Johannes Klarhauser, EC 2007 LotR Coordinator

This Interview with KaiserK was hold by openCards user Jaglom Shrek.

Starting today we will introduce top players from across Europe and let them talk about their tournament experiences, favorite decks and their anticipation in regard to the European Continental Championship 2007. Let the interviews begin with our first interviewee Johannes Klarhauser, STCCG Master player and member of the EC 2007 team:

• Name: Johannes Klarhauser
• Known on the dboards as: KaiserK
• Age: 25
• Regular player group: Bavaria, Germany, and sometimes London, UK
• Current/highest Decipher rating: 1836/1907
• STCCG 2E accomplishments: winner of 2 TOCs, Bavarian Regional Champion 2007, 3rd at Essen PSE 2005, 3rd at Grand Prix Convention Celle 2005 & 2006, ranked 11th in the most recent WCT Players Poll

1). How did you start playing Star Trek CCG?

Back in 1995, my eyes fell on a 1E Premiere (WB) starter at a local shop. I bought it, liked the artwork, read the rules, bought some boosters, and tried unsuccessfully to convince others to play. With the little money I had, I bought a handful of boosters from each expansion up to DS9. From then on, I watched the evolution of the game via the Decipher website, and the beginning of Second Edition. I began collecting again, first some common sets and selected rares (mostly Klingons) from eBay, but it wasn’t until Fractured Time that I played my first tournament game of STCCG.

2). Do you play any other TCGs beside Star Trek?

No. I have played LOTR when it was released, but I never got into it seriously and quit after the first expansion. I tried Magic once with a demo deck someone gave to me at a Con, but neither the artwork nor the gameplay appealed to me. I was thinking about trying World of WarCraft TCG, but my interest faded after I quit the online game.

3). Can you remember your first Star Trek 2E tournament? How did you do?

It was Halloween 2004. I was living in England at the time, and saw a tournament announcement on the Decipher message boards. I got in contact with Nick Yankovec, who introduced me to the rest of the Team London crew. The tournament we played was a Fractured Time Sealed, and, naturally, I lost my first two games. After a Bye in Round 3, I was paired against Nick, and he was kind enough to let the new kid on the block win that last game, so I ended up only second-to-last. More importantly, the game was fun, and the London players gave me a very warm welcome, which was enough to convince me to come back for the next tournament.

4). Some of the players travelling to Berlin will have never played in such a large event. What advice can you give to these players who want to build the best possible deck for the event?

On our way to my first major tournament, the 2005 European Continentals in Utrecht, Nick Yankovec told me, “Don’t worry, you’ll do fine. And if you don’t, we can always get us some skanky prostitutes.” I think the “don’t worry” part is still good advice. In a large tournament like the EC2007 will be, you are guaranteed to see a large variety of decks, but in a 5+ rounds event, you are also almost guaranteed to get paired against a deck that’s really a bad match-up at some point. It’s virtually impossible to tech against everything, so I suggest bringing the deck you feel most confident with to Day 1, and have another one (preferably another deck type) ready for Day 2. Check the various TCG/CCG websites (10-forward.net, the Decipher boards, or your local boards) for information on the decks that dominate the tournament season, compare them to your own decks, and maybe you can find some ideas for improvements of your own decks that you haven’t thought about yet. Do NOT just take a TOC winning deck list you’ve found on the Internet and expect to make Top 16 with it! Even the best deck is only as good as the guy who plays it. If you plan to play someone else’s deck, try to understand how the deck works, figure out why certain cards are in the deck, make some practice games with it and learn how to play the deck. At the EC, have a good look at the decks you play during Day 1, so as to get an impression of what the meta is like, and maybe make appropriate adjustments to your deck for the Day 2 events. Also, double-check your deck lists, or have a friend do it for you. You don’t want to end up not qualifying for the Top 16 because of an unnecessary loss due to a deck list error. I know it may sound tedious, but sometimes it happens even to the best.

5). Since Worlds 2006, we have seen Starfleet, Voyager and The Original Series enter the game. Do you think these 3 affiliations will make an impact at the European Championships?

