and hoped that she didn’t have Containment Field.  She didn’t, which wiped out a good majority of her personnel in the deck.  Me, I was just having all sorts of troubles with the Restock Supplies dilemmas, getting stopped after stopped on odd dilemmas, which for whatever reason, my people couldn’t pass.  It was 35 to 40 for her with little time left.  So I went over and while she left someone on the planet, I Organ Thief’d one of her people for 10 points, putting me at 45 to 40 before sending everyone else at Answer Distress Signal, running into the Flash.  There’s close to 16 people including Vic and I keep telling her not to pick Vic.  Sure enough, she picked him once for Mandarin Bailiff that I was sure she couldn’t pick as a valid target but Steve ruled otherwise (we later found out that I was right) but I gave her the 2 points putting us at 43-42.  She then abducted him into the Penalty box and I end up stopped on some dilemma of sorts as time is called.  By the barest of margins, I pull it off and I distinctly think to myself, “I so don’t want to play her in the final round…”

    Timed win – 43 to 42 – 7 (+301)

    We take a lunch break in here at some point which my stomach can’t really handle as nerves start to overtake after a while.  So I drown myself in orange soda as I started to force myself to relax (lovely irony, I know)  it didn’t work as I got too relaxed and started to feel myself getting sleepy.

    In fact, I might’ve screwed up the order of which I faced next and last.

    Here’s what I do remember –

1) I timed won against Ryan Agnew, the reason I remember this is because the last time I played against him (’99 Andor Regional) we true-tied as I was on the way to getting the full win.
2)  I stole the following missions – Establish Station, Corner Enemy Ship, either Restore Victims or Research Phage and one of the space missions, probably Investigate Quantum Singularity in the last two games overall.
3) I remember being surprised that there was no HQ: Defensive Measures, unless I had Espionages in my Tent (which, come to think of it, I did) at least once.
4) That my final differential was 10 (+456) and that I was in the final confrontation.

Final standings were as follows:

1. Michael van Breemen - 10 (+456)  (that’s me, in case you’ve forgotten)
2. Roxanne Barbour - 9 (+282)
3. R.J. Smith - 7 (+65)
4. Ryan Agnew - 6 (+57)
5. Tigh Bradley - 6 (-85)
6. David Houle - 6 (-139)
7. Jacob Edwards-King - 6 (-165)
8. Eric Wood - 4 (-81)
9. Colleen Nechvolodoff
10. Kody Bradley - 4 (-111)
11. Dannel Stanley - 3 (-192)

Final Confrontation – Me vs. Roxanne

    This was untimed, which at the time, was much to my dismay.  But, for a final confrontation, it was rather relaxed, we just wanted to get it done and over with because we were both tired.  It wasn’t like it was for anything, she already would get my bye to DCon 2002 if I won for I’ve already qualified and if she won, she would get the bye outright.  It wasn’t like the binders had anything new or different on them (not like we could see them since the binders never showed up and to this day, have yet to appear in my mailbox) except the words – Winner and Runner-Up.  It was really just for pride.

    I was doing fine to start out with, I got a great hand (everyone in my hand reported for free, I Tented for a Holodeck Door to download Vic to the Olarra) and promptly went after my first mission, only to get stopped by something or other, which downloaded Bareil via TMW to said ship.  She gets her people going and is much more cautious due to my DRAGS which is located in the Tent which I can get whenever its appropriate.  Of course, she also knows that the Scow combo is there but plans accordingly.  But she doesn’t get as good of a hand as I do.

    However, she isn’t an idiot.  You’ll see why I’m an idiot in a second.

    I’m almost past the first mission (she’s already gotten a mission by this time which was lowered in score by ten thanks to DRAGS) when I hit Hanonian Land Eel, lacking the Science.  I realize that I left Vic at the OP location so I move him over and then send two lackeys to attempt the mission, letting Vic download someone (I believe it was Iden)  Next turn, I send down what I think is the requirements but forget the Science again.  The turn after that, I forget the Security.  The turn after that, I mis-add and come up with only 50 Strength.  Of course, I keep losing a person in the process of doing this and it’s her choice each time so it’s obvious by this time that I don’t really have a shot at winning.  But I wasn’t about to let that little bugger of a dilemma from keeping me to getting that mission.  Eventually, she’s already gotten 90 points from three planet missions at this time and goes towards a space mission.  Finally, I make it past the dilemma and solve the mission.  Next turn, I make a mad dash to Salvage Operation to try and get more points, only to get stalled up on something or other (Scientific Method I believe) but she has Motura out, all I need to do is get a card draw that I can convert to get past it.  That never happens though as she makes it past my Scow/Whale Probe combo for the win.

    Full loss – 45 to 100.  Runner-up.

    We go our separate ways after Steve gets our addresses so that the store can send us the prize support that we were supposed to receive (which still hasn’t arrived to this day) and I go to find the bus that’ll take me back to the bus station so that I can get to Portland.  Unfortunately, I don’t know what bus will do just that.  You see, I was in such a hurry at Kinko’s to get the number of bus that I need to get there, I didn’t check to see what bus will get me back.

