Tournament Reports

by James Hoskin

Wednesday 17th August - planes, planes and more planes

The next leg of the Team London 2005 world tour began, as usual, at some point during the night while it was still dark. 4am to be precise. In an effort to save money Will and I would be taking 4 flights, on three different airlines, in order to get from London to Indianapolis – the first of which departed at 6am.

This in itself wouldn't be too bad, but if I tell you our route took us from London Gatwick to Amsterdam to London Heathrow to Chicago to Indianapolis, you'll notice that after two flights we would be back in London. Will and I had discovered that this small detour to Holland would save us about £200 each compared to if we just flew direct from Heathrow to Chicago.

Aside from the inconvenience of missing 6 hours in bed, we also discovered that it would mean a small hike at Amsterdam airport. We had flown out on one airline and were due to fly back on another, meaning we had a 10 minute walk from the gate though the terminal to could collect our bags and another 10 minute walk to find the check in area for our second flight. Once we had done that we discovered our departure gate was in fact next to the gate we had landed at, so we spent the next 20 minutes retracing our steps.

The first two flights were uneventful and I'm trying to block my memories of the third flight because of who I got stuck sitting next to (not Will, the other side!) 8 hours sitting next to someone who won't stop talking can be a very long time.

At Chicago Will and I had a new experience at the metal detectors. All passengers were being told to remove their shoes and have them X-rayed. This is the first time this had happened to either of us and we weren't prepared for it. Next time I fly to America I'll be sure to put on a pair of socks without holes in them :)

We arrived in Indianapolis and after dropping our bags off at our hotel we walked to the convention centre to try and pick up our badges and tickets. We knew from the previous year that the ticket lines can get very long on the first day and we were aiming to play in a tournament at 11am – something we probably wouldn't be able to do unless we got our tickets that night. Luckily we arrived in time and managed to get a stack of generic tickets but unfortunately couldn't pick up our badges until the following morning.

Thursday 18th August – The things we do for friends.

One of our fellow players in London also collects Lord of the Rings cards, and had asked us to try and get a Rings promo for him. He had asked the same the previous year but we had been unable to trade for one, so Will and I decided to just enter the Rings world championships this year as it would probably be easier than trading. Armed with decks we had only played a couple of times we entered and rather unsurprisingly lost all our matches.

Having spent the morning losing graciously (something Will would become quite good at...), we had a quick look around the trade hall before the first Star Trek CCG tournament started.

Race to the Alpha Quadrant tournament
I forgot to make any notes about this tournament until it had finished, so this section will be rather brief. I was playing Mark Radford's Borg deck which used the "Annexation Drone" combined with "You've Always Been my Favorite" and "At What Cost?" for a fast start. Once the drones were in play then the deck could just bust through dilemmas using cards like "Ascertain" and "Unyielding" among others. Mark had lent me this deck because I expected to face a few of them during day 2, so I thought I'd play the deck in this tournament to see how it works and to look for flaws.

Round 1 vs. William Hoskin (Dominion Defiant solver)
Will and I turned up 10 minutes late for this tournament so we got paired together for the first round. After the usual "Hi, I'm James" "Hi, I'm William" joke we got down to business. We both rolled the rule which states we had no staffing requirements on our ships. This would barely affect me but was a fantastic rule for Will as he was using the Defiant to move overcome dilemmas. I had bad draws for my dilemmas and I think Will solved a mission each time he attempted. Despite starting the game late we were to first to finish.
FL 0-100

Round 2 vs. Jim Sharp (Romulan Dissident)
Jim, our TD, was making up the numbers so we didn't have an odd player with the bye. Unfortunately I didn't make any notes and can't remember a thing about this game (I'm not even certain Jim was playing Romulan). I can say that Jim was a very nice guy and I think I beat him.
FW 100-0

Round 3 vs. David ??? (Ferengi Morik/Rule #141)
David and I both ended up with the same rule – that our maximum hand size was 5. I rolled first and decided to keep it as there were some much worse rules I could re-roll. David then rolled the same rule and decided to keep it as I also had the rule. This was the first Ferengi deck I had ever faced and didn't really know what to expect of them. Once "Morik" hit the table I knew there would be an easy way to defeat the deck – destroy the "Rule #141" as soon as possible.

I did this the first time David played it, using a "Negation Drone" but after that he was more careful. He waited to play his next copy until the turn he wanted to use it. While he was doing that I solved my first two missions using part of my arsenal of dilemma busting cards.

When David finally played his next copy of "Rule #141", I stopped some of his team but he solved his first mission anyway. He then moved to his second mission where I stopped him in space with a "Gomtuu Shockwave". Had the game gone on much longer I fear I wouldn't have been able to stop him, but his dilemmas weren't a match for my arsenal and I solved for the win.
FW 100-30

Round 4 vs. Al Schaefer (Borg mirror match)
I got to start this game with a ship at my headquarters, while Al got to draw one extra card at the start of each of his turns. The game was fairly even up until the point where Al attempted his first planet mission with 9 personnel. I got a dream dilemma draw with "Assassination Attempt", "Whispers in the Dark", and "Cave-In" and used all three in that order. The assassins killed two, including Al's only personnel with Transporters which was needed for Whispers, so three more died and then cave-in returned two more to hand. With Al de-staffed the game was pretty much over as he spent the rest of the game looking for a ship and more crew while I solved my missions.
FW: 100-0

Race to the Alpha Quadrant - results
Having only lost to Will, I took second place out of 10 players. Will took Xth place with a 2-2 record, and the winner was named XXX. (to be filled in once the results are entered on Decipher's site)

By this time it was getting pretty late so Will and I headed off in search of food. We remembered where the food court was from our last visit so we headed there. After a burger of some kind we went in search of a store selling drinks but couldn't find any so had to go back to the hotel and feed some of the one-Dollar bills we had obtained into the vending machine (another lesson we had learned from last year).

Friday 19th August – The Berlin Wall.

The two Star Trek day one heats had drawn 53 players, so I was expecting a bumper crowd for day 2. This didn't materialize and we only had 32 players (compared to 39 last year) which couldn't be too good for the health of the game, but on the positive side it meant that Will and I had a greater chance of qualifying for day 3.

Star Trek CCG world championships, day 2
Following the previous days lack of notes I was determined to take some this tournament, and I did. Over eight rounds I only had one game go anything like close to time so I always had time to count my deck and scribble some notes.

I had chosen to play a Maquis deck that was designed to use multiple copies of "Stalling for Time" to return personnel to hand, followed by "Organized Terrorist Activities" to put my opponents hand on top of their deck. I would then use "Ressikan Flute" to get those events back so I could play them again the following turn. Once I was setup (between 6 and 10 turns) my opponent would have fewer and fewer personnel in play as each turn progressed, until hopefully they had none left. This was dependant on a number of factors though, the first being my opponent not playing a speed deck that could win in under 10 turns. The second factor was my opponent not playing personnel faster than I could return them to hand, and the third factor was my ability to both skill-track (for the dilemmas) and name-track (for "Stalling for Time") – which over 8 rounds was very tough. For anyone thinking of taking my deck list and playing this deck, I hope you have a good memory!

Round 1 vs. Jamie Witt (Klingon Riker/Sword)
I can't remember seeing a Klingon Riker deck in London since Reflections 2.0 was released, so I'm a little worried when I see Riker hit the table. Despite playing and facing similar decks at the 2004 World championships I think this deck could still surprise me.

To begin with I didn't know whether this deck used "The Sword of Kahless" or not, but as Jamie headed to "Investigate Alien Probe" for his first mission attempt I guessed he would be. My dilemma draw couldn't be much worse as I could only play 2 dilemmas against him. Jamie discarded three cards from his deck to pass "Meaningless Words", and then I removed one personnel using "Hard Time". This wasn't enough to stop him and he solved the mission.

My draw deck was very kind to me at this point. Having managed to play some ships and their matching commanders, I sped myself up with two "Deploy the Fleet" / "At What Cost?" combos leaving me enough points left over to use an OTA after returning Riker back to hand with Stalling. This was just in time as Jamie had a Sword in hand ready to play the next turn. I removed the Sword leaving just one more copy of it in the deck, hoping Jamie wouldn't draw it the following turn.

