Outer Regions:Ginnunagap, Sansha's Nation, Serpentis Prime
Locations x 14:
Echoes of Gloom Bay x 2 Hermorphite x 1 Interstellar Tradepost x 1 Remote Research Facility x 1 Sansha's Scout Outpost x 1 Tourist Resort x 4 Veldspar x 4
News x 16:
Armageddon Project x 1 By The Emperor's Decree x 1 Damage Control x 4 Forsaken Ruins x 1 Hired Enforcers x 2 Lost Deliveries x 1 Mind Clash x 1 Stubborn Mechanic x 2 Veteran's Premature Retirement x 3
Ships x 20:
Atron x 2 Augoror x 4 Catalyst x 1 Coercer x 1 Cormorant x 2 Exequror x 1 (how do you pronounce this?) Maulus x 2 Oneiros x 3 Tristan x 4
Starbase Structures: x 2
Legal Department x 1 The Night Shift Sector x 1
52 cards total in market
Sideboard x 13:
Echoes of Gloom Bay x 1 Interstellar Tradepost x 1 By The Emperor's Decree x 2 Forsaken Ruins x 2 Cormorant x 1 Inquisitor x 1 Megathron x 2 Market Research Lab x 1 Advanced Shipyard x 1 Moon Harvester x 1
The key to this deck is speed. Build income quickly via Tourist Resorts, and pump out ships for the win as fast as possible. So far as I know, the sideboard was never used.
Smeelbo
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RedX
User Cruiser
Posts: 130
Re:1st Place, Legends Cupertino N/Am Qualifier - 2007/05/14 12:01Tourist Resort decks I've seen before tend to rely on the fact that there are practically no other regions in the deck, so Decree gets them nicely. How does this deck do when it doesn't draw a Resort?
Neither Advanced Shipyard nor Subsidized Industries, either, I note.
Also, the card selection is a bit... scattershot. How do you get consistent draws out of such a pool? Eight or nine different ISK-production cards, two different structure-killer cards, single copies of ships... I'd go crazy trying to figure out what I'm likely to draw.
Finally, for a speed-built deck, why the Onerioses and the Exequror (no idea how to pronounce that)? Seems a little slow to me- I'd rather pack in more Cormorants or Coercers, or even Inquisitors.
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Smeelbo
User Cruiser
Posts: 224
Re:1st Place, Legends Cupertino N/Am Qualifier - 2007/05/15 19:26The deck does well enough without an early Tourist Resort, as the income curve is geared towards 3-5 ISK cost ships. Of course, it goes best with two early Tourist Resorts. I have found that in a ship-heavy deck, mulliganning aggresively for locations works very well.
I can't tell you why no Advanced Ship Yards, except to say he doesn't own many, and I think he'd rather draw a Remote Research Facility for the steady income and the discard ability. I am not sure if he owns a Subsidized Industries.
This scatter-shot approach seems to work well for Frank. He gets most of the cards he wants in the quanities he wants, and the odds and ends seem to be enough to keep his opponent off-balance. That is, you can't be sure he doesn't have a card that he has demonstrated possession of earlier, either in that game or an earlier game, so the opponent is more careful. I am not sure he owns a Cormorant, and the Oneiros strikes me as worth waiting two assembly for, because it can escort the Pizza of Doom.
As for me, once I have refined a basic deck design consisting mostly of threesies and foursies, I often find bringing in some onesies gives a lot more flexibility.
Despite having the smallest card pool of all the local serious EVE players, he has consistantly good results. While I don't always agree with his conclusions, it's hard to argue against his results.
Smeelbo
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Dude, what the heck card is it you always refer to as Pizza of Doom?
*mutters about not being able to keep up with the darn kids these days*-Ryuteki, Owner of the Rules! We're playing Monday evenings in IL, see www.games-plus.com for the address or email me at ryuteki AT gmail DOT com.
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FrankTrollman
User Scout
Posts: 9
Re:1st Place, Legends Cupertino N/Am Qualifier - 2007/05/17 02:04The Pizza of Doom is a generalized name for an attempt to destroy an opponent's starbase. I have found that the most difficult hurdle in its delivery is not insufficient shipping, but rather in haaving ships get destroyed on the way in. After any reasonable build-up at all it is generally speaking a no-brainer that your combined beams would be sufficient to destroy the enemy base were it not for those [s]meddling kids[/s] err... enemy ships.