Absolutely. Voyager is an excellent stand-alone affiliation, in my opinion much stronger than the Ferengi or Starfleet were when they were released. Voyager’s 4-space strategy can make a big part of the dilemma pile useless, and the 3-plantet Integrity strategy has the potential to outspeed many other top tier solvers. Starfleet has received a mighty card with A Sight for Sore Eyes and can be ultra-fast as well. Also, some decks might use Earth, HH simply to be able to play Malcolm Reed and combine his ability with tricks some other affiliations have. The same is true for certain TOS cards. I haven’t seen a pure TOS deck in action in a tournament yet, so I can’t say too much about it, but with all the versatility the upgrades provide, I think it would be no surprise to see a few TOS decks in the Top 16.

6). What was the first major 2E event you attended outside of your own country? Do you feel that your game improved after playing?

The first major event I attended abroad (for me that’s outside of the UK; when I played the first tournament in my native country, Germany, I had already been playing for a year) was the EC 2005 in Utrecht, Netherlands. It surely opened my eyes to many strategies that I haven’t seen in my local group before, and the opportunity to test my deck in an environment with players from all over Europe was a worthwhile experience.

7). You have travelled to London on a number of occasions to play Star Trek with the crew of Team London. How do you think the style of play differs between the UK and Germany?

In my opinion, there aren’t that many differences between the UK crowd and the Germans. They both have a healthy mix of speedy decks and more elaborate, but still viable, set-up decks. The experiences I’ve had with players from Austria or the Czech Republic differed markedly from the German and UK scenes. The top Czechs almost always played insanely fast decks, close to the 35-card limit, that can win by turn 6 on a regular basis. The decks I’ve seen in Austria were much, much bigger, I’d say 60 cards on average, and event destruction was practically non-existent. Keep in mind that may not be representative of the entire Austrian scene, as they have several healthy player groups and I’ve met only one of them so far.

8 ). Have you attended a Continental Championship before? What did you like/didn’t like about it?

I attended the 2005 EC in Utrecht and the 2006 EC in Gent. All in all, Utrecht for me was a great experience – I met many new faces, played some of the most challenging games so far, and had a good time hanging around with the other guys. There were only 2 things I didn’t like: The fact that the location had no air-conditioning (and it was very hot that weekend), and the poor treatment of Trek players. LOTR got all the attention that year, while the support for Trek was really not what I had expected from such a big event. On the positive side, the players I met there were all great guys, and Craig, the TD, did a fantastic job there. Gent 2006 was close to being a disaster. There was hardly any promotion for that event, so the turnout was quite low, and I feel the location was inadequate. I understand that Decipher had problems that year, but the overall organization was severely lacking in many respects. Still, the players made the best of it, and we had an entertaining weekend nevertheless. This, in my opinion, is one of the best things about STCCG and LOTR TCG communities: the players will always make sure they have their share of fun, no matter the circumstances.

9). The German Star Trek scene has always been the home of some top players. How do you think players from outside of Germany will fare at the event?

It’s true that Germany is the home of some of the best players in the world, but I have no doubt that top players from other countries will manage to stand their ground in Berlin. I remember last year’s Grand Prix Convention, where the only foreign visitor we had ended up in the Top 4 or 5, I think, even though he had no idea what to expect from the German crowd. I’m sure we will see at least 1 non-German in the final 4.

10). If you had to place a 10 euro bet to name 3 players to reach the final 16 on day 2, which 3 players would you choose?

Tobias Rausmann, Vladimir Vrbata, James Hoskin.

11). What are your personal goals that you hope to achieve at EC2007. How far do you think you will go?

As a player, I will try to make it into the Top 16, and I’m quite confident that I can do that. In the knock-out stage, a lot depends on the match-ups, and with so many top players attending, it’s hard to say someone’s guaranteed to make it to the Top 4. Anything below #16 will be a disappointment, anything above #9 a success. As a member of the EC staff, my goal is to make sure none of our players are disappointed. We are working hard to run one of the biggest and best Decipher events ever in Europe, paying equal attention to both Rings and Trek, and I would love to hear players say that they would come back to Berlin for a EC 2008.

12). What 3 cards released from There are the Voyages do you expect to see a lot of at the European Championships?

Optimism – one of the best cards ever made, I expect this to be a staple in many EC decks Psychokinetic Control – a good dilemma that fits in many piles Gal Gath’thong – if it’s still in its current form in July & if the current card pool is the same, I’m sure we will see a lot of green. Bashir Founder will dominate the trade folders.