Moving to my first mission I had enough personnel out to make two attempts. Jamie stopped both teams but had to use three dilemmas to do so. I could solve the mission with four personnel so was fairly certain that I would have it next turn. On Jamie's turn he just played a few personnel and then flew home from the mission – as the K'Vorts only had 7 range and flying between Qo'noS and IAP took 5.

On my next turn I did indeed solve my first mission. Jamie managed to stop my first team but couldn't draw any dilemmas when my second team attempted. I then flew home and waited knowing that all I needed to do for the next few turns was play high integrity personnel for use with the Flute, and try to draw into my remaining copies of "Stalling for Time".

Jamie didn't manage to draw into his only remaining Sword on the following turn so he just flew to "Rescue Prisoners" and attempted. I stopped his seven personnel easily by playing "Full Security Alert" by itself. On my turn I played my Flute and drew until I found the card I was looking for. I scored an extra 5 points with a "Deploy the Fleet" and then spent it on OTA – to remove his last Sword. Having collected my personnel from the mission I returned them home and used the flute multiple times to return to hand a Deploy, an OTA, and all my used copies of "Stalling for Time".

I think Jamie guessed what was coming at this point, but having looked through his deck I knew there wasn't anything he could do about it (I would have removed "Amanda Rogers" with OTA if one had been there). Playing more personnel he tried "Rescue Prisoners" again but I managed to stop him with a "Kelvan Show of Force" / "Unknown Microorganism" combo. I had put several dilemmas in my pile that allowed me to look at the personnel attempting – as an aide to my memory, and I found them most useful. After playing one of these dilemmas I would chant the personnel names so they would stick in my memory – and get a strange look from my opponent who obviously thought I was crazy.

By the end of the day I was getting used to the strange looks from my opponents but this being the first game it was a little unsettling. Having played a few more personnel I removed two personnel from his team with my Stalling / OTA combo and then began moving my ships. I flew two with commanders to one of Jamie's missions, left a bunch of high integrity personnel at my HQ (for the Flute) and took the remaining 8 aboard the "Valjean" to my copy of "Investigate Alien Probe". I don't remember Jamie's exact dilemma combo but I think it was "Full Security Alert" followed by "Where No One Has Gone Before". Luckily for me I had no Security on the ship and had the skills to pass WNOHGB so I could solve the mission that turn. This put the score at 65-30, and I noticed that I had three copies of "Deploy the Fleet" in my discard pile. I used the Flute to retrieve these along with a couple of Stallings and an OTA, hoping that I could use the Deploy's to score 30 points next turn and get the win the turn after.

I had not played "Stalling for Time" much by this point in the game and Jamie still had enough personnel out that he could staff his ship. He played more personnel, flew home to collect them and returned to "Rescue Prisoners". This time I couldn't stop his team, although I did manage to return one to hand with "Chula: Pick One to Save Two", and remove another from the attempt with "Hard Time". Jamie's ship was now out of range so he couldn't do anything.

Before I played my three copies of "Deploy the Fleet" I had a thought. My "Valjean" was at a mission both players had in play. If by some chance I had put "Chakotay" on board then I could score 15 points from each Deploy and would have enough points for the victory. I checked, and yes he was there. I don't know if it he was there through luck or was put there by my subconscious, but he was and I scored 45 points for the win.
FW: 110-60

Round 2 vs. Wolfram Pulsford (Romulan Bajoran Vedek Assembly infinite loop)
I imagine by now that most people know what deck the Pulsford brothers were playing, but in case you don't know here's how it works: Wolfram spent the first three turns drawing through his deck getting out various cheap Vedeks as well as the "Baraka" with Sisko to one of my missions. He could then use "Deploy the Fleet" to score 5 points for use with "At What cost?" and speed through his deck even faster. Once decked (in my case on his fourth turn) he would use Vedek Assembly to place "Deploy the Fleet", "At What Cost?" and another copy of "Vedek Assembly" under his deck (which was empty so these would be the next cards he drew), to create an infinite loop where he would score an extra 5 points per loop as well as play one of the cards he discarded in his first three turns (these would be personnel and various other events). Once he had 100 bonus points and had "The Play's the Thing", "Tampering with Time", and "Power Shift" on the table he would Tamper with my dilemma pile before attempting a mission with two personnel. Obviously neither dilemma I drew would be useful so he could Power shift 13 times to make those two personnel have enough attributes to solve the mission. Using 5 points to give the "Baraka" extra range he would fly to his next mission and repeat the process for the victory.

The only note I made about what I did for this game was as follows: "I had 3 turns. This deck is broken!"
FL: 0-100

After this round Matt Kirk, the head TD, gathered everyone around and gave us all a game warning for "talking about opponents decks". I didn't realise at the time but some people had been talking about the Pulsford's "Berlin Wall" deck (as it came to be known).

Round 3 vs. Kyle Matusevic (Klingon Guidance/RATS)
Kyle laid out his missions and the first thing I saw was Qo'noS. I immediately thought it was another Riker deck but upon closer inspection I saw that all missions required Dipomacy so changed my mind and expected a "Guidance of the Council", "Alexander Rozhenko", "Running a Tight Ship" deck.

It was indeed this deck and Kyle spent the first few turns downloading personnel and events. He had 2 RATS, "Martok" and his ship out rather early so flew to a space mission and attempted. My dilemma pile let me down as it's not that great in space (I usually try to use "Biogenic Weapon" on a space mission so my opponent must solve two planet missions). I stopped one personnel but that wasn't enough to stop Kyle's team solve the mission.

I was still playing personnel and ships at this point, but I did manage to draw one "Stalling for Time". I used it to Return Martok to hand so that Kyle couldn't fly directly to his second space mission and use RATS. On his turn he played different personnel, flew home to pick them up and then flew on to a planet mission before attempting. I tried a "Hard Times" / "Unknown Microorganism" combo and got extremely lucky. "Jadzia Dax" was picked for "Hard Times" and she was Kyle's only source of Science so he failed to pass UM and was stopped.

On my turn I finally played enough personnel that I was comfortable to begin attempting missions with. I also used my remaining copies of "Stalling for Time" and "Organised Terrorist Activities" (having previously scored points with "Deploy the Fleet") to return two personnel to hand, and his hand to his deck. Provided I could solve a mission quickly I was fairly confident of the win as most of Kyle's personnel seemed to cost 3 or more.

I moved to my first mission and formed two teams. Both could solve, the first being 8 personnel and the second being 4 (with the possibility of two more captains flying over if I hit a "Skeleton Crew"). Kyle tried a "Full Security Alert" followed by some wall but neither worked as I again had no Security and then the skills to pass the wall. I solved the mission and flew home to regroup.

Kyle's next turn was spent playing two personnel and flying home to pick them up before returning to his planet mission. I played "Harsh Conditions" (naming Security) and "Biochemical Hyperacceleration" to return three to hand, but that wasn't enough to stop him solving the mission.

I played "Ressikan Flute" on my turn and my setup was complete. I felt Kyle would fly home next turn to fetch more personnel so I wasn't too worried about him solving his last mission before I could start returning personnel to hand. Given that I didn't really have enough personnel to use the Flute and solve my second mission I just sent out my commanders on their ships and used the flute at my HQ.

Kyle did indeed play a couple of personnel and returned home to get them. Having watched me retrieve all my events he knew what was coming so decided to just stay at home rather than possibly get de-staffed on my next turn. It was now pretty much game over. I could return personnel to hand faster than Kyle could play them so all I had to do was spend a couple of turns doing that until he had no one left in play. It turns out that I forgot the names of two of his personnel but all of his other personnel were eventually placed back into his deck.

While that was going on I was playing more personnel and scoring extra bonus points so that I only needed to solve my space mission for the win. Once I had Kyle down to a few personnel I staffed two ships and flew to "Investigate Alien Probe". I was again using a large team and a small team for two separate attempts. This time Kyle managed to stop the first (large) team but was unable to stop the second team.
FW 115-65

As we were nearing the end of this game Matt Kirk, the Head TD, had called out my name. I didn't know why at the time but he shortly came over and told both Kyle and me that we were playing the wrong opponents. One of us should have played at table 7 and the other at table 8, but as Matt hadn't placed the scorecards on the tables it wasn't something we thought about checking when we sat down. All four players involved received a game warning – our second of the tournament. We would be fine as long as it didn't happen again, and I'm fairly sure all four of us took extra time before each future match to double check we were playing the correct opponent.