So by the time you have two ships, chances are good that if only you could fight a round of combat without taking losses, that you could destroy the enemy starbase. Your goal at that point, is to minimize the losses that you take. An Oneiros is the perfect escort because it prevents your other ships from dying. If all (or even most) of your ships can get through the first round without suffering a horrible death, chances are quite good that you win outright.
Tourist Resort decks I've seen before tend to rely on the fact that there are practically no other regions in the deck, so Decree gets them nicely. How does this deck do when it doesn't draw a Resort?
Indeed, your goal is to muligan for locations on the first turn. Failing to get a Tourist Resort is unfortunate, but not game breaking since having a Veldspar will allow you to throw down a 2nd turn Tristan and even a couple of Echoes or Interstellars lets you throw down a 3rd turn Augoror. Not the dream of walking into turn 3 with an Income of 10 ISK, but it'll do.
Also, the card selection is a bit... scattershot. How do you get consistent draws out of such a pool? Eight or nine different ISK-production cards, two different structure-killer cards, single copies of ships... I'd go crazy trying to figure out what I'm likely to draw.
The goal is not to consistently draw the same things, but to consistently perform well.
In a ship heavy deck one is simply inclined to draw ships. These ships are defensively oriented and the intention is that after three of them are in play a credible bid for victory can be initiated.
Everything else is merely there to throw the opponent off track. Since I can see my hand and my opponent cannot, having a wider array of cards in the remaining section is advantageous to me. I might have Hired Enforcers, I might have a Veteran's Retirement. I might be able to crack a location and I might be able to break a starbase structure. My opponent doesn't know, and I do. So while I'm there making ships at a reasonable clip (usually 1+ per turn starting from turn 3), my opponent is forced to act redundantly because on the turn of doom I might pull all kinds of crazy crap.
The deck is nearly half ships and by turn 5 you've seen at least 11 cards - plenty enough to get the 3 or 4 ships you can likely afford that will allow you to invade on turn 6. Everything else in your deck then, exists merely to force your opponent into making Wine In Front of Me arguments with himself about what the remaining cards are.
In short, even if there were "best cards" to put in the News slots, that would actually be less valuable than the ability to keep a poker face and have your opponent know for certain hat there are many possibilities for what the remaining cards could be.
The ships I chose are, by and large, pretty interchangeable. I am less impressed with the Cormorant than everyone else seems to be, but it is just barely good enough to sneak in even though it has low shields for its cost. The importance here is hat all of the ships are fairly hard to get rid of, and none of he ships cost more than 7, and after you've played three ships you can probably destroy a starbase.
-Frank
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Takkaryx
User Scout
Posts: 2
Re:1st Place, Legends Cupertino N/Am Qualifier - 2007/05/19 08:31Aye, it smashed my face in at the tourney. The final was 2-1 in his favor. Since our decks are very similar, it really came down to who could get the two or three ships past the others in the first 5 rounds of play. The first round I smashed his face in, then it went the other way around, then for the winner-take-all, I could not draw a region or an Emperor's to save my life. Which, in fact, happened just that way. Some advanced shipyards I played kept me alive for a round or two more, but, in the end, it was not enough.
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I think its pronounced "Ex-E-cur-or" or. "ecks-eh-core-or"
thats my best guess anyways.
On a seperate note, its crazy that this deck did so well, when CONSTRUCTION wise, its kind of all over the place.e x i s t . . . .
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Blades
User Frigate
Posts: 13
Re:1st Place, Legends Cupertino N/Am Qualifier - 2007/05/29 02:01Honestly, it's not that surprising. The game is still very young. It takes time for consistency, schools of thought, and such to develop, even with the knowledge bought with previous games.
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Upon teaching Frank EVE for the first time, and giving him both starters to build a deck from, he beat me the first three games we played, and I had a "stronger," e.g. more consistant deck with "better" cards.
I have also found Frank's analysis and opinions of rules, tactics, and strategies for any game to be universally insightful.
He had the smallest card pool of any of the top 4 players, but consistantly beat them.
I suggest he knows whereof he speaks when he says "The goal is not to consistently draw the same things, but to consistently perform well."
I do not consider it to be an abberation, or an artifact of insufficient development.
Smeelbo
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Blades
User Frigate
Posts: 13
Re:1st Place, Legends Cupertino N/Am Qualifier - 2007/06/02 03:29Allow me to clarify: The game is still young enough that play skill matters much, much more than one's ability to build consistent decks, as deck construction has not been thoroughly explored yet.
No offense was intended.
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