Wednesday, August 13th, 2003
Format: 2nd Edition Constructed Deck (Standard)
It's been a while since the tournament actually happened, so I'm going to try and recall as much as I can of the events that took place. School and work always gotta get in the way of the important things, right? ;)
The last time we got together for a tourney was for the last Holiday Tournament and that was a sealed deck competition, the first time we'd done that for a holiday event, and also the first 2nd Edition event as well. So this time, being a little better acclimated to the game and have a bigger card base to work from, Benji and I were ready to put our skills to the test again. He surprised me a lot, not so much for playing Klingon (something not usually seen with Benji), but his strategies kept me on my toes the whole time and the dilemmas that he put me against really did their work. Benji definitely still out-classes me when it comes to this game, but i was hoping I'd be able to pull something off.
I decided to go with a good Romulan deck, mostly because the majority of great cards in my arsenal are either Romulan or Klingon. I threw in a couple surprises as well, a few of which paid off HUGE in the end. Diplomatic Masquerade was a clutch card that managed to work out for me. Benji hit me with a dilemma that required Law, something he'd made sure to remove from my away team before I got to it, and having DM in hand and one Diplomacy personnel left I thought it was worth a shot since I could still pass the mission attempt at that point. Lucky me, his top card on his deck was Gowron, and he gave me the Law I needed to pass. Benji was impressed that my gamble paid off, I'm normally not that lucky.
The first game ended with me slightly in the lead after thwarting a few last second attempts to complete another mission. The second game I was struggling to catch up most of the time. When I finally got people together to go clear some missions, Benji had already finished one and was on his way to the second. I caught up late in the game and was tied 70-70, but I had only done one of the two mission types (can't recall which) and he had gotten one of each, so it was either pull out a win or lose by rule.
I got the last mission I needed in the closing moments of the game, again keeping Benji pinned behind a single dilemma here and there. I chalk up a lot of this win to luck, but I will definitely remember to keep a few extra DM's lying around in case of trouble. Great match, and looking forward with anticipation of the All Good Things sealed tournament later this year.
-Preceeding Summary by Fleet Admiral Razor
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