Round 4 vs. Andrew Ehret (TNG Federation Kirk Scotty Cadets)
Andrew managed to beat me three times last year on his way to becoming the 2004 world champion, so I knew I would get a tough game here. The best way I could describe his deck would be to say it was a Federation weenie deck that had "James T. Kirk" and "Montgomery Scott" thrown in to bust through dilemmas. This was the sort of deck I feared would have the speed to beat me and that assumption would turn out to be correct.

Within a couple of turns Andrew had played a ship, Kirk, Scotty and 7 other cheap personnel and was off attempting a mission before I was even close to being ready myself. I managed to stop his first attempt through sheer luck (by stopping one of his mission skills with a random selection), but couldn't stop him the following turn.

I was still playing personnel and drawing looking for my Stalling / OTA events on my turns. I did find one "Stalling for Time" and returned Kirk to Andrew's deck but that wasn't enough to slow him down for long as Kirk just got played again the following turn.

Having used 6 dilemmas to stop Andrew's attempt at his second mission, I was ready to attempt myself. I headed over to my planet mission and sent a team of 9 personnel down to attempt. Andrew played a "Hard Time", "Racial Tension", "Dignitaries and Witnesses" combo to stop me. Unfortunately two of my three Leadership personnel in the attempt had been stopped by the first two dilemmas and I had no way to pass D+W once it was revealed.

Andrew solved his second mission on his turn and then flew to his final space mission without going home. I didn't get a particularly good dilemma draw so decided to go for broke. I played "Dreamer and the Dream" followed by "Molecular Reversion Field" thinking that MRF would have a good chance of hitting against a weenie deck. Andrew checked his crew and showed me "Jean-Luc Picard" and "Vic Fontaine" to pass the dilemma and solve the mission for the win.

So in the end, I made just one mission attempt and got just one overcome dilemma under my mission in the time it took Andrew's deck to win the game. That didn't inspire me with confidence for my remaining games.
FL: 10-100

Round 5 vs. Joshua Grace (TNG Federation Anthropology dilemma peeking)
Joshua was playing yet another Federation deck, but had a different slant on the idea. He used "Guinan" and "At What Cost?" to get a quick head start and then played "Nog" as well as "Worf, Security Detail Leader" and several cadets so that he could peek at my dilemmas before he faced them. Unfortunately for him "Guinan" gives both players 5 points, and I had a dream opening draw with two copies of "Stalling for Time" and two "Organised Terrorist Activities" in hand. Once I had played three Maquis personnel I used them and returned two personnel and his hand back to his deck.

That gave me the slight advantage and I used it by flying off to attempt my first mission before Joshua had time to recover. My first 5-personnel attempt was stopped with a "Racial Tension", and the second 5-personnel attempt with a "Rogue Borg Mercenaries".

On the next turn Joshua played some more personnel and flew to his first mission where I stopped him (I can't remember which dilemmas I played though). It was then my turn and my draw deck decided to be kind to me once again. That turn I drew a "Deploy the Fleet" to score 5 points as well as my last "Stalling for Time". I played both and my second OTA to return Joshua's large hand to his deck for the second time. I then solved my first mission and as I had yet to draw a "Ressikan Flute" flew off to my space mission to attempt that.

Joshua tried a "Full Security Alert", "Pinned Down" combo but as you can probably guess I didn't have any Security on the ship so only one personnel was stopped and I could solve the mission. I had come to realise that people tend to associate Maquis with having Security and it was to my benefit to not have any when I attempted. This was something of a gamble because of the dilemmas that could hurt a team with no security, but more often than not the gamble worked in my favour.

The score was now 55-0, but Joshua would solve his first mission the next turn. I managed to remove one personnel from the team with "Hard Time" but that wasn't enough to stop his attempt. He then flew onto his second mission and began attempting there. Having previously returned "Worf" to hand with my use of Stalling, Joshua couldn't look at my dilemmas and I managed to stop him with an "Unknown Microorganism".

On my turn all I needed was to draw into a Flute, and I did on the 4th card. That allowed me to play it as well as a "Deploy the Fleet" to score 10 points and my final OTA to return Joshua's hand to his deck once again. At this point I didn't need to solve any more missions so I just flew my three ships to one of Joshua's missions and used the Flute to return six events to my hand. Three of which were deploy the fleet.

Joshua solved his second mission the following turn, but then had little choice about what to do next. He knew I would win the next turn so he had to fly directly to his final mission (in space) rather than fly home to get reinforcements. I used every dilemma I could to stop him, and then played the three copies of "Deploy the Fleet" on my turn to score 45 points for the win.
FW: 105-65

Round 6 vs. Chris Trevethan (Borg Annexation YABMF speed)
Chris turned out to be playing the kind of Borg deck I had been expecting to play all day. It seemed to be virtually identical to the one I had played the previous day in the Race to the Alpha Quadrant tournament.

Early on Chris played "Quintessence" so that he could download drones at the beginning of his turn. He did this to get multiple copies of the "Annexation Drone" but was unlucky in that both times he did that he had to discard a copy of "You've Always Been my Favourite" from the top of his deck to pay for it. The other drone Chris would download was the "Computation Drone" or the cunning drone as I call it. I had to make sure that if I named that drone for use with "Stalling for Time" that I used its correct title and not the nickname I had given it.

Chris was ready to attempt missions before me and flew "Plot Invasion" where he attempted with 7 personnel. I knew he hadn't played the "Borg Queen" yet and had little or no security so he would need to use "Locutus" to solve the mission. I just played a "Demands of Duty" and picked "Locutus" to be killed or everyone to be stopped. Unsurprisingly Chris stopped everyone.

On my turn I drew into a "Stalling for Time" and played it naming the "Annexation Drone" followed by an "Organised Terrorist Activities". I knew that the drone would be removed from play one Chris lost command of it so it was an easy choice to make. By luck, it also happened to be his only source of Transporters meaning that he now couldn't solve the mission he was sitting it. I spent the rest of the turn attempting my first mission where Chris stopped both my teams. The first with a "Harsh Conditions", "Automated Weapons" combo to kill one and stop me, and the second with a "Racial Tension" on a team of 4 personnel.

The following turn Chris drew looking for someone with Transporters but couldn't find any so he flew home to pick up the drones he had played and flew onto a different mission. Once again I stopped him, but this time I had to use attrition and place several dilemmas under the mission. I noticed that Chris now had three copies of the "Computation Drone" and made a mental note to name it next time I drew a "Stalling for Time".

I happened to draw one the next turn and did indeed name that drone to return all three to Chris' hand. I also used another copy of OTA to place his hand on top of his deck and to remove put a second copy of the "Borg Queen" out of play. Chris didn't have any dilemma manipulation events in his core at this point so I was able to solve my first mission without facing any more dilemmas, I then loaded a bunch of personnel onto a ship and flew to my space mission and attempted with 9.

Chris tried a "Personal Duty", "Where no Man has Gone Before" combo against me. PD stopped 3 personnel but I had enough cunning remaining to pass WNOHGB thanks to "Chakotay". I solved the mission to put the score at 60-15 and suddenly Chris conceded. As I hadn't yet played a "Ressikan Flute", he can't have been expecting me to return more drones to hand so I guess he thought he was just too far behind to catch up.
FW 100-0

The funniest thing happened while Chris and I were playing that game on table 3. John Corbett had faced off against Wolfram Pulsford on table 2 next to us. John had already lost to Christian and knew he had no chance of beating Wolfram's deck so when the pairings were announced he asked those nearby if anyone had any Pokemon cards to add to his deck. He then spent the early part of the game building a card tower with his deck. When he stood up to go for a walk while Wolfram performed his infinite-loop, the TD finally gave in and John received a game loss for unsportsmanlike conduct. Wolfram looked bewildered the entire time.

Round 7 vs. Caleb Grace (Duel Federation Kirk Rites Confessions)
At this point I had 4 wins with only 2 losses and was thinking that one more victory from my last two games should be enough to get through to day 3. I was sitting on one of the top tables though so wasn't expecting an easy match. Caleb told me he liked the "Confessions in the Pale Moonlight" and "Rites of Emergence" options available to the DS9 affiliation and wanted to add it to the mission solving options available to the TNG affiliation – so he played duel HQ's.

We spent the first few turns building up our personnel, and Caleb was away first to attempt a planet mission with 7 personnel. I played "Back room Dealings" followed by "Kelvan Show of Force". A combination of the two allowed me to kill two personnel and remove mission skills from his team, as well as notice he only had two command stars out for his ship staffing.

