Using the Star TrekCustomizable Card Game
Official Tournament Sealed Deck

This unique and exciting product has been designed to foster exciting and enjoyable sealed-deck play. We hope this will provide all the information you need. If not, here's how you can get more:

Contact Sean Smallman(tournaments@decipher.com)
757-664-1152, for more information about running tournaments.

Contact Marcus Certa(emissary@decipher.com)
757-664-1155, for information about demos and special promotions.

So why did Decipher make the Official Tournament Sealed Deck?
In a sealed-deck tournament, players do not bring their own cards but instead use unopened packs which they normally purchase as part of the entrance fee. This is a great way to bring new players into the game! However, it has one drawback. Sometimes the basic ingredients for a great deck are not obtained from the purchased mix of starter decks and booster packs.

The Official Tournament Sealed Deck solves this problem! The special pack of 20 cards (black-border) contained in every box provides the necessary support cards for a playable deck. Combined with the four Premiere Unlimited (white-border) expansion packs and one Alternate Universe expansion pack, it gives every player the opportunity to create a potential winner!

We are going to designate every tournament run using these products as 'enhanced format.' We feel this conveys the higher quality experience players will get when competing in these events! And these tournaments can be sanctioned, thereby contributing toward player ratings.

We encourage you to use this product to run enhanced-format sealed-deck events. All you need to do is:

• Assign an officially sanctioned tournament director to run the event
• Collect the entry fee from each player
• Supply each player with one of the enclosed boxes and let the games begin!

The Enhanced-Format Sealed-Deck tournament
An enhanced-format sealed-deck tournament is played using the 'Official Sealed Deck' for the Star Trek Customizable Card Game. Each player therefore starts with four Premier Unlimited booster packs, one Alternate Universe booster pack and the special 20-card 'tourney' pack. Every retailer should have an ample supply of these products on hand for each player to have their own box. This format follows Decipher's sanctioning tournament program which requires at least three complete games.

1. One Official Tournament Sealed Deck per player - Each player signed up for the tournament must pay an entry fee (recommended $10-$15) to play. Players will receive their boxes after they have paid the entry fee. All packages must remain sealed until after the first pairings.
   
2. Distribute PADD display cards - Give each player a PADD display card to complete. If the card is not filled out correctly and legibly, that player may not be rated. (Please remind players to use a consistent form for their name and address every time they enter a tournament. Switching between name, initial and nick-name will cause delays in getting the results incorporated into the ratings scheme.)
   
3. First pairing - Take the top two cards off the pile. Pair off these two cards, noting the name of each player's opponent on their PADD Display card. Then the third and fourth cards are paired, and so on. Continue pairing players in this way until all cards are drawn. You must note opponent's name on each card.
   
4. Deck Construction - Each player now opens their deck and has 30 minutes to create a 6-mission deck following the "30/30 rule" (maximum of 30 seed cards, and minimum of 30 draw deck cards). Each player has 95 cards from which to build their deck. No other cards may be brought into the tournament or traded for during the tournament.
   
5. Starting play - Once decks are built, the first game should begin. If games are to be timed, the director must announce a time limit of no less than 60 minutes per game at the beginning of the game. After each game, both players must report to the tournament director to have their scores recorded. (Scoring will be explained in more detail below.)
   
6. Subsequent pairings - When all players have completed play and have reported their first game results, place all PADD display cards in one pile. Arrange the cards in descending order according to total score, with the highest score on top (see Tournament scoring for details) second highest score beneath it, etc. Pair the highest scoring player with the second-highest scoring player, and so on, until all players have been paired. If there is an odd number of players, let the last player left receive the bye for the next game. In forming subsequent pairings it is possible that players could face the same opponents more than once. An attempt must be made to modify the pairing. In this situation, pair the player with the next lowest player they have not faced before. However, in the rare case that the player has already faced all of the players remaining in the pile, then leave the pairing as it originally was.
   
7. Deck adjustment - Before playing in the next game, players may re-customize their decks by swapping or adding cards to their play decks with any unused cards from their Official Tournament Sealed Deck.

Tournament scoring
A player's score is a combination of victory points and differential points. Players generally score 2 victory points for a win, 0 victory points for a loss. (Do not confuse victory points with the points that are accumulated during a game). In the case where a player wins by having more points when both players' decks are exhausted, only 1 victory point is awarded for the win. Differential points are determined by the difference between the winner's game point score and the loser's game point score. For the purposes of computing differential, if the game point score is less than zero treat it as zero; if it is greater than 100 treat it as a 100. The differential is always recorded in parentheses after the victory point score. Victory points are the first step in determining a players score, differential points are used to determine tie-breakers. For example, a player with the score of 4 (+10) has a higher score than a player with 2 (+30).

In a case where time has run out before a game has been completed, all players must stop playing and total their points. The player in each game with the greatest amount of points receives 1 victory point (plus their differential).

Examples of scoring: if a player won a game 120 to 65, he would receive a score of 2(+35) and his opponent would receive a score of 0(-35). If a player won a game 80 to 20 (via deck exhaustion or timed game), he would receive a score of 1(+60) and his opponent would receive a score of 0(-60).

After each game, update the player's cumulative score by adding the vistory points and the differential for this game to his previous cumulative score. For example, a player has played two games. In the first he scored 2 (+35) and in the second he scored 0 (-60). His cumulative score at this point is 2 (-25).

Determining the Tournament Winner
After the completion of all the rounds, the player with the highest victory points is the winner. In the case of a tie in victory points, the tied player with the highest differential wins the tournament.

Returning the Results
For the tournament to be sanctioned, the results must be returned to Decipher (within one week of the event) for entry into the rating system. As long as the command cards are legible, and the sanctioning rules were followed, the results will be taken into account. Normally a tournament will be rated within 4 to 6 weeks of Decipher receiving the results.

Please send them to :

Sean Smallman, Tournament Coordinator
Decipher Inc.
253 Granby Street
Norfolk, VA 23510