The story begins a couple months earlier. I had bought a few starters and some packs of the Star Trek game way back when it was first released, but never actually played the game. Then one June day, while playing the Star Wars CCG with some friends, and there were these two guys tooling around with Star Trek cards. Turns out it was Scott Roszkowski, patriarch of the House of Danar, and Ambassador of Qo'noS.

Well, I sat back and watched them build a deck (an AMS if I recall) using all kinds of cards that I'd never seen before. I watched a couple games. At that point I had no idea where that meeting would take me.

Over the next two months I tinkered around. I bought a couple OTSDs and an Anthology, along with packs of Q-continuum and First Contact when I could find them. I got some packs of AU at about $.50 apiece. I wasn't very serious then, not nearly as serious as I was at Wars. I built some fun Trek decks, always with a twist. My main project was to build decks without an outpost. It was different, it was a challenge.

I played in a couple OTSD tournaments and got the basic mechanics of playing down. In one a Fajo collection was at stake, and I took fifth, netting a Locutus. A good omen indeed.

Fast forward to September. I wasn't planning on attending the Regionals in Chicago, but I was offered free lodging from Sherrie, a friend of Scotts, and that was an offer I could not pass up. I went mainly for the Wars regional on Saturday, in which I did miserably. Wars had begun to loose it's appeal to me as I played in more and more competetive tournaments.

So I settled in on Saturday night. I had built an outpostless (my forte') Gamma Quadrant Colony Deck that used the IKC T'Ong to get my characters into the quadrant. I ran it against some of Scott's and Sherrie's decks. It won. Scott thought the deck was much better than I did. So I go to bed at 1:00. Scott and Sherrie are awake longer, working on their decks. I slept pretty well.

Sunday morning we're out bright and early. We arrive before the directors. I play around trying to get Scott to think I'm running the Scout deck instead of the Colony deck, first round pairings et. al.

Round 1 vs. someone I don't know's Klingon deck

Sorry, this was the only person I played the entire day whom I don't know. And I didn't get to see much of his deck either. He played personnel, and eventually an IKC Chang. I play a couple Kivas's, then T'Ong down enough characters to Q my two missions and set up a colony. It was a very short game, I won before he got out of his outpost. I talk to the kid for a while, and trade some cards. Of course, my luck will soon run out, right?

2 (+100)

Round 2 vs. Randy's Klingon Armada deck

Randy always plays Klingon Armada. Always. Too bad I have no outpost for him to blow up. Hahahaha. And my colony is in the Gamma Quadrant, and he has no way to get to it HAHAHAHAHA!!! Randy gets 15 points from a Cytherians, then kills all his personnel on a Sheliak, leaving an abundance of stranded ships. Randy Hide and Seeks my first Bypass and I hit an Edo Probe/The Higher...The Fewer/Dead End combo. Great, now I'm locked out of my OCD. I'm worried about Wormholes, but there's nothing I can do. I begin the long trek (with the T'Ong's pitiful range) across the Gamma Spaceline to get to my Horga'hn mission. Luckily he doesn't get his Wormhole (he told me afterward he only has one in his tent, if needed), and I make it. I bypass it, and download a colony with the Horga'hn. I slowly work up to 100, before he can rebuild his crew. Whew. Lots that could have gone wrong here.

4 (+185)

Round 3 vs. Sherrie's Fed mission deck

Sherrie is the same Sherrie on whose hospitality I am able to attend this tournament. I know she's packing Hide and Seek because she knew she'd be playing at least me. She starts building up to Red Alert down a mega-crew. I casually T'Ong down enough to Q my missions. I bypass the first one, get my OCD, and warp over to the second. I attempt to bypass the second and she Hide and Seeks that one. Then I remember the "weakness" session from the night before. Sherrie knows the second one is the important one, and saved her Hide and Seek for that one. And lo and behold, an Altonian Brain Teaser makes an appearance under the mission. So I have to fly over and complete a third Colony Prep before I can download a Colony. During this time Sherrie has gotten 10 points from a Samuel Clemens, which she then lost on an Edo Probe. Then she kills herself on a Sheliak (2 for 2). She gains some points from a couple Mandarin Bailiffs, and I win by 91.

6 (+276)

Lunch Break. Everybody goes down to the Student Union for pizza and gyro sandwiches. There's a 7-eleven there too, so I get myself a healthy supply of juice. I'm quite honestly doing a lot better than I'd expected, what with an unorthodox deck and it being my first tournament and all.