On my turn I checked my hand and saw two copies of "Stalling for Time" and looked forward to de-staffing him. Unfortunately at this point I had some sort of brain failure. I misread "Stalling for Time" thinking that I only needed two Maquis personnel in play to use it (when I actually needed three). I showed Caleb my two Maquis personnel in play and then played Stalling to return both command stars to his hand. I couldn't find a ship though so spend the rest of the turn drawing for one.

Caleb started his turn by drawing three cards and then playing two personnel. At this point my "Stalling for Time" was sitting on top of my discard pile and Caleb re-read it. He pointed out that I actually needed three Maquis personnel to play it and I wondered how I had misread the card so badly. Caleb was kind enough to realise that it was by mistake rather than me trying to cheat him, so he graciously offered to just undo his turn rather than call the TD over. Thanks Caleb!

He obviously knew what I planned to play the next turn, but didn't have any more command icon personnel in his hand, so decided to return his ship to his headquarters that turn and wait. I did manage to play a third Maquis personnel the following turn but still couldn't find a ship. My hand was too big at that point so I decided to use my copies of "Stalling for Time" to return his most expensive personnel back to hand, but without any points I couldn't play an "Organised Terrorist Activities" to return his hand to his deck.

That just meant that Caleb could play those personnel again on his next turn and fly off to his mission. After drawing dilemmas I knew I couldn't stop his attempt as anything I played would just be nullified by Kirk. I decided to play one of these dilemmas anyway so that Kirk wouldn't be around for Caleb's next mission. Having killed Kirk as I predicted and solving the mission Caleb flew over to his second planet mission and attempted. This time I got a better dilemma draw, but still had to place 6 dilemmas under the mission to stop the attempt. A couple of cheap stoppers did their job but unfortunately Caleb still had the skills to prevent me returning anyone to hand with "Cave-In".

I finally drew a ship on my next turn and immediately moved to my first mission and formed two teams for attempting. Caleb stopped the first team of 7 personnel with an "In Training" but placed three dilemmas under the mission to do so. This meant my second team of 4 personnel would only have to face one dilemma at most. I decided to use the ability on "Vic Fontaine" so that Caleb could draw one dilemma but only play it if it cost zero. It didn't and I solved the mission.

I'd been in this situation in some of my practise games and wasn't too worried. I knew that Caleb would solve his second mission and move to his third the following turn. All I had to do was stop him in space that turn, so I could play my Flute on my turn and retrieve my events. Then I had to stop him again the following turn and begin returning personnel to hand the turn after. Playing a "Biogenic Weapon" would also help this process if I could draw my one and only copy of it.

It sounds simple but my dilemma pile let me down at the first stage of my plan. I only drew two dilemmas I could use in space so had to go with a "Hard Time ", "Gomtuu Shockwave" combo. Caleb hadn't returned home to pick up another copy of Kirk and I was fairly certain he only had two personnel on the ship with Diplomacy. That meant I had a 2 in 8 chance of Gomtuu hitting. These odds weren't that great and I wasn't too confident with my random selection picks based on earlier performances (I always seem to pick "Lore" to be randomly stopped if he's in the team – no matter how big it is). I only selected some weenie with "Hard Time" so Caleb passed Gomtuu and solved the mission for the win.
FL 35-105

About 10 seconds before that game ended, I had Matt Kirk shout down a message to me he had read from the Decipher message boards. It was from Nick Yankovec, out 3rd London team member who hadn't been able to fly over this year, and said something along the lines of "England Expects..." so I replied to Matt saying "I've just lost". Thanks for the timely support Nick!

Round 8 vs. Al Schaefer (Cardassian Tain speed)
Al and I both had identical records at this point (won 4, lost 3) so whoever won the match would certainly qualify for day 3, while the loser would have to sweat it out to see if their 4 and 4 record would be good enough to make it.

Al had played a ship and six personnel when he felt ready to attempt. He flew to a planet mission and I drew a "Forsaken" with my dilemmas. Before this game I had been telling my brother how I hadn't used it once all day, so I thought I'd give it a go. It worked and Al had to place two of his Treachery personnel under his deck. I was hoping he would be de-staffed but would have to wait until the next turn to find out.

Wary of his quick attempt and thinking of my two previous losses to speed decks I decided to attempt a mission one turn before I would have in earlier games. I only just had enough personnel to make two attempts. On the first Al played "Tragic Turn" and "Trabe Grenade" thinking he would kill two, but I used my "Emergency Transport Unit" to prevent the first death. The second team of five personnel could then solve after Al's two dilemmas weren't playable. He had been discarding his dilemma event support, for extra speed, so had nothing on the table to help him turn those two dilemmas into something to stop me.

On Al's next turn he played "Tekeny Ghemor" and two copies of "Goran", one of which was played for free by discarding an event from hand. He then showed me the staffing requirements on his ship and flew home to pick them up before returning to the same mission. I stopped the attempt using a couple of attrition dilemmas.

The following turn I played "Ressikan Flute" and some more personnel as well as two copies of "Stalling for Time" and an "Organised Terrorist Activites". I named "Goran" and "Tekeny Ghemor" to be returned to hand as they were both fresh in my mind and both had command stars. Having flown home to pick up my personnel I decided to wait a turn as I didn't have any personnel with Programming, and that was needed to solve my space mission. I used the Flute to retrieve my events and ended the turn.

Al drew and played two personnel the following turn but decided to wait at his headquarters, as I presume he didn't have the skills he needed for the mission. He did play "Swagger" to destroy my Flute though - the only player to do that all tournament.

On my turn I played someone with Programming, used my Stalling / OTA combo and then spent the rest of my turn drawing cards looking for my second copy of the flute. I was lucky enough to draw it on my 5th counter so I could spend the last two counters to play it. Al said he couldn't believe I had two Flutes in my deck! I sent a ship out to "Investigate Alien Probe" leaving most of my high integrity personnel on my headquarters (so I could use them with the Flute), and attempted the mission.

Al played another "Tragic Turn" but this time didn't kill anyone, merely stopping enough so that I couldn't solve. I ended the turn by using the Flute multiple times to retrieve a Stalling, OTA and my other copy of the Flute (in case Al could destroy another one)

I had been removing copies of "Enabran Tain" from Al's draw deck when I used the OTA so Al's deck wasn't performing at top speed. He managed to play two more personnel the next turn but this only meant he had a total of six in play. As I had only retrieved one copy of "Stalling for Time" the previous turn Al decided to try and solve a different mission in the hope I wouldn't do too much damage when my turn came around. I calculated his attribute total and thought I only needed to stop one to make him fail the mission, so I played a "Back Rom Dealings" and a "Hard Time" to be sure.

Part of my reason for playing two dilemmas instead of just one was that I had my "Biogenic Weapon" in hand at the time and planned to play it on this second mission once I had stopped the attempt. This I did as well as playing a few more personnel and my usual Stalling / OTA combo. There were now sufficient dilemmas under my space mission that I could solve without facing any more if I could get the right personnel there, so I decided to fly a second ship to IAP with all my high integrity personnel on board. They solved and I moved my remaining ships to one of Al's missions so I could "Deploy the Fleet" the following turn.

Being unable to solve either planet mission (due to not having the skills for one, and being prevented from attempting the other), Al had little choice but to fly home on his turn after playing a couple more personnel. He would have to wait it out and fly to his next mission the following turn.

Unfortunately for Al, I had now solved my two missions so could just spend my counters drawing cards looking for my last copy of "Stalling for Time", and then playing those that were in hand. My memory was failing at this point and I couldn't remember who had been played so I just started naming personnel I had seen in Al's deck when I was removing cards with OTA. This wasn't a great success as I seemed to keep naming the same personnel – all of which had already been returned on previous turns. I also played a "Deploy the Fleet" to score 10 points to make the score 60-0, and then used the Flute to retrieve three copies of Deploy so I could get the win the following turn.

Al ventured out to his space mission with 8 personnel (the most he had in play all game) and attempted. Knowing he had only one Diplomacy, but also "Garak", meant he might have been able to pass "Gomtuu Shockwave" if I played it by itself so decided to play "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" first. That did stop him and damage the ship as well.