    So, I wander around and eventually find this off-duty bus driver in his bus with a load of pistachios in his pocket.  We talk about whatever, mainly about his personal life when he forgets that he wasn’t the one that was driving the route back downtown.  However, he does drop me off at the spot where the bus that I wanted was going to pick me up at and so there I wait, eventually making it back to the Greyhound station.  I check in and sure enough, the bus arrives just as I get my ticket to Portland.  I have to empty all my pockets again, which considering my tired/wired state, was a marvel in dexterity but with the person in front me drunk out of his mind, I was rather well-received.  He even knew my Dad from his time at Ft. Lewis (although whether this was a good thing or not, couldn’t really say).

    I pass out on the bus almost the entire trip and I arrive in Portland at about 5 am, on search for the MAX line to Eastern Portland to my sister’s place.  MAX, for those of you that don’t know, is a monorail system that goes the length of the Portland metropolitan area.  The trick in the morning, however, is to find a spot on the line that is going east and not west, a trick that was even harder considering that their customer service line says nothing about it whatsoever.  It wasn’t until I walked about two miles towards the river that I spot one train that was going east, eventually (after taking another bus a few miles after the MAX and walking another mile) making it to my sister’s place, where the door was unlocked and I lay sprawled out on her futon, not even bothering to make it into a bed.

    Life returned to normal as I decided to make the strange Ferengi deck because 1) I was tired of the other deck and 2) I thought it would be fun.

    A big mistake that I didn’t realize until I got to the Oregon Territorial.

    I make the decklist for both decks (I had the Hirogen/Vidiian deck with me out of habit) and make it to the store with enough time to spare.  But I should’ve played the Hirogen/Vidiians because it would’ve been much more fun.  I shouldn’t really be that critical but I’m sorry, if you’re a tournament director of a Territorial, you should have more of a grasp of the rules than he did.  I tell him what the deck is going to do and how it works.  He doesn’t get it.  Unfortunately, this was after I turned in my decklist, which means that I couldn’t change it before the tournament, even though I had another decklist right there, ready and waiting.

    I wasn’t really in the mood then so I didn’t keep track of names.

    Round 1 was against someone who was playing a garden-variety DQ deck but I got the impression that he hasn’t been playing for very long.  Basically, my deck took advantage of George and Gracie earning points while on Earth and losing those points when they were off the planet (an idea which if memory serves, came from Olav)  My problem and the complaint that took over a half-hour to resolve (no matter how many times I explained it) is the fact that if George and Gracie are beamed down to Earth, they earn points.  If they aren’t on Earth, I lose those points.  The other thing is that if a dilemma is not passed, it goes back underneath the mission.  The tournament director is much like my opponent and doesn’t quite believe me, so he goes to the Glossary and even after I show him e-mails from Major Rakal to point out my position is in the right, it doesn’t matter.  Eventually though, I’m proved right. It just took over a half-hour to figure this, which to be fair, he gives us twenty additional minutes.  If I had but one more minute, I would’ve solved my last mission for the win.  But I don’t.  He doesn’t pass a mission, I passed one and the Whales were on the planet.

    Round 2 had a more knowledgeable opponent who was using the Borg Queen combined with Retasks to get out people in a hurry.  I get a horrid hand and it’s only after a Masaka, Mutation, The Power, Data Keep Dealing and All Threes do I a possible opening hand.  But I have to wait to get a ship over to my side, which, thanks to his Retasks, he does, which lets my deck work.  But we have yet another rule question on some such thing, which takes time.  I’m hurrying through my deck, going at my one space mission, which I complete, leave people on Q’s Planet to solve that so that everyone else can go to Earth and complete that for the win.  But I need yet another minute to make it past the last of the dilemmas for yet another timed win.

    Round 3 was the inevitable winner, Steve Hampton.  He was playing a very basic Hirogen deck with a lot of use out of the Hirogen Hunt and 4 Q the Referees.  I messed up how I was to set up the trick and so he got out of it unscathed and won 100-0.

    Round 4 was interesting as my trick again didn’t work (I messed it up again, I blame it on lack of practice with the deck and my lackadaisical attitude plus my, I really don’t care anymore sensation) but I prevented my Delta Quadrant opponent from winning as I used the Wormholes that he left open for my Brunt’s Shuttle/D’Kora Transport/Vidiian Cruiser armada to take care of all ships with Tractor Beams, earning the timed victory by my George and Gracie points.

    Oddly enough, if I had won any of my previous three games with a full win, I would’ve been in the final confrontation.

    We went through the prize support (which showed up at this store just fine) and drafted the cards that we wanted (I got an Olarra plus some other things, one of the first two got the Dixon Hill that I could’ve used) and I made my way out of there after making use of the computer to find out the transit system to my sister’s place again.  After getting on the wrong bus (right number, wrong direction) and waiting an extra hour for a broken-down bus, I made it to my sisters, which was, unfortunately all things considered, the highlight of the trip.  It wasn’t that I didn’t win, frankly I was more interested in having fun, but I just wasn’t having fun that day and I’m sure it showed.

    In any case, that concludes this travel log.  Unfortunately, there won’t be one for GenCon since I couldn’t go (long story) but in any case, if you have comments, responses, etc.  My e-mail address is – theninjascot@yahoo.com