Round 4 vs. Scott's Deck

There is no way to describe Scott's deck. It does a lot of things that everyone says you shouldn't do, but it does them well and wins very often. He basically wins before I can even begin reporting. I Kivas, he Mirrors, and gets the cards he needs to win on the second turn. I sit dumbfounded. I spend the next 45 minutes (since it was a very fast game) figuring out how I can defeat the deck.

In a nutshell, he completes four combos of Barclay's Protomorphosis Disease and Cytherians for the 100 point win. His deck AMS's out 2 Science personnel, and Suna provides the Medical and Security. The rest of the deck is Wormholes. He took me out in two turns, I've since seen the deck win first turn. Consistently. Nasty deck. I figure if I play him again in the finals (since he's all but locked it now) I'll have to outseed him. But for now I am stinging from my loss.

6 (+176)

So now I plan on how to outseed him. It's not a good situation. I only have 16 dilemmas in the deck that I use on my opponent's missions. And I seed a whole lot in the Doorway phase. But scott has eight self-seeds, and I won't be caught by surprise when he gets 50 bonus points off my missions this time. I can reverse-seed my space missions (since I don't plan on attempting them anyway) to keep him from some points, and try to get on top of his self-seeds as well. I end up sacrificing my Q-bypass strategy to give myself 2 more dilemmas to seed on his missions, to push my count up.

Round 5 vs. Josh's Cardassian/Romulan Ore and Espionage

Josh really should have qualified already. He came in second in the Lansing Regional, losing in the final game, and he came one reprogramming of a Soong-Type Android away from beating Evan Lorentz at Gen-Con.

Pairings-wise I had gotten a bit lucky. There were two qualifiers from last year playing in the tourney, but thankfully I hadn't played either one yet. I had been dancing around the top of the rankings but had avoided them all day. One, Ray Coleman, had played Scott in the first round and timed out, the other, Stephanie Schultz, was playing Scott right now in the feature match.

Josh gets out to a fast start, using a Nor to download a key personnel and starts working on Cytherians points. I stall, not getting a T'Ong early, and Josh is using Crashes to keep me out of my tent. Josh continues manipulating his deck with Process Ore and Guest Quarters. I eventually get a T'Ong, and start dropping personnel. When I attempt my bypass, he Hide and Seeks me. I get stopped by Odo's Cousin. I have Mora Pol in my hand for the precious Exobiology. Josh completes a mission to put himself up to 65 points. I have yet to score. Next turn I report Mora Pol to the Emissary and pass Odo's Cousin to finish the Mission (+5 points). I warp over to my second mission and bypass that. Josh had Palored the Hide and Seek and tried to play it as an event, but I notified him that I had to encounter it in his Q-Flash in order to get it back into play. I finish that, get my Horga'hn and d/l a colony (I had pulled all his crashes at that point).

Well, Josh wasn't ready to give up yet. He loaded some personnel on a ship and wormholed himself to my colony. He beamed down a personnel to oppose me at the colony, preventing me from scoring my points. Next turn I kill the intruder. I score points on my second turn, but I am going to slow for my tastes. I look at the nearest mission. If I get there and complete it I win the game. Then I remember the Wormholes. The last thing I need is for my entire crew to sent to the Alpha Quad. Then I remember my trusty Goddess in the tent. I tent her out and I am safe to fly over. Surmak Ren cures Barclay's Protomorphosis Disease and I complete the mission for the win.

8 (+201)

Round 6 vs. Stephanie Schultz Fed AMS/Q

Well, my luck had to run out sometime. I am facing Stephanie Schultz, last year's Worlds Finalist, all-around good player. She's not feeling well. In fact, she should be in bed. But she's here, and the winner of our match (we are both with 1 loss) will get to play Scott again in the final. Scott, top ranked player, must play the seventh ranked player at the time, because he has already played the next five. No one can say he got easy pairings.

After the seed phase is over, I notice that Steph has no hidden agendas. This means I can Kivas to my hearts delight, and there is no Hide and Seek. Should be easy, right? Nope. Opening draw, no T'Ong. I try to Tent, Wrong Door. So I Kivas. Draw 4. No T'Ong. I Kivas again. Draw 4. No T'Ong. I Kivas again, Draw 4. No T'Ong. I Palor a Kivas. I Kivas again. Draw 3, no T'Ong. I begin to scream...ok...maybe not. I am using my Computer Crashes to keep Steph in check, but they only last so long. Finally, after four Kivas' I draw a T'Ong. It was the worst draw I had ever gotten with this deck. Well, now my hand is nice and full. I drop down thebypass crew and storm past her dilemmas on my 2 colony preps and set up a colony. I get to 100 points before Steph can get a ship out to bypass her first mission. I win 100-0.