I finished the game with three copies of "Deploy the Fleet" to score 45 points.
FW: 105-0

All that was left was to pass the deck-check. Something like half the players who finished in the top 16 had yet to be checked so there was a delay while they were all performed. My deck must have been the last to be checked, but I'm happy to say that I passed.

Star Trek CCG world championships, day 2 - results
I finished with a record of 5 wins and 3 losses to put me in 8th place out of 32 players. Will started off well by winning his first two games but then went on a streak to lose four games in a row. He won his seventh but lost the last to Brian Sykes to finish with a record of won 3, lost 5. He came in 23rd of 32.

The prizes were rather nice. I received both "Seven of Nine" and "T'Pol" archive Portrait foils as well as a Decipher Con 2005 poker chip and a few packs of Reflections 2.0. Will placing lower didn't get the archive portrait foils but did get some Strange New Worlds archive foils in their place.

Once the prize giving had finished I checked out the day 3 brackets that had been written on a white-board. I noted that I would have to face Michael Keller in the first round and then, if I could beat Michael, probably Christian Pulsford the following round. I knew Michael was a fan of Borg decks and also that Christian had played Borg to win the European championships so I figured both would be playing Borg the next day.

It was fairly late by the time Will and I left the convention centre, so late in fact that the food court at the local shopping centre was shut. This left us with the options of going into a restaurant for a meal, going to the cinema and eating popcorn for dinner, or just returning to the hotel to raid the vending machine. The third option was unanimously voted for and we headed back for a fine dining experience.

Saturday 20th August – The name's Champion, World Champion.

Having discussed my deck options with Will over dinner the previous night I decided to go with my Maquis Stalling deck for day 3. My other options were a Federation Kirk deck, a Terok Nor weenie deck and the Borg Annexation/YABMF deck. I was fairly inexperienced playing the Borg and figured my first two potential opponents would know them better than me. The Kirk and Terok Nor decks didn't have great dilemma piles so they were also dropped. That left me with my Maquis Stalling deck, which I felt would be good against the Borg.

While I headed into the convention centre to play day 3, Will headed off to demo some games and pick up as much free swag as he could get his hands on.

Star Trek CCG world championships, day 3
Most of the players looked a little nervous as we sat down to begin playing. The white-board with the pairings had been brought out and we were told we could sit anywhere.

Round 1 (game 1) vs. Michael Keller (Cardassian Capture)
As I sat down with Michael I noticed he was wearing his Team Jersey T-shirt so I reached into my bag and put on my Team London(TM) baseball cap. That got a grin from Michael and I think eased the tension a little. He then completely surprised me by laying out a Cardassian mission set. I said to him I was expecting to face a Borg deck and he said he was trying something new. He also said that hardly anyone in New Jersey played Maquis so he had no idea what to expect in our game.

To make matters worse for me, Michael started playing capture and punishment events in his early turns and I had to really think about how I gained my points for use for "Organised terrorist Activities". If I flew a ship to one of his missions to "Deploy the Fleet" next turn he would just capture me so I decided to basically ignore the early bonus points and try to solve 3 missions. Hopefully by that point I would have then returned enough personnel to hand that Michael wouldn't be able to capture anyone though battle and I could then score the bonus points for the win.

As planned, my early turns were spent hiding at my headquarters while I built up enough personnel to make two attempts in one turn. Once I had enough I flew over to "Encounter at Farpoint" and sent down a team of six. Michael played "In Training" to stop four, and followed that up with "Impressive Trophies". I had dropped "Escape" from my deck so had no way to prevent the capture of "Chakotay". Fortunately that dilemma combo had put four dilemmas under my mission so I sent down the next team who solved without facing another dilemma. I noticed Michael only had engagement capture events at that point so I decided to beam those that were unstopped back up to my ship and return to "Athos IV" to hide. The range bonus on the "Xhosa" was rather useful for this purpose.

By this point Michael was also attempting his first mission. I had stopped his attempt the previous turn with three dilemmas but couldn't stop him the following turn. I did however play a "Secret Identity" to have a look at his personnel to refresh my memory for my copies of "Stalling for Time" I planned to play now that I had some points on the board.

As well as playing a "Ressikan Flute" I also drew my "Biogenic Weapon" so decided to play that on Michael's second planet mission. I noticed that when I looked at his personnel he didn't have much Diplomacy in his team and thought I would have a good chance of getting "Gomtuu Shockwave" to hit if I drew one. Having returned all his Diplomacy personnel to hand with Stalling, and then played "Organised Terrorist Activities", I was confident my usually poor-in-space dilemma pile would have a good chance against these Cardassians.

I didn't do much else on my turn. I didn't want to give Michael the chance to capture anyone else so I just flew all my personnel home and used the Flute to retrieve some events. On his turn, Michael played some personnel and flew to one of his space missions. I needed to get lucky with my dilemma draws as I had no event support available to me, so I could only play whatever I drew. Having said that I had two copies of "Gomtuu Shockwave" in my dilemma pile which had under twenty cards left in it. The draw was king and I did indeed get a Gomtuu. Rather than play it on its own I preceded it with a dilemma that allowed me to look at his crew. I noticed he only had two command icons among his personnel and began chanting the names of those two so that I could try to de-staff him the next turn.

I wasn't chanting for long as the Gomtuu hit and Michaels turn ended. I immediately played my two copies of "Stalling for Time" to remove those personnel from the ship before I forgot which ones I was targeting. The rest of my turn (only 5 counters due to Michael having two copies of "Tribunal Sentencing" in play) was spent looking for a skill I needed for my second mission. I didn't draw it so couldn't really attempt the mission, but as I now knew that Michael was stranded I thought it safe to venture out with my ships to score some bonus point the next turn.

Michael's turn was quickly over as he played a few more events (being free with the copies of "Party Atmosphere" he had on the table) and played two personnel. While he technically could solve the mission he was stranded at I don't think he wanted to risk losing more personnel to my dilemmas sol he just sat there.

Two copies of "Deploy the fleet" earned me 20 bonus points to take the score up to 35-35 and I then played one personnel with a skill I was looking for. After my Stalling / OTA combo I was ready to begin executing orders. Unfortunately I couldn't move my ships home from Michael's mission to change the personnel and then fly onto my space mission in one turn so I had to just fly home before using my Flute to retrieve my events again.

I think Michael knew the game would be tough from this point. Although I was only using two copies of "Stalling for Time" each turn he hadn't been able to play more than two personnel each turn so the net effect was zero. His ship was still stranded and he hadn't found a second ship yet. That changed the next turn though when Michael played a ship.

On my turn I had to rack my brains to try to remember who was left on Michael's stranded ship. I ended up picking two personnel who weren't in play so nothing happened to his crew. Having played a couple more personnel I staffed two ships and flew out to my space mission. I had enough crew for three attempts provided Michael didn't play a "Skeleton Crew" (or two attempts if he did) so I sent the expendable crew first expecting at least one of them to be captured. That didn't happen but they were stopped by a couple of attrition dilemmas. The second crew beamed over and Michael used his "The Manheim Effect" to take an overcome "Formal Hearing" which had been consumed earlier and place it on top of his dilemma pile. He then drew it and I was worried it would stop me. By chance the only personnel I had in the deck with Law was in my attempting crew and I could pass the dilemma and solve the mission to make the score 60-35

Time was now running out and I thought it possible that Michael could play enough personnel to staff his ship the next turn, fly over to his stranded ship and be able to solve the mission to take the lead. He did in fact play three personnel who could staff his ship and fly over to his stranded ship to make a new attempt. Fortunately for me I drew my second "Gomtuu Shockwave" and stopped him again. Now both ships were damaged and I was about to de-staff them again as soon as my turn started.

Checking the time I thought my turn would be the last so I played two copies of "Deploy the Fleet" to score 10 points and asked the TD if that was it. He said it was so I took the first game in our best-of-3 match.
TW: 70-35

Round 1 (game 2) vs. Michael Keller (Cardassian Capture)
After a quick bathroom break we sat down to our second match, and I have to say that it felt rather strange sitting down to face a deck that I had just played. My tactics didn't change much from the first game as I was still wary of being captured but Michael did change his tactics. He made mental notes of how many high integrity personnel I played to figure out if I was bluffing on some of my mission attempts. During his first few turns he also played a lot more command icon personnel to prevent him becoming de-staffed, and didn't discard any ships so that he could play a second quickly if needed.

