stccg Tourney in West Berlin, NJ - Janary 20, 2002
This was the first tourney in the new year and the first with the new Holodeck Adventures cards. So I was excited to see what cheese deck Grand Nagus Len would play, how I would compete against it.
I decided to play a Dominion Alpha Only Deck with Neutral Outpost, Spacedoor, Defend Homeworld and Temporal Micro-Wormhole to get Deyos to a downloaded Dominion Ship. With Ulitmatum I build a Remote Supply Depot in the first turn and get Ketracel White to play Obedience Brings Victory often. As missions I have Reignite Dead Star and Collect Sample + Establish Dominion Foothold for 50 points with MS. Then solve Espionage mission with 62nd Rule for 100 points.
1st Game - Tom
He played an alpha NA/Fed Deck with Fortress of Doom and 221 Baker Street and War Council seeded on a Husnock Outpost. Not too fast but also not slow, anyway, may first turn worked. Unfortunately a Dead End under Collect Sample, thus. I hjad to attempt something else first. At least I had Espionage:Dominion on Federation quickly in my hand and could solve Earth with 62nd Rule of Acquisition for 50 points. Then back to Collect Sample and I won the game. He made 45 points, used all the time these new interrupts like Data Keep Dealing and Mutation or All Threes, but it did him no good. Dilemmas wrwe no problem, no 8472 dilemma...
2 (+55)
2nd Game - Grand Nagus Len
Len is always the top favourite. He played this new Ferengi/VicFontaine-MissionFatigue-Q's Planet/stoppers-CyrusRedblock-cheese-Deck, that was posted everywhere on the boards. Since I anticipated this, I took at least an Alien Parasites for his Q's Planet into the Tent, which he triggered of course. Subsequently I took his Ressikan Flute, bu I didn't have Iggy Pop in my deck :( . Additionaly my Dominion fleet was too slow, probably I should seed Engage Shuttle Operation instead of waiting for it from the draw deck...Because of his downloading he had quickly 20 personnel out and won 90-0. That he won only timed was his own fault since he was discussing 10 minutes about the Alien Parasites. But the result was anyway nothing new....
2 (-45)
3rd Game - Sam
Sam always plays Borg, and after The Borg expansion definitely. Good to know so it's easier to play. Also I thought it could be wise to switch Establish Dominion Foothold to another mission, since the shop is not very big and players like to roam around :). Good decision, I didn't hit a Dead End this time. So first Reignite Dead Star for 50, downloading In the Zone, fly back to Earth and then it still took me three rounds to solve this mission, (should add more Dipl/Law...) He didn't like my The Weak Will Perish, so I won 100-0.
4 (+55)
4th Game - Tom King
Always a close match between Tom and me, this time as well, he played Romulan-Double-HQ with Genetronic Replicator. Nice, that I had my Panel Overload, after all these Vidiian decks a must, so he hit my FounderSecret/Denevan Combo... that's worth it. In addition to that a Homefront onto Romulus, and we start attempting Reignite Dead Star with patience. It worked and I downloaded my second Remote SD with five equipments, unfortunately I forgot to get my Borg Nanoprobes and got something else as fifth equipment. As it should be, stupidity is punished immediatly, under Earth was a Your Galaxy Is Impure. I decided to wait for Nanoprobes from the deck....last card in the deck of course, eventually I got it and solved, 100-30.
6 (+125)
I finished on second place (of ten players), nice! Unfortunately no tourney foils but I got a Kurlan Naiskos Foil, which didn't have yet and a Fajo's Gallery Foil.
Conclusion: Dominion Alpha is fun! Downloading five equipments is very handy, especially Nanoprobes and Dominion Padd. Earth and Collect Sample was never stolen. The Dominion fleet could be really faster to stop these pesky Ferengis and erase Holograms. Especially Cyrus Redblock and Vic Fontaine are very strong. I think we need more reliable methods to get rid of holograms, Vic Fontaine cheese is definitely overpowered. I will try to find a deck against it.....