13). If you could change one rule, or one game mechanic, of 2E, what would you do?

At the moment, I’m quite happy with the 2E environment. My biggest concern at the moment is the Gal Gath’thong. If I had the power to do so, I’d put some form of restriction on the card, but I haven’t played enough games yet to know what’s the best way to keep the card powerful, but still balanced. Other than that, I cannot think of anything that’s wrong with 2E. For a while I was worried about the advantage players get from going first, but it seems that Decipher is already reacting to it by printing cards like Ambassador Gral and the range-restoring mission we will see in In a Mirror, Darkly.

14). When not playing Star Trek, what else do you enjoy doing?

In no particular order: playing football (soccer), snowboarding, playing board games & RPGs, traveling, playing the guitar, and reading, lots of reading.

15). Are you already planning your European Championships deck, or will you wait until you see all the cards that will be legal?

I have two decks ready that I would be happy to play at the EC, but I will test another one at our upcoming TOC. If there is another expansion legal on July 21st, I probably will only adjust my existing decks to the expanded card pool, but I don’t think I will find the time to build a new deck from scratch, or the opportunity to test it thoroughly.

16). Name your favorite ever card? Why?

1E – Spot. Because I like cats. Because the artwork is cool. Because it’s representative of the “more Trek sense, less gameplay” philosophy of many 1E cards. 2E - Dabo!, for several reasons: It’s a fun card, because it’s really just a gamble, and thus, by default, not sufficiently reliable for ambitious top tier decks. At the same time, it’s an extremely powerful card that can net you several overcome dilemmas each turn. And, the card is the centerpiece of my favourite 2E deck ever. It was great fun to play, showed off some Ferengi tricks (in my opinion a highly underrated affiliation), and quite unexpectedly, it made 3rd place at GP Con ’06, won another tournament and showed that fun decks can be competitive as well.

17). Have you ever built a deck that looked great on paper, but did terrible in a tournament?

At the Reading, UK, TOC 2005, I played a Klingon battle deck. From my experiences with the other guys’ decks I had seen at the tournaments before, I thought that weapons of 10 or 11 would be enough to win all engagements against Excelsiors, K’Vorts, Mercenary Ships and the like. In the tournament, I played against a Dominon deck (Battleships on Shields 13), a Borg one (Cube on 11), and had to sit out a Bye after 2 losses. It wasn’t that bad a deck, but I ended up getting horrible match-ups. At least, that’s my excuse.

18 ). Can you tell us the most memorable game of Star Trek 2E you have ever played? Why does this game in particular stick out in your mind?

There are several games that I remember quite vividly, it’s hard to name only one. One of the more memorable games was certainly my game against Ulf Benjes at 2006 EC in Gent, Belgium. Ulf had been playing a Klingon/Romulan battle during the tournament season, and for the EC, I decided to give that deck a try, but modified it to be Klingon only. We both knew what was in our opponent’s deck, and we both knew that whoever leaves his HQ first and gets stopped on a mission will probably lose most of his crew to All-Out War, Ferocity and Drex. Ulf had the Romulan bonus point engine, but I managed to destroy all his copies of GUYS and P&P before he scored any points. Ulf decked out first, I had only 3 cards left in my deck. I wanted to go all-in and attempt a mission that turn, but I forgot that I had already played a copy of one of the personnel in my hand before. Consequently, I wasn’t able to play enough counters from my hand, and had to spend the rest to draw my last 3 cards and deck out. In the end it was the first True Tie I ever had, with a final score of 0-0, but it was also one of the most interesting games.

19). Create a 2E dream card of yourself!

(1) •Johannes Klarhauser,

Lost in Space

non-aligned (staffing icon)(past icon) Human

•2 Anthropology •Biology •Medical •Security

When this personnel is moved to a mission that requires Navigation, stop him. When this personnel is facing a dilemma with Navigation in its requirements, stop him.

Integrity 5, Cunning 6, Strength 6 Lore:

“I’m sure it’s just round the corner…”

I study literature and linguistics, that’s where the double Anthropology comes from. Biology was one of my major subjects at high-school. The other skills are from my time with the military (medic). The gametext – well, let’s just say I’m not really good with maps.

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Next week meet another member of the EC 2007 team and his experiences with the game and the ideas behind this year’s Continental Championship. Also visit www.open-cards.com this Friday to learn more about German metagame!