The task of de-staffing Michael's ship became more of a challenge when I realised just how many command icons he had in play. Using a "Secret Identity" at his first mission attempt I noticed six of the eight personnel had the icon. There still wasn't much diplomacy so I targeted that with my dilemmas trying to remove or kill anyone with it if I could. That first attempt was stopped by attrition with Michael being just one personnel away from solving the mission.

I wasn't quite ready to begin attempting on my turn so I just played more personnel knowing I would probably be ready the following turn. Michael played more events on his turn so that he had two copies each of "Psychological Pressure", "Tribunal Sentencing" and "Provoked Attack" on the table to truly intimidate me. He then attempted his mission again and I used "Kelvan Show of Force" to kill "Lemec", but was unable to stop him solving. With no personnel stopped on the planet Michael was able to fly to his second planet mission and make a start on it that the same turn.

Michael's team was now unable to pass "Unknown Microorganism" as "Lemec" had the necessary skills, so I just played that to stop his team. My turn rolled around and I played enough personnel to make my customary two attempts at my first mission. With a feeling of deja vous Michael played "In Training" followed by "Impressive Trophies" to capture "Chakotay" again – exactly like in the first game. Also like the first game I was able to solve the mission with a second team of four personnel, and once again I flew those personnel home to prevent them being captured.

Now that I had points, Michael knew what would be coming from me, so I guess he tried to play as many personnel as possible. Having picked them up and returned to his second planet mission he attempted again were I threw several dilemmas at him in the hope that I could stop him and then draw and play "Biogenic Weapon" the following turn. The dilemma combo had a couple of random stoppers followed by "Biochemical Hyperacceleration". This should have been enough to return three personnel to hand but I forgot about the "Callisthenics Opponent" who gave just enough of an attribute boost that Michael could pass the second set of requirements. He solved the mission and took the score to 30-65

On my turn I played "Ressikan Flute", some personnel, two copies of "Stalling for Time" as well as two copies of OTA – the only reason for playing two was that I wanted to get the second copy out of my hand. I was worried by Michael's speed in this game so decided to try something risky. I would attempt one of my space missions and leave myself exposed to an engagement, the theory being that Michael would have to waste a turn flying over and beginning combat rather than attempting his final mission. By some stroke of luck I managed to breeze through the dilemmas I was given and solve the mission on that attempt. I was still behind in the score though because all of my missions provided only 30 points each. It was now 50-65

Michael didn't take the bait of a potential capture. He just played a couple of personnel on his turn and flew directly to his space mission without going home to get them. My Diplomacy skill tracking paid off here as I knew he would once again fail "Gomtuu Shockwave" but I also played a "Secret Identity" to see how many command icons he had left on the ship. It was three so I begin chanting their names. I then realised that I only had two copies of "Stalling for Time" in hand. This meant that unless I could draw my third copy I would have to stop Michael on his next attempt as well – maybe the turn after if he plays a second ship and is able to fly home for reinforcements between attempts.

The first thing I do on my turn is to play my two copies of "Stalling for Time" to return two of his three command icons to hand, I then decide to go for broke and draw as many cards as possible to try to find my third copy. After five draws (due to "Tribunal Sentencing") I hadn't found one so I decided to play an "At What Cost?" and hope it is one of my next seven cards. I rejoice as the seventh and final card is what I'm looking for. The only problem now is that I've forgotten which two of the three names I had been chanting were already back in Michael's hand. I figure I probably named the first two so try the third name and hope for the best. Michael's face looks grim as he returns that one pivotal personnel to hand as he knows he is now stranded. I play an OTA to return his hand to his deck and hope that he doesn't draw a ship the following turn.

Following my success at my last space mission I decide to try again at my third mission. Michael used another "The Manheim Effect" though to place a "Broken Captive" on top of his deck and that is enough to stop me.

Michael doesn't draw the ship he was looking for so he just ends up playing a couple of personnel (which I would return to his hand and then deck on my next turn). He has six personnel remaining on his ship so he attempts and hopes that I get a bad draw. I get a rather good one actually, and decide to play a "Chula: Pick One to Save Two" followed by "Hard Time". He decided to return one to hand to overcome Chula and is disappointed when I flip "Hard Time" and he realises he now won't have enough personnel on the ship to solve the mission, no matter how many dilemmas are overcome.

On my turn I play my usual Stalling / OTA combo to return the personnel Michael played last turn to his deck, and then I fly my second ship to my space mission so that I can make multiple attempts. Now that Michael has run out of "The Manheim Effect" in his core he is unable to stop me and I solve the mission first turn. As I've now solved three missions I automatically offer my hand to Michael as I think I've won the match. Little do I realise that I've spent so many points that the score is only 70-65 so we have to keep playing. I felt like a right idiot when Michael pointed this out to me as I'm the one with a pad next to me so I can keep track of the score.

Time is once again running out and Michael doesn't have any luck finding a ship on any of his remaining turns. All the personnel he played would be returned to his deck the following turn, and he now couldn't solve shi final mission without reinforcements. On my remaining turns I scored some more points with "Deploy the Fleet" and then spent them again with my Stalling / OTA combo. Time is eventually called and I have the win by 5 points.
TW 70-65

So that's it, two timed wins take me through to the final 8. I'm really pleased as this was the round I was aiming to get to (one better than my performance last year). I remember thinking at the time that Christian wouldn't have two broken decks so I would probably end up playing his Borg deck from the European Championships.

Round 2 (game 1) vs. Christian Pulsford (Klingon Romulan at-an impasse recycling)
How wrong could I have been about Christian's deck? I didn't cotton on at first but after a while I realised he had two headquarters in play. Even then I'm not expecting what is about to happen.

It turns out that once again the Pulsford brothers had been playing the same deck, only Wolfram was knocked out in the previous round on a technicality. He attempted "Obtain Vaccine" and forgot to say he was using the alternate set of mission requirements. He didn't have any Federation personnel I play so could never have attempted the original requirements but his opponent called the TD in and Wolfram got a game loss for his mistake. Before our game Christian asked if I would be a picky as Wolfram's opponent but I said not to bother about it. It's the sort of thing I forgot now and then and I don't think the game penalty was justified (although there may have been other factors, I only got one side of the story).

At this point Will came back from his swag-run expecting me to be knocked out. That I wasn't slightly annoyed him (the feeling would be reversed much later in the day). He said that he wasn't that impressed with what he as given and was off in search of food. Brian Sykes having just told us where the elusive McDonalds was to be found.

Christian's deck used the Klingon high council downloading technique, combined with "Interstellar Treaty" to get "Par Lenor" into play. He would play "At an Impasse" at then end of each turn so I couldn't draw any cards and would then use "Par Lenor" to destroy the event at the start of his turn before the game text on "At an Impasse" kicked in to remove it from play. He then had several recycling cards ("Vash", "Nu'Daq", and "Feast on the Dying" to get AAI back into his deck so that he could download it again with his high council members.

I was totally unprepared for this in the first game and had only played four or five personnel at my headquarters. Christian then started this recycling technique to play "At an Impasse" for something like 9 turns in a row to totally lock me out. By that point he was attempting his third mission. My dilemmas were only slowing him down, although in one case I played a "Chula: Pick One to Save Two" and he returned "Vash" to hand – so my dilemma pile was actually helping him to lock me out for another turn. The game was over fairly quick
FL 0-100

Round 2 (game 2) vs. Christian Pulsford (Klingon Romulan at-an impasse recycling)
Now that I knew what was coming I changed my tactics in the second game. I tried to play as many personnel as possible (discarding most of my other cards) before Christian could use "At an Impasse". I also kept copies of "How Would you Like a Trip to Romulus?" in hand so that I could download ships or their commanders later. I actually managed to get eight personnel into play as well as one "Emergency Transport Unit" when the first AAI hit the table. Having downloaded a ship I headed off to my first mission and formed two teams of four to attempt it.

Christian killed one member of the first team with "Trabe Grenade" but was unable to stop the second team so I solved for 30 precious points. What he didn't know was that I had kept a "Ressikan Flute" and "Organised Terrorist Activities" in hand so I would now be able to play an OTA to remove a card from his deck each turn.

On successive turns I removed two copies of "Feast on the Dying" (the other having already been used), and also retrieved other events that I had previously discarded. The upshot of this was that once Christian ran out of ways to retrieve AAI and allowed me to draw cards I could play two copies of "At What Cost?" to kick start my turn. When it finally happened I played more personnel and another ship and headed of to my space mission where I attempted with a team of six. Christian got a really bad draw – he couldn't play any of them so I solved to put the score at 60-0.