I feel kinda bad because Steph is really not well. She was obviously not on her A-game today. But we chat for a while, it being a very short game and all. We dissect each others decks. I learn a bit more about deck construction. It's all good.

10 (+301)

I am in the final. My first qualifier, no, my first constructed tournament and I am in the final. Prizes are given out, pictures are taken. We take top 8 pictures, with Scott and I taking turns holding the first place trophy. I joke that at least I get to hold the trophy.

We play pack bingo, where the TD opens a pack, calls out what type of card the rare is, and whoever guesses the rare first keeps it. I get a Tox Uthat, Scott says that he needs it. I put it up, saying the loser of the final match keeps the Tox. It's all good. I feel no pressure at all. It's my first tournament. I have nothing to lose and nothing to prove.

The Borg Queen T-shirt is given to the last place player, who coincedentally played a mythical 300-card Borg deck.

Final Match vs. Scott's deck of death

So this is it. Scott wins the coin toss and has to go first. He tried to get his choice, but the agreement was the winner goes first. Missions seed the same. Dilemmas are different. I seed his planets first, with a couple token dilemmas to keep him from going for them (I assume that he can finish his planet missions if someone is brave enough not to seed them). Then I begin to seed across the spaceline, saving my wall dilemmas to break up his combos, once seeded. I figure I can't keep him away from all the Barclay's PMD's, but I'll try as heck to keep him from the Cytherians. I end up getting walls on top of three of his four Cytherians (I think, maybe all four).

Now comes the true test. Seeding is done, now I have to outplay him. He knows my deck very well, far better than I know his. I know he's using OCD/Stasis, but I have an OCD as well. But he knows how I use mine, so I try to outthink him. I seed my Horga'hn at the end of the spaceline, on the first mission I plan to complete. I hope that, knowing my OCD would discard his, that he wouldn't seed one there.

Opening hand I get no T'Ong. I tent. He crashes. I can't Kivas, because Kivas is certain doom. His turns are a bit fuzzy, but I know they consisted of getting 10 points from Barclays, then hitting a wall. About the fourth turn he comes into the Gamma Quad to get the Barclays points from my missions. He gets the Barclays, then hits a Lack of Prep. He is nowhere close to having the Req's for my mission, so he loses those points.

It takes me about five or six turns to get through his computer crashes, but once I do I get my T'Ong and start dropping all the personnel I had been drawing the whole time. When I get enough personnel to safely attempt the mission (I had sacrificed my bypass to get more offensive dilemmas) I pass quite easily, though he had seeded his OCD there. So I acquire my Horga'hn and he warps me to another Colony Prep, since he can't send me to Qualor II (and effectively kill me). I LOVE THE GAMMA QUADRANT!!!

So I am at another Colony Prep. I attempt. Dead End. I have only 30 points. So I'm stuck. Problem. He has Wormholes. Lots of them. He knows that if I'm warped to the Alpha I'm sunk. Plus he's got a Husnock, and I have a little T'Ong. My Goddess is in my tent, but I don't have a tent in hand. I have to wait until either he runs out of Wormholes, or I get a tent, in order to move.

It doesn't take long. Scott knows he has to win fast or not win at all. He begins attacking his missions, and hits one of the Edo Probe/Q combos I threw together, and loses another 10 points. He uses his last STP getting there, and has only one card in his hand. Now's my time to strike. I beam up and move to the next mission over, where I'd seeded my OCD. I burn through his dilemmas, discarding his OCD in the process, and using my OCD to move back to the Dead Ended Colony Prep. I get by Dead End, finish the mission, and download a colony. My second turn on the Horga'hn, and I score 9 points from the colony. I'm at 99 points. NOOOOOO!!!!!! Scott gets one more turn to try to win. If I lose by one point....

Scott finishes the mission and gets up to sixty-five points. Unfortunately for him his Husnock doesn't have enough range to get him to another mission, so he concedes the game!! I win!!!

At this point I keep expecting to wake up and head off for the tournament, but about three or four hours later, after dinner with everybody and such, I realize that I did actually just win the Regional. Funny how life deals little curve balls, I wasn't even that serious a player, I wasn't even that experienced a player, but I'd just won a seat at the World Championships.

To be continued...