On his next turn, Christian solved his first mission and moved to his second. I got a fantastic dilemma draw to play the following combo. "Chula: Pick One to Save Two" followed by "Biochemical Hyperacceleration" followed by "Cave-In" followed by "The Dreamer and the Dream". These four cards returned six of his nine personnel to hand and then made him discard his hand. That combo totally got me back into the game as Christian only had about five personnel remaining in play.

I didn't bother using any more copies of "Organised Terrorist Activities" on my turn. I instead just played more personnel and ships so that I could attempt my third mission. I decided that as Christian had such a bad dilemma draw the previous turn I should try my second space mission and hope for the same. It almost happened as he decided to only play one dilemma, but that one dilemma was enough to stop me.

Christian spent his turn drawing and playing cards without attempting a mission so it was my turn again rather quickly. I drew cards looking for a "Deploy the Fleet" and once I found one began attempting my mission. I wasn't sure if Christian's dilemma pile was mainly set up for planet missions or if he just had another bad draw, but he couldn't play any dilemmas and I solved the mission. That put the score on 90-30, so I moved two of my ships to one of Christian's missions knowing I would get the win the following turn.

I doubted Christian could solve two missions on his turn. His ship was at one of his headquarters and unless he had some was to boost its range he hadn't enough to fly to both in one turn. This turned out to be the case as he just flew to the mission I had decimated his team at and attempted again. My dilemma combo had placed seven dilemmas under the mission already so he solved without facing any more. To my relief Christian then just flew home and ended his turn.

I played my "Deploy the Fleet" and crossed my fingers that Christian wouldn't nullify it. He didn't and I got the victory.
FW: 100-60

Round 2 (game 3) vs. Christian Pulsford (Klingon Romulan at-an impasse recycling)
We were now playing one game to see who would qualify for the semi-finals. I was confident having just beaten Christian but with hindsight realise it was thanks to the cards I had drawn early in the game rather more than any other reason. If I drew the same cards again I might have a chance, if not then it would be game over rather quickly.

I started as before with a ship, seven personnel and an "Emergency Transport Unit" in play once the first "At an Impasse" hit the table. Unfortunately I didn't have anything really useful in my hand, especially a "Ressikan Flute" or an "At What Cost?" so would probably have a long time to wait before I could draw another card.

For my first mission I decided to try again in space as Christian had drawn such bad dilemmas the previous game. It wasn't to be this game though as he slapped down a "Tsiolkovsky Infection" which I had no chance of passing. The ETU saved one of the deaths but I still lost two personnel to it.

Christian had changed his tactics a little for this game. He played many more personnel than before and flew to his first mission with enough to make two attempts. I tried playing another "Biochemical Hyperacceleration" but this time Christian had the skills to pass it so he solved the mission on his first attempt. He then flew home to regroup for his next mission.

On my turn I played my ETU and counted the integrity on my ship. I didn't have enough remaining to solve any mission at this point so would just have to wait the "At an Impasse" wall out, hoping I wasn't too far behind when it finally fell. I did decide to fly to one of Christian's mission though as I had a "Deploy the Fleet" in hand.

Christian played some battle event on his next turn and flew his ship to his second mission, dropped some personnel off, and then flew over to begin an engagement which I promptly lost. I was down to three personnel in play. His mission attempt went slightly better for me though as I managed to stop them, but at a cost of four overcome dilemmas. Wolfram (who had been watching the whole time) told me later that he would have waited until after the mission attempt to begin battle with me as those extra personnel used to staff the ship could have formed a second crew for attempting with.

My commander hadn't been killed by the engagement so I managed to score five points from "Deploy the Fleet", but could do little else on my turn so I flew home and waited. Christian played a second ship on his turn and then flew his other ship back to his second mission where he preceded to solve it before flying home to switch ships so he could fly to his space mission. I felt the game was pretty much over at that point so decided to try playing just one dilemma, "Molecular Reversion field", in the hope that it would be enough. It was so I stopped his attempt without placing any dilemmas under the mission.

Christian hadn't played an "At an Impasse" the previous turn so I could draw cards on mine. That I did, but with only three personnel and one ship in play it looked hopeless for me. I played three more personnel but still didn't have enough integrity to solve any of my missions with less than all six personnel. I felt that was too risky so decided to wait another turn and hope I could stop Christian again with my dilemmas.

On his turn Christian flew home to switch ships and returned. I knew I still had one "Molecular Reversion field" in my dilemma pile and hoped I would draw it. I thanked the heavens as I did draw it, but the elation didn't last long. Christian had switched some of his personnel attempting and could now pass the dilemma thanks to "Worf, Regent of the Alliance" using his ability.
FL: 5-100

Star Trek CCG world championships, day 3 - results
Game over. Christian beat me two games to one and I was knocked out for another year. I wasn't too disappointed though as I had made the top 8 and that was my target. I consoled myself later in the knowledge that, as in the previous year, I had been beaten by the eventual champion.

After a nipping back to the hotel to pick up my highlander deck, Will and I returned for yet more gaming.

Star Trek CCG highlander tournament
There was talk earlier in the convention that this would be a team tournament, but most of the other players who intended to play that had gone off to play poker instead. That left 8 players for the highlander tournament. I was playing a variant on the deck I used the previous year. It was a TNG Federation geology / science weenie deck – with Kirk thrown in for good measure.

Round 1 vs. Stephen Lonza (Klingon)
Stephen was playing a lot of high cost Klingons and he could never really match my speed. Within three turns I had a ship and nine personnel aboard ready to attempt a mission. I breezed through my two planet missions quickly after both "Casualties of War" and "Aftermath" failed to hit. He used a "Where no One Has Gone Before" against me at my space mission and that slowed me down for two turns.

Meanwhile I had managed to stop Stephen at his first mission with just one dilemma for two consecutive turns – the first being "Berserk Changeling" and the second "Centre of Attention". He eventually solved the mission and flew to "Brute Force" where I had a huge stroke of luck. I played only two dilemmas against his 8 man team. "Chula: Echoes" stopped three personnel and then "Assassination Attempt" killed two more. That may not seem too lucky, but if I tell you Chula stopped three treachery personnel and that Stephen still had another two treachery personnel I could have picked with the Assassins, I think you'll understand how lucky I felt.

My ship finally returned from the other galaxy and I was able to make two attempts at my space mission. Stephen stopped the first but couldn't play any dilemmas against the second team and I took the victory.
FW 100-30

Round 2 vs. Kyle Matusevic (Federation science)
Kyle's deck was very similar to mine but he had a very good idea that I thought might have won him several games. He planned to use "Dignitaries and Witnesses" to stop mission attempts and then combined with "Temporal Incursion" continue to play it for every successive mission attempt.

This may have worked well against me but fortunately I drew Security Drills early on and was able to triple a leadership skill to bypass it. Meanwhile I had stopped Kyle's mission attempts for three consecutive turns by using "Rogue Borg Ambush", "Dignitaries and Witnesses" and then "Berserk Changeling".

I had solved my second mission by the time Kyle solved his first. I was then able to play another wall dilemma ("Centre of Attention") to stop him on his next attempt. That gave me the time to solve my space mission for the win
FW 100-35

Round 3 vs. William Hoskin (Dominion)
Will was also undefeated at this point so we had to face off against each other. Will was playing a stripped down version of his regular Dominion deck. He just replaced multiple copies of Jem'Hadar with others he didn't normally use. The highlander format also meant he could only have one Defiant in his deck and he never played it against me – forcing him to attempt three missions.

At my first attempt Will tried to use "Biochemical Hyperacceleration" against me but two of the four personnel who could use their skills had what was needed to pass it. I solved and moved home to prepare for the next attempt (as I didn't have many of the skills I needed on the table). On his turn Will played "Friction" and I wasn't pleased. Anyone I played the following turn would be stopped so there was no point in me flying home for them on the last turn. Will still hadn't found a ship so ended his turn quickly. On my turn I played personnel (who were stopped by "Friction") and then moved to my second planet mission where Will stopped me with his dilemmas.

Will finally played a ship and moved to "Destroy Iconian Gateway". From our many previous games I knew he could solve with four or five personnel and I was worried I wouldn't be able to stop him with my dilemma pile. This turned out to be the case and although I stopped a couple of Jem'Hadar, Will still had the strength remaining to solve.

On my turn I played more personnel (to be stopped by "Friction" again) and flew home to pick up those I had played the previous turn. On attempting the mission Will killed "Harana" so I got to use his game text and destroy "Friction". The mission was solved so I flew home to prepare for the following turn.

Will proceeded to breeze through whatever dilemmas I put in front of him and solved his second mission with ease. Rather than flying home he just flew straight to his third mission and began attempting. I did eventually stop enough personnel that he didn't have the strength to solve the mission but I feared if Will could play a ship the next turn he would have enough personnel to make two attempts – and I knew I wouldn't be able to stop both with my dilemmas.

On my turn I played more personnel and then turned them sideways to signify they had been stopped by "Friction". Even though I destroyed it with "Harana", I was so used to Will having "Friction" on the table that I forgot I had destroyed it. It didn't matter in the end though because I killed "James T. Kirk" to nullify Will's "Gomtuu Shockwave" and solved the mission for the win.
FW: 100-65

Round 4 vs. Roxanne Barbour (Dominion with non-aligned support)
Roxanne was playing a deck similar to Wills, but hers had more non-aligned personnel. The chief one being my nemesis - Lore. True to form I would end up picking Lore to be stopped for random selections on at least two occasions.

Roxanne solved her first two missions on the turn she attempted them as my dilemma pile was unable to stop enough personnel. By attempting with a high number I would stop a few with my dilemmas but it wasn't enough to prevent her solving the mission.

In contrast, Roxanne was able to stop my mission attempts quite easily. The first time she played "In Training" and the second attempt was also stopped by one dilemma (I don't remember which one though). In the end I managed to solve my first mission and moved onto the second where Roxanna played another series of dilemmas to stop me.

By this time Roxanne had solved her two planet mission and was attempting in space. I drew "Aggressive Behavior" and knew she had no Anthropology and just two Leadership on her ship. If I could stop one of those leadership personnel I could get the dilemma to hit. Thinking the "Founder Leader" had Science, I tried playing "Unscientific Method". It turns out that the "Founder Leader" doesn't have Science so Roxanne passed the dilemmas and solved the mission for the win.
FL 35-100

Star Trek CCG highlander tournament - results
There were three players tied with a score of three wins to one loss but thanks to my strength of schedule I placed first. I believe Will came in third of the eight players.

It was close to 9pm at that point and on any other day Will and I would have headed home. This was no ordinary day though as in just a few hours the Austin Powers 2005 world championships would be held. Having tasted the experience the previous year, Will land I had refined our decks, with the aim of actually scoring some points this year.

Austin Powers 2005 world championships
I had great fun playing Austin Powers. So much in fact that the actual games are a bit of a blur when I try to remember what happened. Highlights for me include:
• Sitting at table 1 million.
• One player on our table actually having to call Patrick Hines over for a rules question (the rules are very simple)
• Being the daddy-pants for the second round (a highly prestigious position ... honest)
• Making so much noise that we were asked to keep it down by officials (apparently some Magic players were trying to concentrate)
• And finally, asking another player to "put his Dick away" (the dick in question being "Dick, fighter pilot")

All being said and done some chap called William Hoskin won the tournament and walked away with the title of Austin Powers CCG 2005 World Champion. I was highly envious, not only of the title but also of the Grand Master player badge he was given as well. That's something I have to aim for next year.

It was 2am by that point so I only had about 20 minutes of Will rubbing it in as we returned to the hotel and went straight to bed.

Sunday 21st August – poker chips are heavy.

Will and I had planned to be at the convention centre before the dealer hall opened at 10am (as we bought our passes with fan dollars and had been given exhibitor status), but although I set the time on the alarm clock I forgot to turn the alarm on. We didn't sleep in for too long but it did mean we only had 10 minutes in the hall before the masses were let in. Having bought some new card sleeves we headed over to a stall selling poker chips and I picked up a 500-chip set in an aluminium case. It wasn't until I picked the case up that I realised just how heavy they were and regretted not waiting until later in the day to buy the case.

Will and I took another couple of demos trying to get better swag before we headed back to the Decipher area for our last tournament.

Race to the Alpha Quadrant tournament
I was feeling pretty lazy at this point so just decided to go with the Borg deck I had used in the other RttAQ tournament on Thursday.

Round 1 vs. Chris Lobban (Romulan Ferengi Klingon bonus points)
That's correct; Chris was playing a 3 HQ deck. I think the aim was to use P+P/GUYS as well as "Tongo: Confront" to score enough bonus points that he only had to solve two easy missions. He was also using "Quantum Incursions" to rig his Tongo draws.

I don't remember which rule Chris rolled for, but I got to pick my opening hand. I picked three copies of the "Annexation Drone", one "You've Always been my Favorite", two copies of "At What Cost?", and a cheap 1-cost drone. On my turn I played two copies of the "Annexation Drone", as well as the cheap drone, to score 10 points. I could then spend these points with "At What Cost?" and YABMF to spend more counters and download the other cards I wanted – which in turn allowed me to play the third "Annexation Drone" and another "At What Cost?". This was truly the best rule I could have been given.

At the end of that mammoth turn I didn't have a ship in hand so I used "Foresight" to cycle through my draw deck until I found one. Chris by comparison played 2 events and one personnel on his turn.

That rule was pretty much all that separated the two of us in this match. We then played in cycles: Chris would stop my mission attempt, I would stop his, then I would solve mine the next turn, and he would solve his the turn after.

Chris wasn't helped by losing to me twice when playing Tongo. In the end I solved my third mission before Chris could get the last 10 points he needed to win.
FW: 115-90

Round 2 vs. Jared Hoffman (Androids)
Jared rolled for the rule that let him play multiple copies of unique personnel, which was a good rule for him to have. He was playing an android deck with the usual suspects from the latest expansion, but his special rule allowed him to play two copies of "Noonien Soong" – meaning any time he played an android (direct to Soong's location if need be) he could discard two cards from hand to download two more androids.

As soon as he could, Jared downloaded three copies of the "Soong-type Android", and they combined with "Ira Graves" were an unstoppable force. I couldn't play wall dilemmas because the 3 STA's could gain any skill, and I couldn't use plain attrition because "Ira Graves" could prevent one stop/kill per turn. This meant that at every mission I was playing more dilemmas than I wanted to, and invariably he would be able to solve the following turn anyway.

The game was over quickly, although I managed to solve two missions through use of "Ascertain" and "Unyielding".
FL 75-105

Round 3 vs. Michael Van Breeman (Maquis Guingouin battle)
Michael's deck was designed to battle using the "Guingouin" to score bonus points for a two-mission win. It never really worked out like that though because he played his battle cards early so I waited to play my "Borg Cube" (rather than my "Sphere 634") as he wouldn't be able to get his weapons high enough to hit it. That meant we both had to solve three missions and my deck wouldn't be cluttered with battle cards.

I managed to stop Michael's attempt at his first mission for several turns while I was solving my mission. Once I had an "Ascertain" in hand and "Unyielding" on the table, I could get through his dilemmas with more ease. He eventually solved his first mission but by that point I had several dilemmas under my third and the game was almost over.
FW: 120-30

Race to the Alpha Quadrant - results
At this point a lot of people were packing up to go home so the TD called time on the tournament and announced the results. Steve Rotz was undefeated to win the tournament ahead of five players all with a 2 and 1 record. Of those Will placed 2nd, and I came 6th.

I really wanted to find a locker to dump the poker chips in, but before we went in search of them, Will and I returned to the dealer room to pick up some cheap 1E booster boxes. We still needed several of the duel colour cards and thought it would be cheaper to buy boxes for $10 each rather than pay a dealer for each card we needed. This wasn't to be the case though, as after opening 6 boxes we only had three cards we wanted. Opening the packs was fun though, and I did pull a "James T. Kirk" ultra rare.

Having finally found a locker we went in search of something to do for the rest of the day so we took in a movie and had a meal before returning to the locker so I could stagger back to the hotel carrying the chips.

Monday 22nd August – Spoils of War.

There's not much to say here. We flew home. Once home we went though our promos, swag and various other items we had bought, before doing the same thing as all the other GenCon attendees and sticking most of it on eBay :)

Thanks for reading!